Thomas A. Langford, Joseph Bethea, and Robert T. Young - "A Theological, Biblical, and Personal Word of Hope", "Hope in God" (October 28, 1973)
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♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 0:04 | |
(soft music) | 1:12 | |
♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 2:04 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 6:15 | |
- | Let us humbly confess our sins to almighty God, | 6:24 |
praying that he will make known to us the faults | 6:28 | |
we have not known, | 6:32 | |
and that he will show us the harmful consequences | 6:34 | |
of those things in us which we have not cared to control. | 6:37 | |
Let us pray. | 6:42 | |
For our indifference in the midst of the crises | 6:50 | |
in our country, have mercy upon us, oh Lord. | 6:54 | |
For our lack of commitment to a better world | 6:59 | |
and our unwillingness to be an outspoken people, | 7:03 | |
have mercy upon us, oh Lord. | 7:07 | |
For our fear of change and our blind obedience to power, | 7:11 | |
have mercy upon us, oh Lord. | 7:16 | |
For our fatalism that all politics are immoral and unjust, | 7:20 | |
have mercy upon us, oh Lord. | 7:26 | |
For our inability to love peace more than war, | 7:30 | |
have mercy upon us, oh Lord. | 7:34 | |
For our want of gasoline and electricity | 7:38 | |
more than our love of people's lives, | 7:42 | |
have mercy upon us, oh Lord. | 7:46 | |
Lord make us instruments of thy peace. | 7:49 | |
Where there is hatred, let us sow love. | 7:53 | |
Where there is injury, pardon. | 7:57 | |
Where there is doubt, faith. | 8:00 | |
Where there is despair, hope. | 8:03 | |
Where there is darkness, light. | 8:06 | |
Where there is sadness, joy. | 8:09 | |
For thy high mercy and for thy truth's sake, amen. | 8:12 | |
Let us pray our prayers of personal confession. | 8:19 | |
Hear the words of assurance from first John. | 8:43 | |
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, | 8:48 | |
"and will forgive our sins | 8:54 | |
"and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". | 8:56 | |
Amen. | 9:01 | |
Let us pray together the Lord's prayer. | 9:02 | |
Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. | 9:05 | |
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done | 9:11 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 9:15 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 9:18 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 9:20 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 9:23 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 9:27 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 9:30 | |
For thine is the kingdom and the power | 9:32 | |
and the glory forever and ever, amen. | 9:35 | |
(soft music) | 9:41 | |
♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 10:32 | |
- | The scripture lesson this morning | 15:17 |
is the entire 42nd psalm. | 15:19 | |
"As the heart longs for flowing streams, | 15:23 | |
"so longs my soul for thee, oh God. | 15:26 | |
"My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. | 15:29 | |
"Why shall I come and behold the face of God? | 15:34 | |
"My tears have been my food day and night, | 15:37 | |
"while men say to me continually, where is your God? | 15:41 | |
"These things I remember as I pour out my soul, | 15:46 | |
"how I went with the throng | 15:51 | |
"and led them in procession to the house of God. | 15:53 | |
"A multitude keeping festival, | 15:57 | |
"why are you cast down, oh my soul | 16:00 | |
"and why are you disquieted within me? | 16:03 | |
"Hope in God for I shall again praise him, | 16:07 | |
"my help and my God. | 16:11 | |
"My soul is cast down within me. | 16:15 | |
"Therefore, I remember thee, from the land of Jordan | 16:18 | |
"and of Hermon from Mount Mizar. | 16:22 | |
"Deep calls to deep and the thunder of thy cataracts, | 16:26 | |
"all that waves and thy billows have gone over me. | 16:31 | |
"By day the Lord commands his steadfast love. | 16:35 | |
"And at night his song is with me, | 16:40 | |
"a prayer to the God of my life. | 16:43 | |
"I say to God, my rock, | 16:47 | |
"why has thou forgotten me? | 16:50 | |
"Why go (indistinct) mourning, | 16:53 | |
"because of the oppression of the enemy? | 16:55 | |
"As a deadly wound in my body, | 16:58 | |
"my adversaries taunt me while they say to me continually, | 17:01 | |
"where is your God? | 17:06 | |
"Why are you cast down, oh my soul | 17:10 | |
"and why are you disquieted within me? | 17:13 | |
"Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, | 17:16 | |
"my God and my help". | 17:21 | |
May the Lord (indistinct) to the reading of his word. | 17:24 | |
(soft music) | 17:29 | |
♪ Glory to the father ♪ | 17:37 | |
♪ And to the son and to the holy ghost ♪ | 17:41 | |
♪ As it was in the beginning ♪ | 17:49 | |
♪ Is now and ever shall be ♪ | 17:53 | |
♪ World without end ♪ | 17:57 | |
♪ Amen, amen ♪ | 18:01 | |
- | Let us affirm our faith. | 18:11 |
We are not alone. | 18:14 | |
We live in God's world. | 18:16 | |
We believe in God who has created and is creating. | 18:19 | |
Who has come in the true man Jesus | 18:25 | |
to reconcile and make new. | 18:28 | |
Who works in us and others by his spirit. | 18:31 | |
We trust him. | 18:36 | |
He calls us to be his church, to celebrate his presence, | 18:38 | |
to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, | 18:44 | |
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, | 18:50 | |
our judge and our hope. | 18:55 | |
In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. | 18:58 | |
We are not alone. | 19:05 | |
We believe in God. | 19:07 | |
Thanks be to God. | 19:10 | |
The Lord be with you. | 19:13 | |
- | And with your spirit. | 19:15 |
- | Let us pray. | 19:17 |
Oh Lord, our God, | 19:25 | |
we come before you in our need, in our misery, | 19:28 | |
in our despair. | 19:35 | |
We bow before your majesty and power in awe. | 19:37 | |
We give thanks that you are loving, caring and forgiving. | 19:44 | |
We give thanks for your life giving spirit | 19:52 | |
and for our resurrection faith. | 19:56 | |
Hear our prayers of intersession, oh Lord. | 20:02 | |
Let us now make our personal prayers for those who are sick | 20:07 | |
or who are in a time of crisis in their lives. | 20:13 | |
We pray for those who do not have the power | 20:27 | |
to protect their own lives. | 20:30 | |
We pray for those who must live and die hungry. | 20:34 | |
We pray for those who must learn a just use of power. | 20:40 | |
We pray for those who are seeking to bring peace | 20:48 | |
to our world. | 20:51 | |
We give thanks for our free press | 20:54 | |
and pray that those persons whose work | 20:58 | |
is communicating to us the news, | 21:01 | |
may speak responsibly in truth and in freedom. | 21:04 | |
We give thanks for those persons whose responsibility | 21:11 | |
it is to communicate your word to us | 21:15 | |
and pray that they may speak | 21:20 | |
so that we may hear your good news for us today | 21:22 | |
and every day. | 21:27 | |
And now, oh God, | 21:30 | |
we pray for those who are seeking to bring justice | 21:31 | |
and order to our country. | 21:34 | |
You are the king and Lord of all our rulers. | 21:38 | |
Grant that the hearts and minds of all our leaders, judges, | 21:43 | |
persons of learning, persons of wealth | 21:49 | |
and all persons who have responsibility | 21:54 | |
for our corporate life may be so filled | 21:57 | |
with the love of your laws and with that which is righteous | 22:02 | |
and life giving, that they may be worthy stewards | 22:07 | |
of the trust and responsibility which is theirs. | 22:11 | |
Cleanse our public life of every evil. | 22:16 | |
Subdue in our nation all that is harmful | 22:21 | |
and make us a disciplined and devoted people | 22:26 | |
that we may do thy will on this earth. | 22:31 | |
We pray in the spirit of Jesus the Christ, amen. | 22:35 | |
- | The apostle Paul put it simply, "rejoice in your hope". | 22:52 |
At a time of trouble and crisis, | 23:02 | |
there are many words which might be spoken | 23:06 | |
and many which may be needed. | 23:11 | |
Today it was felt would be appropriate to speak of hope. | 23:16 | |
In the company of present events with it's benumbing sense | 23:25 | |
of sustained crescendo, | 23:32 | |
in a time of distrust and resentment, | 23:36 | |
of private and public agony, | 23:41 | |
it was thought it might be helpful to speak of hope. | 23:46 | |
And so we shall. | 23:52 | |
Hope is one of those dimensions | 23:57 | |
which is peculiar to human life. | 24:00 | |
The capacity for projecting the future, | 24:05 | |
the capacity for caring, | 24:09 | |
the capacity for responding to and creating change, | 24:12 | |
all are characteristics of hope | 24:18 | |
and all are distinctively human. | 24:21 | |
To hope is to give expression to our humanity. | 24:26 | |
But hope is not a thrust from human life into the world. | 24:34 | |
It is first the response to something | 24:42 | |
which creates a future | 24:47 | |
and promises a meaningful destiny. | 24:50 | |
Afterward, it is an activity of moving out | 24:55 | |
and challenging events and striving to effect change. | 24:59 | |
To hope in that which is ultimate, | 25:06 | |
is to give expression to our relation to the divine. | 25:09 | |
It is to worship | 25:14 | |
and it is to serve the world in the name of God. | 25:18 | |
Let me speak of two forms of hope. | 25:25 | |
First, there is hope in God. | 25:29 | |
Second, | 25:35 | |
there is hope for human effort and achievement. | 25:37 | |
In the present moment, | 25:46 | |
we can specify this as hope for our nation. | 25:48 | |
Hope in God is primary. | 25:56 | |
Here our hope is placed in the one who creates, | 25:59 | |
sustains and fulfills the world. | 26:04 | |
God brings hope. | 26:08 | |
He creates the possibility for hope. | 26:11 | |
He promises the fulfillment of hope. | 26:16 | |
From a Christian perspective, | 26:22 | |
God is the basic and inclusive factor | 26:24 | |
in living hopefully. | 26:30 | |
Our lives are in his hands. | 26:33 | |
We need not fear. | 26:36 | |
Our lives are in his hands. | 26:39 | |
We are made strong for action. | 26:42 | |
At the moment, activity leads to hope for our country. | 26:48 | |
We must not confuse these two dimensions of hope. | 26:55 | |
The continued existence of the United States | 26:59 | |
is not necessary to human meaning. | 27:04 | |
We cannot presume that the preservation of this nation | 27:08 | |
is necessary to God's kingdom. | 27:12 | |
Nevertheless, this is our place. | 27:16 | |
It is the arena of our lives | 27:21 | |
and it is the area of our responsibility. | 27:24 | |
We therefore can hope for this nation, | 27:28 | |
but our hope for our country | 27:34 | |
is not that God will come to our side. | 27:37 | |
Rather we hope that this nation might reinvigorate | 27:42 | |
its values, which are consummate with the reign of God. | 27:46 | |
Our hope is not for self preservation, | 27:52 | |
no matter what happens to others. | 27:56 | |
Rather, it is a hope for the wellbeing of all the nations | 27:59 | |
of which we can be apart. | 28:05 | |
God is greater than the nations. | 28:09 | |
Humanity is greater than any flag, | 28:13 | |
but God can work through national life | 28:18 | |
and through the history of our national life. | 28:23 | |
So we pray for our nation. | 28:28 | |
America, America, God mend thine every flaw. | 28:32 | |
Confirm thy soul in self-control, | 28:40 | |
thy liberty in law. | 28:45 | |
Hope in God releases us from the trauma | 28:52 | |
or the fear of non-survival. | 28:54 | |
It releases us from fixation on false values. | 28:58 | |
It releases us for more basic assurance and new effort. | 29:02 | |
Hope in God carries serious responsibility. | 29:09 | |
We are to serve our neighbors. | 29:13 | |
We are to demand justice and freedom. | 29:16 | |
We are to honor morality in government | 29:20 | |
and insist upon its necessity. | 29:23 | |
We are to defend personal and public good. | 29:26 | |
Our temptation at the moment | 29:31 | |
maybe that of weakness, timidity and weariness. | 29:34 | |
Our temptation may be that of not wanting | 29:40 | |
what God requires of us. | 29:44 | |
But hope in God is a wayfaring word. | 29:48 | |
We are led from assurance of God's sovereign power | 29:51 | |
to our responsibility. | 29:54 | |
The task of the Christian Church is to disclose the world | 29:57 | |
the horizon of the future of the crucified and risen Christ. | 30:01 | |
And so Paul writes, | 30:07 | |
"rejoice in your hope. | 30:09 | |
"If God is for us, who can be against us? | 30:14 | |
"For I am persuaded that neither life, nor death, | 30:21 | |
"nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, | 30:28 | |
"nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, | 30:35 | |
"nor depth or anything else in all creation | 30:42 | |
"shall separate us from the love of God, | 30:49 | |
"which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord". | 30:53 | |
Amen. | 30:58 | |
- | In the scriptures of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, | 31:14 |
the roots of all chaos and disorders | 31:22 | |
in human societies are described as the rebellion | 31:29 | |
and covenant breaking as fatelessness | 31:35 | |
and alienation from God. | 31:41 | |
For that tradition would also claim | 31:48 | |
that persons are creatures, free creatures, | 31:53 | |
but dependent creatures | 32:02 | |
who are not and cannot be complete within themselves. | 32:07 | |
Preachers cannot hope to be complete | 32:17 | |
apart from their creator. | 32:20 | |
And yet we try. | 32:24 | |
So that the Bible tells the story, | 32:29 | |
a man's and woman's rebellion against | 32:35 | |
the creature creator, creator creature relationship. | 32:41 | |
In our rebellion and the resulting alienation, | 32:51 | |
we are always less than we ought to be. | 32:57 | |
We set up idols and worship them. | 33:04 | |
We honor our incomplete selves as if we are complete. | 33:09 | |
We trust too much our own power | 33:18 | |
and rely too much in our own strength. | 33:24 | |
It is no wonder then that we suspect any goodness | 33:31 | |
and any judgment other than our own. | 33:39 | |
It is no wonder then that we are angered | 33:45 | |
only by those we respect | 33:51 | |
or envious of those who seem to have more power | 33:56 | |
than ourselves. | 34:01 | |
And are deluded into believing | 34:04 | |
that we can get cooler while the flames of unrest | 34:08 | |
are getting hotter and hotter all around us. | 34:15 | |
But the gospel, | 34:20 | |
the good news of our creator, | 34:23 | |
proclaims to us his love, so amazing | 34:28 | |
and so expressed in the life and death and resurrection | 34:35 | |
of Jesus Christ, that we do not have to perish | 34:41 | |
in our alienation and rebellion. | 34:47 | |
For if the Bible is the story of every person's corruption, | 34:53 | |
it is also the story of every person's possibilities. | 35:01 | |
We are sinners, but we can be saved. | 35:08 | |
We are dirty, but we can be clean. | 35:14 | |
We are failures, we can succeed. | 35:21 | |
We are lost, we can be redeemed. | 35:27 | |
This is the good news of the gospel. | 35:32 | |
This is God's good news revealed in Jesus Christ. | 35:36 | |
Repent, turn around, believe, trust, obey, follow | 35:42 | |
so that in the midst of the chaos | 35:51 | |
and confusion of our time, | 35:56 | |
our hope is in God. | 36:00 | |
Why are you cast down, oh my soul | 36:04 | |
and why are you disquieted in me? | 36:10 | |
Hope in God. | 36:15 | |
Our hope is in God, our creator. | 36:19 | |
Our hope is in God, our redeemer. | 36:25 | |
Our hope is in God, who is still at work in our world. | 36:30 | |
Sure it may be difficult | 36:41 | |
to see the power and presence of God in the now. | 36:44 | |
It may not be obvious in the public sector. | 36:50 | |
It may not be obvious in the highest levels | 36:56 | |
of the government of this country. | 37:00 | |
It may not be readily or easily discerned | 37:04 | |
even in American Christianity. | 37:10 | |
But the God of Israel, | 37:14 | |
God of Jesus Christ is active | 37:18 | |
in the affairs of his creatures. | 37:22 | |
Active to love us, active to lead us into all truth, | 37:27 | |
active to lift up the fallen, | 37:33 | |
active to weaken the strong in this world | 37:37 | |
and strengthen the weak in this world. | 37:40 | |
Active to liberate the oppressed, | 37:45 | |
active to create a just existence for all men. | 37:50 | |
Our God is active. | 37:57 | |
His truth is marching on. | 37:59 | |
There is one other word from the scriptures | 38:04 | |
that must be said today. | 38:09 | |
And that word is this. | 38:12 | |
If we in our freedom, | 38:15 | |
reject the amazing love of God revealed in Jesus Christ, | 38:19 | |
if we resist the activity of God in our time | 38:28 | |
and cannot bring ourselves in tune | 38:35 | |
with the creature, creator relationship, | 38:40 | |
if we perish in our alienation, | 38:46 | |
there is a sense in which the future still belongs to God. | 38:51 | |
Let men and women do their worst. | 38:58 | |
Watch Kings and Queens rise and fall, | 39:02 | |
presidents and vice presidents come and go. | 39:07 | |
The future belongs to God | 39:12 | |
also to those who follow and obey him. | 39:15 | |
Hope in God. | 39:23 | |
Hope in God. | 39:26 | |
For one day, | 39:30 | |
yay even in spite of us, | 39:33 | |
one day the kingdoms of this world | 39:37 | |
will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. | 39:40 | |
And he shall reign forever and ever. | 39:47 | |
Though troubles assail and dangers are fright, | 39:54 | |
though friends should all fail and fools all unite, | 40:00 | |
the scripture assures us | 40:08 | |
the Lord will provide. | 40:12 | |
It's the one thing secures us, | 40:16 | |
whatever the times. | 40:20 | |
Amen. | 40:23 | |
- | Dean Samuel H. Miller, | 40:41 |
for years the Dean of Harvard School of Divinity, | 40:47 | |
once remarked, | 40:53 | |
"faith faces everything that makes us uncomfortable". | 40:55 | |
And I have been very uncomfortable the past few days. | 41:08 | |
I feel very much like the man who brought his son to Jesus | 41:16 | |
to be healed. | 41:20 | |
And Jesus told the man, | 41:20 | |
everything is possible to one who has faith. | 41:26 | |
The man replied, I believe Lord, help thou my unbelief. | 41:33 | |
I believe in my country, | 41:41 | |
in some of my leaders, in my fellow human beings, in God, | 41:46 | |
but oh God, help thou. | 41:52 | |
God help thou my unbelief. | 41:55 | |
Dietrich Bonhoeffer writing from a German prison in 1943 | 42:00 | |
wrote these words. | 42:05 | |
"Surely there has never been a generation | 42:06 | |
"in the course of human history with so little ground | 42:08 | |
"under its feet". | 42:13 | |
The ground is shaking. | 42:17 | |
The earth trembles. | 42:20 | |
The atmosphere is tension filled. | 42:21 | |
The air is electric charged. | 42:23 | |
The foundations do shake. | 42:27 | |
We're in the midst of terrible, | 42:31 | |
terrifying, frightening, disturbing times. | 42:34 | |
The last two weeks have not only been shocking, | 42:39 | |
they have also been ominously threatening to us all, | 42:44 | |
to the whole fabric of our lives, | 42:48 | |
to the very structures of our government and our society, | 42:51 | |
indeed to the world itself. | 42:54 | |
And according to at least one poll | 42:58 | |
only 22% of us Americans trust the president | 43:00 | |
and at least 44% want him impeached. | 43:09 | |
Is it any wonder, | 43:17 | |
I have a terrible feeling gnawing at me inside | 43:20 | |
that we are all uneasy and leery, | 43:26 | |
that we are unsure about the present | 43:31 | |
and not certain at all of the future? | 43:34 | |
Is it any wonder? | 43:36 | |
Where do we turn? | 43:38 | |
Turn if you will with me to a little known prophet, | 43:42 | |
Habakkuk. | 43:46 | |
The prophet of the sixth century BC, as he wrote | 43:47 | |
"though the fig tree does not blossom | 43:50 | |
"nor fruit be on the vines, | 43:53 | |
"the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, | 43:56 | |
"though the flock be cut off from the fold | 44:01 | |
"and there be no herd in the stalls, | 44:04 | |
"yet I will rejoice in the Lord. | 44:07 | |
"I will joy in the God of my salvation, | 44:10 | |
"God, the Lord is my strength". | 44:14 | |
I feel personally | 44:22 | |
very much a sense of despair and hopelessness. | 44:25 | |
I do not know what you need today, | 44:31 | |
I only have some vague sense of my own needs | 44:37 | |
and as the minister and the pastor to this community, | 44:40 | |
let me tell you what I need this morning. | 44:43 | |
I need a new sense of hope, | 44:48 | |
hope grounded in men and women of integrity, | 44:52 | |
hope grounded in authentic community, | 44:58 | |
in the community of the concerned. | 45:01 | |
Hope grounded in the conviction that God, | 45:05 | |
not Nixon, not Brezhnev, not Sadat, not Mayer, | 45:08 | |
not any man nor any woman, but God, | 45:13 | |
God is the ruler yet. | 45:16 | |
Hope grounded in commitment, | 45:21 | |
renewed commitment on the part of us all. | 45:25 | |
This is no time for the Christian community to retreat | 45:27 | |
or withdraw or be apathetic or unconcerned. | 45:31 | |
Now more than ever, the view of Christian concern, | 45:34 | |
the voice of Christian concern about the moral | 45:38 | |
and the political order needs to be proclaimed. | 45:41 | |
The voice that says let justice roll down like waters | 45:44 | |
and righteousness like an everlasting stream. | 45:49 | |
It was Edmund Burke who once wrote | 45:53 | |
"all that is necessary for the triumph of evil | 45:56 | |
"is for good men to do nothing". | 46:00 | |
Hope grounded in active concern. | 46:04 | |
We need today the active concern that was manifest | 46:08 | |
in the sixties. | 46:12 | |
Now the tactics of the sixties may be outdated. | 46:14 | |
They may not work in the seventies, but the sensitivities, | 46:18 | |
the concern, the motivation, the desire, the movement, | 46:22 | |
the drive of the sixties are needed | 46:28 | |
and are needed badly today. | 46:30 | |
Hope I need today. | 46:33 | |
Hope grounded in the certainty of the present | 46:40 | |
and of the promise of the future. | 46:45 | |
Dr. James T Clellan, Dean Emeritus of this chapel | 46:48 | |
writes in one of his books, | 46:52 | |
"sometimes life is a battle ground. | 46:54 | |
"Sometimes it is a veil of tears, | 46:58 | |
"but always it is a vigorous reality". | 47:01 | |
In the past few days, | 47:08 | |
we have seen just how real life is. | 47:10 | |
Our task then, to stick with the present situation | 47:15 | |
until hope triumphs with justice and truth and love. | 47:20 | |
Dr. Carlisle Marinade speaks a word that means much to me. | 47:29 | |
He says, | 47:35 | |
"people are always leaving the theater | 47:38 | |
"before the play is over. | 47:42 | |
"They never see the end of the show, | 47:46 | |
"nor hear the benediction. | 47:50 | |
"Sometimes even the actors throw up their hands | 47:53 | |
"and leave before the curtain falls". | 47:56 | |
And then he says, | 48:02 | |
"there is a difference between the end of things | 48:05 | |
"and the edge of things. | 48:11 | |
"There is a future from anywhere a person stands. | 48:16 | |
"You must not despair of anything or anybody | 48:21 | |
"until God gets through. | 48:25 | |
"There is a future from wherever you are". | 48:30 | |
I guess that's the word I need today. | 48:42 | |
The word of hope. | 48:49 | |
There is a future | 48:54 | |
from wherever you are | 48:57 | |
and you | 49:05 | |
and you | 49:07 | |
and you. | 49:10 | |
God, the Lord is my strength. | 49:13 | |
Let us pray. | 49:22 | |
We thank you, God. | 49:28 | |
We are here in the midst of this world, in the midst of it, | 49:32 | |
whatever happens, | 49:38 | |
help us to remember that you are the creator | 49:42 | |
and the giver of all gifts. | 49:45 | |
And as each day passes, | 49:50 | |
as the future races into the present, | 49:53 | |
may we see you in the future, | 49:58 | |
as in the past. | 50:02 | |
May we, oh God, in faith and in love, | 50:05 | |
act and work and live to help things happen, | 50:12 | |
not just wait for them. | 50:21 | |
In the name our Lord we pray. | 50:26 | |
Amen. | 50:31 | |
- | Let us (indistinct) | 50:37 |
as we join in our congregational response. | 50:38 | |
God has exalted all people | 50:45 | |
and given us the prospect of a life that is wide and free. | 50:48 | |
But we came back and let ourselves down. | 50:58 | |
God has promised us a new creation of all things | 51:02 | |
in righteousness and peace. | 51:05 | |
- | (indistinct). | 51:08 |
- | God honors us with his promises. | 51:12 |
- | (indistinct). | 51:16 |
- | This is a sin which most profoundly threatens us. | 51:21 |
It is not the evil we do. | 51:26 | |
- | (indistinct) | 51:29 |
- | Not our misdeeds. | 51:31 |
- | (indistinct) | 51:33 |
- | It is not so much sin that plunges us into disaster. | 51:37 |
- | (indistinct) | 51:43 |
- | We have discovered | 51:44 |
- | (indistinct) | 51:47 |
- | that only by living completely in this world, | 51:50 |
- | (indistinct) | 51:54 |
- | we must take life in our stride. | 51:57 |
- | (indistinct) | 52:00 |
- | Its successes and failures, | 52:03 |
- | (indistinct) | 52:06 |
- | and to such a life, | 52:09 |
we throw ourselves utterly in the arms of God. | 52:11 | |
- | (indistinct) | 52:16 |
- | It is not some religious act which makes us Christians. | 52:21 |
- | (indistinct) | 52:26 |
- | The difference between the Christian hope of resurrection | 52:31 |
and a mythological hope is that the Christian hope | 52:36 | |
sends us back to our lives on this earth | 52:41 | |
in a holy new way, | 52:45 | |
- | (indistinct) | 52:48 |
- | which is also our repentance. | 52:49 |
It is not in the first instance | 52:52 | |
bothering about our own needs, problems, sins and fears. | 52:55 | |
- | (indistinct) | 53:03 |
Alleluia. | 53:07 | |
(soft music) | 53:10 | |
♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 54:02 | |
(soft music) | 56:57 | |
♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 58:01 | |
(soft music) | 58:16 | |
♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 58:21 | |
(soft music) | 59:32 | |
♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 59:56 | |
(soft music) | 1:02:49 | |
♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ | 1:03:02 | |
♪ Praise God all creatures here below ♪ | 1:03:08 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:03:13 | |
♪ Praise God above, ye heavenly host ♪ | 1:03:21 | |
♪ Praise God, the son and holy ghost ♪ | 1:03:27 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:03:32 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:03:38 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 1:03:44 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:53 | |
- | Heavenly father, giver of a whole good things, | 1:04:03 |
who has taught us that it is more blessed to give | 1:04:07 | |
than to receive, | 1:04:11 | |
we dedicate these our offerings | 1:04:13 | |
to the service of thy church. | 1:04:15 | |
Humbly beseeching thee, | 1:04:18 | |
that all our gifts and energies | 1:04:20 | |
may be consecrated to the extension of thy kingdom on earth | 1:04:22 | |
through Jesus the Christ, amen. | 1:04:27 | |
(soft music) | 1:04:32 | |
♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 1:05:02 |
Item Info
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