Sunday, January 29, 2017

Sermon Audio 1/29/2016, 4th Sunday after Epiphany A


Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary Year A


Two of the most famous passages in the Bible tell us how we can worship God and follow Jesus. Justice, kindness, humility and blessing can shape our lives and our response to those around us.

This is one of those days when experiencing the entire liturgy really enhances the experience of the sermon. The prayers, music, and entire liturgy echoed and reinforced the message of the Beatitudes, Micah, and our reading from 1 Corinthians (1:18-31). Our hymn following the sermon was Let Streams of Living Justice (ELW 710), and I could not stop crying through the entire thing because the song so clearly explained the gospel message for today. Below is the text of that hymn, as an example of the rest of our liturgy today.



Let Streams of Living Justice

1 Let streams of living justice
flow down upon the earth;
give freedom's light to captives,
let all the poor have worth.
The hungry's hands are pleading,
the workers claim their rights,
the mourners long for laughter,
the blinded seek for sight.
Make liberty a beacon,
strike down the iron pow'r;
abolish ancient vengeance:
proclaim your people's hour.

2 For healing of the nations,
for peace that will not end,
for love that makes us lovers,
God grant us grace to mend.
Weave our varied gifts together;
knit our lives as they are spun;
on your loom of time enroll us
till our thread of life is run.
O great weaver of our fabric,
bind church and world in one;
dye our texture with your radiance,
light our colors with your sun.

3 Your city's built to music;
we are the stones you seek;
your harmony is language;
we are the words you speak.
Our faith we find in service,
our hope in others' dreams,
our love in hand of neighbor;
our homeland brightly gleams.
Inscribe our hearts with justice;
your way—the path untried;
your truth—the heart of stranger;
your life—the Crucified.

Text: William Whitla, b. 1934
Text © 1989 William Whitla.


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