Seeking Sanctuary

[0:00] Will you be my refuge, my haven in the storm?

[0:16] Will you keep the embers warm when my fire's all but gone? Will you remember and bring me sprigs of rosemary?

[0:30] Be my sanctuary till I can carry on, carry on, carry on This one knocked me to the ground, this one dropped me to my knees I should have seen it coming but it surprised me Will you be my refuge, my haven in the storm?

[1:03] Will you keep the embers warm when my fire's all but gone? Will you remember and bring me sprigs of rosemary?

[1:16] Be my sanctuary till I can carry on, carry on, carry on In a state of true believers on streets called us and them It's gonna take some time till the world feels safe again Will you be my refuge, my haven in the storm?

[1:51] Will you keep the embers warm when my fire's all but gone? Will you keep the embers warm when my fire's all but gone? Will you remember and bring me sprigs of rosemary?

[2:05] Be my sanctuary till I can carry on, carry on, carry on Carry on Carry on I can carry on, carry on, carry onoul Dame Agree allied皆們一一人 You can rest here in Brown Chapel Or with a circle of friends A quiet grove of trees Or between two bookends Will you be my refuge My haven in the storm

[3:09] Will you keep the embers warm When my fire's all but gone Will you remember And bring me sprints of rosemary Be my sanctuary Till I can carry on Carry on Carry on Carry on I can carry porc Carry on Thank you.

[4:27] Thank you.

[4:57] Thank you.

[5:27] Thank you.

[5:57] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning.

[6:19] Good morning. I seem to have my mask taped to my face. Thank you. Thank you.

[6:31] I want to welcome you to this service. This is the service before Christmas. We have Christmas Eve coming up and then services next Sunday morning, casual, no need to dress up unless you want to for next Sunday's services.

[6:49] But I want to welcome you to this service and let's start with the peace of the Lord be with you. And so just kind of turn to your neighbor, even if it's your family or behind you or whatever, and tell them, peace of Christ be with you.

[7:12] We're very excited this week to have Kate Bobsen playing for us, homegrown. In this series about coming home for Christmas, this morning we encounter Elizabeth and her and Mary.

[7:35] And we know that God has spoken to each one of them through an angel. And so we wonder about hearing the voice of God.

[7:49] So I invite my readers to stand where they are and let's begin. She said, how do you know when you are hearing from God?

[8:04] I didn't know how to explain. It is to explain the butter grit of cornbread to a mouth that has just discovered it has a tongue. The sound of jazz to ears that only ever thought they'd be lobes of flesh.

[8:18] The sight of sunsets to blinded eyes that in an instant can see. To fail at the ability to give words to how the scent of baked bread can make the mind recall a memory.

[8:31] Every detail. My words never felt so small, so useless, so incapable. I wanted to say, put your hand in the middle of your chest.

[8:45] Feel the rhythm there. You don't have to be inside the four walls of a church to cry out to God who made you. Because no matter where you sing or scream or whisper, God's ear can hear you.

[9:01] God's ears are here for the babies. For the immigrant. For the refugee. For the depressed. For the lonely. For the dreamers. The widow.

[9:12] The orphan. The oppressed and the helpless. Those about to make a mess or caught in the middle of cleaning one up. Dirt don't scare God's ears.

[9:23] God is a gardener. God knows things can't grow without sun, rain, and soil. I want to tell her to hear God.

[9:35] You have to be willing to experience what's holy in places many people don't deem to be sacred. That sometimes God sits next to you on a bar stool.

[9:48] Spilling truth to you like too many beers. I want to tell her God is always waiting. God is always saying, I love you.

[10:00] I am here. Don't go. Stay. Please. I try to explain how God is pleading with us to trust, to love, to listen.

[10:13] That God's voice is melody and bass lines and whisper and thunder and grace. Sometimes when I pray, I think of her.

[10:27] How the voice of God was lingering in her every question. How so many of us just like her. Just like me. Just like you. Are still searching.

[10:38] Still questioning. Still doubting. I know I don't have all the answers. I know I never will. That sometimes the best thing we can do is put our hands in the middle of our chest.

[10:56] Feel the rhythm there. Turn down the noises in our minds, in our lives. And whisper, God, whatever you want to say, I'm here.

[11:08] I'm listening. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, we are seeking. Seeking you this week before we celebrate Christmas.

[11:21] Seeking deeper faith. Seeking a place where we will find sanctuary. A place of refuge. Seeking that feeling that God is here.

[11:33] We seek joy. The Holy Spirit. A hand to hold. We are seeking the freedom to be. The courage to love. The conviction to act in the face of our lives today.

[11:47] We are seeking. We are found. Let us take a deep breath. And know that you are our refuge and our sanctuary.

[12:00] And you are here and we are found. Amen. Amen. Ready? Ready?

[12:22] Ready? As we sit in the beauty of this sanctuary, let us settle our minds and take that deep breath and lift up our voices as we sing our first hymn, Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

[12:35] I invite you to stand if you're able. Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

[12:53] Glory to the newborn King. Peace on earth and mercy mild.

[13:03] God has sinners reconciled. Joyful all ye nations rise.

[13:14] Join the triumph of the skies. Christ the Herald Angels Sing. Christ is born in Bethlehem.

[13:29] Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Glory to the newborn King.

[13:40] Christ my highest heaven adore. Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time behold he comes.

[13:56] Offspring of the Virgin's womb. Hail them flesh the Godhead see. Hail the incarnate deity.

[14:11] Hail the incarnate deity. Pleased with us in flesh to dwell. Jesus of Emmanuel.

[14:22] Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Glory to the newborn King.

[14:34] Hail the Herald Angels Sing. Hail the Herald Angels Sing. Hail the Herald Angels Sing. Hail the Son of Righteousness.

[14:46] Might and life to all he brings. Rest with healing in his wings. Hound he lays his glory by.

[15:02] Born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth.

[15:13] Born to give them second birth. Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

[15:24] Glory to the newborn King. You may be seated. Did not give them thirty minutes.

[15:36] Who will but? Should they be seated? grasped the two shakingpst. He is seated. Should we lift them to the flag up to the歡迎? So let's say thank you that wants them to speak. A serenity has 19ders made truth.

[15:50] God's love is like an open door.

[16:18] God's love is a street light that guides us home. God's love is a warm bed to fall into. God's love is a table with room for you.

[16:30] God's love is a crackling fireplace. God's love is the sun that streams through the windows. God's love is the roof over our heads and the floor beneath our feet.

[16:46] God's love is a home for you and me, for neighbors and strangers, for family and friends, for enemies and partners. God's love is a home for all.

[16:57] Today we light the candle of love to remind us of this truth. May it burn brightly in this space and even brighter in our hearts. Amen.

[17:09] God's love is a true thing. Jimmie swim porter as an open door andrim of hope.

[17:23] Yes. Thank you.

[17:56] Good morning. Today we hear about Elizabeth. Elizabeth offers her home.

[18:10] She offers her arms. She offers her joy. She offers her affirmation and confidence. Elizabeth offers everything she has when Mary shows up at her door.

[18:22] And it feels holy, doesn't it? Part of our call as people of faith is to give when and where we can. So today we are invited to be a little bit more like Elizabeth.

[18:36] Today we're invited to give generously, trusting that God will take these gifts to build a better world here. Let us give with joyful hearts. Thank you.

[18:54] Thank you. Thank you.

[19:25] Thank you.

[19:55] Thank you.

[20:25] Thank you.

[20:55] Thank you.

[21:25] Thank you.

[21:55] Thank you.

[22:25] Thank you.

[22:55] Thank you.

[23:25] Thank you.

[23:55] We pause our seeking to simply give you thanks. Thank you for the Elizabeths in our lives. Thank you.

[24:33] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[25:39] Thank you.

[26:39] Amen. The scripture today is from Luke 1,

[28:39] Not too long before this interaction between Mary and Elizabeth, Elizabeth has been visited by the archangel Gabriel, and he has extended this outstanding invitation for her, for her to mother, to carry the Son of God.

[29:16] And she received it. She received it with an astounding, resounding yes. I'm not sure how much choice she had, but she welcomed this vision, this experience of the angel as a messenger from God.

[29:35] And I wonder, when God visited Mary, did God also infuse biblical knowledge and historical truth in her?

[29:49] I don't think so. I think that Mary was a woman of faith. Mary was one who knew the stories of the Scripture, who was at temple and listened to the rabbis, to the teachers, and kept the teachings of God's Word in her heart.

[30:09] Mary could be described as a woman of wholehearted faith. She was raised on the stories of her people, and she had come to know and believe the stories of Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Miriam, Jacob and Rachel, and so many more, including Hannah and Samuel.

[30:35] Those are the stories that passed along to her from family that helped her to be in this place. It wasn't as though she was maybe a 14 or 15 or 16-year-old teenager, and boom, she all of a sudden had a sense of who God was.

[30:54] She had grown up learning who God was. And Mary had committed Hannah's song, which we call the Magnificat.

[31:04] It actually can be found in 1 Samuel 2, verses 1 through 10. I want to share those words with you. Hannah prayed and said, My heart exalts in the Lord.

[31:18] My strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in my victory. There is no holy one like the Lord, no one besides you.

[31:30] There is no rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly. Let not arrogance come from your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.

[31:44] It goes on to talk about the Lord makes the poor and makes rich. He brings low. He exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust, lifts the needy from the ash heap.

[31:56] For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on him he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones. The Lord, his adversaries, shall be shattered.

[32:06] The Most High will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, and he will give strength to his king and exalt the power of all of his mankind.

[32:18] If we think about Mary as a woman of wholehearted faith, I want to share with you a small piece from a book called Wholehearted Faith by Rachel Held Evans, a woman who struggled from coming from the very conservative Southern Baptist Church into figuring out what did she believe.

[32:48] And she remained a person of faith, but she asked herself periodically, until her untimely death at the age of 37, she asked herself, do I believe and why do I believe?

[33:02] And she shares these words about how being a parent of two small children transformed her understanding of what belonging and what having community and faith means.

[33:19] It's about risking hurt and confusion for the sake of the thing so many of us are seeking, belonging. Perhaps it's because I am neck deep in the season of motherhood and caretaking that I am more aware than ever of the startling profound reality that I am a Christian not because of anything I've done, but because a teenage girl living in occupied Palestine at one of the most dangerous moments in history said yes.

[33:50] Yes to God. Yes to a wholehearted call that she could possibly understand. Yes to vulnerability in the face of judgment of her community and peers.

[34:03] Yes to the risk of pregnancy and childbirth. I know that Christians are Easter people, and we're supposed to favor the story of the resurrection because it reminds us that death is never the end of God's story.

[34:17] Yet I have never found that story even half as compelling as the story of the incarnation of God coming and dwelling in a human baby who would bring to us the good news that we all have waited for throughout the generations.

[34:37] So Mary, she hears this news, startling, and there she is, and what does she do?

[34:52] She flies, literally she probably wished that she could fly, over the hills and the valleys and goes to her family member, Elizabeth.

[35:03] And she goes to Elizabeth because she is a bit uncertain. She's been told by the angel that Elizabeth is also going to have a baby.

[35:14] And wait just a minute, Elizabeth is old and has wanted a baby forever, but she got no baby. So how can she be pregnant? And so she goes running and she gets there.

[35:29] And what does Elizabeth do? She wraps her in her arms and welcomes her into her home and she blesses her. She blesses her.

[35:42] In response to Elizabeth's blessing, Mary then begins to sing this Magnificat, which is a part of so many beautiful musicals and other pieces of Christian story that have been proclaimed, especially around Christmastime.

[36:02] She sings of God who brings down the powerful, lifts up the lowly, fills the hungry with good things. Strangely, wonderfully, Mary sings of a God who not only will do these things, but has already done these things.

[36:22] And so I think about how it is that she goes and she sings. And I think about what does Mary see?

[36:33] Mary sees not only the hope that God has given her in terms of carrying the Savior of the world, she also can look back and see how God has delivered God's people throughout generations.

[36:49] And she can see what will unfold. I wonder, what part of this story, what part of the story of Jesus coming into this world has stayed with your heart or that you might reference to?

[37:11] Because there are pieces, and we often get caught up in the one piece, which is the birth of Jesus. That is the big event. But the things that help us to understand this in uncertain times, in times where people think they have things figured out and then they don't.

[37:33] And then we think we've got things figured out and then we don't. And then we have plans and plans are canceled. And then, and then, and then. These are some of the stories.

[37:45] I think about the image of Mary running to greet Elizabeth. No small task. I think about that young girl giving birth in a place meant for animals.

[38:03] With her husband by her side, angels singing and shepherds around. I think about Anna. I think about Anna. Aged Anna in the temple who welcomes them when they bring Jesus and knows that the fulfillment of all the scripture has just happened.

[38:24] The story of the boy Jesus in the temple already teaching and preaching. The wonder of Jesus calling his disciples to a mission that would change the world, going out and sharing the good news and baptizing and healing and guiding people.

[38:47] The gift of miracles, of feeding the hungry and healing the sick. The story of the woman at the well who ran back to tell her neighbors who she had encountered.

[38:58] And the memory of an early Easter dawn when death was first replaced by emptiness and then great joy and life. Mary speaks not only the words that we so often need to hear, but the words that maybe we need to offer.

[39:24] She, the two of them, bless each other. Women who had no business being pregnant in their communities. No business in all the things that make sense in the world.

[39:37] It should not have been that way. And yet here it is. And so what did they do? They went and found sanctuary with one another. Mary ran to see Elizabeth.

[39:48] And what did Elizabeth do? Elizabeth could have cast her out. Literally. Cast her out. Called her unclean. But she didn't.

[40:00] She welcomed her in and she was a safe place. Mary could have just been horrified about Elizabeth being pregnant. But no. They wrapped in each other's arms in a beautiful piece of what felt like home and sanctuary.

[40:22] Such a blessing. It invites us to think about blessing. And I want to share with you a blessing that Jan Richardson wrote in a book called The Circle of Grace.

[40:40] And I want to share the blessing with you. Last night when I did it I broke it up and talked in the middle. Which means that you kind of lose the feel of the blessing. So hear the blessing and then I will go back.

[40:53] You hardly knew how hungry you were to be gathered in to receive the welcome that invited you to enter entirely.

[41:04] Nothing of you found foreign or strange. Nothing of your life that you were asked to leave behind or carry in silence or shame. Tentative steps became settling in leaning into the blessing that enfolded you.

[41:21] taking your place in the circle that stunned you with its unimagined grace. You began to breathe again. To move without fear to speak with abandon.

[41:35] The words you carried in your bones that echoed in your being. You learned to sing. But the deal with this blessing is that it will not leave you alone and it will not let you linger in safety, in stasis.

[41:50] The time will come when this blessing will ask you to leave not because it is tired of you but because it desires for you to become the sanctuary that you have found.

[42:07] To become the sanctuary that you have found. To speak your word into the world. To tell what you have heard with your own ears and seen with your own eyes and known with your own hearts that you are beloved.

[42:24] Precious child of God. Beautiful to behold. And you are welcome and more than welcome here. You know, we don't always know how much we need to be welcomed into the blessing.

[42:41] You know, when a hug comes to us and we are enfolded and we think, wow, I didn't even know how much I needed to belong just for that one minute. And it might be a person at church.

[42:54] It might be a person in family. It might be a good friend. It might be a handshake. We don't know how much we need it until the coffee is ready.

[43:06] We don't know how much our heart needs the hymn or the song that is played over the last couple of days.

[43:18] I have listened to Amy Grant's Breath of Heaven on repeat and repeat and repeat. And I invite you to listen to it if you haven't heard it.

[43:30] Why? Because I would be doing things and then catch a piece. Catch a piece. Catch a piece. Help me. We are here.

[43:41] Breath of Heaven. Come to me. Hold me. Show me. Guide me. Help me to celebrate and honor this child who comes to change the world.

[43:54] This is the blessing that says that there are no barriers, no rejection, no second thoughts to whether you have community in Christ or not.

[44:05] whether you belong or not, there is no question. Whether you feel it, whether those around you feel it, we cannot control.

[44:17] Some may not feel like they belong. Some may not want to belong. But the invitation and the blessing is for everyone. the realization of grace.

[44:31] And I believe that John Wesley, who was a founding father in the Methodist church, who talked about grace, he struggled to believe in it himself.

[44:44] And it was in him coming to a belief in the grace and the love and the salvation of Jesus Christ that went on to change his life and then change the world.

[44:56] But it's hard. They ask us when we're going to be ordained, if we believe we're going on to perfection, which means, do we fully embrace, 100% accept that we are made perfect in the love of Jesus Christ?

[45:12] Now you heard the word we always trip on, made perfect. Made perfect. Most of us will say, we have to answer when we're asked that question.

[45:23] Are you going on to perfection? Yes, with the help of God. With the help of Christ, my Savior, I am going on to perfection, which many of us believe we won't reach until our dying day, when we are one with Christ.

[45:39] That's why believing in the wholeheartedness of grace is such a life journey. Because we are people who are full of butts.

[45:51] Full of butt. Butt, butt, butt. When we begin to breathe in the breath of grace, to move, maybe not without any fear, but with comforted fear.

[46:06] With comforted fear. To know. I might still be anxious, but the Holy Spirit goes with me. We may begin to speak with abandon.

[46:20] Not just anything and everything, but we may be able to speak our own truth, our own faith. Because no matter what the person next to you says and how they articulate their faith, some people have all the theology in the world.

[46:38] And they have paragraphs and paragraphs of their faith. Some people, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

[46:49] If that's your truth, then you have the right to speak that truth even to yourself. I know this, I know this, I know this. And you learn to sing.

[47:03] It doesn't matter whether other people think you did or not. The voice that comes out of your mouth may not sound like a practiced, taught vocalist.

[47:16] God doesn't care. God doesn't care. God loves the toddler version of faith and singing that sometimes comes out of us older people.

[47:29] when our voices fail. The faith where the melody is does not fail. So as we talked about in the welcome, and Linda Barsakowski read the words, sometimes we have to put our hands on our heart and feel the rhythm there.

[47:55] Feel that our heart beats, feel that we are alive. Doesn't matter if there's something in there helping you. That's a God-given gift whether it's a pacemaker or a defibrillator, whatever it is.

[48:12] Alive. And if you are alive, then you are a part of the community and the sanctuary of this life that God has given us.

[48:24] And what better thing to do than to then be the sanctuary for others? Here, out there.

[48:36] You know, I left a store a couple of weeks ago and the bottom of the bag dropped out and my stuff went falling all over the place and a car came by and there was yelling and swearing at me for being in the pathway even though I wasn't.

[48:58] And then there was a woman with a child who came and said, what can we do to help? And after hearing this obnoxiousness, I felt like I'd been invited into a little bit of sanctuary and I turned to her and I simply said, could you just take the bag and throw it away on your way in the store and I'll just gather everything up and carry it?

[49:21] Those are little moments of sanctuary. Those are little moments of the blessing of God's teaching that show up in your lives and in mine.

[49:35] And so it is that as we go down these last days, the angel Gabriel invited Mary into a story.

[49:50] Elizabeth welcomed Mary's story. Their sons were a gift to each other and to the world. And Mary, a brilliant, faithful, smart, young woman, gave birth to the Savior of the world so that we could belong.

[50:15] not just that generic scripture thing that sometimes we see it at sports games, we see it all over the place. For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that we who believe shall not perish but have everlasting life.

[50:31] That's a great verse. But you know what's even better is if you believe that you, you, are part, are important are important part.

[50:48] God sent his son that whoever, meaning you ever, meaning you always, may it be so. Amen.

[51:13] Mary's world turned upside down with the visit of an angel.

[51:40] And this is a moment we can all relate to, because over the course of the past year and a half, our world has seemed to turn upside down more than once.

[51:52] When those moments come, we hope to respond with grace. But more often than not, fear can get the best of us. So today, we turn to God in prayer, asking for God's guidance and grace in the places and the moments we need it most.

[52:12] Let us pray together now. God of safe spaces, we wish we were more like Mary, who in the face of great change, went and sought help.

[52:25] She did not wait for help to find her. She walked to the shelter she needed. Too often, we wait silently for the world to change around us instead of speaking up for the things we need.

[52:41] Forgive us for failing to care for ourselves the way you would care for us. Give us the courage to be more like Mary. God of safe places, we wish we were more like Elizabeth, who greeted Mary with laughter and contagious joy.

[53:00] How many people have crossed our doorstep, and how many times have we failed to see them? Give us the courage of Mary and the grace of Elizabeth.

[53:13] Gratefully, we pray. Amen. Family of faith, even if we miss the person standing on our doorstep, Even if we fail to care for ourselves the way God would care for us, Even if we forget and ignore and turn away and shut down, God still loves us.

[53:40] There is nothing we can do to lose God's love. If we get lost, If we mess up, If we withhold love, We are claimed, We are loved, We are forgiven.

[54:06] Amen. Amen. Amen. The Lord be with you. And also be with you.

[54:17] Lift up your hearts. Lift up your hearts. Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God. We give thanks to the Lord, our God. God of our salvation, We sometimes feel we don't deserve your love, And yet you lavish it upon us.

[54:34] Not being content to be apart from us, You came to us in human form, Donning flesh and becoming one of us. You are not a God that is removed from our reality, But is intimately present in our lives and in our struggles.

[54:53] We lift up to you our thanks for your presence among us. We give thanks for your Son, Jesus Christ, The very incarnation of your being on this earth.

[55:05] With all of creation, With all people in every time and place, We join the everlasting course. Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

[55:22] Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And on the night in which he would give himself up for us, your son, how you called your servant Joseph to accompany her, how you called the wise men to search and the shepherds to ponder, how you called John to proclaim and Jesus to be baptized, how you called Peter and the disciples to follow and to serve. And on the night in which he would give himself up for us, Jesus took bread. He gave thanks to you. He broke the bread and he gave it to his disciples and said, take and eat because this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And when the supper was over, he took the cup. He gave thanks to you and he gave it to his disciples and he said, drink from this, all of you. For this is my blood, sign of the new covenant, which is poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

[56:38] Every time that you drink, do this in remembrance of me. And so as we wait during this blessed season of Advent, we proclaim the mystery of faith.

[56:54] Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and on these gifts of bread and cup. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world, the body and blood of Christ.

[57:15] By your spirit, make us one with Christ, one with each other and one in ministry to all the world until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

[57:29] By your son, Jesus Christ, with your Holy Spirit and in your holy church, all honor and glory is yours. Almighty God, now and forever.

[57:42] And now we pray the prayer you taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

[57:57] Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

[58:11] For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Amen.

[58:35] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[58:45] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[58:55] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Would our servers please come forward.

[59:29] Amen. Amen.

[60:29] Amen. Amen.

[61:01] Amen. Amen. Our Lord sets a table that is open to all. And whatever weighs on your heart, whatever weighs you think you may not be worthy to be at the Lord's table, understand that it's not about your worth.

[61:14] It's about who he is and his grace. So as the spirit moves you, we invite you to come to the center aisles, come down to the front, receive your elements and exit by the side. If you'd prefer the prepackaged elements, one of the servants will give it to you.

[61:28] Understand that you can also have them in the prepackaged piece. So ask for one of those as well. There's a gluten free station here on the far side of the sanctuary.

[61:41] Please come as the spirit moves. Let's pray.

[61:59] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[63:04] Amen. Amen.

[64:04] Amen. Amen.

[65:04] Amen. Amen.

[66:04] Amen. Amen.

[67:04] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Apparently we have that same tape problem.

[67:19] Where do we find sanctuary? Sometimes in a place, sometimes in a person, sometimes in a song.

[67:33] but always in God. And as Pastor Kathy was talking about grace, it took me back to a study that I actually took with Linda B. And we were given the opportunity, and we were reading that scripture for God so loved the world and so easy to read and so easy to believe for everyone else.

[67:55] And the opportunity was given to put our own name in there. And I invite you this morning to say those words to yourself. For God so loved me.

[68:06] And feel the overwhelming power that there is in that love. So I invite you to stand as we sing our first of our two last songs, O Little Town of Bethlehem. O Little Town of Bethlehem How still we see Thee by Above Thy deep and dreamless sleep The silent stars go by Yet in Thy dark streets shineth The everlasting light The hopes and fears of all the years Are left in Thee tonight

[69:09] O Holy Child of Bethlehem O Holy Child of Bethlehem Descend to us, we pray Cast out our sin and enter it Be born in us today We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tiny star O come to us, O find in us Our holy heavenly world And our last song talks about Mary And her statement of her soul magnifying the Lord

[70:12] And the great things that God had done for her And our last song talk Would you see usaszem And the first song goesda to me This will be a sign to you, a baby born in my life.

[70:51] Oh, God, worship, God be in pain. The company of angels, glory in the highest.

[71:09] The company of angels, glory in the highest. The company of angels, glory in the highest. Come and worship, God be in pain.

[71:25] My soul, my soul, magnifies the Lord. He has done great things, great things on me.

[71:44] Until a child is born, unto us the Son is born.

[72:00] Let every heart repair his soul. Let every nation of their hands. Come and worship, God be in pain.

[72:16] Come and worship, God be in pain. My soul, my soul, magnifies the Lord. My soul, magnifies the Lord.

[72:28] He has done great things for me, great things for me. My soul, my soul, magnifies the Lord.

[72:40] My soul, magnifies the Lord. He has done great things for me, great things on me.

[72:52] And His government never be known until the salvation brings righteousness. And He shall reign, and His name shall reign.

[73:03] My name is strong, and His name shall be. And this day are wonderful, God's life.

[73:17] Everlasting Father. Wonderful, God's love.

[73:32] And His name shall be. Everlasting Father. Oh yeah!

[73:44] My soul, my soul, magnifies the Lord.

[74:09] My soul, my soul, magnifies the Lord. He has done great things for us.

[74:24] He has done great things for us. He has done great things for us. Oh, my soul,すごい Oh, my soul, magnifies the Lord.

[74:59] Magnifies the Lord He has done great things to me Great things for me Oh yeah, yeah He has done great things He has done great things As you go from this place, I invite you, hands on your chest.

[75:48] Not only do I want you to go holding the sanctuary of the peace of Christ, but go guarding the peace of Christ into the chaos.

[76:03] May you feel it, may you remember it, and may you own it. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

[76:27] Hej då, come! No! Come, he said that You are a beautiful person of Christ of God and magn MUSIC into the precious life and the beautiful form of your heart.

[76:45] Let's see. It's beautiful. On one to depress lui and his body is a beautiful person to cleanse us with a beautiful fire and disease. Thank you.

[77:23] Thank you. Thank you.

[78:23] Thank you.

[78:53] Thank you.