Nurturing the lives of others - mutual regard as divine service . . . WORSHIP WITH CAPITOL HEIGHTS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 1100 Fillmore St. Denver, Co. 80206 303-333-9366 May 14, 2017

Rowan Williams on tragedy, what is seen and how it discloses a world: “Hegel’s paradigm tragedy is Sophocles’ Antigone - a text to which he returns in several different contexts, from his early writings to the Phenomenology, and eventually the 1827 Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. In his lectures on the fine arts, he describes it as ‘the most excellent and satisfying work of art’. What fascinates Hegel in this drama is the presentation of two inflexible expressions of law which cannot both be satisfied - or rather, which cannot be satisfied without destroying the lives of agents who take responsibility for honoring them. It forms the final act of the Oedipus story - though the play itself was the first to be written of the Sophoclean trilogy of Theban dramas: Creon becomes ruler of Thebes once Oedipus is dead and (Oedipus’) sons, Eteocles and Polynices, have killed each other fighting over the succession; and the narrative of the play deals with the aftermath of this struggle. Creon orders that the corpse of Polynices should lie unburied, since he has attacked the city itself, with the help of other Greek warlords, while Eteocles receives an honorable funeral. Disobedience to this order will be punished with death. Polynices’ sister Antigone declares that, as a member of his family she intends to fulfill her sacred obligations to the dead, and to accord Polynices the proper rites of burial he has been denied. Creon condemns her to death, although she is engaged to his son, Haemon; when the seer Tiresias rebukes Creon for his obstinacy, he eventually consents both to bury Polynices and to reprieve Antigone, but arrives too late at the place where Antigone has been immured alive. She has hanged herself; Haemon turns on his father, intending to kill him, but then kills himself. In the wake of this, Creon’s wife, Eurydice, also commits suicide. Creon is left alone and devastated: he describes himself as ‘no-one’ and ‘nothing’. He prays for death, but is told by the leader of the Chorus, ‘No more prayers now. For mortal men/ there is no escape from the doom we must endure.’  Tragedy is an opportunity to see the limits in our world, in ourselves and in our will to control and where such will if not restrained will take us - a world lost in a mushroom cloud. As Jesus said to his time, ‘having eyes they do not see’. May our prayer be for a spiritual capacity to see, and nurture of sight.

Our light amid barbed wire shines with prayers for healing and freedom Our blue light shines with prayers for healing for all who struggle with AIDS. Our light amid barbed wire shines with prayers for healing and freedom for all with chronic illness, severe pain, and under oppression, and for all who suffer from spread of violence. We always light a candle in prayer for Shalom, the fullness of peace and well-being.   An Opening - the voice of God: “Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I who took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.” GREAT GOD, YOUR LOVE HAS CALLED US HERE Hymn 353 A Reading - Hosea 11:1-9

A prayer of confession, based on Psalm 51 Have mercy on us all, O God, on all our troubled world, according to Your love, according to abundant and decisive mercy transform the folly of our lives. Wash us thoroughly of our proclivities towards doing harm, polluting, exploiting, with greed seeking that which others need for life and guarding such action with threats of violence. We know our transgressions - history tells the repetitive stories; sustain our sight; let it inform our wisdom and courage to change. Teach us wisdom in the depths of our hearts and in the breadth of our culture. Wash me and I shall be clean, then make me an agent of cleansing. Create in us each one a clean heart, O God, and birth a new and right spirit within us. Do not take from us Your gracious Spirit, but even here amid all that’s the matter with our country, our world, and our ways, bring Your presence to govern, Your Spirit to guide, Your salvation to inspire our joy and our willingness to live Your love for all, amen.   A Reading - Luke 7:36-50

The Morning Offering, and Choral Reflection, “Creation Song”, An assurance - “Dear Child of God, I write these words because we all experience sadness, we all come at times to despair, and we all lose hope that the suffering in our lives and in the world will ever end. I want to share with you my faith and my understanding that this suffering can be transformed and redeemed. There is no such thing as a totally hopeless case. Our God is an expert at dealing with chaos, with brokenness, with all the worst that we can imagine. God created order out of disorder, cosmos out of chaos, and God can do so always, can do so now--in our personal lives and in our lives as nations, globally.”  Desmond Tutu, social activist and former Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa   The Morning Offering, and Choral Reflection, “Creation Song”, by Betty Wilson and Joanne Brown God’s ways - the good shepherd, not the exploiting taker, a reflection on nurture A response - THOUGH I MAY SPEAK Hymn 335 Prayerfully, our celebrations, concerns, opportunities, and reflections . . . We begin the sharing with ‘the word in motion-Ceaghan’s graduate dance’

O brother man, fold to thy heart thy brother; words by John G. Whittier, 1848; music is Welwyn by Alfred Scott Gatty, 1902; O brother man, fold to thy heart thy brother; where pity dwells the peace of God is there; to worship rightly is to love each other, each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer.   For he whom Jesus loved has truly spoken: the holier worship which He deigns to bless restores the lost, and binds the spirit broken, and feeds the widow and the fatherless. Follow with reverent steps the great example of Him Whose holy work was doing good; so shall the wide earth seem our Father’s temple, each loving life a psalm of gratitude. Then shall all shackles fall; the stormy clangor of wild war music o’er the earth shall cease; love shall tread out the baleful fire of anger, and in its ashes plant the tree of peace.

Go into your lives believing and fully living The closing - Go into your lives believing and fully living the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God as the ever faithful Mother of all, and the constant communion of the Holy Spirit fashioning a fellowship of peace and joy with all that surrounds you. Indeed, go to give that gift of peace, amen.   _________________________________________________________________________________ Please join us immediately following worship for fellowship in our social hall, and to celebrate our newest graduate, Ceaghan Mead Toady’s Dialogue at 11 joins with Faren and Dave to hear of their river journey from Hong Kong to Singapore.