The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton
Presider

Sandra Cline and Wayne Nelson
Readers

The Chautauqua Choir

Joshua Stafford
Director and Organist

Owen Reyda
Organist

Ever Living, Ever Striving, Ever Forming

We invite you to quietly prepare your hearts for worship during the Prelude.* Denotes that the congregation is invited to rise in body or spirit.It is our custom to sing the first and last verses of hymns in unison,the interior verses may be sung in parts.

Hymn
"Day is dying in the west"

Chautauqua, William Fisk Sherwin, 1877
Mary Lathbury, 1877

Day is dying in the west;
Heav’n is touching earth with rest;
Wait and worship while the night
Sets her evening lamps alight
through all the sky.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts!
Heav’n and earth are full of Thee;
Heav’en and earth are praising Thee,
O Lord most high! Amen.

Welcome

Opening Prayer

Sister Joan Chittister 

May the Gifts of the Holy Spirit bring fire to the earth, so that the presence of God

may be seen in a new light, in new places, in new ways.

May our own hearts burst into flame so that no obstacle, no matter how great, ever obstructs the message of the God within each of us.

May we come to trust the Word of God in our heart, to speak it with courage, to follow it faithfully and to fan it to flame in others.

Give us, Great God, a sense of the Breath of Spirit within us. Amen. 

Response
"O fiery Spirit"

Jody Caldwell, after Hildegard of Bingen
Kimberly A. Williams

Reading

Hildegard of Bingen

I am the Supreme and Fiery Force who kindles every living spark…As I circled the whirling sphere with my upper wings (that is, with Wisdom), rightly I ordained it. And I am the fiery life of the Divine essence: I flame above the beauty of the fields; I shine in the waters; I burn in the sun, the moon, and the stars. And, with the airy wind, I quicken all things vitally by an unseen, all-sustaining life. For the air is alive in the verdure and the flowers; the waters flow as if they lived; the sun too lives in its light; and when the moon wanes it is rekindled by the light of the sun, as if it lived anew. Even the stars glisten in their light as if alive. 

Anthem
O Holy Spirit, Praise to You 

Howard Helvey, 2007
Mary Louise Bringle, after Hildegard of Bingen, 2002

O Holy Spirit, Flowing Light,of sun's gold sheen and mirror's bright,reflect in us your clear delight:Laus tibi Sanctus Spiritus.(O Holy Spirit, praise to you.)

O Holy Spirit, Wisdom's Fire,of leaping flame and steeple's spire,uplift our intellect's desire:Laus tibi Sanctus Spiritus.

O Holy Spirit, Healing Balm,of scent-filled air and salving calm,distill our tears to crystal psalm:Laus tibi, Sanctus Spiritus.

O Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,reach through the lattice of your loveand train us toward the life above:Laus tibi, Sanctus Spiritus.

O Holy Spirit, Paraclete, make strong our hands and swift our feetto serve the Christ in all we meet:Laus tibi Sanctus Spiritus.

Reading

Exodus 3:1–6

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Hymn
“Wind who makes all winds that blow" 

Aberystwyth, Joseph Parry, 1876
Thomas Troeger, 1986

Reading
"The dove descending" 

Little Gidding, T.S. Eliot, 1942

The dove descending breaks the air

With flame of incandescent terror

Of which the tongues declare

The one discharge from sin and error.

The only hope, or else despair

Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre—

To be redeemed from fire by fire.

Who then devised the torment? Love.

Love is the unfamiliar Name

Behind the hands that wove

The intolerable shirt of flame

Which human power cannot remove.

We only live, only suspire

Consumed by either fire or fire.

Anthem
“Listen, sweet dove” 

Grayston Ives, 2005
George Herbert, The Temple, 1633

Listen sweet dove unto my song,

and spread thy golden wings in me;

hatching my tender heart so long,

till it get wing and flie away with me.

Such glorious gifts thou didst bestow

the earth did like a heav’n appear,

the starres were coming down to know

if they might mend their wages and serve here.

The sunne which once did shine alone,

hung down his head and wisht for night,

when he beheld twelve sunnes for one

going and giving light.

Lord, though we change, thou art the same,

the same sweet God of love and light:

Restore this day for thy great name,

unto his ancient and miraculous right. 

Reading

Acts 2:1–21

When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs — in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

`In the last days it will be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, 

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

and your young men shall see visions, 

and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even upon my slaves, both men and women, 

in those days I will pour out my Spirit; 

and they shall prophesy.

And I will show portents in the heaven above 

and signs on the earth below, 

blood, and fire, and smoky mist.

The sun shall be turned to darkness 

and the moon to blood, 

before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.

Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' "

*Hymn
“Come down, O love divine" 

Down Ampney, Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906
Bianco da Siena, c. 1367; trans. Richard Frederick Littledale, 1867, alt.

A Pentecost Blessing: This Grace That Scorces Us

Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace, 2015

Here’s one thing you must understand about this blessing:

it is not for you alone.

It is stubborn about this.

Do not even try to lay hold of it if you are by yourself,

thinking you can carry it on your own.

To bear this blessing, you must first take yourself

to a place where everyone does not look like you or think like you,

a place where they do not believe precisely as you believe,

where their thoughts and ideas and gestures

are not exact echoes of your own. 

Bring your sorrow. Bring your grief. Bring your fear.

Bring your weariness, your pain,

your disgust at how broken the world is,

how fractured, how fragmented by its fighting,

its wars, its hungers, its penchant for power,

its ceaseless repetition of the history it refuses to rise above.

I will not tell you this blessing will fix all that.

But in the place where you have gathered, wait. Watch. Listen.

Lay aside your inability to be surprised,

your resistance to what you do not understand.

See then whether this blessing turns to flame on your tongue,

sets you to speaking what you cannot fathom

or opens your ear to a language beyond your imagining

that comes as a knowing in your bones, a clarity in your heart

that tells you this is the reason we were made:

for this ache that finally opens us, for this struggle,

this grace that scorches us toward one another

and into the blazing day. Amen.

Anthem
"Holy Spirit, ever dwelling"

Michael Burkhardt, 2014
Timothy Rees, 1922

Holy Spirit, ever dwelling

in the holiest realms of light,

Holy Spirit, ever brooding

o'er a world of gloom and night,

Holy Spirit, ever raising

those of earth to thrones on high,

living, life-imparting Spirit,

you we praise and magnify.

Holy Spirit, ever living

as the Church's very life,

Holy Spirit, ever striving

through us in a ceaseless strife,

Holy Spirit, ever forming

in the Church the mind of Christ,

you we praise with endless worship

for your gracious gifts unpriced.

Holy Spirit, ever working

through the Church's ministry,

teaching, strength'ning, and absolving,

setting captive sinners free,

Holy Spirit, ever binding

age to age and soul to soul

in communion never ending,

you we worship and extol.

Closing Prayers

Jan Richardson, 2011

On the day when you are wearing your certainty like a cloak, 

and your sureness goes before you like a shield or like a sword, 

may the sound of God’s name spill from your lips

as you have never heard it before.

May your knowing be undone.

May mystery confound your understanding. 

May the Divine rain down in strange syllables

yet with an ancient familiarity,

a knowing borne in the blood, the ear, the tongue,

bringing the clarity that comes not in stone or in steel

but in fire, in flame.

May there come one searing word:

enough to bare you to the bone,

enough to set your heart ablaze,

enough to make you whole again.

Amen.

Hymn
“Now the day is over” 

Merrial, Joseph Barnby, 1868
Sabine Baring-Gould, 1865

Now the day is over, night is drawing nigh,shadows of the evening steal across the sky.

O God, give the weary calm and sweet reposewith thy tend’rest blessing may our eyelids close.

When the morning wakens, then may I arisepure, and fresh, and sinless in thy holy eyes. Amen.

Postlude
Largo

George Frederick Handel, 1738
from the opera Xerxes

Use of this piece to close the Sunday evening service has been Chautauqua’s tradition since the dedication of the Massey Memorial Organ on August 6, 1907.Part of the custom has been to remain in our seats until the piece is finished.It is a gesture that we treasure, and one in which you are invited to join.We invite you to leave the Amphitheater silently — without applause.

Chautauqua Institution
Department of Religion

Melissa Spas
Vice President of Religion

The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton
Senior Pastor

Joshua Stafford
Director of Sacred Music & The Jared Jacobsen Chair Organist

Owen Reyda
Organ Scholar

Laura Smith
Organ Scholar

Carolyn Snider
Administrative Assistant

Annie Leech
Coordinator of Religious Education

Alicen Roberts
Student Minister