Appearance Matters And Other Weighty Theological Issues
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Author's Note: As the parent of a former anorexic adolescent, I know one must approach these kinds of issues with great sensitivity and caution. The length of the materials I've provided reflects my personal passion on this subject, especially as it affects young girls and women.
Introductory Context: The death of one of our most presentable presidents
This past week we as a nation have mourned the death of our 40th president, Ronald Reagan. He was a man handsome enough to be a movie star, diplomatic enough to have chaired the Actors Union, genial and ambitious enough to have run for and been elected president of the United States from 1980-1988. While there will continue to be debate over the good and ill that occurred during Reagan's Presidency -- an arms race that economically crippled the Soviet Union and led to the fall of Eastern Bloc communism and an Iran-Contra scandal in which laws were broken and the buck passed off with the skill of a Knute Rockne, the majority of Americans probably remember Reagan better as the "Great Communicator" than they will his more mixed administrative legacy.
Ever since the Nixon-Kennedy Debates in 1960 and the dawn of television coverage of political campaigns, politicians have had to pay more and more attention to their physical appearance as a crucial factor in their public persona. Consequently, candidates now have consultants who pick out the ties they wear, select their tailors, recommend suitable hair stylists, and encourage a trim waistline and a fit physique. President Reagan's dark locks caused much speculation during his years in office. While his wife Nancy's studied elegance caused playwright Wendy Wasserstein to observe that in contrast to what most Americans believe, "It is possible to be too rich and too thin," Ronald Reagan combined three qualities we seek in our presidents. He was good-looking, a skillful speaker, and incredibly likeable. He knew what his values were. He knew what he believed really mattered about America and being an American, and he stuck to that script for eight years.
In fact, Reagan was just the kind of dinner guest Simon the Pharisee would have loved to invite to dinner, because Reagan was consistently charming, gracious, funny, and non-argumentative. It could only have added to Simon's social cache to be seen with such a man.
Appearance Matters in the United States: Our preoccupation with physical appearance
The majority of us have roofs over our heads, plenty of food to eat, and accessible medical care through private insurance or Medicaid and Medicare. We are fortunate -- or is it cursed? -- to live in a culture where one's physical appearance seems to matter more than almost anything else, including personal character and compassion. You are free to disagree with this statement, but keep in mind the visual images that assault you every day of the week. The glossy magazines displayed at grocery store checkouts consistently offer quick weight-loss and beautification schemes alongside culinary delights guaranteed to put back on whatever pounds one might have temporarily lost. Television commercials advertise diet pills, hair-coloring products, and exercise gizmos that promise flatter abs and slimmer thighs. This endless promotion of physical beauty is no respecter of age or gender. Pre-teens can buy "pretend" makeup and couch potatoes watching the NFL or NBA players doing all the work get the subliminal message that the beautiful babe in the commercial might have an eye for them if they lift a few weights and purchase the red sports car she's ogling.
Point: "Well," you might ask, "What's wrong with wanting to look good?"
There's nothing wrong with wanting to be healthy and attractive. With realism as a guide, that's a goal most of us can achieve. But looking good at one's particular age of 35, 50, or 75 isn't the message we receive. Instead, we learn from magazines, MTV, movie star's personal trainers, and plastic surgeons, and our own bathroom mirror that it's not okay "to pinch more than an inch." It's not okay to have acne, crows feet, or wrinkles. It's not okay to have a bad hair day or something as commonplace as crooked teeth or as devastating as a physical deformity that sets one apart as different or "ugly." It's not okay for our adolescent girls to look like adolescent girls; they think they have to look like Britney Spears or the Olson twins. It's not okay for adult men and women to live with the face and body God gave them; they expose themselves not only to the surgeon's knife but also to the American public in television makeover shows such as Extreme Makeover, The Swan, and I Want a Famous Face. The message we deliver to our children and ourselves is "If you aren't good-looking, there's something seriously wrong with you and you aren't worth looking at, loving, or being around."
Counterpoint: Here's what's wrong with wanting to look good.
An unrealistic preoccupation with one's physical appearance comes at great cost. Here are five areas in which we can count that cost:
The physical costs are very serious. The number of adults seeking gastric by-pass surgery as a way to overcome serious weight problems has quadrupled in recent years. Moreover, the number of teenagers seeking this same procedure is on the rise due because many of them are now seriously overweight. Such surgery comes with significant mortality risk and does not guarantee the weight lost won't be regained over time. (Newsweek July 7, 2004, 78)
The emotional costs are very serious. The beauty ideal is so limited in scope, so unimaginative that more than 99 percent of American women will never look like the blond, blue-eyed, skinny "ideal" woman. They will not fit the image of a Heather Locklear or a Sarah Jessica Parker. Male ideals are equally intimidating. There's Brad Pitt buffed to perfection for his role in Troy and the British Pierce Brosnan toning his bod to play James Bond.
Such unrealistic standards not only exclude entire races of Americans, they are devastating for the self-esteem of young and old alike. How many times have you overheard a dinner conversation where the diners said how much they hate their bodies and then went into excruciating details about all their flaws? How many times have you heard your teenage son or daughter say, "I hate my body." And you know that translates into "I hate myself."
The spiritual costs are very serious. A preoccupation with one's physical appearance requires time and money to feed the need to be beautiful. There's fretting time, beautification time, exercise time, and clothes-shopping time, which also requires money-earning time. Such a heavy expenditure of time and money distorts our values by an unbalanced focus upon one's self. Time spent primarily on one's self is also time one spends away from God and spiritual matters. Such a preoccupation with looks makes us selfish and self-centered. It stunts our spiritual growth as giving, loving, compassionate, faithful human beings.
The ethical costs are very serious. Recently there was an appalling report on the current fad among teenagers for having pick-up sex with other teenagers they do not know personally, do not love at all, and with whom they have no emotional connection. The aim is sex, and it's almost a game of use and be used. The stimulus is not friendship or love but physical attractiveness. "Am I sexy enough for guys/gals to want to have sex with me?" Lest it sound like the young are the only one's acting unethically, their seniors demonstrate equally shallow values. With the over-21 set, and with some the way over 21 set, the premise is, "It's not the kind of person you are; it's who you can bed that shows you're an important man or a Cosmo woman." The ethical costs of this mindset are huge. When looks and sexiness become more important than being a loving marriage partner and engaged parent and a person whose word can be relied upon, adultery, divorces, single-parent families often result.
The religious costs are very serious. I distinguish this concern from spirituality by basing it in the concrete reality of the world as God has created it. As far as scripture can tell, our physical appearance isn't a priority with God. If it were, surely we'd have a physical description of Mary, Jesus, Peter, and Paul! But the subject never comes up in the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, or in the Epistles. Over and over again in scripture, we read that God loves diversity and has created a world in which difference is itself part of the beauty of all that God has made. One of the best features of Peter Jackson's film portrayal of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is the repeated exploration of the hostilities transformed into friendships that occur when hobbits, elves, dwarfs, and men learn to respect and care for one another. Not only are they a stronger, and ultimately, successful force for good; their lives are enriched by the association and integration with each other. When we devalue our own worth or that of another human being because of a preoccupation with a physical ideal, we also devalue the work of our Creator.
Appearance Matters in Luke 7:36--8:3
Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus to dinner. For Simon, appearances matter. To give Simon the benefit of the doubt, we'll assume that he invites Jesus to dinner with a genuine desire to find out who Jesus is. Simon has been impressed by what he has heard about Jesus and by some of the things Jesus has said. Simon wants to figure out if Jesus is truly a man of God or if Jesus is just one more small-town religious quack. But before they can even move from the hors d'oeuvres on to the main course, the dinner party is ruined for Simon by the unseemly interruption of a disreputable woman who enters uninvited and begins to make a terrible fuss over Jesus. Simon doesn't wonder why this woman seeks Jesus. He doesn't wonder what it is Jesus might have that this woman wants. Simon seems to know something of the woman's past, and he's irritated that she's ruining his dinner party. Appearances matter to Simon -- the appearance of his own reputation as a righteous and pious Pharisee. For his own ego needs, Simon wants to retain the appearance of being associated only with the right people -- other Pharisees and the occasional rabbi. Consequently, Simon feels embarrassed and angry at the woman's unbridled display of emotions.
Simon's preoccupation with appearances means he misses the point of the woman's conduct and of Jesus' reception of her. His preoccupation with appearances means Simon gets stuck in the law and misses out on the forgiveness and love. Simon's preoccupation with appearances means Simon misses the fact that God is seated at his table in the man Jesus. Simon misses the best portion of the meal, because Simon cannot get beyond the appearance of the thing to the truth that lies behind it.
Appearance Matters and Christianity
There's a wonderful cartoon in Robert Churchill's book The Cartoonist's Bible (St. Martin P, 1980). In the cartoon, one sees Jesus with his hand on one person, healing her while a number of other physically infirm people stand in line. The last person in the line looks healthy enough and he's holding a familiar household object in his hand. The person standing right before him in line has a quizzical expression on his face, which is dealt with by the following reply. "I'm just here to see if Jesus can fix my chair!"
It's a charming joke, yet it's not all that far from the level of expectation that we bring before our God. Rather than asking Jesus to fix our broken chair, we may pray, "Please Lord, help me lose those thirty pounds." "If you'll let me be a cheerleader, I promise I'll be a fabulous Christian."
We often ask of God and Christ so much less than what they have to offer. Nor are we alone. Jesus' disciples are thrilled when Jesus' instructions on the Sea of Galilee lead to a fabulous catch of fish. It never occurs to them to ask Christ to make them "fishers of men." Simon the Pharisee wants to have a theological discussion with Jesus and get to know Jesus better. It never occurs to Simon that Jesus might be God's witness to Simon and others. Furthermore, Simon isn't looking for someone to liberate him from his Pharisaism. Yet that freedom reclines before him in the person of Jesus, less than ten feet away.
The only one who gets what she needs and seeks is the woman who enters and washes Jesus' feet with her tears and anoints him with oil. She is the only one with the imagination, the need, and the faith to ask for all that Christ has to offer. "Your sins are forgiven ...Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."
Resources You Need to Know About
The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls by Joan Jacobs Brumberg (Vintage Press, 1998). Compares the diaries of 19th century American girls with those from the 20th century and discovers that girls' ambitions in the 19th century was to find some useful purpose, some concrete way to serve others and to be of use. The 20th diaries dwelt primarily upon physical deficiencies, needs, and wants.
Girls on the Run by Molly Baker describes the program she developed for teaching girls self-esteem while also teaching them the importance of physical fitness. (NPR. Interview on Charlotte Talks, Wednesday, June 2, 2004)
The God of Thinness: Gluttony and Other Weighty Matters by Mary Louise Bringle (Abingdon, 1992). Brinson draws on classical traditions of Christian theology, contemporary feminist analysis, and her own experience of struggle with food abuse to address the theological and spiritual dimensions of these social and personal problems.
Team Comments
George Murphy responds: The readings for this Sunday give us an opportunity to begin this second half of the church year, the Sundays after Pentecost, with attention to a fundamental teaching of the Christian church, what has been called "the article by which the church stands or falls." This is the message of God's free forgiveness and justification of sinners for Christ's sake. The gospel for this Sunday, Luke 7:36--8:3, presents that message in dramatic form as Jesus says to a woman "who was a sinner," "Your sins are forgiven." In the Second Lesson, Galatians 2:15-21, Paul continues his passionate defense of the claim that Christ alone is the true gospel. The lectionary's alternate choice for the First Lesson, 2 Samuel 11:26--12:10, 13-15 (Nathan's confrontation of the David with his sin and the king's repentance) and Psalm 32 (one of the traditional penitential psalms) fit in well with a theme of repentance and forgiveness.
The idea that people have to conform to certain standards of physical appearance is very popular in American culture -- the whole "extreme makeover" syndrome. It doesn't take too much insight to see how superficial that idea is. But even religious people who see through such things may still be prone to think that it's necessary to have certain "inner" qualities in order to be acceptable -- and, in particular, to be acceptable to God. God may love you if you're homely and out of shape but your soul -- or your inner disposition, your spirituality, or whatever you choose to call it -- needs to be in good shape if you're going to be all right with God. And no, I'm not just talking about the kind of generic religion that thinks that God loves people who try to obey the rules and rejects those who don't. Quite serious and relatively well informed Christians may balk at the idea that God accepts really lousy people. In an article I wrote several years ago, I referred to God's justification of ungodly people. The editor was puzzled; Do Lutherans really believe that, he asked me. I was actually kind of embarrassed on his behalf to have to point out that that's exactly what Romans 4:5 says. God redeems those who have no redeeming value.
The woman in the gospel comes to Jesus as a sinner. We're not told anything about how she looked externally but inside -- well, there was something wrong, something ugly. And she is forgiven.
But here those who flinch from the radical character of this gospel can try to find something beautiful, or at least something acceptable, in the woman that earns forgiveness for her. Older translations of the first half of verse 47 suggest that she is forgiven because of the love she has shown. (E.g., KJV has "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much." Cf. also RSV.) But NRSV translates this in a way that is consistent with the rest of the verse and in fact the whole story: "Her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love." She is not forgiven because she loves but she loves because she has been forgiven. The reality of forgiveness (which Jesus states in verse 48) already took place "offstage." She enters the house as a forgiven sinner, and her dramatic act of gratitude toward Jesus shows that she knows this and recognizes Jesus as the source of her new status.
We aren't told how she came to believe that Jesus could make a difference in her life. Maybe she'd met him before or maybe she'd talked with him, but we just don't know. This isn't a story of conversion but of a person living as one who has been forgiven. And the sign of such a life, Jesus points out, is love.
Forgiveness affects our relationships with other people as well as our relationship with God. Simon's lack of love is shown in his lack of hospitality toward Jesus, but also in his attitude toward the sinner. For him that's all she is -- a sinner. This is an attitude just as misleading as concentrating only on a person's physical appearance. It's more than just rhetorical when Jesus asks, "Do you see this woman?" When we classify others as sinners while putting ourselves outside that category, we don't really see them as women or men. They are merely part of the mass of unworthy people. Jesus calls Simon -- and us -- to see them with ourselves as people in need of forgiveness and who are offered that forgiveness freely.
Roger Lovette responds: As I look at the lections I am intrigued with Paul's statement in Galatians 1:6 where he talks about a different gospel. He further deals with this when he talks in Galatians 2:15-21 on the fundamental difference between law and grace. It seems so much of faith today is built on "what we must do." The musts, the oughts, the shoulds are sprinkled liberally into too many sermons, including my own. Is there a link between Luke 7:36--8:3 in Jesus' encounter with the woman in the Pharisees' house and Galatians idea? The Pharisee could only see that she was a "sinner." This understanding of the woman kept her away from his table, and he distanced himself from her. A different gospel reaches out to the sinners ... does not draw back. And much of what we do in the church is censorious about "them." And we all have our "them's."
In our spotlight on physicality today we seem to forget that the gospel of Jesus Christ opens his arms to all -- especially to those who don't work out, those who are not running for Miss America, or some famous ball player. Isn't there a part of us that thinks if we are not one of the rich and famous (and beautiful) that we are not really first rate? And we Americans (note People magazine) love to read about our celebrities.
Another approach to the Lukan passage is that hospitality (table fellowship) is at the heart of the gospel. Simon judges the woman; Jesus is gracious to her.
Thinking ahead to Father's Day: Maybe one idea would be that we don't have to be father of the year to be a good father. I think a lot of us fathers feel like we have not done as "good a job as we should." Maybe we don't need to be No. 1 Father -- but just be the best father we can. Here we bump into the oughts, musts, shoulds once again.
Related Illustrations
There has been some research about how our attitudes toward and assumptions about people are often shaped by how they look. For example, these studies show that:
* mothers of attractive babies hold, cuddle, and kiss them more than mothers of unattractive babies do. In one case, the researchers found a 4-year-old boy whose nose, part of a cheek, and one ear had been bitten off in a dog attack. When that happened, the child's parents began to behave differently toward him. They didn't hug or touch him as much as before and seldom smiled at him.
* adults tend to rate the more serious transgressions of attractive children as temporary departures whereas they rate the same transgressions in unattractive children as basic character flaws.
* schoolteachers tend to give more attention and consideration to good-looking students and assume that they have higher intelligence.
* adults tend to assume that handsome people are sexually warmer, more interesting, more sociable, and more sincere.
* good-looking female employees often earn between eight and 20 percent more than average-looking females.
It also sometime works the other way too, in that very beautiful people are often assumed to be unfeeling or stuck on themselves. They sometimes have trouble being taken seriously.
-- "Misled by Beauty," Sermon by Stan Purdum, February 15, 2004, Centenary United Methodist Church, Waynesburg, Ohio.
* * *
C. S. Lewis' classic book, The Screwtape Letters, gives us an example of how we can be misled by appearance. In one letter, Screwtape advises how Wormwood might trip up his Christian subject by getting him to enter into a marriage with a woman who will not be good for him. Screwtape writes, "Our aim is to guide each sex away from those members of the [opposite sex] with whom spiritually helpful, happy, and fertile marriages are most likely." Screwtape goes on to advise Wormwood in the value of "directing the[ir] desires ... to something which does exist -- making the role of the eye ... more and more important and at the same time makings its demands more and more impossible." In other words, mislead humans into building an impossible vision of the other person based on the other's attractiveness. That way, the relationship is sure to have problems later when the other cannot live up to that vision.
* * *
When Samson had his hair cut by Delilah, he lost his strength. But when the Rev. Kenneth Phillips of the Austin-based Promised Land Church removed his toupee two summers ago during a sermon on the sin of pride, it helped build his congregation. According to the Dallas Morning News, Pastor Phillips hates being bald but felt that wearing a toupee was a vanity that had become a barrier to God. Notwithstanding the enthusiastic response of his congregation -- many of whom were moved to sacrifice their own pet vanities -- he says that he continues to struggle with his new look. "I still avoid mirrors," he told the paper.
-- The Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2002, W13.
* * *
When Ruth Handler, creator of the Barbie doll, died in April 2002, a guest on NPR's "Rewind" program quipped that Ms. Handler was buried in "an unrealistically shaped casket."
* * *
An American traveling in India met an elderly white-haired woman of unusual dignity and charm. She was a Christian who had acquired the shining quality of spiritual maturity. The visitor said to her, "Believe me, you are truly beautiful!"
"Well I ought to be," the woman replied. "I've had 74 years to let the Lord work on me!"
Worship Resources
Opening
N.B. All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.
Music:
Hymns:
"God Of Many Names"
WORDS: Brian Wren, 1985
MUSIC: William P. Rowan, 1985
(c) 1986 Hope Publishing Co.
as found in:
UMH: 105
CH: 13
"Many Gifts, One Spirit"
WORDS: Al Carmines, 1973
MUSIC: Al Carmines, 1973
(c) 1974 Al Carmines
as found in:
UMH: 114
TNCH: 177
"God Of The Sparrow God Of The Whale"
WORDS: Jaroslave J. Vajda, 1983
MUSIC: Carl F. Schalk, 1983
Words (c) 1983 Jaroslav J. Vajda; music (c) 1983 G.I.A. Publications, Inc.
as found in:
UMH: 122
Hymnal '82
TPH: 272
TNCH: 32
CH: 70
"I'll Praise My Maker While I've Breath"
WORDS: Isaac Watts, 1719; alt. By John Wesley, 1737; alt. 1989
MUSIC: Atr. To Matthaus Greiter, 1525; harm. By V. Earle Copes, 1963
Harm. (c) 1964 The United Methodist Publishing House
as found in:
UMH: 60
Hymnal '82: 429
TPH: 253
CH: 20
"Praise The Lord Who Reigns Above"
WORDS: Charles Wesley, 1743
MUSIC: Foundery Collection, 1742
(c) public domain
as found in:
UMH: 96
Songs:
"Glorify Thy Name"
WORDS & MUSIC: Donna Adkins
(c) 1976 Maranatha! Music
as found in:
CCB: # 8
"As We Gather"
WORDS & MUSIC: Mike Fay and Tom Coomes
(c) 1981 Coomesietunes Maranatha! Music
as found in:
CCB: # 12
"O How He Loves You And Me!
WORDS & MUSIC: Kurt Kaiser
(c) 1975 Word Music
as found in:
CCB: # 38
Call To Worship
Leader: Hear us, O God.
People: Listen to our cries.
Leader: You know us as no other.
People: We are your children.
Leader: Lead us in your righteousness.
People: Make your way straight before us.
Collect/Opening Prayer
O God, who looks within us, knows us and loves us anyway: Grant us the grace and courage to look beyond the surface of people and events to find you at work; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
OR
We offer ourselves to you, O God, aware that you know us better than we know ourselves. You look at the inner person and see your daughter or son. Give us the grace to do the same. Amen.
Response Music
Hymns:
"Help Us Accept Each Other"
WORDS: Fred Kaan, 1974
MUSIC: John Ness Beck, 1977
Words (c) 1973 Hope Publishing Co.; music (c) 1977 Hope Publishing Co.
as found in:
UMH: 560
TPH: 358
TNCH: 388
CH: 487
"Jesus, United By Thy Grace"
WORDS: Charles Wesley, 1742
MUSIC: John B. Dykes, 1866
(c) public domain
as found in:
UMH: 561
"Forgive Our Sins As We Forgive"
WORDS: Rosamond E. Herklots, 1966
MUSIC: Supplement to Kentucky Harmoney, 1820
Words (c) 1969, 1983 Rosamond Herklots
as found in:
UMH: 390
Hymnal '82: 674
LBOW: 307
TPH: 347
"Spirit Of The Living God"
WORDS: Daniel Iverson, 1926
MUSIC: Daniel Iverson, 1926
(c) 1935, 1963 Moody Bible Institute
as found in:
UMH: 393
TPH: 322
AAHH: 320
TNNBH: 133
TNCH: 283
CH: 259
"Lord, I Want To Be A Christian"
WORDS: Afro-American spiritual
MUSIC: Afro-American spiritual; adapt. And arr. By William Farley Smith, 1986
Adapt. And arr. (c) 1989 The United Methodist Publishing House
as found in:
UMH: 402
TPH: 372
AAHH: 463
TNNBH: 156
TNCH: 454
CH: 589
"O For A Heart To Praise My God"
WORDS: Charles Wesley, 1742
MUSIC: Thomas Haweis, 1792
(c) public domain
as found in:
UMH: 417
Songs:
"Create In Me A Clean Heart"
WORDS: Anon.
MUSIC: Anon.' arr. By J. Michael Bryan
Arr. (c) 1996 Abingdon Press
as found in:
CCB: # 54
"Change My Heart, O God"
WORDS & MUSIC: Eddie Espinosa
(c) 1982 Mercy Publishing
as found in:
CCB: # 56
"Refiner's Fire"
WORDS & MUSIC: Brian Koerksen
(c) 1990 Mercy Publishing
as found in:
CCB: # 79
Prayers Of Confession/Pardon
Leader: God, who created us, knows us better than we know ourselves. Let us, therefore, open our hearts to God and confess who we are:
People: You have created us in your image, God of loving kindness and compassion. We, your children, have not grown up into your likeness. Your Spirit within us is ignored, your face in the face of strangers is unrecognized, our bond of family as your daughters and sons is rejected. We look at the outward appearances and judge others. We judge ourselves by outward appearances as well and so we judge amiss. We look at success and judge others or ourselves better than others or else we look at failure and judge others or ourselves as worse than others. We do not look at the heart and we do not seek to have our hearts changed into the likeness of yours. Forgive us and renew us with the power of your Spirit that dwells within us and among us. Amen.
Leader: Hear the good news. God knows us and loves us. As a caring parent God forgives us and directs us that we might live in the fullness of life and of joy.
General Prayers, Litanies, etc
We praise you, O God, for you have created us as an image of your own Self. We are given your Spirit and able to live as reflections of you. You are so far beyond ourselves and our understanding and yet you dwell among us.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess that we have not lived out your presence among us. We have failed to allow you to make our lives, within and without, a sign of your abiding presence with all creation. As you graciously forgive us and renew your Spirit within us, send us out to be your people this week.
We give you thanks for all your blessings among us. You have created us so that we might enjoy the wonder and beauty of your creation. You have given us imaginations that we might marvel not just at what is but at what could be. You have made us able to experience love and to share it with you and with others. We thank you for all the ways that your love permeates and overflows your creation.
(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)
We lift up to you, O God of compassion, the sick and the lonely; the tired and the destitute; the hungry and the homeless; those suffering from war and oppression; those who have lost their way in life. As your Spirit hovers over them in love, may our spirits join yours in caring for them. Bless us as your people to live out your reign in all of our lives.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of Jesus who taught us to pray saying, "Our Father...."
Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
A Children's Sermon
By Wesley Runk
Luke 7:36--8:3
Text: Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little. (v. 47)
Object: two similar mirrors, one slightly dirty and the other a real mess; also some glass cleaner and a cloth
Good morning, boys and girls. I brought along two of my friends this morning and I hope you will help me answer a very important question. First, I want to introduce you to my friends. This is my friend Marti Mirror. Marti is a wonderful friend -- very dependable, always clear, and gives me a beautiful picture of myself. I keep Marti on my dresser so that when I need Marti she is always there to check me over and make sure that my hair is combed just right, that I am very cleanly shaved, that my teeth are pearly white, and my cheeks and forehead are just perfect. You just can't beat Marti.
On the other hand I have another mirror by the name of Megan. Megan is a mess. I can't ever use Megan because her face is always smeared, sometimes with jelly and other times with fingerprints and dust. I think about throwing Megan away but on the one side she looks so much like Marti that I can't get rid of her. I wish Megan was a little more careful of where she went and what she did but it doesn't seem to make any difference how much I tell her about how ugly she looks. She just gets dirtier and dirtier.
I thought I would give Megan one last chance and clean her up. She wants to be a good mirror but it doesn't seem to work out. Anyway, I will give her a good cleaning. As a matter of fact, I will clean Marti also even though she hardly needs it. Well, what do you know! There is a little fingerprint on Marti. I will just give it a quick spray and wipe it off. Look at Marti. She's perfect again.
It will take a lot more than that to clean up Megan. (spray the whole mirror and make a real effort to get Megan cleaned up) There we go. It takes a lot of cleaner and some real elbow grease to clean up Megan but doesn't she look wonderful when she is all polished and clean? (let them answer) I am very pleased with Megan, and I would never throw her away.
That brings up another question. I wonder which one of the mirrors is the happiest? Do you think it is Marti who had a tiny little smudge or Megan who has been made brand new with a lot of effort? (let them answer) I think you are right, I think it is Megan who is the most grateful.
Jesus talked to some people one day about the same kind of thing. There was a woman who came to a house where Jesus was having lunch. She kneeled and washed Jesus' feet with her tears of sorrow and then she wiped his feet with her hair. She was so ashamed of herself for the kind of life she had lived and she wanted to show Jesus how sorry she was. She also took some ointment and rubbed his feet in a very kind way. The other people who were having lunch despised her and were very angry that she came in the house. They also were upset that Jesus let her wash his feet. They thought they were almost perfect and did not need to show any sorrow about their sin. Jesus asked who was closer to God. Was it the woman with great sin who asked for forgiveness or the people who thought they lived an almost perfect life? (let them answer) I think you know who Jesus thought was the closest to God.
* * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 13, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503
Introductory Context: The death of one of our most presentable presidents
This past week we as a nation have mourned the death of our 40th president, Ronald Reagan. He was a man handsome enough to be a movie star, diplomatic enough to have chaired the Actors Union, genial and ambitious enough to have run for and been elected president of the United States from 1980-1988. While there will continue to be debate over the good and ill that occurred during Reagan's Presidency -- an arms race that economically crippled the Soviet Union and led to the fall of Eastern Bloc communism and an Iran-Contra scandal in which laws were broken and the buck passed off with the skill of a Knute Rockne, the majority of Americans probably remember Reagan better as the "Great Communicator" than they will his more mixed administrative legacy.
Ever since the Nixon-Kennedy Debates in 1960 and the dawn of television coverage of political campaigns, politicians have had to pay more and more attention to their physical appearance as a crucial factor in their public persona. Consequently, candidates now have consultants who pick out the ties they wear, select their tailors, recommend suitable hair stylists, and encourage a trim waistline and a fit physique. President Reagan's dark locks caused much speculation during his years in office. While his wife Nancy's studied elegance caused playwright Wendy Wasserstein to observe that in contrast to what most Americans believe, "It is possible to be too rich and too thin," Ronald Reagan combined three qualities we seek in our presidents. He was good-looking, a skillful speaker, and incredibly likeable. He knew what his values were. He knew what he believed really mattered about America and being an American, and he stuck to that script for eight years.
In fact, Reagan was just the kind of dinner guest Simon the Pharisee would have loved to invite to dinner, because Reagan was consistently charming, gracious, funny, and non-argumentative. It could only have added to Simon's social cache to be seen with such a man.
Appearance Matters in the United States: Our preoccupation with physical appearance
The majority of us have roofs over our heads, plenty of food to eat, and accessible medical care through private insurance or Medicaid and Medicare. We are fortunate -- or is it cursed? -- to live in a culture where one's physical appearance seems to matter more than almost anything else, including personal character and compassion. You are free to disagree with this statement, but keep in mind the visual images that assault you every day of the week. The glossy magazines displayed at grocery store checkouts consistently offer quick weight-loss and beautification schemes alongside culinary delights guaranteed to put back on whatever pounds one might have temporarily lost. Television commercials advertise diet pills, hair-coloring products, and exercise gizmos that promise flatter abs and slimmer thighs. This endless promotion of physical beauty is no respecter of age or gender. Pre-teens can buy "pretend" makeup and couch potatoes watching the NFL or NBA players doing all the work get the subliminal message that the beautiful babe in the commercial might have an eye for them if they lift a few weights and purchase the red sports car she's ogling.
Point: "Well," you might ask, "What's wrong with wanting to look good?"
There's nothing wrong with wanting to be healthy and attractive. With realism as a guide, that's a goal most of us can achieve. But looking good at one's particular age of 35, 50, or 75 isn't the message we receive. Instead, we learn from magazines, MTV, movie star's personal trainers, and plastic surgeons, and our own bathroom mirror that it's not okay "to pinch more than an inch." It's not okay to have acne, crows feet, or wrinkles. It's not okay to have a bad hair day or something as commonplace as crooked teeth or as devastating as a physical deformity that sets one apart as different or "ugly." It's not okay for our adolescent girls to look like adolescent girls; they think they have to look like Britney Spears or the Olson twins. It's not okay for adult men and women to live with the face and body God gave them; they expose themselves not only to the surgeon's knife but also to the American public in television makeover shows such as Extreme Makeover, The Swan, and I Want a Famous Face. The message we deliver to our children and ourselves is "If you aren't good-looking, there's something seriously wrong with you and you aren't worth looking at, loving, or being around."
Counterpoint: Here's what's wrong with wanting to look good.
An unrealistic preoccupation with one's physical appearance comes at great cost. Here are five areas in which we can count that cost:
The physical costs are very serious. The number of adults seeking gastric by-pass surgery as a way to overcome serious weight problems has quadrupled in recent years. Moreover, the number of teenagers seeking this same procedure is on the rise due because many of them are now seriously overweight. Such surgery comes with significant mortality risk and does not guarantee the weight lost won't be regained over time. (Newsweek July 7, 2004, 78)
The emotional costs are very serious. The beauty ideal is so limited in scope, so unimaginative that more than 99 percent of American women will never look like the blond, blue-eyed, skinny "ideal" woman. They will not fit the image of a Heather Locklear or a Sarah Jessica Parker. Male ideals are equally intimidating. There's Brad Pitt buffed to perfection for his role in Troy and the British Pierce Brosnan toning his bod to play James Bond.
Such unrealistic standards not only exclude entire races of Americans, they are devastating for the self-esteem of young and old alike. How many times have you overheard a dinner conversation where the diners said how much they hate their bodies and then went into excruciating details about all their flaws? How many times have you heard your teenage son or daughter say, "I hate my body." And you know that translates into "I hate myself."
The spiritual costs are very serious. A preoccupation with one's physical appearance requires time and money to feed the need to be beautiful. There's fretting time, beautification time, exercise time, and clothes-shopping time, which also requires money-earning time. Such a heavy expenditure of time and money distorts our values by an unbalanced focus upon one's self. Time spent primarily on one's self is also time one spends away from God and spiritual matters. Such a preoccupation with looks makes us selfish and self-centered. It stunts our spiritual growth as giving, loving, compassionate, faithful human beings.
The ethical costs are very serious. Recently there was an appalling report on the current fad among teenagers for having pick-up sex with other teenagers they do not know personally, do not love at all, and with whom they have no emotional connection. The aim is sex, and it's almost a game of use and be used. The stimulus is not friendship or love but physical attractiveness. "Am I sexy enough for guys/gals to want to have sex with me?" Lest it sound like the young are the only one's acting unethically, their seniors demonstrate equally shallow values. With the over-21 set, and with some the way over 21 set, the premise is, "It's not the kind of person you are; it's who you can bed that shows you're an important man or a Cosmo woman." The ethical costs of this mindset are huge. When looks and sexiness become more important than being a loving marriage partner and engaged parent and a person whose word can be relied upon, adultery, divorces, single-parent families often result.
The religious costs are very serious. I distinguish this concern from spirituality by basing it in the concrete reality of the world as God has created it. As far as scripture can tell, our physical appearance isn't a priority with God. If it were, surely we'd have a physical description of Mary, Jesus, Peter, and Paul! But the subject never comes up in the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, or in the Epistles. Over and over again in scripture, we read that God loves diversity and has created a world in which difference is itself part of the beauty of all that God has made. One of the best features of Peter Jackson's film portrayal of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is the repeated exploration of the hostilities transformed into friendships that occur when hobbits, elves, dwarfs, and men learn to respect and care for one another. Not only are they a stronger, and ultimately, successful force for good; their lives are enriched by the association and integration with each other. When we devalue our own worth or that of another human being because of a preoccupation with a physical ideal, we also devalue the work of our Creator.
Appearance Matters in Luke 7:36--8:3
Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus to dinner. For Simon, appearances matter. To give Simon the benefit of the doubt, we'll assume that he invites Jesus to dinner with a genuine desire to find out who Jesus is. Simon has been impressed by what he has heard about Jesus and by some of the things Jesus has said. Simon wants to figure out if Jesus is truly a man of God or if Jesus is just one more small-town religious quack. But before they can even move from the hors d'oeuvres on to the main course, the dinner party is ruined for Simon by the unseemly interruption of a disreputable woman who enters uninvited and begins to make a terrible fuss over Jesus. Simon doesn't wonder why this woman seeks Jesus. He doesn't wonder what it is Jesus might have that this woman wants. Simon seems to know something of the woman's past, and he's irritated that she's ruining his dinner party. Appearances matter to Simon -- the appearance of his own reputation as a righteous and pious Pharisee. For his own ego needs, Simon wants to retain the appearance of being associated only with the right people -- other Pharisees and the occasional rabbi. Consequently, Simon feels embarrassed and angry at the woman's unbridled display of emotions.
Simon's preoccupation with appearances means he misses the point of the woman's conduct and of Jesus' reception of her. His preoccupation with appearances means Simon gets stuck in the law and misses out on the forgiveness and love. Simon's preoccupation with appearances means Simon misses the fact that God is seated at his table in the man Jesus. Simon misses the best portion of the meal, because Simon cannot get beyond the appearance of the thing to the truth that lies behind it.
Appearance Matters and Christianity
There's a wonderful cartoon in Robert Churchill's book The Cartoonist's Bible (St. Martin P, 1980). In the cartoon, one sees Jesus with his hand on one person, healing her while a number of other physically infirm people stand in line. The last person in the line looks healthy enough and he's holding a familiar household object in his hand. The person standing right before him in line has a quizzical expression on his face, which is dealt with by the following reply. "I'm just here to see if Jesus can fix my chair!"
It's a charming joke, yet it's not all that far from the level of expectation that we bring before our God. Rather than asking Jesus to fix our broken chair, we may pray, "Please Lord, help me lose those thirty pounds." "If you'll let me be a cheerleader, I promise I'll be a fabulous Christian."
We often ask of God and Christ so much less than what they have to offer. Nor are we alone. Jesus' disciples are thrilled when Jesus' instructions on the Sea of Galilee lead to a fabulous catch of fish. It never occurs to them to ask Christ to make them "fishers of men." Simon the Pharisee wants to have a theological discussion with Jesus and get to know Jesus better. It never occurs to Simon that Jesus might be God's witness to Simon and others. Furthermore, Simon isn't looking for someone to liberate him from his Pharisaism. Yet that freedom reclines before him in the person of Jesus, less than ten feet away.
The only one who gets what she needs and seeks is the woman who enters and washes Jesus' feet with her tears and anoints him with oil. She is the only one with the imagination, the need, and the faith to ask for all that Christ has to offer. "Your sins are forgiven ...Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."
Resources You Need to Know About
The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls by Joan Jacobs Brumberg (Vintage Press, 1998). Compares the diaries of 19th century American girls with those from the 20th century and discovers that girls' ambitions in the 19th century was to find some useful purpose, some concrete way to serve others and to be of use. The 20th diaries dwelt primarily upon physical deficiencies, needs, and wants.
Girls on the Run by Molly Baker describes the program she developed for teaching girls self-esteem while also teaching them the importance of physical fitness. (NPR. Interview on Charlotte Talks, Wednesday, June 2, 2004)
The God of Thinness: Gluttony and Other Weighty Matters by Mary Louise Bringle (Abingdon, 1992). Brinson draws on classical traditions of Christian theology, contemporary feminist analysis, and her own experience of struggle with food abuse to address the theological and spiritual dimensions of these social and personal problems.
Team Comments
George Murphy responds: The readings for this Sunday give us an opportunity to begin this second half of the church year, the Sundays after Pentecost, with attention to a fundamental teaching of the Christian church, what has been called "the article by which the church stands or falls." This is the message of God's free forgiveness and justification of sinners for Christ's sake. The gospel for this Sunday, Luke 7:36--8:3, presents that message in dramatic form as Jesus says to a woman "who was a sinner," "Your sins are forgiven." In the Second Lesson, Galatians 2:15-21, Paul continues his passionate defense of the claim that Christ alone is the true gospel. The lectionary's alternate choice for the First Lesson, 2 Samuel 11:26--12:10, 13-15 (Nathan's confrontation of the David with his sin and the king's repentance) and Psalm 32 (one of the traditional penitential psalms) fit in well with a theme of repentance and forgiveness.
The idea that people have to conform to certain standards of physical appearance is very popular in American culture -- the whole "extreme makeover" syndrome. It doesn't take too much insight to see how superficial that idea is. But even religious people who see through such things may still be prone to think that it's necessary to have certain "inner" qualities in order to be acceptable -- and, in particular, to be acceptable to God. God may love you if you're homely and out of shape but your soul -- or your inner disposition, your spirituality, or whatever you choose to call it -- needs to be in good shape if you're going to be all right with God. And no, I'm not just talking about the kind of generic religion that thinks that God loves people who try to obey the rules and rejects those who don't. Quite serious and relatively well informed Christians may balk at the idea that God accepts really lousy people. In an article I wrote several years ago, I referred to God's justification of ungodly people. The editor was puzzled; Do Lutherans really believe that, he asked me. I was actually kind of embarrassed on his behalf to have to point out that that's exactly what Romans 4:5 says. God redeems those who have no redeeming value.
The woman in the gospel comes to Jesus as a sinner. We're not told anything about how she looked externally but inside -- well, there was something wrong, something ugly. And she is forgiven.
But here those who flinch from the radical character of this gospel can try to find something beautiful, or at least something acceptable, in the woman that earns forgiveness for her. Older translations of the first half of verse 47 suggest that she is forgiven because of the love she has shown. (E.g., KJV has "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much." Cf. also RSV.) But NRSV translates this in a way that is consistent with the rest of the verse and in fact the whole story: "Her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love." She is not forgiven because she loves but she loves because she has been forgiven. The reality of forgiveness (which Jesus states in verse 48) already took place "offstage." She enters the house as a forgiven sinner, and her dramatic act of gratitude toward Jesus shows that she knows this and recognizes Jesus as the source of her new status.
We aren't told how she came to believe that Jesus could make a difference in her life. Maybe she'd met him before or maybe she'd talked with him, but we just don't know. This isn't a story of conversion but of a person living as one who has been forgiven. And the sign of such a life, Jesus points out, is love.
Forgiveness affects our relationships with other people as well as our relationship with God. Simon's lack of love is shown in his lack of hospitality toward Jesus, but also in his attitude toward the sinner. For him that's all she is -- a sinner. This is an attitude just as misleading as concentrating only on a person's physical appearance. It's more than just rhetorical when Jesus asks, "Do you see this woman?" When we classify others as sinners while putting ourselves outside that category, we don't really see them as women or men. They are merely part of the mass of unworthy people. Jesus calls Simon -- and us -- to see them with ourselves as people in need of forgiveness and who are offered that forgiveness freely.
Roger Lovette responds: As I look at the lections I am intrigued with Paul's statement in Galatians 1:6 where he talks about a different gospel. He further deals with this when he talks in Galatians 2:15-21 on the fundamental difference between law and grace. It seems so much of faith today is built on "what we must do." The musts, the oughts, the shoulds are sprinkled liberally into too many sermons, including my own. Is there a link between Luke 7:36--8:3 in Jesus' encounter with the woman in the Pharisees' house and Galatians idea? The Pharisee could only see that she was a "sinner." This understanding of the woman kept her away from his table, and he distanced himself from her. A different gospel reaches out to the sinners ... does not draw back. And much of what we do in the church is censorious about "them." And we all have our "them's."
In our spotlight on physicality today we seem to forget that the gospel of Jesus Christ opens his arms to all -- especially to those who don't work out, those who are not running for Miss America, or some famous ball player. Isn't there a part of us that thinks if we are not one of the rich and famous (and beautiful) that we are not really first rate? And we Americans (note People magazine) love to read about our celebrities.
Another approach to the Lukan passage is that hospitality (table fellowship) is at the heart of the gospel. Simon judges the woman; Jesus is gracious to her.
Thinking ahead to Father's Day: Maybe one idea would be that we don't have to be father of the year to be a good father. I think a lot of us fathers feel like we have not done as "good a job as we should." Maybe we don't need to be No. 1 Father -- but just be the best father we can. Here we bump into the oughts, musts, shoulds once again.
Related Illustrations
There has been some research about how our attitudes toward and assumptions about people are often shaped by how they look. For example, these studies show that:
* mothers of attractive babies hold, cuddle, and kiss them more than mothers of unattractive babies do. In one case, the researchers found a 4-year-old boy whose nose, part of a cheek, and one ear had been bitten off in a dog attack. When that happened, the child's parents began to behave differently toward him. They didn't hug or touch him as much as before and seldom smiled at him.
* adults tend to rate the more serious transgressions of attractive children as temporary departures whereas they rate the same transgressions in unattractive children as basic character flaws.
* schoolteachers tend to give more attention and consideration to good-looking students and assume that they have higher intelligence.
* adults tend to assume that handsome people are sexually warmer, more interesting, more sociable, and more sincere.
* good-looking female employees often earn between eight and 20 percent more than average-looking females.
It also sometime works the other way too, in that very beautiful people are often assumed to be unfeeling or stuck on themselves. They sometimes have trouble being taken seriously.
-- "Misled by Beauty," Sermon by Stan Purdum, February 15, 2004, Centenary United Methodist Church, Waynesburg, Ohio.
* * *
C. S. Lewis' classic book, The Screwtape Letters, gives us an example of how we can be misled by appearance. In one letter, Screwtape advises how Wormwood might trip up his Christian subject by getting him to enter into a marriage with a woman who will not be good for him. Screwtape writes, "Our aim is to guide each sex away from those members of the [opposite sex] with whom spiritually helpful, happy, and fertile marriages are most likely." Screwtape goes on to advise Wormwood in the value of "directing the[ir] desires ... to something which does exist -- making the role of the eye ... more and more important and at the same time makings its demands more and more impossible." In other words, mislead humans into building an impossible vision of the other person based on the other's attractiveness. That way, the relationship is sure to have problems later when the other cannot live up to that vision.
* * *
When Samson had his hair cut by Delilah, he lost his strength. But when the Rev. Kenneth Phillips of the Austin-based Promised Land Church removed his toupee two summers ago during a sermon on the sin of pride, it helped build his congregation. According to the Dallas Morning News, Pastor Phillips hates being bald but felt that wearing a toupee was a vanity that had become a barrier to God. Notwithstanding the enthusiastic response of his congregation -- many of whom were moved to sacrifice their own pet vanities -- he says that he continues to struggle with his new look. "I still avoid mirrors," he told the paper.
-- The Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2002, W13.
* * *
When Ruth Handler, creator of the Barbie doll, died in April 2002, a guest on NPR's "Rewind" program quipped that Ms. Handler was buried in "an unrealistically shaped casket."
* * *
An American traveling in India met an elderly white-haired woman of unusual dignity and charm. She was a Christian who had acquired the shining quality of spiritual maturity. The visitor said to her, "Believe me, you are truly beautiful!"
"Well I ought to be," the woman replied. "I've had 74 years to let the Lord work on me!"
Worship Resources
Opening
N.B. All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.
Music:
Hymns:
"God Of Many Names"
WORDS: Brian Wren, 1985
MUSIC: William P. Rowan, 1985
(c) 1986 Hope Publishing Co.
as found in:
UMH: 105
CH: 13
"Many Gifts, One Spirit"
WORDS: Al Carmines, 1973
MUSIC: Al Carmines, 1973
(c) 1974 Al Carmines
as found in:
UMH: 114
TNCH: 177
"God Of The Sparrow God Of The Whale"
WORDS: Jaroslave J. Vajda, 1983
MUSIC: Carl F. Schalk, 1983
Words (c) 1983 Jaroslav J. Vajda; music (c) 1983 G.I.A. Publications, Inc.
as found in:
UMH: 122
Hymnal '82
TPH: 272
TNCH: 32
CH: 70
"I'll Praise My Maker While I've Breath"
WORDS: Isaac Watts, 1719; alt. By John Wesley, 1737; alt. 1989
MUSIC: Atr. To Matthaus Greiter, 1525; harm. By V. Earle Copes, 1963
Harm. (c) 1964 The United Methodist Publishing House
as found in:
UMH: 60
Hymnal '82: 429
TPH: 253
CH: 20
"Praise The Lord Who Reigns Above"
WORDS: Charles Wesley, 1743
MUSIC: Foundery Collection, 1742
(c) public domain
as found in:
UMH: 96
Songs:
"Glorify Thy Name"
WORDS & MUSIC: Donna Adkins
(c) 1976 Maranatha! Music
as found in:
CCB: # 8
"As We Gather"
WORDS & MUSIC: Mike Fay and Tom Coomes
(c) 1981 Coomesietunes Maranatha! Music
as found in:
CCB: # 12
"O How He Loves You And Me!
WORDS & MUSIC: Kurt Kaiser
(c) 1975 Word Music
as found in:
CCB: # 38
Call To Worship
Leader: Hear us, O God.
People: Listen to our cries.
Leader: You know us as no other.
People: We are your children.
Leader: Lead us in your righteousness.
People: Make your way straight before us.
Collect/Opening Prayer
O God, who looks within us, knows us and loves us anyway: Grant us the grace and courage to look beyond the surface of people and events to find you at work; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
OR
We offer ourselves to you, O God, aware that you know us better than we know ourselves. You look at the inner person and see your daughter or son. Give us the grace to do the same. Amen.
Response Music
Hymns:
"Help Us Accept Each Other"
WORDS: Fred Kaan, 1974
MUSIC: John Ness Beck, 1977
Words (c) 1973 Hope Publishing Co.; music (c) 1977 Hope Publishing Co.
as found in:
UMH: 560
TPH: 358
TNCH: 388
CH: 487
"Jesus, United By Thy Grace"
WORDS: Charles Wesley, 1742
MUSIC: John B. Dykes, 1866
(c) public domain
as found in:
UMH: 561
"Forgive Our Sins As We Forgive"
WORDS: Rosamond E. Herklots, 1966
MUSIC: Supplement to Kentucky Harmoney, 1820
Words (c) 1969, 1983 Rosamond Herklots
as found in:
UMH: 390
Hymnal '82: 674
LBOW: 307
TPH: 347
"Spirit Of The Living God"
WORDS: Daniel Iverson, 1926
MUSIC: Daniel Iverson, 1926
(c) 1935, 1963 Moody Bible Institute
as found in:
UMH: 393
TPH: 322
AAHH: 320
TNNBH: 133
TNCH: 283
CH: 259
"Lord, I Want To Be A Christian"
WORDS: Afro-American spiritual
MUSIC: Afro-American spiritual; adapt. And arr. By William Farley Smith, 1986
Adapt. And arr. (c) 1989 The United Methodist Publishing House
as found in:
UMH: 402
TPH: 372
AAHH: 463
TNNBH: 156
TNCH: 454
CH: 589
"O For A Heart To Praise My God"
WORDS: Charles Wesley, 1742
MUSIC: Thomas Haweis, 1792
(c) public domain
as found in:
UMH: 417
Songs:
"Create In Me A Clean Heart"
WORDS: Anon.
MUSIC: Anon.' arr. By J. Michael Bryan
Arr. (c) 1996 Abingdon Press
as found in:
CCB: # 54
"Change My Heart, O God"
WORDS & MUSIC: Eddie Espinosa
(c) 1982 Mercy Publishing
as found in:
CCB: # 56
"Refiner's Fire"
WORDS & MUSIC: Brian Koerksen
(c) 1990 Mercy Publishing
as found in:
CCB: # 79
Prayers Of Confession/Pardon
Leader: God, who created us, knows us better than we know ourselves. Let us, therefore, open our hearts to God and confess who we are:
People: You have created us in your image, God of loving kindness and compassion. We, your children, have not grown up into your likeness. Your Spirit within us is ignored, your face in the face of strangers is unrecognized, our bond of family as your daughters and sons is rejected. We look at the outward appearances and judge others. We judge ourselves by outward appearances as well and so we judge amiss. We look at success and judge others or ourselves better than others or else we look at failure and judge others or ourselves as worse than others. We do not look at the heart and we do not seek to have our hearts changed into the likeness of yours. Forgive us and renew us with the power of your Spirit that dwells within us and among us. Amen.
Leader: Hear the good news. God knows us and loves us. As a caring parent God forgives us and directs us that we might live in the fullness of life and of joy.
General Prayers, Litanies, etc
We praise you, O God, for you have created us as an image of your own Self. We are given your Spirit and able to live as reflections of you. You are so far beyond ourselves and our understanding and yet you dwell among us.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess that we have not lived out your presence among us. We have failed to allow you to make our lives, within and without, a sign of your abiding presence with all creation. As you graciously forgive us and renew your Spirit within us, send us out to be your people this week.
We give you thanks for all your blessings among us. You have created us so that we might enjoy the wonder and beauty of your creation. You have given us imaginations that we might marvel not just at what is but at what could be. You have made us able to experience love and to share it with you and with others. We thank you for all the ways that your love permeates and overflows your creation.
(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)
We lift up to you, O God of compassion, the sick and the lonely; the tired and the destitute; the hungry and the homeless; those suffering from war and oppression; those who have lost their way in life. As your Spirit hovers over them in love, may our spirits join yours in caring for them. Bless us as your people to live out your reign in all of our lives.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of Jesus who taught us to pray saying, "Our Father...."
Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
A Children's Sermon
By Wesley Runk
Luke 7:36--8:3
Text: Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little. (v. 47)
Object: two similar mirrors, one slightly dirty and the other a real mess; also some glass cleaner and a cloth
Good morning, boys and girls. I brought along two of my friends this morning and I hope you will help me answer a very important question. First, I want to introduce you to my friends. This is my friend Marti Mirror. Marti is a wonderful friend -- very dependable, always clear, and gives me a beautiful picture of myself. I keep Marti on my dresser so that when I need Marti she is always there to check me over and make sure that my hair is combed just right, that I am very cleanly shaved, that my teeth are pearly white, and my cheeks and forehead are just perfect. You just can't beat Marti.
On the other hand I have another mirror by the name of Megan. Megan is a mess. I can't ever use Megan because her face is always smeared, sometimes with jelly and other times with fingerprints and dust. I think about throwing Megan away but on the one side she looks so much like Marti that I can't get rid of her. I wish Megan was a little more careful of where she went and what she did but it doesn't seem to make any difference how much I tell her about how ugly she looks. She just gets dirtier and dirtier.
I thought I would give Megan one last chance and clean her up. She wants to be a good mirror but it doesn't seem to work out. Anyway, I will give her a good cleaning. As a matter of fact, I will clean Marti also even though she hardly needs it. Well, what do you know! There is a little fingerprint on Marti. I will just give it a quick spray and wipe it off. Look at Marti. She's perfect again.
It will take a lot more than that to clean up Megan. (spray the whole mirror and make a real effort to get Megan cleaned up) There we go. It takes a lot of cleaner and some real elbow grease to clean up Megan but doesn't she look wonderful when she is all polished and clean? (let them answer) I am very pleased with Megan, and I would never throw her away.
That brings up another question. I wonder which one of the mirrors is the happiest? Do you think it is Marti who had a tiny little smudge or Megan who has been made brand new with a lot of effort? (let them answer) I think you are right, I think it is Megan who is the most grateful.
Jesus talked to some people one day about the same kind of thing. There was a woman who came to a house where Jesus was having lunch. She kneeled and washed Jesus' feet with her tears of sorrow and then she wiped his feet with her hair. She was so ashamed of herself for the kind of life she had lived and she wanted to show Jesus how sorry she was. She also took some ointment and rubbed his feet in a very kind way. The other people who were having lunch despised her and were very angry that she came in the house. They also were upset that Jesus let her wash his feet. They thought they were almost perfect and did not need to show any sorrow about their sin. Jesus asked who was closer to God. Was it the woman with great sin who asked for forgiveness or the people who thought they lived an almost perfect life? (let them answer) I think you know who Jesus thought was the closest to God.
* * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 13, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503
