Dishonest to Some, Clever to Others
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For September 22, 2019:
Dishonest to Some, Clever to Others
by Mary Austin
Luke 16:1-13
At my former church in Detroit, the deacons used to complain that people made the rounds of all the churches in December, collecting as many Christmas baskets as possible. “Oh my goodness,” I thought the first year. “How dishonest.”
By the second year, I knew more about the layers of poverty surrounding the church, so it made perfect sense. Why wouldn’t people maximize their gain while they could? We do the same thing when we use credit card points for a flight or vacation, get out our double coupons at the grocery store, or borrow a friend’s employee discount at a store. No one ever said there could be only one food basket per family, and the food is meant to go to people who need it. Since churches don’t give out baskets all year, it makes sense to get as many as possible while they’re available.
People who are poor have taught me a lot about how the world really works. What looks dishonest from a vantage point of privilege looks like survival for someone in need.
The parable of this dishonest manager, as it’s sometimes called, looks different depending on whose viewpoint we share. If we, as middle class people, see it from the owner’s point of view, the manager does look dishonest. But from his viewpoint, or the people who have their debts reduced, it all looks different.
In the Scripture
We’re always baffled about the praise for the dishonest manager. The commentary after the story almost makes it worse. We leave the story wondering if Jesus is telling us to be dishonest? To go behind our employer’s back? Is this finally a license to take home all the Post-its® we can use from the office supply closet?
Middle East expert Kenneth Bailey, in his book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, peels back some of the mystery of the story. He suggests that the manager quickly takes action before anyone learns that he's been fired. He posits that the steward has been fired in private, and that all of these conversations with creditors happen while people believe he's still employed by his master. He uses his position one last time to hedge against the future.
In the parable, as the owner commends the steward for his shrewdness, we can imagine him shaking his head at the dishonesty while also admiring the ingenuity. Kenneth Bailey writes that the steward knows the master is merciful because he has been fired in private instead of publicly shamed, and because he has only been fired, and not sold into slavery to pay his debt to his master. He relies on that mercy one more time, assuming that the master won't go to the creditors and demand the whole amount, saying that the steward didn't have any right to make the adjustments, and that he no longer spoke for the master. He counts on the mercy of the owner, just as we count on the mercy of a gracious God.
Or perhaps he counts on the land owner’s vanity. If the owner wants to save face, he won’t go back to the debtors for more money.
Jesus understands from the start the all of the wealth in this story is dishonest. The landowner makes his money from other people’s work. They owe him large debts that they may or may not be able to repay. The manager is the go-between, speaking for the owner and collecting his debts.
But now, for a moment, the manager stops catering to the land owner, and looks around at all the other people in this web of production and payment. He suddenly sees everything differently, and he takes action for himself, but an action that will benefit more people than the owner. He expands his focus past the way they’ve always done things, and sees more widely. Even though he acts out of self-preservation, his choices benefit more people.
In the News
Our world offers us all kinds of examples of money made dishonestly, and the ways we use it to add advantage onto advantage. This summer, food delivery service Doordash was caught keeping tips meant for employees. “DoorDash, the country's biggest on-demand food delivery app, had a policy of offering Dashers a guaranteed base figure to make a delivery. In most cases, customer tips paid through the DoorDash app would be used to subsidize the company's contributions toward the fixed amounts, instead of increasing workers' pay.” As a technology journalist wrote, "I don't believe that a single person intends to give a tip to a multibillion dollar venture-backed start-up. This deceptive model should be illegal." The people hoping to supplement their income, or to make a living, lost money to the already well-funded company.
In August, Citigroup raised its company minimum wage to $15 an hour, following similar moves at other big banks. The company CEO appeared before Congress last April, and lawmakers raised questions “over the disparity between executive pay and compensation for the median worker at Citi. Of the top banks, Citi had the largest pay gap with the CEO, Michael Corbat, earning 486 times the amount of the median worker.” One lawmaker asked the CEO, “If you were an employee, and you saw your boss making $486 for every dollar you make, how would you feel about that?”
In Grosse Pointe, Michigan, like many other wealthy public school districts, parents from outside the district work hard to get their kids into the better schools there, and the school system works equally hard to keep them out. Assistant Superintendent Chris Fenton oversees residency checks, and his staff checks out between 100 to 200 students every year, out of an enrollment of 8000 or so students. “Fenton…doesn’t deny some nonresident parents will go to great lengths to send their children to school in Grosse Pointe. But he has sat in his car outside a suspected residency cheater’s address in the predawn darkness, like a cop on a stakeout, watching to see if a boy or girl emerges with a backpack to walk to school. He has seen children driven up to a relative’s house in the trunk of a car and let out like illegal immigrants to scurry through the back door and out through the front, as though they lived there. He has peered through windows looking for evidence of habitation. He has knocked on doors and asked to see children’s bedrooms.” Like the manager and the landowner in the parable, fair looks different depending on where you start.
In a similar case, this time at the college level, actor Felicity Huffmann is heading to prison for fourteen days as part of a plea deal after she pleaded guilty to paying money to help her daughter get into a college. Singer John Legend is thinking like the household manager in the parable. He says that while her sentence is short compared to people of color, the answer is not more time for her. “I get why everyone gets mad when rich person X gets a short sentence and poor person of color Y gets a long one," Legend tweeted Saturday. "The answer isn't for X to get more; it's for both of them to get less (or even none!!!) We should level down not up." "Americans have become desensitized to how much we lock people up. Prisons and jails are not the answer to every bad thing everyone does, but we've come to use them to address nearly every societal ill," Legend added.
For well-to-do people heading to prison, there are even “prison coaches” to help navigate the difficult new world of incarceration. Common questions include: “Will I be exploited for my celebrity?” “What kind of job will I have?” and “Are the showers and bathrooms private?” “The likes of Bernie Madoff, Martha Stewart and reality stars like Teresa Giudice and Abby Lee Miller have all reportedly enlisted prison consultants to help them navigate the justice system.”
In the Sermon
The sermon might look at the sources of dishonest money in our lives. Shrimp harvested by slave labor, chocolate that comes from child labor and inexpensive clothes fueled by the work of children mean that we are more like the landowner in the parable than we realize. Our affordable clothes and food have low prices because of low wages and harsh working conditions. The sermon might look at how our purchases can become more aligned with our faith.
The judge who sentenced Felicity Huffman told her that her prison sentence was a path toward redemption. “She told Ms. Huffman that what had outraged people about the admissions scandal was not the revelation that something that was supposed to be a meritocracy was not really one. Everyone already knew that the admissions system was distorted by money and privilege, she said, with wealthy students having numerous advantages over poor ones, including better academic preparation, individualized tutoring and college counseling, access to fancy internships, and basics like food and stable housing.” People’s outrage, she told Ms. Huffman in the crowded courtroom, was “that in a system of that sort, in that context, that you took the step of obtaining one more advantage to put your child ahead of theirs.” She suggested to Ms. Huffman that, in imposing a sentence, she was clearing the slate for her. After serving her time, she said, Ms. Huffman could move forward and rebuild her life. “After this, you’ve paid your dues,” she said. “I think without this sentence you would be looking at a future with the community around you asking why you had gotten away with this.”
The sermon might look at how people who have every advantage can make amends, and do their part to make the path a little smoother for people without the same privileges. How do we move forward in ways that are more just?
Or the sermon might look at where we find ourselves in the story. Are we the people toiling away, hoping to pay our debt to someone like the landowner? Are we the manager, caught in between, trapped in systems we feel we can’t change. Or are we trying to make a change, and wondering if it will succeed? Or are we like the landowner, far removed from the people whose work benefits us?
The best parables are complicated enough to tease at us, refusing to leave our minds until we turn them over and over, mulling them from all the angles. This one certainly tugs at us, resisting a simple answer and forcing us to think about our own part in the story.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Found
Dean Feldmeyer
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
When I was a little boy I was camping with my extended family in the campground of an Indiana state park. Around dusk my dad gathered all the boys together and we headed off to the shower house to wash away the sweat, smoke, and dirt from a day of camping.
I must have been especially dirty that day because, for whatever reason, everyone else finished before I did. My dad, having his hands full with a bunch of unruly boys hollered to me that they were headed back to the campsite and I should come along when I was ready. I assured him that I would.
A little while later when I emerged from the shower house, scrubbed and clean and, the sun having set, nothing looked familiar. I started waking in the direction that I thought my family’s campsite was in but after a few minutes and a couple of turns I realized that I was utterly lost. I had no idea where my family was and no idea how to find them.
I continued to walk this way and that and the longer I walked the more powerfully I could feel the anxiety and panic building in my chest until, no matter how I tried not to, I began to cry, sure that I would be lost forever and die in the campground of an Indiana state park.
And then, just as my panic reached its zenith, I heard my mother’s laugh. I gazed between two pop-up campers and there was my family — mom, dad, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma and grandpa. They hadn’t even realized I was missing.
I ran into the camp, dropping my towel and dirty clothing as I ran, and nearly knocked my mother down as I grabbed and clung to her. My tears were now tears of relief.
After the commotion died down and my towel and clothing were gathered together and put away my mother took me aside, sat down with me and said this: “Dean, I know you felt like you were lost and it was very frightening.” I nodded to the affirmative, trying desperately not to start crying again. She went on: “So, I want you to remember something. If ever again you get separated from me and feel like you are lost, don’t try to find me. Just sit down and wait …and …I’ll …find…you.”
In the News
Curtis Whitson was on a scenic, Father’s Day weekend camping trip with his girlfriend and his 13-year-old son in the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park in California when they got trapped at the top of a 40-foot waterfall in the Arroyo Seco Canyon.
Whitson had hiked the same route seven years ago and descended the very same waterfall by rappelling down a rope attached to its side. But this time, there was no rope. He and his son tried several alternative routes and were turned back every time by treacherous footing and impossible climbs.
So, stranded miles from the nearest campground with no direction to go and without cell service, he wrote an SOS note on a bar order pad his girlfriend brought to keep score playing card games: "We are stuck here at the waterfall. Get help please." He put the note in a green water bottle, carved "help" into its side, and tossed the message downstream. Then they hiked about 30 minutes back up stream to a small beach area where they made a campfire, spread out a blue tarp, and arranged white rocks on it to spell SOS.
Miraculously, about an hour later, two hikers found the bottle, hiked two miles to the nearest campground and called for help.
Todd Brethour and Tony Ramage are with the California Highway Patrol Air Operations Unit. They found Whitson around midnight, just hours after hikers found his floating message. Whitson says he heard the sound of the helicopter’s rotor and suddenly a voice booming out of the darkness: "This is Search and Rescue. You have been found."
The family was told to stay there and stay warm and a rescue team would be back after dawn to get them to safety. Which they did. "It was one of the best feelings," Whitson later gushed, "nothing was sweeter than those words uttered by CHP."
The two men who found the message and called for help? Well, they left before the rescue happened and they didn’t leave their names but Curtis Whitson would sure like to find them and thank them. Oh, and his girlfriend bought him a new water bottle…with a love note tucked inside.
More can be read here:
CNN.com
CBS.com
In the Scripture
A student of the prophet, Jeremiah, searches in vain to find any sense of order or chronology to the chapters and verses in this long and beautifully written book. The time and context for each pericope often must be discovered from within the pericope itself and then the best we can do is often an educated guess. A good commentary can help.
As is so often the case, this week’s lectionary reading from Jeremiah needs to be read in context to be fully appreciated. Most commentaries include this pericope in a longer reading — 8:4--9:1 — which is probably too long to be read in the worship service but can be easily paraphrased before reading today’s selection.
Jeremiah, speaking for the Lord, begins chapter 8 by making an argument based on reason: When people fall, they strive to get up again, right? And when people stray from the right path and discover that they are lost, they make haste to get back on the correct path lest they become hopelessly lost, do they not?
So, what’s wrong with the people of Judah that they insist on acting irrationally? Can’t they see that they have wandered off of God’s path? They just continue stumbling on down the wrong path, refusing to repent. They say, “What have I done?” as though they really don’t know or they are innocent.
Good heavens, even the birds know when the time has come to fly south. Why can’t the people see that the time has come to repent and change their ways? Even the leaders of the people are guilty. They have corrupted the laws of God, bending them to their own desires and interpreting them to serve their own selfish needs and they deny that they have done anything wrong.
All the time, God has been patiently waiting and listening for the people to confess their sins and repent, but all he hears from them are lies and denial.
In vs. 12b ff., Jeremiah describes the consequences that will befall Judahites for their lack of contrition and those consequences will come (or came) by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who, in 586 BCE, sacked and looted the city of Jerusalem, razed it and the temple to the ground, slaughtered thousands of people, executed the royal family, blinded the king, and took him and the leaders of the country back to Babylon to live there in captivity.
Jeremiah, who tried and failed to broker a peace agreement between Nebuchadnezzar and Zedekiah, was witness to all of this destruction, pain, and death. He reminds the people who are left that while they may want to blame God for what has happened (“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?”) What has happened is, in fact, their own fault. It is the natural consequence of trusting their own wisdom and their own judgement and refusing to listen to the word of the Lord. It is the result of their apostasy and their idolatry.
That is not to say that it isn’t tragic, this utter destruction of the holy city and its people. In one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking passages of poetry in the Old testament, Jeremiah testifies to his own grief, a grief that he shares with the Lord, Adonai. (vss. 8:18--9:1) There are not enough tears in him, says he, to adequately mourn what has happened to his beloved people.
In the Pulpit
How long, we wonder, might Curtis Whitson and his family have been stranded above those waterfalls had not those two anonymous hikers noticed his water bottle and his cry for help? What would have become of them? It is scary to contemplate, is it not? To be lost, separated from human kind and helpless, is one of the most tragic conditions in which human beings can find themselves.
But then comes the voice from the darkness above: “You are found!”
What relief must have washed through those stranded three. What tears of joy must they have shed upon hearing that voice. Indeed, the reporter for CNN said that Whitson still choked up when he talked about it, days after the rescue.
One thing must happen, though, before those who are lost can be found and rescued: They must first come to realize and admit that they are lost. Only then can they summon the ingenuity to scratch a message on the outside of a water bottle and enclose within it a note asking for help. Only then can they, in the spiritual sense, confess that they have gone in the wrong direction, repent of their error, and return to the true and righteous ways of the Lord.
In his commentary and reflection on the book of Jeremiah (New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VI), Patrick D. Miller speaks of how, in this longer passage (8:4--9:1), we are “given a picture of a listening God…attuned to hear human voices.” First, he says, comes God’s openness to “human need and human appeals,” something for which God actively listens. Secondly, “this text suggests that one of the things for which God listens is the confession of those who have done wrong, the repentant cry, ‘We have sinned.’” Jeremiah reminds us that the urgency with which we pray for protection, healing, and deliverance from suffering can be just as appropriately applied to prayers of confession and repentance.
And thirdly, the passage shows us that “the responsiveness of God is such that the divine intention can be affected and even altered by words of confession and repentance.” Indeed, most scriptural examples of God’s change of mind come as a response to repentance and the decision of God to “not bring judgment when the community has sinned greatly.” For examples of this we need look no further than “Moses’ prayer on behalf of the people when they made the golden calf or as in the story of the repentant Ninevites in the book of Jonah.”
God is waiting to hear our cry for help, our confession that we have wandered down the wrong path, our repentance from the direction we have gone and our desire to return to God’s way. And the promise of scripture is that the God whose grace and love is from everlasting to everlasting will hear our cry and come to us and utter those words that we all, from time to time, so desperately want and need to hear: “You have been found!”
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Luke 16:1-13
about that dishonest business manager…
We all know that what the manager did was completely motivated by self-interest. He defrauded his employer all because he’d had a desk job all his life, and, unlike the Temptations, he was too proud to beg. Selfish, conniving, white collar criminal, and yet, don’t we love it when we’re on the receiving end of this kind of deal!
Eight months after moving to Minnesota, I finally found my way to the DMV to get my driver’s license.
The clerk asked me, “When did you move to Minnesota?”
“April.”
“Ooh, too bad, because if you’d gotten this before the end of six months…”
“August.”
“All right. That’ll be $15.”
I was shocked. I had moved to Minnesota from Chicago, where the civil servants are neither. Here was a state employee conspiring with me, assisting me in cheating the state out of money. “Minnesota Nice” is real. Cross the St. Croix River from the east and you are in a different land. Garrison Keillor is correct, all the children are above average. But this was over the top!
I did not tell this story for years, even to people who lived in Minnesota. I did not want this helpful, though corrupt, clerk to get into trouble. I happily tell story nearly three decades later, even though in doing so I confess that I cheated the state of Minnesota, too. Did she drag me down to her level? Maybe. But with the mountain of student debt I faced as I began my first call I was able to justify it to myself.
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More on Luke 16:1-13
Alan Clark was the dictionary definition of “bumptious.” There were those who called him a curmudgeon, but that he was not. Curmudgeons have a loveable side to them, which Mr. Clark lacked.
Once at coffee hour he was headed to the table where only one bear claw remained. I was a step behind him.
“Alan?” I asked.
He turned right to see who was talking to him. I veered left and got the last bear claw. I waited for the wrath of Alan. There was no wrath, however, on this day. He recognized my cunning and admired my deviousness. I offered to share my bear claw, but he conceded I’d won it fair and square.
Maybe the business owner in the parable from Luke had the same admiration for his conniving, fearful employee. This exchange certainly changed my relationship with Alan Clark. After it, there were moments when he was upgraded from bumptious to curmudgeon.
* * *
…about this balm…
Jeremiah wonders whether there is balm in Gilead. His question is answered famously in the spiritual, “There is a Balm in Gilead.” The only time the word “balm” is used anymore is for products that keep our lips from getting chapped — or treat them when they are chapped — and we call the first warm day of spring, when the snow and ice really starts to melt, “balmy.” Is this what Jeremiah longs for? Let’s look a little deeper.
Gilead is a region in what is the modern nation of Jordan. In Biblical times, the tribes of Gad and Reuben occupied this region. It’s north of Jerusalem, between Jerusalem and Babylon.
When Joseph’s brothers sold him to travelers, it was to a group travelling from Gilead to Egypt; they’d been in Gilead to get balm to take back home. It was valued for its ability to soothe and heal skin.
Jeremiah uses balm from Gilead as a metaphor for his people’s suffering. After many of his people were carried into exile in Babylon, and many others killed by the Babylonians, a little balm — which comes from a place between Jerusalem and Babylon — would feel pretty good. Except that there wasn’t any!
Last week’s main article for The Immediate Word pointed out that the English word “jeremiad” is based in the name of the prophet Jeremiah. More than any other prophet, Jeremiah expressed the way speaking God’s word had caused him to suffer: he was mocked, humiliated, imprisoned, “seduced” and overpowered by the Lord. The lack of a balm from Gilead or anywhere else, the lack of a physician to bring healing, are both facets of the Lord’s punishment for the people’s infidelity. Contrary to the spiritual that we know and love, there really was no balm in Gilead. The people had to suffer a couple more generations in Babylon before their descendants could come home to a place they’d never been before.
* * *
1 Timothy 2:1-7
…like a good soldier
This is really an illustration for 2 Timothy 2:1-7, I’m including it because I can’t be the only one who misread the lectionary! You might hold onto this for a children’s message some time, if you think you can get the little ones into marching like soldiers.
Many of us grew up singing “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Having spent many of my cavity-prone years marching in a wide variety of bands behind my trombone, I find the rhythm of “Onward Christians Soldiers” energizing. In the 1980s United Methodists, Episcopalians and certain strands of Lutheranism decided to leave this hymn out of new editions of their hymnals because it was “militaristic.” In the opinion of those who worked to have this hymn removed the church has no business promoting war. At one level that’s true, but in this case we all lost something when we stopped singing this hymn.
The lesson from Timothy this morning uses being a soldier as a metaphor for following Christ. Good soldiers are well-trained, obedient and loyal, precisely the traits one should bring to following Christ as Lord and Savior.
Sabine Baring-Gould wrote the lyrics to this hymn in about 15 minutes. Some children from his church were scheduled to walk a little more than a mile from Horbury Bridge to St. Peter’s Church near Wakefield, Yorkshire, England on Whitsuntide (Pentecost) in 1865. Baring-Gould composed the words to help the children recognize the purpose of their walking, and to lessen the burden by giving them something to sing.
Those who wanted to remove this beloved hymn from their denominations’ hymnals missed the “as to” before the mention of war in the hymn’s first stanza and its refrain. Going into battle against Satan is an aspect of faith that, while not stressed much in more progressive denominations, is still one of many helpful metaphors for the life of faith.
The hymn’s third stanza
Like a mighty army
moves the church of God;
Brothers, we are treading
where the saints have trod;
We are not divided;
all one body we,
One in hope and doctrine,
one in charity.
Is anyone opposed to Christian unity? Or opposed to “the Body of Christ” as a metaphor for the universal Christian church? I didn’t think so.
And it’s a march that will get your congregation’s toes tapping.
* * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:
Jeremiah 8:22
Is there no balm in Gilead?
July 11, 1804, at 6:30 a.m., on the Heights of Weehawken, New Jersey, on the west bank of the Hudson River, which is opposite of New York City, two men faced each other bearing revolvers. Aaron Burr, the vice-president of the United States, and his political foe, Alexander Hamilton, the former Secretary of the Treasury. Angered over political differences and propelled by arrogance, the two statesmen could no longer resolve their dispute by debate. The death of one would settle the issue.
The judge cried the command, and two pistols discharged. Alexander Hamilton fired first. Honoring a pre-duel agreement, Hamilton purposely fired high, hitting a tree directly behind his opponent. Burr then took careful aim and fired. The bullet mortally wounded Hamilton, striking the former secretary in the lower abdomen just above the right hip, and lodging near his spine. Hamilton slumped to the ground. Aaron Burr walked away in silence.
The bleeding politician was placed in a boat and rowed across the river, docking at the foot of Horatio Street. Lying on the plank bottom of the boat, Hamilton asked to receive the sacrament of a dying man.
Episcopal Bishop Benjamin Moore was summoned. Upon learning the cause of the wound the bishop withheld the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, declaring that the stricken man needed time to reflect on the sin that had brought him so low.
Hamilton persisted in his anguished desire to receive the sacrament, this time requesting that a long-time friend, Reverend James Mason, be sought to administer the bread and wine, the body and blood of Jesus, the symbols of redemption. The reverend refused, for, as a pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church, he would not allow a private communion in the bottom of a boat, absent of a worshiping congregation.
Hamilton panicked, fearing he would die without the blessing of the church.
Pursued by a second request, Bishop Moore returned. Upon hearing Hamilton’s confession that he had forgiven his assailant and securing the promise that if he should live he would publicly denounce dueling, Bishop Moore administered the Eucharist to a tormented man. Alexander Hamilton died of his wound, assured of his absolution, 36-hours after the duel.
* * *
Jeremiah 8:22
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Lt. Col. Alfred M. Worden was the command module pilot for the Apollo 15 moon mission, which began on July 26, 1971 and ended on August 7. One of his assignments was to orbit the moon for 74 hours as Col. David R. Scotts and Col. James B. Irwin explored the surface below. Each revolution of the moon took the command module, Endeavor, about two hours — one hour in light, one hour in dark. Half the journey along the front face of the moon that was illuminated by the reflection of sunlight; the other was along the back half that was spent in the utter blackness of deep space. Part of the journey would view the moon, bright and glorious, as all people from earth see it; the return journey would be around the dark mysterious side never seen from earth.
The front side of the moon, the one that always faces the earth, had a surface that was pitted with deep craters contrasted against tall mountains. The terrain was rocky and rugged, difficult to traverse. The back side, or far side of the moon, the side always hidden from earth, was, in the words of Worden, a terrain of “roundness, softness, a kind of fluffiness.” There were many craters, but none with slopes as sheer as observed on the front side. The front side was jagged: the far side was smooth. What could be the cause of this?
Astronaut Worden offered the following explanation:
It seemed that the far side terrain had undergone such relentless meteorite bombardment for billions of years that the early surface features had all been reworked and smoothed out.” The far side of the moon, unprotected, facing an endless outer space was constantly bombarded by meteorites. The destructive force of the meteorites actually had a healing effect upon the moon’s far side surface, causing what was once rough to become smooth. Though on the front side, the side of the moon protected by earth, the surface was still tattered.
* * *
Jeremiah 8:22
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Mother Teresa shared the encounter that inspired the Missionaries of Charity to establish their first shelter in Melbourne. It was the result of one simple task conjoined with one brief conversation. While visiting in the Australian city, Mother Teresa learned of an elderly man who was living alone, who was absent of family and friends. She went to his apartment and gave it a thorough cleaning.
She realized that the man always sat in the dark, though a lamp stood on the table next to his chair. It was a lamp that was covered in dust, having never been used. The gentleman explained that he could not recall the last time he received a visitor; therefore, there was no reason to light the lamp. Mother Teresa then asked, “If the sisters come to visit you, will you light it?” “Yes,” he replied, “I will light it if I hear the sound of a human voice.” For that man, and many like him, the sisters opened a missionary house in the city. Through the years the visiting sisters were always greeted with a lighted lamp.
* * *
Jeremiah 8:22
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Henri Nouwen was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian. After nearly two decades of teaching at academic institutions, including the University of Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School and Harvard Divinity School, he left academia to counsel and mentor individuals with mental and physical disabilities. He is best remembered for his work at the L’Arche Daybreak community in Richmond Hill, Ontario. L’Arche homes and programs operate according to a not-for-profit “community model” that is distinct from “client-centered” profit model. At L’Arche, people with disabilities, and those who assist them, live together in homes and apartments, sharing life with one another and building a community of responsible adults.
Nouwen, in his book The Wounded Healer, which was published in 1979, outlined the mission of Jesus as the one who is a wounded healer. Nouwen offers his understanding of Jesus’ model for ministry: “He is called to be the wounded healer, the one who must look after his own wounds but at the same time be prepared to heal the wounds of others.” Nouwen went on to write, Jesus made “his own broken body the way to health, to liberation and new life.”
* * *
Jeremiah 8:22
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Astronaut Ed White, an active United Methodist layman, was the first self-propelled human to walk in outer space. On June 3, 1965, he became the first American to walk in space using the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) maneuvering device. White was outside Gemini 4 for twenty-one minutes.
After returning to earth, he showed his children three medals he had worn during that historic occasion: a cross, a medal sent to all astronauts from Pope Paul, and the Star of David. These medallions symbolized the commonality of all people joined together by one God. From the vantage point of the vastness of space, Astronaut White realized that Jesus truly is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
* * * * * *
From team member Bethany Peerbolte
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
Tell your Story: Save a life
The number one setting on my car radio is the local Christian station. Number two is heavy metal. There are just some human emotions contemporary Christian music does not portray well. Anger, grief, and disappointment are glossed over with God’s abundant grace. Nothing against the abundant grace, but sometimes I want to lament the situation. It amazes me that with so many great laments in the Bible, like these lectionary verses from Jeremiah, our modern music simply ignores these emotions.
These verses are beautiful is their honesty about the state of mind the writer is in. The words are simple and easy to relate to, joy…gone, grief…heavy, heart…sick. The potential of summer and fall is gone and a long winter stands ahead. The writer fantasizes about a way out. Tears turning into nourishing water to bring those who are hurting back to wholeness. Except that is exactly what these words in Jeremiah are doing, bringing healing and wholeness with their honesty.
Being honest about our pain can help others with theirs. There are many examples of people going through a terrible ordeal and insisting on telling their story to help someone else. Two teens have recently spoken up about their e-cigarette related health issues with the hope that their friends will stop vaping. September is suicide awareness month, and this wife is taking the time to tell the painful story of her husband’s suicide in order to get people talking. The art of lament is not absent from our culture, it also isn’t just for heavy metal tirades. A woman in Tennessee found a poem she had written while in the darkness of clinical depression. In the article that follows she urges everyone to be more honest about their struggles. It is not just healing to others, we also benefit from telling our stories. A communication coach wrote an article this week that even if your motivation for telling your story is selfless the personal benefit is unavoidable.
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1 Timothy 2:1-7
Pray: it’s debatable
These verses urge believers to pray for everyone (v. 1) and in every place (v. 8). It especially calls for prayers for high ranking government roles. Maybe if they are blessed the blessings will trickle down to the rest of us. These verses may cause a few members to question if prayer is really meant for everyone and in every place.
Prayer in school has been a hot button issue for decades. This week there are debates raging about prayer at football games, and at board meetings. A sermon could debate the thin line between inclusion and what these verses are saying. The answer to the tension may be to find creative ways to bring prayer into a school while also being invasive. A bus driver in the Strafford School district stumbled upon a way to bring prayer to the students and families through social media. Her Facebook page “Putting Strafford Schools in God's Hands” posts prayer concerns for the district. People can follow and pray along by their own choosing.
Now what about praying for everyone. The Pope is on board for praying for those at the top of governments. He urged Catholics to pray for those with differing opinions. Even encouraging prayer instead of political discussion. Discussion, he says, can focus too much on the dirty side of politics but not all politicians are dirty.
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Luke 16:1-13
New to the Neighborhood
Finding a place in a new community is hard. Knowing who to trust and what places are safe can be tricky. It takes time to build relationships with new neighbors. It is even harder to rework one’s reputation in the community. The latter is the future the rich man’s manager is facing. He is not well-liked and maybe for good reason. All we know is he is being fired for losing the rich man some amount of money. His one chance to give himself a soft landing is in the books he needs to return to the rich man. He can fudge the numbers so people owe less than they do. These people will be thrilled by the lower debt and be good to the recently unemployed manager when he needs help getting back on his feet. The rich man is already angry at him and thinks he is a terrible manager — might as well make a future for himself.
When a business moves into a neighborhood, they like to find ways to connect quickly. Often charitable work is part of that connection. Fargo’s Interoffice design corporation found a way to show the neighborhood their trade and give back to the community. They asked local artists to design an office chair. The best looks were created full scale and were auctioned off. All proceeds go to Lend a Hand Up, which supports families facing medical crises. They hope their efforts will win them favor in the community and start the new location off with a boom.
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WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: How long, O God? Will you be angry forever?
People: Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?
Leader: Do not remember the iniquities of our ancestors, O God.
People: Let your compassion come speedily to meet us.
Leader: Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name.
People: Deliver us and forgive our sins for your name's sake.
OR
Leader: God calls us to come together in this holy place.
People: We come because we know we need God’s grace.
Leader: God comes to us in all the circumstances of our lives.
People: We praise you, O God, for your steadfast love.
Leader: Call to God in your time of need for God is near.
People: In faith we turn to our God who brings salvation.
Hymns and Songs:
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELW: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT: 281
If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee
UMH: 142
H82: 635
PH: 282
NCH: 410
LBW: 453
ELW: 769
W&P: 429
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
UMH: 121
H82: 469/470
PH: 298
NCH: 23
CH: 73
LBW: 290
ELW: 587/588
W&P: 61
AMEC: 78
STLT: 213
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
UMH: 110
H82: 687/688
PH: 260
AAHH: 124
NNBH: 37
NCH: 439/440
CH: 65
LBW: 228/229
ELW: 503/504/505
W&P: 588
AMEC: 54
STLT: 200
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
My Soul Gives Glory to My God (Not just for Advent)
UMH: 198
CH: 130
ELW: 882
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
UMH: 358
H82: 652/653
PH: 345
NCH: 502
CH: 594
LBW: 506
W&P: 470
AMEC: 344
Lord, Who Love Through Humble Service
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELW: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
More Precious than Silver
CCB: 25
I Will Call upon the Lord
CCB: 9
Renew: 15
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who desires all of your children to find their way home:
Grant us the wisdom to ask for your guidance
when we find ourselves lost in life;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you love us and always wish for us to find our home in you. We sometimes lose our way and are afraid to seek you. Help us to call out when we are lost knowing you are already looking for us. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our quickness to judge others before we have seen things from their point of view.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are quick to assume that our point of view is the correct one or, even, the only one. We forget that things can look very different from some else’s perspective. Help us to set aside our judgements and approach others with grace and you have always approached us. Amen.
Leader: God’s grace is abundant and free. Receive it today so that you may share it with others this week.
Prayers of the People
We praise you, O God, for you gracious love that supports all of creation. We praise you for creating us as your children and for your love that never deserts us.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are quick to assume that our point of view is the correct one or, even, the only one. We forget that things can look very different from some else’s perspective. Help us to set aside our judgements and approach others with grace and you have always approached us.
We thank you for all the ways in which you seek us when we go astray. We often find ourselves in terrible situation without thinking to call on you for guidance and help.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all our sisters and brothers and especially for those of us who find that we have placed ourselves in difficult situations. We pray for all who are in need of assistance and do not know where to turn for help.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
I have a cat. When she gets scared she hides. I worry that she may get out and get lost and then would hide and make it hard for me to find her. I can’t teach my cat to cooperate when she is lost but this might be a good time to help children understand that if they get lost they need to ask for help. Encourage them to talk to their parents about this.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Does Anyone Need a Band Aid?
by Chris Keating
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
Prepare ahead of time:
A box of bandages (Use non-latex bandages because of latex allergies).
Optional: a bottle of scented hand lotion.
Jeremiah’s lament in this week’s lectionary reading offers an opportunity to think about how God is present with those who are hurting, grieving, or experience pain. Ahead of Sunday, read Jeremiah 8:18--9:1 several times to become familiar with the images and places he describes. Consulting a modern translation like the Common English Bible may be helpful as you prepare to tell this story to the children.
You will want to help the children hear the difference between “BOMB” and “BALM.” Balm is often derived from the resin of balsamic trees, notably the Commiphora genus of evergreens. Balm is a fragrant ointment which is said to have healing properties. Balms have been used for centuries as medicines to relieve colds, respiratory illnesses, muscle aches and other ailments. While the source of the original “Balm of Gilead” is not clear, today holistic healers use resin from the Cottonwood or poplar tree. (Here’s a recipe from a herbalist site.)
If you have a sample of some sort of balm, share it with the children if they are interested. There are all sorts of healing ointments today: lotions to help dry skin, lip balm for chapped lips, Biofreeze for sore muscles, anti-itch creams for bug bites, and so on.
Explain that in today’s scripture reading, Jeremiah is sad because he knows that many people are hurting. He’s sad because his hometown has been destroyed. This may not be easy for the children to understand, but they will understand what it is like to be sad. Jeremiah is sad because even the town of Gilead, a town that was famous for its medicines and lotions, has run out of its healing balm.
Before your story, pick out a volunteer (it may be wise to get parental permission ahead of time). Say to the kids that as you tell the story, you’re going to stop and put a bandage on the volunteer each time the story talks about someone getting hurt. This can be a fun way of illustrating Jeremiah’s lament, but you’ll need to “ham” it up a bit for the best impact. Each time the script says “bandage,” put another bandage on the volunteer’s arm, or hand. Put them on lightly so they are not hard to remove — or parents will want to remove you!
Keep adding more and more bandages so that by the time you are done retelling the story the bandage box is empty.
Your story could sound like this:
There was a time when Jeremiah said, “Ouch! My joy is all gone (put on a bandage). I’m upset (bandage). My heart is even sick! (Bandage). Listen! Everywhere you can hear people crying in pain (bandage). They’re saying, “is God here or not?” (bandage). Why are these things happening? (bandage). Now summer is over; vacation is done (bandage). Still, God seems very far away. (bandage). My people are crushed! (bandage). I am crushed (several bandages). Everything is dark and gloomy, and I am very, very sad.” (put all the rest of the bandages on the volunteer.)
Aren’t there any more bandages? (shake the empty box). Do you have a Band Aid? Can someone call for a doctor? Oh, I am very sad…there are no more bandages!
We used all the bandages! What are we going to do if someone is hurting?
The children can help name some of the many things we can do when someone is in pain and hurting. We can help them get to a doctor, we can help them pay for medical care, and most especially we can pray for them. (If your church has a prayer concern list in the bulletin, this is a good time to point it out to the children.) Many hundreds of years ago, when some African American people in America were hurting because of slavery, they sang a song we sing today called “There is a Balm in Gilead,” which reminded them that even when we are hurting, God hears our prayers.
Close by inviting the children and congregation to sing a verse of “There is a Balm in Gilead.”
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The Immediate Word, September 22, 2019 issue.
Copyright 2019 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 or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- Dishonest to Some, Clever to Others by Mary Austin — Perhaps dishonesty is in the eye of the beholder. The household manager has lessons to teach us.
- Second Thoughts: Found by Dean Feldmeyer — To be found we must first acknowledge that we are lost.
- Sermon illustrations by Tom Willadsen, Ron Love and Bethany Peerbolte.
- Worship resources by George Reed focusing on perspectives on wealth; help is available, if we call.
- Children’s sermon: Does Anyone Need a Band Aid? by Chris Keating — God hears our cries and brings comfort to those who are hurting.
Dishonest to Some, Clever to Others
by Mary Austin
Luke 16:1-13
At my former church in Detroit, the deacons used to complain that people made the rounds of all the churches in December, collecting as many Christmas baskets as possible. “Oh my goodness,” I thought the first year. “How dishonest.”
By the second year, I knew more about the layers of poverty surrounding the church, so it made perfect sense. Why wouldn’t people maximize their gain while they could? We do the same thing when we use credit card points for a flight or vacation, get out our double coupons at the grocery store, or borrow a friend’s employee discount at a store. No one ever said there could be only one food basket per family, and the food is meant to go to people who need it. Since churches don’t give out baskets all year, it makes sense to get as many as possible while they’re available.
People who are poor have taught me a lot about how the world really works. What looks dishonest from a vantage point of privilege looks like survival for someone in need.
The parable of this dishonest manager, as it’s sometimes called, looks different depending on whose viewpoint we share. If we, as middle class people, see it from the owner’s point of view, the manager does look dishonest. But from his viewpoint, or the people who have their debts reduced, it all looks different.
In the Scripture
We’re always baffled about the praise for the dishonest manager. The commentary after the story almost makes it worse. We leave the story wondering if Jesus is telling us to be dishonest? To go behind our employer’s back? Is this finally a license to take home all the Post-its® we can use from the office supply closet?
Middle East expert Kenneth Bailey, in his book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, peels back some of the mystery of the story. He suggests that the manager quickly takes action before anyone learns that he's been fired. He posits that the steward has been fired in private, and that all of these conversations with creditors happen while people believe he's still employed by his master. He uses his position one last time to hedge against the future.
In the parable, as the owner commends the steward for his shrewdness, we can imagine him shaking his head at the dishonesty while also admiring the ingenuity. Kenneth Bailey writes that the steward knows the master is merciful because he has been fired in private instead of publicly shamed, and because he has only been fired, and not sold into slavery to pay his debt to his master. He relies on that mercy one more time, assuming that the master won't go to the creditors and demand the whole amount, saying that the steward didn't have any right to make the adjustments, and that he no longer spoke for the master. He counts on the mercy of the owner, just as we count on the mercy of a gracious God.
Or perhaps he counts on the land owner’s vanity. If the owner wants to save face, he won’t go back to the debtors for more money.
Jesus understands from the start the all of the wealth in this story is dishonest. The landowner makes his money from other people’s work. They owe him large debts that they may or may not be able to repay. The manager is the go-between, speaking for the owner and collecting his debts.
But now, for a moment, the manager stops catering to the land owner, and looks around at all the other people in this web of production and payment. He suddenly sees everything differently, and he takes action for himself, but an action that will benefit more people than the owner. He expands his focus past the way they’ve always done things, and sees more widely. Even though he acts out of self-preservation, his choices benefit more people.
In the News
Our world offers us all kinds of examples of money made dishonestly, and the ways we use it to add advantage onto advantage. This summer, food delivery service Doordash was caught keeping tips meant for employees. “DoorDash, the country's biggest on-demand food delivery app, had a policy of offering Dashers a guaranteed base figure to make a delivery. In most cases, customer tips paid through the DoorDash app would be used to subsidize the company's contributions toward the fixed amounts, instead of increasing workers' pay.” As a technology journalist wrote, "I don't believe that a single person intends to give a tip to a multibillion dollar venture-backed start-up. This deceptive model should be illegal." The people hoping to supplement their income, or to make a living, lost money to the already well-funded company.
In August, Citigroup raised its company minimum wage to $15 an hour, following similar moves at other big banks. The company CEO appeared before Congress last April, and lawmakers raised questions “over the disparity between executive pay and compensation for the median worker at Citi. Of the top banks, Citi had the largest pay gap with the CEO, Michael Corbat, earning 486 times the amount of the median worker.” One lawmaker asked the CEO, “If you were an employee, and you saw your boss making $486 for every dollar you make, how would you feel about that?”
In Grosse Pointe, Michigan, like many other wealthy public school districts, parents from outside the district work hard to get their kids into the better schools there, and the school system works equally hard to keep them out. Assistant Superintendent Chris Fenton oversees residency checks, and his staff checks out between 100 to 200 students every year, out of an enrollment of 8000 or so students. “Fenton…doesn’t deny some nonresident parents will go to great lengths to send their children to school in Grosse Pointe. But he has sat in his car outside a suspected residency cheater’s address in the predawn darkness, like a cop on a stakeout, watching to see if a boy or girl emerges with a backpack to walk to school. He has seen children driven up to a relative’s house in the trunk of a car and let out like illegal immigrants to scurry through the back door and out through the front, as though they lived there. He has peered through windows looking for evidence of habitation. He has knocked on doors and asked to see children’s bedrooms.” Like the manager and the landowner in the parable, fair looks different depending on where you start.
In a similar case, this time at the college level, actor Felicity Huffmann is heading to prison for fourteen days as part of a plea deal after she pleaded guilty to paying money to help her daughter get into a college. Singer John Legend is thinking like the household manager in the parable. He says that while her sentence is short compared to people of color, the answer is not more time for her. “I get why everyone gets mad when rich person X gets a short sentence and poor person of color Y gets a long one," Legend tweeted Saturday. "The answer isn't for X to get more; it's for both of them to get less (or even none!!!) We should level down not up." "Americans have become desensitized to how much we lock people up. Prisons and jails are not the answer to every bad thing everyone does, but we've come to use them to address nearly every societal ill," Legend added.
For well-to-do people heading to prison, there are even “prison coaches” to help navigate the difficult new world of incarceration. Common questions include: “Will I be exploited for my celebrity?” “What kind of job will I have?” and “Are the showers and bathrooms private?” “The likes of Bernie Madoff, Martha Stewart and reality stars like Teresa Giudice and Abby Lee Miller have all reportedly enlisted prison consultants to help them navigate the justice system.”
In the Sermon
The sermon might look at the sources of dishonest money in our lives. Shrimp harvested by slave labor, chocolate that comes from child labor and inexpensive clothes fueled by the work of children mean that we are more like the landowner in the parable than we realize. Our affordable clothes and food have low prices because of low wages and harsh working conditions. The sermon might look at how our purchases can become more aligned with our faith.
The judge who sentenced Felicity Huffman told her that her prison sentence was a path toward redemption. “She told Ms. Huffman that what had outraged people about the admissions scandal was not the revelation that something that was supposed to be a meritocracy was not really one. Everyone already knew that the admissions system was distorted by money and privilege, she said, with wealthy students having numerous advantages over poor ones, including better academic preparation, individualized tutoring and college counseling, access to fancy internships, and basics like food and stable housing.” People’s outrage, she told Ms. Huffman in the crowded courtroom, was “that in a system of that sort, in that context, that you took the step of obtaining one more advantage to put your child ahead of theirs.” She suggested to Ms. Huffman that, in imposing a sentence, she was clearing the slate for her. After serving her time, she said, Ms. Huffman could move forward and rebuild her life. “After this, you’ve paid your dues,” she said. “I think without this sentence you would be looking at a future with the community around you asking why you had gotten away with this.”
The sermon might look at how people who have every advantage can make amends, and do their part to make the path a little smoother for people without the same privileges. How do we move forward in ways that are more just?
Or the sermon might look at where we find ourselves in the story. Are we the people toiling away, hoping to pay our debt to someone like the landowner? Are we the manager, caught in between, trapped in systems we feel we can’t change. Or are we trying to make a change, and wondering if it will succeed? Or are we like the landowner, far removed from the people whose work benefits us?
The best parables are complicated enough to tease at us, refusing to leave our minds until we turn them over and over, mulling them from all the angles. This one certainly tugs at us, resisting a simple answer and forcing us to think about our own part in the story.
SECOND THOUGHTSFound
Dean Feldmeyer
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
When I was a little boy I was camping with my extended family in the campground of an Indiana state park. Around dusk my dad gathered all the boys together and we headed off to the shower house to wash away the sweat, smoke, and dirt from a day of camping.
I must have been especially dirty that day because, for whatever reason, everyone else finished before I did. My dad, having his hands full with a bunch of unruly boys hollered to me that they were headed back to the campsite and I should come along when I was ready. I assured him that I would.
A little while later when I emerged from the shower house, scrubbed and clean and, the sun having set, nothing looked familiar. I started waking in the direction that I thought my family’s campsite was in but after a few minutes and a couple of turns I realized that I was utterly lost. I had no idea where my family was and no idea how to find them.
I continued to walk this way and that and the longer I walked the more powerfully I could feel the anxiety and panic building in my chest until, no matter how I tried not to, I began to cry, sure that I would be lost forever and die in the campground of an Indiana state park.
And then, just as my panic reached its zenith, I heard my mother’s laugh. I gazed between two pop-up campers and there was my family — mom, dad, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma and grandpa. They hadn’t even realized I was missing.
I ran into the camp, dropping my towel and dirty clothing as I ran, and nearly knocked my mother down as I grabbed and clung to her. My tears were now tears of relief.
After the commotion died down and my towel and clothing were gathered together and put away my mother took me aside, sat down with me and said this: “Dean, I know you felt like you were lost and it was very frightening.” I nodded to the affirmative, trying desperately not to start crying again. She went on: “So, I want you to remember something. If ever again you get separated from me and feel like you are lost, don’t try to find me. Just sit down and wait …and …I’ll …find…you.”
In the News
Curtis Whitson was on a scenic, Father’s Day weekend camping trip with his girlfriend and his 13-year-old son in the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park in California when they got trapped at the top of a 40-foot waterfall in the Arroyo Seco Canyon.
Whitson had hiked the same route seven years ago and descended the very same waterfall by rappelling down a rope attached to its side. But this time, there was no rope. He and his son tried several alternative routes and were turned back every time by treacherous footing and impossible climbs.
So, stranded miles from the nearest campground with no direction to go and without cell service, he wrote an SOS note on a bar order pad his girlfriend brought to keep score playing card games: "We are stuck here at the waterfall. Get help please." He put the note in a green water bottle, carved "help" into its side, and tossed the message downstream. Then they hiked about 30 minutes back up stream to a small beach area where they made a campfire, spread out a blue tarp, and arranged white rocks on it to spell SOS.
Miraculously, about an hour later, two hikers found the bottle, hiked two miles to the nearest campground and called for help.
Todd Brethour and Tony Ramage are with the California Highway Patrol Air Operations Unit. They found Whitson around midnight, just hours after hikers found his floating message. Whitson says he heard the sound of the helicopter’s rotor and suddenly a voice booming out of the darkness: "This is Search and Rescue. You have been found."
The family was told to stay there and stay warm and a rescue team would be back after dawn to get them to safety. Which they did. "It was one of the best feelings," Whitson later gushed, "nothing was sweeter than those words uttered by CHP."
The two men who found the message and called for help? Well, they left before the rescue happened and they didn’t leave their names but Curtis Whitson would sure like to find them and thank them. Oh, and his girlfriend bought him a new water bottle…with a love note tucked inside.
More can be read here:
CNN.com
CBS.com
In the Scripture
A student of the prophet, Jeremiah, searches in vain to find any sense of order or chronology to the chapters and verses in this long and beautifully written book. The time and context for each pericope often must be discovered from within the pericope itself and then the best we can do is often an educated guess. A good commentary can help.
As is so often the case, this week’s lectionary reading from Jeremiah needs to be read in context to be fully appreciated. Most commentaries include this pericope in a longer reading — 8:4--9:1 — which is probably too long to be read in the worship service but can be easily paraphrased before reading today’s selection.
Jeremiah, speaking for the Lord, begins chapter 8 by making an argument based on reason: When people fall, they strive to get up again, right? And when people stray from the right path and discover that they are lost, they make haste to get back on the correct path lest they become hopelessly lost, do they not?
So, what’s wrong with the people of Judah that they insist on acting irrationally? Can’t they see that they have wandered off of God’s path? They just continue stumbling on down the wrong path, refusing to repent. They say, “What have I done?” as though they really don’t know or they are innocent.
Good heavens, even the birds know when the time has come to fly south. Why can’t the people see that the time has come to repent and change their ways? Even the leaders of the people are guilty. They have corrupted the laws of God, bending them to their own desires and interpreting them to serve their own selfish needs and they deny that they have done anything wrong.
All the time, God has been patiently waiting and listening for the people to confess their sins and repent, but all he hears from them are lies and denial.
In vs. 12b ff., Jeremiah describes the consequences that will befall Judahites for their lack of contrition and those consequences will come (or came) by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who, in 586 BCE, sacked and looted the city of Jerusalem, razed it and the temple to the ground, slaughtered thousands of people, executed the royal family, blinded the king, and took him and the leaders of the country back to Babylon to live there in captivity.
Jeremiah, who tried and failed to broker a peace agreement between Nebuchadnezzar and Zedekiah, was witness to all of this destruction, pain, and death. He reminds the people who are left that while they may want to blame God for what has happened (“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?”) What has happened is, in fact, their own fault. It is the natural consequence of trusting their own wisdom and their own judgement and refusing to listen to the word of the Lord. It is the result of their apostasy and their idolatry.
That is not to say that it isn’t tragic, this utter destruction of the holy city and its people. In one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking passages of poetry in the Old testament, Jeremiah testifies to his own grief, a grief that he shares with the Lord, Adonai. (vss. 8:18--9:1) There are not enough tears in him, says he, to adequately mourn what has happened to his beloved people.
In the Pulpit
How long, we wonder, might Curtis Whitson and his family have been stranded above those waterfalls had not those two anonymous hikers noticed his water bottle and his cry for help? What would have become of them? It is scary to contemplate, is it not? To be lost, separated from human kind and helpless, is one of the most tragic conditions in which human beings can find themselves.
But then comes the voice from the darkness above: “You are found!”
What relief must have washed through those stranded three. What tears of joy must they have shed upon hearing that voice. Indeed, the reporter for CNN said that Whitson still choked up when he talked about it, days after the rescue.
One thing must happen, though, before those who are lost can be found and rescued: They must first come to realize and admit that they are lost. Only then can they summon the ingenuity to scratch a message on the outside of a water bottle and enclose within it a note asking for help. Only then can they, in the spiritual sense, confess that they have gone in the wrong direction, repent of their error, and return to the true and righteous ways of the Lord.
In his commentary and reflection on the book of Jeremiah (New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VI), Patrick D. Miller speaks of how, in this longer passage (8:4--9:1), we are “given a picture of a listening God…attuned to hear human voices.” First, he says, comes God’s openness to “human need and human appeals,” something for which God actively listens. Secondly, “this text suggests that one of the things for which God listens is the confession of those who have done wrong, the repentant cry, ‘We have sinned.’” Jeremiah reminds us that the urgency with which we pray for protection, healing, and deliverance from suffering can be just as appropriately applied to prayers of confession and repentance.
And thirdly, the passage shows us that “the responsiveness of God is such that the divine intention can be affected and even altered by words of confession and repentance.” Indeed, most scriptural examples of God’s change of mind come as a response to repentance and the decision of God to “not bring judgment when the community has sinned greatly.” For examples of this we need look no further than “Moses’ prayer on behalf of the people when they made the golden calf or as in the story of the repentant Ninevites in the book of Jonah.”
God is waiting to hear our cry for help, our confession that we have wandered down the wrong path, our repentance from the direction we have gone and our desire to return to God’s way. And the promise of scripture is that the God whose grace and love is from everlasting to everlasting will hear our cry and come to us and utter those words that we all, from time to time, so desperately want and need to hear: “You have been found!”
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Luke 16:1-13
about that dishonest business manager…
We all know that what the manager did was completely motivated by self-interest. He defrauded his employer all because he’d had a desk job all his life, and, unlike the Temptations, he was too proud to beg. Selfish, conniving, white collar criminal, and yet, don’t we love it when we’re on the receiving end of this kind of deal!
Eight months after moving to Minnesota, I finally found my way to the DMV to get my driver’s license.
The clerk asked me, “When did you move to Minnesota?”
“April.”
“Ooh, too bad, because if you’d gotten this before the end of six months…”
“August.”
“All right. That’ll be $15.”
I was shocked. I had moved to Minnesota from Chicago, where the civil servants are neither. Here was a state employee conspiring with me, assisting me in cheating the state out of money. “Minnesota Nice” is real. Cross the St. Croix River from the east and you are in a different land. Garrison Keillor is correct, all the children are above average. But this was over the top!
I did not tell this story for years, even to people who lived in Minnesota. I did not want this helpful, though corrupt, clerk to get into trouble. I happily tell story nearly three decades later, even though in doing so I confess that I cheated the state of Minnesota, too. Did she drag me down to her level? Maybe. But with the mountain of student debt I faced as I began my first call I was able to justify it to myself.
* * *
More on Luke 16:1-13
Alan Clark was the dictionary definition of “bumptious.” There were those who called him a curmudgeon, but that he was not. Curmudgeons have a loveable side to them, which Mr. Clark lacked.
Once at coffee hour he was headed to the table where only one bear claw remained. I was a step behind him.
“Alan?” I asked.
He turned right to see who was talking to him. I veered left and got the last bear claw. I waited for the wrath of Alan. There was no wrath, however, on this day. He recognized my cunning and admired my deviousness. I offered to share my bear claw, but he conceded I’d won it fair and square.
Maybe the business owner in the parable from Luke had the same admiration for his conniving, fearful employee. This exchange certainly changed my relationship with Alan Clark. After it, there were moments when he was upgraded from bumptious to curmudgeon.
* * *
…about this balm…
Jeremiah wonders whether there is balm in Gilead. His question is answered famously in the spiritual, “There is a Balm in Gilead.” The only time the word “balm” is used anymore is for products that keep our lips from getting chapped — or treat them when they are chapped — and we call the first warm day of spring, when the snow and ice really starts to melt, “balmy.” Is this what Jeremiah longs for? Let’s look a little deeper.
Gilead is a region in what is the modern nation of Jordan. In Biblical times, the tribes of Gad and Reuben occupied this region. It’s north of Jerusalem, between Jerusalem and Babylon.
When Joseph’s brothers sold him to travelers, it was to a group travelling from Gilead to Egypt; they’d been in Gilead to get balm to take back home. It was valued for its ability to soothe and heal skin.
Jeremiah uses balm from Gilead as a metaphor for his people’s suffering. After many of his people were carried into exile in Babylon, and many others killed by the Babylonians, a little balm — which comes from a place between Jerusalem and Babylon — would feel pretty good. Except that there wasn’t any!
Last week’s main article for The Immediate Word pointed out that the English word “jeremiad” is based in the name of the prophet Jeremiah. More than any other prophet, Jeremiah expressed the way speaking God’s word had caused him to suffer: he was mocked, humiliated, imprisoned, “seduced” and overpowered by the Lord. The lack of a balm from Gilead or anywhere else, the lack of a physician to bring healing, are both facets of the Lord’s punishment for the people’s infidelity. Contrary to the spiritual that we know and love, there really was no balm in Gilead. The people had to suffer a couple more generations in Babylon before their descendants could come home to a place they’d never been before.
* * *
1 Timothy 2:1-7
…like a good soldier
This is really an illustration for 2 Timothy 2:1-7, I’m including it because I can’t be the only one who misread the lectionary! You might hold onto this for a children’s message some time, if you think you can get the little ones into marching like soldiers.
Many of us grew up singing “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Having spent many of my cavity-prone years marching in a wide variety of bands behind my trombone, I find the rhythm of “Onward Christians Soldiers” energizing. In the 1980s United Methodists, Episcopalians and certain strands of Lutheranism decided to leave this hymn out of new editions of their hymnals because it was “militaristic.” In the opinion of those who worked to have this hymn removed the church has no business promoting war. At one level that’s true, but in this case we all lost something when we stopped singing this hymn.
The lesson from Timothy this morning uses being a soldier as a metaphor for following Christ. Good soldiers are well-trained, obedient and loyal, precisely the traits one should bring to following Christ as Lord and Savior.
Sabine Baring-Gould wrote the lyrics to this hymn in about 15 minutes. Some children from his church were scheduled to walk a little more than a mile from Horbury Bridge to St. Peter’s Church near Wakefield, Yorkshire, England on Whitsuntide (Pentecost) in 1865. Baring-Gould composed the words to help the children recognize the purpose of their walking, and to lessen the burden by giving them something to sing.
Those who wanted to remove this beloved hymn from their denominations’ hymnals missed the “as to” before the mention of war in the hymn’s first stanza and its refrain. Going into battle against Satan is an aspect of faith that, while not stressed much in more progressive denominations, is still one of many helpful metaphors for the life of faith.
The hymn’s third stanza
Like a mighty army
moves the church of God;
Brothers, we are treading
where the saints have trod;
We are not divided;
all one body we,
One in hope and doctrine,
one in charity.
Is anyone opposed to Christian unity? Or opposed to “the Body of Christ” as a metaphor for the universal Christian church? I didn’t think so.
And it’s a march that will get your congregation’s toes tapping.
* * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:Jeremiah 8:22
Is there no balm in Gilead?
July 11, 1804, at 6:30 a.m., on the Heights of Weehawken, New Jersey, on the west bank of the Hudson River, which is opposite of New York City, two men faced each other bearing revolvers. Aaron Burr, the vice-president of the United States, and his political foe, Alexander Hamilton, the former Secretary of the Treasury. Angered over political differences and propelled by arrogance, the two statesmen could no longer resolve their dispute by debate. The death of one would settle the issue.
The judge cried the command, and two pistols discharged. Alexander Hamilton fired first. Honoring a pre-duel agreement, Hamilton purposely fired high, hitting a tree directly behind his opponent. Burr then took careful aim and fired. The bullet mortally wounded Hamilton, striking the former secretary in the lower abdomen just above the right hip, and lodging near his spine. Hamilton slumped to the ground. Aaron Burr walked away in silence.
The bleeding politician was placed in a boat and rowed across the river, docking at the foot of Horatio Street. Lying on the plank bottom of the boat, Hamilton asked to receive the sacrament of a dying man.
Episcopal Bishop Benjamin Moore was summoned. Upon learning the cause of the wound the bishop withheld the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, declaring that the stricken man needed time to reflect on the sin that had brought him so low.
Hamilton persisted in his anguished desire to receive the sacrament, this time requesting that a long-time friend, Reverend James Mason, be sought to administer the bread and wine, the body and blood of Jesus, the symbols of redemption. The reverend refused, for, as a pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church, he would not allow a private communion in the bottom of a boat, absent of a worshiping congregation.
Hamilton panicked, fearing he would die without the blessing of the church.
Pursued by a second request, Bishop Moore returned. Upon hearing Hamilton’s confession that he had forgiven his assailant and securing the promise that if he should live he would publicly denounce dueling, Bishop Moore administered the Eucharist to a tormented man. Alexander Hamilton died of his wound, assured of his absolution, 36-hours after the duel.
* * *
Jeremiah 8:22
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Lt. Col. Alfred M. Worden was the command module pilot for the Apollo 15 moon mission, which began on July 26, 1971 and ended on August 7. One of his assignments was to orbit the moon for 74 hours as Col. David R. Scotts and Col. James B. Irwin explored the surface below. Each revolution of the moon took the command module, Endeavor, about two hours — one hour in light, one hour in dark. Half the journey along the front face of the moon that was illuminated by the reflection of sunlight; the other was along the back half that was spent in the utter blackness of deep space. Part of the journey would view the moon, bright and glorious, as all people from earth see it; the return journey would be around the dark mysterious side never seen from earth.
The front side of the moon, the one that always faces the earth, had a surface that was pitted with deep craters contrasted against tall mountains. The terrain was rocky and rugged, difficult to traverse. The back side, or far side of the moon, the side always hidden from earth, was, in the words of Worden, a terrain of “roundness, softness, a kind of fluffiness.” There were many craters, but none with slopes as sheer as observed on the front side. The front side was jagged: the far side was smooth. What could be the cause of this?
Astronaut Worden offered the following explanation:
It seemed that the far side terrain had undergone such relentless meteorite bombardment for billions of years that the early surface features had all been reworked and smoothed out.” The far side of the moon, unprotected, facing an endless outer space was constantly bombarded by meteorites. The destructive force of the meteorites actually had a healing effect upon the moon’s far side surface, causing what was once rough to become smooth. Though on the front side, the side of the moon protected by earth, the surface was still tattered.
* * *
Jeremiah 8:22
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Mother Teresa shared the encounter that inspired the Missionaries of Charity to establish their first shelter in Melbourne. It was the result of one simple task conjoined with one brief conversation. While visiting in the Australian city, Mother Teresa learned of an elderly man who was living alone, who was absent of family and friends. She went to his apartment and gave it a thorough cleaning.
She realized that the man always sat in the dark, though a lamp stood on the table next to his chair. It was a lamp that was covered in dust, having never been used. The gentleman explained that he could not recall the last time he received a visitor; therefore, there was no reason to light the lamp. Mother Teresa then asked, “If the sisters come to visit you, will you light it?” “Yes,” he replied, “I will light it if I hear the sound of a human voice.” For that man, and many like him, the sisters opened a missionary house in the city. Through the years the visiting sisters were always greeted with a lighted lamp.
* * *
Jeremiah 8:22
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Henri Nouwen was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian. After nearly two decades of teaching at academic institutions, including the University of Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School and Harvard Divinity School, he left academia to counsel and mentor individuals with mental and physical disabilities. He is best remembered for his work at the L’Arche Daybreak community in Richmond Hill, Ontario. L’Arche homes and programs operate according to a not-for-profit “community model” that is distinct from “client-centered” profit model. At L’Arche, people with disabilities, and those who assist them, live together in homes and apartments, sharing life with one another and building a community of responsible adults.
Nouwen, in his book The Wounded Healer, which was published in 1979, outlined the mission of Jesus as the one who is a wounded healer. Nouwen offers his understanding of Jesus’ model for ministry: “He is called to be the wounded healer, the one who must look after his own wounds but at the same time be prepared to heal the wounds of others.” Nouwen went on to write, Jesus made “his own broken body the way to health, to liberation and new life.”
* * *
Jeremiah 8:22
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Astronaut Ed White, an active United Methodist layman, was the first self-propelled human to walk in outer space. On June 3, 1965, he became the first American to walk in space using the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) maneuvering device. White was outside Gemini 4 for twenty-one minutes.
After returning to earth, he showed his children three medals he had worn during that historic occasion: a cross, a medal sent to all astronauts from Pope Paul, and the Star of David. These medallions symbolized the commonality of all people joined together by one God. From the vantage point of the vastness of space, Astronaut White realized that Jesus truly is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
* * * * * *
From team member Bethany PeerbolteJeremiah 8:18--9:1
Tell your Story: Save a life
The number one setting on my car radio is the local Christian station. Number two is heavy metal. There are just some human emotions contemporary Christian music does not portray well. Anger, grief, and disappointment are glossed over with God’s abundant grace. Nothing against the abundant grace, but sometimes I want to lament the situation. It amazes me that with so many great laments in the Bible, like these lectionary verses from Jeremiah, our modern music simply ignores these emotions.
These verses are beautiful is their honesty about the state of mind the writer is in. The words are simple and easy to relate to, joy…gone, grief…heavy, heart…sick. The potential of summer and fall is gone and a long winter stands ahead. The writer fantasizes about a way out. Tears turning into nourishing water to bring those who are hurting back to wholeness. Except that is exactly what these words in Jeremiah are doing, bringing healing and wholeness with their honesty.
Being honest about our pain can help others with theirs. There are many examples of people going through a terrible ordeal and insisting on telling their story to help someone else. Two teens have recently spoken up about their e-cigarette related health issues with the hope that their friends will stop vaping. September is suicide awareness month, and this wife is taking the time to tell the painful story of her husband’s suicide in order to get people talking. The art of lament is not absent from our culture, it also isn’t just for heavy metal tirades. A woman in Tennessee found a poem she had written while in the darkness of clinical depression. In the article that follows she urges everyone to be more honest about their struggles. It is not just healing to others, we also benefit from telling our stories. A communication coach wrote an article this week that even if your motivation for telling your story is selfless the personal benefit is unavoidable.
* * *
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Pray: it’s debatable
These verses urge believers to pray for everyone (v. 1) and in every place (v. 8). It especially calls for prayers for high ranking government roles. Maybe if they are blessed the blessings will trickle down to the rest of us. These verses may cause a few members to question if prayer is really meant for everyone and in every place.
Prayer in school has been a hot button issue for decades. This week there are debates raging about prayer at football games, and at board meetings. A sermon could debate the thin line between inclusion and what these verses are saying. The answer to the tension may be to find creative ways to bring prayer into a school while also being invasive. A bus driver in the Strafford School district stumbled upon a way to bring prayer to the students and families through social media. Her Facebook page “Putting Strafford Schools in God's Hands” posts prayer concerns for the district. People can follow and pray along by their own choosing.
Now what about praying for everyone. The Pope is on board for praying for those at the top of governments. He urged Catholics to pray for those with differing opinions. Even encouraging prayer instead of political discussion. Discussion, he says, can focus too much on the dirty side of politics but not all politicians are dirty.
* * *
Luke 16:1-13
New to the Neighborhood
Finding a place in a new community is hard. Knowing who to trust and what places are safe can be tricky. It takes time to build relationships with new neighbors. It is even harder to rework one’s reputation in the community. The latter is the future the rich man’s manager is facing. He is not well-liked and maybe for good reason. All we know is he is being fired for losing the rich man some amount of money. His one chance to give himself a soft landing is in the books he needs to return to the rich man. He can fudge the numbers so people owe less than they do. These people will be thrilled by the lower debt and be good to the recently unemployed manager when he needs help getting back on his feet. The rich man is already angry at him and thinks he is a terrible manager — might as well make a future for himself.
When a business moves into a neighborhood, they like to find ways to connect quickly. Often charitable work is part of that connection. Fargo’s Interoffice design corporation found a way to show the neighborhood their trade and give back to the community. They asked local artists to design an office chair. The best looks were created full scale and were auctioned off. All proceeds go to Lend a Hand Up, which supports families facing medical crises. They hope their efforts will win them favor in the community and start the new location off with a boom.
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: How long, O God? Will you be angry forever?
People: Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?
Leader: Do not remember the iniquities of our ancestors, O God.
People: Let your compassion come speedily to meet us.
Leader: Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name.
People: Deliver us and forgive our sins for your name's sake.
OR
Leader: God calls us to come together in this holy place.
People: We come because we know we need God’s grace.
Leader: God comes to us in all the circumstances of our lives.
People: We praise you, O God, for your steadfast love.
Leader: Call to God in your time of need for God is near.
People: In faith we turn to our God who brings salvation.
Hymns and Songs:
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELW: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT: 281
If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee
UMH: 142
H82: 635
PH: 282
NCH: 410
LBW: 453
ELW: 769
W&P: 429
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
UMH: 121
H82: 469/470
PH: 298
NCH: 23
CH: 73
LBW: 290
ELW: 587/588
W&P: 61
AMEC: 78
STLT: 213
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
UMH: 110
H82: 687/688
PH: 260
AAHH: 124
NNBH: 37
NCH: 439/440
CH: 65
LBW: 228/229
ELW: 503/504/505
W&P: 588
AMEC: 54
STLT: 200
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
My Soul Gives Glory to My God (Not just for Advent)
UMH: 198
CH: 130
ELW: 882
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
UMH: 358
H82: 652/653
PH: 345
NCH: 502
CH: 594
LBW: 506
W&P: 470
AMEC: 344
Lord, Who Love Through Humble Service
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELW: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
More Precious than Silver
CCB: 25
I Will Call upon the Lord
CCB: 9
Renew: 15
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who desires all of your children to find their way home:
Grant us the wisdom to ask for your guidance
when we find ourselves lost in life;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you love us and always wish for us to find our home in you. We sometimes lose our way and are afraid to seek you. Help us to call out when we are lost knowing you are already looking for us. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our quickness to judge others before we have seen things from their point of view.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are quick to assume that our point of view is the correct one or, even, the only one. We forget that things can look very different from some else’s perspective. Help us to set aside our judgements and approach others with grace and you have always approached us. Amen.
Leader: God’s grace is abundant and free. Receive it today so that you may share it with others this week.
Prayers of the People
We praise you, O God, for you gracious love that supports all of creation. We praise you for creating us as your children and for your love that never deserts us.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are quick to assume that our point of view is the correct one or, even, the only one. We forget that things can look very different from some else’s perspective. Help us to set aside our judgements and approach others with grace and you have always approached us.
We thank you for all the ways in which you seek us when we go astray. We often find ourselves in terrible situation without thinking to call on you for guidance and help.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all our sisters and brothers and especially for those of us who find that we have placed ourselves in difficult situations. We pray for all who are in need of assistance and do not know where to turn for help.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
I have a cat. When she gets scared she hides. I worry that she may get out and get lost and then would hide and make it hard for me to find her. I can’t teach my cat to cooperate when she is lost but this might be a good time to help children understand that if they get lost they need to ask for help. Encourage them to talk to their parents about this.
CHILDREN'S SERMONDoes Anyone Need a Band Aid?
by Chris Keating
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
Prepare ahead of time:
A box of bandages (Use non-latex bandages because of latex allergies).
Optional: a bottle of scented hand lotion.
Jeremiah’s lament in this week’s lectionary reading offers an opportunity to think about how God is present with those who are hurting, grieving, or experience pain. Ahead of Sunday, read Jeremiah 8:18--9:1 several times to become familiar with the images and places he describes. Consulting a modern translation like the Common English Bible may be helpful as you prepare to tell this story to the children.
You will want to help the children hear the difference between “BOMB” and “BALM.” Balm is often derived from the resin of balsamic trees, notably the Commiphora genus of evergreens. Balm is a fragrant ointment which is said to have healing properties. Balms have been used for centuries as medicines to relieve colds, respiratory illnesses, muscle aches and other ailments. While the source of the original “Balm of Gilead” is not clear, today holistic healers use resin from the Cottonwood or poplar tree. (Here’s a recipe from a herbalist site.)
If you have a sample of some sort of balm, share it with the children if they are interested. There are all sorts of healing ointments today: lotions to help dry skin, lip balm for chapped lips, Biofreeze for sore muscles, anti-itch creams for bug bites, and so on.
Explain that in today’s scripture reading, Jeremiah is sad because he knows that many people are hurting. He’s sad because his hometown has been destroyed. This may not be easy for the children to understand, but they will understand what it is like to be sad. Jeremiah is sad because even the town of Gilead, a town that was famous for its medicines and lotions, has run out of its healing balm.
Before your story, pick out a volunteer (it may be wise to get parental permission ahead of time). Say to the kids that as you tell the story, you’re going to stop and put a bandage on the volunteer each time the story talks about someone getting hurt. This can be a fun way of illustrating Jeremiah’s lament, but you’ll need to “ham” it up a bit for the best impact. Each time the script says “bandage,” put another bandage on the volunteer’s arm, or hand. Put them on lightly so they are not hard to remove — or parents will want to remove you!
Keep adding more and more bandages so that by the time you are done retelling the story the bandage box is empty.
Your story could sound like this:
There was a time when Jeremiah said, “Ouch! My joy is all gone (put on a bandage). I’m upset (bandage). My heart is even sick! (Bandage). Listen! Everywhere you can hear people crying in pain (bandage). They’re saying, “is God here or not?” (bandage). Why are these things happening? (bandage). Now summer is over; vacation is done (bandage). Still, God seems very far away. (bandage). My people are crushed! (bandage). I am crushed (several bandages). Everything is dark and gloomy, and I am very, very sad.” (put all the rest of the bandages on the volunteer.)
Aren’t there any more bandages? (shake the empty box). Do you have a Band Aid? Can someone call for a doctor? Oh, I am very sad…there are no more bandages!
We used all the bandages! What are we going to do if someone is hurting?
The children can help name some of the many things we can do when someone is in pain and hurting. We can help them get to a doctor, we can help them pay for medical care, and most especially we can pray for them. (If your church has a prayer concern list in the bulletin, this is a good time to point it out to the children.) Many hundreds of years ago, when some African American people in America were hurting because of slavery, they sang a song we sing today called “There is a Balm in Gilead,” which reminded them that even when we are hurting, God hears our prayers.
Close by inviting the children and congregation to sing a verse of “There is a Balm in Gilead.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, September 22, 2019 issue.
Copyright 2019 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 or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
