Fences Make Bad Neighbors
Children's sermon
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Object:
This week’s epistle text relates Paul’s conversion experience on the Damascus Road. The first two verses give us a vivid picture of Saul’s behavior before his life-changing encounter with the Lord -- he virulently persecuted Christians, and we are told that he “breath[ed] threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord... [and] that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” Though he would go on to become Christianity’s greatest evangelist as Paul, it seems that the pre-conversion Saul described in this passage might have been an enthusiastic member of one of the jihadist terror groups who Jonathan Sacks says are engaged in “the ethnic cleansing of Christians throughout the Middle East.” Saul’s goals were both religious and political -- he wanted to defend the traditional Jewish faith he had been schooled in, and keep it at the center of life and culture by returning to the halcyon days of Israel’s kingdoms.
But as team member Mary Austin points out in this installment of The Immediate Word, the goals of those persecuting Christians today are also both political and religious -- they want to re-establish the historic Islamic caliphate, and (in Sacks’ words) “to silence anyone and anything that threatens to express a different truth, another faith, a different approach to religious difference.” Mary explores these parallels -- especially given our all too human temptation to separate followers of our religious from those we consider apostates -- but also reflects on how God is able to find great hope and promise on those we might consider unredeemable. After all, even Saul -- who is described as having done “much evil to your saints in Jerusalem” -- changes his behavior and turns his life completely around. Ananias is (understandably) skeptical at first -- but he follows the Lord’s instructions and restores Saul’s sight. Like Ananias, we too may question the veracity of conversions -- but Mary reminds us that this story shows we need to be open to the possibility of change... whether we are the ones being transformed or those who (similar to Ananias) are facilitating that transformation.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the gospel passage and Jesus’ asking Peter three times “Do you love me?” In each instance Peter responds: “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus then tells Peter that means he should “Feed my sheep.” Moreover, Jesus tells us, this demonstration of our love through caring action will often “take [us] where [we] do not wish to go.” As Chris notes, that certainly might be exemplified by our approach to welcoming refugees, particularly those from the Middle East. It’s a politically charged issue that raises passions but also cuts to the heart of how willing we are to care for those in dire straits. Furthermore, it reveals the mindset we bring to ministry in the world. Are we in the church able to wrestle with our fears, tendency toward caution, and comfort with time-honored habits to follow our Lord’s admonition to care for his flock -- even if it requires us to abandon our comfort zones and to think and live “outside the box”?
Fences Make Bad Neighbors
by Mary Austin
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
Floating around the internet is the little truism “If your religion requires you to hate someone, you need a new religion.” That’s easier said than done. Built into the exercise of any religion is a division of “us” and “them,” so we know who’s in the fold and who’s not. Once we start sorting, it becomes easy to change our behavior for people outside the group. Whether we smother them with kindness or try to kill them, it begins with the dividing up.
Saul is clear that these new followers of Jesus are a threat to the Judaism he has always known and practiced, and he is “breathing threats and murder” as he heads to Damascus to round up any believers he finds. He aims to bring them back to Jerusalem “bound” and ready for examination by the high priest. Even when we remember that Acts was written by followers of Jesus, we can feel the menace that the followers of Jesus felt from him. Motivated by faith, Saul is a dangerous man.
Motivated by faith, Christians have also been dangerous to others throughout history (the Crusades, the persecution of Jews, the treatment of women accused of being witches, the treatment of gay and lesbian people, to name a few...). Any commentary on the violence of other religions begins with that in our minds. In our time, one form of Islam -- the Islamic State -- has taken up the violent work of doing away with people outside their brand of faith.
In the World
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks recently wrote an opinion piece noting the wave of religious persecution wherever the Islamic State army has a presence. The Islamic State (also known by the acronyms ISIL, ISIS, and Daesh) ruthlessly persecutes Christians and even Muslims who are sympathetic to Christians, using them as an example to other Muslims. Rabbi Sacks writes: “In Mosul, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, Christians were forced to flee by Islamic State (ISIL) in the summer of 2014. In Afghanistan the last church was burned to the ground in 2010. In Gaza in 2007, after the rise of Hamas, the last Christian bookshop was destroyed and its owner murdered. In Yemen, on Good Friday, Father Tom Uzhunnallil, an Indian Catholic priest, was crucified by ISIL.The ethnic cleansing of Christians throughout the Middle East is one of the crimes against humanity of our time, and I am appalled that there has been little serious international protest.” Sacks adds: “The aim of ISIL is political: to re-establish the Caliphate and make Islam once more an imperial power. But there is another aim shared by many jihadist groups: to silence anyone and anything that threatens to express a different truth, another faith, a different approach to religious difference.” Terror is an instrument used in service to their brand of Islam.
Sacks calls upon all people of faith to work against this kind of religious terrorism: “This kind of movement cannot be defeated by military means alone. The world needs to hear another voice from within Islam, echoing the open-mindedness that made Islamic Spain in the eighth to 12th centuries the ‘ornament of the world.’ We need people of all faiths to express their active opposition to terror in the name of God.... No genuine religion ever needed violence to prove its beauty, or terror to establish its truth. This is not faith but sacrilege.”
Muslim victims of Islamic State violence outnumber Christians. Last year, Graeme Wood wrote in The Atlantic that we can only understand the motivations of the Islamic State forces “in light of a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately to bringing about the apocalypse.” If we miss that lens, we fail to understand their motivations and strategies. The Islamic State, Wood says, “is committed to purifying the world by killing vast numbers of people. The lack of objective reporting from its territory makes the true extent of the slaughter unknowable, but social-media posts from the region suggest that individual executions happen more or less continually, and mass executions every few weeks. Muslim ‘apostates’ are the most common victims.”
The Islamic State divides up people between those with the correct set of beliefs, and all others. The others are fair game for violence in many forms -- beheadings, rape, enslavement -- because they don’t follow the true form of Islam, as Islamic State followers see it. Wood notes that one imam, an ardent defender of the faith, “took pains to present the laws of war under which the Islamic State operates as policies of mercy rather than of brutality. He told me the state has an obligation to terrorize its enemies -- a holy order to scare the s*** out of them with beheadings and crucifixions and enslavement of women and children, because doing so hastens victory and avoids prolonged conflict.”
In the Scriptures
Saul, pre-conversion, has a similar view of the world. He’s seeking out followers of Jesus, who obviously can’t be truly faithful Jews. Eric Barreto observes that there’s a delicious irony in Saul persecuting the “followers of the Way” and then being struck by God on his own way to Damascus. Barreto adds: “Plus, Saul’s call will also be characterized by a life on the road in his many journeys around the Mediterranean. ‘The Way’ is a powerful metaphor for Christian identity. Instead of being identified by a set of beliefs, these faithful communities were known by their character in the world. Christian faith was a way of life and one that impelled individuals and communities to leave the safe confines of home and church to walk on the road God had set out. ‘The Way’ suggests that faith is a living, active way of life.”
Saul/Paul is “without sight” for three days -- he is deprived of the physical ability to see, and his condition is a mirror for his spiritual blindness. The three days without sight, food, or drink leave him in a tomb-like state, and point us to his spiritual resurrection. God could have easily healed Paul after the three days, but God sends Ananias to do it as a way of healing the breach between them. The story begins with Saul/Paul having the power to destroy life, and ends with a reversal of power. Now Ananias has the power to heal Paul.
Paul’s conversion story is really two conversion stories -- both Paul and Ananias are converted into new ways of seeing. Perhaps every conversion has two faces. In the story just before this in Acts, the Ethiopian eunuch is baptized into faith, but Philip also has a change of heart and is able to see him as a full participant in the faith. The person at the heart of the story is converted, but the people around also have to take in this new figure and accept him. God instructs Ananias that Paul is part of God’s plan, and Ananias objects at first. We can understand his reluctance to reach out to the man who has brought such violence to the early Christian faith. Humility is needed on both sides, and a deep ability to let go of the past.
A conversion also involves doing something, not just changing our minds. The truth of Saul/Paul’s conversion becomes apparent in how he lives from that time forward. In a similar vein, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said recently that he was wrong about poor people. Ryan admitted: “There was a time when I would talk about a difference between ‘makers’ and ‘takers’ in our country, referring to people who accepted government benefits. But as I spent more time listening, and really learning the root causes of poverty, I realized I was wrong. ‘Takers’ wasn’t how to refer to a single mom stuck in a poverty trap, just trying to take care of her family. Most people don't want to be dependent. And to label a whole group of Americans that way was wrong.” The depth of Ryan’s conversion is yet to be seen, and will become apparent in how he uses -- or doesn’t -- the power of his office to change the lives of poor people.
In the Sermon
God jolted Saul/Paul out of his worldview about who was righteous and who was not. He set out to Damascus to purify one brand of faith, and ended up becoming the biggest advocate for opening the doors in a different kind. On a much smaller scale (hopefully), every faith community has its own divisions. No one is at risk of beheading (hopefully), but there are divisions about who is “in” enough to use the kitchen, or count the money, or have lunch with the pastor. The sermon might look at the unspoken divisions of your community, and how we divide people up. Every congregation says that everyone is welcome, but then we live it out with mixed success.
Or the sermon might look at where we, like Saul/Paul, are blindly moving along, and where God has to go to dramatic lengths to get our attention. Where does God stop us in our tracks and change our direction?
Or the sermon might examine what happens after the moment of conversion. The change in our minds is the first step, and then we have to make it real in our lives. The most interesting time is after the mental change -- what do we do next? How do we change long-standing patterns of behavior? How do we reach out to people we have scorned? Is anyone coming to us, like Ananias did, to guide us into the new place? How do we ask for forgiveness, or begin to assure people that we’re now on their side?
In this Easter season, it’s interesting to consider Paul’s resurrection into a whole new life. God could have just struck him blind and left him without the ability to pester the new believers, but God bothers to reshape him into a great advocate for this new way of faith. God is always resurrecting us into new ways of life, and the sermon might talk about that. Both Paul and Ananias have to be willing participants in the resurrection process for it to happen. The sermon might explore where we are willing to go along with God’s resurrection plans, and where we say “no thanks” and choose to stay where we are.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Do I What?
by Chris Keating
John 21:1-19
“Do you love me?”
The question tosses Peter off balance, forcing him to revisit the tensions of the previous week. He’d failed Jesus, slipping on his own clay feet. Now, before the embers of another charcoal fire, Simon faces Jesus in a shoreline moment of truth.
Peter’s post-brunch reckoning begins with a quick Q & A. Jesus makes it clear that in a world transformed by resurrection, love is demonstrated in acts of courageous love. He needs to know where Peter stands. “Do you love me?”
It’s a question that changes everything.
In the classic Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof, lead character Tevye ponders the drastically changed nature of his world. Confused by a dizzying array of evolving traditions and rising political tensions, Tevye discovers that the world he knows may not really be as it seems. Yearning for certainty, Tevye asks his wife Golde a question that changes everything.
“It’s a new world,” he says, “a new world... Golde... do you love me?”
“Do I what?” she responds. “Do you love me?” he repeats. Such a question! Surely he is worn out by his daughter’s marital plans and pending threats against Jews in their village. “Go lie down, maybe it’s indigestion,” Golde tells him. Yet Tevye insists: “Golde, I’m asking you a question... do you love me?”
“Do I love you? For 25 years I’ve washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cow. After 25 years, why talk about love right now?”
Peter may have shared Golde’s confusion -- and maybe we do too. This post-resurrection rehabilitation breakfast becomes uncomfortable as the dishes are cleared. The joy of the record catch is over. Calling Peter to one side, Jesus shows he’s intent on grilling more than just the fish they’ve hauled to shore. “Do you love me?” he asks. The world has changed.
Not once, not twice. Peter squirms under Jesus’ thrice-repeated question. Each affirmative response brings the adjoining instruction: “Feed my sheep.” With the beach fire crackling behind them and their bellies stuffed with fish, there seems little doubt why Jesus wants to talk about love right now.
Love emerges in specific acts of discipleship -- feeding hungry disciples, encouraging disheartened workers, even welcoming refugees from distant lands.
Jesus makes it clear that the work involved in this sort of discipleship will take Peter “where you do not wish to go.” He continues to call the disciples to fish on the other side of the boat. It’s this sort of outside-of-the-box thinking which characterizes all forms of ministry in Jesus’ name. He tells them that ministry involves concrete acts of love -- feeding, tending, shepherding. John’s postlude to the gospel this Third Sunday of Easter offers our congregations a chance to stand on the beach with Jesus, where they are asked again and again: “Do you love me... more than these?”
Do I what?
It’s a vital question, especially as the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees continues to make headlines across the world. Demands to keep borders open to displaced Syrians are mixed with the constant shouts of “we are refugees.” Like Jesus’ question to Peter, the pleas of refugees continue to be heard.
As their cries reverberate in our ears, Jesus’ question becomes what Frances Taylor Gench calls the “qualifying exam for pastoral ministry” (see Encounters with Jesus [Westminster/John Knox Press, 2007], p. 148). It’s a question not only for Peter or for pastors, but for all who follow Jesus. Standing on the beach, he asks “Do you love me?” -- and then, as if to reinforce the point, says, “Follow me.”
The longing, desperate, and lost lambs of God searching for asylum and pastures of rest in the world today define the church’s mission. Do we love Jesus?
It’s time to tend the lambs.
Why speak of love now? Indeed -- our nation is enduring an already blistering political campaign, North Korea is teasing the world with nukes, terrorists hide in shadows, and spring weather patterns are as unpredictable as a college basketball championship. Dare we also speak of tending to the lives of immigrants and refugees?
In one sense, the sheer numbers of refugees demand that we demonstrate our love for Christ. It remains a crisis of historic proportions. The recently concluded Geneva conference on refugees led to additional commitments by nations to increase the number of refugees they will accept. But United Nations officials contend that the crisis demands commitment from more nations. The humanitarian crisis -- larger than anything the world has witnessed since World War II -- invites the church to consider Jesus’ question: “Do you love me?”
We must speak of love because the United Nations estimates that at least 10 percent of the 4.8 million refugees in countries neighboring Syria will need to be resettled before 2018. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a statement that “Refugees fleeing conflict and violence and arriving in Europe carry an important message: addressing their plight cannot only be the task of countries and communities that are close to wars. It is a global responsibility that must be widely shared until peace prevails again.” About half of Syria’s pre-war population has now fled the war-torn nation and is displaced.
Their status remains uncertain. In Greece, more than 50,000 immigrants remain stranded near the closed borders of Austria and the Balkan nations. Austria received more than 90,000 immigrants last year, and has taken actions to restrict entrance of more refugees in 2016.
Poland announced that it will accept upwards of 7,000 refugees. But it will only accept those who have cleared security clearances and who are also willing to commit to settling in Poland. In contrast, Canada has already managed to accept 25,000 refugees in just four months, tossing out a broad welcome mat to those unwanted by other nations.
“Canada’s one of the few countries which is saying ‘Come on in’ to many refugees, albeit after they’re checked properly for security and health,” said John McCallum, Canada’s Minister of Immigration. “In the United States, they are divided. We have the Obama administration supporting us wholeheartedly on this. But we have Donald Trump saying keep all the Muslims out.”
President Obama has said the United States will accept at least 10,000 refugees, though lawmakers have challenged the move. Resettlement remains a bitterly divisive issue in the United States, particularly after terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels. Yet many remain confident that security checks are adequate, and point out that since September 11, 2001, only three refugees in the United States have been arrested for planning terrorist activities.
“I would challenge any American to go and see the screening process and not be convinced that it is incredibly thorough and, secondly, to not have their heart pulled by the children, these children and their families, that are fleeing horrendous circumstances,” Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri said after traveling to Israel, Jordan, and Austria last week.
Fear remains, however -- despite the clear and unambiguous instructions of Jesus to “feed my sheep.” In the wake of the Brussels attacks, Senator Ted Cruz suggested beefing up police patrols of Muslim neighborhoods in the United States. The political rhetoric has been successful in slowing resettlement efforts in the United States -- so far only about 1,300 refugees have entered the country.
Pointing to Pope Francis’ humble act of washing the feet of Muslim refugees, President Obama called the nation to broader acceptance. The pope’s actions were, he told a prayer breakfast, “a powerful reminder of our obligations if, in fact, we’re not afraid, and if, in fact, we hope, and if, in fact, we believe.”
Like Peter, we are facing a world turned upside-down. But the new world has been defined by Jesus. He’s been to the beach, made a fire, and prepared food for those he has called. Those actions set the tone for the ministry he calls all who love him to undertake.
Feeding and tending are more than political actions. They are the faithful responses of disciples who respond to his questions by saying, “Yes, Lord, you know that we love you.” That is our affirmation of resurrection.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
In his Good Friday homily, Pope Francis expressed concern about the number of refugees who are dying as try to flee oppression in Syria. Noting that the Mediterranean and Aegean seas are two of the major routes for refugees and migrants, he called them a watery cemetery for the many who perish because of unsafe sailing conditions and European nations that refuse to accommodate them. Francis said the waters are “insatiable cemeteries, reflections of our indifferent and anesthetized conscience.” Let me repeat what the pope said: “insatiable cemeteries, reflections of our indifferent and anesthetized conscience.”
Application: Paul had an anesthetized conscience until he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus.
*****
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
Pope Francis expressed concern in his Good Friday homily about the great number of refugees who die trying to flee the oppression in Syria. To make his point visible, he evoked the image of Jesus on the cross. Francis said we are able to see Jesus “in the faces of children, of women and people, worn out and fearful, who flee war and violence and who often find death.”
Application: When Paul was able to look Jesus in the face, he knew he had a mission. It was a mission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, and it was a mission to preach the gospel to all who are worn out and fearful.
*****
Revelation 5:11-14
This past Good Friday in the Philippines, Ruben Enaje had himself nailed to a cross -- literally -- for the 30th year in a row. Each year four-inch stainless steel nails are hammered through the same spot in his palms and feet. The 55-year-old painter began this practice after he fell from a three-story building and was unhurt. Thousands of Filipinos and tourists take photographs of Enaje on the cross.
Application: It is enough to sing our praises to God without rituals of drama, pain, and public display.
*****
John 21:1-19
In 1912, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott knew his Antarctic expedition was doomed and that he would perish. A blizzard prevented his expedition from being the first to reach the South Pole. The last entry in Scott’s journal read, “For God’s sake, look after our people.”
Application: When Jesus said “feed my sheep,” he was in essence saying “for God’s sake, look after my people.”
*****
John 21:1-19
Kobe Bryant is known as an uncompromising competitor on the basketball court. The “Black Mamba” is renowned for his steely gaze and trash-talking. But that’s Bryant on the court. When he is not competing he is kind and merciful, engaged in many humanitarian enterprises. He volunteers for Make-A-Wish, the Boys and Girls Clubs, and many other worthy organizations. As he will soon be retiring, Bryant plans to devote even more time to helping others. Of his efforts Bryant said, “Being able to play the game is a blessing.... The chance to impact people’s lives is so much bigger than the game itself.”
Application: When Jesus said “feed my sheep,” he was telling us to play the biggest game of all -- and that is impacting the lives of others.
*****
John 21:1-19
The newspaper comic Real Life Adventures highlights the ordinary, mundane aspects of life. In a recent episode, Dad is sitting in his easy chair when his son comes up to him and asks a very philosophical question: “Dad, do you have any words to live by?” Without hesitation, the father responds: “Yes. Keep breathing.”
Application: When Jesus said “follow me,” he meant to keep breathing, keep going, keep serving.
*****
John 21:1-19
American Idol is in its 15th (and final) season of discovering new, young, and creative vocal talent. The show debuted in 2002 -- but when superstar Prince preformed in the 2006 season-ending show, Idol became also became a showcase for nationally recognized artists. Since then, a superstar performer has always appeared on the year’s final segment. This season’s last show will be no different. Yet executive producer Nigel Lythgoe says that the show’s appeal isn’t dependent on those superstar performances: “It isn’t about the stars coming on and singing their record. American Idol was never about that. It was about the young stars we created.”
Application: Jesus’ call to “follow me” is always about creating new disciples.
*****
John 21:1-19
Dee Gordon, the second baseman for the Miami Marlins, led major league baseball in hits last year with 205. Gordon seldom hits a home run; most of his hits are singles. But as the Marlins’ leadoff batter, his job is not to drive in runs; it’s to get on base and set the team up to score. And Gordon only became a proficient hitter when he gave up focusing on being walked by the pitcher. Gordon was so obsessed on his on-base percentage that he wasn’t aggressive at the plate. Gordon now says, “I don’t care about walking.”
Application: As disciples of Jesus who answer his call to “follow me,” we need not be concerned about walking, or on-base percentage, or home runs -- only that we are swinging away, hitting singles, and doing our best.
*****
John 21:1-19
The first consumer-ready Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset was delivered to a real person recently. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey hand-delivered the device to Ross Martin, a 33-year-old web designer in Anchorage, Alaska. After playing with the device and living in a virtual world, Martin said, “I couldn’t stop saying ‘wow.’ ”
Application: When the disciples saw Jesus on the beach, I am sure they could not stop saying “wow.” But the resurrected Jesus they saw was not one a virtual-reality experience; it was real life.
*****
John 21:1-19
Ben Affleck is starring as Batman in the recently released movie Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. The characters are based on comic books produced by DC and Marvel. Affleck reads material from both companies, and considers there to be very little difference between the two in the comics and the movies that are made from their storylines. He summed this up by saying, “They’re all movies about people who wear costumes and have superpowers.”
Application: As Jesus stood on the shore, he needed no costume and everyone knew his superpowers. Cast your nets on the right side, and we have been empowered by Jesus ever since.
***************
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
The Gospel According to Android
A recent ad campaign for Android, the operating system for cellphones and tablets developed by Google, has championed not just the product itself but also an idea. The idea is that everyone doesn’t have to be the same in order to be acceptable, and the ads all feature the line “Be together. Not the same.”
In one commercial all the characters are finger puppets, and they could not be more diverse. They include space aliens, ancient Egyptians, werewolves, farmers, doctors, and humans of all kinds, races, and natures. They are all traveling to somewhere, and at the end of the ad we see that they have all arrived at the same house for a huge dinner party where all are happy and enjoying each other’s company. Then superimposed on that scene we see these words appear: “Be together. Not the same.” And then the product sponsoring the ad: Android.
It’s clever, cute, effective -- and a message from which we could all learn an important lesson.
*****
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
Restricted Admittance
Just about everyone knows that it was Groucho Marx who first said, “I would never join a club that would have me as a member.” Most, however, don’t know that that remark had its genesis in a real event in the life of the Marx family.
Groucho’s teenage daughter had been invited to go swimming at a country club with some of her friends, but when the group arrived at the club she was refused admittance because her family were not club members.
A few days later the club realized who they had turned away, and they wrote a letter of apology to Groucho and his family which included an application for membership to the club. Groucho responded with the famous line that was later used in one of his movies and in his onstage comedy routines.
The club, still embarrassed, asked if they could submit an application to the membership committee on his behalf. Groucho allowed them to do so -- but this was a “restricted” club, so when the committee discovered that Groucho was Jewish his membership was denied.
Groucho responded with a letter to the committee in which he said, “My wife is not Jewish. So my daughter’s only half Jewish; perhaps she can be a member and wade in the pool up to her knees.”
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: We will extol you, O God, for you have drawn us up.
People: O God, we cried to you for help, and you have healed us.
Leader: Sing praises to God, and give thanks to God’s holy name.
People: God’s anger is but for a moment, but God’s favor is for a lifetime.
Leader: Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
People: God has turned our mourning into dancing.
OR
Leader: Our Creator invites us into the presence of the holy.
People: God’s holiness is only matched by God’s love and grace.
Leader: God’s awesomeness is found in all creation.
People: We find God’s presence in nature and in one another.
Leader: God’s glory and image are waiting to be found in all.
People: Let us rejoice in God’s glory and look for it in others.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Lord, Speak to Me”
found in:
UMH: 463
PH: 426
NCH: 531
ELA: 676
W&P: 593
“Children of the Heavenly Father”
found in:
UMH: 141
NCH: 487
LBW: 474
ELA: 781
W&P: 83
“Help Us Accept Each Other”
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
“Where Charity and Love Prevail”
found in:
UMH: 549
H82: 581
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELA: 359
“Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service”
found in:
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELA: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
“This Is My Song”
found in:
UMH: 437
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELA: 887
STLT: 159
“O God of Every Nation”
found in:
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELA: 713
W&P: 626
“We Are His Hands”
found in:
CCB: 85
“Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 72
Renew: 188
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: 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 is eternally creating: Grant us the faith to believe that you have not given up on us and that all your children can be re-created in your image; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for your eternal creating power. We pray that you would help us to see the good you created in all people. Give us faith in you and in your amazing grace. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our quickness to judge others in a negative light.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have made all people in your image, and yet we insist on putting people into groups. Sometimes it is without malice and even helpful, but too often we end up sitting in negative judgment on others. We put people into groups, and then we label them. We fail to see them as individuals you have created and filled with your Spirit. Help us to see others as you see them, as your children. Open our eyes and our hearts that we may share your love with all people. Amen.
Leader: God is our creator and our redeemer. Receive God’s love and share it with others.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We bring praise and honor to your name, O God, for you have created all that is, seen and unseen. Every person has been created by you to bear your image.
(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. You have made all people in your image, and yet we insist on putting people into groups. Sometimes it is without malice and even helpful, but too often we end up sitting in negative judgment on others. We put people into groups, and then we label them. We fail to see them as individuals you have created and filled with your Spirit. Help us to see others as you see them, as your children. Open our eyes and our hearts that we may share your love with all people.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have blessed us and shared your love with us. We thank you for those who have loved us even when we thought we were unlovable. Through them we learned of your love for us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for the needs of all creation. We pray for those who feel pushed away and treated poorly by others. We pray for those whose rights have been violated by governments, groups, and other people. We pray for your healing presence to flow throughout our world, and especially through us who bear your name.
(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 Lord’s Prayer 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
Have a dish of M&M’s. Talk about how they are all different colors. We could divide them into groups according to color, but they are all alike on the inside. And even though they look different, they all taste alike. (You can have a contest to see if the children can guess the color by eating them.)
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Together, Not the Same
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
You will need: a “prize” for each child (candy, coins, small toys, whatever)
(When the children have gathered and are seated, tell them that today we are going to divide up the group according to eye color.) Everyone with blue eyes please sit here, everyone with brown eyes sit here, and everyone with green eyes sit here. Very good.
Now, since I have blue eyes I believe that blue eyes are better -- so everyone with blue eyes gets to sit right here in the front and center and each one gets a prize. (Hand out prizes to blue-eyed children.)
Okay, thanks for coming down. You can return to your seats now -- blue-eyed children first.
What? That’s not fair? Why isn’t it fair? Oh, you think eye color shouldn’t matter? You think we should love everyone the same, and that everyone, regardless of eye color, should get a prize?
Well, you know what? So does God. God loves everyone the same -- regardless of eye color, or skin color, or what language they speak, or where they live, or how much money they have, or what church they go to. God loves all of us the same, and God wants us to love each other the same.
So, okay -- everyone gets a prize. And do you know what the prize is that God gives us all the same? It’s love. God’s love is the prize we all get.
(End with a prayer thanking God for his unconditional love that is freely given, and asking for God’s help as we try to love everyone regardless of our differences.)
Note: If the number of children in your congregation is small, you can invite some youth or adults to participate as well. I have even done it with the entire congregation participating and the prize being seating preference, e.g., blue-eyed people get to sit down front, etc.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 10, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 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.
But as team member Mary Austin points out in this installment of The Immediate Word, the goals of those persecuting Christians today are also both political and religious -- they want to re-establish the historic Islamic caliphate, and (in Sacks’ words) “to silence anyone and anything that threatens to express a different truth, another faith, a different approach to religious difference.” Mary explores these parallels -- especially given our all too human temptation to separate followers of our religious from those we consider apostates -- but also reflects on how God is able to find great hope and promise on those we might consider unredeemable. After all, even Saul -- who is described as having done “much evil to your saints in Jerusalem” -- changes his behavior and turns his life completely around. Ananias is (understandably) skeptical at first -- but he follows the Lord’s instructions and restores Saul’s sight. Like Ananias, we too may question the veracity of conversions -- but Mary reminds us that this story shows we need to be open to the possibility of change... whether we are the ones being transformed or those who (similar to Ananias) are facilitating that transformation.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the gospel passage and Jesus’ asking Peter three times “Do you love me?” In each instance Peter responds: “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus then tells Peter that means he should “Feed my sheep.” Moreover, Jesus tells us, this demonstration of our love through caring action will often “take [us] where [we] do not wish to go.” As Chris notes, that certainly might be exemplified by our approach to welcoming refugees, particularly those from the Middle East. It’s a politically charged issue that raises passions but also cuts to the heart of how willing we are to care for those in dire straits. Furthermore, it reveals the mindset we bring to ministry in the world. Are we in the church able to wrestle with our fears, tendency toward caution, and comfort with time-honored habits to follow our Lord’s admonition to care for his flock -- even if it requires us to abandon our comfort zones and to think and live “outside the box”?
Fences Make Bad Neighbors
by Mary Austin
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
Floating around the internet is the little truism “If your religion requires you to hate someone, you need a new religion.” That’s easier said than done. Built into the exercise of any religion is a division of “us” and “them,” so we know who’s in the fold and who’s not. Once we start sorting, it becomes easy to change our behavior for people outside the group. Whether we smother them with kindness or try to kill them, it begins with the dividing up.
Saul is clear that these new followers of Jesus are a threat to the Judaism he has always known and practiced, and he is “breathing threats and murder” as he heads to Damascus to round up any believers he finds. He aims to bring them back to Jerusalem “bound” and ready for examination by the high priest. Even when we remember that Acts was written by followers of Jesus, we can feel the menace that the followers of Jesus felt from him. Motivated by faith, Saul is a dangerous man.
Motivated by faith, Christians have also been dangerous to others throughout history (the Crusades, the persecution of Jews, the treatment of women accused of being witches, the treatment of gay and lesbian people, to name a few...). Any commentary on the violence of other religions begins with that in our minds. In our time, one form of Islam -- the Islamic State -- has taken up the violent work of doing away with people outside their brand of faith.
In the World
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks recently wrote an opinion piece noting the wave of religious persecution wherever the Islamic State army has a presence. The Islamic State (also known by the acronyms ISIL, ISIS, and Daesh) ruthlessly persecutes Christians and even Muslims who are sympathetic to Christians, using them as an example to other Muslims. Rabbi Sacks writes: “In Mosul, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, Christians were forced to flee by Islamic State (ISIL) in the summer of 2014. In Afghanistan the last church was burned to the ground in 2010. In Gaza in 2007, after the rise of Hamas, the last Christian bookshop was destroyed and its owner murdered. In Yemen, on Good Friday, Father Tom Uzhunnallil, an Indian Catholic priest, was crucified by ISIL.The ethnic cleansing of Christians throughout the Middle East is one of the crimes against humanity of our time, and I am appalled that there has been little serious international protest.” Sacks adds: “The aim of ISIL is political: to re-establish the Caliphate and make Islam once more an imperial power. But there is another aim shared by many jihadist groups: to silence anyone and anything that threatens to express a different truth, another faith, a different approach to religious difference.” Terror is an instrument used in service to their brand of Islam.
Sacks calls upon all people of faith to work against this kind of religious terrorism: “This kind of movement cannot be defeated by military means alone. The world needs to hear another voice from within Islam, echoing the open-mindedness that made Islamic Spain in the eighth to 12th centuries the ‘ornament of the world.’ We need people of all faiths to express their active opposition to terror in the name of God.... No genuine religion ever needed violence to prove its beauty, or terror to establish its truth. This is not faith but sacrilege.”
Muslim victims of Islamic State violence outnumber Christians. Last year, Graeme Wood wrote in The Atlantic that we can only understand the motivations of the Islamic State forces “in light of a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately to bringing about the apocalypse.” If we miss that lens, we fail to understand their motivations and strategies. The Islamic State, Wood says, “is committed to purifying the world by killing vast numbers of people. The lack of objective reporting from its territory makes the true extent of the slaughter unknowable, but social-media posts from the region suggest that individual executions happen more or less continually, and mass executions every few weeks. Muslim ‘apostates’ are the most common victims.”
The Islamic State divides up people between those with the correct set of beliefs, and all others. The others are fair game for violence in many forms -- beheadings, rape, enslavement -- because they don’t follow the true form of Islam, as Islamic State followers see it. Wood notes that one imam, an ardent defender of the faith, “took pains to present the laws of war under which the Islamic State operates as policies of mercy rather than of brutality. He told me the state has an obligation to terrorize its enemies -- a holy order to scare the s*** out of them with beheadings and crucifixions and enslavement of women and children, because doing so hastens victory and avoids prolonged conflict.”
In the Scriptures
Saul, pre-conversion, has a similar view of the world. He’s seeking out followers of Jesus, who obviously can’t be truly faithful Jews. Eric Barreto observes that there’s a delicious irony in Saul persecuting the “followers of the Way” and then being struck by God on his own way to Damascus. Barreto adds: “Plus, Saul’s call will also be characterized by a life on the road in his many journeys around the Mediterranean. ‘The Way’ is a powerful metaphor for Christian identity. Instead of being identified by a set of beliefs, these faithful communities were known by their character in the world. Christian faith was a way of life and one that impelled individuals and communities to leave the safe confines of home and church to walk on the road God had set out. ‘The Way’ suggests that faith is a living, active way of life.”
Saul/Paul is “without sight” for three days -- he is deprived of the physical ability to see, and his condition is a mirror for his spiritual blindness. The three days without sight, food, or drink leave him in a tomb-like state, and point us to his spiritual resurrection. God could have easily healed Paul after the three days, but God sends Ananias to do it as a way of healing the breach between them. The story begins with Saul/Paul having the power to destroy life, and ends with a reversal of power. Now Ananias has the power to heal Paul.
Paul’s conversion story is really two conversion stories -- both Paul and Ananias are converted into new ways of seeing. Perhaps every conversion has two faces. In the story just before this in Acts, the Ethiopian eunuch is baptized into faith, but Philip also has a change of heart and is able to see him as a full participant in the faith. The person at the heart of the story is converted, but the people around also have to take in this new figure and accept him. God instructs Ananias that Paul is part of God’s plan, and Ananias objects at first. We can understand his reluctance to reach out to the man who has brought such violence to the early Christian faith. Humility is needed on both sides, and a deep ability to let go of the past.
A conversion also involves doing something, not just changing our minds. The truth of Saul/Paul’s conversion becomes apparent in how he lives from that time forward. In a similar vein, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said recently that he was wrong about poor people. Ryan admitted: “There was a time when I would talk about a difference between ‘makers’ and ‘takers’ in our country, referring to people who accepted government benefits. But as I spent more time listening, and really learning the root causes of poverty, I realized I was wrong. ‘Takers’ wasn’t how to refer to a single mom stuck in a poverty trap, just trying to take care of her family. Most people don't want to be dependent. And to label a whole group of Americans that way was wrong.” The depth of Ryan’s conversion is yet to be seen, and will become apparent in how he uses -- or doesn’t -- the power of his office to change the lives of poor people.
In the Sermon
God jolted Saul/Paul out of his worldview about who was righteous and who was not. He set out to Damascus to purify one brand of faith, and ended up becoming the biggest advocate for opening the doors in a different kind. On a much smaller scale (hopefully), every faith community has its own divisions. No one is at risk of beheading (hopefully), but there are divisions about who is “in” enough to use the kitchen, or count the money, or have lunch with the pastor. The sermon might look at the unspoken divisions of your community, and how we divide people up. Every congregation says that everyone is welcome, but then we live it out with mixed success.
Or the sermon might look at where we, like Saul/Paul, are blindly moving along, and where God has to go to dramatic lengths to get our attention. Where does God stop us in our tracks and change our direction?
Or the sermon might examine what happens after the moment of conversion. The change in our minds is the first step, and then we have to make it real in our lives. The most interesting time is after the mental change -- what do we do next? How do we change long-standing patterns of behavior? How do we reach out to people we have scorned? Is anyone coming to us, like Ananias did, to guide us into the new place? How do we ask for forgiveness, or begin to assure people that we’re now on their side?
In this Easter season, it’s interesting to consider Paul’s resurrection into a whole new life. God could have just struck him blind and left him without the ability to pester the new believers, but God bothers to reshape him into a great advocate for this new way of faith. God is always resurrecting us into new ways of life, and the sermon might talk about that. Both Paul and Ananias have to be willing participants in the resurrection process for it to happen. The sermon might explore where we are willing to go along with God’s resurrection plans, and where we say “no thanks” and choose to stay where we are.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Do I What?
by Chris Keating
John 21:1-19
“Do you love me?”
The question tosses Peter off balance, forcing him to revisit the tensions of the previous week. He’d failed Jesus, slipping on his own clay feet. Now, before the embers of another charcoal fire, Simon faces Jesus in a shoreline moment of truth.
Peter’s post-brunch reckoning begins with a quick Q & A. Jesus makes it clear that in a world transformed by resurrection, love is demonstrated in acts of courageous love. He needs to know where Peter stands. “Do you love me?”
It’s a question that changes everything.
In the classic Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof, lead character Tevye ponders the drastically changed nature of his world. Confused by a dizzying array of evolving traditions and rising political tensions, Tevye discovers that the world he knows may not really be as it seems. Yearning for certainty, Tevye asks his wife Golde a question that changes everything.
“It’s a new world,” he says, “a new world... Golde... do you love me?”
“Do I what?” she responds. “Do you love me?” he repeats. Such a question! Surely he is worn out by his daughter’s marital plans and pending threats against Jews in their village. “Go lie down, maybe it’s indigestion,” Golde tells him. Yet Tevye insists: “Golde, I’m asking you a question... do you love me?”
“Do I love you? For 25 years I’ve washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cow. After 25 years, why talk about love right now?”
Peter may have shared Golde’s confusion -- and maybe we do too. This post-resurrection rehabilitation breakfast becomes uncomfortable as the dishes are cleared. The joy of the record catch is over. Calling Peter to one side, Jesus shows he’s intent on grilling more than just the fish they’ve hauled to shore. “Do you love me?” he asks. The world has changed.
Not once, not twice. Peter squirms under Jesus’ thrice-repeated question. Each affirmative response brings the adjoining instruction: “Feed my sheep.” With the beach fire crackling behind them and their bellies stuffed with fish, there seems little doubt why Jesus wants to talk about love right now.
Love emerges in specific acts of discipleship -- feeding hungry disciples, encouraging disheartened workers, even welcoming refugees from distant lands.
Jesus makes it clear that the work involved in this sort of discipleship will take Peter “where you do not wish to go.” He continues to call the disciples to fish on the other side of the boat. It’s this sort of outside-of-the-box thinking which characterizes all forms of ministry in Jesus’ name. He tells them that ministry involves concrete acts of love -- feeding, tending, shepherding. John’s postlude to the gospel this Third Sunday of Easter offers our congregations a chance to stand on the beach with Jesus, where they are asked again and again: “Do you love me... more than these?”
Do I what?
It’s a vital question, especially as the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees continues to make headlines across the world. Demands to keep borders open to displaced Syrians are mixed with the constant shouts of “we are refugees.” Like Jesus’ question to Peter, the pleas of refugees continue to be heard.
As their cries reverberate in our ears, Jesus’ question becomes what Frances Taylor Gench calls the “qualifying exam for pastoral ministry” (see Encounters with Jesus [Westminster/John Knox Press, 2007], p. 148). It’s a question not only for Peter or for pastors, but for all who follow Jesus. Standing on the beach, he asks “Do you love me?” -- and then, as if to reinforce the point, says, “Follow me.”
The longing, desperate, and lost lambs of God searching for asylum and pastures of rest in the world today define the church’s mission. Do we love Jesus?
It’s time to tend the lambs.
Why speak of love now? Indeed -- our nation is enduring an already blistering political campaign, North Korea is teasing the world with nukes, terrorists hide in shadows, and spring weather patterns are as unpredictable as a college basketball championship. Dare we also speak of tending to the lives of immigrants and refugees?
In one sense, the sheer numbers of refugees demand that we demonstrate our love for Christ. It remains a crisis of historic proportions. The recently concluded Geneva conference on refugees led to additional commitments by nations to increase the number of refugees they will accept. But United Nations officials contend that the crisis demands commitment from more nations. The humanitarian crisis -- larger than anything the world has witnessed since World War II -- invites the church to consider Jesus’ question: “Do you love me?”
We must speak of love because the United Nations estimates that at least 10 percent of the 4.8 million refugees in countries neighboring Syria will need to be resettled before 2018. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a statement that “Refugees fleeing conflict and violence and arriving in Europe carry an important message: addressing their plight cannot only be the task of countries and communities that are close to wars. It is a global responsibility that must be widely shared until peace prevails again.” About half of Syria’s pre-war population has now fled the war-torn nation and is displaced.
Their status remains uncertain. In Greece, more than 50,000 immigrants remain stranded near the closed borders of Austria and the Balkan nations. Austria received more than 90,000 immigrants last year, and has taken actions to restrict entrance of more refugees in 2016.
Poland announced that it will accept upwards of 7,000 refugees. But it will only accept those who have cleared security clearances and who are also willing to commit to settling in Poland. In contrast, Canada has already managed to accept 25,000 refugees in just four months, tossing out a broad welcome mat to those unwanted by other nations.
“Canada’s one of the few countries which is saying ‘Come on in’ to many refugees, albeit after they’re checked properly for security and health,” said John McCallum, Canada’s Minister of Immigration. “In the United States, they are divided. We have the Obama administration supporting us wholeheartedly on this. But we have Donald Trump saying keep all the Muslims out.”
President Obama has said the United States will accept at least 10,000 refugees, though lawmakers have challenged the move. Resettlement remains a bitterly divisive issue in the United States, particularly after terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels. Yet many remain confident that security checks are adequate, and point out that since September 11, 2001, only three refugees in the United States have been arrested for planning terrorist activities.
“I would challenge any American to go and see the screening process and not be convinced that it is incredibly thorough and, secondly, to not have their heart pulled by the children, these children and their families, that are fleeing horrendous circumstances,” Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri said after traveling to Israel, Jordan, and Austria last week.
Fear remains, however -- despite the clear and unambiguous instructions of Jesus to “feed my sheep.” In the wake of the Brussels attacks, Senator Ted Cruz suggested beefing up police patrols of Muslim neighborhoods in the United States. The political rhetoric has been successful in slowing resettlement efforts in the United States -- so far only about 1,300 refugees have entered the country.
Pointing to Pope Francis’ humble act of washing the feet of Muslim refugees, President Obama called the nation to broader acceptance. The pope’s actions were, he told a prayer breakfast, “a powerful reminder of our obligations if, in fact, we’re not afraid, and if, in fact, we hope, and if, in fact, we believe.”
Like Peter, we are facing a world turned upside-down. But the new world has been defined by Jesus. He’s been to the beach, made a fire, and prepared food for those he has called. Those actions set the tone for the ministry he calls all who love him to undertake.
Feeding and tending are more than political actions. They are the faithful responses of disciples who respond to his questions by saying, “Yes, Lord, you know that we love you.” That is our affirmation of resurrection.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
In his Good Friday homily, Pope Francis expressed concern about the number of refugees who are dying as try to flee oppression in Syria. Noting that the Mediterranean and Aegean seas are two of the major routes for refugees and migrants, he called them a watery cemetery for the many who perish because of unsafe sailing conditions and European nations that refuse to accommodate them. Francis said the waters are “insatiable cemeteries, reflections of our indifferent and anesthetized conscience.” Let me repeat what the pope said: “insatiable cemeteries, reflections of our indifferent and anesthetized conscience.”
Application: Paul had an anesthetized conscience until he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus.
*****
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
Pope Francis expressed concern in his Good Friday homily about the great number of refugees who die trying to flee the oppression in Syria. To make his point visible, he evoked the image of Jesus on the cross. Francis said we are able to see Jesus “in the faces of children, of women and people, worn out and fearful, who flee war and violence and who often find death.”
Application: When Paul was able to look Jesus in the face, he knew he had a mission. It was a mission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, and it was a mission to preach the gospel to all who are worn out and fearful.
*****
Revelation 5:11-14
This past Good Friday in the Philippines, Ruben Enaje had himself nailed to a cross -- literally -- for the 30th year in a row. Each year four-inch stainless steel nails are hammered through the same spot in his palms and feet. The 55-year-old painter began this practice after he fell from a three-story building and was unhurt. Thousands of Filipinos and tourists take photographs of Enaje on the cross.
Application: It is enough to sing our praises to God without rituals of drama, pain, and public display.
*****
John 21:1-19
In 1912, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott knew his Antarctic expedition was doomed and that he would perish. A blizzard prevented his expedition from being the first to reach the South Pole. The last entry in Scott’s journal read, “For God’s sake, look after our people.”
Application: When Jesus said “feed my sheep,” he was in essence saying “for God’s sake, look after my people.”
*****
John 21:1-19
Kobe Bryant is known as an uncompromising competitor on the basketball court. The “Black Mamba” is renowned for his steely gaze and trash-talking. But that’s Bryant on the court. When he is not competing he is kind and merciful, engaged in many humanitarian enterprises. He volunteers for Make-A-Wish, the Boys and Girls Clubs, and many other worthy organizations. As he will soon be retiring, Bryant plans to devote even more time to helping others. Of his efforts Bryant said, “Being able to play the game is a blessing.... The chance to impact people’s lives is so much bigger than the game itself.”
Application: When Jesus said “feed my sheep,” he was telling us to play the biggest game of all -- and that is impacting the lives of others.
*****
John 21:1-19
The newspaper comic Real Life Adventures highlights the ordinary, mundane aspects of life. In a recent episode, Dad is sitting in his easy chair when his son comes up to him and asks a very philosophical question: “Dad, do you have any words to live by?” Without hesitation, the father responds: “Yes. Keep breathing.”
Application: When Jesus said “follow me,” he meant to keep breathing, keep going, keep serving.
*****
John 21:1-19
American Idol is in its 15th (and final) season of discovering new, young, and creative vocal talent. The show debuted in 2002 -- but when superstar Prince preformed in the 2006 season-ending show, Idol became also became a showcase for nationally recognized artists. Since then, a superstar performer has always appeared on the year’s final segment. This season’s last show will be no different. Yet executive producer Nigel Lythgoe says that the show’s appeal isn’t dependent on those superstar performances: “It isn’t about the stars coming on and singing their record. American Idol was never about that. It was about the young stars we created.”
Application: Jesus’ call to “follow me” is always about creating new disciples.
*****
John 21:1-19
Dee Gordon, the second baseman for the Miami Marlins, led major league baseball in hits last year with 205. Gordon seldom hits a home run; most of his hits are singles. But as the Marlins’ leadoff batter, his job is not to drive in runs; it’s to get on base and set the team up to score. And Gordon only became a proficient hitter when he gave up focusing on being walked by the pitcher. Gordon was so obsessed on his on-base percentage that he wasn’t aggressive at the plate. Gordon now says, “I don’t care about walking.”
Application: As disciples of Jesus who answer his call to “follow me,” we need not be concerned about walking, or on-base percentage, or home runs -- only that we are swinging away, hitting singles, and doing our best.
*****
John 21:1-19
The first consumer-ready Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset was delivered to a real person recently. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey hand-delivered the device to Ross Martin, a 33-year-old web designer in Anchorage, Alaska. After playing with the device and living in a virtual world, Martin said, “I couldn’t stop saying ‘wow.’ ”
Application: When the disciples saw Jesus on the beach, I am sure they could not stop saying “wow.” But the resurrected Jesus they saw was not one a virtual-reality experience; it was real life.
*****
John 21:1-19
Ben Affleck is starring as Batman in the recently released movie Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. The characters are based on comic books produced by DC and Marvel. Affleck reads material from both companies, and considers there to be very little difference between the two in the comics and the movies that are made from their storylines. He summed this up by saying, “They’re all movies about people who wear costumes and have superpowers.”
Application: As Jesus stood on the shore, he needed no costume and everyone knew his superpowers. Cast your nets on the right side, and we have been empowered by Jesus ever since.
***************
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
The Gospel According to Android
A recent ad campaign for Android, the operating system for cellphones and tablets developed by Google, has championed not just the product itself but also an idea. The idea is that everyone doesn’t have to be the same in order to be acceptable, and the ads all feature the line “Be together. Not the same.”
In one commercial all the characters are finger puppets, and they could not be more diverse. They include space aliens, ancient Egyptians, werewolves, farmers, doctors, and humans of all kinds, races, and natures. They are all traveling to somewhere, and at the end of the ad we see that they have all arrived at the same house for a huge dinner party where all are happy and enjoying each other’s company. Then superimposed on that scene we see these words appear: “Be together. Not the same.” And then the product sponsoring the ad: Android.
It’s clever, cute, effective -- and a message from which we could all learn an important lesson.
*****
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
Restricted Admittance
Just about everyone knows that it was Groucho Marx who first said, “I would never join a club that would have me as a member.” Most, however, don’t know that that remark had its genesis in a real event in the life of the Marx family.
Groucho’s teenage daughter had been invited to go swimming at a country club with some of her friends, but when the group arrived at the club she was refused admittance because her family were not club members.
A few days later the club realized who they had turned away, and they wrote a letter of apology to Groucho and his family which included an application for membership to the club. Groucho responded with the famous line that was later used in one of his movies and in his onstage comedy routines.
The club, still embarrassed, asked if they could submit an application to the membership committee on his behalf. Groucho allowed them to do so -- but this was a “restricted” club, so when the committee discovered that Groucho was Jewish his membership was denied.
Groucho responded with a letter to the committee in which he said, “My wife is not Jewish. So my daughter’s only half Jewish; perhaps she can be a member and wade in the pool up to her knees.”
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: We will extol you, O God, for you have drawn us up.
People: O God, we cried to you for help, and you have healed us.
Leader: Sing praises to God, and give thanks to God’s holy name.
People: God’s anger is but for a moment, but God’s favor is for a lifetime.
Leader: Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
People: God has turned our mourning into dancing.
OR
Leader: Our Creator invites us into the presence of the holy.
People: God’s holiness is only matched by God’s love and grace.
Leader: God’s awesomeness is found in all creation.
People: We find God’s presence in nature and in one another.
Leader: God’s glory and image are waiting to be found in all.
People: Let us rejoice in God’s glory and look for it in others.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Lord, Speak to Me”
found in:
UMH: 463
PH: 426
NCH: 531
ELA: 676
W&P: 593
“Children of the Heavenly Father”
found in:
UMH: 141
NCH: 487
LBW: 474
ELA: 781
W&P: 83
“Help Us Accept Each Other”
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
“Where Charity and Love Prevail”
found in:
UMH: 549
H82: 581
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELA: 359
“Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service”
found in:
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELA: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
“This Is My Song”
found in:
UMH: 437
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELA: 887
STLT: 159
“O God of Every Nation”
found in:
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELA: 713
W&P: 626
“We Are His Hands”
found in:
CCB: 85
“Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 72
Renew: 188
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: 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 is eternally creating: Grant us the faith to believe that you have not given up on us and that all your children can be re-created in your image; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for your eternal creating power. We pray that you would help us to see the good you created in all people. Give us faith in you and in your amazing grace. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our quickness to judge others in a negative light.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have made all people in your image, and yet we insist on putting people into groups. Sometimes it is without malice and even helpful, but too often we end up sitting in negative judgment on others. We put people into groups, and then we label them. We fail to see them as individuals you have created and filled with your Spirit. Help us to see others as you see them, as your children. Open our eyes and our hearts that we may share your love with all people. Amen.
Leader: God is our creator and our redeemer. Receive God’s love and share it with others.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We bring praise and honor to your name, O God, for you have created all that is, seen and unseen. Every person has been created by you to bear your image.
(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. You have made all people in your image, and yet we insist on putting people into groups. Sometimes it is without malice and even helpful, but too often we end up sitting in negative judgment on others. We put people into groups, and then we label them. We fail to see them as individuals you have created and filled with your Spirit. Help us to see others as you see them, as your children. Open our eyes and our hearts that we may share your love with all people.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have blessed us and shared your love with us. We thank you for those who have loved us even when we thought we were unlovable. Through them we learned of your love for us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for the needs of all creation. We pray for those who feel pushed away and treated poorly by others. We pray for those whose rights have been violated by governments, groups, and other people. We pray for your healing presence to flow throughout our world, and especially through us who bear your name.
(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 Lord’s Prayer 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
Have a dish of M&M’s. Talk about how they are all different colors. We could divide them into groups according to color, but they are all alike on the inside. And even though they look different, they all taste alike. (You can have a contest to see if the children can guess the color by eating them.)
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Together, Not the Same
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
You will need: a “prize” for each child (candy, coins, small toys, whatever)
(When the children have gathered and are seated, tell them that today we are going to divide up the group according to eye color.) Everyone with blue eyes please sit here, everyone with brown eyes sit here, and everyone with green eyes sit here. Very good.
Now, since I have blue eyes I believe that blue eyes are better -- so everyone with blue eyes gets to sit right here in the front and center and each one gets a prize. (Hand out prizes to blue-eyed children.)
Okay, thanks for coming down. You can return to your seats now -- blue-eyed children first.
What? That’s not fair? Why isn’t it fair? Oh, you think eye color shouldn’t matter? You think we should love everyone the same, and that everyone, regardless of eye color, should get a prize?
Well, you know what? So does God. God loves everyone the same -- regardless of eye color, or skin color, or what language they speak, or where they live, or how much money they have, or what church they go to. God loves all of us the same, and God wants us to love each other the same.
So, okay -- everyone gets a prize. And do you know what the prize is that God gives us all the same? It’s love. God’s love is the prize we all get.
(End with a prayer thanking God for his unconditional love that is freely given, and asking for God’s help as we try to love everyone regardless of our differences.)
Note: If the number of children in your congregation is small, you can invite some youth or adults to participate as well. I have even done it with the entire congregation participating and the prize being seating preference, e.g., blue-eyed people get to sit down front, etc.
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The Immediate Word, April 10, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 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.
