In God We (Sometimes) Trust
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For March 17, 2019:
In God We (Sometimes) Trust
by Dean Feldmeyer
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Psalm 27; Philippians 3:17--4:1; Luke 13:31-35
We print the words, “In God We Trust,” on our money. But we don’t really. No, not really. How do I know?
Well, we spend more of that money on our military than the next seven countries. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2015 US defense spending outstripped that of China, Russia, UK, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia and India combined. In 2016, the last year figures were available, that was $664.1 billion, about 20% of all federal spending and about 39% of all global military spending.
Jesus said that where our money is, there our heart is, also. (Matthew 6:21)
So, when we spend that much money on weapons, how can we say that it is in God that we trust?
In the News
Joy and Dennis Robson were trusting parents. They loved their son, Wade, and they believed what he told them. And what he told them was that nothing inappropriate was going on.
Wade had won a dance contest in Australia where he imitated Michael Jackson’s dance moves. The prize was tickets to a Jackson concert and when the King of Pop heard of the contest and saw the diminutive five-year-old dancing, he invited Wade and his family to visit him in Los Angeles where he signed Robson to a contract and became the young dancer’s mentor. The Robson family, flattered by Jackson’s attention and excited about the possibilities it represented for their son, moved to Los Angeles to be closer to Jacko. Not long after, Michael invited Wade and his mother to accompany him on a trip to Hawaii. Michael, Wade and Joy all got their own palatial hotel rooms. They were living the dream.
According to Joy, it never occurred to her to question why, every time they changed hotels, her room got further and further from her son’s. Some 30 years later, in the HBO documentary, “Leaving Neverland,” Wade would explain why his mother’s room kept getting further away and why it didn’t occur to her or to him that the increasing distance represented anything suspicious or inappropriate.
According to the Robsons, upon reflection, Jackson was grooming both the child and the parent to become unsuspecting victims of pedophilia.
"He was one of the kindest, most gentle, loving, caring people I knew," says Wade Robson, who eventually built a career as a choreographer for artists such as Britney Spears and NSYNC. "He also sexually abused me for seven years."1
Because he seemed nice, kind, gentle, loving, and caring, they trusted him.
Eighteen-year-old, high school senior Ethan Lindenberger loves and trusts his mom. He trusts her to love him and care about him. He trusts that her love and her care of him is authentic. It’s just that in this one area, he believes that, despite her good intentions, she’s wrong.
She doesn’t believe in getting her children vaccinated. She’s heard some stuff on the internet and from her friends and she has become convinced that childhood vaccines pose a greater danger to kids than the diseases from which they are meant to protect children.
So, she didn’t get Ethan vaccinated as a child.
As he got older, Ethan did some reading of his own. He went on the website, reddit.com and asked people where he could get some accurate information about vaccinations. They directed him to the Center for Disease Control, and the American Academy of Pediatrics website and HealthyChildren.org, which has dozens of studies debunking common myths about vaccines. He showed the information he discovered to his mother but she remained adamantly unconvinced.
So, when he turned 18 in December of 2018, he went out and got the immunizations, himself.
His mother, Jill Wheeler, was shocked when she heard what he’d done. At first, her feelings were hurt and she likened his choice to spitting on her and everything she believed in. But, after some reflection, she softened her response. "I'm very proud of him for standing for what he believes in, even if it is against what I believe. He's a good boy. He's a good kid," she said.2
He trusts her to be a good mom and she trusts him to be a good kid, and their trust of each other trumps their differences of opinion. Not a bad deal, all in all.
In the Scripture
The thread that links our four texts this week is that of trust.
The readings challenge us to ask of ourselves as individuals and collectively as the church, “Whom, do you trust?”
In the Genesis text Abram has become impatient and vexed that the promises of the Lord seem to be slow in coming. Where is the heir that was promised to him, he wants to know. The nursery continues to be distressingly empty.
YHWH assures Abram that the promise will be fulfilled and he need only be patient. God takes Abram outside and has him took at the night sky. As many as the stars in the sky, that’s how many will be the number of your descendants, God tells Abram.
And Abram believes.
Or, more correctly, Abram puts his faith in the Lord, he trusts God.
And (this is my favorite part) that trust is counted as righteousness. We might not always be able to be righteous. In fact, we can hardly ever achieve righteousness. But we can be trusting. It is within our capabilities to trust, especially to trust in the Lord.
And YHWH will count our trust as righteousness.
The psalm begins and ends with trust in the Lord.
If God is my light and my salvation, says the psalmist, whom shall I fear? If God is the stronghold of my life, my fort that has been fortified against attack, of whom shall I be afraid?
And it ends much as the Genesis text began, with “belief.”
“I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” The righteousness of YHWH is not something that we are allowed to see only at the end of our lives, only in heaven, only in the afterlife. It is available to us right now, in this life. So what am I to do?
The psalmist answers the question: “Wait for the Lord!” And the key to successful waiting, as we all know, is trust. If we don’t trust that our waiting will be honored, we won’t wait. The thing that keeps us standing in line is our faith, our trust that, at the end of that line, is that which we require.
Paul warns the Philippians about those who seek instant spiritual gratification. We shouldn’t have to wait for the Lord as the psalmist encourages us to do, they say. We should be getting our reward right now, without sacrificing or waiting.
To be patient in waiting is difficult advice to follow; these are hard instructions to heed. Those who are suffering find it difficult to wait for the Lord. Even those of us who are just being inconvenienced often find ourselves drifting away from our faithful posture toward a more detached and casual attitude. But Paul encourages us to wait, to stand firm, to trust in the promises of the Lord.
Finally, in the gospel reading, Luke shows the Pharisees defying our expectations. These who have been something of a thorn in Jesus’ side, are now the ones who show up to warn him that Herod is plotting to have him killed.
Should he trust the Pharisees? Is their advice to be heeded? Should he flee or should he trust in what he is sure is God’s will for him, that he continue in the work that he has been given by the Lord? Convinced that his death will be in Jerusalem, in keeping with the prophecies about the messiah, he continues in the work of healing and casting out demons, at least for three more (symbolic) days, but not before he pauses to reflect on the nature of Jerusalem and how she has, historically, treated the prophets.
How he wishes, he says, that he could gather the holy city and those who abide in it under his wings as a mother hen gathers her brood to protect them in a storm.
Luke and his readers will hear in these verses, dark forebodings of the revolution and the destruction of the city and the temple in 70 CE and how all of this might have been avoided had the rebels trusted the words of Jesus when they were first spoken.
In the Pulpit
The temptation to be avoided with this topic is that of scolding.
Few things that we encounter in our lives as Christians is more tiring than the sermon that scolds us, as though the preacher is an all-knowing sage, a Christian Yoda who, had we only asked, would have told us the right and righteous things to do.
Trust in the Lord, or else!
More effective and faithful to the text would be an approach that shares with good humor how we all fall short of perfect trust. We all, from time to time, find it difficult to “wait for the Lord.” We all are vexed by the difficulties that challenge us when we attempt to “stand firm in the Lord.”
This is especially the case when we live in a culture that insists that we believe in other, lesser things that we know, in our hearts, have no lasting strength or value.
Trust in weapons, we are told. Invest our nation’s resources in bombs and get your concealed carry permit as quickly as possible. The only thing you can trust to keep you safe, we are told, is “a good guy with a gun.” God, apparently, isn’t part of the picture.
Trust in science, we are told. And we want to believe because we have seen the great good that science has done to purify our water and keep vast amounts of food cheap and plentiful. So just forget about the Tuskegee Experiments and Hiroshima and don’t even put a mention of Eugenics in the history books. Put all your trust in science, the culture shouts. God invented science, right?
The scripture lessons for this morning challenge the culture and so should we from the pulpit, but without scolding.
This is the indicative that drives the sermon: The trust that is required of the faithful disciple is not easy for even those with the strongest faith. It is a discipline.
But it is not a simple exercise, devoid of promise or reward.
The imperative: Our faithfulness, our trust, our willingness to believe in and live by the word of the Lord, not just when it’s easy or when there is no risk attached, but always, will be counted to us as righteousness. Trust in the Lord.
1 Eric Deggans, "'Leaving Neverland' Makes Powerful But One-Sided Case Against The King Of Pop" All Things Considered, NPR, March 1, 2019.
2 "Ohio teen defies mother and gets vaccinated after turning to strangers online" CBS This Morning, February 12, 2019.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Keep Going
by Mary Austin
Luke 13:31-35
When the threat from Herod comes, via the Pharisees, Jesus doesn’t seem to be too bothered by it. There’s no frenzied scene of him packing up and skipping town.
Just before this Jesus has been talking about bearing fruit, and responding to God’s invitations. He heals the woman who has been bent over for years, and she immediately praises God with her whole, healed being. When some Pharisees come to warn Jesus that Herod is after him, Jesus says, basically, thanks, but I’m going to keep working.
Jesus acknowledges Herod’s cunning, and answers it with his own wisdom. Herod is powerful, and yet there are other powers in this scene. Jesus has a different kind of power, and his is the power to embrace even the people who reject him, and to gather in even the unwilling. Herod has the ability to threaten and destroy, and Jesus has the contrasting authority to heal and restore. Jesus has experienced Herod’s greedy power before, in the death of his cousin John. He knows that it’s not a trivial power, but he’s going to keep using his own power as long as he can.
Jesus’ language points us ahead to his final entry into Jerusalem, and to the people who will call out, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord,” evoking an old pilgrims’ song drawn from Psalm 118. On the third day, Jesus says, his work will be complete. He’s looking ahead to resurrection time, not calendar time.
In this season of church pronouncements, councils and conferences, and a full measure of church scandals, there’s an elegant simplicity to Jesus’ choice to keep doing what he’s doing.
We need theology, and church conferences. Words matter, and we need theologians to craft them. But position papers and pronouncements are never as compelling as the people right in front of us. It would be interesting to read everything written about the Roman Catholic church gathering on sex abuse, or to watch the highlights from the United Methodist Church General Convention, but right now there are people knocking on our church doors who need help paying their electric bills, or who want to have a prayer before a dreaded surgery. We could keep clicking on articles about the future of the Southern Baptist Church, but there are kids who will be hungry this weekend when there’s no school breakfast and lunch. Older people will be lonely for visitors.
Jesus doesn’t pack up his healing and teaching and preaching and flee for the desert when he hears that Herod is seeking his life. (Déjà vu – different Herod, same threat as when he was a toddler.) He keeps working. The same is happening for many in the United Methodist Church (UMC) after the ruling on LGBTQ clergy and same sex marriages at the recent General Convention. Ash Wednesday found Rev. Jen Stuart on a college campus, handing out ashes mixed with glitter, even while she’s uncertain about her future in the UMC. “Draped on Rev. Stuart’s shoulders hung a rainbow scarf and around her neck swung a multicolored lanyard attached to a cross with the words inscribed “Christ is counting on you.” According to Reverend Stuart, Lent is a season of reflection on life, death and resurrection. “Just as our church is dying, something new will be born,” Stuart said. “That is a core belief of all Christians, and so glitter is just a way to sort of send a wink and a nod to our LGBTQ community, but it’s also a reflection on resurrection …. the light that shines forth, even in the darkness.” The church’s decision to ban same-sex marriage and gay clergy has added a layer of uncertainty for Stuart, raising the question for many to stay or fracture from the UMC. “To me, we’ve lost the brand. United Methodist now means we’re homophobic and I don’t know if you can recover from that in the West,” Stuart said.
The leadership at the 93 Methodist-affiliated colleges and universities are working to reassure their students that life on campus remains welcoming and non-judgmental. “In the wake of the vote, the leaders of most of the theological schools have issued public statements affirming their own institutions’ commitments to diversity, inclusion and nondiscrimination and in many cases expressing disagreement or distress with the vote outcome (a list of statements can be found here). A group of faculty at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology also issued an open letter Thursday expressing sadness with the vote outcome and love and support for the institution's LGBTQIA+ students.
Javier A. Viera, the vice provost and dean of the Theological School at Drew University, wrote in a message to faculty, students, staff and alumni that he was "outraged, embarrassed, and wounded by the actions of our church…” Methodist institutions go through a process of recommitting to their Methodist affiliation with the church every 10 years, and some may re-evaluate the connection. Schools are already taking Methodist symbols and mention of the affiliation out of their marketing materials. Institutions are concerned about making sure prospective students know that their schools welcome all prospective students. Meanwhile, they continue to teach classes, support students and give exams, so the work of education continues.
Jesus is realistic, not naïve. He knows there’s danger ahead. Even as he acknowledges that, he has the strength to reach out in hope. Lent is a reminder that death is always mixed with life, and Jesus reflects that mixture as he acknowledges Herod’s malevolence, and his own coming death, even while he keeps working. Many times in his ministry, Jesus withdraws from public life to pray, and he will again. But on this day, he keeps working, and he calls us to do the same.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Genesis observations
Abram is promised an heir, not just someone who stands to receive his inheritance, but a child of his own. He is getting on in years. The Lord does a few things to reassure Abram that the Lord’s promise can be trusted.
There’s a powerful image worth including in a sermon about trust. The Lord tells Abram to look at the sky and count the stars — if he can. The Lord promises Abe that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky.
[This isn’t as epic as the promise of descendants the Lord made to Abe in Genesis 13:16 where his offspring would be like the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.”] That’s a lot of descendants! Modern astronomy tells us that the universe is filled with stars that are not visible to people without telescopes.
The sky is filled with wonder. People who look at the sky — really look — share some important, healthy traits.
Baby boomers may remember the one and only hit song by the band Climax, “Precious and Few.” In the song the singer addresses his beloved with these words: “Quiet and blue, like the sky, I’m hung over you.” While it’s a cheesy pick up line, imagine that the Lord is singing that to you.
The sky is always there, but very few people really look at it. The sky is always changing; the sky is always hung above the earth.
Some Jews believe that weddings should be outdoors, so the couple can be directly under the sky, and thus recall the Lord’s blessing of many offspring to Abram. Some pastors have a sky blue stole that they wear whenever they preside at a wedding, a visual reminder of the Lord’s constant presence and abundant blessing.
* * *
The Distraction of the Sky
Back in the 1970s there was a push to remove distractions from public school classrooms. New schools often did not place clocks in the classrooms. Some schools put their hallways around the edges of the building, so all classrooms were without windows. Having grown up in schools that preceded this movement I can attest to how distracting the world outside school can be. Snow storms and fire engines often took our attention away from whatever was happening in the front of the class.
There was one bold teacher I remember, however, who complained about the absence of windows in his classroom. He had two reasons:
* * *
Genesis reading…a lesson from painful experience
Some translations of the Genesis reading say “a smoking brazier” instead of “a smoking fire pot.” If you’re using one of those translations, and a lay reader is reading, be sure that they know to pronounce “brazier” and not “brassiere.” (Oh sure it’s funny a decade later, but quite embarrassing in the moment.)
* * *
A little more about Genesis reading
The Lord makes two promises as part of the covenant between the Lord and Abram. The second one, vv.17-18, part of today’s reading is a “self-curse,” that is, “This is what I’ll do to myself if I fail to keep this covenant.” The first one is a summary of God’s promises to Abram of descendants and land. Abram effectively drops out of the picture and God, the much stronger partner in the covenant, makes the promises.
In trust relationships the stronger partner has more responsibility to keep the covenant: parents to children, for example or white people to marginalized people of other races.
* * *
Psalm 27
This morning’s psalm offers a contrasting image of God’s goodness from the Genesis reading. In the psalm God’s protection is the shelter of a tent to hide the psalmist from their enemies.
* * *
Psalm 27:14
Wait for it…
“Wait for it…” is a phrase that appeared in common usage a few years ago. Generally it was to heighten suspense before a punchline that was either obvious or not especially dramatic. How does “wait for it…” contrast with Psalm 27:14
Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!
* * *
Luke 13: 31-35
Good Pharisees?
This is the only place in the gospels where the Pharisees do anything close to being helpful to Jesus. They warn him about Herod. Herod is their common enemy — a threat to both of them. Enjoy this moment of détente.
My mother says that the reason that grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy!
* * *
Luke 13:31-35, compared to Matthew 23:37-39
There’s no détente between Jesus and the Pharisees in Matthew’s account of Jesus speaking woe to Jerusalem. Immediately before the lament over Jerusalem in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus has spent all of Matthew 23 sending out woe to the scribes and Pharisees.
Both accounts end with a foreshadowing of what we know as Palm Sunday.
* * *
Philippians 3:20
Citizenship in heaven?
Paul reminds the Philippians that their citizenship is in heaven. Contrast this notion of citizenship with that of those who want to repeal birthright citizenship as defined in the Constitution.
* * *
Philippians Imitating Paul being a role model
Paul urges the Philippians to imitate him; he presents himself as a role model. Role models are especially important for your people from marginalized groups. Just seeing someone who has become a physician or academic can give young people enough hope to follow their dreams.
With that in mind, Mattel launched 18 new Barbies on March 9. Their release came during Women’s History Month and is intended to encourage girls to strive for success in fields that have been shut to women in the past.
* * *
Herod’s a fox? What’s up with that?
The equation of “sly” with foxes was not present in Jesus’ time. When he referred to Herod as “that fox” he also did not mean as Jimi Hendrix sang of in “Foxy Lady.”
Foxes were unclean animals. To refer to Herod that way was to point to many of the things that Herod had done openly and publically that one might call “sketchy” today.
* * * * * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:
Philippians 3:18 “For many live as enemies of the cross…”
Luke 13:34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets…”
David Horowitz was the host of the television program Fight Back! With David Horowitz, that aired from 1976 until 1992. The program exposed the false advertising of products in an effort to get individuals to buy an item that did not fulfill the promises put forth by the company that produced it. Horowitz’s purpose was to assess whether a product’s or service’s claims were accurate. When asked about his show Horowitz said, “It’s not a news program, it’s not really a public affairs program. It’s an informational entertainment show.” The reason that Horowitz gave for getting into consumer advocacy is because his parents were European immigrants who came to the Bronx, unable to speak English. For this reason Horowitz said, “People took advantage of them.”
* * *
Luke 9:41 “how much longer must I be with you…”
Gene Littler was a professional golfer who won 29 times on the PGA Tour and the U.S. Open title in 1961. He was known as “Gene the Machine” for what was considered as having the perfect golf swing. He was self-taught.
He would take the club back in a very, very slow and relaxed rhythm. He would then pause for a lazy second, before droning down on the ball. He would continue to delay his accelerated hitting action until the very last moment when the club head was only two feet from the ball. Regarding his swing Littler said, “I don’t know if mechanically it was that sound or not, but it must have been okay.”
* * *
Genesis 15:12 “and terrifying darkness descended upon him”
Luke 9:41 “how much longer must I be with you…”
Gene Littler was a professional golfer who won 29 times on the PGA Tour and the U.S. Open title in 1961. He was known as “Gene the Machine” for what was considered as having the perfect golf swing. He was self-taught.
He was a very self-effacing and unassuming player who was devoid of any glamour. This contrasted sharply in the era of golf in which he played that was dominated by Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player. After retiring from golf, Littler wondered how much self-doubt hindered his career, saying “I never gave myself enough credit. If I could change anything, I’d change my attitude. I’d come out again like a Nicklaus or Palmer. I think I had a lot of ability but I never had what those guys had, that confidence.’
* * *
Luke 9:42 “healed the boy”
Gene Littler was a professional golfer who won 29 times on the PGA Tour and the U.S. Open title in 1961. He was known as “Gene the Machine” for what was considered as having the perfect golf swing. He was self-taught.
In 1972 he was diagnosed with lymph cancer. The resulting surgery removed the muscular structure on his left side. Through arduous rehabilitation he was able to regain the use of his left arm. In 1973 Littler won the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Open. He considered this his most significant victory because it came after his recovery from cancer. Littler said, “I was ecstatic after winning the U.S. Open, of course. But I was absolutely overcome by winning in St. Louis. I realized I was the only player who had ever come back from that kind of surgery.”
* * *
Luke 13:34 “as a hen gathers her brood under her wings”
In 1965 a psychologist named Edward Zigler designed and implemented the Head Start program. He was fortunate to have received funding for his initiative from President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. Since then 35 million children have enrolled in Head Start. Having grown up in poverty in Kansas City, Zigler realized how society failed to provide for the physical needs of children, as well as neglecting their educational and emotional needs. He sought to debunk what he called “the myth that we are a child-oriented society.” To counter this, Head Start provided early childhood educational opportunities, as well as caring for children’s physical and mental health. Zigler, understanding the importance and limits of Head Start said, “While Head Start cannot guarantee a poor child’s entrance into Yale or Harvard, there is now unequivocal evidence that Head Start provides lasting educational benefits.”
* * *
Genesis 15:5 “count the stars”
Luke 9:29 “and his clothes became dazzling white”
Stanley Donen is recognized as one of the greatest musical directors in Hollywood. He worked with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn to name just a few. His filmography includes Royal Wedding, On the Town, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Damn Yankees. Perhaps though, he is best known for his 1952 production of Singin’ in the Rain, staring Gene Kelly. But even with his many successes Donen felt he could always have done better. Donen said, “As an artist, I aspire to be as remarkable as Leonardo da Vinci. To be fantastic, astonishing, one of a kind. I will never get there. He’s the one who stopped time. I just did ‘Singin’ in the Rain.’ It’s pretty good, yes. It’s better than most, I know. But it still leaves you reaching up.”
* * *
Psalm 27:11 “Teach me your way…”
Luke 9:40 “I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not”
Dorothy Bolden was a black domestic worker in Atlanta who finally rebelled against low wages, poor working conditions and verbal abuse by those who employed her. Knowing the importance of buses from the Montogmery Bus boycott, she used buses to organize domestic workers. She rode all the buses, as that was the only transportation for black domestic workers, and gave her speech and got signatures. In 1968 she was able to organize the National Domestic Workers Union of America. Before she began her movement, Bolden went and visited her Atlanta neighbor, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., seeking advice and assistance. The response she received, and it was possibly the best response, is when Dr. King said to Dorothy Bolden, “You do it.”
* * *
Philippians 3:20 “But our citizenship is in heaven…”
In July 2016, Pope Francis spoke at World Youth Day which was held in Krakow, Poland. In that year, just like our present year, in Eastern Europe there was a strong anti-migrant sentiment. Refugees were fleeing hunger and religious persecution but were refused sanctuary in many European countries. The Pope called for “courage” and “compassion” when dealing with the war-stricken refugees. The Pope said that what is needed is “a spirit of readiness to welcome those fleeing from war and hunger, and solidarity with those deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to profess one’s faith in freedom and safety.”
* * *
Psalm 27:11 “Teach me your way…”
Martin Luther was the founder of the Protestant Reformation in the mid-sixteenth century. The Reformation began on October 31, 1517, when the priest and scholar Martin Luther approached the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nailed a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s demand for doctrinal changes in the Roman Catholic Church were so radical to the Vatican that a schism erupted and the (soon to be) Lutherans of Germany began what is known as Protestantism today. One demand of Luther was to return the liturgy of the church back to the people. Worship should not be in Latin, a language people do not understand, but in their native tongue, in this case German. Worship should be a participatory event, which would include hymn singing. And Luther wanted sermons to be easily comprehended. The sermon should allow people to see the gospel story. Luther said to those who preach and those who listen, “Stick your eyes in your ears.”
* * *
Psalm 27:11 “Teach me your way…”
John Adams, the second President of the United States, told his son Johnny, who would become the sixth President, “You will never be alone in the world with a poet in your pocket.” John Adams realized that to understand human nature and to be an enlightened individual, his son should always have a book of poetry in his possession.
From team member Chris Keating:
An extraordinary couple
Abram and Sarai, elderly and childless, are hardly the prototypical power couple. In fact, they are the opposite of the power couple. And yet, there is something sweet and romantic about the way God’s promises seem to emerge in unexpected ways. Abraham and Sarah’s unlikely journey could be compared with another unlikely power couple — John and Debbie Dingell. Washington Post columnist Roxanne Roberts describes the life and love of the late former congressman John Dingell and his wife, who succeeded her husband as the member of Congress from Michigan’s 12th District.
John Dingell, who died in February at 92, was the longest serving member of Congress in United States history. He frequently called his wife “the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” while she called him “My one and only true love.” Yet, like Sarai and Abram, their story had a rather unlikely start. Roberts puts it this way:
He was a Democrat; she a Republican. He was a politician; she a member of the wealthy Fisher Body family. He was divorced with four kids, she a devout Catholic who dined every Friday with Jesuit priests.
And John was twice her age.
They met on a bumpy flight from Detroit to Washington. It sounds like an old-fashioned Harlequin novel: He was this big, gruff guy soothing the frightened young woman next to him. He was smitten and asked her out 15 times over the next two years before she finally agreed to a date. “He was persistent but not in a #MeToo way,” she said. It took her six months to realize she was in love. They were married in May 1981. He was 54, she was 27. “The only reason we were together is because God wanted us to be,” she said.
* * *
On the Come Up
Novelist Angie Thomas, whose first book The Hate U Give sold more than 2 million books worldwide, received more than 150 rejection letters for that book before making a successful pitch to an agent during a Twitter Q&A. Her latest novel, On The Come Up, takes her young adult audience back to the same urban neighborhood featured in her first book. It’s a story of a teenage girl trying to make “her come up” in rap music. But it’s also a story of family and struggle — and the promises they make to one another.
Much of On the Come Up seems to mirror Thomas’ own life growing up in a poor neighborhood of Jackson, Mississippi. When a teenaged reader recently asked Thomas what she might say to her younger self, the author’s words resounded with assurances and promises which Abraham would have well understood:
I would tell my younger self to be yourself no matter where you are. In a few years, you’re going to be entering university and you are going to ask questions if you’re being your authentic self because you’re often made to feel you’re either too much or not enough. But I promise you, you are enough. You’re enough for everywhere you go, for whatever you do. Always know that. And then I would tell my younger self, my 15-year-old self specifically, if you want to write, write for yourself. Whatever it is that you want to do, do it for yourself. Don’t do it for the accolades, do it because it’s something you love. And then I would tell my 15-year-old self: it’s going to be OK. There are days where you wonder if that’s true, how you’re going to survive all of this stuff. You wonder, will you make it? You just have to hang in there, you have to keep going and if you keep going, I promise you there will be light in the darkness. You can do it!
* * *
Going through the center
Abram’s patience with God is tested. He complains — laments — the bitterness of being childless. God has promised an heir, but the “proof is in the pudding” and Abram’s pudding bowl is empty. When God assures Abram that his descendants will be more numerous than all the stars in the galaxy, he relents and trusts. God goes a step further by instructing Abram to perform a series of ritual sacrifices. It seems like an arcane detail, though a bit of research reveals why “cutting” the animals in two was significant. In Hebrew, the words “make a covenant” are derived from the words — berith (“covenant”) and karath, or “to cut off, cut down.” Calvin Park explains that this shows Abraham just how serious God was about keeping the other end of the bargain. “By cutting the animals in half during covenant ceremonies, the parties making the covenant were effectively saying, “Let this be done to us if we break the terms of this covenant.”
Psalm 27
Of whom shall I be afraid?
Luke A. Powery, Dean of the Duke University Chapel, has written a powerful book of Lenten reflections entitled Were You There? Powery combines scripture readings with African American spirituals as a springboard for his meditations. In reflecting on “Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Chile,” Powery reminds readers, “You don’t have to be a child to feel motherless, or ‘a long ways from home.’” He continues, “To journey during Lent is to acknowledge this reality — that sometimes I feel like I’m almos’ gone. By yourself on the road of life and home is nowhere in sight. This is a common human experience, if we are honest. Be honest today about yourself, about others, about the world. Sometimes we all feel like motherless children. The question, however, is how do we respond?”
The psalmist understands the feelings of fear and anxiety voiced by the spiritual. In response, the cry is heard, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”
* * *
Philippians 3:17--4:1
Bodies transformed
French Canadian philosopher Jean Vanier was interviewed on “On Being” by Krista Tippett. Vanier is the founder of the L’Arche and Faith and Light organizations which provide community living opportunities for persons with disabilities in 83 countries. During the interview, Krista Tippett tells Vanier that it appears he has developed a theology of the body. “I think maybe you’re edging towards it there, but it’s bigger than that also,” Tippett says. Vanier agrees with Tippett, explaining:
L’Arche is not based first on the word. You’ll find lots of communities which are based on the word, thus to say we speak of an ideal together and we are committed to an ideal or to a vision and so on. But L’Arche is based on body and on suffering bodies. They are seen as useless, and so we welcome those who apparently are useless. It’s a suffering body which brings us together. It’s our attention to the body. When somebody comes to our community and is quite severely handicapped, what is important is to see that the body is well. Bathing, helping people dress, to eat: It’s to communicate to them through the body. And then, as the body can become comfortable, then the spirit can rise up. There’s a recognition. There’s a contact. There’s a relationship.
As Paul says to the Philippians, those focusing only on worldly images of bodies that are beautiful, perfect, and unblemished miss the point. “Their end is destruction; their god is the belly…their minds are set on earthly things.” The reign of Christ announced during Lent, Paul suggests, will result in transformation of our body so that it may be conformed to the body of Christ’s glory. Vanier points to this transformation already taking place in the lives of those whose work with the disabled has helped them move beyond the “earthly beauty” to a deeper, Christ-filled love arising out of relationship with others.
* * *
Luke 13:31-35
Gathered Together
Jesus prays and weeps over Jerusalem, lamenting that he has longed to gather the city together “as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” The protection God offers meets us in our grief and struggles. The tragic plane crash in Ethiopia Sunday provides a stunning image of what it means to be gathered together in pain and grief.
There were no survivors when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed in a remote area two hours away from Addis Ababa. CNN reported that despite the isolated location, more than 200 persons had gathered around the perimeter of the site. Not far from the crash, worshippers gathered for prayer. “Sunday church service seems to have taken on a whole new meaning for its few residents,” reported Hamza Mohamed for Aljazeera. Mohamed talked to many who had gathered:
"I went to church and prayed for their souls. I also thanked God for saving us and our village," says Tewabech Gebrewold, a 50-year-old housewife.
"I pray God continues looking after us," the mother-of-six adds.
As the sun sets, and all but the security officers start leaving the crash site, Atlaw Wihib, a father of three, hopes outsiders will visit his village in the future for other reasons.
"It is sad because all these people came here because of bad news, because of so many deaths," he says.
"I hope one day they come because of good news," he adds, before beginning to walk back to his home, just a few minutes away.
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: God is our light and our salvation; whom shall we fear?
People: God is the stronghold of our life; of whom shall we be afraid?
Leader: One thing we asked of God, that will we seek after:
People: to live in the house of God all the days of our life.
Leader: Teach us your way, O God, and lead us on a level path.
People: We believe that we shall see the goodness of God in the land of the living.
OR
Leader: God calls us to come and trust in God’s love and grace.
People: We come expecting God to be here and to love us.
Leader: God asks us to have faith that good will win out.
People: Sometimes it is difficult but we believe God will triumph.
Leader: God calls us to share faith by having faith in each other.
People: We will trust God and we will trust one another.
Hymns and Songs:
If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee
UMH: 142
H82: 635
PH: 282
NCH: 410
LBW: 453
ELA: 769
W&P: 429
Trust and Obey
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
ELA: 733
W&P: 72
AMEC: 84
Renew: 249
Like the Murmur of the Dove’s Song
UMH: 544
H82: 513
PH: 314
NCH: 270
CH: 245
ELA: 403
W&P: 327
Renew: 280
The King of Love My Shepherd Is
UMH: 138
H82: 645/646
PH: 171
NCH: 248
LBW: 456
ELA: 502
Renew: 106
All Who Love and Serve Your City
UMH: 433
H82: 570/571
PH: 413
CH: 670
LBW: 436
ELA: 724
W&P: 625
Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELA: 719
W&P: 591
AMEC: 561
Forth in Thy Name, O Lord (v.1 ...my daily labor to pursue)
UMH: 438
LBW: 505
W&P: 718
The Steadfast Love of the Lord
CCB: 28
Renew: 23
Through It All
CCB: 61
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
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 trustworthy and true:
Grant us the faith to trust you with our lives
knowing that in you we will eternally;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are trustworthy and true. You are our steadfast God. Give us the faith we need to trust you with our whole being so that we might know life eternal. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our lack of faith in God.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have proven yourself to be the faithful one and yet we put our trust in so many other places than in you. We trust in our wealth, our intelligence, our military power more than we trust in you. Our lack of faith makes it difficult for us to go about the work that lies before us. Give us courage and give us faith to trust you in all things. Amen.
Leader: Our faithful God is ready to reach out to us in love. Receive God’s faithful care and share it with others.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory are yours, O God, because you are the rock upon which we live.
(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 proven yourself to be the faithful one and yet we put our trust in so many other places than in you. We trust in our wealth, our intelligence, our military power more than we trust in you. Our lack of faith makes it difficult for us to go about the work that lies before us. Give us courage and give us faith to trust you in all things.
We give you thanks for your love and care that always surround us. You are our faithful God and guide. We thank you for those who have showed us how to live faith filled lives.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children and ask that we might be faithful to you so that we can be faithful to each other.
(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
Talk to the children about having faith. We have faith that we will get fed at home, that someone will take care of us, etc. The more we know someone the more we know we can trust them. God is trustworthy and we can always trust God. Even our parents might fail us sometimes. They may get stuck in traffic and can’t get home on time, etc. But God is always faithful.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Navigating Trust
by Bethany Peerbolte
This week is all about trust. Kids navigate the dangerous world of trust every day. They have a keen sense of whether or not an adult can be trusted. This lesson taps into that sense and compares how we greet parents, uniformed helpers, and strangers to how we greet and welcome God.
Note: The lesson puts parents as the number one most trusted people in a kid’s life. This may not be true for every child in your congregation. You may want to switch the reference to a more widely trusted person like a best friend. Please keep your kids needs and situation in mind as you prepare.
Say Something Like:
In a given week how many people do you think you see? (let kids answer) I see lots of people, maybe even hundreds. I see my family, I see the people in this church, I see police officers, and I see strangers at the store or in the car next to me. When you see someone what is a nice thing to do? (say hi, greet them) Yes, no matter who we see it is always nice to greet them. It makes them feel happy.
How might you say “hi” to your mom or dad? (kiss, hug) If it was a long time since you last saw them you might even jump into their arms! That would be okay because we trust our parents to catch us.
What about if you saw a firefighter, or a police officer, or another uniform helper? (say hi, wave, smile, shake hand) We trust these people because their jobs are to keep us safe, but we probably wouldn’t immediately jump into their arms. We trust them but this kind of trust is on a different level then the trust we have in our parents.
How about if you saw a stranger at the grocery store, how might you greet them? (say hi, smile, nod your head) When we see a stranger, we don’t know how much we can trust them. We want to be nice, but we keep ourselves safe and maybe just nod our head and smile as we walk past.
There are different levels of trust. Some people we trust a lot, some not at all. Our experience with a person can help us know how much to trust them. If someone makes a promise to us and keeps it, we know we can trust them again. How would you feel if someone made a promise with you and they didn’t keep their promise? (angry, sad, mad) If someone broke a promise, it would be hard to trust them. We might hesitate to make another promise with them, maybe even keep our distance like with strangers.
In our Bible reading today Jesus is mad that the people he is teaching do not trust God. Jesus tries to show them God can be trusted. Jesus says God has kept every promise! But for some reason people still do not trust God. They hesitate to greet God with a huge hug and by jumping into God’s arms. They greet God more like a stranger and just kind of politely nod hello.
As Christians we try to trust God more and more every day. God will always keep the promise to help you and love you. God will always catch us if we are willing to trust enough to jump!
Let’s say a prayer together about trust:
Faithful God, you are the best promise keeper. Thank you for always loving and helping us. We need help this week remembering to trust you. We want to trust you 100% and jump into your arms to greet you every day. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, March 17, 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.
- In God We (Sometimes) Trust by Dean Feldmeyer — Isn’t it ironic that we buy lottery tickets with money that says, “In God We Trust?”
- Second Thoughts: Keep Going by Mary Austin — When uncertainty comes, Jesus offers us an example of how to cope. He invites us to keep doing his work, as he did.
- Sermon illustrations by Tom Willadsen, Ron Love and Chris Keating.
- Worship resources by George Reed that focus on trust; being about our task.
- Children’s sermon: Navigating Trust by Bethany Peerbolte — This week is all about trust. This lesson taps into that sense of trust and compares how we greet parents, uniformed helpers, and strangers to how we greet and welcome God.
In God We (Sometimes) Trust
by Dean Feldmeyer
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Psalm 27; Philippians 3:17--4:1; Luke 13:31-35
We print the words, “In God We Trust,” on our money. But we don’t really. No, not really. How do I know?
Well, we spend more of that money on our military than the next seven countries. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2015 US defense spending outstripped that of China, Russia, UK, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia and India combined. In 2016, the last year figures were available, that was $664.1 billion, about 20% of all federal spending and about 39% of all global military spending.
Jesus said that where our money is, there our heart is, also. (Matthew 6:21)
So, when we spend that much money on weapons, how can we say that it is in God that we trust?
In the News
Joy and Dennis Robson were trusting parents. They loved their son, Wade, and they believed what he told them. And what he told them was that nothing inappropriate was going on.
Wade had won a dance contest in Australia where he imitated Michael Jackson’s dance moves. The prize was tickets to a Jackson concert and when the King of Pop heard of the contest and saw the diminutive five-year-old dancing, he invited Wade and his family to visit him in Los Angeles where he signed Robson to a contract and became the young dancer’s mentor. The Robson family, flattered by Jackson’s attention and excited about the possibilities it represented for their son, moved to Los Angeles to be closer to Jacko. Not long after, Michael invited Wade and his mother to accompany him on a trip to Hawaii. Michael, Wade and Joy all got their own palatial hotel rooms. They were living the dream.
According to Joy, it never occurred to her to question why, every time they changed hotels, her room got further and further from her son’s. Some 30 years later, in the HBO documentary, “Leaving Neverland,” Wade would explain why his mother’s room kept getting further away and why it didn’t occur to her or to him that the increasing distance represented anything suspicious or inappropriate.
According to the Robsons, upon reflection, Jackson was grooming both the child and the parent to become unsuspecting victims of pedophilia.
"He was one of the kindest, most gentle, loving, caring people I knew," says Wade Robson, who eventually built a career as a choreographer for artists such as Britney Spears and NSYNC. "He also sexually abused me for seven years."1
Because he seemed nice, kind, gentle, loving, and caring, they trusted him.
Eighteen-year-old, high school senior Ethan Lindenberger loves and trusts his mom. He trusts her to love him and care about him. He trusts that her love and her care of him is authentic. It’s just that in this one area, he believes that, despite her good intentions, she’s wrong.
She doesn’t believe in getting her children vaccinated. She’s heard some stuff on the internet and from her friends and she has become convinced that childhood vaccines pose a greater danger to kids than the diseases from which they are meant to protect children.
So, she didn’t get Ethan vaccinated as a child.
As he got older, Ethan did some reading of his own. He went on the website, reddit.com and asked people where he could get some accurate information about vaccinations. They directed him to the Center for Disease Control, and the American Academy of Pediatrics website and HealthyChildren.org, which has dozens of studies debunking common myths about vaccines. He showed the information he discovered to his mother but she remained adamantly unconvinced.
So, when he turned 18 in December of 2018, he went out and got the immunizations, himself.
His mother, Jill Wheeler, was shocked when she heard what he’d done. At first, her feelings were hurt and she likened his choice to spitting on her and everything she believed in. But, after some reflection, she softened her response. "I'm very proud of him for standing for what he believes in, even if it is against what I believe. He's a good boy. He's a good kid," she said.2
He trusts her to be a good mom and she trusts him to be a good kid, and their trust of each other trumps their differences of opinion. Not a bad deal, all in all.
In the Scripture
The thread that links our four texts this week is that of trust.
The readings challenge us to ask of ourselves as individuals and collectively as the church, “Whom, do you trust?”
In the Genesis text Abram has become impatient and vexed that the promises of the Lord seem to be slow in coming. Where is the heir that was promised to him, he wants to know. The nursery continues to be distressingly empty.
YHWH assures Abram that the promise will be fulfilled and he need only be patient. God takes Abram outside and has him took at the night sky. As many as the stars in the sky, that’s how many will be the number of your descendants, God tells Abram.
And Abram believes.
Or, more correctly, Abram puts his faith in the Lord, he trusts God.
And (this is my favorite part) that trust is counted as righteousness. We might not always be able to be righteous. In fact, we can hardly ever achieve righteousness. But we can be trusting. It is within our capabilities to trust, especially to trust in the Lord.
And YHWH will count our trust as righteousness.
The psalm begins and ends with trust in the Lord.
If God is my light and my salvation, says the psalmist, whom shall I fear? If God is the stronghold of my life, my fort that has been fortified against attack, of whom shall I be afraid?
And it ends much as the Genesis text began, with “belief.”
“I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” The righteousness of YHWH is not something that we are allowed to see only at the end of our lives, only in heaven, only in the afterlife. It is available to us right now, in this life. So what am I to do?
The psalmist answers the question: “Wait for the Lord!” And the key to successful waiting, as we all know, is trust. If we don’t trust that our waiting will be honored, we won’t wait. The thing that keeps us standing in line is our faith, our trust that, at the end of that line, is that which we require.
Paul warns the Philippians about those who seek instant spiritual gratification. We shouldn’t have to wait for the Lord as the psalmist encourages us to do, they say. We should be getting our reward right now, without sacrificing or waiting.
To be patient in waiting is difficult advice to follow; these are hard instructions to heed. Those who are suffering find it difficult to wait for the Lord. Even those of us who are just being inconvenienced often find ourselves drifting away from our faithful posture toward a more detached and casual attitude. But Paul encourages us to wait, to stand firm, to trust in the promises of the Lord.
Finally, in the gospel reading, Luke shows the Pharisees defying our expectations. These who have been something of a thorn in Jesus’ side, are now the ones who show up to warn him that Herod is plotting to have him killed.
Should he trust the Pharisees? Is their advice to be heeded? Should he flee or should he trust in what he is sure is God’s will for him, that he continue in the work that he has been given by the Lord? Convinced that his death will be in Jerusalem, in keeping with the prophecies about the messiah, he continues in the work of healing and casting out demons, at least for three more (symbolic) days, but not before he pauses to reflect on the nature of Jerusalem and how she has, historically, treated the prophets.
How he wishes, he says, that he could gather the holy city and those who abide in it under his wings as a mother hen gathers her brood to protect them in a storm.
Luke and his readers will hear in these verses, dark forebodings of the revolution and the destruction of the city and the temple in 70 CE and how all of this might have been avoided had the rebels trusted the words of Jesus when they were first spoken.
In the Pulpit
The temptation to be avoided with this topic is that of scolding.
Few things that we encounter in our lives as Christians is more tiring than the sermon that scolds us, as though the preacher is an all-knowing sage, a Christian Yoda who, had we only asked, would have told us the right and righteous things to do.
Trust in the Lord, or else!
More effective and faithful to the text would be an approach that shares with good humor how we all fall short of perfect trust. We all, from time to time, find it difficult to “wait for the Lord.” We all are vexed by the difficulties that challenge us when we attempt to “stand firm in the Lord.”
This is especially the case when we live in a culture that insists that we believe in other, lesser things that we know, in our hearts, have no lasting strength or value.
Trust in weapons, we are told. Invest our nation’s resources in bombs and get your concealed carry permit as quickly as possible. The only thing you can trust to keep you safe, we are told, is “a good guy with a gun.” God, apparently, isn’t part of the picture.
Trust in science, we are told. And we want to believe because we have seen the great good that science has done to purify our water and keep vast amounts of food cheap and plentiful. So just forget about the Tuskegee Experiments and Hiroshima and don’t even put a mention of Eugenics in the history books. Put all your trust in science, the culture shouts. God invented science, right?
The scripture lessons for this morning challenge the culture and so should we from the pulpit, but without scolding.
This is the indicative that drives the sermon: The trust that is required of the faithful disciple is not easy for even those with the strongest faith. It is a discipline.
But it is not a simple exercise, devoid of promise or reward.
The imperative: Our faithfulness, our trust, our willingness to believe in and live by the word of the Lord, not just when it’s easy or when there is no risk attached, but always, will be counted to us as righteousness. Trust in the Lord.
1 Eric Deggans, "'Leaving Neverland' Makes Powerful But One-Sided Case Against The King Of Pop" All Things Considered, NPR, March 1, 2019.
2 "Ohio teen defies mother and gets vaccinated after turning to strangers online" CBS This Morning, February 12, 2019.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Keep Going
by Mary Austin
Luke 13:31-35
When the threat from Herod comes, via the Pharisees, Jesus doesn’t seem to be too bothered by it. There’s no frenzied scene of him packing up and skipping town.
Just before this Jesus has been talking about bearing fruit, and responding to God’s invitations. He heals the woman who has been bent over for years, and she immediately praises God with her whole, healed being. When some Pharisees come to warn Jesus that Herod is after him, Jesus says, basically, thanks, but I’m going to keep working.
Jesus acknowledges Herod’s cunning, and answers it with his own wisdom. Herod is powerful, and yet there are other powers in this scene. Jesus has a different kind of power, and his is the power to embrace even the people who reject him, and to gather in even the unwilling. Herod has the ability to threaten and destroy, and Jesus has the contrasting authority to heal and restore. Jesus has experienced Herod’s greedy power before, in the death of his cousin John. He knows that it’s not a trivial power, but he’s going to keep using his own power as long as he can.
Jesus’ language points us ahead to his final entry into Jerusalem, and to the people who will call out, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord,” evoking an old pilgrims’ song drawn from Psalm 118. On the third day, Jesus says, his work will be complete. He’s looking ahead to resurrection time, not calendar time.
In this season of church pronouncements, councils and conferences, and a full measure of church scandals, there’s an elegant simplicity to Jesus’ choice to keep doing what he’s doing.
We need theology, and church conferences. Words matter, and we need theologians to craft them. But position papers and pronouncements are never as compelling as the people right in front of us. It would be interesting to read everything written about the Roman Catholic church gathering on sex abuse, or to watch the highlights from the United Methodist Church General Convention, but right now there are people knocking on our church doors who need help paying their electric bills, or who want to have a prayer before a dreaded surgery. We could keep clicking on articles about the future of the Southern Baptist Church, but there are kids who will be hungry this weekend when there’s no school breakfast and lunch. Older people will be lonely for visitors.
Jesus doesn’t pack up his healing and teaching and preaching and flee for the desert when he hears that Herod is seeking his life. (Déjà vu – different Herod, same threat as when he was a toddler.) He keeps working. The same is happening for many in the United Methodist Church (UMC) after the ruling on LGBTQ clergy and same sex marriages at the recent General Convention. Ash Wednesday found Rev. Jen Stuart on a college campus, handing out ashes mixed with glitter, even while she’s uncertain about her future in the UMC. “Draped on Rev. Stuart’s shoulders hung a rainbow scarf and around her neck swung a multicolored lanyard attached to a cross with the words inscribed “Christ is counting on you.” According to Reverend Stuart, Lent is a season of reflection on life, death and resurrection. “Just as our church is dying, something new will be born,” Stuart said. “That is a core belief of all Christians, and so glitter is just a way to sort of send a wink and a nod to our LGBTQ community, but it’s also a reflection on resurrection …. the light that shines forth, even in the darkness.” The church’s decision to ban same-sex marriage and gay clergy has added a layer of uncertainty for Stuart, raising the question for many to stay or fracture from the UMC. “To me, we’ve lost the brand. United Methodist now means we’re homophobic and I don’t know if you can recover from that in the West,” Stuart said.
The leadership at the 93 Methodist-affiliated colleges and universities are working to reassure their students that life on campus remains welcoming and non-judgmental. “In the wake of the vote, the leaders of most of the theological schools have issued public statements affirming their own institutions’ commitments to diversity, inclusion and nondiscrimination and in many cases expressing disagreement or distress with the vote outcome (a list of statements can be found here). A group of faculty at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology also issued an open letter Thursday expressing sadness with the vote outcome and love and support for the institution's LGBTQIA+ students.
Javier A. Viera, the vice provost and dean of the Theological School at Drew University, wrote in a message to faculty, students, staff and alumni that he was "outraged, embarrassed, and wounded by the actions of our church…” Methodist institutions go through a process of recommitting to their Methodist affiliation with the church every 10 years, and some may re-evaluate the connection. Schools are already taking Methodist symbols and mention of the affiliation out of their marketing materials. Institutions are concerned about making sure prospective students know that their schools welcome all prospective students. Meanwhile, they continue to teach classes, support students and give exams, so the work of education continues.
Jesus is realistic, not naïve. He knows there’s danger ahead. Even as he acknowledges that, he has the strength to reach out in hope. Lent is a reminder that death is always mixed with life, and Jesus reflects that mixture as he acknowledges Herod’s malevolence, and his own coming death, even while he keeps working. Many times in his ministry, Jesus withdraws from public life to pray, and he will again. But on this day, he keeps working, and he calls us to do the same.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Genesis observations
Abram is promised an heir, not just someone who stands to receive his inheritance, but a child of his own. He is getting on in years. The Lord does a few things to reassure Abram that the Lord’s promise can be trusted.
There’s a powerful image worth including in a sermon about trust. The Lord tells Abram to look at the sky and count the stars — if he can. The Lord promises Abe that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky.
[This isn’t as epic as the promise of descendants the Lord made to Abe in Genesis 13:16 where his offspring would be like the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.”] That’s a lot of descendants! Modern astronomy tells us that the universe is filled with stars that are not visible to people without telescopes.
The sky is filled with wonder. People who look at the sky — really look — share some important, healthy traits.
Baby boomers may remember the one and only hit song by the band Climax, “Precious and Few.” In the song the singer addresses his beloved with these words: “Quiet and blue, like the sky, I’m hung over you.” While it’s a cheesy pick up line, imagine that the Lord is singing that to you.
The sky is always there, but very few people really look at it. The sky is always changing; the sky is always hung above the earth.
Some Jews believe that weddings should be outdoors, so the couple can be directly under the sky, and thus recall the Lord’s blessing of many offspring to Abram. Some pastors have a sky blue stole that they wear whenever they preside at a wedding, a visual reminder of the Lord’s constant presence and abundant blessing.
* * *
The Distraction of the Sky
Back in the 1970s there was a push to remove distractions from public school classrooms. New schools often did not place clocks in the classrooms. Some schools put their hallways around the edges of the building, so all classrooms were without windows. Having grown up in schools that preceded this movement I can attest to how distracting the world outside school can be. Snow storms and fire engines often took our attention away from whatever was happening in the front of the class.
There was one bold teacher I remember, however, who complained about the absence of windows in his classroom. He had two reasons:
- A teacher should always be more interesting that any possible distraction; and
- Any intrusion from “the outside world” only reminded everyone of the context in which school was happening. Some preachers make the same point, welcoming the sounds of “the outside world” into the “sanctuary” of worship makes everyone mindful of the context in which we gather for worship.
* * *
Genesis reading…a lesson from painful experience
Some translations of the Genesis reading say “a smoking brazier” instead of “a smoking fire pot.” If you’re using one of those translations, and a lay reader is reading, be sure that they know to pronounce “brazier” and not “brassiere.” (Oh sure it’s funny a decade later, but quite embarrassing in the moment.)
* * *
A little more about Genesis reading
The Lord makes two promises as part of the covenant between the Lord and Abram. The second one, vv.17-18, part of today’s reading is a “self-curse,” that is, “This is what I’ll do to myself if I fail to keep this covenant.” The first one is a summary of God’s promises to Abram of descendants and land. Abram effectively drops out of the picture and God, the much stronger partner in the covenant, makes the promises.
In trust relationships the stronger partner has more responsibility to keep the covenant: parents to children, for example or white people to marginalized people of other races.
* * *
Psalm 27
This morning’s psalm offers a contrasting image of God’s goodness from the Genesis reading. In the psalm God’s protection is the shelter of a tent to hide the psalmist from their enemies.
* * *
Psalm 27:14
Wait for it…
“Wait for it…” is a phrase that appeared in common usage a few years ago. Generally it was to heighten suspense before a punchline that was either obvious or not especially dramatic. How does “wait for it…” contrast with Psalm 27:14
Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!
* * *
Luke 13: 31-35
Good Pharisees?
This is the only place in the gospels where the Pharisees do anything close to being helpful to Jesus. They warn him about Herod. Herod is their common enemy — a threat to both of them. Enjoy this moment of détente.
My mother says that the reason that grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy!
* * *
Luke 13:31-35, compared to Matthew 23:37-39
There’s no détente between Jesus and the Pharisees in Matthew’s account of Jesus speaking woe to Jerusalem. Immediately before the lament over Jerusalem in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus has spent all of Matthew 23 sending out woe to the scribes and Pharisees.
Both accounts end with a foreshadowing of what we know as Palm Sunday.
* * *
Philippians 3:20
Citizenship in heaven?
Paul reminds the Philippians that their citizenship is in heaven. Contrast this notion of citizenship with that of those who want to repeal birthright citizenship as defined in the Constitution.
* * *
Philippians Imitating Paul being a role model
Paul urges the Philippians to imitate him; he presents himself as a role model. Role models are especially important for your people from marginalized groups. Just seeing someone who has become a physician or academic can give young people enough hope to follow their dreams.
With that in mind, Mattel launched 18 new Barbies on March 9. Their release came during Women’s History Month and is intended to encourage girls to strive for success in fields that have been shut to women in the past.
* * *
Herod’s a fox? What’s up with that?
The equation of “sly” with foxes was not present in Jesus’ time. When he referred to Herod as “that fox” he also did not mean as Jimi Hendrix sang of in “Foxy Lady.”
Foxes were unclean animals. To refer to Herod that way was to point to many of the things that Herod had done openly and publically that one might call “sketchy” today.
* * * * * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:
Philippians 3:18 “For many live as enemies of the cross…”
Luke 13:34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets…”
David Horowitz was the host of the television program Fight Back! With David Horowitz, that aired from 1976 until 1992. The program exposed the false advertising of products in an effort to get individuals to buy an item that did not fulfill the promises put forth by the company that produced it. Horowitz’s purpose was to assess whether a product’s or service’s claims were accurate. When asked about his show Horowitz said, “It’s not a news program, it’s not really a public affairs program. It’s an informational entertainment show.” The reason that Horowitz gave for getting into consumer advocacy is because his parents were European immigrants who came to the Bronx, unable to speak English. For this reason Horowitz said, “People took advantage of them.”
* * *
Luke 9:41 “how much longer must I be with you…”
Gene Littler was a professional golfer who won 29 times on the PGA Tour and the U.S. Open title in 1961. He was known as “Gene the Machine” for what was considered as having the perfect golf swing. He was self-taught.
He would take the club back in a very, very slow and relaxed rhythm. He would then pause for a lazy second, before droning down on the ball. He would continue to delay his accelerated hitting action until the very last moment when the club head was only two feet from the ball. Regarding his swing Littler said, “I don’t know if mechanically it was that sound or not, but it must have been okay.”
* * *
Genesis 15:12 “and terrifying darkness descended upon him”
Luke 9:41 “how much longer must I be with you…”
Gene Littler was a professional golfer who won 29 times on the PGA Tour and the U.S. Open title in 1961. He was known as “Gene the Machine” for what was considered as having the perfect golf swing. He was self-taught.
He was a very self-effacing and unassuming player who was devoid of any glamour. This contrasted sharply in the era of golf in which he played that was dominated by Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player. After retiring from golf, Littler wondered how much self-doubt hindered his career, saying “I never gave myself enough credit. If I could change anything, I’d change my attitude. I’d come out again like a Nicklaus or Palmer. I think I had a lot of ability but I never had what those guys had, that confidence.’
* * *
Luke 9:42 “healed the boy”
Gene Littler was a professional golfer who won 29 times on the PGA Tour and the U.S. Open title in 1961. He was known as “Gene the Machine” for what was considered as having the perfect golf swing. He was self-taught.
In 1972 he was diagnosed with lymph cancer. The resulting surgery removed the muscular structure on his left side. Through arduous rehabilitation he was able to regain the use of his left arm. In 1973 Littler won the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Open. He considered this his most significant victory because it came after his recovery from cancer. Littler said, “I was ecstatic after winning the U.S. Open, of course. But I was absolutely overcome by winning in St. Louis. I realized I was the only player who had ever come back from that kind of surgery.”
* * *
Luke 13:34 “as a hen gathers her brood under her wings”
In 1965 a psychologist named Edward Zigler designed and implemented the Head Start program. He was fortunate to have received funding for his initiative from President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. Since then 35 million children have enrolled in Head Start. Having grown up in poverty in Kansas City, Zigler realized how society failed to provide for the physical needs of children, as well as neglecting their educational and emotional needs. He sought to debunk what he called “the myth that we are a child-oriented society.” To counter this, Head Start provided early childhood educational opportunities, as well as caring for children’s physical and mental health. Zigler, understanding the importance and limits of Head Start said, “While Head Start cannot guarantee a poor child’s entrance into Yale or Harvard, there is now unequivocal evidence that Head Start provides lasting educational benefits.”
* * *
Genesis 15:5 “count the stars”
Luke 9:29 “and his clothes became dazzling white”
Stanley Donen is recognized as one of the greatest musical directors in Hollywood. He worked with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn to name just a few. His filmography includes Royal Wedding, On the Town, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Damn Yankees. Perhaps though, he is best known for his 1952 production of Singin’ in the Rain, staring Gene Kelly. But even with his many successes Donen felt he could always have done better. Donen said, “As an artist, I aspire to be as remarkable as Leonardo da Vinci. To be fantastic, astonishing, one of a kind. I will never get there. He’s the one who stopped time. I just did ‘Singin’ in the Rain.’ It’s pretty good, yes. It’s better than most, I know. But it still leaves you reaching up.”
* * *
Psalm 27:11 “Teach me your way…”
Luke 9:40 “I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not”
Dorothy Bolden was a black domestic worker in Atlanta who finally rebelled against low wages, poor working conditions and verbal abuse by those who employed her. Knowing the importance of buses from the Montogmery Bus boycott, she used buses to organize domestic workers. She rode all the buses, as that was the only transportation for black domestic workers, and gave her speech and got signatures. In 1968 she was able to organize the National Domestic Workers Union of America. Before she began her movement, Bolden went and visited her Atlanta neighbor, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., seeking advice and assistance. The response she received, and it was possibly the best response, is when Dr. King said to Dorothy Bolden, “You do it.”
* * *
Philippians 3:20 “But our citizenship is in heaven…”
In July 2016, Pope Francis spoke at World Youth Day which was held in Krakow, Poland. In that year, just like our present year, in Eastern Europe there was a strong anti-migrant sentiment. Refugees were fleeing hunger and religious persecution but were refused sanctuary in many European countries. The Pope called for “courage” and “compassion” when dealing with the war-stricken refugees. The Pope said that what is needed is “a spirit of readiness to welcome those fleeing from war and hunger, and solidarity with those deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to profess one’s faith in freedom and safety.”
* * *
Psalm 27:11 “Teach me your way…”
Martin Luther was the founder of the Protestant Reformation in the mid-sixteenth century. The Reformation began on October 31, 1517, when the priest and scholar Martin Luther approached the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nailed a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s demand for doctrinal changes in the Roman Catholic Church were so radical to the Vatican that a schism erupted and the (soon to be) Lutherans of Germany began what is known as Protestantism today. One demand of Luther was to return the liturgy of the church back to the people. Worship should not be in Latin, a language people do not understand, but in their native tongue, in this case German. Worship should be a participatory event, which would include hymn singing. And Luther wanted sermons to be easily comprehended. The sermon should allow people to see the gospel story. Luther said to those who preach and those who listen, “Stick your eyes in your ears.”
* * *
Psalm 27:11 “Teach me your way…”
John Adams, the second President of the United States, told his son Johnny, who would become the sixth President, “You will never be alone in the world with a poet in your pocket.” John Adams realized that to understand human nature and to be an enlightened individual, his son should always have a book of poetry in his possession.
From team member Chris Keating:
An extraordinary couple
Abram and Sarai, elderly and childless, are hardly the prototypical power couple. In fact, they are the opposite of the power couple. And yet, there is something sweet and romantic about the way God’s promises seem to emerge in unexpected ways. Abraham and Sarah’s unlikely journey could be compared with another unlikely power couple — John and Debbie Dingell. Washington Post columnist Roxanne Roberts describes the life and love of the late former congressman John Dingell and his wife, who succeeded her husband as the member of Congress from Michigan’s 12th District.
John Dingell, who died in February at 92, was the longest serving member of Congress in United States history. He frequently called his wife “the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” while she called him “My one and only true love.” Yet, like Sarai and Abram, their story had a rather unlikely start. Roberts puts it this way:
He was a Democrat; she a Republican. He was a politician; she a member of the wealthy Fisher Body family. He was divorced with four kids, she a devout Catholic who dined every Friday with Jesuit priests.
And John was twice her age.
They met on a bumpy flight from Detroit to Washington. It sounds like an old-fashioned Harlequin novel: He was this big, gruff guy soothing the frightened young woman next to him. He was smitten and asked her out 15 times over the next two years before she finally agreed to a date. “He was persistent but not in a #MeToo way,” she said. It took her six months to realize she was in love. They were married in May 1981. He was 54, she was 27. “The only reason we were together is because God wanted us to be,” she said.
* * *
On the Come Up
Novelist Angie Thomas, whose first book The Hate U Give sold more than 2 million books worldwide, received more than 150 rejection letters for that book before making a successful pitch to an agent during a Twitter Q&A. Her latest novel, On The Come Up, takes her young adult audience back to the same urban neighborhood featured in her first book. It’s a story of a teenage girl trying to make “her come up” in rap music. But it’s also a story of family and struggle — and the promises they make to one another.
Much of On the Come Up seems to mirror Thomas’ own life growing up in a poor neighborhood of Jackson, Mississippi. When a teenaged reader recently asked Thomas what she might say to her younger self, the author’s words resounded with assurances and promises which Abraham would have well understood:
I would tell my younger self to be yourself no matter where you are. In a few years, you’re going to be entering university and you are going to ask questions if you’re being your authentic self because you’re often made to feel you’re either too much or not enough. But I promise you, you are enough. You’re enough for everywhere you go, for whatever you do. Always know that. And then I would tell my younger self, my 15-year-old self specifically, if you want to write, write for yourself. Whatever it is that you want to do, do it for yourself. Don’t do it for the accolades, do it because it’s something you love. And then I would tell my 15-year-old self: it’s going to be OK. There are days where you wonder if that’s true, how you’re going to survive all of this stuff. You wonder, will you make it? You just have to hang in there, you have to keep going and if you keep going, I promise you there will be light in the darkness. You can do it!
* * *
Going through the center
Abram’s patience with God is tested. He complains — laments — the bitterness of being childless. God has promised an heir, but the “proof is in the pudding” and Abram’s pudding bowl is empty. When God assures Abram that his descendants will be more numerous than all the stars in the galaxy, he relents and trusts. God goes a step further by instructing Abram to perform a series of ritual sacrifices. It seems like an arcane detail, though a bit of research reveals why “cutting” the animals in two was significant. In Hebrew, the words “make a covenant” are derived from the words — berith (“covenant”) and karath, or “to cut off, cut down.” Calvin Park explains that this shows Abraham just how serious God was about keeping the other end of the bargain. “By cutting the animals in half during covenant ceremonies, the parties making the covenant were effectively saying, “Let this be done to us if we break the terms of this covenant.”
Psalm 27
Of whom shall I be afraid?
Luke A. Powery, Dean of the Duke University Chapel, has written a powerful book of Lenten reflections entitled Were You There? Powery combines scripture readings with African American spirituals as a springboard for his meditations. In reflecting on “Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Chile,” Powery reminds readers, “You don’t have to be a child to feel motherless, or ‘a long ways from home.’” He continues, “To journey during Lent is to acknowledge this reality — that sometimes I feel like I’m almos’ gone. By yourself on the road of life and home is nowhere in sight. This is a common human experience, if we are honest. Be honest today about yourself, about others, about the world. Sometimes we all feel like motherless children. The question, however, is how do we respond?”
The psalmist understands the feelings of fear and anxiety voiced by the spiritual. In response, the cry is heard, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”
* * *
Philippians 3:17--4:1
Bodies transformed
French Canadian philosopher Jean Vanier was interviewed on “On Being” by Krista Tippett. Vanier is the founder of the L’Arche and Faith and Light organizations which provide community living opportunities for persons with disabilities in 83 countries. During the interview, Krista Tippett tells Vanier that it appears he has developed a theology of the body. “I think maybe you’re edging towards it there, but it’s bigger than that also,” Tippett says. Vanier agrees with Tippett, explaining:
L’Arche is not based first on the word. You’ll find lots of communities which are based on the word, thus to say we speak of an ideal together and we are committed to an ideal or to a vision and so on. But L’Arche is based on body and on suffering bodies. They are seen as useless, and so we welcome those who apparently are useless. It’s a suffering body which brings us together. It’s our attention to the body. When somebody comes to our community and is quite severely handicapped, what is important is to see that the body is well. Bathing, helping people dress, to eat: It’s to communicate to them through the body. And then, as the body can become comfortable, then the spirit can rise up. There’s a recognition. There’s a contact. There’s a relationship.
As Paul says to the Philippians, those focusing only on worldly images of bodies that are beautiful, perfect, and unblemished miss the point. “Their end is destruction; their god is the belly…their minds are set on earthly things.” The reign of Christ announced during Lent, Paul suggests, will result in transformation of our body so that it may be conformed to the body of Christ’s glory. Vanier points to this transformation already taking place in the lives of those whose work with the disabled has helped them move beyond the “earthly beauty” to a deeper, Christ-filled love arising out of relationship with others.
* * *
Luke 13:31-35
Gathered Together
Jesus prays and weeps over Jerusalem, lamenting that he has longed to gather the city together “as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” The protection God offers meets us in our grief and struggles. The tragic plane crash in Ethiopia Sunday provides a stunning image of what it means to be gathered together in pain and grief.
There were no survivors when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed in a remote area two hours away from Addis Ababa. CNN reported that despite the isolated location, more than 200 persons had gathered around the perimeter of the site. Not far from the crash, worshippers gathered for prayer. “Sunday church service seems to have taken on a whole new meaning for its few residents,” reported Hamza Mohamed for Aljazeera. Mohamed talked to many who had gathered:
"I went to church and prayed for their souls. I also thanked God for saving us and our village," says Tewabech Gebrewold, a 50-year-old housewife.
"I pray God continues looking after us," the mother-of-six adds.
As the sun sets, and all but the security officers start leaving the crash site, Atlaw Wihib, a father of three, hopes outsiders will visit his village in the future for other reasons.
"It is sad because all these people came here because of bad news, because of so many deaths," he says.
"I hope one day they come because of good news," he adds, before beginning to walk back to his home, just a few minutes away.
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: God is our light and our salvation; whom shall we fear?
People: God is the stronghold of our life; of whom shall we be afraid?
Leader: One thing we asked of God, that will we seek after:
People: to live in the house of God all the days of our life.
Leader: Teach us your way, O God, and lead us on a level path.
People: We believe that we shall see the goodness of God in the land of the living.
OR
Leader: God calls us to come and trust in God’s love and grace.
People: We come expecting God to be here and to love us.
Leader: God asks us to have faith that good will win out.
People: Sometimes it is difficult but we believe God will triumph.
Leader: God calls us to share faith by having faith in each other.
People: We will trust God and we will trust one another.
Hymns and Songs:
If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee
UMH: 142
H82: 635
PH: 282
NCH: 410
LBW: 453
ELA: 769
W&P: 429
Trust and Obey
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
ELA: 733
W&P: 72
AMEC: 84
Renew: 249
Like the Murmur of the Dove’s Song
UMH: 544
H82: 513
PH: 314
NCH: 270
CH: 245
ELA: 403
W&P: 327
Renew: 280
The King of Love My Shepherd Is
UMH: 138
H82: 645/646
PH: 171
NCH: 248
LBW: 456
ELA: 502
Renew: 106
All Who Love and Serve Your City
UMH: 433
H82: 570/571
PH: 413
CH: 670
LBW: 436
ELA: 724
W&P: 625
Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELA: 719
W&P: 591
AMEC: 561
Forth in Thy Name, O Lord (v.1 ...my daily labor to pursue)
UMH: 438
LBW: 505
W&P: 718
The Steadfast Love of the Lord
CCB: 28
Renew: 23
Through It All
CCB: 61
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
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 trustworthy and true:
Grant us the faith to trust you with our lives
knowing that in you we will eternally;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are trustworthy and true. You are our steadfast God. Give us the faith we need to trust you with our whole being so that we might know life eternal. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our lack of faith in God.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have proven yourself to be the faithful one and yet we put our trust in so many other places than in you. We trust in our wealth, our intelligence, our military power more than we trust in you. Our lack of faith makes it difficult for us to go about the work that lies before us. Give us courage and give us faith to trust you in all things. Amen.
Leader: Our faithful God is ready to reach out to us in love. Receive God’s faithful care and share it with others.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory are yours, O God, because you are the rock upon which we live.
(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 proven yourself to be the faithful one and yet we put our trust in so many other places than in you. We trust in our wealth, our intelligence, our military power more than we trust in you. Our lack of faith makes it difficult for us to go about the work that lies before us. Give us courage and give us faith to trust you in all things.
We give you thanks for your love and care that always surround us. You are our faithful God and guide. We thank you for those who have showed us how to live faith filled lives.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children and ask that we might be faithful to you so that we can be faithful to each other.
(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
Talk to the children about having faith. We have faith that we will get fed at home, that someone will take care of us, etc. The more we know someone the more we know we can trust them. God is trustworthy and we can always trust God. Even our parents might fail us sometimes. They may get stuck in traffic and can’t get home on time, etc. But God is always faithful.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Navigating Trust
by Bethany Peerbolte
This week is all about trust. Kids navigate the dangerous world of trust every day. They have a keen sense of whether or not an adult can be trusted. This lesson taps into that sense and compares how we greet parents, uniformed helpers, and strangers to how we greet and welcome God.
Note: The lesson puts parents as the number one most trusted people in a kid’s life. This may not be true for every child in your congregation. You may want to switch the reference to a more widely trusted person like a best friend. Please keep your kids needs and situation in mind as you prepare.
Say Something Like:
In a given week how many people do you think you see? (let kids answer) I see lots of people, maybe even hundreds. I see my family, I see the people in this church, I see police officers, and I see strangers at the store or in the car next to me. When you see someone what is a nice thing to do? (say hi, greet them) Yes, no matter who we see it is always nice to greet them. It makes them feel happy.
How might you say “hi” to your mom or dad? (kiss, hug) If it was a long time since you last saw them you might even jump into their arms! That would be okay because we trust our parents to catch us.
What about if you saw a firefighter, or a police officer, or another uniform helper? (say hi, wave, smile, shake hand) We trust these people because their jobs are to keep us safe, but we probably wouldn’t immediately jump into their arms. We trust them but this kind of trust is on a different level then the trust we have in our parents.
How about if you saw a stranger at the grocery store, how might you greet them? (say hi, smile, nod your head) When we see a stranger, we don’t know how much we can trust them. We want to be nice, but we keep ourselves safe and maybe just nod our head and smile as we walk past.
There are different levels of trust. Some people we trust a lot, some not at all. Our experience with a person can help us know how much to trust them. If someone makes a promise to us and keeps it, we know we can trust them again. How would you feel if someone made a promise with you and they didn’t keep their promise? (angry, sad, mad) If someone broke a promise, it would be hard to trust them. We might hesitate to make another promise with them, maybe even keep our distance like with strangers.
In our Bible reading today Jesus is mad that the people he is teaching do not trust God. Jesus tries to show them God can be trusted. Jesus says God has kept every promise! But for some reason people still do not trust God. They hesitate to greet God with a huge hug and by jumping into God’s arms. They greet God more like a stranger and just kind of politely nod hello.
As Christians we try to trust God more and more every day. God will always keep the promise to help you and love you. God will always catch us if we are willing to trust enough to jump!
Let’s say a prayer together about trust:
Faithful God, you are the best promise keeper. Thank you for always loving and helping us. We need help this week remembering to trust you. We want to trust you 100% and jump into your arms to greet you every day. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, March 17, 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.
