The Green Room
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
In this week's lectionary epistle passage, Paul commends the Thessalonian Christians for their faith, hope, and love. He underlines one of the main factors for engendering these qualities -- teaching and learning the faith by example -- when he notes that "you became imitators of us and of the Lord." Paul's notion, bluntly summarized in his comment that "you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you," that†the example we set for others is starkly revealed in the lives we live rather than the artificial personas we often construct for public consumption is certainly one that modern audiences need to hear again and again. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Ron Love points out that not only do we need to be reminded, as Paul so deftly tells us, that our lives are a transparent window into what we truly believe, but we also need to be mindful that this makes us role models of life and faith -- whether or not we want the responsibility. Most importantly, that means that we must be on guard against the sins of hypocrisy -- an indictment that will unfortunately be made against Christians yet again with recent revelations about alleged financial malfeasance and conspicuous consumption by the family/board members of Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral. Ron suggests that as these charges and Paul's words make clear, we're only fooling ourselves if we think that "spin" and public relations wizardry will allow us to somehow "fool all of the people all of the time."
Team member Mary Austin shares some additional thoughts on the Exodus text and our desire, like Moses, to feel close to God. Mary notes that Moses wants a deep, personal connection with God... and while God sets him straight about his ability to directly gaze upon God's presence and survive, God does offer him the opportunity to see him closely. Mary points out that we too want a personal connection with God -- but for many of us that manifests itself in a tendency to create our own image of God through a personalized spirituality rather than partaking in the hard work of experiencing God in all of his magnificent (but often difficult) totality. As Mary makes clear, when we give in to this temptation our behavior resembles that of the Israelites who constructed the golden calf -- and our faith becomes more of an exercise in reassuring ourselves than in knowing God.
The Green Room
by Ron Love
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
THE WORLD
Robert H. Schuller is a husker. The only thing that separates him from the Elmer Gantrys of the world is a more sophisticated PR department. It turns out, according to a lawsuit recently filed by a creditors committee, that the man who was once esteemed as the most popular and well-known religious leader across the globe was mismanaging the funds of his own congregation. As Schuller's Crystal Cathedral is $50 million in debt, it must be sold to pay off its creditors and with that impending sale, it has now become public knowledge that Schuller misappropriated funds for personal gain. So while Schuller emerged from the "green room" with his pasted smile and performed on a perfectly choreographed worship service -- which was edited for television to remove any imperfections -- he then exited into the accountant's office... where he counted the number of new Eagle Club subscribers. Wings of eagles? Actually he depended on the wings of American Airlines, for one of his staff members chose to live in Hawaii and was guaranteed round-trip airfare to work in Orange County, California. While his audiences were inspired by orchestras and interviews with celebrities, Schuller and his board of directors -- comprised almost entirely of family members -- took $10 million from the endowment fund to pay for operating expenses. So when you bought that brick for that sacred walkway, the money really went to the chief financial officer's $132,000 annual housing allowance and the Mercedes-Benz that Schuller's son drove. All of Schuller's family members received lucrative salaries and an even more lucrative benefit package. So I guess that mommy, who sits on the board, really did understand her son's message of "possibility thinking" when she saw all that money an eagle could bring. It is sad to think that while Schuller stood in the pulpit with that singular pearl of hope hanging around his neck, baskets of pearls were being carried out the back door.
Hypocrisy in religion seems worse than in other fields of employment; but in reality hypocrisy in any human endeavor is equally shameful. One of the reasons that Bernie Madoff's $50 billion ponzi scheme was so successful was because he presented himself as an observant Jew, and as such, fellow Jews trusted him unquestionably.
It is interesting. Pat Robertson lives for the accolades of television; but when he receives severe criticism for sanctioning the divorce of a spouse who has Alzheimer's because the spouse is already a "walking dead" person, he retorts: "I want to say I envy the Catholic priest, because when they have someone in confession it's all kept secret." Pat, you cannot tout yourself on the 700 Club and at the same time envy the sacredness of the priesthood. Yet we know that Robertson and his fellow televangelists can spin the truth better than any politician. In response to the media frenzy that descended upon him, Robertson defended his comment by saying, "When I have somebody asking me for advice, it spreads worldwide and gets misunderstood." It is difficult to comprehend how his Alzheimer's remark could have ever been "misunderstood." It is more likely that in unguarded chit-chat his true bigotry once again became apparent.
Were politicians mentioned? Well, take your ears beyond Washington DC, for political hypocrisy is an international enterprise. There was a nice photo spread recently of Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin scuba diving for ancient artifacts and emerging with the treasures in hand. The only problem is that the artifacts were previously placed there for him to find.
We look to all celebrities as role models. It is a role they readily assume so they can establish the latest trend in fashion and promote their new line of cosmetics -- keeping themselves before the public and allowing them to demand huge salaries. Televangelists, politicians, athletes, media celebrities, and charismatic CEOs all seem to have perfected the art of being "misunderstood." It would be refreshing if more of them said, as Charles Barkley did: "I'm not paid to be a role model. I'm paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court." Or when actress Jamie Lee Curtis, the 43-year-old mother of two, did a magazine photo spread of what she really looks like before she is transformed by the make-up artists in the green room.
Perhaps the most common criticism ushered against Christians is that we are hypocrites. And it is true -- if we pretend to be something we are not. The word "hypocrisy" comes from Greek dramas, when actors wore a mask onstage to play the part of a character they were not offstage. So, do we wear a mask? I do not think we will be condemned for being imperfect; but we will be judged for being insincere.
THE WORD
In our lesson Paul shares two very important truths. One is that "you became imitators of us and of the Lord" (v. 6). The second is that "you became an example" (v. 7). The gospel is shared in what we say and what we do. Through the examples of others, people became Christian and joined the church of the Thessalonians. Through example, they were now to lead others into the fellowship of the church. As an example to others we are not expected to be perfect, but it is important for us to be sincere.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
I. Discuss the hypocrisy that abides in the world today.
II. Discuss how Christians are not expected to be perfect but we are expected to be sincere in our actions.
III. Discuss how the example of others led us to Christ.
IV. Discuss how through our example we are to lead others into the fellowship of the church.
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Exodus 33:12-23
This week's passage is part of a story told in two parts, with the opening scene set by last week's story.
The people of Israel, in last week's lectionary reading from Exodus, have made themselves a golden calf to worship. Moses is away on the mountain chatting with God and the people grow restless and fearful down below. A golden calf seems like the perfect object for worship -- visible, not likely to wander off, permanent and eternally the same.
This week, following on the heels of that betrayal and Moses' intervention with God for the people, Moses has another serious conversation with God. This time, Moses has a few complaints of his own. God knows him deeply and intimately and Moses would like more from God. As Karla Suomala (Associate Professor of Religion at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa) writes on this passage: "So, what more could Moses want? He wants a deep, personal, intimate connection to God. What is remarkable here is the desire to know more of God and his doggedness in realizing this goal. Taking care of the business of leading the Israelites isn't enough for Moses -- he wants relationship and connection with God, along with knowledge and experience of the Divine."
Moses wants more than anything to see God's face -- to know God more deeply. He wants to go beyond the tasks of leading the people, arranging for food and water, communicating rules, and guiding behavior, to a deeper relationship with God.
Like the people of Israel, we would love to make our own gods. Sunday morning offers us a chance to worship God in a community of believers, or to take yoga and construct our own spiritual experience, or to find God on the golf course (no annoying tithing expected there), or even to ignore God and go grocery shopping. More and more, we can make our religion just like ourselves.
A recent devotional for the United Church of Christ written by Anthony B. Robinson quotes church researcher George Barna as saying, "We are a designer society. We want everything customized to our personal needs -- our clothing, our food, our education. Now, it's our religion. America is headed for 310 million people with 310 million religions." Robinson comments: "How sad for us poor, modern people... Sad that in creating our own designer religion and gods, we lose another point of connection to what is larger than ourselves and to one another. What looks like freedom -- designing your own god -- turns out to be greater isolation and disconnection."
Talking to Moses like a friend, God assures him that the divine radiance is too much for human beings to take in. God says to Moses, "You cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live" (v. 20). But, God adds, "There is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen" (vv. 21-23).
Moses can see God's backside, as it were.
In an odd way, this is an even deeper knowing than seeing God's face. We all have public faces we present to one another, ways of acting at work or school, ways of being polite or professional, which hide a part of our true selves. The people closest to us -- partners and spouses, children and dear friends -- see more than our public faces. They get our backside -- our flaws, faults, and mistakes. God gets the same view of us -- the unrehearsed, unvarnished, uncomfortable truth. Perhaps that's part of why we love to make our own religion -- if the gods we construct look a lot like ourselves (and they always do), then maybe we're not so bad after all.
Moses understands that the answer to the religion of our own creation, the gods of our own making, is the magnificence of the one God. Real faith is the willingness to see all of God we can take in -- God's backside -- and along with it, acknowledging our own hind parts. Somewhere in the combination of God's splendor and our own flaws lies truth and deep connection with all that's bigger than we are.
In seeking to know God more fully, he's banishing the golden calf -- the god who can be made by people -- completely. We might consider doing the same.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Think back to how you first received the Christian faith. Was it something you were taught or something you caught?
It's quite likely that faith was something you caught -- something you heard and saw practiced by people who were important to you. You learned by imitating. Sure, there were times when you studied the faith in a formal way -- when you learned the particular content of Christian beliefs, memorized some theological terms, and began to find your way around the Bible. Yet very likely you were already a Christian (or at least an aspiring one) when you did that.
What you witnessed those spiritual mentors of yours doing -- and what Paul applauds the Thessalonians for -- was working your faith, practicing it, enacting it. Paul remembers before God, in his prayers, how the Thessalonians enacted their faith -- how they made it real.
This runs hard up against the popular wisdom of today. Ask people to describe what faith is and they'll probably begin by telling you what they believe. They'll maybe recite the Apostle's Creed or begin laying out some other list of ideas they've pondered and studied and have come to accept as true.
That's not faith -- not in its totality, anyway. Throughout the Bible, the most common form in which the word faith appears is as a verb. Every once in a while you'll run across faith as a noun but far more often it's a verb: an action.
Faith is a verb -- it's something we decide to do, not a static body of ideas we believe. That's what Paul means by the work of faith. He's not commending the Thessalonians because they've become learned theologians. Rather, he's proud of them because they've figured out how to put their faith into practice in the hurly-burly of everyday life.
* * *
In their book Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion (University of California Press, 2000), sociologists Rodney Stark and Roger Finke address what they refer to as the "free-rider problem" in churches.
Free-riders, they explain, are people who join a church (or any organization) and then make a low commitment to that organization while reaping the benefits provided by those who have a high commitment. They enjoy the music, their kids go to Sunday school, they listen to the sermons, their children are baptized and married there, and their elders are buried by the clergy; yet they refuse to participate beyond showing up and they contribute nothing to the ongoing life of the organization.
The biggest problem free-riders present to any organization, however, is that of example. They teach, by their example that other members, new members, need not contribute in order to receive the benefits of membership.
* * *
Actress and comedian Carol Burnett tells of how singer Ray Charles was a good friend of hers and a frequent guest who invariably spread good will and humor, not to mention music, throughout her home. Her children especially appreciated the visits from Ray and had committed many of his famous songs to memory exactly the way he sang them.
One day her daughter was singing a perfect Ray Charles version of "Georgia On My Mind," and Carol asked her if she thought that someday she might be a singer when she grew up.
The child answered, "No. I'm gonna be Ray Charles."
* * *
Steven Tyler says being in the public eye on American Idol helps keep him sober. "The last thing I want the world to see is me slurring my words," the Aerosmith frontman tells People magazine. "I don't ever want to be a bad example again."
The People article gives details of some of the 63-year-old singer's prescription-drug abuse over the years, which included snorting crushed Lunesta sleeping pills and taking large doses of Xanax, used to treat anxiety, six times a day.
* * *
In his book Apology for Wonder, author/philosopher Sam Keen reminds us of a story about the experience of awe from the novel Zorba the Greek.
One day Zorba and the boss were on their way to the village, making their way along the road when they came upon an old man riding a mule. Zorba looked upon the mule with such intensity that it scared the old man, and he begged Zorba not to "put the evil eye" on him.
The boss asked Zorba what he had done to scare the old man so, and Zorba said that he had only looked at the mule with the awe and wonder that the mule deserved -- and he was confounded that the mule didn't strike the boss with the same sense of awe.
The boss didn't understand. Why should he experience awe and wonder?
"Well," replied Zorba, "that there are such things as mules in the world."
* * *
Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries...
-- from "Aurora Leigh" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
* * *
Clarence Jordan, founder of the Koinonia Farm in south Georgia, said that "faith is not a stubborn belief in spite of the evidence." Instead, "Faith is life lived in scorn of the consequences."
* * *
Marcus Borg, in his provocative book titled simply Jesus, gives us a radically different interpretation than we usually get of Jesus' dialogue with the Pharisees and the Herodians. The central question was "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?" The usual interpretation is that our prime obligation is to God but that we have a secondary obligation to the emperor or Caesar. In the gospel accounts Jesus does not give a direct answer. After asking for a coin with Caesar's image on it, he responds to his questioners who are trying to trap him, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's and to God the things that are God's."
Borg goes on to ask an additional question: "Jesus, what belongs to God?" Borg answers his own question by saying that he believes Jesus would answer, "Everything." Surely Jesus shared a central affirmation of the Jewish Bible: "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it" (Psalm 24:1). Therefore, what belongs to the emperor? Borg says, "Nothing."
* * *
When I was in junior high school I had to pass a wonderful bakery every day on the way to school and back. Imagine passing those smells every morning. Finally the temptations overcame me and I saved enough money to buy whatever I wanted.
I stopped on the way home and bought two Èclairs. I ate one on the way home. The other one I left in the bag and when I arrived home I put it in the refrigerator with this note: "Dean's Èclair. Bought with my own money." (Ours was a big family. You couldn't be too careful with such things.)
The next morning I went to get my Èclair from the refrigerator and... surprise, it was still there. But my father had taped notes to everything else in the fridge: "Marvin's butter. Bought with my own money"; "Marvin's milk"; "Marvin's jelly."
I got the message.
-- Dean Feldmeyer
* * *
The phrases "upside-down" and "under water" have come to have new meanings in the past couple of years.
When many of us were young, we started out living in apartments or renting houses until we could afford to buy our first house. We were told to do this as quickly as possible because we were wasting money by renting, not building up any equity, and so forth.
Then in 2008 the bubble burst in the real estate market and suddenly people found themselves in just the opposite position. Not only were they not building equity, they were in fact losing equity in their homes. The houses they bought were worth less than they owed on them.
Ownership of things can be fun and sometimes rewarding. But as Christians, we would do well to remember that, in the final analysis, we are all renters on this planet.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God is Sovereign; let the peoples tremble!
People: God sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
Leader: God is great in Zion and is exalted over all the peoples.
People: Let the people praise God's great and awesome name.
Leader: Mighty Ruler, lover of justice, you have established equity;
People: you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God who is One.
People: We worship and adore the unity of our God.
Leader: Come and discover, again, the openness of God.
People: We are in awe of the self-revelation of our God.
Leader: Come and open your lives to God and to the world.
People: May God so fill us that we truly reflect God's being.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"All People That on Earth Do Dwell"
found in:
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELW: 883
"Source and Sovereign, Rock and Cloud"
found in:
UMH: 113
CH: 12
"Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies"
found in:
UMH: 173
H82: 6/7
PH: 462/463
LBW: 265
ELW: 553
"Of the Father's Love Begotten"
found in:
UMH: 184
PH: 309
NCH: 118
CH: 104
LBW: 42
ELW: 295
Renew: 252
"T? Has Venido a la Orilla" ("Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore")
found in:
UMH: 344
PH: 377
CH: 342
"Spirit Song"
found in:
UMH: 347
AAHH: 321
CH: 352
CCB: 51
Renew: 248
"O Come and Dwell in Me"
found in:
UMH: 388
"I Am Thine, O Lord"
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
"Your Loving Kindness Is Better Than Life"
found in:
CCB: 26
"Lord, Be Glorified"
found in:
CCB: 62
Renew: 172
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who comes to us in the honesty of who you are: Grant us the grace and courage to live truthfully the lives we have set before ourselves as disciples of your Son; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into your presence, O God, and though we can know only a little of your eternal being, we know that what you reveal to us is true. As we praise you, help us to reflect in our lives the sincerity that lies in your very nature. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which our insincerity makes us bad examples of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know you have called us to live as your children and to reflect your nature in our lives. Yet we are better at talking about these things than we are in doing them. We gladly own your claim on us as our heavenly parent and yet we often do not act like your children. Instead of love and grace we display disdain and contempt for others. We are more worried about getting more for ourselves than helping those who have nothing. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit to live as we talk and to draw others to you by being more and more like you. Amen.
Leader: God's love and grace is for us as well as for the rest of creation. God grants us forgiveness and the blessing of God's own Spirit that we might truly be who we were created to be.
Prayer for Illumination
Send the light of your Spirit upon us that we may see clearly who we are called to be, who we say we are, and who we truly are. Open our eyes that we may see how to make these one. Amen.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise you, O God who is One. You truly are one in nature and purpose. You have no shadow of turning or deceit within you. You are Love.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know you have called us to live as your children and to reflect your nature in our lives. Yet we are better at talking about these things than we are in doing them. We gladly own your claim on us as our heavenly parent and yet we often do not act like your children. Instead of love and grace we display disdain and contempt for others. We are more worried about getting more for ourselves than helping those who have nothing. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit to live as we talk and to draw others to you by being more and more like you.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have revealed yourself to us. We thank you for scripture and the witness of your people through the ages. We thank you especially for those who have lived your love and grace among us so that we were drawn to you.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who have not yet discovered your true nature. We pray for those who have been affected by our hypocrisy and the insincerity of others.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Take a sugar bowl filled with salt. Talk to the children about how good sweet things are and that sugar is one of the ways to make things sweet. Ask them if they like sweet things. Then give them each a few grains of salt from the sugar bowl and ask them to taste it. When they react, act shocked and taste the "sugar" yourself. Talk about how it is not nice to have something labeled as sugar when it is salt. That's not being honest. Talk about how Jesus was just who he said he was, and how he wants us to be honest about who we are as well. We are God's children and disciples of Jesus, so we need to act like that. We don't want to be mislabeled.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Be Imitators of the Lord
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Object: a bunch of grapes
Good morning, boys and girls! Have you ever noticed how many of us like to do the same things? Dads like to watch football games, moms like to grow flowers, brothers like to play video games, sisters like to dance, grandmothers and grandfathers like to tell you how pretty and handsome you are. They all like to do the same kind of things. We sometimes call that imitating. Can you say the word "imitate"? (let them say it) Very good! Sometimes imitating is a good thing and sometimes it is not so good, but we are talking today about good imitating.
God imitates things that he likes. God likes stars, so he made a lot of them. He imitated them. God likes grass, so he made a lot of it. He imitated it. God made good things to eat like this bunch of grapes. (hold up the grapes) God loved grapes, and there are many kinds of grapes but they look pretty much like this. They grow on vines and you can eat or drink the juice of grapes in many ways. I like grapes; how many of you like grapes? (let them answer, and give a grape to each child that wants one; while you continue talking you can pass out more grapes) Look at how God imitated his grapes. (hold them up again) They have the same color, are about the same size, taste exactly the same, and feel the same. God did a good job of imitating the grapes.
Saint Paul tells us about how glad he is that the people in Thessalonica are imitators of Silvanus, Timothy, and himself. He wrote about how the people in this town heard about Jesus and followed him. They were trying to be like the disciples and worship and pray to God just like other Christians. They were learning to share the gifts that God had given them with people who were poor. They were visiting the sick and helping them, visiting people in jail, and sharing the story of Jesus as Savior. They were real imitators of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy.
Jesus wants you to be imitators of Christians that you know. God wants you to live lives like your Sunday school teacher and your pastor and members of our church who love Jesus and follow his word. It would be great to see someone who visited our church write a letter saying that they watched [list a few of the children's names] and have decided to imitate you and be followers of Jesus. Don't you think that would be great? (let them answer)
God didn't make you to be a star or a sun or the rain or even a bunch of grapes. God made you to imitate Jesus and follow him all the days of your life.
Prayer: Help us to be good imitators of Jesus, dear God. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, October 16, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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.
Team member Mary Austin shares some additional thoughts on the Exodus text and our desire, like Moses, to feel close to God. Mary notes that Moses wants a deep, personal connection with God... and while God sets him straight about his ability to directly gaze upon God's presence and survive, God does offer him the opportunity to see him closely. Mary points out that we too want a personal connection with God -- but for many of us that manifests itself in a tendency to create our own image of God through a personalized spirituality rather than partaking in the hard work of experiencing God in all of his magnificent (but often difficult) totality. As Mary makes clear, when we give in to this temptation our behavior resembles that of the Israelites who constructed the golden calf -- and our faith becomes more of an exercise in reassuring ourselves than in knowing God.
The Green Room
by Ron Love
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
THE WORLD
Robert H. Schuller is a husker. The only thing that separates him from the Elmer Gantrys of the world is a more sophisticated PR department. It turns out, according to a lawsuit recently filed by a creditors committee, that the man who was once esteemed as the most popular and well-known religious leader across the globe was mismanaging the funds of his own congregation. As Schuller's Crystal Cathedral is $50 million in debt, it must be sold to pay off its creditors and with that impending sale, it has now become public knowledge that Schuller misappropriated funds for personal gain. So while Schuller emerged from the "green room" with his pasted smile and performed on a perfectly choreographed worship service -- which was edited for television to remove any imperfections -- he then exited into the accountant's office... where he counted the number of new Eagle Club subscribers. Wings of eagles? Actually he depended on the wings of American Airlines, for one of his staff members chose to live in Hawaii and was guaranteed round-trip airfare to work in Orange County, California. While his audiences were inspired by orchestras and interviews with celebrities, Schuller and his board of directors -- comprised almost entirely of family members -- took $10 million from the endowment fund to pay for operating expenses. So when you bought that brick for that sacred walkway, the money really went to the chief financial officer's $132,000 annual housing allowance and the Mercedes-Benz that Schuller's son drove. All of Schuller's family members received lucrative salaries and an even more lucrative benefit package. So I guess that mommy, who sits on the board, really did understand her son's message of "possibility thinking" when she saw all that money an eagle could bring. It is sad to think that while Schuller stood in the pulpit with that singular pearl of hope hanging around his neck, baskets of pearls were being carried out the back door.
Hypocrisy in religion seems worse than in other fields of employment; but in reality hypocrisy in any human endeavor is equally shameful. One of the reasons that Bernie Madoff's $50 billion ponzi scheme was so successful was because he presented himself as an observant Jew, and as such, fellow Jews trusted him unquestionably.
It is interesting. Pat Robertson lives for the accolades of television; but when he receives severe criticism for sanctioning the divorce of a spouse who has Alzheimer's because the spouse is already a "walking dead" person, he retorts: "I want to say I envy the Catholic priest, because when they have someone in confession it's all kept secret." Pat, you cannot tout yourself on the 700 Club and at the same time envy the sacredness of the priesthood. Yet we know that Robertson and his fellow televangelists can spin the truth better than any politician. In response to the media frenzy that descended upon him, Robertson defended his comment by saying, "When I have somebody asking me for advice, it spreads worldwide and gets misunderstood." It is difficult to comprehend how his Alzheimer's remark could have ever been "misunderstood." It is more likely that in unguarded chit-chat his true bigotry once again became apparent.
Were politicians mentioned? Well, take your ears beyond Washington DC, for political hypocrisy is an international enterprise. There was a nice photo spread recently of Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin scuba diving for ancient artifacts and emerging with the treasures in hand. The only problem is that the artifacts were previously placed there for him to find.
We look to all celebrities as role models. It is a role they readily assume so they can establish the latest trend in fashion and promote their new line of cosmetics -- keeping themselves before the public and allowing them to demand huge salaries. Televangelists, politicians, athletes, media celebrities, and charismatic CEOs all seem to have perfected the art of being "misunderstood." It would be refreshing if more of them said, as Charles Barkley did: "I'm not paid to be a role model. I'm paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court." Or when actress Jamie Lee Curtis, the 43-year-old mother of two, did a magazine photo spread of what she really looks like before she is transformed by the make-up artists in the green room.
Perhaps the most common criticism ushered against Christians is that we are hypocrites. And it is true -- if we pretend to be something we are not. The word "hypocrisy" comes from Greek dramas, when actors wore a mask onstage to play the part of a character they were not offstage. So, do we wear a mask? I do not think we will be condemned for being imperfect; but we will be judged for being insincere.
THE WORD
In our lesson Paul shares two very important truths. One is that "you became imitators of us and of the Lord" (v. 6). The second is that "you became an example" (v. 7). The gospel is shared in what we say and what we do. Through the examples of others, people became Christian and joined the church of the Thessalonians. Through example, they were now to lead others into the fellowship of the church. As an example to others we are not expected to be perfect, but it is important for us to be sincere.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
I. Discuss the hypocrisy that abides in the world today.
II. Discuss how Christians are not expected to be perfect but we are expected to be sincere in our actions.
III. Discuss how the example of others led us to Christ.
IV. Discuss how through our example we are to lead others into the fellowship of the church.
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Exodus 33:12-23
This week's passage is part of a story told in two parts, with the opening scene set by last week's story.
The people of Israel, in last week's lectionary reading from Exodus, have made themselves a golden calf to worship. Moses is away on the mountain chatting with God and the people grow restless and fearful down below. A golden calf seems like the perfect object for worship -- visible, not likely to wander off, permanent and eternally the same.
This week, following on the heels of that betrayal and Moses' intervention with God for the people, Moses has another serious conversation with God. This time, Moses has a few complaints of his own. God knows him deeply and intimately and Moses would like more from God. As Karla Suomala (Associate Professor of Religion at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa) writes on this passage: "So, what more could Moses want? He wants a deep, personal, intimate connection to God. What is remarkable here is the desire to know more of God and his doggedness in realizing this goal. Taking care of the business of leading the Israelites isn't enough for Moses -- he wants relationship and connection with God, along with knowledge and experience of the Divine."
Moses wants more than anything to see God's face -- to know God more deeply. He wants to go beyond the tasks of leading the people, arranging for food and water, communicating rules, and guiding behavior, to a deeper relationship with God.
Like the people of Israel, we would love to make our own gods. Sunday morning offers us a chance to worship God in a community of believers, or to take yoga and construct our own spiritual experience, or to find God on the golf course (no annoying tithing expected there), or even to ignore God and go grocery shopping. More and more, we can make our religion just like ourselves.
A recent devotional for the United Church of Christ written by Anthony B. Robinson quotes church researcher George Barna as saying, "We are a designer society. We want everything customized to our personal needs -- our clothing, our food, our education. Now, it's our religion. America is headed for 310 million people with 310 million religions." Robinson comments: "How sad for us poor, modern people... Sad that in creating our own designer religion and gods, we lose another point of connection to what is larger than ourselves and to one another. What looks like freedom -- designing your own god -- turns out to be greater isolation and disconnection."
Talking to Moses like a friend, God assures him that the divine radiance is too much for human beings to take in. God says to Moses, "You cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live" (v. 20). But, God adds, "There is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen" (vv. 21-23).
Moses can see God's backside, as it were.
In an odd way, this is an even deeper knowing than seeing God's face. We all have public faces we present to one another, ways of acting at work or school, ways of being polite or professional, which hide a part of our true selves. The people closest to us -- partners and spouses, children and dear friends -- see more than our public faces. They get our backside -- our flaws, faults, and mistakes. God gets the same view of us -- the unrehearsed, unvarnished, uncomfortable truth. Perhaps that's part of why we love to make our own religion -- if the gods we construct look a lot like ourselves (and they always do), then maybe we're not so bad after all.
Moses understands that the answer to the religion of our own creation, the gods of our own making, is the magnificence of the one God. Real faith is the willingness to see all of God we can take in -- God's backside -- and along with it, acknowledging our own hind parts. Somewhere in the combination of God's splendor and our own flaws lies truth and deep connection with all that's bigger than we are.
In seeking to know God more fully, he's banishing the golden calf -- the god who can be made by people -- completely. We might consider doing the same.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Think back to how you first received the Christian faith. Was it something you were taught or something you caught?
It's quite likely that faith was something you caught -- something you heard and saw practiced by people who were important to you. You learned by imitating. Sure, there were times when you studied the faith in a formal way -- when you learned the particular content of Christian beliefs, memorized some theological terms, and began to find your way around the Bible. Yet very likely you were already a Christian (or at least an aspiring one) when you did that.
What you witnessed those spiritual mentors of yours doing -- and what Paul applauds the Thessalonians for -- was working your faith, practicing it, enacting it. Paul remembers before God, in his prayers, how the Thessalonians enacted their faith -- how they made it real.
This runs hard up against the popular wisdom of today. Ask people to describe what faith is and they'll probably begin by telling you what they believe. They'll maybe recite the Apostle's Creed or begin laying out some other list of ideas they've pondered and studied and have come to accept as true.
That's not faith -- not in its totality, anyway. Throughout the Bible, the most common form in which the word faith appears is as a verb. Every once in a while you'll run across faith as a noun but far more often it's a verb: an action.
Faith is a verb -- it's something we decide to do, not a static body of ideas we believe. That's what Paul means by the work of faith. He's not commending the Thessalonians because they've become learned theologians. Rather, he's proud of them because they've figured out how to put their faith into practice in the hurly-burly of everyday life.
* * *
In their book Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion (University of California Press, 2000), sociologists Rodney Stark and Roger Finke address what they refer to as the "free-rider problem" in churches.
Free-riders, they explain, are people who join a church (or any organization) and then make a low commitment to that organization while reaping the benefits provided by those who have a high commitment. They enjoy the music, their kids go to Sunday school, they listen to the sermons, their children are baptized and married there, and their elders are buried by the clergy; yet they refuse to participate beyond showing up and they contribute nothing to the ongoing life of the organization.
The biggest problem free-riders present to any organization, however, is that of example. They teach, by their example that other members, new members, need not contribute in order to receive the benefits of membership.
* * *
Actress and comedian Carol Burnett tells of how singer Ray Charles was a good friend of hers and a frequent guest who invariably spread good will and humor, not to mention music, throughout her home. Her children especially appreciated the visits from Ray and had committed many of his famous songs to memory exactly the way he sang them.
One day her daughter was singing a perfect Ray Charles version of "Georgia On My Mind," and Carol asked her if she thought that someday she might be a singer when she grew up.
The child answered, "No. I'm gonna be Ray Charles."
* * *
Steven Tyler says being in the public eye on American Idol helps keep him sober. "The last thing I want the world to see is me slurring my words," the Aerosmith frontman tells People magazine. "I don't ever want to be a bad example again."
The People article gives details of some of the 63-year-old singer's prescription-drug abuse over the years, which included snorting crushed Lunesta sleeping pills and taking large doses of Xanax, used to treat anxiety, six times a day.
* * *
In his book Apology for Wonder, author/philosopher Sam Keen reminds us of a story about the experience of awe from the novel Zorba the Greek.
One day Zorba and the boss were on their way to the village, making their way along the road when they came upon an old man riding a mule. Zorba looked upon the mule with such intensity that it scared the old man, and he begged Zorba not to "put the evil eye" on him.
The boss asked Zorba what he had done to scare the old man so, and Zorba said that he had only looked at the mule with the awe and wonder that the mule deserved -- and he was confounded that the mule didn't strike the boss with the same sense of awe.
The boss didn't understand. Why should he experience awe and wonder?
"Well," replied Zorba, "that there are such things as mules in the world."
* * *
Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries...
-- from "Aurora Leigh" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
* * *
Clarence Jordan, founder of the Koinonia Farm in south Georgia, said that "faith is not a stubborn belief in spite of the evidence." Instead, "Faith is life lived in scorn of the consequences."
* * *
Marcus Borg, in his provocative book titled simply Jesus, gives us a radically different interpretation than we usually get of Jesus' dialogue with the Pharisees and the Herodians. The central question was "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?" The usual interpretation is that our prime obligation is to God but that we have a secondary obligation to the emperor or Caesar. In the gospel accounts Jesus does not give a direct answer. After asking for a coin with Caesar's image on it, he responds to his questioners who are trying to trap him, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's and to God the things that are God's."
Borg goes on to ask an additional question: "Jesus, what belongs to God?" Borg answers his own question by saying that he believes Jesus would answer, "Everything." Surely Jesus shared a central affirmation of the Jewish Bible: "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it" (Psalm 24:1). Therefore, what belongs to the emperor? Borg says, "Nothing."
* * *
When I was in junior high school I had to pass a wonderful bakery every day on the way to school and back. Imagine passing those smells every morning. Finally the temptations overcame me and I saved enough money to buy whatever I wanted.
I stopped on the way home and bought two Èclairs. I ate one on the way home. The other one I left in the bag and when I arrived home I put it in the refrigerator with this note: "Dean's Èclair. Bought with my own money." (Ours was a big family. You couldn't be too careful with such things.)
The next morning I went to get my Èclair from the refrigerator and... surprise, it was still there. But my father had taped notes to everything else in the fridge: "Marvin's butter. Bought with my own money"; "Marvin's milk"; "Marvin's jelly."
I got the message.
-- Dean Feldmeyer
* * *
The phrases "upside-down" and "under water" have come to have new meanings in the past couple of years.
When many of us were young, we started out living in apartments or renting houses until we could afford to buy our first house. We were told to do this as quickly as possible because we were wasting money by renting, not building up any equity, and so forth.
Then in 2008 the bubble burst in the real estate market and suddenly people found themselves in just the opposite position. Not only were they not building equity, they were in fact losing equity in their homes. The houses they bought were worth less than they owed on them.
Ownership of things can be fun and sometimes rewarding. But as Christians, we would do well to remember that, in the final analysis, we are all renters on this planet.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God is Sovereign; let the peoples tremble!
People: God sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
Leader: God is great in Zion and is exalted over all the peoples.
People: Let the people praise God's great and awesome name.
Leader: Mighty Ruler, lover of justice, you have established equity;
People: you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God who is One.
People: We worship and adore the unity of our God.
Leader: Come and discover, again, the openness of God.
People: We are in awe of the self-revelation of our God.
Leader: Come and open your lives to God and to the world.
People: May God so fill us that we truly reflect God's being.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"All People That on Earth Do Dwell"
found in:
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELW: 883
"Source and Sovereign, Rock and Cloud"
found in:
UMH: 113
CH: 12
"Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies"
found in:
UMH: 173
H82: 6/7
PH: 462/463
LBW: 265
ELW: 553
"Of the Father's Love Begotten"
found in:
UMH: 184
PH: 309
NCH: 118
CH: 104
LBW: 42
ELW: 295
Renew: 252
"T? Has Venido a la Orilla" ("Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore")
found in:
UMH: 344
PH: 377
CH: 342
"Spirit Song"
found in:
UMH: 347
AAHH: 321
CH: 352
CCB: 51
Renew: 248
"O Come and Dwell in Me"
found in:
UMH: 388
"I Am Thine, O Lord"
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
"Your Loving Kindness Is Better Than Life"
found in:
CCB: 26
"Lord, Be Glorified"
found in:
CCB: 62
Renew: 172
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who comes to us in the honesty of who you are: Grant us the grace and courage to live truthfully the lives we have set before ourselves as disciples of your Son; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into your presence, O God, and though we can know only a little of your eternal being, we know that what you reveal to us is true. As we praise you, help us to reflect in our lives the sincerity that lies in your very nature. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which our insincerity makes us bad examples of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know you have called us to live as your children and to reflect your nature in our lives. Yet we are better at talking about these things than we are in doing them. We gladly own your claim on us as our heavenly parent and yet we often do not act like your children. Instead of love and grace we display disdain and contempt for others. We are more worried about getting more for ourselves than helping those who have nothing. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit to live as we talk and to draw others to you by being more and more like you. Amen.
Leader: God's love and grace is for us as well as for the rest of creation. God grants us forgiveness and the blessing of God's own Spirit that we might truly be who we were created to be.
Prayer for Illumination
Send the light of your Spirit upon us that we may see clearly who we are called to be, who we say we are, and who we truly are. Open our eyes that we may see how to make these one. Amen.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise you, O God who is One. You truly are one in nature and purpose. You have no shadow of turning or deceit within you. You are Love.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know you have called us to live as your children and to reflect your nature in our lives. Yet we are better at talking about these things than we are in doing them. We gladly own your claim on us as our heavenly parent and yet we often do not act like your children. Instead of love and grace we display disdain and contempt for others. We are more worried about getting more for ourselves than helping those who have nothing. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit to live as we talk and to draw others to you by being more and more like you.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have revealed yourself to us. We thank you for scripture and the witness of your people through the ages. We thank you especially for those who have lived your love and grace among us so that we were drawn to you.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who have not yet discovered your true nature. We pray for those who have been affected by our hypocrisy and the insincerity of others.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Take a sugar bowl filled with salt. Talk to the children about how good sweet things are and that sugar is one of the ways to make things sweet. Ask them if they like sweet things. Then give them each a few grains of salt from the sugar bowl and ask them to taste it. When they react, act shocked and taste the "sugar" yourself. Talk about how it is not nice to have something labeled as sugar when it is salt. That's not being honest. Talk about how Jesus was just who he said he was, and how he wants us to be honest about who we are as well. We are God's children and disciples of Jesus, so we need to act like that. We don't want to be mislabeled.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Be Imitators of the Lord
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Object: a bunch of grapes
Good morning, boys and girls! Have you ever noticed how many of us like to do the same things? Dads like to watch football games, moms like to grow flowers, brothers like to play video games, sisters like to dance, grandmothers and grandfathers like to tell you how pretty and handsome you are. They all like to do the same kind of things. We sometimes call that imitating. Can you say the word "imitate"? (let them say it) Very good! Sometimes imitating is a good thing and sometimes it is not so good, but we are talking today about good imitating.
God imitates things that he likes. God likes stars, so he made a lot of them. He imitated them. God likes grass, so he made a lot of it. He imitated it. God made good things to eat like this bunch of grapes. (hold up the grapes) God loved grapes, and there are many kinds of grapes but they look pretty much like this. They grow on vines and you can eat or drink the juice of grapes in many ways. I like grapes; how many of you like grapes? (let them answer, and give a grape to each child that wants one; while you continue talking you can pass out more grapes) Look at how God imitated his grapes. (hold them up again) They have the same color, are about the same size, taste exactly the same, and feel the same. God did a good job of imitating the grapes.
Saint Paul tells us about how glad he is that the people in Thessalonica are imitators of Silvanus, Timothy, and himself. He wrote about how the people in this town heard about Jesus and followed him. They were trying to be like the disciples and worship and pray to God just like other Christians. They were learning to share the gifts that God had given them with people who were poor. They were visiting the sick and helping them, visiting people in jail, and sharing the story of Jesus as Savior. They were real imitators of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy.
Jesus wants you to be imitators of Christians that you know. God wants you to live lives like your Sunday school teacher and your pastor and members of our church who love Jesus and follow his word. It would be great to see someone who visited our church write a letter saying that they watched [list a few of the children's names] and have decided to imitate you and be followers of Jesus. Don't you think that would be great? (let them answer)
God didn't make you to be a star or a sun or the rain or even a bunch of grapes. God made you to imitate Jesus and follow him all the days of your life.
Prayer: Help us to be good imitators of Jesus, dear God. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, October 16, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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.
