Immediate Word

If the "printer-friendly" link doesn't work for you (which it won't if you are not a subscriber) use this link.

King David is one of the iconic heroes of the faith -- but it can be very difficult to think of him as a great figure when confronted with the behavior he exhibits in this week's Old Testament lectionary passage. As if the adultery with Bathsheba weren't enough (recalling sex scandals of men in power through the ages), he compounds his error with a willful cover-up that when initially thwarted even extends to arranging for the battlefield death of Bathsheba's husband Uriah. One can imagine the uproar that would occur today if similar actions by one of our political leaders came to light. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer points out that the current headlines offer a striking parallel when it comes to squaring numerous great deeds with appalling complicity in a cover-up of sexual crimes: that of legendary former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, whose once-sterling reputation has been left in tatters as a result of revelations contained in the Freeh report.

Paterno had for years heralded what he called the "Grand Experiment" -- his belief that a top-flight winning college football program could be a paragon of virtue, educating its student-athletes and following the rules -- and he was almost universally respected for the results he produced both on and off the field. But after the Freeh report laid bare the degree to which Paterno and other top university administrators concealed their knowledge about the actions of Jerry Sandusky, adulation was replaced in most quarters by revulsion, and a firestorm erupted over the fate of a statue on campus honoring Paterno. After days of intense debate, the new university president finally resolved the matter by deciding to remove the statue -- and work crews quickly removed it this past Sunday at the crack of dawn. A day later the NCAA weighed in, and as part of a massive set of penalties on the school's football program it was decreed that more than a decade's worth of Penn State wins would be "vacated" (i.e. erased). The net result was that not only were physical reminders of Paterno's once-respected status removed from view, but his status as college football's all-time winningest coach was instantly erased from the record books.

One wonders how David might be remembered if his transgressions occurred in such a context -- would statues of him be removed? Would we have erased him from the records of scripture? As Dean notes, how we come to terms with the human dichotomy -- in which people are capable of many great actions, but also unspeakable evil -- is a very thorny issue. How do we choose to remember those who have done things we want to remember, but others we want to forget?

Of course, the fate of the Paterno statue and the Penn State football program was but a footnote to another story in recent days ñ the shocking armed attack on a packed movie theatre in Colorado. As the nation reels from this latest encroachment of random violence into areas of daily life that we once thought were secure, team member Leah Lonsbury shares some insight on how scripture can assist us as we try to make sense of a senseless act and engage in a collective process of grief and reconciliation. Leah suggests that in these difficult times, keeping vigil can help us come to terms with brokenness in ourselves and others, as we reach out to one another and try to neutralize the frightening power unleashed by alienation. Leah also shares some additional links for reading and reflection.

Joe's Halo
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Samuel 11:1-15

King David -- acclaimed warrior, musician, poet, king. A great man, though not without his faults. We could, if we chose, add traitor, terrorist, adulterer, and murderer to the list.

But we don't -- not usually. Usually, when we tell David's story in Vacation Bible School or to the fifth-grade Sunday school class, or when we review his life from the pulpit, we leave those less complimentary, R-rated images and adjectives to the footnotes and parentheses.

Those of us who choose to remember David, to write him into our personal and spiritual histories, to hold him up as an iconic leader, a founding father of the nation of Israel, and the ancestor of Jesus, tend to gloss quickly over his faults and indiscretions, his sins of omission and commission, and move directly from Goliath to Jonathan to the palace. We admire him for his greatness and are quick to forgive him his faults.

But at least we are clear about what those faults were. The Hebrew Scriptures are unrelentingly honest in that regard. If we are going to love and admire someone as a hero, the writers seem to be saying, we had better do it with our eyes wide open.


THE WORLD

If you visit State College, Pennsylvania, you will want to see the mural -- everyone does. My wife and I used to see it every time we visited my son while he was in graduate school at Penn State. We would sit at a sidewalk table at a local pub and note the changes the artist had made since the last time we had visited.

Created by local artist Michael Pilato, the 100-foot painting covers the entire side of a downtown business less than a block off the campus -- and lately, in the wake of football coach Jerry Sandusky's criminal trial and conviction, it has become something of a barometer of the moods and opinions of the community.

When the predator pedophile was just Coach Sandusky, he was a prominent figure in the mural. Today, he's gone; painted over and replaced by a blue ribbon, a symbol of support for the victims of child abuse.

When Joe Paterno died of lung cancer in January, Pilato painted a halo over his head, as he had done to the images of other deceased Penn State figures to "underscore the fragility of life." Last week, after Louis Freeh released his report indicating that JoePa and other members of the university administration knew about Jerry Sandusky and chose to ignore his crimes in order to protect the football program, Pilato removed Joe's halo and painted a blue ribbon -- a symbol of support for the victims of child abuse -- on the coach's lapel.

All of which brings us to the question of what we choose to believe and remember. Will Joe Paterno be remembered as a man who did hundreds of good, kind, and decent things in his life and career? Or will we remember him as the powerful man who, out of fear, chose to ignore or disbelieve the clear evidence that a predator pedophile was abusing children in the very house Paterno had built? Or will it be a mixture of the two, as artist Pilato said when he told the Reuters news service: "I think Joe Paterno is an amazing human being. I think he made a major bad decision in his life."

In the wake of the Freeh report, discussion in Happy Valley (and nationally) moved from the mural to a statue of Paterno that had been placed outside of Beaver Stadium in 2001. There was intense debate about whether or not to take it down, with emotions running high and hot. One university trustee was quoted as saying: "The statue represents the good that Joe did. It doesn't represent the bad that he did."

This past Sunday morning, the statue was removed and placed in storage. Now all that is left is a sort of scar on the concrete where it used to stand. University president Rodney Erickson said that the statue had to come down because it had become an obstacle to healing. Students were threatening to chain themselves to it to prevent its removal, while an airplane flew overhead trailing a banner that said: "Take down the statue or we will." In the end, however, it was removed because too many people felt that Joe Paterno, by his action (or inaction), had shamed Penn State. While he may be remembered by individuals for his kindness and generosity, after the publication of the Freeh report he could no longer stand as a symbol for "doing it the right way."

Ta-Nehisi Coates, a senior editor for The Atlantic, argued in the New York Times that "the problem here is not that Paterno shamed Happy Valley, but that Happy Valley, through its broad blindness, has shamed itself." It is shameful, he contended, "to deify men who put nationalist ritual before children. But it is more shameful to pretend that this elevation was achieved by Joe Paterno's singular hand."

If Paterno was guilty of willful blindness concerning Jerry Sandusky's crimes, says Coates, then the people of Happy Valley are no less guilty of moral myopia, if not their own brand of willful blindness. And neither are any of us who would "turn a pastime into a god and elect a mortal man as its avatar."


THE WORD

The authors of Samuel and Chronicles suffered from no such myopia when they preserved in writing the life of David. This week's story is a familiar one and a fun one. As full of sex and violence as any modern movie, it would probably be rated "R."

It is summertime, the time of year when most kings are doing kingly things like making war on their neighbors. David, however, is stuck at home. His life, he has been told, is too important to be risked on the field of battle. His generals are handling the wars, and it has been left to him to hang around the palace and deal with administrative issues... safe issues... boring issues. But David is a warrior, a man of action, and this inactivity is driving him out of his mind.

One evening he goes up to the flat roof of his home to walk and think and look out upon his kingdom and maybe catch a cool breeze. And from that vantage point, the highest in the city, he sees a beautiful naked woman taking a bath on her own roof a few houses over.

He does not avert his eyes. He drinks in that beautiful vision and he is filled with lust. He sends a servant to enquire about her, and the servant returns with word that she is Bathsheba and she is, uh, married. She's not available. She's out of bounds. Careful eye-averting, in other words, should be undertaken from now on. Don't even think about it.

But David does think about it, and he, being king, sends for her -- and she, being his subject, comes to him as bidden. One thing leads to another -- as they say on the talk shows -- and she ends up pregnant.

However, David is still the king, and so he sends for her husband, Uriah, who happens to be in the army, besieging a city in one of David's wars. Uriah arrives and David tries to make small talk about the war, and then he sends Uriah back to his house. Surely a soldier home on leave will want to sleep with his wife, and then they will be able to pawn the pregnancy off on him.

But no such luck. Uriah is much too pure and single-minded and gung-ho for such a thing. Three times he refuses to indulge in the comforts of his wife's bed. Even when he's drunk, he can't be lured back to her embrace.

So David sends him back to the front with a secret message to Joab, his general, to arrange the next attack on the city that is being besieged so that Uriah is killed in the attack. And that's what Joab does.

So skillfully is the story told that there can be no doubt that this is a tragic, shameful, dirty business. It is a business unworthy of a person of faith, and especially so of a king handpicked by Yahweh.

Yet there it is, fully rendered in minute, ugly detail in the recorded history of our faith. When you remember David, says the chronicler, remember ALL of him.


CRAFTING THE SERMON

The story is probably apocryphal -- but it is nonetheless told by historian Horace Walpole that when Oliver Cromwell sat to be painted by the popular portrait artist Sir Peter Lely, he knew that Lely was used to flattering his subjects, rendering their likeness in as positive a light as possible. But Cromwell, the Puritan, told the artist: "Mr. Lely, I desire you would use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me, otherwise I will never pay a farthing for it." A hundred years later, author Alpheus Carey shortened Cromwell's orders to: "Paint me as I am, warts and all."

Whatever the exact words, we have Cromwell's death mask -- and comparing it to Lely's painting, we see that the artist did, in fact, paint an honest likeness of his subject... warts and all.

The biblical account of David's life proves to us that we can remember and admire someone even when we are fully aware of their flaws, their weaknesses, their faults, and their errors. We can have as our heroes people who we know made bad choices, who were less than perfect. But our own choices about who we will admire and hold aloft can be authentically made only if they are made with open eyes and honest assessments.

Will we remember David as the adulterer and murderer, or as the king who built Jerusalem and established the first state of Israel? Or as both?

Will we remember Joe Paterno as the great coach who gave generously and faithfully to his university and his players, whose graduation record was among the best in the country for nearly thirty years? Or will we remember him as the weak old man who failed to see the pedophile in his coaching staff? Or as both?

Will we remember Michael Vick as one of the great quarterbacks of professional football, or as the man who sponsored dog fighting in his own backyard?

Will we remember Richard Nixon for Watergate or for going to China?

Will we remember Ronald Reagan for bringing down the Berlin Wall or for closing his eyes to Iran-Contra?

If we are to have heroes, real heroes, then let us be as honest in our memory of them as we are enthusiastic in our admiration.

If we ourselves are to be remembered, let us pray that those memories are colored not by willful blindness but by a mixture of both honesty and grace.


THOUGHTS ON THE AURORA SHOOTINGS
Responding Through the Power at Work Within Us
by Leah Lonsbury
2 Samuel 11:1-15; Ephesians 3:14-21

Just days into the investigation surrounding the horrific shooting at a midnight screening of the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, in Aurora, Colorado, details about the victims are emerging in the flurry of media activity.

Alex Sullivan was at the movie to celebrate his 27th birthday with friends. This past Sunday would have been his first wedding anniversary. Sullivan's uncle, Joe Loewenguth describes him like this: "He was a very, very good young man. He always had a smile, always made you laugh. He had a little bit of comic in him. Witty, smart. He was loving, had a big heart."

The youngest victim of the shooting was Veronica Moser-Sullivan, "a vibrant six-year-old," according to her great-aunt Annie Dalton. "She was excited, she'd just learned how to swim. She was a great little girl, excited about life -- she should be at six years old."

Jessica Ghawi, 24, was an aspiring sports writer and had narrowly escaped a similar rampage at a Toronto mall less than two months ago. Jessica's own words in a posting on her blog about the mall shooting are chillingly resonant with many as the public reacts to the tragedy in Colorado. They read:

I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders' faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don't know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath.

Another description has emerged as well. It's of a bright and motivated student who was a quiet parishioner and a volunteer at a camp for underprivileged kids.

Of course, if you're staying current on the news, you may also know that that same individual is also being called a "suspect intent on killing," a mastermind who worked with "calculation and deliberation," and an "intellectually gifted neuroscience student suspected of morphing into a vicious killer".

It can be hard to imagine how both sets of descriptors could apply to James Holmes, the sole suspect now in custody for the shootings in Aurora. The picture of Holmes that accompanies most online articles about the developing case is of a clean-cut and seemingly friendly young man. But it was a detached Holmes with his hair dyed red who appeared in court yesterday, and some news sources are reporting that the Holmes police have in custody is calling himself "the Joker," spitting on guards, and refusing to cooperate.

These differing reports on who exactly this suspect is can be disorienting. The whole story is disorienting. It's also alarming and full of so much heartache.

It can be incredibly difficult to know what to say or even think when faced with a reality like this, but the narrative we've been following through 2 Samuel recently may serve as a vehicle as we begin to navigate the heartache, the fears and insecurities, and the questions that have arisen surrounding this tragedy.

During our lectionary journey this summer, a ruddy and handsome young sheepherder became king. A sheepherder. A king. It can be hard to imagine how both of these descriptors could apply to one person, but they do.

On his journey toward the throne, David, the young and inexperienced shepherd defeated a giant that paralyzed whole armies with fear. His bravery and his faith and God's anointing prepare him to lead God's people, and we read that "David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of Hosts, was with him" (2 Samuel 5:10).

Then David sees Bathsheba bathing on the rooftop. And soon the list of descriptors that could be used for David grows in surprising directions. Depending on how we read the text, what's going on in our lives, and what's occupying our minds, we could describe David as lustful, covetous, weak, deceitful, sinful, cowardly, vulnerable, calculating, murderous, and/or human.

King David is a powerful man. He uses his power "with justice and equity" to save his people (8:15). He uses his power to honor God (6:5). And he uses his power to steal Bathsheba and kill Uriah, Bathsheba's husband and David's faithful soldier.

David's story can be disorienting. It can also be alarming and full of heartache, because it is also our story. This is true not just because it comes from our sacred scriptures or because David is our ancestor in faith. It is true because it mirrors our experience as we struggle with the power we hold -- power that can save, create justice and equity, love others and our own selves, and honor God. The struggle comes because this power can also be destructive -- to relationships, to our sense of self, and to life itself, like we are seeing in the aftermath of the Aurora shooting.

As we learn more about the complicated story of James Holmes and consider both (or the many) sides of David and ourselves, we could move to questions about what kind of God unleashes this kind of power in human beings and doesn't intervene. We could ask where God was or what God's plans were on that Friday night.

Or we could interpret the tragedy in any number of ways -- as God's action like Westboro Baptist Church does, as God's purposeful inaction as Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas does, or as an opportunity to prove a point and frighten people into converting to Christianity to avoid hell like evangelical Jerry Newcombe of Faith in Action does.

Alternatively, we could skip the questions, knowing as Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, Senior Religion Editor of the Huffington Post, does that to answer too quickly means "our reactions serve the idols of our own agendas and ideas. Our reactions become about us and our egos, and only serve to distract away from the real work of compassion." Better to live and struggle with the questions a bit and skip the quick answers and theologizing, writes Raushenbush. He would trade the Q&A for a turn to compassion:

... if we are gentle, and if we are kind, and if we are wise -- we pause there and do not answer too quickly. We stay with the pain and the tears and the terror and in response offer compassion, prayers, thoughts, and demonstrate a willingness to be supportive and loving in any way we can. The faithful response is to hold a vigil.

Holding vigil leaves time and space to honor the victims of the tragedy and those who continue to suffer. It assures the ones left behind that they are not alone in their pain and grief and fear. It makes room for the unfolding of honest and seeking questions, raw anger and despair, shock and numbness, panic and paralysis.

Keeping vigil also calls us to wakefulness, the root of the word "vigil." It helps us to be attentive to others' needs and alert to how a loss this heartbreaking affects our community and our world and how it turns the screw on people's insecurities and fears, including our own. Keeping vigil grounds us and calls us to prayerful and compassionate movement in a fragile and volatile world.

If we can keep our vigil long enough, it can remind us that this kind of prayerful and "tuned in" living can be a trustworthy way to remember who we are and seek to be in the world, especially in the midst of swirling anxiety and great sadness. It can guide us as we seek to use our power well -- in loving and thoughtful ways, ways that build up, ways that save, ways that create justice and equity. A person, a family, a community, a world that has been shaken by a shocking event and multiple deaths needs us to use our power, our presence, our Spirit in these life-giving ways. So does a person or a world that is experiencing everyday challenges, life's little deaths -- of dreams ending, relationships crumbling, alliances breaking, violence threatening, stressors overwhelming, and hearts losing hope that things can and will be different.

As Christians, we know the one we seek to follow carved just this kind of path for us. Jesus kept this kind of vigil in his distress ("Could you not keep awake one hour? Keep awake and pray... the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak..." -- Mark 14:37-38) and throughout his life and teachings ("When you pray..." honor God, pray for and give yourself to the in-breaking of God's kingdom, ask for provisions for the day, seek forgiveness, offer forgiveness, and ask for God's mercy and peace... -- Luke 11:2-4).

When we follow Jesus, really follow his lead in living this prayer-full and wakeful life, we disarm the dangerous power that can be unleashed in us when we are isolated and disconnected, when we pace the roof alone, looking for trouble. This is why Paul (or one of his followers) encourages the Ephesians to bow, surrender, kneel, and give themselves over to Abba God. Paul's words are, in this case, steeped with intimacy and gentleness, compassion and coaxing. The surrender he is after is one that will bring relief and a connection that shores up and enables. Here's a recap of how he begins the chapter: "I, Paul... am sure that you have heard of God's grace, of which I was made a steward on your behalf, this mystery, as I have briefly described it... the mystery of Christ... that we [are all]... partakers of the promise of Jesus... just as we are." Grace. Mystery. Promise. Just as we are.

In all the dark fear and confounding questions, the stark brokenness and consuming sadness, it would be good to have a place to surrender to grace and mystery, to be held close and held up as we keep vigil, stay awake, and seek the strength to live and love in compassionate ways. It would be a relief to let our power run and be directed in line with the Power that creates, redeems, and sustains. To this end, Paul leads the people through the example of his own prayerfulness. Paul's prayer for the Ephesians could be a prayer said for each one of us in this time: "that God... will strengthen you inwardly with power through the working of the Spirit."

Paul's blessing could be a blessing said for each one of us as well...

May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, so that you, being rooted and grounded in love, will be able to grasp fully the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ's love and, with all God's holy ones, experience this love that surpasses all understanding, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

If we follow this path of wakefulness and prayer, if we seek to really follow Jesus and dwell with the God of love, our capacity to recognize and attend to the brokenness in ourselves, the people around us, and our world grows. It helps us keep our power, presence, and spirit on the path to love, to the source of healing. In David terms, it has the potential to save our people, honor God, and help us avert our eyes when we are tempted to use our power in ways that bring brokenness and death.

And then maybe we speak. Maybe we offer our answers. Maybe. Maybe not. It doesn't seem to be what the world needs anyway, more answers.

The world does need for us to prayerful and connected so we might be compassionate, slow to speak our minds, and quick to act in love. And it needs us to use our power, our presence, our spirit for good on the rooftops, in our homes, on the streets, in the public square, in each place we go and with every person, every child of God we encounter. The world needs us to work in hope and through the presence of Christ, the power of love that dwells in our hearts and roots and grounds us in love.

This is the "power at work within us" that "is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine." Thanks be to God.

More reading as we hold vigil, live prayerfully, and begin our work of compassion in the worldÖ

* http://www.salon.com/2012/07/20/the_nra_has_america_living_under_the_gun/
* http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/22/michael-bloomberg-gun-control_n_1692950.html
* http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/opinion/weve-seen-this-movie-before.html?_r=1&hp
* http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/jul/23/us-colorado-shooting-arsenal/
* http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/batman-tale-aurora-shooting-reflects-deeper-morality-tale/2012/07/20/gJQAxRVEzW_blog.html
* http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/21/12879842-dont-blame-the-shootings-on-darwin-or-on-gods-wrath?lite
* http://aminiatureclaypot.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/so-you-still-think-god-is-a-merciful-god/


ILLUSTRATIONS

Jim Litke, a sports columnist for the Associated Press, penned a commentary confessing that he, like so many others, had given Joe Paterno the benefit of the doubt because of the coach's many accomplishments on and off the field as well as his continuing sermon on the integrity of the Penn State football program. But when former FBI director Louis Freeh released his 267-page investigative report -- with evidence on page 48 that since 1998 JoPa had been a part of a child abuse cover-up -- Litke wrote that Paterno had lost the benefit of the doubt. Litke added that "It takes another 120 pages or so to complete Paterno's transformation from interested observer to willful, out-of-touch tyrant."

Reflecting on Paterno's vices and virtues, Litke concluded his commentary with these words: "If Thursday's report succeeded in making him look a whole lot less admirable, the consolation is that it made him seem a whole lot more human."

Application: David did many great things, but his reputation will always be tainted by the affair with Bathsheba. As we can see from the life of Joe Paterno, all of us can look down from the rooftop and do the wrong thing.

* * *

In speaking to reporters regarding his investigation, Louis Freeh said: "Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State. The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for fourteen years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized" (http://articles.cnn.com/2012-07-12/us/us_pennsylvania-penn-state-investi...).

Freeh said the motivation for the cover-up was "to avoid the consequences of bad publicity." This was because of "a culture of reverence for the football program that is ingrained at all levels of the campus community".

Freeh said he realized what the report would do to the "terrific legacy" of Joe Paterno, but it cannot be denied that the coach "was an integral part of this active decision to conceal".

Application: It is difficult to reconcile all that David did for Israel when we consider the story of Bathsheba, and especially the deception and murder of Uriah. It is the same dilemma of trying to reconcile Joe Paterno's coaching career and his association with the Sandusky cover-up. Let us do the best we can not to have such a dichotomy in our own lives.

* * *

Sportswriter Rick Reilly tells of an interesting phone conversation he had with a Penn State professor in 1986 while researching a lengthy profile of Joe Paterno for Sports Illustrated:

"Are you here to take part in hagiography?" he said.

"What's hagiography?" I asked.

"The study of saints," he said. "You're going to be just like the rest, aren't you? You're going to make Paterno out to be a saint. You don't know him. He'll do anything to win. What you media are doing is dangerous."

Jealous egghead, I figured.

And like Jim Litke, Reilly too wanted to give Paterno the benefit of the doubt... until the Freeh report made that impossible:

Twenty-five years later, when former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was accused of a fifteen-year reign of pedophilia on young boys, I thought Paterno was too old and too addled to understand, too grandfatherly and Catholic to get that Sandusky was committing grisly crimes using Paterno's own football program as bait.

But I was wrong. Paterno knew. He knew all about it. He'd known for years. He knew and he followed it vigilantly.

That's all clear now after Penn State's own investigator, former FBI director Louis Freeh, came out and hung the whole disgusting canvas on a wall for us. Showed us the e-mails, read us the interviews, shined a black light on all of the lies they left behind.

And most painful of all, Reilly realized that it was the professor who had the clearest vision about Paterno's "true legacy":

What a stooge I was.... That professor was right, all those years ago. I was engaging in hagiography. So was that school. So was that town. It was dangerous.

* * *

It is almost devastating to discover that a person as great and good as David could be as evil and ugly as he sometimes was. England's literary giant, Charles Dickens, a rather astute student of life, became almost cynical about this. When he moved into his London home, Tavistock House, he installed a hidden door to his study -- making it appear as an unbroken wall of books, complete with dummy shelves and fictitious titles.

Inventing titles for these dummy volumes was apparently a matter of much amusement for Dickens. One of the titles, in several volumes, was The Wisdom of Our Ancestors; it included volumes on ignorance, superstition, the block, the stake, the rack, dirt, and disease. A companion volume, titled The Virtues of Our Ancestors, was so thin, so narrow, that the title had to be printed sideways.

* * *

A reporter once interviewed a man with a rags-to-riches story and asked the man how the change in his circumstances had affected his life. The man thought for a moment and told the reporter: "It was much easier to resist temptation when I had little means of taking advantage of it."

Lord Acton wrote: "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely."

That's not exactly right. Actually, power reveals the corruption that was always there but hidden away for lack of opportunity.

* * *

There are many things in life that make no sense whatever. For example, it is beyond explanation that a human being should sacrifice one's life so that another may live... but it happens. It is hardly logical that human beings should ravage their bank accounts and endanger their lives for the "pleasure" of smoking. But that is the way addiction works. It is quite beyond all human wisdom and common sense. Now, think about one more incomprehensible concept. A Roman cross of execution becomes the avenue that God chooses to demonstrate his unfailing love toward us. Do not try to understand it; merely accept it -- on a wager of faith. Only in this way can you know it as truth.

* * *

Recently we celebrated what would have been Woody Guthrie's 100th birthday. Because Guthrie suffered from Huntington's disease, his most productive years were from the mid-1930s to the late 1940s. But during that span he introduced "topical songwriting."

Guthrie's best known piece of work is the song "This Land Is Your Land." Not only is it sung by other artists, but it is a staple in the curriculum of grade school students. Guthrie wrote the song as a rejoinder to Irvin Berlin's "God Bless America." Guthrie believed that Berlin's classic did not address the struggles and dreams of the ordinary Americans that he knew. That's why Guthrie's song included this lyric:

As I went walkin' I saw a sign there,
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothin',
That side was made for you and me.

We need to recognize and acknowledge the Americans who live on the other side of the sign -- the one that "didn't say nothin'!"

Application: When Jesus saw the crowd that was in need of food, he had compassion upon them and made arrangements for them to be fed. We need to realize that there are many people who live on the side of the sign that "didn't say nothin'!"

* * *

John Burgess highlights some parallels between the feeding of the 5,000 and Psalm 23:

The feeding of the 5,000 takes place beside the Sea of Galilee ("still waters"). The people are like sheep on a grassy hillside ("green pastures"), and Jesus has compassion on them ("the Lord is my shepherd"). When he feeds them, they are satisfied ("I shall not want"). He will lead them "in paths of righteousness" and will protect them in times of trouble ("I will fear no evil, for thou art with me").

-- John B. Burgess, "John 6:1-21," in The Lectionary Commentary: Third Readings, edited by Roger E. Van Harn (Eerdmans, 2001), p. 507

* * *

When the disciples, charged with feeding the hungry crowd, found a child with five loaves and two fishes, Jesus Took, Blessed, Broke, and Gave the bread. These are the four decisive verbs of our sacramental existence. Jesus conducted a Eucharist, a gratitude. He demonstrated that the world is filled with abundance and freighted with generosity. If bread is broken and shared, there is enough for all. Jesus is engaged in the subversive reordering of public reality.

-- Walter Brueggemann, "The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity," in The Christian Century, March 24-31, l999


WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed

N.B. Knowing the thoughts behind the writing of the worship resources may help... so here they are: Humility is not beating our breast or flogging our backs and saying what bad people we are. It is living in the truth of who we are. The story of David is told with humility, told in the truth of who he was. The shootings in Aurora, Colorado, also need to be remembered in humility. We are shocked, saddened, and enraged by these killings. But in truth, we are also part of a very violent society. We lift up violent heroes and play violent games. The question is not whether this causes such deviant behavior. The question is if we are willing to be humble, even in our outrage. Are we willing to admit that we are part of a violent society? While we do not condone such acts nor are we likely to commit similar ones, if we are honest about who we are we must acknowledge that we have within us a violence as well.

Call to Worship
Leader: Only a fool says, "There is no God."
People: It seems that there is no one who does good.
Leader: God looks down from heaven on humankind.
People: God looks to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.
Leader: When God restores the fortunes of the people,
People: Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.

OR

Leader: Come and stand before God in the truth of who you are.
People: We come, knowing we are not who we should be.

Leader: God invites us as we are, not as we should be.
People: We come in all the honesty we can.

Leader: When we are honest with God and ourselves, then God can work with us and within us.
People: We open ourselves and our lives to our God.

Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Holy, Holy, Holy"
found in:
UMH: 64, 65
H82: 362
PH: 138
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELA: 413
CCB: 15
Renew: 204

"All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name"
found in:
UMH: 154, 155
H82: 450, 451
PH: 142, 143
AAHH: 292, 293, 294
NNBH: 315
NCH: 304
CH: 91, 92
LBW: 328, 329
ELA: 634
Renew: 45

"Jesus Shall Reign"
found in:
UMH: 157
H82: 544
PH: 423
NNBH: 10
NCH: 300
CH: 95
LBW: 530
ELA: 434
Renew: 296

"It's Me, It's Me, O Lord"
found in:
UMH: 352
NNBH: 496
CH: 579

"Just As I Am"
found in:
UMH: 357
H82: 693
PH: 370
AAHH: 344, 345
NNBH: 167
NCH: 207
CH: 339
LBW: 296
ELA: 592
Renew: 140

"Dear Lord and Father of Mankind"
found in:
UMH: 358
H82: 652, 653
PH: 345
NCH: 502
CH: 594
LBW: 506

"Grace Greater than Our Sin"
found in:
UMH: 365

"It Is Well with My Soul"
found in:
UMH: 377
AAHH: 377
NNBH: 255
NCH: 438
CH: 561
ELA: 785

"Holy, Holy"
found in:
CCB: 10

"The Steadfast Love of the Lord"
found in:
CCB: 28
Renew: 23

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
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship

Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is purity of being: Grant that we, your children, may be honest about our impurity until that day when we shall all reflect you in your wholeness; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

OR

We have come to worship and praise you, O God, for the purity of your being. You are God and there is no shadow of otherness within you. As we worship you and listen for your guidance in our lives, help us to be open and honest about the shadows that exist within us amidst the light. Amen.

Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our tendency to see others and ourselves in only one light.

People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to face ourselves and others in a spirit of humility and honesty. We have demonized our enemies and sanctified our heroes. We look at ourselves and often vacillate between the two extremes. We fail to see ourselves or others as both radically blessed and radically flawed. Open our eyes, and empower our hearts to live courageously in the truth of reality. Amen.

Leader: God knows who we all are and loves us just the same. That Spirit of God has been given to us so that we can do the same.

Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
You are light, O God, and in you there is no shadow of turning. You are purity and holiness, and we bow our heads before you in awe.

(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 have failed to face ourselves and others in a spirit of humility and honesty. We have demonized our enemies and sanctified our heroes. We look at ourselves and often vacillate between the two extremes. We fail to see ourselves or others as both radically blessed and radically flawed. Open our eyes, and empower our hearts to live courageously in the truth of reality.

We give you thanks for those who have been honest with us about who they are, and those who have been honest with us about who we are. Their honesty is a precious gift. We thank you for the scriptures, which provide many honest stories about your people. We thank you for the people of faith who could offer us a view of the light and the dark within these folks. Most of all, we thank you for Jesus who made it so clear that you love us just as we are.

(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)

We lift up to you those who live in fear of who they are or who they have been. We pray that your love may radiate from our lives and encourage them to be honest about themselves.

(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
Talk to the children about someone whom you have liked but didn't always get along with. Talk about how people have different traits, and that we like some and don't like others so much. It's okay -- that's how people are. Because God loves and accepts us, we can love and accept each other.


CHILDREN'S SERMON
Your Family
Ephesians 3:14-21

Objects: a can of oil, a house key, a newspaper, a kitchen chair, and an afghan

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. (vv. 14-15)

I brought with me some different items today that are clues to a very important word. If you put them all together you should be able to guess the important word. Are you ready to try and solve the mystery? (let the children answer) Good, here is the first clue. (show the key) How many of you know what this is? (let them answer) That's right, it is a keyÖ but a key to what? (let them guess) It is a key to a door, but what door? (let them answer) That's right, it is to the front door of a house. Let's try another clue. (hold up the oil can) What is this? (let them answer) That's right, it is a can of oilÖ but where is the oil used? (let them answer) Very good, it is used in a carÖ but what car? (let them answer) It could be your dad's car or your mother's car, couldn't it? How about a couple of more clues?

What do I have in my hand now? (show the newspaper and let the children answer) You are very good, it is a newspaper. Where do you find a newspaper? (let them answer) On your front porch, maybe in the driveway, sometimes in the paper box where you live are all right answers. Finally, I have a couple of other clues that should give you really good answers. Remember, we are looking for a very important word, and all of these things should tell us what the word is. Take a look at these last two clues. First, I have a what? (show the chair and let them answer) That's right, it is a chair, but it comes from a very important place. Do you ever sit on a chair like this? (let them answer) Right, when you eat your breakfast, your lunch, and your dinner. This is a kitchen chair. Secondly, I have something that everyone likes, especially on cold evenings when we are sitting around watching television. What do we call this? (let them answer) Right again, it is an afghan, and it could be one that your mother or grandmother made.

So what do you think the word is that I am looking for from you? We have a key to a front door, a can of oil for a car, a newspaper that Dad and Mom read, a kitchen chair that we sit on when we eat our meals, and an afghan that we wrap up in.

All of these things are important things to our what? (let them guess the word) Are they important to the church? No. Are they important to the school? I don't think so. Is there a special place for all of these things to be used? (let them answer) At home? Who lives in your home? (let them answer) That's right, your family lives there, and that is the answer to our mystery. The word is "family," and it is a very important word. Did you know that God made each of our families with love? He began with the love of a mother and father and then he added children. Families are created by God's love. The next time anyone asks you about your family, you can tell them that your family was made by God.


* * * * * * * * * * * * *


The Immediate Word, July 29, 2012, issue.

Copyright 2012 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.