Last Words
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For May 29, 2022:
Last Words
by Dean Feldmeyer
Revelation 22:12-14, 15-17, 20-21; John 17: 20-26
“Rosebud.”
That was the last word of Charles Foster Kane, the lead character of the classic, Orsen Wells film, Citizen Kane. Everyone in the movie expected some piece of wisdom from the self-made magnate but no one could figure out what that one word, spoken with Kane’s last breath, meant. We, in the audience, however, know. We know that his last, dying word is meaningless. Just a word printed on his childhood snow sled, a word as devoid of meaning as his entire life of accumulated power and wealth turned out to be.
John of Patmos must have been in a quandary about what his final words would be in his letter to the churches, that we call the book of Revelation. He makes several runs at it in chapter 22, what most scholars refer to as the epilogue. Then, in the final lines he gives his benediction, his good word: “Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.”
Not spectacular. But not “Rosebud,” either. In it he proclaims what he wants for us, the saints. But do we want it? Do we really want the Lord, Jesus to come and have his spirit enter our lives? What would that require of us?
In the News/Culture
Sudden, unexpected violence and death have become ubiquitous in American culture. Let the weekend of May 13-15 stand as an example:
There were seven mass shootings (where 4 or more people were shot) that weekend in the United States. There have been more than 200 so far in 2022 according to the Gun Violence Archive, an independent data collection organization.
The racist attack at a Buffalo, NY supermarket on Saturday, May 14, where10 Black people were killed and three were injured has been the deadliest mass shooting of the year in the United States…so far. Here are the others for that weekend:
2 killed, 3 wounded: Friday, May 13, Dallas, TX
0 killed, 17 wounded: Friday, May 13, Milwaukee, WI
1 killed, 4 wounded: Sunday, May 15, Amarillo TX
2 killed, 3 wounded: Sunday, May 15, Houston, TX
1 killed, 5 wounded: Sunday, May 15, Laguna Woods, CA
0 killed, 7 wounded: Sunday, May 15, Winston-Salem, NC
If any of those 16 souls who were killed over the weekend got a chance to say some last words to someone, they weren’t recorded. We’ll never know what they were thinking or who they were thinking about in their last moments.
The rate of mass shootings in 2022 is just about the same as it has been for the past 5 years. An average of 10 per week, 1.4 per day. 228 killed and 952 wounded in the first five months of this year.1
Mark Follman, investigative journalist and national affairs editor at Mother Jones, and author of the book Trigger Points, has been researching mass shootings since 2012, when a gunman killed 12 people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. He is certain that these massacres don’t arise out of nowhere.
His research has taught him two important insights: 1.) Mass shootings are not spontaneous events. They are meticulously planned. “There is, in every one of these cases, always a trail of behavioral warning signs," he told NPR earlier this month. 2.) The roll of mental health is widely misunderstood.
"The general public views mass shooters as people who are totally crazy, insane. It fits with the idea of snapping, as if these people are totally detached from reality." But that is rarely the case, he said. There's "a very rational thought process" that goes into planning and carrying out mass shootings.
The suspect in the Buffalo attack left behind a racist screed, donned body armor, and livestreamed the attack.
None of this is to say that hate, prejudice and mental health don’t play a part in these shootings. Sometimes they do and those issues must be addressed if we are to claim our place among moral and civilized nations. But are we going to just sit idly by and watch the bodies pile up and do nothing until hate and prejudice are totally eradicated from our country? Other developed countries experience hate, prejudice, and mental health issues. The United States, however, is the only country with a mass shooting every single day.
The single common denominator in every one of the 198 mass shootings that have happened in our country this year as well as the 693 in 2021, the 611 in 2020, and 417 in 2019, is guns.
We look in vain to Washington to lead us out of this nightmare. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is too powerful and our elected representatives freely do their bidding in exchange for campaign contributions and votes.
On December 14, 2012, a lone gunman entered the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and murdered 20 kindergarteners and 6 adults. In the intervening 10 years since that horrible day, our so-called leaders in Washington have done absolutely nothing to regulate the unfettered proliferation of guns in this country.
If the murder of 20 school children doesn’t move them to act, why would we imagine that the murder of 10 African American adults, mostly senior citizens, would?
Apparently, our deliverance, if one is to come, will have to arrive from another source.
Come, Lord Jesus.
In the Scripture
Famous last words, if we can believe the sources, are a mixed bag.
There’s the heroic: “Let’s roll.” Spoken by Todd Beamer, as he led an attempt to regain control of United Airlines Flight 93 when it was hijacked over Pennsylvania on 9/11.
There’s the disappointing: “I’m bored with it all.” Sir Winston Churchill.
There’s the ironic: “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” Union General John Sedgwick moments before he was killed by a Confederate sniper.
And, of course, there’s the humorous: “This wallpaper is dreadful. One of us will have to go.” Oscar Wilde.
Having served as a pastor for nearly 40 years, I have been present when people, some my friends, others nearly strangers, died. I have remembered some of their final words, at least their final words to me. Older people, I have observed, have had more time to think about the end of their lives and often have become philosophical about it. Younger people, more desperate.
A man who had been fighting metastatic colon cancer for 13 years: “I’m so tired.”
A woman who was over 100 years old and had outlived everyone she knew, including her own children: “Why won’t God just let me die?”
A man dying from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease): “It’s not that I’m afraid of dying. It’s just that I want so badly to live.”
A suicide note from a man in his 30s: “I didn’t want to die. I wanted to live, but not like this. And I couldn’t see any other way out.”
An old man in a hospital bed: “I’m finally gonna shake hands with Jesus.”
My 67-year-old dad, suffering from congestive heart failure, from his hospital bed, smiling and pointing to the television as I was leaving for the night: “Okay, I’m just gonna watch Ohio State lose this basketball game.” My 84-year-old mom, from her wheelchair at a nursing home: “Bye. Love you. See you next week…if I’m still alive.”
John’s final words, at least his last ones in the letter to the churches of Asia Minor, the letter we call the book of Revelation, are a wish, a hope, and a blessing for the Christians of that time and place. People who probably didn’t even use the word “Christian,” yet met together in homes for mutual fellowship and support and worship.
Up to this point, he has spent roughly 12,000 words warning them that hard times may be coming and comforting them with the reassurance that God will win out in the end. He calls them to remain steadfast in the faith, true to the calling and the love they had at first. The Roman Empire, he explains, was once a beacon of greatness and beauty for the whole world but is rotting from the inside out, infected, as she is, with the pox of greed, lust, violence, prejudice, and hate.
And he is not wrong. Think of the accomplishments the Romans brought to the world: 1.) Concrete paved roads that made wide travel possible. 2.) Aqueducts that brought fresh water into the cities. 3.) Printed newspapers. 4.) General welfare programs for the poor. 5.) Bound books. 6.) Roman architecture including arches. 7.) Latin as a universal language throughout the empire. 8.) The Julian Calendar. 9.) A vast and complex sewer system. 10.) Safe and standardized wine production. 11.) Advances in agriculture and law. 12.) A state police force... And this is just a few of the many.
But Rome also had a fatal Achilles heel, he says. Greed. Rome sold her soul to conspicuous wealth and luxury. She would bow to the whims and prejudices of anyone who could make her richer and more powerful, if even for a short time. And this weakness would spell trouble for Jesus followers as those who didn’t like or trust them or felt the were threatening their power manipulated Roman opinion against them.
Yet, God will win out. In the final chapters of the book, we can almost hear John weeping as he watches Rome burning and sinking into the sea, drowning, weighed down by her own silver and gold. And that day, he says, will be a day of rebirth for the followers of Jesus, the saints who live in the Roman Empire.
Then, in the final sentences of the book, he pronounces the benediction, as it were. He wishes two things for the church:
One, that Jesus might come to them — soon; and
Two, that “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with” all of them.
Come, Lord Jesus.
In the Sermon
Let’s be clear, there are lots of churches who would just as soon not have John’s benediction come to pass. The return of Jesus to the church will mean a lot of work and, for some, a lot of changes. If and when Jesus comes into our churches and lives, we’re going to have to step out of our quiet complacencies and into challenges that will vex us and tax our resources.
For the grace of Jesus to be with us we will have to be prepared to live graceful lives, lives filled to overflowing with love, acceptance, and generosity for those who are not just like us but different from us, indeed, even for people who don’t deserve it.
So, to be sure, preaching this sermon or even one like it, will require a certain amount of courage. For we live in a time when love, acceptance, kindness, and gentleness bring smirks and ridicule, when they are discouraged and eschewed, and those who attempt to live by them are called “butterflies” and “snowflakes.”
We live in a time when school boards and state legislatures are forbidding teachers from even talking about racism and gender prejudice; when the politician who even suggests that there may be some common-sense ways to regulate the unfettered proliferation of guns in this country is going to face the wrath of the NRA, and their millions of followers with their bulging war chests filled with campaign contributions.
We live in a time whe the Christian fundamentalist American Renewal Project, is actively moving to elect 1,000 conservative Christian pastors and even more fundamentalist lay leaders to grassroots offices — city councils, school boards, county commissions — on the way to creating a fundamentalist Christian theocracy in America. A theocracy that would require every child of every religion, or no religion, to read the Bible and pray Christian prayers in school, would relegate transexual teens to second class status and forbid them from participating in school sports, that considers LGBTQ+ persons to be “filth,” and that would use the threat of imprisonment to force women to carry all pregnancies to term without regard for the woman’s health, or how the pregnancy was conceived.
We live in a time when racism has become part of acceptable mainstream political rhetoric and when teachers are forbidden to speak of “Critical Race Theory” but encouraged to teach the decidedly racist “Replacement Theory;”
We live in a time when forces within our own faith communities strive to present to the world a face of Christianity that is scarred with the worship of guns and white supremacy.
So, yes, we need courage in both the pulpit and the pew. And maybe this is the Sunday that we are being called to exercise that courage in the progressive churches.
We need pastors with the courage to preach for justice and pray, as John of Patmos prayed, that the spirit of Jesus, of grace, of love, of acceptance, of compassion, of kindness, and generosity will come and overwhelm those demonic spirits of paranoia and hate, and fill not just our churches but our communities and our nation with the calling to work — physically work with acts of charity toward peace and justice for ourselves, our allies, and, yes, even our enemies.
We need pastors who will call upon Jesus to return not on a cloud or a winged horse, not with arms and armies, not in political rhetoric and office, but in the hearts and lives of Christians who know with the certainty of faith that it is, in the words of the old hymn: “not with swords' loud clashing / or roll of stirring drums / [but] with deeds of love and mercy / [that] the heavenly kingdom comes.”
1 Numbers vary depending on how different sources define “mass shooting.” The most widely accepted definition is “4 or more injured.”
SECOND THOUGHTS
Unity is a Process
by Tom Willadsen
John 17:20-26
In the Scriptures
Today’s gospel reading is the third of three parts of a prayer Jesus recited at the end of his lengthy discourse preparing his disciples for his death. Starting way back in chapter 13, the night before Passover, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet then started to monolog. If you’ve got a red-letter version of John you’ll see several nearly unbroken pages of red and Jesus speaks almost without interruption from 13:21 through 16:33. Jesus speaks through all of chapter 17, but it’s not a monolog anymore — he’s praying. Or is he?
The 17th chapter of John is rich in language that may support the concept of the Trinity. Or not. Is Jesus praying to God the Father? If Jesus and God are one, a point that Jesus appears to make repeatedly, could this be a dialog? A monolog? Is Jesus talking to himself? Praying to himself? Are we eavesdropping on a private conversation? Do the disciples hear Jesus praying?
This chapter can be divided into three parts, three portions of Jesus’ final speech before entering the garden on the other side of the Kidron valley where Judas betrayed Him.
The first portion, vv. 1-5, is a prayer in which Jesus prays for himself to be glorified. The second portion, vv. 6-19, is a prayer consecrating (setting apart) his disciples, seeking God’s protection for them. The third part of the prayer, today’s reading vv. 20-26, is a prayer for unity among all the world’s followers of Christ. Jesus’ desire is that the world may see unity among his followers, just as there is unity between him and God the Father. Frankly, I find the language convoluted and confusing. I would love to watch my 9th grade English teacher attempt to diagram some of these sentences.
I lost count of the number of times I read just these seven verses, trying to get them to make a single, coherent point. An hour after putting my Bible down I realized that this week’s gospel passage reminded me of my first Chesapeake Bay crab feast. Everyone was all excited, a dozen people offered to guide this Midwestern boy through the nuances of the sacrament for Baltimorons. We sat at long tables; two weeks’ worth of the Baltimore Sun was taped on. Burly professionals from the kitchen entered with enormous, steaming pots of crustaceans and slung them before the diners. It wasn’t a race, exactly, but everyone pulled a pile toward them and started whacking away with specially-designed mallets. (Seriously, people bring their own crab-whacking mallets to these things. Siblings fight over them after their parents die.) We pounded, twisted, gouged, stretched, prodded, poked and harvested a couple molecules of slimy meat. We did it again. And again. After three minutes I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Pastor Tom, don’t you like crabs?”
“They’re fine; I just don’t want to work that hard. Where are the cheeseburgers?”
I’m pretty sure Jesus’ point is that he wants us to be united. Someone who can approach this text with their own scripture-mallet, who’s got the patience to wade through the verbiage may confirm that. Take your time. I found my cheeseburger.
In the News
This week’s mass shooting took place on Saturday, May 14 in a predominately Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. The alleged assailant, Payton Grendon, an 18 year old white man, drove from Conklin, New York, to Buffalo, a distance of more than 230 miles.
This just in: there was another mass shooting. This one was on Thursday, May 19, on the near north side of Chicago. Only two fatalities and seven others injured. It doesn’t appear that race was involved, just another example of our “ongoing gun crime crisis” according to Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown.
Here's some blank space, so you can paste in the details of our nation’s next patriotic demonstration of fealty to the 2nd Amendment.
Back to Buffalo — the attacker’s racist motivation was described in a 180 page document, which authorities have called a manifesto. Mr. Grendon has been charged with murder and entered a not guilty plea.
Buffalo Police Commissioner, Joseph Gramaglia, said, "The evidence that we have uncovered so far makes no mistake that this is an absolute racist hate crime."
"It will be prosecuted as a hate crime," he says. "This is someone who has hate in their hearts ... And there is no mistake that that's the direction that this is going in. This will be completely geared toward securing a conviction for this individual." An opinion echoed by Attorney General Merrick Garland and New York State Attorney General Letitia James.
Speaking on National Public Radio three days after the act of terrorism, Attorney General James said:
I'm so happy that the president and the first lady made the time to visit Buffalo and to speak to some of the family members. The eyes of the nation are on Buffalo. And our focus obviously should be on a real and present danger, and that is white supremacy. It was really important that the governor called out this act of hate for what it really was — domestic terrorism fueled by white supremacist beliefs and racism and a racist theory which has been propagated by those on social media as well as on cable news and by some elected officials.
Real. Present. Danger. Domestic terrorism.
As a white, native-born, educated man, I do not believe I am able to feel the real, present danger that my fellow, marginalized citizens feel right now. On Sunday, I went to the grocery store without a moment of apprehension. Never mind that a shooting that killed 11 people and wounded three hardly moved my outrage meter. My insouciance keeps any anxiety at a distance greater than the nearly 1,000 miles that separate me from Buffalo, New York.
Real. Present. Danger. Domestic terrorism.
Black people in this country are under attack simply because they are Black. Yet a huge number of white people feel threatened and victimized. Nearly five years ago at the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, some protesters chanted “Jews will not replace us,” and “You will not replace us.”
The fear these protesters perceive is real to them. Killing Black people in their churches (Charleston, 2015) or supermarkets (Buffalo, 2022) is a heroic, necessary act, lest everything they have be taken from them by “non-legacy Americans” (Tucker Carlson’s term). Storming the Capitol and refusing to accept the results of a demonstrably fair election make perfect sense if the alternative is…what?
Former President Trump voiced this fear, this “what,” in his speech prior to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021: "You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong….We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
All of this misplaced grievance sent me to the internet to track down a poem I first heard 50 years ago.
Way Down South
by Anonymous
Way down South where bananas grow,
A grasshopper stepped on an elephant's toe.
The elephant said, with tears in his eyes,
"Pick on somebody your own size."
White supremacists, you’re the elephants.
In the Sermon
Unity. Jesus’ desire for the Church is unity. The same kind of unity that he has with God the Father. The same kind of unity that he prayed to instill in his followers the night he washed their feet.
How hard can it be to be united? I can end the split between Protestants and Roman Catholics in the twinkling of an eye: once the RCC gives up transubstantiation, we’re good. And let’s be honest, aren’t we doing them a favor by getting them to give up both cannibalism and magic? Problem solved. This is a pretty short sermon: Once all Christians agree with me, we’re united.
Unity achieved.
Set your alarm for 6:30 tomorrow morning and we can all go out and scoop up the day’s allotment of milk and honey. Don’t thank me, you made this happen by seeing the light.
Sorry, I just spent the past ten minutes in my happy place, Tom’s Perfect World. We need to recognize, our congregations need to recognize, that unity is not a state to achieve, but a process. Relationships are dynamic. If the concept of the Trinity explains only one thing it is that God is in dynamic relationship with Godself. Jesus and God are in a living relationship. While the Holy Spirit is not mentioned specifically in today’s pericope, it is certainly part of this conversation, this relationship. Jesus promises to send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to the disciples earlier in his lengthy oration before heading off to the garden. Certainly the Holy Spirit, Advocate is the one working to bring unity among Jesus’ followers so they may be the ideal demonstration of God’s uniting love to a hurt, confused, broken world. What does that unity look like? Perhaps it’s as chaotic as a crab feast and harder work. Certainly it is as public and conspicuous as the mainline church’s need to stand against the ideology of white supremacy and the terror and hate it is inflicting on our brothers and sisters in Christ. Unity against terrorism is the unity Christ envisions for and invites his followers into at this moment. Preach that.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Chris Keating:
Acts 16:16-34
The anonymous disrupter
Acts 16 includes stories of the testimony of two women. Last week, the readings from Acts 16:11-15 introduced Lydia, a dealer of cloth who is gathered by the river with other women for prayer. Led by the Spirit, she opens her heart to Paul’s instructions. This week, Paul encounters an enslaved woman whose owners marketed her as a fortune teller. When she sees Paul, she begins shouting, “These men are slaves of the Most High God who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” That may seem flattering at first, but apparently she was enthralled by Paul and started following him for many days, shouting at the top of her lungs.
This does not go over well — either with Paul, or with the woman’s masters. Paul gets annoyed (Paul will never get nominated for being a feminist ally) and silences the woman. But her owners go a step further. She’s disrupting their business, which leads them to have Paul arrested. Unlike Lydia, this woman remains unnamed, but she too has testified to what God is doing. Her testimony is disruptive to the exploitation by her owners — and they will not have any of that.
The testimony of this unnamed slave woman could be called the witness of the anonymous disrupter.
Mariah Levin, of the World Economic Forum, reflects on the role faith groups have in the positive disruption of the economy. “Faith communities,” she wrote in 2015, “are extreme disruptors. The Protestant Reformation in 16th-century Europe was, itself, an incredible period of religious innovation — traditional preconceptions about God were swept away by new ideas based on individual access to the Divine, availability of information, and rejection of corruption.”
She notes that the decline of religious participation in Europe and North America “could imply that faith communities no longer drive innovation in the West, whereas faith-associated economic, social and political movements carry on disrupting the status quo in other parts of the world.” She concludes that religious groups remain essential in going against the grain to support the poor, and marginalized, and middle class.
* * *
Acts 16:16-34
His Name Was George Floyd
The witness of an unnamed woman enslaved to make money for her owners changed the course of the gospel. No one knows her name, but we do know the names of others who have changed the world. George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police office two years ago on May 25, grew up dreaming of ways he could impact the world. In a new biography, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa explore Floyd’s life. Raised in Houston, Texas, Floyd had moved to Minneapolis in the hopes of finding new opportunities beyond addiction and poverty. Young, poor, and Black in America, however, are significant impediments to chasing dreams. As Samuels and Olorunnipa write:
Growing up, Perry, as family called Floyd, had outsize aspirations — to become a Supreme Court justice, a pro athlete or a rap star. He wanted to do something to make a lasting impact. “Sis,” 13-year-old Floyd said to his sister Zsa Zsa. “I don’t want to rule the world; I don’t want to run the world. I just want to touch the world.”
* * *
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
Thirsting
John has employed various images of nature throughout the Apocalypse. As he winds up his disclosure of the reign of God, he draws once more from the flowing streams of the living river and waters of God. The life-giving water is promised to all who are thirsty, and is a gift to those who have endured the great ordeal.
The demand for life-giving water remains an everyday need for countless persons in the world. The “What’s Up With Water” podcast recently highlighted several places in the world where access to fresh water is highly compromised.
* * * * * *
From team member Katy Stenta:
Revelation 22:12-14,16-17, 20-21
Everyone’s Work
When we think about the urgent and abundant need to deal with White supremacy in a culture that is founded on slavery, and therefore productivity, the fact is that every single person’s worth is defined by how much they output. The statement that God’s reward is predicated accorded to “everyone’s work” is revolutionary. God is looking at what the community is doing, and how we are washing our robes together. There is no individual referred to in Revelation. The community is redeemed together. The work is orchestrated together. The Spirit says to the bride, let everyone who hears say come. The redemption is not individual, but communal. When we find our salvation, it will be together. Take heart, the work will not be done alone. The reason why the hurt is so big is because it is not individual. That is why anyone who thirsts will be able to take a drink. There is a pool of water for all.
* * *
John 17:20-26
One
God, can we truly all become one? This scripture is like a riddle. What is one and many and one all at once? And can we all become one in the way Jesus wants us to become one? The truth is I don’t really want to become one with others the way God wants us to become one. I want God’s might to be cumulative. I want one plus one plus one in Christianity to equal the might and power of Christianity, not one. Yet here we are, with the whole point of everything for us to equal one in the end. Are you sure, God? One is the answer? After all of this? I’m not sure if this computes well for human brains. The point of all of this is to equal one? I’m going to have to go with, if you say so.
* * *
Acts 16:16-34
Freedom
The miracle of Paul and Silas is that they would stay. They stayed to save the jailer’s life. In the midst of a pandemic, we know that compassion for another human being is the biggest miracle of all. This jailer could have been a higher official, a citizen. And yet, Paul and Silas and all of the prisoners were inspired to stay to save his life. What might we do today to save one another? To be moved to compassion to one another? What might we give in time or energy or in compassion for one another? Is it wearing a mask? Being patient with an essential worker? Spending time with someone who is sad without trying to solve their problems? What do you have in your capacity to give when we all feel trapped by our circumstances right now? How might we free one another through an act of compassion?
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: God is sovereign! Let the earth rejoice!
All: Righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne.
One: For you, O God, are most high over all the earth.
All: You are exalted far above all gods.
One: Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
All: Rejoice in God, O you righteous, and give thanks to God’s holy name!
OR
One: Praise be to God who has created and is creating still!
All: We bless you, O God, of all creation!
One: Out of the unity and diversity of the Trinity God created us.
All: Like God, we are one and we are many.
One: Give glory to God by honoring God’s creations.
All: We will look for God’s goodness in all God’s creatures.
Hymns and Songs
All People That on Earth Do Dwell
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELW: 883
W&P: 661
AMEC: 73
STLT: 370
We Gather Together
UMH: 131
H82: 433
PH: 559
NNBH: 326
NCH: 421
CH: 276
ELW: 449
W&P: 81576
AMEC: 349
Jesus Shall Reign
UMH: 157
H82: 544
PH: 423
NNBH: 10
NCH: 300
CH: 95
LBW: 530
ELW: 434
W&P: 341
AMEC: 96
Renew: 296
Crown Him with Many Crowns
UMH: 327
H82: 494
PH: 151
AAHH: 288
NNBH: 125
NCH: 301
CH: 234
LBW: 170
ELW: 855
W&P: 317
AMEC: 174
Renew: 56
Hail Thee, Festival Day
UMH: 324
H82: 216/175/225
PH: 120
NCH: 262
LBW: 142
ELW: 394
Many Gifts, One Spirit
UMH: 114
NCH: 117
Help Us Accept Each Other
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
Jesu, Jesu
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELW: 708
W&P: 273
CCB: 66
Renew: 289
Be Thou My Vision
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELW: 793
W&P: 502
AMEC: 281
STLT: 20
Renew: 151
All Praise to Our Redeeming Lord
UMH: 554
All Hail King Jesus
CCB: 29
Renew: 35
As We Gather
CCB: 12
Renew: 6
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who rules over all creation as our Sovereign:
Grant us the grace to live into your realm
that peace and justice may prevail;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are the one who rules as Sovereign over all creation. Help us to be faithful citizens of your realm so that peace and justice may be found in all the earth. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our wanting everyone to be just like us.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We say we want to be one and to be in harmony with all but we don’t accept people who are different from us. Sometimes it is the color of the skin or where they are from; sometimes it is their political party or their religious beliefs but something stops us from feeling we are together. We think if only they were just like us then we could all be one. Help us to remember that you made us all one, diverse family. Help us to see the Christ in everyone. Amen.
One: God is one and sees us as one beloved people. Receive God’s grace and share the love of God with all God’s children.
Prayers of the People
Glory to you, O God of creation. You have made all of us in your image. You have breathed into all of us your own Spirit and life. You welcome all of us into the Body of Christ.
(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 say we want to be one and to be in harmony with all but we don't accept people who are different from us. Sometimes it is the color of the skin or where they are from; sometimes it is their political party or their religious beliefs but something stops us from feeling we are together. We think if only they were just like us then we could all be one. Help us to remember that you made us all one, diverse family. Help us to see the Christ in everyone.
We give you thanks for the diverse beauty of creation. We thank you for the elephants and the whales; we thank you for the honey bees and the hummingbirds. We thank you for the variety within the family of human beings which gives us many expressions of art, music, and culture. We thank you for the variety of gifts and the ways in which we can support one another in love.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who find themselves shut out because of the way they look, the way they talk, or the thoughts they express. Bless those who work to bring people together in unity and trust. Open our eyes that we might see the Christ who dwells in each individual.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Praying for Others
by Quantisha Mason-Doll
John 17:20-26
Themes
1. Praying for others
2. Seeking the good for others the way Jesus did for us
3. The power of prayer as self-care
Ideas for Activities
1. This would be a great week to talk about little acts of service toward others.
2. If you have children’s education make space for children to create their own personal prayers.
3. Tools for teaching kindness.
Our best friend Jesus is at it again — caring for others not because he has to but because he wants too. What we have here is a private moment Jesus takes to have a conversation with God. I think this is Jesus giving us a beautiful example of how prayer can be used when your Spirit is heavy — when you feel overwhelmed. I like to believe that Jesus is worried about us. Worried that maybe he has not done enough to make things better for other people. Have you ever felt that way? (Invite responses from the children.) In this case Jesus turns to God the Father to ask for guidance. Jesus is not afraid to prayer for others and ask for help to be the best version of himself.
Can someone tell me what prayer means to them?
Is there a time when you pray together with someone outside of church?
(Let the children give their understanding of prayer.)
Prayer can be used to help guide your thoughts and let all your hopes and fears be known. God will always hear and answer your prayers. All you have to do is ask.
Prayer
Loving God help us to care for others.
Teach us how to be kind.
Teach us how to be generous.
Most of all, teach us how to put others first like Jesus did.
We give thanks to you, God.
Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 29, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 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.
- Last Words by Dean Feldmeyer — We usually remember people’s last or final words because they were wise or funny or ironic. John’s final words in the book of Revelation are a good news/bad news kind of thing.
- Second Thoughts: Unity is a Process by Tom Willadsen.
- Sermon illustrations by Chris Keating and Katy Stenta.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children's sermon: Praying for Others by Quantisha Mason-Doll.
Last Wordsby Dean Feldmeyer
Revelation 22:12-14, 15-17, 20-21; John 17: 20-26
“Rosebud.”
That was the last word of Charles Foster Kane, the lead character of the classic, Orsen Wells film, Citizen Kane. Everyone in the movie expected some piece of wisdom from the self-made magnate but no one could figure out what that one word, spoken with Kane’s last breath, meant. We, in the audience, however, know. We know that his last, dying word is meaningless. Just a word printed on his childhood snow sled, a word as devoid of meaning as his entire life of accumulated power and wealth turned out to be.
John of Patmos must have been in a quandary about what his final words would be in his letter to the churches, that we call the book of Revelation. He makes several runs at it in chapter 22, what most scholars refer to as the epilogue. Then, in the final lines he gives his benediction, his good word: “Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.”
Not spectacular. But not “Rosebud,” either. In it he proclaims what he wants for us, the saints. But do we want it? Do we really want the Lord, Jesus to come and have his spirit enter our lives? What would that require of us?
In the News/Culture
Sudden, unexpected violence and death have become ubiquitous in American culture. Let the weekend of May 13-15 stand as an example:
There were seven mass shootings (where 4 or more people were shot) that weekend in the United States. There have been more than 200 so far in 2022 according to the Gun Violence Archive, an independent data collection organization.
The racist attack at a Buffalo, NY supermarket on Saturday, May 14, where10 Black people were killed and three were injured has been the deadliest mass shooting of the year in the United States…so far. Here are the others for that weekend:
2 killed, 3 wounded: Friday, May 13, Dallas, TX
0 killed, 17 wounded: Friday, May 13, Milwaukee, WI
1 killed, 4 wounded: Sunday, May 15, Amarillo TX
2 killed, 3 wounded: Sunday, May 15, Houston, TX
1 killed, 5 wounded: Sunday, May 15, Laguna Woods, CA
0 killed, 7 wounded: Sunday, May 15, Winston-Salem, NC
If any of those 16 souls who were killed over the weekend got a chance to say some last words to someone, they weren’t recorded. We’ll never know what they were thinking or who they were thinking about in their last moments.
The rate of mass shootings in 2022 is just about the same as it has been for the past 5 years. An average of 10 per week, 1.4 per day. 228 killed and 952 wounded in the first five months of this year.1
Mark Follman, investigative journalist and national affairs editor at Mother Jones, and author of the book Trigger Points, has been researching mass shootings since 2012, when a gunman killed 12 people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. He is certain that these massacres don’t arise out of nowhere.
His research has taught him two important insights: 1.) Mass shootings are not spontaneous events. They are meticulously planned. “There is, in every one of these cases, always a trail of behavioral warning signs," he told NPR earlier this month. 2.) The roll of mental health is widely misunderstood.
"The general public views mass shooters as people who are totally crazy, insane. It fits with the idea of snapping, as if these people are totally detached from reality." But that is rarely the case, he said. There's "a very rational thought process" that goes into planning and carrying out mass shootings.
The suspect in the Buffalo attack left behind a racist screed, donned body armor, and livestreamed the attack.
None of this is to say that hate, prejudice and mental health don’t play a part in these shootings. Sometimes they do and those issues must be addressed if we are to claim our place among moral and civilized nations. But are we going to just sit idly by and watch the bodies pile up and do nothing until hate and prejudice are totally eradicated from our country? Other developed countries experience hate, prejudice, and mental health issues. The United States, however, is the only country with a mass shooting every single day.
The single common denominator in every one of the 198 mass shootings that have happened in our country this year as well as the 693 in 2021, the 611 in 2020, and 417 in 2019, is guns.
We look in vain to Washington to lead us out of this nightmare. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is too powerful and our elected representatives freely do their bidding in exchange for campaign contributions and votes.
On December 14, 2012, a lone gunman entered the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and murdered 20 kindergarteners and 6 adults. In the intervening 10 years since that horrible day, our so-called leaders in Washington have done absolutely nothing to regulate the unfettered proliferation of guns in this country.
If the murder of 20 school children doesn’t move them to act, why would we imagine that the murder of 10 African American adults, mostly senior citizens, would?
Apparently, our deliverance, if one is to come, will have to arrive from another source.
Come, Lord Jesus.
In the Scripture
Famous last words, if we can believe the sources, are a mixed bag.
There’s the heroic: “Let’s roll.” Spoken by Todd Beamer, as he led an attempt to regain control of United Airlines Flight 93 when it was hijacked over Pennsylvania on 9/11.
There’s the disappointing: “I’m bored with it all.” Sir Winston Churchill.
There’s the ironic: “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” Union General John Sedgwick moments before he was killed by a Confederate sniper.
And, of course, there’s the humorous: “This wallpaper is dreadful. One of us will have to go.” Oscar Wilde.
Having served as a pastor for nearly 40 years, I have been present when people, some my friends, others nearly strangers, died. I have remembered some of their final words, at least their final words to me. Older people, I have observed, have had more time to think about the end of their lives and often have become philosophical about it. Younger people, more desperate.
A man who had been fighting metastatic colon cancer for 13 years: “I’m so tired.”
A woman who was over 100 years old and had outlived everyone she knew, including her own children: “Why won’t God just let me die?”
A man dying from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease): “It’s not that I’m afraid of dying. It’s just that I want so badly to live.”
A suicide note from a man in his 30s: “I didn’t want to die. I wanted to live, but not like this. And I couldn’t see any other way out.”
An old man in a hospital bed: “I’m finally gonna shake hands with Jesus.”
My 67-year-old dad, suffering from congestive heart failure, from his hospital bed, smiling and pointing to the television as I was leaving for the night: “Okay, I’m just gonna watch Ohio State lose this basketball game.” My 84-year-old mom, from her wheelchair at a nursing home: “Bye. Love you. See you next week…if I’m still alive.”
John’s final words, at least his last ones in the letter to the churches of Asia Minor, the letter we call the book of Revelation, are a wish, a hope, and a blessing for the Christians of that time and place. People who probably didn’t even use the word “Christian,” yet met together in homes for mutual fellowship and support and worship.
Up to this point, he has spent roughly 12,000 words warning them that hard times may be coming and comforting them with the reassurance that God will win out in the end. He calls them to remain steadfast in the faith, true to the calling and the love they had at first. The Roman Empire, he explains, was once a beacon of greatness and beauty for the whole world but is rotting from the inside out, infected, as she is, with the pox of greed, lust, violence, prejudice, and hate.
And he is not wrong. Think of the accomplishments the Romans brought to the world: 1.) Concrete paved roads that made wide travel possible. 2.) Aqueducts that brought fresh water into the cities. 3.) Printed newspapers. 4.) General welfare programs for the poor. 5.) Bound books. 6.) Roman architecture including arches. 7.) Latin as a universal language throughout the empire. 8.) The Julian Calendar. 9.) A vast and complex sewer system. 10.) Safe and standardized wine production. 11.) Advances in agriculture and law. 12.) A state police force... And this is just a few of the many.
But Rome also had a fatal Achilles heel, he says. Greed. Rome sold her soul to conspicuous wealth and luxury. She would bow to the whims and prejudices of anyone who could make her richer and more powerful, if even for a short time. And this weakness would spell trouble for Jesus followers as those who didn’t like or trust them or felt the were threatening their power manipulated Roman opinion against them.
Yet, God will win out. In the final chapters of the book, we can almost hear John weeping as he watches Rome burning and sinking into the sea, drowning, weighed down by her own silver and gold. And that day, he says, will be a day of rebirth for the followers of Jesus, the saints who live in the Roman Empire.
Then, in the final sentences of the book, he pronounces the benediction, as it were. He wishes two things for the church:
One, that Jesus might come to them — soon; and
Two, that “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with” all of them.
Come, Lord Jesus.
In the Sermon
Let’s be clear, there are lots of churches who would just as soon not have John’s benediction come to pass. The return of Jesus to the church will mean a lot of work and, for some, a lot of changes. If and when Jesus comes into our churches and lives, we’re going to have to step out of our quiet complacencies and into challenges that will vex us and tax our resources.
For the grace of Jesus to be with us we will have to be prepared to live graceful lives, lives filled to overflowing with love, acceptance, and generosity for those who are not just like us but different from us, indeed, even for people who don’t deserve it.
So, to be sure, preaching this sermon or even one like it, will require a certain amount of courage. For we live in a time when love, acceptance, kindness, and gentleness bring smirks and ridicule, when they are discouraged and eschewed, and those who attempt to live by them are called “butterflies” and “snowflakes.”
We live in a time when school boards and state legislatures are forbidding teachers from even talking about racism and gender prejudice; when the politician who even suggests that there may be some common-sense ways to regulate the unfettered proliferation of guns in this country is going to face the wrath of the NRA, and their millions of followers with their bulging war chests filled with campaign contributions.
We live in a time whe the Christian fundamentalist American Renewal Project, is actively moving to elect 1,000 conservative Christian pastors and even more fundamentalist lay leaders to grassroots offices — city councils, school boards, county commissions — on the way to creating a fundamentalist Christian theocracy in America. A theocracy that would require every child of every religion, or no religion, to read the Bible and pray Christian prayers in school, would relegate transexual teens to second class status and forbid them from participating in school sports, that considers LGBTQ+ persons to be “filth,” and that would use the threat of imprisonment to force women to carry all pregnancies to term without regard for the woman’s health, or how the pregnancy was conceived.
We live in a time when racism has become part of acceptable mainstream political rhetoric and when teachers are forbidden to speak of “Critical Race Theory” but encouraged to teach the decidedly racist “Replacement Theory;”
We live in a time when forces within our own faith communities strive to present to the world a face of Christianity that is scarred with the worship of guns and white supremacy.
So, yes, we need courage in both the pulpit and the pew. And maybe this is the Sunday that we are being called to exercise that courage in the progressive churches.
We need pastors with the courage to preach for justice and pray, as John of Patmos prayed, that the spirit of Jesus, of grace, of love, of acceptance, of compassion, of kindness, and generosity will come and overwhelm those demonic spirits of paranoia and hate, and fill not just our churches but our communities and our nation with the calling to work — physically work with acts of charity toward peace and justice for ourselves, our allies, and, yes, even our enemies.
We need pastors who will call upon Jesus to return not on a cloud or a winged horse, not with arms and armies, not in political rhetoric and office, but in the hearts and lives of Christians who know with the certainty of faith that it is, in the words of the old hymn: “not with swords' loud clashing / or roll of stirring drums / [but] with deeds of love and mercy / [that] the heavenly kingdom comes.”
1 Numbers vary depending on how different sources define “mass shooting.” The most widely accepted definition is “4 or more injured.”
SECOND THOUGHTSUnity is a Process
by Tom Willadsen
John 17:20-26
In the Scriptures
Today’s gospel reading is the third of three parts of a prayer Jesus recited at the end of his lengthy discourse preparing his disciples for his death. Starting way back in chapter 13, the night before Passover, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet then started to monolog. If you’ve got a red-letter version of John you’ll see several nearly unbroken pages of red and Jesus speaks almost without interruption from 13:21 through 16:33. Jesus speaks through all of chapter 17, but it’s not a monolog anymore — he’s praying. Or is he?
The 17th chapter of John is rich in language that may support the concept of the Trinity. Or not. Is Jesus praying to God the Father? If Jesus and God are one, a point that Jesus appears to make repeatedly, could this be a dialog? A monolog? Is Jesus talking to himself? Praying to himself? Are we eavesdropping on a private conversation? Do the disciples hear Jesus praying?
This chapter can be divided into three parts, three portions of Jesus’ final speech before entering the garden on the other side of the Kidron valley where Judas betrayed Him.
The first portion, vv. 1-5, is a prayer in which Jesus prays for himself to be glorified. The second portion, vv. 6-19, is a prayer consecrating (setting apart) his disciples, seeking God’s protection for them. The third part of the prayer, today’s reading vv. 20-26, is a prayer for unity among all the world’s followers of Christ. Jesus’ desire is that the world may see unity among his followers, just as there is unity between him and God the Father. Frankly, I find the language convoluted and confusing. I would love to watch my 9th grade English teacher attempt to diagram some of these sentences.
I lost count of the number of times I read just these seven verses, trying to get them to make a single, coherent point. An hour after putting my Bible down I realized that this week’s gospel passage reminded me of my first Chesapeake Bay crab feast. Everyone was all excited, a dozen people offered to guide this Midwestern boy through the nuances of the sacrament for Baltimorons. We sat at long tables; two weeks’ worth of the Baltimore Sun was taped on. Burly professionals from the kitchen entered with enormous, steaming pots of crustaceans and slung them before the diners. It wasn’t a race, exactly, but everyone pulled a pile toward them and started whacking away with specially-designed mallets. (Seriously, people bring their own crab-whacking mallets to these things. Siblings fight over them after their parents die.) We pounded, twisted, gouged, stretched, prodded, poked and harvested a couple molecules of slimy meat. We did it again. And again. After three minutes I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Pastor Tom, don’t you like crabs?”
“They’re fine; I just don’t want to work that hard. Where are the cheeseburgers?”
I’m pretty sure Jesus’ point is that he wants us to be united. Someone who can approach this text with their own scripture-mallet, who’s got the patience to wade through the verbiage may confirm that. Take your time. I found my cheeseburger.
In the News
This week’s mass shooting took place on Saturday, May 14 in a predominately Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. The alleged assailant, Payton Grendon, an 18 year old white man, drove from Conklin, New York, to Buffalo, a distance of more than 230 miles.
This just in: there was another mass shooting. This one was on Thursday, May 19, on the near north side of Chicago. Only two fatalities and seven others injured. It doesn’t appear that race was involved, just another example of our “ongoing gun crime crisis” according to Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown.
Here's some blank space, so you can paste in the details of our nation’s next patriotic demonstration of fealty to the 2nd Amendment.
Back to Buffalo — the attacker’s racist motivation was described in a 180 page document, which authorities have called a manifesto. Mr. Grendon has been charged with murder and entered a not guilty plea.
Buffalo Police Commissioner, Joseph Gramaglia, said, "The evidence that we have uncovered so far makes no mistake that this is an absolute racist hate crime."
"It will be prosecuted as a hate crime," he says. "This is someone who has hate in their hearts ... And there is no mistake that that's the direction that this is going in. This will be completely geared toward securing a conviction for this individual." An opinion echoed by Attorney General Merrick Garland and New York State Attorney General Letitia James.
Speaking on National Public Radio three days after the act of terrorism, Attorney General James said:
I'm so happy that the president and the first lady made the time to visit Buffalo and to speak to some of the family members. The eyes of the nation are on Buffalo. And our focus obviously should be on a real and present danger, and that is white supremacy. It was really important that the governor called out this act of hate for what it really was — domestic terrorism fueled by white supremacist beliefs and racism and a racist theory which has been propagated by those on social media as well as on cable news and by some elected officials.
Real. Present. Danger. Domestic terrorism.
As a white, native-born, educated man, I do not believe I am able to feel the real, present danger that my fellow, marginalized citizens feel right now. On Sunday, I went to the grocery store without a moment of apprehension. Never mind that a shooting that killed 11 people and wounded three hardly moved my outrage meter. My insouciance keeps any anxiety at a distance greater than the nearly 1,000 miles that separate me from Buffalo, New York.
Real. Present. Danger. Domestic terrorism.
Black people in this country are under attack simply because they are Black. Yet a huge number of white people feel threatened and victimized. Nearly five years ago at the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, some protesters chanted “Jews will not replace us,” and “You will not replace us.”
The fear these protesters perceive is real to them. Killing Black people in their churches (Charleston, 2015) or supermarkets (Buffalo, 2022) is a heroic, necessary act, lest everything they have be taken from them by “non-legacy Americans” (Tucker Carlson’s term). Storming the Capitol and refusing to accept the results of a demonstrably fair election make perfect sense if the alternative is…what?
Former President Trump voiced this fear, this “what,” in his speech prior to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021: "You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong….We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
All of this misplaced grievance sent me to the internet to track down a poem I first heard 50 years ago.
Way Down South
by Anonymous
Way down South where bananas grow,
A grasshopper stepped on an elephant's toe.
The elephant said, with tears in his eyes,
"Pick on somebody your own size."
White supremacists, you’re the elephants.
In the Sermon
Unity. Jesus’ desire for the Church is unity. The same kind of unity that he has with God the Father. The same kind of unity that he prayed to instill in his followers the night he washed their feet.
How hard can it be to be united? I can end the split between Protestants and Roman Catholics in the twinkling of an eye: once the RCC gives up transubstantiation, we’re good. And let’s be honest, aren’t we doing them a favor by getting them to give up both cannibalism and magic? Problem solved. This is a pretty short sermon: Once all Christians agree with me, we’re united.
Unity achieved.
Set your alarm for 6:30 tomorrow morning and we can all go out and scoop up the day’s allotment of milk and honey. Don’t thank me, you made this happen by seeing the light.
Sorry, I just spent the past ten minutes in my happy place, Tom’s Perfect World. We need to recognize, our congregations need to recognize, that unity is not a state to achieve, but a process. Relationships are dynamic. If the concept of the Trinity explains only one thing it is that God is in dynamic relationship with Godself. Jesus and God are in a living relationship. While the Holy Spirit is not mentioned specifically in today’s pericope, it is certainly part of this conversation, this relationship. Jesus promises to send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to the disciples earlier in his lengthy oration before heading off to the garden. Certainly the Holy Spirit, Advocate is the one working to bring unity among Jesus’ followers so they may be the ideal demonstration of God’s uniting love to a hurt, confused, broken world. What does that unity look like? Perhaps it’s as chaotic as a crab feast and harder work. Certainly it is as public and conspicuous as the mainline church’s need to stand against the ideology of white supremacy and the terror and hate it is inflicting on our brothers and sisters in Christ. Unity against terrorism is the unity Christ envisions for and invites his followers into at this moment. Preach that.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Chris Keating:Acts 16:16-34
The anonymous disrupter
Acts 16 includes stories of the testimony of two women. Last week, the readings from Acts 16:11-15 introduced Lydia, a dealer of cloth who is gathered by the river with other women for prayer. Led by the Spirit, she opens her heart to Paul’s instructions. This week, Paul encounters an enslaved woman whose owners marketed her as a fortune teller. When she sees Paul, she begins shouting, “These men are slaves of the Most High God who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” That may seem flattering at first, but apparently she was enthralled by Paul and started following him for many days, shouting at the top of her lungs.
This does not go over well — either with Paul, or with the woman’s masters. Paul gets annoyed (Paul will never get nominated for being a feminist ally) and silences the woman. But her owners go a step further. She’s disrupting their business, which leads them to have Paul arrested. Unlike Lydia, this woman remains unnamed, but she too has testified to what God is doing. Her testimony is disruptive to the exploitation by her owners — and they will not have any of that.
The testimony of this unnamed slave woman could be called the witness of the anonymous disrupter.
Mariah Levin, of the World Economic Forum, reflects on the role faith groups have in the positive disruption of the economy. “Faith communities,” she wrote in 2015, “are extreme disruptors. The Protestant Reformation in 16th-century Europe was, itself, an incredible period of religious innovation — traditional preconceptions about God were swept away by new ideas based on individual access to the Divine, availability of information, and rejection of corruption.”
She notes that the decline of religious participation in Europe and North America “could imply that faith communities no longer drive innovation in the West, whereas faith-associated economic, social and political movements carry on disrupting the status quo in other parts of the world.” She concludes that religious groups remain essential in going against the grain to support the poor, and marginalized, and middle class.
* * *
Acts 16:16-34
His Name Was George Floyd
The witness of an unnamed woman enslaved to make money for her owners changed the course of the gospel. No one knows her name, but we do know the names of others who have changed the world. George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police office two years ago on May 25, grew up dreaming of ways he could impact the world. In a new biography, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa explore Floyd’s life. Raised in Houston, Texas, Floyd had moved to Minneapolis in the hopes of finding new opportunities beyond addiction and poverty. Young, poor, and Black in America, however, are significant impediments to chasing dreams. As Samuels and Olorunnipa write:
Growing up, Perry, as family called Floyd, had outsize aspirations — to become a Supreme Court justice, a pro athlete or a rap star. He wanted to do something to make a lasting impact. “Sis,” 13-year-old Floyd said to his sister Zsa Zsa. “I don’t want to rule the world; I don’t want to run the world. I just want to touch the world.”
* * *
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
Thirsting
John has employed various images of nature throughout the Apocalypse. As he winds up his disclosure of the reign of God, he draws once more from the flowing streams of the living river and waters of God. The life-giving water is promised to all who are thirsty, and is a gift to those who have endured the great ordeal.
The demand for life-giving water remains an everyday need for countless persons in the world. The “What’s Up With Water” podcast recently highlighted several places in the world where access to fresh water is highly compromised.
- Water supplies for at least one and a half million persons in Eastern Ukraine have been interrupted or destroyed since Russia began its invasion in February.
- 13-years of drought in Chile have forced officials in Santiago, the country’s largest city, to strict rationing. More than a million households will be affected.
- Emergency measures are also in place in the western US as the Colorado River basin continues to experience severe drought.
- Concerns over drinking water contamination are at an all-time high in the United States. About 57 percent of adults name drinking water contamination as a major fear.
* * * * * *
From team member Katy Stenta:Revelation 22:12-14,16-17, 20-21
Everyone’s Work
When we think about the urgent and abundant need to deal with White supremacy in a culture that is founded on slavery, and therefore productivity, the fact is that every single person’s worth is defined by how much they output. The statement that God’s reward is predicated accorded to “everyone’s work” is revolutionary. God is looking at what the community is doing, and how we are washing our robes together. There is no individual referred to in Revelation. The community is redeemed together. The work is orchestrated together. The Spirit says to the bride, let everyone who hears say come. The redemption is not individual, but communal. When we find our salvation, it will be together. Take heart, the work will not be done alone. The reason why the hurt is so big is because it is not individual. That is why anyone who thirsts will be able to take a drink. There is a pool of water for all.
* * *
John 17:20-26
One
God, can we truly all become one? This scripture is like a riddle. What is one and many and one all at once? And can we all become one in the way Jesus wants us to become one? The truth is I don’t really want to become one with others the way God wants us to become one. I want God’s might to be cumulative. I want one plus one plus one in Christianity to equal the might and power of Christianity, not one. Yet here we are, with the whole point of everything for us to equal one in the end. Are you sure, God? One is the answer? After all of this? I’m not sure if this computes well for human brains. The point of all of this is to equal one? I’m going to have to go with, if you say so.
* * *
Acts 16:16-34
Freedom
The miracle of Paul and Silas is that they would stay. They stayed to save the jailer’s life. In the midst of a pandemic, we know that compassion for another human being is the biggest miracle of all. This jailer could have been a higher official, a citizen. And yet, Paul and Silas and all of the prisoners were inspired to stay to save his life. What might we do today to save one another? To be moved to compassion to one another? What might we give in time or energy or in compassion for one another? Is it wearing a mask? Being patient with an essential worker? Spending time with someone who is sad without trying to solve their problems? What do you have in your capacity to give when we all feel trapped by our circumstances right now? How might we free one another through an act of compassion?
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: God is sovereign! Let the earth rejoice!
All: Righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne.
One: For you, O God, are most high over all the earth.
All: You are exalted far above all gods.
One: Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
All: Rejoice in God, O you righteous, and give thanks to God’s holy name!
OR
One: Praise be to God who has created and is creating still!
All: We bless you, O God, of all creation!
One: Out of the unity and diversity of the Trinity God created us.
All: Like God, we are one and we are many.
One: Give glory to God by honoring God’s creations.
All: We will look for God’s goodness in all God’s creatures.
Hymns and Songs
All People That on Earth Do Dwell
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELW: 883
W&P: 661
AMEC: 73
STLT: 370
We Gather Together
UMH: 131
H82: 433
PH: 559
NNBH: 326
NCH: 421
CH: 276
ELW: 449
W&P: 81576
AMEC: 349
Jesus Shall Reign
UMH: 157
H82: 544
PH: 423
NNBH: 10
NCH: 300
CH: 95
LBW: 530
ELW: 434
W&P: 341
AMEC: 96
Renew: 296
Crown Him with Many Crowns
UMH: 327
H82: 494
PH: 151
AAHH: 288
NNBH: 125
NCH: 301
CH: 234
LBW: 170
ELW: 855
W&P: 317
AMEC: 174
Renew: 56
Hail Thee, Festival Day
UMH: 324
H82: 216/175/225
PH: 120
NCH: 262
LBW: 142
ELW: 394
Many Gifts, One Spirit
UMH: 114
NCH: 117
Help Us Accept Each Other
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
Jesu, Jesu
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELW: 708
W&P: 273
CCB: 66
Renew: 289
Be Thou My Vision
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELW: 793
W&P: 502
AMEC: 281
STLT: 20
Renew: 151
All Praise to Our Redeeming Lord
UMH: 554
All Hail King Jesus
CCB: 29
Renew: 35
As We Gather
CCB: 12
Renew: 6
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who rules over all creation as our Sovereign:
Grant us the grace to live into your realm
that peace and justice may prevail;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are the one who rules as Sovereign over all creation. Help us to be faithful citizens of your realm so that peace and justice may be found in all the earth. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our wanting everyone to be just like us.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We say we want to be one and to be in harmony with all but we don’t accept people who are different from us. Sometimes it is the color of the skin or where they are from; sometimes it is their political party or their religious beliefs but something stops us from feeling we are together. We think if only they were just like us then we could all be one. Help us to remember that you made us all one, diverse family. Help us to see the Christ in everyone. Amen.
One: God is one and sees us as one beloved people. Receive God’s grace and share the love of God with all God’s children.
Prayers of the People
Glory to you, O God of creation. You have made all of us in your image. You have breathed into all of us your own Spirit and life. You welcome all of us into the Body of Christ.
(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 say we want to be one and to be in harmony with all but we don't accept people who are different from us. Sometimes it is the color of the skin or where they are from; sometimes it is their political party or their religious beliefs but something stops us from feeling we are together. We think if only they were just like us then we could all be one. Help us to remember that you made us all one, diverse family. Help us to see the Christ in everyone.
We give you thanks for the diverse beauty of creation. We thank you for the elephants and the whales; we thank you for the honey bees and the hummingbirds. We thank you for the variety within the family of human beings which gives us many expressions of art, music, and culture. We thank you for the variety of gifts and the ways in which we can support one another in love.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who find themselves shut out because of the way they look, the way they talk, or the thoughts they express. Bless those who work to bring people together in unity and trust. Open our eyes that we might see the Christ who dwells in each individual.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMONPraying for Others
by Quantisha Mason-Doll
John 17:20-26
Themes
1. Praying for others
2. Seeking the good for others the way Jesus did for us
3. The power of prayer as self-care
Ideas for Activities
1. This would be a great week to talk about little acts of service toward others.
2. If you have children’s education make space for children to create their own personal prayers.
3. Tools for teaching kindness.
Our best friend Jesus is at it again — caring for others not because he has to but because he wants too. What we have here is a private moment Jesus takes to have a conversation with God. I think this is Jesus giving us a beautiful example of how prayer can be used when your Spirit is heavy — when you feel overwhelmed. I like to believe that Jesus is worried about us. Worried that maybe he has not done enough to make things better for other people. Have you ever felt that way? (Invite responses from the children.) In this case Jesus turns to God the Father to ask for guidance. Jesus is not afraid to prayer for others and ask for help to be the best version of himself.
Can someone tell me what prayer means to them?
Is there a time when you pray together with someone outside of church?
(Let the children give their understanding of prayer.)
Prayer can be used to help guide your thoughts and let all your hopes and fears be known. God will always hear and answer your prayers. All you have to do is ask.
Prayer
Loving God help us to care for others.
Teach us how to be kind.
Teach us how to be generous.
Most of all, teach us how to put others first like Jesus did.
We give thanks to you, God.
Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 29, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 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.
