The Letter of The Law
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For September 1, 2024:
The Letter of The Law
by Dean Feldmeyer
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Around 475 BCE, three Chinese philosophers, Shang Yang, Li Si, and Hanfeizi, put forth the philosophy known as Fajia (Legalism). Legalism held that because people were inherently selfish and short-sighted, they could not be trusted to rule themselves. Social harmony could be achieved, they said, only through absolute obedience to strong, state-controlled authority.
The Fajia philosophy was enthusiastically embraced by China’s first imperial dynasty the Qin in 221 BCE, who quickly created a code of strict rules and laws that regulated nearly every aspect of human behavior, always with the goal of increasing the power of the ruler and the state. Penalties for those who did not comply were severe.
It took only fourteen years for the people to get fed up with legalism. The Qin dynasty was overthrown in 207 BCE and the legalist philosophy was discredited.
Legalism, however, did not disappear with the demise of the Qin dynasty. It has lived on in one form or another in nearly every human community. Jesus was confronted by it in the Jewish temple, and we still find it in the Christian church of the 21st century.
In the News/Culture
But before we talk about legalism in the church, let’s look at it in the broader culture.
We usually think of legalism as a sort of narrow mindedness. Legalistic people are sticklers for the rules. They follow the rules to the letter and insist that everyone around them do the same even when the rules are archaic, meaningless, and silly.
For instance: In Ohio the law says that when you pass another motorist on the road, you have to honk your horn. I’ve been driving in Ohio for more than 55 years and I’ve never honked my horn when I’m passing someone. Not only is it a silly law, but it could also get you shot! A legalist, however, would honk their horn anyway. It’s the law, after all.
In Cleveland, not more than five women are allowed to live together in one house. One can only imagine what this law was meant to prevent, but I’m pretty sure that college sororities ignore it. What a mess it would be if the university president was a legalist who decided to crack down on the violators.
Does anyone still cling to the rule of not wearing white before Memorial Day or after Labor Day or that only virgin brides can wear white on their wedding day?
Silliness and pettiness are often the marks of legalism as we experience it. But there is a more serious and dangerous form that we need to be aware of.
In July 2015, Sandra Bland, a young African American woman, was stopped by police near the campus of Prairie View A&M University in Texas, where she had just gotten a job.
The Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who pulled over Bland, Brian Encinia, described as “white, short dark hair, 30 years old,” stopped her for allegedly changing lanes without signaling. The routine traffic stop escalated as Encinia told Bland to extinguish her cigarette. They exchanged increasingly hostile words, and Encinia eventually told her to get out of her car, threatening “I will light you up” if she failed to heed his order. Bland complied and was taken to jail. Three days later, she was found hanged in her cell.
In his book Talking to Strangers, social psychologist and journalist Malcolm Gladwell investigates how such a horrible outcome could come from a stop for such a minor offense. The answer is “aggressive policing” and “pretextual stops.”
These two concepts were introduced to police departments in high crime areas in the early 1980s as a way of legally stopping and searching cars and drivers who police suspected of drug or weapons offences — possession of, transporting, possession with intent to sell or distribute, etc.
Police in high crime neighborhoods or on roads or highways that were known for a high level of drug offenses were encouraged to stop lots of motorists on the slightest pretense — weaving, speeding only a couple of mph over the speed limit, turning without giving sufficient warning, expired sticker on the license plate, littering, etc., many of which were based solely upon the officer’s subjective judgment. The real reason for the stop was often something as innocuous as driving too slowly, staying exactly on the speed limit, slowing when the police cruiser approached from the rear, all things that any driver might do when in the presence of the police.
The officers were trained to look for suspicious clues while they engaged in light conversation with the driver: a single key on the key ring, food wrappers on the floor, the strong smell of cigarette smoke, refusing to meet the officer’s gaze, any of which might signal that the driver was transporting drugs.
This, the officer could argue in court, was sufficient cause to search all areas if the car, including the trunk, as well as any person in the car. And the United States Supreme Court has upheld that this is the case (Whren v. United States, 1996).
Malcolm Gladwell’s research showed that Officer Brian Encinia was in the habit of stopping as many as 20 drivers in a single eight-hour shift. His favorite tactic was to accelerate and roar up behind a driver who would often react with shock, and even fear, causing them to weave or quickly change lanes, infractions for which he could stop them and, within a few minutes, discover a pretext for searching their car. This is not in a high-crime area but in a small college town where the worst authentic legal infractions usually had to do with underage drinking and DUI. Aggressive policing and pretextual traffic stops and searches allow the law to be used as a cudgel to force citizens to submit to police authority.
Legalism that would be recognized and appreciated by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE.
In Rise of the Warrior Cop, crime journalist Radley Balko shows how our relentless declarations of war against vague enemies like crime, drugs, and terror have blurred the distinction between cop and soldier. His fascinating, frightening narrative shows how over a generation, a creeping battlefield mentality and the use of unrestricted legalism has isolated and alienated American police officers and put them on a collision course with the values of a free society.
“The subjects of these kinds of police stops and searches are disproportionately people of color, especially Black drivers. The stops have become a major cause of resentment and mistrust of police in the Black community, and also a major factor in needless police violence when encounters escalate from routine to tense and sometimes fatal.
“Police argue that it’s not their fault, they merely are going where the crime is. They say they more intensely police parts of town where drivers are more likely to be carrying dangerous contraband. On first blush, the argument sounds rational and the disproportionate impact on Black and Latino drivers merely an unhappy consequence of living in more dangerous neighborhoods that require a higher level of police response.
“A series of Times stories from 2019 undermines this excuse. Analyzing Los Angeles Police Department traffic stops, The Times found that even though Black and Latino drivers were searched more, contraband was disproportionately found not in their cars, but in cars driven by white motorists.
“A later analysis by the Police Commission’s inspector general confirmed that the use of pretextual stops was a failed crime strategy. It also revealed that police failed to report many of their stops as required by California law. Video showed that police subjected Black and Latino motorists to harsher treatment: handcuffing them, forcing them to stand with their face against walls or lie down on the pavement, questioning them about their backgrounds and checking their tattoos. None of it helped lower the crime rate.” (LA Times, August 15, 2023)
As a result of this conflict, Forbes Magazine, The New York Times, The LA Times, and the Granite State News Collaborative and other news organizations have all called for an end to pretextual stops and some police departments have agreed.
Finally, it could be argued by Christian folks that aggressive policing and pretextual stops are not just ineffective, they are a kind of bullying legalism that is both hypocritical and immoral, incompatible with any moral or ethical system that might arise from a so called “Judeo-Christian” society.
In the Scriptures
In this morning’s reading, Mark tells us of a time when some scribes and Pharisees confronted Jesus with a legal issue, one of cleanliness. The early readers of this passage would, upon seeing the scribes and Pharisees enter the picture, swallow hard and shudder. This was going to be complicated and messy.
But before we get to the complicated, messy part, let’s make sure we understand the law as it was written. The law allowed that Jews were to practice ritual cleanliness as one way, among many, of distinguishing themselves from their gentile neighbors. One of the ways the ancient Hebrew fathers interpreted that call to ritual cleanliness was that they washed their hands before they ate a meal.
Why? Well, certainly not to get the germs off their hands. They didn’t know about germs or viruses or any of those things. They didn’t realize that washing their hands was hygienic because they didn’t know what hygienic meant, unless there was actual, visible grime on their skin. They probably had, at some point in their history, noted that certain health benefits came to people who washed their hands before they ate but they didn’t associate that with cleanliness, they associated it with God rewarding them for their moral superiority.
They washed their hands because washing their hands was a ritual that set them apart from other, unclean, Gentile people in the midst of whom they lived. It distinguished them from Romans, Samaritans, Arabs, and other people as God’s chosen people, set aside for a special purpose.
So, when the Pharisees come to Jesus and say, “We notice that your disciples don’t always wash their hands before they eat,” they weren’t accusing the disciples of being dirty or unhygienic. They were accusing them of not following the traditions of the elders, of not doing it the way we’ve always done it, of breaking tradition, of being irreverent, of disrespecting their ancient fathers and thumbing their noses at those respectable people, like Pharisees, who make it a practice to follow every jot and tittle of every single law.
Mark then adds a parenthetical note to explain that the Pharisees were so concerned that they obey the cleanliness laws that they went way beyond what was required. They not only washed their hands, they washed their cups, pots and pans, cooking utensils, and even the food itself that they bought in the marketplace, just to make sure none of them were carrying Gentile contamination. You can almost see Mark rolling his eyes at the absurdity of all this, the silliness of this Pharisaic obsession with ritual cleanliness. Only a rich Pharisee with lots of money and ready access to clean water (which most people did not have) would decide that cleanliness was so important.
But he leaves it to Jesus to explain exactly why it’s absurd.
There’s nothing wrong with washing your hands before you eat. There’s nothing wrong with washing your cooking utensils or even washing the food you buy at the market. In fact, with the scientific knowledge that we now have we can see that it is a good idea for a whole host of reasons that first century people knew nothing about.
So what Jesus is about to say has nothing to do with whether or not washing your hands is a hygienically good idea.
First, he paraphrases a passage from Isaiah 29:13. I’ll paraphrase his paraphrase:
“These people [Isaiah meant all of Israel but Jesus means the Pharisees, and here he probably pointed at them] claim to be worshiping God but what they are really worshiping is their own customs and traditions. Therefore, their worship is meaningless.”
All this washing, in other words, doesn’t come from God; it’s a human construct. It’s like having church on Sunday morning, or using Welch’s grape juice for communion, or eating turkey at Thanksgiving, or holding your hand over your heart when you say the Pledge of Allegiance or celebrating Christmas in December. It isn’t a commandment that came from God — it’s just something we’ve always done or, at least, done for a long time. Or in some cases, it’s just something we’ve done for as long as anyone in this group can remember.
Jesus tells the Pharisees straight up and to their faces: “How you worship has become more important than who you worship. Your traditions for honoring God have become more important than the God you seek to honor. The food that goes into your body has become more important than the behavior that comes from your body. What goes into your stomach has superseded what comes out of your heart.
So, what does that look like, today?
In the Sermon
Remember when your parents told you, “Don’t run in church?” I always wondered about that. Why not? Does God not like running? Was running somehow disrespectful? When I asked, I was never given a good answer, just, “Because it’s church.” A rule that must be followed because, well, because it’s a rule. Or not even a rule, really, just a custom. A tradition.
And yet, we are taught that we are not saved by our rituals or our traditions. We are saved by God’s grace as it comes to us in Jesus Christ.
The rituals and traditions are there to remind us of this but sometimes we give them too much power and let them become demi-gods that we worship instead of the one true God. Our behavior is ruled not by the grace of Jesus Christ, but by the laws. The rules and God help the person who doesn’t abide by those rules as we would have them do.
If officer Brian Encinia had stopped just a moment to chat with Sandra Bland, he might have learned that she had an out of state license plate because she was there for a job interview, which she had aced. She had been given an offer for a job at the college, one she was anxious to start. She had driven all the way from Chicago for the interview (fast food wrappers on the floor), and she was tired from the drive and the anxiety over the interview (red eyes).
Had he treated her like a human being and not a suspect or enemy, as his increasingly military style training had taught him to do, he might have learned that she had struggled with mental illness and saw this new job in a new state as the first steps in a new life. He might have learned all this about her, given her a warning, and welcomed her to Texas.
But officer Encinia had been trained to believe that all people are potentially deadly enemies, and that the law was another weapon on his belt, designed to protect cops, regardless of any extreme in their behavior. So, when she became upset and loud, when she spoke in a way that he interpreted as disrespectful, when she delayed too long in obeying his command to put out her cigarette and get out of the car, he said he felt threatened and in danger.
With the full approval and license given to him by the Supreme Court, the personification of our laws, he threw her to the ground while other officers watched, handcuffed her, arrested her, charged her with serious crimes, some of which were felonies, and had her thrown in the jail.
Three days later, she killed herself.
He might have talked to her. He might have asked her about herself and her trip to Texas. But why go to all that trouble when you have the law on your side, the personification of which (SCOTUS) has told you that you can do pretty much whatever you want?
This is legalism in the extreme, life lived by the letter of the law.
How might things have gone differently, we may ask, if grace had entered the picture?
SECOND THOUGHTS
How Do We Handle Bullies?
by Katy Stenta
James 1:17-27
In an era where people seem empowered to say and do terrible things, like make fun of disabilities, shoot people for daring to be on their land, etc. — the idea of civility, much less the imago dei, is lost. Being a Karen is commonly understood to be a part of the culture, and using one’s power and privilege to get what one wants is commonplace.
How does one handle bullying, without becoming a bully oneself? The tiptoeing around politics, which used to be the norm in the church, no longer seems to be helpful, nor even healthy. And even the model to try to “show both sides” of a story seems to have given credence to the lies of the candidacy of Donald Trump.
And on the liberal side — how do we contend with the fact that we have favored Israel’s politics and policies over Palestine for many years due to guilt and the need for an ally in the Middle East, and yet still deal with the real and salient fact of apartheid, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is acting as a bully?
Some hints of how to handle bullying are given in Jame 1:17-27, and they played out in recent days: Be slow to anger — the DNC’s joy has been getting under the Republican’s skin.
Be doers of the word and not mere hearers who deceive themselves. When Harris listened to the protestors about Palestine, that was one of her best moments. What would have happened if they would have had a Palestinian speaker at the convention? (Here’s the speech that had been proposed.)
Rid yourselves of sordidness — the alliance between Republicans willing to speak out against Project 2025 and the Trump campaign is very telling. As is the fact that many legacy Democrats came to speak for Harris and Walz.
However, the idea to speak out against what is wrong, without turning into the bully, the boldness to walk that line, is very important. James coaxes us to look in the mirror and do the work to change the world into what we want it to look like. Holy imaging is Kin(g)dom work.
This, of course, does not mean that the DNC is perfect. Voting is often toward the end you want, not exactly as you wish. And let us not forget that politics is not religion. However, we are the ones to do the work against bullies, and it is good to see us take up the true work, which is ultimately to care for the orphan and the widow. Free lunches for everyone in school has always been a campaign against bullying and toward justice, and one I am joyfully ready to get behind.
I am hopeful that we will continue to confront and address the bullies of the world, together, perhaps even within our own congregations.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Remembering
As the people of Israel prepare to live in their new land, they are told, “Take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.” Remember, they are told.
Author Kate DiCamillo recalls her own childhood hurts vividly, and the memory shapes her love for reading her books in schools as an adult. She says, “I was really, really small as a kid, and — small for my age. And then I looked really insubstantial, like a strong wind would blow me away, and I was always being condescended to by adults. But yet, I was really a sarcastic kid and a kid with a big vocabulary, and I always wanted to feel seen. And that’s what I loved about going into classrooms and talking to kids, was like — and I loved it. Doing a signing line, it was always like, it was three seconds, 30 seconds, whatever; it was a chance to let the kid know that I saw them, and I saw them as an individual, as a human being, and just, it was thrilling to make that connection. And it must be — it goes back to that eight-year-old that’s right at the surface for me. It’s just like, I just remember what it was like to feel invisible.” Remember, we are told as people of faith, and do better.
* * *
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Seeing Only the Outside
Appearances can be deceiving, as Jesus notes about the Pharisees. In the book, Weird Parenting Wins, one reader tells how her mother used the power of appearance. “When my brother and I were little and would go out to eat, my parents would allow us to have one soft drink each, and once that was done it was only water. One day, my four-year-old brother was making such a fuss about not wanting to drink water that my mum told him it was special “Pepsi water,” as it had been served in a glass with the Pepsi logo on the side. He happily drank it down, and from that day on, he claimed he only liked “Pepsi water.” For ages after, my mum would refill a Pepsi bottle with tap water to get him to drink water at home.”
* * *
James 1:17-27
Generous Giving
The Epistle tells us that “every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above.” Inspired by God’s generosity, we want to give, also. A new book points out that we can do this in many small ways. Chris Anderson, leader of the TED and TEDx Talks, says, “You wouldn’t think that a cluster of atoms weighing less than one-trillionth of a gram could amount to much. Yet one such cluster, following a tiny tweak to its shape, entered a human body in late 2019, sparking a chain of events that killed more than seven million people and shut down the world economy. Among the many lessons of Covid-19, one of the most profound is this: You don’t need to be big to be powerful. You just need to be infectious. Any pattern that can replicate itself can have unlimited impact.” (from Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading)
* * *
James 1:17-27
Giving Things Away
The Epistle of James announces that “every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above.” There’s something holy about giving, as Bishop Audrey Scanlan reported from the Lambeth Conference in 2022. At the gathering of Anglican bishops, Scanlan says, “In a dramatic exercise, the bishop of ANZP challenged the bishops to remove their pectoral crosses from their necks (cherished and precious items) and to give them away to someone in the room whom they did not know. If this sounds like a bit of a stunt, I’d encourage you to try it with something that you love and cherish — like your wedding ring, your mother’s pearls, your father’s fountain pen. In this exercise, we were not invited to part with these items forever — it was about an hour, for the balance of the plenary session — and… it was still very powerful. The exercise was about trust and building relationships that are critical steps in reconciliation. It worked. I put my cross over the neck of a bishop from Malawi. And he gave me his.” In giving, we make ourselves into the image of our generous God.
* * *
James 1:17-27
The Church as Investment Advisor
The Epistle calls us to be doers of God’s word, and generosity is one way to do that. Nathan Dungan was once a Fortune 500 executive, and now spends his time connecting money and moral living. Much like the very early church, which helped people understand how to share their goods with each other, Dungan says that the church in our world is a “guiding light in terms of needs of others and gratitude, and really understanding again what your purpose and place is for being on this earth.” The church community still has an important job in helping us resist the consumer culture that always says to buy more, and to concentrate solely on ourselves.
We lack the clarity of the early church, and Dungan says, “in some respects, I believe the church has been complicit in sort of getting sucked into this whole persuasive argument about the role of consumerism in our culture, and I really don’t think they have understood the impact. I believe they are starting to get it, but I don’t think they have fully thought through the impact of what that means for people’s souls, for our, you know, sense of place and time and space, and what it robs of us in terms of just our personal sense of being.”
We need, Dungan says, a “counter-rhythm” to the demands of consumer culture, starting when we’re young, so the rhythm takes hold in how we use our money. This is a powerful way to ne doers of the word.
* * *
James 1:17-27
Being a Do-er
Don’t just listen to God’s message — get out and do something, the Epistle of James urges. Joshua Coombes, a hair stylist, did just that. One night, on his way home from work in London, “he noticed a familiar homeless person on the sidewalk…” He approached the man and asked him how he was. Then he had an idea. He had his clippers and scissors with him, so he offered the careworn homeless man a free haircut right there on the street. “In the hour that followed, he told me his story,” Joshua writes in his book Do Something for Nothing. “We connected and became close.”
Inspired, Joshua “started heading into the streets of London whenever he could, offering haircuts to homeless people. Eventually he cut back to part-time work in order to spend more time on the streets. Joshua found his new vocation incredibly rewarding. Having established an immediate sense of trust, he found that the people he was meeting began opening up about their lives. Hearing the remarkable and often harrowing stories of his homeless clients was in itself a reward. He was struck by their resilience and courage, and thankful for the time they spent together. Determined to broadcast their stories and shatter lazy assumptions about homeless people, Joshua took to Instagram. He posted “before-and-after-haircut” pictures of his homeless clients, told their stories (in their own words), and signed off with the hashtag “#DoSomethingForNothing. He then started to couch-surf with friends and acquaintances all over the world, giving his time to homeless people across fourteen cities in the Americas, Europe, India, and Australia, and broadcasting their stories via social media. Before long, his Instagram fame resulted in collaborations with brands and NGOs. Joshua has garnered over 150,000 Instagram followers, who have been moved by the stories he shares. When Joshua posted crowdfunding appeals to fix temporary accommodation for his friends, the cash flowed in. #DoSomethingForNothing became a social movement, with Joshua’s inbox full of messages from people pledging their help. Joshua writes that one of the most powerful choices we make each day is to be aware of how we interact with those around us.” (from Infectious Generosity by Chris Anderson)
Doing something, even a little thing, is powerful.
* * * * * *
From team member Chris Keating:
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Pondering the ways we teach the kids of the “nones”
Once upon a time, the Sundays around Labor Day were busy times for American congregations. Families returned to worship after their summer hiatus, often drawn back to church by Rally Day activities, picnics, and the resumption of children’s ministries. As Bruce Robinson recalls, these Sundays never appeared on liturgical calendars, but were “nearly always the highest festivals of the church year.”
Times have changed. Sunday school participation has followed the declines in church attendance and the rise of people identifying as having no particular religious preference. Toss in the global pandemic, and more than fifty percent of churches reported a dip in children’s attendance.
Widely reported studies charting the decline of church attendance, coupled with the rise of the “nones” (those who claim no religious preference), Sunday school seems to be on life support — at least the sort of programs most of us experienced in our childhood.
These realities offer an opportunity to reconsider Deuteronomy 4:9’s admonition to “make known to your children and your children’s children” the story of faith. Sunday school is broken. How might we consider new opportunities to “neither forget the things your eyes have seen nor let them slip from your mind?”
* * *
Psalm 15
Speaking truth from the heart
Psalm 15 recounts the joys of a well-lived life. The psalmist knows that a life centered in God is one that walks blamelessly before God, does what is right, and speaks truth from the heart. In short, such a life is not held captive to many of the toxic forces of life that rob life of its abundance. When Marian Branyas Morrea, who was believed to be the world’s oldest person in 2024, has died at age 117. Dubbed the “Super Catalan Grandma” on social media, Morrea was born in 1907 in San Francisco, California, but lived most of her life in the Catalonian region of Spain. Morrea once attributed her longevity to “order, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity, and staying away from toxic people.”
* * *
James 1:17-27
Every good gift
While charitable giving in America dipped slightly in 2023, researchers also noted that patterns of giving are beginning to shift. For example, giving for basic needs such as food or housing has risen over the past four years despite inflation and the economic fallout from Covid. Giving for “human services” now ranks second to donations for religious institutions. Some suggest that a trend toward “giving circles” accounts for some of the changes in philanthropy. Giving circles are small groups of individuals who gather to seek out local needs, pooling gifts to increase impact. The Christian Science Monitor notes that giving circles have exploded across the country, rising from about 1,600 seven years ago to more than 4,000 today. Giving circles account for more than $3.1 billion in charitable giving according to Philanthropy Together. The Monitor concluded:
The report predicts that the number of giving circles will double in the next five years. “We are a force, and a joyous force,” Isis Krause, Philanthropy Together’s chief strategy officer, told Inside Philanthropy. New ways of giving are not only creating new ways of gathering. They are also pointing to higher concepts of joy.
* * *
James 1:17-27
Doers of the word
James’ pragmatic understanding of the Christian life offers an opportunity for churches to give thanks for the powerful contributions volunteers make in local congregations. According to the Independent Sector, the value of volunteering hours in the United States increased 5.3% from 2023 to 2024. The current estimated national value of each volunteer hour is now $33.49 per hour.
* * *
James 1:17-27
The gift that changed Howard Thurman’s world
When the great American theologian, mystic, and activist Howard Thurman was a young man, he had an experience of receiving a life-changing gift from an anonymous stranger. Thurman grew up in an impoverished family in Florida and attended segregated schools through the seventh grade. When it came time for high school, however, his family managed to scrape together money to send him from Daytona to a high school in Jacksonville, Florida.
Thurman made his way to the train station, only to learn that he had enough money for a ticket, but not enough to ship his baggage. Thinking that his dream of attending high school was over, Thurman sat down on his suitcase, pondering what to do. Suddenly, a stranger in overalls approached and began talking with Thurman. As he explained his dire circumstances, the stranger listened and then motioned for Thurman to follow him to the baggage window. The stranger paid to have Thurman’s suitcases placed on the train, and then walked away. Thurman never had the chance to ask his name. Years later, Thurman dedicated his autobiography to “the stranger in the railroad station in Daytona Beach who restored my broken dream sixty-five years ago.”
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: O God, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
All: Those who walk blamelessly and do what is right.
One: Those who speak the truth from their heart;
All: And who do not slander with their tongue.
One: Those who do no evil to their friends.
All: These are the ones who will stand in God’s presence.
OR
One: We welcome you, O God, into our time together today.
All: We welcome you into our hearts, minds, and souls.
One: Speak to us once more the words of life.
All: Transform us into the likeness of our loving God.
One: Make us one with God so that we may be one with others.
All: We open our lives that cleans within and without.
Hymns and Songs
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
UMH: 64/65
H82: 362
PH: 138
GTG: 1
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELW: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT: 26
Renew: 204
God of the Sparrow God of the Whale
UMH: 122
PH: 217
GTG: 22
NCH: 32
CH: 70
ELW: 740
W&P: 29
He Leadeth Me: O Blessed Thought
UMH: 128
AAHH: 142
NNBH: 235
CH: 545
LBW: 501
W&P: 499
AMEC: 395
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
UMH: 139
H82: 390
GTG: 35
AAHH: 117
NNBH: 2
NCH: 22
CH: 25
ELW: 858/859
AMEC: 3
STLT: 278
Renew: 57
Lift High the Cross
UMH: 159
H82: 473
PH: 371
GTG: 826
AAHH: 242
NCH: 198
CH: 108
LBW: 377
ELW: 660
W&P: 287
Renew: 297
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH: 577
H82: 594/595
PH: 420
GTG: 307
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELW: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
O Zion, Haste (O Christian, Haste)
UMH: 573
H82: 539
NNBH: 422
CH: 482
LBW: 397
ELW: 668
AMEC: 566
How Firm a Foundation
UMH: 529
H82: 636/637
PH: 361
GTG: 463
AAHH: 146
NNBH: 48
NCH: 407
CH: 618
LBW: 507
ELW: 796
W&P: 411
AMEC: 433
I Come with Joy
UMH: 617
H82: 304
PH: 507
NCH: 349
CH: 420
ELW: 482
W&P: 706
Renew: 195
Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether
UMH: 632
PH: 504
GTG: 529
NCH: 337
CH: 392
ELW: 470
They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love
CCB: 78
We Are His Hands
CCB: 85
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The 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 is fully light and life and love:
Grant us the wisdom to live with integrity
so that we are beautiful within and without;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are truly One. You are all light and life and love. In you there is not darkness, death, or hatred. Help us, your children, to wisely live so that we are as beautiful inside, and we try to be outside. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially when we are more concerned about how others see us than how we truly are inside.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to shine forth with your image. We try to be seen as good so others will speak well of us. We hide the ugly part within instead of allowing you to change them. We are more concerned with looking good than being good. We are more worried that others will call us Christian than that we are actually followers of your Christ. Forgive us and renew us with the power of your Spirit that we may be clean on the inside as well as the outside. Amen.
One: God desires us to be whole and to be clean inside and out. God welcomes our repentance and offers us new life. Receive God’s blessing and share that blessing with others.
Prayers of the People
We worship and adore you, O God, because you are the one who is holy. In you there is no darkness or shadow. You are the light that shines in all things.
(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 shine forth with your image. We try to be seen as good so others will speak well of us. We hide the ugly part within instead of allowing you to change them. We are more concerned with looking good than being good. We are more worried that others will call us Christian than that we are actually followers of your Christ. Forgive us and renew us with the power of your Spirit that we may be clean on the inside as well as the outside.
We give you thanks for making us in your image and we are thankful for those who have allowed that image to be seen by us. We thank you for those who have lived lives of integrity before us. We thank you for your Spirit that helps transform us within and without.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We lift up to you the needs of your creation. We offer into your light those who struggle to find any light within. We bring into your heart those who are disheartened and lost. We pray for our world where the glitter on the outside seems so much more important that what dwells within.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
Hear us as we pray for others: (Time for silent or spoken prayer.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray 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
Everything Comes From God
by Tom Willadsen
James 1:17-27
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…. (v. 17, NRSV)
Have a treat of some kind to hand to every child. Bear in mind food allergies, or strong treat preferences, if you know of any. Individually wrapped things like Tootsie Rolls® or Lifesavers® are good. Personally, I think there’s nothing cuter than a toddler eating a Double Stuf Oreo® in church, especially someone else’s toddler.
After the kids have gotten settled, give each of them one of the treats you’ve selected. Read the verse above.
Ask them if they know where their treat came from.
The store.
Maybe they’ll name the store, Target, or Piggly Wiggly.
After they’ve made their guesses, tell them where you bought their treats.
Then ask, “Where did the store get the (insert treat name here) from?”
A warehouse? A distributor?
“Where were they before that?”
A factory? A bakery?
You need to know what some of the ingredients are, and where they came from.
Sugar comes from Texas, Florida, and Louisiana, for example. Corn syrup comes from Illinois and Iowa. If there’s sugar from sugar beets, North Dakota. Wheat for flour comes from Kansas and Nebraska. You don’t need to cover every ingredient, but several to make the point, a lot of different things came together to make this morning’s treat.
And every part of it came from the earth, which God made, and was baked/produced/created by workers, who were all made in the image of God.
If you go far enough back, everything, everything, everything originates from God the creator. The Bible says, “Every gift is from God.” Every gift you can give to someone else, has come from God.
The Bible also says, “We love because God first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) So I want you to think about this: If you say to your dad or mom, “I love you,” and give them a hug, you can do that, because God loved you first! God started it!
Let’s pray: Loving God, we thank you…for everything! Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, September 1, 2024 issue.
Copyright 2024 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.
- The Letter of The Law by Dean Feldmeyer based on Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23.
- Second Thoughts: How Do We Handle Bullies? by Katy Stenta based on James 1:17-27.
- Sermon illustrations by Mary Austin and Chris Keating.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children's sermon: Everything Comes From God by Tom Willadsen based on James 1:17-27.
The Letter of The Lawby Dean Feldmeyer
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Around 475 BCE, three Chinese philosophers, Shang Yang, Li Si, and Hanfeizi, put forth the philosophy known as Fajia (Legalism). Legalism held that because people were inherently selfish and short-sighted, they could not be trusted to rule themselves. Social harmony could be achieved, they said, only through absolute obedience to strong, state-controlled authority.
The Fajia philosophy was enthusiastically embraced by China’s first imperial dynasty the Qin in 221 BCE, who quickly created a code of strict rules and laws that regulated nearly every aspect of human behavior, always with the goal of increasing the power of the ruler and the state. Penalties for those who did not comply were severe.
It took only fourteen years for the people to get fed up with legalism. The Qin dynasty was overthrown in 207 BCE and the legalist philosophy was discredited.
Legalism, however, did not disappear with the demise of the Qin dynasty. It has lived on in one form or another in nearly every human community. Jesus was confronted by it in the Jewish temple, and we still find it in the Christian church of the 21st century.
In the News/Culture
But before we talk about legalism in the church, let’s look at it in the broader culture.
We usually think of legalism as a sort of narrow mindedness. Legalistic people are sticklers for the rules. They follow the rules to the letter and insist that everyone around them do the same even when the rules are archaic, meaningless, and silly.
For instance: In Ohio the law says that when you pass another motorist on the road, you have to honk your horn. I’ve been driving in Ohio for more than 55 years and I’ve never honked my horn when I’m passing someone. Not only is it a silly law, but it could also get you shot! A legalist, however, would honk their horn anyway. It’s the law, after all.
In Cleveland, not more than five women are allowed to live together in one house. One can only imagine what this law was meant to prevent, but I’m pretty sure that college sororities ignore it. What a mess it would be if the university president was a legalist who decided to crack down on the violators.
Does anyone still cling to the rule of not wearing white before Memorial Day or after Labor Day or that only virgin brides can wear white on their wedding day?
Silliness and pettiness are often the marks of legalism as we experience it. But there is a more serious and dangerous form that we need to be aware of.
In July 2015, Sandra Bland, a young African American woman, was stopped by police near the campus of Prairie View A&M University in Texas, where she had just gotten a job.
The Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who pulled over Bland, Brian Encinia, described as “white, short dark hair, 30 years old,” stopped her for allegedly changing lanes without signaling. The routine traffic stop escalated as Encinia told Bland to extinguish her cigarette. They exchanged increasingly hostile words, and Encinia eventually told her to get out of her car, threatening “I will light you up” if she failed to heed his order. Bland complied and was taken to jail. Three days later, she was found hanged in her cell.
In his book Talking to Strangers, social psychologist and journalist Malcolm Gladwell investigates how such a horrible outcome could come from a stop for such a minor offense. The answer is “aggressive policing” and “pretextual stops.”
These two concepts were introduced to police departments in high crime areas in the early 1980s as a way of legally stopping and searching cars and drivers who police suspected of drug or weapons offences — possession of, transporting, possession with intent to sell or distribute, etc.
Police in high crime neighborhoods or on roads or highways that were known for a high level of drug offenses were encouraged to stop lots of motorists on the slightest pretense — weaving, speeding only a couple of mph over the speed limit, turning without giving sufficient warning, expired sticker on the license plate, littering, etc., many of which were based solely upon the officer’s subjective judgment. The real reason for the stop was often something as innocuous as driving too slowly, staying exactly on the speed limit, slowing when the police cruiser approached from the rear, all things that any driver might do when in the presence of the police.
The officers were trained to look for suspicious clues while they engaged in light conversation with the driver: a single key on the key ring, food wrappers on the floor, the strong smell of cigarette smoke, refusing to meet the officer’s gaze, any of which might signal that the driver was transporting drugs.
This, the officer could argue in court, was sufficient cause to search all areas if the car, including the trunk, as well as any person in the car. And the United States Supreme Court has upheld that this is the case (Whren v. United States, 1996).
Malcolm Gladwell’s research showed that Officer Brian Encinia was in the habit of stopping as many as 20 drivers in a single eight-hour shift. His favorite tactic was to accelerate and roar up behind a driver who would often react with shock, and even fear, causing them to weave or quickly change lanes, infractions for which he could stop them and, within a few minutes, discover a pretext for searching their car. This is not in a high-crime area but in a small college town where the worst authentic legal infractions usually had to do with underage drinking and DUI. Aggressive policing and pretextual traffic stops and searches allow the law to be used as a cudgel to force citizens to submit to police authority.
Legalism that would be recognized and appreciated by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE.
In Rise of the Warrior Cop, crime journalist Radley Balko shows how our relentless declarations of war against vague enemies like crime, drugs, and terror have blurred the distinction between cop and soldier. His fascinating, frightening narrative shows how over a generation, a creeping battlefield mentality and the use of unrestricted legalism has isolated and alienated American police officers and put them on a collision course with the values of a free society.
“The subjects of these kinds of police stops and searches are disproportionately people of color, especially Black drivers. The stops have become a major cause of resentment and mistrust of police in the Black community, and also a major factor in needless police violence when encounters escalate from routine to tense and sometimes fatal.
“Police argue that it’s not their fault, they merely are going where the crime is. They say they more intensely police parts of town where drivers are more likely to be carrying dangerous contraband. On first blush, the argument sounds rational and the disproportionate impact on Black and Latino drivers merely an unhappy consequence of living in more dangerous neighborhoods that require a higher level of police response.
“A series of Times stories from 2019 undermines this excuse. Analyzing Los Angeles Police Department traffic stops, The Times found that even though Black and Latino drivers were searched more, contraband was disproportionately found not in their cars, but in cars driven by white motorists.
“A later analysis by the Police Commission’s inspector general confirmed that the use of pretextual stops was a failed crime strategy. It also revealed that police failed to report many of their stops as required by California law. Video showed that police subjected Black and Latino motorists to harsher treatment: handcuffing them, forcing them to stand with their face against walls or lie down on the pavement, questioning them about their backgrounds and checking their tattoos. None of it helped lower the crime rate.” (LA Times, August 15, 2023)
As a result of this conflict, Forbes Magazine, The New York Times, The LA Times, and the Granite State News Collaborative and other news organizations have all called for an end to pretextual stops and some police departments have agreed.
Finally, it could be argued by Christian folks that aggressive policing and pretextual stops are not just ineffective, they are a kind of bullying legalism that is both hypocritical and immoral, incompatible with any moral or ethical system that might arise from a so called “Judeo-Christian” society.
In the Scriptures
In this morning’s reading, Mark tells us of a time when some scribes and Pharisees confronted Jesus with a legal issue, one of cleanliness. The early readers of this passage would, upon seeing the scribes and Pharisees enter the picture, swallow hard and shudder. This was going to be complicated and messy.
But before we get to the complicated, messy part, let’s make sure we understand the law as it was written. The law allowed that Jews were to practice ritual cleanliness as one way, among many, of distinguishing themselves from their gentile neighbors. One of the ways the ancient Hebrew fathers interpreted that call to ritual cleanliness was that they washed their hands before they ate a meal.
Why? Well, certainly not to get the germs off their hands. They didn’t know about germs or viruses or any of those things. They didn’t realize that washing their hands was hygienic because they didn’t know what hygienic meant, unless there was actual, visible grime on their skin. They probably had, at some point in their history, noted that certain health benefits came to people who washed their hands before they ate but they didn’t associate that with cleanliness, they associated it with God rewarding them for their moral superiority.
They washed their hands because washing their hands was a ritual that set them apart from other, unclean, Gentile people in the midst of whom they lived. It distinguished them from Romans, Samaritans, Arabs, and other people as God’s chosen people, set aside for a special purpose.
So, when the Pharisees come to Jesus and say, “We notice that your disciples don’t always wash their hands before they eat,” they weren’t accusing the disciples of being dirty or unhygienic. They were accusing them of not following the traditions of the elders, of not doing it the way we’ve always done it, of breaking tradition, of being irreverent, of disrespecting their ancient fathers and thumbing their noses at those respectable people, like Pharisees, who make it a practice to follow every jot and tittle of every single law.
Mark then adds a parenthetical note to explain that the Pharisees were so concerned that they obey the cleanliness laws that they went way beyond what was required. They not only washed their hands, they washed their cups, pots and pans, cooking utensils, and even the food itself that they bought in the marketplace, just to make sure none of them were carrying Gentile contamination. You can almost see Mark rolling his eyes at the absurdity of all this, the silliness of this Pharisaic obsession with ritual cleanliness. Only a rich Pharisee with lots of money and ready access to clean water (which most people did not have) would decide that cleanliness was so important.
But he leaves it to Jesus to explain exactly why it’s absurd.
There’s nothing wrong with washing your hands before you eat. There’s nothing wrong with washing your cooking utensils or even washing the food you buy at the market. In fact, with the scientific knowledge that we now have we can see that it is a good idea for a whole host of reasons that first century people knew nothing about.
So what Jesus is about to say has nothing to do with whether or not washing your hands is a hygienically good idea.
First, he paraphrases a passage from Isaiah 29:13. I’ll paraphrase his paraphrase:
“These people [Isaiah meant all of Israel but Jesus means the Pharisees, and here he probably pointed at them] claim to be worshiping God but what they are really worshiping is their own customs and traditions. Therefore, their worship is meaningless.”
All this washing, in other words, doesn’t come from God; it’s a human construct. It’s like having church on Sunday morning, or using Welch’s grape juice for communion, or eating turkey at Thanksgiving, or holding your hand over your heart when you say the Pledge of Allegiance or celebrating Christmas in December. It isn’t a commandment that came from God — it’s just something we’ve always done or, at least, done for a long time. Or in some cases, it’s just something we’ve done for as long as anyone in this group can remember.
Jesus tells the Pharisees straight up and to their faces: “How you worship has become more important than who you worship. Your traditions for honoring God have become more important than the God you seek to honor. The food that goes into your body has become more important than the behavior that comes from your body. What goes into your stomach has superseded what comes out of your heart.
So, what does that look like, today?
In the Sermon
Remember when your parents told you, “Don’t run in church?” I always wondered about that. Why not? Does God not like running? Was running somehow disrespectful? When I asked, I was never given a good answer, just, “Because it’s church.” A rule that must be followed because, well, because it’s a rule. Or not even a rule, really, just a custom. A tradition.
And yet, we are taught that we are not saved by our rituals or our traditions. We are saved by God’s grace as it comes to us in Jesus Christ.
The rituals and traditions are there to remind us of this but sometimes we give them too much power and let them become demi-gods that we worship instead of the one true God. Our behavior is ruled not by the grace of Jesus Christ, but by the laws. The rules and God help the person who doesn’t abide by those rules as we would have them do.
If officer Brian Encinia had stopped just a moment to chat with Sandra Bland, he might have learned that she had an out of state license plate because she was there for a job interview, which she had aced. She had been given an offer for a job at the college, one she was anxious to start. She had driven all the way from Chicago for the interview (fast food wrappers on the floor), and she was tired from the drive and the anxiety over the interview (red eyes).
Had he treated her like a human being and not a suspect or enemy, as his increasingly military style training had taught him to do, he might have learned that she had struggled with mental illness and saw this new job in a new state as the first steps in a new life. He might have learned all this about her, given her a warning, and welcomed her to Texas.
But officer Encinia had been trained to believe that all people are potentially deadly enemies, and that the law was another weapon on his belt, designed to protect cops, regardless of any extreme in their behavior. So, when she became upset and loud, when she spoke in a way that he interpreted as disrespectful, when she delayed too long in obeying his command to put out her cigarette and get out of the car, he said he felt threatened and in danger.
With the full approval and license given to him by the Supreme Court, the personification of our laws, he threw her to the ground while other officers watched, handcuffed her, arrested her, charged her with serious crimes, some of which were felonies, and had her thrown in the jail.
Three days later, she killed herself.
He might have talked to her. He might have asked her about herself and her trip to Texas. But why go to all that trouble when you have the law on your side, the personification of which (SCOTUS) has told you that you can do pretty much whatever you want?
This is legalism in the extreme, life lived by the letter of the law.
How might things have gone differently, we may ask, if grace had entered the picture?
SECOND THOUGHTSHow Do We Handle Bullies?
by Katy Stenta
James 1:17-27
In an era where people seem empowered to say and do terrible things, like make fun of disabilities, shoot people for daring to be on their land, etc. — the idea of civility, much less the imago dei, is lost. Being a Karen is commonly understood to be a part of the culture, and using one’s power and privilege to get what one wants is commonplace.
How does one handle bullying, without becoming a bully oneself? The tiptoeing around politics, which used to be the norm in the church, no longer seems to be helpful, nor even healthy. And even the model to try to “show both sides” of a story seems to have given credence to the lies of the candidacy of Donald Trump.
And on the liberal side — how do we contend with the fact that we have favored Israel’s politics and policies over Palestine for many years due to guilt and the need for an ally in the Middle East, and yet still deal with the real and salient fact of apartheid, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is acting as a bully?
Some hints of how to handle bullying are given in Jame 1:17-27, and they played out in recent days: Be slow to anger — the DNC’s joy has been getting under the Republican’s skin.
Be doers of the word and not mere hearers who deceive themselves. When Harris listened to the protestors about Palestine, that was one of her best moments. What would have happened if they would have had a Palestinian speaker at the convention? (Here’s the speech that had been proposed.)
Rid yourselves of sordidness — the alliance between Republicans willing to speak out against Project 2025 and the Trump campaign is very telling. As is the fact that many legacy Democrats came to speak for Harris and Walz.
However, the idea to speak out against what is wrong, without turning into the bully, the boldness to walk that line, is very important. James coaxes us to look in the mirror and do the work to change the world into what we want it to look like. Holy imaging is Kin(g)dom work.
This, of course, does not mean that the DNC is perfect. Voting is often toward the end you want, not exactly as you wish. And let us not forget that politics is not religion. However, we are the ones to do the work against bullies, and it is good to see us take up the true work, which is ultimately to care for the orphan and the widow. Free lunches for everyone in school has always been a campaign against bullying and toward justice, and one I am joyfully ready to get behind.
I am hopeful that we will continue to confront and address the bullies of the world, together, perhaps even within our own congregations.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Remembering
As the people of Israel prepare to live in their new land, they are told, “Take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.” Remember, they are told.
Author Kate DiCamillo recalls her own childhood hurts vividly, and the memory shapes her love for reading her books in schools as an adult. She says, “I was really, really small as a kid, and — small for my age. And then I looked really insubstantial, like a strong wind would blow me away, and I was always being condescended to by adults. But yet, I was really a sarcastic kid and a kid with a big vocabulary, and I always wanted to feel seen. And that’s what I loved about going into classrooms and talking to kids, was like — and I loved it. Doing a signing line, it was always like, it was three seconds, 30 seconds, whatever; it was a chance to let the kid know that I saw them, and I saw them as an individual, as a human being, and just, it was thrilling to make that connection. And it must be — it goes back to that eight-year-old that’s right at the surface for me. It’s just like, I just remember what it was like to feel invisible.” Remember, we are told as people of faith, and do better.
* * *
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Seeing Only the Outside
Appearances can be deceiving, as Jesus notes about the Pharisees. In the book, Weird Parenting Wins, one reader tells how her mother used the power of appearance. “When my brother and I were little and would go out to eat, my parents would allow us to have one soft drink each, and once that was done it was only water. One day, my four-year-old brother was making such a fuss about not wanting to drink water that my mum told him it was special “Pepsi water,” as it had been served in a glass with the Pepsi logo on the side. He happily drank it down, and from that day on, he claimed he only liked “Pepsi water.” For ages after, my mum would refill a Pepsi bottle with tap water to get him to drink water at home.”
* * *
James 1:17-27
Generous Giving
The Epistle tells us that “every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above.” Inspired by God’s generosity, we want to give, also. A new book points out that we can do this in many small ways. Chris Anderson, leader of the TED and TEDx Talks, says, “You wouldn’t think that a cluster of atoms weighing less than one-trillionth of a gram could amount to much. Yet one such cluster, following a tiny tweak to its shape, entered a human body in late 2019, sparking a chain of events that killed more than seven million people and shut down the world economy. Among the many lessons of Covid-19, one of the most profound is this: You don’t need to be big to be powerful. You just need to be infectious. Any pattern that can replicate itself can have unlimited impact.” (from Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading)
* * *
James 1:17-27
Giving Things Away
The Epistle of James announces that “every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above.” There’s something holy about giving, as Bishop Audrey Scanlan reported from the Lambeth Conference in 2022. At the gathering of Anglican bishops, Scanlan says, “In a dramatic exercise, the bishop of ANZP challenged the bishops to remove their pectoral crosses from their necks (cherished and precious items) and to give them away to someone in the room whom they did not know. If this sounds like a bit of a stunt, I’d encourage you to try it with something that you love and cherish — like your wedding ring, your mother’s pearls, your father’s fountain pen. In this exercise, we were not invited to part with these items forever — it was about an hour, for the balance of the plenary session — and… it was still very powerful. The exercise was about trust and building relationships that are critical steps in reconciliation. It worked. I put my cross over the neck of a bishop from Malawi. And he gave me his.” In giving, we make ourselves into the image of our generous God.
* * *
James 1:17-27
The Church as Investment Advisor
The Epistle calls us to be doers of God’s word, and generosity is one way to do that. Nathan Dungan was once a Fortune 500 executive, and now spends his time connecting money and moral living. Much like the very early church, which helped people understand how to share their goods with each other, Dungan says that the church in our world is a “guiding light in terms of needs of others and gratitude, and really understanding again what your purpose and place is for being on this earth.” The church community still has an important job in helping us resist the consumer culture that always says to buy more, and to concentrate solely on ourselves.
We lack the clarity of the early church, and Dungan says, “in some respects, I believe the church has been complicit in sort of getting sucked into this whole persuasive argument about the role of consumerism in our culture, and I really don’t think they have understood the impact. I believe they are starting to get it, but I don’t think they have fully thought through the impact of what that means for people’s souls, for our, you know, sense of place and time and space, and what it robs of us in terms of just our personal sense of being.”
We need, Dungan says, a “counter-rhythm” to the demands of consumer culture, starting when we’re young, so the rhythm takes hold in how we use our money. This is a powerful way to ne doers of the word.
* * *
James 1:17-27
Being a Do-er
Don’t just listen to God’s message — get out and do something, the Epistle of James urges. Joshua Coombes, a hair stylist, did just that. One night, on his way home from work in London, “he noticed a familiar homeless person on the sidewalk…” He approached the man and asked him how he was. Then he had an idea. He had his clippers and scissors with him, so he offered the careworn homeless man a free haircut right there on the street. “In the hour that followed, he told me his story,” Joshua writes in his book Do Something for Nothing. “We connected and became close.”
Inspired, Joshua “started heading into the streets of London whenever he could, offering haircuts to homeless people. Eventually he cut back to part-time work in order to spend more time on the streets. Joshua found his new vocation incredibly rewarding. Having established an immediate sense of trust, he found that the people he was meeting began opening up about their lives. Hearing the remarkable and often harrowing stories of his homeless clients was in itself a reward. He was struck by their resilience and courage, and thankful for the time they spent together. Determined to broadcast their stories and shatter lazy assumptions about homeless people, Joshua took to Instagram. He posted “before-and-after-haircut” pictures of his homeless clients, told their stories (in their own words), and signed off with the hashtag “#DoSomethingForNothing. He then started to couch-surf with friends and acquaintances all over the world, giving his time to homeless people across fourteen cities in the Americas, Europe, India, and Australia, and broadcasting their stories via social media. Before long, his Instagram fame resulted in collaborations with brands and NGOs. Joshua has garnered over 150,000 Instagram followers, who have been moved by the stories he shares. When Joshua posted crowdfunding appeals to fix temporary accommodation for his friends, the cash flowed in. #DoSomethingForNothing became a social movement, with Joshua’s inbox full of messages from people pledging their help. Joshua writes that one of the most powerful choices we make each day is to be aware of how we interact with those around us.” (from Infectious Generosity by Chris Anderson)
Doing something, even a little thing, is powerful.
* * * * * *
From team member Chris Keating:Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Pondering the ways we teach the kids of the “nones”
Once upon a time, the Sundays around Labor Day were busy times for American congregations. Families returned to worship after their summer hiatus, often drawn back to church by Rally Day activities, picnics, and the resumption of children’s ministries. As Bruce Robinson recalls, these Sundays never appeared on liturgical calendars, but were “nearly always the highest festivals of the church year.”
Times have changed. Sunday school participation has followed the declines in church attendance and the rise of people identifying as having no particular religious preference. Toss in the global pandemic, and more than fifty percent of churches reported a dip in children’s attendance.
Widely reported studies charting the decline of church attendance, coupled with the rise of the “nones” (those who claim no religious preference), Sunday school seems to be on life support — at least the sort of programs most of us experienced in our childhood.
These realities offer an opportunity to reconsider Deuteronomy 4:9’s admonition to “make known to your children and your children’s children” the story of faith. Sunday school is broken. How might we consider new opportunities to “neither forget the things your eyes have seen nor let them slip from your mind?”
* * *
Psalm 15
Speaking truth from the heart
Psalm 15 recounts the joys of a well-lived life. The psalmist knows that a life centered in God is one that walks blamelessly before God, does what is right, and speaks truth from the heart. In short, such a life is not held captive to many of the toxic forces of life that rob life of its abundance. When Marian Branyas Morrea, who was believed to be the world’s oldest person in 2024, has died at age 117. Dubbed the “Super Catalan Grandma” on social media, Morrea was born in 1907 in San Francisco, California, but lived most of her life in the Catalonian region of Spain. Morrea once attributed her longevity to “order, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity, and staying away from toxic people.”
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James 1:17-27
Every good gift
While charitable giving in America dipped slightly in 2023, researchers also noted that patterns of giving are beginning to shift. For example, giving for basic needs such as food or housing has risen over the past four years despite inflation and the economic fallout from Covid. Giving for “human services” now ranks second to donations for religious institutions. Some suggest that a trend toward “giving circles” accounts for some of the changes in philanthropy. Giving circles are small groups of individuals who gather to seek out local needs, pooling gifts to increase impact. The Christian Science Monitor notes that giving circles have exploded across the country, rising from about 1,600 seven years ago to more than 4,000 today. Giving circles account for more than $3.1 billion in charitable giving according to Philanthropy Together. The Monitor concluded:
The report predicts that the number of giving circles will double in the next five years. “We are a force, and a joyous force,” Isis Krause, Philanthropy Together’s chief strategy officer, told Inside Philanthropy. New ways of giving are not only creating new ways of gathering. They are also pointing to higher concepts of joy.
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James 1:17-27
Doers of the word
James’ pragmatic understanding of the Christian life offers an opportunity for churches to give thanks for the powerful contributions volunteers make in local congregations. According to the Independent Sector, the value of volunteering hours in the United States increased 5.3% from 2023 to 2024. The current estimated national value of each volunteer hour is now $33.49 per hour.
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James 1:17-27
The gift that changed Howard Thurman’s world
When the great American theologian, mystic, and activist Howard Thurman was a young man, he had an experience of receiving a life-changing gift from an anonymous stranger. Thurman grew up in an impoverished family in Florida and attended segregated schools through the seventh grade. When it came time for high school, however, his family managed to scrape together money to send him from Daytona to a high school in Jacksonville, Florida.
Thurman made his way to the train station, only to learn that he had enough money for a ticket, but not enough to ship his baggage. Thinking that his dream of attending high school was over, Thurman sat down on his suitcase, pondering what to do. Suddenly, a stranger in overalls approached and began talking with Thurman. As he explained his dire circumstances, the stranger listened and then motioned for Thurman to follow him to the baggage window. The stranger paid to have Thurman’s suitcases placed on the train, and then walked away. Thurman never had the chance to ask his name. Years later, Thurman dedicated his autobiography to “the stranger in the railroad station in Daytona Beach who restored my broken dream sixty-five years ago.”
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WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: O God, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
All: Those who walk blamelessly and do what is right.
One: Those who speak the truth from their heart;
All: And who do not slander with their tongue.
One: Those who do no evil to their friends.
All: These are the ones who will stand in God’s presence.
OR
One: We welcome you, O God, into our time together today.
All: We welcome you into our hearts, minds, and souls.
One: Speak to us once more the words of life.
All: Transform us into the likeness of our loving God.
One: Make us one with God so that we may be one with others.
All: We open our lives that cleans within and without.
Hymns and Songs
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
UMH: 64/65
H82: 362
PH: 138
GTG: 1
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELW: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT: 26
Renew: 204
God of the Sparrow God of the Whale
UMH: 122
PH: 217
GTG: 22
NCH: 32
CH: 70
ELW: 740
W&P: 29
He Leadeth Me: O Blessed Thought
UMH: 128
AAHH: 142
NNBH: 235
CH: 545
LBW: 501
W&P: 499
AMEC: 395
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
UMH: 139
H82: 390
GTG: 35
AAHH: 117
NNBH: 2
NCH: 22
CH: 25
ELW: 858/859
AMEC: 3
STLT: 278
Renew: 57
Lift High the Cross
UMH: 159
H82: 473
PH: 371
GTG: 826
AAHH: 242
NCH: 198
CH: 108
LBW: 377
ELW: 660
W&P: 287
Renew: 297
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH: 577
H82: 594/595
PH: 420
GTG: 307
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELW: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
O Zion, Haste (O Christian, Haste)
UMH: 573
H82: 539
NNBH: 422
CH: 482
LBW: 397
ELW: 668
AMEC: 566
How Firm a Foundation
UMH: 529
H82: 636/637
PH: 361
GTG: 463
AAHH: 146
NNBH: 48
NCH: 407
CH: 618
LBW: 507
ELW: 796
W&P: 411
AMEC: 433
I Come with Joy
UMH: 617
H82: 304
PH: 507
NCH: 349
CH: 420
ELW: 482
W&P: 706
Renew: 195
Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether
UMH: 632
PH: 504
GTG: 529
NCH: 337
CH: 392
ELW: 470
They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love
CCB: 78
We Are His Hands
CCB: 85
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The 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 is fully light and life and love:
Grant us the wisdom to live with integrity
so that we are beautiful within and without;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are truly One. You are all light and life and love. In you there is not darkness, death, or hatred. Help us, your children, to wisely live so that we are as beautiful inside, and we try to be outside. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially when we are more concerned about how others see us than how we truly are inside.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to shine forth with your image. We try to be seen as good so others will speak well of us. We hide the ugly part within instead of allowing you to change them. We are more concerned with looking good than being good. We are more worried that others will call us Christian than that we are actually followers of your Christ. Forgive us and renew us with the power of your Spirit that we may be clean on the inside as well as the outside. Amen.
One: God desires us to be whole and to be clean inside and out. God welcomes our repentance and offers us new life. Receive God’s blessing and share that blessing with others.
Prayers of the People
We worship and adore you, O God, because you are the one who is holy. In you there is no darkness or shadow. You are the light that shines in all things.
(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 shine forth with your image. We try to be seen as good so others will speak well of us. We hide the ugly part within instead of allowing you to change them. We are more concerned with looking good than being good. We are more worried that others will call us Christian than that we are actually followers of your Christ. Forgive us and renew us with the power of your Spirit that we may be clean on the inside as well as the outside.
We give you thanks for making us in your image and we are thankful for those who have allowed that image to be seen by us. We thank you for those who have lived lives of integrity before us. We thank you for your Spirit that helps transform us within and without.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We lift up to you the needs of your creation. We offer into your light those who struggle to find any light within. We bring into your heart those who are disheartened and lost. We pray for our world where the glitter on the outside seems so much more important that what dwells within.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
Hear us as we pray for others: (Time for silent or spoken prayer.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray 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.
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CHILDREN'S SERMONEverything Comes From God
by Tom Willadsen
James 1:17-27
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…. (v. 17, NRSV)
Have a treat of some kind to hand to every child. Bear in mind food allergies, or strong treat preferences, if you know of any. Individually wrapped things like Tootsie Rolls® or Lifesavers® are good. Personally, I think there’s nothing cuter than a toddler eating a Double Stuf Oreo® in church, especially someone else’s toddler.
After the kids have gotten settled, give each of them one of the treats you’ve selected. Read the verse above.
Ask them if they know where their treat came from.
The store.
Maybe they’ll name the store, Target, or Piggly Wiggly.
After they’ve made their guesses, tell them where you bought their treats.
Then ask, “Where did the store get the (insert treat name here) from?”
A warehouse? A distributor?
“Where were they before that?”
A factory? A bakery?
You need to know what some of the ingredients are, and where they came from.
Sugar comes from Texas, Florida, and Louisiana, for example. Corn syrup comes from Illinois and Iowa. If there’s sugar from sugar beets, North Dakota. Wheat for flour comes from Kansas and Nebraska. You don’t need to cover every ingredient, but several to make the point, a lot of different things came together to make this morning’s treat.
And every part of it came from the earth, which God made, and was baked/produced/created by workers, who were all made in the image of God.
If you go far enough back, everything, everything, everything originates from God the creator. The Bible says, “Every gift is from God.” Every gift you can give to someone else, has come from God.
The Bible also says, “We love because God first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) So I want you to think about this: If you say to your dad or mom, “I love you,” and give them a hug, you can do that, because God loved you first! God started it!
Let’s pray: Loving God, we thank you…for everything! Amen.
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The Immediate Word, September 1, 2024 issue.
Copyright 2024 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.
