Loving Wisely
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
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Object:
This week's lectionary text from the Hebrew scriptures brings us David's heart-wrenching lament over the death of his son: "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!" (2 Samuel 18:33). David pours out his emotions as he mourns his loss -- a reaction that any parent can identify with. Of course, this raises the issue of how we mourn as a society -- a question with a great deal of relevance not only in the aftermath of savage attacks on a Sikh house of worship and a crowded movie theater, but also as we think about how we honor (or hide from honoring) the sacrifice of so many in our military who have given life and limb during the past decade in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer suggests that more broadly this passage should lead us to consider the nature of how we love and mourn -- and the wisdom with which we share those feelings. Dean notes that while we can feel David's pain, his reaction to his son's demise is an entirely emotional one... one that's consistent with a series of missteps in his troubled relationship with Absalom, which had been characterized by Shakespeare's dictum of "one that loved not wisely but too well." Dean points out that mature love is not guided merely by emotions -- and that this text should cause us to ask ourselves some difficult questions about how we love and grieve... and whether, like David, we let our feelings dominate our better judgment.
Team member Leah Lonsbury offers some additional thoughts on the Ephesians passage and Paul's list of the characteristics of new life in Christ. Of course, a big reason Paul feels the need to engage in this exhortation is because when he surveys the state of the Ephesian congregation he sees that they are falling short of the ideal that they are to imitate. Likewise, Leah suggests, the reality of the ongoing Olympic extravaganza in London is much less glamorous than what is portrayed. It's probably not surprising that like every other large global enterprise these days, the Olympics have become a major corporate-driven affair that kowtows primarily to big-money donors and important IOC officials, with only a tangential interest in the common good. Leah notes that if Olympic bigwigs -- and more importantly, us -- were to give more attention to making interior reality match with the high ideals that we profess, rather than focusing on an enchanting facade, the global family really would have something to celebrate.
Loving Wisely
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
In his biography King David, Jonathan Kirsch notes that David loved passionately but not wisely. We have seen evidence of that in the past weeks as we followed his torrid, tragic affair with Bathsheba. This week we see it again in his relationship with his rebellious son Absalom, when his grief blinds him to the needs of those who love him.
Even as Nathan and Joab reminded David, so the authors of Samuel/Chronicles remind us to use not just our heart but our minds when we choose how and with whom we will share our love. Whether we are talking about our love for our friends, for our families, or for our country, scripture calls us to love not just passionately but wisely as well.
THE WORLD
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have produced American casualties, of that there can be no doubt. Military and civilian personnel have been maimed and crippled and have died in those conflicts. These wars have had a terrible cost, just as all wars do.
But in these wars the images of that cost have been tightly controlled, lest we count it too high. Few have been the photos of flag-draped coffins. Indeed, it took a lawsuit in 2004 to show them at all.
Never do we see a body bag. Wounded service personnel are hidden from the public in hospitals and rarely photographed except when being visited by celebrities or winning a medal in the paralympics.
The funerals are well contained in the communities and the hometowns of the deceased. Those who wish to honor the fallen line the streets and wave flags, fire engines and police cars run their sirens, local politicians and family members are interviewed by local reporters for sound bites suitable for airing on the evening news. Teddy bears and flowers and bits of paper with poems and song lyrics and prayers written on them adorn the gravesite until they are cleared away by cemetery workers in the days that follow.
Afraid that our love and respect for the dead will be deemed insufficient, no one dares ask at what point our country, our freedom, and our national security have become idols upon the altars of which we have sacrificed our children.
Embarrassed and perhaps ashamed of the way armed forces personnel were ignored and forgotten when they returned from Korea and often abused when they returned from Vietnam, we have often turned our honoring of service personnel into an orgy of hero worship.
The wailing of the sirens, the roar of the motorcycle engines, and the volume of Lee Greenwood's singing "God Bless the USA" drowns out any voice that may ask if this love of country and grief for the fallen has led us into some choices that are unwise and possibly tragic.
Loud is the lament of David, but where is the voice of Nathan? Where is the counsel of Joab?
THE WORD
"... from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him" (2 Samuel 14:25). He was, in other words, perfect.
Absalom was the third son of King David by his wife Maacah. He was tall and handsome, charismatic and not just a little vain, with a flowing mane of blond hair.
When his sister Tamar was raped by their half-brother Amnon, it was Absalom who took her in and took care of her while he waited for their father to punish his firstborn son. But David, who knew so well how to deal with people, was clueless about his own family.
The king faltered and deferred and delayed action until Absalom could wait no longer. Two years after the assault on his sister, Absalom conspired with those family members and palace servants who were loyal to him -- and they lured Amnon to a sheep-shearing festival, where they killed him. While the others fled back to Jerusalem, Absalom fled into exile.
After some years of intrigue Absalom had gathered an army about himself and declared war upon his father, attacking and capturing the city of Jerusalem from which David had fled with his own army. The civil war between father and son lasted less than a year.
The armies of David and Absalom met for a decisive battle at the Forest of Ephraim (actually a hilly area east of the Jordan River dotted with boulders and some scrub trees, hardly what we Americans think of as a proper forest).
Before the battle, David gave explicit instructions to his generals that every precaution was to be exercised that Absalom be taken alive and unharmed. Joab, however, was fanatically loyal to his uncle David, and would brook no disloyalty even when under orders.
When Absalom tried to flee on a mule, his hair became entangled in the low branches of an oak tree -- and finding Absalom hanging there, Joab shot him with "three darts" and then told his troops to finish him off. They buried him on the battlefield under a pile of rocks.
When David heard the news of his son Absalom's death he became sick with grief, unable to eat or even come out of his room.
In the chapter that follows this week's reading and is left out of the lectionary selections, it is Joab who eventually goes to David and tells him that his grief is unseemly and even insulting to his friends and family. He tells the king: These men offered up their lives in your defense. Many of them lost friends on the battlefield and you haven't given them so much as a kind word. Instead, you are in here grieving for the one person who would have killed you in a moment if given the chance. If all your family and friends and soldiers were dead but Absalom was still alive, would that make you happy? Because that's what it looks like. Now stop this. Get up, wash your face, go out there, and show your soldiers who defended you with their lives that you were worth fighting for.
So that's what David did. He got up and went to his throne and sat in it to show all that he was still the king and that their efforts had not been in vain. (But he never forgave Joab for killing Absalom. Joab was removed as commander-in-chief of the army, and one of David's last words of advice to his son Solomon was: Do not let Joab die of natural causes.)
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The story of David's love for his son Absalom brings some hard lessons to those of us who take scripture seriously.
It asks us to examine the ways that we love and grieve. It allows that these two emotions, love and grief, are powerful and can, if we allow them, lead us to make bad choices that cause much suffering.
Love, we know, is as much a choice as it is a feeling. As Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 13, children's love is informed only by their feelings. But when we become adults we give up childish ways. We learn that love is not just about feelings, it is about conscious, rational choices that we make.
We can choose to love even when we don't feel like it. And we can choose not to love. The love we are called to show for all human beings is "charity." We are called to be charitable whether we feel like it or not, but we are also called by scripture to be wise in how and for whom we feel affection. Other people's spouses, for instance, are off-limits, regardless of how we may or may not feel.
There are limits to how, when, where, and to whom we properly show affection. To defy these limits, to love unwisely, is to invite disaster.
Likewise, as Joab has to remind David, there are appropriate limits in the ways we show our grief. We must not let our genuine grief lead us into making unwise decisions that harm others. We must ask ourselves if our grief for our dead friends and family members is leading us into an unending cycle of vengeance and reprisal. We must retain the ability to question whether our grief for our fallen service persons is keeping us involved in wars that have come to defy every aspect of Augustine's "just war" criteria.
The preacher who chooses this text will probably need to tell the story of David and Absalom, as most Christians are only marginally familiar with it. It is a story worth telling and to which many parents can relate. Few are the fathers who, in his place, would not cry with David: "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!"
We are putty in the hands of our sons; we melt with a single look from our daughters. If we are too slow to discipline and too quick to forget, can anyone blame us? It is love that makes us so, is it not?
God grant us the passion and the wisdom to love not just greatly but wisely as well.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Beyond the Veneer
by Leah Lonsbury
Ephesians 4:25--5:2
It's hard to miss the coverage of the 2012 Olympics in London -- it's all over the internet and on the front pages of newspapers. Many network shows have gone on a two-week hiatus rather than compete with the televised Olympic coverage in primetime. It's hard to top the star quality of Michael Phelps or Gabby Douglas for turning out numbers and tuning in viewers.
Numbers seem to be a significant factor in this manifestation of the summer games. The website englishclub.com reports that "around 10,500 athletes representing 204 nations and territories are competing in 302 events covering 26 sports at what is officially known as The Games of the XXX Olympiad." Half a million spectators from all over the world are expected to visit London for the games. They will each come with their portion of the 9 million event seating tickets that they have purchased for between $30 and $3,000.
All of this ought to add up to a tremendous and breathtaking exhibition of athletic prowess and global harmony. But according to Jules Boykoff, a former Olympian and now associate professor of political science at Pacific University, what ought to issue in international goodwill is manifesting as "brass-knuckle politics and brute economics" during a time of European austerity and financial turmoil for the citizens of the Olympics' host city.
As it turns out, the numbers behind the veneer of the cheeky opening ceremonies, Ryan Seacrest's celebrity-athlete interviews, and the heartwarming stories of courageous athletes like Tahmina Kohistani -- the first Afghani woman to compete in the games -- are of a quite different variety.
Here's a look at some of those numbers...
* While the opening ceremonies were going on, 182 bikers from Critical Mass, a grass-roots bicycling and organizing campaign, were pepper-sprayed and arrested. All the cyclists were held overnight, including a thirteen-year-old schoolboy. Only four were charged.
* 18,200 British troops are on the ground to provide security for the games. That's the largest non-wartime military presence in London and almost twice as many British troops as are currently serving in Afghanistan.
* The games are now expected to cost the London taxpayers over $17 billion -- after the committee making the bid to bring the games to the city sold its citizens on an initial quote of $3.5 million.
* Much of London's population can't afford or get access to tickets to the games, while as many as 1 million seats given to corporate interests and sports federations have gone empty.
* It is estimated that around 2,000 low-income residents, students, artists, and squatters (pdf file) were forced from their living quarters to make space for the London Olympics' media center and swimming pool.
* Three major corporate sponsors of the Olympics are under fire for their previous business practices. Dow Chemical made the napalm used in the Vietnam War, and now owns Union Carbide -- the company that is being named as responsible for the 1984 chemical disaster in India that killed an estimated 15,000 and left countless others disfigured and disabled. British Petroleum, the London Olympics' official "sustainability partner," is responsible for the Deepwater Horizon spill and other destructive environmental events. Rio Tinto is providing the ore for the athletes' medals and is also under protest by union organizations for member lockouts and ongoing international labor and human rights violations.
These aren't the numbers and stories that are widely broadcast about the games. This isn't the side of the Olympics the International Olympic Committee (IOC) wants you to see.
The portion of Paul's letter to the Ephesians that is a part of our lectionary readings for this Sunday uncovers an Olympic-like shadow side of the community at Ephesus. Instead of the Christian ideals of truth, honest work, generosity toward those in need, speech that builds up and offers grace, kindness, tenderheartedness, forgiveness, and sacrificial love, Paul observes their lies, anger, theft, destructive talk, bitterness, wrangling, slander, and malice. Paul doesn't use numbers, but he figures the Ephesians could do much to change their odds.
Just as the powers-that-be behind the Olympics have muddied the glory of the athletic transcendence, international unity, and border-crossing goodwill of the games with questionable corporate interests and a lack of thoughtful and compassionate humanity, the Christians of Ephesus have tarnished the shiny seal of the Spirit. They have forgotten that "there is a contradiction in rejecting that which attaches Christians to their primary identity," an identity that springs from being a part of the living breathing Body of Christ. (Paul V. Marshall, "Pastoral Perspective: Ephesians 4:25--5:2," in Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 3, edited by David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor [Westminster John Knox, 2009], pgs. 326-330)
Paul calls the Ephesians back to this identity and a remembrance that "we are members of one another." He calls them back not for the sake and glory of personal righteousness, but for the simple fact that what they do, for good or for ill, affects the whole, particularly those who are most vulnerable in the community. For these same reasons, the decision-makers for the London Olympics need to be called back to the purposes of the games. They have forgotten and betrayed the power of this event to make one of many and bridge, mend, and build relationships for the good of our global human family. The Olympics are meant to be about more than personal bests, world records, national medal totals, name-brand labeling, corporate pandering, and the profit of those who have no need of further profit. In a broken and divided world, they could serve to remind us that we are members of one another.
Jaime Clark-Stoles, Professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology, writes about this passage from Ephesians that "Paul is acutely concerned about actively authentic, deep community where everyone contributes." Toward that end, "The author challenges us to imagine what it would be like if we made our decisions based not on whether choice A or B would bring us the best paycheck, highest status, and most comfortable life, but whether it would allow us to serve those in need. (Jaime Clark-Stoles, "Exegetical Perspective: Ephesians 4:25--5:2," in Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 3, edited by David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor [Westminster John Knox, 2009], pgs. 326-330)
Imagine if the International Olympic Committee had listened to Paul. Imagine if each of us did. Imagine if our shiny veneer, the seal of the Spirit that names, claims, and works to shape us, matched our interior. Then our lives (and maybe even our games) would be "a fragrant offering" to each other and to God. Our oneness would rise up in grace, kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness -- in an imitation of the One we claim to follow. Our loving would be more than a ritual, a creed, or a philosophy. It would be a glorious outpouring of the kind of love that sacrifices for the good of others. And, as Clark-Stoles notes, "if we get that, we get it all." Except maybe the tainted gold medal.
ILLUSTRATIONS
To read 2 Samuel chapters 13-18 is to sense how badly David handled and dealt with his own children. His was an example of benign neglect, which in times of crisis he tried to make up for through parental indulgence. Among the people of his own nation David was a strong leader, but in his own household he was a failure. His devotion to his sons, strangely enough, rendered him tolerant of their shortcomings and constant sinning.
Absalom, for example, was a rebel who would gladly snatch the kingly crown from his father's head -- yet an unwitting David, before a strategic battle when Absalom's troops were arranged against the realm, said to his generals: "Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom" (18:5). Solicitous to the very end, David was inclined to provide every advantage for this unprincipled son. Occupied as he was with the affairs of state, he might not be fully blamed for his parental oversight, yet David forfeited those useful opportunities to be a guide, counselor, and friend to those whose lives were entrusted by family responsibility to him.
This problem is widespread in America today. Many a son wants to grow up to be like Daddy; many a daughter to be like Mother. Yet in every community, parents let slip the possibility of this youthful aspiration being fulfilled. Fathers and mothers can leave behind no greater memorial than children who live in a sense of gratitude for the interest, care, and comradeship of their parents. A piece of doggerel English verse puts the matter sharply and plainly:
I love the Day Nursery where they take me each day,
And the fields which Prince Philip has opened for play;
The clinic where I get my vitamins free,
But my Mother -- God bless her -- she never sees me!
* * *
Almost from the start, Absalom has a number of strikes against him. For one thing, he was much too handsome for his own good.... For another thing, his father, King David, was always either spoiling him rotten or reading him the riot act.... He murdered his lecherous brother Amnon... and when the old warhorse Joab wouldn't help him patch things up with David afterward, he set fire to his hayfield. All Israel found this kind of derring-do irresistible and when he led a revolt against his father, a lot of them joined him.
On the evening of the crucial battle, David was a wreck. If he was afraid he might lose his throne, he was even more afraid he might lose Absalom... and before the fighting started, he told the chiefs of staff till they were sick of hearing it that if Absalom fell into their clutches, they must promise to go easy on him... but when Joab found Absalom caught in the branches of an oak tree by his beautiful hair, he ran him through without blinking an eye. When they broke the news to David, it broke his heart. "O my son Absalom, my son, my son. Would I have died instead of you...."
-- Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures (HarperCollins, 1979)
* * *
Anna Quindlen, after writing an obituary for her sister-in-law who died of cancer at the age of 41, offered these profound thoughts:
Grief remains one of the few things that has the power to silence us. It is a whisper in the world and a clamor within. More than sex, more than faith, even more than its usher death, grief is unspoken, publicly ignored except for those moments at the funeral that are over too quickly, or the conversations among the cognoscenti, those of us who recognize in one another a kindred chasm deep in the center of who we are.
-- Anna Quindlen, "Life After Death," New York Times, May 4, 1994
* * *
There's an old Hasidic Jewish story about a rabbi who's walking through his village late one night and happens upon another man who's walking alone. For a while the two men walk in silence. Finally the rabbi turns to the man and asks: "So, who do you work for?"
"I work for the village," the man answers. "I'm the night watchman."
"I see," says the rabbi, and they walk on in silence a while longer.
Finally the night watchman turns to the rabbi and asks, "And who do you work for?"
The rabbi is taken aback by this question at first. He is the rabbi, after all; everyone knows he works for God. But then the rabbi begins reflecting, and answers the man's question with honesty: "I'm not always sure," he replies. "But this I will tell you. Name your present salary and I will see that the village elders double it. All you have to do to earn that money is walk with me and from time to time ask me, 'Who do you work for?' "
The tragic death of Absalom reminded David of whom he really worked for.
* * *
Jackson Niyomugabo is one the athletes representing Rwanda at this summer's London Olympics. Swimming the 50-meter freestyle, he is considered one of the most unlikely candidates to be competing at the games. His story is reminiscent of Eric "the Eel" Moussambani, a struggling swimmer from Equatorial Guinea who became a crowd favorite at the 2000 Sydney Olympics for his grit and determination. Like Moussambani, who trained in hotel pools and a river, Niyomugabo has no Olympic swimming pool to practice in. Instead he swims in Lake Kivu, which separates Rwanda from the Congo.
But most notably, Niyomugabo's coaching has been entirely visual -- watching elite swimmers compete on television, and from a textbook (The Secrets of Swimming Development) that a high-school teacher gave him. The book was written in French -- so Niyomugabo, unable to read French, studied the drawings and then sat for hours comparing the book's drawings to what he saw on the television screen. Niyomugabo would then imitate in Lake Kivu what he learned from his "coach."
Application: Paul writes that we are to "be imitators of God."
* * *
One of the most closely guarded secrets prior to the London Olympic Games was the lighting and placement of the Olympic cauldron. The plans for the cauldron were two years in the making. The original plan was to have the cauldron sit atop the stadium, like the antenna on a cell phone. That idea was replaced by the present positioning of the cauldron. As the stadium is a circle, the cauldron was placed in the center of the circle. A significant problem arose after the opening ceremony, when it was realized that the cauldron sat so low that no one could see it -- it could only be viewed on a video screen.
Defending the placement of the cauldron, designer Thomas Heatherwick said, "It's almost like the stadium represents some kind of temple and it's the flame that sits in the heart of that temple." Continuing his justification for the unseen cauldron, Heatherwick said, "With the technology that we now have that didn't exist at the time [referring to the desire to replicate the cauldron placement at the 1948 London Olympics] it can be shared with everyone in the park with screens. We felt that sharing it with screens reinforces the intimacy."
Application: Paul wrote, "Be kind to one another." If we hide the light of our Spirit or think intimacy is a video screen, then we will not achieve the neighborliness that Paul was trying to establish at the church in Ephesus.
* * *
One of the most popular parts of the Emmy Awards telecast is the "in memoriam" segment, in which those artists who have died in the past year are honored. But because of time limitations, only three dozen stars can be presented. Executive Director Don Mischer is entrusted to make the decision about which stars to include in the segment. His guiding principle in the selection process is not the individual's contribution to the arts, but the "emotional response" the individual will solicit from the viewers. Jimmy Kimmel, who will host this year's program, quipped: "I love that even in death, you're subject to a popularity contest."
Application: Paul wrote: "So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors." We are not to speak on popular topics, but we are to witness to the truth.
* * *
The old adage says, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Some birds are renowned for their ability to mimic other birds. This allows them not only to add to their own repertoire of songs but also to make them more attractive to their potential mates, as well as allowing them access to nests of their rivals.
But birds mimic more than just other birds. Starlings in Scotland have been heard mimicking sheep, and in England they have been known to mimic buses. Probably the most talented of mimics is the lyrebird of Australia. This bird not only mimics other birds, but also a camera's motor drive, the click of a camera shutter, a car's engine, a car's alarm system, and probably most bizarre of all, the whine of the chain saws that are destroying its habitat.
Paul urges us to mimic or imitate Christ, loving as Christ loved us, even to the point of self-sacrifice.
* * *
One evening at a party Charlie Chaplin was doing impressions of famous people of his time. Everyone asked for more, so finally Charlie agreed to do his impression of the opera singer Caruso. He did a wonderful take-off on Caruso singing an aria, and someone said, "Charlie, you sang beautifully!" Chaplin replied, "I can't sing at all. I was only imitating Caruso."
* * *
It was a familiar sight in every village through which Jesus and his disciples walked: the conical clay ovens, fired with wood, in which the women of each household would bake the daily ration of bread. These ovens were located out back, behind the houses, to offset the risk of fire. Early each morning the baker-women would sweep out the ashes from the day before and stoke the ovens with dry sticks. They'd light the fire and direct a child to keep feeding dry branches into it until the required temperature was reached.
While this was happening, the women would go through the familiar ritual of bread-making: preparing the dough from flour and water, kneading it, adding the yeast, waiting for the dough to rise, then pounding it down -- only to have it rise again. When it reached the desired consistency, the bakers would press it out flat and slide it into the clay oven. What came out was a warm, bubbly loaf very much like pita bread. It was the staff of life indeed. Other food items might come and go with the seasons -- and with the success of those who hunted or fished for it -- but bread was the staple that got them through feast and famine alike.
People of our culture have all but lost the sensory experience of eating freshly baked bread. The bread we buy in the supermarket is baked in some central factory facility many miles away, is packed in plastic, and sliced to fit the toaster. Not so for the bread Jesus' disciples would have known. That bread was baked fresh daily and often eaten warm from the oven. Break open a loaf, watch the steam rise from out of its center, and let the rich, yeasty smell penetrate your nostrils. Taste and see that -- indeed -- it is good. The Lord is good!
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God, hear our voice!
People: Let your ears be attentive to the voice of our supplications!
Leader: If you, O God, should mark iniquities, God, who could stand?
People: But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.
Leader: We wait for God, our soul waits, and in God's word we hope;
People: our soul waits for God more than those who watch for the morning.
OR
Leader: Come and step into the presence of God's love.
People: We come to be loved and to learn to love others.
Leader: God's love is wise and strengthens all.
People: We want to be able to love so that others are served well.
Leader: God's love is wise, knowing the cost involved.
People: May God enable us to see the cost of loving and still be able to love.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Love Divine, All Loves Excelling"
found in:
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELA: 631
Renew: 196
"Come Down, O Love Divine"
found in:
UMH: 475
H82: 516
PH: 313
NCH: 289
CH: 582
LBW: 508
ELA: 804
"O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go"
found in:
UMH: 480
PH: 384
NNBH: 210
NCH: 485
CH: 540
LBW: 324
"The Care the Eagle Gives Her Young"
found in:
UMH: 118
NCH: 468
CH: 76
"Where Charity and Love Prevail"
found in:
UMH: 549
H82: 581
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELA: 359
"Pass It On"
found in:
UMH: 572
NNBH: 417
CH: 477
"Near to the Heart of God"
found in:
UMH: 472
PH: 527
NNBH: 316
CH: 581
"Jesus Is All the World to Me"
found in:
UMH: 469
AAHH: 382
NNBH: 283
"As the Deer"
found in:
CCB: 83
Renew: 9
"For the Gift of Creation"
found in:
CCB: 67
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is perfect love: Help us to love as you love with compassion and wisdom; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We worship and praise your name, O God, for you are the one who is love. We ask you to bless us with the ability to love wisely so that what we do is helpful to those we serve. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we allow our passions to rule our thinking.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to love with both heart and mind. Sometimes our passion for our children, our spouses, our nation, and even our church leads us to make decisions that are unwise. We do not ask to have our passion taken from us but that you would help us to love wisely, so that we may serve you and others well. Amen.
Leader: God is love and God is wise. God invites us to drink deeply of the Spirit and reflect both God's love and wisdom in all we do.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you are all-loving and all-wise. Your compassion is boundless, and yet you reach out to us in wisdom.
(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 love with both heart and mind. Sometimes our passion for our children, our spouses, our nation, and even our church leads us to make decisions that are unwise. We do not ask to have our passion taken from us but that you would help us to love wisely, so that we may serve you and others well.
We give you thanks for all the ways that you have loved us and guided us into the abundant life you wish for all your children. We thank you for those who have loved us deeply and well, even when their wisdom caused them to love us in ways we could not understand.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our needs and for all your children around the world. We pray for those who find love lacking in their lives and for those who lack wisdom. We pray that we may be open to your Spirit so that we may offer your love in wise ways to those around us.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about loving a pet. (Use your own pet, if you have one, for an example.) Talk about how even though you love your pet and your pet really likes treats, you must be wise to not give them too many treats or they will gain too much weight and be unhealthy. Likewise, our parents love us -- but they have to be wise enough to not give us everything we want because it all wouldn't be good for us. God loves us but God sets boundaries, sharing with us what is good and what is bad for us because God loves us. God loves us wisely.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Echoing God's Love
Ephesians 4:25--5:2
(Create an echo by having someone out of view repeat what you say. Make sure they can hear you clearly -- or give them a copy of the first few things you are going to say.)
Good morning, boys and girls! (Have someone repeat what you said, but don't pay any attention to it.) You certainly look handsome and beautiful today. (repeat the echo effect) How many of you had a good sleep last night? (repeat the echo effect) How many of you could hardly wait to get to church this morning? (repeat the echo effect) That's strange -- do you hear an echo? (repeat the echo effect) I think I hear an echo! (repeat the echo effect) Does anyone else hear an echo? (repeat the echo effect, but end it here)
If we were in the mountains or in a cave or in a tunnel you could hear an echo -- but we are not in any mountains or a cave or a tunnel, so we had to pretend. What is an echo? (let the children answer) That's right; it is a sound that comes back to us from a sound that we have made. It imitates us.
Saint Paul said that we should be imitators of God. How do you think we could imitate God? Do you think we can create a world? (let them answer) No, we can't create a world. How else could we be imitators of God? We can't die on a cross and forgive all of the sin in the world. Only God could do this in Jesus. We can't walk on water or turn water into wine. Only God could do that kind of miracle.
But Paul said we should imitate God. God does something and we should do something like God. What do you think we could do to imitate God? (let them answer)
Paul said we can imitate God with his love. In other words, we can love other people like God loves us. We can forgive other people like God forgives us. We can share with other people like God shares with us. That would surely change the world!
Imagine how much God loves us. He is with us all through the day and watches over us at night. God gives us good feelings like the feelings we have for our moms and dads and grandmothers and grandfathers. Paul says we can imitate that kind of love. We can go out of our way to show people how much we love them.
Today, when you go home, tell your family that you are going to imitate God by loving everyone you meet. Tell all of your friends that you are an imitator of God when you forgive them or when you tell them how much you love them. Thanks for coming today. (repeat the echo effect again) Remember, I love you. (repeat the echo effect) What a nice echo. (Have the voice say, "What a nice pastor!")
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 12, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer suggests that more broadly this passage should lead us to consider the nature of how we love and mourn -- and the wisdom with which we share those feelings. Dean notes that while we can feel David's pain, his reaction to his son's demise is an entirely emotional one... one that's consistent with a series of missteps in his troubled relationship with Absalom, which had been characterized by Shakespeare's dictum of "one that loved not wisely but too well." Dean points out that mature love is not guided merely by emotions -- and that this text should cause us to ask ourselves some difficult questions about how we love and grieve... and whether, like David, we let our feelings dominate our better judgment.
Team member Leah Lonsbury offers some additional thoughts on the Ephesians passage and Paul's list of the characteristics of new life in Christ. Of course, a big reason Paul feels the need to engage in this exhortation is because when he surveys the state of the Ephesian congregation he sees that they are falling short of the ideal that they are to imitate. Likewise, Leah suggests, the reality of the ongoing Olympic extravaganza in London is much less glamorous than what is portrayed. It's probably not surprising that like every other large global enterprise these days, the Olympics have become a major corporate-driven affair that kowtows primarily to big-money donors and important IOC officials, with only a tangential interest in the common good. Leah notes that if Olympic bigwigs -- and more importantly, us -- were to give more attention to making interior reality match with the high ideals that we profess, rather than focusing on an enchanting facade, the global family really would have something to celebrate.
Loving Wisely
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
In his biography King David, Jonathan Kirsch notes that David loved passionately but not wisely. We have seen evidence of that in the past weeks as we followed his torrid, tragic affair with Bathsheba. This week we see it again in his relationship with his rebellious son Absalom, when his grief blinds him to the needs of those who love him.
Even as Nathan and Joab reminded David, so the authors of Samuel/Chronicles remind us to use not just our heart but our minds when we choose how and with whom we will share our love. Whether we are talking about our love for our friends, for our families, or for our country, scripture calls us to love not just passionately but wisely as well.
THE WORLD
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have produced American casualties, of that there can be no doubt. Military and civilian personnel have been maimed and crippled and have died in those conflicts. These wars have had a terrible cost, just as all wars do.
But in these wars the images of that cost have been tightly controlled, lest we count it too high. Few have been the photos of flag-draped coffins. Indeed, it took a lawsuit in 2004 to show them at all.
Never do we see a body bag. Wounded service personnel are hidden from the public in hospitals and rarely photographed except when being visited by celebrities or winning a medal in the paralympics.
The funerals are well contained in the communities and the hometowns of the deceased. Those who wish to honor the fallen line the streets and wave flags, fire engines and police cars run their sirens, local politicians and family members are interviewed by local reporters for sound bites suitable for airing on the evening news. Teddy bears and flowers and bits of paper with poems and song lyrics and prayers written on them adorn the gravesite until they are cleared away by cemetery workers in the days that follow.
Afraid that our love and respect for the dead will be deemed insufficient, no one dares ask at what point our country, our freedom, and our national security have become idols upon the altars of which we have sacrificed our children.
Embarrassed and perhaps ashamed of the way armed forces personnel were ignored and forgotten when they returned from Korea and often abused when they returned from Vietnam, we have often turned our honoring of service personnel into an orgy of hero worship.
The wailing of the sirens, the roar of the motorcycle engines, and the volume of Lee Greenwood's singing "God Bless the USA" drowns out any voice that may ask if this love of country and grief for the fallen has led us into some choices that are unwise and possibly tragic.
Loud is the lament of David, but where is the voice of Nathan? Where is the counsel of Joab?
THE WORD
"... from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him" (2 Samuel 14:25). He was, in other words, perfect.
Absalom was the third son of King David by his wife Maacah. He was tall and handsome, charismatic and not just a little vain, with a flowing mane of blond hair.
When his sister Tamar was raped by their half-brother Amnon, it was Absalom who took her in and took care of her while he waited for their father to punish his firstborn son. But David, who knew so well how to deal with people, was clueless about his own family.
The king faltered and deferred and delayed action until Absalom could wait no longer. Two years after the assault on his sister, Absalom conspired with those family members and palace servants who were loyal to him -- and they lured Amnon to a sheep-shearing festival, where they killed him. While the others fled back to Jerusalem, Absalom fled into exile.
After some years of intrigue Absalom had gathered an army about himself and declared war upon his father, attacking and capturing the city of Jerusalem from which David had fled with his own army. The civil war between father and son lasted less than a year.
The armies of David and Absalom met for a decisive battle at the Forest of Ephraim (actually a hilly area east of the Jordan River dotted with boulders and some scrub trees, hardly what we Americans think of as a proper forest).
Before the battle, David gave explicit instructions to his generals that every precaution was to be exercised that Absalom be taken alive and unharmed. Joab, however, was fanatically loyal to his uncle David, and would brook no disloyalty even when under orders.
When Absalom tried to flee on a mule, his hair became entangled in the low branches of an oak tree -- and finding Absalom hanging there, Joab shot him with "three darts" and then told his troops to finish him off. They buried him on the battlefield under a pile of rocks.
When David heard the news of his son Absalom's death he became sick with grief, unable to eat or even come out of his room.
In the chapter that follows this week's reading and is left out of the lectionary selections, it is Joab who eventually goes to David and tells him that his grief is unseemly and even insulting to his friends and family. He tells the king: These men offered up their lives in your defense. Many of them lost friends on the battlefield and you haven't given them so much as a kind word. Instead, you are in here grieving for the one person who would have killed you in a moment if given the chance. If all your family and friends and soldiers were dead but Absalom was still alive, would that make you happy? Because that's what it looks like. Now stop this. Get up, wash your face, go out there, and show your soldiers who defended you with their lives that you were worth fighting for.
So that's what David did. He got up and went to his throne and sat in it to show all that he was still the king and that their efforts had not been in vain. (But he never forgave Joab for killing Absalom. Joab was removed as commander-in-chief of the army, and one of David's last words of advice to his son Solomon was: Do not let Joab die of natural causes.)
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The story of David's love for his son Absalom brings some hard lessons to those of us who take scripture seriously.
It asks us to examine the ways that we love and grieve. It allows that these two emotions, love and grief, are powerful and can, if we allow them, lead us to make bad choices that cause much suffering.
Love, we know, is as much a choice as it is a feeling. As Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 13, children's love is informed only by their feelings. But when we become adults we give up childish ways. We learn that love is not just about feelings, it is about conscious, rational choices that we make.
We can choose to love even when we don't feel like it. And we can choose not to love. The love we are called to show for all human beings is "charity." We are called to be charitable whether we feel like it or not, but we are also called by scripture to be wise in how and for whom we feel affection. Other people's spouses, for instance, are off-limits, regardless of how we may or may not feel.
There are limits to how, when, where, and to whom we properly show affection. To defy these limits, to love unwisely, is to invite disaster.
Likewise, as Joab has to remind David, there are appropriate limits in the ways we show our grief. We must not let our genuine grief lead us into making unwise decisions that harm others. We must ask ourselves if our grief for our dead friends and family members is leading us into an unending cycle of vengeance and reprisal. We must retain the ability to question whether our grief for our fallen service persons is keeping us involved in wars that have come to defy every aspect of Augustine's "just war" criteria.
The preacher who chooses this text will probably need to tell the story of David and Absalom, as most Christians are only marginally familiar with it. It is a story worth telling and to which many parents can relate. Few are the fathers who, in his place, would not cry with David: "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!"
We are putty in the hands of our sons; we melt with a single look from our daughters. If we are too slow to discipline and too quick to forget, can anyone blame us? It is love that makes us so, is it not?
God grant us the passion and the wisdom to love not just greatly but wisely as well.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Beyond the Veneer
by Leah Lonsbury
Ephesians 4:25--5:2
It's hard to miss the coverage of the 2012 Olympics in London -- it's all over the internet and on the front pages of newspapers. Many network shows have gone on a two-week hiatus rather than compete with the televised Olympic coverage in primetime. It's hard to top the star quality of Michael Phelps or Gabby Douglas for turning out numbers and tuning in viewers.
Numbers seem to be a significant factor in this manifestation of the summer games. The website englishclub.com reports that "around 10,500 athletes representing 204 nations and territories are competing in 302 events covering 26 sports at what is officially known as The Games of the XXX Olympiad." Half a million spectators from all over the world are expected to visit London for the games. They will each come with their portion of the 9 million event seating tickets that they have purchased for between $30 and $3,000.
All of this ought to add up to a tremendous and breathtaking exhibition of athletic prowess and global harmony. But according to Jules Boykoff, a former Olympian and now associate professor of political science at Pacific University, what ought to issue in international goodwill is manifesting as "brass-knuckle politics and brute economics" during a time of European austerity and financial turmoil for the citizens of the Olympics' host city.
As it turns out, the numbers behind the veneer of the cheeky opening ceremonies, Ryan Seacrest's celebrity-athlete interviews, and the heartwarming stories of courageous athletes like Tahmina Kohistani -- the first Afghani woman to compete in the games -- are of a quite different variety.
Here's a look at some of those numbers...
* While the opening ceremonies were going on, 182 bikers from Critical Mass, a grass-roots bicycling and organizing campaign, were pepper-sprayed and arrested. All the cyclists were held overnight, including a thirteen-year-old schoolboy. Only four were charged.
* 18,200 British troops are on the ground to provide security for the games. That's the largest non-wartime military presence in London and almost twice as many British troops as are currently serving in Afghanistan.
* The games are now expected to cost the London taxpayers over $17 billion -- after the committee making the bid to bring the games to the city sold its citizens on an initial quote of $3.5 million.
* Much of London's population can't afford or get access to tickets to the games, while as many as 1 million seats given to corporate interests and sports federations have gone empty.
* It is estimated that around 2,000 low-income residents, students, artists, and squatters (pdf file) were forced from their living quarters to make space for the London Olympics' media center and swimming pool.
* Three major corporate sponsors of the Olympics are under fire for their previous business practices. Dow Chemical made the napalm used in the Vietnam War, and now owns Union Carbide -- the company that is being named as responsible for the 1984 chemical disaster in India that killed an estimated 15,000 and left countless others disfigured and disabled. British Petroleum, the London Olympics' official "sustainability partner," is responsible for the Deepwater Horizon spill and other destructive environmental events. Rio Tinto is providing the ore for the athletes' medals and is also under protest by union organizations for member lockouts and ongoing international labor and human rights violations.
These aren't the numbers and stories that are widely broadcast about the games. This isn't the side of the Olympics the International Olympic Committee (IOC) wants you to see.
The portion of Paul's letter to the Ephesians that is a part of our lectionary readings for this Sunday uncovers an Olympic-like shadow side of the community at Ephesus. Instead of the Christian ideals of truth, honest work, generosity toward those in need, speech that builds up and offers grace, kindness, tenderheartedness, forgiveness, and sacrificial love, Paul observes their lies, anger, theft, destructive talk, bitterness, wrangling, slander, and malice. Paul doesn't use numbers, but he figures the Ephesians could do much to change their odds.
Just as the powers-that-be behind the Olympics have muddied the glory of the athletic transcendence, international unity, and border-crossing goodwill of the games with questionable corporate interests and a lack of thoughtful and compassionate humanity, the Christians of Ephesus have tarnished the shiny seal of the Spirit. They have forgotten that "there is a contradiction in rejecting that which attaches Christians to their primary identity," an identity that springs from being a part of the living breathing Body of Christ. (Paul V. Marshall, "Pastoral Perspective: Ephesians 4:25--5:2," in Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 3, edited by David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor [Westminster John Knox, 2009], pgs. 326-330)
Paul calls the Ephesians back to this identity and a remembrance that "we are members of one another." He calls them back not for the sake and glory of personal righteousness, but for the simple fact that what they do, for good or for ill, affects the whole, particularly those who are most vulnerable in the community. For these same reasons, the decision-makers for the London Olympics need to be called back to the purposes of the games. They have forgotten and betrayed the power of this event to make one of many and bridge, mend, and build relationships for the good of our global human family. The Olympics are meant to be about more than personal bests, world records, national medal totals, name-brand labeling, corporate pandering, and the profit of those who have no need of further profit. In a broken and divided world, they could serve to remind us that we are members of one another.
Jaime Clark-Stoles, Professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology, writes about this passage from Ephesians that "Paul is acutely concerned about actively authentic, deep community where everyone contributes." Toward that end, "The author challenges us to imagine what it would be like if we made our decisions based not on whether choice A or B would bring us the best paycheck, highest status, and most comfortable life, but whether it would allow us to serve those in need. (Jaime Clark-Stoles, "Exegetical Perspective: Ephesians 4:25--5:2," in Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 3, edited by David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor [Westminster John Knox, 2009], pgs. 326-330)
Imagine if the International Olympic Committee had listened to Paul. Imagine if each of us did. Imagine if our shiny veneer, the seal of the Spirit that names, claims, and works to shape us, matched our interior. Then our lives (and maybe even our games) would be "a fragrant offering" to each other and to God. Our oneness would rise up in grace, kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness -- in an imitation of the One we claim to follow. Our loving would be more than a ritual, a creed, or a philosophy. It would be a glorious outpouring of the kind of love that sacrifices for the good of others. And, as Clark-Stoles notes, "if we get that, we get it all." Except maybe the tainted gold medal.
ILLUSTRATIONS
To read 2 Samuel chapters 13-18 is to sense how badly David handled and dealt with his own children. His was an example of benign neglect, which in times of crisis he tried to make up for through parental indulgence. Among the people of his own nation David was a strong leader, but in his own household he was a failure. His devotion to his sons, strangely enough, rendered him tolerant of their shortcomings and constant sinning.
Absalom, for example, was a rebel who would gladly snatch the kingly crown from his father's head -- yet an unwitting David, before a strategic battle when Absalom's troops were arranged against the realm, said to his generals: "Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom" (18:5). Solicitous to the very end, David was inclined to provide every advantage for this unprincipled son. Occupied as he was with the affairs of state, he might not be fully blamed for his parental oversight, yet David forfeited those useful opportunities to be a guide, counselor, and friend to those whose lives were entrusted by family responsibility to him.
This problem is widespread in America today. Many a son wants to grow up to be like Daddy; many a daughter to be like Mother. Yet in every community, parents let slip the possibility of this youthful aspiration being fulfilled. Fathers and mothers can leave behind no greater memorial than children who live in a sense of gratitude for the interest, care, and comradeship of their parents. A piece of doggerel English verse puts the matter sharply and plainly:
I love the Day Nursery where they take me each day,
And the fields which Prince Philip has opened for play;
The clinic where I get my vitamins free,
But my Mother -- God bless her -- she never sees me!
* * *
Almost from the start, Absalom has a number of strikes against him. For one thing, he was much too handsome for his own good.... For another thing, his father, King David, was always either spoiling him rotten or reading him the riot act.... He murdered his lecherous brother Amnon... and when the old warhorse Joab wouldn't help him patch things up with David afterward, he set fire to his hayfield. All Israel found this kind of derring-do irresistible and when he led a revolt against his father, a lot of them joined him.
On the evening of the crucial battle, David was a wreck. If he was afraid he might lose his throne, he was even more afraid he might lose Absalom... and before the fighting started, he told the chiefs of staff till they were sick of hearing it that if Absalom fell into their clutches, they must promise to go easy on him... but when Joab found Absalom caught in the branches of an oak tree by his beautiful hair, he ran him through without blinking an eye. When they broke the news to David, it broke his heart. "O my son Absalom, my son, my son. Would I have died instead of you...."
-- Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures (HarperCollins, 1979)
* * *
Anna Quindlen, after writing an obituary for her sister-in-law who died of cancer at the age of 41, offered these profound thoughts:
Grief remains one of the few things that has the power to silence us. It is a whisper in the world and a clamor within. More than sex, more than faith, even more than its usher death, grief is unspoken, publicly ignored except for those moments at the funeral that are over too quickly, or the conversations among the cognoscenti, those of us who recognize in one another a kindred chasm deep in the center of who we are.
-- Anna Quindlen, "Life After Death," New York Times, May 4, 1994
* * *
There's an old Hasidic Jewish story about a rabbi who's walking through his village late one night and happens upon another man who's walking alone. For a while the two men walk in silence. Finally the rabbi turns to the man and asks: "So, who do you work for?"
"I work for the village," the man answers. "I'm the night watchman."
"I see," says the rabbi, and they walk on in silence a while longer.
Finally the night watchman turns to the rabbi and asks, "And who do you work for?"
The rabbi is taken aback by this question at first. He is the rabbi, after all; everyone knows he works for God. But then the rabbi begins reflecting, and answers the man's question with honesty: "I'm not always sure," he replies. "But this I will tell you. Name your present salary and I will see that the village elders double it. All you have to do to earn that money is walk with me and from time to time ask me, 'Who do you work for?' "
The tragic death of Absalom reminded David of whom he really worked for.
* * *
Jackson Niyomugabo is one the athletes representing Rwanda at this summer's London Olympics. Swimming the 50-meter freestyle, he is considered one of the most unlikely candidates to be competing at the games. His story is reminiscent of Eric "the Eel" Moussambani, a struggling swimmer from Equatorial Guinea who became a crowd favorite at the 2000 Sydney Olympics for his grit and determination. Like Moussambani, who trained in hotel pools and a river, Niyomugabo has no Olympic swimming pool to practice in. Instead he swims in Lake Kivu, which separates Rwanda from the Congo.
But most notably, Niyomugabo's coaching has been entirely visual -- watching elite swimmers compete on television, and from a textbook (The Secrets of Swimming Development) that a high-school teacher gave him. The book was written in French -- so Niyomugabo, unable to read French, studied the drawings and then sat for hours comparing the book's drawings to what he saw on the television screen. Niyomugabo would then imitate in Lake Kivu what he learned from his "coach."
Application: Paul writes that we are to "be imitators of God."
* * *
One of the most closely guarded secrets prior to the London Olympic Games was the lighting and placement of the Olympic cauldron. The plans for the cauldron were two years in the making. The original plan was to have the cauldron sit atop the stadium, like the antenna on a cell phone. That idea was replaced by the present positioning of the cauldron. As the stadium is a circle, the cauldron was placed in the center of the circle. A significant problem arose after the opening ceremony, when it was realized that the cauldron sat so low that no one could see it -- it could only be viewed on a video screen.
Defending the placement of the cauldron, designer Thomas Heatherwick said, "It's almost like the stadium represents some kind of temple and it's the flame that sits in the heart of that temple." Continuing his justification for the unseen cauldron, Heatherwick said, "With the technology that we now have that didn't exist at the time [referring to the desire to replicate the cauldron placement at the 1948 London Olympics] it can be shared with everyone in the park with screens. We felt that sharing it with screens reinforces the intimacy."
Application: Paul wrote, "Be kind to one another." If we hide the light of our Spirit or think intimacy is a video screen, then we will not achieve the neighborliness that Paul was trying to establish at the church in Ephesus.
* * *
One of the most popular parts of the Emmy Awards telecast is the "in memoriam" segment, in which those artists who have died in the past year are honored. But because of time limitations, only three dozen stars can be presented. Executive Director Don Mischer is entrusted to make the decision about which stars to include in the segment. His guiding principle in the selection process is not the individual's contribution to the arts, but the "emotional response" the individual will solicit from the viewers. Jimmy Kimmel, who will host this year's program, quipped: "I love that even in death, you're subject to a popularity contest."
Application: Paul wrote: "So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors." We are not to speak on popular topics, but we are to witness to the truth.
* * *
The old adage says, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Some birds are renowned for their ability to mimic other birds. This allows them not only to add to their own repertoire of songs but also to make them more attractive to their potential mates, as well as allowing them access to nests of their rivals.
But birds mimic more than just other birds. Starlings in Scotland have been heard mimicking sheep, and in England they have been known to mimic buses. Probably the most talented of mimics is the lyrebird of Australia. This bird not only mimics other birds, but also a camera's motor drive, the click of a camera shutter, a car's engine, a car's alarm system, and probably most bizarre of all, the whine of the chain saws that are destroying its habitat.
Paul urges us to mimic or imitate Christ, loving as Christ loved us, even to the point of self-sacrifice.
* * *
One evening at a party Charlie Chaplin was doing impressions of famous people of his time. Everyone asked for more, so finally Charlie agreed to do his impression of the opera singer Caruso. He did a wonderful take-off on Caruso singing an aria, and someone said, "Charlie, you sang beautifully!" Chaplin replied, "I can't sing at all. I was only imitating Caruso."
* * *
It was a familiar sight in every village through which Jesus and his disciples walked: the conical clay ovens, fired with wood, in which the women of each household would bake the daily ration of bread. These ovens were located out back, behind the houses, to offset the risk of fire. Early each morning the baker-women would sweep out the ashes from the day before and stoke the ovens with dry sticks. They'd light the fire and direct a child to keep feeding dry branches into it until the required temperature was reached.
While this was happening, the women would go through the familiar ritual of bread-making: preparing the dough from flour and water, kneading it, adding the yeast, waiting for the dough to rise, then pounding it down -- only to have it rise again. When it reached the desired consistency, the bakers would press it out flat and slide it into the clay oven. What came out was a warm, bubbly loaf very much like pita bread. It was the staff of life indeed. Other food items might come and go with the seasons -- and with the success of those who hunted or fished for it -- but bread was the staple that got them through feast and famine alike.
People of our culture have all but lost the sensory experience of eating freshly baked bread. The bread we buy in the supermarket is baked in some central factory facility many miles away, is packed in plastic, and sliced to fit the toaster. Not so for the bread Jesus' disciples would have known. That bread was baked fresh daily and often eaten warm from the oven. Break open a loaf, watch the steam rise from out of its center, and let the rich, yeasty smell penetrate your nostrils. Taste and see that -- indeed -- it is good. The Lord is good!
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God, hear our voice!
People: Let your ears be attentive to the voice of our supplications!
Leader: If you, O God, should mark iniquities, God, who could stand?
People: But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.
Leader: We wait for God, our soul waits, and in God's word we hope;
People: our soul waits for God more than those who watch for the morning.
OR
Leader: Come and step into the presence of God's love.
People: We come to be loved and to learn to love others.
Leader: God's love is wise and strengthens all.
People: We want to be able to love so that others are served well.
Leader: God's love is wise, knowing the cost involved.
People: May God enable us to see the cost of loving and still be able to love.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Love Divine, All Loves Excelling"
found in:
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELA: 631
Renew: 196
"Come Down, O Love Divine"
found in:
UMH: 475
H82: 516
PH: 313
NCH: 289
CH: 582
LBW: 508
ELA: 804
"O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go"
found in:
UMH: 480
PH: 384
NNBH: 210
NCH: 485
CH: 540
LBW: 324
"The Care the Eagle Gives Her Young"
found in:
UMH: 118
NCH: 468
CH: 76
"Where Charity and Love Prevail"
found in:
UMH: 549
H82: 581
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELA: 359
"Pass It On"
found in:
UMH: 572
NNBH: 417
CH: 477
"Near to the Heart of God"
found in:
UMH: 472
PH: 527
NNBH: 316
CH: 581
"Jesus Is All the World to Me"
found in:
UMH: 469
AAHH: 382
NNBH: 283
"As the Deer"
found in:
CCB: 83
Renew: 9
"For the Gift of Creation"
found in:
CCB: 67
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is perfect love: Help us to love as you love with compassion and wisdom; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We worship and praise your name, O God, for you are the one who is love. We ask you to bless us with the ability to love wisely so that what we do is helpful to those we serve. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we allow our passions to rule our thinking.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to love with both heart and mind. Sometimes our passion for our children, our spouses, our nation, and even our church leads us to make decisions that are unwise. We do not ask to have our passion taken from us but that you would help us to love wisely, so that we may serve you and others well. Amen.
Leader: God is love and God is wise. God invites us to drink deeply of the Spirit and reflect both God's love and wisdom in all we do.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you are all-loving and all-wise. Your compassion is boundless, and yet you reach out to us in wisdom.
(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 love with both heart and mind. Sometimes our passion for our children, our spouses, our nation, and even our church leads us to make decisions that are unwise. We do not ask to have our passion taken from us but that you would help us to love wisely, so that we may serve you and others well.
We give you thanks for all the ways that you have loved us and guided us into the abundant life you wish for all your children. We thank you for those who have loved us deeply and well, even when their wisdom caused them to love us in ways we could not understand.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our needs and for all your children around the world. We pray for those who find love lacking in their lives and for those who lack wisdom. We pray that we may be open to your Spirit so that we may offer your love in wise ways to those around us.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about loving a pet. (Use your own pet, if you have one, for an example.) Talk about how even though you love your pet and your pet really likes treats, you must be wise to not give them too many treats or they will gain too much weight and be unhealthy. Likewise, our parents love us -- but they have to be wise enough to not give us everything we want because it all wouldn't be good for us. God loves us but God sets boundaries, sharing with us what is good and what is bad for us because God loves us. God loves us wisely.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Echoing God's Love
Ephesians 4:25--5:2
(Create an echo by having someone out of view repeat what you say. Make sure they can hear you clearly -- or give them a copy of the first few things you are going to say.)
Good morning, boys and girls! (Have someone repeat what you said, but don't pay any attention to it.) You certainly look handsome and beautiful today. (repeat the echo effect) How many of you had a good sleep last night? (repeat the echo effect) How many of you could hardly wait to get to church this morning? (repeat the echo effect) That's strange -- do you hear an echo? (repeat the echo effect) I think I hear an echo! (repeat the echo effect) Does anyone else hear an echo? (repeat the echo effect, but end it here)
If we were in the mountains or in a cave or in a tunnel you could hear an echo -- but we are not in any mountains or a cave or a tunnel, so we had to pretend. What is an echo? (let the children answer) That's right; it is a sound that comes back to us from a sound that we have made. It imitates us.
Saint Paul said that we should be imitators of God. How do you think we could imitate God? Do you think we can create a world? (let them answer) No, we can't create a world. How else could we be imitators of God? We can't die on a cross and forgive all of the sin in the world. Only God could do this in Jesus. We can't walk on water or turn water into wine. Only God could do that kind of miracle.
But Paul said we should imitate God. God does something and we should do something like God. What do you think we could do to imitate God? (let them answer)
Paul said we can imitate God with his love. In other words, we can love other people like God loves us. We can forgive other people like God forgives us. We can share with other people like God shares with us. That would surely change the world!
Imagine how much God loves us. He is with us all through the day and watches over us at night. God gives us good feelings like the feelings we have for our moms and dads and grandmothers and grandfathers. Paul says we can imitate that kind of love. We can go out of our way to show people how much we love them.
Today, when you go home, tell your family that you are going to imitate God by loving everyone you meet. Tell all of your friends that you are an imitator of God when you forgive them or when you tell them how much you love them. Thanks for coming today. (repeat the echo effect again) Remember, I love you. (repeat the echo effect) What a nice echo. (Have the voice say, "What a nice pastor!")
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The Immediate Word, August 12, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
