Masking Our Fears
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For March 8, 2020:
Masking Our Fears
by Chris Keating
Genesis 12:1-4a
Coronavirus’s world tour of infection has prompted mass quarantines, chaos in world financial markets, and even dangerous conspiracy theories. Health officials warn that the question is no longer “if” the virus will spread to the United States, but when. The rapid spread of this novel virus has pushed much of the world into untested frontiers, depleting reservoirs of hope and igniting virulent anxieties.
In the face of such anxiety, it’s always important to tease out the differences between hype and hope.
Hype: On Friday, Walmart.com was selling a five-pack of 3M face masks for $200, or about five times more than the product’s usual price. But face masks aren’t all that effective, as indicated by a tweet from Jerome Adams, the US Surgeon General: “Seriously people — STOP BUYING MASKS.”
Hype: When the world coughed, the stock market dropped. Wall Street suffered the worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, signaling worries of a possible global recession. Hope: Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet reminded investors that while he’s cautious, in the long run the market will be a “much better long term choice.”
Hype: When American beer drinkers were surveyed last week, 38% said they would not purchase Corona beer “under any circumstances” right now because of the coronavirus. Sixteen percent of beer drinkers surveyed indicated they were confused as to whether Corona beer might be related to the virus.
Hope: perhaps those 16% might choose to cut back on their drinking, because (shocker) there is no connection between the Mexican import beer and COVID-19.
It’s important to take precautions. It is also important that people of faith do not let fear quash hope. As fears dominate the headlines this Lent, perhaps it is wise to revisit the powerful story of Abraham. Called to migrate into an unknown — and unknowable — future, Abram trusts in God. He believes in the one “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist,” (Rom. 4:17). He masks his fears by trusting hope over hype.
In the News
Fears and anxiety over the novel coronavirus seem to be spreading as fast, if not faster, than the disease itself. As of early this week, six patients in the United States have died from the virus. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reminds Americans that overall the risk for infection remains low.
COVID-19, the scientific name for the novel coronavirus which first appeared in Wuhan, China, last year, is one of many types of human coronaviruses that cause respiratory tract infections. At least 3,000 deaths have been attributed to the virus across the world, though illnesses can range from mild to severe.
In other words, prudence and caution are warranted. Over-the-top fears are not. The panic that has spread through Wall Street is branching out to main street as consumers stock up on food supplies, medicines and household products. Buzz Feed posted pictures of shoppers across the United States clearing shelves of toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Price gouging and false advertising claims led Amazon to delete one million products from its shopping site.
Concern over the spread of coronavirus — as well as continued outbreaks of seasonal influenza — is justified. But viral outbreaks can easily stir deeper fears. Five years ago, the country battled “fearbola” during the rise of Ebola, even though there were only ten documented cases in the United States. At that time, psychologists worked hard to lower people’s outsized fears regarding the disease.
Like Ebola, COVID-19’s foreign origins have stirred xenophobic fears and tendencies. Myths about COVID-19 that have already been proven false include fears that it can be transmitted by goods purchased in China or that eating Chinese food will cause you to be susceptible to infection. And, unlike comic books pandemics, there is no evidence the virus was created by the Chinese in a high-security biochemical lab.
Nor is there evidence that the disease is a death sentence. It is true that it is contagious and easily spread, it is also true that around 81% of people who get the disease have had mild cases. While data is still emerging, only around 2.3% of COVID-19 patients have died.
That doesn’t mitigate the need for a reasonable response. While there’s no need to stock up on surgical masks, it might not be a bad idea to grab a few extra cans of soup and other stable food items. Being disease aware includes frequent hand washing and taking steps to be prepared in case the government imposes large-scale quarantines. In some situations, schools could be closed. Congregations, too, might be impacted, which is why Presbyterian Disaster Assistance recently released “Guidance for Congregations in Response to Severe Infectious Disease Outbreak.”
So, be prepared. An outbreak of the virus will likely reach epidemic proportions in coming weeks.
Being prepared is a bit different, however, than suggesting parishioners give up worship for Lent this year. And it is much different than abandoning hope. Inculcating fear, promoting hype and promulgating rumors run counter to faith grounded in the promises of God. In the face of flu, virus or other threats, those promises are grounded in assurance “the Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time and forevermore.” (Ps. 121:8)
In the Scripture
For someone who has just heard God call him away from all that he has ever known, Abram is remarkably quiet in Genesis 12. There’s no sign of panic, no fears or even curiosity expressed. Indeed, Abraham appears to be doing nothing more than thumbing through a stack of travel magazines one moment and packing his bags the next.
The message is simple and clear: go. Leave behind all that you have known. The call involves disengaging from the promise of any security of inheriting his father’s land. Instead, Abraham and Sarah, devoid of children, are told that they will be led to a new land. God is calling them to a new and undefined future.
It’s possible to overlook an important contextual clue. Back in Genesis 11:30, the narrator remarks, “Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.” This verse is essential to understanding all that follows. God’s blessing to Abraham is grounded in the assurance that he was to have bushel baskets of descendants. Yet the veracity of that claim cannot be proven. There is no factual evidence that would support Abraham uprooting himself from his homeland.
But just as simply as God calls, Abraham obeys. Walter Bruggemann notes that Abraham and Sarah stand in contrast to the ancestors of Noah in chapters 9-10. (Brueggemann, Genesis, Interpretation Commentary). God’s summons of Abraham demonstrates the continued faithfulness of God in reordering a world that has gone awry. The God who created the world is now set on its transformation. In contrast to the broad and picturesque depiction of the vastness of creation earlier in Genesis, this new creation is centered squarely on the shoulders of two persons.
In other words, God is betting the house on Abraham and Sarah.
Inexplicably, Abraham follows God’s call. Unlike God’s call to Moses, there is not hesitancy, no bantering back and forth. The pattern is one of pure trust, despite the presence of any lingering anxieties or worries. There’s no indication that Abraham engaged in a lengthy discernment process, or what sort of preparations were involved. No flight plan is filed, and no itineraries published. Instead, there is only the single imperative, and the trusting response. “The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go…’ and ‘So Abraham went.”
He leaves behind Haran — which means “crossroads,” and departs for destinations unknown. Obedience means a costly separation from family, and the distancing of everything that was known and reliable. Obedience means letting the unknown future become the place you must go.
In the Sermon
Admittedly, there is a fair bit of imaginative hermeneutics involved in connecting the dots between Abraham’s call and the coronavirus outbreak. It’s also worth stating up front that trusting in God’s provision doesn’t mean not taking wise and prudent steps to avoid spreading this new bug. But wash your hands, and begin to pray, because there is a connection worth exploring.
First, contrast the simplicity of Abraham’s response with the sort of over-hyped fears and worries that percolate across culture, including coronavirus. We live in a time of anxiety and are facing widespread challenges. We are, like Abraham, at a crossroads.
However, faced with a moment of decision, the tendency is to overthink, panic, and react anxiously. Hope must stand apart from hype. A sermon could helpfully point out Abraham’s determination to trust in the promise given to him, even when the exact parameters of that promise remain unknown.
Secondly, note that bad things will happen to Abraham and Sarah. Following the call and leading of God does not mean the days ahead will be filled with wine and roses. There will come a time when Abraham does not fully trust the call God has given to him. Those who have lost loved ones to coronavirus will likewise find expressing trust in God difficult — to say nothing of restoring trust in government.
It may also be helpful to play around with the notion that for many today the world is facing a Haran-type moment. Lent finds us at a crossroads — pun intended. This is true politically, socially, environmentally, and perhaps even congregationally. In this context, what does it mean to trust deeply in the promises of God “who gives life to the dead?”
In the end, Abraham trusts something he could not fully grasp. He crosses the threshold, moves beyond the crossroads. Whatever fears he has about this grand journey are well masked — for now. He and Sarah gather their stuff, find their nephew Lot and get ready to begin all over. But first, let’s hope they washed their hands.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Fearing for Our Survival
by Tom Willadsen
In the Bible
Genesis 12:1-4a
Many people approach this text as the first in a completely different section of scripture. The “myths:” Creation(s), Cain and Abel, the Fall, Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel are all in the past. Starting at Genesis 12 something much closer to “history” begins with Abram’s call.
It’s revealing, or at least interesting that Abram doesn’t say anything about God’s call that he leave home and journey to a place that he’d never been before, a place where he didn’t even know the name of the language the people spoke. Abram takes the youngest three generations with him. People lived a long time back then. Abe’s oldest living relative was Shem. Shem was one of Noah’s sons. Noah had only been dead 17 years when God called Abram. Altogether, Abram left eight generations when he left Ur for Haran. Abram’s ability to trust God was extreme, no wonder Paul used Abram as the paradigm for faith.
Finally, note there is nothing in the text that described Abram as being exceptional. Noah was unique among humanity, thus God chose him to survive the impending flood. Abram only became extraordinary after demonstrating profound trust.
John 3:1-17
Nick at Nite (sic)
Those of a certain vintage will remember back to the something like a golden age of cable TV, which was an homage to an earlier golden age of broadcast TV when Nickelodeon ran situation comedies from the ’50s-’70s in the evening and call the line-up “Nick at Nite.” It’s a clever term to call Nicodemus’s visit to Jesus in today’s lectionary gospel passage. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, “a leader of the Jews.” (nb. In John’s gospel, “the Jews” often is used to refer to the leaders among the Jews, among that group are Pharisees like Nicodemus. John was writing to an audience of Jews who were deeply divided over who Jesus was. He often puts “the Jews” in a most unfavorable light, and thus the seed of anti-Semitism is replanted when people read John without regard to its historical context. Personally, I replace “the Jews” with terms like “the Jewish leaders” when I believe the text supports it.)
Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea play important roles bridging between the Romans and the disciples. They’re something of insiders among the Jewish leaders, but also sympathetic, or open to what Jesus may be bringing to their community.
The Greek term άνοθεν, means both “from above” and “again” or “anew.” Jesus and Nicodemus clearly have a failure to communicate. Jesus indicates that one must be born “of the spirit” or “from above,” but Nicodemus only considers the second meaning (above) for άνοθεν. He wonders whether one can be born a second time, surely he’s too big, now that he’s an adult… Rather than setting Nicodemus straight, Jesus starts a riff about being born in a physical and a spiritual sense. To his credit, Nicodemus really, sincerely tries to understand; he’s taken a risk to come to Jesus for a private audience, but Jesus turns the conversation into something of a monologue. Toward the end of today’s passage is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.” There was a time when a man in a rainbow wig would hold up a sign with “John 3:16” on it when football teams were lining up for a field goal or extra point. This went on for years (again, people of a certain age…) but I haven’t seen it for a while.
Psalm 121
The hills are reminders of God’s strength and protection. I recall visiting a retired elementary school teacher who felt overwhelmed when she began her teaching career in Mankato, Minnesota. Mankato is on the Minnesota River and steep bluffs sit on both its banks. When the kids would start to get out of control, she would look out her window at the bluffs across the river and they pointed her back to the greatness of the Creator of all things, even rambunctious third graders and their overwhelmed, novice teacher. The psalm goes on to remind us all of the protection God extends to all God’s people. There is something of an antidote to fear and apprehension in Psalm 121, a very present help in these tense days of anxiety.
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Paul engages in a little midrash here. He interprets Abram’s faith, which came before the Law was present, as a kind of gracious gift. That is, Abram is rendered blameless (or innocent, or righteous) because he believed God, then acted in responding to God’s call with faithful obedience. His being regarded as righteous was not something he earned, but something the Lord freely bestowed. A close reading of v. 17 shows that all people who claim Abraham as ancestor are heirs (or something like heirs) to the grace God invites us all to accept.
In the News
The novel coronavirus has been dominating the news for more than a week. The stock market fell precipitously, wiping out all the gains since 2019 in just three days. More than any health crisis in recent history, the novel coronavirus has affected the global economy. International meetings have been cancelled. There is talk of delaying or moving the Olympics from Tokyo, scheduled for July.
In Milan, Italy, officials have called for the cancellation of worship services and “its soccer club, Inter Milan, played a major home game on Thursday night with no spectators in the stands.”
On Tuesday, February 25, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency to enable the city to prepare for the impending outbreak. The only cases San Francisco had seen up to that time were from international travelers. As a city that welcomes visitors from all over the world, Mayor Breed is receiving praise for being proactive.
Corona-hysteria is only one of many things that people have to fear today. Many churches, for example, are hiring uniformed, armed guards to be present during worship services. Others are encouraging parishioners who can legally carry a concealed weapon to come to worship armed. One church in Cincinnati has gone so far as to offer a class in gun safety targeted (sorry about that) for women.
Another mass work place shooting, this one in Milwaukee, is a reminder of how mundane mass shootings have become in recent years.
There are a lot of things to be afraid of. This is America; we’re fortunate to have so many choices!
In the Sermon
As many mainline churches face a sharp decline in membership and participation, a trend that accelerated in the 2010s (Christian Century, 1/29/2020), we fear for our survival.
I am currently a Transitional Pastor for a church that lost a large number of members following the 2014 General Assembly. We are an aging, graying congregation. The way we know how to do and be church is having a vibrant, active youth group and Sunday school. We do not know any other way. We know we need to do something, but what? As I lead this congregation I am reminded of an insight I received in interim pastor training. Three things that do not produce change: fear, facts and force. We hope that a quick fix, a bigger sign, better donuts at coffee hour, will return us to our Golden Age.
What if we were more like Nicodemus? Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, lest he be seen by his people. He was curious. He wanted to understand. And he was a little dense. It would have been safer for him in the shadows. He could have gone on being one of the powerful people, but he took a chance. He stepped away from what he knew and what he was comfortable with. Nicodemus only appears two more times in John’s gospel — his only appearances in the Bible are in John. The first time he slows a rush to judgment of Jesus (John 7:45-52). Later, Nicodemus joins Joseph of Arimathea, helping to prepare Jesus’ body for a hasty burial before the Sabbath (19:39). He’s reluctant, unsure, but he does not let his fear keep him from trying to understand. Perhaps he will understand what Jesus means about being born άνοθεν. At least he’s moving away from fear. That takes courage and humility, two antidotes for fear and force, for churches who seek to change and grow.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
The main themes in today’s lectionary readings are: faith; hope; obedience.
* * *
In an interview in August 2016, singer and songwriter Sheryl Crow, then 54, shared that she has been cancer free for ten years. She attributes this by having a very early mammogram. It was discovered that she had stage one cancer. She was diagnosed with 2D mammography. At the time of her interview a new and more advance mammogram was available for women. It was known as the Genius 3D Mammography. She has dedicated herself to encourage all women to have an early evaluation by the Genius 3D Mammography. Regarding this venture she said, “Its just a matter of getting the word out and creating awareness.”
* * *
In an interview in May 2016, Maria Shriver, journalist and author, and who was formerly married to Arnold Schwarzenegger, discussed that her father died of Alzheimer’s in 2011. Her father was Robert Sargent Shriver Jr., better known to the public as Sargent Shriver, a well-known politician and diplomat. She said over the past 13 years since his diagnosis she has become involved in many organizations to help people understand Alzheimer’s disease. This included writing the children’s book What’s Happening to Grandpa? Shriver said, “I’m trying to say there is hope.”
* * *
With the new social awareness that the leaders of the Confederacy were traitors and not patriots, the commandant of the Marine Corps, General David Berger, in February 2020, ordered “the removal of all Confederate-related paraphernalia from Marine Corps instillations.” This even included bumper stickers.
* * *
The newspaper comic strip Frank & Ernest is written by Bob Thaves. A newspaper comic showed the motley characters Frank and Ernie dressed as angels before the pearly gates. Frank says to Ernie, “Actually, the ‘You can’t take it with you’ rule wasn’t implemented until somebody wanted to come in with bagpipes.”
* * *
In one-episode of Peanuts Charlie Brown, who seems to have difficulty navigating life, is leaning on a brick wall with Linus van Pelt, the younger sibling to Lucy. In the opening frame Charlie says, “You know what?” The two then turn and look at each other as Charlie continues in the second frame, “Yesterday I was almost happy…” Then in the third frame, with his arm raised as an exclamation point, he says, “For a brief moment I thought I was winning in the game of life…” Then in the last frame, leaning his head on his hand, Charlie said, “But then there was a flag on the play!”
* * * * * *
From team member Mary Austin:
Genesis 12:1-4a
Keeping a Promise
The relationship between Abraham and God is built on God’s promise to Abraham — first called Abram. God is determined to keep this promise in spite of all the years and events that happen before the promise starts to be fulfilled.
A man named Alex Sheen had a strong feeling about keeping a promise, too. One year after a friend of his drove drunk, and killed a man, he made good on his promise to be sure something good came out of the tragedy. On the first anniversary of the fatal crash, “Alex Sheen stood outside the busiest bar in his Ohio neighborhood with a sign offering strangers a free ride. As the founder of the “Because I Said I Would” movement, Sheen was making good on a promise.” He had helped his friend Matthew Cordle confess to driving drunk, and Cordle had been sentenced to six and a half years in prison. Cordle wanted him to “bring good to the world,” Sheen said. “So on the one-year anniversary of the crash that took Canzani's life, he tried to do just that…Sheen decided to stand outside an Ohio bar [on a] Saturday with a dry erase board offering strangers who had been drinking a potentially lifesaving act of kindness, while also sharing his inspiration for the good deed.” His signboard told about the crash, and why he was offering free rides to strangers. Keeping his promise, Sheen drove people home until 3:00 am that night.
* * *
Genesis 12:1-4a
Go From Your Kindred
“Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you,” God tells Abram. Some years later, Abram becomes Abraham, his name change marking the change that has already happened in his connection with God. Poet Jericho Brown also had an experience of leaving his family behind when he started to write poetry. He shared a name with his father and grandfather, and he says, “when I would see my poems come out, they didn’t feel like they were [mine] — I wanted them to be mine. And so, me changing my name had a lot to do with, like I was saying, trying to be the individual that emerges within the community…when I was first writing, I wanted more than anything to be able to give all of myself to my poems. And I don’t know if I would think that I had to do this now, but at the time, I really believed I had to completely transform in order to do that.”
He feels such distance from his upbringing that he says, “if I’m on an airplane and somebody asks me what I do for a living, I very quickly tell them I’m a poet. Then I don’t have to worry about them talking to me anymore.”
* * *
John 3:1-17
Visitors at Night
Mary-Ann Mellville, like Jesus and Nicodemus, knows that surprises come at night. Coming home from work one night, she was exhausted from her job and a long commute, plus the responsibilities of being a single parent. As she says, “It wasn’t easy working three jobs and raising four active teenagers. Mine were good kids — three girls and a boy — but they were still a lot to handle. Especially for a single parent. I had hoped to come home and find them all quietly doing their homework. That was the deal. But they were running around with the five next-door neighbor children instead. I sighed. My oldest daughter rushed up to me. “Mom, can they stay for dinner?” I didn’t have much planned, just some leftover spaghetti with half a loaf of bread. And only six meatballs. I was already buying on credit from the neighborhood grocer. So a quick shop to fill out the meal wasn’t an option. I put down my things. Tonight of all nights, I thought. I had barely enough to feed my four, but all nine of them?”
She looked at the neighbors, remembering that their mom had died just a few weeks earlier. She realized that “they needed a mother — if only for a night… I went to the kitchen and opened the cupboard. Please, let there be enough. I had a bit of extra pasta. “Well,” I said to the kids. “This will have to do.” They settled into homework mode while I tried to work a miracle at the stove.” She was still worrying when everyone sat down at the table. After the prayer, “the table erupted in a symphony of happy chatter and clinking forks. What a group! They had me laughing so hard, I forgot to keep track of who was eating what. By the end of the meal I felt so much better than when I had first walked through the door, burdened by my troubles. The children had licked their plates clean. We were all full and happy, and grateful for one another’s company. I moved to clear the table with my oldest daughter. My mouth dropped open. Two meatballs sat uneaten on the platter. How was that possible?”
She was astonished. How had there been enough food for everyone? “Had the kids cut the meatballs in half? Maybe some of them had only eaten pasta. Or had had a big lunch. There was no logic to it. There hadn’t been enough food at the beginning of the meal, and by the end of it everyone was full. We must have had unseen company, I thought as I said goodbye to the kids. Angels had shared our dinner. That night left me with an overflowing heart and great hope for the future. I sent the leftovers home with the neighbor children for lunch the next day. Things were hard now, but they would get better. For us. For the neighbor children. Because when you dine with angels, there is always enough to go around.”
At unexpected times, God shows up in our meetings at night.
* * *
John 3:1-17
Things That Happen at Night
Weary traveler Richard Whittaker arrived in Kingman, Arizona one night to find that hotel after hotel was already booked. In such a small town, he never imagined that finding a hotel room would be difficult. He and his wife had driven 600 miles, only to find that the Hampton, then Motel 6, then the Best Western were all full. Someone advised that the Marriott was worth a try. It was new and had just opened for business. The signage wasn’t even done. He entered the lobby and met the young woman behind the counter. The phone was ringing relentlessly while she tried to deal with the customers in line. “The young Asian man in front of me and I now struck up a conversation — competitors for a room, yes, but united as observers of the drama unfolding before us.” A man whose credit card was declined. Then another man whose room hadn’t been cleaned yet… The phones continued ringing. Jeez, I thought, this place isn't quite up to speed. As I watched all this unfold, I couldn't help admiring the young woman's refusal to capitulate to the increasing pressure, but I was also beginning to wonder if I'd soon see a meltdown. In any case, now I was second in line. Was it possible that two rooms were still left?”
Whittaker adds, “By now it was well after 11pm. Although I had no proof, by now I had a feeling no employees were left in the entire hotel except for this young woman at the desk. In a small motel, that wouldn't seem odd, but here it did. Don't hotels always have a manager and staff — bellboys, people hidden away in basements, kitchens, offices, back rooms, all quietly present to keep the place functioning? But Kingman is a desert town, a place where nature has been stripped down to the bare bones. Nevertheless, standing there in the Marriott lobby, my sense that the single young woman behind the desk constituted the entire hotel staff produced an oddly surreal feeling. A hotel shouldn't be that stripped down, even in a desert town.”
“At this point, a young, well-dressed man enters the lobby from outside and walks purposefully around behind the front desk. He goes directly to an employee door, presses some buttons and disappears into another room. Could help have arrived? A moment later, he re-appears and exchanges a quick glance with the young woman. It's amazing how subtly she conveys “just barely holding on here.“
Taking the situation in, he steps up to me. “Can I help you?“
I can hear the young woman saying something about sheets to the two men with unmade beds.
Turns out the room my wife and I get is the last one. It's more than I'd hoped to pay, but who's arguing? Meanwhile more people have crowded into the lobby, hungry for rooms.
“We're sold out!” The young woman nearly shouts with a sudden new energy. Some problems are settled, at least.”
But when they reach their room, it hasn’t been changed from the previous guests. “Partly, I was prepared for this…My wife sunk down on the couch, too tired to deal with it. I joined her and we sat there in silence. By now it was heading toward midnight…I could see that my wife was not letting the situation bother her. Instead, she began checking out the fine points of the new Marriott accommodations. “They've really done a nice job here,” she said. “I like this room.“ For a few minutes I continued pondering. I didn't want to be another complainant, but the cards had been dealt. I would add room 309 to their list of rooms with unmade beds.”
Whittaker finds the clerks at the desk. “I appreciated how you dealt with all that,” he tells them, and then explains that our room, too, had been overlooked. Andy, one of the clerks tell him they will be there in ten minutes to help. He brings the sheets and towels, and Whittaker realizes, “Andy and the young woman were no longer just staff persons working for a hotel chain. And my wife and I were no longer just customers. Andy stepped in carrying his load of linens and towels. We walked over to the bed together and I started stripping off the bed sheets. He set the linens down quickly and joined me… We stretched it across the bed together. He looked through his stack and pulled out another piece of linen…And we set about stretching it across the bed. My wife joined us. Now the three of us were making up a hotel bed together. The awkward sense inherent in this was more than offset by a surplus of good will all around.” Whittaker adds, “As the evening had unfolded, I had become progressively more willing to let the unexpected scenario unfold as it might. As Andy and I worked together, not only was I starting to feel cheerful, but I was aware of a complete shift in my feeling of relationship with Andy and the young woman. It was time I learned her name.
“Amber,” Andy replied.
“Well, Amber really did a fine job!” I told him. Andy nodded.
“I was already taking on the role of the well-meaning uncle. It was a fine new role to take, a family role. Why couldn't such things happen in a desert town late one night?”
In the night, with everyone exhausted, new bonds formed, just as they do for Jesus and Nicodemus in their nighttime meeting. Each discovered something new, and saw each other in a new way.
* * *
John 3:1-17
Entering a Different World
Krista Tippett, the host of On Being, recalls her childhood in a small town, and the closeness of the world she lives in. Nicodemus lives in a similarly small world as a leader in the religious world of his day. Encountering Jesus expands that world dramatically, first as he comes to Jesus at night, and then as he ponders the things Jesus tells him. Krista Tippett has a comparable sense of the world beyond her own, saying, “I grew up in a small town and what felt like a small world, very contained, known. At this point in my life, I also see that we don’t live in one big world. We live in a collection of small worlds. I think my sense I had of how contained the world was, was probably a sense that a lot of people have in very different circumstances. But I had this feeling that there was a big reality out there. It was just this black hole of the rest of the world. I think I only started to get curious about that when I was a teenager.” This was before the internet, and the worlds we have at our fingertips today.
Tippett says, feeling the way Nicodemus may have felt, “Something I’m aware of, if I think back to myself at those ages, of being a teenager and of being a young adult, is at the same time that, in some ways you know you still have everything to learn and everything to experience, and you can feel so frustrated by what you don’t yet know and haven’t yet done and don’t yet know if you can — you have this sense of urgency. I really think of this as the wisdom of young adulthood and of the teenage years, you have this sense of urgency about what is possible. You have this real curiosity about the big, soaring questions, and what it’s all about, and what your life might all be about.” The big, soaring questions bring Nicodemus to Jesus, and then his life is never quite as contained again.
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: Lift up your eyes and see where our help comes from.
People: Our help comes from God, creator of all that is.
Leader: God is our keeper who never sleeps.
People: God is our shade at our right hand.
Leader: God keeps us from all evil and keeps our lives.
People: God watches over us now and forevermore.
OR
Leader: Fear not for our God is with us this day.
People: We trust in God and we will not be afraid.
Leader: The presence of God is steadfast and sure.
People: We will rely on the wondrous grace of God.
Leader: God love fills all of creation for us.
People: We will receive God’s love and share it with others.
Hymns and Songs:
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
UMH: 79
H82: 366
PH: 460
NNBH: 13
NCH: 276
LBW: 535
ELW: 414
W&P: 138
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELW: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT: 281
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
UMH: 133
AAHH: 371
NNBH: 262
NCH: 471
CH: 560
LBW:
ELW: 774
W&P: 496
AMEC: 525
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
My Faith Looks Up to Thee
UMH: 452
H82: 691
PH: 383
AAHH: 456
NNBH: 273
CH: 576
LBW: 479
ELW: 759
W&P: 419
AMEC: 415
Trust and Obey
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
Jesus, Lover of My Soul
UMH: 479
H82: 699
PH: 303
NCH: 546
CH: 542
W&P: 439
AMEC: 253/254
Out of the Depths I Cry to You
UMH: 515
H82: 666
PH: 240
NCH: 483
CH: 510
LBW: 295
ELW: 600
How Firm a Foundation
UMH: 529
H82: 636/637
PH: 361
AAHH: 146
NNBH: 48
NCH: 407
CH: 618
LBW: 507
ELW: 796
W&P: 411
AMEC: 433
Be Still, My Soul
UMH: 534
AAHH: 135
NNBH: 263
NCH: 488
CH: 566
W&P: 451
AMEC: 426
The Steadfast Love of the Lord
CCB: 28
Renew: 23
Create in Me a Clean Heart
CCB: 54
Renew: 181/182
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is faithful and true:
Grant us the faith to trust in you
so that we don’t live in constant fear;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are faithful and trustworthy. You are the one who never deserts us. Strengthen our faith that we may trust in you and abandon fear. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we live in fear rather than relying on God.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Our lives are surrounded by your loving presence and signs of your great love for all creation and yet we live in fear. Instead of looking to your abundant grace we look at our lack of power and we doubt. Instead of seeing all you give us as signs of your power and grace we see them as things to grasp and rely on. Forgive us and fill us with your Spirit that we may truly trust you and be disciples of your Christ. Amen.
Leader: God’s grace and love are all around us. Trust in God and rely on God’s abundant grace so that you may share that gift with others.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory to you, O God, who are the endless resource of power and love in all creation. You loving presence is always around us.
(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. Our lives are surrounded by your loving presence and signs of your great love for all creation and yet we live in fear. Instead of looking to your abundant grace we look at our lack of power and we doubt. Instead of seeing all you give us as signs of your power and grace we see them as things to grasp and rely on. Forgive us and fill us with your Spirit that we may truly trust you and be disciples of your Christ.
We thank you for all the signs of your abundant love for us and for all of your creation. We thank you for those who have been touched by your grace and have shared it with us. We thank you for your Spirit that dwells within us and among us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children in their need including ourselves. We pray for those whose lives are filled with fear and dread. We pray for those who do not know where their next meal is coming from. We pray for those oppressed by violence and hatred. We pray for those working to bring your peace and joy to others.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the 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 Starter
Talk to the children about times when you have been afraid. It is not fun to be afraid. There are some things that are dangerous and we should be careful about. We need to be careful when we cross the street. We need to be careful about cars but we don’t need to be afraid of cars. We don’t play outside during a thunderstorm. We are careful about lighting but if we are indoors and stay away from the windows we don’t need to be afraid of it. We have our parents or other adults we can talk to about these things and they can help us be careful without being afraid. God wants us to take care of ourselves and each other but God doesn’t want us to be afraid.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
I’ll Go With You
By Dean Feldmeyer
Psalm 121
Good morning.
I want you all to try something for me, this morning. When I say to, I want you to close your eyes real tight and put your hands over your eyes like this. (Demonstrate putting fingers of each hand over eyes.)
Okay, go. Close your eyes and put your hands over your eyes. Okay, got it? Can’t see, right?
Good. Now, when I say, “Go!” I want you to keep your eyes closed and your hands over them, and run just as fast as you can, back to where you were sitting, okay?
No? Why not?
Oh, you’re afraid you might run into something, huh? Afraid you might trip and fall, is that it? Oh. Well, okay. How could we solve this problem other than opening your eyes? What if even when you opened your eyes you still couldn’t see. That’s what blind people have to deal with, you know. How could we make it safe for you to get back to your seat without seeing?
(Receive their ideas with praise and thanks.)
How about this? What if someone who could see went with you? Then they could hold your hand or you could hold onto their arm and you could get help from them to get to your seat.
You know, I think the four most beautiful words in the English language are these: I’ll. Go. With. You.
In this morning’s psalm that is what the psalmist says about God. When we are afraid, God will go with us. Listen again:
I lift up my eyes to the mountains — The mountains are dangerous. Bad things like robbers and outlaws live in the mountains and sometimes they come swooping down and hurt people and steal from them. So the psalmist asks…
Where does my help come from?
Then he answers his own question:
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
“Are you afraid?” the psalmist asks.
Are you scared?
Are you worried?
Relax. God will go with you, just like a good friend will go with you.
(End with a prayer thanking God for keeping his promise to go with us in difficult times.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, March 8, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 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.
- Masking Our Fears by Chris Keating — As fears of the coronavirus epidemic continue to rise, it’s wise to remember that faith emerges from a trusting response to God’s leading.
- Second Thoughts: Fearing for Our Survival by Tom Willadsen — Three things that do not produce change: fear, facts and force. We hope that a quick fix, a bigger sign, better donuts at coffee hour, will return us to our Golden Age.
- Sermon illustrations by Ron Love and Mary Austin.
- Worship resources by George Reed that focus on fear verses trust and faith.
- Children’s sermon: I’ll Go With You by Dean Feldmeyer — Are you afraid? Are you worried? Relax. God will go with you, just like a good friend will go with you.
Masking Our Fearsby Chris Keating
Genesis 12:1-4a
Coronavirus’s world tour of infection has prompted mass quarantines, chaos in world financial markets, and even dangerous conspiracy theories. Health officials warn that the question is no longer “if” the virus will spread to the United States, but when. The rapid spread of this novel virus has pushed much of the world into untested frontiers, depleting reservoirs of hope and igniting virulent anxieties.
In the face of such anxiety, it’s always important to tease out the differences between hype and hope.
Hype: On Friday, Walmart.com was selling a five-pack of 3M face masks for $200, or about five times more than the product’s usual price. But face masks aren’t all that effective, as indicated by a tweet from Jerome Adams, the US Surgeon General: “Seriously people — STOP BUYING MASKS.”
Hype: When the world coughed, the stock market dropped. Wall Street suffered the worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, signaling worries of a possible global recession. Hope: Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet reminded investors that while he’s cautious, in the long run the market will be a “much better long term choice.”
Hype: When American beer drinkers were surveyed last week, 38% said they would not purchase Corona beer “under any circumstances” right now because of the coronavirus. Sixteen percent of beer drinkers surveyed indicated they were confused as to whether Corona beer might be related to the virus.
Hope: perhaps those 16% might choose to cut back on their drinking, because (shocker) there is no connection between the Mexican import beer and COVID-19.
It’s important to take precautions. It is also important that people of faith do not let fear quash hope. As fears dominate the headlines this Lent, perhaps it is wise to revisit the powerful story of Abraham. Called to migrate into an unknown — and unknowable — future, Abram trusts in God. He believes in the one “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist,” (Rom. 4:17). He masks his fears by trusting hope over hype.
In the News
Fears and anxiety over the novel coronavirus seem to be spreading as fast, if not faster, than the disease itself. As of early this week, six patients in the United States have died from the virus. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reminds Americans that overall the risk for infection remains low.
COVID-19, the scientific name for the novel coronavirus which first appeared in Wuhan, China, last year, is one of many types of human coronaviruses that cause respiratory tract infections. At least 3,000 deaths have been attributed to the virus across the world, though illnesses can range from mild to severe.
In other words, prudence and caution are warranted. Over-the-top fears are not. The panic that has spread through Wall Street is branching out to main street as consumers stock up on food supplies, medicines and household products. Buzz Feed posted pictures of shoppers across the United States clearing shelves of toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Price gouging and false advertising claims led Amazon to delete one million products from its shopping site.
Concern over the spread of coronavirus — as well as continued outbreaks of seasonal influenza — is justified. But viral outbreaks can easily stir deeper fears. Five years ago, the country battled “fearbola” during the rise of Ebola, even though there were only ten documented cases in the United States. At that time, psychologists worked hard to lower people’s outsized fears regarding the disease.
Like Ebola, COVID-19’s foreign origins have stirred xenophobic fears and tendencies. Myths about COVID-19 that have already been proven false include fears that it can be transmitted by goods purchased in China or that eating Chinese food will cause you to be susceptible to infection. And, unlike comic books pandemics, there is no evidence the virus was created by the Chinese in a high-security biochemical lab.
Nor is there evidence that the disease is a death sentence. It is true that it is contagious and easily spread, it is also true that around 81% of people who get the disease have had mild cases. While data is still emerging, only around 2.3% of COVID-19 patients have died.
That doesn’t mitigate the need for a reasonable response. While there’s no need to stock up on surgical masks, it might not be a bad idea to grab a few extra cans of soup and other stable food items. Being disease aware includes frequent hand washing and taking steps to be prepared in case the government imposes large-scale quarantines. In some situations, schools could be closed. Congregations, too, might be impacted, which is why Presbyterian Disaster Assistance recently released “Guidance for Congregations in Response to Severe Infectious Disease Outbreak.”
So, be prepared. An outbreak of the virus will likely reach epidemic proportions in coming weeks.
Being prepared is a bit different, however, than suggesting parishioners give up worship for Lent this year. And it is much different than abandoning hope. Inculcating fear, promoting hype and promulgating rumors run counter to faith grounded in the promises of God. In the face of flu, virus or other threats, those promises are grounded in assurance “the Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time and forevermore.” (Ps. 121:8)
In the Scripture
For someone who has just heard God call him away from all that he has ever known, Abram is remarkably quiet in Genesis 12. There’s no sign of panic, no fears or even curiosity expressed. Indeed, Abraham appears to be doing nothing more than thumbing through a stack of travel magazines one moment and packing his bags the next.
The message is simple and clear: go. Leave behind all that you have known. The call involves disengaging from the promise of any security of inheriting his father’s land. Instead, Abraham and Sarah, devoid of children, are told that they will be led to a new land. God is calling them to a new and undefined future.
It’s possible to overlook an important contextual clue. Back in Genesis 11:30, the narrator remarks, “Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.” This verse is essential to understanding all that follows. God’s blessing to Abraham is grounded in the assurance that he was to have bushel baskets of descendants. Yet the veracity of that claim cannot be proven. There is no factual evidence that would support Abraham uprooting himself from his homeland.
But just as simply as God calls, Abraham obeys. Walter Bruggemann notes that Abraham and Sarah stand in contrast to the ancestors of Noah in chapters 9-10. (Brueggemann, Genesis, Interpretation Commentary). God’s summons of Abraham demonstrates the continued faithfulness of God in reordering a world that has gone awry. The God who created the world is now set on its transformation. In contrast to the broad and picturesque depiction of the vastness of creation earlier in Genesis, this new creation is centered squarely on the shoulders of two persons.
In other words, God is betting the house on Abraham and Sarah.
Inexplicably, Abraham follows God’s call. Unlike God’s call to Moses, there is not hesitancy, no bantering back and forth. The pattern is one of pure trust, despite the presence of any lingering anxieties or worries. There’s no indication that Abraham engaged in a lengthy discernment process, or what sort of preparations were involved. No flight plan is filed, and no itineraries published. Instead, there is only the single imperative, and the trusting response. “The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go…’ and ‘So Abraham went.”
He leaves behind Haran — which means “crossroads,” and departs for destinations unknown. Obedience means a costly separation from family, and the distancing of everything that was known and reliable. Obedience means letting the unknown future become the place you must go.
In the Sermon
Admittedly, there is a fair bit of imaginative hermeneutics involved in connecting the dots between Abraham’s call and the coronavirus outbreak. It’s also worth stating up front that trusting in God’s provision doesn’t mean not taking wise and prudent steps to avoid spreading this new bug. But wash your hands, and begin to pray, because there is a connection worth exploring.
First, contrast the simplicity of Abraham’s response with the sort of over-hyped fears and worries that percolate across culture, including coronavirus. We live in a time of anxiety and are facing widespread challenges. We are, like Abraham, at a crossroads.
However, faced with a moment of decision, the tendency is to overthink, panic, and react anxiously. Hope must stand apart from hype. A sermon could helpfully point out Abraham’s determination to trust in the promise given to him, even when the exact parameters of that promise remain unknown.
Secondly, note that bad things will happen to Abraham and Sarah. Following the call and leading of God does not mean the days ahead will be filled with wine and roses. There will come a time when Abraham does not fully trust the call God has given to him. Those who have lost loved ones to coronavirus will likewise find expressing trust in God difficult — to say nothing of restoring trust in government.
It may also be helpful to play around with the notion that for many today the world is facing a Haran-type moment. Lent finds us at a crossroads — pun intended. This is true politically, socially, environmentally, and perhaps even congregationally. In this context, what does it mean to trust deeply in the promises of God “who gives life to the dead?”
In the end, Abraham trusts something he could not fully grasp. He crosses the threshold, moves beyond the crossroads. Whatever fears he has about this grand journey are well masked — for now. He and Sarah gather their stuff, find their nephew Lot and get ready to begin all over. But first, let’s hope they washed their hands.
SECOND THOUGHTSFearing for Our Survival
by Tom Willadsen
In the Bible
Genesis 12:1-4a
Many people approach this text as the first in a completely different section of scripture. The “myths:” Creation(s), Cain and Abel, the Fall, Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel are all in the past. Starting at Genesis 12 something much closer to “history” begins with Abram’s call.
It’s revealing, or at least interesting that Abram doesn’t say anything about God’s call that he leave home and journey to a place that he’d never been before, a place where he didn’t even know the name of the language the people spoke. Abram takes the youngest three generations with him. People lived a long time back then. Abe’s oldest living relative was Shem. Shem was one of Noah’s sons. Noah had only been dead 17 years when God called Abram. Altogether, Abram left eight generations when he left Ur for Haran. Abram’s ability to trust God was extreme, no wonder Paul used Abram as the paradigm for faith.
Finally, note there is nothing in the text that described Abram as being exceptional. Noah was unique among humanity, thus God chose him to survive the impending flood. Abram only became extraordinary after demonstrating profound trust.
John 3:1-17
Nick at Nite (sic)
Those of a certain vintage will remember back to the something like a golden age of cable TV, which was an homage to an earlier golden age of broadcast TV when Nickelodeon ran situation comedies from the ’50s-’70s in the evening and call the line-up “Nick at Nite.” It’s a clever term to call Nicodemus’s visit to Jesus in today’s lectionary gospel passage. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, “a leader of the Jews.” (nb. In John’s gospel, “the Jews” often is used to refer to the leaders among the Jews, among that group are Pharisees like Nicodemus. John was writing to an audience of Jews who were deeply divided over who Jesus was. He often puts “the Jews” in a most unfavorable light, and thus the seed of anti-Semitism is replanted when people read John without regard to its historical context. Personally, I replace “the Jews” with terms like “the Jewish leaders” when I believe the text supports it.)
Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea play important roles bridging between the Romans and the disciples. They’re something of insiders among the Jewish leaders, but also sympathetic, or open to what Jesus may be bringing to their community.
The Greek term άνοθεν, means both “from above” and “again” or “anew.” Jesus and Nicodemus clearly have a failure to communicate. Jesus indicates that one must be born “of the spirit” or “from above,” but Nicodemus only considers the second meaning (above) for άνοθεν. He wonders whether one can be born a second time, surely he’s too big, now that he’s an adult… Rather than setting Nicodemus straight, Jesus starts a riff about being born in a physical and a spiritual sense. To his credit, Nicodemus really, sincerely tries to understand; he’s taken a risk to come to Jesus for a private audience, but Jesus turns the conversation into something of a monologue. Toward the end of today’s passage is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.” There was a time when a man in a rainbow wig would hold up a sign with “John 3:16” on it when football teams were lining up for a field goal or extra point. This went on for years (again, people of a certain age…) but I haven’t seen it for a while.
Psalm 121
The hills are reminders of God’s strength and protection. I recall visiting a retired elementary school teacher who felt overwhelmed when she began her teaching career in Mankato, Minnesota. Mankato is on the Minnesota River and steep bluffs sit on both its banks. When the kids would start to get out of control, she would look out her window at the bluffs across the river and they pointed her back to the greatness of the Creator of all things, even rambunctious third graders and their overwhelmed, novice teacher. The psalm goes on to remind us all of the protection God extends to all God’s people. There is something of an antidote to fear and apprehension in Psalm 121, a very present help in these tense days of anxiety.
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Paul engages in a little midrash here. He interprets Abram’s faith, which came before the Law was present, as a kind of gracious gift. That is, Abram is rendered blameless (or innocent, or righteous) because he believed God, then acted in responding to God’s call with faithful obedience. His being regarded as righteous was not something he earned, but something the Lord freely bestowed. A close reading of v. 17 shows that all people who claim Abraham as ancestor are heirs (or something like heirs) to the grace God invites us all to accept.
In the News
The novel coronavirus has been dominating the news for more than a week. The stock market fell precipitously, wiping out all the gains since 2019 in just three days. More than any health crisis in recent history, the novel coronavirus has affected the global economy. International meetings have been cancelled. There is talk of delaying or moving the Olympics from Tokyo, scheduled for July.
In Milan, Italy, officials have called for the cancellation of worship services and “its soccer club, Inter Milan, played a major home game on Thursday night with no spectators in the stands.”
On Tuesday, February 25, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency to enable the city to prepare for the impending outbreak. The only cases San Francisco had seen up to that time were from international travelers. As a city that welcomes visitors from all over the world, Mayor Breed is receiving praise for being proactive.
Corona-hysteria is only one of many things that people have to fear today. Many churches, for example, are hiring uniformed, armed guards to be present during worship services. Others are encouraging parishioners who can legally carry a concealed weapon to come to worship armed. One church in Cincinnati has gone so far as to offer a class in gun safety targeted (sorry about that) for women.
Another mass work place shooting, this one in Milwaukee, is a reminder of how mundane mass shootings have become in recent years.
There are a lot of things to be afraid of. This is America; we’re fortunate to have so many choices!
In the Sermon
As many mainline churches face a sharp decline in membership and participation, a trend that accelerated in the 2010s (Christian Century, 1/29/2020), we fear for our survival.
I am currently a Transitional Pastor for a church that lost a large number of members following the 2014 General Assembly. We are an aging, graying congregation. The way we know how to do and be church is having a vibrant, active youth group and Sunday school. We do not know any other way. We know we need to do something, but what? As I lead this congregation I am reminded of an insight I received in interim pastor training. Three things that do not produce change: fear, facts and force. We hope that a quick fix, a bigger sign, better donuts at coffee hour, will return us to our Golden Age.
What if we were more like Nicodemus? Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, lest he be seen by his people. He was curious. He wanted to understand. And he was a little dense. It would have been safer for him in the shadows. He could have gone on being one of the powerful people, but he took a chance. He stepped away from what he knew and what he was comfortable with. Nicodemus only appears two more times in John’s gospel — his only appearances in the Bible are in John. The first time he slows a rush to judgment of Jesus (John 7:45-52). Later, Nicodemus joins Joseph of Arimathea, helping to prepare Jesus’ body for a hasty burial before the Sabbath (19:39). He’s reluctant, unsure, but he does not let his fear keep him from trying to understand. Perhaps he will understand what Jesus means about being born άνοθεν. At least he’s moving away from fear. That takes courage and humility, two antidotes for fear and force, for churches who seek to change and grow.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:The main themes in today’s lectionary readings are: faith; hope; obedience.
* * *
In an interview in August 2016, singer and songwriter Sheryl Crow, then 54, shared that she has been cancer free for ten years. She attributes this by having a very early mammogram. It was discovered that she had stage one cancer. She was diagnosed with 2D mammography. At the time of her interview a new and more advance mammogram was available for women. It was known as the Genius 3D Mammography. She has dedicated herself to encourage all women to have an early evaluation by the Genius 3D Mammography. Regarding this venture she said, “Its just a matter of getting the word out and creating awareness.”
* * *
In an interview in May 2016, Maria Shriver, journalist and author, and who was formerly married to Arnold Schwarzenegger, discussed that her father died of Alzheimer’s in 2011. Her father was Robert Sargent Shriver Jr., better known to the public as Sargent Shriver, a well-known politician and diplomat. She said over the past 13 years since his diagnosis she has become involved in many organizations to help people understand Alzheimer’s disease. This included writing the children’s book What’s Happening to Grandpa? Shriver said, “I’m trying to say there is hope.”
* * *
With the new social awareness that the leaders of the Confederacy were traitors and not patriots, the commandant of the Marine Corps, General David Berger, in February 2020, ordered “the removal of all Confederate-related paraphernalia from Marine Corps instillations.” This even included bumper stickers.
* * *
The newspaper comic strip Frank & Ernest is written by Bob Thaves. A newspaper comic showed the motley characters Frank and Ernie dressed as angels before the pearly gates. Frank says to Ernie, “Actually, the ‘You can’t take it with you’ rule wasn’t implemented until somebody wanted to come in with bagpipes.”
* * *
In one-episode of Peanuts Charlie Brown, who seems to have difficulty navigating life, is leaning on a brick wall with Linus van Pelt, the younger sibling to Lucy. In the opening frame Charlie says, “You know what?” The two then turn and look at each other as Charlie continues in the second frame, “Yesterday I was almost happy…” Then in the third frame, with his arm raised as an exclamation point, he says, “For a brief moment I thought I was winning in the game of life…” Then in the last frame, leaning his head on his hand, Charlie said, “But then there was a flag on the play!”
* * * * * *
From team member Mary Austin:Genesis 12:1-4a
Keeping a Promise
The relationship between Abraham and God is built on God’s promise to Abraham — first called Abram. God is determined to keep this promise in spite of all the years and events that happen before the promise starts to be fulfilled.
A man named Alex Sheen had a strong feeling about keeping a promise, too. One year after a friend of his drove drunk, and killed a man, he made good on his promise to be sure something good came out of the tragedy. On the first anniversary of the fatal crash, “Alex Sheen stood outside the busiest bar in his Ohio neighborhood with a sign offering strangers a free ride. As the founder of the “Because I Said I Would” movement, Sheen was making good on a promise.” He had helped his friend Matthew Cordle confess to driving drunk, and Cordle had been sentenced to six and a half years in prison. Cordle wanted him to “bring good to the world,” Sheen said. “So on the one-year anniversary of the crash that took Canzani's life, he tried to do just that…Sheen decided to stand outside an Ohio bar [on a] Saturday with a dry erase board offering strangers who had been drinking a potentially lifesaving act of kindness, while also sharing his inspiration for the good deed.” His signboard told about the crash, and why he was offering free rides to strangers. Keeping his promise, Sheen drove people home until 3:00 am that night.
* * *
Genesis 12:1-4a
Go From Your Kindred
“Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you,” God tells Abram. Some years later, Abram becomes Abraham, his name change marking the change that has already happened in his connection with God. Poet Jericho Brown also had an experience of leaving his family behind when he started to write poetry. He shared a name with his father and grandfather, and he says, “when I would see my poems come out, they didn’t feel like they were [mine] — I wanted them to be mine. And so, me changing my name had a lot to do with, like I was saying, trying to be the individual that emerges within the community…when I was first writing, I wanted more than anything to be able to give all of myself to my poems. And I don’t know if I would think that I had to do this now, but at the time, I really believed I had to completely transform in order to do that.”
He feels such distance from his upbringing that he says, “if I’m on an airplane and somebody asks me what I do for a living, I very quickly tell them I’m a poet. Then I don’t have to worry about them talking to me anymore.”
* * *
John 3:1-17
Visitors at Night
Mary-Ann Mellville, like Jesus and Nicodemus, knows that surprises come at night. Coming home from work one night, she was exhausted from her job and a long commute, plus the responsibilities of being a single parent. As she says, “It wasn’t easy working three jobs and raising four active teenagers. Mine were good kids — three girls and a boy — but they were still a lot to handle. Especially for a single parent. I had hoped to come home and find them all quietly doing their homework. That was the deal. But they were running around with the five next-door neighbor children instead. I sighed. My oldest daughter rushed up to me. “Mom, can they stay for dinner?” I didn’t have much planned, just some leftover spaghetti with half a loaf of bread. And only six meatballs. I was already buying on credit from the neighborhood grocer. So a quick shop to fill out the meal wasn’t an option. I put down my things. Tonight of all nights, I thought. I had barely enough to feed my four, but all nine of them?”
She looked at the neighbors, remembering that their mom had died just a few weeks earlier. She realized that “they needed a mother — if only for a night… I went to the kitchen and opened the cupboard. Please, let there be enough. I had a bit of extra pasta. “Well,” I said to the kids. “This will have to do.” They settled into homework mode while I tried to work a miracle at the stove.” She was still worrying when everyone sat down at the table. After the prayer, “the table erupted in a symphony of happy chatter and clinking forks. What a group! They had me laughing so hard, I forgot to keep track of who was eating what. By the end of the meal I felt so much better than when I had first walked through the door, burdened by my troubles. The children had licked their plates clean. We were all full and happy, and grateful for one another’s company. I moved to clear the table with my oldest daughter. My mouth dropped open. Two meatballs sat uneaten on the platter. How was that possible?”
She was astonished. How had there been enough food for everyone? “Had the kids cut the meatballs in half? Maybe some of them had only eaten pasta. Or had had a big lunch. There was no logic to it. There hadn’t been enough food at the beginning of the meal, and by the end of it everyone was full. We must have had unseen company, I thought as I said goodbye to the kids. Angels had shared our dinner. That night left me with an overflowing heart and great hope for the future. I sent the leftovers home with the neighbor children for lunch the next day. Things were hard now, but they would get better. For us. For the neighbor children. Because when you dine with angels, there is always enough to go around.”
At unexpected times, God shows up in our meetings at night.
* * *
John 3:1-17
Things That Happen at Night
Weary traveler Richard Whittaker arrived in Kingman, Arizona one night to find that hotel after hotel was already booked. In such a small town, he never imagined that finding a hotel room would be difficult. He and his wife had driven 600 miles, only to find that the Hampton, then Motel 6, then the Best Western were all full. Someone advised that the Marriott was worth a try. It was new and had just opened for business. The signage wasn’t even done. He entered the lobby and met the young woman behind the counter. The phone was ringing relentlessly while she tried to deal with the customers in line. “The young Asian man in front of me and I now struck up a conversation — competitors for a room, yes, but united as observers of the drama unfolding before us.” A man whose credit card was declined. Then another man whose room hadn’t been cleaned yet… The phones continued ringing. Jeez, I thought, this place isn't quite up to speed. As I watched all this unfold, I couldn't help admiring the young woman's refusal to capitulate to the increasing pressure, but I was also beginning to wonder if I'd soon see a meltdown. In any case, now I was second in line. Was it possible that two rooms were still left?”
Whittaker adds, “By now it was well after 11pm. Although I had no proof, by now I had a feeling no employees were left in the entire hotel except for this young woman at the desk. In a small motel, that wouldn't seem odd, but here it did. Don't hotels always have a manager and staff — bellboys, people hidden away in basements, kitchens, offices, back rooms, all quietly present to keep the place functioning? But Kingman is a desert town, a place where nature has been stripped down to the bare bones. Nevertheless, standing there in the Marriott lobby, my sense that the single young woman behind the desk constituted the entire hotel staff produced an oddly surreal feeling. A hotel shouldn't be that stripped down, even in a desert town.”
“At this point, a young, well-dressed man enters the lobby from outside and walks purposefully around behind the front desk. He goes directly to an employee door, presses some buttons and disappears into another room. Could help have arrived? A moment later, he re-appears and exchanges a quick glance with the young woman. It's amazing how subtly she conveys “just barely holding on here.“
Taking the situation in, he steps up to me. “Can I help you?“
I can hear the young woman saying something about sheets to the two men with unmade beds.
Turns out the room my wife and I get is the last one. It's more than I'd hoped to pay, but who's arguing? Meanwhile more people have crowded into the lobby, hungry for rooms.
“We're sold out!” The young woman nearly shouts with a sudden new energy. Some problems are settled, at least.”
But when they reach their room, it hasn’t been changed from the previous guests. “Partly, I was prepared for this…My wife sunk down on the couch, too tired to deal with it. I joined her and we sat there in silence. By now it was heading toward midnight…I could see that my wife was not letting the situation bother her. Instead, she began checking out the fine points of the new Marriott accommodations. “They've really done a nice job here,” she said. “I like this room.“ For a few minutes I continued pondering. I didn't want to be another complainant, but the cards had been dealt. I would add room 309 to their list of rooms with unmade beds.”
Whittaker finds the clerks at the desk. “I appreciated how you dealt with all that,” he tells them, and then explains that our room, too, had been overlooked. Andy, one of the clerks tell him they will be there in ten minutes to help. He brings the sheets and towels, and Whittaker realizes, “Andy and the young woman were no longer just staff persons working for a hotel chain. And my wife and I were no longer just customers. Andy stepped in carrying his load of linens and towels. We walked over to the bed together and I started stripping off the bed sheets. He set the linens down quickly and joined me… We stretched it across the bed together. He looked through his stack and pulled out another piece of linen…And we set about stretching it across the bed. My wife joined us. Now the three of us were making up a hotel bed together. The awkward sense inherent in this was more than offset by a surplus of good will all around.” Whittaker adds, “As the evening had unfolded, I had become progressively more willing to let the unexpected scenario unfold as it might. As Andy and I worked together, not only was I starting to feel cheerful, but I was aware of a complete shift in my feeling of relationship with Andy and the young woman. It was time I learned her name.
“Amber,” Andy replied.
“Well, Amber really did a fine job!” I told him. Andy nodded.
“I was already taking on the role of the well-meaning uncle. It was a fine new role to take, a family role. Why couldn't such things happen in a desert town late one night?”
In the night, with everyone exhausted, new bonds formed, just as they do for Jesus and Nicodemus in their nighttime meeting. Each discovered something new, and saw each other in a new way.
* * *
John 3:1-17
Entering a Different World
Krista Tippett, the host of On Being, recalls her childhood in a small town, and the closeness of the world she lives in. Nicodemus lives in a similarly small world as a leader in the religious world of his day. Encountering Jesus expands that world dramatically, first as he comes to Jesus at night, and then as he ponders the things Jesus tells him. Krista Tippett has a comparable sense of the world beyond her own, saying, “I grew up in a small town and what felt like a small world, very contained, known. At this point in my life, I also see that we don’t live in one big world. We live in a collection of small worlds. I think my sense I had of how contained the world was, was probably a sense that a lot of people have in very different circumstances. But I had this feeling that there was a big reality out there. It was just this black hole of the rest of the world. I think I only started to get curious about that when I was a teenager.” This was before the internet, and the worlds we have at our fingertips today.
Tippett says, feeling the way Nicodemus may have felt, “Something I’m aware of, if I think back to myself at those ages, of being a teenager and of being a young adult, is at the same time that, in some ways you know you still have everything to learn and everything to experience, and you can feel so frustrated by what you don’t yet know and haven’t yet done and don’t yet know if you can — you have this sense of urgency. I really think of this as the wisdom of young adulthood and of the teenage years, you have this sense of urgency about what is possible. You have this real curiosity about the big, soaring questions, and what it’s all about, and what your life might all be about.” The big, soaring questions bring Nicodemus to Jesus, and then his life is never quite as contained again.
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: Lift up your eyes and see where our help comes from.
People: Our help comes from God, creator of all that is.
Leader: God is our keeper who never sleeps.
People: God is our shade at our right hand.
Leader: God keeps us from all evil and keeps our lives.
People: God watches over us now and forevermore.
OR
Leader: Fear not for our God is with us this day.
People: We trust in God and we will not be afraid.
Leader: The presence of God is steadfast and sure.
People: We will rely on the wondrous grace of God.
Leader: God love fills all of creation for us.
People: We will receive God’s love and share it with others.
Hymns and Songs:
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
UMH: 79
H82: 366
PH: 460
NNBH: 13
NCH: 276
LBW: 535
ELW: 414
W&P: 138
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELW: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT: 281
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
UMH: 133
AAHH: 371
NNBH: 262
NCH: 471
CH: 560
LBW:
ELW: 774
W&P: 496
AMEC: 525
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
My Faith Looks Up to Thee
UMH: 452
H82: 691
PH: 383
AAHH: 456
NNBH: 273
CH: 576
LBW: 479
ELW: 759
W&P: 419
AMEC: 415
Trust and Obey
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
Jesus, Lover of My Soul
UMH: 479
H82: 699
PH: 303
NCH: 546
CH: 542
W&P: 439
AMEC: 253/254
Out of the Depths I Cry to You
UMH: 515
H82: 666
PH: 240
NCH: 483
CH: 510
LBW: 295
ELW: 600
How Firm a Foundation
UMH: 529
H82: 636/637
PH: 361
AAHH: 146
NNBH: 48
NCH: 407
CH: 618
LBW: 507
ELW: 796
W&P: 411
AMEC: 433
Be Still, My Soul
UMH: 534
AAHH: 135
NNBH: 263
NCH: 488
CH: 566
W&P: 451
AMEC: 426
The Steadfast Love of the Lord
CCB: 28
Renew: 23
Create in Me a Clean Heart
CCB: 54
Renew: 181/182
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is faithful and true:
Grant us the faith to trust in you
so that we don’t live in constant fear;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are faithful and trustworthy. You are the one who never deserts us. Strengthen our faith that we may trust in you and abandon fear. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we live in fear rather than relying on God.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Our lives are surrounded by your loving presence and signs of your great love for all creation and yet we live in fear. Instead of looking to your abundant grace we look at our lack of power and we doubt. Instead of seeing all you give us as signs of your power and grace we see them as things to grasp and rely on. Forgive us and fill us with your Spirit that we may truly trust you and be disciples of your Christ. Amen.
Leader: God’s grace and love are all around us. Trust in God and rely on God’s abundant grace so that you may share that gift with others.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory to you, O God, who are the endless resource of power and love in all creation. You loving presence is always around us.
(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. Our lives are surrounded by your loving presence and signs of your great love for all creation and yet we live in fear. Instead of looking to your abundant grace we look at our lack of power and we doubt. Instead of seeing all you give us as signs of your power and grace we see them as things to grasp and rely on. Forgive us and fill us with your Spirit that we may truly trust you and be disciples of your Christ.
We thank you for all the signs of your abundant love for us and for all of your creation. We thank you for those who have been touched by your grace and have shared it with us. We thank you for your Spirit that dwells within us and among us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children in their need including ourselves. We pray for those whose lives are filled with fear and dread. We pray for those who do not know where their next meal is coming from. We pray for those oppressed by violence and hatred. We pray for those working to bring your peace and joy to others.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the 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 Starter
Talk to the children about times when you have been afraid. It is not fun to be afraid. There are some things that are dangerous and we should be careful about. We need to be careful when we cross the street. We need to be careful about cars but we don’t need to be afraid of cars. We don’t play outside during a thunderstorm. We are careful about lighting but if we are indoors and stay away from the windows we don’t need to be afraid of it. We have our parents or other adults we can talk to about these things and they can help us be careful without being afraid. God wants us to take care of ourselves and each other but God doesn’t want us to be afraid.
CHILDREN'S SERMONI’ll Go With You
By Dean Feldmeyer
Psalm 121
Good morning.
I want you all to try something for me, this morning. When I say to, I want you to close your eyes real tight and put your hands over your eyes like this. (Demonstrate putting fingers of each hand over eyes.)
Okay, go. Close your eyes and put your hands over your eyes. Okay, got it? Can’t see, right?
Good. Now, when I say, “Go!” I want you to keep your eyes closed and your hands over them, and run just as fast as you can, back to where you were sitting, okay?
No? Why not?
Oh, you’re afraid you might run into something, huh? Afraid you might trip and fall, is that it? Oh. Well, okay. How could we solve this problem other than opening your eyes? What if even when you opened your eyes you still couldn’t see. That’s what blind people have to deal with, you know. How could we make it safe for you to get back to your seat without seeing?
(Receive their ideas with praise and thanks.)
How about this? What if someone who could see went with you? Then they could hold your hand or you could hold onto their arm and you could get help from them to get to your seat.
You know, I think the four most beautiful words in the English language are these: I’ll. Go. With. You.
In this morning’s psalm that is what the psalmist says about God. When we are afraid, God will go with us. Listen again:
I lift up my eyes to the mountains — The mountains are dangerous. Bad things like robbers and outlaws live in the mountains and sometimes they come swooping down and hurt people and steal from them. So the psalmist asks…
Where does my help come from?
Then he answers his own question:
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
“Are you afraid?” the psalmist asks.
Are you scared?
Are you worried?
Relax. God will go with you, just like a good friend will go with you.
(End with a prayer thanking God for keeping his promise to go with us in difficult times.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, March 8, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 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.
