Red, White, and Blurry
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For July 3, 2022:
Red, White, and Blurry
by Chris Keating
Galatians 6:1-6, 7-16 and Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Freedom is not free, but as far as holidays go, Fourth of July is still a bargain. As a nation, we’ll consume around 150 million hot dogs and purchase about $1.4 billion of beer. It adds up to about $80 per person on food and beverages, which makes some of us feel like underachievers. That doesn’t include at least $1.5 billion spent on either purchasing fireworks or attending firework displays.
Compared to big ticket holidays like Christmas or Easter, Fourth of July remains a bargain. But spending nearly the same on beer as we do fireworks might give you reason to tell your brother-in-law to take it easy this weekend.
For many, it’s a day of flag-waving and button-bursting nationalistic pride. Basking in our narratives of American exceptionalism, we light up the city shining on a hill. But there’s another side to the cumulative cost of those stories that we may miss unless we remain attuned to the gospel. Paul pens his own treatise on freedom in Galatians, while Jesus spells out the obligations of discipleship in Luke. Taken together, these words form a counter-narrative to nationalism.
The church has long contended that there is a steep cost to privileging the narratives of nationalism in favor of the proclamation of the gospel.
This Independence Sunday, we hear Paul’s Christian “Magna Carta” cascading against the tumbling of Roe vs. Wade. Following the Supreme Court’s historic overturning of abortion rights, people of faith are called to place Paul’s admonishment to bear one another’s burdens in conversation with the discordant sounds of nationalism. It’s no wonder things seem red, white, and not just a bit blurry.
In the News
Abortion has long dominated and divided the American religious landscape. The abortion debate has stoked tensions in congregations since the 1970s. It’s no surprise, then, that as evangelicals and Roman Catholic groups celebrate the Supreme Court’s ruling others are lamenting.
According to PBS Newshour, Bishop Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said “I am deeply grieved.” Meanwhile, newly elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention Bart Barber said Baptists, “rejoice at the ruling.” Some Jewish and Muslim groups also joined in condemning the court’s decision.
In a joint statement, Archbishop José Gómez, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop William Lori, the head of the bishops’ pro-life committee, praised the court’s decision. “We thank God today that the Court has now overturned this decision,” the statement read. “We pray that our elected officials will now enact laws and policies that promote and protect the most vulnerable among us.”
The bishops’ statement hints at the new battleground over abortion and is an insight on why the spillover from Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Care Organization will contribute to an ever-deepening divide in the nation. When the fireworks clear, what will likely emerge are continuing signs that the debate over abortion is more than divisions about when life begins. What’s at stake is an alarming increase of white Christian nationalism that, as Adam Russell Taylor describes it, becomes “destructive forms of patriotism,” fueled “by a hatred and fear of ‘the other.’”
All sides of the debate acknowledge that the burden of overturning Roe will largely be borne by lower income Black women. Advocacy groups were quick to condemn the majority’s opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, as being potentially dangerous for poor women of color.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the abortion rate for Black women in 2019 was 23.8 per 1,000 women; for Hispanic women it was 11.7 per 1,000 women. For white women, the rate was 6.6 per 1,000. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said that the decision confirms what Black and brown reproductive justice organizers have known for years. “This Court will stop at nothing to strip away our reproductive freedom and our fundamental human right to bodily autonomy,” said Pressely.
The shift toward a nationalistic identity has been at the center of the investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, and was especially prominent in the shootings in Buffalo, New York, earlier this summer. When an advance draft of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case was leaked to the press in May, religion professor Sheila Briggs predicted that conservative religious groups will one day regret the loss of religious freedom.
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Briggs noted that:
The overturning of Roe vs. Wade would threaten religious liberty. If such a ruling remains in effect for any length of time, it will prevent hundreds of thousands, eventually millions, of women from acting upon their conscience. This will result in serious harm for women and their families — and one of the bulwarks of democratic society will be weakened.
Briggs observed that the breadth of religious freedom means anti-abortion groups are not faced with having their religious views scrutinized by the government or controlled by a court. Likewise, she wrote, “a religiously motivated decision to not have an abortion should not be imposed on those of us who do not share the religious beliefs.”
Briggs’ observations are worth considering this Independence Day Weekend as the lines between patriotism and nationalism blur. In these divided times, perhaps our consideration of the basic rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness need to be placed in conversation with the great refrain of Christian freedom: “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
In the Scriptures
Galatians, sometimes called the “Magna Carta” of Christian freedom, addresses issues of Christian freedom that had created sharply defined divisions within the church. Paul writes to settle the matter, insisting that Gentile converts must not be held to the standards of the Jewish law. He provides pastoral instructions and ethical admonitions to the church, consistently admonishing them against “turning to a different gospel.” (v. 1:6)
The beginning of chapter six is a continuation of the “Magna Carta” as Paul condemns the foolishness of the Galatians as returning them to a “yoke of slavery.” He instead urges them to embrace a new identity apart from the law of Judaism which is a life generated by the Spirit. Led by the Spirit, the Galatians are encouraged to an ethical life that produces a harvest of life-giving fruits such as love, joy, peace, and patience. (v. 5:22).
Those admonitions are concluded in chapter six by outlining the responsibilities Christians have for each other. The church’s identity emerges from the grace of Jesus Christ, and is evident when all “carry their own loads” in faithful partnership and mutuality with those whose burdens are greater. Paul challenges his opponents to turn away from the different gospel that has created divisions and dissent. Salvation is a gift of grace that confers a new identity and propels one to a life of mutuality and generosity. The church is called, says Paul, to continue this life without “growing weary in doing what is right.”
Yet that calling is often risky, even perilous, as Jesus admits in commissioning those he sends into the world (Luke 10:1). Not only is the church called to travel lightly — leave the credit cards behind — but they are instructed to exchange safe pastures for uncertain spaces where they will become prey. This is hardly a motivational pep talk. Jesus is not incentivizing mission work, but is instead reminding those sent of their core identity. With his face set firmly toward Jerusalem, Jesus is instructing the disciples to live as he lives, to preach as he proclaims, and to witness as he will witness.
In the Sermon
Galatians 6 and Luke 10 offer insights into the narrative of Christian identity. The immediacy of such a sermon this Independence Day weekend is clear. The factions and divides in our culture continue to grow, well eclipsing the divisions Paul confronts in Galatians. Moreover, many church members will resonate with Jesus’ description of being sent as lambs into the presence of wild and hungry wolves. Mission and ministry are exhausting in a time when churches are perceived as hostile and judgmental, the world is askew, and anxiety bleeds into racism, hatred, and toxic patriotism. These themes resonate within us because they are everyday realities.
Sojourner’s president Adam Russell Taylor writes of his concerns that this July Fourth will be particularly fraught. He sees the trends of how we teach American history and destructive forms of patriotism as creating a poisoned picnic. Instead, Taylor writes, “we should embrace a redemptive patriotism that celebrates the noble promises the country was built upon, even while we acknowledge and repent for the ways the country has fallen so short of living up to those ideals and extending them to everyone.”
Galatians reminds us of this challenge by upholding the call to mutual burden sharing and faithfulness built on fulfilling the law of Christ. The Dobbs decision may have overturned Roe vs. Wade, but it has not taught us how to live with one another. It may send us into new journeys, but it does not equip us the way Jesus equips us. We are given the words of life that strike out against actions designed to control people of color. We are offered marching orders that call us to live to the best ideals of our country: selfless service, mutual recognition of freedom, vigilant defense of the oppressed and marginalized.
This Fourth of July consider how the lines of Christian patriotism have become blurred by unhealthy preoccupation with privilege and status. Paul recenters this narrative by calling Christians to focus intently on the needs of others, and thus fulfill the law of Christ.
* * * * *
SECOND THOUGHTS
Healing Does Not Always Look the Same
by Quantisha Mason-Doll
2 Kings 5:1-14
In May of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, I was admitted to the hospital and ended up requiring minor surgery. For precaution, it was necessary that I stay for four days. On paper, I had a clean bill of health yet it has been two years and I am not really better. I open this way because honestly, I would give anything to have a cure as easy as taking a dip seven times in the river Jordan.
In our text, we encounter multiple narrative streams that show the complex relationship that happens when confronting sickness. In the case of Naaman, we are told that he was affected by leprosy. Biblically speaking, saying someone had leprosy acts as a catch-all for a person afflicted with a skin condition that is seen as a punishment from God. Having a sickness like this would see the person afflicted excluded from community and society. It would be right for us to assume that a man of Naaman station would be desperate to cure his affliction.
When he hears that there is someone that can fix his situation he is quick to jump at the chance. Naaman also takes this chance to flex power, privilege, and status.
Naaman assumes that because of his status as someone held in high regard and favored by the Lord he is deserving of the right to be healed. He does not go to the prophet but directly to the king. The king of Isreal is aghast at Naaman, and the king of Aram boldly assumes that he, the king of Isreal, can cure this man. The king of Isreal shows great emotion and tears his clothing as a sign that he is experiencing great grief at this request. We can understand this moment as an instance where there is an assumption being made. Naaman assumes that because the king of Isreal is in proximity to power he has the authority to fix all things. This is a dangerous assumption because it neglects boundaries put in place to keep people from their power. Naaman wants the king of Isreal to break the rules for him. Naaman perceived himself as extra special so he was deserving of extra special treatment. Naaman is insulted that the king rejects his pleas and sends him off to speak with Elisha who refuses to even face the great commander. When he was told just to take a dip in the river a couple of times he rattles off other rivers wondering what makes this one cure so much better. This is very similar to the way in which people become upset when the answer to the problem is a simple change or a small action yet they war against the idea because it is too simple.
What happens when a person's sickness is not visible like Naaman’s? Do you think they still require healing? I think of the United States, and our current reality as a whole, to be like Naaman. Once highly regarded, full of themselves, and visibility sick — so sick in fact that it is on the verge of self-mutilation in order to save face. There is the assumption that the powers that be are beholden to the American ideology, an ideology that centers on white, cis-gender, men. The sickness that cannot be seen is on the micro-level, which are the marginalized communities that do not fit within the American ideology that centers on white, cis-gender, men. Marginalized communities bearing the brunt of immense psychological and emotional damage cannot be healed with a Band-Aid and some rest and relaxation. Solving the problem that American ideology has propagated looks like acknowledging that we as a collective are not special. Humbling ourselves and identifying that practical healing might look simple, yet it cannot be done in just any ole way. Dipping in the rivers of Damascus is not the same as dipping in the River Jordan, though they are both bodies of water. It is about the time, the place, and the attention placed in the action.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Welcome
As Jesus sends the disciples out, the whole enterprise depends on the people who will make them welcome in their homes. Without hospitality, the good news can’t spread. A group of Montana moms took this call to hospitality to heart. Mary Poole is the director of Soft Landing in Missoula, Montana, “which helped persuade the International Rescue Committee to establish a refugee resettlement office” in Missoula in 2016. At the time, the state was the second lowest in the country in receiving refugees.
Poole’s journey began with the photo of a drowned Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, lying face down on a beach. “Poole remembers seeing the photo on Facebook while she was breastfeeding her then 9-month-old son. She was grief-stricken. Before that, Poole says, she would have struggled to locate Syria on a map and would never have identified herself as an activist. After seeing the photo, Poole reached out to women in her book club to process the crisis in Syria. Everyone had seen it, she recalls.” She adds, “As mothers, we couldn’t stop thinking about it.”
She talked to her friends, who talked to their friend, who talked to their friends, until there was enough interest. They formed Soft Landing, and the first family arrived one week shy of a year since the photo of Aylan Kurdi. “Today, when refugee families arrive in Missoula, volunteer mentors meet them at the airport and stay in close contact with them from day one. Soft Landing’s services are client-driven from that point forward.” The group also takes actions to make the city more welcoming to the people who are coming, working on both sides of the hospitality equation. As Jesus says, Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person.”
* * *
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Listening and Being Wrong
When Jesus sends the disciples out ahead of him, he warns them that things will go wrong. Not everyone will be attentive to the message they carry. Building in the possibility of failure, he says, “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
In these divisive times, we all have failed conversations. Philosopher David Smith offers a suggestion for moving past our divisions. “Is it safe to assume all 63 of us are wrong about something right now?” Smith asked a virtual class, adding, “I think so, because we’ve been wrong about so many things before. But there’s a problem: We don’t know what we’re wrong about. “That simple observation, ‘I’m wrong, I just don’t know what about!,’ should produce some humility. Some willingness to listen.”
Smith poses another question: “Which do you value more: the truth or your own beliefs?”
He told the virtual class, “they’re not synonymous. If I’m wrong about some things — my beliefs about everything all put together — my beliefs are not synonymous with the truth. If I value my own beliefs more than the truth, I’m going to defend myself to the death. And why would I listen to you?”
Author Monica Guzman adds, “To have a chance at really hearing other beliefs, Smith teaches, you have to value truth more than your own opinion, and you have to come in with a measure of humility. To be most useful and alive, our opinions — particularly our political opinions — must be in curious conversation with each other. When we’re divided, politics feels like it’s exclusively about stopping the other side. But at its core, politics is about how we coexist wisely.”
On this Fourth of July weekend, we can have more success in our conversations with each other when we practice attentive and curious listening.
* * *
Galatians 6:(1-6) 7-16
Energy for Doing Right
“Let us not grow weary in doing what is right,” Paul tells the faithful in his letter to the churches in Galatia. When we see the results of doing what is right, it adds to our energy for the longer, deeper work. The story of a new dad inspired everyone in line for pizza.
“I was waiting to order at my family’s go-to pizza place. A man wearing a “World’s Best Daddy” T-shirt stepped into line behind me, a cell phone pressed to his ear. “Honey, the line is really long,” the man said into his phone. “I’m going to go somewhere else.” He listened for a moment, then said, “You’re right — 22 hours of labor deserves your favorite pizza. I’ll bring it back to the hospital as soon as I can.” He sighed and hung up.”
The storyteller says, “I told the man to go ahead of me. Then the woman in front of us urged him to go ahead of her. I watched as each person allowed the man to get in front of them until he was the first one in line. After ordering, the man called out a thank-you to everyone in line: “You made a new mom’s day!” he said.” Let us not grow weary in taking care of each other!
* * *
Galatians 6:(1-6) 7-16
Reaping at Harvest Time
Paul writes to the believers in Galatia about living with a spirit of forgiveness, advising his listeners to restore each other “in a spirit of gentleness.” Author Monica Guzman offers us modern-day, practical advice for this timeless spiritual work. As the pitch of our national conversations rises, we are always defending our views. Instead Guzman advises, “Your opinion is not a final answer. It’s a snapshot of where your mind is right now. It’s not something you have to defend. It’s not even something you have to have at all! The most you can do to keep your opinions sharp and useful is to expose yourself to the new, the old, the surprising, and the interesting. If you come into a conversation holding your opinions more loosely, it can make it easier for everyone in it to explore each other’s perspectives, rather than take turns presenting and defending them.”
She adds, “A handy way to switch from being out to prove something to being out to learn something is to change the question you’re trained on in conversation. Instead of asking “Whose perspective wins?” ask, “What makes each perspective understandable?” If you want to be more curious when you talk to people who think differently from you, don’t try to win or change minds. It’ll distract you from a more interesting and productive conversation that, incidentally, will be much more likely to end up changing minds.”
She also suggests, “If you catch yourself thinking “That’s a good point” or “Sure, that’s fair,” to anything they say (start small if you need to; it builds with practice!) — offer that up before asking your next question or making your next point. This adds that measure of humility, helps balance the conversation with respect, and builds endurance to probe deeper where opposing perspectives meet.”
Her tips allow us to live with the gentleness and forgiveness (even for ourselves) that Paul commends.
* * *
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Listening for God
“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me,” Jesus tells the disciples, as he sends them out in his name. There is a connectedness to all listening, as biologist David Haskell observes when he says, “Birds really were the gateway drug, as it were, to deeper listening.” He finds himself listening to the sounds of creation (what we might call God.) He tells us, “it is extraordinary that you can go to a mountaintop now, or a seashore or a rushing river, and hear sounds almost exactly as they have been for billions of years. You can’t see the world as it was back then — you can only infer what the world looked like or smelled like from fossils and paleontology — but you can literally hear waves beating on the shore as they have been since the Earth cooled enough for liquid water to form. So this contemporary sound that many of us find very attractive and soothing is, in fact, one of the oldest sounds in the world; the same with lightning and wind, strafing over rocks and sand. The sounds of geology and of hydrology and of the air are the primal sounds of the Earth, and it’s a delight to be able to immerse oneself in those still today.”
He finds a kinship in sound, like the deep listening that Jesus highlights, adding, “when we hear the songs of birds that live in forests, particularly dense forests, they tend to be slow, whistled melodies, because that is the kind of sound that transmits well through that habitat. You go out to the prairie, and you hear lots of rapid trills and ups and downs in the frequency suite, because that is the sound that works well there. Go to the ocean shore and you hear cries of gulls and oyster catchers that carry over the tumult of surf. And so the physicality, the materiality of the world, has, in a way, woven itself into the sonic diversity of the creatures that live within that world through this process of the evolutionary adaptation of each creature as they find a voice that works well within the habitat in which they live.”
When we listen to the sounds of the earth, we are listening to the sounds God created, and listening to God.
* * *
Psalm 30
Help from God
“O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,” the psalmist says. Sometimes God offers us spiritual strength, and other times the help is more practical. A woman named Marcy tells about needing a new home, after she became ill and her husband had back problems. She loved her current home, and it was no longer practical for them. Then, she says, “my phone rang. It was my son-in-law. He’d heard about another one-story home that had just been put on the market that morning. I agreed to view it. When we pulled into the subdivision, we recognized it immediately. It was the neighborhood in which my parents used to live. I had visited them there every day. We’d sold their house after they passed. We pulled up behind my son-in-law’s car in front of the listed address: my parents’ former home! He’d had no idea it was the exact house they’d lived in. It looked as if Bill and I would have a familiar place to call home after all.”
Another woman named Lorna adds her story about loving a waterfront home. “Something about it just drew us in. But it wasn’t for sale, and even if it were, its waterfront location would have put it out of our price range. Still, throughout our house hunt, it remained in the back of my mind. One day, Dan found an ad in the newspaper: “House on an acre, finish it yourself.” It was within our price range, so we made an appointment to check it out. Even though it was only the barebones structure, it was clear it had the open, inviting layout we wanted…The owner chimed in. “The floor plan is based on a home I used to be a caretaker for,” he explained. “In fact, my old boss decided to tear down that home. He gave me the materials from that house to reuse for this project.” He told us the address.” It was the house they had always loved, provided to them in a new form by grace.
* * *
Psalm 30
Healing Help from God
Addiction had a strong grip on Dawn Burns. Like the psalmist, she cried out to God for help, seeking the gift of healing. After several rehab stays, she overdosed again, and woke up in the hospital, with a visitor she didn’t recognize. She tells us, “I woke up to see a little blonde girl with glasses, peering over the foot of my hospital bed. In her hand she was carrying a balloon flower, with a red balloon center, a green stalk and orange petals…she came over to the side of my bed. “Here,” she said, “I want you to have this.” I took the balloon flower from her…“Thanks,” I said. I wanted to know who she was, where she had come from, but I was still so tired.” She slept again, and then asked the nurse who the little girl was.
The nurse frowned. “No kids are allowed on this floor. Are you kidding? We’d never permit it. I’ve been at the nurse’s station all day. Nobody’s been here.”
Then the nurse reached over and picked up the balloon flower. Dawn says, “I left that hospital a changed woman. Never took a drink or touched a drug again. I no longer wondered if God really cared about me. If that little girl had never visited, why was the balloon flower still there?”
God sent a mysterious kind of help. Like the psalmist, Dawn can say, “O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.”
* * *
Psalm 30
Help Through People
As we lift our prayers to God, God’s answers so often come through other people. A Massachusetts church offers their help through a furniture bank and delivery service, for people in need of furniture for a new home, and unable to pay for movers. SACC Movers is “a volunteer service project of South Acton Congregational Church in Massachusetts. For 50 years, SACC Movers has moved household goods for people facing the challenge of moving without sufficient funds.”
In one case, the “SACC Movers are called to help a woman and her two young children, recent immigrants from Pakistan who’ve found a place through the local housing authority but have no way to move their possessions. A few hours later, boxes and furniture fill every corner of their new apartment. The beds are assembled, the kitchen supplies unpacked. It looks like the job is finished, and the movers prepare to leave. But one man quietly approaches the woman and asks, “Where will you pray?” She gazes around the room, her glance alighting on space next to a sunny window. “There, I think,” she replies, pointing, though the spot is filled with boxes and furniture. The team sets to work again. When the space is cleared, the woman gathers her children to her side, her face breaking into a smile.”
Another time, “the SACC Movers show up to move a woman whose landlord has decided to upgrade her apartment and wants her out immediately. She lives on the second floor, with no elevator. The team will have to carry her possessions down two flights of stairs. When they arrive at the apartment, they find her packing the last boxes in a dark one-bedroom apartment. She moves easily in her wheelchair as she does her final organizing There is almost no food to pack: She reports that her helper hasn’t come lately. Once her furniture and boxes are in the moving van, it is time to go.” The woman asks who will carry her, since she can’t walk.
“How do you usually go out?” they ask.
“I never leave,” is the short reply. “I haven’t been out of this apartment in two years. My helper brings me everything I need.”
“The local fire department is called, and two firefighters carry her down the stairs to her long-neglected car. The housing authority luckily has a good option available: The woman’s new place is a ground-level one-bedroom in a large apartment complex, with access to the outdoors and other people. She can even drive again.”
In her new home, the woman takes a long breath. “I haven’t felt sunshine on my face in a long time,” she says. “I’m home, I’m really home.” God’s help comes in all kinds of forms, even through us.
* * * * * *
From team member Tom Willadsen:
2 Kings 5:1-14
Because some of us never left 5th grade
Leprosy
All my skin is falling off of me
I’m not half the man I used to be
Oh, I believe I’ve leprosy
(to the tune of “Yesterday” by the Beatles)
* * *
2 Kings 5:1-14
Take Me to the River
Soul music superstar Al Green wrote “Take Me to the River” in 1974. It appears on his “Al Green Explores Your Mind” album. Rolling Stone ranked it #117 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. A single version by Syl Johnson hit #59 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1975. The Talking Heads recorded the only version to hit the US Top 40, when their cover of the song reached #26 on the Billboard chart in 1979. David Byrne, leader of the Talking Heads, said this about his band’s version of the song:
"Coincidence or conspiracy? There were at least four cover versions of this song out at the same time: Foghat, Bryan Ferry, Levon Helm, and us. More money for Mr. Green's full gospel tabernacle church, I suppose. A song that combines teenage lust with baptism. Not equates, you understand, but throws them in the same stew, at least. A potent blend. All praise the mighty spurtin' Jesus."
Here is a Wikipedia entry for "Take Me to the River."
The story of Naaman’s trip to the river will certainly start this song looping in some of your members’ minds.
I don't know why I love her like I do
All the changes you put me through
Take my money, my cigarettes
I haven't seen the worst of it yet
I want to know that you'll tell me
I love to stay
Take me to the river, drop me in the water
Take me to the river, dip me in the water
Washing me down, washing me down
* * *
Luke 10:11
The dust on your shoes
In the classic holiday film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey makes two scriptural allusions. One is in today’s lesson from Luke, where Jesus tells his followers how to leave a community that has not welcomed them
‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ New Revised Standard Updated Edition
As George is preparing to go off to college, a plan that is derailed by his father’s sudden death, he says he’s going to “shake the dust of this crummy little town off his feet and see the world!”
When George’s brother Harry returns from college—having used the money set aside for George’s tuition while George stayed behind to run the Building and Loan—and steps off the train George exclaims, “Kill the fatted calf,” an obvious allusion to Luke 15:23.
* * *
Luke 10:5-7, Galatians 6:6
Paying the Piper, I mean Preacher
Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them. (Galatians 6:6, New Living Translation)
Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. (Luke 10:5-7, New Revised Standard Updated Edition)
“There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches. The wrong comes when riches possess men.” Billy Graham
Clergy compensation can be a difficult topic for churches and pastors to discuss. Many pastors are leaving seminary with enormous student debt, entering a profession with very high standards for education and comparatively low pay. At every church I have ever served the pastors’ care and feeding is easily the largest part of the budget. Discussion of clergy compensation is even more fraught in Presbyterian churches because the pastors’ terms of call are voted on by the entire congregation. Weighing the needs of an educated, deeply in debt leader with the desire for a balanced budget can turn congregational meetings into congregational melees.
Jesus offers some simple, straight forward advice to those whom he sent out on mission: accept hospitality; you’re working and should be paid for your work.
Paul makes the same point in Galatians 6, interrupting the last chapter with a stand-alone thought, that teachers should be compensated.
When I attended seminary in the late 1980s the scandals involving televangelists were about the only religious news being covered in the mainstream media. A classmate fumed that our seminary offered no courses in televangelism —even though that’s where the Big Bucks are in ministry! He wasn’t kidding, and things have gotten even more excessive in the last 30 years.
A quick internet search brought Edir Macedo to my attention. He’s a fabulously wealthy Brazilian Pentecostal preacher, who clearly went to a seminary that offered courses in televangelism!
At the top of our list is a guy you might not have ever heard of, but he’s easily the wealthiest pastor alive (maybe of all time) with a net worth that laps every other entry on this list combined. Edir Macedo is a Catholic-turned-Pentecostal preacher in Rio de Janeiro who brings in over $2 billion each year in donations. Another adherent to prosperity teaching, Macedo is a media mogul and savvy businessman who basically owns the Brazilian religious industry. Worth $1.1 billion himself, Macedo wears his wealth unapologetically, citing it as proof that his interpretation of the gospel is the real deal.
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: Let us extol our God who has drawn us up.
All: We cried to God and we were healed.
One: Sing praise to God and give thanks to God’s holy name.
All: God’s anger is but for a moment, God’s favor is forever.
One: God has turned our mourning into dancing.
All: God has clothed us with abundant joy.
OR
One: Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
All: sing the glory of God’s name.
One: All the earth worships you, O God, and sings praises to you.
All: Come and see what God has done; look at God’s awesome deeds.
One: Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of God’s praise be heard,
All: God has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.
OR
One: God comes among us and offers us new life.
All: Come, God, and renew us in your own image.
One: God is our Sovereign and reigns over all creation.
All: We bow before our God and Redeemer.
One: The ways of God are truth and life eternal.
All: We follow Jesus along the path of God.
Hymns and Songs
Come, Thou Almighty King
UMH: 61
H82: 365
PH: 139
AAHH: 327
NNBH: 38
NCH: 275
CH: 27
LBW: 522
ELW: 408
W&P: 148
AMEC: 7
This Is My Song
UMH: 437
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELW: 887
STLT: 159
O Worship the King
UMH: 73
H82: 388
PH: 476
NNBH: 6
NCH: 26
CH: 17
LBW: 548
ELW: 842
W&P: 2
AMEC: 12
All People That on Earth Do Dwell
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELW: 883
W&P: 661
AMEC: 73
STLT: 370
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
UMH: 154/155
H82: 450/451
PH: 142/143
AAHH: 292/293/294
NNBH: 3/5
NCH: 304
CH: 91/92
LBW: 328/329
ELW: 634
W&P: 100/106
AMEC: 4/5/6
Renew: 45
Jesus Shall Reign
UMH: 157
H82: 544
PH: 423
NNBH: 10
NCH: 300
CH: 95
LBW: 530
ELW: 434
W&P: 341
AMEC: 96
Renew: 296
Pues Si Vivimos (When We Are Living)
UMH: 356
PH: 400
NCH: 499
CH: 536
ELW: 639
W&P: 415
Take My Life, and Let It Be
UMH: 399
H82: 707
PH: 391
NNBH: 213
NCH: 448
CH: 609
LBW: 406
ELW: 583/685
W&P: 466
AMEC: 292
Renew: 150
Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart
UMH: 500
PH: 326
AAHH: 312
NCH: 290
CH: 265
LBW: 486
ELW: 800
W&P: 132
AMEC: 189
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH: 577
H82: 594/595
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELW: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
Shine, Jesus, Shine
CCB: 81
Renew: 247
Open Our Eyes, Lord
CCB: 77
Renew: 91
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who rules over all creation and all creatures:
Grant us the wisdom to know that you are Sovereign
and that Jesus leads us into your realm;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, and acknowledge you as our Sovereign. You created us and we are yours. Help us to follow Jesus and to enter fully into your realm. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our unwillingness to change our lives to conform to the ways of your realm.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We claim to be followers of Jesus and citizens of your realm and yet we often give our allegiance to other ways. We worship things instead of you; we value greed over generosity. We claim we know you and that you are love and then we damn in your name those whom you are saving. Forgive us and renew us so that we may truly be your children. Amen.
One: Our God comes and claims us even when we stray. Receive God’s grace and forgiveness and share God’s love with all God’s people.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory to you, O God our Sovereign. You reign in love over all and share your blessings with all creation.
(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 claim to be followers of Jesus and citizens of your realm and yet we often give our allegiance to other ways. We worship things instead of you; we value greed over generosity. We claim we know you and that you are love and then we damn in your name those whom you are saving. Forgive us and renew us so that we may truly be your children.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you bring your love into our lives. We thank you for the beauty and bounty of the earth you have given into our care. We thank you for all your children who bring such a diverse look to our world. We thank you that you offer us the opportunity to change and grow in our likeness to yourself.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children and especially those who find themselves in need this day. We pray for the sick, the dying, and the grieving. We pray for the poor and the needy. We pray for the lonely and those caught in violence. We pray for those who are caught in the webs of greed and hate.
(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
Asking For Help
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Kings 5:1-14 and Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20
You will need:
Invite another child to join the first and see if the two of them, together, can catch the ball. Nope.
Say: You know, sometimes we run into tasks that are just impossible to do by ourselves. What do you think we should do when that happens? Ask for help! That’s right. One of our Bible stories, today, is about a famous army general who was sick and the prophet, Elisha, could heal him but he was too proud to ask Elisha and he was too proud to do what Elisha said he should do to be healed.
Finally, he asked for help and did what Elisha said, and he was healed.
So, let’s ask for help and see if we can catch this ball with rope.
Summon the kids to stand in four lines, in a square, facing each other. Have them give one end of their rope to the person opposite them and then, when all the ropes are pulled tight, weave them into a net. Now, toss the ball into the net. Tada!
When we help each other, we can accomplish what is impossible for any one of us to do alone! God wants us to help each other.
End with a prayer thanking God for the church, Christian people who are called to come together to help one another and people everywhere.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 3, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- Red, White, and Blurry by Chris Keating. Based on Galatians 6:1-6, 7-16 and Luke 10:1-11, 16-20.
- Healing Does Not Always Look the Same by Quantisha Mason-Doll. Based on 2 Kings 5:1-14.
- Sermon illustrations by Mary Austin, Tom Willadsen.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children's sermon: Asking for Help by Dean Feldmeyer.
Red, White, and Blurryby Chris Keating
Galatians 6:1-6, 7-16 and Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Freedom is not free, but as far as holidays go, Fourth of July is still a bargain. As a nation, we’ll consume around 150 million hot dogs and purchase about $1.4 billion of beer. It adds up to about $80 per person on food and beverages, which makes some of us feel like underachievers. That doesn’t include at least $1.5 billion spent on either purchasing fireworks or attending firework displays.
Compared to big ticket holidays like Christmas or Easter, Fourth of July remains a bargain. But spending nearly the same on beer as we do fireworks might give you reason to tell your brother-in-law to take it easy this weekend.
For many, it’s a day of flag-waving and button-bursting nationalistic pride. Basking in our narratives of American exceptionalism, we light up the city shining on a hill. But there’s another side to the cumulative cost of those stories that we may miss unless we remain attuned to the gospel. Paul pens his own treatise on freedom in Galatians, while Jesus spells out the obligations of discipleship in Luke. Taken together, these words form a counter-narrative to nationalism.
The church has long contended that there is a steep cost to privileging the narratives of nationalism in favor of the proclamation of the gospel.
This Independence Sunday, we hear Paul’s Christian “Magna Carta” cascading against the tumbling of Roe vs. Wade. Following the Supreme Court’s historic overturning of abortion rights, people of faith are called to place Paul’s admonishment to bear one another’s burdens in conversation with the discordant sounds of nationalism. It’s no wonder things seem red, white, and not just a bit blurry.
In the News
Abortion has long dominated and divided the American religious landscape. The abortion debate has stoked tensions in congregations since the 1970s. It’s no surprise, then, that as evangelicals and Roman Catholic groups celebrate the Supreme Court’s ruling others are lamenting.
According to PBS Newshour, Bishop Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said “I am deeply grieved.” Meanwhile, newly elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention Bart Barber said Baptists, “rejoice at the ruling.” Some Jewish and Muslim groups also joined in condemning the court’s decision.
In a joint statement, Archbishop José Gómez, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop William Lori, the head of the bishops’ pro-life committee, praised the court’s decision. “We thank God today that the Court has now overturned this decision,” the statement read. “We pray that our elected officials will now enact laws and policies that promote and protect the most vulnerable among us.”
The bishops’ statement hints at the new battleground over abortion and is an insight on why the spillover from Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Care Organization will contribute to an ever-deepening divide in the nation. When the fireworks clear, what will likely emerge are continuing signs that the debate over abortion is more than divisions about when life begins. What’s at stake is an alarming increase of white Christian nationalism that, as Adam Russell Taylor describes it, becomes “destructive forms of patriotism,” fueled “by a hatred and fear of ‘the other.’”
All sides of the debate acknowledge that the burden of overturning Roe will largely be borne by lower income Black women. Advocacy groups were quick to condemn the majority’s opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, as being potentially dangerous for poor women of color.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the abortion rate for Black women in 2019 was 23.8 per 1,000 women; for Hispanic women it was 11.7 per 1,000 women. For white women, the rate was 6.6 per 1,000. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said that the decision confirms what Black and brown reproductive justice organizers have known for years. “This Court will stop at nothing to strip away our reproductive freedom and our fundamental human right to bodily autonomy,” said Pressely.
The shift toward a nationalistic identity has been at the center of the investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, and was especially prominent in the shootings in Buffalo, New York, earlier this summer. When an advance draft of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case was leaked to the press in May, religion professor Sheila Briggs predicted that conservative religious groups will one day regret the loss of religious freedom.
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Briggs noted that:
The overturning of Roe vs. Wade would threaten religious liberty. If such a ruling remains in effect for any length of time, it will prevent hundreds of thousands, eventually millions, of women from acting upon their conscience. This will result in serious harm for women and their families — and one of the bulwarks of democratic society will be weakened.
Briggs observed that the breadth of religious freedom means anti-abortion groups are not faced with having their religious views scrutinized by the government or controlled by a court. Likewise, she wrote, “a religiously motivated decision to not have an abortion should not be imposed on those of us who do not share the religious beliefs.”
Briggs’ observations are worth considering this Independence Day Weekend as the lines between patriotism and nationalism blur. In these divided times, perhaps our consideration of the basic rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness need to be placed in conversation with the great refrain of Christian freedom: “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
In the Scriptures
Galatians, sometimes called the “Magna Carta” of Christian freedom, addresses issues of Christian freedom that had created sharply defined divisions within the church. Paul writes to settle the matter, insisting that Gentile converts must not be held to the standards of the Jewish law. He provides pastoral instructions and ethical admonitions to the church, consistently admonishing them against “turning to a different gospel.” (v. 1:6)
The beginning of chapter six is a continuation of the “Magna Carta” as Paul condemns the foolishness of the Galatians as returning them to a “yoke of slavery.” He instead urges them to embrace a new identity apart from the law of Judaism which is a life generated by the Spirit. Led by the Spirit, the Galatians are encouraged to an ethical life that produces a harvest of life-giving fruits such as love, joy, peace, and patience. (v. 5:22).
Those admonitions are concluded in chapter six by outlining the responsibilities Christians have for each other. The church’s identity emerges from the grace of Jesus Christ, and is evident when all “carry their own loads” in faithful partnership and mutuality with those whose burdens are greater. Paul challenges his opponents to turn away from the different gospel that has created divisions and dissent. Salvation is a gift of grace that confers a new identity and propels one to a life of mutuality and generosity. The church is called, says Paul, to continue this life without “growing weary in doing what is right.”
Yet that calling is often risky, even perilous, as Jesus admits in commissioning those he sends into the world (Luke 10:1). Not only is the church called to travel lightly — leave the credit cards behind — but they are instructed to exchange safe pastures for uncertain spaces where they will become prey. This is hardly a motivational pep talk. Jesus is not incentivizing mission work, but is instead reminding those sent of their core identity. With his face set firmly toward Jerusalem, Jesus is instructing the disciples to live as he lives, to preach as he proclaims, and to witness as he will witness.
In the Sermon
Galatians 6 and Luke 10 offer insights into the narrative of Christian identity. The immediacy of such a sermon this Independence Day weekend is clear. The factions and divides in our culture continue to grow, well eclipsing the divisions Paul confronts in Galatians. Moreover, many church members will resonate with Jesus’ description of being sent as lambs into the presence of wild and hungry wolves. Mission and ministry are exhausting in a time when churches are perceived as hostile and judgmental, the world is askew, and anxiety bleeds into racism, hatred, and toxic patriotism. These themes resonate within us because they are everyday realities.
Sojourner’s president Adam Russell Taylor writes of his concerns that this July Fourth will be particularly fraught. He sees the trends of how we teach American history and destructive forms of patriotism as creating a poisoned picnic. Instead, Taylor writes, “we should embrace a redemptive patriotism that celebrates the noble promises the country was built upon, even while we acknowledge and repent for the ways the country has fallen so short of living up to those ideals and extending them to everyone.”
Galatians reminds us of this challenge by upholding the call to mutual burden sharing and faithfulness built on fulfilling the law of Christ. The Dobbs decision may have overturned Roe vs. Wade, but it has not taught us how to live with one another. It may send us into new journeys, but it does not equip us the way Jesus equips us. We are given the words of life that strike out against actions designed to control people of color. We are offered marching orders that call us to live to the best ideals of our country: selfless service, mutual recognition of freedom, vigilant defense of the oppressed and marginalized.
This Fourth of July consider how the lines of Christian patriotism have become blurred by unhealthy preoccupation with privilege and status. Paul recenters this narrative by calling Christians to focus intently on the needs of others, and thus fulfill the law of Christ.
* * * * *
SECOND THOUGHTSHealing Does Not Always Look the Same
by Quantisha Mason-Doll
2 Kings 5:1-14
In May of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, I was admitted to the hospital and ended up requiring minor surgery. For precaution, it was necessary that I stay for four days. On paper, I had a clean bill of health yet it has been two years and I am not really better. I open this way because honestly, I would give anything to have a cure as easy as taking a dip seven times in the river Jordan.
In our text, we encounter multiple narrative streams that show the complex relationship that happens when confronting sickness. In the case of Naaman, we are told that he was affected by leprosy. Biblically speaking, saying someone had leprosy acts as a catch-all for a person afflicted with a skin condition that is seen as a punishment from God. Having a sickness like this would see the person afflicted excluded from community and society. It would be right for us to assume that a man of Naaman station would be desperate to cure his affliction.
When he hears that there is someone that can fix his situation he is quick to jump at the chance. Naaman also takes this chance to flex power, privilege, and status.
Naaman assumes that because of his status as someone held in high regard and favored by the Lord he is deserving of the right to be healed. He does not go to the prophet but directly to the king. The king of Isreal is aghast at Naaman, and the king of Aram boldly assumes that he, the king of Isreal, can cure this man. The king of Isreal shows great emotion and tears his clothing as a sign that he is experiencing great grief at this request. We can understand this moment as an instance where there is an assumption being made. Naaman assumes that because the king of Isreal is in proximity to power he has the authority to fix all things. This is a dangerous assumption because it neglects boundaries put in place to keep people from their power. Naaman wants the king of Isreal to break the rules for him. Naaman perceived himself as extra special so he was deserving of extra special treatment. Naaman is insulted that the king rejects his pleas and sends him off to speak with Elisha who refuses to even face the great commander. When he was told just to take a dip in the river a couple of times he rattles off other rivers wondering what makes this one cure so much better. This is very similar to the way in which people become upset when the answer to the problem is a simple change or a small action yet they war against the idea because it is too simple.
What happens when a person's sickness is not visible like Naaman’s? Do you think they still require healing? I think of the United States, and our current reality as a whole, to be like Naaman. Once highly regarded, full of themselves, and visibility sick — so sick in fact that it is on the verge of self-mutilation in order to save face. There is the assumption that the powers that be are beholden to the American ideology, an ideology that centers on white, cis-gender, men. The sickness that cannot be seen is on the micro-level, which are the marginalized communities that do not fit within the American ideology that centers on white, cis-gender, men. Marginalized communities bearing the brunt of immense psychological and emotional damage cannot be healed with a Band-Aid and some rest and relaxation. Solving the problem that American ideology has propagated looks like acknowledging that we as a collective are not special. Humbling ourselves and identifying that practical healing might look simple, yet it cannot be done in just any ole way. Dipping in the rivers of Damascus is not the same as dipping in the River Jordan, though they are both bodies of water. It is about the time, the place, and the attention placed in the action.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Welcome
As Jesus sends the disciples out, the whole enterprise depends on the people who will make them welcome in their homes. Without hospitality, the good news can’t spread. A group of Montana moms took this call to hospitality to heart. Mary Poole is the director of Soft Landing in Missoula, Montana, “which helped persuade the International Rescue Committee to establish a refugee resettlement office” in Missoula in 2016. At the time, the state was the second lowest in the country in receiving refugees.
Poole’s journey began with the photo of a drowned Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, lying face down on a beach. “Poole remembers seeing the photo on Facebook while she was breastfeeding her then 9-month-old son. She was grief-stricken. Before that, Poole says, she would have struggled to locate Syria on a map and would never have identified herself as an activist. After seeing the photo, Poole reached out to women in her book club to process the crisis in Syria. Everyone had seen it, she recalls.” She adds, “As mothers, we couldn’t stop thinking about it.”
She talked to her friends, who talked to their friend, who talked to their friends, until there was enough interest. They formed Soft Landing, and the first family arrived one week shy of a year since the photo of Aylan Kurdi. “Today, when refugee families arrive in Missoula, volunteer mentors meet them at the airport and stay in close contact with them from day one. Soft Landing’s services are client-driven from that point forward.” The group also takes actions to make the city more welcoming to the people who are coming, working on both sides of the hospitality equation. As Jesus says, Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person.”
* * *
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Listening and Being Wrong
When Jesus sends the disciples out ahead of him, he warns them that things will go wrong. Not everyone will be attentive to the message they carry. Building in the possibility of failure, he says, “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
In these divisive times, we all have failed conversations. Philosopher David Smith offers a suggestion for moving past our divisions. “Is it safe to assume all 63 of us are wrong about something right now?” Smith asked a virtual class, adding, “I think so, because we’ve been wrong about so many things before. But there’s a problem: We don’t know what we’re wrong about. “That simple observation, ‘I’m wrong, I just don’t know what about!,’ should produce some humility. Some willingness to listen.”
Smith poses another question: “Which do you value more: the truth or your own beliefs?”
He told the virtual class, “they’re not synonymous. If I’m wrong about some things — my beliefs about everything all put together — my beliefs are not synonymous with the truth. If I value my own beliefs more than the truth, I’m going to defend myself to the death. And why would I listen to you?”
Author Monica Guzman adds, “To have a chance at really hearing other beliefs, Smith teaches, you have to value truth more than your own opinion, and you have to come in with a measure of humility. To be most useful and alive, our opinions — particularly our political opinions — must be in curious conversation with each other. When we’re divided, politics feels like it’s exclusively about stopping the other side. But at its core, politics is about how we coexist wisely.”
On this Fourth of July weekend, we can have more success in our conversations with each other when we practice attentive and curious listening.
* * *
Galatians 6:(1-6) 7-16
Energy for Doing Right
“Let us not grow weary in doing what is right,” Paul tells the faithful in his letter to the churches in Galatia. When we see the results of doing what is right, it adds to our energy for the longer, deeper work. The story of a new dad inspired everyone in line for pizza.
“I was waiting to order at my family’s go-to pizza place. A man wearing a “World’s Best Daddy” T-shirt stepped into line behind me, a cell phone pressed to his ear. “Honey, the line is really long,” the man said into his phone. “I’m going to go somewhere else.” He listened for a moment, then said, “You’re right — 22 hours of labor deserves your favorite pizza. I’ll bring it back to the hospital as soon as I can.” He sighed and hung up.”
The storyteller says, “I told the man to go ahead of me. Then the woman in front of us urged him to go ahead of her. I watched as each person allowed the man to get in front of them until he was the first one in line. After ordering, the man called out a thank-you to everyone in line: “You made a new mom’s day!” he said.” Let us not grow weary in taking care of each other!
* * *
Galatians 6:(1-6) 7-16
Reaping at Harvest Time
Paul writes to the believers in Galatia about living with a spirit of forgiveness, advising his listeners to restore each other “in a spirit of gentleness.” Author Monica Guzman offers us modern-day, practical advice for this timeless spiritual work. As the pitch of our national conversations rises, we are always defending our views. Instead Guzman advises, “Your opinion is not a final answer. It’s a snapshot of where your mind is right now. It’s not something you have to defend. It’s not even something you have to have at all! The most you can do to keep your opinions sharp and useful is to expose yourself to the new, the old, the surprising, and the interesting. If you come into a conversation holding your opinions more loosely, it can make it easier for everyone in it to explore each other’s perspectives, rather than take turns presenting and defending them.”
She adds, “A handy way to switch from being out to prove something to being out to learn something is to change the question you’re trained on in conversation. Instead of asking “Whose perspective wins?” ask, “What makes each perspective understandable?” If you want to be more curious when you talk to people who think differently from you, don’t try to win or change minds. It’ll distract you from a more interesting and productive conversation that, incidentally, will be much more likely to end up changing minds.”
She also suggests, “If you catch yourself thinking “That’s a good point” or “Sure, that’s fair,” to anything they say (start small if you need to; it builds with practice!) — offer that up before asking your next question or making your next point. This adds that measure of humility, helps balance the conversation with respect, and builds endurance to probe deeper where opposing perspectives meet.”
Her tips allow us to live with the gentleness and forgiveness (even for ourselves) that Paul commends.
* * *
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Listening for God
“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me,” Jesus tells the disciples, as he sends them out in his name. There is a connectedness to all listening, as biologist David Haskell observes when he says, “Birds really were the gateway drug, as it were, to deeper listening.” He finds himself listening to the sounds of creation (what we might call God.) He tells us, “it is extraordinary that you can go to a mountaintop now, or a seashore or a rushing river, and hear sounds almost exactly as they have been for billions of years. You can’t see the world as it was back then — you can only infer what the world looked like or smelled like from fossils and paleontology — but you can literally hear waves beating on the shore as they have been since the Earth cooled enough for liquid water to form. So this contemporary sound that many of us find very attractive and soothing is, in fact, one of the oldest sounds in the world; the same with lightning and wind, strafing over rocks and sand. The sounds of geology and of hydrology and of the air are the primal sounds of the Earth, and it’s a delight to be able to immerse oneself in those still today.”
He finds a kinship in sound, like the deep listening that Jesus highlights, adding, “when we hear the songs of birds that live in forests, particularly dense forests, they tend to be slow, whistled melodies, because that is the kind of sound that transmits well through that habitat. You go out to the prairie, and you hear lots of rapid trills and ups and downs in the frequency suite, because that is the sound that works well there. Go to the ocean shore and you hear cries of gulls and oyster catchers that carry over the tumult of surf. And so the physicality, the materiality of the world, has, in a way, woven itself into the sonic diversity of the creatures that live within that world through this process of the evolutionary adaptation of each creature as they find a voice that works well within the habitat in which they live.”
When we listen to the sounds of the earth, we are listening to the sounds God created, and listening to God.
* * *
Psalm 30
Help from God
“O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,” the psalmist says. Sometimes God offers us spiritual strength, and other times the help is more practical. A woman named Marcy tells about needing a new home, after she became ill and her husband had back problems. She loved her current home, and it was no longer practical for them. Then, she says, “my phone rang. It was my son-in-law. He’d heard about another one-story home that had just been put on the market that morning. I agreed to view it. When we pulled into the subdivision, we recognized it immediately. It was the neighborhood in which my parents used to live. I had visited them there every day. We’d sold their house after they passed. We pulled up behind my son-in-law’s car in front of the listed address: my parents’ former home! He’d had no idea it was the exact house they’d lived in. It looked as if Bill and I would have a familiar place to call home after all.”
Another woman named Lorna adds her story about loving a waterfront home. “Something about it just drew us in. But it wasn’t for sale, and even if it were, its waterfront location would have put it out of our price range. Still, throughout our house hunt, it remained in the back of my mind. One day, Dan found an ad in the newspaper: “House on an acre, finish it yourself.” It was within our price range, so we made an appointment to check it out. Even though it was only the barebones structure, it was clear it had the open, inviting layout we wanted…The owner chimed in. “The floor plan is based on a home I used to be a caretaker for,” he explained. “In fact, my old boss decided to tear down that home. He gave me the materials from that house to reuse for this project.” He told us the address.” It was the house they had always loved, provided to them in a new form by grace.
* * *
Psalm 30
Healing Help from God
Addiction had a strong grip on Dawn Burns. Like the psalmist, she cried out to God for help, seeking the gift of healing. After several rehab stays, she overdosed again, and woke up in the hospital, with a visitor she didn’t recognize. She tells us, “I woke up to see a little blonde girl with glasses, peering over the foot of my hospital bed. In her hand she was carrying a balloon flower, with a red balloon center, a green stalk and orange petals…she came over to the side of my bed. “Here,” she said, “I want you to have this.” I took the balloon flower from her…“Thanks,” I said. I wanted to know who she was, where she had come from, but I was still so tired.” She slept again, and then asked the nurse who the little girl was.
The nurse frowned. “No kids are allowed on this floor. Are you kidding? We’d never permit it. I’ve been at the nurse’s station all day. Nobody’s been here.”
Then the nurse reached over and picked up the balloon flower. Dawn says, “I left that hospital a changed woman. Never took a drink or touched a drug again. I no longer wondered if God really cared about me. If that little girl had never visited, why was the balloon flower still there?”
God sent a mysterious kind of help. Like the psalmist, Dawn can say, “O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.”
* * *
Psalm 30
Help Through People
As we lift our prayers to God, God’s answers so often come through other people. A Massachusetts church offers their help through a furniture bank and delivery service, for people in need of furniture for a new home, and unable to pay for movers. SACC Movers is “a volunteer service project of South Acton Congregational Church in Massachusetts. For 50 years, SACC Movers has moved household goods for people facing the challenge of moving without sufficient funds.”
In one case, the “SACC Movers are called to help a woman and her two young children, recent immigrants from Pakistan who’ve found a place through the local housing authority but have no way to move their possessions. A few hours later, boxes and furniture fill every corner of their new apartment. The beds are assembled, the kitchen supplies unpacked. It looks like the job is finished, and the movers prepare to leave. But one man quietly approaches the woman and asks, “Where will you pray?” She gazes around the room, her glance alighting on space next to a sunny window. “There, I think,” she replies, pointing, though the spot is filled with boxes and furniture. The team sets to work again. When the space is cleared, the woman gathers her children to her side, her face breaking into a smile.”
Another time, “the SACC Movers show up to move a woman whose landlord has decided to upgrade her apartment and wants her out immediately. She lives on the second floor, with no elevator. The team will have to carry her possessions down two flights of stairs. When they arrive at the apartment, they find her packing the last boxes in a dark one-bedroom apartment. She moves easily in her wheelchair as she does her final organizing There is almost no food to pack: She reports that her helper hasn’t come lately. Once her furniture and boxes are in the moving van, it is time to go.” The woman asks who will carry her, since she can’t walk.
“How do you usually go out?” they ask.
“I never leave,” is the short reply. “I haven’t been out of this apartment in two years. My helper brings me everything I need.”
“The local fire department is called, and two firefighters carry her down the stairs to her long-neglected car. The housing authority luckily has a good option available: The woman’s new place is a ground-level one-bedroom in a large apartment complex, with access to the outdoors and other people. She can even drive again.”
In her new home, the woman takes a long breath. “I haven’t felt sunshine on my face in a long time,” she says. “I’m home, I’m really home.” God’s help comes in all kinds of forms, even through us.
* * * * * *
From team member Tom Willadsen:2 Kings 5:1-14
Because some of us never left 5th grade
Leprosy
All my skin is falling off of me
I’m not half the man I used to be
Oh, I believe I’ve leprosy
(to the tune of “Yesterday” by the Beatles)
* * *
2 Kings 5:1-14
Take Me to the River
Soul music superstar Al Green wrote “Take Me to the River” in 1974. It appears on his “Al Green Explores Your Mind” album. Rolling Stone ranked it #117 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. A single version by Syl Johnson hit #59 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1975. The Talking Heads recorded the only version to hit the US Top 40, when their cover of the song reached #26 on the Billboard chart in 1979. David Byrne, leader of the Talking Heads, said this about his band’s version of the song:
"Coincidence or conspiracy? There were at least four cover versions of this song out at the same time: Foghat, Bryan Ferry, Levon Helm, and us. More money for Mr. Green's full gospel tabernacle church, I suppose. A song that combines teenage lust with baptism. Not equates, you understand, but throws them in the same stew, at least. A potent blend. All praise the mighty spurtin' Jesus."
Here is a Wikipedia entry for "Take Me to the River."
The story of Naaman’s trip to the river will certainly start this song looping in some of your members’ minds.
I don't know why I love her like I do
All the changes you put me through
Take my money, my cigarettes
I haven't seen the worst of it yet
I want to know that you'll tell me
I love to stay
Take me to the river, drop me in the water
Take me to the river, dip me in the water
Washing me down, washing me down
* * *
Luke 10:11
The dust on your shoes
In the classic holiday film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey makes two scriptural allusions. One is in today’s lesson from Luke, where Jesus tells his followers how to leave a community that has not welcomed them
‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ New Revised Standard Updated Edition
As George is preparing to go off to college, a plan that is derailed by his father’s sudden death, he says he’s going to “shake the dust of this crummy little town off his feet and see the world!”
When George’s brother Harry returns from college—having used the money set aside for George’s tuition while George stayed behind to run the Building and Loan—and steps off the train George exclaims, “Kill the fatted calf,” an obvious allusion to Luke 15:23.
* * *
Luke 10:5-7, Galatians 6:6
Paying the Piper, I mean Preacher
Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them. (Galatians 6:6, New Living Translation)
Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. (Luke 10:5-7, New Revised Standard Updated Edition)
“There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches. The wrong comes when riches possess men.” Billy Graham
Clergy compensation can be a difficult topic for churches and pastors to discuss. Many pastors are leaving seminary with enormous student debt, entering a profession with very high standards for education and comparatively low pay. At every church I have ever served the pastors’ care and feeding is easily the largest part of the budget. Discussion of clergy compensation is even more fraught in Presbyterian churches because the pastors’ terms of call are voted on by the entire congregation. Weighing the needs of an educated, deeply in debt leader with the desire for a balanced budget can turn congregational meetings into congregational melees.
Jesus offers some simple, straight forward advice to those whom he sent out on mission: accept hospitality; you’re working and should be paid for your work.
Paul makes the same point in Galatians 6, interrupting the last chapter with a stand-alone thought, that teachers should be compensated.
When I attended seminary in the late 1980s the scandals involving televangelists were about the only religious news being covered in the mainstream media. A classmate fumed that our seminary offered no courses in televangelism —even though that’s where the Big Bucks are in ministry! He wasn’t kidding, and things have gotten even more excessive in the last 30 years.
A quick internet search brought Edir Macedo to my attention. He’s a fabulously wealthy Brazilian Pentecostal preacher, who clearly went to a seminary that offered courses in televangelism!
At the top of our list is a guy you might not have ever heard of, but he’s easily the wealthiest pastor alive (maybe of all time) with a net worth that laps every other entry on this list combined. Edir Macedo is a Catholic-turned-Pentecostal preacher in Rio de Janeiro who brings in over $2 billion each year in donations. Another adherent to prosperity teaching, Macedo is a media mogul and savvy businessman who basically owns the Brazilian religious industry. Worth $1.1 billion himself, Macedo wears his wealth unapologetically, citing it as proof that his interpretation of the gospel is the real deal.
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: Let us extol our God who has drawn us up.
All: We cried to God and we were healed.
One: Sing praise to God and give thanks to God’s holy name.
All: God’s anger is but for a moment, God’s favor is forever.
One: God has turned our mourning into dancing.
All: God has clothed us with abundant joy.
OR
One: Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
All: sing the glory of God’s name.
One: All the earth worships you, O God, and sings praises to you.
All: Come and see what God has done; look at God’s awesome deeds.
One: Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of God’s praise be heard,
All: God has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.
OR
One: God comes among us and offers us new life.
All: Come, God, and renew us in your own image.
One: God is our Sovereign and reigns over all creation.
All: We bow before our God and Redeemer.
One: The ways of God are truth and life eternal.
All: We follow Jesus along the path of God.
Hymns and Songs
Come, Thou Almighty King
UMH: 61
H82: 365
PH: 139
AAHH: 327
NNBH: 38
NCH: 275
CH: 27
LBW: 522
ELW: 408
W&P: 148
AMEC: 7
This Is My Song
UMH: 437
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELW: 887
STLT: 159
O Worship the King
UMH: 73
H82: 388
PH: 476
NNBH: 6
NCH: 26
CH: 17
LBW: 548
ELW: 842
W&P: 2
AMEC: 12
All People That on Earth Do Dwell
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELW: 883
W&P: 661
AMEC: 73
STLT: 370
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
UMH: 154/155
H82: 450/451
PH: 142/143
AAHH: 292/293/294
NNBH: 3/5
NCH: 304
CH: 91/92
LBW: 328/329
ELW: 634
W&P: 100/106
AMEC: 4/5/6
Renew: 45
Jesus Shall Reign
UMH: 157
H82: 544
PH: 423
NNBH: 10
NCH: 300
CH: 95
LBW: 530
ELW: 434
W&P: 341
AMEC: 96
Renew: 296
Pues Si Vivimos (When We Are Living)
UMH: 356
PH: 400
NCH: 499
CH: 536
ELW: 639
W&P: 415
Take My Life, and Let It Be
UMH: 399
H82: 707
PH: 391
NNBH: 213
NCH: 448
CH: 609
LBW: 406
ELW: 583/685
W&P: 466
AMEC: 292
Renew: 150
Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart
UMH: 500
PH: 326
AAHH: 312
NCH: 290
CH: 265
LBW: 486
ELW: 800
W&P: 132
AMEC: 189
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH: 577
H82: 594/595
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELW: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
Shine, Jesus, Shine
CCB: 81
Renew: 247
Open Our Eyes, Lord
CCB: 77
Renew: 91
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who rules over all creation and all creatures:
Grant us the wisdom to know that you are Sovereign
and that Jesus leads us into your realm;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, and acknowledge you as our Sovereign. You created us and we are yours. Help us to follow Jesus and to enter fully into your realm. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our unwillingness to change our lives to conform to the ways of your realm.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We claim to be followers of Jesus and citizens of your realm and yet we often give our allegiance to other ways. We worship things instead of you; we value greed over generosity. We claim we know you and that you are love and then we damn in your name those whom you are saving. Forgive us and renew us so that we may truly be your children. Amen.
One: Our God comes and claims us even when we stray. Receive God’s grace and forgiveness and share God’s love with all God’s people.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory to you, O God our Sovereign. You reign in love over all and share your blessings with all creation.
(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 claim to be followers of Jesus and citizens of your realm and yet we often give our allegiance to other ways. We worship things instead of you; we value greed over generosity. We claim we know you and that you are love and then we damn in your name those whom you are saving. Forgive us and renew us so that we may truly be your children.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you bring your love into our lives. We thank you for the beauty and bounty of the earth you have given into our care. We thank you for all your children who bring such a diverse look to our world. We thank you that you offer us the opportunity to change and grow in our likeness to yourself.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children and especially those who find themselves in need this day. We pray for the sick, the dying, and the grieving. We pray for the poor and the needy. We pray for the lonely and those caught in violence. We pray for those who are caught in the webs of greed and hate.
(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 SERMONAsking For Help
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Kings 5:1-14 and Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20
You will need:
- An even number (4-20 depending on how many kids you have) of pieces of rope (clothesline or hemp, either is okay) each one about 3-4 feet long.
- A volleyball or soccer ball.
Invite another child to join the first and see if the two of them, together, can catch the ball. Nope.
Say: You know, sometimes we run into tasks that are just impossible to do by ourselves. What do you think we should do when that happens? Ask for help! That’s right. One of our Bible stories, today, is about a famous army general who was sick and the prophet, Elisha, could heal him but he was too proud to ask Elisha and he was too proud to do what Elisha said he should do to be healed.
Finally, he asked for help and did what Elisha said, and he was healed.
So, let’s ask for help and see if we can catch this ball with rope.
Summon the kids to stand in four lines, in a square, facing each other. Have them give one end of their rope to the person opposite them and then, when all the ropes are pulled tight, weave them into a net. Now, toss the ball into the net. Tada!
When we help each other, we can accomplish what is impossible for any one of us to do alone! God wants us to help each other.
End with a prayer thanking God for the church, Christian people who are called to come together to help one another and people everywhere.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 3, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
