Tradition Vs. Twitter
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Object:
We all know that tradition is an important influence in human affairs... and nowhere is that more true than in the church. While tradition provides us with an important link to the past -- something of an institutional memory that binds us together with everything that has come before -- it can also easily become hidebound and trap us in old, outmoded ways of doing things. Many pastors are all too familiar from personal experience with the bromide suggesting that the real "seven last words" is the phrase "We've always done it that way before." But that's nothing new -- we see the same dynamic in this week's lectionary gospel text when Jesus confronts some Pharisees who in their slavish devotion to "observing the tradition of the elders" chastise some of the disciples for not ritually washing their hands. The Pharisees ask Jesus why his disciples ignore tradition and eat with defiled hands, and Jesus responds with another of his diatribes about the hypocrisy of confusing outmoded human tradition with God's commandments.
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin observes that another perhaps outmoded tradition will be dominating the headlines during the next two weeks -- the quadrennial political convention. Historically these were important gatherings where decisions were made in "smoke-filled rooms" about presidential candidates... but with the rise of primary elections, they have become made-for-TV extravaganzas that merely rubber-stamp candidates who've already been thoroughly vetted by voters and kick off the fall election season with a parade of laudatory speeches. However, the conventions no longer command prime-time coverage for their entirety -- most of this year's proceedings apart from the candidate's acceptance speeches will be shown on cable news channels instead. With so much of the suspense taken out of them and with their increasing disappearance from network television, some have even wondered if conventions really matter anymore. And, as Mary notes, the spread of social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) and the easy availability of video linking from remote locations makes one wonder if conventions are anachronisms that have outlived their usefulness. Like with Jesus and the Pharisees, we are left to ponder which traditions truly make a difference and are important to retain -- and which ones keep us chained to the past and cause us to, as Jesus starkly puts it, "abandon the commandment of God."
Team member Leah Lonsbury offers additional thoughts on this topic and wonders if clinging to our traditions may be driving people away from the church. It's a common misconception among many outside the church that it's all about righteousness and following rules -- that if you don't live in a particular way, you're not fit to belong. Leah cites the extreme example of a young Christian girl arrested in Pakistan on what may be a trumped-up charge of blasphemy and suggests that perhaps in a much more understated way our rigid insistence on "The Church of The Way We've Always Done It" has a similarly chilling effect on those who look and act different. Leah asks us if we are Pharisees too, or if we're willing to open our doors to those who "eat with defiled hands."
Tradition vs. Twitter
by Mary Austin
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Republicans and Democrats agree one on thing -- the importance of holding a party convention every four years. The conventions officially nominate the presidential and vice-presidential candidates, approve the platform, and fire up the party faithful with speeches. An estimated 50,000 people will come to Tampa this week (Aug. 27-30) for the GOP convention. The Republican convention website (www.gopconvention2012.com/) says that there are 2,286 delegates and 2,125 alternate delegates -- so the other 45,000 people are there for the excitement or to cover the convention for the media or to work in some capacity. The Democrats will repeat the ritual next week (Sept. 4-6) in Charlotte.
The candidates could be nominated by a computer tally or a video conference. The parties could even hold the conventions on Facebook, where most of the delegates will be during the scheduled events anyway. The suspense ended months ago over who the Republican nominee would be, and President Obama's renomination is a formality. The party platforms are so obscure now that most people have no idea what's in them. The text of the Republican platform wasn't even released until this Monday (Aug. 27), when the convention was scheduled to begin -- though the approach of Hurricane Isaac forced officials to delay the opening events until Tuesday. Speeches are a throwback to a much earlier era in politics, and the compelling parts of these convention speeches will be Tweeted immediately and analyzed repeatedly. You don't have to be there to hear what people say -- or even to get fired up. The Republican National Committee is promoting its "Convention Without Walls," so anyone can follow the proceedings from home.
So why go to the trouble and expense of having the convention, renting space, hiring security, flying people in, paying for hotel rooms and meals (not to mention signs and confetti as well) -- all for something that doesn't really need to be done?
Tradition holds us together. The Pharisees make a similar argument to Jesus about the importance of tradition, and he sees something different.
THE WORLD
Each convention says something about the party and the candidate.
Richard Adams of the Guardian observed on his blog that "humans used to have tails, but all that's left is a vestigial coccyx. American political conventions used to choose presidential candidates, but now they are televised coronations. The vestigial tail of the American political convention is the compilation and approval of the party's platform, a long document listing a rag-bag of policies that excite the party activists and is swiftly forgotten. Since platforms are not binding on party candidates, they are merely symbolic. They do however offer a window into a party's soul, a combination of wish list, base stroking, and vote-grabbing." Political parties have had platforms since candidates actually stood on tree stumps to make their stump speeches, and the tradition continues even in the Twitter age.
The convention and the platform point back to the party's origins, and the rituals bring the faithful closer together, allied against the outside world. Full of traditions from other eras, the conventions may look a little bizarre from the outside, and yet they feel crucial from the inside. At the time this is being posted, the Republican convention in Tampa has been shortened by the threat of Hurricane Isaac, and the party faces the possibility of the news media being distracted by covering the hurricane's possible approach to New Orleans -- a city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Too much celebration could look insensitive if people are suffering in the aftermath of the hurricane. Too much spending makes either party look out of touch with people contending with the loss of a home, a job, or a child in the war. Too many speeches look anachronistic to people who communicate mainly through text messages.
It's hard to balance tradition with a changing world.
THE WORD
The same dynamic shows up the comments of the Pharisees who are talking to Jesus.
They rightly cite the religious laws about hand-washing as an important rule of the faith of the day. Elizabeth Shively of Wheaton College writes that "The word for 'defiled,' koinos ('common'), signifies that the disciples have not set themselves apart for God by making themselves ritually pure. Since a master trains his disciples, their question is a veiled critique of Jesus' teaching (see also 2:18, 23-24). Mark gives the reader inside information by describing the ceremonial practices of the Pharisees (vv. 3-4), oral law which includes washing hands, cups, and various vessels. By this tradition, the Pharisees extend the worship of the temple to the household. This oral law shows people how to set themselves apart for God in the midst of foreign occupation."
The traditions of the Jewish faith were designed to point the people toward God in all the activities of daily life -- to bring awareness of God to even the mundane moments of life. They were also designed to set the people apart from their un-godly neighbors and to bind the community together around shared ritual. As a small community starting out in a "promised land" already occupied by other nations, common rituals created tight communal bonds.
Jesus says, though, that the rituals meant to build up the religion have become the religion. The people are missing what God really wants from them. The Pharisees are arguing from the oral tradition of the faith, and Jesus answers from the scriptures, quoting the prophet Isaiah about what true faithfulness means. He goes on to explain that what makes us holy or common ("defiled") is not what goes into us, but what comes out of us. Is it greed and wickedness, or humility, love, and gratitude? Elizabeth Shively adds: "He explains that true defilement has to do with what passes in and out of the heart, not the body. He lists vices that defile people, many of which match prohibitions of the Decalogue (do not steal, murder, commit adultery, or covet what is your neighbor's). The vices also have to do with mistreating other people or failing to show love to your neighbor."
Jesus understands what we often miss -- that tradition is meant to serve something larger, not to exist by itself. We go astray when we fall in love with the tradition itself and forget the purpose beneath it.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The sermon might take one of several directions.
It might look at the traditions we preserve at the expense of serving God more fully. Surely every family, every couple, and every church has something that we hold onto from the past, whether it works now or not. We may feel a need to serve communion in a particular way, even if it's hard for older people and children to hold the heavy trays, or to insist on worshiping at the same time we always have, even if it no longer works for people with soccer games and demanding work schedules. (See Leah Lonsbury's companion article below for more about this.)
Or the sermon might look at the things we do that make faith harder for people. It has been suggested that in Jesus' day, most people were ritually unclean most of the time because of poverty and lack of access to water. Just as the customs of that day kept people from faithful observance, are there things in our faith that are barriers for people? A printed bulletin with lots of words make it difficult for people who aren't well educated or native English speakers? A hymnal generous in its use of "doth" and "Thee" and "Thou," words that are hard to understand in today's English? A church without signs for guests effectively proclaiming that "if you don't know where you're going, you're not welcome here"? Like our ancestors in faith, we have barriers too.
In the part of the text omitted by the lectionary, Jesus declares that all foods are acceptable. Some scholars believe that this paved the way for his travels into Gentile territory, where he goes next. Following this story is the story of his encounter with the Gentile woman seeking healing for her daughter. What are we doing in our faith communities to pave the way for our next ministry? What things are we changing to open the doors to ministry outside our own community of faith? Are we getting ready to seek out anyone different from ourselves?
Whether it's a political convention, church, or family life, we all have traditions we love, and places where our traditions hold us back. Jesus calls us back to our deepest loyalties and forces us to see beyond the familiar to where God is and where he wants us to go.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Blasphemy!
by Leah Lonsbury
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
What if our passage from Mark's gospel for this week started like this?
Now when the long-timers and some of the third-generation members who had come from the original church building gathered around the pastor, they noticed that some of the new members were (choose one):
a) wearing jeans to worship;
b) not signing up to teach Sunday school;
c) choosing not to pledge;
d) attending services intermittently; or
e) all of the above and then some.
For the long-timers, and all the "real" Christians, do not (choose corresponding example of "true faithfulness"):
a) wear jeans to worship;
b) shirk their Sunday school obligations;
c) just give when they are able or inspired to do so;
d) miss a Sunday for illness or non-church fun and relaxation;
e) act in the generally questionable and somewhat threatening ways of new members, thus observing The Way We've Always Done It; and they definitely do not applaud in worship; and there are many other traditions that they observe -- bringing pastries for coffee hour, reading only from the King James Bible, following proper bureaucratic channels for ministry, and attending denominational meetings for the purpose of planning the next meeting.
So the long-timers and the third-generation members asked the pastor, "Why do your new members not live according to The Way We've Always Done It, but try do church as they wish? The pastor said to them...
What do we say to the long-timers and the third-generation members in this passage and in our congregations? What if we are the long-timers and the third-generation members? How can we be certain that our worship is not in vain and that we honor God not just with what we say but also with what lies in our hearts (Mark 7:6)?
How do we deal with, as Jesus would say, human precepts that have grown into doctrine? What do we do when the church abandons the commandment of God and holds instead to human tradition (Mark 7:7-8)?
How do we determine the difference between what we simply dislike (because it challenges us, makes us uncomfortable, or changes The Way We've Always Done It) and what defiles?
Or, as in the case of Rimsha Masih, how do we determine who is truly guilty of blasphemy?
On August 20th, Declan Walsh and Salman Masood of the New York Times reported on the story of Rimsha Masih, a Christian girl living in Islamabad, Pakistan, who has been arrested along with her mother and charged with blasphemy. The charge comes because she was allegedly found with a copy of the Noorani Qaida -- a textbook that is used to teach children about the Koran -- with burned pages.
Walsh and Masood begin their report with the statement that this arrest has "stoked a public furor... renewing international scrutiny of growing intolerance toward minorities in the country."
A number of Masih's Christian neighbors have fled their homes, fearing for their lives. While it is clear the girl and her family are Christian, it is harder to be sure of any other details, including Masih's culpability in this case. No one is certain how she came to be in possession of the book or how it came to be damaged. She may have come across it while carrying out the work of her family members, who are sweepers for the slum in which they live -- a job reserved for religious minority (lower-class) Christians. Her neighbors claim she is 11 years old and has Down syndrome. Senior police officials dispute those claims and describe her as 16 and "100% mentally fit."
Whatever description turns out to be the truth, Masih's plight shines a light on a larger problem in Pakistan. Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch says, "This case exemplifies the absurdity and tragedy of the blasphemy law, which is an instrument of abuse against the most vulnerable in society."
Christians aren't the only minority under threat in Pakistan. Earlier this month, Hindu leaders called on the government to protect their community from forced conversions by Muslim extremists. Their request came during the same week as the execution of 25 Shiites in Manshera, a northwestern Pakistani province. Walsh and Masood write of this, "While non-Muslims have long been vulnerable to persecution in Pakistan, the state's ability to protect them is diminishing."
Clearly, relations between religious bodies in Pakistan are troubled and strained, but according to Walsh and Masood, "It is the emotionally charged blasphemy issue that has most polarized [Pakistani] society." They trace the beginning of the narrowing of space for public debate and dissent to the January 2011 assassination of Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab Province, who was gunned down by his bodyguard after he expressed his support for blasphemy reforms.
There doesn't appear to be a safe venue or protocol for processing religious offense or "blasphemy." A violent mob led by clerics seems to be the body that has "framed the argument" in cases like these, including this latest one involving Masih. Her landlord turned her over to police for her own safety and criticized the local cleric who provoked the threatening crowd gathered around her home. According to human rights campaigners, Masih's charge of blasphemy is often the reticent response of police officials in cases like these, in an attempt to protect the lives of the accused and officers who are involved from the violence of the gathered community. Just last month, a mob incited by inflammatory speech from a local mosque seized a suspect from police custody, beat him to death, and burned his body outside of the police station.
Shireen Mazari, a Pakistani nationalist commentator, tweeted recently: "Desecrating graves, arresting [an] 11-year-old with Down syndrome, targeting of Shias -- the list goes on. This is not what religion is about."
* * *
How can we be sure of what defiles and what is blasphemy? How do we deal with the angry mob bent on turning human precepts into doctrine in the church? What do we do when the church loses sight of God's commandment to love God with the whole of our hearts, souls, and minds, and our neighbors as ourselves? Is it still the church or some angry mob bent on upholding a strangling legalism that beats down instead of building up? And what do we have left when the beating down is complete and the "threat" is squelched? Maybe Twitter has our answer: This is not what religion is about.
Walsh and Masood's article seems to pose the following questions to The Church Of The Way We've Always Done It. Can we make space for conversation and dissent about the life of the church? How will we answer?
1. Where is the scrutiny of the church's intolerance toward minorities like...
* new members who have no attachments to denominational structures or traditions that grew out of 1950s church culture;
* young clergy and lay people with a different vision for the future of church;
* non-traditional family units, couples, or singles that live and love beyond the white picket fence;
* immigrants, undocumented workers, and refugees who make church life more colorful (in a variety of ways) and multi-layered;
* the growing numbers of everyday revolutionaries who can't check their politics in the narthex and are eager for the church to spend less time in committee meetings and more time marching and working for change?
2. How many minorities in the above list have fled the church fearing for their lives? (Hopefully not ever literally but more likely in terms of the survival of their journeys of faith, their sense of belovedness, their feeling of home, and their religious commitments and passions.)
3. How are we trying to force conversion in our churches? What standards do we expect our members to meet and whose standards are they? In what ways are we extremists?
4. Who are we gunning down and how, when they suggest reforms to our churches' cultures and traditions? What do we have to lose by targeting those who think, act, believe, and do church differently than us?
5. What do our angry mobs look like? Inflexible church committees and councils that recycle the same leadership each year? Staunch defenders of staid worship services that follow an outline that must have been etched into the tablets Moses brought down from the mountain? Who and what do those mobs threaten?
6. Do we walk or get led down this road as pastors and church leaders? "The Pakistani police often are forced to register blasphemy cases against their wishes, human rights campaigners say, either to save the accused blasphemer or their own officers from attack."
7. What is our religion really about? What do we make it about instead?
* * *
Pastor Keith Anderson of Upper Dublin Lutheran Church in Ambler, Pennsylvania, blogs on his experience with change in the church (which often kicks up talk about and reaction to "blasphemy"). His July 14, 2012 post titled "Churches Can Change, But It Takes Guts" gives some helpful ideas on how to navigate transitions (and the angry mob) and on discerning what is human tradition and what is the commandment of God.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Regarding excessive legalism like that advocated by the Pharisees, according to the website dumblaws.com these are some silly laws that are still in effect in my home state of Ohio (see the website to find the silly laws in your state):
* It is illegal to pitch horseshoes or play croquet within one mile of a public speaker's stand on Memorial Day;
* It is illegal to fish for whales on Sunday;
* It is illegal to participate in or conduct a duel;
* Motorists are required to honk their car horn when passing another vehicle;
* Not more than five women may live together in one house;
* People who lose a pet tiger in the city of Canton are required to notify the authorities within one hour of the loss; and
* It is illegal in the city of Bexley to install a slot machine in your outhouse.
Living by the law can be exhausting.
-- Dean Feldmeyer
* * *
Baseball has gone through a lot of rule changes since Alexander Cartwright published the first rules for the game in 1845. According to ESPN magazine, contemporary rules currently allow 23 ways for a runner to get to first base:
1. walk (bases on balls)
2. intentional walk
3. hit by pitch
4. catcher drops pitch on third strike
5. failure of pitcher to deliver pitch in 20 seconds
6. catcher interference
7. fielder interference
8. spectator interference
9. fan obstruction
10. fair ball hits umpire
11. fair ball hits runner
12. fielder obstructs runner
13. pinch-runner comes in from the dugout
14. fielder's choice
15. force out at another base
16. preceding runner put-out allows batter to reach first
17. sacrifice bunt fails to advance runner
18. sacrifice fly dropped
19. runner called out on appeal
20. error by defense
21. fourth illegal pitch
22. single
23. game suspended with runner on first, that player is traded prior to the makeup date; new player is allowed to take his place
* * *
The "infield fly" rule is one of the most esoteric and little understood rules of baseball because it so rarely comes into play -- but it is an important rule that keeps infield defensive players from intentionally missing a catchable pop-up fly in order to force a double or even triple play. In relatively plain English, here is the infield fly rule:
When there are fewer than two outs and there are runners at first and second base (or the bases are loaded), if a fly ball is in fair play and in the umpire's judgment it is catchable by an infielder with ordinary effort, the umpire shall call "infield fly" and the batter will be out regardless of whether the ball is actually caught in flight.
Umpires typically raise one arm straight up to signal to everyone that the rule is in effect.
* * *
Until 1920 the rules of baseball allowed players to steal first base. Here is how it worked:
If there were runners on first and third and fewer than two outs, the runner on first base would steal second, hoping to lure the catcher into throwing the ball to second base. If the catcher did throw the ball it would allow the runner on third base to steal home and score.
Usually, however, the catcher would not throw the ball to second and just allow the steal rather than give up the run at home plate. In that case the runner on first base who successfully stole second would turn around and steal back to first for no other reason than to create chaos and confusion... during which the runner on third base could steal home and score.
On July 31, 1908, Fred Tenney actually did this twice on three successive pitches. On the first pitch he stole second, but the catcher didn't bite. On the second pitch he retreated to first base, and still the catcher didn't throw the ball. On the third pitch, he stole second base again -- and when the catcher still refused to throw, he decided to stay on second.
By 1920 this practice had become widespread and was delaying play to the point that Major League Baseball made it illegal to steal first base.
* * *
The game of Go originated in China about 2,500 years ago and quickly spread to Korea and Japan. Today it is considered the most popular board game in the world. As of mid-2008, there were over 40 million Go players worldwide. As of May 2012[update], the International Go Federation had a total of 74 member countries and four association members covering multiple countries.
According to chess master Edward Lasker, "The rules of Go are so elegant, organic, and rigorously logical that if intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the universe, they almost certainly play Go." Interestingly, other than the order of play Go has only two rules. Yet the different strategies that can be used are so complex that Go is a game that "takes ten minutes to learn and a lifetime to master." In fact, seasoned veterans of the game suggest that you shouldn't take it up if you're over 50 years old.
* * *
The 112th Congress, convening during the 2011-2012 legislative session, has been the least productive Congress in the post-World War II era. It has even surpassed the inactivity of the 80th Congress, which in 1948 President Truman referred to as the "do-nothing Congress." Coming before the 112th Congress were 3,914 bills, of which only 61 were passed. That is less than 2% of the bills that were introduced. Presently Congress' approval rating is at 10% -- a historical low. Perhaps that is because the congressmen talk, but they don't do.
James calls us to go beyond just talking and hearing the word, but to "be doers of the word" as well.
* * *
It is expected that as many as 90 million people who could vote won't go to the polls in this November's presidential election. The top reason given by those who have failed to register to vote is that their lives are too busy. The top reason given by those who are registered to vote but won't bother is that they don't like either candidate or the apathy of thinking that their vote does not matter anyway. Curtis Gans, director of the non-partisan Center for the Study of the American Electorate, offered several reasons why individuals are reluctant to vote. Gans said, "There is a lack of trust in our leaders, a lack of positive feelings about political institutions, a lack of quality education for large segments of the public, a lack of civic education, the fragmenting effects of waves of communications technology, the cynicism of the coverage of politics -- I could go on with a long litany."
James calls us not only to hear the word of God but be sure to act upon what we hear. It is a summons to become involved.
* * *
Each night the backup quarterback for the New York Jets waits for a phone call from his "accountability partner." Each night, the unnamed individual phones Tim Tebow and calls him accountable for his Christian actions that day and to review his daily Bible readings. Tim says of his accountability partner that "I have him because I need someone who is always investing in me, you know? You don't ever want to become complacent. That's very easy to do because life gets in the way."
James says, "Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger." We all need an "accountability partner" so we are quick to listen, preventing us from acting irrationally.
* * *
Our James text cautions us against being "hearers of the word and not doers... who look at themselves in a mirror." Three examples of such hypocrisy in the form of disgraced ministers come to mind:
* Pentecostal televangelist Jimmy Swaggart began preaching his fire-and-brimstone Christian fundamentalism on television program in 1975. But it was during the 1980s that Swaggart rose to prominence in right-wing politics along with Rev. Jerry Falwell, Rev. James Robison, and Rev. Pat Robertson. Swaggart's sermons were often as political as they were religious, and he was never shy about describing feminists, liberals, Democrats, and rock musicians as agents of Satan who promoted immorality at every turn. But in 1988, it was revealed that Swaggart had been cheating on his wife with a New Orleans prostitute named Debra Murphree. And his association with prostitutes did not end after his famous "I have sinned" speech of 1988. In 1991, Swaggart was with prostitute Rosemary Garcia when he was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol.
* Evangelical minister Ted Haggard was never known for embracing a moderate approach to Protestant Christianity. Very much a fundamentalist, Haggard was a strong supporter of George W. Bush's presidency and did a lot to rally GOP "values voters" in 2004. A strident culture warrior, he preached against abortion, premarital sex, adultery, and gay marriage. But in 2006, a male escort named Mike Jones revealed that the married Haggard had been a client; in addition to paying for sex and committing adultery, Jones said, Haggard was fond of using crystal meth. Admitting to his followers that he was guilty of "sexual immorality," Haggard resigned from his position as president of the National Association of Evangelicals.
* In 1987, Jim Bakker (who co-hosted The PTL Club with his wife, Tammy Faye Bakker) was disgraced when it came out that he had cheated on his wife with church secretary Jessica Hahn and paid her $265,000 to keep quiet. In 1989, Bakker was convicted of fraud and racketeering charges in a federal court and sentenced to 45 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, but he was granted parole in 1994. (Jimmy Swaggart was vehemently critical of Bakker. In 1987 he referred to Bakker as "a cancer on the body of Christ" because of his affair with Hahn.)
* * *
The definition of "hypocrite" is a person who publicly espouses for others a behavior that he/she eschews in private, or conversely, publicly condemns for others a behavior in which he/she indulges in private. For example:
* John Edwards denied infidelity accusations that surfaced about him, but he never outwardly condemned adultery or unfaithful husbands. So when he confessed to an extramarital affair, he was guilty of being a liar and a cheater but not of being a hypocrite.
* New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, however, ran for office promising high ethics and had busted up prostitution rings when he was state attorney general. So when it was revealed that he was patronizing the very prostitutes that he was having arrested, he fit the definition of a hypocrite.
* * *
The words of our Song of Solomon passage may be familiar to many baseball fans, as legendary Detroit Tigers radio announcer Ernie Harwell always began the opening spring training broadcast of each season by reading the King James Version of verses 11-12: "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." That same passage was also a favorite of Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God calls us to celebrate God's presence among us.
People: We rejoice in God's Spirit that unites us.
Leader: God invites us to be renewed in the Spirit.
People: With joy we ask to be transformed into God's likeness.
Leader: God sends us into the world for its renewal and salvation.
People: As God's people, we will go and share God's loving kindness and salvation with all.
OR
Leader: Who may abide in God's tent?
People: Who may dwell on God's holy hill?
Leader: Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right,
People: those who speak the truth from their heart;
Leader: those who do acts of justice and mercy.
People: Those who do these things shall never be moved.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"The God of Abraham Praise"
found in:
UMH: 116
H82: 401
NCH: 24
CH: 24
LBW: 544
ELA: 831
Renew: 51
"Trust and Obey"
found in:
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
"All Creatures of Our God and King"
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
Renew: 47
"Open My Eyes, That I May See"
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
"Be Thou My Vision"
found in:
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELA: 793
Renew: 151
"O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee"
found in:
UMH: 430
H82: 659/660
PH: 357
NNBH: 495
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELA: 818
"Make Me a Captive, Lord"
found in:
UMH: 421
PH: 378
"I Am Thine, O Lord"
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
"Open Our Eyes, Lord"
found in:
CCB: 77
Renew: 91
"As We Gather"
found in:
CCB: 12
Renew: 6
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who faithfully calls your creation to eternal life: Grant us the wisdom to heed your call and to use the signs and traditions we have been given to draw nearer to you and to serve all creation as your image and presence; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into your presence, O God, not only to worship you but to be transformed. As we allow your presence to come more fully into our awareness, help us to allow it to transform us more fully into your image that we may serve your creation more fully. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins especially how we hang on to traditions that make it difficult for others, and even ourselves, to follow the way of Jesus.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are comfortable with the way things are in our lives and in our churches. This is the way we have "always" done it. We have long since stopped asking if they actually help us be disciples of Jesus. We don't ask if they help us walk humbly with God or lead us to acts of justice in mercy. We are content that they make us comfortable. We look a lot more like the ones who confront Jesus than the ones who follow him. Renew us in your Spirit so that we may focus once again on the goal of being the presence and image of you, O God, so that your reign may truly be here and now. Amen.
Leader: God welcomes us back to our right minds and right practices. God desires nothing more than to be known and to lead us and all creation to life. Receive the blessing of God to live in a new way as faithful disciples of Jesus.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship you, O God, for you have created us in your own image. You have placed your own Spirit within and among us, and you have called us your children.
(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 are comfortable with the way things are in our lives and in our churches. This is the way we have "always" done it. We have long since stopped asking if they actually help us be disciples of Jesus. We don't ask if they help us walk humbly with God or lead us to acts of justice in mercy. We are content that they make us comfortable. We look a lot more like the ones who confront Jesus than the ones who follow him. Renew us in your Spirit so that we may focus once again on the goal of being the presence and image of you, O God, so that your reign may truly be here and now.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you remind us of who we are and to whom we belong. We thank you for the signs the church has given us so that we might remember your loving presence and share that with others. Most of all we thank you for Jesus, who constantly calls us to you.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We lift up to you the cares and concerns of our hearts. We ask that you would continue to help us to look upon the world around us with your compassion. Help us to be signs to others of your loving presence.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about signs and how helpful they can be. They tell us where things are and they warn us of dangerous things. But the signs are not the real thing -- they are only signs. We have all kinds of things in our church to tell us about God... windows, crosses, etc. -- but they are only there to tell us about God.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Dirty Hands, Clean Heart
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Objects: a mud pie and/or a dirty rag
Good morning, boys and girls! What's the most fun you've ever had getting dirty? (let the children answer) How many of you have ever made mud pies? (if using a mud pie, show it and let them answer) When you were finished getting dirty, how many of you cleaned yourself up and finished with a rag looking this dirty? (if using a dirty rag, show it and let them answer)
Today I want to tell you the story about a very old woman. This woman lived alone on the edge of town, where there were very few other neighbors. Since she lived alone, she didn't take a bath very often and she didn't wash her clothes very often. Some people thought she was dirty. She didn't have much money, so her house hadn't been painted for many years. Her car was older than most other cars. Even so, this old woman attended church every Sunday. She helped in the church in many ways. She made flower arrangements for the sanctuary on Sunday. She visited people who were in the hospital. She helped in the church kitchen whenever there was a special church meal. One Sunday morning she even helped teach a Sunday school class when a teacher became ill at the last minute. This woman wasn't always clean, but she always helped at church.
She reminds me of this morning's lesson. In the lesson some men were trying to find things wrong with Jesus. These men said that Jesus' disciples didn't clean themselves the way they should. Jesus became angry when he heard this. Jesus told these men, "Just because you wash your hands one way instead of another does not make you a clean person. You are a clean person when your heart is clean." Jesus knew that his enemies did not have clean hearts because they were making fun of him.
Here's what I want you to remember about today's lesson. It is important to clean up after we get dirty while playing. But Jesus wants us to know that there is something even more important than cleaning our hands -- it is making sure that our hearts are clean. Our hearts are clean when we love others and are concerned for others. The old woman in my story wasn't always clean on the outside... but she was clean on the inside. That's the way Jesus wants us to be -- clean on the inside.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, September 2, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin observes that another perhaps outmoded tradition will be dominating the headlines during the next two weeks -- the quadrennial political convention. Historically these were important gatherings where decisions were made in "smoke-filled rooms" about presidential candidates... but with the rise of primary elections, they have become made-for-TV extravaganzas that merely rubber-stamp candidates who've already been thoroughly vetted by voters and kick off the fall election season with a parade of laudatory speeches. However, the conventions no longer command prime-time coverage for their entirety -- most of this year's proceedings apart from the candidate's acceptance speeches will be shown on cable news channels instead. With so much of the suspense taken out of them and with their increasing disappearance from network television, some have even wondered if conventions really matter anymore. And, as Mary notes, the spread of social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) and the easy availability of video linking from remote locations makes one wonder if conventions are anachronisms that have outlived their usefulness. Like with Jesus and the Pharisees, we are left to ponder which traditions truly make a difference and are important to retain -- and which ones keep us chained to the past and cause us to, as Jesus starkly puts it, "abandon the commandment of God."
Team member Leah Lonsbury offers additional thoughts on this topic and wonders if clinging to our traditions may be driving people away from the church. It's a common misconception among many outside the church that it's all about righteousness and following rules -- that if you don't live in a particular way, you're not fit to belong. Leah cites the extreme example of a young Christian girl arrested in Pakistan on what may be a trumped-up charge of blasphemy and suggests that perhaps in a much more understated way our rigid insistence on "The Church of The Way We've Always Done It" has a similarly chilling effect on those who look and act different. Leah asks us if we are Pharisees too, or if we're willing to open our doors to those who "eat with defiled hands."
Tradition vs. Twitter
by Mary Austin
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Republicans and Democrats agree one on thing -- the importance of holding a party convention every four years. The conventions officially nominate the presidential and vice-presidential candidates, approve the platform, and fire up the party faithful with speeches. An estimated 50,000 people will come to Tampa this week (Aug. 27-30) for the GOP convention. The Republican convention website (www.gopconvention2012.com/) says that there are 2,286 delegates and 2,125 alternate delegates -- so the other 45,000 people are there for the excitement or to cover the convention for the media or to work in some capacity. The Democrats will repeat the ritual next week (Sept. 4-6) in Charlotte.
The candidates could be nominated by a computer tally or a video conference. The parties could even hold the conventions on Facebook, where most of the delegates will be during the scheduled events anyway. The suspense ended months ago over who the Republican nominee would be, and President Obama's renomination is a formality. The party platforms are so obscure now that most people have no idea what's in them. The text of the Republican platform wasn't even released until this Monday (Aug. 27), when the convention was scheduled to begin -- though the approach of Hurricane Isaac forced officials to delay the opening events until Tuesday. Speeches are a throwback to a much earlier era in politics, and the compelling parts of these convention speeches will be Tweeted immediately and analyzed repeatedly. You don't have to be there to hear what people say -- or even to get fired up. The Republican National Committee is promoting its "Convention Without Walls," so anyone can follow the proceedings from home.
So why go to the trouble and expense of having the convention, renting space, hiring security, flying people in, paying for hotel rooms and meals (not to mention signs and confetti as well) -- all for something that doesn't really need to be done?
Tradition holds us together. The Pharisees make a similar argument to Jesus about the importance of tradition, and he sees something different.
THE WORLD
Each convention says something about the party and the candidate.
Richard Adams of the Guardian observed on his blog that "humans used to have tails, but all that's left is a vestigial coccyx. American political conventions used to choose presidential candidates, but now they are televised coronations. The vestigial tail of the American political convention is the compilation and approval of the party's platform, a long document listing a rag-bag of policies that excite the party activists and is swiftly forgotten. Since platforms are not binding on party candidates, they are merely symbolic. They do however offer a window into a party's soul, a combination of wish list, base stroking, and vote-grabbing." Political parties have had platforms since candidates actually stood on tree stumps to make their stump speeches, and the tradition continues even in the Twitter age.
The convention and the platform point back to the party's origins, and the rituals bring the faithful closer together, allied against the outside world. Full of traditions from other eras, the conventions may look a little bizarre from the outside, and yet they feel crucial from the inside. At the time this is being posted, the Republican convention in Tampa has been shortened by the threat of Hurricane Isaac, and the party faces the possibility of the news media being distracted by covering the hurricane's possible approach to New Orleans -- a city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Too much celebration could look insensitive if people are suffering in the aftermath of the hurricane. Too much spending makes either party look out of touch with people contending with the loss of a home, a job, or a child in the war. Too many speeches look anachronistic to people who communicate mainly through text messages.
It's hard to balance tradition with a changing world.
THE WORD
The same dynamic shows up the comments of the Pharisees who are talking to Jesus.
They rightly cite the religious laws about hand-washing as an important rule of the faith of the day. Elizabeth Shively of Wheaton College writes that "The word for 'defiled,' koinos ('common'), signifies that the disciples have not set themselves apart for God by making themselves ritually pure. Since a master trains his disciples, their question is a veiled critique of Jesus' teaching (see also 2:18, 23-24). Mark gives the reader inside information by describing the ceremonial practices of the Pharisees (vv. 3-4), oral law which includes washing hands, cups, and various vessels. By this tradition, the Pharisees extend the worship of the temple to the household. This oral law shows people how to set themselves apart for God in the midst of foreign occupation."
The traditions of the Jewish faith were designed to point the people toward God in all the activities of daily life -- to bring awareness of God to even the mundane moments of life. They were also designed to set the people apart from their un-godly neighbors and to bind the community together around shared ritual. As a small community starting out in a "promised land" already occupied by other nations, common rituals created tight communal bonds.
Jesus says, though, that the rituals meant to build up the religion have become the religion. The people are missing what God really wants from them. The Pharisees are arguing from the oral tradition of the faith, and Jesus answers from the scriptures, quoting the prophet Isaiah about what true faithfulness means. He goes on to explain that what makes us holy or common ("defiled") is not what goes into us, but what comes out of us. Is it greed and wickedness, or humility, love, and gratitude? Elizabeth Shively adds: "He explains that true defilement has to do with what passes in and out of the heart, not the body. He lists vices that defile people, many of which match prohibitions of the Decalogue (do not steal, murder, commit adultery, or covet what is your neighbor's). The vices also have to do with mistreating other people or failing to show love to your neighbor."
Jesus understands what we often miss -- that tradition is meant to serve something larger, not to exist by itself. We go astray when we fall in love with the tradition itself and forget the purpose beneath it.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The sermon might take one of several directions.
It might look at the traditions we preserve at the expense of serving God more fully. Surely every family, every couple, and every church has something that we hold onto from the past, whether it works now or not. We may feel a need to serve communion in a particular way, even if it's hard for older people and children to hold the heavy trays, or to insist on worshiping at the same time we always have, even if it no longer works for people with soccer games and demanding work schedules. (See Leah Lonsbury's companion article below for more about this.)
Or the sermon might look at the things we do that make faith harder for people. It has been suggested that in Jesus' day, most people were ritually unclean most of the time because of poverty and lack of access to water. Just as the customs of that day kept people from faithful observance, are there things in our faith that are barriers for people? A printed bulletin with lots of words make it difficult for people who aren't well educated or native English speakers? A hymnal generous in its use of "doth" and "Thee" and "Thou," words that are hard to understand in today's English? A church without signs for guests effectively proclaiming that "if you don't know where you're going, you're not welcome here"? Like our ancestors in faith, we have barriers too.
In the part of the text omitted by the lectionary, Jesus declares that all foods are acceptable. Some scholars believe that this paved the way for his travels into Gentile territory, where he goes next. Following this story is the story of his encounter with the Gentile woman seeking healing for her daughter. What are we doing in our faith communities to pave the way for our next ministry? What things are we changing to open the doors to ministry outside our own community of faith? Are we getting ready to seek out anyone different from ourselves?
Whether it's a political convention, church, or family life, we all have traditions we love, and places where our traditions hold us back. Jesus calls us back to our deepest loyalties and forces us to see beyond the familiar to where God is and where he wants us to go.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Blasphemy!
by Leah Lonsbury
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
What if our passage from Mark's gospel for this week started like this?
Now when the long-timers and some of the third-generation members who had come from the original church building gathered around the pastor, they noticed that some of the new members were (choose one):
a) wearing jeans to worship;
b) not signing up to teach Sunday school;
c) choosing not to pledge;
d) attending services intermittently; or
e) all of the above and then some.
For the long-timers, and all the "real" Christians, do not (choose corresponding example of "true faithfulness"):
a) wear jeans to worship;
b) shirk their Sunday school obligations;
c) just give when they are able or inspired to do so;
d) miss a Sunday for illness or non-church fun and relaxation;
e) act in the generally questionable and somewhat threatening ways of new members, thus observing The Way We've Always Done It; and they definitely do not applaud in worship; and there are many other traditions that they observe -- bringing pastries for coffee hour, reading only from the King James Bible, following proper bureaucratic channels for ministry, and attending denominational meetings for the purpose of planning the next meeting.
So the long-timers and the third-generation members asked the pastor, "Why do your new members not live according to The Way We've Always Done It, but try do church as they wish? The pastor said to them...
What do we say to the long-timers and the third-generation members in this passage and in our congregations? What if we are the long-timers and the third-generation members? How can we be certain that our worship is not in vain and that we honor God not just with what we say but also with what lies in our hearts (Mark 7:6)?
How do we deal with, as Jesus would say, human precepts that have grown into doctrine? What do we do when the church abandons the commandment of God and holds instead to human tradition (Mark 7:7-8)?
How do we determine the difference between what we simply dislike (because it challenges us, makes us uncomfortable, or changes The Way We've Always Done It) and what defiles?
Or, as in the case of Rimsha Masih, how do we determine who is truly guilty of blasphemy?
On August 20th, Declan Walsh and Salman Masood of the New York Times reported on the story of Rimsha Masih, a Christian girl living in Islamabad, Pakistan, who has been arrested along with her mother and charged with blasphemy. The charge comes because she was allegedly found with a copy of the Noorani Qaida -- a textbook that is used to teach children about the Koran -- with burned pages.
Walsh and Masood begin their report with the statement that this arrest has "stoked a public furor... renewing international scrutiny of growing intolerance toward minorities in the country."
A number of Masih's Christian neighbors have fled their homes, fearing for their lives. While it is clear the girl and her family are Christian, it is harder to be sure of any other details, including Masih's culpability in this case. No one is certain how she came to be in possession of the book or how it came to be damaged. She may have come across it while carrying out the work of her family members, who are sweepers for the slum in which they live -- a job reserved for religious minority (lower-class) Christians. Her neighbors claim she is 11 years old and has Down syndrome. Senior police officials dispute those claims and describe her as 16 and "100% mentally fit."
Whatever description turns out to be the truth, Masih's plight shines a light on a larger problem in Pakistan. Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch says, "This case exemplifies the absurdity and tragedy of the blasphemy law, which is an instrument of abuse against the most vulnerable in society."
Christians aren't the only minority under threat in Pakistan. Earlier this month, Hindu leaders called on the government to protect their community from forced conversions by Muslim extremists. Their request came during the same week as the execution of 25 Shiites in Manshera, a northwestern Pakistani province. Walsh and Masood write of this, "While non-Muslims have long been vulnerable to persecution in Pakistan, the state's ability to protect them is diminishing."
Clearly, relations between religious bodies in Pakistan are troubled and strained, but according to Walsh and Masood, "It is the emotionally charged blasphemy issue that has most polarized [Pakistani] society." They trace the beginning of the narrowing of space for public debate and dissent to the January 2011 assassination of Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab Province, who was gunned down by his bodyguard after he expressed his support for blasphemy reforms.
There doesn't appear to be a safe venue or protocol for processing religious offense or "blasphemy." A violent mob led by clerics seems to be the body that has "framed the argument" in cases like these, including this latest one involving Masih. Her landlord turned her over to police for her own safety and criticized the local cleric who provoked the threatening crowd gathered around her home. According to human rights campaigners, Masih's charge of blasphemy is often the reticent response of police officials in cases like these, in an attempt to protect the lives of the accused and officers who are involved from the violence of the gathered community. Just last month, a mob incited by inflammatory speech from a local mosque seized a suspect from police custody, beat him to death, and burned his body outside of the police station.
Shireen Mazari, a Pakistani nationalist commentator, tweeted recently: "Desecrating graves, arresting [an] 11-year-old with Down syndrome, targeting of Shias -- the list goes on. This is not what religion is about."
* * *
How can we be sure of what defiles and what is blasphemy? How do we deal with the angry mob bent on turning human precepts into doctrine in the church? What do we do when the church loses sight of God's commandment to love God with the whole of our hearts, souls, and minds, and our neighbors as ourselves? Is it still the church or some angry mob bent on upholding a strangling legalism that beats down instead of building up? And what do we have left when the beating down is complete and the "threat" is squelched? Maybe Twitter has our answer: This is not what religion is about.
Walsh and Masood's article seems to pose the following questions to The Church Of The Way We've Always Done It. Can we make space for conversation and dissent about the life of the church? How will we answer?
1. Where is the scrutiny of the church's intolerance toward minorities like...
* new members who have no attachments to denominational structures or traditions that grew out of 1950s church culture;
* young clergy and lay people with a different vision for the future of church;
* non-traditional family units, couples, or singles that live and love beyond the white picket fence;
* immigrants, undocumented workers, and refugees who make church life more colorful (in a variety of ways) and multi-layered;
* the growing numbers of everyday revolutionaries who can't check their politics in the narthex and are eager for the church to spend less time in committee meetings and more time marching and working for change?
2. How many minorities in the above list have fled the church fearing for their lives? (Hopefully not ever literally but more likely in terms of the survival of their journeys of faith, their sense of belovedness, their feeling of home, and their religious commitments and passions.)
3. How are we trying to force conversion in our churches? What standards do we expect our members to meet and whose standards are they? In what ways are we extremists?
4. Who are we gunning down and how, when they suggest reforms to our churches' cultures and traditions? What do we have to lose by targeting those who think, act, believe, and do church differently than us?
5. What do our angry mobs look like? Inflexible church committees and councils that recycle the same leadership each year? Staunch defenders of staid worship services that follow an outline that must have been etched into the tablets Moses brought down from the mountain? Who and what do those mobs threaten?
6. Do we walk or get led down this road as pastors and church leaders? "The Pakistani police often are forced to register blasphemy cases against their wishes, human rights campaigners say, either to save the accused blasphemer or their own officers from attack."
7. What is our religion really about? What do we make it about instead?
* * *
Pastor Keith Anderson of Upper Dublin Lutheran Church in Ambler, Pennsylvania, blogs on his experience with change in the church (which often kicks up talk about and reaction to "blasphemy"). His July 14, 2012 post titled "Churches Can Change, But It Takes Guts" gives some helpful ideas on how to navigate transitions (and the angry mob) and on discerning what is human tradition and what is the commandment of God.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Regarding excessive legalism like that advocated by the Pharisees, according to the website dumblaws.com these are some silly laws that are still in effect in my home state of Ohio (see the website to find the silly laws in your state):
* It is illegal to pitch horseshoes or play croquet within one mile of a public speaker's stand on Memorial Day;
* It is illegal to fish for whales on Sunday;
* It is illegal to participate in or conduct a duel;
* Motorists are required to honk their car horn when passing another vehicle;
* Not more than five women may live together in one house;
* People who lose a pet tiger in the city of Canton are required to notify the authorities within one hour of the loss; and
* It is illegal in the city of Bexley to install a slot machine in your outhouse.
Living by the law can be exhausting.
-- Dean Feldmeyer
* * *
Baseball has gone through a lot of rule changes since Alexander Cartwright published the first rules for the game in 1845. According to ESPN magazine, contemporary rules currently allow 23 ways for a runner to get to first base:
1. walk (bases on balls)
2. intentional walk
3. hit by pitch
4. catcher drops pitch on third strike
5. failure of pitcher to deliver pitch in 20 seconds
6. catcher interference
7. fielder interference
8. spectator interference
9. fan obstruction
10. fair ball hits umpire
11. fair ball hits runner
12. fielder obstructs runner
13. pinch-runner comes in from the dugout
14. fielder's choice
15. force out at another base
16. preceding runner put-out allows batter to reach first
17. sacrifice bunt fails to advance runner
18. sacrifice fly dropped
19. runner called out on appeal
20. error by defense
21. fourth illegal pitch
22. single
23. game suspended with runner on first, that player is traded prior to the makeup date; new player is allowed to take his place
* * *
The "infield fly" rule is one of the most esoteric and little understood rules of baseball because it so rarely comes into play -- but it is an important rule that keeps infield defensive players from intentionally missing a catchable pop-up fly in order to force a double or even triple play. In relatively plain English, here is the infield fly rule:
When there are fewer than two outs and there are runners at first and second base (or the bases are loaded), if a fly ball is in fair play and in the umpire's judgment it is catchable by an infielder with ordinary effort, the umpire shall call "infield fly" and the batter will be out regardless of whether the ball is actually caught in flight.
Umpires typically raise one arm straight up to signal to everyone that the rule is in effect.
* * *
Until 1920 the rules of baseball allowed players to steal first base. Here is how it worked:
If there were runners on first and third and fewer than two outs, the runner on first base would steal second, hoping to lure the catcher into throwing the ball to second base. If the catcher did throw the ball it would allow the runner on third base to steal home and score.
Usually, however, the catcher would not throw the ball to second and just allow the steal rather than give up the run at home plate. In that case the runner on first base who successfully stole second would turn around and steal back to first for no other reason than to create chaos and confusion... during which the runner on third base could steal home and score.
On July 31, 1908, Fred Tenney actually did this twice on three successive pitches. On the first pitch he stole second, but the catcher didn't bite. On the second pitch he retreated to first base, and still the catcher didn't throw the ball. On the third pitch, he stole second base again -- and when the catcher still refused to throw, he decided to stay on second.
By 1920 this practice had become widespread and was delaying play to the point that Major League Baseball made it illegal to steal first base.
* * *
The game of Go originated in China about 2,500 years ago and quickly spread to Korea and Japan. Today it is considered the most popular board game in the world. As of mid-2008, there were over 40 million Go players worldwide. As of May 2012[update], the International Go Federation had a total of 74 member countries and four association members covering multiple countries.
According to chess master Edward Lasker, "The rules of Go are so elegant, organic, and rigorously logical that if intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the universe, they almost certainly play Go." Interestingly, other than the order of play Go has only two rules. Yet the different strategies that can be used are so complex that Go is a game that "takes ten minutes to learn and a lifetime to master." In fact, seasoned veterans of the game suggest that you shouldn't take it up if you're over 50 years old.
* * *
The 112th Congress, convening during the 2011-2012 legislative session, has been the least productive Congress in the post-World War II era. It has even surpassed the inactivity of the 80th Congress, which in 1948 President Truman referred to as the "do-nothing Congress." Coming before the 112th Congress were 3,914 bills, of which only 61 were passed. That is less than 2% of the bills that were introduced. Presently Congress' approval rating is at 10% -- a historical low. Perhaps that is because the congressmen talk, but they don't do.
James calls us to go beyond just talking and hearing the word, but to "be doers of the word" as well.
* * *
It is expected that as many as 90 million people who could vote won't go to the polls in this November's presidential election. The top reason given by those who have failed to register to vote is that their lives are too busy. The top reason given by those who are registered to vote but won't bother is that they don't like either candidate or the apathy of thinking that their vote does not matter anyway. Curtis Gans, director of the non-partisan Center for the Study of the American Electorate, offered several reasons why individuals are reluctant to vote. Gans said, "There is a lack of trust in our leaders, a lack of positive feelings about political institutions, a lack of quality education for large segments of the public, a lack of civic education, the fragmenting effects of waves of communications technology, the cynicism of the coverage of politics -- I could go on with a long litany."
James calls us not only to hear the word of God but be sure to act upon what we hear. It is a summons to become involved.
* * *
Each night the backup quarterback for the New York Jets waits for a phone call from his "accountability partner." Each night, the unnamed individual phones Tim Tebow and calls him accountable for his Christian actions that day and to review his daily Bible readings. Tim says of his accountability partner that "I have him because I need someone who is always investing in me, you know? You don't ever want to become complacent. That's very easy to do because life gets in the way."
James says, "Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger." We all need an "accountability partner" so we are quick to listen, preventing us from acting irrationally.
* * *
Our James text cautions us against being "hearers of the word and not doers... who look at themselves in a mirror." Three examples of such hypocrisy in the form of disgraced ministers come to mind:
* Pentecostal televangelist Jimmy Swaggart began preaching his fire-and-brimstone Christian fundamentalism on television program in 1975. But it was during the 1980s that Swaggart rose to prominence in right-wing politics along with Rev. Jerry Falwell, Rev. James Robison, and Rev. Pat Robertson. Swaggart's sermons were often as political as they were religious, and he was never shy about describing feminists, liberals, Democrats, and rock musicians as agents of Satan who promoted immorality at every turn. But in 1988, it was revealed that Swaggart had been cheating on his wife with a New Orleans prostitute named Debra Murphree. And his association with prostitutes did not end after his famous "I have sinned" speech of 1988. In 1991, Swaggart was with prostitute Rosemary Garcia when he was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol.
* Evangelical minister Ted Haggard was never known for embracing a moderate approach to Protestant Christianity. Very much a fundamentalist, Haggard was a strong supporter of George W. Bush's presidency and did a lot to rally GOP "values voters" in 2004. A strident culture warrior, he preached against abortion, premarital sex, adultery, and gay marriage. But in 2006, a male escort named Mike Jones revealed that the married Haggard had been a client; in addition to paying for sex and committing adultery, Jones said, Haggard was fond of using crystal meth. Admitting to his followers that he was guilty of "sexual immorality," Haggard resigned from his position as president of the National Association of Evangelicals.
* In 1987, Jim Bakker (who co-hosted The PTL Club with his wife, Tammy Faye Bakker) was disgraced when it came out that he had cheated on his wife with church secretary Jessica Hahn and paid her $265,000 to keep quiet. In 1989, Bakker was convicted of fraud and racketeering charges in a federal court and sentenced to 45 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, but he was granted parole in 1994. (Jimmy Swaggart was vehemently critical of Bakker. In 1987 he referred to Bakker as "a cancer on the body of Christ" because of his affair with Hahn.)
* * *
The definition of "hypocrite" is a person who publicly espouses for others a behavior that he/she eschews in private, or conversely, publicly condemns for others a behavior in which he/she indulges in private. For example:
* John Edwards denied infidelity accusations that surfaced about him, but he never outwardly condemned adultery or unfaithful husbands. So when he confessed to an extramarital affair, he was guilty of being a liar and a cheater but not of being a hypocrite.
* New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, however, ran for office promising high ethics and had busted up prostitution rings when he was state attorney general. So when it was revealed that he was patronizing the very prostitutes that he was having arrested, he fit the definition of a hypocrite.
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The words of our Song of Solomon passage may be familiar to many baseball fans, as legendary Detroit Tigers radio announcer Ernie Harwell always began the opening spring training broadcast of each season by reading the King James Version of verses 11-12: "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." That same passage was also a favorite of Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God calls us to celebrate God's presence among us.
People: We rejoice in God's Spirit that unites us.
Leader: God invites us to be renewed in the Spirit.
People: With joy we ask to be transformed into God's likeness.
Leader: God sends us into the world for its renewal and salvation.
People: As God's people, we will go and share God's loving kindness and salvation with all.
OR
Leader: Who may abide in God's tent?
People: Who may dwell on God's holy hill?
Leader: Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right,
People: those who speak the truth from their heart;
Leader: those who do acts of justice and mercy.
People: Those who do these things shall never be moved.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"The God of Abraham Praise"
found in:
UMH: 116
H82: 401
NCH: 24
CH: 24
LBW: 544
ELA: 831
Renew: 51
"Trust and Obey"
found in:
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
"All Creatures of Our God and King"
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
Renew: 47
"Open My Eyes, That I May See"
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
"Be Thou My Vision"
found in:
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELA: 793
Renew: 151
"O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee"
found in:
UMH: 430
H82: 659/660
PH: 357
NNBH: 495
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELA: 818
"Make Me a Captive, Lord"
found in:
UMH: 421
PH: 378
"I Am Thine, O Lord"
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
"Open Our Eyes, Lord"
found in:
CCB: 77
Renew: 91
"As We Gather"
found in:
CCB: 12
Renew: 6
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who faithfully calls your creation to eternal life: Grant us the wisdom to heed your call and to use the signs and traditions we have been given to draw nearer to you and to serve all creation as your image and presence; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into your presence, O God, not only to worship you but to be transformed. As we allow your presence to come more fully into our awareness, help us to allow it to transform us more fully into your image that we may serve your creation more fully. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins especially how we hang on to traditions that make it difficult for others, and even ourselves, to follow the way of Jesus.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are comfortable with the way things are in our lives and in our churches. This is the way we have "always" done it. We have long since stopped asking if they actually help us be disciples of Jesus. We don't ask if they help us walk humbly with God or lead us to acts of justice in mercy. We are content that they make us comfortable. We look a lot more like the ones who confront Jesus than the ones who follow him. Renew us in your Spirit so that we may focus once again on the goal of being the presence and image of you, O God, so that your reign may truly be here and now. Amen.
Leader: God welcomes us back to our right minds and right practices. God desires nothing more than to be known and to lead us and all creation to life. Receive the blessing of God to live in a new way as faithful disciples of Jesus.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship you, O God, for you have created us in your own image. You have placed your own Spirit within and among us, and you have called us your children.
(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 are comfortable with the way things are in our lives and in our churches. This is the way we have "always" done it. We have long since stopped asking if they actually help us be disciples of Jesus. We don't ask if they help us walk humbly with God or lead us to acts of justice in mercy. We are content that they make us comfortable. We look a lot more like the ones who confront Jesus than the ones who follow him. Renew us in your Spirit so that we may focus once again on the goal of being the presence and image of you, O God, so that your reign may truly be here and now.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you remind us of who we are and to whom we belong. We thank you for the signs the church has given us so that we might remember your loving presence and share that with others. Most of all we thank you for Jesus, who constantly calls us to you.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We lift up to you the cares and concerns of our hearts. We ask that you would continue to help us to look upon the world around us with your compassion. Help us to be signs to others of your loving presence.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about signs and how helpful they can be. They tell us where things are and they warn us of dangerous things. But the signs are not the real thing -- they are only signs. We have all kinds of things in our church to tell us about God... windows, crosses, etc. -- but they are only there to tell us about God.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Dirty Hands, Clean Heart
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Objects: a mud pie and/or a dirty rag
Good morning, boys and girls! What's the most fun you've ever had getting dirty? (let the children answer) How many of you have ever made mud pies? (if using a mud pie, show it and let them answer) When you were finished getting dirty, how many of you cleaned yourself up and finished with a rag looking this dirty? (if using a dirty rag, show it and let them answer)
Today I want to tell you the story about a very old woman. This woman lived alone on the edge of town, where there were very few other neighbors. Since she lived alone, she didn't take a bath very often and she didn't wash her clothes very often. Some people thought she was dirty. She didn't have much money, so her house hadn't been painted for many years. Her car was older than most other cars. Even so, this old woman attended church every Sunday. She helped in the church in many ways. She made flower arrangements for the sanctuary on Sunday. She visited people who were in the hospital. She helped in the church kitchen whenever there was a special church meal. One Sunday morning she even helped teach a Sunday school class when a teacher became ill at the last minute. This woman wasn't always clean, but she always helped at church.
She reminds me of this morning's lesson. In the lesson some men were trying to find things wrong with Jesus. These men said that Jesus' disciples didn't clean themselves the way they should. Jesus became angry when he heard this. Jesus told these men, "Just because you wash your hands one way instead of another does not make you a clean person. You are a clean person when your heart is clean." Jesus knew that his enemies did not have clean hearts because they were making fun of him.
Here's what I want you to remember about today's lesson. It is important to clean up after we get dirty while playing. But Jesus wants us to know that there is something even more important than cleaning our hands -- it is making sure that our hearts are clean. Our hearts are clean when we love others and are concerned for others. The old woman in my story wasn't always clean on the outside... but she was clean on the inside. That's the way Jesus wants us to be -- clean on the inside.
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The Immediate Word, September 2, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
