The overriding theme in this week’s lectionary texts is one of divine disappointment. The prophet Hosea describes the anger and despair of a loving Father whose children have taken up with false gods. The writer of Ecclesiastes bemoans how all human endeavor seems to be mere vanity. Paul provides a laundry list of the impropriety that defines “earthly” behavior -- something that was evidently an ongoing problem in the Colossian congregation -- and counsels us to “set [our] minds on things that are above” and “put to death” in our lives such things as fornication, greed, slander, and falsehood. And finally, in the gospel passage Jesus denounces our tendency toward greed, selfishness, and accumulating an abundance of possessions. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer notes that very little seems to have changed since biblical times regarding human foibles, as the same conduct that caused the disenchantment evident in this week’s texts is still a regular feature in our daily headlines. We can live piously, faithfully attend worship, and enthusiastically participate in Bible study all we want -- but Dean reminds us that if we still choose to demonstrate “earthly” behavior in our lives, then it really doesn’t matter... the proof is in the pudding (and the living). In other words, Dean tells us, we can’t just talk the talk... we also have to walk the walk. And if Christ is in our lives, it will be visible to everyone by the “clothing” of our actions.
Team member Mary Austin offers some additional thoughts on the gospel text and its warnings against greed and an abundance of possessions. By the benchmarks of our culture, the “rich fool” hardly seems foolish -- instead he appears to be rewarded for his industriousness. Yet Jesus castigates him for storing up treasures for himself but not for God. Mary suggests that what Jesus is really criticizing is the man’s tunnel vision... his selfishness of the heart. Mary ponders this passage in light of the city of Detroit filing for bankruptcy, and she has some interesting points to make about how much attention we pay to ourselves, and how much attention we pay to our neighbors.
Walking the Walk
by Dean Feldmeyer
Colossians 3:1-11; Hosea 11:1-11
What’s going on in Colossae?
For a small town -- what we might compare to a county seat -- the Colossians sure seem to be dealing with some heady controversies. According to their pastor, Epaphras, heresy and paganism are sneaking into the theology and worship practices of its Christian community.
Paul has already dealt with doctrinal issues in the first two chapters of his letter to the Colossians, but the problems seem to extend beyond mere theology into everyday behavior. Apparently greed, fornication, impurity, passion, and evil desire are constant temptations in this little town. Anger, malice, slander, and abusive language are slipping into the meetings where these problems are being discussed. And these Christians aren’t above lying to each other either.
Gee, it sounds like they are... well, us. Their problems aren’t just their problems, they’re our problems as well.
In the News
Just a quick glance at the newspapers or the evening news indicates that 2,000 years later we have not even come close to solving the Colossian problems.
Greed has become so commonplace that we hardly even recognize it. Hey, it’s capitalism. Everyone is supposed to make as much money as they can, in any way they can, and damn the consequences. It’s what Ayn Rand would want, right?
In 2012, the 200 highest-paid CEOs in the United States saw their pay go up 16% to a median annual income of $15 million. The median household income in America went up a mere .25% to $52.971. So, assuming a 60-hour workweek and two weeks of vacation, the typical CEO at a large company made more in 11 hours than the typical family made all year.
In Congress, our elected representatives and senators reduced interest rates on current student loans but agreed to raise the rates in coming years. The estimated $715 million over 10 years that these raised rates will bring in will be applied to deficit reduction. So instead of asking us to pay more, we’ll just dump the load on our children and grandchildren.
Fornication is as popular as it ever was. It’s even big entertainment, with the television networks diving into the adultery pool in prime time. Last season ABC concluded the second year of Scandal, in which the president of the United States is having an ongoing affair. In Nashville, two country music divas seem to spend more time in bed that they do on stage. And the new show Mistresses is about... oh come on, do I have to draw you a picture?
Anthony Weiner’s run for mayor of New York has been pretty much sunk by his compulsion to send sexually explicit text messages and pictures to young women, and San Diego mayor Bob Filner is keeping his job but “entering treatment” to correct what his coworkers have described as years of sexually abusive behavior.
Lying, it turns out, never went out of vogue. Sports columnist Mike Wise reminds us in the Washington Post that even as new heroes were being enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame last weekend, no living players were inducted this year because no outstanding players could be found whose performances weren’t tainted with the stain of felony arrests or illegal drug use.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, both of whom were once considered Hall of Fame shoo-ins, now sit on the sidelines in the shadow of their steroid use. Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun are learning that the only thing worse than cheating is cheating and lying about it when you get caught. Says Wise: “Bonds, Clemens, Braun, and Rodriguez are all cautionary tales in what should be the thesis of the Lance Armstrong School of Ethics: The public will forgive a guy for using PEDs. What they’re less likely to forgive is lying about it afterward and then trashing and attacking the accusers.”
In the Scripture
In the Old Testament passage, Hosea compares God’s love for Israel to that of a parent’s love for a rebellious and disobedient teenager. We look at our kids and we see not just the young adult who stands defiantly before us but the little boy who sat on our lap and recited the Goldilocks story as we read it, the little girl who skipped rope on the driveway.
When our rebellious teenager angrily yells “I didn’t ask to be born!” we have to decide whether to remember that or all those times at the swimming pool when she said, “Daddy, watch me!”
According to Hosea, God decides to remember those loving times, those times when he was teaching Ephraim to walk and, when Ephraim fell, picked him up, cooing to him, and held him close to his face to make the hurt go away.
God thinks back to those times and says, “My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger...”
Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, gives us the appropriate response to a God who chooses to put aside fierce and righteous anger, a God who chooses mercy and grace when punishment is what is really warranted. “Set your minds on things that are above!” Take the higher road. Stand above the fray. Choose the better path.
We can choose to allow things like evil desire and greed to die within us. They do not rule us; we rule them. We can choose to not be angry or abusive or malicious. We can choose to stand against our lesser selves.
We can put on Christ like we put on a new robe. And when we do, we will discover that, surprisingly, we all look remarkably alike, in spite of our skin color, our accent, our ethnic background, or our economic status.
In the Pulpit
It’s all about behavior.
Theology is fun -- sitting around a table at Starbucks trying to figure out what exactly we believe about this or that doctrine, this or that interpretation of scripture. We all enjoy doing that from time to time. But what God really wants to know is not so much what we think as what we do -- how we treat each other.
And if this week’s scripture lessons are any indication, we’re not doing so hot.
Hosea tells the People of God that they are like rebellious teenagers, running wild, out of control, with no love or respect for the parents who have loved and raised them.
But be that as it may, God’s grace is unending. God’s heart is warmed by the very sight of us. God rushes to embrace us when we return to the family of faith. God weeps with joy at the very hint of our smile, the very promise of our embrace.
Paul provides the imperative that comes to us out of that grace. It’s all about walking the walk.
Paul tells the Colossian Christians (and us) that it’s time they started acting differently from everyone else. It’s time they started acting like disciples of Jesus and forgoing things like sexual promiscuity, greed, dishonesty, abusive behavior, and prejudice.
We are all in this together.
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Luke 12:13-21
Year after year, “save more money” tops people’s lists of New Year’s resolutions, right up there with losing weight. Most of us hope to save more, and we might wonder why the man in this parable is often called “the rich fool.” This man is doing what many of us have been taught to do all our lives: work hard, save money, invest for the future, and hope that your money grows. People in Jesus’ day, accustomed to thinking of wealth as a sign of God’s favor, might have wondered the same thing.
Luke sets this story in a group of stories about preparing for judgment, and frames the parable with a man asking Jesus to sort out a family inheritance. It was common to ask rabbis -- like Jesus -- to settle family disputes and legal matters, and the man has a reasonable hope of Jesus listening to his story. But Jesus declines to say, as someone once said, whose greed is more worthy. Then Jesus takes up the parable of the wealthy man to amplify his point.
This man couldn’t have been all that foolish. He’s obviously a very successful farmer, skilled at his chosen profession, probably much admired by his neighbors. You would think he would be someone to emulate -- and yet he’s given to us as a “don’t”... the “before” and not the “after.”
This man has planned for his financial future, but not his spiritual one.
At the other end of the spectrum is the city of Detroit, which recently filed for bankruptcy, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s history. For many, this is about as puzzling as the parable of the rich man. As Detroit Free Press reporter Greg Gardner wrote in USA Today: “Suddenly, everyone’s a Detroit expert, whether he or she has ever been here or not. Greedy unions. Decades of neglect. Too much government. Not enough government services. Overdependence on the auto industry. There’s probably someone who has blamed the bankruptcy on bad pizza. Some of this volunteered wisdom is sprinkled with kernels of truth. A good bit of it is just plain wrong.”
Stories often blame the auto industry, supposedly bloated city pensions, or as George Will put it over the weekend, “cultural collapse.” According to Will, Detroit’s fiscal woes “are cultural. You have a city, 139 square miles, you can graze cattle in vast portions of it, dangerous herds of feral dogs roam in there. Three percent of fourth graders reading at the national math standards, 47 percent of Detroit residents are functionally illiterate, 79 percent of Detroit children are born to unmarried mothers. They don’t have a fiscal problem... they have a cultural collapse.” I’m not sure about his statistics, but I am sure that single mothers are not to blame for the city’s billions of dollars of debt.
Rarely examined is the role of banks in the city’s crisis. As David Dayen wrote for the National Memo, “Detroit has been ravaged by an unending foreclosure crisis.... In a foreclosure, the property reverts back to the bank, which then becomes responsible for all maintenance and upkeep, as well as any fees. Some banks simply ignore these responsibilities and refuse to pay taxes or keep the vacant property in good order. The more clever banks stick evicted homeowners with the bill. Across the country and particularly in Detroit, banks have engaged in ‘walkaways,’ where they start foreclosure proceedings but then find them too costly to complete. They choose not to finish the legal steps to foreclosure, leaving the properties vacant. Banks that walk away from homes do not have to notify the city, or even the borrower, that they have abandoned the foreclosure process. Borrowers kicked out of their homes then find themselves still responsible for property tax payments.” The article adds that a General Accountability Office survey in 2010 “found 500 bank walkaways in just four Detroit zip codes.” The city of Detroit has millions of dollars in uncollected property taxes, often from homeowners who no longer know they own the property.
Detroit’s bankruptcy is in its early days, and it remains to be seen what steps the city, under the leadership of an emergency financial manager appointed by the state governor, will take to resolve the crisis. One key question is about pension obligations to retired city workers, including teachers, police officers, and firefighters. As an Associated Press article asked: “Is the city obliged to its past? Or can Detroit renege on its promises to thousands of retirees for the sake of its present city services?”
Are retired workers on pensions guaranteed what they were promised? Or are they considered creditors, just like everyone else from banks to insurance companies to contractors? As the AP piece adds, “The legal question at the heart of Detroit’s bankruptcy filing has never definitively been answered by the nation’s highest courts. But it could become increasingly important as cities from coast to coast are grappling with shortfalls in pension funds that left unchecked could force cutbacks to police, firefighters, and other essential city services.” Whatever happens in Detroit will set a precedent for other ailing cities.
Detroit has faced a perfect storm of declining population, dramatic changes to the auto industry, and poor management. Bankruptcy came as a relief to many in the city who are waiting for better city services, for the streetlights to come back on, for the police to respond to calls, and the ambulance to come when there’s an emergency. Paradoxically, filing for bankruptcy allows the city to look forward, and not just backward.
Perhaps the city would have been better off if it had saved more money, but the man in the parable has all the wealth he can handle, and is still bankrupt in his own way.
The most interesting point in the parable, for me, is the moment when he realizes that his current barns are too small for the abundance of his harvest. He stops to wonder what he should do next, and in that moment’s pause hangs his fate. He already has barns full -- the question is what to do with the abundant excess... the amount beyond enough, beyond even plenty. Choices abound: Give the excess to his neighbors? Sell it? Give it to the synagogue? Keep it?
The hinge in the story is that moment -- the pause between plenty and too much. Jesus instructs the crowd to be on guard against greed, and the word translated as “greed” is a particular Greek work that suggests a disease -- pleonexia -- the unceasing desire for more. The problem for the man in the story, and perhaps for us, is not wealth but self-absorption. The problem is not his money, or saving for the future, or doing well in life. The problem is that he never looks up from the relentless treadmill of acquiring more.
If he, like the culture around him, believed that wealth was a sign of God’s favor, he doesn’t stop for even a moment to say “thank you” to a generous God. Any faithful Jew hearing the story would immediately notice that the man has forgotten the tithe that was the obligation of every religious person of the day. When their income was great or small, a tenth of it was expected to go to God.
And in a culture where most people were barely getting by, he doesn’t stop for even a moment to share with his neighbors.
The man’s problem isn’t really about money, but about where his heart is. Detroit’s problems are about money. Even more deeply, though, they are about community, about what we owe each other, about whether people will rally around to help the city, and about whether the residents can have faith in their city government again.
The Message translates Jesus’ instruction as “fill your barns with God, and not with Self.” When our barns and our accounts are full of God, can our hearts be far behind?
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Colossians 3:1-11
This July was the first time in nearly 50 years that no living player was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. This is because many of the living players who might have been considered for election are tainted with doping, proven or alleged. Hall of Fame members attending this year’s ceremonies expressed their disappointment. Pitcher Bob Gibson said, “What surprises me is that the best ballplayers in the world thought they had to do that,” while third baseman Brooks Robinson pointedly noted, “The way I look at it, those guys cheated. They created an uneven playing field.”
Application: Living by the flesh always creates an uneven playing field, and eventually judgment.
*****
Colossians 3:1-11
Screenwriter Peter Landesman is now directing his first movie: Parkland, about the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Landesman’s film takes a different perspective from previous endeavors, for his film is not focusing on the main characters of the story. Instead, it highlights many of the historic event’s smaller, unknown characters such as the head of the Secret Service in Dallas, someone who filmed the murder from the side of the road, and the trauma doctor and head nurse at Parkland Memorial Hospital where Kennedy’s body was taken. Their stories depict courage and perseverance. Landesman says: “This is a movie about the ground truth from the ground level.”
Application: To live in the Spirit does not mean one has to be famous, only sincere.
*****
Colossians 3:1-11
Michael J. Fox is going to star in a new television series this fall. He will be portraying an NBC newscaster who had to leave work because of his Parkinson’s disease, but who after his children were raised returned to network television. Of course, that storyline follows a very similar path to Fox’s own life story. After several guest appearances in recent years on Rescue Me and The Good Wife, Fox decided to commit to doing the new show because he realized that he wanted to act full-time. As he puts it, his intermittent appearances “really brought me to the place of, ‘This is what I do.’ This is what I was built and programmed to do. It’s what I’ve loved to do... I thought, ‘Why can’t I? There’s no reason not to do it.’ ”
Application: Paul said that once we have been raised with Christ we are programmed to live by the Spirit.
*****
Luke 12:13-21
Gregory Benford, a physics professor at the University of California at Irvine, recently published a book titled The Wonderful Future That Never Was. Benford studied scientists’ predictions for the 21st century from the early 1900s to the late 1960s, culled from Popular Mechanics magazine. From this study Benford was able to conclude: “Failures usually assumed that bigger would always be better -- vast domed cities, floating airports, personal helicopters, tunnels across continents.”
Application: Jesus taught that the bigger and the more are not always better.
*****
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
In 1959, Pete Seeger wrote a song with lyrics adapted from the Book of Ecclesiastes. “Turn! Turn! Turn!” -- popularized by the Byrds’ 1965 hit version -- originally had four verses. But Pete’s wife Toshi, who was not a songwriter, composed five additional verses for their two children, who were six and eight at the time. This past year -- in tribute to his ailing wife (to whom he was married for 70 years) -- Pete began to sing all nine verses at his concerts. He did this in respect and love for Toshi, who died on July 9.
Application: Much in life may seem like vanity until we include family and friends.
***************
From the SermonSuite archives:
Hosea 11:1-11
Anyone who has toured the beautiful English countryside has probably made an effort to visit Coventry Cathedral, located northwest of London. Back during World War II, the great cathedral was destroyed by Nazi bombings that burned large portions of the city. All that was left of the original structure was the shell of the building.
Rather than demolishing the remnants of the old building after the war, it was cleaned up and made into a shrine, a symbol of peace. Beside it the new cathedral was erected, a modern, beautiful edifice. Who would have thought that these two buildings could have been integrated on these church grounds, standing side by side, to create such an inspiring vision contrasting the ravages of war and God’s desire for peace?
When the people of Israel had sought other gods and acted in a rebellious fashion, their destruction became sure. However, God also desired to redeem his people and to make them whole -- to take that which had been decimated and to redeem it out of his love for them. It is in that respect that Coventry Cathedral speaks so profoundly about the redemptive work of God for the people of Israel and for each of us.
*****
Hosea 11:1-11
There are many and varied punishments that have been concocted to discipline recalcitrants --whether children or subjects. One of the most interesting is the old Siamese custom of giving a white elephant as a gift. Albino elephants are extremely rare, and so the king of Siam regarded them as special. He and his court provided the precious pachyderms with the best of everything, and custom dictated that everyone else must follow suit.
Whenever a courtier displeased or angered the king, he would announce throughout the court that he was planning to give this person a special gift -- a royal white elephant. The marked courtier then had two choices. The first would be to insult the king by refusing the gift and thereby incur further wrath, or to accept it and face financial ruin due to the great expense its proper care demanded. Once the king’s pronouncement had been made, there was no appeal process. Therefore most persons marked in this manner simply slipped away during the night, never to be heard from again.
In Hosea, God revoked the edict of destruction and ruination which was perhaps just but not merciful.
*****
Hosea 11:1-11
Believers have tried on many images for God, from “rock” to “judge” to “builder” to “ground of being.” None speaks to the complete reality of one who is beyond language. But the most enduring image, and the one Jesus himself used, is that of parent.
Parent works. It reminds us that we didn’t create ourselves, that we are free but obligated, that God loves us beyond measure but not beyond caring, that God sees us clearly and confers both consequences and forgiveness, that God remains at the table, no matter how painful it is to be in our presence.
Such love can be terrifying. No wonder people prefer to see God as vengeful judge, setting standards and then punishing violators. No wonder people prefer to squabble as siblings, as if God were in another room and couldn’t hear our pathetic wrangling over toys and privileges. No wonder people prefer to see God as quick to anger, quick to forget, quick to move on. No wonder people prefer to see God in terms of power, not trust; law, not grace....
No wonder we find peace so elusive. How can we rest our heads in God’s lap until we accept such a terrifying love?
-- from Tom Ehrich, “On a Journey” online devotional
*****
Hosea 11:1-11
The 19th-century zoologist Ernst Haeckel wanted but one question answered with authority: Is the universe friendly? When the Israelites of the eighth century BC looked around them on earth, the answer would have probably been NO! Assyria had risen to power and was running roughshod over all of the people. An inscription from that time by King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria reads, “I carried off to Assyria the land of Israel... its army... all of its people.” The king’s annals from another campaign describe how he went about his conquests: “With the blood of warriors I dyed a reddish hue the river... I impaled alive the chief ministers and made the country behold them.” Doesn’t sound like too friendly of a universe! Unless one can hear the voice of God above the din. The prophet’s task is to speak the word of God, which, if there is any hope for a friendly universe, will reveal it in a promising way.
*****
Colossians 3:1-11
In the classic musical My Fair Lady (based on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion), Professor Henry Higgins bets a friend that he can transform Eliza Doolittle, a flower-peddling lower-class street woman, into a lady elegant enough to fool the upper class into thinking she is one of them. With a few lessons in comportment and speech -- “the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain” -- and a new wardrobe, Eliza is unrecognizable from the flower peddler that Professor Higgins met at the beginning of the play. By training herself to adhere to a higher set of standards and by trading her old attire -- both in clothing and in attitude -- Eliza becomes the equal of any upper-class aristocrat.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: O give thanks to God, for God is good.
People: God’s steadfast love endures forever.
Leader: Let the redeemed of God say so, those God redeemed from trouble.
People: They cried to God in their trouble, and God delivered them.
Leader: Let those who are wise give heed to these things.
People: Let us consider the steadfast love of God.
OR
Leader: God calls us to life that is eternal.
People: In gratitude we respond to God’s call.
Leader: God reminds us that wealth does not satisfy the soul.
People: We know that only God’s love can fill the hole in our lives.
Leader: God’s love is eternal and strong for all creation.
People: With gratitude we praise the God who loves us eternally.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“I Come with Joy”
found in:
UMH: 617
H82: 304
PH: 507
NCH: 349
CH: 420
ELA: 482
W&P: 706
Renew: 195
“You Satisfy the Hungry Heart”
found in:
UMH: 629
PH: 521
CH: 429
ELA: 484
W&P: 705
“The King of Love My Shepherd Is”
found in:
UMH: 138
H82: 645, 646
PH: 171
NCH: 248
LBW: 456
ELA: 502
Renew: 106
“There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy”
found in:
UMH: 121
H82: 469, 470
PH: 298
NCH: 23
CH: 73
LBW: 290
ELA: 587, 588
W&P: 61
AMEC: 78
STLT: 213
“Jesus, Lover of My Soul”
found in:
UMH: 479
H82: 699
PH: 303
NCH: 546
CH: 542
W&P: 439
AMEC: 253, 254
“Spirit Song”
found in:
UMH: 347
AAHH: 321
CH: 352
W&P: 352
CCB: 51
Renew: 248
“Come Down, O Love Divine”
found in:
UMH: 475
H82: 516
PH: 313
NCH: 289
CH: 582
LBW: 508
ELA: 804
W&P: 330
“O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go”
found in:
UMH: 480
PH: 384
NNBH: 210
NCH: 485
CH: 540
LBW: 324
AMEC: 302
“O How He Loves You and Me!”
found in:
CCB: 38
Renew: 27
“The Steadfast Love of the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 28
Renew: 23
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
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 loves us beyond our wildest dreams: Grant us the grace and wisdom to accept your love so that knowing we are loved and valued by you we may live with integrity and compassion; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We have come worship you, O God, and to hear you speak to us the words of life. When all around us speak of wealth as the basis of security, you remind us that only love lasts forever. Help us to hear your message with our hearts as well as our ears so that we may live forever in your love. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to trust in God’s abundant love and grace.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We talk of your love for all of us, but we seldom take it to heart. We are still trying to earn a place in your heart, when you have already made one for us. In our misguided attempts to earn your love, we try to elevate ourselves above others. We try to convince ourselves that we are worthy by making others seem unworthy. Forgive us, and recall us to your great heart of love that is able to encompass the entire creation. So fill us with your Spirit that we may trust in your love for us enough that we are able to love others. Amen.
Leader: God’s love is abundant and never failing. God’s grace is sufficient for us all. Live in the love and grace of our God.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
O God of love and mercy, hear the praise of your children as we offer you our worship and praise. Receive our hymns of praise as tribute to your ceaseless love.
(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 talk of your love for all of us, but we seldom take it to heart. We are still trying to earn a place in your heart, when you have already made one for us. In our misguided attempts to earn your love, we try to elevate ourselves above others. We try to convince ourselves that we are worthy by making others seem unworthy. Forgive us, and recall us to your great heart of love that is able to encompass the entire creation. So fill us with your Spirit that we may trust in your love for us enough that we are able to love others.
We give you thanks for all the signs of your love in our lives. We thank you for family and friends who reflect your love in their love for us. We thank you for the faithful witness of your people through the ages that your grace and compassion are strong. Most of all we thank you for Jesus, whose life taught us so clearly of your love.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who struggle under the burden of feeling rejected and lost. We pray for those who have so often been shown and told that they are not worthy of being loved. We pray that you would use our prayers, our words, and our actions to break that cycle, so that they might know of your love for them.
(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 times when they might have displeased their parents -- but even then their parents still love them. God is like that, and even more loving than we can imagine. God is always loving us, no matter what.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Watch Out for GreedLuke 12:13-21
Object: a big bowl of candy
See this big bowl of candy? I’m going to divide it into three piles. (Separate the candy. Give one pile just a few pieces of candy, one pile a lot of candy, and one pile somewhere in between.) Now, I need three volunteers to help me. (Choose three children. Place a child behind each pile, so that one child has a few pieces of candy, and so on.)
Each person has a different amount of candy, see? Which child has the biggest pile? (Point to the child the others indicate.) Which person is the luckiest? (Let the children respond.) Which person is the best? (Let them respond.) Be careful now. Is the person with the most candy really the best? Why or why not? (Let them respond.) Okay, you guys can sit down now. Thanks for your help.
I don’t think that having the most candy makes someone the best. That person may be blessed to have so much, but that doesn’t make him any better than anyone else is. Our Bible lesson today tells us not to be greedy. Greed is when you want more and more stuff and when you can’t be happy with just a little. Some people make the mistake of thinking that more is better -- that they are better people if they have more stuff. Jesus warns us not to think like that.
Being greedy can make you sick inside. Greed can keep you from seeing what’s really important in life, and it makes you forget to love others. It’s not what you own that makes you special. All people are special to God. It also doesn’t matter what you wear, what you look like, where you live, or how old you are. All people are special, and God loves us all just the same. Be careful to keep your heart in the right place and live the way God asks us to live. (If appropriate, you might give each child a piece of candy as they leave.)
Prayer: Dear God, please help us remember that you love all people the same. It doesn’t matter how much we own; we are all valuable in your eyes. Help us see the world the way you do. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, August 4, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 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.
