Where Everyone Is Above Average
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
The recent spate of mass shootings has been very troubling. This week's incident on the Texas A&M campus brings up painful memories of the Virginia Tech massacre a few years ago, and comes on the heels of the murder of six people at a Sikh house of worship in Wisconsin and the attack on a crowded Colorado movie theater. But what is especially distressing about the Wisconsin shooting is that it was the work of a white-supremacist who apparently targeted the Sikhs because they looked "different." We in America like to think that we are better than other nations -- a tribal loyalty that seems especially visible during the Olympics as we root our country's athletes to victory. Likewise, we as Christians believe that ours is the only path to true salvation. But how does this belief that we are different from others -- that we are exceptional -- manifest itself in terms of how we relate to other nationalities and faiths? In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin notes that while violence is an unfortunate part of our national and faith history, this week's lectionary texts directly relate to the questions of what sets us apart and what binds us together -- but she points out that if we are not careful, we can easily misread what they are saying to us. True wisdom, she reminds us, means understanding what connects us to each other rather than focusing on our differences.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer offers some additional thoughts on the gospel passage and Jesus' use of the bread as a metaphor. Dean notes that in the biblical world bread was an essential part of the basic diet... and remains so today, as a recent New York Times article reports, detailing the extent to which access to bread has become yet another area in which the civil war in Syria is being played out. Dean offers some useful background information for preachers that may be essential for congregations to be able to place Jesus' words about bread in a meaningful context and suggests some additional resources that might be fruitful.
Where Everyone Is Above Average
by Mary Austin
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14; John 6:51-58
The killings at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin may feel like old news by the time we read this, just as the killings at the Colorado movie theater have faded in our minds. They are no doubt still fresh to the families packing up clothes that won't be needed anymore, writing thank-you notes for casseroles and flowers, and wondering through all of it how their lives have taken this turn. For the rest of us, our shock and horror inevitably fade... until the next time. Having a little distance, though, allows us to think about the bigger forces at work in these shootings and to ponder our ties with our neighbors of different faiths.
The readings from First Kings and John this week raise the questions of difference and commonality, of standing out or blending in. Are we exceptional, or just exceptionally average? If our Christian faith is unique in a world of other faiths, how do we use it as a source of wisdom?
THE WORLD
Watching the Olympics over the past two weeks, we've seen the effort and discipline needed to become an exceptional athlete. Years of training and sacrifice can make a good athlete into a remarkable one, but the amount of work and dedication involved is almost beyond comprehension. The stories of the athletes and their sacrifices are riveting, and we love watching the exceptional athletes make their mark on the sport. We love those who stand out, especially when talent is involved.
In contrast, some people make themselves known through destruction rather than talent. We value people who stand out from the crowd, and some people resort to extreme violence to make themselves known to the world. Even so, it's sometimes hard to keep our loner, "neighbors-say-he-kept-to-himself" mass shooters straight these days. In recent weeks, the gunman who wounded Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killed others reached a plea deal that avoids a trial. The accused killer in the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater killings appeared in court. In Wisconsin, a man with apparent ties to white supremacist movements killed six and wounded others when he fired on worshipers at a Sikh temple last weekend.
It seems that the worshipers at the Sikh temple were also singled out because they're different. This is the other side of our American fascination with difference -- we are also sometimes uncomfortable with it. We mistrust the neighbor who looks different, worry about the people who follow a different religion, and fear that their differences will somehow take something away from us.
THE WORD
The reading from First Kings continues the story of Israel's complicated relationship with the nation's kings. We hear of the death of King David and the rise of King Solomon. The lectionary verses cover David's death and Solomon's ascent to the throne, and then skip over Solomon's order to have some inconvenient people killed. The lectionary picks back up, after all the blood and gore, with Solomon's request that God give him wisdom to rule the people wisely and for the wisdom to know the difference between good and evil. Reading the whole story, and not just the verses selected for the lectionary, one is tempted to call out "too late!" in response to his request.
The story, read in its entirety, reminds us that violence has been part of the story of our faith from the beginning. Violent conquest of the land of Israel, followed by violent deaths of those opposed to various kings, are part of our narrative of faith. The biblical witness holds that the God of Israel has regard for everyone, and the laws are careful to make provision for the foreigner, the widow, the slave, and the orphan. Israel starts out without kings, and God finally gives in to the people's request to have someone chosen as the king. Just a generation previous, God selected Jesse's unknown younger son David to be the king. Now the king has temples and wives and wealth and army commanders: things have changed. The growing wealth and power of the king make us wonder about the wisdom of setting any of us over our fellow human beings. The king was once one of the people, set apart because he was selected by God. Now the king is truly different from the people.
Solomon sees the tension between being one of the people and their ruler when he makes his request of God. He says to the Lord: "And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?" (1 Kings 3:8-9).
The words of John's gospel also raise the question of difference. With all the poetic beauty of its language, the gospel has also divided Christians from other faiths. "No one comes to the Father except through me," Jesus says in another place in the gospel (John 14:6). In this week's reading, Jesus declares: "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink" (John 6:53-55).
Words like this from Jesus have been the source of violence by Christians against other faiths through the years. We are rightly horrified by the Wisconsin shootings in a place of worship, and yet our scriptures have been used to justify violence against other faiths too.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Last Friday's memorial service for the Wisconsin shooting victims drew thousands of people to a high school gym for the service to honor the six Sikh temple members who died. Attorney General Eric Holder spoke, as did Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. As John Eligon and Steven Yaccino reported in the New York Times: "After the sadness and shock, members of Wisconsin's insular Sikh community found themselves confronting scenes they never would have expected. There were outpourings of support, including a gathering of hundreds of people of different faiths and skin colors, some holding candles, others wearing white head scarves, in a gesture of solidarity with this predominantly Indian religion."
Just as hate and a sense of difference led to the shootings, a feeling of shared community drew all kinds of people to the memorial service.
Wisdom leads us back to each other.
Solomon, after consolidating his reign by killing off the opposition, understands that there must be a better way to govern the people. He can go on like he has, or he can ask God for the wisdom to rule a diverse people with grace. In asking for wisdom, he also asks for connection.
Jesus says that he has the gift of living bread "for the life of the world." Eating is a taking in, making a substance into our own essence. Our faith is about our taking in the essence of Jesus, who understood sacrifice for others. We do well when we take in the wisdom he embodied, when we make it part of ourselves. The living bread is the bread of service and sacrifice and love, more than exclusivity.
The New York Times article noted above quotes a member of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin as saying: "No matter what the shooter did, he failed, because instead of pulling us apart, he made us closer.... We didn't realize that we have such support from other members of society until this happened. Now we realize how much they care about us. We feel more close to other faiths and other religions now more than ever before."
Wisdom leads us back to each other.
A later article in the Times by Mr. Yaccino quotes Linda Hetzeo, who said she lives a mile and a half from the temple but didn't know much about the Sikhs or their religion. After learning of the shootings, she and some friends gathered to pray at her home. "As a Christian, I just need to be a part of this," she said. The tragedy has inspired her to learn more about the Sikh religion, she said, adding: "I guess that could be a reward for this tragedy that has happened."
Along similar lines, the Huffington Post published an open letter written by a 10-year-old Sikh girl from Virginia following the killings. In the letter, she says, "I am only 10 and don't know about all the religions, but the recent shooting in Wisconsin got me wondering about other religions.... My parents always told me to respect other religions but to know my religion well. My parents let me take Bible studies in kindergarten and participate in the Christmas play, but they also taught me about my temple and things important to Sikhs." She adds: "No matter what religion, we should never misjudge a person. If someone is a different color or is from somewhere else you should try to get to know them and you might learn something new. You will also make someone feel good and at home if you just talk to them and learn about their background." The letter ends with: "Thank you for reading and let us all be united against hatred. Tarina."
Perhaps the deepest wisdom is to see our connections, the communion beneath our differences.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Bread
by Dean Feldmeyer
John 6:51-58
A New York Times article dated August 3, 2012 begins like this:
Just before sunrise, a select group of Syrian rebel fighters steps away from the front lines here for a task their commanders now consider a vital and urgent part of the war effort: baking bread.
The floppy moons that they produce, pita to Americans, usually go quickly to hungry residents and rebels. Bread is a mainstay of the Syrian diet -- it accompanies every meal -- and in a city paralyzed by two weeks of war, the bakery lines show that basic commerce has become a battleground of its own.
"The regime has tried to deprive our supporters of water and gas, and now they are using bread," said Basheer al-Hajeh, a member of Al Tawheed Brigade, one of the main rebel militias in Aleppo.
Bread in the Near East and Middle East is today a mainstay of life, even as it was 2,000 years ago. But it's hardly the fluffy white stuff we use to make our lunch sandwiches -- this is tough, grainy, nutritious stuff, filled with vitamins, necessary carbohydrates, and fiber.
In the time of Jesus, as today, the local bread was what we would call pita. Flat and unleavened, it was dry, durable, and filling, and usually had to be soaked in flavored olive oil to make it palatable. By the first century the Romans had introduced variety to the Middle Eastern science of bread-making. Barley, rye, wheat, corn, and other grains were being used and leavening was making bread lighter and more digestible, though it was still far from what we know as bread today. Roman bread was heavy, dense, and grainy.
And in both cases, whether we are talking about European bread or Middle Eastern bread, it was the staff of life and the mainstay of most people's daily diets -- especially those who could not afford meat on a regular basis, who had to sell the fish they caught in order to pay for other necessities, and for whom fruits and vegetables were rare, seasonal treats.
With bread this important to the daily existence of his audience, it is not surprising that Jesus would choose it as an abiding metaphor for his life, his ministry, and the relationship he had with his followers.
Bread is mentioned over 390 times in the Bible -- 85 times in the New Testament, with 20 of those in the gospel of John (the most of any New Testament book). Of the 20 times John uses the word "bread," 17 of them occur in the sixth chapter. Four of those are preceded by the words "I am."
In the RSV and KJV the Hebrew words for bread and food are often used interchangeably, which indicates how much bread was a mainstay of the daily diet. Bread is often referred to as the "staff" of life because it was something that people leaned on, as a shepherd might lean on his staff for support. To be out of or "without bread" was the lowest form of poverty and often a metaphor for hopelessness.
The bread that is spoken of in the Bible was most often flat disks about 10-18 inches in diameter, and an adult man could be expected to eat as many as three in a meal. Prisoners, however, were given one a day. The bread was also used as a spoon to scoop meats and stews from clay pots.
In the Hebrew Scriptures bread is a widely used metaphor that refers to enemies (Numbers 14:9), or a less than acceptable way of taking spiritual, emotional, or psychological nourishment, as in "eating the bread of idleness" or "the bread of deceit" or the "bread of adversity."
In the New Testament bread is used metaphorically only to refer to the coming kingdom of God or to Jesus himself.
By the time of the early church, corporate worship usually took place around the meal table where bread was broken and the phrase "breaking bread" came to mean both eating together and worshiping together.
Chapter 6 of the gospel of John weaves the metaphor of bread in and out of the narrative so that its meaning becomes both profound and complex. Shadows are layered upon shadows as the gospel writer gives us images of the Last Supper and the Eucharistic meal, as well as the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It also reflects the ongoing ministry of the church. It is probably by their failure to recognize this chapter as metaphor that persecutors of the early church came to believe that Christians were cannibals.
For the church, this particular passage invites us to be more than observers and admirers of Jesus. We are called to actually take nourishment and find authentic life in the life he presents to us.
The preacher would do well, when preaching on John 6, to spend some time unpacking the reality of bread in the lives of first-century Christians and the powerful metaphor that it brings to our attempts to live the Christ-like life today.
For further reading on the subject of bread and Christianity, see:
• The Bible Cookbook by Daniel Cutler (William Morrow, 1985)
• Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome by Patrick Faas (University of Chicago Press, 2005)
• Food in History by Reay Tannahill (Three Rivers Press, 1988)
• "Bread" in The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bread
• http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodbreads.html
• http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/Bread/
ILLUSTRATIONS
Early Christians suffered from persecution by the Romans. Interestingly enough, though, this persecution did not stem from a Roman aversion to God. The Romans were in general a fairly tolerant society. However, much like our society today, there were things that the Romans considered to be unacceptable. Among these unacceptable actions were cannibalism and incest. A major reason the Romans persecuted Christians was because they did not understand the language Christians used. When two married Christians referred to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, the Romans' minds leapt to incest. And when they talked about sharing in the body and blood of communion, Rome misinterpreted it as cannibalism. The Romans persecuted Christians because they did not understand them. If educated Romans had that much trouble, imagine how the disciples -- mostly uneducated, working-class men -- felt when Jesus spoke about communion as he did in this week's gospel text.
* * *
Jesus asks his followers to incorporate him completely into their lives. The graphic nature of his language still shocks us. He is living bread. We must eat his flesh and drink his blood to find life. That sounds offensive, cannibalistic, and almost obscene. But have you ever said to a child, "I love you so much I could just eat you up"? There is more in Jesus' statement than mere symbolism. It is necessary for us to take Jesus into ourselves -- flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood -- in order to accomplish the total identification that is life in his Spirit. The living bread cries out to be enfolded completely in a living person, a person who finds all their life in him.
* * *
The sacrament of holy communion was being celebrated, the family of God was kneeling at the altar railing as the elements were being distributed. "This is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you." We hear these words so often that we may not really even think about them. But suddenly a little boy at the altar rail exclaimed, "Oh, yuck," in a voice loud enough for the entire church to hear.
Two thousand years ago the Jewish people were probably thinking the very same thing. After all, they believed that any contact with blood made them unclean. Blood was spilled in battle. What could have been a greater abomination than the drinking of blood?
How do we explain this sacrament to those who are not familiar with Christianity? What kind of God gets himself killed in the worst possible way as a public spectacle along with criminals? We prefer to think about Jesus as a sweet little child with a halo over his head. But that cross is always before us.
* * *
About the unexpected and uncontrollable Bread of Life -- taking our sustenance (and our cues) from Jesus and passing it on...
In Take This Bread (Ballantine Books, 2007), Sara Miles writes about the crossroads of faith and feeding people. Raised to reject religion, she unexpectedly wanders into a church one day, receives communion, and is never the same. Miles discovers Jesus and the life he offers in the sacrament and those who gather with her around the table, a table that she eventually turns into the food pantry to share the Bread of Life.
From Take This Bread:
A wave of voices rose up. Michael had opened the front doors, and now a stream of people was entering the church, lugging their shopping bags, tugging their kids by the hand, greeting our volunteers raucously.
I felt dizzy. Sometimes, at the pantry, it seemed as if everything were happening on two planes at once. I was slipping effortlessly back and forth between feeding people and splashing in the waters of new life, taking out the trash and remembering funeral rites. I was watching a regular Friday afternoon, with its ordinary conversations and kidding around, and seeing creation the way God sees it: weak, heartbreaking, and completely beloved....
(Miles tells a story about one of the pantry's faithful customers, a little old lady who comes to get groceries in order to feed the beggars on her street. Standing in line, she offers her friend, another customer who has been suffering from the flu, some cranberry-grape juice in a Dixie cup -- the sacrament, according to Miles.)
I'd been raised to reject religion, but I was finding that people often wanted more of it than the church was willing to give: more sacraments, more rites, more prayer and healing and blessing. Those desires of people formally outside the system of religion could be a force transforming the people inside, just as the visitors to our food pantry were transforming St. Gregory's. What if, in churches that prohibited it, divorced outcasts and gay people asked to be married as well as baptized? What if unprepared kids and non-members of those churches asked to receive communion or women offered themselves for ordination?
Most days, I thought I was a pretty lousy Christian: mean, self-absorbed, confused. But I knew I was as much a "real" Christian as the Christians who wanted to exclude me. "Real" Christians weren't the ones who happened to control the levers of ecclesiastical power, those who belonged to the biggest churches or the oldest traditions. They could be total outsiders and still perform rites that evoked the gospel messages of healing, new life, shared food, shared grief, shared peace. They included anyone who, like those first unqualified disciples, got a taste of Jesus and followed him. As Paul Fromberg had said to me once, when I asked him how he had stuck with Christianity when so many wanted to kick him out for being gay, "Honey, I know who my shepherd is." That growing, changing, unruly flock of Jesus' was the only force that could reform the church: When you let the wrong people in, the promise of change could finally come true.
* * *
After 50 years, wisdom changed. Every decade, the magazine Sight & Sound, published by the British Film Institute, conducts a survey among film critics, programmers, academics, and distributors to determine the 10 best movies ever made -- and for 50 years Orson Welles' masterpiece Citizen Kane topped the poll and was considered the best movie ever produced. But after tallying the ballots of this year's 846 voters, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo surpassed Citizen Kane by 34 votes. By a margin of 4%, the wisdom of the critics toppled a movie that had stood as first for a half-century.
Application: Solomon was blessed with a discerning mind. But many discerning minds may change and may not agree, even if it is by a margin of 4%.
* * *
In their news analysis about how presidential candidates were "spinning" the U.S. Department of Labor's monthly jobs report, the Associated Press concluded that "campaigns see what they want to see". Three months before the election, the government's economic report showed that while the number of jobs increased faster than expected, the unemployment rate rose as well. On the campaign trail, Republican candidate Mitt Romney accentuated the unemployment increase while President Obama, the Democratic candidate, touted the increase in jobs. The writers stated that both candidates' reaction to the government's report "was flooded with familiar promises."
Application: Solomon was blessed with a discerning mind. But many discerning minds only see what they want to see -- which, of course, negates one as having a discerning mind.
* * *
Our First Kings text deals with praising and standing in awe of God -- this being the beginning of wisdom and an opening to a life lived wholly with God...
In her book Christianity for the Rest of Us (HarperCollins, 2006), Diana Butler Bass studies and writes about a number of mainstream Protestant churches that are thriving despite the normative trends for these types of faith communities. Bass identifies characteristics these thriving congregations have in common and writes a chapter about each. As she considers worship, she includes a story about Eric Elnes, a minister at Scottsdale Congregational in Arizona. After helping to breathe new life into the church's ministry with youth via the "World's Most Dangerous Bible Study" that intermixes rock music with scripture reading, Eric noticed the church's teenagers getting involved in every aspect of the church's life together -- except worship. "They avoided worship like you or I would stay clear of nuclear reactor meltdown." That realization sent Eric into a period of reflection on the nature of worship. Bass continues the story...
During one summer study-leave at a lakeside cabin on the Oregon coast, he sat on the dock thinking about the question "What is the basis of worship?" As he stared at the water, the largest bass he had ever seen swam past, leaving the water rippling in its wake. "I stood up," Eric said, "and gasped as a sense of awe and wonder provoked a surge of adrenaline through my body." A moment later, Eric had an insight about worship. "This is the foundation of worship. If you can take an hour on Sunday morning and open people to experiencing just a quarter-second of awe, wonder, and surrender you just experienced, it is accomplished."... Eric realized that the object of worship "is not to create anything." Rather, he says, "the goal is simply to invite people into a sense of openness and attentiveness akin to sitting at the edge of the dock in Oregon."
Bass encourages a turn in worship and throughout our lives of faith from head to heart, from "thinking about God" to "learning to experience God" in our hearts -- our "whole capacity for being human."
Bass then turns to New Testament scholar Marcus Borg, who states that "faith is the 'way of the heart,' the act of 'beloving' God, of giving one's whole self to God." Somehow, she muses, "Beloving God devolved into believing things about God. Is it possible to re-enchant the universe? Can we move back to a holistic way of apprehending God? Can we heal what has been torn? Can we belove God?"
How can we open ourselves to experiences of awe, wonder, and surrender? Can we then invite a sense of openness and attentiveness that transforms our lives and offers our whole selves to God?
* * *
In our Ephesians text, Paul exhorts us to be careful and wise about how we live, making the most of our time.
In a Huffington Post article from August 8, 2012, psychiatrist Sheenie Ambardar shares her "Six Surprising Ways to Be Happier". At first glance, the good doctor's suggestions are indeed surprising. They begin with headings like "Make Less Money," "Have Fewer Friends," and "Be Ignorant."
However, a closer read clarifies that Ambardar is after a careful examination of how we live. This is because, Ambardar notes, "As writer Annie Dillard so logically put it: 'How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.' " The good doctor asks us, "How would you like to spend your life?"
Ambardar is after her readers to live in ways that really bring them authentic, healthy, and fulfilling life by understanding who they really are. Her sixth suggestion, "Never Try to Fit a Round Peg into a Square Hole," is really a summary of all her other points. Its last portion reads:
You will be so much happier and at peace if you develop the fortitude to wait patiently, choose wisely, question broadly, and only accept good things into your life that are truly worth of your time and energy. And it's never too late to start along this path -- whether you're 30 or 70. Your reward will be a life well-lived and a sense of freedom and liberation that only comes to those willing to experience life on their own terms... you can do it!
Paul (or one of his disciples) is playing a similar cheerleading role for the community at Ephesus. He is after the believers there to understand and live into who they really are as followers of Christ. He knows this will issue in living that is authentic, healthy, and fulfilling, because it is the life for which they were created and called. It is the life that Jesus lived as model and invitation, and they would be wise (and happier) if they followed suit.
* * *
In a 2000 commencement address at Villanova University, newspaper columnist Anna Quindlen had some wise words to share with college graduates. Departing from the usual bromides about striving for excellence and pursuing success, Quindlen encouraged the class of 2000 to order their lives in a radically different way:
Don't ever forget what a friend once wrote Senator Paul Tsongas when the senator decided not to run for re-election because he'd been diagnosed with cancer: "No man ever said on his deathbed I wish I had spent more time in the office." Don't ever forget the words my father sent me on a postcard last year: "If you win the rat race, you're still a rat." Or what John Lennon wrote before he was gunned down in the driveway of the Dakota: "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."
Let us make the most of the time.
* * *
The extended family of Michael Jackson has been engaged in a public dispute over the distribution of his estate and who will be the guardian of Michael's children. Michael's mother Katherine had been the children's guardian -- but that changed after Katherine was reported missing, when in fact she was on a 10-day visit to an Arizona spa. While absent, the family filed a missing person report and had a heated confrontation in her driveway. As a result of her trip and the public dispute, a judge stripped Katherine of her guardianship duties and temporarily gave custody of the children to TJ Jackson.
All of this resulted in Jermaine Jackson publicly declaring regret for the actions of his family, which he expressed in a letter to the Associated Press. He wrote: "Mistakes have been made and irrational things have been said in a highly charged emotional environment. It is time for all of us to draw a line in the sand and move toward peace, cooperation, love, and healing."
Application: In this week's Proverbs reading (the alternate Old Testament text), we are instructed to "Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight."
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Praise God! Let us give thanks to God with our whole heart.
People: Great are the works of God, studied by all who delight in them.
Leader: Full of honor and majesty is God's work,
People: and God's righteousness endures forever.
Leader: God has gained renown by wonderful deeds;
People: God is gracious and merciful.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the fount of all wisdom.
People: We come knowing our own ignorance.
Leader: Come and drink from the fount of wisdom.
People: We are parched for true wisdom.
Leader: Let God's wisdom fill and satisfy you.
People: Only in God do we find wisdom and peace.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise"
found in:
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELA: 834
Renew: 46
"Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah"
found in:
UMH: 127
H82: 690
PH: 281
AAHH: 138/139
NNBH: 232
NCH: 18/19
CH: 622
LBW: 343
ELA: 618
"When Morning Gilds the Skies"
found in:
UMH: 185
H82: 427
PH: 487
AAHH: 186
NCH: 86
CH: 100
LBW: 545/546
ELA: 853
"Christ Is the World's Light"
found in:
UMH: 188
"Seek Ye First"
found in:
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 354
CCB: 76
"Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation"
found in:
UMH: 559
H82: 518
PH: 416/417
NCH: 400
CH: 275
LBW: 367
ELA: 645
"Help Us Accept Each Other"
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
"Here I Am, Lord"
found in:
UMH: 593
PH: 525
AAHH: 567
CH: 452
ELA: 574
Renew: 149
"Lord, I Lift Your Name on High"
found in:
CCB: 36
Renew: 4
"Our God Reigns"
found in:
CCB: 33
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is wise beyond all knowing: Grant us your wisdom that we may know as you know; that we may love as you love; that we may be your true presence in this world; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you, O God, and to seek your guidance for our lives. We pray that you will open our hearts, and we may receive your wisdom and learn to live in harmony with all your children. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which we confuse ignorance with wisdom.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have taken the things we do not know and confounded them with the things we think we know. We have taken our ignorance of others as evidence that they are truly different from us. We assume that those who look most like us are most like us on the inside as well. We do not see either the connection between ourselves and those who appear to be different or the real differences between ourselves and those who appear like us. In this way we demean all by not seeing them as they have been created. Forgive us and so fill us with your wisdom that we may truly honor all your children. Amen.
Leader: God in wisdom created us all. God in love redeems us all. Receive the power of God's Spirit to live as God's wise ones.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
All glory and honor are yours, O God, for you are wisdom. All creation springs from your wisdom.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have taken the things we do not know and confounded them with the things we think we know. We have taken our ignorance of others as evidence that they are truly different from us. We assume that those who look most like us are most like us on the inside as well. We do not see either the connection between ourselves and those who appear to be different or the real differences between ourselves and those who appear like us. In this way we demean all by not seeing them as they have been created. Forgive us and so fill us with your wisdom that we may truly honor all your children.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have given your wisdom to your creation. We thank you for the steadiness of nature and our ability to discern some of its laws. We thank you for your wisdom as we have received it in scripture, tradition, and reason. We thank you for the ways in which you have created us to be able to experience wisdom in our bodies and minds.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your creatures, as we are all in need of your love, grace, and wisdom.
(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
(Although this deals more with knowledge than true wisdom, I think it works.) Use a puzzle that is very hard to complete unless you know the secret (one of those depicting twisted nails or ganged hoops). Let the children try to solve it. Then show them how it is done and let them try again. It is always easier when we have the knowledge. God is wise and wants to share God's wisdom with us.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
The Bread of Life
John 6:51-58
Object: an unsliced loaf of bread
Good morning, boys and girls! Have you ever thought of the things that Jesus said he was or what he called himself? Jesus wanted everyone to understand why God had sent him, and so he called himself some very interesting names. He said that he was like a "vine," the main vine. He called himself the "groom," like in the bride and groom. He said that he was a "shepherd," and one time he called himself "living water." Another time he talked about being the "Lamb of God," and once in a while he was the "teacher" and "master." When Jesus talked to people he wanted them to know who he was, and each name meant something special to him and to the people whom he was talking to.
I brought along with me something that Jesus called himself one day, something that all of us know a little bit about. (show the children the loaf of bread) What do you call this? (let them answer) That's right, it's bread. Did you know that Jesus called himself "bread"? (let them answer) He did. It might not surprise you that he called himself bread when you know that he also called himself a vine or water, but let's think about being bread.
What do you like about bread? (let them answer) You like the taste of it. Do you like it in the morning? (let them answer) You like toast, don't you? And do you like bread in sandwiches for lunch? How about with butter and jelly on it when you eat your dinner? Some people eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before they go to bed at night. One of the things about bread is that it is good at any time. Jesus is good for us all of the time. Bread also fills you up, doesn't it? (let them answer) It sure does. Bread can make you feel so full that you can't eat another bite. Jesus is also enough for anyone. When we have Jesus, we don't need anything else -- but of course when we have Jesus, we are wanted and shared by everyone.
But Jesus said he was a different kind of bread. You eat this bread and by lunch you will be hungry again. (show the bread) You eat some bread at lunch, and you will be hungry again by dinner. The food we eat here, even the bread, only lasts a little while. Jesus said that he was different because he said that once we have had him, we would not need any other kind of Lord or Savior. Jesus said that he was the kind of bread that would fill a person up with the Spirit of God so much that once we had him, it would be enough for our entire life. That is the kind of Savior that we want. We want a Savior that will fill us up forever.
Do you all agree? Good. God bless you.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 19, 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.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer offers some additional thoughts on the gospel passage and Jesus' use of the bread as a metaphor. Dean notes that in the biblical world bread was an essential part of the basic diet... and remains so today, as a recent New York Times article reports, detailing the extent to which access to bread has become yet another area in which the civil war in Syria is being played out. Dean offers some useful background information for preachers that may be essential for congregations to be able to place Jesus' words about bread in a meaningful context and suggests some additional resources that might be fruitful.
Where Everyone Is Above Average
by Mary Austin
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14; John 6:51-58
The killings at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin may feel like old news by the time we read this, just as the killings at the Colorado movie theater have faded in our minds. They are no doubt still fresh to the families packing up clothes that won't be needed anymore, writing thank-you notes for casseroles and flowers, and wondering through all of it how their lives have taken this turn. For the rest of us, our shock and horror inevitably fade... until the next time. Having a little distance, though, allows us to think about the bigger forces at work in these shootings and to ponder our ties with our neighbors of different faiths.
The readings from First Kings and John this week raise the questions of difference and commonality, of standing out or blending in. Are we exceptional, or just exceptionally average? If our Christian faith is unique in a world of other faiths, how do we use it as a source of wisdom?
THE WORLD
Watching the Olympics over the past two weeks, we've seen the effort and discipline needed to become an exceptional athlete. Years of training and sacrifice can make a good athlete into a remarkable one, but the amount of work and dedication involved is almost beyond comprehension. The stories of the athletes and their sacrifices are riveting, and we love watching the exceptional athletes make their mark on the sport. We love those who stand out, especially when talent is involved.
In contrast, some people make themselves known through destruction rather than talent. We value people who stand out from the crowd, and some people resort to extreme violence to make themselves known to the world. Even so, it's sometimes hard to keep our loner, "neighbors-say-he-kept-to-himself" mass shooters straight these days. In recent weeks, the gunman who wounded Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killed others reached a plea deal that avoids a trial. The accused killer in the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater killings appeared in court. In Wisconsin, a man with apparent ties to white supremacist movements killed six and wounded others when he fired on worshipers at a Sikh temple last weekend.
It seems that the worshipers at the Sikh temple were also singled out because they're different. This is the other side of our American fascination with difference -- we are also sometimes uncomfortable with it. We mistrust the neighbor who looks different, worry about the people who follow a different religion, and fear that their differences will somehow take something away from us.
THE WORD
The reading from First Kings continues the story of Israel's complicated relationship with the nation's kings. We hear of the death of King David and the rise of King Solomon. The lectionary verses cover David's death and Solomon's ascent to the throne, and then skip over Solomon's order to have some inconvenient people killed. The lectionary picks back up, after all the blood and gore, with Solomon's request that God give him wisdom to rule the people wisely and for the wisdom to know the difference between good and evil. Reading the whole story, and not just the verses selected for the lectionary, one is tempted to call out "too late!" in response to his request.
The story, read in its entirety, reminds us that violence has been part of the story of our faith from the beginning. Violent conquest of the land of Israel, followed by violent deaths of those opposed to various kings, are part of our narrative of faith. The biblical witness holds that the God of Israel has regard for everyone, and the laws are careful to make provision for the foreigner, the widow, the slave, and the orphan. Israel starts out without kings, and God finally gives in to the people's request to have someone chosen as the king. Just a generation previous, God selected Jesse's unknown younger son David to be the king. Now the king has temples and wives and wealth and army commanders: things have changed. The growing wealth and power of the king make us wonder about the wisdom of setting any of us over our fellow human beings. The king was once one of the people, set apart because he was selected by God. Now the king is truly different from the people.
Solomon sees the tension between being one of the people and their ruler when he makes his request of God. He says to the Lord: "And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?" (1 Kings 3:8-9).
The words of John's gospel also raise the question of difference. With all the poetic beauty of its language, the gospel has also divided Christians from other faiths. "No one comes to the Father except through me," Jesus says in another place in the gospel (John 14:6). In this week's reading, Jesus declares: "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink" (John 6:53-55).
Words like this from Jesus have been the source of violence by Christians against other faiths through the years. We are rightly horrified by the Wisconsin shootings in a place of worship, and yet our scriptures have been used to justify violence against other faiths too.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Last Friday's memorial service for the Wisconsin shooting victims drew thousands of people to a high school gym for the service to honor the six Sikh temple members who died. Attorney General Eric Holder spoke, as did Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. As John Eligon and Steven Yaccino reported in the New York Times: "After the sadness and shock, members of Wisconsin's insular Sikh community found themselves confronting scenes they never would have expected. There were outpourings of support, including a gathering of hundreds of people of different faiths and skin colors, some holding candles, others wearing white head scarves, in a gesture of solidarity with this predominantly Indian religion."
Just as hate and a sense of difference led to the shootings, a feeling of shared community drew all kinds of people to the memorial service.
Wisdom leads us back to each other.
Solomon, after consolidating his reign by killing off the opposition, understands that there must be a better way to govern the people. He can go on like he has, or he can ask God for the wisdom to rule a diverse people with grace. In asking for wisdom, he also asks for connection.
Jesus says that he has the gift of living bread "for the life of the world." Eating is a taking in, making a substance into our own essence. Our faith is about our taking in the essence of Jesus, who understood sacrifice for others. We do well when we take in the wisdom he embodied, when we make it part of ourselves. The living bread is the bread of service and sacrifice and love, more than exclusivity.
The New York Times article noted above quotes a member of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin as saying: "No matter what the shooter did, he failed, because instead of pulling us apart, he made us closer.... We didn't realize that we have such support from other members of society until this happened. Now we realize how much they care about us. We feel more close to other faiths and other religions now more than ever before."
Wisdom leads us back to each other.
A later article in the Times by Mr. Yaccino quotes Linda Hetzeo, who said she lives a mile and a half from the temple but didn't know much about the Sikhs or their religion. After learning of the shootings, she and some friends gathered to pray at her home. "As a Christian, I just need to be a part of this," she said. The tragedy has inspired her to learn more about the Sikh religion, she said, adding: "I guess that could be a reward for this tragedy that has happened."
Along similar lines, the Huffington Post published an open letter written by a 10-year-old Sikh girl from Virginia following the killings. In the letter, she says, "I am only 10 and don't know about all the religions, but the recent shooting in Wisconsin got me wondering about other religions.... My parents always told me to respect other religions but to know my religion well. My parents let me take Bible studies in kindergarten and participate in the Christmas play, but they also taught me about my temple and things important to Sikhs." She adds: "No matter what religion, we should never misjudge a person. If someone is a different color or is from somewhere else you should try to get to know them and you might learn something new. You will also make someone feel good and at home if you just talk to them and learn about their background." The letter ends with: "Thank you for reading and let us all be united against hatred. Tarina."
Perhaps the deepest wisdom is to see our connections, the communion beneath our differences.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Bread
by Dean Feldmeyer
John 6:51-58
A New York Times article dated August 3, 2012 begins like this:
Just before sunrise, a select group of Syrian rebel fighters steps away from the front lines here for a task their commanders now consider a vital and urgent part of the war effort: baking bread.
The floppy moons that they produce, pita to Americans, usually go quickly to hungry residents and rebels. Bread is a mainstay of the Syrian diet -- it accompanies every meal -- and in a city paralyzed by two weeks of war, the bakery lines show that basic commerce has become a battleground of its own.
"The regime has tried to deprive our supporters of water and gas, and now they are using bread," said Basheer al-Hajeh, a member of Al Tawheed Brigade, one of the main rebel militias in Aleppo.
Bread in the Near East and Middle East is today a mainstay of life, even as it was 2,000 years ago. But it's hardly the fluffy white stuff we use to make our lunch sandwiches -- this is tough, grainy, nutritious stuff, filled with vitamins, necessary carbohydrates, and fiber.
In the time of Jesus, as today, the local bread was what we would call pita. Flat and unleavened, it was dry, durable, and filling, and usually had to be soaked in flavored olive oil to make it palatable. By the first century the Romans had introduced variety to the Middle Eastern science of bread-making. Barley, rye, wheat, corn, and other grains were being used and leavening was making bread lighter and more digestible, though it was still far from what we know as bread today. Roman bread was heavy, dense, and grainy.
And in both cases, whether we are talking about European bread or Middle Eastern bread, it was the staff of life and the mainstay of most people's daily diets -- especially those who could not afford meat on a regular basis, who had to sell the fish they caught in order to pay for other necessities, and for whom fruits and vegetables were rare, seasonal treats.
With bread this important to the daily existence of his audience, it is not surprising that Jesus would choose it as an abiding metaphor for his life, his ministry, and the relationship he had with his followers.
Bread is mentioned over 390 times in the Bible -- 85 times in the New Testament, with 20 of those in the gospel of John (the most of any New Testament book). Of the 20 times John uses the word "bread," 17 of them occur in the sixth chapter. Four of those are preceded by the words "I am."
In the RSV and KJV the Hebrew words for bread and food are often used interchangeably, which indicates how much bread was a mainstay of the daily diet. Bread is often referred to as the "staff" of life because it was something that people leaned on, as a shepherd might lean on his staff for support. To be out of or "without bread" was the lowest form of poverty and often a metaphor for hopelessness.
The bread that is spoken of in the Bible was most often flat disks about 10-18 inches in diameter, and an adult man could be expected to eat as many as three in a meal. Prisoners, however, were given one a day. The bread was also used as a spoon to scoop meats and stews from clay pots.
In the Hebrew Scriptures bread is a widely used metaphor that refers to enemies (Numbers 14:9), or a less than acceptable way of taking spiritual, emotional, or psychological nourishment, as in "eating the bread of idleness" or "the bread of deceit" or the "bread of adversity."
In the New Testament bread is used metaphorically only to refer to the coming kingdom of God or to Jesus himself.
By the time of the early church, corporate worship usually took place around the meal table where bread was broken and the phrase "breaking bread" came to mean both eating together and worshiping together.
Chapter 6 of the gospel of John weaves the metaphor of bread in and out of the narrative so that its meaning becomes both profound and complex. Shadows are layered upon shadows as the gospel writer gives us images of the Last Supper and the Eucharistic meal, as well as the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It also reflects the ongoing ministry of the church. It is probably by their failure to recognize this chapter as metaphor that persecutors of the early church came to believe that Christians were cannibals.
For the church, this particular passage invites us to be more than observers and admirers of Jesus. We are called to actually take nourishment and find authentic life in the life he presents to us.
The preacher would do well, when preaching on John 6, to spend some time unpacking the reality of bread in the lives of first-century Christians and the powerful metaphor that it brings to our attempts to live the Christ-like life today.
For further reading on the subject of bread and Christianity, see:
• The Bible Cookbook by Daniel Cutler (William Morrow, 1985)
• Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome by Patrick Faas (University of Chicago Press, 2005)
• Food in History by Reay Tannahill (Three Rivers Press, 1988)
• "Bread" in The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bread
• http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodbreads.html
• http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/Bread/
ILLUSTRATIONS
Early Christians suffered from persecution by the Romans. Interestingly enough, though, this persecution did not stem from a Roman aversion to God. The Romans were in general a fairly tolerant society. However, much like our society today, there were things that the Romans considered to be unacceptable. Among these unacceptable actions were cannibalism and incest. A major reason the Romans persecuted Christians was because they did not understand the language Christians used. When two married Christians referred to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, the Romans' minds leapt to incest. And when they talked about sharing in the body and blood of communion, Rome misinterpreted it as cannibalism. The Romans persecuted Christians because they did not understand them. If educated Romans had that much trouble, imagine how the disciples -- mostly uneducated, working-class men -- felt when Jesus spoke about communion as he did in this week's gospel text.
* * *
Jesus asks his followers to incorporate him completely into their lives. The graphic nature of his language still shocks us. He is living bread. We must eat his flesh and drink his blood to find life. That sounds offensive, cannibalistic, and almost obscene. But have you ever said to a child, "I love you so much I could just eat you up"? There is more in Jesus' statement than mere symbolism. It is necessary for us to take Jesus into ourselves -- flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood -- in order to accomplish the total identification that is life in his Spirit. The living bread cries out to be enfolded completely in a living person, a person who finds all their life in him.
* * *
The sacrament of holy communion was being celebrated, the family of God was kneeling at the altar railing as the elements were being distributed. "This is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you." We hear these words so often that we may not really even think about them. But suddenly a little boy at the altar rail exclaimed, "Oh, yuck," in a voice loud enough for the entire church to hear.
Two thousand years ago the Jewish people were probably thinking the very same thing. After all, they believed that any contact with blood made them unclean. Blood was spilled in battle. What could have been a greater abomination than the drinking of blood?
How do we explain this sacrament to those who are not familiar with Christianity? What kind of God gets himself killed in the worst possible way as a public spectacle along with criminals? We prefer to think about Jesus as a sweet little child with a halo over his head. But that cross is always before us.
* * *
About the unexpected and uncontrollable Bread of Life -- taking our sustenance (and our cues) from Jesus and passing it on...
In Take This Bread (Ballantine Books, 2007), Sara Miles writes about the crossroads of faith and feeding people. Raised to reject religion, she unexpectedly wanders into a church one day, receives communion, and is never the same. Miles discovers Jesus and the life he offers in the sacrament and those who gather with her around the table, a table that she eventually turns into the food pantry to share the Bread of Life.
From Take This Bread:
A wave of voices rose up. Michael had opened the front doors, and now a stream of people was entering the church, lugging their shopping bags, tugging their kids by the hand, greeting our volunteers raucously.
I felt dizzy. Sometimes, at the pantry, it seemed as if everything were happening on two planes at once. I was slipping effortlessly back and forth between feeding people and splashing in the waters of new life, taking out the trash and remembering funeral rites. I was watching a regular Friday afternoon, with its ordinary conversations and kidding around, and seeing creation the way God sees it: weak, heartbreaking, and completely beloved....
(Miles tells a story about one of the pantry's faithful customers, a little old lady who comes to get groceries in order to feed the beggars on her street. Standing in line, she offers her friend, another customer who has been suffering from the flu, some cranberry-grape juice in a Dixie cup -- the sacrament, according to Miles.)
I'd been raised to reject religion, but I was finding that people often wanted more of it than the church was willing to give: more sacraments, more rites, more prayer and healing and blessing. Those desires of people formally outside the system of religion could be a force transforming the people inside, just as the visitors to our food pantry were transforming St. Gregory's. What if, in churches that prohibited it, divorced outcasts and gay people asked to be married as well as baptized? What if unprepared kids and non-members of those churches asked to receive communion or women offered themselves for ordination?
Most days, I thought I was a pretty lousy Christian: mean, self-absorbed, confused. But I knew I was as much a "real" Christian as the Christians who wanted to exclude me. "Real" Christians weren't the ones who happened to control the levers of ecclesiastical power, those who belonged to the biggest churches or the oldest traditions. They could be total outsiders and still perform rites that evoked the gospel messages of healing, new life, shared food, shared grief, shared peace. They included anyone who, like those first unqualified disciples, got a taste of Jesus and followed him. As Paul Fromberg had said to me once, when I asked him how he had stuck with Christianity when so many wanted to kick him out for being gay, "Honey, I know who my shepherd is." That growing, changing, unruly flock of Jesus' was the only force that could reform the church: When you let the wrong people in, the promise of change could finally come true.
* * *
After 50 years, wisdom changed. Every decade, the magazine Sight & Sound, published by the British Film Institute, conducts a survey among film critics, programmers, academics, and distributors to determine the 10 best movies ever made -- and for 50 years Orson Welles' masterpiece Citizen Kane topped the poll and was considered the best movie ever produced. But after tallying the ballots of this year's 846 voters, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo surpassed Citizen Kane by 34 votes. By a margin of 4%, the wisdom of the critics toppled a movie that had stood as first for a half-century.
Application: Solomon was blessed with a discerning mind. But many discerning minds may change and may not agree, even if it is by a margin of 4%.
* * *
In their news analysis about how presidential candidates were "spinning" the U.S. Department of Labor's monthly jobs report, the Associated Press concluded that "campaigns see what they want to see". Three months before the election, the government's economic report showed that while the number of jobs increased faster than expected, the unemployment rate rose as well. On the campaign trail, Republican candidate Mitt Romney accentuated the unemployment increase while President Obama, the Democratic candidate, touted the increase in jobs. The writers stated that both candidates' reaction to the government's report "was flooded with familiar promises."
Application: Solomon was blessed with a discerning mind. But many discerning minds only see what they want to see -- which, of course, negates one as having a discerning mind.
* * *
Our First Kings text deals with praising and standing in awe of God -- this being the beginning of wisdom and an opening to a life lived wholly with God...
In her book Christianity for the Rest of Us (HarperCollins, 2006), Diana Butler Bass studies and writes about a number of mainstream Protestant churches that are thriving despite the normative trends for these types of faith communities. Bass identifies characteristics these thriving congregations have in common and writes a chapter about each. As she considers worship, she includes a story about Eric Elnes, a minister at Scottsdale Congregational in Arizona. After helping to breathe new life into the church's ministry with youth via the "World's Most Dangerous Bible Study" that intermixes rock music with scripture reading, Eric noticed the church's teenagers getting involved in every aspect of the church's life together -- except worship. "They avoided worship like you or I would stay clear of nuclear reactor meltdown." That realization sent Eric into a period of reflection on the nature of worship. Bass continues the story...
During one summer study-leave at a lakeside cabin on the Oregon coast, he sat on the dock thinking about the question "What is the basis of worship?" As he stared at the water, the largest bass he had ever seen swam past, leaving the water rippling in its wake. "I stood up," Eric said, "and gasped as a sense of awe and wonder provoked a surge of adrenaline through my body." A moment later, Eric had an insight about worship. "This is the foundation of worship. If you can take an hour on Sunday morning and open people to experiencing just a quarter-second of awe, wonder, and surrender you just experienced, it is accomplished."... Eric realized that the object of worship "is not to create anything." Rather, he says, "the goal is simply to invite people into a sense of openness and attentiveness akin to sitting at the edge of the dock in Oregon."
Bass encourages a turn in worship and throughout our lives of faith from head to heart, from "thinking about God" to "learning to experience God" in our hearts -- our "whole capacity for being human."
Bass then turns to New Testament scholar Marcus Borg, who states that "faith is the 'way of the heart,' the act of 'beloving' God, of giving one's whole self to God." Somehow, she muses, "Beloving God devolved into believing things about God. Is it possible to re-enchant the universe? Can we move back to a holistic way of apprehending God? Can we heal what has been torn? Can we belove God?"
How can we open ourselves to experiences of awe, wonder, and surrender? Can we then invite a sense of openness and attentiveness that transforms our lives and offers our whole selves to God?
* * *
In our Ephesians text, Paul exhorts us to be careful and wise about how we live, making the most of our time.
In a Huffington Post article from August 8, 2012, psychiatrist Sheenie Ambardar shares her "Six Surprising Ways to Be Happier". At first glance, the good doctor's suggestions are indeed surprising. They begin with headings like "Make Less Money," "Have Fewer Friends," and "Be Ignorant."
However, a closer read clarifies that Ambardar is after a careful examination of how we live. This is because, Ambardar notes, "As writer Annie Dillard so logically put it: 'How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.' " The good doctor asks us, "How would you like to spend your life?"
Ambardar is after her readers to live in ways that really bring them authentic, healthy, and fulfilling life by understanding who they really are. Her sixth suggestion, "Never Try to Fit a Round Peg into a Square Hole," is really a summary of all her other points. Its last portion reads:
You will be so much happier and at peace if you develop the fortitude to wait patiently, choose wisely, question broadly, and only accept good things into your life that are truly worth of your time and energy. And it's never too late to start along this path -- whether you're 30 or 70. Your reward will be a life well-lived and a sense of freedom and liberation that only comes to those willing to experience life on their own terms... you can do it!
Paul (or one of his disciples) is playing a similar cheerleading role for the community at Ephesus. He is after the believers there to understand and live into who they really are as followers of Christ. He knows this will issue in living that is authentic, healthy, and fulfilling, because it is the life for which they were created and called. It is the life that Jesus lived as model and invitation, and they would be wise (and happier) if they followed suit.
* * *
In a 2000 commencement address at Villanova University, newspaper columnist Anna Quindlen had some wise words to share with college graduates. Departing from the usual bromides about striving for excellence and pursuing success, Quindlen encouraged the class of 2000 to order their lives in a radically different way:
Don't ever forget what a friend once wrote Senator Paul Tsongas when the senator decided not to run for re-election because he'd been diagnosed with cancer: "No man ever said on his deathbed I wish I had spent more time in the office." Don't ever forget the words my father sent me on a postcard last year: "If you win the rat race, you're still a rat." Or what John Lennon wrote before he was gunned down in the driveway of the Dakota: "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."
Let us make the most of the time.
* * *
The extended family of Michael Jackson has been engaged in a public dispute over the distribution of his estate and who will be the guardian of Michael's children. Michael's mother Katherine had been the children's guardian -- but that changed after Katherine was reported missing, when in fact she was on a 10-day visit to an Arizona spa. While absent, the family filed a missing person report and had a heated confrontation in her driveway. As a result of her trip and the public dispute, a judge stripped Katherine of her guardianship duties and temporarily gave custody of the children to TJ Jackson.
All of this resulted in Jermaine Jackson publicly declaring regret for the actions of his family, which he expressed in a letter to the Associated Press. He wrote: "Mistakes have been made and irrational things have been said in a highly charged emotional environment. It is time for all of us to draw a line in the sand and move toward peace, cooperation, love, and healing."
Application: In this week's Proverbs reading (the alternate Old Testament text), we are instructed to "Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight."
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Praise God! Let us give thanks to God with our whole heart.
People: Great are the works of God, studied by all who delight in them.
Leader: Full of honor and majesty is God's work,
People: and God's righteousness endures forever.
Leader: God has gained renown by wonderful deeds;
People: God is gracious and merciful.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the fount of all wisdom.
People: We come knowing our own ignorance.
Leader: Come and drink from the fount of wisdom.
People: We are parched for true wisdom.
Leader: Let God's wisdom fill and satisfy you.
People: Only in God do we find wisdom and peace.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise"
found in:
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELA: 834
Renew: 46
"Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah"
found in:
UMH: 127
H82: 690
PH: 281
AAHH: 138/139
NNBH: 232
NCH: 18/19
CH: 622
LBW: 343
ELA: 618
"When Morning Gilds the Skies"
found in:
UMH: 185
H82: 427
PH: 487
AAHH: 186
NCH: 86
CH: 100
LBW: 545/546
ELA: 853
"Christ Is the World's Light"
found in:
UMH: 188
"Seek Ye First"
found in:
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 354
CCB: 76
"Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation"
found in:
UMH: 559
H82: 518
PH: 416/417
NCH: 400
CH: 275
LBW: 367
ELA: 645
"Help Us Accept Each Other"
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
"Here I Am, Lord"
found in:
UMH: 593
PH: 525
AAHH: 567
CH: 452
ELA: 574
Renew: 149
"Lord, I Lift Your Name on High"
found in:
CCB: 36
Renew: 4
"Our God Reigns"
found in:
CCB: 33
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is wise beyond all knowing: Grant us your wisdom that we may know as you know; that we may love as you love; that we may be your true presence in this world; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you, O God, and to seek your guidance for our lives. We pray that you will open our hearts, and we may receive your wisdom and learn to live in harmony with all your children. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which we confuse ignorance with wisdom.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have taken the things we do not know and confounded them with the things we think we know. We have taken our ignorance of others as evidence that they are truly different from us. We assume that those who look most like us are most like us on the inside as well. We do not see either the connection between ourselves and those who appear to be different or the real differences between ourselves and those who appear like us. In this way we demean all by not seeing them as they have been created. Forgive us and so fill us with your wisdom that we may truly honor all your children. Amen.
Leader: God in wisdom created us all. God in love redeems us all. Receive the power of God's Spirit to live as God's wise ones.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
All glory and honor are yours, O God, for you are wisdom. All creation springs from your wisdom.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have taken the things we do not know and confounded them with the things we think we know. We have taken our ignorance of others as evidence that they are truly different from us. We assume that those who look most like us are most like us on the inside as well. We do not see either the connection between ourselves and those who appear to be different or the real differences between ourselves and those who appear like us. In this way we demean all by not seeing them as they have been created. Forgive us and so fill us with your wisdom that we may truly honor all your children.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have given your wisdom to your creation. We thank you for the steadiness of nature and our ability to discern some of its laws. We thank you for your wisdom as we have received it in scripture, tradition, and reason. We thank you for the ways in which you have created us to be able to experience wisdom in our bodies and minds.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your creatures, as we are all in need of your love, grace, and wisdom.
(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
(Although this deals more with knowledge than true wisdom, I think it works.) Use a puzzle that is very hard to complete unless you know the secret (one of those depicting twisted nails or ganged hoops). Let the children try to solve it. Then show them how it is done and let them try again. It is always easier when we have the knowledge. God is wise and wants to share God's wisdom with us.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
The Bread of Life
John 6:51-58
Object: an unsliced loaf of bread
Good morning, boys and girls! Have you ever thought of the things that Jesus said he was or what he called himself? Jesus wanted everyone to understand why God had sent him, and so he called himself some very interesting names. He said that he was like a "vine," the main vine. He called himself the "groom," like in the bride and groom. He said that he was a "shepherd," and one time he called himself "living water." Another time he talked about being the "Lamb of God," and once in a while he was the "teacher" and "master." When Jesus talked to people he wanted them to know who he was, and each name meant something special to him and to the people whom he was talking to.
I brought along with me something that Jesus called himself one day, something that all of us know a little bit about. (show the children the loaf of bread) What do you call this? (let them answer) That's right, it's bread. Did you know that Jesus called himself "bread"? (let them answer) He did. It might not surprise you that he called himself bread when you know that he also called himself a vine or water, but let's think about being bread.
What do you like about bread? (let them answer) You like the taste of it. Do you like it in the morning? (let them answer) You like toast, don't you? And do you like bread in sandwiches for lunch? How about with butter and jelly on it when you eat your dinner? Some people eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before they go to bed at night. One of the things about bread is that it is good at any time. Jesus is good for us all of the time. Bread also fills you up, doesn't it? (let them answer) It sure does. Bread can make you feel so full that you can't eat another bite. Jesus is also enough for anyone. When we have Jesus, we don't need anything else -- but of course when we have Jesus, we are wanted and shared by everyone.
But Jesus said he was a different kind of bread. You eat this bread and by lunch you will be hungry again. (show the bread) You eat some bread at lunch, and you will be hungry again by dinner. The food we eat here, even the bread, only lasts a little while. Jesus said that he was different because he said that once we have had him, we would not need any other kind of Lord or Savior. Jesus said that he was the kind of bread that would fill a person up with the Spirit of God so much that once we had him, it would be enough for our entire life. That is the kind of Savior that we want. We want a Savior that will fill us up forever.
Do you all agree? Good. God bless you.
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The Immediate Word, August 19, 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.
