Fourth Sunday of Advent - A

For July 19, 2026:

• A Weed by Any Other Name by Dean Feldmeyer.

Prayers usually include these concerns and may follow this sequence:

The Church of Christ

Creation, human society, the Sovereign and those in authority

The local community

Those who suffer

The communion of saints


These responses may be used:


Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer
Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.

Nobody liked Jennifer. She'd come from another country to join the class and it was difficult to understand what she said. And she had such odd ideas. Rosie discovered that instead of eating cereals from her bowl at breakfast time, Jennifer drank hot chocolate from her bowl - having first dipped her toast in it!

Contents
What's Up This Week
"The Land's Sacred" by Argile Smith
"What's It Worth?" by C. David McKirachan


What's Up This Week
It is our natural tendency to respond to what we see with our senses, while there is so much more to life than that. In "The Land's Sacred," we meet two men who look at something as seemingly simple as land and farming in two completely different lights. "What's It Worth?" takes us through one family's tragedy, revealing that under the pain and anguish, seeds of hope and goodness still grow.

Contents
"All Earthly Fathers" by David O. Bales
"A Private Talk in the School of Christ" by Sandra Herrmann
"A Wicked Way in Me" by John Sumwalt


* * * * * * * *


All Earthly Fathers
by David O. Bales
Romans 8:12-25

Jacob is on a journey from Hebron to Haran, Abraham's original home in northern Mesopotamia. In the context, two different reasons are given for the journey. According to the Yahwist account in Genesis 27:41-45, Jacob is fleeing to save his life from the wrath of his brother Esau. In the priestly account of Genesis 27:46--28:1-5, Jacob journeys to find a wife from his own clan. Both reasons may be involved, because God's purpose works its way through all sorts of motivations.

BRIEF COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS

Lesson 1: Genesis 28:10--19a (C)
Upon hearing of Esau's plan to kill Jacob after Isaac's death, Rebekah spirits Jacob back to her relatives in her native land. It is an unsettling time for Jacob, leaving home and a fugitive. Jacob stops for a night at Bethel and in his dream God reaffirms the covenant he made with Abraham and Isaac. In the dream, Jacob views a stairway to heaven, probably a ziggurat, with the angels of God ascending and descending. This establishes Beth--el (house of God) as a sanctuary until the time of Josiah.

The flame is a part of our biblical heritage, from the burning bush, to pillars of fire, to the flaming tongues of the Spirit at Pentecost.

The flame is a part of our church tradition and biblical tradition. It symbolizes the Spirit of God that interacts with us in so many different ways. Today we take a look at Moses' experience at the burning bush. From this account we may learn many things about ourselves and about the God we worship.

Obscenity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. With words to that effect more than two decades ago the Supreme Court of the United States of America left the decisions regarding pornography in the hands of local communities. During the intervening years states and cities have struggled with the issue, desiring to uphold the basic rights of freedom of speech and expression, and at the same time attempting to establish and maintain what is decent and acceptable to the majority. The latest entry to invade this debate and garner headlines is music.

"This is a perplexing parable." This is George Buttrick's first sentence in the chapter discussing the parable of the Weeds and Wheat. Indeed, it is perplexing. He could have said it again and again.

In the parable Jesus teaches that the bad weeds (evildoers) are to remain together with the wheat (God's people) until Judgment Day when God's angels will separate them, one for the fire, the other for glory. In the light of this, we ask perplexing questions.

How to begin a sermon? It always is a preacher's dilemma as to how to introduce a sermon. I never seem to know. I do know that one has said that an introduction to a sermon should be short and concise and should introduce the main thought that the proclaimer is seeking to present. I also know that it is very much appreciated if the introduction is very close to the conclusion. But, how does one introduce a sermon?

All of the Bible is inspired. But just as some parts of a turkey have more meat on them, so some parts of the Bible are meatier than others. For example, the genealogies of Leviticus versus the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 13 is one of the meatier portions of the scriptures. It is unique as an identifiable sermon of Christ Jesus, a series of seven, maybe eight parables that seem to be prophetic, to foretell the history of ministry ahead of time.

The parable of the wheat and the tares is the second in Jesus' sermon. Let's look at it now.

Call To Worship
One: We come to the One
who knows all the facts about our lives;
All: we are open books to God,
who writes on every page.
One: We approach the One
who knows what we are thinking;
All: our thoughts, our fears, our hopes
are all known by God.
One: We worship the One
who is always with us,
in front of us, behind us, around us;
All: what a wonderful God!
How blessed we are!

Prayer Of The Day
You we praise, Searching God,

Celebrating The Presence Of God

Invitation to the Celebration

In the Name of the Eternal Gardener, welcome to the world of wheat and weeds. Following the creation, God pronounced the world "very good," which means, "fit for the purpose for which it was intended."ÊWe rejoice in our creation. Thank you, Lord, for putting us here, where you work with us, on us, within us, and through us, to eliminate the weeds in our own lives, and in the life of your church. Yes, thank you, even though we do not always appreciate your gardening methods.

I suppose all of us have particular objects of our venom and disgust. Whenever said object comes up in conversation unless we are prepared for a battle royal, loss of friendship, and a potential conviction for felony assault, we find ourselves saying, "Don't get me started." When it comes to the matter at hand we better not get started because we have no idea how things might end. Here in New England you can easily make a conversation go nuclear by simply mentioning the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox in the same breath.

Genesis 28:10-19a
What is the connection between heaven and earth? What makes Jacob think that he is the chosen one through whom the nation of Israel will come into being? Genesis is full of these questions, with story explanations for the reason things are as they are. This story, which we traditionally call "Jacob's Dream," is one of them. (Although the translation in the King James Version and carried forward out of respect for tradition is incorrectly rendered as "ladder" actually should be read as "stairway" or "ramp.")

Teachers or Parents: Heaven may seem somewhat esoteric and remote for the children (and for us as well), but heaven is our hope that will not disappoint us (see first lesson).

*If your church (or home) has a flower bed, have a class project of weeding it as a service to the church. Read again the parable Jesus told (where the weeds were not removed). Share how removing the weeds helps the flowers grow better.