Immediate Word

For February 24, 2019:

• That's the Power of Love by Mary Austin — How do we pursue forgiveness in the face of long-term evil? Does the passage of time make forgiveness easer, or more difficult?
• Second Thoughts: It Ain’t Easy We’re After by Dean Feldmeyer — The Church of Jesus Christ is not a cheap or easy club to belong to.
• Sermon illustrations by Ron Love, Tom Willadsen and Bethany Peerbolte.
• Worship resources by George Reed that focus on forgiveness and the difficulty of following Jesus
• Children’s sermon: Taking a long shot! by Chris Keating — Jesus teaches the disciples to show mercy — even when it isn’t the easy thing to do.

Getting a Pass, or a Second Chance?
by Mary Austin
Genesis 45:3-11, 15, Luke 6:27-38

Forgiveness is the theme of the day, as we hear Jesus teach, in Luke’s gospel, and watch Joseph model a way of reconciliation, in Genesis, after a long family trauma. In our public life, we’re being asked to think about the place of forgiveness for events that happened a long time ago. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has denied wearing blackface in his medical school yearbook, but admits he darkened his face to wear a costume as Michael Jackson.  Northam resisted calls to resign as governor, even while admitting that he has a lot to learn. “Other senior authority figures in the state are facing their own controversies. Attorney General Mark Herring, Mr. Northam's deputy, has acknowledged wearing "brown make-up" to a party when he was 19. Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax meanwhile has been denying claims of sexual assault and rape.”

Meanwhile, The Houston Chronicle has published a series of articles on sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention, finding that, “since 1998, roughly 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct, the newspapers found. That includes those who were convicted, credibly accused and successfully sued, and those who confessed or resigned. More of them worked in Texas than in any other state. They left behind more than 700 victims, many of them shunned by their churches, left to themselves to rebuild their lives. Some were urged to forgive their abusers or to get abortions. About 220 offenders have been convicted or took plea deals, and dozens of cases are pending. They were pastors. Ministers. Youth pastors. Sunday school teachers. Deacons. Church volunteers.” The scope of the abuse is wide, and the paper believes they only found a portion of the victims.

These stories about people in power – elected officials, doctors, pastors and church workers – invite us to dig deeply into Jesus’ instruction to offer the other cheek to the person who strikes us. Is there a difference between a mistake and the willful abuse of power? Do we forgive youthful ignorance – or should people have known better, even decades ago? Is it our attitudes that matter, or our actions?


In the News
The scandal in Virginia has brought long-held racial tensions back into the news, as Governor Northam has tried to explains whether he is or isn’t the person in blackface in the yearbook. The attitudes of some African-American employees in the state capital reflect conversations around the country. Many were saddened, but not surprised. Like the rest of the country, Virginia has a long and complicated racial past. “Like many statehouses, Virginia politics has been run mostly by white lawmakers with mostly white aides, though the delegations and offices have become notably more diverse over time. The workers who assist those politicians and their staffs—the ones who perform the janitorial services, cook their food, and help secure the buildings—are more diverse than the lawmakers themselves. They came to Richmond not because of some long-standing desire to enter public service or ascend the ranks of electoral politics, but because there was a job that paid. These past two weeks, they’ve been confronted with harsh proof that the government they serve is run by individuals with dark, racist moments in their past. And many have taken it in their stride, saddened but unsurprised by the revelations. Anthony Ross works as a janitor at the Capitol. A lifelong Richmonder…he too said he was not shocked that elected officials wore blackface, even as recently as the 1980s. “They’re just insensitive. I just assume people do that all the time,” says Ross, who is black. “I wasn’t bothered by that in the least.” In the underground extension of the Capitol, where Ross, 35, spends most of his time at work, he passes a Confederate flag on display as part of a historical exhibit. In January, he went to work on Lee-Jackson Day, when a few state legislators spoke in praise of the Confederate generals as part of the official legislature record. Northam’s scandal, for him, is a feature and not a bug of the state’s political structure.” People like Governor Northam are not unique in Virginia, or any place else.

Northam’s picture in the medical school yearbook reflects a culture that allowed the picture, and found it funny. Many have called it “casual” racism, although it’s never entirely casual if you’re the patient being treated by the doctor who thinks blackface is no big deal, or the constituent represented by that person.

Sexual abuse leaves deeper wounds, and abuse at the hands of pastors and other church workers leaves the survivors doubting themselves, the church and God. “David Pittman was 12, he says, when a youth minister from his Georgia church first molested him in 1981. Two other former members of the man's churches said in interviews that they also were abused by him. But by the time Pittman spoke out in 2006, it was too late to press criminal charges. The minister still works at an SBC church. Pittman won't soon forgive those who have offered prayers but taken no action. He only recently stopped hating God.”

Another survivor, Debbie Vasquez, was among a group of people who urged the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) to take action on predators. “She was 14, she said, when she was first molested by her pastor in Sanger, a tiny prairie town an hour north of Dallas. It was the first of many assaults that Vasquez said destroyed her teenage years and, at 18, left her pregnant by the Southern Baptist pastor, a married man more than a dozen years older. In June 2008, she paid her way to Indianapolis, where she and others asked leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and its 47,000 churches to track sexual predators and take action against congregations that harbored or concealed abusers. Vasquez, by then in her 40s, implored them to consider prevention policies like those adopted by faiths that include the Catholic Church.” The SBC declined to take action that year.   

The structure of Southern Baptist churches is tailor made for predators. “At the core of Southern Baptist doctrine is local church autonomy, the idea that each church is independent and self-governing…SBC churches and organizations share resources and materials, and together they fund missionary trips and seminaries. Most pastors are ordained locally after they've convinced a small group of church elders that they've been called to service by God. There is no central database that tracks ordinations, or sexual abuse convictions or allegations.” The convention has severed ties with some congregations that have unacceptable stances on the treatment of gay and lesbian people, but never for predatory behavior.

In the Scriptures
Abuse comes in all kinds of forms. Joseph is victimized by his own family, starting a long chain of alternating fortune and misfortune in his life. Sold into slavery by his brothers, his life changes abruptly from the privileged position of a favorite son to someone at the mercy of strangers. He’s thrown into prison, unjustly, and then rises to prominence in a foreign country. It’s a wonder he wants to have anything to do with his brothers.

In his own way, Joseph is part of a system, in this case a family system where there are generations of conflict between brothers. Joseph finds a way to forgive his brothers, and to seek reconciliation with them, but it’s not instant. Before he encounters his brothers again, he has shifted his own life from being a victim to a success. He has moved beyond being the annoying little brother to being respected for his skills. One of his talents is the ability to see beyond current prosperity to future adversity, perhaps a gift developed by the ups and downs in his own life.  

From that position of strength and accomplishment, he is able to forgive his brothers, and to say to them that God brought him to Egypt. He sees God at work in their actions, and realizes what he can do for his family, preserving them for generations to come. He forgives from a position of strength and prosperity, not from the place of weakness where he started. Joseph says to his brothers, “And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life…God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God.” This view of events only works coming from Joseph. If his brothers said the same thing, it would ring hollow. Grace has to come from the person who has been wronged, in whatever amount of time that takes.
 
As Jesus teaches, he’s offering a new way of thinking to people who are at the low end of the social ladder. Walter Wink posits that Jesus is showing us a “third way,” telling people not to passively give in to evil, or to use the tactics of oppressors. The working of opposing oppression is rightful work, but Wink says that Jesus is telling us “to refuse to oppose [evil] on its own terms. We are not to let the opponent dictate the methods of our opposition.” The “third way” is “assertive and yet nonviolent. The correct translation would be the one still preserved in the earliest renditions of this saying found in the New Testament epistles: "Do not repay evil for evil" (Rom. 12:17; 1 Thes. 5:15; 1 Pet. 3:9). The Scholars Version of Matt. 5:39a is superb: ‘Don't react violently against the one who is evil’."

His interpretation of Jesus’ instruction to turn the other cheek has helped me imagine a different way of dealing with enemies. Wink writes, “You are probably imagining a blow with the right fist. But such a blow would fall on the left cheek…To grasp this you must physically try it: how would you hit the other's right cheek with your right hand? If you have tried it, you will know: the only feasible blow is a backhand. The backhand was not a blow to injure, but to insult, humiliate, degrade. It was not administered to an equal, but to an inferior…The whole point of the blow was to force someone who was out of line back into place. Notice Jesus' audience: "If anyone strikes you." These are people used to being thus degraded. He is saying to them, "Re-fuse to accept this kind of treatment anymore. If they backhand you, turn the other cheek." (Now you really need to physically enact this to see the problem.) By turning the cheek, the servant makes it impossible for the master to use the backhand again: his nose is in the way. And anyway, it's like telling a joke twice; if it didn't work the first time, it simply won't work. The left cheek now offers a perfect target for a blow with the right fist; but only equals fought with fists, as we know from Jewish sources, and the last thing the master wishes to do is to establish this underling's equality.” Wink adds, “By turning the cheek, then, the "inferior" is saying: "I'm a human being, just like you. I refuse to be humiliated any longer. I am your equal. I am a child of God. I won't take it anymore." Such defiance is no way to avoid trouble. Meek acquiescence is what the master wants. Such "cheeky" behavior may call down a flogging, or worse. But the point has been made. The Powers That Be have lost their power to make people submit.”

Jesus is offering us unusual ways to deal with the usual problem of the misuse of power. Much like Joseph, the wronged person takes back their power, and then can choose what to do.   


In the Sermon
The sermon might explore which transgressions from long-ago can be forgiven as youthful indiscretions, and which indicate a character that hasn’t changed. Is there a difference between Governor Northam wearing blackface, which shows cultural ignorance, and Lieutenant Governor Fairfax being accused of sexual assault, which may have directly harmed two people? Are we more likely to excuse white men than minority men? The sermon might also explore how people make amends for past (non-criminal) behavior and learn to do better. Northam said he’s aiming to be more culturally aware, and he’s reading books by African-American authors. The Atlantic magazine recently recommended a list of books for him – and the rest of us – to read to be more educated on questions of race in America. He hasn’t asked for forgiveness, nor has it been offered, but he seems to have held onto his political office.

The sermon might also examine what we should do, if we are the transgressors. I know that I have said insensitive things over the years, asked ignorant questions, and failed to see the layers of privilege I have. No one is getting out my old yearbooks (thankfully! That hair! The shoulder pads…) but, like every person of privilege in our society, there are places of repentance for me, too. How do we enter into that even if we’re not on the national news?
 
Or, the sermon might look at forgiveness which is only surface deep, or demanded of the wrong person. For Debbie Vasquez, abused and then impregnated by her pastor, “leaders of her church forced her to stand in front of the congregation and ask for forgiveness without saying who had fathered the child. She said church members were generally supportive but were never told the child was their pastor's. Church leadership shunned her, asked her to get an abortion and, when she said no, threatened her and her child, she said. She moved abroad soon after.” This can’t be what Jesus means about forgiveness. This is a place where Jesus’ vision of reversal would serve us better: the church and the pastor should be asking for her forgiveness. Her story might be the basis of a sermon about “forgiveness” being used as a way to control people, and to make things look acceptable on the surface. This is a kind of false forgiveness that never addresses the real problem. The sermon might look at places where we demand forgiveness to keep someone quiet, or to keep up appearances.

Or, the sermon might examine how institutions need to change to become worthy of forgiveness. Responding to the crisis of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, retired military officer James M. Dubik says the church can learn from an example he details from the military. After the scandal at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Dubik outlines the steps that the military took, some of which the church could also consider. “The Aberdeen scandal showed that the Army’s institutional behavior lacked integrity, for its actions did not match its espoused values… Just as restoring trust in the Army involved more than mere updating of regulations and inspection/enforcement regimes, restoring trust in the church also requires more.” Dubik says, “the Army had to demonstrate that it was a trustworthy institution.” Before forgiveness is ever discussed, the church needs to demonstrate the same.

The sermon might shift topics, and look at family dynamics, like Joseph and his brothers, and ponder how we can break long-standing patterns that keep people in particular roles. Joseph, the dreamer and trouble-maker, finds a new place in the family for himself as a provider and peace-maker. When he shifts roles, his brothers have to shift, too. The sermon might explore how changing fixed family patterns creates the space for new learning, and for forgiveness.

Or, the sermon might look at the kind of creative education that Jesus recommends for people who have been wronged. Without returning violence for violence, or hate for hate, Jesus instructs his followers not to participate in broken systems of doing things. With their creative energy, the people listening to Jesus can bring new awareness into old ways of doing things. How can we do the same in our world?

Jesus says, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven,” inviting us into a freedom of thought and action. We are set free from violence, but not from responsibility. Forgiveness can be asked for and given, but it’s not a free gift. To compel it is to share in the same kind of violence that Jesus deplores. To request it, after growth and learning, breaks the cycle of depersonalizing behavior. And to offer it, that is the choice Jesus gives us.


SECOND THOUGHTS
It Ain’t Easy We’re After
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke: 6:27-38

“The United Methodist Church is not a cheap or easy club to belong to. If you’re lookin’ for cheap ‘n’ easy you’ve come to the wrong place.”

Thus, spoke my pastor on the first day of our 7th grade confirmation class.

None of us were shocked or greatly troubled by his pronouncement. We knew our pastor and were used to his West Virginia drawl and his way of often starting his sermons and presentations with outrageous statements.

So, none of us was greatly troubled.

Not greatly.

It was something to think about, however. And for the next ten weeks he made sure we thought about it more than a little bit.

I still think of it nowadays, some 50 years later. Only now I think of it in broader terms, not just United Methodist ones.

“Christianity is not a cheap or easy club to belong to.” Yeah, it works that way, too.

Easy Vs. Hard
There are two kinds of things in life: Hard things and easy things.

Eating donuts is easy. Making donuts is hard.

Driving a car is easy. Building a car is hard.

Making a baby is easy. Being a Dad is hard.

Making enemies is easy. Loving them is hard.

Calling ourselves Christians is easy. Being Christians is hard.

And if we doubted for a minute that this is the case, Luke is here, at the sermon on the plain, to remind us just how hard it is to be a Christian.

Listen to Jesus, he says.

Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who cures you. Pray for those who abuse you.

I quoted those admonitions on the Sunday after 9/11 and members of my congregation booed from the pews and left the worship service, their faced flushed with pent up rage.

If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. If someone takes your coat, offer your shirt as well. Give to anyone who begs from you.

Wait, what? Anyone? But what if they don’t deserve my help, we say. What if they’re gaming the system? What if they’re gonna take my charity and use it to buy wine or drugs?

Jesus answers: Anyone.

See, this is hard stuff. Forgiveness, acquiescence, generosity. These things require a strength for which there is no exercise.

And then Jesus wraps it all up in one, golden package: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Rules Of Gold
The Golden Rule is the closest thing we have to a universal code of moral behavior, a code that crosses nearly all boundaries that normally separate religions, philosophies, cultures, and civilizations.

The Bahai faith puts it this way: "And if thine eyes be turned towards justice, choose thou for thy neighbour that which thou choosest for thyself."

Buddhists say: "...a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another?" Samyutta NIkaya v. 353  And, “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." Udana-Varga 5:18

Confucius said: "Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you" Analects 15:23

Mohamed wrote: "None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." Number 13 of Imam "Al-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths."

The oldest version of the Golden Rule, also called the Epic of Reciprocity, is found in the ancient Egyptian story, TheTale of the Eloquent Peasant, which dates back to about 1800 BCE: "Do for one who may do for you, that you may cause him thus to do." (109 - 110 Translated by R.B. Parkinson.)

Rewards Abound
And why should we behave as Jesus admonishes us to do in this sermon? Why should we abide by the Golden Rule?

Probably the most popular argument for living by this or any moral code is the “If everyone” rationale. We live by this code because if everyone did so the world would be a Utopian dream. But, let’s face it, everyone isn’t going to live by the Golden Rule and even if they did the rule leaves a lot of wriggle room for interpretations of what is good and what is not.

Jesus clears up this problem by showing that there are rewards to be gleaned from such behavior. There are “credits” to be accrued and, if we live by his code, we gather to ourselves more credits than those who don’t.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

And what good do these credits do us? They bring us closer to God, that’s what.

Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High.

God is described as a kind, loving, gentle, generous, forgiving father and, as God’s children, we can avoid the judgement and condemnation which we, no doubt, deserve, but which will be withheld by virtue not of our merit but of God’s grace.

Living the difficult life that is prescribed by the Golden Rule does not earn us a seat at God’s right hand. That seat is given to us by God’s grace. It is righteous living, however, that shines a light upon that seat so we can find it and claim it and make our way to it.

It Ain’t Easy We’re After
The television series “Justified” was about a deputy U.S. Marshal who has been stationed in Appalachia because he was raised there and knows the culture on both sides of the law. Deputy Rayland Givens is, as his boss so crudely puts it, the “Hillbilly Whisperer.”

In one episode, Rayland is wallowing in self-pity after a broken relationship and he goes to a roadhouse bar where is anonymous to drown his sorrows. In the process of doing so he gets mouthy and says something received as insults by two good-ol’-boys who are also drinking in the bar.

A fight in the parking lot ensues in which Rayland receives a sound beating and loses his Stetson cowboy hat.

A couple of weeks later he returns to the bar and asks the bartender about the two good-ol’-boys. Yes, he discovers, they are regulars at the bar and, yes, one of them has been wearing Rayland’s hat.

Rayland expresses to the bartender that he really likes that hat and he intends to take it back.

The bartender, sensing impending violence, offers a bit of advice to Rayland, “You know,” he says. “It’d be a lot easier to just buy a new hat.”

Rayland leans on the bar, nods and thinks for a moment and then he smiles at the bartender and says, “It ain’t easy I’m after.”

Christianity is not a cheap or easy club to belong to.

It’s hard work. Expensive, hard work.

And when we sign on board through baptism or confirmation we are acknowledging that it is hard work and we are accepting the call to that work that God places upon us.

And that’s okay, because, as Rayland put it:

It ain’t easy we’re after.


ILLUSTRATIONS

From team member Ron Love:

Genesis 45:4 “I am your brother…”

Sean McVay, 33, has been the head coach of the Los Angeles Rams for two years. On February 4 he lost Super Bowl LIII to the New England Patriots by a score of 10-3. It may not have been a high scoring game, but it was a still a close game. In his two years as coach he was able to take a team that had 13 consecutive non-winning seasons to the Super Bowl. One of the reasons he was able to do this is because he changed the culture under which the Rams played. On playbooks, on huge wall signs and everywhere else imaginable he posted – “We Not Me.” The Rams were not a set of individuals, but they were a team.

* * *

Genesis 45:4 “I am your brother…”

The Pittsburgh Pirates had their last great baseball season in 1979. The Pirates had 98 wins and 64 losses that year and captured the National League East Division title by two games over the Montreal Expos. The Pirates then beat the Cincinnati Reds to win their ninth National League title, and they defeated the Baltimore Orioles to win their fifth World Series title.

One of the leaders of the team was first baseman Willie Stargell. His teammates called him “Pops” because of his leadership both on and off the baseball field. At his leading, the team was nicknamed “The Family” because of their close relationship. Stargell said of the family experience, “We won, we lived, and we enjoyed as one. We molded together dozens of different individuals into one working force. We were products of different races, were raised in different income brackets, but in the clubhouse and on the field, we were one.”

* * *

Genesis 45:4 “I am your brother…”

Sister Sledge is a vocal group that was composed of four sisters, Debbie, Joni, Kim, and Kathie. The group came together in 1971, and in 1979 they saw their breakthrough album titled We Are Family. The album included the song We Are Family.

The song was adopted by the Pittsburgh Pirates as their official anthem. It was sung throughout the stadium during games, it was played on the radio, it was heard on television, it was paced on T-shirts, and one could not escape hearing it sung in public. The song echoed what the Pittsburgh players believed about themselves: they were “The Family.” The family environment was fostered by Willie “Pops” Stargell. The Pirates went on to win the 1979 World Series in the seventh and final game against the Baltimore Orioles.

Sister Sledge was invited to sing the song at the opening game of the World Series before 45,000 fans, but they were on a three-week tour of Europe at the time. Kathie, who was the lead singer of the song, said, “It’s a miracle. We thought the song had made as much noise as it ever would. Then the Pirates came along. It shows how God can act in mysterious ways.” 

The refrain is constantly repeated in the song of We Are Family, and it was the lyric that was constantly heard in Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The lyrics of the refrain are:

We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up everybody and sing

* * *

Genesis 45:4 “I am your brother…”

The New England Patriots won Super Bowl; LIII by beating the Los Angeles Rams in a score 10-3. One of reasons credited for the Patriots victory is the combination of quarterback Tom Brady and wide receiver Julian Edelman in pass receptions and yards gained. They are also very close friends on and off the field. Brady often refers to the younger Edelman as “my little brother.” The team refers to their relationship as “bromance.”

* * *

Genesis 45:5 “to preserve life”

A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel written by Charles Dickens and published in 1859. The book is one of the two historical novels written by Dickens. As the title indicates, the story is set between two cities, London and Paris. The background of the story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution, which began in 1789, and the Reign of Terror that followed. The book is sympathetic to the overthrow of the French aristocracy, but highly critical of the Reign of Terror that followed.

The opening line of the book is one of the most famous that Dickens ever wrote, and the sentence that is most often quoted from all the novels he wrote. This famous line hints at the novel’s central tension between love and family on the one hand, and oppression and hatred on the other. The passage makes marked use of anaphora, the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of consecutive clauses. This technique, along with the passage’s steady rhythm, suggests that good and evil, wisdom and folly, and light and darkness stand equally matched in their struggle. The opposing pairs in this passage also initiate one of the novel’s most prominent motifs and structural figures—that of doubles, including London and Paris, Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay, Miss Pross and Madame Defarge, and Lucie and Madame Defarge. The opening line of the novel reads:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”

* * *

Genesis 45:5 “to preserve life”

A Christmas Carol, is probably the most popular piece of fiction that Charles Dickens ever wrote. It was published immediately after Christmas in 1843. 

Dickens, who had a strong social conscience, was greatly distressed after reading the government report The Parliamentary Commission on the Employment of Women and Children. The report described the horrific conditions under which very young children were made to work. The children worked under ground in coal mines or in factories with agonizing long hours in appalling conditions. After reading the report, Dickens described himself as being “perfectly stricken down by it.” He became determined that he would strike “the heaviest blow in my power” on behalf of these victims of the Industrial Revolution. In October 1843, as he was giving a talk in Manchester, an industrial city, the idea came to him that the best thing he could do by way of calling public attention to the horror of this report, would be to write a story. He desired to write a story that, as he said, was “something that would come down with sledgehammer force.” That determination led to the writing of A Christmas Carol.

The central character in the story is Ebenezer Scrooge. The name comes from a combination of “screw” and “gouge.” Scrooge’s transformation is legendary. Initially, Scrooge is a miser who shows a decided lack of concern for the rest of mankind. At the beginning of the story, he is described as a greedy, selfish person. Scrooge showed his distaste for philanthropy when he says:

Every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas” on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.

However, after a night when he was visited by three ghosts that showed him how miserly ways destroyed the lives of others, Scrooge sees life in a whole new way. He is presented as a godly person, with this description:

He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.

***

Luke 6:27 “But I say to you that you listen…”

The Shoes of the Fisherman is a novel by the Australian writer Morris West. The book was published in 1963. West’s deep interest in and commitment to Catholicism provided the central theme for nearly all of his thirty novels. 

The novel begins with the death of the pope and the arrangements for a conclave to elect a successor. Among the cardinals summoned to Rome is Cardinal Kiril Lakota of Ukraine who, at age fifty, was the youngest cardinal. In the early years after World War II he was elevated to a bishopric and was soon thereafter arrested and tortured for practicing his revolutionary faith.

Shortly before being called to Rome, he was freed from nearly seventeen years of harsh imprisonment in a Siberian labor camp. Cardinal Lakota, handpicked by Cardinal Camerlengo to offer the sermon on the opening day of the conclave, moves the College of Cardinals with his earnestness, delivering impassioned remarks about the duty of the Papacy to serve the forgotten souls of the Roman Catholic Church. The following day, the charismatic Cardinal Lakota is elected pope by acclamation on the first ballot. He takes the name Pope Kiril I. His impassioned speech had come from his spiritual awareness during his Siberian imprisonment and from his efforts to minister to fellow prisoners. This had made him acutely aware of the need for the spiritual and pastoral functions of the Catholic Church.

The central intrigue of the book is an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. To avoid war, his chief interrogator, Kamenev, who is now the premier of the Soviet Union, asks the pope to act as a secret mediator between the two countries. The establishment of this private conduit between the two leaders reduces the dangers of war as they are able to explore possible compromises freely and avoid the limiting tendencies of their own foreign affairs bureaucracies.

When the United States president agrees to meet the Soviet premier, Kiril confronts the challenge of putting into action his vision of a pastoral Church. The Church is prepared now to go out into the world. Pope Kiril I, calm and ready, accepts what he knows in his soul will be a long and difficult pilgrimage to peace.

In that passionate sermon that opened the conclave, Kiril Lakota said:

If I have any rights among you, any credit at all, let this be the foundation of them – that I speak for the lost ones, for those who walk in darkness and in the valley of the shadow of death. It is for them and not for ourselves that we are entering into conclave. It is for them and not for ourselves that we must elect a Pontiff. The first man who held this office was one who walked with Christ, and was crucified like the Master.

* * *

Luke 6:27 “But I say to you that you listen…”

In the book The Shoes of the Fisherman, two days before his installation, the newly elected Pope Kiril I summons all the Cardinals of the Curia. There is an urgency to address them now, for the day after his installation they will all be returning home. The scene is described by the book’s author, Morris West, as follows: as Kiril stood before them “his heart sank and he asked himself for the hundredth time what he had to offer them and to the Church. Then once again it seemed as though power renewed itself in him, and he made the Sign of the Cross, an invocation to the Holy Ghost, and then plunged into the business of the Consistory.”

As the Cardinals are assembled before him, Kiril outlines his leadership plans for the church. It is a lengthy address, during which he spoke these words: “You ask me where I want to lead you, where I want to lead the Church. I will show you. I want to lead you back to God, through men. Understand this, understand it in mind and heart and obedient will. We are what we are, for the service of God through the service of man. If we lose contact with man-suffering, sinful, lost, confused men crying in the night, women agonizing, children weeping – then we, too, are lost because we shall be negligent shepherds who have done everything but the one thing necessary.”

* * *

Luke 6:27 “But I say to you that you listen…”

Sherwood Schwartz was the writer for the two television programs Gilligan’s Island, which went on the air in 1967, and The Brady Bunch, which went on the air in 1969. The shows did what a sitcom was supposed to do, and that is, make people laugh. But, Schwartz had a political agenda for the program Gilligan’s Island. This sitcom represented the confidence that people had in the United States during the Cold War. The program showed that a group of Americans could be dropped down anywhere on the planet and survive by creating a rule of law. Each character represented an American attribute. Gilligan was the perfect example of democracy, since he made no claims to superiority. The Professor was American wisdom. The Millionaire showed American success. The Skipper showed American military authority and might.

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Luke 6:27 “But I say to you that you listen…”

Isaac Watts was born in Southampton, England, on July 17, 1674, to a cloth merchant named Enoch. His father was a deacon at the Above Bar Congregational Church and, as a dissenter from the established Church of England, was imprisoned several times for his beliefs. As a child, Isaac had a severe case of smallpox which left him with a frail, sickly body. However, he was precocious. By the time he was thirteen, he had learned Latin, Greek, French, and Hebrew. At age fifteen he began writing poetry. One Sunday, after the morning worship service, he complained about the regrettable singing. He later wrote, “The singing of God’s praise is the part of worship nighest heaven and its performance among us is the worst on earth.”

So, given young Isaac’s complaints about the music in worship, his father encouraged him to write more robust hymns. Before evening, Watts had penned his first hymn, “Behold the glories of the Lamb.” In 1701, after completing his education, at age 26, he became minister of the Mark Lane Independent Chapel in London where he continued writing hymns to go with his sermons. Because of ill health he rarely preached two Sundays in a row, but he remained at Mark Lane for the rest of his life. Watts went on to compose over 650 hymns. He also wrote books on logic, science, grammar, pedagogy, ethics, psychology, three volumes of sermons, and 29 treatises on theology, for a total of 52 works. Watts has been called the father of English hymnody. He died on November 25, 1748 at the age of 74.

Watts wrote the hymn “Come, we that love the Lord,” which can be found in Watts’ Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book II, which was published in 1707. The scriptural references for this hymn come from the Book of Revelation. The hymn’s stanzas address the joys of the saints, singing as they “surround the throne” of God. We hear in the hymn Watts describe the presence of joy that can be found not just in heaven, but also on earth. Robert Lowry adapted this hymn text and wrote the popular refrain.

The first stanza reads:

Come, we that love the Lord,
and let our joys be known;
join in a song with sweet accord,
and thus surround the throne.

The third stanza of the hymn “Come, we that love the Lord” reads:

The hill of Zion yields
a thousand sacred sweets
before we reach the heav'nly fields,
or walk the golden streets.

The refrain reads:

We’re marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We’re marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.

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From team member Tom Willadsen:

Genesis observations
We’re a Sunday away from Transfiguration Sunday, which is the lead-in to Lent. There’s a lot of backstory that the preacher will need to cover for the Genesis reading to be understood.

There are two characters in the Bible whose ability to interpret dreams plays a key part in the story. Joseph in Genesis, the one with the “technicolor dream coat,” or the “long-sleeved garment,” (Translations are everything in this case!) irritates his brothers by interpreting his dreams to them. His ability to interpret dreams gets him out of Pharaoh’s dungeon on parole, which is his first step toward a corner office with the Big P.

Then there’s the other Joseph who gets warned in a dream….

Genesis Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams prepares the Egyptians for a famine that none of their neighbors foresaw. Those neighbors would starve if Egypt didn’t have grain to export, but export at a price.

So it appears that the hand of the Lord has been behind this whole scenario. The Lord, according to Joseph’s theology, was able to bring good out of what Joseph’s brothers intended to harm him.

This notion recalls a pivotal scene in the Broadway musical “Wicked” as the witches we know from The Wizard of Oz, Glinda, the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West, are reflecting on their lives which have been intertwined and they sing the duet “For Good” by Stephen Schwartz. “For Good” has a dual meaning in this case, it can and does mean “forever” and “for something better.”

You can read the lyrics here.

* * *

A little more Joseph…forgiveness?
During the week of February 11 news of many cases of sexual abuse have been reported by the Southern Baptism Convention. Baptist polity allows for strong local control of congregations. While the SBC is the largest Protestant body in the United States, as an institution the SBC exerts very little control over local churches. Men in positions of power and authority have used their status to prey on young women. The SBC is hardly the only institution to confront this situation and alas, we can expect more in the days and years ahead. One factor that has made it possible for this exploitation to go for so long is the appeal for victims to forgive their exploiters, after all, aren’t we all sinners? And didn’t Jesus say we should forgive each other? Well, yes, BUT Jesus never said it was acceptable to take advantage of one’s status or power for personal pleasure.

It is an open question whether Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers came too soon, before Joseph could fully express and his brothers could completely accept the damage that they had done, damage that they had intended, regardless of how the Lord was able to bring something good from the situation.

Victims in all situations need to make their own peace with whether, when, how and whom to forgive. An appeal to the grace Christians know in Christ should never be forced or coerced. And punishment can be part of reconciliation. Joseph is free to offer forgiveness, but it would have been wildly inappropriate for his brothers to request it.

* * *

Psalm and Gospel
This morning’s psalm is obviously paired with the gospel reading. The reader, the faithful believer in the Living God should step back and let the Lord punish the wicked.

Jesus puts a different spin on this notion. Everyone loves people who love them back. Even bad people do that. It’s not much of a stretch, not much of a test of one’s faith to love those whom one already loves. But note, this notion of one’s enemies loving those who love them humanizes one’s enemies. They may be strong and evil, but they have mothers whom they take out to brunch on Mothers’ Day. Bad people do what you do; maybe they’re not so different from you after all.

Praying for one’s enemies—and not praying that a safe falls on them while they’re walking down the street—sincerely praying for their well-being, changes one’s relationship to them. That change begins in one’s own heart; that change can change the relationship between enemies. It works.

* * *

It really works
Tell your congregation this: if you’re having a bad day, do something kind for someone who cannot repay you. Maybe someone who won’t even be able to know who did this kindness for them. Go out of your way to do this. Make an effort. After all, the Lord is kind to the ungrateful. Perhaps this passage spurred Mother Teresa to write this:

Mother Teresa's Anyway Poem:

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

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Paul’s continuing to be theological, 1 Corinthians 15:35-28, 42-50
People often ask preachers what Heaven will be like. I’ve never heard a description that made it sound appealing, in this I suppose I’m like Huckleberry Finn who said of Heaven  “all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didn't think much of it.” Doing anything for eternity would simply get old and boring, in my opinion. Note that Paul does not reveal what Heaven will be like, just that your body there will not be like your body here. You’re in the image that God made you in dust, but God’s going to use an even better artistic medium on your spiritual body. It’ll be better. It’ll be better than we can imagine, or describe.

* * *

“Credit”
The Greek word Jesus uses three times, that is rendered into English as “credit” is χαρις = charis. It can also be rendered “grace.”


WORSHIP
by George Reed

Call to Worship:
Leader: Do not fret because of the wicked.
People: Do not be envious of wrongdoers,
Leader: Trust in God and do good.
People: Take delight in our God who gives us the desires of our heart.
Leader: The salvation of the righteous is from God
People: God is our refuge in the time of trouble.

OR

Leader: Come and learn of the ways of Jesus.
People: Teach us your ways, O Lord.   
Leader: We come to learn and to learn to follow.
People: Make us faithful in following you, O Lord.
Leader: In service and forgiveness we follow Jesus.
People: With God’s help, we will follow faithfully.

Hymns and Songs:
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELA: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT: 281

All My Hope Is Firmly Grounded
UMH: 132
H82: 665
NCH: 408
CH: 88
ELA: 757

Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493         
W&P: 404

Have Thine Own Way, Lord
UMH: 382
AAHH: 449
NNBH: 206
CH: 588
W&P: 486
AMEC: 345

Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive
UMH: 390
H82: 674
PH: 347
LBW: 307
ELA: 605
W&P: 382

Are Ye Able (Able? Yes! Willing? ????)
UMH: 530
NNBH: 223         
CH: 621
AMEC: 291

Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone
UMH: 424
AAHH: 554
NNBH: 221
AMEC: 155

How Like a Gentle Spirit
UMH: 115
NCH: 443
CH: 69

I Am Loved
CCB: 80

Make Me a Servant
CCB: 90

Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
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 is grace and love and forgiveness:
Grant us the power of the Spirit to live as your children
offering forgiveness to all as we follow Jesus;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

OR

We praise you, O God, because you are grace and love and forgiveness. We pray that we may truly live as your people as we forgive as we have been forgiven. Help us to follow Jesus faithfully and not just when it is easy or suits us. Amen.

Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our desire to take the easy way including not forgiving others.

People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are quick to accept forgiveness from you and from others. We are not so quick to be forgiving. We are quick to excuse our own faults but slow to overlook those of others. We are happy to call ourselves children of the Most High and disciples of Jesus when it makes us look good but not so much when it calls us to make hard decisions. We accept the teachings of Jesus in principle but we are not very good at putting them into everyday practice. Forgive us once again and renew your Spirit within us that we may truly follow Jesus. Amen.

Leader: God is forgiving and God is good. God delights in pouring out the Spirit upon us that we may live into God’s image.

Prayers of the People
All praise and glory are yours, O God, because you are love. Out of love you created us and in love your redeem us.

(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)

We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are quick to accept forgiveness from you and from others. We are not so quick to be forgiving. We are quick to excuse our own faults but slow to overlook those of others. We are happy to call ourselves children of the Most High and disciples of Jesus when it makes us look good but not so much when it calls us to make hard decisions. We accept the teachings of Jesus in principle but we are not very good at putting them into everyday practice. Forgive us once again and renew your Spirit within us that we may truly follow Jesus

We give you thanks for all the blessings of this life. We thank you for your love that forgives us and guides us to life eternal. We thank you for those who have faithfully followed Jesus and shown us how we can be true disciples.

(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)

We pray for the needs of all your children. Where there is hatred and revenge we pray for love and peace. Where there are hard decisions to be made we pray for strength. We pray for others and we pray for ourselves because we know of our own needs.

(Other intercessions may be offered.)

All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:

Our Father....Amen.

(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service)

All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.

Children’s Sermon Starter
Did you ever get in trouble? Did you ever do or say something you shouldn’t have? It is no fun when we hurt someone. Sometimes we have to say we are sorry. It feels pretty good when we are told we are forgiven. Sometimes someone hurts us and they say they are sorry. It is not always easy forgive those who hurt us but when we remember how good it is to be forgiven that makes it easier.


CHILDREN'S SERMON
Taking a long shot!
by Chris Keating
Luke 6:27-38

Gather ahead of time:
Three laundry baskets
Signs that say, “Family,” “Friends” and “Enemies.”
A few pieces of paper wadded up into balls or beanbags.

Spend time reading Luke 6:27-38 and begin to imagine how Jesus’ words might sound to a child. There’s a lot in these verses which may be hard for children to grasp, though other verses will be more accessible. For example, “Do to others as you would have them do to you,” is pretty straightforward, where “love your enemies” may be a bit harder for children to understand. Children who have concrete views of the world will wonder what it means to “love an enemy,” especially if they have been taught to be wary of strangers.

Jesus’ followers also knew that loving their enemies could be dangerous.  Yet Jesus shows us the power of God’s love which seeks healing and reconciliation, and which is full of mercy. Jesus invites the disciples to a new way of loving everyone, including those who are different from us, or who may have different opinions, speak different languages or have different customs. The key to this is verse 36: “be merciful.”

One option today is to help children imagine what it means to show mercy, and how they might forgive someone who has not been very nice to them.  Another option is to help the children understand why we include prayers of confession in worship. Our confessions arise from our awareness of God’s unconditional mercy. Explain that forgiveness is never easy, and sometimes takes a long time. Sometimes it even involves “taking a long shot” or a chance that things might work out.

Ask the children if they understand what it means to “take a long shot.” A long shot is something that doesn’t seem possible but still could be quite significant. Some good examples could be the NBA’s recent basketball slam dunk contest. It’s hard to achieve a long shot! Jesus was saying something very similar: loving our enemies is hard. It’s a real “long shot,” but because it shows God’s mercy is certainly worth trying.

You can demonstrate this by setting up the laundry baskets. Place the baskets in a straight line. Place the sign “family” in the one closest to where you are standing. Place the “friends” sign in the next basket. Finally, move the third basket a bit further away and place the “enemies” sign inside. Try making a basket with the wadded-up piece of paper or bean bag. Which is in the long shot? Why is that harder?

As you close, invite the children to begin imagining how they might show mercy to others, just as God has shown mercy to them.


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The Immediate Word, February 24, 2019 issue.

Copyright 2019 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.