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For July 30, 2023:

• The Kingdom of Heaven is Hot by Mary Austin based on Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52.
• Second Thoughts: Rachel, Leah, and Barbie by Dean Feldmeyer. Laban and Jacob, Rachel and Leah — how would the story have played out if the women would have had the power instead of the men?
• Sermon illustrations by Tom Willadsen, Katy Stenta, Chris Keating, Quantisha Mason-Doll.
• Worship resources by George Reed.
• Children's sermon: The Kingdom of Heaven by Elena Delhagen based on Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52.

The Kingdom of Heaven is Hot
by Mary Austin
Matthew-13:31-33, 44-52

Jesus uses everyday occupations as the frame for his parables, bringing the realm of God into the world of his listeners.

In our world, perhaps the kingdom of God is like Anjalai, a woman in Chennai, India, whose “daily routines were defined and driven by heat. In the morning, she ate cold rice porridge, which she believes helps cool her body. Every day, before she left for work, she wetted down the thatched roof of their hut, then spread water around the dirt at the base of the hut. The dampness, she said, helps absorb the heat. She moved slowly, preserving her strength for the day.” Six days a week, she cleans houses. “Working indoors gives her some relief. She often thinks of her husband, and feels guilty that she can cool off but he can’t. But that feeling doesn’t last too long. Inevitably, she must go up on the roof to clean up there too (many rooftops in Chennai double as living spaces). The sun burns in the sky and the air is thick and heavy.”

Millions of people are experiencing extreme heat this summer. Phoenix had at least 18 consecutive days of high temperatures at or above 110 degrees, surpassing a 1974 record. The heat has put roughly a quarter of the US population under a heat advisory. Heat records set one day are broken the next, on an even hotter day.

Jeff Goodell, author of The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet sees the rising heat as an invitation to consider what seeds we’re planting now, before we do more damage. “We need to start seeing hot days as more than an invitation to go to the beach or hang out at the lake. Extreme heat is the engine of planetary chaos. We ignore it at our peril. Because if there is one thing we should understand about the risks of extreme heat, it is this: All living things, from humans to hummingbirds, share one simple fate. If the temperature they’re used to — what scientists sometimes call their Goldilocks Zone — rises too far, too fast, they die.”

If the kingdom of heaven is in our midst, Jesus invites us to consider what seeds we are planting and what treasure we are seeking.

In the News
High temperatures are relentless this year. “For those seeking to cool off, there will be little opportunity to do so in the places hit hardest by the high temperatures, with particularly high daily minimum temperatures.” Heat is the new Covid for older people in Europe. “The searing temperatures have settled over the continent like another indiscriminate plague, reinforcing the isolation of many older people and the threats to their health, and pushing governments and social services to take extraordinary steps to try to protect them.”

Outdoor pursuits are dangerous, as hikers are being found dead in the heat. Heat is even an issue in the possible UPS strike, as UPS “has also tentatively agreed to make Martin Luther King Jr Day a holiday and has agreed to install air-conditioning units in more of its trucks, since heat is a growing hazard for drivers as temperatures continue to soar.”

Author Jeff Goodell says, “The extreme heat that is cooking many parts of the world this summer is not a freakish event — it is another step into our burning future. The wildfires in Canada, the orange Blade Runner skies on the East Coast, the hot ocean, the rapidly melting glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica and the Himalayas, the high price of food, the spread of vector-borne diseases in unexpected places — it is all connected, and it is all driven by rising heat.”

In another crisis, in Montevideo, Uruguay, the city has run out of clean water. Journalist XXX writes in an Op-Ed piece that drought, “coupled with aging infrastructure and gross mismanagement of the Santa Lucía reservoirs, has rewritten that comforting story. Now the metropolitan area around Montevideo, home to about 60% of the nation’s 3.4 million people, is living through the consequences.” He notes the compounding nature of the problem. “Those of us who can afford bottled water use it for everything. We cook pasta, wash lettuce and make coffee with it, buying more and more plastic water containers that wind up in the dump.” Poorer people are drinking unsafe water, and falling ill.

This crisis repeats around the world. “As bad as it is here, Montevideo’s water crisis is not unique. In 2018, Cape Town started making plans for the chaos that would ensue in the very real scenario that it could run out of water entirely. In Brazil, which owns a significant fraction of the world’s fresh water, numerous cities have restricted its use. In Mexico City, 70% of the population has access to water for only 12 hours a day, according to a 2017 United Nations study (PDF). The 2023 U.N. World Water Development Report shows that one in four people lacks access to clean water.”

In the Scriptures
In the parables, the realm of God always has an unexpected quality. The small mustard seed grows large and the measure of flour is huge, enough for an extravagant party. The merchant looking for pearls presumably wants to sell them for a profit and yet, he buys only one pearl, and may not want to part with it. The net draws in all kinds of fish and then the good and the bad ones have to be sorted out.

Jesus asks the disciples if they understand the meaning of the parables, and they answer “Yes.” I wish we could hear their tone of voice. Is it a confident “yes,” or one that hints the answer should be “maybe?” These parables defy easy explanations. The kingdom of God…grows? Starts small and expands? Is caught? Is found? Is bought? In the section before this, the parable of the wheat and the weeds invites the hearers to rest, waiting for God to act. These parables all focus on action. We’re invited into action, on behalf of the realm of God. The kingdom of God is waiting for us to search for it, to notice it, to pursue it.

O. Wesley Allen also finds an invitation in these parables. “Jesus’ parabolic invitation into the eschatological reign of heaven in chapter 13 serves as a stark contrast to the dividing lines drawn in the previous two chapters highlighting conflict between Jesus and the authorities. That section ended with praise of disciples who do God’s will as Jesus’ true kin, and this discourse invites others into discipleship.” (from Matthew: Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries)

In the Sermon
If these parables offer an invitation, the sermon might explore what the invitation is. In our world, most of us don’t buy pearls or purchase land with buried treasure. We use banks, buy bread, and we don’t catch fish. What is Jesus inviting us into? He works hard to make the parables reflect ordinary life — what might those parables be like in our time?

Professor Amy-Jill Levine observes that “once the merchant obtains his pearl of utmost value, he is no longer a merchant,” and she suggests that, in seeking God’s kingdom, “we might discover a challenge to our own identity." (From Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi.) The sermon might explore where seeking the realm of God changes our identity. Where does God change our sense of self?

The sermon might also explore what seeds we’re planting. Our choices may seem to be the size of a mustard seed and yet they expand dramatically. Jeff Goodell says that being indoors insulates us (no pun intended) from understanding the heat as a crisis. “If you are lucky enough and well-off enough, perhaps there is no sense that a life-threatening force has invaded your world. This past week, records were set or tied on four consecutive days as the hottest days ever recorded on Earth. On Monday, I happened to be sitting in an air-conditioned cafe in Austin. Around me, people drank iced coffees and bottled water, seemingly unconcerned as the heat outside beat down mercilessly. In my neighborhood, where a couple tore down a modest house, cut down big shady trees and erected a McMansion with a black roof that sucks up heat, massive compressors for the air-conditioning hang off the side of the house like tactical weapons in the climate war.” What are our choices growing into? What are we harvesting?

The active nature of these parables invites us into action, too. We see the harvest we’re reaping in this dramatically hot summer, which also has water shortages around the world. As people suffer, are we willing to seek the treasure of cooling the planet? Are we willing to search for the answers we need? The parables also speak to God’s abundant and surprising gifts, for those who seek them. Jesus’ invitation awaits those who notice and those who search.



SECOND THOUGHTS
Rachel, Leah, and Barbie
by Dean Feldmeyer
Genesis 29:15-28 

In today’s lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures (Genesis 29:15-28) two grifters meet their match in each other. The sneaky, conniving Jacob and his uncle and future father-in-law, the sneaky and conniving Laban, engage in a game of one-ups-man-ship wherein Laban’s two daughters, Jacob’s cousins, (try to keep up) are both the pawns and the prizes.

One cannot but wonder how it all would have played out if the roles were reversed and the women had the power.

In the Scriptures
Men Play Chess; Women are Pawns & Prizes
Leah, the elder of the two is described as having “lovely eyes” and, presumably, a good personality, while Rachel, the younger daughter, is described as “graceful and beautiful.” Jacob, being a man, has already fallen madly in love-at-first-sight with the beautiful, young Rachel.

Jacob has come to this area around the city of Nahor in northern Mesopotamia, because his mother has sent him there to live with and work for her brother, Laban, in order to escape the perfectly justifiable wrath of Esau, whom Jacob cheated out of his birthright. She also suggests that, since he isn’t getting any younger, he might want to shop around for a wife while he’s there.

On his way to Nahor, Jacob has met and become smitten with the beautiful, young Rachel. So, when Laban asks him what he expects to be paid for his labor, he offers to work for seven years for the right to marry Rachel, the love of his life, whom he has just met.

Laban agrees but, at the wedding feast, while Jacob is drunk, his father-in-law-to-be substitutes the older and, well, not quite as beautiful Leah for Rachel in the wedding tent. Jacob awakens to discover that he’s been duped and goes to Laban who manages a lame excuse: This is always how we do it in this country. Why, it wouldn’t be seemly for the younger daughter to be married before the older one. You, Jacob, should have done your homework. Jacob buys Laban’s story and, without a thought to Leah’s feelings, agrees to work an additional seven years if he can also have Rachel as a second wife.

Laban again agrees and Jacob, for some reason believing he can trust the old man, goes to work, labors for fourteen years, throws in an extra six for an even twenty, and decides that his brother Esau’s ire should surely have cooled by now, so he takes his wives and leaves to go home.

Through all of this we have heard not so much as a peep from Leah and Rachel. They are sold by their father to their cousin, Jacob, in exchange for fourteen years of labor and they are expected to acquiesce to all this in silence — a sort of ancient, oral Non-Disclosure Agreement.

Sound familiar?

On Screen
She Said, Barbie, and The Power
It may have taken four thousand years, but the stone of patriarchy may be starting to budge, if only a little.

Two recent Hollywood movies and an Amazon television series offer three different responses to the systemic oppression and violence that our culture has perpetrated against women.

The 2022 movie “She Said” is a biographical drama that tells the story of how, in 2017, New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey broke the story of how Miramax producer Harvey Weinstein raped and sexually abused young actresses whom he cast in his highly popular and successful films then bullied them into silence, threatening to ruin not just their careers, but their lives as well if they spoke out.

His weapon of choice in the bullying was the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) that he paid his victims to sign or face the wrath of one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. With his not inconsiderable power to grant or destroy a person’s dreams, a movie studio full of deniers and enablers, a reem of NDAs, and an army of lawyers and accountants, Weinstein was able to surround himself with a fortress of silence that, for three decades, allowed him to bully and rape naïve, young women who were trying to become successful actresses.

Eventually, however, stories began to rise to the surface and, when these two investigative reporters got hold of them, they doggedly pursued the victims until, finally, they found one who was willing to come forward and speak out. Then another, and another.

The Times published the story on October 5, 2017. After the article's publication, 82 women came forward with their own allegations against Weinstein. He is currently serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault in New York. This year, a Los Angeles court also found him guilty of additional charges and sentenced him to 16 years in prison to be served after he serves his 23 years in New York. Charges are pending in London and Hong Kong.

More than any other single event, the publication of the New York Times story is credited with launching the “Me Too” movement that has been responsible for many and broad changes in workplaces, large and small, across the United States and in other countries.

Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for public service for their reporting on Harvey Weinstein at The New York Times. They also won the 2018 Gerald Loeb Award for Investigative business journalism.

__________

In case you missed it because you were living in a cave, “Barbie” has landed with the biggest movie opening of the year, so far.

In this fantasy comedy directed by Greta Gerwig, written by Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, and based on the 60-year-old doll, Stereotypical Barbie ("Barbie") and a wide range of fellow Barbies all reside in Barbieland, a matriarchal society where all women are self-confident, self-sufficient, and successful. While their Ken counterparts spend their days engaging in recreational activities at the beach, the Barbies hold all important job positions such as doctors, lawyers, and politicians. Beach Ken ("Ken"), Barbie's boyfriend, is only happy when he is with Barbie and seeks a closer relationship, but Barbie is more interested in independence and her female friendships.

Suddenly, however, Barbie begins to worry about mortality and, as a result, her feet become flat and she can’t complete her usual activities. Also, she has cellulite. To solve this problem, she must go to the “real world,” which turns out to be Los Angeles, of all places, where she is ogled and disrespected by men while Ken who, up to now, has had no identity unless Barbie is looking at him, is revered by other guys. Ken likes this way of doing things and returns to Barbieland to change things to a more “real world” way.  It’s all about power, you see.

Not to give away any important plot points — yes, there are plot points — suffice it to say that Barbie solves these and other problems through her superior intelligence, loveable personality, cute cleverness, and innocent guile.

__________

The Amazon Prime sci-fi series “The Power” posits a world in which teenage girls suddenly have the power to shoot electricity out of their fingertips. As different sub-plots around the world unfold, we see the girls sharing their power with adult women and all women and girls using the power for different purposes. Some use it to gain political power so they can help solve the world’s problems, others use it to simply walk streets where they previously didn’t feel safe. One starts a street gang of power-wielding girls, another uses her power to heal others but then becomes the leader of a religious cult. A Romanian girl frees sex slaves across Eastern Europe and raises an army of abused women, bent on absolute power and understandably violent revenge.

As the series evolves, it poses questions about the relationship of power and gender and asks if one gender is innately more capable of wielding power equitably than the other. So far in the series, it’s an open question.

Women and Choices
What can we learn from Rachel, Leah and, okay, Barbie?
In the biblical record, Rachel and Leah seem content to offer childbirth and motherhood as their primary, if not only, contribution to the early history of the people of God. Leah is the mother of four of Jacob’s sons and Rachel, two. (The other two are from Rachel’s servant girl, Bilhah, whom she gave to Jacob as a third wife when she thought she could not have children.)

It might be easy to be critical of them for living the life that was given to them but that may also be to judge Hebrew people from 4,000 years ago by today’s Christian standards of normality and morality. We would do well to think of their story as the opening act in a long, epic narrative that records the evolution of women’s role in the story of the People of God, an evolution that would become “Me Too” and laws that require equal rights for women.

This year, as the Women’s World Cup Soccer Tournament is being played in New Zealand, we realize that this is the first time that American women players have been paid the same as their male counterparts. For years, male players never advanced in World Cup competition beyond the quarter finals while the women have won four World Cup championships, yet, only now are they being paid the same as men. 4,000 years after Leah and Rachel, the powers that be in the soccer world expected the women to accept their lot with quiet compliance and humble gratitude.

So, let us count dearly the advances that have been made in granting women equal rights even as we honestly assess the steps that must yet be taken in that endeavor. And let us remember with a sense of gratitude the women who took the first steps.

Without Leah and Rachel there would be no female investigative reporters demanding justice for abused women. There would be no Greta Gerwig to direct a motion picture that pokes playful fun at a sixty-year-old iconic doll that, even while she set unrealistic physical beauty standards for women and girls, showed those same girls that their lives are open ended stories in which anything, yes, anything from astronaut, to model, to gymnast, to business CEO and a hundred other options, is possible.

And, perhaps, we best honor the memories of Rachel and Leah not by making broad and thoughtless generalizations about women and men but by asking, instead, how power is best and most faithfully wielded, regardless of who is wielding it.



ILLUSTRATIONS

From team member Tom Willadsen:

Genesis 29:15-28
This is not done
Laban informs Jacob, after deceiving him with Leah in the marriage chamber instead of Rachel, “This is not done in our country — giving the younger before the first born….” (29:26, NRSV) Thus Jacob got a taste of his own medicine; he supplanted his older brother, Esau, in the Genesis lesson three weeks ago!

* * *

Genesis 29:15-28
Timing is everything
Marrying sisters was forbidden in Leviticus 18:18: “And you shall not take a woman as a rival to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.” (NRSVUE) But it was accepted in Jacob and Laban’s time.

* * *

Genesis 29:15-28
Jacob didn’t have to wait 14 years for Rachel
Mrs. Schlessinger got the facts of this story wrong back when I was in Sunday school in first grade. Yes, Jacob had to work for Laban for 14 years, but after he worked for Laban for seven and had a marital week with Leah, Jacob married Rachel. He did not have to wait another seven years for Rachel.

* * *

Genesis 29:15-28
Now about Leah’s eyes…
Various translations render Leah’s eyes as “weak,” “tender,” “delicate,” “didn’t sparkle,” “ordinary,” “nice,” and “sad.” The Hebrew is רכות , it also describes the bodies of children, so “weak” in this sense could indicate under-developed.

Rachel, on the other hand, was “graceful and beautiful,” according to the NRSVUE. The Hebrew תאר is used to describe boundaries and outlines, so it is no stretch to read the Hebrew as indicating Rachel was “shapely” or “having a beautiful figure,” as some English translations render the word.

* * *

Romans 8:26-39
A powerful passage, but “sheep to be slaughtered,” really?
Romans 8:31-39 is a passage I use in nearly every memorial service or funeral at which I preside. It’s a powerful message of how God’s love in Christ is stronger than lots of things that threaten people: The past, the future, poverty, famine…death. Still, Paul affirms that the love of Christ is stronger even than death. It’s a word of great comfort to those grieving the death of a loved one, that God’s love in Christ continues after death.

I always leave out v. 36, as it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
    we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” (NRSVUE)

It’s a verse from Psalm 44, and it’s a complete non sequitur in my opinion.


* * * * * *

From team member Quantisha Mason-Doll:

Genesis 29:15-28
Clarifying Questions are a must
Jacob had one job and one job only, which was to ask clarifying questions. But do you think he did that? Nope. Jacob, blinded by love and lust, ended up with two wives and fourteen years unpaid labor. He really dropped the ball. There is temptation to paint Laban as a scam artist. Honestly, Laban makes out handsomely in this deal. He has a strong young man working wage-free for fourteen years and he is able to marry off not one but both of his daughters without having to search for suitable spouses. We cannot blame Laban for following the customs of his land. Laban tried to offer fair wages to Jacob yet all he wanted was his child. We can easily fall into the trap of victim blaming because Jacob was deceived. I argue that during the seven years Jacob worked for Laban he never took the time to ask questions. We must ask ourselves why did Jacob fail at enculturating himself? If Jacob loved Leah so much, how did he not realize he was bedding the wrong woman? When we become narrow minded and too focused on the projected outcomes we might miss out on what is right in front of us.

* * *

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Wild Yeast
I am a huge fan of wild yeast. It seems like magic to me. A little bit of flour, some water, and an open window and boom, twenty-four hours later you have a dough starter. Let it ferment and it becomes a sourdough starter. Some of the best bread comes from starters that come from creation itself. Maybe heaven is like sourdough bread: wild, pungent, and made beautiful by God’s hand.

* * *

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Seeds
My library lets you check out seeds. It’s ‘free’ like most things at the library with the caveat that you allow a portion of what you grow to go to seed. This means collecting seeds from the fruiting bodies or from flowers, drying them, and package them. When that happens, you return the same number of seeds you checked out. Check out and return. If I check out one mustard seed when fully grown and allow it to go to seed it can yield approximately 1,200 seeds. Heaven is a mustard seed that you have planted in your field. Everything it yields is yours for the taking yet we ask that you return the seeds you were given so another can check it out and reap the rewards.

* * * * * *

From team member Katy Stenta:

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
These Kingdom of Heaven stories are like a song where every verse unfolds the chorus in such a radically different way that it changes what is being told. I heard a radio story, I think it was the Moth, about what piece of wisdom would you leave humanity if you could give them one sentence. One scientist, who loved science and wanted to spur science said something along the lines of: “Everything is made up of tiny and invisible atoms — everything is made up of them.” Someone else said, “You are worth ever so much more than any words can ever convey.” Someone else said that they would not leave anything, because it is so hard to leave a sentence without context, and they felt whatever they left would be misconstrued. Here is Jesus talking about the Kingdom of Heaven, but as straightforwardly as possible, and then adding another dimension to that simple statement. Saying “Look, it’s this simple and this complicated, rather like the human condition, is it not?” The kingdom of heaven is like home, vast and beautiful, and growing. It makes one wonder what Jesus would say today.

* * *

Genesis 29:15-28
The mutuality of the deal is not conveyed in Genesis. Tricks abound. Jacob is tricked into taking Leah as well as Rachel, despite their meet cute earlier in the text. The contract has been broken. In an age where unions are on the rise, marriage rights are in danger for LGBTQIA couples and disabled couples still do not have equal marriage. We can feel for Jacob and Rachel, and especially Leah — who at the time, could not remain single. One wonders if Rachel and Leah hatched this plan together to protect Leah from economic strife. In the United States more women than ever are single, but its hard to build wealth as a single woman. Everything costs more — from cell phone plans to housing. Therefore it makes sense that people are pursuing unusual housing strategies. My sister and her husband live in New York with a permanent roommate. I know a married couple from college who bought a house together with another married couple and they are raising their children in one house. The nuclear family did not evolve as a vision until the wealth of the middle class made it possible. Certainly Leah and Rachel could not afford it. It will be interesting to see how we will live together in the future.

* * *

1 Kings 3:5-12
Oh for the wisdom of Solomon. I find it discomforting that no one will ever be as smart as Solomon. In the wake of the tragic billionaire submarine exploration of the Titanic and Elon Musk’s seemingly never-ending takeover of Twitter, one would hope that such energy might instead be put toward more important matters like climate change. The good news here is that there is wisdom to be had, and God has it. Though an individual cannot have the wisdom of Solomon, perhaps we can do better in concert and community with one another. AIDS is being successfully treated in parts of Africa. New UTI vaccine just rolled out in the UK and there is a new RSV vaccine for older adults and for babies. All of this good news means that we can work together toward better health and community, and with God’s help, wisdom.


* * * * * *

From team member Chris Keating:

Genesis 29:15-28
Shabbat in Barbie Land
Last weekend’s premier of “Barbie” immersed theaters in a sea of pink while lining the pockets of its producers with green. With more than $155 million in weekend ticket sales “Barbie” brought Americans into movie theaters — and offered them a colorfully coated dose of feminism and faith.

Critics note that director Greta Gerwig offers audiences a nuanced perspective on Barbie’s cultural impact. A reviewer for the Jesuit publication America said Gerwig “makes a movie as layered and paradoxical as the reputation of the doll itself,” while offering a close up view of Barbie’s iconoclastic feminism. As Dean Feldmeyer notes in his article, “Barbie” evokes echoes of powerful Biblical women like Rachel and Leah.

The reason for that might be Gerwig’s experiences of Judaism as a child. She told The New York Times that she wanted people watching the movie to “feel like I did at Shabbat dinner.” Gerwig is not Jewish, but had close family friends who were observant Jews. She recalls spending Shabbat dinners with them on Friday evenings. Her experiences were as influential as Jacob’s encounter with his uncle Laban — though more transparent. The Jewish Chronicle picks up the theological significance of Gerwig’s childhood encounters:

“Whatever your wins and losses were for the week, whatever you did or didn’t do, when you come to this table, your value has nothing to do with that,” her friend’s father told her over Shabbat dinners. The director describes how moved she was by the experience, saying: “You are a child of God. I put my hand over you, and I bless you as a child of God at this table. And that’s your value.”

* * *

Romans 8:26-39
When we do not know how to pray
Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukraine have left many Ukrainian Orthodox Christians wondering how to pray. Nearly all Orthodox churches in Eastern Ukraine are tied to the Russia orthodox Moscow Patriarchate, notes the Christian Science Monitor. Their regular liturgies include imprecations to pray for the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. As it happens that is Patriarch Kirill, an unabashed supporter of Vladimir Putin.

Recently, a reporter for the Monitor caught up with a Ukrainian soldier who attended worship dressed in camouflage fatigues and mud-soaked boots. The soldier “embodies the challenges and questions faced by this community of believers,” especially as Putin calls for the annihilation of an independent Ukraine. “I was coming with the same question to the priest,” the soldier says, when asked about praying for Patriarch Kirill. He was told that so far the synod has yet to officially change the long tradition of praying for its leaders.

* * *

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
A surprising greatness
The kingdom of God is like…a Parisian micro version of the famed African Cup of Nations soccer tournament. The 2019 Coupe d’Afrique was so popular among immigrant groups in Paris that it has spawned several smaller tournaments. Like Jesus’ references to surprising growth emerging from common things like tiny seeds, yeast, and fishing nets tossed in the sea, these tournaments have exceeded expectations. As The New York Times notes, they have become a “continental competition, all in one neighborhood.”

These versions are different from global soccer tournaments in many ways. Instead of large stadiums, they are held in small fenced courts in an immigrant neighborhood, a place where “African wax stores and tailors for boubous compete with boulangeries and bistros among the crowded streets.”

In 2019, the organizer wasn’t planning on a sophisticated competition. Instead, he was trying to find a way to help friends endure Ramadan during a hot summer in Paris. He and his friends chose an urban mini court in the shadows of Paris’ Gare du Nord, the busiest train station in Europe which is located in an impoverished neighborhood. As the Times notes:

It offers a very different atmosphere than the marble statues and the manicured flower beds of the Tuileries and Luxembourg gardens. On game nights, the park, Square Léon, is buzzing with older men crowded around checker tables, little kids clambering up playground equipment and older women in West African dresses selling bags of homemade doughnuts and slushy ginger drinks that both tickle and soothe the throat.


* * * * * *

From team member Quantisha Mason-Doll:

Genesis 12:1-9
Will you go?
Very rarely do we hear the voice of the Lord clearly, yet when we do the voice of the Lord is loud and demanding. Do you recall the first time the Lord called you by name and commanded you to throw caution to the wind and leave. Taking a leap of faith is never an easy task. Abram showed what that leap looked like when he heard the voice of the Lord telling him to leave his country, his people, and the safety of his father’s house and trust only in a promise spoken. Taking hope with both hands and going forth with trust in their hearts.  How often do we fear taking the next steps just because we are worried that a promise or a blessing will not catch us if we fall? Abram, our progenitor, most definitely was afraid, yet he went. How about you? Will you go?

* * *

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Hope can be a monster if you let it
Hope is beautiful but it can also be tragic if you let it be. Matthew offers two stories where Jesus encounters two different women that held onto their hope and refused to fall into despair. Humanity was graced with the privilege to perceive and interpret the beauty that is God’s creation and with that comes the reality that we can feel pain. Jesus does not heal the sick woman; she takes her healing for herself. The same goes for the man who demands Jesus comes and heal his daughter. In both cases these people have hit rock bottom. A father who has lost a child and woman who has given everything to be made whole. What both of these two have in common is that they did not let their hope for a miracle turn them into monsters. In both cases their hope drives them to do radical things. Their hope makes them take risks. It makes them do something that is far outside of their comfort zone, but their hope also keeps them grounded. They see how hopeless their causes are, yet they still hold firm to the smallest thread that things have to get better. They trust in hope, yet they do not allow hope to blind them.

* * * 

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Risk it
The bleeding woman is an important archetype for us as modern readers. Here is a woman that embodies hope beyond hope. She tells herself that she has nothing left to lose, thus she is willing to risk the ire of the Lord if it means she can be healed. The bleeding woman demands that you take the risk. What’s the worst that can happen? Someone gets angry because you took what you have been seeking for a long time? How often do we ask kindly for things to be done only for our struggles to be overlooked? Taking risks don’t always work out in your favor yet it is far worse if you do nothing at all.




* * * * * *

WORSHIP
by George Reed

Call to Worship
One: O give thanks to God, call on God’s name.
All: Let us make known God’s deeds among the peoples.
One: Sing to God, sing praises and tell of all God’s wonderful works.
All: Let the hearts of those who seek our God rejoice.
One: Seek God’s strength and presence continually.
All: We will remember the wonderful works of our God.

OR

One: Your decrees, O God, are wonderful; therefore we keep them.
All: The unfolding of your words gives light and imparts understanding.
One: Turn to me and be gracious to us who love your name.
All: Keep our steps steady according to your promise.
One: Redeem us that we may keep your precepts.
All: Make your face shine upon us and teach us your statutes.

OR

One: The God who created all that is comes among us today.
All: We rejoice in God’s presence and offer our praise.      
One: God comes to redeem us and all that God created.
All: We open our hearts and lives to God’s saving grace.       
One: Through us God desires to touch the lives of others.
All: We will open our lives so that God’s grace flows freely to all.

Hymns and Songs
How Great Thou Art
UMH: 77
PH: 467
GTG: 625
AAHH: 148
NNBH: 43
NCH: 35
CH: 33
LBW: 532
ELW: 856
W&P: 51
AMEC: 68
Renew: 250

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
GTG: 12
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELW: 834
W&P: 48
AMEC: 71
STLT: 273
Renew: 46

God of the Sparrow God of the Whale
UMH: 122
PH: 272
GTG: 22
NCH: 32
CH: 70
ELW: 740
W&P: 29

This Is My Father’s World
UMH: 144
H82: 651
PH: 293
GTG: 370
AAHH: 149
NNBH: 41
CH: 59
LBW: 554
ELW: 824
W&P: 21
AMEC: 47

I Love to Tell the Story
UMH: 156
GTG: 462
AAHH: 513
NNBH: 424
NCH: 522
CH: 480
LBW: 390
ELW: 661
W&P: 560
AMEC: 217

Word of God, Come Down on Earth
UMH: 182
H82: 633
ELW: 510

Filled with the Spirit’s Power
UMH: 537
NCH: 266
LBW: 160
W&P: 331

Wonderful Words of Life
UMH: 600
AAHH: 332
NNBH: 293
NCH: 319
CH: 323
W&P: 668
AMEC: 207

Thy Word Is a Lamp
UMH: 601
GTG: 458
CH: 326
W&P: 664
Renew: 94

I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord
UMH: 540
H82: 524
PH: 441
GTG: 310
NNBH: 302
NCH: 312
CH: 274
LBW: 368
W&P: 549
AMEC: 515/517

We Are His Hands
CCB: 85

I Call You Faithful
CCB: 70

Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The 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
ELW: 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 created this world which reflects your image:
Grant us the grace to live in this world in such a way
that your loving kindness shines through us always;
through Jesus Christ our Savior.  Amen.

OR

We praise you, O God, for you created this world to reflect your image. In things great and small your Spirit is present. Help us to live in such a way that your loving kindness always shines through us into the lives of those around us. Amen.

Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to live as your presence in this world.

All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You made us in your image and likeness and filled us with your own Spirit but we have failed to make your presence known. Instead of looking for ways to share your grace and mercy with others we seek to grasp all things for ourselves. We have failed you, we have failed others, and we have failed ourselves. We have been disciples of Jesus in name only. Forgive us and renew your Spirit within us that we may truly be your children and faithful disciples of the Christ. Amen.

One: God is constantly seeking to draw all people into life eternal. Receive God’s grace and share God’s life with all.

Prayers of the People
Praised and glorious is your Name, O God who dwells in the midst of your creation. Your presence is reflected in all your works. 

(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. You made us in your image and likeness and filled us with your own Spirit but we have failed to make your presence known. Instead of looking for ways to share your grace and mercy with others we seek to grasp all things for ourselves. We have failed you, we have failed others, and we have failed ourselves. We have been disciples of Jesus in name only. Forgive us and renew your Spirit within us that we may truly be your children and faithful disciples of the Christ.

We give you thanks for all the ways you make your presence known to us. We thank you for the beauty of all that you have created and we thank you for the love shared by your children. We thank you for the bounty of the earth as it nurtures and sustains us. We thank you for Jesus who taught us how to love you and one another. We thank you for your Spirit that dwells within us and among us. 

(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)

We pray for all your children in their need and for all of your creation. We lift into your healing presence those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit. We pray for those who work to alleviate suffering and injustice in your world. We lift up to you these who are on our hearts today:  

(Other intercessions may be offered.)

All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray 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
The Kingdom of Heaven
by Elena Delhagen
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Objects: A box or non-transparent container with nothing inside of it; a small seed; a piece of bread; a coin; a toy or stuffed fish.

Good morning! Today, I want to share something really important with you. It’s so important I brought it along in this special container. (Hold up the box/container.) Do you want to see what’s inside? You’re never going to believe it! Are you ready?

(Open the box and let kids react to seeing nothing inside.)

Isn’t it beautiful?!

Hmm... Wait a minute. I guess you can’t see the thing I wanted to show you. Okay, let me try something different. I’m going to describe it to you and then see if you can guess what it is. Are you ready?

This important thing is something that everybody needs — even animals and plants! It’s not heavy at all. It is all around us, even in the box, and it’s even inside us! Can you guess what it is?

That’s right! I’m talking about air. Air is pretty important, don’t you think? Even though you couldn’t see it, once I started describing it to you, you knew what it was, right? Well, one day, when Jesus was teaching, he was trying to explain what the kingdom of heaven was like. And people were very confused because they couldn’t see heaven, so they were having a hard time understanding. So Jesus started describing heaven to them to help them understand. His descriptions of the kingdom of heaven are known as parables, and they helped the people to imagine what heaven is like.

(Hold up a seed.)

First, he said that the kingdom of heaven may start small, like this little seed, but it grows to become really big, just like this seed will turn into a plant!

(Hold up a piece of bread.)

Jesus also said the kingdom of heaven is like yeast. Yeast is a special ingredient we put in bread to make it puff up! So, Jesus was saying that if we add even a little bit of the kingdom of heaven to something, it can have really big effects, just like a little bit of yeast has a big effect on the loaf of bread!

(Hold up a coin.)

Then Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is valuable. In fact, it’s so valuable and worth so much that people will do just about anything, even selling everything they have, to get it!

(Hold up a toy or stuffed fish.)

Lastly, Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is full of good things, like a fisherman who caught a great big net of lots of yummy fish! And even if there’s one or two bad fish in the net, they still can’t ruin it all because heaven is just soooo good!

Pretty amazing, right?

And guess what? Just like air is really important and we don’t keep it for ourselves because we know everyone needs it to live, it’s the same with the kingdom of heaven. Living like God wants us to is so good and so important that we should share it with everyone. Do you think you can do that? (Let children respond.)

Let’s pray...

Dear Jesus, thank you for teaching us about what the kingdom of God is like. Thank you that life with you is big and valuable and good. Help us share that good news with others. Amen.


* * * * * * * * * * * * *


The Immediate Word, July 30, 2023 issue.

Copyright 2023 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.