Souvenirs from a Faith Journey
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For August 4, 2024:
Souvenirs from a Faith Journey
by Dean Feldmeyer
Ephesians 4:1-16
The circuitous route to an owned religious faith is becoming the normative process in America. Sometimes it leads to a well-considered, mature belief system, but more often, as is the case of nearly 40 million Americans today, it leads to the rejection of all organized religion. Some of those “de-churched” Americans become atheists, others become part of that vast number who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”
For others the journey leads to something that may call itself Christianity but is actually a theological hodgepodge of different religions. Nowhere is this as evident as in the religious lives those currently running for the highest offices in the land.
In a 2020 written interview by the Religion Press, wherein the questions were both asked and answered by President Trump’s staff and approved by him, he claims to have been raised a Presbyterian but now considers himself a “non-denominational Christian” who has visited lots of churches but attends none. He says he believes in God and refers to this belief when talking about his recovery from Covid and, lately, his narrow escape from an assassin’s attempt on his life — both of which he attributes to divine providence.
A more recent article published by the Religion Press pointed out that J.D. Vance, the Republican nominee for Vice President, is “a Protestant turned atheist who married a Hindu woman before converting to Catholicism in 2019.” At the Republican National Convention, his wife Usha Vance spoke of how her husband adapted to her family’s vegetarian diet. He spoke of how she has made his Catholic faith stronger.
The amalgamation of religious belief was evident not just at the private but at the public level as well when the Republican party, the vast majority of whom identify as conservative, Evangelical Christians invited Harmeet Kaur Dhillon, a Republican National Committee member from North Carolina to offer a Sikh prayer at an RNC gathering. While her presence on the dais was not universally well received by the delegates, this was not the first time nor was she the first Sikh to offer such a prayer.
The same Religion News Service article points out that the same religious phenomenon is equally evident in the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris.
“Harris would be the first Black woman to be nominated by a major party for president and the first South Asian. She also has a diverse personal religious and spiritual history that is now far more representative of America’s multi-faith makeup.
“Raised Hindu by her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a native of Chennai, India, she was often taken as a girl to 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland, California, by her neighbor, Regina Shelton, along with Harris’ sister, Maya. As an adult, Harris joined a Black Baptist church — Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, led by the Rev. Amos Brown.
“Meanwhile, the man who became Harris’ husband, Los Angeles lawyer, Douglas Emhoff, grew up in New Jersey attending a Reform synagogue.
“Harris’ faith connections have frequently played themselves out in her past four years in office as the Second Couple inaugurated a tradition of lighting Hanukkah candles at their residence, as well as celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.”
Harris’s religious biography, the article explains, will be not only history-making but will connect her to how many Americans practice and encounter faith.
Anthea Butler, a professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania, reminds us that Kamala Harris “represents a lot of Americans’ religious story, because here’s the thing: Nobody grows up in a straight line with religion in America anymore.” Few younger Americans, Butler says, have only one religious lineage that they carry on from their parents. Increasingly, Americans choose a different religious identity for themselves and may change course again as they intermarry and interact with, and support, a partner of a different faith.
Brian Pennington, director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society at Elon University in North Carolina, and an expert on South Asian religion, said students in his courses who come from one religious tradition are becoming rare. “These days, they have multiple influences that inform their spiritual ideas and identities,” said Pennington. Harris “speaks about these multiple influences so comfortably and seamlessly as if they’re all just part of her story that informs who she is. It’s not at all hard to imagine that her personal religious and spiritual history would speak to younger Americans who demographically have much more experience of this kind of religious diversity in their families and backgrounds than older Americans.”
The citizens of the ancient city of Ephesus would not have been unfamiliar with a religious environment such as we are now experiencing in the modern USA.
In the Scripture
In the first century, the city of Ephesus was a bustling, thriving metropolis, the Roman capital of Asia Minor, a center for trade and a destination for Roman, Jewish, and pagan religious festivals.
Most scholars agree that in the Christian community there was also a large one consisting mostly of gentile converts with some Jewish Christians who came as refugees from the Jewish/Roman war of 66-73 CE.
There is some scholastic controversy over authorship, with some scholars believing the letter to be authentically Pauline, written by the apostle at the end of his life as a reflection upon his theological development and his ministry, which would put the date at 58-59 CE.
Others believe that it was written in the Pauline style by Christian believers, probably students and followers of Paul, as a tribute to the apostle and a summary of his thoughts intended to preserve and apply his teachings, a common practice in that time and place. These scholars put the dates of the letter at about 85-90 CE, roughly the same time that the gospels of Matthew and Luke were being written.
Regardless of who actually wrote the letter, it is genuinely Pauline in its theology that, here, is broadened and expanded from that which was originally written to individual churches in regard to specific issues in those settings. In Ephesians, the author deals with God’s intention not just for this or that Christian community, but for all of creation.
God’s primary intention is not solely the reconciliation between Jewish and Gentile Christians. That, the letter makes clear, has already been accomplished by the life, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. Of greater importance is God’s final purpose, the unity and harmony of the whole universe that the Lord will accomplish through the ministries of the church with Christ as its head.
Unity and harmony, first within the church and then throughout the world, is the identified goal, here.
So, in today’s pericope, we hear the author repeating a call for unity: One body. One Spirit. One hope. One Lord. One faith. One baptism. One God and Father of all who is above all and in all.
One. One. One. All. All. All.
First in the church, then the world, and finally, in the entire cosmos.
How are we, the church, to be active agents in accomplishing this unity? Shall we raise an army and institute a new, modern version of the Pax Romana, the Roman peace that was created, enforced, and preserved through the power of violence and repression? Shall we use political power to take control of the government so we can create laws that force people to live as we see fit? Shall we use more eloquent speeches, more convincing arguments, more popular ideas to convince people to worship as we worship and believe what we believe?
No. The author of Ephesians commends none of these to the early church in Ephesus nor the twenty-first-century church in America.
Listen to the letter: “I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
In the Sermon
What is the church to do? How do we address contemporary un-churched and de-churched people? How do we share the good news of God’s grace and the fullness of God’s love?
For many travelers on the journey of faith development, the souvenirs that they accumulate tend to lead them into what Christian Smith and Melinda Denton describe in their book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers as “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” (Oxford University Press, 2005)
This amalgam of “spiritual but not religious” beliefs, based on interviews with 3,000 sixteen to twenty-year-olds (now 36- to 40-year-olds), is often referred to as America’s cultural religion. It rejects all organized religion but tends to hold to five basic, informal tenets.
But that doesn’t relieve us from our responsibility as Christians to share with them the good news of God’s grace as it comes to us in Jesus Christ. What it does require of us is that we blanket that sharing with all those attributes that the author of the Ephesian epistle commends to the Christians, there.
Humility. Gentleness. Patience. Love.
“They may forget what you said,” said the eminent Mormon scholar, Carl W. Buehner, “But they will never forget how you made them feel.”
The first step in the task of evangelism is that of being a friend. Making people feel loved, affirmed, accepted, and valued is the most powerful way we share God’s grace.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Sufficiency
by Katy Stenta
John 6:24-35, Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15
Jesus says that whoever comes to him will never hunger or thirst. Jesus promises to be sufficient bread. Just like in Exodus, Jesus promises to be enough. Although we love to wax on about the abundance of God, God’s abundance is about having enough for everyone, not giving the same to everyone. I like to say that blessings are not pie—Governor Tim Walz from Minnesota says that human rights are not pie, there is enough to go around.
As communities organize around the election for Kamala Harris — answering the call from Win with Black Women for Kamala Harris (the most recent organization being White Dudes for Harris) there has been some question about why compartmentalize in this way? Is this promoting racism? The answer is that different groups need to hear, do, and organize differently. The individual calls do the opposite of dividing people, but actually bring people together, allowing them to be heard before they come together as a whole. “Watts pointed to the fact that calls had organically emerged over the week among many groups as evidence of a need for diversity, inclusivity, and boundary-breaking beyond individual identity groups.” This kind of strategy for community organizing is tried and.
True. Different people need different diets to survive and thrive. We as a society are learning more and more that it is not one size fits all. What is healthy for one may not be the best for another. It is part of why children with different learning styles get IEP’s — individualized learning plans — ideally designed to fit their own style of learning. (In fact, each child would probably benefit from an IEP.) Perhaps this is how God is both bountiful and sufficient. Like the song says, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.”Though people will grumble about sufficient food sources, like the Hebrew people, what we need is different than what we want. But here’s a caveat: We should know that what Jesus provides to groups that have been historically deprived and mistreated may be different and/or more than groups that have been privileged. Sufficiency may look different in different contexts. Part of being in community is building the trust that everyone will take/give what is needed and that God knows what we truly need. Jesus is the bread of life, sufficient for our needs, and human rights and blessings are not pie. Amen.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Ephesians 4:1-16
Truth in Children’s Books
Author Kate DiCamillo, who writes books for children that are also loved by adults, says that the best children’s books contain a look at the truth, instead of shielding children from the reality of life. In essence, great books “speak the truth in love,” as Paul urges.
DiCamillo says, “My favorite lines of Charlotte’s Web, the lines that always make me cry, are toward the end of the book. They go like this: ‘These autumn days will shorten and grow cold. The leaves will shake loose from the trees and fall. Christmas will come, then the snows of winter. You will live to enjoy the beauty of the frozen world, for you mean a great deal to Zuckerman and he will not harm you, ever. Winter will pass, the days will lengthen, the ice will melt in the pasture pond. The song sparrow will return and sing, the frogs will awake, the warm wind will blow again. All these sights and sounds and smells will be yours to enjoy, Wilbur — this lovely world, these precious days …’
DiCamillo says, “I have tried for a long time to figure out how E. B. White did what he did, how he told the truth and made it bearable…. the only answer I could come up with was love. E. B. White loved the world. And in loving the world, he told the truth about it — its sorrow, its heartbreak, its devastating beauty. He trusted his readers enough to tell them the truth, and with that truth came comfort and a feeling that we are not alone.”
Love and truth belong together in mysterious ways, as Paul points out to us.
* * *
Ephesians 4:1-16
Speaking the Truth in Art
The letter to the Ephesians contains the well-known call to “speak the truth in love.” It’s a hard balance to find — we often get more truth than love, or, out of love, we hold back the truth.
There’s a similar balance in any kind of art. Sharone Salzburg calls us to the words of Lynn Nottage, who says, “Great art comes from the truth. There’s a difference between a piece of art that is impeccably crafted because the artists are skilled technicians — the work may be beautiful but somehow it doesn’t move you — and a piece of art where the lines may be a little sloppy but there is an undeniable truth reflected back. It becomes great art not because it is perfect but because the artist has successfully conveyed their own truth.” (from Real Change: Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World)
The letter to the Ephesians calls us to be artists of both truth and love.
* * *
John 6:24-35
Go Where the Bread Is
Anne Lamott says she went to church one Sunday and ended up being cranky. “The service was way long, and boring, and only three people had shown up for the choir, and the song they sang sucked. There was a disruptive baby who had about three hours of neck control but was already spoiling everything for the rest of us. I sat with a look of grim munificence, like so many of your better Christians, exuding mental toxins into the atmosphere. I decided that this church was deteriorating. I had come for a spiritual booster shot and instead got aggravation. I was going to leave, and never come back.
“Then something amazing happened. I would call it grace, but then, I'm easy. It was that deeper breath, or pause, or briefly cleaner glasses, that gives us a bit of freedom and relief. I remembered my secular father's only strong spiritual directive: Don't be an asshole, and make sure everybody eats.”
The pastor said, “I'm only a beggar, showing the other beggars where the bread is.” Lamott adds, “There are many kinds of bread: kindness, companionship, besides the flour-and-yeast kind...I realized I was going to get through this disappointing service, and anyway, you have to be somewhere: better here, where I have heard truth spoken so often, than, say, at the DMV, or home alone, orbiting my own mind. And it's good to be out where others can see you, so you can't be your ghastly, spoiled self. It forces you to act slightly more elegantly, and this improves your thoughts, and thereby the world.”
There was bread, after all, when she wasn’t expecting any — much like the crowd around Jesus.
* * *
John 6:24-35
Bread of Life
“I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry,” Jesus proclaims, and he comes as the bread of life in the form that hungry people most need.
Inventive parents, trying to feed hungry kids, also serve up what the child needs. In the book Weird Parenting Wins, author Hillary Frank quotes a person who says, “When I was a toddler, I was an extremely picky eater. The one thing I would eat enthusiastically? McDonald’s Happy Meals. Both of my parents worked full-time, so I was often fed by a nanny who indulged my fast-food habit, likely exhausted by the prospect of trying to get me to eat anything else. My mother devised a genius plan to trick me into eating greens, fruit, and meat that had not been breaded and fried. She went to McDonald’s and asked if she could take some empty bags, cups, and napkins. She then placed all of my meals inside McDonald’s-branded packaging. Steamed string beans? McDonald’s makes those now! Tuna fish sandwiches on wheat bread? That’s part of the newest Happy Meal! By the time I was wise enough to catch on to her scheme, I had developed a palate for more than fries and chicken nuggets.”
Jesus, the bread of life, offers us an even deeper joy in the sustenance he provides.
* * * * * *
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15 cf. Numbers 11:16-20
The wanderers have a poor memory. While they had good reason to be afraid of starving in the wilderness, they hardly sat around flesh pots in Egypt when they were slaves. Earlier they had gotten snippy at Moses and asked whether there were not enough graves in Egypt for them that Moses had brought them out to the wilderness to die (Exodus 14:11). Now, just two chapters later, they’re carping at Moses again.
Their grumbling reached its zenith, one could argue, in Numbers 11. In that story, the people were grumbling again, and this time “the Lord’s anger was kindled.” Moses was pretty steamed, too. The people weren’t even starving, they were just tired of eating manna every day. Moses is angry enough to die, stuck between the people’s complaining and God not coming through with a more varied diet. “Hey, Big Guy, put me out of my misery, already!” Moses reasons with the Master of the Universe. This time, the Lord comes through. Big time. Major, mega big time. God Almighty caters a quail buffet the likes of which mortal humanity has never seen! You want meat, I’ll give you meat!”
Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall eat not only one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you — because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” (Numbers 11:18b-20, NRSV)
That’s one of my all-time favorite passages, not just because it includes “loathsome.”
* * *
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Bathsheba and the story around her
Bathsheba is not named in today’s lectionary reading. Her name only appears in 2 Samuel 11:3. She was not on the roof bathing; David was on the roof of his palace looking down from on high when he spotted her and summoned her to the castle and raped her. Leonard Cohen got it wrong in his classic “Alleluia.”
Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, was a loyal, faithful soldier and husband. It is David who behaves despicably in this story. Everyone else, Bathsheba, Uriah, and Nathan are true and faithful. This makes the contrast all the starker, and David’s sin all the greater because he is the one with the most power and authority.
David, looking back to chapter eleven’s start, doesn’t even go out to battles in the spring as kings were expected to do. He’s back in the palace noshing bon bons and spying on comely women.
It is telling that David fasted and lay on the ground while the child he’d conceived with Bathsheba was alive. The palace’s staff was concerned about his not eating. As soon as he heard the child had died, he got up, washed, anointed himself, and changed clothes. “Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and the child may live.” The King of Nineveh asked the same rhetorical question after hearing Jonah’s message (Jonah 3:9). This repentance thing is worth a shot, right? In modern times one might say, “Where there’s like, there’s hope.”
* * *
Psalm 51:1-12
Psalm of repentance
Tradition has it that David wrote Psalm 51 after recognizing the depth of his sin after raping Bathsheba. In the superscript of the NRSV it even says, “A psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone into Bathsheba.” While scholars dispute this origin story, there is no question that this is a powerful statement of contrition and repentance. Many Christians use Psalm 51 as their Lenten devotional text. It’s most powerful, evocative phrase, in my opinion, is verse 17, outside today’s lection:
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
* * *
Ephesians 4:1-16
Unity and variety
Today’s reading from Ephesians is included in the liturgy I use for baptisms, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in all.” Since it’s common for people to say things like, “I was baptized Methodist, but grew up Lutheran,” it’s helpful to remind worshipers that baptism is the most unifying sacrament Christians have. There is only one of them. There is only Christian, though it can happen in any church. One can only be baptized once. There is division, however, around this unifying sacrament. Some Christians believe that baptism can only “count” if one can assent to it as a believer.
When Mark Twain was asked whether he believed in infant baptism, he replied, “Hell, I’ve seen it!”
My tribe, the Presbyterian Church (USA), does not rebaptize people. Even if they were baptized as infants, we trust that the Holy Spirit was present whenever baptism happened. To do otherwise would be immodest and arrogant. Our humility and modesty make us the best denomination, by far. (See what I did there?)
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: Have mercy on us, O God, according to your steadfast love.
All: According to your abundant mercy blot out our transgressions.
One: Hide your face from our sins, and blot out all our iniquities.
All: Create in us a clean heart and put a new and right spirit within us.
One: Do not cast us away from your presence or take your holy spirit from us
All: Restore to us the joy of your salvation, and sustain in us a willing spirit.
OR
One: God who created us all comes to dwell with us.
All: Come, O Creator, and bless us with your presence.
One: Christ comes to gather in the world he died to save.
All: With respect for all we will share Christ with others.
One: The Spirit who hovered over creation comes to embrace us.
All: We will allow the Spirit to fill us so that love overflows.
Hymns and Songs
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
All People That on Earth Do Dwell
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
GTG: 385
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELW: 883
W&P: 661
AMEC: 73
STLT: 370
Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart
UMH: 160/161
H82: 556/557
PH: 145/146
GTG: 804
AAHH: 537
NNBH: 7
NCH: 55/71
CH: 15
LBW: 5553
ELW: 873/874
W&P: 113
AMEC: 8
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
GTG: 734
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
Ye Servants of God
UMH: 181
H82: 535
PH: 477
GTG: 299
NCH: 305
CH: 110
LBW: 252
W&P: 112
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
GTG: 366
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELW: 631
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
Standing on the Promises
UMH: 374
GTG: 838
AAHH: 373
NNBH: 257
CH: 552
AMEC: 424
Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Here, O Our Lord, We See You
UMH: 623
H82: 318
PH: 520
GTG: 517
NCH: 336
CH: 416
LBW: 211
AMEC: 531
One Bread, One Body
UMH: 620
GTG: 530
CH: 393
ELW: 496
W&P: 689
CCB: 49
For the Bread Which You Have Broken
UMH: 614/615
H82: 340/341
PH: 508/509
GTG: 516
CH: 411
LBW: 200
ELW: 494
Take Our Bread
CCB: 50
Emmanuel, Emmanuel
CCB: 31
Renew: 28
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 dwells within all of your vast creation:
Grant us the wisdom to welcome all as your children
as we share with them our walk with Jesus;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you dwell with us through all of your great creation. Help us the welcome others who may understand you differently than we do so that we can learn from them and share with them our journey with Jesus. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we shut out those who are different from us.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have been too judgmental of other people because they do not talk about you in the same words we use. Instead of opening ourselves to them in your love, we pushed them away. We have lost opportunities to share our love of you with them because we have not acted in love. Forgive us and renew your love in us so that we can truly share Jesus with others. Amen.
One: The God who created us all welcomes all of us into the eternal love. Receive God’s welcome and share that welcome with all your siblings.
Prayers of the People
Praised and glorious are you, O God of all creation. You brought all into being through your Word and with your Word you fill all you have made.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have been too judgmental of other people because they do not talk about you in the same words we use. Instead of opening ourselves to them in your love, we pushed them away. We have lost opportunities to share our love of you with them because we have not acted in love. Forgive us and renew your love in us so that we can truly share Jesus with others.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have shared your love with us and all of your creation. We thank you for the insights others have of you and the way you are present to us. We thank you for those have shared with us their experiences of you which have opened us to knowing you in new ways.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who have been excluded and shunned because their experience of you differs from others. We pray for those who suffer hatred and prejudice because they speak your name differently.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
Hear us as we pray for others: (Time for silent or spoken prayer.)
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
I’m So Hungry (A Car Seat Sermon)
by Chris
Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15
(Here’s a short story that you might be able to use as a children’s sermon this week. You can even send this to children and families who may be out of town this week as a reminder to take God with them on summer vacation!)
There was just something about sitting in the back seat that always made Isabella hungry. Sitting in her booster seat, Isabella kept her eyes focused on the farms they were passing. Her mom told her to watch for cows. But when she saw the cows, all she could think about was milk shakes. And milk shakes made her think about French fries. And French fries made her hungry again. “Dumb cows,” Isabella grumbled.
She tried to watch a show on her tablet. But the kids in the show were having a birthday party. And parties made Isabella think about pizza. And thinking about pizza reminded her that she was hungry.
“Momma!” she cried. “I’m hungry. When are we stopping for lunch?”
Her big brother Patrick rolled his eyes at Isabella. “Dude,” he said, “chill. We just had breakfast at the hotel.”
Isabella screwed up her face at Patrick, shooting him a look that told him to stay out of this. She wanted to tell him to “shut up,” but she knew that would only make her parents mad and probably ruin any chance of getting them to stop. Instead, she made a pitiful sounding whimper. She had once read a book about children whose families did not have enough money to buy groceries. She tried to sound the way a hungry child might feel, and then tried moaning the way she thought they might cry. “Momma…PLEASE! I’m gonna starve!”
This time it was her father who rolled his eyes. Her mother turned around and said, “Patrick’s right, sweetie. It’s just 10:30. Besides, this morning at the hotel you ate a waffle, Fruit Loops, and a bagel.”
“Plus, some bacon you stole from my plate,” said Patrick.
“But that was soooo long ago. Now I’m hungry again,” said Isabella.
“How about I tell you a story about some people who were really hungry,” her mom said. Isabella’s mom was a pastor. She was always telling stories. She would tell stories in her sermons, over dinner, after dinner, or when walking the dog. Patrick would sometimes joke that she would stop people at the store just so she could tell them a story. And even though they were on vacation, Isabella knew this story was going to have something to do with God.
Patrick reached for his ear buds “Yay,” he said. “Just what we need: another ‘car seat sermon’ from Pastor Mom.”
But mom interrupted him before he could start his music. “This is a good story,” she said, “so pay attention.” She knew that even though Isabella and her brother complained about her stories, they looked forward to them.
“This is a story about Moses and the people of Israel. After Pharaoh had let them go, they crossed the Red Sea, believing that God was leading them to the promised land. But their trip took longer than they expected.”
“You mean longer than it takes to go to the beach?” said Isabella.
“Yes,” their mom said. “It took years. MANY years.” She looked up at the visor mirror to see Isabella shudder. “Goodness,” said Isabella, shaking her head.
“And they did not have cars to ride in, or hotels with swimming pools. They were not even completely sure where they were going. Every day they kept walking through the big empty desert. They got hot, and sweaty. And they were really, really hungry.”
“They got so hungry that some of the people started to whine.”
“Like me?” said “Isabella.
“Yes,” their mom laughed, “like you. But their whining was even worse.”
“That’s not possible,” said Patrick, who had pulled a pillow over his head.
Their mom continued. “They found Moses and told him, ‘We’re hungry! Give us something to eat, or else!’ But Moses looked at them and said, ‘Or else, what?’ Instead of complaining to me, why don’t you go and talk with God? God has always helped us, and I know that God will help us now.’”
“Then the Lord said to Moses. ‘Listen, I am going to make it rain bread.’”
“Whoa!” said Isabella “RAIN bread? That sounds gross.”
“Yes,” said mom. “God said that, and that’s what happened. Every morning, God sent bread to the people from heaven. That first day, the people looked out of their tents. They saw what looked like dew falling on the ground. Soon that dew turned to a frost-like stuff that was all over the ground. But when the sun came out, they saw that it was not frost. It was flaky,” she said.
“Just like Izzie,” giggled Patrick.
“Stop it, Patrick. This was unlike anything thing they had ever seen. The people who had complained looked at each other and said, ‘What is it?’ Moses said, ‘This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat, just as he promised.’ So, they called the flakes ‘Manna,’ which in Hebrew means, ‘What is it?’ When the people were hungry, God provided just what they needed.”
“You see, Izzie,” said mom, “God is always looking out for us. God always provides whatever we need.”
Just then Dad pointed to a billboard and said, “Hey, look at that!”
“What is it?” Izzie and Patrick said together, which caused everyone to laugh.
Dad said, “It’s a sign for Flaky’s BBQ Restaurant. It’s just down the road…who’s ready for lunch?”
“I guess God really does provide,” said Isabella.
“Yeah,” said Patrick. “And maybe God will provide you with a nap after lunch!”
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 4, 2024 issue.
Copyright 2024 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.
- Souvenirs from a Faith Journey by Dean Feldmeyer. A piece of Hinduism, a chunk of Evangelical Christianity, a little bit of Buddhism, some Native American spirituality, and two bits of New Age mumbo jumbo. People on a contemporary faith journey tend to visit many places and pick up souvenirs as they go.
- Second Thoughts: Sufficiency by Katy Stenta based on John 6:24-35 and Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15.
- Sermon illustrations by Mary Austin and Tom Willadsen.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children's sermon: I’m So Hungry (A Car Seat Sermon) by Chris Keating. God provides manna for the people, and God provides for us.
Souvenirs from a Faith Journeyby Dean Feldmeyer
Ephesians 4:1-16
The circuitous route to an owned religious faith is becoming the normative process in America. Sometimes it leads to a well-considered, mature belief system, but more often, as is the case of nearly 40 million Americans today, it leads to the rejection of all organized religion. Some of those “de-churched” Americans become atheists, others become part of that vast number who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”
For others the journey leads to something that may call itself Christianity but is actually a theological hodgepodge of different religions. Nowhere is this as evident as in the religious lives those currently running for the highest offices in the land.
In a 2020 written interview by the Religion Press, wherein the questions were both asked and answered by President Trump’s staff and approved by him, he claims to have been raised a Presbyterian but now considers himself a “non-denominational Christian” who has visited lots of churches but attends none. He says he believes in God and refers to this belief when talking about his recovery from Covid and, lately, his narrow escape from an assassin’s attempt on his life — both of which he attributes to divine providence.
A more recent article published by the Religion Press pointed out that J.D. Vance, the Republican nominee for Vice President, is “a Protestant turned atheist who married a Hindu woman before converting to Catholicism in 2019.” At the Republican National Convention, his wife Usha Vance spoke of how her husband adapted to her family’s vegetarian diet. He spoke of how she has made his Catholic faith stronger.
The amalgamation of religious belief was evident not just at the private but at the public level as well when the Republican party, the vast majority of whom identify as conservative, Evangelical Christians invited Harmeet Kaur Dhillon, a Republican National Committee member from North Carolina to offer a Sikh prayer at an RNC gathering. While her presence on the dais was not universally well received by the delegates, this was not the first time nor was she the first Sikh to offer such a prayer.
The same Religion News Service article points out that the same religious phenomenon is equally evident in the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris.
“Harris would be the first Black woman to be nominated by a major party for president and the first South Asian. She also has a diverse personal religious and spiritual history that is now far more representative of America’s multi-faith makeup.
“Raised Hindu by her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a native of Chennai, India, she was often taken as a girl to 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland, California, by her neighbor, Regina Shelton, along with Harris’ sister, Maya. As an adult, Harris joined a Black Baptist church — Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, led by the Rev. Amos Brown.
“Meanwhile, the man who became Harris’ husband, Los Angeles lawyer, Douglas Emhoff, grew up in New Jersey attending a Reform synagogue.
“Harris’ faith connections have frequently played themselves out in her past four years in office as the Second Couple inaugurated a tradition of lighting Hanukkah candles at their residence, as well as celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.”
Harris’s religious biography, the article explains, will be not only history-making but will connect her to how many Americans practice and encounter faith.
Anthea Butler, a professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania, reminds us that Kamala Harris “represents a lot of Americans’ religious story, because here’s the thing: Nobody grows up in a straight line with religion in America anymore.” Few younger Americans, Butler says, have only one religious lineage that they carry on from their parents. Increasingly, Americans choose a different religious identity for themselves and may change course again as they intermarry and interact with, and support, a partner of a different faith.
Brian Pennington, director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society at Elon University in North Carolina, and an expert on South Asian religion, said students in his courses who come from one religious tradition are becoming rare. “These days, they have multiple influences that inform their spiritual ideas and identities,” said Pennington. Harris “speaks about these multiple influences so comfortably and seamlessly as if they’re all just part of her story that informs who she is. It’s not at all hard to imagine that her personal religious and spiritual history would speak to younger Americans who demographically have much more experience of this kind of religious diversity in their families and backgrounds than older Americans.”
The citizens of the ancient city of Ephesus would not have been unfamiliar with a religious environment such as we are now experiencing in the modern USA.
In the Scripture
In the first century, the city of Ephesus was a bustling, thriving metropolis, the Roman capital of Asia Minor, a center for trade and a destination for Roman, Jewish, and pagan religious festivals.
Most scholars agree that in the Christian community there was also a large one consisting mostly of gentile converts with some Jewish Christians who came as refugees from the Jewish/Roman war of 66-73 CE.
There is some scholastic controversy over authorship, with some scholars believing the letter to be authentically Pauline, written by the apostle at the end of his life as a reflection upon his theological development and his ministry, which would put the date at 58-59 CE.
Others believe that it was written in the Pauline style by Christian believers, probably students and followers of Paul, as a tribute to the apostle and a summary of his thoughts intended to preserve and apply his teachings, a common practice in that time and place. These scholars put the dates of the letter at about 85-90 CE, roughly the same time that the gospels of Matthew and Luke were being written.
Regardless of who actually wrote the letter, it is genuinely Pauline in its theology that, here, is broadened and expanded from that which was originally written to individual churches in regard to specific issues in those settings. In Ephesians, the author deals with God’s intention not just for this or that Christian community, but for all of creation.
God’s primary intention is not solely the reconciliation between Jewish and Gentile Christians. That, the letter makes clear, has already been accomplished by the life, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. Of greater importance is God’s final purpose, the unity and harmony of the whole universe that the Lord will accomplish through the ministries of the church with Christ as its head.
Unity and harmony, first within the church and then throughout the world, is the identified goal, here.
So, in today’s pericope, we hear the author repeating a call for unity: One body. One Spirit. One hope. One Lord. One faith. One baptism. One God and Father of all who is above all and in all.
One. One. One. All. All. All.
First in the church, then the world, and finally, in the entire cosmos.
How are we, the church, to be active agents in accomplishing this unity? Shall we raise an army and institute a new, modern version of the Pax Romana, the Roman peace that was created, enforced, and preserved through the power of violence and repression? Shall we use political power to take control of the government so we can create laws that force people to live as we see fit? Shall we use more eloquent speeches, more convincing arguments, more popular ideas to convince people to worship as we worship and believe what we believe?
No. The author of Ephesians commends none of these to the early church in Ephesus nor the twenty-first-century church in America.
Listen to the letter: “I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
In the Sermon
What is the church to do? How do we address contemporary un-churched and de-churched people? How do we share the good news of God’s grace and the fullness of God’s love?
For many travelers on the journey of faith development, the souvenirs that they accumulate tend to lead them into what Christian Smith and Melinda Denton describe in their book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers as “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” (Oxford University Press, 2005)
This amalgam of “spiritual but not religious” beliefs, based on interviews with 3,000 sixteen to twenty-year-olds (now 36- to 40-year-olds), is often referred to as America’s cultural religion. It rejects all organized religion but tends to hold to five basic, informal tenets.
- God exists. God created the universe. God watches over us from a distance.
- God wants people to be good, nice, and fair.
- The central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself.
- God is not involved in life except sometimes when we need help. [God can sometimes be convinced to act to help us through sincere prayer.]
- Good people all go to heaven.
But that doesn’t relieve us from our responsibility as Christians to share with them the good news of God’s grace as it comes to us in Jesus Christ. What it does require of us is that we blanket that sharing with all those attributes that the author of the Ephesian epistle commends to the Christians, there.
Humility. Gentleness. Patience. Love.
“They may forget what you said,” said the eminent Mormon scholar, Carl W. Buehner, “But they will never forget how you made them feel.”
The first step in the task of evangelism is that of being a friend. Making people feel loved, affirmed, accepted, and valued is the most powerful way we share God’s grace.
SECOND THOUGHTSSufficiency
by Katy Stenta
John 6:24-35, Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15
Jesus says that whoever comes to him will never hunger or thirst. Jesus promises to be sufficient bread. Just like in Exodus, Jesus promises to be enough. Although we love to wax on about the abundance of God, God’s abundance is about having enough for everyone, not giving the same to everyone. I like to say that blessings are not pie—Governor Tim Walz from Minnesota says that human rights are not pie, there is enough to go around.
As communities organize around the election for Kamala Harris — answering the call from Win with Black Women for Kamala Harris (the most recent organization being White Dudes for Harris) there has been some question about why compartmentalize in this way? Is this promoting racism? The answer is that different groups need to hear, do, and organize differently. The individual calls do the opposite of dividing people, but actually bring people together, allowing them to be heard before they come together as a whole. “Watts pointed to the fact that calls had organically emerged over the week among many groups as evidence of a need for diversity, inclusivity, and boundary-breaking beyond individual identity groups.” This kind of strategy for community organizing is tried and.
True. Different people need different diets to survive and thrive. We as a society are learning more and more that it is not one size fits all. What is healthy for one may not be the best for another. It is part of why children with different learning styles get IEP’s — individualized learning plans — ideally designed to fit their own style of learning. (In fact, each child would probably benefit from an IEP.) Perhaps this is how God is both bountiful and sufficient. Like the song says, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.”Though people will grumble about sufficient food sources, like the Hebrew people, what we need is different than what we want. But here’s a caveat: We should know that what Jesus provides to groups that have been historically deprived and mistreated may be different and/or more than groups that have been privileged. Sufficiency may look different in different contexts. Part of being in community is building the trust that everyone will take/give what is needed and that God knows what we truly need. Jesus is the bread of life, sufficient for our needs, and human rights and blessings are not pie. Amen.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:Ephesians 4:1-16
Truth in Children’s Books
Author Kate DiCamillo, who writes books for children that are also loved by adults, says that the best children’s books contain a look at the truth, instead of shielding children from the reality of life. In essence, great books “speak the truth in love,” as Paul urges.
DiCamillo says, “My favorite lines of Charlotte’s Web, the lines that always make me cry, are toward the end of the book. They go like this: ‘These autumn days will shorten and grow cold. The leaves will shake loose from the trees and fall. Christmas will come, then the snows of winter. You will live to enjoy the beauty of the frozen world, for you mean a great deal to Zuckerman and he will not harm you, ever. Winter will pass, the days will lengthen, the ice will melt in the pasture pond. The song sparrow will return and sing, the frogs will awake, the warm wind will blow again. All these sights and sounds and smells will be yours to enjoy, Wilbur — this lovely world, these precious days …’
DiCamillo says, “I have tried for a long time to figure out how E. B. White did what he did, how he told the truth and made it bearable…. the only answer I could come up with was love. E. B. White loved the world. And in loving the world, he told the truth about it — its sorrow, its heartbreak, its devastating beauty. He trusted his readers enough to tell them the truth, and with that truth came comfort and a feeling that we are not alone.”
Love and truth belong together in mysterious ways, as Paul points out to us.
* * *
Ephesians 4:1-16
Speaking the Truth in Art
The letter to the Ephesians contains the well-known call to “speak the truth in love.” It’s a hard balance to find — we often get more truth than love, or, out of love, we hold back the truth.
There’s a similar balance in any kind of art. Sharone Salzburg calls us to the words of Lynn Nottage, who says, “Great art comes from the truth. There’s a difference between a piece of art that is impeccably crafted because the artists are skilled technicians — the work may be beautiful but somehow it doesn’t move you — and a piece of art where the lines may be a little sloppy but there is an undeniable truth reflected back. It becomes great art not because it is perfect but because the artist has successfully conveyed their own truth.” (from Real Change: Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World)
The letter to the Ephesians calls us to be artists of both truth and love.
* * *
John 6:24-35
Go Where the Bread Is
Anne Lamott says she went to church one Sunday and ended up being cranky. “The service was way long, and boring, and only three people had shown up for the choir, and the song they sang sucked. There was a disruptive baby who had about three hours of neck control but was already spoiling everything for the rest of us. I sat with a look of grim munificence, like so many of your better Christians, exuding mental toxins into the atmosphere. I decided that this church was deteriorating. I had come for a spiritual booster shot and instead got aggravation. I was going to leave, and never come back.
“Then something amazing happened. I would call it grace, but then, I'm easy. It was that deeper breath, or pause, or briefly cleaner glasses, that gives us a bit of freedom and relief. I remembered my secular father's only strong spiritual directive: Don't be an asshole, and make sure everybody eats.”
The pastor said, “I'm only a beggar, showing the other beggars where the bread is.” Lamott adds, “There are many kinds of bread: kindness, companionship, besides the flour-and-yeast kind...I realized I was going to get through this disappointing service, and anyway, you have to be somewhere: better here, where I have heard truth spoken so often, than, say, at the DMV, or home alone, orbiting my own mind. And it's good to be out where others can see you, so you can't be your ghastly, spoiled self. It forces you to act slightly more elegantly, and this improves your thoughts, and thereby the world.”
There was bread, after all, when she wasn’t expecting any — much like the crowd around Jesus.
* * *
John 6:24-35
Bread of Life
“I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry,” Jesus proclaims, and he comes as the bread of life in the form that hungry people most need.
Inventive parents, trying to feed hungry kids, also serve up what the child needs. In the book Weird Parenting Wins, author Hillary Frank quotes a person who says, “When I was a toddler, I was an extremely picky eater. The one thing I would eat enthusiastically? McDonald’s Happy Meals. Both of my parents worked full-time, so I was often fed by a nanny who indulged my fast-food habit, likely exhausted by the prospect of trying to get me to eat anything else. My mother devised a genius plan to trick me into eating greens, fruit, and meat that had not been breaded and fried. She went to McDonald’s and asked if she could take some empty bags, cups, and napkins. She then placed all of my meals inside McDonald’s-branded packaging. Steamed string beans? McDonald’s makes those now! Tuna fish sandwiches on wheat bread? That’s part of the newest Happy Meal! By the time I was wise enough to catch on to her scheme, I had developed a palate for more than fries and chicken nuggets.”
Jesus, the bread of life, offers us an even deeper joy in the sustenance he provides.
* * * * * *
From team member Tom Willadsen:Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15 cf. Numbers 11:16-20
The wanderers have a poor memory. While they had good reason to be afraid of starving in the wilderness, they hardly sat around flesh pots in Egypt when they were slaves. Earlier they had gotten snippy at Moses and asked whether there were not enough graves in Egypt for them that Moses had brought them out to the wilderness to die (Exodus 14:11). Now, just two chapters later, they’re carping at Moses again.
Their grumbling reached its zenith, one could argue, in Numbers 11. In that story, the people were grumbling again, and this time “the Lord’s anger was kindled.” Moses was pretty steamed, too. The people weren’t even starving, they were just tired of eating manna every day. Moses is angry enough to die, stuck between the people’s complaining and God not coming through with a more varied diet. “Hey, Big Guy, put me out of my misery, already!” Moses reasons with the Master of the Universe. This time, the Lord comes through. Big time. Major, mega big time. God Almighty caters a quail buffet the likes of which mortal humanity has never seen! You want meat, I’ll give you meat!”
Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall eat not only one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you — because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” (Numbers 11:18b-20, NRSV)
That’s one of my all-time favorite passages, not just because it includes “loathsome.”
* * *
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Bathsheba and the story around her
Bathsheba is not named in today’s lectionary reading. Her name only appears in 2 Samuel 11:3. She was not on the roof bathing; David was on the roof of his palace looking down from on high when he spotted her and summoned her to the castle and raped her. Leonard Cohen got it wrong in his classic “Alleluia.”
Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, was a loyal, faithful soldier and husband. It is David who behaves despicably in this story. Everyone else, Bathsheba, Uriah, and Nathan are true and faithful. This makes the contrast all the starker, and David’s sin all the greater because he is the one with the most power and authority.
David, looking back to chapter eleven’s start, doesn’t even go out to battles in the spring as kings were expected to do. He’s back in the palace noshing bon bons and spying on comely women.
It is telling that David fasted and lay on the ground while the child he’d conceived with Bathsheba was alive. The palace’s staff was concerned about his not eating. As soon as he heard the child had died, he got up, washed, anointed himself, and changed clothes. “Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and the child may live.” The King of Nineveh asked the same rhetorical question after hearing Jonah’s message (Jonah 3:9). This repentance thing is worth a shot, right? In modern times one might say, “Where there’s like, there’s hope.”
* * *
Psalm 51:1-12
Psalm of repentance
Tradition has it that David wrote Psalm 51 after recognizing the depth of his sin after raping Bathsheba. In the superscript of the NRSV it even says, “A psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone into Bathsheba.” While scholars dispute this origin story, there is no question that this is a powerful statement of contrition and repentance. Many Christians use Psalm 51 as their Lenten devotional text. It’s most powerful, evocative phrase, in my opinion, is verse 17, outside today’s lection:
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
* * *
Ephesians 4:1-16
Unity and variety
Today’s reading from Ephesians is included in the liturgy I use for baptisms, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in all.” Since it’s common for people to say things like, “I was baptized Methodist, but grew up Lutheran,” it’s helpful to remind worshipers that baptism is the most unifying sacrament Christians have. There is only one of them. There is only Christian, though it can happen in any church. One can only be baptized once. There is division, however, around this unifying sacrament. Some Christians believe that baptism can only “count” if one can assent to it as a believer.
When Mark Twain was asked whether he believed in infant baptism, he replied, “Hell, I’ve seen it!”
My tribe, the Presbyterian Church (USA), does not rebaptize people. Even if they were baptized as infants, we trust that the Holy Spirit was present whenever baptism happened. To do otherwise would be immodest and arrogant. Our humility and modesty make us the best denomination, by far. (See what I did there?)
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: Have mercy on us, O God, according to your steadfast love.
All: According to your abundant mercy blot out our transgressions.
One: Hide your face from our sins, and blot out all our iniquities.
All: Create in us a clean heart and put a new and right spirit within us.
One: Do not cast us away from your presence or take your holy spirit from us
All: Restore to us the joy of your salvation, and sustain in us a willing spirit.
OR
One: God who created us all comes to dwell with us.
All: Come, O Creator, and bless us with your presence.
One: Christ comes to gather in the world he died to save.
All: With respect for all we will share Christ with others.
One: The Spirit who hovered over creation comes to embrace us.
All: We will allow the Spirit to fill us so that love overflows.
Hymns and Songs
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
All People That on Earth Do Dwell
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
GTG: 385
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELW: 883
W&P: 661
AMEC: 73
STLT: 370
Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart
UMH: 160/161
H82: 556/557
PH: 145/146
GTG: 804
AAHH: 537
NNBH: 7
NCH: 55/71
CH: 15
LBW: 5553
ELW: 873/874
W&P: 113
AMEC: 8
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
GTG: 734
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
Ye Servants of God
UMH: 181
H82: 535
PH: 477
GTG: 299
NCH: 305
CH: 110
LBW: 252
W&P: 112
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
GTG: 366
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELW: 631
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
Standing on the Promises
UMH: 374
GTG: 838
AAHH: 373
NNBH: 257
CH: 552
AMEC: 424
Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Here, O Our Lord, We See You
UMH: 623
H82: 318
PH: 520
GTG: 517
NCH: 336
CH: 416
LBW: 211
AMEC: 531
One Bread, One Body
UMH: 620
GTG: 530
CH: 393
ELW: 496
W&P: 689
CCB: 49
For the Bread Which You Have Broken
UMH: 614/615
H82: 340/341
PH: 508/509
GTG: 516
CH: 411
LBW: 200
ELW: 494
Take Our Bread
CCB: 50
Emmanuel, Emmanuel
CCB: 31
Renew: 28
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 dwells within all of your vast creation:
Grant us the wisdom to welcome all as your children
as we share with them our walk with Jesus;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you dwell with us through all of your great creation. Help us the welcome others who may understand you differently than we do so that we can learn from them and share with them our journey with Jesus. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we shut out those who are different from us.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have been too judgmental of other people because they do not talk about you in the same words we use. Instead of opening ourselves to them in your love, we pushed them away. We have lost opportunities to share our love of you with them because we have not acted in love. Forgive us and renew your love in us so that we can truly share Jesus with others. Amen.
One: The God who created us all welcomes all of us into the eternal love. Receive God’s welcome and share that welcome with all your siblings.
Prayers of the People
Praised and glorious are you, O God of all creation. You brought all into being through your Word and with your Word you fill all you have made.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have been too judgmental of other people because they do not talk about you in the same words we use. Instead of opening ourselves to them in your love, we pushed them away. We have lost opportunities to share our love of you with them because we have not acted in love. Forgive us and renew your love in us so that we can truly share Jesus with others.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have shared your love with us and all of your creation. We thank you for the insights others have of you and the way you are present to us. We thank you for those have shared with us their experiences of you which have opened us to knowing you in new ways.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who have been excluded and shunned because their experience of you differs from others. We pray for those who suffer hatred and prejudice because they speak your name differently.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
Hear us as we pray for others: (Time for silent or spoken prayer.)
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 SERMONI’m So Hungry (A Car Seat Sermon)
by Chris
Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15
(Here’s a short story that you might be able to use as a children’s sermon this week. You can even send this to children and families who may be out of town this week as a reminder to take God with them on summer vacation!)
There was just something about sitting in the back seat that always made Isabella hungry. Sitting in her booster seat, Isabella kept her eyes focused on the farms they were passing. Her mom told her to watch for cows. But when she saw the cows, all she could think about was milk shakes. And milk shakes made her think about French fries. And French fries made her hungry again. “Dumb cows,” Isabella grumbled.
She tried to watch a show on her tablet. But the kids in the show were having a birthday party. And parties made Isabella think about pizza. And thinking about pizza reminded her that she was hungry.
“Momma!” she cried. “I’m hungry. When are we stopping for lunch?”
Her big brother Patrick rolled his eyes at Isabella. “Dude,” he said, “chill. We just had breakfast at the hotel.”
Isabella screwed up her face at Patrick, shooting him a look that told him to stay out of this. She wanted to tell him to “shut up,” but she knew that would only make her parents mad and probably ruin any chance of getting them to stop. Instead, she made a pitiful sounding whimper. She had once read a book about children whose families did not have enough money to buy groceries. She tried to sound the way a hungry child might feel, and then tried moaning the way she thought they might cry. “Momma…PLEASE! I’m gonna starve!”
This time it was her father who rolled his eyes. Her mother turned around and said, “Patrick’s right, sweetie. It’s just 10:30. Besides, this morning at the hotel you ate a waffle, Fruit Loops, and a bagel.”
“Plus, some bacon you stole from my plate,” said Patrick.
“But that was soooo long ago. Now I’m hungry again,” said Isabella.
“How about I tell you a story about some people who were really hungry,” her mom said. Isabella’s mom was a pastor. She was always telling stories. She would tell stories in her sermons, over dinner, after dinner, or when walking the dog. Patrick would sometimes joke that she would stop people at the store just so she could tell them a story. And even though they were on vacation, Isabella knew this story was going to have something to do with God.
Patrick reached for his ear buds “Yay,” he said. “Just what we need: another ‘car seat sermon’ from Pastor Mom.”
But mom interrupted him before he could start his music. “This is a good story,” she said, “so pay attention.” She knew that even though Isabella and her brother complained about her stories, they looked forward to them.
“This is a story about Moses and the people of Israel. After Pharaoh had let them go, they crossed the Red Sea, believing that God was leading them to the promised land. But their trip took longer than they expected.”
“You mean longer than it takes to go to the beach?” said Isabella.
“Yes,” their mom said. “It took years. MANY years.” She looked up at the visor mirror to see Isabella shudder. “Goodness,” said Isabella, shaking her head.
“And they did not have cars to ride in, or hotels with swimming pools. They were not even completely sure where they were going. Every day they kept walking through the big empty desert. They got hot, and sweaty. And they were really, really hungry.”
“They got so hungry that some of the people started to whine.”
“Like me?” said “Isabella.
“Yes,” their mom laughed, “like you. But their whining was even worse.”
“That’s not possible,” said Patrick, who had pulled a pillow over his head.
Their mom continued. “They found Moses and told him, ‘We’re hungry! Give us something to eat, or else!’ But Moses looked at them and said, ‘Or else, what?’ Instead of complaining to me, why don’t you go and talk with God? God has always helped us, and I know that God will help us now.’”
“Then the Lord said to Moses. ‘Listen, I am going to make it rain bread.’”
“Whoa!” said Isabella “RAIN bread? That sounds gross.”
“Yes,” said mom. “God said that, and that’s what happened. Every morning, God sent bread to the people from heaven. That first day, the people looked out of their tents. They saw what looked like dew falling on the ground. Soon that dew turned to a frost-like stuff that was all over the ground. But when the sun came out, they saw that it was not frost. It was flaky,” she said.
“Just like Izzie,” giggled Patrick.
“Stop it, Patrick. This was unlike anything thing they had ever seen. The people who had complained looked at each other and said, ‘What is it?’ Moses said, ‘This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat, just as he promised.’ So, they called the flakes ‘Manna,’ which in Hebrew means, ‘What is it?’ When the people were hungry, God provided just what they needed.”
“You see, Izzie,” said mom, “God is always looking out for us. God always provides whatever we need.”
Just then Dad pointed to a billboard and said, “Hey, look at that!”
“What is it?” Izzie and Patrick said together, which caused everyone to laugh.
Dad said, “It’s a sign for Flaky’s BBQ Restaurant. It’s just down the road…who’s ready for lunch?”
“I guess God really does provide,” said Isabella.
“Yeah,” said Patrick. “And maybe God will provide you with a nap after lunch!”
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The Immediate Word, August 4, 2024 issue.
Copyright 2024 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.
