SermonStudio

Order Of Service

Opening Words:
L: Let us worship our Creator, the God of Love.
P: God continually preserves and sustains us.
L: We have been forgiven to embrace new life.
P: Through Jesus Christ we have received the full love of God.

Hymn: "How Firm A Foundation"

Prayer Of Confession:
Unto thee, O Lord do I lift up my soul. I put my trust in
thee, O God. Show thy paths, teach thy ways, lead in thy truth;
remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies. Do not remember my sin.
Take from me my self justification. Center me in thy will. Open
me to thy spirit. Amen.

Assurance Of Pardon:
The path of the Lord is mercy and truth to those who keep the
covenant. Pardon shall be granted from thy iniquity. Deliverance
shall keep thy soul, shame shall be kept from thy house. You have
placed trust in the Lord. You have waited for the Lord with
integrity. You are forgiven.

Readings: Psalm 25:1-7; John 6:1-13

Hymn: "I Need Thee Every Hour" stanzas 1, 2

Meditation: Levi's Song

Hymn: "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go" stanzas 3, 4

Call To Communion:
L: Let us affirm our faith.
P: We believe that the eyes of faith see miracles where doubt
sees only broken crumbs. The song of faith rises triumphantly
over the feelings of being lost in a familiar world. We believe
that to end physical and spiritual hunger in the world we must
completely offer to God what we have and who we are.

Prayers For Bread And Cup

The Distribution

Dismissal:
L: It is difficult to be obedient to God and self-centered at
the same time. May we fully enter the new life granted to us by
Christ.
P: Let us rejoice in God, our creator.
L: May the Spirit of God lead us in joy.
P: Amen.

Levi's Song

Lent 2

Levi hummed his favorite song as he walked toward home from
the marketplace. The tune to the psalm matched his mood on this
wonderful sunny day. The breeze was warm, but not too warm. The
sun was bright, but not so that you needed to squint. The air was
scented with the aromas of the marketplace, each step bringing a
whiff of date, or bread, or pomegranate, or fish. Each step
dodged the sounds of merchants selling cloth or pottery or
baskets or gold and silver ornaments. Every corner echoed with
the noise of animals bahing or braying or brooding; bearing their
burden or themselves to be sold within the cacophony that was the
marketplace. Three copper drams was all the money the family had
until their brother returned late tonight from Caesarea -- if he
had found work, and if he had found lodging at a fair price.
Mother had been very precise in her instructions concerning the
use of money. Barley bread and dried fish would be all there
would be to eat today and tomorrow. Having made his purchases,
Levi walked down the dirt road toward home humming the song that
had come alive within him.
As Levi paced along the path, he looked up against the
hillside into the azure sky. He saw him. He stopped humming. He
stopped walking. He put the basket down and watched for the
longest time. Up the hill family after family, one man after
another, a few women here and a few women there; all walking
after him. Levi was not sure who he was so he asked a man what
all the excitement was about. "The master is going to teach," the
man said, "Come along boy, come along." They were going toward
Sogane. Home was halfway between there and Bethsaida. It would be
sort of on his way. "I'll check this master out," said Levi to
himself as he picked up the

basket. He would listen, but he would also remember the words of
the rabbi concerning false prophets.
____________

"I'm gonna beat him so hard that he won't sit down for a week.
No," she thought to herself, "that's not long enough. He won't go
anywhere until he has recited his school work three times to me.
No. Four. He will bring in extra water. He will have to walk with
me when I go to the market." While she knew that she would not do
all of these things, you could see that behind the anger in her
eyes was a dread too deep for words. She looked down the path
toward the lake, the path on which Levi should have returned over
two hours ago. "Please let him be safe," she said under her
breath as she put down the wooden spoon that she held in her
hand.
It was at this same side window of the small mud hut that she
looked the day the man came. It seemed like yesterday that she
saw him coming up the path to tell her of the accident. Jacob and
two others killed and many injured when the tower they were
working on in Caesarea collapsed. Now young Jacob was working in
Caesarea, and Levi was not back. How her life had changed in just
a few short years. She would listen to an explanation. No, she
would just let him know of her displeasure and fear at his delay.
No. If she made up her mind now she knew that she would do the
opposite when he arrived.
____________

Levi sat enraptured by this teacher. Never, never ever had he
heard the will of God put so beautifully, so simply. He could
understand every word, yet he could see that the adults were also
hanging on his every word. Levi assumed that there was something
more meaningful, an even deeper level of understanding within the
words that he took in so readily. The message of this teacher
seemed to clear, so wonderful, so marvelous. God had always been
so far away, but this rabbi

20

taught that God was as close as your own father. Even though
Levi's father was dead, he knew what this rabbi meant. As he
listened it was as though all the pain and hurt from his father's
death and his brother's absence had been lifted from his heart
and mind. Lifted, no not quite, he still mourned the loss of his
father, but he found a peace which was a blessing to him.
All the time he was listening, Levi moved up further and
further, closer and closer toward the teacher. By this time there
were thousands of people and he was so short. He and his basket
kept moving and moving and moving.
____________

It was almost dark, and when she heard someone on the path,
she sprang from her mat and went to the doorway. She grabbed the
wooden spoon as she passed the table. Looking south toward the
lake she saw no one. Turning north she saw young Jacob coming
down the hillside path from Selucia.
"Oh, Jacob, your brother is missing. I don't know where to
turn. I sent him to the market this morning. He should have been
home hours ago. I've been up and down the paths, half way to the
lake. I don't know what to do."
"I don't know either, mother." The distance in Jacob's voice
made Caesarea sound close. "I only have a denarius to bring you.
They charged incredible rates for lodging. I have not eaten since
breakfast yesterday. There was another accident -- six more
killed. Maybe I'll be able to find better work next week. I'm too
young, I can't do some of the jobs. They won't let me do some of
the better jobs. The foreman is superstitious and since Papa
died, they won't put me ... I don't know. Is there anything to
eat?"
"Your brother is missing. He has been missing since this
morning. I don't know where he is. Aren't you listening? Don't
you care?"
"Mom, I care. It's dark, we don't know where to begin. There's
nothing I can do!"

21

She turned away wishing Jacob was still alive to hold her; to
help her through the trauma of this night.
____________

Levi hummed a psalm as he sat on the tree stump overlooking
the house. He stared at the light coming from the window for what
seemed to be forever. All of a sudden he knew, at an even deeper
level, what the master had meant by the dead burying their own
dead and that it was easier to begin a totally new life than to
walk back into an old one. He was living life anew. He didn't
know how to explain this newness to his mom; how it felt, what it
was like. Neither did he know how he was going to explain what
happened to the food and the basket. He had gotten into that
innocently enough. The master had been talking about how to
receive. That if you were to receive anything you must give it:
love, forgiveness, respect, understanding, even hope. All these
concepts were easy to believe. Then the master began to say that
money was the same and food was the same. Levi and his family
needed food and money, so if he were to believe he would have to
give these fish and this bread. He saw Phillip who used to fish
out of Bethsaida. Levi gave him the basket. Phillip passed it on,
the next passed it on, the next and the next until it had been
emptied out in front of the master. Prayers were said, the bread
and fish were passed, and everyone started to eat. They ate and
they ate and they ate and the next time he saw the basket it was
full and he was too. And that's why he was sitting on that stump.
He didn't know whether it would be easier to explain this idea of
new life in the spirit; or to explain what had happened to the
bread.
____________

She was still crying when she heard him call from the path
that he was coming. She stood at the door with her spoon in her
hand not knowing whether to hug him or spank him first.
"I know how late I am, and I want to explain everything that
has happened today." He held the basket close to him.

22

"Fine," Mother said in a normal stern voice. "You may explain
while your brother eats. I see that you have already eaten."
"I didn't want to start there." He had arranged the basket so
that a large piece of bread stuck out from under the cloth. It
kind of gave the impression that everything was okay, except that
the end of the large piece had been broken off.
"What do you mean, you 'don't want to start there?' "
"I met the Messiah today."
"Blasphemer, young man, I never want to hear you say that
again. Do you understand me?"
"I mean I guess he was. I don't know ... all I know is that he
talked about God and loving and caring and all the pain I've held
inside came out and he took it away. I knew it would come back,
but when I concentrated on what he was saying I didn't feel the
hurt anymore." Levi went on to explain what happened and what he
had heard. Finally he told what had happened to the bread and
fish.
When he was finished Mother said, "First, the priests will
tell us when the Messiah comes. Second, since you have eaten, you
may go to the roof and sweep it and then go to sleep. Third, you
are never to go to the market again or mention this so-called
Messiah again. Now give me that basket.
"Oh, Jacob! I don't know what to do with that boy," she
emptied the two fish and five barley loaves onto the table. "He
tells such tales since his father died."

23