5 steps to conquer the clock and free up some valuable time by Len Wilson
“I don’t have enough time to get everything done.”
This is the absolute number one complaint I hear from fellow leaders, innovators, and creatives. And people. According to a recent Huffington Post poll, only 13 percent of adults have sufficient time to accomplish what they want. (Researchers have even created a label for it: Time Famine.) In private conversations, I guess because I was somehow able to write a book with four kids at home, people sometimes ask me, how do you do it?
The reason my logo says the words “storyteller” and “strategist” is that I believe creativity is part art and part science. Part song, part sweat. Part gift, part grind. It’s a creative process. Creative without process is like ice without cream.
Separate, they’re kinda good but unfulfilling. Together, they’re amazing.
The creative process of getting things done starts with treating time as a resource. Like a grocery shopper finding a discount double or a financial planner shaving off tenths, I like to carve minutes for things that matter, even if they’re few and far between.
Here’s the hook: you can’t make time — only find it. Ken Willard writes, “Working more hours is not really the point.” In fact, there comes a time that working more is destructive. All we can do is be more efficient with what we have.
This sounds simple, and most of us agree in theory, but most of us also live like time is a flexible resource. It’s not. Here’s a truth:
In order to create something, you have to manage your time.
The clock is not your friend. Of course you don’t have enough time. No one does.
But, the clock is not your enemy, either. It just isn’t going to do you any favors, so you have to conquer the clock the same way you walk your dog or make your children do their homework. If you look at the clock with the clear-eyed realism that it requires, then you can begin to get the most out of it.
I recently read Ken Willard’s excellent book on time management, which named several techniques for conquering the clock and finding those valuable minutes. He provides the statistic above, and these five techniques are culled from his insights:
5 steps to manage your time better
1. Track how you're spending your time for three weeks. Create a spreadsheet with columns for: start time, end time, total time (rounded to the 15-minute mark), description and category. You’ll need to make a list to categorize your time, but here are some ideas for starters:
- Personal (eating, sleeping, grooming, relaxation)
- Household (buying groceries, paying bills)
- Administration (meetings, email, phone)
- Input (reading, listening to podcasts)
- Other People’s Work (completing obligatory tasks)
- Creativity / Productivity (Here’s the critical one.) The critical question is, how much is going into that last category?
Define the last category as time devoted to tasks related to your life’s mission or creative dream. Your Ephesians 2:10 set of good things. (If you need help figuring out what that is, try these 19 questions for a more creative life.)
How much of your time each week is actually spent pursuing your big idea? If your target time is 8 hours a week, how can you raise it to 13 hours? This is what you want to grow.
2. Create long-term goals. I can hear your brain now: “Here we go with goals…”
Why I am talking about boring ol’ goals? Because, as Willard writes, “most people confuse activity with productivity.”
Most of us can make a task list, but we don’t do long-term goals. Long term goals are different.
Long-term goals are a very short list of the ways you hope to make your visions and dreams a reality in the coming year. These aren’t daily tasks, or even a bunch of activities, but the difference you hope to make in the world. As Willard writes:
Where do you feel God calling you to go in your life? Take these very big concepts and spend some quality time figuring out what you need to accomplish in the next long-term time frame in order to take a step or two in the direction of that vision.
Most of the time, long-term visions cannot be accomplished in a single year, but might take several years to fully realize.
For example, I decided in 2011 that books weren’t sufficient in the digital age to share my ideas, so I decided to carve a corner in the digital world through my blog and my social media networks to complement my book writing. I am still realizing that decision, but my blog is a heckuva lot more frequently visited than it was a few years ago.
3. Create short-term plans. Long-term thinking leads directly to short-term planning, typically 30-90 days out. What specifically has to happen in order to make the long-term plan a reality? Willard says, “One of the challenges that many people run into is that they try to jump directly from long-term goals to daily plans,” which causes people to become frustrated and overwhelmed.
One way to do this is to create a short list of 3-4 items to focus on per quarter. At work, I name a few big picture projects, such as install campus signage, design new website, etc. These aren’t daily or weekly tasks, but the things that will take 1-3 months and multiple steps to realize.
4. Create a daily or weekly punch list of items. Willard writes about a daily list. I make a weekly list (Here’s a separate post about how I handle To Do lists). Willard makes two vital points:
a) some type of daily planning is absolutely necessary to achieve any dreams.
b) be intentional about connecting long term and short term plans to your daily list.
Daily tasks need to be very simple and executable. Do this first, talk to this person second, and so on. If the way to achieve short-term plans is unclear, then write down what you know and what you don’t know. Ultimately, each item on your daily list needs to be measurable and accompanied by a deadline.
To keep yourself on track, compare your lists to y our long term and short term plans. If you’ve made a list for the day and there’s nothing in there to move you toward your long-term goals, then you have a problem. The way I do it is re-evaluate my calendar and list every day and ask, what is the most important thing I can do today to achieve my goals? Sometimes that means I have to reschedule appointments or drop tasks.
5. Give yourself grace for missed goals. I know some people who avoid goals because they seem like just something else to remind you of personal failure. Goals aren’t for self-shaming, but a tool to use to help your dreams become a reality.
The connections between all three may not initially be clear. One technique to make these connections is to ask yourself this question: “In order to (long-term dream), I am setting a goal to (short-term plan).”
Sometimes, long-term, short-term and even daily tasks emerge slowly. It was months from the time I recognized the limitations of only publishing books to the relaunch of my blog, and months more between the blog and the time I began to leverage my social networks well.
Willard writes, “If the why and the ‘in order to’, don’t immediately pop out, usually that means there is still some level of confusion, misunderstanding, or gray area to be resolved. Go back repeatedly to your vision.” This means, wait.
Productivity isn’t working harder, but allowing what is most important to dictate how you use time.
For more great details on conquering the clock and gaining valuable time to do what you love, buy Ken Willard’s book here.
Len Wilson is the author of Think Like a 5 Year Old: Reclaim Your Wonder & Create Great Things from Abingdon Press. He blogs at LenWilson.us.
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It takes more than race to have a successful dialogue about race by Adrian Miller
“We need to have a national conversation about race.”
I’ve heard those words a lot in the past two years, in the wake of so many tragic and deadly racial incidents. Yet that much-needed dialogue rarely happens, and we continue to suffer from collective inaction both inside and outside the church.
In those few instances where people of goodwill try to initiate a conversation about race — as President Bill Clinton did in the late 1990s and Starbucks did last spring — the efforts, difficult to sustain, are typically short-lived.
In my own experience, it takes more than race to have a successful dialogue about race. The best conversations about race happen among people who have something in common besides simply an interest in talking about it. They like the same music, play the same sports, share the same hobby — or they worship in the same faith tradition.
At this critical time, and because of the agape that we profess, churches are ideally positioned to convene the difficult conversations on race that we need to be having. They offer the safe and sacred space where such conversations can occur. It’s time for people of faith to lead and model racial reconciliation to other segments of our society.
In early August, the Colorado Council of Churches took a first step by encouraging our predominantly black churches and predominantly white churches to start building relationships across racial lines.
To my surprise, white churches, by a 3-to-1 margin, were far more eager to engage in conversation than our black churches were. When I asked black pastors about their reluctance, they said they were skeptical. They had seen similar sudden outbreaks of interest from white churches before and doubted that the white churches were in it for the long haul.
Black pastors told me they often get invited to address white congregations, usually around the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, when race can be discussed that one Sunday, but feel dismissed the rest of the year.
“We wonder if white pastors preach on racial justice at all when we’re not there,” one pastor said.
Given that history, their skepticism is understandable. But I believe that we have a rare opportunity before us. The horrific murders at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, have created a singular moment in which white Christians sincerely yearn for a deeper connection and a greater understanding of the African-American experience. In short, white churches are now in it for the long haul.
But how do we start the conversation? Talking honestly about race can be so intimidating. The problem seems so immense and intractable. Add to that the anxiety whites may feel about confronting racism, along with the weariness blacks may feel about once again having to educate others about race, and the challenges can seem overwhelming.
But as I said, the best conversations about race involve more than talking about race. When dialogue combines words with actions, discussions with shared activities and interests, the chances for success and sustainability are increased. Bringing people together for activities that require openness and real sharing can make everyone more comfortable so that we can then start talking about race.
Fortunately, racial reconciliation activities don’t have to be spectacular events. Food is always a great place to start. As Jesus and the disciples discovered again and again, gathering for a meal can create surprising results.
In August, when we launched our efforts to start a dialogue on race, the Colorado Council of Churches hosted 200 people for an event we called “Soulful Sunday,” featuring a potluck meal and a worship service.
We invited people from all our member churches to bring food that reflected their ethnic traditions, sit with folks of a different race and just get to know each other. As we rediscovered that day, food can indeed be a powerful way to connect people and to lay the groundwork for difficult conversations.
Food offers countless ways for diverse congregations to engage with each other in fellowship and strengthen their mutual bonds. Here are a few ideas the council put together with input from our member churches, for both food-related and other activities.
Eat together
After church, have an informal potluck meal for members of partnering congregations and let participants talk about the food they’ve brought — how the dishes reflect their ethnic heritage and hold significance for them.
To foster ongoing engagement, form a cooking club in which members from each congregation share meals prepared from a series of agreed-upon cookbooks, including cookbooks published by the congregations. Or create an eating club in which church members gather to dine at a series of designated restaurants.
For food-related fellowship in the broader context of God’s creation, partner with another congregation in cultivating an existing church garden, or in planting a new one.
Read together
Form a book club with members from both congregations and read a book together about racial justice. The congregations should agree beforehand upon how to structure the discussion.
Reading selections might include Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. For more ideas, check out the suggested reading list prepared by the African American Intellectual History Society in response to the Charleston shootings.
Make music together
Sometimes, when a pastor is the guest preacher at another church, he or she brings the choir along. With a “choir swap,” the pastor stays put but the choirs trade places. Another option is for the choirs of several churches to collaborate and host a joint musical performance that spotlights their diverse worship music and styles.
Talk long-term about race
One way that congregations can “get real” about race is to have an ongoing race dialogue, a continuing series of discussions over time. The partnering churches should figure out the structure of the dialogue in advance. Ideally, the discussion would be led by the pastors of the respective churches, but it could also be facilitated by a third party. For ideas about how to conduct your own race dialogue, see the helpful One America Dialogue Guide, created in 1998 by President Bill Clinton’s Initiative on Race.
As the Soulful Sunday event reminded us in Colorado, little things can yield tremendous results. Race is one of many challenges facing our society, but under tragic circumstances, people of faith have been given an opportunity to show others that love can conquer hate.
God has given us a spirit for action on racial reconciliation, not resignation. We just need people of faith willing to take those first, small steps.
This was first published in Faith & Leadership.
Vision: Impossible by Rebekah Simon-Peter
I grew up on Mission: Impossible, pre-Tom Cruise. It was amazing to watch the TV character Peter Graves tackle the impossible week in and week out. Headquarters gave him tough top secret jobs that were literally impossible with the words, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it …” He was part of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). Funny, but I don’t ever remember him saying no.
Peter Graves: CBS/YouTube
I know church leaders just like that. One such woman would give Peter Graves a run for his money. She has a towering, impossible and inspiring vision: to eliminate racism in her home state. Impossible, you say? You bet it is. Until you say it out loud, that is. Articulating a vision is the first step to making it a reality.
The truth is, if it seems doable and you already know how to do it, it’s probably not a vision anyway. It’s more like a goal. Goals are good, but they don’t transform the world like a “Vision: Impossible” does.
When Microsoft developed the vision of putting a personal computer on each desk, it was a “Vision: Impossible.” Computers occupied entire rooms, not the tops of desks. The average Jane hadn’t even thought about what she might do with one, let alone if she had the means to afford one.
But that’s the nature of visions: They are impossible at first. In fact, that’s what sets them apart from goals. Goals are doable. You can understand what steps to take to accomplish them. You might even be able to accomplish them with the people, resources and structures you have on hand. But a vision is a whole different order. It expands assumptions about what people think is possible.
Ending malaria, ending hunger, ending homelessness and ending poverty are similar seemingly impossible visions. But once some brave soul had the courage to even imagine it, then give voice to it, the impossible started moving into the realm of possible. Now, interested people have gathered around each of these areas to create structures, assemble resources, establish goals, set benchmarks, gather funding and attract key people to the vision. I truly believe that each of them will be accomplished.
Visions also require boldness. It requires a great deal of chutzpah to speak of the impossible as if it were doable. Kind of like Jesus saying we can enter the kingdom of God. Before Jesus, the kingdom was a far-off sort of experience. But Jesus brought it to the foreground, and made it a here-and-now kind of experience going so far as to say that it is within us. That transformed what we think is possible and gives courage to visionaries and dreamers of every sort.
What if communities of faith took on making the impossible possible instead of settling for improvement and incremental change?
If you decide to accept the challenge to dream a “Vision: Impossible,” here are some things to keep in mind:
Rebekah Simon-Peter blogs at rebekahsimonpeter.com.
The faulty logic of violence
By Dave Barnhart
I was not spanked as a child. Though spanking has declined a bit since then, at the time this made our family odd in the eyes of my peers. My father was a counselor, and my parents believed in time-out and behavior modification, not corporal punishment (spanking). So I tend to believe that it is possible to raise children without hitting them. Full disclosure: I have spanked my own child. I have also regretted doing so.
This experience has shaped my view of violence. I believe every human being has a right to defend themselves against what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “arbitrary killing.” In that sense, I am not a pacifist. Bullies exist, and sometimes we have to use force to stop bullies from doing harm.
But there is a sinful self-justifying logic that creeps into our use of violence. Almost anyone who chooses to use violence finds a way to justify it. Studies have shown that carrying a firearm tends to make people act more aggressively and perceive the world as more violent. The mere act of wearing a weapon makes us less likely to de-escalate conflict, and to perceive ambiguous behaviors as threatening.
Our fight or flight response is governed by the amygdala, the reptilian part of our brain that helps us respond to threat by raising our blood pressure and heart rate. Our brain’s ability to inhibit that response is much slower. When our heart rates go up, we are less able to regulate our emotional response. When we act on fear or anger, our brains shift from inhibiting our violent behavior to justifying it: we were in danger. The other person was asking for it.
The logic of violence is also natural ally of racism and white supremacy. It has entered every facet of our lives and affects everyone in our country, regardless of race or socio-economic status. It has also entered our schools.
We can see the logic of coercive force played out in the recent video of a school officer wrestling an African-American young woman to the ground in a classroom. Asked to turn over her phone, she refuses. The teacher calls another administrator, who calls the sheriff’s deputy. The deputy treats the young woman like a criminal, flipping her to the floor and then handcuffing her while other students record the incident on their phones.
This event illustrates the logic of violence, which is applied disproportionately to black people in our country. The logic of violence has three principles:
Compliance is mandatory.
If someone will not comply, you must escalate the use of force to gain compliance.
The threat of force will result in greater compliance.
All three of these principles are wrong.
1) First, compliance is not mandatory. Most of us, during the day, do not comply completely with authority. We speed on the highway, we ride bikes on the sidewalk, we roll through stop signs, we trespass to take a shortcut. If police enforced every infraction with indiscriminate force, most of the population would be in prison.
As a parent, what I want from discipline is a high rate of compliance from my child. I want respect. Sometimes, if my child does not comply with my request, I will escalate by imposing consequences for bad behavior or noncompliance. But escalation is not always the best choice. Sometimes ignoring the behavior or talking through a conflict is the best option.
In the Arbinger Institute’s book The Anatomy Of Peace, the authors describe an intervention into the families of troubled kids. When one young woman runs away barefoot, two other counselors allow her to run away, but follow her — after taking off their own shoes. Their goal is to demonstrate to her that they will respond to her out of love and solidarity, to literally go through what she was going through — in order to restore her to her family and community. The philosophy in the book has been used in countless churches and businesses to talk about conflict resolution and respecting the personhood of others.
When I see the video of the young woman assaulted by the deputy, I can’t help but imagine other more creative responses to noncompliance that would respect her personhood. The class could have adjourned and moved outside. The teacher could have chosen to ignore her. The administrator could have taken her out for ice cream.
Most people who object to alternative strategies of engaging the young woman talk about the “rights” of the students to their education, or wasting the teacher’s time, or the unfairness of spending time on one troubled teen at the expense of the class. All of these ignore the real damage done to the class by this incident through the escalation of force.
When someone I love is sullen or disrespectful to me, I do not punch them or flip them over. Ideally, I first respond with compassion. I sit down and have a meal and a conversation with them. In other words, I treat them like a human being worthy of my respect. People who object to “rewarding” noncompliance miss the point. Certainly, if an adult demonstrates a pattern of rude or aggressive behavior, I will cut off a relationship. But the first step to gaining respect is showing respect.
But this is the logic of violence: If one person is allowed to disobey, more will disobey. Therefore coercive force must be used to ensure compliance.
This is a lie. Behavior modification techniques have often been used in classrooms that do not require the use of coercive force. The idea that more people will disobey if one disobeys, or that it is somehow “unfair” to the students who don’t comply, assumes that children are like rats in a box pushing levers to get rewards — or like prisoners who must be controlled.
2) The second principle of the language of violence is that escalation will result in compliance. This is a lie that no one believes, though it is practically gospel in the self-justification of violence. The officer in the video expects the result he gets. He asks a nearby student to move. He knows where this is headed. This is the same logic we have seen in countless police violence videos where the result is known before escalation begins.
Nearly all defenses of police violence place faith in this concept of escalation of force: “If you do not comply, you will be taken to the ground.” Since compliance is not expected, violence is a foregone conclusion.
This idea ignores the escalating physiological event that happens when human beings have a conflict. Two human beings having an argument can get their heart rates up to 120 beats per minute. At that point, neither is making rational decisions. Coercive force becomes inevitable. If firearms are present, they will be used as either threat or killing tool.
Escalation does not lead to compliance. It leads to more escalation. It is like a feedback loop, the fear of one person fueling the anger of the other.
If compliance is really the goal, then de-escalation often has more potential to work. The human brain needs time and space to inhibit a fight-or-flight response. A teenager who will not relinquish a phone has already escalated and is not acting rationally. They have chosen sullen aggression. The application of force is not going to make them become rational or teach them anything positive.
I know that there are police officers who have the hearts of social workers, who take the time to patiently de-escalate a situation, to use their words. These people do not often get recorded and praised on social media. And certainly, there are times when clear danger requires an escalation of force. But what we see happen in a classroom, or in the recent video of another policeman assaulting a young woman at a public pool, is an example of a failure of emotional regulation. These men let their amygdalas run away with them. They escalated instead of de-escalating.
Statistics show that black people are subjected to this escalation of force at a disproportionate rate. Apologists for violence often claim that there is no racial component to this escalation, that it is simply the natural outcome of a natural and logical process. The data do not bear out this claim.
3) This brings us to the third principle of the logic of violence, which is that the threat of violence will result in greater compliance in the future. Pulling out a belt and threatening to whip a child for sassing back is not going to lead to more respectful language in the future. Flipping a child over in her desk is not going to lead her to respect her teacher more, nor will it teach the other students respect for authority. Cracking down on minor lawbreaking (broken windows policing) is not going to increase our security as a society.
The threat of violence instead leads to passive-aggressive behavior, a thousand little irritations of boundary-pushing resistance. It leads to cynicism about authority, and rejection of the values that authority claims to wield.
Soon after the student murders at Columbine, the Louisiana legislature proposed a bill in 1999 that would require kids to address teachers as “ma’am” and “sir.” One legislator proposed an amendment that would also require teachers to address their students as ma’am and sir. This amendment was struck down, because what the legislators were after was not building a community of respect, but reinforcing hierarchies of distinction between who has power and who does not. Students subject to violent coercion understand that respect means something different to those with power than it does to those without.
As Christians, we desperately need to recognize and call out the faulty and sinful logic of violence. We worship a Lord who said, “take up your cross,” not “take up your sword.” God gains our obedience and our trust not through coercive force, but by solidarity with us in our suffering.
The authoritarian violence present in schools, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the systemic racism of police violence in our country are all tied together. The logic of violence is part and parcel of the racial history of our country. If we are to be the church and resist evil, oppression and injustice in whatever forms they present themselves, we have an obligation to name and criticize the logic of violence. We also have an obligation to replace it with different values that will affect how we do parenting, teaching and law enforcement.
Dave Barnhart is the pastor of Saint Junia UMC in Birmingham, Ala.
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Embracing our lack of control
By Billy Doidge Kilgore
I triple-check stove knobs before leaving the house, recount pages in stapled assignments and proofread text messages long after hitting the send button. At my worst, in the middle of the night, I lie awake debating whether or not I closed the garage door. My desire for control pervades my daily life; it ranges from stove knobs to completing tax forms to remaining hydrated. I desire control so much I decided my best way to cope was to father a child.
“Parenting is like wearing your heart outside your body for the rest of your life,” a friend warned. My son’s birth created an unprecedented test for my inner control freak. While he rested in my palms, I experienced a new level of vulnerability. I felt a complete loss of control.
As my son developed from sleepy infant to wide-eyed toddler, my need for control was further challenged. My son hurls himself off furniture, launches into walls and bangs his head against hard surfaces. He does these daring activities with a smile on his face.
Children are like little mirrors. My son's wild exploration of the world reflects back to me my control-seeking behavior. He reveals to me my own issues, weaknesses and unresolved problems. I do not raise him to provide myself with accountability, but it comes with the package.
I like to think my compulsive need to control his environment is a noble act — a sign of a good father— but I know there is more going on inside me. The 25 pound mirror in front of me reveals a larger picture. He shatters my illusion of control.
The truth is I want to prevent my son from experiencing pain because I don’t want to be reminded of my own vulnerability. I don’t want to face the reality of my own fragile nature. I don’t want to face the reality of living in a harsh world, a world where I am not in control and at risk of pain and suffering. This is an unpleasant reality that my furniture-climbing toddler forces into my awareness.
Children are often unexpected teachers, miniature prophets speaking truths we can no longer see. “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs,” Jesus announces. He spoke these words to his disciples, who questioned the presence of children. The disciples, like us, often need to be reminded to remove the barriers between ourselves and the innocent, clear eyes of children.
What do the children in your presence reveal? If you listen closely and observe their actions, they might reflect back to you the places within your heart where spiritual growth is needed. Children have a knack for exposing our blind sides — the ways we deny, manipulate and seek control. They disclose our attempts to force life into our own hands.
Recently, at nap time, I noticed my son’s small stomach rising and falling in a beautiful rhythm. Of course, he was unconscious and relying on his body’s autonomous systems to perform the essential act of breathing. In that moment, it dawned on me how little control I have over his life. I can pour endless energy into carrying out his best interests, but ultimately his existence is in the hands of the God who created his beautiful stomach. My son is given to me not to control, but to receive as a divine gift. And the best way to respond to a gift is appreciation, not control.
Loosening a tight grip on life can feel like a step into darkness, but the good news is when we embrace our lack of control, we make room for God to work in our lives. A new space is formed within our hearts. A space where we can relinquish our petty control attempts, and place our lives (and our loved ones) in God’s hands, where they belong.
Billy Doidge Kilgore blogs at BillyKilgore.com.
New Presiding Bishop urges Episcopalians to join ‘Jesus movement’
By Adelle M. Banks / Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS) After knocking loudly three times on the door of the Washington National Cathedral, Bishop Michael Curry was installed as the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church Sunday (Nov. 1), the first African-American to lead the 2.5 million-member denomination.
Curry preached on how his father was moved to become an Episcopalian after watching a church welcome his then-fiancee to drink from the common Communion cup in the often-segregated 1940s.
“The Holy Spirit has done evangelism and racial reconciliation before in the Episcopal Church,” he told a congregation of almost 2,500. But he added: “God is not finished with this church. God has work for us to do. Jesus has shown us the way and we are the Jesus movement, so my brothers and sisters, walk together, children, don’t you get weary.”
The service of almost three hours encompassed the traditions of the church and the diversity Curry, 62, is encouraging it to embrace. He was elected during an unprecedented first ballot at the church's General Convention this summer after serving 15 years as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina.
When church leaders, including his predecessor, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, welcomed him into the door of the cathedral, Curry declared himself a “child of God, baptized in St. Simon of Cyrene Church,” the Maywood, Ill., congregation where his father served as a priest.
He then used boxwood fronds to sprinkle the worshippers with holy water to remind them of their baptism. Instrumentalists later played Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.”
A dashiki-clad gospel choir from a Philadelphia Episcopal church sang its rocking rendition of Bill Gaither’s “He Touched Me.” Piscataway Indians drummed and chanted as 150 bishops processed into the cathedral and Scriptures were later read in Spanish and Lakota. Catholic, Jewish and Muslim faith leaders took turns offering prayers of blessing for Curry.
In his sermon, in which he quoted Charles Dickens, Bobby McFerrin (“Don’t worry, be happy”), and Jesus, Curry gave a new interpretation of the Good Samaritan story. He noted that a Muslim might be the one to care for a person in need.
"Or change it even more: A police officer was beaten and wounded and it was an African-American young man or a Latino young man or woman who brought healing," he said.
Bishop Michael Bruce Curry stands with Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori after his Installation ceremony, at the Washington National Cathedral, November 1, 2015. Photo courtesy Reuters/Mike Theiler
At the same convention where Curry was elected, the Episcopal Church voted to make marriage liturgies available to same-sex couples across the church while protecting the conscience of clergy who oppose such ceremonies.
A supporter of LGBT rights, Curry has said he nevertheless intends to keep his denomination open to those who may not share his perspective.
“I really do believe that when Jesus said ‘go make disciples of all nations,’ ‘all’ really meant all,” he told Religion News Service in a recent interview. “That means traditionalists and progressives.”
The Rev. Todd R. Dill, rector of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Waxhaw, N.C., was among the theologically conservative Episcopalians who attested to Curry's inclusive nature. Though he and Curry differ on the issue of marriage, he said they agree on feeding the hungry, caring for the marginalized and preaching the gospel.
“I believe that Bishop Curry's fervor for the Lord has shaped his faith and his leadership and has uniquely positioned him as a unifying and reconciling voice during these deeply divided times,” said Dill. “He has done that in North Carolina and it is my prayer that he can help bring this sense of unity to our national church and our international communion.”
Members of the Union of Black Episcopalians, who have called Curry’s election their “Obama moment,” hosted a vigil Saturday at the D.C. Armory, allowing more people to celebrate his installation. That group also provided a live-stream of the installation on large screens at the same location as dozens of churches held viewing parties across the country.
Annette Buchanan, president of the Union of Black Episcopalians, said about 2,000 people, mostly black Episcopalians, gathered for the vigil.
“But in addition to that it was a rainbow of people from across our church — every culture, every ethnicity participated in the service,” she said. “It absolutely embodies what he stands for, which is the whole church being reconciled to Christ.”
Bishop Anne Hodges-Copple, suffragan bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, said Curry’s focus on evangelism will bridge divides in the nationwide church.
“The Episcopal Church has never been cold but I think that Bishop Curry turns up the heat,” she said. “He takes the fear factor out of evangelism.”
Curry informed those gathered that the ceremony was less about him and more about them becoming part of what he calls the “Jesus movement.”
“That’s why we are here,” he told them. “That movement turns the world upside down.”
Why you shouldn't have a contract marriage
By David Dorn
Want a better marriage? Don't treat your marriage like a contract … instead view it as a covenant.
Related link: re|engage Marriage Enrichment
David Dorn is the Lead Contemporary Pastor for Marvin United Methodist Church in Tyler, Texas. He is also the author of “Reclaiming Anger,” “Under Wraps Youth Study” and the founder of The PREPOSTEROUS Project.
The power of God without the character of God
By David F. Watson
Last year I was at a conference where Larry Randolph was one of the speakers, and he said something that I’ve been ruminating over ever since. He said that he was praying against revival in the United States. This seemed like a very odd statement from someone who is a part of a charismatic revival movement associated with the likes of Randy Clark and Bill Johnson. His point, however, was that we simply aren’t ready for revival. We’re arrogant. As he put it, “We want the power of God without the character of God.”
Ouch.
Randolph may very well be right. We want people to come back to the churches. We want to see our ministries grow, whether in local churches, seminaries or parachurch organizations. We want cultural influence. But are we willing to humble ourselves to do this?
We certainly want the power of God, but are we willing to take on the attributes of God’s character? Yes, God is indeed all-powerful, but the expression of God’s power comes through attributes of God’s character. As a Christian, I take the character of God to be most fully revealed in the cross, in the act ofkenosis–emptying–about which we read in Philippians 2:5-11. The cross is an expression of self-giving love, humility, and unmerited kindness. It demonstrates a willingness to set aside selfish ambition and pride. As God says to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My power is made perfect in weakness.”
Are we willing to put aside ambition, selfish desire, the love of wealth, the desire for notoriety?
Are we willing to be looked down upon for Christ and for other people?
Are we willing to live with less so that others can have enough?
Are we willing to become “weak” so that we can truly experience God’s power? God’s power and God’s character cannot be separated. So if we want the power of God, we had better be ready to assume the character of God.
"Portrait of John Wesley" by William Hamilton, 1788
You may already be familiar with John Wesley’s “covenant prayer.” This prayer, if you really consider its words, is a bit intimidating. It is a total release of control of our lives to God. It is total surrender to the divine will. That is a hard prayer to pray. And yet, Christ never said that life as his follower would be easy. He said quite the opposite. I would encourage you, then, to make this prayer a regular part of your prayer life. It is way of asking God to form our hearts and character in ways that match God’s heart and character:
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
I yearn for renewal and revival in North America, but I think Randolph has hit the nail on the head: We can’t truly pray for the power of God without a willingness to accept the character of God.
David F. Watson blogs at davidfwatson.me.
Review: The Surprising Imagination of C.S. Lewis
By Drew McIntyre
A key to understanding the widely-varied C.S. Lewis corpus is to apprehend his astounding use of imagination. Lewis described himself as chiefly an “imaginative man” in 1955, more so than a critic or religious writer. Authors Jerry Root and Mark Neal ground their work in this insight in their fascinating new bookThe Surprising Imagination of C.S. Lewis: An Introduction.
Newly published from Abingdon, Root and Neal provide a work that is simultaneously an introduction to Lewis’ major works and a substantive argument about the animating source of his writing. Their aim is to demonstrate that “through Lewis’s autobiography, children’s stories, science fiction, poetry, religious work … and literary criticism than an intentional use of the imagination is always at work.” (xvii) Thus there is plenty to chew on here both for the lifelong Lewis aficionado and an excellent introduction for those looking for an overview as they begin to treat with the Oxford don.
The authors follow a common pattern throughout. They have selected a handful of Lewis’s most-used forms of imagination and describe them, chapter by chapter, by giving an overview of a representative work and explicating how it uses that particular kind of imagination. For instance, the authors argue that “shared imagination” is especially evident in Lewis’s apologetic masterpiece, Mere Christianity. Referring to the famous “Lord, liar, or lunatic” argument regarding the identity of Jesus, Root and Neal point out that Lewis here uses an Augustinian strategy to build his case. This displays a sense of shared imagination about the basic content of Christian faith (the purposes of Mere Christianity) by using a shared (that is, classic) observation from one of the faith’s great teachers. In the course of that chapter, the reader is both introduced to the content of Mere Christianityand given a sense of how shared imagination functions within. This basic flow marks all the other chapters as well. I especially enjoyed the chapter on The Great Divorce (a personal favorite) and transforming imagination, and found myself wanting to dig into the Space Trilogy after reading the author’s examination ofOut of the Silent Planet.
The authors highlight Lewis’s varied uses of imagination throughout, but are quick to point out that their work is only an introduction to something quite pronounced in their subject’s writings. An appendix includes a large number of other forms of imagining and suggestions about where to find them. In the end, a nod to Lewis’s children’s literature speaks volumes about the importance of this subject to Lewis and all those who would appreciate his full body of work: “Lewis, by using his imagination,” they note, “brings his readers into other worlds, much like Aslan brought children into his world.” (194) They point out that Lewis uses imagination with a mastery reminiscent of the earliest Christian exegetes, those Mothers and Fathers who pioneered to analogical reading of Scripture centuries ago.
That insight is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest Christian thinkers of the last century, who continues to aid readers both to live and articulate their faith decades after his death. The Christian imagination has been enriched by the imagination of C.S. Lewis, and this new offering is a delightful exploration of and a helpful introduction to a modern master who will continue to illumine our journey toward God for decades yet to come.
Thanks to Abingdon Press for providing a copy of this book for review.
Drew McIntyre blogs at Uniting Grace and co-hosts the WesleyCast.
This Sunday, November 8, 2015
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost: Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17; Psalm 127 (or Psalm 42); Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
WORSHIPFUL GIVING by Chris J. Hayes … read more
WORSHIP ELEMENTS: NOVEMBER 8, 2015 by Shari Jackson Monson… read more
WORSHIP CONNECTION: NOVEMBER 8, 2015 by Nancy C. Townley… read more
WORSHIP FOR KIDS: NOVEMBER 8, 2015 by Carolyn C. Brown
read more
I know church leaders just like that. One such woman would give Peter Graves a run for his money. She has a towering, impossible and inspiring vision: to eliminate racism in her home state. Impossible, you say? You bet it is. Until you say it out loud, that is. Articulating a vision is the first step to making it a reality.
The truth is, if it seems doable and you already know how to do it, it’s probably not a vision anyway. It’s more like a goal. Goals are good, but they don’t transform the world like a “Vision: Impossible” does.
When Microsoft developed the vision of putting a personal computer on each desk, it was a “Vision: Impossible.” Computers occupied entire rooms, not the tops of desks. The average Jane hadn’t even thought about what she might do with one, let alone if she had the means to afford one.
But that’s the nature of visions: They are impossible at first. In fact, that’s what sets them apart from goals. Goals are doable. You can understand what steps to take to accomplish them. You might even be able to accomplish them with the people, resources and structures you have on hand. But a vision is a whole different order. It expands assumptions about what people think is possible.
Ending malaria, ending hunger, ending homelessness and ending poverty are similar seemingly impossible visions. But once some brave soul had the courage to even imagine it, then give voice to it, the impossible started moving into the realm of possible. Now, interested people have gathered around each of these areas to create structures, assemble resources, establish goals, set benchmarks, gather funding and attract key people to the vision. I truly believe that each of them will be accomplished.
Visions also require boldness. It requires a great deal of chutzpah to speak of the impossible as if it were doable. Kind of like Jesus saying we can enter the kingdom of God. Before Jesus, the kingdom was a far-off sort of experience. But Jesus brought it to the foreground, and made it a here-and-now kind of experience going so far as to say that it is within us. That transformed what we think is possible and gives courage to visionaries and dreamers of every sort.
What if communities of faith took on making the impossible possible instead of settling for improvement and incremental change?
If you decide to accept the challenge to dream a “Vision: Impossible,” here are some things to keep in mind:
- Dream big. Jesus’ own dream was that earth would mirror heaven. The bigger you dream, the more you tap into the energy, power, blessing and realm of Jesus. This can be very scary at first. Not only for you, but for your people. Remind people that this is the stuff of faith. If faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen, it means you don’t have all the answers before you start. In fact, you can’t.
- Conduct a kingdom Bible study. Read the Gospels looking especially at what Jesus had to say about the kingdom. Note how much of his activity is actually about the kingdom. Don’t stop with the Gospels. Read Acts and the epistles of Paul with this lens as well.
- Be willing to fail. When you take on a “Vision: Impossible”, things might fail. On the other hand, they might succeed, or come to fruition in a way you hadn’t expected. The disciples thought Jesus failed. But look at all the good that came out of his life and death.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate. Share your vision again and again, to gain adherents. The more you share it, the more people have a chance to get on board, offer suggestions, buy-in, and help implement it. Just about the time you’re sick of saying it, others will feel they’ve heard it for the first time.
Rebekah Simon-Peter blogs at rebekahsimonpeter.com.
The faulty logic of violence
By Dave BarnhartI was not spanked as a child. Though spanking has declined a bit since then, at the time this made our family odd in the eyes of my peers. My father was a counselor, and my parents believed in time-out and behavior modification, not corporal punishment (spanking). So I tend to believe that it is possible to raise children without hitting them. Full disclosure: I have spanked my own child. I have also regretted doing so.
This experience has shaped my view of violence. I believe every human being has a right to defend themselves against what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “arbitrary killing.” In that sense, I am not a pacifist. Bullies exist, and sometimes we have to use force to stop bullies from doing harm.
But there is a sinful self-justifying logic that creeps into our use of violence. Almost anyone who chooses to use violence finds a way to justify it. Studies have shown that carrying a firearm tends to make people act more aggressively and perceive the world as more violent. The mere act of wearing a weapon makes us less likely to de-escalate conflict, and to perceive ambiguous behaviors as threatening.
Our fight or flight response is governed by the amygdala, the reptilian part of our brain that helps us respond to threat by raising our blood pressure and heart rate. Our brain’s ability to inhibit that response is much slower. When our heart rates go up, we are less able to regulate our emotional response. When we act on fear or anger, our brains shift from inhibiting our violent behavior to justifying it: we were in danger. The other person was asking for it.
The logic of violence is also natural ally of racism and white supremacy. It has entered every facet of our lives and affects everyone in our country, regardless of race or socio-economic status. It has also entered our schools.
We can see the logic of coercive force played out in the recent video of a school officer wrestling an African-American young woman to the ground in a classroom. Asked to turn over her phone, she refuses. The teacher calls another administrator, who calls the sheriff’s deputy. The deputy treats the young woman like a criminal, flipping her to the floor and then handcuffing her while other students record the incident on their phones.
This event illustrates the logic of violence, which is applied disproportionately to black people in our country. The logic of violence has three principles:
Compliance is mandatory.
If someone will not comply, you must escalate the use of force to gain compliance.
The threat of force will result in greater compliance.
All three of these principles are wrong.
1) First, compliance is not mandatory. Most of us, during the day, do not comply completely with authority. We speed on the highway, we ride bikes on the sidewalk, we roll through stop signs, we trespass to take a shortcut. If police enforced every infraction with indiscriminate force, most of the population would be in prison.
As a parent, what I want from discipline is a high rate of compliance from my child. I want respect. Sometimes, if my child does not comply with my request, I will escalate by imposing consequences for bad behavior or noncompliance. But escalation is not always the best choice. Sometimes ignoring the behavior or talking through a conflict is the best option.
In the Arbinger Institute’s book The Anatomy Of Peace, the authors describe an intervention into the families of troubled kids. When one young woman runs away barefoot, two other counselors allow her to run away, but follow her — after taking off their own shoes. Their goal is to demonstrate to her that they will respond to her out of love and solidarity, to literally go through what she was going through — in order to restore her to her family and community. The philosophy in the book has been used in countless churches and businesses to talk about conflict resolution and respecting the personhood of others.
When I see the video of the young woman assaulted by the deputy, I can’t help but imagine other more creative responses to noncompliance that would respect her personhood. The class could have adjourned and moved outside. The teacher could have chosen to ignore her. The administrator could have taken her out for ice cream.
Most people who object to alternative strategies of engaging the young woman talk about the “rights” of the students to their education, or wasting the teacher’s time, or the unfairness of spending time on one troubled teen at the expense of the class. All of these ignore the real damage done to the class by this incident through the escalation of force.
When someone I love is sullen or disrespectful to me, I do not punch them or flip them over. Ideally, I first respond with compassion. I sit down and have a meal and a conversation with them. In other words, I treat them like a human being worthy of my respect. People who object to “rewarding” noncompliance miss the point. Certainly, if an adult demonstrates a pattern of rude or aggressive behavior, I will cut off a relationship. But the first step to gaining respect is showing respect.
But this is the logic of violence: If one person is allowed to disobey, more will disobey. Therefore coercive force must be used to ensure compliance.
This is a lie. Behavior modification techniques have often been used in classrooms that do not require the use of coercive force. The idea that more people will disobey if one disobeys, or that it is somehow “unfair” to the students who don’t comply, assumes that children are like rats in a box pushing levers to get rewards — or like prisoners who must be controlled.
2) The second principle of the language of violence is that escalation will result in compliance. This is a lie that no one believes, though it is practically gospel in the self-justification of violence. The officer in the video expects the result he gets. He asks a nearby student to move. He knows where this is headed. This is the same logic we have seen in countless police violence videos where the result is known before escalation begins.
Nearly all defenses of police violence place faith in this concept of escalation of force: “If you do not comply, you will be taken to the ground.” Since compliance is not expected, violence is a foregone conclusion.
This idea ignores the escalating physiological event that happens when human beings have a conflict. Two human beings having an argument can get their heart rates up to 120 beats per minute. At that point, neither is making rational decisions. Coercive force becomes inevitable. If firearms are present, they will be used as either threat or killing tool.
Escalation does not lead to compliance. It leads to more escalation. It is like a feedback loop, the fear of one person fueling the anger of the other.
If compliance is really the goal, then de-escalation often has more potential to work. The human brain needs time and space to inhibit a fight-or-flight response. A teenager who will not relinquish a phone has already escalated and is not acting rationally. They have chosen sullen aggression. The application of force is not going to make them become rational or teach them anything positive.
I know that there are police officers who have the hearts of social workers, who take the time to patiently de-escalate a situation, to use their words. These people do not often get recorded and praised on social media. And certainly, there are times when clear danger requires an escalation of force. But what we see happen in a classroom, or in the recent video of another policeman assaulting a young woman at a public pool, is an example of a failure of emotional regulation. These men let their amygdalas run away with them. They escalated instead of de-escalating.
Statistics show that black people are subjected to this escalation of force at a disproportionate rate. Apologists for violence often claim that there is no racial component to this escalation, that it is simply the natural outcome of a natural and logical process. The data do not bear out this claim.
3) This brings us to the third principle of the logic of violence, which is that the threat of violence will result in greater compliance in the future. Pulling out a belt and threatening to whip a child for sassing back is not going to lead to more respectful language in the future. Flipping a child over in her desk is not going to lead her to respect her teacher more, nor will it teach the other students respect for authority. Cracking down on minor lawbreaking (broken windows policing) is not going to increase our security as a society.
The threat of violence instead leads to passive-aggressive behavior, a thousand little irritations of boundary-pushing resistance. It leads to cynicism about authority, and rejection of the values that authority claims to wield.
Soon after the student murders at Columbine, the Louisiana legislature proposed a bill in 1999 that would require kids to address teachers as “ma’am” and “sir.” One legislator proposed an amendment that would also require teachers to address their students as ma’am and sir. This amendment was struck down, because what the legislators were after was not building a community of respect, but reinforcing hierarchies of distinction between who has power and who does not. Students subject to violent coercion understand that respect means something different to those with power than it does to those without.
As Christians, we desperately need to recognize and call out the faulty and sinful logic of violence. We worship a Lord who said, “take up your cross,” not “take up your sword.” God gains our obedience and our trust not through coercive force, but by solidarity with us in our suffering.
The authoritarian violence present in schools, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the systemic racism of police violence in our country are all tied together. The logic of violence is part and parcel of the racial history of our country. If we are to be the church and resist evil, oppression and injustice in whatever forms they present themselves, we have an obligation to name and criticize the logic of violence. We also have an obligation to replace it with different values that will affect how we do parenting, teaching and law enforcement.
Dave Barnhart is the pastor of Saint Junia UMC in Birmingham, Ala.
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Embracing our lack of control
By Billy Doidge KilgoreI triple-check stove knobs before leaving the house, recount pages in stapled assignments and proofread text messages long after hitting the send button. At my worst, in the middle of the night, I lie awake debating whether or not I closed the garage door. My desire for control pervades my daily life; it ranges from stove knobs to completing tax forms to remaining hydrated. I desire control so much I decided my best way to cope was to father a child.
“Parenting is like wearing your heart outside your body for the rest of your life,” a friend warned. My son’s birth created an unprecedented test for my inner control freak. While he rested in my palms, I experienced a new level of vulnerability. I felt a complete loss of control.
As my son developed from sleepy infant to wide-eyed toddler, my need for control was further challenged. My son hurls himself off furniture, launches into walls and bangs his head against hard surfaces. He does these daring activities with a smile on his face.
Children are like little mirrors. My son's wild exploration of the world reflects back to me my control-seeking behavior. He reveals to me my own issues, weaknesses and unresolved problems. I do not raise him to provide myself with accountability, but it comes with the package.
I like to think my compulsive need to control his environment is a noble act — a sign of a good father— but I know there is more going on inside me. The 25 pound mirror in front of me reveals a larger picture. He shatters my illusion of control.
The truth is I want to prevent my son from experiencing pain because I don’t want to be reminded of my own vulnerability. I don’t want to face the reality of my own fragile nature. I don’t want to face the reality of living in a harsh world, a world where I am not in control and at risk of pain and suffering. This is an unpleasant reality that my furniture-climbing toddler forces into my awareness.
Children are often unexpected teachers, miniature prophets speaking truths we can no longer see. “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs,” Jesus announces. He spoke these words to his disciples, who questioned the presence of children. The disciples, like us, often need to be reminded to remove the barriers between ourselves and the innocent, clear eyes of children.
What do the children in your presence reveal? If you listen closely and observe their actions, they might reflect back to you the places within your heart where spiritual growth is needed. Children have a knack for exposing our blind sides — the ways we deny, manipulate and seek control. They disclose our attempts to force life into our own hands.
Recently, at nap time, I noticed my son’s small stomach rising and falling in a beautiful rhythm. Of course, he was unconscious and relying on his body’s autonomous systems to perform the essential act of breathing. In that moment, it dawned on me how little control I have over his life. I can pour endless energy into carrying out his best interests, but ultimately his existence is in the hands of the God who created his beautiful stomach. My son is given to me not to control, but to receive as a divine gift. And the best way to respond to a gift is appreciation, not control.
Loosening a tight grip on life can feel like a step into darkness, but the good news is when we embrace our lack of control, we make room for God to work in our lives. A new space is formed within our hearts. A space where we can relinquish our petty control attempts, and place our lives (and our loved ones) in God’s hands, where they belong.
Billy Doidge Kilgore blogs at BillyKilgore.com.
New Presiding Bishop urges Episcopalians to join ‘Jesus movement’
By Adelle M. Banks / Religion News ServiceWASHINGTON (RNS) After knocking loudly three times on the door of the Washington National Cathedral, Bishop Michael Curry was installed as the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church Sunday (Nov. 1), the first African-American to lead the 2.5 million-member denomination.
Curry preached on how his father was moved to become an Episcopalian after watching a church welcome his then-fiancee to drink from the common Communion cup in the often-segregated 1940s.
“The Holy Spirit has done evangelism and racial reconciliation before in the Episcopal Church,” he told a congregation of almost 2,500. But he added: “God is not finished with this church. God has work for us to do. Jesus has shown us the way and we are the Jesus movement, so my brothers and sisters, walk together, children, don’t you get weary.”
The service of almost three hours encompassed the traditions of the church and the diversity Curry, 62, is encouraging it to embrace. He was elected during an unprecedented first ballot at the church's General Convention this summer after serving 15 years as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina.
When church leaders, including his predecessor, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, welcomed him into the door of the cathedral, Curry declared himself a “child of God, baptized in St. Simon of Cyrene Church,” the Maywood, Ill., congregation where his father served as a priest.
He then used boxwood fronds to sprinkle the worshippers with holy water to remind them of their baptism. Instrumentalists later played Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.”
A dashiki-clad gospel choir from a Philadelphia Episcopal church sang its rocking rendition of Bill Gaither’s “He Touched Me.” Piscataway Indians drummed and chanted as 150 bishops processed into the cathedral and Scriptures were later read in Spanish and Lakota. Catholic, Jewish and Muslim faith leaders took turns offering prayers of blessing for Curry.
In his sermon, in which he quoted Charles Dickens, Bobby McFerrin (“Don’t worry, be happy”), and Jesus, Curry gave a new interpretation of the Good Samaritan story. He noted that a Muslim might be the one to care for a person in need.
"Or change it even more: A police officer was beaten and wounded and it was an African-American young man or a Latino young man or woman who brought healing," he said.
Bishop Michael Bruce Curry stands with Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori after his Installation ceremony, at the Washington National Cathedral, November 1, 2015. Photo courtesy Reuters/Mike Theiler
At the same convention where Curry was elected, the Episcopal Church voted to make marriage liturgies available to same-sex couples across the church while protecting the conscience of clergy who oppose such ceremonies.
A supporter of LGBT rights, Curry has said he nevertheless intends to keep his denomination open to those who may not share his perspective.
“I really do believe that when Jesus said ‘go make disciples of all nations,’ ‘all’ really meant all,” he told Religion News Service in a recent interview. “That means traditionalists and progressives.”
The Rev. Todd R. Dill, rector of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Waxhaw, N.C., was among the theologically conservative Episcopalians who attested to Curry's inclusive nature. Though he and Curry differ on the issue of marriage, he said they agree on feeding the hungry, caring for the marginalized and preaching the gospel.
“I believe that Bishop Curry's fervor for the Lord has shaped his faith and his leadership and has uniquely positioned him as a unifying and reconciling voice during these deeply divided times,” said Dill. “He has done that in North Carolina and it is my prayer that he can help bring this sense of unity to our national church and our international communion.”
Members of the Union of Black Episcopalians, who have called Curry’s election their “Obama moment,” hosted a vigil Saturday at the D.C. Armory, allowing more people to celebrate his installation. That group also provided a live-stream of the installation on large screens at the same location as dozens of churches held viewing parties across the country.
Annette Buchanan, president of the Union of Black Episcopalians, said about 2,000 people, mostly black Episcopalians, gathered for the vigil.
“But in addition to that it was a rainbow of people from across our church — every culture, every ethnicity participated in the service,” she said. “It absolutely embodies what he stands for, which is the whole church being reconciled to Christ.”
Bishop Anne Hodges-Copple, suffragan bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, said Curry’s focus on evangelism will bridge divides in the nationwide church.
“The Episcopal Church has never been cold but I think that Bishop Curry turns up the heat,” she said. “He takes the fear factor out of evangelism.”
Curry informed those gathered that the ceremony was less about him and more about them becoming part of what he calls the “Jesus movement.”
“That’s why we are here,” he told them. “That movement turns the world upside down.”
Why you shouldn't have a contract marriage
By David DornWant a better marriage? Don't treat your marriage like a contract … instead view it as a covenant.
Related link: re|engage Marriage Enrichment
David Dorn is the Lead Contemporary Pastor for Marvin United Methodist Church in Tyler, Texas. He is also the author of “Reclaiming Anger,” “Under Wraps Youth Study” and the founder of The PREPOSTEROUS Project.
The power of God without the character of God
By David F. WatsonLast year I was at a conference where Larry Randolph was one of the speakers, and he said something that I’ve been ruminating over ever since. He said that he was praying against revival in the United States. This seemed like a very odd statement from someone who is a part of a charismatic revival movement associated with the likes of Randy Clark and Bill Johnson. His point, however, was that we simply aren’t ready for revival. We’re arrogant. As he put it, “We want the power of God without the character of God.”
Ouch.
Randolph may very well be right. We want people to come back to the churches. We want to see our ministries grow, whether in local churches, seminaries or parachurch organizations. We want cultural influence. But are we willing to humble ourselves to do this?
We certainly want the power of God, but are we willing to take on the attributes of God’s character? Yes, God is indeed all-powerful, but the expression of God’s power comes through attributes of God’s character. As a Christian, I take the character of God to be most fully revealed in the cross, in the act ofkenosis–emptying–about which we read in Philippians 2:5-11. The cross is an expression of self-giving love, humility, and unmerited kindness. It demonstrates a willingness to set aside selfish ambition and pride. As God says to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My power is made perfect in weakness.”
Are we willing to put aside ambition, selfish desire, the love of wealth, the desire for notoriety?
Are we willing to be looked down upon for Christ and for other people?
Are we willing to live with less so that others can have enough?
Are we willing to become “weak” so that we can truly experience God’s power? God’s power and God’s character cannot be separated. So if we want the power of God, we had better be ready to assume the character of God.
"Portrait of John Wesley" by William Hamilton, 1788
You may already be familiar with John Wesley’s “covenant prayer.” This prayer, if you really consider its words, is a bit intimidating. It is a total release of control of our lives to God. It is total surrender to the divine will. That is a hard prayer to pray. And yet, Christ never said that life as his follower would be easy. He said quite the opposite. I would encourage you, then, to make this prayer a regular part of your prayer life. It is way of asking God to form our hearts and character in ways that match God’s heart and character:
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
I yearn for renewal and revival in North America, but I think Randolph has hit the nail on the head: We can’t truly pray for the power of God without a willingness to accept the character of God.
David F. Watson blogs at davidfwatson.me.
Review: The Surprising Imagination of C.S. Lewis
By Drew McIntyreA key to understanding the widely-varied C.S. Lewis corpus is to apprehend his astounding use of imagination. Lewis described himself as chiefly an “imaginative man” in 1955, more so than a critic or religious writer. Authors Jerry Root and Mark Neal ground their work in this insight in their fascinating new bookThe Surprising Imagination of C.S. Lewis: An Introduction.
Newly published from Abingdon, Root and Neal provide a work that is simultaneously an introduction to Lewis’ major works and a substantive argument about the animating source of his writing. Their aim is to demonstrate that “through Lewis’s autobiography, children’s stories, science fiction, poetry, religious work … and literary criticism than an intentional use of the imagination is always at work.” (xvii) Thus there is plenty to chew on here both for the lifelong Lewis aficionado and an excellent introduction for those looking for an overview as they begin to treat with the Oxford don.
The authors follow a common pattern throughout. They have selected a handful of Lewis’s most-used forms of imagination and describe them, chapter by chapter, by giving an overview of a representative work and explicating how it uses that particular kind of imagination. For instance, the authors argue that “shared imagination” is especially evident in Lewis’s apologetic masterpiece, Mere Christianity. Referring to the famous “Lord, liar, or lunatic” argument regarding the identity of Jesus, Root and Neal point out that Lewis here uses an Augustinian strategy to build his case. This displays a sense of shared imagination about the basic content of Christian faith (the purposes of Mere Christianity) by using a shared (that is, classic) observation from one of the faith’s great teachers. In the course of that chapter, the reader is both introduced to the content of Mere Christianityand given a sense of how shared imagination functions within. This basic flow marks all the other chapters as well. I especially enjoyed the chapter on The Great Divorce (a personal favorite) and transforming imagination, and found myself wanting to dig into the Space Trilogy after reading the author’s examination ofOut of the Silent Planet.
The authors highlight Lewis’s varied uses of imagination throughout, but are quick to point out that their work is only an introduction to something quite pronounced in their subject’s writings. An appendix includes a large number of other forms of imagining and suggestions about where to find them. In the end, a nod to Lewis’s children’s literature speaks volumes about the importance of this subject to Lewis and all those who would appreciate his full body of work: “Lewis, by using his imagination,” they note, “brings his readers into other worlds, much like Aslan brought children into his world.” (194) They point out that Lewis uses imagination with a mastery reminiscent of the earliest Christian exegetes, those Mothers and Fathers who pioneered to analogical reading of Scripture centuries ago.
That insight is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest Christian thinkers of the last century, who continues to aid readers both to live and articulate their faith decades after his death. The Christian imagination has been enriched by the imagination of C.S. Lewis, and this new offering is a delightful exploration of and a helpful introduction to a modern master who will continue to illumine our journey toward God for decades yet to come.
Thanks to Abingdon Press for providing a copy of this book for review.
Drew McIntyre blogs at Uniting Grace and co-hosts the WesleyCast.
This Sunday, November 8, 2015
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost: Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17; Psalm 127 (or Psalm 42); Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
This Week's Lectionary
24th Sunday after Pentecost/in Kingdomtide – Green
Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17
Psalm 127 or Psalm 42
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44
24th Sunday after Pentecost/in Kingdomtide – Green
Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17
Psalm 127 or Psalm 42
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44
Lectionary Readings:
Sunday, 8 November 2015
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
Psalm 127, (19-22)
Mark 12:38-44
Sunday, 8 November 2015
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
Psalm 127, (19-22)
Mark 12:38-44
Lectionary Texts:
Unless Adonai guards the city,
the guard keeps watch in vain.
2 In vain do you get up early
and put off going to bed,
working hard to earn a living;
for he provides for his beloved,
Ruth 3:1 Na‘omi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, I should be seeking security for you; so that things will go well with you. 2 Now there’s Bo‘az our relative — you were with his girls. He’s going to be winnowing barley tonight at the threshing-floor. 3 So bathe, anoint yourself, put on your good clothes, and go down to the threshing-floor; but don’t reveal your presence to the man until he’s finished eating and drinking. 4 Then, when he lies down, take note of where he’s lying; later, go in, uncover his feet, and lie down. He will tell you what to do.” 5 She responded, “I will do everything you tell me.”
4:13 So Bo‘az took Rut, and she became his wife. He had sexual relations with her, Adonai enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 Then the women said to Na‘omi, “Blessed be Adonai, who today has provided you a redeemer! May his name be renowned in Isra’el. 15 May he restore your life and provide for your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” 16 Na‘omi took the child, laid it on her breast and became its nurse. 17 The women who were her neighbors gave it a name; they said, “A son has been born to Na‘omi,” and called it ‘Oved. He was the father of Yishai the father of David.
Psalm 127: (0) A song of ascents. By Shlomo:
(1) Unless Adonai builds the house,
its builders work in vain.Unless Adonai guards the city,
the guard keeps watch in vain.
2 In vain do you get up early
and put off going to bed,
working hard to earn a living;
for he provides for his beloved,
even when they sleep.
3 Children too are a gift from Adonai;
the fruit of the womb is a reward.
4 The children born when one is young.
are like arrows in the hand of a warrior.
5 How blessed is the man
who has filled his quiver with them;
he will not have to be embarrassed
when contending with foes at the city gate.19-22
Mark 12:38 As he taught them, he said, “Watch out for the kind of Torah-teachers who like to walk around in robes and be greeted deferentially in the marketplaces, 39 who like to have the best seats in the synagogues and take the places of honor at banquets, 40 who like to swallow up widows’ houses while making a show of davvening at great length. Their punishment will be all the worse!”
41 Then Yeshua sat down opposite the Temple treasury and watched the crowd as they put money into the offering-boxes. Many rich people put in large sums, 42 but a poor widow came and put in two small coins. 43 He called his talmidim to him and said to them, “Yes! I tell you, this poor widow has put more in the offering-box than all the others making donations. 44 For all of them, out of their wealth, have contributed money they can easily spare; but she, out of her poverty, has given everything she had to live on.”
John Wesley's Notes-Commentary for Ruth 3:1-5
Verse 1
[1] Then Naomi her mother in law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?
Rest — A life of rest, and comfort, and safety, under the care of a good husband.
Verse 2
[2] And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to night in the threshingfloor.
Threshing-floor — Which was in a place covered at the top, but open elsewhere, whither Ruth might easily come. And this work of winnowing corn was usually ended with a feast.
Verse 3
[3] Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor: but make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking.
Raiment — Thy best raiment.
Known — In so familiar a way, as thou mayest do hereafter.
Verse 4
[4] And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thee down; and he will tell thee what thou shalt do.
Uncover his feet — Remove the clothes that were upon his feet; thereby to awaken him.
Will tell thee — What course thou shalt take to obtain that marriage which belongs unto thee.
4:13-17
Verse 13
[13] So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son.
Took Ruth — Which he might do, though she was a Moabite, because the prohibition against marrying such, is to be restrained to those who continue Heathens; whereas Ruth was a sincere proselyte and convert to the God of Israel. Thus he that forsakes all for Christ, shall find more than all with him.
Verse 14
[14] And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.
Which hath not, … — The words may be rendered, Which hath not made, or suffered thy kinsman to fail thee; that is, to refuse the performances of his duty to thee and thine, as the other kinsman did.
Famous — Heb. and his name shall be famous in Israel, for this noble and worthy action.
Verse 15
[15] And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.
Thy life — That is, of the comfort of thy life.
Born him — Or, hath born to him; that is, to thy kinsman a son.
Better than seven sons — See how God sometimes makes up the want of those relations from whom we expected most comfort, in those from whom we expected least! The bonds of love prove stronger than those of nature.
Verse 17
[17] And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
A name — That is, they gave her advice about his name; for otherwise they had no power or right to do so.
Obed — A servant, to thee, to nourish, and comfort, and assist thee; which duty children owe to their progenitors.
Psalm 127
Verse 1
[1] Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
Build — Assist and bless those that build it.
Verse 2
[2] It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
You — Builders, or watchmen.
To sit — To use constant and unwearied diligence.
So — By his blessing.
Giveth — Freely, without that immoderate toiling, wherewith others pursue it.
Verse 3
[3] Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Children — The chief of these blessings.
Heritage — Only from God's blessing, even as an inheritance is not the fruit of a man's own labour, but the gift of God.
Verse 4
[4] As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
Youth — These he prefers before other children, because they live longest with their parents, and to their comfort and support, whereas children born in old age seldom come to maturity before their parents death.
Verse 5
[5] Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
Full — Who hath a numerous issue.
Shall speak — They shall courageously plead their cause in courts of judicature, not fearing to be crushed by the might of their adversaries.
(19-22)
Mark 12:38-44
Verse 38
[38] And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces,
Beware of the scribes — There was an absolute necessity for these repeated cautions. For, considering their inveterate prejudices against Christ, it could never be supposed the common people would receive the Gospel till these incorrigible blasphemers of it were brought to just disgrace. Yet he delayed speaking in this manner till a little before his passion, as knowing what effect it would quickly produce. Nor is this any precedent for us: we are not invested with the same authority. Matthew 23:5; Luke 20:46.
Verse 41
[41] And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.
He beheld how people cast money into the treasury — This treasury received the voluntary contributions of the worshippers who came up to the feast; which were given to buy wood for the altar, and other necessaries not provided for in any other way. Luke 21:1.
Verse 43
[43] And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:
I say to you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all — See what judgement is cast on the most specious, outward actions by the Judge of all! And how acceptable to him is the smallest, which springs from self-denying love!
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Upper Room Ministries
PO Box 340004
Nashville, Tennessee 37203-0004 United States
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Sermon Story "" by Gary Lee Parker for Sunday, 7 November 2015 with Scripture: Ruth 3:1 Na‘omi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, I should be seeking security for you; so that things will go well with you. 2 Now there’s Bo‘az our relative — you were with his girls. He’s going to be winnowing barley tonight at the threshing-floor. 3 So bathe, anoint yourself, put on your good clothes, and go down to the threshing-floor; but don’t reveal your presence to the man until he’s finished eating and drinking. 4 Then, when he lies down, take note of where he’s lying; later, go in, uncover his feet, and lie down. He will tell you what to do.” 5 She responded, “I will do everything you tell me.”
4:13 So Bo‘az took Rut, and she became his wife. He had sexual relations with her, Adonai enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 Then the women said to Na‘omi, “Blessed be Adonai, who today has provided you a redeemer! May his name be renowned in Isra’el. 15 May he restore your life and provide for your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” 16 Na‘omi took the child, laid it on her breast and became its nurse. 17 The women who were her neighbors gave it a name; they said, “A son has been born to Na‘omi,” and called it ‘Oved. He was the father of Yishai the father of David.
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As we continue and remember the story of Ruth and Naomi, we realize that through the intervention of God in Naomi, Ruth was able to become the wife of their closest relative and become pregnant. As the time was fulfilled, the son was born which Naomi placed on her lap. The neighbor women came in and gave praise to God for God hearing Naomi and her plight and answering her. The women happen to say that Ruth was better to Naomi than 10 sons and the name Obed was given to the baby boy. The women continued to praise God and happened to also say that this boy will become famous in all of Israel. We read the ending of Ruth that Obed became the father of Jesse and Jesse became the father of David. What an answer to praise? How do you relate to this story and the way God answered prayers? What has happened in your life where God unexpectantly answered a prayer to an impossible dream or action? This remains me of stories of parents who gave birth to a child with disabilities whether severe or not. There were one set of parents who had a son with severe disabilities and they visited a new church plant. The pastor came to visit them to see if they would be back, but the parents said they would not because they were caring for a son with severe disabilities. The pastor after praying with the parents when back to the church office asking the staff what they could do to assist these parents. The idea they came up with was called Angel Care which is where a volunteer will take care of the child with disabilites while the parents would worship in their Sunday School class and the communal worship. As a result of this activity, a ministry was begun to assist other parents with children with disabilities. This ministry as developed into a weekday ministry where the people with disabilities would be assisted to make and bake baked goods to sell with the proceeds going to local and global missions. Than there was a group of children with disabilities who were gathered to begin a bell choir which sounded as good as the regular adult bell choir. Now, there is even an opportunity for the people who are disabled to study through a confirmation class to be confirmed as full members of the church while being baptized if they have not been baptized before. This action is consistent with the pastor's churches vision statement to reach the nominally and non-religious to allow them to become disciples of Jesus as well as to renew the United States churches to be vital and growing in the communities to tansform communities to be loving and caring. We come to realize that we need to receive God's power in this endeavor as come and eat the Body of Jesus and drink His Blood througn our participation in The Holy Sacrament of The Holy Eucharist. We come to receive God's blessings singing the hymn "IF WE ARE THE BODY" by Casting Crowns
1. It's crowded in worship today
As she slips in trying to fade into the faces
The girls teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know
Farther than they know
But if we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
As she slips in trying to fade into the faces
The girls teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know
Farther than they know
But if we are the body
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
There is a way
2. A traveler is far away from home
He sheds his coat and quietly sinks into the back row
The weight of their judgmental glances
Tells him that his chances are better out on the road
But if we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
3. Jesus paid much too high a price
For us to pick and choose who should come
And we are the body of Christ
If we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
If we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
Jesus is the way
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WORSHIPFUL GIVING by Chris J. Hayes … read more
Mark 12:38-44
Jesus’ teaching refocuses our attention to what should be important in life. Too often we allow the riches and treasures of this world to consume our thoughts and actions. We come to believe, even those of us in the church, that the most important thing is making a name for ourselves and receiving praise from others. The scribes were not bad people. They were not heathens living lives that directly disobeyed the commandments. In fact, they were part of the organized church and were religious leaders of the day. But the scribes lost focus and began to find significance in egofilling activities among the people. Jesus condemns them and states that they devour the most helpless and hopeless of society. The church, and the leadership thereof, must always be careful not to fall into this trap of egocentrism.
The good news of this text is that Jesus then gives guidance as to how one might remember what the correct focus of life is and how we might store up treasure in heaven. Put in twenty-first-century terms, Jesus sits down and watches the morning collection plate pass down the aisle, and he notices a women sitting at the end of a pew. She really does not fit into the affluent congregation in this particular city, and she seems a bit out of place. What is amazing about this woman is that she does not seem to notice that she does not fit in with the crowd around her. She is there to worship, and her eyes, heart, and spirit are focused only on God. When the offering plate passes by her side, she might have noticed that the plate itself probably cost more than she made all week, but she faithfully puts all that she has into the plate, out of worship for God.
Giving must be an act of worship, and worship must involve the giving of ourselves to God. The story of the poor widow is in many ways a tragedy, because the one the church should have been helping is putting everything that she has into an organization that has leaders who “devour widows’ houses;” but in another way, this is a story of worship. This is a story that reminds us that the institution and the society can never determine our path of worship. Worship must be about our total devotion and trust given to God, who has first given everything to us. A time set aside for worship is really about stewardship. Stewardship of what God has given to us and how we can best put those gifts to use by giving them back to God through worship.
In the truest form of worship, we follow the example of the poor widow by giving our all to God. This is why there should never be a worship service where two or more are gathered when voices are not raised to God in praise. This is why there should not be financial struggles within the ministry of God. This is why all persons should feel welcome inside the church, because the church is not about us, it is about us pouring ourselves out before God. Emptying ourselves of everything the world has to offer and giving back to God what is rightfully God’s. God does not demand that we give one hundred percent of our earnings back, like the widow in Mark’s account did; but God does show that we should be giving enough back to God that we become totally dependent on God’s grace, and not our own abilities.
Perhaps the greatest act of worship I have been privileged to see came from a humble woman who wandered into the church building late one Thursday afternoon, in the middle of a very hot August. She came in quietly and hardly made herself known. She wandered into the sanctuary and, I found out later, prayed there for quite some time. At the end of her prayer, she placed something on the communion table and walked out of the building. When I found the envelope later that evening, I read the short note attached to a five dollar bill that said, “Thank you, God, for giving me so much in life. I have enough to eat today, I have a roof over my head tonight, and I think I will have a place to work in the morning. I hope this money can help another find the same goodness that I have found.” There was no signature at the end of the note, and I had not seen the women long enough to know if I recognized her; but a church member told me later that as he was serving breakfast at the local night shelter, he had had an interesting conversation with a nice young women who told him that she felt very close to God. He asked her why she felt so close to God, especially in her difficult situation, without a home or much to live on. She went on to tell the church member a story about how she was able to give back to God by putting a little money in an envelope at the church just down the street, because God had first given it to her. She stated that it was the single most rewarding experience of her life, to be able to give back to God for all of the protection and goodness God had given her.
Too often we do not see the goodness that God has given to us, and like the scribes, we become a bit self-absorbed. The good news of Jesus Christ is that no matter who we are and no matter what our life situation might be, we have been given love and grace that we can offer back to God in worship. Even when there is no monetary value to what we are giving, God knows it is valuable, and like Jesus’ reaction to the poor widow, our gift of true worship will be seen as very precious in the sight of God.
WORSHIP ELEMENTS: NOVEMBER 8, 2015 by Shari Jackson Monson… read more
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost
COLOR: Green
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17; Psalm 127 (or Psalm 42); Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
THEME IDEAS
Can you imagine coming to worship as a widow who is ready to give her last dime for the sake of the cross? Imagine the cost of her devotion. Today is about honoring the sacrifice of both the widow and her savior. Our themes from scripture include: accepting the values of God’s kingdom; releasing the grasp of our culture; learning to give out of our abundance; and nourishing our souls with the hope that comes from God, through crying out in honest, searching prayer. The psalmist in particular reminds us that all human activity has no value outside of God’s economy — be it the securing of housing, the protection of cities, or providing for families. We can rest in these assurances: God builds, God protects, God provides.
INVITATION AND GATHERING
Call to Worship (Psalm 42)
Our souls long for you, O God.
When shall we behold your face?
Our souls are uneasy.
When shall hope lead us to praise you again?
During the day, your steadfast love sustains us.
During the night, your song washes over us.
Our hope leads us to praise you.
We praise you, our song of hope.
Opening Prayer (Ruth 3–4, Psalm 127)
Lord,
we come into your house
as people seeking a heritage.
We need your provision in our lives,
just as you provided
for your daughter Ruth.
A foreigner without status,
you gave her a home,
a family, and a heritage.
Your provision is enough;
it is all we need.
Bring us into your heritage
and form us into your people,
mighty God, restorer of our lives!
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
Prayer of Confession (Mark 12)
Lord of all,
the nations are yours.
The poor are your treasured ones—
widows, orphans, the aliens you protect.
Your justice reigns over all.
Forgive us when our ways
devour your beloved.
We don’t mean to cause harm,
yet we do.
Forgive us when we consume
more than our fair share,
all the while knowing
that our excesses deny the poor
the things they need to live.
Forgive us for building bigger closets,
and not clothing the naked.
Forgive us for vacationing in leisure,
when multitudes long simply for rest.
Hear our prayer, Holy One.
May your justice and grace
reign forever. Amen.
Words of Assurance (Hebrews 9)
We long to mend our ways.
Christ can bear these sins
for all who eagerly wait for him.
His sacrifice on our behalf,
his grace toward us,
washes us anew.
Passing the Peace of Christ
Family members of the risen Lord, it’s time for a reunion! Turn to your Christian brothers and sisters and pass the peace of Christ.
Response to the Word
(Consider giving everyone a dime, today’s widow’s mite, at the conclusion of the service. Remind the congregation, prior to the benediction, of the relative “cheapness” of this token remembrance gift. In Tanzania, for example, this would purchase clean drinking water for one day and equate to 30 percent of one’s wages. A widow’s mite—it is costly to bear the truth of God’s economy.)
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
Invitation to the Offering
O Lord,
you graciously pour out your blessings on us.
Your gifts surround us.
Despite our abundance,
help us see the widow’s gift,
for we long to give as she did,
gladly giving all she had.
All we have
is a gift from your hand.
Help us loosen our hands,
giving to work of this church on your behalf,
for in giving freely to you,
we gain the opportunity
to live abundant lives!
Offering Prayer or Communion Prayer or Great Thanksgiving
Take this, the gifts of our hands,
and the enterprise of our families,
and bless and multiply them
for the sake of your kingdom alone. Amen.
SENDING FORTH
Benediction
To live as God’s people of abundance,
while not giving in to the pull of our culture,
you’re going to need the power
of the Holy Spirit.
Lift your hands and hearts,
in the name of the Father, who sustains us,
and the Son, who instructs us,
and the Spirit, who leads us.
Go forth to love and serve the Lord—
the one who loves the widow and the orphan.
Sing the Lord’s song of hope in dry lands!
CONTEMPORARY OPTIONS
Contemporary Gathering Words (Psalm 42)
My soul thirsts for you, O God.
Lord, be my provision.
We are without comfort and are lost.
Lord, be our guide.
Your people long to know your hope.
Lord, be our song.
We come to worship you, Lord of all!
From “The Abingdon Worship Annual 2009,” edited by Mary J. Scifres and B.J. Beu, Copyright © 2008 by Abingdon Press. “The Abingdon Worship Annual 2016” is now available.
WORSHIP CONNECTION: NOVEMBER 8, 2015 by Nancy C. Townley… read more
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost
COLOR: Green
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17; Psalm 127 (or Psalm 42); Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
CALLS TO WORSHIP
Call to Worship #1
L: Come, take your rest this day
P: Lord, free us from the stresses we have endured this week.
L: Come, put your minds at ease.
P: Lord, ease the burdens and frustrations of our lives.
L: Come. For this is the house of the Lord. It is here that you will find peace.
P: Praise and thanks be to God for giving us sanctuary. AMEN.
Call to Worship #2
L: What to you bring before the Lord this day?
P: We bring our hopes and our dreams to the Lord
L: What do you seek?
P: We seek peace for our weary souls.
L: You will find it in this place, for this is the house of the Lord.
P: Open our hearts and our spirits, O Lord, to hear your words of comfort and peace. AMEN.
Call to Worship #3
[Using the United Methodist Hymnal, p. 87 "What Gift Can We Bring," offer the following call to worship as directed below]
L: Welcome to the house of the Lord!
P: We have come here from lives that are burdened and stressed.
L: Bring your hearts that are lonely and here find hope and peace.
Choir: Singing verse 1 of "What Gift Can We Bring"
L: Find in this place welcome, peace, and hope. All given by God who loves you.
P: We feel welcome here. It is here that we can offer our gifts and our service to God..
Choir: Singing verse 4 of "What Gift Can We Bring"
Call to Worship #4
L: What joy it is to have you here today!
P: We have come from very busy lives, filled both with joys and difficulties.
L: Welcome to this place in which God will ease your burdens and celebrate your joys with you.
P: We have come to find hope and peace in our lives.
L: Whatever has happened this week in your life, know that God is with you and offering you peace, rest and blessing.
P: Thanks be to God who accepts us as we are, and thanks for the warm welcome in this service of worship. AMEN.
PRAYERS, LITANY, BENEDICTION
Opening Prayer
Lord, we have come to you this day bringing all that we have, our lives, our hopes and dreams, our fears and sorrows. We place these before you in faith and hope, knowing that no matter what has happened you are with us and blessing us. Open our hearts to receive your words and your spirit, that we may find healing and comfort. Open our lives to the wondrous possibilities for service and joy that you offer to us. Ease our minds and spirits that we may hear the words of encouragement and peace this day. AMEN.
Prayer of Confession
Gracious God, so often we look at ourselves, our gifts and our talents, and wonder what you would do with these offerings. We don't think that we have much to give. So, far too many times, we belittle the gifts and turn our backs on the needs and opportunities present to serve, believing that our gifts cannot possibly make a difference. We think that we must possess the greatest of talents and wealth in order to truly please and serve you. How foolish we are! Forgive us when we stop listening to your healing and comforting words and focus on our anxieties. Heal us, Lord. Help us know that you have given to us such blessings and that these blessings are truly wonderful and meant to be used to joy and service to others. Help us to bring our lives, just as they are, to you and to receive your gentle touch and healing grace. For we ask this in Jesus' Name. AMEN.
Words of Assurance
God has given to each one of us such blessings and talents. With joy we bring these gifts to God. You are blessed by God's absolute love for you. Rejoice in that love and find healing and hope. AMEN.
Pastoral Prayer
Lord, you have placed before us your wonderful world, with its blessings and its difficulties. You have called us to be peacemakers and people who will work for you, offering our lives and our gifts in your service. But we sometimes hold back from trusting in these gifts you have given to us. We wonder if they will be enough to make a difference. And we become caught in the trap of believing that only the largest gifts have any worth. Forgive us when we slide so easily into our fears of inadequacy. Each of us has been blessed, and each is called to be a blessing. There are no small and insignificant gifts for God to bless and use. Free us from our fears of "not enough" and help us to joyfully place our hopes, dreams and lives in your care. As we have lifted up names and situations today, seeking your healing mercies and comforting power, help us to feel those same mercies and comfort active in our lives, reminding us that your love is poured out on us so that we may serve. Strengthen and encourage us as we move forward in ministry, seeking to be good stewards of all that you have given us. For we ask this in Jesus' Name. AMEN.
Litany/Reading
Using THE FAITH WE SING, p. 2153, "I'm Gonna Live So God Can Use Me", offer the following participatory Reading. Have a soloist available to sing the first verse as directed; a duet for the second verse; a small group for the third verse, and the whole congregation for the fourth verse.
Reader 1: I don't have much to offer.
Reader 2: I don't have much that I can do.
Reader 3: I don't have anything that's worth much to bring to the Lord.
Soloist: Singing verse 1 of "I'm Gonna Live So God Can Use Me"
Reader 1: I don't have many skills that are worth much.
Reader 2: I don't have the great wisdom that will change much.
Reader 3: I don't have the knowledge that will help things to move forward.
Duet: Singing verse 2 of "I'm Gonna Live So God Can Use Me"
Reader 1: My prayers are weak.
Reader 2: My words are inadequate.
Reader 3: My fears overcome my spirit and I can't pray easily
Small group: Singing verse 3 of "I'm Gonna Live So God Can Use Me"
Reader 1: My voice is weak.
Reader 2: My tones are unsteady and waivering.
Reader 3: My voice breaks and warbles and the tune I sing is faulty.
Leader: Let go of your fears. God has given you blessing upon blessing. Sing with us now this song. Know that whatever you have to offer is pleasing to the Lord.
Congregation: Singing verse 4 of "I'm Gonna Live So God Can Use Me"
Benediction/Blessing
You have heard the words of healing and of peace. You have been blessed by the Spirit of God. Go now into God's world to be the spirit of hope, peace and blessing for others, knowing that God is always with you. Go in peace. AMEN.
ARTISTIC ELEMENTS
The traditional color for this Sunday is GREEN
Note: I recommend putting a brief paragraph describing or explaining the symbolism used in your visual display. These become good teaching tools for a congregation.Definitions:
Risers: Any structure or support that will raise a portion of the worship center above the main level. Some risers may be a stack of books, others may be made from wood or whatever will give the necessary support to the object that is going to be placed on the riser. I have used pieces of 2" x 4" wood, stacked on top of each other to achieve the height I desired. Most risers will be covered with fabric.
Worship Center: Because so many churches have different worship spaces, I have chosen to call the main space for worship display (worship center). It may be called an altar, a communion table, a platform - whatever is the focal point of the worship area.
Flowers/plants: I am not a "purist,if the definition means having only real flowers and plants in the chancel/worship area. I believe that there are some really beautiful silk flowers which will suffice in times when real plants are not available. However, go with the tradition of your local church. Generally speaking I like to use foliage plants (minimal or non flowering) as accent pieces. "Spiky" plants such as sansaveria, mother-in-law's tongue and snake plant are good when you are looking for a harsh, hard, angular effect. Ferns (particularly asparagus or Boston) are wonderful along with some ivy, to soften the effect.
Puddling the fabric: Currently interior decorators use the technique with draperies of letting the fabric spill to the floor in a heap, sort of a puddle. It is a less formal design. Puddling the fabric means not creating even edges with the fabric, which is drawing a line, but rather softening the look by creating a "puddle."
SURFACE: Place several risers, of varying heights, on the worship center. The tallest riser, not taller than 10", should be placed in the upper left side of the worship center. Others may be spaced out as you choose
FABRIC: Cover the worship center with green cloth, making sure that the fabric puddles onto the floor to the right front of the worship center
CANDLES: On the tallest riser, Place three white pillar candles
FLOWERS/PLANTS: Use ivy near the base of the tallest riser, letting the branches wind around the other risers and flow over the worship center down the front. A larger ivy plant may be used on the upper right of the worship center, again with its branches flowing down the front.
ROCKS/WOOD: Place rocks, which you have sprayed Gold, on some of the other risers and scatter them throughout the worship center. If you have access to an old round broom handle or a round dowel, cut it into "coins" and spray paint them gold. Scatter them along with the rocks throughout the worship center
OTHER: Select gift boxes, such as one shoe box, one shirt box, one square box about 6-8", several smaller boxes about 4-5". Wrap these boxes in bright colored paper and place several of the smaller ones on the worship center and the larger ones stack in front of the worship center. Write large Tags (about 8" x 3") and using the following words, put one word on each tag: LOVE, HOPE, HEALING, PEACE, FAITH, SERVICE, WITNESS, JOY, HEALING, COURAGE. Tie these tags, one to each box, and drape the tags over the box so that the words are visible to the congregation. [These are the gifts we bring along with our offerings of good Stewardship for God]
WORSHIP FOR KIDS: NOVEMBER 8, 2015 by Carolyn C. Brown
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From a Child's Point of View
Old Testament: Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17. Both children and adults enjoy the story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz. It is an interesting tale about admirable people who acted with courage and kindness in everyday situations. It even has a happy ending. It is a story that begs to be told, more than preached upon. So, rather than read today's summary texts, pick up the entire story from last Sunday.
Out of concern for others, all three characters do more than is required. Ruth would have been better off at home, but accompanied Naomi to a difficult life in Bethlehem and worked hard in the fields to provide food. Naomi could have given up in self-pity, but she carefully worked out a plan to find a good husband for Ruth. Boaz could have ignored Ruth as an undesirable, somewhat distant relative, but he protected her when she worked in his fields and responded compassionately to her brave request that he assume family responsibility for her and Naomi. Their actions are models for children and adults today.
To understand the court proceedings, children need only hear that any man who bought the land that Ruth inherited from her husband had to marry her.
Psalm: 127. Verses 1-2 remind us that we rely on God's trust and care in all we do. The examples of building a house or guarding a city are straightforward and can lead children to create parallel verses about trusting God in their own activities.
Verses 3-5 might have been sung by Obed's family at his birth. Unfortunately, boys today may use these verses to prove their claimed superiority over girls.
Epistle: Hebrews 9:24-28. After four previous readings about priestly things, children's interest is exhausted. Furthermore, the content, logic, and point of these verses are too subtle. This is a text to read for the adults.
Gospel: Mark 12:38-44. It is tempting to use this story with children to point out that their small contributions are important. While children do need to hear that their small money offerings and services are as valued as the bigger contributions from adults, this story is about something else. It is about giving our all.
The difference between the proud scribes and the generous widow is that the scribes put just enough money in the offering box to make a good impression (all they really cared about was getting the best of everything for themselves), while the widow gave everything she had, because she truly wanted to help. It is as difficult for children as it is for adults to follow the example of the widow. Among other things, it can mean sharing "my own" money (received as birthday gifts and baby-sitting fees), as well as the money provided by parents specifically for the offering at church.
When the details are pointed out, older children grasp the similarity between the action of Ruth, who stayed with Naomi, and that of the widow, who put both her coins in the offering.
Watch Words
Gleaning is not a familiar activity for even farm children today. If your church is active in a Second Harvest ministry, explain how it gleans leftover food from food producers, grocery stores, and restaurants to feed hungry people.
Modern translations do not use mite, but the church has traditionally spoken of the widow's mite. If you use the term, define it.
WARNING: The small boxes in which children collect coins for special offerings, once called mite boxes, now are often called coin banks or coin boxes.
Scribes are simply church leaders.
Let the Children Sing
In honor of Ruth, Naomi, Boaz, and the generous widow, use "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God." To recall the truth about God's care, which each of them knew, sing "Lord of Our Growing Years." Note which verse goes with which character and urge singers to find the verse that fits them. Though they cannot follow the verses, even beginning readers can join in on the repeated chorus of "Great Is Thy Faithfulness."
"Be Thou My Vision," with its emphasis on what is most important, and "Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated," with its offer of all parts of our bodies, are good ways to offer ourselves completely to God.
The Liturgical Child
1. Display a large standing arrangement of wheat or other brown grasses, instead of flowers. Leave several stalks lying on the table (waiting to be gleaned). Refer to this display to explain gleaning.
2. If you read most of Ruth, keep listeners' attention and emphasize the story by having it read in good storyteller style by one male and one female reader:
1:22b-2:23: Male reader describes the meeting of Boaz and Ruth.
3:1-18: Female reader tells Naomi's plan.
4:1-12: Male reader describes Boaz in court.
4:13-22: Female reader tells the outcome.
3. From the lectern, begin reading the Gospel in proud tones. After verse 40, move to stand near the offering plates. Gesture toward the plates as you read verses 41-42 in a normal tone. Face the congregation directly to read Jesus' words to the disciples in 43-44.
4. Offer a prayer about giving:
Lord, we dream of doing brave deeds and giving generous gifts. But we seldom do the deeds or give the gifts. We are too easily frightened by what might happen. We are afraid we might be hurt, we are afraid we may have to work too hard, we are afraid we might fail, we are even afraid of what other people will think. Forgive us for giving in to our selfish fears. Help us, instead, to see more clearly what we might be able to do, and give us the courage to help others by trying to do the difficult things. Make us into your strong, loving people. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: God understands our fears. Jesus prayed that he not be crucified. Like us, he did not want to be hurt. But Jesus loved us and knew what we needed, so he faced crucifixion. Just so, God can give us the courage and power to do the loving deeds that frighten us and that we fear will hurt us. Thanks be to God!
Sermon Resources
1. Devote the sermon to retelling, with commentary, the story of Ruth and Boaz. The Children's Bible in 365 Stories presents the story clearly and suggests simple ways to explain the cultural context. A male/female team could preach a dialog sermon in first person, assuming the roles of Boaz and Ruth (perhaps near the end of their long lives together) to retell and comment on the story.
2. The most familiar examples of young people who give everything in order to do what is most important to them are the young athletes who are preparing for sporting competitions like the Olympics. To practice their sport they give up participating in all other clubs and activities. They may even go to special schools or move away from their families to live with the very best coaches.
3. Last Week When I Was Rich, by Judith Viorst, tells how a boy spent the $2.00 his grandparents had given him, but ended up with nothing he really wanted. Sloppy stewards of all ages recognize themselves in this humorous tale and can compare this boy with the widow who gave everything she had for what was most important to her.
MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN
RUTH 3:1-5; 4:13-17
Fiddler on the Roof includes a scene where the heroine implores the town matchmaker to find the right marriage partner for her. “Matchmaker, matchmaker, find me a match.” Would-be matchmakers should take lessons from Naomi. The brief love story of Ruth and Boaz reveals some excellent pointers on how to make a match; but more important, it contains vital decisions involved in having a marriage blessed by God.
I don’t think marriages are made in heaven, but the Lord of heaven will bless a marriage that honors his will. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33 NKJV), doesn’t just apply to what we eat, drink, or wear.
I. Heavenly Matches Consider Earthly Realities
There is little doubt that Naomi’s matchmaking was partly motivated by her own need for security (vv. 1-2). Cultural realities motivated her search for a near kinsman to perpetuate the family identity and retain ownership of her husband’s land. Isn’t God also concerned about earthly realities such as security, family, and compatibility?
A Gallup poll stated 47 percent of marriages now end with mutual incompatibility as the reason for the dissolution of the relationship. Most of the people who claim this were once madly in love.
We are warned “if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (Tim. 5:8 NKJV). Emotional, spiritual, and physical security stabilize marriage and enable the union to fulfill God’s purpose.
II. Heavenly Matches Observe Life Actions
The untypical kindness of Boaz did not go unnoticed by Ruth (2:13). Apparently Boaz had also checked her out, “for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman” (3:11 NKJV). In a moment when less principled people would have given in to lust, these two patiently waited. Ruth accepted his word and laid at his feet without fear (3:14a). Desire did not dethrone duty (3:13). The early hours of the morning brought renewed concern for their reputation (3:14b).
Every relationship involves risk. Observe life actions before you risk yourself to another.
III. Heavenly Matches Wait for the Lord’s Blessing
Naomi told Ruth to “sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out” (3:18 NKJV). That’s good advice for all who seek a match. It is a good word for those who seriously court another, and sound wisdom newlyweds should heed. Heavenly matches take time.
“So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife” (4:13 NKJV). Taking and becoming are continuing decisions of commitment. Insecurity visits again when the skin sags and wrinkles come. “Will he love me after the mastectomy?” “Will she be there when memory fails?” Browning penned the hope: “Come grow old along with me, the best is yet to be, the last for which the first was made.”
All of creation was blessed through the union of Ruth and Boaz. From their son Obed came Jesse, then David, and ultimately the Savior of the world. Think about the future blessings jettisoned by couples who give up on their relationship at the first “big fight.”
Your marriage may not have been “made in heaven” but it can become a heavenly match. (Bill D. Whittaker)
THE WELCOME MAT
HEBREWS 9:24-28
Do you have a welcome mat at your door? There is a difference between a welcome mat and a doormat. A doormat is a woven cloth on which you wipe your feet, leave the mud, or remove your shoes. Although it may look the same, a welcome mat says something quite different. It says, “We’re glad you’re here! You are among friends.”
In our journey from earth to heaven, from the temporary to the eternal, we are received into glory with a welcome mat placed there by a loving Savior. There is something better than a pot of gold at the end of life; because of the work of Christ there is a welcome mat receiving us into heaven with an enthusiastic reception. Christ welcomes us. We are welcomed into a relationship with God, we are welcomed into eternal life. We are welcomed into a forever fellowship with Christ.
How does the work of Christ welcome us into heaven?
I. Christ Appears for Us (v. 24)
Do you know what a sanctuary is? It is by definition a holy place, a shelter, a house of worship. It is a place where God and man have direct contact. According to Hebrews, Christ has not entered a man-made sanctuary. The writer clearly states that Christ did not enter the tabernacle, the temple—nothing built by human hands. Instead, Christ entered the one true sanctuary: heaven itself. Christ entered the place of God. It was there that Christ had directed communication with the Father.
When matters are serious enough, we desire that kind of communication. We want to talk directly. Maybe it’s a big business deal, or a wedding proposal, or multinational negotiations; when the matters are of grave concern, we desire direct communication. No substitute for the real thing will do.
Christ has entered heaven, into the presence of God, to appear for us. Christ used direct communication to plead our case before God. Christ has taken our needs, our problems, our fears, and our pains to God. What joy there is in knowing that Christ has already paved the way for our journey. He has appeared for us!
II. Christ Sacrifices for Us (vv. 25-26)
In verse 25, the writer of Hebrews refers to the Old Testament sacrificial system. Year by year, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies on the day of Atonement and offered sacrifices for his sins and for the sins of the people. The sacrifice that was required was the blood of animals. In contrast to that system, Christ has made the one and only sacrifice. Instead of the sacrifice of animals, Christ offered the sacrifice of himself, which was sufficient for all our sins. Notice the key phrase of verse 26: “to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
To be a good host, to truly welcome someone into your home, you must make some sacrifice. There is the effort of cleaning the house, doing the cooking, preparing the table, working in the yard. Effort must be made for everything to made right. I remember as a child one of the most dreaded phrase in our home was, “The deacons are coming.” Each year my parents would host a deacon/spouse cookout in our home. There was always much cleaning and preparation to be done. You couldn’t mess up the dishes, walk on the floor, or enter into the forbidden living room. Everything had to be just right.
Christ has made everything just right by his sacrifice. By offering his life before God, we are no longer enslaved by our sins. We are no longer guilty under God’s law. We are free. By his sacrifice, Christ has made it possible for us to be in God’s holy place in fellowship with holy God.
III. Christ Saves Us (vv. 27-28)
The writer of Hebrews reminds us of the Judgment Day of God. There will be an ending to this life. We will be held accountable for what we have done or for what we have failed to do. Judgment will come. But verse 28 reminds us that Christ has removed our sins. He is coming again, not to remove sins a second time as though his first sacrifice was not complete. Instead, he comes to bring salvation.
The Day of Judgment, for those of us who are people of faith, will not be a day of fear but rather a day of grace. It will be a day in which we will be reminded that Christ loved us enough to die in our place. Instead of eternal punishment, Christ says, “Welcome, you are among friends.”
My brother and I had fought all day. Mother had made the eternal proclamation, “Wait till your father gets home.” We did so with great fear and trembling. He came in to make his I’m-about-to-spank-you speech. He pulled back the edges of his coat and said, “See this belt?” He had on sans-a-belt slacks, no belt in sight. We laughed until we cried. He did, too. How about that? We thought we were about to really get it, but instead we spent the day in laughter. We received something we did not deserve: grace. Christ saves us from what we deserve.
The road to God is made open by the work of Christ. The welcome mat is out at the end of our journey. Christ is there, offering us an enthusiastic reception. (Jon R. Roebuck)
WIDOW’S MIGHT
MARK 12:38-44
Nearly everyone likes to be identified with prestige and success, even in the church. Chapel attendance at one seminary more than tripled the day Robert Schuller was guest preacher; everyone wanted to see this Christian celebrity. Give any boy in the Sunday school a choice whether to be a king or a shepherd in the Christmas pageant, and you know which one he’ll choose. The number at weekly Bible study will be higher when you study Joshua than when you get to Jeremiah.
Something in each of us gravitates toward those who have power; their stories allow us to enjoy their reflected glory and thus feel a little better about ourselves. Even if the powerful are oppressive and cruel, as in the cases of Pharaoh and Herod, we take satisfaction in comparing ourselves favorably to them.
This tendency in human nature makes it difficult to “get into” the story from Mark’s Gospel. Jesus began by condemning those who enjoy their power and prestige. Their trappings of success—things to which any of his listeners might aspire—would be the means of their condemnation before God.
If that was not enough, Jesus drew their attention to a poor widow whose meager offering was all she had. He held her up as an example to his listeners. They were difficult words for them to hear. They knew a widow’s economic standing was barely above that of a slave’s. They received meager charity: being allowed to glean after the reapers had finished with a field. As Mark 12:40 indicates, widows were routinely swindled by the more powerful. Far from having a “big name,” this widow’s name wasn’t even known.
I. Our Temptation Is to Stand with the Powerful
It is relatively easy to hear this story from the standpoint of those who stood beside Jesus. They looked at the widow, perhaps joined in praising her for her generosity. They could have exhorted one another to be more generous in their contributions to the temple, felt good about their increased level of giving, and might even have resolved to do something to lessen the widow’s deprivation. They could have done all this without changing their self-understanding and protection of their own interests. But our Lord calls his listeners to do far more than write a larger check next time.
II. Our Challenge Is to Stand with the Widow
In contrast with those who watched the scene, or who contributed out of their abundance, the widow who gave all she had knew that her only hope was in God’s mercy. Like the widow of Zarephath who gave the last of her sustenance to God’s prophet, this woman committed all that she had to divine keeping. There is, among such people, the realization that “our help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Delusions of prestige and self-sufficiency may blind us until all other helpers fail, and comforts flee.
Standing with the widow means coming to the realization of our neediness. It also means acting on that realization: abandoning self-protecting strategies in favor of radical obedience in following Jesus example. It is taking risks for and with Christ. And it means doing so with humility and thanksgiving, trusting the Lord’s purpose and promise rather than human gain. The widow’s might is the providence and love of Almighty God; worldly ideas of success pale in comparison. (Carol M. Noren)
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This email was sent by: Ministry Matters
2222 Rosa L. Parks Boulevard
This email was sent by: Ministry Matters
2222 Rosa L. Parks Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37228 United States
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