"Why I offer 'free prayer' in a coffee shop" by Thomas RusertI drink coffee only on Thursdays. This is partly because I am a weirdly patterned person. It’s also because I feel insecure ordering my preferred tea at a coffee shop; it’s like ordering a salad at a steakhouse. But the main reason I drink coffee on Thursdays is because that’s the day I take a little sign that says “Free Prayer” and sit at a local coffee shop for a few hours.
I like to think I have great ideas, but good advice gets all the credit for my work as a first-call parish pastor. One mentor and professor, for example, shared this: “As pastors, the first thing we have to do is take care of our people.” With that in mind, I focused my first year of ministry on spending time at people’s homes, setting up several visits a week to meet their dogs, applaud their children’s artwork and pray with them around their dinner tables.
A second bit of advice came from a clergyman who offered this: “A pastor is doing the job well when at least half of his or her time is spent outside the office.” Pastors regularly go out on hospital visits or stop by the homes of newcomers, but the administrative demands of parish ministry otherwise keep many of us shackled to our swivel chairs. For me, come Thursday mornings, after too much time within my office walls, I become cantankerous. So for everyone’s sake, I heed that good advice and break out of my sacred confines, fleeing to a local coffee shop for reading and sermon writing.
When I first started doing this last summer, I felt insecure and self-indulgent — an incognito clergyman in shirt and tie munching an “everything” bagel with cream cheese and calling it work. I had to legitimize pastoring in Panera.
That’s when I began wearing my clergy collar each Thursday and setting up at any one of my church’s dozen or so “satellite campuses” (i.e., the coffee shops where I typically run into several parishioners I’ve missed the previous Sunday morning). I bring with me a sign that says “Free Prayer,” with a quote at the bottom from Martin Luther: “Pray, and let God worry.”
And people stop to pray with me every time.
One brisk October morning, a man I had not met walked through the ever-swinging door of the local Starbucks. Amari, from West Philadelphia, had business at the courthouse in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the town where I serve. He looked at me and asked, “‘Free prayer’? What’s that?” I explained that I’m a pastor in town who goes out to where people are during the week to offer prayer. Tears welled up in his eyes. He placed his coffee and courthouse papers on my table and walked outside.
Sometimes, our people are the ones we have never met.
I packed my things and Amari’s and went outside to invite him to go for a walk. As we strolled together over the next hour, I heard all the unuttered prayers and pains he had held inside for two years. His wife had experienced an identity crisis and left him. A dear friend had died from a blood clot. An aunt had died from medical malpractice. Another friend had died from an overdose. Finally, death had taken his sister. Death had hollowed out Amari’s spirit, and he had spoken about it to no one. “Then I read those words, ‘Free Prayer,’” he said, “and I couldn’t keep it in anymore.” It seemed that God had enacted a little apocalypse, an awakening, in Amari’s soul. And all I’d had to do at first was sit there.
Though I offer prayers for others, the blessings have also come to me. I recall when a man sat down and requested prayer for a friend undergoing heart surgery. I asked whether he’d like to start the prayer. He began, “Dear God, I thank you for Thomas. Thank you for giving him the courage to offer prayer in this place. And Lord, may Thomas know that you are well-pleased with what he is doing.”
Heaven embraced me with that prayer. I was second-guessing my ability to reverse trends, to draw more people to worship, to inspire more generosity. Then a stranger prayed for me, and I felt, at least in that moment, that I was doing something right.
The bulk of my ministry is still among people within my congregation, but I am grateful for those free prayers at coffee shops each week. I think of the schizophrenic woman who stopped and asked for prayer because she sees witches. We prayed for courage and strength and protection. An owner of a Dunkin' Donuts asked me to pray for her shop. Upon seeing my “Free Prayer” Facebook post, an old acquaintance asked for prayer for his nephew born three months early. A manager of a Starbucks sat down at my table to share what God had been up to in her life.
God has been up to a lot in my life through this Free Prayer ministry. While it has done admittedly little to expand the ranks of my congregation, it has done much to expand my vocation to include the ranks upon ranks of God’s people I have never met who are searching for answers, waiting for comfort and willing to pray.
An Amari walks into a coffee shop every day in your town. I guarantee it. It may be a man or a woman, young or old, but an Amari is there. And he or she could really use some prayer. I set up my little sign to invite people to “pray, and let God worry” right where they are — because the Amaris need prayer and aren’t about to walk into my office down the hill at church.
Sometimes, we have to move beyond the shadows of a steeple to take care of our people. And in so doing, we may just find that God takes care of us, too.
This was first published in Faith & Leadership.
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"7 casualties of being a people-pleaser" by Ron EdmondsonLeadership is hard and every decision a leader makes is subject to opinion. Different opinions. Lots of different opinions.
Every hard decision a leader makes excites some and upsets others.
At the same time, most of us who have positions of leadership want people to like us personally and in our role as a leader. We all like to be liked. This leads many leaders, however, into becoming victims of people-pleasing. When pleasing people becomes a goal, we seldom lead people into what is best and are led more by opinions of others than by vision.
Every pastor and leader I know agrees that people-pleasing is not a good quality for a leader. Talking with hundreds of pastors every year, however, I’d have to say this has to be one of the most frequent weaknesses pastors admit to me. For the pastor, when our aim is to please people, many times we are motivated more by what people want than even what God wants for the church. This is obviously dangerous. Hopefully, I don’t have to build the case here.
But what are the casualties of people-pleasing? What are the organizational casualties? How does it ultimately play out among people in the church or organization we are attempting to lead? Knowing these answers may help us be more determined not to allow people-pleasing to be our motivation in leadership.
Here are seven casualties of being a people-pleaser:
No one is really ever satisfied.
When the leader tries to please everyone, the reality is no one on the team finds fulfillment in their work. No one. In an attempt to let everyone win — no one really does.
Tension mounts among the team.
People-pleasing pits people against one another as the leader attempts to please everyone and team members are conditioned to jockey for positions with the leader aimed at pleasing them. It creates a political atmosphere among the people who should be working together.
Disloyalty is rampant.
One would think people pleasing builds loyal supporters, but actually the reverse is more true. The people-pleaser says what people want to hear more than what needs to be said. Consequently, people don’t trust a people-pleaser, because they quickly learn what the leader says isn’t necessarily the whole truth, but what will keep the leader popular.
Burnout is common.
I’ve observed team members trying to function under a people-pleaser. They feel they have the leader’s support, but then it’s pulled from under them as the leader tries to please someone else. It’s tiring.
Frustration abounds.
People-pleasing leads to fractured teams and fragmented visions. Frustrating.
Mediocrity reigns.
Second best under a people-pleasing leader becomes the new goal not a consolation. Lackluster results ultimately lower standards. In an effort to please everyone, the team compromises what “could be” for what keeps people temporarily happy. (Emphasis on the temporarily.)
Visions stall.
Visions are intended to take us places. Noble places we’ve never been. This involves change. Always. And change is hard. Always. People don’t like change. People-pleasers like people to be happy. You see where this one is going?
Be honest. Ever worked for a people pleaser? Ever been one?
What results did you see?
Ron Edmondson blogs at RonEdmondson.com.
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"Love and addiction: An interview with Dr. Kent Dunnington" by Clifton Stringer
Saint Augustine, by Philippe de Champaigne, 1650.Recently I caught up with Dr. Kent Dunnington. Over the course of our conversation, he shared sharp and direct thoughts on faith, love, addiction, the future of Protestant universities, and much else. Kent holds a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University, as well as a Masters in Theological Studies from Duke Divinity School. He is an Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at Biola University in La Mirada, California.
Clifton Stringer: You grew up in a Wesleyan tradition, the Church of the Nazarene, and have been blessed with two amazing grandfathers. Can you say a word about your grandfathers? And how did you come to accept your family's faith in Jesus Christ as your own?
Kent Dunnington: Both my grandfathers were revivalists — they did most of their preaching in revivals and camp meetings, and they were strongly conversionist in their theology. There are ways in which I would challenge or qualify their approach to God and the Christian life, but on the whole I couldn't be more grateful for their lives and their influence. I took from them and so many others in the church of my youth the conviction that Jesus matters to absolutely everything in our lives. And I believe that's true and salutary!
The story of how I came to be a Christian is circuitous and hard to know how to depict truthfully. I think it is Bernanos who says people don't lose their faith, they just cease to allow their lives to be shaped by it. Sometimes I think that's a nice description of my own "journey." There was a time when I rejected Christian faith as the shape of a good life, but even then the question about the truth of Jesus was the central one in my life, as it still is. For lots of reasons, I came to allow my life to be shaped by the conviction that Jesus, as Peter says, has the words of eternal life.
The story of how I came to be a Christian is circuitous and hard to know how to depict truthfully. I think it is Bernanos who says people don't lose their faith, they just cease to allow their lives to be shaped by it. Sometimes I think that's a nice description of my own "journey." There was a time when I rejected Christian faith as the shape of a good life, but even then the question about the truth of Jesus was the central one in my life, as it still is. For lots of reasons, I came to allow my life to be shaped by the conviction that Jesus, as Peter says, has the words of eternal life.
CS: Your dissertation became your first book: Addiction and Virtue: Beyond the Models of Disease and Choice. How did you decide to pursue that project? What is the core argument, and what do you hope to teach the church through this book?
KD: I got interested in addiction as a philosophical and theological topic for a few reasons. First, I'd experienced first-hand the power of addiction. I was a smoker, and I had a hell of a time quitting. I'm a pretty disciplined person, so it was a bit surprising to me to find this domain of my life over which I had less control than it seemed I should. In addition to being an existential challenge, I found it intellectually perplexing. Also during that time I began visiting Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with a grad school mentor who was (and is) a recovering alcoholic. At the time, I was outside of the church, but the love and honesty I saw on display in those meetings moved me deeply and also reminded me how the church functions at its best. So that led me to be interested in the connections between the church and the twelve-step movement. A final propelling force was time I spent working in downtown Jackson, Mississippi in an area devastated by crack cocaine. By then I'd returned to Christian faith and to the church, but I felt hopeless about the power of the gospel to redeem this place. I knew that feeling was one lacking in faith, but there it was. So I wanted to try to think about addiction theologically, too, so I could better understand what such a feeling of hopelessness (and I think it's widespread among American Christians) reveals about the impoverished nature of our discipleship as American Christians.
The main argument of the book is that addiction is neither a disease nor a choice, but a complex habit. It's neither fully determined nor voluntary, but is rather a "second nature" that a person takes on. The power of any habit is correlative to the kinds of things the habit helps an agent achieve, thus a big part of the book is spent showing what it is that addictions help us achieve. Contrary to popular belief, we don't get addicted for pleasure, though pleasure may be an initial hook. We get addicted because addictions help us attain, though only fleetingly, certain moral and intellectual goods that late-modern capitalist culture makes difficult to attain. And this insight led me to the discovery that addiction is really a counterfeit of the theological virtue of charity or love, in that it promises sustained ecstatic existence and an ordering principle for all of life. So — not surprisingly, really — it turns out that addiction has everything to do with God!
CS: Since Addiction and Virtue, you have pursued a number of very interesting articles and projects, and I wish I could talk with you about them all. But I'll just ask about two. You recently edited a collection of essays called, The Uncertain Center: Essays of Arthur C. McGill. McGill had prominence in his life but is not well known today. Could you introduce him briefly? What is one of McGill's insights that you think we need to hear today?
KD: Arthur McGill is the best American theologian no one has heard of. He did theology during the 1960s and 70s when the "Death of God" theology was in its heyday. Several things are fascinating about McGill. First, he engaged the death of God stuff without becoming liberal or reactionary. He thought the gospels were more radical than the death of God theologians. Second, he wasn't an "academic" theologian even though he spent his whole life in the Ivy Leagues and wrote his dissertation on Barth. His writing is full of image and metaphor — he wrote a book on poetry — and he cites the newspapers and Time Magazine more than academic books. He recognized that people think in pictures and the theologian needs to work with those pictures in the light of the story of God. Finally, he lived, taught, and wrote under threat of illness. He was diagnosed at a young age with severe diabetes, was ill throughout his life, and died in 1980 in his early 50s after a failed renal transplant. Everything he wrote is tinged with the sense of urgency, crisis and death-consciousness under which McGill lived. He does not pull punches. He is trying to figure out how one can be a Christian without drifting off into pious sentimentality. He managed to do theology in the face of death and affliction without flinching.
Of course I'd like everyone to read my collection of his essays, but the place to really start is with his little book Suffering: A Test of Theological Method. There he locates suffering in the triune life of God, but not in the way made popular (and now looking increasingly passe) by Moltmann et al. No, for McGill the affirmation of suffering in God has nothing to do with a denial of impassibility. Rather the affirmation of suffering in God means that God's triune life is characterized by complete self-donation and self-reception. He contrasts what he calls the way of giving with the way of having, and he shows how death is destructive only if it is true that we live by having, by possessing, by drawing a boundary around what we must have to be ourselves. The Trinity — and the cross — give the lie to this way of living. Trinity and resurrection witness that there is a form of life constituted by self-donation, and therefore by loss, suffering, even death. When we learn to go on loving in the midst of decay, diminishment, destruction and death, then we begin to glimpse what it means to say death has lost its sting.
CS: I'm torn between asking you about your article "The Infinite Horizon of Romance" and about your forthcoming article in the journal Pro Ecclesia on Augustine and humility. Since everyone can read your "Romance" article online at The Other Journal, I think I'll go with Augustine and humility. Recently you were able to spend some time devoted to researching this. As you read Augustine, what about the centrality of humility captured your attention?
KD: What really captured my attention is how Augustine's description of humility doesn't fit contemporary memory about Christian humility. The story is complex, but the argument I make is that Christian humility got repurposed for immanent political use by Hobbes, and most contemporary "memory" of Christian humility is really just dealing with this truncated version. To give an example, most contemporary scholars claim Christian humility was all about having a really low and debased self-estimate, recognizing you're a sinner, a worm, etc. But when you read Augustine, you see that he had all that and still claimed he lacked humility. For Augustine (and Aquinas) humility primarily qualifies our will. Humility is the will to dependence over against the will to independence, which is pride. And for Augustine, this is the heart of the Christian difference. Once he was asked what is the heart of Christian teaching and he said, first, humility, second, humility, and third, humility. In the essay is shown how extreme and uncomfortable Christian humility is. I mean, it was the main thing that made the pagans say, "No thank you!" so you know something has gone wrong when contemporary secularists are championing humility. They're working with a counterfeit.
CS: Recently you started teaching in the Philosophy Department at Biola University, though you've taught in a number of different schools and contexts, even prison. What wisdom have you learned from your experience of teaching? What advice would you give someone who hopes to become a teacher of philosophy or theology in the academy or church?
KD: I'm very thankful to have been able to teach in these places. Even with the current challenges to higher learning in America, it's still a great job. But despite having spent most of my adult life in the academy, I still resonate with Bonhoeffer who said he didn't believe in the academy. I don't either. I don't even believe in the Christian academy except as it is vivified by and held accountable to the church. And I think there are good reasons to think that as we move into a genuinely post-Christian America, the status of Christian higher learning is going to be seriously compromised. So I suppose the advice I would want to give someone is not to believe too much in the academy. What a gift that there are still universities where Christians can learn philosophy and theology and where they can teach it. But those are contingent realities, and they may well pass away. So I think a Christian in the academy really needs to be quite modest — not about the content of his/her study or writing — but about the institutional forms that make that possible. I think we ought to champion such institutions and work for their good, but I grow weary of Christian intellectuals who cannot imagine how they could go on without a university job.
CS: What's on the horizon? What philosophical or theological projects should we look forward to in the future?
KD: I'm working on two books now. One is a book on Christian humility that spends a lot of time on theological anthropology. What kind of creatures must we be if it is really the case, contrary to what all the pagans thought, that we flourish and thrive just the extent that we learn to leave behind the project of fashioning a stable and secure identity that can withstand the slings and arrows of fortune. That sounds like lunacy. We must be very strange creatures if that is true of us.
The second is in fact a book on Christian higher learning. The models we have for Protestant Christian higher learning don't describe any longer what we are in fact doing at most Protestant, confessional colleges and universities. Thus such places feel largely unintelligible to the faculty who teach in them, and to many of the administrators who are paying attention. I'm trying to think through a different model, just in case God would still have a use for the many little Protestant, largely liberal-arts, colleges scattered across this country. For historical reasons, we're really the only country with so many of these little kinds of institutions. But it's hard to account for how they can be sustained in the future. I'm trying to imagine some different ways of thinking about their mission that might make them sustainable.
Clifton Stringer is a Ph.D. student in Historical Theology at Boston College and the author of Christ the Lightgiver in the Converge Bible Studies series.
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"Who needs cool? Not millennials"
by Cody GainousBigstock/www.BillionPhotos.com"All human life on the earth is like grass,
and all human glory is like a flower in a field. The grass dries up and its flower falls off, but the Lord’s word endures forever. This is the word that was proclaimed to you as good news."[1 Peter 1:24-25]
I often find myself in the position of being the youngest person in the room. Being 22 in Mainline Protestantism in the Bible Belt, that is no surprise. I hope you won't be offended if I break the news to you that you’re not cool. (For the record, I’m not cool either, but I do know some cool people and I know what’s cool, so I’m qualified enough to judge.) It is a great temptation for the church to do everything it can to stay relevant, to conform to the surrounding culture.
The trouble with that little-L law ‘Thou shalt be relevant,’ is that in pursuing relevance or coolness, the church often loses its soul. Even if it does find the world and bring in numbers, those numbers often are not translated into true disciples. Coming to a concert in an auditorium where the five letters J-E-S-U-S are on the sign or are said from the microphone is not the same thing as being brought into a sanctuary, falling on one’s knees at the altar, and receiving Christ.
My generation is interested in authenticity. Most churches are focused on issues of style when it comes to reaching young people, and yet substance is so much more important than style for today’s young people. So as a delegate from 20-somethings,I want to set you free from that self-imposed law, “You must be cutting edge” and encourage you to embrace the rich tradition that we have as Christians. I could not be less interested in the latest trends in Christianity and church. Trends come and go. What endures forever, as the apostle Peter said, is the word of the Lord (and not just any ‘word,’ per se, but the Word of the Gospel, the good news that was preached to you, the word of absolution, the word that ‘we believe in the forgiveness of sins,’ as the Creed says). That Word will endure forever.
I work as the youth director at a medium-sized church in North Alabama, and in my year-end report for 2015, I included a statistic from a report I read recently that stated that the average high-school student today has the same stress level as a patient with clinical anxiety in the 1950s. Now I can’t confirm how true this is, but I do know from working with students, most of them have pressure coming at them from every angle: school, parents, work, sports, band, and not to mention the inevitable law of ‘be cool’ that comes to them from hours of seeing impossibly cool people on social media. It is also probably not news to you that the general pattern for young people today is to graduate high school, and graduate from church at the same time. I believe this may have a lot to do with their high school experience of church being just another avenue of the crushing demand that meets them from every direction. The last thing they need is for the church to be one more expression of that pressure to "measure up."
Perhaps, as the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson sang, ‘I guess I just wasn’t made for these times.’ I’m not only interested in church, I actually find myself steeped in the works of John Wesley, Martin Luther, and the like. I read daily from the old Book of Common Prayer. My testimony is simply this: in the works of these reformers and in the ancient prayers of the church, I have found a safehaven from today’s do-more, try-harder, do-it-yourself Christianity. I have found the good news that I need to hear over and over again, news of prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace.
That’s what matters. Most of our attempts to reach millennials have to do with putting together lights and slideshows that end up being really ugly and doing nothing but cheapening what we really have to give them. The people who make TV are really good at what they do. The problem with the Church is that instead of doing what we do best, we’ve tried to compete with TV. We’d like to make our services more entertaining and our screens more exciting. Let’s let TV have TV and we’ll give people what we have: the body of Christ broken for them and the blood of Christ shed for them.
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"A bone-crushing journey"
by James A. HarnishRemembering broken bones
I’ve never had a broken bone, though as a pastor I’ve seen lots of other folks experience them. I know enough to know that it’s no fun and that if they are going to heal properly they have to be set correctly.
I’ll never forget the way my brother-in-Christ, Justin LaRosa, suffered a broken leg while showboating on a jet ski (“pride goeth before destruction”) the day before his infant son was to be baptized. He didn’t want to miss the baptism or be drugged up on Sunday morning, so there he was on his crutches, obviously in pain for the baptism, before going to the hospital for the bone to be set.
I remembered Justin when I read Psalm 51 again this morning, particularly the eighth verse: Let the bones you crushed rejoice once more.
This week’s writer in The Upper Room Disciplines offered this insight:
We have trouble thinking about our faith journey as bone-crushing. But that’s what the psalmist describes. Along the path of life, we have some seriously breaking-and-mending work to do…We may need God to help us break out of the confining and unhealthy way we have chosen and to mend what is torn or worn out.
Mending broken bones
It also took me back to my book, Strength for the Broken Places. The title comes from Ernest Hemingway: The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.Here are my opening lines:
I’m broken. So are you. We’re all broken people who live in a broken world. The critical question is how we find strength to put the broken things back together.
This book is an invitation…to explore some of the dark places in our human experience, to track down the sneaky culprit of temptation, to uncover the sinister power of sin, and to experience the way the grace of God, revealed at the cross, meets us in our broken places to bring new life through the power of the Resurrection.
Thumbing back through the pages reminded me of why this might my favorite of the books I’ve written — right up there withA Disciple’s Heart. Both books took me to deep places in myself, places where I found the grace that both crushes and heals, the love that makes broken bones straight.
A day for crushed bones
Ash Wednesday is as much about crushed bones as is it about the ashes from last year’s Palm Sunday celebrations. It’s a day for remembering that we are, in fact, dust and to dust we will return. To be human is to acknowledge that we are humus, the Latin word for earth, from which we also get the word humility — a virtue that seems to be in short supply on the campaign trail these days.
This is the day to experience both the brokenness and the healing in Psalm 51. It’s a day to remember Charles Wesley’s prayer:
O Jesus, full of pardoning grace,
More full of grace than I of sin;
Yet once again I seek thy face:
Open thine arms and take me in;
And freely my backslidings heal,
And love the faithless sinner still.
May that grace be as real as the ashes on our foreheads and may this Lent be a time of divine bone crushing and healing for each of us.
Jim Harnish is the author of "A Disciple's Heart" and "Earn. Save. Give." He blogs at at JimHarnish.org.
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"Gentrification and the church"
by Dave BarnhartMoving to town
Before we moved to the city, we lived in a suburb. The houses were built in the 1970s and 80s, when garage doors were the primary entrance and people drove from one interior space into another. Many homes there were designed as a refuge from the world. There were no sidewalks, and we didn’t know our neighbors very well. We wanted to spend more time in the local cafe or park than in our living room. The urban neighborhood that we moved to is only minutes by bike from downtown Birmingham. The homes were built before air conditioning and automobiles, when people would take shelter from the summer heat on front porches and walk to the streetcar line.
Everyone has different lifestyle preferences when considering where they want to live, but we weren’t alone in our desire to live a more urban life. Urbanization, the growing concentration of our population in large cities, is actually accelerating. More than 80 percent of the United States’ population lives in urban areas. Younger people, who are more likely to live in cities, are increasingly less likely to have a driver’s license or own a car. Whether this is a cause or an effect of shunning the suburbs is up for debate.
Reversing history
This cultural shift has huge economic, political and racial implications. For decades, “white flight” was the dominant story about cities and suburbs. While people who identify as white make up 66 percent of the general population, they only make up 40 percent of the population of cities. Brooklyn is experiencing an increase in its white population for the first time in a century. The move back to urban areas, which involves real-estate development and changing neighborhoods, often leads to conflict and can be summed up in one word — gentrification. The word gentrification describes what happens to a community when wealthier people begin moving in and changing the culture and appearance of a neighborhood. It evolved from the wordgentry, or nobility, from the European Middle Ages and was first used in 1972 to refer to the renovation of inner-city housing. According to The Wall Street Journal, “While the root of neighborhood conflicts is often money or class differences between white-collar and blue-collar workers, it often unfolds along racial lines.”
We can’t understand why gentrification is a racial problem unless we also understand the history of white flight. While some white families chose to leave cities throughout the Civil Rights Era and during desegregation in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, the reality is that city planners and real-estate developers encouraged the process much earlier than that. Redlining was the practice of assigning neighborhoods a grade, from A to D, associated with a color from green to red by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The HOLC analyzed the racial makeup of neighborhoods and actually made it more difficult to get FHA mortgages in locations where black people lived. This policy squeezed money out of cities and into suburbs. Sure, some people who identified as white may have left cities because of racial bias or school systems — but they were encouraged and financed by lenders. Meanwhile, those who remained in cities found their ability to invest in their communities restricted.
For decades, inner-city residents used their resilience, ingenuity and resourcefulness to create new businesses, raise families and make art in places that wealth had fled. Now that white flight is reversing, developers see abandoned commercial property and blighted residential property as potential hot commodities.
In my own city, I’ve seen that it’s easy for discussion of gentrification to focus on the surface issues — some people greet a new chain coffee shop, local brewery or bike path as signs of progress, but others see the loss of mom-and-pop stores or neighborhood character as creeping colonialism. People who are proponents of revitalization see gentrification as an unfortunate but inevitable consequence of a free market. They ask, “What’s wrong with moving into old neighborhoods and fixing up old houses, removing blight and reducing crime?”
Whose neighborhood?
The documentary film My Brooklyn, by director Kelly Anderson, exposes the very un-free market collaboration between private real-estate developers and city governments interested in revitalizing neighborhoods. Anderson’s concern isn’t so much about gentrification as it is displacement and disempowerment. The “Downtown Brooklyn Plan” changed zoning to allow more freedom for developers. Residents and small business owners saw their rents increase and had to move away from their neighborhoods. The city removed building restrictions and requirements for rent controls, and developers quickly moved in to demolish historical buildings and build luxury high-rise condos in their place.
Longtime residents feel disfranchised from the decision-making process about their neighborhoods. After pouring years of energy into improving their community and begging local governments for basic services and investment in schools and daycares, wealthy developers get huge tax breaks and subsidies with promises of “improving” a neighborhood. Developers cash in on a neighborhood’s hip, authentic urban feel while displacing the entrepreneurs, artists and residents who gave the neighborhood its character. Brooklyn councilman Charles Barron opines, “When we get free money, it’s welfare. When they get free money, it’s subsidies. Well, either we’re on subsidies and they’re on subsidies, or we’re on welfare, and they’re on welfare.”
Whose church?
As a pastor and church planter, I’ve paid attention to the growth strategies of the church. For years, white churches have focused their planting efforts on new suburbs, following real-estate development the way early circuit riders and missionaries followed American settlers. Increasingly, church planters make the case for “following” millennials and younger families back into cities. One of the fastest growing churches in our state, which began in a wealthy suburb, has turned its sights on a nearby neighborhood with all of the enthusiasm of missionaries to a new country.
But even this well-meaning, missionary-minded activity can create resentment among residents and churches who have lived and carried out ministry in these neighborhoods for decades. Churches and church planters, like other business owners and nonprofits, can be agents of gentrification, unwittingly accelerating the displacement of their neighbors. When a church turns an abandoned lot into a community garden, they help provide healthy food and a place for neighbors to work together. But they also raise the property value of the nearby apartment complex, which may make the current owner more likely to sell it to a developer. Two or three years later, when the current residents have been forced out due to rising rents, what happens to the community garden?
Such quandaries about economic development are common for cross-cultural missionaries. In my experience, many American churches don’t have the patience to deal with them. But being willing to talk about uncomfortable truths related to history, race, class, culture and economics is necessary for us to do good without also doing harm. Rather than throwing up our hands in exasperation or charging blindly ahead with our own ideas about what’s good for a community, the first task is to listen and understand.
The task of the church is to spread good news — to old-timers and newcomers, but especially to the poor. Churches that stay awake to the real challenges of gentrification can also find great opportunities for ministry and life transformation and can create sacred spaces where all people can experience the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ.
Be sure to check out FaithLink, a weekly downloadable discussion guide for classes and small groups.
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"Episcopal church leader calls Anglican censure 'fair'"
by Adelle M. Banks / Religion News ServiceEpiscopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry speaks to reporters at a news conference at the National Press Club. RNS photo by Jerome Socolovsky
WASHINGTON (RNS) Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry is describing the recent censure of his church over allowing clergy to perform same-sex marriages as a "fair" move by the wider Anglican Communion.
Anglican primates voted last month in Canterbury, England, to remove the Episcopal Church from votes on doctrine and to ban it from representing the communion in ambassadorial relationships for three years.
In an appearance at the National Press Club on Monday (Feb. 8), Curry said the decision was a “very specific, almost surgical approach” that allowed both sides to express their differences and yet find a way to remain together.
“There was clarity on our part, both about who we are as a church and about our love and commitment to the communion and there was clarity on their part that they disagreed with us,” he said. “But they didn’t vote us off the island.”
The presiding bishop said he could understand why the majority of Anglican leaders voted for the censure.
“Because we differ on the core doctrine, it would not be seen as appropriate for us to represent the Anglican Communion in ecumenical, interfaith leadership,” he said. “That’s fair.”
He called the action a voicing of displeasure on the part of many Anglicans but one “that didn’t go too far.”
Curry was elected presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in July, at the same meeting in which his church voted to permit clergy to perform same-sex marriages -- a move that differs with the majority of Anglican Communion provinces.
The Episcopal Church, with about 1.8 million U.S. members, is one of 38 provinces in the worldwide Anglican Communion, which claims upwards of 85 million members globally.
“We believe in it (same-sex marriage) because the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross really are about embracing and welcoming us all,” he said, adding that the Episcopal position would not be reviewed to avoid a renewal of the three-year censure. “We’re not changing.”
Curry was also asked about St. George’s School, an elite Episcopal prep school in Rhode Island that is under investigation for the alleged sexual abuse of dozens of former students.
“It’s being adjudicated actually on the local levels following the national canon and with our support,” he said.
He said the denomination has worked since the 1990s so that any allegations of sexual abuse are investigated, "not just kind of taken care of and swept under the rug.”
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"Who is Jesus Christ to you?"
by Joseph YooBigstock/eric1513I was once asked, Who is Jesus Christ to you?
On one hand, it’s a simple question. On the other, it’s fairly complex.
How one answers it really reflects how they view Christianity, God and their faith.
David Lose recently wrote that since we believe in a God that we don’t see, our experience of this world may ultimately shape our view of God. For example, because we live in a world that is violent, we may view God as a violent God on a quest to eliminate and eradicate unfaithful people. Because our culture subscribes to quid pro quo, we may believe that in order to find God’s favor, we have to do things for God first.
Who is Jesus Christ to me?
Throughout a good chunk of my life, I believed that Jesus was my savior. I believed this because that’s what everyone told me.
As I grew older and as my views of God, Jesus, and faith evolved, I begin to feel that referring to Jesus as just my savior felt insufficient. I had been made to feel that the goal of life is accepting Jesus as my savior. I did. Now what? That couldn’t be the end of my faith journey, right?
What I’m learning is that the novelty of “being saved” eventually fades away.
New Christians have a passion and enthusiasm for Christ that is enviable for those who’ve been on the journey for a long time. But eventually that fades some as time passes. We hit a roadblock. We run into the longtime Christians who seemingly are passionless and tired. Or our lives take unexpected turns that rattle our newly built foundation in Christ.
Sometimes, in the midst of our storms, barriers, obstacles and brokenness, we look around and ask, “What exactly am I saved from?”
When we’re in that spiritual rut, we may try to replicate that feeling that we felt when we first accepted Christ. I’ve known so many kids in youth ministry who got saved over and over again.
In my tradition, we've usually had a summer retreat and a winter retreat. Pretty much six months between salvation experiences. The kids would be disappointed if they “felt” like they didn’t get saved this time around.
I was one of those kids chasing the high of being saved. And in the beginning stages of being a youth pastor, I was the youth pastor that tried to manufacture such moments at each retreat. The retreat wasn’t successful unless the majority of the kids accepted Jesus as their Savior. Who cares that it was the fourth time that Jae accepted Jesus as his Savior? Maybe this time it’ll stick!
One year our winter retreat was coming up and one of the regular kids hadn't registered. I asked him why he wasn’t going this time and he said, “I’m just tired of getting saved every year and nothing changing.” That's when I realized our ministry was dropping the ball. It dawned on me that my relationship had to be more than Rescuer and rescued.
Yes, Jesus Christ is my Savior, but more importantly, Jesus is my Lord. And if Jesus is my Lord, I should focus my life on doing his bidding, and not try to have Jesus do mine and fit into my world. I think this is why Wesley Covenant Prayer resonates with me, “I am no longer my own, but thine.”
So, with Christ as my Lord, I now live my life for him. Ideally, where Christ goes, I follow. Where Christ decides to send me, I go. What Christ wants me to do, I do.
But, I fight. I can’t lie, I fight and resist. But in the end, Jesus’ love wins me over. Because Jesus is a Master full of love and full of grace. That’s who Jesus Christ is to me. He is the one who looks into my eyes and says, “Child, where are they? Has no one condemned you?… Then neither do I condemn you.”
But he's also the one who gently adds, “Go now, and leave your life of sin.”
That's why when we accept Jesus as our Savior, Lord and Master, we're no longer the same. Because we're handing our lives over to him, and his grace and love is so overwhelming that it begins to change us from the inside out. We can’t remain the same when we start living for Jesus’ purpose and no longer our own.
And living for Jesus’ purpose, cause and mission — living with Christ as our Lord — that is where we find true freedom.
Joseph Yoo is pastor of St. Mark United Methodist Church in Santa Barbara, California. He is the author of Practical Prayer and Encountering Grace. He blogs at JosephYoo.com.
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"The crucial difference between schism and division"
by Christy ThomasThe question appears again and again in church life and right now particularly with mainline denominations: should we just give up and split up?
There is a way to divide and still thrive. Let’s pay attention to the lesson from the garden here.
In 2012, I wrote a post about the now-impossibility of actually reforming the death-giving structure of The United Methodist Church. My frustration emerged after the Judicial Council, doing exactly what they are supposed to do, put the final nail in the coffin by overturning several significant votes taken at out 2012 General Conference.
The big challenge, besides our structure, are the multiple theologies held by varying United Methodists. One of the UMC’s great strengths has long been its wide umbrella gathering many under its shelter. That wide umbrella now threatens to self-destruct as theologies that should be informing and sharpening one another now say with greater frequency: “You are no longer worth the trouble. Just get out. ”
But I say today: We must not give up and split up. To do so denies the transforming power of the gospel that all of us seek to uphold.
To say to one another, “Our disagreements are so great that I no longer wish to stay in connection with you,” says to the world, already prepared to condemn the church for its poor ability to create anything approaching heavenly harmony, “Yep, pretty well everything we say to you is a lie.”
Let us not be liars. We are called to be vessels of life-giving truth.
The healthy division
However, as a gardener as well as years as a pastor, I think there is a healthy division. This division brings vibrant new life.
As with many gardens, my flower and vegetable beds display a mix of annuals and perennials.
We plant annuals each year. Ideally, and if not using hybrids, the plants produce well for a year, and then set some seeds for rebirth the following year. Life to death and back to life again, that beautiful cycle.
Part of church life consist of “annuals,” short-term efforts that produce fruit and then die and then have the seeds resown as necessary or have the beds cleared for the next short-term effort.
But the larger church functions also functions like perennials, which come back year after year adding new growth without the necessity of resowing seed. Eventually, however, all perennials get so intertwined and stuck together that only the act of dividing them gives them opportunity of new life. Otherwise, they begin to die from the core outward. The tight core can’t let in light and fertilizer. They stop blooming.
Most gardeners I know take immense pleasure in dividing their perennials and giving them away. The flower beds at the church I served last are almost entirely populated with donated perennials. Those plants are a testament to the life-giving process of division and separation.
Photo by Christy ThomasThe image to the left shows a daylily bloom just about ready to offer its flowering beauty. That particular daylily plant is the third or even fourth division of the original plant. One plant has turned into at least 20 more, all related to each other.
There is some evidence that plants feel pain, so the divisions may have been painful. Each plant had to be forcibly removed from the ground, pried apart (sometimes with a sharp knife or even a hatchet depending on how long it has been since the last division) and replanted some distance away. Some of the divisions didn’t carry enough roots and withered away. Most sections, however, thrived and will in time be ready to divide again.
There is some evidence that plants feel pain, so the divisions may have been painful. Each plant had to be forcibly removed from the ground, pried apart (sometimes with a sharp knife or even a hatchet depending on how long it has been since the last division) and replanted some distance away. Some of the divisions didn’t carry enough roots and withered away. Most sections, however, thrived and will in time be ready to divide again.
Photo by Christy Thomas
These elephant ears were four years old when I took this photo. I had planted seven bulbs originally. At least 60 to 70 have now come up where the original seven first took root.
At some point they, too, will have to be divided. Otherwise they will end up killing each other because of inadequate space to grow and inadequate light and water.
So what do lessons from the garden say to the church?
Exactly what we need to know. If we are going to stay alive for generations to come and continue to offer the beauty of grace, we must engage in healthy division practices while staying connected by our DNA.
Right now, we function like a perennial that refuses to be dug up and broken apart. Our roots are intertwined and stuck together. Our core has become hard, tight, inflexible and unable to bring forth blooms or to find the energy to reproduce. Slowly, but with great surety, the entire plant, The United Methodist Church, will die without separation.
We must do an intentional division to survive, but a division that brings life to all parts of the divided plant. Let’s not leave some without adequate roots for thriving life.
Doctrinal purity/missional relevance
But how do we do this? I so appreciate what Jeremy Smith has said here: Schism seeks to end the tension between doctrinal purity and missional relevance, but fails. There can be space in the UMC for both those who place doctrine above the human condition and those who place the human condition above doctrine.
We must not break into different denominations over these issues. We must find a way to strengthen that umbrella so there is room for both to be covered by grace underneath it.
Certainly, there is not going to be unified thinking or universal agreement in our connection particularly with regard to sexuality but also on many other issues.
Thanks be to God for that.
A place with unified thinking and universal agreement is a place where terror and mind-control rule.
Our overarching rule is to be a place of life-giving love. That is how others will know we are Christians. They will see us lovewhile we disagree and fight and argue and make some healthy divisions so we can continue to grow and bloom and give life.
Those on the side of missional relevance need those who value doctrinal purity. Doctrine matters hugely. We are to be distinctively Christian. We are not an “anything goes” church.
Those who value doctrinal purity must learn to find their humility in the mystery of God and grace and recognize that doctrinal purity at its core leads to practices like the Inquisition. When the need for purity is not balanced with deep humility and awareness that all human decisions about the nature of God are deeply limited and always flawed, that need brings death without hope of resurrection.
So, yes, we must divide. No, we must not split or let schism rule.
We need to stay United Methodists. United in love, in the core of our Wesleyan understanding, and held together by the bonds of grace that remind us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That proves God’s love for us.
In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Glory to God. Amen.
Christy blogs at ChristyThomas.com.
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"This Sunday. February 14, 2016
First Sunday in Lent: Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13
Read more…
These elephant ears were four years old when I took this photo. I had planted seven bulbs originally. At least 60 to 70 have now come up where the original seven first took root.
At some point they, too, will have to be divided. Otherwise they will end up killing each other because of inadequate space to grow and inadequate light and water.
So what do lessons from the garden say to the church?
Exactly what we need to know. If we are going to stay alive for generations to come and continue to offer the beauty of grace, we must engage in healthy division practices while staying connected by our DNA.
Right now, we function like a perennial that refuses to be dug up and broken apart. Our roots are intertwined and stuck together. Our core has become hard, tight, inflexible and unable to bring forth blooms or to find the energy to reproduce. Slowly, but with great surety, the entire plant, The United Methodist Church, will die without separation.
We must do an intentional division to survive, but a division that brings life to all parts of the divided plant. Let’s not leave some without adequate roots for thriving life.
Doctrinal purity/missional relevance
But how do we do this? I so appreciate what Jeremy Smith has said here: Schism seeks to end the tension between doctrinal purity and missional relevance, but fails. There can be space in the UMC for both those who place doctrine above the human condition and those who place the human condition above doctrine.
We must not break into different denominations over these issues. We must find a way to strengthen that umbrella so there is room for both to be covered by grace underneath it.
Certainly, there is not going to be unified thinking or universal agreement in our connection particularly with regard to sexuality but also on many other issues.
Thanks be to God for that.
A place with unified thinking and universal agreement is a place where terror and mind-control rule.
Our overarching rule is to be a place of life-giving love. That is how others will know we are Christians. They will see us lovewhile we disagree and fight and argue and make some healthy divisions so we can continue to grow and bloom and give life.
Those on the side of missional relevance need those who value doctrinal purity. Doctrine matters hugely. We are to be distinctively Christian. We are not an “anything goes” church.
Those who value doctrinal purity must learn to find their humility in the mystery of God and grace and recognize that doctrinal purity at its core leads to practices like the Inquisition. When the need for purity is not balanced with deep humility and awareness that all human decisions about the nature of God are deeply limited and always flawed, that need brings death without hope of resurrection.
So, yes, we must divide. No, we must not split or let schism rule.
We need to stay United Methodists. United in love, in the core of our Wesleyan understanding, and held together by the bonds of grace that remind us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That proves God’s love for us.
In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Glory to God. Amen.
Christy blogs at ChristyThomas.com.
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"This Sunday. February 14, 2016
First Sunday in Lent: Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13
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Scripture Texts:
Deuteronomy 26:1 “When you have come to the land Adonai your God is giving you as your inheritance, taken possession of it and settled there; 2 you are to take the firstfruits of all the crops the ground yields, which you will harvest from your land that Adonai your God is giving you, put them in a basket and go to the place where Adonai your God will choose to have his name live. 3 You will approach the cohen holding office at the time and say to him, ‘Today I declare to Adonai your God that I have come to the land Adonai swore to our ancestors that he would give us.’ 4 The cohen will take the basket from your hand and put it down in front of the altar of Adonai your God.
5 “Then, in the presence of Adonai your God, you are to say, ‘My ancestor was a nomad from Aram. He went down into Egypt few in number and stayed. There he became a great, strong, populous nation. 6 But the Egyptians treated us badly; they oppressed us and imposed harsh slavery on us. 7 So we cried out to Adonai, the God of our ancestors. Adonai heard us and saw our misery, toil and oppression; 8 and Adonai brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders. 9 Now he has brought us to this place and given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 Therefore, as you see, I have now brought the firstfruits of the land which you, Adonai, have given me.’ You are then to put the basket down before Adonai your God, prostrate yourself before Adonai your God, 11 and take joy in all the good that Adonai your God has given you, your household, the Levi and the foreigner living with you.
5 “Then, in the presence of Adonai your God, you are to say, ‘My ancestor was a nomad from Aram. He went down into Egypt few in number and stayed. There he became a great, strong, populous nation. 6 But the Egyptians treated us badly; they oppressed us and imposed harsh slavery on us. 7 So we cried out to Adonai, the God of our ancestors. Adonai heard us and saw our misery, toil and oppression; 8 and Adonai brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders. 9 Now he has brought us to this place and given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 Therefore, as you see, I have now brought the firstfruits of the land which you, Adonai, have given me.’ You are then to put the basket down before Adonai your God, prostrate yourself before Adonai your God, 11 and take joy in all the good that Adonai your God has given you, your household, the Levi and the foreigner living with you.
Psalm 91:1 You who live in the shelter of ‘Elyon,
who spend your nights in the shadow of Shaddai,
2 who say to Adonai, “My refuge! My fortress!
My God, in whom I trust!” —
9 For you have made Adonai, the Most High,
who is my refuge, your dwelling-place.
10 No disaster will happen to you,
no calamity will come near your tent;
11 for he will order his angels to care for you
and guard you wherever you go.
12 They will carry you in their hands,
so that you won’t trip on a stone.
13 You will tread down lions and snakes,
young lions and serpents you will trample underfoot.
14 “Because he loves me, I will rescue him;
because he knows my name, I will protect him.
15 He will call on me, and I will answer him.
I will be with him when he is in trouble.
I will extricate him and bring him honor.
16 I will satisfy him with long life
and show him my salvation.”
who spend your nights in the shadow of Shaddai,
2 who say to Adonai, “My refuge! My fortress!
My God, in whom I trust!” —
9 For you have made Adonai, the Most High,
who is my refuge, your dwelling-place.
10 No disaster will happen to you,
no calamity will come near your tent;
11 for he will order his angels to care for you
and guard you wherever you go.
12 They will carry you in their hands,
so that you won’t trip on a stone.
13 You will tread down lions and snakes,
young lions and serpents you will trample underfoot.
14 “Because he loves me, I will rescue him;
because he knows my name, I will protect him.
15 He will call on me, and I will answer him.
I will be with him when he is in trouble.
I will extricate him and bring him honor.
16 I will satisfy him with long life
and show him my salvation.”
Romans 10:8 What, then, does it say?
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.”[Romans 10:8 Deuteronomy 30:11–14] —
that is, the word about trust which we proclaim, namely, 9 that if you acknowledge publicly with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord and trust in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be delivered. 10 For with the heart one goes on trusting and thus continues toward righteousness, while with the mouth one keeps on making public acknowledgement and thus continues toward deliverance. 11 For the passage quoted says that everyone who rests his trust on him will not be humiliated.[Romans 10:11 Isaiah 28:16] 12 That means that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile — Adonai is the same for everyone, rich toward everyone who calls on him, 13 since everyone who calls on the name of Adonai will be delivered.[Romans 10:13 Joel 3:5(2:32)]
Luke 4:1 Then Yeshua, filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, returned from the Yarden and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days of testing by the Adversary. During that time he ate nothing, and afterwards he was hungry. 3 The Adversary said to him, “If you are the Son of God, order this stone to become bread.” 4 Yeshua answered him, “The Tanakh says, ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”[Luke 4:4 Deuteronomy 8:3]
5 The Adversary took him up, showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, 6 and said to him, “I will give you all this power and glory. It has been handed over to me, and I can give it to whomever I choose. 7 So if you will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Yeshua answered him, “The Tanakh says, ‘Worship Adonai your God and serve him only.’”[Luke 4:8 Deuteronomy 6:13–14]
9 Then he took him to Yerushalayim, set him on the highest point of the Temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, jump from here! 10 For the Tanakh says,
‘He will order his angels
to be responsible for you and to protect you.
11 They will support you with their hands,
so that you will not hurt your feet on the stones.’”[Luke 4:11 Psalm 91:11–12]
12 Yeshua answered him, “It also says, ‘Do not put Adonai your God to the test.’”[Luke 4:12 Deuteronomy 6:16] 13 When the Adversary had ended all his testings, he let him alone until an opportune time.
John Wesley's Notes-Commentary for Deuteronomy 26:1-11
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.”[Romans 10:8 Deuteronomy 30:11–14] —
that is, the word about trust which we proclaim, namely, 9 that if you acknowledge publicly with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord and trust in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be delivered. 10 For with the heart one goes on trusting and thus continues toward righteousness, while with the mouth one keeps on making public acknowledgement and thus continues toward deliverance. 11 For the passage quoted says that everyone who rests his trust on him will not be humiliated.[Romans 10:11 Isaiah 28:16] 12 That means that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile — Adonai is the same for everyone, rich toward everyone who calls on him, 13 since everyone who calls on the name of Adonai will be delivered.[Romans 10:13 Joel 3:5(2:32)]
Luke 4:1 Then Yeshua, filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, returned from the Yarden and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days of testing by the Adversary. During that time he ate nothing, and afterwards he was hungry. 3 The Adversary said to him, “If you are the Son of God, order this stone to become bread.” 4 Yeshua answered him, “The Tanakh says, ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”[Luke 4:4 Deuteronomy 8:3]
5 The Adversary took him up, showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, 6 and said to him, “I will give you all this power and glory. It has been handed over to me, and I can give it to whomever I choose. 7 So if you will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Yeshua answered him, “The Tanakh says, ‘Worship Adonai your God and serve him only.’”[Luke 4:8 Deuteronomy 6:13–14]
9 Then he took him to Yerushalayim, set him on the highest point of the Temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, jump from here! 10 For the Tanakh says,
‘He will order his angels
to be responsible for you and to protect you.
11 They will support you with their hands,
so that you will not hurt your feet on the stones.’”[Luke 4:11 Psalm 91:11–12]
12 Yeshua answered him, “It also says, ‘Do not put Adonai your God to the test.’”[Luke 4:12 Deuteronomy 6:16] 13 When the Adversary had ended all his testings, he let him alone until an opportune time.
John Wesley's Notes-Commentary for Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Verse 2
[2] That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there.
Thou shalt take — This seems to be required of each master of a family, either upon his first settlement, or once every year at one of their three feasts, when they were obliged to go up to Jerusalem.
Verse 5
[5] And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:
A Syrian — So Jacob was, partly by his original, as being born of Syrian parents, as were Abraham and Rebecca, both of Chaldea or Mesopotamia, which was a part of Syria largely so called, partly by his education and conversation; and partly by his relations, his wives being such, and his children too by their mother's.
Ready to perish — Either through want and poverty; (See Genesis 28:11,20; 32:10,) or through the rage of his brother Esau, and the treachery of his father-in-law Laban.
Verse 10
[10] And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:
It — The basket of first-fruits, Deuteronomy 26:2.
Verse 11
[11] And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.
Thou shalt rejoice — Thou shalt hereby enabled to take comfort in all thy employments, when thou hast sanctified them by giving God his portion. It is the will of God, that we should be chearful not only in our attendance upon his holy ordinances, but in our enjoyment of the gifts of his providence. Whatever good thing God gives us, we should make the most comfortable use of it we can, still tracing the streams to the fountain of all consolation.
[2] That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there.
Thou shalt take — This seems to be required of each master of a family, either upon his first settlement, or once every year at one of their three feasts, when they were obliged to go up to Jerusalem.
Verse 5
[5] And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:
A Syrian — So Jacob was, partly by his original, as being born of Syrian parents, as were Abraham and Rebecca, both of Chaldea or Mesopotamia, which was a part of Syria largely so called, partly by his education and conversation; and partly by his relations, his wives being such, and his children too by their mother's.
Ready to perish — Either through want and poverty; (See Genesis 28:11,20; 32:10,) or through the rage of his brother Esau, and the treachery of his father-in-law Laban.
Verse 10
[10] And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:
It — The basket of first-fruits, Deuteronomy 26:2.
Verse 11
[11] And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.
Thou shalt rejoice — Thou shalt hereby enabled to take comfort in all thy employments, when thou hast sanctified them by giving God his portion. It is the will of God, that we should be chearful not only in our attendance upon his holy ordinances, but in our enjoyment of the gifts of his providence. Whatever good thing God gives us, we should make the most comfortable use of it we can, still tracing the streams to the fountain of all consolation.
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Verse 1
[1] He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
He — He that makes God his habitation and refuge.
Verse 12
[12] They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Bear thee — Sustain or uphold thee in thy goings, as we do a child.
Verse 13
[13] Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
The lion — Shall lie prostrate at thy feet, and thou shalt securely put thy feet upon his neck.
Dragon — By which he understands all pernicious creatures, though never so strong, and all sorts of enemies.
Verse 14
[14] Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
Because — This and the two following verses are the words of God.
Romans 10:8b-13
[1] He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
He — He that makes God his habitation and refuge.
Verse 12
[12] They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Bear thee — Sustain or uphold thee in thy goings, as we do a child.
Verse 13
[13] Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
The lion — Shall lie prostrate at thy feet, and thou shalt securely put thy feet upon his neck.
Dragon — By which he understands all pernicious creatures, though never so strong, and all sorts of enemies.
Verse 14
[14] Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
Because — This and the two following verses are the words of God.
Romans 10:8b-13
Verse 8
[8] But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
But what saith he — Moses. Even these words, so remarkably applicable to the subject before us. All is done ready to thy hand.
The word is nigh thee — Within thy reach; easy to be understood, remembered, practised. This is eminently true of the word of faith - The gospel.
Which we preach — The sum of which is, If thy heart believe in Christ, and thy life confess him, thou shalt be saved.
Verse 9
[9] That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
If thou confess with thy mouth — Even in time of persecution, when such a confession may send thee to the lions.
Verse 10
[10] For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For with the heart — Not the understanding only.
Man believeth to righteousness — So as to obtain justification.
And with the mouth confession is made — So as to obtain final salvation. Confession here implies the whole of outward, as believing does the root of all inward, religion.
Verse 11
[11] For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Isaiah 28:16.
Verse 12
[12] For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
The same Lord of all is rich — So that his blessings are never to be exhausted, nor is he ever constrained to hold his hand. The great truth proposed in Romans 10:11 is so repeated here, and in Romans 10:13, and farther confirmed, Romans 10:14,15, as not only to imply, that "whosoever calleth upon him shall be saved;" but also that the will of God is, that all should savingly call upon him.
Verse 13
[13] For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Joel 2:32.
[8] But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
But what saith he — Moses. Even these words, so remarkably applicable to the subject before us. All is done ready to thy hand.
The word is nigh thee — Within thy reach; easy to be understood, remembered, practised. This is eminently true of the word of faith - The gospel.
Which we preach — The sum of which is, If thy heart believe in Christ, and thy life confess him, thou shalt be saved.
Verse 9
[9] That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
If thou confess with thy mouth — Even in time of persecution, when such a confession may send thee to the lions.
Verse 10
[10] For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For with the heart — Not the understanding only.
Man believeth to righteousness — So as to obtain justification.
And with the mouth confession is made — So as to obtain final salvation. Confession here implies the whole of outward, as believing does the root of all inward, religion.
Verse 11
[11] For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Isaiah 28:16.
Verse 12
[12] For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
The same Lord of all is rich — So that his blessings are never to be exhausted, nor is he ever constrained to hold his hand. The great truth proposed in Romans 10:11 is so repeated here, and in Romans 10:13, and farther confirmed, Romans 10:14,15, as not only to imply, that "whosoever calleth upon him shall be saved;" but also that the will of God is, that all should savingly call upon him.
Verse 13
[13] For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Joel 2:32.
Luke 4:1-13
Verse 4
[4] And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
Deuteronomy 8:3.
Verse 6
[6] And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
I give it to whomsoever I will — Not so, Satan. It is God, not thou, that putteth down one, and setteth up another: although sometimes Satan, by God's permission, may occasion great revolutions in the world.
Verse 8
[8] And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Deuteronomy 6:13.
Verse 10
[10] For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
Psalms 91:11.
Verse 12
[12] And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Deuteronomy 6:16.
Verse 13
[13] And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
A convenient season — In the garden of Gethsemane, Luke 22:53.
Sermon Story "God Redeems" by Gary Lee Parker for Sunday, 14 February 2016 with Scripture Deuteronomy 26:1 “When you have come to the land Adonai your God is giving you as your inheritance, taken possession of it and settled there; 2 you are to take the firstfruits of all the crops the ground yields, which you will harvest from your land that Adonai your God is giving you, put them in a basket and go to the place where Adonai your God will choose to have his name live. 3 You will approach the cohen holding office at the time and say to him, ‘Today I declare to Adonai your God that I have come to the land Adonai swore to our ancestors that he would give us.’ 4 The cohen will take the basket from your hand and put it down in front of the altar of Adonai your God.
5 “Then, in the presence of Adonai your God, you are to say, ‘My ancestor was a nomad from Aram. He went down into Egypt few in number and stayed. There he became a great, strong, populous nation. 6 But the Egyptians treated us badly; they oppressed us and imposed harsh slavery on us. 7 So we cried out to Adonai, the God of our ancestors. Adonai heard us and saw our misery, toil and oppression; 8 and Adonai brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders. 9 Now he has brought us to this place and given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 Therefore, as you see, I have now brought the firstfruits of the land which you, Adonai, have given me.’ You are then to put the basket down before Adonai your God, prostrate yourself before Adonai your God, 11 and take joy in all the good that Adonai your God has given you, your household, the Levi and the foreigner living with you.
On this first Sunday of Lent 2016 and also Valentine's Day, we look at the redemption that God brought the people of Israel from their bondage to the Egyptians to the land that God promised their Fathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The promise of God is alwys sure and the people who to bring to God the firstfruits of their income which in their agricultural day meant the products of the fields and cattle. We groan sometimes in giving to God through the church because this is not agricultural or cattle products, but money that can be used for our needs and wants. Yet, God has not changed but is still calling His people to give the firstfruits. This is because the first born of all families is God's and instead of sacrificing them on the altar e give to God through His church the firstfruits of our income, which is actully the Gross, not the Net. We even complain about this because the money going out between the gross and net is either for taxes or health insurance or retirement or whatever we may have chosen to be taken out from our wages or salary. When we think about our families, we look at our firstborn and take pride in them whether they are male or female or even differently abled or maybe have a different sexual orientation. In the past, even if the child was born differently abled we either let the child die or placed them in a government run institution because the care for them conflicted with our societal values. This hould not be the case because God ha given them to us for His purposes whether it is to train them up in the ways of God's Holiness or to be taught ourselves how much God loves us that our first priority should be to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and body and to love all other people as God loves us unconditionally. We come to this time to allow God search our whole lives to see where we have fallen short of His ways with all other people including our families as we come to remember not only the exodus from Egypt, but what He did through His Son,Jesus, as we take and eat the body of Jesus and drink His blood in our communal participation of the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We come to receive from God singing the the Hymn "As saints of old their first fruits brought" by Frank von Christierson
1. As saints of old their first fruits brought
of orchard, flock, and field
to God the giver all good,
the source of bounteous yield;
so we today first fruits would bring:
the wealth of this good land,
of farm and market, shop and home,
of mind, and heart, and hand.
2. A world in need now summons us
to labor, love, and give;
to make our life an offering
that others too may live.
The Church of Christ is calling us
to make the dream come true:
a world redeemed, your kingdom come,
all life in Christ made new.
3. In gratitude and humble trust
we bring our best today,
to serve your cause and share your love
with all humanity.
O God, who gave yourself to us
in Jesus Christ your Son,
teach us to give ourselves each day
until life's work is done.
[4] And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
Deuteronomy 8:3.
Verse 6
[6] And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
I give it to whomsoever I will — Not so, Satan. It is God, not thou, that putteth down one, and setteth up another: although sometimes Satan, by God's permission, may occasion great revolutions in the world.
Verse 8
[8] And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Deuteronomy 6:13.
Verse 10
[10] For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
Psalms 91:11.
Verse 12
[12] And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Deuteronomy 6:16.
Verse 13
[13] And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
A convenient season — In the garden of Gethsemane, Luke 22:53.
Sermon Story "God Redeems" by Gary Lee Parker for Sunday, 14 February 2016 with Scripture Deuteronomy 26:1 “When you have come to the land Adonai your God is giving you as your inheritance, taken possession of it and settled there; 2 you are to take the firstfruits of all the crops the ground yields, which you will harvest from your land that Adonai your God is giving you, put them in a basket and go to the place where Adonai your God will choose to have his name live. 3 You will approach the cohen holding office at the time and say to him, ‘Today I declare to Adonai your God that I have come to the land Adonai swore to our ancestors that he would give us.’ 4 The cohen will take the basket from your hand and put it down in front of the altar of Adonai your God.
5 “Then, in the presence of Adonai your God, you are to say, ‘My ancestor was a nomad from Aram. He went down into Egypt few in number and stayed. There he became a great, strong, populous nation. 6 But the Egyptians treated us badly; they oppressed us and imposed harsh slavery on us. 7 So we cried out to Adonai, the God of our ancestors. Adonai heard us and saw our misery, toil and oppression; 8 and Adonai brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders. 9 Now he has brought us to this place and given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 Therefore, as you see, I have now brought the firstfruits of the land which you, Adonai, have given me.’ You are then to put the basket down before Adonai your God, prostrate yourself before Adonai your God, 11 and take joy in all the good that Adonai your God has given you, your household, the Levi and the foreigner living with you.
On this first Sunday of Lent 2016 and also Valentine's Day, we look at the redemption that God brought the people of Israel from their bondage to the Egyptians to the land that God promised their Fathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The promise of God is alwys sure and the people who to bring to God the firstfruits of their income which in their agricultural day meant the products of the fields and cattle. We groan sometimes in giving to God through the church because this is not agricultural or cattle products, but money that can be used for our needs and wants. Yet, God has not changed but is still calling His people to give the firstfruits. This is because the first born of all families is God's and instead of sacrificing them on the altar e give to God through His church the firstfruits of our income, which is actully the Gross, not the Net. We even complain about this because the money going out between the gross and net is either for taxes or health insurance or retirement or whatever we may have chosen to be taken out from our wages or salary. When we think about our families, we look at our firstborn and take pride in them whether they are male or female or even differently abled or maybe have a different sexual orientation. In the past, even if the child was born differently abled we either let the child die or placed them in a government run institution because the care for them conflicted with our societal values. This hould not be the case because God ha given them to us for His purposes whether it is to train them up in the ways of God's Holiness or to be taught ourselves how much God loves us that our first priority should be to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and body and to love all other people as God loves us unconditionally. We come to this time to allow God search our whole lives to see where we have fallen short of His ways with all other people including our families as we come to remember not only the exodus from Egypt, but what He did through His Son,Jesus, as we take and eat the body of Jesus and drink His blood in our communal participation of the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We come to receive from God singing the the Hymn "As saints of old their first fruits brought" by Frank von Christierson
1. As saints of old their first fruits brought
of orchard, flock, and field
to God the giver all good,
the source of bounteous yield;
so we today first fruits would bring:
the wealth of this good land,
of farm and market, shop and home,
of mind, and heart, and hand.
2. A world in need now summons us
to labor, love, and give;
to make our life an offering
that others too may live.
The Church of Christ is calling us
to make the dream come true:
a world redeemed, your kingdom come,
all life in Christ made new.
3. In gratitude and humble trust
we bring our best today,
to serve your cause and share your love
with all humanity.
O God, who gave yourself to us
in Jesus Christ your Son,
teach us to give ourselves each day
until life's work is done.
---------------------
WORSHIPPING THROUGH OUR STORIES by Wendy Joyner
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
As part of my ministry, I have been serving as a hospice chaplain for a number of years now. When I stop to reflect on the things I have learned in walking with terminally ill patients and their families, one of the first things that come to mind is the importance of story. Many times, I have been privileged to sit with someone and listen to the story of his or her life. Sometimes I find myself at the kitchen table with a child. Other times, I am sitting with a spouse on a bench in the yard. Often, some of the deepest sharing takes place at the bedside of a patient. Wherever we are and whoever is speaking, one thing remains constant— the need to share our story with another person. I have come to understand, especially when dealing with the terminally ill, that one of the most important activities for us to engage in as humans is a review of our lives. We need time to reflect, to think about the things we have accomplished, and to voice the things that have mattered most to us. We need to give thanks for those we have loved and those we have received love from during the course of our days. This is the way we make meaning in life. Yet, I have also come to believe that this is a way we can offer worship to the God who created us.
Today’s Scripture passage from Deuteronomy reflects the importance of story. Here, the writer is setting forth some of the guidelines that will help shape the worship traditions of the nation of Israel for generations to come. As the worshiper approaches the priest with the offering of first fruits, he or she is to recite to the priest the story of Israel’s deliverance. The story begins with their ancestors, people without a land or a home. It remembers God’s blessings that were poured out upon the people, causing them to grow in number and to flourish. It celebrates that God heard their voices and delivered them from their Egyptian oppressors. It then concludes by celebrating the blessing of the land itself, the land that bore the first fruits, “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Deuteronomy 26:9). It is worship that engages the entire story of their life as a people. It is worship that gives a central place to the sacrament of remembering.
In his commentary on this passage, Ronald E. Clements notes, “To be an Israelite was to be a beneficiary of a long history of God’s gracious providence and care” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 2 [Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998], 479). The Israelites were to give voice to this truth each and every time they approached the altar in worship. The story of their lives was a story marked by the grace and mercy of the Lord. When they began to remember exactly how they had arrived in that place of blessing, their hearts turned toward God in worship and thanksgiving.
It was not only about remembering the past either. People remembering the mighty acts of God in the past are also encouraged to persevere and hope, even in the midst of present difficulty. When the Israelites remembered the powerful hand of God at work in their past, they were encouraged to trust in God. Rehearsing the mighty acts of God offered assurance that the future was secure in God’s hands as well.
As we begin our Lenten journey, I can think of no better place to begin than at the beginning. We are invited to overhear the story of our earliest ancestors in the faith. We are encouraged to remember that even then, when “a wandering Aramean was my ancestor” (26:5), God was at work to gather and claim a people. God was seeking even then to redeem us and call us each by name. There are other stories to remember as well. There are the stories of other Old Testament figures that testify to God’s love and deliverance. We hear the stories of Daniel, Nehemiah, Deborah, and Jonah—and they become our story. There are the stories of the New Testament, and encounters with God’s Word made flesh. We hear the stories of the disciples, of the Gerasene demoniac, of the lepers, of the paralytic, and of Mary and Martha—and they become our story. We hear the stories of the early church in the book of Acts, and the stories of each church that has proclaimed the truth of Christ since the day of Jesus’ resurrection— and they become our stories.
Corporately and individually, we all have stories to tell. We remember all the blessings we enjoy. We think about the things we have accomplished through the power of God at work in us. We give voice to the things that have mattered most to us. We give thanks for those we have loved and those we have received love from during the course of our days. This is the way we make meaning in life. This is the way we worship. This is the way we prepare to celebrate the greatest gift we have ever received—the body of Christ given for us that we might live.
During these forty days in Lent, may we find a kitchen table, a bench in the yard, or the bedside of a friend, and may we share our stories. May we worship through the stories. I believe that if we listen closely, we will hear the good news of God’s amazing love, being poured out for us in ways large and small. Some of the places we see God at work may surprise us. Yet, at the end of the story, we, and all those with us, “shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD [our] God has given” (26:11).read more
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WORSHIP ELEMENTS: FEBRUARY 14, 2016 by Matthew J. Packer
First Sunday in Lent
COLOR: Purple
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13
THEME IDEAS
As we enter the season of Lent, we enter a time of self-examination and repentance, a time of preparation for the transforming power of Easter. Today’s scriptures focus on God’s provision and God’s protection. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus alludes to Deuteronomy 26, and the devil quotes Psalm 91. In the Epistle reading, Jesus assumes the role of protector and provider for all who confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead.
INVITATION AND GATHERING
Call to Worship (Psalm 91)
You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
say to the Lord:
You are my refuge and my fortress.
You are my God in whom I trust.
Because you have made the Lord your refuge,
the Most High will be your dwelling place.
No evil shall befall us.
No scourge shall come near our tents.
Those who love the Lord, God will deliver.
God protects those who know the name of the Lord.
God saves them and honors them in times of trouble.
Show us our salvation, O God.
Show us your favor as we offer you our worship.
Opening Prayer (Romans 10, Psalm 91, Deuteronomy 26, Luke 4)
In the quiet of this moment,
in the stillness of this place,
draw near to us, O God.
As we seek the shelter of your refuge,
as we celebrate the bounty of your provision,
hearken to our need, Holy One.
Transform this time and place
into our land of milk and honey—
a land where you are among us,
a land where your mighty hand
and your outstretched arm
protect us,
a land where you alone are worthy
of our worship and service.
We ask this in the saving name of Jesus, our Lord.
Amen.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
Prayer of Confession (Luke 4, Deuteronomy 26)
Holy Lord,
as we enter this Lenten season,
we are reminded of our weakness
and our need for your strength.
We ask your forgiveness
when we succumb to the temptations of this world,
when we tread paths
that are contrary to your will.
We ask your forgiveness
when we fail to look beyond our own desires
to see another’s need.
We ask for your presence
in our wilderness wanderings.
May your hand guide us from the arid land of sin
into a land flowing with milk and honey—
a land made rich and abundant
by your saving love. Amen.
Words of Assurance (Romans 10)
No one who believes in Jesus will be put to shame.
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
Rejoice and celebrate, for forgiveness is ours
through the confession of faith in Christ.
Passing the Peace of Christ (Romans 10:9)
Joyously greet one another with the words, “Jesus is Lord!”
Introduction to the Word or Prayer of Preparation (Deuteronomy 26:8, Romans 10:8)
God of signs and wonders,
who speaks the world into being,
speak again your words of life and death.
May your word be ever near us,
on our lips, and in our heart.
Transform us as we hear your word this day,
that we may respond with faithful praise. Amen.
Response to the Word
O God,
you have spoken to us today
through this word of faith.
Embolden our spirits by your Spirit,
that your words may be made manifest
in all that we say and in all that we do
to bring your kingdom on earth.
In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen.
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
Invitation to the Offering (Deuteronomy 26:1-2)
Hear the word of the Lord:
“When you have come into the land
that the LORD your God is giving you . . .
you shall take some of the first of
all the fruit of the ground . . .
and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose
as a dwelling [place].”
We bring our best before God in recognition
that all that we have is an inheritance from God.
In celebration of the bounty that God has provided,
let us give generously as we collect today’s offering.
Offering Prayer (Deuteronomy 26)
We bring these gifts to you, O God,
in recognition and gratitude
for your loving provision.
We offer you our very lives and bow before you
in tribute to your many blessings.
Take us and use us,
that your will may be done on earth
as it is in heaven.
This we pray in the name of the One
who came in holy love,
that we might have abundant life. Amen.
SENDING FORTH
Benediction (Psalm 91:9-12)
God will command the angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear us up.
Because you have made the Lord your refuge,
the Most High will be your dwelling place.
No evil shall befall us.
Go in peace, in the provision and protection
of the Lord.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
CONTEMPORARY OPTIONS
Contemporary Gathering Words (Romans 10)
Call upon our God,
for God will hear our cry!
Calling, you will be saved,
for God will hear our cry!
In confidence and faith,
come and gather in the protective love of God,
for God will hear our cry!
Praise Sentences (Psalm 91:1-2)
You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress;
my God, in you I trust!”
My God, in you I trust!
From The Abingdon Worship Annual 2013 edited by Mary J. Scifres and B.J. Beu, Copyright © 2012 Abingdon Press. The Abingdon Worship Annual 2016 is now available.read more
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WORSHIP CONNECTION: FEBRUARY 14, 2016 by Nancy C. Townley
First Sunday in Lent
COLOR: Purple
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13
CALLS TO WORSHIP
Call to Worship #1
L: Long ago, God rescued God’s people from slavery.
P: We are enslaved today, in many different ways.
L: God can and will rescue us. Place your trust in God’s love.
P: Our hope is in the Lord who is our refuge and our strength.
L: Even though temptations surround us, drawing us away from God,
P: We will continue to follow God and trust in God’s ways. AMEN.
Call to Worship #2
L: When Jesus was in the wilderness, he was tempted to save himself.
P: We often look for the good things for ourselves first, before the well-being of others.
L: Jesus was offered salvation if he turned stones to bread; if he accepted wealth and power; if he tested God’s commitment to him.
P: In all these things, Jesus remained strong in his commitment to God.
L: May our commitment be as strong.
P: May our lives be placed in God’s caring hands throughout our journey. AMEN.
Call to Worship #3
[Using THE FAITH WE SING, p. 2080, “All I Need Is You”, have the choir sing the song as directed]
L: When we are tempted to think of our immediate needs and turn our back on others, Jesus draws us back to reality.
P: All we truly need is you, O Christ.
Choir: singing “All I Need Is You”
L: When we think that wealth, power, status are the answers to life’s dilemmas, God draws us back to reality.
P: All we truly need is you, O Lord.
Choir: singing “All I Need Is You”
L: When we want to really find out if God means what God says, we are tempted to create little tests of faithfulness, and God brings us back to reality.
P: All we truly need is you, O God.
Choir singing “All I Need Is You”
Call to Worship #4
L: For some of us, it was tempting to “sleep in” this morning.
P: But God has called us to this place, to hear God’s word, to open our hearts in prayer and praise, and to seek direction for our lives.
L: There are many temptations placed in front of us. We are called to be strong and place our trust in God.
P: God is always faithful to us, comforting, guiding, lifting us. AMEN.
PRAYERS, LITANY/READING, BENEDICTION
Opening Prayer
Lord, the temptations of the world loom large before us. We are enticed, cajoled, and “sweet-talked” into moving from lives of service to lives of self-centeredness. We need your healing love. As you resisted the temptations in the wilderness, help us to place our trust in you, that we may be strong in our faith and confident in our service to you through serving others.AMEN.
Prayer of Confession
In a world which values gambling, risking, taking dares, Lord, we come to this time of temptation. We confess that we are often enticed to take the risk for the rewards, often financial, offered if you win. Just “a dollar and a dream” and we hear the glory stories of people receiving great monetary wealth; later, we discover how many lives have been destroyed by this grand prize. Forgive us when we hunger for the wealth and power the world dangles before us. Move us from greed to gratitude for your blessings. Heal our wounded spirits and lives, so that we may fully serve you. Prepare us for this journey of discipleship and healing. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.
Words of Assurance
God will provide for your needs. Place your trust in God. You are not alone. God is with you always. The world cannot offer to you such abiding riches as the presence of God. AMEN.
Pastoral Prayer
Flooding our emails, screaming to us from television screens, crowding up our mailboxes, the offers for millions of dollars, the dream of great wealth, ravage our lives. Life isn’t easy. We do have struggles. We have come through the season devoted to commercialization of giving, to a time in which we are called to put aside the desire for wealth, status, power and enter into a journey of faith. This call is not an easy one to follow. It is much easier to succumb to the temptations of the culture of greed. Obsolescence is built into our systems - just as a new one is developed it becomes yesterday’s news. But God’s love and power are never obsolete. God’s presence is with us always, lifting, healing, restoring, encouraging us to move forward on the journey of service and compassion. We bring to our prayers today needs of others and situations which are difficult and sorrowful. We implore God to respond with compassion and care for these, our loved ones. Help us, O God, to remember that you are in the midst of these times, giving hope and love. Enable us to feel the power of this love in our own lives. Empower us to share this love with others, for we ask this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.
Litany/Reading
Reader : (singing….”If I were a rich man, die dill, dee dill, dee, dill, dee, dill, dee, dill…)
VOICE: You have been giving every blessing - people who love you, a place to be, a multitude of talents and abilities.
Reader: Lord who made the Lion and the Lamb, you decreed I should be what I am. Would it spoil some vast eternal play, if I were a wealthy man?
VOICE: Didn’t you listen? You are wealthy!
Reader: Ha! You think so? You don’t know what I have to go through, working, just to earn my “daily bread”, never enough time to rest, always worrying about the bills, the kids, the mortgage, the rent, all the other stuff that has to be taken care of. If I were rich, I could take care of all that stuff and have something left over beside - I could do whatever I wanted - I could even help others.
VOICE: You can do that now.
Reader: What, pay all the bills, meet all the obligations? I can’t do it all.
VOICE: You do it a little at a time. You could help others now.
Reader: Yeh, sure, when I have time…..which I don’t seem to have.
VOICE: What kind of time are you looking for? You have more time than you think; it’s how you are using the time that’s the problem.
Reader: Well, you try managing all this stuff and see where it gets you.
VOICE: World management is quite a task you know.
Reader: So, How about the rich part……can I have it?
VOICE: There’s a little journey I would like you to take. It begins now, well, actually it began last Wednesday, but you are not too late to start. I want you to walk inward and forward.
Reader: What? I don’t get it.
VOICE: I want you to follow my son - it’s a long journey and you are going to be tempted to stop and take it easy. But hang in there, follow him, and discover something incredible about the world and about yourself.
Reader: So you want me to go on a trip……and then I get the wealth?
VOICE: You will be amazed what you will get!
Reader: Could be OK. All right, I’ll try.
VOICE: Don’t just try……do it! I’ll be with you.
Reader: Well, that sounds fair, if I have to go, so do you….(laughs)
VOICE: And the journey begins - no guarantees, no promises, just the journey, inward and onward……you can come along too. It’s for you that this journey is created.
Benediction:
The journey has begun. God is with you. Go forth to learn, to teach, to serve. Go bringing peace and hope to all in the name of Jesus Christ.AMEN.
ARTISTIC ELEMENTS
The traditional color for this Sunday is PURPLE.
Note: I recommend putting a brief paragraph describing or explaining the symbolism used in your visual display in the worship bulletin. This a good teaching tool for the congregation.
DEFINITIONS:
Risers: Any structure or support which will raise a portion of 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 which is going to be placed on the riser. I also refer to benches or tables which may be placed to the side or in front of the worship center as risers. I have used pieces of 2”x 4” wood, stacked on top of each other to achieve the height I desired. Most of the time, the 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: the worship center. In some instances it may be referred to as the altar, the 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 live flowers and plants in the chancel/worship area. I believe that there are some really beautiful silk flowers which will suffice in times when live plants are not available. However, go with the tradition of your local church. Generally speaking, I like to use foliage plants (non-flowering or minimally flowering) as accent pieces. “Spiky” plants, such as: mother-in-law’s tongue, snake plant, are good when you desire a harsh, hard, angular effect. Fern (especially asparagus orBoston) are wonderful along with some ivys, 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, smooth edges (creating a flat panel).
THE ARTISTIC ELEMENT FOR TODAY:
[Note: The theme for Lent is JOURNEY INWARD/JOURNEY FORWARD. The idea is that discipleship is a journey that is first lived inward, introspectively, reality-check, and then lived forward in service. The worship center will remain covered with the base cloth of burlap or other neutral rough material. Each week something will be added to the worship center and perhaps other things removed, until all are placed at the foot of the cross. I recommend that you have someone construct an “old, rugged Cross”, about 6-7 feet tall, on a free standing base. This cross will be used during Holy Week, but you want to plan far enough ahead to have it ready.]
SURFACE; Place several risers on the worship center. The tallest riser, approximately 1 foot above the main level of the worship center, should be placed to the upper left as you are facing the worship center. The other risers, about 4-6” high, may be placed, one at the center and the other slightly to the right of the middle one.
FABRIC: Cover the worship center in burlap or other neutral colored, rough fabric.
CANDLES: On the middle riser, place a white pillar candle, about 10” high, representing Christ. .Place a back pack and a walking stick against the worship center. You may place a canteen and walking shoes on the worship center, if you wish - there is no map, no compass, only what you bring with you (Note: you may want to make this part of the statement about this particular journey during Lent)
FLOWERS/PLANTS : No plants or flowers on the worship center
ROCKS/WOOD Some rocks and wood may be placed on the center and at the base of the worship center.
OTHER: No cross on the worship center at this time.read more
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WORSHIP FOR KIDS: FEBRUARY 14, 2016 by Carolyn C. Brown
From a Child's Point of View
Gospel: Luke 4:1-13. Each of the three temptations Jesus faced invites a rich variety of interpretations. To children, the first temptation is the temptation to use our power to get what we want. Jesus' temptation, and that of many poor children today, is to be sure to get enough. For other children the temptation is to go for the biggest cookies, the lion's share of the fries, the prettiest dresses on the rack, and the best toys on the block. Jesus' response to this temptation is to remind himself that a life centered n being sure that we get the things we want and need is not much of a life (or will be a lonely, unhappy life, even if we do get most of the goodies).
The second temptation is to be "king of the world"—to get one's own way. In responding to this temptation, Jesus completely ignores the fact that he would have made the very best king of the world ever. Instead, he insists that he is not king of the world—God is. Therefore he will obey God's rules and do God's will. We are called to do the same when we are tempted to make everyone play the game we want to play, go to our favorite restaurant to eat, or watch the television show or video we want to see.
The third temptation for children is the temptation to use our skills and powers to be the center of attention—to show off. Jesus could have used his power to do show miracles and great feats. Instead, he used it to heal and take care of others. We can use our brains to get the best grades in the class and win all the awards. Or we can use our brains to learn about God's world and find ways to be friends with others. Similarly, we can use our athletic abilities or musical talents to impress others, or we can use them to help everyone have a good time together. Whatever our talents or power may be, we are to use them with as much lover and concern for others as Jesus did.
Old Testament: Deuteronomy 26:1-11. Children will not quickly understand this passage. The contradictory repetition of the ritual action is hard to follow, and the story recited in the creed probably will not be recognized without help—even by those who are familiar with the Exodus sage. But this is one case in which providing the needed help is well worth the effort—especially for older children.
Ten- to twelve-year-olds are very interested in the groups to which they belong. Many of them define themselves in terms of these groups: I am an American, one of the Jones family, a Scout—even one of God's people. Being part of a significant group that is "bigger than me" is appealing to these children. They appreciate the possibility of claiming the story of the group as "my" story and letting that story influence the way they act and the things they value. This passage invites children to claim the story of God's people as their story and to let it shape their lives.
Epistle: Romans 10:8 b-13. The message of this passage for the children is that God saves and protects all who believe and will say so. The only way to be cut out of God's love is to say we do not want it. Conversely, if we do not stand up for God in what we say every day, we cut ourselves off from God. You will need to present these truths in your own words: Paul's words are too complicated for the children.
Psalm: 91:1-2, 9-16. Many children, especially those who have had fortunate lives thus far, hear this psalm simply as praise for God's care. But other alert, literal-minded children will question the relationship between this psalm and realityas they know it. There are no satisfying answers for these children. Explaining the text's probable source as a psalm for a king going into battle, or its use by Satan to tempt Jesus, may help adults, but it will not answer the children's questions. So it may be best to read the passage and let it stand as is until the children are older.
Watch Words
Confess, to most children, means to admit wrong. In today's creedal lessons, it means to state one's beliefs. Since the word is used in every translation of the Epistle, it would be helpful to redefine confess before reading.
Let the Children Sing
"Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Day," a natural choice for adults, is filled with Elizabethan didsts,sin jargon like penitence, and concepts such as Passiontide, which are strange to children.
"I Love to Tell the Story" celebrates the way we confess our faith. "For the Beauty of the Earth" confesses God's care in everyday terms. It also might be a good Sunday to sing the profoundly simple confession, "Jesus Loves Me." (No less tha Karl Barth quoted this song when asked to summarize his faith and theology.)
The Liturgical Child
1. Present the Deuteronomy passage dramatically. As a narrator begins reading the passage froma lectern, a person (possibly wearing a simple tunic) walks forward to the worship center carrying a basket full of fruit and vegetables, and places the basket on or in front of the table. At the appropriate time, he or she faces the congregation to recite verses 5b-10, and leaves as the narrator completes the reading.
2. To parallel the Deuteronomy passage and to link our stewardship to our confessions of faith, plan for the congregation to say a creed (perhaps the storytelling Apostle's Creed) at the time the offering for the day is brought forward to be dedicated.
3. Lead the people in praying silently about their temptations. Give instructions such as those below, leaving silence between each one.
As we come before God, let each of us pray. We each have long lists of things we want and think we need. Let us tell God about these things and ask God to help us avoid the temptations in them. (Pause)
We all want our own way. We act as though we are king or queen of the world. Let us tell God the truth about how we try to get our own way at home and work and school. (Pause)
Each of us has talents and abilities and gifts. Thank God for yours, and talk with God about the way you use those gifts to care for others, rather than to make yourselves look good. (Pause, then invite the congregation to join in the Lord's Prayer.)
Sermon Resources
1. To recall the Exodus story, the base of the Deuteronomic creed, shows a series of large teaching pictures that illustrate the story. (Look for these in church school closets.) Take the pictures into the congregation one at a time as you review the story during the sermon. In an informal congregation, the worshipers might tell the stories of some of the pictures. In formal congregations, the worshipers will enjoy a close look at the pictures as the preacher tells the stories.
During the rest of the sermon, challenge the children to draw pictures of events in their own faith stories—something that has happened at church, or a time when they felt God was taking care of them. Or they could draw their own version of one of the pictures you showed. Respond to the children's pictures as they leave the sanctuary at the end of worship.
2. Bring three props: a credit card (gold, if possible)—for wealth; a crown (check the Christmas costumes)—for power; and a foil-covered star—for fame. Display each prop on the pulpit as you preach about that temptation, to help the children tune in, at least briefly, on each of the three main points of the sermon.read more
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SERMON OPTIONS: FEBRUARY 14, 2016
WORSHIP HABITS
DEUTERONOMY 26:1-11
At a recent leadership conference I participated in breakout sessions where I was introduced to a variety of worship experiences. The opportunity to experience worship traditions that were different from my usual worship expression was refreshing.
The large banquet hall of the convention hotel was divided into several smaller sanctuaries. In one room you would find traditional worship furniture, familiar prelude music, and ushers distributing bulletins at the entrance. The congregation heard a call to worship, sang an opening hymn, listened to the announcements, greeted one another, sang another song, and took an offering! Then there was special music, a sermon with three points, an invitation, and closing prayer.
In the next room worshipers were welcomed to a Seeker Service, not by ushers but by a note in the program. Words to the two short songs were videographed on a large screen on the wall in front of the worshipers. Most of the music was performed. A dramatic presentation introduced the pastor's message of simple truths designed to acquaint non-Christians with the claims of Scripture. The invitational hymn was replaced by an invitation to meet with a church representative to acquire additional information about the church.
From down the hall echoed the upbeat tempo of the evangelistic worship tradition. Familiar songs like "Down at the Cross," "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder," and "I Surrender All" were parenthetically interrupted by emotional testimonies. The minister's sermon majored on the ruin of sin and the need of confession and salvation. And next door were heard the majestic chords of sacred anthems, Scripture, and responsive readings. A divided chancel, robed platform personalities, and a message focused on Christian responsibility in our culture engaged worshipers with a liturgical style of worship.
While our worship traditions may vary, three distinct principles from Moses' instruction to Israel provided directions for worship to be genuine and meaningful. These guidelines anticipated Israel's possession of the Promised Land.
I. Worship That Possesses the Promise of God Is Characterized by Concentration (vv. 1-4)
Albert Palmer, former President of the Chicago Theological Seminary, insisted that worship provides the miracle necessary for religion to endure. We concentrate on God by seeking the place where God has placed his name. We also concentrate on God by seeking the priest God has placed in our midst. As God's representative the priest was a spiritual guide to assist in the development of a proper relationship with God. Faithfulness, loyalty, and trust in God's appointed leaders are qualities that enable us to possess God's promise.
II. Worship That Possesses the Promise of God Is Also Confessional (vv. 5-7)
These verses form an outline of the Pentateuch as the worshiper confesses her or his own finiteness. Moses also directs us to confess God's divine omnipotence in verses 8-9 by acknowledging the greatness of God, expressing the deliverance of God, and testifying to the generosity of God. Confession results in a personal submission (v. 10), which is confirmed by an impressive demonstration of obedience and an individual relationship with God that finds expression in daily life.
III. Worship That Possesses the Promise of God Is Also Characterized by Celebration
The people of God should have a reputation of joy and celebration. Moses does not refer to an emotional response, but a disciplined habit. That habit rejoices in the unity of the people of God, the extended grace of God, and an exceptional walk with God. In these areas we discover the promises of God that surprise and enrich mundane spirituality.
You can possess the promises of God with the right worship habits! (Barry J. Beames)
THE WORD IS NEAR YOU
ROMANS 10:8b-13
"The Word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim)" (v. 8). This suggests that it is no great secret. The Word is near. The confession of faith that is redemptive is almost a spontaneous confession. It is on the tip of the tongue. It is the heart's reaction to life. But the confession needs some content. It has to have form and substance.
Dwight Eisenhower once suggested that what this country needed was faith, and it did not matter what faith. By contrast, the apostle Paul is convinced that the shape and content of that faith is critically important. He tells us there are some things that are essentials if the faith we hold is to be called Christian. What are those essentials?
I. Jesus Is Lord
"If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord"—that the event of Jesus is the highest manifestation of God; that in Jesus we have discovered the purest form of goodness.
Walker Percy, in one of his novels, has a character in search of one truly evil event. The character had been present when so many terribly wicked events had been "explained" away as sickness or as misguided good. For instance, the man who shot sixteen children in Dunblane, Scotland, was mentally unbalanced, or Hitler was simply attempting to build a great new human race.
The Christian faith, on the other hand, declares that in the life, person, and work of Jesus we discover the mighty power of grace and love that humanity is not capable of creating in its own power. That goodness, that grace, that love is the supreme authority and power over all creation. Jesus is Lord.
II. God Raised Jesus from the Dead
"And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead"—that the love, goodness, grace, and mercy that is in Jesus could not be allowed to be destroyed by death. The power and might of death is not able to contain, to hold, to destroy the goodness, grace, the love of God for creation, and so God stood Jesus back up on Easter Sunday morning.
Paul says that kind of conviction is not far from our lips, and our hearts are looking for that faith. We want to believe in the power of love, we want to affirm the power of God to retrieve life out of the power of death. It is part of our created image of God that we want to live in that kind of faith. It is the conviction of heart that God is able and God is active in saving goodness from Death. Publicly declaring that we are servants of the grace that has been made visible in Jesus makes us part of the community of salvation.
What is fascinating and exciting in this passage is that once Paul has affirmed that we confess Jesus as Lord and that goodness and grace have been resurrected from the dead, Paul says it is the same for Greeks and Jews. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Our joy as Christians is to get to share with them that all their hearts yearn for and their spirits strive after has been demonstrated and done in Jesus. The Word is near all of us. All we have to do is to help them hear and affirm it. (Rick Brand )
TEMPTED
LUKE 4:1-13
It is a strange story. Jesus is in conversation with Satan. It's hard to imagine. We expect Jesus to be in conversation with God the Father. As we read the Gospels, time after time, we find Jesus at prayer. Jesus was in constant conversation with God. But in the Scripture text for today, we find Jesus in a very different sort of conversation.
Jesus was tempted. He struggled over how to live his life and how to do his ministry. Satan tried to draw the Lord away from God's good plan for salvation. Satan offered Jesus easier options than death on a cross.
Often the most powerful temptations are the most subtle ones. Blatant sin is easier to spot and easier to avoid. The sin that is really hard to resist is sin for a good cause. Good causes have justified a multitude of evils. When Satan came to Jesus, he didn't try to get him to steal or kill or lie. He simply tried to get Jesus to pursue his mission by using other means than God's means. Sometimes we try to out-think God. We ignore God's guidelines and instead devise our own plans. We trade God's will for our own clever techniques. We may try to pursue a good goal but not by God's method. That is the kind of temptation Jesus faced.
For us, what is temptation?
"The tempter came and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread' " (v. 3).
When Nancy McGraw returned to her office from a meeting, her secretary greeted her with a message: "Drake Henson wants to see you in his office at 3:00 today," she said. Henson was vice president for sales. When the time came, Nancy walked down the hall to Henson's spacious office. "You wanted to see me?" asked Nancy. "Yes, come on in and have a seat," said Henson. From the smile on his face, she knew that the news was good.
Henson began, "Nancy, I think you'll be pleased to hear that you're being offered a promotion. You've done such a fine job we want to offer you the position of chief sales trainer for the Southeast region. You've always been a hard worker. In this company, hard work pays off. Congratulations!"
Nancy McGraw squirmed in her chair, took a deep breath and hesitantly spoke. "Mr. Henson, I am genuinely pleased you have so much confidence in me. I've always tried to do the best job I can. But I'm already away from my family more days a month than I prefer. I know he's only kidding, but my son sometimes refers to me as 'that strange woman.' I'm afraid if I'm gone much more my family will really begin to feel that I'm a stranger."
With a look of disappointment on his face, her boss remarked, "What exactly are you saying? You know you're being offered a real opportunity here."
Nancy shifted in her seat as she began to speak. "I realize this is an important promotion. But it will require me to travel so much that I'll be away from my family twice as much as I am now. We used to do a lot of things together. It's hard for us to even go to church together anymore. I have to think about my family."
Henson shook his head in dismay. "Your family? This is for your family. Just think about all you'll be able to do for them with the significant increase in salary you'll receive. You want to provide the best for them, don't you?"
"And Jesus answered him, 'It is written "One shall not live by bread alone" ' " (v. 4).
"The devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, 'To you, I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me it will all be yours' " (5-7).
A group of concerned Christians from all over the city had gathered. It wasn't a large group, but they were committed and they knew they represented the feeling of a lot more people. The congressman speaking to them was intense. The men and women in the group were nodding in agreement. An occasional "Amen" could be heard.
"We have to take America back!" he proclaimed. "Pornography, illegal drugs, and the breakdown of the family are undermining the moral fiber of this country. We can't just stand around and do nothing. It's time we get tough. Stricter law enforcement, longer prison sentences, capital punishment for more crimes. This country needs to promote righteousness. Prayer and Bible reading should be a part of every public schoolroom's activities. It's time for church leaders and politicians to team up to make America Christian again."
The group burst into applause. Before long, the affair ended, and Mary Elliot approached the smiling congressman. "I agreed with a lot that you said," she began. "But I still have some serious questions. You talked a lot about getting tough on crime but not much about getting tender with the needy. What about the homeless and hungry?" His smile was almost gone.
"And I'm not so sure the churches should depend on the government to promote our faith. We shouldn't look to the government to step in. We don't need a government handout to do our work. Righteousness is not something you impose; it's something God inspires."
"Look lady," he said. "Politicians like me are doing Christians a big favor. What the churches can't do by persuasion, we can do by legislation. What you can't do with a gentle word, we can do with the power to prosecute. I think it would be smart for your people to team up with folks in high places."
And Jesus said, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him' " (v. 8).
What is temptation?
"Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here' " (v. 9).
The church the Reverend Adam Jones served was once one of the largest in the state. But for the past twenty years, it had been in a decline. The population of the entire region was smaller than it once was. Several large factories had closed and people moved elsewhere to find jobs. The church felt the shift of the population as its membership shrunk.
Something had to be done. The chairman of the board of the church said his brother's church hired a firm that did wonders for the growth of his congregation. The board agreed to call in the outfit to see if they could do the same thing for their church.
Barry Baker came from Growing Churches Advertising Incorporated. His presentation was powerful. "If your church wants to soar with the eagles rather than waddle with the ducks, you have to try things no one else has ever done. You have to set yourself apart, get noticed. In our day and age, you have to grab the public's attention."
Heads nodded with agreement all over the room. People were smiling with dreams of better days to come.
Barry Baker continued, "You have to make the public know you're not a run-of-the-mill congregation. Down in Texas, there is a church that has been growing in leaps and bounds since the church began to sponsor an annual Christian body builders contest. They promote themselves as the 'hard body church: the healthiest congregation in town.' The Sunday before the contest the minister preaches with his shirt off."
A few of the people had their mouths gaping open in surprise. One older man raised his hand and spoke, "I recall Jesus once said the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed or like leaven in bread dough. It grows less conspicuously."
The consultant swept the comment aside. "That was a long time ago," he said. "Things have changed. You have to face up to the competition. My motto is 'Whatever it takes.' You have to do something that's a big deal, something people can't ignore. For instance, since you want to project an image as a vital cutting-edge church, I propose that you start a group called, 'Bungee Jumpers for Jesus.' I even have a great motto for you: 'We have a faith that always bounces back.' What do you think?"
"Jesus answered him, 'It is said, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test" ' " (v. 12). (Craig M. Watts)---------------------Ministry Matters Preach. Teach. Worship. Reach. Lead. for Thursday, 4 February 2016 "Why leaders micromanage | Evangelicalism & universal salvation | Crowdsourced worship"
"5 reasons leaders tend to micromanage" by Ron Edmondson
Bigstock / shockfactorMost of the time micromanaging is not a positive characteristic of leadership. I have written previously about times I do micromanage, but these are rare.
In fact, I avoid it if possible — some on our team may say to a fault. There are times to manage closely, such as when you’re protecting a vision, but for the most part it disrupts progress more than it promotes.
As I work in the ministry world, however, it seems very common for micromanagement to be present. It could be a pastor who wants to control everything or a church governance that controls the pastor. And, by observation, I’ve learned there are common excuses for micromanagement.
Here are some reasons leaders resort to micromanaging:
Fear
It could be fear of a number of things. Fear it will be done wrong. Fear others will think the leader is not doing their job. Fear someone else may get credit instead of the leader. When a leader feels another person may receive recognition greater than the leader, he or she is more likely to try to navigate every outcome.
Insecurity
I’ve noticed when a leader is feels he or she doesn’t have what it takes to lead the team or organization — or becomes overwhelmed — when things are going badly in the church or organization — a leader often begins to control the actions of people around them. They become more strong-arm managers than visionary leaders.
Wrong team members
When the leader doesn’t feel he or she can trust the team members, he or she is likely to lead activities normally delegated. This can sometimes fall into the valid reason for micromanagement, but it shouldn’t last long without changes being made, either changing the team or helping the team improve.
Bad vision
The problem may not be the people — or even the leader — but that the leader is pushing people to accomplish something no one buys into or simply won’t work. Sometimes it’s time to move forward, but the leader is hanging onto a sinking ship, often refusing to admit it’s sinking. This is one I’ve seen many times in declining churches. Something needs changing, but the leader refuses to do the hard work and change.
Power
Sadly, this is possibly the most common reason I have seen for micromanaging, and even more sadly is when I’ve seen it in the church. Some leaders relish the idea of holding power and so, to keep the sense of control, they use their position’s authority to control rather than empower.
Leaders, are you guilty of micromanaging? Do any of these reasons apply to you?
Ron Edmondson blogs at RonEdmondson.com.
Sponsored
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"Evangelicalism and universal salvation" by Clifton Stringer
Icon by Vladimir Tamari depicting Christ pulling Adam and Eve (after smashing the gates of hell) on the day of Resurrection.Many Ministry Matters readers will remember when, in 2011, Rob Bell's book Love Wins raised the profile of the intra-Christian debate about universal salvation. This is a conversation with an ancient pedigree in the Christian church, and also an intermittent conversation within evangelicalism, though one could spend one's whole life in many neighborhoods of the Christian family without ever hearing about it.
After all, doesn't the Bible teach that only a few are saved, while the many suffer eternally in hell?
The vigor and depth of Christian arguments for universal salvation — meaning the eventual salvation of everyone, i.e., no one suffers in hell forever — has been opened to me recently. It happened like this. (Sorry, Rob.) I discovered David Bentley Hart's lecture "God, Creation, and Evil: The Moral Meaning ofcreatio ex nihilo," only a little while after he delivered it at Notre Dame. (There's a link below.) It is an erudite theological throw-down if there ever was one, and it got my attention.
I'm a third year theology Ph.D. student at Boston College, which means I have comprehensive examinations this year. The timing was right such that I've been able to devote one of my exam research questions to several of the church fathers Hart cites: Origen of Alexandria and Gregory of Nyssa (both universalists), and Maximos the Confessor (not a universalist, though this has been disputed).
Yet one very interesting result of this research is that I've come across some strands of universalism within contemporary evangelical Christian thought of which I wasn't aware. For example, there's Thomas Talbott, a philosopher at Willamette University in Oregon. As a philosopher, Talbott does a good job of defining his terms:
"Universalism, as I shall here define it, is the religious doctrine that every created person will sooner or later be reconciled to God, the loving source of all that is, and will in the process be reconciled to all other persons as well. There will thus be, according to this doctrine, a final restitution of all things in which all the harm that people have done to themselves and others will be canceled out, and all broken relationships will be healed. But Christian universalism, as I shall here define it, is more specific than that; it is the Christian doctrine that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the divinely appointed means whereby God destroys sin and death in the end and thus brings eternal life to all. As St. Paul himself put it, "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19)."
Of course, merely by defining his terms and quoting St. Paul, Talbott won't have convinced any of his fellow evangelicals that his position is correct. John Piper too has read 2 Corinthians 5:19. But what comes next is very interesting. It turns out that if you mix a Calvinist evangelical and a Wesleyan evangelical in the right way, you get a trinitarian universalist. Talbott again:
"I would also point out that universalism (or at least the salvation of the entire human race) follows as a deductive consequence of two respectably orthodox ideas. The first, fully embraced by the Arminians, the Wesleyans, various Pentecostal and charismatic groups, and a majority of Catholics, concerns the loving nature of God. Because God not only loves, but is love (1 John 4:8, 16), he at least wills or desires the salvation of all humans (1 Tim. 2:4) and is not willing that any of them should perish (2 Pet. 3:9); and because he wills or desires the salvation of all, he sent his Son into the world to be "the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the entire world" (1 John 2:2). The second idea, fully embraced by the Augustinians, the Protestant Reformers, and the Jansenists in the Catholic tradition, concerns the triumph of God's salvific will. Because God is almighty, not to mention infinitely wise and resourceful, his grace is irresistible in the end; our salvation therefore "depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy" (Rom. 9:16). When Jesus declared: "For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible" (Matt. 19:25), he was speaking of salvation in a context where a person's own choices and moral character had made it seem utterly impossible, like a camel passing through the eye of a needle. And his meaning was clear: there are no obstacles to salvation in anyone, not even in the most recalcitrant will or the hardest of hearts, that God cannot eventually overcome if he so chooses."
Maybe you see where Talbott is taking us. If one fully affirms both the "Wesleyan" conviction that God really is love and so really does desire to save everyone, and also the "Calvinist" conviction that, because God is almighty, divine grace is ultimately irresistible, then it clearly follows that, as Talbott puts it, "God will eventually accomplish the salvation of each and every sinful human being."
In short, a Wesleyan conviction of God's universal saving love in Jesus Christ + a Calvinist conviction of God's universal power = Christian universalism.
Of course, Talbott knows this is not the end of the conversation. Wesleyans generally think that grace can be ultimately resisted by human free will, and Calvinists nuance God's saving will to mysteriously include some but not others. But Talbott's argument turns the tables on his opponents in an interesting way. To oppose Talbott, a Calvinist/Augustinian will have to argue that it is more certain that God consigns some to hell eternally than it is that God loves and desires to save everyone; or a Wesleyan will have to argue that it is more certain that humans have the power to reject God's grace than it is that God is all powerful and so able to save everyone he desires.
So, agree or disagree with him, Talbott has a really interesting argument going.
Below I'm listing some accessible online resources. If we're honest with ourselves, this is just an extremely important topic to read, think and pray about.
A few Christian universalism links and books:
Thomas Talbott's essay "Universalism" (which I have been quoting above). Talbott has also written a book called The Inescapable Love of God.
David Bentley Hart's lecture "God, Creation, and Evil: the Moral Meaning of creatio ex nihilo" in audio or text.
Eclectic Orthodoxy's list of "Essential Readings on Universalism" — very helpful.
Gregory MacDonald's book The Evangelical Universalist. Gregory MacDonald is the clever (Gregory of Nyssa + George MacDonald) pen name of Dr. Robin Parry, who can also be found on YouTube.
Clifton Stringer is a Ph.D. student in Historical Theology at Boston College and the author of Christ the Lightgiver in the Converge Bible Studies series.
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"Crowdsourced worship: Perks and perils" by Rebekah Simon-Peter
Bigstock/maximmmmumAgree or disagree: People have to be told how to connect to God or what to say to God, God speaks only to the few and the well-placed.
If you disagreed with the above, then you are ready to experiment with crowdsourced worship.
I discovered crowdsourced worship the hard way. In my typical fire-ready-aim fashion, I had forgotten to plan details of a closing worship service. Here it was, the last day of our three-day retreat. Everything else had gone really well; the group had bonded, transformations had taken place; the Spirit had moved. Would it fall flat on its face because I had forgotten this all-important detail?
I knew we would have Holy Communion, and that’s about it. As the group of eight church leaders sat in the loose circle that would be our closing worship, a moment of clarity came. Liturgy means work of the people. If the worship service were highly scripted, it wouldn’t be the work of this people. A pre-printed liturgy would be an oxymoron.
Bigstock/Digital StormI prompted them through the Order of Worship in the United Methodist Hymnal, asking at each point who had something to contribute. From Call to Worship through Benediction, the Spirit moved. I provided a brief reflection and led Holy Communion. Others bookended this with a favorite Scripture reading, creative words of reconciliation, simple songs, touching prayers, and even a joke that fit perfectly. I never could have planned something so good. The worship service unfolded through us. It was surprisingly satisfying.
I have since used this format purposefully. The more I trust the process, and even prepare people ahead of time, the better it gets. Each worship reflects the group that is present, and the experiences we have shared.
It occurs to me that while pre-scripted worship has a long and solid history in both synagogue and church, it seems to presume several things that are just plain wrong:
People have to be told how to connect to God.
One person, or a group of others, knows best how a whole group ought to connect with the Holy.
Scripted worship is the work of the people.
Bill Wilson, 20th-century practical theologian and co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous wrote, “Deep down in the heart of every man, woman and child is the idea of God.” Since we are each made in the image and likeness of God, I’d take that one step further: “Deep down in the heart of every man woman and child is God.” That makes talking to God, celebrating God, and worshipping God the most natural thing any person can do. It positions crowdsourced worship as a viable way to conduct corporate worship. Moreover, it allows the church to stop over-functioning and to put liturgy back in the hands of the people.
Personally, I find corporate worship much more satisfying when there’s space for me to contribute. Even if it’s simply space to speak to God in my own words during silent prayer. But most silent prayer isn’t silent. And it lasts about 10 seconds. Not long enough to connect.
If you’re ready to experiment with crowdsourced worship, keep in mind these perks and perils.
Perk #1: Because of the nature of crowdsourced worship, worshippers feel empowered to truly respond to the movement of the Holy Spirit. Worship feels less rote and more like a dance.
Once, at Communion, I turned in the circle to serve James, the first person to my right. Then James turned to his right to serve Cassie. Then the two of them together — who didn’t know each other before the retreat — turned to serve Kenzie. James held the bread, Cassie the cup. From then on, two turned to serve the next one. The ritual evolved without a word of instruction; it just naturally morphed.
Perk #2: It’s high-expectation worship. It raises the bar of what is possible and do-able in the church as people gain confidence in their ability to connect with God. At one crowdsourced worship experience, the energy in the room was palpable. We had just pulled off something that others had not thought possible. One pastor said on her way out to me: “I didn’t think that would be possible. But God really did speak through all of us today. I want to try this with my home congregation.” I imagine that she went home and is now empowering her congregation to discover their own personal connections with God.
Perk #3: You can start small. In fact, you have already started. If you ask for prayer concerns, offer times for testimonials, or ask people to call out their favorite hymn you are doing crowdsourced worship. If you ask people to respond to the sermon or talk to their neighbor, you are dabbling in crowdsourced worship. One gifted pastor I coach helps people easily greet each other by printing a different question in the weekly bulletin that people may ask each other: “How many people in your family?” Or “What are you grateful for today?” The pastor of a new church plant, ICON, invites people to respond to the Scripture and the sermon using an artistic medium — clay, paint, etc.
Bigstock/VadimGuzhvaJust as there are perks, there are perils that must be guarded against.
Peril #1: Dominance. The same people speak up over and over. In this case, the work of the people becomes the soapbox of one or two persons. Some pastors I know have discontinued spontaneous “Joys and Concerns” because they devolved into weekly updates of one or two persons' failing health.
Peril #2: Uncertainty. You may open up to rants and raves that would be inappropriate or hurtful. I once unwittingly gave an opening to the wife of an unhappy Chair of Trustees. She let loose on the whole congregation for their perceived faults and failings. I was stunned, unsure of what to say. In retrospect, I see that she was naming a situation I could have headed off at the pass had I been more savvy. It gave me important information, but not delivered in the way I would have preferred.
Peril #3: Lack of participation. There is the chance that no one will say anything. Unless you’re used to Quaker meetings where that may be the case, or your people are quite comfortable with extended periods of silence, this can be quite unnerving. Given a bit of advance notice, guidance and patience though, this can be avoided as people grow in their confidence to contribute. You can also set ground rules that make clear: no dominating, no rants or raves and everyone has something to contribute.
Crowdsourced worship breathes new life into old worship forms. It trusts that God is at work. It allows the movement of the Spirit to be recognized and expressed through us and among us. It refreshes and empowers. And it puts liturgy back in the hands of the people.
Rebekah Simon-Peter blogs at rebekahsimonpeter.com. She is the author of The Jew Named Jesus and Green Church.
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"The church is a people ... No, really!"
By Dave BarnhartWhen we were starting out, our new church met in my house each month. 40 people crammed into my living room and spilled into the dining room, up the stairs, and even onto the porch.
I’d often tell people about our new church. I’d tell them of our vision to become a diverse community of sinners, saints and skeptics. I’d watch their eyes light up and then I’d invite them to church.
“Where is your church?”
“We meet at my house.”
“Oh. Well, let me know when you get a building, and I’ll come visit.”
I heard this so often, I felt like I was reading from a script. Occasionally, if I felt my conversation partner would understand, I would reply with the words to a song I learned as a child: “The church is not a building; the church is not a steeple; the church is not a resting place, the church is a people!”
The belief that churches are buildings is tenacious and deeply ingrained among God’s people. I know it was for me. I’ve worshipped in houses in Zambia and Bolivia, but returned home with the colonialist attitude that “house churches” are something for developing countries — but not here in the United States. And although I’d heard house church propaganda for decades, I’d been mostly oblivious to this movement of the Holy Spirit until I started planting one. (“House” church is a bit of a misnomer, since they can also meet in pubs, parks or playgrounds.)
The resistance, I’ve found, is not just from churched folks. Unchurched folks, especially in the South, have a fairly traditional understanding of what a church looks like and where and when it’s supposed to meet.
I believe there are two related challenges in helping them understand house churches: A sense of legitimacy and a sense of sacred space.
Legitimacy
I get it: People meeting in homes feels a bit cultish. Buildings convey institutional stability, a sense of permanence and presence. A building in a neighborhood that has a parking lot full of cars on Sundays and Wednesdays says to the neighbors, “Look! Things are going on in here!”
Yet both our past and our present emphasize the church being an active presence outside of a church building. The whole Methodist movement began in homes, and some of our most iconic John Wesley stories are of him preaching outside of a church building — on his father’s grave and in the fields. That refrain continues in the present. When I served a large church one of my pressing concerns was encouraging the congregation to develop home-based small groups. “How do we get people to bring church home and into daily practice?” is the theme of countless books written about church leadership.
House churches do not derive their legitimacy or authority from endowments or programs. They derive their legitimacy from the authenticity of their community and the discipleship of their members. A group of people who believe Jesus is in their midst when two or three are gathered together (Matthew 18:20) have all the legitimacy they need. The Holy Spirit makes it feel like a “real” church.
House churches are also uniquely positioned for evangelism, to reach people who distrust institutional authority and have been turned off to established churches. Such folks are looking for spiritually-derived authority, not institutionally-derived authority. For this demographic, house churches may actually feel more legitimate.
Sacred space
When Solomon stands up to invoke God’s blessing on the newly-constructed temple, he asks, “Will God indeed dwell on the earth?” He says that God cannot live in a house, even one so magnificent as the one Solomon had built. (1 Kings 8:27). God shows God’s penchant for showing up wherever God wants throughout the Hebrew Bible — in a burning bush (Exodus 3:4-5) or in a “sound of silence” (1 Kings 19:12).
In the first decades after Jesus, when the church was just forming, they met in homes. They called themselves the “ekklesia” which is Greek for “the called-out ones.” It probably sounded better than “the kicked-out ones,” because that’s what actually happened — they were kicked out of the synagogues, excluded because of their inclusion of Gentiles and their proclamation of Jesus as a crucified messiah.
The early church probably enjoyed the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well, when he told her that in the new age, people would worship God not at established holy places, but “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23). A thousand years after Solomon, the early church told a story of a God who did indeed dwell on earth, but whom a temple and the heavens still could not contain.
Building(s)
I’m a big fan of useful structures. They can be platforms for deploying ministry. One nearby church just held a Stop Hunger Now event where they packaged half a million meals. I can’t do that in my living room. I’m grateful that a sponsor church allows me to use their workroom to run color copies on a machine that would take up my entire home office.
I suspect increasingly our large-church siblings are going to be resources and helpers for deployment of house churches, especially if we want to reach folks who do not trust steeples or their peoples. House churches are one way that we continue to live out the resurrection, affirming that Jesus is not tied down to any one place or time, because he is risen and on the move.
Dave Barnhart is the pastor of Saint Junia UMC in Birmingham, Ala.
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"God beyond gender"
By Kira SchlesingerBigstock/MaximusndWhile we know that our human capacity for language necessarily falls flat when describing and defining the divine, for most of Christian history that language has been almost exclusively male-gendered. Our Bibles and prayer books refer to God with male pronouns and male roles like king and father and lord to the exclusion of other, more feminine images such as Wisdom or a mother hen gathering her flock. For many women, equally created in the image of God, this has been troublesome. As theologian Mary Daly wrote in 1973, “If God is male, then male is God.”
Some argue that of course God isn’t male or any gender at all; that language is there as a placeholder. Yet we cannot deny that the majority of our language about God is male. If God is beyond gender, then surely we can accurately describe God as male or female, at least until our language is able to catch up with the Divine Mystery who is the source of all being.
Perhaps our God-language can benefit from those people who do not fit cleanly into our cultural binaries of gender, or more succinctly, those who identify as genderqueer. After all, per the American Dialect Society, the 2015 word of the year is “they,” used as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun. This is an adaptation made necessary by the gender exclusivity of only using “he” and the cumbersome nature of repeatedly saying “he or she.” Our transsexual, nongendered, pangender, genderfluid, and other non-gender binary conforming friends are taking these matters into their own hands, defining their own pronouns and creatively developing new language that more accurately represents their experience of themselves.
Despite those who resist changes, language is not static; it is constantly developing and shifting. New words are added. Old words develop new meaning. Plurals can become singular. As people and culture change, so does language. We can resist change, or we can welcome it and mine both the past and the present for language that helps us connect with the divine. For some of us, Elizabethan-era English might bring us more closely into the presence of God. For others, Eugene Peterson’s "The Message" translation speaks more clearly and directly. There is no right or wrong, but neither should we hold up one way of communication as the only way.
In these days, I believe that God is speaking to us through the experiences of our Christian friends who are genderqueer, helping us to see beyond our binary gender categories that we often use to limit and assign particular roles. Instead of shunning genderqueer individuals, their experiences might teach us about God and ourselves, about ambiguity in areas we think of as black and white.
Furthermore, what if their struggles to develop non-gendered language for themselves helped all of us to more accurately describe the Divine beyond “He or She,” “Mother” or “Father?” What might it look like to refer to the Trinity as with the singular, non-gendered pronoun “They?” What might it look like to think of God transcending gender? As with any change, it might take some adjustment. It might be uncomfortable. The English majors and strict grammarians in our midst might cringe and resist. But then ask, “What might it be like for all people, regardless of male or female, cisnormative or genderqueer, to see themselves reflected in the image of the Trinity, of Divine Love and Life?”
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"Tables and holy experiences"
By Katie Z. DawsonBigstock/aaron007I have a sense of my first Maundy Thursday service, but I can’t quite place where it falls in my history. I was not a child, but not yet fully grown. Perhaps it was high school, or maybe somewhere in my college years. I have a sense of a fellowship area, a place not just for worship, but for eating and laughing as well. Classmates and adult leaders alike are present as we strip off our socks, giggle about stinky feet and toe lint, and form a line to wash one another’s feet.
When I began serving in a congregation and had the opportunity to craft the service for my people, that sense of communal life was an important sense memory to hold on to. So we gathered around tables in our fellowship hall and worshipped with food on the table, candles lit, everything set as it might be for honored guests. There were dates and figs and olives, bread and apples, glasses of grape juice and almonds. It wasn’t meant to be authentic. Or a seder meal. It was meant to nourish your soul and invite you in to an experience of the table. We worshipped with prayer and singing, celebrated the great thanksgiving, washed one another’s hands and feasted with laughter and stories and finger food.
There is immense joy and comfort in the Maundy Thursday celebration. As Jesus ate and drank with the disciples, he knew what was coming, but perhaps that only made the stories longer and the fellowship more sweet. It was a time to teach them, to be with them, to love them just as they were … knowing fully that in mere hours they would fall away one by one. He knew they would fail, and yet he washed their feet. He knelt before them. He showed utter devotion and compassion. He left them with words and memories that may have seemed normal in the space of that moment, but would become so much more in the reality of their betrayal and his death and resurrection.
We cannot be bystanders to that kind of experience. We must dive into it. We must sit at table with friends and family and strangers and break bread. We must feel the cool water rush over our skin and the warmth of another human body as we slowly and deliberately and carefully take the time to wipe and dry away their fingers or toes. If we are going to sing “let us break bread together,” then we must take the bread and feel the crust and one by one tear off a section and give it to our neighbor.
OK, maybe “must” isn’t the right word. But when we do, when we let ourselves be transported in worship and word and action and song from our day to day hustle and bustle of life to another physical/spiritual/emotion place … then we do encounter the holy.
This year, in a new church, I dug through my files and found the service that had sustained me all those years. With some flexible space at the front of our sanctuary (due to a few rows of pews being replaced by chairs) we made room for tables and gathered in that holy ground for some fellowship.
I watched as one or two couples reluctantly took their places at the round tables. They were longing for the comfort of the pew. The experience of sitting back and watching from afar. The distance. We don’t realize it is there at first, but it is when we are ten rows back with all of those wooden seats between us and the front.
But they sat down. And participated. And the moment took over.
As we pulled ourselves back together as a large group from table conversation and we were about to pray our prayer of thanksgiving following the meal, one of those women raised her hand.
“We should do it like this every time,” she said.
Not every Maundy Thursday … she meant every time we break bread together and celebrate the Lord’s supper.
“We might have to get rid of the rest of the pews,” I gently responded with a smile.
I’m not sure what is next or what the path forward might be, but experiencing one another and God and the divine mystery in that holy space opened up a world of possibilities about what it could mean for us to worship that has little to do with pews or hymn books or standard orders of worship.
I have been blessed to be a part of amazing worshipping experiences that grew organically from a community of faithful people. Some were traditional and some were emergent. But each was an outside of the box opportunity to personally and communally encounter God with sight and sound and smell and touch and taste. Each gave me the space to be fully present in mind, body and spirit. What better way to worship the one who created us, inside and out?
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AME Church founder honored with postage stamp
By Adelle M. Banks / Religion News ServiceThis image of the early bishops of the AME Church was featured at an exhibit at the Library of Congress that closed on Jan. 2, 2016. Richard Allen, the first bishop, is in the center of the image. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks(RNS) Richard Allen, the first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, will be honored with a U.S. postage stamp commemorating his leadership of the historically black denomination founded 200 years ago.
The U.S. Postal Service called the preacher and activist “an inspiring figure whose life and work resonate profoundly in American history.”
Richard Allen stamp courtesy of the Library Company of PhiladelphiaThe new stamp will be featured in a ceremony Tuesday (Feb. 2) at Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. It becomes the 39th stamp in the Black Heritage series after more than 40,000 people petitioned the postal service for its creation.
The art for the stamp is a detail of Allen’s portrait from an 1876 print, “Bishops of the A.M.E. Church,” from the collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia.
Here are five facts about Allen:
1. He founded the AME Church after worship of blacks was restricted.
Allen started Bethel AME Church after watching officials of St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church pull up his friend, clergyman Absalom Jones, who was praying on his knees.
“The unwillingness of the Methodists to accept the independent leadership of black preachers like Allen and the institution of segregated seating led Allen and Jones to found independent black churches,” said American religious historian Albert J. Raboteau.
2. He aided in the conversion of his slavemaster.
Once converted himself, Allen played a role in the conversion of Stokeley Sturgis, a Delaware man who owned him.
“Allen convinced Sturgis to allow visiting Methodist preachers to hold services at his house,” wrote former AME Church historiographer Dennis C. Dickerson in A Liberated Past: Explorations in AME Church History.
After Sturgis was converted, and Allen had paid for his freedom, the former slave gave his former slavemaster “a gift of eighteen bushels of salt … in consideration ‘of the uncommon kind Treatment of his Master during his servitude.’”
3. He licensed a woman to preach.
Jarena Lee, a member of Bethel AME Church, was allowed to preach eight years after she first requested it. Allen helped make her work as a traveling preacher possible. Dickerson wrote: “When Lee traveled as an evangelist, Allen and his second wife, Sarah Allen, took care of Lee’s son.”
4. He was a successful businessman.
Allen worked throughout his ministry so he did not need to depend on his congregation for support.
"Though born in bondage, Allen prospered enough (as owner of blacksmithing, shoemaking and chimney-sweeping businesses) to buy several income properties," wrote Raboteau in A Fire in the Bones: Reflections on African-American Religious History.
5. He pioneered African-American-owned institutions.
Before he started the AME Church, Allen was instrumental in founding the Free African Society, which helped newly freed blacks develop leadership skills. He also founded an organization that promoted the education of black schoolchildren.
“The birth of strong black institutions is a part of his legacy,” said the Rev. Robert M. Franklin, a leadership and black church expert at Emory University. “This is long before any of the black college movement emerges.”
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"How not to covet"
By Joseph YooI try to not to covet, as it is the tenth commandment. But every time Apple releases a new product (or anyone rolls out anything new, really) my want somehow turns into need.
Sometimes, the wanting gets a bit more serious (and dangerous) like when I covet my colleague’s job over mine.
Years ago, I met a great guy through a church leadership program. At the time, he was planting a church in Alabama. Not only is that church doing well, he also became the campus pastor of a college.
It was destined that we’d get along when he started talking about Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series. I couldn’t help but feel envious of all the new and great things that this guy was doing, not only for his church, but also for his community.
I never resented my friend for his ministry, but it’s surprising how coveting can lead to resentment.
“How does he have that job?”
“How is she always getting the promotions?”
“How is it that they can afford those vacations?”
We sometime think that if we had what they had, we’d do so much more and so much better than they are doing with theirresources, jobs, etc. This can lead us to start becoming unhappy and discontented with our situation. We may start believing that our life would be so much better elsewhere; anywhere but here.
The grass is so much greener on the other side. There’s so much life; so much innovation; so much more money; so much love; so much joy — over there. But here? Meh.
I was once told, “The grass isn’t really greener on the other side, it’s greener where you water it.”
Lawrence Kushner writes in God Was in This Place and I, I Did Not Know that some rabbis believed that the tenth commandment, the one that tells us to not covet, is more of a reward than a commandment.
They believed that we should read the Ten Commandments as a progression. That if we were to live a life where we don’t just add God, but where God is the source of life; that if we were to always focus on and seek God’s kingdom first; that if we were to live in harmony with God’s plans; we wouldn’t want to be in any other place. We wouldn’t want to covet because we’d have all we need.
Perhaps that’s how Paul was able to write “I have learned the secret to being content in any and every circumstance, whether full or hungry or whether having plenty or being poor” (Philippians 4:12b-13) while he was in prison possibly facing a death sentence.
Maybe the secret is perspective. Far too often I operate out of an attitude of scarcity. I never seem to have enough. Not enough time, money, energy, hands, feet, resources.
But instead of focusing on what I lack, perhaps it would be good for me to focus on what I already have. In Scripture, Jesus often challenges us to view the abundance in our lives. The disciples felt that they could not feed the multitude of the crowds, that all they could find were a few loaves of bread and a couple of pieces of fish, nowhere near enough to feed everyone. Jesus, however, saw that and basically said, “That’s plenty.”
We would do well to count our blessings more often than we count what we lack.
A great place to start is realizing that we have enough; that we live in abundance; that we're blessed beyond measure. And in our abundance and blessings, we already have something that somebody needs.
Not wanting to keep up with the Joneses — not coveting — that does sound like a worthy reward to obtain. I’m not there yet. Because I know the iPhone 7 is right around the corner and I can’t help but wonder how much better it’ll be than my iPhone 6.Joseph Yoo is pastor of St. Mark United Methodist Church in Santa Barbara, California. He is the author of Practical Prayer and Encountering Grace. He blogs at JosephYoo.com.
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"Life, death and entering midlife crisis territory"
By Tom FuerstI’m turning 36 in a few days. I’m passing from that line of young adult to dude-who-is-about-to-have-a-midlife-crisis territory.
And it’s scary.
It’s not scary because I think I’m likely to go buy a red corvette without my wife’s permission. I’m not about to go take a younger lover. I’m not about to change my profession. Rather, it’s scary because I realize increasingly, with each passing day how the next day is not a guarantee.
I’m about to be 36 years old and both of my parents are deceased. They weren’t old when they had me: Mom was 19 and Dad 21. And they weren’t old when they died — both were in their early 50s. Which means that as I turn 36, I realize that, if measured by my parents' lifespans, I’m not only past middle-aged, but I’m well on my way toward the end.
I don’t mean to say this in a morbid way. I really just mean to reflect on the fact that their early passing has taught me that the next day, the next moment, the next memory is not a guarantee. Whether it’s a car accident or cancer, whether it’s old age or a botched operation, death will come to every one of us.
I know people of older ages — in their sixties — who still have one or both of their parents around. I’m jealous of these people. I’m jealous of the full life they get to live with their mom and dad. I’m jealous that I will never get to experience that. Losing my parents has, however, taught me something that it may take others a longer time to learn. Most people will not have to face their own mortality until later in their life because their parents’ lives are still a buffer between them and that reality. Not so for me. Every day when I wake up and get dressed, I do so with a mom and dad shaped absence that stalks me. It’s always there. It may not control me. It does not destroy me. But it is there.
My dad was mortal. My mom was mortal. I am mortal. I will one day die.
This is the hard truth we all know but we don’t usually have to face until later in life. Of course, other people may learn that truth through losing spouses or children, so I don’t want to minimize those realities and how they force us to face our mortality. But for most people, our parents are the first buffer between us and death, and therefore the loss of our parents — generally later in life — becomes the first real catalyst toward our mortality. The world seems right, safe and secure as long as the ones who brought us into the world continue to be that buffer. But once that buffer disappears, then we stand alone staring at death. Then we stand alone asking questions before God.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. Facing the truth of our mortality can be good and enlivening. Truth be told, however, it’s also scary — and the earlier in life we have to do it, the scarier it can be. The Christian tradition has always taught that death is a foreign invader to God’s good world, so there’s a sense in which death is anything but natural. That said, even in the Christian tradition, we can still speak of natural death, good death and the beauty of aging. But dying in your early 50s can hardly be described as natural, good, and the beauty of aging is never realized.
And that’s what scares me most.
Death can be so unnatural. Aging can be cut short. Mortality dominates our lives, and sometimes cuts them off before the time is right. This is a possibility for me as it is for you. It’s a possibility for my wife and my kids and your spouse and your kids. It’s the scary reality we all face but choose to look away from.
Some of us just can’t look away.
I generally like blog posts that come to nice, tidy ends. I like them to wrap up cleanly with well-defined answers and solutions. But even the promise of resurrection and eternal life does not take away the pain and fear of my mortality. Resurrection is coming, to be sure, but death is on the near side of eternal life. It cannot be avoided. There is no nice, tidy end that doesn’t go through that monster, whether sooner or later. Even Jesus didn’t escape that.
Tom Fuerst blogs at Tom1st.com. You can subscribe to his blog via email here.
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This Sunday, February 7, 2016Transfiguration Sunday: Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 99; 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2; Luke 9:28-36
Scripture Text:
Exodus 34:29 When Moshe came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, he didn’t realize that the skin of his face was sending out rays of light as a result of his talking with [Adonai]. 30 When Aharon and the people of Isra’el saw Moshe, the skin of his face was shining; and they were afraid to approach him. 31 But Moshe called to them; then Aharon and all the community leaders came back to him, and Moshe spoke to them. 32 Afterwards, all the people of Isra’el came near; and he passed on to them all the orders that Adonai had told him on Mount Sinai.
(Maftir) 33 Once Moshe had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. 34 But when he went in before Adonai for him to speak, he would take the veil off until he came out; then, when he came out, he would tell the people of Isra’el what he had been ordered. 35 But when the people of Isra’el saw Moshe’s face, that the skin of Moshe’s face shone, he would put the veil back over his face until he went in again to speak with [Adonai].
Psalm 99:1 Adonai is king; let the peoples tremble.
He sits enthroned on the k’ruvim; let the earth shake!
2 Adonai is great in Tziyon;
he is high above all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and fearsome name (he is holy):
4 “Mighty king who loves justice, you established
fairness, justice and righteousness in Ya‘akov.”
5 Exalt Adonai our God!
Prostrate yourselves at his footstool (he is holy).
6 Moshe and Aharon among his cohanim
and Sh’mu’el among those who call on his name
called on Adonai, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the column of cloud;
they kept his instructions and the law that he gave them.
8 Adonai our God, you answered them.
To them you were a forgiving God,
although you took vengeance on their wrongdoings.
9 Exalt Adonai our God,
bow down toward his holy mountain,
for Adonai our God is holy!
2 Corinthians 3:12 Therefore, with a hope like this, we are very open — 13 unlike Moshe, who put a veil over his face, so that the people of Isra’el would not see the fading brightness come to an end.
14 What is more, their minds were made stonelike; for to this day the same veil remains over them when they read the Old Covenant; it has not been unveiled, because only by the Messiah is the veil taken away. 15 Yes, till today, whenever Moshe is read, a veil lies over their heart. 16 “But,” says the Torah, “whenever someone turns to Adonai, the veil is taken away.”[2 Corinthians 3:16 Exodus 34:34] 17 Now, “Adonai” in this text means the Spirit. And where the Spirit of Adonai is, there is freedom. 18 So all of us, with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and we are being changed into his very image, from one degree of glory to the next, by Adonai the Spirit.
4:1 God has shown us such mercy that we do not lose courage as we do the work he has given us. 2 Indeed, we refuse to make use of shameful underhanded methods, employing deception or distorting God’s message. On the contrary, by making very clear what the truth is, we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
Luke 9:28 About a week after Yeshua said these things, he took Kefa, Yochanan and Ya‘akov with him and went up to the hill country to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed; and his clothing became gleaming white. 30 Suddenly there were two men talking with him — Moshe and Eliyahu! 31 They appeared in glorious splendor and spoke of his exodus, which he was soon to accomplish in Yerushalayim. 32 Kefa and those with him had been sound asleep; but on becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33 As the men were leaving Yeshua, Kefa said to him, not knowing what he was saying, “It’s good that we’re here, Rabbi! Let’s put up three shelters — one for you, one for Moshe and one for Eliyahu.” 34 As he spoke, a cloud came and enveloped them. They were frightened as they entered the cloud; 35 and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen. Listen to him!” 36 When the voice spoke, Yeshua was alone once more. They kept quiet — at that time they told no one anything of what they had seen.
John Wesley's Notes-Commentary for Exodus 34:29-35
Verse 29
[29] And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
The skin of his face shone - This time of his being in the mount he heard only the same he had heard before. But he saw more of the glory of God, which having with open face beheld, he was in some measure changed into the same image. This was a great honour done to Moses, that the people might never again question his mission, or think or speak slightly of him. He carried his credentials in his very countenance, some think as long as he lived, he retained some remainders of this glory, which perhaps contributed to the vigour of his old age; that eye could not wax dim which had seen God, nor that face wrinkle which had shone with his glory.
Verse 30
[30] And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
And Aaron and the children of Israel saw it, and were afraid — It not only dazzled their eyes, but struck such an awe upon them as obliged them to retire. Probably they doubted whether it was a token of God's favour, or of his displeasure.
Verse 33
[33] And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face.
And Moses put a veil upon his face — This veil signified the darkness of that dispensation; the ceremonial institutions had in them much of Christ and the gospel, but a veil was drawn over it, so that the children of Israel could not distinctly and steadfastly see those good things to come which the law had a shadow of. It was beauty veiled, gold in the mine, a pearl in the shell; but thanks be to God, by the gospel, the veil is taken away from off the old testament; yet still it remains upon the hearts of those who shut their eyes against the light.
Verse 34
[34] But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.
When he went before the Lord, he put off the veil - Every veil must be thrown aside when we go to present ourselves unto the Lord. This signified also, as it is explained, 2 Corinthians 3:16, that when a soul turns to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away, that with open face it may behold his glory.
Psalm 99
Verse 1
[1] The LORD reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved.
People — Such as are enemies to God and his people.
Sitteth — Upon the ark. He is present with his people.
Earth — The people of the earth.
Moved — With fear and trembling.
Verse 3
[3] Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for it is holy.
Them — All people.
Verse 4
[4] The king's strength also loveth judgment; thou dost establish equity, thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob.
Judgment — Though his dominion be absolute, and his power irresistible, yet he manages it with righteousness. The king's strength is by a known Hebraism put for the strong, or powerful king.
Equity — In all thy proceedings.
Verse 5
[5] Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.
Foot-stool — Before the ark, which is so called, 1 Chronicles 28:2.
Holy — It is consecrated to be a pledge of God's presence.
Verse 6
[6] Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name; they called upon the LORD, and he answered them.
Moses — Moses before the institution of the priesthood executed that office, Exodus 24:6.
That call — Who used frequently and solemnly to intercede with God on the behalf of the people.
Verse 7
[7] He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them.
Spake — To some of them: to Moses and Aaron, Exodus 19:24; 33:9-11; 1 Samuel 7:9, etc.
Verse 8
[8] Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.
Them — The intercessors before mentioned.
Forgavest — The people for whom they prayed, so far as not to inflict that total destruction upon them which they deserved;
2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2
Verse 12
[12] Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
Having therefore this hope — Being fully persuaded of this.
Verse 13
[13] And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
And we do not act as Moses did, who put a veil over his face - Which is to be understood with regard to his writings also. So that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly to the end of that dispensation which is now abolished - The end of this was Christ. The whole Mosaic dispensation tended to, and terminated in, him; but the Israelites had only a dim, wavering sight of him, of whom Moses spake in an obscure, covert manner.
Verse 14
[14] But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
The same veil remaineth on their understanding unremoved - Not so much as folded back, (so the word implies,) so as to admit a little, glimmering light. On the public reading of the Old Testament - The veil is not now on the face of Moses or of his writings, but on the reading of them, and on the heart of them that believe not.
Which is taken away in Christ — That is, from the heart of them that truly believe on him.
Verse 16
[16] Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
When it — Their heart.
Shall turn to the Lord — To Christ, by living faith.
The veil is taken away — That very moment; and they see, with the utmost clearness, how all the types and prophecies of the law are fully accomplished in him.
Verse 17
[17] Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Now the Lord — Christ is that Spirit of the law whereof I speak, to which the letter was intended to lead. And where the Spirit of the Lord, Christ, is, there is liberty - Not the veil, the emblem of slavery. There is liberty from servile fear, liberty from the guilt and from the power of sin, liberty to behold with open face the glory of the Lord.
Verse 18
[18] But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
And, accordingly, all we that believe in him, beholding as in a glass - In the mirror of the gospel.
The glory of the Lord — His glorious love.
Are transformed into the same image — Into the same love. From one degree of this glory to another, in a manner worthy of his almighty Spirit. What a beautiful contrast is here! Moses saw the glory of the Lord, and it rendered his face so bright, that he covered it with a veil; Israel not being able to bear the reflected light. We behold his glory in the glass of his word, and our faces shine too; yet we veil them not, but diffuse the lustre which is continually increasing, as we fix the eye of our mind more and more steadfastly on his glory displayed in the gospel.
Verse 1
[1] Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
Therefore having this ministry — Spoken of, 2 Corinthians 3:6.
As we have received mercy — Have been mercifully supported in all our trials.
We faint not — We desist not in any degree from our glorious enterprise.
Verse 2
[2] But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
But have renounced — Set at open defiance.
The hidden things of shame — All things which men need to hide, or to be ashamed of.
Not walking in craftiness — Using no disguise, subtlety, guile. Nor privily corrupting the pure word of God - By any additions or alterations, or by attempting to accommodate it to the taste of the hearers.
Luke 9:28-36
Verse 28
[28] And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.
Matthew 17:1; Mark 9:2.
Verse 31
[31] Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
In glory — Like Christ with whom they talked.
Verse 32
[32] But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him.
They saw his glory — The very same expression in which it is described by St. John, John 1:14; and by St. Peter, 2 Peter 1:16.
Verse 34
[34] While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud.
A cloud came and overshadowed them all. And they, the apostles, feared, while they (Moses and Elijah) entered into the cloud, which took them away.
Sermon Story "Transfiguration" by Gary Lee Parker for Sunday, 7 February 2016 with Scripture: Exodus 34:29 When Moshe came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, he didn’t realize that the skin of his face was sending out rays of light as a result of his talking with [Adonai]. 30 When Aharon and the people of Isra’el saw Moshe, the skin of his face was shining; and they were afraid to approach him. 31 But Moshe called to them; then Aharon and all the community leaders came back to him, and Moshe spoke to them. 32 Afterwards, all the people of Isra’el came near; and he passed on to them all the orders that Adonai had told him on Mount Sinai.
(Maftir) 33 Once Moshe had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. 34 But when he went in before Adonai for him to speak, he would take the veil off until he came out; then, when he came out, he would tell the people of Isra’el what he had been ordered. 35 But when the people of Isra’el saw Moshe’s face, that the skin of Moshe’s face shone, he would put the veil back over his face until he went in again to speak with [Adonai].
We come to remember the day Jesus took three of His disciples to a mountaintop where He met with Moses and Elijah while He was transfigured to shine really white. Yet before this, when Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage and he was on Mount Sinai having a conversation with God receving the Ten Commandments he was noticed to be shining from his presence with God. This occurs to anyone who has a transformational encounter with God. The difference with Moses shining there appeared to be a dimming of His glow over the years even though he kept a veil on because the Israelites where frightened of His shine. When Jesus was transfigured, His shine remained and still remains to allow all of His followers to shine with the glow of His presence. The amazing thing is the Israelites were frightened of Moses' glow, but the sleeping disciples were excited to be there with Jesus and see Moses and Elijah that they wanted to build three tabernacles for each of the three: Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Yet, as they said this a cloud came down taking Moses and Elijah back to the Kingdom with God's voice saying that Jesus is His beloved Son and we are to listen and obey Him. Today, we seek His presence upon our worship services and our service in all areas of our lives. We too often seek to fulfill God's call with our own ideas, but God's presence alludes us until we remain and be in Him as we do what He ask us. Lately, there appears to be an absence of God's presence in our lives and churches which could be due to the excluding of the marginalized especially the people who are differently abled in all our activities in and outside the church. We realize that we have sinned against God in this exclusion of the people who are differently abled as active participants as either lay people or clergy. Lord, we seek your forgiveness and seek your will to do better as we come to eat the Body of Jesus and drink His Blood through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist to receive His blessings for each of us individually and communally. As we come to receive from God His blessings and mercies, we sing the Hymn "God's Glory" by Keziah Jones:
Soothe my mind
with life story
Soothe my kind
with gods glory
gods glory
who?
say amen ra
allah akhbar
lagbara oluwa
we will see
gods glory
who?
and the Hymn "O God of light, may our light shine" by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (2005)
1. O God of light, may our light shine
In ways that serve and honor you.
May we be loving, just and kind,
Proclaiming Christ in all we do.
2. God, where your people are oppressed
And where they cry out in despair,
Make us your light—to heal, to bless—
A witness, Lord, that you are there.
3. Christ, when your way is pushed aside
By those who trust in wealth and might,
Make us your lamps that we may guide
A searching world to your love’s light.
4. O Spirit, in this world of doubt,
We often sin and drift away.
When our own faith is flickering out,
Shine on our path and light our way.
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WHOEVER GOES UP by David N. Mosser
Luke 9:28-43a
A number of years ago, Dallas Cowboy personalities Deion Sanders and Jerry Jones made a pizza commercial. In the commercial Jerry asked Deion: “Deion, is it fifteen million or is it twenty million?” Deion replied, “Both!” Should Christians be devoted to God or devoted to people? The answer is both.
Jesus has predicted his suffering, death, and resurrection to his disciples. Jesus has called on them to “take up their cross” (Luke 9:23), warned that those who hear the gospel but fail to trust in it will be condemned, and has promised that some present will see the realm of God. Now Jesus and three special disciples ascend “the mountain.”
We have heard this transfiguration story, as related by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, each year on “Transfiguration Sunday.” Even if we have never been to the mountaintop ourselves, we still like to hear about others having the experience.
What happens after the mountaintop experience? We all know that if you go up to the mountain, you must come down. What happens to Peter, James, and John when they come down? [Read Luke 9:37-43a.]
From a mountaintop moment, disciples go back to the drudgery of the human world of pain, disease, and death. No wonder Peter said it was good that they were on the mountain and should build three dwelling places. When we are in a place of joy, rarely do we want to return to the ordinary world. Yet, Jesus, as the prophets before him, always forces disciples to look at their world—where the rain of God’s grace falls on the just and the unjust (see Matthew 5:45). A prophet is a person “who afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted” and Jesus’ lesson concerns prophetic discipleship.
The story of the healing of an epileptic child offers at least three lessons on discipleship. First, disciples alternate their lives in Christ between the mountain of joy and their Christ-needy world. Given people’s nature, however, we tend to overindulge one side of the human-divine equation. Two candles always adorn the church’s altar. These candles represent Jesus’ incarnation. One candle symbolizes Jesus’ divinity, and the other candle signifies Jesus’ humanity. Consequently, we understand Jesus’ essential nature as fully human and fully divine. Jesus represents the fusion of God with humankind.
In the earlier part of the twentieth century, American Christianity wrestled with two primary heresies, heresies as old as the Jesus movement. One side of the dispute included people who retreated from the world’s problems. These persons focused on their own spiritual needs while ignoring the world’s troubles. People often used the transfiguration story of the disciples with Moses, Elijah, and Jesus to support a theology of retreat. Conversely, others observed “the Social Gospel.” Although deeply dedicated Christians, their focus was to put the world’s affairs in order. Sometimes they neglected their own spiritual lives. Through the story of the Transfiguration and the healing of the boy with a demon, Luke helps believers understand the vitality of both the personal and the communal characters of discipleship. Could this be why Luke links these two very different stories together?
A second lesson of discipleship teaches us that Jesus’ power over evil is what enables disciples to do what needs to be done if we are to share the realm of God with the people of God. A balance between heaven and earth, or the divine and the human, keeps our lives between the poles of joy and service. If we look too much toward heaven, we miss our calling. If we worry too much about how to live out the nuts and bolts of Christian service, we may forget God’s power that sustains every benevolent effort.
I heard an amusing story about former heavyweight boxer James (Quick) Tillis. He was a cowboy from Oklahoma who also boxed in Chicago in the 1980s. He remarked about his first day in Chicago arriving from Tulsa. “I got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under my arms in downtown Chicago and stopped in front of the Sears Tower. I put my suitcases down, and I looked up at the Tower and I said to myself, ‘I’m going to conquer Chicago.’ When I looked down, the suitcases were gone.”
The point is simple. We cannot do God’s work if we are preoccupied with looking only to our needs. Likewise, if we do not often look up for God’s guidance, then we do not have the strength that God gives to spread healing grace.
Luke’s third lesson on discipleship reminds us that the greatest stumbling block for disciples is the tediousness of our hard and often disappointing work. Boredom is a most seductive enemy of the Christian life because many of the most important things we do are routine. We do the same kinds of activities over and over. Bible study is unlike any other kind of studying that we do. It is too deep and too important to ever be mastered. I have never heard anyone say that she or he knows Scripture well enough. We must return to it again and again. The same is true of prayer. Prayer is a relationship with God that can never be complete. It is always growing and evolving. None of us are ever finished praying.
We all know what it is like to give our best effort and hear someone say in appreciation, “Thank you for that wonderful Sunday school lesson. I look forward to next week. I’m sure your next lesson will be just as good.” These compliments have the potential to destroy. Every time we do something well, a similar opportunity rolls around again. We live the Christian life in a habitual, but important, manner again and again. It is easy to simply give up and put our discipleship on “cruise control.”
Whether one is a Sunday school teacher, a Stephen minister, a teacher or student of Disciple Bible Study, a VBS worker, or whatever—whenever we finish one task, there is another waiting for us. The Christian life can make one both a bored and a boring person, if one is not captured by its beauty and grace. We need the fire of the Spirit to continue to bring energy and creativity to those repetitive but important tasks that Christ has called us to do.
Jesus seems to tell us that looking up is vital to our relationship with God, but that by our looking down, we can do God’s will.
read more
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WORSHIP ELEMENTS: FEBRUARY 7, 2016 by Shelley Cunningham
Transfiguration Sunday
COLOR: White
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 99; 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2; Luke 9:28-36
THEME IDEAS
“Mountaintop experiences”—it’s the phrase we use to describe those ultimate highs in life. In these passages, Moses encounters God on Mount Sinai and the disciples view Jesus’ transfiguration on a mountaintop. Both experiences offer glimpses of the awesome power and mystery of God’s presence. Yet the reality of mountaintop experiences is that we don’t live there—at some point, we have to come down. How do we sustain a mountaintop experience of God in everyday life? How do we find God’s presence each and every day? The psalmist suggests continual worship and praise, hereas Paul encourages us to live and serve with faithfulness and integrity, for our ability to do so comes from God.
INVITATION AND GATHERING
Call to Worship (Psalm 99)
The Lord reigns.
Let the nations tremble.
The Lord reigns.
Let them praise God’s holy name.
The Lord reigns.
Let the peoples rejoice in awe and wonder.
The Lord reigns.
Let them shout in exaltation!
Opening Prayer (2 Corinthians 3, Luke 9)
Radiant Lord,
you shine with purity, power, and truth.
Your mercy reflects your compassion,
your care, and your love.
Transform us into your image
as we seek to follow you.
Use us to make your presence known
throughout the world.
In your strong name we pray. Amen.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
Prayer of Confession (Luke 9)
Lord,
you call us to draw near,
yet we fail to hear your voice.
We sleepwalk through life,
ignoring the needs of people all around us
and worrying about our own desires.
Forgive us:
when we shut out the call
to climb into your presence;
when we make excuses
to put off that journey.
Have mercy on us, O Lord,
as we silently open our hearts
and confess our sins:
(Time of silence)
Hear our pleas, O God,
and lift us to newness of life. Amen.
Words of Assurance (2 Corinthians 3, Psalm 99, Luke 9)
We worship a forgiving God,
whose mercy is never ending,
whose heart abounds in steadfast love.
Because of the love of Jesus Christ,
nothing can separate us
from the love of God.
Passing the Peace of Christ (Luke 9)
In the face of a stranger, in the greeting of a friend, we see our Lord, Jesus Christ. In the love of Christ, welcome those around you today.
Response to the Word (Luke 9)
Lord, it is good to be here—
to hear your word,
to share your story.
Help us see your Son for who he really is.
Help us listen to him,
receive his forgiveness,
and walk in his light.
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
Invitation to the Offering (Exodus 34, 2 Corinthians 3)
In days of old, God was seen as far from the people.
But we know Christ, and in him we know God.
When we share what we have out of love,
our hearts grow closer to God,
and we shine with Christ’s glory.
Let us offer our gifts to God today.
Offering Prayer (2 Corinthians 4)
Generous God,
it is through your mercy
that we have this ministry—
the ministry of our talents and treasure,
the ministry of our passion and purpose.
Strengthen our hearts for your service,
and accept the grateful offerings
we lay before you. Amen.
SENDING FORTH
Benediction (Luke 9)
Led by the Spirit,
go forth in God’s love.
Illumined by the Spirit,
shine with Christ’s light. Amen.
CONTEMPORARY OPTIONS
Contemporary Gathering Words (Luke 9, 2 Corinthians 3)
Will you come to the highest mountain?
We come to worship the Lord.
Jesus is waiting, waiting to greet you.
Jesus, we come. Jesus, we’re here.
Come!
We come to worship the Lord.
Praise Sentences (Luke 9, 2 Corinthians 3)
You are so good, Lord!
Your love warms our hearts.
You are so good, Lord!
Your love shows us the way.
You are so good, Lord!
Your love shines like the sun.
You are so good, Lord!
You are so good!
From The Abingdon Worship Annual edited by Mary J. Scifres and B.J. Beu, Copyright © Abingdon Press. The Abingdon Worship Annual 2016 is now available.
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WORSHIP CONNECTION: FEBRUARY 7, 2016 by Nancy C. Townley
COLOR: White
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 99; 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2; Luke 9:28-36
CALLS TO WORSHIP
Call to Worship #1
L: Lord, you have called us to the mountaintop.
P: Help us to look forward to where you would have us go.
L: Help us to listen carefully to the words of your healing love.
P: Open our hearts and spirits to receive your glorious directions.
L: Place your trust in the Lord in all your ways.
P: Lord, we have come here to give our lives to you. AMEN.
Call to Worship #2
L: It is easy to stand here in the valley of our comfort.
P: We know what to expect and what is expected of us.
L: But Christ calls us to the mountain top to receive a new vision.
P: We are not sure we are ready for that.
L: Place your hope and trust in Christ, for He is your guide.
P: Let us open our hearts to Christ, ready for the vision he places before us. AMEN.
Call to Worship #3
[Using THE FAITH WE SING, P. 2173, “Shine, Jesus, Shine”, offer the following as directed, noting that the verse is sung before the refrain]
L: We are here in darkness, yet Christ beckons us to the light.
P: Come, Lord Jesus, lead us.
Choir: singing verse 1 and then singing the refrain of “Shine, Jesus, Shine”
L: Shadows of doubt and fear cloud our lives.
P: Bring us to your radiant Glory, O Christ.
Choir: singing verse 2 and then singing the refrain of “Shine, Jesus, Shine”
L: Free us from our fears, so that we can step into the light.
P: Open our eyes, our hearts, our spirits, to receive your glory.
Choir: singing verse 3 and then singing the refrain of “Shine, Jesus, Shine”
[Optional: you may invite the entire congregation to sing the refrain of “Shine, Jesus, Shine” at the end of this call to worship]
Call to Worship #4
L: We are brought here today to glimpse the hope that Christ has for us.
P: Open our hearts to receive that hope.
L: We are brought here today to be healed of our fears.
P: Heal us, Lord Jesus, with your love and power.
L: Come, let us receive the vision and healing love of God.
P: Praise be to God who continues to bless and restore us. AMEN.
Call to Worship #5
L: It is easy to stand here in the valley of our comfort.
P: We know what to expect and what is expected of us.
L: But Christ calls us to the mountain top to receive a new vision.
P: We are not sure we are ready for that.
L: Place your hope and trust in Christ, for He is your guide.
P: Let us open our hearts to Christ, ready for the vision he places before us. AMEN.
PRAYERS, LITANY/READING, BENEDICTION
Opening Prayer
Lord, it seems so long ago that we heard your words at Jesus’ baptism. You reminded us that he is your beloved Son with whom you are well pleased. Again today we hear your words that we are to listen to him, to pay attention. Open our hearts this day, Lord, to hear the words of Jesus, to follow in his footsteps, and to serve You. For we ask this in Christ’s Name. AMEN.
Prayer of Confession
We want to celebrate. We don’t want to listen. We want to stay on the mountaintop with Jesus and set up a festival where everyone can come and play and have a good time. We want our faith to be one of entertainment. But you have called us to “Listen to Him!” You have asked us to be ready for the journey. We cannot stay where we are, comfortable and snuggled down in the familiar. There is much to be done. Forgive us, Lord, when we are stubborn and willful. Remind us that you are with us, wherever we are. You call us from the mountaintop to go to the valley where this is struggle and strife; where healing is needed. Prepare us, Lord, for the journey. Help us to listen to you. Heal us, Lord. For we ask this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.
Words of Assurance
Listen to Jesus. He will guide and care for you. Place your trust in him, for he is God’s chosen, God’s beloved. His ways are the ways of peace and hope. AMEN.
Pastoral Prayer
We picture the mountain top experience of the disciples, Peter, James and John, chosen to go up to the mountain top with Jesus, to receive a new vision. But it wasn’t what was expected. They were awed and frightened. They didn’t know what to do. One wanted to build special festival booths for Moses, Elijah and Jesus, where people could come to receive healing and blessing. It would have been so easy to stay up on the mountain and never again to descend to the hungering valley below. But Jesus has work for us to do. We are called to receive the blessing, not for ourselves alone, but to give it to others; to offer healing, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, hope and peace. These are difficult things to do in the face of the anger and hostilities that seem to abound in the world. We are not alone. God is with us. Just as we have asked for God’s healing mercies in the prayers we have offered for others, so we are recipients of God’s love and strength. Feel the power of God’s love flooding over you, coursing through your veins, encompassing your spirit! Let God’s strength and hope abide in you. Then be prepared to go and bring that blessing to others, in the name of Jesus Christ. AMEN.
Litany/Reading
[Note: the following reading is performed as “Readers’ Theater”. Three Readers are required; there should also be two “voices” off stage, one as the voice of God, and one as the voice of Jesus. They will not be seen during the presentation. Begin the first scene in the middle of the sanctuary or worship area. Move the speakers as directed in the script]
Reader 1: Wow! An invitation to the top of the Rock. Imagine all the people who would like to have that one!
Reader 2: That’s for sure! We must be something really special to get this invitation!
Reader 3: Wait until my friends hear! I can’t decide whether I will tell them before we go up on the mountain or wait until we come back down, if we do.
Reader 1: Well, any way you look at it - it’s a privilege!
[Readers move to the front of the worship area, and sit near the worship center display. They will need to be seen and to project their voices. One of them may remain standing, if that is appropriate]
Reader 2: Look at this! It’s misty up here. I thought it would be clear.
Reader 3: At least when can still see Him. I feel a little bit better about this. This is sure different that I thought it would be.
Reader 1: We’re probably here because we are the bravest of the group, if you know what I mean. I don’t think the others would be able to enter such an unknown situation.
Reader 2: It’s good for us to be here with you, Master. We are glad you invited us.
Reader 1: Listen, we have a good plan. This is a nice place. We could build some festival booths. You know, one for You, one for each of your friends. How would you like that?
VOICE (offstage - use a microphone if available, otherwise speak loudly, but don’t shout): Be quiet! Listen to Jesus! This is my Son, my Chosen!!
[Readers bow their heads; if one is standing, have him/her kneel or sit down as if contrite]
VOICE 2 (offstage - use a microphone, speak clearly, but don’t shout - the voice should be compassionate, not harsh): It is time for us to go from this place. Listen and observe. Do not talk about what you have seen, but remember what has been shown to you, for the times ahead will be challenging and you will need to understand all that you have seen. Do not think that this will be easy, for the path is rough, but God is with us. Come, let us go back to the valley where the work will begin.
(The readers get up and leave the chancel/worship area, down the aisle and out of the sanctuary or to the rear of the sanctuary.)
Benediction: Mountaintop experiences are wonderful. There is so much to see, but you are called now to go to the valley where there is much to be done. You are not alone; God goes with you, bringing healing, hope and peace. Go now in God’s peace and let it flood through you to others. AMEN.
ARTISTIC ELEMENTS
The traditional color for this Sunday is WHITE
Note: I recommend putting a brief paragraph describing or explaining the symbolism used in your visual display in the worship bulletin. This a good teaching tool for the congregation.
DEFINITIONS:
Risers: Any structure or support which will raise a portion of 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 which is going to be placed on the riser. I also refer to benches or tables which may be placed to the side or in front of the worship center as risers. I have used pieces of 2”x 4” wood, stacked on top of each other to achieve the height I desired. Most of the time, the 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: the worship center. In some instances it may be referred to as the altar, the 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 live flowers and plants in the chancel/worship area. I believe that there are some really beautiful silk flowers which will suffice in times when live plants are not available. However, go with the tradition of your local church. Generally speaking, I like to use foliage plants (non-flowering or minimally flowering) as accent pieces. “Spiky” plants, such as: mother-in-
law’s tongue, snake plant, are good when you desire a harsh, hard, angular effect. Fern (especially asparagus or Boston) are wonderful along with some ivys, 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, smooth edges (creating a flat panel).
THE ARTISTIC ELEMENT FOR TODAY
SURFACE: Place several risers on the worship center. The tallest riser, approximately 1 foot above the main level of the worship center, should be placed to the upper left as you are facing the worship center. The other risers, about 4-6” high, may be placed, one at the center and the other slightly to the right of the middle one.
FABRIC: Cover the worship center with dark fabric, so that it puddles down onto the floor. Place a layer over it of light brown fabric, but leave about 2 feet in width of the dark fabric showing. Cover the top of the worship center with white fabric. The risers should be covered with the white fabric..
CANDLES: On the middle riser, place a white pillar candle, about 10” high, representing Christ. .Place votive candles, arranged in clusters, on the other risers
FLOWERS/PLANTS: No plants should be placed on the worship center. You may place some “spiky” plants on either side of the worship center at the base.
ROCKS/WOOD: Piles of rocks and sticks may be placed at the base of the worship center near the dark fabric, to represent roughness and rubble.
OTHER: A brass cross may be placed on the top riser on the worship center with the Christ Candle.
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WORSHIP FOR KIDS: FEBRUARY 7, 2016 by Carolyn C. Brown
LAST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD
From a Child's Point of View
We seldom choose to tell children the two stories that are the focal point of today's texts because they lead children to ask uncomfortably unanswerable questions:
Why did God speak to Moses and not to the others? Was God playing favorites?
If I were really in the presence of God, would my face shine? I love God, so how come my face doesn't shine?
Why doesn't the face of anyone in our church shine? Is it because we are not good enough, or was this a special magic trick God did for Moses and Jesus? Did it really happen that way?
Few answers to such questions will satisfy literal-minded children. Children can, however, become familiar with these strange, interesting stories and explore a few key ideas that may seem unrelated to the stories now but will prove related as the children grow older.
Old Testament: Exodus 34:29-35. Children are better able to follow the Transfiguration story if they know that Moses had been on the mountain talking with God for forty days and was bringing back the Ten Commandments written on stone. (The Good News Bible translation is clearest about what Moses was carrying.)
The unstated message of this story is that if you live in God's presence, it will make a difference that others will notice. Moses' shiny face can be seen by adults as a symbol of his attitude toward life and his behavior. While children cannot make this connection, they can understand that knowing God will make a noticeable difference in their lives. Because they know God loves them, they will love others. Their actions will reflect God's love. As their symbol-making powers grow, they will see a natural connection between this truth and Moses' shiny face.
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 3:12 –4:2. Paul uses Moses' veil as a symbol of all the things we let come between us and God. Paul's argument requires more knowledge of Jews and the Law than children have. But if you restate Paul's message without the first-century details, children can hear Paul's warning not to let anything come between us and knowing God. For children, this means making time to be at church with God's people (because that is one good place to meet God), learning more about God by reading the Bible, and praying (sharing with God) with others and alone.
Gospel: Luke 9:28-36 (37-43). On their first hearing, this story simply says to children that Jesus was special. God showed this with the light and the spoken message. That understanding is a fine place to start living with this story. Older children, if they know who Elijah and Moses were, can learn from this story that God was present with Jesus when he faced a hard task—going to Jerusalem to die. Knowing that God was present to comfort and encourage Jesus, children can be led to expect that God will be present to comfort and encourage them when they face difficult tasks. It would be helpful, however, to point out some phenomena in which we sense God's presence, other than light and voice messages (e.g., God comforting us through the words and presence of other people; a feeling deep inside that God is with us; remembering a Bible verse or singing a song about God).
Psalm: Psalm 99. This psalm celebrates the God who shines around Moses and Jesus. To really understand the psalm, one needs to be familiar with Old Testament enthronement language and practices, and to know who Moses, Aaron, Samuel, and Jacob were. Few children do.
However, if children hear this passage introduced as a psalm that praises God, the King of the whole universe, and then we are urged to listen carefully to hear what kind of king God is, they can share in the confident mood of the psalm and probably can understand some of the phrases.
Watch Words
Transfiguration has become so obsolete that its dictionary definition refers only to this story about Jesus. It is easy and advisable to explore all the passages without using that word at all. If your tradition names this day of the church year Transfiguration of the Lord, let the term stand as the name of a specific day, rather than try to explain it as a description of what happened to Jesus.
Let the Children Sing
"O Wondrous Sight! O Vision Fair" retells the story of the Transfiguration in fairly simple concrete language.
"Take Time to Be Holy" allows us to sing in short phrases about everyday ways to be close to God.
The Liturgical Child
1. Read the Old Testament and Gospel lessons back to back. Invite the congregation to hear two stories that are very similar. Then read the Old Testament and Gospel stories in your best storyteller style. If you spend "time on the steps" with the children, take the lectern Bible with you and read both lessons there.
2. After introducing it as an enthronement psalm and inviting the congregation to imagine they are in a huge crowd, greeting "God, the King of the Universe," read Psalm 99 responsively. Arrange verses 1-4 and 6-8 in short phrases for responsive reading by alternate halves of the congregation. Plan to read verses 5 and 9 in unison. If there are two worship leaders, have one read with each half of the congregation to keep the pace upbeat and make the readings sound like crowd shouts.
3. Base the prayer of confession for the day on the ways we put a veil between ourselves and God. Children and adults "keep the veil up" when we (1) keep too busy with sports, homework, and television to participate in activities in which we might meet God; (2) avoid activities in which we might meet God, for fear our friends, or even our families might think we are weird and laugh at us; and (3) not even try to meet God because we are now sure how to do it and do not know what it would be like (e.g., we are scared).
Note: Children need to hear the lessons for the day before they can join in this prayer with understanding.
Sermon Resources
1. When two-year-old Jessica McClure was trapped in a well for hours, rescue teams heard her singing Sunday school songs over the microphone they had dropped down the well to monitor her. No one knows for sure what was going on in her mind, but a legitimate case can be made that she sang those songs to comfort herself by remembering times she felt safe and loved—by others and even by God.
2. Invite worshipers to think about times they have sensed God's presence. Share some of your own stories. Be sure to include at least one story from your childhood. For example, I remember sitting on my mother's bed with my brother and sisters to learn the Lord's Prayer. When I peeked at Mother as we were praying together, I felt that she loved God very much and I knew deeply that God loved all of us.
3. Early in the sermon, encourage children to draw pictures of times they have sensed God's presence with them. Be ready to respond to these pictures as the children leave the sanctuary.
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SERMON OPTIONS: FEBRUARY 7, 2016
IN GOD'S PRESENCE
EXODUS 34:29-35
Moses had led the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt into the desert at Mount Sinai. There he went up the mountain into the Presence of the Lord (v. 28). Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. He wrote them on two tablets of stone.
After a long stay on Mount Sinai receiving the commandments from God, Moses came down to his people at the foot of the mountain. He was unaware that "his face shone because he had been talking with God" (v. 29).
Aaron and the people of Israel were afraid because Moses' face was strangely aglow (v. 30). Moses had to call them to himself and tell them what God had commanded through the Lawgiver. Afterward, Moses had to put a veil over his face whenever he spoke with the Lord.
We find a similar experience on the Mount of Transfiguration, where Jesus' face shone in the presence of his disciples, Peter, James, and John (Luke 9:28-36). Both accounts tell of the mysterious and awesome experience of the Presence of God—the Shekinah Glory. Moses and Jesus were changed in appearance and their faces shone in the Presence. Note that Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Moses encountered the Almighty at the burning bush, on Mount Sinai, and in the wilderness when the divine Presence led the children of Israel by a pillar of fire or cloud. We can experience the Presence of God in many ways.
• God is present in the world he created. "This is my Father's world: he shines in all that's fair; in the rustling grass I hear him pass; he speaks to me everywhere" ("This Is My Father's World," Maltbie D. Babcock, 1901).
• God is present in our worship. Jesus promised to be with us wherever two or more gather in his name. We may experience his focused presence in our observance of the Lord's Supper. The Reformers called this "the Realized Presence." Altar candles used in some church traditions are symbolic of the divine Presence in worship.
• God is present in believers. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit ("Christ in you, the hope of glory"). Before Jesus' ascension to the Father, he said to his disciples, "Be assured, I am with you always, to the end of time" (Matt. 28:20 NEB).
It is a transforming experience to be in the presence of God. We have sensed this in reading the Scriptures and in prayer time, in private or public worship. We may feel his presence in our conscience. Often we are aware of the Creator in the beauty and wonder of the natural world. God can become real to us in the lives of other persons. He speaks with many voices. "He speaks to me everywhere." (Alton H. McEachern)
REMOVING THE VEIL
2 CORINTHIANS 3:12–4:2
Have you ever tried to share your faith with someone, but they just didn't get it? Paul encountered that frustration every time he tried to witness to the Jews. All they understood was Moses and the Law. They did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah because they could not see beyond their preconceived notions of who the Messiah would be.
The same problem occurs today. As people are confronted with the person of Christ, they turn away because they are unwilling to see past the veil of their particular perspective. Unless they turn to Christ and allow him to remove that barrier, they will forever be trapped in disbelief.
I. Without Christ, Everyone Is Blinded by a Veil
The modern age of relativism teaches us to value personal opinion above objective truth. As we journey through life, our experiences either confirm or contradict our presuppositions about God and the world around us. The result is a multiplicity of contrasting worldviews, each forming a barrier to reality.
Just as the Jews stood condemned in their zeal for the old covenant of the law, so are those who continue to have their minds dulled by refusing to follow Christ. We remain steadfast in ignorance affirming the fallacies of subjective experience. The deceit of our own lies veils our eyes from the revelation of Truth, which is Jesus Christ.
II. Only Christ Can Remove the Veil
Imagine being blind your entire life and suddenly receiving the gift of sight. The insurmountable joy would be surpassed only by the fresh awareness of the world around you. Vivid colors, depth perception, a bird in flight—all would reveal a new understanding of reality.
Christ came to give sight to the blind! As we turn to the Lord, Jesus responds by lifting the veil. Instantly, we perceive the truth of Christ and our need for him. He delivers us from the enslavement of sin and releases us into the freedom of becoming all that we were created to be.
III. Freedom in Christ Means Boldness in Proclamation
Once Christ removes the veil and reality unfolds, the believer desires to share the news with those around him. Being freed from the shackles of deceit compels one to liberate others. Our hope intensifies our boldness to openly proclaim truth in Christ.
Paul confesses the simplicity of his rhetorical approach. He needs no special tactics or manipulative effects. Rather, he speaks the truth plainly and allows the impact of objective fact to leave its own impression.
As God's treasure chests, we must open ourselves and permit others to partake of the riches of the Savior. We need no formal training in the art of persuasion. Just tell the story of who Jesus is and what he has done for you and leave the rest to God. If the listener rejects the truth, it is through no fault of your own. Some people will never turn to the Lord. To them, the gospel remains veiled, even as they are perishing. (Craig C. Christina)
CHANGED!
LUKE 9:28-36 (37-43)
This event shows Jesus as he moved beyond the roles other people tried to give him. He had recently predicted his own death but the disciples did not want to hear it. They had their own plans for Jesus. Don't we all?
But Jesus knew where he came from and where he was going. The dramatic events on the mount of transfiguration speak about change—his and ours. Consider the development of the story.
I. Identity: Consider Jesus—This Is God's Son
A cluster of Old Testament images bubble to the surface in this story. "Light," "Moses," "cloud," and "Elijah" are all images from the Jewish past. They remind us what God has always been up to. Moses reminds us of the law. Elijah represents the prophets. The light and cloud picture the presence of God.
The experience of transfiguration was a time when the disciples were confronted with Jesus' identity in a new way. The voice from the cloud proclaimed him as God's son.
Who do you think he is? No one can make you believe in him, but once you do, no one can make you disbelieve. Jesus comes into our lives and we find ourselves following him out of love and loyalty.
Dr. Edward Benes was the Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Thomas Masaryk, the first President of Czechoslovakia when it came into existence in 1918. Benes is buried in Lany, a town about twenty-five miles outside Prague. His grave, along with those of three Masaryks, is unmarked. Shortly before his death Benes told a friend why he wanted an unmarked grave: "If the people love me, I shall live in their hearts and they will never forget the place of my grave; hence an identification is unnecessary. If they do not love me, I shall be forgotten in their hearts; and the most elaborate tombstone will make no difference."
Loyalty to Christ is like that. We are confronted with his true identity and called to follow.
II. Discipleship: This Is God's Son—Listen to Him
The event on the mountain deeply disturbed the disciples. They did not know what to make of it at first. We learn that they did not even speak of it until much later. They were confronted with a new way of thinking about Jesus.
"Listen to him," the voice said. That is still the word that comes to disciples today. Listen to Jesus as he raises our ethical vision. His sacrifice was part of God's larger plan. Listen to Jesus as he calls us to join him. We are to take up our own cross and follow. Listen to Jesus as other voices call to us and try to get us to abandon the narrow path.
This is God's Son. Listen to him.
III. Transformation: Listen to Him—And You Will Be Changed
The word transfiguration is the word from which we get our word metamorphosis. It is a change from the inside out. That can be painful.
Simon Peter wanted to seize the moment of glory on the mountain and build booths to stay awhile. He wanted to stay on the mountain of high spiritual experience and eliminate struggle and doubt. But some experiences cannot be captured or held back.
The transfiguration showed that Jesus was different from what the disciples first believed. They had to learn to listen to him. Then they found out that they themselves were changed. We are like them in that we can participate in the transformation of men and women around us who see the light.
As a boy, Robert Louis Stevenson looked out of his window one evening. Those were the days before electric lights. Stevenson saw the town lamplighter coming along. As this lamplighter lit the street lamps in succession, Stevenson was impressed at the sight. He wrote about the lamplighter who went along "punching holes in the darkness." Jesus Christ came into this world as a light, and he punched holes in the darkness.
Consider Jesus. He is God's Son. That is his identity. He is God's Son. Listen to him. He calls us to discipleship. Listen to him. You will be changed. This is transformation. (Don M. Aycock)
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