Ministry Matters: "Race, justice & the church — Top 6 paths to productivity — Discipleship & political engagement" Ministry Matters in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Wednesday, 19 October 2016

Ministry Matters: "Race, justice & the church — Top 6 paths to productivity — Discipleship & political engagement" Ministry Matters in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Race, justice and the church
Ministry Matters Radio by Gregory V. Palmer  Justin Coleman  F. Willis Johnson
What is the church doing to answer the pain of those wounded by racial injustice? How can congregations and denominations work for systemic change? Where is the church called to stand in such a fractured society? On this episode of Ministry Matters Radio, Justin Coleman, F. Willis Johnson and Bishop Gregory Palmer discuss the church's role when it comes to race and justice issues in our communities.
Justin Coleman, F. Willis Johnson and Bishop Gregory V. Palmer
On this episode of Ministry Matters Radio, Justin Coleman, F. Willis Johnson and Bishop Gregory Palmer discuss the church's role when it comes to race and justice issues in our communities. What is the church doing to answer the pain of those wounded by racial injustice? How can congregations and denominations work for systemic change? Where is the church called to stand in such a fractured society? Listen to the conversation below.

F. Willis Johnson's book Holding Up Your Corner: Talking About Race in Your Community releases January 2017 from Abingdon Press.

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Discipleship and political engagement: An interview with Bradley Burroughs by Clifton Stringer
Recently I was able to visit with Dr. Bradley Burroughs of United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. His reflections spring out of deep concern for Christian discipleship as it relates to political engagement, including the ethics of drone warfare, and even to Star Wars.
Clifton Stringer: What does it mean to you to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? How did you come to be a disciple of Jesus, and how did it result in your eventually earning a Ph.D. in Christian Ethics?
Bradley Burroughs: In Discipleship, a book that I can never recommend heartily enough (sometimes translated as The Cost of Discipleship), Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes that discipleship is a commitment solely to the person of Jesus Christ...
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at a press conference in 1964. Photo by Dick DeMarsico via Wikimedia Commons
Recently I was able to visit with Dr. Bradley Burroughs. His reflections spring out of deep concern for Christian discipleship as it relates to political engagement, including the ethics of drone warfare, and even to Star Wars. He holds a Masters degree from Duke Divinity School, and a Ph.D. from Emory University. Dr. Burroughs currently teaches courses at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.
Clifton Stringer: What does it mean to you to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? How did you come to be a disciple of Jesus, and how did it result in your eventually earning a Ph.D. in Christian Ethics?

Dr. Brad Burroughs
Bradley Burroughs: In Discipleship, a book that I can never recommend heartily enough (sometimes translated as The Cost of Discipleship), Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes that discipleship is a commitment solely to the person of Jesus Christ. That commitment means accepting Christ as our savior, the one who has redeemed us from the wages of sin. But it also means accepting Christ as our exemplar, our model, the one who shows us the way of new life that we are to live here and now in this world. As Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 3:18, we are to be transformed into Christ’s image “from one degree of glory into another.” So being a disciple is about being committed to Jesus Christ and to the transformation he calls forth.
Because that transformation is so radical and always relies upon grace beyond the human, it seems to me that discipleship is always a language of endeavor. So I’m not sure that I am definitely a disciple of Jesus, but I’m sure trying to be.
I began that process — or began it in a different way — in college. At the time, I had left the Christianity of my youth behind in large part because, based on the way in which the church I grew up in presented it, I concluded that the Christian faith had nothing substantive to say about how we are to live now — in a world scarred by poverty, racism and war. The focus was almost entirely upon being “saved” and then going to heaven when we die. The shape of that message gave a great deal of validity to the criticisms of Christianity that I read in Ludwig Feuerbach and Karl Marx.
But in college I encountered a very different kind of Christianity that tapped into what I would find out was the church’s long history of social activism. I found that concern given voice in the works of Martin Luther King Jr., Gustavo Gutierrez, John Wesley, Walter Rauschenbusch and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, among others. The fundamental question for me became: What does it mean to live as a faithful disciple in this world serving God and others?
This radically altered the trajectory of my life. Rather than doing a Ph.D. in political science, as I had long planned, I took a position as a local pastor in rural western New York and began making plans to go to seminary. Over time, however, I came to see that if I were to answer this central question and the many others that it raised, I was going to need two things. First, I was going to need to learn more. And second, given the way my brain works, I was going to need to devote more undivided attention to the task than the press of weekly preaching and pastoral responsibilities generally allowed. It was those realizations, plus the fact that I find great joy in teaching, that led me to pursue a doctorate in Christian ethics.
CS: Your description of your focus on the shape of faithful discipleship in this world rings true precisely with the way friends described you in 2003 or 4, when we first became acquainted, as you were studying at Duke Divinity and I was in the process of applying.
To move now to your dissertation, I find the topic and scope of your dissertation unusually exciting. It certainly seems to resonate with the path of discipleship you've described above. You contextualize and engage the political theologies of both Reinhold Niebuhr and Stanley Hauerwas in light of our necessary posture of awaiting the arrival of the City of God. Namely, we have to wait for Jesus to bring the Kingdom/City of God. Our efforts, whether we begin with state (like Niebuhr) or church (like Hauerwas) can't bring the kingdom fully into the present. I wonder how you arrived at this topic? What do you want to say to Christians through it? I think I'm particularly intrigued by your topic since, like you I bet, I drank deeply of the Hauerwasian waters at Duke Divinity School during years that were very theologically formative for me. Yet, through my subsequent experience of life in church, family, and state — through suffering and enjoying first the work of ministry and now doctoral study — I've shifted toward a more Augustinian posture and pastoral approach. I still love Hauerwas, but the frame within which I read him has changed a lot. So your dissertation gives eloquence and insight to a shift that has been important for me personally, but which I haven't been able to think through adequately. How would you summarize the heart of your argument, and how did you come to feel the importance of what you're showing us?
BB: Like many dissertations, mine began as a work of intellectual psychoanalysis. What brought me back to Christianity, as I said, was the work of those like Rauschenbusch and Niebuhr that placed an emphasis upon engaging mechanisms of government and changing public policy. But when I went to seminary I was indeed deeply shaped by Stanley Hauerwas, who gives those matters little positive attention and instead focuses upon the church’s call to form people in the virtues. And so I had within me these two ways of thinking about the Christian life that were on many points deeply at odds with one another. The initial task of my dissertation was to help me create a healthy and integrated theological identity.
But I trust that it has something to say to other Christians, as well. To begin with, I believe we must appreciate the precarious and paradoxical situation in which Christians exist, a situation in which the City of God or Kingdom of God is coming and indeed pressing upon us and yet in which the fullness of that reality remains unrealized. As a result, we need to be both oriented towards the City of God and yet also realistic about the ways in which evil corrupts all our achievements in history. How can we strike that balance and live faithfully in such a world? Because God has created and called us to the Kingdom of God, which is a political reality, I believe that the answer to such a question necessarily requires a Christian ethic of politics, which is what the project attempts to articulate.
Nevertheless, I argue that the nature of the Kingdom of God and the dynamics of evil reveal both strengths and shortcomings in the work of Niebuhr and Hauerwas. And I take it that the key insight of the dissertation — hopefully soon to be a book — is that we need aspects of both. Witnessing faithfully to the Kingdom of God in a world menaced by evil requires Christians to engage the mechanisms of government to try to create a more just world, but it also requires us — and indeed first requires us — to attend to the task of creating communities that can form people in the virtues of the Christian life. These are not alternatives; they are necessary complements.
CS: And you point to some exemplary figures who show this way forward you see for Christian political engagement. Can you say something about who they are and share how one of them exemplifies a way forward?
BB: First and foremost, I always point to Martin Luther King Jr., whom I believe articulated and, even more significantly, embodied the kind of ethic that I am talking about. We rightly remember King for the contributions that he made to “statecraft,” to creating more just government policies. But in his view, the Civil Rights Movement was also about what I call “soulcraft,” creating more virtuous people. As King put it, his goal was to create a beloved community, which requires “a qualitative change in our souls.” In an era when those who talk about government are so unlikely to talk about the soul and those who talk about the soul are so unlikely to talk about government, King reminded us that these two are deeply interdependent. Changing our souls without changing government policies is likely to leave our brothers and sisters to languish in oppression, but changing our government policies without changing our souls can never produce true reconciliation or lasting justice.
While King is often rightly regarded as a genius, we must remember that he was not a lone prodigy. Rather, he was joined by thousands of others who were willing to risk their lives in the quest for civil rights. Rosa Parks, Ella Baker, John Lewis, Bob Moses, Fannie Lou Hamer, Septima Clark, Medgar Evers and far more than we could name here. Those enormous crowds that King drew in cities across the country were no accident. As Joanne Bland, the former director of the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, has put it, we must remember that every town that invited King to speak was already organized. And many of these persons are also significant exemplars in my work.
Another of the exemplary figures that I often point to is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In the story often told about Bonhoeffer, he was arrested and put to death for participating in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. And in many renditions it can sound as if Bonhoeffer himself was essentially to be detonating the bomb. Recent findings suggest that the first story is by no means certain, and the second is wildly inaccurate. As I see it, however, our fascination with Bonhoeffer’s potential complicity in any assassination attempt in fact often leads us to overlook what makes him so remarkable, which was his willingness to publicly defy Hitler and the Nazi government with the message of the Christian faith. Moreover, I argue that he also rightly perceives the importance of both statecraft and soulcraft. Admittedly, Bonhoeffer had notable shortcomings, including that his defense of the Jews was not always as forthright as it should have been. Still, I think we have much to learn from his thought and example.
The common thread that I see connecting all of these figures is the courage to stand up to injustice and oppression in an attempt to witness to and embody the gospel. Perhaps that is a reflection of my deeper fear that such courage is too often lacking in our own day.
CS: The imperative of courageous witness you're describing is one it seems to me you're trying to embody yourself in another area of your work. You've published an essay in The Christian Century as well as several blog posts for Symposium Ethics on Christian ethics and drone warfare. What convinced you of the importance of publishing on this topic? Obviously one of your areas of expertise is the ethics of war. Yet, why ought drone warfare raise particular concern for Christians?

A combat drone launching an air to ground missile. Photo: Bigstock/Paul Fleet
BB: Part of what persuaded me that drone warfare is an important issue to think about is that it is one that is so easy to ignore. Dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of lives are snuffed out on the other side of the globe, but it barely registers a blip in the U.S. because the technology of drone warfare is so amazingly cost-effective. Not only are drones relatively inexpensive, but their use exacts no cost in American lives since it requires no “boots on the ground.” And so we can blithely go about our lives with little consideration of the deeds being carried out in our names.
Throughout Christian history, however, the church has insisted that, even in cases where killing would be justified, the killing of other human beings should be a matter of significant moral consideration. A major impetus behind the pieces I have written is to offer such consideration, to examine the dynamics of the drone program and to ask whether they measure up to the standards of justification to which Christians throughout the centuries have subscribed. Asking such questions is a way of countering the kind of consequentialism that continually threatens to corrupt our political and moral judgments by suggesting that anything that purportedly contributes to our safety must necessarily be good.
CS: You write: "Even in Operation Haymaker, which combined signals intelligence with the human intelligence network enabled by the robust presence of American “boots on the ground,” nearly 90% of those killed in drone strikes were not the intended targets." That is stunning. What should Christians make of this? And, where can pastors and Christians in the pews find reliable data on drone strikes?
BB: In order to know what to make of this, one should begin by noting that this does not mean that all those killed were necessarily civilians. Indeed, many were likely “enemy combatants.” At the same time, the numbers from the Pentagon study of Operation Haymaker point to fundamental difficulties with drone warfare. The first is a problem of discrimination, a problem of identifying legitimate targets and being sure to strike only such targets. The fact that 90% of those killed in drone strikes were not the intended target suggests that drone warfare struggles mightily in this respect. A second problem is with a lack of transparency. Even when drones do not strike their intended targets, those killed are nearly always labeled EKIA, enemy killed in action. This is despite the fact that we do not even know these persons’ identities.
At the very least, I think that these realities behoove Christians to call for greater transparency, for a more open and accurate accounting of who has been killed by drone strikes. Only with such information might we be able to judge whether such strikes satisfy the criteria of discrimination, which is a crucial standard for conducting a just war according to most Christian accounts. Unfortunately, there is little transparency in the drone program. Even when the Obama Administration released figures detailing drone strokes “outside areas of active hostilities,” those figures contained nothing to verify their claims or the identities of those killed.
Because of the government’s unwillingness to provide such details, it can be difficult to find reliable data on drone strikes. Nevertheless, there are some good sources for orienting one to the basic dynamics of the program. In October 2015, The Intercept published a collection of classified military studies involving drone strikes that are quite revealing. Also, Jonathan Landay published a number of articles detailing drones’ lack of precision. Finally, there are three major organizations—the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, The Long War Journal, and New America — that track drone strikes.
CS: On a lighter note, you've written on Star Wars and the mystery of evil. Please tell me: Why do the Storm Troopers do it? And: Should we let our four year old daughter watch the movies? She found some parts of Zootopia very scary, and also emerged asking unsettling questions about why the characters who deceive and do evil do what they do …
BB: Of course knowing what motivates any specific Storm Trooper is difficult to determine precisely because we never know everything about another. As Dickens puts it in A Tale of Two Cities, “every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” Still, I think that when considered in the aggregate, one can surmise that a great many of the Storm Troopers likely do evil for the same reason many of us do — because they are simply thoughtless. Rather than explicitly willing to do what is evil, they simply pursue their own limited personal ambitions or just “follow orders” without ever thinking about the larger significance of their actions. Much the same could be said about many of the Storm Troopers of Nazi Germany. Of course, Americans have something of an obsession with Nazis and seem to love seeing them killed in especially grisly ways (the apogee of which is perhaps found in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds). I have my suspicions that this reflects a project of our own deep-seated worry that we too are likely to become complicit in evil because often we are more concerned with limited personal ambitions or simply with following the orders of our superiors than we are with the ultimate ends we are serving.
As for whether you should watch Star Wars with your four year old, now we are truly considering the mysteries of humanity! When I was a kid Darth Vader struck a visceral fear in me. (I used to have a Star Wars trashcan in my bedroom that had the rebels on one side and Darth Vader and his imperial companions on the other. I always made sure that Darth Vader faced away from my bed because otherwise I wouldn’t get a wink of sleep.) But Darth Vader didn’t scare my son at all. And yet, Kylo Ren, the antagonist in the new Star Wars movie and who seems like a harmless emo punk to me, really scares him. Very few things have reinforced how little I know about people as powerfully as parenthood. So, good luck! And let me know what you decide.
CS: What future projects or books do you have in store?
BB: My next book-length project is going to be a Christian examination of contemporary warfare. In addition to the use of drones, there are a number of other aspects of contemporary warfare that call out for deep ethical reflection, including the phenomenon known as “moral injury.” I aim to do my best in examining those realities and in the process to help Christians gain a firmer grasp on how we might think about war faithfully.
In the meantime, I’m working on a shorter piece comparing the ways in which Methodists and Lutherans think and talk about moral (trans)formation, a project that in many ways started when I was a Methodist working at a Lutheran seminary and trying to teach about virtue ethics.
There are about six other books that I have on a list of pieces that I want to write. But that requires time, which is likely to be in even shorter supply after my wife and I welcome a new child this November. So I can only trust in God that some day those pieces might be translated from aspiration to reality.
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.

Top 6 paths to productivity, 21st century style by Talbot Davis
We all have deadlines, but then again, we all have distractions, too. So what are some ways in the digital age to increase productivity, in ministry and otherwise? Here are six that are helping me.
Bigstock/tashatuvango
We all have deadlines, but then again, we all have distractions, too.
So what are some ways in the digital age to increase productivity, in ministry and otherwise?
Here are six that are helping me:

1. Screen off, music on. I realized on Monday night that I got more done in 90 minutes at home while sitting in the dining room listening to Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy than I had in about four hours at my office. Why? No screen. No emails, no Facebook, no Twitter, no … talbotdavis.com. Just pen, paper, bible and "Ring Them Bells."
2. Least favorite thing first. Get the tough, life-draining stuff out of the way early in the day. That way, the rest of it can be more life-giving.
3. Plan the day ahead the night before. If you wait until you get to your work station to plan your day, you’re already behind. Reserve five or ten minutes at day’s end to plot your tasks for the next day. Incidentally, this is why I write almost all my daily blog posts the night before they publish.
4. For your non-work related reading, read non-work related stuff. It will help you work more. I’ve told many of you before that I very rarely read books on ministry and preaching. And yet the novels and the histories that I do read end up shaping my series and messages as much as anything else except the Bible. Just recently, Ann Patchett’sCommonwealth and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Here I Am have given me about a year’s worth of sermon nuggets … and they were terrific reads along the way.
5. Small doses of your device. You can look busy while on your mobile device. But more often it is a distraction disguised as productivity. Remember: People survived pretty well before 2007 and the release of the iPhone. Somehow.
6. Don’t enter Facebook political arguments. Especially if you're a United Methodist preacher. Please, dear God, especially if you are a UM preacher. Better yet, don’t even read the lengthy argument strings already posted. They may tempt you to chime in, and the world (and the church) doesn’t need another opinion.

Talbot Davis is pastor of Good Shepherd United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina and the author of Solve, Head Scratchers: When the Words of Jesus Don't Make Sense, The Storm Before the Calm and The Shadow of a Doubt, all from Abingdon Press.

Politics, religion and the heartbreak of abortion by James C. Howell
Bigstock/Maybeiii
When it comes to all the political combat in the past 40+ years over abortion, Parker Palmer’s wisdom helps us: “Rage is simply one of the masks that heartbreak wears.” The greatest heartbreak must be in God’s own heart. Down here, good-hearted people struggle to select among society’s options: we celebrate the gift of life; we also want women to be able to flourish in their working and personal lives; we want to save a woman if a pregnancy endangers her life; we loathe any kind of forced relationship that results in pregnancy.
My denomination has a hybrid sort of position: the sanctity of unborn life is affirmed, but also respect for the life of the mother, naming “tragic conflicts that may justify abortion,” hence supporting the legal option, while striving to reduce unintended, unwanted pregnancies.
One way we who are Christian can help ourselves, and maybe even society, in the battle over abortion is reframing the way we talk and think about rights, bodies and life. One side speaks of “the right to life,” and the other speaks of “the right to choose,” and also “a woman’s right to have control over her own body.” On September 22, my Politics & Religion blog explained how in Christian theology, we don’t think of “rights” of any kind. There is no “right to life.” Life is a gift from God, which is the best conceivable reason not to take life. There is no “right to choose,” or a “right to control my own body.” My body belongs to God, so I am responsible to use it in holy ways, pleasing to God.
So before we pick a political posture, as Christians thinking theologically, we have a default mode on questions of abortion. First, inevitably, we always affirm life as God’s good gift. Of all God’s bountiful, marvelous gifts, the coming to be of human life is the most fabulous, the most vulnerable, and thus the most worthy of treasuring. God grieves the loss of any life, however nascent. God most certainly is for life. You have to admire Mother Teresa's opposition to abortion; not condemning anyone, she and her sisters valued life so highly they said "Give us your child; we will raise your child."
And second, as Christians, we still lift up a gold standard most have tossed aside — that the consummation of intimate relations is to be reserved for marriage. People will scoff, and we in the church fully understand the realities of physical activity, and even the need to be sure protections are in place. And yet, the most private, beautiful, vulnerable and frankly powerful part of each one of us is the body; careful, holy stewardship of that body is still God’s will for us. How odd is it that email filters are so terribly sensitive about the word that begins with an "s" and ends with an "x" that if I type that word my email won't get through, and yet our culture trivializes, degrades, and commercializes that which begins with "s" and ends with "x"? Have we lifted up the sheer goodness of abstinence and the delights of holy intimacy? Or have we let televisions dump moral sewage into our dens and winked or gawked at provocative clothing — then turned around and condemned abortion?
Earlier in this series I’ve cited John Danforth’s wisdom, that sometimes when we want change in society, we think it’s about electing the right President or changing Congress or getting more Supreme Court seats. But real change must come from within the people; change in mores of what we do in private will only come if we as the people are converted to a more splendid perspective and holier habits regarding our bodies. Such a change, as laughably far off as it may seem, begins in Church.
And we never forget the heartbreak, the numbing news, the way your life story turns on its axis in a moment, the guilt, career struggle, hidden grief, untold wounds. “There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). God is all mercy. We who are the Church are the mercy people.
Read Rev. Howell's previous 'Tis the Season articles covering the 2016 election here. This article originally appeared on the author's blog. Reprinted with permission.
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Thoughtful Pastor: Am I supposed to let someone hit me? by Christy Thomas
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Dear Thoughtful Pastor: The Bible says to turn the other cheek when I am affronted. How do such words apply in a world full of radicalism, threats, rampant murders, bigotry and hate? How many physical and mental assaults must a person or a group absorb before earning the right to ask this: Are you kidding me? Is the Bible–the book I grew up depending on–really that out of touch with reality? Are its followers so very obliged to stand down and stay shut up when they are abused with thoughts or words or deeds? Are they? Really? If so, is there a risk that they will lose their personal selves in the process?
What on earth was God thinking when he proposed such passivity? I am a regular person, not dogged by evil or dragged down by hate. No enemies lurk around me that I know of. I am just a square peg trying to fit into the round hole of this question. If the world ever decides to trade blows with me, I want to know what to do.
If the world does decide to trade blows with you, feel free to defend yourself.
Having said that, we need to take a serious look at what Jesus may have meant in this group of intriguing instructions that almost no one can follow. Matthew 5:39, “Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also” is nestled in the midst of series of teachings known as The Sermon on the Mount.

Christy Thomas
Several of these instructions start with, “You have heard it said, but I say to you.” They offer a new, more rigorous, interpretation of righteousness.
You have heard it said, “Don’t murder,” but Jesus says, “Don’t be angry with a brother or sister and don’t call them names or you may end up in hell.”
You have heard it said, “Don’t commit adultery” but Jesus says, “Don’t even lust after a someone. If you do, because your eye seeks the pleasure, tear out your eye and throw it away.”
You have heard it said, “Don’t swear falsely” but Jesus says, “Stop swearing on oath on something else completely and just live by your faithful word.”
Look at the verses about not hitting back. See how they read in this context. The “You have heard it said” statement referred to the concept of what is called talionic justice where the punishment fits the crime. So, if you punch out one of my eyes, I get to destroy one of yours.
This mode of justice was an advancement on the retribution practices common in the Middle East. Normally, seven-fold escalation was expected in order to right a wrong. “You killed one of my children? Hand over seven of yours.”
Jesus nixes equality of retribution, “Stop fighting back. Keep offering more. If they take your coat, give them a sweater. If someone insists you carry their stuff for a mile (a common practice that the Romans imposed upon the Jews), carry it for another.”
The climax: “You have heard it said you are to love your neighbors and hate your enemies but I say to you: Love your enemies as well and pray for them that persecute you.”
Frankly, Jesus is the best example ever of the “square peg/round hole” conundrum. Hatred of the Roman oppressors and corrupt Jewish leaders swirled all around him. Injustice and brutality permeated their world.
This teaching is less “Don’t defend yourself” and more, “Offer genuine goodness in the face of evil. Don’t be like them. Be better, so much better.”
Goodness alone can defeat evil. Furthermore, we can’t wait for someone else to start the goodness. That’s our job.
Right now, we have some idea that we can bomb or force evil out of existence. Poppycock. Can’t be done. We cannot out-hate hate and expect peace to prevail. The more we try to destroy others, the greater the resistance will become. We may temporarily see victory, but those we have hated will find some way to come back and hate us even more.
The Sermon on the Mount is the call to stop the cycle of hate.
Now, having said that, please do protect and defend yourself as necessary. You are not called to be a doormat or someone’s punching bag or shooting target. But seek defense in a way that lessens the hatred, the vitriolic exchanges, the violence and destruction. Do nothing to “up the ante.”
Do all you can to find out the why behind the other person’s actions. What’s going on? What is this person’s world like? How can you make an empathetic entry into it? What kind of pressures and frustrations may be driving it? What kind of world-view does it emerge from?
And above all, be proactive in goodness.
Email questions to thoughtfulpastor@gmail.com. A version of this column will appear in the Friday October 21, 2016 print and online editions of The Denton Record Chronicle. Christy blogs at Patheos.
Does anyone have time for ecclesiology in the UMC? by Wilson Pruitt
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Ecclesiology is one of those seminary words that doesn’t often find a place in the day to day lives of people of the United Methodist Church. It simply means a theology of the church (literally, the study of the church). In academic circles, ecclesiology is often studied comparatively, for example, comparing a Roman Catholic ecclesiology with a Reformed ecclesiology. As Christians, our idea of church — of the gathered body of believers — points directly to our Christology, to our idea of who Jesus is, because throughout Scripture the church is referred to as the Body of Christ.
Because of the thoroughness and authority of the Discipline of the United Methodist Church, as well as the frontier nature of the church ecclesiology has prioritized the pragmatic and historical over the theoretical and constructive. We see this clearly in Laceye Warner’s The Method of our Mission. A book designed to explain how the church works, not why it works that way (beyond historical precedent). It is a book of polity, like Thomas Frank’s often updated Policy, Practice, and Mission of the United Methodist Church. These books serve a purpose as textbooks for seminary courses on polity, but neither adds anything constructive to the ecumenical christian understanding of Church (in a private email, Dr. Warner agreed with this assessment, and understood that constructive ecclesiology was not the goal of her work). The closest thing to a UMC ecclesiology that I have found is this working paper from the GBHEM Committee on Faith and Order from 2013. What we are left with, though, is something that is descriptive rather than constructive.
And really, who has time for it anyway? Right? People in ministry have sermons to write, worship to plan, outreach and mission to develop, meetings, and funerals and counseling and everything in between. Over the past few years, mission and missional have been the key words in talk about church, outward-facing congregations over inward-facing ones, mission and vision statements, church planting, multisite. Talk is about membership decline and facing decline, revitalizing congregations, making disciples rather than members. Itineracy, one of the cornerstones of Methodist polity, is discussedpractically rather than theologically or biblically. These are solutions to meet problems. Talk of mission and revitalization are answers to the question to where is the church headed? What is unsaid or at least underdeveloped is why church should be this way and not another way. Recent work on class meetingsand band meetings, as well as historical work on Wesleyan thought and missional ideas point in a certain direction but they remain historical, descriptive or pragmatic. These are still looking at polities (how the church is organized) rather than ecclesiologies.
There is always a crisis to be met or a plan to be developed but rigorous thinking by people in the field or even by academics is absent. One difficulty is the question of who would publish such an ecclesiology? Abingdon published Dr. Warner’s The Method of Our Mission with a specific target of seminary students in mind. The purpose of a robust, rigorous and constructive UMC ecclesiology would be beyond the classroom. And it can’t sit as a chapter in a work of systematics (like Scott Jones’s The Extreme Center. People want to talk about movements not churches. Church is old-fashioned language; a movement is something fresh, without the historical baggage or time-intensive work of theory.
The absence of a present, constructive and rigorous ecclesiology is especially felt during these difficult days with worries of schism. Many people throughout the United Methodist Church have radically different ideas of what the church is and what the point of the church is. There is not a common discourse of church even with a common Book of Discipline. What exists are different interpretations of the Book of Discipline with more progressive Methodists prioritizing certain sections and and more conservative Methodists prioritizing others. These are not equivalent phenomena, but in the absence of a coherent, constructive ecclesiology or theologians and pastors working in this area, we can only judge these interpretations subjectively.
What is deeply problematic to me is that no one mourns the ecclesiology. The 19th century, the height of Methodist expansion in the U.S. and Europe (before the recent African and South Asian revivals) was filled with ecclesiologies like Benjamin Gregory’s Holy Catholic Church.
There is little patience for going backward in an argument to first principles. There is always a crisis. There is always a challenge. There is little funding. There is little time for thinking through what it means to be church. And so, in some ways, the place we find ourselves is hardly surprising.
Race and politics by James C. Howell
Bigstock/JimLarkin
A question many Americans will argue over is whether race should be “politicized.” In ways we may not realize, race is and always has been a profoundly political thing — and Christianity does have and always has had an illuminating, true and helpful theological viewpoint on race. Whether it’s gerrymandering (in a liberal or a conservative direction), education or poverty policy, voting rights, or police and national security challenges, race matters.
And race matters to God; God who created us humans in precisely this way, evidently delighting in the variety of people on earth, and no doubt dreaming race would provide us with a special way to learn to love one another and see God’s image in everyone. God could have made everybody white, or brown, so we’d all favor one another; but God let creation unfold so we’d have a dizzying spectrum of people — not so we’d dislike or distrust one another, but so we would love.
Last February, during a great public conversation I had with Dr. Shannon Sullivan on “white privilege,” something dawned on me. Christian theology helps us realize what we do not realize about ourselves (that we are beneficiaries of God’s goodness in ways we never noticed, and also that we have sins we aren’t aware of that riddle our souls) — and so does the current race conversation! We white people don’t see the privileges we get just for being white, and despite our good intentions, nagging traces of racist attitudes lurk inside us.
For American Christians to think faithfully about any political issues related to race, we need to deal with what lurks inside us in healthier ways, both whites and non-whites! Our stories matter, and listening to the stories of others matters even more. White people may not be able to fathom the pain or anger in the black community, but we can listen to real people, ask how they feel and why, and refrain from judging. White Christians have good biblical cause to give the benefit of the doubt to the person of color, the one whose history has been far, far tougher than our own.
Still, in 2016, there are policies that are detrimental to minority communities, not to mention implicit bias and lingering habits of racial profiling and judgment. Christians notice, and they care. As Christians, we can’t say definitively which party or which policy will in fact create a more productive climate for everyone, not just us. But we have to care, and we have to cheer for what lifts up our neighbor: the one we don’t know yet, but hope to.
“Black lives matter” has become a controversial slogan. The Bible most definitely would say “All lives matter,” but Scripture always has this bias, this special pleading for the stranger, the outcast, the one who’s been disadvantaged. The Bible’s constant vision is not about me getting stuff I want, but a robust sharing and a radical inclusion of every person in God’s blessing. Politics wields so much power on the quality of life; Christian political engagement dares us to labor for justice.
Read Rev. Howell's previous 'Tis the Season articles covering the 2016 election here. This article originally appeared on the author's blog. Reprinted with permission.
Creating a ministry
self-education strategy by Chad Brooks

Do you ever struggle with known weaknesses? Or do you feel that you don’t have adequate knowledge of something that keeps coming up in ministry? The solution is self-education. In this episode, I'm sharing how each of us can create a ministry self-education plan. [Show notes]

Glad that's not me! (Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector) by Mandy England Cole
Mandy England Cole
Mandy England Cole, pastor of Ginter Park Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, preaches the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector from Luke 18:9-14. This parable seems so straightforward, so clearly designed to keep us from puffing ourselves up like that Pharisee, but is there more here than initially meets the ear?

This sermon is from A Sermon for Every Sunday, a series of lectionary-based video sermons designed for use in worship, Bible study, small groups, Sunday school classes or for individual use.
This Sunday, October 23, 2016

23rd Sunday after Pentecost: Joel 2:23-32; Psalm 65; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14

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Lectionary Readings:
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year C
Sunday, 23 October 2016
Joel 2:23-32
Psalm 65
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Luke 18:9-14
Scripture Text: Joel 2:23 Be glad, people of Tziyon!
rejoice in Adonai your God!
For he is giving you
the right amount of rain in the fall,
he makes the rain come down for you,
the fall and spring rains — this is what he does first.
24 Then the floors will be full of grain
and the vats overflow with wine and olive oil.
25 “I will restore to you the years that the locusts ate,
the grasshoppers, shearer-worms and cutter-worms,
my great army that I sent against you.
26 You will eat until you are satisfied
and will praise the name of Adonai your God,
who has done with you such wonders.
Then my people will never again be shamed.
27 You will know that I am with Isra’el
and that I am Adonai your God,
and that there is no other.
Then my people will never again be shamed.
Psalm 65:1 (0) For the leader. A psalm of David. A song:
2 (1) To you, God, in Tziyon, silence is praise;
and vows to you are to be fulfilled.
3 (2) You who listen to prayer,
to you all living creatures come.
4 (3) When deeds of wickedness overwhelm me,
you will atone for our crimes.
5 (4) How blessed are those you choose and bring near,
so that they can remain in your courtyards!
We will be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the Holy Place of your temple.
6 (5) It is just that you answer us with awesome deeds,
God of our salvation,
you in whom all put their trust,
to the ends of the earth and on distant seas.
7 (6) By your strength you set up the mountains.
You are clothed with power.
8 (7) You still the roaring of the seas,
their crashing waves, and the peoples’ turmoil.
9 (8) This is why those living at the ends of the earth
stand in awe of your signs.
The places where the sun rises and sets
you cause to sing for joy.
10 (9) You care for the earth and water it,
you enrich it greatly;
with the river of God, full of water,
you provide them grain and prepare the ground.
11 (10) Soaking its furrows and settling its soil,
you soften it with showers and bless its growth.
12 (11) You crown the year with your goodness,
your tracks overflow with richness.
13 (12) The desert pastures drip water,
the hills are wrapped with joy,
14 (13) the meadows are clothed with flocks
and the valleys blanketed with grain,
so they shout for joy and break into song.
2 Timothy 4:6 For as for me, I am already being poured out on the altar; yes, the time for my departure has arrived. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 All that awaits me now is the crown of righteousness which the Lord, “the Righteous Judge,” will award to me on that Day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for him to appear.
16 The first time I had to present my defense, no one stood by me; everyone deserted me — may it not be counted against them. 17 But the Lord stood by me and gave me power to proclaim the full message for all the Goyim to hear, and I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.[2 Timothy 4:17 Psalm 22:22(21); Daniel 6:21(20), 23(22)] 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and bring me safely into his heavenly Kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Luke 18:9 Also, to some who were relying on their own righteousness and looking down on everyone else, he told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Parush and the other a tax-collector. 11 The Parush stood and prayed to himself, ‘O God! I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, immoral, or like this tax-collector! 12 I fast twice a week, I pay tithes on my entire income, . . . ’ 13 But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes toward heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God! Have mercy on me, sinner that I am!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home right with God rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The John Wesley's Notes-Commentary: Joel 2:23-32
Verse 23
[23] Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.
The former rain — The autumn rain which is needful to mellow the earth and fit it to receive the corn.
The latter rain — Needful to bring forward and ripen the fruits, accounted the latter rain because these husbandmen and vine-dressers reckoned from seed time to spring and harvest.
The first month — That is, our March.
Verse 24
[24] And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.
The fats — The vessels into which the liquor ran out of the press.
Verse 25
[25] And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.
Restore — Make up to you.
Verse 26
[26] And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.
Wondrously — In one year giving as much as the locusts wasted in the years foregoing.
Ashamed — Neither disappointed of your hopes, nor necessitated to seek relief among the heathen.
Verse 28
[28] And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
Afterward — After the return out of Babylon, after the various troubles and salvations by which these may know that I am the Lord.
I will pour — In extraordinary gifts on the first preachers of the gospel, and in various graces to all believers.
Upon all flesh — Before these gifts were confined to one particular nation; but now they shall be enlarged to all nations, and all that believe.
Shall prophesy — This was in part fulfilled according to the letter in the first days of the gospel; but the promise means farther, by pouring out of the spirit on your sons and your daughters, they shall have as full a knowledge of the mysteries of God's law, as prophets before time had.
Shalt dream dreams — This also was literally fulfilled in the apostles days. But it may mean farther, the knowledge of God and his will, shall abound among all ranks, sexes and ages in the Messiah's days, and not only equal, but surpass all that formerly was by prophesy, dreams, or visions.
Verse 29
[29] And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
My spirit — Of adoption and sanctification.
Verse 30
[30] And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
Wonders — They who read what historians report of these times, will see this fulfilled in the very letter.
Blood — Possibly eruption of blood, as some fountains have been reported to have run with blood, prefiguring the great effusion of blood by the sword, and wars following.
Fire — Either breaking out of the earth, or lightning in the air.
Verse 31
[31] The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
The sun — Having mentioned the prodigies which were to be wrought on earth, he now specifies what shall be done in heaven.
The terrible day — The unholy day of the destruction of Jerusalem; typifying the day of judgment.
Verse 32
[32] And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
Whosoever shall call — Who hearing the gospel repents and believes in Christ.
Delivered — Either from those outward afflictions, or which is infinitely better from eternal miseries, which will swallow up the unbelieving world; "and it will aggravate the ruin of those who perish, that they might have been saved on such easy terms." Is it then easy for a non-elect to repent and believe? May he not as easily pull the sun out of the firmament? In mount Zion - In the true church typified by Zion.
Jerusalem — In mystical Jerusalem, the church and the city of the Messiah.
Deliverance — Temporal and eternal.
Shall call — To believe in Christ, and by him to wait for eternal life.
Psalm 65
Verse 4
[4] Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.
Approach — To draw near to God in his house and ordinance, by prayer and praise, and other acts of communion with him.
Satisfied — With the blessings there conferred upon thy people, the favour and fellowship of God, remission of sins, renovation of heart and life, joy and peace, and well-grounded assurance of eternal life.
Verse 5
[5] By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea:
Righteousness — By virtue of thy faithfulness, and goodness.
Wilt thou — Thou wilt graciously answer our prayers.
The confidence — Thou art the stay and support of all mankind, by thy powerful and gracious providence.
Verse 7
[7] Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.
Tumult — No less wild and impetuous.
Verse 8
[8] They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
Thy tokens — Terrible thunders and lightnings, and earthquakes, and comets or other strange meteors, or works of God in the air.
Morning — The successive courses of the morning and evening; or of the sun and moon which go forth at those times. Thus the whole verse speaks of the natural works of God, the former clause, of such as are extraordinary and terrible, the latter of such as are ordinary and delightful.
Verse 9
[9] Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.
River — With rain, which he very significantly calls a river for its plenty, and the river of God, of God's immediate providing.
Them — The inhabitants of the earth.
Provided — Or, disposed, the earth, which without this would be hard and barren.
Verse 10
[10] Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof.
Bringest down — For the rain dissolves the high and hard clods of earth.
Verse 12
[12] They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side.
Wilderness — Which though neglected by men, are furnished with food for beasts.
Verse 13
[13] The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.
Sing — They are abundantly satisfied with thy goodness, and in their manner sing forth the praise of their benefactor.
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Verse 6
[6] For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
The time of my departure is at hand — So undoubtedly God had shown him.
I am ready to be offered up — Literally, to be poured out, as the wine and oil were on the ancient sacrifices.
Verse 8
[8] Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
The crown of that righteousness - Which God has imputed to me and wrought in me.
Will render to all — This increases the joy of Paul, and encourages Timotheus. Many of these St. Paul himself had gained.
That have loved his appearing — Which only a real Christian can do. I say a real Christian, to comply with the mode of the times: else they would not understand, although the word Christian necessarily implies whatsoever is holy, as God is holy. Strictly speaking, to join real or sincere to a word of so complete an import, is grievously to debase its noble signification, and is like adding long to eternity or wide to immensity.
Verse 16
[16] At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
All — My friends and companions.
Forsook me — And do we expect to find such as will not forsake us? My first defence - Before the savage emperor Nero.
Verse 17
[17] Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
The preaching — The gospel which we preach.
Verse 18
[18] And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work — Which is far more than delivering me from death. Yea, and, over and above, preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom - Far better than that of Nero.
Luke 18:9-14
Verse 9
[9] And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
He spake this parable — Not to hypocrites; the Pharisee here mentioned was no hypocrite, no more than an outward adulterer: but he sincerely trusted in himself that he was righteous, and accordingly told God so, in the prayer which none but God heard.
Verse 12
[12] I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
I fast twice in the week — So did all the strict Pharisees: every Monday and Thursday.
I give tithes of all that I possess — Many of them gave one full tenth of their income in tithes, and another tenth in alms. the sum of this plea is, I do no harm: I use all the means of grace: I do all the good I can.
Verse 13
[13] And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
The publican standing afar off — From the holy of holies, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven - Touched with shame, which is more ingenuous than fear.
Verse 14
[14] I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
This man went down — From the hill on which the temple stood, justified rather than the other - That is, and not the other.
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The Upper Room Ministries
PO Box 340004
Nashville, Tennessee 37203-0004, United States
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WHEN THE SPIRIT OF GOD SHOWS UP by Philip Wise
Joel 2:23-32
There is much in life that is unpredictable—our health, world affairs, and the behavior of others to name three. This unpredictability becomes significant only because much of our life is predictable—our routines at work and home. Other people are predictable—the relative who will talk your ear off, the friend who loves controversy, the colleague who always has a smile.
But what about God—is God predictable? Is there a set pattern to God’s encounters with us? Do our encounters with God have a predictable effect on us? That is one of the issues the prophet Joel addresses in this passage. The prophecy that bears his name is short—only three chapters. The three chapters focus on a single problem. There is a national crisis—a plague of locusts. Joel sees this plague as an onset of the “day of the LORD” (Joel 2:31), which is mentioned five times in the book. It is a familiar theme for the Hebrew prophets. The day of the Lord is a day when God will go to war with God’s enemies.
This event in the history of Israel is meant to be a warning to God’s people—including us. We, too, have locusts in our lives that serve as wake-up calls—a tragedy, a failure, people who seek to harm us. The result of these locusts in our day is that our joy is “withered away” (1:12 NIV). Joel’s word to believers of both his day and ours is simple: these “locusts” are pointing us to God. That doesn’t mean, of course, that God has sent the locusts—although God may have. It does mean that God can use these events in our lives to draw us closer to him.
If that is true, what should our response be to the locusts in our lives? Some fight back when they feel attacked. Others work harder in their personal or spiritual lives. Some become depressed and shut down. Still others play the blame game and try to find someone responsible for the difficulties they are facing.
Faithful folks, wisely, turn to God. When a person does this, they can expect criticism. Friends may suggest that it is hypocritical to turn to God in a time of personal crisis. “Why didn’t you turn to God in the good times?” they ask. Interestingly, God never suggests this in Scripture. God encourages us to turn to him in our times of crisis. Joel says that God can and will do something about the locusts. God waits on us to place our faith in God. Then, God acts on our behalf.
Joel contends that God always responds when his people repent. God responds by putting things right. The Lord protects us from our enemies. God comes to provide for our basic needs. God comes to comfort us in our sorrow and despair.
If this is the way God responds to the negative events in our lives, how should we respond to God’s intervention? Some might lapse back into spiritual lethargy. Some might take God’s intervention for granted. Joel envisions a day when the people of Israel respond as they should. They will respond to God’s intervention by living in a new way. This new way of living is the life of the Spirit.
Joel contends that when we respond to God in faith he will pour out his Spirit on us—regardless of our age, gender, or status. This is a new idea; in the Old Testament God’s Spirit is poured out on individuals— prophets, kings, leaders. The Spirit resides in a person as long as they are doing God’s will. Once their task is completed, the Spirit leaves them. Joel envisions a day when the Spirit is poured out on all God’s people and remains with them.
The result of this gift from God is that wonderful, unexpected things will be seen. Everyone will testify to God’s goodness. Men will testify, as we might expect in an ancient cultural context. But, surprisingly, women and children will also testify. This is a sign of a new world.
Of course, Christians understand that new world to be the kingdom of God. They understand this new world to have begun at Pentecost, when followers of Jesus received the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. These disciples went out into the streets of Jerusalem and witnessed to what they had seen and heard. Peter’s sermon at Pentecost is the summary of what these first Christians were telling their Jerusalem neighbors. It is a reaffirmation of Joel’s message: repent, turn to God, experience God’s blessing, receive the Holy Spirit, and enter the kingdom of God. Peter makes clear that this has all been made possible through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, who, he claims, is the promised Messiah.
Joel’s little book presents us with a timeline. It is a timeline for Israel, but it is also a timeline for our own lives. Each of us must decide where we are on that timeline. Are you living with the locusts? This is the initial stage where a person realizes that there is a problem and that they need help.
Are you turning to God? Have you come to the conclusion that God can and will help and that you need to ask for his help? This is the second stage.
Have you turned to God and, as a result, are enjoying God’s blessings? This is where many Christians are today. They have turned to God and God has responded, and they are enjoying their blessed status.
Or, are you living in the Spirit? This is where God wants us to be. If we are living in the Spirit, we are telling others about what God has done and wants to do. We are sharing what God has done for us and encouraging others to join us in this wonderful new life in the Spirit. … read more

WORSHIP ELEMENTS: OCTOBER 23, 2016 by Hans Holznagel
23rd Sunday after Pentecost
COLOR: Green
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Joel 2:23-32; Psalm 65; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14
THEME IDEAS
Those who think boldly about Reformation Sunday might find here an invitation to re-form an ancient Judeo-Christian vocation of caring for the temple. What if the temple is God’s bountiful earth? What if the earth is the temple where God’s people should be satisfied, where a righteous prayer of confession is offered? What dreams, visions, and prophecies might lead humanity to repent of
habits that worsen this dwelling place, reclaiming instead the bounty and goodness of God’s house.
INVITATION AND GATHERING
Call to Worship (Psalm 65, Joel 2)
Praise is due to you, O God, O you who answer prayer.
Happy are those who live in your courts—
those who are satisfied with the goodness
of your house and your holy temple.
You are the hope of all things, Holy One,
from the ends of the earth to the farthest seas.
You make the gateways of the evening
and the morning shout for joy.
Rejoice in God, O people, and be glad.
Let us shout and sing together for joy.
Opening Prayer (Joel 2)
God of all generations,
on this Reformation Sunday,
we remember mothers and fathers in the faith
who took bold steps in new directions
to re-form your church.
Pour out your spirit upon us,
that we too may dream dreams, see visions,
and view the whole created order
as your bountiful temple.
With responsibility and joy,
we pledge ourselves to renew this temple,
in Jesus’ name. Amen.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
Prayer of Confession (Psalm 65, Joel 2, Luke 18)
Creator God,
we confess this day to engaging in habits
that diminish the bounty of your creation.
Not satisfied with the goodness of your holy temple,
your seas and mountains, your rain and soil,
we have fashioned a system of sustenance
that seems good to us,
but cannot be sustained.
Be merciful to us, for we have sinned.
Answer us with awesome deeds of deliverance,
O Hope of the Earth.
Give us vision and a prophetic spirit.
Renew our vocation,
as stewards of your creation. Amen.
Words of Assurance (Luke 18, Psalm 65)
Do not lose heart.
Those who humbly admit their sins
find favor with God.
For God answers prayer, and forgives transgression.
Believe this good news:
We are forgiven and freed to newness of life.
Response to the Word (Psalm 65)
Enrich us with wisdom,
and bless us with growth,
O God of our salvation.
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
Invitation to the Offering (Psalm 65)
Aware of the bounty of God’s created earth, we are invited now to give generously from our abundance. Let us share God’s blessings, as we collect our tithes and offerings.
Offering Prayer (Joel 2)
Whatever challenges we face, O God,
we have also known your many blessings—
threshing floors full of grain,
vats overflowing with wine and oil.
Accept these gifts as tokens of our thankfulness,
that they may be used to prophesy in your spirit
and to share your bounty with those in need.
Amen.
SENDING FORTH
Benediction (Psalm 65:12-13, Joel 2)
Breathe in the words of the psalmist:
“The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.”
Let these words fill you as you go forth,
inspiring you to do no less.
Dream dreams, see visions, renew God’s temple,
God’s church, God’s earth.
Go in peace.
CONTEMPORARY OPTIONS
Contemporary Gathering Words (Psalm 65, Joel 2)
Here is your invitation.
Unplug in this moment from daily life:
from display screens and overload,
from earphones and isolation.
Reconnect to visions and dreams:
meadows and pastures, hills and valleys,
mountains and seas.
Reconnect to the bounty of God.
Be glad and rejoice in God.
Praise Sentences (Joel 2, Psalm 65)
Men and women, old and young,
see God’s visions, dream God’s dreams.
Young and old, women and men,
feel the Spirit fall like rain.
People everywhere on earth,
join creation, shout for joy:
Praise is due you, O God,
for all that you do,
for all that you have done,
for all that you promise to do.
From The Abingdon Worship Annual edited by Mary J. Scifres and B.J. Beu, Copyright © Abingdon Press. The Abingdon Worship Annual 2017 is now available.… read more

WORSHIP FOR KIDS: OCTOBER 23, 2016 by Carolyn C. BrownFrom a Child's Point of View

Old Testament: Joel 2:23-32. This passage includes two rather distinct sections. The first (vss. 23-27) is Joel's prediction of the end of the locust plague that has eaten the country into a famine. Good weather and good crops are promised for the coming year. With a little explaining, children can understand the images. But today's nonagricultural children do not appreciate the significance of Joel's promised relief.

The second section (vss. 28-32) is part of Joel's vision of the Day of the Lord. One of the benefits of that day is that God's Spirit will enable great dreams and visions. From this, children learn that God's Holy Spirit is the source of our best dreams for ourselves and for the world. In fact, one job of the Holy Spirit is dream-making. So our dreams are to be taken seriously as gifts from God.
Epistle: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18. These are the observations of Paul, who, realizing that he soon will be executed, is looking back over his ministry. He expresses satisfaction that he has done his best, forgives those who did not stand up for him when he was arrested, and credits God for the power to use his long imprisonment as an opportunity to tell the good news to the Gentiles. It is hard for children, at the beginning of their lives, to appreciate Paul's statements, but they can see, as an example, his forgiveness of those who failed him. Adults would like them to comprehend the satisfaction of having done their best, but few children will appreciate that until they have more personal experience with having done both their best and less than their best.
Gospel: Luke 18:9-14. This passage describes the prayers of a proud Pharisee and a repentant tax collector. Children respond quickly to Jesus' caricatures and grasp his point that God is not impressed by show-offs, but by people who are honest—even about their faults. Young children accept the terms Pharisee and tax collector as labels for the two men, without asking about the significance of the words. The understanding of older children is enriched by definitions of these labels.
Psalm: 65. This is a prayer of praise and thanks that could be prayed by Paul, the tax collector, and by all those who trust the promises of Joel. It is a prayer of humble contentment with what God provides. Children will catch occasional phrases and the overall mood, if the psalm is read well. (The Good News Bible translates Old Testament agricultural images into terms today's children can understand.)
Watch Words
Define dreams and visions as ideas about what could be. They are not weird experiences in which we see things that are not there, nor do they enable us to see into the future in a magic way.
Paul's race and crown-of-righteousness images are difficult to translate and do not communicate to children what Paul wants to say. So use them for the adults and speak to children through other passages and images.
Let the Children Sing
Sing of dreaming God's dreams with "Be Thou My Vision" or "Open My Eyes That I May See." Before singing the latter, rephrase the repeated "illumine me" to emphasize the recognition of dreams.
"Jesus Loves Me, This I Know" is a song the tax collector and Paul might have sung. Sing it with the same reliance on God that they had.
"Have Thine Own Way, Lord" is a song of submission to God's will for our lives. Children will benefit especially from singing it if you featured a potter earlier this year.
The Liturgical Child
1. Pray responsively about dreams for the world:
Leader: God, who created us and this world, you have promised that you will pour out your Spirit upon us with dreams of how the world could be and visions of how to attain these dreams. So we share these dreams and ask that you help us to bring them about.
We dream of a world in which everyone has enough food to eat and a safe, warm place to live. But we see pictures of people starving all over he world. In our own town, we know that people are living in shacks and on the streets. And we hardly know how to help.
People: Lord, pour out your Spirit among us.
Leader: We dream of a healthy world. We dream of finding cures for cancer and AIDS. We dream of medical care for everyone, so that children do not die from curable diseases like measles.
People: Lord, pour out your Spirit among us.
Leader: We dream of a beautiful world that is safe for all people, plants, and animals. We worry about all our garbage and polluted rivers and poisoned air. We want to save the whales and the elephants—and ourselves. But we cannot seem to find a way to do it.
People: Lord, pour out your Spirit among us.
Leader: We dream of a world at peace. We hope for the end of racism, for the settling of old feuds between nations and tribes, for sharing between rich and poor, and even for peace in our families. But we have trouble setting aside our own selfish wants to work for the good of us all.
People: Lord, pour out your Spirit among us.
Leader: Lord, be with us and these dreams you have given us. Give us the courage to make changes in the way we do things and to demand that others also make needed changes. Give us the strength to keep dreaming and working when it looks hopeless. And keep us open to new dreams and visions and possibilities.
People: Lord, pour out your Spirit among us.
ALL: Amen!
2. Ask the adult choir to present "The Pharisee and the Publican," by Heinrich Schutz. The work features two male solos which capture wonderfully the character of the two worshipers in the story. (Do point out that publican is another word for tax collector.)
3. Take the parts of both the Pharisee and the tax collector as you read the Luke text. For the Pharisee, stand to one side of the lectern with haughty posture, and read the words with a rather loud, pretentious tone. For the tax collector, stand to the other side and speak with genuine sorrow, in a calm voice.
4. Prayer of confession and petition:
God of the universe, forgive us when we are so sure we are right that we stop listening to the ideas of others. Remind us that we do not know everything.
Lord, forgive us when we are too impressed with our own ideas and what we can do. Keep us from becoming braggy.
Loving Father and Mother, forgive us when we want something so much that we ignore warnings that we may want the wrong thing. Help us to control our "wants."
God of the Bible, forgive us when we think that stories about your love are meant for us and that demands for change are meant for other people. Be with us as we read the Bible, and help us hear what you are saying to us. Amen.
Sermon Resources
Tell stories about people who work to realize dreams. Recall how the "I Have a Dream" speech of Martin Luther King, Jr., gave people the courage to work for civil rights. Describe the importance of being able to "see yourself doing it" in order to succeed in sports. Tell about children in the fifth-grade Sunday school class who worked successfully on their dream for a beautiful world by writing to the board of their church, asking that the church not use styrofoam cups and plates. … read more

SERMON OPTIONS: OCTOBER 23, 2016FOCUS ON GOD'S FAITHFULNESS

2 TIMOTHY 4:6-8, 16-18
What you see certainly determines how you feel about what you get. It is the "cup is half empty" versus the "cup is half full" principle. Focusing on evil and discouraging events causes you to lose sight of God's faithfulness. But focusing on God's faithfulness causes you to see the blessings of your past and your future.
As the apostle Paul wrote from a Roman prison, he knew his days were numbered. In closing his final epistle to Timothy, Paul looked forward to his future in God's faithfulness and backward to his past in God's faithfulness. What encouragement for all who would follow that way!
I. Looking Forward—Focus on God's Faithfulness (vv. 6-8)
Paul looked forward to his departure. He knew that his earthly life would end soon. That was not a bad prospect. In fact, Paul was eager to lay his life down as a drink offering before the Lord. The Old Testament drink offering was a liquid sacrifice of oil, wine, or blood. The apostle's blood was about to be poured out because of his commitment to Christ. This free-will offering signified his confidence in God's faithfulness to save him.
Paul looked forward to completing his faithfulness. As a spiritual warrior, he had battled for the gospel to the end. As a spiritual athlete, he had finished God's prescribed course. And, as a spiritual steward he had faithfully administrated the blessings that God had entrusted to him.
Paul looked forward to the faithfulness of God. His eagerness to depart was grounded in his confidence that God had already set aside an eternal reward for him. What Paul had accomplished would be acknowledged and rewarded.
This eager, forward focus on God's faithfulness was not merely the apostle's private hope. All who laid their lives on the line for the gospel's sake, faithfully longing for Christ's return, could anticipate the same reward.
II. Looking Backward—Focus on God's Faithfulness (vv. 16-18)
Paul took a look backward. Again he focused on the faithfulness of God. All through his life, and especially in the last days, God had met his needs.
Looking back Paul saw himself standing alone before Nero's hostile court. No other believers had appeared to support him. While some may have been involved in ministry far from Rome, others had simply feared the persecution that made any identification with Christ risky. At any rate, Paul had experienced abandonment. Still, his focus was on God's faithfulness. If Jesus could say, "Father, forgive them," while dying on the cross, Paul could say, "May their desertion not be held against them."
Looking back at that time of loneliness, Paul realized he had not been forsaken. God had been faithful. The Lord had stood beside him as he faced Nero. In that moment God gave him strength, sustaining him in every way. Paul not only had stood, he had also spoken. Once again he proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ before the Gentiles. And after that, God had delivered him once again from a death sentence. Yes, God had been faithful. Looking back, it was easy to see.
Looking back at all of God's past deliverances caused Paul to trust God's ultimate deliverance. One day soon the Lord would rescue him from the evil attacks of earth and deliver him safely to his heavenly kingdom.
As Paul looked forward, his focus was on God's faithfulness. As he looked backward, his focus was on God's faithfulness. As he sat in prison, waiting for the day of his departure, all Paul could think to do was praise God. (Timothy S. Warren)
TWO MEN GO TO PRAYER MEETING
LUKE 18:9-14
Jesus allows us to overhear the secret prayers of two men. Of course, they are fictitious characters but their kind was known throughout the land. One was a Pharisee who by all measure was good. The second, a tax collector, who had given up his heritage in order to become rich, was most despised by the Jews.
I. Each Man Described Himself
The Pharisee by all the common tests was a righteous man. He gave a tenth of his income to charity. He had imposed excessive disciplines on himself, more than the law required. For the Pharisee the key word is "I." Instead of gratitude to God his thoughts were actually on himself. He cited his righteous traits. He recalled his tithing and his fasting. He was a patriot and an upright man. I am sure he was chairman of many strategic committees within the Temple. His prayer informed God of his goodness.
The tax collector was a thief and a crook. But he has sincere confession. The tax collector was so guilt-ridden that he could not lift up his eyes to heaven. He kept pounding his breast. He did not pray as much as he cried. He pled with God to cleanse his soul of the dark spot. The Pharisee's center was himself; the publican's center was God. Our perfect punishment for being so self-centered is that we must endlessly talk to psychiatrists about ourselves.
II. Each Man Perfectly Described His Neighbor
The one despised the other. The Pharisee looked at mankind and thanked God he was not like the crowd of unworthy people such as the tax collector. The Pharisee carries all our prejudices of race and class with an indifference to wretchedness. The Pharisee made himself look taller by pulling others down. While the tax collector felt unworthy, the Pharisee felt superior.
III. Each Man Described His Thoughts About God
Each saw God as a machine, as a corporation, as an institution. The Pharisee wanted to become a director waiting for well-deserved honors. What we think about ourselves and others stems from what we think about God. Jesus did not condemn the sinner's life but loved the sinner. He did not condemn the Pharisee's charities and honor but would have approved them had they been rooted in true motive. But the tax collector had a soul facing toward God while the Pharisee was locked in himself.
I have been to the high mountains above the treeline and discovered that few flowers can grow there. That describes the Pharisee. I have also been to the low valleys where the flowers can grow profusely and God's mercy can prevail. It is better to let God do the exalting than for us to try to do it ourselves. (William L. Self) … read more

OCTOBER 23, 2016 - SINNERS HIGH AND LOWBy William H. Willimon
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Welcome to the new Pulpit Resource from Will Willimon. For over three decades Pulpit Resource helps preachers prepare to preach. Now in partnership with Abingdon Press, this homiletical weekly is available with fresh and timely accessibility to a new generation of preachers.
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GLAD THAT'S NOT ME! by Mandy England Cole

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Mandy England Cole
Mandy England Cole, pastor of Ginter Park Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, preaches the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector from Luke 18:9-14. This parable seems so straightforward, so clearly designed to keep us from puffing ourselves up like that Pharisee, but is there more here than initially meets the ear?

This sermon is from A Sermon for Every Sunday, a series of lectionary-based video sermons designed for use in worship, Bible study, small groups, Sunday school classes or for individual use
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