Ministry Matters: . . . supporting Christian ministry with resources, community, and inspiration for Tuesday, 11 February 2014
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Living Stone
#LivingStone: A Free Multimedia Worship Series for Lent from Ministry Matters by Myca Alford
http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/article/entry/4649/livingstone-a-free-worship-video-series-for-lent-from-ministry-matters?utm_campaign=email%252011Feb2014&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=Living%2520Stone
Late last fall, the MinistryMatters.com team got together and decided to launch our first-ever free worship video series: #FollowTheStar. The results were beyond our wildest expectations with nearly ten thousand views of the weekly videos, over 20,000 visitors to the series web portal, and thousands of people who took time out of their busy day to share videos or images from the series with their friends and family on social networks.
After that overwhelming response, we knew we had to create a worship series for Lent. We just finalized the details and are (quickly!) working on a graphic direction.
Our free Lent worship video series will be called #LivingStone, and is based on this Scripture:
Now you are coming to him as to a living stone. Even though this stone was rejected by humans, from God’s perspective it is chosen, valuable. (1 Peter 2:4 CEB)
As we were brainstorming, we all agreed that we wanted to base the direction off of a strong Lenten symbol but none of us were really feeling connected with any of the "standard" symbols of Lent. On an internet search for Lent symbols we found a Catholic website and one of the symbols was a barren stone. The idea of a barren stone really resonated with me but Betsy and Shane weren't sure so we kept digging.
Between coffee breaks, lots of scribbling and drawing arrows on a white board, and even a few arguments everything began to come together around the idea of stones in the Bible and we realized we had our theme: #LivingStone.
Stones are a basic imagery used for Lent, but not overused, which is why we eventually went in this direction. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of stories we found around stones in the Bible.
Here’s a synopsis of the stories and the key verses from each.
Week 1: Sacred Pillar – Genesis 28:18 After Jacob got up early in the morning, he took the stone that he had put near his head, set it up as a sacred pillar, and poured oil on the top of it.
Week 2: Covenant Stone – Deut. 9:7 & 29 7. Remember—don’t ever forget!—how you made the Lord your God furious in the wilderness. From the very first day you stepped out of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebels against the Lord. 29 But these are your people! Your own possession! The people you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm!
Week 3: 12 Stones – Joshua 4:22 This happened so that all the earth’s peoples might know that the Lord’s power is great and that you may always revere the Lord your God.”
Week 4: Foundation Stone – Isaiah 28:16 Therefore, the Lord God says:
Look! I’m laying in Zion a stone,
a tested stone, a valuable cornerstone,
a sure foundation:
the one who trusts won’t tremble.
Week 5: Stones to Food – Matthew 4:3 The tempter came to him and said, “Since you are God’s Son, command these stones to become bread.”
Week 6 (Palm Sunday) : Stones Cry Out – Luke 19:40 He answered, “I tell you, if they were silent, the stones would shout.”
Week 7 (Easter Sunday): Empty Tomb – Matthew 28:2 Look, there was a great earthquake, for an angel from the Lord came down from heaven. Coming to the stone, he rolled it away and sat on it.
The full Scriptures for each week are:
Sacred Pillar – Genesis 28:10-22
Covenant Stone – Deut. 9:6-29
12 Stones – Joshua 4:20-22
Foundation Stone – Isaiah 28:14-22, Romans 9:30-33
Stones to Food – Matthew 4:1-11
Stones Cry Out – Luke 19:29-40
Empty Tomb – Matthew 28:1-10, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-12
And the full Scripture for the series: 1 Peter 2:4-10
What do you think? We expect there to be a few raised eyebrows about our choice of symbols to base the series around, but that's ok. There will be some people who love it, some who aren't sure about it.
In the end we hope that there is one nugget, one Scripture, one thought that makes you stop and say "Aha!" or brings you or someone in your congregation closer in your walk with God. Or maybe this series will provide inspiration to you as a preacher or worship leader, as you seek to make Easter worship fresh, and new, and engaging.
As with #FollowTheStar, the content is free - free to use, free to share, free to modify. It's YOUR content, do with it as you will. We only ask that you share with others, if you believe they will find value in it.
Blessings on you, and on your ministry.
Your MinistryMatters.com team,
Betsy, Myca, and Shane
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Personality
Does God Want to Change Your Personality? by Teddy Ray
I’ve talked with several people who were turned off to Christianity because Christians seem fake to them. In the cases I’m considering, they think our faith tells them to change their personality. To them, there’s a particular personality type that Christianity prescribes, and they don’t think it fits them.
What most of these people seem to be looking at is a “shiny happy people” sort of Christianity. They see a classic Christian personality type—the meek and mild lover of puppies and rainbows who’s just outgoing enough to welcome new visitors at church services—and it seems fake to them, inauthentic about life with an insincere smile as cover.
Maybe you’ve seen a different sort of personality type expectation. Perhaps the gregarious, fun-loving, charismatic type. Or the introspective, solemn type who spends most of her time fasting, praying, or reading Scripture.
Other people—those who have struggled with issues like clinical depression or anxiety or eating disorders—have been told that there’s no place for those things in the life of a Christian. Christians have too much cause for joy to be depressed, too much hope to be anxious, too much self-control and self-esteem to be bulimic. They must not have real faith if they’re still dealing with these issues. Whatever part of their personality is causing these issues needs to change.
As a pastor, I’ve seen “personality” misused a lot—as the cause for conflicts, the reason to deny people certain roles, even the reason to tell some people they’re not suited for ordination. In most of these situations, attributing things to personality isn’t helpful. Sometimes it’s too broad; other times it’s the wrong category entirely.
Does God want to change your personality? Yes… and no.
What constitutes your personality?
I’m going to define personality here with three components.¹
Personality = Disposition + Character + Mental health
Each of these components plays an important role, but the roles they play are different. In the times when we’ve done the most damage to ourselves and others, we’ve misunderstood these components or failed to differentiate between them.
Over the next few posts, I’m going to define what I mean by disposition, character, and mental health, suggest how we should understand each of them in light of our faith, and show the problems we cause when we misunderstand their roles.
Your Disposition
In the beginning, God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them. No doubt, the effects of sin have seriously distorted that image of God. We’ll get more into that in the next two posts. But even after sin entered the world, God tells Noah that mankind has been made in the image of God (Genesis 9:6). Sin has distorted, not erased, the image of God in us.
At its root, your personality includes several inherent, God-given qualities—qualities that reflect the image of God in you. This is what I’m referring to as your disposition.
Maybe you’re naturally wired to take care of people or serve as the loyal guardian of an institution. You’re dependable, dutiful, and hard-working.
Or maybe you’re a natural creative type—spontaneous and inventive. You get restless when tasks are mundane and when life gets too routine.
Perhaps you’re more of a thinker—an analyst and planner whose head is often in the clouds.
Or you’re best described as an idealist. You’re naturally enthusiastic. You long for meaningful, authentic relationships.²
At least one of these probably sounds like you. A lot of us would aspire to be defined by all of these descriptions, but it’s doubtful that all four fit any of us equally. Of course, there’s much more to say about your disposition. These are just some generalizations.
The point: you have a natural disposition of some sort. Your environment has shaped that some, but there’s a lot that was inborn. Spend some time watching a room full of toddlers—even siblings who have grown up in the same home environment—and you’ll see a wealth of different dispositions already on display.
In this model, what I’m calling your disposition serves as the foundation of your personality. Those other two components—character and mental health—serve to amplify or distort. But regardless of good character or bad, mental health or mental disorder, you still have that same underlying disposition.
How to understand dispositions and our faith
Does God want to change your disposition? No!³
If dispositions reflect God-given qualities, then we embrace and celebrate them in all their diverse forms.
I love the way Paul uses the human body as a metaphor for the church in Scripture. Is the whole body an ear? Or an eye? Or a hand? Of course not! None of us can represent the whole. We’re each only a part, and those parts look different.
We see this even in creation. God creates mankind in his image, not an individual. “In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). From the beginning, we see that none of us alone can fully reflect the image of God. We make a mistake when we try to squeeze everyone into our same mold of “Christian disposition.” In the process, we tell them that some of those God-given personality traits need to change.
Consider the apostle Paul. He was bold and assertive, feisty and determined. Some people might have described him as headstrong. Meek and mild aren’t the first words we think of with Paul. And he appears to have been wired this way before his conversion, too. Paul’s conversion didn’t change his disposition; it changed his allegiance and his character.
Problems when we misunderstand disposition
We must understand that disposition and character are different. With his bold and assertive disposition, I can imagine Paul was called arrogant a time or two. But you can be naturally assertive without being arrogant.
Other dispositions have had similar problems. The quiet thinker can be deemed standoffish and unkind, the gregarious socialite deemed frivolous and superficial.
Sadly, our world is often quick to look at people’s dispositions and pass character judgments. This is sometimes caused by jealousy, other times by ignorance. Regardless, Christians should strive to do better. We should embrace each quirky disposition as it is, celebrate their differences, and be slow to attribute character flaws to people who may just have different dispositions.
We also should be careful with ourselves—careful not to use our dispositions to excuse things that need to change. Just as the assertive person can be falsely accused of arrogance, the arrogant person can excuse himself too easily by saying it’s just disposition. I’ve heard anger excused this way often: “I just have a short fuse. I was born that way.”
We should recognize, too, that our different dispositions may lend themselves to certain character issues, even perhaps certain mental health problems. More on these in upcoming posts.
For now, take this with you: God doesn’t want to change your disposition. He created you with it, and he loves it. If we’ll allow it, some of the beauty of God’s people—the body of Christ—is all of the great diversity found within.
***
The field of personality theory has seen plenty of research. I’m trying to offer a simple structure here to examine the issues I’m seeing most often. If you’ve studied a lot of psychology or psychiatry, I’d welcome your input.
These are broad descriptions of the four temperaments defined by David Keirsey. I’ve found them generally helpful. See more at http://www.keirsey.com/
To qualify this just a bit: God can change your disposition. And perhaps this has even happened in the past. But I think it’s the rare exception to the rule. ↩
The post "Does God want to change your personality?" appeared first on www.teddyray.com.
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African American History Month Devotions
African American History Month Daily Devotions by Angela Roberts Jones
Seven excerpts highlighting scripture, history, with prayer.
Just Be Still by Angela Roberts Jones
Read Psalm 46: For the Chief Musician. By the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. [a]
1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes,
though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas;
3 though its waters roar and are troubled,
though the mountains tremble with their swelling.
Selah.
4 There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad,
the holy place of the tents of the Most High.
5 God is within her. She shall not be moved.
God will help her at dawn.
6 The nations raged. The kingdoms were moved.
He lifted his voice, and the earth melted.
7 Yahweh of Armies is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Selah.
8 Come, see Yahweh’s works,
what desolations he has made in the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth.
He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear.
He burns the chariots in the fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations.
I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 Yahweh of Armies is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Selah.
Footnotes:
a. Psalm 46:1 Alamoth is a musical term.
Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10a NKJV)
Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus!
Steal away, steal away home,
I ain’t got long to stay here.
Have you ever felt that you were going in circles? Are you suffering from stress and anxiety? Do you even stop and take time to relax and appreciate your loved ones? Are you plagued with trying to make a certain situation work in your favor, but the more you try the more misunderstood you become? Well, maybe it’s time to be still.
“Steal Away” is one of my favorite spirituals, especially the arrangement by Dr. Matthew Kennedy, my piano instructor and director of the Jubilee Singers at Fisk. Like many spirituals, this one also had a dual meaning. The coded meaning in this song was a call for the slaves to secretly meet to plan their escape or to share information. The spiritual meaning reflected the slaves’ deep longing and expectation to live eternally with Jesus. Many had come to the resolve that even if they personally never came out of slavery, their only fight was to stay in relationship with Jesus Christ their Savior.
Now let’s relate this to Psalm 46. To be still means to actually stop striving and to hear and trust God. Many times we spend so much time and energy trying to reverse things and nothing changes. In verse 1, God as a refuge is likened to a place of hiding or shelter from the natural elements. The psalm also addresses national and worldly concerns that may be out of our control.
You may not need a physical shelter, but you need a spiritual one. You can commit your soul, thoughts, emotions, and concerns to God through prayer and faith. You can let it all out and trust God’s intervention. You can steal away in your mind and change the direction by replacing negative thoughts with thoughts of God’s love and power! There is a place of peace and assurance that comes from God alone. Be still.
Prayer: Lord, help me recognize situations I cannot do anything about. Give me wisdom to make decisions and do what I can. The rest I leave in your hands. Amen.
excerpt from: African American History Month Daily Devotions 2014 by Angela Roberts Jones. Copyright©2013 by Abingdon Press. Used with permission.
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We Survived! by Angela Roberts Jones
Read Romans 8:28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.[a] 30 Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.
31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things? 33 Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”[b] 37 No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Footnotes:
a. Romans 8:29 The word for “brothers” here and where context allows may also be correctly translated “brothers and sisters” or “siblings.”
b. Romans 8:36 Psalm 44:22
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (Romans 8:37 NKJV)
A few years ago I had a chance to visit the African American history museum in Detroit. One of the displays was a replica of a ship that transported slaves from Africa to America. Such ships would cross the Atlantic Ocean on the route known as the Middle Passage. The ship would contain the bodies of African men and women in heinous conditions, lying below deck on shelves arranged like kitchen cabinets. They would be packed like sardines. Some Africans survived the Middle Passage, while others did not. I left the museum utterly speechless and choked up by what I saw.
Looking at America today, we can see that the seed of these men and women not only survived, but is still thriving. Those slaves helped make America the great country it is.
Perhaps you have survived your own “middle passage”—that is, any painful experience that it took God above to bring you through. You may have suffered through a bad divorce, rape, molestation, domestic abuse, or a drug or alcohol addiction. Maybe you have been the victim of a crime or witnessed someone you loved gunned down or murdered. I myself suffered through witnessing my spouse have a fatal heart attack.
But somehow, some way, we made it. Romans 8:35-39 lists hardships in life that many people may suffer. Because we are conquerors through Jesus Christ who loved us, God will work everything out for our good. Whatever did not kill us made us stronger. Whatever did not take our minds gave us more wisdom. Whatever did not consume our emotions gave us more love and compassion.
If you haven’t already done so, take that challenging “middle passage” of your life and use it as a stepping-stone to a bigger and brighter tomorrow.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for allowing me to survive my middle passage. It wasn’t the beginning of my life, and it is surely not the end. Amen.
excerpt from: African American History Month Daily Devotions 2014 by Angela Roberts Jones. Copyright©2013 by Abingdon Press. Used with permission.
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Peace: The Cure for Worry by Angela Roberts Jones
Read Philippians 4:6 In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think about these things. 9 The things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: do these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)
Years ago, jazz singer Bobby McFerrin recorded “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” which quickly hit the charts and became the first a cappella song to reach number one on the Billboard charts. The song simply addresses all types of adverse situations that happen in life, but consistently repeats the message “Don’t worry, be happy.”
To worry means to be tormented or to suffer with persistently disturbing thoughts. Many people today suffer from depression and insomnia because they are tormented with concerns. The opposite of worry is peace. To be at peace means to be in a state of harmony, to have freedom from anxiety and obsessive or irritating thoughts, and to be in a state of calmness or serenity.
In this scripture, the cure for worry and anxiety is to first pray and share all of your concerns with God. It really helps to talk to someone and get the thoughts out of your head. But sometimes the only one to share with is the Lord. Whether you have friends or not, share all of your requests and even your deepest desires with the Lord through prayer. It is also all right to plead and to ask over and over again. This doesn’t mean that you are questioning the sovereignty of God, but it means that you are taking the matter to the one who will listen and can do something about it. Praying is therapeutic.
As you pray and share your requests, thank God for God’s faithfulness and intervention. God may not change your situation, but God can and will give you peace that does not come from human reasoning or understanding. This peace will surface even if your situation doesn’t change. Philippians 4:8-9 lists positive things to focus your thoughts on: all that is true, holy, just, pure, lovely, and worthy of praise. In other words, with the help of God you can redirect your thoughts. This is the whole prescription for peace. Take it daily for it to take effect.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the cure for worry and anxiety. Amen.
excerpt from: African American History Month Daily Devotions 2014 by Angela Roberts Jones. Copyright©2013 by Abingdon Press. Used with permission.
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A New Start by Angela Roberts Jones
Read Psalm 51:For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness.
According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.
Cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions.
My sin is constantly before me.
4 Against you, and you only, have I sinned,
and done that which is evil in your sight;
that you may be proved right when you speak,
and justified when you judge.
5 Behold, I was born in iniquity.
In sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts.
You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean.
Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness,
That the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all of my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a right spirit within me.
11 Don’t throw me from your presence,
and don’t take your holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation.
Uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways.
Sinners shall be converted to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation.
My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 Lord, open my lips.
My mouth shall declare your praise.
16 For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it.
You have no pleasure in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.
A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do well in your good pleasure to Zion.
Build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness,
in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings.
Then they will offer bulls on your altar.
Create a clean heart for me, God; put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me! Please don’t throw me out of your presence; please don’t take your holy spirit away from me. Return the joy of your salvation to me and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach wrongdoers your ways, and sinners will come back to you. (Psalm 51:10-13)
Everybody makes mistakes. We all have made bad decisions and offended someone at some point in our lives. We must take responsibility for our lives and for the mistakes we make. Why? Because there are consequences. Everything we go through is not someone else’s fault. Is this not what we teach children?
It is not the end of the world. There is an opportunity to start new and fresh. God does forgive and empowers us to start over. The Negro spirituals “Fix Me, Jesus” and “Standing in the Need of Prayer” express the need to turn the searchlight inward and allow God to heal the heart. To sin means to miss the mark. But God has provided a way to turn your life around and to live God’s way. It’s simply called repentance.
That’s what David did in this psalm; he repented. He had committed adultery with Bathsheba, and there was a baby on the way. But David, known as a man after God’s own heart, humbled himself before God. He realized that in order to become successful in his calling and purpose as king and prophet, he had to turn his heart back to God and seek cleansing of his actions, mind, and soul. David admitted his fault and earnestly sought forgiveness. He realized that the issue was not between him and the world, but between him and God. He needed the Spirit of God to accomplish his life’s goals, so he sought God.
You may not be able to relate to David’s sin, but perhaps there is an issue in your life that you know needs to be dealt with. God is ready to renew, refresh, and restore your life, but is just waiting on you. It’s time for a fresh start.
Prayer: Lord, it’s me at this moment standing in the need of prayer. I take responsibility right now for any and all of my wrongs. Forgive, cleanse, and heal me. In the name of Jesus I offer my life. Amen.
excerpt from: African American History Month Daily Devotions 2014 by Angela Roberts Jones. Copyright©2013 by Abingdon Press. Used with permission.
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Consider the Big Picture by Angela Roberts Jones
Read 1 Corinthians 12:1 Now concerning spiritual things, brothers, I don’t want you to be ignorant. 2 You know that when you were heathen,[a] you were led away to those mute idols, however you might be led. 3 Therefore I make known to you that no man speaking by God’s Spirit says, “Jesus is accursed.” No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” but by the Holy Spirit. 4 Now there are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord. 6 There are various kinds of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all. 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; 9 to another faith, by the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, by the same Spirit; 10 and to another workings of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discerning of spirits; to another different kinds of languages; and to another the interpretation of languages. 11 But the one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing to each one separately as he desires.
12 For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all given to drink into one Spirit. 14 For the body is not one member, but many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I’m not the hand, I’m not part of the body,” it is not therefore not part of the body. 16 If the ear would say, “Because I’m not the eye, I’m not part of the body,” it’s not therefore not part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he desired. 19 If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now they are many members, but one body. 21 The eye can’t tell the hand, “I have no need for you,” or again the head to the feet, “I have no need for you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 Those parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, on those we bestow more abundant honor; and our unpresentable parts have more abundant propriety; 24 whereas our presentable parts have no such need. But God composed the body together, giving more abundant honor to the inferior part, 25 that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or when one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 28 God has set some in the assembly: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracle workers, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and various kinds of languages. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all miracle workers? 30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with various languages? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. Moreover, I show a most excellent way to you.
Footnotes:
a. 1 Corinthians 12:2 or Gentiles
So the eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you,” or in turn, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” . . . If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part gets the glory, all the parts celebrate with it. You are the body of Christ and parts of each other. (1 Corinthians 12:21, 26-27)
If you have ever put a puzzle together, you know that the picture is not complete until you have every single piece in the correct place. Each piece neatly locks with another piece whose grooves correspond with those of the piece next to it. It is difficult to put a puzzle together without first studying the big picture. Once you get that picture etched in your mind, the memory will help you work through the puzzle pieces.
This same principle applies to every single person on earth. We each have a gift and something to offer. Paul sought to encourage the Corinthian church by admonishing them of the fact that no one gift in the body of Christ was more important than another. The fact that some of the gifts seemed more prolific, or their functions more visible, did not mean that the less noticeable gifts were not important.
Likewise, in regard to history, African American history is American history. Hispanic American history is American history, and so it is with every other race of people who have migrated to or been birthed within these shores. We have all contributed to America’s existence in some form or another. Carter G. Woodson, the father of black history and the first to formally study African American history, did not insist on the designation of February in observance of African Americans in order to cause further segregation, but rather to show the world how this race of people fit into the big picture to lead to further advancement.
Within every individual lies the desire to understand how one’s life fits into the big scheme of things. Our true purpose is just like a puzzle piece that locks into the puzzle piece of someone else’s life. If you are searching for the meaning and value of your life today, then take the time to check out the puzzle pieces around you. You may be surprised at what you will discover about yourself.
Prayer: Lord, I know that my life has purpose and meaning, regardless of my age, race, or economic condition. As I transition through life, reveal your plan to me. Thank you for my life. Amen.
excerpt from: African American History Month Daily Devotions 2014 by Angela Roberts Jones. Copyright©2013 by Abingdon Press. Used with permission.
Topics African American Book excerpt Devotional History
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The Power of Vision by Angela Roberts Jones
Read Hebrews 11:8 By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went. 9 By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11 By faith, even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man, and him as good as dead. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen[a] them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 15 If indeed they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had enough time to return. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith, Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. Yes, he who had gladly received the promises was offering up his one and only son; 18 even he to whom it was said, “your offspring[b] will be accounted as from Isaac”; [c] 19 concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Figuratively speaking, he also did receive him back from the dead.
Footnotes:
a. Hebrews 11:13 TR adds “and being convinced of”
b. Hebrews 11:18 or, seed
c. Hebrews 11:18 Genesis 21:12
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. (Hebrews 11:13 KJV)
In 1846, a slave named Dred Scott had the audacity to sue in the St. Louis Circuit Court for his freedom. His argument was that he had resided with his master in states where slavery was illegal. So, in his mind, he figured that he should also be free. However, the decision of the courts—argued all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857— was that because blacks were not legal U.S. citizens, they could not sue in federal court. Therefore Dred Scott would remain a slave. On the contrary, this powerful vision of free blacks gave him the courage to challenge the system long before the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, and the Emancipation Proclamation. He embraced the possibility of freedom because, although the courts defined him as a slave, that is not the definition he embraced about himself.
Hebrews 11:13 explains that the people of faith listed in this chapter lived their lives based on a vision from God, even if that vision had not yet come to pass. Vision is the act or power of seeing, and the supernatural insight that comes from divine inspiration. God promised Abraham that Abraham would become the father of many nations and that his seed would be blessed. God also promised to give him Canaan, the land of promise. At the time of this promise, Abraham lived in the land of Ur, and his wife was barren. But, based on God’s revelation, Abraham embraced God’s plan and envisioned himself as God said.
What is your vision for your life? What have you embraced and what have you confessed or spoken over your life? Many of us have lost vision because we have embraced inferiority, mediocrity, poverty, loneliness, fear, anger, bitterness, hopelessness, and so forth. Don’t fall in the trap of envisioning and embracing what others say about you. The world does not define you or your life, God does.
Prayer: Lord, help me see beyond the limits I have placed on myself, and help me embrace your vision for my life. Amen.
excerpt from: African American History Month Daily Devotions 2014 by Angela Roberts Jones. Copyright©2013 by Abingdon Press. Used with permission.
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Sixteen and Influential by Melissa Slocum
Last month the National Bureau of Economic Research released a study suggesting that the popular MTV show 16 and Pregnant was responsible for “a 5.7% reduction in teen births in the 18 months after its premiere on TV.” The teen birth rate in the United States has been declining over the past two decades, due to a variety of factors, but the authors of the study argue that 16 and Pregnant has accelerated the decline. Among other things they point to social media. Researchers examined subjects that were trending on Twitter and other sites while the show aired and discovered teen viewers tweeting and searching for information about about birth control.
Whether we like it or not, evidence is clear that popular TV programs have an impact on their viewers’ choices, and it probably shouldn’t surprise us. After all, ad agencies and television networks spend billions of dollars each year in the hopes that they can influence how we will spend our time and money. But this study suggests that television can influence more than just what we watch and what we spend; it can also change our attitudes and behaviors. Though MTV did not create the show with the intent of reducing teen pregnancy, the success of 16 and Pregnant may have had that effect.
Influencing Others
Much has been written about how to influence other people. Perhaps the most famous work on the subject was Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, which was first published in 1936. But Christians look to another great book to learn about influence: the Bible.
Scripture has plenty to say about how we use our influence. When God established a covenant with the people of Israel, God told them to have a positive influence on subsequent generations, teaching them God’s story and commandments (see Deuteronomy 6). Jesus taught his followers that we are the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world” (Matthew 5:13, 14) and that we also should influence everyone we meet. Throughout the Bible we see examples of God’s people having a positive influence on those around them. Daniel, by his bravery and unwavering faith, influenced the king of Babylon to proclaim that God was the “living God” who “stands firm forever” (Daniel 6:26). The unnamed Samaritan woman whom Jesus spoke with at the well influenced her entire village to become followers of Jesus (see John 4:4-26; 39-42).
On the other hand, the Bible also tells of instances where God’s people used their influence in a negative way. Out of fear the Israelite spies convinced their people not to follow through on God’s plan for them to settle in the land of Canaan (see Numbers 13). David, who had considerable influence as the king of Israel, used his power to commit adultery and murder (see 2 Samuel 11).
The Greatest Influence
We see God’s influence at work in the pages of Scripture. But we may mistakenly think that God’s influence is an ancient relic that is no longer at work in our world in visible or powerful ways. But the truth is that God still has unparalleled influence through the person of the Holy Spirit who lives and works in the heart of each of God’s people. The Spirit blesses each of us with gifts and opportunities that we can use for good in our community and the world. But, as we also have seen in Scripture, it is possible for us to use these blessings in unfaithful ways and to have a negative influence. If we are to be godly influences, we must stay connected to God and seek God’s will in all circumstances. When we do that, we can have an enormous and positive influence on those around us.
This article is also published as part of LinC, a weekly digital resource for youth small groups and Sunday school classes. The complete study guide can be purchased and downloaded here.
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Free Month
Circuit Rider
http://www.ministrymatters.com/circuit_rider/?utm_campaign=email%2011Feb2014&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=Circuit%20Rider
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This Sunday
This is Sunday 2 March 2014
Transfiguration Sunday - Exodus 24:12-18; Psalm 99; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9
Worship Elements: March 2, 2014 (Option 1) by Deborah Sokolove
Transfiguration Sunday
COLOR: White
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Exodus 24:12-18; Psalm 99; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9
THEME IDEAS
The story of Moses’ mountain ascent to receive God’s commandments is juxtaposed with the story of Jesus’ mountain ascent when he was transfigured in the midst of his disciples. The presence of Moses and Elijah on the mountain with Jesus emphasizes his continuity with the ongoing story of God’s journey with the people of God. Images of light, of the shining glory of God, suffuse today’s readings. As Jesus is transfigured, his face shining like the sun, we see a new world in which God establishes justice and righteousness for all.
INVITATION AND GATHERING
Call to Worship (Exodus 24, Matthew 17)
As God called to Moses from the mountain,
we are called to be God’s people.
As Jesus called the disciples to climb with him
to the peak of another mountain,
we are called to follow wherever he leads.
As the disciples stood in awe at the sound of God’s voice,
we are called to worship in wonder and praise.
Opening Prayer (Exodus 24, Matthew 17)
Holy One, Light of light, God of all creation,
long ago you showed yourself
to the disciples in Jesus’ transfiguration—
his face glowing like a field of daffodils
on a bright, spring morning.
Shine in us, around us, and through us,
that the world may see your glory
in the faces of your people—
faces transfigured in the light of your love. Amen.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
Prayer of Confession (Exodus 24, Matthew 17)
Though we want to walk with Moses
and see God’s holy radiance,
we hide in the mist of our own desires,
unable to perceive the presence of God’s grace.
While we want a world of justice and peace,
we walk in clouds of selfishness,
unable to share God’s loving-kindness.
Though we want to follow Jesus up the mountain,
we cower in fear,
unable to bear the light of God.
Words of Assurance (Matthew 17)
In the blazing light of God’s grace,
Jesus touches us to say,
“Get up and do not be afraid.”
In the name of Christ, all is forgiven.
Amen.
Passing the Peace of Christ
As we share the peace of Christ with one another,
may the light of Christ shine in you always.
And also in you.
Response to the Word (Exodus 24, Psalm 99, 2 Peter 1, Matthew 17)
Light of light, True God of true God,
as you spoke from the pillar of cloud
to Moses and the people,
so you spoke from the bright cloud
to Jesus and his disciples.
May your word live through us today,
that our world of sorrow
may be transfigured into joy.
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
Offering Prayer
Luminous Giver of all good things,
in your presence, everything is gift.
Bless these gifts of bread and wine,
fruit of the vine and work of human hands,
that they may nourish us
for the work of healing your creation,
in the name of Christ, our light
and the light of the world. Amen.
Great Thanksgiving
Christ be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to God.
Let us give our thanks to the Holy One.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is a right, good, and a joyful thing
always and everywhere to give you our thanks,
you who created all that is
and all that ever shall be.
On the first day of creation, you said,
“Let there be light,” and there was light;
and you called the light good.
From mountaintops to the deepest valleys,
in daylight and in the darkest shadows,
you call us to be your people.
And so, with your people on earth
and all the great cloud of witnesses in heaven,
we praise your name
and join their unending hymn:
Holy, holy, holy One, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is the one
who comes in your holy name.
Hosanna in the highest.
Holy are you, and holy is your child, Jesus Christ.
When he went up the mountain with his disciples,
he stood in the company of Moses and Elijah,
enveloped in the bright cloud of your presence.
When he saw that his friends were afraid,
he touched them with compassion,
freeing them from fear.
On the night in which he gave himself up
(continue Words of Institution)
do this in remembrance of me.
And so, in remembrance of your mighty acts
in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves
in praise and thanksgiving
as a holy and living sacrifice
as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,
and on these gifts of bread and wine.
Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,
that we may become one with Christ,
who lived and died and rose to eternal life,
an eternal blessing for the world.
By your Spirit make us one with Christ,
one with each other, and one in ministry
to all the world, until we feast together
at the heavenly banquet in your eternal realm.
Light of light, True God of true God,
Spirit of holiness, we praise you now,
tomorrow, and forevermore.
SENDING FORTH
Benediction (2 Peter 1, Matthew 17)
Walk in light and truth.
See the light of Christ in every face.
Be the light of Christ to all you meet. Amen.
CONTEMPORARY OPTIONS
Gathering Words (Matthew 17)
On mountaintops and in deep valleys,
Jesus is the light of the world.
On busy city streets and on quiet country lanes,
Jesus is the light of the world.
At home, at work, at play, and at rest,
Jesus is the light of the world.
Let us see one another in the light of Jesus.
—Or—
Gathering Words (Exodus 24, 2 Peter 1)
A bush burns and is not consumed.
God is present among us.
A voice calls out from the clouds.
God is present among us.
A light shines in the darkness,
and the morning star rises in our hearts.
God is present among us.
Praise Sentences (Matthew 17)
Christ is our light and our hope!
Christ is our light and our hope!
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Worship Elements: March 2, 2014 (Option 2) by Nancy Crawford Holm
Transfiguration Sunday
Color: White or Gold
Scripture Readings: Exodus 24:12-18; Psalm 99; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9
Theme Ideas
Transfiguration Sunday is the last Sunday before Lent. It is a time to celebrate the revelation of Christ to people of faith, a time to connect the glory of God revealed to Moses on Sinai to the glory of God in Christ revealed to Jesus’ disciples. It is also a time of transition from Jesus’ work of teaching and healing to the journey of Lent. Themes could center around transformation, patriarchs and prophets (possibly including modern prophets), the mountaintop, one more mountain to climb, glory, and images of Christ.
Call to Worship (Psalm 99)
The LORD is Sovereign.
Let the people tremble in awe.
God is enthroned between the cherubim.
Let the earth shake.
The LORD is great in Zion.
God is high above all peoples.
Come let us worship our glorious Lord.
Contemporary Gathering Words
Let the radiance of Christ be evident among us:
in our songs and our words;
in our deepest thoughts and desires;
in the youthful and the experienced,
the exhausted and the energetic;
in the hungry and the scared.
We are here together.
We join our voices and our hearts in praise.
Contemporary Gathering Words
We gather as witnesses to the transforming power of God.
Gather us in, God of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Praise Sentences (Psalm 99)
Holy is our God! Mighty is the King of kings,
the lover of justice.
God has established justice and righteousness.
Extol the LORD our God. Worship at God’s footstool.
Holy is our God!
Opening Prayer (Matthew 17)
Holy God, who revealed the Messiah on the mountain,
fill us with praise, overflowing with cheers
and mysterious visions.
Light our way; direct our course; and energize us,
for we have one more mountain to climb,
through Jesus Christ, who is the light. Amen.
Opening Prayer (Exodus 24, Matthew 17)
God of the mountaintop and of the plain,
we remember today the Transfiguration of Jesus.
Glorious, mysterious, and shimmering with light,
you know our hearts, our triumphs,
and our disasters.
Take us as we are; love us as we are;
join with us and transform us into your holy ones.
Amen.
Benediction
Hear the words of hope set to music by Mozart:
“The sun’s golden splendour now sunders the night,
And shatters the power of the evil one’s might.”
Let us live, die, and rise in the image and power of Christ.
Amen and Amen.
(Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Magic Flute [Bryn Mawr, Pa.: O. Ditson, 1888], quoted in Susan A. Blain, ed. Imaging the Word, vol. 2 of Arts and Lectionary Resource [Cleveland: United Church Press, 1995], p. 141)
Benediction
When Jesus’ glory is revealed to us,
we become transformed.
We are not who we were before.
Go now to your homes, your neighborhoods,
your schools, and places of work as new people.
Go as Christians illumined by the glory of God in Christ.
Be renewed and be radiant.
Visual and Dramatic Suggestions
Throughout the service pairs of people could portray transformation. This would occur unannounced, at various preplanned points throughout the service. With two large screens overlapping to create a path to exit in the center (dark fabric over a PVC pipe frame could work) the following pairs could image transformation:
From the left, a limping man with a cane walks halfway across the altar then disappears behind the screen. From behind, he reenters, without the cane, skipping or dancing.
Same sequence; a woman enters with a large water bottle, disappears, and then reenters with a bottle of wine.
A young girl enters, carrying a ukulele, and disappears behind the screen. Then from behind, continuing across, a woman enters, carrying a guitar.
Two children enter, fighting with toy swords (portraying an Israeli and a Palestinian). They reenter as friends, arms around each other’s shoulder.
Other pairs: Old person transition to young, someone carrying a heavy burden reenters without the load.
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This Sunday 23 February 2014
Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany — Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18; Psalm 119:33-40; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23; Matthew 5:38-48
Breath of God by Raquel Mull
Psalm 119:33-40
Psalm 119, an alphabetical acrostic, praises Torah, God’s law. It contains praises, laments, meditations, petitions, and assurances of God’s presence. The 176 verses are divided into twenty-two sections, each named after a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
In today’s text, the subtitle is hei, the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The picture associated with this letter is a window because the letter actually has three sides, similar to our n. According to the Talmud, God created the universe with the letter hei. Hei has creative power.
When the Holy Spirit dwells within a person, that person takes on a new identity; the old person passes away and new life is given. It is hei God breathes into Adam to change him from a bit of dirt into a living, breathing human being. God shared breath with Adam and continues to do so with us. The hei has life-changing and life-giving qualities.
I am sure we can look around our congregations and see what changes are reflected in people’s lives when God breathes hei into them. I know a young woman, who would not even talk on the phone to order a pizza, whose life has been transformed through hei. Her confidence and self-esteem grow daily. Through patience, encouragement, some mentoring, and encouraging her to take advantage of opportunities for growth, I have seen a life reborn. The patience and encouragement as well as the giving of time to be with this young mother are also gifts of hei, the Spirit.
Our small town recently hosted the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life event. This young woman, because of her involvement with the event and her growing self-confidence, went out to ask for money and door prizes from businesses and made announcements over the loudspeaker. She even surprised herself! What a joy to witness the change in her life and the life of her family as she is less dependent upon others and moves out of her comfort zone to do ordinary and extraordinary things. This is hei.
In the Hebrew Scriptures, Abram is one of the earliest patriarchs whose life is recounted for our faith and instruction. Abram and his wife, Sarai, had wanted children for many years. The couple even tried to take “control” of the situation and at eighty-six years of age, Abram fathered Ishmael, the ancestor of modern-day Arabs, by Hagar, Sarai’s servant. Later, God renewed his covenant with Abram, promising that the land of Canaan would remain in the possession of Abram’s family forever and that Abram would have a son of his own (Genesis 17). At this time, God gave the couple new names—Abram became Abraham, and Sarai became Sarah. Scripture says God talked to Abraham and promised a son through his wife, Sarah.
When God changed their names, God essentially added a letter—hei, the breath of God. It was only after the names were changed and hei was added to their lives that they were able to give birth to a new life through their son, Isaac.
Psalm 119:33-40 reflects Abram’s life. The story of the renewal of the covenant comes right after Ishmael is born, right after Abram sins by not trusting God. The author of this psalm begins this stanza by asking for instruction to know God’s statutes and for the desire to follow the law once he understands it.
Abraham and Sarah had to wait another fourteen years before Isaac was born. Even with hei, they still made mistakes, but their faith that God would not forsake them remained strong. They were willing to move out of their comfort zones many times to be obedient. When they did make mistakes, they confessed and returned to the Lord’s way. “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way” is the translation from the New King James version of verse 37. Revive is a verb meaning to restore life. The NRSV uses the phrase “give me life.” Either way, this is a petition for a renewed desire to follow the Lord’s path, for hei to be imparted into a person’s being, and for guidance and wisdom to follow the right direction.
The last verse of our text is another request for revival, this time for righteousness. We have the righteousness of Christ, but, like Abraham and other humans, we forget and lean on our own wisdom, desires, and needs to determine our course. We need hei to revive righteousness in our lives.
My young friend is growing in her faith, her courage, and her self-confidence. She is willing to take on new challenges and experiences, much like Abraham and Sarah. Her life is an example, not only for her children but also for others as to the power of hei. I do not hesitate to tell her that life has many surprises in store for her, both good and bad. I hasten to assure her that she has the inner strength to do what is necessary for her family and for her relationship with God. She has hei—the breath of life!
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Worship Elements: February 23, 2014 by Jamie D. Greening
Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany
COLOR: Green
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18; Psalm 119:33-40; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23; Matthew 5:38-48
THEME IDEAS
The first two verses of Leviticus 19 convey the overall emphasis of today’s readings: God is holy and God’s people must be holy. Through prayer, the psalmist depicts holiness as a hunger to know and walk in God’s ways. The epistle reminds us that we belong to God as a holy building, as a temple. The key to this holiness is to be foolish to the world but wise to God. Finally, the parallels between the Gospel reading and our Leviticus text remind us that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was a commentary on Old Testament Law. Moses and Jesus both remind us that holiness is as much about ethics as it is about worship.
INVITATION AND GATHERING
Call to Worship (Leviticus 19, Psalm 119, 1 Corinthians 3)
Hear the word of God:
“You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
We choose holiness and reject futile thinking.
We look today at life and turn our eyes
from the vanities of this world.
We want to be holy, for the Lord is holy.
We affirm that we belong to Christ.
We crave his wisdom and his ways.
(This reading could be followed by the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy”
or the praise song “Holiness.”)
Opening Prayer (Psalm 119, Matthew 5)
Almighty Teacher,
instruct us in your statutes today.
Help us turn the other cheek when we are wronged
and do so without bitterness.
Inspire us to give to those in need
and do so without resentment.
Turn our hearts,
that we may learn how to love our neighbor,
even our enemies.
Teach us and show us the way of holiness,
that we may be a holy people. Amen.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
Prayer of Confession (Leviticus 19, Matthew 5)
(Station Reader 1 at the front of the worship space and Reader 2 at the rear, thereby putting the people in the midst of the prayer.)
Reader 1: Holy God, forgive us for our sins against our community.
Reader 2: We have not provided for the poor or the alien in our land. We have not paid just
wages to those who labor. We have made life difficult for the blind, deaf, and those with
special needs. We have rendered improper judgments about right and wrong. We have
done harm to the environment.
Reader 1: Holy Jesus, forgive our sins against our neighbors.
Reader 2: We have not been generous. We have not prayed for our neighbors’ needs. We have
slandered friends and foes alike. We have loved ourselves more than we love others.
People: Holy Spirit, thank you for the assurance of forgiveness. Help us move beyond our sin, that we may make the world a better place to live. Amen.
Words of Assurance (1 Corinthians 3)
We belong to Christ:
our past belongs to Christ;
our sins belong to Christ.
We belong to Christ:
our right now belongs to Christ;
our moment of forgiveness belongs to Christ.
We belong to Christ:
our future belongs to Christ;
our holy future, free of guilt and shame,
belongs to Christ.
Passing the Peace of Christ (Matthew 5)
That we may all be as daughters and sons of God, our Mother and our Father, let us greet one another with signs of peace and blessing, affirming that God desires love and kindness to all.
Response to the Word (Psalm 119)
By your word, O Lord,
you have taught us.
May your Holy Spirit
grant us understanding and guidance
to live your word.
Lead us in the right paths
of true spirituality.
Turn our hearts and our eyes toward Jesus
and confirm in our souls
the beauty of your ways. Amen.
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
Invitation to the Offering (Leviticus 19, 1 Corinthians 3)
If we learn nothing else from Leviticus, we learn that the Lord cares how we use our financial resources. God cares whether we help the poor, pay just wages, or steal from others. The so-called wisdom of our time is oppressive and power hungry, devaluing benevolence, charity, creation care, and equality. But Christ, in whom we believe, values these things, and so must we. We belong to God, and all we have belongs to the Lord. Let us show what we believe by being holy with our money.
Offering Prayer (Leviticus 19, Matthew 5)
We bring these offerings to you, O Lord,
not because you need them,
but because you are holy.
Through these resources
we ask that he who is without a cloak be clothed,
and she who is hungry be fed.
We bring these offerings before you
and ask that they be used
to fulfill your holy purposes. Amen.
SENDING FORTH
Benediction (Leviticus 19, 1 Corinthians 3)
If you belong to Christ, then you belong to God.
We belong to Christ; we are God’s.
Go and be holy in the world, as God is holy.
We will walk in the way of holiness,
giving glory to God in all we do.
CONTEMPORARY OPTIONS
Gathering Words (Psalm 119, 1 Corinthians 3)
Have you had enough of the wisdom of the world?
Yes, we’ve had enough!
Do you want to know true wisdom?
Yes, we do!
Do you want to be taught, given, led, and confirmed
in the holiness of Christ Jesus, our Lord?
Yes, we long for this.
Come and embrace the ways of God,
the ways of true life and wisdom.
Praise Sentences (Leviticus 19)
Speak to the congregation.
God is holy.
Speak to the community.
God is holy.
Speak to the whole world.
God is holy.
God is holy.
God is holy.
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Worship for Kids: February 23, 2014 by Carolyn C. Brown
From a Child's Point of View
All of today's texts are about getting along with other people.
Old Testament: Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18. For children, these are God's directions for getting along with others. The first two verses make it plain that to be one of God's people, one must follow these directions. The Good News Bible offers the clearest translation, but even some of its details require explanation. Children need to be told about the old practice of leaving some of the grain and fruit in the field for the poor. Older children will be interested in the responsibility of serving on a jury or as a witness in a trial. The rules that affect children most are those in verses 11 (do not steal, cheat, or lie); 14 (do not make fun of anyone with a handicap or weakness); 16 (do not tells about people); 17 (do not bear grudges); and 18 (do not try to get even with those who hurt you).
The summary of the rules in verse 19 is familiar to many children. The teaching point here is that love does not refer to how we feel about our neighbors, but about how we treat them. God expects us to treat all people with the same fairness and kindness with which we want to be treated.
Psalm: 119:33-40. All the lines in the section of the acrostic about God's Torah begin with the Hebrew letter hei. They also use the same eight synonyms for Torah that were found in the verses read on the Sixth Sunday After the Epiphany. Of these, only Law, Commandments, and ways make immediate sense to children. Older children who are learning to recognize synonyms at school enjoy using that term in worship. Children will make sense of one or two of the verses as they are read.
Gospel: Matthew 5:38-48. This is one of the "hard sayings" for Christians of all ages. Jesus' point is that following God's directions for getting along with others is easy when we are among friends. The real challenge comes when we are dealing with people who not only will not love us back but probably will take advantage of us and bully us. Jesus insists that as God's people, we are to continue to treat those people well, no matter how they treat us.
For children, "You have heard it said" often refers to the encouragement of adults to learn to stand up for themselves against aggressive children. The challenge to Christian children and their adult guides is (1) not to sink to the level of meanness of those who make life difficult; and (2) to find creative, loving ways to get along with people who hurt you. Children need to know both that this challenge is not easy for Christians of any age and that God expects each of us to work hard at it.
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23. The Corinthian squabble between the followers of Apollos and the followers of Paul is beyond the comprehension of children. But they can explore Paul's insistence that a congregation (both in Corinth and today) is God's temple and that we are to take good care of that temple. Detailing that care by saying we should treat one another with lovingkindness, do the work needed to keep the church going, contribute money to pay church expenses, do the work of the church in the neighborhood and world, and so forth, helps children understand and apply Paul's message.
Watch Words
If you use the term holiness code, take time to explore what it means to be holy. Remember that holy is used today only at church and in cursing.
Avoid uncommon terms such as deal falsely, defraud, revile, slander, and render justice, used in many translations of Leviticus. Instead, speak about lying, cheating, cursing, and being fair.
Vengeance or revenge and retaliation are getting even, in children's words.
Because they perceive enemies as bad, many children will claim to have none. So if you use the term, define it in terms of people who make our lives difficult. Point out that all of us have some enemies, and challenge worshipers to identify theirs. Then proceed to Jesus' teachings about getting along with these folks.
Let the Children Sing
"Lord, I Want to Be a Christian" is the most familiar and best understood hymn for this theme. You may want to improvise new verses based on points of the sermon. "Let There Be Peace on Earth" is another good choice.
Praise God for the blessings of family and friends in the concrete words of "For the Beauty of the Earth."
Sing "We Are the Church" by Avery and Marsh to celebrate God's Temple.
The Liturgical Child
1. Bid worshipers to pray for people with whom they live, work, and play every day. Pray for member of our families, wonderful friends we see every day, friends who live in the other cities or states, people at work or school with whom we must get along, people with whom it is hard to get along, groups of people with whom our community/nation has trouble getting along. After identifying each person or group for whom worshipers are to pray, pause to allow individuals to pray for specific people they know.
Example: Lord, we know that you create every person and love each one. But each of us knows at least one or two people who are very hard to love. They seem to be out to hurt us and make us look bad. They make us want to strike back, or at least protect ourselves. But you expect us to love them. That is not easy. Be with us and hear our prayers for people who hurt us. (silence)
2. Ask eight older children to read the eight verses of Psalm 119:33-40. Individuals may memorize or read their verse. If this is a class project, suggest that the students discuss the meaning of these verses as part of their preparation.
3. Read in unison Psalm 119:33-40 as an affirmation of faith in response to a sermon exploring God's directions for getting along with others.
4. Remind worshipers that I Corinthians is a letter from Paul to a church he had helped start and where now the people were fussing among themselves and criticizing what Paul had done. Read the text imagining that you are Paul, walking the floor as you dictate this letter. Shrug your shoulders and turn your hands palms up as you read verse 3. Stroke your chin or make another thoughtful gesture as you read verse 4a. Raise a finger and come to attention to make the emphatic point of 4b, then on verse 5, point toward the congregation to direct them not to judge.
5. If you celebrate Communion, note that God dreams and works toward a day when all people everywhere will gather around the table. Invite worshipers to imagine gathered at this table both people with whom they get along well and those with whom it is difficult to get along. Recall that God loves and forgives all of us.
Sermon Resource
In Henry and the Clubhouse by Beverly Cleary, ten-year-old Henry confronts several problems with an after-school paper route. One of them is an embarrassing four-year-old girl named Ramona, who tries to follow and help him every day. He tries several ways to discourage her, but never resorts to mean tricks. He is, however, persistent and creative. He is successful when he writes to Sheriff Bob, her TV hero, and asks him to tell her on television not to follow him around. Sheriff Bob does. Find this book in most children's libraries and bookstores.
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Sermon Options: February 23, 2014
The Reward
1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
The Rock opera, Jesus Christ, Superstar, pictures Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking God if it is really necessary for him to die on the cross. In deep anguish he prays, among other things, “I’d have to know, I’d have to know, my Lord, if I die, what will be my reward?” We don’t think or talk much about the reward of the Christian life. I suppose we feel reluctant to ask because we think that, if we are being Christian just for what we get out of it, we are probably doing it for the wrong reason. But the question sometimes occurs to most of us, doesn’t it? And in our scripture lessons for today, Paul mentions a reward. So let’s let ourselves ask the question just this once. What is the reward that comes to those who live the Christian life?
There is a reward. When we think about the Christian’s reward, we usually think of something that waits for us beyond this life, something we don’t quite know how to describe because it is hidden behind a veil and probably cannot be adequately described in the words and concepts we have developed to describe things in this life. That expectation has been important to Christians down through the ages. It was important to Paul. Later in his first letter to the Corinthians, he wrote, “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19). The hope for the hereafter has been very important to people in our day, too. Jonathan Kozol wrote a book about the lives of desperately poor people living in a slum of a great city. The book was titled Amazing Grace because the author said the lives of these people were so empty of hope or of promise that they could only find meaning for their lives in the promise of heaven they heard in their little church.1 That promise of a reward in heaven can also mean a lot to people living under oppression or going through debilitating illness and also for most of the rest of us as we approach the end of life. The promise of a reward beyond this life is important.
But there can also be a reward, a wage for work well done and for a life well lived, in this world, too. The Corinthian Christians were interested in that, maybe more interested than they should have been. Corinth was a busy, cosmopolitan city, a center of commerce, a place where people could move up the ladders of affluence and of status. Lots of people were thinking about that sort of thing — and some of them let that kind of thinking get mixed up with their religion. Those who were so interested in “wisdom” were, for the most part, really just looking for an excuse for feeling superior to others. Yes, they were interested in knowing what would be the reward of their righteousness. Finally, Paul said, “Okay, okay. If you want to talk about rewards, we will talk about rewards.”
Paul said that a foundation has been laid and each of us is invited to build upon it. We will be rewarded on the basis of how well we build.
Paul said that he had laid the foundation by preaching to them the gospel of Jesus Christ. If a person or a community builds on any other foundation, they are building something that cannot last. No other foundation can support the structure. So what are we to build on? We are to build on a knowledge that God is, and that God loves us all, and that God is at work in our lives and in our world to save.
As individuals and as churches — and as a universal church — we are called to build something on that foundation. Each of us is to build a life. Together, we are to build a church, and as a whole human race, we are to build a world. We do build those things. We each do build lives. We do build churches — and the church. Yes, and we are the ones who build the world we live in. We might as well accept responsibility for doing the jobs and do them as well as we can.
People and communities build in lots of different ways with lots of different materials. Of course, some don’t think much about building anything. They just kick back and let things happen as they will. But those who do that have to accept responsibility for what gets built in that way.
Of what do we build our lives? Do we build them of commitments to great purposes, of high values, of deep appreciation of beauty and goodness, of integrity and of discipline and of love? Or do we try to build them of the things that magazine advertisements promote?
Of what do we build our churches? Are they built of strong beliefs in eternal truths and of deep commitments to the loving purpose of God for the salvation of the world? Or are they built of the comfortable little services designed to serve its own members and, perhaps, to attract some of the desirable outsiders into membership?
And of what do we build our world? Do we build it of commitments to justice and well-being for all people? Or do we build it of competitions to see who can most effectively exploit others and prosper from it — or out of balances of military power that are designed to oppress and to destroy?
When we get honest, we have to admit that all of us are built of some good stuff and of some stuff that is not good. A song from the ’60s described the lives and the houses that people were building as “little boxes made of ticky-tacky.” Most of us have incorporated a certain amount of ticky-tacky into our structures — but we are likely not to realize it until judgment day comes.
Paul says we will be rewarded for what we have built and built well. Then what is the reward? The reward for building a good life is the good life itself. What we claim to have built is really God’s gift to us. A life built of great commitments and high values and of love will be life in its fullness and there is nothing better that we could ask for in this life. It is not the wealth or the status symbols or the accumulations of pleasure that really make a life, it is the deep wholeness and humanity. No matter how much of those other things a person has or doesn’t have, it is the quality of the life in the center of the circumstances that is the reward.
And the reward for building a church and a world that live up to their highest purposes is that we get to enjoy the benefits of such a church and such a world. We get to enjoy the service of a church that puts us in touch with the living God and enables us to live the good lives God wants for us. The reward of living in a world that is committed to justice and well-being for all is that we get to live in safety and in a life-enriching harmony with all other people. That, too, is the gift that God keeps wanting to give us.
To what extent are we enjoying that reward? To what extent are you enjoying the wages of work well done? We may not really know until some crisis makes it obvious. Paul introduces the idea of a judgment day into our thinking. “... the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done” (1 Corinthians 3:13). Are we talking about the final judgment? Paul may have been. But judgment day can come right in the middle of life when something happens that puts our building to the test, something like a catastrophic illness, or a national crisis like the September 11 tragedy, or maybe some opportunity to do some great good that shows whether or not we are willing to rise to the challenge. Just as a hurricane or an earthquake can test the quality of a building’s construction, so a crisis in our lives, or in the life of our church or nation, can show us how well we have built. If we have incorporated too much “ticky-tacky” into the construction, the structures may not be able to stand and serve. If we have built well, our reward will be that we will be able to cope and to keep on living a good quality of life in the midst of whatever circumstances may come along.
But Paul adds something very interesting. He says that even if the crisis proves the inadequacy of our building, it may still work for our salvation. It can show us what is important and what is not. The “fire” can act as a refiner’s fire and cause us to rebuild and to rebuild better.
Let me tell you a story about a fire. A certain Christian man finally got that big promotion in his profession. He moved to a new city to assume the responsibilities of vice president of a major bank. He and his family were excited about building that fine new home that they had always dreamed of. They built it in an affluent suburb where all of the homes were fine. They brought into it all of the things that they had accumulated and treasured over the years and they carefully selected the new furniture and appliances that would make their home just right. The family was really beginning to enjoy their new home and their new situation in life. Everything looked just right — but no one could see the defective wiring that a careless workman had left as his contribution to their happiness. One night only a few months after moving into the house, the man had a dream that there was a fire in the attic. He woke up in a fright — and discovered that his dream was true. Quickly, he woke up his wife and children and got them out of the house as it burst into flames. As he stood and watched his dream house burn, neighbors came running up to him and asked if there was anything he wanted them to try to save. He shook his head and said, “No. My wife and children are safe and there’s nothing else in the house that is worth the risk of life.” Very quickly, the fire had caused him to put things into perspective. It would be unrealistic to say that they did not suffer some grief because of their loss. But they knew to be grateful that they still had everything that was really important. That was a kind of a salvation.
Many have gone through crisis experiences that helped them to realize that some of the things they thought were very important really weren’t and some of the things they had neglected were the things that really made life worth living. That can indeed be an experience of salvation — and that, too, is a kind of reward.
But then Paul moves on to enlarge his metaphor and he has a surprise for us. He says, “Do you not know that you [you Christians, you churches] are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). If we can keep our lives from being cluttered up with things that distract us from what is important, the Spirit of God will teach us real wisdom and help us catch a new vision of things as they really are. One of the things we will be shown is that since you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God and all things belong to God, then all things belong to you.
Now, there is a vision we may have a hard time catching. We are an awful lot like the Corinthians. They were so preoccupied with who has wisdom and who doesn’t and who has wealth and who doesn’t and who has status and who doesn’t and which house church has the most attractive pastor and which has the truest doctrine that they were missing the magnificent vision of the whole that was there before them. We do that, too. We divide our lives up like we divide our property into little gated communities with guards at the gates or like pieces of turf with “keep out” signs on the fences. Then we exhaust ourselves with being defensive of what is ours and jealous of what is not. Paul says to forget that foolishness. Everything good is yours. Does that come as a surprise? Can you take it in?
Some of our songwriters have caught the vision. An old spiritual that came to us from a group of people who had nothing at all in this world said, “All around me looks so shine, asked the Lord if all was mine. Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will pray.” Another hymn describes the beauty that surrounds us when “morning has broken” and how that beauty takes on eternal significance. Then it says, “Mine is the sunlight! Mine is the morning born of the one light Eden saw play! Praise with elation, praise every morning, God’s recreation of the new day!” You don’t have to own a sunrise or a sunset to enjoy it. You just have to claim it and take it in before it slips away. It was put there for you. It is yours. God gave it to you.
You can feel the same way about the wisdom and the accomplishments and the goodness of other people. They are yours, too, because ultimately they are God’s. In just that same way, every bit of the beauty and goodness and truth and nobility and aliveness and joy that are to be found in this world, in all of life, yes, and in death too, are yours. Don’t try to own them in some way that hoards them and keeps them away from others. That won’t work. That will spoil it. But simply move through life with arms and heart wide open to embrace and to share every good thing that is there for you. And when the time comes for you to leave this life, approach the great unknown beyond this life in the same way. Everything good is yours. God has freely given it to you. And that is your reward just for allowing the Spirit of God to show you that you are beloved children of God.
The Offense Of Grace
Matthew 5:38-48
Victor Hugo begins Les Miserables with the story of Jean Valjean. He is an ex-convict who has just been released from nineteen years in prison for stealing bread to feed his sister’s children. As he reenters society, no one will house him or give him work because of his criminal record — that is until he stumbles into the bishop’s house. Much to Valjean’s bewilderment, the bishop treats him with kindness and hospitality. Seizing the moment, Valjean steals the bishop’s silver plates and, then, flees into the night.
The bishop’s reaction to Valjean’s treachery is not what we might expect. Instead of being angry and offering condemnation, the bishop examines his own behavior and finds himself lacking in charity. “I have for a long time wrongfully withheld this silver; it belonged to the poor. Who was this man? A poor man evidently,” he reasons to himself. So when the police arrive with the captured Valjean, the bishop’s silver in his possession, the bishop calmly greets the thief and says, “But I gave you the candlesticks also ... why did you not take them along with the plates?” The police, surprised and confused, reluctantly let the thief go.
Like Joseph’s brothers cowering in fear before the one they have wronged, Jean Valjean expects blame and condemnation for his actions. Instead, he receives forgiveness and mercy. He expects hatred, and, instead, he receives love, and at that moment evil is transformed into good.
Our story today is a true story of grace, and as such it is God’s story. In fact, it summarizes the gospel — the good news which we have received, and the good news which we are called to live.
Though Jesus’ words and Joseph’s words focus on how we are to treat others, they are based upon the way God treats us. Loving enemies, forgiving negative experiences, giving and expecting nothing in return, offering mercy instead of blame and condemnation — this is God’s story. After all, God put a rainbow promise in the sky, even though we hadn’t earned it. God made manna to fall from heaven, even though the wandering Israelites had done nothing but complain and whine. In Jesus’ most difficult parable, the vineyard owner, who is God, pays the one-hour workers the same as the eight-hour workers, and thus gives them — and us — not what we deserve but what we need. And in the archetypal tale of the Prodigal Son, we meet a God who rejoices when a sinner comes home.
Yes, again and again and again, God gives us grace instead of grief. God gives us blessing instead of blame. God gives us comfort instead of condemnation. And in the serendipity of those surprising moments we are changed. Yet, it is one thing for God to be gracious to us. After all, that is what God is for. It’s quite another for us to do the same. After all, we live in the real world, and we must be practical, cautious, and sensible. Loving our enemies and turning the other cheek is dangerous business — foolhardy and contrary to our best interests. No, we need to be right, to be safe, to be number one, always to be in control of the situation — this is the only way to preserve one’s skin. And so we, the worldly people of the twenty-first century, live not in a world of grace, but instead in a world of hostility. We live in a world where if we get robbed or mugged, we press charges. We live in a world where, in order to maintain national superiority, we can never admit that the United States is wrong. We live in a world where eighty percent of Americans believe in legalized revenge — better known as capital punishment. We live in a world where, after parents die and sibling rivalries turn into warfare, millions of dollars and thousands of emotional hours are spent contesting wills and fighting over family heirlooms.
Yes, resentment and retaliation, judgment and blame are tightly woven into the fabric of our human nature. This negative reaction to the bad things in life is learned behavior in a world where self
comes first. It is part of the original sin of seeing ourselves as the center of the universe. And it is the disease of the soul which Jesus comes to heal. When he eats with Zacchaeus, when he forgives and empowers the woman at the well, when he breaks bread with Judas, and when he gives authority to faithless Peter, Jesus gives them — and gives us — grace. He gives us the benefit of the doubt, the gift of a second chance, the lavish and generous blessing of unconditional love. And then Jesus asks us to do the same — to take the risk, to make the decision, yes, to follow him. He asks us to be foolish enough to spurn the ways of the world, and to do things in a new way.
The writer and surgeon Bernie Siegel tells the story of Wild Bill, an inmate of a concentration camp, who after six years of serving the enemy as an interpreter, was still full of energy and physical health and a gentle positive spirit. To the other prisoners, he was a beacon of hope, an agent of reconciliation, one who was constantly urging them to forgive each other and the enemy. This man’s positive spirit was all the more amazing because of the horror which he himself had experienced at the beginning of the war — watching his own family: his wife, his two daughters, his three little boys, shot before his very eyes by Nazi soldiers in Warsaw.
When asked to explain his lack of bitterness, Wild Bill responded, “I had to decide right then whether to let myself hate the soldiers who had done this. It was an easy decision, really. I was a lawyer. In my practice I had seen too often what hate could do to people’s minds and bodies. Hate had just killed the six people who matter most to me in the world. I decided then that I would spend the rest of my life — whether it was a few days or many years — loving every person I came in contact with.”
A new ethic — to love our enemies, to turn the other cheek, to forgive and love no matter what — it is what Jesus asks. But does it make sense? And does it work? Or is it an offense in our dog-eat-dog world? Is it realistic to expect the families of Timothy McVeigh’s victims to forgive him and to love him? Is it appropriate to ask a battered wife to pray for the one who abuses her, to offer the other cheek to the husband who has struck the first one? Yes, God sends sun and rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike — but are we called to love and be merciful to people who take us for granted and use us for their own advantage? These selfless, idealistic values may be fine for a Messiah, but for those of us who are victims and victimizers in the real world, they are offensive and dangerous.
Unless, of course, we look at them in a new way. Years ago I read a book about Christian assertiveness, and these puzzling words from Matthew were offered as guidelines for healthy assertive behavior. You see, to love our enemy is to take charge of the situation, to refrain from just reacting as a victim of their behavior. To love our enemy is to change the situation, to take the initiative to relate to our victimizers in a new way — literally to take the power out of their hands and to put it in ours in a positive way. To love the enemy does not mean to like the enemy. Instead it means to understand them as human beings — troubled and sinful human beings who have hurt us because they themselves hurt inside. It means to make a decision to respond to them in ways which will benefit them and perhaps lead to healing.
This is not to suggest that we passively sit back and ask for more abuse. It does not mean that the abused wife continues to live with the husband who beats her. No, the loving thing to do, the thing that is in the best interests of the one who is doing the hurting, may be to blow the whistle, to press charges, to get help for a sickness that is out of control. You see, to do good, to love and forgive those who offend us, is to refrain from hurting them in the same way they have hurt us. It is to initiate a new form of confrontation and healing that will lead to the well-being of all the parties involved. An ethic of grace — far from being an offense — is an invitation to take the offensive, to live positively instead of negatively, to stop playing the role of victim, and to start living a life of proactive discipleship.
Martin Luther King, Jr., once wrote:
Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship ... We must recognize that the evil deed of the enemy neighbor, the thing that hurts, never quite expresses all that he is. An element of goodness may be found even in our worst enemy.
King concludes that when Jesus asks us to love our enemies he is pleading with us to offer understanding and creative good will to all people. This is the only way we can truly be children of a loving God.
My friends, an ethic of grace is different from an ethic of justice. Instead of reacting to the sin of others, instead of basing our response on reward or revenge or reciprocity, we can, instead, initiate a new relationship based on love and hope. And, by taking the high road, we can become fertile ground for abundant life to grow, both for our enemy and for our selves.
I was once offered the gift of grace from an enemy, and it was a transforming moment in my life. Years ago, when my husband and I were called to be co-pastors of a church in New Jersey, the pastoral nominating committee was split. Seven members of the committee were favorable to our candidacy, but four members were opposed. Though it is usually a bad idea to accept a call to a church when there is that kind of split, we were assured that the committee itself was so conflicted that no candidate could have fared better. One of the members who was opposed to us was Pearl, a strong-minded, fairly conservative elder who also happened to be clerk of session. She didn’t like our theology, she didn’t like the idea of a clergy couple, and she definitely didn’t like the idea of a clergywoman. Fortunately, the congregation voted overwhelmingly to call us as their co-pastors, but that still didn’t convince Pearl. She just didn’t like us, and she wasn’t about to accept us as her pastors.
A few weeks after we moved and started our ministry, I was feeling particularly low. Though the congregation had been welcoming, I was still feeling like a stranger, still feeling like people were suspicious, still feeling like my husband was the more acceptable pastor. In fact, I was feeling like we had made a terrible mistake, when all of a sudden the doorbell rang. I went to open the door, and there stood Pearl, holding a broom, a loaf of bread, and a shaker of salt. She smiled at me and said, “I come from German stock, and there is an old tradition in our family. Whenever someone moves into a new home they are given three gifts: a broom to sweep away the evil spirits, a loaf of bread to make their house into a home, and a pinch of salt to bring good luck. I want to welcome you to your new home — and to welcome you as my new pastor.”
Well, Pearl and I never saw eye to eye on theology. But that day Pearl took the offensive and changed a relationship of hostility into a relationship of grace. That day she decided to love her enemy, and I felt like I had finally come home.
These words in Matthew are not spoken to the world at large. Jesus knew that secular people could neither understand nor honor such a difficult ethic. No, these words in Matthew are spoken to the disciples, to believers who have decided to follow Jesus. These words are spoken to us, people who have chosen to be the yeast in a world that needs the fullness of grace. This day may we hear these words, and do them, all to the glory of God.
May it be so — for you and for me. Amen.
Psalm 119:33-40
Like last week’s selection from the opening portion of this same psalm, today’s selection celebrates the joy that comes of following God’s Law, the Torah. As is usually the case with psalm selections in the lectionary, it amplifies the First Lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures — which this week happens to be Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18.
Reading through verses 9-18 of the Leviticus passage, we quickly discover that following God’s Law transcends mere legalism: at the root of each of these commandments is a deep and abiding ethical concern for the well-being of others. The command to leave something in the field for the gleaners (Leviticus 19:9-10) honors the needs of the poor. The prohibition against stealing has a human face: “You shall not defraud your neighbor” (v. 13a). “You shall not keep the wages of a laborer until morning” (v. 13b) is among the earliest examples of fair-labor legislation — the workers, after all, need their salaries if they are to feed their families. There is concern for the disabled (v. 14), and an admonition to treat everyone equally: “You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great” (v. 15). Ultimately, there comes a prohibition against hate itself (v. 17), followed by the greatest commandment of all: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 18).
“Give me understanding,” pleads the psalmist, “that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart” (Psalm 119:34). Perhaps the most important aspect of this understanding is the discovery that God’s Law is about much more than statutes and regulations and ordinances and codicils. With love at its very heart, it is the concrete manifestation of the Lord’s desire that we live in harmony with others, and even with ourselves. The law the psalmist begs to understand has, in the very deepest sense, a human face. “Turn my eyes from looking at vanities,” he pleads; “give me life in your ways” (v. 37). Far from being a dead letter, the law is life-giving.
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Season of Ash and Fire by Blair Gilmer Meeks
Prayers and Liturgies for Lent and Easter
Season of Ash and Fire
Author Blair Gilmer Meeks
Publisher Abingdon Press
Publication Date 1/2004
Binding Book - Paperback
ISBN 9780687044542
Retail Price $17.99
Discount Price $11.33 (37% discount)
Season of Ash and Fire will help pastors and worship planners prepare for Lent and Easter. The author provides corporate prayers for each Sunday and Holy Day in the Easter Cycle, including: Ash Wednesday, 1st through 5th Sundays in Lent, Passion/Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, Easter Sunday Morning, Easter Evening, 2nd through 7th Sundays of Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost.
Additional prayers and liturgies for use during the season by small groups and families help extend and unify the congregation’s celebration.
"Blair Meeks, gifted with an evangelical heart, an emancipated imagination, and a life settled in liturgy, offers a first rate resource as the church learns again to pray. Meeks not only guides the prayer of the church through the depth of Lent and the wonder of Easter, she also interprets and instructs along the way. Out of her long reflection on the mystery of worship, this book will serve pastors and all those in the church who live by faith that is funded through prayer.” --Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary
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This Sunday 16 February 2014
Sixth Sunday After the Epiphany - Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37
Aleph by Raquel Mull
Psalm 119:1-8
Psalm 119 is written in praise of Torah, God’s law or teaching. Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the book of Psalms, is an alphabetical acrostic that contains praises, laments, meditations, petitions, and assurances of God’s presence. The 176 verses are divided into twenty-two sections, each named after a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Some Bibles show the letters as the subtitles for the divisions.
Hebrew letters differ from the English alphabet because each has a name that is itself a word. Each letter is also a picture or symbol, representing an object, animal, or thing. When people read Hebrew, not only do they understand the sounds of the letters, they know the words they are reading. They also have the added dimension of seeing how the images interact!
The first letter in the Hebrew alphabet is aleph, which means “master.” Aleph is the first and master of the other twenty-one letters. As such, the first verses of Psalm 119 remind us of the blessings we receive when we keep God’s laws.
These pointed reminders of blessing and promise need to be repeated many times for us mortals. The author of 1 John writes in chapter 5 that “the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (v. 3). It would be nice to think that second-century C.E. life was filled with fewer temptations, making the commandments less of a burden, but we know that people throughout history have struggled to follow God’s ordinances. Those who find them light to carry are the saints among us.
I have difficulty obeying some of the laws, especially the one dealing with covetousness. My daughter, the mother of our two beautiful granddaughters, lives in another state. Her father and I have been divorced for many years, but our relationships with each other and our respective new mates have improved since we are now grandparents. Or so I thought.
One day, my daughter called and explained what they were going to do when they visited her father for four days. Four days! They don’t visit us very often, and they never stay for more than two days! We make the seven-hour trip every other month to ensure that our four- and six-yearold granddaughters know their shimmy (Navajo for my mother’s mother) and hosteen (Navajo for old man). My feelings were hurt, and jealousy’s ugly head rose quickly and strongly. I hung up the phone and cried on Hosteen’s shoulder. I decided not to talk to my daughter again that day.
By the next morning, I was much better and had gotten things into perspective. I called my daughter and thanked her for giving me some time to get my house in order. I reassured her that her family is very important to us; visits to us are not a condition for us to be part of their lives. I had reminded myself of the reasons her father is not able to visit them as frequently as we can. I remembered that the girls would be on summer vacation, and we would be at a yearly conference. I had moved from the jealous woman to the loving mother and grandmother. But it was not easy. It took time and effort, and in all honesty, I didn’t even think about the commandment “Thou shalt not covet” (Exodus 20:17 KJV).
What I did was read Psalm 119:1-4, and I discovered, to my complete astonishment, that I was happy. I had obeyed the commandment and, in doing so, enabled my daughter and her family to be with her father without guilt or worry. We were both free because I finally followed God’s command.
As I mentioned, aleph is the first letter and the master of all other Hebrew letters. It is first and considered by Jewish theologians to actually be made in the image of God. In fact, the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet spell “father,” which is an example of God at the beginning of all things.
Psalm 119 begins by reminding us that we need to conscientiously choose to walk in God’s ways. It does make a difference in our relationships, all of them; our relationships with God as well as with our fellow human beings.
The second half of today’s lection is a prayer seeking God’s help in keeping the commandments of the Lord. Originally this was written in regard to Torah and all of its 613 laws, but we still need help to obey even the two greatest commandments! Our situation has not changed. We are still tempted, and we still forget the Lord’s laws. Even knowing some of the consequences, we forget. Shame is not easy to live with. We feel guilt when we recognize we have done something wrong, but shame is what we feel when we believe something is wrong with us as people.
The God of creation made us in God’s own image and did not want shame to be a part of our lives. The idea that we are not good enough or will never be right is an attack on our faith. God promises we will be heirs because God sees us as sons and daughters. When we follow God’s commandments, never taking our eyes off them, shame will not rest on us. Knowing we are keeping our relationship with God first prevents doubt from creeping into our prayers and enables us to fulfill our destiny as God’s children.
God wants to be first; in the Hebrew alphabet and in our lives. God has given us the pattern to live through God’s Son, Jesus. Let us remember the laws and why we need to follow them. It is not just happiness and blessings; it is love. It’s the love we have for God and the love we are to have for others, which, as promised, becomes stronger when we diligently keep God’s precepts.
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New Medieval Bible Meditation: Psalm 119:1-8 by Clifton Stringer
Psalm 119:1-8 (Revised Common Lectionary) or Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34 (Roman Catholic Lectionary)
At the literal level, this scripture shows the blessedness of striving to keep God’s law, God’s Torah. The whole length of Ps. 119 is a complex and edifying meditation on the goodness and wisdom of God’s Torah. It is ordered around the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The point is not only outward conformity to God’s law, as though God, like a dictator, has given an arbitrary set of rules and we must fall in line. Rather, as Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon notes, the ancient rabbis thought of the Torah, the eternal law of God, as the inner logic “on which the inner being of all created reality is based.” Thus, to be in accord with God’s Torah is just to be in touch with the deepest law of reality, with what is. The nearer you are to God’s Torah, the nearer you are to your true self.
Thus, Ps. 119 does teach merely an outward conformity to God’s Torah. Those are blessed “who seek him with their whole heart” (v. 2). The one who prays this Psalm cries out very earnestly and personally, “O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping thy statutes!” (v. 5). Jesus tells his friends, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15). Praying Ps. 119 helps us both to love him and to desire to keep his commandments, by loving them.
At the allegorical level, this Psalm (as is the case with most of the Psalms) is thick with references to Jesus Christ himself. This is not only a typological fact, but a historical fact, since Jesus Christ, a first century Jew, is inside the historical continuity of those who pray this Psalm. Further, Jesus Christ still prays this Psalm on earth in his body, the Church. Jesus Christ especially is the one whose way is blameless, so much so that he is the fulfillment of the Torah (Mt. 5:17). He is the one who truly, in his humanity, seeks after God with his whole heart (v. 2). Jesus is the one who says truly, “I will observe thy statutes” (v. 8).
Further, Psalm 119’s speech about the “law” or Torah points to the Word of God. We begin to see this clearly from the rabbinic interpretation of ‘Torah’ above. And it is God’s Word of whom it is said, “He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (Jn. 1:2-3). The Word of God is the one who became incarnate in Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:14), of whose divine nature it says, “for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:16-17).
So, when Ps. 119:1 says, “Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD,” one of the meanings is: Blessed are those who are blameless through walking in the Word of God, through walking in the holy pattern of Jesus Christ, who is the incarnate Word. Further, it means: Blessed are those who are blameless through baptism, having been washed through “water and the Word” (Eph. 5:26). For we are cleansed by faith and the contact with Jesus Christ’s forgiveness and divinity we’re given in baptism. Further, the Church is mystically included in Ps. 119:1, for it says: “Blessed are those.” The Church are those included in Christ through faith & baptism, those who thus “walk in the Word” since they are the body of Christ who is the Word incarnate. (The Church walks in the footsteps of Christ, and reads about his life cyclically again and again using the lectionary calendar, because the Church is “in” Christ, “in” the Word.) Finally, when we read this verse, we may rightly think of Mary. The Latin for those who are “blameless” is immaculati; and Mary Immaculate, who gives birth to the Word, is the first among those abiding in the pure power of Christ’s holiness. She is “full of grace” (Lk. 1:28).
The moral sense of Ps. 119 is near the surface: “Thou hast commanded thy precepts to be kept diligently. O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping thy statutes!” (vv. 4-5). The things Christ has ordered, we must do. In view of God’s mercies, we must strive for an imitation of Christ, an obedience to God’s Torah, that will set our righteousness to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Mt. 5:20). For Christians, this is, first of all, the twofold love commanment – love of God and neighbor – and also the Ten Commandments and the moral injunctions of the New Testament. Much else could be said.
At the anagogical level, we note a fascinating deepening that has taken place in our study of Ps. 119. At the literal level, Ps. 119 is a long cadence of praise to the “law of the LORD.” Allegorically, we are able to see that this Psalm is also a hymn of praise to the Word, the Son of God and second person of the Blessed Trinity. Praise for God’s good gift of the law has opened us to praise of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God condescendingly reveals himself even in the inadequacy and imprecision of human language “for us and for our salvation,” making us worshippers and witnesses of the true God. By God’s initiative, God takes our finite language captive to his Word (2 Cor. 10:5), so that “his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made” (Rom. 1:20). Glory to you, Word of God, who share your eternal life so freely with us who are dust, and unworthy.
Bibliography
Patrick Henry Reardon, Christ in the Psalms, (Chesterton: Conciliar Press, 2000).
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New Medieval Bible Meditations: Scripture Interpretations for Preachers, Nuns, and other Guilty Bystanders is Clifton Stringer’s contribution to the renewal of the Church’s reading and teaching of the Holy Bible. I try to pick a passage from the lectionary for the coming Sunday, usually one shared by both the Roman Catholic and Protestant (Revised Common) lectionaries.
The premise of this method of interpretation is that Sacred Scripture, since it is divine revelation, has wondrous depths. That Scripture is ‘divine revelation’ means that Scripture is divine truth and wisdom graciously shown to us by God. Scripture is thus a created participation in the divine Word (Jn. 1:1) who is the second person of the Holy Trinity. Sacred Scripture is thus, and ultimately, a participation in God’s own knowledge, the very joyful eternal life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Scripture is shared with us out of love that we might become wise and good, and be saved.
Since the infinite God is the author of Sacred Scripture, in addition to Scripture’s “literal or historical” sense, many passages of the Bible will have mystical senses (or spiritual senses). The literal sense is, as it were, the fountain and foundation of these mystical senses. These mystical senses are usually reckoned at three: the allegorical sense, the moral sense, and the anagogical sense.
Here is how St. Bonaventure describes these three mystical senses: “Allegory occurs when by one thing is indicated another which is a matter of belief” – like when one thing in Scripture prefigures another later thing, or builds on an earlier prefiguration. “The tropological or moral understanding occurs when, from something done, we learn something else which we should do” – like when Christ or an apostle does something holy that we must imitate. “The anagogical meaning, a kind of ‘lifting upwards,’ occurs when we are shown what it is we should desire, that is, the eternal happiness of the blessed” – that is, when we catch a glimpse of the glory of God.
Aquinas even notes that, since God understands all things through one infinite act of being, God can intend for there to be more than one meaning of a scripture at the literal level.
All four senses (literal, allegorical, moral, anagogical) are effective for preaching, teaching, and training in righteousness, as the Spirit leads.
To reflect further on these senses consider, for example, Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae 1.1.10 or Bonaventure’s Breviloquium, Prologue, section 4.
Also note that, in writing these meditations, I do not do any ‘historical critical’ research into the passage. If you would like to do this, it can add to your understanding of the literal sense, and even sometimes spur your imagination among the other senses. But many modern scholars focus on ‘historical critical’ questions almost exclusively; read their works, insofar as it is helpful for knowing and teaching Christ; there is no need for me to reinvent the wheel.
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Worship Elements: February 16, 2014 (Option 1)By J. Wayne Pratt
Sixth Sunday After the Epiphany
COLOR: Green
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37
THEME IDEAS
Today’s readings challenge us to choose life. As the church, we are called to focus on what God’s kingdom requires, what it blesses, and how the worshiping community is to live out its distinct calling to be the body of Christ. Moses reminds the people of their covenant to worship God alone and to walk in the ways of the Lord. Paul helps the congregation at Corinth to understand and reframe its views of leadership, particularly in relation to understanding the gift of growth that comes through the power of the Spirit. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus begins to move his followers from their assumptions about the ways of God: “You have heard that it was said. . .” to the ways of the gospel: “but I say to you. . . .” The teachings of
Jesus confront us with choices, each carrying its own unique consequences. Jesus calls us to choose the practices that will bring God glory and honor.
INVITATION AND GATHERING
Call to Worship (Psalm 119)
Happy are those who walk in God’s ways.
Blessed are those who observe God’s
commandments.
Faithful are those whose eyes are fixed
on righteousness.
Joyful are those whose hearts are filled
with praise.
Come, let us love the Lord our God.
We come to worship the One who leads us
in the ways of life.
Opening Prayer (Deuteronomy 30, Matthew 5)
Holy Spirit, guide us as we walk in faith,
and guard us against the powers
that would draw us away from your love.
Help us live according to your commandments,
that we might live long in the land
you have prepared for us.
Prompt us to seek you with our whole heart
and guide us to walk in your ways,
that we may carry out the vows
of the covenant we share.
May our words and deeds
bring life and faith to others,
as we hold fast to the gift of faith.
Be near us each and every day,
and bless us with your light,
that our days may be filled with grace. Amen.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
Prayer of Confession (Deuteronomy 30, 1 Corinthians 3)
Loving God, you call us to walk in your ways,
observe your commandments,
and love you as you have loved us.
You offer us a community of abundant blessing,
with rich soil to promote dynamic growth.
Yet we often turn away from you
to satisfy our own wants and desires.
We forsake the way of love and forgiveness,
giving in to petty jealousies and quarreling,
and surrendering our lofty ideals
to our baser inclinations.
Forgive us, O God.
When we flee from your embrace,
draw us into community with you
and with one another.
Shower us with the cleansing waters of humility,
that we may reclaim our purpose
and find nourishment and growth
in labors of love
to bring your kingdom in our midst.
Words of Assurance (Deuteronomy 30, 1 Corinthians 3)
God is alive and at work nurturing our growth,
nourishing our needs, and reconciling us
to one another.
God hears the confessions of our hearts
and forgives generously, sharing love with all
who follow in God’s ways.
It is through God’s amazing grace that we are forgiven.
And all God’s children respond:
Thanks be to God!
Response to the Word (Matthew 5)
O God, send your Spirit upon us and light our path,
that we may travel the road
you have prepared for us.
Having heard your scriptures proclaimed,
and your word revealed,
enable our hearts and minds
to more fully understand
your goodness and your grace.
Help us break free from ideas that no longer bring life,
that we may embrace the life-giving
work of your Spirit.
Challenge us to forsake paths that ask little of us,
and help us resist the evils
and temptations of this world,
that we may truly follow the way
of kingdom living. Amen.
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
Offering Prayer (1 Corinthians 3)
Gracious God,
as we present these offerings,
may we be reminded of the many blessings
you have shared with us as individuals,
and as a community of believers.
You have fed us with the milk of your grace,
and have nurtured us with a love
that knows no limits or boundaries.
May our sharing this day
reveal our priorities and our promises,
for we belong to you and offer you our gifts,
that they may be used
in mission and in ministry
to bring glory to you, our Creator,
Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.
Invitation to Communion (1 Corinthians 3)
As we gather at the Lord’s table, all are welcome. Having a common purpose, we receive growth from the love of God, and nurture and nourishment from the body and blood of Christ Jesus. At this table, we are redeemed by God, reconciled to one another, and called to labor in God’s fields, where love and forgiveness are sown. The table is ready; the meal is prepared. Come, be fed, and savor the feast of the Lord!
SENDING FORTH
Benediction (Deuteronomy 30)
As we journey out into the world,
may each of us walk in the light of God’s ways,
striving to be blameless and just.
May our hearts be vessels of God’s love
and may the Lord bless us in the land
that we are entering.
Hold fast. Do not be led astray,
and may the love of God
be yours this day and forevermore.
Go now in peace. Amen.
CONTEMPORARY OPTIONS
Gathering Words (Deuteronomy 30)
Love your God,
and walk in God’s ways.
We will love God,
and walk in God’s ways.
Love your God,
and hold fast to God in everything you do.
We will love God,
and walk in God’s ways.
—OR—
Gathering Words (Psalm 119)
Happy are those who seek God in all things,
who turn from wrong and walk with God.
Happy are those who know God’s love,
and live with joy.
Happy are those who share praise
with a heart of pure love.
Happy are those who know God’s love,
and live with joy.
Praise Sentences (Deuteronomy 30)
Choose life! Choose God!
Live in God’s love!
God’s way is good!
Hold fast to God!
(Mary Petrina Boyd)
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Worship Elements: February 16, 2014 (Option 2) by Mary Petrina Boyd
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany
COLOR: Green
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37
THEME IDEAS
God calls us to walk in ways that lead to life and abundance. In his final address, Moses urges the Hebrew people to choose life; the psalmist praises those who walk in God’s ways; and Jesus calls for a deeper, more faithful understanding of God’s laws. Jesus calls us to reconcile with one another, to love faithfully, and to speak truthfully. Lest this lead us to think that salvation comes only through human endeavors, Paul reminds us that God alone gives the growth.
INVITATION AND GATHERING
Call to Worship (Psalm 119)
Happy are those who are without blame.
Blessed are those who walk in God’s way.
Happy are those who are faithful.
Blessed are those who seek God.
We will obey your word, O God.
We will praise you forever!
Opening Prayer (Deuteronomy 30, Psalm 119)
Come, Holy One:
teach us your ways,
lead us in your paths,
guide us on our journey.
Speak to us your words of life,
for you offer us direction and wholeness
when we hear your voice
and follow.
You bless us with your love,
shower us with your grace,
and help us grow in faith.
We seek you, O God,
with all our hearts.
Be near us this day. Amen.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
Prayer of Confession (Deuteronomy 30, 1 Corinthians 3, Mark 5)
Loving God,
you call us into community,
teach us your ways,
and bless us with abundant life.
Yet we turn aside to follow other paths:
we take the easy way out,
listening to the world’s call
rather than your call to commitment;
we quarrel with one another,
letting differences divide us;
we cherish our resentments,
shutting off our hearts
from forgiveness and reconciliation;
we cling to petty jealousies,
feeling we deserve more than we have.
Forgive us when we wander from your love.
Draw us into community with each other,
and feed us with the milk of your grace,
that we may grow in faithfulness
and work together in peace. Amen.
Words of Assurance (Deuteronomy 30, 1 Corinthians 3)
God is at work, nurturing our growth
and showing us the ways that lead to life.
God is at work, reconciling us to one another
and teaching us the paths of love.
God is at work, hearing our confessions,
forgiving our disobedience,
and blessing us in love.
Thanks be to God!
Passing the Peace of Christ (Matthew 5)
Christ asks that we be reconciled to one another. The love of Christ reaches out to friend and stranger, touching each life with blessing. Share the peace and forgiveness of Christ with one another.
Response to the Word (Deuteronomy 30, Matthew 5)
Caring God,
nurture the life within us.
You have shown us the ways
that lead to life.
You have challenged us
to move beyond easy answers,
to embrace the hard choices
that come with caring deeply for others.
Give us the wisdom and the courage
to resist evil and walk in your ways of love. Amen.
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
Invitation to the Offering (Deuteronomy 30, 1 Corinthians 3)
God has given us growth, guided our steps on the ways that lead to life, and provided companions for our journey. Our very lives are a gift from God. With gratitude and praise, we turn to God with obedient hearts to offer back our gifts, that others may find life and wholeness.
Offering Prayer (Deuteronomy 30, Matthew 5)
Loving God,
you have shown us your ways
and led us in the paths of abundance.
You have blessed us and kept us safe.
In you we see that we are loved.
We offer you our lives,
for we have chosen to follow you.
We offer you our praise,
for your love is great.
Use our gifts, our money, and our hearts
to establish your realm of love upon the earth. Amen.
Invitation to Communion (Matthew 5, 1 Corinthians 3)
This is Christ’s table, where all are welcome. Here we are fed in abundance. Here we gather as Christ’s body. Reconciled to one another, we are God’s people. We are God’s servants, working together. We are God’s field, where love is sown. We are God’s building, a house of love. The feast is prepared; the table is ready. Come! Rejoice and be fed.
SENDING FORTH
Benediction (Deuteronomy 30)
Go forth to walk in God’s ways.
May our ways be blameless.
Hold fast to God in all you do.
Our hearts belong to God.
May the love of God be yours.
God’s blessings rest upon us.
CONTEMPORARY OPTIONS
Gathering Words (Deuteronomy 30)
Choose life!
We will love the Lord our God.
Choose life!
We will obey God in all we do.
Choose life!
We will hold fast to our God.
Choose life!
We choose life in God’s love!
Praise Sentences (Deuteronomy 30)
Choose life! Choose God!
Live in God’s love!
God’s way is good!
Hold fast to God!
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Worship for Kids: February 16, 2014 by Carolyn C. Brown
From a Child's Point of View
Old Testament: Deuteronomy 30:15-20. Elementary-school children learn slowly, through experience, that the choices they make every day have consequences. At this age—as in weak moments later in life—they blame others for the consequences of their decisions. But as they grow, children take more and more responsibility for their actions. This passage speaks to children who are learning to make choices and to accept the consequences.
Moses tells Jews on the edge of the Promised Land that they will need to make choices in their new home. If the children are reminded of all that happened during the Exodus, they will realize that God had clearly shown these people how to make choices. They knew what God promised and what God expected. "Standing in the sandals" of these Jews, older children can begin to identify the choices they faced and what God had shown them about what they were to do.
It is important to point out that Moses did not say that God would punish the people if they made the wrong choices. Rather, Moses insisted that following God's ways leads naturally to good results, while following selfish, wicked ways leads to bad results.
Psalm: 119:1-8. The vocabulary of this psalm makes it almost impossible for children to follow. However, when they know that this is an acrostic made up of short statements about the benefits of following God's ways, children may understand one or two statements. Older children are helped if they are alerted before the reading to the eight words that are used for God's rules in these eight verses: Law, testimonies, ways, precepts, statues, commandments, ordinances, and statutes (repeated).
Gospel: Matthew 5:21-37. Only the most mature children can grasp Jesus' point about living by the Spirit rather than by the letter of the Law. Their understanding begins with recognizing the close connection between strong feelings and actions. Younger children, however, are still learning to understand and live by the rules. For both, it may be more helpful to focus on one of Jesus' three examples.
The first example is the easiest because it deals with a familiar problem: anger. Jesus insists, and children know, that calling brothers and sisters names or being furious with friends (no matter how much the names and fury are deserved) leads to trouble. When we carry angry feelings around with us, eventually they explode into name calling, kicking, punching, and even killing. Because of that, Jesus says it is important to get rid of angry feelings. It is so important that even going to church worship God should be put off until we work out angry problems with others.
Note: Jesus never says that being angry is bad, only that it is dangerous. Children need to be assured that everyone becomes angry and that angry feelings are an important sign that something is terribly wrong. Challenge children to recognize this sign—angry feelings—and find ways to resolve the problem to which it points.
Jesus' second example is adultery—or family loyalty. He presents God's intention that people should live together in marriages and families, and that they should love and trust each other in all things at all times. In today's culture, that is not the norm, so children need to hear Jesus' vision affirmed, while they also need to hear that failed marriages, especially those of their parents, are forgivable. (Just as God forgives us when we fail to be kind or to be peacemakers, God forgives husbands and wives who fail to make their marriages last a lifetime.) But they do need to know that God expects us all to work hard to make our families lifetime commitments, and they need encouragement to dream of lifetime marriages for themselves. Though Jesus speaks of husbands and wives, children also are expected to be loyalty to their families. This includes babysitting with younger siblings (or grandparents), paying attention to and really listening to each other, working to get along together, and so forth.
Though they need adult help to decipher Jesus' third example, children, with their love of elaborate secret club oaths and "cross my fingers, hope to die," understand Jesus' insistence that we simply do what we say we will do. We should be so dependable that oaths are not necessary.
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9. The problem in the Corinthian church and the language with which Paul addresses it are beyond the understanding and experience of children. Paul's message about the immaturity of arguing and jealousy, however, does speak clearly to them. Children, often warned not to act like babies, enjoy Paul's telling the adults that they are acting like babies when they fuss and argue. That chuckle opens the door to discussion of our tendency, at all ages, to such behavior, and the challenge to grow beyond it.
Watch Words
Avoid abstract terms such a good and evil or life and death in describing the choices people face. Instead, speak of obeying God's rules or following God's ways.
Instead of speaking of adultery or lust, talk about family and marriage loyalty.
Let the Children Sing
Commit yourselves to making good choices with "Seek ye First" and "Open My Eyes, That I May See." Though it is not familiar to most children and some of its concepts are abstract, the vocabulary of "God of Our Life Through All the Circling Years" is simple enough for older elementary children to read and sing.
Sing about the resolution of angry feelings and bickering with "Let There Be Peace on Earth."
Praise God for the blessings of family and church in the concrete words of "For the Beauty of the Earth."
The Liturgical Child
1. Before reading the Deuteronomy text, set it in context by recounting events from Exodus in which Jews learned what God wants and promises. Invite worshipers to imagine themselves among the crowd gathered near the border of the Promised Land. Then assume the role of Moses, addressing his followers with great passion and dramatic flair. Use your hands to indicate the two options being offered. Point at the crowd as you warn them in verse 17; point to heaven as you call for witnesses in verse 19.
2. Ask eight readers (perhaps an older children's class) to read this psalm, each reader reading one verse. Before the reading, explain that in this acrostic (alphabet poem), each verse is a separate statement about obeying God's rules. In Hebrew, each line begins with the letter Aleph.
3. Build a prayer of confession on our failures to choose God's ways as they are expressed in the Ten Commandments. One leader could read the Commandments, pausing after each one for another leader to offer a brief prayer related to it.
Or a single leader could offer ten prayers, following the same structure: "You have called us to . . . [cite one command], but we have chosen to. . . . Forgive us."
4. Use the Ten Commandments in a responsive affirmation of faith. The congregational response to the reading of each command: "God, we want to choose your ways."
5. If you focus on family loyalty, provide an opportunity for couples to renew their marriage vows, or for members of families to make promises to one another. Informal congregations may enjoy gathering in family groups to hold hands as they make the promises. Be sure to urge those whose families are not present to imagine the other members around them. Then line out promises for family members to repeat.
Just because we live together, that does not mean that we are a family. Loving one another, taking care of one another, and sharing good and bad experiences makes us a family. So now, in the presence of God, who creates all families, I invite you to make these promises to the members of your family:
You are my family. Because I love you, I promise to . . .
• really listen when you talk to me;
• tell you about both the good and the bad things that happen to me;
• make time for us to do things together;
• put up with you when you are crabby and moody; and
• pray for you every day.
Let us pray. Lord, these are not easy promises to keep. Be with us. Help us to keep our promises on happy days when they are easy, and on miserable days when they are had to keep. Help us remember our promises when what is happening to us seems so much more important than what is happening at home. Help us to share your love with one another until it spills over to people beyond our family. Amen.
Sermon Resources
1. Many parenting books speak about disciplining children with the "logical, natural consequences" of other activities. Tell stories about such discipline—perhaps from your own childhood—and compare it to the way God disciplines us.
2. This three-step method of dealing with anger helps people of all ages:
Step One: Work off the angry feelings. Everyone needs to know some safe, satisfactory ways to work off the steam of anger. Children often find that shooting baskets by themselves or some other physical exercise does the job.
Step Two: Think it through. After the angry feelings have been reduced, ask yourself the following questions:
What really happened?
Why did he/she/they do that?
Why did I do that?
What needs fixing?
What can I do to help fix it?
Step Three: Go to work. Decide what you need to do and get any help you need to do it. It often helps for a family member or friend to work with you, especially if you need to talk with the others involved.
3. A story about family loyalty in spite of problems, Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary describes nine-year-old Beezus' difficulties with a very pesky preschool sister. The last chapter tells how Ramona ruined two birthday cakes on Beezus' birthday, and how their mother and her sister told of the problems they had getting along when they were little girls.
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Sermon Options: February 16, 2014
CHOOSE LIFE
DEUTERONOMY 30:15-20
A dedicated, beautiful, popular young woman made a poor choice in her mate for life. Until the day she died at the age of seventy, she felt the negative impact of that decision. Israel had the God-given opportunity to make good choices instead of bad ones. Israel was given the option of either keeping the covenant with the Lord or rejecting the terms of that agreement. God made clear to Israel through Moses that obedience to the covenant would bring blessings and that disobedience would bring curses. Moses' last address to Israel was an admonition to choose wisely. Christians have a covenant with God, also. It is the new testament in the blood of Jesus Christ. Our covenant has parallels to Israel's in regard to the choices involved and their repercussions. God's Word admonishes us to choose wisely.
I. We Can Choose to Disobey God in All of Life
Disobeying God involves turning our hearts away from God. This is the opposite of repentance. It means that our ultimate concerns in life oppose all that God is and all that he desires for us. Also, disobedience, according to our text, consists of turning deaf ears to God's Word, being obstinate and unyielding in regard to the divine will, and opting to worship and serve other gods. Such behavior, Moses cautioned Israel, will result in insecurity and death.
When people turn their backs on the gospel of Jesus Christ, they bring upon themselves eternal punishment ( John 3:36 ; Rev. 20:11-15). When Christians become rebellious toward Christ as Lord, we bring upon ourselves destructive consequences spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and sometimes physically. I have observed again and again Christians who decide to become unfaithful to the local church. Eventually, they lose touch with God and plunge into lifestyles that cause pain and distress to them and to those who love them. Stay yielded to the Lord. Daily deny yourselves, take up your crosses, and follow Jesus. If you do, you will avoid the heartache that follows disobedience.
II. We Can Choose to Obey God in All of Life
Obeying God in all of life consists of loving him, walking in his ways, and obeying his commandments. Since we enjoy the company of those we love, obeying God and walking in his ways give us joy.
When we choose to obey the Lord in all of life, we may expect the Lord's blessings. Though not identical always to those promised and delivered to Israel, they do parallel Israel's and are more desirable. Instead of a home on earth, we are assured of a heavenly home ( John 14:2) . Rather than a large progeny, we receive numerous spiritual fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and children through our involvement in the family of God. In place of a long life on earth, we are given everlasting life in Christ. Better than security in this world, we are told that no one can pluck us out of the Father's hand. I do not suggest that those who obey God in all of life receive no blessings in this life. We certainly do! For example, a married couple were on the verge of divorce until they decided to rededicate their lives to God and attempt to rebuild their marriage according to God's Word. Now, nearly twenty years and two children later, they continue to discover the bliss of a beautiful life together.
The choice of obedience or disobedience to God's overtures to us is ours to make. Also, the consequences are ours to either enjoy or suffer. The choice is yours—choose life! (Jerry E. Oswalt)
ACCOUNTABLE CHRISTIANITY
1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-9
Accountability is not a very popular word in a world defined by convenience. Christian growth involves accountability as a necessary tool that seeks to enable us to be honest about who we are in our relationship with God in Christ. This truth is the tool Paul uses in this passage to confront the Corinthians in response to their frustration at Paul's simple teaching of the gospel.
Paul aggressively encourages the Corinthians to face up to their immature faith. Their criticism of Paul's preaching so simple a gospel becomes the springboard for this great preacher to honestly identify the immaturity of the Corinthians' expression of faith.
I. Immature Faith Majors on Minor Issues
The Corinthian believers were splitting into factions centered on loyalty to various human leaders. The church consisted of "preacher parties." Paul confronts them with the truth that congregations who seek to center their growth and life on personalities are infants in faith who need to grow up. Only God causes growth.
Paul holds this young congregation accountable for their growth in the Christian faith as he addresses a nonissue and turns it into a clear example of their Christian immaturity. Paul would never allow such a hollow, immature nonissue to intimidate the vision of God he has been called to share.
II. Immature Faith Must Be Confronted by Visionary Leaders
Paul dares to respond to the issue by defending the simplistic content of his preaching because it fit the audience to which he preached. The images used here are rich and powerful ones: infants in faith need receive the gospel only on the level they can handle it, as an infant can handle only milk. Paul's boldness with these Corinthians makes preachers' hair stand on the backs of their necks as they imagine such a dialogue in their own congregations over issues that so often are nonissues. How many churches have never been led with God's vision because leaders did not have the courage, with God's leading and grace, to confront the nonissues for what they are?
Paul has no time for such foolishness. Not only does he call their bluff, but he uses their issue as a platform from which to proclaim that they need to grow beyond such spiritual immaturity, led by the God who gives the growth. Walt Kallestad, pastor of the Community Church of Joy, shares in his seminar "How to Grow a Church" that the primary role of the pastor is that of the visionary leader. Stephen Covey, in his breakthrough book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, talks about the need for the visionary leader in any business or institution.
In the church we understand such vision to come from God. God grows persons from infancy to maturity in faith. Pastors, as the visionary leaders of their churches, share and proclaim God's vision.
III. Immature Faith Must Be Called to Accountability
God's vision demands accountability. The accountability Paul offers is honest. It is an accountability that offers so much more than just judgment; it offers the opportunity for growth and a more mature understanding of the God who enables and empowers such growth. In love and grace, Jesus himself never sacrificed the vision of God for people who needed accountability with the immature faith they sought to share. The vision of growth in faith demands accountability. Those who fail to be held accountable—as well as those who can bring accountability but don't—will discover little, if any, growth in their faith.
The vision of new life in the birth of a baby involves growing up. To remain an infant is to miss the whole point of life. Without effective and honest accountability, growth will be strangled. (Travis Franklin)
DANGER OF HELL'S FIRE
MATTHEW 5:21-37
Jesus says to the crowd around him that anyone who calls a sister or brother a fool stands in danger of hell's fire. To judge by the language and attitudes presented on TV, there aren't many people who still believe that, however. Who could blame them? If you have been listening to the message from pulpits across this country, there has been a constant focus on the grace of God but little attention to the significance of our deeds. We have been promoting a form of Christian salvation that denies any significance of our human initiatives in the drama of life. We have been offering a form of redemption that actually seems to make our human conduct and words insignificant.
A friend commented that the most distressing thing he observed as he grew older was that it became more and more difficult to sin. Walker Percy writes about the desire of a doctor to find one clear and obvious evil. We have been working to eliminate sin. Nobody cares enough to hold us accountable. No one seems to expect anything from anyone anymore, so there can be no betrayal of commitment. We have been so anxious to declare to everyone that God's unconditional love will accept us as we are, that what we have done in the past doesn't matter, God will receive us just where we are. The constant proclamation of God's unconditional love soon becomes the declaration that we as human beings do not matter because nothing we do has any affect on God or on God's love or even can affect our eternal salvation.
Douglas John Hall, in his recent book Professing the Faith, suggested that Helmut Thielicke's description of covert nihilism is the basic attitude of most of North America. It has a basic indifference about life. Covert nihilism practices detachment, noninvolvement, "value free" investigations. It affirms the possibility of objective research. It shuns commitment. It translates into apathy and "psychic numbing." Nothing that we do seems to matter.
The individual approach is to take a personal survival tactic with little conviction about the direction of the future. Covert nihilists are masters of repression. They will not even examine their spiritual emptiness. They are living with a massive loss of meaning for life and for eternity. The gospel of unconditional love confirms this hidden and massive feeling that what I do and how I live have no meaning. The more the Christian faith tells people that forgiveness is simply God's unmerited free acceptance of our sins, the more suspicious people become about the real price of this kind of grace, which is the surrender and sacrifice of the dignity and meaning of our human existence.
God's forgiveness is not just to tell us the past did not matter; the real and powerful purpose of God's forgiveness is to say that we have such an important work to do as God's agents of stewardship of creation that God cannot afford to lose one good worker and so we are given back our future and told to get to work. Jesus Christ never expected those who entered the Kingdom to be pure and perfect when they entered, but he did expect them to strive to become perfect while they stayed.
Perhaps this word from Jesus—about the calling of a brother or sister a fool getting us eternal damnation—ought to remind us that God does expect much from us. God will not deal kindly with people who have seen divine love in Christ, accepted divine grace in Jesus, and done nothing with the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a terrible thing for one to stand in danger of the fires of hell, it is an awesome thing to fall into the hands of a righteous God, but there is only one thing worse: to declare a grace that removes forever the possibility of standing in danger of the fires of hell. For the fires of hell and the glories of heaven give some eternal depth and height and glory to our human lives. (Rick Brand)
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Season of Ash and Fire by Blair Gilmer Meeks
Prayers and Liturgies for Lent and Easter
Season of Ash and Fire
Author Blair Gilmer Meeks
Publisher Abingdon Press
Publication Date 1/2004
Binding Book - Paperback
ISBN 9780687044542
Retail Price $17.99
Discount Price $11.33 (37% discount)
Season of Ash and Fire will help pastors and worship planners prepare for Lent and Easter. The author provides corporate prayers for each Sunday and Holy Day in the Easter Cycle, including: Ash Wednesday, 1st through 5th Sundays in Lent, Passion/Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, Easter Sunday Morning, Easter Evening, 2nd through 7th Sundays of Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost.
Additional prayers and liturgies for use during the season by small groups and families help extend and unify the congregation’s celebration.
"Blair Meeks, gifted with an evangelical heart, an emancipated imagination, and a life settled in liturgy, offers a first rate resource as the church learns again to pray. Meeks not only guides the prayer of the church through the depth of Lent and the wonder of Easter, she also interprets and instructs along the way. Out of her long reflection on the mystery of worship, this book will serve pastors and all those in the church who live by faith that is funded through prayer.” --Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary
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Listen Week 1 Video by Rueben P. Job
"As we learn to listen, we will find a new depth and fulfillment in our relationship to God and a new experience of God as guide and companion in our everyday lives..."
VIDEO
Listen: Praying in a Noisy World by Rueben P. Job
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"As we learn to listen, we will find a new depth and fulfillment in our relationship to God and a new experience of God as guide and companion in our everyday lives..." Rueben P. Job from Listen: Praying in a Noisy World
Questions for discussion:
How do you find time in a noisy, busy day to listen for the voice of God?
What hinders your prayer life?
For more on Listen and to read an excerpt, click here.
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Lent: Come Home
Lent: A Yearly Reminder of the Daily Call to Come Home by Kasey Hitt
http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/media/entry/4709/lent-a-yearly-reminder-of-the-daily-call-to-come-home-audio
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Preparing for Lent and Ash Wednesday by Kasey Hitt
Lent: A Yearly Reminder of the Daily Call to Come Home is a series of seven writings that incorporate guided imagery, prayer, and questions to use in worship or in your small group.
Imagine
Lent is a journey home. Home to the heart of God. To begin, this journey requires that we stop and notice which direction we are going if we're not going home to God!
Close your eyes and with your mind's eye, picture the place where you stop where you are going. Take in the surroundings, is it a familiar place or a new place? What do you notice—see, smell, hear, touch, taste, what feelings are stirred?
Now see Jesus meeting you in this place of stopping. Although we are the ones who need to come home, thankfully we do not make the journey alone. Allow yourself to be greeted by Jesus, you might also greet Him. Is there anything He wants to say to you in this place? Anything He wants to show you about this place?
Allow the scene to unfold for a few moments and then close with this prayer.
Pray
God, we remember through Ash Wednesday how prone we are to get lost and through Lent, how You are always calling us home. Yet for many of us it is hard to return home to Someone we don't know, have forgotten or fear. Remind us once again or for the first time of the sound of Your voice. “Here is the Voice you're to return to,” said Your prophet Joel to Israel, “The Lord is merciful and compassionate, very patient, full of faithful love, and ready to forgive.”
As we journey, especially when it is hard, remind us who You are, Lord. We pause in silence to listen once again and allow the prophet's words to make their own journey from our minds to our hearts.
You, our God, are:
merciful
compassionate
very patient
full of faithful love
ready to forgive.
(20 seconds or ~ of silence)
With Jesus as our guide, we are ready to stop going our own way, to turn around, and come home.
Amen.
Reflect
Do you believe the prophet Joel's description of the Lord found in Joel 2:12-13? Which aspect is most difficult for you to trust? Ask God to reveal or remind you of this part of God's self.
As you review your life at the moment (or reflect on how the place you imagined at the beginning intersects with your life right now), what part of you needs to stop where it's going, turn around, and start heading home?
Putting ashes on the head is a sign of humility, being sorry. Weeping and fasting not only express humble sorrow but they offer cleansing of our hearts, minds & bodies which creates space for God. What are some ways God is inviting you to cleanse and create space during Lent?
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The Journey of Lent by Kasey Hitt
Lent: A Yearly Reminder of the Daily Call to Come Home is a series of seven writings that incorporate guided imagery, prayer, and questions to use in worship or in your small group.
Imagine
Stopping and turning toward home is only the beginning of the journey. Like Israel in the desert and Jesus in the wilderness, we, too, will experience difficulty after our journey home begins.
Close your eyes and imagine yourself coming to a wilderness or desert place soon after you've started the journey home to the heart of God. Take in the surroundings with all of your senses. Become aware of your thirst and hunger. Notice your vulnerability in this place and any temptations presenting themselves.
Now invite Jesus to join you here. He has experience with being in a place of thirst, hunger, and temptation. Is there anything He wants to say to you or show you? Anything He wants to offer you in this place?
Allow the scene to unfold for a few moments and then close with this prayer.
Pray
God, sometimes the journey home to You is hard. We may discover how far away we are from Your path of Life or how the path of Life doesn't always look like it. We may realize how thirsty and hungry our souls really are and find ourselves in places of vulnerability and temptation.
In the silence we allow ourselves to become aware of this now—If there are no words, simply allowing the ache of our thirst and hunger. If there are words, perhaps naming what we are deeply thirsting and hungering for and where we feel vulnerable and tempted at this time in our life.
(20 seconds or ~ of silence)
We need Your help, God, not just helping us to begin or welcoming us at the end of the journey but along the way, too. Help us have the strength to invite You to join us, whether in our personal wilderness or in our community's desert place. Help us to trust that You are with us giving us what we need and reminding us that this desert time, this wilderness, will pass.
Amen.
Reflect
Having begun your journey home to the heart of God during Lent, what desert or wilderness place(s) are you discovering in your life? In the life of your church community? What temptations are found there at this time? How can you join Moses in Exodus 17:4 by crying out and listening to God in this desert place?
Whether through purposeful fasting or the difficult experiences life brings, how might places of thirst, hunger, vulnerability, and temptation deepen trust in God? Why is this important for the journey home?
In your moments of hunger, thirst, vulnerability and temptation, what do you need to remember? In Matthew 4, when in the desert, Jesus remembered who He and His Father were through the words of Scripture. What words do you need to drink deeply, what images do you need to feast on this week?
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Palm/Passion Sunday by Kasey Hitt
Lent: A Yearly Reminder of the Daily Call to Come Home is a series of seven writings that incorporate guided imagery, prayer, and questions to use in worship or in your small group.
Imagine
As we continue on the path of Life toward home, the glory of who we've been made to be may grow more apparent to those around us. Just as people were full of hope and praise to God when they glimpsed the glory of who Jesus truly was, people are drawn to and often respond with blessing when they get a glimpse of who God has made someone to be.
Close your eyes and imagine people gathered around you at this place on your journey with and toward God. Notice the surroundings and who is present (you may recognize some, others you may not). As they get a glimpse of who God has made you to be, what do their faces and voices say? Allow yourself to receive their blessing.
Now see Jesus among those who are present. What does His face convey to you? Allow yourself to receive His blessing. How do you respond? What does your face say or what might you want to communicate to Jesus?
Allow the scene to unfold for a few moments and then close with this prayer.
Pray
God, when You came to earth, there were those who got glimpses of Your glory, the truth of You. We pause now to join in that glimpse and allow praise of You to rise up in our hearts.
(20 seconds or ~ of silence)
We ask that You receive our praise and blessing for You know it to be true even though we can be so fickle. And for this reason our hearts instinctively cry out what the crowd cried to You, Jesus, Hosanna—save us, help us! For in this moment we recognize that You are our Savior, our Mighty Helper, and we are in need of You especially when You know how easily we lose heart, how in the next moment we may change our minds. So Hosanna. Hosanna.
Amen.
Reflect
Ponder the people covering the street with their own garments for Jesus to ride over (signifying honor and victory) and Jesus riding on a humble donkey (rather than a war horse). See Matthew 21 for an overview of the scene. What is stirred in you? What thoughts come as you compare and contrast? What is Jesus revealing about the heart of God in this scene?
Imagine yourself in the crowd. Hear yourself shout, “Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” Repeat it as many times as you desire. Allow it to become your prayer for this day (silent, spoken or even shouted!). You might reflect later on as to your experience of this prayer of praise.
How might you allow yourself to receive blessing from others and yet continue on your way “home” with Jesus? What is the danger in refusing the blessings of others? What is the danger in staying with the crowd and their blessing for too long?
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Holy Thursday by Kasey Hitt
Lent: A Yearly Reminder of the Daily Call to Come Home is a series of seven writings that incorporate guided imagery, prayer, and questions to use in worship or in your small group.
Imagine
Along our journeys, regular remembrance and celebration of God's saving power and sacrificial love can deepen our trust in God's heart. As Jesus shows us, this is of utmost importance especially when betrayal and suffering comes.
Close your eyes and picture yourself stopping to celebrate for a day. You know Jesus has made preparations for this celebration. You are not exactly sure what will happen but you see others gathered alongside you in this place of celebration. In your mind's eye, how do you celebrate and remember God's saving love together? What stories are shared?
Now allow Jesus to tend to you and each person who is gathered with you in whatever way He desires. What does He do? Watch Him and listen to how He invites you to serve and care for others on the journey in the same way. What is your response? Does a particular person or group come to your mind with His invitation?
Allow the scene to unfold for a few moments and then close with this prayer.
Pray
God, You show us kindness from beginning to end. You're our close Companion and our Helper in times of need. We pause to remember and celebrate the ways You have walked with and rescued us on our journey.
(20 seconds or ~ of silence)
We ask that our deep gladness and Your kindness overflow into the lives of those around us. Help us trust in Your goodness even when those around us do not seek our good.
Jesus, You showed us this can be done, for on the same night your friend, Judas, put Your life into the hands of the chief priest who hated You, You were entrusting Yourself into the hands of Your Father who loved You. You and the Father are One, may we trust You and remember Your companionship and goodness even when we cannot see or feel it. And may we be One with You in pouring out the same humble love into our world.
Amen.
Reflect
The Festival of Passover yearly remembers how God saved Israel from slavery in Egypt. Today you might research Passover, join in this ancient festival by eating unleavened bread (matzo), or consider how you can uniquely mark God's saving power in your life on this day.
Christian tradition added the observance of Holy Thursday to remember The Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples which occurred on the feast of Passover. The continuation of God's steadfast, saving love even after betrayal is seen once again in Jesus announcing that one of his disciples will betray him and yet he is about to pour out his own blood and body for his friends (see Matthew 26:17-30). Reflect on how your life intersects with and joins in this larger story of betrayal and love.
Jesus trusted the Father's heart so much that he was able to be honest with his fears and yet still consent to the Father's work in and through Him (see Matthew 26:39). What do you need to be honest with God about? Are you willing to consent to God's work in and through you in this situation? If not, what is keeping you from doing so (remember, be honest!)?
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Good Friday by Kasey Hitt
Lent: A Yearly Reminder of the Daily Call to Come Home is a series of seven writings that incorporate guided imagery, prayer, and questions to use in worship or in your small group.
Imagine
Our journey of Love will take unpredictable turns and lead to unexpected places. Some of these places we don't want to go, some of these places others don't want us to go.
Closing your eyes, imagine the landscape of this Way of Love you've been on, what do you picture? Now picture this road taking an unexpected turn. It seems to be heading in the opposite direction than the way you wanted or others expected you to go! Notice the responses provoked in you and others. What will you do?
Allow yourself to see Jesus still with you even as you question and some of your friends and the crowd who once blessed you begin to turn against you. What does Jesus say to you about continuing on? About your cost and loss on this journey?
Let the scene unfold for a few moments and then close with this prayer.
Pray
God, You work in ways that confound and confuse us. Your way of Love led to people shouting that you, Jesus, be killed even though they blessed you days before. Your way of Love led to the cross where you willingly gave up your life. You disrupt our expectations, especially of power. We pause to feel the disruption or give You permission to disrupt us.
(20 seconds or ~ of silence)
Will we still trust You even when our expectations of You and how our life is supposed to go get disrupted? Do we trust Your heart enough to willingly give up what we hold onto so tightly and place all, even our own lives into Your hands? And when we are left with only confusion and pain, questions and no answers, when we cannot feel Your presence, we ask that Your trustworthy hands hold us.
Amen.
Reflect
Using Isaiah 52:15 as a lens through which to view Jesus' life and death, what had kings never seen or heard before? Ponder with them.
Do you have a story in your own life or in the life of another in which following Jesus on the Way of Love cost you or the person deeply? What was the cost? Allow a prayer to be shaped by these memories.
Much happened on that Friday and many were involved, pick one of these people or objects from the story in John 19:1-37: Pilate, crown of thorns, purple robe, chief priests, cross, soldiers, notice/sign, Jesus' clothes, jar of wine vinegar. In your mind's eye, become that person or thing. As that person or object, ask yourself: What is my function or role? What is my greatest fear? What is my greatest hope?
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Holy Saturday by Kasey Hitt
Lent: A Yearly Reminder of the Daily Call to Come Home is a series of seven writings that incorporate guided imagery, prayer, and questions to use in worship or in your small group.
Imagine
Silence is woven throughout our journey. This silence can be jarring, scary, and unwanted, but it can also be a gift.
Closing your eyes, imagine you've abruptly come to an end in your journey. You had planned to go further and had envisioned what the end would look like and this is definitely not it! Notice the terrain, notice what you're feeling.
You look around and Jesus is nowhere to be found. Now what? Where do your mind, heart, and actions go?
Allow the scene to unfold for a few moments and then close with this prayer.
Pray
God, Your silence can be so difficult, especially when it seems our hope has died and been laid to rest in a stone sealed tomb. In times like these we don't know what to do. Like the disciples after Your death, Jesus, we are overwhelmed with fear, sadness, shock, and disappointment. We want to crawl into the tomb ourselves, for the life has gone right out of us.
At times like these silence can feel unbearable. Yet in this silent place we allow these words of your prophet Jeremiah, to call us to remember something You've been teaching us all along our journey:
“Certainly the faithful love of the Lord hasn't ended; certainly God's compassion isn't through! They are renewed every morning. Great is your faithfulness.” (say 2x)
(20 seconds or ~ of silence)
Amen.
Reflect
Let “remembering” be a prayer practice for you today. What memories arise that built your trust in God and can speak to you when what you see or news you have received say otherwise?
Read Matthew 27:57-60. Walk through the Scripture as though you are Joseph of Arimathea. Envision yourself asking Pilate for Jesus' body, getting permission, taking the body, wrapping & laying it in your own tomb, rolling a stone in front of it, and walking away. Reflect on interacting with the Scripture in this way.
How could silence possibly be a gift? Now recall a time when God seemed silent. What is/was God's invitation through your time of silence? Allow some space for silence in your life today as a way of letting go and trusting God's heart.
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Easter Sunday by Kasey Hitt
Lent: A Yearly Reminder of the Daily Call to Come Home is a series of seven writings that incorporate guided imagery, prayer, and questions to use in worship or in your small group.
Imagine
God's heart is infinitely better than we could ever imagine. Therefore, where our journey is heading is infinitely better than what we could ever imagine.
Close your eyes and bring to your mind's eye the place where your hope and journey has ended. Notice the surroundings and what you are doing. Think back to the beginning of your journey until now and remember how Jesus was with you...in your place of stopping, in the desert & wilderness, when others affirmed you and when others betrayed you. Now you can no longer see the One who journeyed with you. What does this stir in you?
Now become aware of someone approaching you, meeting you in this place. He says something to you that first brings a look of confusion then joy spreads over your face! What did He say? What stirs in you now?
Allow the scene to unfold for a few moments and then close with this prayer.
Pray
God, there are times that we cannot help but feel abandoned by You. It seems You have left us, turned Your back, no longer care about our pain or else You're powerless. And yet, just as Mary Magdalene discovered when she went to Your tomb on that dark third day, the very place where dead hope lies, there You are!
Oh how we need this story of Jesus being raised from the dead, of hope returning! We need to be reminded that death is not the end of our story, whether it is someone we dearly love or a dream we have dearly held onto. We can trust that You will meet us in the very place of our pain and somehow, someday we will experience the joy of resurrection.
We pause in silence now to allow You to meet us in the place of our pain and speak tender life-giving, perhaps even powerful life-raising, words to us.
(20 seconds or ~ of silence)
Amen.
Reflect
Let a symbol of resurrection speak to you today, whether from the Biblical story or from the created world. You might draw, paint, or sculpt this image. How might it become a prayerful reminder of hope for you and others?
“We are witnesses of everything he did...” said Peter in Acts 10:39. As an individual or with a group, recount what you have witnessed God doing in your life, and in the life of your group/church/community/world.
Sufferings and celebrations, death and resurrection, are part of everyone's journey with and toward the heart of God but not all recognize God in the midst of it. Peter and the disciples recognized the risen Jesus in eating and drinking with him, how have you recognized God's presence along your journey? How might you honor the Heart of Love that tenderly and powerfully holds every part of the journey, from beginning to end?
The complete series and audio are available here.
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Book Reviews
Online Book Reviews
Whether you're looking for a book to discuss in your small group, or something for your team to read together. Ministry Matters features online book reviews.
Review: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Eric Van Meter
The story of David and Goliath provides a metaphor that reaches far into American culture, from church to business to athletics. It is the quintessential celebration of the underdog. The little boy with no chance of success miraculously triumphs over the giant warrior.
But there is a problem with our telling of the story, author Malcolm Gladwell tells us. Namely, that we have it all wrong.
Gladwell, a writer for The New Yorker and author of best sellers The Tipping Point and Outliers, opens his latest book with a different telling of 1 Samuel 17. David, he argues, is not a simple shepherd boy, but a young man trained to fight—only in a different discipline. Goliath may have been enormous, but his strength was also his weakness. He was an immobile infantryman, and no match for the deathly aim of someone skilled in artillery.
David was not an unlikely hero. He was the perfect champion—in no small part because he could see his advantage when others could not.
Gladwell derives two primary lessons from his understanding of David and Goliath. First, that we find tremendous value and beauty in stories of triumph in the face of overwhelming odds. And second, that we usually misinterpret how these conflicts happen. We give too much credit to giants, and too little to underdogs.
With that in mind, Gladwell examines a variety of apparent disadvantages that, when viewed in a different light, open the door to innovation and success. By contrast, he also notes that some advantages—including small class sizes in public schools and admission to elite universities—have hidden downsides.
But Gladwell also takes this idea a step farther. Some disadvantages are not just obstacles to overcome, but keys to victory. A surprising number of CEOs are dyslexic. An astounding percentage of US presidents grew up in single-parent families. Although these are not ideal situations and certainly crush many who endure them, they can in some people produce skills that they might otherwise never have developed.
The third and final section of David and Goliath looks at the battle from the side of those with advantages. Power, Gladwell asserts, has some very clear limits—especially when that power employs the use of force. As civil rights leaders and wartime dissidents have found out, the abuse of power can actually lead to a freedom from fear that galvanizes supposedly powerless people into an indomitable resistance.
Although not written for a religious audience, David and Goliath is filled with Christian themes, many of which reflect the author’s Mennonite upbringing. His thoughts on perseverance, compassion, justice, and forgiveness make this book more than simply interesting. It becomes in many ways beautiful.
Gladwell’s latest has much to teach those who work from a position of powerlessness, including church members and church leaders. His skill with language and rhetoric make the book a compelling read. David and Goliath could serve as a terrific personal resource, or an outside-the-lines small group study.
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Review: The New Testament: Methods and Meanings by Bromleigh McCleneghan
The New Testament: Methods and Meanings, Warren Carter and Amy-Jill Levine. Abingdon, 2013
I am bored with my preaching, a colleague said to me recently. And if I’m bored, I can only imagine how my poor congregation feels.
I know how she feels. It can be paralyzing to try to tell the old, old story in novel ways week in and week out. Evangelism experts will rightly remind preachers that if your congregation is made up of folks under sixty, it’s likely your people lack much in the way of familiarity with that old, old story. Preach the Bible, we are told. Avoid stories about your dog, children, or preferred political party.
That can be good advice, but for those who want to preach thematically, —who were taught that proof-texting was a sin – it can be difficult to say, and render compelling, why this healing story is different than that healing story; why it matters if Paul was or wasn’t the writer of this so-called Pauline epistle; what’s problematic and yet holy about this pericope.
For the bored pastor, or the frustrated, hungry congregation, however, solid and creative biblical interpretation makes all the difference in the world. I heard a doctoral student preach a reading of Jonah earlier this fall that I’d never heard. Her sermon was about justice and reconciliation, and it was both deeply pastoral and hugely prophetic. It was, admittedly, long. But I was fed, and my congregation gushed for weeks. My colleague and I finally had to step in so the preacher could escape coffee fellowship.
I want to be that kind of preacher, that kind of writer, that kind of teacher – the kind who has the time and knowledge to do that kind of reading and interpretation. There are a number of reasons I’m not, at least, not every week. But the easiest one to remedy is a lack of good resources readily available. I can’t just sign up for a New Testament class every time I have to preach…but I can stock my library.
Warren Carter and Amy Jill Levine are thoughtful, challenging teachers and scholars, and their new book, The New Testament: Methods and Meanings, provides a wonderful resource for preachers and teachers. Their hermeneutic is carefully explained at the outset, in terms even lay readers can follow; “the questions you ask shape the answers you get,” they point out in their introduction. Bringing together a wealth of tools – from form criticism to the historical-critical method – Levine and Carter walk with preachers through the New Testament and point out what is worth seeing anew. Whether one sits to read this thick volume all the way through, or picks it up to read each chapter as a letter or book arises on the preaching schedule, spending time with this text will enliven and deepen the way you approach the biblical text.
Preachers: buy this book. You and your congregation will be glad you did.
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Review: Preparing Couples for Love and Marriage by Bromleigh McCleneghan
There are pastors who don’t like doing weddings, and I can empathize. The wedding industrial complex has turned what might be (and once was) a simple and lovely public declaration of commitment and affection into a multiple-thousand-dollar sacrifice at the altar of material excess and gender stereotypes, an excuse for brides to be petty and grooms to be drunk. Even if the couple is wonderful and gracious, it feels like every rehearsal provides the possibility for an etiquette landmine: for a belligerent uncle or unruly cousin.
Still, for the most part, I take great joy in marrying couples: in working with them through some premarital conversations, in planning the service, in hearing their stories. In my years of working in churches with beautiful center aisles, I’ve met a lot of them. In our work, I’ve used Growing Love in Christian Marriage, Prepare/Enrich, and an inventory put together by a beloved colleague. Each is useful in its way; each has its limitations. But I loved Cameron Lee and James L. Furrow’s new book Preparing Couples for Love and Marriage (Abingdon Press, 2013) and couldn’t wait to use it with the next couple who comes looking to use my pretty sanctuary.
Preparing Couples is not abundantly entertaining, and when the authors share a story from one of their marriages, I had trouble keeping them apart as the book is written jointly, without separation of the narrative voices of each authors. But that’s scant critique of a book that proves so helpful. First and foremost, the authors model a gracious respect for the couples that come to them for marriage preparation as they walk readers through tier preparation tool, the Conversation Jumpstarter. They remind pastors that our job is not to solve all the problems we perceive a couple to have, nor to lecture them. Our job is to coach: to provide resources for healthy communication that newlyweds can practice these skills over and over, to resolve conflicts before they explode, or before they even fully develop.
Lee and Furrow suggest that theirs is not a specifically theological work, but I found much in it that spoke to my progressive Wesleyan heart… and to my roles as wife, mother, and daughter-in-law, particularly the underlying attention to “dealing with difference.” There were, in fact, explicit rejections of notions that healthy, Christian couples can read each other’s minds, or will inevitably face some conflict because “men are from Mars and women are from Venus” – unexamined notions that too often appear in books about Christian marriage.
The authors are straight-forward, smart, and gracious; this is an incomparable tool for helping couples to see beyond the excitement of the wedding day, toward the excitement of the marriage adventure.
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Review: Calvin vs Wesley by William H. Willimon
As a campus minister at Duke, I watched with dismay as some of our brightest young Christians were attracted to the Reformed World of John Calvin. Part of the attraction was that contemporary advocates of Calvinism (many of them pale imitations of Calvin) seemed so intellectually confident of their theology. But why this resurgence of Calvinism on a campus created by Wesleyanism?
I would have been a better advocate for the Wesleyan vision of Christianity if I had Don Thorsen’s book, Calvin vs. Wesley: Bringing Belief in Line with Practice (Abingdon Press 2013). In spite of his adversarial title, Thorsen has no intention of putting down John Calvin or even Calvinism; he is charitable and fair in his assessments. (Wesley famously said that in regard to justification, “I do not differ with him (Calvin) a hair’s breadth.”) Yet Thorsen is confident in his conviction that the beliefs, values, and practices of John Wesley are thoroughly biblical, continue to be a source of vitality for the church, and well, are decidedly more faithful to the God who meets us in Scripture than those of Calvin.
Though Thorsen is a well-informed, concise interpreter of both Calvin and Wesley, he has written a book that is a thoroughly practical, useful book for our church today. Every chapter concludes with questions that would make Calvin vs. Wesley a perfect selection for an adult study group in your church. He has a wonderful concluding chapter, “Bringing Belief in Line with Practice” that will warm the hearts of all practical Christianity advocates. Indeed, the persistent assertion of the book is that Wesley’s “practical divinity” in its assertion that Christianity is meant to be lived here, now, by ordinary believers makes the Wesleyan vision of the Christian life superior to that of Calvinism past or present. In his practicality alone, Wesley was right and Calvin was wrong.
Thorsen’s main beef with Calvin’s systematic theology (as opposed to Wesley’s more pastoral, ad hoc, and homiletical theology) is that “Christians do not live the way that Calvin conceptualized Christianity in his life and writings.” Why does Calvinism in its current neo, crypto, and orthodox forms continue to attract advocates? Thorsen gives a decidedly Wesleyan response: “Some Christians value the intellectual or conceptual uniformity of a theological system more than how they actually live out such a system in practice.” Reexamine scripture and yourself, he advises contemporary devotees of Calvin, and you will see that Wesley is more faithful.
While I agree with Thorsen in just about everything he says in his spirited advocacy of Wesley (surprise!), I do wonder if his critique of Calvin—arguing that Calvin’s theory of the faith is bested by Wesleyans’ practice of the faith—is critical enough. What if Calvin’s pompous, overwrought systematic theology was not only too narrow, too systematized, and too static to do justice to biblical faith, but also wrong about God?
Thorsen’s wonderfully astute but non-technical presentations of Calvinism, Arminianism, his incisive critique of “five point Calvinism” (“TULIP”) as developed post-Calvin, as well as chapters in which he contrasts between Wesleyanism and Calvinism (Love vs. Sovereignty, Bible as Primary vs. Sole Authority, Grace as Prevenient vs. Irresistible, Salvation as Unlimited vs. Limited, Ministry as Empowering vs. Triumphal) are well done. Packing a great deal of theology into a small space, he always keeps his eye on the contemporary church. He also suggests to me that Calvin’s limitation for contemporary believers is not just that Calvin tried to squeeze a living, loving, ceaselessly redemptive God into too confined a system but that Calvin was fundamentally wrong on the nature and work of the Trinity. While Thorsen is too irenic a theologian to say that, I’ve come close to saying that after reading his fine, practical, helpful (and true!) book.
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Books that Matter: The Drunkard's Walk by Eric Van Meter
I think of advanced mathematics the same way I think of a regulation-height basketball goal. Both are within my vision, as well as my desire. Neither is within my reach.
That doesn’t stop me from dreaming though. I look with envy upon those who can propel themselves high enough above the earth to dunk a basketball. I do the same with people who can understand complex equations that help explain the physical universe.
People like Leonard Mlodinow.
Mlodinow’s biography puts him in the running for “most interesting man in the world.” The son of Polish immigrants who had spent time in the Buchenwald concentration camp during World War II, he has gone on to make significant contributions to quantum theory, co-author books with Stephen Hawking, and work as a screenwriter for Star Trek: The Next Generation and MacGyver. You don’t build that kind of resume by chance.
Or do you?
Perhaps you do, according to The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives. Mlodinow argues that we humans are terrible when it comes to reading the odds of our surroundings, and even worse when it comes to estimating the amount of power we have over our future. In short, no matter how much we want to believe we are in control of our lives, the fact is that randomness plays a major role in what happens to us.
Even more disturbing, our human brains are lousy at determining what choices put the odds in our favor. In virtually every circumstance, we will overestimate the amount of control we have over a given event and fail to see which choice gives us the better chance of a favorable outcome.
What does this have to do with Christian discipleship? A lot more than we might think.
From a theological perspective, the understanding of randomness and chance pokes holes in the notion that God manages every detail of our lives. In the face of tragedy or mystery, people often say things like, “God is in control” or “It’s God’s will.” Those may be comforting platitudes, but their literal application is more than a little frightening. Any god who allows or authors so much suffering is incompetent at best and cruel at worst. The Drunkard’s Walk gives us good reason to re-examine our understanding of how God works (or does not work) among us.
Mlodinow also applies probability theory to interpersonal relationships. He encourages us to understand two things about life as a game of chance.
First, he says, our primary response to one another should be compassion rather than judgment. Two people with the same ability, commitment, and work ethic may work toward the same goal, but only one succeeds. The determining factors in that case are quite possibly not a matter of personal shortcomings, but of chance occurrences beyond either’s control.
Second, Mlodinow encourages, don’t give up. Success may not be a certainty for anyone, but not trying at all guarantees failure. If we learn from our mistakes and continue to put ourselves in a position to succeed, we increase the odds that random factors will eventually line up in our favor.
We church leaders have a tough time remembering those two lessons. The internal and external pressures to find the right program, get the right training, or grow a superstar church are unrelenting. We glorify those who have dramatic success and pity those who do not, and we often shape our self-perceptions around the visible results of our labors.
But attitudes like that reflect modern American biases toward anything big or wealthy or attractive. Jesus never skews his favor toward his more glamorous servants. If anything, he promises to watch most closely over those most easily overlooked. He does not tell us to build religious empires. Rather, he tells us to live a certain way in the world, and as we do to pray for his kingdom to come.
To me, a struggling pastor who works in the midst of a struggling institutional church, The Drunkard’s Walk is an oddly yet profoundly encouraging book. It reminds us of something we Christians should already know: that success is a lousy measure of worth.
Regardless of what our religious culture may tell us, great service to God is not a matter of flashy results. Our task is not to find more clever ways to control the outcomes of our labor. Our task is to live together in compassion and love, and to continue to work alongside Christ despite our tangible victories or failures.
Jesus has set these goals within our vision. They may not always be within our reach. But still we dream and still we work, and we cannot give up.
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Review: Youth Ministry by Eric Van Meter
David Olshine, a veteran youth pastor with more than thirty years on the job, sees plenty wrong with American youth ministry. The primary question in his latest book, however, is not how to further define the problem. Rather, Youth Ministry: What’s Gone Wrong and How to Get It Right (Abingdon, 2013) is a handbook for addressing our difficulty with youth ministry in real, practical ways.
Much of our frustration with youth ministry, Olshine believes, stems from faulty approaches to the task. Youth ministries are often isolated (whether intentionally or not) from the rest of the church. Eager youth workers take on too much of the planning and leading, which sets them up for burnout and neglects the powerful resources of parents and volunteers. Segregating the youth ministry ignores the larger contexts of students’ lives and hinders the necessary relationships between adults and teens.
Youth ministries also frequently break down in the preparation stages. Olshine urges leaders not to over-program their ministries, lest they confuse activity with excellence. He also cites a lack of focused goals, an inability to adequately train and use volunteers, and a failure to help youth transition into life after high school as major hindrances for youth ministry.
Olshine is not, however, simply another negative voice, content to analyze the problem and if possible lay blame for it. Rather, for each of the twelve problems he identifies, he offers a solution. Although his answers may sound a bit simplistic—“Program with purpose and stop worrying about numbers,” or “Stop it!”—Olshine fills out his proposals with clear action points, often in the form of step-by-step lists or acronyms.
One of Youth Ministry’s strengths is its ability to ask good questions. Several times in each chapter, Olshine invites the reader to contextualize the suggestions he makes. His questions also help focus his reader on the primary goals of making and growing disciples of Jesus, rather than getting bogged down in secondary issues of how to structure the ministry.
Olshine also calls on several of his colleagues to tell their personal stories as they relate to both problems and solutions. Interspersed through each chapter are “Voices from the Trenches” segments from a variety of youth workers—paid staff, volunteers, youth ministry experts, and teenage youth group participants.
outh Ministry is a refreshing addition to the catalogue of titles regarding ministry to teens. It does not make unrealistic promises about its ability to produce numeric growth. Instead it conveys a veteran youth worker’s wisdom about how to do real, lasting ministry. Olshine’s expertise is evident, and his skill as a communicator makes the book a clear and accessible read. It will prove a helpful resources for youth leaders, volunteers, and senior pastors who pay attention to God’s work in the lives of teenagers.
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