Friday, July 29, 2016

"Pastors and egos — Hillary Clinton — Bishops, schism, Republicans and Muslims" from Ministry Matters in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Wednesday, 27 July 2016

"Pastors and egos — Hillary Clinton — Bishops, schism, Republicans and Muslims" from Ministry Matters in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Wednesday, 27 July 2016



Pastors and egos by Joseph Yoo
Bigstock/argus456So there I was, on my knees in the office bathroom with the carpet squares soaked in only God knows what. I had to peel off the carpet squares because our toilet had overflowed for the umpteenth time and the squares were probably dangerously contaminated. I had three rubber gloves on each of my hands, but they weren’t holding up. My fingers were breaking through and making contact with the carpet squares, as were my knees because there was no other way to get leverage to rip out the squares.
I didn’t want to do this job. In fact, I felt that this job was beneath me. I’m the pastor of the church, don’t we have someone else to do this? But an 80-year-old parishioner originally volunteered to remove the carpet squares. There was just no way I could let her do that. So I begrudgingly — of course with a big smile — volunteered to do so.
With my fingertips and knees soaked in contaminated water, I couldn’t help but laugh.
I struggle with ego and pride. And God has a way of reminding me of humility through painful, embarrassing and/or humiliating ways.
When my first Converge Bible study, Practical Prayer, was released, a lot of my church members wanted to do a small group study on it. I was excited and proud. I put a lot of work, prayer and thought into that study and was ecstatic that my folks were just as enthusiastic about doing the Bible study as I was about writing it.
After the four-week session was done, I checked in with the person who led the group asking how everything went.
“Joe, we’re so proud of you! This was a great study for us. But really, the best part of the study, hands down, were the questions you asked after each session. They really were thought-provoking and started great conversations! Those were some good questions! Awesome job!”
Everyone who participated in the study came up to me and said the same thing — they loved the questions that followed each session.
Except… I didn’t write any of the questions. That was done by the editors. When I told them that, every single person responded:
“Oh… Well don’t get me wrong, the content was great, too!”
That kept me in check. God always has a way to keep me in check.
For me, to keep a grounded head, I learned to try not to expect anything. This may only apply to me, but I found that the line between expecting and feeling entitled is very, very thin. As a pastor (and as a person of faith), I fully believe that rather than being entitled to anything, I’m entrusted with everything.
I've stopped expecting people to give me praises and compliments, as well as criticism. In my heart, I know how I did. And those who are close to me, those whose opinions I trust and take to heart, they’ll let me know how I did. And that’s enough. I don’t need to go fishing for compliments or projecting false humility by seeking criticism.
I try not to expect deferential or preferential treatment. I grew up in hierarchal culture. Titles meant something. And oftentimes, folks would abuse their titles of pastor, elder or deacon. My friend’s wife worked at a dentist office. One day, her pastor brought his entire family in to get some dental work done. At the end of the visit, he didn’t pay the bill because not only was he a pastor, he was her pastor. She could do her part in serving the church by waiving the bill. Unfortunately, I have many more horror stories like this to share. So it’s rather easy for me to fall into that line of thinking: I’m a pastor. But I don’t need to be doing that.
Titles aren’t something for us to exploit or hide behind or lord over others. As John Ortberg wrote, “Titles are only opportunities to serve.”
When I take that sentiment to heart, there is no task too small for me. Nor is there anything that is beneath the office of the pastor. After all, the Messiah didn’t think twice to get on his knees and wash the dirt off his disciples' feet.
And perhaps, constantly reminding myself that I'm called to serve will continue to keep my head and heart in check by keeping my ego and pride at bay.
As for the bathroom, once I let go of the idea that this work — orany work — was beneath me, ripping up those carpet squares became easier and therapeutic.
Joseph Yoo is associate pastor at First United Methodist Church in Pearland, Texas. He is the author of Practical Prayer and Encountering Grace. Joseph blogs at JosephYoo.com.


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Unqualified or just female? by Kira Schlesinger
Bigstock/jctabbOff the top of my head, I can think of a number of valid reasons why someone would dislike or not want to give their vote to Hillary Clinton for president. My friends to the left of her are put off by her neoliberalism, her hawkish tendencies, and her relationships with big banks. Others question her decision-making and her character. But I also keep hearing that she is “unqualified” to be president.
Per the United States Constitution, Hillary Clinton is certainly eligible to be president, being a natural born citizen and over the age of thirty-five. In comparison to other presidents and presidential candidates, her resume meets or exceeds their qualifications. If being a graduate of Yale Law School, working on Senate subcommittees and Task Forces, being an elected Senator, and then Secretary of State does not qualify someone to run for President of the United States, I’m not sure what does. Particularly in comparison to the Republican nominee, who has not even served in the military, let alone held elected office, it is hard for me to imagine Mrs. Clinton as unqualified for the position to which she aspires, whether or not one agrees with her positions.
If there is nothing else that could be added to her resume to make her qualified, then calling her “unqualified” serves as a kind of dog-whistle, a way of saying, “I don’t want to vote for her because she’s a woman,” without being deliberately sexist or engaging in thoughtful critique. Surely if a man with similar credentials were running, there would be no doubt about his qualifications.
As Nell Scovell points out in her New York Times op-ed “How To Get More Women into the Director’s Chair,” studies show that women are hired and promoted based on experience, and men are hired and promoted based on potential. This is relevant not only in our national political life but in the church as well. Our culture, even within the church, consistently underestimates female performance and overestimates male performance. In denominations with a search-and-call process, a hesitancy to call a less-experienced woman clergyperson “feels rooted in an aversion to risk, when it’s actually a surrender to bias.”
Women are required to prove themselves in a way that men are not, especially women of color, and when women fail (which happens, because we’re human), it tends to reflect on our entire gender. For example, if a woman minister is not a strong administrator, a church will likely be hesitant to call a woman in the future because “women are not good administrators.”
Season after season, my women clergy colleagues and I watch as young men of similar age and experience are called and placed into positions for which we know we would never be considered by virtue of our lack of qualifications. This is not to say that these men are not talented or a good fit or won’t do great things in leading the Body of Christ, but it is frustrating and demoralizing. We wonder what experience or degree we need to be considered for similar calls. We think about getting out of congregational ministry altogether, even though we see these dynamics play out at the highest levels of our government and know there is no escape. And so every rejection we face, we ask ourselves, “Am I really unqualified, or just female?”


Bishops, schism, Republicans and Muslims By Shane Raynor
News and Religion podcast
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On this episode of News and Religion, Juan Huertas, Drew McIntyre and I talk about the recent election of the first LGBT United Methodist bishop and the possibility of schism in the denomination. We also discuss the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and the reception a Muslim received when he gave the benediction on the event's second night.
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7 tips for keeping cool in hot times By Rebekah Simon-Peter
BigstockTrump and Hillary. The Republican National Convention, the Democratic National Convention, polarizing politics. Blue on black violence. Black on blue violence. Vets killing cops. Terrorist attacks. Endless mass shootings. Add to this already explosive mix, the unprecedented, unexpected election of an openly gay United Methodist bishop and you have a recipe for potential upset. Opinions abound. So do tempers.
It got me thinking: How do we stay cool in hot times? How do we keep the lines of communication open when we honestly disagree with each other?
I’d like to offer 7 tips for keeping cool in hot times, derived from my work with emotional intelligence.
1. Assume the best about others, not the worst. I’ve received quite a bit of pushback on my own recent post about the election of Karen Oliveto to the episcopacy. I assume that these colleagues care every bit as much as I do about what is right and holy and good. We’ve had some good, heart-to-heart conversations about our assumptions. If you catch yourself thinking that yours is the only right way — this tip will be hard.
2. Ask how questions, not why questions. Why questions put people on the defensive. How questions encourage people to think creatively. For instance: How did you arrive at this position? Not: Why do you think this way?
3. Open your ears, not your mouth. Listen to their answers. Don’t just wait for them to pause so you can slip in your rebuttals. As you listen, you might just discover more similarities between the two of you than differences. Identifying your shared humanity is an important part of staying cool in hot times.
4. Practice disagreeing without cutting others off. When it comes to hot topics, the usual response is to avoid, or to push away from another, and be done with them. Kick the dust off your heels and move on. Sometimes love actually requires us to stay connected in spite of disagreement. This is hard to do, but necessary. In the groups I lead, we encourage a wide variety of theologies and perspectives, and work at staying at the table together.
5. Fact check, fact check, fact check. Just because someone repeats a talking point, or says it louder than others, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily true. Dig deep. Get the facts. They’re likely more complex than you first understood. This goes for everything from presidential politics to church politics to international politics.
6. Pray for each other. Ask God what you can do to forward the Kingdom in the midst of change and upset. Ask how you can be kind toward those who misunderstand you, and do good to those whom you fear may hate you. Ask to see things from another’s perspective.
7. Resist being hijacked. Fear activates the reptilian part of our brain that’s wired for fight or flight. It can also activate the limbic part of our brain that’s wired for emotion. So intense can the emotion be, that it literally hijacks our thinking and our responses — leading us to say things we might not otherwise say, or do things we might later regret. The neocortex part of our brain is activated by higher-order thought processes like logic. So, avoid gossip, reputation-bashing, and either-or thinking. While it feels powerful in the moment, it intensifies polarization. It’s hard to take words back once they’ve been spoken. Instead — pause, breathe, pray and see what sort of logical or creative responses you can generate.
Yes, we are in an intense time. Still, the world is probably not coming to an end. Clearly, things are changing. Rapidly. Frankly, no one is 100% happy. No one is getting 100% of what they want. How do we work together to achieve the common good? I close with the words of Bishop Ough, President of the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church:
“We affirm that our witness is defined, not by an absence of conflict, but how we act in our disagreements. We affirm that our unity is not defined by our uniformity, but by our compassionate and Spirit-led faithfulness to our covenant with God, Christ’s Church and one another.”
Want to discover more about how to navigate these hot times with a cool head? Check out Creating a Culture of Renewal. This award-winning program interrupts church decline by empowering church leaders to do the impossible with people who may not necessarily see eye to eye.
Rebekah Simon-Peter blogs at rebekahsimonpeter.com. She is the author of The Jew Named Jesus and Green Church.

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Another attack on Christians by jihadists By Shane Raynor
Bigstock/Zoom-zoomWhat should Christians do in response to the recent jihadist attack on a church in Normandy, France and the murder of a Catholic priest?
When violence surrounds us By Sally Dyck
Bigstock/ikehaydenThe problem as God gave Habakkuk to see it: God, how long do I have to cry out for help before you listen? How many times do I have to yell, “Help! Murder! Police!” before you come to the rescue? Why do you force me to look at evil, stare trouble in the face day after day? … Justice is a joke. The wicked have the righteous hamstrung and stand justice on its head. (Habakkuk 1:1-4, MSG)
The problem as God gave it to Habakkuk is the same problem that we face today: murder and violence…day after day. As soon as we write a statement or preach a sermon that promises prayers for all afflicted by the violence, and we express our anguish over how to change a culture hamstrung on violence, yet another shooting happens.
Our hearts go out to each victim in the past weeks of police violence and each police officer’s family who has been afflicted with gun violence, murder, and sometimes mental illness all wrapped in a culture of racism. Lord, have mercy! How long, O Lord, how long?
But in Chicago, the shootings are nearly a daily occurrence. As of this writing, there have been just under 3000 shootings in Chicago so far this calendar year. This week alone there have been 17 deaths and about 60 shootings, including a girl who is 6 years old. A handful of children have been shot so far this summer. In mid-May the Chicago Tribune wrote, “We dread the sound of summer in Chicago—the screaming of the mothers.”
One weekend in the spring, one neighborhood called for a prayer vigil that sought to have a whole day without a death from shooting. That day was designated to be Easter Sunday. And indeed, the day came and went without anyone dying from a shooting. Should we pray for another weekend? Mother’s Day was suggested but in the end there was 50 shootings and eight deaths. We grow weary and discouraged in our praying.
The little girl shot this week was within two blocks of one of our Safe Havens; a joint program with the Chicago Public Schools and churches in key neighborhoods. Children come to the church, get breakfast and lunch (between the hours of 10 and 2), tutoring, do crafts, and generally have fun. Safe Havens literally save the lives of the children who attend and invest in their futures. The churches that sponsor Safe Havens are putting legs to their prayers for safety and peace in our communities. But it’s a lot of work for ten weeks! We grow weary in our action.
How then do we live? We must live, trusting that our prayers and our efforts to provide “safe haven” or racial justice or efforts against the proliferation and availability of guns will and in fact do make a difference. We scream with the mother whose child was shot this week but we rejoice with all those children in Safe Haven who went home to their mothers and fathers. We grow weary but we must not let our weariness keep us from our faithfulness.
One of the passages at the end of this emotionally and spiritually exhausted prophet, Habakkuk, is this:
Though the fig tree doesn’t bloom,
and there’s no produce on the vine;
though the olive crop withers,
and the fields don’t provide food;
though the sheep is cut off from the pen,
and there is no cattle in the stalls;
I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will rejoice in the God of my deliverance.” (Hab. 3:17-18, CEB)
Even when we don’t see the results of our prayers and actions, we are called to trust in God and not grow weary. We stand a better chance not to grow weary if we support each other. Some of our churches with Safe Havens have been supported financially and even more importantly with people from outside of the city of Chicago, coming to make a difference. In one translation, the notation for this praise song is: “For congregational use, with a full orchestra.” We need to worship and sing to restore our hearts and minds to trust in God and the results of our prayers and efforts. Strike up the praise band!
But until we see the results of our prayers and action: May God protect each one of you and your loved ones who are so very vulnerable in the blink of an eye!

How bishops view themselves  By Wilson Pruitt
The Ordination of Bishop Asbury, an engraving of an 1882 painting of the scene. Public domain
In December of 2015, I was on my way to San Antonio to drop off my papers at the Episcopal Office for ordination as an elder in the Rio Texas Conference. While on the road, I received an email from the conference communications director concerning an imminent announcement about the actions of our bishop. A few hours later, came the bishop’s resignation. I handed off my papers hoping to be ordained but having no idea who would actually ordain me. Instead of bringing in a retired bishop to finish Mr. Dorff’s term, though, the bishops of the South Central Jurisdiction elected to have four bishops cover the responsibilities of the Rio Texas Conference. These were all people who had come out of either the former Southwest Texas Conference or the former Rio Grande Conference and so they had a special relationship with us. What I don’t think they realized is that by delegating the functions of the bishop to four separate individuals, they revealed a great insight into how bishops in the United Methodist Church actually view their own job.
The Bishop of Record for Rio Texas was Janice Riggle Huie of the Texas Conference. Houston is geographically closest to San Antonio and the Texas and former Southwest Texas Conferences had shared bishops in the past. What is important with Bishop Huie is that as the bishop of record, her one responsibility was for appointments. That’s it. Thus, we see that bishops understand appointments as the most important responsibility given to them since the power to appointment went hand in hand with an official capacity as bishop.
Bishop Robert Schnase of the Missouri Conference was designated to plan and lead Annual Conference. The Bishop is president of the conference. Sometimes we may forget because conference happens only once a year, but this was seen by the college of bishops as a responsibility great enough to fully occupy one person.
Bishop Michael Lowry of the Central Texas Conference was designated with overseeing the nominations process of the conference. Because Rio Texas is a new conference, many older disciplinary committees have been merged together, but there is still a lot of work to be done in nominations. Bishop Lowry was also tasked officially with assisting the transition to the new bishop, though what that specifically means was never made clear.
Bishop Joel Martínez, a retired bishop of both the Southwest Texas and Rio Grande Conferences was designated with preaching at special services around the conference, overseeing mission, service and justice ministries, and with sitting on the various boards and charities that go with being bishop of the conference.
There was a fifth bishop who oversaw the Rio Texas Conference in the Spring and Summer of 2016. He was not named in the official press releases. He was not discussed on the website. But when we met up as districts to discuss the new system, Bishop Huie herself mentioned this function. Bishop Michael McKee of North Texas was designated with overseeing complaints and judicial actions. Bishop Huie said that this was the worst part of the job of being a bishop so she was thankful that Bishop McKee took on this responsibility.
So what we have is a five-fold office: appointments, annual conference, nominations, pastoral ministry, and judicial complaints. We should not see these functions as equivalent but comparable. This is how bishops see their job. This is what they do. Each of these tasks is an enormous responsibility. United Methodist bishops are not a separate order because they are not a separate ordination. They do not function like Catholic or Episcopal bishops, no matter how fancy a crozier one person may have. The pragmatic episcopacy is a noble goal. An episcopacy based on truly superintending the connection (that is, fulfilling the functions that are asked) as opposed to positioning oneself above the connection.
So what can we learn from this episcopal relationship? Bishops in the UMC have a lot of responsibilities. In order for active bishops to help with the Rio Texas conference, they were only willing to take on one aspect of episcopal ministry. It may go without saying, but the episcopacy is an arduous place to be and the people there need our continuous prayers and respect. How often do you pray for your bishop? Have you ever asked of their spiritual condition? Have you ever asked how they are going on to perfection in this life? The five-fold office mentioned here does not even include responsibilities to any General Boards or Agencies. Yet in the five-old office, I see a hopeful future for the position of bishop. A future that does not have CEO envy or Catholic envy but is firmly Wesleyan in the goal of sanctification, in the goal of personal responsibility, in the goal of social holiness, in the goal of being disciples of Jesus Christ.
It is here that I propose an idea of the pragmatic bishop. The pragmatic bishop leads by serving. The pragmatic bishop leads by doing the job of the bishop, the five tasks the bishops of the South Central Jurisdiction knew needed to be done for the conference to continue. Maybe a few more tasks, but at least these five. The pragmatic bishop is not a person apart but a person in ministry with and our connection will be strengthened as conferences and bishops see their relationship as deeply connected. The bishop is not simply an authority. The bishop has a job. Titus 1:5 points to this. 1 Timothy 3 points to the character of the person who would do this. For us not so called, it is our job to serve as the bishop requires, and help build a church where the office of bishop is not isolating but sanctifying.
When we, as a church, affirm that the most effective place for making disciples of Jesus Christ is the local church, we are not saying that we don’t need bishop’s leadership. We are saying that bishops are not the center of the story of what it means to be a Methodist. The bishop is a part of the story, they serve a function, but they are the center. By looking at the interim episcopacy of the Rio Texas Conference, we can see how bishops view what they do, and we can see what they do not find important enough to designate. We in the local church should be reminded of what we do and, mostly, what God has done and is still doing through all of us, despite all of us.
Wilson Pruitt is a United Methodist elder in the Rio Texas Conference. He blogs at A Little Onward.

Can Hillary Clinton finally close the 'God gap'? By David Gibson / Religion News Service
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton campaigns in Louisville, Ky. on May 15, 2016. Bigstock/jctabb(RNS) As Democrats gather for the convention in Philadelphia that will formally nominate Hillary Clinton, the party faces an extraordinarily fortuitous set of circumstances: her general election opponent, Republican nominee Donald Trump, finds himself leading a fractious party with too little cash on hand and sky-high negative ratings among key blocs of the electorate.
Women, Latinos and African-Americans are all down on the brash real estate mogul and reality TV star from New York, with Trump’s poll numbers near record lows in some categories.
Yet the most surprising development so far is that for the first time in many presidential election cycles Democrats have a chance to close or perhaps erase the so-called “God gap” — the dynamic that has seen regular worshippers pulling the lever for Republican candidates for more than they do for Democrats.
True, Trump has finally rallied the crucial white evangelical Christian base of the GOP to his side. But he still has outspoken detractors among prominent Christian conservatives and he is viewed with ambivalence and even deep suspicion by many Jewish and Muslim voters and members of other minority faiths.
And it’s not just smaller religious groups: a Pew Research Center survey released this month showed the overall “God gap” shrinking significantly, with registered voters who attend religious services at least weekly leaning to Trump by a 49-45 percent margin over Clinton. That is far smaller than the 55-40 percent advantage that Republican Mitt Romney held over President Obama at the same point in 2012.
With the key Catholic swing voter, Clinton actually leads Trump by a whopping 19-point margin among weekly Massgoers, whereas Romney led Obama by 3 points among that same group — a 22-point shift.
And with Clinton’s selection of Virginia senator Tim Kaine as her running mate – a Jesuit-educated Catholic who served as a missionary in Honduras – the Democratic nominee, a lifelong Methodist who can speak fluently about her faith, has a chance to widen the lead over Trump.
The big question now, however, is whether the Clinton campaign is equipped to exploit that opening, or if it wants to.
The campaign only hired a full-time faith outreach director earlier this month, and in the days leading up to Monday’s (July 24) official opening of the Democratic National Convention staffers were still scrambling to fill out a lineup of faith-friendly speakers and events to try to showcase their outreach to the media and a huge television audience.
“Hillary Clinton, and even the Democratic National Committee, have not been very active in pursuing the faith-based vote, nowhere even like what [the Obama campaign] did in 2012, which was nowhere like it was in 2008,” said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron and a leading expert in religion and politics. “So there really has been a decline in that” effort.
Moreover, Trump has been divorced twice and has a history of vulgar behavior and switching positions on foundational issues to many believers — like abortion rights — while often struggling during the campaign to present a convincing witness of his Christian faith.
“The bar is lower than it’s ever been for Democrats just to show they’re not antagonistic to people of faith,” said Michael Wear, an evangelical who worked on faith-based issues for the White House during Obama’s first term and then directed faith outreach for the 2012 re-election campaign.
Wear, who writes on faith and politics and runs a consulting firm, will be on one of several “faith council” panels that the convention is hosting in Philadelphia.

U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign event at the Culinary Academy Training Center in North Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. July 19, 2016. Courtesy of REUTERS/David Becker“Hillary doesn’t have to back down on principle one bit,” said Wear. “She never has. The question is whether they choose to look at the faith community as a convenient foil or whether they are going to live up to the message of unity and togetherness of the campaign and actually engage in faith outreach.”
In a sense, it’s as if the Clinton campaign is making the old mistake of fighting the last war: Democrats have been so unsuccessful at attracting pewsitters to the polls that many party officials and strategists have simply thrown in the towel and decided its not worth the effort.
There are certainly strong arguments for not bothering too much with faith-based voters: as the electorate, like U.S. society, has become increasingly polarized, campaigns have become increasingly focused on turning out the base rather than trying to reach out to a shrinking center of persuadable voters.
For Trump and the Republicans that means trying to attract conservative Christians. For Clinton and the Democrats that has meant rallying the more secular voters and, in the process, often alienating faith-based voters.
Also, the Pew survey showed that if Clinton isn’t generating as much enthusiasm among religiously unaffiliated voters as Obama did in 2012, she is winning that demographic handily.
More importantly, the number of so-called “nones” has risen sharply, from 14 percent of the electorate in 2008 to 21 percent this year — a larger bloc than Catholics (20 percent), white evangelicals (20 percent), mainline Protestants (19 percent) or any other religious group. And they make up more than one quarter of the Democratic base.
But many experts as well as some Clinton supporters say this shouldn’t be an “either/or” calculus. For one thing, voters who identify by religious labels or practice, when taken together, still far outnumber purely secular voters. Alienating them is probably not wise, nor is it a path to expanding the field of play.
“My view is that it’s worthwhile trying to maximize the vote overall,” said Green. “Going into the general election, that’s where there can be some real advantage” for Clinton, he said, especially if the contest is as close as expected. “In that mix, a faith-based appeal could be the thing that makes a difference.”
The campaign also seems to recognize the possibilities of appealing to the faith-based bloc.
Selecting Kaine as the vice-presidential nominee sent an important signal, and Clinton this month also hired John McCarthy, a graduate of Catholic University of America who worked on Catholic outreach for the 2012 Obama campaign, to coordinate faith efforts for the campaign.
The campaign in January had already hired a Jewish outreach director and this month they also added Zina Pierre to fill a new slot as African-American Faith Director. More such hires are expected soon, said Xochitl Hinojosa, a spokeswoman for the campaign. “We are growing our team,” she said.
The question is whether, having arrived relatively late to the party, these faith outreach staffers will have sufficient sway and resources to make that message a priority. McCarthy said that won’t be a problem because faith is so important to Clinton herself and her message of unity is at heart a religious one that is baked into the message.
“I would say that from Day One, because of who this candidate is, this” — the outreach to people of faith — “is something that has been at the very core of this campaign,” McCarthy said in an interview. “It’s going to be a lot of work going forward. But we have a great candidate who this means a lot to.”
Another serious challenge, however, is that Clinton has come out in favor of reversing the longstanding policy to bar federal funds from paying for abortions. The so-called Hyde amendment has been routinely attached to annual appropriations bills since 1976, a rare instance of ongoing bipartisan agreement in Washington.
The Democratic draft platform this year went so far as to incorporate a pledge to overturn the Hyde amendment, a single sentence that has infuriated Democrats who oppose abortion and those who, if they are pro-choice, want to at least allow room for other Democrats who would limit abortion rights or press for policies that seek to reduce abortions. “Political malpractice,” fumed a Protestant who has consulted with the party on faith outreach and asked not to be named.
Many of the angry Democrats are in fact the very Catholic voters and legislators th Clinton needs to woo in order to win in November. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia called the platform language “crazy” and Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota also objected. Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, one of the hosts of the convention, wrote a letter to the platform committee calling for a change.
And one group, Democrats for Life, has put up billboards in Philadelphia proclaiming that “1 in 3 Democrats are pro-life” and that the party needs to be a “big tent” that welcomes a diversity of views and policy approaches.
Whether anything will come of the efforts to drop or alter the anti-Hyde language this week is unclear, but the issue certainly complicates the campaign’s faith outreach.
In the end, the party’s best hope, and best weapon, may be Clinton herself – if she decides to open up.
Clinton has said she doesn’t like to “advertise” her faith and she hasn’t spoken much about religion during the campaign. One notable exception came in January during a town hall event ahead of the Iowa caucuses when Clinton delivered an extended answer about how her faith informs her progressive views.
She also highlighted her faith a month later while campaigning in South Carolina where she wanted to attract African-American Christians who identify with the connection between faith and politics.
Will those episodes be harbingers of a general election message to convince voters that the GOP is not “God’s Own Party”?
“At any given moment you could imagine that [Clinton] could start talking about her faith,” said McCarthy. “I think between now and November you’re going to hear not only her talking a lot about her faith but you’re going to hear about her personal motivations for doing these things.”

Four reasons United Methodists have to stay together July 21st, 2016
 By James C. Howell
Bigstock/blackboard1965Voices are clamoring for a split in the United Methodist Church, with an increasing urgency given many recent events, most notably an episcopal election in the West. I was myself a candidate for bishop and was not elected — and I am writing this blog to expand upon something I dreamed of working on if elected, and hopefully to persuade some folks to join me in a crusade to stay together, and not split. I can think of four compelling reasons why we cannot split, and I have just enough naivete left in me to believe conservatives and progressives might agree on all four.
We can agree, I believe, and move forward on the basis of the Great Commission, the importance of holiness in sexual relationships, the centrality of Jesus, and the inspiration of Scripture. I suspect #2 is hardest for progressives, given practice and a host of other reasons, and #4 is hardest for conservatives, given the way debates have unfolded for many years. But I'm betting we can get there on all four.
(1) The Great Commission
At my jurisdictional conference, in my brief speech explaining to delegates my sense of call to the episcopacy, I suggested that “we can’t split now.” My reason? Our country is dividing and splitting all over the place. Black are divided against whites. Police are divided against some of our citizens. Republicans are divided against Democrats. Republicans are divided against themselves. If the Church splits now, we are saying to an already cynical world, "We are just like you. We have no alternative to offer you."
There are other Great Commission questions. Where I live, it is extremely difficult to get any unchurched people to try out a church that isn’t welcoming to LGBTQ people, or at least having a robust conversation about the issue. I’ve heard some say that where they live the Church won’t grow if the church welcomes LGBTQ people. But I am absolutely sure that a church that can’t stay together will not be able to make disciples in either kind of community. Our most crucial witness in a divided world is quite simply not to divide, to show the world (as Paul introduced 1 Corinthians 13) “a better way.”
(2) Sexual Holiness
Somehow lost in all our debates within the church is any serious talk about holiness in sexuality. But in the Bible, there is such a thing as holiness; your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. It is not the case that as long as it’s male and female having sex, it’s great. And it is not the case that if it’s male and male, or female and female, it’s great. It is not the case that as long as male and female are married, sex is just great, or if male and male could marry, all would be well. Sexual relations in marriage and in any straight or gay relationship can be abusive, manipulative, and self-absorbed; such relations can idolize pleasure and have no hint of consecration to God. Once upon a time, people came to the church, in effect asking for permission to live together and have intimate relations that might even be for God and pleasing to God. Holy marriage is a sacred mystery, mirroring the wonder of Christ’s church to the world. God clearly seeks a profound commitment, not just to your partner but to God and the church. Until we can recover robust ways to talk about and engage in a holy sexuality, which is more than and different from which gender gets to have sex with which gender, we should perhaps be quiet, and relearn how to be Christian on matters of sex.
(3) The Centrality of Christ
The main thing in Christianity, the undeniable, extreme center of our faith, is Jesus Christ. It is not sexuality. Sex is the main thing in our culture. In our trivial, hedonistic society, sex is absolutely central to everything: life, self-image, advertising, TV, novels. Christians are those who declare sex is not the center, it is not the main thing. Jesus is the main thing. I’ve been preaching on Colossians, where Paul falls all over himself extolling the wonder of Jesus, who puts every other thing in the shade, the wonderful shade of his glory and mercy. I’ll repeat what I’ve said often: if the United Methodist Church declared Jesus was just a man, a wise teacher, or anything short of him being God in the flesh, with his death and resurrection achieving the redemption of all of creation, then I would walk out the door and urge you to come with me. If you split over something that isn’t in the center, perhaps we have lost sight of the center.
(4) The Inspiration of Scripture
Scripture is up for grabs right now. There are some progressives who say The Bible isn’t relevant. But if the Bible isn’t relevant now, or on this or that issue, it is never relevant. At the same time, it is false to say that only one side in the Methodist argument is devoted to the Bible or holds it up as the only and highest authority. The United Methodist Church has been and will always be a church that opens the Bible and expects nothing but God’s Word to us. I know conservatives and progressives with astonishingly high views of Scripture; and yet their interpretation on this issue differs. Every faithful reader studies the Bible and makes the best sense of it that they can. There is no un-interpreted Scripture; it interprets itself! Every preacher in history has read it and tried to solve what it is saying to contemporary people. And there have always been disagreements. But let’s put aside the idea that some cling to the Scriptures while others dispense with them. The Bible is the inspired Word of God. We've not engaged in high level reading, together, of the Bible, and we've not listened attentively to why the others interpret the way they do — or at least in my circles this hasn't happened. One thing I’m sure the Bible doesn’t say, either literally or by any theological interpretation, is “Thou shalt split up the Body of Christ.” The Bible says plenty, and clearly, about unity in Christ.
Over time, I have blogged about many ideas about what God is calling us to do. I don’t believe we’ve ever really listened to one another or tried to get inside the skin of those who disagree. We haven’t thought through the invisible, unnoticed cultural assumptions that we all carry deep inside that drive our theology more than the Holy Spirit does. But for today, I wonder if we can’t find a way to look at the Great Commission, the very tough topic of holiness in sexuality, Jesus himself and the Scriptures, and ask if we don’t have considerable common ground upon which to stand when asking where God is calling us.
This article originally appeared on the author's blog.

This Sunday, July 31, 2016
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost: Hosea 11:1-11; Psalm 107:1-9, 43; Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21
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Lectionary Readings
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Year C
Sunday, 31 July 2016
Hosea 11:1-11
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21
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Scripture Text: 
Hosea 11:1 “When Isra’el was a child, I loved him;
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 But the more [the prophets] called them,
the farther they went from them.
They sacrificed to the ba‘alim
and offered incense to idols.
3 “Yet it was I who taught Efrayim to walk;
I took them by their arms.
But they did not know that it was I
who was healing them,
4 who was guiding them on through human means
with reins made of love.
With them I was like someone removing
the yoke from their jaws,
and I bent down to feed them.
5 He will not return to the land of Egypt,
but Ashur will be his king,
because they refused to repent.
6 The sword will fall on his cities,
destroying the bars of his gates,
because they follow their own advice.
7 My people are hanging in suspense
about returning to me;
and though they call them upwards,
nobody makes a move.
8 Efrayim, how can I give you up,
or surrender you, Isra’el?
How could I treat you like Admah
or make you like Tzvoyim?
My heart recoils at the idea,
as compassion warms within me.
9 I will not give vent to the fierceness of my rage,
I will not return to destroy Efrayim;
for I am God, not a human being,
the Holy One among you;
so I will not come in fury.
10 They will go after Adonai,
who will roar like a lion;
for he will roar, and the children will come
trembling from the west.
11 They will tremble like a bird as they come from Egypt,
like a dove as they come from the land of Ashur;
and I will resettle them in their own houses,
says Adonai.
Psalm 107:1 Give thanks to Adonai; for he is good,
for his grace continues forever.
2 Let those redeemed by Adonai say it,
those he redeemed from the power of the foe.
3 He gathered them from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the sea.
4 They wandered in the desert, on paths through the wastes,
without finding any inhabited city.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
their life was ebbing away.
6 In their trouble they cried to Adonai,
and he rescued them from their distress.
7 He led them by a direct path
to a city where they could live.
8 Let them give thanks to Adonai for his grace,
for his wonders bestowed on humanity!
9 For he has satisfied the hungry,
filled the starving with good.
43 Let whoever is wise observe these things
and consider Adonai’s loving deeds.
Colossians 3:1 So if you were raised along with the Messiah, then seek the things above, where the Messiah is sitting at the right hand of God.[Colossians 3:1 Psalm 110:1] 2 Focus your minds on the things above, not on things here on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. 4 When the Messiah, who is our life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory!
5 Therefore, put to death the earthly parts of your nature — sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed (which is a form of idolatry); 6 for it is because of these things that God’s anger is coming on those who disobey him. 7 True enough, you used to practice these things in the life you once lived; 8 but now, put them all away — anger, exasperation, meanness, slander and obscene talk. 9 Never lie to one another; because you have stripped away the old self, with its ways, 10 and have put on the new self, which is continually being renewed in fuller and fuller knowledge, closer and closer to the image of its Creator. 11 The new self allows no room for discriminating between Gentile and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, foreigner, savage, slave, free man; on the contrary, in all, the Messiah is everything.
Luke 12:13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Rabbi, tell my brother to share with me the property we inherited.” 14 But Yeshua answered him, “My friend, who appointed me judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 Then to the people he said, “Be careful to guard against all forms of greed, because even if someone is rich, his life does not consist in what he owns.” 16 And he gave them this illustration: “There was a man whose land was very productive. 17 He debated with himself, ‘What should I do? I haven’t enough room for all my crops.’ 18 Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and I’ll store all my wheat and other goods there. 19 Then I’ll say to myself, “You’re a lucky man! You have a big supply of goods laid up that will last many years. Start taking it easy! Eat! Drink! Enjoy yourself!”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will die! And the things you prepared — whose will they be?’ 21 That’s how it is with anyone who stores up wealth for himself without being rich toward God.”
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John Wesley's Note-Commentary: Hosea 11:1-11 
Verse 1
[1] When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

Was a child — In the infancy of Israel.
I loved him — Manifested my tender and paternal affection to him.
Called my son — Adopted him to be my son, and as my son, provided for him, and brought him out of servitude.
Out of Egypt — But Israel, the first adopted son was a type of Christ the first-born. And the history of Israel's coming out was a type of Christ's future coming out of Egypt.
Verse 2
[2] As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.
They — Moses and Aaron, and other prophets.
Called — Persuaded, intreated, and urged by exhortations, the whole house of Israel.
From them — From the prophets counsel and commands.
Baalim — In the desert they began this apostacy, and held on with obstinacy in it.
Verse 3
[3] I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.
I taught — As a mother or nurse helps the child.
Taking them — Supporting and bearing them up.
They knew not — They would not see nor acknowledge me in it.
Verse 4
[4] I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.
Cords of man — With such kindness as best fits and most prevails with a man.
I was to them — As a careful husband-man in due season takes the yoke from his labouring oxen, and takes off the muzzle with which they were kept from eating, when at work.
I laid meat unto them — Brought them provision in their wants.
Verse 5
[5] He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.
He — Ephraim.
Shall be king — Shall rule them with rigour and cruelty.
They refused — The reason of all is, their obstinacy in idolatry.
Verse 6
[6] And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.
His branches — The lesser towns and villages.
Their own counsels — Which they have followed in opposition to all the good counsels the prophets gave them from time to time.
Verse 7
[7] And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.
They — The prophets.
None at all — Scarce any one would hearken and obey.
Verse 8
[8] How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.
Give thee up — To utter destruction. Admah and Zeboim were two of the four cities which were destroyed with fire from heaven.
My repentings — Not that God is ever fluctuating or unresolved; but these are expressions after the manner of men, to shew what severity Israel had deserved, and yet how divine grace would be glorified in sparing them.
Verse 9
[9] I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.
Return — Conquerors that plunder the conquered city, carry away the wealth of it, and after some time return to burn it; God will not do so.
Not man — Therefore my compassions fail not.
The holy One — A holy God, and in covenant, though not with all, yet with many among you.
Enter into the city — Utterly to destroy thee, as I did Sodom.
Verse 10
[10] They shall walk after the LORD: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.
They — The remnant shall hear and obey the Lord.
Like a lion — The word of the Lord, so saith the Chaldee, shall roar as a lion. Christ is called, The lion of the tribe of Judah: and when he cried with a loud voice, it was as when a lion roared. The voice of the gospel was heard far, as the roaring of a lion; and it was a mighty voice.
Tremble — The spirit by its power awakening them to a sight of sin, shall make them fear and tremble.
From the west — From the ends of the earth.
Verse 11
[11] They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, saith the LORD.
They shall tremble — At their return into their own land, some shall hasten, yet with solicitude, out of Egypt, whither they fled for shelter; others like doves shall hasten out of Assyria, but with fear and trembling.
I will place them — A seasonable and comfortable promise.
Psalm 107:1-9, 43 
Verse 3
[3] And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
Gathered — Into their own land.

Verse 4
[4] They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
No city — Or rather, no town inhabited, where they might refresh themselves.
Verse 6
[6] Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
The Lord — Heb. Unto Jehovah, to the true God. For the Heathens had, many of them, some knowledge of the true God.
Verse 7
[7] And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
Forth — Out of the wilderness.
Colossians 3:1-11 
Verse 1
[1] If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
If ye are risen, seek the things above — As Christ being risen, immediately went to heaven.

Verse 3
[3] For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
For ye are dead — To the things on earth. And your real, spiritual life is hid from the world, and laid up in God, with Christ - Who hath merited, promised, prepared it for us, and gives us the earnest and foretaste of it in our hearts.
Verse 4
[4] When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
When Christ — The abruptness of the sentence surrounds us with sudden light.
Our life — The fountain of holiness and glory.
Shall appear — In the clouds of heaven.
Verse 5
[5] Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Mortify therefore — Put to death, slay with a continued stroke.
Your members — Which together make up the body of sin.
Which are upon the earth — Where they find their nourishment.
Uncleanness — In act, word, or thought.
Inordinate affection — Every passion which does not flow from and lead to the love of God.
Evil desire — The desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life.
Covetousness — According to the derivation of the word, means the desire of having more, or of any thing independent on God.
Which is idolatry — Properly and directly; for it is giving the heart to a creature.
Verse 6
[6] For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
For which — Though the heathens lightly regarded them.
Verse 7
[7] In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
Living denotes the inward principle; walking, the outward acts.
Verse 8
[8] But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Wrath — Is lasting anger.
Filthy discourse — And was there need to warn even these saints of God against so gross and palpable a sin as this? O what is man, till perfect love casts out both fear and sin.
Verse 10
[10] And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
In knowledge — The knowledge of God, his will, his word.
Verse 11
[11] Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
Where — In which case, it matters not what a man is externally, whether Jew or gentile, circumcised, or uncircumcised, barbarian, void of all the advantages of education, yea, Scythian, of all barbarians most barbarous. But Christ is in all that are thus renewed, and is all things in them and to them.
Luke 12:13-21
Verse 14
[14] And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?
Who made me a judge? — In worldly things. His kingdom is not of this world.
Verse 15
[15] And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
He said to them — Perhaps to the two brothers, and through them to the people.
A man's life — That is, the comfort or happiness of it.
Verse 17
[17] And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
What shall I do? — The very language of want! Do? Why, lay up treasure in heaven.
Verse 20
[20] But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
Thou fool — To think of satisfying thy soul with earthly goods! To depend on living many years! Yea, one day! They - The messengers of death, commissioned by God, require thy soul of thee!
Verse 21
[21] So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
Rich toward God — Namely, in faith, and love, and good works.
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The Upper Room Ministries
PO Box 340004
Nashville, Tennessee 37203-0004, United States
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A WORD FOR WEARY PEOPLE by Chris Andrews
Colossians 3:1-11
It is summer! Today is the last day of July, and for many it is tough going. No matter where you live in the United States, summer and August make for some uncomfortable days. It gets hot and dry. Vacations are used up; school is almost ready to begin. Early August is an in-between time and it is easy to feel a little worn, a little down, a little tired. So the church serves up a great text to boost our spirits and help us keep going. Here in early August, in the middle of summer, we get the spiritual equivalent of a supervitamin.
I will take the liberty of creating a paraphrase for today’s text about being raised with Christ. The writer of Colossians seems to say, “If you have been raised with Christ, then live like it! Don’t get dragged down into ordinary, casual living. Live like people who are alive in Christ. Remember how good you look in the new clothes Christ has put on you. Walk with a spring in your step and a song in your heart. You have been raised with Christ.” In the dog days of summer this is a great text to take to heart.
Living like we have been raised with Christ means to take faith off the shelf and onto the street. It means to realize in fresh ways that the Christian faith is not so much about what we know as it is about what we do. Think of faith as a verb and not a noun. Let’s consider how the life raised with Christ might look in these days.
When we are raised with Christ we can dare to live tomorrow’s life today. We can stop putting off living the best lives we are capable of. We no longer have to make cheap and easy compromise with our best selves that says, “One day when things are right, I will do this or I will love more or I will be more kind or trust more.” Today is the day to live like this. Because we have been raised with Christ, we can take the future and live it now. We can dare to make real the petition of the Lord’s Prayer for the kingdom to come on earth as it already has in heaven. We can dare to live lovingly in a world in love with war and destruction. We can dare to live generously in a world choked by stinginess. We can dare to offer cups of cold water to strangers whom everyone else fears. Let the experience of being raised with Christ intoxicate you so that you dare to live as though tomorrow is today.
When we are raised with Christ we cultivate a new attentiveness to the beauty of the moment. So much of life is fractured because we try to do too many things at once. Multitasking has become a way of life for so many. We multitask ourselves into a frenzy of living where one moment blurs into the next and we can’t remember at the end of the day what we have done. If you have been raised with Christ, live as Jesus did. If anything characterized his beautiful life, it was his way of being completely present in each moment. He felt the touch of a woman who needed him when hands of all kinds were reaching for his body. He heard the cry of a blind man through the cacophony of city noise. He knew how parched a woman’s soul was before she had any sense of being thirsty. He was present in ways we are often not because we are so distracted by things that do not really matter.
To be raised with Christ is to live with a clear vision about what is important and what is not. When we are living fully in every moment, we experience aliveness and wholeness that are not possible when one is worrying about what comes next. To be raised with Christ is to live fully in the moment as Christ did.
If you have been raised with Christ, do something for the good of the world. Don’t get weighed down by the mundane concerns of life. Keep scanning the horizon and working for the kingdom of God. A college professor once told his students, “All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip, or dance; just don’t tiptoe.” Bored people tiptoe through life. The antidote for boredom is to give ourselves to something larger than ourselves.
Have you ever had an idea pop into your head about how to do something or create something that would make life better for others? I am sure you have. When that happens, usually another voice starts in our heads saying that the idea is not practical, or no one will listen, or we should not be so foolish. We should just get back to doing what we know and are familiar with. Unfortunately, too many of us do just that and we start tiptoeing toward death. It is a tragic way to live.
I believe that people who have been raised with Christ have the power to create a new world. The challenge of faithfulness is to live that power every day; to stay so focused on the resurrection experience that we know we have overcome all obstacles and can dare to live with holy boldness because of a Savior who walks with us every step of the way.
It is summer. The days are long and at times oppressively hot. To hot and tired people comes the challenge to reclaim the experience of being raised with Christ in order to know his energy and aliveness for today’s ministry. A minister friend of mine related a story that he says is true and that illustrates what being raised with Christ means today. An Episcopal priest, dressed in civilian clothes, walked into a motorcycle shop to look over the latest in two-wheel travel options. As he stood on the showroom floor wishing he could afford a large and powerful motorcycle, a salesman began to talk to him. The conversation went something like this.
“Hey, dude. That’s some bike, ain’t it?”
“It sure is,” said the minister.
“Man, you could put your woman on the back of this baby and really haul. I mean, it will leave rubber in three gears! Dude, if you come to town on this hog, there ain’t anybody who will mess with you. I’m telling you, this is one mean machine. By the way, bro, what do you do for your bread?”
“I’m a minister.”
“Oh, excuse me . . . Reverend or Mister. What do they call you? You know, these bikes, I mean machines, they really get good gas mileage, and you can park them anywhere. Why, I sold one to a doctor the other day.”
Reflecting on this encounter the minister observed, “No one is surprised to find a Christian looking at lawn mowers. Lawn mowers are safe, middle-class, and boring. Is being a Christian more like pushing a lawn mower or riding a motorcycle?”
Good question! “If you have been raised with Christ . . .” Brothers and sisters, maybe it’s time we take our living faith out on the road and give it the gas and see what the old church can do. Vroom!read more

WORSHIP ELEMENTS: JULY 31, 2016 by J. Wayne Pratt
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
COLOR: Green
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Hosea 11:1-11; Psalm 107:1-9, 43; Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21
THEME IDEAS
These readings starkly contrast a life of reliance on wealth with a life of dependence upon God and God’s abundant blessings. Hosea prophesies judgment against Israel’s idolatry and unfaithfulness; yet from a loving parent, forgiveness is offered and deliverance is promised. The psalmist calls for praise and thanksgiving in response to the Lord’s abundant acts of love on behalf of God’s people.
Colossians reveals that through Christ’s life in us, Christians are called to seek the values of heaven over the values of earth. Greed in any form is to be avoided. Because we are the same in Christ, we are to discover our life in Christ and seek to become like God. In the parable of the rich fool, Matthew likewise offers a warning against greed. Although the wealthy man feels secure and comfortable in his earthly riches, such wealth becomes meaningless in death. Christ challenges his followers to seek a
rich relationship with God instead of material wealth.
INVITATION AND GATHERING
Call to Worship (Psalm 107, Luke 12)
O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good.
God’s love and warm embrace last forever.
When we cry out in distress, the Lord hears our call.
Praise the Lord who delivers us
from sin and death.
Christ calls us to clothe ourselves in righteousness.
Worship the One who wraps us with justice,
and helps us grow in the image of our Creator.
Love well, for your heart is where your treasure is.
May our hearts be filled with God’s blessings,
divine provisions that meet our true needs.
Opening Prayer (Hosea 11, Psalm 107)
Loving and forgiving God,
be present with us now,
as we offer praise and thanksgiving
for the abundance we have received
though your grace.
You have gathered us in,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south,
to be your people.
Like a loving parent,
you have sustained our needs—
sharing your love with us,
satisfying our thirst,
and filling our hunger with good things.
Help us, Lord, to heed your call,
that we might find deliverance
through Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
Prayer of Confession (Colossians 3, Matthew 12)
Gracious God,
in our wanderings and selfish desires:
we have forsaken fellowship with our families,
our friends, and our neighbors;
we have neglected our communion with you,
choosing worldly pleasures and desires
over truth, justice, and righteousness.
In a world of plenty,
we have hoarded our earthly blessings,
rather than storing up our heavenly treasures.
Free us from such bondage,
that we may truly reveal
the presence of Christ in our lives. Amen.
Words of Assurance (Colossians 3)
In faith, we call out to a loving and forgiving God,
seeking to put aside our old life and put on Christ.
God surely answers our prayers.
In the name of Christ Jesus, our sins are forgiven.
Thanks be to God.
Passing the Peace of Christ
“Peace I leave with you,” said Jesus. Let us now share this
extravagant gift with one another.
The peace of Christ be with you.
And also with you.
Prayer of Preparation (Psalm 107, Colossians 3, Luke 12)
Loving Lord,
open our hearts this day,
as we proclaim your holy word.
As we offer praise and thanksgiving,
in response to your abundant acts of love,
challenge us to seek the values of heaven
over the trappings of this world.
May the words we experience this day
call us to a rich relationship with you,
as we learn to live out the calling of our baptism,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Response to the Word (Colossians 3)
God of love and grace,
send your Spirit upon us
that we may not only hear your words,
but find creative and faithful ways
to put them into action.
Help us, Lord, to be people of compassion,
living out our baptism
as we put on Christ
and turn our hearts to you. Amen.
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
Invitation to the Offering (Luke 12)
Prosperity is given to the greater community of believers, so that all of God’s children may benefit. Let us demonstrate that we are the body of Christ through our extravagant sharing of God’s blessings this day. And let us give out of our joy, rather than out of a sense of obligation, as we offer to our God the gifts of our hearts.
Offering Prayer (Luke 12)
O God,
we stand before you as a people of faith,
investing our lives and our treasures
for the glory of your kingdom.
Bless these gifts and those who gave them,
in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
SENDING FORTH
Benediction (Luke 12, Colossians 3)
Happy are those who know real treasure
and where to find it.
Happy are those who receive God’s treasure
and share it unselfishly.
Invest your life and your heart in Christ,
just as God has invested Christ in you.
Happy are those whose reward
is found in heaven, not on earth.
Go now in the name of Christ,
God’s ultimate gift of love.
Thanks be to God.
CONTEMPORARY OPTIONS
Contemporary Gathering Words (Colossians 3)
If we have been raised with Christ Jesus,
let us set our minds on heavenly things,
not on the things that are on earth.
The old self is gone.
Let us revel in the Spirit
that strips away the trappings of death,
and dresses us in garments that are new.
As new creations in God,
we are separated and divided no longer.
Christ is all and in all!
Thanks be to God.
Praise Sentences (Psalm 107)
Give thanks to the Lord, for God is good.
God’s steadfast love endures forever.
Those who are wise give heed to these things,
for the Lord is steadfast and true.
The Lord is steadfast and true.
The Lord is steadfast and true.
From The Abingdon Worship Annual edited by Mary J. Scifres and B.J. Beu, Copyright © Abingdon Press. The Abingdon Worship Annual 2017 is now available.read more

WORSHIP CONNECTION: JULY 31, 2016 by Nancy C. Townley
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
COLOR: Green
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Hosea 11:1-11; Psalm 107:1-9, 43; Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21
CALLS TO WORSHIP
Call to Worship #1
L: Give thanks and praise to the Lord!
P: For God has dealt mercifully with us!
L: Even when we turned our backs on God,
P: God forgave us and restored us to life.
L: Rejoice in God's abundant love.
P: We will continually praise God who heals and loves us. AMEN.
Call to Worship #2:
L: So many things draw us away from God.
P: We are tempted by trinkets and gadgets.
L: We place our interest in temporal things.
P: But Christ calls us to a higher level.
L: We are called to focus our lives on living as God would have us live.
P: We are called to be open to ways of service and compassion. AMEN.
Call to Worship #3:
[Using THE FAITH WE SING, p. 2031, "We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise", offer the following call to worship as directed]
Choir: singing "We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise" (before key change) through one time.
L: God, we bring to you our gift of praise, in gratitude for all your many blessings for us.
P: We offer our lives in service to you.
L: Help us to continually serve and praise you.
P: Guide our steps, place joy and song in our hearts as we celebrate your love.
ALL: singing "We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise" through entirely.
Call to Worship #4:
L: Our lives are in the care of God.
P: God has given us abundance and hope.
L: This day we have come to praise and thank God for all that God has done for us.
P: We gather to celebrate God's love and to offer our lives in service.
L: Come, let us open our hearts to the Lord!
P: Let us rejoice in God's goodness and love. AMEN.
PRAYERS AND BENEDICTION
Opening Prayer:
Bountiful God, who gives to us all that we need to sustain our lives: Open our hearts today to hear your words of compassionate justice, that we may focus on the ways in which you intend us to live and be of service to you by serving the world. In Jesus' Name, we pray.AMEN.
Prayer of Confession:
Merciful God, we live in a society that focuses on gathering things. We collect, store, gather items, gadgets, even people. We focus our energies on our collections providing adequate room for them and yet we bar the door to the needs of others, of those who have little or nothing, of those for whom life has been a constant struggle. We are sorry for the ways in which we have failed you. Forgive us. Turn us around to look at the ways in which our wealth, both of substance and spirit, can be used for healing and hope. Enable us to be in ministry to those in need and to care for this world. For we ask this in Jesus' Name.AMEN.
Words of Assurance:
Children of God, blessings have been poured upon you so that you may use them to help others. God walks with you and guides your steps as you reach out in compassion, mercy and justice to all in need.AMEN.
Pastoral Prayer
Lord, we stand in line for tickets, books, and gadgets. We place our energy in gathering things that might be of monetary value at some later point and justify this action by stating that it is for our children's good. When we have gathered enough, we tend to relax and say to ourselves that it is all right for us to "eat, drink, and be merry". We have done our best. But have we? Have we given thought to how we have given our best in service to others? Have we spent so much time gathering and building bigger containers for our trinkets, that we have overlooked the good we could have done? We are indeed foolish people, Lord. We want everything, yet the most important things are not the trinkets but the good that is offered to others. We have gathered here this day, asking for your healing mercies for people and situations that impact our lives. We place our trust in your compassionate love. Help us to gather peace, joy, justice, and hope as gifts to be given abundantly to all. Bring us again to your mercy and care, for we ask this in Jesus' Name.AMEN.
Benediction:
Place your life in the hands of God. Go in peace and may the peace of God always be with you.AMEN.
ARTISTIC ELEMENTS
The traditional Color for this Sunday is Green.
[The artistic elements for this service are meant to be interactive. Stack the boxes with the words imprinted on them on the worship center, on the riser in front of the worship center and on the floor - make sure the first set of words (Gadgets, toys, etc.) are facing outward, have the boxes changed to the side containing the second set of words (Peace, Joy, etc.) These are the things which we gather to offer to God.]
Surface:
Place a riser about 6" shorter than the main level of the worship center, in front of the worship center on the right. Place a riser about 6" tall on the worship center on the upper left side.
Fabric:
Cover the worship center in green fabric. You may place about 4-6 yards of other fabric as a drape, running from the left upper side, diagonally across the worship center, to the floor on the right side of the worship center, making sure that the riser on the right side is covered with the fabric.
Candles:
Candles are not necessary for this setting
Flowers/Foliage:
Flowers and foliage are not necessary for this setting
Rocks/Wood:
Rocks and wood are not necessary for this setting.
Other:
Get 11 boxes, about 1-2 feet long, and 1 foot in height. On one side of each box write one of the following words: GADGETS, TOYS,GOLD, SILVER, STOCKS, TRINKETS, COLLECTIONS, HOUSES,CARS, ELECTRONICS, MEMORABILIA
On the opposite side write the following words: PEACE, JUSTICE, HOPE, HONOR, LOVE, FAITH, COMPASSION, SERVICE, WITNESS, FORGIVENESS, PRAISE.read more

SERMON OPTIONS: JULY 31, 2016
HEAVENLY LOVE FOR A HELLISH WORLD
COLOSSIANS 3:1-11
Having established in chapters 1 and 2 that we are brothers and sisters with Christ and members of the family of God, Paul uses the third chapter to exhort the Colossian Christians to live up to their namesake.
The world makes much of the tension in which we live between the heavenly and the hellish. A popular country song several years ago was entitled, "Heaven's Just a Sin Away." The Righteous Brothers comeback record was, "If There's a Rock-and-Roll Heaven, It's Got to Have a Hell of a Band." St. Sinner's Restaurant in a southern resort town advertised its homemade ice cream as "sinfully delicious." Its logo was a monk in a robe. Hanging out the rear of the robe was a pointed tail. How many cartoons or commercials come to mind picturing a perplexed man or woman at a crucial decision-making crossroad with a tiny angel perched on one shoulder and a tiny demon on the other? Life, art, and advertising confess the tension in which we live, the tension between the heavenly and the hellish.
Paul counsels the Christians in Colossae that they can no longer be satisfied to remain in such tension. Like Joshua of old, he challenges: "Choose this day whom you will serve" ( Josh. 24:15) . Those new Christians are members of God's family. They are witnesses in a pagan world, called to be converting examples of a radically new lifestyle. No more fence-sitting for them.
Here, said Paul, is how the world does business. "Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry) . . . anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another" (vv. 5-9). If that style of living remains our modus operandi, then what chance is there the world will journey in our direction? The truth is, it has already made the journey to "impurity, evil desire" and so on. Instead, to win persons to God's family we must provide a visible alternative, a new way of doing business with one another.
So, Paul suggests an optional list of behavior choices: "compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, . . . forgive each other just as the Lord has forgiven you. . . . Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony" (vv. 12-14). Effective evangelism is not so much dogma as it is charity. Billy Graham said: "The first mark of discipleship is not orthodoxy, but love."
Addressing representatives of her denomination, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton made the statement: "We should act outside the church the way we act within it." That's pretty much what Paul was telling the Colossians. The first mark of their discipleship was to love people, to act outside their church the way they acted within it.
One-hundred-year-old Lillie Yow keeps a scrapbook by her bed. She taught Sunday school in a small southern town for sixty years. She was not politically powerful. She gained neither fortune nor fame. This doubtless marks the first time her name has appeared in print beyond the bounds of her hometown news. Week by week she simply told boys and girls about Jesus. She brought in cookies and listened to our trials and troubles (whether problems at home, at school, or in love). She laughed with us and cried with us.
We who sat in her classes do not remember many of her words, which presumably were not greatly different from so many other words directed from so many sources. What we remember is her kindness, her patience, and her obvious love for us. The scrapbook is filled with names and pictures of child after child who went on into ordained or diaconal ministry. Page after page the faces appear: missionaries, chaplains, preachers, and educators, all spending our lives in the service of Christ, church, and people, and all wearing her fingerprint upon our souls. It was not her words that so deeply influenced us but rather her great, full, abiding, unconditional love that pointed us toward a "love divine, all loves excelling."
As the hymn says: "They'll know we are Christians by our love." Show that to the world, Paul challenged. Make that the first mark of your discipleship. And little by little, a world trapped in the tension between heaven and hell may inch closer to the former, drawn onward by the converting appeal of unrelenting love. (Michael B. Brown)
WHO NEEDS BIGGER BARNS?
LUKE 12:13-21
Madeline was going to her college reunion. It would be the first time she would see her former classmates since graduation day, and she was anxious about the event. "What can I say about myself?" she asked. "I've read the alumni news column in the college magazine, with all the success stories. And look at me; I've put on a lot of weight in the last ten years. I didn't get a job in the field I prepared for. At the moment I'm not even employed. How could I be, with two toddlers at home?"
Madeline worried that she would be considered a failure, compared to classmates whose lives seemed more glamorous and affluent. Her former roommate reassured her that on the contrary, many would admire her; she had a devoted husband and healthy, lovable children. She was a good mother, a leader among the laity at church, and had plans to further her education once her daughters were older. Yet Madeline knew that a college reunion can be a "day of reckoning" of sorts. She was taking stock of her life, and wondering how she would be judged.
I. Bigger Barns Indicate Spiritual Myopia
If Madeline was overconcerned with human opinion rather than God's, the "rich fool" of the parable was concerned with no one's opinion save his own. His only point of reference was himself: his crops, his barns, his pleasure, his supposedly unlimited future. As center of his own universe, he gave no thought to ethical responsibility toward others or accountability to God.
In Habits of the Heart, Robert Bellah described such an attitude as "Sheila-ism." Sheila was a woman in one of Bellah's case studies who acknowledged no external point of reference in spiritual or moral matters. She believed in "my own little voice . . . just try to love yourself and be gentle with yourself. You know, I guess, take care of each other." Sheila thought she was a religious, ethical person if she adhered to these internal (and entirely subjective) principles. There was no point of reckoning outside herself, no judgment from a righteous and holy God.
The bigger barns built by the rich fool and the Sheila-ism practiced by so many people today indicate spiritual myopia: failure to think beyond today and oneself. Such people may lay up treasure for themselves, but they are not rich toward God, and the consequences are grim.
II. Look to the Lord of the Harvest, Not Bigger Barns
Jesus says that a person's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. We might add that it also does not consist of an abundance of accomplishments, applause, or self-indulgence. All that we are and have ultimately belongs to God, and as stewards, we will have to give God an accounting of the use of our time and gifts and energy.
Unlike a class reunion, we have no idea when the Lord will take stock of what we have done with our lives. But it will happen to every one of us. It may be tonight. It may not be for years. To be "rich toward God," Christians must learn to think of themselves as laborers in the Master's fields, rather than private landowners answerable to no one. The harvest is Christ's, not ours, and our Lord calls us to use the resources at our disposal to help others and thus glorify him. (Carol M. Norén)read more

WORSHIP FOR KIDS: JULY 31, 2016 by Carolyn C. Brown
From a Child's Point of View
Old Testament: Hosea 11:1-11. This passage compares God's relationship with the people to that of a parent with a disobedient child. If this is explained before the reading, and if the passage is read from The New Jerusalem Bible or the Good News Bible, children will catch the meaning of a few image-filled phrases. Hosea's message is that although the people deserve to be destroyed because of the way they have acted, God has chosen instead to discipline them in order to help them come back to God. God's wish is that those people would realize how much God loves them and would learn to depend upon and love God in return. And God wants the same for us.
Psalm: 107:1-9, 43. This is the first section of a psalm whose format is interesting to children. It is a song for pilgrims to sing as they walk together toward Jerusalem (not unlike the songs we sing to pass the time on long car trips). Verses 1-3 are the introduction and are followed by sections that describe how God save people in different kinds of trouble: those lost in the desert (4-9); prisoners (10-16); the sick (17-22); sailors in storms (23-32). Each section describes the distress of one group, explains how God saves them, and then calls on those people to praise and thank God (e.g., those who are lost in the desert are thirsty and hungry; they cry to God for help and are led by God to cities; for this they are called on to thank God). The fact that such a psalm is included in the Bible and the possibility that other verses could be made up about people whose needs are met by God are more stimulating for children than the content of the biblical verses.
Epistle: Colossians 3:1-11. This passage says to children that there is a difference between Christians and non-Christians. Christians know that God loves them because they know that Christ died for them. They also know that enjoying and sharing God's love is the most important thing in the world, and knowing this makes them act in certain ways. The most significant items for children on Paul's list of "un-Christian" activities are being greedy (note connection to Luke text), hurting others when we are angry, hating, insulting people (calling cruel names), using obscene language, and telling lies. Because of the complex sentences and difficult language, this message needs to be presented during the sermon in words the children can understand.
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21. This passage speaks as directly to materialistic children as it does to their elders. They might prefer to store Nintendo games, bicycles, dolls, and sports equipment in their barns, but they know that when they hoard things for themselves, they are acting just like the farmer in the parable. They also know that when they become obsessed with wanting some new toy or designer shirt, they are on the wrong track. Jesus' message to them is that all the things we think we must have are not really important.
Watch Words
Before reading Hosea 11 , explain that Israel and Ephraim are names for God's people. Also, use discipline, instead ofpunishment, to emphasize the corrective nature of God's action.
Inheritance needs to be defined as property and money left after a person dies.
Let the Children Sing
To celebrate the centrality of Christ, sing "Come, Christians, Join to Sing" with all its Alleluias, or "Fairest Lord Jesus," which, though it includes some abstract symbols, also includes many concrete nature images.
For your commitment to live disciplined lives, sing "Be Thou My Vision" (if the children sing it in other church settings) or "Lord, I Want to Be a Christian."
"Have Thine Own Way, Lord," if familiar, is a hymn through which children can commit themselves to God's discipline.
Celebrate the saving God of Psalm 107 by singing "Now Thank We All Our God."
The Liturgical Child
1. Read Luke with great dramatic inflection. Take the part of each speaker by changing your tone of voice and expression, and by the use of your hands and body. As you read the parable, remember that Jesus was known as a great storyteller for his delivery, as well as his content. Let the words of the barn-building fool swagger. Decide what God's tone will be in speaking to the man. Use your hands for emphasis. Eye the congregation as Jesus would have, as he made his final point in verse 21.
2. Use Colossians 3:1-11 as the base for confession and pardon:
Leader: Let us confess our sins to one another and to God.
People: Lord, we say we belong to Jesus, but we do not live as if we do.
Leader: We become so wrapped up in getting what we want that we will bend, or even break rules to get our way.
People: Lord, we say we belong to Jesus, but we do not live as if we do.
Leader: And we want so much! We see clothes, houses, cars, and all kinds of toys that we feel we must have in order to be happy.
People: Lord, we say we belong to Jesus, but we do not live as if we do.
Leader: Our feelings often rule us. When we are angry, we hurt others. We give in to hating people we do not like.
People: Lord, we say we belong to Jesus, but we do not live as if we do.
Leader: Our mouths show us at our worst. We stoop to name-calling, foul language, and lies. Even we cannot believe what sometimes comes out of our mouths.
People: Lord, we say we belong to Jesus, but we do not live as if we do.
Leader: But God has not left us to live with our own failures and sin. God loves us. Jesus died for us. In Jesus, we are forgiven and become new people. God is constantly at work, remaking us. So let's overcome our greed.
People: Let us set our hearts on living like Christ.
Leader:Let's learn to control our anger and set aside personal and community hatreds.
People: Let us set our hearts on living like Christ.
Leader: Let's speak kind words, offer compliments and encouragement to others, and tell the truth in all situations.
People: Let us set our hearts on living like Christ.
All: Amen.
Sermon Resources
1. Retell the parable of the barn-building fool, describing the acquisitive habits of a fictional family in your community. Describe both the items each member of the family thought he or she needed, and why it was so important to have those items. Walk through a hectic weekend spent shopping for and taking care of all the things the family owned. After sending the exhausted family to be, ask the congregation to ponder what those people might have done differently, had they known that a tornado would destroy them and everything they had that night. This leads to questions about whether the family would have been better off if it had lived by that alternate plan anyway.
2. Describe "gotta haves" with which people of all ages become obsessed, and tell how those things affect us. Describe "gotta haves" which we really do not use once we have them, "gotta haves" that turn out to be bad for us (like a computer game that becomes the sole interest in our life), and "gotta haves" we enjoy but really could do without. Talk about how we, as Christians, manage the "gotta haves" in our lives.
3. Provide modern examples of discipline which, like God's discipline of Israel, are aimed at teaching important lessons. For example, tell the story of a child whose parents insisted that she earn the money to buy another bicycle when hers was stolen because she had left it in the front yard (after repeated warnings.)read more
Rachel May
Rachel May is Pastor of Boulevard United Methodist Church in Richmond, Virginia. In this week's sermon from Luke 12:13-21 she challenges the church to make a fresh commitment to the age-old discipline of proportional giving (tithing) so that we can end global poverty.

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

JULY 31, 2016 - FOOLISHNESS by William H. Willimon
PULPIT RESOURCE
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Welcome to the new Pulpit Resource from Will Willimon. For over three decades Pulpit Resource helps preachers prepare to preach. Now in partnership with Abingdon Press, this homiletical weekly is available with fresh and timely accessibility to a new generation of preachers.
No sermon is a solo production. Every preacher relies on inherited models, mentors in the preacher’s past, commentaries on biblical texts by people who have given their lives to such study, comments received from members of the congregation, last week’s news headlines, and all the other things that make a sermon communal.
No Christian does anything on their own. We live through the witness of the saints; preachers of the past inspire us and judge us. Scripture itself is a product of the community of faith. A host of now-forgotten teachers taught us how to speak. Nobody is born a preacher.
Pulpit Resource is equivalent to sitting down with a trusted clergy friend over a cup of coffee and asking, “What will you preach next Sunday?” Whenever I’ve been asked by new preachers, “How can I develop as a preacher?” my usual response is, “Get in a group of preachers. Meet regularly. Learn how to give and how to receive help. Sort through the advice of others, and utilize helpful insights.”
That’s Pulpit Resource.
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