Is Paul Crazy?
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For June 12, 2022:
Is Paul Crazy?
by Mary Austin
Romans 5:1-5
As we all pray for the people of Uvalde, Texas, (and Buffalo, plus Tulsa, Ames, Iowa, Phoenix, and Philadelphia and…) the hugeness of the tragedy and the smallness of the town collide in heart-rending ways. The town is so small that mourners overlap, grieving not just for their own children, nieces and nephews, but for their children’s classmates and teachers. The first two funerals “captured the relentless march of grief that will follow — one child being buried while another family holds visitation while another prays the rosary and on and on.” There will be at least two joint funerals for children who were cousins as well as classmates.
Geographically, the town is small enough that “from the funeral home, families and mourners can see the back door the shooter used to slip inside the school. A row of open windows through which children escaped also faces the funeral home, the printed curtains that adorned one classroom window fluttering with the breeze.”
How then, I want to ask Paul as he writes to the believers in Rome, will these families have hope again? How will this relentless wound of trauma be healed when it’s time for this class of children to move up to middle school, or when graduation comes for their age group at the high school. Will there be 19 empty chairs at graduation? Or, will the town have to choose between celebrating a graduation and mourning the children who should be there?
“Hope does not disappoint us,” Paul writes to the churches in Rome. Really?
How then, I want to ask Paul, will Black residents of Buffalo feel safe going to the grocery store again? Or anywhere? Paul, how are we supposed to hold hope in the face of unending Covid? Tell us Paul, are the people abused by Southern Baptist ministers, and then trivialized and ignored by denominational officials, ever going to feel hopeful about the church? Or the love of God? (I have no illusions that my own denomination, the PC(USA) has a perfect record on this, either.)
“Hope does not disappoint,” Paul proclaims, and I’m not sure he’s right. Hope, however, feels very disappointing right now.
In the News
In discouraging news, the first weekend of June marked a greater number of mass shooting deaths in the United States than the previous three-day weekend, which ended with Memorial Day. The tally for weekend violence through Sunday night was at least 12 killed, and at least 38 injured in mass shootings, defined by the Gun Violence Archive as an incident in which “four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.” During the holiday weekend nine were killed and more than 60 were injured in attacks fitting that definition.”
As we ponder how to make our shared life safer, there are some policies that would help. Interestingly, “The body of research scientists have to draw from is limited, notes Michael Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers University. "Mass shooting research is a very small portion of gun violence research," he says. That's because mass shootings account for less than 1% of the roughly 40,000 people killed by guns each year in this country, Anestis explains. "They're horrific, they are all too common, and yet, it's just the very tip of the iceberg, right?" Those researchers who do study gun violence tend to focus on the kinds of violence, like suicide, associated with the most deaths, he says. But, he adds, the entire field of gun violence research has long been neglected and hardly funded.”
The two policies that showed an impact were a licensing process for gun ownership, and limiting high capacity magazines.
Almost lost in the news about mass shootings was the report on abuse in Southern Baptist churches. The most recent bombshell was a list of offenders, secretly kept by Southern Baptist Convention leadership. “In response to an explosive investigation, top Southern Baptists have released a previously secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse. The 205-page database was made public late Thursday. It includes more than 700 entries from cases that largely span from 2000 to 2019. Its existence became widely known Sunday when the independent firm, Guidepost Solutions, included it in its bombshell report detailing how the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse, stonewalled numerous survivors and prioritized protecting the SBC from liability.”
Longtime advocate for survivors, Christa Brown, who is also an attorney, notes “the unfathomable human cost of what it has taken to bring this truth to light. Countless lives have been decimated.” After enduring the original abuse, survivors were silenced by church leaders, ignored and even mocked. Brown notes that this destroys the survivor’s soul, and erodes their hope. “It's as though the whole of the faith community becomes a complicit partner in this horrific nightmare." How does a survivor, or a family member, find hope after the people who are the face of faith are abusers, or complicit in the abuse and the secrecy?
In the Scriptures
Here, Paul outlines the connection between believers and God, noting that our hope transcends all of the horrors that life can bring to us. Through our faith, “we have peace with God.” If we’re seeking safety, if we’re seeking vindication, if we’re seeking justice, we can pursue all of those things, even as we have peace with God.
The world’s events erode our peace and shatter our sense of security (for those who ever had it) and yet Paul is firm in his contention that we have this enduring gift of peace. He says that our suffering can draw us closer to God, as we develop endurance, and then character, in a chain reaction that leads us toward hope. If we can stay rooted in God’s peace, we can move firmly through suffering toward hope. Of course, this is easy to say and hard to do. We can only hear it from Paul because he himself suffered so much — he has the authority to give us this spiritual equation. Coming from anyone with less personal suffering, these same words would sound hollow.
Paul reminds us that our hope isn’t about outcomes, or changes in other people. Our hope doesn’t come from changed laws, or policies, or statistics. Our hope grows from our relationship with God. We hold closely to God through every experience of suffering, and, in holding on, we grow into the likeness of Jesus.
This is a calculation that we can only make for ourselves. We can never assess someone else’s suffering and announce that God is using it for good. This knowledge can only come from within, about our own lives. Paul offers us a map for this journey, with the knowledge that “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” We are not traveling alone.
In the Sermon
The sermon might explore how we stay rooted in this chain reaction where suffering is transformed into hope. How do we avoid becoming mired in grief, rage and despair? How do we keep moving from endurance to character to hope? We all know people who have emerged on the other side of pain as exemplars of faith, and we also know people who got lost in bitterness or vengefulness and never left. What makes the difference?
Or, the sermon might talk about not rushing through pain, or hurrying anyone else along. We need all of Paul’s steps to arrive at a deeply rooted hope.
The sermon might also explore how to create hopeful space for people who are suffering, without diminishing their experience? Other people’s sorrow makes us uncomfortable and we disappoint each other, as we take each other’s pain too lightly. The sermon could offer a wealth of practical advice on what not to say to ourselves or others when suffering comes.
Rabbi Harold Kushner, our national teacher about suffering, says, “My interactions with troubled or angry congregants have involved less explaining and more hand-holding. I have more than once paid a condolence call on a family to whom something so awful had happened that words seemed inadequate. So I didn’t offer words, beyond ‘I’m sorry, I feel so bad for you.’ I would often sit quietly with the grieving widow or parent for several minutes, and when I would get up to go, the mourner would throw her arms around me and say, ‘Thank you for being here with us.’ My presence represented God’s caring presence, the symbolic statement that God had not abandoned them. That reassurance, more than any theological wisdom, was what I was uniquely qualified to offer them.” (From Nine Essential Things I've Learned About Life.)
The sermon might also look at the example of seasoned souls who have made this journey through suffering toward hope. Using their example, the sermon could show the back story of how people held onto God. God doesn’t cause suffering, and yet God is present in it, ready to work toward our transformation.
Laws and leaders will always disappoint us. The finish line of a just and joyful world feels ever farther away. We’re fighting the battles of the 1970s all over again, if not the 1950s. And yet our hope is not in any of these places. No human evil can steal our hope because our spirits are rooted in God, and we travel with God’s love in our hearts. Paul, an expert in suffering, is also an expert guide on where to set our hope.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Guided Into the Streets
by Chris Keating
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31, Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15, Psalm 8
Remember that time when your sermon about the Trinity held everyone in rapt attention with its crystal-clear comparisons of how Jesus was homoousios the Father, along with supporting arguments from Tertullian, Athanasius, and an illustration from the Cappodocian Fathers? It’s ok; neither does the congregation. In fact, we do well to take a cue from theologian Daniel Migliore’s reminder that “the doctrine of the Trinity is the always-inadequate attempt to interpret (scripture’s) witness in the most suitable images and concepts available” at the time. (Faith Seeking Understanding, 67).
Indeed, moving from Pentecost Sunday’s fiery ecstasy to the comparatively languid pallor of Trinity Sunday may feel a bit like the last leg of an uphill bicycle race. We’ve coasted through the Spirit’s descent and are now climbing up the steep incline of dogmatic theology. Also, we’re doing this in June.
Tertullian and Athanasius can wait. Instead, take a second look at this week’s text. Psalm 8’s lush view of creation offers an entry into the beauty of God. Without claiming these texts as the complete scriptural foundation for the Trinity, they do provide insights. Proverbs 8 takes us out into the streets, where the voice of Lady Wisdom calls out to all of God’s children. Romans extends the promise of hope even in moments of suffering, offering Paul’s punchline to his theology of justification by grace. All of this is threaded together with Jesus’ assurance that the Spirit will lead us toward truth.
Wisdom, grace, and truth — these three remind us that the first step toward rehydrating Trinity Sunday is to step outside and listen to the noise on the street. Out on the streets we hear the cries of children and adults of Uvalde, Texas as they mourn. The small town is beginning to assess its long-term mental health needs. Leaders have long advocated for more mental health clinicians in the small town, and now worry who will be available to the community long-term.
Wisdom cries out that all may live. The cruel irony is that in many instances it is easier to get firearms than it is to get an appointment with a therapist or psychiatrist. Wisdom calls to us; but will we find the grace that leads us to the truth? What will enable us to hear the things Jesus says we cannot bear to hear now?
Being guided by the truth is not easy. Our weak intentions or our too easily distracted natures impede us from following the truth. Our ears become clogged to the wisdom of God, a wisdom we believe flows out of the dance of God’s Trinitarian communion. To affirm the Trinity is to affirm that the three persons of God exist in equal, loving, and other-affirming community. This wisdom is distinct from the advice peddled on the streets. It defies easy definitions. But it is the wisdom that leads to truth.
“The Civility of Albert Cashier,” a musical written by Jay Paul Deratany, with music by Joe Stevens and Keaton Wooden, tells the true-life story of a Civil War soldier who understood the complexities of being guided by the truth. The play is now being produced off Broadway, and made its debut in Chicago in 2017.
Private Albert D.J. Cashier enlisted in the Union Army in Illinois in 1862. Private Cashier fought bravely in 40 battles, but always maintained modesty in bathing and dressing. At Vicksburg, he was captured briefly, escaping by wrestling a gun from his Confederate guard and running toward Union lines.
Cashier was slight of stature and nearly beardless. He made a reputation for himself by his bravery and commitment to his comrades in arms, while always holding a secret.
After the war, Cashier returned to Illinois. He worked on farms and at odd jobs for a time, until he was hit by a car in 1910 and hospitalized for a broken leg.
While in the hospital, that long-held secret was revealed: Cashier had been assigned female gender at birth, even though he had lived his entire life as a man. At birth, Cashier was named Jennie Hodgers, a name and identity he had discarded as a teenager. But this truthful identity was challenged by state authorities who committed him to an insane asylum and forced him to wear dresses. Near the end of his life, Cashier was put on trial for defrauding the government to receive a military pension.
Still, Cashier was guided by truth. Veterans who had served with him in the 95th Illinois infantry rallied to his defense, testifying that he was not Jennie Hodgers, but was indeed Albert D.J. Cashier. When he died, Cashier was buried in his uniform with military honors. His name is inscribed in a monument at the Vicksburg battlefield. According to the National Archives, there were at least 250 women who presented as men to serve in the Civil War — including some who continued to live as men long after the war was over.
Cashier and his close friends accepted the truth. Guided by that promise of Jesus, they listened for the wisdom of God, a wisdom that cries out to all creation. They might not have been able to recite Niceno-Constantinian formulas for the Trinity. Likely, the finer points of homoussias escaped them. But each one knew the broader truth of the love of God shared in deep, inter-connected relationship. They had heard the cry of wisdom, and allowed God’s abundant grace to guide them toward truth.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Trinity Sunday
There is only one day on the church calendar dedicated to a point of theology: Trinity Sunday. You’ve got a nice segue from last week, preacher, because Pentecost is all about the Holy Spirit. Stir in Father/Creator, Son/Redeemer and you’ve cooked a Trinity stew. You may notice that all three “persons” (more on that term later) are only mentioned in two of this week’s readings: John and Romans. Psalm 8 only mentions God the Creator. The Proverbs reading is in the personified, feminine voice of Wisdom, perhaps she’s an analog to the Holy Spirit, but be careful. The text makes it clear that Wisdom/Sophia was created by the Lord. Orthodox Trinitarians believe that all three persons in the Trinity have existed from eternity. While the text makes it clear that Wisdom/Sophia was present when the earth was formed, it is equally clear that Wisdom was herself created by the Creator.
* * *
God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity
You’re going to sing “Holy, Holy, Holy,” because it’s the law, you gotta sing it on Trinity Sunday. The hook for the hymn is Isaiah 6, when the prophet Isaiah is called, after overhearing the Creator asking the Creator-self, “Whom shall I send?” Prior to that the seraphs were flying around the Temple, as seraphs do, calling antiphonally “holy, holy, holy.” The repetition is for emphasis, not because there’s some hidden Christian/Trinitarian clue waiting for believers to uncover 1,500 years later. The Lord is really holy, not in three parts.
The beloved hymn makes it sound like God is three individual persons. This is unfortunate, but it is burned into our preliterate memories. Try to imagine instead, God in three personas. The Latin word persona means “mask,” the thing that actors used to wear to indicate different characters in a stage play. The same human/actor could play a variety of roles in a play depending on which mask he was wearing. The same human, acting in different roles. That’s a pretty decent approximation for how we understand the Trinity: one God, capable of assuming multiple roles.
* * *
About this doctrine
The only times I’ve been asked about the Trinity in more than 30 years of ordained ministry have been by non-Christians. The first was a hostile atheist (different from more mellow indifferent atheists, some call them ‘Nones’) who was marrying a member of the church I had just begun serving. “I’m not a Christian; I’m a monotheist.” He was spoiling for an argument and I did not rise to the bait. “I’m a Christian monotheist,” I replied. The second time was with a Muslim who was attending worship prior to giving a presentation to our adult Sunday school class on Islam. He genuinely, sincerely believed that Christians believe in three gods. I did not try to convert him — he was my guest, that would have been rude — but I did try to explain the Trinity as I understand it. At some point all conversations about the Trinity devolve into recognizing that it’s a mystery. A commissioned lay pastor in my church said it best, “If you can explain the Trinity, you don’t understand it.”
* * *
Re-Imagining
One of the earliest denominational controversies I encountered after ordination was over Re-Imagining: A Global Theological Conference By Women: For Men and Women, a gathering that took place in Minneapolis in November 1993. The conference “grew out of a USA mainline protestant response to the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Decade: Churches in Solidarity with Women 1988–1998.
The Re-Imagining conference grew into a huge controversy after voices like The Presbyterian Layman and other theologically conservative publications began stoking the fires of discontent among their readers. One of the grievances they voiced was that other gods had been worshiped at the conference. The Presbyterian Church (USA) had donated money and staff time to holding the conference. The conference program included a chant that went:
Bless Sophia/dream the vision/share the wisdom/dwelling deep within.
This language, as you know,= having looked at this week’s lectionary readings, is taken directly from Proverbs chapters 8-9.
Some tried to defuse the situation by conceding that while Sophia Loren is a stunningly beautiful movie star, she was not the object of worship at the conference. The Layman’s readers were not amused.
* * * * * *
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Wisdom Comes Late (Humor)
An angel appears at a faculty meeting and tells the dean that in return for his unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord will reward him with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom or beauty. Without hesitating, the dean selects infinite wisdom.
“So be it,” says the angel, and disappears back into heaven. Everyone in the meeting looks at the dean who now has a halo over his head but is silent with a kind of stunned look on his face. Finally, his secretary says to him, “Say something! What new wisdom do you have to share with us?”
The dean’s shoulders slump and he says: "I should have taken the money."
* * *
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Persian Proverb
Those who know not and know that they know not are children. Teach them.
Those who know not and know not that they know not are fools. Avoid them.
Those who know and know not that they know are asleep. Wake them.
Those who know and know that they know are wise. Follow them.
* * *
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
The Wise Goose — A Fable
Once there was a wise old goose who brought the other geese in his flock to look at a tree. He showed them a small vine that was beginning to grow at the bottom of the tree and warned them that the vine should be destroyed.
“If we do not destroy it, now,” he said. “It will grow big and strong and a hunter will be able to climb it like stairs into the tree and kill us.”
The young geese scoffed at the old goose. “You are a silly old goose,” they said. “You worry too much. You’re just trying to scare us so you look wise.” And they did nothing.
Time passed and, sure enough, the vine grew big and strong and a hunter who came upon it climbed into the tree to better see the geese. When they swam beneath the tree, they were caught in a net he had set there as a trap. They flapped their wings and cried out for help and the old goose swam by to see what the matter was.
“Please help us,” the young geese cried from within the net trap. “You were right and we were fools to not listen to you. Please help us out of this trap.”
The old goose said, “Be very still and pretend to be dead. When the hunter comes back to check his nets, he will think you are dead and, when he opens the net, you can fly out.”
The young geese did as the old goose said and, when the hunter opened the net, thinking they were all dead, they flew away, honking and calling out their thanks to the wise old goose who had saved them.
* * *
Romans 5:1-5
Made Strong By Trial
The National Forest Foundation (NFF) was chartered by congress to bring people together in efforts to protect and preserve our national forests. In their literature, they describe how some trees are made strong and manage to survive the most arduous of conditions, especially fire.
Thick bark.
Trees like the Ponderosa pine (also commonly known as the bull pine, blackjack pine or western yellow pine) develop thicker bark, in part, because thick bark does not catch fire or burn easily. It also protects the inside of the trunk, the living tissues that transport water and nutrients, from heat damage during high-frequency, low-intensity fires.
Fire-induced sprouts.
Some species of trees, like the Yellow Pine or the Shortstraw Pine can survive the complete destruction of above-ground growth because they have developed and extensive root system. Dormant buds are protected underground, and nutrients stored in the root system allow quick sprouting after the fire.
Serotinous cones.
In environments where hot, fast moving fires are frequent, some pine species, like the Jack Pine, have developed very thick, hard cones that are literally glued shut with a strong resin. These “serotinous” cones can hang on a pine tree for years, long after the enclosed seeds mature. Only when a fire sweeps through, melting the resin, do these heat-dependent cones open up, releasing seeds that are then distributed by wind and gravity.
Fire-activated seeds.
As opposed to serotinous cones, which protect enclosed seeds during a fire, the actual seeds of many plants in fire-prone environments need fire, directly or indirectly, to germinate. Trees in the Buckthorn family, including Ceanothus, Coffeeberry, and Redberry produce seeds with a tough coating that can lay dormant, awaiting a fire, for several years.
* * *
Romans 5:1-5
What Doesn’t Kill You…
In the hit song, “Stronger,” sung by Kelly Clarkson, the narrator of the ballad has been dumped by her boyfriend. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, however, she is determined to come through her heartache a stronger, better person because, “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
I suppose that’s a fine prescription to claim for one’s self but pronouncing it upon the suffering of another is the worst form of insensitivity.
In 40 years of ministry, I have held in my arms the parents of murdered children, strong people who were reduced by grief to helplessness and despair. I have sat with people who have just received a cancer diagnosis or, maybe worse, have heard such a diagnosis pronounced upon someone they love, a spouse or a child. I have seen heroic men and women paralyzed by PTSD.
Of course, I have also known people who survived terrible physical or mental trauma and triumphed in its wake. But the most I have taken from those encounters is a sense of gratitude and a parenthetical “sometimes.”
I often wonder if Paul’s observation might have been truer and more helpful had he included that word in his letter to the Romans: “Knowing that suffering sometimes produces endurance, and endurance sometimes produces character, and character sometimes produces hope and sometimes hope does not disappoint us…”
* * *
Romans 5:1-5
Post Traumatic Growth
Writing in Psychology Today, British psychologist Steve Taylor notes that, “in recent years, psychologists have become aware of phenomenon known as ‘post-traumatic growth.’”
This term was originally coined by the psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun, who interviewed many people who had suffered traumatic life-events such as bereavement, serious illness (such as cancer), house fires, combat, and becoming refugees.
They found that, for many of these people, dealing with this trauma was a powerful spur for personal development. It wasn't just a question of learning to cope with or adjust to negative situations; they actually gained some significant benefits from them.
Among the benefits was “new inner strength,” and the discovery of “skills and abilities they never knew they possessed.” They also became more self-confident and appreciative of life. They also report that they became more compassionate for the suffering of others and a greater capacity for intimacy so they were able to develop deeper and more satisfying personal relationships. They became more confident and appreciative of life, particularly of the "small things" that they used to take for granted. They became more compassionate for the sufferings of others, and more comfortable with intimacy so that they had deeper and more satisfying relationships. Also, they developed what they described as a more philosophical approach to life.
Another psychologist, Judith Neal, points out, however, that before that growth occurred, most of the subjects experienced what she called a “dark night of the soul,” where all of their previously held values and assumptions were called into question and they doubted whether life had any actual meaning at all. Eventually, she reports, they went through a period of spiritual searching and a time of integrating new values and perspectives into their new found sense of meaning.
* * * * * *
From team member Katy Stenta:
Romans 5:1-5
When I was about 5 years in to pastoring, a congregant I knew was on hospice. Let’s call him Matt. Matt had Parkinsons, and he was quite a character. He would say whatever he wanted, he loved to dance, and he served relentlessly at the food pantry. Matt tried to be nice, but sometimes wasn’t very kind. He would blurt out whatever was on his mind and had trouble hearing no or sitting still. Perfection was definitely out of reach, and yet, he could exude great joy and service. Because of his Parkinsons, Matt had no contingencies of care. He said when it was time, he just wanted to go. And yet, he seemed restless. Not quite awake, he was in his bed running and running and running. His suffering seemed to be significant. For three days he persisted, longer than any doctor thought he would last. Long enough for me to return from my conference and have a visit with him. Finally, his wife and I talked and decided to tell him, “it’s okay, it’s okay to go. It’s not about what you’ve done. Your faith alone is enough. It’s okay to let go.” Finally, his legs ceased, and his spirit, his pneuma, left, and it was enough.
* * *
John 16:12-15
Jesus is Still Speaking
When I think of pride and anti-racism and all the justice work that is still being done today, I cast them in the light of the “many things” Jesus still has to say to us. Because God is still speaking, all the time. What tunes are being played in the background of our lives that we cannot hear yet? When cell phones first came out it was quite remarkable, because I did not realize how much was playing in the background until I was listening for my ring. Then I realized that there is a lot going on that I had never heard before, until I was listening. That is how justice is. When we listen for it, we hear that it has been playing all along. What songs are we not ready to hear yet, that God has been playing in the universe all along?
* * *
Psalm 8, Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
It is good for me to remember, on the regular, that country borders are little more than human lines in the sand. It is healthy for me to think about how paperwork is nothing more or less than our own assignments for us, so that it doesn’t overwhelm my very soul in its impossibility. It is also heartening for me to remember that tradition and policy are also but a human creation, and we can make changes to these structures that we do not like and it is, and always has been, not only within our power to change them, but within God’s power to topple them. I find this comforting because all of these human things often feel foreboding — like they are all that ever was and all that ever will be. Psalm 8 and Proverbs 8 tell a different truth, and invite us to contemplate but a single blade of grass or the heavens in contrast to our human structures, and then dares us to think ourselves as great, or unmovable. If God can change things, so can we. If God can be creative, so can we. If God puts the universe in such harmony, then it is within our power to try to do the same. It is refreshing, and a good reminder of who God is, and therefore who we are as well.
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: O God, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
All: You have set your glory above the heavens.
One: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
All: the moon and the stars that you have established;
One: what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
All: mortals that you care for them?
One: Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
All: and crowned them with glory and honor.
OR
One: Glory and praise to you, O God our Creator.
All: We rejoice in the wonders of your creation.
One: Glory and praise to you, O Son of God and our Brother.
All: We thank you for showing us how to be children of God.
One: Glory and praise to you, O Spirit that dwells within all.
All: We welcome you into our hearts and our lives.
Hymns and Songs
Amazing Grace
UMH: 378
H82: 671
PH: 280
AAHH: 271/272
NNBH: 161/163
NCH: 547/548
CH: 546
LBW: 448
ELW: 779
W&P: 422
AMEC: 226
STLT: 205/206
Renew: 189
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
My Hope Is Built
UMH: 368
PH: 379
AAHH: 385
NNBH: 274
NCH: 403
CH: 537
LBW: 293/294
ELW: 596/597
W&P: 405
AMEC: 364
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELW: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT: 281
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
UMH: 64/65
H82: 362
PH: 138
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELW: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT 26
Renew 204
Breathe on Me, Breath of God
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
W&P: 461
AMEC: 192
Be Thou My Vision
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELW: 793
W&P: 502
AMEC: 281
STLT: 20
Renew: 151
Holy Spirit, Truth Divine
UMH: 465
PH: 321
NCH: 63
CH: 241
LBW: 257
ELW: 398
Come Down, O Love Divine
UMH: 475
H82: 516
PH: 313
NCH: 289
CH: 582
LBW: 508
ELW: 804
W&P: 330
We Believe in One True God
UMH: 85 (Not widely available but perfect for Trinity Sunday with a very easy tune.)
All I Need Is You
CCB: 100
Something Beautiful
CCB: 84
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is unity in the midst of diversity:
Grant us the grace to reflect your holiness
as we draw wisdom, grace, and truth in one hope;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are perfect unity in the midst of diversity. You are one in the midst being relationships. Help us to seek your wisdom, grace, and truth so that we may have hope in you. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we separate ourselves from God and our neighbors.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We were made to be one people made in the image of one God and yet we find many ways to be divided. We have lost our hope in you, our Creator, and we have instead placed our hope in things that cannot sustain us. We have gained great knowledge but we have forsaken wisdom; we have given up on grace and seek only retribution; we have made truth to mean what we think at the moment. Forgive us our foolish ways and draw us back into you vision, your hope for us and for all creation. Amen.
One: God comes among us still seeking to redeem us. Place your hope in God and receive the wisdom, grace, and truth that will set you and all creation free.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory to you, O God, who demonstrates perfect unity even while being diverse in your own being.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We were made to be one people made in the image of one God and yet we find many ways to be divided. We have lost our hope in you, our Creator, and we have instead placed our hope in things that cannot sustain us. We have gained great knowledge but we have forsaken wisdom; we have given up on grace and seek only retribution; we have made truth to mean what we think at the moment. Forgive us our foolish ways and draw us back into you vision, your hope for us and for all creation.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which your grace is made known to us. We thank you for the ability to be in community with you and with one another. We thank you for those who reach out to us and draw us into the weave of your great creation that is united because it is diverse. We thank you for the hope that you offer that is sure and eternal.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who find it difficult to believe you are an accepting God because we, as your people, have not been accepting. We pray for those who have been pushed away and shunned because they do not look, speak, or act like others. We pray that we may act more like our Lord Jesus in loving and caring for all.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Access Granted
by Katy Stenta
Romans 5:1-5
Object: Have a dove cut out to hand each child.
Jesus Promises that no matter what we are going through we have a direct line to God. The direct line is the Holy Spirit.
This means no matter what, we can talk to God. When we are happy or sad, or even when we are suffering, Jesus promises that we can talk to God, and that we are granted access to God.
Have you ever tried to download or get a video and needed permission or payment to access it?
Jesus promises that we have access to God, no matter what. Our access is always automatic because we have a direct pass through the power of the Holy Spirit.
(Hand each child a dove if you have them.) You have the Holy Spirit, and you and you… (Tell each child individually that they each have direct access to God, and they can talk to God whenever they want to.)
Let’s pray, repeat after me.
Dear God,
Thank you,
For giving us, the Holy Spirit,
to fill us with your Love
and give us a direct line
to talk to you
and access you
whenever we want.
Remind us
when we forget that
we pray.
In Jesus name,
Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 12, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- Is Paul Crazy? by Mary Austin based on Romans 5:1-5.
- Second Thoughts: Guided Into the Streets by Chris Keating.
- Sermon illustrations by Tom Willadsen, Dean Feldmeyer, Katy Stenta.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children's sermon: Access Granted by Katy Stenta.
Is Paul Crazy?by Mary Austin
Romans 5:1-5
As we all pray for the people of Uvalde, Texas, (and Buffalo, plus Tulsa, Ames, Iowa, Phoenix, and Philadelphia and…) the hugeness of the tragedy and the smallness of the town collide in heart-rending ways. The town is so small that mourners overlap, grieving not just for their own children, nieces and nephews, but for their children’s classmates and teachers. The first two funerals “captured the relentless march of grief that will follow — one child being buried while another family holds visitation while another prays the rosary and on and on.” There will be at least two joint funerals for children who were cousins as well as classmates.
Geographically, the town is small enough that “from the funeral home, families and mourners can see the back door the shooter used to slip inside the school. A row of open windows through which children escaped also faces the funeral home, the printed curtains that adorned one classroom window fluttering with the breeze.”
How then, I want to ask Paul as he writes to the believers in Rome, will these families have hope again? How will this relentless wound of trauma be healed when it’s time for this class of children to move up to middle school, or when graduation comes for their age group at the high school. Will there be 19 empty chairs at graduation? Or, will the town have to choose between celebrating a graduation and mourning the children who should be there?
“Hope does not disappoint us,” Paul writes to the churches in Rome. Really?
How then, I want to ask Paul, will Black residents of Buffalo feel safe going to the grocery store again? Or anywhere? Paul, how are we supposed to hold hope in the face of unending Covid? Tell us Paul, are the people abused by Southern Baptist ministers, and then trivialized and ignored by denominational officials, ever going to feel hopeful about the church? Or the love of God? (I have no illusions that my own denomination, the PC(USA) has a perfect record on this, either.)
“Hope does not disappoint,” Paul proclaims, and I’m not sure he’s right. Hope, however, feels very disappointing right now.
In the News
In discouraging news, the first weekend of June marked a greater number of mass shooting deaths in the United States than the previous three-day weekend, which ended with Memorial Day. The tally for weekend violence through Sunday night was at least 12 killed, and at least 38 injured in mass shootings, defined by the Gun Violence Archive as an incident in which “four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.” During the holiday weekend nine were killed and more than 60 were injured in attacks fitting that definition.”
As we ponder how to make our shared life safer, there are some policies that would help. Interestingly, “The body of research scientists have to draw from is limited, notes Michael Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers University. "Mass shooting research is a very small portion of gun violence research," he says. That's because mass shootings account for less than 1% of the roughly 40,000 people killed by guns each year in this country, Anestis explains. "They're horrific, they are all too common, and yet, it's just the very tip of the iceberg, right?" Those researchers who do study gun violence tend to focus on the kinds of violence, like suicide, associated with the most deaths, he says. But, he adds, the entire field of gun violence research has long been neglected and hardly funded.”
The two policies that showed an impact were a licensing process for gun ownership, and limiting high capacity magazines.
Almost lost in the news about mass shootings was the report on abuse in Southern Baptist churches. The most recent bombshell was a list of offenders, secretly kept by Southern Baptist Convention leadership. “In response to an explosive investigation, top Southern Baptists have released a previously secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse. The 205-page database was made public late Thursday. It includes more than 700 entries from cases that largely span from 2000 to 2019. Its existence became widely known Sunday when the independent firm, Guidepost Solutions, included it in its bombshell report detailing how the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse, stonewalled numerous survivors and prioritized protecting the SBC from liability.”
Longtime advocate for survivors, Christa Brown, who is also an attorney, notes “the unfathomable human cost of what it has taken to bring this truth to light. Countless lives have been decimated.” After enduring the original abuse, survivors were silenced by church leaders, ignored and even mocked. Brown notes that this destroys the survivor’s soul, and erodes their hope. “It's as though the whole of the faith community becomes a complicit partner in this horrific nightmare." How does a survivor, or a family member, find hope after the people who are the face of faith are abusers, or complicit in the abuse and the secrecy?
In the Scriptures
Here, Paul outlines the connection between believers and God, noting that our hope transcends all of the horrors that life can bring to us. Through our faith, “we have peace with God.” If we’re seeking safety, if we’re seeking vindication, if we’re seeking justice, we can pursue all of those things, even as we have peace with God.
The world’s events erode our peace and shatter our sense of security (for those who ever had it) and yet Paul is firm in his contention that we have this enduring gift of peace. He says that our suffering can draw us closer to God, as we develop endurance, and then character, in a chain reaction that leads us toward hope. If we can stay rooted in God’s peace, we can move firmly through suffering toward hope. Of course, this is easy to say and hard to do. We can only hear it from Paul because he himself suffered so much — he has the authority to give us this spiritual equation. Coming from anyone with less personal suffering, these same words would sound hollow.
Paul reminds us that our hope isn’t about outcomes, or changes in other people. Our hope doesn’t come from changed laws, or policies, or statistics. Our hope grows from our relationship with God. We hold closely to God through every experience of suffering, and, in holding on, we grow into the likeness of Jesus.
This is a calculation that we can only make for ourselves. We can never assess someone else’s suffering and announce that God is using it for good. This knowledge can only come from within, about our own lives. Paul offers us a map for this journey, with the knowledge that “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” We are not traveling alone.
In the Sermon
The sermon might explore how we stay rooted in this chain reaction where suffering is transformed into hope. How do we avoid becoming mired in grief, rage and despair? How do we keep moving from endurance to character to hope? We all know people who have emerged on the other side of pain as exemplars of faith, and we also know people who got lost in bitterness or vengefulness and never left. What makes the difference?
Or, the sermon might talk about not rushing through pain, or hurrying anyone else along. We need all of Paul’s steps to arrive at a deeply rooted hope.
The sermon might also explore how to create hopeful space for people who are suffering, without diminishing their experience? Other people’s sorrow makes us uncomfortable and we disappoint each other, as we take each other’s pain too lightly. The sermon could offer a wealth of practical advice on what not to say to ourselves or others when suffering comes.
Rabbi Harold Kushner, our national teacher about suffering, says, “My interactions with troubled or angry congregants have involved less explaining and more hand-holding. I have more than once paid a condolence call on a family to whom something so awful had happened that words seemed inadequate. So I didn’t offer words, beyond ‘I’m sorry, I feel so bad for you.’ I would often sit quietly with the grieving widow or parent for several minutes, and when I would get up to go, the mourner would throw her arms around me and say, ‘Thank you for being here with us.’ My presence represented God’s caring presence, the symbolic statement that God had not abandoned them. That reassurance, more than any theological wisdom, was what I was uniquely qualified to offer them.” (From Nine Essential Things I've Learned About Life.)
The sermon might also look at the example of seasoned souls who have made this journey through suffering toward hope. Using their example, the sermon could show the back story of how people held onto God. God doesn’t cause suffering, and yet God is present in it, ready to work toward our transformation.
Laws and leaders will always disappoint us. The finish line of a just and joyful world feels ever farther away. We’re fighting the battles of the 1970s all over again, if not the 1950s. And yet our hope is not in any of these places. No human evil can steal our hope because our spirits are rooted in God, and we travel with God’s love in our hearts. Paul, an expert in suffering, is also an expert guide on where to set our hope.
SECOND THOUGHTSGuided Into the Streets
by Chris Keating
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31, Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15, Psalm 8
Remember that time when your sermon about the Trinity held everyone in rapt attention with its crystal-clear comparisons of how Jesus was homoousios the Father, along with supporting arguments from Tertullian, Athanasius, and an illustration from the Cappodocian Fathers? It’s ok; neither does the congregation. In fact, we do well to take a cue from theologian Daniel Migliore’s reminder that “the doctrine of the Trinity is the always-inadequate attempt to interpret (scripture’s) witness in the most suitable images and concepts available” at the time. (Faith Seeking Understanding, 67).
Indeed, moving from Pentecost Sunday’s fiery ecstasy to the comparatively languid pallor of Trinity Sunday may feel a bit like the last leg of an uphill bicycle race. We’ve coasted through the Spirit’s descent and are now climbing up the steep incline of dogmatic theology. Also, we’re doing this in June.
Tertullian and Athanasius can wait. Instead, take a second look at this week’s text. Psalm 8’s lush view of creation offers an entry into the beauty of God. Without claiming these texts as the complete scriptural foundation for the Trinity, they do provide insights. Proverbs 8 takes us out into the streets, where the voice of Lady Wisdom calls out to all of God’s children. Romans extends the promise of hope even in moments of suffering, offering Paul’s punchline to his theology of justification by grace. All of this is threaded together with Jesus’ assurance that the Spirit will lead us toward truth.
Wisdom, grace, and truth — these three remind us that the first step toward rehydrating Trinity Sunday is to step outside and listen to the noise on the street. Out on the streets we hear the cries of children and adults of Uvalde, Texas as they mourn. The small town is beginning to assess its long-term mental health needs. Leaders have long advocated for more mental health clinicians in the small town, and now worry who will be available to the community long-term.
Wisdom cries out that all may live. The cruel irony is that in many instances it is easier to get firearms than it is to get an appointment with a therapist or psychiatrist. Wisdom calls to us; but will we find the grace that leads us to the truth? What will enable us to hear the things Jesus says we cannot bear to hear now?
Being guided by the truth is not easy. Our weak intentions or our too easily distracted natures impede us from following the truth. Our ears become clogged to the wisdom of God, a wisdom we believe flows out of the dance of God’s Trinitarian communion. To affirm the Trinity is to affirm that the three persons of God exist in equal, loving, and other-affirming community. This wisdom is distinct from the advice peddled on the streets. It defies easy definitions. But it is the wisdom that leads to truth.
“The Civility of Albert Cashier,” a musical written by Jay Paul Deratany, with music by Joe Stevens and Keaton Wooden, tells the true-life story of a Civil War soldier who understood the complexities of being guided by the truth. The play is now being produced off Broadway, and made its debut in Chicago in 2017.
Private Albert D.J. Cashier enlisted in the Union Army in Illinois in 1862. Private Cashier fought bravely in 40 battles, but always maintained modesty in bathing and dressing. At Vicksburg, he was captured briefly, escaping by wrestling a gun from his Confederate guard and running toward Union lines.
Cashier was slight of stature and nearly beardless. He made a reputation for himself by his bravery and commitment to his comrades in arms, while always holding a secret.
After the war, Cashier returned to Illinois. He worked on farms and at odd jobs for a time, until he was hit by a car in 1910 and hospitalized for a broken leg.
While in the hospital, that long-held secret was revealed: Cashier had been assigned female gender at birth, even though he had lived his entire life as a man. At birth, Cashier was named Jennie Hodgers, a name and identity he had discarded as a teenager. But this truthful identity was challenged by state authorities who committed him to an insane asylum and forced him to wear dresses. Near the end of his life, Cashier was put on trial for defrauding the government to receive a military pension.
Still, Cashier was guided by truth. Veterans who had served with him in the 95th Illinois infantry rallied to his defense, testifying that he was not Jennie Hodgers, but was indeed Albert D.J. Cashier. When he died, Cashier was buried in his uniform with military honors. His name is inscribed in a monument at the Vicksburg battlefield. According to the National Archives, there were at least 250 women who presented as men to serve in the Civil War — including some who continued to live as men long after the war was over.
Cashier and his close friends accepted the truth. Guided by that promise of Jesus, they listened for the wisdom of God, a wisdom that cries out to all creation. They might not have been able to recite Niceno-Constantinian formulas for the Trinity. Likely, the finer points of homoussias escaped them. But each one knew the broader truth of the love of God shared in deep, inter-connected relationship. They had heard the cry of wisdom, and allowed God’s abundant grace to guide them toward truth.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:Trinity Sunday
There is only one day on the church calendar dedicated to a point of theology: Trinity Sunday. You’ve got a nice segue from last week, preacher, because Pentecost is all about the Holy Spirit. Stir in Father/Creator, Son/Redeemer and you’ve cooked a Trinity stew. You may notice that all three “persons” (more on that term later) are only mentioned in two of this week’s readings: John and Romans. Psalm 8 only mentions God the Creator. The Proverbs reading is in the personified, feminine voice of Wisdom, perhaps she’s an analog to the Holy Spirit, but be careful. The text makes it clear that Wisdom/Sophia was created by the Lord. Orthodox Trinitarians believe that all three persons in the Trinity have existed from eternity. While the text makes it clear that Wisdom/Sophia was present when the earth was formed, it is equally clear that Wisdom was herself created by the Creator.
* * *
God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity
You’re going to sing “Holy, Holy, Holy,” because it’s the law, you gotta sing it on Trinity Sunday. The hook for the hymn is Isaiah 6, when the prophet Isaiah is called, after overhearing the Creator asking the Creator-self, “Whom shall I send?” Prior to that the seraphs were flying around the Temple, as seraphs do, calling antiphonally “holy, holy, holy.” The repetition is for emphasis, not because there’s some hidden Christian/Trinitarian clue waiting for believers to uncover 1,500 years later. The Lord is really holy, not in three parts.
The beloved hymn makes it sound like God is three individual persons. This is unfortunate, but it is burned into our preliterate memories. Try to imagine instead, God in three personas. The Latin word persona means “mask,” the thing that actors used to wear to indicate different characters in a stage play. The same human/actor could play a variety of roles in a play depending on which mask he was wearing. The same human, acting in different roles. That’s a pretty decent approximation for how we understand the Trinity: one God, capable of assuming multiple roles.
* * *
About this doctrine
The only times I’ve been asked about the Trinity in more than 30 years of ordained ministry have been by non-Christians. The first was a hostile atheist (different from more mellow indifferent atheists, some call them ‘Nones’) who was marrying a member of the church I had just begun serving. “I’m not a Christian; I’m a monotheist.” He was spoiling for an argument and I did not rise to the bait. “I’m a Christian monotheist,” I replied. The second time was with a Muslim who was attending worship prior to giving a presentation to our adult Sunday school class on Islam. He genuinely, sincerely believed that Christians believe in three gods. I did not try to convert him — he was my guest, that would have been rude — but I did try to explain the Trinity as I understand it. At some point all conversations about the Trinity devolve into recognizing that it’s a mystery. A commissioned lay pastor in my church said it best, “If you can explain the Trinity, you don’t understand it.”
* * *
Re-Imagining
One of the earliest denominational controversies I encountered after ordination was over Re-Imagining: A Global Theological Conference By Women: For Men and Women, a gathering that took place in Minneapolis in November 1993. The conference “grew out of a USA mainline protestant response to the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Decade: Churches in Solidarity with Women 1988–1998.
The Re-Imagining conference grew into a huge controversy after voices like The Presbyterian Layman and other theologically conservative publications began stoking the fires of discontent among their readers. One of the grievances they voiced was that other gods had been worshiped at the conference. The Presbyterian Church (USA) had donated money and staff time to holding the conference. The conference program included a chant that went:
Bless Sophia/dream the vision/share the wisdom/dwelling deep within.
This language, as you know,= having looked at this week’s lectionary readings, is taken directly from Proverbs chapters 8-9.
Some tried to defuse the situation by conceding that while Sophia Loren is a stunningly beautiful movie star, she was not the object of worship at the conference. The Layman’s readers were not amused.
* * * * * *
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Wisdom Comes Late (Humor)
An angel appears at a faculty meeting and tells the dean that in return for his unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord will reward him with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom or beauty. Without hesitating, the dean selects infinite wisdom.
“So be it,” says the angel, and disappears back into heaven. Everyone in the meeting looks at the dean who now has a halo over his head but is silent with a kind of stunned look on his face. Finally, his secretary says to him, “Say something! What new wisdom do you have to share with us?”
The dean’s shoulders slump and he says: "I should have taken the money."
* * *
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Persian Proverb
Those who know not and know that they know not are children. Teach them.
Those who know not and know not that they know not are fools. Avoid them.
Those who know and know not that they know are asleep. Wake them.
Those who know and know that they know are wise. Follow them.
* * *
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
The Wise Goose — A Fable
Once there was a wise old goose who brought the other geese in his flock to look at a tree. He showed them a small vine that was beginning to grow at the bottom of the tree and warned them that the vine should be destroyed.
“If we do not destroy it, now,” he said. “It will grow big and strong and a hunter will be able to climb it like stairs into the tree and kill us.”
The young geese scoffed at the old goose. “You are a silly old goose,” they said. “You worry too much. You’re just trying to scare us so you look wise.” And they did nothing.
Time passed and, sure enough, the vine grew big and strong and a hunter who came upon it climbed into the tree to better see the geese. When they swam beneath the tree, they were caught in a net he had set there as a trap. They flapped their wings and cried out for help and the old goose swam by to see what the matter was.
“Please help us,” the young geese cried from within the net trap. “You were right and we were fools to not listen to you. Please help us out of this trap.”
The old goose said, “Be very still and pretend to be dead. When the hunter comes back to check his nets, he will think you are dead and, when he opens the net, you can fly out.”
The young geese did as the old goose said and, when the hunter opened the net, thinking they were all dead, they flew away, honking and calling out their thanks to the wise old goose who had saved them.
* * *
Romans 5:1-5
Made Strong By Trial
The National Forest Foundation (NFF) was chartered by congress to bring people together in efforts to protect and preserve our national forests. In their literature, they describe how some trees are made strong and manage to survive the most arduous of conditions, especially fire.
Thick bark.
Trees like the Ponderosa pine (also commonly known as the bull pine, blackjack pine or western yellow pine) develop thicker bark, in part, because thick bark does not catch fire or burn easily. It also protects the inside of the trunk, the living tissues that transport water and nutrients, from heat damage during high-frequency, low-intensity fires.
Fire-induced sprouts.
Some species of trees, like the Yellow Pine or the Shortstraw Pine can survive the complete destruction of above-ground growth because they have developed and extensive root system. Dormant buds are protected underground, and nutrients stored in the root system allow quick sprouting after the fire.
Serotinous cones.
In environments where hot, fast moving fires are frequent, some pine species, like the Jack Pine, have developed very thick, hard cones that are literally glued shut with a strong resin. These “serotinous” cones can hang on a pine tree for years, long after the enclosed seeds mature. Only when a fire sweeps through, melting the resin, do these heat-dependent cones open up, releasing seeds that are then distributed by wind and gravity.
Fire-activated seeds.
As opposed to serotinous cones, which protect enclosed seeds during a fire, the actual seeds of many plants in fire-prone environments need fire, directly or indirectly, to germinate. Trees in the Buckthorn family, including Ceanothus, Coffeeberry, and Redberry produce seeds with a tough coating that can lay dormant, awaiting a fire, for several years.
* * *
Romans 5:1-5
What Doesn’t Kill You…
In the hit song, “Stronger,” sung by Kelly Clarkson, the narrator of the ballad has been dumped by her boyfriend. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, however, she is determined to come through her heartache a stronger, better person because, “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
I suppose that’s a fine prescription to claim for one’s self but pronouncing it upon the suffering of another is the worst form of insensitivity.
In 40 years of ministry, I have held in my arms the parents of murdered children, strong people who were reduced by grief to helplessness and despair. I have sat with people who have just received a cancer diagnosis or, maybe worse, have heard such a diagnosis pronounced upon someone they love, a spouse or a child. I have seen heroic men and women paralyzed by PTSD.
Of course, I have also known people who survived terrible physical or mental trauma and triumphed in its wake. But the most I have taken from those encounters is a sense of gratitude and a parenthetical “sometimes.”
I often wonder if Paul’s observation might have been truer and more helpful had he included that word in his letter to the Romans: “Knowing that suffering sometimes produces endurance, and endurance sometimes produces character, and character sometimes produces hope and sometimes hope does not disappoint us…”
* * *
Romans 5:1-5
Post Traumatic Growth
Writing in Psychology Today, British psychologist Steve Taylor notes that, “in recent years, psychologists have become aware of phenomenon known as ‘post-traumatic growth.’”
This term was originally coined by the psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun, who interviewed many people who had suffered traumatic life-events such as bereavement, serious illness (such as cancer), house fires, combat, and becoming refugees.
They found that, for many of these people, dealing with this trauma was a powerful spur for personal development. It wasn't just a question of learning to cope with or adjust to negative situations; they actually gained some significant benefits from them.
Among the benefits was “new inner strength,” and the discovery of “skills and abilities they never knew they possessed.” They also became more self-confident and appreciative of life. They also report that they became more compassionate for the suffering of others and a greater capacity for intimacy so they were able to develop deeper and more satisfying personal relationships. They became more confident and appreciative of life, particularly of the "small things" that they used to take for granted. They became more compassionate for the sufferings of others, and more comfortable with intimacy so that they had deeper and more satisfying relationships. Also, they developed what they described as a more philosophical approach to life.
Another psychologist, Judith Neal, points out, however, that before that growth occurred, most of the subjects experienced what she called a “dark night of the soul,” where all of their previously held values and assumptions were called into question and they doubted whether life had any actual meaning at all. Eventually, she reports, they went through a period of spiritual searching and a time of integrating new values and perspectives into their new found sense of meaning.
* * * * * *
From team member Katy Stenta:Romans 5:1-5
When I was about 5 years in to pastoring, a congregant I knew was on hospice. Let’s call him Matt. Matt had Parkinsons, and he was quite a character. He would say whatever he wanted, he loved to dance, and he served relentlessly at the food pantry. Matt tried to be nice, but sometimes wasn’t very kind. He would blurt out whatever was on his mind and had trouble hearing no or sitting still. Perfection was definitely out of reach, and yet, he could exude great joy and service. Because of his Parkinsons, Matt had no contingencies of care. He said when it was time, he just wanted to go. And yet, he seemed restless. Not quite awake, he was in his bed running and running and running. His suffering seemed to be significant. For three days he persisted, longer than any doctor thought he would last. Long enough for me to return from my conference and have a visit with him. Finally, his wife and I talked and decided to tell him, “it’s okay, it’s okay to go. It’s not about what you’ve done. Your faith alone is enough. It’s okay to let go.” Finally, his legs ceased, and his spirit, his pneuma, left, and it was enough.
* * *
John 16:12-15
Jesus is Still Speaking
When I think of pride and anti-racism and all the justice work that is still being done today, I cast them in the light of the “many things” Jesus still has to say to us. Because God is still speaking, all the time. What tunes are being played in the background of our lives that we cannot hear yet? When cell phones first came out it was quite remarkable, because I did not realize how much was playing in the background until I was listening for my ring. Then I realized that there is a lot going on that I had never heard before, until I was listening. That is how justice is. When we listen for it, we hear that it has been playing all along. What songs are we not ready to hear yet, that God has been playing in the universe all along?
* * *
Psalm 8, Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
It is good for me to remember, on the regular, that country borders are little more than human lines in the sand. It is healthy for me to think about how paperwork is nothing more or less than our own assignments for us, so that it doesn’t overwhelm my very soul in its impossibility. It is also heartening for me to remember that tradition and policy are also but a human creation, and we can make changes to these structures that we do not like and it is, and always has been, not only within our power to change them, but within God’s power to topple them. I find this comforting because all of these human things often feel foreboding — like they are all that ever was and all that ever will be. Psalm 8 and Proverbs 8 tell a different truth, and invite us to contemplate but a single blade of grass or the heavens in contrast to our human structures, and then dares us to think ourselves as great, or unmovable. If God can change things, so can we. If God can be creative, so can we. If God puts the universe in such harmony, then it is within our power to try to do the same. It is refreshing, and a good reminder of who God is, and therefore who we are as well.
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: O God, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
All: You have set your glory above the heavens.
One: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
All: the moon and the stars that you have established;
One: what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
All: mortals that you care for them?
One: Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
All: and crowned them with glory and honor.
OR
One: Glory and praise to you, O God our Creator.
All: We rejoice in the wonders of your creation.
One: Glory and praise to you, O Son of God and our Brother.
All: We thank you for showing us how to be children of God.
One: Glory and praise to you, O Spirit that dwells within all.
All: We welcome you into our hearts and our lives.
Hymns and Songs
Amazing Grace
UMH: 378
H82: 671
PH: 280
AAHH: 271/272
NNBH: 161/163
NCH: 547/548
CH: 546
LBW: 448
ELW: 779
W&P: 422
AMEC: 226
STLT: 205/206
Renew: 189
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
My Hope Is Built
UMH: 368
PH: 379
AAHH: 385
NNBH: 274
NCH: 403
CH: 537
LBW: 293/294
ELW: 596/597
W&P: 405
AMEC: 364
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELW: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT: 281
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
UMH: 64/65
H82: 362
PH: 138
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELW: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT 26
Renew 204
Breathe on Me, Breath of God
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
W&P: 461
AMEC: 192
Be Thou My Vision
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELW: 793
W&P: 502
AMEC: 281
STLT: 20
Renew: 151
Holy Spirit, Truth Divine
UMH: 465
PH: 321
NCH: 63
CH: 241
LBW: 257
ELW: 398
Come Down, O Love Divine
UMH: 475
H82: 516
PH: 313
NCH: 289
CH: 582
LBW: 508
ELW: 804
W&P: 330
We Believe in One True God
UMH: 85 (Not widely available but perfect for Trinity Sunday with a very easy tune.)
All I Need Is You
CCB: 100
Something Beautiful
CCB: 84
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is unity in the midst of diversity:
Grant us the grace to reflect your holiness
as we draw wisdom, grace, and truth in one hope;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are perfect unity in the midst of diversity. You are one in the midst being relationships. Help us to seek your wisdom, grace, and truth so that we may have hope in you. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we separate ourselves from God and our neighbors.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We were made to be one people made in the image of one God and yet we find many ways to be divided. We have lost our hope in you, our Creator, and we have instead placed our hope in things that cannot sustain us. We have gained great knowledge but we have forsaken wisdom; we have given up on grace and seek only retribution; we have made truth to mean what we think at the moment. Forgive us our foolish ways and draw us back into you vision, your hope for us and for all creation. Amen.
One: God comes among us still seeking to redeem us. Place your hope in God and receive the wisdom, grace, and truth that will set you and all creation free.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory to you, O God, who demonstrates perfect unity even while being diverse in your own being.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We were made to be one people made in the image of one God and yet we find many ways to be divided. We have lost our hope in you, our Creator, and we have instead placed our hope in things that cannot sustain us. We have gained great knowledge but we have forsaken wisdom; we have given up on grace and seek only retribution; we have made truth to mean what we think at the moment. Forgive us our foolish ways and draw us back into you vision, your hope for us and for all creation.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which your grace is made known to us. We thank you for the ability to be in community with you and with one another. We thank you for those who reach out to us and draw us into the weave of your great creation that is united because it is diverse. We thank you for the hope that you offer that is sure and eternal.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who find it difficult to believe you are an accepting God because we, as your people, have not been accepting. We pray for those who have been pushed away and shunned because they do not look, speak, or act like others. We pray that we may act more like our Lord Jesus in loving and caring for all.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMONAccess Granted
by Katy Stenta
Romans 5:1-5
Object: Have a dove cut out to hand each child.
Jesus Promises that no matter what we are going through we have a direct line to God. The direct line is the Holy Spirit.
This means no matter what, we can talk to God. When we are happy or sad, or even when we are suffering, Jesus promises that we can talk to God, and that we are granted access to God.
Have you ever tried to download or get a video and needed permission or payment to access it?
Jesus promises that we have access to God, no matter what. Our access is always automatic because we have a direct pass through the power of the Holy Spirit.
(Hand each child a dove if you have them.) You have the Holy Spirit, and you and you… (Tell each child individually that they each have direct access to God, and they can talk to God whenever they want to.)
Let’s pray, repeat after me.
Dear God,
Thank you,
For giving us, the Holy Spirit,
to fill us with your Love
and give us a direct line
to talk to you
and access you
whenever we want.
Remind us
when we forget that
we pray.
In Jesus name,
Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 12, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
