Many congregations will be celebrating All Saints Sunday this week -- and in this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Leah Lonsbury considers the question of what it is that defines a saint. As you would expect, the All Saints lections provide us with some telling clues about what constitutes sainthood -- and it’s no coincidence that the assigned gospel text is the Beatitudes. Despite our many flaws and imperfections, God’s grace makes us all saints... something we demonstrate by doing the Lord’s work (for which, Jesus tells us, our reward will be great in heaven). But being a saint, as Jesus reminds us in the Beatitudes, is an often unseen and thankless task that leads people to “revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”
Leah illustrates this principle by looking at some examples of hidden saints -- those whose work often goes unrewarded and unappreciated by the world. She highlights two groups who have been in the news recently: translators and other Afghanis who have put themselves and their families at risk by working with Americans (and who have all too often received shameful treatment in return), and healthcare workers who have placed themselves in harm’s way by volunteering their time and expertise in Africa to combat the Ebola epidemic. We marvel at their commitment and willingness to face peril -- and Jesus tells us that this is often the situation of those who take up the mantle of sainthood. Indeed, Jesus continually cautions us against seeking rewards in this life, reminding us (in the Proper 16 gospel text) that those “who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” But Leah also points out that we don’t need extraordinary circumstances to live out our identity as saints -- all it takes is a commitment to listen carefully for God’s voice calling us to be the saints the world needs.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the Proper 26 Thessalonians passage. Dean notes that last week Paul focused on nurse/mother imagery, this week he turns to the image of “a father with his children.” It’s interesting that the father Paul describes is not a difficult, stern, judgmental one, but rather one who continually begs and nags to get the best out of his children. Indeed, Paul says that a Christian acting as a father figure is “urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.” In other words, a father is one who doesn’t accept mediocrity but one who keeps pushing and inspiring his children to be better. Dean reviews several examples from popular culture and recent headlines of fathers who fit this description, and he concludes that the meaning of this passage seems fairly straightforward. Paul is encouraging us to act as father figures to one another, caring about and pushing one another to live out our sainthood; to be, as it were, shepherds to one another in the same way that our Shepherd looks out for us and our best interests (even if we unruly children are often loathe to listen to the wisdom of our elders).
For All the Saints
by Leah Lonsbury
Matthew 5:1-12; Matthew 23:1-12
Many of us will be celebrating All Saints Day this Sunday, pausing to honor the lives of the members of our congregations who have died in the past year. But what is it exactly about a person that makes them a saint? William W. How gives us some ideas in his famous hymn “For All the Saints.” Saints, according to How, are those who profess their faith before the world; bless the name of Jesus; find shelter in God; look to the Lord in their faithful, bold, and “well-fought fight”; win the victor’s crown; and shine in glory.
Those sound like some pretty tough standards to live up to, right?
What if our saint standards weren’t based on the Platonic ideal of perfection but looked more to our scriptures for guidance? What does Jesus say about what makes one great? Who will be exalted in the kin-dom Jesus is creating? Who will be qualified to be called blessed and known as saints? Who will be rewarded with God’s mercy and called children of God?
It’s not who we might think.
Let’s uncover some hidden and perhaps surprising saints whose work often goes unseen, unappreciated, and unrewarded. Just as Jesus warned his followers it would, this saintly work brings with it persecution and great personal risk. This All Saints Day we should all be paying attention, because despite our flaws and imperfections, God through grace is busy making us this kind of saint as well.
Be ready. Next stop... sainthood.
In the News
It can be hard to tell right from wrong and saints from sinners in a place like contemporary Afghanistan. Since hostilities began there in the fall of 2001, more than 700 billion American taxpayer dollars have been sent there, with an estimated $60 billon of that amount lost to fraud. Freelance writer Matthieu Aikins recounts the legacy our invasion leaves behind in his piece “Last Tango in Kabul” for Rolling Stone:
We are leaving behind a country whose fate is more uncertain than ever, where during a contentious election, two rival candidates have declared themselves the rightful president, where murders in broad daylight go unsolved. The American Era is ending in Afghanistan, but what will we be leaving behind?
Costs of War estimates that as of February 2014 over 21,000 Afghani civilian lives have been lost due to violence and war-induced breakdowns of public health, security, and infrastructure. Almost 3,500 coalition military deaths have been reported. The New York Times reported back in February 2012 that the number of U.S. contractor deaths had begun to outpace military deaths and believed those deaths to be vastly underreported. “Kabul, Afghanistan -- Even dying is outsourced here,” was how Rod Nordland began his piece for the Times.
20-year-old Afghanistan native Qais Mansoori may be one of those uncounted contractor losses. Mansoori was an interpreter working for Mission Essential Personnel, the leading provider of contracted interpreters in Afghanistan, when he was killed along with five other interpreters after a military base in Kandahar Province was overrun by the Taliban in July 2010. The attack was scantily reported since no soldiers died, even though the death toll was 17, including one American civilian.
Mansoori’s family reports that Mission Essential Personnel promptly contacted them and made a lump-sum payment of $10,004, never mentioning the lifetime annuity to which they were entitled. Given Mansoori’s salary of $800 a month, that annuity should have been closer to $150,000 over his survivors’ lifetimes. “I wish he was still here to look after my father and mother,” Mansoori’s brother, Mohammed, told the New York Times. Their father is blind, and Qais was his parents’ sole support.
Despite Mansoori’s essential and life-saving service to coalition forces, his family is likely to be the target of lingering anti-American sentiments. Their well-being and even their lives may be at risk because of his service. Last Monday, Gawker reported on Last Week Tonight’s segment about interpreters like Mansoori and the poor treatment they are receiving as the U.S. draws down its forces in Afghanistan.
The entire segment from Last Week Tonight is definitely worth the time it takes to watch, but here is how Gawker sums up LWT host John Oliver’s take on the risks these interpreters have taken in service to a military and country that is more than reticent to offer them sanctuary in response...
The U.S. does issue visas to Afghans, but the process is a 14-step labyrinth of paperwork and medical exams, just to get a chance at making it to America.
“It’s next to impossible. It’s akin to literally winning the lottery,” explains a U.S. veteran in one of Oliver’s clips.
He’s not exaggerating: Only 3 special immigrant visas were issued to Afghans in 2011.
And while the translators are waiting to get out, their lives are being torn apart. One of them, Mohamed, saw his father killed, and his beloved 3-year-old brother kidnapped for a $35,000 ransom. Mohammad spent his entire live savings to get his brother back.
After 3 and a half years, he’s finally made it to the U.S., where a clerical error changed his legal first name to “FNU” -- short for First Name Unknown.
Thank you for your service, Fnu. We can do so much better.
But it remains to be seen if we will. Special visa applications from Afghanistan are scheduled to stop altogether on Dec. 31 unless Congress votes to extend the program.
Afghanistan may be a dangerous and confusing place at the moment, but it’s fairly easy to pick out these kinds of saints in a sea of unrest, instability, and violence. Their work and its consequences may often go largely unseen and unappreciated by the American public, but our scriptures tell us their humble offerings will be exalted (Matthew 23:12) and their perseverance under persecution and efforts toward peacemaking will not go unrewarded (Matthew 5:9, 11).
Another example of this kind of saint can be found in the healthcare workers who are currently caring for patients amidst a renewed outbreak of hysteria around Ebola. Kaci Hickox, a nurse returning from volunteer medical work in Liberia, was detained after landing in Newark’s Liberty Airport on Friday afternoon and taken to isolation tent inside University Hospital in Newark. Even though she tested negative for Ebola on two separate occasions, authorities initially maintained that she would be held in quarantine there for 21 days -- a policy mandated by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for any healthcare worker who has come in contact with Ebola patients. Christie told reporters at a news conference: “I’m sorry if in any way she was inconvenienced, but inconvenience that could occur from having folks that are symptomatic and ill out amongst the public is a much, much greater concern of mine. I hope she recovers quickly.”
But Hickox isn’t sick. CNN reports:
Hickox said she has nothing to recover from. Her temperature is normal, and she feels fine. “Everyone keeps asking how I’m feeling physically and of course I’m fine physically, but I don’t think most people understand what it’s like to be alone in a tent and decisions are being made that don’t make sense and show no compassion,” Hickox said, starting to cry. “I just feel like fear is winning right now, and when fear wins, everyone loses.”
While under quarantine, Hickox was not allowed to have the luggage she took to Liberia. She had no shower, no flushable toilet, and no TV in her isolation tent. Mostly, she said, she stared at the walls. She was not being allowed contact with her lawyer, in spite of the fact that doctors in normal clothes and no protective gear conversed with her through the windows of her tent.
Despite the inconvenience and added stress of that kind of forced quarantine, Hickox says she doesn’t regret her choice to help Ebola patients in Africa. “Someone asked me earlier would I do this again if I knew what would happen, and my answer is categorically yes,” she said. “I feel incredibly privileged to be able to do this work.”
Fortunately sanity prevailed, and Hickox was released on Monday following a blizzard of publicity about her situation and criticism by healthcare experts of the blanket quarantine policy.
Many of our lives seem far from the realities of Afghanistan, Liberia, and even Newark, New Jersey. So, who are the surprising or hidden saints doing unseen, unappreciated, and unrewarded work in your everyday locale? For me, it’s the teachers in my local district, the DeKalb County School System. In the past three years, teachers here have taken a 6.25% pay cut while central office staff and salaries have grown, lost 800 teaching colleagues while gaining 5,000 students in a district of 100,000 students, been required to work 4 furlough days a contract year, started being graded on their students’ performance on standardized testing, had enormous pressure placed on them to teach to the test, and watched as funding for education in Georgia has been cut down to a level that requires them to furnish and supply their classrooms out of their own shrinking paycheck.
Who are the surprising or hidden saints you pass on the street, in the pews, and in your neighborhood every day? What are you learning from them? How are you being shaped for and called to this kind of saintly work?
In the Scriptures
In the gospel passage for Proper 26 from Matthew 23, Jesus begins a rant that dresses down the Pharisees, those leaders in the Jewish community who were known for their interpretation and adaptation of Mosaic Law to all aspects of the community’s life. These Pharisees were the rule makers (gleaning from Mosaic Law) and keepers, those seemingly perfect folks who would have been more than comfortable with a prestigious title like “saint.” The trouble was, they weren’t following their own rules. To make things worse, they were making it difficult for others to follow the rules (adding excessive burdens that were hard to bear) and taking credit and enjoying honor for piety and virtue that were nothing more than a façade.
“These aren’t the saints you think they are,” Jesus tells the crowds.
Or, as Tim Beach-Verhey writes in Feasting on the Word [Year A, Vol. 4]:
Pious words and orthodox convictions alone do not make a person faithful. The true measure of faithfulness is found not in the words one speaks or the doctrines one accepts but in the orientation of one’s heart. Is one’s whole heart and life oriented toward God, or is it aimed at something less than God (Matthew 6:19-34)? ...[O]rienting one’s whole self toward God entails a radical form of egalitarianism. (pg. 262)
This is consistent with Jesus’ statement that there is one teacher and we are all students of that one teacher, and his indictments of the Pharisees for the ways they set themselves apart from and above the crowds. Beach-Verhey recalls H. Richard Neibuhr’s image of God as the “common center to which all [people] are related; it is by reference to and in respect of their relation to that creative center that they are equal.”
When we’re busy adding to our advantage or cultivating our power and honor via the high opinions and respect of others, we spend all our energy achieving human honor and praise. When we can get our seemingly insatiable need for human approval in check long enough to calm the saintly charade and pause the saintly dance meant to please those around us and add to our own prestige, we can be quiet and still enough to hear and have confidence in the divine “yes” and experience the reality of God’s infinite grace and forgiveness (Allen Hilton in Feasting on the Word [Year A, Vol. 4], pg. 265).
When we look to our center, we stop looking around us to be sure all eyes are on us, taking in our saintly status. In that centered place, we can trade that very public saint status for the reality of a saint’s life and join in the incarnation of God’s love found in the life and actions of Jesus.
Jesus gives us clues as to how to find that center in Matthew 23. Care for others and humility will point us there. This is servant leadership, the way to humble oneself, the only way to the only kind of exaltation that matters. This is the way of the hidden and surprising servant.
The All Saints Day gospel text, the Beatitudes, sends us to our center as well. The road there will be paved with humility and mourning, longing for righteousness, acts of mercy, true and pure hearts, mercy and more mercy, peacemaking in the face of persecution, undeserved difficulties and damaging lies, and the good company of the prophets (“saints” works here too) who will lead the way to the kin-dom and remind us that we are claimed and loved by God, the only affirmation we will ever need.
With these texts in mind, our picture of sainthood begins to shift. Now that it’s not about achievement, reputation, and glory, are we more or less willing to join the ranks? What situations, people, and needs around us call us to servant leadership or hidden and surprising sainthood? How does this kind of service call us to our center, cause us to come alive in unexpected ways, and challenge us as disciples of the one teacher to seek a new kind of exaltation?
In the Sermon
This week the preacher might consider...
* shaping the sermon around the questions in the preceding paragraph.
* using to sermon rewrite “For All the Saints” (or at least a part of it) to specifically sing the praises of saints the congregation knows who follow Jesus’ model of servant leadership.
* having a conversation with the Pharisees, hypocrite to hypocrite. Instead of pointing fingers, consider the ways we resonate with their very human tendencies toward hypocrisy, vanity, and arrogance. (See Tim Beach-Verhey’s article in Feasting on the Word.)
* asking how we, like the Pharisees were prone to do, might be using the Beatitudes to justify not lifting a finger to remove the heavy burdens of the downtrodden in our midst. Both of our passages in Matthew contain Jesus’ teachings, but he calls us to act in humility in chapter 23, condemning those who rest on their faithful reputation and honors. How do we use chapter 5 to release us from responsibility and a call to action? How can read the Beatitudes as a call to a different way of living and not just a reassurance that it will all work out in the end? How comfortable should we be with what Jesus says will happen and who will be called children of God?
* a reflection on the kind of saints we are versus the kind of saints God calls us to be/the world needs.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Father Nags Best
by Dean Feldmeyer
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13; Matthew 23:1-12
In the Scriptures
In last week’s epistle lesson Paul chose motherhood as his working metaphor. He reminded the Christians at Thessalonica how he had come to them gently, “like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children.”
I have in my wallet a picture of my wife (who just happens to be a nurse) reading a story to our grandson, who is sitting on her lap. It was taken with a cellphone, but it looks for all the world like a staged, professional photo... and it is so tender, so loving that it brings a lump to my throat every time I look at it. That’s the picture that Paul’s metaphor brings to my mind -- the nurse (or nanny, or nursemaid) bringing all of her professional skill to bear, tenderly and lovingly, upon her own children.
That passage ended with verse 8, and this week’s lection begins right where that one left off, with verse 9. And this week it’s Dad’s turn.
Paul reminds the Thessalonians, “As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God...” (vv. 11-12a).
Of all of the verbs Paul might have chosen to describe a father’s relationship with his children, these three -- urging, encouraging, pleading -- aren’t the first ones that come to my mind, especially when we’re taking about first-century Jewish culture.
I don’t know about you, but I was expecting something a little more stern, a little more demanding and dictatorial and a little less, well, whiny. Urging, encouraging, and pleading can sound an awful lot like nagging, and that’s not the father figure I was expecting to hear from Paul. It’s almost the stereotype of the Neil Simon Jewish mother character: “Everything that comes out of a cow isn’t butter. I’m just saying.”
On the other hand, what more valuable work can a father do than to urge, encourage, and plead with his children to do the right thing and be the right kind of people, to respond to grace with grace, to live a life that is worthy of God’s Kingdom?
So Paul holds that kind of father -- the urging, encouraging, pleading kind of father -- up to us as an appropriate way for a church leader to relate to the members of the Christian community.
In the News
A couple of father figures especially like the one Paul describes (urging, encouraging, pleading) emerged from the news headlines this past week.
Legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee died at the age of 93. He was the crusty, profane, old-school newsman portrayed by Jason Robards in the 1976 film All the President’s Men, and from all accounts the portrayal was spot-on.
Scores of news people lined up to eulogize Bradlee, remembering his gruff language, his rough style, and his willingness to mentor young reporters like Woodward and Bernstein during the Watergate scandal.
On the health front, President Obama appointed an “Ebola czar,” prompting us to ask “What’s a czar, anyway?” Do children announce to their third-grade classes that “I want to be a government czar when I grow up”? Can you study czar-manship in college? Can you major in czar? Even get a degree in it? And once you become a czar, what is it exactly that you do? What’s the job description for a czar, and can you put “czar” on your resume?
Here’s what White House press secretary Josh Earnest had to say on the appointment of Ron Klain as the federal government’s latest czar: “I think what you can assume Mr. Klain’s role will be is an important, high-level implementation role.” He went on to say: “Ultimately, it will be his responsibility to make sure that all the government agencies who are responsible for aspects of this response, that their efforts are carefully integrated. He will also be playing a role in making sure the decisions get made.”
Sounds to me like he’s going to be doing a lot of urging, encouraging, and pleading.
Just call him “Czar Dad.”
In the Culture
Father figures may be ubiquitous in popular culture, but they are always morphing and evolving as the culture shifts and changes. If it’s to culture we go for a working metaphor, then we will surely come home more confused than ever.
In the 1950s we had Jim Anderson (Father Knows Best), who was a sort of wise, patient mediator between his wife and kids as their drama constantly swirled around him. Danny Williams (Make Room for Daddy) was a successful nightclub singer trying to balance his success with the constant demands of his family. Ozzie Nelson (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) seemed to be constantly befuddled and overwhelmed by the harmless hijinks of his sons, Ricky and David, and his wacky neighbors.
In the ’60s and ’70s we rebelled against mean-spirited, tyrannical fathers like Lt. Col. Bull Meechum (The Great Santini) and Archie Bunker (All in the Family). We turned instead to Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird) as the model that even fictional fathers seemed to emulate. Sheriff Andy Taylor (The Andy Griffith Show) seemed to have an answer and a plan (or at least a story) for working out every problem that befell his son, his aunt, and the extended family that was his town. Ward Cleaver (Leave It to Beaver) was always patient and understanding.
In the ’80s, dads lightened up. Cliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show) could be playful and even clownish yet still be taken seriously as a dad. Steven Keaton (Family Ties) wore the cloak of mentor to his kids. Steven, a liberal who worked for the local PBS station, was constantly frustrated by his conservative son Alex, but he was also encouraging and supportive.
By the ’90s pop culture had pretty much given up on fathers. Homer Simpson (The Simpsons) was a hopeless loser. Tim Taylor (Home Improvement) was a clueless doofus who had to be schooled in relationship skills by his wise but faceless next-door neighbor and was lost everywhere but in his garage. Al Bundy (Married With Children) was chronically depressed and dysfunctional. Only Dan Conner (Roseanne), the blue-collar dad who struggled as mightily to pay his bills as he did to solve his family’s problems, seemed to come through relatively unscathed.
Now, after the turn of the century, the dads of popular culture are coming back. They are active in the lives of their families, passionate about their kids, and in love with their spouses. But they’re also making it up as they go along because this is new ground. They are throwing off the old models and trying to blaze new trails, trails they may be willing but are rarely prepared to walk.
Andre “Dre” Johnson (Blackish), who has made it from the hood to the boardroom, worries that his kids may lack some of the “street” that gave him the strength and cunning to climb to his present position. He and his father worry that the kids may not be “black enough.” Phil Dunphy (Modern Family) calls a family meeting to vote on switching from 2% to skim milk. Mitchell Pritchett and his spouse Cameron Tucker (Modern Family) struggle with how to be a family with two dads and no mom.
Popular culture is still writing the role of father into our entertainment, and we struggle, along with Mitchell and Cameron, to know if the culture is shaping or reflecting reality... or maybe a little of both.
In the Pulpit
Paul’s image of the “urging, encouraging, and pleading” father is a thoroughly modern one. It is more Phil Dunphy than Atticus Finch or Bull Meechum. And it is reflective of the new image of God that was being forged in the earliest days of Christianity.
Gone is YHWH of Hosts, the God who is the destroyer of nations and the crusher of armies. Gone is the God of wrath who visits the sins of the fathers upon the children, even unto the seventh generation.
Here, now, is the God, the loving father, who walks beside those whom he has created, urging them, encouraging them, pleading with them to live lives that become the gospel.
And it is in this image of God that Paul finds his appropriate relationship as a church leader to the churches which he leads. First he is like the nurse/mother, caring gently, tenderly for her own children, and then he is like the father who neither sanctions nor threatens but instead urges, encourages, and pleads, always guiding and directing his children toward the life that is life in the Kingdom.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Chris Keating:
Revelation 7:9-17
Reflecting on the death of comedian Robin Williams, writer James Parker draws parallels from the grief he feels in the wake of Williams’ death and the comic actor’s legendary performance in Mrs. Doubtfire. In November’s Atlantic magazine, Parker says: “Death, if we are loved at all in this world, is a centrifuge: at the moment of cessation, it throws our essence outward, and further outward, scattering us abroad with supernatural force and largesse. And in the hearts that receive these essential shards or sparks we are, for a short time, revealed -- who we really were, what we really meant.”
Later, he notes, “Mrs. Doubtfire’s secret, the thing that authenticates her, is grief. The grief of a father legally deprived of his children and communicating with them through layers of latex and padding; the grief of a man of many voices, a polyphonic virtuoso whose mania can rest only when it occupies the persona of an artificial woman. Daniel Hilliard [the name of the father in Mrs. Doubtfire] is a riff on Robin Williams the comic, the clown: a revved-up antic Hamlet blipping and zinging between ideas. Mrs. Doubtfire, by contrast, is the imago of stability. Embedded in her upholstery, hidden in her bra, Daniel can at last be strong, compassionate, and wise.”
*****
Revelation 7:9-17
Saints Persevering Through the Great Ordeal
Like the great multitude of saints gathered before the Lamb, the young saints of Nigeria have come through a great ordeal. The young women became the focus of the #BringBackOurGirls social media last spring, and are once again in the news.
Human Rights Watch released a report this week which detailed the plight of 276 girls kidnapped last April by the Boko Haram terrorist organization. Victims were raped, ordered into forced marriages, and often told to recant their belief in Christianity. Some were forced to participate in ambushes against Nigerian forces.
Some girls who escaped told the BBC that they decided to run, even if it meant being shot. “What's the difference?” one said. “Is it not to the same death we’re going? They should shoot me here and let my corpse be collected. I was crying and praying until we reached the camp.”
*****
Psalm 34:1-10, 22
The Death of a Young Lion
A disappointing postseason turned somber for the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday, when 22-year-old centerfielder Oscar Taveras died suddenly. Taveras, known for his smiling face and never-failing support of his teammates, was a young prospect for the Cardinals. He signed with the team when he was just 16 years old, and was considered an up-and-coming major league star. He hit a home run during his May 31 debut with the Cardinals, and slugged another during Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.
But he is also the third young St. Louis player to die within the last dozen years. Darryl Kile, a star pitcher, died in 2002, and Josh Hancock died in a fatal car crash in April 2007.
Like the deaths of Kile and Hancock, Taveras’ death breaks the image of the strong, radiant, and nearly immortal athlete -- and offers instead the image of a young lion suffering hunger (Psalm 34:10). The saint in the psalm, of course, is not a celebrity, but rather “the poor soul” who cried and was heard by the Lord.
One writer notes that the death of Taveras is a reminder of our own mortality:
A reminder that nothing makes sense. An eternal symbol of unrealized hope. The thought of the families wondering what happened to their children. Everyone should be allowed to escape into the world of sports when they need to, forever and without interruption. Taveras, especially. When he hit a home run like his shining moment in Game 2 of the NLCS, the joy was real. Nothing else existed. That was the most important possible thing in the world at that moment to millions of people. The world was blocked out in the best possible way. It would trickle back in slowly, as it always does, but the world was gone for a while because of Taveras and his talents, gifts we wish we had and gifts he was kind enough to share.
*****
1 John 3:1-3
God’s Love for Us
A popular high school freshman entered his school’s cafeteria in Marysville, Washington last Friday, raised a .40-caliber Berretta, and began shooting at students, some of whom were his cousins. While it is unclear why Jaylen Fryberg began shooting, what is clear is that the quick response of one educator saved many lives.
Megan Silberberger, a first-year social studies teacher, ran toward the shooter, intercepted him, and somehow diverted his attention before he shot himself. Some in the community called her a hero -- but in any case, she modeled the great love of God that reaches forward to protect and care for us.
Meanwhile, one of the wounded students showed amazing composure in tweeting a message of forgiveness to the shooter: “I love you and I forgive you, Jaylen,” tweeted Nate Hatch, who is still hospitalized in serious condition.
*****
Matthew 5:1-12
Blessed Are the Caregivers
Pronouncements of blessings on those who mourn, those who seek peace, and those who are meek could also remind us of the great work done by caregivers in our world. Jesus’ words could bring comfort and assurance to the millions involved in providing informal care for elderly loved ones and friends.
Across America, caregivers provide around 30 billion hours of assistance to elderly relatives and friends. A study released by the Rand Corporation this week revealed that the cost of that informal caregiving is around $522 billion a year. Three out of five caregivers are in the work force, the survey said, noting the work is provided by a “largely silent and unseen workforce.”
Blessed are the caregivers -- for they demonstrate the kingdom of God in their service and love.
***************
From team member Mary Austin:
All Saints Sunday
Living and Dying on a Bike
All Saints Sunday calls us to reflect on the people we’ve lost to death, and to celebrate their ongoing presence in our lives. It’s a Sunday where the poignancy of death and the vibrancy of life mix together.
Marcy Westerling writes in Yes magazine about a similar blending in her own life: “Dying inevitably follows living. What makes for a good death in a just and sustainable world? I think about this a lot these days. Four years ago, at age 50, I was diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer. Active and fit, it took a collapsed lung and two broken ribs before I realized I had a big problem, the ultimate challenge of life: facing my own death.” Her medical team advised her to live as if the next three months would be her last. If she made it to the end of that timespan, she could make another plan for the next three months.
Westerling travels around by bike -- slowly -- and her bike bears a yellow sign saying “Cancer on Board.” She observes that we don’t know what to say to people who are dying, or how to handle the evidence of our mortality in our midst. The “current rules of polite conversation” make real connection difficult: “People say odd things when they attempt to comfort the terminally ill while avoiding their own fears. ‘We are all terminally ill. You just know it.’ I more than ‘know it’ as my weary veins dodge yet another dose of chemotherapy, toxic poison that will bring me to my knees with exhaustion, nausea, and brain fog while hopefully keeping me alive a while longer.”
Determined to make the connections between living and dying visible, she says, “My life stays filled with joy and meaning as well as sadness and grief. I am livingly dying. Dying is woven into the reality of living. Neither is easy. But just as we live as a community, let’s face death as a community too.”
*****
All Saints Sunday
Remembering the Saints -- Even Before They Die
Glennon Doyle Melton tells about the power of one of her teachers, Mrs. Yalen, to influence her life -- even now. Twenty years after finishing school, she still stays in touch with her former teacher, who is, Melton says, “the best teacher to walk the face of the Earth ever in the whole history of the world. Twenty years after she braved the fumes of my AquaNetted bangs to reach me and teach me -- she still comes to my book signings and sends my kids homemade cookies in the mail. She is brilliant and deep and strong and hilarious. She is a SHOW-ER UP-ER.” Melton wrote to her teacher about her plans to go to seminary, and Mrs. Yalen wrote back with a word of truth that changed her plans. The saints are all around us, still influencing our lives.
*****
All Saints Sunday
Thinking About Death Is Good for You
All Saints Sunday, and our gratitude for the saints who have passed away, comes once a year -- but it turns out that reflecting on the dead, and on death, is good for us.
Jeremy Adam Smith, who says he “is terrible at gratitude,” reminds us that one essential part of living grateful lives is thinking about death. As he writes: “Didn’t see that one coming, did you? I’m not just being perverse -- contemplating endings really does make you more grateful for the life you currently have, according to several studies. For example, when Araceli Friasa and colleagues asked people to visualize their own deaths, their gratitude measurably increased. Similarly, when Minkyung Koo and colleagues asked people to envision the sudden disappearance of their romantic partners from their lives, they became more grateful to their partners. The same goes for imagining that some positive event, like a job promotion, never happened.”
All Saints Sunday prompts us to look back, but it may also nudge us into a wiser, happier future.
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1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
A Good Father
In 1 Thessalonians 2:11, Paul recalls that he has been like a father to them, encouraging and teaching, nudging the people of faith to live in a manner worthy of God. Many fathers would like to have similarly deep involvement in their children’s lives. Jeffery Cookston notes that fathers are happier than men without children, but there are obstacles to being an involved father for many men. These obstacles include a lack of role models, lack of time, and expectations about how men provide financially. Cookston also observes: “As heterosexual men and women fall in love, marry, and become parents, they tend to adopt more traditional gender roles with each transition, even among the most egalitarian couples. Additionally, there is powerful stigma against changing in midlife that perpetuates the myth of the midlife crisis. As children get older and roles more clearly defined, many men accept the cultural script that their children will be closer to their mothers and they will become more distant. The result is that dads stay the course, confining themselves to a box with sturdy walls and no exit. But when men are willing to change, positive results occur. For example, when low-income fathers are provided an opportunity to participate in parenting groups with others, they acquire the skills to be involved fathers and better partners, and their children benefit.” That involvement, like Paul’s, benefits everyone.
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From team member Ron Love:
Matthew 23:1-12
Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, has been greatly criticized for his recent remarks at a public forum regarding women’s pay. When the host of the event asked what advice Nadella would give to women who didn’t feel comfortable asking for a pay increase, he replied that it would be “good karma” if they didn’t ask for a raise, that they should have “faith that the system will give you the right raise.” Realizing the insensitivity of his response, Nadella explained that he based his answer on how he was able to be promoted. Nadella said of his karma remark, “But the mistake is to take your own personal experience and project it on half of humanity. It’s just insensitive.”
Application: The Pharisees were insensitive as they projected onto others what they were unwilling to accept for themselves.
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1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Pope Francis is trying in a pastoral and conciliatory manner to address social issues that confront the church today -- most notably for the Roman Catholic church divorce and homosexuality. A recent synod of bishops on family issues met to discuss these topics and produce a working document, beginning a lengthy process of debate that will culminate with another synod next year. It is expected that next year’s convocation will produce new guidelines for pastoral care. During a Mass that coincided with the close of this year’s meetings, Pope Francis said, “God is not afraid of new things.”
Application: Paul instructed us that we must speak the Word of the Lord with sincerity so people realize that it is not a human word but a divine word.
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Joshua 3:7-17
It happened on Sunday, October 19th -- and it will not occur again for another million years, as it does once every million years. A comet named Siding Spring, with a half-mile diameter and originating from the Oort Cloud on the extreme fringe of the universe, passed within 87,000 miles of the planet Mars at a speed of 126,000 mph. The comet was formed 4.6 billion years ago, close to the birth of the solar system. By studying this comet we will have a better understanding of the origins of the universe and how planets are formed.
Application: Maybe it is not so amazing that the priests holding the Ark of the Covenant could keep the waters of the Jordan from flowing.
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Joshua 3:7-17
On his 79th birthday in July, the Dalai Lama appealed to the Buddhist extremist groups in Myanmar and Sri Lanka to end their violence against the Muslim minorities who lived among them. Instead, those groups formed an alliance to coordinate their deadly anti-Muslim efforts. Galagodaththe Gnanasara, the leader of the radical Sri Lanka Buddhist group Bodu Bala Sena (which translates as Buddhist Power Force), said, “The time has come to ally internationally.” And the violence and persecution against the Muslims has continued unceasingly.
Application: There will always be Canaanites, Hittites, and others confronting us.
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Joshua 3:7-17
In 1979, the United States and the Soviet Union held arms control meetings in Venice. President Jimmy Carter was startled when Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the most powerful atheistic and communist country in the world, privately acknowledged the existence of God. As the two world leaders were concluding a private negotiating session, Brezhnev placed his hand on Carter’s shoulder and said, “If we do not succeed, God will not forgive us.”
Application: Within the soul of every human being is the knowledge of the Deity; it is each individual’s personal decision to accept or deny that Divine Presence. If we allow the Ark of the Covenant to go before us we know we shall always be in Divine Presence, and with that we can change society and enter into the Promised Land.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Let us bless God at all times.
People: God’s praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Leader: O taste and see that God is good.
People: Happy are we who take refuge in our God.
Leader: God redeems the life of God’s servants.
People: None who take refuge in God will be condemned.
OR
Leader: God comes among us today and always.
People: We rejoice in God’s presence among us.
Leader: God desires to work in our lives.
People: We invite God into our lives to re-create us in the divine image.
Leader: God works in the lives of those around us.
People: We will honor the work of God in the stranger.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“For All the Saints”
found in:
UMH: 711
H82: 287
PH: 526
AAHH: 339
NNBH: 301
NCH: 299
CH: 637
LBW: 174
ELA: 422
W&P: 529
AMEC: 476
STLT: 103
“All Creatures of Our God and King”
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
Renew: 47
“I Come with Joy”
found in:
UMH: 617
H82: 304
PH: 507
NCH: 349
CH: 420
ELA: 482
W&P: 706
Renew: 195
“Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether”
found in:
UMH: 632
PH: 504
NCH: 337
CH: 392
ELA: 470
“Make Me a Captive, Lord”
found in:
UMH: 421
PH: 378
“Rejoice in God’s Saints”
found in:
UMH: 708
CH: 476
ELA: 418
W&P: 531
“The Gift of Love”
found in:
UMH: 408
AAHH: 522
CH: 526
W&P: 397
“Our Parent, by Whose Name”
found in:
UMH: 447
LBW: 357
ELA: 640
“Make Me a Servant”
found in:
CCB: 90
“We Are His Hands”
found in:
CCB: 85
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
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
ELA: 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 works in the lives of ordinary people to accomplish holy deeds: Grant us the grace to open our lives to what you need us to do and open our eyes to see the holy in those around us; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you are always among us. You work through your children to accomplish your holy work. Receive our worship and fill us with your Spirit, that we may allow you to work in us and to recognize your work in the lives of others. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to allow God to act within us.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You desire to work within us and through us to bring to fulfillment your plan for creation, but we are too busy with our own agendas. We make lots of plans to accomplish our goals, but we often fail to ask what you need us to do. We are more concerned with our own welfare rather than the welfare of those around us. We fail to see the ways in which you are working in the lives of others. Renew us in your Spirit, that we may truly be open to do your work and to recognize your work in others. Amen.
Leader: God loves us and delights to work with us. Receive that power of God’s presence in your lives, and live the world into God’s realm.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for your constant presence among us and for your grace that we receive through the deeds of your children.
(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. You desire to work within us and through us to bring to fulfillment your plan for creation, but we are too busy with our own agendas. We make lots of plans to accomplish our goals, but we often fail to ask what you need us to do. We are more concerned with our own welfare rather than the welfare of those around us. We fail to see the ways in which you are working in the lives of others. Renew us in your Spirit, that we may truly be open to do your work and to recognize your work in others.
We thank you for all the blessings you send to us. We are especially aware this day of those who have touched our lives with your grace. We call to remembrance (list the names of those who have died since last All Saints Sunday) and all who have died in the faith. We thank you for the opportunities you offer us to share your love with others.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We lift up to your tender mercy those who are in grief, that they may know hope in the midst of loss. We pray for those who suffer in body, mind, spirit, or relationships. We remember those who suffer from war and violence and those in poverty.
(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 Lord’s Prayer 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 Starter
If you have stained-glass windows with biblical characters or other saints, you can show them to the children. Otherwise, find some pictures of the saints. Talk about how the church remembers people who act as God’s holy ones. Then tell the children that there are saints right here in this place, and point to the congregation. These are all saints of God -- and so are you! We are God’s saints because God’s Spirit is in us and we are called to do kind deeds in God’s name.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
On Becoming a Saint
Matthew 5:1-12
Object: a newspaper sports page (or computer printout) showing NFL standings
I have something here showing the standings of the NFL teams. There is one team from New Orleans called the “Saints.” Let’s see how they are doing. (Show the standing of the Saints team.) Now, let’s suppose you wanted to become a member of this football team. What would you have to do? (Have a discussion about the difficult requirements for becoming an NFL football player.) I guess we would all admit that the requirements are stiff, and not many of us would qualify, right? (Let the children answer.)
Today is “All Saints Sunday.” Do you think this is a day to honor the New Orleans Saints football team? (Let them answer.) No, of course not. So who are the saints that we honor today? (Let them answer.) Today we are honoring all the saints who have lived before us and are now in Heaven with God. Now, how did they become saints? (Let them answer.) To become a saint of God, only one thing is required. You must believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Do all of you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he came to earth and died on the cross to pay for our sins? (Let them answer.) Well, if you believe that you are a saint, right now at this minute! Do you think that is as hard as becoming a New Orleans Saints football player? (Let them answer.) No, it’s not that hard, but it is much, much more important! Being a football player only lasts a little while, maybe 10 or 15 years at the most, but being a saint lasts forever.
Let’s thank God for making us His saints.
Prayer: Dear Father in Heaven: We praise You and thank You for making us Your saints and promising us that we will spend eternity in Heaven with You and all the saints that have gone there before us. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, November 2, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 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.
