The Apex Of Hope
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In the past several weeks’ lectionary passages, the prophet Jeremiah has painted a bleak picture of what’s in store for the Israelites -- bluntly foretelling that they will be overrun by the Babylonians and sent into a long period of exile. Yet in the face of this utter desolation, Jeremiah tells them that the word of the Lord is to buy land (which will soon be essentially worthless) and bury the deeds in clay jars (the equivalent at the time of safe-deposit boxes). As team member Chris Keating points out in this installment of The Immediate Word, such thinking seems like complete lunacy -- akin to encouraging investing in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo.
But what Jeremiah and the psalmist are really communicating in this week’s texts, Chris notes, is actually a deep truth: namely, that no matter how bad the circumstances (and they may be very, very traumatic), there is always abundant reason for hope... even in the face of what seems like a black hole of misery. That’s because God promises to always be with us and to protect us -- even when a situation is so dire that many people wonder if God has abandoned them. Jeremiah tells us that the Lord will eventually redeem the Israelites’ land, while the psalmist says that we should not fear “the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday.” It’s not that the Lord prevents us from these “times of trial.” For example, God doesn’t save the Israelites from the coming years of suffering and exile. Rather, Chris reminds us, it is through his presence (and in his kairos time) that God is able to, against all expectations, transform places of horror into places of hope.
Team member Mary Austin shares some additional thoughts on the themes of wealth, inequality, and lack of concern for the welfare of the poor that are at the heart of the gospel reading. Though last week’s news that in aggregate the American economy grew at its largest rate in several years seems on the surface reason to rejoice, many people are not sharing in this rising tide. As Mary points out, those of us who don’t have daily struggles to meet basic needs often don’t appreciate the obstacles those who do face -- a blindness that eerily parallels the lack of concern the rich man had for Lazarus in Jesus’ parable. Are we listening to Moses and the prophets? Or like the rich man, will we discover that in our desire to be rich -- both individually and as a nation -- we have fallen into (in the words of our First Timothy text) “temptation and [become] trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction”?
The Apex of Hope
by Chris Keating
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16
Someone apparently forgot to tell Jeremiah that the primary rule of thumb for conducting real estate deals is location, location, location.
The prophet has minced no words about what is about to happen to Jerusalem. He’s reminded the people that God is about send a blistering, devastating wind upon the city. He’s told them disaster is on its way. But now, even as the king of Babylon has surrounded the town and Jeremiah is sequestered in prison, he decides it’s time to go house hunting.
Could someone cue up an episode of The Property Brothers for him?
It’s an unlikely act -- a bit like purchasing a shopping center in Aleppo. If someone asks “What’s Aleppo?” tell them that the United Nations Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs called it “the apex of horror.” Once Syria’s highly commercialized business hub, the city -- now under siege and cut off from basic supplies -- has largely been reduced to rubble. Don’t expect a run on real estate there any time soon.
Yet even in a place of absolute devastation, hope has managed to crawl out of a bunker, if only briefly. A fragile ceasefire brought a modicum of relief to Aleppo’s residents last week. It provided a chance for children to play outside, and gave parents a chance to take shallow, uneasy breaths of hope.
Headlines remind us that hope springs up in unlikely places: an abducted woman takes a chance and calls police, residents of an embattled neighborhood in Chicago light candles for peace, parents in Aleppo let their kids play outside.
It doesn’t make sense. It makes no sense for the residents of Aleppo to hold much hope, any more than it makes sense for Jeremiah to be purchasing fields and securing deeds for future generations. None of this makes sense -- until you begin to recall that God often settles near the apex of horror so that it can be transformed into the apex of hope.
Or, as the psalmist reminds us, “You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge, and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’ ”
In the News
After years of war, the promise of even a fragile truce in Syria became a symbol of hope and redemption.
But that hope faded on Monday following the Syrian military’s announcement that it would no longer honor the ceasefire. President Bashar Assad’s ruling government blamed the failure of the truce, which was negotiated by Russia and the United States, on rebels. Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had told reporters that the truce was “holding but fragile.” Yet reporters noted that little aid had reached besieged areas.
Hopes of peace in Syria began to fall apart following Sunday’s U.S.-led airstrikes that were aimed at Islamic State positions but ended up killing dozens of Syrian soldiers. And then they seemed to be completely dashed early Monday, after several trucks carrying humanitarian supplies were destroyed by the Syrian military while another 20 United Nations trucks were stalled at the Turkey-Syria border. The attack on the aid convoy killed at least a dozen humanitarian workers and an unknown number of civilians, prompting the U.N. to immediately suspend all aid operations in Syria.
A statement by a U.N. official noted that up to 275,000 Aleppo residents remain trapped “without food, water, proper shelter, or medical care.” The official said that convoys have been unable to reach the city since July. And now, with operations suspended for the foreseeable future, relief for the city may be a very long time coming.
The complexities of Syria’s unravelling, and the subsequent displacement of millions of its citizens, remain a Gordian knot of agony and horror. While the United States apologized for the airstrike it called accidental, Russian officials condemned the U.S. attacks. One official suggested that Washington was trying to defend ISIS. But even before the Sunday attack, things were not going well.
Mishaps punctured the truce since it began -- and like another U.S.-Russian agreement in February, it quickly disintegrated.
These brief pauses in fighting have not led to longer-term solutions. Both U.S. and Russian diplomats noted that the agreement’s foundation was shaky, yet persisted in the hope of providing relief to Aleppo while also coordinating attacks against ISIS. Even in the face of difficulties, officials tried to remain hopeful.
“We look around at the range of possible solutions,” a U.S. official said, “and... this remains, we think, the most promising way that we see in front of us to try to get this horrible situation to a better place.”
Prospects for ending the horror will likely be at the top of the U.N.’s General Assembly as it convenes in New York City this week. Yet even there the specter of terror lingers, especially as the city copes with its own encounters with horror over the weekend.
Explosions in New York and New Jersey last weekend were not-so-subtle reminders of terrorism’s global reach, though the motives for the bombings remain unclear. The world is inured to the deadly snares set by terrorists. Police in Linden, New Jersey arrested Ahmed Khan Rahami Monday following an exchange of gunfire and dramatic chase. Rahami is believed to be responsible for explosions in Manhattan and New Jersey Saturday. He was identified as a suspect through surveillance camera footage and by fingerprints found on one of the pressure cooker bombs in Manhattan.
Coming on the heels of a separate attack in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where a man stabbed 10 people Saturday at a shopping mall, the terror incidents are the latest reminders of how violence and rage intersect with daily life for most of the world. Not only do bombings rattle the world, they can also shake up our own neighborhoods. The mounting violence -- often matched pitch by pitch by political fear-mongering -- grips close and bites deep.
At times, the possibilities of hope seem impossible. “We are all vulnerable,” noted an editorial in the Asbury Park [New Jersey] Press:
Terrorism works in part because of its random quality. An isolated pressure-cooker bomb in Manhattan, another explosive on the Jersey Shore -- these sorts of scattered attacks create the idea that trouble can strike anywhere, at any time. Yet the chances of being a victim of a terrorist attack remain extremely remote -- roughly akin to a lightning strike. We may never know some of the successes of counterterrorism and intelligence units in uncovering and stopping plots. We are all vulnerable, but our lives are more at risk every time we drive down a highway.
At times, it is the most vulnerable ones -- the children playing in a besieged city, resilient New Yorkers getting back on commuter trains, an abducted woman frantically dialing 911 -- who serve as reminders of the hope embodied by Jeremiah’s strange real estate purchase.
It was that sort of determined grit that helped a woman in Ashland, Ohio escape her abductor last week. While her kidnapper slept, the woman broke loose and called police. Nearly 20 minutes later, police found her and arrested Shawn Grate, who has been charged with two counts of murder and is a suspect in at least three more. “I’m scared,” the kidnapped woman told a dispatcher during the long call.
But her resolve led to her redemption. Her action, much like Jeremiah’s investing in seemingly worthless pieces of real estate, is a reminder of how impossibilities can be transformed into possibilities. Grate, who is suspected of being a serial killer, may not have been able to understand that sort of hope -- especially in light of one of his last Facebook posts, which is reported to have included a “faith” meme: “Let’s see if I can find 1 million who are unashamed to say Jesus watches over me.”
The apex of horror is easy to detect; yet discerning the apex of hope requires a bit more risk. That risk is prompted by trust in the One who declares, “I will bring them back to this place, and I will settle them in safety. They shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Jeremiah 32:37-38).
In the Scriptures
Hanamel must have thought he was the luckiest man in Anathoth. Not only did he manage to unload what was essentially a worthless piece of property, he was able to sell it to his own cousin Jeremiah, who just happened to be locked up at the time. Hopefully Hanamel treated his realtor to an amazing dinner following closing!
The strange transaction is recounted with precise detail in Jeremiah 32. The text is more than a story about a land deal, however. The story is filled with the details of prophetic witness, which, as Patrick Miller observes, are reminders that everything that happens here flows from the word of God (“Jeremiah,” in New Interpreter’s Bible [Vol. VI], p. 820). The action describes God’s intent to offer a future, even to people who are throttled by tragedy.
True to his mission to “pluck up and pull down,” Jeremiah plunks down the cash for this field, and then makes certain that there are witnesses whose testimony will be vital if this action is ever questioned. The deeds of trust are buried as a sign of hope -- sealed and deposited -- awaiting the time when God shall lead God’s people into a new and better future. In essence, as Miller notes, Jeremiah is betting on the future.
But the odds of winning that bet are slim. Jeremiah’s action is not the informed choice of a skilled real estate investor, or even a shrewd “flipper” who sees potential where others see only dry rot and vermin. Jeremiah extends the offer not because he sees a future filled with lucrative returns, but because he sees a future filled with the return of people. The future is one held by God, who can be trusted and whose promise is one of redemption and justice.
For Jeremiah, this action is built on the deep sense of trust described by the psalmist. God is a “refuge,” a bedrock fortress. God is one who delivers, but not because we are passive in waiting for something to happen. God delivers because God’s people have acted in faithfulness that is as bold as calling 911 while your captor sleeps and as unlikely as lighting candles of peace on violent city streets. This isn’t some sort of works righteousness; rather, it is the sort of active hope that dares to trust in God’s promised future. It is an active faith that is willing to take enormous risks and does not fear the terror of the night.
In the Sermon
Should Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson ever audition for the television game show Jeopardy! It’s a safe bet he’ll know the question to this answer: “For centuries it was the Syrian region’s largest city, and the third largest in the Ottoman Empire.”
The question, of course, is “What is Aleppo?” But the better answer might be “What is the apex of hope?” Like the field in Anathoth, Aleppo is a symbol of destruction. We’ve seen the brutality. And like Jeremiah, we have even witnessed in our own homeland signs of destruction and peril.
We can describe the apex of horror -- but can we describe the apex of hope?
In a nation divided by politics and bruised by terrorism, hope is a word that needs to be preached. The promise of God’s protection, and the certainty of God’s redemption, need to be explored this Sunday. Both Jeremiah and the Psalm text provide ample space for articulating dimensions of hope, but care needs to be taken so that the sermon does not seem to rely on somewhat formulaic articulations of hope and trust: i.e., “Let’s see if we can find 1 million people who are unashamed to say Jesus is watching over me.”
Jeremiah knows that God is watching God’s people, and that God is the Lord of new possibilities. Yet that assurance does not immediately remove the terror that flies by night. The assurance of God’s ultimate triumph does not remove the sting of penultimate trials. God’s transforming presence is at hand, and in the work of Jesus Christ has brought about the promise of redemption. Nothing is too hard for God (Jeremiah 32:27); and while this shall indeed be the refrain that is sounded over and over again until it reaches Mary’s lips, it is also true that suffering is real, painful, and lasting.
“Go and buy a field” does not translate into immediate success. But the hope proclaimed by this text is the hope embodied by a woman fleeing her captor, the hope of a mother of a murdered child who dares to light a candle, the hope of a child of Aleppo who wants to play outside. Those who have known the peril of the night are the ones best suited for describing where the apex of hope is located -- and it is their story which needs to be told this Sunday. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, and it will come to us as well.
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Luke 16:19-31
The news that household income is up significantly didn’t make much of a splash in the neighborhood where my church is. It’s big news for the country that median household income in the U.S. rose 5% in 2015, the first notable increase since 2007. The big news around our block, though, was a change in the required uniform at the neighborhood charter school. Right before school, the new management announced the change. Parent after parent called in a panic at the need to buy new clothes, in new colors, so close to the start of classes. Where would the money come from to buy those new pants, oxford shirts, and red cardigans?
Like Lazarus and the rich man in Jesus’ parable, people who have money and people who don’t live on two sides of a widening gap. In the story that Jesus tells, the rich man looks up and sees Lazarus “far away,” and that same gap persists between most of us and people of different income levels.
Income inequality has increased since the 2007 recession, and income is only part of the picture: “Wealth -- the value of property and financial assets -- is considerably more concentrated than income. According to the Center for Budget and Priorities (CBPP), a government policy research institute, over half of all wealth in the United States belongs to the top 3% of earners.” While household income is up across the country, according to the Census Bureau, it still lags behind the median income in 2007, before the recession. And not everyone is catching up. Income disparities are greatest among working-age people, who rely on wages, which fluctuate (or end). The gap is less dramatic for retirees, who have pensions and assets to guard against the loss of income.
Related gaps appear in life expectancy, and in the ability to finish college.
College students from poor families are dramatically less likely to finish college, widening the income gap. The Pell Institute says that “since 1970, the percentage of dependent students coming from the poorest families, those making roughly $34,000 or less a year, who earn a bachelor’s degree inched up from six percent to nine percent. In comparison, the college-completion rate for students growing up in the richest households jumped from 44 percent to 77 percent.” Cost, the need to work, and transportation are all hurdles for lower-income students, as is the lack of social support.
The Brookings Institution also reports a longevity gap, where people with higher incomes live longer: “From 2001 to 2014, Americans who had incomes in the top five percent of the income distribution saw their life expectancy climb about three years. During the same 14-year span, people in the bottom five percent of the income distribution saw virtually no improvement at all.” As they note, this changes the impact of programs that serve people in the last decades of life. Wealthy people get more out of Social Security and Medicare because they live for more years to collect these benefits.
Most truly poor people are too busy to care about any of these statistics. Getting by each day takes a tremendous amount of energy. In her book Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America, Linda Tirado writes about how time-consuming and stressful it is to be poor. Most all of the money-saving tips people offer to the poor, Tirado notes, would be more useful for people who have money. Buy in bulk? Sure, but you need the money up front. Get things when they’re on sale? That works well if you have the money right then. Tirado observes: “It actually costs money to save money.”
She adds: “It is impossible to be good with money when you don’t have any. Full stop. If I’m saving my spare five bucks a week, in the best-case scenario I will have saved $260 a year. For those of you that think in quarters: $65 per quarter in savings. If you deny yourself even small luxuries, that’s the fortune you’ll amass. Of course you will never manage to actually save it; you’ll get sick at least one day and miss work and dip into it for rent. Gas will spike and you’ll need it to get to work. You’ll get a tear in your work pants that you can’t patch. Something, I guarantee you, will happen in three months.”
Tirado says that poor people, better than anyone else, know the value of money. “We work for ours. If we’re at 10 bucks an hour, we earn 83 cents, before taxes, every five minutes. We know exactly what a dollar’s worth; it’s counted in how many more times you have to duck and bend sideways out the drive-through window. Or how many floors you can vacuum, or how many boxes you can fill. It’s impossible to win, unless you are very lucky.” We like to think of hard work as the way out of poverty, but Tirado says that luck plays a huge role. The people who commented on her article agreed, mentioning times when a moment of luck changed the trajectory of their finances for better or worse.
Those of us who are doing fine right now think we make our own luck. We are like the rich man in the parable. Like him, we don’t see the person bringing out our dry cleaning, or the man mopping the floor, or the woman serving us the food she can’t afford to eat herself. Only when his own fortunes are reversed does the rich man notice the poor man, now relieved of his isolating poverty and at rest with Abraham.
Polls say that we’re not alone in our blindness. When surveyed, “the American public does not seem to be overly concerned about high poverty rates and low and stagnant economic mobility, although it is likely that many Americans don’t realize just how high poverty rates really are or just how low economic mobility rates really are. In annual polls conducted between 2007 and 2015, a little over half of Americans typically thought that ‘dealing with problems of the poor and needy should be a top priority.’ In most of these polls, the poverty issue was no higher than 10th on the list of problems the public considered top priority for federal action.” People are more interested in action on terrorism and the economy in general. Like the rich man, we don’t see the depth of the need around us.
We don’t see that $30 is the difference between solvency or a bounced check and more fees. We miss the fact that $50 will keep the water on, and allow someone to be clean enough to keep a job. Two dollars in quarters will feed the parking meter and stave off a $45 ticket, which grows into a $90 ticket. The rich man in the story misses the chance to see the neighbor right outside his gate, but we don’t have to miss our own chances to see, and to offer the small help that can make a big difference.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Amos 6:1a, 4-7
It is unfortunate for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign that she verbalized her real feelings about some her opponent Donald Trump’s supporters. She called half of his followers a “basket of deplorables,” whom she went on to describe as racist, sexist, homophobic, or xenophobic. Clinton compounded her problem when she said you can only have “empathy” for the other half who support Trump. Clinton later apologized for speaking in overgeneralizations.
Application: We can judge people, as the prophets demonstrate -- but we still must be cautious of our word choice.
*****
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Amos 6:1a, 4-7
After 15 years, the last artifacts preserved from the attack on the World Trade Center are finding homes at firehouses, police stations, libraries, schools, and museums across the nation. The final artifact, a white government van with a smashed roof and broken windows, is about to be released. Harriet Senie, a professor of history at the City University of New York, described the importance of these artifacts: “History is a vague concept, but if you have this tangible object that was a part of this historical event, it makes it very difficult to deny it also makes it possible to experience it in a very visceral way.”
Application: The prophets want their people to once again remember their history and return to it.
*****
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Stanley Sheinbaum, who recently died at the age of 96, was an economics professor who gave up teaching to become a peace activist. He wanted to devote himself, in his words, to “creat[ing] a little peace and justice in this unjust world.” Among his many efforts was attempting to bring peace to the Middle East. As a Jew who had several conferences with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, he became the most hated Jew in America. But he felt the persecution was worth it if peace would prevail, though it never did. Of his efforts, Sheinbaum said: “My failure is the greatest disappointment I have ever experienced, and I can only take solace from the knowledge that I really, really tried. I really did.”
Application: The prophets really did try.
*****
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Amos 6:1a, 4-7; 1 Timothy 6:6-19
Andy and Ryan Bundy are currently on trial for their 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Their defense attorney is presenting the case that they are being prosecuted for views they hold regarding federal land use policies. The prosecuting attorney, Geoffrey Barrow, is making it very clear that the Bundys are free to express their views -- but in doing so they cannot threaten federal employees and have firearms on federal property. Barrow told the jury, “Everyone in this great nation has a right to his or her beliefs. We are not prosecuting the defendants because we don’t like what they think or said. We are prosecuting them because of what they did.”
Application: The prophets are speaking out against what the people are doing.
*****
Psalm 146
Angelique Kerber recently won the women’s singles title at the U.S. Open. This victory moved her ranking up to no. 1 in the world, a position previously held by Serena Williams. It was an especially meaningful accomplishment for Kerber. In her words: “It means a lot to me. When I was a kid, I was always dreaming to one day be the no. 1 player in the world, to win Grand Slams. I mean, all the dreams came true this year...”
Application: The Psalm talks about how we are to rejoice in our blessings.
*****
1 Timothy 6:6-19
“Grandpa Rossy” is retiring from baseball. Though he is only 39 and has no grandchildren, Chicago Cubs backup catcher David Rossy is still referred to by his teammates as Grandpa Rossy. Known for his steady demeanor and for having a way with words that enables him to mentor, encourage, and comfort other players, Rossy is an important behind-the-scenes contributor for the Cubs, who are seeking their first World Series title since 1908. The publicity surrounding his retirement has caused the Cubs to sell jerseys with Rossy’s name and number for the first time.
Application: Paul is asking us to be good people and to use our resources wisely.
*****
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Joe Pavelski, who plays in the NHL for the San Jose Sharks, was selected to be the captain of the United States team for this month’s World Cup of Hockey. Though he ranks second in the NHL over the past three seasons with 116 goals, this was not the reason he was chosen as captain. Instead, coach John Tortorella selected Pavelski because “He is a complete player, and that’s probably one of the best compliments you can give a guy is the word ‘complete’ and he is that.” Now at 32, Pavelski is perhaps no longer one of the most underappreciated players in hockey.
Application: If we measure wealth in terms of goals scored, then the lesson we should learn is that what is more important than the wealth of scores is to be a complete person.
*****
Luke 16:19-31
It took 15 years after the 9/11 terrorist attack for the authors of young adult novels to feel comfortable writing about the event to their young readers -- even though it was an event that occurred before most of their readers were born. Novelist Wendy Mills realized the need to write such a book when her son Zack asked about airport security. Mills said, “Here’s a whole generation of kids who weren’t alive and don’t know what it was like that day, and they’re not going to know the world before 9/11. It wasn’t a perfect world, but it felt like a safer world.”
Application: We learn from Jesus that we must be willing to tell the difficult stories.
*****
Luke 16:19-31
There was an international outcry and protest against Facebook when it removed from its pages the iconic photo of the “napalm girl” because of its standards regarding nudity. But the 1972 Pulitzer Prize-winning photo is one of the lasting images of the Vietnam War, and it was part of Norwegian author Tom Egeland’s Facebook account of the history of war. Realizing how Facebook is a source of news around the globe, the picture was reposted. In defense of its original action, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook is a “tech company, not a media company.”
Application: Difficult stories must be told and viewed.
*****
Luke 16:19-31
John Hinckley, who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan 35 years ago in an effort to impress actress Jodie Foster, has been released from St. Elizabeth’s mental hospital in Washington, D.C. The 61-year-old Hinckley is no longer considered a danger to himself or to the community. But his release includes many restrictions, as he resides with his mother in a gated community in Williamsburg, Virginia. Though this ruling by a federal judge has been criticized by some, we need to realize that there is a time for judgment and a time for forgiveness.
Application: We need to balance our message of judgment with one of forgiveness.
***************
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
In this week’s reading Jeremiah demonstrates his faith that “it may be the end of us, but it isn’t necessarily the end of everything.” God’s plans extend into the future, well beyond us and our time. The first four illustrations are about endings that weren’t necessarily the end.
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
The Writer Ends But the Writing Goes On
Robert B. Parker was known as the “dean of American crime fiction.” He wrote more than 70 books, and nearly all were best-sellers. Among the timeless characters he created were the Boston private detective Spenser, along with his girlfriend Susan and best friend Hawk. He also created Jesse Stone, the small town chief of police who was brought to life on the screen by Tom Selleck, and the female private eye Sunny Randall. And just a few years before his death in 2010 he started a series of western novels featuring lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. The first, Appaloosa, was made into a movie starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen.
Parker was 77 years old when he suddenly and unexpectedly died at his desk while writing a novel, and his fan base was devastated. Bob Parker’s death, they said, meant the death of all of his beloved characters. His family and publishers decided, however, that there was no need for the characters to die as well.
The Jesse Stone series has been continued with six novels (one a year), the first three by Parker’s longtime friend and collaborator Michael Brandman, and the last three by Reed Farrel Coleman. The Spenser novels have also continued, with the one Parker was working on at his death completed by his longtime literary agent Helen Brann, and with five others by journalist/writer Ace Atkins. The Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch series has been continued as well by actor and screenwriter Robert Knott, with three novels published through 2016.
Though the writer died, the writing -- thanks to the generosity and spirit of those who loved him -- goes on.
*****
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
The Job That Never Ends
The Golden Gate Bridge is probably more famous, but just a few miles away from it is a bridge that is bigger, carries more traffic, and is older and longer than the Golden Gate -- the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which opened in 1936. It is over four miles long and stands over 500 feet high. Over a quarter million vehicles cross it every day. So massive is the structure that the crew who paints it never completes its work. They start painting on one end, and it takes them about three years to paint their way to the other end. And then they start over.
*****
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
An Unfinished Life and Book
The novel Suite Française was published in the United States in 2006 -- and its author, Irene Nemirovsky, is one of the most fascinating literary figures you’ve never heard of.
Born to a wealthy Russian Jewish family who fled the Bolshevik revolution, she became a literary sensation in Paris while still in her 20s, eventually publishing nine novels in French, one of which became a film.
After the Nazis invaded France in 1940 she could no longer publish under her own name, and in 1942 she was arrested and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she died at the age of 39. Her literary fame might have died too, if not for an heirloom her two young daughters clung to as they and their nanny went into hiding from the Nazis who’d claimed their parents. The heirloom was a leather notebook containing their mother’s last work. For decades the two sisters believed the notebook was her diary, and they could not bring themselves to open and read it. “I was waiting for my mother to come and open it herself,” said her daughter Denise.
Finally in the 1970s, after a flood in her home in Toulouse, Denise opened the book. Not only was she surprised to find it was a novel, but she recognized “everyone and all the places in it” from her family’s own flight from Paris to a small village in Burgundy. Denise didn't want to publish it as an unfinished novel, but years later an editor persuaded her. Finally published in France in 2004, Suite Française has been translated into 25 languages and has become an international best-seller.
In October of 2006 Denise, then the author’s only surviving daughter, came to the United States with the original notebook to celebrate the novel’s U.S. publication. The book contains only two-fifths of the book Irene Nemirovsky intended to write, but those who have read it say that it still seems somehow very complete.
*****
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
Bucket Lists
What do bucket lists say about our faith and our understanding of endings, especially our own?
A “bucket list” is a list of things that you want to do before you “kick the bucket” (die). The phrase was originated by screenwriter Justin Zackham for the 2007 movie The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two terminally ill men who go out on a lark to experience things they’ve never done so that they can check them off their bucket lists.
After the movie the phrase quickly became part of the American lexicon, though language scholars say that it probably won’t enter the Oxford Dictionary for a few more years. That august publication wants to see if it has staying power.
If the popular culture has any say in it, the idea of a bucket list isn’t going anywhere. It’s here for the long haul.
Writing for Slate’s culture blog in November 2011, June Thomas said that she heard two “bucket list” references on a single night of television: “On Glee, Kurt Hummel, all of 17, whipped out his iPhone and showed his boyfriend, Blaine, a few of the things he intends to do before he dies. (My favorite: ‘Arrive at school in a hot air balloon.’) On NCIS, Tony DiNozzo, shaken by a terrorist attack, became hyperaware of his own mortality and printed out a list that included more prosaic choices: ‘Date a Bond girl and/or Miss Universe. Develop a catch phrase. The luge.’ When I tweeted about this, @magazinemama reminded me that on last week’s Parks & Recreation, doofus Andy was also working on a bucket list. His items included winning the lottery, making the best grilled-cheese sandwich ever, and remaking the movie Kazaam (this time getting it right).”
*****
Luke 16:19-31
Conspicuous Consumption
Why would someone trade in a perfectly good and functioning iPhone 6 for an iPhone 7? Why would parents let their kids buy sneakers that cost $150 when the off-brand $45 variety would work just well? And why do people sometimes eat with silver flatware that has to be polished and cared for, when stainless steel never rusts or tarnishes and works just the same as the silver silverware does?
The answer is to be found in one of the bedrock classical concepts of sociology: conspicuous consumption.
This concept was developed by Thorstein Veblen in his 1899 book The Theory of the Leisure Class, in which he describes how wealthy people spend large amounts of money on goods and services as a way of showing their status. This term doesn’t refer to all large expenses, however -- instead, it refers to spending as a way of showing off who you are. In fact, sometimes what you end up with is no better, and sometimes worse, than what you can get for less money.
Writing on his Everyday Sociology blog, Bradley Wright tells of what may be the best example of conspicuous consumption anyone ever thought of: “As everyone under 40 knows (and some of us over 40 have heard about), Apple makes a wicked-cool cellphone it calls the iPhone. You can load little software programs on it, called ‘apps,’ that do various functions. One of these apps is called the ‘I am rich’ application. It costs $1,000 and serves absolutely no purpose other than to shine a red ruby on your iPhone that lets others know that you could afford to buy this app. That’s it. It shows that you’re rich and doesn’t do anything else. Apparently Apple no longer carries it at its stores because it was getting bad publicity.”
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: We who live in the shelter of the Most High will say to God,
People: “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.”
Leader: God will deliver us from the snare of the fowler.
People: God will cover us, and under God’s wings we will find refuge.
Leader: We will not fear in the night or in the day.
People: When we call, God will answer and be with us in trouble.
OR
Leader: God calls us into worship and into life.
People: With joy we praise God for all our blessings.
Leader: What about those times when we don’t feel blessed?
People: We find it difficult to praise God when things go badly.
Leader: In the good and the bad, God calls us to life and wholeness.
People: With God’s help, we will live into the life God brings us.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness”
found in:
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
ELA: 733
W&P: 72
AMEC: 84
Renew: 249
“Lift High the Cross”
found in:
UMH: 159
H82: 473
PH: 371
AAHH: 242
NCH: 198
CH: 108
LBW: 377
ELA: 660
W&P: 287
Renew: 297
“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”
found in:
UMH: 133
AAHH: 371
NNBH: 262
NCH: 471
CH: 560
ELA: 774
W&P: 496
AMEC: 525
“I Need Thee Every Hour”
found in:
UMH: 397
AAHH: 451
NNBH: 303
NCH: 517
CH: 578
W&P: 476
AMEC: 327
“Take Up Thy Cross”
found in:
UMH: 415
H82: 675
PH: 393
LBW: 398
ELA: 667
W&P: 351
AMEC: 294
“My Faith Looks Up to Thee”
found in:
UMH: 452
H82: 691
PH: 383
AAHH: 456
NNBH: 273
CH: 576
LBW: 479
ELA: 759
W&P: 419
AMEC: 415
“ ’Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”
found in:
UMH: 462
AAHH: 368
NNBH: 292
AMEC: 440
“Trust and Obey”
found in:
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
“Your Loving Kindness Is Better Than Life”
found in:
CCB: 26
“The Steadfast Love of the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 28
Renew: 23
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God whose love is from everlasting to everlasting: Grant us the faith to trust that you are always hovering over us, not to protect us from life but to bring us to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for your love is everlasting. In all of life, you are hovering over us to shelter us. Help us to understand that you do not protect us from life but call us to true life in you. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our expectation that God will protect us from life’s hurts and our lack of faith when the hurts come.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You come to us and offer us a faith that will enable us to face all that life brings to us, but we want a guarantee that nothing bad will happen. You give us the ability to deal with and grow through the rough spots in life, but we complain because we hit a pothole or two. Our understanding of what makes life worthwhile is so different than yours. Heal us and empower us to live life fully, even in the midst of its hurts. Amen.
Leader: God desires for us to live fully into our humanity. Receive God’s love and forgiveness, and the presence of God’s Spirit so that you may live life abundantly.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
Praise to you, O God, who in love has created us to bear your own image. In love you have gifted us with your own Spirit.
(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 come to us and offer us a faith that will enable us to face all that life brings to us, but we want a guarantee that nothing bad will happen. You give us the ability to deal with and grow through the rough spots in life, but we complain because we hit a pothole or two. Our understanding of what makes life worthwhile is so different than yours. Heal us and empower us to live life fully, even in the midst of its hurts.
We give you thanks for the wonders of life. We thank you for the presence of your Spirit in our lives, and for the guidance you give us so that we may find meaning and joy in all of life.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all who struggle with the difficult times in life. We pray that as you invite them into the wholeness of life in you, we may participate in that invitation through all that we say and do.
(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
It would be wonderful to be a great soccer star or pianist or whatever. It would really be great if we could just be that without working at it. But that isn’t how it usually works. The people who are really, really good at something spends hours and hours in practice. Sometimes it hurts and sometimes it’s boring, but they keep at it to become and remain really good. All of life is like that. It isn’t just the really fun parts that show who we are; it is often how we deal with the hard or boring parts that reveal who we are.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Robin Lostetter
Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16
You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust” (vv. 1-2).
[H]e will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler (v. 4).
Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them (vv. 14-15).
You’ll need any of these that you have or are comfortable with:
Print:
* a copy of the Hebrew Bible, marked at the Psalms
* an English translation of the Bible (including the Psalms)
* a copy of an early music manuscript using neumes rather than contemporary notation, or any music scroll reproductions you might have
* a couple of contemporary hymnals or worship songbooks
Music:
* one or two simple Psalm-based refrains (the ones listed below are from the Presbyterian Hymnal [1990]; you could use similar ones in your hymnal)
-- Psalm 4, #160: “In the night I can take my rest, you alone keep my life secure” (add handbells D & E)
-- Psalm 23, #173: “My shepherd is the Lord, nothing indeed shall I want” (add handbells, B-flat & E-flat)
-- Psalm 24, #177: “Lift up the gates eternal, lift up your voices” (add tambourine, clap, or dance a bit)
-- Psalm 67, #202: “O God, O God, let all the nations praise You!”
-- Psalm 96, #217: “O sing a new song to the Lord” (add rhythm instrument on downbeat)
-- Psalm 118, #231: “Alleluia”; or #232: “Hosanna”
-- Psalm 137, #245: “By the waters of Babylon” (a round -- involve the choir or whole congregation)
* or with the help of a very accomplished pianist, use J. Jefferson Cleveland’s Psalm 150: “Praise Ye the Lord” (#258 in the Presbyterian Hymnal [1990])
* alternatively, consider chanting a psalm verse on one note, with just one small change in notes at the very end (a cadence). You may also invite your church musician to join you in this endeavor, which is always a nice demonstration of collegialism (although no one will critique you singing alone -- they’ll admire your courage!)
* if none of the suggestions above appeal to you, you could have the kids read the beginning of Psalm 47 and make up rhythmic speech to verse 1, “Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy!”
The message:
When you sing in worship, do the grownups around you share music printed on a page with you or do you look up at a screen to see the words? (Engage the children’s answers -- talk about how your church uses hymn materials: hymnal, bulletin inserts, or projected on a screen.)
Well, if you look at music in a book, it’s called a hymnal, and most of the music in it is called hymns.
Did you know that there’s a hymnal in the Bible? Well, there is! It’s not called a hymnal -- can anyone tell me what it’s called? (wait) Can anyone in the congregation tell me? (wait) Yes, it’s the book of Psalms.
The book of Psalms was originally written in Hebrew, and it was a collection of songs that Jesus would have sung. (If you have a Hebrew Bible this is the time to show it, noting that you read back to front and from right to left. If you have old manuscripts, they are likely medieval or renaissance notation -- so they’re much later. But you could say that they were from the early church before we had hymnals like today.)
Now let’s look at the book of Psalms, translated into English. Psalm 23 is probably the best known psalm -- let’s look it up. (You can just read with them a few verses of Psalm 23 and see if they recognize it.)
The psalm we read in worship today talks about how God helps us. It calls God a fortress, a place of safety. It describes God as a bird that shelters us under her wings. And most important, the psalm says that God will always be with us, even when we are afraid or in trouble. That’s really good news!
I bet Jesus used to say or sing psalms when he was your age, and it made him feel safe to know that God was always with him. Would you like to try to sing [or say] a psalm together?
(Okay... here’s where you need to have decided what you can manage: whether you will have invited your church musician or musicians, whether or not you will use instruments. Give it a try -- don’t be afraid to “make a joyful noise” with the children! And just have fun! Using instruments fits well with Hebrew scripture descriptions of worship and involves the children.)
Let’s close with a prayer: Creator God, we thank you for the gift of music. We thank you for the way it helps us express joy or sadness. Thank you also for promising always to be with us. Help us to always be ready to make a joyful noise in praising and thanking you. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, September 25, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 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.
But what Jeremiah and the psalmist are really communicating in this week’s texts, Chris notes, is actually a deep truth: namely, that no matter how bad the circumstances (and they may be very, very traumatic), there is always abundant reason for hope... even in the face of what seems like a black hole of misery. That’s because God promises to always be with us and to protect us -- even when a situation is so dire that many people wonder if God has abandoned them. Jeremiah tells us that the Lord will eventually redeem the Israelites’ land, while the psalmist says that we should not fear “the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday.” It’s not that the Lord prevents us from these “times of trial.” For example, God doesn’t save the Israelites from the coming years of suffering and exile. Rather, Chris reminds us, it is through his presence (and in his kairos time) that God is able to, against all expectations, transform places of horror into places of hope.
Team member Mary Austin shares some additional thoughts on the themes of wealth, inequality, and lack of concern for the welfare of the poor that are at the heart of the gospel reading. Though last week’s news that in aggregate the American economy grew at its largest rate in several years seems on the surface reason to rejoice, many people are not sharing in this rising tide. As Mary points out, those of us who don’t have daily struggles to meet basic needs often don’t appreciate the obstacles those who do face -- a blindness that eerily parallels the lack of concern the rich man had for Lazarus in Jesus’ parable. Are we listening to Moses and the prophets? Or like the rich man, will we discover that in our desire to be rich -- both individually and as a nation -- we have fallen into (in the words of our First Timothy text) “temptation and [become] trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction”?
The Apex of Hope
by Chris Keating
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16
Someone apparently forgot to tell Jeremiah that the primary rule of thumb for conducting real estate deals is location, location, location.
The prophet has minced no words about what is about to happen to Jerusalem. He’s reminded the people that God is about send a blistering, devastating wind upon the city. He’s told them disaster is on its way. But now, even as the king of Babylon has surrounded the town and Jeremiah is sequestered in prison, he decides it’s time to go house hunting.
Could someone cue up an episode of The Property Brothers for him?
It’s an unlikely act -- a bit like purchasing a shopping center in Aleppo. If someone asks “What’s Aleppo?” tell them that the United Nations Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs called it “the apex of horror.” Once Syria’s highly commercialized business hub, the city -- now under siege and cut off from basic supplies -- has largely been reduced to rubble. Don’t expect a run on real estate there any time soon.
Yet even in a place of absolute devastation, hope has managed to crawl out of a bunker, if only briefly. A fragile ceasefire brought a modicum of relief to Aleppo’s residents last week. It provided a chance for children to play outside, and gave parents a chance to take shallow, uneasy breaths of hope.
Headlines remind us that hope springs up in unlikely places: an abducted woman takes a chance and calls police, residents of an embattled neighborhood in Chicago light candles for peace, parents in Aleppo let their kids play outside.
It doesn’t make sense. It makes no sense for the residents of Aleppo to hold much hope, any more than it makes sense for Jeremiah to be purchasing fields and securing deeds for future generations. None of this makes sense -- until you begin to recall that God often settles near the apex of horror so that it can be transformed into the apex of hope.
Or, as the psalmist reminds us, “You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge, and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’ ”
In the News
After years of war, the promise of even a fragile truce in Syria became a symbol of hope and redemption.
But that hope faded on Monday following the Syrian military’s announcement that it would no longer honor the ceasefire. President Bashar Assad’s ruling government blamed the failure of the truce, which was negotiated by Russia and the United States, on rebels. Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had told reporters that the truce was “holding but fragile.” Yet reporters noted that little aid had reached besieged areas.
Hopes of peace in Syria began to fall apart following Sunday’s U.S.-led airstrikes that were aimed at Islamic State positions but ended up killing dozens of Syrian soldiers. And then they seemed to be completely dashed early Monday, after several trucks carrying humanitarian supplies were destroyed by the Syrian military while another 20 United Nations trucks were stalled at the Turkey-Syria border. The attack on the aid convoy killed at least a dozen humanitarian workers and an unknown number of civilians, prompting the U.N. to immediately suspend all aid operations in Syria.
A statement by a U.N. official noted that up to 275,000 Aleppo residents remain trapped “without food, water, proper shelter, or medical care.” The official said that convoys have been unable to reach the city since July. And now, with operations suspended for the foreseeable future, relief for the city may be a very long time coming.
The complexities of Syria’s unravelling, and the subsequent displacement of millions of its citizens, remain a Gordian knot of agony and horror. While the United States apologized for the airstrike it called accidental, Russian officials condemned the U.S. attacks. One official suggested that Washington was trying to defend ISIS. But even before the Sunday attack, things were not going well.
Mishaps punctured the truce since it began -- and like another U.S.-Russian agreement in February, it quickly disintegrated.
These brief pauses in fighting have not led to longer-term solutions. Both U.S. and Russian diplomats noted that the agreement’s foundation was shaky, yet persisted in the hope of providing relief to Aleppo while also coordinating attacks against ISIS. Even in the face of difficulties, officials tried to remain hopeful.
“We look around at the range of possible solutions,” a U.S. official said, “and... this remains, we think, the most promising way that we see in front of us to try to get this horrible situation to a better place.”
Prospects for ending the horror will likely be at the top of the U.N.’s General Assembly as it convenes in New York City this week. Yet even there the specter of terror lingers, especially as the city copes with its own encounters with horror over the weekend.
Explosions in New York and New Jersey last weekend were not-so-subtle reminders of terrorism’s global reach, though the motives for the bombings remain unclear. The world is inured to the deadly snares set by terrorists. Police in Linden, New Jersey arrested Ahmed Khan Rahami Monday following an exchange of gunfire and dramatic chase. Rahami is believed to be responsible for explosions in Manhattan and New Jersey Saturday. He was identified as a suspect through surveillance camera footage and by fingerprints found on one of the pressure cooker bombs in Manhattan.
Coming on the heels of a separate attack in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where a man stabbed 10 people Saturday at a shopping mall, the terror incidents are the latest reminders of how violence and rage intersect with daily life for most of the world. Not only do bombings rattle the world, they can also shake up our own neighborhoods. The mounting violence -- often matched pitch by pitch by political fear-mongering -- grips close and bites deep.
At times, the possibilities of hope seem impossible. “We are all vulnerable,” noted an editorial in the Asbury Park [New Jersey] Press:
Terrorism works in part because of its random quality. An isolated pressure-cooker bomb in Manhattan, another explosive on the Jersey Shore -- these sorts of scattered attacks create the idea that trouble can strike anywhere, at any time. Yet the chances of being a victim of a terrorist attack remain extremely remote -- roughly akin to a lightning strike. We may never know some of the successes of counterterrorism and intelligence units in uncovering and stopping plots. We are all vulnerable, but our lives are more at risk every time we drive down a highway.
At times, it is the most vulnerable ones -- the children playing in a besieged city, resilient New Yorkers getting back on commuter trains, an abducted woman frantically dialing 911 -- who serve as reminders of the hope embodied by Jeremiah’s strange real estate purchase.
It was that sort of determined grit that helped a woman in Ashland, Ohio escape her abductor last week. While her kidnapper slept, the woman broke loose and called police. Nearly 20 minutes later, police found her and arrested Shawn Grate, who has been charged with two counts of murder and is a suspect in at least three more. “I’m scared,” the kidnapped woman told a dispatcher during the long call.
But her resolve led to her redemption. Her action, much like Jeremiah’s investing in seemingly worthless pieces of real estate, is a reminder of how impossibilities can be transformed into possibilities. Grate, who is suspected of being a serial killer, may not have been able to understand that sort of hope -- especially in light of one of his last Facebook posts, which is reported to have included a “faith” meme: “Let’s see if I can find 1 million who are unashamed to say Jesus watches over me.”
The apex of horror is easy to detect; yet discerning the apex of hope requires a bit more risk. That risk is prompted by trust in the One who declares, “I will bring them back to this place, and I will settle them in safety. They shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Jeremiah 32:37-38).
In the Scriptures
Hanamel must have thought he was the luckiest man in Anathoth. Not only did he manage to unload what was essentially a worthless piece of property, he was able to sell it to his own cousin Jeremiah, who just happened to be locked up at the time. Hopefully Hanamel treated his realtor to an amazing dinner following closing!
The strange transaction is recounted with precise detail in Jeremiah 32. The text is more than a story about a land deal, however. The story is filled with the details of prophetic witness, which, as Patrick Miller observes, are reminders that everything that happens here flows from the word of God (“Jeremiah,” in New Interpreter’s Bible [Vol. VI], p. 820). The action describes God’s intent to offer a future, even to people who are throttled by tragedy.
True to his mission to “pluck up and pull down,” Jeremiah plunks down the cash for this field, and then makes certain that there are witnesses whose testimony will be vital if this action is ever questioned. The deeds of trust are buried as a sign of hope -- sealed and deposited -- awaiting the time when God shall lead God’s people into a new and better future. In essence, as Miller notes, Jeremiah is betting on the future.
But the odds of winning that bet are slim. Jeremiah’s action is not the informed choice of a skilled real estate investor, or even a shrewd “flipper” who sees potential where others see only dry rot and vermin. Jeremiah extends the offer not because he sees a future filled with lucrative returns, but because he sees a future filled with the return of people. The future is one held by God, who can be trusted and whose promise is one of redemption and justice.
For Jeremiah, this action is built on the deep sense of trust described by the psalmist. God is a “refuge,” a bedrock fortress. God is one who delivers, but not because we are passive in waiting for something to happen. God delivers because God’s people have acted in faithfulness that is as bold as calling 911 while your captor sleeps and as unlikely as lighting candles of peace on violent city streets. This isn’t some sort of works righteousness; rather, it is the sort of active hope that dares to trust in God’s promised future. It is an active faith that is willing to take enormous risks and does not fear the terror of the night.
In the Sermon
Should Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson ever audition for the television game show Jeopardy! It’s a safe bet he’ll know the question to this answer: “For centuries it was the Syrian region’s largest city, and the third largest in the Ottoman Empire.”
The question, of course, is “What is Aleppo?” But the better answer might be “What is the apex of hope?” Like the field in Anathoth, Aleppo is a symbol of destruction. We’ve seen the brutality. And like Jeremiah, we have even witnessed in our own homeland signs of destruction and peril.
We can describe the apex of horror -- but can we describe the apex of hope?
In a nation divided by politics and bruised by terrorism, hope is a word that needs to be preached. The promise of God’s protection, and the certainty of God’s redemption, need to be explored this Sunday. Both Jeremiah and the Psalm text provide ample space for articulating dimensions of hope, but care needs to be taken so that the sermon does not seem to rely on somewhat formulaic articulations of hope and trust: i.e., “Let’s see if we can find 1 million people who are unashamed to say Jesus is watching over me.”
Jeremiah knows that God is watching God’s people, and that God is the Lord of new possibilities. Yet that assurance does not immediately remove the terror that flies by night. The assurance of God’s ultimate triumph does not remove the sting of penultimate trials. God’s transforming presence is at hand, and in the work of Jesus Christ has brought about the promise of redemption. Nothing is too hard for God (Jeremiah 32:27); and while this shall indeed be the refrain that is sounded over and over again until it reaches Mary’s lips, it is also true that suffering is real, painful, and lasting.
“Go and buy a field” does not translate into immediate success. But the hope proclaimed by this text is the hope embodied by a woman fleeing her captor, the hope of a mother of a murdered child who dares to light a candle, the hope of a child of Aleppo who wants to play outside. Those who have known the peril of the night are the ones best suited for describing where the apex of hope is located -- and it is their story which needs to be told this Sunday. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, and it will come to us as well.
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Luke 16:19-31
The news that household income is up significantly didn’t make much of a splash in the neighborhood where my church is. It’s big news for the country that median household income in the U.S. rose 5% in 2015, the first notable increase since 2007. The big news around our block, though, was a change in the required uniform at the neighborhood charter school. Right before school, the new management announced the change. Parent after parent called in a panic at the need to buy new clothes, in new colors, so close to the start of classes. Where would the money come from to buy those new pants, oxford shirts, and red cardigans?
Like Lazarus and the rich man in Jesus’ parable, people who have money and people who don’t live on two sides of a widening gap. In the story that Jesus tells, the rich man looks up and sees Lazarus “far away,” and that same gap persists between most of us and people of different income levels.
Income inequality has increased since the 2007 recession, and income is only part of the picture: “Wealth -- the value of property and financial assets -- is considerably more concentrated than income. According to the Center for Budget and Priorities (CBPP), a government policy research institute, over half of all wealth in the United States belongs to the top 3% of earners.” While household income is up across the country, according to the Census Bureau, it still lags behind the median income in 2007, before the recession. And not everyone is catching up. Income disparities are greatest among working-age people, who rely on wages, which fluctuate (or end). The gap is less dramatic for retirees, who have pensions and assets to guard against the loss of income.
Related gaps appear in life expectancy, and in the ability to finish college.
College students from poor families are dramatically less likely to finish college, widening the income gap. The Pell Institute says that “since 1970, the percentage of dependent students coming from the poorest families, those making roughly $34,000 or less a year, who earn a bachelor’s degree inched up from six percent to nine percent. In comparison, the college-completion rate for students growing up in the richest households jumped from 44 percent to 77 percent.” Cost, the need to work, and transportation are all hurdles for lower-income students, as is the lack of social support.
The Brookings Institution also reports a longevity gap, where people with higher incomes live longer: “From 2001 to 2014, Americans who had incomes in the top five percent of the income distribution saw their life expectancy climb about three years. During the same 14-year span, people in the bottom five percent of the income distribution saw virtually no improvement at all.” As they note, this changes the impact of programs that serve people in the last decades of life. Wealthy people get more out of Social Security and Medicare because they live for more years to collect these benefits.
Most truly poor people are too busy to care about any of these statistics. Getting by each day takes a tremendous amount of energy. In her book Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America, Linda Tirado writes about how time-consuming and stressful it is to be poor. Most all of the money-saving tips people offer to the poor, Tirado notes, would be more useful for people who have money. Buy in bulk? Sure, but you need the money up front. Get things when they’re on sale? That works well if you have the money right then. Tirado observes: “It actually costs money to save money.”
She adds: “It is impossible to be good with money when you don’t have any. Full stop. If I’m saving my spare five bucks a week, in the best-case scenario I will have saved $260 a year. For those of you that think in quarters: $65 per quarter in savings. If you deny yourself even small luxuries, that’s the fortune you’ll amass. Of course you will never manage to actually save it; you’ll get sick at least one day and miss work and dip into it for rent. Gas will spike and you’ll need it to get to work. You’ll get a tear in your work pants that you can’t patch. Something, I guarantee you, will happen in three months.”
Tirado says that poor people, better than anyone else, know the value of money. “We work for ours. If we’re at 10 bucks an hour, we earn 83 cents, before taxes, every five minutes. We know exactly what a dollar’s worth; it’s counted in how many more times you have to duck and bend sideways out the drive-through window. Or how many floors you can vacuum, or how many boxes you can fill. It’s impossible to win, unless you are very lucky.” We like to think of hard work as the way out of poverty, but Tirado says that luck plays a huge role. The people who commented on her article agreed, mentioning times when a moment of luck changed the trajectory of their finances for better or worse.
Those of us who are doing fine right now think we make our own luck. We are like the rich man in the parable. Like him, we don’t see the person bringing out our dry cleaning, or the man mopping the floor, or the woman serving us the food she can’t afford to eat herself. Only when his own fortunes are reversed does the rich man notice the poor man, now relieved of his isolating poverty and at rest with Abraham.
Polls say that we’re not alone in our blindness. When surveyed, “the American public does not seem to be overly concerned about high poverty rates and low and stagnant economic mobility, although it is likely that many Americans don’t realize just how high poverty rates really are or just how low economic mobility rates really are. In annual polls conducted between 2007 and 2015, a little over half of Americans typically thought that ‘dealing with problems of the poor and needy should be a top priority.’ In most of these polls, the poverty issue was no higher than 10th on the list of problems the public considered top priority for federal action.” People are more interested in action on terrorism and the economy in general. Like the rich man, we don’t see the depth of the need around us.
We don’t see that $30 is the difference between solvency or a bounced check and more fees. We miss the fact that $50 will keep the water on, and allow someone to be clean enough to keep a job. Two dollars in quarters will feed the parking meter and stave off a $45 ticket, which grows into a $90 ticket. The rich man in the story misses the chance to see the neighbor right outside his gate, but we don’t have to miss our own chances to see, and to offer the small help that can make a big difference.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Amos 6:1a, 4-7
It is unfortunate for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign that she verbalized her real feelings about some her opponent Donald Trump’s supporters. She called half of his followers a “basket of deplorables,” whom she went on to describe as racist, sexist, homophobic, or xenophobic. Clinton compounded her problem when she said you can only have “empathy” for the other half who support Trump. Clinton later apologized for speaking in overgeneralizations.
Application: We can judge people, as the prophets demonstrate -- but we still must be cautious of our word choice.
*****
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Amos 6:1a, 4-7
After 15 years, the last artifacts preserved from the attack on the World Trade Center are finding homes at firehouses, police stations, libraries, schools, and museums across the nation. The final artifact, a white government van with a smashed roof and broken windows, is about to be released. Harriet Senie, a professor of history at the City University of New York, described the importance of these artifacts: “History is a vague concept, but if you have this tangible object that was a part of this historical event, it makes it very difficult to deny it also makes it possible to experience it in a very visceral way.”
Application: The prophets want their people to once again remember their history and return to it.
*****
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Stanley Sheinbaum, who recently died at the age of 96, was an economics professor who gave up teaching to become a peace activist. He wanted to devote himself, in his words, to “creat[ing] a little peace and justice in this unjust world.” Among his many efforts was attempting to bring peace to the Middle East. As a Jew who had several conferences with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, he became the most hated Jew in America. But he felt the persecution was worth it if peace would prevail, though it never did. Of his efforts, Sheinbaum said: “My failure is the greatest disappointment I have ever experienced, and I can only take solace from the knowledge that I really, really tried. I really did.”
Application: The prophets really did try.
*****
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Amos 6:1a, 4-7; 1 Timothy 6:6-19
Andy and Ryan Bundy are currently on trial for their 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Their defense attorney is presenting the case that they are being prosecuted for views they hold regarding federal land use policies. The prosecuting attorney, Geoffrey Barrow, is making it very clear that the Bundys are free to express their views -- but in doing so they cannot threaten federal employees and have firearms on federal property. Barrow told the jury, “Everyone in this great nation has a right to his or her beliefs. We are not prosecuting the defendants because we don’t like what they think or said. We are prosecuting them because of what they did.”
Application: The prophets are speaking out against what the people are doing.
*****
Psalm 146
Angelique Kerber recently won the women’s singles title at the U.S. Open. This victory moved her ranking up to no. 1 in the world, a position previously held by Serena Williams. It was an especially meaningful accomplishment for Kerber. In her words: “It means a lot to me. When I was a kid, I was always dreaming to one day be the no. 1 player in the world, to win Grand Slams. I mean, all the dreams came true this year...”
Application: The Psalm talks about how we are to rejoice in our blessings.
*****
1 Timothy 6:6-19
“Grandpa Rossy” is retiring from baseball. Though he is only 39 and has no grandchildren, Chicago Cubs backup catcher David Rossy is still referred to by his teammates as Grandpa Rossy. Known for his steady demeanor and for having a way with words that enables him to mentor, encourage, and comfort other players, Rossy is an important behind-the-scenes contributor for the Cubs, who are seeking their first World Series title since 1908. The publicity surrounding his retirement has caused the Cubs to sell jerseys with Rossy’s name and number for the first time.
Application: Paul is asking us to be good people and to use our resources wisely.
*****
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Joe Pavelski, who plays in the NHL for the San Jose Sharks, was selected to be the captain of the United States team for this month’s World Cup of Hockey. Though he ranks second in the NHL over the past three seasons with 116 goals, this was not the reason he was chosen as captain. Instead, coach John Tortorella selected Pavelski because “He is a complete player, and that’s probably one of the best compliments you can give a guy is the word ‘complete’ and he is that.” Now at 32, Pavelski is perhaps no longer one of the most underappreciated players in hockey.
Application: If we measure wealth in terms of goals scored, then the lesson we should learn is that what is more important than the wealth of scores is to be a complete person.
*****
Luke 16:19-31
It took 15 years after the 9/11 terrorist attack for the authors of young adult novels to feel comfortable writing about the event to their young readers -- even though it was an event that occurred before most of their readers were born. Novelist Wendy Mills realized the need to write such a book when her son Zack asked about airport security. Mills said, “Here’s a whole generation of kids who weren’t alive and don’t know what it was like that day, and they’re not going to know the world before 9/11. It wasn’t a perfect world, but it felt like a safer world.”
Application: We learn from Jesus that we must be willing to tell the difficult stories.
*****
Luke 16:19-31
There was an international outcry and protest against Facebook when it removed from its pages the iconic photo of the “napalm girl” because of its standards regarding nudity. But the 1972 Pulitzer Prize-winning photo is one of the lasting images of the Vietnam War, and it was part of Norwegian author Tom Egeland’s Facebook account of the history of war. Realizing how Facebook is a source of news around the globe, the picture was reposted. In defense of its original action, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook is a “tech company, not a media company.”
Application: Difficult stories must be told and viewed.
*****
Luke 16:19-31
John Hinckley, who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan 35 years ago in an effort to impress actress Jodie Foster, has been released from St. Elizabeth’s mental hospital in Washington, D.C. The 61-year-old Hinckley is no longer considered a danger to himself or to the community. But his release includes many restrictions, as he resides with his mother in a gated community in Williamsburg, Virginia. Though this ruling by a federal judge has been criticized by some, we need to realize that there is a time for judgment and a time for forgiveness.
Application: We need to balance our message of judgment with one of forgiveness.
***************
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
In this week’s reading Jeremiah demonstrates his faith that “it may be the end of us, but it isn’t necessarily the end of everything.” God’s plans extend into the future, well beyond us and our time. The first four illustrations are about endings that weren’t necessarily the end.
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
The Writer Ends But the Writing Goes On
Robert B. Parker was known as the “dean of American crime fiction.” He wrote more than 70 books, and nearly all were best-sellers. Among the timeless characters he created were the Boston private detective Spenser, along with his girlfriend Susan and best friend Hawk. He also created Jesse Stone, the small town chief of police who was brought to life on the screen by Tom Selleck, and the female private eye Sunny Randall. And just a few years before his death in 2010 he started a series of western novels featuring lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. The first, Appaloosa, was made into a movie starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen.
Parker was 77 years old when he suddenly and unexpectedly died at his desk while writing a novel, and his fan base was devastated. Bob Parker’s death, they said, meant the death of all of his beloved characters. His family and publishers decided, however, that there was no need for the characters to die as well.
The Jesse Stone series has been continued with six novels (one a year), the first three by Parker’s longtime friend and collaborator Michael Brandman, and the last three by Reed Farrel Coleman. The Spenser novels have also continued, with the one Parker was working on at his death completed by his longtime literary agent Helen Brann, and with five others by journalist/writer Ace Atkins. The Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch series has been continued as well by actor and screenwriter Robert Knott, with three novels published through 2016.
Though the writer died, the writing -- thanks to the generosity and spirit of those who loved him -- goes on.
*****
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
The Job That Never Ends
The Golden Gate Bridge is probably more famous, but just a few miles away from it is a bridge that is bigger, carries more traffic, and is older and longer than the Golden Gate -- the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which opened in 1936. It is over four miles long and stands over 500 feet high. Over a quarter million vehicles cross it every day. So massive is the structure that the crew who paints it never completes its work. They start painting on one end, and it takes them about three years to paint their way to the other end. And then they start over.
*****
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
An Unfinished Life and Book
The novel Suite Française was published in the United States in 2006 -- and its author, Irene Nemirovsky, is one of the most fascinating literary figures you’ve never heard of.
Born to a wealthy Russian Jewish family who fled the Bolshevik revolution, she became a literary sensation in Paris while still in her 20s, eventually publishing nine novels in French, one of which became a film.
After the Nazis invaded France in 1940 she could no longer publish under her own name, and in 1942 she was arrested and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she died at the age of 39. Her literary fame might have died too, if not for an heirloom her two young daughters clung to as they and their nanny went into hiding from the Nazis who’d claimed their parents. The heirloom was a leather notebook containing their mother’s last work. For decades the two sisters believed the notebook was her diary, and they could not bring themselves to open and read it. “I was waiting for my mother to come and open it herself,” said her daughter Denise.
Finally in the 1970s, after a flood in her home in Toulouse, Denise opened the book. Not only was she surprised to find it was a novel, but she recognized “everyone and all the places in it” from her family’s own flight from Paris to a small village in Burgundy. Denise didn't want to publish it as an unfinished novel, but years later an editor persuaded her. Finally published in France in 2004, Suite Française has been translated into 25 languages and has become an international best-seller.
In October of 2006 Denise, then the author’s only surviving daughter, came to the United States with the original notebook to celebrate the novel’s U.S. publication. The book contains only two-fifths of the book Irene Nemirovsky intended to write, but those who have read it say that it still seems somehow very complete.
*****
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
Bucket Lists
What do bucket lists say about our faith and our understanding of endings, especially our own?
A “bucket list” is a list of things that you want to do before you “kick the bucket” (die). The phrase was originated by screenwriter Justin Zackham for the 2007 movie The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two terminally ill men who go out on a lark to experience things they’ve never done so that they can check them off their bucket lists.
After the movie the phrase quickly became part of the American lexicon, though language scholars say that it probably won’t enter the Oxford Dictionary for a few more years. That august publication wants to see if it has staying power.
If the popular culture has any say in it, the idea of a bucket list isn’t going anywhere. It’s here for the long haul.
Writing for Slate’s culture blog in November 2011, June Thomas said that she heard two “bucket list” references on a single night of television: “On Glee, Kurt Hummel, all of 17, whipped out his iPhone and showed his boyfriend, Blaine, a few of the things he intends to do before he dies. (My favorite: ‘Arrive at school in a hot air balloon.’) On NCIS, Tony DiNozzo, shaken by a terrorist attack, became hyperaware of his own mortality and printed out a list that included more prosaic choices: ‘Date a Bond girl and/or Miss Universe. Develop a catch phrase. The luge.’ When I tweeted about this, @magazinemama reminded me that on last week’s Parks & Recreation, doofus Andy was also working on a bucket list. His items included winning the lottery, making the best grilled-cheese sandwich ever, and remaking the movie Kazaam (this time getting it right).”
*****
Luke 16:19-31
Conspicuous Consumption
Why would someone trade in a perfectly good and functioning iPhone 6 for an iPhone 7? Why would parents let their kids buy sneakers that cost $150 when the off-brand $45 variety would work just well? And why do people sometimes eat with silver flatware that has to be polished and cared for, when stainless steel never rusts or tarnishes and works just the same as the silver silverware does?
The answer is to be found in one of the bedrock classical concepts of sociology: conspicuous consumption.
This concept was developed by Thorstein Veblen in his 1899 book The Theory of the Leisure Class, in which he describes how wealthy people spend large amounts of money on goods and services as a way of showing their status. This term doesn’t refer to all large expenses, however -- instead, it refers to spending as a way of showing off who you are. In fact, sometimes what you end up with is no better, and sometimes worse, than what you can get for less money.
Writing on his Everyday Sociology blog, Bradley Wright tells of what may be the best example of conspicuous consumption anyone ever thought of: “As everyone under 40 knows (and some of us over 40 have heard about), Apple makes a wicked-cool cellphone it calls the iPhone. You can load little software programs on it, called ‘apps,’ that do various functions. One of these apps is called the ‘I am rich’ application. It costs $1,000 and serves absolutely no purpose other than to shine a red ruby on your iPhone that lets others know that you could afford to buy this app. That’s it. It shows that you’re rich and doesn’t do anything else. Apparently Apple no longer carries it at its stores because it was getting bad publicity.”
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: We who live in the shelter of the Most High will say to God,
People: “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.”
Leader: God will deliver us from the snare of the fowler.
People: God will cover us, and under God’s wings we will find refuge.
Leader: We will not fear in the night or in the day.
People: When we call, God will answer and be with us in trouble.
OR
Leader: God calls us into worship and into life.
People: With joy we praise God for all our blessings.
Leader: What about those times when we don’t feel blessed?
People: We find it difficult to praise God when things go badly.
Leader: In the good and the bad, God calls us to life and wholeness.
People: With God’s help, we will live into the life God brings us.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness”
found in:
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
ELA: 733
W&P: 72
AMEC: 84
Renew: 249
“Lift High the Cross”
found in:
UMH: 159
H82: 473
PH: 371
AAHH: 242
NCH: 198
CH: 108
LBW: 377
ELA: 660
W&P: 287
Renew: 297
“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”
found in:
UMH: 133
AAHH: 371
NNBH: 262
NCH: 471
CH: 560
ELA: 774
W&P: 496
AMEC: 525
“I Need Thee Every Hour”
found in:
UMH: 397
AAHH: 451
NNBH: 303
NCH: 517
CH: 578
W&P: 476
AMEC: 327
“Take Up Thy Cross”
found in:
UMH: 415
H82: 675
PH: 393
LBW: 398
ELA: 667
W&P: 351
AMEC: 294
“My Faith Looks Up to Thee”
found in:
UMH: 452
H82: 691
PH: 383
AAHH: 456
NNBH: 273
CH: 576
LBW: 479
ELA: 759
W&P: 419
AMEC: 415
“ ’Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”
found in:
UMH: 462
AAHH: 368
NNBH: 292
AMEC: 440
“Trust and Obey”
found in:
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
“Your Loving Kindness Is Better Than Life”
found in:
CCB: 26
“The Steadfast Love of the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 28
Renew: 23
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God whose love is from everlasting to everlasting: Grant us the faith to trust that you are always hovering over us, not to protect us from life but to bring us to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for your love is everlasting. In all of life, you are hovering over us to shelter us. Help us to understand that you do not protect us from life but call us to true life in you. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our expectation that God will protect us from life’s hurts and our lack of faith when the hurts come.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You come to us and offer us a faith that will enable us to face all that life brings to us, but we want a guarantee that nothing bad will happen. You give us the ability to deal with and grow through the rough spots in life, but we complain because we hit a pothole or two. Our understanding of what makes life worthwhile is so different than yours. Heal us and empower us to live life fully, even in the midst of its hurts. Amen.
Leader: God desires for us to live fully into our humanity. Receive God’s love and forgiveness, and the presence of God’s Spirit so that you may live life abundantly.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
Praise to you, O God, who in love has created us to bear your own image. In love you have gifted us with your own Spirit.
(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 come to us and offer us a faith that will enable us to face all that life brings to us, but we want a guarantee that nothing bad will happen. You give us the ability to deal with and grow through the rough spots in life, but we complain because we hit a pothole or two. Our understanding of what makes life worthwhile is so different than yours. Heal us and empower us to live life fully, even in the midst of its hurts.
We give you thanks for the wonders of life. We thank you for the presence of your Spirit in our lives, and for the guidance you give us so that we may find meaning and joy in all of life.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all who struggle with the difficult times in life. We pray that as you invite them into the wholeness of life in you, we may participate in that invitation through all that we say and do.
(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
It would be wonderful to be a great soccer star or pianist or whatever. It would really be great if we could just be that without working at it. But that isn’t how it usually works. The people who are really, really good at something spends hours and hours in practice. Sometimes it hurts and sometimes it’s boring, but they keep at it to become and remain really good. All of life is like that. It isn’t just the really fun parts that show who we are; it is often how we deal with the hard or boring parts that reveal who we are.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Robin Lostetter
Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16
You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust” (vv. 1-2).
[H]e will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler (v. 4).
Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them (vv. 14-15).
You’ll need any of these that you have or are comfortable with:
Print:
* a copy of the Hebrew Bible, marked at the Psalms
* an English translation of the Bible (including the Psalms)
* a copy of an early music manuscript using neumes rather than contemporary notation, or any music scroll reproductions you might have
* a couple of contemporary hymnals or worship songbooks
Music:
* one or two simple Psalm-based refrains (the ones listed below are from the Presbyterian Hymnal [1990]; you could use similar ones in your hymnal)
-- Psalm 4, #160: “In the night I can take my rest, you alone keep my life secure” (add handbells D & E)
-- Psalm 23, #173: “My shepherd is the Lord, nothing indeed shall I want” (add handbells, B-flat & E-flat)
-- Psalm 24, #177: “Lift up the gates eternal, lift up your voices” (add tambourine, clap, or dance a bit)
-- Psalm 67, #202: “O God, O God, let all the nations praise You!”
-- Psalm 96, #217: “O sing a new song to the Lord” (add rhythm instrument on downbeat)
-- Psalm 118, #231: “Alleluia”; or #232: “Hosanna”
-- Psalm 137, #245: “By the waters of Babylon” (a round -- involve the choir or whole congregation)
* or with the help of a very accomplished pianist, use J. Jefferson Cleveland’s Psalm 150: “Praise Ye the Lord” (#258 in the Presbyterian Hymnal [1990])
* alternatively, consider chanting a psalm verse on one note, with just one small change in notes at the very end (a cadence). You may also invite your church musician to join you in this endeavor, which is always a nice demonstration of collegialism (although no one will critique you singing alone -- they’ll admire your courage!)
* if none of the suggestions above appeal to you, you could have the kids read the beginning of Psalm 47 and make up rhythmic speech to verse 1, “Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy!”
The message:
When you sing in worship, do the grownups around you share music printed on a page with you or do you look up at a screen to see the words? (Engage the children’s answers -- talk about how your church uses hymn materials: hymnal, bulletin inserts, or projected on a screen.)
Well, if you look at music in a book, it’s called a hymnal, and most of the music in it is called hymns.
Did you know that there’s a hymnal in the Bible? Well, there is! It’s not called a hymnal -- can anyone tell me what it’s called? (wait) Can anyone in the congregation tell me? (wait) Yes, it’s the book of Psalms.
The book of Psalms was originally written in Hebrew, and it was a collection of songs that Jesus would have sung. (If you have a Hebrew Bible this is the time to show it, noting that you read back to front and from right to left. If you have old manuscripts, they are likely medieval or renaissance notation -- so they’re much later. But you could say that they were from the early church before we had hymnals like today.)
Now let’s look at the book of Psalms, translated into English. Psalm 23 is probably the best known psalm -- let’s look it up. (You can just read with them a few verses of Psalm 23 and see if they recognize it.)
The psalm we read in worship today talks about how God helps us. It calls God a fortress, a place of safety. It describes God as a bird that shelters us under her wings. And most important, the psalm says that God will always be with us, even when we are afraid or in trouble. That’s really good news!
I bet Jesus used to say or sing psalms when he was your age, and it made him feel safe to know that God was always with him. Would you like to try to sing [or say] a psalm together?
(Okay... here’s where you need to have decided what you can manage: whether you will have invited your church musician or musicians, whether or not you will use instruments. Give it a try -- don’t be afraid to “make a joyful noise” with the children! And just have fun! Using instruments fits well with Hebrew scripture descriptions of worship and involves the children.)
Let’s close with a prayer: Creator God, we thank you for the gift of music. We thank you for the way it helps us express joy or sadness. Thank you also for promising always to be with us. Help us to always be ready to make a joyful noise in praising and thanking you. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, September 25, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 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.
