Birthday Gifts
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
This week the lectionary readings feature the familiar Parable of the Sower; but another fascinating passage that could well resonate with our congregations and provide interesting preaching material is the text from Genesis, in which Jacob swindles his elder twin brother Esau out of his birthright. Not only do we encounter dysfunctional family dynamics that could easily serve as fodder for a Dr. Phil episode, but Esau's eagerness to let go of what he perceives (at the moment) as an intangible and essentially worthless asset also raises several issues. At a time when our political leaders are engaged in a vigorous debate revealing deep divisions over spending, taxation, and raising the debt limit, it seems worthwhile to ponder whether as a nation we're too willing, like Esau, to mortgage our future by trading our birthright for short-term gain. Or are we like Jacob? Our corporate culture, with its relentless pressure to maximize profit and fatten the bottom line, certainly encourages and rewards behavior like Jacob's that takes advantage of every opening -- even if it pushes the ethical envelope. Then there is the whole issue of wants vs. needs that seems particularly apropos for middle-class Americans who live in relative luxury. Are we, like Esau, hungry for what we want rather than focusing on our true needs... which makes us vulnerable to giving away something very valuable for a single, transitory (if delicious) meal?
All of these offer intriguing springboards for preaching, but in this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin considers a more basic question: What is our birthright? For many of our people it's probably just another biblical "buzzword," an antiquated concept that's probably the most difficult aspect of the Jacob/Esau story for them to grasp. With the Fourth of July fresh in our minds, Mary unlocks this text by looking at our birthright as American citizens -- freedoms that are so woven into our daily lives that we often take them for granted. It often seems like the only time we consciously think about them are on occasions like Memorial Day and Independence Day when we exalt them as bedrock virtues of our country. While they may appear immutable, they are social constructs that without vigilance can easily be lost. In contrast, Mary notes, our birthright as Christians is eternal and unchanging -- and a freedom greater than any contemplated by a founding father. As Paul notes in this week's epistle text, "The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set [us] free from the law of sin and of death." While that's a birthright we can turn away from, it's one that no matter what we do we can't lose or trade away.
Team member Roger Lovette shares some additional thoughts on the Parable of the Sower and suggests that the most fruitful approach is a holistic interpretation that emphasizes all of us embody each kind of soil within us. We ought to resist the temptation to judgmentalism -- it's not simply a matter of "good soil" Christians and "rocky soil" heathens; we all have varying degrees of different types of soil... or as Roger sums it up: "We are they." In addition, Roger points out, we are both sower and soil. Not only should we aspire to be receptive soil, but we also have an obligation to spread the seed -- no matter how small or insignificant our seeds may seem. With God's providence, great things can arise out of tiny seeds and unlikely circumstances.
Birthday Gifts
by Mary Austin
Genesis 25:19-34; Romans 8:1-11
With the sound of the Fourth of July fireworks still ringing in our ears, the lectionary takes us to the well-known story of Esau and Jacob, and the moment when Esau sells his birthright as the firstborn son in a moment of hunger and desperation. At a minimum, the story offers hope to anyone driven nuts by family over the long holiday weekend, assuring us again that God is present in every family squabble. More deeply, though, the story invites us in to the question of birthright and what it really means. As we weigh our lives as citizens of this nation, now 235 years old, and as people of faith, we look with Esau at the question of our birthright.
THE WORLD
In his new book The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States, Gordon Wood holds that the American Revolution actually lasted until the early 19th century -- and may still be continuing. As he said on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show recently, "America is an idea and that's all we are, really... there's no American ethnicity. The whole world is here in the United States and if we are to be a people, it's people who are made by an idea." Those ideas come out of the Revolution, he believes.
Wood adds that America is built on the values of "liberty, freedom, equality, constitutionalism, the well-being of ordinary people, the pursuit of happiness. Those things that come out of the founding are what hold us together. They are our noblest ideals, our highest aspirations, and they all come out of the Revolution." He notes that the American Revolution is unique in that it didn't spring from the anger of hungry crowds, or a popular uprising of people upset about prices, or anger at a corrupt government.
He comments that during the crisis of the Civil War, President Lincoln turned back to these same ideas to stir the country. As Wood says, Lincoln "talked about [the] Founders as being flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood, because we draw on them to reaffirm who we are, but when we get back to look at them, you know, many of the Founders were slave-holding aristocrats.... When we really look at that, we say, well, that's not us." And yet, he adds, "What they said about equality, liberty and freedom, constitutionalism [makes up] most of our ideals. Now, they didn't always live up to what they said but they set it out on the table for us to exploit. And we go back to those ideals, I think, to reaffirm, refresh ourselves who we are."
Fresh from our Fourth of July celebration, we're reminded that these founding ideals are our birthright as a nation.
THE WORD
A birthright is something that belongs to us merely by the event of our birth in a certain family or country. In ancient Israel, the birthright of the firstborn son was to inherit a double share of the father's estate. The oldest also became the head of the family upon the father's death. By virtue of being born first, he inherited double what his younger brothers received -- but none of it was his until the father died. Often, the family held the property jointly instead of dividing it up and going off in separate directions.
Esau is often criticized for trading his birthright as the older son -- a bigger inheritance -- for the immediate gratification of a meal. It shows that he's impulsive and not a planner and schemer like his brother Jacob... but the birthright seems far off to him in the moment when he's starving. The story also reveals the unfolding of God's plans at work and is another narrative in the ancestor stories in which the younger son takes the place of the elder. It's as if God is deliberately working to undermine human plans and traditions and to make clear that the promises of God travel where they will and land on the people God chooses and not those designated by human tradition or law.
I sometimes wonder if this was also a moment of freedom for Esau -- an escape from his stifling place in the family and from the people who were always scheming to get what he had.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The sermon might focus on the intriguing question of birthright and ask what our birthright is.
The Fourth of July reminds us of our birthright as citizens of the United States. We are entitled to vote, hold office, attend public school, practice the religion of our choice, speak our minds, and exercise other freedoms because (for most of us) we were born here. Others of us were born abroad to American parents or became citizens later -- but for most of us, our birthright is so familiar that we take it for granted. Our freedoms are so woven into the fabric of our daily lives that we rarely think about them. We wake up and are bombarded by a free flow of information, opinion, and news. We travel safely to work or school, through streets usually free of soldiers and without any inspection of our papers. The public schools accept every child who lives within the school district. We offer our political opinions without looking over our shoulders or lowering our voices, and we have buttons and bumper stickers to let even strangers know our views.
Another set of privileges attends those of us who were born with white skin, or born middle-class or wealthy, or born heterosexual. We may expect a different level of respect, or receive a higher quality of education, or have more choices in our work. We can seek more higher education, drive without worrying about being stopped by the police, and get married to the person of our choice in any state in the union. These aspects of our birthright, too, are so familiar that we seldom think about them.
Part of the feeling of distress in America right now has to do with losing things that seemed to be part of our birthright: a secure job that pays well; the opportunity to own a home; the ability to retire without being impoverished. Many people have the feeling of something being taken away, something that once felt like it belonged to us.
By grace, our deeper birthright comes from our identity as Christians, rooted in the life and work of Jesus Christ. As Paul promises in the Letter to the Romans, this is the birthright that can never be compromised or eroded. We have a unique freedom in the Spirit of Christ, for as Paul says: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." We are already more deeply free than we realize.
Our calling as people of faith is to live into that birthright. As Paul exhorts us, "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." We belong to God with a birthright that we can't sell, trade away, give up, or have taken from us.
"But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you." That is our true identity and the source of the deepest freedom we know. That is the gift we celebrate not just once a year but every day in our lives as people of faith.
SECOND THOUGHTS
We Are They
by Roger Lovette
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
A pastor once visited a member who had not been to church in a long time. The member asked: "How are they doing down at the church?" The preacher couldn't get those words off his mind. He preached the next Sunday on "We Are They." He realized that there are no "theys" -- we are all in the same boat.
When Matthew gave the church the Parable of the Sower and the seeds, he would have understood there are no theys. Sometimes we read the parable as if there were "us's" and "thems." The good soil received the seed that the farmer scattered. And then all those others -- people like hard-packed soil, those quite similar to the rocky soil, and the people who live a weed-filled life. But there are no theys in this story.
We are all living illustrations of all four kinds of ground. Elizabeth O'Connor used to say that in all our lives there are vast continents and territories that have not yet heard the gospel -- and the command "Go ye..." is an inner word as well as an outer word. We might think about the times in our own lives when the seed of the gospel has not taken root at all. Sometimes our hearts are just too hard. Often our lives are covered in the too-muchness of life. The result is that either the gospel can't live very long or it is strangled out by the clutter of our lives.
So we can't read these words and point out the theys. How terrible, we might say, for all those who for one reason or another cannot receive what God gives. But the real point of this parable is that we all fall short of the glory of God -- not just all those others.
This story just might save us from smugness and self-righteousness. Matthew wrote to a young green church surrounded by a mostly hostile world. The central problem the church then faced was defection because when the hard times hit, so many of them abandoned their faith and never came back.
Maybe they were as depressed as many in the mainline church are today. Congregations everywhere look out on too many empty pews. Churches struggle with meeting their budgets. A cloud of gloom hovers over a multitude of churches today. The ennui that we have all sensed in the country at large is reflected in the church on most Sundays.
In the middle of all those first-century problems, three gospels leave us with this Parable of the Sower. The writers really left those people with a hopeful word. Yes, there are rocky places and weeds everywhere and so many who do not receive the gospel. Yet the sower just keeps on sowing. The seed just keeps on coming. Despite all the odds, we can receive whatever God sends.
The seed is often as nondescript as a mustard seed. The seeds are so tiny that a world of bigness is not impressed. Yet Jesus said that tiny seed, cultivated and tended, could become the tallest of trees. Even birds could find a home in its branches. Could that be the church in Matthew's time and ours -- a seed so powerful that it changes the terrain around us? We cannot forget the power inherent in the seeds that God sends.
Somewhere Frederick Buechner points out that during World War II bombs fell on England month after month. Many were killed; homes and buildings and churches were destroyed; ugly craters could be seen everywhere. But something strange happened. The next spring many of those gashes in the earth were covered in flowers. Botanists discovered seeds that had been dormant for hundreds of years were set free when the bombs fell -- the nitrates in those bombs provided the fertilizer for those old, old seeds.
No wonder Robert Capon has called this parable the great watershed of all Jesus' parables. Beside a world afraid and defeated, there is a seed that God still provides. And the wonder is that no one need be left out -- there are no theys -- but we are left with a great host of "we's."
P.S. Ever wonder if the birthright in the Genesis story just might be a seed?
ILLUSTRATIONS
The obituary on April 22, 1996, read "Christopher R. Milne, 75." Christopher Robin was dead.
At six years of age, he and his stuffed bear had been the inspiration for his father, Alan Alexander "A.A." Milne, to create fantasy stories about Winnie the Pooh that debuted in 1926 with Now We Are Six. In 1928 the second book, The House at Pooh Corner, turned Christopher Robin into a national celebrity.
His birthright was one of literary fame and fortune that he spent most of his adult life running from. He was never comfortable being "Christopher Robin." He resented the character and his father for creating it. "One day," he told a stunned fan of his father's, "I will write verses about him and see how he likes it."
Trying to escape his unwanted fame, Christopher went to boarding school (where he was teased and tormented by his peers), earned a scholarship to Cambridge, dropped out, entered the army, and fought in World War II. He was wounded and returned home to open a small bookstore in Dartmouth where he reluctantly made his living selling autographed copies of his father's books.
In his autobiography, Christopher summed up his relationship with his father thus: "It seemed to me almost that my father had got where he was by climbing on my infant shoulders that he had filched from me my good name and left me nothing but empty fame."
Eventually, he came to make a grudging sort of peace with his fame. When customers asked to have their children's pictures taken with him, he would charge 10 pounds per photo. After his death, his wife reported that he donated the money to Save the Children.
* * *
Paris Whitney Hilton was born in New York City on February 17, 1981, into the Hilton family -- making her, along with her three younger siblings, heir-apparent to the vast Hilton hotel and real estate dynasty. Her childhood was spent in palatial dwellings in the priciest neighborhoods on both coasts and featured a brief flirtation with the educational system, including high schooling at the ultra-exclusive Dwight School, from which she dropped out and ultimately earned her high school GED.
Her greatest desire was to become famous so she put her family's fortune to use in a well-financed campaign to put herself in the public eye. These efforts eventually paid off and she got some modeling work, appeared in some TV commercials, and had bit parts in some movies. She has recorded an album and started her own music label, Heiress Records, in order to release it.
For all her family's money and her efforts to make herself famous, however, she is mostly noted for her narcissism, her shallow intellect, and her gross materialism.
One wonders if Paris has given even a moment's thought to the notion of a "birthright" and the responsibilities that adhere thereunto.
* * *
Kelly Ripa's oldest child is Michael, 15 -- but you can't tell anyone.
The poor kid has grown up being talked about on one of television's most popular morning talk shows, Live! With Regis and Kelly, and he's sick of it. His friends tease him, he can't go to the zoo without photographers recording his every expression, and anything he does in public is grist for the tabloid mill. So he made his mother promise that she would never again say his name on TV. Now, when she tells embarrassing stories about him, he is "my oldest child who shall remain nameless."
Some birthright, huh? Who of us would blame him if he sold it?
* * *
Its scientific name is Pueraria lobata. In China it is called gegen, in Vietnam it is sanday, and in Japan it is kuzu. Americans call it kudzu (pronounced CUD-zoo or CUDE-zoo, depending on where you're from).
A member of the pea family, it was introduced to the United States from Japan in 1876 as a fast-growing feed for livestock and is also used to make oils, ointments, soaps, ethanol, and compost. Its vine is used in the making of strong, functional baskets, and Harvard University has discovered that a drug made from the plant may be useful in treating alcoholism.
The only problem is it grows too fast.
Today this "foot-a-night-vine" covers seven million acres in the Deep South and it's nearly impossible to eradicate because the seeds can germinate up to three years after they fall to the ground. Afraid that, unattended, it will take over the entire park, rangers at the Great Smoky Mountain National Park ask hikers to report any that they see so it can be killed. But there's little chance of it ever crossing north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Kudzu can't grow where the winters are long and cold and the frost goes deep.
There is some soil that even kudzu can't grow in.
* * *
Greensburg, Indiana, is the county seat of Howard County and it occupies a unique place among the cities of the world by reason of trees that are growing from the roof of its courthouse tower.
Early in the 1870s, citizens noticed a small seedling growing on the northwest corner of the courthouse clock tower. As time passed the seedling continued to grow into a small tree that somehow had taken root in the crevices of the roof on the tower. Later, other sprouts sprang up at different places until finally five small trees were making a tiny grove 110 feet above the courthouse yard.
Concerned that the roots of so many trees might damage the clock tower's roof, in 1888 officials hired a steeplejack to remove some of the shrubs. Two were left, however, one of which eventually attained a height of about 15 feet with a trunk diameter of five inches at its base. When it died it was removed to the local historical society museum for preservation. In the meantime, however, another tree had made its appearance on the southeast corner of the tower and in a few years grew to nearly five feet in height. While it was maturing another growth sprang up on the southwest corner, resulting in the two trees that continue to grow there at the present time. (You can see a photo of this strange phenomenon here.)
The species of the trees and why they seemed so determined to grow in such an inhospitable place was unknown until the Smithsonian Institution identified them as Large-Tooth Aspen. As to how that particular kind of tree came to be growing in that particular place and how they survive there, no one knows.
When someone suggested that the trees were fed by the spring in the clock, the town council put a moratorium on "clock tower tree jokes."
* * *
In Ohio we pride ourselves in our lawns. Start with rye to hold the soil, then add fescue that will spread out and cover, mixed with some bluegrass for a rich green color. Fertilize, water (about an inch of rain a week will do), mind the weeds, and you have a beautiful lawn. (If that's what you want.)
In Tennessee, where the soil runs to rust red, grass isn't all that important. Anything green will do and many lawns are as full of weeds as grass. But from the street it looks pretty much the same.
In Nevada grass grows not at all or only with the help topsoil imported from the Midwest and hundreds of gallons of water that desert dwellers can ill afford to pour on their yards. So they decorate their front lawns with rocks, sand, cactus, and desert flora.
The kind of yard you have around your house depends on the soil.
* * *
Robert Fulghum, Unitarian minister and author of the best-seller Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, developed something he calls "The Storyteller's Creed." It has something to say, not so much about the soil on which the seed lands, but rather about the viability of the seed itself:
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge,
That myth is more potent than history,
That dreams are more powerful than facts,
That hope always triumphs over experience,
That laughter is the only cure for grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death.
* * *
Jim Carrey is starring in the new movie Mr. Popper's Penguins -- and his co-stars are a half-dozen real penguins. Reflecting on making the film with them, Carrey said, "Penguins are pure joy." Trying to explain why, Carrey said, "Something physiological happens to you and frees you from concern. What it is, I think, is their oddball nature. They don't seem to fit in anywhere. They swim but they're not fish. They are birds that walk around and can't fly. They are stuck in some weird nether region. They don't fit in."
Paul says we are to "walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." This may seem to put us in a "nether region," for it is something we are not accustomed to and it seems to go so much against our nature. As we have the natural inclination to be self-centered, it is truly a challenge to become other-oriented. But if we are able to do so, if we are willing to be different than the rest of society, we will discover "pure joy."
The Psalmist made a remarkable confession when he said of God, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." But the lamp only guides those who believe.
* * *
Marya Hombacher recently wrote an article for the Washington Post titled, "What Do Non-Believers Believe?" Even though she prayed during a Midwestern tornado, she admits that it was only a "foxhole prayer," as she confesses, "I am a full-time heathen." She concludes, "But I do not search for spiritual substance in the realm of the abstract. I seek, and find, my spiritual answers here. On the ground. In this bewildering, struggling, beautiful world."
It may be a beautiful world but when the tornado was descending upon her somehow a foxhole prayer seemed very significant. From the foxhole, the confirmed heathen sought, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."
* * *
On June 28, three organizations, representing about 90% of the world's Christianity, or nearly two billion Christians, issued a document for a code of evangelism. In assessing the need for the code, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran noted that "our shared history has taught us that a lack of prudence and respect for others, leading to inappropriate means of proclamation of the Good News, unavoidably brings interreligious tensions, even violence and the loss of human life." The code represents an ecumenical approach to evangelism that is not in competition with other denominations, is not combative, and is respectful of indigenous cultures. Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit of the World Council of Churches added, "Our task is to be a witness of our Christian faith, but not to impose it or not provoke anybody in the way we present it."
With this newly implemented ecumenical code the words of Isaiah live: "so shall my word be that goes out of my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it."
* * *
In the comic strip The Born Loser, Rancid Veeblefester is speaking to Brutus Thornapple. Veeblefester says, "I have good news and bad news for you, my boy!" Thornapple replies, "Why is it, whenever you have good news and bad news for me... the bad news always ends up having a greater impact on me than the good news?"
The Psalmist speaks of "deliverance" for those who trust in the Lord. It does seem that the calamities of life always have a greater impact on us than the blessings we encounter day-to-day. This is why we need the assurance of God's deliverance.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
People: Give us life, O God, according to your word.
Leader: Accept our offerings of praise and teach us your ordinances.
People: Your decrees are our heritage forever;
Leader: they are the joy of our hearts.
People: We incline our hearts to perform your statutes forever!
OR
Leader: Come and receive the seed of life from our God!
People: Our hearts are full and hard with our existence.
Leader: Come and prepare your hearts for God's life.
People: How do we prepare ourselves for God?
Leader: With prayer and worship; with acts of piety and mission.
People: We need life, not just existence. We come to receive God's gracious gift!
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"We, Thy People, Praise Thee"
found in:
UMH: 67
"All People That on Earth Do Dwell"
found in:
UMH: 75
H82: 377, 378
PH: 220, 221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELA: 883
"For the Beauty of the Earth"
found in:
UMH: 92
H82: 416
PH: 473
NNBH: 8
NCH: 28
CH: 56
LBW: 561
ELA: 879
"Word of God, Come Down on Earth"
found in:
UMH: 182
H82: 633
ELA: 510
"Hope of the World"
found in:
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
"T? Has Venido a la Orilla" ("Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore")
found in:
UMH: 344
PH: 377
CH: 342
"O Come and Dwell in Me"
found in:
UMH: 388
"O Happy Day, that Fixed My Choice"
found in:
UMH: 391
AAHH: 359
NNBH: 373
"Something Beautiful"
found in:
CCB: 84
"Emmanuel, Emmanuel"
found in:
CCB: 31
Renew: 28
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who sends life as a seed to grow and blossom: Grant us the grace to allow your life to grow in us, becoming a thing of beauty which glorifies you; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you, O God, and to receive from you the words of life. Help us to be diligent in preparing our hearts to receive you and your word that our lives may be beautiful reflections of your love and grace. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we allow our hearts to grow hard, stony, and thorny.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Though you are faithful to send the seed of life to us, we are lax in preparing ourselves to receive it. We allow the worries of life to grow up and choke new life. We allow the circumstances of life to make our hearts hard. We allow past events to be like rocks just below the surface of our hearts. Forgive us for blocking your gracious gifts and send your Spirit upon us that we may work the soil of our hearts to prepare for your gracious work within, among, and through us. Amen.
Leader: God's grace is good and long-suffering. God's desire is always to send us life and to send life to others through us. God's forgiveness and Spirit are ours.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise and adore you, O God, for the gift of life which goes so far beyond the gift of our existence. You endow us with thought, feeling, and purpose.
(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. Though you are faithful to send the seed of life to us, we are lax in preparing ourselves to receive it. We allow the worries of life to grow up and choke new life. We allow the circumstances of life to make our hearts hard. We allow past events to be like rocks just below the surface of our hearts. Forgive us for blocking your gracious gifts and send your Spirit upon us that we may work the soil of our hearts to prepare for your gracious work within, among, and through us.
We thank you for the great gifts that come our way every day. Your presence is always around us to bring us the fullness of life. You send us people to guide us and love us that we may know you better.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who are struggling to find life a gift instead of a burden. Some are struggling with illness, addiction, or abuse. Some have just been distracted from the true meaning of their lives.
(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
(This requires a little planning and takes more than one week.) Make pots reflecting the kinds of soil that Jesus speaks of. Plant a seed in each. Water and place them in sunlight or under a full-spectrum light. Check each Sunday to see how things are coming. The extended time this takes helps catch children who might be absent one Sunday and brings the story back to mind for longer retention.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
The Parable of the Sower
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Object: a package of seeds and two containers of soil -- one moist and the other rocky and dry
Good morning, boys and girls! Here is a package of seeds. (show the seeds to the children) What would we have to do with these seeds in order for them to grow? (let them answer) Yes, of course, we have to plant them in the ground. Seeds aren't going to grow if we leave them in the package. They have to be planted in the ground.
Now here are two containers of soil. (show the containers) Which of these two containers would you want to plant the seeds in? (let them answer) Yes, I would certainly plant them in this one that has good, moist soil. The other one is rocky and dry and the seeds would have a hard time growing there.
Jesus tells us that the Word of God is like a seed. God spreads His word around and He wants it to grow. That means God wants it to make people believe in Jesus and all the things that he teaches us. But some people are like this rocky, dry soil. They hear God's word but they don't let it grow in them. They reject it and even make fun of it. Others are like this good soil. They hear the word and believe in Jesus and all that he teaches us. The word grows in them and produces a lot of good things in their life.
Now, which kind of soil do you want to be? Do you want to be good soil or rocky soil? (let them answer) Yes, we want to be good soil and to do that we must listen to God's word and let it grow in us. That means coming to church and Sunday school regularly. Let's ask God to help us be good soil.
Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, please help us to be good soil where your word will grow and make us strong in faith. Clear away the rocks and the weeds from our minds so that we can hear your word clearly. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 10, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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.
All of these offer intriguing springboards for preaching, but in this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin considers a more basic question: What is our birthright? For many of our people it's probably just another biblical "buzzword," an antiquated concept that's probably the most difficult aspect of the Jacob/Esau story for them to grasp. With the Fourth of July fresh in our minds, Mary unlocks this text by looking at our birthright as American citizens -- freedoms that are so woven into our daily lives that we often take them for granted. It often seems like the only time we consciously think about them are on occasions like Memorial Day and Independence Day when we exalt them as bedrock virtues of our country. While they may appear immutable, they are social constructs that without vigilance can easily be lost. In contrast, Mary notes, our birthright as Christians is eternal and unchanging -- and a freedom greater than any contemplated by a founding father. As Paul notes in this week's epistle text, "The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set [us] free from the law of sin and of death." While that's a birthright we can turn away from, it's one that no matter what we do we can't lose or trade away.
Team member Roger Lovette shares some additional thoughts on the Parable of the Sower and suggests that the most fruitful approach is a holistic interpretation that emphasizes all of us embody each kind of soil within us. We ought to resist the temptation to judgmentalism -- it's not simply a matter of "good soil" Christians and "rocky soil" heathens; we all have varying degrees of different types of soil... or as Roger sums it up: "We are they." In addition, Roger points out, we are both sower and soil. Not only should we aspire to be receptive soil, but we also have an obligation to spread the seed -- no matter how small or insignificant our seeds may seem. With God's providence, great things can arise out of tiny seeds and unlikely circumstances.
Birthday Gifts
by Mary Austin
Genesis 25:19-34; Romans 8:1-11
With the sound of the Fourth of July fireworks still ringing in our ears, the lectionary takes us to the well-known story of Esau and Jacob, and the moment when Esau sells his birthright as the firstborn son in a moment of hunger and desperation. At a minimum, the story offers hope to anyone driven nuts by family over the long holiday weekend, assuring us again that God is present in every family squabble. More deeply, though, the story invites us in to the question of birthright and what it really means. As we weigh our lives as citizens of this nation, now 235 years old, and as people of faith, we look with Esau at the question of our birthright.
THE WORLD
In his new book The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States, Gordon Wood holds that the American Revolution actually lasted until the early 19th century -- and may still be continuing. As he said on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show recently, "America is an idea and that's all we are, really... there's no American ethnicity. The whole world is here in the United States and if we are to be a people, it's people who are made by an idea." Those ideas come out of the Revolution, he believes.
Wood adds that America is built on the values of "liberty, freedom, equality, constitutionalism, the well-being of ordinary people, the pursuit of happiness. Those things that come out of the founding are what hold us together. They are our noblest ideals, our highest aspirations, and they all come out of the Revolution." He notes that the American Revolution is unique in that it didn't spring from the anger of hungry crowds, or a popular uprising of people upset about prices, or anger at a corrupt government.
He comments that during the crisis of the Civil War, President Lincoln turned back to these same ideas to stir the country. As Wood says, Lincoln "talked about [the] Founders as being flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood, because we draw on them to reaffirm who we are, but when we get back to look at them, you know, many of the Founders were slave-holding aristocrats.... When we really look at that, we say, well, that's not us." And yet, he adds, "What they said about equality, liberty and freedom, constitutionalism [makes up] most of our ideals. Now, they didn't always live up to what they said but they set it out on the table for us to exploit. And we go back to those ideals, I think, to reaffirm, refresh ourselves who we are."
Fresh from our Fourth of July celebration, we're reminded that these founding ideals are our birthright as a nation.
THE WORD
A birthright is something that belongs to us merely by the event of our birth in a certain family or country. In ancient Israel, the birthright of the firstborn son was to inherit a double share of the father's estate. The oldest also became the head of the family upon the father's death. By virtue of being born first, he inherited double what his younger brothers received -- but none of it was his until the father died. Often, the family held the property jointly instead of dividing it up and going off in separate directions.
Esau is often criticized for trading his birthright as the older son -- a bigger inheritance -- for the immediate gratification of a meal. It shows that he's impulsive and not a planner and schemer like his brother Jacob... but the birthright seems far off to him in the moment when he's starving. The story also reveals the unfolding of God's plans at work and is another narrative in the ancestor stories in which the younger son takes the place of the elder. It's as if God is deliberately working to undermine human plans and traditions and to make clear that the promises of God travel where they will and land on the people God chooses and not those designated by human tradition or law.
I sometimes wonder if this was also a moment of freedom for Esau -- an escape from his stifling place in the family and from the people who were always scheming to get what he had.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The sermon might focus on the intriguing question of birthright and ask what our birthright is.
The Fourth of July reminds us of our birthright as citizens of the United States. We are entitled to vote, hold office, attend public school, practice the religion of our choice, speak our minds, and exercise other freedoms because (for most of us) we were born here. Others of us were born abroad to American parents or became citizens later -- but for most of us, our birthright is so familiar that we take it for granted. Our freedoms are so woven into the fabric of our daily lives that we rarely think about them. We wake up and are bombarded by a free flow of information, opinion, and news. We travel safely to work or school, through streets usually free of soldiers and without any inspection of our papers. The public schools accept every child who lives within the school district. We offer our political opinions without looking over our shoulders or lowering our voices, and we have buttons and bumper stickers to let even strangers know our views.
Another set of privileges attends those of us who were born with white skin, or born middle-class or wealthy, or born heterosexual. We may expect a different level of respect, or receive a higher quality of education, or have more choices in our work. We can seek more higher education, drive without worrying about being stopped by the police, and get married to the person of our choice in any state in the union. These aspects of our birthright, too, are so familiar that we seldom think about them.
Part of the feeling of distress in America right now has to do with losing things that seemed to be part of our birthright: a secure job that pays well; the opportunity to own a home; the ability to retire without being impoverished. Many people have the feeling of something being taken away, something that once felt like it belonged to us.
By grace, our deeper birthright comes from our identity as Christians, rooted in the life and work of Jesus Christ. As Paul promises in the Letter to the Romans, this is the birthright that can never be compromised or eroded. We have a unique freedom in the Spirit of Christ, for as Paul says: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." We are already more deeply free than we realize.
Our calling as people of faith is to live into that birthright. As Paul exhorts us, "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." We belong to God with a birthright that we can't sell, trade away, give up, or have taken from us.
"But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you." That is our true identity and the source of the deepest freedom we know. That is the gift we celebrate not just once a year but every day in our lives as people of faith.
SECOND THOUGHTS
We Are They
by Roger Lovette
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
A pastor once visited a member who had not been to church in a long time. The member asked: "How are they doing down at the church?" The preacher couldn't get those words off his mind. He preached the next Sunday on "We Are They." He realized that there are no "theys" -- we are all in the same boat.
When Matthew gave the church the Parable of the Sower and the seeds, he would have understood there are no theys. Sometimes we read the parable as if there were "us's" and "thems." The good soil received the seed that the farmer scattered. And then all those others -- people like hard-packed soil, those quite similar to the rocky soil, and the people who live a weed-filled life. But there are no theys in this story.
We are all living illustrations of all four kinds of ground. Elizabeth O'Connor used to say that in all our lives there are vast continents and territories that have not yet heard the gospel -- and the command "Go ye..." is an inner word as well as an outer word. We might think about the times in our own lives when the seed of the gospel has not taken root at all. Sometimes our hearts are just too hard. Often our lives are covered in the too-muchness of life. The result is that either the gospel can't live very long or it is strangled out by the clutter of our lives.
So we can't read these words and point out the theys. How terrible, we might say, for all those who for one reason or another cannot receive what God gives. But the real point of this parable is that we all fall short of the glory of God -- not just all those others.
This story just might save us from smugness and self-righteousness. Matthew wrote to a young green church surrounded by a mostly hostile world. The central problem the church then faced was defection because when the hard times hit, so many of them abandoned their faith and never came back.
Maybe they were as depressed as many in the mainline church are today. Congregations everywhere look out on too many empty pews. Churches struggle with meeting their budgets. A cloud of gloom hovers over a multitude of churches today. The ennui that we have all sensed in the country at large is reflected in the church on most Sundays.
In the middle of all those first-century problems, three gospels leave us with this Parable of the Sower. The writers really left those people with a hopeful word. Yes, there are rocky places and weeds everywhere and so many who do not receive the gospel. Yet the sower just keeps on sowing. The seed just keeps on coming. Despite all the odds, we can receive whatever God sends.
The seed is often as nondescript as a mustard seed. The seeds are so tiny that a world of bigness is not impressed. Yet Jesus said that tiny seed, cultivated and tended, could become the tallest of trees. Even birds could find a home in its branches. Could that be the church in Matthew's time and ours -- a seed so powerful that it changes the terrain around us? We cannot forget the power inherent in the seeds that God sends.
Somewhere Frederick Buechner points out that during World War II bombs fell on England month after month. Many were killed; homes and buildings and churches were destroyed; ugly craters could be seen everywhere. But something strange happened. The next spring many of those gashes in the earth were covered in flowers. Botanists discovered seeds that had been dormant for hundreds of years were set free when the bombs fell -- the nitrates in those bombs provided the fertilizer for those old, old seeds.
No wonder Robert Capon has called this parable the great watershed of all Jesus' parables. Beside a world afraid and defeated, there is a seed that God still provides. And the wonder is that no one need be left out -- there are no theys -- but we are left with a great host of "we's."
P.S. Ever wonder if the birthright in the Genesis story just might be a seed?
ILLUSTRATIONS
The obituary on April 22, 1996, read "Christopher R. Milne, 75." Christopher Robin was dead.
At six years of age, he and his stuffed bear had been the inspiration for his father, Alan Alexander "A.A." Milne, to create fantasy stories about Winnie the Pooh that debuted in 1926 with Now We Are Six. In 1928 the second book, The House at Pooh Corner, turned Christopher Robin into a national celebrity.
His birthright was one of literary fame and fortune that he spent most of his adult life running from. He was never comfortable being "Christopher Robin." He resented the character and his father for creating it. "One day," he told a stunned fan of his father's, "I will write verses about him and see how he likes it."
Trying to escape his unwanted fame, Christopher went to boarding school (where he was teased and tormented by his peers), earned a scholarship to Cambridge, dropped out, entered the army, and fought in World War II. He was wounded and returned home to open a small bookstore in Dartmouth where he reluctantly made his living selling autographed copies of his father's books.
In his autobiography, Christopher summed up his relationship with his father thus: "It seemed to me almost that my father had got where he was by climbing on my infant shoulders that he had filched from me my good name and left me nothing but empty fame."
Eventually, he came to make a grudging sort of peace with his fame. When customers asked to have their children's pictures taken with him, he would charge 10 pounds per photo. After his death, his wife reported that he donated the money to Save the Children.
* * *
Paris Whitney Hilton was born in New York City on February 17, 1981, into the Hilton family -- making her, along with her three younger siblings, heir-apparent to the vast Hilton hotel and real estate dynasty. Her childhood was spent in palatial dwellings in the priciest neighborhoods on both coasts and featured a brief flirtation with the educational system, including high schooling at the ultra-exclusive Dwight School, from which she dropped out and ultimately earned her high school GED.
Her greatest desire was to become famous so she put her family's fortune to use in a well-financed campaign to put herself in the public eye. These efforts eventually paid off and she got some modeling work, appeared in some TV commercials, and had bit parts in some movies. She has recorded an album and started her own music label, Heiress Records, in order to release it.
For all her family's money and her efforts to make herself famous, however, she is mostly noted for her narcissism, her shallow intellect, and her gross materialism.
One wonders if Paris has given even a moment's thought to the notion of a "birthright" and the responsibilities that adhere thereunto.
* * *
Kelly Ripa's oldest child is Michael, 15 -- but you can't tell anyone.
The poor kid has grown up being talked about on one of television's most popular morning talk shows, Live! With Regis and Kelly, and he's sick of it. His friends tease him, he can't go to the zoo without photographers recording his every expression, and anything he does in public is grist for the tabloid mill. So he made his mother promise that she would never again say his name on TV. Now, when she tells embarrassing stories about him, he is "my oldest child who shall remain nameless."
Some birthright, huh? Who of us would blame him if he sold it?
* * *
Its scientific name is Pueraria lobata. In China it is called gegen, in Vietnam it is sanday, and in Japan it is kuzu. Americans call it kudzu (pronounced CUD-zoo or CUDE-zoo, depending on where you're from).
A member of the pea family, it was introduced to the United States from Japan in 1876 as a fast-growing feed for livestock and is also used to make oils, ointments, soaps, ethanol, and compost. Its vine is used in the making of strong, functional baskets, and Harvard University has discovered that a drug made from the plant may be useful in treating alcoholism.
The only problem is it grows too fast.
Today this "foot-a-night-vine" covers seven million acres in the Deep South and it's nearly impossible to eradicate because the seeds can germinate up to three years after they fall to the ground. Afraid that, unattended, it will take over the entire park, rangers at the Great Smoky Mountain National Park ask hikers to report any that they see so it can be killed. But there's little chance of it ever crossing north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Kudzu can't grow where the winters are long and cold and the frost goes deep.
There is some soil that even kudzu can't grow in.
* * *
Greensburg, Indiana, is the county seat of Howard County and it occupies a unique place among the cities of the world by reason of trees that are growing from the roof of its courthouse tower.
Early in the 1870s, citizens noticed a small seedling growing on the northwest corner of the courthouse clock tower. As time passed the seedling continued to grow into a small tree that somehow had taken root in the crevices of the roof on the tower. Later, other sprouts sprang up at different places until finally five small trees were making a tiny grove 110 feet above the courthouse yard.
Concerned that the roots of so many trees might damage the clock tower's roof, in 1888 officials hired a steeplejack to remove some of the shrubs. Two were left, however, one of which eventually attained a height of about 15 feet with a trunk diameter of five inches at its base. When it died it was removed to the local historical society museum for preservation. In the meantime, however, another tree had made its appearance on the southeast corner of the tower and in a few years grew to nearly five feet in height. While it was maturing another growth sprang up on the southwest corner, resulting in the two trees that continue to grow there at the present time. (You can see a photo of this strange phenomenon here.)
The species of the trees and why they seemed so determined to grow in such an inhospitable place was unknown until the Smithsonian Institution identified them as Large-Tooth Aspen. As to how that particular kind of tree came to be growing in that particular place and how they survive there, no one knows.
When someone suggested that the trees were fed by the spring in the clock, the town council put a moratorium on "clock tower tree jokes."
* * *
In Ohio we pride ourselves in our lawns. Start with rye to hold the soil, then add fescue that will spread out and cover, mixed with some bluegrass for a rich green color. Fertilize, water (about an inch of rain a week will do), mind the weeds, and you have a beautiful lawn. (If that's what you want.)
In Tennessee, where the soil runs to rust red, grass isn't all that important. Anything green will do and many lawns are as full of weeds as grass. But from the street it looks pretty much the same.
In Nevada grass grows not at all or only with the help topsoil imported from the Midwest and hundreds of gallons of water that desert dwellers can ill afford to pour on their yards. So they decorate their front lawns with rocks, sand, cactus, and desert flora.
The kind of yard you have around your house depends on the soil.
* * *
Robert Fulghum, Unitarian minister and author of the best-seller Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, developed something he calls "The Storyteller's Creed." It has something to say, not so much about the soil on which the seed lands, but rather about the viability of the seed itself:
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge,
That myth is more potent than history,
That dreams are more powerful than facts,
That hope always triumphs over experience,
That laughter is the only cure for grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death.
* * *
Jim Carrey is starring in the new movie Mr. Popper's Penguins -- and his co-stars are a half-dozen real penguins. Reflecting on making the film with them, Carrey said, "Penguins are pure joy." Trying to explain why, Carrey said, "Something physiological happens to you and frees you from concern. What it is, I think, is their oddball nature. They don't seem to fit in anywhere. They swim but they're not fish. They are birds that walk around and can't fly. They are stuck in some weird nether region. They don't fit in."
Paul says we are to "walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." This may seem to put us in a "nether region," for it is something we are not accustomed to and it seems to go so much against our nature. As we have the natural inclination to be self-centered, it is truly a challenge to become other-oriented. But if we are able to do so, if we are willing to be different than the rest of society, we will discover "pure joy."
The Psalmist made a remarkable confession when he said of God, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." But the lamp only guides those who believe.
* * *
Marya Hombacher recently wrote an article for the Washington Post titled, "What Do Non-Believers Believe?" Even though she prayed during a Midwestern tornado, she admits that it was only a "foxhole prayer," as she confesses, "I am a full-time heathen." She concludes, "But I do not search for spiritual substance in the realm of the abstract. I seek, and find, my spiritual answers here. On the ground. In this bewildering, struggling, beautiful world."
It may be a beautiful world but when the tornado was descending upon her somehow a foxhole prayer seemed very significant. From the foxhole, the confirmed heathen sought, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."
* * *
On June 28, three organizations, representing about 90% of the world's Christianity, or nearly two billion Christians, issued a document for a code of evangelism. In assessing the need for the code, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran noted that "our shared history has taught us that a lack of prudence and respect for others, leading to inappropriate means of proclamation of the Good News, unavoidably brings interreligious tensions, even violence and the loss of human life." The code represents an ecumenical approach to evangelism that is not in competition with other denominations, is not combative, and is respectful of indigenous cultures. Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit of the World Council of Churches added, "Our task is to be a witness of our Christian faith, but not to impose it or not provoke anybody in the way we present it."
With this newly implemented ecumenical code the words of Isaiah live: "so shall my word be that goes out of my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it."
* * *
In the comic strip The Born Loser, Rancid Veeblefester is speaking to Brutus Thornapple. Veeblefester says, "I have good news and bad news for you, my boy!" Thornapple replies, "Why is it, whenever you have good news and bad news for me... the bad news always ends up having a greater impact on me than the good news?"
The Psalmist speaks of "deliverance" for those who trust in the Lord. It does seem that the calamities of life always have a greater impact on us than the blessings we encounter day-to-day. This is why we need the assurance of God's deliverance.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
People: Give us life, O God, according to your word.
Leader: Accept our offerings of praise and teach us your ordinances.
People: Your decrees are our heritage forever;
Leader: they are the joy of our hearts.
People: We incline our hearts to perform your statutes forever!
OR
Leader: Come and receive the seed of life from our God!
People: Our hearts are full and hard with our existence.
Leader: Come and prepare your hearts for God's life.
People: How do we prepare ourselves for God?
Leader: With prayer and worship; with acts of piety and mission.
People: We need life, not just existence. We come to receive God's gracious gift!
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"We, Thy People, Praise Thee"
found in:
UMH: 67
"All People That on Earth Do Dwell"
found in:
UMH: 75
H82: 377, 378
PH: 220, 221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELA: 883
"For the Beauty of the Earth"
found in:
UMH: 92
H82: 416
PH: 473
NNBH: 8
NCH: 28
CH: 56
LBW: 561
ELA: 879
"Word of God, Come Down on Earth"
found in:
UMH: 182
H82: 633
ELA: 510
"Hope of the World"
found in:
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
"T? Has Venido a la Orilla" ("Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore")
found in:
UMH: 344
PH: 377
CH: 342
"O Come and Dwell in Me"
found in:
UMH: 388
"O Happy Day, that Fixed My Choice"
found in:
UMH: 391
AAHH: 359
NNBH: 373
"Something Beautiful"
found in:
CCB: 84
"Emmanuel, Emmanuel"
found in:
CCB: 31
Renew: 28
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who sends life as a seed to grow and blossom: Grant us the grace to allow your life to grow in us, becoming a thing of beauty which glorifies you; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you, O God, and to receive from you the words of life. Help us to be diligent in preparing our hearts to receive you and your word that our lives may be beautiful reflections of your love and grace. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we allow our hearts to grow hard, stony, and thorny.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Though you are faithful to send the seed of life to us, we are lax in preparing ourselves to receive it. We allow the worries of life to grow up and choke new life. We allow the circumstances of life to make our hearts hard. We allow past events to be like rocks just below the surface of our hearts. Forgive us for blocking your gracious gifts and send your Spirit upon us that we may work the soil of our hearts to prepare for your gracious work within, among, and through us. Amen.
Leader: God's grace is good and long-suffering. God's desire is always to send us life and to send life to others through us. God's forgiveness and Spirit are ours.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise and adore you, O God, for the gift of life which goes so far beyond the gift of our existence. You endow us with thought, feeling, and purpose.
(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. Though you are faithful to send the seed of life to us, we are lax in preparing ourselves to receive it. We allow the worries of life to grow up and choke new life. We allow the circumstances of life to make our hearts hard. We allow past events to be like rocks just below the surface of our hearts. Forgive us for blocking your gracious gifts and send your Spirit upon us that we may work the soil of our hearts to prepare for your gracious work within, among, and through us.
We thank you for the great gifts that come our way every day. Your presence is always around us to bring us the fullness of life. You send us people to guide us and love us that we may know you better.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who are struggling to find life a gift instead of a burden. Some are struggling with illness, addiction, or abuse. Some have just been distracted from the true meaning of their lives.
(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
(This requires a little planning and takes more than one week.) Make pots reflecting the kinds of soil that Jesus speaks of. Plant a seed in each. Water and place them in sunlight or under a full-spectrum light. Check each Sunday to see how things are coming. The extended time this takes helps catch children who might be absent one Sunday and brings the story back to mind for longer retention.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
The Parable of the Sower
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Object: a package of seeds and two containers of soil -- one moist and the other rocky and dry
Good morning, boys and girls! Here is a package of seeds. (show the seeds to the children) What would we have to do with these seeds in order for them to grow? (let them answer) Yes, of course, we have to plant them in the ground. Seeds aren't going to grow if we leave them in the package. They have to be planted in the ground.
Now here are two containers of soil. (show the containers) Which of these two containers would you want to plant the seeds in? (let them answer) Yes, I would certainly plant them in this one that has good, moist soil. The other one is rocky and dry and the seeds would have a hard time growing there.
Jesus tells us that the Word of God is like a seed. God spreads His word around and He wants it to grow. That means God wants it to make people believe in Jesus and all the things that he teaches us. But some people are like this rocky, dry soil. They hear God's word but they don't let it grow in them. They reject it and even make fun of it. Others are like this good soil. They hear the word and believe in Jesus and all that he teaches us. The word grows in them and produces a lot of good things in their life.
Now, which kind of soil do you want to be? Do you want to be good soil or rocky soil? (let them answer) Yes, we want to be good soil and to do that we must listen to God's word and let it grow in us. That means coming to church and Sunday school regularly. Let's ask God to help us be good soil.
Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, please help us to be good soil where your word will grow and make us strong in faith. Clear away the rocks and the weeds from our minds so that we can hear your word clearly. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 10, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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.
