Confronting Shame With Guerrilla Grace
Children's sermon
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Object:
Both of his week’s lectionary Old Testament passages depict ordinary people who find themselves in difficult, “no-win” situations. Naboth faces extreme consequences if he decides to retain his inheritance and rebuff King Ahab’s attempts to purchase his family’s vineyard. And while Uriah’s widow is still lamenting her husband’s death, she must decide whether to submit to King David’s lust. The same sort of difficult choice faced zookeepers at the Cincinnati Zoo after a 3-year-old boy fell into their gorilla exhibit. The keepers ultimately opted to kill a gorilla who embraced the boy (who was then rescued); but then the recriminations began. Did zookeepers use excessive force in resolving the incident? A leading primatologist suggested that there were no easy answers, and that he honestly did not know how he would have reacted to what he called a “horrible dilemma.” Others blamed a lack of oversight from the boy’s mother -- a meme that one commentator labeled “our parent-shaming culture springing to life.” In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Chris Keating notes that the reaction to this incident -- particularly on social media -- reflects our society’s predilection for rushing to judgment. We appear to need to blame someone (anyone?) when problems arise... even when it’s not very clear what, if anything, could have been done to prevent them. And having assigned blame, we then proceed to public shaming of those we hold responsible. But as Chris points out, our readings this week all point to grace rather than judgment. Jesus tells us that the answer is not to boycott a zoo or to snarkily comment on someone’s mothering skills, but to forgive -- even when the debt seems overwhelming (500 denarii!). After all, if God can forgive David for sin as massive as arranged murder to enable his lust, perhaps we can reflect the same forgiveness God gives to us and share “guerrilla grace” with others -- most of whom are merely trying to make the best of an extremely difficult situation.
Team member Robin Lostetter shares some additional thoughts on this theme of grace vs. judgment as it relates to our churches -- and whether or not the church is truly following its calling to show grace and forgiveness to the world. Robin suggests that what is really needed is for the church to be a “city on a hill” that serves as an “exhibition of the Kingdom of heaven to the world.”
Confronting Shame with Guerrilla Grace
by Chris Keating
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a; 2 Samuel 11:26--12:10, 13-15; Luke 7:36--8:3
Life is filled with moments of shame -- and their often horrible outcomes.
Scripture provides many examples of how shame leads to disaster. There’s a boyish king whose lust for a woman leads to the death of her husband. Later on, a queen’s shameful scheming leads to the murder of an innocent landowner. And the gospels recount the outrage of a Pharisee as he watches a woman of the street intrude on his dinner with Jesus. Instead of sending her away, though, Jesus uses the moment to reveal God’s forgiveness.
Shame, shame, shame.
The power of shame has characterized much of the response on social media to the death of a 17-year-old gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo recently. When a toddler slipped away from his parents and fell into the gorilla’s enclosure, zookeepers shot and killed the animal. It appeared they had no other viable option to rescue the boy. But as news of the incident spread, shaming messages blaming the mother’s inattentiveness appeared on Facebook and Twitter. Soon there were calls for her prosecution -- and even death.
Here’s the opinion of one NPR listener: “Shameful. That gorilla was irreplaceable. And trying to save the kid from an irresponsible mom who was too cowardly to jump in after the kid.”
Narratives of shame and blame seem to be in control of the human heart -- yet scripture nudges us in a different direction. The final word in this week’s lectionary stories is not shame, but grace. Each narrative discloses a bit more about the God who forgives trespasses and whose love blots out iniquities. Horrible choices lead beyond shame into what one blogger calls “guerrilla grace” -- grace that is “rough and tough and unkempt and difficult, but beautifully successful when done well.”
Jesus calls us to forgive our trespassers -- including a boy who trespasses into an animal’s home, and kings who trespass through greed and lust. Scripture abounds with examples of this sort of amazing, guerrilla grace.
In the News
On Monday, prosecutors in Ohio announced that the mother of the toddler who fell into the gorilla enclosure won’t be facing charges -- though she continues to be excoriated in the courts of public opinion.
While visiting the Cincinnati Zoo on May 28, Michelle Gregg’s 3-year-old son slipped away undetected, making his way past hedges and a three-foot fence. In a matter of seconds, the boy fell about 15 feet into shallow water and then was picked up by Harambe, a 17-year-old 450-pound silverback gorilla. Uncertain how Harambe might react to a rescue attempt, zookeepers shot and killed the gorilla.
Cellphone video records the mother’s cries as the gorilla drags the boy through the enclosure’s moat. Worried that tranquilizers would rattle Harambe into a deeper frenzy before calming him, zoo officials were left with few options.
News of the tragedy rippled across headlines, lighting up social media. Zoo officials mourned Harambe’s death, while the world simultaneously bristled with anger over the gorilla’s killing and began pillorying Gregg. Animal rights advocates and Facebook moms joined forces, demanding that the mother of four be held responsible.
The shameful tragedy took on the air of a cross between last year’s death of Cecil the lion and the movie Mommy Dearest. Through it all, Gregg’s family gave thanks for the boy’s safe recuperation and return home following a brief hospital stay for scrapes and a concussion.
Even Nathaniel Hawthorne couldn’t have devised a more complex shame-driven story.
It’s probable that the boy’s scrapes will heal faster than the lingering cries of shame and outrage. Though the Twitter #JusticeForHarambe trend is beginning to fade, the public scolding of the boy’s mother continues. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed an online petition demanding that she be held accountable. Meanwhile, not-so-veiled threats alerted the Cincinnati police to stay close to the family.
“I’ve never seen the attention given to a family endangering case as this,” said Hamilton County prosecuting attorney Joe Deters. In announcing that no charges would be brought against the mother, Deters said that “if you don’t believe a 3-year-old can scamper away that quickly, you’ve never had kids. They just do that.”
One witness described how difficult it was to restrain her husband and Gregg from jumping into the enclosure:
They are both wanting to go over into the 15-foot drop, when I forbade my husband to do so and attempted to calm the mother by calling 911 and assuring her help was on the way. Neither my husband nor the mother would have made that jump without breaking something! I wasn’t leaving with my boys, because I didn’t trust my husband not to jump in and the gorilla did just seem to be protective of the child. It wasn’t until the gorilla became agitated because of the nosey, dramatic, helpless crowd that the gorilla violently ran with the child! And it was very violent; although I think the gorilla was still trying to protect, we’re talking a 400-lb. gorilla throwing a 40-lb. toddler around! It was horrific!
Gregg later posted a Facebook message defending herself and thanking the zoo. She noted how easy it is for children to escape a parent’s attention -- even for just a second.
“God protected my child until the authorities were able to get to him,” Gregg said. “My son is safe and was able to walk away with a concussion and a few scrapes... no broken bones or internal injuries. As a society we are quick to judge how a parent could take their eyes off of their child, and if anyone knows me I keep a tight watch on my kids. Accidents happen...”
And when they do, someone stands ready to comment.
The widespread interest in the case -- which attracted the attention of global press and celebrity zookeepers like Jack Hanna -- prompts reflection on the delicate relationship between humans and animals. It raises practical concerns regarding safety as well as ethical questions regarding animals on display. Negotiating the animal/human relationship requires a strong dose of compassion, suggests biologist Marc Bekoff.
It’s much more than “mommy shaming.” What’s at stake is a conversation about biodiversity, conservation, the place of zoos, and perhaps even a theological conversation about the meaning of trespassing. Casting blame on the parent diverts attention from the deeper -- and potentially even more shameful -- issues of animal and human interaction.
Writing for Scientific American, Bekoff noted:
Harambe’s cage also was his home where he felt safe. When the boy fell into his home it was a trespass of sorts, and it’s most likely Harambe was startled, perhaps feeling vulnerable and unprotected, and wondering what was going on. Let’s not forget that gorillas and many other animals are highly intelligent and emotional beings and they deeply care about what happens to themselves, their families, and their friends. In this case Harambe did what was expected, he picked up the boy, but he didn’t harm him. Of course Harambe could have killed the boy in a heartbeat, but he didn’t.
What did happen could be described as a real-time exploration of the classic thought experiment called “the trolley problem.” The scenario attempts to address the dilemma of the value of life by exploring what happens when a trolley driver discovers five people immobilized in a track. If you continue, five people will die. But if you pull a lever to switch to another track, you will “only” kill a single person who happens to be standing on that track.
Which tragedy do you choose?
In Cincinnati, zookeepers were faced with wretched task of taking the life of an animal they cherished in order to protect Gregg’s overly curious son. Whether the root cause was bad parenting or a toddler’s insatiable imagination, the result was Harambe’s death.
Protecting the innocent is a deep instinct within humans. But who was the innocent one that day: a) the child, or b) the gorilla?
For Bekoff, the answer is not “a” or “b” but perhaps “none of the above.” He concludes:
Harambe is dead and the boy is alive. I’m very sad, and also very happy. A gorilla's life was traded off because a human child was in danger. What needs to be done in the future to be sure that events like this never happen again? First, zoos need to stop breeding animals who are going to live in zoos for the rest of their lives. Zoos also should be turned into sanctuaries for the animals themselves. Over time there will be fewer and fewer captive animals, and zoos as we know them can be phased out. And the money that is saved as time goes on can be used to preserve populations of wild animals and their homes. These sorts of changes will take time and we need to be very patient, but we need to move in this direction.
In other words, what is needed is not gorilla outrage but guerilla grace.
In the end, neither shaming nor outrage will fill the breech created by Harambe’s death. The only thing that can save us is a wild, untamed, guerrilla sort of grace -- the sort of grace that holds irascible powers accountable, which brings restoration, and which says to us “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
In the Scriptures
Themes of shame and grace are blended throughout this week’s primary and complementary scripture texts. Likewise, both the Old Testament stories provide a glimpse of truth being spoken to the powerful, subverting our expectation of the dynamics of shame.
In 1 Kings 21:1-21, Naboth is a landowner with a problem -- he owns a vineyard that the king covets. King Ahab is determined to take hold of the vineyard, and first tries a bit of wheeling and dealing. When negotiations fall apart, the king returns home depressed. Naboth has no appetite for signing away his family’s legacy, and essentially tells the king to take a hike.
Theologically, note that it’s entirely possible that Ahab covets the land not for its prized vines, but rather for a much more expedient use. This is a story of a rich king out to grab land, turning decades-old vineyards into fast-producing produce. It’s a reference which Terence Fretheim notes could be seen as Ahab undermining the foundations of Israel -- which is often seen as the vineyard of Yahweh, e.g., Psalm 80 and Isaiah 5:1-7 (Fretheim, First and Second Kings [Westminster/John Knox Press, 1999], p. 118).
Thwarted in his attempt, the king returns home in a funk. In response, Queen Jezebel weaves a narrative of shame and blame. We can only imagine what it would have been like if Jezebel had access to trending memes on social media like #Aren’tYouTheKing and #TimeToMoveOnNaboth.
She orchestrates a plan and creates a crisis -- after all, crises are usually good methods for inducing anxiety and shame. Yet when Naboth is killed and Ahab claims the vineyard, he is the one who is ultimately shamed. Elijah meets Ahab on the property, bringing the news that God will hold him responsible.
The alternative Old Testament reading from 2 Samuel 11:26--12:15 explores David’s experience of shame following his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. After the death of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah, the prophet Nathan appears before the king and spins a parable of an innocent lamb owned by a poor farmer that is stolen by a wealthy scoundrel. David gets the point but misses the subject. “You are the man,” Nathan tells David. “You had it all, but you needed more.”
Here the dynamic of shame leads to David’s repentance. David had been seduced by notions of power counter to God’s desire for justice and righteousness. His shame is fully exposed, and he can only say “I have sinned against the Lord.” In the end, grace allows David a fresh start -- but as Walter Brueggemann notes, it comes at the high price “of receiving life when we are seduced by our imagined moral and ethical autonomy” (Brueggemann, First and Second Samuel [Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990], p. 283).
Life-giving grace appears spontaneously, joyfully, even sensually in the encounter between Jesus and the woman of the street in Luke 7:36--8:3. Within the familiar setting of a meal, Luke presents the dilemma of a woman intruding into a male-only space. Her violation of boundaries should be sufficient reason for her own shame, yet it is Jesus who shames his host, Simon.
While Simon has not afforded Jesus the basics of hospitality, the woman has lavished attention on Jesus. Indeed, she has broken the rules -- but only because of her gratitude for God’s grace. Unlike those who take to the internet to scold and scoff, this woman has responded to God in humility and gratitude. Jesus responds with robust, inviting, and forgiving grace.
Her sins are forgiven, and she is offered peace.
In the Sermon
Each of these narratives offer ample opportunities for the preacher to explore the ramifications of God’s wild and undomesticated grace. This sort of guerrilla grace counteracts the messages of shame proffered by our world.
For example, a sermon arising out of the Luke text could imagine the courage of the woman that Simon would have preferred to shame. The point is not to compare Michelle Gregg to the prostitute, but to note how in the face of shame both women exhibit tremendous courage, grace, and vulnerability. (For more about shame and vulnerability, be sure to watch Brené Brown’s well-known TED talk on the power of vulnerability.)
Both women respond to traps of shame-based systems by declaring hope in God’s promise. In Luke, the poor woman, marginalized and perhaps scandalized by her past, is forgiven -- a scandal even greater than her sin. For Michelle Gregg, her courage is tested by those who would judge her without knowing her. Both women understand the complicated, yet freeing nature of God’s guerrilla grace.
SECOND THOUGHTS
City upon a Hill
by Robin Lostetter
2 Samuel 11:26--12:10, 13-15; 1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14), 15-21a; Luke 7:36-8:3
As a Presbyterian (PCUSA) I am guided by the Book of Order, which includes its “Foundational” statements. Among them is what is known as “The Great Ends of the Church” (Book of Order F-1.0304):
The great ends of the church are the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind;
the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God;
the maintenance of divine worship;
the preservation of the truth;
the promotion of social righteousness;
and the exhibition of the Kingdom of heaven to the world.
Now, the first five are fairly obvious, and probably appear among the basic “goals” or missions of most Christian denominations. But the sixth, the “exhibition of the Kingdom of heaven to the world,” is one that is insufficiently articulated and even less often acted upon.
To clarify its meaning, let’s look at a more secular term: “the city upon a hill.” Though derived from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, this phrase has become part of the political lexicon, generally referring to American exceptionalism and the need for us to maintain it. So, in a similar way (but hopefully with less hubris), the Church seeks to be for earthly society the example and goal of what the Kingdom or Reign of heaven is like.
In his article above, my colleague Chris Keating has related this week’s passages from the Hebrew scriptures to our individual proclivity to pass judgment rather than sharing the love and grace of God, as exemplified in Jesus’ ministry. The same could be said for the ministries of some churches. Examples abound, but here are three that stand out:
* The infamous Westboro Baptist Church has, without meeting the man, condemned Muhammed Ali, saying, “Time has run out for Mr. Ali to repent.” Listing his sins, but with no knowledge of either his repentance or of God’s kairos, this church is one of the leaders in the list of those who have given “the Church” a bad name among young people and “nones” -- those who are “spiritual” but unaffiliated with a church.
* Two Evangelical pastors have also cast a broad net, not to fish for people but to condemn in judgment without knowing these folk face-to-face. One is Mike Bickle, “who runs the Kansas City-based International House of Prayer, [and] made ‘the Hitler comment’ during a 2011 sermon where he discussed two methods he believes God will use to convert the world’s Jewish population to Christianity -- grace and violence. After discussing the ‘fishermen’ that will use ‘grace’ to persuade Jews to convert, Bickle turned his attention to the ‘hunters’ he believes will use violence toward the same end.” Another is Kevin Swanson, who has called for punishment of homosexuals by death. Both men have condemned large groups of people without meeting the individuals face-to-face, as Jesus was known to do in his ministry when he used judgment and forgiving grace.
Not all incidents of churches not living up to the sixth Great End involve hatred and judgment. Perhaps the most common (and most heinous, in my opinion, as a former church musician) is the intentional under-payment of non-clergy, or non-ordained staff members of churches. By having a cadre of part-timers to handle the essential tasks of worship music and Christian education (both of which fall under the second or third Great Ends), the Church avoids paying a living wage to those whose training is costly and whose responsibilities are great. It forces a sort of servitude and inequality upon those who are often well-trained colleagues in ministry, as well as office administrators, sextons, and others. This is, of course, the Church following the secular model, rather than being the exhibition of the Kingdom of heaven to the world.
A shining example of an evangelical para-Church organization living up to the prophetic, grace-filled, Jesus-following ministry may be found in Sojourners’ approach to proclaiming the gospel (Great End #1) of peace and condemning war:
War dehumanizes fighters on all sides, increases hatred and cruelty, enables murder, coercion, rape, destruction of homes and livelihoods, and all crimes humanity has ever known. It is the supreme injustice. Yet we honor and glorify it, ever sanctifying our violence. The specter of a foe that we refuse to recognize as human binds us together for a time.
Yes, for individuals, for churches, for denominations, for communities, and for nations, the specter of a foe that we refuse to recognize as human binds us together for a time in superficial judgment. But Jesus calls us to meet the stranger, to make that stranger into the neighbor we are to love as ourselves, to extend forgiveness, to show God’s grace -- to show it as a city upon a hill, shedding the light of grace that cannot be hidden.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Luke 7:36--8:3
Grace on the Crosstown Bus
We all need the gift of grace, and it can come in unexpected places. In a recent issue of Oprah magazine, writer Elizabeth Gilbert tells about a bus driver who brought an hour of grace to a bus full of weary passengers:
The bus was filled with cold, tired people who were deeply irritated -- with one another; with the rainy, sleety weather; with the world itself. Two men barked at each other about a shove that might or might not have been intentional. A pregnant woman got on, and nobody offered her a seat. Rage was in the air; no mercy would be found here.
But as the bus approached Seventh Avenue, the driver got on the intercom. “Folks,” he said, “I know you’ve had a rough day and you’re frustrated. I can’t do anything about the weather or traffic, but here’s what I can do. As each one of you gets off the bus, I will reach out my hand to you. As you walk by, drop your troubles into the palm of my hand, okay? Don’t take your problems home to your families tonight -- just leave ’em with me. My route goes right by the Hudson River, and when I drive by there later, I’ll open the window and throw your troubles in the water. Sound good?”
It was as if a spell had lifted. Everyone burst out laughing. Faces gleamed with surprised delight. People who’d been pretending for the past hour not to notice each other’s existence were suddenly grinning at each other like, is this guy serious?
Oh, he was serious.
At the next stop -- just as promised -- the driver reached out his hand, palm up, and waited. One by one, all the exiting commuters placed their hand just above his and mimed the gesture of dropping something into his palm. Some people laughed as they did this, some teared up -- but everyone did it. The driver repeated the same lovely ritual at the next stop, too. And the next. All the way to the river.
Gilbert adds: “When life feels especially grim, or when I feel particularly powerless in the face of the world’s troubles, I think of this man and ask myself, What can I do, right now, to be the light?... How we behave matters because within human society everything is contagious -- sadness and anger, yes, but also patience and generosity. Which means we all have more influence than we realize.”
*****
Luke 7:36--8:3
Forgiveness Is Good for Us... and Not Easy
Writer Amy Westervelt wanted to know more about forgiveness, so she attended a forgiveness class, armed with a fake story. She says, “I knew exactly how to ask God for forgiveness, but I had no idea how to forgive, or ask forgiveness from the people in my life. This turns out to be an important distinction: University of Michigan researchers have found that forgiveness between people tends to have more reliably positive physical benefits than any perceived forgiveness from God.” When asked why she was there, she blurted out her real story, much to her own surprise.
It turns out that forgiveness is a spiritual skill that can be learned. We learn to forgive, step by step, working on a mixture of forgiving ourselves, others, and God. Psychologist and researcher Robert Enright “recommends that people struggling with self-forgiveness learn to forgive others first, before offering that same compassion to themselves. ‘Otherwise it can be tricky: If you’re a compulsive gambler and keep squandering the family’s money, for example, you could forgive yourself and keep doing it, but true self-forgiveness requires stopping the behavior that led to the offence in first place.’ It’s the ‘learn to forgive’ part that’s key to making forgiveness stick.”
Westervelt concludes, “Time does not heal all wounds. This too shall not pass. Letting go of hurt and anger is a grind, and forgiveness only works if you practice it regularly, and are prepared to fail often without giving up. But the payoff is so huge it just might be worth it.”
*****
Luke 7:36--8:3
Forgiveness, Step by Step
Researcher Robert Enright says there are eight keys to forgiveness. “When another person hurts us, it can upend our lives. Sometimes the hurt is very deep, such as when a spouse or a parent betrays our trust, or when we are victims of crime, or when we’ve been harshly bullied. Anyone who has suffered a grievous hurt knows that when our inner world is badly disrupted, it’s difficult to concentrate on anything other than our turmoil or pain. When we hold on to hurt, we are emotionally and cognitively hobbled, and our relationships suffer. Forgiveness is strong medicine for this. When life hits us hard, there is nothing as effective as forgiveness for healing deep wounds. I would not have spent the last 30 years of my life studying forgiveness if I were not convinced of this.”
Step one is “Know what forgiveness is and why it matters.” Enright adds: “Forgiveness is about goodness, about extending mercy to those who’ve harmed us, even if they don’t ‘deserve’ it. It is not about finding excuses for the offending person’s behavior or pretending it didn’t happen. Nor is there a quick formula you can follow. Forgiveness is a process with many steps that often proceeds in a non-linear fashion.... Studies have shown that forgiving others produces strong psychological benefits for the one who forgives. It has been shown to decrease depression, anxiety, unhealthy anger, and the symptoms of PTSD. But we don’t just forgive to help ourselves. Forgiveness can lead to psychological healing, yes; but, in its essence, it is not something about you or done for you. It is something you extend toward another person, because you recognize, over time, that it is the best response to the situation.”
Step two is to be what Enright calls “forgivingly fit.” He says, “Just as you would start slowly with a new physical exercise routine, it helps if you build up your forgiving heart muscles slowly, incorporating regular ‘workouts’ into your everyday life.”
(You can read the other steps here.)
*****
Luke 7:36--8:3
Half a Loaf is Better than None
Desmond Tutu, writing with his daughter Mpho Tutu, says that forgiveness is a gift we can either give fully or partly. They write: “Are you hurt and suffering? Is the injury new, or is it an old unhealed wound? Know that what was done to you was wrong, unfair, and undeserved. You are right to be outraged. And it is perfectly normal to want to hurt back when you have been hurt. But hurting back rarely satisfies. We think it will, but it doesn’t. If I slap you after you slap me, it does not lessen the sting I feel on my own face, nor does it diminish my sadness as to the fact you have struck me. Retaliation gives, at best, only momentary respite from our pain.... Without forgiveness, we remain tethered to the person who harmed us. We are bound with chains of bitterness, tied together, trapped. Until we can forgive the person who harmed us, that person will hold the keys to our happiness; that person will be our jailer. When we forgive, we take back control of our own fate and our feelings. We become our own liberators. We don’t forgive to help the other person. We don’t forgive for others. We forgive for ourselves.”
They note that sometimes we can’t forgive completely, but doing it partway is better than nothing.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
Michael Jace was once best known to us for his role as Los Angeles police officer Julien Lowe in the FX drama The Shield. But now he is best known to us as a convicted murder. Jace shot his wife Alice three times, once in each leg and then in her head. He first shot her legs since she loved to jogged. Before shooting her, he said: “If you like running, then run to heaven.” His defense attorneys tried to get the sentence reduced, saying his crime was an act of passion.
Application: King Ahab teaches us the sin of passion.
*****
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
This past week at least 1,083 migrants died in the Mediterranean Sea trying to flee the oppression of Libya for safety in Italy. Smugglers are using their desperate situation as a venture for profit. The migrants are put on unsafe and overcrowded boats, where the boats then capsize and many drown.
Application: King Ahab shows us the sin of profit-seeking absent of morals.
*****
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
Jack Horner is retiring as the paleontologist at the Museum of Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. Horner is regarded as a world expert in dinosaurs -- author Michael Crichton consulted him for his book Jurassic Park, and Steven Spielberg brought Horner on as a technical advisor for the movie version of Jurassic Park. What is remarkable about Horner is that he struggles with dyslexia and cannot read above the third grade level. He was made the paleontologist of the museum because he began to find so many dinosaur bones in Montana that authorities wanted to make sure the bones would remain in the state. Regarding his discovery on what is now called Egg Mountain, Horner said: “That one square mile out there is the richest dinosaur site in the world.”
Application: King Ahab wanted that one square mile for himself, not for a museum that could be enjoyed by everyone.
*****
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
In a Beetle Bailey comic strip, Lt. Fuzz, Sgt. Snorkel, and Snorkel’s dog Otto are all sitting together at the same mess hall table. Otto growls, wanting some of Lt. Fuzz’s dinner. The lieutenant, who is known to be a perfectionist, tells Snorkel that he shouldn’t let Otto beg for food. The sergeant, who is known to be a hard bully, replies: “He doesn’t beg, he DEMANDS!” (Note: If you have a projection screen in your sanctuary, you may want to display this cartoon.)
Application: King Ahab only knew how to demand.
*****
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
China’s largest property developer, the Wanda Group, is now taking on Walt Disney. They are opening Wanda City, a $3 billion amusement park designed to compete with the Disneyland in China. Disney will soon open its own park in China, which will be the largest in the world.
Application: King Ahab teaches us that that no one can be satisfied unless they are the biggest.
*****
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
The San Francisco Victorian home that served as the exterior for the 1980s sitcom Full House is now on the market for $4.15 million. Located in the wealthy Pacific Heights neighborhood, the home was built in 1883 -- but once you go inside nothing resembles the house on the television show, since all the interior shots were filmed at a studio.
Application: King Ahab wanted Naboth’s garden; but when he got it, was it what he thought it would be?
*****
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
Amber Heard has had a restraining order placed on her estranged husband Johnny Depp. In one incident of violence, Depp threw his cellphone at Amber, striking her in the face. In Heard’s court disposition she said: “During the entirety of our relationship, Johnny has been verbally and physically abusive to me.” This was especially true, Heard wrote, “whenever I questioned his authority or disagreed with him.”
Application: King Ahab teaches us what a person who only wants his own way is like.
*****
Luke 7:36--8:3
We know that in the Blondie comic, Julius Dithers, founder and owner of J.C. Dithers Construction Company, is a rather cantankerous individual. In a recent strip Dithers has just returned from a trip to Hawaii and Dagwood Bumstead is at the airport to pick him up. Dagwood inquires about his boss’s trip to the island, only to have Julius reply: “Not good! They thought I was arrogant and obnoxious! They even took my lei back before I left.” (Note: If you have a projection screen in your sanctuary, you may want to display this cartoon.)
Application: The Pharisee, because of his attitude, would have had his lei taken back.
*****
Luke 7:36--8:3
In a Peanuts comic strip, Snoopy is on top of his doghouse impatiently listening to a bird speak to him with great excitement and enthusiasm. When the bird walks away, Snoopy says to himself (as he is lying on his back on top of his home, doing nothing of importance): “Boy, I thought he would never leave. I have more to do than sit around and rap with a bird!” (Note: If you have a projection screen in your sanctuary, you may want to display this cartoon.)
Application: Jesus told the Pharisee that we that we need to take the time to listen and appreciate.
*****
Luke 7:36--8:3
Virtual reality technology is now being applied in amusement parks -- you can wear virtual reality glasses while riding a roller coaster. Colleen Mangone, the director of the International Association of Amusement Parks, said that by wearing these glasses users’ “visual line follows a story line.... They are flying next to the superhero, and as the superhero dives down, the coaster is diving down.”
Application: Jesus wants us to be able to follow the storyline of his teachings.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Give ear to our words, O God; give heed to our sighing.
People: Listen to the sound of our cry, for to you we pray.
Leader: You destroy those who speak lies.
People: God abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful.
Leader: But through the abundance of your steadfast love, we will enter your house.
People: We will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you.
Leader: Lead us, O God, in your righteousness.
People: Make your way straight before us.
OR
Leader: Come to the healing waters of God’s forgiveness.
People: We come, knowing we are sinners.
Leader: Know that God’s grace is always available for all.
People: In gladness we receive and will share this gift.
Leader: Nothing will make God more pleased than that.
People: We have received abundantly. We will share freely.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy”
found in:
UMH: 121
H82: 469, 470
PH: 298
NCH: 23
CH: 73
LBW: 290
ELA: 587, 588
W&P: 61
AMEC: 78
STLT: 213
“To God Be the Glory”
found in:
UMH: 98
PH: 485
AAHH: 157
NNBH: 17
CH: 39
W&P: 66
AMEC: 21
Renew: 358
“Help Us Accept Each Other”
found in:
UMH: 60
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
“Amazing Grace”
found in:
UMH: 378
H82: 671
PH: 280
AAHH: 271, 272
NNBH: 161, 163
NCH: 547, 548
CH: 546
LBW: 448
ELA: 779
W&P: 422
AMEC: 226
STLT: 205, 206
Renew: 189
“Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive”
found in:
UMH: 390
H82: 674
PH: 347
LBW: 307
ELA: 605
W&P: 382
Renew: 184
“God of Grace and God of Glory”
found in:
UMH: 577
H82: 594, 595
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELA: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
“Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service”
found in:
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELA: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
“I Am Loved”
found in:
CCB: 80
“O How He Loves You and Me”
found in:
CCB: 38
Renew: 27
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who lovingly forgives and redeems your children: Grant us the grace to withhold our condemnation and to seek justice bathed in mercy and grace; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you freely forgive your children of their sins. You offer us grace when we deserve condemnation. Send your Spirit upon us, that we might truly be your children and refrain from standing in judgment on our sisters and brothers. Help us to offer grace that leads to true justice. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our quickness to sit in judgment over others’ perceived sins.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We gladly accept the good news of forgiveness for ourselves, but we are slow to offer it to others. We recognize sin easily in others, but we seem to always be able to justify our own sinful actions. Send your Spirit upon us, and help us to show the grace to others that we have been given. Amen.
Leader: God is gracious and ready to forgive. God gladly assists us in sharing that grace with others.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
God of grace and forgiving love, we praise and adore you. We offer our hymns and songs in worship to you.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We gladly accept the good news of forgiveness for ourselves, but we are slow to offer it to others. We recognize sin easily in others, but we seem to always be able to justify our own sinful actions. Send your Spirit upon us, and help us to show the grace to others that we have been given.
We come with thankful hearts for all the ways in which you have shared your loving kindness with us. Your grace surrounds us and holds us up above the stream of condemnation around us. We thank you for the ways in which you allow us to participate in your justice and love by sharing grace and forgiveness with others.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who struggle under guilt and regret. We pray for the strength and wisdom to share your loving forgiveness with others.
(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
Show the children some visual trick pictures, such as an old woman who is also a young beauty or the chalice that is also two people facing each other. Ask them what they see. If they all see the same thing, help them find the other picture. Talk about how it is easy to make a quick judgment about the picture, but we really need to take time to find out what all is there. We sometimes do the same to other people -- we see or hear something, and make a quick decision about whether we like them or not. We need to take time to get to know them first.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Looks Can Be Deceiving
by Dean Feldmeyer
This is an oldie, but it still works. Take a newly ripened banana and put it in the refrigerator on Thursday. The peel will turn black, but the banana inside the peel will be fine.
(Show the banana to the children and ask) Okay, who wants a bit of this delicious banana?
E-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-w-w-w-w-w-w!
Right. This banana looks awful, doesn’t it? What do you suppose is wrong with it? How did it get this way? Well, you know what? I’m gonna eat it! Who wants to join me? Anyone? No? Okay... your loss.
(Slowly peel the banana to reveal the unblemished fruit beneath the blackened peel.) Well, look at that! The banana is okay, isn’t it?
(Break off a piece and eat it.) And it’s delicious too. Now, who wants some? I thought so. Here ya go. What do you think? Do you think that maybe that we judged this banana too quickly? We just looked at it and decided that it was bad, didn’t we? But after we examined it closely and looked at what’s inside the peel, we learned that it really was good. Huh!
You know, that’s how Jesus asks us to treat people. Don’t judge them so quickly. Be kind and patient. Look at what’s on the inside of a person, in their heart and their mind. We may be surprised to find out that even if a person doesn’t look all that good at first, they may turn out to be good -- just like the banana.
**********
Alternative
Do an internet search for images of these people: Babyface Nelson, Ma Barker, Albert Einstein, Joseph (The Elephant Man) Merrick, Lee Harvey Oswald, Joseph Lister, Jonas Salk. (Choose others if you like.) The point is to have some pictures of bad people who look benign and some pictures of good people who are unattractive. Print the pictures and place them before the children.
Okay, gang, your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to decide which of these people are the good people and which ones are the bad people. I’m going to hold the pictures up one at a time, and you all can vote on them. Ready?
(Hold the pictures up one at a time, and let the children vote “good” or “bad.” Then go back through the pictures and tell the kids who these people are.)
It’s not easy to tell just by looking at a person, is it? But sometimes we make judgments about people just based on what we see at first, or sometimes we make decisions or judgments about people based on one thing we saw them do or one thing we heard about them. We make judgments about a person being good or bad based on just one thing. But Jesus asks us to take a little more time, to get to know people. We may discover that the people we thought were bad (the Elephant Man) were good, and we may discover that the people we thought were good (Babyface Nelson) because of how they looked are actually bad.
But whatever we discover about people, Jesus asks us to discover it gradually, after we get to know them.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 12, 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.
Team member Robin Lostetter shares some additional thoughts on this theme of grace vs. judgment as it relates to our churches -- and whether or not the church is truly following its calling to show grace and forgiveness to the world. Robin suggests that what is really needed is for the church to be a “city on a hill” that serves as an “exhibition of the Kingdom of heaven to the world.”
Confronting Shame with Guerrilla Grace
by Chris Keating
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a; 2 Samuel 11:26--12:10, 13-15; Luke 7:36--8:3
Life is filled with moments of shame -- and their often horrible outcomes.
Scripture provides many examples of how shame leads to disaster. There’s a boyish king whose lust for a woman leads to the death of her husband. Later on, a queen’s shameful scheming leads to the murder of an innocent landowner. And the gospels recount the outrage of a Pharisee as he watches a woman of the street intrude on his dinner with Jesus. Instead of sending her away, though, Jesus uses the moment to reveal God’s forgiveness.
Shame, shame, shame.
The power of shame has characterized much of the response on social media to the death of a 17-year-old gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo recently. When a toddler slipped away from his parents and fell into the gorilla’s enclosure, zookeepers shot and killed the animal. It appeared they had no other viable option to rescue the boy. But as news of the incident spread, shaming messages blaming the mother’s inattentiveness appeared on Facebook and Twitter. Soon there were calls for her prosecution -- and even death.
Here’s the opinion of one NPR listener: “Shameful. That gorilla was irreplaceable. And trying to save the kid from an irresponsible mom who was too cowardly to jump in after the kid.”
Narratives of shame and blame seem to be in control of the human heart -- yet scripture nudges us in a different direction. The final word in this week’s lectionary stories is not shame, but grace. Each narrative discloses a bit more about the God who forgives trespasses and whose love blots out iniquities. Horrible choices lead beyond shame into what one blogger calls “guerrilla grace” -- grace that is “rough and tough and unkempt and difficult, but beautifully successful when done well.”
Jesus calls us to forgive our trespassers -- including a boy who trespasses into an animal’s home, and kings who trespass through greed and lust. Scripture abounds with examples of this sort of amazing, guerrilla grace.
In the News
On Monday, prosecutors in Ohio announced that the mother of the toddler who fell into the gorilla enclosure won’t be facing charges -- though she continues to be excoriated in the courts of public opinion.
While visiting the Cincinnati Zoo on May 28, Michelle Gregg’s 3-year-old son slipped away undetected, making his way past hedges and a three-foot fence. In a matter of seconds, the boy fell about 15 feet into shallow water and then was picked up by Harambe, a 17-year-old 450-pound silverback gorilla. Uncertain how Harambe might react to a rescue attempt, zookeepers shot and killed the gorilla.
Cellphone video records the mother’s cries as the gorilla drags the boy through the enclosure’s moat. Worried that tranquilizers would rattle Harambe into a deeper frenzy before calming him, zoo officials were left with few options.
News of the tragedy rippled across headlines, lighting up social media. Zoo officials mourned Harambe’s death, while the world simultaneously bristled with anger over the gorilla’s killing and began pillorying Gregg. Animal rights advocates and Facebook moms joined forces, demanding that the mother of four be held responsible.
The shameful tragedy took on the air of a cross between last year’s death of Cecil the lion and the movie Mommy Dearest. Through it all, Gregg’s family gave thanks for the boy’s safe recuperation and return home following a brief hospital stay for scrapes and a concussion.
Even Nathaniel Hawthorne couldn’t have devised a more complex shame-driven story.
It’s probable that the boy’s scrapes will heal faster than the lingering cries of shame and outrage. Though the Twitter #JusticeForHarambe trend is beginning to fade, the public scolding of the boy’s mother continues. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed an online petition demanding that she be held accountable. Meanwhile, not-so-veiled threats alerted the Cincinnati police to stay close to the family.
“I’ve never seen the attention given to a family endangering case as this,” said Hamilton County prosecuting attorney Joe Deters. In announcing that no charges would be brought against the mother, Deters said that “if you don’t believe a 3-year-old can scamper away that quickly, you’ve never had kids. They just do that.”
One witness described how difficult it was to restrain her husband and Gregg from jumping into the enclosure:
They are both wanting to go over into the 15-foot drop, when I forbade my husband to do so and attempted to calm the mother by calling 911 and assuring her help was on the way. Neither my husband nor the mother would have made that jump without breaking something! I wasn’t leaving with my boys, because I didn’t trust my husband not to jump in and the gorilla did just seem to be protective of the child. It wasn’t until the gorilla became agitated because of the nosey, dramatic, helpless crowd that the gorilla violently ran with the child! And it was very violent; although I think the gorilla was still trying to protect, we’re talking a 400-lb. gorilla throwing a 40-lb. toddler around! It was horrific!
Gregg later posted a Facebook message defending herself and thanking the zoo. She noted how easy it is for children to escape a parent’s attention -- even for just a second.
“God protected my child until the authorities were able to get to him,” Gregg said. “My son is safe and was able to walk away with a concussion and a few scrapes... no broken bones or internal injuries. As a society we are quick to judge how a parent could take their eyes off of their child, and if anyone knows me I keep a tight watch on my kids. Accidents happen...”
And when they do, someone stands ready to comment.
The widespread interest in the case -- which attracted the attention of global press and celebrity zookeepers like Jack Hanna -- prompts reflection on the delicate relationship between humans and animals. It raises practical concerns regarding safety as well as ethical questions regarding animals on display. Negotiating the animal/human relationship requires a strong dose of compassion, suggests biologist Marc Bekoff.
It’s much more than “mommy shaming.” What’s at stake is a conversation about biodiversity, conservation, the place of zoos, and perhaps even a theological conversation about the meaning of trespassing. Casting blame on the parent diverts attention from the deeper -- and potentially even more shameful -- issues of animal and human interaction.
Writing for Scientific American, Bekoff noted:
Harambe’s cage also was his home where he felt safe. When the boy fell into his home it was a trespass of sorts, and it’s most likely Harambe was startled, perhaps feeling vulnerable and unprotected, and wondering what was going on. Let’s not forget that gorillas and many other animals are highly intelligent and emotional beings and they deeply care about what happens to themselves, their families, and their friends. In this case Harambe did what was expected, he picked up the boy, but he didn’t harm him. Of course Harambe could have killed the boy in a heartbeat, but he didn’t.
What did happen could be described as a real-time exploration of the classic thought experiment called “the trolley problem.” The scenario attempts to address the dilemma of the value of life by exploring what happens when a trolley driver discovers five people immobilized in a track. If you continue, five people will die. But if you pull a lever to switch to another track, you will “only” kill a single person who happens to be standing on that track.
Which tragedy do you choose?
In Cincinnati, zookeepers were faced with wretched task of taking the life of an animal they cherished in order to protect Gregg’s overly curious son. Whether the root cause was bad parenting or a toddler’s insatiable imagination, the result was Harambe’s death.
Protecting the innocent is a deep instinct within humans. But who was the innocent one that day: a) the child, or b) the gorilla?
For Bekoff, the answer is not “a” or “b” but perhaps “none of the above.” He concludes:
Harambe is dead and the boy is alive. I’m very sad, and also very happy. A gorilla's life was traded off because a human child was in danger. What needs to be done in the future to be sure that events like this never happen again? First, zoos need to stop breeding animals who are going to live in zoos for the rest of their lives. Zoos also should be turned into sanctuaries for the animals themselves. Over time there will be fewer and fewer captive animals, and zoos as we know them can be phased out. And the money that is saved as time goes on can be used to preserve populations of wild animals and their homes. These sorts of changes will take time and we need to be very patient, but we need to move in this direction.
In other words, what is needed is not gorilla outrage but guerilla grace.
In the end, neither shaming nor outrage will fill the breech created by Harambe’s death. The only thing that can save us is a wild, untamed, guerrilla sort of grace -- the sort of grace that holds irascible powers accountable, which brings restoration, and which says to us “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
In the Scriptures
Themes of shame and grace are blended throughout this week’s primary and complementary scripture texts. Likewise, both the Old Testament stories provide a glimpse of truth being spoken to the powerful, subverting our expectation of the dynamics of shame.
In 1 Kings 21:1-21, Naboth is a landowner with a problem -- he owns a vineyard that the king covets. King Ahab is determined to take hold of the vineyard, and first tries a bit of wheeling and dealing. When negotiations fall apart, the king returns home depressed. Naboth has no appetite for signing away his family’s legacy, and essentially tells the king to take a hike.
Theologically, note that it’s entirely possible that Ahab covets the land not for its prized vines, but rather for a much more expedient use. This is a story of a rich king out to grab land, turning decades-old vineyards into fast-producing produce. It’s a reference which Terence Fretheim notes could be seen as Ahab undermining the foundations of Israel -- which is often seen as the vineyard of Yahweh, e.g., Psalm 80 and Isaiah 5:1-7 (Fretheim, First and Second Kings [Westminster/John Knox Press, 1999], p. 118).
Thwarted in his attempt, the king returns home in a funk. In response, Queen Jezebel weaves a narrative of shame and blame. We can only imagine what it would have been like if Jezebel had access to trending memes on social media like #Aren’tYouTheKing and #TimeToMoveOnNaboth.
She orchestrates a plan and creates a crisis -- after all, crises are usually good methods for inducing anxiety and shame. Yet when Naboth is killed and Ahab claims the vineyard, he is the one who is ultimately shamed. Elijah meets Ahab on the property, bringing the news that God will hold him responsible.
The alternative Old Testament reading from 2 Samuel 11:26--12:15 explores David’s experience of shame following his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. After the death of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah, the prophet Nathan appears before the king and spins a parable of an innocent lamb owned by a poor farmer that is stolen by a wealthy scoundrel. David gets the point but misses the subject. “You are the man,” Nathan tells David. “You had it all, but you needed more.”
Here the dynamic of shame leads to David’s repentance. David had been seduced by notions of power counter to God’s desire for justice and righteousness. His shame is fully exposed, and he can only say “I have sinned against the Lord.” In the end, grace allows David a fresh start -- but as Walter Brueggemann notes, it comes at the high price “of receiving life when we are seduced by our imagined moral and ethical autonomy” (Brueggemann, First and Second Samuel [Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990], p. 283).
Life-giving grace appears spontaneously, joyfully, even sensually in the encounter between Jesus and the woman of the street in Luke 7:36--8:3. Within the familiar setting of a meal, Luke presents the dilemma of a woman intruding into a male-only space. Her violation of boundaries should be sufficient reason for her own shame, yet it is Jesus who shames his host, Simon.
While Simon has not afforded Jesus the basics of hospitality, the woman has lavished attention on Jesus. Indeed, she has broken the rules -- but only because of her gratitude for God’s grace. Unlike those who take to the internet to scold and scoff, this woman has responded to God in humility and gratitude. Jesus responds with robust, inviting, and forgiving grace.
Her sins are forgiven, and she is offered peace.
In the Sermon
Each of these narratives offer ample opportunities for the preacher to explore the ramifications of God’s wild and undomesticated grace. This sort of guerrilla grace counteracts the messages of shame proffered by our world.
For example, a sermon arising out of the Luke text could imagine the courage of the woman that Simon would have preferred to shame. The point is not to compare Michelle Gregg to the prostitute, but to note how in the face of shame both women exhibit tremendous courage, grace, and vulnerability. (For more about shame and vulnerability, be sure to watch Brené Brown’s well-known TED talk on the power of vulnerability.)
Both women respond to traps of shame-based systems by declaring hope in God’s promise. In Luke, the poor woman, marginalized and perhaps scandalized by her past, is forgiven -- a scandal even greater than her sin. For Michelle Gregg, her courage is tested by those who would judge her without knowing her. Both women understand the complicated, yet freeing nature of God’s guerrilla grace.
SECOND THOUGHTS
City upon a Hill
by Robin Lostetter
2 Samuel 11:26--12:10, 13-15; 1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14), 15-21a; Luke 7:36-8:3
As a Presbyterian (PCUSA) I am guided by the Book of Order, which includes its “Foundational” statements. Among them is what is known as “The Great Ends of the Church” (Book of Order F-1.0304):
The great ends of the church are the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind;
the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God;
the maintenance of divine worship;
the preservation of the truth;
the promotion of social righteousness;
and the exhibition of the Kingdom of heaven to the world.
Now, the first five are fairly obvious, and probably appear among the basic “goals” or missions of most Christian denominations. But the sixth, the “exhibition of the Kingdom of heaven to the world,” is one that is insufficiently articulated and even less often acted upon.
To clarify its meaning, let’s look at a more secular term: “the city upon a hill.” Though derived from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, this phrase has become part of the political lexicon, generally referring to American exceptionalism and the need for us to maintain it. So, in a similar way (but hopefully with less hubris), the Church seeks to be for earthly society the example and goal of what the Kingdom or Reign of heaven is like.
In his article above, my colleague Chris Keating has related this week’s passages from the Hebrew scriptures to our individual proclivity to pass judgment rather than sharing the love and grace of God, as exemplified in Jesus’ ministry. The same could be said for the ministries of some churches. Examples abound, but here are three that stand out:
* The infamous Westboro Baptist Church has, without meeting the man, condemned Muhammed Ali, saying, “Time has run out for Mr. Ali to repent.” Listing his sins, but with no knowledge of either his repentance or of God’s kairos, this church is one of the leaders in the list of those who have given “the Church” a bad name among young people and “nones” -- those who are “spiritual” but unaffiliated with a church.
* Two Evangelical pastors have also cast a broad net, not to fish for people but to condemn in judgment without knowing these folk face-to-face. One is Mike Bickle, “who runs the Kansas City-based International House of Prayer, [and] made ‘the Hitler comment’ during a 2011 sermon where he discussed two methods he believes God will use to convert the world’s Jewish population to Christianity -- grace and violence. After discussing the ‘fishermen’ that will use ‘grace’ to persuade Jews to convert, Bickle turned his attention to the ‘hunters’ he believes will use violence toward the same end.” Another is Kevin Swanson, who has called for punishment of homosexuals by death. Both men have condemned large groups of people without meeting the individuals face-to-face, as Jesus was known to do in his ministry when he used judgment and forgiving grace.
Not all incidents of churches not living up to the sixth Great End involve hatred and judgment. Perhaps the most common (and most heinous, in my opinion, as a former church musician) is the intentional under-payment of non-clergy, or non-ordained staff members of churches. By having a cadre of part-timers to handle the essential tasks of worship music and Christian education (both of which fall under the second or third Great Ends), the Church avoids paying a living wage to those whose training is costly and whose responsibilities are great. It forces a sort of servitude and inequality upon those who are often well-trained colleagues in ministry, as well as office administrators, sextons, and others. This is, of course, the Church following the secular model, rather than being the exhibition of the Kingdom of heaven to the world.
A shining example of an evangelical para-Church organization living up to the prophetic, grace-filled, Jesus-following ministry may be found in Sojourners’ approach to proclaiming the gospel (Great End #1) of peace and condemning war:
War dehumanizes fighters on all sides, increases hatred and cruelty, enables murder, coercion, rape, destruction of homes and livelihoods, and all crimes humanity has ever known. It is the supreme injustice. Yet we honor and glorify it, ever sanctifying our violence. The specter of a foe that we refuse to recognize as human binds us together for a time.
Yes, for individuals, for churches, for denominations, for communities, and for nations, the specter of a foe that we refuse to recognize as human binds us together for a time in superficial judgment. But Jesus calls us to meet the stranger, to make that stranger into the neighbor we are to love as ourselves, to extend forgiveness, to show God’s grace -- to show it as a city upon a hill, shedding the light of grace that cannot be hidden.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Luke 7:36--8:3
Grace on the Crosstown Bus
We all need the gift of grace, and it can come in unexpected places. In a recent issue of Oprah magazine, writer Elizabeth Gilbert tells about a bus driver who brought an hour of grace to a bus full of weary passengers:
The bus was filled with cold, tired people who were deeply irritated -- with one another; with the rainy, sleety weather; with the world itself. Two men barked at each other about a shove that might or might not have been intentional. A pregnant woman got on, and nobody offered her a seat. Rage was in the air; no mercy would be found here.
But as the bus approached Seventh Avenue, the driver got on the intercom. “Folks,” he said, “I know you’ve had a rough day and you’re frustrated. I can’t do anything about the weather or traffic, but here’s what I can do. As each one of you gets off the bus, I will reach out my hand to you. As you walk by, drop your troubles into the palm of my hand, okay? Don’t take your problems home to your families tonight -- just leave ’em with me. My route goes right by the Hudson River, and when I drive by there later, I’ll open the window and throw your troubles in the water. Sound good?”
It was as if a spell had lifted. Everyone burst out laughing. Faces gleamed with surprised delight. People who’d been pretending for the past hour not to notice each other’s existence were suddenly grinning at each other like, is this guy serious?
Oh, he was serious.
At the next stop -- just as promised -- the driver reached out his hand, palm up, and waited. One by one, all the exiting commuters placed their hand just above his and mimed the gesture of dropping something into his palm. Some people laughed as they did this, some teared up -- but everyone did it. The driver repeated the same lovely ritual at the next stop, too. And the next. All the way to the river.
Gilbert adds: “When life feels especially grim, or when I feel particularly powerless in the face of the world’s troubles, I think of this man and ask myself, What can I do, right now, to be the light?... How we behave matters because within human society everything is contagious -- sadness and anger, yes, but also patience and generosity. Which means we all have more influence than we realize.”
*****
Luke 7:36--8:3
Forgiveness Is Good for Us... and Not Easy
Writer Amy Westervelt wanted to know more about forgiveness, so she attended a forgiveness class, armed with a fake story. She says, “I knew exactly how to ask God for forgiveness, but I had no idea how to forgive, or ask forgiveness from the people in my life. This turns out to be an important distinction: University of Michigan researchers have found that forgiveness between people tends to have more reliably positive physical benefits than any perceived forgiveness from God.” When asked why she was there, she blurted out her real story, much to her own surprise.
It turns out that forgiveness is a spiritual skill that can be learned. We learn to forgive, step by step, working on a mixture of forgiving ourselves, others, and God. Psychologist and researcher Robert Enright “recommends that people struggling with self-forgiveness learn to forgive others first, before offering that same compassion to themselves. ‘Otherwise it can be tricky: If you’re a compulsive gambler and keep squandering the family’s money, for example, you could forgive yourself and keep doing it, but true self-forgiveness requires stopping the behavior that led to the offence in first place.’ It’s the ‘learn to forgive’ part that’s key to making forgiveness stick.”
Westervelt concludes, “Time does not heal all wounds. This too shall not pass. Letting go of hurt and anger is a grind, and forgiveness only works if you practice it regularly, and are prepared to fail often without giving up. But the payoff is so huge it just might be worth it.”
*****
Luke 7:36--8:3
Forgiveness, Step by Step
Researcher Robert Enright says there are eight keys to forgiveness. “When another person hurts us, it can upend our lives. Sometimes the hurt is very deep, such as when a spouse or a parent betrays our trust, or when we are victims of crime, or when we’ve been harshly bullied. Anyone who has suffered a grievous hurt knows that when our inner world is badly disrupted, it’s difficult to concentrate on anything other than our turmoil or pain. When we hold on to hurt, we are emotionally and cognitively hobbled, and our relationships suffer. Forgiveness is strong medicine for this. When life hits us hard, there is nothing as effective as forgiveness for healing deep wounds. I would not have spent the last 30 years of my life studying forgiveness if I were not convinced of this.”
Step one is “Know what forgiveness is and why it matters.” Enright adds: “Forgiveness is about goodness, about extending mercy to those who’ve harmed us, even if they don’t ‘deserve’ it. It is not about finding excuses for the offending person’s behavior or pretending it didn’t happen. Nor is there a quick formula you can follow. Forgiveness is a process with many steps that often proceeds in a non-linear fashion.... Studies have shown that forgiving others produces strong psychological benefits for the one who forgives. It has been shown to decrease depression, anxiety, unhealthy anger, and the symptoms of PTSD. But we don’t just forgive to help ourselves. Forgiveness can lead to psychological healing, yes; but, in its essence, it is not something about you or done for you. It is something you extend toward another person, because you recognize, over time, that it is the best response to the situation.”
Step two is to be what Enright calls “forgivingly fit.” He says, “Just as you would start slowly with a new physical exercise routine, it helps if you build up your forgiving heart muscles slowly, incorporating regular ‘workouts’ into your everyday life.”
(You can read the other steps here.)
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Luke 7:36--8:3
Half a Loaf is Better than None
Desmond Tutu, writing with his daughter Mpho Tutu, says that forgiveness is a gift we can either give fully or partly. They write: “Are you hurt and suffering? Is the injury new, or is it an old unhealed wound? Know that what was done to you was wrong, unfair, and undeserved. You are right to be outraged. And it is perfectly normal to want to hurt back when you have been hurt. But hurting back rarely satisfies. We think it will, but it doesn’t. If I slap you after you slap me, it does not lessen the sting I feel on my own face, nor does it diminish my sadness as to the fact you have struck me. Retaliation gives, at best, only momentary respite from our pain.... Without forgiveness, we remain tethered to the person who harmed us. We are bound with chains of bitterness, tied together, trapped. Until we can forgive the person who harmed us, that person will hold the keys to our happiness; that person will be our jailer. When we forgive, we take back control of our own fate and our feelings. We become our own liberators. We don’t forgive to help the other person. We don’t forgive for others. We forgive for ourselves.”
They note that sometimes we can’t forgive completely, but doing it partway is better than nothing.
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From team member Ron Love:
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
Michael Jace was once best known to us for his role as Los Angeles police officer Julien Lowe in the FX drama The Shield. But now he is best known to us as a convicted murder. Jace shot his wife Alice three times, once in each leg and then in her head. He first shot her legs since she loved to jogged. Before shooting her, he said: “If you like running, then run to heaven.” His defense attorneys tried to get the sentence reduced, saying his crime was an act of passion.
Application: King Ahab teaches us the sin of passion.
*****
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
This past week at least 1,083 migrants died in the Mediterranean Sea trying to flee the oppression of Libya for safety in Italy. Smugglers are using their desperate situation as a venture for profit. The migrants are put on unsafe and overcrowded boats, where the boats then capsize and many drown.
Application: King Ahab shows us the sin of profit-seeking absent of morals.
*****
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
Jack Horner is retiring as the paleontologist at the Museum of Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. Horner is regarded as a world expert in dinosaurs -- author Michael Crichton consulted him for his book Jurassic Park, and Steven Spielberg brought Horner on as a technical advisor for the movie version of Jurassic Park. What is remarkable about Horner is that he struggles with dyslexia and cannot read above the third grade level. He was made the paleontologist of the museum because he began to find so many dinosaur bones in Montana that authorities wanted to make sure the bones would remain in the state. Regarding his discovery on what is now called Egg Mountain, Horner said: “That one square mile out there is the richest dinosaur site in the world.”
Application: King Ahab wanted that one square mile for himself, not for a museum that could be enjoyed by everyone.
*****
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
In a Beetle Bailey comic strip, Lt. Fuzz, Sgt. Snorkel, and Snorkel’s dog Otto are all sitting together at the same mess hall table. Otto growls, wanting some of Lt. Fuzz’s dinner. The lieutenant, who is known to be a perfectionist, tells Snorkel that he shouldn’t let Otto beg for food. The sergeant, who is known to be a hard bully, replies: “He doesn’t beg, he DEMANDS!” (Note: If you have a projection screen in your sanctuary, you may want to display this cartoon.)
Application: King Ahab only knew how to demand.
*****
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
China’s largest property developer, the Wanda Group, is now taking on Walt Disney. They are opening Wanda City, a $3 billion amusement park designed to compete with the Disneyland in China. Disney will soon open its own park in China, which will be the largest in the world.
Application: King Ahab teaches us that that no one can be satisfied unless they are the biggest.
*****
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
The San Francisco Victorian home that served as the exterior for the 1980s sitcom Full House is now on the market for $4.15 million. Located in the wealthy Pacific Heights neighborhood, the home was built in 1883 -- but once you go inside nothing resembles the house on the television show, since all the interior shots were filmed at a studio.
Application: King Ahab wanted Naboth’s garden; but when he got it, was it what he thought it would be?
*****
1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
Amber Heard has had a restraining order placed on her estranged husband Johnny Depp. In one incident of violence, Depp threw his cellphone at Amber, striking her in the face. In Heard’s court disposition she said: “During the entirety of our relationship, Johnny has been verbally and physically abusive to me.” This was especially true, Heard wrote, “whenever I questioned his authority or disagreed with him.”
Application: King Ahab teaches us what a person who only wants his own way is like.
*****
Luke 7:36--8:3
We know that in the Blondie comic, Julius Dithers, founder and owner of J.C. Dithers Construction Company, is a rather cantankerous individual. In a recent strip Dithers has just returned from a trip to Hawaii and Dagwood Bumstead is at the airport to pick him up. Dagwood inquires about his boss’s trip to the island, only to have Julius reply: “Not good! They thought I was arrogant and obnoxious! They even took my lei back before I left.” (Note: If you have a projection screen in your sanctuary, you may want to display this cartoon.)
Application: The Pharisee, because of his attitude, would have had his lei taken back.
*****
Luke 7:36--8:3
In a Peanuts comic strip, Snoopy is on top of his doghouse impatiently listening to a bird speak to him with great excitement and enthusiasm. When the bird walks away, Snoopy says to himself (as he is lying on his back on top of his home, doing nothing of importance): “Boy, I thought he would never leave. I have more to do than sit around and rap with a bird!” (Note: If you have a projection screen in your sanctuary, you may want to display this cartoon.)
Application: Jesus told the Pharisee that we that we need to take the time to listen and appreciate.
*****
Luke 7:36--8:3
Virtual reality technology is now being applied in amusement parks -- you can wear virtual reality glasses while riding a roller coaster. Colleen Mangone, the director of the International Association of Amusement Parks, said that by wearing these glasses users’ “visual line follows a story line.... They are flying next to the superhero, and as the superhero dives down, the coaster is diving down.”
Application: Jesus wants us to be able to follow the storyline of his teachings.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Give ear to our words, O God; give heed to our sighing.
People: Listen to the sound of our cry, for to you we pray.
Leader: You destroy those who speak lies.
People: God abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful.
Leader: But through the abundance of your steadfast love, we will enter your house.
People: We will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you.
Leader: Lead us, O God, in your righteousness.
People: Make your way straight before us.
OR
Leader: Come to the healing waters of God’s forgiveness.
People: We come, knowing we are sinners.
Leader: Know that God’s grace is always available for all.
People: In gladness we receive and will share this gift.
Leader: Nothing will make God more pleased than that.
People: We have received abundantly. We will share freely.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy”
found in:
UMH: 121
H82: 469, 470
PH: 298
NCH: 23
CH: 73
LBW: 290
ELA: 587, 588
W&P: 61
AMEC: 78
STLT: 213
“To God Be the Glory”
found in:
UMH: 98
PH: 485
AAHH: 157
NNBH: 17
CH: 39
W&P: 66
AMEC: 21
Renew: 358
“Help Us Accept Each Other”
found in:
UMH: 60
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
“Amazing Grace”
found in:
UMH: 378
H82: 671
PH: 280
AAHH: 271, 272
NNBH: 161, 163
NCH: 547, 548
CH: 546
LBW: 448
ELA: 779
W&P: 422
AMEC: 226
STLT: 205, 206
Renew: 189
“Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive”
found in:
UMH: 390
H82: 674
PH: 347
LBW: 307
ELA: 605
W&P: 382
Renew: 184
“God of Grace and God of Glory”
found in:
UMH: 577
H82: 594, 595
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELA: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
“Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service”
found in:
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELA: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
“I Am Loved”
found in:
CCB: 80
“O How He Loves You and Me”
found in:
CCB: 38
Renew: 27
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who lovingly forgives and redeems your children: Grant us the grace to withhold our condemnation and to seek justice bathed in mercy and grace; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you freely forgive your children of their sins. You offer us grace when we deserve condemnation. Send your Spirit upon us, that we might truly be your children and refrain from standing in judgment on our sisters and brothers. Help us to offer grace that leads to true justice. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our quickness to sit in judgment over others’ perceived sins.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We gladly accept the good news of forgiveness for ourselves, but we are slow to offer it to others. We recognize sin easily in others, but we seem to always be able to justify our own sinful actions. Send your Spirit upon us, and help us to show the grace to others that we have been given. Amen.
Leader: God is gracious and ready to forgive. God gladly assists us in sharing that grace with others.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
God of grace and forgiving love, we praise and adore you. We offer our hymns and songs in worship to you.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We gladly accept the good news of forgiveness for ourselves, but we are slow to offer it to others. We recognize sin easily in others, but we seem to always be able to justify our own sinful actions. Send your Spirit upon us, and help us to show the grace to others that we have been given.
We come with thankful hearts for all the ways in which you have shared your loving kindness with us. Your grace surrounds us and holds us up above the stream of condemnation around us. We thank you for the ways in which you allow us to participate in your justice and love by sharing grace and forgiveness with others.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who struggle under guilt and regret. We pray for the strength and wisdom to share your loving forgiveness with others.
(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
Show the children some visual trick pictures, such as an old woman who is also a young beauty or the chalice that is also two people facing each other. Ask them what they see. If they all see the same thing, help them find the other picture. Talk about how it is easy to make a quick judgment about the picture, but we really need to take time to find out what all is there. We sometimes do the same to other people -- we see or hear something, and make a quick decision about whether we like them or not. We need to take time to get to know them first.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Looks Can Be Deceiving
by Dean Feldmeyer
This is an oldie, but it still works. Take a newly ripened banana and put it in the refrigerator on Thursday. The peel will turn black, but the banana inside the peel will be fine.
(Show the banana to the children and ask) Okay, who wants a bit of this delicious banana?
E-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-w-w-w-w-w-w!
Right. This banana looks awful, doesn’t it? What do you suppose is wrong with it? How did it get this way? Well, you know what? I’m gonna eat it! Who wants to join me? Anyone? No? Okay... your loss.
(Slowly peel the banana to reveal the unblemished fruit beneath the blackened peel.) Well, look at that! The banana is okay, isn’t it?
(Break off a piece and eat it.) And it’s delicious too. Now, who wants some? I thought so. Here ya go. What do you think? Do you think that maybe that we judged this banana too quickly? We just looked at it and decided that it was bad, didn’t we? But after we examined it closely and looked at what’s inside the peel, we learned that it really was good. Huh!
You know, that’s how Jesus asks us to treat people. Don’t judge them so quickly. Be kind and patient. Look at what’s on the inside of a person, in their heart and their mind. We may be surprised to find out that even if a person doesn’t look all that good at first, they may turn out to be good -- just like the banana.
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Alternative
Do an internet search for images of these people: Babyface Nelson, Ma Barker, Albert Einstein, Joseph (The Elephant Man) Merrick, Lee Harvey Oswald, Joseph Lister, Jonas Salk. (Choose others if you like.) The point is to have some pictures of bad people who look benign and some pictures of good people who are unattractive. Print the pictures and place them before the children.
Okay, gang, your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to decide which of these people are the good people and which ones are the bad people. I’m going to hold the pictures up one at a time, and you all can vote on them. Ready?
(Hold the pictures up one at a time, and let the children vote “good” or “bad.” Then go back through the pictures and tell the kids who these people are.)
It’s not easy to tell just by looking at a person, is it? But sometimes we make judgments about people just based on what we see at first, or sometimes we make decisions or judgments about people based on one thing we saw them do or one thing we heard about them. We make judgments about a person being good or bad based on just one thing. But Jesus asks us to take a little more time, to get to know people. We may discover that the people we thought were bad (the Elephant Man) were good, and we may discover that the people we thought were good (Babyface Nelson) because of how they looked are actually bad.
But whatever we discover about people, Jesus asks us to discover it gradually, after we get to know them.
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The Immediate Word, June 12, 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.
