The Court Of Public Opinion
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
This week's lectionary scripture texts all feature the twin themes of power and weakness. The Second Samuel passage tells of King David's four-decade reign over Israel, with the seat of power in Jerusalem for the vast majority of that time. The Psalmist describes how "the kings assembled" on God's holy mountain -- a gathering that brings to mind the recent G-20 summit of world leaders or the halls of Congress -- and colorfully notes the reaction of those with earthly power when seeing "the city of the great King": "...they were in panic, they took to flight; trembling took hold of them there, pains as of a woman in labor..." (Psalm 48:5b-6). In the Second Corinthians pericope, Paul focuses on the many afflictions he's dealt with, including the "thorn... given me in the flesh," but he concludes that he is "content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10). And in Mark's gospel, we see Jesus' healing ability at work -- though we are curiously told that he "could do no deed of power" in his hometown because of the lack of support there.
The common thread here seems to be that power functions very differently than we suppose. We typically think of power as something that is exercised by the strong upon the weak -- that power flows downhill from the powerful to the not-so-powerful. Yet Paul tells us that "power is made perfect in weakness." And our gospel text demonstrates how both Jesus and the disciples in their travels need the shared belief of the community for power to be effective. In the next installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin suggests that power has its limits -- and that the experience of Jesus and the disciples offers us an object lesson about meaningful power. If we are unable to work together -- to reach across the fissures of our society, such as those that have been bared anew in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling on health care reform -- and find common ground and understanding with others, than what we think is power is only a mirage. Mary points out that rather than being controlling, true power that makes lasting change is instead a more collaborative process that requires everyone involved to be "rowing in the same direction."
Team member Dean Feldmeyer offers some additional thoughts on the epistle passage and Paul's familiar lament about the thorn in his flesh. Dean notes that there has been much speculation about the nature of Paul's ailment. But as Dean reminds us, the specific malady is beside the point. Paul obviously felt hindered -- yet he was content in his weakness and disability... and Dean suggests that therein lies a lesson for us all, as we are all disabled in some area of life. For some, the physical or mental limitations are obvious for all to see; but all of us have some sort of impediment. More importantly, however, all of us are also "other-ly abled" -- we have highly developed skills or abilities in other areas that enable us to, despite our flaws and limitations, to navigate our way through life and accomplish sometimes amazing things through the power of Christ.
The Court of Public Opinion
by Mary Austin
Mark 6:1-13
The recent Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act (or "Obamacare," depending on how you think about it) reveals both the scope and limits of power in Washington, just as this week's reading from Mark's gospel illuminates a similar truth about power. Widely separated in time and purpose, the two stories tell same the truth about power.
THE WORLD
In its highly anticipated opinion released last week, the Supreme Court upheld the power of the President and Congress to require people to buy health insurance, as outlined in the law and then challenged in the courts. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has promised to work with Congress to undo the Affordable Care Act if he's elected in November. Republicans in Congress also want to repeal the law. As the decision was announced, some people rejoiced while others fumed. For people who hate the law, the Supreme Court decision hasn't convinced them about anything. The high court has the power to uphold or strike down the law, but not the power to convince people they've made the right choice.
"It's a boost for the president, but it doesn't make the controversy go away," Karl Rove, a former aide to former President George W. Bush, said on Fox News just after the ruling was announced. "In fact, it probably enhances the controversy." Power is limited.
When she announced that that she would retire from the Senate at the end of her current term, Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine noted the difficulty of achieving anything in Washington right now. As quoted in the Washington Post, Snowe said: "Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term." Even the power of Congress to govern the country can't work when the two parties are unable to work together.
Power is limited.
Without collaboration, nothing gets done. The power to make laws or render opinions is one thing, but the power to convince people about any issue is far more limited.
THE WORD
The same limitations on power are true even for Jesus. In this story from Mark's gospel, he returns home and finds that the people there can't see him as anything except the carpenter's son, the boy they've seen grow up among them. Just before this, Jesus has quieted a tremendous storm, and then healed a woman with a long illness and a little girl who seemed to be dead. He has power over the created world of sea and storms, and power over illness and death. Here at home, though, people are offended when he tries to be more than they boy they knew. Without their belief, "he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them" (v. 5). No doubt this was meaningful for the few sick people, but the limits on his power are striking.
In sending the disciples out, Jesus again shows the shared nature of spiritual power. No one person is strong enough for this kind of spiritual work. Going in pairs, they can catch strength from each other and build up each other's courage. They are to care for each other and share the work. Neither one of the pair could be as effective alone as they are together.
And, again, if no one is receptive to their teaching and healing, Jesus tells them to move on. If the people don't believe, nothing can happen. If the disciples are not welcome, they can feel free to move on to another place. Power is a joint exercise between the teacher and the student, or between the leader and the group, or between the parent and the child. We often understand as power in those situations as traveling down from one party to the other, but without the collaboration of both, nothing can happen. Jesus learns that in his hometown, and the disciples live it out as they travel. Change is a dance between the leader and the community, and between vision and belief. Without both sides, nothing happens.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
This story holds meaning both for our individual faith journeys, and for our lives in faith communities. Any teacher, pastor, health worker, visionary, or parent already knows that we get more done when both parties agree at least on a common direction. With a shared view about where we're going, and who has the right to be in charge of the trip, a big part of the work is done. We all know places where congregations, partners, or children have agreed to something and then failed to act on it, because they didn't really believe in it. They just didn't want to say so, or to argue about it, or maybe didn't think we would listen anyway. At least the people in Jesus' hometown were honest about their disbelief!
American culture generally understands power more as control than collaboration, but the example of Jesus and his disciples reminds us that the kind of power than changes lives, hearts, and spirits is different. This is the kind of power that requires everyone to be present and involved. For leaders, too, this is a strong reminder that we're not in this alone. Other people have wisdom, energy, passion, and creativity to enhance our own, and bring talents we don't have to the work of the Spirit.
Much has been written lately about people who are "spiritual but not religious." It's true that we can have spiritual lives and experiences all by ourselves, but we miss the greater challenge of being in a community of people. Without other people around to offer support or challenge, wisdom or the aggravation that leads to growth, our lives are narrow and our God looks a lot like us.
Perhaps that was the problem back at home for Jesus -- he looked a little too familiar for them to see the full power of God in him. Without their belief, he was just the carpenter's son. We get the God we have faith in, after all.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Other-ly Abled
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Have you ever heard of a thing called the "Introvert's Party Path"?
Take a piece of paper and pencil and draw a circle on it. Now, draw a figure-eight inside the circle so that it touches the perimeter of the circle at the top and bottom.
That's the Introvert's Party Path. It's how an introvert maneuvers through a party. Come in the door. Walk the circumference of the room shaking hands and saying hello until you get back to the door. Now walk in a figure-eight through the room, shaking hands, saying hello, stopping to chat, until you get back to the door. Then leave, exhausted.
I know about the Introvert's Party Path because I'm an introvert. I don't do parties well. I like them. It's just that they exhaust me. It takes all of my mental and emotional resources to spend several hours balancing hors d'oeuvres and a beverage in one hand while I navigate a room making small talk with people I barely know. (This does not apply to parties where I know everyone.)
It's hard work. And it's kind of a surprise given my chosen profession.
Ask people what kind of person they want as a minister for their church, and they will usually say they want an extrovert. But the ministry is a career that tends to attract introverts.
So we introverts are at something of a disadvantage. Our introversion is a sort of a disability.?
Having been a relatively successful pastor for 30 years, however, I have learned not to think of myself as disabled just because I'm an introvert. I am what my daughter calls "other-ly abled" or differently abled. I have other skills that make up for my small-talk disability. I can, for instance, sit down at my desk alone and concentrate for the amount of time sufficient to write this essay and feel invigorated by that creative process.
Everyone, it turns out, has disabilities. We all have things that are hard for us or that we just can't do no matter how badly we want to or how hard we try.
Once, when I was a little leaguer playing center field, I was hit in the face by a fly ball that I thought was popped up over second base. My eyesight, it turns out, is not very good at judging speed and distance. I have poor depth perception. So I was never able to play baseball very well.
But I can hear harmony in my head and harmonize when I sing with others.
I can't hit a golf ball 300 yards into the fairway.
But I taught myself to play over a dozen musical instruments all by ear.
We are all differently or other-ly abled. There are things we can do and things we can't.
Dr. Samuel Johnson, one of England's most famous literary figures, suffered from Tourette's Syndrome and massive facial scars caused by childhood scrofula.
World-famous violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman is unable to walk without the assistance of crutches and leg braces due to childhood polio.
Soccer great David Beckham suffers from extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Michelangelo, Lewis Carroll, Aristotle, and Sir Isaac Newton all suffered from epilepsy.
Actress Marlee Matlin became the first deaf woman to win an Oscar, receiving the Best Actress award for her role in Children of a Lesser God. Phyllis Frelic, who is also deaf, won the Tony Award for the same role in the stage production.
William Ellsworth, who played baseball for the Cincinnati Reds from 1888 to 1902, was the third deaf professional baseball player and is credited with creating the hand signals which referees use to call "out," "safe," and "strike."
Beethoven continued his career composing and conducting music after he became profoundly deaf.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt had polio.
Michael J. Fox has Parkinson's Disease.
(There are countless examples of famous people living with disabilities who have accentuated being other-ly abled, developing strengths in other senses or abilities to complement areas where they are limited. An extensive list can be found at http://www.disabled-world.com/.)
Biblical scholars have speculated and debated for centuries about what might be the "thorn... in the flesh" which Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians 12:7. Was it epilepsy? There is some evidence of this in his other letters. But many find that evidence unconvincing. Their speculations have included malaria, depression, cataracts, rheumatoid arthritis, and even homosexuality. But the specifics are not as important as the context in which Paul places them.
Whatever his disability was, Paul understood himself to be significantly disabled in some way that hindered his ministry. So bad was it that he asked God three times to remove it.
But it was not removed.
So Paul, in this passage, finds a theological "spin" that he can live with. God's power, he says, is always made more strikingly visible and evident when it is set against the backdrop of human weakness.
There is really nothing special about Superman doing super things -- but when an ordinary, even disabled, person does extraordinary things... well, that is clear evidence that God is at work in the person's life. The sight of ordinary people doing amazing things provides a powerful witness to both the love and power of our God.
So it is that throughout the entire biblical narrative God calls not super-people, but ordinary, flawed, even other-ly abled people to do God's work.
And when that work is done, it is God who is praised and honored.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church, UCC, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and is a thoughtful and prolific writer. She's also a part of the Stillspeaking writing group that provides the material for the Daily Devotional piece put out by the UCC. In the August 31, 2011 devotional, Daniel writes candidly about how she dreads being on an airplane and having the person next to her discover that she is a minister. That person inevitably "wants to use the flight time to explain to me that he is 'spiritual but not religious.' Such a person will always share this as if it is some kind of daring insight, unique to him, bold in its rebellion against the religious status quo."
Daniel goes on with her rather biting criticism of people who claim the "spiritual but not religious" label, because she says that the really challenging, meaningful, and powerful stuff of life happens in relationship, community, and yes, in the church itself. She writes:
"Being privately spiritual but not religious just doesn't interest me. There is nothing challenging about having deep thoughts all by oneself. What is interesting is doing this work in community, where other people might call you on stuff, or heaven forbid, disagree with you. Where life with God gets rich and provocative is when you dig deeply into a tradition that you did not invent all for yourself."
*****
Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, better known as the Indigo Girls, have a song called "Power of Two" on their 1994 album Swamp Ophelia. While this song is intended as a love song for two people in a committed romantic relationship, a number of its lines could also speak to the power of God to change lives, hearts, and spirits when people journey together in faith, like...
You know the things that I am afraid of
I'm not afraid to tell,
And if we ever leave a legacy,
It's that we loved each other well.
And...
Now steel bars between me and a promise
Suddenly bend with ease.
The closer I'm bound in love to you,
The closer I am to free.
And the chorus...
So we're ok, we're fine.
Baby, I'm here to stop your crying.
Chase all the ghosts from your head,
I'm stronger than the monster beneath your bed.
Smarter than the tricks played on your heart.
Look at them together then we'll take them apart.
Adding up the total of a love that's true,
Multiply life by the power of two.
The lyrics for the entire song can be found here.
*****
In Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith (Anchor, 2000), Anne Lamott writes about how life-giving and life-changing her experience with her church community has been. In the chapter "Why I Make Sam Go to Church," Lamott shares just that (Sam is her son):
I make him because I can. I outweigh him by nearly 75 pounds.
But that is only part of it. The main reason is that I want to give him what I found in the world, which is to say a path and a little light to see by. Most of the people I know who have what I want -- which is to say, purpose, heart, balance, gratitude, joy -- are people with a deep sense of spirituality. They are people in community, who pray, or practice their faith; they are Buddhists, Jews, Christians -- people banding together to work on themselves and for human rights. They follow a brighter light than the glimmer of their own candle; they are part of something beautiful. I saw something once from the Jewish Theological Seminary that said, "A human life is like a single letter of the alphabet. It can be meaningless. Or it can be a part of a great meaning." Our funky little church is filled with people who are working for peace and freedom, who are out there on the streets and inside praying, and they are home writing letters, and they are at the shelters with giant platters of food.
Lamott writes later in the chapter about the challenges of remaining in community, the soul work it can take, and the payoffs that come from hanging in when things get hard. For Lamott, one of the greatest difficulties was in being the one in need, the one to whom help was given, the one who felt like she had so very little power...
I was usually filled with a sense of something like shame until I'd remember that wonderful line of Blake's -- that we are here to learn to endure the beams of love -- and I would take a long deep breath and force these words out of my strangulated throat: "Thank you."
*****
One of the most durable figures in our national pantheon of heroes is the rugged individualist, the frontiersman -- the sheriff who cleans up the crooked little western town then rides off into the sunset, six-gun still warm from the day's exertions. Does John Wayne need somebody to ride with him on the trail? Not on your life, pilgrim!
Yet Jesus teaches his disciples to go out not as Lone Rangers, as rugged individualists, but in the company of others. They are to lean on one other, to support one another when the going gets tough. The gospel is too big a burden for any one individual to bear.
And so it follows that the task of proclaiming the gospel belongs to all of us. The event of preaching depends just as much on the hearers as on the speaker; and it depends also on what all of us do with this word as we go out into the world -- seeking to make the good news real in our lives, sharing with others of the love of Christ as we have come to know it.
Someone has said that the church is like a group of people standing in a circle, with Jesus at the center. Funny thing about a circle -- the closer the individual members get to Christ at the center, the closer they get to each other as well.
-- Carlos Wilton, Lectionary Preaching Workbook [Series VIII, Cycle B] (CSS Publishing, 2006)
*****
Robin Roberts, one of the hosts of ABC's Good Morning America, suffers from (MDS), a blood and bone marrow disease. One of the few cures for MDS is a bone marrow transplant. Fortunately for Roberts, her sister is a perfect match.
Roberts has helped others by making her illness public on television. Since she began her public promotion, the national bone marrow registry has reported that the number of people who registered as possible donors has more than doubled.
Roberts said the reason she volunteered to be a spokesperson was on the advice of her mother, who told her to "turn a mess into a message."
This is what Paul was able to do with his incurable ailment -- he was able to turn the "mess into a message."
*****
Rev. Dr. Paul Bradley writes about the crossroads of faith and 12-step recovery in his article "Christian Addiction Recovery: In Our Weakness Is Our Strength". One of his foci for the article is Paul's statement that "power is made perfect in weakness," which he also translates as "my strength is made perfect in weakness." He writes:
This central message of our Christian faith is also essential to the very survival of people in recovery from addictions, compulsions, and destructive behaviors, attitudes, and relationships. It starts with Step One. We admit our powerlessness over the substances, behaviors, attitudes, and relationships that drag us down, destroying our spirits, our lives and our very essences.
For Bradley, the post-surrender climb from darkness to light, from rock bottom to real life, mirrors the faith journey of a follower of Christ. For both the addict and the Christian (or as in Bradley's case, the Christian addict), the climb happens when power is unleashed through weakness:
At the moment we hit bottom, as we finally admit we are powerless and can't do it by ourselves any more, we attain our moment of greatest strength. This is the paradox of the crucified God, the One who is resurrected. Out of the depths of despair and weakness comes the ultimate transfigured and transcendent strength.
Bradley concludes his article in this way...
Christian fellowship, at its heart, empowers us to open the doorways and windows of our hearts, minds, and souls, letting God's love and light flood into our lives. Here, as in recovery, we let go and let God turn our weakness into strength. The paradox and miracle both of faith and of recovery is this: The more we admit our powerlessness and open ourselves to God's will for us, the greater becomes our power to do good, and the more joy and fulfillment we feel in the doing. Let's join Paul in "boasting of our weaknesses," our wounded places, our deepest imperfections, for that is where God works the greatest wonders in our lives.
*****
Two years after Martin Luther King's famous "I Have A Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, he experienced setbacks and described the dream as becoming a nightmare. King spoke of the dream being shattered by acts of violence, and in a sermon titled "The American Dream" he stated:
...the dream has been shattered and I have had my nightmarish experiences, but I tell you this morning once more that I haven't lost the faith.... You see, the founding fathers were really influenced by the Bible. The whole concept of the imago dei, as it is expressed in Latin, the "image of God," is the idea that all [people] have something within them that God injected. Not that they have substantial unity with God, but that every [person] has a capacity to have fellowship with God. And this gives [people] a uniqueness, it gives [them] worth, it gives [them] dignity. And we must never forget this as a nation: there are no gradations in the image of God. Every [person] from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God's keyboard, precisely because every [person] is made in the image of God. One day we will learn that. We will know one day that God made us to live together as brothers [and sisters] and to respect the dignity and worth of every [person].
The apostle Paul in writing to the troubled Corinthians stated that the power of God's grace can see us through the most difficult days. During a difficult time Paul heard the voice of the Lord telling him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."
*****
Jesus sent the disciples out in groups of two to proclaim the message of the Kingdom. Jesus realized some would listen, and for others the disciples would have to leave the town shaking the dust off of their sandals.
It took decades of violence before the message of peace could be heard in Northern Ireland. But last week a scene took place that once was unimaginable. Inside Belfast's Lyric Theater, the Queen of England met with Martin McGuinness -- a former commander in the Irish Republican Army, the group that at one time plotted to assassinate the royal family. There, the two shook hands. The meeting was so sensitive that photographers were not permitted. A half hour later, for the public, there was a second ceremonial handshake of reconciliation.
As Queen Elizabeth II was leaving, McGuinness said to her in Gaelic, "Slán agus beannacht" -- "good-bye and godspeed" or "good-bye and god-blessing."
If we continue to go from village to village, the message of the Kingdom will be eventually heard.
*****
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh announced he was going to try to fly across the Atlantic Ocean by himself. No one had ever attempted to fly over the Atlantic by airplane before. When word reached Lindbergh's hometown of Little Falls, Minnesota, a skeptic remarked: "No man will ever fly all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. And if someone does, it won't be anyone from Little Falls!"
"Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown," said Jesus (Mark 6:4 NRSV). experienced homegrown, hometown rejection himself. The Nazarenes were living the truth of that old Latin proverb "Familiarity breeds contempt."
Do sometimes have the same problem? Have we become familiar with Jesus? Do those of us who went to Sunday school all the way through (and got those little attendance pin ladders), those of us whose "custom" it is to worship every week, or at least several times monthly -- do sometimes think we've got Jesus "all figured out"? If we do, like the people of Nazareth, we're in for a surprise!
*****
The Scriptures tell us that when Ezekiel walked among a rebellious people, "they shall know that there has been a prophet among them." One prophet, a spokesperson for God, changed and reformed the people.
If it were only so easy today: one voice, one message. Instead, in preparation of the 2012 presidential election the Obama campaign has assembled 5,800 attorneys to litigate voting disputes across the nation. The Republicans are also putting together a legal team with a smaller number of lawyers, focusing instead on big-name lawyers.
It is no longer enough that the votes can speak as one voice of the people. Now it all must be contested in court. The parties' motivation for the drive is to be prepared for the possibility of another Supreme Court confrontation like occurred after the 2000 Bush-Gore election.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Great is our God and greatly to be praised.
People: God's holy mountain is the joy of all the earth.
Leader: We ponder your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.
People: Your name, O God, like your praise, reaches to the ends of the earth.
Leader: Your right hand is filled with victory.
People: God will be our guide forever.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the Creator.
People: We bow before the awesome power of our God.??
Leader: Come and worship the One who serves others.
People: We are humbled by the humility of our God.?
Leader: Come and worship the One who seeks our good.
People: We worship our God whose power is perfect in weakness.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing"
found in:
UMH: 57
H82: 493
PH: 466
AAHH: 184
NNBH: 23
NCH: 42
CH: 5
LBW: 559
ELA: 886
Renew: 32
"How Like a Gentle Spirit"
found in:
UMH: 115
NCH: 443
CH: 69?
"Jesu, Jesu"
found in:
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELA: 708
Renew: 289
"Make Me a Captive, Lord"
found in:
UMH: 421
PH: 378
"Help Us Accept Each Other"
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
"Like the Murmur of the Dove's Song"
found in:
UMH: 544
H82: 513
PH: 314
NCH: 270
CH: 245
ELA: 403
"This Is My Song"
found in:
UMH: 437
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELA: 887
"Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life"
found in:
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELA: 719
"I Am Loved"
found in:
CCB: 80
"Make Me a Servant"
found in:
CCB: 90
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 reigns over creation in love: Grant us the wisdom to find that power is truly found in using it with and for others and never in using it against others; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We worship you, O God, the creator and sustainer of all creation. As we praise you in your power, help us to remember that you have shared it with your creation. Grant that we may reflect your using power for the salvation of others instead of their defeat. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our desire to be in power over others.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have taken every opportunity to take control and power over others. We have taken every opportunity to use others. We have forgotten your call to give ourselves for and to others. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit, that we may serve others as we seek to be served. Amen.
Leader: The God who holds all power also holds all grace. In the presence of God we are forgiven, and empowered to live out of the giving of power that enables power.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
O God, we worship you who as the one who is revealed in the power of creation and the giving of one's self for others. Yours is the power that is found in the giving up of power.
(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 have taken every opportunity to take control and power over others. We have taken every opportunity to use others. We have forgotten your call to give ourselves for and to others. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit, that we may serve others as we seek to be served.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have showed your power to us in the giving up of power. We thank you that in your infinite authority you have sought to find us in being a servant to all.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all of our sisters and brothers in their time of need. We pray especially for those who find it difficult to discover their own power in the presence of the oppression of others. We pray that we may be the example of your self-giving presence that finds all in being nothing.
(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
Talk to the children about playing a game where there is a leader. Ask them what would happen if everyone playing was the leader. (It wouldn't be any fun; it wouldn't work.) Games are best when we share leadership. That is the way God works as well.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Familiarity Breeds Contempt
Mark 6:1-13
Object: a news article about a famous person
Here is a newspaper article about ________________. This person is very famous. Have any of you heard of this man/woman? (Let the children answer.) Why is he/she famous? What did he/she do? (Let them answer.) How would you feel if this person came to our town tomorrow and you got to meet him/her in person? Wouldn't that be neat? (Let them answer.) Yes, it surely would be, but let me ask you something. This person has a family just like you do, and he/she has friends that have known him/her for a long time. Do those people think it would be such a big deal to meet him/her? (Let the children answer.) No, they wouldn't. They know the person so well that they don't think about him/her the way others do.
Once, Jesus visited his own hometown and he found that people there were like that. He was famous in other places, but the people in his own town didn't think he was anything special. They knew Jesus and his family, and to them he was just the guy who had grown up in their town. We have to be careful that we don't get to be like those folks. We hear so much about Jesus that he is familiar to us, and we must not forget how wonderful he really is. There's an old saying that "familiarity breeds contempt." Do you know what that means? (Let them answer.) It means that we can get so used to something or someone that we take it for granted and forget how important it is to us. We don't want to do that with Jesus, do we? (Let them answer.) No, of course we don't. So let's ask Jesus to help us remember how important he is to all of us.
Prayer: Dear Jesus: We love you and we know that you love us. Help us always to remember how much you love us and how much you have done for us. Keep us ever mindful of how important you are to all of us. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 8, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word 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.
The common thread here seems to be that power functions very differently than we suppose. We typically think of power as something that is exercised by the strong upon the weak -- that power flows downhill from the powerful to the not-so-powerful. Yet Paul tells us that "power is made perfect in weakness." And our gospel text demonstrates how both Jesus and the disciples in their travels need the shared belief of the community for power to be effective. In the next installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin suggests that power has its limits -- and that the experience of Jesus and the disciples offers us an object lesson about meaningful power. If we are unable to work together -- to reach across the fissures of our society, such as those that have been bared anew in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling on health care reform -- and find common ground and understanding with others, than what we think is power is only a mirage. Mary points out that rather than being controlling, true power that makes lasting change is instead a more collaborative process that requires everyone involved to be "rowing in the same direction."
Team member Dean Feldmeyer offers some additional thoughts on the epistle passage and Paul's familiar lament about the thorn in his flesh. Dean notes that there has been much speculation about the nature of Paul's ailment. But as Dean reminds us, the specific malady is beside the point. Paul obviously felt hindered -- yet he was content in his weakness and disability... and Dean suggests that therein lies a lesson for us all, as we are all disabled in some area of life. For some, the physical or mental limitations are obvious for all to see; but all of us have some sort of impediment. More importantly, however, all of us are also "other-ly abled" -- we have highly developed skills or abilities in other areas that enable us to, despite our flaws and limitations, to navigate our way through life and accomplish sometimes amazing things through the power of Christ.
The Court of Public Opinion
by Mary Austin
Mark 6:1-13
The recent Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act (or "Obamacare," depending on how you think about it) reveals both the scope and limits of power in Washington, just as this week's reading from Mark's gospel illuminates a similar truth about power. Widely separated in time and purpose, the two stories tell same the truth about power.
THE WORLD
In its highly anticipated opinion released last week, the Supreme Court upheld the power of the President and Congress to require people to buy health insurance, as outlined in the law and then challenged in the courts. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has promised to work with Congress to undo the Affordable Care Act if he's elected in November. Republicans in Congress also want to repeal the law. As the decision was announced, some people rejoiced while others fumed. For people who hate the law, the Supreme Court decision hasn't convinced them about anything. The high court has the power to uphold or strike down the law, but not the power to convince people they've made the right choice.
"It's a boost for the president, but it doesn't make the controversy go away," Karl Rove, a former aide to former President George W. Bush, said on Fox News just after the ruling was announced. "In fact, it probably enhances the controversy." Power is limited.
When she announced that that she would retire from the Senate at the end of her current term, Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine noted the difficulty of achieving anything in Washington right now. As quoted in the Washington Post, Snowe said: "Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term." Even the power of Congress to govern the country can't work when the two parties are unable to work together.
Power is limited.
Without collaboration, nothing gets done. The power to make laws or render opinions is one thing, but the power to convince people about any issue is far more limited.
THE WORD
The same limitations on power are true even for Jesus. In this story from Mark's gospel, he returns home and finds that the people there can't see him as anything except the carpenter's son, the boy they've seen grow up among them. Just before this, Jesus has quieted a tremendous storm, and then healed a woman with a long illness and a little girl who seemed to be dead. He has power over the created world of sea and storms, and power over illness and death. Here at home, though, people are offended when he tries to be more than they boy they knew. Without their belief, "he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them" (v. 5). No doubt this was meaningful for the few sick people, but the limits on his power are striking.
In sending the disciples out, Jesus again shows the shared nature of spiritual power. No one person is strong enough for this kind of spiritual work. Going in pairs, they can catch strength from each other and build up each other's courage. They are to care for each other and share the work. Neither one of the pair could be as effective alone as they are together.
And, again, if no one is receptive to their teaching and healing, Jesus tells them to move on. If the people don't believe, nothing can happen. If the disciples are not welcome, they can feel free to move on to another place. Power is a joint exercise between the teacher and the student, or between the leader and the group, or between the parent and the child. We often understand as power in those situations as traveling down from one party to the other, but without the collaboration of both, nothing can happen. Jesus learns that in his hometown, and the disciples live it out as they travel. Change is a dance between the leader and the community, and between vision and belief. Without both sides, nothing happens.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
This story holds meaning both for our individual faith journeys, and for our lives in faith communities. Any teacher, pastor, health worker, visionary, or parent already knows that we get more done when both parties agree at least on a common direction. With a shared view about where we're going, and who has the right to be in charge of the trip, a big part of the work is done. We all know places where congregations, partners, or children have agreed to something and then failed to act on it, because they didn't really believe in it. They just didn't want to say so, or to argue about it, or maybe didn't think we would listen anyway. At least the people in Jesus' hometown were honest about their disbelief!
American culture generally understands power more as control than collaboration, but the example of Jesus and his disciples reminds us that the kind of power than changes lives, hearts, and spirits is different. This is the kind of power that requires everyone to be present and involved. For leaders, too, this is a strong reminder that we're not in this alone. Other people have wisdom, energy, passion, and creativity to enhance our own, and bring talents we don't have to the work of the Spirit.
Much has been written lately about people who are "spiritual but not religious." It's true that we can have spiritual lives and experiences all by ourselves, but we miss the greater challenge of being in a community of people. Without other people around to offer support or challenge, wisdom or the aggravation that leads to growth, our lives are narrow and our God looks a lot like us.
Perhaps that was the problem back at home for Jesus -- he looked a little too familiar for them to see the full power of God in him. Without their belief, he was just the carpenter's son. We get the God we have faith in, after all.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Other-ly Abled
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Have you ever heard of a thing called the "Introvert's Party Path"?
Take a piece of paper and pencil and draw a circle on it. Now, draw a figure-eight inside the circle so that it touches the perimeter of the circle at the top and bottom.
That's the Introvert's Party Path. It's how an introvert maneuvers through a party. Come in the door. Walk the circumference of the room shaking hands and saying hello until you get back to the door. Now walk in a figure-eight through the room, shaking hands, saying hello, stopping to chat, until you get back to the door. Then leave, exhausted.
I know about the Introvert's Party Path because I'm an introvert. I don't do parties well. I like them. It's just that they exhaust me. It takes all of my mental and emotional resources to spend several hours balancing hors d'oeuvres and a beverage in one hand while I navigate a room making small talk with people I barely know. (This does not apply to parties where I know everyone.)
It's hard work. And it's kind of a surprise given my chosen profession.
Ask people what kind of person they want as a minister for their church, and they will usually say they want an extrovert. But the ministry is a career that tends to attract introverts.
So we introverts are at something of a disadvantage. Our introversion is a sort of a disability.?
Having been a relatively successful pastor for 30 years, however, I have learned not to think of myself as disabled just because I'm an introvert. I am what my daughter calls "other-ly abled" or differently abled. I have other skills that make up for my small-talk disability. I can, for instance, sit down at my desk alone and concentrate for the amount of time sufficient to write this essay and feel invigorated by that creative process.
Everyone, it turns out, has disabilities. We all have things that are hard for us or that we just can't do no matter how badly we want to or how hard we try.
Once, when I was a little leaguer playing center field, I was hit in the face by a fly ball that I thought was popped up over second base. My eyesight, it turns out, is not very good at judging speed and distance. I have poor depth perception. So I was never able to play baseball very well.
But I can hear harmony in my head and harmonize when I sing with others.
I can't hit a golf ball 300 yards into the fairway.
But I taught myself to play over a dozen musical instruments all by ear.
We are all differently or other-ly abled. There are things we can do and things we can't.
Dr. Samuel Johnson, one of England's most famous literary figures, suffered from Tourette's Syndrome and massive facial scars caused by childhood scrofula.
World-famous violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman is unable to walk without the assistance of crutches and leg braces due to childhood polio.
Soccer great David Beckham suffers from extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Michelangelo, Lewis Carroll, Aristotle, and Sir Isaac Newton all suffered from epilepsy.
Actress Marlee Matlin became the first deaf woman to win an Oscar, receiving the Best Actress award for her role in Children of a Lesser God. Phyllis Frelic, who is also deaf, won the Tony Award for the same role in the stage production.
William Ellsworth, who played baseball for the Cincinnati Reds from 1888 to 1902, was the third deaf professional baseball player and is credited with creating the hand signals which referees use to call "out," "safe," and "strike."
Beethoven continued his career composing and conducting music after he became profoundly deaf.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt had polio.
Michael J. Fox has Parkinson's Disease.
(There are countless examples of famous people living with disabilities who have accentuated being other-ly abled, developing strengths in other senses or abilities to complement areas where they are limited. An extensive list can be found at http://www.disabled-world.com/.)
Biblical scholars have speculated and debated for centuries about what might be the "thorn... in the flesh" which Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians 12:7. Was it epilepsy? There is some evidence of this in his other letters. But many find that evidence unconvincing. Their speculations have included malaria, depression, cataracts, rheumatoid arthritis, and even homosexuality. But the specifics are not as important as the context in which Paul places them.
Whatever his disability was, Paul understood himself to be significantly disabled in some way that hindered his ministry. So bad was it that he asked God three times to remove it.
But it was not removed.
So Paul, in this passage, finds a theological "spin" that he can live with. God's power, he says, is always made more strikingly visible and evident when it is set against the backdrop of human weakness.
There is really nothing special about Superman doing super things -- but when an ordinary, even disabled, person does extraordinary things... well, that is clear evidence that God is at work in the person's life. The sight of ordinary people doing amazing things provides a powerful witness to both the love and power of our God.
So it is that throughout the entire biblical narrative God calls not super-people, but ordinary, flawed, even other-ly abled people to do God's work.
And when that work is done, it is God who is praised and honored.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church, UCC, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and is a thoughtful and prolific writer. She's also a part of the Stillspeaking writing group that provides the material for the Daily Devotional piece put out by the UCC. In the August 31, 2011 devotional, Daniel writes candidly about how she dreads being on an airplane and having the person next to her discover that she is a minister. That person inevitably "wants to use the flight time to explain to me that he is 'spiritual but not religious.' Such a person will always share this as if it is some kind of daring insight, unique to him, bold in its rebellion against the religious status quo."
Daniel goes on with her rather biting criticism of people who claim the "spiritual but not religious" label, because she says that the really challenging, meaningful, and powerful stuff of life happens in relationship, community, and yes, in the church itself. She writes:
"Being privately spiritual but not religious just doesn't interest me. There is nothing challenging about having deep thoughts all by oneself. What is interesting is doing this work in community, where other people might call you on stuff, or heaven forbid, disagree with you. Where life with God gets rich and provocative is when you dig deeply into a tradition that you did not invent all for yourself."
*****
Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, better known as the Indigo Girls, have a song called "Power of Two" on their 1994 album Swamp Ophelia. While this song is intended as a love song for two people in a committed romantic relationship, a number of its lines could also speak to the power of God to change lives, hearts, and spirits when people journey together in faith, like...
You know the things that I am afraid of
I'm not afraid to tell,
And if we ever leave a legacy,
It's that we loved each other well.
And...
Now steel bars between me and a promise
Suddenly bend with ease.
The closer I'm bound in love to you,
The closer I am to free.
And the chorus...
So we're ok, we're fine.
Baby, I'm here to stop your crying.
Chase all the ghosts from your head,
I'm stronger than the monster beneath your bed.
Smarter than the tricks played on your heart.
Look at them together then we'll take them apart.
Adding up the total of a love that's true,
Multiply life by the power of two.
The lyrics for the entire song can be found here.
*****
In Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith (Anchor, 2000), Anne Lamott writes about how life-giving and life-changing her experience with her church community has been. In the chapter "Why I Make Sam Go to Church," Lamott shares just that (Sam is her son):
I make him because I can. I outweigh him by nearly 75 pounds.
But that is only part of it. The main reason is that I want to give him what I found in the world, which is to say a path and a little light to see by. Most of the people I know who have what I want -- which is to say, purpose, heart, balance, gratitude, joy -- are people with a deep sense of spirituality. They are people in community, who pray, or practice their faith; they are Buddhists, Jews, Christians -- people banding together to work on themselves and for human rights. They follow a brighter light than the glimmer of their own candle; they are part of something beautiful. I saw something once from the Jewish Theological Seminary that said, "A human life is like a single letter of the alphabet. It can be meaningless. Or it can be a part of a great meaning." Our funky little church is filled with people who are working for peace and freedom, who are out there on the streets and inside praying, and they are home writing letters, and they are at the shelters with giant platters of food.
Lamott writes later in the chapter about the challenges of remaining in community, the soul work it can take, and the payoffs that come from hanging in when things get hard. For Lamott, one of the greatest difficulties was in being the one in need, the one to whom help was given, the one who felt like she had so very little power...
I was usually filled with a sense of something like shame until I'd remember that wonderful line of Blake's -- that we are here to learn to endure the beams of love -- and I would take a long deep breath and force these words out of my strangulated throat: "Thank you."
*****
One of the most durable figures in our national pantheon of heroes is the rugged individualist, the frontiersman -- the sheriff who cleans up the crooked little western town then rides off into the sunset, six-gun still warm from the day's exertions. Does John Wayne need somebody to ride with him on the trail? Not on your life, pilgrim!
Yet Jesus teaches his disciples to go out not as Lone Rangers, as rugged individualists, but in the company of others. They are to lean on one other, to support one another when the going gets tough. The gospel is too big a burden for any one individual to bear.
And so it follows that the task of proclaiming the gospel belongs to all of us. The event of preaching depends just as much on the hearers as on the speaker; and it depends also on what all of us do with this word as we go out into the world -- seeking to make the good news real in our lives, sharing with others of the love of Christ as we have come to know it.
Someone has said that the church is like a group of people standing in a circle, with Jesus at the center. Funny thing about a circle -- the closer the individual members get to Christ at the center, the closer they get to each other as well.
-- Carlos Wilton, Lectionary Preaching Workbook [Series VIII, Cycle B] (CSS Publishing, 2006)
*****
Robin Roberts, one of the hosts of ABC's Good Morning America, suffers from (MDS), a blood and bone marrow disease. One of the few cures for MDS is a bone marrow transplant. Fortunately for Roberts, her sister is a perfect match.
Roberts has helped others by making her illness public on television. Since she began her public promotion, the national bone marrow registry has reported that the number of people who registered as possible donors has more than doubled.
Roberts said the reason she volunteered to be a spokesperson was on the advice of her mother, who told her to "turn a mess into a message."
This is what Paul was able to do with his incurable ailment -- he was able to turn the "mess into a message."
*****
Rev. Dr. Paul Bradley writes about the crossroads of faith and 12-step recovery in his article "Christian Addiction Recovery: In Our Weakness Is Our Strength". One of his foci for the article is Paul's statement that "power is made perfect in weakness," which he also translates as "my strength is made perfect in weakness." He writes:
This central message of our Christian faith is also essential to the very survival of people in recovery from addictions, compulsions, and destructive behaviors, attitudes, and relationships. It starts with Step One. We admit our powerlessness over the substances, behaviors, attitudes, and relationships that drag us down, destroying our spirits, our lives and our very essences.
For Bradley, the post-surrender climb from darkness to light, from rock bottom to real life, mirrors the faith journey of a follower of Christ. For both the addict and the Christian (or as in Bradley's case, the Christian addict), the climb happens when power is unleashed through weakness:
At the moment we hit bottom, as we finally admit we are powerless and can't do it by ourselves any more, we attain our moment of greatest strength. This is the paradox of the crucified God, the One who is resurrected. Out of the depths of despair and weakness comes the ultimate transfigured and transcendent strength.
Bradley concludes his article in this way...
Christian fellowship, at its heart, empowers us to open the doorways and windows of our hearts, minds, and souls, letting God's love and light flood into our lives. Here, as in recovery, we let go and let God turn our weakness into strength. The paradox and miracle both of faith and of recovery is this: The more we admit our powerlessness and open ourselves to God's will for us, the greater becomes our power to do good, and the more joy and fulfillment we feel in the doing. Let's join Paul in "boasting of our weaknesses," our wounded places, our deepest imperfections, for that is where God works the greatest wonders in our lives.
*****
Two years after Martin Luther King's famous "I Have A Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, he experienced setbacks and described the dream as becoming a nightmare. King spoke of the dream being shattered by acts of violence, and in a sermon titled "The American Dream" he stated:
...the dream has been shattered and I have had my nightmarish experiences, but I tell you this morning once more that I haven't lost the faith.... You see, the founding fathers were really influenced by the Bible. The whole concept of the imago dei, as it is expressed in Latin, the "image of God," is the idea that all [people] have something within them that God injected. Not that they have substantial unity with God, but that every [person] has a capacity to have fellowship with God. And this gives [people] a uniqueness, it gives [them] worth, it gives [them] dignity. And we must never forget this as a nation: there are no gradations in the image of God. Every [person] from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God's keyboard, precisely because every [person] is made in the image of God. One day we will learn that. We will know one day that God made us to live together as brothers [and sisters] and to respect the dignity and worth of every [person].
The apostle Paul in writing to the troubled Corinthians stated that the power of God's grace can see us through the most difficult days. During a difficult time Paul heard the voice of the Lord telling him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."
*****
Jesus sent the disciples out in groups of two to proclaim the message of the Kingdom. Jesus realized some would listen, and for others the disciples would have to leave the town shaking the dust off of their sandals.
It took decades of violence before the message of peace could be heard in Northern Ireland. But last week a scene took place that once was unimaginable. Inside Belfast's Lyric Theater, the Queen of England met with Martin McGuinness -- a former commander in the Irish Republican Army, the group that at one time plotted to assassinate the royal family. There, the two shook hands. The meeting was so sensitive that photographers were not permitted. A half hour later, for the public, there was a second ceremonial handshake of reconciliation.
As Queen Elizabeth II was leaving, McGuinness said to her in Gaelic, "Slán agus beannacht" -- "good-bye and godspeed" or "good-bye and god-blessing."
If we continue to go from village to village, the message of the Kingdom will be eventually heard.
*****
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh announced he was going to try to fly across the Atlantic Ocean by himself. No one had ever attempted to fly over the Atlantic by airplane before. When word reached Lindbergh's hometown of Little Falls, Minnesota, a skeptic remarked: "No man will ever fly all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. And if someone does, it won't be anyone from Little Falls!"
"Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown," said Jesus (Mark 6:4 NRSV). experienced homegrown, hometown rejection himself. The Nazarenes were living the truth of that old Latin proverb "Familiarity breeds contempt."
Do sometimes have the same problem? Have we become familiar with Jesus? Do those of us who went to Sunday school all the way through (and got those little attendance pin ladders), those of us whose "custom" it is to worship every week, or at least several times monthly -- do sometimes think we've got Jesus "all figured out"? If we do, like the people of Nazareth, we're in for a surprise!
*****
The Scriptures tell us that when Ezekiel walked among a rebellious people, "they shall know that there has been a prophet among them." One prophet, a spokesperson for God, changed and reformed the people.
If it were only so easy today: one voice, one message. Instead, in preparation of the 2012 presidential election the Obama campaign has assembled 5,800 attorneys to litigate voting disputes across the nation. The Republicans are also putting together a legal team with a smaller number of lawyers, focusing instead on big-name lawyers.
It is no longer enough that the votes can speak as one voice of the people. Now it all must be contested in court. The parties' motivation for the drive is to be prepared for the possibility of another Supreme Court confrontation like occurred after the 2000 Bush-Gore election.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Great is our God and greatly to be praised.
People: God's holy mountain is the joy of all the earth.
Leader: We ponder your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.
People: Your name, O God, like your praise, reaches to the ends of the earth.
Leader: Your right hand is filled with victory.
People: God will be our guide forever.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the Creator.
People: We bow before the awesome power of our God.??
Leader: Come and worship the One who serves others.
People: We are humbled by the humility of our God.?
Leader: Come and worship the One who seeks our good.
People: We worship our God whose power is perfect in weakness.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing"
found in:
UMH: 57
H82: 493
PH: 466
AAHH: 184
NNBH: 23
NCH: 42
CH: 5
LBW: 559
ELA: 886
Renew: 32
"How Like a Gentle Spirit"
found in:
UMH: 115
NCH: 443
CH: 69?
"Jesu, Jesu"
found in:
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELA: 708
Renew: 289
"Make Me a Captive, Lord"
found in:
UMH: 421
PH: 378
"Help Us Accept Each Other"
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
"Like the Murmur of the Dove's Song"
found in:
UMH: 544
H82: 513
PH: 314
NCH: 270
CH: 245
ELA: 403
"This Is My Song"
found in:
UMH: 437
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELA: 887
"Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life"
found in:
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELA: 719
"I Am Loved"
found in:
CCB: 80
"Make Me a Servant"
found in:
CCB: 90
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 reigns over creation in love: Grant us the wisdom to find that power is truly found in using it with and for others and never in using it against others; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We worship you, O God, the creator and sustainer of all creation. As we praise you in your power, help us to remember that you have shared it with your creation. Grant that we may reflect your using power for the salvation of others instead of their defeat. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our desire to be in power over others.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have taken every opportunity to take control and power over others. We have taken every opportunity to use others. We have forgotten your call to give ourselves for and to others. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit, that we may serve others as we seek to be served. Amen.
Leader: The God who holds all power also holds all grace. In the presence of God we are forgiven, and empowered to live out of the giving of power that enables power.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
O God, we worship you who as the one who is revealed in the power of creation and the giving of one's self for others. Yours is the power that is found in the giving up of power.
(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 have taken every opportunity to take control and power over others. We have taken every opportunity to use others. We have forgotten your call to give ourselves for and to others. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit, that we may serve others as we seek to be served.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have showed your power to us in the giving up of power. We thank you that in your infinite authority you have sought to find us in being a servant to all.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all of our sisters and brothers in their time of need. We pray especially for those who find it difficult to discover their own power in the presence of the oppression of others. We pray that we may be the example of your self-giving presence that finds all in being nothing.
(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
Talk to the children about playing a game where there is a leader. Ask them what would happen if everyone playing was the leader. (It wouldn't be any fun; it wouldn't work.) Games are best when we share leadership. That is the way God works as well.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Familiarity Breeds Contempt
Mark 6:1-13
Object: a news article about a famous person
Here is a newspaper article about ________________. This person is very famous. Have any of you heard of this man/woman? (Let the children answer.) Why is he/she famous? What did he/she do? (Let them answer.) How would you feel if this person came to our town tomorrow and you got to meet him/her in person? Wouldn't that be neat? (Let them answer.) Yes, it surely would be, but let me ask you something. This person has a family just like you do, and he/she has friends that have known him/her for a long time. Do those people think it would be such a big deal to meet him/her? (Let the children answer.) No, they wouldn't. They know the person so well that they don't think about him/her the way others do.
Once, Jesus visited his own hometown and he found that people there were like that. He was famous in other places, but the people in his own town didn't think he was anything special. They knew Jesus and his family, and to them he was just the guy who had grown up in their town. We have to be careful that we don't get to be like those folks. We hear so much about Jesus that he is familiar to us, and we must not forget how wonderful he really is. There's an old saying that "familiarity breeds contempt." Do you know what that means? (Let them answer.) It means that we can get so used to something or someone that we take it for granted and forget how important it is to us. We don't want to do that with Jesus, do we? (Let them answer.) No, of course we don't. So let's ask Jesus to help us remember how important he is to all of us.
Prayer: Dear Jesus: We love you and we know that you love us. Help us always to remember how much you love us and how much you have done for us. Keep us ever mindful of how important you are to all of us. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 8, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word 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.
