Creating a Sense of Injury
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
For June 21, 2020:
Creating a Sense of Injury
by Mary Austin
Genesis 21:8-21
No one can agree on who said it first, but the truth of it hits home as soon as we hear it: when you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. All over the country, “Karens” are being called on to let go of the accustomed social demands that demand the oppression of other people. A Karen, a white woman with privilege, is famous for asking to speak to the manager, and she may ask you if you live in the neighborhood, call the police on a child, insist on shopping without a mask, or make up a threat from a black man who challenges her. The Karen trope leaves out white men who also behave badly, partly because no one can agree on the right stereotypical name for non-lethal transgressions. Derek? Chad? Lethal encounters have been much in the news in their own right.
In this Genesis text, Sarah, the wife of Abraham, may be the very first Karen. She feels a need to hurry up and make God’s promises come true for Abraham and their family. When the promised child doesn’t come, she uses her servant, Hagar, for her own purposes, wanting the child from Hagar’s body to count as her child. When her own son Isaac is born, she grows jealous of Ishmael and Hagar, and urges Chad, er, Abraham to send them away, as if they’re used up pots or worn out rugs.
Sarah fears that the existence of Hagar and Ishmael will cost her something. Their place in the family will mean a loss of something for her, whether it’s security, or peace of mind, or status. Her fears parallel the anxiety of so many white people in our time. As we move toward equality, does that mean white people are losing something? Sarah’s worries are also our worries.
In the Scriptures
The story of Abraham and his family is a long-running drama, with promises from God that delay for decades. The drama includes Abraham’s attempts to pass Sarah off as his sister and Sarah’s determination to make God’s plans come to life on her schedule. Abraham treats Sarah callously, and Sarah treats Hagar with the same lack of care. Now, finally, Sarah has her own son. Isaac is old enough to be weaned, safe from early childhood diseases, and now Sarah can say what she’s been thinking about for a while. That woman has to go. How many days, we wonder, has she thought about banishing Hagar, and how many nights has she pictured this moment in her mind? Sarah is fearful of losing her special status in the household, and she prizes her own feelings above the safety of Hagar and Ishmael.
Hagar has a deep resonance for African-American women, and yet many of us in the white church pass over her, seeing this as Sarah’s story. Scholar Jayme R. Reaves points out “my experience has been that white women are implicitly taught to identify with Sarah. She is seen as the matriarch of our inherited faith tradition and the one in the story from whom we descend. Paul’s assertion of Sarah and Abraham as ancestors of Christian faith in Galatians 3–4 furthers this claim to heritage while also asserting the subservience and baseness of Hagar and her descendants as slaves. For those who pay any attention to Hagar, our heart may go out to her and notice the unfairness of the situation, but we are pointed to the bigger picture of Sarah’s impending progeny and her role in the establishment of the house of Israel above all else.” God’s previous instruction for Hagar to return to Sarah was used in the American south to claim that slavery was a God-approved institution. Reaves adds, “how this text is also read within white culture enables it to become a national epic for whiteness and white supremacy. In every instance in which I have heard this story referred to publicly, it is read by giving Sarah (and Abraham) the benefit of the doubt, seeing Sarah as the heroine or protagonist in the story. As our matriarch, she can’t be that bad, can she?”
Once before, God told Hagar to return to Sarah, and this time there’s no such requirement. God assures Abraham that God will provide Hagar, and that God has plans for Ishmael, too. God also speaks to Hagar. Sarah is the only one in the triangle who goes without conversation with God. God provides enough that Ishmael grows up and becomes a man, under the protection of the God his mother calls by name. Hagar now has her own promise from God.
In the News
Protests following the death of George Floyd while in police custody, an agonizing death captured on video, have spread to all fifty states, and are continuing in some places, night after night. In this atmosphere, statues of Confederate generals are coming down, and white people are reckoning again with systemic racism. Still, there’s a fear by some white people that equality for all means loss for us. White people are anxious. “Surveys show fears among some white people that they are losing status in America, and those holding such views are increasingly aligned with the Republican Party. These voters perceive anti-white discrimination. A growing share say the nation risks losing its identity because of openness to foreigners. And many are concerned about what it will mean when non-Hispanic whites lose majority status, as demographic projections suggest will happen around 2045. A large if not majority share of white voters, and a majority of Republicans, say this change will threaten American customs and values — a prospect that they say makes them anxious, even angry. But without a politician of the president’s stature so vocally exploiting it, political scientists say, this lurking sense of white status loss would probably not be such a combustible theme in American politics.” Those fears are finding a home in current political discourse. “Many white Americans have long held what political scientists call conservative racial views, like believing that African-Americans struggle to get ahead because they don’t work hard enough, rather than because of discrimination or the legacy of slavery. But these attitudes were often latent in electoral politics. More than a decade ago, a majority of less educated white voters did not perceive a major difference between the two parties on racial issues…Now, some white voters, especially less educated ones, see a bigger difference between the two parties on racial issues.” We white people are fearful about losing out as “polls show that a substantial number of white voters believe they face discrimination. They appear to be concerned that employers and schools may give preference to nonwhite candidates.”
White Americans are facing demographic and cultural shifts. As the most populous and powerful group in America, “their story, their traditions, their tastes, and their cultural aesthetic were seen as being quintessentially American.” Now, “some white Americans, in online forums and protests over the removal of Confederate monuments, react anxiously and angrily to a sense that their way of life is under threat. Those are the stories that grab headlines and trigger social media showdowns. But the shift in status—or what some are calling “the altitude adjustment”—is also playing out in much more subtle ways in classrooms, break rooms, factory floors, and shopping malls, where the [demographic] future has arrived.” People are nervous about losing the status and the perceived safety of being in the majority.
Like Sarah, we also prize our own individual comfort over the safety of others. The Central Park encounter between a black bird watcher and a white woman hit a nerve because she reacted so badly to a request to follow the rules and put her dog on a leash. Calling the police, she threatened to make up a story about an African-American man who was menacing her. The bird watcher, Christian Cooper, “said the encounter touched a nerve and evoked a long history of racism. “It’s not about her,” he said in an interview. “What she did was tap into a deep vein of racial bias,” Mr. Cooper added. “And it is that deep vein of racial bias that keeps cropping up that led to much more serious events and much more serious repercussions than my little dust-up with Amy Cooper — the murder of George Floyd, the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, and before that Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond and Eric Garner and Tamir Rice.” Before that day, Mr. Cooper and Ms. Cooper were both successful professionals with prestigious degrees and a love of animals, which drew them to that haven in the city, Central Park.” Same city, same park, and deeply unequal amounts of privilege.
In the Sermon
In our culture, people of all skin colors are in pain, and yet we do not have not the same struggles. Jayme R. Reaves reminds us, “Clearly, there is pain in this Genesis text on the parts of both Sarah and Hagar. Though I am particularly sensitive to Hagar’s pain, to deny Sarah’s pain does a disservice to her and to the text. A false equivalency of pain and suffering must be avoided, however. Even in the context of the ancient Near East, the pain of childlessness is not equivalent to the pain of slavery and forced surrogacy.” The sermon might examine how we can hear each other’s pain, while knowing that people who are white carry a layer of privilege that makes many things in life easier. Here, too, we will need to avoid any kind of false equivalency. How do we attend to all kind of pain, while being clear that pain related to skin color has its own unique forms?
Unable to live with her own jealousy, Sarah wants to banish Hagar so Sarah doesn’t have to feel uncomfortable. Hagar’s life is secondary to Sarah’s discomfort. The sermon might look at how people use their power to preserve their own feelings, forcing others to change for their comfort. White people call the police on black people in parks and school laundry rooms, at marinas and on the streets, acting out of their own unease. Men feel free to tell women to smile, not knowing what’s going on in their lives. We practice respectability politics to get minorities to act in certain, palatable ways. People who have been cast as model minorities want to break out of the stereotype. How can we continue to see beyond our narrow categories?
Sarah and Hagar each have a direct relationship with God, and the relationships are very different. The sermon might look at the differences, and what it means that Hagar weeps, and God hears. She lifts up her lament, perhaps not expecting an answer, and God provides.
Hagar’s story reminds us that God provides for all of God’s people. The people we place at the center of the story are not necessarily the ones God places at the center. Sarah reminds us that God has interests beyond our narrow focus, and that we are called to work hard, to look past the narrow narrative of privilege to the wider arc of God’s inclusive plans.
SECOND THOUGHTS
No Kingdom, No Peace
by Chris Keating
Matthew 10:24-39
Jesus’ words in chapter ten of Matthew feel like salt poured into an open wound. Here Christ spells out his discipleship manifesto by prepping the disciples for their missionary endeavors. He has called the disciples to the rigorous work of proclaiming God’s saving presence in the world (Warren Carter, “Matthew and the Margins,” p. 232). Up to this point, the gospel has offered the foundations of what the kingdom will look like. But now things are about to get real.
In other words, it is about time to start fishing for people. Jesus is squaring the corners of what actual discipleship is going to look like. He is getting them ready for action, alerting them to the perils and promises of proclaiming the kingdom of God.
If he had asked, a well-meaning motivational coach might have given Jesus some tips on effective methods of volunteer recruitment. As it is, Christ offers no sugar-coating and spares no punches. The work will be hard: the disciples are being sent like sheep into a pack of hungry wolves. They are expected to speak truth to unjust power. They will be arrested and beaten. They will be betrayed by their own families. They go like vulnerable sheep into a hungering and snarling wolfpack. They will be hated by everyone.
In a nutshell, this is not going to be easy work.
In fact, Jesus says, this may not be the sort of work you envisioned at all. Scholars note that the Sermon on the Mount provides the supporting framework of Jesus’ missionary enterprise in Matthew. In the sermon, Jesus offers the skeletal structure of what is involved in proclaiming the kingdom of God. Yet here he seems to make a hard turn. He is no longer blessing peacemakers and upholding the meek. Instead, he seems to be organizing a militant response as he offers the rather ominous warning: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.” (10:34)
To use the words which have echoed across America’s streets lately, Jesus is telling the disciples “No justice, no peace.”
We are familiar with the words of the chants. Like the gospel songs Fanny Lou Hamer sang from jail in the 1960s, the chants of protestors speak of a restless, yet faith-filled yearning for justice. The names have changed from Emmett Till to Michael Brown to Breanna Taylor to Rayshard Brooks. But the unrelenting cry remains not too far removed from Jesus, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”
A week ago, crowds in Washington, D.C. drowned out the sounds of ambulances racing Covid-19 patients to hospitals, and filled the newly renamed Black Lives Matter plaza across from the White House. Incensed by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, as well as the deaths of many other African Americans killed by white police officers, the protestors are demanding a wholesale change in America’s policing policies.
"We don't want any more prayers or thoughts," said protester Nikki Goodwin. "We're done. This is it. This is the line in the sand."
Jesus would understand. He sees the work of witnessing to the kingdom as incendiary, creating unrest among those whose values are opposed to the equanimity imagined in the kingdom. His words call the disciples to bold clarity and courage, reminding them three times that they do not need to fear.
Decades ago, the late pacifist Biblical scholar Vernard Eller pondered these words in his seminal work “King Jesus’ Manual of Arms for the ‘Armless.” (Abingdon, 1973). Eller, whose own family would later pay a steep price for their resistance to war, wrote that “the way of servant…may be that of loving service and defenseless suffering; it most assuredly is. Its methods may be the very opposite of what the world calls “fighting,” but it is war nonetheless; and King Jesus is willing to call it that.” (Eller, p. 153).
The chants from the street are reminders that justice has been delayed too long. The very cries of those long-silenced voices create havoc for those who have preferred privilege over justice, and who have negotiated peace by ignoring justice.
“In order to address this cultural practice of racial inequality, we have to narrate America differently,” says Princeton professor Eddie Glaude Jr. “We have to confront the ugliness of who we are — and who we have been — so that we can imagine ourselves otherwise.”
Glaude notes the anger of the streets is not surprising. He suggests that until white people see how white supremacy has fed the roots of violent unrest there will not be any real progress in racial reconciliation.
In moments like these, white liberals clutch their pearls and ask what we can do to change, but then they go back to the same discourse: We need to be tough on crime because these communities are inherently criminal. These folks are co-participants in the erosion of the social safety net, because they believe racial equality is a zero-sum game — or they believe that racial equality is a charitable enterprise whereby they want to do something for us as opposed to actually instantiate a more just society.
So it angers me when I hear that response. Because it’s the same response that has enabled generations of black people — my father, his father, now my son — having to live through this.
Jesus’ words match that sort of unbending urgency. Jesus’ message brings security to an insecure world (Anna Case Winters, “Matthew,” 10:1-11:1, Belief Commentary, Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2015). Anna Case Winters reminds us that sometimes the language of Matthew 10 may feel worlds away for congregations steeped in white, North American middle-class values. She wonders if the church has made it easier to be a Christian than it is to follow Jesus. (Winters, ibid.)
It is an idea worth pondering, especially for those wearied by the first half of 2020. The past three months alone have seen the church struggle to adjust to a pandemic. We have reframed what it means to follow Jesus in the age of Covid-19 and are now addressing the festering wounds created by white supremacy. Everything which was once familiar and normal has shifted. None of this would have surprised Jesus. Sensing the coming change, he couches his words of challenge with the great assurance of faith.
Even as tumult rages and anger flashes, he offers the disciples God’s unchanging promise: “Do not fear.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Genesis 21:8-21
Open my eyes that I may see
The Hebrew עין means both “eye” and “spring,” the kind where water emerges from the ground. There are puns at multiple levels here. Hagar had been crying, tears were springing from her eyes; the Lord “opened her eyes” — that is, she was able to see what had probably already been there — and it was a source of water. Water is essential for life and desert dwellers know how quickly one can die of thirst. Hagar’s tears are a link to the life-giving, life-renewing, force of water and it was her tears that got God’s attention.
* * *
Genesis 21:8-21
“Playing” for laughs
Sarah sees Ishmael “playing” מצחק with her Isaac יצחק and it’s too much for her! It is as though Ishmael is “isaacing” her Isaac. There is not enough laughter in her household, so she has Abe cast Hagar and Ishmael into the desert. Abraham gave them bread and water. It’s incongruous that he appears to have bundled Ishmael onto Hagar. At the time Ishmael was around 14 years old. As the story unfolds, it appears that Ishmael is much younger than that.
* * *
Genesis 21:8-21
Open our eyes that we may see
Prior to today’s passage, Hagar attempted to flee from Abraham and Sarah’s household (then Abram and Sarai, Genesis 16). After Sarai perceived that Hagar looked at her with contempt — this was after she had conceived Ishmael with Abram — Sarai was angry with Abram, but Abram reminded Sarai that Hagar is Sarai’s property, she could do what she wanted. What Sarai wanted was to treat Hagar harshly, which caused Hagar to run away.
An angel advised Hagar to return to Sarai and submit to her, promising, on the Lord’s behalf, that Hagar’s offspring would be uncountable. Later in 16:11 the angel says, “…for the Lord has given heed to your affliction.” At this point Hagar named the Lord “El-roi,” — not the son of George and Jane Jetson! — which means “God who sees.” She is encouraged that she has seen, and been seen by, the Lord.
* * *
Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
Today’s psalm could have been written by Hagar! The psalmist, in female voice, calls for God’s protection and renewal. This is another example of dire straits and fear leading to a strong affirmation of faith, the in-spite-of-faith that one can call on in perilous moments.
* * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:
Romans 6:1b-11
Judgment and Grace
In the comic strip Beetle Bailey, Sargent Snorkel is not known to be the most understanding and compassionate leader of his troops. In the first panel of a two-panel episode, we see Snorkel in heaven. He is surrounded by puffy white clouds. He is standing before a tall podium with an angel standing behind it. On the podium rests an open book. Behind the podium we see the pearly gates. The angel says to the soldier standing before him, “Well, if it isn’t Orville P. Snorkel.” The angel goes on to say, “We’ve heard a LOT about YOU!” In the next frame we see Snorkel coming awake in his bunk. He is obviously startled. He wonders, “OOOH! Was that a good or a bad dream?”
* * *
Matthew 10:24-39
Discipleship and Solidarity
The song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” has become the global anthem for the COVID-19 pandemic. The message of the song is one of resilience and solidarity. These community attributes are needed in our fight against the coronavirus. The song, since it debut on Broadway 75 years ago, has now adopted a new meaning. Originally, the song was the emotional peak of Act II in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel.” The musical opened on Broadway in April 1945. In the play, the violent Billy Bigelow has died. His wife, Julie, is consoled by her cousin Nettie Fowler, who sings “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” The lyrics read:
Walk on
Walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone
* * *
Genesis 21:8-21
Obedience and God’s Plan
The romance between Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez has been closely followed by the public. Lopez, who may be better known as J.Lo., is an actress who has captured the hearts of many individuals across the globe. Rodriguez, the former third baseman for the New York Yankees, is admired by sports fans across the globe. The couple’s romance, which began in 2017, has become a media sensation, heightened by their engagement in March 2019. Because of COVID-19, their wedding plans have been delayed. Regarding this Lopez said on the Today show this June, “We did have some great plans, but I am also like, ‘You know what, God has a bigger plan.’”
* * *
Matthew 10:24-39
Discipleship and Solidarity
The death of George Floyd has resulted in weeks of protests across the globe. The protests have centered on the cry that “Black Lives Matter.” Floyd died on May 25, 2020, after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. This continued even after he could be heard saying, “I can’t breathe” ...“Please, the knee in my neck” ...“My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts” ...“Don’t kill me” ...“Mama!” Regarding his death, former presidents Bill Clinton and George Busch offered statements. But perhaps, the most compelling statement came from former president Jimmy Carter. Carter said, “As a white male of the South, I know all too well the impact of segregation and injustice to African Americans. As a politician, I felt a responsibility to bring equity to my state and our country.”
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: Incline your ear, O God, and answer us.
People: Preserve our lives, for we are devoted to you.
Leader: Gladden the souls of your servants.
People: To you, O God, we lift up our souls.
Leader: Turn to us and be gracious to us.
People: Give your strength to your servants.
OR
Leader: The God of all calls us to rejoice in all we do.
People: We celebrate the abundance of God’s love for us all.
Leader: God created out of love so we could share that love.
People: We gladly share with others the love we have received.
Leader: There is no shortage of love in God’s creation.
People: Out of God’s abundance, we share God’s love and grace.
Hymns and Songs:
Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven
UMH: 66
H82: 410
PH: 478
CH: 23
LBW: 549
ELW: 864/865
W&P: 82
AMEC: 70
Renew: 53
All People That on Earth Do Dwell
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELW: 883
W&P: 661
AMEC: 73
STLT: 370
From All That Dwell Below the Skies
UMH: 101
H82: 380
PH: 229
NCH: 27
CH: 49
LBW: 550
AMEC: 69
STLT: 381
I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light
UMH: 206
H82: 490
ELW: 815
W&P: 248
Renew: 152
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELW: 631
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
Renew: 196
Seek Ye First
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 354
W&P: 349
Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELW: 719
W&P: 591
AMEC: 561
Let There Be Peace on Earth
UMH: 431
CH: 677
W&P: 614
O God of Every Nation
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELW: 713
W&P: 626
What Does the Lord Require
UMH: 441
H82: 605
PH: 405
CH: 659
W&P: 686
Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord
CCB: 72
Renew: 188
Live in Charity (Ubi Caritas)
CCB: 71
Renew: 226
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
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
ELW: 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 is unbound creation:
Grant us the faith to trust in you
and the abundance of your creation;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are creation without limits. There is no scarcity in your economy. Help us to reflect your abundance in our relations with others. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our greed and lack of generosity.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have looked at your creation and seen scarcity where there is only abundance. We are so afraid their won’t be enough that we grasp at all we take. We think there is not enough wealth or prestige or love to go around and so we try to hoard it all for ourselves. We have forgotten that you create out of fathomless resources that provide plenty for all. Forgive our selfishness and open our hearts so that we share more fully with others. Amen.
Leader: God’s creation is boundless and provides plenty for all. Receive God’s abundant love and forgiveness and share God’s grace with others.
Prayers of the People
Wonder and glory are yours, O God, the creator of all that was, and is, and ever shall be.
(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 looked at your creation and seen scarcity where there is only abundance. We are so afraid their won’t be enough that we grasp at all we take. We think there is not enough wealth or prestige or love to go around and so we try to hoard it all for ourselves. We have forgotten that you create out of fathomless resources that provide plenty for all. Forgive our selfishness and open our hearts so that we share more fully with others.
We give you thanks for the beauty and wonder of creation. We thank you for the love out of which you formed us and all your children. We are grateful for those who have shared that love with us throughout our lives.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who are denied their part in the resources of this world. We pray for those in need of food and water; for those in need of housing and shelter; for those who are denied the dignity and love they deserve as your children.
(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 Our Father 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
I hate it when I go to get a cookie and find that there isn’t any more. I can get more later but right now all I can think about is that I don’t have one. Fortunately, there are things that don’t run out. Things like smiles, and helping others, and saying nice things to people. Love is something that there never runs out. The more we give away, the more we have. That is because God is love and God is never ending.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Plenty to Go Around
by Dean Feldmeyer
Genesis 21:8-21
You will need:
3-5 round, pieces of colored construction paper (dinner plate size), each one cut into 8 pie-shaped pieces. Mix the colors up and then affix to a piece of cardboard or foam core with 2-sided tape or tape rolled upon itself with the sticky side out.
When complete, you should have 3-5 multi-colored pies, stacked on top of each other so they look like a single pie.
Say:
Hold the pie(s) up so the children can see it, either in front of them or on camera if you are doing this presentation via Zoom or Facebook or some other form of electronic media.
Good morning, Children of God! I hope you are doing well, this morning.
In this morning’s Bible lesson we hear that Sarah was afraid that her husband, Abraham, wouldn’t have enough love in his heart for both of his children, Isaac and Ishmael. She was afraid that there might be only enough love for Ishmael and Isaac, her son, would be left out and unloved. So she made Abraham send Ishmael and his mother away.
Well, the story goes on to show that even though Abraham sent Ishmael and his mother, Hagar, away, God’s love wasn’t limited. God had enough love for both Isaac and Ishmael.
Sometimes we behave as though God only has a limited amount of love for people.
We think that if God gives away some of God’s love to, say, this group of people (point to one piece of pie) that will leave less love for the rest of us.
But! Jesus says that isn’t so. God loves every single sparrow in the sky (and think of how many millions of sparrows there are!) so God has plenty of love to go around.
Jesus says that God loves you so much that every part of you is precious. Even every single hair on your head has a number. Would you want to count all the hairs on your head and give each one its own number? (Good place to tease the congregation about how that would be easier for some of us than for others!) Neither would I. But Jesus says that God not only loves every hair on your head but he loves every hair on everyone’s head. And not just the hairs. God loves every part of every person in the world.
So if God gives away some love to someone (pull off piece of pie and hand it to one child) there’s more for others (pull off the piece under the one you just pulled off and give it to a child). In fact, there’s just no limit to how much love God has available to give away to all God’s children.
And, God asks us to be that way, too.
God asks us to give our love away to everyone because love is the one thing you can never run out of. There’s always plenty to go around.
End with a prayer, thanking God for the love which flows out to all God’s children, without exception, without conditions, and without limits.
Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 21, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 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.
- Creating a Sense of Injury by Mary Austin — A fearful Sarah creates pain for an already oppressed person in her life. Are we doing the same, out of our own worries?
- Second Thoughts: No Kingdom, No Peace by Chris Keating — As the disciples proclaim the kingdom of God, they are prepared for the hostility and unrest which are sure to follow.
- Sermon illustrations by Tom Willadsen and Ron Love.
- Worship resources by George Reed that deal with privilege.
- Children’s sermon: Plenty to Go Around by Dean Feldmeyer.
Creating a Sense of Injuryby Mary Austin
Genesis 21:8-21
No one can agree on who said it first, but the truth of it hits home as soon as we hear it: when you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. All over the country, “Karens” are being called on to let go of the accustomed social demands that demand the oppression of other people. A Karen, a white woman with privilege, is famous for asking to speak to the manager, and she may ask you if you live in the neighborhood, call the police on a child, insist on shopping without a mask, or make up a threat from a black man who challenges her. The Karen trope leaves out white men who also behave badly, partly because no one can agree on the right stereotypical name for non-lethal transgressions. Derek? Chad? Lethal encounters have been much in the news in their own right.
In this Genesis text, Sarah, the wife of Abraham, may be the very first Karen. She feels a need to hurry up and make God’s promises come true for Abraham and their family. When the promised child doesn’t come, she uses her servant, Hagar, for her own purposes, wanting the child from Hagar’s body to count as her child. When her own son Isaac is born, she grows jealous of Ishmael and Hagar, and urges Chad, er, Abraham to send them away, as if they’re used up pots or worn out rugs.
Sarah fears that the existence of Hagar and Ishmael will cost her something. Their place in the family will mean a loss of something for her, whether it’s security, or peace of mind, or status. Her fears parallel the anxiety of so many white people in our time. As we move toward equality, does that mean white people are losing something? Sarah’s worries are also our worries.
In the Scriptures
The story of Abraham and his family is a long-running drama, with promises from God that delay for decades. The drama includes Abraham’s attempts to pass Sarah off as his sister and Sarah’s determination to make God’s plans come to life on her schedule. Abraham treats Sarah callously, and Sarah treats Hagar with the same lack of care. Now, finally, Sarah has her own son. Isaac is old enough to be weaned, safe from early childhood diseases, and now Sarah can say what she’s been thinking about for a while. That woman has to go. How many days, we wonder, has she thought about banishing Hagar, and how many nights has she pictured this moment in her mind? Sarah is fearful of losing her special status in the household, and she prizes her own feelings above the safety of Hagar and Ishmael.
Hagar has a deep resonance for African-American women, and yet many of us in the white church pass over her, seeing this as Sarah’s story. Scholar Jayme R. Reaves points out “my experience has been that white women are implicitly taught to identify with Sarah. She is seen as the matriarch of our inherited faith tradition and the one in the story from whom we descend. Paul’s assertion of Sarah and Abraham as ancestors of Christian faith in Galatians 3–4 furthers this claim to heritage while also asserting the subservience and baseness of Hagar and her descendants as slaves. For those who pay any attention to Hagar, our heart may go out to her and notice the unfairness of the situation, but we are pointed to the bigger picture of Sarah’s impending progeny and her role in the establishment of the house of Israel above all else.” God’s previous instruction for Hagar to return to Sarah was used in the American south to claim that slavery was a God-approved institution. Reaves adds, “how this text is also read within white culture enables it to become a national epic for whiteness and white supremacy. In every instance in which I have heard this story referred to publicly, it is read by giving Sarah (and Abraham) the benefit of the doubt, seeing Sarah as the heroine or protagonist in the story. As our matriarch, she can’t be that bad, can she?”
Once before, God told Hagar to return to Sarah, and this time there’s no such requirement. God assures Abraham that God will provide Hagar, and that God has plans for Ishmael, too. God also speaks to Hagar. Sarah is the only one in the triangle who goes without conversation with God. God provides enough that Ishmael grows up and becomes a man, under the protection of the God his mother calls by name. Hagar now has her own promise from God.
In the News
Protests following the death of George Floyd while in police custody, an agonizing death captured on video, have spread to all fifty states, and are continuing in some places, night after night. In this atmosphere, statues of Confederate generals are coming down, and white people are reckoning again with systemic racism. Still, there’s a fear by some white people that equality for all means loss for us. White people are anxious. “Surveys show fears among some white people that they are losing status in America, and those holding such views are increasingly aligned with the Republican Party. These voters perceive anti-white discrimination. A growing share say the nation risks losing its identity because of openness to foreigners. And many are concerned about what it will mean when non-Hispanic whites lose majority status, as demographic projections suggest will happen around 2045. A large if not majority share of white voters, and a majority of Republicans, say this change will threaten American customs and values — a prospect that they say makes them anxious, even angry. But without a politician of the president’s stature so vocally exploiting it, political scientists say, this lurking sense of white status loss would probably not be such a combustible theme in American politics.” Those fears are finding a home in current political discourse. “Many white Americans have long held what political scientists call conservative racial views, like believing that African-Americans struggle to get ahead because they don’t work hard enough, rather than because of discrimination or the legacy of slavery. But these attitudes were often latent in electoral politics. More than a decade ago, a majority of less educated white voters did not perceive a major difference between the two parties on racial issues…Now, some white voters, especially less educated ones, see a bigger difference between the two parties on racial issues.” We white people are fearful about losing out as “polls show that a substantial number of white voters believe they face discrimination. They appear to be concerned that employers and schools may give preference to nonwhite candidates.”
White Americans are facing demographic and cultural shifts. As the most populous and powerful group in America, “their story, their traditions, their tastes, and their cultural aesthetic were seen as being quintessentially American.” Now, “some white Americans, in online forums and protests over the removal of Confederate monuments, react anxiously and angrily to a sense that their way of life is under threat. Those are the stories that grab headlines and trigger social media showdowns. But the shift in status—or what some are calling “the altitude adjustment”—is also playing out in much more subtle ways in classrooms, break rooms, factory floors, and shopping malls, where the [demographic] future has arrived.” People are nervous about losing the status and the perceived safety of being in the majority.
Like Sarah, we also prize our own individual comfort over the safety of others. The Central Park encounter between a black bird watcher and a white woman hit a nerve because she reacted so badly to a request to follow the rules and put her dog on a leash. Calling the police, she threatened to make up a story about an African-American man who was menacing her. The bird watcher, Christian Cooper, “said the encounter touched a nerve and evoked a long history of racism. “It’s not about her,” he said in an interview. “What she did was tap into a deep vein of racial bias,” Mr. Cooper added. “And it is that deep vein of racial bias that keeps cropping up that led to much more serious events and much more serious repercussions than my little dust-up with Amy Cooper — the murder of George Floyd, the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, and before that Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond and Eric Garner and Tamir Rice.” Before that day, Mr. Cooper and Ms. Cooper were both successful professionals with prestigious degrees and a love of animals, which drew them to that haven in the city, Central Park.” Same city, same park, and deeply unequal amounts of privilege.
In the Sermon
In our culture, people of all skin colors are in pain, and yet we do not have not the same struggles. Jayme R. Reaves reminds us, “Clearly, there is pain in this Genesis text on the parts of both Sarah and Hagar. Though I am particularly sensitive to Hagar’s pain, to deny Sarah’s pain does a disservice to her and to the text. A false equivalency of pain and suffering must be avoided, however. Even in the context of the ancient Near East, the pain of childlessness is not equivalent to the pain of slavery and forced surrogacy.” The sermon might examine how we can hear each other’s pain, while knowing that people who are white carry a layer of privilege that makes many things in life easier. Here, too, we will need to avoid any kind of false equivalency. How do we attend to all kind of pain, while being clear that pain related to skin color has its own unique forms?
Unable to live with her own jealousy, Sarah wants to banish Hagar so Sarah doesn’t have to feel uncomfortable. Hagar’s life is secondary to Sarah’s discomfort. The sermon might look at how people use their power to preserve their own feelings, forcing others to change for their comfort. White people call the police on black people in parks and school laundry rooms, at marinas and on the streets, acting out of their own unease. Men feel free to tell women to smile, not knowing what’s going on in their lives. We practice respectability politics to get minorities to act in certain, palatable ways. People who have been cast as model minorities want to break out of the stereotype. How can we continue to see beyond our narrow categories?
Sarah and Hagar each have a direct relationship with God, and the relationships are very different. The sermon might look at the differences, and what it means that Hagar weeps, and God hears. She lifts up her lament, perhaps not expecting an answer, and God provides.
Hagar’s story reminds us that God provides for all of God’s people. The people we place at the center of the story are not necessarily the ones God places at the center. Sarah reminds us that God has interests beyond our narrow focus, and that we are called to work hard, to look past the narrow narrative of privilege to the wider arc of God’s inclusive plans.
SECOND THOUGHTSNo Kingdom, No Peace
by Chris Keating
Matthew 10:24-39
Jesus’ words in chapter ten of Matthew feel like salt poured into an open wound. Here Christ spells out his discipleship manifesto by prepping the disciples for their missionary endeavors. He has called the disciples to the rigorous work of proclaiming God’s saving presence in the world (Warren Carter, “Matthew and the Margins,” p. 232). Up to this point, the gospel has offered the foundations of what the kingdom will look like. But now things are about to get real.
In other words, it is about time to start fishing for people. Jesus is squaring the corners of what actual discipleship is going to look like. He is getting them ready for action, alerting them to the perils and promises of proclaiming the kingdom of God.
If he had asked, a well-meaning motivational coach might have given Jesus some tips on effective methods of volunteer recruitment. As it is, Christ offers no sugar-coating and spares no punches. The work will be hard: the disciples are being sent like sheep into a pack of hungry wolves. They are expected to speak truth to unjust power. They will be arrested and beaten. They will be betrayed by their own families. They go like vulnerable sheep into a hungering and snarling wolfpack. They will be hated by everyone.
In a nutshell, this is not going to be easy work.
In fact, Jesus says, this may not be the sort of work you envisioned at all. Scholars note that the Sermon on the Mount provides the supporting framework of Jesus’ missionary enterprise in Matthew. In the sermon, Jesus offers the skeletal structure of what is involved in proclaiming the kingdom of God. Yet here he seems to make a hard turn. He is no longer blessing peacemakers and upholding the meek. Instead, he seems to be organizing a militant response as he offers the rather ominous warning: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.” (10:34)
To use the words which have echoed across America’s streets lately, Jesus is telling the disciples “No justice, no peace.”
We are familiar with the words of the chants. Like the gospel songs Fanny Lou Hamer sang from jail in the 1960s, the chants of protestors speak of a restless, yet faith-filled yearning for justice. The names have changed from Emmett Till to Michael Brown to Breanna Taylor to Rayshard Brooks. But the unrelenting cry remains not too far removed from Jesus, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”
A week ago, crowds in Washington, D.C. drowned out the sounds of ambulances racing Covid-19 patients to hospitals, and filled the newly renamed Black Lives Matter plaza across from the White House. Incensed by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, as well as the deaths of many other African Americans killed by white police officers, the protestors are demanding a wholesale change in America’s policing policies.
"We don't want any more prayers or thoughts," said protester Nikki Goodwin. "We're done. This is it. This is the line in the sand."
Jesus would understand. He sees the work of witnessing to the kingdom as incendiary, creating unrest among those whose values are opposed to the equanimity imagined in the kingdom. His words call the disciples to bold clarity and courage, reminding them three times that they do not need to fear.
Decades ago, the late pacifist Biblical scholar Vernard Eller pondered these words in his seminal work “King Jesus’ Manual of Arms for the ‘Armless.” (Abingdon, 1973). Eller, whose own family would later pay a steep price for their resistance to war, wrote that “the way of servant…may be that of loving service and defenseless suffering; it most assuredly is. Its methods may be the very opposite of what the world calls “fighting,” but it is war nonetheless; and King Jesus is willing to call it that.” (Eller, p. 153).
The chants from the street are reminders that justice has been delayed too long. The very cries of those long-silenced voices create havoc for those who have preferred privilege over justice, and who have negotiated peace by ignoring justice.
“In order to address this cultural practice of racial inequality, we have to narrate America differently,” says Princeton professor Eddie Glaude Jr. “We have to confront the ugliness of who we are — and who we have been — so that we can imagine ourselves otherwise.”
Glaude notes the anger of the streets is not surprising. He suggests that until white people see how white supremacy has fed the roots of violent unrest there will not be any real progress in racial reconciliation.
In moments like these, white liberals clutch their pearls and ask what we can do to change, but then they go back to the same discourse: We need to be tough on crime because these communities are inherently criminal. These folks are co-participants in the erosion of the social safety net, because they believe racial equality is a zero-sum game — or they believe that racial equality is a charitable enterprise whereby they want to do something for us as opposed to actually instantiate a more just society.
So it angers me when I hear that response. Because it’s the same response that has enabled generations of black people — my father, his father, now my son — having to live through this.
Jesus’ words match that sort of unbending urgency. Jesus’ message brings security to an insecure world (Anna Case Winters, “Matthew,” 10:1-11:1, Belief Commentary, Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2015). Anna Case Winters reminds us that sometimes the language of Matthew 10 may feel worlds away for congregations steeped in white, North American middle-class values. She wonders if the church has made it easier to be a Christian than it is to follow Jesus. (Winters, ibid.)
It is an idea worth pondering, especially for those wearied by the first half of 2020. The past three months alone have seen the church struggle to adjust to a pandemic. We have reframed what it means to follow Jesus in the age of Covid-19 and are now addressing the festering wounds created by white supremacy. Everything which was once familiar and normal has shifted. None of this would have surprised Jesus. Sensing the coming change, he couches his words of challenge with the great assurance of faith.
Even as tumult rages and anger flashes, he offers the disciples God’s unchanging promise: “Do not fear.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:Genesis 21:8-21
Open my eyes that I may see
The Hebrew עין means both “eye” and “spring,” the kind where water emerges from the ground. There are puns at multiple levels here. Hagar had been crying, tears were springing from her eyes; the Lord “opened her eyes” — that is, she was able to see what had probably already been there — and it was a source of water. Water is essential for life and desert dwellers know how quickly one can die of thirst. Hagar’s tears are a link to the life-giving, life-renewing, force of water and it was her tears that got God’s attention.
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Genesis 21:8-21
“Playing” for laughs
Sarah sees Ishmael “playing” מצחק with her Isaac יצחק and it’s too much for her! It is as though Ishmael is “isaacing” her Isaac. There is not enough laughter in her household, so she has Abe cast Hagar and Ishmael into the desert. Abraham gave them bread and water. It’s incongruous that he appears to have bundled Ishmael onto Hagar. At the time Ishmael was around 14 years old. As the story unfolds, it appears that Ishmael is much younger than that.
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Genesis 21:8-21
Open our eyes that we may see
Prior to today’s passage, Hagar attempted to flee from Abraham and Sarah’s household (then Abram and Sarai, Genesis 16). After Sarai perceived that Hagar looked at her with contempt — this was after she had conceived Ishmael with Abram — Sarai was angry with Abram, but Abram reminded Sarai that Hagar is Sarai’s property, she could do what she wanted. What Sarai wanted was to treat Hagar harshly, which caused Hagar to run away.
An angel advised Hagar to return to Sarai and submit to her, promising, on the Lord’s behalf, that Hagar’s offspring would be uncountable. Later in 16:11 the angel says, “…for the Lord has given heed to your affliction.” At this point Hagar named the Lord “El-roi,” — not the son of George and Jane Jetson! — which means “God who sees.” She is encouraged that she has seen, and been seen by, the Lord.
* * *
Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
Today’s psalm could have been written by Hagar! The psalmist, in female voice, calls for God’s protection and renewal. This is another example of dire straits and fear leading to a strong affirmation of faith, the in-spite-of-faith that one can call on in perilous moments.
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From team member Ron Love:Romans 6:1b-11
Judgment and Grace
In the comic strip Beetle Bailey, Sargent Snorkel is not known to be the most understanding and compassionate leader of his troops. In the first panel of a two-panel episode, we see Snorkel in heaven. He is surrounded by puffy white clouds. He is standing before a tall podium with an angel standing behind it. On the podium rests an open book. Behind the podium we see the pearly gates. The angel says to the soldier standing before him, “Well, if it isn’t Orville P. Snorkel.” The angel goes on to say, “We’ve heard a LOT about YOU!” In the next frame we see Snorkel coming awake in his bunk. He is obviously startled. He wonders, “OOOH! Was that a good or a bad dream?”
* * *
Matthew 10:24-39
Discipleship and Solidarity
The song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” has become the global anthem for the COVID-19 pandemic. The message of the song is one of resilience and solidarity. These community attributes are needed in our fight against the coronavirus. The song, since it debut on Broadway 75 years ago, has now adopted a new meaning. Originally, the song was the emotional peak of Act II in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel.” The musical opened on Broadway in April 1945. In the play, the violent Billy Bigelow has died. His wife, Julie, is consoled by her cousin Nettie Fowler, who sings “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” The lyrics read:
Walk on
Walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone
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Genesis 21:8-21
Obedience and God’s Plan
The romance between Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez has been closely followed by the public. Lopez, who may be better known as J.Lo., is an actress who has captured the hearts of many individuals across the globe. Rodriguez, the former third baseman for the New York Yankees, is admired by sports fans across the globe. The couple’s romance, which began in 2017, has become a media sensation, heightened by their engagement in March 2019. Because of COVID-19, their wedding plans have been delayed. Regarding this Lopez said on the Today show this June, “We did have some great plans, but I am also like, ‘You know what, God has a bigger plan.’”
* * *
Matthew 10:24-39
Discipleship and Solidarity
The death of George Floyd has resulted in weeks of protests across the globe. The protests have centered on the cry that “Black Lives Matter.” Floyd died on May 25, 2020, after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. This continued even after he could be heard saying, “I can’t breathe” ...“Please, the knee in my neck” ...“My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts” ...“Don’t kill me” ...“Mama!” Regarding his death, former presidents Bill Clinton and George Busch offered statements. But perhaps, the most compelling statement came from former president Jimmy Carter. Carter said, “As a white male of the South, I know all too well the impact of segregation and injustice to African Americans. As a politician, I felt a responsibility to bring equity to my state and our country.”
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WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: Incline your ear, O God, and answer us.
People: Preserve our lives, for we are devoted to you.
Leader: Gladden the souls of your servants.
People: To you, O God, we lift up our souls.
Leader: Turn to us and be gracious to us.
People: Give your strength to your servants.
OR
Leader: The God of all calls us to rejoice in all we do.
People: We celebrate the abundance of God’s love for us all.
Leader: God created out of love so we could share that love.
People: We gladly share with others the love we have received.
Leader: There is no shortage of love in God’s creation.
People: Out of God’s abundance, we share God’s love and grace.
Hymns and Songs:
Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven
UMH: 66
H82: 410
PH: 478
CH: 23
LBW: 549
ELW: 864/865
W&P: 82
AMEC: 70
Renew: 53
All People That on Earth Do Dwell
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELW: 883
W&P: 661
AMEC: 73
STLT: 370
From All That Dwell Below the Skies
UMH: 101
H82: 380
PH: 229
NCH: 27
CH: 49
LBW: 550
AMEC: 69
STLT: 381
I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light
UMH: 206
H82: 490
ELW: 815
W&P: 248
Renew: 152
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELW: 631
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
Renew: 196
Seek Ye First
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 354
W&P: 349
Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELW: 719
W&P: 591
AMEC: 561
Let There Be Peace on Earth
UMH: 431
CH: 677
W&P: 614
O God of Every Nation
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELW: 713
W&P: 626
What Does the Lord Require
UMH: 441
H82: 605
PH: 405
CH: 659
W&P: 686
Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord
CCB: 72
Renew: 188
Live in Charity (Ubi Caritas)
CCB: 71
Renew: 226
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
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
ELW: 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 is unbound creation:
Grant us the faith to trust in you
and the abundance of your creation;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are creation without limits. There is no scarcity in your economy. Help us to reflect your abundance in our relations with others. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our greed and lack of generosity.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have looked at your creation and seen scarcity where there is only abundance. We are so afraid their won’t be enough that we grasp at all we take. We think there is not enough wealth or prestige or love to go around and so we try to hoard it all for ourselves. We have forgotten that you create out of fathomless resources that provide plenty for all. Forgive our selfishness and open our hearts so that we share more fully with others. Amen.
Leader: God’s creation is boundless and provides plenty for all. Receive God’s abundant love and forgiveness and share God’s grace with others.
Prayers of the People
Wonder and glory are yours, O God, the creator of all that was, and is, and ever shall be.
(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 looked at your creation and seen scarcity where there is only abundance. We are so afraid their won’t be enough that we grasp at all we take. We think there is not enough wealth or prestige or love to go around and so we try to hoard it all for ourselves. We have forgotten that you create out of fathomless resources that provide plenty for all. Forgive our selfishness and open our hearts so that we share more fully with others.
We give you thanks for the beauty and wonder of creation. We thank you for the love out of which you formed us and all your children. We are grateful for those who have shared that love with us throughout our lives.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who are denied their part in the resources of this world. We pray for those in need of food and water; for those in need of housing and shelter; for those who are denied the dignity and love they deserve as your children.
(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 Our Father 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
I hate it when I go to get a cookie and find that there isn’t any more. I can get more later but right now all I can think about is that I don’t have one. Fortunately, there are things that don’t run out. Things like smiles, and helping others, and saying nice things to people. Love is something that there never runs out. The more we give away, the more we have. That is because God is love and God is never ending.
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CHILDREN'S SERMONPlenty to Go Around
by Dean Feldmeyer
Genesis 21:8-21
You will need:
3-5 round, pieces of colored construction paper (dinner plate size), each one cut into 8 pie-shaped pieces. Mix the colors up and then affix to a piece of cardboard or foam core with 2-sided tape or tape rolled upon itself with the sticky side out.
When complete, you should have 3-5 multi-colored pies, stacked on top of each other so they look like a single pie.
Say:
Hold the pie(s) up so the children can see it, either in front of them or on camera if you are doing this presentation via Zoom or Facebook or some other form of electronic media.
Good morning, Children of God! I hope you are doing well, this morning.
In this morning’s Bible lesson we hear that Sarah was afraid that her husband, Abraham, wouldn’t have enough love in his heart for both of his children, Isaac and Ishmael. She was afraid that there might be only enough love for Ishmael and Isaac, her son, would be left out and unloved. So she made Abraham send Ishmael and his mother away.
Well, the story goes on to show that even though Abraham sent Ishmael and his mother, Hagar, away, God’s love wasn’t limited. God had enough love for both Isaac and Ishmael.
Sometimes we behave as though God only has a limited amount of love for people.
We think that if God gives away some of God’s love to, say, this group of people (point to one piece of pie) that will leave less love for the rest of us.
But! Jesus says that isn’t so. God loves every single sparrow in the sky (and think of how many millions of sparrows there are!) so God has plenty of love to go around.
Jesus says that God loves you so much that every part of you is precious. Even every single hair on your head has a number. Would you want to count all the hairs on your head and give each one its own number? (Good place to tease the congregation about how that would be easier for some of us than for others!) Neither would I. But Jesus says that God not only loves every hair on your head but he loves every hair on everyone’s head. And not just the hairs. God loves every part of every person in the world.
So if God gives away some love to someone (pull off piece of pie and hand it to one child) there’s more for others (pull off the piece under the one you just pulled off and give it to a child). In fact, there’s just no limit to how much love God has available to give away to all God’s children.
And, God asks us to be that way, too.
God asks us to give our love away to everyone because love is the one thing you can never run out of. There’s always plenty to go around.
End with a prayer, thanking God for the love which flows out to all God’s children, without exception, without conditions, and without limits.
Amen.
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The Immediate Word, June 21, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 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.
