Immediate Word

In this week’s epistle lesson, Paul encourages us to emulate “the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” What Paul has in mind is “a fair balance” between abundance and need -- in other words, to care for those who are often marginalized by society. We see this ethic in action in the two healing stories that comprise this week’s gospel passage -- it’s significant that a woman and a child are the recipients of Jesus’ restorative touch; in a world where they were often thought of more as property than as people, women and children generally had little hope. But none of that matters to Jesus, who compassionately responds to pressing need.

In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Chris Keating considers the plight of an often-marginalized group in our culture -- immigrants -- and notes that we might be called to have a similarly compassionate attitude toward them. Pope Francis suggested as much recently, criticizing “the globalization of indifference” and calling the international community to greater action to help immigrants making desperate and all too often deadly journeys. We’re familiar with the often-vitriolic backlash against “illegal immigrants” in many corners of America -- but as Chris points out, this is a global problem. That was highlighted this past weekend, as June 20 was designated by the UN as World Refugee Day -- an occasion marked by demonstrations in several European cities. As Chris points out, the journey of immigrants to cross borders is not merely physically perilous -- it’s also spiritually draining, as they try to navigate the chasm between despair and hope.

Team member Mary Austin shares some additional thoughts on another aspect of sharing our abundance with others -- charitable giving. A new report indicates that philanthropic donations in America finally rebounded from the 2008 economic crisis to set a record in 2014 -- yet religious giving is simultaneously waning. Are we as a country abandoning our traditional religious commitment to help the less fortunate, opting instead for more niche-driven boutique charities? Or are we simply finding other avenues than the church to share our abundance? What does this data indicate about how we choose to share our abundance -- and what does it say about how many view the church and its priorities? And what would Paul make of all this? Mary notes the importance of giving to the less fortunate -- not just to help others, but also because it turns out that being linked to the world is vital for our own well-being and happiness.

 

Crossing the Border of Hope
by Chris Keating
2 Corinthians 8:7-15; Mark 5:21-43

In a desperate move, an unnamed woman died trying to cross the border between despair and hope.

She didn’t make it. Instead, like thousands of others, the woman died at sea earlier this year.

Like the woman riddled by pain who strains to touch the hem of Jesus’ cloak in Mark 5, the unnamed immigrant was trying to grab a slender thread of hope. Accompanied by her husband and three children, the woman joined a throng of immigrants fleeing their beleaguered homelands. The 34-year-old Syrian woman planned to stake a claim on a new life in Europe. War had divided her nation, and now hope propelled her forward.

In the end, she died afloat in a sea filled with immigrants who share similar dreams. She was recently buried in Germany in a ceremony that called attention to Europe’s present refugee crisis. In the words of Pope Francis, a vocal advocate of refugees, “these brothers and sisters of ours are seeking refuge far from their lands, they are seeking a home where they can live without fear.”

They are seeking compassion, but have encountered resistance. It’s a staggering problem: more than 54,000 refugees have entered Italy alone this year. Last weekend, more than 5,000 were rescued in the Central Mediterranean. Aside from Syria, refugees are moving from Libya, Somalia, and many west African countries.

Immigration is not just a plank in an American political platform -- it’s a global problem. And it is an issue that demands, in the words of Paul, that we reflect on our “present abundance and their great need.” In other words, we are invited to listen to Jairus’ desperate pleading with Jesus, and called to see the woman’s determined push through the crowd. They understood what it meant to cross the border from despair into hope.

In the News
Free-flowing traffic between neighboring European Union (EU) nations has been a fact of life for more than 20 years. Suddenly, however, the nature of European immigration is in flux.

Considered one of the EU’s greatest achievements, the Schengen Agreement made it possible for EU citizens, tourists, and many other nationals to cross borders without showing passports. Since its approval in June 1985, the agreement facilitated ease of travel within internal borders, while strengthening security at external boundaries -- the borders between EU and non-EU nations.

But change is happening. Turmoil across Africa and Syria has forced the relocation of hundreds of thousands, and Europe is experiencing record increases in persons seeking refuge. As a result, some EU nations are tightening their internal borders.

Last week was the 30th anniversary of the Schengen accord. But the anniversary was marked by an increasing wariness of foreign nationals crossing internal borders. French border guards began checking passports of some persons crossing from Italy, a result of anxiety over Europe’s immigration crisis. Italian officials responded with shock and anger, yet all sides are beginning to realize that the larger numbers of refugees has become a strain on resources. As immigrants from across the world swarm toward Europe, many nations are beginning to believe the situation is untenable.

According to regulations, EU nations may block entry if they believe there is a risk to national security. Schengen also stipulates that refugees must have their cases processed in the EU country where they first entered. But Italy, some say, has largely ignored those rules over the years. Migrants entering Italy often head directly to northern Europe -- and that has other member nations concerned.

Unprecedented numbers of immigrants are landing in Europe this year, creating fears of economic strains and security risks. Populist politics come into play as well, as anti-immigration politicians attempt to exploit xenophobic concerns. Even nations considered to be traditionally immigrant-friendly -- such as Germany and Sweden -- are becoming more cautious in accepting those seeking asylum. 

It’s a problem that is dividing Europe, and adding to the EU’s already overflowing plate of issues, which includes concerns over Greece’s financial solvency.

During this past Saturday’s World Refugee Day (June 20), United Nations special envoy Angelina Jolie noted the strain experienced by nations struggling to accept the unprecedented numbers of refugees. “This World Refugee Day marks some frightening truths about our inability to manage international crisis -- about our inability to broker peace and find lasting solutions.... There is an explosion of human suffering and displacement on a level that has never been seen before, and it cannot be managed by aid relief, it must be managed by diplomacy and law,” Jolie said.

Signs of the crisis can be seen across Europe. Serbia’s prime minister, for example, noted that he was shocked by Hungary’s plan to erect a fence between the two nations. “Building walls is not the solution,” said Aleksandar Vucic. “Serbia can’t be responsible for the situation created by the migrants, we are just a transit country. Is Serbia responsible for the crisis in Syria?”

But concerns over the Schengen agreement are just part of a larger problem.

Warmer weather has meant the beginning of “boat season,” a time when refugees flee homelands on rickety, overcrowded vessels. Human trafficking is a huge business, estimated by some to be around $644 million annually. But it is also a deadly business run by smugglers more concerned with extorting profits than providing safe passage. Already as many as 1,850 or more persons have perished this year while crossing the Mediterranean, including the deaths of 800 persons aboard a fishing boat that sank in April in one of the deadliest maritime disasters in modern history.

The deaths of those seeking asylum has become a focus for Pope Francis, who has repeatedly enjoined the world community to go beyond the excuses of “not in my back yard” in extending humane assistance to refugees. Early in his papacy, Pope Francis called for a compassionate response to immigration, calling the shipwrecks off the Italian coast a much too frequent occurrence. In a 2013 homily, the pope implored all people to consider the plight of refugees:

Immigrants dying at sea, in boats which were vehicles of hope and became vehicles of death. That is how the headlines put it. When I first heard of this tragedy a few weeks ago, and realized that it happens all too frequently, it has constantly come back to me like a painful thorn in my heart. So I felt that I had to come here today, to pray and to offer a sign of my closeness, but also to challenge our consciences lest this tragedy be repeated. Please, let it not be repeated!

Tragically, however, the crisis has continued. The EU has said there is “no silver bullet” for solving the crisis, even as the pope has remained steadfast in his appeals to political leaders.  “We must not tire in our attempts to solicit a more extensive response at the European and international level,” the pope said in April.

As the crisis continues, some are pointing toward the efforts made by “everyday” heroes whose generosity and friendship are aimed at offering refugees even slender threads of hope. For Jawan Rafiq Fathullu, mayor of Darashakran, Iraq (one of the few female mayors in Iraq), offering hope means personally welcoming every refugee who arrives at the Darashakran district. “It is not good enough to give a tent and leave them. We must ensure we offer dignity too,” she said. “Our door here is always open because we, like our brothers and sisters in Syria, are humanitarian people who look after one another. From one human to the next, I offer my support. I want them to feel secure.”

In a world filled with boundaries, it seems that moving the border between empty despair and abundant hope -- the place where one feels secure and welcomed -- may be exceptionally hard to cross.

In the Scriptures
Though there is not a central motif or theme which cleanly and easily connects the gospel and epistle readings for this Sunday, the broad movement from despair toward hope is readily identified. For Paul, this movement is located in the Corinthians’ ability to be generous in their stewardship. It’s a stewardship text, smack-dab in the middle of summer. But it is also much more than merely a call to dig deep.

Paul calls the Corinthians to excel in the ministry of grace (while the NRSV renders verse 7 a “generous undertaking,” others refer to it as an “act of grace”). Paul employs charis to describe the church’s mission and response toward the saints who are in need. Key here is Paul’s understanding that within the church’s life there should be a “fair balance,” or a reciprocity between those with abundant resources and those who are in need. Paul implies there should be an evenness within the body of Christ, a deep sharing of gifts.

The implication we draw from Paul is that the “haves” ought to look after the “have-nots.” That is a border line which still exists, and one that is no easier to cross. The text reminds us that those living in abundance should have compassion on those who are pressed to the margins. In other words, there is a responsibility for our brothers and sisters stuck at the borders. If there is any question about this, says Paul, we ought to consider the model Jesus offered: “...though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor.”

The movement across boundary lines is more clearly articulated in Mark 5:21-43, where Jesus encounters human need the moment he steps off the boat. Jairus, a leader of the synagogue, is somehow able to negotiate the thicket of crowds to fall at Jesus’ feet. Jairus is at the hemline of desperation, and begs Jesus to come and heal his young daughter. Jesus agrees, and soon the group is off to see Jairus’ daughter.

But there’s an interruption. In the massive crowd there is a woman riddled with pain. She has endured “much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had.” And, like many today, she was no better. In essence, she too is a refugee -- a woman whose sickness has removed her from her homeland. Because of the purity laws, she has lived in exile from the community.

She is nearly the mirror opposite of Jairus. In comparison to the privileged and powerful (and male) synagogue leader, the woman has nothing -- not even a name. Her vulnerability is fully exposed, and unlike Jairus, she can only cross the border between despair and hope in secret. Yet, like Jairus, she believes that Jesus has authority over her health. Plunging into the crowd, she reaches toward Jesus, attempting to touch the hemline of hope.

Jesus navigates the borders, and remains accessible to those who, like Jairus and the woman, find themselves couched in places of despair. He leads them across the border, demonstrating the healing power of God. His grace extends the fragile and vulnerable of the world: a little girl at death’s door, a suffering woman excluded from her community. Both are, in a sense, seeking refuge. Both are able to cross freely into hope, migrating away from suffering and despair.

In the Sermon
This week’s headlines are sobering reminders of how hard it is to navigate the journey toward hope. Racist hatred unleashes itself during a congregation’s Bible study. Greece teeters on the verge of bankruptcy. Saudi planes continue bombing raids across Yemen.

And waves of refugees continue to arrive on the doorways of new countries, yearning for a better life.

The stories of refugees are compelling, and deserve to be heard. Like Jairus and the unnamed woman suffering from unrelenting hemorrhages, the experiences of millions moving from despair into hope are testimonies to the power of belief. Refugees leave places of certain death, believing against all hope that a better life is to be found.

So often, however, grief prevents us from moving forward. As Jesus arrives at Jairus’ house, people were wailing. Grief hung in the air -- as it does for many refugees. Yet Jesus stands at the crossroads between despair and hope, and he assures Jairus: “Do not fear, only believe.”

There is power in that testimony. Jesus understands that raising the girl will place a target on his back, and so he orders the community to keep the story under wraps. He is more concerned with matters of practicality. The girl needs to be fed, and the community must be energized to continue its care for her.

We continue to live at the crossroads between hope and despair, and at it is this intersection that we are called to trust Jesus’ words to Jairus: “Do not fear, only believe.” Not everyone for whom we pray will be healed. Not every refugee will find asylum. Terror will continue to find its way into the world. In the midst of all of this, however, we are called to testify to what we know in Jesus Christ: “Do not fear, only believe.”

In both stories, Jesus stands at the line between despair and hope. It is faith that propels the woman to move toward Jesus, and faith that causes Jairus to set aside any prejudice he might have about Jesus. On this sultry, humid Sunday, where grief and hatred hang low in the air, this is the generous undertaking we ought to pursue. And these are the words we should share: Do not fear. Continue to believe.

 

SECOND THOUGHTS
Excelling at Generosity
by Mary Austin
2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Every church or synagogue finance committee already knows what a new study revealed last week -- charitable donations to religious communities have declined. The Christian Science Monitor reports that charitable giving has rebounded from the slump of the recession years, and “in the US reached a record $358.4 billion in 2014.” However, a smaller share of that giving now makes its way to religious institutions. The article reports that “it took seven years, but charitable giving in the US finally has set a new record. However, organizations that historically have accounted the bulk of such donations -- churches -- are losing ground as congregations shrink and givers embrace a wider variety of charitable causes.”

The overall trend indicates “robust philanthropy,” but churches, synagogues, and mosques are seeing a smaller share of that generosity. Partly it’s because fewer people claim a religious affiliation, but also because “as the wealthiest Americans grow even wealthier, large, individual gifts make up a growing proportion of charitable gifts. Giving USA’s report noted several gifts over $200 million over the past year, and one over $2 billion. Those gifts... have a tendency to go to education, arts and culture, health.”

In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul instructs them to attend to the work of generosity. He urges them to consider “a fair balance between your present abundance and their need,” a question which tugs at all of us who make charitable gifts. What’s the right balance between what we have and the needs of the world? Do we give from our excess, or do we stretch to give because we see a need? And how do we meet the needs of the poor through our charitable giving? 

Knowing how to give is complicated. Even Andrew Carnegie said, “It is more difficult to give money away intelligently than to earn it in the first place.” Paul says that it’s not enough to do something -- we also need to desire to do it. Writing checks mindlessly isn’t enough. The state of our hearts is important. The desires behind our giving are also important. 

Giving may be a part of us from our earliest days. Researchers from the University of British Columbia discovered that “toddlers who shared a toy with someone else appeared happier than toddlers who simply played with the toy,” suggesting an early impulse to share. Encouraged by that result, the researchers then set out to study the question of “if altruism is a deeply rooted part of human behavior, serving an evolutionary purpose, we’d find kind, helpful -- or ‘pro-social’ -- acts intrinsically rewarding from the earliest stages of life, even when these acts come at a personal cost. In other words, performing selfless acts would make kids happy -- even before they’ve been socialized to fully appreciate the cultural value placed on kindness.” Their follow-up research suggests that we are wired to share -- to give what we have to each other, even at very young ages. 

How do we take that impulse to give and translate it into the ability to give our financial gifts?  Author Ron Lieber, a financial columnist whose recent book is The Opposite of Spoiled: How to Raise Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart About Money, says that giving is a part of our financial education: “Parents have an essential role to play in modeling generosity, and researchers have shown that if parents give, kids tend to as well. If you haven’t primed the pump of generosity with your kids by talking to them about your charitable giving, you’re not alone -- many Americans don’t. But giving, like everything else that we do with money, shouldn’t simply happen without comment.” He adds three ways to talk about why we give to charity: “One way to describe it is as a sort of duty: families who have more than they need ought to give something so that others who have less can afford things they need. Older children might appreciate the second explanation, which is a self-interested one: research on happiness shows that the amount we give away is a great predictor of how happy we are. In fact, it’s as strong a predictor of happiness as our income is. Finally, there’s this point to make: communities are stronger when people know they can rely on one another.” 

Once we know how to give, what kind of support do we owe each other? In 2013, The Atlantic asked the question of why wealthy people give less, proportionally, than poorer people. “In 2011, the wealthiest Americans -- those with earnings in the top 20 percent -- contributed on average 1.3 percent of their income to charity. By comparison, Americans at the base of the income pyramid -- those in the bottom 20 percent -- donated 3.2 percent of their income. The relative generosity of lower-income Americans is accentuated by the fact that, unlike middle-class and wealthy donors, most of them cannot take advantage of the charitable tax deduction, because they do not itemize deductions on their income-tax returns.” Further, the wealthiest people tend to give large gifts to universities, hospitals, and museums -- not to people in need. 

Poorer people were more likely to give generously, but in an experiment where both well-to-do and poor people were shown a moving video about child poverty, giving grew for both groups. If “exposure to need drives generous behavior, could it be that the isolation of wealthy Americans from those in need is a cause of their relative stinginess?” Do we need to see each other’s lives clearly before we understand the need to give generously? A study in the Chronicle of Philanthropy showed that “Wealthy people who lived in homogeneously affluent areas -- areas where more than 40 percent of households earned at least $200,000 a year -- were less generous than comparably wealthy people who lived in more socioeconomically diverse surroundings. It seems that insulation from people in need may dampen the charitable impulse.” And proximity and attention may awaken that impulse in us.

Giving also turns out to be an important part of being linked to the world. Lisa Firestone writes for Psychology Today that giving orients us properly to the people around us: “It’s a natural confidence builder and a repellant of self-hatred. By focusing on what we are giving, rather than what we are receiving, we create a more outward orientation toward the world, shifting our focus away from ourselves.” Giving turns us out from ourselves, and toward the God and neighbor we are called to love. 

Paul urges us to excel at giving -- to make it a vital part of our spiritual lives, and to work hard to be good at it. We pay attention to the lives of the poor among us, and see what they need as we all live in community together. We teach our children about the value of giving, as we grow this spiritual skill in ourselves too. Giving begins with both gratitude and hope, flourishes in the ability to see each other, and connects us to a wider world.  In this kind of wholehearted giving, the “genuineness of love” is abundantly revealed. 

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

From team member Robin Lostetter:

2 Corinthians 8:7-15
For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has -- not according to what one does not have (v. 12).

Those who have the most give the least. This article goes on to detail possible reasons:

When Jody Richards saw a homeless man begging outside a downtown [Washington] McDonald’s recently, he bought the man a cheeseburger. There’s nothing unusual about that, except that Richards is homeless too, and the 99-cent cheeseburger was an outsized chunk of the $9.50 he’d earned that day from panhandling.

The generosity of poor people isn’t so much rare as rarely noticed, however. In fact, America’s poor donate more, in percentage terms, than higher-income groups do, surveys of charitable giving show. What’s more, their generosity declines less in hard times than the generosity of richer givers does.

“The lowest-income fifth (of the population) always give at more than their capacity,” said Virginia Hodgkinson, former vice president for research at Independent Sector, a Washington-based association of major nonprofit agencies. “The next two-fifths give at capacity, and those above that are capable of giving two or three times more than they give.”

Indeed, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest survey of consumer expenditure found that the poorest fifth of America’s households contributed an average of 4.3 percent of their incomes to charitable organizations in 2007. The richest fifth gave at less than half that rate, 2.1 percent.

The figures probably undercount remittances by legal and illegal immigrants to family and friends back home, a multibillion-dollar outlay to which the poor contribute disproportionally.

None of the middle fifths of America's households, in contrast, gave away as much as 3 percent of their incomes....

*****

2 Corinthians 8:7-15
And these fascinating statistics and observations on who does and does not make charitable donations, from an article by social scientist Arthur Brooks [emphases mine]:

Charitable giving is an American tradition. Surveys consistently find that between 65 and 85 percent of U.S. families make charitable donations each year, and we give away more than twice as much per capita as the citizens of even the most generous European nations. According to the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study, the average American family that gave to charity in 2002 donated $1,917. And contrary to what some might assume, this giving does not all -- or even mostly -- support houses of worship. The Giving USA Foundation reports that only about a third of individual gifts go toward religious causes; the rest are earmarked for secular concerns like education and health.

As impressive as these numbers are, there are still about 30 million American families that do not give charitably. Why not? According to Independent Sector’s 2001 Giving and Volunteering in the United States survey of 4,000 households, common excuses include not being asked and fear that contributions will be used inefficiently by nonprofits. But the most common explanation for the lack of giving is a perceived deficiency of means: Two-thirds of non-donors say that they simply cannot afford to give. (Read on to see who is saying that!)

*****

Exegeting the shooting in Charleston
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
David intoned this lamentation over Saul and his son Jonathan (v. 17).
Psalm 130
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord (v. 1).
But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered (v. 4).

From the Christian Science Monitor’s report on statements by the victims’ families about shooter Dylann Roof...

In the hours and days since that violent, tragic event -- like so many similar events in recent U.S. history -- there have been deep grief and anger, prayer gatherings and hymn singing, profound questions for America and for God.

But there’s been something else -- remarkable, perhaps -- when fear, religious doubt, and the desire for revenge might have been expected: forgiveness, a foundational aspect of Christian doctrine and practice.

In media interviews and at a court hearing for the alleged killer Friday, relatives and close friends of the victims expressed forgiveness, some asking God’s blessing on Mr. Roof...

*****

“You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” from South Pacific by Rodgers & Hammerstein (emphases in lyrics mine). Mandy Patinkin sings a moving version:

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught from year to year,
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!

*****

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27; Mark 5:21-43
From Presbyterian Outlook editor Jill Duffield’s lectionary reflection for this Sunday. Having served several congregations in South Carolina, the Charleston shooting certainly hits close to home for Duffield...

Racism has been, and is, the source of great suffering, years and years and years of it. We need the transformative healing and the resurrection power of Jesus if we are going to move forward and follow the witness of welcome those nine victims gave their lives for. And the witness of forgiveness the family members of those nine have held up to the world. And the witness of unity the surging crowds in Charleston have shown us. And the witness of unwavering faithfulness the congregation of Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston has demonstrated.

This is the week to get over decent and orderly and enter into this Markan text of much and more and greatly, of tumult and suffering and crowds and begging. This is a week to TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH so that Jesus’ healing can take hold of us as we take hold of him.

(Presbyterian preachers, those of us who tout all things in moderation, those of us who prize our task forces and our committees and our discernment and our book discussions, let us not dare give into the temptation to quiet the crowd or dampen the wailing or send Jairus on his way.)

Lament greatly this week. Read David’s lament as if it were our own. Pray Psalm 130 with silence in between each verse. Take sides in the Mark text, not with the scoffers and the silencers, the mockers and the professional mourners, but with those who suffer and fall at Jesus’ feet. Beg for his help because people’s lives are at stake. Unabashedly name all that inflicts and infects us because we can’t be made well unless we tell the whole truth.

***************

From team member Dean Feldmeyer:

The Most Generous Countries
The World Giving Index (published by the Charities Aid foundation) examines charitable giving in 135 nations around the world. Based on more than a million interviews conducted by Gallup as part of their World Poll survey, the index rates three types of giving behavior -- the percentage of people in a typical month who donate money to charity, volunteer their time, or help a stranger. Respondents were also asked to rank how happy they are with life.

The results give an indication of a “global big society” -- in 2010, a fifth of the world’s population had volunteered, almost a third of the world’s population had given money to charity, and 45% of the world’s population had been “good Samaritans” and helped a stranger.

While rich countries dominate the top positions in the index, the 2014 report shows that giving is about more than just about wealth -- only five G20 countries (a group representing the world’s largest economies) are represented in the World Giving Index Top 20. Eleven G20 countries are even ranked outside of the WGI Top 50. Of the 15 countries with the largest increase between their 2013 giving score and their five-year average score, only one is classified as a high-income country by the World Bank. This disparity is highlighted by the two countries that tied for the top spot on the list: the United States and Myanmar. Other developing nations in the 2014 Top 20 include Sri Lanka, Kenya, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago, while the Top 20 of the five-year index includes Thailand, Turkmenistan, and Liberia. Strikingly, China ranks near the bottom of the list at 128 -- with Chinese people among the least likely on the planet to volunteer: only 6% said they would.

*****

Thomas Merton on Despair
Despair is the absolute extreme of self-love. It is reached when a person deliberately turns his back on all help from anyone else in order to taste the rotten luxury of knowing himself to be lost.... Despair is the ultimate development of a pride so great and so stiff-necked that it selects the absolute misery of a damnation rather than accept happiness from the hands of God and thereby acknowledge that he is above us and that we are not capable of fulfilling our destiny ourselves. But a person who is truly humble cannot despair, because in a humble person there is no longer any such thing as self-pity.

-- Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

*****

Hope Is Something You Do
In 1981, millionaire Eugene Lang was asked to speak to a class of 61 sixth-graders in a Harlem middle school. According to Parade magazine, he was at a loss as to what he could say to inspire the students, most of whom would probably drop out of school. He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him. At the last moment the idea came to him that he should go beyond talking to doing.

“Stay in school,” he told his young audience, “and I’ll help pay the college tuition for every one of you.” At that moment the lives of those students changed. Many of them experienced, for the first time, what it means to have hope. Said one student, “I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me. It was a golden feeling.” More than 90% of that class went on to graduate from high school, and 60% pursued higher education, where they received degrees from Bard, Barnard, Swarthmore, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, among other colleges.

 

WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed

Call to Worship
Leader: Out of the depths we cry to you, O God. Lord, hear our voice!
People: Let your ears be attentive to the voice of our supplications!
Leader: If you, O God, should mark iniquities, who could stand?
People: But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.
Leader: We wait for God, our soul waits, and in God’s word we hope;
People: Our soul waits for God more than those who watch for the morning.

OR

Leader: Come and rejoice in the presence of our Creator God.
People: We lift our voices in praise to the God of all creation.
Leader: God has given creation into our care.
People: We receive the task of caring for creation.
Leader: God gives us the fruits of creation to share with all God’s children.
People: What we have received we will share until none are in want.

Hymns and Sacred Songs
“I Sing the Almighty Power of God”
found in:
UMH: 152
H82: 398
PH: 288
NCH: 12
W&P: 31
Renew: 54

“This Is My Father’s World”
found in:
UMH: 144
H82: 651
PH: 293
AAHH: 149
NNBH: 41
CH: 59
LBW: 554
ELA: 824
W&P: 21
AMEC: 47

“Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life”
found in:
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELA: 719
W&P: 591
AMEC: 561

“Jesu, Jesu”
found in:
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELA: 708
W&P: 273
Renew: 289

“Cuando El Pobre” (“When the Poor Ones”)
found in:
UMH: 434
PH: 407
CH: 662
ELA: 725
W&P: 624

“What Does the Lord Require”
found in:
UMH: 441
H82: 605
PH: 405
CH: 659
W&P: 686

“O God Who Shaped Creation”
found in:
UMH: 443                             

“Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart”
found in:
UMH: 500
PH: 326
AAHH: 312
NCH: 290
CH: 265
LBW: 486
ELA: 800
W&P: 132
AMEC: 189

“For the Gift of Creation”
found in:
CCB: 67

“Our God Reigns”
found in:
CCB: 33

Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship

Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who comes among us in the poor, the hungry, and the outcast: Grant us the grace to reach out to those in need so that we might all share the bounty of your creation; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

OR

We praise you, O God, for you have come among us in the poor, the hungry, and the outcast. Open our hearts to your grace so that we might reach out to others in their need. Help us to ensure that the bounty of your creation is shared with all your children. Amen.

Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to equitably share the bounty of God’s creation.

People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We gladly receive the riches that are produced from your creation, and yet we are slow to share them with others. We act as if our wants and desires are all that matter. We look with disdain on the poor, the refugee, and the immigrant. We forget that Jesus was born into a home of poverty and fled as a refugee to Egypt. We forget his proclamation that we will find him in the poor and the outcast. Forgive us and renew us in your Spirit, that we may share your good gifts with all your children. Amen.

Leader: God loves all of us and desires us to enjoy the fruits of creation. Receive God’s love and forgiveness, and share God’s bounty with those in need.

Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise your name, O God, for the goodness of your creation which supplies the needs of all your children. 

(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)

We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We gladly receive the riches that are produced from your creation, and yet we are slow to share them with others. We act as if our wants and desires are all that matter. We look with disdain on the poor, the refugee, and the immigrant. We forget that Jesus was born into a home of poverty and fled as a refugee to Egypt. We forget his proclamation that we will find him in the poor and the outcast. Forgive us and renew us in your Spirit, that we may share your good gifts with all your children.

We give you thanks for the goodness of creation. Through the good earth, you supply all our needs and satisfy us with good things. We thank you for those who have cared for the earth and tended it. We thank you for those who have shared its bounty with us.

(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)

We pray for those who do not receive enough of the earth’s gifts. We know many are hungry, thirsty, and poor. We know many are shut out of the flow of resources. Help us to share with others. 

(Other intercessions may be offered.)

All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.

(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)

All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.

Children’s Sermon Starter
Distribute a bag of “goodies” to each child. (Some bags should have many items while others should only have a few.) Have the children open their bags and share what they have. Talk about how that feels. Encourage the children to decide to share the goodies equally. (Have a few extra to help even out the numbers, if needed.) This is how God desires us to share the goodness of creation -- making sure everyone has enough.

 

CHILDREN’S SERMON
We Plant with Hope
by Dean Feldmeyer
Mark 5:21-43

In today’s gospel lesson, Mark asks us to consider two people who were living in what everyone thought were hopeless situations. Jairus was a leader of his church and his little daughter was sick. He asked Jesus for help, but before Jesus could get to Jairus’ house the little girl died. Everyone told Jairus that he didn’t need to bring Jesus anymore, because making her well was now hopeless.

Mark also tells us about a lady with a bleeding disorder. Her wounds wouldn’t heal and she couldn’t stop bleeding. She had been to dozens of doctors, and they could not help her. She thought that her situation was hopeless as well.

Through Jesus, both of these people found a new sense of hope.

Items needed:
some apple seeds
an apple
a picture of a mature apple tree
coloring pages of an apple tree for the children to take with them (optional)
(In lieu of apple seeds and a picture of an apple tree, you may also use a potted plant and the seeds from which that kind of plant grows.)

This morning the gospel writer Mark asks us to think about hope and hopelessness.

He tells us stories about two people who had problems that were hopeless, for which they believed there were no solutions. They had tried everything they knew. They had exhausted every possibility they could think of. They didn’t know where to turn, and they had just about given up.

They were so desperate that they came to Jesus, hoping he could produce a miracle to save them. And when they came to Jesus they discovered that there was still hope, even though things seemed hopeless.

Sometimes we think that hope is a wish. We say “I hope I get this or that present for Christmas.” Or we say “I hope it doesn’t rain so we can go to [your favorite theme park] tomorrow. But that isn’t hope. That’s more of a wish, like a feeling we have. We know that if we don’t get that present or if it rains, life will still go on and be pretty good.

In today’s story, Jesus shows us that hope is not just something we feel or have. It’s something we do.

When we have hope, we know that our problems are just one part of our life and not our whole life.

When we have hope, we know that God can make good come from anything that happens no matter how bad it seems to us.

When we have hope, we know that God is in charge -- and even though what is happening right now may seem dark, there is light in the morning.

And then there’s one more thing -- because hope isn’t just about knowing, it’s about doing as well. In one of his letters in the Bible, Paul says that the three most important things for us Christians are faith, hope, and love. And these aren’t just things we feel, they’re things we do.

We have faith when we trust in God. We have love when we do kind and generous and helpful things for others. And we have hope when we do something that reaches way out into the future... like planting a seed.

See these seeds? (Show the seeds.) They are apple seeds, and if we plant one of them there’s a very good chance that it will grow up into a big apple tree like the one in this picture (show the picture) and produce apples like this one (hold up the apple) for us to eat. But it will take many years for that to happen.

So we plant the seed, knowing that we won’t get any apples for a long time. But we will get apples eventually, because that’s how God has made things. God has made nature so that little seeds grow into big trees that can feed us with their fruit.

And planting that seed means we have hope.

 
* * * * * * * * * * * * *         


The Immediate Word, June 28, 2015, issue.

Copyright 2015 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.