In this week’s Romans passage, Paul reminds us once again of our call to look beyond our own self-interest and to care for others. He even couches it in terms of the law, linking it to the relevant commandments and telling us: “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” That certainly seems a far cry from the predatory behavior many in our society demonstrate toward the poor -- and, as team member Chris Keating notes in this installment of The Immediate Word, cash-strapped state and local governments have extended that sort of exploitative attitude to those in the justice system. Many locales are privatizing the collection of court costs as well as funding a considerable portion of their budgets with a bevy of onerous fees, fines, and collection charges... even for offenses as trifling as traffic tickets. Of course, many offenders are also poor and are ill-equipped to cope with this “poverty capitalism.” Chris explores how these sorts of policies create a vicious cycle for those who can’t afford the vast array of fees they’re charged -- well above fines and routine court costs. And this not only increases recidivism rates, it also creates a palpable sense of frustration in the broader community -- a feeling not unlike that Ezekiel describes in our alternate Old Testament reading. Chris asks us to consider: When our governments take advantage of the less fortunate in this manner, are we fulfilling Paul’s admonition that “love does no wrong to a neighbor”?
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the Matthew text and Jesus’ observation that “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” But as Dean muses, the fraternal gathering Jesus has in mind is quite different from the tribal gathering that is happening in stadiums throughout the country as football season kicks off. But while we may feel as if religious observances are losing ground compared to the observances of our secular national religion, Dean points out that a closer look at the numbers suggests that “we still love our Jesus more.”
The Debt Penalty: Pay the Fine or Do the Time
by Chris Keating
Romans 13:8-14; Ezekiel 33:7-11
It’s never been easy to be poor -- but today it could cost even more.
“It is easy to romanticize the poor,” writes Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “to see poor people as inherently lacking agency and will. It is easy to strip them of human dignity, to reduce them to objects of pity.” Adichie was referring to media coverage of her native Africa, but her comments also remind us of how easy it is to dismiss poverty as the result of poor choices.
Across the United States, many cash-strapped municipalities and for-profit judicial services entrepreneurs are discovering news ways of stripping the poor of their dignity. As a year-long investigation by National Public Radio uncovered, the have-nots in our nation are often subjected to harsher treatment and more costly fines than those who commit the same crimes and happen to be wealthier. In some states offenders are charged $250 for a 12-juror trial. (Pardon the pun, but a six-juror trial is a steal at half that cost. Such a deal!)
A Georgia man received a year in prison because he could not pay the fine for stealing a $2 can of beer. In Alabama, red-light camera violators who cannot pay fines are turned over to private probation companies. In Ferguson, Missouri, the city court routinely begins hearing cases 30 minutes ahead of schedule -- resulting in warrants or additional fines for those who were not present when their case was called.
This sort of offender-funded law enforcement seems quite different from Paul’s admonition in Romans 13, where the apostle reminds the Romans that “the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” and “love does no wrong to a neighbor.” As a New York Times op-ed noted last week, “This new system... creates a vicious circle: the poorer the defendants are, the longer it will take them to pay off the fines, fees, and charges; the more debt they accumulate, the longer they will remain on probation or in jail; and the more likely they are to be unemployable and to become recidivists.”
Justice is not blind here -- instead it is justice that has its eyes set on the bottom line.
In the News
To some, debtors’ prisons may sound like relics from another age, evoking images of Charles Dickens’ novels or ghastly warehouses filled with indigents unable to pay their bills. Strictly speaking, the United States abolished such institutions centuries ago. In spite of a 1983 Supreme Court ruling which held that persons cannot be imprisoned for failure to pay fines, it is estimated that one-third of states incarcerate individuals because they are too poor to pay fines, fees, or other garnishments.
It’s called the debt penalty.
Increasingly, debt-strapped municipalities and states are relying on indigent offenders to fill civic coffers. In some cases, private companies are reaping big profits from impoverished offenders. All in all, defendants are now being charged with more than crimes -- they are also paying for arrest warrants, court expenses, and even funds to help renovate the employee gym at one courthouse.
Douglas Evans, in a new report issued by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, concluded the idea is not working. “If they do not pay their financial obligations,” Evans wrote, “they may be subject to late fees and interest requirements, all of which accumulate into massive debt over time. Even if they want to pay, offenders have limited prospect for meaningful employment and face wage disparities resulting from their criminal history.”
The result is often a perpetual cycle of crime followed by debt followed by more crime. The cycle places strain on the already overwhelmed justice system. It seals off opportunities to rise beyond poverty. The system becomes what Thomas Edsall recently described as “the expanding world of poverty capitalism.”
Edsall argued that in many cases, the drive toward privatizing probation and other court-related services is at the heart of problem. A report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution detailed how private companies routinely tack on fees in addition to fines ordered by courts. (Click here for a summary of the story.)
Consider the case of Kathleen Hucks, who in 2006 was convicted of DUI (driving under the influence), possession of marijuana, and driving with a suspended license in Georgia. Hucks successfully completed all of her court-ordered probation and paid the fines associated with her case. What she didn’t know was that that Sentinel Offender Services, the private company hired to monitor her probation, had assessed an additional fee of $156. Though Hucks completed the terms of her probation, a warrant for her arrest was issued. Nearly five years later, Hucks was jailed and spent 20 days in custody before a judge released her.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, there are more than 1,000 courts in the United States that employ the services of private probation companies. “In some of these cases, probation companies act more like abusive debt collectors than probation officers, charging the debtors for their services.”
Another timely example of the offender-funded business model comes from Ferguson, Missouri, the low-income St. Louis suburb now under national scrutiny. Not long after the police shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old African-American, a group of St. Louis defense attorneys released a report showing that Ferguson -- whose police department issued an average of three warrants per household in 2013 -- has placed an unjust burden on the poor.
In the report, the defense attorneys demonstrate how cities such as Ferguson ply on the poor in order to balance budgets. It points to the larger context behind the tragedies in Ferguson in August.
The attorneys show that the Ferguson municipal court often begins hearing cases an half-hour before they are scheduled. Non-defendants are locked out of the court -- which sometimes means parents must choose between caring for children or appearing in court. Hourly workers and those relying on public transportation must balance work and travel schedules with court hearings. Those who fail to appear are issued warrants -- and more fines. Just making it to court on time becomes a battle.
“For many of the poorest citizens of the (St. Louis) region, the municipal courts and police departments inflict a kind of low-level harassment involving traffic stops, court appearances, high fines, and the threat of jail for failure to pay without a meaningful inquiry into whether an individual has the means to pay,” ArchCity Defenders noted in their report.
Nearly 20% of Ferguson’s municipal income comes from court-imposed fines. The city of 21,000 persons handled 12,108 cases and 24,532 warrants in 2013 -- an average of 1.5 cases per household -- and fines plus other court fees raised more than $2.6 million for the city. Those who are sentenced and placed on probation are often required to pay fines up to triple their monthly income.
Nine-tenths of the vehicle stops in Ferguson involve black drivers, though only two-thirds of the city’s population is African-American. Police are more likely to search the cars of black drivers in Ferguson, though statistically white drivers are more likely to be carrying contraband.
In the face of such practices, rage and resentment smolder. Beyond that, the costs to the community are a concern for all. As the ArchCity Defenders noted:
Such practices are a serious cause for concern: not only do they violate the clear mandates of the United States Constitution, but they also destroy the public’s confidence in the justice system and its component parts, impose heavy burdens financially and otherwise on the most burdened subset of the population, and cost the municipalities exorbitant amounts of money and human capital to deal with the inefficiencies of these courts.
In the Scriptures
None of this is to suggest that laws go unenforced. Laws contribute to the well-being of orderly society and exist to protect all persons from injustice and chaos. Yet, as Paul observes, the law does not exist to harm others. Indeed, God’s law compels us to look beyond self-centered interests and selfish greed.
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another.” Paul’s admonition stirs our hearts. The love we have experienced from God in Jesus Christ propels us to serve the neighbor. Paul calls to mind how the liberating power of God released the Hebrew people from their oppression. This is the law under which God’s people stand -- the liberating, joyful grace of God that calls us to love each other.
Love of neighbor is inextricably connected to the love of God -- and it is only by abiding in love that we demonstrate the depth of our commitment to Christ. That is the law which defines the Christian life, says Paul. It is the principle from which all community is built. Love of the neighbor is the fulfillment of what God expects from us. It is exactly this perspective which Paul orients the Christian community.
Such love flows from the integrity of a believer’s heart, and shapes the urgency of Christian proclamation. Love is the only debt Christians ought to repay. Of course, no one had to ask what card was in Paul’s wallet, nor is there reason to believe he paid a mortgage. Twenty-first-century Christians carry a whopping load of financial debt. What, then, are we to make of his call to “owe no one anything,” especially in the light of the crushing weight the most vulnerable of our country bear?
Paul would remind us that no matter the extent of our material indebtedness, our debt to God is greater. It is the simultaneous love of neighbor and love of God which define the Christian’s responsibility in the world. Practices that inherently damage the neighbor do not contribute to fulfilling the commandments Christ has given us.
Likewise, the Ezekiel pericope highlights God’s urgency and passion for declaring justice. It declares the need for God’s people to be mindful of those burdened by injustice and oppression. The prophet is called to communicate this urgency -- and to remind God’s people to take seriously what God commands. As commentator Ronald Peters notes in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary [Year A, Volume 4: Season after Pentecost 2 (Propers 17-Reign of Christ)]:
Ezekiel understood himself as being a sentinel, a guard stationed on duty to keep watch so that no threat from hostile forces might come to those he was charged to protect without his sounding the alarm of impending danger. Ezekiel’s relationship to God was inseparable from his divinely appointed responsibility for the welfare of others.
In the Sermon
Ezekiel reminds God’s people that God desires life. God’s care for the unfortunate and the poor is an essential aspect of the holiness which Ezekiel proclaims. It is our response to God -- and, as Paul says, the way we fulfill the law of God. We are debtors -- to grace alone. Any human system which perpetuates the abuse and oppression of God’s people is wrong, because “love does no wrong to a neighbor.”
Yet most congregations, especially those from communities of privilege, have never considered the impact of “the debt penalty.” We are keen to suggest that poor people are poor because of bad choices, and that those who break the law ought to pay for their offenses. Most middle-class Americans rankle at the notion that law-breaking offenders should be given a break: “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.”
Yet we can gently -- but urgently -- name the injustices of a system where some can afford better representation than others. We can share stories about people like Kathleen Huck, who did her time, and whose debt was erased -- yet did not know she had to pay additional fines to a company that was already profiting heavily from her mistake. We can share the experience of Tom Barrett, the Georgia man who was sentenced to 12 months in jail for stealing a $2 can of beer. We can name the ways that the poor face harsher treatment than those who can afford to pay -- and we can suggest that there is no way that this debt penalty fulfills the law of Christ.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Where 20,000 or More Are Gathered
by Dean Feldmeyer
Matthew 18:15-20; Exodus 12:1-14
In this week’s lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures, we are told the story of the first Passover -- a night of terrible death and fear on one hand, and on the other hand a night of liberation and salvation for God’s chosen people. The story concludes with an admonition that this day not be forgotten. It “shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance” (Exodus 12:14). Kinda like the homecoming football game, maybe?
In the Gospel lesson, Jesus concludes his teaching by telling us, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Two or three? How about 20,000 or 30,000? Or even 106,000?
As the People of God, we often struggle to remember and observe the rituals of our faith, and passing them down to our children in some meaningful way is often difficult and filled with complexity. We also often forget that our religious faith is a corporate one, meant to be practiced together in a group of two or more.
The secular culture, however, does not seem to have any problems whatsoever when it comes to celebrating our secular religions corporately and finding successful ways of handing down their rituals. Around here, people leave their season tickets to the Ohio State Buckeyes or the Cincinnati Bengals to their children in their wills.
On autumn Saturday mornings my grandsons (age 3 and 6) march around the house to the sound of the Ohio State Marching Band playing “Across the Field” and “The Buckeye Battle Cry” at top volume.
Last weekend a whole bunch of American men and not just a few American women breathed a giant sigh of relief. The waiting was finally over. The speculation was through. The anticipation rewarded. Football season has officially begun.
For a while we could sate our gridiron hunger on preseason scrimmages and exhibition games, but our patience was running a bit thin. We longed to hear the crunch of the pads, the “oomph” of the linemen when the ball is hiked, the roar of the crowd when the pass is completed or the quarterback is sacked.
Baseball may be our national pastime, but football is our national religion.
Like any good religion, it is steeped in ritual and song: the team fight songs and the national anthem, the entrance of the teams onto the playing field, the introduction of the captains, the coin toss, the halftime show. The symbolic leaders are identified by their garb -- the uniforms of the players, the officials, the cheerleaders, even the bands. The media prophets make predictions and point out the weaknesses and strengths of each team.
And on Saturdays and Sundays, we don our wear for the game, our jerseys and hats of appropriate colors, and we enter the temple for the three-hour service of what? Adoration? Devotion? Adulation? Awe? Glory? Homage? Praise? Veneration? (All synonyms for worship!)
Here are college football’s five largest temples, and how many they seat. We would be hard-pressed to find churches that big:
Michigan Stadium (University of Michigan; Ann Arbor): 106,901
Beaver Stadium (Pennsylvania State University; University Park): 106,562
Neyland Stadium (University of Tennessee; Knoxville): 102,455
Ohio Stadium (Ohio State University; Columbus): 102,329
Bryant-Denny Stadium (University of Alabama; Tuscaloosa): 101,821
In 2012 there were 644 NCAA college football teams in the United States, and they played 3,569 football games. They drew a total year’s attendance of 48,958,547 fans, for an average of 13,718 per game.
The pro stadia are smaller by comparison, but their seats are bigger and more comfortable. The largest professional football stadium is FedExField in Landover, Maryland, home of the controversially named Washington Redskins, with a seating capacity of 91,704. Average attendance at NFL games is 67,509, at an average price of $81.54 per seat. In 2010-11, a total of 17,141,859 people attended NFL football games (accounting for $1.4 billion in ticket sales).
All those figures are very impressive and tend to make church leaders uneasy. It sounds, at first, as though our secular religion of sport is taking over the rightful place of our Christian faith. We wonder about the heat of the rivalries and the sometimes tribal, even violent loyalties of the fans. We worry when rival fans report fearing for their lives when they visit the stadia of other teams and we find ourselves concerned that the amount of alcohol served at pro football games has often made them inhospitable places for children and families. And we wonder if, as a nation, we are investing our enthusiasm and our adoration, not to mention our money, in inappropriate places. But then we hear the figures about how many Christians attend church on those same weekends.
Gone are the days when we actually believed people when 40 percent of them (118 million) told us they were in church last Sunday. Sociologists of religion now go out and actually count the number of people in church, and the real figure is a lot closer to about 20.4 percent (approximately 63 million).
Still, that’s 63 million people every single Sunday. That’s several times more people than attend college football games on a given weekend, and more than three times all the people who attend all of the NFL football games in an entire year.
No matter how much we love our alma mater or our local pro football franchise, no matter how devoted we are to our favorite football teams, no matter how caught up we get in the rituals and the pageantry, the hymns and songs, the roar of the crowd and the thrill of the competition, we still love our Jesus more.
And isn’t that as it should be?
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Matthew 18:15-20
Two weeks ago Vox’s Martha Nochimson reported that she asked David Chase, creator and producer of the acclaimed television series The Sopranos, if mob boss Tony Soprano (the series’ main character) was dead following the series’ final scene -- in which Tony’s family sits in a diner surrounded by his enemies -- and that Chase responded, “No, he isn’t.” When Nochimson’s article became public, Chase immediately issued a disclaimer, saying, “Whether Tony Soprano is alive or dead is not the point. To continue to search for this answer is fruitless. The final scene of The Sopranos raises a spiritual question that has no right or wrong answer.”
Application: The question becomes, what did Tony Soprano bind on earth and bind in heaven? It is the same question we must ask ourselves.
*****
Romans 13:8-14
The riots in Ferguson, Missouri, are a reminder of the “long hot summers” 50 years ago that began with a riot in Harlem when a 15-year-old black youth was shot in front of his friends and other witnesses. Succeeding events resulted in a five-year-long wave of race riots in several American cities. President Lyndon Johnson commissioned a committee, chaired by Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner, to study the reasons for this urban tension. The resulting Kerner Report said our nation is “moving toward two societies, one black, one white -- separate and unequal.”
Application: We need to learn to be one society where everyone is loved equally.
*****
Romans 13:8-14
A year ago Deborah Turness became president of NBC News. Over the year she made significant changes both in staff and in programming. Of course, for these changes she had both supporters and very outspoken critics. In response she said, “People in the organization from top to bottom recognized that NBC News hadn’t kept up with the times in all sorts of ways for maybe 15 years. I think the organization had gone to sleep.”
Application: Paul cautions us that we know what time it is, so we cannot dare go to sleep.
*****
Exodus 12:1-14
As a high school hockey player, Thomas Smith crashed his head into the sideboards of the arena. He was partially paralyzed, but with therapy was able to recover. Because he has outstanding hockey skills he was recruited to play college hockey. But during a game Smith once again crashed his head into the sideboards -- and this time he was permanently paralyzed. He has managed to surrender his wheelchair for a walker, but his recovery will never be complete. Desiring to have other players avoid such accidents, he began to search for a solution. Watching a Boston Red Sox game, he noticed that players use the warning track as an indication that they are approaching the outfield wall. He decided that hockey should have a 40-inch orange line painted next to the sidewalls of the ice surface. He calls it the “Look-Up Line,” so when players see it they will know to look up -- thus avoiding head and spinal injuries. This coming hockey season, 225 rinks in 27 states will experiment with the “Look-Up Line.”
Application: There are signs, such as the Israelites painting their doorposts with the blood of the lamb, which should cause us to look up to God.
*****
Exodus 12:1-14
In her recently released book titled The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession, Dana Goldstein recounts the history of education and concludes with suggestions on how to improve the public educational system. In her closing remarks she states, “Watching a great teacher at work can feel like watching a magic show.”
Application: The story of the Passover is to be shared each year with such enthusiasm of the mystery of the entire event that the educational presentation will be like a great magic show.
***************
From team member Mary Austin:
Matthew 18:15-20; Romans 13:8-14
How We Treat Each Other
Matthew examines the question of how we treat each other, a topic of deep interest to Phillip Wollen, an Australian banker. He achieved a great deal of success at a young age, and now he spends most of his time giving his money away. Around 1990, although “he is not exactly sure of the year -- Wollen decided to give away 90 per cent of his capital, a process he describes as ‘reverse tithing.’ Since then Wollen has donated millions to improving the environment and helping the powerless -- children, animals, and the terminally ill -- around the world. He sponsors the anti-whaling vessel Sea Shepherd and the South Australian Children’s Ballet Company, and has built schools, orphanages, lion parks, and sanctuaries. His Winsome Constance Kindness Trust supports more than 400 projects in 40 countries. Wollen says his aim is to die broke, to give away all he owns with ‘warm hands,’ and that he is on track to do so.”
Wollen is the founder of Kindness House, where 29 nonprofits have office space, and where low-income residents live. “Two-thirds of the Kindness House tenants only pay for their phone bills: rent and internet is free. The office space includes a large communal area on the top floor where workshops can be held or films shown.”
In contrast to his former career, Wollen is now investing in people -- which is what Jesus suggests also.
*****
Matthew 18:15-20; Romans 13:8-14
Leadership in Community
Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze suggest that complex times like ours require a different kind of leadership. They suggest that we shouldn’t think of our leaders as heroes who are coming to save us. As they say in a recent article: “It is time for us to give up these hopes and expectations that only breed dependency and passivity, and that do not give us solutions to the challenges we face. It is time to stop waiting for someone to save us. It is time to face the truth of our situation -- that we’re all in this together, that we all have a voice -- and figure out how to mobilize the hearts and minds of everyone in our workplaces and communities.”
Now they suggest that leadership should be more communal -- that we see our leaders more as hosts. Leaders who are hosts facilitate a process or guide a community. The hero leader has all the answers, and needs a high level of control over a process. Wheatley and Frieze say that “we need to abandon our reliance on the leader-as-hero and invite in the leader-as-host. We need to support those leaders who know that problems are complex, who know that in order to understand the full complexity of any issue, all parts of the system need to be invited in to participate and contribute. We, as followers, need to give our leaders time, patience, forgiveness; and we need to be willing to step up and contribute.” Leaders function to bring out the gifts in the whole group, and assist people in collaboration.
*****
Matthew 18:15-20; Romans 13:8-14
Shared Space, Shared Connections
Mark Lakeman is the founder of the City Repair Project in Portland, Oregon, and he is interested in places where people gather. When he and his neighbors first began to get together, a city official told him, “That’s public space. Nobody can use it.” Lakeman saw this as a deep misunderstanding of the purpose of public space. He and his cohorts “started by reclaiming their own intersection, and were eventually organizing neighbors, building benches, and painting streets throughout the city. The goal, as City Repair’s motto puts it, was no longer just to preserve public space, but, by recognizing its character and identity, to transform it into Place: ‘inhabited, known, and loved by its residents.’ ”
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Praise God! Sing to God a new song.
People: We will sing God’s praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Leader: Praise God’s name with dancing, making melody with tambourine and lyre.
People: Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their couches.
Leader: Let Israel be glad in its Maker.
People: Let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God of all people.
People: We come, acknowledging God as Ruler over all.
Leader: Come and discover how God desires to rule.
People: We come to learn again the God rules through service.
Leader: Come and be filled with the Spirit of our God.
People: We come to be filled so that we can share with others.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation”
found in:
UMH: 559
H82: 518
PH: 416, 417
NCH: 400
CH: 275
LBW: 367
ELA: 645
“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”
found in:
UMH: 400
H82: 686
PH: 356
AAHH: 175
NNBH: 166
NCH: 459
CH: 16
LBW: 499
ELA: 807
“Come, Ye Disconsolate”
found in:
UMH: 510
AAHH: 421
NNBH: 264
CH: 502
ELA: 607
“Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether”
found in:
UMH: 632
PH: 504
NCH: 337
CH: 392
ELA: 470
“God of Grace and God of Glory”
found in:
UMH: 577
H82: 594, 595
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELA: 705
“I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord”
found in:
UMH: 540
H82: 524
PH: 441
NNBH: 302
NCH: 312
CH: 274
LBW: 368
“In the Cross of Christ I Glory”
found in:
UMH: 295
H82: 441, 442
PH: 84
NNBH: 104
NCH: 193, 194
LBW: 104
ELA: 324
“Lord Whose Love Through Humble Service”
found in:
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELA: 712
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
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who looks with compassion upon the poor and needy: Grant that we may truly be your children and treat everyone with the care and love you show them; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God of compassion. As we offer our worship to you today, grace us with your Spirit that we may truly be your children in the way we care for the poor and needy among us. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our lack of compassion for the poor.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We look around us and make judgments about people and why they are poor. We see those who are in jails and prisons, and we are only concerned with punishment and not reclaiming them. We are quite ready to receive sympathy when things go badly for us and to receive forgiveness when we make poor decisions, but we are slow to offer care and compassion to those who are truly down and out. Forgive us, and renew us with your Spirit that we may reflect your compassion and care for all your people. Amen.
Leader: God loves us even when we are unloving and is always ready to help us reflect the divine image we were created to bear. Share that love with others.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise and glorify you, O God, for your great compassion.
(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 look around us and make judgments about people and why they are poor. We see those who are in jails and prisons, and we are only concerned with punishment and not reclaiming them. We are quite ready to receive sympathy when things go badly for us and to receive forgiveness when we make poor decisions, but we are slow to offer care and compassion to those who are truly down and out. Forgive us, and renew us with your Spirit that we may reflect your compassion and care for all your people.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have cared for us. We thank you for family and friends and our sisters and brothers in the Church. We thank you for Jesus, who came among us as a poor servant.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who find life difficult because of poverty and need. We pray for those who have difficulty fitting into society in productive ways. We pray for those who are different from us. May we learn to see them through the eyes of the Christ.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Talk about Jesus’ birth. Ask the children to remember where he was born. Talk to them about how his family would have been very poor. We need to care for everyone whether they are rich or poor.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
What Is a Neighbor?
by Leah Thompson
Romans 13:8-14
Object: a photo of a house or a small dollhouse
Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. (v. 10)
Today we’re going to talk about neighbors. How many of you have neighbors? (let the children answer) Tell me about your neighbors. Are there kids your age who live near you? Do your neighbors like to have parties? Do they have pets? (allow answers)
There are lots of different kinds of neighbors, in lots of different kinds of homes. If you live in an apartment building, you have a lot of neighbors who live very close to you. If you live in a suburb or a small town, your neighbors live in houses near yours. If you live in the country, your nearest neighbor might live a few miles away.
So how do you decide who is your neighbor? Are neighbors people who live in the same building? Or are neighbors people who live within a certain distance of each other? If you live in a city, thousands of people could live within a mile of your house. If you live in the country, maybe only one or two people live within a mile of your house. So how do you decide who someone's neighbor is? (allow answers)
The Bible has an idea for deciding who our neighbors are. The Bible’s way doesn’t have anything to do with distance -- how close people live, what kinds of houses they live in. Can you guess what the Bible might have to say about this? (allow answers) In fact, the Bible says that being someone’s neighbor has nothing do with how close you live to them. The Bible says that our neighbors are... everyone!
The Bible tells us that everyone we meet -- whether they live down the hall, next door, or in another country -- is our neighbor. They may not be sharing our building or our neighborhood, but they are sharing the world in which we live.
If everyone is our neighbor, then Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves takes on a different meaning. Jesus doesn’t want us to just love the people who live close by. He wants us to love everyone: in every neighborhood, in every town, in every country, across the world. That’s a lot of neighbors!
This week, think about how many neighbors you have. Try to treat everyone with the same kindness you would treat someone who lived right next door to you. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, September 7, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 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.
