A Different Plane Of Now
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The lectionary gospel text assigned for Proper 27 brings us a curious scene, as some Sadducees attempt to engage Jesus in a theological debate over whether earthly marriage still applies in eternal life. Given the context, this may seem like an arcane question to our modern sensibilities. However, it's actually reminiscent of nothing so much as something it's been difficult to avoid during the past month or two -- a political campaign event. Like many activists, the Sadducees have an ulterior motive -- they clearly hope to catch Jesus in a gaffe that they can then use to discredit his teachings on the resurrection and eternal life. They're doing what those in the politics business term "opposition research" -- in fact, it's easy to visualize one of the Sadducees wielding a video camera, hoping to garner footage of a misstep from Jesus that could be the cornerstone of a devastating "advocacy" ad decrying his radical views. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer notes that Jesus responds to this situation by utilizing another basic part of the politician's toolkit -- refusing to be drawn into the debate in the way the Sadducees have framed it and instead talking about the question he wants to answer. Jesus uses the opportunity to reaffirm the resurrection and to point out that the Sadducees are, as the old adage goes, missing the forest by focusing on the trees. Dean points out that it's all a matter of perspective... and Jesus is offering us a powerful object lesson about not being drawn into our usual ways of thinking. Instead, we are being called to a whole new plane of life -- "kingdom thinking" -- that's above and beyond the petty back-and-forth that often characterizes our interactions with one another.
Team member Kate Murphy offers some additional thoughts on the text -- noting that no matter how hopeless things may seem or how small a drop in the bucket our contributions may seem, they are all important as a demonstration of "kingdom thinking." Kate characterizes the Sadducees as the ultimate pragmatists of their day and suggests that Jesus' response to them tells us a great deal about how to begin living in God's realm today.
A Different Plane of Now
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 20:27-38
The midterm elections are finally, mercifully over. We can safely turn on our televisions without being assaulted by attack ads. We can answer our telephones without being robo-called by celebrities and politicians begging our vote. We might even be able to have a conversation that doesn't include the phrases "Obamacare" or "Tea Party."
Now is the time when we settle in and wait for the people we elected to actually do the things they promised. And probably, if things go as they usually do, two years from now we will be disappointed. None of them will actually live up to the promises we have required of them or the expectations we have set for them.
We vote for messiahs, but we elect human beings. No matter how good they looked before the election, they always turn out to be politicians -- people with weaknesses, foibles, idiosyncrasies, and issues of their own. And then we are shocked... shocked and surprised that they turn out to be less than we had hoped or imagined, their visions fall short, their promises go unfulfilled.
But it's not their fault. We are the authors of our own disappointment, the engineers of our own disillusionment. We have placed our hopes in mere humans, in worldly people and worldly values.
Why does it always turn out thus?
THE WORLD
We desperately want to believe that our salvation -- the saving of our country and our world -- can be accomplished by our own hand. We want to believe that we are in control, or at least that we can be in control. The world is tamable. Things can be ordered and perfected by human action.
We want to believe that if we have enough weapons and people to carry them that we will be safe. We want to believe that if we hold the right values and have good intentions things will work out to our benefit; if we are nice to other people they will be nice to us. We want there to be rules we can follow, philosophies we can adopt, and directions we can go that will make our lives more perfect and our world more livable. And politicians, the savvy ones, know that and they promise us the things for which we long: safety, prosperity, morality, simplicity, and happiness.
So desperate are we to harness and control the world that we have allowed our politicians to turn their political campaigns into bloody wars. Insults, half-truths, personal attacks, innuendo, and spin have taken the place of honest dialogue and the honorable exchange of ideas. We are encouraged not so much to vote for someone as to vote against their opponent. ClichÈ and axiom have taken the place of concrete proposals. A slip of the tongue is a death sentence. Vote for us because we're... well, not them!
Is it any surprise that nearly half of registered voters, disillusioned and disappointed, have opted out of the system altogether? And who knows how many haven't even bothered to register?
The world of politics seems to offer us only two options: Allow ourselves to be corrupted into the system or walk away from it.
THE WORD
In this week's gospel passage, we find Jesus surrounded by a group of Sadducees. They are asking a question that seems to have theological and metaphysical significance but is really nothing more than an attempt to trip him up. Look closely and you can see that they have their cell phones and digital recorders at the ready, sure that they will be able to catch him in an error that they can use against him.
Jesus is no mean rhetorician, however. He understands politics as well as metaphysics, and he turns the tables on them. Rather than answer the question that they have asked, he answers the question that needs to be answered.
The presenting issue is the practice of levirate marriage. If a man died without heirs it was the responsibility of his brother to marry the widow and to father children with her. The children of that union would be considered the offspring of the deceased brother and raised as his heirs. This practice was founded in two ancient belief systems. One was the pre-resurrection doctrine that we live on not in spirit but through our heirs. The other was that the only way to preserve the family was through male offspring.
The Sadducees, who, Luke tells us, do not believe in the resurrection, spin out a scenario they believe will prove the idea of resurrection to be an absurdity. In this scenario a widow ends up marrying seven brothers in a row, each of which dies without producing a male heir for her original husband. Which of these brothers, the Sadducees ask, will she be married to in the resurrection?
Jesus sees through this transparent manipulation. These guys don't really believe in resurrection, so the question isn't a serious one. They're playing a game here. They're using a question to score rhetorical points.
He refuses to be drawn into the game. The problem, he says, is not with levirate marriage or with belief in resurrection. The problem is with your mental, philosophical, metaphysical orientation. You are still thinking in terms of this world, and problems such as this -- problems that are centered in the need for love and compassion -- cannot be solved with the answers that this world provides.
The only way we can solve the really deep and significant problems of this world is by changing our perspective, our orientation. We cannot expect solutions forged and cast in this world to create "kingdom" results. For those, we must be prepared to step up to that different plane of which now is life in the kingdom of God.
If we want kingdom results, we must find kingdom solutions.
Unfortunately, politicians rarely dare step onto that plane. It's too complicated, too messy, too risky. To suggest that we can solve life's problems by loving our neighbor, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick and imprisoned, making peace, and walking the path that Jesus trod -- even, if necessary, to Calvary -- would be political suicide.
So it is left to us, people of faith, to champion that point of view.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
It was said of the great pocket billiards champion Willie Mosconi that he never took a shot until he had walked all the way around the table at least once. Golf champion Phil Mickelson never putts the ball until he has circumambulated the green and looked at the shot from every angle. He knows the importance of perspective, of orientation. The break of the green and the correct angle of the shot can't be accurately assessed until he has seen it from every perspective. Then, when he has finished that long walk, he stands behind the ball and lines it up visually. He practices the shot and watches with his mind's eye the course the ball will take to the cup. If we, who are watching on television or from the gallery, don't understand why he took the shot he did it's because we don't have the advantage of his perspective.
Viewed from the ground, the battlefield at Gettysburg is nearly incomprehensible. It looks naked and flat. It is nearly impossible to interpret the historic events that happened there. But take the elevator to the top of the observation tower and the entire panorama comes alive. The shallow dips and valleys, the tree lines, the stone wall, all fall into place in relation to each other. Cemetery Ridge, Culp's Hill, Little Round Top, and Seminary Ridge all begin to have meaning. From that higher perspective, the whole thing begins to make sense.
Illustrations about orientation and perspective abound from our own experience. Indeed, as simple an exercise as looking at an object with one eye shut and then looking at the same object with the other eye will render an object lesson that is to the point.
It is then a deceptively simple transition from these worldly examples to talking about the perspective we have from a kingdom orientation. Jesus suggests to the Sadducees, and to us, that there is a different orientation, a better perspective that will let us see life and the world as they truly are. He invites us to step into the kingdom of God and view the world from that angle.
If we do, we will come to realize that politics is a game that is played in this world and that is why the solutions that politics offers will never render the long-term results for which we long. Only kingdom solutions can do that -- if we are brave enough, faithful enough, resourceful enough to embrace them.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Kate Murphy
Luke 20:27-38
Imagine the smug looks on the Sadducees' faces as they approached Jesus. They couldn't wait to get started. They were sick and tired of him, walking around spouting off about the kingdom of heaven and upsetting everyone. They'd known all along it was nonsense -- worse than nonsense, it was blasphemous. And now they were going to prove it -- in front of everyone, they were going to humiliate him and force him to admit that he was wrong and that they were the only spiritual authorities who could be trusted. They posed it as a question, but of course it was a trap. "Teacher, answer us this -- if you are such a great expert on eternity. We follow Moses' law. If a man dies, we make sure his widow is married to a brother so that she may bear children in his name. Now, say there was a family with seven sons, and the eldest marries and then dies. Now the next son marries the widow and then dies. And it goes this way until all seven sons have married the widow and all seven sons have died, and then she dies as well. Now, in your 'heaven,' whose wife will she be? After your 'resurrection,' will this one woman have seven men?"
You can see why they were so confident. They'd concocted a scenario that is both possible and thoroughly ridiculous. Of course there can be no resurrection if it would mean that one woman would have seven husbands. (One man with seven wives is, of course, another thing entirely.) Jesus' preaching proved that he just didn't understand the way the world works. The Sadducees were pragmatists -- things are the way they are; some promises are too good to be true, and it's immoral to pretend otherwise.
It's a good thing Maggie Doyne was too naive to know that. When she was 19, Doyne spent her "gap year" working with impoverished children in India and was amazed by the number of refugees from Nepal she met. She wondered how bad it could possibly be in Nepal if people were fleeing to Northern India for relief. So she went to see for herself. And when she got there, she met a little girl named Hema who spent her days breaking rocks on the side of the road instead of going to school. So Doyne paid her school fees. "It became addictive," Doyne said. "I said if I can help one girl, why not five? Why not ten? And along with scholarships, they needed the most basic things: food, shelter, clothing." So she called her parents and asked them to wire her the $5,000 she had earned babysitting. She put college on hold and set up shop in a mud hut. Now 23, she runs a school that will soon serve 300 orphans.
Maggie Doyne is just one of the four young people profiled by Nicholas Kristof in "The D.I.Y. Foreign-Aid Revolution". And Kristof acknowledges that there are plenty of Sadducees around, angrily pointing out why Doyne's work doesn't matter:
"It's fair to object that activists like Doyne are accomplishing results that, however noble, are minuscule. Something like 101 million children aren't attending primary school around the world, so 220 kids in Doyne's school constitute the teensiest drop in the bucket. The larger problem can be solved only if governments make education a top priority (which they haven't), just as ending the wars in Congo may require the concerted action of states. Well-meaning individuals like Doyne help at the edges but don't fundamentally change the nature of the challenge; indeed, charitable construction of schools and hospitals may sometimes free up governments in poor countries to use their money to buy weapons instead."
So Jesus should just shut up about heaven. Doyne should go home and go to college. The world is the way that it is. Nobody's going to change it -- not even God.
Except that in our gospel lesson this week, Jesus tells the Sadducees that the world isn't the way it will be. Their trap doesn't spring, because its premise is fatally flawed. The legalities of levirate marriage do not apply in heaven, because levirate marriage is passing away. As absolute and intractable as the realities of this world appear to us, Jesus is announcing that they are passing away. The kingdom of God is coming, even if it does seem too good to be true. So if the G20 and the United Nations and the Red Cross or even Bono himself have given up on the idea of ending the genocide in the Congo or poverty in Nepal or drug cartel violence in Mexico -- what is that to us? These respected and honored institutions are all passing away. But our Lord has promised us that the kingdom of Heaven is near -- and it is eternal. Jesus invites us to begin living in God's realm today.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Do you remember those dreaded word problems from math class? They always required more thought, because you had to set up the problem in the right way before you could solve it. How much easier were those simple number equations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. See the numbers, follow the signs, and solve the problem. Not so with word problems. They made you think, because you had to understand the role of all the quantities involved and you had to place them in the right position in the equations that then needed to be solved.
The Sadducees, trying to trick Jesus, present him with a problem (like the man who met a man with seven wives with seven gazillion other things while going to St. Ives), but themselves come up one symbol short of an equation. They forget to factor in the variance of how eternity is different than temporality. Just like an American dollar sign signifies something different about the numbers following it than does the British pound sign, so too the resurrection qualifies in a substantially different way everything else that comes after it.
* * *
In an editorial for the Los Angeles Times titled "Why Big-Time CEOs Make Terrible Politicians," Michael Hiltzik notes that CEOs rationalize their credibility for public office because "government needs to be run more like a business." But, according to Hiltzik, this is flawed thinking. He concludes, "It would be obvious to any business person who had spent a day in public administration that government and business are antithetical. That's not a flaw in the system. Government exists to take on precisely those tasks that the private sector can't or won't do. These include caring for the penniless; maintaining common amenities such as parks, schools, and universities; and creating infrastructure with broad value but unspecific benefits, such as freeways and the internet. Most of these functions can't be made to 'pay' in the sense that business strategy does. But they can be neglected or privatized only at great cost to society."
Hiltzik is disturbed by the number of business people who ran for public office in last week's election. He was concerned they would confuse corporate profit with public welfare. One looks to stock growth; the other to the enrichment of life. He feels that the "the principal quality that makes today's CEOs think they can compete in the political hurly-burly is wealth." Their perceived justification for political office is that, having obtained personal financial wealth, they can impose those same principles of achievement on the public sector.
This is not a sustainable agreement, as Hiltzik previously indicated, for the two domains are vastly different. Hiltzik notes that Herbert Hoover was the last individual to reach the White House as a business leader, absent of having previously held public office. This should demonstrate that maintaining a stock portfolio is not the same as appeasing multiple interest groups with an underfunded budget and an insufficient tax base.
Now that the elections are over, we should be astutely aware if those business leaders who now hold the title of governor and senator can distinguish the private sector from the public. Will these leaders who have been so vested in profit margins and stock options and negotiated contracts that were always signed in a ledger book make the transition to the command of Jesus, "Give to everyone who begs from you"? This admonition may not be economically efficient in the corporate boardroom, but it is the guiding principle in the chambers of government.
* * *
In an op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times titled "A Conservative's Guide to the Propositions," Ben Boychuk expressed concern for today's electorate who seem to have lost the ability to think rationally. Boychuk confesses that voting is quite simple today. The columnist notes that for conservative voters the choice is always "straightforward enough, assuming we follow two simple rules: Any ballot measure that, on balance, limits state government power and strengthens local accountability is laudable. And any measure that would expand the state's power to tax and spend is loathsome." The opposite, one could assume, would be true for liberals. He then analyzed the numerous issues before the electorate, and how such myopic thinking is not the sign-bearer of successful government management.
Now that the elections are behind us, it is time to review Boychuk's article. Did the people vote with consideration of the issues, or did they follow party lines? Did the electorate follow the exuberance of the Tea Party, or did they split their vote as each issue warranted? The question is: When our fellow citizens entered the booth did they emerge as creatures of habit or thoughtful constituents?
Thinking and seeking good advice is the message to voters. Was it reflective in this past election and will it be expressed in the one to follow? Those who adhere to "two simple rules" ought to revisit the story of Daniel. Few would argue that Daniel was one of the most insightful and intelligent individuals in recorded history. But even Daniel found that in his sleep his conscience was very much awake as he reports that "my spirit was troubled within me." So what did he do? Attend a Tea Party rally? Listen to Glenn Beck? Turn on The View? Decide to visit the "no spin zone"? No, Daniel did what we all should have done and must do in the future -- he sought wise counsel. As Daniel relates, "I approached one of the attendants to ask him the truth concerning all of this."
It is time that we stop letting pep rallies and the "talking heads" of the media do our thinking for us. Instead, we must follow Daniel's example and make the effort to seek and obtain wise counsel. It may not be as much fun and it certainly will be more work. But it does make the difference between being a reciting parrot and an informed spokesperson.
* * *
A meeting of Muslim and Christian leaders was held in Geneva during the first four days of November. Prince Ghazi Bin Muhammad Bin Tala of Jordan gave the opening address at the Ecumenical Centre, which houses the World Council of Churches. He implored, "For both our religions harming religious minorities among us is evil, is absolutely forbidden, and is ultimately a rejection of God's love and a crime against God himself."
The wisdom of Jesus is a timeless truth that spans all religions and nationalities. Whether you are a Christian or of another religious persuasion, the words of Jesus regarding the dignity of individuals cannot be disputed. Prince Ghazi Bin Muhammad Bin Tala, a Muslim, would certainly understand the meaning of Jesus' words, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you." Do we have the same comprehension of love and disposition to do good as our Muslim neighbor, who reflected on the message of a prophet from another land?
* * *
A fable of Aesop:
Once upon a time there was a miser who used to hide his gold at the foot of a tree in his garden; but every week he used to go and dig it up and gloat over his gains. A robber, who had noticed this, went and dug up the gold and took it. When the miser next came to gloat over his treasures, he found nothing but the empty hole. He tore his hair and raised such an outcry that all the neighbors came around him, and he told them how he used to come and visit his gold.
"Did you ever take any of it out?" asked one of them.
"No," said he, "I only came to look at it."
"Then come again and look at the hole," said a neighbor. "It will do you just as much good."
The moral: Wealth unused might as well not exist.
* * *
Psychiatrist Karl Menninger once asked a wealthy patient, "What on earth are you going to do with all that money?"
The patient replied, "Just worry about it, I suppose!"
Menninger went on, "Well, do you get that much pleasure out of worrying about it?"
"No," responded the patient, "but I get such terror when I think about giving it to somebody."
* * *
A very old woman approached a wise man named Jacob and said: "I want to ask you something. I am going to die soon. I have a great deal of money. If you are so smart, why not tell me how I can take it with me?"
"Well? Well? What can be carried to the other side?"
"Everything of value," answered Jacob, as if this insight was common knowledge.
Her greed excited, the old woman shouted, "How? How?"
Jacob drew calmer. "In your memory," he answered.
"Memory?" said the woman, dumbstruck at the suggestion. "Memory can't carry wealth!"
Jacob's focus seized the woman's eye. "That's only because you have already forgotten what is of value."
-- adapted from Jacob the Baker: Gentle Wisdom for a Complicated World by Noah ben-Shea (Ballantine, 1989), pp. 54-55
* * *
The salesperson was touting the latest, best-selling fad to the proprietor of a West Virginia country store. But the shopkeeper was adamantly refusing to purchase the item for his shelves. "You must remember," the store owner explained at last, "that in this part of the country every want ain't a need."
Consumer culture gradually comes to regard luxuries as necessities. The longer this process continues, the concept of "need," or a "needs-based" economic order, becomes virtually unintelligible.
Unless we are vigilant, "want" easily changes to "need," and "need" changes to "deserve."
-- adapted from a story told by Leonard Sweet in Faith Quakes (Abingdon, 1994)
* * *
Jesus was not a tither -- and thank God he wasn't! When it came time for him to give, Jesus gave not 10%, but 100%. He gave himself on the cross, so we might be dead to sin and alive to all that is good.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Note: For those congregations who are observing All Saints Sunday this week, please see the All Saints worship resources below.
Call to Worship
Leader: God's ways are always just.
People: God's doings are always kind.
Leader: God is near to all who call.
People: God is near to all who call in truth.
Leader: Let us speak the praise of God.
People: Let us bless God's holy Name forever and ever.
OR
Leader: Come and find the Way.
People: We come seeking a path.
Leader: Come and find the Truth.
People: We come bombarded with lies.
Leader: Come and find the Life.
People: We come seeking a way from death.
Leader: Come and follow Jesus.
People: We come to follow our Savior Jesus.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Be Thou My Vision"
found in:
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
Renew: 151
"Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life"
found in:
UMH: 164
H82: 487
NCH: 331
LBW: 513
"Jesus Calls Us"
found in:
UMH: 398
H82: 549, 550
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171, 172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
"Lord, I Want to Be a Christian"
found in:
UMH: 402
PH: 372
AAHH: 463
NNBH: 156
NCH: 454
CH: 589
Renew: 145
"Dear Lord, Lead Me Day by Day"
found in:
UMH: 411
"O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee"
found in:
UMH: 430
H82: 659, 660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
"Lead Me, Lord"
found in:
UMH: 473
AAHH: 145
NNBH: 341
CH: 593
Renew: 175
"Open My Eyes, That I May See"
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
"May You Run and Not Be Weary"
found in:
CCB: 99
"God, You Are My God"
found in:
CCB: 60
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who comes to save us: Grant us the wisdom to look to you and your reign for our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come, O God, into your presence to worship and adore you. We are weary from all who have offered us false salvation. Refresh us and guide us once more to your way of truth. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially the ways in which we look for salvation in people and forces other than God.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are a foolish people and we are easily led astray. We have heard the promises of politicians and pundits. We have heard sound bites and sales pitches. We have even dared to believe that they were offering us the answer to our problems. How silly we have been, as we have allowed their banter to draw us from the truth of your way. Only in you is salvation found, and only in you will we find the answers. Forgive us, and empower us with your Spirit to live into your reign. Amen.
Leader: God knows that we are made of dust and are people of the earth who are fragile and frail. God loves us and welcomes us back to the way of salvation and life.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship and adore you, O God, because you are the Way of Truth and the Way of Salvation. In you alone do we find life abundant and eternal.
(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 are a foolish people, and we are easily led astray. We have heard the promises of politicians and pundits. We have heard sound bites and sales pitches. We have even dared to believe that they were offering us the answer to our problems. How silly we have been, as we have allowed their banter to draw us from the truth of your way. Only in you is salvation found, and only in you will we find the answers. Forgive us, and empower us with your Spirit to live into your reign.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have led us as your people. You walked with us in the garden, through the sea, and in the wilderness. You have always sought to lead us to the promised land.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We offer to your care and love those who been lead astray by hucksters, politicians, false messiahs, and their own hearts. We pray for those we meet each day without recognizing their lostness.
(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.
Visuals
Pictures of products, people, etc., with outlandish claims that have proven false: snake oil, Hitler, diet books, get-rich-quick books, etc. -- not only the obvious examples, but also those that show how gullible we are as a people.
Children's Sermon Starter
Get several folks to help you and play "Simon Says" with the children -- but have your helpers give directions with you. Start with giving the same commands. Then have one of them stop saying "Simon says" and only give commands, while the other gives different commands from you but keeps saying "Simon says." Confusion should reign. Talk to the children about how hard it is to know what to do when there are lots of people telling you how to act. We get it all the time. People on television tell us to play with certain toys, our friends tell us to do things our parents tell us not to do. That's why we listen to Jesus and come to church to learn about him. He knows the real way we need to act.
All Saints Day Worship Resources
Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31
Note: Some congregations celebrate All Saints Day on the actual date (Nov. 1), others on the Sunday closest to Nov. 1 (Oct. 31 this year), and still others on the first Sunday in November (Nov. 6 this year). There are lots of resources out there, but here are some additional ones if you will be celebrating All Saints Day/Sunday.
Call to Worship
Leader: Sing to God a new song!
People: Sing God's praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Leader: Let us praise God's Name with dancing.
People: Let us make melody with lyre and tambourine.
Leader: Let the high praise of God be in our throats.
People: Praise our God for ever and ever. Amen.
OR
Leader: Come, let us celebrate the victory of God's saints.
People: We rejoice in those who have gone before us.
Leader: Let us join in the songs of worship and praise.
People: We praise the God who gives us victory over sin and death.
Leader: Let us live in ways that leave an example for those who follow us.
People: In faithfulness, we will serve our God.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"For All the Saints"
found in:
UMH: 711
H82: 287
PH: 526
AAHH: 339
NNBH: 301
NCH: 299
CH: 637
LBW: 174
"I Sing a Song of the Saints of God"
found in:
UMH: 712
H82: 293
PH: 364
NCH: 295
"Come, Let Us Join Our Friends Above"
found in:
UMH: 709
"Rejoice in God's Saints"
found in:
UMH: 708
CH: 476
"Unity"
found in:
CCB: 59
"We Are One in Christ Jesus" ("Somos uno en Cristo")
found in:
CCB: 43
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who holds the lives of all the saints in your eternal love: Grant us the grace to trust ourselves and our loved ones to your gracious presence, now and forever. Amen.
OR
We worship and praise you, O God Eternal, for you have accepted into your eternal home those saints who have entered your peace in victory. Help us to follow their example in living the way of Jesus. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially the ways in which we try to live our faith in isolation from our brothers and sisters.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We live in our own private world and we think our spiritual life is a private matter. We have forgotten that we have been baptized into the Body of Christ and that we are deeply connected to one another. We have ignored the wisdom of those who have gone before us and think that what we discover is new and different. Forgive our shortsightedness, and help us to enjoy and celebrate the great cloud of witnesses around us in heaven and on earth. Amen.
Leader: God desires nothing more than to gather all into one communion of love and care. Know that God forgives you, loves you, and opens the communion of saints to you.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship you, O Three in One, for in you we find the perfect unity that you desire for 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 live in our own private world, and we think our spiritual life is a private matter. We have forgotten that we have been baptized into the Body of Christ and that we are deeply connected to one another. We have ignored the wisdom of those who have gone before us and think that what we discover is new and different. Forgive our shortsightedness, and help us to enjoy and celebrate the great cloud of witnesses around us in heaven and on earth.
We give you thanks for those faithful ones who have gone before us and have preserved the good news about Jesus. We thank you for the nameless ones who have been part of the sharing, and we thank you for those who have shared personally with us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your church, that we may be drawn ever closer into union with you and with one another.
(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.
Visuals
pictures of saints from ancient times, from denominational history, and from local congregational history
Children's Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about famous inventors who are now dead. Edison invented the electric light bulb, and even though he died a long time ago we still have the light bulb. His genius and his gift to us are still with us. In the Church we have people who are not inventors but are saints, people who are God's people. Even when they die they are still a part of us. Because of their being faithful, someone heard about Jesus who told someone else -- and eventually someone told us. We may know who first told us about Jesus, but we know there are others we don't know who over the years told the stories.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
The Riddle of the Living God
Luke 20:27-38
Object: a book of riddles
Good morning, boys and girls! I brought a riddle book today. Do any of you like riddles? (let them respond) Let me share a couple with you. (read a couple of fairly easy or familiar ones) Those were pretty easy. But some riddles are very tricky and are much harder to answer. In Jesus' time there were lots of teachers of the law, and they taught lots of riddles and hard questions. There were also people called Pharisees and other people called Sadducees. They were people who had certain things that they believed in. They all thought that what they believed was better than what the other group believed. They all argued a lot if they were together, so they didn't get together very often. Each kept to himself.
But Jesus traveled all over. He met and spoke to many groups of people. He talked to the Pharisees. Sometimes he talked with the chief priests at the temple. Other times he talked with the Sadducees. Every time he talked to one of these groups they tried to ask him lots of very tricky questions. They wanted to use his answers to get Jesus in trouble. Our gospel lesson today is a time when he was talking to the Sadducees. They asked him a very long and tricky question about a man who died. He had a wife, and when he died she married his brother. The man had seven brothers and after one died, the wife married the next brother until they were all dead, and then the wife died too. Their question was whose wife she would be in heaven. That sounds like a pretty tricky question. But Jesus had a simple answer. Jesus said that God is the God of the living. He meant that their question didn't really have an answer. But throughout all the tricky questions, the tricky answers and riddles and the questions with no answers, there was one thing we must remember. God is always there for all of us. When the Sadducees heard his answer they realized that they couldn't trick Jesus.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, November 7, 2010, issue.
Copyright 2010 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Kate Murphy offers some additional thoughts on the text -- noting that no matter how hopeless things may seem or how small a drop in the bucket our contributions may seem, they are all important as a demonstration of "kingdom thinking." Kate characterizes the Sadducees as the ultimate pragmatists of their day and suggests that Jesus' response to them tells us a great deal about how to begin living in God's realm today.
A Different Plane of Now
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 20:27-38
The midterm elections are finally, mercifully over. We can safely turn on our televisions without being assaulted by attack ads. We can answer our telephones without being robo-called by celebrities and politicians begging our vote. We might even be able to have a conversation that doesn't include the phrases "Obamacare" or "Tea Party."
Now is the time when we settle in and wait for the people we elected to actually do the things they promised. And probably, if things go as they usually do, two years from now we will be disappointed. None of them will actually live up to the promises we have required of them or the expectations we have set for them.
We vote for messiahs, but we elect human beings. No matter how good they looked before the election, they always turn out to be politicians -- people with weaknesses, foibles, idiosyncrasies, and issues of their own. And then we are shocked... shocked and surprised that they turn out to be less than we had hoped or imagined, their visions fall short, their promises go unfulfilled.
But it's not their fault. We are the authors of our own disappointment, the engineers of our own disillusionment. We have placed our hopes in mere humans, in worldly people and worldly values.
Why does it always turn out thus?
THE WORLD
We desperately want to believe that our salvation -- the saving of our country and our world -- can be accomplished by our own hand. We want to believe that we are in control, or at least that we can be in control. The world is tamable. Things can be ordered and perfected by human action.
We want to believe that if we have enough weapons and people to carry them that we will be safe. We want to believe that if we hold the right values and have good intentions things will work out to our benefit; if we are nice to other people they will be nice to us. We want there to be rules we can follow, philosophies we can adopt, and directions we can go that will make our lives more perfect and our world more livable. And politicians, the savvy ones, know that and they promise us the things for which we long: safety, prosperity, morality, simplicity, and happiness.
So desperate are we to harness and control the world that we have allowed our politicians to turn their political campaigns into bloody wars. Insults, half-truths, personal attacks, innuendo, and spin have taken the place of honest dialogue and the honorable exchange of ideas. We are encouraged not so much to vote for someone as to vote against their opponent. ClichÈ and axiom have taken the place of concrete proposals. A slip of the tongue is a death sentence. Vote for us because we're... well, not them!
Is it any surprise that nearly half of registered voters, disillusioned and disappointed, have opted out of the system altogether? And who knows how many haven't even bothered to register?
The world of politics seems to offer us only two options: Allow ourselves to be corrupted into the system or walk away from it.
THE WORD
In this week's gospel passage, we find Jesus surrounded by a group of Sadducees. They are asking a question that seems to have theological and metaphysical significance but is really nothing more than an attempt to trip him up. Look closely and you can see that they have their cell phones and digital recorders at the ready, sure that they will be able to catch him in an error that they can use against him.
Jesus is no mean rhetorician, however. He understands politics as well as metaphysics, and he turns the tables on them. Rather than answer the question that they have asked, he answers the question that needs to be answered.
The presenting issue is the practice of levirate marriage. If a man died without heirs it was the responsibility of his brother to marry the widow and to father children with her. The children of that union would be considered the offspring of the deceased brother and raised as his heirs. This practice was founded in two ancient belief systems. One was the pre-resurrection doctrine that we live on not in spirit but through our heirs. The other was that the only way to preserve the family was through male offspring.
The Sadducees, who, Luke tells us, do not believe in the resurrection, spin out a scenario they believe will prove the idea of resurrection to be an absurdity. In this scenario a widow ends up marrying seven brothers in a row, each of which dies without producing a male heir for her original husband. Which of these brothers, the Sadducees ask, will she be married to in the resurrection?
Jesus sees through this transparent manipulation. These guys don't really believe in resurrection, so the question isn't a serious one. They're playing a game here. They're using a question to score rhetorical points.
He refuses to be drawn into the game. The problem, he says, is not with levirate marriage or with belief in resurrection. The problem is with your mental, philosophical, metaphysical orientation. You are still thinking in terms of this world, and problems such as this -- problems that are centered in the need for love and compassion -- cannot be solved with the answers that this world provides.
The only way we can solve the really deep and significant problems of this world is by changing our perspective, our orientation. We cannot expect solutions forged and cast in this world to create "kingdom" results. For those, we must be prepared to step up to that different plane of which now is life in the kingdom of God.
If we want kingdom results, we must find kingdom solutions.
Unfortunately, politicians rarely dare step onto that plane. It's too complicated, too messy, too risky. To suggest that we can solve life's problems by loving our neighbor, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick and imprisoned, making peace, and walking the path that Jesus trod -- even, if necessary, to Calvary -- would be political suicide.
So it is left to us, people of faith, to champion that point of view.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
It was said of the great pocket billiards champion Willie Mosconi that he never took a shot until he had walked all the way around the table at least once. Golf champion Phil Mickelson never putts the ball until he has circumambulated the green and looked at the shot from every angle. He knows the importance of perspective, of orientation. The break of the green and the correct angle of the shot can't be accurately assessed until he has seen it from every perspective. Then, when he has finished that long walk, he stands behind the ball and lines it up visually. He practices the shot and watches with his mind's eye the course the ball will take to the cup. If we, who are watching on television or from the gallery, don't understand why he took the shot he did it's because we don't have the advantage of his perspective.
Viewed from the ground, the battlefield at Gettysburg is nearly incomprehensible. It looks naked and flat. It is nearly impossible to interpret the historic events that happened there. But take the elevator to the top of the observation tower and the entire panorama comes alive. The shallow dips and valleys, the tree lines, the stone wall, all fall into place in relation to each other. Cemetery Ridge, Culp's Hill, Little Round Top, and Seminary Ridge all begin to have meaning. From that higher perspective, the whole thing begins to make sense.
Illustrations about orientation and perspective abound from our own experience. Indeed, as simple an exercise as looking at an object with one eye shut and then looking at the same object with the other eye will render an object lesson that is to the point.
It is then a deceptively simple transition from these worldly examples to talking about the perspective we have from a kingdom orientation. Jesus suggests to the Sadducees, and to us, that there is a different orientation, a better perspective that will let us see life and the world as they truly are. He invites us to step into the kingdom of God and view the world from that angle.
If we do, we will come to realize that politics is a game that is played in this world and that is why the solutions that politics offers will never render the long-term results for which we long. Only kingdom solutions can do that -- if we are brave enough, faithful enough, resourceful enough to embrace them.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Kate Murphy
Luke 20:27-38
Imagine the smug looks on the Sadducees' faces as they approached Jesus. They couldn't wait to get started. They were sick and tired of him, walking around spouting off about the kingdom of heaven and upsetting everyone. They'd known all along it was nonsense -- worse than nonsense, it was blasphemous. And now they were going to prove it -- in front of everyone, they were going to humiliate him and force him to admit that he was wrong and that they were the only spiritual authorities who could be trusted. They posed it as a question, but of course it was a trap. "Teacher, answer us this -- if you are such a great expert on eternity. We follow Moses' law. If a man dies, we make sure his widow is married to a brother so that she may bear children in his name. Now, say there was a family with seven sons, and the eldest marries and then dies. Now the next son marries the widow and then dies. And it goes this way until all seven sons have married the widow and all seven sons have died, and then she dies as well. Now, in your 'heaven,' whose wife will she be? After your 'resurrection,' will this one woman have seven men?"
You can see why they were so confident. They'd concocted a scenario that is both possible and thoroughly ridiculous. Of course there can be no resurrection if it would mean that one woman would have seven husbands. (One man with seven wives is, of course, another thing entirely.) Jesus' preaching proved that he just didn't understand the way the world works. The Sadducees were pragmatists -- things are the way they are; some promises are too good to be true, and it's immoral to pretend otherwise.
It's a good thing Maggie Doyne was too naive to know that. When she was 19, Doyne spent her "gap year" working with impoverished children in India and was amazed by the number of refugees from Nepal she met. She wondered how bad it could possibly be in Nepal if people were fleeing to Northern India for relief. So she went to see for herself. And when she got there, she met a little girl named Hema who spent her days breaking rocks on the side of the road instead of going to school. So Doyne paid her school fees. "It became addictive," Doyne said. "I said if I can help one girl, why not five? Why not ten? And along with scholarships, they needed the most basic things: food, shelter, clothing." So she called her parents and asked them to wire her the $5,000 she had earned babysitting. She put college on hold and set up shop in a mud hut. Now 23, she runs a school that will soon serve 300 orphans.
Maggie Doyne is just one of the four young people profiled by Nicholas Kristof in "The D.I.Y. Foreign-Aid Revolution". And Kristof acknowledges that there are plenty of Sadducees around, angrily pointing out why Doyne's work doesn't matter:
"It's fair to object that activists like Doyne are accomplishing results that, however noble, are minuscule. Something like 101 million children aren't attending primary school around the world, so 220 kids in Doyne's school constitute the teensiest drop in the bucket. The larger problem can be solved only if governments make education a top priority (which they haven't), just as ending the wars in Congo may require the concerted action of states. Well-meaning individuals like Doyne help at the edges but don't fundamentally change the nature of the challenge; indeed, charitable construction of schools and hospitals may sometimes free up governments in poor countries to use their money to buy weapons instead."
So Jesus should just shut up about heaven. Doyne should go home and go to college. The world is the way that it is. Nobody's going to change it -- not even God.
Except that in our gospel lesson this week, Jesus tells the Sadducees that the world isn't the way it will be. Their trap doesn't spring, because its premise is fatally flawed. The legalities of levirate marriage do not apply in heaven, because levirate marriage is passing away. As absolute and intractable as the realities of this world appear to us, Jesus is announcing that they are passing away. The kingdom of God is coming, even if it does seem too good to be true. So if the G20 and the United Nations and the Red Cross or even Bono himself have given up on the idea of ending the genocide in the Congo or poverty in Nepal or drug cartel violence in Mexico -- what is that to us? These respected and honored institutions are all passing away. But our Lord has promised us that the kingdom of Heaven is near -- and it is eternal. Jesus invites us to begin living in God's realm today.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Do you remember those dreaded word problems from math class? They always required more thought, because you had to set up the problem in the right way before you could solve it. How much easier were those simple number equations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. See the numbers, follow the signs, and solve the problem. Not so with word problems. They made you think, because you had to understand the role of all the quantities involved and you had to place them in the right position in the equations that then needed to be solved.
The Sadducees, trying to trick Jesus, present him with a problem (like the man who met a man with seven wives with seven gazillion other things while going to St. Ives), but themselves come up one symbol short of an equation. They forget to factor in the variance of how eternity is different than temporality. Just like an American dollar sign signifies something different about the numbers following it than does the British pound sign, so too the resurrection qualifies in a substantially different way everything else that comes after it.
* * *
In an editorial for the Los Angeles Times titled "Why Big-Time CEOs Make Terrible Politicians," Michael Hiltzik notes that CEOs rationalize their credibility for public office because "government needs to be run more like a business." But, according to Hiltzik, this is flawed thinking. He concludes, "It would be obvious to any business person who had spent a day in public administration that government and business are antithetical. That's not a flaw in the system. Government exists to take on precisely those tasks that the private sector can't or won't do. These include caring for the penniless; maintaining common amenities such as parks, schools, and universities; and creating infrastructure with broad value but unspecific benefits, such as freeways and the internet. Most of these functions can't be made to 'pay' in the sense that business strategy does. But they can be neglected or privatized only at great cost to society."
Hiltzik is disturbed by the number of business people who ran for public office in last week's election. He was concerned they would confuse corporate profit with public welfare. One looks to stock growth; the other to the enrichment of life. He feels that the "the principal quality that makes today's CEOs think they can compete in the political hurly-burly is wealth." Their perceived justification for political office is that, having obtained personal financial wealth, they can impose those same principles of achievement on the public sector.
This is not a sustainable agreement, as Hiltzik previously indicated, for the two domains are vastly different. Hiltzik notes that Herbert Hoover was the last individual to reach the White House as a business leader, absent of having previously held public office. This should demonstrate that maintaining a stock portfolio is not the same as appeasing multiple interest groups with an underfunded budget and an insufficient tax base.
Now that the elections are over, we should be astutely aware if those business leaders who now hold the title of governor and senator can distinguish the private sector from the public. Will these leaders who have been so vested in profit margins and stock options and negotiated contracts that were always signed in a ledger book make the transition to the command of Jesus, "Give to everyone who begs from you"? This admonition may not be economically efficient in the corporate boardroom, but it is the guiding principle in the chambers of government.
* * *
In an op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times titled "A Conservative's Guide to the Propositions," Ben Boychuk expressed concern for today's electorate who seem to have lost the ability to think rationally. Boychuk confesses that voting is quite simple today. The columnist notes that for conservative voters the choice is always "straightforward enough, assuming we follow two simple rules: Any ballot measure that, on balance, limits state government power and strengthens local accountability is laudable. And any measure that would expand the state's power to tax and spend is loathsome." The opposite, one could assume, would be true for liberals. He then analyzed the numerous issues before the electorate, and how such myopic thinking is not the sign-bearer of successful government management.
Now that the elections are behind us, it is time to review Boychuk's article. Did the people vote with consideration of the issues, or did they follow party lines? Did the electorate follow the exuberance of the Tea Party, or did they split their vote as each issue warranted? The question is: When our fellow citizens entered the booth did they emerge as creatures of habit or thoughtful constituents?
Thinking and seeking good advice is the message to voters. Was it reflective in this past election and will it be expressed in the one to follow? Those who adhere to "two simple rules" ought to revisit the story of Daniel. Few would argue that Daniel was one of the most insightful and intelligent individuals in recorded history. But even Daniel found that in his sleep his conscience was very much awake as he reports that "my spirit was troubled within me." So what did he do? Attend a Tea Party rally? Listen to Glenn Beck? Turn on The View? Decide to visit the "no spin zone"? No, Daniel did what we all should have done and must do in the future -- he sought wise counsel. As Daniel relates, "I approached one of the attendants to ask him the truth concerning all of this."
It is time that we stop letting pep rallies and the "talking heads" of the media do our thinking for us. Instead, we must follow Daniel's example and make the effort to seek and obtain wise counsel. It may not be as much fun and it certainly will be more work. But it does make the difference between being a reciting parrot and an informed spokesperson.
* * *
A meeting of Muslim and Christian leaders was held in Geneva during the first four days of November. Prince Ghazi Bin Muhammad Bin Tala of Jordan gave the opening address at the Ecumenical Centre, which houses the World Council of Churches. He implored, "For both our religions harming religious minorities among us is evil, is absolutely forbidden, and is ultimately a rejection of God's love and a crime against God himself."
The wisdom of Jesus is a timeless truth that spans all religions and nationalities. Whether you are a Christian or of another religious persuasion, the words of Jesus regarding the dignity of individuals cannot be disputed. Prince Ghazi Bin Muhammad Bin Tala, a Muslim, would certainly understand the meaning of Jesus' words, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you." Do we have the same comprehension of love and disposition to do good as our Muslim neighbor, who reflected on the message of a prophet from another land?
* * *
A fable of Aesop:
Once upon a time there was a miser who used to hide his gold at the foot of a tree in his garden; but every week he used to go and dig it up and gloat over his gains. A robber, who had noticed this, went and dug up the gold and took it. When the miser next came to gloat over his treasures, he found nothing but the empty hole. He tore his hair and raised such an outcry that all the neighbors came around him, and he told them how he used to come and visit his gold.
"Did you ever take any of it out?" asked one of them.
"No," said he, "I only came to look at it."
"Then come again and look at the hole," said a neighbor. "It will do you just as much good."
The moral: Wealth unused might as well not exist.
* * *
Psychiatrist Karl Menninger once asked a wealthy patient, "What on earth are you going to do with all that money?"
The patient replied, "Just worry about it, I suppose!"
Menninger went on, "Well, do you get that much pleasure out of worrying about it?"
"No," responded the patient, "but I get such terror when I think about giving it to somebody."
* * *
A very old woman approached a wise man named Jacob and said: "I want to ask you something. I am going to die soon. I have a great deal of money. If you are so smart, why not tell me how I can take it with me?"
"Well? Well? What can be carried to the other side?"
"Everything of value," answered Jacob, as if this insight was common knowledge.
Her greed excited, the old woman shouted, "How? How?"
Jacob drew calmer. "In your memory," he answered.
"Memory?" said the woman, dumbstruck at the suggestion. "Memory can't carry wealth!"
Jacob's focus seized the woman's eye. "That's only because you have already forgotten what is of value."
-- adapted from Jacob the Baker: Gentle Wisdom for a Complicated World by Noah ben-Shea (Ballantine, 1989), pp. 54-55
* * *
The salesperson was touting the latest, best-selling fad to the proprietor of a West Virginia country store. But the shopkeeper was adamantly refusing to purchase the item for his shelves. "You must remember," the store owner explained at last, "that in this part of the country every want ain't a need."
Consumer culture gradually comes to regard luxuries as necessities. The longer this process continues, the concept of "need," or a "needs-based" economic order, becomes virtually unintelligible.
Unless we are vigilant, "want" easily changes to "need," and "need" changes to "deserve."
-- adapted from a story told by Leonard Sweet in Faith Quakes (Abingdon, 1994)
* * *
Jesus was not a tither -- and thank God he wasn't! When it came time for him to give, Jesus gave not 10%, but 100%. He gave himself on the cross, so we might be dead to sin and alive to all that is good.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Note: For those congregations who are observing All Saints Sunday this week, please see the All Saints worship resources below.
Call to Worship
Leader: God's ways are always just.
People: God's doings are always kind.
Leader: God is near to all who call.
People: God is near to all who call in truth.
Leader: Let us speak the praise of God.
People: Let us bless God's holy Name forever and ever.
OR
Leader: Come and find the Way.
People: We come seeking a path.
Leader: Come and find the Truth.
People: We come bombarded with lies.
Leader: Come and find the Life.
People: We come seeking a way from death.
Leader: Come and follow Jesus.
People: We come to follow our Savior Jesus.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Be Thou My Vision"
found in:
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
Renew: 151
"Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life"
found in:
UMH: 164
H82: 487
NCH: 331
LBW: 513
"Jesus Calls Us"
found in:
UMH: 398
H82: 549, 550
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171, 172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
"Lord, I Want to Be a Christian"
found in:
UMH: 402
PH: 372
AAHH: 463
NNBH: 156
NCH: 454
CH: 589
Renew: 145
"Dear Lord, Lead Me Day by Day"
found in:
UMH: 411
"O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee"
found in:
UMH: 430
H82: 659, 660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
"Lead Me, Lord"
found in:
UMH: 473
AAHH: 145
NNBH: 341
CH: 593
Renew: 175
"Open My Eyes, That I May See"
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
"May You Run and Not Be Weary"
found in:
CCB: 99
"God, You Are My God"
found in:
CCB: 60
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who comes to save us: Grant us the wisdom to look to you and your reign for our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come, O God, into your presence to worship and adore you. We are weary from all who have offered us false salvation. Refresh us and guide us once more to your way of truth. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially the ways in which we look for salvation in people and forces other than God.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are a foolish people and we are easily led astray. We have heard the promises of politicians and pundits. We have heard sound bites and sales pitches. We have even dared to believe that they were offering us the answer to our problems. How silly we have been, as we have allowed their banter to draw us from the truth of your way. Only in you is salvation found, and only in you will we find the answers. Forgive us, and empower us with your Spirit to live into your reign. Amen.
Leader: God knows that we are made of dust and are people of the earth who are fragile and frail. God loves us and welcomes us back to the way of salvation and life.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship and adore you, O God, because you are the Way of Truth and the Way of Salvation. In you alone do we find life abundant and eternal.
(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 are a foolish people, and we are easily led astray. We have heard the promises of politicians and pundits. We have heard sound bites and sales pitches. We have even dared to believe that they were offering us the answer to our problems. How silly we have been, as we have allowed their banter to draw us from the truth of your way. Only in you is salvation found, and only in you will we find the answers. Forgive us, and empower us with your Spirit to live into your reign.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have led us as your people. You walked with us in the garden, through the sea, and in the wilderness. You have always sought to lead us to the promised land.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We offer to your care and love those who been lead astray by hucksters, politicians, false messiahs, and their own hearts. We pray for those we meet each day without recognizing their lostness.
(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.
Visuals
Pictures of products, people, etc., with outlandish claims that have proven false: snake oil, Hitler, diet books, get-rich-quick books, etc. -- not only the obvious examples, but also those that show how gullible we are as a people.
Children's Sermon Starter
Get several folks to help you and play "Simon Says" with the children -- but have your helpers give directions with you. Start with giving the same commands. Then have one of them stop saying "Simon says" and only give commands, while the other gives different commands from you but keeps saying "Simon says." Confusion should reign. Talk to the children about how hard it is to know what to do when there are lots of people telling you how to act. We get it all the time. People on television tell us to play with certain toys, our friends tell us to do things our parents tell us not to do. That's why we listen to Jesus and come to church to learn about him. He knows the real way we need to act.
All Saints Day Worship Resources
Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31
Note: Some congregations celebrate All Saints Day on the actual date (Nov. 1), others on the Sunday closest to Nov. 1 (Oct. 31 this year), and still others on the first Sunday in November (Nov. 6 this year). There are lots of resources out there, but here are some additional ones if you will be celebrating All Saints Day/Sunday.
Call to Worship
Leader: Sing to God a new song!
People: Sing God's praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Leader: Let us praise God's Name with dancing.
People: Let us make melody with lyre and tambourine.
Leader: Let the high praise of God be in our throats.
People: Praise our God for ever and ever. Amen.
OR
Leader: Come, let us celebrate the victory of God's saints.
People: We rejoice in those who have gone before us.
Leader: Let us join in the songs of worship and praise.
People: We praise the God who gives us victory over sin and death.
Leader: Let us live in ways that leave an example for those who follow us.
People: In faithfulness, we will serve our God.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"For All the Saints"
found in:
UMH: 711
H82: 287
PH: 526
AAHH: 339
NNBH: 301
NCH: 299
CH: 637
LBW: 174
"I Sing a Song of the Saints of God"
found in:
UMH: 712
H82: 293
PH: 364
NCH: 295
"Come, Let Us Join Our Friends Above"
found in:
UMH: 709
"Rejoice in God's Saints"
found in:
UMH: 708
CH: 476
"Unity"
found in:
CCB: 59
"We Are One in Christ Jesus" ("Somos uno en Cristo")
found in:
CCB: 43
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who holds the lives of all the saints in your eternal love: Grant us the grace to trust ourselves and our loved ones to your gracious presence, now and forever. Amen.
OR
We worship and praise you, O God Eternal, for you have accepted into your eternal home those saints who have entered your peace in victory. Help us to follow their example in living the way of Jesus. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially the ways in which we try to live our faith in isolation from our brothers and sisters.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We live in our own private world and we think our spiritual life is a private matter. We have forgotten that we have been baptized into the Body of Christ and that we are deeply connected to one another. We have ignored the wisdom of those who have gone before us and think that what we discover is new and different. Forgive our shortsightedness, and help us to enjoy and celebrate the great cloud of witnesses around us in heaven and on earth. Amen.
Leader: God desires nothing more than to gather all into one communion of love and care. Know that God forgives you, loves you, and opens the communion of saints to you.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship you, O Three in One, for in you we find the perfect unity that you desire for 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 live in our own private world, and we think our spiritual life is a private matter. We have forgotten that we have been baptized into the Body of Christ and that we are deeply connected to one another. We have ignored the wisdom of those who have gone before us and think that what we discover is new and different. Forgive our shortsightedness, and help us to enjoy and celebrate the great cloud of witnesses around us in heaven and on earth.
We give you thanks for those faithful ones who have gone before us and have preserved the good news about Jesus. We thank you for the nameless ones who have been part of the sharing, and we thank you for those who have shared personally with us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your church, that we may be drawn ever closer into union with you and with one another.
(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.
Visuals
pictures of saints from ancient times, from denominational history, and from local congregational history
Children's Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about famous inventors who are now dead. Edison invented the electric light bulb, and even though he died a long time ago we still have the light bulb. His genius and his gift to us are still with us. In the Church we have people who are not inventors but are saints, people who are God's people. Even when they die they are still a part of us. Because of their being faithful, someone heard about Jesus who told someone else -- and eventually someone told us. We may know who first told us about Jesus, but we know there are others we don't know who over the years told the stories.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
The Riddle of the Living God
Luke 20:27-38
Object: a book of riddles
Good morning, boys and girls! I brought a riddle book today. Do any of you like riddles? (let them respond) Let me share a couple with you. (read a couple of fairly easy or familiar ones) Those were pretty easy. But some riddles are very tricky and are much harder to answer. In Jesus' time there were lots of teachers of the law, and they taught lots of riddles and hard questions. There were also people called Pharisees and other people called Sadducees. They were people who had certain things that they believed in. They all thought that what they believed was better than what the other group believed. They all argued a lot if they were together, so they didn't get together very often. Each kept to himself.
But Jesus traveled all over. He met and spoke to many groups of people. He talked to the Pharisees. Sometimes he talked with the chief priests at the temple. Other times he talked with the Sadducees. Every time he talked to one of these groups they tried to ask him lots of very tricky questions. They wanted to use his answers to get Jesus in trouble. Our gospel lesson today is a time when he was talking to the Sadducees. They asked him a very long and tricky question about a man who died. He had a wife, and when he died she married his brother. The man had seven brothers and after one died, the wife married the next brother until they were all dead, and then the wife died too. Their question was whose wife she would be in heaven. That sounds like a pretty tricky question. But Jesus had a simple answer. Jesus said that God is the God of the living. He meant that their question didn't really have an answer. But throughout all the tricky questions, the tricky answers and riddles and the questions with no answers, there was one thing we must remember. God is always there for all of us. When the Sadducees heard his answer they realized that they couldn't trick Jesus.
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The Immediate Word, November 7, 2010, issue.
Copyright 2010 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.
