Do I Have To Invite Jesus Over For Thanksgiving?
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With our headlines full of news about violent attacks fueled by hatred and revenge -- both in Washington and in London -- as well as the disquieting verdict in a Minnesota police shooting case, we are again called to consider the family and tribal groups with which we identify, and how easy it is to hold vitriolic thoughts against others who we feel are in diametric opposition with our interests. As these horrific incidents demonstrate, some even feel compelled to take murderous action against people from those “other” groups. Jesus’ harsh words about the need to turn against family can be very difficult preaching fodder for modern congregations -- but as team member Mary Austin notes in this installment of The Immediate Word, perhaps they make more sense in light of the aggressive way we separate ourselves from one another. The point Jesus is making, Mary suggests, is that we must be willing to turn away from our self-selected groups and embrace the unlimited love and membership of his Kingdom... even to the point of taking up the cross.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the story of Hagar and Ishmael, and how it reveals that even biblical families often were complicated and dysfunctional (much like their modern counterparts). Chris explores the thought-provoking perspective of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on this narrative, and suggests that Sacks’ emphasis on the themes of grace and reconciliation offer a useful way to resolve the troubles in Abraham’s household, as well as those arising in contemporary families.
Do I Have to Invite Jesus Over for Thanksgiving?
by Mary Austin
Matthew 10:24-39; Genesis 21:8-21
Daytime talk shows, podcasts, and reality TV shows remind us every day that family drama is common, even normal. Advice columns are full of questions about where to place our loyalty. What are our obligations to in-laws, stepchildren, and extended family? What about the troublesome family? The abusive family? None of these questions would have made any sense in Jesus’ day, where loyalty to family was a sacred obligation and duty to family was clear. Family strife may have been normal, but there was no option to check out of the family and find a new one.
The question of who belongs comes at us constantly, in a world where we can select our own tribe. We can choose to live near people who share our economic status, work with people who share our values, and vacation with people who love the same places. We can eat with people who follow the same eating plan, and shop with people who share our taste. At the ballgame, we sit with people who have the same loyalties. Our news comes slanted to our particular taste.
But Jesus pokes his way into our cocoon, raising the question of who belongs in a wider family of faith; and Abraham and Sarah, believing they’re following God’s plan, make a choice to exclude rather than include. So who belongs? Who gets to come over for a family dinner?
In the News
The verdict in the trial of the police officer who killed Philando Castile has brought back to mind the deep divide in the policing that African-Americans and white people receive. Castile’s mother, Valerie Castile, made it clear that she believes justice for minorities works in a different way than justice for white people. After the verdict, she said: “The system continues to fail black people. And it will continue to fail you all.... We are not evolving as a civilization, we are de-evolving.... We are going back down to 1969. What is it going to take? I’m mad as hell.” Daniel Payne argues in The Federalist that this verdict isn’t good for anyone, saying: “It is a genuinely open question whether an American police officer can do almost anything without suffering criminal consequences.” As people were still reeling from the not-guilty verdict, Seattle police shot and killed a mother who called them for help.
The shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise during a baseball practice has highlighted the deadly divisions between Republicans and Democrats. The gunman, reportedly a Bernie Sanders supporter angry about the election, asked someone if the team practicing on the field were Republicans or Democrats. When told they were Republicans, he continued toward the field.
The shooting brought a rare show of unity to members of Congress. “In a statement, Senator Sanders wrote that he had been ‘informed that the alleged shooter at the Republican baseball practice is someone who apparently volunteered on my presidential campaign.’ He went on to say: ‘I am sickened by this despicable act. Let me be as clear as I can be. Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms.’ Congressional leaders, along with rank-and-file members, reacted to reports of the shooting with shock, sympathy, and grief. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that ‘on days like today, there are no Democrats or Republicans, only Americans united in our hopes and prayers for the wounded.’ She commended the Capitol Police for their ‘bravery’ and ‘heroism,’ which she said ‘undoubtedly saved countless lives.’ Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said that ‘this kind of mindless violence must stop’ in a statement.”
Perhaps members of Congress are different from the rest of us. Scientists now believe that having power causes changes in the brain. Our ability to empathize with others changes as we become more powerful. One researcher “put the heads of the powerful and the not-so-powerful under a transcranial-magnetic-stimulation machine, [and] he found that power, in fact, impairs a specific neural process, ‘mirroring,’ that may be a cornerstone of empathy. Which gives a neurological basis to what [another researcher] has termed the ‘power paradox’: Once we have power, we lose some of the capacities we needed to gain it in the first place.” A different researcher “found in studies spanning two decades, [that subjects under the influence of power] acted as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury -- becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view.” People who have power understand themselves differently from others -- they may not see themselves as part of the same family at all.
Conservative opinion writer Matt Vespa, noting that Scalise was saved by a female African-American Capitol Police officer who happens to be married to a woman, says, “I doubt Rep. Scalise is going to wish he was dead because a gay person saved him.” No, but whether he ever says it out loud or not, he will always know that he’s alive because of Officer Crystal Griner. His definition of family may have to expand to include her, and people like her.
In the Scriptures
Promised by God that they will become the founders of a great nation, Abraham and Sarah have been waiting a long time for God to get going by the time Ishmael is born. They have grown old waiting -- and doubtful. In their doubt, they turn to Hagar, Sarah’s slave, hoping that she will bear a son who can continue God’s promises. Hagar has a son, and his birth changes the balance of power in the household. Sarah and Hagar shift roles when Hagar becomes a mother before Sarah does, and Hagar’s son is a reminder of the way Sarah doubted God. Now, after Isaac’s birth, Sarah can’t stand it anymore, and she decides that Hagar and Ishmael aren’t family any more. She is ready to dismiss them, and to let them fend for themselves.
Jesus has a different idea of family loyalty. He promises that he’s come to bring division instead of familial peace. Following him will demand hard choices and new loyalties. Later in Matthew he will make it even clearer, saying that “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). He’s calling his followers to loyalty to God, which will disrupt the usual family demands and create division.
Our devotion to family is strong, but Jesus calls us to a much wider view of family. Our families are often as fragmented as Abraham and Sarah’s, and Jesus reminds us that they don’t need to be perfect. We can let go of some obligations and demands because there’s another place where we belong, even more deeply. We don’t need to get all of our spiritual sustenance, or be diminished, by our original family, because we also belong to a larger family. It requires our faithfulness, and gives us a place to belong.
We often call our church “a family,” with all of the joy and pain that involves. If it is, then we have to see the church family with the same view that Jesus has. Our faith has to be in him, and in God’s plans, more than in the habits that keep the church alive -- and quiet. Peace at any price is not peace, and Jesus calls us to a more vibrant web of relationships in service to God.
In the Sermon
Sarah is eager, and Abraham is reluctant but willing, to send Hagar and Ishmael away. They don’t see her as family, but God -- as always -- has a different idea. God tells Abraham: “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” In other words, God is saying that whenever Abraham tries to work on this promise thing on his own, it doesn’t work out. God will handle it. Don’t mess it up anymore, God is saying to Abraham. In the divine economy, people don’t exist in the either/or way that our minds work. God claims Ishmael and Hagar as family, and the sermon might look at the way God defines family in different ways than we do.
Or the sermon might look at who has the power in a family. Hagar and Sarah shift the balance of power between them, and Isaac’s birth restores Sarah’s power. Who holds the power in our families? If the church is another version of a family, who holds the power there? Like Sarah, does someone in the family have the ability to decide who belongs and who doesn’t? Sarah misuses her power when she sends Hagar away without any way for Hagar to provide for herself and her child. The sermon might also look at how we misuse our power and deny others their place.
Jesus is telling us that calm, quiet families where no one is alive with the truth don’t reflect the kingdom of God. The same is true for our church family. How do we make room to hear hard truths about what it’s like to be part of the LGBTQ+ community? What it’s like to be black in a racist America? What happens to men when the traditional salvation of work goes away, and there’s no more guarantee of a stable future? What is it like to be a woman in a culture full of interruptions and harassment?
Parts of our collective family are in deep pain. They’re already experiencing the sword that Jesus spoke about. In the wake of the Philando Castile verdict, the Rev. Dr. Valerie Bridgeman wrote:
The thing is, Black Folk are spiraling in trauma today (and into tomorrow).
Some of us are hella mad.
The few that ain’t are trying to figure out
how to cover for “Mister Charlie.”
Leave us alone.
Don't tell us you’re sorry.
Destroy this system.
Don’t talk to us.
Go destroy this system you love so well
and from which you benefit so much.
Don’t quote scripture to us
and tell us to calm down.
Shut all the way up.
Quit talking.
Stop wringing your hands
and tsk-ing your tongue.
LEAVE US ALONE.
We’re mad.
We’re tired.
We’re triggered.
Go, kill the snake you kiss at night.
Go, destroy your gods.
Go, learn how to be human.
Leave us alone.
[© Valerie Bridgeman, June 17, 2017, shared with permission]
What are we to make of such deep levels of pain in our family? Jesus promises that “even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.” God understands value, where we have much to learn. God provides for Hagar after she’s cast out of the household where she’s lived for many years, promising that her outcast son is also part of the divine plan.
If we are to fulfill Jesus’ call to faithfulness, our ideas of family have to grow larger and our loyalties deeper. We have to become a family that can live with pain and truth, and also work toward the vision that Jesus has offered us. If we are all of more value than the sparrows, we have to work to do to get where Jesus calls us.
It sounds like a demand, but perhaps it’s really an invitation: “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
SECOND THOUGHTS
A Problem in the Family
by Chris Keating
Genesis 21:8-21
Summertime and family time go together like hotdogs and relish: lazy, long afternoons spent poolside, listening to the radio while the kids splash and play; leisurely nights of grilling burgers and catching fireflies; relaxing trips to the beach or the lake or even a favorite waterpark.
It’s heavenly, right?
Yes, if you don’t have children or if you have an unlimited supply of money.
Don’t get me wrong: summer vacations can be wonderful... in theory, at least. In reality, family vacations can be described as brief snippets of delight stitched together with long stretches of terror that would have made the Donner expedition blanch. For most families, the truth is somewhere between an over-idealized photo shoot from Travel & Leisure and a minivan that reeks of French fries, damp beach towels, and sneakers.
The dissonance between reality and fantasy in family life is real, possibly originating from the pages of Genesis. In fact, the next time someone suggests a sermon series on biblical family values, you might consider starting with the patriarchs. Genesis reminds us that families include siblings who lie, steal, and even murder one another, and wives who encourage their maids to sleep with their husbands. Family values? Try preaching about the time Noah’s kids found their father sleeping naked after an all-night bender and see how that squares up against our understanding of “biblical” family values.
This is a group who knows how to put the “fun” in dysfunctional. God only knows how this ragtag bunch emerged as the primogenitors of the faith.
Indeed. Perhaps God does know why, and perhaps that is why these stories of messy and mixed-up family life may offer comfort to contemporary families. We strive to attain impossible cultural standards of perfection and intra-familial concord, while Genesis tells us about the banishment of Hagar and her son.
This week’s Genesis text offers insight into a family in crisis. The promise of God to Abraham has been fulfilled with the birth of not just one but two sons. Yet God’s promise will be fulfilled only through Isaac, so when Sarah watches as the two boys are playing side by side she becomes concerned. While the NRSV translation suggests a playful interaction, other translations render verse nine “laughing” or even “mocking.”
This family is about to be pushed to the breaking point. Tension escalates as fast as it does among a family stuck inside a cheap motel on a rainy day at Disney World. Abraham is called to sacrifice his eldest son so that Isaac may fulfill his own destiny. Ishmael has to go. It is he who will bear the promise of God.
Practically speaking, however, things are not that simple. If Isaac is to advance, something has to happen to Ishmael. Hagar becomes a problem which needs to be resolved with all the finesse of Michael Corleone settling family affairs.
The point, as Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks observes in his remarkable book Not in God’s Name, is that the text’s ambiguity leaves us to wonder whether Sarah is offended by the suggestion that Ishmael is mocking her son (the child of laughter), or if she despises Ishmael for simply playfully sharing in the feast. Sacks notes that medieval Jewish commentators often wrongly saw this incident as the cause of enmity between the future Muslim descendants of Hagar and Jews.
Sacks also notes that nowhere does the Pentateuch vilify Hagar’s son. “Despite the fact that Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac are the heroes of the story as a whole,” he writes, “in the two crucial scenes in the desert our imaginative sympathies are with Hagar and her child. That is what gives the story its counterintuitive depth.”
In other words, family life is not so easy. We can imagine Abraham grieving the loss of Isaac. “So Abraham rose early in the morning,” the text instructs, “and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away.” The text does not say, but it is not hard to imagine Abraham collapsing with emotion as he sees the confused Ishmael looking over his mother’s shoulder.
Families are complicated. This is true for the families in our congregations, but also for the greater families of faith in our world. Increasing acts of terror continue to split the already divided Abrahamic families. Violence spurs more violence -- as witnessed in London this week when, following a series of ISIS-sponsored attacks, a white man drove a van into a street crowded with Muslims.
We have not learned how to successfully negotiate our family problems. But perhaps the story of Isaac and Ishmael might offer a way forward.
Sacks points out that after their father dies, Isaac and Ishmael are reunited (Genesis 25:9). The boys come to bury their father, and perhaps put to rest decades of family hostility, secrets, and division. It’s a fitting reminder of the power of resilience and healing in families, and an astonishing lesson for the greater human family. In spite of a family history filled with pain and retribution, Ishmael knew he was loved by his father.
But there is more. Isaac makes a discovery about the source of his family’s healing strength. It is the grace of God. It is radical grace that persists and demands that Israel remain open to the other -- even to brothers from another mother. Sacks reminds readers that the counter-narrative of this family story is powerfully instructive:
It asserts that the hierarchy of the ancient world -- where the elder is destined to rule, the younger to serve -- was about to be overthrown. The counter-narrative is more radical still, because it hints at the most radical of monotheism’s truths: that God may choose, but God does not reject. The logic of scarcity -- of alpha males and chosen sons -- has no place in a world made by a God whose “tender mercies are on all his works” (Psalm 145:9) [Not in God’s Name, p. 124].
Preaching about the Bible’s family values may pose problems for contemporary listeners, but those could be the sort of problems which result in new perspectives for healing and peace. That could be a truly heavenly image of family.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Genesis 21:8-21
Late on the night of April 14, 2014, the Boko Haram attacked a girls boarding school in the Nigerian town of Chibok, taking nearly 300 students captive. The Boko Haram want to create an Islamic state, and part of that process is to remove the Western influence in education. The girls were forced to walk behind the invaders to a bridge, where they were crammed into three trucks. As the trucks began to move, several girls made the decision to jump rather than face the treachery of being slave girls. Two of the girls were Joy Bishara, 17, and Lydia Pogu, 16. They traveled by night through brush with thorns that cut their flesh, eventually making it back to their home villages. The human rights group Jubilee Campaign offered to bring the two girls to the United States for freedom and education. The girls quickly accepted the offer. Doug Wead, president of Canyonville Christian Academy, where the girls studied in America, said: “To pick up their dreams where they left them -- in a safe place -- was an easy decision.”
Application: God allowed Hagar to have her dream.
*****
Jeremiah 20:7-13
Late on the night of April 14, 2014, the Boko Haram attacked a girls boarding school in the Nigerian town of Chibok, taking nearly 300 students captive. The Boko Haram want to create an Islamic state, and part of that process is to remove the Western influence in education. Two of the girls who escaped that night were Joy Bishara, 17, and Lydia Pogu, 16. After making it back to their home villages, the human rights group Jubilee Campaign offered to bring them to the United States for freedom and education. In a speech at her recent graduation from Canyonville Christian Academy, Joy said, “I forgive the people who hurt me. I have nothing against them.”
Application: Jeremiah had to continue his mission with a forgiving attitude towards his persecutors.
*****
Psalm 69:7-10 (11-15) 16-18; Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
In a recent interview for People magazine, gold medalist figure skater Scott Hamilton shared how religion allowed him to survive the ordeal of testicular cancer and three brain tumors. Hamilton said: “Cancer put me on the right track. When I had the [first] brain tumor, I realized that I needed to have a relationship with God.” Hamilton went on to say: “I decided I’m going to be physically, spiritually, and mentally stronger than I’ve ever been in my life.”
Application: In reading the Psalms, we realize our dependence on God.
*****
Psalm 69:7-10 (11-15) 16-18; Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
In a recent interview for People magazine, gold medalist figure skater Scott Hamilton shared how religion allowed him to survive the ordeal of testicular cancer and three brain tumors. One brain tumor mysteriously shrunk with no medical explanation. When Scott asked the doctor what happened, all the physician could say was “God.” And Scott simply replied, “Yes.” Scott went on to say: “I’m really willing to accept and recognize the next miracle. The fact that I’m sitting here with you is a miracle.”
Application: The Psalms point us toward the miracles of God.
*****
Romans 6:1b-11
In a recent interview, Katy Perry named some of the men with whom she had sexual relations and then rated them from the best to the worst as sex partners. Perry made no apologies for her candid revelations.
Application: It would appear that we have an example of sinning more so grace can abound.
*****
Matthew 10:24-39
Late on the night of April 14, 2014, the Boko Haram attacked a girls boarding school in the Nigerian town of Chibok, taking nearly 300 students captive. The Boko Haram want to create an Islamic state, and part of that process is to remove the Western influence in education. Two of the girls who escaped that night were Joy Bishara, 17, and Lydia Pogu, 16. After making it back to their home villages, the human rights group Jubilee Campaign offered to bring them to the United States for freedom and education. Upon their recent graduation from Canyonville Christian Academy, the girls outlined their college goals. Lydia wants to be a lawyer, she said, in order “to help my people, my country.” Joy has expressed an interest in becoming a doctor because so many of the poor in her country are denied medical care. Joy said, “What I want to do is save lives.”
Application: Jesus calls us to be disciples.
*****
Matthew 10:24-39
Michelle Carter was recently convicted of manslaughter for using text messages to encourage her boyfriend, Conrad Roy, to commit suicide on July 12, 2014. At the time of the incident both were high school students. One message read, “You just need to do it Conrad.” Another read, “If you want it as bad as you say you do, it’s time to do it today.” Conrad died of carbon monoxide asphyxiation, using the fumes from a gas generator in the cab of a pickup truck in a store parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. The text that the trial judge found most compelling was that when Conrad got out of the truck, Michelle encouraged him to get back in. This was confessed in a text Michelle sent a friend: “I could have stopped it. I was on the phone with him and when he got out of the car because it was working and got scared and I [expletive] told him to get back in.”
Application: Beelzebul is the master of many individuals.
*****
Matthew 10:24-39
Michelle Carter was recently convicted of manslaughter for using text messages to encourage her boyfriend, Conrad Roy, to commit suicide on July 12, 2014. At the time of the incident both were high school students. Conrad died of carbon monoxide asphyxiation, using the fumes from a gas generator in the cab of a pickup truck in a store parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Evelyn Murdock, a friend of Conrad’s, said in a 2015 interview prior to Carter’s trial: “In the moment he needed a friend the most, when he needed the most help, she did the opposite.”
Application: We must decide what values will rule our lives.
*****
Matthew 10:24-39
On April 10, 2012, during his third tour in Afghanistan, Travis Mills unknowingly put his backpack down on a hidden IED. The explosion took off his right arm and leg and caused severe damage to his left extremities, which had to be amputated. Mills is one of only five quadruple-amputee service members to have survived their injuries. It was only because of his family, Travis said, that he was able recover after 19-month stay at Walter Reed Hospital. Travis, along with his wife Kelsey, have raised $2.5 million to restore the historic Elizbeth Arden estate in Maine. At the mansion, recovering service members and their families can vacation together and share together, staying free of charge. Travis said, “We understand what these families have been through.”
Application: We are called to be in a ministry to others.
*****
Matthew 10:24-39
Adam West recently died. For three seasons he played Batman on the television series which ended in 1968. Even though other actors such as Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, and Ben Affleck have portrayed the character in various motion picture ventures, West will always be remembered by many as THE Batman. When the 88-year-old actor died of leukemia on June 9, Affleck tweeted: “Thank you for showing us all how it’s done.”
Application: We must be mindful of our teachers.
***************
From team member Chris Keating:
Genesis 21:8-21
Courage in the Wilderness
Last year, a 12-year-old girl from Utah named Savannah made a momentous decision. Standing before members of her Mormon congregation, she came out as a lesbian. Months earlier, Savannah had begun the process of sharing her understanding of her sexual orientation with her parents and close friends. Soon, she felt what she describes as a calling to come out in church.
Her parents have said they left the decision up to Hannah, who understood that the church does not see homosexuality as compatible with its teachings. Her mother recalled Hannah’s reasons: “I want to be a voice for those that might be positive,” she recalls Savannah saying. “I want them to know that I’m an ally. That they’re safe with me. I want them to know that it’s okay to be Mormon and be gay.”
Much like Hagar and Ishmael, Savannah was immediately plunged into a confusing wilderness experience. As she was offering her testimony during church, a microphone cut out inexplicably. A church official came up to Hannah and told her to sit down. Savannah was confused, but has remained a member of the church. Her parents have said they are proud of her for showing tremendous courage.
“She has more courage than I’ve ever seen in anybody,” said her mother. “To be able to share something so personal with everybody. That made my heart soar as a parent.”
It’s a reminder of the way God listens to the cries of those who experience abandonment. In the absolute desolation of the wilderness, Genesis reminds us that God heard the cries of Ishmael and all children who feel lost and abandoned, no matter what their circumstances.
*****
Psalm 69:7-10 (11-15) 16-18
Delivered from Enemies
With so many conflicts raging around the world, it sometimes seems that diplomacy doesn’t have a prayer. Yet one Italian group is attempting to do that (diplomacy by prayer). The Roman Catholic lay group Community of Sant’Egidio works quietly to end conflicts by placing prayer at the heart of its efforts. Like the psalmist, the community prays for the abundant help of God to set warring parties free from enmity.
The results? It works. On June 19, for example, a large number of factions in the Central African Republic signed a peace agreement, ending years of war. The truce emerged as a result of the spiritually inspired efforts of the Community of Sant’Egidio, which allowed all parties to explore the roots of conflict and created shared values.
*****
Matthew 10:24-39
Proclaiming from the Housetops
Jesus instructs the disciples to be bold in their acts of testimony and witness, trusting in God’s provision as they take up their crosses in following him. Jesus calls the disciples to a new way of living that declares how God is alive.
Philosopher George Yancy wonders if, in spite of a dominant strain of piety that sweeps across the nation, Americans are actually doing the opposite -- worshiping a God who is not alive. In an op-ed essay for the New York Times, Yancy asks:
So, is your God dead? Have you buried God in the majestic, ornamental tombs of your churches, synagogues, and mosques? Perhaps prosperity theology, boisterous, formalistic, and mechanical prayer rituals, and skillful oratory have hastened the need for a eulogy.
Perhaps by remaining in your “holy” places, you have sacrificed looking in the face of your neighbor on the street. You know the one: the one who smells “bad” because she hasn’t bathed in days; the one who carries her home on her body; the one who begs. Surely you’ve seen that “unholy” face. I’ve seen you suddenly look away, making sure not to make eye contact with the “unclean.” Perhaps you’re preoccupied with texting, consumed by a work or family matter. Then again, perhaps it’s prayer time and you need to face east, or perhaps you’re too focused on holy communion as you make your way to church. Your refusal to stop, to linger, to look into her eyes, has already done its damage. Your body has already left a mark in its absence, in its fleeing the scene.
Yancy’s words are provocative, but in many ways they suggest that Christians remain alert to the teachings of Jesus, rather than the preoccupations of society. It’s a demanding call to faith -- one that echoes Christ’s call that “those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Incline your ear, O God, and answer us, for we are poor and needy.
People: Preserve our lives, for we are devoted to you.
Leader: Save your servants who trust in you. You are our God.
People: Be gracious to us, O God, for to you we cry all day long.
Leader: Gladden the soul of your servants, O God.
People: For you, O God, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.
OR
Leader: God calls us to align ourselves in God’s realm.
People: We hear God’s call and seek to belong to God.
Leader: Sometimes being on God’s side makes people leave us.
People: We won’t push others away, but we will stand with God.
Leader: It is not easy to take a stand and still care for others.
People: With God’s help, we will be loving and faithful.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“All Creatures of Our God and King”
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
Renew: 47
“From All That Dwell Below the Skies”
found in:
UMH: 101
H82: 380
PH: 229
NCH: 27
CH: 49
LBW: 550
AMEC: 69
STLT: 381
“The Gift of Love”
found in:
UMH: 408
AAHH: 522
CH: 526
W&P: 397
Renew: 155
“O God of Every Nation”
found in:
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELA: 713
W&P: 626
“Be Thou My Vision”
found in:
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELA: 793
W&P: 502
AMEC: 281
STLT: 20
Renew: 151
“Open My Eyes, That I May See”
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
“Help Us Accept Each Other”
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
“One Bread, One Body”
found in:
UMH: 620
CH: 393
ELA: 496
W&P: 689
CCB: 49
“We Are One in Christ Jesus” (“Somos uno en Cristo”)
found in:
CCB: 43
“Behold, What Manner of Love”
found in:
CCB: 44
“Open Our Yes, Lord”
found in:
CCB: 77
Renew: 91
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who claims all people as your children: Grant us the grace to accept each other as brothers and sisters within your family; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
You have created us, O God, and call each of us your dear child. Your love knows no boundaries or exceptions. So fill us with your Spirit that we may see the unity of the human family in the midst of all its diversity. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to center our entire lives in God.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You created us and you know us intimately, and yet we do not believe that centering our lives in you is best for us. We want to take control. We want to call the shots. We want to decide what is important and what can be left behind. Forgive us, and renew us with your Spirit that we may learn to trust you and your healing presence that makes us whole. Amen.
Leader: God is our loving healer who desires to put us and our relationship right. Receive God’s love and grace, and live with God at the center.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you are the center of our world and the foundation of all creation. You are the One who brings all things to their fullness.
(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. You created us and you know us intimately, and yet we do not believe that centering our lives in you is best for us. We want to take control. We want to call the shots. We want to decide what is important and what can be left behind. Forgive us, and renew us with your Spirit that we may learn to trust you and your healing presence that makes us whole.
We give you thanks for your presence in our lives. You are with us in the good times and the bad times. You call us to find in you the meaning of our lives. Your blessings are constant and sure.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We lift up to you the needs of our world. We offer ourselves as vessels to carry your healing Spirit to others. We pray for those who are struggling to make sense of their lives.
(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
When we are playing a game and choosing sides, we have to decide if we are more interested in winning the game or making friends. Do we pick the best players, or do we include those who can’t play as well so that they do not feel left out? Jesus invites us to make our choices as his disciples.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
God’s Family
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Genesis 21:8-21; Matthew 10:24-39
(Gather the children and welcome them.)
When we talk about families in the Bible, do you think we always find perfect families? (Allow the children to respond -- some might say yes, some might say no.)
I think, because the Bible is about God and Jesus, and because we read and tell stories about how good God and Jesus are... most of us think that all the stories in the Bible are about good people. I’ve found, in reading my Bible, that some of the people in the Bible aren’t always good.
The people we read about in the Bible are human beings -- not too different from you and me. We fight with our brothers or sisters. Some people hate. Some people steal. Some people tell lies. Some people hurt others -- even bullying others. We read in the Bible about people doing these very same things. The good news for them (and for us) is that even when people are far from perfect... God stays with them. Jesus still counts them among his followers.
There’s a story in our Old Testament reading today about two half-brothers: Isaac and Ishmael. These two brothers have the same father: Abraham.
Have you heard of Abraham? Maybe you’ve heard about him and his wife Sarah. In Sunday school we often tell stories about Abraham and his son Isaac.
Abraham had another son whose name was Ishmael. He was the older brother. Isaac and Ishmael had different mothers. When the brothers were little, they used to play together. But Isaac’s mother became jealous of Ishmael. She asked Abraham if he would send his oldest son away, along with his mother Hagar.
What surprises me in this story is that Abraham did what Sarah asked him to do: He sent Ishmael and Hagar away into the desert.
Can you imagine how scared they were? To be sent out into the desert, away from their family, away from food or water or shelter? Hagar placed her son under a tree; then she walked away and cried. They were sad and scared.
Obviously, this is not a perfect family. There’s jealousy, abandonment, fear, sadness. BUT... (and here’s the good news!) God is with them! God is with Ishmael and Hagar -- and even when Abraham sends them away, God does not send them away.
God is right there with them -- giving them food, giving them water, giving them promise and hope. God makes this sad and scary story into a good news story -- God blesses and promises good things to Ishmael and his mother.
Even when people treat each other badly, God stands with them and treats them as beloved children.
The people in the Bible, God’s people, you and me... we’re not perfect. We don’t always treat each other the way God and Jesus teach us. We don’t always love one another.
But one thing is always true -- God loves us and holds us in God’s family -- even when we make mistakes or feel left out. God stays by our side.
Prayer: God of Abraham, you give us a wide family of faith, full of all kinds of people. Sometimes your family shows love to one another -- like you taught us to do. Sometimes your family treats one another badly. We are sorry for this. Thank you for standing by us and calling us your children -- no matter what we do! Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 25, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 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 Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the story of Hagar and Ishmael, and how it reveals that even biblical families often were complicated and dysfunctional (much like their modern counterparts). Chris explores the thought-provoking perspective of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on this narrative, and suggests that Sacks’ emphasis on the themes of grace and reconciliation offer a useful way to resolve the troubles in Abraham’s household, as well as those arising in contemporary families.
Do I Have to Invite Jesus Over for Thanksgiving?
by Mary Austin
Matthew 10:24-39; Genesis 21:8-21
Daytime talk shows, podcasts, and reality TV shows remind us every day that family drama is common, even normal. Advice columns are full of questions about where to place our loyalty. What are our obligations to in-laws, stepchildren, and extended family? What about the troublesome family? The abusive family? None of these questions would have made any sense in Jesus’ day, where loyalty to family was a sacred obligation and duty to family was clear. Family strife may have been normal, but there was no option to check out of the family and find a new one.
The question of who belongs comes at us constantly, in a world where we can select our own tribe. We can choose to live near people who share our economic status, work with people who share our values, and vacation with people who love the same places. We can eat with people who follow the same eating plan, and shop with people who share our taste. At the ballgame, we sit with people who have the same loyalties. Our news comes slanted to our particular taste.
But Jesus pokes his way into our cocoon, raising the question of who belongs in a wider family of faith; and Abraham and Sarah, believing they’re following God’s plan, make a choice to exclude rather than include. So who belongs? Who gets to come over for a family dinner?
In the News
The verdict in the trial of the police officer who killed Philando Castile has brought back to mind the deep divide in the policing that African-Americans and white people receive. Castile’s mother, Valerie Castile, made it clear that she believes justice for minorities works in a different way than justice for white people. After the verdict, she said: “The system continues to fail black people. And it will continue to fail you all.... We are not evolving as a civilization, we are de-evolving.... We are going back down to 1969. What is it going to take? I’m mad as hell.” Daniel Payne argues in The Federalist that this verdict isn’t good for anyone, saying: “It is a genuinely open question whether an American police officer can do almost anything without suffering criminal consequences.” As people were still reeling from the not-guilty verdict, Seattle police shot and killed a mother who called them for help.
The shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise during a baseball practice has highlighted the deadly divisions between Republicans and Democrats. The gunman, reportedly a Bernie Sanders supporter angry about the election, asked someone if the team practicing on the field were Republicans or Democrats. When told they were Republicans, he continued toward the field.
The shooting brought a rare show of unity to members of Congress. “In a statement, Senator Sanders wrote that he had been ‘informed that the alleged shooter at the Republican baseball practice is someone who apparently volunteered on my presidential campaign.’ He went on to say: ‘I am sickened by this despicable act. Let me be as clear as I can be. Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms.’ Congressional leaders, along with rank-and-file members, reacted to reports of the shooting with shock, sympathy, and grief. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that ‘on days like today, there are no Democrats or Republicans, only Americans united in our hopes and prayers for the wounded.’ She commended the Capitol Police for their ‘bravery’ and ‘heroism,’ which she said ‘undoubtedly saved countless lives.’ Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said that ‘this kind of mindless violence must stop’ in a statement.”
Perhaps members of Congress are different from the rest of us. Scientists now believe that having power causes changes in the brain. Our ability to empathize with others changes as we become more powerful. One researcher “put the heads of the powerful and the not-so-powerful under a transcranial-magnetic-stimulation machine, [and] he found that power, in fact, impairs a specific neural process, ‘mirroring,’ that may be a cornerstone of empathy. Which gives a neurological basis to what [another researcher] has termed the ‘power paradox’: Once we have power, we lose some of the capacities we needed to gain it in the first place.” A different researcher “found in studies spanning two decades, [that subjects under the influence of power] acted as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury -- becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view.” People who have power understand themselves differently from others -- they may not see themselves as part of the same family at all.
Conservative opinion writer Matt Vespa, noting that Scalise was saved by a female African-American Capitol Police officer who happens to be married to a woman, says, “I doubt Rep. Scalise is going to wish he was dead because a gay person saved him.” No, but whether he ever says it out loud or not, he will always know that he’s alive because of Officer Crystal Griner. His definition of family may have to expand to include her, and people like her.
In the Scriptures
Promised by God that they will become the founders of a great nation, Abraham and Sarah have been waiting a long time for God to get going by the time Ishmael is born. They have grown old waiting -- and doubtful. In their doubt, they turn to Hagar, Sarah’s slave, hoping that she will bear a son who can continue God’s promises. Hagar has a son, and his birth changes the balance of power in the household. Sarah and Hagar shift roles when Hagar becomes a mother before Sarah does, and Hagar’s son is a reminder of the way Sarah doubted God. Now, after Isaac’s birth, Sarah can’t stand it anymore, and she decides that Hagar and Ishmael aren’t family any more. She is ready to dismiss them, and to let them fend for themselves.
Jesus has a different idea of family loyalty. He promises that he’s come to bring division instead of familial peace. Following him will demand hard choices and new loyalties. Later in Matthew he will make it even clearer, saying that “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). He’s calling his followers to loyalty to God, which will disrupt the usual family demands and create division.
Our devotion to family is strong, but Jesus calls us to a much wider view of family. Our families are often as fragmented as Abraham and Sarah’s, and Jesus reminds us that they don’t need to be perfect. We can let go of some obligations and demands because there’s another place where we belong, even more deeply. We don’t need to get all of our spiritual sustenance, or be diminished, by our original family, because we also belong to a larger family. It requires our faithfulness, and gives us a place to belong.
We often call our church “a family,” with all of the joy and pain that involves. If it is, then we have to see the church family with the same view that Jesus has. Our faith has to be in him, and in God’s plans, more than in the habits that keep the church alive -- and quiet. Peace at any price is not peace, and Jesus calls us to a more vibrant web of relationships in service to God.
In the Sermon
Sarah is eager, and Abraham is reluctant but willing, to send Hagar and Ishmael away. They don’t see her as family, but God -- as always -- has a different idea. God tells Abraham: “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” In other words, God is saying that whenever Abraham tries to work on this promise thing on his own, it doesn’t work out. God will handle it. Don’t mess it up anymore, God is saying to Abraham. In the divine economy, people don’t exist in the either/or way that our minds work. God claims Ishmael and Hagar as family, and the sermon might look at the way God defines family in different ways than we do.
Or the sermon might look at who has the power in a family. Hagar and Sarah shift the balance of power between them, and Isaac’s birth restores Sarah’s power. Who holds the power in our families? If the church is another version of a family, who holds the power there? Like Sarah, does someone in the family have the ability to decide who belongs and who doesn’t? Sarah misuses her power when she sends Hagar away without any way for Hagar to provide for herself and her child. The sermon might also look at how we misuse our power and deny others their place.
Jesus is telling us that calm, quiet families where no one is alive with the truth don’t reflect the kingdom of God. The same is true for our church family. How do we make room to hear hard truths about what it’s like to be part of the LGBTQ+ community? What it’s like to be black in a racist America? What happens to men when the traditional salvation of work goes away, and there’s no more guarantee of a stable future? What is it like to be a woman in a culture full of interruptions and harassment?
Parts of our collective family are in deep pain. They’re already experiencing the sword that Jesus spoke about. In the wake of the Philando Castile verdict, the Rev. Dr. Valerie Bridgeman wrote:
The thing is, Black Folk are spiraling in trauma today (and into tomorrow).
Some of us are hella mad.
The few that ain’t are trying to figure out
how to cover for “Mister Charlie.”
Leave us alone.
Don't tell us you’re sorry.
Destroy this system.
Don’t talk to us.
Go destroy this system you love so well
and from which you benefit so much.
Don’t quote scripture to us
and tell us to calm down.
Shut all the way up.
Quit talking.
Stop wringing your hands
and tsk-ing your tongue.
LEAVE US ALONE.
We’re mad.
We’re tired.
We’re triggered.
Go, kill the snake you kiss at night.
Go, destroy your gods.
Go, learn how to be human.
Leave us alone.
[© Valerie Bridgeman, June 17, 2017, shared with permission]
What are we to make of such deep levels of pain in our family? Jesus promises that “even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.” God understands value, where we have much to learn. God provides for Hagar after she’s cast out of the household where she’s lived for many years, promising that her outcast son is also part of the divine plan.
If we are to fulfill Jesus’ call to faithfulness, our ideas of family have to grow larger and our loyalties deeper. We have to become a family that can live with pain and truth, and also work toward the vision that Jesus has offered us. If we are all of more value than the sparrows, we have to work to do to get where Jesus calls us.
It sounds like a demand, but perhaps it’s really an invitation: “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
SECOND THOUGHTS
A Problem in the Family
by Chris Keating
Genesis 21:8-21
Summertime and family time go together like hotdogs and relish: lazy, long afternoons spent poolside, listening to the radio while the kids splash and play; leisurely nights of grilling burgers and catching fireflies; relaxing trips to the beach or the lake or even a favorite waterpark.
It’s heavenly, right?
Yes, if you don’t have children or if you have an unlimited supply of money.
Don’t get me wrong: summer vacations can be wonderful... in theory, at least. In reality, family vacations can be described as brief snippets of delight stitched together with long stretches of terror that would have made the Donner expedition blanch. For most families, the truth is somewhere between an over-idealized photo shoot from Travel & Leisure and a minivan that reeks of French fries, damp beach towels, and sneakers.
The dissonance between reality and fantasy in family life is real, possibly originating from the pages of Genesis. In fact, the next time someone suggests a sermon series on biblical family values, you might consider starting with the patriarchs. Genesis reminds us that families include siblings who lie, steal, and even murder one another, and wives who encourage their maids to sleep with their husbands. Family values? Try preaching about the time Noah’s kids found their father sleeping naked after an all-night bender and see how that squares up against our understanding of “biblical” family values.
This is a group who knows how to put the “fun” in dysfunctional. God only knows how this ragtag bunch emerged as the primogenitors of the faith.
Indeed. Perhaps God does know why, and perhaps that is why these stories of messy and mixed-up family life may offer comfort to contemporary families. We strive to attain impossible cultural standards of perfection and intra-familial concord, while Genesis tells us about the banishment of Hagar and her son.
This week’s Genesis text offers insight into a family in crisis. The promise of God to Abraham has been fulfilled with the birth of not just one but two sons. Yet God’s promise will be fulfilled only through Isaac, so when Sarah watches as the two boys are playing side by side she becomes concerned. While the NRSV translation suggests a playful interaction, other translations render verse nine “laughing” or even “mocking.”
This family is about to be pushed to the breaking point. Tension escalates as fast as it does among a family stuck inside a cheap motel on a rainy day at Disney World. Abraham is called to sacrifice his eldest son so that Isaac may fulfill his own destiny. Ishmael has to go. It is he who will bear the promise of God.
Practically speaking, however, things are not that simple. If Isaac is to advance, something has to happen to Ishmael. Hagar becomes a problem which needs to be resolved with all the finesse of Michael Corleone settling family affairs.
The point, as Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks observes in his remarkable book Not in God’s Name, is that the text’s ambiguity leaves us to wonder whether Sarah is offended by the suggestion that Ishmael is mocking her son (the child of laughter), or if she despises Ishmael for simply playfully sharing in the feast. Sacks notes that medieval Jewish commentators often wrongly saw this incident as the cause of enmity between the future Muslim descendants of Hagar and Jews.
Sacks also notes that nowhere does the Pentateuch vilify Hagar’s son. “Despite the fact that Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac are the heroes of the story as a whole,” he writes, “in the two crucial scenes in the desert our imaginative sympathies are with Hagar and her child. That is what gives the story its counterintuitive depth.”
In other words, family life is not so easy. We can imagine Abraham grieving the loss of Isaac. “So Abraham rose early in the morning,” the text instructs, “and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away.” The text does not say, but it is not hard to imagine Abraham collapsing with emotion as he sees the confused Ishmael looking over his mother’s shoulder.
Families are complicated. This is true for the families in our congregations, but also for the greater families of faith in our world. Increasing acts of terror continue to split the already divided Abrahamic families. Violence spurs more violence -- as witnessed in London this week when, following a series of ISIS-sponsored attacks, a white man drove a van into a street crowded with Muslims.
We have not learned how to successfully negotiate our family problems. But perhaps the story of Isaac and Ishmael might offer a way forward.
Sacks points out that after their father dies, Isaac and Ishmael are reunited (Genesis 25:9). The boys come to bury their father, and perhaps put to rest decades of family hostility, secrets, and division. It’s a fitting reminder of the power of resilience and healing in families, and an astonishing lesson for the greater human family. In spite of a family history filled with pain and retribution, Ishmael knew he was loved by his father.
But there is more. Isaac makes a discovery about the source of his family’s healing strength. It is the grace of God. It is radical grace that persists and demands that Israel remain open to the other -- even to brothers from another mother. Sacks reminds readers that the counter-narrative of this family story is powerfully instructive:
It asserts that the hierarchy of the ancient world -- where the elder is destined to rule, the younger to serve -- was about to be overthrown. The counter-narrative is more radical still, because it hints at the most radical of monotheism’s truths: that God may choose, but God does not reject. The logic of scarcity -- of alpha males and chosen sons -- has no place in a world made by a God whose “tender mercies are on all his works” (Psalm 145:9) [Not in God’s Name, p. 124].
Preaching about the Bible’s family values may pose problems for contemporary listeners, but those could be the sort of problems which result in new perspectives for healing and peace. That could be a truly heavenly image of family.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Genesis 21:8-21
Late on the night of April 14, 2014, the Boko Haram attacked a girls boarding school in the Nigerian town of Chibok, taking nearly 300 students captive. The Boko Haram want to create an Islamic state, and part of that process is to remove the Western influence in education. The girls were forced to walk behind the invaders to a bridge, where they were crammed into three trucks. As the trucks began to move, several girls made the decision to jump rather than face the treachery of being slave girls. Two of the girls were Joy Bishara, 17, and Lydia Pogu, 16. They traveled by night through brush with thorns that cut their flesh, eventually making it back to their home villages. The human rights group Jubilee Campaign offered to bring the two girls to the United States for freedom and education. The girls quickly accepted the offer. Doug Wead, president of Canyonville Christian Academy, where the girls studied in America, said: “To pick up their dreams where they left them -- in a safe place -- was an easy decision.”
Application: God allowed Hagar to have her dream.
*****
Jeremiah 20:7-13
Late on the night of April 14, 2014, the Boko Haram attacked a girls boarding school in the Nigerian town of Chibok, taking nearly 300 students captive. The Boko Haram want to create an Islamic state, and part of that process is to remove the Western influence in education. Two of the girls who escaped that night were Joy Bishara, 17, and Lydia Pogu, 16. After making it back to their home villages, the human rights group Jubilee Campaign offered to bring them to the United States for freedom and education. In a speech at her recent graduation from Canyonville Christian Academy, Joy said, “I forgive the people who hurt me. I have nothing against them.”
Application: Jeremiah had to continue his mission with a forgiving attitude towards his persecutors.
*****
Psalm 69:7-10 (11-15) 16-18; Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
In a recent interview for People magazine, gold medalist figure skater Scott Hamilton shared how religion allowed him to survive the ordeal of testicular cancer and three brain tumors. Hamilton said: “Cancer put me on the right track. When I had the [first] brain tumor, I realized that I needed to have a relationship with God.” Hamilton went on to say: “I decided I’m going to be physically, spiritually, and mentally stronger than I’ve ever been in my life.”
Application: In reading the Psalms, we realize our dependence on God.
*****
Psalm 69:7-10 (11-15) 16-18; Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
In a recent interview for People magazine, gold medalist figure skater Scott Hamilton shared how religion allowed him to survive the ordeal of testicular cancer and three brain tumors. One brain tumor mysteriously shrunk with no medical explanation. When Scott asked the doctor what happened, all the physician could say was “God.” And Scott simply replied, “Yes.” Scott went on to say: “I’m really willing to accept and recognize the next miracle. The fact that I’m sitting here with you is a miracle.”
Application: The Psalms point us toward the miracles of God.
*****
Romans 6:1b-11
In a recent interview, Katy Perry named some of the men with whom she had sexual relations and then rated them from the best to the worst as sex partners. Perry made no apologies for her candid revelations.
Application: It would appear that we have an example of sinning more so grace can abound.
*****
Matthew 10:24-39
Late on the night of April 14, 2014, the Boko Haram attacked a girls boarding school in the Nigerian town of Chibok, taking nearly 300 students captive. The Boko Haram want to create an Islamic state, and part of that process is to remove the Western influence in education. Two of the girls who escaped that night were Joy Bishara, 17, and Lydia Pogu, 16. After making it back to their home villages, the human rights group Jubilee Campaign offered to bring them to the United States for freedom and education. Upon their recent graduation from Canyonville Christian Academy, the girls outlined their college goals. Lydia wants to be a lawyer, she said, in order “to help my people, my country.” Joy has expressed an interest in becoming a doctor because so many of the poor in her country are denied medical care. Joy said, “What I want to do is save lives.”
Application: Jesus calls us to be disciples.
*****
Matthew 10:24-39
Michelle Carter was recently convicted of manslaughter for using text messages to encourage her boyfriend, Conrad Roy, to commit suicide on July 12, 2014. At the time of the incident both were high school students. One message read, “You just need to do it Conrad.” Another read, “If you want it as bad as you say you do, it’s time to do it today.” Conrad died of carbon monoxide asphyxiation, using the fumes from a gas generator in the cab of a pickup truck in a store parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. The text that the trial judge found most compelling was that when Conrad got out of the truck, Michelle encouraged him to get back in. This was confessed in a text Michelle sent a friend: “I could have stopped it. I was on the phone with him and when he got out of the car because it was working and got scared and I [expletive] told him to get back in.”
Application: Beelzebul is the master of many individuals.
*****
Matthew 10:24-39
Michelle Carter was recently convicted of manslaughter for using text messages to encourage her boyfriend, Conrad Roy, to commit suicide on July 12, 2014. At the time of the incident both were high school students. Conrad died of carbon monoxide asphyxiation, using the fumes from a gas generator in the cab of a pickup truck in a store parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Evelyn Murdock, a friend of Conrad’s, said in a 2015 interview prior to Carter’s trial: “In the moment he needed a friend the most, when he needed the most help, she did the opposite.”
Application: We must decide what values will rule our lives.
*****
Matthew 10:24-39
On April 10, 2012, during his third tour in Afghanistan, Travis Mills unknowingly put his backpack down on a hidden IED. The explosion took off his right arm and leg and caused severe damage to his left extremities, which had to be amputated. Mills is one of only five quadruple-amputee service members to have survived their injuries. It was only because of his family, Travis said, that he was able recover after 19-month stay at Walter Reed Hospital. Travis, along with his wife Kelsey, have raised $2.5 million to restore the historic Elizbeth Arden estate in Maine. At the mansion, recovering service members and their families can vacation together and share together, staying free of charge. Travis said, “We understand what these families have been through.”
Application: We are called to be in a ministry to others.
*****
Matthew 10:24-39
Adam West recently died. For three seasons he played Batman on the television series which ended in 1968. Even though other actors such as Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, and Ben Affleck have portrayed the character in various motion picture ventures, West will always be remembered by many as THE Batman. When the 88-year-old actor died of leukemia on June 9, Affleck tweeted: “Thank you for showing us all how it’s done.”
Application: We must be mindful of our teachers.
***************
From team member Chris Keating:
Genesis 21:8-21
Courage in the Wilderness
Last year, a 12-year-old girl from Utah named Savannah made a momentous decision. Standing before members of her Mormon congregation, she came out as a lesbian. Months earlier, Savannah had begun the process of sharing her understanding of her sexual orientation with her parents and close friends. Soon, she felt what she describes as a calling to come out in church.
Her parents have said they left the decision up to Hannah, who understood that the church does not see homosexuality as compatible with its teachings. Her mother recalled Hannah’s reasons: “I want to be a voice for those that might be positive,” she recalls Savannah saying. “I want them to know that I’m an ally. That they’re safe with me. I want them to know that it’s okay to be Mormon and be gay.”
Much like Hagar and Ishmael, Savannah was immediately plunged into a confusing wilderness experience. As she was offering her testimony during church, a microphone cut out inexplicably. A church official came up to Hannah and told her to sit down. Savannah was confused, but has remained a member of the church. Her parents have said they are proud of her for showing tremendous courage.
“She has more courage than I’ve ever seen in anybody,” said her mother. “To be able to share something so personal with everybody. That made my heart soar as a parent.”
It’s a reminder of the way God listens to the cries of those who experience abandonment. In the absolute desolation of the wilderness, Genesis reminds us that God heard the cries of Ishmael and all children who feel lost and abandoned, no matter what their circumstances.
*****
Psalm 69:7-10 (11-15) 16-18
Delivered from Enemies
With so many conflicts raging around the world, it sometimes seems that diplomacy doesn’t have a prayer. Yet one Italian group is attempting to do that (diplomacy by prayer). The Roman Catholic lay group Community of Sant’Egidio works quietly to end conflicts by placing prayer at the heart of its efforts. Like the psalmist, the community prays for the abundant help of God to set warring parties free from enmity.
The results? It works. On June 19, for example, a large number of factions in the Central African Republic signed a peace agreement, ending years of war. The truce emerged as a result of the spiritually inspired efforts of the Community of Sant’Egidio, which allowed all parties to explore the roots of conflict and created shared values.
*****
Matthew 10:24-39
Proclaiming from the Housetops
Jesus instructs the disciples to be bold in their acts of testimony and witness, trusting in God’s provision as they take up their crosses in following him. Jesus calls the disciples to a new way of living that declares how God is alive.
Philosopher George Yancy wonders if, in spite of a dominant strain of piety that sweeps across the nation, Americans are actually doing the opposite -- worshiping a God who is not alive. In an op-ed essay for the New York Times, Yancy asks:
So, is your God dead? Have you buried God in the majestic, ornamental tombs of your churches, synagogues, and mosques? Perhaps prosperity theology, boisterous, formalistic, and mechanical prayer rituals, and skillful oratory have hastened the need for a eulogy.
Perhaps by remaining in your “holy” places, you have sacrificed looking in the face of your neighbor on the street. You know the one: the one who smells “bad” because she hasn’t bathed in days; the one who carries her home on her body; the one who begs. Surely you’ve seen that “unholy” face. I’ve seen you suddenly look away, making sure not to make eye contact with the “unclean.” Perhaps you’re preoccupied with texting, consumed by a work or family matter. Then again, perhaps it’s prayer time and you need to face east, or perhaps you’re too focused on holy communion as you make your way to church. Your refusal to stop, to linger, to look into her eyes, has already done its damage. Your body has already left a mark in its absence, in its fleeing the scene.
Yancy’s words are provocative, but in many ways they suggest that Christians remain alert to the teachings of Jesus, rather than the preoccupations of society. It’s a demanding call to faith -- one that echoes Christ’s call that “those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Incline your ear, O God, and answer us, for we are poor and needy.
People: Preserve our lives, for we are devoted to you.
Leader: Save your servants who trust in you. You are our God.
People: Be gracious to us, O God, for to you we cry all day long.
Leader: Gladden the soul of your servants, O God.
People: For you, O God, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.
OR
Leader: God calls us to align ourselves in God’s realm.
People: We hear God’s call and seek to belong to God.
Leader: Sometimes being on God’s side makes people leave us.
People: We won’t push others away, but we will stand with God.
Leader: It is not easy to take a stand and still care for others.
People: With God’s help, we will be loving and faithful.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“All Creatures of Our God and King”
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
Renew: 47
“From All That Dwell Below the Skies”
found in:
UMH: 101
H82: 380
PH: 229
NCH: 27
CH: 49
LBW: 550
AMEC: 69
STLT: 381
“The Gift of Love”
found in:
UMH: 408
AAHH: 522
CH: 526
W&P: 397
Renew: 155
“O God of Every Nation”
found in:
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELA: 713
W&P: 626
“Be Thou My Vision”
found in:
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELA: 793
W&P: 502
AMEC: 281
STLT: 20
Renew: 151
“Open My Eyes, That I May See”
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
“Help Us Accept Each Other”
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
“One Bread, One Body”
found in:
UMH: 620
CH: 393
ELA: 496
W&P: 689
CCB: 49
“We Are One in Christ Jesus” (“Somos uno en Cristo”)
found in:
CCB: 43
“Behold, What Manner of Love”
found in:
CCB: 44
“Open Our Yes, Lord”
found in:
CCB: 77
Renew: 91
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who claims all people as your children: Grant us the grace to accept each other as brothers and sisters within your family; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
You have created us, O God, and call each of us your dear child. Your love knows no boundaries or exceptions. So fill us with your Spirit that we may see the unity of the human family in the midst of all its diversity. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to center our entire lives in God.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You created us and you know us intimately, and yet we do not believe that centering our lives in you is best for us. We want to take control. We want to call the shots. We want to decide what is important and what can be left behind. Forgive us, and renew us with your Spirit that we may learn to trust you and your healing presence that makes us whole. Amen.
Leader: God is our loving healer who desires to put us and our relationship right. Receive God’s love and grace, and live with God at the center.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you are the center of our world and the foundation of all creation. You are the One who brings all things to their fullness.
(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. You created us and you know us intimately, and yet we do not believe that centering our lives in you is best for us. We want to take control. We want to call the shots. We want to decide what is important and what can be left behind. Forgive us, and renew us with your Spirit that we may learn to trust you and your healing presence that makes us whole.
We give you thanks for your presence in our lives. You are with us in the good times and the bad times. You call us to find in you the meaning of our lives. Your blessings are constant and sure.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We lift up to you the needs of our world. We offer ourselves as vessels to carry your healing Spirit to others. We pray for those who are struggling to make sense of their lives.
(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
When we are playing a game and choosing sides, we have to decide if we are more interested in winning the game or making friends. Do we pick the best players, or do we include those who can’t play as well so that they do not feel left out? Jesus invites us to make our choices as his disciples.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
God’s Family
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Genesis 21:8-21; Matthew 10:24-39
(Gather the children and welcome them.)
When we talk about families in the Bible, do you think we always find perfect families? (Allow the children to respond -- some might say yes, some might say no.)
I think, because the Bible is about God and Jesus, and because we read and tell stories about how good God and Jesus are... most of us think that all the stories in the Bible are about good people. I’ve found, in reading my Bible, that some of the people in the Bible aren’t always good.
The people we read about in the Bible are human beings -- not too different from you and me. We fight with our brothers or sisters. Some people hate. Some people steal. Some people tell lies. Some people hurt others -- even bullying others. We read in the Bible about people doing these very same things. The good news for them (and for us) is that even when people are far from perfect... God stays with them. Jesus still counts them among his followers.
There’s a story in our Old Testament reading today about two half-brothers: Isaac and Ishmael. These two brothers have the same father: Abraham.
Have you heard of Abraham? Maybe you’ve heard about him and his wife Sarah. In Sunday school we often tell stories about Abraham and his son Isaac.
Abraham had another son whose name was Ishmael. He was the older brother. Isaac and Ishmael had different mothers. When the brothers were little, they used to play together. But Isaac’s mother became jealous of Ishmael. She asked Abraham if he would send his oldest son away, along with his mother Hagar.
What surprises me in this story is that Abraham did what Sarah asked him to do: He sent Ishmael and Hagar away into the desert.
Can you imagine how scared they were? To be sent out into the desert, away from their family, away from food or water or shelter? Hagar placed her son under a tree; then she walked away and cried. They were sad and scared.
Obviously, this is not a perfect family. There’s jealousy, abandonment, fear, sadness. BUT... (and here’s the good news!) God is with them! God is with Ishmael and Hagar -- and even when Abraham sends them away, God does not send them away.
God is right there with them -- giving them food, giving them water, giving them promise and hope. God makes this sad and scary story into a good news story -- God blesses and promises good things to Ishmael and his mother.
Even when people treat each other badly, God stands with them and treats them as beloved children.
The people in the Bible, God’s people, you and me... we’re not perfect. We don’t always treat each other the way God and Jesus teach us. We don’t always love one another.
But one thing is always true -- God loves us and holds us in God’s family -- even when we make mistakes or feel left out. God stays by our side.
Prayer: God of Abraham, you give us a wide family of faith, full of all kinds of people. Sometimes your family shows love to one another -- like you taught us to do. Sometimes your family treats one another badly. We are sorry for this. Thank you for standing by us and calling us your children -- no matter what we do! Amen.
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The Immediate Word, June 25, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 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.
