Ecological Jeremiad
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For September 15, 2019:
Ecological Jeremiad
by Chris Keating
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Jeremiah’s lament in chapter four sounds a bit like the refrain from one of Eric Carle’s classic children’s books: “Jeremiah, Jeremiah, what do you see?”
His response is far from whimsical, however. Jeremiah squints as the hot wind stings his eyes. The earth is laid waste, the heavens darkened by the absence of stars, and mountains quaking. His eyes neither deceive nor exaggerate. As Jeremiah looks around he can only see the fetid byproducts of human foolishness.
There’s no sugarcoating Jeremiah’s lament. He speaks of the world’s devolution and cries out in response to the multiple ways God’s people have acted faithlessly. What’s about to happen is not pretty. The result of their foolishness will be a stunning reversal of creation. He can only offer God’s heartbreaking judgment: “Because of this the earth shall mourn.”
Jeremiah’s prophecy pierces through the centuries to claim new meaning in the wake of the world’s mounting environmental crises. Fire, wind, rain and flood pummel the earth with regularity, creating human suffering. Because of this the earth shall mourn, and we shall too: the ravages of fire claim the rainforests of the Amazon, while Hurricane Dorian reduces the Bahamas to rubble. Glaciers are disappearing, as are many US environmental reforms.
The mourning is more than metaphorical: in Iceland last month, more than a hundred people gathered to hold a funeral to mark the disappearance of a glacier. "The symbolic death of a glacier is a warning to us, and we need action," former Irish president Mary Robinson said during the “glacier funeral.”
Preacher, preacher, what do you see? Jeremiah’s ecologically-tinged images call humans to assess the damage. The text offers an opportunity to explore not only our foolish and wanton wasting of God’s good creation but to also to consider the invitation to repent and begin anew. “Yet I will not make a full end,” proffers God.
The question is whether we can look at the jeremiad before us and see it for what it is.
In the News
Jeremiah’s lament decries the wickedness of human beings and upholds the understanding that God is indeed the God over all creation. Implicit in the pericope is an understanding that caring for creation is an inherent aspect of an individual’s relationship with God. In our time, however, each day seems to bring fresh reminders of how humans have failed at maintaining this fragile bond with earth.
A week after Hurricane Dorian pummeled the Bahamas with wind and rain, residents were still sorting through damage and debris. As of Monday, 45 people had died, with hundreds missing and more than 70,000 homeless. Aid is beginning to arrive on the island of Grand Bahama, where Dorian was stalled for two days and damage has been compared to a war zone.
CNN correspondents Patrick Oppmann, Jaide Timm-Garcia and Jose Armio filed a grim report about ground conditions, saying that “It’s impossible to fully capture the devastation we see every day.” Arriving on the last flight from Miami to Freeport, the journalists took shelter in a beach-front apartment to ride out the storm and report on conditions. A few days later, they made the trek back to the airport and discovered the runways were flooded and the terminal buildings ripped apart.
“We all realized we were going to be on the island for a while,” they said.
If hurricanes could be rated beyond category five, Dorian would have been called a six. The storm’s blows have been beyond catastrophic to the Bahamas. “Grand Bahama is now dead,” reported one resident. Help seems slow to arrive.
The residents decry the waste and void of their home island, a scene familiar to others in the Caribbean who endured previous Category 5 hurricanes like Irma and Maria. While climate change skeptics may abound in the United States, those who have endured the fury of recent hurricanes are dyed-in-the wool believers.
“I know your president doesn’t believe in climate change,” said Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antiqua and Barbuda. But I hope he’ll change his position because, ultimately, it is countries here in the Caribbean that are really suffering the greater consequences from the effects of climate change.” Browne’s nation was hit especially hard by Irma in 2017, and faced more than $220 million in damages.
Scientists report that the evidence linking these deadly storms to climate change is irrefutable. Storms arise from warmer ocean temperatures. Rising sea levels contribute to higher storm surges, and mega storms are now known to stall over land as Dorien did.
Tim Hall is a NASA researcher who finished a study this summer demonstrating how climate change leads to slower-moving hurricanes. But even Hall was stunned by the images of Dorian stalled over the Bahamas. Watching it “just spinning there, spinning there, spinning there, over the same spot,” Hall said, “you can’t help but to be awestruck and speechless.”
Yet instead of having conversations about climate change, we’re arguing over Sharpie markers and amended forecast maps. Scientists are quick to point out that Dorian is not an outlier but is rather a hallmark of what to look for in coming years. Models suggest that Category 4 and 5 level storms could become twice as common over the next century, even if the total number of storms declines. Research continues to tease out the links between human caused warming.
While researchers cannot attribute any single weather disaster to climate change, they can begin to determine how likely this sort of storm will happen again, and also predict how much worse future hurricanes will be. Hall indicates that it is not a pretty picture.
But hurricanes are just one of the effects. The deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest and the wide-spread fires burning across equatorial territories could eradicate the rainforest forever. Left unchecked, about half of the rainforest could transition into savannah. The result would be that the lands which once trapped carbon would be emitting it. Some believe the world is already at that tipping point — or at least getting close.
In Brazil, Roman Catholic archbishop Erwin Krautler called the situation in the Amazon a “true apocalypse.” He’s expected to use an upcoming papal synod at the Vatican as an opportunity to speak out against all forms of rainforest destruction. The archbishop hopes to persuade Pope Francis to reinforce his actions on climate change by issuing an apostolic exhortation about the Amazon crisis.
Pope Francis has been steadfast in his resolve to speak out about climate change, and has often been at odds with leaders like President Donald Trump and Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. The refusal of leaders to pay attention to science may lead to disastrous consequences not unlike the predictions of Jeremiah. The list is worth considering:
Will communities along the US coastline survive?
If private insurance is unavailable, will FEMA continue to have funds to cover the equivalent of “Cheryl’s She Shed?”
Will climate change-based heatwaves of 122 degrees or more in Phoenix prompt Katrina-level casualties?
Will we understand the full economic implications of disasters — looking beyond the cost of rebuilding following wind, fire, and flood to include the costs associated with diverting money away from other projects and infrastructure. When disasters occur, they often “crowd out” other projects and investments. “The situation,” writes economist Gary Yohe, “is just a lot more dire then anyone realizes. With any luck, the size of the figure will frighten us to do more to stave off the worst.”
“Disaster overtakes disaster,” Jeremiah cries in verse 20. His anguish and grief are bitter, for the people look but do not see.
In the Scripture
“Jeremiad,” meaning long or woeful complaint, is derived from the name of “Jeremiah,” the Hebrew prophet known for his lament and hellfire preaching. The prophet is moved to gut-wrenching aguish by the stupidity and foolishness of God’s people. He imagines the power of a searing sirocco wind, whose intensity will bring judgment and destruction. There’s not a lot of good news in these verses. God’s frustration echoes through the poetry, revealing the devastating suggestion that God is about to reverse creation.
There is rhetorical power in Jeremiah’s repeated “I looked” statements which seem to indicate that the situation is so horrible that his eyes remain fixed on the horror. This is pure terror, and its intent is to awaken Israel from its folly. The people who have abandoned Yahweh’s covenant are “foolish,” “stupid,” and “skilled in evil.” They lack the ability to do good.
This foolishness is epitomized by the fact that Israel no longer “knows” God. The verb refers to the intimate sharing between spouses. Jeremiah speaks of the deepest pain of a people who no longer share a full experience of God. They do not know. Because of this, emptiness, desolation, and dislocating judgment of God will blast apart the world. This is what Jeremiah grieves. The earth shall mourn, and as Sharon Burch notes, it is as if “(Jeremiah) had peered into the abyss of absolute nothingness or encountered a spiritual black hole.” (Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4, Proper 19).
The challenge of this unknowing is great. Indeed, as Ellen F. Davis notes in her essay, “Knowing Our Place on Earth” in The Green Bible, the assumption behind Jeremiah’s lament is that the earth will not last forever. “The prophets challenge us to see human conduct and the world as God must see it,” she writes. Jeremiah’s language thus reverses the pattern of creation. Step-by-step, it begins to fade: first light, then the mountains, then humans, and then nothing.
Davis adjures us to pay attention, noting that Jeremiah insists that moral responsibility for the planet is deeply connected to human activity. God’s concerns go beyond spiritual matters to the very real matter of creation. Jeremiah imagines the very undoing of creation, as well as God’s heartbreaking anger. Yet even in this desolation, some hope remains, as noted in verse 27. “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.”
In the Sermon
Sometimes the mounting disasters just seem too much. Hurricanes, devastating floods, wildfires and more are part of the regular news cycle. Our hearts melt at the thought of human loss, and we may be compelled to do something. We put together a kit of cleaning supplies, or give blood, or perhaps organize a team of volunteer workers.
Those responses are wonderful, and necessary, of course. But Jeremiah’s lament provides an opportunity to allow the stinging hot wind of the desert to lash us from complicity. The prophet calls us to the hard work of looking at creation in crisis. If we wonder how we might regain intimacy with God, perhaps looking at images of a scarred and broken creation might be the first step. A sermon could dwell on these landscapes from Jeremiah, pairing them with indications of how humanity’s folly over creation impacts us today.
The hardest move will be finding hope amidst the ruins. The wind’s destructive force may threaten our own spirits. The overwhelming data of despair regarding creation often has a paralyzing effect. “How can I make a change? What difference does recycling make, anyway?” These practical questions are reinforced by skeptics and others who believe human influence over the climate is either a hoax or at least greatly overstated.
The key to preaching about the environment is to allow the text to speak for itself. Remind the congregation of God’s great commitment to pursue an intimate relationship with human beings. Develop an ecological understanding of what it means to “know God” in that deeply intimate fashion. Speak of God’s loving care in creation so that God’s heart-breaking anguish over human foolishness will speak for itself. There are images of how we can practice the solemn work of rebuilding earth, the work our Jewish siblings name as “tikum olam,” or repairing the world.
Connected to God, the good news suddenly emerges in a flash of abundance. Desolation is removed, and grace appears. Moses’ pleading with God in this week’s Exodus text comes to mind. Moses recites Israel’s history and recalls all of God’s promises. “And the Lord’s mind changed about the disaster that had been planned.” Preacher, preacher, what do you see? Preacher, preacher, what do you see?
SECOND THOUGHTS
Where’s the Joy
by Tom Willadsen
Luke 15:1-10
In the Scriptures
Luke 15:1-10
This week’s gospel lesson consists of twin parables Jesus tells to the tax collectors and other sinners. The Pharisees and scribes grumble about Jesus because he welcomed and ate with conspicuous sinners. The tax collectors were sort of collaborators with the Roman occupiers. Jews, like Jesus, but on their oppressors’ payroll. Tax collectors also had a reputation for collecting more tax than was due and pocketing the extra. Sinners were also outcasts. For Jesus to talk to them and eat with them was something the scribes and Pharisees knew better than to do. The word in the NRSV “welcomed” could be “received” or even “hosted.” Jesus’ acceptance of them went beyond mere toleration.
Jesus told the outcasts these parables, but the scribes and Pharisees were close enough to eavesdrop. Perhaps the scribes and Pharisees were Jesus and Luke’s intended audience.
A Word about Sheep
Most of us do not have much knowledge of sheep. We encounter them as we read the Bible a whole lot more often than we do in real life. Not only do they live in the country and most Americans live in the suburbs — have you seen the price of mutton these days? Sheep live in herds. There’s safety in numbers for sheep. They stay close together. One reason they stay together is they do not have very good vision. They bleat to each other, checking in, confirming the presence of the others in the fold.
A pastor colleague who left a career as a large animal veterinarian told me “A sick sheep is a dead sheep.” What she meant was that herds of sheep are very adept at concealing the weak and vulnerable in the flock. By the time an affected sheep came to the attention of the shepherd or veterinarian it’s illness or injury was obvious, and had gone on so long, that the sheep was in very bad shape.
Sheep are not considered to be assertive or aggressive. Think about how we use the term today. A sheepish person is one without agency, one who is acted upon. The images in Isaiah of the lion lying down with the lamb convey a sense of harmony in nature where the most vulnerable animals are safe in the presence of the most feared hunter. Woody Allen said, “I’ve always liked ‘someday the lamb will lay by the lion…but it won’t get much sleep.’” Which shows the contrast between hunter and hunted.
So there’s a flock of 100 sheep in the wilderness and one of them ‘gets lost.’ Does it stray? Did it go off on its own willfully or cluelessly? Either way, it’s vulnerable out there in the wilderness. What kind of shepherd leaves the 99 who stayed safe in the herd and goes after the one that’s isolated and easy prey? Is this what the good shepherd would do? In the parable, the shepherd goes into the wilderness and brings the lost sheep back. But it gets better, the shepherd is so filled with joy that he tells his neighbors to rejoice with him, because he got back something that was important to him.
Perhaps a modern version of this parable would end, “And which one of you who, after finding your car keys next to the cottage cheese in the refrigerator, posts on Facebook saying, ‘I’m so happy that I finally found my car keys! Now I can make it to the craft fair!’?”
There is more joy in heaven when someone is brought back to the fold, than when a whole lot more “sheep” never need any help.
My whole career I have focused on the ones who are lost and brought back, rather than the response in heaven. In your congregational context, who are the 99 who never go astray? Do you have anyone among your membership who needs to be brought back to the fold? Repeatedly? If your metric for church success is joy, you’re better off going after the lost ones than continuing to tend the ones who never stray.
Back to Luke
The text supports a reading that the Pharisees and scribes are the ones who don’t need to be rescued. They’re back in the herd, safety in numbers and all that. Did you notice that the sheep has no agency in this parable? The shepherd does all the work — notices the lamb’s absence, finds it, brings it back and then commands his neighbors to rejoice with him. Think about that when you’re preaching to the 99 — rejoicing is commanded! The joy in heaven that concludes this first parable is conditioned on a sinner repenting, that is taking some initiative, but it’s clear that the shepherd’s desire is to go after that one, and celebrate when it is restored.
The next parable about the woman with the ten coins reinforces the point of the first parable. The one that gets lost is precious and worth looking for. And when it’s found, celebration is demanded.
A Little Deeper Look into Luke
The lectionary omits the third parable in Luke 15, the parable of the Prodigal Son and his Brother. This is good news/bad news for the preacher. There is no parable that provokes such a passionate response as the parable that concludes Luke 15.
Some point out that Jesus is a brilliant teacher in telling these parables in this sequence. One in a hundred is important, and worth rejoicing over. One in ten is important and worth seeking, finding and rejoicing over. One in two is important and worth celebrating when he returns. The sequence sort of narrows and focuses God’s love and intention for all things.
There was a man in a church I used to serve who detested the parable of the Prodigal Son and His Brother. Not only did it mention, and therefore, endorse slavery — after all, who ran to get the best robe, the ring and the sandals, who prepared the fatted calf for the party? Slaves! Its message was that the shiftless and irresponsible get rewarded, while the hardworking get nothing! Everytime I planned to preach on Luke 15 I’d phone this man and advise him to stay home. We were both a lot happier that way.
Still, I remain sad and even frustrated at this man’s inability to see the parable from any other point of view. More than any others the parables in Luke 15 change shape depending on whose perspective one brings to them.
How does the lost sheep feel on being restored to the shelter of the herd? How does the coin feel, joining the other nine in the woman’s purse? How does the herd feel, getting back the lost one, perhaps the one who is most likely to stray and put itself in danger? Do the coin and sheep realize that they are very precious to the other sheep and the woman? The most significant difference between the first two and third parable in Luke 15 is that prodigal actually takes initiative and, after hitting bottom, literally repents, heading back home, where at least the pigs get a decent meal. The father welcomes him home extravagantly and the older brother is profoundly hurt and offended. The conclusion of this parable — the conclusion of this series of three parables — is left unresolved. Dad comes out and says, “We had to celebrate.” There’s that command again, but we do not know whether the older brother is able to put his resentment aside and have some prime rib. There’s an implicit invitation to the reader of the parable to join the party — or not. Even conspicuous failures, even those who bring embarrassment to their families are loved by God. The rejoicing by the shepherd, the woman and most of the prodigal’s family is the heart, and the scandal, of the gospel.
Who is the One in 100?
Last Sunday I filled in for a colleague who was on vacation. This church celebrates “The Feast of the First Sunday” by intinction. Worshipers form one single file line. They take a piece of bread from the serving elder on their right and sidle left to dip it in the chalice. I was on chalice duty. As each person approached me I looked them in the eye and said, “The cup of the new covenant.” I left the microphone on, which is the sort of misstep that happens when I do not have home pulpit advantage. About two thirds of the way through the distribution of the sacrament a developmentally delayed adult, age 60ish by my guess, came forward led by a man of about her age. He guided her through taking a piece of bread and led her to dip it in the chalice. “The cup of,” I began, when she displayed her newly painted finger nails, with obvious glee, “They’re lovely!” I exclaimed…. “the new covenant,” I concluded. The sanctuary was filled with eye rolls, “There she goes again,” most of them were thinking. Maybe this woman had been showing her nails, with obvious glee for weeks, even years perhaps. It struck me, as the outsider surprised by the joy on her face — actually, her face was not large enough to contain her joy — that she was the only one who was participating in “the joyous feast of the people of God.” The rest of the worshipers were shuffling through the sacrament, orderly, waiting their turn for the foretaste of the kingdom. They’ll be there next month too. The Body of Christ. The cup of the new covenant. Turn around go back to your pew. Open the book to the concluding hymn. Sing. Benediction. See you next week.
This woman got it. Her joy was obvious. Her joy was real. Her joy was disruptive. The herd would be diminished without her. The herd protects her. She’s safe there. But does the herd rejoice with her? Do they accept her and celebrate with her? Do they celebrate her?
Most of us are Pharisees and scribes. Most of the people who will gather for worship on September 15 are the insiders, the ones who know enough to exclude the tax collectors and sinners. Who among us should go out and bring the stray sheep back to the safety of the herd? Who will get down on their knees and help the woman sweep her one-room home, because that coin is precious? We’re the 99. We’re the nine. We’re the older brother. We’re the ones who need to be commanded to rejoice. Whose nail polish are we missing?
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Luke 15:1-10
Meeting the Lost Sheep on a Bench
We often think of depression as an illness of wealthy countries, and yet it has even more impact in places with fewer resources. “Globally, more than 300 million people suffer from depression, according to the World Health Organization. Depression is the world’s leading cause of disability and it contributes to 800,000 suicides per year, the majority of which occur in developing countries.” In Zimbabwe, a team of grandmothers has set themselves the task of watching out for people who may be lost to depression – they seek out the lost sheep in their communities, and keep them connected to the rest of the flock.
As the BBC tells the story, “Dixon Chibanda, a psychiatrist in Harare, Zimbabwe, received a call from a doctor in an emergency room. A 26-year-old woman named Erica who Chibanda had treated months before had attempted suicide. The doctor said he needed Chibanda’s help to make sure Erica didn’t try it again. Erica was at a hospital more than 100 miles (160km) away, however, so Chibanda and her mother came up with a plan by phone. As soon as Erica was released from the hospital she and her mother would come see Chibanda to reevaluate her treatment plan.
A week passed, and then two more, with no word from Erica. Finally, Chibanda received a call from her mother. Erica, she told him, had killed herself three days before. “Why didn’t you come to Harare?” Chibanda asked. “We had agreed that as soon as she’s released, you will come to me!” “We didn’t have the $15 bus fare to come to Harare,” her mother replied.
The response left him speechless. In the months that followed, Chibanda found himself haunted by the case. He also knew that Erica’s inability to access care due to distance and cost was not exceptional but, in many countries, in fact was the norm.” How could such lost sheep be found, the doctor wondered?
He came to an unlikely solution: grandmothers. “Since 2006, Chibanda and his team have trained over 400 of the grandmothers in evidence-based talk therapy, which they deliver for free in more than 70 communities in Zimbabwe. In 2017 alone, the Friendship Bench, as the programme is called, helped over 30,000 people there.” The grandmothers, many with little formal education, received evidence-based training, but they also insisted that there be another part to the program. “In order to reach people, they insisted, they needed to communicate through culturally rooted concepts that people can identify with. They needed, in other words, to speak the language of their patients. So in addition to the formal training the received, they worked together to incorporate Shona concepts of opening up the mind, and uplifting and strengthening the spirit.”
One person at a time, one conversation at a time, the grandmothers are reaching out to the lost sheep in their own communities.
* * *
Luke 15:1-10
The Bad Kids
Vonda Viland is the principal for the bad kids, as the students at her alternative school are labeled. When the students come to her school, they are behind, missing credits and have educational deficits. As she explains, “Some of the students who attend here are homeless. They come from families where there’s been drug addiction, alcoholism, physical or verbal abuse. They suffer from generational poverty. Often, no one in their family ever graduated from high school, so education has not been a priority in their families. Many of them are the caregivers for their siblings.” Yet, they succeed at her school where they have failed in other settings. Her philosophy treats each student like the lost sheep in Jesus’ parable. She outlines “her simple guiding philosophy: Stay positive, take it one day at a time, and focus relentlessly on the child in front of you. At Black Rock, despite the long odds, this appears to be working: Last year, 55 students who hadn’t succeeded at traditional high schools graduated, with 43 enrolling in community college and 12 joining the military.”
About being their shepherd she says, “Honestly, if you take the time to talk with them and to listen to them, they will open up and tell you everything you want to know. They fill my cup much more than I can ever, ever fill theirs, and so they’ve just inspired me so much that I can’t imagine working with any other population. This demographic has always been the group of kids that I’ve navigated to.”
Noting a difference from traditional public schools, she says, “At a traditional high school, you’re stuck there from September to January and January to June for the typical quarter or semester program. At our school, the students can graduate whenever they finish. So there’s a lot of motivation to work through the curriculum quickly and, because they can’t receive anything under a C on an assignment, to produce quality work. If our students want to be done and move on with their lives, they’ve got to do the work. So far this year, I’ve had 21 graduates. The day they finish that last assignment, they’re done.”
On the last day, the school has a ceremony for the student who is done, affirming their place in the flock, and sending them out into the world. The principal says, “on their last day here, they walk the hall — everyone comes out and says goodbye to them. It gives the students the accolades that they deserve for their hard work and growth, but it also inspires other students.” When they see somebody who had a bad attitude or was a discipline problem, when they see a student like that walk the hall, they say, “If they can do it, I can do it.” Each lost sheep becomes an inspiration for others.
* * *
Luke 15:1-10
Tending the Sheep
Everyone involved in raising children struggles to balance freedom and oversight, just as shepherds have to balance watching the sheep closely and letting them roam far enough to find food. Attorney and author Bob Goff and his wife, Maria, have some advice about not letting the sheep — or the child — wander too far away.
Goff recalls that when each child turned ten, he or she got to choose an adventure with their dad. “The oldest, Lindsey, chose to have high tea in London. Richard wanted to hike the back of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. The youngest, Adam, wanted to ride motorcycles across the Mojave Desert, which included 700-foot-tall sand dunes. His wife, Maria, thought this final trip was too risky.”
Bob told her they would be fine, and set off with their camping gear and two motorcycles. Taking risks was a good thing, though he appreciated his wife’s concern for him and their son.
Once out riding, father and son topped a few sand dunes together. As he lost track of Adam for a moment, he heard an engine at full throttle. Bob motored his bike over the next dune to find the source. There, he saw Adam intending to jump from one sand dune to another.
“No!” Bob yelled, as his son, now a yellow blur, launched himself from the dune’s peak. In mid-air, Adam lost his grip on the handlebars and fell 120 feet before landing near the wreckage of his motorcycle. Bob raced to his son, expecting the worst. But when he arrived, Adam grinned beneath a dirt-smudged face. “That was awesome.”
“Later, as Bob thought about this adventure, he agreed that it was indeed an awesome experience. Although the trip with Adam didn’t go as planned, his son left the desert a wiser young man. This was Adam’s first step toward appreciating the difference between healthy, calculated risks and impulsive, life-threatening ones. And the opportunity to test his limits — to try the impossible and to greet epic failure with delight rather than despair — gave him a confidence that he could gain no other way.”
Perhaps the sheep need to wander a little — just a little. “The Goffs’ daughter, Lindsey, and her eighth-grade class were set to tour Washington, DC, in November, two months after 9/11. Bob and Maria worried about their daughter’s safety, yet they waved goodbye at the airport. Then Bob booked a flight to DC. The whole trip, he followed the group at a distance, without being intrusive or getting in the way. As Lindsey grew in independence, Bob remained near, in case he was needed. The Goffs believe the purpose of parenting is to work your way out of a job by allowing kids to take responsibility and learn lessons for themselves — with parental oversight.”
Being a parent, or aunt or uncle, or guardian, is a lot like being a shepherd.
* * *
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Recovering from Who We Were
As Paul writes to Timothy, he talks about the astounding changes in his life, noting that he is now completely different, by God’s grace, from the person he once was. Recovering lawyer Bob Goff has made a similar switch in his own life, giving up the law to be an apostle for love. Yes, even the difficult people, Goff says. “I’m just reminded that God makes people and people make issues but people aren’t issues. People are people. If you wanna get a report card on your faith, see how you are dealing with people who are really difficult to deal with. So it’s just stories about people who are my teachers, really, on this idea of how do you navigate this idea of turning into love in a world that’s full of difficult people.”
Goff adds: “I have the sense that whoever here on earth we couldn’t get along with, Jesus will make us roommates in heaven. These are principles that Jesus talked about: to love everybody, always, and to start with the people who are more difficult. The people that are my friends and are easy to get along with, they make me feel like I’m a boss at loving people. So I’m trying to get beyond that.
“From the book, we have a witchdoctor school. These guys were sacrificing children; They were death penalty cases. I tried the first [case] in the country. But then I ran into Matthew 5 about loving your enemies, and I’m like “These guys are actually my enemy because of what they do.” So I had to decide for me, do I want to be right or do I want to be Jesus? And there’s an opportunity to be bold, [but] you have to be humble.
“So we started meeting with witchdoctors, I actually met with over 1,000 witchdoctors so far in Uganda. I command every witchdoctor to meet with me and they come, and they’re creepy dudes. And I asked them, what do you need? And they said, “Well we don’t know how to read or write.” So get this, I started a witchdoctor school a couple years ago. It’s so creepy.
“And the only books they have in witchdoctor school are the Bible and Love Does. And there’s something beautiful that happens, and some of the stories in the book of unlikely calls of people who used to do the most horrific things or have actually changed. Like, they bumped into not all of my opinions, but they bumped into Jesus.
“I’m a lawyer, I win arguments for a living. But I’m not trying to be Jesus’ lawyer. He said, follow me, not represent me.”
We all have the capacity within us, by grace, to make equally big changes, as Paul demonstrates with his own life.
* * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:
Psalm 51
For I know my transgressions
The nation is recognizing the first slaves to arrive in America 400 years ago. Virginia is marking this anniversary with a historical marker that signifies the spot of the first landing of Africans in America 400 years ago at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam spoke at the ceremony. Speaking to the assembled crowd Northam said, “we are a state that for too long has told a false story of ourselves.” He went on to say, “The legacy of racism continues not just in isolated incidents, but as part of a system that touches every person and every aspect of our lives, whether we know it or not, and if we're serious about righting the wrong that began here at this place we need to do more than talk. We need to take action.”
* * *
Exodus 32:7
The LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people…”
The movie industry is changing to bring people back into the theaters. Movies are now being made that can be viewed on the big screen, but on television or a smart phone the images will be distorted. The film industry is also changing its approach to the audience. Ang Lee, who produced Life of Pi and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, is promoting a new approach to film making with his movie Gemini Man, which will be released on October 11. Lee said of the movie Gemini Man, “You’re not watching somebody else’s story. You are experiencing a story.”
* * *
Jeremiah 4:22
For my people are foolish
Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was in a federal prison awaiting trial for sexually molesting underage girls. He was in a federal maximum-security prison when he committed suicide. Even though there would not be a trial, US District Judge Richard Berman offered Epstein's accusers an extraordinary opportunity to speak in court. During the proceedings, Jennifer Araoz, who has accused Epstein of raping her in his New York mansion when she was a 15-year-old aspiring actress said, “The fact I will never have a chance to face my predator in court eats away at my soul. Even in death, Epstein is trying to hurt me. I had hoped to at last get an apology, but this evil man had no remorse or caring for what he did to anyone.” Actress Anouska De Georgiou, who says was she was sexually abused by Epstein as a teenager said in court, “I was a victim, but I will not remain a victim and be silent for one more day. Although I think it's tragic when anybody dies before their time, I'm extremely relieved that Jeffrey Epstein will not be in a position to hurt any more children or any more women.”
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Luke 15:6
Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.
In the comic strip Peanuts we have a series of frames of Snoopy reflecting on the decades of society. In the first frame he is sitting on the floor reading a book and he says, “I missed the Golden Age of Vaudeville.” In the next frame Snoopy looks at Lucy who is listening to the radio and says, “I missed the Golden Age of radio.” In the next frame he is sitting in front of a television and says, “I missed the Golden Age of television.” In the last frame we see Snoopy sleeping on top of his dog house and he says, “I refuse to miss the Golden Age of sleeping.”
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Jeremiah 4:22
For my people are foolish
Andrew Luck, the quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, announced two weeks before the opening game against the Los Angeles Chargers, that he was retiring from football. The 29-year-old player gave up millions of dollars to protect his heath. Luck said, “'For the last four years or so, I've been in this cycle of injury, pain, rehab — injury, pain, rehab — and it's been unceasing, unrelenting, both in season and off season. I felt stuck in it, and the only way I see out is to no longer play football. It's taken my joy of this game away.”
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From team member Bethany Peerbolte
Exodus 32:7-14
I thought We Went Over This Already
“We almost had a generation of non-smokers.” The comment from my 22-year-old niece hit my heart hard. She was right. I knew I didn’t like vaping, but it had never occurred to me how damaging they really were. The ad campaigns of the ’90s and ’00s showed the truth of smoking. Side by side pictures of a healthy lung and a smoker’s lung were printed on cigarette packages. Commercials showed people smoking through stomas after having a laryngectomy. States banned smoking from public areas, casting smokers to the edges of appropriate societal interaction. These efforts paired with watching our grandparents die of smoking-related illnesses nearly gave us a generation of non-smokers.
Then the cool new e-cigarettes hit the market. With its ease of use, tasty flavors, and promises of safety, people who had never smoked before ventured into the addictive world of tobacco use. This month reports are pouring in about the dangers of vaping. A mysterious new lung disease is baffling doctors, with 5 deaths causally linked to vaping. With the threat nearly extinguished we have forgotten to stay on the path against the damaging effects of smoking.
When Moses went up to meet with God, he thought he had instructed the people enough for them to remain on the true path. They knew the dangers of idols and turning away from God so he thought it was safe to give them some space. Moses was wrong. After a short time, they forget the dangers and go back to their old ways. God tells Moses you better get back there and reteach them how to be my people.
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Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Walls of Our Heart
My initial response to this lectionary option was “Oooph.” I was taught every passage has an ounce of grace in it, but every once in awhile, I want to email that seminary professor and ask where, exactly. There are eight words in verse 27 one could say is grace-ish, “Yet I will not make a full end.” Gee, thanks God, for not putting us out of our misery.
As I read over and over, looking for the encouragement of these verses I got stuck on verse 19. “My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.” It made me think of the things that affect the walls of my heart in this way. The things I can’t seem to keep my big mouth shut about. The things that make my friends roll their eyes when I chime in “well actually,…” or the Facebook battles I cannot seem to convince myself not to take on with family members. These verses seemed to be saying that I am meant to speak up. Even that God is there with me moving the world forward through the cries for justice my heart keeps making.
Lennon Walls are not a new concept. The first one popped up in the ’80s in response to John Lennon’s cry for peace. Today in Hong Kong Lennon walls are appearing all around the city. Citizens are feeling the need to offer support and a reminder that they are not alone. Some of these locations are curated by local artists, others are spontaneous installments as people pass by with a post-it note and a message to share. The government has actively sought out and taken down these walls. Artists have even been attacked while working on a new one. Yet the walls keep showing up. Showing their neighbors and the world just how the walls of their heart are hurting.
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Luke 15:1-10
Leave it Alone
I had to laugh this week. The Old Testament reading gives us Moses leaving the many who then fall into bad habits, and the New Testament reading tells us it is good for the shepherd to leave the many to find the one. I can hear Moses saying “I do not advise this plan.” When the many are left behind it becomes our responsibility to maintain the path. In nature, leaving things alone is advisable.
In the mid-’90s, hundreds of truckloads of orange peels were dumped in a Costa Rican park. The park was in decline and the land was becoming more barren each year. Researchers set aside 7 acres to see if they could jump-start growth. They dumped the orange peels and left the area alone. 16 year later, the area with the orange peels is thriving! Being left alone works for creation, humans can find a way to make it work so that the lost one can be found and the shepherd can come back to a thriving community.
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WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: God looks on humankind to see if any are wise.
People: God looks to see if there are any who seek after God.
Leader: We have all gone astray, we are all alike perverse.
People: There is no one who does good, no, not one.
Leader: O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion!
People: When God restores our fortunes, we will rejoice.
OR
Leader: The Shepherd calls us to gather as the flock .
People: We hear the call and come together.
Leader: Some of the sheep are missing and shepherd is looking for them.
People: We will look after each other as we call to the lost ones.
Leader: When the Shepherd returns with the lost, we will rejoice.
People: All Heaven will join in our songs of joy.
OR
Leader: The Earth groans and cries in distress.
People: We have devastated the good gift of creation.
Leader: The poor suffer with the ecological crisis.
People: We have attacked them when we hurt the earth.
Leader: Heed the cry of the earth and its people.
People: We will care for the earth and the poor upon it.
Hymns and Songs:
God Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens
UMH: 150
H82: 580
PH: 268
NCH: 556
CH: 651
LBW: 463
ELW: 771
W&P: 644
I Sing the Almighty Power of God
UMH: 152
H82: 398
PH: 288
NCH: 12
W&P: 31
Renew: 54
For the Healing of the Nations
UMH: 428
NCH: 576
CH: 668
W&P: 621
O God of Every Nation
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELW: 713
W&P: 626
Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us
UMH: 381
H82: 708
PH: 387
AAHH: 424
NNBH: 54
NCH: 252
CH: 558
LBW: 481
ELW: 789
W&P: 440
AMEC: 379
The King of Love, My Shepherd Is
UMH: 138
H82: 645/646
PH: 171
NCH: 248
LBW: 456
ELW: 502
Renew: 106
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
ELW: 733
W&P: 72
AMEC: 84
Renew: 249
For the Fruits of This Creation
UMH: 97
H82: 424
PH: 553
NCH: 425
CH: 714
LBW: 563
ELW: 679
W&P: 723
Holy Ground
CCB: 5
Behold, What Manner of Love
CCB: 44
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who created the world for all of us to share in its bounty:
Grant us the wisdom to protect and preserve your gift
so that all you children may enjoy its goodness;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are the creator of all that is and of this wonderful world we live in. You have blessed us with a bountiful earth to support all our needs. Give us the will to take care of it so that its goodness can be shared by all your children. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our lack of care for creation and those impacted by our carelessness.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have gifted us with the wondrous earth that feeds us and sustains us and we have pillaged it. We have polluted the waters, the air and the earth itself. We have taken more than we need and we wasted its resources. In doing this we have put many people in jeopardy. We have made the resources they need more costly than they can afford. We have made their homes uninhabitable. We have disrespected you by harming your creation and your creatures. Forgive us and give us hearts that we may amend our destructive ways. Amen.
Leader: God’s creation is a good gift sent to us out of boundless love. God rejoices that we want honor that gift and the gift we have in our sisters and brothers on this earth.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory are yours, O God, because you are the gracious creator of earth and of us. Your creation overflows with your love and grace.
(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 have gifted us with the wondrous earth that feeds us and sustains us and we have pillaged it. We have polluted the waters, the air and the earth itself. We have taken more than we need and we wasted its resources. In doing this we have put many people in jeopardy. We have made the resources they need more costly than they can afford. We have made their homes uninhabitable. We have disrespected you by harming your creation and your creatures. Forgive us and give us hearts that we may amend our destructive ways.
We give you thanks for all the wonderful blessings of this life and of this creation. You supply all our needs and grant us an abundance of beauty and joy.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for your creation as it tries to recover from the damage we have done to it. We pray for those people who suffer because of our disregard for the earth. We pray for your children who have lost their way in life.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about getting lost, how scary it is. It is scary for the one who is lost but also for those folks who are looking for them. Talk about how happy everybody is when the lost person is found. God feels the same way about us. When we lose our way, Jesus comes to find us and bring us back to God.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Crazy Love
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 15:1-10
You will need: A silver dollar or other valuable coin. (If you are an amateur magician that would help but it isn’t necessary.)
The Message
Gather the children together. Best if you are all sitting, you a little higher than they are.
Show them the coin and say:
This is a silver dollar. It’s kinda valuable, right?
Well, what if I lost it. (Amateur magicians make the coin disappear.) How do you suppose that would make me feel? Sad, right?
So, let’s say I lost the coin. What should I do?
First, I’d look for it, right? I’d look under the couch, and under the bed, and under all the furniture. I take the cushions off the couch and look there. I’d look just about everywhere. I might even call my friends over to help me look for it.
And then, wonder of wonder, what if we found my precious coin? (coin reappears).
How would I feel then? Happy, right? And what do you suppose I should do with my coin — after we found it? Put it in a safe place? Put it in the bank?
Nah! I think what I would do with my coin is SPEND IT on candy and share the candy with my friends who helped me look for my lost coin. Pretty good idea?
Yeah, maybe not a great idea. But, you know what? Jesus says that is exactly how much God loves us. God loves us so much that when one of us drifts away from God and then comes back, God throws a big party in heaven to celebrate. Because we’re much more valuable than some old coin, right?
That’s right. God’s love for us is extravagant, and generous, and well, just down right crazy! That’s how much God loves us.
One way to make the coin disappear:
Hold the coin between the thumb and index finger of your right hand (left, if you’re left-handed) with your other fingers extended. Hold out your other hand, palm up and instruct the children to watch that hand carefully. Bring the coin back over your head and then down onto the palm of your other hand one, two, three times. On the second time your hand goes above your head place the coin on top of your head and bring your hand down and slap your palm very loudly, then extend both hands to show that the coin is gone.
When you are ready to make the coin reappear, simply nod your head forward and let the coin fall into your hand or onto the floor.
A little practice will help.
If the children see you place the coin on top of your head, don’t get flustered. Just congratulate them on finding the lost coin.
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The Immediate Word, September 15, 2019 issue.
Copyright 2019 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.
- Ecological Jeremiad by Chris Keating — Jeremiah’s lament offers a reminder of what it means to participate with God in caring for creation.
- Second Thoughts: Where's the Joy by Tom Willadsen — Jesus told parables to the outcasts, but the scribes and Pharisees were close enough to eavesdrop. Perhaps the scribes and Pharisees were Jesus and Luke’s intended audience.
- Sermon illustrations by Mary Austin, Ron Love and Bethany Peerbolte.
- Worship resources by George Reed focusing on creation justice; joy in returning.
- Children’s sermon: Crazy Love by Dean Feldmeyer — God’s love for us is extravagant, even wasteful. Just plain crazy!
Ecological Jeremiad
by Chris Keating
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Jeremiah’s lament in chapter four sounds a bit like the refrain from one of Eric Carle’s classic children’s books: “Jeremiah, Jeremiah, what do you see?”
His response is far from whimsical, however. Jeremiah squints as the hot wind stings his eyes. The earth is laid waste, the heavens darkened by the absence of stars, and mountains quaking. His eyes neither deceive nor exaggerate. As Jeremiah looks around he can only see the fetid byproducts of human foolishness.
There’s no sugarcoating Jeremiah’s lament. He speaks of the world’s devolution and cries out in response to the multiple ways God’s people have acted faithlessly. What’s about to happen is not pretty. The result of their foolishness will be a stunning reversal of creation. He can only offer God’s heartbreaking judgment: “Because of this the earth shall mourn.”
Jeremiah’s prophecy pierces through the centuries to claim new meaning in the wake of the world’s mounting environmental crises. Fire, wind, rain and flood pummel the earth with regularity, creating human suffering. Because of this the earth shall mourn, and we shall too: the ravages of fire claim the rainforests of the Amazon, while Hurricane Dorian reduces the Bahamas to rubble. Glaciers are disappearing, as are many US environmental reforms.
The mourning is more than metaphorical: in Iceland last month, more than a hundred people gathered to hold a funeral to mark the disappearance of a glacier. "The symbolic death of a glacier is a warning to us, and we need action," former Irish president Mary Robinson said during the “glacier funeral.”
Preacher, preacher, what do you see? Jeremiah’s ecologically-tinged images call humans to assess the damage. The text offers an opportunity to explore not only our foolish and wanton wasting of God’s good creation but to also to consider the invitation to repent and begin anew. “Yet I will not make a full end,” proffers God.
The question is whether we can look at the jeremiad before us and see it for what it is.
In the News
Jeremiah’s lament decries the wickedness of human beings and upholds the understanding that God is indeed the God over all creation. Implicit in the pericope is an understanding that caring for creation is an inherent aspect of an individual’s relationship with God. In our time, however, each day seems to bring fresh reminders of how humans have failed at maintaining this fragile bond with earth.
A week after Hurricane Dorian pummeled the Bahamas with wind and rain, residents were still sorting through damage and debris. As of Monday, 45 people had died, with hundreds missing and more than 70,000 homeless. Aid is beginning to arrive on the island of Grand Bahama, where Dorian was stalled for two days and damage has been compared to a war zone.
CNN correspondents Patrick Oppmann, Jaide Timm-Garcia and Jose Armio filed a grim report about ground conditions, saying that “It’s impossible to fully capture the devastation we see every day.” Arriving on the last flight from Miami to Freeport, the journalists took shelter in a beach-front apartment to ride out the storm and report on conditions. A few days later, they made the trek back to the airport and discovered the runways were flooded and the terminal buildings ripped apart.
“We all realized we were going to be on the island for a while,” they said.
If hurricanes could be rated beyond category five, Dorian would have been called a six. The storm’s blows have been beyond catastrophic to the Bahamas. “Grand Bahama is now dead,” reported one resident. Help seems slow to arrive.
The residents decry the waste and void of their home island, a scene familiar to others in the Caribbean who endured previous Category 5 hurricanes like Irma and Maria. While climate change skeptics may abound in the United States, those who have endured the fury of recent hurricanes are dyed-in-the wool believers.
“I know your president doesn’t believe in climate change,” said Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antiqua and Barbuda. But I hope he’ll change his position because, ultimately, it is countries here in the Caribbean that are really suffering the greater consequences from the effects of climate change.” Browne’s nation was hit especially hard by Irma in 2017, and faced more than $220 million in damages.
Scientists report that the evidence linking these deadly storms to climate change is irrefutable. Storms arise from warmer ocean temperatures. Rising sea levels contribute to higher storm surges, and mega storms are now known to stall over land as Dorien did.
Tim Hall is a NASA researcher who finished a study this summer demonstrating how climate change leads to slower-moving hurricanes. But even Hall was stunned by the images of Dorian stalled over the Bahamas. Watching it “just spinning there, spinning there, spinning there, over the same spot,” Hall said, “you can’t help but to be awestruck and speechless.”
Yet instead of having conversations about climate change, we’re arguing over Sharpie markers and amended forecast maps. Scientists are quick to point out that Dorian is not an outlier but is rather a hallmark of what to look for in coming years. Models suggest that Category 4 and 5 level storms could become twice as common over the next century, even if the total number of storms declines. Research continues to tease out the links between human caused warming.
While researchers cannot attribute any single weather disaster to climate change, they can begin to determine how likely this sort of storm will happen again, and also predict how much worse future hurricanes will be. Hall indicates that it is not a pretty picture.
But hurricanes are just one of the effects. The deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest and the wide-spread fires burning across equatorial territories could eradicate the rainforest forever. Left unchecked, about half of the rainforest could transition into savannah. The result would be that the lands which once trapped carbon would be emitting it. Some believe the world is already at that tipping point — or at least getting close.
In Brazil, Roman Catholic archbishop Erwin Krautler called the situation in the Amazon a “true apocalypse.” He’s expected to use an upcoming papal synod at the Vatican as an opportunity to speak out against all forms of rainforest destruction. The archbishop hopes to persuade Pope Francis to reinforce his actions on climate change by issuing an apostolic exhortation about the Amazon crisis.
Pope Francis has been steadfast in his resolve to speak out about climate change, and has often been at odds with leaders like President Donald Trump and Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. The refusal of leaders to pay attention to science may lead to disastrous consequences not unlike the predictions of Jeremiah. The list is worth considering:
Will communities along the US coastline survive?
If private insurance is unavailable, will FEMA continue to have funds to cover the equivalent of “Cheryl’s She Shed?”
Will climate change-based heatwaves of 122 degrees or more in Phoenix prompt Katrina-level casualties?
Will we understand the full economic implications of disasters — looking beyond the cost of rebuilding following wind, fire, and flood to include the costs associated with diverting money away from other projects and infrastructure. When disasters occur, they often “crowd out” other projects and investments. “The situation,” writes economist Gary Yohe, “is just a lot more dire then anyone realizes. With any luck, the size of the figure will frighten us to do more to stave off the worst.”
“Disaster overtakes disaster,” Jeremiah cries in verse 20. His anguish and grief are bitter, for the people look but do not see.
In the Scripture
“Jeremiad,” meaning long or woeful complaint, is derived from the name of “Jeremiah,” the Hebrew prophet known for his lament and hellfire preaching. The prophet is moved to gut-wrenching aguish by the stupidity and foolishness of God’s people. He imagines the power of a searing sirocco wind, whose intensity will bring judgment and destruction. There’s not a lot of good news in these verses. God’s frustration echoes through the poetry, revealing the devastating suggestion that God is about to reverse creation.
There is rhetorical power in Jeremiah’s repeated “I looked” statements which seem to indicate that the situation is so horrible that his eyes remain fixed on the horror. This is pure terror, and its intent is to awaken Israel from its folly. The people who have abandoned Yahweh’s covenant are “foolish,” “stupid,” and “skilled in evil.” They lack the ability to do good.
This foolishness is epitomized by the fact that Israel no longer “knows” God. The verb refers to the intimate sharing between spouses. Jeremiah speaks of the deepest pain of a people who no longer share a full experience of God. They do not know. Because of this, emptiness, desolation, and dislocating judgment of God will blast apart the world. This is what Jeremiah grieves. The earth shall mourn, and as Sharon Burch notes, it is as if “(Jeremiah) had peered into the abyss of absolute nothingness or encountered a spiritual black hole.” (Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4, Proper 19).
The challenge of this unknowing is great. Indeed, as Ellen F. Davis notes in her essay, “Knowing Our Place on Earth” in The Green Bible, the assumption behind Jeremiah’s lament is that the earth will not last forever. “The prophets challenge us to see human conduct and the world as God must see it,” she writes. Jeremiah’s language thus reverses the pattern of creation. Step-by-step, it begins to fade: first light, then the mountains, then humans, and then nothing.
Davis adjures us to pay attention, noting that Jeremiah insists that moral responsibility for the planet is deeply connected to human activity. God’s concerns go beyond spiritual matters to the very real matter of creation. Jeremiah imagines the very undoing of creation, as well as God’s heartbreaking anger. Yet even in this desolation, some hope remains, as noted in verse 27. “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.”
In the Sermon
Sometimes the mounting disasters just seem too much. Hurricanes, devastating floods, wildfires and more are part of the regular news cycle. Our hearts melt at the thought of human loss, and we may be compelled to do something. We put together a kit of cleaning supplies, or give blood, or perhaps organize a team of volunteer workers.
Those responses are wonderful, and necessary, of course. But Jeremiah’s lament provides an opportunity to allow the stinging hot wind of the desert to lash us from complicity. The prophet calls us to the hard work of looking at creation in crisis. If we wonder how we might regain intimacy with God, perhaps looking at images of a scarred and broken creation might be the first step. A sermon could dwell on these landscapes from Jeremiah, pairing them with indications of how humanity’s folly over creation impacts us today.
The hardest move will be finding hope amidst the ruins. The wind’s destructive force may threaten our own spirits. The overwhelming data of despair regarding creation often has a paralyzing effect. “How can I make a change? What difference does recycling make, anyway?” These practical questions are reinforced by skeptics and others who believe human influence over the climate is either a hoax or at least greatly overstated.
The key to preaching about the environment is to allow the text to speak for itself. Remind the congregation of God’s great commitment to pursue an intimate relationship with human beings. Develop an ecological understanding of what it means to “know God” in that deeply intimate fashion. Speak of God’s loving care in creation so that God’s heart-breaking anguish over human foolishness will speak for itself. There are images of how we can practice the solemn work of rebuilding earth, the work our Jewish siblings name as “tikum olam,” or repairing the world.
Connected to God, the good news suddenly emerges in a flash of abundance. Desolation is removed, and grace appears. Moses’ pleading with God in this week’s Exodus text comes to mind. Moses recites Israel’s history and recalls all of God’s promises. “And the Lord’s mind changed about the disaster that had been planned.” Preacher, preacher, what do you see? Preacher, preacher, what do you see?
SECOND THOUGHTSWhere’s the Joy
by Tom Willadsen
Luke 15:1-10
In the Scriptures
Luke 15:1-10
This week’s gospel lesson consists of twin parables Jesus tells to the tax collectors and other sinners. The Pharisees and scribes grumble about Jesus because he welcomed and ate with conspicuous sinners. The tax collectors were sort of collaborators with the Roman occupiers. Jews, like Jesus, but on their oppressors’ payroll. Tax collectors also had a reputation for collecting more tax than was due and pocketing the extra. Sinners were also outcasts. For Jesus to talk to them and eat with them was something the scribes and Pharisees knew better than to do. The word in the NRSV “welcomed” could be “received” or even “hosted.” Jesus’ acceptance of them went beyond mere toleration.
Jesus told the outcasts these parables, but the scribes and Pharisees were close enough to eavesdrop. Perhaps the scribes and Pharisees were Jesus and Luke’s intended audience.
A Word about Sheep
Most of us do not have much knowledge of sheep. We encounter them as we read the Bible a whole lot more often than we do in real life. Not only do they live in the country and most Americans live in the suburbs — have you seen the price of mutton these days? Sheep live in herds. There’s safety in numbers for sheep. They stay close together. One reason they stay together is they do not have very good vision. They bleat to each other, checking in, confirming the presence of the others in the fold.
A pastor colleague who left a career as a large animal veterinarian told me “A sick sheep is a dead sheep.” What she meant was that herds of sheep are very adept at concealing the weak and vulnerable in the flock. By the time an affected sheep came to the attention of the shepherd or veterinarian it’s illness or injury was obvious, and had gone on so long, that the sheep was in very bad shape.
Sheep are not considered to be assertive or aggressive. Think about how we use the term today. A sheepish person is one without agency, one who is acted upon. The images in Isaiah of the lion lying down with the lamb convey a sense of harmony in nature where the most vulnerable animals are safe in the presence of the most feared hunter. Woody Allen said, “I’ve always liked ‘someday the lamb will lay by the lion…but it won’t get much sleep.’” Which shows the contrast between hunter and hunted.
So there’s a flock of 100 sheep in the wilderness and one of them ‘gets lost.’ Does it stray? Did it go off on its own willfully or cluelessly? Either way, it’s vulnerable out there in the wilderness. What kind of shepherd leaves the 99 who stayed safe in the herd and goes after the one that’s isolated and easy prey? Is this what the good shepherd would do? In the parable, the shepherd goes into the wilderness and brings the lost sheep back. But it gets better, the shepherd is so filled with joy that he tells his neighbors to rejoice with him, because he got back something that was important to him.
Perhaps a modern version of this parable would end, “And which one of you who, after finding your car keys next to the cottage cheese in the refrigerator, posts on Facebook saying, ‘I’m so happy that I finally found my car keys! Now I can make it to the craft fair!’?”
There is more joy in heaven when someone is brought back to the fold, than when a whole lot more “sheep” never need any help.
My whole career I have focused on the ones who are lost and brought back, rather than the response in heaven. In your congregational context, who are the 99 who never go astray? Do you have anyone among your membership who needs to be brought back to the fold? Repeatedly? If your metric for church success is joy, you’re better off going after the lost ones than continuing to tend the ones who never stray.
Back to Luke
The text supports a reading that the Pharisees and scribes are the ones who don’t need to be rescued. They’re back in the herd, safety in numbers and all that. Did you notice that the sheep has no agency in this parable? The shepherd does all the work — notices the lamb’s absence, finds it, brings it back and then commands his neighbors to rejoice with him. Think about that when you’re preaching to the 99 — rejoicing is commanded! The joy in heaven that concludes this first parable is conditioned on a sinner repenting, that is taking some initiative, but it’s clear that the shepherd’s desire is to go after that one, and celebrate when it is restored.
The next parable about the woman with the ten coins reinforces the point of the first parable. The one that gets lost is precious and worth looking for. And when it’s found, celebration is demanded.
A Little Deeper Look into Luke
The lectionary omits the third parable in Luke 15, the parable of the Prodigal Son and his Brother. This is good news/bad news for the preacher. There is no parable that provokes such a passionate response as the parable that concludes Luke 15.
Some point out that Jesus is a brilliant teacher in telling these parables in this sequence. One in a hundred is important, and worth rejoicing over. One in ten is important and worth seeking, finding and rejoicing over. One in two is important and worth celebrating when he returns. The sequence sort of narrows and focuses God’s love and intention for all things.
There was a man in a church I used to serve who detested the parable of the Prodigal Son and His Brother. Not only did it mention, and therefore, endorse slavery — after all, who ran to get the best robe, the ring and the sandals, who prepared the fatted calf for the party? Slaves! Its message was that the shiftless and irresponsible get rewarded, while the hardworking get nothing! Everytime I planned to preach on Luke 15 I’d phone this man and advise him to stay home. We were both a lot happier that way.
Still, I remain sad and even frustrated at this man’s inability to see the parable from any other point of view. More than any others the parables in Luke 15 change shape depending on whose perspective one brings to them.
How does the lost sheep feel on being restored to the shelter of the herd? How does the coin feel, joining the other nine in the woman’s purse? How does the herd feel, getting back the lost one, perhaps the one who is most likely to stray and put itself in danger? Do the coin and sheep realize that they are very precious to the other sheep and the woman? The most significant difference between the first two and third parable in Luke 15 is that prodigal actually takes initiative and, after hitting bottom, literally repents, heading back home, where at least the pigs get a decent meal. The father welcomes him home extravagantly and the older brother is profoundly hurt and offended. The conclusion of this parable — the conclusion of this series of three parables — is left unresolved. Dad comes out and says, “We had to celebrate.” There’s that command again, but we do not know whether the older brother is able to put his resentment aside and have some prime rib. There’s an implicit invitation to the reader of the parable to join the party — or not. Even conspicuous failures, even those who bring embarrassment to their families are loved by God. The rejoicing by the shepherd, the woman and most of the prodigal’s family is the heart, and the scandal, of the gospel.
Who is the One in 100?
Last Sunday I filled in for a colleague who was on vacation. This church celebrates “The Feast of the First Sunday” by intinction. Worshipers form one single file line. They take a piece of bread from the serving elder on their right and sidle left to dip it in the chalice. I was on chalice duty. As each person approached me I looked them in the eye and said, “The cup of the new covenant.” I left the microphone on, which is the sort of misstep that happens when I do not have home pulpit advantage. About two thirds of the way through the distribution of the sacrament a developmentally delayed adult, age 60ish by my guess, came forward led by a man of about her age. He guided her through taking a piece of bread and led her to dip it in the chalice. “The cup of,” I began, when she displayed her newly painted finger nails, with obvious glee, “They’re lovely!” I exclaimed…. “the new covenant,” I concluded. The sanctuary was filled with eye rolls, “There she goes again,” most of them were thinking. Maybe this woman had been showing her nails, with obvious glee for weeks, even years perhaps. It struck me, as the outsider surprised by the joy on her face — actually, her face was not large enough to contain her joy — that she was the only one who was participating in “the joyous feast of the people of God.” The rest of the worshipers were shuffling through the sacrament, orderly, waiting their turn for the foretaste of the kingdom. They’ll be there next month too. The Body of Christ. The cup of the new covenant. Turn around go back to your pew. Open the book to the concluding hymn. Sing. Benediction. See you next week.
This woman got it. Her joy was obvious. Her joy was real. Her joy was disruptive. The herd would be diminished without her. The herd protects her. She’s safe there. But does the herd rejoice with her? Do they accept her and celebrate with her? Do they celebrate her?
Most of us are Pharisees and scribes. Most of the people who will gather for worship on September 15 are the insiders, the ones who know enough to exclude the tax collectors and sinners. Who among us should go out and bring the stray sheep back to the safety of the herd? Who will get down on their knees and help the woman sweep her one-room home, because that coin is precious? We’re the 99. We’re the nine. We’re the older brother. We’re the ones who need to be commanded to rejoice. Whose nail polish are we missing?
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Luke 15:1-10
Meeting the Lost Sheep on a Bench
We often think of depression as an illness of wealthy countries, and yet it has even more impact in places with fewer resources. “Globally, more than 300 million people suffer from depression, according to the World Health Organization. Depression is the world’s leading cause of disability and it contributes to 800,000 suicides per year, the majority of which occur in developing countries.” In Zimbabwe, a team of grandmothers has set themselves the task of watching out for people who may be lost to depression – they seek out the lost sheep in their communities, and keep them connected to the rest of the flock.
As the BBC tells the story, “Dixon Chibanda, a psychiatrist in Harare, Zimbabwe, received a call from a doctor in an emergency room. A 26-year-old woman named Erica who Chibanda had treated months before had attempted suicide. The doctor said he needed Chibanda’s help to make sure Erica didn’t try it again. Erica was at a hospital more than 100 miles (160km) away, however, so Chibanda and her mother came up with a plan by phone. As soon as Erica was released from the hospital she and her mother would come see Chibanda to reevaluate her treatment plan.
A week passed, and then two more, with no word from Erica. Finally, Chibanda received a call from her mother. Erica, she told him, had killed herself three days before. “Why didn’t you come to Harare?” Chibanda asked. “We had agreed that as soon as she’s released, you will come to me!” “We didn’t have the $15 bus fare to come to Harare,” her mother replied.
The response left him speechless. In the months that followed, Chibanda found himself haunted by the case. He also knew that Erica’s inability to access care due to distance and cost was not exceptional but, in many countries, in fact was the norm.” How could such lost sheep be found, the doctor wondered?
He came to an unlikely solution: grandmothers. “Since 2006, Chibanda and his team have trained over 400 of the grandmothers in evidence-based talk therapy, which they deliver for free in more than 70 communities in Zimbabwe. In 2017 alone, the Friendship Bench, as the programme is called, helped over 30,000 people there.” The grandmothers, many with little formal education, received evidence-based training, but they also insisted that there be another part to the program. “In order to reach people, they insisted, they needed to communicate through culturally rooted concepts that people can identify with. They needed, in other words, to speak the language of their patients. So in addition to the formal training the received, they worked together to incorporate Shona concepts of opening up the mind, and uplifting and strengthening the spirit.”
One person at a time, one conversation at a time, the grandmothers are reaching out to the lost sheep in their own communities.
* * *
Luke 15:1-10
The Bad Kids
Vonda Viland is the principal for the bad kids, as the students at her alternative school are labeled. When the students come to her school, they are behind, missing credits and have educational deficits. As she explains, “Some of the students who attend here are homeless. They come from families where there’s been drug addiction, alcoholism, physical or verbal abuse. They suffer from generational poverty. Often, no one in their family ever graduated from high school, so education has not been a priority in their families. Many of them are the caregivers for their siblings.” Yet, they succeed at her school where they have failed in other settings. Her philosophy treats each student like the lost sheep in Jesus’ parable. She outlines “her simple guiding philosophy: Stay positive, take it one day at a time, and focus relentlessly on the child in front of you. At Black Rock, despite the long odds, this appears to be working: Last year, 55 students who hadn’t succeeded at traditional high schools graduated, with 43 enrolling in community college and 12 joining the military.”
About being their shepherd she says, “Honestly, if you take the time to talk with them and to listen to them, they will open up and tell you everything you want to know. They fill my cup much more than I can ever, ever fill theirs, and so they’ve just inspired me so much that I can’t imagine working with any other population. This demographic has always been the group of kids that I’ve navigated to.”
Noting a difference from traditional public schools, she says, “At a traditional high school, you’re stuck there from September to January and January to June for the typical quarter or semester program. At our school, the students can graduate whenever they finish. So there’s a lot of motivation to work through the curriculum quickly and, because they can’t receive anything under a C on an assignment, to produce quality work. If our students want to be done and move on with their lives, they’ve got to do the work. So far this year, I’ve had 21 graduates. The day they finish that last assignment, they’re done.”
On the last day, the school has a ceremony for the student who is done, affirming their place in the flock, and sending them out into the world. The principal says, “on their last day here, they walk the hall — everyone comes out and says goodbye to them. It gives the students the accolades that they deserve for their hard work and growth, but it also inspires other students.” When they see somebody who had a bad attitude or was a discipline problem, when they see a student like that walk the hall, they say, “If they can do it, I can do it.” Each lost sheep becomes an inspiration for others.
* * *
Luke 15:1-10
Tending the Sheep
Everyone involved in raising children struggles to balance freedom and oversight, just as shepherds have to balance watching the sheep closely and letting them roam far enough to find food. Attorney and author Bob Goff and his wife, Maria, have some advice about not letting the sheep — or the child — wander too far away.
Goff recalls that when each child turned ten, he or she got to choose an adventure with their dad. “The oldest, Lindsey, chose to have high tea in London. Richard wanted to hike the back of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. The youngest, Adam, wanted to ride motorcycles across the Mojave Desert, which included 700-foot-tall sand dunes. His wife, Maria, thought this final trip was too risky.”
Bob told her they would be fine, and set off with their camping gear and two motorcycles. Taking risks was a good thing, though he appreciated his wife’s concern for him and their son.
Once out riding, father and son topped a few sand dunes together. As he lost track of Adam for a moment, he heard an engine at full throttle. Bob motored his bike over the next dune to find the source. There, he saw Adam intending to jump from one sand dune to another.
“No!” Bob yelled, as his son, now a yellow blur, launched himself from the dune’s peak. In mid-air, Adam lost his grip on the handlebars and fell 120 feet before landing near the wreckage of his motorcycle. Bob raced to his son, expecting the worst. But when he arrived, Adam grinned beneath a dirt-smudged face. “That was awesome.”
“Later, as Bob thought about this adventure, he agreed that it was indeed an awesome experience. Although the trip with Adam didn’t go as planned, his son left the desert a wiser young man. This was Adam’s first step toward appreciating the difference between healthy, calculated risks and impulsive, life-threatening ones. And the opportunity to test his limits — to try the impossible and to greet epic failure with delight rather than despair — gave him a confidence that he could gain no other way.”
Perhaps the sheep need to wander a little — just a little. “The Goffs’ daughter, Lindsey, and her eighth-grade class were set to tour Washington, DC, in November, two months after 9/11. Bob and Maria worried about their daughter’s safety, yet they waved goodbye at the airport. Then Bob booked a flight to DC. The whole trip, he followed the group at a distance, without being intrusive or getting in the way. As Lindsey grew in independence, Bob remained near, in case he was needed. The Goffs believe the purpose of parenting is to work your way out of a job by allowing kids to take responsibility and learn lessons for themselves — with parental oversight.”
Being a parent, or aunt or uncle, or guardian, is a lot like being a shepherd.
* * *
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Recovering from Who We Were
As Paul writes to Timothy, he talks about the astounding changes in his life, noting that he is now completely different, by God’s grace, from the person he once was. Recovering lawyer Bob Goff has made a similar switch in his own life, giving up the law to be an apostle for love. Yes, even the difficult people, Goff says. “I’m just reminded that God makes people and people make issues but people aren’t issues. People are people. If you wanna get a report card on your faith, see how you are dealing with people who are really difficult to deal with. So it’s just stories about people who are my teachers, really, on this idea of how do you navigate this idea of turning into love in a world that’s full of difficult people.”
Goff adds: “I have the sense that whoever here on earth we couldn’t get along with, Jesus will make us roommates in heaven. These are principles that Jesus talked about: to love everybody, always, and to start with the people who are more difficult. The people that are my friends and are easy to get along with, they make me feel like I’m a boss at loving people. So I’m trying to get beyond that.
“From the book, we have a witchdoctor school. These guys were sacrificing children; They were death penalty cases. I tried the first [case] in the country. But then I ran into Matthew 5 about loving your enemies, and I’m like “These guys are actually my enemy because of what they do.” So I had to decide for me, do I want to be right or do I want to be Jesus? And there’s an opportunity to be bold, [but] you have to be humble.
“So we started meeting with witchdoctors, I actually met with over 1,000 witchdoctors so far in Uganda. I command every witchdoctor to meet with me and they come, and they’re creepy dudes. And I asked them, what do you need? And they said, “Well we don’t know how to read or write.” So get this, I started a witchdoctor school a couple years ago. It’s so creepy.
“And the only books they have in witchdoctor school are the Bible and Love Does. And there’s something beautiful that happens, and some of the stories in the book of unlikely calls of people who used to do the most horrific things or have actually changed. Like, they bumped into not all of my opinions, but they bumped into Jesus.
“I’m a lawyer, I win arguments for a living. But I’m not trying to be Jesus’ lawyer. He said, follow me, not represent me.”
We all have the capacity within us, by grace, to make equally big changes, as Paul demonstrates with his own life.
* * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:Psalm 51
For I know my transgressions
The nation is recognizing the first slaves to arrive in America 400 years ago. Virginia is marking this anniversary with a historical marker that signifies the spot of the first landing of Africans in America 400 years ago at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam spoke at the ceremony. Speaking to the assembled crowd Northam said, “we are a state that for too long has told a false story of ourselves.” He went on to say, “The legacy of racism continues not just in isolated incidents, but as part of a system that touches every person and every aspect of our lives, whether we know it or not, and if we're serious about righting the wrong that began here at this place we need to do more than talk. We need to take action.”
* * *
Exodus 32:7
The LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people…”
The movie industry is changing to bring people back into the theaters. Movies are now being made that can be viewed on the big screen, but on television or a smart phone the images will be distorted. The film industry is also changing its approach to the audience. Ang Lee, who produced Life of Pi and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, is promoting a new approach to film making with his movie Gemini Man, which will be released on October 11. Lee said of the movie Gemini Man, “You’re not watching somebody else’s story. You are experiencing a story.”
* * *
Jeremiah 4:22
For my people are foolish
Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was in a federal prison awaiting trial for sexually molesting underage girls. He was in a federal maximum-security prison when he committed suicide. Even though there would not be a trial, US District Judge Richard Berman offered Epstein's accusers an extraordinary opportunity to speak in court. During the proceedings, Jennifer Araoz, who has accused Epstein of raping her in his New York mansion when she was a 15-year-old aspiring actress said, “The fact I will never have a chance to face my predator in court eats away at my soul. Even in death, Epstein is trying to hurt me. I had hoped to at last get an apology, but this evil man had no remorse or caring for what he did to anyone.” Actress Anouska De Georgiou, who says was she was sexually abused by Epstein as a teenager said in court, “I was a victim, but I will not remain a victim and be silent for one more day. Although I think it's tragic when anybody dies before their time, I'm extremely relieved that Jeffrey Epstein will not be in a position to hurt any more children or any more women.”
* * *
Luke 15:6
Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.
In the comic strip Peanuts we have a series of frames of Snoopy reflecting on the decades of society. In the first frame he is sitting on the floor reading a book and he says, “I missed the Golden Age of Vaudeville.” In the next frame Snoopy looks at Lucy who is listening to the radio and says, “I missed the Golden Age of radio.” In the next frame he is sitting in front of a television and says, “I missed the Golden Age of television.” In the last frame we see Snoopy sleeping on top of his dog house and he says, “I refuse to miss the Golden Age of sleeping.”
* * *
Jeremiah 4:22
For my people are foolish
Andrew Luck, the quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, announced two weeks before the opening game against the Los Angeles Chargers, that he was retiring from football. The 29-year-old player gave up millions of dollars to protect his heath. Luck said, “'For the last four years or so, I've been in this cycle of injury, pain, rehab — injury, pain, rehab — and it's been unceasing, unrelenting, both in season and off season. I felt stuck in it, and the only way I see out is to no longer play football. It's taken my joy of this game away.”
* * * * * *
From team member Bethany PeerbolteExodus 32:7-14
I thought We Went Over This Already
“We almost had a generation of non-smokers.” The comment from my 22-year-old niece hit my heart hard. She was right. I knew I didn’t like vaping, but it had never occurred to me how damaging they really were. The ad campaigns of the ’90s and ’00s showed the truth of smoking. Side by side pictures of a healthy lung and a smoker’s lung were printed on cigarette packages. Commercials showed people smoking through stomas after having a laryngectomy. States banned smoking from public areas, casting smokers to the edges of appropriate societal interaction. These efforts paired with watching our grandparents die of smoking-related illnesses nearly gave us a generation of non-smokers.
Then the cool new e-cigarettes hit the market. With its ease of use, tasty flavors, and promises of safety, people who had never smoked before ventured into the addictive world of tobacco use. This month reports are pouring in about the dangers of vaping. A mysterious new lung disease is baffling doctors, with 5 deaths causally linked to vaping. With the threat nearly extinguished we have forgotten to stay on the path against the damaging effects of smoking.
When Moses went up to meet with God, he thought he had instructed the people enough for them to remain on the true path. They knew the dangers of idols and turning away from God so he thought it was safe to give them some space. Moses was wrong. After a short time, they forget the dangers and go back to their old ways. God tells Moses you better get back there and reteach them how to be my people.
* * *
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Walls of Our Heart
My initial response to this lectionary option was “Oooph.” I was taught every passage has an ounce of grace in it, but every once in awhile, I want to email that seminary professor and ask where, exactly. There are eight words in verse 27 one could say is grace-ish, “Yet I will not make a full end.” Gee, thanks God, for not putting us out of our misery.
As I read over and over, looking for the encouragement of these verses I got stuck on verse 19. “My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.” It made me think of the things that affect the walls of my heart in this way. The things I can’t seem to keep my big mouth shut about. The things that make my friends roll their eyes when I chime in “well actually,…” or the Facebook battles I cannot seem to convince myself not to take on with family members. These verses seemed to be saying that I am meant to speak up. Even that God is there with me moving the world forward through the cries for justice my heart keeps making.
Lennon Walls are not a new concept. The first one popped up in the ’80s in response to John Lennon’s cry for peace. Today in Hong Kong Lennon walls are appearing all around the city. Citizens are feeling the need to offer support and a reminder that they are not alone. Some of these locations are curated by local artists, others are spontaneous installments as people pass by with a post-it note and a message to share. The government has actively sought out and taken down these walls. Artists have even been attacked while working on a new one. Yet the walls keep showing up. Showing their neighbors and the world just how the walls of their heart are hurting.
* * *
Luke 15:1-10
Leave it Alone
I had to laugh this week. The Old Testament reading gives us Moses leaving the many who then fall into bad habits, and the New Testament reading tells us it is good for the shepherd to leave the many to find the one. I can hear Moses saying “I do not advise this plan.” When the many are left behind it becomes our responsibility to maintain the path. In nature, leaving things alone is advisable.
In the mid-’90s, hundreds of truckloads of orange peels were dumped in a Costa Rican park. The park was in decline and the land was becoming more barren each year. Researchers set aside 7 acres to see if they could jump-start growth. They dumped the orange peels and left the area alone. 16 year later, the area with the orange peels is thriving! Being left alone works for creation, humans can find a way to make it work so that the lost one can be found and the shepherd can come back to a thriving community.
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: God looks on humankind to see if any are wise.
People: God looks to see if there are any who seek after God.
Leader: We have all gone astray, we are all alike perverse.
People: There is no one who does good, no, not one.
Leader: O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion!
People: When God restores our fortunes, we will rejoice.
OR
Leader: The Shepherd calls us to gather as the flock .
People: We hear the call and come together.
Leader: Some of the sheep are missing and shepherd is looking for them.
People: We will look after each other as we call to the lost ones.
Leader: When the Shepherd returns with the lost, we will rejoice.
People: All Heaven will join in our songs of joy.
OR
Leader: The Earth groans and cries in distress.
People: We have devastated the good gift of creation.
Leader: The poor suffer with the ecological crisis.
People: We have attacked them when we hurt the earth.
Leader: Heed the cry of the earth and its people.
People: We will care for the earth and the poor upon it.
Hymns and Songs:
God Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens
UMH: 150
H82: 580
PH: 268
NCH: 556
CH: 651
LBW: 463
ELW: 771
W&P: 644
I Sing the Almighty Power of God
UMH: 152
H82: 398
PH: 288
NCH: 12
W&P: 31
Renew: 54
For the Healing of the Nations
UMH: 428
NCH: 576
CH: 668
W&P: 621
O God of Every Nation
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELW: 713
W&P: 626
Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us
UMH: 381
H82: 708
PH: 387
AAHH: 424
NNBH: 54
NCH: 252
CH: 558
LBW: 481
ELW: 789
W&P: 440
AMEC: 379
The King of Love, My Shepherd Is
UMH: 138
H82: 645/646
PH: 171
NCH: 248
LBW: 456
ELW: 502
Renew: 106
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
ELW: 733
W&P: 72
AMEC: 84
Renew: 249
For the Fruits of This Creation
UMH: 97
H82: 424
PH: 553
NCH: 425
CH: 714
LBW: 563
ELW: 679
W&P: 723
Holy Ground
CCB: 5
Behold, What Manner of Love
CCB: 44
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who created the world for all of us to share in its bounty:
Grant us the wisdom to protect and preserve your gift
so that all you children may enjoy its goodness;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are the creator of all that is and of this wonderful world we live in. You have blessed us with a bountiful earth to support all our needs. Give us the will to take care of it so that its goodness can be shared by all your children. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our lack of care for creation and those impacted by our carelessness.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have gifted us with the wondrous earth that feeds us and sustains us and we have pillaged it. We have polluted the waters, the air and the earth itself. We have taken more than we need and we wasted its resources. In doing this we have put many people in jeopardy. We have made the resources they need more costly than they can afford. We have made their homes uninhabitable. We have disrespected you by harming your creation and your creatures. Forgive us and give us hearts that we may amend our destructive ways. Amen.
Leader: God’s creation is a good gift sent to us out of boundless love. God rejoices that we want honor that gift and the gift we have in our sisters and brothers on this earth.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory are yours, O God, because you are the gracious creator of earth and of us. Your creation overflows with your love and grace.
(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 have gifted us with the wondrous earth that feeds us and sustains us and we have pillaged it. We have polluted the waters, the air and the earth itself. We have taken more than we need and we wasted its resources. In doing this we have put many people in jeopardy. We have made the resources they need more costly than they can afford. We have made their homes uninhabitable. We have disrespected you by harming your creation and your creatures. Forgive us and give us hearts that we may amend our destructive ways.
We give you thanks for all the wonderful blessings of this life and of this creation. You supply all our needs and grant us an abundance of beauty and joy.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for your creation as it tries to recover from the damage we have done to it. We pray for those people who suffer because of our disregard for the earth. We pray for your children who have lost their way in life.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about getting lost, how scary it is. It is scary for the one who is lost but also for those folks who are looking for them. Talk about how happy everybody is when the lost person is found. God feels the same way about us. When we lose our way, Jesus comes to find us and bring us back to God.
CHILDREN'S SERMONCrazy Love
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 15:1-10
You will need: A silver dollar or other valuable coin. (If you are an amateur magician that would help but it isn’t necessary.)
The Message
Gather the children together. Best if you are all sitting, you a little higher than they are.
Show them the coin and say:
This is a silver dollar. It’s kinda valuable, right?
Well, what if I lost it. (Amateur magicians make the coin disappear.) How do you suppose that would make me feel? Sad, right?
So, let’s say I lost the coin. What should I do?
First, I’d look for it, right? I’d look under the couch, and under the bed, and under all the furniture. I take the cushions off the couch and look there. I’d look just about everywhere. I might even call my friends over to help me look for it.
And then, wonder of wonder, what if we found my precious coin? (coin reappears).
How would I feel then? Happy, right? And what do you suppose I should do with my coin — after we found it? Put it in a safe place? Put it in the bank?
Nah! I think what I would do with my coin is SPEND IT on candy and share the candy with my friends who helped me look for my lost coin. Pretty good idea?
Yeah, maybe not a great idea. But, you know what? Jesus says that is exactly how much God loves us. God loves us so much that when one of us drifts away from God and then comes back, God throws a big party in heaven to celebrate. Because we’re much more valuable than some old coin, right?
That’s right. God’s love for us is extravagant, and generous, and well, just down right crazy! That’s how much God loves us.
One way to make the coin disappear:
Hold the coin between the thumb and index finger of your right hand (left, if you’re left-handed) with your other fingers extended. Hold out your other hand, palm up and instruct the children to watch that hand carefully. Bring the coin back over your head and then down onto the palm of your other hand one, two, three times. On the second time your hand goes above your head place the coin on top of your head and bring your hand down and slap your palm very loudly, then extend both hands to show that the coin is gone.
When you are ready to make the coin reappear, simply nod your head forward and let the coin fall into your hand or onto the floor.
A little practice will help.
If the children see you place the coin on top of your head, don’t get flustered. Just congratulate them on finding the lost coin.
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The Immediate Word, September 15, 2019 issue.
Copyright 2019 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.
