Fully Pardoned
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
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Object:
In this week’s lection from the Hebrew scriptures, the prophet Jeremiah -- communicating God’s judgment to the people of Israel -- paints a foreboding picture of what they will experience: “A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert toward my poor people... the whole land shall be a desolation.” Furthermore, Jeremiah tells them God’s word that “I have not relented nor will I turn back.” This bleak state of affairs is echoed in Psalm 14, as well as in the first half of the Exodus passage, where God tells Moses that “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.” But just when you might be convinced that perhaps we should abandon all hope, suddenly our readings depict sprouts of mercy shooting out of the black soil of a scorched earth. Moses manages to talk God into “chang[ing] his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people,” and in First Timothy Paul points to the mercy that he received “even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence.”
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Robin Lostetter suggests that something of a parallel for God’s bestowal of undeserved mercy in recent headlines might be President Obama’s commutation of the sentences of 111 federal prisoners, which followed 214 additional commutations earlier in August. These actions are part of a record-setting trend -- Obama has now “granted 673 commutations, more than the past 10 presidents combined.” In discussing his reasons for granting clemency, Obama said that “his main criteria was finding people who would be given much shorter sentences today than they received decades ago, individuals who his administration believes have ‘tried to reform themselves while incarcerated’ and deserve a second chance.” Yet as Robin points out, presidential pardons and commutations are nowhere near as complete in their grace and forgiveness as the second chances that God routinely offers to us sinners... for God doesn’t merely commute our sentences, he washes us completely clean.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the gospel text’s theme of finding that which is lost -- and the seemingly absurd lengths that we will go to in order to find something that we think is valuable... even if in the long view it’s not. Of course, one need to look no further than the latest fads -- and as Dean points out, this year the popular search for that which is “lost” has expanded into the virtual universe of Pokémon Go. While this summer people are going to great lengths to find “monsters” that only exist in their cellphones, how often do we exhibit that same dedication and devotion to finding “lost” people? The answer, all too often, is not very -- we are inclined to treat “lost” people in the same way we treat inanimate objects in our society of “planned obsolescence”: as utterly disposable. We are as likely to throw people away (or lock them away, or keep them confined in ghettos safely out of our view), viewing them as “bad” and irredeemable, as we are a toaster or a television that has outlived its usefulness. But as Dean notes, the parables in this week’s gospel passage illustrate how God never treats us that way -- we are always worth looking for when we are “lost,” and are worth throwing a party over when we are “found” ...even when the lengths God goes to would seem utterly ridiculous to us in other contexts.
Fully Pardoned
by Robin Lostetter
1 Timothy 1:12-17; Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Exodus 32:7-14
President Obama was in the headlines during August for commuting a record number of federal prisoners’ sentences. We Americans always imagine that if we had been wrongly sentenced we would qualify for presidential clemency. But the sheer number of Obama’s commutations may raise questions like “Do these folk really deserve to be released?” After all, we generally look upon ourselves as the innocent and are much more willing to lay blame on “the other.”
However, we don’t really understand what commuting a sentence is all about. It’s different from a presidential pardon -- it doesn’t relieve a guilty sentence or a felony conviction from a person’s record. It is an exhaustive process, but it doesn’t restore all their rights. It simply shortens their sentence, something like God’s announcement that “yet I will not make a full end” (Jeremiah 4:27). Even a pardon, although ending restrictions on one’s civil rights and “lessen[ing] the stigma arising from the conviction,” still does not wipe the slate completely clean for all folk.
When Paul writes “But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:13-14), he speaks of something unknown in U.S. law. Ignorance of a statute is no excuse, and executive clemency is not a 100% wiping clean of the slate. That is the sole jurisdiction of our God. We may be grateful that the reality is better than our imagination: each of us qualifies for divine mercy, without an exhaustive process, and it is not simply a shortening of our sentence.
In the News
NPR reported last week that “President Obama shortened the prison sentences of 111 inmates Tuesday, including 35 people who had expected to spend the rest of their lives in federal custody.... The early releases apply to mostly nonviolent drug offenders who would have received lighter punishments if they committed the same crimes today. The new commutations mean this White House has granted 673 commutations, more than the past 10 presidents combined. Tuesday’s grants follow 214 more earlier this month.”
Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates and the new pardon attorney, Robert Zauzmer, expressed confidence and commitment that they would clear the backlog of applications before President Obama leaves office. This mission of mercy could make a significant difference in the lives of as many as 1,500 additional prisoners whose sentences appear unfair by 2016 standards.
One such former prisoner is David Padilla, who was reunited with his family during Christmas week 2015. “It’s a beautiful thing to be home after spending 19 years, one month, 10 days in federal prison,” said Padilla, who served all that time for nonviolent drug offenses. “This doesn’t happen to people like us. You know, we are minorities, and it’s a blessing.” One of the changes that strike him most after his imprisonment is the effect of technology on communication -- people sitting at tables, not speaking, but looking at their phones. He has instituted family time in his home, a time when all phones are relegated to a bucket.
Padilla is also giving back to his community, out of his drug and prison experience. He has “signed up to volunteer [with Men in Motion in the Community, a Philadelphia youth mentoring program]. He said he wants to make amends for his role in moving drugs through the community. ‘You know, my three charges were drugs, and drugs trickle down all the way to the community,’ he said. ‘This is my way of giving back, telling the kids there’s options, there’s other ways.’ ”
Not all folk released early have been integrated back into society as well or as quickly as Padilla. Many have come home to find their families grown, spouses left, jobs disappeared, and financial support minimal. One such person is Mark Anthony Jones, one of 46 released inmates interviewed by the Washington Post: “The government at first granted me $16 a month for three months. After that they just kept denying me. I also can’t get a grant to go back to school. I can’t get nothing. I want to go back to school and take up counseling. I want to get a job counseling youth the way I did in prison and make a living doing that. That’s my passion.”
In the Scriptures
The author of 1 Timothy, writing in the name of Paul, states: “I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence” (vv. 12-13a). This recalls stories of others who have been called to God’s service, even after crimes including murder or plotting murder -- Moses and David, for instance.
God’s mercy not only wipes the slate clean, but empowers and equips forgiven persons for divine callings. Paul, who had persecuted Christians, became a missionary for Christ to the far reaches of the known world. His words of gratitude for God’s mercy, strength, judgment, and calling may be applied across the centuries.
He goes on to note in the well-known verse 15a: “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” As such, God, through Jesus, is surely the God of Full and Complete Pardons, not just the God of Commutations... and is thus the God of Mercy for sinners -- i.e., all of us.
In the Sermon
In his blog, Bishop Mike Rinehart observes: “Too many people shy away from the church because they feel they are not worthy. ‘If you knew what I’ve done, Pastor, you would not ask me to be involved...’ This sounds too much like what they said to Jesus, when the woman anointed him in Simon the Pharisee’s house, ‘If he knew what sort of woman this was...’ ”
Just as prisoners need more than just the commutation of their sentence or a presidential pardon, our congregants need more -- they need what the Church can offer, the mercy and unconditional love of God.
Released prisoners need a support system, separate from the one that led them into crime. They need financial support until they can find a job and housing. And their families, if they have waited for them and are of a mind to seek reconciliation, will need time and perhaps some counseling or guidance to become whole again. The Church has a role to play here too, advocating and perhaps mobilizing folk with skills from within congregations to assist with free or low-cost job, financial, and emotional counseling.
Likewise, the Church can offer its unique and holy ritual of forgiveness to all who feel guilt or brokenness, all who are adrift or without spiritual roots. But it shouldn’t stop there. Again, Bishop Rinehart offers wisdom for our proclamation of the Good News, not only to released prisoners, but to all those whose sins are pardoned: “God’s mission is fulfilled with such as these. If God can use Moses and Paul, who were murderers, then God can probably use you. And when it comes to serving the world in Jesus’ name, well, no matter what you’ve done, you can feed the hungry. Come along with us. The church is a hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints.”
SECOND THOUGHTS
The Lost Pokemon
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 15:1-10 (11-32)
This week’s gospel lection is about people looking for valuable things that are lost. In fact, it may even be said that it is about people going to extreme lengths, maybe even absurd lengths, to find them and get them back.
I had that kind of experience with my grandsons a few weeks ago. We were walking to get some ice cream, and 8-year-old Luke suggested that what we really needed to do while we were walking was to play Pokemon Go.
I have heard of this game, of course. I don’t live in a cave. And I have to admit that I was intrigued. First, I couldn’t imagine what it was and how it worked, and second, I couldn’t imagine how so many people were going so crazy over it.
I couldn’t even begin to guess what an Arcanine or a Flareon or a Charizard was, and why it was so important to “capture” them. But maybe this would be a good chance for Pop to learn something about youth culture, so I said, “Sure, why not.”
My son (their father) pulled out his smartphone and laid down the rules: He would find these “monsters,” and then he would give the phone to one of the boys and they could take turns capturing them. I had no idea what he was talking about.
We walked on about a hundred paces, my son glancing at his phone every few steps, and came to an abrupt stop. There was an... I don’t know, a something... just ahead. He gave his phone to 5-year-old Caleb, who expertly captured the something, which gave up its candy so they could be stronger and catch more somethings. Does that sound right? I have to admit that I still don’t quite get it.
Anyway, my son (who teaches at a large university) explained it to me as best he could. Apparently the point of the game is to save the world from invisible demons that you can see only through your smartphone. These demons have somehow been distributed randomly throughout the world (there are even some on Mt. Everest) and they come in varying denominations, with each denomination having various amounts of power which are surrendered to the person who catches them.
Okay, it sounds like it can be fun, maybe... for kids.
But why, I asked, did I see that video on the news of hundreds of people, otherwise rational adults, stampeding down a street in Taiwan, running over each other and pushing and shoving in a mad dash to capture a Pokemon character? What’s that all about?
He had not seen the video in question, but his answer was: “Well, it was probably a really rare and valuable character. You should see it on campus. Students are falling down stairs and crashing into each other all over the place.”
And that’s how we behave when we are trying to find something that doesn’t really even exist in the real world! I mean, how valuable can it be, you know?
In the gospel lesson, Jesus’ parables use things that really do exist in the real world. Or, at least they did as far as his listeners are concerned.
The first is a sheep that has wandered away. Sheep don’t run off in rebellion to authority; they don’t get mad and storm out. They just get sidetracked and distracted with their heads down, looking for a tasty little blade of grass to eat, and they kind of absentmindedly wander off.
Jesus asks, “If one of your 100 sheep wandered off, wouldn’t you leave the other 99 in the field and go looking for that lost one -- and when you found it, throw a party to celebrate?”
The answer, of course, is, “No! Are you crazy? That would be absurd!”
And Jesus says, “Yes, it is -- but that is how God acts toward those who wander away from the Kingdom. God goes to absurd lengths to bring them back, lengths that you wouldn’t even begin to consider.”
Then he takes another run at it with a second parable about money.
If you had saved up your money and you went to count it and discovered that 10 percent of it was gone, wouldn’t you turn the house upside-down looking for it? And then when you found it, wouldn’t you call all your friends over and blow it on a party to celebrate the fact that you found it?
And the answer, of course, is “No! That would be absurd! I’d put it safely away and tell no one, because if I did they would think I was either stupid or senile or a fool for losing it in the first place.”
And Jesus says, “Yeah, well that ‘absurd’ thing is exactly what God does. When someone gets separated from the Kingdom because they have been inattentive or lazy or careless or insensitive, God goes looking for that person... and often we are the agents he employs to do the looking. And when we find that person and bring them back into the kingdom God throws a party -- a big party with a band and a catered buffet and an open bar. That’s how much value God places upon us. He’s willing to go to absurd lengths to find us and bring us back and celebrate our return.”
There is, of course, a third parable that follows immediately after these two.
It is the parable of the lost child -- the most valuable thing in the world and the most heart-wrenching of all the parables. Is there a parent in the world who has not experienced the gut-wrenching panic and terror that happens when one of our children has wandered out of our sight for even a brief minute or two in a crowded mall or store? Is there even one of us who was not ready to lock the exits and search every single display, closet, and person in the store until our child was returned to us? Well, listen up.
The implied question of the parable of the prodigal son is not unlike those which were asked in the previous two parables: If your youngest child demanded his/her share of the inheritance, would you give it to them? And if you did and they went off and blew it on stupid and selfish things, then came dragging back home, dirty and ashamed, would you take them back?
The common answer would, of course, be “No! He made his bed. Let him sleep in it. Let her suffer the consequences of her actions. To do otherwise would be to enable them in his/her dysfunctional behavior.”
But God, in that perfect grace that is God’s alone, casts aside that pop psychology mumbo-jumbo and runs out to meet the returning child and “falls upon his neck” and kisses him and weeps with joy for “that child of mine [who] was lost and is found, [who] was dead and now is alive.”
To live in the Kingdom, it seems, is to be just as crazy about people -- especially those who are “lost” -- as we are about Pokemon Go, and to be just as willing to go to absurd lengths to win them back to the kingdom as we are to capture Flareons or Charizards... whatever those are.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Chris Keating:
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
What Do You See?
Jeremiah’s vision of God’s bold acts of judgment and re-creation may feel a bit too demanding of a text for a preacher on any Sunday -- let alone the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. But as Anathea Portier-Young notes, this text contains notes evocative of the creation story in Genesis 1. She points out this is particularly true at v. 23, where the Hebrew phrase “waste and void” is identical to Genesis’ “formless void.”
Ultimately, according to Portier-Young, Jeremiah may be calling us to see what we may not wish to see. In other words, on this 15th anniversary of 9/11, we are called to look at things in new ways. When we look at the world, what do we see?
Writer Steven Brill suggests that we may be looking at a nation that has made it harder for 19 terrorists to hijack four airplanes and use them as guided missiles, but has also neglected addressing other, pricklier terroristic threats. Brill says:
...we have not plugged some of the most threatening security gaps. Worse, as the Orlando massacre reminded us, the world has become more populated by those who want to exploit those gaps, including those living among us -- and who, in the United States, can easily obtain military-grade weapons. They are not deterred by the prospect of their own death, and they are happy to commit acts less ambitious than those of 9/11. That makes their attacks much harder to detect in advance. Our defenses are far stronger, but what we have to defend against has outpaced our progress.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Looking at the Earth
As Jeremiah looks at the earth, all is not well. Fruitful land is barren, the heavens are dark, mountains quake, and cities are in ruin. He takes the patient’s pulse, and finds it weak and erratic.
On this anniversary of 9/11, can we honor the memory of the heroes and victims of that day by also honoring our earth? Could we pay attention to what can be fixed, and see what is broken? Here are a few areas of concern:
* Since 2014, earthquakes in Oklahoma have increased 5,000%, creating some concern that the quakes could be linked to oil and natural gas drilling. Last Saturday, the Sooner state was rocked by a large quake that resulted in a state of emergency. State officials immediately shut down 37 of the state’s 3,200 disposal wells which are used to push the wastewater produced by hydraulic fracking deep underground. Some argue that fracking does not lead to seismic events. However, a state agency has documented links between increased earthquakes and the injection of wastewater into the ground. Either way, it is clear that human activity, no matter how beneficial, always has some impact on God’s creation.
* Global warming, like the scorching wind Jeremiah described, continues to impact our world in diverse ways. Rising sea levels, ocean acidification, deadly storms, and more are routinely reported by the media. This July was the warmest in 136 years of modern record-keeping, according to NASA. The space agency also noted that the record-low level of sea ice in the Arctic Sea is now “a new normal.”
* The drinking water of more than six million people in the United States exceeds the federally recommended safety levels of cancer-causing chemicals such as polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (also known as PFASs), according to a Harvard University study. Highest levels were found in watersheds near industrial sites, military bases, and wastewater treatment plants.
*****
Exodus 32:7-14
On Second Thought...
Sometimes you are the persuaded, sometimes you are the persuader. Notice how Moses negotiates with God in Exodus 32:7-14. Moses -- the one God had to convince to lead Israel out of Egypt -- is now holding God’s feet to the fire. Israel’s stiff-neckedness has ticked God off once and for all. (Had he been updating his Facebook status, Moses might have said: “You just now noticed that? SMH.”) But Moses implored God, and the Lord’s mind was changed.
Psychologists say that our reluctance to change our minds stems primarily from cognitive processes that act as safety mechanisms. Our views and opinions keep us safe, though those who have hold more positive views of themselves are more likely to be open to opening the castle doors to new ideas. There is also a theory called cultural cognition, which suggests that our opinions are shaped to conform to the view of the groups with which we most identify. (This explains a lot about church organizations!) This is a powerful force, suggesting that when the survival of our group or tribe is at stake we circle the wagons and become less flexible. The less threatened we feel, the more likely we’ll be open to change. I suspect it’s a lesson all pastors learned in their first five years of ministry!
It is also implied that God responds to Moses’ pleas because of the nature of God’s steadfast love. The stiff-necked people may not only need a negotiator, but a theological chiropractor as well.
*****
Luke 15:1-10
Searching for the Lost
Patty Wetterling has never stopped looking for her son Jacob, who was 11 years old when he disappeared in 1989. Last weekend she got the phone call that confirmed her worst fears. Investigators positively identified a body found on a Minnesota farm as Jacob. A statement posted on the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center website provides a glimpse into what it is like to search for lost children:
We are in deep grief. We didn’t want Jacob’s story to end this way. In this moment of pain and shock, we go back to the beginning. The Wetterlings had a choice to walk into bitterness and anger or to walk into a light of what could be, a light of hope. Their choice changed the world.
This light has been burning for close to 27 years. The spark began in the moments after the abduction of Jacob Wetterling, when his family decided that light is stronger than darkness. They lit the flame that became Jacob’s Hope. All of central Minnesota flocked to and fanned the flame, hoping for answers. The light spread statewide, nationally, and globally as hearts connected to the 11-year-old boy who liked to play goalie for his hockey team, wanted to be a football player, played the trombone, and loved the times he spent with his sisters, brother, and parents.
Today, we gather around the same flame. The flame that has become more than the hope for one as it led the way home for thousands of others. It’s the light that illuminates a world that Jacob believed in, where things are fair and just.
Our hearts are heavy, but we are being held up by all of the people who have been a part of making Jacob’s Hope a light that will never be extinguished. It shines on in a different way. We are, and we will continue to be, Jacob’s Hope.
Jacob, you are loved.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-29; Psalm 14
In his New York Times obituary, it was noted that in 1964 Princeton University professor James Cronin, together with Val Fitch, discovered what came to be called the Fitch-Cronin effect -- which supported the Big Bang theory of creation. Contrary to what was previously held in physics, Cronin and Fitch demonstrated that matter and anti-matter produced by an explosion did not annihilate each other, but instead left a light residue that evolved into stars, planets, and people. After their discovery, it took 16 years before they were awarded the Nobel Prize. When Dr. Cronin was asked why it took so long for the Fitch-Cronin effect to be accepted as scientific fact, he replied: “I don’t think that people recognized that this had something to do with one of the most fundamental aspects of nature, with the origin of the universe.”
Application: To avoid judgment, we must recognize the dominance of God in creation and the continuance of creation. This would be absent of debating the origins of creation, and accepting God as the ultimate creator.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-29; 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Antony Jay, noted as the creator and chief writer for two popular English television series in the 1980s satirizing British politics -- Yes, Minister and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister -- recently passed away. The shows followed the career of the Right Honorable James Hacker, from being a member of parliament to being prime minister. Jay said of his programs: “I suppose that you could say that that the fun of the series comes from showing civil servants as politicians see them, and politicians as civil servants see them. I can tell you without any doubt that if you showed politicians and civil servants as they see themselves, you would have the most boring series television ever encountered.”
Application: We are to see ourselves as God sees us.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-29; 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Gene Wilder was best known as a comic actor in movies -- but he was also a novelist, a director, and a stage actor. Wilder said that for several years he had a “demon” -- a compulsion to pray out loud to God at the most embarrassing times and in the most embarrassing places, but never onstage or onscreen where he felt free to be someone else.
Application: The lectionary readings do not instruct us to pray at the most embarrassing times and in the most embarrassing places, but they do encourage us to pray more.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-29; 1 Timothy 1:12-17
In the comic The Lockhorns, Leroy and Loretta are a white middle-class couple who have a loving relationship, but they often seem to communicate through criticism. In one episode Leroy is relaxing in the backyard, stretched out on a lawn chair with a cool drink in his hand. Loretta is working in the garden and says to her neighbor friend: “Leroy used to be lazy and poor, but turned his life around... now he’s poor and lazy.” (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: Our lectionary readings call us to turn our lives around.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-29; 1 Timothy 1:12-17
In the comic strip Andy Capp, Andy is a working-class resident of Hartlepool, England, who is often out of work, and who can be usually found playing billiards or darts at his favorite pub. In one episode Andy comes home, obviously inebriated, and tumbles through the front door to his waiting wife Flo. She admonishes him, saying: “You promised you’d have two pints and be home by eleven.” Andy, lying on the floor with a red nose, looks up and says: “Sorry, Pet. I got it the wrong way round.” (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: Our lectionary readings call us to turn our lives around.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-29; 1 Timothy 1:12-17
In a Cornered comic, a man is standing before the entrance to heaven. It is interesting to note that in this comic artist Mike Baldwin makes a humorous observation on today’s society by showing a line behind the man with everyone is looking at their cellphones, and one person taking a selfie. For Baldwin, even on our way to the judgment seat of God -- an act of great importance -- we are still focused on the insignificance of our cellphones. As the man is being judged in the comic, an angel is looking at a computer video screen showing a list of his life’s accomplishments... and then the angel suddenly says: “Whaddya say we just skip ahead to the bloopers reel?” (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: Our goal in life is to have a very short bloopers reel.
*****
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Daniel Z. Nelson was acclaimed for developing a financial system in New York City of selling bonds for new skyscraper construction projects where the lower floors would be used as a school. The building owners would not have to pay property taxes under this system, only “air rights.” The New York Times reports that Nelson, born in 1930 in Brooklyn, had no middle name -- so he selected the letter Z to be used as his middle initial, for his Hebrew name Zuscha.
Application: Paul would wish for all of us to place God at the center of our lives.
*****
1 Timothy 1:12-17
In his 2005 memoir Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art, comic actor Gene Wilder asked a question about the meaning of his life’s work and then offered his response: “What do actors really want? To be great actors? Yes, but you can’t buy talent, so it’s best to leave the word ‘great’ out of it. I think to be believed, onstage or onscreen, is the one hope that all actors share.”
Application: Paul instructs us to be genuine in our faith.
*****
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Gene Wilder’s rule for comedy was simple: Don’t try to make it funny; try to make it real. Wilder would often say, “I’m an actor, not a clown.”
Application: Paul wants us to be real and genuine in our faith.
*****
Luke 15:1-10
Actor Gene Wilder was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease three years ago, but kept it a secret from the public. The reason for this, according to his nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman, was that “he simply couldn’t bear the idea of one less smile in the world.”
Application: Jesus speaks of the meaning of joy in life.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God looks down from heaven on humankind.
People: God looks to see if there are any who are wise.
Leader: We have all gone astray, we are all alike perverse.
People: There is no one who does good, no, not one.
Leader: When God restores the fortunes of the people,
People: Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.
OR
Leader: God calls us to be a forgiven people.
People: We find it hard to forgive ourselves or others.
Leader: God’s grace is not based on our merit.
People: Praise our God, who forgives all our sins.
Leader: God still calls us to righteous living.
People: As God’s forgiven ones, we will live for God.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”
found in:
UMH: 89
H82: 376
PH: 464
AAHH: 120
NNBH: 40
NCH: 4
CH: 2
LBW: 551
ELA: 836
W&P: 56
AMEC: 75
STLT: 29
“All My Hope Is Firmly Grounded”
found in:
UMH: 132
H82: 665
NCH: 408
CH: 88
ELA: 757
“O Love, How Deep”
found in:
UMH: 267
H82: 448, 449
PH: 86
NCH: 209
LBW: 88
ELA: 322
W&P: 244
“Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy”
found in:
UMH: 340
AMEC: 232
Renew: 141
“Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us”
found in:
UMH: 381
H82: 708
PH: 387
AAHH: 424
NNBH: 54
NCH: 252
CH: 558
LBW: 481
ELA: 789
W&P: 440
AMEC: 379
“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”
found in:
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELA: 631
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
Renew: 196
“Breathe on Me, Breath of God”
found in:
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
W&P: 461
AMEC: 192
“Open My Eyes, That I May See”
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
“Deck Thyself, My Soul, with Gladness”
found in:
UMH: 602
H82: 339
PH: 506
NCH: 334
LBW: 224
“Sing Unto the Lord a New Song”
found in:
CCB: 16
Renew: 99
“He Is Lord”
found in:
CCB: 82
Renew: 29
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who grants mercy to the undeserving: Grant us the grace to accept your removing our guilt while still hearing your call to righteous living; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you are a God of mercy. You give grace to those who do not deserve it. As you come among us this day, help us to hear your words of forgiveness while still knowing that you call us to righteous living. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to take both your forgiveness and your call to righteousness seriously.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Too often we do not really believe in your forgiveness. Sometimes we cannot forgive ourselves, and sometimes we cannot forgive others. We put conditions on your forgiveness, forgetting that grace is always undeserved. When we do think of you as a forgiving God, then we forget that you are also the One who calls us to righteousness. We fail to understand that your forgiveness is given to move us forward. Instead, we use it to wallow in our sin. Send your Spirit upon us to awaken us to the joy and seriousness of your grace and forgiveness. Lead us once more into righteousness and truth. Amen.
Leader: God delights in our turning from death to life, from sin to righteousness. Receive God’s love and forgiveness, and live into the fullness of God.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We worship you, O God, for your great love which is a fountain of mercy.
(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. Too often we do not really believe in your forgiveness. Sometimes we cannot forgive ourselves, and sometimes we cannot forgive others. We put conditions on your forgiveness, forgetting that grace is always undeserved. When we do think of you as a forgiving God, then we forget that you are also the One who calls us to righteousness. We fail to understand that your forgiveness is given to move us forward. Instead, we use it to wallow in our sin. Send your Spirit upon us to awaken us to the joy and seriousness of your grace and forgiveness. Lead us once more into righteousness and truth.
We give you thanks for the ways in which you instruct us to live so that we might know healing and joy. We thank you for forgiving us when we fail to live in your ways.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for the needs of all creation. We pray that we may all receive with joy your forgiveness and learn to live in the ways of justice, mercy, and peace.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Have you ever gotten in trouble at home? Have you ever been grounded? Sometimes it happens to us -- we do something wrong and we are grounded for a certain time. But sometimes before that time is completely up, our parents see that we are really sorry for what we did and that we have learned our lesson... so they decide to shorten our time-out. God is always willing to forgive us and shorten our punishment whenever we are ready to follow God’s way.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Luke 15:1-10
(Gather the children, and begin by asking them) What is your favorite thing -- something that is special to you... your favorite toy, your favorite book, your favorite pillow or blanket? (Allow each child to name their favorite item.)
Have you ever lost your favorite thing? What did you do? (Allow the children to respond.)
I know if I lost something that was special to me, I would search for it. I might even ask my family or friends to help me find it.
In our reading today from the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells two stories about people who lost things that were special to them. These stories are parables... which means that there is a bigger message to the story than what you hear at first. (At this point you may read the stories about the Lost Sheep [vv. 3-7] and the Lost Coin [vv. 8-10], or simply summarize them.)
Did you notice in the parables that the shepherd and the woman both searched high and low to find what they had lost? They’re not too different from each of us -- searching to find something that is special to them that has been lost.
These parable stories tell us something true about God -- that God goes to great lengths to find things that are special to God... God doesn’t want to lose special things either.
Do you know that you are special to God? Yes! God loves each of us... each of you... and every person in this sanctuary. God will search high and low to find you and know you and keep you. You can never be lost from God!
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, September 11, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 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.
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Robin Lostetter suggests that something of a parallel for God’s bestowal of undeserved mercy in recent headlines might be President Obama’s commutation of the sentences of 111 federal prisoners, which followed 214 additional commutations earlier in August. These actions are part of a record-setting trend -- Obama has now “granted 673 commutations, more than the past 10 presidents combined.” In discussing his reasons for granting clemency, Obama said that “his main criteria was finding people who would be given much shorter sentences today than they received decades ago, individuals who his administration believes have ‘tried to reform themselves while incarcerated’ and deserve a second chance.” Yet as Robin points out, presidential pardons and commutations are nowhere near as complete in their grace and forgiveness as the second chances that God routinely offers to us sinners... for God doesn’t merely commute our sentences, he washes us completely clean.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the gospel text’s theme of finding that which is lost -- and the seemingly absurd lengths that we will go to in order to find something that we think is valuable... even if in the long view it’s not. Of course, one need to look no further than the latest fads -- and as Dean points out, this year the popular search for that which is “lost” has expanded into the virtual universe of Pokémon Go. While this summer people are going to great lengths to find “monsters” that only exist in their cellphones, how often do we exhibit that same dedication and devotion to finding “lost” people? The answer, all too often, is not very -- we are inclined to treat “lost” people in the same way we treat inanimate objects in our society of “planned obsolescence”: as utterly disposable. We are as likely to throw people away (or lock them away, or keep them confined in ghettos safely out of our view), viewing them as “bad” and irredeemable, as we are a toaster or a television that has outlived its usefulness. But as Dean notes, the parables in this week’s gospel passage illustrate how God never treats us that way -- we are always worth looking for when we are “lost,” and are worth throwing a party over when we are “found” ...even when the lengths God goes to would seem utterly ridiculous to us in other contexts.
Fully Pardoned
by Robin Lostetter
1 Timothy 1:12-17; Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Exodus 32:7-14
President Obama was in the headlines during August for commuting a record number of federal prisoners’ sentences. We Americans always imagine that if we had been wrongly sentenced we would qualify for presidential clemency. But the sheer number of Obama’s commutations may raise questions like “Do these folk really deserve to be released?” After all, we generally look upon ourselves as the innocent and are much more willing to lay blame on “the other.”
However, we don’t really understand what commuting a sentence is all about. It’s different from a presidential pardon -- it doesn’t relieve a guilty sentence or a felony conviction from a person’s record. It is an exhaustive process, but it doesn’t restore all their rights. It simply shortens their sentence, something like God’s announcement that “yet I will not make a full end” (Jeremiah 4:27). Even a pardon, although ending restrictions on one’s civil rights and “lessen[ing] the stigma arising from the conviction,” still does not wipe the slate completely clean for all folk.
When Paul writes “But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:13-14), he speaks of something unknown in U.S. law. Ignorance of a statute is no excuse, and executive clemency is not a 100% wiping clean of the slate. That is the sole jurisdiction of our God. We may be grateful that the reality is better than our imagination: each of us qualifies for divine mercy, without an exhaustive process, and it is not simply a shortening of our sentence.
In the News
NPR reported last week that “President Obama shortened the prison sentences of 111 inmates Tuesday, including 35 people who had expected to spend the rest of their lives in federal custody.... The early releases apply to mostly nonviolent drug offenders who would have received lighter punishments if they committed the same crimes today. The new commutations mean this White House has granted 673 commutations, more than the past 10 presidents combined. Tuesday’s grants follow 214 more earlier this month.”
Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates and the new pardon attorney, Robert Zauzmer, expressed confidence and commitment that they would clear the backlog of applications before President Obama leaves office. This mission of mercy could make a significant difference in the lives of as many as 1,500 additional prisoners whose sentences appear unfair by 2016 standards.
One such former prisoner is David Padilla, who was reunited with his family during Christmas week 2015. “It’s a beautiful thing to be home after spending 19 years, one month, 10 days in federal prison,” said Padilla, who served all that time for nonviolent drug offenses. “This doesn’t happen to people like us. You know, we are minorities, and it’s a blessing.” One of the changes that strike him most after his imprisonment is the effect of technology on communication -- people sitting at tables, not speaking, but looking at their phones. He has instituted family time in his home, a time when all phones are relegated to a bucket.
Padilla is also giving back to his community, out of his drug and prison experience. He has “signed up to volunteer [with Men in Motion in the Community, a Philadelphia youth mentoring program]. He said he wants to make amends for his role in moving drugs through the community. ‘You know, my three charges were drugs, and drugs trickle down all the way to the community,’ he said. ‘This is my way of giving back, telling the kids there’s options, there’s other ways.’ ”
Not all folk released early have been integrated back into society as well or as quickly as Padilla. Many have come home to find their families grown, spouses left, jobs disappeared, and financial support minimal. One such person is Mark Anthony Jones, one of 46 released inmates interviewed by the Washington Post: “The government at first granted me $16 a month for three months. After that they just kept denying me. I also can’t get a grant to go back to school. I can’t get nothing. I want to go back to school and take up counseling. I want to get a job counseling youth the way I did in prison and make a living doing that. That’s my passion.”
In the Scriptures
The author of 1 Timothy, writing in the name of Paul, states: “I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence” (vv. 12-13a). This recalls stories of others who have been called to God’s service, even after crimes including murder or plotting murder -- Moses and David, for instance.
God’s mercy not only wipes the slate clean, but empowers and equips forgiven persons for divine callings. Paul, who had persecuted Christians, became a missionary for Christ to the far reaches of the known world. His words of gratitude for God’s mercy, strength, judgment, and calling may be applied across the centuries.
He goes on to note in the well-known verse 15a: “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” As such, God, through Jesus, is surely the God of Full and Complete Pardons, not just the God of Commutations... and is thus the God of Mercy for sinners -- i.e., all of us.
In the Sermon
In his blog, Bishop Mike Rinehart observes: “Too many people shy away from the church because they feel they are not worthy. ‘If you knew what I’ve done, Pastor, you would not ask me to be involved...’ This sounds too much like what they said to Jesus, when the woman anointed him in Simon the Pharisee’s house, ‘If he knew what sort of woman this was...’ ”
Just as prisoners need more than just the commutation of their sentence or a presidential pardon, our congregants need more -- they need what the Church can offer, the mercy and unconditional love of God.
Released prisoners need a support system, separate from the one that led them into crime. They need financial support until they can find a job and housing. And their families, if they have waited for them and are of a mind to seek reconciliation, will need time and perhaps some counseling or guidance to become whole again. The Church has a role to play here too, advocating and perhaps mobilizing folk with skills from within congregations to assist with free or low-cost job, financial, and emotional counseling.
Likewise, the Church can offer its unique and holy ritual of forgiveness to all who feel guilt or brokenness, all who are adrift or without spiritual roots. But it shouldn’t stop there. Again, Bishop Rinehart offers wisdom for our proclamation of the Good News, not only to released prisoners, but to all those whose sins are pardoned: “God’s mission is fulfilled with such as these. If God can use Moses and Paul, who were murderers, then God can probably use you. And when it comes to serving the world in Jesus’ name, well, no matter what you’ve done, you can feed the hungry. Come along with us. The church is a hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints.”
SECOND THOUGHTS
The Lost Pokemon
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 15:1-10 (11-32)
This week’s gospel lection is about people looking for valuable things that are lost. In fact, it may even be said that it is about people going to extreme lengths, maybe even absurd lengths, to find them and get them back.
I had that kind of experience with my grandsons a few weeks ago. We were walking to get some ice cream, and 8-year-old Luke suggested that what we really needed to do while we were walking was to play Pokemon Go.
I have heard of this game, of course. I don’t live in a cave. And I have to admit that I was intrigued. First, I couldn’t imagine what it was and how it worked, and second, I couldn’t imagine how so many people were going so crazy over it.
I couldn’t even begin to guess what an Arcanine or a Flareon or a Charizard was, and why it was so important to “capture” them. But maybe this would be a good chance for Pop to learn something about youth culture, so I said, “Sure, why not.”
My son (their father) pulled out his smartphone and laid down the rules: He would find these “monsters,” and then he would give the phone to one of the boys and they could take turns capturing them. I had no idea what he was talking about.
We walked on about a hundred paces, my son glancing at his phone every few steps, and came to an abrupt stop. There was an... I don’t know, a something... just ahead. He gave his phone to 5-year-old Caleb, who expertly captured the something, which gave up its candy so they could be stronger and catch more somethings. Does that sound right? I have to admit that I still don’t quite get it.
Anyway, my son (who teaches at a large university) explained it to me as best he could. Apparently the point of the game is to save the world from invisible demons that you can see only through your smartphone. These demons have somehow been distributed randomly throughout the world (there are even some on Mt. Everest) and they come in varying denominations, with each denomination having various amounts of power which are surrendered to the person who catches them.
Okay, it sounds like it can be fun, maybe... for kids.
But why, I asked, did I see that video on the news of hundreds of people, otherwise rational adults, stampeding down a street in Taiwan, running over each other and pushing and shoving in a mad dash to capture a Pokemon character? What’s that all about?
He had not seen the video in question, but his answer was: “Well, it was probably a really rare and valuable character. You should see it on campus. Students are falling down stairs and crashing into each other all over the place.”
And that’s how we behave when we are trying to find something that doesn’t really even exist in the real world! I mean, how valuable can it be, you know?
In the gospel lesson, Jesus’ parables use things that really do exist in the real world. Or, at least they did as far as his listeners are concerned.
The first is a sheep that has wandered away. Sheep don’t run off in rebellion to authority; they don’t get mad and storm out. They just get sidetracked and distracted with their heads down, looking for a tasty little blade of grass to eat, and they kind of absentmindedly wander off.
Jesus asks, “If one of your 100 sheep wandered off, wouldn’t you leave the other 99 in the field and go looking for that lost one -- and when you found it, throw a party to celebrate?”
The answer, of course, is, “No! Are you crazy? That would be absurd!”
And Jesus says, “Yes, it is -- but that is how God acts toward those who wander away from the Kingdom. God goes to absurd lengths to bring them back, lengths that you wouldn’t even begin to consider.”
Then he takes another run at it with a second parable about money.
If you had saved up your money and you went to count it and discovered that 10 percent of it was gone, wouldn’t you turn the house upside-down looking for it? And then when you found it, wouldn’t you call all your friends over and blow it on a party to celebrate the fact that you found it?
And the answer, of course, is “No! That would be absurd! I’d put it safely away and tell no one, because if I did they would think I was either stupid or senile or a fool for losing it in the first place.”
And Jesus says, “Yeah, well that ‘absurd’ thing is exactly what God does. When someone gets separated from the Kingdom because they have been inattentive or lazy or careless or insensitive, God goes looking for that person... and often we are the agents he employs to do the looking. And when we find that person and bring them back into the kingdom God throws a party -- a big party with a band and a catered buffet and an open bar. That’s how much value God places upon us. He’s willing to go to absurd lengths to find us and bring us back and celebrate our return.”
There is, of course, a third parable that follows immediately after these two.
It is the parable of the lost child -- the most valuable thing in the world and the most heart-wrenching of all the parables. Is there a parent in the world who has not experienced the gut-wrenching panic and terror that happens when one of our children has wandered out of our sight for even a brief minute or two in a crowded mall or store? Is there even one of us who was not ready to lock the exits and search every single display, closet, and person in the store until our child was returned to us? Well, listen up.
The implied question of the parable of the prodigal son is not unlike those which were asked in the previous two parables: If your youngest child demanded his/her share of the inheritance, would you give it to them? And if you did and they went off and blew it on stupid and selfish things, then came dragging back home, dirty and ashamed, would you take them back?
The common answer would, of course, be “No! He made his bed. Let him sleep in it. Let her suffer the consequences of her actions. To do otherwise would be to enable them in his/her dysfunctional behavior.”
But God, in that perfect grace that is God’s alone, casts aside that pop psychology mumbo-jumbo and runs out to meet the returning child and “falls upon his neck” and kisses him and weeps with joy for “that child of mine [who] was lost and is found, [who] was dead and now is alive.”
To live in the Kingdom, it seems, is to be just as crazy about people -- especially those who are “lost” -- as we are about Pokemon Go, and to be just as willing to go to absurd lengths to win them back to the kingdom as we are to capture Flareons or Charizards... whatever those are.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Chris Keating:
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
What Do You See?
Jeremiah’s vision of God’s bold acts of judgment and re-creation may feel a bit too demanding of a text for a preacher on any Sunday -- let alone the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. But as Anathea Portier-Young notes, this text contains notes evocative of the creation story in Genesis 1. She points out this is particularly true at v. 23, where the Hebrew phrase “waste and void” is identical to Genesis’ “formless void.”
Ultimately, according to Portier-Young, Jeremiah may be calling us to see what we may not wish to see. In other words, on this 15th anniversary of 9/11, we are called to look at things in new ways. When we look at the world, what do we see?
Writer Steven Brill suggests that we may be looking at a nation that has made it harder for 19 terrorists to hijack four airplanes and use them as guided missiles, but has also neglected addressing other, pricklier terroristic threats. Brill says:
...we have not plugged some of the most threatening security gaps. Worse, as the Orlando massacre reminded us, the world has become more populated by those who want to exploit those gaps, including those living among us -- and who, in the United States, can easily obtain military-grade weapons. They are not deterred by the prospect of their own death, and they are happy to commit acts less ambitious than those of 9/11. That makes their attacks much harder to detect in advance. Our defenses are far stronger, but what we have to defend against has outpaced our progress.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Looking at the Earth
As Jeremiah looks at the earth, all is not well. Fruitful land is barren, the heavens are dark, mountains quake, and cities are in ruin. He takes the patient’s pulse, and finds it weak and erratic.
On this anniversary of 9/11, can we honor the memory of the heroes and victims of that day by also honoring our earth? Could we pay attention to what can be fixed, and see what is broken? Here are a few areas of concern:
* Since 2014, earthquakes in Oklahoma have increased 5,000%, creating some concern that the quakes could be linked to oil and natural gas drilling. Last Saturday, the Sooner state was rocked by a large quake that resulted in a state of emergency. State officials immediately shut down 37 of the state’s 3,200 disposal wells which are used to push the wastewater produced by hydraulic fracking deep underground. Some argue that fracking does not lead to seismic events. However, a state agency has documented links between increased earthquakes and the injection of wastewater into the ground. Either way, it is clear that human activity, no matter how beneficial, always has some impact on God’s creation.
* Global warming, like the scorching wind Jeremiah described, continues to impact our world in diverse ways. Rising sea levels, ocean acidification, deadly storms, and more are routinely reported by the media. This July was the warmest in 136 years of modern record-keeping, according to NASA. The space agency also noted that the record-low level of sea ice in the Arctic Sea is now “a new normal.”
* The drinking water of more than six million people in the United States exceeds the federally recommended safety levels of cancer-causing chemicals such as polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (also known as PFASs), according to a Harvard University study. Highest levels were found in watersheds near industrial sites, military bases, and wastewater treatment plants.
*****
Exodus 32:7-14
On Second Thought...
Sometimes you are the persuaded, sometimes you are the persuader. Notice how Moses negotiates with God in Exodus 32:7-14. Moses -- the one God had to convince to lead Israel out of Egypt -- is now holding God’s feet to the fire. Israel’s stiff-neckedness has ticked God off once and for all. (Had he been updating his Facebook status, Moses might have said: “You just now noticed that? SMH.”) But Moses implored God, and the Lord’s mind was changed.
Psychologists say that our reluctance to change our minds stems primarily from cognitive processes that act as safety mechanisms. Our views and opinions keep us safe, though those who have hold more positive views of themselves are more likely to be open to opening the castle doors to new ideas. There is also a theory called cultural cognition, which suggests that our opinions are shaped to conform to the view of the groups with which we most identify. (This explains a lot about church organizations!) This is a powerful force, suggesting that when the survival of our group or tribe is at stake we circle the wagons and become less flexible. The less threatened we feel, the more likely we’ll be open to change. I suspect it’s a lesson all pastors learned in their first five years of ministry!
It is also implied that God responds to Moses’ pleas because of the nature of God’s steadfast love. The stiff-necked people may not only need a negotiator, but a theological chiropractor as well.
*****
Luke 15:1-10
Searching for the Lost
Patty Wetterling has never stopped looking for her son Jacob, who was 11 years old when he disappeared in 1989. Last weekend she got the phone call that confirmed her worst fears. Investigators positively identified a body found on a Minnesota farm as Jacob. A statement posted on the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center website provides a glimpse into what it is like to search for lost children:
We are in deep grief. We didn’t want Jacob’s story to end this way. In this moment of pain and shock, we go back to the beginning. The Wetterlings had a choice to walk into bitterness and anger or to walk into a light of what could be, a light of hope. Their choice changed the world.
This light has been burning for close to 27 years. The spark began in the moments after the abduction of Jacob Wetterling, when his family decided that light is stronger than darkness. They lit the flame that became Jacob’s Hope. All of central Minnesota flocked to and fanned the flame, hoping for answers. The light spread statewide, nationally, and globally as hearts connected to the 11-year-old boy who liked to play goalie for his hockey team, wanted to be a football player, played the trombone, and loved the times he spent with his sisters, brother, and parents.
Today, we gather around the same flame. The flame that has become more than the hope for one as it led the way home for thousands of others. It’s the light that illuminates a world that Jacob believed in, where things are fair and just.
Our hearts are heavy, but we are being held up by all of the people who have been a part of making Jacob’s Hope a light that will never be extinguished. It shines on in a different way. We are, and we will continue to be, Jacob’s Hope.
Jacob, you are loved.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-29; Psalm 14
In his New York Times obituary, it was noted that in 1964 Princeton University professor James Cronin, together with Val Fitch, discovered what came to be called the Fitch-Cronin effect -- which supported the Big Bang theory of creation. Contrary to what was previously held in physics, Cronin and Fitch demonstrated that matter and anti-matter produced by an explosion did not annihilate each other, but instead left a light residue that evolved into stars, planets, and people. After their discovery, it took 16 years before they were awarded the Nobel Prize. When Dr. Cronin was asked why it took so long for the Fitch-Cronin effect to be accepted as scientific fact, he replied: “I don’t think that people recognized that this had something to do with one of the most fundamental aspects of nature, with the origin of the universe.”
Application: To avoid judgment, we must recognize the dominance of God in creation and the continuance of creation. This would be absent of debating the origins of creation, and accepting God as the ultimate creator.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-29; 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Antony Jay, noted as the creator and chief writer for two popular English television series in the 1980s satirizing British politics -- Yes, Minister and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister -- recently passed away. The shows followed the career of the Right Honorable James Hacker, from being a member of parliament to being prime minister. Jay said of his programs: “I suppose that you could say that that the fun of the series comes from showing civil servants as politicians see them, and politicians as civil servants see them. I can tell you without any doubt that if you showed politicians and civil servants as they see themselves, you would have the most boring series television ever encountered.”
Application: We are to see ourselves as God sees us.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-29; 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Gene Wilder was best known as a comic actor in movies -- but he was also a novelist, a director, and a stage actor. Wilder said that for several years he had a “demon” -- a compulsion to pray out loud to God at the most embarrassing times and in the most embarrassing places, but never onstage or onscreen where he felt free to be someone else.
Application: The lectionary readings do not instruct us to pray at the most embarrassing times and in the most embarrassing places, but they do encourage us to pray more.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-29; 1 Timothy 1:12-17
In the comic The Lockhorns, Leroy and Loretta are a white middle-class couple who have a loving relationship, but they often seem to communicate through criticism. In one episode Leroy is relaxing in the backyard, stretched out on a lawn chair with a cool drink in his hand. Loretta is working in the garden and says to her neighbor friend: “Leroy used to be lazy and poor, but turned his life around... now he’s poor and lazy.” (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: Our lectionary readings call us to turn our lives around.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-29; 1 Timothy 1:12-17
In the comic strip Andy Capp, Andy is a working-class resident of Hartlepool, England, who is often out of work, and who can be usually found playing billiards or darts at his favorite pub. In one episode Andy comes home, obviously inebriated, and tumbles through the front door to his waiting wife Flo. She admonishes him, saying: “You promised you’d have two pints and be home by eleven.” Andy, lying on the floor with a red nose, looks up and says: “Sorry, Pet. I got it the wrong way round.” (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: Our lectionary readings call us to turn our lives around.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-29; 1 Timothy 1:12-17
In a Cornered comic, a man is standing before the entrance to heaven. It is interesting to note that in this comic artist Mike Baldwin makes a humorous observation on today’s society by showing a line behind the man with everyone is looking at their cellphones, and one person taking a selfie. For Baldwin, even on our way to the judgment seat of God -- an act of great importance -- we are still focused on the insignificance of our cellphones. As the man is being judged in the comic, an angel is looking at a computer video screen showing a list of his life’s accomplishments... and then the angel suddenly says: “Whaddya say we just skip ahead to the bloopers reel?” (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: Our goal in life is to have a very short bloopers reel.
*****
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Daniel Z. Nelson was acclaimed for developing a financial system in New York City of selling bonds for new skyscraper construction projects where the lower floors would be used as a school. The building owners would not have to pay property taxes under this system, only “air rights.” The New York Times reports that Nelson, born in 1930 in Brooklyn, had no middle name -- so he selected the letter Z to be used as his middle initial, for his Hebrew name Zuscha.
Application: Paul would wish for all of us to place God at the center of our lives.
*****
1 Timothy 1:12-17
In his 2005 memoir Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art, comic actor Gene Wilder asked a question about the meaning of his life’s work and then offered his response: “What do actors really want? To be great actors? Yes, but you can’t buy talent, so it’s best to leave the word ‘great’ out of it. I think to be believed, onstage or onscreen, is the one hope that all actors share.”
Application: Paul instructs us to be genuine in our faith.
*****
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Gene Wilder’s rule for comedy was simple: Don’t try to make it funny; try to make it real. Wilder would often say, “I’m an actor, not a clown.”
Application: Paul wants us to be real and genuine in our faith.
*****
Luke 15:1-10
Actor Gene Wilder was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease three years ago, but kept it a secret from the public. The reason for this, according to his nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman, was that “he simply couldn’t bear the idea of one less smile in the world.”
Application: Jesus speaks of the meaning of joy in life.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God looks down from heaven on humankind.
People: God looks to see if there are any who are wise.
Leader: We have all gone astray, we are all alike perverse.
People: There is no one who does good, no, not one.
Leader: When God restores the fortunes of the people,
People: Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.
OR
Leader: God calls us to be a forgiven people.
People: We find it hard to forgive ourselves or others.
Leader: God’s grace is not based on our merit.
People: Praise our God, who forgives all our sins.
Leader: God still calls us to righteous living.
People: As God’s forgiven ones, we will live for God.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”
found in:
UMH: 89
H82: 376
PH: 464
AAHH: 120
NNBH: 40
NCH: 4
CH: 2
LBW: 551
ELA: 836
W&P: 56
AMEC: 75
STLT: 29
“All My Hope Is Firmly Grounded”
found in:
UMH: 132
H82: 665
NCH: 408
CH: 88
ELA: 757
“O Love, How Deep”
found in:
UMH: 267
H82: 448, 449
PH: 86
NCH: 209
LBW: 88
ELA: 322
W&P: 244
“Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy”
found in:
UMH: 340
AMEC: 232
Renew: 141
“Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us”
found in:
UMH: 381
H82: 708
PH: 387
AAHH: 424
NNBH: 54
NCH: 252
CH: 558
LBW: 481
ELA: 789
W&P: 440
AMEC: 379
“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”
found in:
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELA: 631
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
Renew: 196
“Breathe on Me, Breath of God”
found in:
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
W&P: 461
AMEC: 192
“Open My Eyes, That I May See”
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
“Deck Thyself, My Soul, with Gladness”
found in:
UMH: 602
H82: 339
PH: 506
NCH: 334
LBW: 224
“Sing Unto the Lord a New Song”
found in:
CCB: 16
Renew: 99
“He Is Lord”
found in:
CCB: 82
Renew: 29
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who grants mercy to the undeserving: Grant us the grace to accept your removing our guilt while still hearing your call to righteous living; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you are a God of mercy. You give grace to those who do not deserve it. As you come among us this day, help us to hear your words of forgiveness while still knowing that you call us to righteous living. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to take both your forgiveness and your call to righteousness seriously.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Too often we do not really believe in your forgiveness. Sometimes we cannot forgive ourselves, and sometimes we cannot forgive others. We put conditions on your forgiveness, forgetting that grace is always undeserved. When we do think of you as a forgiving God, then we forget that you are also the One who calls us to righteousness. We fail to understand that your forgiveness is given to move us forward. Instead, we use it to wallow in our sin. Send your Spirit upon us to awaken us to the joy and seriousness of your grace and forgiveness. Lead us once more into righteousness and truth. Amen.
Leader: God delights in our turning from death to life, from sin to righteousness. Receive God’s love and forgiveness, and live into the fullness of God.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We worship you, O God, for your great love which is a fountain of mercy.
(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. Too often we do not really believe in your forgiveness. Sometimes we cannot forgive ourselves, and sometimes we cannot forgive others. We put conditions on your forgiveness, forgetting that grace is always undeserved. When we do think of you as a forgiving God, then we forget that you are also the One who calls us to righteousness. We fail to understand that your forgiveness is given to move us forward. Instead, we use it to wallow in our sin. Send your Spirit upon us to awaken us to the joy and seriousness of your grace and forgiveness. Lead us once more into righteousness and truth.
We give you thanks for the ways in which you instruct us to live so that we might know healing and joy. We thank you for forgiving us when we fail to live in your ways.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for the needs of all creation. We pray that we may all receive with joy your forgiveness and learn to live in the ways of justice, mercy, and peace.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Have you ever gotten in trouble at home? Have you ever been grounded? Sometimes it happens to us -- we do something wrong and we are grounded for a certain time. But sometimes before that time is completely up, our parents see that we are really sorry for what we did and that we have learned our lesson... so they decide to shorten our time-out. God is always willing to forgive us and shorten our punishment whenever we are ready to follow God’s way.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Luke 15:1-10
(Gather the children, and begin by asking them) What is your favorite thing -- something that is special to you... your favorite toy, your favorite book, your favorite pillow or blanket? (Allow each child to name their favorite item.)
Have you ever lost your favorite thing? What did you do? (Allow the children to respond.)
I know if I lost something that was special to me, I would search for it. I might even ask my family or friends to help me find it.
In our reading today from the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells two stories about people who lost things that were special to them. These stories are parables... which means that there is a bigger message to the story than what you hear at first. (At this point you may read the stories about the Lost Sheep [vv. 3-7] and the Lost Coin [vv. 8-10], or simply summarize them.)
Did you notice in the parables that the shepherd and the woman both searched high and low to find what they had lost? They’re not too different from each of us -- searching to find something that is special to them that has been lost.
These parable stories tell us something true about God -- that God goes to great lengths to find things that are special to God... God doesn’t want to lose special things either.
Do you know that you are special to God? Yes! God loves each of us... each of you... and every person in this sanctuary. God will search high and low to find you and know you and keep you. You can never be lost from God!
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The Immediate Word, September 11, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 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.
