The Gospel According To Warren Buffett
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In this week's lectionary pericope from Matthew, Jesus begins the difficult process of preparing his disciples for the coming events of his death and resurrection. When Peter objects because he cannot imagine that the long-awaited Messiah deserves such treatment, Jesus sharply retorts that Peter is focusing on the human rather than the divine perspective. Jesus follows that up by confronting Peter (and us) with an extremely difficult challenge: to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. Jesus paradoxically observes that we must lose our lives in order to save them -- but for sophisticated modern folk, it's the necessity for sacrifice when we'd rather take the easier, more lucrative path that is so confounding. Deny ourselves and take up our cross? Or as Paul suggests in our epistle passage, be patient in suffering? Bless those who persecute you? Live in harmony with one another? Associate with the lowly? In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin notes that most of us are likely to respond to these imperatives just as incredulously as Peter did. After all, we don't want to sacrifice anything when we can, as the saying goes, "Have it all."
Yet one of the world's most successful investors, Warren Buffett, seems to be echoing Jesus' call for sacrifice and self-denial in a celebrated New York Times op-ed where he calls for "our government to get serious about shared sacrifice" and "stop coddling the super-rich." While his call to soak the rich sounds great to those of us of more modest means, we should be wary not to fall into the trap of thinking that's the answer to our financial problems. It's sobering to realize that when considered from a global perspective, most Americans are among the world's wealthiest people. So the question becomes one of looking in the mirror: Are we willing to make difficult sacrifices (such as Paul enumerates in his bullet-list of the characteristics of the Christian life) in order to deny ourselves and take up our cross? Are we willing to lose our lives in order to save them? Are we willing to make hard choices in order to find the rich rewards of the kingdom of heaven? While that's often a tall order for the "me generation," Mary reminds us that when we take on the greatest sacrifices -- those we might never have done if we'd truly understood what they involved -- we find the richest rewards, ones beyond our ability to comprehend them... a process quite similar to that of following Jesus.
Team member Roger Lovette shares some additional thoughts on the Exodus passage and Moses' encounter with the burning bush. The Lord tells Moses to remove his sandals because he's standing on holy ground. Roger explores how -- as bad as things may seem right now -- like Moses we are actually standing on holy ground too, because God is with us. Whatever wilderness we may find ourselves in, Roger notes, is fertile territory for God's work because there is a strong connection between our greatest trials and the most holy ground.
Team member Ron Love also comments on the Exodus text and notes that despite Moses' objections God called him to action, giving him the mission of leading the Israelites out of Egyptian oppression -- and Moses answered that call. We too are called to action and Ron notes that there are many Egypts today where we can work for justice, both globally and locally. But in any case, Ron reminds us, we are called to respond rather than to retreat into ourselves and let matters take care of themselves.
The Gospel According to Warren Buffett
by Mary Austin
Matthew 16:21-28; Romans 12:9-21
"Shared sacrifice" is the latest political buzzword, as lawmakers everywhere try to balance budgets in lean times. In recent days, billionaire investor Warren Buffett has generated conversation and controversy with his call for more taxes on millionaires and billionaires, contending that people with his kind of wealth pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than middle-class workers. "My secretary pays more taxes than I do" was the attention-getting line he used to describe the essence of his opinion.
It's rare that anyone in American life urges that any part -- let alone a large part -- of the "shared sacrifice" should apply to them personally and rarer still for anyone to ask to be taxed more thoroughly. Still, Buffett's provocative challenge finds a companion challenge in Jesus' message from Matthew's gospel this week.
THE WORLD
In an August 14 New York Times opinion piece, Buffett made a case for higher taxes on wealthy people, a position that President Obama has advocated and one that opinion polls show a majority of the America people support. (The devil is in the details, of course, of where the line is drawn to designate the "wealthy" and what federal exemptions remain untouched.)
As Buffett wrote in his article, "Our leaders have asked for 'shared sacrifice.' But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched. While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks."
He went on to add that "Last year my federal tax bill -- the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf -- was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4% of my taxable income -- and that's actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33% to 41%, and averaged 36%." Because of the way the tax code is structured, Buffett notes, people who earn income from employment pay a higher percentage of taxes than people whose income comes from investments.
In the piece, Buffett writes that "I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone -- not even when capital gains rates were 39.9% in 1976-77 -- shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what's happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation." He calls for higher taxes on households making more than one million dollars a year, a higher threshold than the president uses. In conclusion, Buffett writes, "My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice."
The Wall Street Journal and other financial publications were quick to argue, in print, with Buffett. In an article called "Warren Buffett's Tax Dodge", the Journal complained that "Mr. Buffett has also already sheltered the bulk of his fortune from federal taxes by putting them into a foundation that will give the money away. That's an act of generosity but if the government's purposes are so vital, why doesn't he simply give the money to the IRS?" The article also holds that Buffett "makes much of the fact that he paid only 17.4% of his income in taxes, which he considers unfair when salaried workers often pay more. But Mr. Buffett makes most of his income from his investments, in particular from dividends and capital gains that are taxed at a rate of 15%. What he doesn't say is that much of his income was already taxed once as corporate income, which is assessed at a 35% rate (less deductions). The 15% levy on capital gains and dividends to individuals is thus a double tax."
The nuances of tax policy are interesting to people who have a lot to lose or gain from changes but Buffett is arguing for more than tax reform. He's talking about more than math problems and loopholes and line items. He's talking about a sense of community and the fact that we're all in this together -- and our laws should be structured that way, so we all know that everyone is contributing.
THE WORD
Intriguingly, this section of Matthew's gospel tells us that Jesus "began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering" (v. 21). One wonders what he was showing them to teach this lesson about the role of suffering in the formation of our characters. Peter, for one, is clear about his appreciation for this kind of "shared sacrifice."
"God forbid it, Lord," he's quick to tell Jesus and we can almost hear him saying, "that this should happen to you" -- or to us either.
Jesus is equally quick to answer, speaking to his friends: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it" (vv. 24-25).
In the parallel passage in Mark's gospel, Jesus is talking to the disciples and the crowd -- but Matthew makes this a family moment, including just the disciples. This message, this time, is just for them. Anytime that we read Jesus is talking to his disciples, we can understand that he's talking to us too, the people who seek to follow him most closely.
Paul echoes this same idea of sacrificing our own desires for the formation of the community as a whole. "Bless those who persecute you... Live in harmony with one another... Do not repay anyone evil for evil." He calls us to -- as much as possible -- live peaceably with one another, a calling that requires us to sacrifice our needs for approval, status, attention, and petty revenge. He invites us to live without all of those things for the gain involved in being part of deeply faithful community.
The journey to Jerusalem is a journey of preparation for Jesus, leading him toward the cross and all that awaits there. It's also a journey of formation for the disciples, who show the same selfishness, self-importance, fear, and ignorance that we all do. It intrigues me that Jesus doesn't give up on the people who so fail to grasp what he's saying and head off alone to Jerusalem. He doesn't throw up his hands and leave them behind. Instead, he moves from telling them to showing them, as we hear here, to having them participate in his experience, as much as they're able. Jesus continues to form them into disciples, even to the end.
Their shared sacrifice makes them, finally, into people who are real followers of his -- and into the people who will be able to spread the gospel after Jesus dies.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
It's finally dawned on me that the real reason the "prosperity gospel" feels hollow is not so much that it distorts this central message of Jesus -- really, we all distort his message all the time, just like Peter. It's a cheap way to evade what's really meaningful in the life of faith. In taking up our cross, in the process of making sacrifices for a greater good, we become who God calls us to be.
As an adult, it occurs to me that everything meaningful in my life has been hard. If I had understood how hard being a pastor is, I never would have had the nerve to attempt it. If I had any clue how much work goes into being happily married, I would have lived out my days with friends and books and good works. If I had the vaguest notion how soul-scouring being a parent is, I would have fled into a life of travel and devoted aunthood. Thanks be to God, I didn't know. Each of these things has shaped my life and reshaped my character in ways I couldn't even imagine when I took them up. Each of them has involved sacrifices that, if warned ahead of time, I wouldn't have imagined I could make. Even now, I know that my sacrifices are incomplete and imperfect, and yet God keeps at it with me, one small step at a time.
The life of faith is about formation into discipleship, into an ever deeper relationship with God, and taking up our cross is the way we get there. Different seasons of life have different crosses. Different people have different crosses. Small crosses lead to bigger ones. "Shared sacrifice" is the heart of every meaningful relationship, every vibrant community, every fair government policy -- and our faith itself.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Did You Say Here?
by Roger Lovette
Exodus 3:1-15
Our Exodus passage is a strange scripture to put down next to the current situation. The global economy, not to speak of America's economic picture, is downright scary. Almost every church, studying their church budgets, could say "Amen" to the economic downturn. We have 14 million people unemployed and polls indicate that two out of three Americans now believe that the country is on the wrong track. Standard & Poor's downgraded the country's credit rating because it concluded that American governance and policymaking are becoming "less stable, less effective, and less predictable." The New York Times has found that 82% of Americans disapprove of how Congress is doing its job. Meanwhile, back in your neighborhood parents and teachers say our public school system is broken. Around the corner a young couple have put their house in foreclosure and are going their separate ways. Charles Dickens called his age "the best of times and the worst of times." Would somebody please tell me where the best times are today?
When author Alex Haley was a little boy, he would complain to his grandmother about the hard time he was having. In his depression he saw no way out. His grandmother would look sternly at him and say, "Alex, we don't know when Jesus is gonna come back -- but he always comes on time." Moses would have understood that story, for God came to an unlikely man in an unlikely place and at an unlikely time. Picture the setting. God came to a mountain in the wilderness -- Horeb, which meant "wasteland." God came to a shepherd who was simply tending his sheep. Terence Fretheim, in his commentary on Exodus (Exodus, John Knox Press: 1991, pp. 51ff), reminds us that this would not be the last time God chose a non-traditional, non-religious setting for the hearing of his word. In the background Pharaoh stood as a monster enslaving God's people. And God called Moses to act. You might want to read Fretheim's list of Moses' objections and God's responses (Exodus, p. 52). Fretheim says that God's way into the future is always a risky business, for the Almighty places the divine word in the hands of an all-too-human man. God told Moses to remove his sandals because he stood on holy ground. Moses, puzzled and confused, reluctantly took off his sandals. Holy ground... Here? This wilderness... Here? What could such a mundane act possibly mean?
CRAFTING THE SERMON
You might begin by asking everyone to remove his or her shoes. Ask them to feel the carpet or the wood under their feet. You might then tell the story of how God told Moses in that unlikely place that he stood on holy ground. You might ask your congregation if the carpet or wood underneath his or her feet is holy. Surely, some will say yes -- after all, this is a church. But what about your home or school or town or even your country? Could that be holy ground? Here? There is nothing holy about slavery and Pharaoh or a wilderness where scorpions reigned and wolves often attacked. The ground was holy because God was there.
Ask your congregation to name their wasteland -- their wilderness or some condition they face right now. You might even enumerate some of the country's problems. How in the world could this time ever be called holy? Remember the text: the ground was holy because God was there.
Like Moses, God calls us to some task. What Egypt is God calling us to? It may be a family situation or a child to raise or a community to get involved in. It could be tending a sick relative. It might even be finding a place to serve in your church. God called Moses to change the picture -- to help make the ground that surrounded him holy. We are still called. What is God calling us to do?
Remind your people that God always comes to hard places and hard times. There are no easy answers. We now know there is no quick fix. In a wasteland Moses discovered an amazing truth: God was even in that nondescript place where Moses stood. The future then and now belongs to those who remain faithful and committed to God's call in their lives. Here? Here! Here? Here!
ANOTHER VIEW
Que Sera Sera
by Ron Love
Exodus 3:1-15
Lori Bakker, the wife of evangelist Jim Bakker, recently wrote in her blog that "we watch the news every day and we can see that the events of Revelation are happening right now". For this reason she and Jim are storing in their home enough food and other supplies to see them through the Times of Trouble. But Lori is concerned that "with how much chaos the world is experiencing -- it seems as though people carry on with a lackadaisical attitude of que sera sera -- whatever will be will be."
By the way, the Bakkers are selling a breakfast cereal with an unlimited shelf life for daily use, and of course to store in your Times of Trouble abode. The cereal? "Jim's Organic 8 Grain Cereal," which sells for $10 a pound (less if purchased in bulk). Since it is unknown how long the Times of Trouble will last, it is recommended that you also purchase Pat Robertson's age-defying protein shake. Doing so, you will be able to leg-press 1,000 pounds, just like Pat.
I wonder though if the real que sera sera attitude is the Bakkers' concept of escapism. If the Times of Trouble are coming upon us, should we not leave our bunkers and be about the business of rescuing? It may not sell breakfast cereal, but it will redeem lives.
In addition to writing, I am a college history professor... and I must confess that I cannot find any century, any decade, or any year when it could not be claimed that the Times of Trouble are upon us. I have also learned that those who served the Lord the best in those years did not retreat into the caves of the Essenes but went forth in search of the Land of Canaan.
When Moses stood before the Lord he was standing on Holy Ground. Out of respect for being in the presence of the Lord, he took off his sandals. It was here, before the burning bush that was not consumed, that Moses was instructed by God to return to Egypt and free the Israelites from Pharaoh's yoke of slavery. God realized that the land of Egypt was originally a part of creation, pure and innocent. But now, under Pharaoh's oppressive dictates, the land was tarnished and polluted. God desired the land to be restored to its former purity and Pharaoh to be redeemed. This is why God permitted ten plagues, ten chances for Pharaoh and the leaders of Egypt to turn from their ungodly ways. When Pharaoh continued to have a hardened heart, God did the last thing in his repertoire, and that was to liberate his people from the land of discontent.
Moses' calling in the Times of Trouble was not to sell breakfast cereal to the believers but to purify a corrupt land, bring justice to a corrupt government, and to liberate the oppressed.
We who have pledged ourselves to the service of the Lord also stand on Holy Ground. But as we look down from the mountain, we see many lands that once again need to be restored to their original purity. The word "land" does not just encompass geography but it can refer to a group of racist individuals or a single person who acts with disobedience.
So where are our Egypts today? We could easily mention the U.S. Congress and its inability to restore the economy and provide for the unemployed. We could look to Somalia next, where free-lance gunmen and Islamic militants prevent food supplies from reaching the starving. We could look to the Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is using soldiers, tanks, and even naval vessels to fire on his own people and quell their uprising against his dictatorial rule. And daily we read of the atrocities committed by the drug cartels in Mexico.
But, as informed as we are, we can still be myopic in our conception of Times of Trouble. Concerned with our own economy, we fail to realize that France and Spain are equally suffering economic woes. The new wealth in China has created a shortage of mistresses, with some men liking to employ a dozen or more. Their solution is to import more women from economically deprived nations. In Ethiopia, the Omo River is also known as the River of Death. Any child that is born with a defect is considered mingi -- cursed -- and is thrown into the brown waters.
Not all Times of Trouble are global events. Each household experiences its own Times of Trouble with financial problems, employment uncertainty, an estranged marriage, a problem child, and illness. And just where does one stop the list? What are we to do?
Moses embodies many of our confusions. He had a disbelief that he really stood before the Lord. "I AM WHO I AM." He felt unworthy of his calling. "I will send you to Pharaoh." He rationalized that no one would listen to him. "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' " Moses found he could not abandon his calling when God thundered forth answers such as these.
So Moses set forth to Egypt. As he was unable to purify the land and soften Pharaoh's heart, he liberated his people, marching them to the Land of Canaan.
Times of Trouble: Our que sera sera could be purchasing "Jim's Organic 8 Grain Cereal" or it could be marching into Egypt, staff in hand.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
I. Discuss the times of trial and tribulation that surround us this day.
II. Discuss the various responses we could make to the world's problems -- retreat or go forth.
III. Discuss how Moses, though he felt incompetent, went forth, answering God's call.
ILLUSTRATIONS
During this summer of oppressive, unrelenting heat and humidity, that great American icon -- the ice-cream stand -- has been a beacon offering cool treats and warm memories to millions. We're all familiar with the basic setup... but one establishment, a Dairy Queen just outside Reading, Pennsylvania, has a distinctly different feel to it.From the exterior, it looks exactly like thousands of other ice-cream stands; but on the interior, the walls are plastered with plaques and handwritten letters extolling someone who is clearly not a native of the community... a man named "Hamid". It seems that the establishment's Pakistani-born owner, Hamid Chaudhry, has discovered the great rewards that can be received from generously giving of himself to others (which also happen to include it being good for business).
Chaudhry's family originally sent him to America in search of a better life, and he struggled for many years, working as a busboy while earning a degree in finance. Hamid eventually became an American citizen and moved to New York only to discover that he wasn't cut out for Wall Street. While there he met and married a medical student -- and when she landed a residency at the local hospital, that's how Hamid Chaudhry found himself in Reading. He managed to scrape up enough to purchase a Dairy Queen franchise and though he didn't know it at the time, a burgeoning career in community fund-raising was about to begin.
His first event supported an elementary school's parent-teacher organization by giving them 25% of the sales. Though the amount raised was generous, Hamid was very uncomfortable with the publicity he received -- he simply wanted to give back to the community. ("It felt like I got more in return than what I was giving," he says.) Soon he was supporting every conceivable project, splitting the proceeds 50-50 so that he only covers his costs. There have been fund-raisers for a father of four with cancer; for the Children's Miracle Network; for soccer teams and little league teams and the widow of a deputy sheriff recently killed in a shootout, in addition to sponsorship of car washes and high school homecomings and blood drives four times a year, as well as free parties held at every local elementary school and at a Bible school run by the Mennonite church. Chaudhry has even been known to randomly show up at schools with frozen treats for teachers. One parent reports that after a modest fund-raiser for her children's swim team, "Hamid gave me a check for $1,000 -- and I know we didn't make $1,000 that night."
Isn't this the sort of sacrifice for others that generates great rewards? Years ago, could Hamid Chaudhry have imagined himself at home in middle America -- as a well-loved and highly valued member of the community with a loving wife, two children, a thriving business, and many friends?
* * *
Frederick William III was the king of Prussia from 1770-1840. He managed to stay neutral for most of the time while Napoleon was conquering the rest of Europe but was finally dragged into the fight to stop the "Little General." The problem he faced, however, was that war is an extremely expensive business.
Unable to finance the war against Napoleon, Frederick went to the aristocracy and asked them to sacrifice their gold, especially their gold jewelry, to the cause of Prussian freedom. Every lady who voluntarily gave up her gold was given a cross made of iron and inscribed with the words "I gave gold for iron in 1813."
It did not take long before the crosses made of iron were held to be more valuable than ones made of gold. Every aristocratic lady wanted to show how patriotic she was by wearing an "Iron Cross." Today, the few of those original crosses that can be found are valued far more than one of the same weight made of gold -- and the Iron Cross is one of the lasting symbols of the age of the Kaisers.
* * *
In January 1926, six-year-old Richard Stanley contracted the disease of diphtheria in the small town of Nome, Alaska. When he died a few days later, Dr. Curtis Welch began immunizing children and older adults with a new anti-diphtheria serum, hoping to avoid a full-blown outbreak that might easily kill most if not every person in the town. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough of the serum for everyone.
The closest place to get more serum was the town of Nenana, nearly 700 miles of frozen wilderness away. Doctor Welch had all but given up hope of getting it when a group of trappers and prospectors volunteered to make the trip by dog sled. They operated in relays from trading posts to trapping stations, one team leaving from Nome as another left from Nenana. It took 144 hours to cover the 675 miles and many of the mushers suffered from hypothermia and frostbite -- but the serum made it to Nome and the town was saved.
* * *
Let's have a baby! What were we thinking? Seemed like a good idea at the time, right?
Now the New York Times reports that: "The USDA numbers are in, and they aren't pretty (pdf file). It now costs an average middle-income American family $222,360 to raise a child from birth to 18. That's 22 percent higher than it was in 1960, adjusted for inflation. And that doesn't begin to include college costs."
Dogs are cheaper but they still require sacrifice. According to the website raisingspot.com, when you combine the cost of food, veterinary exams, vaccinations, worming and fecal exams, heartworm treatments, grooming, training, supplies, and other miscellaneous costs such as replacing chewed-up furniture and stained carpets, a dog can cost as much as $32,000 over its lifetime.
It turns out there's no way to expand your family without making a sacrifice.
* * *
"And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
With these words Thomas Jefferson closed his magnum opus, the Declaration of Independence, and 54 brave and self-sacrificing men signed their names. It was that important to them. They were willing to sacrifice everything they had worked their whole lives to achieve and even their very lives. They were willing to risk their reputations as honorable men. So highly did they hold those values that held them together that they were willing to risk everything in declaration and defense of them. Many would go on to lose their homes, their fortunes, their sons, and even their own lives in pursuit of the freedom that they valued not for themselves only but for all who called themselves Americans.
* * *
Oscar Wilde said: "Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground."
That is, I think, why you never hear loud noises around the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC. To see, to touch, to stand near that series of black granite slabs rising out of the ground, bearing the names of those whom we have loved and lost, is a profoundly sad and moving experience. These, the memorial says, were not just numbers. They were not just bodies to be counted. They were human beings with families -- wives, husbands, children, parents -- who loved them and grieved for them.
That rich, thick, almost palpable sense of sadness that surrounds and permeates the wall is what gives it a sense of the holy. We realize that instinctively and as we approach, we fall silent.
In another age we might have removed our shoes at such a moment in such a place. Today, we cease speaking.
* * *
Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett spent most of his adult life searching in the jungles of Brazil's Mato Grosso region of for the ruins of what he called "The Lost City of Z." He was convinced that a major urban center had existed there at one time, but he was never able to find it. Fawcett, his son Jack, and a friend, Raleigh Rimell, disappeared in 1925 while searching for the city, never to be heard from again.
In 2005 archaeologist Michael Heckenberger found it using Google Earth. The Lost City of Z was exactly where Fawcett thought it was. In fact, he had walked over it dozens of times.
The problem was that he was looking for a typical European-style city made of stone. The soft, loamy earth of the Amazon basin, however, could never have supported such a city. The real "Z" (pronounced "zed") was in fact a cluster of about 20 settlements consisting entirely of single-story earthen lodges and buildings connected by complex roads and bridges over a 155-mile area. Heckenberger estimates that in the early 1700s approximately 5,000 people had lived there in settlements created according to a mathematical plan that "rivaled anything that was happening in much of Europe at the time."
* * *
The Lord used an odd method of getting Moses to take notice. Except for possibly in the movies, no one else has ever seen a bush that burned without being consumed by the flames. Weird as the means was to grab Moses' attention, the burning bush worked.
Maybe you're thinking, "Well, the Lord never gave me a sign like that." That may be true -- but if you stop to think for a while, you'll probably recall a few times when the Lord got your interest. The trouble is that you kept walking.
God uses many different means of stopping us in our tracks -- and when he does it that means he has a job for us. Have you halted long enough to contemplate what he wants you to do with your life? Moses' years were two thirds gone when the Lord burned that shrubbery in front of him. Your life will be far happier if you don't wait as long as Moses did.
* * *
Neil Postman, onetime director of the National Religious Broadcasters Association, summed up in an address what he called the unwritten law of television ministries: "You can only get your share of the audience by offering people something they want." He commented that this is an unusual credo, for there are no great religious leaders, from Buddha to Moses to Jesus to Mohammed to Luther to Wesley, who offered people what they wanted -- instead these leaders only gave people what they needed. Postman went on to discuss why television cannot offer people what they need. Television is user-friendly; it is too easy to turn off or change the channel. So television, to keep its audience, provides trivial messages that translate into ratings. Then he commented, "Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether." We need to get beyond the easy believism, the prosperity promises, the glitter of American church growth, and remember that there is a cost of living, a cost of discipleship.
* * *
Fans of the Antiques Roadshow program on PBS know how the show works. A team of antique experts sets up shop in a convention center and then they invite people to take their most-treasured family heirlooms from their attics, coffee tables, or safe-deposit boxes and bring them in to be appraised.
The program is composed entirely of brief one- and two-minute encounters. In each of these segments, one of the experts looks over a person's treasure, searching for the maker's mark or a telltale design feature that identifies it as genuine. Then we get to watch the expression on the person's face as the expert declares whether it's the real thing or just a fake.
Many of these items have sentimental value -- which means their owners would treasure and keep them regardless of the appraisal -- but still, it's a special joy for the owner to learn that great-grandpa's old dresser is indeed a genuine Chippendale.
"Let love be genuine," says the apostle Paul. As good as it feels to learn that your childhood electric-train engine is a classic, it's far more gratifying to know that the person you love is truly sincere in his or her affections.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: O give thanks to God, call on God's name;
People: make known God's deeds among the peoples.
Leader: Sing to God, sing praises;
People: tell of all God's wonderful works.
Leader: Glory in God's holy name;
People: let the hearts of those who seek God rejoice.
Leader: Seek God and God's strength;
People: seek God's presence continually.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God who is Love.
People: Our hearts are glad in the presence of our God.
Leader: God's love is from everlasting to everlasting.
People: There are no bounds to the gracious love of God.
Leader: Jesus calls us to become like our God.
People: In joy and fear we offer our lives to God.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Hope of the World"
found in:
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
"A Charge to Keep I Have"
found in:
UMH: 413
AAHH: 467/468
NNBH: 436
"My Jesus, I Love Thee"
found in:
UMH: 172
AAHH: 574
NNBH: 39
CH: 349
Renew: 275
"Alleluia, Alleluia"
found in:
UMH: 162
H82: 178
PH: 106
CH: 40
Renew: 271
"O Jesus, I Have Promised"
found in:
UMH: 396
H82: 655
PH: 388/389
NCH: 493
CH: 612
LBW: 503
ELA: 810
"Jesus Calls Us"
found in:
UMH: 398
H82: 549/550
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171/172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELA: 696
"Take My Life, and Let It Be"
found in:
UMH: 399
H82: 707
PH: 391
NNBH: 213
NCH: 448
CH: 609
LBW: 406
ELA: 583/685
Renew: 150
"Take Up Thy Cross"
found in:
UMH: 415
H82: 675
PH: 393
LBW: 398
ELA: 667
"All I Need Is You"
found in:
CCB: 100
"Change My Heart, O God"
found in:
CCB: 56
Renew: 143
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who showed us your heart in Jesus Christ: Grant us the faith to follow our Savior and to offer our lives as a sweet-smelling sacrifice, bringing to your troubled world the joy of salvation; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We worship and praise your Name, O God, because you are the God whose name is Love. We would rather talk about you as the God of power and might but you keep showing us Jesus who took the form of a slave and lived sacrificially. Help us to worship you this day and to live more fully into the mind of Christ throughout this week. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we flee every deprivation instead of embracing a life of sacrifice.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We want our comforts. We want our clothes to not only cover our nakedness but to be stylish. We want our food hot, fresh, and served immediately. We want to be cool in summer and warm in winter. There is no end to our wants and we have no intention of giving up any of them. We think it is okay to tax the wealthy as long as that doesn't mean us. We have forgotten and forsaken our Savior, who kneels at the feet of the poor and washes their feet; who sets aside glory and takes the part of a slave; who offers his own life for the lives of others. Forgive our selfish, wanton ways, and restore us by the power of your Spirit to the life of discipleship. Amen.
Leader: God's love is sacrificial and ever-giving. We are assured of God's forgiveness and offered God's own Spirit that we might truly be children of the Living God.
Prayer for Illumination
Send, O God, the light of your Spirit upon us so that in proclamation of the gospel we may hear you speak to us and be transformed as our minds are conformed to that of our Christ. Amen.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We lift our voices in praise and worship to you, O God, for you are the Creator and Redeemer of us all. It is your power shown in the sacrificial love on the cross that is foundation of our existence.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We want our comforts. We want our clothes to not only cover our nakedness but to be stylish. We want our food hot, fresh, and served immediately. We want to be cool in summer and warm in winter. There is no end to our wants and we have no intention of giving up any of them. We think it is okay to tax the wealthy as long as that doesn't mean us. We have forgotten and forsaken our Savior, who kneels at the feet of the poor and washes their feet; who sets aside glory and takes the part of a slave; who offers his own life for the lives of others. Forgive our selfish, wanton ways, and restore us by the power of your Spirit to the life of discipleship.
We give you thanks for all the blessings we have received from your gracious hand. We thank you for those who have sacrificed their time, their wealth, and their lives to make sure that we would hear the gospel. We thank you for those who gave their time and love to teach us in Sunday school. We thank you for those who have shown us how to live with our minds conformed to the mind of the Christ.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We lift those who are on our hearts. Sickness, grief, and death are all around us. We know the pain of your world touches your heart so deeply. We know the pain of those, like us, who are fearful and hold onto life so desperately that we lose our lives completely.
(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
Sacrifice (shared or otherwise) is a deep subject for adults, much less children. I suggest taking the story of the feeding of the 5,000 with the little boy's lunch. Talk about how hungry the boy must have been. He probably traveled a long way that day, and he still had to walk home. But he offered Jesus his lunch and what a wonderful surprise he received. Not only did he eat his fill, but so did all those other people -- and even better than a full tummy was the thought that he had helped Jesus feed all those people.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
A Different Kind of Hero
Matthew 16:21-28
Object: any muscular action figure
Good morning, boys and girls! Do any of you have heroes? (let the children answer) What exactly is a hero? (let them answer again) I brought something with me this morning. (show the action figure and tell them who it is) Our society has made a sort of hero out of this kind of person. He is physically strong. He could probably do many incredible things. He may even save people from danger. For some people he might be a hero.
I want to talk with you about another kind of hero. This is someone you know but you might never have thought of him as a hero. This person is Jesus. Jesus certainly isn't like (hold the action figure and name it), is he? Jesus probably wasn't a weightlifter. He wasn't loud. He didn't destroy things with a sword or gun. He didn't have an army to follow him. In fact, he never killed anyone.
The people of Jesus' day were looking for a hero like this (lift the action figure). They thought someone was going to come with an army, riding a big mighty horse. Their hero was going to chase all the Roman soldiers away. This person was going to set up a kingdom for them and everything would be wonderful.
The disciple Peter even thought this. When Jesus told Peter that God's hero was going to be killed, Peter said, "No, don't let that happen." Peter didn't understand what kind of hero Jesus was. Jesus told Peter something Peter didn't understand. Jesus told Peter that God's hero helps people by suffering himself to help others who are in trouble. God's hero doesn't come with an army and doesn't push everybody around.
Jesus told Peter that to be a hero for God you must help people and not hurt them. Jesus told Peter to look at the world from God's point of view and not from Peter's point of view.
I want you to remember this week what kind of hero Jesus was. He suffered for all of us because he loved us. He was not the hero that brought an army and fought with everyone. Jesus wants us to be like him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 28, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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.
Yet one of the world's most successful investors, Warren Buffett, seems to be echoing Jesus' call for sacrifice and self-denial in a celebrated New York Times op-ed where he calls for "our government to get serious about shared sacrifice" and "stop coddling the super-rich." While his call to soak the rich sounds great to those of us of more modest means, we should be wary not to fall into the trap of thinking that's the answer to our financial problems. It's sobering to realize that when considered from a global perspective, most Americans are among the world's wealthiest people. So the question becomes one of looking in the mirror: Are we willing to make difficult sacrifices (such as Paul enumerates in his bullet-list of the characteristics of the Christian life) in order to deny ourselves and take up our cross? Are we willing to lose our lives in order to save them? Are we willing to make hard choices in order to find the rich rewards of the kingdom of heaven? While that's often a tall order for the "me generation," Mary reminds us that when we take on the greatest sacrifices -- those we might never have done if we'd truly understood what they involved -- we find the richest rewards, ones beyond our ability to comprehend them... a process quite similar to that of following Jesus.
Team member Roger Lovette shares some additional thoughts on the Exodus passage and Moses' encounter with the burning bush. The Lord tells Moses to remove his sandals because he's standing on holy ground. Roger explores how -- as bad as things may seem right now -- like Moses we are actually standing on holy ground too, because God is with us. Whatever wilderness we may find ourselves in, Roger notes, is fertile territory for God's work because there is a strong connection between our greatest trials and the most holy ground.
Team member Ron Love also comments on the Exodus text and notes that despite Moses' objections God called him to action, giving him the mission of leading the Israelites out of Egyptian oppression -- and Moses answered that call. We too are called to action and Ron notes that there are many Egypts today where we can work for justice, both globally and locally. But in any case, Ron reminds us, we are called to respond rather than to retreat into ourselves and let matters take care of themselves.
The Gospel According to Warren Buffett
by Mary Austin
Matthew 16:21-28; Romans 12:9-21
"Shared sacrifice" is the latest political buzzword, as lawmakers everywhere try to balance budgets in lean times. In recent days, billionaire investor Warren Buffett has generated conversation and controversy with his call for more taxes on millionaires and billionaires, contending that people with his kind of wealth pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than middle-class workers. "My secretary pays more taxes than I do" was the attention-getting line he used to describe the essence of his opinion.
It's rare that anyone in American life urges that any part -- let alone a large part -- of the "shared sacrifice" should apply to them personally and rarer still for anyone to ask to be taxed more thoroughly. Still, Buffett's provocative challenge finds a companion challenge in Jesus' message from Matthew's gospel this week.
THE WORLD
In an August 14 New York Times opinion piece, Buffett made a case for higher taxes on wealthy people, a position that President Obama has advocated and one that opinion polls show a majority of the America people support. (The devil is in the details, of course, of where the line is drawn to designate the "wealthy" and what federal exemptions remain untouched.)
As Buffett wrote in his article, "Our leaders have asked for 'shared sacrifice.' But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched. While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks."
He went on to add that "Last year my federal tax bill -- the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf -- was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4% of my taxable income -- and that's actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33% to 41%, and averaged 36%." Because of the way the tax code is structured, Buffett notes, people who earn income from employment pay a higher percentage of taxes than people whose income comes from investments.
In the piece, Buffett writes that "I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone -- not even when capital gains rates were 39.9% in 1976-77 -- shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what's happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation." He calls for higher taxes on households making more than one million dollars a year, a higher threshold than the president uses. In conclusion, Buffett writes, "My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice."
The Wall Street Journal and other financial publications were quick to argue, in print, with Buffett. In an article called "Warren Buffett's Tax Dodge", the Journal complained that "Mr. Buffett has also already sheltered the bulk of his fortune from federal taxes by putting them into a foundation that will give the money away. That's an act of generosity but if the government's purposes are so vital, why doesn't he simply give the money to the IRS?" The article also holds that Buffett "makes much of the fact that he paid only 17.4% of his income in taxes, which he considers unfair when salaried workers often pay more. But Mr. Buffett makes most of his income from his investments, in particular from dividends and capital gains that are taxed at a rate of 15%. What he doesn't say is that much of his income was already taxed once as corporate income, which is assessed at a 35% rate (less deductions). The 15% levy on capital gains and dividends to individuals is thus a double tax."
The nuances of tax policy are interesting to people who have a lot to lose or gain from changes but Buffett is arguing for more than tax reform. He's talking about more than math problems and loopholes and line items. He's talking about a sense of community and the fact that we're all in this together -- and our laws should be structured that way, so we all know that everyone is contributing.
THE WORD
Intriguingly, this section of Matthew's gospel tells us that Jesus "began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering" (v. 21). One wonders what he was showing them to teach this lesson about the role of suffering in the formation of our characters. Peter, for one, is clear about his appreciation for this kind of "shared sacrifice."
"God forbid it, Lord," he's quick to tell Jesus and we can almost hear him saying, "that this should happen to you" -- or to us either.
Jesus is equally quick to answer, speaking to his friends: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it" (vv. 24-25).
In the parallel passage in Mark's gospel, Jesus is talking to the disciples and the crowd -- but Matthew makes this a family moment, including just the disciples. This message, this time, is just for them. Anytime that we read Jesus is talking to his disciples, we can understand that he's talking to us too, the people who seek to follow him most closely.
Paul echoes this same idea of sacrificing our own desires for the formation of the community as a whole. "Bless those who persecute you... Live in harmony with one another... Do not repay anyone evil for evil." He calls us to -- as much as possible -- live peaceably with one another, a calling that requires us to sacrifice our needs for approval, status, attention, and petty revenge. He invites us to live without all of those things for the gain involved in being part of deeply faithful community.
The journey to Jerusalem is a journey of preparation for Jesus, leading him toward the cross and all that awaits there. It's also a journey of formation for the disciples, who show the same selfishness, self-importance, fear, and ignorance that we all do. It intrigues me that Jesus doesn't give up on the people who so fail to grasp what he's saying and head off alone to Jerusalem. He doesn't throw up his hands and leave them behind. Instead, he moves from telling them to showing them, as we hear here, to having them participate in his experience, as much as they're able. Jesus continues to form them into disciples, even to the end.
Their shared sacrifice makes them, finally, into people who are real followers of his -- and into the people who will be able to spread the gospel after Jesus dies.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
It's finally dawned on me that the real reason the "prosperity gospel" feels hollow is not so much that it distorts this central message of Jesus -- really, we all distort his message all the time, just like Peter. It's a cheap way to evade what's really meaningful in the life of faith. In taking up our cross, in the process of making sacrifices for a greater good, we become who God calls us to be.
As an adult, it occurs to me that everything meaningful in my life has been hard. If I had understood how hard being a pastor is, I never would have had the nerve to attempt it. If I had any clue how much work goes into being happily married, I would have lived out my days with friends and books and good works. If I had the vaguest notion how soul-scouring being a parent is, I would have fled into a life of travel and devoted aunthood. Thanks be to God, I didn't know. Each of these things has shaped my life and reshaped my character in ways I couldn't even imagine when I took them up. Each of them has involved sacrifices that, if warned ahead of time, I wouldn't have imagined I could make. Even now, I know that my sacrifices are incomplete and imperfect, and yet God keeps at it with me, one small step at a time.
The life of faith is about formation into discipleship, into an ever deeper relationship with God, and taking up our cross is the way we get there. Different seasons of life have different crosses. Different people have different crosses. Small crosses lead to bigger ones. "Shared sacrifice" is the heart of every meaningful relationship, every vibrant community, every fair government policy -- and our faith itself.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Did You Say Here?
by Roger Lovette
Exodus 3:1-15
Our Exodus passage is a strange scripture to put down next to the current situation. The global economy, not to speak of America's economic picture, is downright scary. Almost every church, studying their church budgets, could say "Amen" to the economic downturn. We have 14 million people unemployed and polls indicate that two out of three Americans now believe that the country is on the wrong track. Standard & Poor's downgraded the country's credit rating because it concluded that American governance and policymaking are becoming "less stable, less effective, and less predictable." The New York Times has found that 82% of Americans disapprove of how Congress is doing its job. Meanwhile, back in your neighborhood parents and teachers say our public school system is broken. Around the corner a young couple have put their house in foreclosure and are going their separate ways. Charles Dickens called his age "the best of times and the worst of times." Would somebody please tell me where the best times are today?
When author Alex Haley was a little boy, he would complain to his grandmother about the hard time he was having. In his depression he saw no way out. His grandmother would look sternly at him and say, "Alex, we don't know when Jesus is gonna come back -- but he always comes on time." Moses would have understood that story, for God came to an unlikely man in an unlikely place and at an unlikely time. Picture the setting. God came to a mountain in the wilderness -- Horeb, which meant "wasteland." God came to a shepherd who was simply tending his sheep. Terence Fretheim, in his commentary on Exodus (Exodus, John Knox Press: 1991, pp. 51ff), reminds us that this would not be the last time God chose a non-traditional, non-religious setting for the hearing of his word. In the background Pharaoh stood as a monster enslaving God's people. And God called Moses to act. You might want to read Fretheim's list of Moses' objections and God's responses (Exodus, p. 52). Fretheim says that God's way into the future is always a risky business, for the Almighty places the divine word in the hands of an all-too-human man. God told Moses to remove his sandals because he stood on holy ground. Moses, puzzled and confused, reluctantly took off his sandals. Holy ground... Here? This wilderness... Here? What could such a mundane act possibly mean?
CRAFTING THE SERMON
You might begin by asking everyone to remove his or her shoes. Ask them to feel the carpet or the wood under their feet. You might then tell the story of how God told Moses in that unlikely place that he stood on holy ground. You might ask your congregation if the carpet or wood underneath his or her feet is holy. Surely, some will say yes -- after all, this is a church. But what about your home or school or town or even your country? Could that be holy ground? Here? There is nothing holy about slavery and Pharaoh or a wilderness where scorpions reigned and wolves often attacked. The ground was holy because God was there.
Ask your congregation to name their wasteland -- their wilderness or some condition they face right now. You might even enumerate some of the country's problems. How in the world could this time ever be called holy? Remember the text: the ground was holy because God was there.
Like Moses, God calls us to some task. What Egypt is God calling us to? It may be a family situation or a child to raise or a community to get involved in. It could be tending a sick relative. It might even be finding a place to serve in your church. God called Moses to change the picture -- to help make the ground that surrounded him holy. We are still called. What is God calling us to do?
Remind your people that God always comes to hard places and hard times. There are no easy answers. We now know there is no quick fix. In a wasteland Moses discovered an amazing truth: God was even in that nondescript place where Moses stood. The future then and now belongs to those who remain faithful and committed to God's call in their lives. Here? Here! Here? Here!
Point out your nonbelievers. I'll reply
they cross no prairie in a wagon train
and keep on stumbling when the trails run dry.
They never stride a mountain, drink the rain.
Show me your doubters, and I'll name the men [sic]
Who do not plumb the silence of the sea,
battle its demons and come back again,
or trap the wary wind -- then set it free.
Show me the scoffers. I will tell you now
they never touch the mystery of space
and hang between the worlds of why and how.
They never give the smallest star a chase.
But tell me of the brave and humble who
seek God. And I will show you those that do.
-- Donna Dickey Guyer
ANOTHER VIEW
Que Sera Sera
by Ron Love
Exodus 3:1-15
Lori Bakker, the wife of evangelist Jim Bakker, recently wrote in her blog that "we watch the news every day and we can see that the events of Revelation are happening right now". For this reason she and Jim are storing in their home enough food and other supplies to see them through the Times of Trouble. But Lori is concerned that "with how much chaos the world is experiencing -- it seems as though people carry on with a lackadaisical attitude of que sera sera -- whatever will be will be."
By the way, the Bakkers are selling a breakfast cereal with an unlimited shelf life for daily use, and of course to store in your Times of Trouble abode. The cereal? "Jim's Organic 8 Grain Cereal," which sells for $10 a pound (less if purchased in bulk). Since it is unknown how long the Times of Trouble will last, it is recommended that you also purchase Pat Robertson's age-defying protein shake. Doing so, you will be able to leg-press 1,000 pounds, just like Pat.
I wonder though if the real que sera sera attitude is the Bakkers' concept of escapism. If the Times of Trouble are coming upon us, should we not leave our bunkers and be about the business of rescuing? It may not sell breakfast cereal, but it will redeem lives.
In addition to writing, I am a college history professor... and I must confess that I cannot find any century, any decade, or any year when it could not be claimed that the Times of Trouble are upon us. I have also learned that those who served the Lord the best in those years did not retreat into the caves of the Essenes but went forth in search of the Land of Canaan.
When Moses stood before the Lord he was standing on Holy Ground. Out of respect for being in the presence of the Lord, he took off his sandals. It was here, before the burning bush that was not consumed, that Moses was instructed by God to return to Egypt and free the Israelites from Pharaoh's yoke of slavery. God realized that the land of Egypt was originally a part of creation, pure and innocent. But now, under Pharaoh's oppressive dictates, the land was tarnished and polluted. God desired the land to be restored to its former purity and Pharaoh to be redeemed. This is why God permitted ten plagues, ten chances for Pharaoh and the leaders of Egypt to turn from their ungodly ways. When Pharaoh continued to have a hardened heart, God did the last thing in his repertoire, and that was to liberate his people from the land of discontent.
Moses' calling in the Times of Trouble was not to sell breakfast cereal to the believers but to purify a corrupt land, bring justice to a corrupt government, and to liberate the oppressed.
We who have pledged ourselves to the service of the Lord also stand on Holy Ground. But as we look down from the mountain, we see many lands that once again need to be restored to their original purity. The word "land" does not just encompass geography but it can refer to a group of racist individuals or a single person who acts with disobedience.
So where are our Egypts today? We could easily mention the U.S. Congress and its inability to restore the economy and provide for the unemployed. We could look to Somalia next, where free-lance gunmen and Islamic militants prevent food supplies from reaching the starving. We could look to the Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is using soldiers, tanks, and even naval vessels to fire on his own people and quell their uprising against his dictatorial rule. And daily we read of the atrocities committed by the drug cartels in Mexico.
But, as informed as we are, we can still be myopic in our conception of Times of Trouble. Concerned with our own economy, we fail to realize that France and Spain are equally suffering economic woes. The new wealth in China has created a shortage of mistresses, with some men liking to employ a dozen or more. Their solution is to import more women from economically deprived nations. In Ethiopia, the Omo River is also known as the River of Death. Any child that is born with a defect is considered mingi -- cursed -- and is thrown into the brown waters.
Not all Times of Trouble are global events. Each household experiences its own Times of Trouble with financial problems, employment uncertainty, an estranged marriage, a problem child, and illness. And just where does one stop the list? What are we to do?
Moses embodies many of our confusions. He had a disbelief that he really stood before the Lord. "I AM WHO I AM." He felt unworthy of his calling. "I will send you to Pharaoh." He rationalized that no one would listen to him. "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' " Moses found he could not abandon his calling when God thundered forth answers such as these.
So Moses set forth to Egypt. As he was unable to purify the land and soften Pharaoh's heart, he liberated his people, marching them to the Land of Canaan.
Times of Trouble: Our que sera sera could be purchasing "Jim's Organic 8 Grain Cereal" or it could be marching into Egypt, staff in hand.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
I. Discuss the times of trial and tribulation that surround us this day.
II. Discuss the various responses we could make to the world's problems -- retreat or go forth.
III. Discuss how Moses, though he felt incompetent, went forth, answering God's call.
ILLUSTRATIONS
During this summer of oppressive, unrelenting heat and humidity, that great American icon -- the ice-cream stand -- has been a beacon offering cool treats and warm memories to millions. We're all familiar with the basic setup... but one establishment, a Dairy Queen just outside Reading, Pennsylvania, has a distinctly different feel to it.From the exterior, it looks exactly like thousands of other ice-cream stands; but on the interior, the walls are plastered with plaques and handwritten letters extolling someone who is clearly not a native of the community... a man named "Hamid". It seems that the establishment's Pakistani-born owner, Hamid Chaudhry, has discovered the great rewards that can be received from generously giving of himself to others (which also happen to include it being good for business).
Chaudhry's family originally sent him to America in search of a better life, and he struggled for many years, working as a busboy while earning a degree in finance. Hamid eventually became an American citizen and moved to New York only to discover that he wasn't cut out for Wall Street. While there he met and married a medical student -- and when she landed a residency at the local hospital, that's how Hamid Chaudhry found himself in Reading. He managed to scrape up enough to purchase a Dairy Queen franchise and though he didn't know it at the time, a burgeoning career in community fund-raising was about to begin.
His first event supported an elementary school's parent-teacher organization by giving them 25% of the sales. Though the amount raised was generous, Hamid was very uncomfortable with the publicity he received -- he simply wanted to give back to the community. ("It felt like I got more in return than what I was giving," he says.) Soon he was supporting every conceivable project, splitting the proceeds 50-50 so that he only covers his costs. There have been fund-raisers for a father of four with cancer; for the Children's Miracle Network; for soccer teams and little league teams and the widow of a deputy sheriff recently killed in a shootout, in addition to sponsorship of car washes and high school homecomings and blood drives four times a year, as well as free parties held at every local elementary school and at a Bible school run by the Mennonite church. Chaudhry has even been known to randomly show up at schools with frozen treats for teachers. One parent reports that after a modest fund-raiser for her children's swim team, "Hamid gave me a check for $1,000 -- and I know we didn't make $1,000 that night."
Isn't this the sort of sacrifice for others that generates great rewards? Years ago, could Hamid Chaudhry have imagined himself at home in middle America -- as a well-loved and highly valued member of the community with a loving wife, two children, a thriving business, and many friends?
* * *
Frederick William III was the king of Prussia from 1770-1840. He managed to stay neutral for most of the time while Napoleon was conquering the rest of Europe but was finally dragged into the fight to stop the "Little General." The problem he faced, however, was that war is an extremely expensive business.
Unable to finance the war against Napoleon, Frederick went to the aristocracy and asked them to sacrifice their gold, especially their gold jewelry, to the cause of Prussian freedom. Every lady who voluntarily gave up her gold was given a cross made of iron and inscribed with the words "I gave gold for iron in 1813."
It did not take long before the crosses made of iron were held to be more valuable than ones made of gold. Every aristocratic lady wanted to show how patriotic she was by wearing an "Iron Cross." Today, the few of those original crosses that can be found are valued far more than one of the same weight made of gold -- and the Iron Cross is one of the lasting symbols of the age of the Kaisers.
* * *
In January 1926, six-year-old Richard Stanley contracted the disease of diphtheria in the small town of Nome, Alaska. When he died a few days later, Dr. Curtis Welch began immunizing children and older adults with a new anti-diphtheria serum, hoping to avoid a full-blown outbreak that might easily kill most if not every person in the town. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough of the serum for everyone.
The closest place to get more serum was the town of Nenana, nearly 700 miles of frozen wilderness away. Doctor Welch had all but given up hope of getting it when a group of trappers and prospectors volunteered to make the trip by dog sled. They operated in relays from trading posts to trapping stations, one team leaving from Nome as another left from Nenana. It took 144 hours to cover the 675 miles and many of the mushers suffered from hypothermia and frostbite -- but the serum made it to Nome and the town was saved.
* * *
Let's have a baby! What were we thinking? Seemed like a good idea at the time, right?
Now the New York Times reports that: "The USDA numbers are in, and they aren't pretty (pdf file). It now costs an average middle-income American family $222,360 to raise a child from birth to 18. That's 22 percent higher than it was in 1960, adjusted for inflation. And that doesn't begin to include college costs."
Dogs are cheaper but they still require sacrifice. According to the website raisingspot.com, when you combine the cost of food, veterinary exams, vaccinations, worming and fecal exams, heartworm treatments, grooming, training, supplies, and other miscellaneous costs such as replacing chewed-up furniture and stained carpets, a dog can cost as much as $32,000 over its lifetime.
It turns out there's no way to expand your family without making a sacrifice.
* * *
"And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
With these words Thomas Jefferson closed his magnum opus, the Declaration of Independence, and 54 brave and self-sacrificing men signed their names. It was that important to them. They were willing to sacrifice everything they had worked their whole lives to achieve and even their very lives. They were willing to risk their reputations as honorable men. So highly did they hold those values that held them together that they were willing to risk everything in declaration and defense of them. Many would go on to lose their homes, their fortunes, their sons, and even their own lives in pursuit of the freedom that they valued not for themselves only but for all who called themselves Americans.
* * *
Oscar Wilde said: "Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground."
That is, I think, why you never hear loud noises around the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC. To see, to touch, to stand near that series of black granite slabs rising out of the ground, bearing the names of those whom we have loved and lost, is a profoundly sad and moving experience. These, the memorial says, were not just numbers. They were not just bodies to be counted. They were human beings with families -- wives, husbands, children, parents -- who loved them and grieved for them.
That rich, thick, almost palpable sense of sadness that surrounds and permeates the wall is what gives it a sense of the holy. We realize that instinctively and as we approach, we fall silent.
In another age we might have removed our shoes at such a moment in such a place. Today, we cease speaking.
* * *
Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett spent most of his adult life searching in the jungles of Brazil's Mato Grosso region of for the ruins of what he called "The Lost City of Z." He was convinced that a major urban center had existed there at one time, but he was never able to find it. Fawcett, his son Jack, and a friend, Raleigh Rimell, disappeared in 1925 while searching for the city, never to be heard from again.
In 2005 archaeologist Michael Heckenberger found it using Google Earth. The Lost City of Z was exactly where Fawcett thought it was. In fact, he had walked over it dozens of times.
The problem was that he was looking for a typical European-style city made of stone. The soft, loamy earth of the Amazon basin, however, could never have supported such a city. The real "Z" (pronounced "zed") was in fact a cluster of about 20 settlements consisting entirely of single-story earthen lodges and buildings connected by complex roads and bridges over a 155-mile area. Heckenberger estimates that in the early 1700s approximately 5,000 people had lived there in settlements created according to a mathematical plan that "rivaled anything that was happening in much of Europe at the time."
* * *
The Lord used an odd method of getting Moses to take notice. Except for possibly in the movies, no one else has ever seen a bush that burned without being consumed by the flames. Weird as the means was to grab Moses' attention, the burning bush worked.
Maybe you're thinking, "Well, the Lord never gave me a sign like that." That may be true -- but if you stop to think for a while, you'll probably recall a few times when the Lord got your interest. The trouble is that you kept walking.
God uses many different means of stopping us in our tracks -- and when he does it that means he has a job for us. Have you halted long enough to contemplate what he wants you to do with your life? Moses' years were two thirds gone when the Lord burned that shrubbery in front of him. Your life will be far happier if you don't wait as long as Moses did.
* * *
Neil Postman, onetime director of the National Religious Broadcasters Association, summed up in an address what he called the unwritten law of television ministries: "You can only get your share of the audience by offering people something they want." He commented that this is an unusual credo, for there are no great religious leaders, from Buddha to Moses to Jesus to Mohammed to Luther to Wesley, who offered people what they wanted -- instead these leaders only gave people what they needed. Postman went on to discuss why television cannot offer people what they need. Television is user-friendly; it is too easy to turn off or change the channel. So television, to keep its audience, provides trivial messages that translate into ratings. Then he commented, "Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether." We need to get beyond the easy believism, the prosperity promises, the glitter of American church growth, and remember that there is a cost of living, a cost of discipleship.
* * *
Fans of the Antiques Roadshow program on PBS know how the show works. A team of antique experts sets up shop in a convention center and then they invite people to take their most-treasured family heirlooms from their attics, coffee tables, or safe-deposit boxes and bring them in to be appraised.
The program is composed entirely of brief one- and two-minute encounters. In each of these segments, one of the experts looks over a person's treasure, searching for the maker's mark or a telltale design feature that identifies it as genuine. Then we get to watch the expression on the person's face as the expert declares whether it's the real thing or just a fake.
Many of these items have sentimental value -- which means their owners would treasure and keep them regardless of the appraisal -- but still, it's a special joy for the owner to learn that great-grandpa's old dresser is indeed a genuine Chippendale.
"Let love be genuine," says the apostle Paul. As good as it feels to learn that your childhood electric-train engine is a classic, it's far more gratifying to know that the person you love is truly sincere in his or her affections.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: O give thanks to God, call on God's name;
People: make known God's deeds among the peoples.
Leader: Sing to God, sing praises;
People: tell of all God's wonderful works.
Leader: Glory in God's holy name;
People: let the hearts of those who seek God rejoice.
Leader: Seek God and God's strength;
People: seek God's presence continually.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God who is Love.
People: Our hearts are glad in the presence of our God.
Leader: God's love is from everlasting to everlasting.
People: There are no bounds to the gracious love of God.
Leader: Jesus calls us to become like our God.
People: In joy and fear we offer our lives to God.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Hope of the World"
found in:
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
"A Charge to Keep I Have"
found in:
UMH: 413
AAHH: 467/468
NNBH: 436
"My Jesus, I Love Thee"
found in:
UMH: 172
AAHH: 574
NNBH: 39
CH: 349
Renew: 275
"Alleluia, Alleluia"
found in:
UMH: 162
H82: 178
PH: 106
CH: 40
Renew: 271
"O Jesus, I Have Promised"
found in:
UMH: 396
H82: 655
PH: 388/389
NCH: 493
CH: 612
LBW: 503
ELA: 810
"Jesus Calls Us"
found in:
UMH: 398
H82: 549/550
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171/172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELA: 696
"Take My Life, and Let It Be"
found in:
UMH: 399
H82: 707
PH: 391
NNBH: 213
NCH: 448
CH: 609
LBW: 406
ELA: 583/685
Renew: 150
"Take Up Thy Cross"
found in:
UMH: 415
H82: 675
PH: 393
LBW: 398
ELA: 667
"All I Need Is You"
found in:
CCB: 100
"Change My Heart, O God"
found in:
CCB: 56
Renew: 143
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who showed us your heart in Jesus Christ: Grant us the faith to follow our Savior and to offer our lives as a sweet-smelling sacrifice, bringing to your troubled world the joy of salvation; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We worship and praise your Name, O God, because you are the God whose name is Love. We would rather talk about you as the God of power and might but you keep showing us Jesus who took the form of a slave and lived sacrificially. Help us to worship you this day and to live more fully into the mind of Christ throughout this week. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we flee every deprivation instead of embracing a life of sacrifice.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We want our comforts. We want our clothes to not only cover our nakedness but to be stylish. We want our food hot, fresh, and served immediately. We want to be cool in summer and warm in winter. There is no end to our wants and we have no intention of giving up any of them. We think it is okay to tax the wealthy as long as that doesn't mean us. We have forgotten and forsaken our Savior, who kneels at the feet of the poor and washes their feet; who sets aside glory and takes the part of a slave; who offers his own life for the lives of others. Forgive our selfish, wanton ways, and restore us by the power of your Spirit to the life of discipleship. Amen.
Leader: God's love is sacrificial and ever-giving. We are assured of God's forgiveness and offered God's own Spirit that we might truly be children of the Living God.
Prayer for Illumination
Send, O God, the light of your Spirit upon us so that in proclamation of the gospel we may hear you speak to us and be transformed as our minds are conformed to that of our Christ. Amen.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We lift our voices in praise and worship to you, O God, for you are the Creator and Redeemer of us all. It is your power shown in the sacrificial love on the cross that is foundation of our existence.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We want our comforts. We want our clothes to not only cover our nakedness but to be stylish. We want our food hot, fresh, and served immediately. We want to be cool in summer and warm in winter. There is no end to our wants and we have no intention of giving up any of them. We think it is okay to tax the wealthy as long as that doesn't mean us. We have forgotten and forsaken our Savior, who kneels at the feet of the poor and washes their feet; who sets aside glory and takes the part of a slave; who offers his own life for the lives of others. Forgive our selfish, wanton ways, and restore us by the power of your Spirit to the life of discipleship.
We give you thanks for all the blessings we have received from your gracious hand. We thank you for those who have sacrificed their time, their wealth, and their lives to make sure that we would hear the gospel. We thank you for those who gave their time and love to teach us in Sunday school. We thank you for those who have shown us how to live with our minds conformed to the mind of the Christ.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We lift those who are on our hearts. Sickness, grief, and death are all around us. We know the pain of your world touches your heart so deeply. We know the pain of those, like us, who are fearful and hold onto life so desperately that we lose our lives completely.
(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
Sacrifice (shared or otherwise) is a deep subject for adults, much less children. I suggest taking the story of the feeding of the 5,000 with the little boy's lunch. Talk about how hungry the boy must have been. He probably traveled a long way that day, and he still had to walk home. But he offered Jesus his lunch and what a wonderful surprise he received. Not only did he eat his fill, but so did all those other people -- and even better than a full tummy was the thought that he had helped Jesus feed all those people.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
A Different Kind of Hero
Matthew 16:21-28
Object: any muscular action figure
Good morning, boys and girls! Do any of you have heroes? (let the children answer) What exactly is a hero? (let them answer again) I brought something with me this morning. (show the action figure and tell them who it is) Our society has made a sort of hero out of this kind of person. He is physically strong. He could probably do many incredible things. He may even save people from danger. For some people he might be a hero.
I want to talk with you about another kind of hero. This is someone you know but you might never have thought of him as a hero. This person is Jesus. Jesus certainly isn't like (hold the action figure and name it), is he? Jesus probably wasn't a weightlifter. He wasn't loud. He didn't destroy things with a sword or gun. He didn't have an army to follow him. In fact, he never killed anyone.
The people of Jesus' day were looking for a hero like this (lift the action figure). They thought someone was going to come with an army, riding a big mighty horse. Their hero was going to chase all the Roman soldiers away. This person was going to set up a kingdom for them and everything would be wonderful.
The disciple Peter even thought this. When Jesus told Peter that God's hero was going to be killed, Peter said, "No, don't let that happen." Peter didn't understand what kind of hero Jesus was. Jesus told Peter something Peter didn't understand. Jesus told Peter that God's hero helps people by suffering himself to help others who are in trouble. God's hero doesn't come with an army and doesn't push everybody around.
Jesus told Peter that to be a hero for God you must help people and not hurt them. Jesus told Peter to look at the world from God's point of view and not from Peter's point of view.
I want you to remember this week what kind of hero Jesus was. He suffered for all of us because he loved us. He was not the hero that brought an army and fought with everyone. Jesus wants us to be like him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 28, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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.
