Heard And Understood
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
The account of Pentecost in the book of Acts is full of remarkable details that offer many directions for the preacher. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer notes that one that's especially relevant for us today is how everyone present instantly understood one another, even though they were speaking in many different languages. We live in a time when that level of comprehension often feels like a distant memory, as we're bombarded with so much information that it seems impossible to be heard and understood amidst the increasing cacophony. The sheer volume of words and images we must sort through on a daily basis is mind-boggling, and it's changing the way we communicate with one another. The internet and smartphones have transformed not only the volume of information available to us, but also how we process it and connect to one another -- a prospect that clearly worries the author of this Huffington Post article. With instant wireless access to email and social media, we are invisibly tethered to family, friends, work colleagues, and even the world at large 24/7 -- and the shortcuts we employ because of text messaging and Twitter's character limits are drastically affecting our linguistic style and usage. Yet at the same time, the increasing pace of technological innovation has also infused our rhetoric with more jargon than ever... something even we in the church are not immune to. So, Dean asks, how can we manage to talk to one another -- and more importantly, listen to and understand one another -- in such an environment? Dean suggests that the answer is to think seriously about the language and format we're using to communicate... especially preachers.
Team member Mary Austin offers some additional thoughts on our Romans passage and the healing that occurs for those who are children of God. For the three women rescued last week†in Cleveland, the healing has only just begun -- and as Mary observes, it's going to be a long road of recovery for themselves and their families as they†try†to reintegrate into a†community that they have been unable to be a part of for many years.†Mary suggests that this†offers something of an analogy for us too as we seek freedom from whatever small ways we have been imprisoned in our own lives. For us, our relationship with God as "joint heirs with Christ" provides the pathway to healing -- we are always welcome, though as the text notes "we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him." As the Cleveland women emerge from their decade of slavery and fear, we all rejoice in seeing the†hope that their loved ones kept alive for so long rewarded -- and likewise, our Romans passage counsels us that†we "did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but†[we] have received a spirit of adoption."
Heard and Understood
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 2:1-21
dad@hvn,ur spshl.we want wot u want&urth2b like hvn.giv us food&4giv r sins lyk we 4giv uvaz.don't test us!save us!bcos we kno ur boss,ur tuf&ur cool 4 eva!ok?
Does that look like gobbledygook to you? Does the word "gobbledygook" look like gobbledygook to you?
"Gobbledygook" means "nonsense or jargon: language that is difficult or impossible to understand, especially nonsense or technical jargon."
The jumble of letters above is actually the Lord's Prayer as composed for texting. Several years ago, shipoffools.com held a contest to see who could do the best job of sending the Lord's Prayer in text-messaging format. This version was the winner. Even knowing what it is, I still don't get it.
This week's scripture lesson from Acts tells the story of the first Christian Pentecost and indicates that one of the noteworthy signs of the presence of the Holy Spirit is that those who are touched by the Spirit can all hear and understand each other, even when what they are saying may sound like gobbledygook to the rest of the world.
In the World
"Don't use acronyms. Dean hates acronyms." Thus did I hear a member of an organization of which I am president welcome a new member to one of our meetings. And she was right -- I really do hate acronyms. They are jargonistic, elitist, and exclusive. They are part of a specialized language that cuts new people out of the herd and prevents them from participating fully in what is going on. I won't actually attack someone who uses an acronym, but I will interrupt them and ask them to explain what it means for those of us who don't know.
So yeah, I guess you could say that I hate acronyms.
The government uses them. You can't be around a bureaucrat for more than a few minutes before they start talking in their own language about the ODJFS (Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services) or the ODSS (Ohio Department of Senior Services) and MOW (Meals on Wheels) or other important social services. Crimes, we learn, are investigated by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), and sometimes the DOJ (Department of Justice). If the crime involves national security, even the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), the DHS (Department of Homeland Security), and the NSA (National Security Agency) might get involved.
Jargon isn't limited to acronyms, however.
If you want to be a carpenter in the Midwest, you'd better know that chicken ladders have nothing to do with chickens, headers have nothing to do with heads, trusses are not something you wear, and I-beams are not rays of light that come out of your eyeballs.
Just about every discipline has its own jargon. Jargon helps members identify each other; it helps create shortcuts in communication so those on the inside can communicate quickly and efficiently with each other. But as we have seen, it also cuts new people out and leaves them standing on the sidelines.
Even in our churches we manage to leave people out with the jargon we use. In "high" churches we have paraments in the chancel and liturgy in the worship service. We gather in the narthex before we enter the nave. And we read from the hymnal, the psalter, or the missal... provided you can find the page before we're done reading. Sometimes we receive the sacrament, but other times we celebrate the Eucharist.
In what we have traditionally called our "low" churches we get saved after we are "washed in the blood of the lamb" and receive the "baptism of the Holy Ghost." We "accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior" and "lay our burdens on him." We get "fed" at church, even on the Sundays when not a morsel of food is consumed.
Every generation has its own jargon that sounds silly when people older or younger use it. When you want to relax, do you chill, chill out, hang, hang out, hang around, shoot the breeze, chizzle, or marinate? Your answer will probably be determined by the decade in which you spent your teen years.
When you want to ask what's going on, do you say what's cooking, what's coming off, what's going down, what's happening, what's going on, what's popping, what's cracking, or what's craculating, or whaaaaz uuuuuup? It will probably depend on what your high school friends said.
In the Bible
The festival that Greek Jews called Pentecost is called Shavuot (weeks) in Hebrew and is the celebration of the last grain harvest on the fiftieth (pente) day after the second day of Passover, roughly seven weeks after the end of Passover. The holiday lasts two days and here are some of the ways it is celebrated:
* Women and girls recite a blessing as they light candles on both nights of the holiday;
* Children and youth stay up all of the first night studying and learning Torah;
* Families go to the synagogue on the first day of Shavuot to hear the reading of the Ten Commandments;
* As on other holidays, special meals are eaten and no "work" may be performed;
* Many eat dairy foods on Shavuot, commemorating the fact that upon receiving the Torah (including the kosher laws) the Jewish people could not cook meat in their pots, which had yet to be rendered kosher;
* In some communities, on the second day of Shavuot the Yizkor memorial service is recited in memory of King David, who tradition holds died on this day. Some communities also read the book of Ruth, as King David was a descendant of Ruth the Moabite.
The story that we read in Acts is the story of the first Christian Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the gathered Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem. This story is so full of rich images and events that the problem for most preachers is not so much deciding what to preach as deciding what to not preach. This time we are concentrating on the subject of communication in the story.
We begin with the apostles of Jesus Christ "all together in one place." One wonders if this was the early service or the late service. Or maybe it was the Wednesday night prayer meeting? Whenever it was, the important thing is that everyone was there. Attendance was 100 percent. There were no denominational differences, no worship time preferences, and no divisions about what music to sing. Being together was more important than convenience or preference.
Then a rushing wind blows through the place and tongues appear that look like fire and settle above the head of each person there. As a result, they all begin to speak in different languages -- real languages, not unknown ones -- and the people watching this take place can suddenly understand because they are hearing the gospel being spoken in their own language.
Some of the onlookers are amazed. Others are skeptical and blame the whole phenomenon on drunkenness, which makes absolutely no sense -- but such a reaction is often the case with willful and stubborn skeptics: their arguments make sense only to them.
Peter -- who obviously doesn't know my family -- argues that it's way too early in the day to be drunk, and then he goes on to explain to his Jewish audience that what they are seeing is the fulfillment of a prophecy that was made back in the day by the prophet Joel.
Peter's sermon continues for several verses beyond today's lectionary selection and ends with the declaration by Luke that 3,000 souls were baptized and saved that day.
In the Pulpit
"They were all together in one place."
Luke challenges our contemporary notion that solitude is the path most often taken by the Holy Spirit into our lives. Those of us who insist that being alone in the woods or by the lake or on the golf course as the best or only way to experience the presence of God might want to read this passage again, for it was not in solitude but in corporate-ness that the God's Holy Spirit was known to those who appear in this account.
Neither is their togetherness of the metaphorical type. They are not together in spirit or in mind. They are together, physically, in one place. How often we forget the power of presence in the life of the body. Ask those who are shut-in or hospitalized. Which do they appreciate most, the one who is with them in spirit or the one who shows up at their bedside?
It is not by accident that God chooses a moment such as this to unleash the power of the Holy Spirit. And in this case, that power is the power of communication.
Anyone who has studied communication as a discipline knows that for it to happen, there must be both a sender and a receiver. And that is no less the case in the story of Pentecost.
Two distinct events happen in the story:
1. The disciples speak in the language(s) of the audience.
Much grist for the sermon mill here. Who is our intended audience and what language do they speak? Is their preferred mode of address the language of hip-hop or is it rock and roll? Do they speak country or bluegrass or urban gospel?
Is their language that of blue jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers? Or do they speak dress suit and tie? Do they speak formal and academic? Or does informal chit-chat fill them with recognition?
We cannot expect the people to listen to and hear us if we insist on speaking the language with which we are most familiar and pay no attention to what they are speaking.
2. They are understood.
Preacher, is there any moment more precious than the one when you see the light come on in someone's consciousness because they have heard -- really heard -- and understood what it is you have said? When you see recognition dawn in someone's eyes like the sun breaking through the mist of a foggy morning? When the seed of truth finally sprouts and pushes through the damp, resistant soil of doubt and fear?
"The noblest pleasure," said Leonardo Da Vinci, "is the joy of understanding."
Jan Edmiston, writing on the blog "achurchforstarvingartists", notes that some pundits and consultants have declared the sermon to be passé. No one, they say, wants to come and listen to someone preach. If this is so, she asks, why?
Edmiston notes that people flock to TED Talks and "The Moth" to hear people talk, tell stories, share ideas. So why not sermons? But wait, Joel Osteen doesn't have any trouble getting people to sit and listen to his sermons. If you want to hear Fred Craddock preach, you have to get in a long, long line. But maybe they are the exceptions that prove the rule. Edmiston doesn't know the answer to those questions and neither do I, but I wonder if it has something to do with talking in the language of the people we're talking to.
Perhaps the sermon, as an art form, isn't just dying. Perhaps we preachers are killing it.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Mary Austin
Romans 8:14-17
One news headline proclaimed recently, absurdly, "Women Rescued in Cleveland Abduction Happy to be Free".
We had pretty much figured that out.
Their soul-chilling ordeal is almost too much for most of us to imagine. A decade of beatings, sexual assault, and being chained up indoors is more horrifying than we can conceive. The story of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight prompts us to wonder again how brutal we human beings can be to each other.
Interestingly, some of Amanda Berry's first words to the 911 dispatcher when she escaped were "I'm Amanda Berry. I've been on the news for ten years." With some access to television, she knew her family had been looking for her and had never given up on finding her. Mixed in with the horror of her captivity was the certainty of also belonging to someone else. Paul writes that we "groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, for the redemption of our bodies." His words are an eerie echo of the women's ordeal.
We all wait for redemption in a spiritual sense and experience a time of longing for release. The women in Cleveland have lived it daily, and physically, for many years. The outline of their story is familiar to anyone who has experienced abuse of any kind. They too have waited for release both from the physical torment and the long-lasting emotional effects.
As we celebrate the gifts of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, one of those gifts is the movement toward greater wholeness for each of us, and for all of us.
As Mark Travnik writes on workingpreacher.org, "Often when people speak of the Holy Spirit they associate it with an extraordinary or spectacular event." The tongues of fire or Paul's experience on the Damascus Road come to mind. Travnik suggests that we meet the Spirit just as fully in smaller ways. "But just as notable," he says, "is the way God works in a mundane manner. When Paul speaks of the power of the Spirit in our verses he points to our inclusion in God's family. The Spirit makes us 'children of God' (8:14) and so intertwines our lives with Christ that we now understand God as a Father or even a 'Daddy' (as Abba might be translated -- see 8:15). In addition, Paul suggests we are now 'heirs' with Christ (8:17). In other words, all that the Son shares with the Father (peace, life, righteousness) has now been bequeathed to us as well." The Spirit moves us toward community and toward healing of all kinds.
How might the Spirit work toward wholeness for the women in Cleveland? An article in the Christian Science Monitor explores what recovery might mean for the three women. As Mark Guarino writes, in light of the brutal abuse the women suffered over a long period of time "the best way to assess the experience of the Cleveland women is not to view them only as victims of captivity and sexual assault... but also as akin to prisoners of war or victims of torture. And that means recovery will probably need to address not only the sexual and mental abuse that they had to endure, but also the fear that can become institutionalized in such a person over a decade of captivity." The same article quotes Erin Morgan, an adviser at The Center for Victims of Torture, as saying, "The women chained in that basement knew every single day they were dependent on this person to keep them alive, and it's the same person from keeping them from living in a sense."
This kind of long-term captivity creates a long-standing sense of fear in the captives, experts believe. The Cleveland story is an eerie echo of Paul's assertion that "you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption." Even when held as captives, apparently two of the women were able to remember that they belonged somewhere else, and to take the first chance to escape, knowing that they were loved by someone on the outside.
Not falling back into a spirit of fear and slavery will serve them as a guide into their next steps. Believing in, and claiming, a hopeful future will be difficult work. As Erin Morgan, quoted in the Christian Science Monitor article, says, "Long-lasting trauma can really alter the perception of the world and our place in it." Overcoming that spirit of fear and slavery and knowing hope again will take a long time. It may be as difficult as being in captivity, in a completely different way.
We are all in captivity to something, in much less brutal ways than these women in Cleveland. As they recover and take hold of a new future, we might be inspired by their example to adopt our own spirit of freedom from whatever had its grip on us. For us it may be other kinds of abuse, or hopelessness, or too much wine, shopping, or gossip. We don't know anything about the faith the women held in Cleveland have, or once had. Perhaps this ordeal has destroyed it for a time, or for all time. But we can trust that God has an interest in them and in their move toward healing. As Paul reminds us, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God."
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Acts 2:1-21
"The next lost generation" is what the New York Times calls young Syrian refugees who are struggling to survive. The number of Syrians leaving their homeland has reached 1.4 million, of which over 500,000 are under the age of 18. They now have no more schooling, have witnessed the killing of relatives, endured sexual abuse, and live in tents struggling to find food each day. "These children, the next lost generation," according to the Times, "make up a particularly troubling category of collateral damage from Syria's chaotic conflict, which has left 70,000 people dead."
Application: The lost generation, having been exposed to the atrocities of life, may be the young sons and daughters who will prophesy of a new future for Syria.
* * *
Acts 2:1-21
During their ten years in captivity, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight, the three Cleveland women held by Ariel Castro, never celebrated a birthday. But each year Castro would celebrate their "abduction day" with dinner and a cake.
Application: As we celebrate Pentecost, we should be reminded of the church's call to social justice so others may celebrate not captivity but freedom.
* * *
Romans 8:14-17
Ultra-Orthodox Jews have dominated Israel's politics and social life for decades. But now, those who are proponents of equality are gaining new freedoms for citizens. Their cause has been propelled forward due to the support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The most visible change is that public places are no longer to be gender-segregated. One example of this is that women will no longer have to sit in the back of buses as they move through ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.
Application: Perhaps this is the beginning of an understanding of Paul's teaching that we are all children of God.
* * *
Romans 8:14-17
Immigration reform has become even more conflicted with a recent report issued by the Heritage Foundation, whose president is former South Carolina senator Jim DeMint. The co-author of the report is Harvard University professor Dr. Jason Richwine. He concluded that Hispanics have an inferior IQ when he wrote: "Immigrants living in the U.S. today do not have the same level of cognitive ability as natives. No one knows if Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against." DeMint adds that immigration reform would cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion over the next 50 years.
Application: The controversy over immigration reform and the bigoted responses it elicits from some demonstrates how far we still need to go until everyone is adopted into God's family.
* * *
Acts 2:1-21
Mark Sanford has never lost an election. After being elected to three consecutive terms in Congress from South Carolina's First District, which runs along the Atlantic coast from Charleston to Myrtle Beach, he then successfully ran for governor. Sanford was re-elected and was even beginning to be mentioned as a prospective national candidate when he was forced to resign during his second term, and paid the highest ethics fine in the history of the state. This was as a result of the celebrated scandal in which he disappeared for five days in order to spend time with his mistress. (After his initial claim that he was out of touch because he was walking the Appalachian Trail, one might conclude that the destination of his hike was apparently in Argentina, where his paramour resided.)
Now Sanford has won another term as the congressman from the First District, with the voters disregarding that two days after the balloting Sanford was to appear in court on charges of trespassing on his former wife's property. Despite his personal issues, political analysts are not surprised by Sanford's election, as Republicans have drawn the lines of South Carolina's six congressional seats in such a way that the majority of the state's Democrats are located in James Clyburn's district, while the other five districts are indisputably Republican. South Carolina is a state where constituents tend to vote straight party-line -- even if the trip south on the Appalachian Trail leads to Argentina and the return trip north leads to court.
Application: As long as the residents of South Carolina continue to vote absent of thinking, it will be hard to imagine that new visions and new prophecies will come forth from the Palmetto State.
* * *
From team member Chris Keating:
Acts 2:1-21
As the economy continues to rebound, is it possible that our "sons and daughters shall prophesy," and our young people will still dream dreams? There are mixed views. Often portrayed as apathetic and tuned out, the population of young adults born between 1980 and 2000 -- the Millennial Generation -- is showing signs of casting a new American dream. According to The Atlantic magazine, more live at home now than before the 2008 recession. But a recent Forbes survey indicates that while the housing bust shook the generation, it has not deterred them from the dream of a place of their own. About 93% of young adults aged 18-34 who are renting still dream of home ownership.
There are indications that young people are casting visions of change in the world. Time magazine reports Chelsea Clinton's observations following the recent Clinton Global Initiative University meeting at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Clinton cast aside notions that young people are selfish, disinterested, and impatient with change. The younger Clinton said, "I find the Millennials' impatience so exciting. It's urgency not arrogance that drives their impatience, their frustration with the status quo. They understand that these are urgent times, and that access to higher education, gender-based violence, climate change, and equal rights for all, regardless of sex or sexual orientation, country of residence, or country of origin are all areas of urgent concern. Millennials are eager to get started in addressing global challenges long before they line up to walk across the stage to get their college diploma. While some call that impatient, I call that perfect. The world can't afford for them to wait."
* * *
Acts 2:1-21
On Pentecost Sunday, the apostles discovered the power of God in creating new community. The new sharing of the gospel began in Jerusalem, but would soon spread everywhere. They experienced the abundance of God's gifts creating new possibilities. The power of "starting anywhere, follow it everywhere" is described in Walk Out Walk On, a recent book by Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze. The authors take a learning journey into global communities that are solving big problems, often through small initiatives. In South Africa, the writers noticed the power of what Archbishop Desmond Tutu called ubuntu in creating new possibilities. "When we want to give high praise to someone we say, 'Hey, he or she has ubuntu,' " says Tutu. "This means they are generous, hospitable, friendly, caring, and compassionate. They share what they have. It also means my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in theirs. We belong in a bundle of life" (Walk Out Walk On [Berrett-Koehler, 2011], p. 81).
Application: The church started in Jerusalem and followed the Spirit everywhere. The apostles soon began seeing people as gifted by the Spirit with "ubuntu," in terms of generosity, hospitality, friendship, and compassion. The apostles and those who joined the church were connected in a "bundle of life."
* * *
Acts 2:1-21
The experience of those gathered in Jerusalem on Pentecost caused Peter to preach from the book of Joel, recalling how God's Spirit would be poured out in new ways among the young and the old. In preaching this story, we often privilege the voices of youthful dreams at Pentecost and neglect the new life God's Spirit brings to the elderly. Yet there are powerful reminders of God's presence in the lives of older adults. One year, when my wife was working at a nursing home, she developed a friendship with a woman named Ruby. The nurses had characterized Ruby as a crotchety, difficult patient. Initially my wife agreed with their assessment. But in the course of her visits with Ruby, another picture emerged. Ruby told stories of a difficult childhood and of the loneliness of her long widowhood. My wife and Ruby became pals, and soon Ruby became more engaged in life. We also learned that Ruby, who had been born on New Year's Day, had never had a birthday party -- never in 90 years. Her mother had told her no one wanted to celebrate a birthday on New Year's Day. That New Year's Day, we brought out kids to the nursing home along with cake, ice cream, and party hats. As Easter approached that year, it became apparent that that would be Ruby's one and only birthday party. She became ill and then died before Pentecost. But in those days from Easter to Pentecost, her spirit was bright, renewed by the presence of God that had filled her.
* * *
Romans 8:14-17
Although the trauma of being held captive is over for the three women in Cleveland, experts note that full recovery and healing can be an ordeal in itself. With the support of family and friends, experts note that healing is possible. Of primary importance is that the women regain their identity as individuals, and not just "kidnapping victims." Erica Goode notes in the New York Times, "It is important, some therapists said, that the women not be turned into a spectacle, their identities as individuals diminished to 'kidnap victims.' "
Application: Paul reminds us that healing comes through being led by the Spirit of God who bears witness in our lives that we are children of God, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. This is our identity and the identity of all whom are led by the Spirit of God.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: O God, how manifold are your works!
People: In wisdom you have made them all.
Leader: Let us sing to God as long as we live.
People: We will sing praise to my God while we have being.
Leader: May our meditation be pleasing to God, in whom we rejoice.
People: Bless God, O my soul. Praise God!
OR
Leader: Offer praise to our God who comes near.
People: We offer worship and praise to the one who loves us.
Leader: God desires to know us and to be known.
People: We will open ourselves to God.
Leader: God offers us love through our community.
People: We will seek God in our sisters and brothers.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"We Gather Together"
found in:
UMH: 131
H82: 433
PH: 559
NNBH: 326
NCH: 421
CH: 276
W&P: 81
AMEC: 576
STLT: 349
"God, Whose Love Is Reigning O'er Us"
found in:
UMH: 100
"One Bread, One Body"
found in:
UMH: 620
CH: 393
ELA: 496
W&P: 689
"In Christ There Is No East or West
found in:
UMH: 548
H82: 529
PH: 439/440
AAHH: 398/399
NNBH: 299
NCH: 394/395
CH: 687
LBW: 259
ELA: 650
W&P: 600/603
AMEC: 557
"Blest Be the Tie That Binds"
found in:
UMH: 557
PH: 438
AAHH: 341
NNBH: 298
NCH: 393
CH: 433
LBW: 370
ELA: 656
W&P: 393
AMEC: 522
"Help Us Accept Each Other"
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
"There Is a Balm in Gilead"
found in:
UMH: 375
H82: 676
PH: 394
AAHH: 524
NNBH: 489
NCH: 553
CH: 501
ELA: 614
W&P: 631
AMEC: 425
"Jesus' Hands Were Kind Hands"
found in:
UMH: 273
W&P: 634
"Your Loving Kindness Is Better than Life"
found in:
CCB: 26
"Only by Grace"
found in:
CCB: 42
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
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who seeks to be in communion with your creation: Grant us the grace to be your true children by learning to be quiet and listen to you, and by listening and sharing openly with one another; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you, O God, and to transformed into more faithful disciples. Help us to listen to you and to learn to listen to one another that we may be avenues of healing. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which we fail to listen to and care for one another.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us to be in community, and yet we fail to take the time to listen to one another. We are so distracted with our own agendas and issues that we are unaware of the pain in the lives of those around us. Forgive us our self-centered ways and open us to listen to you so that we may learn your ways of compassion. Then open our hearts to those around us so that we may share your healing love and grace with them. Amen.
Leader: God desires to share with us and to have us share with others. Receive the power of the Spirit that makes us whole and makes us channels of God's healing power.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We offer to you, O God, our praise and worship, for you are the one who comes to speak to us and to hear our cries.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us to be in community, and yet we fail to take the time to listen to one another. We are so distracted with our own agendas and issues that we are unaware of the pain in the lives of those around us. Forgive us our self-centered ways and open us to listen to you so that we may learn your ways of compassion. Then open our hearts to those around us so that we may share your healing love and grace with them.
We give you thanks for those who have cared for us and shared the joys and pains of our lives. We thank you for the community of the church that nurtures and supports us. We are grateful for the ways in which you share your love and life with your children.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need and for all your children who struggle with brokenness. We pray for those who suffer in body, mind, spirit, or relationships and for those who are deprived of the resources they need. We pray for ourselves that we may be more faithful in listening to others.
(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
Talk to the children about how God created us with two ears to make sure that we could listen to one another. Although it is important for us to talk and we like to share what we have to say, it is even more important that we listen to one another. It is one of the ways we can take care of each other and share God's love.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Pentecost
by Elaine Ward
Acts 2:1-21
One day Jesus' friends came together. They were sad because Jesus was no longer with them. They missed Jesus but suddenly there was a loud noise that sounded like the flapping of many wings and everyone covered their ears. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire rest on the heads of each of them, and they were filled with God's Spirit. They spoke, but in different languages. They knelt on the floor and thanked God for God's love and presence. They told the story of Jesus around the world, for that was the day the church was born.
There was once a man who loved God. Because he loved God, he loved other people. One day he met a sick man who needed medicine and a doctor and a place where he could get well. The man said, "I will build a hospital. But I cannot build a hospital alone. I need others who will help me." The man found other people who loved God. Because they loved God, they loved others too. Together they built a hospital. Together they bought medicine. Together they paid the doctors and the nurses who cared for the sick. There were many things the man could do alone to show his love. There were many things he needed others to help him do. The church is like that, people who love God and serve and help others alone and together.
Talk together: At Pentecost we gather together in the church. What do you like best about our church?
Prayer: When we are afraid, God, remind us of your church, the gathering place where we love and worship you, and where we are loved too. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 19, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Mary Austin offers some additional thoughts on our Romans passage and the healing that occurs for those who are children of God. For the three women rescued last week†in Cleveland, the healing has only just begun -- and as Mary observes, it's going to be a long road of recovery for themselves and their families as they†try†to reintegrate into a†community that they have been unable to be a part of for many years.†Mary suggests that this†offers something of an analogy for us too as we seek freedom from whatever small ways we have been imprisoned in our own lives. For us, our relationship with God as "joint heirs with Christ" provides the pathway to healing -- we are always welcome, though as the text notes "we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him." As the Cleveland women emerge from their decade of slavery and fear, we all rejoice in seeing the†hope that their loved ones kept alive for so long rewarded -- and likewise, our Romans passage counsels us that†we "did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but†[we] have received a spirit of adoption."
Heard and Understood
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 2:1-21
dad@hvn,ur spshl.we want wot u want&urth2b like hvn.giv us food&4giv r sins lyk we 4giv uvaz.don't test us!save us!bcos we kno ur boss,ur tuf&ur cool 4 eva!ok?
Does that look like gobbledygook to you? Does the word "gobbledygook" look like gobbledygook to you?
"Gobbledygook" means "nonsense or jargon: language that is difficult or impossible to understand, especially nonsense or technical jargon."
The jumble of letters above is actually the Lord's Prayer as composed for texting. Several years ago, shipoffools.com held a contest to see who could do the best job of sending the Lord's Prayer in text-messaging format. This version was the winner. Even knowing what it is, I still don't get it.
This week's scripture lesson from Acts tells the story of the first Christian Pentecost and indicates that one of the noteworthy signs of the presence of the Holy Spirit is that those who are touched by the Spirit can all hear and understand each other, even when what they are saying may sound like gobbledygook to the rest of the world.
In the World
"Don't use acronyms. Dean hates acronyms." Thus did I hear a member of an organization of which I am president welcome a new member to one of our meetings. And she was right -- I really do hate acronyms. They are jargonistic, elitist, and exclusive. They are part of a specialized language that cuts new people out of the herd and prevents them from participating fully in what is going on. I won't actually attack someone who uses an acronym, but I will interrupt them and ask them to explain what it means for those of us who don't know.
So yeah, I guess you could say that I hate acronyms.
The government uses them. You can't be around a bureaucrat for more than a few minutes before they start talking in their own language about the ODJFS (Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services) or the ODSS (Ohio Department of Senior Services) and MOW (Meals on Wheels) or other important social services. Crimes, we learn, are investigated by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), and sometimes the DOJ (Department of Justice). If the crime involves national security, even the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), the DHS (Department of Homeland Security), and the NSA (National Security Agency) might get involved.
Jargon isn't limited to acronyms, however.
If you want to be a carpenter in the Midwest, you'd better know that chicken ladders have nothing to do with chickens, headers have nothing to do with heads, trusses are not something you wear, and I-beams are not rays of light that come out of your eyeballs.
Just about every discipline has its own jargon. Jargon helps members identify each other; it helps create shortcuts in communication so those on the inside can communicate quickly and efficiently with each other. But as we have seen, it also cuts new people out and leaves them standing on the sidelines.
Even in our churches we manage to leave people out with the jargon we use. In "high" churches we have paraments in the chancel and liturgy in the worship service. We gather in the narthex before we enter the nave. And we read from the hymnal, the psalter, or the missal... provided you can find the page before we're done reading. Sometimes we receive the sacrament, but other times we celebrate the Eucharist.
In what we have traditionally called our "low" churches we get saved after we are "washed in the blood of the lamb" and receive the "baptism of the Holy Ghost." We "accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior" and "lay our burdens on him." We get "fed" at church, even on the Sundays when not a morsel of food is consumed.
Every generation has its own jargon that sounds silly when people older or younger use it. When you want to relax, do you chill, chill out, hang, hang out, hang around, shoot the breeze, chizzle, or marinate? Your answer will probably be determined by the decade in which you spent your teen years.
When you want to ask what's going on, do you say what's cooking, what's coming off, what's going down, what's happening, what's going on, what's popping, what's cracking, or what's craculating, or whaaaaz uuuuuup? It will probably depend on what your high school friends said.
In the Bible
The festival that Greek Jews called Pentecost is called Shavuot (weeks) in Hebrew and is the celebration of the last grain harvest on the fiftieth (pente) day after the second day of Passover, roughly seven weeks after the end of Passover. The holiday lasts two days and here are some of the ways it is celebrated:
* Women and girls recite a blessing as they light candles on both nights of the holiday;
* Children and youth stay up all of the first night studying and learning Torah;
* Families go to the synagogue on the first day of Shavuot to hear the reading of the Ten Commandments;
* As on other holidays, special meals are eaten and no "work" may be performed;
* Many eat dairy foods on Shavuot, commemorating the fact that upon receiving the Torah (including the kosher laws) the Jewish people could not cook meat in their pots, which had yet to be rendered kosher;
* In some communities, on the second day of Shavuot the Yizkor memorial service is recited in memory of King David, who tradition holds died on this day. Some communities also read the book of Ruth, as King David was a descendant of Ruth the Moabite.
The story that we read in Acts is the story of the first Christian Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the gathered Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem. This story is so full of rich images and events that the problem for most preachers is not so much deciding what to preach as deciding what to not preach. This time we are concentrating on the subject of communication in the story.
We begin with the apostles of Jesus Christ "all together in one place." One wonders if this was the early service or the late service. Or maybe it was the Wednesday night prayer meeting? Whenever it was, the important thing is that everyone was there. Attendance was 100 percent. There were no denominational differences, no worship time preferences, and no divisions about what music to sing. Being together was more important than convenience or preference.
Then a rushing wind blows through the place and tongues appear that look like fire and settle above the head of each person there. As a result, they all begin to speak in different languages -- real languages, not unknown ones -- and the people watching this take place can suddenly understand because they are hearing the gospel being spoken in their own language.
Some of the onlookers are amazed. Others are skeptical and blame the whole phenomenon on drunkenness, which makes absolutely no sense -- but such a reaction is often the case with willful and stubborn skeptics: their arguments make sense only to them.
Peter -- who obviously doesn't know my family -- argues that it's way too early in the day to be drunk, and then he goes on to explain to his Jewish audience that what they are seeing is the fulfillment of a prophecy that was made back in the day by the prophet Joel.
Peter's sermon continues for several verses beyond today's lectionary selection and ends with the declaration by Luke that 3,000 souls were baptized and saved that day.
In the Pulpit
"They were all together in one place."
Luke challenges our contemporary notion that solitude is the path most often taken by the Holy Spirit into our lives. Those of us who insist that being alone in the woods or by the lake or on the golf course as the best or only way to experience the presence of God might want to read this passage again, for it was not in solitude but in corporate-ness that the God's Holy Spirit was known to those who appear in this account.
Neither is their togetherness of the metaphorical type. They are not together in spirit or in mind. They are together, physically, in one place. How often we forget the power of presence in the life of the body. Ask those who are shut-in or hospitalized. Which do they appreciate most, the one who is with them in spirit or the one who shows up at their bedside?
It is not by accident that God chooses a moment such as this to unleash the power of the Holy Spirit. And in this case, that power is the power of communication.
Anyone who has studied communication as a discipline knows that for it to happen, there must be both a sender and a receiver. And that is no less the case in the story of Pentecost.
Two distinct events happen in the story:
1. The disciples speak in the language(s) of the audience.
Much grist for the sermon mill here. Who is our intended audience and what language do they speak? Is their preferred mode of address the language of hip-hop or is it rock and roll? Do they speak country or bluegrass or urban gospel?
Is their language that of blue jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers? Or do they speak dress suit and tie? Do they speak formal and academic? Or does informal chit-chat fill them with recognition?
We cannot expect the people to listen to and hear us if we insist on speaking the language with which we are most familiar and pay no attention to what they are speaking.
2. They are understood.
Preacher, is there any moment more precious than the one when you see the light come on in someone's consciousness because they have heard -- really heard -- and understood what it is you have said? When you see recognition dawn in someone's eyes like the sun breaking through the mist of a foggy morning? When the seed of truth finally sprouts and pushes through the damp, resistant soil of doubt and fear?
"The noblest pleasure," said Leonardo Da Vinci, "is the joy of understanding."
Jan Edmiston, writing on the blog "achurchforstarvingartists", notes that some pundits and consultants have declared the sermon to be passé. No one, they say, wants to come and listen to someone preach. If this is so, she asks, why?
Edmiston notes that people flock to TED Talks and "The Moth" to hear people talk, tell stories, share ideas. So why not sermons? But wait, Joel Osteen doesn't have any trouble getting people to sit and listen to his sermons. If you want to hear Fred Craddock preach, you have to get in a long, long line. But maybe they are the exceptions that prove the rule. Edmiston doesn't know the answer to those questions and neither do I, but I wonder if it has something to do with talking in the language of the people we're talking to.
Perhaps the sermon, as an art form, isn't just dying. Perhaps we preachers are killing it.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Mary Austin
Romans 8:14-17
One news headline proclaimed recently, absurdly, "Women Rescued in Cleveland Abduction Happy to be Free".
We had pretty much figured that out.
Their soul-chilling ordeal is almost too much for most of us to imagine. A decade of beatings, sexual assault, and being chained up indoors is more horrifying than we can conceive. The story of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight prompts us to wonder again how brutal we human beings can be to each other.
Interestingly, some of Amanda Berry's first words to the 911 dispatcher when she escaped were "I'm Amanda Berry. I've been on the news for ten years." With some access to television, she knew her family had been looking for her and had never given up on finding her. Mixed in with the horror of her captivity was the certainty of also belonging to someone else. Paul writes that we "groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, for the redemption of our bodies." His words are an eerie echo of the women's ordeal.
We all wait for redemption in a spiritual sense and experience a time of longing for release. The women in Cleveland have lived it daily, and physically, for many years. The outline of their story is familiar to anyone who has experienced abuse of any kind. They too have waited for release both from the physical torment and the long-lasting emotional effects.
As we celebrate the gifts of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, one of those gifts is the movement toward greater wholeness for each of us, and for all of us.
As Mark Travnik writes on workingpreacher.org, "Often when people speak of the Holy Spirit they associate it with an extraordinary or spectacular event." The tongues of fire or Paul's experience on the Damascus Road come to mind. Travnik suggests that we meet the Spirit just as fully in smaller ways. "But just as notable," he says, "is the way God works in a mundane manner. When Paul speaks of the power of the Spirit in our verses he points to our inclusion in God's family. The Spirit makes us 'children of God' (8:14) and so intertwines our lives with Christ that we now understand God as a Father or even a 'Daddy' (as Abba might be translated -- see 8:15). In addition, Paul suggests we are now 'heirs' with Christ (8:17). In other words, all that the Son shares with the Father (peace, life, righteousness) has now been bequeathed to us as well." The Spirit moves us toward community and toward healing of all kinds.
How might the Spirit work toward wholeness for the women in Cleveland? An article in the Christian Science Monitor explores what recovery might mean for the three women. As Mark Guarino writes, in light of the brutal abuse the women suffered over a long period of time "the best way to assess the experience of the Cleveland women is not to view them only as victims of captivity and sexual assault... but also as akin to prisoners of war or victims of torture. And that means recovery will probably need to address not only the sexual and mental abuse that they had to endure, but also the fear that can become institutionalized in such a person over a decade of captivity." The same article quotes Erin Morgan, an adviser at The Center for Victims of Torture, as saying, "The women chained in that basement knew every single day they were dependent on this person to keep them alive, and it's the same person from keeping them from living in a sense."
This kind of long-term captivity creates a long-standing sense of fear in the captives, experts believe. The Cleveland story is an eerie echo of Paul's assertion that "you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption." Even when held as captives, apparently two of the women were able to remember that they belonged somewhere else, and to take the first chance to escape, knowing that they were loved by someone on the outside.
Not falling back into a spirit of fear and slavery will serve them as a guide into their next steps. Believing in, and claiming, a hopeful future will be difficult work. As Erin Morgan, quoted in the Christian Science Monitor article, says, "Long-lasting trauma can really alter the perception of the world and our place in it." Overcoming that spirit of fear and slavery and knowing hope again will take a long time. It may be as difficult as being in captivity, in a completely different way.
We are all in captivity to something, in much less brutal ways than these women in Cleveland. As they recover and take hold of a new future, we might be inspired by their example to adopt our own spirit of freedom from whatever had its grip on us. For us it may be other kinds of abuse, or hopelessness, or too much wine, shopping, or gossip. We don't know anything about the faith the women held in Cleveland have, or once had. Perhaps this ordeal has destroyed it for a time, or for all time. But we can trust that God has an interest in them and in their move toward healing. As Paul reminds us, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God."
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Acts 2:1-21
"The next lost generation" is what the New York Times calls young Syrian refugees who are struggling to survive. The number of Syrians leaving their homeland has reached 1.4 million, of which over 500,000 are under the age of 18. They now have no more schooling, have witnessed the killing of relatives, endured sexual abuse, and live in tents struggling to find food each day. "These children, the next lost generation," according to the Times, "make up a particularly troubling category of collateral damage from Syria's chaotic conflict, which has left 70,000 people dead."
Application: The lost generation, having been exposed to the atrocities of life, may be the young sons and daughters who will prophesy of a new future for Syria.
* * *
Acts 2:1-21
During their ten years in captivity, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight, the three Cleveland women held by Ariel Castro, never celebrated a birthday. But each year Castro would celebrate their "abduction day" with dinner and a cake.
Application: As we celebrate Pentecost, we should be reminded of the church's call to social justice so others may celebrate not captivity but freedom.
* * *
Romans 8:14-17
Ultra-Orthodox Jews have dominated Israel's politics and social life for decades. But now, those who are proponents of equality are gaining new freedoms for citizens. Their cause has been propelled forward due to the support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The most visible change is that public places are no longer to be gender-segregated. One example of this is that women will no longer have to sit in the back of buses as they move through ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.
Application: Perhaps this is the beginning of an understanding of Paul's teaching that we are all children of God.
* * *
Romans 8:14-17
Immigration reform has become even more conflicted with a recent report issued by the Heritage Foundation, whose president is former South Carolina senator Jim DeMint. The co-author of the report is Harvard University professor Dr. Jason Richwine. He concluded that Hispanics have an inferior IQ when he wrote: "Immigrants living in the U.S. today do not have the same level of cognitive ability as natives. No one knows if Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against." DeMint adds that immigration reform would cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion over the next 50 years.
Application: The controversy over immigration reform and the bigoted responses it elicits from some demonstrates how far we still need to go until everyone is adopted into God's family.
* * *
Acts 2:1-21
Mark Sanford has never lost an election. After being elected to three consecutive terms in Congress from South Carolina's First District, which runs along the Atlantic coast from Charleston to Myrtle Beach, he then successfully ran for governor. Sanford was re-elected and was even beginning to be mentioned as a prospective national candidate when he was forced to resign during his second term, and paid the highest ethics fine in the history of the state. This was as a result of the celebrated scandal in which he disappeared for five days in order to spend time with his mistress. (After his initial claim that he was out of touch because he was walking the Appalachian Trail, one might conclude that the destination of his hike was apparently in Argentina, where his paramour resided.)
Now Sanford has won another term as the congressman from the First District, with the voters disregarding that two days after the balloting Sanford was to appear in court on charges of trespassing on his former wife's property. Despite his personal issues, political analysts are not surprised by Sanford's election, as Republicans have drawn the lines of South Carolina's six congressional seats in such a way that the majority of the state's Democrats are located in James Clyburn's district, while the other five districts are indisputably Republican. South Carolina is a state where constituents tend to vote straight party-line -- even if the trip south on the Appalachian Trail leads to Argentina and the return trip north leads to court.
Application: As long as the residents of South Carolina continue to vote absent of thinking, it will be hard to imagine that new visions and new prophecies will come forth from the Palmetto State.
* * *
From team member Chris Keating:
Acts 2:1-21
As the economy continues to rebound, is it possible that our "sons and daughters shall prophesy," and our young people will still dream dreams? There are mixed views. Often portrayed as apathetic and tuned out, the population of young adults born between 1980 and 2000 -- the Millennial Generation -- is showing signs of casting a new American dream. According to The Atlantic magazine, more live at home now than before the 2008 recession. But a recent Forbes survey indicates that while the housing bust shook the generation, it has not deterred them from the dream of a place of their own. About 93% of young adults aged 18-34 who are renting still dream of home ownership.
There are indications that young people are casting visions of change in the world. Time magazine reports Chelsea Clinton's observations following the recent Clinton Global Initiative University meeting at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Clinton cast aside notions that young people are selfish, disinterested, and impatient with change. The younger Clinton said, "I find the Millennials' impatience so exciting. It's urgency not arrogance that drives their impatience, their frustration with the status quo. They understand that these are urgent times, and that access to higher education, gender-based violence, climate change, and equal rights for all, regardless of sex or sexual orientation, country of residence, or country of origin are all areas of urgent concern. Millennials are eager to get started in addressing global challenges long before they line up to walk across the stage to get their college diploma. While some call that impatient, I call that perfect. The world can't afford for them to wait."
* * *
Acts 2:1-21
On Pentecost Sunday, the apostles discovered the power of God in creating new community. The new sharing of the gospel began in Jerusalem, but would soon spread everywhere. They experienced the abundance of God's gifts creating new possibilities. The power of "starting anywhere, follow it everywhere" is described in Walk Out Walk On, a recent book by Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze. The authors take a learning journey into global communities that are solving big problems, often through small initiatives. In South Africa, the writers noticed the power of what Archbishop Desmond Tutu called ubuntu in creating new possibilities. "When we want to give high praise to someone we say, 'Hey, he or she has ubuntu,' " says Tutu. "This means they are generous, hospitable, friendly, caring, and compassionate. They share what they have. It also means my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in theirs. We belong in a bundle of life" (Walk Out Walk On [Berrett-Koehler, 2011], p. 81).
Application: The church started in Jerusalem and followed the Spirit everywhere. The apostles soon began seeing people as gifted by the Spirit with "ubuntu," in terms of generosity, hospitality, friendship, and compassion. The apostles and those who joined the church were connected in a "bundle of life."
* * *
Acts 2:1-21
The experience of those gathered in Jerusalem on Pentecost caused Peter to preach from the book of Joel, recalling how God's Spirit would be poured out in new ways among the young and the old. In preaching this story, we often privilege the voices of youthful dreams at Pentecost and neglect the new life God's Spirit brings to the elderly. Yet there are powerful reminders of God's presence in the lives of older adults. One year, when my wife was working at a nursing home, she developed a friendship with a woman named Ruby. The nurses had characterized Ruby as a crotchety, difficult patient. Initially my wife agreed with their assessment. But in the course of her visits with Ruby, another picture emerged. Ruby told stories of a difficult childhood and of the loneliness of her long widowhood. My wife and Ruby became pals, and soon Ruby became more engaged in life. We also learned that Ruby, who had been born on New Year's Day, had never had a birthday party -- never in 90 years. Her mother had told her no one wanted to celebrate a birthday on New Year's Day. That New Year's Day, we brought out kids to the nursing home along with cake, ice cream, and party hats. As Easter approached that year, it became apparent that that would be Ruby's one and only birthday party. She became ill and then died before Pentecost. But in those days from Easter to Pentecost, her spirit was bright, renewed by the presence of God that had filled her.
* * *
Romans 8:14-17
Although the trauma of being held captive is over for the three women in Cleveland, experts note that full recovery and healing can be an ordeal in itself. With the support of family and friends, experts note that healing is possible. Of primary importance is that the women regain their identity as individuals, and not just "kidnapping victims." Erica Goode notes in the New York Times, "It is important, some therapists said, that the women not be turned into a spectacle, their identities as individuals diminished to 'kidnap victims.' "
Application: Paul reminds us that healing comes through being led by the Spirit of God who bears witness in our lives that we are children of God, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. This is our identity and the identity of all whom are led by the Spirit of God.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: O God, how manifold are your works!
People: In wisdom you have made them all.
Leader: Let us sing to God as long as we live.
People: We will sing praise to my God while we have being.
Leader: May our meditation be pleasing to God, in whom we rejoice.
People: Bless God, O my soul. Praise God!
OR
Leader: Offer praise to our God who comes near.
People: We offer worship and praise to the one who loves us.
Leader: God desires to know us and to be known.
People: We will open ourselves to God.
Leader: God offers us love through our community.
People: We will seek God in our sisters and brothers.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"We Gather Together"
found in:
UMH: 131
H82: 433
PH: 559
NNBH: 326
NCH: 421
CH: 276
W&P: 81
AMEC: 576
STLT: 349
"God, Whose Love Is Reigning O'er Us"
found in:
UMH: 100
"One Bread, One Body"
found in:
UMH: 620
CH: 393
ELA: 496
W&P: 689
"In Christ There Is No East or West
found in:
UMH: 548
H82: 529
PH: 439/440
AAHH: 398/399
NNBH: 299
NCH: 394/395
CH: 687
LBW: 259
ELA: 650
W&P: 600/603
AMEC: 557
"Blest Be the Tie That Binds"
found in:
UMH: 557
PH: 438
AAHH: 341
NNBH: 298
NCH: 393
CH: 433
LBW: 370
ELA: 656
W&P: 393
AMEC: 522
"Help Us Accept Each Other"
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
"There Is a Balm in Gilead"
found in:
UMH: 375
H82: 676
PH: 394
AAHH: 524
NNBH: 489
NCH: 553
CH: 501
ELA: 614
W&P: 631
AMEC: 425
"Jesus' Hands Were Kind Hands"
found in:
UMH: 273
W&P: 634
"Your Loving Kindness Is Better than Life"
found in:
CCB: 26
"Only by Grace"
found in:
CCB: 42
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
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who seeks to be in communion with your creation: Grant us the grace to be your true children by learning to be quiet and listen to you, and by listening and sharing openly with one another; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you, O God, and to transformed into more faithful disciples. Help us to listen to you and to learn to listen to one another that we may be avenues of healing. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which we fail to listen to and care for one another.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us to be in community, and yet we fail to take the time to listen to one another. We are so distracted with our own agendas and issues that we are unaware of the pain in the lives of those around us. Forgive us our self-centered ways and open us to listen to you so that we may learn your ways of compassion. Then open our hearts to those around us so that we may share your healing love and grace with them. Amen.
Leader: God desires to share with us and to have us share with others. Receive the power of the Spirit that makes us whole and makes us channels of God's healing power.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We offer to you, O God, our praise and worship, for you are the one who comes to speak to us and to hear our cries.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us to be in community, and yet we fail to take the time to listen to one another. We are so distracted with our own agendas and issues that we are unaware of the pain in the lives of those around us. Forgive us our self-centered ways and open us to listen to you so that we may learn your ways of compassion. Then open our hearts to those around us so that we may share your healing love and grace with them.
We give you thanks for those who have cared for us and shared the joys and pains of our lives. We thank you for the community of the church that nurtures and supports us. We are grateful for the ways in which you share your love and life with your children.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need and for all your children who struggle with brokenness. We pray for those who suffer in body, mind, spirit, or relationships and for those who are deprived of the resources they need. We pray for ourselves that we may be more faithful in listening to others.
(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
Talk to the children about how God created us with two ears to make sure that we could listen to one another. Although it is important for us to talk and we like to share what we have to say, it is even more important that we listen to one another. It is one of the ways we can take care of each other and share God's love.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Pentecost
by Elaine Ward
Acts 2:1-21
One day Jesus' friends came together. They were sad because Jesus was no longer with them. They missed Jesus but suddenly there was a loud noise that sounded like the flapping of many wings and everyone covered their ears. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire rest on the heads of each of them, and they were filled with God's Spirit. They spoke, but in different languages. They knelt on the floor and thanked God for God's love and presence. They told the story of Jesus around the world, for that was the day the church was born.
There was once a man who loved God. Because he loved God, he loved other people. One day he met a sick man who needed medicine and a doctor and a place where he could get well. The man said, "I will build a hospital. But I cannot build a hospital alone. I need others who will help me." The man found other people who loved God. Because they loved God, they loved others too. Together they built a hospital. Together they bought medicine. Together they paid the doctors and the nurses who cared for the sick. There were many things the man could do alone to show his love. There were many things he needed others to help him do. The church is like that, people who love God and serve and help others alone and together.
Talk together: At Pentecost we gather together in the church. What do you like best about our church?
Prayer: When we are afraid, God, remind us of your church, the gathering place where we love and worship you, and where we are loved too. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, May 19, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 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.
