I Feel Your Pain
Children's sermon
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Preaching
Sermon
Worship
For November 3, 2019:
I Feel Your Pain
by Tom Willadsen
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Psalm 119:137-144, 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12; Luke 19:1-10
“I feel your pain.” During the 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton was able to connect with voters emotionally when, during one of the debates with President Bush, he remarked that as the governor of a small state, he was acquainted with individuals who had suffered during the most recent recession. His saying, “I feel your pain” showed something of an “empathy gap” between him and the first President Bush. In the quarter century that has passed since candidate Clinton’s connection, the proliferation of media of all kinds has greatly increased the amount of injustice, pain, human misery and tragedy that citizens are exposed to. Press and social media coverage of natural disasters and acts of terrorism seems ubiquitous. The prophet Habakkuk expresses some of the distress that people feel just witnessing, or even hearing of, painful, stressful situations. Some of the terms that express this concept are “vicarious traumatization,” “compassion fatigue,” and “Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder.” What can faithful people do in an environment in which we are surrounded by bad, threatening news?
In the News
Last week a new wave of war and violence descended on Syria as US troops were pulled back, coinciding with (making possible?) a Turkish-led offensive into territory held by the Kurds.
Last week the nation marked the first anniversary of the terrorist attack at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
This week countless students in American classrooms participated in Active-Shooter Drills.
In August, the Coroner of Winnebago County, Wisconsin resigned after more than two decades on the job. One factor contributing to Barry Busby’s decision was Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
In a prepared statement, Busby said, “he suffers from PTSD after going to numerous death scenes and attending autopsies, including those of infants. ‘I’ve got pictures of what makes PTSD real,’ Busby said, inviting (Winnebago County) board members to come to his office to view them. ‘These became a life-changing event for me.’” (Oshkosh Northwestern, 8/20/19)
Years ago, comedian Flip Wilson said that his religion is “Jehovah’s Bystander,” because he did not want to get involved. But research is showing that one cannot always avoid being involved. For many people witnessing, even hearing about, a traumatic event, can itself be traumatic.
In the Scriptures
The book of the prophet Habakkuk (scholars are divided on how to pronounce this name. The most salient question is whether to emphasize the first or second syllable. There is also a tradition of pronouncing the final syllable like “kook” rather than having it rhyme with “buck.” I suggest selecting one pronunciation, sticking with it, and uttering it with confident authority. Pulling off “confident authority” is one of the first things seminaries should teach) starts with an oracle that the prophet saw. The King James Version says it was a “burden” that the prophet saw. It is common for the Lord to ask prophets to deliver images. We tend to expect this kind of communication in words, spoken words, but scripture reminds of our Lord’s ability to communicate across multiple platforms.
Like Jeremiah, Habakkuk expresses the burden, struggle, even suffering that speaking God’s word has brought him.
Why do you make me see wrongdoing
and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise. (1:3)
Today’s lessons offer some comfort, or at least ways to respond to the burden of sadness and violence that we suffer. The psalmist finds comfort in the laws and decrees of the Lord.
Trouble and anguish have come upon me,
but your commandments are my delight. (119:43)
Perhaps just remembering that the Lord is in charge and those who respect and adhere to the ancient teaching find a kind of respite in the Law. There is also a certain sanctimony in this morning’s reading from the Psalms. Does this imply that acknowledging and living the Lord’s commandments makes the believer better than others? Another way to look at this is that the psalmist may find her “happy place” in retreating from the woes of everyday life and immersing herself in solitary study. Curling up with the Good Book may bring peace and perspective.
Some scholars believe that Paul’s correspondence with the Christians in Thessalonica is the oldest extant Christian writing. If that’s true, then struggle and difficulty have been part of the Christian experience just about as long as there have been Christians. Still, Paul’s delight in and affection for the Thessalonians is on display in this morning’s reading. While their faith and love have been growing and increasing abundantly, this love and growth have come in the presence of persecutions and afflictions. But maybe the growth has not coincided with the afflictions, but because of the affliction. Who can argue that Christian faith grows and deepens when facing trouble, fear and tragedy? Like the kite that rises against the wind, faith can soar higher, and put down deeper roots, when tested. Another image is that faith is like a muscle that gets stronger when it is used. Paul’s encouragement to his friends in Thessalonica is certainly a buoy to them as they confront whatever difficulty they face.
In the Sermon
The people who are at worship today live in a culture saturated by news of misery and hardship. The hostility among our legislators, the fear and distrust of media sources that do not confirm one’s own set of beliefs, the coarseness of rhetoric, have made us simply less kind than we were a generation ago.
Forty years ago President Jimmy Carter spoke to the nation about a “national malaise.” He had spoken to the nation about the energy crisis several times. He had fallen short of keeping many of his campaign promises. In July of 1979 he addressed the nation about a different sort of crisis, a crisis of confidence. America had lost its moxie. It was not a specific event, crisis or problem that was bringing the nation down, but a crisis of confidence.
Forty years on our worshipers may feel something like nostalgia for national malaise.
Today our members receive a nearly constant stream of bad news, threatening situations and violence. One can hardly escape it. Many people suffer simply from hearing all this bad news. Habakkuk describes the oracle from God as “a burden (in the King James version).” We are surrounded by burdens of all kinds every day.
First responders, counselors who work with people in abusive relationships, journalists who cover natural disasters, accidents and crime frequently suffer from Vicarious Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Note, these people are one step removed from actual trauma. Merely hearing about trauma, other people’s trauma, frequently traumatize the hearers, first responders and care givers. This can hit people with great empathy and a gift for connecting with their clients and patients especially hard.
We are familiar with soldiers who return from combat who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD has gone by other names, for example, “shell shock.” Now we’re aware that, like ripples in a pond caused by a thrown rock, trauma migrates to those who hear about it and respond to it.
Habakkuk may have been the first person to identify this phenomenon. He scolds God for making him see wrong doing, destruction, violence and trouble. Just watching the evening news can be traumatizing. Just imagining children separated from their parents in chain link cages can trigger some people to experience trauma. When the cause of the trauma is man-made it can be even more disturbing.
There is a very good chance that some of our worshipers currently experience Vicarious Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A much more common “affliction” is Compassion Fatigue. People are simply worn down by news of problems that never seem to get better. Recovery from natural disasters sometimes can take years, even decades. When news of a hurricane, for example, reaches us, we are quick to write checks. Presbyterians are even something like proud when reminded that donations to our denomination’s annual One Great Hour of Sharing offering are used by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to respond immediately after disaster strikes. Many disasters, however, require lengthy time to rebuild. Crews left Neenah, Wisconsin to rebuild in southern Alabama following Hurricane Katrina for more than ten years. This kind of on-going effort, however, is rare. More typically a disaster is forgotten and falls out of the news cycle about the time the check we sent in response has cleared the bank.
Compassion fatigue comes very close to the classic definition of Sloth among the deadly sins. The sin of sloth is not laziness. Sitting in your Barco-lounger on Sunday afternoon is not sloth. The cynicism that leads one to believe that whether one responds or not will not make any difference, so why bother? That’s sloth.
What can we offer our worshipers who are worn to cynicism or truly traumatized by the news that surrounds them? Like Habakkuk we are all burdened by what we hear and see.
Take this burden seriously, preacher. People need hope, not optimism, not platitudes. What can people do about their trauma or their numbed cynicism? How can they transcend being discouraged? Each reading today offers a modest response.
In the Luke reading, Jesus offers Zacchaeus something like a new beginning by accepting Zacchaeus’s hospitality, taking him seriously and building a relationship with him. Zacchaeus had grown rich by exploiting people, but Zacchaeus was not a lost cause for Jesus. Perhaps just sharing a meal with someone whom you would not typically encounter is a way to lift the burden somewhat.
As I hinted above, turning or returning to something that speaks to your spirit, whether art, nature or the wonder of the written word can go a long way in restoring one’s perspective and renewing one’s energy and hope. The psalmist’s comfort with the study of God’s instruction may be a kind of healing retreat for her. In seminary I learned one definition of a classic is a work that moves one every time one encounters it. Head for your classics, you’ll find a solace there.
Mixed with Paul’s words of hope and encouragement are also words of gratitude. Find something to be grateful for. Express that gratitude. A friend who counseled grade school students for more than 40 years told me she always says something positive the first time she has contact with a student. Even if it’s, “I can see you have great upper arm strength by the way you’re swinging from the light fixture.” Find something to be grateful for. And remember, each week we “praise God from whom all things flow.”
Finally, turn to God; return some of this burden. Habakkuk was honest in telling God about how he suffered from the burden of bearing God’s oracle. Lament. Be “honest to God.” God can handle it. Pour out your despair to the one who is the Author of Life. Just doing that reminds one of God’s sovereignty. Keep your perspective. Know that it’s hard. Know that God knows it’s hard. Amen.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Jesus Notices the Hidden
by Bethany Peerbolte
Luke 19: 1-10
The gospel lesson from Luke this week is the story of Zacchaeus. It is one of those stories Christians raised in the church learn early. There are Vacation Bible School songs about Zacchaeus and hundreds of children’s lessons based on the story. I think this is because we assume children will understand what it is like to be the shortest person in a crowd. By leaving this story in Sunday school, however, we miss an important feature. Zacchaeus is not just short, he is hidden.
I can feel the push back already, “he is a tax collector, he isn’t hidden,” but hear me out. He has a job that places him in a precarious social position. His neighbors do not like him because he is the tax collector. He has cheated them out of money and in their eyes sided with an unjust governmental system. Zacchaeus isn’t making any friends in his neighborhood or among people with a lower political status than a tax collector.
His colleagues are upwardly mobile men who value status and influence. Being a short man is not going to help Zacchaeus gain more status or influence. Maybe Zacchaeus thought the tax collector position would help him move up the success ladder and cancel out his height deficit, but he isn’t finding a lot of success. He needs to be entrepreneurially ruthless to gain any friends among people at his same political level or higher.
Zacchaeus is stuck and no one is noticing, he is hidden. This job has made him rich, but it has also made him quite lonely in the world. He could throw a great party, but no one would show up. Zacchaeus is looking for someone to notice him. Thank goodness it is Jesus who takes notice. The minute Jesus looks up into that tree Zacchaeus is in for whatever Jesus asks. Jesus wants to come for dinner and Zacchaeus responds “absolutely.” The crowd questions Jesus’ motivations to eat with a tax collector; Zacchaeus is willing to make amends to save his new friend’s reputation. Zacchaeus is committed to the one who noticed him.
I shudder to think what Zacchaeus would have been willing to do if Rome had noticed him first. Living outside the attention and care of others creates a hole in a human. When they find someone willing to fill the hole the lonely person will do anything to keep that hole filled. This puts the “caregiver” in a position to either take advantage or to help heal the hole in the other person. Someone, or some system, obsessed with its own preservation would use a person like Zacchaeus to feed their narcissism. Rome would have used Zacchaeus till he was only a shell.
Denying people attention is a classic oppressive tactic. As Libya’s civil war continues, thousands of refugees are being hidden from the world’s eye. Recently there was an air strike on a large camp. The 53 killed in the attack will never be able to tell their experience of the war crimes committed against them. The survivors are left wondering who will notice them. We pray with them that someone will notice that will offer healing and not just a gun to fight back.
Jesus wants to offer healing to Zacchaeus. Jesus’ presence at Zacchaeus’ house makes a way for the tax collector to find forgiveness and hopefully a few friends to continue to offer care and support. The power of noticing, or presence, is well known. Sitting Shiva, in the Jewish tradition, recognizes that those grieving are often hidden. They are a population we do not find easy to look at, and so we “give them space” and unintentionally ignore their needs. Sitting Shiva forces us to notice and offer care, even if it is just sitting there with someone.
Everyone has a group, or groups, that they find it hard to look at with the intention of offering care. The group may be a opposing political party or people who have committed violent felonies. The group may be breastfeeding mothers or people with disabilities. There are countless numbers of groups we may find it easier to look the other way than to really notice them. Jesus is showing us why we need to look. We need to offer healing love so that the hole does not get filled with temporary fake love.
Noticing the hidden can create safe spaces to live. With 51 million people age 65 and older in the United States, at least 1.1 million of them are thought to belong to the LGBTQ community. Almost half of older same-sex couples have reported experiencing housing discrimination, according to a 2014 survey by the Equal Rights Center. When this population needs to move to a nursing home, it often means they also need to go back in the closet to live safely. Thankfully there are LGBTQ-friendly housing facilities opening, with 9 new communities opening in 2019.
Noticing the hidden can solve world hunger, or at least that is what some photographers believe. Three photographers recently presented their visual stories in London, highlighting malnutrition in the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Liberia. The exhibition, called Free From Hunger, hopes to put more eyes on the problem and help wealthier countries connect with this hidden population.
Noticing the hidden can save lives. The New York Police Department have lost 10 officers this year to suicide. Instead of ignoring and looking the other way leaders have decided to offer free mental health care to officers. Research shows that as many as 1 in 4 police officers have thought about suicide. It would certainly be easier to ignore this population or write them off. Noticing the hole and filling it with real care will help these officers heal.
Zacchaeus was short, which did not win him any favors in life. He tried to compensate with a powerful job but that left him even more lonely. Everyone around him ignored him for being too rich, a sellout, or insignificant. Zacchaeus was hidden until Jesus took notice, sat with him, and offered healing care.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
What is Our Witness Saying, Exactly?
It’s not always clear what our witness is. The late preacher Peter Gomes recalls, “Some years ago I was on a night flight from Boston to London on a Saturday and was to preach in a London church on Sunday morning; in those days I was not intimidated by jet lag and looked forward to my engagement within a few hours of landing at Heathrow Airport. Then, midway over the Atlantic Ocean we encountered significant turbulence and were warned to keep our seatbelts fastened. Less concerned about the storm than about my sermon, I took out my notes and my Bible, and as I read, the lady beside me, who had been mercifully quiet throughout the flight, observed me. As the turbulence increased she noticed that I was reading the Bible, and finally she asked, nervously, ‘Do you know something that I should know?’" [from The Scandalous Gospel]
Like Habakkuk, we want to be sure our witness is clear.
* * *
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 and Luke 19:1-10
We Need Witnesses
When people witness our emotions, state of mind and needs, we feel less alone. Kari Nixon says that when she experienced a loss, she needed people to see her fragile state, needed them to witness her loss. “It hit me as I cradled my dog’s dead body: I was 32, a specialist in death, and I’d never seen a corpse before this moment. Even as my animalistic cries mingled with actual animal cries in the veterinarian’s office, the scholar in me awoke. How had I never seen a corpse? It struck me as I stroked his soft, velvet ears, no longer responsive to my love, that this separation from death — pervasive in modern society — is actually culturally and historically unprecedented.”
She adopted external signs of mourning, so people would know to treat her gently. “I needed others to see me — to acknowledge my grief…So, with the existential defiance of the bereft, I went into Victorian mourning. I wore black clothes and jet jewelry for weeks, comforted by their mute message: “Here stands loss … unalterable, unutterable loss.” In 2019, though, my mourning cues were indecipherable. How I wished, in that black hole of clawing grief, that they were readable signs calling for community support when I didn’t have the strength to ask for it.”
We need people to witness, not just to God’s action, but to our place in the world, and to what we need.
* * *
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Witnessing the Good
When we witness evil in the world, our spirits are diminished. But seeing the good in others can build our spirits up. This is a conscious choice to practice what’s called “moral elevation. That’s the “warm, uplifting feeling that people experience when they see unexpected acts of human goodness, kindness, courage, or compassion,” according to psychologist Jonathan Haidt, now the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at the NYU-Stern School of Business. Take, for example, the undocumented immigrant in Paris who saved a child dangling from a balcony. Or the boy who raised over a million dollars to help find a cure for his friend’s rare disease. We can also find inspiration in the mother who forgave her son’s murderers and promised to help them change their lives. Stories like these fill me with hope and an appreciation for what’s best in humankind.” This can also reorient our minds to often neglected people. “When people are prompted with stories of moral exemplars — people engaged in morally excellent behavior — their bias toward out-groups can go down. One study showed that people who experienced moral elevation after witnessing exemplars in action decreased their belief in a social hierarchy — where some groups are better than others — leading them to be more willing to donate to charities benefitting other social groups.”
Knowing that “we all could benefit from actively pursuing experiences of moral elevation, by seeking out (and sharing) stories of goodness that inspire us to be our best selves. Not only would that make us feel good, it would likely increase our sense of connection and generosity toward fellow Americans of all backgrounds, helping to bridge divides. And, given the current state of our politics, there may be nothing more important than finding ways to embrace our common humanity.” We can set ourselves to be witnesses of the good, standing on the watchtower and building up the world around us.
* * *
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Being a Witness
The prophet Habakkuk sets himself to watch for a word from God, stationing himself as a witness on the watchtower. One place where we, as people of faith, can be a witness is when people of color experience microaggressions at work, or in our place of worship. Microaggressions are small enough that people are sometimes tempted to swallow them, not knowing what to say or reluctant to make a fuss. Still, “research indicates that avoidance, when there is no threat of bodily harm, may not be the best course of action and that eschewing resignation brings rewards, including feelings of bravery, dignity, and self-efficacy.” One response can be for a witness to respond, seeing the hurtful words or actions for what they are. “Writer Leslie C. Aguilar’s suggests targets or bystanders can just say “Ouch!” Interrupting and redirecting conversations heading toward biased territory with, “Whoa! Let’s not go there!” can also do the trick, particularly when delivered by allies who share commonalities with the speaker.”
* * *
Luke 19:1-10
Neglect and Empathy
In seeing Zacchaeus and calling out to him, despite his hiding place, Jesus shows his empathy for Zacchaeus and the place where he’s trapped in his role as a tax collector. Social scientist Mary Gordon posits that people neglect their children because of a lack of empathy, and she suggests that empathy can bring an end to neglect and abuse. Gordon says, “For years I worked with families who were very abusive to their children. Over time, I came to realize that all of the suffering that the children collected — whether it was domestic violence or child abuse or neglect — was a result of the absence of empathy in the parent. There wasn’t one of those parents who woke up and decided, “Today is the day I’m going to hurt my child.” These were not monsters; these were people who I loved, actually.”
When she worked with a group of teenage mothers, who had all lived through sexual or physical abuse, she found that they had a very hard time empathizing with their children. “When the children would fall down, the mothers would say, “No pain, no gain.” And this could be a little toddler learning how to walk.” She says, “I saw that if you haven’t experienced love, it’s very difficult to know how to love.” This is one of the gifts that Jesus gives to Zacchaeus.
Gordon started her program, Roots of Empathy, in 1996. “Roots of Empathy is a classroom-based program for children in kindergarten through grade eight. Our mission is to build more caring, peaceful, and civil societies by raising levels of empathy in children. Really the heart of the program is bringing the attachment relationship into the classroom: Every month for nine months, we bring an infant into the classroom with its parents, accompanied by a Roots of Empathy instructor. Children watch love grow over a whole school year; they watch confidence and security and emotional attunement between parent and child grow as well.”
“Through these visits we teach emotional literacy. Every time the baby demonstrates some emotion, the children talk about the baby’s intention and what the baby must be feeling. They are learning the language for their feelings. I remember once when we had children in a fourth grade class talking about a time when they felt sad; we were helping them understand that we all feel sad and lonely at times, but we can help one another. And this little girl, out of the blue, said, “I felt sad when my mommy gave me away because we didn’t afford good food.” Nobody said anything at the time. But the next day, most of the children in the class came with food. The majority of the children quietly in the cloakroom gave the food to the little girl.”
This is the kind of empathy that Jesus is teaching us all, in his ability so see Zacchaeus, and to call him out of his damaged role in life into something more.
* * *
Luke 19:1-10
When One Person Sees
Jesus sees Zacchaeus, and invites him into a new way of living. In a similar way, a doctor made a difference for a man who was ill and homeless. Everett Atkinson was in very frail shape a few years ago, with untreated medical issues and no place to live. “The 6-foot-7 homeless man couldn't stand up long without his legs swelling dangerously. His heart was bad, his circulatory system damaged and his body giving out after years of alcoholism, drug abuse and neglect. Help came his way, unexpectedly, from a doctor who had bought StreetWise newspapers from Atkinson for years. When Dr. Allen Goldberg learned Atkinson had been thrown out of a flophouse because he couldn't pay the bill, the doctor offered him a chance to live in his building for a while and rebuild his health. It was an act of compassion that reverberates to this day. The retired pediatrician has become a mentor to a man who lost his way and wanted a fresh start. Each man, in coming to know the other, has opened his eyes to another way of life. "I had never met a person who had nothing before," said Goldberg, 66, a past president of the American College of Chest Physicians who devoted his professional life to working with severely disabled children. "I guess I found out what poverty really meant." Now Goldberg uses insights from Atkinson — for example, how African-Americans in poor communities can distrust white doctors — in his volunteer work in tough city neighborhoods. "He helps me understand a lot because who knows better about being disadvantaged?" Goldberg said.” The learning goes both ways between the two men.
Knowing Atkinson has helped Dr. Goldberg be more effective in his medical work. “The doctor said he's learned the need to listen to other people deeply, carefully and without judgment — a lesson he's using in volunteer work with the Chicago Asthma Consortium. The group plans "listening sessions" with residents of poor neighborhoods this year about ways to reduce asthma's burden.”
“When Atkinson told Goldberg about being forced out of a flophouse, Evi insisted the couple had to intervene. "He needs someplace to get back on his feet," she recalls saying. "We have an apartment and it's empty right now." "That's why we became doctors — to help people," she said.In November 2006 Atkinson moved into the garden apartment in the Goldbergs' building. The doctor established ground rules. No smoking. No other people staying overnight regularly. No using the kitchen for commercial cooking. Atkinson signed a lease and agreed to pay an amount of his choosing in rent. He was and is still selling StreetWise. "I didn't want him to feel like he was a charity case," Goldberg said. "The whole point was to help him become independent." Then the doctor tried to find ways to make that possible. When Atkinson said he didn't qualify for any government benefits, Goldberg found a social worker who discovered he was eligible for Social Security Disability and the state's Medicaid health-care program. When applications for aid stalled, Goldberg got help from the office of then-U.S. Representative Rahm Emanuel. Atkinson's habit is to "back away when someone says no" and not push his case, Goldberg noted. "Either people are going to help out or they're not," Atkinson explained. "I don't want people to be thinking: Everett's always asking, he's always nagging." Before checks from the government arrived, Goldberg took Atkinson to his bank and used his own money to open an account. Worried about the tall man's feet, Goldberg persuaded a local shoe store to donate a pair of size 14 New Balance sneakers. For the winter, the doctor and his wife made a gift of a pair of sturdy, fur-lined boots.”
Atkinson’s health has improved, and he had plans to open a catering business when he was interviewed.
* * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:
Luke 19:5
When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.”
2013. Bald is in. The 41st President of the United Sates, George H. W. Bush shaved his head. Bush noticed that the members of his Secret Service security detail were all bald. They all had shaved heads. He learned it was in solidarity to a child of one of their agents, 2-year-old Patrick, who had leukemia. In solidarity with the agents who have pledged to protect his life, Bush had his own head shaved. Solidarity goes further than a shaved head. George and Barbara lost their infant daughter Robin to leukemia.
* * *
Habakkuk 2:2
Then the LORD answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.
There is only a photograph of one person standing atop Mt. Everest, and that is of Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who accompanied Edmund Hillary to the summit. When asked why there was no picture of himself, Hillary replied that Norgay had never ever taken a photograph before “and the summit of Everest was hardly the place to show him how.”
* * *
Isaiah 1:10
Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
It happened. An atomic bomb fell on America. It was on March 11, 1958 in a small community in South Carolina. An atomic bomb accidently fell from a B-47 flying at 15,000 feet during a training exercise. The nuclear warhead was not armed, but when the 7,000-pound bomb struck the earth its electronic trigger exploded leaving a massive crater.
* * *
Isaiah 1:10
Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
Ariel Castro, on August 1, 2013, was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years for his abduction, enslavement, and physical and sexual abuse of three Cleveland women for eleven years. During Castro’s sentencing Judge Michael Russo said, “Sir, there is no place in this city, there is no place in this country, indeed there is no place in this world for those who enslave others, those who sexually assault others or those who brutalize others.”
* * *
Luke 19:5
When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.”
Five weeks before his death, Benjamin Franklin received an inquiry about his beliefs from a Congregationalist minister who was also the President of Yale University. Franklin replied with this confession: “Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe: That he governs the World by Provenience. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service one can render to him, is doing good to his other Children. That the Soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with Justice in another life, respecting its Conduct in this. These I take as fundamental Principles of all sound Religion.”
* * * * * *
From team member Chris Keating
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
The watch post of violence
The prophet stands at his post, waiting for God to answer his cry: “How long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?” It’s a question residents of Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hills neighborhood have been asking since last year’s tragic shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue.
Emma Green reports for the Atlantic that neighbors have taken their stand against violence in the year since 11 Jews were shot during a synagogue service. Signs featuring hearts and stars of David dot the streetscapes indicating that the community is “stronger than hate.” Green says not everyone in Pittsburgh’s Jewish community has been in agreement with what that means.
The shooting was the deadliest attack on Jews in America, “a jolt back to other times in history, in other places, when violence was part of the rhythm of Jewish life. The shooting has revived old debates about how Jews should relate to power: Accommodate reigning leaders, or push against them? Prioritize protection of the community, or try to change the world for others?”
In the year following the shooting, advocacy groups emerged, and neighbors gathered. People in the close-knit community began asking questions even as they grieved. Jewish leaders took principled stands against violence as well as xenophobia. A year later, writes Green, “the October attack feels ever-present.” Many, she says, have begun to see a deep connection between working for justice and the traditions, rituals, and liturgy of their faith. Yet the work is hard, and often makes the organizers feel especially vulnerable. Green quotes an ancient Jewish teacher, “The day is short and the work is much. It is not your responsibility to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.”
* * *
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
When the law slackens, and justice never prevails
Habakkuk’s lament is bitter, his pain palpable. He cannot ignore what he has seen, and his exposure to violence has increased his own sense of vulnerability. Many American Jewish leaders shared a similar feeling as the one year anniversary of the Tree of Life shooting approached. As Zack Beauchamp noted this week in Vox:
Traumatized by a long history of persecution, Jews are acutely aware of how vulnerable we are, given our tiny numbers. We are not close to abandoning America, but we are closer to feeling like America could abandon us.
Yet, as Habakkuk comes to understand, “the righteous shall live by faith.” Beauchamp comments that while the Jewish community is hardly monolithic, many have deepened their connections to their communities since the shooting in a revival which has taken “many forms,” including “an acute reemergence of the American Jewish self-understanding as a minority, with all the insecurity and collective purpose that status entails.” The prophetic community, much like the prophet, cries out in lament, confident that the Lord will answer.
* * *
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Living by the symbols of faith
American teenagers are surrounded by religious symbols, according to a new study by Pew Research. A majority of teens in the United States say they see at least one prominent faith expressions daily. Examples included wearing religious jewelry or clothing; prayer at sporting events; being invited to church or youth group; praying before eating lunch, or reading Scriptures during the school day (but not as part of class).
* * *
Psalm 32:1-7
The hug watched around the world
When former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was convicted of murdering Botham Jean, many persons were stunned by actions of Jean’s brother, Brandt as he made a victim’s impact statement. Brandt turned to Guyger and said, “I don’t wish anything bad on you,” and then asked the court for permission to hug Guyer, who was then sentenced to ten years in prison.
Brandt’s act of forgiveness stirred debate, including a comment from the Dallas Police Department that described his actions as “a spirit of forgiveness, faith and trust.” The Rev. Cornell William Brooks, former president of the NAACtP and a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School Michael Waters, framed Brandt Jean’s actions in words similar to Psalm 32: “Forgiveness means being open to the process of reconciliation. It's taking note of the wrong but being willing to be in relationship with the wrongdoer and opening your arms to the wrongdoer even as you acknowledge the wrong.”
The concern, says Brooks, is what happens when we focus on one person’s willingness to forgive while ignoring the lack of accountability from the Dallas Police Department and Guyger. Speaking on NPR, Brooks said:
“…this country and police departments in particular should be asking the question, why are black people being called upon to forgive serially? So in other words, we commend black people for being moral heroes while we declined to treat them as human beings. And so police departments will commend the victim while continuing to victimize and refusing to apologize, repent, demonstrate accountability or change the way we police.
* * *
2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
Always praying
Paul’s theological argument in 2 Thessalonians emerges from a pastoral perspective. Congratulating the churches on their steadfast witness in the face of persecution and struggle, he reminds them, “to this end we always pray for you.” It’s a phrase we hear often – “I’m praying for you,” “We’re keeping you in our prayers,” “You know a lot of people are praying,” but set against the timbre of conflict and anguish, Paul’s words take on another dimension. They offer the added assurance of God’s presence despite trying times.
Pam and Charles Ogletree are banking their lives on that promise. Charles Ogletree is an acclaimed civil rights lawyer, and a former professor at Harvard Law School whose former students included Barak and Michelle Obama. He is revered internationally for his compassion and brilliance in civil rights law. But Ogletree, 66, suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s Disease. He is no longer able to work, and many days Pam Ogletree is unsure if he remembers her name. He’s surrendered most parts of his life, except for prayer and daily walks. As the Boston Globe reports, “He walks like a man trying to get somewhere.”
Reporter Jenna Russell observed the Ogletrees as they drew strength from even the simple acts of prayer:
They still pray together many mornings, Pam neeling on a sofa cushion on the floor in the living room while Charles sits and listens on the couch beside her. He no longer pipes up with addenda to her prayers, but he seems attentive, even calmed by what she says.
In the beginning, she prayed for him to get better. Now she prays more often for acceptance.
It is the sort of prayer which centers Paul’s ministry, and grounds his pastoral mentoring of the Thessalonians. He prays for their faith to grow abundantly – something Pam Ogletree experiences daily.
What they have now is different, and some would say poorer, but to Pam it is in some ways purer. Everything superfluous has gone away — all posturing and ego; the petty resentments common to all marriages, leaving a connection deeper and truer than language.
“It feels like I love him more now,” she said one day this fall.
In the park, the wind was rising, the silvery sun no longer burning through the clouds. Sirens passed, above the chirp of crickets, as Pam asked Charles if it was time to go and find the car. No, came his unspoken answer, as he kept on walking; he was not ready yet to stop.
* * *
Luke 19:1-10
Seeing the hidden person
Just as Jesus spotted the nearly-camouflaged Zacchaeus and called him out of the tree, Deborah Everson sees her ministry as offering hospitality to homeless women who are often invisible to others. She works for First Light, a shelter in Birmingham, Alabama, which creates an environment of hospitality for homeless women and their children. Just as Jesus went beyond merely spotting Zacchaeus hiding in the tree, First Light sees their mission as going beyond offering more than “a meal and a bed.” Everson describes her ministry this way:
We are not simply a meal and a bed. The focus of our service is delivered by the professionally certified social work staff who work directly with each guest to help her address the root causes of her homelessness. Our programs include private sessions with a social worker, group sessions, life skills classes and learning to manage one’s medications using med-fill boxes. These are supplemented with activities led by community volunteers such as prayer services and bible studies, weekly therapeutic art classes, movie parties, holiday or seasonal activities, karaoke — anything that can lift spirits and help women regain self-awareness, self-respect and the drive to take charge of their lives with purpose.
In other words, First Light looks for the hidden people, and leads them into new life.
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: You are righteous, O God, and your judgments are right.
People: You have appointed your decrees in faithfulness.
Leader: Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness.
People: Your law, O God, is the truth.
Leader: Your decrees are righteous forever.
People: Give us understanding that we may live.
OR
Leader: Let us worship God who created us in the divine image.
People: We praise our God who filled us with God’s own Spirit.
Leader: We celebrate the light of God which fills each one.
People: We rejoice that all of us are God’s own children.
Leader: Let us celebrate the love of God reflected in others.
People: Thanks be to God for all our sisters and brothers.
Hymns and Songs:
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
UMH: 110
H82: 687/688
PH: 260
AAHH: 124
NNBH: 37
NCH: 439/440
CH: 65
LBW: 228/229
ELW: 503/504/505
W&P: 588
AMEC: 54
STLT: 200
God of the Sparrow God of the Whale
UMH: 122
PH: 272
NCH: 32
CH: 70
ELW: 740
W&P: 29
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
UMH: 154/155
H82: 450/451
PH: 142/143
AAHH: 292/293/294
NNBH: 3/5
NCH: 304
CH: 91/92
LBW: 328/329
ELW: 634
W&P: 100/106
AMEC: 4/5/6
Renew: 45
Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee
UMH: 175
H82: 642
PH: 310
NCH: 507
CH: 102
LBW: 316
ELW: 754
W&P: 420
AMEC: 464
In Christ There Is No East or West
UMH: 548
H82: 529
PH: 439/440
AAHH: 398/399
NNBH: 299
NCH: 394/395
CH: 687
LBW: 259
ELW: 650
W&P: 600/603
AMEC: 557
Where Charity and Love Prevail
UMH: 549
H82: 581
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELW: 359
Help Us Accept Each Other
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
Jesu, Jesu
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELW: 708
W&P: 273
CCB: 66
Renew: 289
Walk with Me
CCB: 88
Make Me a Servant
CCB: 90
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is the Creator of us all:
Grant us the wisdom to see that we are all your children
so that we can reach out in love to everyone;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are our Creator. You made us and filled us with your own Spirit and life. Help us to live as sisters and brothers together as we take care of one another. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to acknowledge one another as your own dear children.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us as your own children and made us sisters and brothers to one another and yet we seek to separate ourselves from others. We look for differences and way to divide us. We esteem some as being worthy of our love and others as not. We dare to even speak for you and say who it is you love and who you hate. Soften our hard hearts and forgive our arrogant foolishness. Restore us in your love to be your loving image and presence. Amen.
Leader: God is love and loves us even when we are unloving. Receive God’s grace and forgiveness and extend these to others.
Prayers of the People
We praise you, O God, because you are our loving Creator who made us to be your children and members together of your family.
(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 as your own children and made us sisters and brothers to one another and yet we seek to separate ourselves from others. We look for differences and way to divide us. We esteem some as being worthy of our love and others as not. We dare to even speak for you and say who it is you love and who you hate. Soften our hard hearts and forgive our arrogant foolishness. Restore us in your love to be your loving image and presence.
We give you thanks for your great love which surrounds us and draws us to you and to one another. We thank you for your faithful ones who have loved us when we were unlovable. We thank you for those who reached out to us when we were pushing them away. We thank you for the sanctuary of your Church which welcomes all.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all our sisters and brothers as they seek to know and share love. We pray that we might be manifestations of your love to them.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Put a flashlight in a heavy cloth bag that won’t let light shine out unless the flashlight is right against the cloth. Turn the light on and show the children the bag which you keep closed around your arm with your other hand. Ask them if they think there is any light in the bag. No, yes, maybe? Move the flashlight so it is against the cloth and you can now see a dim light. Then open the bag so the light can shine out fully.
Talk about how we all have God’s light in us. Sometimes we can’t see it in others or even ourselves. But sometimes people do things that let it show a little and sometimes they open up and really let the light shine out. Today we celebrate All Saints’ and rejoice that God’s light is in us all.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
What Jesus Saw
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 19:1-10
You will need: One 8 ½ X 11 piece of paper or construction paper for each child. Some cellophane (Scotch) tape.
The Message
Show the children how to roll the paper into a telescope they can look through and tape it so it doesn’t come unrolled. You may need some helpers if you have many young children who don’t have the co-ordination to roll the paper. If time in the service is short, roll the telescopes in advance and give one to each child.
When everyone is equipped with a telescope look through yours at the kids and invite them to do the same, looking at you. Make some funny faces so they’re surprised by what they see. Enjoy the fun.
After a couple of minutes of goofing around with the telescopes have everyone look at you through their scope. Say:
Now, what I want you to do is look at the person sitting next to you BUT you can’t move your telescope or your head, okay? Let’s see you do it. No? Can’t?
Okay, try this: Look through your telescope at the person behind you BUT don’t move your head, okay? Go ahead, let’s see if you can do it.
Can’t, huh?
Okay, do it moving your head. There, ya go. Easier, isn’t it?
In today’s Bible story we meet a little man. The song says he was a “wee little man.” And he was the kind of person that people didn’t see in the crowd. For one thing, he was little. He was hard to see. But, another reason they couldn’t see him may have been that they didn’t like him very much. See, he was not a very nice person.
So, one day Jesus was coming through the village where this guy, his name was Zacchaeus, lived but he was too short to see Jesus over the crowd and the people around him either didn’t see him trying to see Jesus or they didn’t care because they didn’t get out of his way. So Zacchaeus climbed a tree next to the road so he could see Jesus.
Most of the people didn’t even notice him up there in that tree but when Jesus got to that place in the road he looked up… do you hear that? … he looked up. He didn’t just look down or at the things, the people around him. No, he looked up and what did he see? That’s right. He saw Zacchaeus up there in that tree and ye said, “Zacchaeus, you come on down, here, because I’m going to come and have dinner with you and your family at your house.”
Jesus saw the man that no one else saw because he wasn’t looking through a tube like we were. He was looking around and up and down. He was observant.
And because he saw, really saw Zacchaeus, do you know what happened? Well, ol’ Zacchaeus changed. He became a better person, a good person, because Jesus saw him.
And you know what? Sometimes we can see people that other people don’t see and, if we do, we can become friends with those people and our friendship can change them and make them into better people.
So it’s important to do as Jesus did and look at all the people around us and really see them.
Conclude with a prayer for the people who aren’t seen — the poor, the homeless, the sick, the mentally ill, the handicapped — and asking God to make us more observant so we can see and care as Jesus did.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, November 3, 2019 issue.
Copyright 2019 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- I Feel Your Pain by Tom Willadsen — The people who are at worship today live in a culture saturated with news of misery and hardship. We simply seem less kind than we were a generation ago.
- Second Thoughts: Jesus Notices the Hidden by Bethany Peerbolte — Noticing the hidden can save lives. Zacchaeus was hidden until Jesus took notice, sat with him, and offered healing care.
- Sermon illustrations by Mary Austin, Ron Love, and Chris Keating.
- Worship resources by George Reed focusing on hurting with the hurting; Jesus seeing the unseen.
- Children’s sermon: What Jesus Saw by Dean Feldmeyer — Jesus sees the people we don’t see and asks us to look a little harder to see them.
I Feel Your Painby Tom Willadsen
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Psalm 119:137-144, 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12; Luke 19:1-10
“I feel your pain.” During the 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton was able to connect with voters emotionally when, during one of the debates with President Bush, he remarked that as the governor of a small state, he was acquainted with individuals who had suffered during the most recent recession. His saying, “I feel your pain” showed something of an “empathy gap” between him and the first President Bush. In the quarter century that has passed since candidate Clinton’s connection, the proliferation of media of all kinds has greatly increased the amount of injustice, pain, human misery and tragedy that citizens are exposed to. Press and social media coverage of natural disasters and acts of terrorism seems ubiquitous. The prophet Habakkuk expresses some of the distress that people feel just witnessing, or even hearing of, painful, stressful situations. Some of the terms that express this concept are “vicarious traumatization,” “compassion fatigue,” and “Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder.” What can faithful people do in an environment in which we are surrounded by bad, threatening news?
In the News
Last week a new wave of war and violence descended on Syria as US troops were pulled back, coinciding with (making possible?) a Turkish-led offensive into territory held by the Kurds.
Last week the nation marked the first anniversary of the terrorist attack at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
This week countless students in American classrooms participated in Active-Shooter Drills.
In August, the Coroner of Winnebago County, Wisconsin resigned after more than two decades on the job. One factor contributing to Barry Busby’s decision was Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
In a prepared statement, Busby said, “he suffers from PTSD after going to numerous death scenes and attending autopsies, including those of infants. ‘I’ve got pictures of what makes PTSD real,’ Busby said, inviting (Winnebago County) board members to come to his office to view them. ‘These became a life-changing event for me.’” (Oshkosh Northwestern, 8/20/19)
Years ago, comedian Flip Wilson said that his religion is “Jehovah’s Bystander,” because he did not want to get involved. But research is showing that one cannot always avoid being involved. For many people witnessing, even hearing about, a traumatic event, can itself be traumatic.
In the Scriptures
The book of the prophet Habakkuk (scholars are divided on how to pronounce this name. The most salient question is whether to emphasize the first or second syllable. There is also a tradition of pronouncing the final syllable like “kook” rather than having it rhyme with “buck.” I suggest selecting one pronunciation, sticking with it, and uttering it with confident authority. Pulling off “confident authority” is one of the first things seminaries should teach) starts with an oracle that the prophet saw. The King James Version says it was a “burden” that the prophet saw. It is common for the Lord to ask prophets to deliver images. We tend to expect this kind of communication in words, spoken words, but scripture reminds of our Lord’s ability to communicate across multiple platforms.
Like Jeremiah, Habakkuk expresses the burden, struggle, even suffering that speaking God’s word has brought him.
Why do you make me see wrongdoing
and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise. (1:3)
Today’s lessons offer some comfort, or at least ways to respond to the burden of sadness and violence that we suffer. The psalmist finds comfort in the laws and decrees of the Lord.
Trouble and anguish have come upon me,
but your commandments are my delight. (119:43)
Perhaps just remembering that the Lord is in charge and those who respect and adhere to the ancient teaching find a kind of respite in the Law. There is also a certain sanctimony in this morning’s reading from the Psalms. Does this imply that acknowledging and living the Lord’s commandments makes the believer better than others? Another way to look at this is that the psalmist may find her “happy place” in retreating from the woes of everyday life and immersing herself in solitary study. Curling up with the Good Book may bring peace and perspective.
Some scholars believe that Paul’s correspondence with the Christians in Thessalonica is the oldest extant Christian writing. If that’s true, then struggle and difficulty have been part of the Christian experience just about as long as there have been Christians. Still, Paul’s delight in and affection for the Thessalonians is on display in this morning’s reading. While their faith and love have been growing and increasing abundantly, this love and growth have come in the presence of persecutions and afflictions. But maybe the growth has not coincided with the afflictions, but because of the affliction. Who can argue that Christian faith grows and deepens when facing trouble, fear and tragedy? Like the kite that rises against the wind, faith can soar higher, and put down deeper roots, when tested. Another image is that faith is like a muscle that gets stronger when it is used. Paul’s encouragement to his friends in Thessalonica is certainly a buoy to them as they confront whatever difficulty they face.
In the Sermon
The people who are at worship today live in a culture saturated by news of misery and hardship. The hostility among our legislators, the fear and distrust of media sources that do not confirm one’s own set of beliefs, the coarseness of rhetoric, have made us simply less kind than we were a generation ago.
Forty years ago President Jimmy Carter spoke to the nation about a “national malaise.” He had spoken to the nation about the energy crisis several times. He had fallen short of keeping many of his campaign promises. In July of 1979 he addressed the nation about a different sort of crisis, a crisis of confidence. America had lost its moxie. It was not a specific event, crisis or problem that was bringing the nation down, but a crisis of confidence.
Forty years on our worshipers may feel something like nostalgia for national malaise.
Today our members receive a nearly constant stream of bad news, threatening situations and violence. One can hardly escape it. Many people suffer simply from hearing all this bad news. Habakkuk describes the oracle from God as “a burden (in the King James version).” We are surrounded by burdens of all kinds every day.
First responders, counselors who work with people in abusive relationships, journalists who cover natural disasters, accidents and crime frequently suffer from Vicarious Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Note, these people are one step removed from actual trauma. Merely hearing about trauma, other people’s trauma, frequently traumatize the hearers, first responders and care givers. This can hit people with great empathy and a gift for connecting with their clients and patients especially hard.
We are familiar with soldiers who return from combat who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD has gone by other names, for example, “shell shock.” Now we’re aware that, like ripples in a pond caused by a thrown rock, trauma migrates to those who hear about it and respond to it.
Habakkuk may have been the first person to identify this phenomenon. He scolds God for making him see wrong doing, destruction, violence and trouble. Just watching the evening news can be traumatizing. Just imagining children separated from their parents in chain link cages can trigger some people to experience trauma. When the cause of the trauma is man-made it can be even more disturbing.
There is a very good chance that some of our worshipers currently experience Vicarious Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A much more common “affliction” is Compassion Fatigue. People are simply worn down by news of problems that never seem to get better. Recovery from natural disasters sometimes can take years, even decades. When news of a hurricane, for example, reaches us, we are quick to write checks. Presbyterians are even something like proud when reminded that donations to our denomination’s annual One Great Hour of Sharing offering are used by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to respond immediately after disaster strikes. Many disasters, however, require lengthy time to rebuild. Crews left Neenah, Wisconsin to rebuild in southern Alabama following Hurricane Katrina for more than ten years. This kind of on-going effort, however, is rare. More typically a disaster is forgotten and falls out of the news cycle about the time the check we sent in response has cleared the bank.
Compassion fatigue comes very close to the classic definition of Sloth among the deadly sins. The sin of sloth is not laziness. Sitting in your Barco-lounger on Sunday afternoon is not sloth. The cynicism that leads one to believe that whether one responds or not will not make any difference, so why bother? That’s sloth.
What can we offer our worshipers who are worn to cynicism or truly traumatized by the news that surrounds them? Like Habakkuk we are all burdened by what we hear and see.
Take this burden seriously, preacher. People need hope, not optimism, not platitudes. What can people do about their trauma or their numbed cynicism? How can they transcend being discouraged? Each reading today offers a modest response.
In the Luke reading, Jesus offers Zacchaeus something like a new beginning by accepting Zacchaeus’s hospitality, taking him seriously and building a relationship with him. Zacchaeus had grown rich by exploiting people, but Zacchaeus was not a lost cause for Jesus. Perhaps just sharing a meal with someone whom you would not typically encounter is a way to lift the burden somewhat.
As I hinted above, turning or returning to something that speaks to your spirit, whether art, nature or the wonder of the written word can go a long way in restoring one’s perspective and renewing one’s energy and hope. The psalmist’s comfort with the study of God’s instruction may be a kind of healing retreat for her. In seminary I learned one definition of a classic is a work that moves one every time one encounters it. Head for your classics, you’ll find a solace there.
Mixed with Paul’s words of hope and encouragement are also words of gratitude. Find something to be grateful for. Express that gratitude. A friend who counseled grade school students for more than 40 years told me she always says something positive the first time she has contact with a student. Even if it’s, “I can see you have great upper arm strength by the way you’re swinging from the light fixture.” Find something to be grateful for. And remember, each week we “praise God from whom all things flow.”
Finally, turn to God; return some of this burden. Habakkuk was honest in telling God about how he suffered from the burden of bearing God’s oracle. Lament. Be “honest to God.” God can handle it. Pour out your despair to the one who is the Author of Life. Just doing that reminds one of God’s sovereignty. Keep your perspective. Know that it’s hard. Know that God knows it’s hard. Amen.
SECOND THOUGHTSJesus Notices the Hidden
by Bethany Peerbolte
Luke 19: 1-10
The gospel lesson from Luke this week is the story of Zacchaeus. It is one of those stories Christians raised in the church learn early. There are Vacation Bible School songs about Zacchaeus and hundreds of children’s lessons based on the story. I think this is because we assume children will understand what it is like to be the shortest person in a crowd. By leaving this story in Sunday school, however, we miss an important feature. Zacchaeus is not just short, he is hidden.
I can feel the push back already, “he is a tax collector, he isn’t hidden,” but hear me out. He has a job that places him in a precarious social position. His neighbors do not like him because he is the tax collector. He has cheated them out of money and in their eyes sided with an unjust governmental system. Zacchaeus isn’t making any friends in his neighborhood or among people with a lower political status than a tax collector.
His colleagues are upwardly mobile men who value status and influence. Being a short man is not going to help Zacchaeus gain more status or influence. Maybe Zacchaeus thought the tax collector position would help him move up the success ladder and cancel out his height deficit, but he isn’t finding a lot of success. He needs to be entrepreneurially ruthless to gain any friends among people at his same political level or higher.
Zacchaeus is stuck and no one is noticing, he is hidden. This job has made him rich, but it has also made him quite lonely in the world. He could throw a great party, but no one would show up. Zacchaeus is looking for someone to notice him. Thank goodness it is Jesus who takes notice. The minute Jesus looks up into that tree Zacchaeus is in for whatever Jesus asks. Jesus wants to come for dinner and Zacchaeus responds “absolutely.” The crowd questions Jesus’ motivations to eat with a tax collector; Zacchaeus is willing to make amends to save his new friend’s reputation. Zacchaeus is committed to the one who noticed him.
I shudder to think what Zacchaeus would have been willing to do if Rome had noticed him first. Living outside the attention and care of others creates a hole in a human. When they find someone willing to fill the hole the lonely person will do anything to keep that hole filled. This puts the “caregiver” in a position to either take advantage or to help heal the hole in the other person. Someone, or some system, obsessed with its own preservation would use a person like Zacchaeus to feed their narcissism. Rome would have used Zacchaeus till he was only a shell.
Denying people attention is a classic oppressive tactic. As Libya’s civil war continues, thousands of refugees are being hidden from the world’s eye. Recently there was an air strike on a large camp. The 53 killed in the attack will never be able to tell their experience of the war crimes committed against them. The survivors are left wondering who will notice them. We pray with them that someone will notice that will offer healing and not just a gun to fight back.
Jesus wants to offer healing to Zacchaeus. Jesus’ presence at Zacchaeus’ house makes a way for the tax collector to find forgiveness and hopefully a few friends to continue to offer care and support. The power of noticing, or presence, is well known. Sitting Shiva, in the Jewish tradition, recognizes that those grieving are often hidden. They are a population we do not find easy to look at, and so we “give them space” and unintentionally ignore their needs. Sitting Shiva forces us to notice and offer care, even if it is just sitting there with someone.
Everyone has a group, or groups, that they find it hard to look at with the intention of offering care. The group may be a opposing political party or people who have committed violent felonies. The group may be breastfeeding mothers or people with disabilities. There are countless numbers of groups we may find it easier to look the other way than to really notice them. Jesus is showing us why we need to look. We need to offer healing love so that the hole does not get filled with temporary fake love.
Noticing the hidden can create safe spaces to live. With 51 million people age 65 and older in the United States, at least 1.1 million of them are thought to belong to the LGBTQ community. Almost half of older same-sex couples have reported experiencing housing discrimination, according to a 2014 survey by the Equal Rights Center. When this population needs to move to a nursing home, it often means they also need to go back in the closet to live safely. Thankfully there are LGBTQ-friendly housing facilities opening, with 9 new communities opening in 2019.
Noticing the hidden can solve world hunger, or at least that is what some photographers believe. Three photographers recently presented their visual stories in London, highlighting malnutrition in the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Liberia. The exhibition, called Free From Hunger, hopes to put more eyes on the problem and help wealthier countries connect with this hidden population.
Noticing the hidden can save lives. The New York Police Department have lost 10 officers this year to suicide. Instead of ignoring and looking the other way leaders have decided to offer free mental health care to officers. Research shows that as many as 1 in 4 police officers have thought about suicide. It would certainly be easier to ignore this population or write them off. Noticing the hole and filling it with real care will help these officers heal.
Zacchaeus was short, which did not win him any favors in life. He tried to compensate with a powerful job but that left him even more lonely. Everyone around him ignored him for being too rich, a sellout, or insignificant. Zacchaeus was hidden until Jesus took notice, sat with him, and offered healing care.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
What is Our Witness Saying, Exactly?
It’s not always clear what our witness is. The late preacher Peter Gomes recalls, “Some years ago I was on a night flight from Boston to London on a Saturday and was to preach in a London church on Sunday morning; in those days I was not intimidated by jet lag and looked forward to my engagement within a few hours of landing at Heathrow Airport. Then, midway over the Atlantic Ocean we encountered significant turbulence and were warned to keep our seatbelts fastened. Less concerned about the storm than about my sermon, I took out my notes and my Bible, and as I read, the lady beside me, who had been mercifully quiet throughout the flight, observed me. As the turbulence increased she noticed that I was reading the Bible, and finally she asked, nervously, ‘Do you know something that I should know?’" [from The Scandalous Gospel]
Like Habakkuk, we want to be sure our witness is clear.
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Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 and Luke 19:1-10
We Need Witnesses
When people witness our emotions, state of mind and needs, we feel less alone. Kari Nixon says that when she experienced a loss, she needed people to see her fragile state, needed them to witness her loss. “It hit me as I cradled my dog’s dead body: I was 32, a specialist in death, and I’d never seen a corpse before this moment. Even as my animalistic cries mingled with actual animal cries in the veterinarian’s office, the scholar in me awoke. How had I never seen a corpse? It struck me as I stroked his soft, velvet ears, no longer responsive to my love, that this separation from death — pervasive in modern society — is actually culturally and historically unprecedented.”
She adopted external signs of mourning, so people would know to treat her gently. “I needed others to see me — to acknowledge my grief…So, with the existential defiance of the bereft, I went into Victorian mourning. I wore black clothes and jet jewelry for weeks, comforted by their mute message: “Here stands loss … unalterable, unutterable loss.” In 2019, though, my mourning cues were indecipherable. How I wished, in that black hole of clawing grief, that they were readable signs calling for community support when I didn’t have the strength to ask for it.”
We need people to witness, not just to God’s action, but to our place in the world, and to what we need.
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Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Witnessing the Good
When we witness evil in the world, our spirits are diminished. But seeing the good in others can build our spirits up. This is a conscious choice to practice what’s called “moral elevation. That’s the “warm, uplifting feeling that people experience when they see unexpected acts of human goodness, kindness, courage, or compassion,” according to psychologist Jonathan Haidt, now the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at the NYU-Stern School of Business. Take, for example, the undocumented immigrant in Paris who saved a child dangling from a balcony. Or the boy who raised over a million dollars to help find a cure for his friend’s rare disease. We can also find inspiration in the mother who forgave her son’s murderers and promised to help them change their lives. Stories like these fill me with hope and an appreciation for what’s best in humankind.” This can also reorient our minds to often neglected people. “When people are prompted with stories of moral exemplars — people engaged in morally excellent behavior — their bias toward out-groups can go down. One study showed that people who experienced moral elevation after witnessing exemplars in action decreased their belief in a social hierarchy — where some groups are better than others — leading them to be more willing to donate to charities benefitting other social groups.”
Knowing that “we all could benefit from actively pursuing experiences of moral elevation, by seeking out (and sharing) stories of goodness that inspire us to be our best selves. Not only would that make us feel good, it would likely increase our sense of connection and generosity toward fellow Americans of all backgrounds, helping to bridge divides. And, given the current state of our politics, there may be nothing more important than finding ways to embrace our common humanity.” We can set ourselves to be witnesses of the good, standing on the watchtower and building up the world around us.
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Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Being a Witness
The prophet Habakkuk sets himself to watch for a word from God, stationing himself as a witness on the watchtower. One place where we, as people of faith, can be a witness is when people of color experience microaggressions at work, or in our place of worship. Microaggressions are small enough that people are sometimes tempted to swallow them, not knowing what to say or reluctant to make a fuss. Still, “research indicates that avoidance, when there is no threat of bodily harm, may not be the best course of action and that eschewing resignation brings rewards, including feelings of bravery, dignity, and self-efficacy.” One response can be for a witness to respond, seeing the hurtful words or actions for what they are. “Writer Leslie C. Aguilar’s suggests targets or bystanders can just say “Ouch!” Interrupting and redirecting conversations heading toward biased territory with, “Whoa! Let’s not go there!” can also do the trick, particularly when delivered by allies who share commonalities with the speaker.”
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Luke 19:1-10
Neglect and Empathy
In seeing Zacchaeus and calling out to him, despite his hiding place, Jesus shows his empathy for Zacchaeus and the place where he’s trapped in his role as a tax collector. Social scientist Mary Gordon posits that people neglect their children because of a lack of empathy, and she suggests that empathy can bring an end to neglect and abuse. Gordon says, “For years I worked with families who were very abusive to their children. Over time, I came to realize that all of the suffering that the children collected — whether it was domestic violence or child abuse or neglect — was a result of the absence of empathy in the parent. There wasn’t one of those parents who woke up and decided, “Today is the day I’m going to hurt my child.” These were not monsters; these were people who I loved, actually.”
When she worked with a group of teenage mothers, who had all lived through sexual or physical abuse, she found that they had a very hard time empathizing with their children. “When the children would fall down, the mothers would say, “No pain, no gain.” And this could be a little toddler learning how to walk.” She says, “I saw that if you haven’t experienced love, it’s very difficult to know how to love.” This is one of the gifts that Jesus gives to Zacchaeus.
Gordon started her program, Roots of Empathy, in 1996. “Roots of Empathy is a classroom-based program for children in kindergarten through grade eight. Our mission is to build more caring, peaceful, and civil societies by raising levels of empathy in children. Really the heart of the program is bringing the attachment relationship into the classroom: Every month for nine months, we bring an infant into the classroom with its parents, accompanied by a Roots of Empathy instructor. Children watch love grow over a whole school year; they watch confidence and security and emotional attunement between parent and child grow as well.”
“Through these visits we teach emotional literacy. Every time the baby demonstrates some emotion, the children talk about the baby’s intention and what the baby must be feeling. They are learning the language for their feelings. I remember once when we had children in a fourth grade class talking about a time when they felt sad; we were helping them understand that we all feel sad and lonely at times, but we can help one another. And this little girl, out of the blue, said, “I felt sad when my mommy gave me away because we didn’t afford good food.” Nobody said anything at the time. But the next day, most of the children in the class came with food. The majority of the children quietly in the cloakroom gave the food to the little girl.”
This is the kind of empathy that Jesus is teaching us all, in his ability so see Zacchaeus, and to call him out of his damaged role in life into something more.
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Luke 19:1-10
When One Person Sees
Jesus sees Zacchaeus, and invites him into a new way of living. In a similar way, a doctor made a difference for a man who was ill and homeless. Everett Atkinson was in very frail shape a few years ago, with untreated medical issues and no place to live. “The 6-foot-7 homeless man couldn't stand up long without his legs swelling dangerously. His heart was bad, his circulatory system damaged and his body giving out after years of alcoholism, drug abuse and neglect. Help came his way, unexpectedly, from a doctor who had bought StreetWise newspapers from Atkinson for years. When Dr. Allen Goldberg learned Atkinson had been thrown out of a flophouse because he couldn't pay the bill, the doctor offered him a chance to live in his building for a while and rebuild his health. It was an act of compassion that reverberates to this day. The retired pediatrician has become a mentor to a man who lost his way and wanted a fresh start. Each man, in coming to know the other, has opened his eyes to another way of life. "I had never met a person who had nothing before," said Goldberg, 66, a past president of the American College of Chest Physicians who devoted his professional life to working with severely disabled children. "I guess I found out what poverty really meant." Now Goldberg uses insights from Atkinson — for example, how African-Americans in poor communities can distrust white doctors — in his volunteer work in tough city neighborhoods. "He helps me understand a lot because who knows better about being disadvantaged?" Goldberg said.” The learning goes both ways between the two men.
Knowing Atkinson has helped Dr. Goldberg be more effective in his medical work. “The doctor said he's learned the need to listen to other people deeply, carefully and without judgment — a lesson he's using in volunteer work with the Chicago Asthma Consortium. The group plans "listening sessions" with residents of poor neighborhoods this year about ways to reduce asthma's burden.”
“When Atkinson told Goldberg about being forced out of a flophouse, Evi insisted the couple had to intervene. "He needs someplace to get back on his feet," she recalls saying. "We have an apartment and it's empty right now." "That's why we became doctors — to help people," she said.In November 2006 Atkinson moved into the garden apartment in the Goldbergs' building. The doctor established ground rules. No smoking. No other people staying overnight regularly. No using the kitchen for commercial cooking. Atkinson signed a lease and agreed to pay an amount of his choosing in rent. He was and is still selling StreetWise. "I didn't want him to feel like he was a charity case," Goldberg said. "The whole point was to help him become independent." Then the doctor tried to find ways to make that possible. When Atkinson said he didn't qualify for any government benefits, Goldberg found a social worker who discovered he was eligible for Social Security Disability and the state's Medicaid health-care program. When applications for aid stalled, Goldberg got help from the office of then-U.S. Representative Rahm Emanuel. Atkinson's habit is to "back away when someone says no" and not push his case, Goldberg noted. "Either people are going to help out or they're not," Atkinson explained. "I don't want people to be thinking: Everett's always asking, he's always nagging." Before checks from the government arrived, Goldberg took Atkinson to his bank and used his own money to open an account. Worried about the tall man's feet, Goldberg persuaded a local shoe store to donate a pair of size 14 New Balance sneakers. For the winter, the doctor and his wife made a gift of a pair of sturdy, fur-lined boots.”
Atkinson’s health has improved, and he had plans to open a catering business when he was interviewed.
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From team member Ron Love:Luke 19:5
When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.”
2013. Bald is in. The 41st President of the United Sates, George H. W. Bush shaved his head. Bush noticed that the members of his Secret Service security detail were all bald. They all had shaved heads. He learned it was in solidarity to a child of one of their agents, 2-year-old Patrick, who had leukemia. In solidarity with the agents who have pledged to protect his life, Bush had his own head shaved. Solidarity goes further than a shaved head. George and Barbara lost their infant daughter Robin to leukemia.
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Habakkuk 2:2
Then the LORD answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.
There is only a photograph of one person standing atop Mt. Everest, and that is of Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who accompanied Edmund Hillary to the summit. When asked why there was no picture of himself, Hillary replied that Norgay had never ever taken a photograph before “and the summit of Everest was hardly the place to show him how.”
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Isaiah 1:10
Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
It happened. An atomic bomb fell on America. It was on March 11, 1958 in a small community in South Carolina. An atomic bomb accidently fell from a B-47 flying at 15,000 feet during a training exercise. The nuclear warhead was not armed, but when the 7,000-pound bomb struck the earth its electronic trigger exploded leaving a massive crater.
* * *
Isaiah 1:10
Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
Ariel Castro, on August 1, 2013, was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years for his abduction, enslavement, and physical and sexual abuse of three Cleveland women for eleven years. During Castro’s sentencing Judge Michael Russo said, “Sir, there is no place in this city, there is no place in this country, indeed there is no place in this world for those who enslave others, those who sexually assault others or those who brutalize others.”
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Luke 19:5
When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.”
Five weeks before his death, Benjamin Franklin received an inquiry about his beliefs from a Congregationalist minister who was also the President of Yale University. Franklin replied with this confession: “Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe: That he governs the World by Provenience. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service one can render to him, is doing good to his other Children. That the Soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with Justice in another life, respecting its Conduct in this. These I take as fundamental Principles of all sound Religion.”
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From team member Chris KeatingHabakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
The watch post of violence
The prophet stands at his post, waiting for God to answer his cry: “How long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?” It’s a question residents of Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hills neighborhood have been asking since last year’s tragic shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue.
Emma Green reports for the Atlantic that neighbors have taken their stand against violence in the year since 11 Jews were shot during a synagogue service. Signs featuring hearts and stars of David dot the streetscapes indicating that the community is “stronger than hate.” Green says not everyone in Pittsburgh’s Jewish community has been in agreement with what that means.
The shooting was the deadliest attack on Jews in America, “a jolt back to other times in history, in other places, when violence was part of the rhythm of Jewish life. The shooting has revived old debates about how Jews should relate to power: Accommodate reigning leaders, or push against them? Prioritize protection of the community, or try to change the world for others?”
In the year following the shooting, advocacy groups emerged, and neighbors gathered. People in the close-knit community began asking questions even as they grieved. Jewish leaders took principled stands against violence as well as xenophobia. A year later, writes Green, “the October attack feels ever-present.” Many, she says, have begun to see a deep connection between working for justice and the traditions, rituals, and liturgy of their faith. Yet the work is hard, and often makes the organizers feel especially vulnerable. Green quotes an ancient Jewish teacher, “The day is short and the work is much. It is not your responsibility to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.”
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Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
When the law slackens, and justice never prevails
Habakkuk’s lament is bitter, his pain palpable. He cannot ignore what he has seen, and his exposure to violence has increased his own sense of vulnerability. Many American Jewish leaders shared a similar feeling as the one year anniversary of the Tree of Life shooting approached. As Zack Beauchamp noted this week in Vox:
Traumatized by a long history of persecution, Jews are acutely aware of how vulnerable we are, given our tiny numbers. We are not close to abandoning America, but we are closer to feeling like America could abandon us.
Yet, as Habakkuk comes to understand, “the righteous shall live by faith.” Beauchamp comments that while the Jewish community is hardly monolithic, many have deepened their connections to their communities since the shooting in a revival which has taken “many forms,” including “an acute reemergence of the American Jewish self-understanding as a minority, with all the insecurity and collective purpose that status entails.” The prophetic community, much like the prophet, cries out in lament, confident that the Lord will answer.
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Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Living by the symbols of faith
American teenagers are surrounded by religious symbols, according to a new study by Pew Research. A majority of teens in the United States say they see at least one prominent faith expressions daily. Examples included wearing religious jewelry or clothing; prayer at sporting events; being invited to church or youth group; praying before eating lunch, or reading Scriptures during the school day (but not as part of class).
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Psalm 32:1-7
The hug watched around the world
When former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was convicted of murdering Botham Jean, many persons were stunned by actions of Jean’s brother, Brandt as he made a victim’s impact statement. Brandt turned to Guyger and said, “I don’t wish anything bad on you,” and then asked the court for permission to hug Guyer, who was then sentenced to ten years in prison.
Brandt’s act of forgiveness stirred debate, including a comment from the Dallas Police Department that described his actions as “a spirit of forgiveness, faith and trust.” The Rev. Cornell William Brooks, former president of the NAACtP and a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School Michael Waters, framed Brandt Jean’s actions in words similar to Psalm 32: “Forgiveness means being open to the process of reconciliation. It's taking note of the wrong but being willing to be in relationship with the wrongdoer and opening your arms to the wrongdoer even as you acknowledge the wrong.”
The concern, says Brooks, is what happens when we focus on one person’s willingness to forgive while ignoring the lack of accountability from the Dallas Police Department and Guyger. Speaking on NPR, Brooks said:
“…this country and police departments in particular should be asking the question, why are black people being called upon to forgive serially? So in other words, we commend black people for being moral heroes while we declined to treat them as human beings. And so police departments will commend the victim while continuing to victimize and refusing to apologize, repent, demonstrate accountability or change the way we police.
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2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
Always praying
Paul’s theological argument in 2 Thessalonians emerges from a pastoral perspective. Congratulating the churches on their steadfast witness in the face of persecution and struggle, he reminds them, “to this end we always pray for you.” It’s a phrase we hear often – “I’m praying for you,” “We’re keeping you in our prayers,” “You know a lot of people are praying,” but set against the timbre of conflict and anguish, Paul’s words take on another dimension. They offer the added assurance of God’s presence despite trying times.
Pam and Charles Ogletree are banking their lives on that promise. Charles Ogletree is an acclaimed civil rights lawyer, and a former professor at Harvard Law School whose former students included Barak and Michelle Obama. He is revered internationally for his compassion and brilliance in civil rights law. But Ogletree, 66, suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s Disease. He is no longer able to work, and many days Pam Ogletree is unsure if he remembers her name. He’s surrendered most parts of his life, except for prayer and daily walks. As the Boston Globe reports, “He walks like a man trying to get somewhere.”
Reporter Jenna Russell observed the Ogletrees as they drew strength from even the simple acts of prayer:
They still pray together many mornings, Pam neeling on a sofa cushion on the floor in the living room while Charles sits and listens on the couch beside her. He no longer pipes up with addenda to her prayers, but he seems attentive, even calmed by what she says.
In the beginning, she prayed for him to get better. Now she prays more often for acceptance.
It is the sort of prayer which centers Paul’s ministry, and grounds his pastoral mentoring of the Thessalonians. He prays for their faith to grow abundantly – something Pam Ogletree experiences daily.
What they have now is different, and some would say poorer, but to Pam it is in some ways purer. Everything superfluous has gone away — all posturing and ego; the petty resentments common to all marriages, leaving a connection deeper and truer than language.
“It feels like I love him more now,” she said one day this fall.
In the park, the wind was rising, the silvery sun no longer burning through the clouds. Sirens passed, above the chirp of crickets, as Pam asked Charles if it was time to go and find the car. No, came his unspoken answer, as he kept on walking; he was not ready yet to stop.
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Luke 19:1-10
Seeing the hidden person
Just as Jesus spotted the nearly-camouflaged Zacchaeus and called him out of the tree, Deborah Everson sees her ministry as offering hospitality to homeless women who are often invisible to others. She works for First Light, a shelter in Birmingham, Alabama, which creates an environment of hospitality for homeless women and their children. Just as Jesus went beyond merely spotting Zacchaeus hiding in the tree, First Light sees their mission as going beyond offering more than “a meal and a bed.” Everson describes her ministry this way:
We are not simply a meal and a bed. The focus of our service is delivered by the professionally certified social work staff who work directly with each guest to help her address the root causes of her homelessness. Our programs include private sessions with a social worker, group sessions, life skills classes and learning to manage one’s medications using med-fill boxes. These are supplemented with activities led by community volunteers such as prayer services and bible studies, weekly therapeutic art classes, movie parties, holiday or seasonal activities, karaoke — anything that can lift spirits and help women regain self-awareness, self-respect and the drive to take charge of their lives with purpose.
In other words, First Light looks for the hidden people, and leads them into new life.
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WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: You are righteous, O God, and your judgments are right.
People: You have appointed your decrees in faithfulness.
Leader: Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness.
People: Your law, O God, is the truth.
Leader: Your decrees are righteous forever.
People: Give us understanding that we may live.
OR
Leader: Let us worship God who created us in the divine image.
People: We praise our God who filled us with God’s own Spirit.
Leader: We celebrate the light of God which fills each one.
People: We rejoice that all of us are God’s own children.
Leader: Let us celebrate the love of God reflected in others.
People: Thanks be to God for all our sisters and brothers.
Hymns and Songs:
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
UMH: 110
H82: 687/688
PH: 260
AAHH: 124
NNBH: 37
NCH: 439/440
CH: 65
LBW: 228/229
ELW: 503/504/505
W&P: 588
AMEC: 54
STLT: 200
God of the Sparrow God of the Whale
UMH: 122
PH: 272
NCH: 32
CH: 70
ELW: 740
W&P: 29
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
UMH: 154/155
H82: 450/451
PH: 142/143
AAHH: 292/293/294
NNBH: 3/5
NCH: 304
CH: 91/92
LBW: 328/329
ELW: 634
W&P: 100/106
AMEC: 4/5/6
Renew: 45
Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee
UMH: 175
H82: 642
PH: 310
NCH: 507
CH: 102
LBW: 316
ELW: 754
W&P: 420
AMEC: 464
In Christ There Is No East or West
UMH: 548
H82: 529
PH: 439/440
AAHH: 398/399
NNBH: 299
NCH: 394/395
CH: 687
LBW: 259
ELW: 650
W&P: 600/603
AMEC: 557
Where Charity and Love Prevail
UMH: 549
H82: 581
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELW: 359
Help Us Accept Each Other
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
Jesu, Jesu
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELW: 708
W&P: 273
CCB: 66
Renew: 289
Walk with Me
CCB: 88
Make Me a Servant
CCB: 90
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is the Creator of us all:
Grant us the wisdom to see that we are all your children
so that we can reach out in love to everyone;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are our Creator. You made us and filled us with your own Spirit and life. Help us to live as sisters and brothers together as we take care of one another. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to acknowledge one another as your own dear children.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us as your own children and made us sisters and brothers to one another and yet we seek to separate ourselves from others. We look for differences and way to divide us. We esteem some as being worthy of our love and others as not. We dare to even speak for you and say who it is you love and who you hate. Soften our hard hearts and forgive our arrogant foolishness. Restore us in your love to be your loving image and presence. Amen.
Leader: God is love and loves us even when we are unloving. Receive God’s grace and forgiveness and extend these to others.
Prayers of the People
We praise you, O God, because you are our loving Creator who made us to be your children and members together of your family.
(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 as your own children and made us sisters and brothers to one another and yet we seek to separate ourselves from others. We look for differences and way to divide us. We esteem some as being worthy of our love and others as not. We dare to even speak for you and say who it is you love and who you hate. Soften our hard hearts and forgive our arrogant foolishness. Restore us in your love to be your loving image and presence.
We give you thanks for your great love which surrounds us and draws us to you and to one another. We thank you for your faithful ones who have loved us when we were unlovable. We thank you for those who reached out to us when we were pushing them away. We thank you for the sanctuary of your Church which welcomes all.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all our sisters and brothers as they seek to know and share love. We pray that we might be manifestations of your love to them.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Put a flashlight in a heavy cloth bag that won’t let light shine out unless the flashlight is right against the cloth. Turn the light on and show the children the bag which you keep closed around your arm with your other hand. Ask them if they think there is any light in the bag. No, yes, maybe? Move the flashlight so it is against the cloth and you can now see a dim light. Then open the bag so the light can shine out fully.
Talk about how we all have God’s light in us. Sometimes we can’t see it in others or even ourselves. But sometimes people do things that let it show a little and sometimes they open up and really let the light shine out. Today we celebrate All Saints’ and rejoice that God’s light is in us all.
CHILDREN'S SERMONWhat Jesus Saw
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 19:1-10
You will need: One 8 ½ X 11 piece of paper or construction paper for each child. Some cellophane (Scotch) tape.
The Message
Show the children how to roll the paper into a telescope they can look through and tape it so it doesn’t come unrolled. You may need some helpers if you have many young children who don’t have the co-ordination to roll the paper. If time in the service is short, roll the telescopes in advance and give one to each child.
When everyone is equipped with a telescope look through yours at the kids and invite them to do the same, looking at you. Make some funny faces so they’re surprised by what they see. Enjoy the fun.
After a couple of minutes of goofing around with the telescopes have everyone look at you through their scope. Say:
Now, what I want you to do is look at the person sitting next to you BUT you can’t move your telescope or your head, okay? Let’s see you do it. No? Can’t?
Okay, try this: Look through your telescope at the person behind you BUT don’t move your head, okay? Go ahead, let’s see if you can do it.
Can’t, huh?
Okay, do it moving your head. There, ya go. Easier, isn’t it?
In today’s Bible story we meet a little man. The song says he was a “wee little man.” And he was the kind of person that people didn’t see in the crowd. For one thing, he was little. He was hard to see. But, another reason they couldn’t see him may have been that they didn’t like him very much. See, he was not a very nice person.
So, one day Jesus was coming through the village where this guy, his name was Zacchaeus, lived but he was too short to see Jesus over the crowd and the people around him either didn’t see him trying to see Jesus or they didn’t care because they didn’t get out of his way. So Zacchaeus climbed a tree next to the road so he could see Jesus.
Most of the people didn’t even notice him up there in that tree but when Jesus got to that place in the road he looked up… do you hear that? … he looked up. He didn’t just look down or at the things, the people around him. No, he looked up and what did he see? That’s right. He saw Zacchaeus up there in that tree and ye said, “Zacchaeus, you come on down, here, because I’m going to come and have dinner with you and your family at your house.”
Jesus saw the man that no one else saw because he wasn’t looking through a tube like we were. He was looking around and up and down. He was observant.
And because he saw, really saw Zacchaeus, do you know what happened? Well, ol’ Zacchaeus changed. He became a better person, a good person, because Jesus saw him.
And you know what? Sometimes we can see people that other people don’t see and, if we do, we can become friends with those people and our friendship can change them and make them into better people.
So it’s important to do as Jesus did and look at all the people around us and really see them.
Conclude with a prayer for the people who aren’t seen — the poor, the homeless, the sick, the mentally ill, the handicapped — and asking God to make us more observant so we can see and care as Jesus did.
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The Immediate Word, November 3, 2019 issue.
Copyright 2019 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
