It Pays To Advertise
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Another Super Bowl extravaganza is now in the rearview mirror, and for many people the most anticipated part of this past Sunday's festivities -- even more than the game itself -- was the unveiling of new commercials. There are plenty of viewpoints about which ads were the most memorable, and whether they were worth the exorbitant price tag -- but the companies spending millions of dollars for a brief 30-second spot clearly think that being able to count on the attention of the giant television audience is a smart investment. In an increasingly crowded marketplace, being able to get your message out is an invaluable asset -- even for those ads that quickly vanish from our consciousness.
It's perhaps a sign of the times that advertising is one of the main focuses of the biggest television event of the year, for it seems that everywhere we turn someone is trying to sell us a product or a personality or an idea or a "brand." In a fragmented and busy world where we're overwhelmed with information, advertising and "sound bites" have become the means through which we get a quick handle on many things. Whether its candidates or even issues like health care reform or climate change, television ads have become the chief battleground for political debate; and we often become aware of new products and cultural trends through iconic ads. (Remember that famous 1984 ad that introduced the Macintosh computer?) But we're not just buyers -- as technology, society, and our economy evolve we're also learning that we have to sell ourselves more than ever. For example, columnist Thomas Friedman has suggested that the "old paradigm of climb[ing] up a stable career ladder is dead and gone" and that in the twenty-first century we need to approach the job market in "the same way an entrepreneur approaches starting a business."
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer notes that selling ourselves and our message extends to the church as well -- and he points out that the leper Jesus heals in this week's gospel text as well as Naaman offer us prime examples of the power of personal witness that grows out of transformative personal experience. When Naaman overcomes his objections and follows Dr. Elisha's prescription, he personally experiences healing; and when the leper is healed he feels compelled to share his experience, even though Jesus asks him not to broadcast it. As Dean observes, there's no more effective way to share the gospel than to overcome our reticence and objections (like Naaman) and to "spread the word" with others (like the healed leper). It's not always easy but telling our personal story of faith is better advertising for the church than any amount of money can buy.
Team member Mary Austin shares some additional thoughts on the gospel text and the deluge of advertising we are exposed to. With so many choices competing for our attention and dollars, it's inevitable that we can feel overwhelmed and experience "decision fatigue" that wears us out and distracts us from making really important choices. (And that's without even considering how much advertising is carefully crafted to manipulate our emotions and build a bond with the consumer.) In contrast, Mary notes, there's no lack of clarity on the leper's part when he approaches Jesus -- his singular focus is on being healed. Mary suggests that's a clarity of purpose that we would do well to emulate -- particularly when we face thousands of decisions every day of our lives.
It Pays to Advertise
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Kings 5:1-14; Mark 1:40-45
It has been said that selling is part of the American DNA. We Americans love to sell products. Advertising is part of our cultural makeup -- and no matter how much we complain about them, we love good commercials... ones that make us laugh, ones that make us cry, and even ones that make us cringe.
We reward the most creative and effective ones with Clio Awards. We talk with our friends during the Super Bowl, but all talking ceases for the commercials. We remember (and many of us can recite) our favorite ads. We have even created board games around "classic" commercials. We pay for the privilege of advertising for companies by wearing their T-shirts and we pay extra for clothing designers who put the label on the outside.
People running for public office routinely pay about $1 for every 30 voters in their district just for the yard signs they will distribute (the effectiveness of which is dubious at best). They know that yard signs don't really convince anyone to vote for them. The signs create some name recognition for those who need it, and they remind those who are already convinced. More importantly, they give the convinced voter a sense of ownership. When you put a sign in your yard, "the" candidate becomes "my" candidate.
When the leper came to Jesus in Mark 1:40, Jesus was just "a healer." When the same man leaves the scene in 1:45, Jesus has become "my healer." And that man can't help himself; he just has to tell others about his healer.
We best follow the Great Commission of Jesus (Matthew 28:16-20) when the story we tell is not about the savior, but about our savior.
THE WORLD
Super Bowl XLVI will be a week old and still fresh in our congregations' minds when we enter our pulpits on February 12. While many of our people will not be able to remember the final score, most will remember their favorite commercial. [Insert brief discussion of your favorite ad here. Mine was the Volkswagen ad with the dog -- the one with the surprise ending featuring the cantina from Star Wars and the little Darth Vader.]
This year, a 30-second spot during the big game cost somewhere around $3.5 million. (That's up from $2.7 million in 2010.) That's just for the broadcast time. For many ads, the production costs for the commercial itself (talent, special effects, music, and so on) probably are double or even triple that price.
Was the high cost of those ads worth it?
Jonathan Salem Baskin, writing for Ad Age , thinks not. He believes that advertising should always be about the product and that those expensive Super Bowl ads are more about the ads themselves than the product they are supposed to be advertising. In some cases, he's right. Can you remember what that ad with all the barking dogs was advertising? Does anyone even know what GoDaddy.com is?
Other experts in the field disagree with Baskin. All ads, they say, are not about selling a product. Some products are already sold and the ad is just to cement the relationship between the buyer and the product and to make us feel good about a product we already like. Committed Coke drinkers are probably not going to change to Pepsi. They like Coke. The point of the ad is to keep them liking Coke and feeling good about the choice they have made. The ad wants the customer to think of Coke not just as a soft drink, but as my soft drink. The goal is for people who drink Coke to think of themselves as "Coke people."
It's all about personal ownership, you see. It's about people telling other people about "my candidate." It's about getting people to be so excited about your brand that they wear your label on the outside of their clothes and identify themselves with your logo. It's about creating "Chevy people" and "Ford people," "Coke people" and "Pepsi people."
And for those of us who call ourselves "Christian," it's about creating "Jesus people."
THE WORD
This week the lectionary gives us two stories of healing.
2 Kings 5:1-14
The authors of 2 Kings tell us the story of Naaman, a powerful, prideful, arrogant general in the service of the king of Aram (Syria). In fact, he was the top general, the chairman of the joint chiefs. He was a pretty big deal.
One day he contracted "leprosy." I put it in quotes because in 850 BCE just about any kind of skin problem from psoriasis to acne to Hansen's Disease was called leprosy. But be that as it may, Naaman was miserable -- and when he discovered from his slave girl that there was a prophet down in Palestine who had the power to heal leprosy, he rolled the dice and headed south.
The story takes him on a circuitous route, but he and his entourage eventually end up at the front door of the house of the prophet Elisha. Elisha is not impressed with Naaman's rank and status. He won't even get off the couch and come to the door. He just sends a messenger out to tell the general to go wash in the Jordan River.
Naaman is incensed at Elisha's dismissive attitude. He is, after all, an important man. The least the healer could do is to come out and say some words and "wave his hand over the spot" (v. 11). But Elisha seems to believe that neither Naaman nor his leprosy is a very big deal. Elisha's advice is so simple, so easy as to be humiliating. An important man, after all, should have to do something important to get healed. So Naaman storms off, grumbling to himself. He'd rather suffer than get healed Elisha's way.
The great general's servants/slaves have more sense than he does. "Father," they say, "if the prophet would have told you to do something difficult [in keeping with your high status], would you not have done it? Well, what have you got to lose by doing something easy?"
So the great Syrian general humbles himself and goes to the humble, little Jordan River and bathes therein -- and is healed.
Naaman wants to be healed but he wants to be healed on his terms. He wants a healing that confirms his self-image. He wants Elisha to come out and wave his hand over the place and say some mumbo-jumbo and make it all be better.
Elisha says that this is not how it's done. It can't be Elijah's healing that saves you; it has to be Naaman's healing. You have to do something you wouldn't normally do so you can make it your own.
It's about ownership.
Mark 1:40-45
As Jesus is traveling around Galilee after dealing with the demoniac in the synagogue and healing Peter's mother-in-law, a leper who has obviously heard of Jesus' healing ability approaches Jesus and asks to be healed of his affliction.
Jesus agrees and heals the man with the admonition that he should tell no one of his healing but merely present himself to the priests who will verify that he is actually healed so he can return quietly to his normal life.
The man cannot help himself, however. He is so happy, so relieved, so filled with joy that he goes off and tells everyone he can find -- the result of which is that Jesus is overwhelmed by people coming to him for healing, so much so that he can't even go into the towns and has to stay out in the countryside where people come to him.
Naaman arrives at Elisha's house seeking to receive Elisha's healing. After he bathes himself in the Jordan River the healing is, for him, "my healing." When the leper comes to Jesus, he knows Jesus as simply "a healer." When he leaves, Jesus is "my healer."
CRAFTING THE SERMON
If all we have to offer is propositional truth, facts and arguments, reason and rhetoric, our witness will be an empty one indeed. If the story we tell about Jesus is just another story alongside all the other stories we tell, then its power will be limited. It is when THE story becomes MY story that it has authenticity and power.
This week's lectionary texts offer a perfect opportunity to invite our church members to discover their story, their testimony, and put it into words.
When did you first come to know Jesus? What did he do for you? How are you different because of him? Why do you go to church? What does your church give to your life that you don't find anywhere else? How is it that your life gets transformed and your soul is renewed? Once we have discovered our faith story and edited it into a tellable form, then all we need to do is find an appropriate time and audience.
It has been wisely said that the most effective form of evangelism is one person inviting another person to church. The same could be said of witnessing -- one person telling his or her faith story to another person. But to whom do we tell it, and when, and how? Studies suggest that we speak most effectively when we tell our friends, our neighbors, our families, and our coworkers.
Start out by telling your story to your kids or your grandchildren. Then share it with your spouse. Try it out on your Sunday school class, your ladies group, your Bible study group, or men's fellowship.
Writers learn to write by writing. Golfers learn to golf by golfing. Cooks learn by cooking. Witnesses learn to witness by witnessing, first to each other, then to the world.
Finally, when you are feeling self-confident enough to share your story with your neighbors and coworkers, wait for the right time. One day they will be searching. One day they will come to you seeking your advice or your counsel. One day, the time will be right.
And the story you share will be your story.
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Mark 1:40-45
Dean Feldmeyer's thoughts about advertising remind us how many choices we face each day as we're confronted with ads both subtle and obvious. The array of choices is delightful and distracting. Writing in the Los Angeles Times , author Tammy Worth reveals that "Starbucks offers consumers up to 87,000 drink combinations. Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, offers up to 1,000 channels. Sirius offers 140 different satellite radio stations for your listening pleasure." We have even more choices than we realize. Worth observes, "Americans have come to expect a wide array of choices, and most companies, be they car companies, clothiers, or coffee shops, have been more than willing to pony up. But more choices do not always equate to happier consumers."
Studies show that the more choices we have, the more paralyzed we become. Further, choosing between so many options can lead to a kind of fatigue. According to Kathleen Vohs, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota quoted by Worth, "Clearly there are costs to having too much choice." Vohs discovered in a recent study that making choices, even fun ones, can diminish our mental resources, making concentration difficult. The article notes that "Vohs' group also studied the 'decision fatigue' that can occur at a shopping mall. They asked random shoppers at a Utah mall questions such as how many decisions they had made that day, the importance of those choices, and the length of their deliberation. The researchers found that the more choices the shoppers had made, the worse they performed on simple math problems they were then asked to complete on the spot." Decisions wear us out, whether we realize it or not.
All those ads and all those choices are diminishing our energy for the things that matter to us.
Further, as Dean Feldmeyer notes above, "All ads... are not about selling a product.†Some products are already sold and the ad is just to cement the relationship between the buyer and the product, to make us feel good about a product we already like."
The recent outcry about the decision by the venerable Susan G. Komen Foundation to stop awarding grants to Planned Parenthood for cancer screening touched a nerve for that very reason. The dollar amount involved was relatively small but the decision revealed the strong feelings people have about both organizations. The iconic pink ribbons, and the pink products that appear for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, are meant to add layers of hope, perseverance, and community to the battle against breast cancer. They yield small donations to cancer research and service organizations but a large amount of feel-good energy.
The Komen Foundation, for many people, brings a framework of meaning to the struggle with breast cancer and creates a sense of community around the illness. At events like Race for the Cure, people wear pictures of loved ones who have died or T-shirts celebrating their own survival. Raising money is only a part of the importance of the event.
This recent flap, among other things, has prompted to some to wonder if the Komen Foundation is more like a business than a nonprofit. Little girls running lemonade stands to raise money and people sending in donations of $10 and $20 in memory of loved ones might be surprised by the $5 million annual salary of Nancy Brinker, the Foundation's founder and CEO.
A recent documentary reminds us that we all have choices about where to donate our charitable gifts. An article by Jay Stone in the Vancouver Sun highlights the current documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc. The film is based on a book of the same name by Dr. Samantha King, a Queen's University professor, "who says women with cancer feel alienated by the overly optimistic approach of the pink-ribbon marches -- with their chants, balloons, and free samples of products from the many companies wanting to align themselves with the fight." King calls the culture of pink ribbons and stuffed animals "the tyranny of cheerfulness." The book and movie highlight the way our choices about donating money or buying products are shaped.
The article mentions the phenomenon called "pinkwashing," noting that "many companies that are behind Pink Ribbon events are those associated with [cancer-causing] risks. The movie points out that Yoplait yogurt, which asked users to send in lids to raise money, was putting recombinant bovine-growth hormone into its product until a public protest made it stop. Cosmetics companies such as Estee Lauder, which are major Pink Ribbon sponsors, have chemicals linked to cancer in some of their products. [Director Lea] Pool includes commercials, such as one for a car dealership where a woman says that when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, the first thing she wanted to do was drive away in her Ford Mustang. There are also scenes from an ill-fated KFC campaign that offered to donate money from its 'pink buckets' of chicken to cancer research."
Participation in pink ribbon events isn't wrong, the movie suggests, but it is a distraction from "more useful tasks: writing to corporations about their environmental records, for instance, or demanding coordinated research." Feel-good fund-raising may distract us from the harder work of advocacy or raising money that will benefit research and services more directly.
Like the man in Mark's gospel who approaches Jesus for healing, we all have choices. But our choices are more manipulated than we realize. The man who approaches Jesus has been thinking about his situation for a long time, long enough to become clear about what he wants. "If you choose, you can make me clean," he tells Jesus.
Listening to this story from Mark's gospel, we're pretty sure which choice Jesus is going to make. When the man comes up to him and says, "If you choose, you can make me clean," we know what he's going to choose, right? It will make Jesus himself unclean, by Jewish law, but we can already guess that he doesn't care. He's going to heal this man -- no suspense there.
The curious thing is the choice that this man makes. Because he's unclean, he's not supposed to be around people. He's isolated... unable to live with his family, hold a job, or attend services at the synagogue... rejected... as down on his luck as a person can be. But he has a choice. He chooses to face another moment of rejection to walk up to Jesus and say, "If you choose, you can make me clean." His own choice is part of the story too.
I admire the way this makes man the choice simple: "If you choose, you can make me clean." No worries about whether today is the right day, or whether he has the right clothes on, or if he's in the right neighborhood. No waffling: "If you choose, you can make me rich... or successful... or happy. You pick." He has prayed long enough and hard enough to have it down to one thing.
In a world with so many choices before us every day, may it be that we have the same clarity.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Much is made of secrets. There's an old saying that the only secret is the one that is told to no one. When Jesus heals the leper he lets out a secret -- and from that time on there is no stopping the secret from growing and growing. What did Jesus expect? If such a thing as a healing of an incurable disease were to happen today, what would any of us do? Secrets are hard to keep. Secrets that are great wonders and marvels are impossible to keep.
* * *
It is easy to understand why the leper, healed by the touch of Christ, wanted to tell everyone about his miraculous transformation. When he moved from the darkness of a certain and horrible death to the light of glorious life, it was obviously very difficult to contain his happiness at being healed or to stifle his enthusiasm for his healer.
There once was a teenager exploring an isolated cavern who fell into a deep pit and was unable to get out. A team of searchers could not find the young man but days later an elderly explorer discovered the emaciated youngster and managed to rescue him. For weeks the teenager told everyone with whom he talked about his good fortune, heaping much praise upon his rescuer. The elderly man, somewhat of a recluse, was embarrassed by the adulation and irritated because his privacy was continually being violated by those who wanted to see the hero.
"Please," the man said to the youngster whom he had rescued, "you must stop talking so much about me. It was not such a big thing that I did."
"But you saved me," protested the teenager. "If it were not for you, I would be dead. Instead I am alive, and I want everyone to know it!"
* * *
The leper prefaced his request for healing from Jesus with the words "If you will." It was almost as if he was not sure that his being well was really what Jesus wanted for him.
Father Daniel Berrigan once lectured at Loyola University on the process of peacemaking. Someone in the audience stood up and asked, "Father Berrigan, why do you keep knocking yourself out for peace in a world that doesn't seem to want peace?"
Berrigan thought about it for a few moments and then he replied with a strong double negative: "I cannot not do what I am doing. I do it because it is who I am."
Jesus could not not heal the leper who reached out to him. The resurrection reminds us that Jesus uncompromisingly wills life for us.
* * *
Several years ago an Italian newspaper reported on a rather strange court case. A 50-year-old man was fined for dangerous driving after "he handed the controls of his car over to God." A judge heard the man describe how he let go of his steering wheel and cried, "God, can you drive?" Predictably, the man's car ended up in a ditch.
The motorist's lawyer mounted a rather ingenious defense. He maintained that the court had no jurisdiction, because this constituted a "religious dilemma." The prosecuting attorney, however, was too sharp to let that sort of thing slip by. He reminded the judge that "God is not a legally insured driver and has never passed an official test," so it was illegal for the man to turn the steering wheel over to the Almighty. The judge agreed and found the man guilty.
In healing the leper, Jesus makes it clear that healing is not something that is done to a person. The sick man must actively desire to be healed, to participate in his healing. "God helps those who help themselves," wrote Benjamin Franklin. A more colorful variation is the anonymous sailors' saying: "Pray to God, but row toward shore."
* * *
What is clean or unclean? It's largely in how you look at it. Alcohol can be good; alcoholism is not. Sometimes this substance is used to clean wounds and surgical instruments. We could use it instead of gasoline for fuel. A glass of wine is supposed to be healthy. We use it in the sacrament. But drinking it to excess is destructive and certainly unclean.
What is clean or unclean? Physical affection or lustful desire? Another day older, or one day closer to being dead? The automobile: America's number one killer? Destroyer of relationships because of increased mobility? Environmental polluter? Or backbone of our economy and the source of new opportunities, swifter travel, more leisure -- the extender of our cultural reach.
To Jesus there is no unclean-ness. He heals whoever comes to him, of whatever they have. He's not afraid of leprosy, demons, death, or the devil himself -- even to going to the cross for the dirtiest thing of all: sin.
* * *
The city of Pisa is hosting a scientific exhibition sponsored by the Roman Catholic church, the National Institute for Nuclear Physics, and Pisa University. The location is not by accident but is rather a conscious and deliberate choice on the part of the Vatican... for it was in this city -- Pisa -- that Galileo was condemned as a heretic for theorizing that the earth orbited around the sun instead of the sun orbiting around the earth. The earth, Galileo declared to the religious community, was not the center of the universe.
In recognition for the atrocity that occurred nearly four centuries ago in 1633, and for which Pope John Paul II apologized in 1992, the Roman Catholic church is making a public affirmation of its commitment to faith and reason. The title of the exhibit is: "Stories from Another World: The Universe Inside and Outside of Us."
Naaman could not understand Elisha; therefore it was easier to denounce Elisha than to test his theory. It seemed to make more sense to journey back to the Euphrates than to go down to the banks of the Jordan. Only when Naaman went to the Jordan did he discover that the Euphrates was not the center of the universe, and the man who would not greet him in person truly was a sage.
* * *
Everybody was a winner... that is, except for one man who lived in a barn on the outskirts of the village. Unlike the other 250 villagers, he did not participate.
Every year since 1812, Spain has held a huge Christmas lottery that has come to be called El Gordo -- the fat one -- because of the size of the jackpot. Every year the residents of the tiny farming village of Sodeto purchase a lottery ticket, not in expectations of winning, but out of community solidarity. The tickets are sold by the Sodeto homemakers' association, with the profits from the sales used to fund community events.
But this year, the Sodeto homemaker's association held the winning ticket (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/world/europe/tiny-village-of-sodeto-wi...). Everyone in town, except one man, received prize money ranging from several million dollars to a minimum of $130,000. The winning pool of money was divided up among 70, not 71, households.
Mayor Rosa Pons told the news media not to expect the streets to be lined with Mercedes-Benzs, as the residents are using the money to invest in their farms and small cottage homes.
Paul says we are to run the race "in such a way that you may win it." Track, like any team sport, is dependent of the participation of everyone to be successful. As the residents of Sodeto saw themselves as a team for community service, we in the church must see ourselves as a team in service to Christ. If one does not choose to participate, the fate is worse than not holding a winning lottery ticket -- it will be the judgment of God.
* * *
It has recently been reported in Nature magazine that exercise improves more than muscle tone and the cardiovascular system -- it also cleanses the body of impurities.
Cells go through a process called autophagy, or self-cleaning. Cells create specialized membranes that engulf the junk in the cell's cytoplasm and carry it to a part of the cell known as the lysosome, where the trash is broken apart and then burned by the cell for extra energy. So it is both a cleansing and energizing process.
The process is a part of the evolutionary process of man. It is a form of defense against the stress of starvation. Exercise can create physiological stress, and in so doing promote autophagy. Gretchen Reynolds noted in the New York Times "that the ability of exercise to speed the removal of garbage from inside our body's cells may be one of the most valuable, if least visible, effects."
Exercise does have a purpose and a far greater purpose than we can ever understand. Paul says his evangelism has a purpose too, and a far greater purpose than we can ever understand when he writes, "I do not run aimlessly."
* * *
During this past summer's NFL lockout, coaches and staff were prohibited from contact with the players, so the players were unable to use team facilities for rehabilitation programs to recover from their injuries or to get the physical training that they were accustomed to normally. However, many players were not content to enjoy their off-season on the couch. As a result, some of the teams' quarterbacks took it upon themselves to organize their own "mini-camps" to ensure that many of their teammates were in peak physical condition when the season would begin.
Paul compared the life of the believer to the life of the athlete. Just as today's top athletes recognize the value of training, we must never let our fleshly desires distract us from pursuing the best that God has for us.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones,
People: and give thanks to God's holy name.
Leader: For God's anger is but for a moment;
People: God's favor is for a lifetime.
Leader: Weeping may linger for the night,
People: but joy comes with the morning.
OR
Leader: Come and hear the good news of Jesus.
People: We come to hear again the gospel story.
Leader: Come and hear your story in the Bible.
People: But we are not in the Bible!
Leader: We are all in God's stories.
People: Our lives are like Bible characters' lives?
Leader: The Bible is the story of God and human beings.
People: We are human and we want to be part of God's story.
Leader: Then let God be part of your story.
People: We invite God to be in our stories and in our lives.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"I Love to Tell the Story"
found in:
UMH: 156
AAHH: 513
NNBH: 424
NCH: 522
CH: 480
LBW: 390
ELW: 661
"Heralds of Christ"
found in:
UMH: 567
"Go, Tell It on the Mountain"
found in:
UMH: 251
H82: 99
PH: 29
AAHH: 202
NNBH: 92
NCH: 154
CH: 167
LBW: 70
ELW: 290
"We've a Story to Tell to the Nations"
found in:
UMH: 569
NNBH: 416
"Pass It On"
found in:
UMH: 572
NNBH: 417
CH: 477
"O Zion, Haste"
UMH: 573
H82: 539
NNBH: 422
LBW: 397
ELW: 668
"Sois la Semilla" ("You Are the Seed")
found in:
UMH: 583
NCH: 528
CH: 478
"All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name"
found in:
UMH: 154/155
H82: 450/451
PH: 142/143
AAHH: 292/294
NNBH: 315
NCH: 309
CH: 91/92
LBW: 328/329
ELW: 634
Renew: 45
"God, You Are My God"
found in:
CCB: 60
"You Are Mine"
found in:
CCB: 58
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who invites us into the divine drama: Grant us the grace to enter your story of salvation by letting you enter our story of need; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We have come today, O God, to hear the story of your loving kindness as you have cared for your people. We have come to offer our lives so that you may be a part of our stories as well. Open our hearts to your Spirit that in you we may find life eternal. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we fail to tell others the wonderful things you are doing in our lives.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have been our gracious God and brought us up out of the pit into the light of your glorious day. You have given us your own breath, Spirit, and life. You have claimed us as your beloved children. Yet we are reluctant to tell others of your wondrous love and grace. We are embarrassed to talk to others of our faith in you or to share the stories of what you are doing in our lives. Forgive us our fickle natures and make us bold with the power of your Spirit to share the good news of Jesus and the good news of what you mean to us. Amen.
Leader: We are God's beloved children and God's love and forgiveness are always ours to receive. Be strengthened by God's love and grace to share your story with others.
Prayer for Illumination
Send the light of your presence upon us, O God, so that as we hear and digest the good news of Jesus we may become better witnesses for you. Amen.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship and adore you, O God, for the wonders of your love revealed in the stories of our ancestors. You have ever been our faithful God and guide.
(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 been our gracious God and brought us up out of the pit into the light of your glorious day. You have given us your own breath, Spirit, and life. You have claimed us as your beloved children. Yet we are reluctant to tell others of your wondrous love and grace. We are embarrassed to talk to others of our faith in you or to share the stories of what you are doing in our lives. Forgive us our fickle natures and make us bold with the power of your Spirit to share the good news of Jesus and the good news of what you mean to us.
We give you thanks for those who have shared your story with us. We especially give you thanks for those who have shared their own story with us. It is when we hear the story told by flesh and blood people we can see and hear that our hearts are most deeply touched.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who do not know your story and even more for those who have no story to tell of their life in you. We pray for ourselves that as your people we may boldly talk to others of our faith.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Ask the children if they know a certain person. (Make it someone from your past that they do not know.) Act surprised that they don't know the person. Then tell how important that person was/is to you. Ask them why they think they don't know the person. Help them guess that it was because you had never told them about that person. Talk about how it might surprise us that some people don't know about Jesus -- but it could be because we haven't told them.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Make Me Clean!
Mark 1:40-45
Object: a very dirty piece of clothing
Good morning, boys and girls! Do you ever have any clothes as dirty as this? (show the clothing and let the children answer) If you did have something this dirty, what would you do with it? (let them answer) I guess there are really only two things you could do. You could either wash it, or you could throw it away. You certainly wouldn't want to wear it when it was this dirty.
Once, a person with leprosy came to Jesus. People with leprosy were called "unclean" in those times because the disease made their skin look awful. Nobody wanted to touch the people or get close to them. This leper believed that Jesus could cure him, and he said to Jesus, "If you choose, you can make me clean." What do you think Jesus did? (let them answer) Yes, Jesus did cure him. Jesus made him clean.
Now, you and I don't have leprosy, but we are also "unclean." We are like this dirty clothing (hold up the clothing), because we are all sinful. The only one who can make us clean is Jesus. When we go to Jesus and plead with him to forgive us, we are just like that leper. We too can say to Jesus, "If you choose, you can make me clean." If we ask Jesus to forgive us and make us clean, what do you think he will do? (let them answer) Yes, of course he will. Let's thank him for making us clean.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, we are just like the leper who came to you needing to be cleaned. He needed you to cure his leprosy, and we need you to cure our sin. We know that you will make us clean when we come to you and ask for forgiveness, and we thank you for promising to do so. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, February 12, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 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.
It's perhaps a sign of the times that advertising is one of the main focuses of the biggest television event of the year, for it seems that everywhere we turn someone is trying to sell us a product or a personality or an idea or a "brand." In a fragmented and busy world where we're overwhelmed with information, advertising and "sound bites" have become the means through which we get a quick handle on many things. Whether its candidates or even issues like health care reform or climate change, television ads have become the chief battleground for political debate; and we often become aware of new products and cultural trends through iconic ads. (Remember that famous 1984 ad that introduced the Macintosh computer?) But we're not just buyers -- as technology, society, and our economy evolve we're also learning that we have to sell ourselves more than ever. For example, columnist Thomas Friedman has suggested that the "old paradigm of climb[ing] up a stable career ladder is dead and gone" and that in the twenty-first century we need to approach the job market in "the same way an entrepreneur approaches starting a business."
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer notes that selling ourselves and our message extends to the church as well -- and he points out that the leper Jesus heals in this week's gospel text as well as Naaman offer us prime examples of the power of personal witness that grows out of transformative personal experience. When Naaman overcomes his objections and follows Dr. Elisha's prescription, he personally experiences healing; and when the leper is healed he feels compelled to share his experience, even though Jesus asks him not to broadcast it. As Dean observes, there's no more effective way to share the gospel than to overcome our reticence and objections (like Naaman) and to "spread the word" with others (like the healed leper). It's not always easy but telling our personal story of faith is better advertising for the church than any amount of money can buy.
Team member Mary Austin shares some additional thoughts on the gospel text and the deluge of advertising we are exposed to. With so many choices competing for our attention and dollars, it's inevitable that we can feel overwhelmed and experience "decision fatigue" that wears us out and distracts us from making really important choices. (And that's without even considering how much advertising is carefully crafted to manipulate our emotions and build a bond with the consumer.) In contrast, Mary notes, there's no lack of clarity on the leper's part when he approaches Jesus -- his singular focus is on being healed. Mary suggests that's a clarity of purpose that we would do well to emulate -- particularly when we face thousands of decisions every day of our lives.
It Pays to Advertise
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Kings 5:1-14; Mark 1:40-45
It has been said that selling is part of the American DNA. We Americans love to sell products. Advertising is part of our cultural makeup -- and no matter how much we complain about them, we love good commercials... ones that make us laugh, ones that make us cry, and even ones that make us cringe.
We reward the most creative and effective ones with Clio Awards. We talk with our friends during the Super Bowl, but all talking ceases for the commercials. We remember (and many of us can recite) our favorite ads. We have even created board games around "classic" commercials. We pay for the privilege of advertising for companies by wearing their T-shirts and we pay extra for clothing designers who put the label on the outside.
People running for public office routinely pay about $1 for every 30 voters in their district just for the yard signs they will distribute (the effectiveness of which is dubious at best). They know that yard signs don't really convince anyone to vote for them. The signs create some name recognition for those who need it, and they remind those who are already convinced. More importantly, they give the convinced voter a sense of ownership. When you put a sign in your yard, "the" candidate becomes "my" candidate.
When the leper came to Jesus in Mark 1:40, Jesus was just "a healer." When the same man leaves the scene in 1:45, Jesus has become "my healer." And that man can't help himself; he just has to tell others about his healer.
We best follow the Great Commission of Jesus (Matthew 28:16-20) when the story we tell is not about the savior, but about our savior.
THE WORLD
Super Bowl XLVI will be a week old and still fresh in our congregations' minds when we enter our pulpits on February 12. While many of our people will not be able to remember the final score, most will remember their favorite commercial. [Insert brief discussion of your favorite ad here. Mine was the Volkswagen ad with the dog -- the one with the surprise ending featuring the cantina from Star Wars and the little Darth Vader.]
This year, a 30-second spot during the big game cost somewhere around $3.5 million. (That's up from $2.7 million in 2010.) That's just for the broadcast time. For many ads, the production costs for the commercial itself (talent, special effects, music, and so on) probably are double or even triple that price.
Was the high cost of those ads worth it?
Jonathan Salem Baskin, writing for Ad Age , thinks not. He believes that advertising should always be about the product and that those expensive Super Bowl ads are more about the ads themselves than the product they are supposed to be advertising. In some cases, he's right. Can you remember what that ad with all the barking dogs was advertising? Does anyone even know what GoDaddy.com is?
Other experts in the field disagree with Baskin. All ads, they say, are not about selling a product. Some products are already sold and the ad is just to cement the relationship between the buyer and the product and to make us feel good about a product we already like. Committed Coke drinkers are probably not going to change to Pepsi. They like Coke. The point of the ad is to keep them liking Coke and feeling good about the choice they have made. The ad wants the customer to think of Coke not just as a soft drink, but as my soft drink. The goal is for people who drink Coke to think of themselves as "Coke people."
It's all about personal ownership, you see. It's about people telling other people about "my candidate." It's about getting people to be so excited about your brand that they wear your label on the outside of their clothes and identify themselves with your logo. It's about creating "Chevy people" and "Ford people," "Coke people" and "Pepsi people."
And for those of us who call ourselves "Christian," it's about creating "Jesus people."
THE WORD
This week the lectionary gives us two stories of healing.
2 Kings 5:1-14
The authors of 2 Kings tell us the story of Naaman, a powerful, prideful, arrogant general in the service of the king of Aram (Syria). In fact, he was the top general, the chairman of the joint chiefs. He was a pretty big deal.
One day he contracted "leprosy." I put it in quotes because in 850 BCE just about any kind of skin problem from psoriasis to acne to Hansen's Disease was called leprosy. But be that as it may, Naaman was miserable -- and when he discovered from his slave girl that there was a prophet down in Palestine who had the power to heal leprosy, he rolled the dice and headed south.
The story takes him on a circuitous route, but he and his entourage eventually end up at the front door of the house of the prophet Elisha. Elisha is not impressed with Naaman's rank and status. He won't even get off the couch and come to the door. He just sends a messenger out to tell the general to go wash in the Jordan River.
Naaman is incensed at Elisha's dismissive attitude. He is, after all, an important man. The least the healer could do is to come out and say some words and "wave his hand over the spot" (v. 11). But Elisha seems to believe that neither Naaman nor his leprosy is a very big deal. Elisha's advice is so simple, so easy as to be humiliating. An important man, after all, should have to do something important to get healed. So Naaman storms off, grumbling to himself. He'd rather suffer than get healed Elisha's way.
The great general's servants/slaves have more sense than he does. "Father," they say, "if the prophet would have told you to do something difficult [in keeping with your high status], would you not have done it? Well, what have you got to lose by doing something easy?"
So the great Syrian general humbles himself and goes to the humble, little Jordan River and bathes therein -- and is healed.
Naaman wants to be healed but he wants to be healed on his terms. He wants a healing that confirms his self-image. He wants Elisha to come out and wave his hand over the place and say some mumbo-jumbo and make it all be better.
Elisha says that this is not how it's done. It can't be Elijah's healing that saves you; it has to be Naaman's healing. You have to do something you wouldn't normally do so you can make it your own.
It's about ownership.
Mark 1:40-45
As Jesus is traveling around Galilee after dealing with the demoniac in the synagogue and healing Peter's mother-in-law, a leper who has obviously heard of Jesus' healing ability approaches Jesus and asks to be healed of his affliction.
Jesus agrees and heals the man with the admonition that he should tell no one of his healing but merely present himself to the priests who will verify that he is actually healed so he can return quietly to his normal life.
The man cannot help himself, however. He is so happy, so relieved, so filled with joy that he goes off and tells everyone he can find -- the result of which is that Jesus is overwhelmed by people coming to him for healing, so much so that he can't even go into the towns and has to stay out in the countryside where people come to him.
Naaman arrives at Elisha's house seeking to receive Elisha's healing. After he bathes himself in the Jordan River the healing is, for him, "my healing." When the leper comes to Jesus, he knows Jesus as simply "a healer." When he leaves, Jesus is "my healer."
CRAFTING THE SERMON
If all we have to offer is propositional truth, facts and arguments, reason and rhetoric, our witness will be an empty one indeed. If the story we tell about Jesus is just another story alongside all the other stories we tell, then its power will be limited. It is when THE story becomes MY story that it has authenticity and power.
This week's lectionary texts offer a perfect opportunity to invite our church members to discover their story, their testimony, and put it into words.
When did you first come to know Jesus? What did he do for you? How are you different because of him? Why do you go to church? What does your church give to your life that you don't find anywhere else? How is it that your life gets transformed and your soul is renewed? Once we have discovered our faith story and edited it into a tellable form, then all we need to do is find an appropriate time and audience.
It has been wisely said that the most effective form of evangelism is one person inviting another person to church. The same could be said of witnessing -- one person telling his or her faith story to another person. But to whom do we tell it, and when, and how? Studies suggest that we speak most effectively when we tell our friends, our neighbors, our families, and our coworkers.
Start out by telling your story to your kids or your grandchildren. Then share it with your spouse. Try it out on your Sunday school class, your ladies group, your Bible study group, or men's fellowship.
Writers learn to write by writing. Golfers learn to golf by golfing. Cooks learn by cooking. Witnesses learn to witness by witnessing, first to each other, then to the world.
Finally, when you are feeling self-confident enough to share your story with your neighbors and coworkers, wait for the right time. One day they will be searching. One day they will come to you seeking your advice or your counsel. One day, the time will be right.
And the story you share will be your story.
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Mark 1:40-45
Dean Feldmeyer's thoughts about advertising remind us how many choices we face each day as we're confronted with ads both subtle and obvious. The array of choices is delightful and distracting. Writing in the Los Angeles Times , author Tammy Worth reveals that "Starbucks offers consumers up to 87,000 drink combinations. Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, offers up to 1,000 channels. Sirius offers 140 different satellite radio stations for your listening pleasure." We have even more choices than we realize. Worth observes, "Americans have come to expect a wide array of choices, and most companies, be they car companies, clothiers, or coffee shops, have been more than willing to pony up. But more choices do not always equate to happier consumers."
Studies show that the more choices we have, the more paralyzed we become. Further, choosing between so many options can lead to a kind of fatigue. According to Kathleen Vohs, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota quoted by Worth, "Clearly there are costs to having too much choice." Vohs discovered in a recent study that making choices, even fun ones, can diminish our mental resources, making concentration difficult. The article notes that "Vohs' group also studied the 'decision fatigue' that can occur at a shopping mall. They asked random shoppers at a Utah mall questions such as how many decisions they had made that day, the importance of those choices, and the length of their deliberation. The researchers found that the more choices the shoppers had made, the worse they performed on simple math problems they were then asked to complete on the spot." Decisions wear us out, whether we realize it or not.
All those ads and all those choices are diminishing our energy for the things that matter to us.
Further, as Dean Feldmeyer notes above, "All ads... are not about selling a product.†Some products are already sold and the ad is just to cement the relationship between the buyer and the product, to make us feel good about a product we already like."
The recent outcry about the decision by the venerable Susan G. Komen Foundation to stop awarding grants to Planned Parenthood for cancer screening touched a nerve for that very reason. The dollar amount involved was relatively small but the decision revealed the strong feelings people have about both organizations. The iconic pink ribbons, and the pink products that appear for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, are meant to add layers of hope, perseverance, and community to the battle against breast cancer. They yield small donations to cancer research and service organizations but a large amount of feel-good energy.
The Komen Foundation, for many people, brings a framework of meaning to the struggle with breast cancer and creates a sense of community around the illness. At events like Race for the Cure, people wear pictures of loved ones who have died or T-shirts celebrating their own survival. Raising money is only a part of the importance of the event.
This recent flap, among other things, has prompted to some to wonder if the Komen Foundation is more like a business than a nonprofit. Little girls running lemonade stands to raise money and people sending in donations of $10 and $20 in memory of loved ones might be surprised by the $5 million annual salary of Nancy Brinker, the Foundation's founder and CEO.
A recent documentary reminds us that we all have choices about where to donate our charitable gifts. An article by Jay Stone in the Vancouver Sun highlights the current documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc. The film is based on a book of the same name by Dr. Samantha King, a Queen's University professor, "who says women with cancer feel alienated by the overly optimistic approach of the pink-ribbon marches -- with their chants, balloons, and free samples of products from the many companies wanting to align themselves with the fight." King calls the culture of pink ribbons and stuffed animals "the tyranny of cheerfulness." The book and movie highlight the way our choices about donating money or buying products are shaped.
The article mentions the phenomenon called "pinkwashing," noting that "many companies that are behind Pink Ribbon events are those associated with [cancer-causing] risks. The movie points out that Yoplait yogurt, which asked users to send in lids to raise money, was putting recombinant bovine-growth hormone into its product until a public protest made it stop. Cosmetics companies such as Estee Lauder, which are major Pink Ribbon sponsors, have chemicals linked to cancer in some of their products. [Director Lea] Pool includes commercials, such as one for a car dealership where a woman says that when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, the first thing she wanted to do was drive away in her Ford Mustang. There are also scenes from an ill-fated KFC campaign that offered to donate money from its 'pink buckets' of chicken to cancer research."
Participation in pink ribbon events isn't wrong, the movie suggests, but it is a distraction from "more useful tasks: writing to corporations about their environmental records, for instance, or demanding coordinated research." Feel-good fund-raising may distract us from the harder work of advocacy or raising money that will benefit research and services more directly.
Like the man in Mark's gospel who approaches Jesus for healing, we all have choices. But our choices are more manipulated than we realize. The man who approaches Jesus has been thinking about his situation for a long time, long enough to become clear about what he wants. "If you choose, you can make me clean," he tells Jesus.
Listening to this story from Mark's gospel, we're pretty sure which choice Jesus is going to make. When the man comes up to him and says, "If you choose, you can make me clean," we know what he's going to choose, right? It will make Jesus himself unclean, by Jewish law, but we can already guess that he doesn't care. He's going to heal this man -- no suspense there.
The curious thing is the choice that this man makes. Because he's unclean, he's not supposed to be around people. He's isolated... unable to live with his family, hold a job, or attend services at the synagogue... rejected... as down on his luck as a person can be. But he has a choice. He chooses to face another moment of rejection to walk up to Jesus and say, "If you choose, you can make me clean." His own choice is part of the story too.
I admire the way this makes man the choice simple: "If you choose, you can make me clean." No worries about whether today is the right day, or whether he has the right clothes on, or if he's in the right neighborhood. No waffling: "If you choose, you can make me rich... or successful... or happy. You pick." He has prayed long enough and hard enough to have it down to one thing.
In a world with so many choices before us every day, may it be that we have the same clarity.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Much is made of secrets. There's an old saying that the only secret is the one that is told to no one. When Jesus heals the leper he lets out a secret -- and from that time on there is no stopping the secret from growing and growing. What did Jesus expect? If such a thing as a healing of an incurable disease were to happen today, what would any of us do? Secrets are hard to keep. Secrets that are great wonders and marvels are impossible to keep.
* * *
It is easy to understand why the leper, healed by the touch of Christ, wanted to tell everyone about his miraculous transformation. When he moved from the darkness of a certain and horrible death to the light of glorious life, it was obviously very difficult to contain his happiness at being healed or to stifle his enthusiasm for his healer.
There once was a teenager exploring an isolated cavern who fell into a deep pit and was unable to get out. A team of searchers could not find the young man but days later an elderly explorer discovered the emaciated youngster and managed to rescue him. For weeks the teenager told everyone with whom he talked about his good fortune, heaping much praise upon his rescuer. The elderly man, somewhat of a recluse, was embarrassed by the adulation and irritated because his privacy was continually being violated by those who wanted to see the hero.
"Please," the man said to the youngster whom he had rescued, "you must stop talking so much about me. It was not such a big thing that I did."
"But you saved me," protested the teenager. "If it were not for you, I would be dead. Instead I am alive, and I want everyone to know it!"
* * *
The leper prefaced his request for healing from Jesus with the words "If you will." It was almost as if he was not sure that his being well was really what Jesus wanted for him.
Father Daniel Berrigan once lectured at Loyola University on the process of peacemaking. Someone in the audience stood up and asked, "Father Berrigan, why do you keep knocking yourself out for peace in a world that doesn't seem to want peace?"
Berrigan thought about it for a few moments and then he replied with a strong double negative: "I cannot not do what I am doing. I do it because it is who I am."
Jesus could not not heal the leper who reached out to him. The resurrection reminds us that Jesus uncompromisingly wills life for us.
* * *
Several years ago an Italian newspaper reported on a rather strange court case. A 50-year-old man was fined for dangerous driving after "he handed the controls of his car over to God." A judge heard the man describe how he let go of his steering wheel and cried, "God, can you drive?" Predictably, the man's car ended up in a ditch.
The motorist's lawyer mounted a rather ingenious defense. He maintained that the court had no jurisdiction, because this constituted a "religious dilemma." The prosecuting attorney, however, was too sharp to let that sort of thing slip by. He reminded the judge that "God is not a legally insured driver and has never passed an official test," so it was illegal for the man to turn the steering wheel over to the Almighty. The judge agreed and found the man guilty.
In healing the leper, Jesus makes it clear that healing is not something that is done to a person. The sick man must actively desire to be healed, to participate in his healing. "God helps those who help themselves," wrote Benjamin Franklin. A more colorful variation is the anonymous sailors' saying: "Pray to God, but row toward shore."
* * *
What is clean or unclean? It's largely in how you look at it. Alcohol can be good; alcoholism is not. Sometimes this substance is used to clean wounds and surgical instruments. We could use it instead of gasoline for fuel. A glass of wine is supposed to be healthy. We use it in the sacrament. But drinking it to excess is destructive and certainly unclean.
What is clean or unclean? Physical affection or lustful desire? Another day older, or one day closer to being dead? The automobile: America's number one killer? Destroyer of relationships because of increased mobility? Environmental polluter? Or backbone of our economy and the source of new opportunities, swifter travel, more leisure -- the extender of our cultural reach.
To Jesus there is no unclean-ness. He heals whoever comes to him, of whatever they have. He's not afraid of leprosy, demons, death, or the devil himself -- even to going to the cross for the dirtiest thing of all: sin.
* * *
The city of Pisa is hosting a scientific exhibition sponsored by the Roman Catholic church, the National Institute for Nuclear Physics, and Pisa University. The location is not by accident but is rather a conscious and deliberate choice on the part of the Vatican... for it was in this city -- Pisa -- that Galileo was condemned as a heretic for theorizing that the earth orbited around the sun instead of the sun orbiting around the earth. The earth, Galileo declared to the religious community, was not the center of the universe.
In recognition for the atrocity that occurred nearly four centuries ago in 1633, and for which Pope John Paul II apologized in 1992, the Roman Catholic church is making a public affirmation of its commitment to faith and reason. The title of the exhibit is: "Stories from Another World: The Universe Inside and Outside of Us."
Naaman could not understand Elisha; therefore it was easier to denounce Elisha than to test his theory. It seemed to make more sense to journey back to the Euphrates than to go down to the banks of the Jordan. Only when Naaman went to the Jordan did he discover that the Euphrates was not the center of the universe, and the man who would not greet him in person truly was a sage.
* * *
Everybody was a winner... that is, except for one man who lived in a barn on the outskirts of the village. Unlike the other 250 villagers, he did not participate.
Every year since 1812, Spain has held a huge Christmas lottery that has come to be called El Gordo -- the fat one -- because of the size of the jackpot. Every year the residents of the tiny farming village of Sodeto purchase a lottery ticket, not in expectations of winning, but out of community solidarity. The tickets are sold by the Sodeto homemakers' association, with the profits from the sales used to fund community events.
But this year, the Sodeto homemaker's association held the winning ticket (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/world/europe/tiny-village-of-sodeto-wi...). Everyone in town, except one man, received prize money ranging from several million dollars to a minimum of $130,000. The winning pool of money was divided up among 70, not 71, households.
Mayor Rosa Pons told the news media not to expect the streets to be lined with Mercedes-Benzs, as the residents are using the money to invest in their farms and small cottage homes.
Paul says we are to run the race "in such a way that you may win it." Track, like any team sport, is dependent of the participation of everyone to be successful. As the residents of Sodeto saw themselves as a team for community service, we in the church must see ourselves as a team in service to Christ. If one does not choose to participate, the fate is worse than not holding a winning lottery ticket -- it will be the judgment of God.
* * *
It has recently been reported in Nature magazine that exercise improves more than muscle tone and the cardiovascular system -- it also cleanses the body of impurities.
Cells go through a process called autophagy, or self-cleaning. Cells create specialized membranes that engulf the junk in the cell's cytoplasm and carry it to a part of the cell known as the lysosome, where the trash is broken apart and then burned by the cell for extra energy. So it is both a cleansing and energizing process.
The process is a part of the evolutionary process of man. It is a form of defense against the stress of starvation. Exercise can create physiological stress, and in so doing promote autophagy. Gretchen Reynolds noted in the New York Times "that the ability of exercise to speed the removal of garbage from inside our body's cells may be one of the most valuable, if least visible, effects."
Exercise does have a purpose and a far greater purpose than we can ever understand. Paul says his evangelism has a purpose too, and a far greater purpose than we can ever understand when he writes, "I do not run aimlessly."
* * *
During this past summer's NFL lockout, coaches and staff were prohibited from contact with the players, so the players were unable to use team facilities for rehabilitation programs to recover from their injuries or to get the physical training that they were accustomed to normally. However, many players were not content to enjoy their off-season on the couch. As a result, some of the teams' quarterbacks took it upon themselves to organize their own "mini-camps" to ensure that many of their teammates were in peak physical condition when the season would begin.
Paul compared the life of the believer to the life of the athlete. Just as today's top athletes recognize the value of training, we must never let our fleshly desires distract us from pursuing the best that God has for us.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones,
People: and give thanks to God's holy name.
Leader: For God's anger is but for a moment;
People: God's favor is for a lifetime.
Leader: Weeping may linger for the night,
People: but joy comes with the morning.
OR
Leader: Come and hear the good news of Jesus.
People: We come to hear again the gospel story.
Leader: Come and hear your story in the Bible.
People: But we are not in the Bible!
Leader: We are all in God's stories.
People: Our lives are like Bible characters' lives?
Leader: The Bible is the story of God and human beings.
People: We are human and we want to be part of God's story.
Leader: Then let God be part of your story.
People: We invite God to be in our stories and in our lives.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"I Love to Tell the Story"
found in:
UMH: 156
AAHH: 513
NNBH: 424
NCH: 522
CH: 480
LBW: 390
ELW: 661
"Heralds of Christ"
found in:
UMH: 567
"Go, Tell It on the Mountain"
found in:
UMH: 251
H82: 99
PH: 29
AAHH: 202
NNBH: 92
NCH: 154
CH: 167
LBW: 70
ELW: 290
"We've a Story to Tell to the Nations"
found in:
UMH: 569
NNBH: 416
"Pass It On"
found in:
UMH: 572
NNBH: 417
CH: 477
"O Zion, Haste"
UMH: 573
H82: 539
NNBH: 422
LBW: 397
ELW: 668
"Sois la Semilla" ("You Are the Seed")
found in:
UMH: 583
NCH: 528
CH: 478
"All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name"
found in:
UMH: 154/155
H82: 450/451
PH: 142/143
AAHH: 292/294
NNBH: 315
NCH: 309
CH: 91/92
LBW: 328/329
ELW: 634
Renew: 45
"God, You Are My God"
found in:
CCB: 60
"You Are Mine"
found in:
CCB: 58
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who invites us into the divine drama: Grant us the grace to enter your story of salvation by letting you enter our story of need; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We have come today, O God, to hear the story of your loving kindness as you have cared for your people. We have come to offer our lives so that you may be a part of our stories as well. Open our hearts to your Spirit that in you we may find life eternal. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we fail to tell others the wonderful things you are doing in our lives.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have been our gracious God and brought us up out of the pit into the light of your glorious day. You have given us your own breath, Spirit, and life. You have claimed us as your beloved children. Yet we are reluctant to tell others of your wondrous love and grace. We are embarrassed to talk to others of our faith in you or to share the stories of what you are doing in our lives. Forgive us our fickle natures and make us bold with the power of your Spirit to share the good news of Jesus and the good news of what you mean to us. Amen.
Leader: We are God's beloved children and God's love and forgiveness are always ours to receive. Be strengthened by God's love and grace to share your story with others.
Prayer for Illumination
Send the light of your presence upon us, O God, so that as we hear and digest the good news of Jesus we may become better witnesses for you. Amen.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship and adore you, O God, for the wonders of your love revealed in the stories of our ancestors. You have ever been our faithful God and guide.
(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 been our gracious God and brought us up out of the pit into the light of your glorious day. You have given us your own breath, Spirit, and life. You have claimed us as your beloved children. Yet we are reluctant to tell others of your wondrous love and grace. We are embarrassed to talk to others of our faith in you or to share the stories of what you are doing in our lives. Forgive us our fickle natures and make us bold with the power of your Spirit to share the good news of Jesus and the good news of what you mean to us.
We give you thanks for those who have shared your story with us. We especially give you thanks for those who have shared their own story with us. It is when we hear the story told by flesh and blood people we can see and hear that our hearts are most deeply touched.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who do not know your story and even more for those who have no story to tell of their life in you. We pray for ourselves that as your people we may boldly talk to others of our faith.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Ask the children if they know a certain person. (Make it someone from your past that they do not know.) Act surprised that they don't know the person. Then tell how important that person was/is to you. Ask them why they think they don't know the person. Help them guess that it was because you had never told them about that person. Talk about how it might surprise us that some people don't know about Jesus -- but it could be because we haven't told them.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Make Me Clean!
Mark 1:40-45
Object: a very dirty piece of clothing
Good morning, boys and girls! Do you ever have any clothes as dirty as this? (show the clothing and let the children answer) If you did have something this dirty, what would you do with it? (let them answer) I guess there are really only two things you could do. You could either wash it, or you could throw it away. You certainly wouldn't want to wear it when it was this dirty.
Once, a person with leprosy came to Jesus. People with leprosy were called "unclean" in those times because the disease made their skin look awful. Nobody wanted to touch the people or get close to them. This leper believed that Jesus could cure him, and he said to Jesus, "If you choose, you can make me clean." What do you think Jesus did? (let them answer) Yes, Jesus did cure him. Jesus made him clean.
Now, you and I don't have leprosy, but we are also "unclean." We are like this dirty clothing (hold up the clothing), because we are all sinful. The only one who can make us clean is Jesus. When we go to Jesus and plead with him to forgive us, we are just like that leper. We too can say to Jesus, "If you choose, you can make me clean." If we ask Jesus to forgive us and make us clean, what do you think he will do? (let them answer) Yes, of course he will. Let's thank him for making us clean.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, we are just like the leper who came to you needing to be cleaned. He needed you to cure his leprosy, and we need you to cure our sin. We know that you will make us clean when we come to you and ask for forgiveness, and we thank you for promising to do so. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, February 12, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 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.
