Jesus' Thoughts and Prayers
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For May 21, 2023:
Jesus’ Thoughts and Prayers
by Chris Keating
John 17:1-11
Against the shadows of grief and the anticipation of trauma, Jesus offers his thoughts and prayers. John’s image of Jesus praying is different from the other gospels writers. He does not retreat into a secluded place or rise early in the morning. Gathered around a table, he prays with his friends and calls them into sacred community.
Knowing that crucifixion lays ahead, Jesus prepares the disciples for his death by offering thoughts and prayers. These are more than political tweets.
Jesus’ thoughts and prayers are different from the wretchedly banal and predictable tweets and statements offered by politicians and leaders following mass shootings. Those sort of vapid clichés have flowed endlessly now for more than a generation — as depicted on a video produced by the Daily Show and now on TikTok. Measured against our hackneyed clichés, it seems Jesus’ words are not our words, his thoughts not our thoughts.
Depending on how one does the math, there have been more than 200 mass shootings in 2023. But mass shootings are just a part of the problem, criminologists argue. According to the Mass Killing Database, a partnership between USA Today, the Associated Press, and Northwestern University, there has been a steady increase in the number of mass killings since 2006.
Instead of coming together, as Jesus prayed, we seem to be coming apart.
“Somehow,” opined President Barack Obama in 2015 following a shooting in Oregon, “this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine…we’ve become numb to this.” But Jesus’ words are not routine. Neither are they sentimental expressions or a cheery series of after dinner bon mots.
Jesus offers thoughts and prayers. He prays for us. He prays that we might be protected, but not with automatic weapons. His thoughts are that we are to love one another, and be united with God and what God is doing in the world.
In the News
Many people, including people of faith, are beginning to wince at the insipid offerings of “thoughts and prayers” toward the increasingly frequent acts of violence. Following Senator Ted Cruz’s response to the tragedy in Allen, TX, the founder of Mom’s Demand Action replied, “Spare us your prayers, and your talk of justice for a gunman who is dead.”
Others have been even more blunt. Following the February shooting at Michigan State University, a Canton, MI, lawmaker cursed at legislators who offered prayers instead of actions. “(Expletive) your thoughts and prayers,” said Representative Ranjeev Puri. “Thoughts and prayers without action and change are meaningless,” Puri contended.
It’s hardly a new sentiment. In 2018, CNN analyst AJ Willingham wrote that “thoughts and prayers” had reached the point of “semantic satiation,” or the point where an oft-repeated phrase has become bloated beyond recognition. Psychologist Leon James is credited with first noticing this phenomenon in 1962 as the result of his experiments on human response to stimulus.
James calls the phenomenon a form of “reactive inhibition.” As a stimulus is presented in rapid repetition, the brain becomes more resistant to responding. (The parenting version of this happens after four hours of high-pitched whining.)
In the instance of gun violence, “thoughts and prayers” becomes repeated without any indication that circumstances have changed. Put another way, the first time your neighbor’s car horn gets stuck at 1 in the morning, you sit straight up in bed. But if it continues all night long, you may still be mad and sleepy come breakfast, but you will likely cease being surprised every time it goes off.
People of faith, however, who trust in the value of prayer, face a conundrum. Do we abandon the practice of praying for those injured by horrific violence, resigning ourselves to despair? Or do we double down, insisting on the oft-repeated aphorism that “prayer changes things?”
United States Senator and Atlanta pastor Raphael Warnock believes in prayer, but also believes in actions formed in response to prayer. On May 3, following an active shooter incident at his children’s school, Senator Warnock took to the floor of the Senate to argue for more action related to gun control. He offered his prayers for those impacted by the shooting, and then paraphrased a quote from Abraham Heschel. “But I hasten to say,” added Warnock, “that thoughts and prayers are not enough. In fact, it is a contradiction to say that you are thinking and praying and then do nothing. It is to make a mockery of prayer. It is to trivialize faith. We pray not only with our lips, we pray with our legs. We pray by taking action.”
In the Scripture
There is nothing trivial about the prayer of Jesus in John 17, often known as the “high priestly prayer.” In its context, the prayer seems to be the appropriate words of Jesus prior to his glorification. Yet, as Fred Craddock noted, the actual content the prayer would seem to suggest the already glorified Christ looking pastorally upon the church. (Craddock, John, p. 123.) “The prayer hangs between earth and heaven,” Craddock suggests, “between the pre and post-resurrection moments of the Savior’s sojourn.” Much as the prologue of John established the groundwork of the incarnation, the prayer sets the foundation for the presence of Jesus post-resurrection. It maintains a connection to Jesus’ earthly presence as presented by John, but is also an act of pastoral care offered to the sheep longing to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd.
Both in form and content, the prayer models Jesus’ intimate connection to God. He has instructed the disciples on the importance of remaining connected, and now offers an example of how that intimacy is maintained. The prayer emphasizes that eternal life is not something to be achieved later, but is that gift offered to all who believe now. The disciples know this because God’s logos has been given to them.
The prayer unfolds according to themes of protection (verses 11-16) and sanctification (verses 17-19). Both support the unity that Jesus shares with God, and the unity the disciples are charged with maintaining. Jesus describes his own return to glory first, moving next to intercessions for the church, and finally intercessions for the next and succeeding generations of the church. As Jamie Clark-Soles notes, “When Jesus prays here, it’s not magic and it’s not just a wish. Rather, he wills what he is praying. His will is in line with God’s so it is done. Now we just have to act as if it’s true.” (Clark-Soles, Reading John for Dear Life, Kindle edition).
In the Sermon
There’s a moment in worship that unfailingly makes me pause. Following the prayer of confession, we pour water into the baptismal font. Often we say, “Who is in a position to condemn? Only Christ, and Christ died for us. Christ rose for us. Christ reigns in power for us. Christ prays for us.” It is not only our parents and grandparents who pray for us — Jesus indeed keeps us in his thoughts and prayers.
John has reminded us, however, that these are not merely goose-bump raising moments of emotion. Jesus’ prayer goes well beyond half-hearted courtesies and endorphin fed moments of elation. This is a prayer which, to borrow from Rabbi Heschel, has legs. The Spirit is given to the church not just to make us feel better, but to lead us back into the world. The world is filled with challenges; yet the world is the object of God’s deepest desire.
We must preach the sort of prayers that have legs, the sort of intercessions that lead us to deeper communion with God and each other. Our congregations do not need another “how-to-pray in four steps” sermon. Nor do we need polite responses to tragedy. If anything, Jesus calls for a unity that is far from polite. If anything, this prayer calls the church to not-so polite work of being in the world.
“They don’t belong to this world,” Jesus prays. It’s a profound assurance, but also a demanding vocation. To abide with God means to do the work Jesus has done.
The form of the sermon could likely be shaped into a prayer, reflecting the moves and contours present in the text itself. It could offer the deep affirmation that we are held by God, never abandoned or orphaned. Indeed, this prayer of Jesus winds itself around us like the vine and branches metaphor. Nurtured in its grasp, we find the strength to proclaim hope in a world filled with violence.
So far in 2023 the United States has had 15,671 gun related deaths. Based on statistics from the Gun Violence Archive, more than 600 of those deaths were either teenagers or children, and over half were acts of suicide. Sadly, by Sunday these statistics will have only grown. The frequency of these events should cause us to move away from the semi-automatic invocation of “thoughts and prayers,” to the deeper unity offered by Jesus’ prayer in John 17.
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SECOND THOUGHTS
Heaven Will Wait
by Katy Stenta
Acts 1:6-14
Jesus goes to heaven, and I think there is a propensity for Christians to dust off our hands and join the heavenly chorus and say, “Our work is done here.” However, it is right after Jesus ascends into heaven that the angels appear and say to the disciples, “Time to turn your thoughts back to earth, there is still work to do here on earth.”
There is a lot of work to do on earth. We question how much to look and how much to look away. Obviously, the need for self-care from a Savior who regularly ate with friends, took naps, and retreated to lakes is without question, but we cannot hide in our church buildings and worship God on Sunday and then go home and ignore the ongoing need for justice in the world.
I’ll never forget that after my church, which had really been on the rocks when I arrived, got the basics in order: the board was running again, they had a vision statement, their paperwork was up to date. Things seemed to be normal; they sort of turned to me and said, “So we are good right?” And my response was more or less, “And now the real work of discipleship begins.”
In a time of extreme gun violence, we hear of untold terrors, the question is, do we need an Emmett Till moment? Something akin to Vietnam where we come face to face with how horrific it all is?
Why are you looking to heaven? There is work to do on earth?
Sunday morning at church is still one of the most segregated moments in the USA, and no wonder. Black, Latina and other people of color need safe spaces to exhale. Immigrants often gather to speak the languages of their heart, or even to have a family meal together. However, this does not excuse white congregations from continually looking away from the work of dismantling White Supremacy that needs to happen.
Then there is money, the real work of the debt ceiling and how many jobs, programs, and vulnerable people are dependent upon the government keeping its obligations to pay its debts. The Republicans are tying the budget to the debt ceiling to try to roll back the historic green and Medicaid changes that Biden passed in his Build Back Better legislation. This negotiation suffers from seeming too big for the average American to feel like they can follow it — and yet, look at what is going on at the earthly level.
Don’t worry about heaven, there awaits a feast and a mansion big enough that you will not even think about squabbling over the rooms. Meanwhile, let’s work on bringing that “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.” That’s not just a prayer, that’s what we are hoping and working toward, isn’t it? If that’s what we are looking toward, we need to start by looking at the human beings who surround us and remembering that Jesus wants us to look at them first. Heaven will wait, do not worry. In the meantime, let us do what we can with the teachings that Jesus gave us.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Illustrations About Unity
John Calvin on Unity Among Christian Believers
Among Christians there ought to be so great a dislike of schism, as that they may always avoid it so fast as lies in their power. That there ought to prevail among them such a reverence for the ministry of the word and the sacraments that wherever they perceive these things to be, there they must consider the church to exist...nor need it be of any hindrance that some points of doctrine are not quite so pure, seeing that there is scarcely any church which has not retained some remnants of former ignorance. (Charles W. Colson, The Body, 1992, Word Publishing, p. 107-108.)
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John Wesley on “The Catholic Spirit”
John Wesley’s Methodism began as a reform movement within the Anglican Church and Wesley remained within the Anglican fold his entire life. However, when the Anglican Church abandoned the Americans during the war, and refused to ordain Dr. Thomas Coke to preach to America’s faithful, he felt that, in the absence of a bishop to perform a traditional ordination service, he was forced to ordain Coke within his own American Methodist conference. He performed the laying on of hands and not only ordained Coke as the superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America but also commissioned him to ordain Francis Asbury as his co-superintendent.
With that act, Methodism had officially split from the Anglican church. Wesley, however, felt that the schism was more of administrative differences than theological ones. In his sermon, “A Catholic Spirit,” he details his feelings about how Christians of different traditions should be in relationship with each other:
But although a difference in opinions or modes of worship may prevent an entire external union, yet need it prevent our union in affection? Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may.
Every wise man, therefore, will allow others the same liberty of thinking which he desires they should allow him; and will no more insist on their embracing his opinions, than he would have them to insist on his embracing theirs. He bears with those who differ from him, and only asks him with whom he desires to unite in love that single question, “Is thy heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?” (I.6)
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Reconciliation, the Path Toward Unity
During World War II, Hitler commanded all religious groups to unite so that he could control them. Among the Brethren Assemblies, half complied and half refused. Those who went along with the order had a much easier time. Those who did not faced harsh persecution. In almost every family of those who resisted, someone died in a concentration camp.
When the war was over, feelings of bitterness ran deep between the groups and there was much tension. Finally, they decided that the situation had to be healed. Leaders from each group met at a quiet retreat. For several days, each person spent time in prayer, examining his own heart in the light of Christ's commands. Then they came together. Francis Schaeffer, who told of the incident, asked a friend who was there, "What did you do then?" "We were just one," he replied.
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In Tune with One and Each Other
It occurred to me recently, as I was waiting for my grandson’s school band concert to begin, that concerts all tend to start the same. The band or orchestra comes out and takes a seat and then there is a lot of honking, squeaking, scales, and bits and pieces of songs as the musicians warm up.
Then one person, in an orchestra the “concert master” or first violinist, in a school band, usually the first clarinet, plays one note and each musician tests to see whether their instrument is in tune with that one. If it is, they are ready to play the concert. If it is not, they make adjustments, so they can be ready.
They all know, instinctively, that if they are in tune with that one instrument, they will all be in tune with each other.
And that, I believe, will preach.
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Paul Tillich on Sin as Separation
In possibly his most famous sermon, “You Are Accepted,” theologian Paul Tillich offers a new understanding of sin, not as naughty acts but as separation, a paraphrase of which is included below:
“I should like to suggest another word to you, not as a substitute for the word "sin," but as a useful clue in the interpretation of the word sin: separation.” Separation is an aspect of the experience of everyone. Perhaps the word "sin" has the same root as the word "asunder." In any case, sin is separation.
To be in the state of sin is to be in the state of separation. And separation is threefold: there is separation among individual lives, separation of a person from their essential self, and separation of all people from God. This three-fold separation constitutes the state of everything that exists; it is a universal fact; it is the fate of every life. And it is our human fate in a very special sense.
For we as human beings know that we are separated. We not only suffer with all other creatures because of the self-destructive consequences of our separation, but also know why we suffer. We know that we are estranged from something to which we really belong, and with which we should be united. We know that the fate of separation is not merely a natural event like a flash of sudden lightning, but that it is an experience in which we actively participate, in which our whole personality is involved, and that, as fate, it is also guilt. Separation that is fate and guilt constitutes the meaning of the word "sin."
Later, in the same sermon, Tillich offers the concept of grace as the reconciliation that bridges the separation of sin and brings us back into unity with ourselves, each other, and God.
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Illustrations About Thoughts and Prayers
Praying the Wrong Way
There are appropriate and inappropriate ways for Christians to pray. In his article, “How to Pray Inappropriate Prayers Without Really Trying!” Baptist pastor David Wilson, offers these warnings:
1. PRAYING AT PEOPLE INSTEAD OF TO GOD — Mini Sermons to explain things or correct others or display our superior spirituality.
2. FILLING PRAYERS WITH “SPIRITUAL” FILLER. — Some Christians feel that “good” prayers have to be of a certain length so they fluff up their prayers with spiritual filler Jesus warned against “vain repetitions” or babbling like pagans. At times, our prayer can become repetitive and ritualistic with little or no real feeling. Most of us don’t chant, but we might have “filler words” that we use to make our prayers stretch out a bit, words like “really,” “very,” “rather,” and “just.” Remember, Jesus offered what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” as an example of appropriate brevity in prayer.
3. USING PRAYER FOR SELF-PROMOTION — Jesus told a parable of a publican and a Pharisee praying at the temple. Looking at the prayer of the Pharisee we see that: 1.) He declared that he was better than others; 2.) He bragged about the sins he avoided (robbery, adultery, etc.) and; 3.) He boasted of the good he had done. We never have to point out to God all the good we have done. God knows.
4. MANIPULATIVE PRAYER (AKA: The Quid-Pro-Quo Prayer) — God, if you will just, then I will so. Quid-Pro-Quo prayers attempt to bribe God into doing what we want God to do by promising that we will do what God wants us to do. “Lord, if you help me pass this test, I promise that I will study the next time.” “God, if you let my friend live, I promise that I’ll never drink again.”
God’s grace is not subject to bribes and payoffs. Our good acts should come as signs of gratitude for God’s love, not as payments for it.
5. PRAYERS OFFERED AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR RIGHTEOUS WORK — God has given us work to do — feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, speaking up for the powerless, etc. (Cf. Matthew 25) but sometimes it’s easier to just pray about it, asking God to do for us what we are not willing to do for ourselves or each other.
Sometimes we don’t even pray the prayers we have promised to pray. We say, “I’ll pray for you” when we don’t really want to do anything and then we never actually offer up the promised prayers. “I’ll pray for you” becomes an easy way to end the conversation.
In Isaiah, God instructs the people to leave the temple with their sacrifices and not come back until they have done what they have been called to do.
* * *
Thoughts and Prayers
On the fourth anniversary of the "March for Our Lives" rally, more than 1,100 body bags — each one representing 150 people — were placed on the National Mall to mark the more than 170,000 people who have died from gun violence in the US since the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
"This could happen to your community again, unfortunately at this point in America, it's not a matter of what, just every single day," David Hogg, Parkland survivor and co-founder for March For Our Lives, told ABC News. "People ask me, 'Are you worried about the next part?' I say yes, but actually more worried about … that this is a preventable issue."
March For Our Lives is a nonprofit organization that formed after thousands came to Washington, DC, to demand action in the gun violence epidemic in the wake of the Parkland shooting, which left 14 students and three staff members dead.
It is calling on Congress to create a White House senior staff position dedicated to gun violence, pass universal background checks, provide a comprehensive plan on how to combat gun violence and invest in research and community-based violence intervention, the organization told ABC News. Congress has responded with silence and ethical/moral paralysis.
The body bags facing the Capitol spelled out "Thoughts and Prayers," a common phrase lawmakers use in the wake of tragedies.
“Thoughts and prayers are reserved for things that are outside of our control, that are outside of our responsibility and ability, right? Gun violence is not a natural thing. Give us your action,” said David Mumin, co-chair of March for Our Lives.
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Bad Prayer Habits
In his article “6 Bad Prayer Habits We All (Mostly) Are Guilty Of,” Stephen Mattson offers these observations to help draw closer to God through prayer.
For many Christians, prayer is often something we do thoughtlessly — and that’s our first mistake. Here are some things we carelessly do wrong in relationship to our prayer habits:
We Use Clichés — Intentionality is often the difference between hollowed tradition and superficial laziness. When we talk to God, we need to honestly be ourselves and use our own words—not the pastor’s words, not what we think the audience around us wants to hear, and not what we think is the most politically correct and polite thing to say.
Too often, we turn prayer into a lifeless string of overused spiritual expressions—fluffy words we’ve all heard a million times in church services, during Sunday school, and countless Bible studies. They’re meaningless to us, and they’re often meaningless to God.
Prayer isn’t a show, but we often turn it into one. We lower our voice to just above a whisper and make it breathy and soft. For many, it’s easier to reuse old clichés than it is to be vulnerable, open, and transparent.
We Turn Prayer into a Personal Wish List
We treat God like Santa Claus. — It’s amazing how often prayer devolves into a wish list—things we want from God. Sure, the requests are often legitimate — safety, healing, reconciliation, peace, happiness, and wisdom (among other things)—but we need to intentionally remember to use prayer as a form of worship and thanksgiving to God.
We Don’t Use Our Creativity and Imagination — There are more ways to pray than simply using audible words. You can pray in your mind (many Christians already practice this), you can pray using journals, and you can pray through poetry and music and liturgy. Take advantage of your creativity and practice using different methods of praying to God.
Additionally, many Christians have lost their ability to utilize their imagination when praying. To summarize, the Rev. Dr. Greg Boyd encourages people to use the power of their imagination during prayer—creatively visualizing everything from specific requests, to picturing God sitting in the room with them while they pray.
Instead of turning off our minds we should use our imaginations to pray to the best of our ability.
We Talk But Don’t Listen — Prayer is often one-sided — us talking to God. But we need to start using prayer as a time to listen. We’re good at telling God what’s on our mind, but what is God telling us? Our culture has become so overstimulated by noise and activity that Christians have lost the ability to patiently—and quietly—listen.
Prayer is often the litmus test that determines if your relationship with God works both ways. Does God speak to you? If not, maybe it’s simply because you’ve stopped listening.
We Pray Alone — Out of sheer convenience—and our fear of being transparent—we often prefer to pray on our own instead of within a community. But the Bible repeatedly gives examples of communal prayer and encourages people to pray with—and for—one another.
Corporate prayer helps bind Christians together by requiring emotional and spiritual investment. It’s often not the most comfortable or easy experience—but it’s worth it.
We Use “Inactive” Prayer (Actions Speak Louder Than Words) — Christians have sinfully used prayer as an excuse for being inactive. Prayer is meant to spark change, restoration, hope, and love. Prayer isn’t meant to be empty or meaningless, but too often Christians treat it as an excuse to do nothing. “I’ll be praying” has become the Christian way of saying “I’m not going to do anything about it.”
If you pray for something, act upon that prayer. For example, if you pray for a friend that’s sick with the flu, go drop off some soup for them when you’re done.
As Christians, we need to stop praying for answers and start being the answers to prayer.
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From team member Tom Willadsen:
Acts 1:6-14
Yes, Jesus had brothers
There has been dispute through the ages as to whether Jesus had siblings. Acts 1:14 makes a strong case that he did, or at least had half-brothers.
In Matthew 12:46-50, Jesus appears to distance himself from his family, that is mother and brothers, by indicating that those who do the will of the Father is his brother, mother and sister. This encounter appears in slightly different form in Luke 8:19-21, Mark 3:31-35. In Matthew 13:55 Jesus is identified as the carpenter’s son and his brothers are named: James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. Jesus’ brothers are mentioned in John 7:3, but not by name. An aunt, Mary’s sister is mentioned, but not named in John 19:25.
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Acts 1:6-14
About this brother James
Tradition holds that Jesus’ brother James wrote the Letter of James, though scholars dispute this. The style of the Greek reflects a high level of education, which Jesus’ Galilean brother probably could not attain. Also, sources independent of the Bible record James as having been killed in 66 CE, prior to the composition of the letter.
The appearance of Jesus’ brother James in the synoptic gospels leads one to believe that Jesus’ siblings were not followers, or at least not as close of followers as the twelve we know as the disciples.
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Acts 1:6-14
Christians’ car
The New Revised Standard Version renders Acts 1:14 this way:
“All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”
Clearly, they drove a Honda, but probably had to take turns. With 11 disciples, soon to be twelve, the women and Jesus’ siblings couldn’t all fit in at the same time.
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John 17:1-11
…from another perspective
The First Nations Version, an Indigenous Translation of the New Testament (InterVarsity Press) came out in 2021. It often brings a fresh elegance to the week’s readings. This week I found John 17:11 particularly life-giving:
“Since I am returning to you, I will no longer be in the world, but my followers will still be here. O Father of all that is holy, watch over them with the loving care that we share with one another. In this way, they will also share the love that makes us one.”
In the FNV italics indicate “reasonably implied statements.” “These added statements are not intended to change the meaning of the text but rather to bring clarity.” (p. xii)
* * *
1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11
They will know you are Christian
1 Peter 4:16 is one of only three occasions where the word “Christian” appears in the NRSV. The others are Acts 11:26 (where it’s plural) and Acts 26:28. By the time 1 Peter was written — prior to 64 CE if you believe Simon Peter, Jesus’ denier, is that author — late first century CE, other scholars contend — the name “Christian” by itself is enough to provoke discrimination and punishment from the civil authorities.
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From team member Elena Delhagen:
John 17:1-11; Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
A Cosmic Temple
Jesus’ prayer for his disciples, as this passage is often nicknamed, is beautiful, and much ink has been spilled over the centuries over what this text could mean. At times, however, we can spend so much time examining Jesus’ words that we miss some of the other conversational clues this lectionary passage gives us. Like Jesus’ body language, for example. In John 17:1, Jesus begins by looking up to heaven. As Rebecca Blair Young reminds us, “The biblical view of heaven is different from our view of the universe. Where our ancestors looked up and imagined a heavenly dwelling for the divine, we see physical space extending billions of light years. Even in the age of science, though, it remains significant that Jesus looks up at this moment, because he is looking beyond worldly limits to a far greater, unlimited life.” Yet even today, in our enlightened, modern (yet still limited!) understandings, we know that somewhere, beyond all that cosmos, is the dwelling place of the almighty God.
However, in the Bible and other cultures of the ancient Near East (Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, etc.), the world was thought of as a building, a habitable space for humans and other creatures to live in. This is why the creation of the world and the building of the house are described similarly in the book of Proverbs (see Proverbs 3:19-20 and 24:3-4). But the world isn’t any old building; it’s created by the Lord God, after all! The Bible follows ancient Near Eastern convention in understanding the world as God’s “house,” that is, as a cosmic sanctuary, a temple for God to inhabit, with heaven corresponding to the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence is concentrated.* This certainly aligns with the language the psalmist uses in Psalm 68, language that paints a picture of a rider in the heavens with power in the skies — our awesome God who sits in a “sanctuary” (see verses 32-25). Interestingly, the Hebrew word that’s been translated to sanctuary here in the NRSV is one that means “holy places.” So, this vast universe is all the temple of the Lord, and there is a special seat of honor for God within it, representative of the divine desire to dwell with his people.
“Space,” says The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.”
Yet even a universe that’s discernibly 94 billion light years across isn’t big enough to keep God from us.
* * *
Acts 1:6-14
Unexpected Places
I always chuckle to myself when I read this story in Acts, how the disciples were gazing up to heaven and found themselves visited by two men in white robes. “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” the men ask. In other words — you’re looking in the wrong place!
How often do we set out looking for something only to find it in unexpected places? I remember once when I was pregnant, I could not, for the life of me, find the lunch I’d packed and brought to my second grade classroom one day. Lo and behold, later that afternoon, I unlocked the filing cabinet by my desk only to find my packed lunch! In my scatterbrained state, I’d locked it in the cabinet instead of putting it in the fridge in the teachers’ lounge.
God, I think, loves to surprise us by showing up in all the places we would never expect! Let us not stick to looking in all the familiar places — the ones we’re comfortable with — that we miss out on something or someplace new.
* For a more detailed analysis of the cosmos as temple, see J. Richard Middleton’s, The Liberating Image, 81-88.
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1 Peter 4:12-14
It is unnerving to think that we are told we will suffer for Christ’s name. For our identity as his followers — as Christians, which in Greek is a phrase comprised of two words meaning “little christ.”
Yet how many in our world today suffer for their monikers? Their identities?
New York City recently passed a bill banning weight discrimination practices in employment, housing, and public accommodations. “Weight discrimination is widespread, but hits women the hardest — particularly women of color. Women considered obese earned $5.25 less per hour than women considered normal weight, according to a Vanderbilt University study.” Weight discrimination is so baked into the fabric of American society that it often goes unnoticed, unless you happen to be someone who has suffered because of it.
Black doctors are coming forward and suing hospital systems over discrimination they had faced while working as physicians there. People of color have been continually speaking out for literal centuries at this point to call attention to all the ways they have suffered in this country because of the color of their skin.
In Florida, only a few days ago, Governor DeSantis signed SB 1580, a “License to Discriminate in Healthcare” bill that will allow healthcare providers and insurers to deny a patient care on the basis of religious, moral, or ethical beliefs. This bill, and those like it, serve to further marginalize those in the queer and other vulnerable communities.
Far too often, our identities serve as things that others use against us instead of being seen as part of the beautiful mosaic of who we are. Consider your own identity — the parts of it that perhaps have been assigned to you. The parts you’ve always identified with. The parts society may celebrate you for. Or, alternatively, the parts that have brought you suffering at the hands of others.
And perhaps consider this: affirmation of our identities is one of the most important factors in how we understand ourselves as characters in God’s story. Even Jesus needed affirmation of his identity; when he was baptized in the Jordan, the voice of God affirmed his identity as the Son, and this gave Jesus the strength needed to sustain the temptation in the wilderness.
What are the parts of your identity that are longing for affirmation? Who in your life can you affirm and thereby ease, even if a little bit, their sufferings?
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WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: Clap your hands and shout to God with loud songs of joy.
All: For our God, the Most High, is awesome, ruler over all the earth.
One: God has gone up with a shout and with the sound of a trumpet.
All: Sing praises to God; sing praises to our Sovereign.
One: God is the ruler of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm.
All: God is Sovereign over the nations; God sits on the holy throne.
OR
One: Let the righteous be joyful; let them exult before God.
All: Sing to God who is parent to orphans and protector to widows.
One: Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth; sing praises to our God.
All: Listen, God speaks with a mighty voice.
One: Awesome is God in the holy sanctuary.
All: God gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!
OR
One: The God of unity and oneness is among us.
All: The God who dwells in three persons is with us.
One: God invites us into this unity within diversity.
All: We offer ourselves to the Three in One.
One: The One who dwells with us is also in all others.
All: We will welcome God as we embrace all God’s children.
Hymns and Songs
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
UMH: 64/65
H82: 362
PH: 138
GTG: 1
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELW: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT: 26
Renew: 204
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
UMH: 79
H82: 366
PH: 460
GTG: 4
NNBH: 13
NCH: 276
LBW: 535
ELW: 414
W&P: 138
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
UMH: 89
H82: 376
PH: 464
GTG: 611
AAHH: 120
NNBH: 40
NCH: 4
CH: 2
LBW: 551
ELW: 836
W&P: 59
AMEC: 75
STLT 29
Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation
UMH: 559
H82: 518
PH: 416/417
GTG: 394
NCH: 400
CH: 275
LBW: 367
ELW: 645
AMEC: 518
The Church’s One Foundation
UMH: 545/546
H82: 525
PH: 442
GTG: 321
AAHH: 337
NNBH: 297
NCH: 386
CH: 272
LBW: 369
ELW: 654
W&P: 544
AMEC: 519
When the Church of Jesus
UMH: 592
CH: 470
ELW: 555
Lord, You Give the Great Commission
UMH: 584
H82: 528
PH: 429
GTG: 298
CH: 459
ELW: 579
W&P: 592
Renew: 305
Lead On, O King Eternal
UMH: 580
PH: 447/448
GTG: 269
AAHH: 477
NNBH: 415
NCH: 573
CH: 632
LBW: 495
ELW: 805
W&P: 508
AMEC: 177
Renew: 298
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH: 577
H82: 594/595
PH: 420
GTG: 307
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELW: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether
UMH: 632
PH: 504
GTG: 529
NCH: 337
CH: 392
ELW: 470
Make Me a Servant
CCB: 90
Lord, Be Glorified
CCB: 62
Renew: 172
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The 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 ever one while being three:
Grant us the grace to live in true unity with you
so that we may be your presence to those around us;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God of unity and diversity. You maintain your oneness even as you are present throughout creation. Grant us the grace to so dwell in you that others may find you active in all that we do or say. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially tendency to gaze into heaven for our comfort and to ignore the needs of others around us.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have become absorbed in our desire for spiritual comfort and have forgotten the needs of others. We gaze into heaven as baby birds waiting to be fed without a thought for those around us who are hungry. We look for comfort and peace for ourselves without a care for others who are in need. Call us back into true unity with you so that like Jesus we may also respond to the needs around us. Help us to so dwell in your Spirit that in confidence we share your presence with others through our caring words and deeds. Amen.
One: God is ever present with us and is pleased to be made present to others through us. Receive God’s loving forgiveness and share that grace with all.
Prayers of the People
Praised and glorious are you, O God who is Three and yet One. As you dwell in perfect harmony within yourself you also dwell within your creation.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have become absorbed in our desire for spiritual comfort and have forgotten the needs of others. We gaze into heaven as baby birds waiting to be fed without a thought for those around us who are hungry. We look for comfort and peace for ourselves without a care for others who are in need. Call us back into true unity with you so that like Jesus we may also respond to the needs around us. Help us to so dwell in your Spirit that in confidence we share your presence with others through our caring words and deeds.
We give you thanks for all the ways you make yourself known to us in creation. We thank you for the beauty of the worlds you have made and for the abundance of our earth. We thank you for those who allow your Spirit to shine forth in the caring words and deeds so that we experience you through them. We thank you for your Spirit that dwells within us and draws us to you and to all your children.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for the needs of your world this day. We pray for those who are unaware of your presence around them. We pray for those who are caught in webs of violence and hatred which blind them to your loving presence. We pray for those whose lack of clean water, food, clothing, or shelter so occupies their minds that they do not think of you. We pray for those who struggle with illness or grief. We pray for your church that we may be faithful to our calling.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray 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
Trusting in God
by Quantisha Mason-Doll
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Themes:
• It’s hard being a person.
• It is okay to be scared.
• Trust in God and the people around you.
Props
• Paper for making paper chain people
— Paper Doll
— paper angels
I am a grown-up. Before I was a grown up, I was a teenager and before I was teenager, I was a small child. During each of these stages of my life and your life you are a person with wants, needs, and feelings. I'm going to let you in on a little secret — it's not easy being a person. We see it in our story from first Peter today where our apostle tells us that anxiety is real and being a person is hard. Does anyone know what anxiety feels like? Maybe you have been feeling a little lonely? (Leave space to talk about anxiety and loneliness and the different ways it can show up in life.)
Anxiety is a lot like fear. It is a funny feeling that shows up in our bodies. Maybe for you it feels like there are a bunch of bees buzzing around in your tummy trying to make their way out. (Here would be a good time to give some anecdotal insight into different kinds of feelings. Maybe talk about the first time you had to preach in a crowded church.)
Sometimes you can feel lonely. Maybe that loneliness shows up as being scared or unsure of how you fit into this world. (Remind the children and parents that it takes real courage and grace to tell people how you feel.)
I know this might seem kind of sad, but all these feelings help create who we are. (At this time start cutting out the paper people chain and talking about how letting people in and relying on each other helps to lessen the weight of anxiety and loneliness and pain.)
I relate all of this to the way Peter tells us to rely on each other and to rely on the grace of God. All the bad stuff Peter talks about with a lion roaring we feel deep within us. These are things that seek to separate us from the love and strength that comes from God, our families, and our friends. (Open the chain of people.)
Do you know how you resist being scared and rejoice in the glory of God? We do it by turning to each other when we are struggling. We have to have the courage to turn to each other even when we are sad or scared. We can trust in the strength God has given each and every one of us.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 21, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 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.
- Jesus’ Thoughts and Prayers by Chris Keating based on John 17:1-11.
- Second Thoughts: Heaven Will Wait by Katy Stenta based on Acts 1:6-14.
- Sermon illustrations by Dean Feldmeyer, Tom Willadsen, and Elena Delhagen.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children's sermon: Trusting in God by Quantisha Mason-Doll.
Jesus’ Thoughts and Prayersby Chris Keating
John 17:1-11
Against the shadows of grief and the anticipation of trauma, Jesus offers his thoughts and prayers. John’s image of Jesus praying is different from the other gospels writers. He does not retreat into a secluded place or rise early in the morning. Gathered around a table, he prays with his friends and calls them into sacred community.
Knowing that crucifixion lays ahead, Jesus prepares the disciples for his death by offering thoughts and prayers. These are more than political tweets.
Jesus’ thoughts and prayers are different from the wretchedly banal and predictable tweets and statements offered by politicians and leaders following mass shootings. Those sort of vapid clichés have flowed endlessly now for more than a generation — as depicted on a video produced by the Daily Show and now on TikTok. Measured against our hackneyed clichés, it seems Jesus’ words are not our words, his thoughts not our thoughts.
Depending on how one does the math, there have been more than 200 mass shootings in 2023. But mass shootings are just a part of the problem, criminologists argue. According to the Mass Killing Database, a partnership between USA Today, the Associated Press, and Northwestern University, there has been a steady increase in the number of mass killings since 2006.
Instead of coming together, as Jesus prayed, we seem to be coming apart.
“Somehow,” opined President Barack Obama in 2015 following a shooting in Oregon, “this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine…we’ve become numb to this.” But Jesus’ words are not routine. Neither are they sentimental expressions or a cheery series of after dinner bon mots.
Jesus offers thoughts and prayers. He prays for us. He prays that we might be protected, but not with automatic weapons. His thoughts are that we are to love one another, and be united with God and what God is doing in the world.
In the News
Many people, including people of faith, are beginning to wince at the insipid offerings of “thoughts and prayers” toward the increasingly frequent acts of violence. Following Senator Ted Cruz’s response to the tragedy in Allen, TX, the founder of Mom’s Demand Action replied, “Spare us your prayers, and your talk of justice for a gunman who is dead.”
Others have been even more blunt. Following the February shooting at Michigan State University, a Canton, MI, lawmaker cursed at legislators who offered prayers instead of actions. “(Expletive) your thoughts and prayers,” said Representative Ranjeev Puri. “Thoughts and prayers without action and change are meaningless,” Puri contended.
It’s hardly a new sentiment. In 2018, CNN analyst AJ Willingham wrote that “thoughts and prayers” had reached the point of “semantic satiation,” or the point where an oft-repeated phrase has become bloated beyond recognition. Psychologist Leon James is credited with first noticing this phenomenon in 1962 as the result of his experiments on human response to stimulus.
James calls the phenomenon a form of “reactive inhibition.” As a stimulus is presented in rapid repetition, the brain becomes more resistant to responding. (The parenting version of this happens after four hours of high-pitched whining.)
In the instance of gun violence, “thoughts and prayers” becomes repeated without any indication that circumstances have changed. Put another way, the first time your neighbor’s car horn gets stuck at 1 in the morning, you sit straight up in bed. But if it continues all night long, you may still be mad and sleepy come breakfast, but you will likely cease being surprised every time it goes off.
People of faith, however, who trust in the value of prayer, face a conundrum. Do we abandon the practice of praying for those injured by horrific violence, resigning ourselves to despair? Or do we double down, insisting on the oft-repeated aphorism that “prayer changes things?”
United States Senator and Atlanta pastor Raphael Warnock believes in prayer, but also believes in actions formed in response to prayer. On May 3, following an active shooter incident at his children’s school, Senator Warnock took to the floor of the Senate to argue for more action related to gun control. He offered his prayers for those impacted by the shooting, and then paraphrased a quote from Abraham Heschel. “But I hasten to say,” added Warnock, “that thoughts and prayers are not enough. In fact, it is a contradiction to say that you are thinking and praying and then do nothing. It is to make a mockery of prayer. It is to trivialize faith. We pray not only with our lips, we pray with our legs. We pray by taking action.”
In the Scripture
There is nothing trivial about the prayer of Jesus in John 17, often known as the “high priestly prayer.” In its context, the prayer seems to be the appropriate words of Jesus prior to his glorification. Yet, as Fred Craddock noted, the actual content the prayer would seem to suggest the already glorified Christ looking pastorally upon the church. (Craddock, John, p. 123.) “The prayer hangs between earth and heaven,” Craddock suggests, “between the pre and post-resurrection moments of the Savior’s sojourn.” Much as the prologue of John established the groundwork of the incarnation, the prayer sets the foundation for the presence of Jesus post-resurrection. It maintains a connection to Jesus’ earthly presence as presented by John, but is also an act of pastoral care offered to the sheep longing to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd.
Both in form and content, the prayer models Jesus’ intimate connection to God. He has instructed the disciples on the importance of remaining connected, and now offers an example of how that intimacy is maintained. The prayer emphasizes that eternal life is not something to be achieved later, but is that gift offered to all who believe now. The disciples know this because God’s logos has been given to them.
The prayer unfolds according to themes of protection (verses 11-16) and sanctification (verses 17-19). Both support the unity that Jesus shares with God, and the unity the disciples are charged with maintaining. Jesus describes his own return to glory first, moving next to intercessions for the church, and finally intercessions for the next and succeeding generations of the church. As Jamie Clark-Soles notes, “When Jesus prays here, it’s not magic and it’s not just a wish. Rather, he wills what he is praying. His will is in line with God’s so it is done. Now we just have to act as if it’s true.” (Clark-Soles, Reading John for Dear Life, Kindle edition).
In the Sermon
There’s a moment in worship that unfailingly makes me pause. Following the prayer of confession, we pour water into the baptismal font. Often we say, “Who is in a position to condemn? Only Christ, and Christ died for us. Christ rose for us. Christ reigns in power for us. Christ prays for us.” It is not only our parents and grandparents who pray for us — Jesus indeed keeps us in his thoughts and prayers.
John has reminded us, however, that these are not merely goose-bump raising moments of emotion. Jesus’ prayer goes well beyond half-hearted courtesies and endorphin fed moments of elation. This is a prayer which, to borrow from Rabbi Heschel, has legs. The Spirit is given to the church not just to make us feel better, but to lead us back into the world. The world is filled with challenges; yet the world is the object of God’s deepest desire.
We must preach the sort of prayers that have legs, the sort of intercessions that lead us to deeper communion with God and each other. Our congregations do not need another “how-to-pray in four steps” sermon. Nor do we need polite responses to tragedy. If anything, Jesus calls for a unity that is far from polite. If anything, this prayer calls the church to not-so polite work of being in the world.
“They don’t belong to this world,” Jesus prays. It’s a profound assurance, but also a demanding vocation. To abide with God means to do the work Jesus has done.
The form of the sermon could likely be shaped into a prayer, reflecting the moves and contours present in the text itself. It could offer the deep affirmation that we are held by God, never abandoned or orphaned. Indeed, this prayer of Jesus winds itself around us like the vine and branches metaphor. Nurtured in its grasp, we find the strength to proclaim hope in a world filled with violence.
So far in 2023 the United States has had 15,671 gun related deaths. Based on statistics from the Gun Violence Archive, more than 600 of those deaths were either teenagers or children, and over half were acts of suicide. Sadly, by Sunday these statistics will have only grown. The frequency of these events should cause us to move away from the semi-automatic invocation of “thoughts and prayers,” to the deeper unity offered by Jesus’ prayer in John 17.
* * * * *
SECOND THOUGHTSHeaven Will Wait
by Katy Stenta
Acts 1:6-14
Jesus goes to heaven, and I think there is a propensity for Christians to dust off our hands and join the heavenly chorus and say, “Our work is done here.” However, it is right after Jesus ascends into heaven that the angels appear and say to the disciples, “Time to turn your thoughts back to earth, there is still work to do here on earth.”
There is a lot of work to do on earth. We question how much to look and how much to look away. Obviously, the need for self-care from a Savior who regularly ate with friends, took naps, and retreated to lakes is without question, but we cannot hide in our church buildings and worship God on Sunday and then go home and ignore the ongoing need for justice in the world.
I’ll never forget that after my church, which had really been on the rocks when I arrived, got the basics in order: the board was running again, they had a vision statement, their paperwork was up to date. Things seemed to be normal; they sort of turned to me and said, “So we are good right?” And my response was more or less, “And now the real work of discipleship begins.”
In a time of extreme gun violence, we hear of untold terrors, the question is, do we need an Emmett Till moment? Something akin to Vietnam where we come face to face with how horrific it all is?
Why are you looking to heaven? There is work to do on earth?
Sunday morning at church is still one of the most segregated moments in the USA, and no wonder. Black, Latina and other people of color need safe spaces to exhale. Immigrants often gather to speak the languages of their heart, or even to have a family meal together. However, this does not excuse white congregations from continually looking away from the work of dismantling White Supremacy that needs to happen.
Then there is money, the real work of the debt ceiling and how many jobs, programs, and vulnerable people are dependent upon the government keeping its obligations to pay its debts. The Republicans are tying the budget to the debt ceiling to try to roll back the historic green and Medicaid changes that Biden passed in his Build Back Better legislation. This negotiation suffers from seeming too big for the average American to feel like they can follow it — and yet, look at what is going on at the earthly level.
Don’t worry about heaven, there awaits a feast and a mansion big enough that you will not even think about squabbling over the rooms. Meanwhile, let’s work on bringing that “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.” That’s not just a prayer, that’s what we are hoping and working toward, isn’t it? If that’s what we are looking toward, we need to start by looking at the human beings who surround us and remembering that Jesus wants us to look at them first. Heaven will wait, do not worry. In the meantime, let us do what we can with the teachings that Jesus gave us.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:Illustrations About Unity
John Calvin on Unity Among Christian Believers
Among Christians there ought to be so great a dislike of schism, as that they may always avoid it so fast as lies in their power. That there ought to prevail among them such a reverence for the ministry of the word and the sacraments that wherever they perceive these things to be, there they must consider the church to exist...nor need it be of any hindrance that some points of doctrine are not quite so pure, seeing that there is scarcely any church which has not retained some remnants of former ignorance. (Charles W. Colson, The Body, 1992, Word Publishing, p. 107-108.)
* * *
John Wesley on “The Catholic Spirit”
John Wesley’s Methodism began as a reform movement within the Anglican Church and Wesley remained within the Anglican fold his entire life. However, when the Anglican Church abandoned the Americans during the war, and refused to ordain Dr. Thomas Coke to preach to America’s faithful, he felt that, in the absence of a bishop to perform a traditional ordination service, he was forced to ordain Coke within his own American Methodist conference. He performed the laying on of hands and not only ordained Coke as the superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America but also commissioned him to ordain Francis Asbury as his co-superintendent.
With that act, Methodism had officially split from the Anglican church. Wesley, however, felt that the schism was more of administrative differences than theological ones. In his sermon, “A Catholic Spirit,” he details his feelings about how Christians of different traditions should be in relationship with each other:
But although a difference in opinions or modes of worship may prevent an entire external union, yet need it prevent our union in affection? Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may.
Every wise man, therefore, will allow others the same liberty of thinking which he desires they should allow him; and will no more insist on their embracing his opinions, than he would have them to insist on his embracing theirs. He bears with those who differ from him, and only asks him with whom he desires to unite in love that single question, “Is thy heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?” (I.6)
* * *
Reconciliation, the Path Toward Unity
During World War II, Hitler commanded all religious groups to unite so that he could control them. Among the Brethren Assemblies, half complied and half refused. Those who went along with the order had a much easier time. Those who did not faced harsh persecution. In almost every family of those who resisted, someone died in a concentration camp.
When the war was over, feelings of bitterness ran deep between the groups and there was much tension. Finally, they decided that the situation had to be healed. Leaders from each group met at a quiet retreat. For several days, each person spent time in prayer, examining his own heart in the light of Christ's commands. Then they came together. Francis Schaeffer, who told of the incident, asked a friend who was there, "What did you do then?" "We were just one," he replied.
* * *
In Tune with One and Each Other
It occurred to me recently, as I was waiting for my grandson’s school band concert to begin, that concerts all tend to start the same. The band or orchestra comes out and takes a seat and then there is a lot of honking, squeaking, scales, and bits and pieces of songs as the musicians warm up.
Then one person, in an orchestra the “concert master” or first violinist, in a school band, usually the first clarinet, plays one note and each musician tests to see whether their instrument is in tune with that one. If it is, they are ready to play the concert. If it is not, they make adjustments, so they can be ready.
They all know, instinctively, that if they are in tune with that one instrument, they will all be in tune with each other.
And that, I believe, will preach.
* * *
Paul Tillich on Sin as Separation
In possibly his most famous sermon, “You Are Accepted,” theologian Paul Tillich offers a new understanding of sin, not as naughty acts but as separation, a paraphrase of which is included below:
“I should like to suggest another word to you, not as a substitute for the word "sin," but as a useful clue in the interpretation of the word sin: separation.” Separation is an aspect of the experience of everyone. Perhaps the word "sin" has the same root as the word "asunder." In any case, sin is separation.
To be in the state of sin is to be in the state of separation. And separation is threefold: there is separation among individual lives, separation of a person from their essential self, and separation of all people from God. This three-fold separation constitutes the state of everything that exists; it is a universal fact; it is the fate of every life. And it is our human fate in a very special sense.
For we as human beings know that we are separated. We not only suffer with all other creatures because of the self-destructive consequences of our separation, but also know why we suffer. We know that we are estranged from something to which we really belong, and with which we should be united. We know that the fate of separation is not merely a natural event like a flash of sudden lightning, but that it is an experience in which we actively participate, in which our whole personality is involved, and that, as fate, it is also guilt. Separation that is fate and guilt constitutes the meaning of the word "sin."
Later, in the same sermon, Tillich offers the concept of grace as the reconciliation that bridges the separation of sin and brings us back into unity with ourselves, each other, and God.
* * *
Illustrations About Thoughts and Prayers
Praying the Wrong Way
There are appropriate and inappropriate ways for Christians to pray. In his article, “How to Pray Inappropriate Prayers Without Really Trying!” Baptist pastor David Wilson, offers these warnings:
1. PRAYING AT PEOPLE INSTEAD OF TO GOD — Mini Sermons to explain things or correct others or display our superior spirituality.
2. FILLING PRAYERS WITH “SPIRITUAL” FILLER. — Some Christians feel that “good” prayers have to be of a certain length so they fluff up their prayers with spiritual filler Jesus warned against “vain repetitions” or babbling like pagans. At times, our prayer can become repetitive and ritualistic with little or no real feeling. Most of us don’t chant, but we might have “filler words” that we use to make our prayers stretch out a bit, words like “really,” “very,” “rather,” and “just.” Remember, Jesus offered what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” as an example of appropriate brevity in prayer.
3. USING PRAYER FOR SELF-PROMOTION — Jesus told a parable of a publican and a Pharisee praying at the temple. Looking at the prayer of the Pharisee we see that: 1.) He declared that he was better than others; 2.) He bragged about the sins he avoided (robbery, adultery, etc.) and; 3.) He boasted of the good he had done. We never have to point out to God all the good we have done. God knows.
4. MANIPULATIVE PRAYER (AKA: The Quid-Pro-Quo Prayer) — God, if you will just, then I will so. Quid-Pro-Quo prayers attempt to bribe God into doing what we want God to do by promising that we will do what God wants us to do. “Lord, if you help me pass this test, I promise that I will study the next time.” “God, if you let my friend live, I promise that I’ll never drink again.”
God’s grace is not subject to bribes and payoffs. Our good acts should come as signs of gratitude for God’s love, not as payments for it.
5. PRAYERS OFFERED AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR RIGHTEOUS WORK — God has given us work to do — feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, speaking up for the powerless, etc. (Cf. Matthew 25) but sometimes it’s easier to just pray about it, asking God to do for us what we are not willing to do for ourselves or each other.
Sometimes we don’t even pray the prayers we have promised to pray. We say, “I’ll pray for you” when we don’t really want to do anything and then we never actually offer up the promised prayers. “I’ll pray for you” becomes an easy way to end the conversation.
In Isaiah, God instructs the people to leave the temple with their sacrifices and not come back until they have done what they have been called to do.
* * *
Thoughts and Prayers
On the fourth anniversary of the "March for Our Lives" rally, more than 1,100 body bags — each one representing 150 people — were placed on the National Mall to mark the more than 170,000 people who have died from gun violence in the US since the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
"This could happen to your community again, unfortunately at this point in America, it's not a matter of what, just every single day," David Hogg, Parkland survivor and co-founder for March For Our Lives, told ABC News. "People ask me, 'Are you worried about the next part?' I say yes, but actually more worried about … that this is a preventable issue."
March For Our Lives is a nonprofit organization that formed after thousands came to Washington, DC, to demand action in the gun violence epidemic in the wake of the Parkland shooting, which left 14 students and three staff members dead.
It is calling on Congress to create a White House senior staff position dedicated to gun violence, pass universal background checks, provide a comprehensive plan on how to combat gun violence and invest in research and community-based violence intervention, the organization told ABC News. Congress has responded with silence and ethical/moral paralysis.
The body bags facing the Capitol spelled out "Thoughts and Prayers," a common phrase lawmakers use in the wake of tragedies.
“Thoughts and prayers are reserved for things that are outside of our control, that are outside of our responsibility and ability, right? Gun violence is not a natural thing. Give us your action,” said David Mumin, co-chair of March for Our Lives.
* * *
Bad Prayer Habits
In his article “6 Bad Prayer Habits We All (Mostly) Are Guilty Of,” Stephen Mattson offers these observations to help draw closer to God through prayer.
For many Christians, prayer is often something we do thoughtlessly — and that’s our first mistake. Here are some things we carelessly do wrong in relationship to our prayer habits:
We Use Clichés — Intentionality is often the difference between hollowed tradition and superficial laziness. When we talk to God, we need to honestly be ourselves and use our own words—not the pastor’s words, not what we think the audience around us wants to hear, and not what we think is the most politically correct and polite thing to say.
Too often, we turn prayer into a lifeless string of overused spiritual expressions—fluffy words we’ve all heard a million times in church services, during Sunday school, and countless Bible studies. They’re meaningless to us, and they’re often meaningless to God.
Prayer isn’t a show, but we often turn it into one. We lower our voice to just above a whisper and make it breathy and soft. For many, it’s easier to reuse old clichés than it is to be vulnerable, open, and transparent.
We Turn Prayer into a Personal Wish List
We treat God like Santa Claus. — It’s amazing how often prayer devolves into a wish list—things we want from God. Sure, the requests are often legitimate — safety, healing, reconciliation, peace, happiness, and wisdom (among other things)—but we need to intentionally remember to use prayer as a form of worship and thanksgiving to God.
We Don’t Use Our Creativity and Imagination — There are more ways to pray than simply using audible words. You can pray in your mind (many Christians already practice this), you can pray using journals, and you can pray through poetry and music and liturgy. Take advantage of your creativity and practice using different methods of praying to God.
Additionally, many Christians have lost their ability to utilize their imagination when praying. To summarize, the Rev. Dr. Greg Boyd encourages people to use the power of their imagination during prayer—creatively visualizing everything from specific requests, to picturing God sitting in the room with them while they pray.
Instead of turning off our minds we should use our imaginations to pray to the best of our ability.
We Talk But Don’t Listen — Prayer is often one-sided — us talking to God. But we need to start using prayer as a time to listen. We’re good at telling God what’s on our mind, but what is God telling us? Our culture has become so overstimulated by noise and activity that Christians have lost the ability to patiently—and quietly—listen.
Prayer is often the litmus test that determines if your relationship with God works both ways. Does God speak to you? If not, maybe it’s simply because you’ve stopped listening.
We Pray Alone — Out of sheer convenience—and our fear of being transparent—we often prefer to pray on our own instead of within a community. But the Bible repeatedly gives examples of communal prayer and encourages people to pray with—and for—one another.
Corporate prayer helps bind Christians together by requiring emotional and spiritual investment. It’s often not the most comfortable or easy experience—but it’s worth it.
We Use “Inactive” Prayer (Actions Speak Louder Than Words) — Christians have sinfully used prayer as an excuse for being inactive. Prayer is meant to spark change, restoration, hope, and love. Prayer isn’t meant to be empty or meaningless, but too often Christians treat it as an excuse to do nothing. “I’ll be praying” has become the Christian way of saying “I’m not going to do anything about it.”
If you pray for something, act upon that prayer. For example, if you pray for a friend that’s sick with the flu, go drop off some soup for them when you’re done.
As Christians, we need to stop praying for answers and start being the answers to prayer.
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From team member Tom Willadsen:Acts 1:6-14
Yes, Jesus had brothers
There has been dispute through the ages as to whether Jesus had siblings. Acts 1:14 makes a strong case that he did, or at least had half-brothers.
In Matthew 12:46-50, Jesus appears to distance himself from his family, that is mother and brothers, by indicating that those who do the will of the Father is his brother, mother and sister. This encounter appears in slightly different form in Luke 8:19-21, Mark 3:31-35. In Matthew 13:55 Jesus is identified as the carpenter’s son and his brothers are named: James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. Jesus’ brothers are mentioned in John 7:3, but not by name. An aunt, Mary’s sister is mentioned, but not named in John 19:25.
* * *
Acts 1:6-14
About this brother James
Tradition holds that Jesus’ brother James wrote the Letter of James, though scholars dispute this. The style of the Greek reflects a high level of education, which Jesus’ Galilean brother probably could not attain. Also, sources independent of the Bible record James as having been killed in 66 CE, prior to the composition of the letter.
The appearance of Jesus’ brother James in the synoptic gospels leads one to believe that Jesus’ siblings were not followers, or at least not as close of followers as the twelve we know as the disciples.
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Acts 1:6-14
Christians’ car
The New Revised Standard Version renders Acts 1:14 this way:
“All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”
Clearly, they drove a Honda, but probably had to take turns. With 11 disciples, soon to be twelve, the women and Jesus’ siblings couldn’t all fit in at the same time.
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John 17:1-11
…from another perspective
The First Nations Version, an Indigenous Translation of the New Testament (InterVarsity Press) came out in 2021. It often brings a fresh elegance to the week’s readings. This week I found John 17:11 particularly life-giving:
“Since I am returning to you, I will no longer be in the world, but my followers will still be here. O Father of all that is holy, watch over them with the loving care that we share with one another. In this way, they will also share the love that makes us one.”
In the FNV italics indicate “reasonably implied statements.” “These added statements are not intended to change the meaning of the text but rather to bring clarity.” (p. xii)
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1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11
They will know you are Christian
1 Peter 4:16 is one of only three occasions where the word “Christian” appears in the NRSV. The others are Acts 11:26 (where it’s plural) and Acts 26:28. By the time 1 Peter was written — prior to 64 CE if you believe Simon Peter, Jesus’ denier, is that author — late first century CE, other scholars contend — the name “Christian” by itself is enough to provoke discrimination and punishment from the civil authorities.
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From team member Elena Delhagen:John 17:1-11; Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
A Cosmic Temple
Jesus’ prayer for his disciples, as this passage is often nicknamed, is beautiful, and much ink has been spilled over the centuries over what this text could mean. At times, however, we can spend so much time examining Jesus’ words that we miss some of the other conversational clues this lectionary passage gives us. Like Jesus’ body language, for example. In John 17:1, Jesus begins by looking up to heaven. As Rebecca Blair Young reminds us, “The biblical view of heaven is different from our view of the universe. Where our ancestors looked up and imagined a heavenly dwelling for the divine, we see physical space extending billions of light years. Even in the age of science, though, it remains significant that Jesus looks up at this moment, because he is looking beyond worldly limits to a far greater, unlimited life.” Yet even today, in our enlightened, modern (yet still limited!) understandings, we know that somewhere, beyond all that cosmos, is the dwelling place of the almighty God.
However, in the Bible and other cultures of the ancient Near East (Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, etc.), the world was thought of as a building, a habitable space for humans and other creatures to live in. This is why the creation of the world and the building of the house are described similarly in the book of Proverbs (see Proverbs 3:19-20 and 24:3-4). But the world isn’t any old building; it’s created by the Lord God, after all! The Bible follows ancient Near Eastern convention in understanding the world as God’s “house,” that is, as a cosmic sanctuary, a temple for God to inhabit, with heaven corresponding to the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence is concentrated.* This certainly aligns with the language the psalmist uses in Psalm 68, language that paints a picture of a rider in the heavens with power in the skies — our awesome God who sits in a “sanctuary” (see verses 32-25). Interestingly, the Hebrew word that’s been translated to sanctuary here in the NRSV is one that means “holy places.” So, this vast universe is all the temple of the Lord, and there is a special seat of honor for God within it, representative of the divine desire to dwell with his people.
“Space,” says The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.”
Yet even a universe that’s discernibly 94 billion light years across isn’t big enough to keep God from us.
* * *
Acts 1:6-14
Unexpected Places
I always chuckle to myself when I read this story in Acts, how the disciples were gazing up to heaven and found themselves visited by two men in white robes. “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” the men ask. In other words — you’re looking in the wrong place!
How often do we set out looking for something only to find it in unexpected places? I remember once when I was pregnant, I could not, for the life of me, find the lunch I’d packed and brought to my second grade classroom one day. Lo and behold, later that afternoon, I unlocked the filing cabinet by my desk only to find my packed lunch! In my scatterbrained state, I’d locked it in the cabinet instead of putting it in the fridge in the teachers’ lounge.
God, I think, loves to surprise us by showing up in all the places we would never expect! Let us not stick to looking in all the familiar places — the ones we’re comfortable with — that we miss out on something or someplace new.
* For a more detailed analysis of the cosmos as temple, see J. Richard Middleton’s, The Liberating Image, 81-88.
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1 Peter 4:12-14
It is unnerving to think that we are told we will suffer for Christ’s name. For our identity as his followers — as Christians, which in Greek is a phrase comprised of two words meaning “little christ.”
Yet how many in our world today suffer for their monikers? Their identities?
New York City recently passed a bill banning weight discrimination practices in employment, housing, and public accommodations. “Weight discrimination is widespread, but hits women the hardest — particularly women of color. Women considered obese earned $5.25 less per hour than women considered normal weight, according to a Vanderbilt University study.” Weight discrimination is so baked into the fabric of American society that it often goes unnoticed, unless you happen to be someone who has suffered because of it.
Black doctors are coming forward and suing hospital systems over discrimination they had faced while working as physicians there. People of color have been continually speaking out for literal centuries at this point to call attention to all the ways they have suffered in this country because of the color of their skin.
In Florida, only a few days ago, Governor DeSantis signed SB 1580, a “License to Discriminate in Healthcare” bill that will allow healthcare providers and insurers to deny a patient care on the basis of religious, moral, or ethical beliefs. This bill, and those like it, serve to further marginalize those in the queer and other vulnerable communities.
Far too often, our identities serve as things that others use against us instead of being seen as part of the beautiful mosaic of who we are. Consider your own identity — the parts of it that perhaps have been assigned to you. The parts you’ve always identified with. The parts society may celebrate you for. Or, alternatively, the parts that have brought you suffering at the hands of others.
And perhaps consider this: affirmation of our identities is one of the most important factors in how we understand ourselves as characters in God’s story. Even Jesus needed affirmation of his identity; when he was baptized in the Jordan, the voice of God affirmed his identity as the Son, and this gave Jesus the strength needed to sustain the temptation in the wilderness.
What are the parts of your identity that are longing for affirmation? Who in your life can you affirm and thereby ease, even if a little bit, their sufferings?
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WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: Clap your hands and shout to God with loud songs of joy.
All: For our God, the Most High, is awesome, ruler over all the earth.
One: God has gone up with a shout and with the sound of a trumpet.
All: Sing praises to God; sing praises to our Sovereign.
One: God is the ruler of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm.
All: God is Sovereign over the nations; God sits on the holy throne.
OR
One: Let the righteous be joyful; let them exult before God.
All: Sing to God who is parent to orphans and protector to widows.
One: Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth; sing praises to our God.
All: Listen, God speaks with a mighty voice.
One: Awesome is God in the holy sanctuary.
All: God gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!
OR
One: The God of unity and oneness is among us.
All: The God who dwells in three persons is with us.
One: God invites us into this unity within diversity.
All: We offer ourselves to the Three in One.
One: The One who dwells with us is also in all others.
All: We will welcome God as we embrace all God’s children.
Hymns and Songs
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
UMH: 64/65
H82: 362
PH: 138
GTG: 1
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELW: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT: 26
Renew: 204
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
UMH: 79
H82: 366
PH: 460
GTG: 4
NNBH: 13
NCH: 276
LBW: 535
ELW: 414
W&P: 138
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
UMH: 89
H82: 376
PH: 464
GTG: 611
AAHH: 120
NNBH: 40
NCH: 4
CH: 2
LBW: 551
ELW: 836
W&P: 59
AMEC: 75
STLT 29
Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation
UMH: 559
H82: 518
PH: 416/417
GTG: 394
NCH: 400
CH: 275
LBW: 367
ELW: 645
AMEC: 518
The Church’s One Foundation
UMH: 545/546
H82: 525
PH: 442
GTG: 321
AAHH: 337
NNBH: 297
NCH: 386
CH: 272
LBW: 369
ELW: 654
W&P: 544
AMEC: 519
When the Church of Jesus
UMH: 592
CH: 470
ELW: 555
Lord, You Give the Great Commission
UMH: 584
H82: 528
PH: 429
GTG: 298
CH: 459
ELW: 579
W&P: 592
Renew: 305
Lead On, O King Eternal
UMH: 580
PH: 447/448
GTG: 269
AAHH: 477
NNBH: 415
NCH: 573
CH: 632
LBW: 495
ELW: 805
W&P: 508
AMEC: 177
Renew: 298
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH: 577
H82: 594/595
PH: 420
GTG: 307
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELW: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether
UMH: 632
PH: 504
GTG: 529
NCH: 337
CH: 392
ELW: 470
Make Me a Servant
CCB: 90
Lord, Be Glorified
CCB: 62
Renew: 172
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The 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 ever one while being three:
Grant us the grace to live in true unity with you
so that we may be your presence to those around us;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God of unity and diversity. You maintain your oneness even as you are present throughout creation. Grant us the grace to so dwell in you that others may find you active in all that we do or say. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially tendency to gaze into heaven for our comfort and to ignore the needs of others around us.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have become absorbed in our desire for spiritual comfort and have forgotten the needs of others. We gaze into heaven as baby birds waiting to be fed without a thought for those around us who are hungry. We look for comfort and peace for ourselves without a care for others who are in need. Call us back into true unity with you so that like Jesus we may also respond to the needs around us. Help us to so dwell in your Spirit that in confidence we share your presence with others through our caring words and deeds. Amen.
One: God is ever present with us and is pleased to be made present to others through us. Receive God’s loving forgiveness and share that grace with all.
Prayers of the People
Praised and glorious are you, O God who is Three and yet One. As you dwell in perfect harmony within yourself you also dwell within your creation.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have become absorbed in our desire for spiritual comfort and have forgotten the needs of others. We gaze into heaven as baby birds waiting to be fed without a thought for those around us who are hungry. We look for comfort and peace for ourselves without a care for others who are in need. Call us back into true unity with you so that like Jesus we may also respond to the needs around us. Help us to so dwell in your Spirit that in confidence we share your presence with others through our caring words and deeds.
We give you thanks for all the ways you make yourself known to us in creation. We thank you for the beauty of the worlds you have made and for the abundance of our earth. We thank you for those who allow your Spirit to shine forth in the caring words and deeds so that we experience you through them. We thank you for your Spirit that dwells within us and draws us to you and to all your children.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for the needs of your world this day. We pray for those who are unaware of your presence around them. We pray for those who are caught in webs of violence and hatred which blind them to your loving presence. We pray for those whose lack of clean water, food, clothing, or shelter so occupies their minds that they do not think of you. We pray for those who struggle with illness or grief. We pray for your church that we may be faithful to our calling.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray 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 SERMONTrusting in God
by Quantisha Mason-Doll
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Themes:
• It’s hard being a person.
• It is okay to be scared.
• Trust in God and the people around you.
Props
• Paper for making paper chain people
— Paper Doll
— paper angels
I am a grown-up. Before I was a grown up, I was a teenager and before I was teenager, I was a small child. During each of these stages of my life and your life you are a person with wants, needs, and feelings. I'm going to let you in on a little secret — it's not easy being a person. We see it in our story from first Peter today where our apostle tells us that anxiety is real and being a person is hard. Does anyone know what anxiety feels like? Maybe you have been feeling a little lonely? (Leave space to talk about anxiety and loneliness and the different ways it can show up in life.)
Anxiety is a lot like fear. It is a funny feeling that shows up in our bodies. Maybe for you it feels like there are a bunch of bees buzzing around in your tummy trying to make their way out. (Here would be a good time to give some anecdotal insight into different kinds of feelings. Maybe talk about the first time you had to preach in a crowded church.)
Sometimes you can feel lonely. Maybe that loneliness shows up as being scared or unsure of how you fit into this world. (Remind the children and parents that it takes real courage and grace to tell people how you feel.)
I know this might seem kind of sad, but all these feelings help create who we are. (At this time start cutting out the paper people chain and talking about how letting people in and relying on each other helps to lessen the weight of anxiety and loneliness and pain.)
I relate all of this to the way Peter tells us to rely on each other and to rely on the grace of God. All the bad stuff Peter talks about with a lion roaring we feel deep within us. These are things that seek to separate us from the love and strength that comes from God, our families, and our friends. (Open the chain of people.)
Do you know how you resist being scared and rejoice in the glory of God? We do it by turning to each other when we are struggling. We have to have the courage to turn to each other even when we are sad or scared. We can trust in the strength God has given each and every one of us.
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The Immediate Word, May 21, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 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.
