The Keeper
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Dear Fellow Preacher,
Serious proposals for radical change in the U.S. Social Security system are creating a good deal of anxiety among many Americans. Others in our congregations worry about financial security, emotional security, or personal security. Carlos Wilton, lead writer for this issue of The Immediate Word, draws our attention to the source of true security -- God's "providence" -- as that is powerfully expressed in the lectionary's assigned psalm for February 20.
Other team members comment also on the other assigned lections, reflecting on the meaning of the doctrine of providence and how we can understand the experience of suffering and evil in light of this conviction. As usual, we offer also illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
The Keeper
Psalm 121
By Carlos Wilton
Genesis 12:1-4a; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17
The Gospel on a Postcard
An article in the February 9th New York Times tells of John A. Lemoine of Littleton, Colorado -- a former building manager for AT&T, who was downsized into early retirement with a much-reduced pension. Now, at the age of 54, he's concerned about his long-term future. In order to make up for the pension he can no longer count on, he's working three part-time jobs: as a maintenance worker at a Sam's Club, an X-ray technician, and a security guard.
Mr. Lemoine is not alone. The skyrocketing cost of medical benefits, combined with the shift from a manufacturing-based to an information-based economy, have led many companies to cut costs wherever they can. Some workers, like Mr. Lemoine, are simply laid off. Others have their pension benefits cut. Still others are laid off and immediately rehired as "consultants," with no benefits at all.
Just as families are learning to live with perpetual anxiety about their retirement income, President Bush is talking about privatizing Social Security -- creating a system of individual retirement accounts that would represent the most sweeping change to that program since Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed it as the centerpiece of his New Deal. The president is confident his proposal could save the Social Security system; others are far less confident.
Preacher, can you feel your people's anxiety level rising? Psalm 121 provides a marvelous text for speaking pastorally to that anxiety, by teaching about God's providence. "The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore," promises the psalmist (v. 8). Nothing on this earth -- not even the Social Security system -- can keep us, in the same way God promises. No one but God can guarantee ultimate security.
Some Words on the Word
Psalm 121 is the second of a series of psalms labeled "songs of ascents." The "ascent" refers to the ascent up to Mount Zion, the route taken by pilgrims on their way to the Temple. The particular identity of the "hills" in verse 1 is not important -- some have considered them to be the hills around Jerusalem, others Mount Zion itself, still others a spiritualized mountain range that represents both the summit of human aspirations and the solidity of God's promises.
In any event, the psalmist looks to these hills, real or imagined, and feels reassured that, in the words of poet Robert Browning, "God's in his heaven -- all's right with the world!" (Pippa Passes, part 1, "Morning," 1841). The Lord is portrayed here as the psalmist's protector. The psalmist may "slumber or sleep," but the Lord will not (v. 4). The Lord is his "shade," protecting him from the blazing sun. Not even the sun or moon is mighty enough to smite the writer of this psalm while his champion is on duty (vv. 5-6).
The final verses of the psalm present a bigger picture. The psalmist commends the Lord to others, saying that the Lord "will keep your life" and "will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time on and forevermore" (vv. 7-8).
The psalm is a dialogue. Verses 1-2 are the first voice, and the second voice comes in with verse 3 and continues to the end of the psalm. Responding to the first voice's somewhat tremulous confession of faith, the second voice speaks with absolute certainty about the Lord's constancy in standing by those who believe.
While the psalm is included in a selection of pilgrim psalms, there is in fact no explicit reference to pilgrimage (unless we count the reference to "the hills" in v. 1 as referring to the vista a pilgrim would see, approaching Jerusalem). As Artur Weiser points out, it may in fact be a psalm that was originally composed for some other purpose, which later became a favorite with pilgrims and was therefore added to the pilgrimage collection (The Psalms [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962], p. 746).
Pilgrimages in the ancient world were not without their dangers. Perhaps this psalm of trust would have had a certain resonance with pilgrims, journeying far from home, who have bedded down for the night and are worried for their safety. As wild animals howl in the distance, and as the moon -- a symbol associated with the evils of the night -- rises ominously, such pilgrims may well have sung these verses as a way of reassuring one another.
The verb "to keep" (shamar) occurs several times in this psalm. The Lord is the one who keeps Israel, and is also referred to as the individual's keeper. It can also be translated "guardian."
A Map of the Message
On January 31, 1940, Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont, received the first Social Security check ever issued, in the amount of $22.54. Ms. Fuller, a legal secretary, had worked for just three years under the Social Security program before retiring. She had paid in a total of $24.75 in Social Security taxes -- an amount that was nearly paid back by that first check she received.
Ms. Fuller wasn't sure at first whether this new government benefit was even worth applying for. While running an errand, she dropped by the Rutland, Vermont, Social Security office to ask what, if anything, she was entitled to receive. She would later observe: "It wasn't that I expected anything, mind you, but I knew I'd been paying for something called Social Security and I wanted to ask the people in Rutland about it."
Stopping by the Social Security office that day turned out to be a very good move. Ms. Fuller started collecting benefits in January 1940, at age 65. She lived to be 100 years old, dying in 1975. During her lifetime she collected a total of $22,888.92 in Social Security benefits -- more than 1,000 times the amount she had paid into the system. (Source: Social Security Administration website http://www.ssa.gov/history/imf.html
http://www.ssa.gov/history/briefhistory3.html#idamay)
Her story was common among her generation of Social Security recipients. That's the way the system had been designed. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his advisers intended that the first Social Security recipients would get a more-or-less free ride, paid for by the taxes contributed by their younger fellow-workers. When those workers retired, in turn, their benefits would be paid for by even younger workers. As long as Congress continued to tweak the program guidelines and contribution amounts, adjusting for demographic realities like growing population and longer life spans, the system would perpetuate itself indefinitely.
Roosevelt sold the concept of Social Security contributions to the American public as "insurance," though in fact it was -- and continues to be -- a tax. Many retirees, tearing open their monthly Social Security envelopes, continue to think the government is simply returning funds to them that have been held on deposit. In fact, if they live long enough, they too will reach the point Ida May Fuller reached just two months after her retirement -- they will be benefiting from the largesse of others.
As President Bush talks about "privatizing" Social Security (he now refers to it as "personalizing") -- establishing a complex accounting system whereby retirees would eventually receive only what they had paid into the system, and no more -- it seems that Roosevelt's entire concept is up for grabs. It remains to be seen whether or not the president can convince Congress to make such major changes in this granddaddy of all entitlement programs.
An important arrow in the president's rhetorical quiver, as he pitches his proposal, is anxiety. He claims the Social Security system is "broke," requiring repairs so major that they amount to gutting the original structure and rebuilding it. Anxious workers, many of who are watching expenses rise faster than their paychecks, wonder if they would not do better, at retirement, cashing out the contributions they've already made, rather than maintaining the social contract with the next generations that has continued for more than sixty years.
"From where will my help come?" asks the author of Psalm 121. There was no Social Security system back then, to offer help. Help comes only from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. The Lord is our keeper -- a word that may not necessarily have positive associations for our people. Out of context, it may suggest "zookeeper," a word that implies a certain lack of freedom for the one being cared for; or perhaps even a man who "keeps" a woman as a mistress. In a very different sense, a keeper is one who watches over something, tending and protecting it. A lighthouse keeper makes certain that this important aid to navigation is maintained, so it can fulfill its purpose. The Lord is our keeper in this sense.
Theologically speaking, the word "keeper" suggests God's providence. In theology, the concept of providence is divided into general providence (God's care and oversight over all creation) and special providence (God's care for individual people). This psalm clearly appeals to special providence.
The opposite of providence is chance. There is little comfort in the prevailing secularist view that our lives are aimlessly adrift in a vast and turbulent sea of chance. The psalmist's view is quite different: God cares about us as individuals, watching over us, protecting us.
Security is one of the great values of our age. We have a Department of Homeland Security, pledged to keep us safe from terrorist attack. We have Social Security, pledged to provide economic security in our retirement. Psalm 121 is about spiritual security, which comes only from "the Lord, who made heaven and earth."
Team Comments
Chris Ewing responds: The question of whether or not to "maintain the social contract with the next generations," as our lead writer has well framed the heart of the Social Security debate, hinges on some of the central issues of practical theology. What is our responsibility to those who come after us? To the vulnerable in our present society? What constitutes security? Can God be trusted? For what? Today's readings, exploring the foundations of Jewish and Christian faith, offer rich and challenging matter for reflection on these themes.
The providence of God has from the beginning been a cornerstone of the Judeo-Christian tradition. We maintain that God entered into covenant relationship with a particular people, shepherding them through many changes of fortune, guiding them into increasing understanding of the nature and purpose of God, calling them to be a light to the world, rebuking and correcting them when they went astray. Having come in Christ Jesus to definitively atone for sin and to forge a new relationship, God continues to guide and sustain the faithful by means of the Holy Spirit. Countless Christians believe that God directs their daily lives in a very intimate and detailed way. The 121st Psalm is only one of many treasured expressions of this providential care.
But if we trust in the care and oversight of God, we are aware that this does not guarantee us a safe and easy life, nor does it absolve us of responsibility to attend to such matters as may properly be ours to control -- among them, earning a living and caring for those who cannot. We need to wrestle with what it means to say God cares for us, especially in a time when we feel under threat. We also need to wrestle with the fact that a central responsibility of the covenant community in both Testaments is to ensure that no one is left destitute: the Torah, the prophets, Paul, and James all insist that our common life must reflect and enact God's providential care for everyone. This core Judeo-Christian value is often forgotten in today's exceptionally individualistic climate.
It is probably not possible in one sermon to address both the "social contract" and the "meaning of security" sides of this pressing social issue. Both aspects need to be addressed, however, and they can stand in considerable tension with each other. For, if we must challenge the individualism that erodes our sense of responsibility for each other's material well-being, we must also challenge the preoccupations of a security-obsessed society and urge a wider view of providence.
Modern North Americans typically think of security in very material and physical terms: having enough money to maintain a comfortable standard of living; being safe from war and terrorist attacks on home soil. There is a broad stream of biblical tradition that supports just such a framing of the question. The original covenant was predicated on land and descendants; the original deliverance was from physical slavery; the Torah was substantially concerned with material justice; defeat in war was seen as God's punishment; and wealth and offspring continued throughout the First Testament to be seen as markers of God's blessing.
Yet covenant people from earliest times have recognized that it is not quite as neat and simple as that. Long before Job struggled with the meaning of blessing, Abraham, in our First Reading, was asked to leave behind his home, family, and such possessions as could not be carried, for a land yet to be identified. Never again would he have the kind of security he left behind. He is often criticized for trying to shore up his position on the old familiar terms: using his slave to ensure himself some offspring; falsely identifying his wife as his sister to a king who might find her attractive and see Abraham as a rival. Even though the covenant was framed in terms of land and descendants, he clearly sensed that God was less concerned about such human definitions of security than he was. Caught between old and new ways of thinking about security and providence, he tried to play both sides of the fence.
In this he is truly the father of us all (Romans 4:16) -- of all of us who live by faith, and of all of us who don't quite carry it off. As Jesus and Nicodemus found to their mutual frustration, the interface between the mundane and the spiritual is often a puzzling area characterized by both continuity and discontinuity. The physical does and does not reflect the spiritual; the serpent lifted up in the wilderness was important both because it healed physical snakebite and because it pointed beyond itself to a more far-reaching spiritual healing (John 3:14-15). We cannot biblically say that the present world and its material circumstances are a matter of indifference; yet neither can we accord them definitive importance. To be born from above is to be both of and not of the present world, both addressing and transcending its concerns.
Our people need to be helped to do two things: first of all, to engage the public debate about Social Security and the broader social contract, from the perspective of a faith heritage that has very strong things to say about our obligation to one another and, second, to engage the spiritual and interior debate about what it means to be "safe in your hands, O God, who made me" (Michael Perry's metrical setting of Psalm 27). Today's readings offer opportunities to initiate either of these tasks.
George Murphy responds: The doctrine of providence, the idea that God will "provide," has gotten renewed attention in recent years because of interest in the dialogue between science and theology.
It's closely connected with the question of "divine action," our understanding of how God acts in the world, and therefore of how we relate such a theological concept with our scientific theories about how natural processes take place. Chapter 12 of Ian G. Barbour's Religion and Science (HarperSanFrancisco, 1997) gives a good overview of ideas about this.
Providence is not, however, just a minor area of theology. As the sections Carlos cites from the Heidelberg Catechism indicate, it's an essential part of the doctrine of creation. (Luther explains the First Article of the Creed in a similar way in his Small Catechism.) To believe in creation is not just to say something about the origin of the world, but to believe that God is my creator. (On the other hand, faith in God as the creator it is not a purely personal statement: I am who I am only because of my relationships with the rest of the universe, including the stars that exploded billions of years ago to provide the carbon atoms of my body.)
This week's Second Lesson, Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, offers important insight into creation and its relationships with other aspects of Christian faith. In this chapter Paul gives three statements about what God does, which are at the same time statements about the kind of God that God is. God is the one who "justifies the ungodly" (v. 5), "gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist" (v. 18). Take the last first.
Paul's words may not be an exact formulation of what later theology would call creation ex nihilo, but they are close to it. God created the universe "out of nothing" -- not out of some peculiar "something" called "nothing" but in spite of the impossibility of existence.
The question "Why is there something rather than nothing?" cannot be answered by any philosophical or scientific theory. Science has to start with something. Belief in creation is a faith claim, that what exists depends upon the God of Israel, the God made known in Jesus Christ. Paul's statement that this is also the God who "gives life to the dead" has to do first with Abraham, who believed that God could provide the promised heir even though his own elderly body was "as good as dead" (Romans 4:19). But of course it also reminds us of the key claim of Christian faith, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And as Bonhoeffer argues, that is an act that shows the same divine defiance of impossibility as creation ex nihilo.
[T]he God of creation, of the utter beginning, is the God of the resurrection. The world exists from the beginning in the sign of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Indeed it is because we know the resurrection that we know of God's creation in the beginning, of God's creating out of nothing. The dead Jesus Christ of Good Friday and the resurrected #x03BA;ύριος of Easter Sunday -- that is creation out of nothing, creation from the beginning. The fact that Christ was dead did not provide the possibility of his resurrection but its impossibility; it was nothing itself, it was nihil negativum. There is absolutely no transition, no continuum between the dead Christ and the resurrected Christ, but the freedom of God that in the beginning created God's work out of nothing. Were it possible to intensify the nihil negativum even more, we would have to say here, in connection with the resurrection, that with the death of Christ on the Cross the nihil negativum broke its way into God's own being -- O great desolation! God, yes God, is dead. -- Yet the one who is the beginning lives, destroys the nothing, and in his resurrection creates the new creation. By his resurrection we know about the creation.
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Creation and Fall, in Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998), 3:34-35
To turn to Paul's first statement, justification of the ungodly is a work of the same character. God does not take people who are slightly godly and make them more godly; God starts with us in our condition of being ungodly. It is a work of new creation. So the personal relationship that we have with God for Christ's sake is of the same type as our relationship as creatures with the creator, one of absolute dependence.
Belief in providence then has to be understood in this context. It is not simply belief that some supernatural power is able to intervene in the world in special "acts of God" to fix things up occasionally. Instead, it is faith that the God who is the creator of our lives and of the whole universe, and who has brought about a new relationship with himself, will continue to act in the world and in our lives in such ways as to preserve his creation and guide it toward fulfillment. And because of this we are able, in spite of all the seeming impossibilities that may face us in life, to "hope against hope" like Abraham (Romans 4:18).
With Romans 4 in mind, it's helpful to remember the origin of the term "providence" for what's being discussed here. It comes from Abraham's statement in Genesis 22:14 that "the LORD will provide," made just after he was spared from offering the promised child in sacrifice. This is another reason why Abraham's faith is in a sense resurrection faith, because he trusted that God could fulfill his promise in Isaac even if Isaac were killed.
Since I've theologized a good deal here, as is my wont, I should note the anecdote that Carlos provides about the "tough old officer" who responded to C. S. Lewis. I have to go by memory here but, as I recall, Lewis' comment was something to this effect: Certainly navigational charts of the Atlantic are no substitute for the experience of the ocean itself. But if you want to sail or fly across the ocean, navigational charts may come in a lot more handy than will an emotional experience of wind and waves.
Related Illustrations
From Carlos Wilton:
Q. 26. What do you believe when you say: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth"?
A. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth with all that is in them, who also upholds and governs them by his eternal counsel and providence, is for the sake of Christ his Son my God and my Father. I trust in him so completely that I have no doubt that he will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul. Moreover, whatever evil he sends upon me in this troubled life he will turn to my good, for he is able to do it, being almighty God, and is determined to do it, being a faithful Father.
Q. 27. What do you understand by the providence of God?
A. The almighty and ever-present power of God whereby he still upholds, as it were by his own hand, heaven and earth together with all creatures, and rules in such a way that leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and unfruitful years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, and everything else, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.
Q. 28. What advantage comes from acknowledging God's creation and providence?
A. We learn that we are to be patient in adversity, grateful in the midst of blessing, and to trust our faithful God and Father for the future, assured that no creature shall separate us from his love, since all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they cannot even move.
-- The Heidelberg Catechism
***
C. S. Lewis was once asked to speak to a company of the Royal Air Force about Christianity. At the end of the lecture, a tough old officer stood up and said, "I've got no use for all that stuff. But mind you, I'm a religious man too. I know there's a God. I've felt Him out alone in the desert at night. That's why I don't believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about Him. To anyone who's met the real thing, they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal."
***
Ron Rolheiser tells the story of a woman who found herself sitting in the back of a church one day, with a cast on her lower leg. She had been visiting her sister, who lived near a major ski resort. On Sunday, her sister invited her to go to church with her. She went skiing instead.
She broke her leg. And so, on the following Sunday, when her sister asked her to go to church with her, she agreed. She certainly couldn't have gone back to the ski slope! As it so happened, the designated readings for the day were about the Good Shepherd. It also happened that the regular priest was away, and the homily was being delivered by a visiting priest from Israel.
The priest could not have seen this woman, nor could he have known that she was sitting there with a cast on her leg. He began his homily by telling of an ancient practice among shepherds in Israel, that is still in use today -- a practice that sheds light on the meaning of the phrase, "Good Shepherd." Sometimes, early in the life of a lamb, a shepherd may sense that this particular animal is going to be a congenital stray, and will always be drifting away from the herd, where it can be injured or die. In such cases, the shepherd deliberately breaks the leg of the lamb, so he must carry it until its leg is healed. By that time, the lamb has become so attached to the shepherd that it never strays again.
"I may be dense," shared the woman, "but, given my broken leg and all that chance coincidence, hearing those words woke up something inside me. I have prayed and gone to church regularly ever since!"
"In the conspiracy of accidents that make up the ordinary events of our everyday lives," writes Rolheiser, "the finger of God is writing and writing large. We are children of Israel, children of Jesus, and children of our mothers and fathers in the faith. We need therefore, like them, to look at each and every event in our lives and ask ourselves the question: 'What is God saying to us in this?' The language of God is the experience that God writes inside our lives."
http://www.ronrolheiser.com/arc062004.html
***
Sometimes even the most spiritually minded among us may be led to doubt God's providence. Like St. Teresa of Avila. One day she was crossing a swollen river with a small cart, accompanied by some sisters from her convent. The donkey objected strongly, and they all ended up very wet and muddy. Teresa is reported to have looked to heaven and said, "God, if this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them!"
***
What troubles us is not so much the sheer fact that believers suffer along with everybody else. C. S. Lewis once pondered this. If the children of God were always saved from floods like believing Noah and his family; if every time somebody pointed a gun at a Christian, the gun just turned to salami; if we really had a money-back guarantee against hatred, disease, and the acts of terrorists, then of course we wouldn't have to worry about church growth. Our churches would fill with people attracted to the faith for secondary reasons. These are people who want an insurance agent, not a church. For security they want Colin Powell, not God. We already have people becoming Christians because they want to get rich or get happy. What would happen to people's integrity if becoming a believer really did give you blanket protection against poverty, accident, and the wages of sin?
-- Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., "Can God Be Trusted?" Christianity Today, June 15, 1998
***
Leonard Sweet tells the story of a Native American tribe that had a traditional way of training young braves. On the night of a boy's thirteenth birthday, he was placed in a dense forest to spend the entire night alone. Until then, he had never been away from the security of his family and tribe. But on this night he was blindfolded and taken miles away. When he removed the blindfold, he was in the middle of a dark wood, by himself.
Every time a twig snapped, feelings of terror entered his heart. Every time an animal howled, he imagined a wolf leaping out of the darkness. Every time the wind blew, he shivered -- not with the cold, but with fear of what dark spirits might be haunting his remote location.
Long hours later, the first rays of sunlight shone down on the place where he had been tossing and turning. Looking around, the boy noticed that the ominous shadows of the night before were ordinary trees, bushes, and rocks. Then, to his astonishment, he beheld the figure of a man standing just a few feet away, armed with bow and arrow. It was his father. He had been there all night long, bow drawn, arrows ready -- watching over his son in the darkness. The night is dark. The threats are real. The wilderness is lonely. But we are not alone.
-- Adapted from SoulSalsa (Zondervan, 2000), pp. 23-24
From Chris Ewing:
A New Creed
We are not alone,
we live in God's world.
We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God's presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God.
-- The United Church of Canada, General Council 1968, alt. 1998
***
Rachel Naomi Remen, in her celebrated book, Kitchen Table Wisdom, though not writing from a theocentric perspective, nonetheless describes life in terms reminiscent of the Judeo-Christian tradition's rich theological understanding of providence. (Remen, a physician, is the granddaughter of a rabbi.) After observing both her own struggles and that of others with chronic and life-threatening disease, she affirms that life is coherent, elegant, and mysterious in the way that it responds, not always to our felt or identified needs, but to our deepest and most real ones. Often it is our deepest wounds that lead us to wholeness.
Worship Resources
By Julia Ross Strope
CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Psalm 121)
Leader: Today is the second Sunday in Lent. I'm glad you are here. This sanctuary is a place of respite from anxiety and violence.
People: Without promises of social security, we need divine security.
Leader: So you've come hoping for inner peace?
People: We are looking to God for all our needs.
Leader: You've come to the right place. Here you can rest from your weariness. You can be reassured that God is guarding you.
People: God never dozes; God will protect us in our all our endeavors.
Leader: The Creator of the sun and the moon is with us today and always.
People: We are glad to be here! We praise God for blessings and for rest.
HYMN SUGGESTIONS
"Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah." tune: WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT
"Eternal Light, Shine In My Heart" (Psalm 121). tune: JACOB; available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 340
"To God Be The Glory."
"Great Is Thy Faithfulness."
"O God, Our Faithful God." tune: O GOTT, DU FROMMER GOTT; especially stanza 3 fits with the theme of God as our "keeper"
"God Be With You Till We Meet Again."
"O Light Whose Splendor Thrills." tune: LES COMMANDEMENTS DE DIEU. This is an evening hymn, but stanzas 1 and 3 can stand on their own and fit with the story of Nicodemus.
"Give To The Winds Thy Fears." tune: St Bride
"Lord Of Our Growing Years." tune: LITTLE CORNARD. Stanza 4 and 5 fit nicely with the theme of God keeping us through all fears and difficult times.
"O God, In A Mysterious Way." tune: DUNDEE. Stanza 3 especially encourages us to wait for good that God can bring out of the not-so-good.
CALL TO CONFESSION (based on Romans 4)
Men and women in previous generations made times to reflect on their shortcomings. We take these moments to become aware of how we have resisted being our best selves. Let us together pray the community confession and then make our personal prayers in two minutes of silence.
COMMUNITY CONFESSION (based on Romans 4)
Living God, we work hard using our energies, hours and talents. But we never seem to have enough money and enough time to be with our families, enjoy our houses and volunteer to serve people who need food and housing.
Our minds wander when we sit down to pray.
We feel insecure and afraid.
Quiet the tempting urges to be self-aggrandizing and belittling of others.
Work in us, integrating our minds and our emotions till we are whole and satisfied.
Expand our confidence in your love and grace;
Set us free from our disbeliefs and guide us in the teachings of Jesus. Amen.
WORD OF GRACE (based on Romans 4:7, 8)
Happy are you when your wrongs are transformed and when you feel empowered by God.
Happy are you when God releases you from all shame and guilt.
Let your faith be active and receive God's gifts.
CONGREGATIONAL CHORAL RESPONSE: "O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing," stanza 1; tune: AZMON
O for a thousand tongues to sing
My dear Redeemer's praise.
The glories of my God and King
The triumph of God's grace!
A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AFFIRMATION OF FAITH (based on John 3 and Matthew 4)
God continues to create the Universe and breathe life through all creatures. God loves all beings and invites us humans to be co-creators of goodness in this world.
Jesus of Nazareth -- Son of God -- challenged the traditions of his day and calls us to resist greediness, grandiosity, and arrogance.
Christ -- lover of the world -- impels us to serve persons in this global village who are lacking basic necessities and whose bodies and minds are wounded.
Holy Spirit lives in us nudging us to live humbly and do justice. The Spirit guides us and reminds us not to be afraid.
Church is the community of persons who are loyal to Christ, care for one another and heal brokenness.
God is with us in our comings and goings today and always. Let it be so!
OFFERTORY STATEMENT
This household of God uses our moneys and our talents to maintain this building, to purchase supplies, to pay ministers, musicians, and staff and to reach out to this city and to the world. The ushers will pass the plates. Fill them as you can.
DOXOLOGY: "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise," stanza 4; tune: ST DENIO
Thou reignest in glory, thou rulest in light,
Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
All praise we would render; O help us to see
'Tis only the splendor of light hideth thee!
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
God of Abundance, thank you for people who call this place your household. Thank you for the talents, skills, and resources they share so that your love goes to this city and to the world. Amen.
INTERCESSORY PRAYERS
A leader can pray this prayer, or the paragraphs can be divided between readers.
Patient God.
Thank you for sending Jesus to teach and to heal; thank you for your patience with Nicodemus and with us. We do not want to resist your light nor your new options for our lives. We are intrigued by your kingdom; strengthen us to participate with you in making it real.
God of water and spirit,
Live in us. Comfort us whose bodies are preparing to die. Soothe us whose lives are chaotic so that we might think clearly and make helpful decisions. Give us who live in shadows refreshing opportunities. Empower us who are fearful to gather information and to do what needs to be done. Be with us who are students; help us discipline ourselves to learn the skills and facts that make us valuable citizens. Touch us who are ill; support us who are anticipating medical procedure.
Surprising God,
With your fiery spirit purify us. With your water, saturate us with gentleness and grace. We long for your kingdom; birth in us curiosity, appreciation of adventure, and willingness to articulate your presence in our bodies and minds. Midwife us again to life everlasting.
Sustaining God,
Keep us safe all along our human journey. Amen.
BENEDICTION/CHARGE (based on John 3)
This benediction could be divided between two leaders, the first speaking the fact and the second giving the charge.
The Spirit blows where it will.
Participate wherever it takes you.
God is with you as you come and go;
Be aware of divine sustaining presence.
Christ is light within you;
Let it shine through, illuminating the dark.
Accept peace as your goal;
Live joyfully.
A Children's Sermon
Born again
Object: an article of baby clothing
Based on John 3:1-17
Good morning, boys and girls. Can any of you remember what it was like being a very tiny baby? (let them answer) Do you remember wearing clothes like this? (hold baby clothing up as you ask the question) Can any of you fit into this? (let them answer) Each of us was small enough once in our life to fit into this. Why can't we fit into it now? (let them answer) We've all grown bigger. We aren't babies any more. Do you think any of us will ever be able to fit into this piece of clothing again? (let them answer) Will we ever become a tiny baby again? (let them answer)
Let me tell you a story about being a tiny baby. The story is from this morning's Bible lesson. Once there was a man named Nicodemus. He was a Jewish leader. He came to Jesus late at night to ask Jesus some very important questions. Nicodemus knew that Jesus was a man of God. Jesus said a very interesting thing to Nicodemus. Jesus told him that no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again. (pause here) Can any of you imagine being born again? Nicodemus asked, "How can anyone be born after having grown old?" Jesus explained to Nicodemus what being born again means. It doesn't mean that you will become the small size of a baby again.
This is what Jesus said: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." Jesus was saying to Nicodemus that to be born again means to believe in God and Jesus. It doesn't mean that you become the size of a baby, even though it may sound like that. Being born again means that we believe in Jesus. It means that we not fear death. We will have eternal life. We know that we will not be afraid of death because God loves us. That's why God sent Jesus to us. When we know Jesus, we are born again. We don't become the size of a baby. Instead, we start our lives over again.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, February 20, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2004 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 permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
Serious proposals for radical change in the U.S. Social Security system are creating a good deal of anxiety among many Americans. Others in our congregations worry about financial security, emotional security, or personal security. Carlos Wilton, lead writer for this issue of The Immediate Word, draws our attention to the source of true security -- God's "providence" -- as that is powerfully expressed in the lectionary's assigned psalm for February 20.
Other team members comment also on the other assigned lections, reflecting on the meaning of the doctrine of providence and how we can understand the experience of suffering and evil in light of this conviction. As usual, we offer also illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
The Keeper
Psalm 121
By Carlos Wilton
Genesis 12:1-4a; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17
The Gospel on a Postcard
An article in the February 9th New York Times tells of John A. Lemoine of Littleton, Colorado -- a former building manager for AT&T, who was downsized into early retirement with a much-reduced pension. Now, at the age of 54, he's concerned about his long-term future. In order to make up for the pension he can no longer count on, he's working three part-time jobs: as a maintenance worker at a Sam's Club, an X-ray technician, and a security guard.
Mr. Lemoine is not alone. The skyrocketing cost of medical benefits, combined with the shift from a manufacturing-based to an information-based economy, have led many companies to cut costs wherever they can. Some workers, like Mr. Lemoine, are simply laid off. Others have their pension benefits cut. Still others are laid off and immediately rehired as "consultants," with no benefits at all.
Just as families are learning to live with perpetual anxiety about their retirement income, President Bush is talking about privatizing Social Security -- creating a system of individual retirement accounts that would represent the most sweeping change to that program since Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed it as the centerpiece of his New Deal. The president is confident his proposal could save the Social Security system; others are far less confident.
Preacher, can you feel your people's anxiety level rising? Psalm 121 provides a marvelous text for speaking pastorally to that anxiety, by teaching about God's providence. "The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore," promises the psalmist (v. 8). Nothing on this earth -- not even the Social Security system -- can keep us, in the same way God promises. No one but God can guarantee ultimate security.
Some Words on the Word
Psalm 121 is the second of a series of psalms labeled "songs of ascents." The "ascent" refers to the ascent up to Mount Zion, the route taken by pilgrims on their way to the Temple. The particular identity of the "hills" in verse 1 is not important -- some have considered them to be the hills around Jerusalem, others Mount Zion itself, still others a spiritualized mountain range that represents both the summit of human aspirations and the solidity of God's promises.
In any event, the psalmist looks to these hills, real or imagined, and feels reassured that, in the words of poet Robert Browning, "God's in his heaven -- all's right with the world!" (Pippa Passes, part 1, "Morning," 1841). The Lord is portrayed here as the psalmist's protector. The psalmist may "slumber or sleep," but the Lord will not (v. 4). The Lord is his "shade," protecting him from the blazing sun. Not even the sun or moon is mighty enough to smite the writer of this psalm while his champion is on duty (vv. 5-6).
The final verses of the psalm present a bigger picture. The psalmist commends the Lord to others, saying that the Lord "will keep your life" and "will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time on and forevermore" (vv. 7-8).
The psalm is a dialogue. Verses 1-2 are the first voice, and the second voice comes in with verse 3 and continues to the end of the psalm. Responding to the first voice's somewhat tremulous confession of faith, the second voice speaks with absolute certainty about the Lord's constancy in standing by those who believe.
While the psalm is included in a selection of pilgrim psalms, there is in fact no explicit reference to pilgrimage (unless we count the reference to "the hills" in v. 1 as referring to the vista a pilgrim would see, approaching Jerusalem). As Artur Weiser points out, it may in fact be a psalm that was originally composed for some other purpose, which later became a favorite with pilgrims and was therefore added to the pilgrimage collection (The Psalms [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962], p. 746).
Pilgrimages in the ancient world were not without their dangers. Perhaps this psalm of trust would have had a certain resonance with pilgrims, journeying far from home, who have bedded down for the night and are worried for their safety. As wild animals howl in the distance, and as the moon -- a symbol associated with the evils of the night -- rises ominously, such pilgrims may well have sung these verses as a way of reassuring one another.
The verb "to keep" (shamar) occurs several times in this psalm. The Lord is the one who keeps Israel, and is also referred to as the individual's keeper. It can also be translated "guardian."
A Map of the Message
On January 31, 1940, Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont, received the first Social Security check ever issued, in the amount of $22.54. Ms. Fuller, a legal secretary, had worked for just three years under the Social Security program before retiring. She had paid in a total of $24.75 in Social Security taxes -- an amount that was nearly paid back by that first check she received.
Ms. Fuller wasn't sure at first whether this new government benefit was even worth applying for. While running an errand, she dropped by the Rutland, Vermont, Social Security office to ask what, if anything, she was entitled to receive. She would later observe: "It wasn't that I expected anything, mind you, but I knew I'd been paying for something called Social Security and I wanted to ask the people in Rutland about it."
Stopping by the Social Security office that day turned out to be a very good move. Ms. Fuller started collecting benefits in January 1940, at age 65. She lived to be 100 years old, dying in 1975. During her lifetime she collected a total of $22,888.92 in Social Security benefits -- more than 1,000 times the amount she had paid into the system. (Source: Social Security Administration website http://www.ssa.gov/history/imf.html
http://www.ssa.gov/history/briefhistory3.html#idamay)
Her story was common among her generation of Social Security recipients. That's the way the system had been designed. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his advisers intended that the first Social Security recipients would get a more-or-less free ride, paid for by the taxes contributed by their younger fellow-workers. When those workers retired, in turn, their benefits would be paid for by even younger workers. As long as Congress continued to tweak the program guidelines and contribution amounts, adjusting for demographic realities like growing population and longer life spans, the system would perpetuate itself indefinitely.
Roosevelt sold the concept of Social Security contributions to the American public as "insurance," though in fact it was -- and continues to be -- a tax. Many retirees, tearing open their monthly Social Security envelopes, continue to think the government is simply returning funds to them that have been held on deposit. In fact, if they live long enough, they too will reach the point Ida May Fuller reached just two months after her retirement -- they will be benefiting from the largesse of others.
As President Bush talks about "privatizing" Social Security (he now refers to it as "personalizing") -- establishing a complex accounting system whereby retirees would eventually receive only what they had paid into the system, and no more -- it seems that Roosevelt's entire concept is up for grabs. It remains to be seen whether or not the president can convince Congress to make such major changes in this granddaddy of all entitlement programs.
An important arrow in the president's rhetorical quiver, as he pitches his proposal, is anxiety. He claims the Social Security system is "broke," requiring repairs so major that they amount to gutting the original structure and rebuilding it. Anxious workers, many of who are watching expenses rise faster than their paychecks, wonder if they would not do better, at retirement, cashing out the contributions they've already made, rather than maintaining the social contract with the next generations that has continued for more than sixty years.
"From where will my help come?" asks the author of Psalm 121. There was no Social Security system back then, to offer help. Help comes only from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. The Lord is our keeper -- a word that may not necessarily have positive associations for our people. Out of context, it may suggest "zookeeper," a word that implies a certain lack of freedom for the one being cared for; or perhaps even a man who "keeps" a woman as a mistress. In a very different sense, a keeper is one who watches over something, tending and protecting it. A lighthouse keeper makes certain that this important aid to navigation is maintained, so it can fulfill its purpose. The Lord is our keeper in this sense.
Theologically speaking, the word "keeper" suggests God's providence. In theology, the concept of providence is divided into general providence (God's care and oversight over all creation) and special providence (God's care for individual people). This psalm clearly appeals to special providence.
The opposite of providence is chance. There is little comfort in the prevailing secularist view that our lives are aimlessly adrift in a vast and turbulent sea of chance. The psalmist's view is quite different: God cares about us as individuals, watching over us, protecting us.
Security is one of the great values of our age. We have a Department of Homeland Security, pledged to keep us safe from terrorist attack. We have Social Security, pledged to provide economic security in our retirement. Psalm 121 is about spiritual security, which comes only from "the Lord, who made heaven and earth."
Team Comments
Chris Ewing responds: The question of whether or not to "maintain the social contract with the next generations," as our lead writer has well framed the heart of the Social Security debate, hinges on some of the central issues of practical theology. What is our responsibility to those who come after us? To the vulnerable in our present society? What constitutes security? Can God be trusted? For what? Today's readings, exploring the foundations of Jewish and Christian faith, offer rich and challenging matter for reflection on these themes.
The providence of God has from the beginning been a cornerstone of the Judeo-Christian tradition. We maintain that God entered into covenant relationship with a particular people, shepherding them through many changes of fortune, guiding them into increasing understanding of the nature and purpose of God, calling them to be a light to the world, rebuking and correcting them when they went astray. Having come in Christ Jesus to definitively atone for sin and to forge a new relationship, God continues to guide and sustain the faithful by means of the Holy Spirit. Countless Christians believe that God directs their daily lives in a very intimate and detailed way. The 121st Psalm is only one of many treasured expressions of this providential care.
But if we trust in the care and oversight of God, we are aware that this does not guarantee us a safe and easy life, nor does it absolve us of responsibility to attend to such matters as may properly be ours to control -- among them, earning a living and caring for those who cannot. We need to wrestle with what it means to say God cares for us, especially in a time when we feel under threat. We also need to wrestle with the fact that a central responsibility of the covenant community in both Testaments is to ensure that no one is left destitute: the Torah, the prophets, Paul, and James all insist that our common life must reflect and enact God's providential care for everyone. This core Judeo-Christian value is often forgotten in today's exceptionally individualistic climate.
It is probably not possible in one sermon to address both the "social contract" and the "meaning of security" sides of this pressing social issue. Both aspects need to be addressed, however, and they can stand in considerable tension with each other. For, if we must challenge the individualism that erodes our sense of responsibility for each other's material well-being, we must also challenge the preoccupations of a security-obsessed society and urge a wider view of providence.
Modern North Americans typically think of security in very material and physical terms: having enough money to maintain a comfortable standard of living; being safe from war and terrorist attacks on home soil. There is a broad stream of biblical tradition that supports just such a framing of the question. The original covenant was predicated on land and descendants; the original deliverance was from physical slavery; the Torah was substantially concerned with material justice; defeat in war was seen as God's punishment; and wealth and offspring continued throughout the First Testament to be seen as markers of God's blessing.
Yet covenant people from earliest times have recognized that it is not quite as neat and simple as that. Long before Job struggled with the meaning of blessing, Abraham, in our First Reading, was asked to leave behind his home, family, and such possessions as could not be carried, for a land yet to be identified. Never again would he have the kind of security he left behind. He is often criticized for trying to shore up his position on the old familiar terms: using his slave to ensure himself some offspring; falsely identifying his wife as his sister to a king who might find her attractive and see Abraham as a rival. Even though the covenant was framed in terms of land and descendants, he clearly sensed that God was less concerned about such human definitions of security than he was. Caught between old and new ways of thinking about security and providence, he tried to play both sides of the fence.
In this he is truly the father of us all (Romans 4:16) -- of all of us who live by faith, and of all of us who don't quite carry it off. As Jesus and Nicodemus found to their mutual frustration, the interface between the mundane and the spiritual is often a puzzling area characterized by both continuity and discontinuity. The physical does and does not reflect the spiritual; the serpent lifted up in the wilderness was important both because it healed physical snakebite and because it pointed beyond itself to a more far-reaching spiritual healing (John 3:14-15). We cannot biblically say that the present world and its material circumstances are a matter of indifference; yet neither can we accord them definitive importance. To be born from above is to be both of and not of the present world, both addressing and transcending its concerns.
Our people need to be helped to do two things: first of all, to engage the public debate about Social Security and the broader social contract, from the perspective of a faith heritage that has very strong things to say about our obligation to one another and, second, to engage the spiritual and interior debate about what it means to be "safe in your hands, O God, who made me" (Michael Perry's metrical setting of Psalm 27). Today's readings offer opportunities to initiate either of these tasks.
George Murphy responds: The doctrine of providence, the idea that God will "provide," has gotten renewed attention in recent years because of interest in the dialogue between science and theology.
It's closely connected with the question of "divine action," our understanding of how God acts in the world, and therefore of how we relate such a theological concept with our scientific theories about how natural processes take place. Chapter 12 of Ian G. Barbour's Religion and Science (HarperSanFrancisco, 1997) gives a good overview of ideas about this.
Providence is not, however, just a minor area of theology. As the sections Carlos cites from the Heidelberg Catechism indicate, it's an essential part of the doctrine of creation. (Luther explains the First Article of the Creed in a similar way in his Small Catechism.) To believe in creation is not just to say something about the origin of the world, but to believe that God is my creator. (On the other hand, faith in God as the creator it is not a purely personal statement: I am who I am only because of my relationships with the rest of the universe, including the stars that exploded billions of years ago to provide the carbon atoms of my body.)
This week's Second Lesson, Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, offers important insight into creation and its relationships with other aspects of Christian faith. In this chapter Paul gives three statements about what God does, which are at the same time statements about the kind of God that God is. God is the one who "justifies the ungodly" (v. 5), "gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist" (v. 18). Take the last first.
Paul's words may not be an exact formulation of what later theology would call creation ex nihilo, but they are close to it. God created the universe "out of nothing" -- not out of some peculiar "something" called "nothing" but in spite of the impossibility of existence.
The question "Why is there something rather than nothing?" cannot be answered by any philosophical or scientific theory. Science has to start with something. Belief in creation is a faith claim, that what exists depends upon the God of Israel, the God made known in Jesus Christ. Paul's statement that this is also the God who "gives life to the dead" has to do first with Abraham, who believed that God could provide the promised heir even though his own elderly body was "as good as dead" (Romans 4:19). But of course it also reminds us of the key claim of Christian faith, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And as Bonhoeffer argues, that is an act that shows the same divine defiance of impossibility as creation ex nihilo.
[T]he God of creation, of the utter beginning, is the God of the resurrection. The world exists from the beginning in the sign of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Indeed it is because we know the resurrection that we know of God's creation in the beginning, of God's creating out of nothing. The dead Jesus Christ of Good Friday and the resurrected #x03BA;ύριος of Easter Sunday -- that is creation out of nothing, creation from the beginning. The fact that Christ was dead did not provide the possibility of his resurrection but its impossibility; it was nothing itself, it was nihil negativum. There is absolutely no transition, no continuum between the dead Christ and the resurrected Christ, but the freedom of God that in the beginning created God's work out of nothing. Were it possible to intensify the nihil negativum even more, we would have to say here, in connection with the resurrection, that with the death of Christ on the Cross the nihil negativum broke its way into God's own being -- O great desolation! God, yes God, is dead. -- Yet the one who is the beginning lives, destroys the nothing, and in his resurrection creates the new creation. By his resurrection we know about the creation.
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Creation and Fall, in Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998), 3:34-35
To turn to Paul's first statement, justification of the ungodly is a work of the same character. God does not take people who are slightly godly and make them more godly; God starts with us in our condition of being ungodly. It is a work of new creation. So the personal relationship that we have with God for Christ's sake is of the same type as our relationship as creatures with the creator, one of absolute dependence.
Belief in providence then has to be understood in this context. It is not simply belief that some supernatural power is able to intervene in the world in special "acts of God" to fix things up occasionally. Instead, it is faith that the God who is the creator of our lives and of the whole universe, and who has brought about a new relationship with himself, will continue to act in the world and in our lives in such ways as to preserve his creation and guide it toward fulfillment. And because of this we are able, in spite of all the seeming impossibilities that may face us in life, to "hope against hope" like Abraham (Romans 4:18).
With Romans 4 in mind, it's helpful to remember the origin of the term "providence" for what's being discussed here. It comes from Abraham's statement in Genesis 22:14 that "the LORD will provide," made just after he was spared from offering the promised child in sacrifice. This is another reason why Abraham's faith is in a sense resurrection faith, because he trusted that God could fulfill his promise in Isaac even if Isaac were killed.
Since I've theologized a good deal here, as is my wont, I should note the anecdote that Carlos provides about the "tough old officer" who responded to C. S. Lewis. I have to go by memory here but, as I recall, Lewis' comment was something to this effect: Certainly navigational charts of the Atlantic are no substitute for the experience of the ocean itself. But if you want to sail or fly across the ocean, navigational charts may come in a lot more handy than will an emotional experience of wind and waves.
Related Illustrations
From Carlos Wilton:
Q. 26. What do you believe when you say: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth"?
A. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth with all that is in them, who also upholds and governs them by his eternal counsel and providence, is for the sake of Christ his Son my God and my Father. I trust in him so completely that I have no doubt that he will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul. Moreover, whatever evil he sends upon me in this troubled life he will turn to my good, for he is able to do it, being almighty God, and is determined to do it, being a faithful Father.
Q. 27. What do you understand by the providence of God?
A. The almighty and ever-present power of God whereby he still upholds, as it were by his own hand, heaven and earth together with all creatures, and rules in such a way that leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and unfruitful years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, and everything else, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.
Q. 28. What advantage comes from acknowledging God's creation and providence?
A. We learn that we are to be patient in adversity, grateful in the midst of blessing, and to trust our faithful God and Father for the future, assured that no creature shall separate us from his love, since all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they cannot even move.
-- The Heidelberg Catechism
***
C. S. Lewis was once asked to speak to a company of the Royal Air Force about Christianity. At the end of the lecture, a tough old officer stood up and said, "I've got no use for all that stuff. But mind you, I'm a religious man too. I know there's a God. I've felt Him out alone in the desert at night. That's why I don't believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about Him. To anyone who's met the real thing, they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal."
***
Ron Rolheiser tells the story of a woman who found herself sitting in the back of a church one day, with a cast on her lower leg. She had been visiting her sister, who lived near a major ski resort. On Sunday, her sister invited her to go to church with her. She went skiing instead.
She broke her leg. And so, on the following Sunday, when her sister asked her to go to church with her, she agreed. She certainly couldn't have gone back to the ski slope! As it so happened, the designated readings for the day were about the Good Shepherd. It also happened that the regular priest was away, and the homily was being delivered by a visiting priest from Israel.
The priest could not have seen this woman, nor could he have known that she was sitting there with a cast on her leg. He began his homily by telling of an ancient practice among shepherds in Israel, that is still in use today -- a practice that sheds light on the meaning of the phrase, "Good Shepherd." Sometimes, early in the life of a lamb, a shepherd may sense that this particular animal is going to be a congenital stray, and will always be drifting away from the herd, where it can be injured or die. In such cases, the shepherd deliberately breaks the leg of the lamb, so he must carry it until its leg is healed. By that time, the lamb has become so attached to the shepherd that it never strays again.
"I may be dense," shared the woman, "but, given my broken leg and all that chance coincidence, hearing those words woke up something inside me. I have prayed and gone to church regularly ever since!"
"In the conspiracy of accidents that make up the ordinary events of our everyday lives," writes Rolheiser, "the finger of God is writing and writing large. We are children of Israel, children of Jesus, and children of our mothers and fathers in the faith. We need therefore, like them, to look at each and every event in our lives and ask ourselves the question: 'What is God saying to us in this?' The language of God is the experience that God writes inside our lives."
http://www.ronrolheiser.com/arc062004.html
***
Sometimes even the most spiritually minded among us may be led to doubt God's providence. Like St. Teresa of Avila. One day she was crossing a swollen river with a small cart, accompanied by some sisters from her convent. The donkey objected strongly, and they all ended up very wet and muddy. Teresa is reported to have looked to heaven and said, "God, if this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them!"
***
What troubles us is not so much the sheer fact that believers suffer along with everybody else. C. S. Lewis once pondered this. If the children of God were always saved from floods like believing Noah and his family; if every time somebody pointed a gun at a Christian, the gun just turned to salami; if we really had a money-back guarantee against hatred, disease, and the acts of terrorists, then of course we wouldn't have to worry about church growth. Our churches would fill with people attracted to the faith for secondary reasons. These are people who want an insurance agent, not a church. For security they want Colin Powell, not God. We already have people becoming Christians because they want to get rich or get happy. What would happen to people's integrity if becoming a believer really did give you blanket protection against poverty, accident, and the wages of sin?
-- Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., "Can God Be Trusted?" Christianity Today, June 15, 1998
***
Leonard Sweet tells the story of a Native American tribe that had a traditional way of training young braves. On the night of a boy's thirteenth birthday, he was placed in a dense forest to spend the entire night alone. Until then, he had never been away from the security of his family and tribe. But on this night he was blindfolded and taken miles away. When he removed the blindfold, he was in the middle of a dark wood, by himself.
Every time a twig snapped, feelings of terror entered his heart. Every time an animal howled, he imagined a wolf leaping out of the darkness. Every time the wind blew, he shivered -- not with the cold, but with fear of what dark spirits might be haunting his remote location.
Long hours later, the first rays of sunlight shone down on the place where he had been tossing and turning. Looking around, the boy noticed that the ominous shadows of the night before were ordinary trees, bushes, and rocks. Then, to his astonishment, he beheld the figure of a man standing just a few feet away, armed with bow and arrow. It was his father. He had been there all night long, bow drawn, arrows ready -- watching over his son in the darkness. The night is dark. The threats are real. The wilderness is lonely. But we are not alone.
-- Adapted from SoulSalsa (Zondervan, 2000), pp. 23-24
From Chris Ewing:
A New Creed
We are not alone,
we live in God's world.
We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God's presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God.
-- The United Church of Canada, General Council 1968, alt. 1998
***
Rachel Naomi Remen, in her celebrated book, Kitchen Table Wisdom, though not writing from a theocentric perspective, nonetheless describes life in terms reminiscent of the Judeo-Christian tradition's rich theological understanding of providence. (Remen, a physician, is the granddaughter of a rabbi.) After observing both her own struggles and that of others with chronic and life-threatening disease, she affirms that life is coherent, elegant, and mysterious in the way that it responds, not always to our felt or identified needs, but to our deepest and most real ones. Often it is our deepest wounds that lead us to wholeness.
Worship Resources
By Julia Ross Strope
CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Psalm 121)
Leader: Today is the second Sunday in Lent. I'm glad you are here. This sanctuary is a place of respite from anxiety and violence.
People: Without promises of social security, we need divine security.
Leader: So you've come hoping for inner peace?
People: We are looking to God for all our needs.
Leader: You've come to the right place. Here you can rest from your weariness. You can be reassured that God is guarding you.
People: God never dozes; God will protect us in our all our endeavors.
Leader: The Creator of the sun and the moon is with us today and always.
People: We are glad to be here! We praise God for blessings and for rest.
HYMN SUGGESTIONS
"Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah." tune: WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT
"Eternal Light, Shine In My Heart" (Psalm 121). tune: JACOB; available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 340
"To God Be The Glory."
"Great Is Thy Faithfulness."
"O God, Our Faithful God." tune: O GOTT, DU FROMMER GOTT; especially stanza 3 fits with the theme of God as our "keeper"
"God Be With You Till We Meet Again."
"O Light Whose Splendor Thrills." tune: LES COMMANDEMENTS DE DIEU. This is an evening hymn, but stanzas 1 and 3 can stand on their own and fit with the story of Nicodemus.
"Give To The Winds Thy Fears." tune: St Bride
"Lord Of Our Growing Years." tune: LITTLE CORNARD. Stanza 4 and 5 fit nicely with the theme of God keeping us through all fears and difficult times.
"O God, In A Mysterious Way." tune: DUNDEE. Stanza 3 especially encourages us to wait for good that God can bring out of the not-so-good.
CALL TO CONFESSION (based on Romans 4)
Men and women in previous generations made times to reflect on their shortcomings. We take these moments to become aware of how we have resisted being our best selves. Let us together pray the community confession and then make our personal prayers in two minutes of silence.
COMMUNITY CONFESSION (based on Romans 4)
Living God, we work hard using our energies, hours and talents. But we never seem to have enough money and enough time to be with our families, enjoy our houses and volunteer to serve people who need food and housing.
Our minds wander when we sit down to pray.
We feel insecure and afraid.
Quiet the tempting urges to be self-aggrandizing and belittling of others.
Work in us, integrating our minds and our emotions till we are whole and satisfied.
Expand our confidence in your love and grace;
Set us free from our disbeliefs and guide us in the teachings of Jesus. Amen.
WORD OF GRACE (based on Romans 4:7, 8)
Happy are you when your wrongs are transformed and when you feel empowered by God.
Happy are you when God releases you from all shame and guilt.
Let your faith be active and receive God's gifts.
CONGREGATIONAL CHORAL RESPONSE: "O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing," stanza 1; tune: AZMON
O for a thousand tongues to sing
My dear Redeemer's praise.
The glories of my God and King
The triumph of God's grace!
A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AFFIRMATION OF FAITH (based on John 3 and Matthew 4)
God continues to create the Universe and breathe life through all creatures. God loves all beings and invites us humans to be co-creators of goodness in this world.
Jesus of Nazareth -- Son of God -- challenged the traditions of his day and calls us to resist greediness, grandiosity, and arrogance.
Christ -- lover of the world -- impels us to serve persons in this global village who are lacking basic necessities and whose bodies and minds are wounded.
Holy Spirit lives in us nudging us to live humbly and do justice. The Spirit guides us and reminds us not to be afraid.
Church is the community of persons who are loyal to Christ, care for one another and heal brokenness.
God is with us in our comings and goings today and always. Let it be so!
OFFERTORY STATEMENT
This household of God uses our moneys and our talents to maintain this building, to purchase supplies, to pay ministers, musicians, and staff and to reach out to this city and to the world. The ushers will pass the plates. Fill them as you can.
DOXOLOGY: "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise," stanza 4; tune: ST DENIO
Thou reignest in glory, thou rulest in light,
Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
All praise we would render; O help us to see
'Tis only the splendor of light hideth thee!
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
God of Abundance, thank you for people who call this place your household. Thank you for the talents, skills, and resources they share so that your love goes to this city and to the world. Amen.
INTERCESSORY PRAYERS
A leader can pray this prayer, or the paragraphs can be divided between readers.
Patient God.
Thank you for sending Jesus to teach and to heal; thank you for your patience with Nicodemus and with us. We do not want to resist your light nor your new options for our lives. We are intrigued by your kingdom; strengthen us to participate with you in making it real.
God of water and spirit,
Live in us. Comfort us whose bodies are preparing to die. Soothe us whose lives are chaotic so that we might think clearly and make helpful decisions. Give us who live in shadows refreshing opportunities. Empower us who are fearful to gather information and to do what needs to be done. Be with us who are students; help us discipline ourselves to learn the skills and facts that make us valuable citizens. Touch us who are ill; support us who are anticipating medical procedure.
Surprising God,
With your fiery spirit purify us. With your water, saturate us with gentleness and grace. We long for your kingdom; birth in us curiosity, appreciation of adventure, and willingness to articulate your presence in our bodies and minds. Midwife us again to life everlasting.
Sustaining God,
Keep us safe all along our human journey. Amen.
BENEDICTION/CHARGE (based on John 3)
This benediction could be divided between two leaders, the first speaking the fact and the second giving the charge.
The Spirit blows where it will.
Participate wherever it takes you.
God is with you as you come and go;
Be aware of divine sustaining presence.
Christ is light within you;
Let it shine through, illuminating the dark.
Accept peace as your goal;
Live joyfully.
A Children's Sermon
Born again
Object: an article of baby clothing
Based on John 3:1-17
Good morning, boys and girls. Can any of you remember what it was like being a very tiny baby? (let them answer) Do you remember wearing clothes like this? (hold baby clothing up as you ask the question) Can any of you fit into this? (let them answer) Each of us was small enough once in our life to fit into this. Why can't we fit into it now? (let them answer) We've all grown bigger. We aren't babies any more. Do you think any of us will ever be able to fit into this piece of clothing again? (let them answer) Will we ever become a tiny baby again? (let them answer)
Let me tell you a story about being a tiny baby. The story is from this morning's Bible lesson. Once there was a man named Nicodemus. He was a Jewish leader. He came to Jesus late at night to ask Jesus some very important questions. Nicodemus knew that Jesus was a man of God. Jesus said a very interesting thing to Nicodemus. Jesus told him that no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again. (pause here) Can any of you imagine being born again? Nicodemus asked, "How can anyone be born after having grown old?" Jesus explained to Nicodemus what being born again means. It doesn't mean that you will become the small size of a baby again.
This is what Jesus said: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." Jesus was saying to Nicodemus that to be born again means to believe in God and Jesus. It doesn't mean that you become the size of a baby, even though it may sound like that. Being born again means that we believe in Jesus. It means that we not fear death. We will have eternal life. We know that we will not be afraid of death because God loves us. That's why God sent Jesus to us. When we know Jesus, we are born again. We don't become the size of a baby. Instead, we start our lives over again.
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The Immediate Word, February 20, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2004 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 permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
