Knowing What We Don't Know
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The lectionary gospel text for Trinity Sunday brings us an interesting case study of someone who just isn’t able to process what Jesus is trying to communicate. When Jesus encounters a Pharisee named Nicodemus and talks in his usual mode -- illustrating metaphysical truth through allusion and metaphor -- Nicodemus responds in the typical manner of many learned Hebrews... taking Jesus’ words very literally and attempting to parse out their meaning through a detailed examination. Jesus clearly seems frustrated with Nicodemus’ fixation on the physical impossibility of being “born again,” and attempts to explain the distinctions between being born of the flesh and born of the Spirit. Yet Nicodemus remains befuddled, asking “How can this be?” Jesus replies incredulously: “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.” This entire scene seems like a textbook counterpoint to Pentecost; here the message is not understood, even though the participants are all speaking the same language.
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin points out that this is indicative of a phenomenon that plagues us all -- getting hung up on language that means different things to different people, and assuming that our intended meaning is clear (when that may not be the case at all). As Mary notes, that can certainly be said of those of us in the church -- with our tendency to use “insider” language and to take for granted that our “testimony” will be understood in today’s world. There’s no more important message to share than the Good News that “God so loved the world” -- but if we’re not inviting and thoughtful about the language we use, we run the risk of not having that message received.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the adoption imagery in the Romans text. Adoption is a complex issue -- as Chris reminds us, for some the separation of children from their birth mothers can be a painful experience. But for many others, adoption provides both children and their adoptive parents with a loving, supportive environment that is crucial to a happy life -- a paradigm that is lifted up in our scripture passage, where we are cast as the adoptive children of a loving God who has made us joint heirs with Christ. And that’s perhaps the best metaphor we have for conveying the grace-filled love God has bestowed on us (as so vividly described in the closing verses of the gospel text).
Knowing What We Don’t Know
by Mary Austin
John 3:1-17
“How can you not know?” Jesus asks Nicodemus -- but my sympathy is with Nicodemus. He doesn’t know because Jesus isn’t speaking any language he understands. As people of faith lament the decline of the spirituality we understand, we share a story with both Jesus and Nicodemus. Like Jesus, we speak to people in ways they don’t understand, and then wonder why they don’t want to join our club and learn the secret language. Popular culture speaks to us in ways we don’t understand either. Like Nicodemus, we are often bewildered by the new shape of spirituality in America. Yoga on Sunday morning? Soccer games at 11:00 on Sunday? Guests at weddings who have never been in a church before?
Both Jesus and Nicodemus speak to the place of faith in America today.
In the World
As Chris Keating wrote last week, the Pew Research Center for Religion and Public Life has reminded us again that fewer and fewer people are connected with a formal religious practice or a religious institution. As the Pew Center says, “Religious ‘nones’ -- a shorthand we use to refer to people who self-identify as atheists or agnostics, as well as those who say their religion is ‘nothing in particular’ -- now make up roughly 23% of the U.S. adult population.” As a nation, we are less formally religious each time a survey like this is taken.
We don’t seem to know what to do about it, though. A business losing customers would survey former customers to see what they wanted, revamp its product line, and start a new marketing campaign. It would re-brand itself, making sure to offer what people want to buy. We in the church world don’t seem to know how to do that -- we keep offering the same product line, delivered in the same way, and wonder why people aren’t coming. We are like Nicodemus, immersed in the faith we know, even when it doesn’t translate any more.
We don’t even know how to talk to people outside of our faith. Religious people and the “nones” speak different languages to talk about their beliefs. In the comments on the study, one person wrote: “It would be interesting to poll these same people regarding the term ‘spiritual’ as opposed to ‘religious,’ given that the terms ‘religious’ and ‘spiritual’ have very different meanings to individuals. I believe we have entered an age where many individuals no longer box God into one particular ‘brand’ or another. I believe the reason it is important to look at this term is that without a better understanding of this subset, one would think that as a society the notion of faith is declining. For example, I may have turned away from many of the trappings of the RELIGION of Christianity, but identify with many of its fundamental messages. I feel this study misses a large population of ‘seekers’ who are uncomfortable with the labels, but who still believe in a higher power/creator/love.”
Like Jesus, our language is often puzzling to people. Church is a place you go for your grandparents’ funerals, and maybe your friends’ weddings. The music is different from anything else in everyday life, and church people use words like “creed,” “sanctification,” and “hell.” The latter is for other people who don’t do what we think they should. Unlike Jesus, our language is meant to scare and exclude people. At best, we just don’t think about what would be welcoming. Jesus uses unusual words to startle Nicodemus into the start of a new life; his words are an invitation.
We need more invitations.
Derek Penwell recently observed that we have bigger things to worry about than our own decline. As he says, “Mainline denominations are afraid. Declining congregations are afraid. People live in fear that one day they may wake up and something they love will no longer be there. Fear. Panic.” We are a lot like Nicodemus. Penwell suggests that fear is going to be part of our lives for a long time, and that part of holding onto faith in a changing world is learning to live with our fears. In a list of things Christians should be worried about, he suggests, “Why not be scared of the fact that there are innumerable kinds of great, creative, meaningful, reign-of-God sorts of work out there needing to be done, rather than expending inordinate amounts of energy worrying about whether your denomination or your congregation will once again muster up the funds to support its bureaucratic infrastructure, or whether the church organizational model has a good enough flow chart, or about whether to ‘jazz up’ the worship service?” Or, “Why not be afraid of the fact that there are people outside your walls, outside your normal sphere of thinking, who need what you have to share, and that in concentrating on your own survival you ignore them?”
In the Scriptures
Nicodemus is, like so many people we know, a seeker. He represents the traditional religion of the day, and yet comes seeking to know more.
John places this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus right after Jesus comes to the temple and makes a statement by driving out the usual commerce. As John records it, the scene ends with: “When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone” (John 2:23-25).
Jesus announces that he needs no testimony about who he is, and then Nicodemus comes. Jesus tells Nicodemus that his actions are his testimony -- the announcement of who he is. Nicodemus takes a risk in coming to Jesus, even at night. Jesus knows this, but doesn’t seem to make it any easier for Nicodemus. After the scene in the temple, it’s risky for a Pharisee to come to see Jesus, even under the cover of darkness. If Nicodemus was hoping for a better welcome from Jesus, the story doesn’t say. If he hoped for some sympathy for his predicament, he doesn’t get it. What he does get is a lesson in a new kind of connection with God.
Meda Stamper writes for Working Preacher that “Jesus picks up on words and concepts introduced by Nicodemus and turns the conversation toward deeper truths again and again (see, for example, the repetition of God, enter, and being born). With each repetition Jesus shifts the conversation from the smallness of Nicodemus’ view to the largeness of life in God, from the signs on which Nicodemus and others base their hope to the invisible mystery of the Spirit/wind (the two words are the same in Greek), which can give him birth into the truth that he is missing.” The words may be overly familiar to us. We lose their impact, but to Nicodemus it’s all brand-new.
The story gives Jesus the last word, without recording any “aha!” from Nicodemus. There’s no closing statement of belief from Nicodemus. He appears twice more in John’s gospel, once speaking to the Sanhedrin (7:50) and again after Jesus’ death. All four gospels record Joseph of Arimathea asking for Jesus’ body, and John also adds the presence of Nicodemus to the scene. Nicodemus’ change of heart happens off-screen.
In the Sermon
This is Trinity Sunday. If you’re preaching in that direction, the sermon might look at relationship as the foundation of the Trinity. The different sides of the divine work in harmony, even dancing together, as our Orthodox friends imagine it. Are we also called to a similar kind of harmony with our neighbors of other faiths, and the “nones”? Should we be talking about places where we can work together -- places to share our passion for good schools or safe streets or beautiful parks?
Nicodemus has to let go of his familiar ideas to take in what Jesus is saying. As Meda Stamper says, “When we become too sure of what we know about Jesus (or indeed the Trinity on this particular Sunday), when we believe that we have grasped him at last, that is when we can perhaps expect to be undone like Nicodemus. That undoing -- that overturning of our certainty -- may be a very good thing if it allows us to experience anew the miracle of our birth from above into eternal life, which has nothing to do with what we know or what we are (any more than our birth from our mother’s womb did).” We are now in the place of Nicodemus -- followers of a familiar religion, in need of something new. Where is God now asking us to be born again? Is God calling us to let go of familiar ideas to take in something new?
For Nicodemus, being born anew is apparently a process, not a moment. It takes some time to sink in. The sermon might explore how being born again in faith is slow work, taking root in our lives over time. God invites us into it, but we have a part to play in this new birth too. How do we grasp this gift from God?
As Derek Penwell sums it up, “In a post-denominational world the way forward seems clear: The church must be more concerned with relinquishing any idea of success that doesn’t begin with death, sacrifice, laying down. The church must focus on letting go of the need to ensure its future rather than on grasping for its survival. Letting go means giving up everything, perhaps even the life to which we cling so desperately.”
Like Nicodemus, we are caught between the familiar and the new. Like Nicodemus, our response hasn’t yet been recorded. Perhaps we need to show up at the tomb of organized religion, as we know it, so we can hear Jesus invite us into new life again. And then, like Jesus, we will have an invitation to offer too.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Claiming Our Identities
by Chris Keating
Romans 8:12-17
Adoption is complex.
Last year, I watched as a teenager came to grips with being adopted in ways that surprised him. His parents had always been open about his adoption, and he had an understanding of the circumstances surrounding his adoption. It wasn’t an easy journey for the families involved, but the process had been undergirded by prayer, support, and plenty of love.
While attending a church youth conference, however, he was confronted with adoption in a new way. Throughout the week, bits and pieces of the teens’ stories began to emerge in their small group conversations. One day, this particular young boy listened as a couple of other kids shared their experiences of being teenage parents. It hit him hard -- this could have been his story.
He began to realize just how his adoption had been a source of grace. He claimed his identity -- not just as an adopted son, but also in a sense as God’s beloved child. He was a beloved son, a solid athlete, a good-natured friend. He was also beloved by God.
While adoption is mentioned only infrequently in the Bible, it remains a potent metaphor in Christian theology, especially for Paul. (See Mary Foskett’s excellent article on “Adoption” in The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 1 [Abingdon Press, 2006], p. 54.) Against the backdrop of Greco-Roman practices of adoption, Paul employs the metaphor to stress our new identity in Christ. We’re adopted -- and it is a life-changing story.
In the News
A couple of years ago, two young women enrolled at Columbia University in New York City to pursue their dreams of becoming writers. As they sat down for introductions in their first class, one of the women began to feel a pit growing in the middle of her stomach. She felt the woman sitting across from her was more than a stranger -- she was her sister.
Lizzie Valverde began to tell her story of being an adopted child, growing up in New Jersey and having a goofy obsession with Hollywood’s Olsen twins. As Valverde told her story, Katy Olson felt as though she was having a panic attack. She had been searching for details about her own birth family, and realized that Valverde’s story closely matched some of the bits and pieces she had unearthed.
After class Olson approached Valverde, blurting out questions. “I think we’re sisters,” she said. They headed out for drinks and sorted through the details. All Valverde could keep thinking was “Is this real life?”
The women -- who were enrolled in a college program for adults -- asked each other more than the typical “get to know you” questions. They probed identities: Do you like avocadoes? Buffalo wings? Spicy food? Do you have weird pinkie toes? The biggest question, however, was about their mother.
Both of them knew their mother’s name. Valverde had been in contact with their mother, and urged Olson to do so as well. The series of coincidences that led them to find each other also led Olson to being reunited with her mother, who was able to attend her graduation from Columbia this month, an experience Olson described as “incredible.”
“My graduation was more than a degree,” said Valverde. “It was a strange bond into sisterhood.”
In some cases, the search for those bonds has led to the uncovering of injustice and long-hidden secrets. For example, a woman in St. Louis recently discovered that hospital officials had lied when they told her that her baby had died 50 years ago. A Youtube video shows the emotional reunion between Melanie Gilmore of Oregon and gospel singer Zella Mae Jackson-Price of St. Louis.
Gilmore, who is deaf, had been told that her children were taking a DNA swab from her as part of a school project. What she didn’t know was that they were trying to connect her with Jackson-Price. The singer had given birth 49 years ago to a baby girl at the segregated Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis. Jackson-Price was allowed to hold the child, who was born prematurely, but eventually a nurse informed her that her baby had died. For her part, Gilmore was told that she had been placed into foster care when her mother did not want her.
This story has prompted many others to contact the city of St. Louis in order to discern whether their children had also been adopted without their knowledge or permission. More than 150 people have contacted the city of St. Louis in recent weeks searching for medical records. St. Louis area attorney Clayton Watkins, who has been retained by families searching for these records, said the similarities in the cases are hard to dismiss.
“There are so many similarities to their stories, it’s pretty hard to dismiss,” Watkins told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Each of the mothers were black, and typically single and poor. “And these women have in many cases endured decades and decades of anguish and grief and unresolved closure.”
Watkins has asked the state to initiate an investigation to determine whether the hospital coordinated an effort to “to steal newborns of color for marketing in private adoption transactions.” Watkins believes that the newborns were sold during a time when there were few adoption agencies serving African-American families. The hospital has been closed since 1979.
It’s a mystery which may take years to piece together. For now, however, part of the mystery has been solved, leading one family to incomparable joy.
In the Scriptures
Incomparable joy is also at the heart of the Trinity -- a doctrine not easily understood or comprehended by either preacher or congregation. As David Lose notes, “at the heart of our understanding of God as somehow three-in-one is the notion that you can’t fully or finally understand God without talking about relationship.” This is the heart of Trinitarian theology: the indwelling of God in three persons in a communion of love, mutuality, and deep union. According to Paul, this is also the inheritance offered to the children of God.
Charles Bartow (“Trinity Sunday, Year B,” in The Lectionary Commentary, The Second Readings [William Eerdmans Publishing, 2001], pp. 76ff) notes that scratching beneath the surface of Romans 8:12-17 reveals a close connection to Trinitarian theology. The text is filled with references to the Spirit -- the Spirit puts to death the deeds of the body (v. 13); the Spirit leads the children of God (v.14), as well as the giving of the spirit of adoption (v. 14). Finally, the Spirit enables our spirits to bear witness to our identity as children of God (v. 16). In each instance, the Holy Spirit remains in deep relationship with God the Father and Son, and together these images guide the church in understanding God as triune.
Paul reminds his listeners that the Spirit leads them into new lives. The power of sin is enslaving, yet the incomparable gospel of Christ is liberating. We are led into a future and called to not fall back into a “spirit of slavery.” The Spirit -- just as it did for Jesus at the moment of his baptism -- declares our identity as God’s children. We are “debtors,” Paul therefore declares, “not to the flesh.” Instead, we are called to a new way of life characterized by setting our mind on the ways of God. This is our identity. We are not abandoned, but rather are adopted by God. We are therefore offered the opportunity to bear witness in our worship and lives to the Spirit of God who dwells within us.
It is the same Spirit which sustains us in times of suffering, in those long and anguished moments when, like Melanie Gilmore, we believe we are cut off from the source of life. As Bartow notes, “it is by the Spirit that those who live according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh are sustained through the suffering which they must inevitably undergo.” Indeed, as Paul will note at verse 18, “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” This does not alleviate our experience of suffering, of course; but it does affirm our identity as God’s children. It is that secure hope that holds us even in suffering.
As adopted heirs, we know that our future is secure. Our identity is firmly revealed by the presence of the Spirit, who gives us the assurance that God is present in our lives.
In the Sermon
If adoption is complex, so is Paul. But our congregations will benefit from a careful reflection and exegesis of Romans 8:12-17, especially in grappling with the understanding that we are, each of us, beloved children of God. That is our identity -- not slaves to sin, or to the law (as Paul indicated earlier), but freed women and men who dwell in the love of God.
Exploring the complexities surrounding adoption could prove fruitful. In the past there was a layer of shame surrounding adoption, yet many families in the church could resonate with the powerful image of knowing that we are chosen by God. We belong to God, claimed by God in baptism, and are drawn into intimate relationship with God through Christ.
Closely connected to this is the experience of baptism. Throughout the Presbyterian Church (USA), congregations are often incorporating words of the French Reformed Church in their baptismal liturgies -- words that express the depth of our connection to God. The pastor, looking directly at the child, affirms these quite Pauline words:
For you, little child, Jesus Christ has come, he has fought, he has suffered.
For you he entered the shadow of Gethsemane and the horror of Calvary.
For you he uttered the cry, “It is finished!”
For you he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and there he intercedes -- for you, little child, even though you do not know it.
But in this way the word of the Gospel becomes true.
“We love him, because he first loved us.”
The power of God enables us to live as heirs of the kingdom. What a powerful promise, offered to us through our adoption in Christ!
It is a promise that adoptive parents in our congregations will understand. Spending time listening to the stories of adoptive families would bring new dimensions to this text and offer additional insights to preachers who might not have firsthand experience of adoption. Being cognizant of the experiences of others -- for example, those who may have offered children to be adopted -- would further guide the sermon to new understandings of what it means to bear witness that “we are children of God.” The deep good news of this passage is that each of us is named as God’s children. It is an experience of joy and mystery that perhaps only persons like Melanie Gilmore may fully understand.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Tata Jesus is bangala!
Thus begins a sermon by missionary Nathan Price to his little congregation in the Congo in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible. But Nathan was so convinced that God was calling him to Africa, so anxious to get there as quickly as possible that he did not bother to learn the language or the customs of the people. So he doesn’t realize that bangala can mean many things in the Congolese language, depending on how the speaker pronounces the word.
Nathan intends for it to mean “precious.” But the way he pronounces it, the word actually means “poisonous” and refers to a specific poisonous plant in that area. Even after someone tries to explain the subtle nuances of the language to him, Nathan refuses to learn -- so he continues to tell the people that Jesus will make their skin itch.
And he wonders why no one will allow him to baptize them.
*****
When Ads Go Bad
* When pronounced in Cantonese, Coca-Cola means “bite the wax tadpole.” By changing an accent here and there, however, Coca-Cola was able to find a phonetic equivalent which means “it makes the mouth happy.”
* When Kentucky Fried Chicken opened their first restaurant in Beijing in 1987, they accidentally translated KFC’s famous slogan “finger-lickin’ good” to “we’ll eat your fingers off!” in Chinese.
* Ford discovered that in Belgium, enticing customers with a dead body in every car isn’t the best way to make a sale. Hoping to highlight the cars’ excellent manufacturing, Ford launched an ad campaign in the European country that execs thought said “Every car has a high-quality body.” When translated, however, the slogan read “Every car has a high-quality corpse” -- far from the image they were hoping to invoke.
* Sometimes companies run into problems overseas not just for what they say, but how they say it. When Proctor & Gamble started selling its Pampers diapers in Japan, it used an image of a stork delivering a baby on the packaging. While the advertising may have worked in the U.S., it never caught on with Japanese moms and dads. After some research, the company figured out that customers were concerned and confused by the image of a stork on the packaging, since the stories of storks bringing babies to parents isn’t a part of Japanese folklore. There, the story goes that giant floating peaches bring babies to their parents.
*****
Online Miscues
If you’re my age, you think that MIA means “missing in action,” right?
But if you’re the age of my grandchildren, you know that MIA stands for “misunderstood internet acronyms.” Or at least it does now, thanks to a blog article by the writing staff at Omnibeat.
Here are just a couple of their stories about MIAs.
Everyone who uses the internet or sends text messages knows that LOL is an acronym for “laughing out loud.” Well, not everyone. “My friend’s mom once texted her daughter (my friend), ‘Your Grandpa is in the hospital. LOL.’ For her daughter, who is quite aware of the meaning of LOL, the text was a mixture of either a cruel joke or sick humor. The good-hearted mom mistakenly thought ‘LOL’ meant ‘lots of love.’ ”
Not quite as popular as LOL but still used by many is the acronym YOLO, which means “you only live once.” It’s usually used to encourage someone to take a risk -- as in, “Hey, take the trip to Cancun. YOLO.”
Actor Jack Black doesn’t approve, however. He tweeted the following message to his friends: “I’m fairly certain that YOLO is just Carpe Diem for stupid people.”
*****
Adopted Is Chosen
I bet you didn’t know that these famous people were all adopted:
* Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was adopted at birth.
* Country singer Faith Hill was adopted at birth.
* Actor Ray Liotta was adopted when he was six months old.
* Singer Sarah McLachlan was adopted as a young child.
* Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, was raised by a tribal chief after his parents’ death when he was nine years old.
* Actress Francis McDormand was (along with her siblings) adopted by a minister and his wife.
* Actor Dean “Superman” Cain was adopted at the age of three.
And a few others: actress Ingrid Bergman; actor Gary Cole; Rev. Jesse Jackson; actor Lee Majors; author Edgar Allen Poe; jazz musican Louis Armstrong; skater Scott Hamilton; and, of course, the founder of the Wendy’s hamburger chain, Dave Thomas.
*****
In the wildly popular animated film Despicable Me we meet Gru, a fat, head-shaved villain with a weird eastern European accent who lives in lovely, green suburbia in a big black house with a dead lawn. There, surrounded by his strange little minions and an array of shrink rays, freeze rays, and other nefarious weapons, he plots all manner of evil mayhem.
His latest caper will, he is confident, earn him a high place in the annals of crime. He will steal the moon. “Yes! The moon!”
But along the way to pulling off that caper he finds himself confronted by three little orphaned girls who look at him and see something that no one else has ever seen: a potential dad.
Originally his plan is to use Margo, Edith, and Agnes to further his criminal pursuits, but as the film progresses he is captivated by their acceptance and love for him, until by the end he finds that he really does love them.
In one of the final scenes of the movie, he tucks them in and reads them a story that he has written about a unicorn who thought his life was complete and full until three little kittens come to live with him. (“Any relation to persons livink or dead is completely coincidental.”) The story ends with the rhyme: “And now he knows he could never part / With those three little kittens that changed his heart.”
[A clip from this film for use in preaching or teaching can be found at http://www.wingclips.com/themes/adoption.]
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Isaiah 6:1-8
B.B. King recently died. Considered one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time, the 15-time Grammy winner continued to perform 100 concerts a year up to his death at the age of 89. King said, “as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.”
Application: As long as people are suffering, as they were in the days of Isaiah, they will need to hear our message.
*****
Isaiah 6:1-8
B.B. King named his Gibson guitar “Lucille.” King was one of the few performers who would not play and sing at the same time. When King was silent it was because Lucille had a message to share, as she sang through King’s mastery of the 12-bar blues. The result could hypnotize an audience. King called the relationship of his singing with playing Lucille “call-and-response,” which allowed Lucille to do some of the talking. Of Lucille’s voice he said, “Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said, to make the audience understand what I am trying to say.”
Application: As the hot coal touches our lips we must realize there are many ways in which we can share the gospel message.
*****
John 3:1-17
B.B. King offered this thought in a 2006 Associated Press interview regarding the purpose of his singing the blues: “When I’m singing, I don’t want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have a pretty good storytelling.”
Application: When Nicodemus came to Jesus, it was to relive the story.
*****
Romans 8:12-17
B.B. King continued to perform the blues until weeks before his death. Even in his 80s he would still do 100 shows a year. He believed that touring extended his life span. Regarding this, King said: “I got a chance today to ride on a very nice bus, and from my window I can see how beautiful this country is and how nice it is to be alive. That to me is like extra vitamins.”
Application: When we realize we are children of God, we will understand just how beautiful life can be.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Ascribe to God, O heavenly beings, ascribe to God glory and strength.
People: Ascribe to God glory; worship God in holy splendor.
Leader: The voice of God is powerful.
People: The voice of God is full of majesty.
Leader: God sits enthroned over the flood; God sits enthroned forever.
People: May God give us strength! May God bless us with peace!
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God who makes all things new!
People: We praise our God who creates and re-creates.
Leader: God comes among us to make us new.
People: We trust in God and offer ourselves into God’s hand.
Leader: God renews us so that we can remake the world.
People: As Jesus’ disciples, we are sent as he was sent.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty”
found in:
UMH: 64, 65
H82: 362
PH: 138
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELA: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT: 26
“Holy God, We Praise Thy Name”
found in:
UMH: 79
H82: 366
PH: 460
NNBH: 13
NCH: 276
LBW: 535
ELA: 414
W&P: 138
“Morning Has Broken”
found in:
UMH: 145
H82: 8
PH: 469
CH: 53
ELA: 556
W&P: 35
STLT: 38
“Tu Has Venido a la Orilla” (“Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore”)
found in:
UMH: 344
PH: 377
CH: 342
W&P: 347
“This Is a Day of New Beginnings”
found in:
UMH: 383
NCH: 417
CH: 518
W&P: 355
“Open My Eyes, That I May See”
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
“Trust and Obey”
found in:
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
“O God of Every Nation”
found in:
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELA: 713
W&P: 626
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who created and is ever creating anew: Grant us the wisdom to see ourselves and the world as you see them, so that we may gladly offer ourselves your Spirit working within and through us; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We offer you our praises, O God, for you are the one beyond our understanding. Help us not to be so comfortable with the ways we speak of you that we think we fully grasp you. Give us wisdom to submit our lives to you so that your Reign may fully come on this earth. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, especially when we think our way of understanding is the only way.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are comfortable in our faith and unwilling to learn. We have changed faith from trusting in you and made it into believing properly about you. We have come to worship our words about you more than we worship the reality they were meant to point to. Forgive us, and create us once again in your image so that we may worship you in awe. Open our eyes to your greatness and our nature as creatures, so that we may be more open to others. Amen.
Leader: God is the Creator who desires to continue to create. Receive God’s love and God’s Spirit as you are made anew in God’s image.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you and adore you, O God, for you are constantly at work in the midst of your creation. You seek to make us and all you have made into the love that is made perfect in your being.
(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 are comfortable in our faith and unwilling to learn. We have changed faith from trusting in you and made it into believing properly about you. We have come to worship our words about you more than we worship the reality they were meant to point to. Forgive us, and create us once again in your image so that we may worship you in awe. Open our eyes to your greatness and our nature as creatures, so that we may be more open to others.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you make yourself known to us. We thank you for your creating work that made us and all the universe. We thank you for Jesus, who taught us how to live as mortals made in your image. We thank you for your Spirit that renews us and empowers us to love as you love.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for your world and the hurts we see around us. We pray for your Church, that we may learn to share your love for the world in ways in which they will be able to receive it.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
The Trinity is a mystery which can never be truly explained but only experienced. The point of this children’s sermon is to help the children stay open to learning about God.
Ask the children who you are. For most of the children, their experience of you is probably based entirely on Sunday mornings. Show the children pictures of you doing things very different from what you do on Sunday. Show them pictures of you in different clothes, especially if you are usually in robes or a suit on Sunday morning. Ask the children questions like “Did you know I canoe?” or “Did you know I climb mountains?” Talk about how people are very complex and it is impossible for us to know everything about them. If that is true of people, how much more that must be true of God! We talk about God and what we have learned about God, but we never know it all.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Send Me!
by Robin Lostetter
Isaiah 6:1-8; John 3:1-17
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”
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. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
The vision of heavenly worship in Isaiah, which may or may not have been read in your congregation’s worship service, might be well received by the children’s creative imagination. That would be up to the preacher to determine.
However, what follows here is a more concrete approach to verse 8 alone -- considering the response “Send me.” And once sent, the message we carry is from the beloved (and ubiquitous) John 3:16, that God loves the world and its people.
This children’s message may underline Mary Austin’s article above, in which she suggests that our attachment to buildings/structures should take a backseat to our care for the world outside.
Items needed:
Business card stock printed with the John 3:16 text, enough for the congregation.
Message:
You might begin with the (very old) image of the church, with one’s fingers laced together and pointing inwards -- the one you may have learned as a child with these words:
Here is the church,
Here is the steeple,
Open the doors,
See all the people.
But then, as suggested in Mark Roberts’ blog, include the children’s hands and use these words:
Here is a building,
On top there’s a steeple,
Open the doors,
The church is the people!
The people in the church have a message to take outside the church. And God might be asking, “Whom shall I send, and who will take this message to them?” Then, like Isaiah, we might answer, “Here am I; send me!”
Let’s see how that might work...
* There are people outside the church building who feel unloved. Maybe even someone you sit next to in school needs to hear that God loves them. Who can take the time to give them a smile, and maybe even say “God loves you”? Shall we answer... Send me! (Invite the children to respond with you.)
* There are people outside the church building who need food. Who could go to the store and buy a box of cereal or a jar of peanut butter for the food bank? Shall we answer... Send me!
* There are people outside the church building, maybe your neighbors, who love to be outdoors -- but the park is littered with trash. Who could get a trash bag, put on some gloves, and get a group together to pick up the trash? Shall we answer... Send me!
So, today I have a Bible verse I’d like you to learn. Christians all over the world know this verse by heart, and we want to share it with everyone:
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.
(Break down the verse into phrases and have the children repeat it with you... only once or twice.)
I’ve printed that verse on these cards. There are enough here for you to keep one and learn it, and to share with all the people in the pews. So when I give them to you and ask, “Whom shall I send, and who will share this message for me?” what might you answer?
Send me!
Let us have a prayer first: Loving God, thank you for loving the world and for loving us. Help us to find ways to share your love and care for everyone. Amen.
OK... here is the message of God’s love! Whom shall I send, and who will share this message for me?
Send me!
(Distribute the cards and guide the children to different aisles, so that cards can be given to everyone. Remind them to keep one for themselves.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 31, 2015, issue.
Copyright 2015 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.
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin points out that this is indicative of a phenomenon that plagues us all -- getting hung up on language that means different things to different people, and assuming that our intended meaning is clear (when that may not be the case at all). As Mary notes, that can certainly be said of those of us in the church -- with our tendency to use “insider” language and to take for granted that our “testimony” will be understood in today’s world. There’s no more important message to share than the Good News that “God so loved the world” -- but if we’re not inviting and thoughtful about the language we use, we run the risk of not having that message received.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the adoption imagery in the Romans text. Adoption is a complex issue -- as Chris reminds us, for some the separation of children from their birth mothers can be a painful experience. But for many others, adoption provides both children and their adoptive parents with a loving, supportive environment that is crucial to a happy life -- a paradigm that is lifted up in our scripture passage, where we are cast as the adoptive children of a loving God who has made us joint heirs with Christ. And that’s perhaps the best metaphor we have for conveying the grace-filled love God has bestowed on us (as so vividly described in the closing verses of the gospel text).
Knowing What We Don’t Know
by Mary Austin
John 3:1-17
“How can you not know?” Jesus asks Nicodemus -- but my sympathy is with Nicodemus. He doesn’t know because Jesus isn’t speaking any language he understands. As people of faith lament the decline of the spirituality we understand, we share a story with both Jesus and Nicodemus. Like Jesus, we speak to people in ways they don’t understand, and then wonder why they don’t want to join our club and learn the secret language. Popular culture speaks to us in ways we don’t understand either. Like Nicodemus, we are often bewildered by the new shape of spirituality in America. Yoga on Sunday morning? Soccer games at 11:00 on Sunday? Guests at weddings who have never been in a church before?
Both Jesus and Nicodemus speak to the place of faith in America today.
In the World
As Chris Keating wrote last week, the Pew Research Center for Religion and Public Life has reminded us again that fewer and fewer people are connected with a formal religious practice or a religious institution. As the Pew Center says, “Religious ‘nones’ -- a shorthand we use to refer to people who self-identify as atheists or agnostics, as well as those who say their religion is ‘nothing in particular’ -- now make up roughly 23% of the U.S. adult population.” As a nation, we are less formally religious each time a survey like this is taken.
We don’t seem to know what to do about it, though. A business losing customers would survey former customers to see what they wanted, revamp its product line, and start a new marketing campaign. It would re-brand itself, making sure to offer what people want to buy. We in the church world don’t seem to know how to do that -- we keep offering the same product line, delivered in the same way, and wonder why people aren’t coming. We are like Nicodemus, immersed in the faith we know, even when it doesn’t translate any more.
We don’t even know how to talk to people outside of our faith. Religious people and the “nones” speak different languages to talk about their beliefs. In the comments on the study, one person wrote: “It would be interesting to poll these same people regarding the term ‘spiritual’ as opposed to ‘religious,’ given that the terms ‘religious’ and ‘spiritual’ have very different meanings to individuals. I believe we have entered an age where many individuals no longer box God into one particular ‘brand’ or another. I believe the reason it is important to look at this term is that without a better understanding of this subset, one would think that as a society the notion of faith is declining. For example, I may have turned away from many of the trappings of the RELIGION of Christianity, but identify with many of its fundamental messages. I feel this study misses a large population of ‘seekers’ who are uncomfortable with the labels, but who still believe in a higher power/creator/love.”
Like Jesus, our language is often puzzling to people. Church is a place you go for your grandparents’ funerals, and maybe your friends’ weddings. The music is different from anything else in everyday life, and church people use words like “creed,” “sanctification,” and “hell.” The latter is for other people who don’t do what we think they should. Unlike Jesus, our language is meant to scare and exclude people. At best, we just don’t think about what would be welcoming. Jesus uses unusual words to startle Nicodemus into the start of a new life; his words are an invitation.
We need more invitations.
Derek Penwell recently observed that we have bigger things to worry about than our own decline. As he says, “Mainline denominations are afraid. Declining congregations are afraid. People live in fear that one day they may wake up and something they love will no longer be there. Fear. Panic.” We are a lot like Nicodemus. Penwell suggests that fear is going to be part of our lives for a long time, and that part of holding onto faith in a changing world is learning to live with our fears. In a list of things Christians should be worried about, he suggests, “Why not be scared of the fact that there are innumerable kinds of great, creative, meaningful, reign-of-God sorts of work out there needing to be done, rather than expending inordinate amounts of energy worrying about whether your denomination or your congregation will once again muster up the funds to support its bureaucratic infrastructure, or whether the church organizational model has a good enough flow chart, or about whether to ‘jazz up’ the worship service?” Or, “Why not be afraid of the fact that there are people outside your walls, outside your normal sphere of thinking, who need what you have to share, and that in concentrating on your own survival you ignore them?”
In the Scriptures
Nicodemus is, like so many people we know, a seeker. He represents the traditional religion of the day, and yet comes seeking to know more.
John places this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus right after Jesus comes to the temple and makes a statement by driving out the usual commerce. As John records it, the scene ends with: “When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone” (John 2:23-25).
Jesus announces that he needs no testimony about who he is, and then Nicodemus comes. Jesus tells Nicodemus that his actions are his testimony -- the announcement of who he is. Nicodemus takes a risk in coming to Jesus, even at night. Jesus knows this, but doesn’t seem to make it any easier for Nicodemus. After the scene in the temple, it’s risky for a Pharisee to come to see Jesus, even under the cover of darkness. If Nicodemus was hoping for a better welcome from Jesus, the story doesn’t say. If he hoped for some sympathy for his predicament, he doesn’t get it. What he does get is a lesson in a new kind of connection with God.
Meda Stamper writes for Working Preacher that “Jesus picks up on words and concepts introduced by Nicodemus and turns the conversation toward deeper truths again and again (see, for example, the repetition of God, enter, and being born). With each repetition Jesus shifts the conversation from the smallness of Nicodemus’ view to the largeness of life in God, from the signs on which Nicodemus and others base their hope to the invisible mystery of the Spirit/wind (the two words are the same in Greek), which can give him birth into the truth that he is missing.” The words may be overly familiar to us. We lose their impact, but to Nicodemus it’s all brand-new.
The story gives Jesus the last word, without recording any “aha!” from Nicodemus. There’s no closing statement of belief from Nicodemus. He appears twice more in John’s gospel, once speaking to the Sanhedrin (7:50) and again after Jesus’ death. All four gospels record Joseph of Arimathea asking for Jesus’ body, and John also adds the presence of Nicodemus to the scene. Nicodemus’ change of heart happens off-screen.
In the Sermon
This is Trinity Sunday. If you’re preaching in that direction, the sermon might look at relationship as the foundation of the Trinity. The different sides of the divine work in harmony, even dancing together, as our Orthodox friends imagine it. Are we also called to a similar kind of harmony with our neighbors of other faiths, and the “nones”? Should we be talking about places where we can work together -- places to share our passion for good schools or safe streets or beautiful parks?
Nicodemus has to let go of his familiar ideas to take in what Jesus is saying. As Meda Stamper says, “When we become too sure of what we know about Jesus (or indeed the Trinity on this particular Sunday), when we believe that we have grasped him at last, that is when we can perhaps expect to be undone like Nicodemus. That undoing -- that overturning of our certainty -- may be a very good thing if it allows us to experience anew the miracle of our birth from above into eternal life, which has nothing to do with what we know or what we are (any more than our birth from our mother’s womb did).” We are now in the place of Nicodemus -- followers of a familiar religion, in need of something new. Where is God now asking us to be born again? Is God calling us to let go of familiar ideas to take in something new?
For Nicodemus, being born anew is apparently a process, not a moment. It takes some time to sink in. The sermon might explore how being born again in faith is slow work, taking root in our lives over time. God invites us into it, but we have a part to play in this new birth too. How do we grasp this gift from God?
As Derek Penwell sums it up, “In a post-denominational world the way forward seems clear: The church must be more concerned with relinquishing any idea of success that doesn’t begin with death, sacrifice, laying down. The church must focus on letting go of the need to ensure its future rather than on grasping for its survival. Letting go means giving up everything, perhaps even the life to which we cling so desperately.”
Like Nicodemus, we are caught between the familiar and the new. Like Nicodemus, our response hasn’t yet been recorded. Perhaps we need to show up at the tomb of organized religion, as we know it, so we can hear Jesus invite us into new life again. And then, like Jesus, we will have an invitation to offer too.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Claiming Our Identities
by Chris Keating
Romans 8:12-17
Adoption is complex.
Last year, I watched as a teenager came to grips with being adopted in ways that surprised him. His parents had always been open about his adoption, and he had an understanding of the circumstances surrounding his adoption. It wasn’t an easy journey for the families involved, but the process had been undergirded by prayer, support, and plenty of love.
While attending a church youth conference, however, he was confronted with adoption in a new way. Throughout the week, bits and pieces of the teens’ stories began to emerge in their small group conversations. One day, this particular young boy listened as a couple of other kids shared their experiences of being teenage parents. It hit him hard -- this could have been his story.
He began to realize just how his adoption had been a source of grace. He claimed his identity -- not just as an adopted son, but also in a sense as God’s beloved child. He was a beloved son, a solid athlete, a good-natured friend. He was also beloved by God.
While adoption is mentioned only infrequently in the Bible, it remains a potent metaphor in Christian theology, especially for Paul. (See Mary Foskett’s excellent article on “Adoption” in The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 1 [Abingdon Press, 2006], p. 54.) Against the backdrop of Greco-Roman practices of adoption, Paul employs the metaphor to stress our new identity in Christ. We’re adopted -- and it is a life-changing story.
In the News
A couple of years ago, two young women enrolled at Columbia University in New York City to pursue their dreams of becoming writers. As they sat down for introductions in their first class, one of the women began to feel a pit growing in the middle of her stomach. She felt the woman sitting across from her was more than a stranger -- she was her sister.
Lizzie Valverde began to tell her story of being an adopted child, growing up in New Jersey and having a goofy obsession with Hollywood’s Olsen twins. As Valverde told her story, Katy Olson felt as though she was having a panic attack. She had been searching for details about her own birth family, and realized that Valverde’s story closely matched some of the bits and pieces she had unearthed.
After class Olson approached Valverde, blurting out questions. “I think we’re sisters,” she said. They headed out for drinks and sorted through the details. All Valverde could keep thinking was “Is this real life?”
The women -- who were enrolled in a college program for adults -- asked each other more than the typical “get to know you” questions. They probed identities: Do you like avocadoes? Buffalo wings? Spicy food? Do you have weird pinkie toes? The biggest question, however, was about their mother.
Both of them knew their mother’s name. Valverde had been in contact with their mother, and urged Olson to do so as well. The series of coincidences that led them to find each other also led Olson to being reunited with her mother, who was able to attend her graduation from Columbia this month, an experience Olson described as “incredible.”
“My graduation was more than a degree,” said Valverde. “It was a strange bond into sisterhood.”
In some cases, the search for those bonds has led to the uncovering of injustice and long-hidden secrets. For example, a woman in St. Louis recently discovered that hospital officials had lied when they told her that her baby had died 50 years ago. A Youtube video shows the emotional reunion between Melanie Gilmore of Oregon and gospel singer Zella Mae Jackson-Price of St. Louis.
Gilmore, who is deaf, had been told that her children were taking a DNA swab from her as part of a school project. What she didn’t know was that they were trying to connect her with Jackson-Price. The singer had given birth 49 years ago to a baby girl at the segregated Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis. Jackson-Price was allowed to hold the child, who was born prematurely, but eventually a nurse informed her that her baby had died. For her part, Gilmore was told that she had been placed into foster care when her mother did not want her.
This story has prompted many others to contact the city of St. Louis in order to discern whether their children had also been adopted without their knowledge or permission. More than 150 people have contacted the city of St. Louis in recent weeks searching for medical records. St. Louis area attorney Clayton Watkins, who has been retained by families searching for these records, said the similarities in the cases are hard to dismiss.
“There are so many similarities to their stories, it’s pretty hard to dismiss,” Watkins told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Each of the mothers were black, and typically single and poor. “And these women have in many cases endured decades and decades of anguish and grief and unresolved closure.”
Watkins has asked the state to initiate an investigation to determine whether the hospital coordinated an effort to “to steal newborns of color for marketing in private adoption transactions.” Watkins believes that the newborns were sold during a time when there were few adoption agencies serving African-American families. The hospital has been closed since 1979.
It’s a mystery which may take years to piece together. For now, however, part of the mystery has been solved, leading one family to incomparable joy.
In the Scriptures
Incomparable joy is also at the heart of the Trinity -- a doctrine not easily understood or comprehended by either preacher or congregation. As David Lose notes, “at the heart of our understanding of God as somehow three-in-one is the notion that you can’t fully or finally understand God without talking about relationship.” This is the heart of Trinitarian theology: the indwelling of God in three persons in a communion of love, mutuality, and deep union. According to Paul, this is also the inheritance offered to the children of God.
Charles Bartow (“Trinity Sunday, Year B,” in The Lectionary Commentary, The Second Readings [William Eerdmans Publishing, 2001], pp. 76ff) notes that scratching beneath the surface of Romans 8:12-17 reveals a close connection to Trinitarian theology. The text is filled with references to the Spirit -- the Spirit puts to death the deeds of the body (v. 13); the Spirit leads the children of God (v.14), as well as the giving of the spirit of adoption (v. 14). Finally, the Spirit enables our spirits to bear witness to our identity as children of God (v. 16). In each instance, the Holy Spirit remains in deep relationship with God the Father and Son, and together these images guide the church in understanding God as triune.
Paul reminds his listeners that the Spirit leads them into new lives. The power of sin is enslaving, yet the incomparable gospel of Christ is liberating. We are led into a future and called to not fall back into a “spirit of slavery.” The Spirit -- just as it did for Jesus at the moment of his baptism -- declares our identity as God’s children. We are “debtors,” Paul therefore declares, “not to the flesh.” Instead, we are called to a new way of life characterized by setting our mind on the ways of God. This is our identity. We are not abandoned, but rather are adopted by God. We are therefore offered the opportunity to bear witness in our worship and lives to the Spirit of God who dwells within us.
It is the same Spirit which sustains us in times of suffering, in those long and anguished moments when, like Melanie Gilmore, we believe we are cut off from the source of life. As Bartow notes, “it is by the Spirit that those who live according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh are sustained through the suffering which they must inevitably undergo.” Indeed, as Paul will note at verse 18, “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” This does not alleviate our experience of suffering, of course; but it does affirm our identity as God’s children. It is that secure hope that holds us even in suffering.
As adopted heirs, we know that our future is secure. Our identity is firmly revealed by the presence of the Spirit, who gives us the assurance that God is present in our lives.
In the Sermon
If adoption is complex, so is Paul. But our congregations will benefit from a careful reflection and exegesis of Romans 8:12-17, especially in grappling with the understanding that we are, each of us, beloved children of God. That is our identity -- not slaves to sin, or to the law (as Paul indicated earlier), but freed women and men who dwell in the love of God.
Exploring the complexities surrounding adoption could prove fruitful. In the past there was a layer of shame surrounding adoption, yet many families in the church could resonate with the powerful image of knowing that we are chosen by God. We belong to God, claimed by God in baptism, and are drawn into intimate relationship with God through Christ.
Closely connected to this is the experience of baptism. Throughout the Presbyterian Church (USA), congregations are often incorporating words of the French Reformed Church in their baptismal liturgies -- words that express the depth of our connection to God. The pastor, looking directly at the child, affirms these quite Pauline words:
For you, little child, Jesus Christ has come, he has fought, he has suffered.
For you he entered the shadow of Gethsemane and the horror of Calvary.
For you he uttered the cry, “It is finished!”
For you he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and there he intercedes -- for you, little child, even though you do not know it.
But in this way the word of the Gospel becomes true.
“We love him, because he first loved us.”
The power of God enables us to live as heirs of the kingdom. What a powerful promise, offered to us through our adoption in Christ!
It is a promise that adoptive parents in our congregations will understand. Spending time listening to the stories of adoptive families would bring new dimensions to this text and offer additional insights to preachers who might not have firsthand experience of adoption. Being cognizant of the experiences of others -- for example, those who may have offered children to be adopted -- would further guide the sermon to new understandings of what it means to bear witness that “we are children of God.” The deep good news of this passage is that each of us is named as God’s children. It is an experience of joy and mystery that perhaps only persons like Melanie Gilmore may fully understand.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Tata Jesus is bangala!
Thus begins a sermon by missionary Nathan Price to his little congregation in the Congo in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible. But Nathan was so convinced that God was calling him to Africa, so anxious to get there as quickly as possible that he did not bother to learn the language or the customs of the people. So he doesn’t realize that bangala can mean many things in the Congolese language, depending on how the speaker pronounces the word.
Nathan intends for it to mean “precious.” But the way he pronounces it, the word actually means “poisonous” and refers to a specific poisonous plant in that area. Even after someone tries to explain the subtle nuances of the language to him, Nathan refuses to learn -- so he continues to tell the people that Jesus will make their skin itch.
And he wonders why no one will allow him to baptize them.
*****
When Ads Go Bad
* When pronounced in Cantonese, Coca-Cola means “bite the wax tadpole.” By changing an accent here and there, however, Coca-Cola was able to find a phonetic equivalent which means “it makes the mouth happy.”
* When Kentucky Fried Chicken opened their first restaurant in Beijing in 1987, they accidentally translated KFC’s famous slogan “finger-lickin’ good” to “we’ll eat your fingers off!” in Chinese.
* Ford discovered that in Belgium, enticing customers with a dead body in every car isn’t the best way to make a sale. Hoping to highlight the cars’ excellent manufacturing, Ford launched an ad campaign in the European country that execs thought said “Every car has a high-quality body.” When translated, however, the slogan read “Every car has a high-quality corpse” -- far from the image they were hoping to invoke.
* Sometimes companies run into problems overseas not just for what they say, but how they say it. When Proctor & Gamble started selling its Pampers diapers in Japan, it used an image of a stork delivering a baby on the packaging. While the advertising may have worked in the U.S., it never caught on with Japanese moms and dads. After some research, the company figured out that customers were concerned and confused by the image of a stork on the packaging, since the stories of storks bringing babies to parents isn’t a part of Japanese folklore. There, the story goes that giant floating peaches bring babies to their parents.
*****
Online Miscues
If you’re my age, you think that MIA means “missing in action,” right?
But if you’re the age of my grandchildren, you know that MIA stands for “misunderstood internet acronyms.” Or at least it does now, thanks to a blog article by the writing staff at Omnibeat.
Here are just a couple of their stories about MIAs.
Everyone who uses the internet or sends text messages knows that LOL is an acronym for “laughing out loud.” Well, not everyone. “My friend’s mom once texted her daughter (my friend), ‘Your Grandpa is in the hospital. LOL.’ For her daughter, who is quite aware of the meaning of LOL, the text was a mixture of either a cruel joke or sick humor. The good-hearted mom mistakenly thought ‘LOL’ meant ‘lots of love.’ ”
Not quite as popular as LOL but still used by many is the acronym YOLO, which means “you only live once.” It’s usually used to encourage someone to take a risk -- as in, “Hey, take the trip to Cancun. YOLO.”
Actor Jack Black doesn’t approve, however. He tweeted the following message to his friends: “I’m fairly certain that YOLO is just Carpe Diem for stupid people.”
*****
Adopted Is Chosen
I bet you didn’t know that these famous people were all adopted:
* Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was adopted at birth.
* Country singer Faith Hill was adopted at birth.
* Actor Ray Liotta was adopted when he was six months old.
* Singer Sarah McLachlan was adopted as a young child.
* Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, was raised by a tribal chief after his parents’ death when he was nine years old.
* Actress Francis McDormand was (along with her siblings) adopted by a minister and his wife.
* Actor Dean “Superman” Cain was adopted at the age of three.
And a few others: actress Ingrid Bergman; actor Gary Cole; Rev. Jesse Jackson; actor Lee Majors; author Edgar Allen Poe; jazz musican Louis Armstrong; skater Scott Hamilton; and, of course, the founder of the Wendy’s hamburger chain, Dave Thomas.
*****
In the wildly popular animated film Despicable Me we meet Gru, a fat, head-shaved villain with a weird eastern European accent who lives in lovely, green suburbia in a big black house with a dead lawn. There, surrounded by his strange little minions and an array of shrink rays, freeze rays, and other nefarious weapons, he plots all manner of evil mayhem.
His latest caper will, he is confident, earn him a high place in the annals of crime. He will steal the moon. “Yes! The moon!”
But along the way to pulling off that caper he finds himself confronted by three little orphaned girls who look at him and see something that no one else has ever seen: a potential dad.
Originally his plan is to use Margo, Edith, and Agnes to further his criminal pursuits, but as the film progresses he is captivated by their acceptance and love for him, until by the end he finds that he really does love them.
In one of the final scenes of the movie, he tucks them in and reads them a story that he has written about a unicorn who thought his life was complete and full until three little kittens come to live with him. (“Any relation to persons livink or dead is completely coincidental.”) The story ends with the rhyme: “And now he knows he could never part / With those three little kittens that changed his heart.”
[A clip from this film for use in preaching or teaching can be found at http://www.wingclips.com/themes/adoption.]
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Isaiah 6:1-8
B.B. King recently died. Considered one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time, the 15-time Grammy winner continued to perform 100 concerts a year up to his death at the age of 89. King said, “as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.”
Application: As long as people are suffering, as they were in the days of Isaiah, they will need to hear our message.
*****
Isaiah 6:1-8
B.B. King named his Gibson guitar “Lucille.” King was one of the few performers who would not play and sing at the same time. When King was silent it was because Lucille had a message to share, as she sang through King’s mastery of the 12-bar blues. The result could hypnotize an audience. King called the relationship of his singing with playing Lucille “call-and-response,” which allowed Lucille to do some of the talking. Of Lucille’s voice he said, “Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said, to make the audience understand what I am trying to say.”
Application: As the hot coal touches our lips we must realize there are many ways in which we can share the gospel message.
*****
John 3:1-17
B.B. King offered this thought in a 2006 Associated Press interview regarding the purpose of his singing the blues: “When I’m singing, I don’t want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have a pretty good storytelling.”
Application: When Nicodemus came to Jesus, it was to relive the story.
*****
Romans 8:12-17
B.B. King continued to perform the blues until weeks before his death. Even in his 80s he would still do 100 shows a year. He believed that touring extended his life span. Regarding this, King said: “I got a chance today to ride on a very nice bus, and from my window I can see how beautiful this country is and how nice it is to be alive. That to me is like extra vitamins.”
Application: When we realize we are children of God, we will understand just how beautiful life can be.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Ascribe to God, O heavenly beings, ascribe to God glory and strength.
People: Ascribe to God glory; worship God in holy splendor.
Leader: The voice of God is powerful.
People: The voice of God is full of majesty.
Leader: God sits enthroned over the flood; God sits enthroned forever.
People: May God give us strength! May God bless us with peace!
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God who makes all things new!
People: We praise our God who creates and re-creates.
Leader: God comes among us to make us new.
People: We trust in God and offer ourselves into God’s hand.
Leader: God renews us so that we can remake the world.
People: As Jesus’ disciples, we are sent as he was sent.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty”
found in:
UMH: 64, 65
H82: 362
PH: 138
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELA: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT: 26
“Holy God, We Praise Thy Name”
found in:
UMH: 79
H82: 366
PH: 460
NNBH: 13
NCH: 276
LBW: 535
ELA: 414
W&P: 138
“Morning Has Broken”
found in:
UMH: 145
H82: 8
PH: 469
CH: 53
ELA: 556
W&P: 35
STLT: 38
“Tu Has Venido a la Orilla” (“Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore”)
found in:
UMH: 344
PH: 377
CH: 342
W&P: 347
“This Is a Day of New Beginnings”
found in:
UMH: 383
NCH: 417
CH: 518
W&P: 355
“Open My Eyes, That I May See”
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
“Trust and Obey”
found in:
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
“O God of Every Nation”
found in:
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELA: 713
W&P: 626
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who created and is ever creating anew: Grant us the wisdom to see ourselves and the world as you see them, so that we may gladly offer ourselves your Spirit working within and through us; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We offer you our praises, O God, for you are the one beyond our understanding. Help us not to be so comfortable with the ways we speak of you that we think we fully grasp you. Give us wisdom to submit our lives to you so that your Reign may fully come on this earth. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, especially when we think our way of understanding is the only way.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are comfortable in our faith and unwilling to learn. We have changed faith from trusting in you and made it into believing properly about you. We have come to worship our words about you more than we worship the reality they were meant to point to. Forgive us, and create us once again in your image so that we may worship you in awe. Open our eyes to your greatness and our nature as creatures, so that we may be more open to others. Amen.
Leader: God is the Creator who desires to continue to create. Receive God’s love and God’s Spirit as you are made anew in God’s image.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you and adore you, O God, for you are constantly at work in the midst of your creation. You seek to make us and all you have made into the love that is made perfect in your being.
(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 are comfortable in our faith and unwilling to learn. We have changed faith from trusting in you and made it into believing properly about you. We have come to worship our words about you more than we worship the reality they were meant to point to. Forgive us, and create us once again in your image so that we may worship you in awe. Open our eyes to your greatness and our nature as creatures, so that we may be more open to others.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you make yourself known to us. We thank you for your creating work that made us and all the universe. We thank you for Jesus, who taught us how to live as mortals made in your image. We thank you for your Spirit that renews us and empowers us to love as you love.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for your world and the hurts we see around us. We pray for your Church, that we may learn to share your love for the world in ways in which they will be able to receive it.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
The Trinity is a mystery which can never be truly explained but only experienced. The point of this children’s sermon is to help the children stay open to learning about God.
Ask the children who you are. For most of the children, their experience of you is probably based entirely on Sunday mornings. Show the children pictures of you doing things very different from what you do on Sunday. Show them pictures of you in different clothes, especially if you are usually in robes or a suit on Sunday morning. Ask the children questions like “Did you know I canoe?” or “Did you know I climb mountains?” Talk about how people are very complex and it is impossible for us to know everything about them. If that is true of people, how much more that must be true of God! We talk about God and what we have learned about God, but we never know it all.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Send Me!
by Robin Lostetter
Isaiah 6:1-8; John 3:1-17
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”
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. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
The vision of heavenly worship in Isaiah, which may or may not have been read in your congregation’s worship service, might be well received by the children’s creative imagination. That would be up to the preacher to determine.
However, what follows here is a more concrete approach to verse 8 alone -- considering the response “Send me.” And once sent, the message we carry is from the beloved (and ubiquitous) John 3:16, that God loves the world and its people.
This children’s message may underline Mary Austin’s article above, in which she suggests that our attachment to buildings/structures should take a backseat to our care for the world outside.
Items needed:
Business card stock printed with the John 3:16 text, enough for the congregation.
Message:
You might begin with the (very old) image of the church, with one’s fingers laced together and pointing inwards -- the one you may have learned as a child with these words:
Here is the church,
Here is the steeple,
Open the doors,
See all the people.
But then, as suggested in Mark Roberts’ blog, include the children’s hands and use these words:
Here is a building,
On top there’s a steeple,
Open the doors,
The church is the people!
The people in the church have a message to take outside the church. And God might be asking, “Whom shall I send, and who will take this message to them?” Then, like Isaiah, we might answer, “Here am I; send me!”
Let’s see how that might work...
* There are people outside the church building who feel unloved. Maybe even someone you sit next to in school needs to hear that God loves them. Who can take the time to give them a smile, and maybe even say “God loves you”? Shall we answer... Send me! (Invite the children to respond with you.)
* There are people outside the church building who need food. Who could go to the store and buy a box of cereal or a jar of peanut butter for the food bank? Shall we answer... Send me!
* There are people outside the church building, maybe your neighbors, who love to be outdoors -- but the park is littered with trash. Who could get a trash bag, put on some gloves, and get a group together to pick up the trash? Shall we answer... Send me!
So, today I have a Bible verse I’d like you to learn. Christians all over the world know this verse by heart, and we want to share it with everyone:
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.
(Break down the verse into phrases and have the children repeat it with you... only once or twice.)
I’ve printed that verse on these cards. There are enough here for you to keep one and learn it, and to share with all the people in the pews. So when I give them to you and ask, “Whom shall I send, and who will share this message for me?” what might you answer?
Send me!
Let us have a prayer first: Loving God, thank you for loving the world and for loving us. Help us to find ways to share your love and care for everyone. Amen.
OK... here is the message of God’s love! Whom shall I send, and who will share this message for me?
Send me!
(Distribute the cards and guide the children to different aisles, so that cards can be given to everyone. Remind them to keep one for themselves.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 31, 2015, issue.
Copyright 2015 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.
