The Lamb Has No T-Shirts
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For May 12, 2019:
The Lamb Has No T-Shirts
by Mary Austin
Revelation 5:11-14
This is the time of year when families are writing checks for a college deposit…or two, if the student still can’t make up his mind. Admitted students show up at high school in shirts proclaiming the college of their choice, and parents of freshmen-to-be sport shirts that say “Proud U of ______ Parent.” If you have young friends, kid or grandchildren pondering college, it’s hard to escape the intensity of this time of year.
For students who didn’t get into their first choice school, or even their fourth choice school, it’s hard to believe that life will turn out well. Parents of non-typical kids experience another layer of grief, recognizing again that the path for their child is so different. And students who can’t afford college, or who are headed straight to work, feel left out of the whole intense scene.
The May ritual of college decision making leaves college-bound students and their parents pondering where they belong, and other families wondering if they belong.
The scriptures this week call us back to another kind of belonging, as the followers of Jesus find the place where they belong.
In the News
In this season of college decisions, for those students who are able to go to college, there’s as much angst as joy. A student recently wrote to The Ethicist at The New York Times, lamenting that every desirable college had said no. The student wrote:
“I am a high school senior who was recently rejected from nearly all the schools I wished to attend this fall. I have been left heartbroken by this turn of events, and I’m not quite sure how to measure my reaction around others. I was accepted into a good state university close to home, from which one of my parents graduated, but I would hesitate to attend, as most of my close friends who have decided to go have been accepted into the honors programs that I was rejected from. I know, logically, that it is a wonderful school with great programs, but I can’t help seeing myself as inferior to my honors-bound peers, despite never having felt that way before. This university is an environment that I would be deeply uncomfortable in, as I know from having seen it, but all the schools I was accepted to are very far from home, with fewer accredited programs for what I want to do.
I can’t see myself being happy with any of the options I have. In addition, it is quite painful to see others celebrating acceptances to my dream schools when I am still, quite frankly, in mourning over what could have been. I feel like the butt of a very cruel, drawn-out joke, one which had me vastly overestimating my ability to achieve at the level of higher education I aspired to.
Is it that I am stupid and no one ever let me know? How can I be respectful and celebratory of others’ achievements when I feel awful about myself for failing at my goals? Where do I go from here?”
The rejected student is feeling the sting of not belonging on every possible level. Not being a part of the community of celebrating students, not being admitted to the honors program at the state university, and not even feeling smart or accomplished in a way they once had.
In a Nebraska Methodist Church, the decision about who belongs recently went the other way. A group of students in the confirmation class, poised to join the church as members, instead read a statement choosing not to join the current version of the United Methodist Church. They “decided against joining an Omaha Methodist church in protest at the denomination’s renewed ban on same-sex marriage and gay clergy. The eight were scheduled to become part of the congregation Sunday at First United Methodist Church. But the class, comprising seventh- and eighth-graders, declined and issued a written statement instead.” In their written statement, the students said: “We are disappointed about the direction the United Methodist denomination is heading…We are concerned that if we join at this time, we will be sending a message that we approve of this decision. We want to be clear that … we believe that policies on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage are immoral.”
They chose not to belong to a denomination that, in its current form, has chosen to leave others out.
In the Scriptures
In Revelation, the great multitude stands before the throne and the Lamb, coming from every nation and tribe, but now united into one praise-filled community. They are dressed identically, in white robes, and they all proclaim the same praise. No matter their diverse roots, they now all belong in the same place. They have work to do together, as they worship day and night.
This is a group that has suffered tribulation, and they have had to wash the evidence of their persecution out of their robes to make them white again. The sorrow isn’t erased, but in the completeness of the Lamb’s presence, it’s balanced by safety, community and praise. They are now “sheltered” here.
In John’s gospel, Jesus makes a statement about who belongs. “My sheep hear my voice,” he says. We belong, not because of who we are or what we accomplish, but because we are willing to listen, and follow. The people outside the circle choose not to believe — they see the same things that Jesus’ followers do, and choose not to be included in the group. The sheep, those who belong to the Good Shepherd, in contrast, can’t be snatched away, Jesus says. It’s a curious dynamic — we can exclude ourselves, but no one can take us away from Jesus.
In the Sermon
In Revelation, it is promised that in the fullness of God’s reign, people “will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” The sermon might talk about how God has redeemed a time of sorrow in the life of the church community, or in someone’s life.
Or, in Revelation, the gathered people have been joined into one community. The sermon might look at a community as the place where God is present, and where hurts are healed. How is the church a place of healing for those who have felt like they didn’t fit? How does the church, like the great multitude, gather people in, and make them part of a bigger experience of belonging?
Or, the sermon might talk about what it means to be “sheltered” by God. God doesn’t shelter us from very much in life. People of faith experience as much illness, sorrow, struggle and pain as anyone else. The late William Sloane Coffin, who experienced the death of his son Alex when Alex was a young man, said that “God provides minimum protection, maximum support — support to help us grow up, to stretch our minds and hearts until they are as wide as God's universe.” Is the promise of shelter only for the life to come, or is there shelter in this world, too?
Responding to the dejected college applicant, The New York Times ethicist, Dr. Kwame Anthony Appiah, wrote back to the broken hearted student, saying, “If your self-worth is tied to being better than others, then, you’re headed for trouble. Your classmate in the honors program can feel inadequate compared with a higher-performing classmate in that program, who can feel inadequate compared with a still-higher-performing classmate and so on up the line. They could all walk around in a state of dejection.” He notes that many successful people went to lesser-known colleges, and vice versa. “A mistaken notion of desert is often accompanied by the delusion that the college you go to will determine how rewarding a life you’ll have. Take a quick look at the résumés of this country’s most successful CEOs or social entrepreneurs, and you’ll see how many didn’t attend “name brand” colleges. (Last year only 14 CEOs of the Fortune 100 companies attended Ivy League schools.)”
He adds a note about belonging, “In the end, what matters isn’t how we rank against others… You started out with a bundle of talents and interests unlike anyone else’s — yes, even if you have an identical twin… You may acquit yourself, in these various endeavors, better or worse than another person, but nobody else is trying to do exactly the things you are trying to do with exactly the developed talents you have. Because we all come equipped with different capacities and have been born into different circumstances, and because we choose our own projects, each of us faces his or her own challenge, one that is, like you, unique…The goal, therefore, isn’t to be the best; it’s to do your best. And don’t think this lets you off the hook. To become a better version of yourself is quite demanding enough.” We all belong to various groups, and yet we balance that with our uniqueness. He urges a different kind of acceptance than college, adding, “If acceptance from elite colleges is hard, self-acceptance can be harder.”
There are no t-shirts to show they we belong to the community of the Lamb, which is just as well, so we don’t leave anyone out. This is the community where the standards for admission are low, and where everyone can belong.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Authentic Self
by Bethany Peerbolte
John 10:22-30
“You can be anything you want to be” this is the mantra millennials have grown up believing. We believed it because everyone told us the same message. Except many of us are finding the hardest thing to be is ourselves. Caster Semenya has been at the center of this issue for years. This week she found out that in order to do what she loves, what she is especially skilled at, she must take medicine to suppress her natural self.
In the scripture reading from John this week Jesus is unapologetically himself. As the public eye presses in around him he does not change to match their needs and expectations. Jesus is pressed to say plainly that he is the messiah, but Jesus is not exactly known for speaking plainly. He does not give in to the pressure and remains true to form. His answer is as plain as he feels comfortable with and answers in a way that lifts his supporters without bashing his opposition. Quintessentially Jesus is every way.
We all battle with the expectations others put on us verses being true to ourselves. Jesus sets our trajectory. We must always put who God made us to be first. Those who belong in our lives will get it and love it. Those who are not for us will fall away.
Jesus’ commitment to his authentic self is worth examining. This desire is not a new concept. In 1957 Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella included a song in which Cinderella sings of being “whatever I want to be.” This dreamer storyline may just be as old as writing itself. When this human desire “to be” gathers and crowds around Jesus the only thing Jesus wants to be is himself.
In the gospel lectionary selection this week, John is deliberate about placing this exchange during a specific time in the Jewish calendar. It may seem like John is simply setting a scene but when we take into account the festival going on around Jesus we can more fully understand the conversation. John says it is the festival of the Dedication — we know it as Hanukkah.
Hanukkah is more than just 8 lights and oil lasting 8 times longer than it should. The history of the celebration is rooted in anti-Semitism and suppression. From 175 to 164 BCE the King of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes, wanted to eliminate all Jews. At first, he tried to exterminate the ideas of the Jewish people but when this did not work he turned to stomach-turning acts of violence. When simply outlawing circumcision did not work, he began to hang mothers who circumcised their children with their children hanging around their necks. This is the violence Judas Maccabaeus and his brother fought and overcame. The eight days of light we still see celebrated today is a remembrance of the dedication of the temple after the defeat of Epiphanes. During which there was only enough oil for one day of dedication, yet the lights burned for eight.
This is the emotional setting in which Jesus is pressured to plainly reveal if he is the messiah or not. The people want a hero. The story of Hanukkah has roused the collective emotional landscape. Stories of battles and overcoming oppressors have sparked hope of another revolution. The crowd wants a champion like Maccabaeus to make this year’s celebration a special one. Jesus must have also been moved by the season. He is not an outsider. He knows the history, too. It is his family, his people who are again under the thumb of an oppressor. He lives in the anti-Semitic culture with them. He hears the insults and sees the persecution. Yet Jesus does not let the emotional quagmire drown his authentic self.
While the crowd is being riled up by the season, Jesus remains grounded. When he is asked to plainly reveal that he is the Messiah, the champion, he does not give in. Jesus points the people back to his actions. He says if they are paying attention, he has already given them their answer. It is interesting to note that in John’s gospel Jesus has in fact not said he is the Messiah in any spoken way. When Jesus says “I have told you” he is exclusively talking about his actions doing the telling. Jesus’ response is quintessentially Jesus. He uses plain enough words, but they are cloaked in layers of meaning so that only the people willing to peel back and examine what he says get to the truth.
Jesus is unashamed to be himself; he will not let the public’s needs change who he is. Even more than that Jesus stays focused on what he can control, himself. The crowd he is speaking to is made up of people who are not his supporters. They have not understood Jesus’ messiahship by his actions alone, but Jesus does not reprimand them and tell them they are doomed. He takes the opportunity to reinforce what he has done and what he will do. Every action has been proof enough of who he is. Those who seek to understand him without preconceived ideas will be blessed by Jesus and give eternal life. There is no bashing of the other. The invitation is open to all and the benefits are amazing.
Authentic self often stands in opposition to the public’s needs and expectations. Caster Semenya lives this reality daily. Her entire life she has been in opposition to what others expect. The offense? Her natural body. Semenya naturally produces more testosterone than average females. As an athlete this has meant being forced to prove her sex to coaches, constantly taking drug tests, in addition to the stares and comments of the general public. Gracefully, Semenya has endured the added pressure and stayed focused on what she can control — herself. It can be argued the criticism has fueled her to achieve great feats of athleticism including two Olympic gold medals.
This week the International Association of Athletics Federations made a rule that females with high testosterone levels must take suppressants in order to compete in female sporting events. This comes from the same group that praised Michael Phelps as “lucky” when tests revealed his natural body produces less than half the lactic acid of his competitors. One athlete gets praised for their natural advantages while another is forced to inhibit their advantage. Essentially, for Semenya to compete she must start taking medicine to change the body with which God has blessed her. She is being forced to choose between being her authentic self and meeting the expectations of the crowd.
The crowd wants her to fit their definition of a female athlete. Her actions have proven her femininity. She has submitted to humiliating strip downs and tests. Her actions have proven her athleticism. She has trained hard, pushed past plateaus, and achieved personal bests. Her actions have told the world who she is, yet some people still have not heard.
Through the pressure and jeers, Semenya has maintained a commitment to her authentic self. As this new rule reshapes female sports we will see more women forced to choose between public glory and authentic self. On some level, we all struggle with what the world expects us to be and who we are authentically. Jesus’ example should inspire us to stay true to whom God has created us to be. If we can be anything we want to be, let's be ourselves. Let the expectations and needs of the crowd be drowned out by our actions. They can choose to listen or not.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Revelation 7:14 “white in the blood of the lamb”
Recently the IRS approved the worship of Satan as a religion. This means the Satanic Temple receives the same benefits as other religious organizations, including tax exempt status and protection from discrimination. Their god called Baphomet, a winged-goat creature with two admiring children looking up into his disinterested face, will be displaced in many places across the country. Lucien Greaves, the founder, said the ruling is “lying to rest any suspicion that we don’t meet the qualifications of a true religious organization. Satanism is here to stay.” But you won’t find them wearing the white robes of Christian martyrdom.
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Acts 9:41 “he showed her to be alive”
In a recent Instagram posting Justin Bieber encouraged his 111 million followers to look to Jesus for all things in life. The 25-year-old singer once lived a hedonistic life, but upon turning his life over to Jesus has become an outspoken Christian. In the post he wrote, “Jesus has given me freedom and the pursuit of getting to know his character is never ending. God’s character never changes he is the same yesterday now and forever. He is always good!”
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Acts 9:36 “Now in Joppa…”
Jeff Cowmeadow has been the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church since 1986. Recently he and his wife Randi decided they needed to expand their ministry to the neighborhood. They consider this outreach program as a fulfillment of Jesus’ command of, “Love God, love your neighbor.” Jeff also said, “We believe that the church has to do new things. We have to think outside the box.” So, they decided to extend their ministry to the neighborhood by opening a bar one block from the church. The bar will be called Prodigal Public House, named after Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son. Prodigal Public House opened on May 9.
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Acts 9:42 “many believed”
John 10:26 “but you do not believe”
David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times. For years readers have been trying to determine if he is a Jew or a Christian. Perhaps this is because he vacillates between the two. He was born a Jew, but he says, “I can’t unread Mark.” He considers the Beatitudes as the “ultimate road map for life.” But regarding the resurrection of Jesus he said, “The simple, brutally honest answer is, [the belief in it] comes and goes.” Yet, his second wife, Anne, is a Christian and they were married in Christ Our Shepherd Church in Washington, D.C. David attends worship with her and takes Holy Communion. Anne says her husband “sits at the crossroads of Christianity and Judaism.” David says he has no plans to leave Judaism. He refers to himself as “a wandering Jew and a very confused Christian.”
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Acts 9:36 “Now in Joppa…”
Joppa represents being in a community, but according to Kathleen Parker, a columnist for the Washington Post, community has been lost. Since growing up she has cherished the hours spent sitting on the front porch of her home. Sitting on the porch you were able to easily converse with neighbors. Sitting with family on the porch “you learned everything you needed to know about family, conversation, stories, our connection to nature, food and love.” The porch evolved as a way to escape the summer heat. Slaves from Africa brought the porch to the South and constructed porches on their dwellings. Soon the porch was seen on all the homes throughout the South. It was part of all homes built until the coming of air conditioning and people stayed inside to avoid the heat. With that the sense of community ended. Parker went on to write, “Today, as social media and associated technologies have enhanced the availability of private spaces, we’ve also become further removed from community. Porches, to the extent they invite human communion, might be less appealing to rising generations who prefer texting to talking.”
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Revelation 7:13 “robed in white”
Soweto is a black township outside of Johannesburg. Its purpose was to segregate black workers from the city, but yet have them close enough to work as laborers. During the years of apartheid, the township was always a place of social unrest and public protests. In Regina Mundi Church there was a beautiful statue of Jesus placed high on a white pedestal. He wore beautiful white flowing robes, under which only the toes of his feet were visible. As he looks down, almost as if his head is bowed, his arms are outstretched with his hands clearly visible. During one violent protest the statue was knocked to the ground and the hands broke off. The statue was placed back on its pedestal, but the hands were not restored. It was to give the followers of Jesus the message that “we are Christ's hands in the world.”
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Revelation 7:11 “fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God”
On the second day of Holy Week the Notre Dame cathedral caught fire. In 12 hours an edifice that stood for 900 years sustained considerable damage. It is estimated that it will take decades to repair the holy shrine. Situated on the Ile de la Cite, an island on the Seine River, the cathedral marks the center of the city of Paris. The Notre Dame cathedral is more than a place of worship for Roman Catholics, as the 226 foot twin towers lift the souls of all who visit. Recognizing the importance of the cathedral to all worshipers Pope Francis said that Notre Dame is an architectural gem of a “collective memory” and will once again be a shrine to the Catholic faith, a symbol of the French nation and a spiritual and architectural gift to humanity.
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Acts 9:41 “he showed her to be alive”
Lt. Col. Alfred M. Worden was the command module pilot for the Apollo 15 moon mission, which began on July 26, 1971 and ended on August 7. One of his assignments was to orbit the moon for 74 hours as Col. David R. Scotts and Col. James B. Irwin explored the surface below. Each revolution of the moon took the command module, Endeavor, about two hours — one hour in light, one hour in dark. Half the journey along the front face of the moon that was illuminated by the reflection of sunlight; the other was along the back half that was spent in the utter blackness of deep space. Part of the journey would view the moon, bright and glorious, as all people from earth see it; the return journey would be around the dark mysterious side never seen from earth.
The front side of the moon, the one which always faces the earth, had a surface that was pitted with deep craters contrasted against tall mountains. The terrain was rocky and rugged, difficult to traverse. The back side, or far side of the moon, the side always hidden from earth, was, in the words of Worden, a terrain of “roundness, softness, a kind of fluffiness.” There were many craters, but none with slopes as sheer as observed on the front side. The front side was jagged: the far side was smooth. What could be the cause of this?
Astronaut Worden offered the following explanation:
It seemed that the far side terrain had undergone such relentless meteorite bombardment for billions of years that the early surface features had all been reworked and smoothed out.” The far side of the moon, unprotected, facing an endless outer space was constantly bombarded by meteorites. The destructive force of the meteorites actually had a healing effect upon the moon’s far side surface, causing what was once rough to become smooth. Though on the front side, the side of the moon protected by earth, the surface was still tattered.
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Acts 9:41 “he showed her to be alive”
Mother Teresa shared the encounter that inspired the Missionaries of Charity to establish their first shelter in Melbourne. It was the result of one simple task conjoined with one brief conversation. While visiting in the Australian city, Mother Teresa learned of an elderly man who was living alone, who was absent of family and friends. She went to his apartment and gave it a thorough cleaning.
She realized that the man always sat in the dark, though a lamp stood on the table next to his chair. It was a lamp that was covered in dust, having never been used. The gentleman explained that he could not recall the last time he received a visitor; therefore, there was no reason to light the lamp. Mother Teresa then asked, “If the Sisters come to visit you, will you light it?” “Yes,” he replied, “I will light it if I hear the sound of a human voice.” For that man, and many like him, the sisters opened a missionary house in the city. Through the years the visiting sisters were always greeted with a lighted lamp.
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Revelation 7:13 “robed in white”
Henri J. M. Nouwen was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian. After nearly two decades of teaching at academic institutions, including the University of Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School and Harvard Divinity School, he left academia to counsel and mentor individuals with mental and physical disabilities. He is best remembered for his work at the L’Arche Daybreak community in Richmond Hill, Ontario. L’Arche homes and programs operate according to a not-for-profit “community model” which is distinct from “client-centered” profit model. At L’Arche, people with disabilities, and those who assist them, live together in homes and apartments, sharing life with one another and building a community of responsible adults.
Nouwen, in his book The Wounded Healer, which was published in 1979, outlined the mission of Jesus as the one who is a wounded healer. Nouwen offers his understanding of Jesus’ model for ministry: “He is called to be the wounded healer, the one who must look after his own wounds but at the same time be prepared to heal the wounds of others.” Nouwen went on to write, Jesus made “his own broken body the way to health, to liberation and new life.”
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From team member Chris Keating:
Revelation 7:9-17
Hungering no more: overcoming isolation
Though they may be the least religious generation in American history, young adults born between the 1990s and early 2000s are also engaged in exploring questions of belonging and overcoming isolation. Perhaps like those who have gone through “the great ordeal,” members of Generation Z are seeking communities that provide connections — often far from what we’d traditionally recognize as sacred spaces.
Researcher Casper Ter Zule and colleagues from Harvard Divinity School report that these young adults are finding ways of discovering connection that rely less on shared identity and more on shared practice. (Think weddings in fitness centers, or finding meaning through music.) They turn to small groups to overcoming the gnawing sense of isolation often found in college campuses, relying on music to ease stress. Ter Zule writes about watching a group of college students come together to grieve the suicide death of another student:
After one student took his own life, his friends wanted to process their emotions together and to support his sibling, an undergraduate student living with me in our dormitory. They suggested bringing a guitar, and hosted a gathering of grieving — telling stories and singing together. This instinct is as old as time, but it struck me that, across significant racial, religious, and cultural lines, a shared experience of music was enabling these young adults to navigate a traumatic experience.
Ter Zule sees the potential of “micro-communities” in creating powerful experiences of belonging — particularly when they can help young adults reconnect with spiritually significant symbols of nature, relationships, and music.”
His comments are fascinating — but are also reminders of how the earliest Christians used those elements in overcoming the isolation they experienced. The research offers insights to churches interested in reaching the “spiritual, but not religious” generations — provided we’re willing to go where those folks are already gathering.
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Revelation 7:9-17
Who are these folks, and where did they come from?
John, the revelator, stands before the great multitude which no one could count, a gathering “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.” The unity expressed in Revelation 7 points to a sense of God overcoming the divisions of the world. At the University of Kentucky, something similar is experienced by students participating in a diverse array of religious organizations.
Out of 500 student organizations at UK, 23 have some sort religious affiliation, including mainline Christian or traditional denominations. But reports indicate a strong sense of pluralism also exists. “Student religion at the University of Kentucky is anything but a competitive numbers game,” reports the Kentucky Kernel, a student publication. “Regardless of the number of student members in each organization, campus religious groups provide an opportunity for fellowships and connection between students of similar religious beliefs. Involved students report growing alongside other believers while they grow in their own religious faith.” Student groups have also come together to address issues such as religious discrimination, including anti-Semitism and Islam-aphobia. Students indicate that learning to co-exist is critical, as well as possible.
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John 10:22-30
Can sheep text?
“My sheep hear my voice,” Jesus tells the Jewish leaders, “I know them, and they follow me.” His words suggest that disciples who follow Jesus understand what it means to belong. But what does belonging look like in a technologically sophisticated culture? Anthropologist Alexa Hagerty explores this question in a post in this week’s Pacific Standard.
A couple lies in bed, facing away from each other, staring at empty hands cradling invisible phones. It's a striking image from the artist Eric Pickersgill's project "Removed," a series of photographs altered to remove the subjects' devices. I discovered Pickersgill's work while scrolling on my own phone, as disconnected from the world around me as the subjects of the photographs. These pictures made me nervous, and I suspect they went viral because they captured a common anxiety: Has our technology cut us off from more meaningful connections?
Hagerty offers a provocative suggestion. Instead of blaming smartphones for driving us apart, she wonders if technology is instead endeavoring to meet a fundamental need. She argues,
Designers appeal not to what is lowest in us, but rather to what is most profound — our need to be part of a social group. Our obsessive phone-checking is driven not by our vanity but by our deepest humanity. We are not in the grips of meaningless distraction. On the contrary, we are giving our attention to a matter of critical importance: our life-and-death need to belong.
She relies on research that shows how members of Generation Z (those born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s) are using technology. They are technological natives who turn to devices as a way to belong. This won’t make a lot of points among parents seeking to ban phones from the dinner table, of course. Yet Hagerty points to a conversation she recently had with a 17-year old who had been told to avoid all devices for a week following a head injury. “Without access to messaging and social media,” she writes, “he felt sentenced to ‘solitary confinement.’ From an anthropological perspective, he was suffering a technologically mediated trauma of social isolation, a form of social death.”
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John 10:22-30
My sheep listen…
Recently the siblings of Donovan Bulger heard something they thought they’d never hear again — the sound of his beating heart. Bulger, who was 21 when he died in 2016, donated his organs to several recipients. A chance encounter at a baseball game April 29 gave his family a chance to meet the man who had received Donovan’s heart.
The family was attending a special Transplant Awareness Day at Busch Stadium in St. Louis when the recipient, John Sueme, recognized the name of the person he’d been told was his heart donor.
"We try to attend events to help spread awareness," said Bulger's sister, Savannah Roesch, who attended with her husband, Jake. "We were all standing there representing our brother when we heard someone ask 'Are you Donovan's family?'"
After tearful introductions and lots of hugs, Sueme invited Donovan’s family to listen to the beating heart. “I give them eternal life,” Jesus said, “and they will never perish.” For Donovan Bulger’s family, that assurance includes the voice of the Good Shepherd beating through their brother’s donated heart.
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John 10:22-30
Belonging when we no longer recognize who we are
Jesus confers an identity to his followers; but what happens if we no longer recognize who we are? On CBS’ “60 Minutes” last week, correspondent Bill Whittaker reported on persons diagnosed with frontotemporal lobe dementia (FTD), the second most common form of dementia-related disease. Yet, as Whittaker says, it is “the cruelest disease you have never heard of.” FTD can cause such devastating debilitation that sometimes patients no longer recognize their own image in the mirror.
That happened to the Very Reverend Tracey Lind, dean of the Episcopal Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio, one day while washing her hands in a public restroom. “I looked in the mirror,” Lind told Whittaker, “and I kept looking, and I remember I kept looking at this woman wondering ‘who was she?’”
After her diagnosis, Lind resigned her call, but undertook a public ministry of traveling across the country with her spouse to deepen public awareness of FTD. She calls it, “telling the story of dementia from the inside out.” In her sermons now, Lind exudes an identity of one who continues listening for the Good Shepherd’s voice, preaching that “joy comes out of pain.”
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John 10:22-30
Finding oneself in dementia
Other dementia patients write about what it means to re-learn one’s identity as they live with dementia. Dr. Bob Fay, a physician from the United Kingdom, wrote about this in a talk he delivered at a conference in 2003. He spoke of his own struggles with Pick’s disease (a form of FTD) as being transported to an unknown island:
Finding oneself inside dementia is like being suddenly transported from one’s familiar house and village to a distant unknown island. Before one can settle down and feel at home on the island one has to explore it and find out what sort of a new country one is in. There are no maps, no guides. So it is in dementia . The skills one had and were proud of become changed, warped and devalued. The personality I had has changed subtly so neither I nor Ginty (his wife) know exactly where we are. I relate to people differently. I fail to interpret the nuances of their expressions and body language so I can easily cause offence without realising it. My ability to make valid decisions has flown out the window. My memory is unreliable. And so on. During the first four years or so we had to painfully explore our new boundaries. I had to give up all sorts of things and become reconciled to that, and Ginty had to learn some new skills and assume new roles. Previously we had always done as much together as we could. Now we had to learn painfully that it was better if we spent quite a lot of time doing different things so Ginty could get breathing space. Before I took up medicine I trained as a Chartered Accountant and so throughout our married life until Pick’s came on the scene, I looked after the bill paying and the money in general. It became apparent about 7 years ago that I was no longer as accurate with figures as I used to be and since we thought then that I was going to go down the pan rapidly, we decided that Ginty should take over that role. And the maddening thing was that despite not being a natural with figures, she has improved on my system and reconciles the bank account nearly always first time, which I never did!
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WORSHIP
by George Reed
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: God leads us to places of plenty.
People: God gives us rest and peace.
Leader: God slakes the thirst of our souls.
People: God restores us to divine life.
Leader: Surely we will find goodness and mercy.
People: Our lives are made sure in God’s presence.
OR
Leader: Let us sing praises to the God who created us.
People: We rejoice in the Love that made us.
Leader: Let us exalt in the glory of our creation.
People: We are in awe of the wonder God created us to be.
Leader: Let us help others find their rightful place in life.
People: We reach out to embrace each person as they are.
Hymns and Songs:
All Creatures of Our God and King
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELW: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
All People That on Earth Do Dwell
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELW: 883
W&P: 661
AMEC: 73
STLT: 370
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
UMH: 139
H82: 390
AAHH: 117
NNBH: 2
NCH: 22
CH: 25
ELW: 858/859
AMEC: 3
STLT 278
All Things Bright and Beautiful
UMH: 147
H82: 405
PH: 267
NCH: 31
CH: 61
W&P: 30
AMEC: 434
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELW: 631
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
Take My Life, and Let It Be
UMH: 399
H82: 707
PH: 391
NNBH: 213
NCH: 448
CH: 609
LBW: 406
ELW: 583/685
W&P: 466
AMEC: 292
Let There Be Light
UMH: 440
NNBH: 450
NCH: 589
STLT: 142
Be Thou My Vision
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELW: 793
W&P: 502
AMEC: 281
STLT: 20
We Are One in Christ Jesus
CCB: 43
Behold, What Manner of Love
CCB: 44
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who creates us in your own image and likeness:
Grant us the grace to live out of that reality
so that salvation might truly be ours;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you have created us in your own image. You have made us to be your presence to others. Help us to learn to live from this reality rather than the darkness of sin. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to live out of the reality of our creation.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have made us in your image and have placed us here to be your loving presence in this world. You have gifted us with our unique talents and abilities so that we can make this your realm. But we have failed you and ourselves. We act as if we do not know who we are. We allow ourselves to be drawn into the madness of the world around us. We refuse to take a stand for what is right. Open our eyes that we may see what we are doing. Open our hearts that we may remember who we are. Amen.
Leader: God has created us as God’s own children made in God’s own likeness. Live into that reality and help others to see that reality in themselves.
Prayers of the People
We bless your name and sing your praises, O God, because you are the Creator who has created us out of and for love.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have made us in your image and have placed us here to be your loving presence in this world. You have gifted us with our unique talents and abilities so that we can make this your realm. But we have failed you and ourselves. We act as if we do not know who we are. We allow ourselves to be drawn into the madness of the world around us. We refuse to take a stand for what is right. Open our eyes that we may see what we are doing. Open our hearts that we may remember who we are.
We thank you for those who have lived out of the authenticity of their own beings. We thank you for Jesus who showed us how to live on this earth as your own children.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who are shamed and bullied to be other than who they are. We pray for courage for all of us to live authentic lives.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Bring a bag of celery and carrot sticks in a bag that hides what is inside. Talk to the children about how much you like eating sticks. For fun you can even have a stick from a tree showing. Then pull out the veggie sticks. Talk about how what someone calls something doesn’t change what it is. What people call us doesn’t change who we are. We are God’s children, God’s beloved, we can always trust that and live like that.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Follow Me
by Tom Willadsen
John 10:22-30, Psalm 23, Revelation 7:7-17
Visual aids: You will need name tags and markers if there are likely to be children whose names you don’t know.
This will work best if you know each child’s name. Make an effort to find out before they come forward, or be ready with blank name tags and markers so they can be identified by name. You will need to be able to address each child by name.
If they are sitting, ask if they are comfortable…then ask them to stand up.
Turn your back and walk away from them. Look behind you, feign surprise that they did not follow you.
Return to where you started. Now ask one or two of them to follow you, saying, “Mindy & Ross, would you follow me?” Walk to the side of the sanctuary or the back — it really depends on the layout of the room. Then walk them back.
Now ask a couple more; be sure to always call them by name.
Take as many trips — you may want to make the groups larger — that every child follows you once.
If one of them follows without having been called, gently return her to the group standing up front.
When everyone has followed and returned, ask them to sit down. Ask them why they followed you. How did they know it would be safe? Where did they think you were taking them? How far would they have followed you — outside? To a landmark nearby they would likely know?
Ask what it means to follow someone — here you can be ready to make a reference to Twitter if your congregation permits playfulness.
Ask what they know about sheep — what have they herd? (Spell check didn’t like that one.) [Neither will your congregation.]
Here are two things that they might find interesting about sheep:
First, sheep have excellent peripheral vision. Their large, rectangular pupils allow them to see almost 360 degrees. In fact, they can see behind themselves without turning their heads!
That means they can follow you — and keep an eye on the group of sheep they left behind them. Ask whether any of the kids can see behind them.
Second, sheep are not dumb. If you pay attention, you cannot help but be impressed by how smart they are. Although many think of their flocking instinct to be a sign of “dumbness,” it is in fact a community-based survival mechanism where they have learned that their strength is much greater in numbers and their comfort and survival is enhanced as a group rather than as an individual. Not a bad lesson for all of us.
Sheep are safer together. In flocks they can surround and protect the weak and vulnerable.
Ask whether they can think of any ways that people can be like sheep.
Bring it in for a landing by pointing out that in a lot of ways, the church they are part of right now, is like a flock of sheep. We protect and care for our younger members. We are protected by one who has the title “The Good Shepherd.” Jesus our shepherd calls us all by name, and asks us to follow him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 12, 2019 issue.
Copyright 2019 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- The Lamb Has No T-Shirts by Mary Austin — The May ritual of college decision making leaves college-bound students and their parents pondering where they belong, and other families wondering if they belong. The scriptures this week call us back to another kind of belonging, as the followers of Jesus find the place where they belong.
- Authentic Self by Bethany Peerbolte — “You can be anything you want to be” this is the mantra millennials have grown up believing. We believed it because everyone told us the same message. Except many of us are finding the hardest thing to be is ourselves.
- Sermon illustrations from Ron Love and Chris Keating.
- Worship resources by George Reed that focus on being who we are; using our identity to shape our actions; finding our place in the world.
- Children’s sermon: Follow Me by Tom Willadsen — Sheep are safer together. In flocks they can surround and protect the weak and vulnerable. This lesson illustrate positive ways that people can be like sheep.
The Lamb Has No T-Shirtsby Mary Austin
Revelation 5:11-14
This is the time of year when families are writing checks for a college deposit…or two, if the student still can’t make up his mind. Admitted students show up at high school in shirts proclaiming the college of their choice, and parents of freshmen-to-be sport shirts that say “Proud U of ______ Parent.” If you have young friends, kid or grandchildren pondering college, it’s hard to escape the intensity of this time of year.
For students who didn’t get into their first choice school, or even their fourth choice school, it’s hard to believe that life will turn out well. Parents of non-typical kids experience another layer of grief, recognizing again that the path for their child is so different. And students who can’t afford college, or who are headed straight to work, feel left out of the whole intense scene.
The May ritual of college decision making leaves college-bound students and their parents pondering where they belong, and other families wondering if they belong.
The scriptures this week call us back to another kind of belonging, as the followers of Jesus find the place where they belong.
In the News
In this season of college decisions, for those students who are able to go to college, there’s as much angst as joy. A student recently wrote to The Ethicist at The New York Times, lamenting that every desirable college had said no. The student wrote:
“I am a high school senior who was recently rejected from nearly all the schools I wished to attend this fall. I have been left heartbroken by this turn of events, and I’m not quite sure how to measure my reaction around others. I was accepted into a good state university close to home, from which one of my parents graduated, but I would hesitate to attend, as most of my close friends who have decided to go have been accepted into the honors programs that I was rejected from. I know, logically, that it is a wonderful school with great programs, but I can’t help seeing myself as inferior to my honors-bound peers, despite never having felt that way before. This university is an environment that I would be deeply uncomfortable in, as I know from having seen it, but all the schools I was accepted to are very far from home, with fewer accredited programs for what I want to do.
I can’t see myself being happy with any of the options I have. In addition, it is quite painful to see others celebrating acceptances to my dream schools when I am still, quite frankly, in mourning over what could have been. I feel like the butt of a very cruel, drawn-out joke, one which had me vastly overestimating my ability to achieve at the level of higher education I aspired to.
Is it that I am stupid and no one ever let me know? How can I be respectful and celebratory of others’ achievements when I feel awful about myself for failing at my goals? Where do I go from here?”
The rejected student is feeling the sting of not belonging on every possible level. Not being a part of the community of celebrating students, not being admitted to the honors program at the state university, and not even feeling smart or accomplished in a way they once had.
In a Nebraska Methodist Church, the decision about who belongs recently went the other way. A group of students in the confirmation class, poised to join the church as members, instead read a statement choosing not to join the current version of the United Methodist Church. They “decided against joining an Omaha Methodist church in protest at the denomination’s renewed ban on same-sex marriage and gay clergy. The eight were scheduled to become part of the congregation Sunday at First United Methodist Church. But the class, comprising seventh- and eighth-graders, declined and issued a written statement instead.” In their written statement, the students said: “We are disappointed about the direction the United Methodist denomination is heading…We are concerned that if we join at this time, we will be sending a message that we approve of this decision. We want to be clear that … we believe that policies on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage are immoral.”
They chose not to belong to a denomination that, in its current form, has chosen to leave others out.
In the Scriptures
In Revelation, the great multitude stands before the throne and the Lamb, coming from every nation and tribe, but now united into one praise-filled community. They are dressed identically, in white robes, and they all proclaim the same praise. No matter their diverse roots, they now all belong in the same place. They have work to do together, as they worship day and night.
This is a group that has suffered tribulation, and they have had to wash the evidence of their persecution out of their robes to make them white again. The sorrow isn’t erased, but in the completeness of the Lamb’s presence, it’s balanced by safety, community and praise. They are now “sheltered” here.
In John’s gospel, Jesus makes a statement about who belongs. “My sheep hear my voice,” he says. We belong, not because of who we are or what we accomplish, but because we are willing to listen, and follow. The people outside the circle choose not to believe — they see the same things that Jesus’ followers do, and choose not to be included in the group. The sheep, those who belong to the Good Shepherd, in contrast, can’t be snatched away, Jesus says. It’s a curious dynamic — we can exclude ourselves, but no one can take us away from Jesus.
In the Sermon
In Revelation, it is promised that in the fullness of God’s reign, people “will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” The sermon might talk about how God has redeemed a time of sorrow in the life of the church community, or in someone’s life.
Or, in Revelation, the gathered people have been joined into one community. The sermon might look at a community as the place where God is present, and where hurts are healed. How is the church a place of healing for those who have felt like they didn’t fit? How does the church, like the great multitude, gather people in, and make them part of a bigger experience of belonging?
Or, the sermon might talk about what it means to be “sheltered” by God. God doesn’t shelter us from very much in life. People of faith experience as much illness, sorrow, struggle and pain as anyone else. The late William Sloane Coffin, who experienced the death of his son Alex when Alex was a young man, said that “God provides minimum protection, maximum support — support to help us grow up, to stretch our minds and hearts until they are as wide as God's universe.” Is the promise of shelter only for the life to come, or is there shelter in this world, too?
Responding to the dejected college applicant, The New York Times ethicist, Dr. Kwame Anthony Appiah, wrote back to the broken hearted student, saying, “If your self-worth is tied to being better than others, then, you’re headed for trouble. Your classmate in the honors program can feel inadequate compared with a higher-performing classmate in that program, who can feel inadequate compared with a still-higher-performing classmate and so on up the line. They could all walk around in a state of dejection.” He notes that many successful people went to lesser-known colleges, and vice versa. “A mistaken notion of desert is often accompanied by the delusion that the college you go to will determine how rewarding a life you’ll have. Take a quick look at the résumés of this country’s most successful CEOs or social entrepreneurs, and you’ll see how many didn’t attend “name brand” colleges. (Last year only 14 CEOs of the Fortune 100 companies attended Ivy League schools.)”
He adds a note about belonging, “In the end, what matters isn’t how we rank against others… You started out with a bundle of talents and interests unlike anyone else’s — yes, even if you have an identical twin… You may acquit yourself, in these various endeavors, better or worse than another person, but nobody else is trying to do exactly the things you are trying to do with exactly the developed talents you have. Because we all come equipped with different capacities and have been born into different circumstances, and because we choose our own projects, each of us faces his or her own challenge, one that is, like you, unique…The goal, therefore, isn’t to be the best; it’s to do your best. And don’t think this lets you off the hook. To become a better version of yourself is quite demanding enough.” We all belong to various groups, and yet we balance that with our uniqueness. He urges a different kind of acceptance than college, adding, “If acceptance from elite colleges is hard, self-acceptance can be harder.”
There are no t-shirts to show they we belong to the community of the Lamb, which is just as well, so we don’t leave anyone out. This is the community where the standards for admission are low, and where everyone can belong.
SECOND THOUGHTSAuthentic Self
by Bethany Peerbolte
John 10:22-30
“You can be anything you want to be” this is the mantra millennials have grown up believing. We believed it because everyone told us the same message. Except many of us are finding the hardest thing to be is ourselves. Caster Semenya has been at the center of this issue for years. This week she found out that in order to do what she loves, what she is especially skilled at, she must take medicine to suppress her natural self.
In the scripture reading from John this week Jesus is unapologetically himself. As the public eye presses in around him he does not change to match their needs and expectations. Jesus is pressed to say plainly that he is the messiah, but Jesus is not exactly known for speaking plainly. He does not give in to the pressure and remains true to form. His answer is as plain as he feels comfortable with and answers in a way that lifts his supporters without bashing his opposition. Quintessentially Jesus is every way.
We all battle with the expectations others put on us verses being true to ourselves. Jesus sets our trajectory. We must always put who God made us to be first. Those who belong in our lives will get it and love it. Those who are not for us will fall away.
Jesus’ commitment to his authentic self is worth examining. This desire is not a new concept. In 1957 Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella included a song in which Cinderella sings of being “whatever I want to be.” This dreamer storyline may just be as old as writing itself. When this human desire “to be” gathers and crowds around Jesus the only thing Jesus wants to be is himself.
In the gospel lectionary selection this week, John is deliberate about placing this exchange during a specific time in the Jewish calendar. It may seem like John is simply setting a scene but when we take into account the festival going on around Jesus we can more fully understand the conversation. John says it is the festival of the Dedication — we know it as Hanukkah.
Hanukkah is more than just 8 lights and oil lasting 8 times longer than it should. The history of the celebration is rooted in anti-Semitism and suppression. From 175 to 164 BCE the King of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes, wanted to eliminate all Jews. At first, he tried to exterminate the ideas of the Jewish people but when this did not work he turned to stomach-turning acts of violence. When simply outlawing circumcision did not work, he began to hang mothers who circumcised their children with their children hanging around their necks. This is the violence Judas Maccabaeus and his brother fought and overcame. The eight days of light we still see celebrated today is a remembrance of the dedication of the temple after the defeat of Epiphanes. During which there was only enough oil for one day of dedication, yet the lights burned for eight.
This is the emotional setting in which Jesus is pressured to plainly reveal if he is the messiah or not. The people want a hero. The story of Hanukkah has roused the collective emotional landscape. Stories of battles and overcoming oppressors have sparked hope of another revolution. The crowd wants a champion like Maccabaeus to make this year’s celebration a special one. Jesus must have also been moved by the season. He is not an outsider. He knows the history, too. It is his family, his people who are again under the thumb of an oppressor. He lives in the anti-Semitic culture with them. He hears the insults and sees the persecution. Yet Jesus does not let the emotional quagmire drown his authentic self.
While the crowd is being riled up by the season, Jesus remains grounded. When he is asked to plainly reveal that he is the Messiah, the champion, he does not give in. Jesus points the people back to his actions. He says if they are paying attention, he has already given them their answer. It is interesting to note that in John’s gospel Jesus has in fact not said he is the Messiah in any spoken way. When Jesus says “I have told you” he is exclusively talking about his actions doing the telling. Jesus’ response is quintessentially Jesus. He uses plain enough words, but they are cloaked in layers of meaning so that only the people willing to peel back and examine what he says get to the truth.
Jesus is unashamed to be himself; he will not let the public’s needs change who he is. Even more than that Jesus stays focused on what he can control, himself. The crowd he is speaking to is made up of people who are not his supporters. They have not understood Jesus’ messiahship by his actions alone, but Jesus does not reprimand them and tell them they are doomed. He takes the opportunity to reinforce what he has done and what he will do. Every action has been proof enough of who he is. Those who seek to understand him without preconceived ideas will be blessed by Jesus and give eternal life. There is no bashing of the other. The invitation is open to all and the benefits are amazing.
Authentic self often stands in opposition to the public’s needs and expectations. Caster Semenya lives this reality daily. Her entire life she has been in opposition to what others expect. The offense? Her natural body. Semenya naturally produces more testosterone than average females. As an athlete this has meant being forced to prove her sex to coaches, constantly taking drug tests, in addition to the stares and comments of the general public. Gracefully, Semenya has endured the added pressure and stayed focused on what she can control — herself. It can be argued the criticism has fueled her to achieve great feats of athleticism including two Olympic gold medals.
This week the International Association of Athletics Federations made a rule that females with high testosterone levels must take suppressants in order to compete in female sporting events. This comes from the same group that praised Michael Phelps as “lucky” when tests revealed his natural body produces less than half the lactic acid of his competitors. One athlete gets praised for their natural advantages while another is forced to inhibit their advantage. Essentially, for Semenya to compete she must start taking medicine to change the body with which God has blessed her. She is being forced to choose between being her authentic self and meeting the expectations of the crowd.
The crowd wants her to fit their definition of a female athlete. Her actions have proven her femininity. She has submitted to humiliating strip downs and tests. Her actions have proven her athleticism. She has trained hard, pushed past plateaus, and achieved personal bests. Her actions have told the world who she is, yet some people still have not heard.
Through the pressure and jeers, Semenya has maintained a commitment to her authentic self. As this new rule reshapes female sports we will see more women forced to choose between public glory and authentic self. On some level, we all struggle with what the world expects us to be and who we are authentically. Jesus’ example should inspire us to stay true to whom God has created us to be. If we can be anything we want to be, let's be ourselves. Let the expectations and needs of the crowd be drowned out by our actions. They can choose to listen or not.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:Revelation 7:14 “white in the blood of the lamb”
Recently the IRS approved the worship of Satan as a religion. This means the Satanic Temple receives the same benefits as other religious organizations, including tax exempt status and protection from discrimination. Their god called Baphomet, a winged-goat creature with two admiring children looking up into his disinterested face, will be displaced in many places across the country. Lucien Greaves, the founder, said the ruling is “lying to rest any suspicion that we don’t meet the qualifications of a true religious organization. Satanism is here to stay.” But you won’t find them wearing the white robes of Christian martyrdom.
* * *
Acts 9:41 “he showed her to be alive”
In a recent Instagram posting Justin Bieber encouraged his 111 million followers to look to Jesus for all things in life. The 25-year-old singer once lived a hedonistic life, but upon turning his life over to Jesus has become an outspoken Christian. In the post he wrote, “Jesus has given me freedom and the pursuit of getting to know his character is never ending. God’s character never changes he is the same yesterday now and forever. He is always good!”
* * *
Acts 9:36 “Now in Joppa…”
Jeff Cowmeadow has been the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church since 1986. Recently he and his wife Randi decided they needed to expand their ministry to the neighborhood. They consider this outreach program as a fulfillment of Jesus’ command of, “Love God, love your neighbor.” Jeff also said, “We believe that the church has to do new things. We have to think outside the box.” So, they decided to extend their ministry to the neighborhood by opening a bar one block from the church. The bar will be called Prodigal Public House, named after Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son. Prodigal Public House opened on May 9.
* * *
Acts 9:42 “many believed”
John 10:26 “but you do not believe”
David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times. For years readers have been trying to determine if he is a Jew or a Christian. Perhaps this is because he vacillates between the two. He was born a Jew, but he says, “I can’t unread Mark.” He considers the Beatitudes as the “ultimate road map for life.” But regarding the resurrection of Jesus he said, “The simple, brutally honest answer is, [the belief in it] comes and goes.” Yet, his second wife, Anne, is a Christian and they were married in Christ Our Shepherd Church in Washington, D.C. David attends worship with her and takes Holy Communion. Anne says her husband “sits at the crossroads of Christianity and Judaism.” David says he has no plans to leave Judaism. He refers to himself as “a wandering Jew and a very confused Christian.”
* * *
Acts 9:36 “Now in Joppa…”
Joppa represents being in a community, but according to Kathleen Parker, a columnist for the Washington Post, community has been lost. Since growing up she has cherished the hours spent sitting on the front porch of her home. Sitting on the porch you were able to easily converse with neighbors. Sitting with family on the porch “you learned everything you needed to know about family, conversation, stories, our connection to nature, food and love.” The porch evolved as a way to escape the summer heat. Slaves from Africa brought the porch to the South and constructed porches on their dwellings. Soon the porch was seen on all the homes throughout the South. It was part of all homes built until the coming of air conditioning and people stayed inside to avoid the heat. With that the sense of community ended. Parker went on to write, “Today, as social media and associated technologies have enhanced the availability of private spaces, we’ve also become further removed from community. Porches, to the extent they invite human communion, might be less appealing to rising generations who prefer texting to talking.”
* * *
Revelation 7:13 “robed in white”
Soweto is a black township outside of Johannesburg. Its purpose was to segregate black workers from the city, but yet have them close enough to work as laborers. During the years of apartheid, the township was always a place of social unrest and public protests. In Regina Mundi Church there was a beautiful statue of Jesus placed high on a white pedestal. He wore beautiful white flowing robes, under which only the toes of his feet were visible. As he looks down, almost as if his head is bowed, his arms are outstretched with his hands clearly visible. During one violent protest the statue was knocked to the ground and the hands broke off. The statue was placed back on its pedestal, but the hands were not restored. It was to give the followers of Jesus the message that “we are Christ's hands in the world.”
* * *
Revelation 7:11 “fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God”
On the second day of Holy Week the Notre Dame cathedral caught fire. In 12 hours an edifice that stood for 900 years sustained considerable damage. It is estimated that it will take decades to repair the holy shrine. Situated on the Ile de la Cite, an island on the Seine River, the cathedral marks the center of the city of Paris. The Notre Dame cathedral is more than a place of worship for Roman Catholics, as the 226 foot twin towers lift the souls of all who visit. Recognizing the importance of the cathedral to all worshipers Pope Francis said that Notre Dame is an architectural gem of a “collective memory” and will once again be a shrine to the Catholic faith, a symbol of the French nation and a spiritual and architectural gift to humanity.
* * *
Acts 9:41 “he showed her to be alive”
Lt. Col. Alfred M. Worden was the command module pilot for the Apollo 15 moon mission, which began on July 26, 1971 and ended on August 7. One of his assignments was to orbit the moon for 74 hours as Col. David R. Scotts and Col. James B. Irwin explored the surface below. Each revolution of the moon took the command module, Endeavor, about two hours — one hour in light, one hour in dark. Half the journey along the front face of the moon that was illuminated by the reflection of sunlight; the other was along the back half that was spent in the utter blackness of deep space. Part of the journey would view the moon, bright and glorious, as all people from earth see it; the return journey would be around the dark mysterious side never seen from earth.
The front side of the moon, the one which always faces the earth, had a surface that was pitted with deep craters contrasted against tall mountains. The terrain was rocky and rugged, difficult to traverse. The back side, or far side of the moon, the side always hidden from earth, was, in the words of Worden, a terrain of “roundness, softness, a kind of fluffiness.” There were many craters, but none with slopes as sheer as observed on the front side. The front side was jagged: the far side was smooth. What could be the cause of this?
Astronaut Worden offered the following explanation:
It seemed that the far side terrain had undergone such relentless meteorite bombardment for billions of years that the early surface features had all been reworked and smoothed out.” The far side of the moon, unprotected, facing an endless outer space was constantly bombarded by meteorites. The destructive force of the meteorites actually had a healing effect upon the moon’s far side surface, causing what was once rough to become smooth. Though on the front side, the side of the moon protected by earth, the surface was still tattered.
* * *
Acts 9:41 “he showed her to be alive”
Mother Teresa shared the encounter that inspired the Missionaries of Charity to establish their first shelter in Melbourne. It was the result of one simple task conjoined with one brief conversation. While visiting in the Australian city, Mother Teresa learned of an elderly man who was living alone, who was absent of family and friends. She went to his apartment and gave it a thorough cleaning.
She realized that the man always sat in the dark, though a lamp stood on the table next to his chair. It was a lamp that was covered in dust, having never been used. The gentleman explained that he could not recall the last time he received a visitor; therefore, there was no reason to light the lamp. Mother Teresa then asked, “If the Sisters come to visit you, will you light it?” “Yes,” he replied, “I will light it if I hear the sound of a human voice.” For that man, and many like him, the sisters opened a missionary house in the city. Through the years the visiting sisters were always greeted with a lighted lamp.
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Revelation 7:13 “robed in white”
Henri J. M. Nouwen was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian. After nearly two decades of teaching at academic institutions, including the University of Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School and Harvard Divinity School, he left academia to counsel and mentor individuals with mental and physical disabilities. He is best remembered for his work at the L’Arche Daybreak community in Richmond Hill, Ontario. L’Arche homes and programs operate according to a not-for-profit “community model” which is distinct from “client-centered” profit model. At L’Arche, people with disabilities, and those who assist them, live together in homes and apartments, sharing life with one another and building a community of responsible adults.
Nouwen, in his book The Wounded Healer, which was published in 1979, outlined the mission of Jesus as the one who is a wounded healer. Nouwen offers his understanding of Jesus’ model for ministry: “He is called to be the wounded healer, the one who must look after his own wounds but at the same time be prepared to heal the wounds of others.” Nouwen went on to write, Jesus made “his own broken body the way to health, to liberation and new life.”
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From team member Chris Keating:Revelation 7:9-17
Hungering no more: overcoming isolation
Though they may be the least religious generation in American history, young adults born between the 1990s and early 2000s are also engaged in exploring questions of belonging and overcoming isolation. Perhaps like those who have gone through “the great ordeal,” members of Generation Z are seeking communities that provide connections — often far from what we’d traditionally recognize as sacred spaces.
Researcher Casper Ter Zule and colleagues from Harvard Divinity School report that these young adults are finding ways of discovering connection that rely less on shared identity and more on shared practice. (Think weddings in fitness centers, or finding meaning through music.) They turn to small groups to overcoming the gnawing sense of isolation often found in college campuses, relying on music to ease stress. Ter Zule writes about watching a group of college students come together to grieve the suicide death of another student:
After one student took his own life, his friends wanted to process their emotions together and to support his sibling, an undergraduate student living with me in our dormitory. They suggested bringing a guitar, and hosted a gathering of grieving — telling stories and singing together. This instinct is as old as time, but it struck me that, across significant racial, religious, and cultural lines, a shared experience of music was enabling these young adults to navigate a traumatic experience.
Ter Zule sees the potential of “micro-communities” in creating powerful experiences of belonging — particularly when they can help young adults reconnect with spiritually significant symbols of nature, relationships, and music.”
His comments are fascinating — but are also reminders of how the earliest Christians used those elements in overcoming the isolation they experienced. The research offers insights to churches interested in reaching the “spiritual, but not religious” generations — provided we’re willing to go where those folks are already gathering.
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Revelation 7:9-17
Who are these folks, and where did they come from?
John, the revelator, stands before the great multitude which no one could count, a gathering “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.” The unity expressed in Revelation 7 points to a sense of God overcoming the divisions of the world. At the University of Kentucky, something similar is experienced by students participating in a diverse array of religious organizations.
Out of 500 student organizations at UK, 23 have some sort religious affiliation, including mainline Christian or traditional denominations. But reports indicate a strong sense of pluralism also exists. “Student religion at the University of Kentucky is anything but a competitive numbers game,” reports the Kentucky Kernel, a student publication. “Regardless of the number of student members in each organization, campus religious groups provide an opportunity for fellowships and connection between students of similar religious beliefs. Involved students report growing alongside other believers while they grow in their own religious faith.” Student groups have also come together to address issues such as religious discrimination, including anti-Semitism and Islam-aphobia. Students indicate that learning to co-exist is critical, as well as possible.
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John 10:22-30
Can sheep text?
“My sheep hear my voice,” Jesus tells the Jewish leaders, “I know them, and they follow me.” His words suggest that disciples who follow Jesus understand what it means to belong. But what does belonging look like in a technologically sophisticated culture? Anthropologist Alexa Hagerty explores this question in a post in this week’s Pacific Standard.
A couple lies in bed, facing away from each other, staring at empty hands cradling invisible phones. It's a striking image from the artist Eric Pickersgill's project "Removed," a series of photographs altered to remove the subjects' devices. I discovered Pickersgill's work while scrolling on my own phone, as disconnected from the world around me as the subjects of the photographs. These pictures made me nervous, and I suspect they went viral because they captured a common anxiety: Has our technology cut us off from more meaningful connections?
Hagerty offers a provocative suggestion. Instead of blaming smartphones for driving us apart, she wonders if technology is instead endeavoring to meet a fundamental need. She argues,
Designers appeal not to what is lowest in us, but rather to what is most profound — our need to be part of a social group. Our obsessive phone-checking is driven not by our vanity but by our deepest humanity. We are not in the grips of meaningless distraction. On the contrary, we are giving our attention to a matter of critical importance: our life-and-death need to belong.
She relies on research that shows how members of Generation Z (those born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s) are using technology. They are technological natives who turn to devices as a way to belong. This won’t make a lot of points among parents seeking to ban phones from the dinner table, of course. Yet Hagerty points to a conversation she recently had with a 17-year old who had been told to avoid all devices for a week following a head injury. “Without access to messaging and social media,” she writes, “he felt sentenced to ‘solitary confinement.’ From an anthropological perspective, he was suffering a technologically mediated trauma of social isolation, a form of social death.”
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John 10:22-30
My sheep listen…
Recently the siblings of Donovan Bulger heard something they thought they’d never hear again — the sound of his beating heart. Bulger, who was 21 when he died in 2016, donated his organs to several recipients. A chance encounter at a baseball game April 29 gave his family a chance to meet the man who had received Donovan’s heart.
The family was attending a special Transplant Awareness Day at Busch Stadium in St. Louis when the recipient, John Sueme, recognized the name of the person he’d been told was his heart donor.
"We try to attend events to help spread awareness," said Bulger's sister, Savannah Roesch, who attended with her husband, Jake. "We were all standing there representing our brother when we heard someone ask 'Are you Donovan's family?'"
After tearful introductions and lots of hugs, Sueme invited Donovan’s family to listen to the beating heart. “I give them eternal life,” Jesus said, “and they will never perish.” For Donovan Bulger’s family, that assurance includes the voice of the Good Shepherd beating through their brother’s donated heart.
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John 10:22-30
Belonging when we no longer recognize who we are
Jesus confers an identity to his followers; but what happens if we no longer recognize who we are? On CBS’ “60 Minutes” last week, correspondent Bill Whittaker reported on persons diagnosed with frontotemporal lobe dementia (FTD), the second most common form of dementia-related disease. Yet, as Whittaker says, it is “the cruelest disease you have never heard of.” FTD can cause such devastating debilitation that sometimes patients no longer recognize their own image in the mirror.
That happened to the Very Reverend Tracey Lind, dean of the Episcopal Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio, one day while washing her hands in a public restroom. “I looked in the mirror,” Lind told Whittaker, “and I kept looking, and I remember I kept looking at this woman wondering ‘who was she?’”
After her diagnosis, Lind resigned her call, but undertook a public ministry of traveling across the country with her spouse to deepen public awareness of FTD. She calls it, “telling the story of dementia from the inside out.” In her sermons now, Lind exudes an identity of one who continues listening for the Good Shepherd’s voice, preaching that “joy comes out of pain.”
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John 10:22-30
Finding oneself in dementia
Other dementia patients write about what it means to re-learn one’s identity as they live with dementia. Dr. Bob Fay, a physician from the United Kingdom, wrote about this in a talk he delivered at a conference in 2003. He spoke of his own struggles with Pick’s disease (a form of FTD) as being transported to an unknown island:
Finding oneself inside dementia is like being suddenly transported from one’s familiar house and village to a distant unknown island. Before one can settle down and feel at home on the island one has to explore it and find out what sort of a new country one is in. There are no maps, no guides. So it is in dementia . The skills one had and were proud of become changed, warped and devalued. The personality I had has changed subtly so neither I nor Ginty (his wife) know exactly where we are. I relate to people differently. I fail to interpret the nuances of their expressions and body language so I can easily cause offence without realising it. My ability to make valid decisions has flown out the window. My memory is unreliable. And so on. During the first four years or so we had to painfully explore our new boundaries. I had to give up all sorts of things and become reconciled to that, and Ginty had to learn some new skills and assume new roles. Previously we had always done as much together as we could. Now we had to learn painfully that it was better if we spent quite a lot of time doing different things so Ginty could get breathing space. Before I took up medicine I trained as a Chartered Accountant and so throughout our married life until Pick’s came on the scene, I looked after the bill paying and the money in general. It became apparent about 7 years ago that I was no longer as accurate with figures as I used to be and since we thought then that I was going to go down the pan rapidly, we decided that Ginty should take over that role. And the maddening thing was that despite not being a natural with figures, she has improved on my system and reconciles the bank account nearly always first time, which I never did!
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WORSHIPby George Reed
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: God leads us to places of plenty.
People: God gives us rest and peace.
Leader: God slakes the thirst of our souls.
People: God restores us to divine life.
Leader: Surely we will find goodness and mercy.
People: Our lives are made sure in God’s presence.
OR
Leader: Let us sing praises to the God who created us.
People: We rejoice in the Love that made us.
Leader: Let us exalt in the glory of our creation.
People: We are in awe of the wonder God created us to be.
Leader: Let us help others find their rightful place in life.
People: We reach out to embrace each person as they are.
Hymns and Songs:
All Creatures of Our God and King
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELW: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
All People That on Earth Do Dwell
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELW: 883
W&P: 661
AMEC: 73
STLT: 370
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
UMH: 139
H82: 390
AAHH: 117
NNBH: 2
NCH: 22
CH: 25
ELW: 858/859
AMEC: 3
STLT 278
All Things Bright and Beautiful
UMH: 147
H82: 405
PH: 267
NCH: 31
CH: 61
W&P: 30
AMEC: 434
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELW: 631
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
Take My Life, and Let It Be
UMH: 399
H82: 707
PH: 391
NNBH: 213
NCH: 448
CH: 609
LBW: 406
ELW: 583/685
W&P: 466
AMEC: 292
Let There Be Light
UMH: 440
NNBH: 450
NCH: 589
STLT: 142
Be Thou My Vision
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELW: 793
W&P: 502
AMEC: 281
STLT: 20
We Are One in Christ Jesus
CCB: 43
Behold, What Manner of Love
CCB: 44
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who creates us in your own image and likeness:
Grant us the grace to live out of that reality
so that salvation might truly be ours;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you have created us in your own image. You have made us to be your presence to others. Help us to learn to live from this reality rather than the darkness of sin. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to live out of the reality of our creation.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have made us in your image and have placed us here to be your loving presence in this world. You have gifted us with our unique talents and abilities so that we can make this your realm. But we have failed you and ourselves. We act as if we do not know who we are. We allow ourselves to be drawn into the madness of the world around us. We refuse to take a stand for what is right. Open our eyes that we may see what we are doing. Open our hearts that we may remember who we are. Amen.
Leader: God has created us as God’s own children made in God’s own likeness. Live into that reality and help others to see that reality in themselves.
Prayers of the People
We bless your name and sing your praises, O God, because you are the Creator who has created us out of and for love.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have made us in your image and have placed us here to be your loving presence in this world. You have gifted us with our unique talents and abilities so that we can make this your realm. But we have failed you and ourselves. We act as if we do not know who we are. We allow ourselves to be drawn into the madness of the world around us. We refuse to take a stand for what is right. Open our eyes that we may see what we are doing. Open our hearts that we may remember who we are.
We thank you for those who have lived out of the authenticity of their own beings. We thank you for Jesus who showed us how to live on this earth as your own children.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who are shamed and bullied to be other than who they are. We pray for courage for all of us to live authentic lives.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Bring a bag of celery and carrot sticks in a bag that hides what is inside. Talk to the children about how much you like eating sticks. For fun you can even have a stick from a tree showing. Then pull out the veggie sticks. Talk about how what someone calls something doesn’t change what it is. What people call us doesn’t change who we are. We are God’s children, God’s beloved, we can always trust that and live like that.
CHILDREN'S SERMONFollow Me
by Tom Willadsen
John 10:22-30, Psalm 23, Revelation 7:7-17
Visual aids: You will need name tags and markers if there are likely to be children whose names you don’t know.
This will work best if you know each child’s name. Make an effort to find out before they come forward, or be ready with blank name tags and markers so they can be identified by name. You will need to be able to address each child by name.
If they are sitting, ask if they are comfortable…then ask them to stand up.
Turn your back and walk away from them. Look behind you, feign surprise that they did not follow you.
Return to where you started. Now ask one or two of them to follow you, saying, “Mindy & Ross, would you follow me?” Walk to the side of the sanctuary or the back — it really depends on the layout of the room. Then walk them back.
Now ask a couple more; be sure to always call them by name.
Take as many trips — you may want to make the groups larger — that every child follows you once.
If one of them follows without having been called, gently return her to the group standing up front.
When everyone has followed and returned, ask them to sit down. Ask them why they followed you. How did they know it would be safe? Where did they think you were taking them? How far would they have followed you — outside? To a landmark nearby they would likely know?
Ask what it means to follow someone — here you can be ready to make a reference to Twitter if your congregation permits playfulness.
Ask what they know about sheep — what have they herd? (Spell check didn’t like that one.) [Neither will your congregation.]
Here are two things that they might find interesting about sheep:
First, sheep have excellent peripheral vision. Their large, rectangular pupils allow them to see almost 360 degrees. In fact, they can see behind themselves without turning their heads!
That means they can follow you — and keep an eye on the group of sheep they left behind them. Ask whether any of the kids can see behind them.
Second, sheep are not dumb. If you pay attention, you cannot help but be impressed by how smart they are. Although many think of their flocking instinct to be a sign of “dumbness,” it is in fact a community-based survival mechanism where they have learned that their strength is much greater in numbers and their comfort and survival is enhanced as a group rather than as an individual. Not a bad lesson for all of us.
Sheep are safer together. In flocks they can surround and protect the weak and vulnerable.
Ask whether they can think of any ways that people can be like sheep.
Bring it in for a landing by pointing out that in a lot of ways, the church they are part of right now, is like a flock of sheep. We protect and care for our younger members. We are protected by one who has the title “The Good Shepherd.” Jesus our shepherd calls us all by name, and asks us to follow him.
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The Immediate Word, May 12, 2019 issue.
Copyright 2019 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
