The Law of the Lord and the Law of the Land
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For October 25, 2020:
The Law of the Lord and the Law of the Land
by Mary Austin
Psalm 1, Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18
Finding delight in the law of the Lord is the calling of all Christians, as we navigate the world with God’s laws to guide our actions. The two sets of laws hold a particular tension for people like Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the President’s nominee for the Supreme Court. As the country meets Judge Barrett, and as she faces questions from the Senate, one thread of inquiry has been about her religious faith. Judge Barrett is a woman of faith, and people have struggled to understand how her faith shapes her life, her legal views and how she might rule on key issues before the Supreme Court. These are important questions, and the country has been asking whether it’s fair to examine her faith as part of the confirmation process, or is that off limits? Are there clues in her faith to how she might impact the rest of the country? In a parallel situation, would we examine the faith of a devout Muslim or an observant Jew?
Judge Barrett’s faith comes in a form not readily familiar to many of us. She “has declined to publicly discuss her decades-long affiliation with People of Praise, a charismatic Christian group that opposes abortion and holds that men are divinely ordained as the “head” of the family and faith. Former members have said the group’s leaders teach that wives must submit to the will of their husbands. A spokesman for the organization has declined to say whether the judge and her husband, Jesse M. Barrett, are members.” The organization removed information from its website in 2017 and again this year, when Judge Barrett was in consideration for the Supreme Court. (“The AP was able to track the deletions and access the missing information through the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group that has saved digital versions of more than 330 billion web pages since 1996.”)
Judge Barrett’s family, and the family of her husband, Jesse Barrett, both have several generations of involvement in People of Praise. Seeking to explain the connection between the group and Judge Barrett, the Associated Press notes, “adult members of the group take a covenant that includes a passage where members promise to follow the teachings and instructions of the group’s pastors, teachers and evangelists. It’s unclear whether Barrett took the covenant. But members of the organization and descriptions of its hierarchy show that members almost invariably join the covenant after three to six years of religious study or they leave, so it would be unusual for Barrett to be involved for so many years without having done so.” How different is that, I wonder, from the ordination vows I took, or the promises people make when they join a church?
It's clear that Judge Barrett is serious about living “the law of the Lord” in her own life. It’s less clear how that might shape the law of the land if she serves on the Supreme Court.
In the News
Judge Barrett’s religious community, the People of Praise religious community, a Catholic faith community “was founded in 1971 in South Bend, Indiana, and now has 22 branches and around 1,700 members across North America, according to its website.” The lack of information they provide makes it difficult to assess its impact. If Judge Barrett were a United Methodist, or a Sikh, or a member of a Baptist denomination, it would be easier to understand her religious background. Perhaps she doesn’t owe us that understanding, and yet, if her faith will shape her understanding of the nation’s laws, I would like to understand it better.
Professor Jennifer Frey finds a kinship with Judge Barrett, noting that “Anti-Catholicism, like many prejudices, is gendered in very specific ways. My husband is also Catholic and a philosopher, yet his faith never once came up in any of his job interviews, and his fatherhood was never perceived as a professional strike against him. He was never asked pointed questions about his faith and feminism; his views on abortion were of no interest to anyone. When I look at how Amy Coney Barrett is treated, both in the Senate and in the press, I see that exact same dynamic from my own life in play. Politics aside, I feel a strong solidarity with her.”
On the other hand, Professor Jeffery David writes in an opinion piece for the Baltimore Sun that Judge Barrett’s faith could be limiting for other Americans. Looking at past positions, he writes, “She signed onto a newspaper ad in 2006 that called for Roe v. Wade to be overturned and said the decision was barbaric. And make no mistake Roe v. Wade protects gender equality. As Justice Ginsburg said in her 1993 confirmation hearings, when the government decides whether a woman must bear a child, that woman “is being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices.” In a 2007 Supreme Court decision, Ginsburg explained that these cases “center on a woman’s autonomy to determine her life’s course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature.” In 2012, Judge Barrett signed a letter arguing that by requiring coverage for contraception the Affordable Care Act committed “a grave violation of religious freedom and cannot stand.” Then, in 2015 she signed a public letter endorsing the Catholic church’s teachings on the “meaning of human sexuality, the significance of sexual difference … and on marriage and family founded on the indissoluble commitment of a man and a woman.” She has been a faculty member for the Blackstone Legal Fellowship run by a group that according to the Southern Poverty Law Center wants to criminalize homosexuality and endorses the sterilization of trans people. The Fellowship seeks to establish a “distinctly Christian worldview in every area of law.”
In the Scriptures
Psalm 1 sets the stage for the other 149 Psalms which follow it, at once leading us into the Psalter and calling us into a harmonious relationship with God. We hear the invitation to walk in the way of God throughout our lives. The Psalms begin with the vision of those who live by God’s wisdom. “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.” As we know, “happy” can also be translated as “blessed” or “fortunate.” No doubt the psalmist means the Torah as the law of God, and yet we can also understand it as a way of living that honors God and cares for each other.
Meditating on God’s law day and night is all-consuming. This kind of pursuit would so fill our minds that there would be no room for our usual distractions. The passage from Leviticus points us toward the same kind of whole-hearted living in God’s ways. “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy,” God says. Like the tree rooted by the stream in Psalm 1, our lives are rooted in the God who is holy, and calls us to holy living. Even if we don’t always get there, the call is still there. This passage goes even farther, with specific instructions for how we are to treat each other in matters of everyday law.
“You shall be holy” is a daunting challenge…and yet we can also hear it as a promise. We never equal the holiness that belongs to God alone, and yet our lives are holy through our connection to God. Through our closeness to God, we become holy. This happens not because we’re working through a list of ways to become special, but because God is alive and at work in and through us. Our holiness is a movement toward God.
In the Sermon
We all face the same question that Judge Barrett does, on a much smaller scale — how do we apply the law of the Lord to the decisions we make? For school teachers and doctors, nurses and engineers, how do we apply God’s laws to our daily work? The sermon might look at how we, in our vocations, are rooted in God. When we have to write a policy or build a bridge, discipline a child or encourage a teenager, how do we operate from God’s laws in our own lives?
The sermon might also look at this idea of holiness, and how we carry that holiness through the everyday events of our lives. If we hear God tell us to be holy, does it change how we see ourselves? Our physical bodies? Our conversations with people? Do we do our work differently, if we see it part of a holy calling?
Or, a brave sermon might look at what religious freedom is, and is not. How does the exercise of our religious freedom impact other people’s lives? Are we allowed to let our beliefs create a boundary in their lives, or only in our own? If another religion were in the majority in the US, would we feel differently?
Happy are those who delight in the law of the Lord, and fortunate are we, to be rooted in the God who makes our lives holy. May this be a blessing to all of God’s people.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Judging the Judge: People of Praise vs. Preppies
by Chris Keating
Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business before the Honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States, are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for a new justice is about to be confirmed. God save the United States and this Honorable Court.
If all goes as expected, that justice will be Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a circuit judge and former law professor from Notre Dame. She will be the fifth woman to serve on the Supreme Court, and its 14th Roman Catholic — bringing the number of Catholic justices currently on the Court to six.
(For those of you keeping track at home, the other Catholic justices are Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, and Brett Kavanaugh. Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan are Jewish, and Neil Gorsuch is a convert from Catholicism to the Episcopal church.)
Barrett, who was a clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, has been tapped to fill the vacancy created by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. While Barrett says she is “mindful of who came before me,” she is a reliably conservative judge and former law professor at Notre Dame. She returns the Court to the same six-member Catholic majority it had when Scalia was living. Political conservatives are hoping her presence will sway the Court’s decisions in a predictably right-leaning direction.
Barrett’s religious faith has undergone a great deal of scrutiny. As Mary Austin details in her main article this week, Barrett’s family has long ties with the charismatic Christian group “People of Praise.” The organization’s views on marriage, relationships between men and women and abortion have raised concerns among liberals.
But Barrett’s nomination is also another reminder that WASPS are an endangered species. The American religious identity has shifted, with “mainline” Protestants now only accounting for less than 15 percent of the population, and Catholics representing slightly more than 20 percent.
There was a time, of course, when white, male, Anglo-Saxon Protestants dominated both the Supreme Court and most of Washington, DC. The days of wondering if a Catholic president would build a tunnel to the Vatican are now thankfully a thing of the past. Joe Biden, who is also Catholic, has generated little press about his faith aside from a few ultra-conservative bishops who have questioned his pro-choice stance.
Sixty-years after John F. Kennedy was elected the first Roman Catholic President, questions about the role religion plays in public life have shifted. Preppy Presbyterians and country-club Methodists were already being overtaken by parochially schooled lawyers like Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. Mainline Protestants have known this day was coming ever since NASCAR started outselling Lisa Birnbach’s “The Official Preppy Handbook.”
In other words, Washington social events will now need to accommodate mass schedules. Expect fish fries during Lent, as well as days of sacred obligations. Sen. Dianne Feinstein was criticized in 2017 for suggesting that “dogma lives loudly” within Barret, a sign that Washington may not understand the ways of a charismatic Christian. Last week, Feinstein was more restrained in her words. But even as Washington adjusts to conservative theology, the courts themselves have become dangerously less diverse.
Barrett sways the Court toward conservatism, but her appointment does little to make the Court look like the nation it is called to adjudicate.
Sadly, a truly diverse judiciary — one that might approximate the sort of holiness evoked by Leviticus 19 — remains an elusive goal. Times have changed, but only in some ways. More than 73 percent of sitting judges are men, and over 80 percent are white. The Center for American Progress notes that federal judges are increasingly viewed as political actors and their courtrooms as partisan theaters.
“Also contributing to the judiciary’s legitimacy crisis,” notes the center’s 2019 report on diversity in the federal judiciary, “is the lack of federal judges representing historically underrepresented groups, such as people of color, women, individuals who self-identify as LGBTQ, people with disabilities, and people belonging to minority religions.”
Put simply: American courtrooms do not look like the neighborhoods they serve. Fewer than one percent of judges identify as LGBTQ. A few years ago, Justice Kagan opined the lack of diversity on the bench, saying “People look at an institution and they see people who are like them, who share their experiences, who they imagine share their set of values, and that’s a sort of natural thing and they feel more comfortable if that occurs.”
That is in stark contrast to the judicial expectations Yahweh provides in Leviticus 19. We may neglect Leviticus as a relic, trotting it out only to bolster certain arguments against homosexuality. Yet this week’s lectionary passages resound with contemporaneous meaning: Leave a portion of harvest for poor people and immigrants. Don’t cheat your neighbor. Pay a living wage. Make sure the disabled have an equal chance. Love your neighbor as yourself.
The texts call us to pursue a holiness grounded in love of the neighbor. Not just the preppy neighbor. Not just white men, but also queer black women. Leviticus is clear: we are judged by the love we offer to the Muslim mom who worries her children will be bullied at school as well as the Irish Catholic neighbors whose six kids run their bikes through our shrubs.
Leviticus, so often maligned and ignored as a collection of fuddy-duddy, moralistic pronouncements, is instead a life-giving word about how we are to connect with the people we see each day. This call to love is a broad swath of society: rich, poor, laborers, strangers, family, and even the people who don’t root for your hometown baseball team.
We may assume how Judge Barrett will rule. For now, let us pray that her faith is informed not only by her religious experiences, but by the diversity with which God calls us to love in Leviticus 19.
Amen.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Leviticus 19:2
“You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”
The newspaper comic strip Ziggy is written by Tom Wilson. Ziggy is a nondescript character, and as such he represents everyone. He has a big nose, a puffy face, and clothes that resemble a smock. Ziggy is a very nice individual who relates to the everyday person and the everyday struggles of life. Ziggy is not an activist; he is just someone who lives in the reality of day-to-day living. We must admire how insightful Wilson is regarding daily living.
Tom Wilson is very good in relating Ziggy’s life to current events. In his October 2020 posting, when the question of church and state was before both Congress and the Supreme Court, we see Ziggy standing in front of a bank teller’s window with a one-dollar bill in his hand. With an astonished look on his face, he says, “When did they start this saying: In the ‘Thing We Trust’”?
* * *
1 Thessalonians 2:2
“shamefully mistreated”
Rana Awdish wrote the book In Shock that was published in 2017. In the book, Dr. Awdish described how she never imagined that an emergency trip to the hospital would result in hemorrhaging nearly all of her blood volume and losing her unborn first child. But during her visit, Dr. Awdish spent months fighting for her life, enduring consecutive major surgeries and experiencing multiple overlapping organ failures. At each step of the recovery process, Awdish was faced with something even more unexpected. Now, as a patient and no longer the attending physician, she experienced the repeated cavalier behavior from her fellow physicians — indifference following human loss, disregard for anguish and suffering, an unremitting emotional distance, and never having any input into her medical care. This experience exposed her to when she was an attending physician, of her own lack of neglect for what a patient is feeling.
In one section of her book, Awdish discusses being placed on the bed lying down. This caused her lungs to fill with fluid. The alarms on her monitors sounded, but the nurses had “alarm fatigue,” and did not respond. This is because her alarm and other patients alarms went off so often in the ICU. With great effort Awdish was able to push the Code Blue button, and help immediately came. But she was still left with the fear that “I nearly died.” Even though she was told this would not happen again, she wrote “I did not feel reassured.”
Awdish now had, as she explained it, “tunnel vison.” She began to “imagine” everything that could happen to her. She could visualize those scenarios. She realized that she wanted to take “ownership” of her care. In so doing, she requested, and received, all of her medical records.
A patient’s emotions “are encoded in their behavior,” she wrote. If one is crying it is easy to determine their emotional state. This is not the case with someone studying their medical records. The attending staff did not realize her acute anxiety. Being told countless times to “just rest” only heightened her fear. She knew that she had to be the “watchtower” of her own care, otherwise “I would die.” Awdish continued, “I believed it was entirely up to me to ensure my own safety.”
She concluded this section of her book with this paragraph, “In an ICU in a world-renowned hospital, with around-the-clock care by highly skilled medical teams, I felt responsible for myself. That is the power of anxiety.”
* * *
Deuteronomy 34:4
“I will give it to your decedents.”
The National Church in Iceland is the Evangelical Lutheran Church. In order to emphasize the church’s desire for diversity and inclusion, as well as increasing enrollment in Sunday school, it commissioned a television advertisement with corresponding posters to be placed around the country. The advertisement was made public in October 2020.
In the advertisement Jesus is seen with breasts and a beard. He is dancing under a rainbow of colors, with his breasts flopping. Surrounding Jesus are children from different ethnic groups.
Peter Georg Markin, the media representative for the Church of Iceland, said of the advertising program, “We’re trying to embrace society as it is. We have all sorts of people and we need to train ourselves to talk about Jesus as being ‘all sorts’ in this context.” He went on to say that it is important “that each and every person see themselves in Jesus,” Markin concluded, “It’s okay that Jesus has a beard and breasts.”
As a result of controversy the television advertisement was discontinued, but the posters will remain for several more weeks.
* * *
Deuteronomy 34:4
“I will give it to your decedents.”
The Pontifical Academy of Life, an official Vatican office, tweeted a photo of the statue of a pieta, with a white Mary and a black Jesus, on Saturday, September 12, 2020. The tweet was posted by the academy with the caption, “An image that is worth a speech.”
Archbishop Paglia explained that the image the academy issued was inspired by the work of Italian sculptor Fabio Viale, whose version of Michelangelo’s pieta, which is in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, was exhibited in 2015 in Milan at the height of Europe’s immigration crisis. His statue, called “Lucky Ehi,” portrayed a 22-year-old Nigerian who fled his country to avoid persecution due to his Christian faith. At the time, the artwork was praised for its support of immigrants and condemnation of the ongoing persecution of Christians all over the world.
With the new awareness of systemic racism in countries across the globe, the photo was offensive to radical conservative Catholics. Catholics who believe the Roman Catholic Church has been in a “downward spiral” ever since Pope Francis came to office. The photo was criticized for politicizing the figure of Jesus. Critics said that the photo misrepresented the historical Jesus. They maintained the intention of the photo was to support Black Lives Matter. This was not the case. The photo was meant to be a statement of awareness for the need of including all individuals in the church.
In defense of the photo, Paglia said Christians can’t “pretend that the real body of Christ, his human flesh, like Mary’s, are exactly the same as the white of the marble from Carrara,” referring to the quarry where Michelangelo is likely to have sourced his marble.
* * *
Psalm 1
A message regarding the importance of learning
On October 5, 2020 Wycliffe Bible Translations and the American Bible Society issued a joint stamen that the Bible has now been translated into 700 languages. A Bible is only considered translated when all 66 books are translated. Partial translations are not recorded as complete translations.
The number of languages with the full Bible has doubled in the past 30 years, from 351 in 1990 to 700 in 2020. Bible translation has accelerated in the past few decades, according to the American Bible Society, due to “advances in translation technology” and an “unprecedented level of partnership among Bible translation agencies.”
James Poole, the executive director of Wycliffe Bible Translators, said the milestone “represents the tremendous work that Bible translators are doing across the world.” He went on to say, “Every time we hear of the Bible being translated into another language, we know that means that for the first time the people in that language group can fully access the complete picture of God’s story. It’s good to take a step back and realize what this 700th Bible means: 5.7 billion people who speak 700 languages now have the Bible in the language that speaks to them best. That is a remarkable figure and continues to grow.”
Wycliffe Bible Translations reported that despite this milestone, about 1.5 billion people, or one in five people in the world, still don’t have a Bible in their language.
It is not known which translation was the 700th, because the new translations are being made available online. Three possibilities are: the Huichol (Wixáritari) Bible, which is used by an indigenous people of Mexico; the Ellomwe Bible, which is read by a people group in Malawi and Mozambique; the Igede Bible, which is used by a Nigerian ethnic group.
* * * * * *
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Today’s reading from the Old Testament is that last chapter of Deuteronomy, the last chapter of the Torah. Tradition has it that Moses wrote all five books of the Torah. Did he write about his own death? One tradition contends that Joshua picked up Moses’ stylus and wrote verses 5-12. Rabbi Ibn Ezra argued that Joshua wrote the entire 34th chapter. To my mind, the most charming explanation is that Moses wrote the final verses, those describing his death, with tears in his eyes.
* * *
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Seeing the Promised Land
The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr’s last speech was given in Memphis on April 3, 1968, at Mason Temple Church of God in Christ.
Here’s a portion of that speech:
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live — a long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
Dr. King cites today’s Old Testament passage. Just as Moses was able to see the Promised Land, but was not allowed to enter it, Dr. King pointed the way. He closes that portion of his speech with a quote from “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
* * *
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Why Couldn’t Moses Cross into the Promised Land?
It really doesn’t seem fair that Moses led the people for 40 years and he was still strong and vigorous when he died at age 120, but God did not let him lead the people into the Promised Land. Instead, the honor fell to Joshua. You may recall an incident in Numbers 20. The people complained to Moses and Aaron because they did not have water to drink; they feared they would die of thirst. This is not to be confused with a story in Exodus 15 when the people had water, but it was bitter, or Exodus 17, when the people were revolting (in both senses) because they needed water, or Exodus 16 when they were starving and God provided manna. The people did a lot of grumbling against Moses and Aaron, and even God. In Numbers 20 the people “gathered together against Moses and against Aaron,” complaining about there not being any water, that this whole “Flee Slavery” thing was just a ploy to take them into the desert for them and their livestock to die. Moses knew the routine. He and Aaron approached God, who told them to assemble the people and then Moses was to command for water to emerge from a rock. Moses did that, but he struck the rock twice with his staff. He also said to the people “Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then God told Aaron and Moses that they would not enter the Promised Land “because you did not trust in me.” It is not clear what about Moses’ actions betrayed a lack of trust in God. It could have been his saying “we….” Or it could have been he struck the rock. Either way, this particular infraction meant Moses was only allowed to see the Promised Land.
* * *
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
“Make us glad as many days as You have afflicted us”
It’s interesting that Isaac Watts’s warhorse of a hymn, “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past,” draws on the first five verses of this psalm and doesn’t touch the verses from the latter part of this reading. The assurance of God’s eternal presence is something that people need to call on in times of calamity. I well remember, for example, singing “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past,” on September 12, 2001, while the Pentagon and the World Trade Center lay in ruins. I was fortunate that the words were so familiar, because my tears obscured the hymnal I held in my shaking hands.
The final five verses of this reading present a different kind of confidence in the living God. This is not the sunny, instant optimism of Pollyanna, but rather the hard-earned knowledge of one who has struggled, suffered and lost — and remains faithful, and faith-filled.
* * *
Matthew 22:34-46
Today’s gospel lesson is the end of the confrontations between Jesus and the religious authorities that Matthew records between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday. This scene ends with something of an anti-climax. The Pharisees’ question to Jesus, which commandment is the greatest, is hardly difficult. One would call it a “softball” if Jesus was speaking at a town hall meeting in 21st century America.
The concluding verses, 41-46 are complete head scratchers. It appears that Jesus goes on the offensive, asking the Pharisees a question of his own: whose son is the Messiah? The Pharisees answer “David.” Clearly they mean that the Messiah will be (is) a descendant from David’s line. Jesus confuses this David — of Davidic origin — with the individual shepherd king, and quotes that David out of context. Jesus’ answer leaves the Pharisees completely befuddled. “No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.” (22:46, NRSV)
I’ve been preaching and interpreting scripture publically for more than 30 years. I’ve given up trying to find any wisdom in Jesus’ response. I hope that if I ever make a similar response, my congregation will be kind enough to show me a chair, and wise enough to turn off the microphone.
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: Our God is Sovereign; let the peoples tremble!
People: God sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
Leader: God is exalted over all the peoples.
People: Let them praise your great and awesome name.
Leader: Lover of justice, you have established equity.
People: Extol our God and worship at God’s footstool.
OR
Leader: God calls us to follow the way to life eternal.
People: We hear God’s call and we have come.
Leader: The world calls us to another pathway.
People: We hear that call and sometimes we follow.
Leader: God desires to give us life but we must decide our path.
People: With God’s help, we will listen and obey.
Hymns and Songs:
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
UMH: 64/65
H82: 362
PH: 138
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELW: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT: 26
Renew: 204
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
UMH: 127
H82: 690
PH: 281
AAHH: 138/139/140
NNBH: 232
NCH: 18/19
CH: 622
LBW: 343
ELW: 618
W&P: 501
AMEC: 52/53/65
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
Renew: 57
O Jesus, I Have Promised
UMH: 396
H82: 655
PH: 388/389
NCH: 493
CH: 612
LBW: 503
ELW: 810
W&P: 458
AMEC: 280
Jesus Calls Us
UMH: 398
H82: 549/550
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171/172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELW: 696
W&P: 345
AMEC: 238
I Am Thine, O Lord
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 283
My Faith Looks Up to Thee
UMH: 452
H82: 691
PH: 383
AAHH: 456
NNBH: 273
CH: 576
LBW: 479
ELW: 759
W&P: 419
AMEC: 415
Holy Spirit, Truth Divine
UMH: 465
PH: 321
NCH: 63
CH: 241
LBW: 257
ELW: 398
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH: 577
H82: 594/595
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELW: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELW: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
Trust and Obey
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
Walk with Me
CCB: 88
We Are His Hands
CCB: 85
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 whose actions and thoughts are always one:
Grant us the grace to center our thoughts on you
and to allow your Spirit to direct our actions;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because your actions and thoughts are always one. All that you do issues from your being of love. Help us to center ourselves on you and your love so that your Spirit can direct all our actions. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially how our actions often are in conflict with what we say we believe.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know the right words to say. We can be very correct in our theology but very wrong in our actions. We speak about you as a God of love but we can be very petty and mean to your children. We talk about the golden rule and instead of treating others as we want to be treated we try show them up and take advantage of them. Forgive us and renew us in your Spirit that we may not only talk like we are your children but act like it. Amen.
Leader: We are God’s children, all of us. Even when we don’t act like it, God still loves us and claims us as God’s very own. Receive the gracious love of God and share it as God has shared it with us.
Prayers of the People
Glory and praise to you, O God of perfect unity. In your purity your nature, words, and actions are all one.
(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 know the right words to say. We can be very correct in our theology but very wrong in our actions. We speak about you as a God of love but we can be very petty and mean to your children. We talk about the golden rule and instead of treating others as we want to be treated we try show them up and take advantage of them. Forgive us and renew us in your Spirit that we may not only talk like we are your children but act like it.
We give you thanks for all your love toward us and all your children. We thank you for the gift of creation and for our place in your realm. We thank you for those who have been examples to us of the kind of integrity that we aspire to.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children, everywhere. As your children we hold one another up to your blessing. We pray for strength and courage to be part of your blessing as we reach out to others in need.
(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
If someone says that they like you and would do anything for you but they won’t share their toys with you do you believe what they said? (Use several examples.) Sometimes it is easy to say something but harder to actually do it. Today we are reminded that we need to keep our words and actions together. They are like our hands clapping. We need both to make it work.
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CHILDREN'S SERMON
What To Love?
by Dean Feldmeyer
Matthew 22:34-46
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-39 - NRSV)
You will need: Several items that you “love.” In the passage below, I used what I love but you can choose items of your own.
Say:
Good morning, boys and girls.
I’ve got some things in this box that I’d like to share with you. They’re all things that I love.
Like this. You know what this is, right? A chocolate bar, right. And I…love…chocolate. In fact, I love it so much it’s all I can do to not eat it right here, right now.
And there’s this. That’s my harmonica and this is a cd with music on it. I love these things because I love music. I love to play music and I love to listen to music and sing to music and dance to music. I just love music and I love most kinds of music, too. I love folk music, jazz music, religious music, classical music, and rock and roll music. I love pretty much any kind of music.
And here’s a picture of my grandchildren, Luke and Caleb. I love them.
And here’s my Kindle. It will do lots of things but mostly it holds books — and I love books. Right now, there are over a hundred books on my kindle and I can take all of them with me wherever I go. That’s how much I love to read books. I love to read, I love books, and I love my Kindle.
If you had to put together a box of the things you love, what would you put into that box.
(Let the children share for a few moments, repeating each thing they say so the congregation can hear it.)
You know, in today’s Bible lesson Jesus says that there are two things we’re supposed to love if we want to be like him, do you know what they are? Two things?
Well, one is God. Jesus says we are to love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind. That means we are to love god with our whole being, with everything we are, and nothing left in reserve. We are to love God with our whole self.
And we don’t have time to explore everything that might mean or everything it might look like today, but it would sure be a good topic to talk about with your parents or grandparents when you go home today.
And the other thing we’re supposed to love, according to Jesus, is each other. In fact, he says we’re supposed to love each other the same way we love ourselves. Just like we want good things for ourselves, we should want good things for each other.
Love God with all that we are and love each other the way we love ourselves. If we want to be like Jesus, that’s what we have to do.
And after we do that, if we have any love left over, we can love chocolate, too. (Hold up chocolate bar.)
Close with a prayer thanking God for loving us and asking for help in loving God and each other.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, October 25, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 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 Law of the Lord and the Law of the Land by Mary Austin — It's clear that Amy Coney Barrett is serious about living “the law of the Lord” in her own life. It’s less clear how that might shape the law of the land if she serves on the Supreme Court.
- Second Thoughts: Judging the Judge: People of Praise vs. Preppies by Chris Keating — Leviticus 19 sets forth the Lord’s judicial standards: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
- Sermon illustrations by Tom Willadsen, Ron Love.
- Worship resources by George Reed that focus on justice, judgment; impartiality.
- What To Love? by Dean Feldmeyer.
The Law of the Lord and the Law of the Landby Mary Austin
Psalm 1, Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18
Finding delight in the law of the Lord is the calling of all Christians, as we navigate the world with God’s laws to guide our actions. The two sets of laws hold a particular tension for people like Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the President’s nominee for the Supreme Court. As the country meets Judge Barrett, and as she faces questions from the Senate, one thread of inquiry has been about her religious faith. Judge Barrett is a woman of faith, and people have struggled to understand how her faith shapes her life, her legal views and how she might rule on key issues before the Supreme Court. These are important questions, and the country has been asking whether it’s fair to examine her faith as part of the confirmation process, or is that off limits? Are there clues in her faith to how she might impact the rest of the country? In a parallel situation, would we examine the faith of a devout Muslim or an observant Jew?
Judge Barrett’s faith comes in a form not readily familiar to many of us. She “has declined to publicly discuss her decades-long affiliation with People of Praise, a charismatic Christian group that opposes abortion and holds that men are divinely ordained as the “head” of the family and faith. Former members have said the group’s leaders teach that wives must submit to the will of their husbands. A spokesman for the organization has declined to say whether the judge and her husband, Jesse M. Barrett, are members.” The organization removed information from its website in 2017 and again this year, when Judge Barrett was in consideration for the Supreme Court. (“The AP was able to track the deletions and access the missing information through the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group that has saved digital versions of more than 330 billion web pages since 1996.”)
Judge Barrett’s family, and the family of her husband, Jesse Barrett, both have several generations of involvement in People of Praise. Seeking to explain the connection between the group and Judge Barrett, the Associated Press notes, “adult members of the group take a covenant that includes a passage where members promise to follow the teachings and instructions of the group’s pastors, teachers and evangelists. It’s unclear whether Barrett took the covenant. But members of the organization and descriptions of its hierarchy show that members almost invariably join the covenant after three to six years of religious study or they leave, so it would be unusual for Barrett to be involved for so many years without having done so.” How different is that, I wonder, from the ordination vows I took, or the promises people make when they join a church?
It's clear that Judge Barrett is serious about living “the law of the Lord” in her own life. It’s less clear how that might shape the law of the land if she serves on the Supreme Court.
In the News
Judge Barrett’s religious community, the People of Praise religious community, a Catholic faith community “was founded in 1971 in South Bend, Indiana, and now has 22 branches and around 1,700 members across North America, according to its website.” The lack of information they provide makes it difficult to assess its impact. If Judge Barrett were a United Methodist, or a Sikh, or a member of a Baptist denomination, it would be easier to understand her religious background. Perhaps she doesn’t owe us that understanding, and yet, if her faith will shape her understanding of the nation’s laws, I would like to understand it better.
Professor Jennifer Frey finds a kinship with Judge Barrett, noting that “Anti-Catholicism, like many prejudices, is gendered in very specific ways. My husband is also Catholic and a philosopher, yet his faith never once came up in any of his job interviews, and his fatherhood was never perceived as a professional strike against him. He was never asked pointed questions about his faith and feminism; his views on abortion were of no interest to anyone. When I look at how Amy Coney Barrett is treated, both in the Senate and in the press, I see that exact same dynamic from my own life in play. Politics aside, I feel a strong solidarity with her.”
On the other hand, Professor Jeffery David writes in an opinion piece for the Baltimore Sun that Judge Barrett’s faith could be limiting for other Americans. Looking at past positions, he writes, “She signed onto a newspaper ad in 2006 that called for Roe v. Wade to be overturned and said the decision was barbaric. And make no mistake Roe v. Wade protects gender equality. As Justice Ginsburg said in her 1993 confirmation hearings, when the government decides whether a woman must bear a child, that woman “is being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices.” In a 2007 Supreme Court decision, Ginsburg explained that these cases “center on a woman’s autonomy to determine her life’s course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature.” In 2012, Judge Barrett signed a letter arguing that by requiring coverage for contraception the Affordable Care Act committed “a grave violation of religious freedom and cannot stand.” Then, in 2015 she signed a public letter endorsing the Catholic church’s teachings on the “meaning of human sexuality, the significance of sexual difference … and on marriage and family founded on the indissoluble commitment of a man and a woman.” She has been a faculty member for the Blackstone Legal Fellowship run by a group that according to the Southern Poverty Law Center wants to criminalize homosexuality and endorses the sterilization of trans people. The Fellowship seeks to establish a “distinctly Christian worldview in every area of law.”
In the Scriptures
Psalm 1 sets the stage for the other 149 Psalms which follow it, at once leading us into the Psalter and calling us into a harmonious relationship with God. We hear the invitation to walk in the way of God throughout our lives. The Psalms begin with the vision of those who live by God’s wisdom. “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.” As we know, “happy” can also be translated as “blessed” or “fortunate.” No doubt the psalmist means the Torah as the law of God, and yet we can also understand it as a way of living that honors God and cares for each other.
Meditating on God’s law day and night is all-consuming. This kind of pursuit would so fill our minds that there would be no room for our usual distractions. The passage from Leviticus points us toward the same kind of whole-hearted living in God’s ways. “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy,” God says. Like the tree rooted by the stream in Psalm 1, our lives are rooted in the God who is holy, and calls us to holy living. Even if we don’t always get there, the call is still there. This passage goes even farther, with specific instructions for how we are to treat each other in matters of everyday law.
“You shall be holy” is a daunting challenge…and yet we can also hear it as a promise. We never equal the holiness that belongs to God alone, and yet our lives are holy through our connection to God. Through our closeness to God, we become holy. This happens not because we’re working through a list of ways to become special, but because God is alive and at work in and through us. Our holiness is a movement toward God.
In the Sermon
We all face the same question that Judge Barrett does, on a much smaller scale — how do we apply the law of the Lord to the decisions we make? For school teachers and doctors, nurses and engineers, how do we apply God’s laws to our daily work? The sermon might look at how we, in our vocations, are rooted in God. When we have to write a policy or build a bridge, discipline a child or encourage a teenager, how do we operate from God’s laws in our own lives?
The sermon might also look at this idea of holiness, and how we carry that holiness through the everyday events of our lives. If we hear God tell us to be holy, does it change how we see ourselves? Our physical bodies? Our conversations with people? Do we do our work differently, if we see it part of a holy calling?
Or, a brave sermon might look at what religious freedom is, and is not. How does the exercise of our religious freedom impact other people’s lives? Are we allowed to let our beliefs create a boundary in their lives, or only in our own? If another religion were in the majority in the US, would we feel differently?
Happy are those who delight in the law of the Lord, and fortunate are we, to be rooted in the God who makes our lives holy. May this be a blessing to all of God’s people.
SECOND THOUGHTSJudging the Judge: People of Praise vs. Preppies
by Chris Keating
Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business before the Honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States, are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for a new justice is about to be confirmed. God save the United States and this Honorable Court.
If all goes as expected, that justice will be Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a circuit judge and former law professor from Notre Dame. She will be the fifth woman to serve on the Supreme Court, and its 14th Roman Catholic — bringing the number of Catholic justices currently on the Court to six.
(For those of you keeping track at home, the other Catholic justices are Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, and Brett Kavanaugh. Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan are Jewish, and Neil Gorsuch is a convert from Catholicism to the Episcopal church.)
Barrett, who was a clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, has been tapped to fill the vacancy created by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. While Barrett says she is “mindful of who came before me,” she is a reliably conservative judge and former law professor at Notre Dame. She returns the Court to the same six-member Catholic majority it had when Scalia was living. Political conservatives are hoping her presence will sway the Court’s decisions in a predictably right-leaning direction.
Barrett’s religious faith has undergone a great deal of scrutiny. As Mary Austin details in her main article this week, Barrett’s family has long ties with the charismatic Christian group “People of Praise.” The organization’s views on marriage, relationships between men and women and abortion have raised concerns among liberals.
But Barrett’s nomination is also another reminder that WASPS are an endangered species. The American religious identity has shifted, with “mainline” Protestants now only accounting for less than 15 percent of the population, and Catholics representing slightly more than 20 percent.
There was a time, of course, when white, male, Anglo-Saxon Protestants dominated both the Supreme Court and most of Washington, DC. The days of wondering if a Catholic president would build a tunnel to the Vatican are now thankfully a thing of the past. Joe Biden, who is also Catholic, has generated little press about his faith aside from a few ultra-conservative bishops who have questioned his pro-choice stance.
Sixty-years after John F. Kennedy was elected the first Roman Catholic President, questions about the role religion plays in public life have shifted. Preppy Presbyterians and country-club Methodists were already being overtaken by parochially schooled lawyers like Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. Mainline Protestants have known this day was coming ever since NASCAR started outselling Lisa Birnbach’s “The Official Preppy Handbook.”
In other words, Washington social events will now need to accommodate mass schedules. Expect fish fries during Lent, as well as days of sacred obligations. Sen. Dianne Feinstein was criticized in 2017 for suggesting that “dogma lives loudly” within Barret, a sign that Washington may not understand the ways of a charismatic Christian. Last week, Feinstein was more restrained in her words. But even as Washington adjusts to conservative theology, the courts themselves have become dangerously less diverse.
Barrett sways the Court toward conservatism, but her appointment does little to make the Court look like the nation it is called to adjudicate.
Sadly, a truly diverse judiciary — one that might approximate the sort of holiness evoked by Leviticus 19 — remains an elusive goal. Times have changed, but only in some ways. More than 73 percent of sitting judges are men, and over 80 percent are white. The Center for American Progress notes that federal judges are increasingly viewed as political actors and their courtrooms as partisan theaters.
“Also contributing to the judiciary’s legitimacy crisis,” notes the center’s 2019 report on diversity in the federal judiciary, “is the lack of federal judges representing historically underrepresented groups, such as people of color, women, individuals who self-identify as LGBTQ, people with disabilities, and people belonging to minority religions.”
Put simply: American courtrooms do not look like the neighborhoods they serve. Fewer than one percent of judges identify as LGBTQ. A few years ago, Justice Kagan opined the lack of diversity on the bench, saying “People look at an institution and they see people who are like them, who share their experiences, who they imagine share their set of values, and that’s a sort of natural thing and they feel more comfortable if that occurs.”
That is in stark contrast to the judicial expectations Yahweh provides in Leviticus 19. We may neglect Leviticus as a relic, trotting it out only to bolster certain arguments against homosexuality. Yet this week’s lectionary passages resound with contemporaneous meaning: Leave a portion of harvest for poor people and immigrants. Don’t cheat your neighbor. Pay a living wage. Make sure the disabled have an equal chance. Love your neighbor as yourself.
The texts call us to pursue a holiness grounded in love of the neighbor. Not just the preppy neighbor. Not just white men, but also queer black women. Leviticus is clear: we are judged by the love we offer to the Muslim mom who worries her children will be bullied at school as well as the Irish Catholic neighbors whose six kids run their bikes through our shrubs.
Leviticus, so often maligned and ignored as a collection of fuddy-duddy, moralistic pronouncements, is instead a life-giving word about how we are to connect with the people we see each day. This call to love is a broad swath of society: rich, poor, laborers, strangers, family, and even the people who don’t root for your hometown baseball team.
We may assume how Judge Barrett will rule. For now, let us pray that her faith is informed not only by her religious experiences, but by the diversity with which God calls us to love in Leviticus 19.
Amen.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:Leviticus 19:2
“You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”
The newspaper comic strip Ziggy is written by Tom Wilson. Ziggy is a nondescript character, and as such he represents everyone. He has a big nose, a puffy face, and clothes that resemble a smock. Ziggy is a very nice individual who relates to the everyday person and the everyday struggles of life. Ziggy is not an activist; he is just someone who lives in the reality of day-to-day living. We must admire how insightful Wilson is regarding daily living.
Tom Wilson is very good in relating Ziggy’s life to current events. In his October 2020 posting, when the question of church and state was before both Congress and the Supreme Court, we see Ziggy standing in front of a bank teller’s window with a one-dollar bill in his hand. With an astonished look on his face, he says, “When did they start this saying: In the ‘Thing We Trust’”?
* * *
1 Thessalonians 2:2
“shamefully mistreated”
Rana Awdish wrote the book In Shock that was published in 2017. In the book, Dr. Awdish described how she never imagined that an emergency trip to the hospital would result in hemorrhaging nearly all of her blood volume and losing her unborn first child. But during her visit, Dr. Awdish spent months fighting for her life, enduring consecutive major surgeries and experiencing multiple overlapping organ failures. At each step of the recovery process, Awdish was faced with something even more unexpected. Now, as a patient and no longer the attending physician, she experienced the repeated cavalier behavior from her fellow physicians — indifference following human loss, disregard for anguish and suffering, an unremitting emotional distance, and never having any input into her medical care. This experience exposed her to when she was an attending physician, of her own lack of neglect for what a patient is feeling.
In one section of her book, Awdish discusses being placed on the bed lying down. This caused her lungs to fill with fluid. The alarms on her monitors sounded, but the nurses had “alarm fatigue,” and did not respond. This is because her alarm and other patients alarms went off so often in the ICU. With great effort Awdish was able to push the Code Blue button, and help immediately came. But she was still left with the fear that “I nearly died.” Even though she was told this would not happen again, she wrote “I did not feel reassured.”
Awdish now had, as she explained it, “tunnel vison.” She began to “imagine” everything that could happen to her. She could visualize those scenarios. She realized that she wanted to take “ownership” of her care. In so doing, she requested, and received, all of her medical records.
A patient’s emotions “are encoded in their behavior,” she wrote. If one is crying it is easy to determine their emotional state. This is not the case with someone studying their medical records. The attending staff did not realize her acute anxiety. Being told countless times to “just rest” only heightened her fear. She knew that she had to be the “watchtower” of her own care, otherwise “I would die.” Awdish continued, “I believed it was entirely up to me to ensure my own safety.”
She concluded this section of her book with this paragraph, “In an ICU in a world-renowned hospital, with around-the-clock care by highly skilled medical teams, I felt responsible for myself. That is the power of anxiety.”
* * *
Deuteronomy 34:4
“I will give it to your decedents.”
The National Church in Iceland is the Evangelical Lutheran Church. In order to emphasize the church’s desire for diversity and inclusion, as well as increasing enrollment in Sunday school, it commissioned a television advertisement with corresponding posters to be placed around the country. The advertisement was made public in October 2020.
In the advertisement Jesus is seen with breasts and a beard. He is dancing under a rainbow of colors, with his breasts flopping. Surrounding Jesus are children from different ethnic groups.
Peter Georg Markin, the media representative for the Church of Iceland, said of the advertising program, “We’re trying to embrace society as it is. We have all sorts of people and we need to train ourselves to talk about Jesus as being ‘all sorts’ in this context.” He went on to say that it is important “that each and every person see themselves in Jesus,” Markin concluded, “It’s okay that Jesus has a beard and breasts.”
As a result of controversy the television advertisement was discontinued, but the posters will remain for several more weeks.
* * *
Deuteronomy 34:4
“I will give it to your decedents.”
The Pontifical Academy of Life, an official Vatican office, tweeted a photo of the statue of a pieta, with a white Mary and a black Jesus, on Saturday, September 12, 2020. The tweet was posted by the academy with the caption, “An image that is worth a speech.”
Archbishop Paglia explained that the image the academy issued was inspired by the work of Italian sculptor Fabio Viale, whose version of Michelangelo’s pieta, which is in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, was exhibited in 2015 in Milan at the height of Europe’s immigration crisis. His statue, called “Lucky Ehi,” portrayed a 22-year-old Nigerian who fled his country to avoid persecution due to his Christian faith. At the time, the artwork was praised for its support of immigrants and condemnation of the ongoing persecution of Christians all over the world.
With the new awareness of systemic racism in countries across the globe, the photo was offensive to radical conservative Catholics. Catholics who believe the Roman Catholic Church has been in a “downward spiral” ever since Pope Francis came to office. The photo was criticized for politicizing the figure of Jesus. Critics said that the photo misrepresented the historical Jesus. They maintained the intention of the photo was to support Black Lives Matter. This was not the case. The photo was meant to be a statement of awareness for the need of including all individuals in the church.
In defense of the photo, Paglia said Christians can’t “pretend that the real body of Christ, his human flesh, like Mary’s, are exactly the same as the white of the marble from Carrara,” referring to the quarry where Michelangelo is likely to have sourced his marble.
* * *
Psalm 1
A message regarding the importance of learning
On October 5, 2020 Wycliffe Bible Translations and the American Bible Society issued a joint stamen that the Bible has now been translated into 700 languages. A Bible is only considered translated when all 66 books are translated. Partial translations are not recorded as complete translations.
The number of languages with the full Bible has doubled in the past 30 years, from 351 in 1990 to 700 in 2020. Bible translation has accelerated in the past few decades, according to the American Bible Society, due to “advances in translation technology” and an “unprecedented level of partnership among Bible translation agencies.”
James Poole, the executive director of Wycliffe Bible Translators, said the milestone “represents the tremendous work that Bible translators are doing across the world.” He went on to say, “Every time we hear of the Bible being translated into another language, we know that means that for the first time the people in that language group can fully access the complete picture of God’s story. It’s good to take a step back and realize what this 700th Bible means: 5.7 billion people who speak 700 languages now have the Bible in the language that speaks to them best. That is a remarkable figure and continues to grow.”
Wycliffe Bible Translations reported that despite this milestone, about 1.5 billion people, or one in five people in the world, still don’t have a Bible in their language.
It is not known which translation was the 700th, because the new translations are being made available online. Three possibilities are: the Huichol (Wixáritari) Bible, which is used by an indigenous people of Mexico; the Ellomwe Bible, which is read by a people group in Malawi and Mozambique; the Igede Bible, which is used by a Nigerian ethnic group.
* * * * * *
From team member Tom Willadsen:Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Today’s reading from the Old Testament is that last chapter of Deuteronomy, the last chapter of the Torah. Tradition has it that Moses wrote all five books of the Torah. Did he write about his own death? One tradition contends that Joshua picked up Moses’ stylus and wrote verses 5-12. Rabbi Ibn Ezra argued that Joshua wrote the entire 34th chapter. To my mind, the most charming explanation is that Moses wrote the final verses, those describing his death, with tears in his eyes.
* * *
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Seeing the Promised Land
The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr’s last speech was given in Memphis on April 3, 1968, at Mason Temple Church of God in Christ.
Here’s a portion of that speech:
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live — a long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
Dr. King cites today’s Old Testament passage. Just as Moses was able to see the Promised Land, but was not allowed to enter it, Dr. King pointed the way. He closes that portion of his speech with a quote from “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
* * *
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Why Couldn’t Moses Cross into the Promised Land?
It really doesn’t seem fair that Moses led the people for 40 years and he was still strong and vigorous when he died at age 120, but God did not let him lead the people into the Promised Land. Instead, the honor fell to Joshua. You may recall an incident in Numbers 20. The people complained to Moses and Aaron because they did not have water to drink; they feared they would die of thirst. This is not to be confused with a story in Exodus 15 when the people had water, but it was bitter, or Exodus 17, when the people were revolting (in both senses) because they needed water, or Exodus 16 when they were starving and God provided manna. The people did a lot of grumbling against Moses and Aaron, and even God. In Numbers 20 the people “gathered together against Moses and against Aaron,” complaining about there not being any water, that this whole “Flee Slavery” thing was just a ploy to take them into the desert for them and their livestock to die. Moses knew the routine. He and Aaron approached God, who told them to assemble the people and then Moses was to command for water to emerge from a rock. Moses did that, but he struck the rock twice with his staff. He also said to the people “Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then God told Aaron and Moses that they would not enter the Promised Land “because you did not trust in me.” It is not clear what about Moses’ actions betrayed a lack of trust in God. It could have been his saying “we….” Or it could have been he struck the rock. Either way, this particular infraction meant Moses was only allowed to see the Promised Land.
* * *
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
“Make us glad as many days as You have afflicted us”
It’s interesting that Isaac Watts’s warhorse of a hymn, “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past,” draws on the first five verses of this psalm and doesn’t touch the verses from the latter part of this reading. The assurance of God’s eternal presence is something that people need to call on in times of calamity. I well remember, for example, singing “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past,” on September 12, 2001, while the Pentagon and the World Trade Center lay in ruins. I was fortunate that the words were so familiar, because my tears obscured the hymnal I held in my shaking hands.
The final five verses of this reading present a different kind of confidence in the living God. This is not the sunny, instant optimism of Pollyanna, but rather the hard-earned knowledge of one who has struggled, suffered and lost — and remains faithful, and faith-filled.
* * *
Matthew 22:34-46
Today’s gospel lesson is the end of the confrontations between Jesus and the religious authorities that Matthew records between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday. This scene ends with something of an anti-climax. The Pharisees’ question to Jesus, which commandment is the greatest, is hardly difficult. One would call it a “softball” if Jesus was speaking at a town hall meeting in 21st century America.
The concluding verses, 41-46 are complete head scratchers. It appears that Jesus goes on the offensive, asking the Pharisees a question of his own: whose son is the Messiah? The Pharisees answer “David.” Clearly they mean that the Messiah will be (is) a descendant from David’s line. Jesus confuses this David — of Davidic origin — with the individual shepherd king, and quotes that David out of context. Jesus’ answer leaves the Pharisees completely befuddled. “No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.” (22:46, NRSV)
I’ve been preaching and interpreting scripture publically for more than 30 years. I’ve given up trying to find any wisdom in Jesus’ response. I hope that if I ever make a similar response, my congregation will be kind enough to show me a chair, and wise enough to turn off the microphone.
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: Our God is Sovereign; let the peoples tremble!
People: God sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
Leader: God is exalted over all the peoples.
People: Let them praise your great and awesome name.
Leader: Lover of justice, you have established equity.
People: Extol our God and worship at God’s footstool.
OR
Leader: God calls us to follow the way to life eternal.
People: We hear God’s call and we have come.
Leader: The world calls us to another pathway.
People: We hear that call and sometimes we follow.
Leader: God desires to give us life but we must decide our path.
People: With God’s help, we will listen and obey.
Hymns and Songs:
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
UMH: 64/65
H82: 362
PH: 138
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELW: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT: 26
Renew: 204
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
UMH: 127
H82: 690
PH: 281
AAHH: 138/139/140
NNBH: 232
NCH: 18/19
CH: 622
LBW: 343
ELW: 618
W&P: 501
AMEC: 52/53/65
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
Renew: 57
O Jesus, I Have Promised
UMH: 396
H82: 655
PH: 388/389
NCH: 493
CH: 612
LBW: 503
ELW: 810
W&P: 458
AMEC: 280
Jesus Calls Us
UMH: 398
H82: 549/550
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171/172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELW: 696
W&P: 345
AMEC: 238
I Am Thine, O Lord
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 283
My Faith Looks Up to Thee
UMH: 452
H82: 691
PH: 383
AAHH: 456
NNBH: 273
CH: 576
LBW: 479
ELW: 759
W&P: 419
AMEC: 415
Holy Spirit, Truth Divine
UMH: 465
PH: 321
NCH: 63
CH: 241
LBW: 257
ELW: 398
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH: 577
H82: 594/595
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELW: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELW: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
Trust and Obey
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
Walk with Me
CCB: 88
We Are His Hands
CCB: 85
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 whose actions and thoughts are always one:
Grant us the grace to center our thoughts on you
and to allow your Spirit to direct our actions;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because your actions and thoughts are always one. All that you do issues from your being of love. Help us to center ourselves on you and your love so that your Spirit can direct all our actions. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially how our actions often are in conflict with what we say we believe.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know the right words to say. We can be very correct in our theology but very wrong in our actions. We speak about you as a God of love but we can be very petty and mean to your children. We talk about the golden rule and instead of treating others as we want to be treated we try show them up and take advantage of them. Forgive us and renew us in your Spirit that we may not only talk like we are your children but act like it. Amen.
Leader: We are God’s children, all of us. Even when we don’t act like it, God still loves us and claims us as God’s very own. Receive the gracious love of God and share it as God has shared it with us.
Prayers of the People
Glory and praise to you, O God of perfect unity. In your purity your nature, words, and actions are all one.
(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 know the right words to say. We can be very correct in our theology but very wrong in our actions. We speak about you as a God of love but we can be very petty and mean to your children. We talk about the golden rule and instead of treating others as we want to be treated we try show them up and take advantage of them. Forgive us and renew us in your Spirit that we may not only talk like we are your children but act like it.
We give you thanks for all your love toward us and all your children. We thank you for the gift of creation and for our place in your realm. We thank you for those who have been examples to us of the kind of integrity that we aspire to.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children, everywhere. As your children we hold one another up to your blessing. We pray for strength and courage to be part of your blessing as we reach out to others in need.
(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
If someone says that they like you and would do anything for you but they won’t share their toys with you do you believe what they said? (Use several examples.) Sometimes it is easy to say something but harder to actually do it. Today we are reminded that we need to keep our words and actions together. They are like our hands clapping. We need both to make it work.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMONWhat To Love?
by Dean Feldmeyer
Matthew 22:34-46
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-39 - NRSV)
You will need: Several items that you “love.” In the passage below, I used what I love but you can choose items of your own.
Say:
Good morning, boys and girls.
I’ve got some things in this box that I’d like to share with you. They’re all things that I love.
Like this. You know what this is, right? A chocolate bar, right. And I…love…chocolate. In fact, I love it so much it’s all I can do to not eat it right here, right now.
And there’s this. That’s my harmonica and this is a cd with music on it. I love these things because I love music. I love to play music and I love to listen to music and sing to music and dance to music. I just love music and I love most kinds of music, too. I love folk music, jazz music, religious music, classical music, and rock and roll music. I love pretty much any kind of music.
And here’s a picture of my grandchildren, Luke and Caleb. I love them.
And here’s my Kindle. It will do lots of things but mostly it holds books — and I love books. Right now, there are over a hundred books on my kindle and I can take all of them with me wherever I go. That’s how much I love to read books. I love to read, I love books, and I love my Kindle.
If you had to put together a box of the things you love, what would you put into that box.
(Let the children share for a few moments, repeating each thing they say so the congregation can hear it.)
You know, in today’s Bible lesson Jesus says that there are two things we’re supposed to love if we want to be like him, do you know what they are? Two things?
Well, one is God. Jesus says we are to love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind. That means we are to love god with our whole being, with everything we are, and nothing left in reserve. We are to love God with our whole self.
And we don’t have time to explore everything that might mean or everything it might look like today, but it would sure be a good topic to talk about with your parents or grandparents when you go home today.
And the other thing we’re supposed to love, according to Jesus, is each other. In fact, he says we’re supposed to love each other the same way we love ourselves. Just like we want good things for ourselves, we should want good things for each other.
Love God with all that we are and love each other the way we love ourselves. If we want to be like Jesus, that’s what we have to do.
And after we do that, if we have any love left over, we can love chocolate, too. (Hold up chocolate bar.)
Close with a prayer thanking God for loving us and asking for help in loving God and each other.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, October 25, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 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.
