Life In The Big City
Children's sermon
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For May 22, 2022:
Life In The Big City
by Chris Keating
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:5
Life in our suburban New Jersey township was tranquil in the 1960s. Our dads took trains into the city in the mornings, and after school my friends and I cruised the neighborhood on our Schwinn Stingrays. We invented games, pretended the old lady up the street was an evil witch, and listened for our moms to call us home. Bad things rarely happened. If they did, someone’s mom would usually tell us to shrug it off. “That’s just life in the big city,” they’d tell us.
That didn’t make a lot of sense to me. As far as I could tell, life in the big city was way better than our ’burg. In the city there were subways and zoos, Rockefeller Center, and that gigantic FAO Schwartz toy store. How could life in the big city be something bad?
Reality crashed into my five-year-old idyllic existence one summer day. A bunch of bigger boys told me they had something magical. “Here,” they said, “hold this piece of dry ice.” Pressing the frozen bits of carbon dioxide into my palm, they held my hand shut until the dry ice began sticking to my skin. I began to cry, and they began to laugh. (My mother, it should be noted, routed them out and gave them a taste of what “life in the big city” meant to her.)
The dry ice broke the spell of life on the streets for me — suburban or otherwise. From that point on, I began learning what my parents called “street smarts.”
Sadly, street smarts may no longer be sufficient for life in the big city — or even the smallest hamlet. Our streets flow with rivers of blood, and not hope: this past weekend alone 14 people were killed and 39 wounded in coast-to-coast mass shootings.
Street smarts are not enough to defend ourselves from the gun violence that has steadily increased during the pandemic. Neither will the wisdom of the streets alone guide parents to the limited supplies of baby formula. It will take a lot more than street smarts to protect LGBTQ youth and families targeted by legislation blocking access to school sports or gender-affirming healthcare options. And looking over your shoulder or being aware of strangers will do little to lower maternal and infant mortality rates if abortion is outlawed. (The US already has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world.)
Life in the big city requires the sort of apocalyptic-sized hope and faith generated by John’s vision of the New Jerusalem — a city redeemed by God.
Centuries ago, John of Patmos watched as Christians struggled against the heel of the emperor. Life in the city was brutal for them. But from the vantage of a mountain, John foresees the coming of a new city — not just new and improved, but an entirely new Jerusalem. It will be a city as magnificent as one can imagine: inclusive, safe, and filled with the glory of God. Filled with the light of the resurrected Christ, the city offers abundance to all.
Life in that big city will be life lived in fullness of God. For now, John tells us not only to hold on, but to press forward. The victory has been won, and that city will soon be ours.
In the News
Meanwhile, however, life in the big city continues. This past weekend bore witness to the reality of the pain and suffering of God’s people in cities across the nation. In a 72-hour period this past weekend, there were multiple mass shootings in eight US cities. In Buffalo, NY, the most horrific of the shootings involved a white teenager, apparently motivated by racist conspiracy theories, entering a grocery store Saturday and opening fire with an automatic rifle.
The shooter, who was arrested, left behind a massive screed detailing his months spent planning his assault. “Attacking in a high-black density area with high density person count will have the greatest chance of success,” he wrote. “I am a radical, extremist, racist, and after the attack, a terrorist.”
Witnesses in Buffalo observed that the shooter was taken into custody without incident and wondered if a Black man would have been shot.
Noting that there were “bodies everywhere,” onlooker Marilyn Hanson speculated that the situation would likely have been different if the shooter had been black. “If a Black man did this, he’d be dead, too,” said Hanson, who lives near the Tops grocery.
That, too, is just life in the big city.
Life in the big city means that the Buffalo shooter, detained last year for a mental health evaluation, could lie to evade New York state’s “red flag” law and purchase guns. Social media posts indicate that he had been planning this attack for months. Life in the city means a teenager in Chicago could fire a “ghost gun,” a weapon that cannot be tracked, in a popular tourist attraction.
These incidents should shock us, but we shrug them off by saying it’s the price we pay for living in a free country. We’re all but inured to the statistics. The headlines crawl across our screens, and light up our phones, but soon migrate out of our consciousness.
Twenty-one injured in three shootings in Milwaukee, 10 killed in the Buffalo grocery store, one in a Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, CA. The stories of the victims all sound so ordinary. They were, after all, just living their lives. Basketball fans gathered to cheer their team, families doing weekly grocery shopping, a 16-year old hanging out at Chicago’s iconic “Bean” sculpture.
Street smarts alone will not save us.
Consider the heroic response by members of a Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, CA. Gathered to celebrate the return of their pastor from Taiwan, the congregants bravely interrupted the shooter, whose car had literature pointing to his hate of Taiwanese persons. John Cheng, a physician attending the celebration, was shot and killed after he tackled the shooter. Police praised Cheng’s efforts, which led to the shooter being restrained by others. But while their actions disrupted his plan, they will do little to dismantle the systemic anti-Taiwanese fever that fueled his assault.
These are the ones, John might say, who have survived the great ordeal. Because of that, any calls for “thoughts and prayers” following the shootings this weekend will sound insensitive at worst and anemic at best. Prayers that do not yield actions and thoughts that do not lead to racial healing will be nothing more than words shouted into the atmosphere.
Prayers are comforting, and necessary. The quick-thinking responses from the worshipers were brave and heroic. But they will not be enough — something John understands as he stands on the mountaintop. He is shown a vision of a great and beautiful city, filled with light and adorned with jewels like a bride.
In the Scripture
If the headlines demonstrate the way things are now, the Apocalypse of John provides encouragement and prophetic witness to the future. Revelation — singular, never “Revelations,” is a complex and imaginative work of Christian witness. It is a profoundly pastoral work addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor with whom John of Patmos seems to have had a special relationship.
The members of those churches were subject to cruel persecution. Many were likely refugees or ancestors of refugees who had fled Jerusalem following the destruction of the temple by Rome. As Christians, their profession of faith placed that at odds with the emperor, likely the particularly brutal Domitian, who demanded to be worshiped as a deity. John, writing in the style of a Jewish apocalyptic, provides encouragement to the faithful so that they may be strengthened in their witness.
The complexities of Revelation require thoughtful exegesis and study. The lections this week provide the denouement to John’s spectacular vision, and repeat themes addressed earlier. Heaven and earth are merged (Rev. 21), and in imagery borrowed from Ezekiel, the city’s splendor is detailed.
Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza’s commentary Revelation — Vision of a Just World helpfully compares John’s Apocalyptic to contemporary science fiction. Apocalyptic literature, she notes, like science fiction, addresses the fears and worries of contemporary people by offering a view of the future. (Fiorenza, p. 26). Sci-fi fans know, she says, that those works are aimed not at predicting the future but at illuminating a possible future based on current fears and experiences.
Thus Revelation is pragmatic theology focused on encouraging believers with a vision of how God’s presence will be known. The symbolic New Jerusalem functions significantly in the works culminating actions.
First and foremost, it is a city. New Jerusalem is a massive city as diverse as any modern city in the world. It is fundamentally interdependent, an interdependent and inclusive community whose borders are open to all. Secondly, it is a city of abundance, symbolized by flowing crystal rivers and trees whose leaves are given for the healing of the nations. Within this city, countless find refuge. Unlike Babylon, New Jerusalem is a place of shelter and peace.
John writes of the future while offering encouragement to those enduring the pain of life in the old city. Seized by the vision of resurrection, John offers consolation for those who are called to be witnesses today. They are people much like the victims described in the accounts of mass shootings, ordinary people called to claim the hope of the victory of the Lamb in their present and quite painful realities.
In the Sermon
Preachers are sometimes reluctant to float through the rivers of Revelation. Perhaps we are scared of dragons, or worn out by Covid fatigue. We cede this territory to fundamentalists or rapture-enhanced apocalyptic preachers. Even the lectionary, which only features a few scattered lections from Revelation, does not seem to encourage the church to dwell too long in apocalyptic theology.
Yet that bypasses the richness of Christian theology and experience, including the apocalyptic thought of Jesus and Paul. It also hands over preaching about the Apocalypse to those who see it primarily as instructions of how the world will end, and when.
But John’s audience would not have been the sort of folks Vernard Eller once called “calendarizers,” who were primarily concerned with assigning dates to the events John recites. Rather, the audience was Christians caught in a particularly rough set of circumstances. They were likely poor, marginalized and vulnerable believers who were trying their best to simply hold on.
Life in this big, new city is life infused with the hope of resurrection.
With that in mind, the sermon could be a beacon of the light of God in a time when war in Ukraine and violence in our cities is eroding hope. The sermon could address the fallacies of “Great Replacement” conspiracy theories, such as those espoused by the Buffalo shooter, and much of right-wing media. These dangerous nationalists were the muscle in the boots that pinned down the Christians of Asia Minor. John refutes these notions, proclaiming a decidedly urban hope of a transformed city. There is no temple in the city, not because the folks are worshiping on Facebook, but rather because they worship in an inclusive, ever-expanding and deeply connected community where God is present, where the light shines, and hope is generated.
The wisdom of this new city is far superior to anything promulgated on the streets of the old city. And this wisdom prompts the inhabitants claimed by the Lamb to worship perpetually, and most importantly, in peace.
* * *
SECOND THOUGHTS
I Said What I Said
by Quantisha Mason-Doll
John 14:23-29
On multiple writing occasions, I have referenced using the process of signifying to glean a deeper meaning from texts when hermeneutic dialectic leaves us wanting for more. For those not in the know, signifying comes from African-American culture and is defined as wordplay that exploits that which is unknown. It is a way of telling a fuller story while also exercising your Christian apologetics muscles. If we seek to understand our gospel as a living text we must retell it as a story today.
In the case of today's gospel reading, we encounter one of the rare occasions when Jesus is forthright with communicating his wants and needs for when he is gone. When I retell this story I like to believe that Jesus has had enough of the back and forth of those gathered around him. Up until this point in his ministry, our main man Jesus has been trying to be the gentle shepherd. Depending on which translation is used, Jesus is gentler, but overall he tries to allow the disciples and the masses to come to a resolution on their own. It is Jesus, indirectly pointing toward the narrow path that leads to the kingdom of heaven and then winking. Now at this moment, Jesus is well aware that his time is limited, and if those left behind mess up everything he did it would all be for not. Hence, my belief is that a little humanity is showing and Jesus makes things plain so there is no mistaking God’s call to love — to love unconditionally — thus keeping God’s word, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Jesus is setting the bar extremely high and places an extraordinary amount of trust in the community. I believe that Jesus is modeling for us in 2022 what can happen when you place each other first. Jesus closes by reiterating what will happen to us if we are swayed by our fear and greed. I can’t help but think of Jesus staring dead-eyed at the community and saying “I said what I said…. Choose love.”
Often I ask myself, “How can I, let alone all of Christiandom, live into Christ's calling to love unconditionally?” Jesus gives us the answer: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Hanging on to that peace only Christ can give us can be the foundation on which we base our love. Christ might be leaving this world but his love and peace live within us and nothing can take what has been freely given. Christ gave us a radical love that we have to nurture and grow. The practice of radical love is not something that comes naturally to us living in modernity. It is unfortunate that hate and fear rule our thoughts, as well as the relentless pursuit of domination by white, cis, male-bodied people. Fear and hate drive our legal narrative, the power of radical love is the last thing on our minds. Yes, we talk about love and that love wins, yet these concepts and slogans have been co-opted by those who use them as a means of obtaining more power and privilege. It is popular because it sells shirts. When I talk about radical love and how it can be used to keep God’s word I think of Outlaw Culture by Bell Hooks. To paraphrase — Hooks, like Jesus, wants us to choose to love. In doing so we move against oppression and all that keeps us from acknowledging the humanity in the other.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
John 14:23-29
Finding Peace
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you,” Jesus says, adding that this deep peace is different from what we find in the world around us. Peace is elusive, as Rick Williams would tell us, after the murder of his brother. “Rick Williams sits outside Seattle’s Space Needle carving totem poles until dark, a workday that can reach up to 12 hours. Tourists and Seattleites approach the picnic table where he sits, examining the intricate designs he carves with only a pocket knife. The children in his family were taught to carve when they were about 7 years old, with techniques passed down through generations…In August 2010, Williams was reunited with his brother John T. Williams. For two days they sat at a bench in the city, carving with other family members and catching up on the years they spent apart. John had lost hearing in his left ear, and his sight was deteriorating. He went for a walk, saying he would return shortly, but on his way back a police officer spotted the knife in his hand. Born into a family of First Nation master carvers, John usually carried the knife around, along with a piece of wood. The officer yelled for John to drop the knife, and seconds later fired his gun four times, killing him.”
“After John’s death, people in Seattle began filling the streets in protest. Native American communities came together, playing traditional drums to honor John…As the protests started to escalate, Williams wondered how his family could coexist with a police department that didn’t understand his culture and quickly reacted with gunfire. [Their lawyer] suggested arranging a restorative circle that would bring the family and police together to candidly discuss: the effects of the shooting; how to bridge the cultural gap between Native Americans and police; and ways to prevent unwarranted killings in the future. Both Police Chief John Diaz and Williams agreed to the restorative circle.” Williams also found peace through carving, including a 34 foot carved pole in honor of his brother, which now stands in Seattle in his honor. “Peace I leave with you,” Jesus says. We have to work to hold onto that peace.
* * *
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:29
Homecoming
John ends his vison in Revelation with an image of homecoming — the holy city, and the people who will walk in its light, the tree of life and the flowing waters. What would that look like for us? Derrick Jensen offers us, “I want to live in a world with more wild salmon every year than the year before. More migratory songbirds. More blue whales, slender salamanders, red-legged frogs. More prairies, canebrakes, native forests, beds of sea grass. I want to live in a world with less dioxin in every human and nonhuman mother’s breast milk, a world with fewer dams each year than the year before.” Unlike John of Patmos, he is not hopeful about the future. He says, “I’ll never live in that world. I’ll never know what it’s like to live in a world with more butterflies each year, where each year frog songs get louder, flocks of birds get larger, as do herds of bison, herds of elephants. A world where seeing a tiger or wolf or martin or hawk or eagle or condor is not remarkable in the slightest. I’ll never see that world. I’ll never know that security, that homecoming.”
He poses this question: “What will those who come after us think of us? Will they envy us that we saw butterflies and mockingbirds, penguins and little brown bats? Will they envy us that we lived on a planet as beautiful as it still is? Or will they hate us for what we did and did not do? Will they wonder what was wrong with us that we didn’t fight like hell when the world was going down?” As we interpret John’s vision for our time, this one is compelling, too.
* * *
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:29
Ordeal and Celebration
Here at the end of Revelation, John describes a vision of restoration. “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life,” with abundant fruit. Louisiana native Colette Pichon Battle describes a similar sense of celebration and ordeal mixed together, as her family used to prepare for hurricanes when she was a child. She recalls, “Everyone’s used to it, everyone knows what to do — that’s how hurricanes are, for us. Well, they were. When I was young, it was a hurricane party — literally, a party. All of your cousins — and remember, I come from that big Catholic family — it was like 51 first cousins, all in a house. And all your aunts are cooking — the power is going to go out, so that means we’re going to be grilling. They’re not going to waste food, so you got to get the food out the freezer and just — it’s just a buffet. You’re having a party. And you’re with all of your friends, and in any moments of fear, you’re with like 20 people who love you. And it just makes the whole experience very different, because you’re not alone, not knowing what’s happening. You’re with generations of people who know exactly what’s going on, and they know exactly when to be afraid.”
Hurricane Katrina was, she says, “a crack in the world,” rupturing all of the traditions, and creating devastating losses. She adds, “This challenge requires us to recognize a power greater than ourselves and a life longer than the ones we will live.”
* * *
Acts 16:9-15
When God is in the Meeting
When Paul arrives in Philippi, he goes down to the river, looking for a place of prayer. There, he has a fortuitous meeting with Lydia and her household. Their meeting changes her life, and also his, as she supports him in his work. World-famous cellist Yo Yo Ma tells about a similarly inspired meeting. Living in Paris as a young boy, he says, “There’s a very oversized double bass, that’s maybe about eight feet, nine feet high, in the Paris Conservatory. We went by, saw it, and of course, as a four-year-old: something huge, something big. Oh, I like it. [laughs] I want to play that. So I was haranguing my parents about saying, “Give me this instrument.” And of course, it was not possible for a four-year-old. And then the compromise was the next largest instrument, which was the cello.”
Yo Yo Ma adds, “I’m a firm believer of accidental meetings between objects, people, circumstances. And, because so much of my life seems to have been orchestrated in that way.”
* * *
Acts 16:9-15
Meeting at the Market
There’s an energetic spirit at work when people meet and connect, as happens for Paul and Lydia. A similar thing happens at the Night Market, when entrepreneurs take over the farmers’ market space, but not on Saturday morning. “It’s Friday night, and the Nashville Farmers’ Market is bustling. It’s not the usual vendors, though — gone are the baskets of tomatoes and piles of squash. Instead, folks are selling a wide range of products, including cocktails-to-go, beauty products, apparel, and more. Food trucks line the edges of the market, and a saxophone player sets a soundtrack of smooth hip-hop and jazz. On the first Friday of each month, the market’s physical space transforms into the Nashville Black Market—a marketplace composed entirely of Black-owned businesses.”
Partly it’s about sales, and partly it’s about generating more fortuitous meetings. “Online sales can get stagnant month to month,” says Shardae Robinson, owner of Lil’ Lit Books, which sells children’s books and novels that feature Black characters and Black culture. The Nashville Black Market, she says, “Generates a buzz about my business, and it’s an opportunity for me to interact with my potential customers.” One vendor says that “spaces like the Nashville Black Market as playing a key role in keeping the city diverse and thriving. “They stimulate the Black economy, which is crucial, but it also creates kind of a cultural and social hub that allows all Nashvillians to really be a part of the rich culture that is here,” she says. “And, you know, owning a business in a city that is growing very, very quickly is one way to make sure that the growth is spread across all people.” Though increasing the number of Black-owned businesses won’t by itself solve racial inequality in Nashville, it does have the “potential to increase wealth, create jobs, and reduce persistent shortages of essential goods and services in Black neighborhoods, including health care, child care, and food,” as a recent Center for American Progress report put it.
* * * * * *
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
John 14:23-29
Undebatable Faith and Love
When Jonathan Conyers was 14 years-old he was caught breaking into a home. But the judge who realized that Johnathan was the child of two drug addicts, showed him mercy and refused to charge him with a crime when he was admitted to the Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem, “known as the school you wanted to go to if you were a Black boy,” Conyers later said.
The principal of the school told him that if he wanted to survive in the school where the academic standards and performance expectations were high, he would need to join an after-school activity of some kind.
Johnathan reluctantly joined the debate club. Mostly, he sat in the back of the room and watched.
After a while, however, he was taken by the dedication and enthusiasm of K.M. DiColandrea, whom the students just called Ms. Dico, the young, little, white lady who led the club. He began to participate and, eventually, he became an active member of the club who, against all odds, managed to win in competitions against famous and expensive private schools. He was also inspired by Ms. DiCo’s courage when he discovered that she was in the process of transitioning from female to male and how supportive her students were.
Johnathan managed to win a scholarship to college and today is working as a respiratory therapist in the newborn intensive care unit at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan.
Last year, he contacted the Humans of New York blog and pitched a story about his life. They accepted his pitch and encouraged him to write his story.
He had stayed close to his teacher, now a man, and DiCo had moved to another Harlem school and started the Brooklyn Debate League, a program that provides free debate training and access to tournaments for teens who otherwise might not have the means to participate.
Johnathan Conyers sits on the board of the Debate League and, when he found out that DiCo had emptied his savings of $6,000 to keep the program going, he decided that his article for Humans of New York should be about his former teacher and how DiCo was able, through love, dedication, and compassion, to change the lives of his students.
He also set up a Go Fund Me page to help recoup the $6,000 DiCo had given up to help the Debate League. Today the site has brought in just over $1.2 million.
DiCo says he will be using the money to further the mission of the Brooklyn Debate League.
* * *
John 14:23-29
The Strength Of Mercy (Love and Mercy)
Pope Francis has said that “a little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just.”
In that quote I am reminded of a story about Napoleon, who passed judgement and gave a sentence of death to a young man who had been caught deserting his post on two occasions.
The boys mother came before the Little General and begged for him to show her son mercy.
“But madam,” he responded, “He has twice committed this offence and the sentence for one time is death. No, justice demands that he be thus sentenced. He does not deserve mercy.”
“But, Sir,” she said, “If he deserved it, it would not be mercy. Mercy is compassion that is underserved but given by a kind and generous giver to one who deserves it not.”
Napoleon thought for a moment, then nodded his head. “In this you are right and your son has a wise and loving mother. Take him home and teach him the virtue of faithful obedience.”
The young man was released to his mother.
* * *
John 14:23-29
A Thief Forgiven (Love and Mercy)
There is a story about a Japanese Zen master, Bankei Yotaku, who once went into seclusion for weeks, and people from all over Japan came to learn from him and take part in the seclusion.
But soon, they began to notice that someone in this gathering was stealing things. Bankei’s things.
They immediately informed Bankei, but he was not willing to take any action against the thief.
This incident happened again, the next day, and the pupils caught and took him to stand before Bankei. Once again, Bankei ignored the whole incident and did not do anything to the thief.
Finally, people objected that they could not go on with the seclusion and mediation when they knew a thief was among them. They insisted that Bankei should expel the thief. They would not stay unless the thief was sent away.
Bankei responded: “Brothers and sisters, you are wise. You know what is right and what is wrong. This brother of ours does not know right from wrong like you. If I do not teach him, then who will? I am not going to expel him. Even if it means that you all will leave, I am going to keep him beside me.”
The thief, of course, heard everything and was greatly moved by Bankei’s compassion and big heart. He burst into tears and swore that he would never steal ever again.
* * *
John 14:23-29
Mercy In The Time Of War (Love and Mercy)
Most of the admirable actions we hear of from WWII are about Americans or their allies. Here’s one from the other side.
In 1943, German fighters had severely damaged the B-17 Flying Fortress, “Ye Olde Pub,” under the control of Lieutenant Charles “Charlie” Brown and the damaged compass was taking the plane into German held territory.
German pilot, Franz Stigler, was ordered to shoot down the B-17, killing all on board. But as he got closer to the flying fortress, he saw that despite the plane’s terrible state, Lieutenant Brown was desperately trying to save himself and his crew from certain death.
Franz Stigler could have destroyed Brown as he was ordered to, but instead, he decided to guide and escort the B-17 outside to a safe zone not occupied by the Germans. He even saluted Brown before heading back and telling everyone he had shot down the B-17, killing all aboard.
Almost 50 years later, Brown searched for the German pilot who saved his life…and found him.
When the two met again, they became friends and remained friends until Stigler passed away in March 2008, followed by Brown’s death only a few months later.
* * *
John 14:23-29
Even Friends Need Mercy (Love and Mercy)
Rachelle Friedman was supposed to marry the love of her life in a few days when she and her friends decided to go for a midnight swim in the pool on the night of her bachelorette party. The playful roughhousing that young people often do in a pool, however, turned to tragedy.
One of the friends playfully pushed Rachelle into the pool without considering how shallow that part of the pool could be. Rachelle’s head hit the bottom of the pool, her neck broke, and she was paralyzed from her neck down.
Rachelle’s capacity for mercy and kindness, however, did not let this tragic accident define her. A year later, she married her fiancé, who loved her too much to care about her injury.
And, even more amazing, Rachelle held no hard feelings against her friend who pushed her in the pool, forgave her, and continued to love her.
Rachelle said that she, too, had done what her friend did as a joke. She had even pushed the same friend playfully and had a laugh about it. It was only dumb luck, she said, that the friend caught herself and didn’t fall into the pool, suffering the same fate as Rachelle.
* * * * * *
From team member Katy Stenta:
John 14:23-29
Love one another. There is a church in Seattle that is barely open. It hosts a homeless shelter in its basement. Sometimes those staying there come up to worship, some sleep, some chat, some bring their dogs. It is quite a practice for this church — a big behemoth of a sanctuary that used to be the flagship congregation — to shelter this handful of people.
There is a court case, and an ongoing fight between the queer and anti-queer adherents of the church as to who gets to end up with the land. The building is in the downtown and is worth millions, perhaps a billion dollars. Though the pro-LGBTQIA community keeps winning, the appeals continue unabated. In the meantime, the leaders are trying to figure out how to live out the commandment to love one another. One day during greeting time, the pastor introduced herself to a gentleman, and asked his name, and he said, “I’m Jesus.” And she thought to herself, “Wherever there are hungry or the sick there I’ll be.” “Hello, Jesus. Welcome to worship!” Finding people to love is not difficult — it is the actual loving of people that is difficult.
* * *
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:29
Night Lights
My favorite part of Revelation is the implication that there will not be a need for night lights anymore, for evil will be blotted out. The things that give you nightmares will have no more power. In a world where there are so many scary and troubling things, this is truly a comfort. Right now the gospel is our nightlight and our security blanket. Soon it will become our reality incarnate.
* * *
Acts 16:9-15
Power Women
Women like Lydia, the maker of robes for kings, were the original financiers of the church. What does it mean that the royal weaver is financing the church? Financial tangles are so hard these days. Too often we discover that those we think of as good people are financing things that are politically bad when it comes to things such as human rights. Here, Lydia gives her time, her money and her hospitality to the disciples. What would happen to our church buildings if we let every single congregation that wanted to find a worshiping home share our building? What would happen if we put our money not just into our own interests but into community groundswell efforts that were just starting out and were not established? What would happen if we committed to finding new and creative ways to discipleship that were not just Sunday mornings? Discipleship is far more vibrant than what we think it is — look at Lydia and her purple cloth.
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: May God be gracious to us and bless us.
All: May God’s face shine upon us.
One: Let the peoples praise you, O God.
All: Let all the peoples praise you.
One: May God continue to bless us.
All: Let all the ends of the earth revere our God.
OR
One: God comes among us today in love and grace.
All: We welcome the loving kindness of our God.
One: God desires to bless the entire creation.
All: We will be God’s hands blessing the world.
One: God blesses all, even our enemies.
All: With God’s help, we will bless those who hate us.
Hymns and Songs
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
UMH: 121
H82: 469/470
PH: 298
NCH: 23
CH: 73
LBW: 290
ELW: 587/588
W&P: 61
AMEC: 78
STLT: 213
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELW: 834
W&P: 48
AMEC: 71
STLT: 273
Renew: 46
How Great Thou Art
UMH: 77
PH: 467
AAHH: 148
NNBH: 43
NCH: 35
CH: 33
LBW: 352
ELW: 856
W&P: 51
AMEC: 68
Renew: 250
I Love to Tell the Story
UMH: 156
AAHH: 513
NNBH: 424
NCH: 522
CH: 480
LBW: 390
ELW: 661
W&P: 560
AMEC: 217
Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies
UMH: 173
H82: 6/7
PH: 462/463
LBW: 265
ELW: 553
W&P: 91
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
Where Cross the Crowded Ways of life
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELW: 719
W&P: 591
AMEC: 561
Cuando El Pobre (When the Poor Ones)
UMH: 434
PH: 407
CH: 662
ELW: 725
W&P: 624
Let There Be Light
UMH: 440
NNBH: 450
NCH: 589
STLT: 142
What Does the Lord Require
UMH: 441
H82: 605
PH: 405
CH: 659
W&P: 686
We Are His Hands
CCB: 85
Shine, Jesus, Shine
CCB: 81
Renew: 247
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 is love and who floods creation with your grace:
Grant us the wisdom to know the power of love
and to join Jesus in sharing it with all people;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are love and you have filled your creation with grace. Help us to see the power of your love and to share it with all. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially when we forget that to love Jesus means to do as he taught us.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We gladly claim Jesus as our Savior and rejoice in his love for us but we forget that our love for him is shown by how much we follow him. We put bumper stickers on our care proclaiming our faith and then drive quickly through the ‘less desirable’ areas to our nice homes. We gladly receive the bread and cup as we dine with Jesus but then we resent those who are being fed through welfare programs. Help us to see with the eyes of Christ and to love as Jesus loved. Amen.
One: The grace and love of God are abundant for all, even for the hypocritical. Receive God’s love and share it with all God’s children.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory to you, O God of loving kindness and grace. Your love flows throughout creation and is never ending.
(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 gladly claim Jesus as our Savior and rejoice in his love for us but we forget that our love for him is shown by how much we follow him. We put bumper stickers on our care proclaiming our faith and then drive quickly through the ‘less desirable' areas to our nice homes. We gladly receive the bread and cup as we dine with Jesus but then we resent those who are being fed through welfare programs. Help us to see with the eyes of Christ and to love as Jesus loved.
We give you thanks for Jesus who taught us of your love for all your children. We thank you for the opportunities you send us to share your love with others. We thank you for those you send to us to bring us your love and care even when that love corrects us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children as we struggle to live together in peace. We pray for those we do not agree with and ask for grace to love those who we think are unlovable. As you move among your children in need with you healing presence, may our prayers and love be a part of your work.
(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
God’s Love and Acceptance
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 16:9-15, Revelation 21:10, 22—22:5
You will need: A very large ball of string, long enough to encircle the entire congregation as they sit in their seats or pews.
(Invite the children to come forward and, when they have arrived, show them the ball of string.)
Say:
Good morning girls and boys. This morning, we’re going to talk about God’s love and acceptance of people.
One of the things that Jesus teaches in the Bible is that God loves all people. How many is “all?”
Yeah, that’s a hard one to figure out, isn’t it? It must be a lot, though, right?
So, when Jesus says that God loves all people, does that include children? Adults? Boys? Girls? Teens? People with dark skin? People with light skin? People with short hair, long hair, no hair?
Gosh, I guess when Jesus says all he means all. Everyone. But how can God do that? How can God love everyone? What if God runs out of love because God has used it all up?
Well, let’s pretend that this string is God’s love, okay? Let’s see if there’s enough of God’s love to go around all of us, right here. (Have one child hold the end of the string and walk around the group of children, encircling them with the string as you go.)
Look at that! There’s enough of God’s love to include all of us and there’s some left over, isn’t there? Okay, let’s see how much of God’s love there is, here. You all hold this end of the string and I’m going to start walking and see if there’s enough of God’s love to include everyone in this room
(As a couple of kids hold the end of the strong, start walking and unrolling the strong as you go, encircling the entire congregation, and back to the kids in the front.)
Whoa! Look at that. There’s enough love to include everyone here and there’s still some love left over.
That’s how Jesus says God’s love is. There’s always more than enough for everyone!
(Thank the kids for joining you and end the message with a prayer thanking God for love and acceptance.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 22, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 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.
- Life In The Big City by Chris Keating. Based on Revelation 21:10, 22--22:5.
- I Said What I Said by Quantisha Mason-Doll. Based on John 14:23-29.
- Sermon illustrations by Mary Austin, Katy Stenta, Dean Feldmeyer.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children's sermon: God’s Love and Acceptance by Dean Feldmeyer.
Life In The Big Cityby Chris Keating
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:5
Life in our suburban New Jersey township was tranquil in the 1960s. Our dads took trains into the city in the mornings, and after school my friends and I cruised the neighborhood on our Schwinn Stingrays. We invented games, pretended the old lady up the street was an evil witch, and listened for our moms to call us home. Bad things rarely happened. If they did, someone’s mom would usually tell us to shrug it off. “That’s just life in the big city,” they’d tell us.
That didn’t make a lot of sense to me. As far as I could tell, life in the big city was way better than our ’burg. In the city there were subways and zoos, Rockefeller Center, and that gigantic FAO Schwartz toy store. How could life in the big city be something bad?
Reality crashed into my five-year-old idyllic existence one summer day. A bunch of bigger boys told me they had something magical. “Here,” they said, “hold this piece of dry ice.” Pressing the frozen bits of carbon dioxide into my palm, they held my hand shut until the dry ice began sticking to my skin. I began to cry, and they began to laugh. (My mother, it should be noted, routed them out and gave them a taste of what “life in the big city” meant to her.)
The dry ice broke the spell of life on the streets for me — suburban or otherwise. From that point on, I began learning what my parents called “street smarts.”
Sadly, street smarts may no longer be sufficient for life in the big city — or even the smallest hamlet. Our streets flow with rivers of blood, and not hope: this past weekend alone 14 people were killed and 39 wounded in coast-to-coast mass shootings.
Street smarts are not enough to defend ourselves from the gun violence that has steadily increased during the pandemic. Neither will the wisdom of the streets alone guide parents to the limited supplies of baby formula. It will take a lot more than street smarts to protect LGBTQ youth and families targeted by legislation blocking access to school sports or gender-affirming healthcare options. And looking over your shoulder or being aware of strangers will do little to lower maternal and infant mortality rates if abortion is outlawed. (The US already has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world.)
Life in the big city requires the sort of apocalyptic-sized hope and faith generated by John’s vision of the New Jerusalem — a city redeemed by God.
Centuries ago, John of Patmos watched as Christians struggled against the heel of the emperor. Life in the city was brutal for them. But from the vantage of a mountain, John foresees the coming of a new city — not just new and improved, but an entirely new Jerusalem. It will be a city as magnificent as one can imagine: inclusive, safe, and filled with the glory of God. Filled with the light of the resurrected Christ, the city offers abundance to all.
Life in that big city will be life lived in fullness of God. For now, John tells us not only to hold on, but to press forward. The victory has been won, and that city will soon be ours.
In the News
Meanwhile, however, life in the big city continues. This past weekend bore witness to the reality of the pain and suffering of God’s people in cities across the nation. In a 72-hour period this past weekend, there were multiple mass shootings in eight US cities. In Buffalo, NY, the most horrific of the shootings involved a white teenager, apparently motivated by racist conspiracy theories, entering a grocery store Saturday and opening fire with an automatic rifle.
The shooter, who was arrested, left behind a massive screed detailing his months spent planning his assault. “Attacking in a high-black density area with high density person count will have the greatest chance of success,” he wrote. “I am a radical, extremist, racist, and after the attack, a terrorist.”
Witnesses in Buffalo observed that the shooter was taken into custody without incident and wondered if a Black man would have been shot.
Noting that there were “bodies everywhere,” onlooker Marilyn Hanson speculated that the situation would likely have been different if the shooter had been black. “If a Black man did this, he’d be dead, too,” said Hanson, who lives near the Tops grocery.
That, too, is just life in the big city.
Life in the big city means that the Buffalo shooter, detained last year for a mental health evaluation, could lie to evade New York state’s “red flag” law and purchase guns. Social media posts indicate that he had been planning this attack for months. Life in the city means a teenager in Chicago could fire a “ghost gun,” a weapon that cannot be tracked, in a popular tourist attraction.
These incidents should shock us, but we shrug them off by saying it’s the price we pay for living in a free country. We’re all but inured to the statistics. The headlines crawl across our screens, and light up our phones, but soon migrate out of our consciousness.
Twenty-one injured in three shootings in Milwaukee, 10 killed in the Buffalo grocery store, one in a Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, CA. The stories of the victims all sound so ordinary. They were, after all, just living their lives. Basketball fans gathered to cheer their team, families doing weekly grocery shopping, a 16-year old hanging out at Chicago’s iconic “Bean” sculpture.
Street smarts alone will not save us.
Consider the heroic response by members of a Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, CA. Gathered to celebrate the return of their pastor from Taiwan, the congregants bravely interrupted the shooter, whose car had literature pointing to his hate of Taiwanese persons. John Cheng, a physician attending the celebration, was shot and killed after he tackled the shooter. Police praised Cheng’s efforts, which led to the shooter being restrained by others. But while their actions disrupted his plan, they will do little to dismantle the systemic anti-Taiwanese fever that fueled his assault.
These are the ones, John might say, who have survived the great ordeal. Because of that, any calls for “thoughts and prayers” following the shootings this weekend will sound insensitive at worst and anemic at best. Prayers that do not yield actions and thoughts that do not lead to racial healing will be nothing more than words shouted into the atmosphere.
Prayers are comforting, and necessary. The quick-thinking responses from the worshipers were brave and heroic. But they will not be enough — something John understands as he stands on the mountaintop. He is shown a vision of a great and beautiful city, filled with light and adorned with jewels like a bride.
In the Scripture
If the headlines demonstrate the way things are now, the Apocalypse of John provides encouragement and prophetic witness to the future. Revelation — singular, never “Revelations,” is a complex and imaginative work of Christian witness. It is a profoundly pastoral work addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor with whom John of Patmos seems to have had a special relationship.
The members of those churches were subject to cruel persecution. Many were likely refugees or ancestors of refugees who had fled Jerusalem following the destruction of the temple by Rome. As Christians, their profession of faith placed that at odds with the emperor, likely the particularly brutal Domitian, who demanded to be worshiped as a deity. John, writing in the style of a Jewish apocalyptic, provides encouragement to the faithful so that they may be strengthened in their witness.
The complexities of Revelation require thoughtful exegesis and study. The lections this week provide the denouement to John’s spectacular vision, and repeat themes addressed earlier. Heaven and earth are merged (Rev. 21), and in imagery borrowed from Ezekiel, the city’s splendor is detailed.
Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza’s commentary Revelation — Vision of a Just World helpfully compares John’s Apocalyptic to contemporary science fiction. Apocalyptic literature, she notes, like science fiction, addresses the fears and worries of contemporary people by offering a view of the future. (Fiorenza, p. 26). Sci-fi fans know, she says, that those works are aimed not at predicting the future but at illuminating a possible future based on current fears and experiences.
Thus Revelation is pragmatic theology focused on encouraging believers with a vision of how God’s presence will be known. The symbolic New Jerusalem functions significantly in the works culminating actions.
First and foremost, it is a city. New Jerusalem is a massive city as diverse as any modern city in the world. It is fundamentally interdependent, an interdependent and inclusive community whose borders are open to all. Secondly, it is a city of abundance, symbolized by flowing crystal rivers and trees whose leaves are given for the healing of the nations. Within this city, countless find refuge. Unlike Babylon, New Jerusalem is a place of shelter and peace.
John writes of the future while offering encouragement to those enduring the pain of life in the old city. Seized by the vision of resurrection, John offers consolation for those who are called to be witnesses today. They are people much like the victims described in the accounts of mass shootings, ordinary people called to claim the hope of the victory of the Lamb in their present and quite painful realities.
In the Sermon
Preachers are sometimes reluctant to float through the rivers of Revelation. Perhaps we are scared of dragons, or worn out by Covid fatigue. We cede this territory to fundamentalists or rapture-enhanced apocalyptic preachers. Even the lectionary, which only features a few scattered lections from Revelation, does not seem to encourage the church to dwell too long in apocalyptic theology.
Yet that bypasses the richness of Christian theology and experience, including the apocalyptic thought of Jesus and Paul. It also hands over preaching about the Apocalypse to those who see it primarily as instructions of how the world will end, and when.
But John’s audience would not have been the sort of folks Vernard Eller once called “calendarizers,” who were primarily concerned with assigning dates to the events John recites. Rather, the audience was Christians caught in a particularly rough set of circumstances. They were likely poor, marginalized and vulnerable believers who were trying their best to simply hold on.
Life in this big, new city is life infused with the hope of resurrection.
With that in mind, the sermon could be a beacon of the light of God in a time when war in Ukraine and violence in our cities is eroding hope. The sermon could address the fallacies of “Great Replacement” conspiracy theories, such as those espoused by the Buffalo shooter, and much of right-wing media. These dangerous nationalists were the muscle in the boots that pinned down the Christians of Asia Minor. John refutes these notions, proclaiming a decidedly urban hope of a transformed city. There is no temple in the city, not because the folks are worshiping on Facebook, but rather because they worship in an inclusive, ever-expanding and deeply connected community where God is present, where the light shines, and hope is generated.
The wisdom of this new city is far superior to anything promulgated on the streets of the old city. And this wisdom prompts the inhabitants claimed by the Lamb to worship perpetually, and most importantly, in peace.
* * *
SECOND THOUGHTSI Said What I Said
by Quantisha Mason-Doll
John 14:23-29
On multiple writing occasions, I have referenced using the process of signifying to glean a deeper meaning from texts when hermeneutic dialectic leaves us wanting for more. For those not in the know, signifying comes from African-American culture and is defined as wordplay that exploits that which is unknown. It is a way of telling a fuller story while also exercising your Christian apologetics muscles. If we seek to understand our gospel as a living text we must retell it as a story today.
In the case of today's gospel reading, we encounter one of the rare occasions when Jesus is forthright with communicating his wants and needs for when he is gone. When I retell this story I like to believe that Jesus has had enough of the back and forth of those gathered around him. Up until this point in his ministry, our main man Jesus has been trying to be the gentle shepherd. Depending on which translation is used, Jesus is gentler, but overall he tries to allow the disciples and the masses to come to a resolution on their own. It is Jesus, indirectly pointing toward the narrow path that leads to the kingdom of heaven and then winking. Now at this moment, Jesus is well aware that his time is limited, and if those left behind mess up everything he did it would all be for not. Hence, my belief is that a little humanity is showing and Jesus makes things plain so there is no mistaking God’s call to love — to love unconditionally — thus keeping God’s word, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Jesus is setting the bar extremely high and places an extraordinary amount of trust in the community. I believe that Jesus is modeling for us in 2022 what can happen when you place each other first. Jesus closes by reiterating what will happen to us if we are swayed by our fear and greed. I can’t help but think of Jesus staring dead-eyed at the community and saying “I said what I said…. Choose love.”
Often I ask myself, “How can I, let alone all of Christiandom, live into Christ's calling to love unconditionally?” Jesus gives us the answer: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Hanging on to that peace only Christ can give us can be the foundation on which we base our love. Christ might be leaving this world but his love and peace live within us and nothing can take what has been freely given. Christ gave us a radical love that we have to nurture and grow. The practice of radical love is not something that comes naturally to us living in modernity. It is unfortunate that hate and fear rule our thoughts, as well as the relentless pursuit of domination by white, cis, male-bodied people. Fear and hate drive our legal narrative, the power of radical love is the last thing on our minds. Yes, we talk about love and that love wins, yet these concepts and slogans have been co-opted by those who use them as a means of obtaining more power and privilege. It is popular because it sells shirts. When I talk about radical love and how it can be used to keep God’s word I think of Outlaw Culture by Bell Hooks. To paraphrase — Hooks, like Jesus, wants us to choose to love. In doing so we move against oppression and all that keeps us from acknowledging the humanity in the other.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:John 14:23-29
Finding Peace
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you,” Jesus says, adding that this deep peace is different from what we find in the world around us. Peace is elusive, as Rick Williams would tell us, after the murder of his brother. “Rick Williams sits outside Seattle’s Space Needle carving totem poles until dark, a workday that can reach up to 12 hours. Tourists and Seattleites approach the picnic table where he sits, examining the intricate designs he carves with only a pocket knife. The children in his family were taught to carve when they were about 7 years old, with techniques passed down through generations…In August 2010, Williams was reunited with his brother John T. Williams. For two days they sat at a bench in the city, carving with other family members and catching up on the years they spent apart. John had lost hearing in his left ear, and his sight was deteriorating. He went for a walk, saying he would return shortly, but on his way back a police officer spotted the knife in his hand. Born into a family of First Nation master carvers, John usually carried the knife around, along with a piece of wood. The officer yelled for John to drop the knife, and seconds later fired his gun four times, killing him.”
“After John’s death, people in Seattle began filling the streets in protest. Native American communities came together, playing traditional drums to honor John…As the protests started to escalate, Williams wondered how his family could coexist with a police department that didn’t understand his culture and quickly reacted with gunfire. [Their lawyer] suggested arranging a restorative circle that would bring the family and police together to candidly discuss: the effects of the shooting; how to bridge the cultural gap between Native Americans and police; and ways to prevent unwarranted killings in the future. Both Police Chief John Diaz and Williams agreed to the restorative circle.” Williams also found peace through carving, including a 34 foot carved pole in honor of his brother, which now stands in Seattle in his honor. “Peace I leave with you,” Jesus says. We have to work to hold onto that peace.
* * *
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:29
Homecoming
John ends his vison in Revelation with an image of homecoming — the holy city, and the people who will walk in its light, the tree of life and the flowing waters. What would that look like for us? Derrick Jensen offers us, “I want to live in a world with more wild salmon every year than the year before. More migratory songbirds. More blue whales, slender salamanders, red-legged frogs. More prairies, canebrakes, native forests, beds of sea grass. I want to live in a world with less dioxin in every human and nonhuman mother’s breast milk, a world with fewer dams each year than the year before.” Unlike John of Patmos, he is not hopeful about the future. He says, “I’ll never live in that world. I’ll never know what it’s like to live in a world with more butterflies each year, where each year frog songs get louder, flocks of birds get larger, as do herds of bison, herds of elephants. A world where seeing a tiger or wolf or martin or hawk or eagle or condor is not remarkable in the slightest. I’ll never see that world. I’ll never know that security, that homecoming.”
He poses this question: “What will those who come after us think of us? Will they envy us that we saw butterflies and mockingbirds, penguins and little brown bats? Will they envy us that we lived on a planet as beautiful as it still is? Or will they hate us for what we did and did not do? Will they wonder what was wrong with us that we didn’t fight like hell when the world was going down?” As we interpret John’s vision for our time, this one is compelling, too.
* * *
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:29
Ordeal and Celebration
Here at the end of Revelation, John describes a vision of restoration. “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life,” with abundant fruit. Louisiana native Colette Pichon Battle describes a similar sense of celebration and ordeal mixed together, as her family used to prepare for hurricanes when she was a child. She recalls, “Everyone’s used to it, everyone knows what to do — that’s how hurricanes are, for us. Well, they were. When I was young, it was a hurricane party — literally, a party. All of your cousins — and remember, I come from that big Catholic family — it was like 51 first cousins, all in a house. And all your aunts are cooking — the power is going to go out, so that means we’re going to be grilling. They’re not going to waste food, so you got to get the food out the freezer and just — it’s just a buffet. You’re having a party. And you’re with all of your friends, and in any moments of fear, you’re with like 20 people who love you. And it just makes the whole experience very different, because you’re not alone, not knowing what’s happening. You’re with generations of people who know exactly what’s going on, and they know exactly when to be afraid.”
Hurricane Katrina was, she says, “a crack in the world,” rupturing all of the traditions, and creating devastating losses. She adds, “This challenge requires us to recognize a power greater than ourselves and a life longer than the ones we will live.”
* * *
Acts 16:9-15
When God is in the Meeting
When Paul arrives in Philippi, he goes down to the river, looking for a place of prayer. There, he has a fortuitous meeting with Lydia and her household. Their meeting changes her life, and also his, as she supports him in his work. World-famous cellist Yo Yo Ma tells about a similarly inspired meeting. Living in Paris as a young boy, he says, “There’s a very oversized double bass, that’s maybe about eight feet, nine feet high, in the Paris Conservatory. We went by, saw it, and of course, as a four-year-old: something huge, something big. Oh, I like it. [laughs] I want to play that. So I was haranguing my parents about saying, “Give me this instrument.” And of course, it was not possible for a four-year-old. And then the compromise was the next largest instrument, which was the cello.”
Yo Yo Ma adds, “I’m a firm believer of accidental meetings between objects, people, circumstances. And, because so much of my life seems to have been orchestrated in that way.”
* * *
Acts 16:9-15
Meeting at the Market
There’s an energetic spirit at work when people meet and connect, as happens for Paul and Lydia. A similar thing happens at the Night Market, when entrepreneurs take over the farmers’ market space, but not on Saturday morning. “It’s Friday night, and the Nashville Farmers’ Market is bustling. It’s not the usual vendors, though — gone are the baskets of tomatoes and piles of squash. Instead, folks are selling a wide range of products, including cocktails-to-go, beauty products, apparel, and more. Food trucks line the edges of the market, and a saxophone player sets a soundtrack of smooth hip-hop and jazz. On the first Friday of each month, the market’s physical space transforms into the Nashville Black Market—a marketplace composed entirely of Black-owned businesses.”
Partly it’s about sales, and partly it’s about generating more fortuitous meetings. “Online sales can get stagnant month to month,” says Shardae Robinson, owner of Lil’ Lit Books, which sells children’s books and novels that feature Black characters and Black culture. The Nashville Black Market, she says, “Generates a buzz about my business, and it’s an opportunity for me to interact with my potential customers.” One vendor says that “spaces like the Nashville Black Market as playing a key role in keeping the city diverse and thriving. “They stimulate the Black economy, which is crucial, but it also creates kind of a cultural and social hub that allows all Nashvillians to really be a part of the rich culture that is here,” she says. “And, you know, owning a business in a city that is growing very, very quickly is one way to make sure that the growth is spread across all people.” Though increasing the number of Black-owned businesses won’t by itself solve racial inequality in Nashville, it does have the “potential to increase wealth, create jobs, and reduce persistent shortages of essential goods and services in Black neighborhoods, including health care, child care, and food,” as a recent Center for American Progress report put it.
* * * * * *
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:John 14:23-29
Undebatable Faith and Love
When Jonathan Conyers was 14 years-old he was caught breaking into a home. But the judge who realized that Johnathan was the child of two drug addicts, showed him mercy and refused to charge him with a crime when he was admitted to the Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem, “known as the school you wanted to go to if you were a Black boy,” Conyers later said.
The principal of the school told him that if he wanted to survive in the school where the academic standards and performance expectations were high, he would need to join an after-school activity of some kind.
Johnathan reluctantly joined the debate club. Mostly, he sat in the back of the room and watched.
After a while, however, he was taken by the dedication and enthusiasm of K.M. DiColandrea, whom the students just called Ms. Dico, the young, little, white lady who led the club. He began to participate and, eventually, he became an active member of the club who, against all odds, managed to win in competitions against famous and expensive private schools. He was also inspired by Ms. DiCo’s courage when he discovered that she was in the process of transitioning from female to male and how supportive her students were.
Johnathan managed to win a scholarship to college and today is working as a respiratory therapist in the newborn intensive care unit at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan.
Last year, he contacted the Humans of New York blog and pitched a story about his life. They accepted his pitch and encouraged him to write his story.
He had stayed close to his teacher, now a man, and DiCo had moved to another Harlem school and started the Brooklyn Debate League, a program that provides free debate training and access to tournaments for teens who otherwise might not have the means to participate.
Johnathan Conyers sits on the board of the Debate League and, when he found out that DiCo had emptied his savings of $6,000 to keep the program going, he decided that his article for Humans of New York should be about his former teacher and how DiCo was able, through love, dedication, and compassion, to change the lives of his students.
He also set up a Go Fund Me page to help recoup the $6,000 DiCo had given up to help the Debate League. Today the site has brought in just over $1.2 million.
DiCo says he will be using the money to further the mission of the Brooklyn Debate League.
* * *
John 14:23-29
The Strength Of Mercy (Love and Mercy)
Pope Francis has said that “a little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just.”
In that quote I am reminded of a story about Napoleon, who passed judgement and gave a sentence of death to a young man who had been caught deserting his post on two occasions.
The boys mother came before the Little General and begged for him to show her son mercy.
“But madam,” he responded, “He has twice committed this offence and the sentence for one time is death. No, justice demands that he be thus sentenced. He does not deserve mercy.”
“But, Sir,” she said, “If he deserved it, it would not be mercy. Mercy is compassion that is underserved but given by a kind and generous giver to one who deserves it not.”
Napoleon thought for a moment, then nodded his head. “In this you are right and your son has a wise and loving mother. Take him home and teach him the virtue of faithful obedience.”
The young man was released to his mother.
* * *
John 14:23-29
A Thief Forgiven (Love and Mercy)
There is a story about a Japanese Zen master, Bankei Yotaku, who once went into seclusion for weeks, and people from all over Japan came to learn from him and take part in the seclusion.
But soon, they began to notice that someone in this gathering was stealing things. Bankei’s things.
They immediately informed Bankei, but he was not willing to take any action against the thief.
This incident happened again, the next day, and the pupils caught and took him to stand before Bankei. Once again, Bankei ignored the whole incident and did not do anything to the thief.
Finally, people objected that they could not go on with the seclusion and mediation when they knew a thief was among them. They insisted that Bankei should expel the thief. They would not stay unless the thief was sent away.
Bankei responded: “Brothers and sisters, you are wise. You know what is right and what is wrong. This brother of ours does not know right from wrong like you. If I do not teach him, then who will? I am not going to expel him. Even if it means that you all will leave, I am going to keep him beside me.”
The thief, of course, heard everything and was greatly moved by Bankei’s compassion and big heart. He burst into tears and swore that he would never steal ever again.
* * *
John 14:23-29
Mercy In The Time Of War (Love and Mercy)
Most of the admirable actions we hear of from WWII are about Americans or their allies. Here’s one from the other side.
In 1943, German fighters had severely damaged the B-17 Flying Fortress, “Ye Olde Pub,” under the control of Lieutenant Charles “Charlie” Brown and the damaged compass was taking the plane into German held territory.
German pilot, Franz Stigler, was ordered to shoot down the B-17, killing all on board. But as he got closer to the flying fortress, he saw that despite the plane’s terrible state, Lieutenant Brown was desperately trying to save himself and his crew from certain death.
Franz Stigler could have destroyed Brown as he was ordered to, but instead, he decided to guide and escort the B-17 outside to a safe zone not occupied by the Germans. He even saluted Brown before heading back and telling everyone he had shot down the B-17, killing all aboard.
Almost 50 years later, Brown searched for the German pilot who saved his life…and found him.
When the two met again, they became friends and remained friends until Stigler passed away in March 2008, followed by Brown’s death only a few months later.
* * *
John 14:23-29
Even Friends Need Mercy (Love and Mercy)
Rachelle Friedman was supposed to marry the love of her life in a few days when she and her friends decided to go for a midnight swim in the pool on the night of her bachelorette party. The playful roughhousing that young people often do in a pool, however, turned to tragedy.
One of the friends playfully pushed Rachelle into the pool without considering how shallow that part of the pool could be. Rachelle’s head hit the bottom of the pool, her neck broke, and she was paralyzed from her neck down.
Rachelle’s capacity for mercy and kindness, however, did not let this tragic accident define her. A year later, she married her fiancé, who loved her too much to care about her injury.
And, even more amazing, Rachelle held no hard feelings against her friend who pushed her in the pool, forgave her, and continued to love her.
Rachelle said that she, too, had done what her friend did as a joke. She had even pushed the same friend playfully and had a laugh about it. It was only dumb luck, she said, that the friend caught herself and didn’t fall into the pool, suffering the same fate as Rachelle.
* * * * * *
From team member Katy Stenta:John 14:23-29
Love one another. There is a church in Seattle that is barely open. It hosts a homeless shelter in its basement. Sometimes those staying there come up to worship, some sleep, some chat, some bring their dogs. It is quite a practice for this church — a big behemoth of a sanctuary that used to be the flagship congregation — to shelter this handful of people.
There is a court case, and an ongoing fight between the queer and anti-queer adherents of the church as to who gets to end up with the land. The building is in the downtown and is worth millions, perhaps a billion dollars. Though the pro-LGBTQIA community keeps winning, the appeals continue unabated. In the meantime, the leaders are trying to figure out how to live out the commandment to love one another. One day during greeting time, the pastor introduced herself to a gentleman, and asked his name, and he said, “I’m Jesus.” And she thought to herself, “Wherever there are hungry or the sick there I’ll be.” “Hello, Jesus. Welcome to worship!” Finding people to love is not difficult — it is the actual loving of people that is difficult.
* * *
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:29
Night Lights
My favorite part of Revelation is the implication that there will not be a need for night lights anymore, for evil will be blotted out. The things that give you nightmares will have no more power. In a world where there are so many scary and troubling things, this is truly a comfort. Right now the gospel is our nightlight and our security blanket. Soon it will become our reality incarnate.
* * *
Acts 16:9-15
Power Women
Women like Lydia, the maker of robes for kings, were the original financiers of the church. What does it mean that the royal weaver is financing the church? Financial tangles are so hard these days. Too often we discover that those we think of as good people are financing things that are politically bad when it comes to things such as human rights. Here, Lydia gives her time, her money and her hospitality to the disciples. What would happen to our church buildings if we let every single congregation that wanted to find a worshiping home share our building? What would happen if we put our money not just into our own interests but into community groundswell efforts that were just starting out and were not established? What would happen if we committed to finding new and creative ways to discipleship that were not just Sunday mornings? Discipleship is far more vibrant than what we think it is — look at Lydia and her purple cloth.
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: May God be gracious to us and bless us.
All: May God’s face shine upon us.
One: Let the peoples praise you, O God.
All: Let all the peoples praise you.
One: May God continue to bless us.
All: Let all the ends of the earth revere our God.
OR
One: God comes among us today in love and grace.
All: We welcome the loving kindness of our God.
One: God desires to bless the entire creation.
All: We will be God’s hands blessing the world.
One: God blesses all, even our enemies.
All: With God’s help, we will bless those who hate us.
Hymns and Songs
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
UMH: 121
H82: 469/470
PH: 298
NCH: 23
CH: 73
LBW: 290
ELW: 587/588
W&P: 61
AMEC: 78
STLT: 213
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELW: 834
W&P: 48
AMEC: 71
STLT: 273
Renew: 46
How Great Thou Art
UMH: 77
PH: 467
AAHH: 148
NNBH: 43
NCH: 35
CH: 33
LBW: 352
ELW: 856
W&P: 51
AMEC: 68
Renew: 250
I Love to Tell the Story
UMH: 156
AAHH: 513
NNBH: 424
NCH: 522
CH: 480
LBW: 390
ELW: 661
W&P: 560
AMEC: 217
Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies
UMH: 173
H82: 6/7
PH: 462/463
LBW: 265
ELW: 553
W&P: 91
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
Where Cross the Crowded Ways of life
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELW: 719
W&P: 591
AMEC: 561
Cuando El Pobre (When the Poor Ones)
UMH: 434
PH: 407
CH: 662
ELW: 725
W&P: 624
Let There Be Light
UMH: 440
NNBH: 450
NCH: 589
STLT: 142
What Does the Lord Require
UMH: 441
H82: 605
PH: 405
CH: 659
W&P: 686
We Are His Hands
CCB: 85
Shine, Jesus, Shine
CCB: 81
Renew: 247
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 is love and who floods creation with your grace:
Grant us the wisdom to know the power of love
and to join Jesus in sharing it with all people;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are love and you have filled your creation with grace. Help us to see the power of your love and to share it with all. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially when we forget that to love Jesus means to do as he taught us.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We gladly claim Jesus as our Savior and rejoice in his love for us but we forget that our love for him is shown by how much we follow him. We put bumper stickers on our care proclaiming our faith and then drive quickly through the ‘less desirable’ areas to our nice homes. We gladly receive the bread and cup as we dine with Jesus but then we resent those who are being fed through welfare programs. Help us to see with the eyes of Christ and to love as Jesus loved. Amen.
One: The grace and love of God are abundant for all, even for the hypocritical. Receive God’s love and share it with all God’s children.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory to you, O God of loving kindness and grace. Your love flows throughout creation and is never ending.
(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 gladly claim Jesus as our Savior and rejoice in his love for us but we forget that our love for him is shown by how much we follow him. We put bumper stickers on our care proclaiming our faith and then drive quickly through the ‘less desirable' areas to our nice homes. We gladly receive the bread and cup as we dine with Jesus but then we resent those who are being fed through welfare programs. Help us to see with the eyes of Christ and to love as Jesus loved.
We give you thanks for Jesus who taught us of your love for all your children. We thank you for the opportunities you send us to share your love with others. We thank you for those you send to us to bring us your love and care even when that love corrects us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children as we struggle to live together in peace. We pray for those we do not agree with and ask for grace to love those who we think are unlovable. As you move among your children in need with you healing presence, may our prayers and love be a part of your work.
(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 SERMONGod’s Love and Acceptance
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 16:9-15, Revelation 21:10, 22—22:5
You will need: A very large ball of string, long enough to encircle the entire congregation as they sit in their seats or pews.
(Invite the children to come forward and, when they have arrived, show them the ball of string.)
Say:
Good morning girls and boys. This morning, we’re going to talk about God’s love and acceptance of people.
One of the things that Jesus teaches in the Bible is that God loves all people. How many is “all?”
Yeah, that’s a hard one to figure out, isn’t it? It must be a lot, though, right?
So, when Jesus says that God loves all people, does that include children? Adults? Boys? Girls? Teens? People with dark skin? People with light skin? People with short hair, long hair, no hair?
Gosh, I guess when Jesus says all he means all. Everyone. But how can God do that? How can God love everyone? What if God runs out of love because God has used it all up?
Well, let’s pretend that this string is God’s love, okay? Let’s see if there’s enough of God’s love to go around all of us, right here. (Have one child hold the end of the string and walk around the group of children, encircling them with the string as you go.)
Look at that! There’s enough of God’s love to include all of us and there’s some left over, isn’t there? Okay, let’s see how much of God’s love there is, here. You all hold this end of the string and I’m going to start walking and see if there’s enough of God’s love to include everyone in this room
(As a couple of kids hold the end of the strong, start walking and unrolling the strong as you go, encircling the entire congregation, and back to the kids in the front.)
Whoa! Look at that. There’s enough love to include everyone here and there’s still some love left over.
That’s how Jesus says God’s love is. There’s always more than enough for everyone!
(Thank the kids for joining you and end the message with a prayer thanking God for love and acceptance.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 22, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 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.
