Living As One
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This week’s lectionary passage from Acts describes the reaction of the disciples to Jesus’ ascension. At first they are (understandably) stupefied by what they have witnessed. But after being prodded to action by “two men in white robes” standing with them, they retreated to their quarters in Jerusalem and “constantly devot[ed] themselves to prayer.” In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer identifies the disciples’ time together in the upper room as a team-building exercise of a sort, strengthening their cohesion and togetherness as a unit after the departure of their mentor and leader. Dean suggests that this was one of the chief gifts conferred by the Holy Spirit on the new apostles -- one that would be vital for sustaining them in the mission they would soon take on... to be his “witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Likewise, Dean notes, the community we experience in our churches is not merely for its own benefit -- as with Jesus’ disciples, it is a crucial part of the toolkit we need to be effective witnesses for Christ in our world.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the gospel text and Jesus’ petition to the Father to protect the disciples in his absence. We too seek for God to guarantee our safety -- but as Chris notes, the degree of peril most of us face is nowhere near that confronting Jesus’ followers. Yet Jesus yearns for them to be delivered from anything that might be a roadblock to their coming mission... and pleads with God that “they may be one” -- finding strength and protection in that unity.
Living as One
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35; 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11; John 17:1-11
Rarely does a group of people spontaneously come together as a cohesive unit. Cohesion is something that takes hard work, a shared vision and purpose, lots of practice, and a whole heap of prayer. Even with all that, sometimes it doesn’t happen. When it does, however, there’s nothing quite like that feeling of power that comes with the knowledge that you are part of something that is bigger, and more real, than you could ever be by yourself.
In the Culture
Athletes sometimes experience it in sports. They talk of it as “teamwork.” Maybe you’re playing shortstop and the ball comes to you, and without thinking you snag it and toss it to second base -- hardly looking because you know the second baseman will be there to catch it and hurl it on to first for a perfectly executed double play. We see it in basketball when a guard is leading a fast break down the court and goes up for a layup that is going to be blocked. But instead of shooting he drops the ball off, without even looking, exactly where he knows his teammate is going to be -- who catches it on the bounce and glides smoothly to a slam dunk.
Some experience it in the arts, like when an ensemble of musicians or singers hits that perfect chord that sends chills up the spine or when a group of actors performs a scene so well that they can sense the electric tension running through the absolutely silent audience. Or conversely, it happens when a scene or a song is so powerfully rendered that the audience springs spontaneously to their feet with shouting and whistling and applause.
These are all experiences of power -- the power of a sports team to defeat their opponents by pulling off complex plays, the power of an orchestra or a choir to bring an audience to tears, the power of a cast of actors to send an audience from the theater and into a deep conversation about the content of a play.
This particular power does not fall spontaneously upon a group of people, however. It is the result of hours, days, and sometimes months of practice and rehearsal. It is the result of being together so much that we know what the other is thinking. Strength and power grow out of unity as crops grow out of the earth, and the richer and more fertile the unity, the heartier the strength, the broader the power.
Spring training for Major League Baseball started on February 22 this year, with opening day coming on April 2. Teams had roughly five weeks to get together and find out who they were as a squad. On opening day they begin playing together, in hopes that by the mid-season All-Star game they will have gelled and come together as a unit, functioning like a well-oiled machine. (It is not by accident that the most winning team in Cincinnati Reds history is still referred to as the “Big Red Machine.”)
In politics, it is not hard to see why our current president is having trouble getting things done. Certainly one of the reasons is that his administrative team has not come together and gelled as a team. One hand rarely seems to know what the other is doing. The president issues a statement, and the next day his spokespersons are trying to explain what it is he meant by that statement. The press secretary always seems to be behind the curve when it comes to accuracy and consensus. This lack of agreement has been written off by the administration as an understandable lag created by the high speed at which the administration is working. The news being reported by the press secretary, we are told, is often obsolete by the time he reports it, and this is something we should understand and expect.
In fact, however, this kind of disunity and discord in the White House looks a lot like chaos and anarchy to those of us on the outside looking in.
The lesson from our culture, whether it be from sports or the arts or politics, is that there is power in unity. It is a lesson not unlike that which comes to us in scripture on this seventh Sunday of Easter.
In the Scriptures
Unity and power stand out as recurring motifs in all of the lectionary texts for this week.
In the Acts passage, the resurrected Christ explains to the disciples that the Holy Spirit, which is coming to accompany and guide them, will also give them power. This power is to be spent in the act of witnessing for Jesus Christ in a series of expanding circles: first Jerusalem, then all Judea, then Samaria, then finally to the whole world.
Jesus then ascends into heaven, leaving the disciples standing there, looking up, with two men who are wearing white robes. After a moment the two men in white, who are supposed to be understood as angels, say to them: “Okay, what are you doing just standing around here? Let’s go. The world isn’t going to save itself, you know.”
Before they head out to save the world, however, they realize that they have some homework to do. They need to go out not as individuals but as members of a common experience and tradition. So first they hunker down and gain some strength from their commonality. They go back to Jerusalem to the Upper Room, and there they devote “themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.”
It is out of this coming together that they will eventually go out into the world to fulfill the Great Commission to make disciples. It is out of this unity in prayer that they will find the strength to make their witness in places and to people who welcome it as well as in places and to people whose reaction will be bitter and unwelcoming, even threatening.
The reading from Psalm 68 is a celebration of and a hymn to God’s power, especially when it comes to overcoming God’s enemies, particularly those enemies of God who are also enemies of God’s people.
God is powerful beyond measure, yet God does not use his power to feather his own nest. God uses power ethically, generously, lovingly. God uses power to protect and defend the widow and the orphan. God uses his power to defeat the drought and the storm. God uses power to provide a home for the homeless and food for the hungry.
By God’s example, God shows us how to use the power which God makes available to us.
In the first epistle from Peter, the apostle speaks to those Christians who are suffering persecution. He encourages them in their time of trouble, and he reminds them that this suffering is not unlike the suffering their Christian brothers and sisters are undergoing in other places, which in time will be a source of strength (power). Also, he tells them that “after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.” That is, God will share with you God’s own strength and power.
Since God will share God’s power with those who are faithful in times of trial, Peter does not pray for power for himself or for other Christians but for God. The passage appropriately ends: “To [God] be the power forever and ever. Amen.”
The text from John’s gospel is Jesus’ prayer for his disciples. On the eve of his arrest and trial Jesus prays that God will watch over the disciples for only one reason: “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” He prays for God to protect them so that they may be united. He prays for their unity, and it is out of this unity that they will grow and become stronger and carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. Indeed, even when they go to their own ministries in different directions, it is their unity with Christ and each other that will strengthen them for their journeys.
In the Sermon
Unity, corporateness, commonality, community -- whatever we call it, it is among the most important core values in the Christian experience. We come together to worship, to sing, to study, to eat, to play because we are strengthened just by being together.
But that strength is given to us not for its own sake. We are not bodybuilders for Christ. We are not made strong so we can stand in front of a mirror and admire ourselves. The strength which comes to us in our unity is the strength of the long-distance runner.
It is strength for a purpose.
We are made strong so that we might be witnesses for Jesus Christ. We are made strong so that we might more effectively spread the good news of God’s grace through our words and our behavior -- our love, our gentleness, our kindness, and our generosity. These are the true signs of strength, the true outward expressions of power.
The sense of community that we are called to experience in scripture is often elusive, however. Our current American culture encourages individualism over cooperation. Even in our churches we have trouble trusting each other enough to invest ourselves in cooperative ventures and programs. We want to poll the congregation over every decision that costs money, and when we do become a corporate body we discover that we like that cozy room so much we are reluctant to leave it to be in mission to the world.
That marvelous sense of community which we are sometimes fortunate enough to discover in church, in the singing of hymns or in the pursuit of a mission project or in the easy camaraderie around a table during a pot-luck dinner, is one of the original gifts of the Holy Spirit. However we experience this gift of group cohesion, this wonderful sense of corporateness, it is not given to us for its own sake or because it makes us feel special. It is given to us so that we might have power to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves and so we can effectively spread the good news of God’s grace as it comes to us in Jesus Christ.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Protective Custody
by Chris Keating
John 17:1-11
President Donald Trump made headlines this week when he visited Jerusalem’s Western Wall, becoming the first sitting United States president to visit the holy site.
During his brief trip to Israel, the president stopped by the Western Wall -- known as Kotel -- and placed a note in between the ancient stones. On Monday he became the supplicant-in-chief, participating in a centuries-old practice of offering a prayer within the wall’s crevices. The stop was filled with symbolism, though it was dismissed by some Israeli journalists as lacking in substance.
The president understands the value of real estate, however. And while he’s not been known for practicing religion, his daughter and son-in-law are observant Jews. Plus, he does seem rather passionate about walls.
“It will leave an impression on me forever,” the president said of the visit the White House called unofficial. President Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was not included in the visit.
Was it a photo-op, a gesture designed to prop up support for his policies, or was there something more substantive imagined? It seemed to support his trip’s overall narrative of promoting peace between Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Trump and his family also visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditionally viewed as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion. The stop in Israel followed his visit to Saudi Arabia, and occurred prior to meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican.
He’ll be bringing home plenty of religious experiences. The larger question is whether or not the experiences will help craft lasting unity and peace.
Israeli journalist Anshel Pfeffer thinks the visit to Kotel means little. Because the wall sits on contested land, Pfeffer said that Trump’s visit won’t help solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “A president who is serious about trying to solve the conflict -- and every president who has visited Israel in the past has been -- doesn’t get himself into a corner like that.”
It seems it’s a reminder that even ancient walls divide more than they unify, and offer only fleeting protection.
Since what’s left in the wall remains at the wall, no one knows what sort of petition Trump drafted on Monday. The situation is a bit different in John 17, where Jesus’ high priestly prayer for the disciples is centered on similar themes of peace, protection, and unity. This most private conversation between Jesus and God reveals Jesus’ passion for the mission the disciples will soon undertake.
John sneaks up to Jesus, eavesdropping on this anguish-drenched prayer. It is a moment of intimacy we might prefer not to overhear. His words disclose Jesus’ deepest desire for the beloved community of disciples. These are his last words, or perhaps even his last will and testament. But in contrast to the legacies left by the rich and powerful, Jesus’ words are not about building empires or monuments. Instead, the legacy Jesus desires for his disciples in one of lasting communion with God. Notably, this is not a prayer which asks the disciples to do anything.
Instead, Jesus prays that they would be protected as they grow in unity with God and each other.
Each phrase is packed with meaning. Now that the hour of his passion has arrived, Jesus prays that God will continue to bring glory into the world. The heart of this intercession by Jesus is for a glory that will transform. This is glory shaped by Jesus’ passion, and will be a glory that will be seen in their love and unity.
Jesus’ prayer is more than a note jotted on a folded piece of paper. It is a prayer that the disciples will have a deep, abiding, and passionate knowledge of God. He yearns that they will experience the unity he shares with the Father. Like a dying mother who sees her beloved yet fractious family gathered around her hospice bed, Jesus prays that the disciples might be one.
But such unity carries a hefty price tag, as Jesus well understands.
“Protect them in your name,” Jesus prays. Protect them against a world which will reject the call to love with the sort of love he has enacted in the upper room. Few will exchange the coattails of success in favor of a servant’s apron. Even fewer will be willing to include their betrayer at a feast of love. Such actions, if undertaken with serious resolve by the disciples, will result in them doing far greater things than Jesus has done.
It will also supercharge a violent response from a hostile world, and so Jesus prays for the disciples’ safety.
I wonder what about contemporary ministry rises to the level which requires this sort of protection. Jesus imagines the church at the risk of losing its life. His prayer is for those facing Defcon level one scenarios -- imminent threat of nuclear war. The most dangerous (and stupid) thing in ministry I’ve done this year was climb up on a 16-foot ladder when no one else was at church.
Or maybe Jesus imagines a different sort of hostility. Perhaps he imagines a church torn apart by division, more concerned with theological orthodoxy than loving God and the neighbor. Perhaps he imagines a culture saturated by addictions that leach into the church’s ability to witness to the light of the world. Perhaps he imagines a time when Christians would divide and subdivide and then divide again, instead of seeking a unity which brings glory to God.
Jesus’ prayer, unlike Trump’s, is spelled out for us to hear. Paradoxically, he prays for the church to be in protective custody, even as he sends the disciples into the world. It’s a prayer worth considering.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Sharing Suffering
The writer of First Peter urges his readers to “rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings.” Andrew Forsthoefel set off, after his college graduation, to walk across the country and listen. He says, “I was going to walk and listen until I ran out of money or reached the Pacific Ocean, whichever came first.” He was willing to share the suffering of anyone who wanted to talk to him. “I didn’t discover the transformative power of real listening until I walked more than 4,000 miles across the highways of the United States with a sign on my backpack proclaiming that was all I was doing. ‘Walking to Listen,’ it read. It was not in the classroom but on the road, on foot, with thousands of different Americans, that I received my unofficial training in this most rare and necessary skill.”
People opened up their suffering to him, and, he says, “it made it impossible for me to hate them, even if I was deeply disturbed by some of the things they believed or had done. And when I didn’t hate them, and asked them questions without malice, they could remain open, and it is in this openness that transformation becomes possible.” With a listening ear, and acceptance, he was able to share in their suffering.
*****
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Salvation from Soup
The writer of First Peter says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you... but rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings.” Seeing the suffering in Detroit, one of the country’s most blighted cities, Amy Kaherl looked around and decided to transform that suffering. As she says, “In 2008, it was a lot more lawless. Blight was at, probably, its all-time high. Streetlights were getting shot off, not turned on,” says Kaherl, who grew up outside the city in suburban Sterling Heights. A few years back, the city “was so quiet. And I think that that quietness in this urban center can be very scary.”
She started with “one pot of potato leek [soup] on a frigid Super Bowl Sunday in February 2010. That evening Kaherl, a young, idealistic deejay sporting large glasses, co-founded Detroit SOUP, a monthly gathering where residents share a bowl of soup at the same time they’re funding local initiatives. Kaherl, who serves as the initiative’s director, explains, ‘For $5, you get soup, salad, bread, and a roll, and you hear four pitches that are trying to make the city better.’ Each presenter gets four minutes to share an idea and then fields four questions from the audience. ‘Then the diners get a chance to eat, share, connect, and vote,’ she continues. ‘Whoever has the most votes at the end of the night wins the money that was gathered at the door.’
“Some SOUP events focus on the entire city, while others are centered on specific neighborhoods. In the past five years, more than 800 ideas have been presented. The pot for a citywide night averages roughly $1,000; winners at the smaller gathering usually net around $700. SOUP’s ‘microgrants’ run the gamut of civic projects, including art, urban agriculture, social entrepreneurship, education, and tech. One college student designed winter coats that could double as sleeping bags and founded the Empowerment Project by hiring 20 formerly homeless women to sew them. Another group, Rebel Nell, employed women living in shelters to make jewelry from chipped graffiti paint. Funds have also supported poetry and writers’ groups, bike mechanic training classes, a local travel guide, a documentary film, free Shakespeare performances, and benches for bus stops.”
Suffering transformed -- starting with soup.
*****
John 17:1-11
Time
“The hour has come,” Jesus says. All through John’s gospel, he has a curious sense of timing, proclaiming when it is and is not time for certain events to unfold. An article in Discover magazine proclaims that “ ‘time’ is the most used noun in the English language, yet it remains a mystery.”
To enlighten us, the author offers ten things we must know about time. Among the revelations: “You live in the past. About 80 milliseconds in the past, to be precise. Use one hand to touch your nose, and the other to touch one of your feet, at exactly the same time. You will experience them as simultaneous acts. But that’s mysterious -- clearly it takes more time for the signal to travel up your nerves from your feet to your brain than from your nose. The reconciliation is simple: our conscious experience takes time to assemble, and your brain waits for all the relevant input before it experiences the ‘now.’ Experiments have shown that the lag between things happening and us experiencing them is about 80 milliseconds.”
The hour comes for all of us, as it does for Jesus. “A lifespan is a billion heartbeats. Complex organisms die. Sad though it is in individual cases, it’s a necessary part of the bigger picture; life pushes out the old to make way for the new. Remarkably, there exist simple scaling laws relating animal metabolism to body mass. Larger animals live longer; but they also metabolize slower, as manifested in slower heart rates. These effects cancel out, so that animals from shrews to blue whales have lifespans with just about equal number of heartbeats -- about one and a half billion, if you simply must be precise.”
*****
John 17:1-11
Awareness of Time
When Jesus announces that the hour has come, saying farewell to his disciples, he sees his own death ahead. Writer Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, says she became aware of death at a young age, and that awareness fueled her creativity. Gilbert recalls, “I think that’s something that I’ve always been keenly and sometimes uncomfortably aware of -- the short duration of time that we have here, and the preciousness of it. I knew that from a really early age.... Around the age of eight or nine, I just became crushingly aware of mortality. And it wasn’t because anybody in particular had died. There wasn’t a tragedy or devastation in my family. I just noticed it, you know? ‘I’m getting older. My sister’s getting older. Someday, my parents are going to die. This is all temporary. Oh my God!’ And it filled me with such a panic that I spent a year having panic attacks about it. I think that’s probably what prompted me to become a seeker -- trying to figure out how to quell that panic and how to turn that knowledge from something that was terrifying into something that was inspiring. What are we then to do? What are we to do with our time here? With that sense of not wanting to waste time, part of that gets translated into wanting to be as creative and generative as I could possibly be.”
As an artist, Gilbert says she is always aware of the precious quality of time. “I don’t really waste my time in terms of how I use my hours for productivity and work, because I sort of love my work. If anything, I’m always trying to make more and more and more time for it.”
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From team member Ron Love:
Acts 1:6-14
In a Cornered comic, two tourists are observing the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Unimpressed by what they are seeing and failing to comprehend that they are in the presence of one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, one companion says to the other: “Awesome, yes. But what’s the point -- aside from the travel reward points?”
Application: When we witness, we are to understand how awesome our gospel message is.
*****
Acts 1:6-14
In a Born Loser comic strip, Brutus Thornapple is asking his boss Rancid Veeblefester for a raise. Veeblefester informs Brutus that he does nothing in the office, so why should he get a salary increase. To which Brutus replies, “Because I do ‘nothing’ extremely well!”
Application: When we witness for the gospel we need to do it extremely well, and “nothing” is not an option.
*****
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Over 100 countries have been affected by the latest mass cyberattack -- computers are frozen, and unless a ransom is paid by a specific date all of the information on the computer will be erased. A 22-year-old computer researcher identified only as Malware Tech (in order to protect himself from reprisal by the hackers) has brought a halt to the operation. Upon examination, he discovered a hidden web address that wasn’t registered. He promptly registered the domain name and created a “sinkhole” in which all ransomware infections are dumped, making them useless.
Application: We are instructed to be aware of evil that lurks like a roaring lion.
*****
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
President Abraham Lincoln suffered from severe depression, which led to serious suicidal thoughts. When Ann Rutledge, to whom who Lincoln was about to propose marriage, died due to typhoid fever, Lincoln became so suicidal that friends confined him to a room after having removed any objects by which he could hurt himself. After he broke off his engagement to Mary Todd, whom he did later marry, Lincoln’s suicidal tendencies again became so severe that his friends put him under suicide prevention. Throughout his presidency, he threatened to hang himself from a tree -- one instance was after the Union lost the battle of Chancellorsville. Lincoln understood how susceptible to suicide he was, so he refused to carry a pocket knife out of fear that he might slit his wrists.
Application: We are in need of the deliverance described by the psalmist.
*****
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
In a Peanuts comic strip, Lucy and Charlie Brown are standing in the backyard next to a fence. Lucy puts a big smile on Charlie’s face when she tells him that one day he will meet the girl of his dreams, and he will ask her to marry him. Charlie, with the happiest expression possible, says, “How nice.” Then Lucy abrasively says, “Waddya mean ‘nice’? She’s going to turn you down and marry someone else.” Then, walking away, Lucy says, “This is very high on my list for you of ‘The things you might as well know!’ ”
Application: We are in need of the deliverance described by the psalmist.
*****
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
For a number of years now the Everglades have been overrun by Burmese pythons. Most of the python population has come from families who had the snakes as pets but who tired of caring for them and released them into the Everglades. There are now estimated to be as many as 100,000 pythons in the Everglades. They grow to 13 feet, and it is estimated that 90 percent of many of the native mammals have been eaten by the pythons.
Application: We are in need of the deliverance described by the psalmist.
*****
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
Dylann Roof, who was convicted of killing nine individuals at Emmanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, refused to have his psychological evaluations admitted as evidence during his trial. The reason that Roof later gave was that if the report was made public it would prevent him from having a leadership position in the Aryan Nation.
Application: We are in need of the deliverance described by the psalmist.
*****
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
Dylann Roof’s original thought was to kill black criminals -- but he felt those murders would not receive proper media attention. So instead he chose to murder members of a church while in prayer.
Application: We are in need of the deliverance described by the psalmist.
*****
Memorial Day
It was a dreary November day when I made my pilgrimage to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC. They say you can never approach the monument without seeing someone standing before the Wall in tears. It was true this day. I witnessed a middle-aged woman who stood weeping. I suspect years earlier she had buried her son, but now, seeing his name engraved on the black granite, it was the same as burying him a second time. A man with a ladder stood silently by the Wall, willing to climb to its height to etch the name of a special someone. I asked the gentleman for a sheet of paper and randomly selected a name from the 58,022. The man’s name was Edgar Davidson Berner. I went to the register book to read about this man who surrendered his life for our country. He was born on April 20, 1940, in Marshall, Illinois, a community I had never heard of, but certainly one like most in America. He was a chief warrant officer, probably a helicopter pilot, who died on April 29, 1970, at the age of 30.
Application: Memorial Day is a day of remembrance.
*****
Memorial Day
Norman Rockwell longed to use his artistic abilities to support the war effort. It was his desire to put on canvas the “big idea” for which we were fighting, but a void remained. Suddenly, at 3 a.m. on July 16, 1942, Rockwell sat bolt upright in bed. President Roosevelt in his 1941 State of the Union address had pronounced the “four essential human freedoms” that summoned the nation to armed conflict. Rockwell would portray in oil each of these freedoms, translating the spoken ideology into commonplace scenes everyone could understand. “Freedom of Speech” portrayed a man standing in rough work clothes, speaking openly at a New England town meeting. “Freedom of Worship” depicted a group of people in prayer, each of a different faith. “Freedom from Want” placed a family around a Thanksgiving dinner table. “Freedom from Fear” pictured two children being tucked into bed, safe and secure, while their father held an evening newspaper with the headline reporting the bombing of Europe.
Application: Memorial Day is a day of remembrance of why we sacrifice our lives to preserve our freedoms.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
People: Let us all sing praises to our God.
Leader: Sing to God, sing praises to God’s name.
People: Lift up a song to the One who rides upon the clouds.
Leader: God gives the desolate a home to live in.
People: God leads out the prisoners to prosperity.
OR
Leader: God calls us together in the midst of our diversity.
People: We come to praise God in our differences.
Leader: Our unity is not based on our thinking alike.
People: Our unity is based on our living in the Spirit.
Leader: Our unity gives us strength to share the good news.
People: As God’s people we will witness to God’s life among us.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”
found in:
UMH: 154, 155
H82: 450, 451
PH: 142, 143
AAHH: 293, 294
NNBH: 3, 5
NCH: 304
CH: 91, 92
LBW: 328, 329
ELA: 634
W&P: 100, 106
AMEC: 4, 5, 6
“Breathe on Me, Breath of God”
found in:
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
W&P: 461
AMEC: 192
“I Want Jesus to Walk with Me”
found in:
UMH: 521
PH: 363
AAHH: 563
NNBH: 500
NCH: 490
CH: 627
W&P: 506
AMEC: 375
“Jesus Calls Us”
found in:
UMH: 398
H82: 549, 550
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171, 172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELA: 696
W&P: 345
AMEC: 258
“O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”
found in:
UMH: 57, 59
H82: 493
PH: 466
AAHH: 184
NNBH: 23
NCH: 42
CH: 6
LBW: 559
ELA: 886
W&P: 96
AMEC: 1, 2
“Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart”
found in:
UMH: 160, 161
H82: 556, 557
PH: 145, 146
AAHH: 537
NNBH: 7
NCH: 55, 71
CH: 5
LBW: 563
ELA: 873, 874
W&P: 113
AMEC: 8
“Spirit of God”
found in:
UMH: 500
PH: 326
AAHH: 512
NCH: 290
CH: 265
LBW: 486
ELA: 800
W&P: 132
AMEC: 189
“The Church’s One Foundation”
found in:
UMH: 546
H82: 525
PH: 442
AAHH: 337
NNBH: 297
NCH: 386
CH: 272
LBW: 369
ELA: 654
W&P: 544
AMEC: 519
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is unity within diversity: Grant us the grace to find ourselves united in our diversity. Help us to find in our drawing together as your people the unity to share the good news of Jesus with all your people; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to you, O God, and offer our worship and praise because you are the one who exists in the midst of diversity. Help us to draw together in our multiplicity and express our oneness as we share the good news about Jesus. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, especially our wanting to find unity in thinking alike rather than in the unity of your Spirit.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We want others to think like we do. We want others to accept that we have the truth. We forget that our unity is based on our living in the midst of God’s Spirit among and within us. Forgive us the pettiness of our diversities, and unite us in your Spirit. Amen.
Leader: God is one in three. God understands unity in diversity. Receive God’s love and grace, and share them as you share the good news with others.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
You, O God, are perfect in your unity in the midst of your diversity. We praise you for both that which unites you and that which makes you different.
(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 want others to think like we do. We want others to accept that we have the truth. We forget that our unity is based on our living in the midst of God’s Spirit among and within us. Forgive us the pettiness of our diversities, and unite us in your Spirit.
We thank you for those who have accepted us when we appeared to be outside the mainstream of the Church. We thank you for those who live outside the mainstream of the Church who call us back to being the movement that Christianity started to be.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our differences, so that we may share how we are alike in being God’s children. We pray for those who feel that their being different makes them unacceptable as God’s children.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
What is it about your family that makes you all alike? What is it that makes you different? Just like families are all alike and yet all different, we as Christians are all different and yet all alike as disciples of Jesus. Because we are different, we are better at sharing the good news.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
No “I” in Team
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Acts 1:6-14
(Invite the children to join you and welcome them.)
How many of you have ever been on a team? Raise your hand. (If you have a group of very young children who have not had opportunities to be on teams yet, move the conversation toward what team they would like to be on.)
(After the children respond, ask) What kinds of teams have you been on? (Welcome/affirm any answers they offer, from playing on an organized sports team to being on a chess team or an academic-type team.)
What has been the best part about being on a team? (Welcome all answers, placing emphasis on: playing/working together toward a common goal, doing something you like to do with friends, doing more together than can be done alone.)
One thing I’ve heard people say -- and I think that it’s true -- is: “There is no ‘I’ in team.” I like this statement for a couple of reasons:
1) Team is spelled T-E-A-M. You don’t use the letter “I” to spell “team.”
2) When you work together or play together as a team, you’re not looking out only for yourself -- for “I.” Your focus is on the whole team -- how you work together, how you help one another, how you support one another. There’s not much room for thinking only about “I” when you’re thinking about your whole team.
In the Bible reading today, the book of Acts tells about what the disciples were doing not long after Jesus’ death.
We can think about the disciples as being a bit like a team:
They hung out together; they followed Jesus together.
They were learning to live the way Jesus taught them to live.
They had a goal or purpose -- to tell other people about this great guy named Jesus.
The “team” of disciples thought that they had lost their leader when Jesus died. Their whole reason for being together as a group was gone! What was going to happen to their “team” without Jesus?
What do you think happened to their “team”?
In the Bible, we read about those first days after Jesus died. Instead of the team of disciples splitting up, they pulled together! In Acts, chapter 1, the disciples came together to speak with Jesus before he went to be with God.
Later in the same set of verses, the disciples returned to Jerusalem and gathered in the upper room where they had often gathered with Jesus.
They committed themselves to pray together -- they included Jesus’ mother Mary and other women into their group -- their “team.”
Even later in Acts, in chapter 2, they committed to study scripture together, to pray together, to share meals and pray together, and to just hang out together.
The disciples and others who followed Jesus found out that, even after Jesus’ death, they could still be together as Jesus’ team -- Jesus’ followers. They found out that, together, they could help one another -- and do more good than they could ever do on their own. I think this is something Jesus wanted them to learn.
Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, that you do not leave us alone. You gave your disciples one another to help get through your difficult death. You give us one another -- so we can be the church and be together like a team -- doing more together than we can on our own. Thank you, God, for this church! Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 28, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 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.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the gospel text and Jesus’ petition to the Father to protect the disciples in his absence. We too seek for God to guarantee our safety -- but as Chris notes, the degree of peril most of us face is nowhere near that confronting Jesus’ followers. Yet Jesus yearns for them to be delivered from anything that might be a roadblock to their coming mission... and pleads with God that “they may be one” -- finding strength and protection in that unity.
Living as One
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35; 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11; John 17:1-11
Rarely does a group of people spontaneously come together as a cohesive unit. Cohesion is something that takes hard work, a shared vision and purpose, lots of practice, and a whole heap of prayer. Even with all that, sometimes it doesn’t happen. When it does, however, there’s nothing quite like that feeling of power that comes with the knowledge that you are part of something that is bigger, and more real, than you could ever be by yourself.
In the Culture
Athletes sometimes experience it in sports. They talk of it as “teamwork.” Maybe you’re playing shortstop and the ball comes to you, and without thinking you snag it and toss it to second base -- hardly looking because you know the second baseman will be there to catch it and hurl it on to first for a perfectly executed double play. We see it in basketball when a guard is leading a fast break down the court and goes up for a layup that is going to be blocked. But instead of shooting he drops the ball off, without even looking, exactly where he knows his teammate is going to be -- who catches it on the bounce and glides smoothly to a slam dunk.
Some experience it in the arts, like when an ensemble of musicians or singers hits that perfect chord that sends chills up the spine or when a group of actors performs a scene so well that they can sense the electric tension running through the absolutely silent audience. Or conversely, it happens when a scene or a song is so powerfully rendered that the audience springs spontaneously to their feet with shouting and whistling and applause.
These are all experiences of power -- the power of a sports team to defeat their opponents by pulling off complex plays, the power of an orchestra or a choir to bring an audience to tears, the power of a cast of actors to send an audience from the theater and into a deep conversation about the content of a play.
This particular power does not fall spontaneously upon a group of people, however. It is the result of hours, days, and sometimes months of practice and rehearsal. It is the result of being together so much that we know what the other is thinking. Strength and power grow out of unity as crops grow out of the earth, and the richer and more fertile the unity, the heartier the strength, the broader the power.
Spring training for Major League Baseball started on February 22 this year, with opening day coming on April 2. Teams had roughly five weeks to get together and find out who they were as a squad. On opening day they begin playing together, in hopes that by the mid-season All-Star game they will have gelled and come together as a unit, functioning like a well-oiled machine. (It is not by accident that the most winning team in Cincinnati Reds history is still referred to as the “Big Red Machine.”)
In politics, it is not hard to see why our current president is having trouble getting things done. Certainly one of the reasons is that his administrative team has not come together and gelled as a team. One hand rarely seems to know what the other is doing. The president issues a statement, and the next day his spokespersons are trying to explain what it is he meant by that statement. The press secretary always seems to be behind the curve when it comes to accuracy and consensus. This lack of agreement has been written off by the administration as an understandable lag created by the high speed at which the administration is working. The news being reported by the press secretary, we are told, is often obsolete by the time he reports it, and this is something we should understand and expect.
In fact, however, this kind of disunity and discord in the White House looks a lot like chaos and anarchy to those of us on the outside looking in.
The lesson from our culture, whether it be from sports or the arts or politics, is that there is power in unity. It is a lesson not unlike that which comes to us in scripture on this seventh Sunday of Easter.
In the Scriptures
Unity and power stand out as recurring motifs in all of the lectionary texts for this week.
In the Acts passage, the resurrected Christ explains to the disciples that the Holy Spirit, which is coming to accompany and guide them, will also give them power. This power is to be spent in the act of witnessing for Jesus Christ in a series of expanding circles: first Jerusalem, then all Judea, then Samaria, then finally to the whole world.
Jesus then ascends into heaven, leaving the disciples standing there, looking up, with two men who are wearing white robes. After a moment the two men in white, who are supposed to be understood as angels, say to them: “Okay, what are you doing just standing around here? Let’s go. The world isn’t going to save itself, you know.”
Before they head out to save the world, however, they realize that they have some homework to do. They need to go out not as individuals but as members of a common experience and tradition. So first they hunker down and gain some strength from their commonality. They go back to Jerusalem to the Upper Room, and there they devote “themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.”
It is out of this coming together that they will eventually go out into the world to fulfill the Great Commission to make disciples. It is out of this unity in prayer that they will find the strength to make their witness in places and to people who welcome it as well as in places and to people whose reaction will be bitter and unwelcoming, even threatening.
The reading from Psalm 68 is a celebration of and a hymn to God’s power, especially when it comes to overcoming God’s enemies, particularly those enemies of God who are also enemies of God’s people.
God is powerful beyond measure, yet God does not use his power to feather his own nest. God uses power ethically, generously, lovingly. God uses power to protect and defend the widow and the orphan. God uses his power to defeat the drought and the storm. God uses power to provide a home for the homeless and food for the hungry.
By God’s example, God shows us how to use the power which God makes available to us.
In the first epistle from Peter, the apostle speaks to those Christians who are suffering persecution. He encourages them in their time of trouble, and he reminds them that this suffering is not unlike the suffering their Christian brothers and sisters are undergoing in other places, which in time will be a source of strength (power). Also, he tells them that “after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.” That is, God will share with you God’s own strength and power.
Since God will share God’s power with those who are faithful in times of trial, Peter does not pray for power for himself or for other Christians but for God. The passage appropriately ends: “To [God] be the power forever and ever. Amen.”
The text from John’s gospel is Jesus’ prayer for his disciples. On the eve of his arrest and trial Jesus prays that God will watch over the disciples for only one reason: “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” He prays for God to protect them so that they may be united. He prays for their unity, and it is out of this unity that they will grow and become stronger and carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. Indeed, even when they go to their own ministries in different directions, it is their unity with Christ and each other that will strengthen them for their journeys.
In the Sermon
Unity, corporateness, commonality, community -- whatever we call it, it is among the most important core values in the Christian experience. We come together to worship, to sing, to study, to eat, to play because we are strengthened just by being together.
But that strength is given to us not for its own sake. We are not bodybuilders for Christ. We are not made strong so we can stand in front of a mirror and admire ourselves. The strength which comes to us in our unity is the strength of the long-distance runner.
It is strength for a purpose.
We are made strong so that we might be witnesses for Jesus Christ. We are made strong so that we might more effectively spread the good news of God’s grace through our words and our behavior -- our love, our gentleness, our kindness, and our generosity. These are the true signs of strength, the true outward expressions of power.
The sense of community that we are called to experience in scripture is often elusive, however. Our current American culture encourages individualism over cooperation. Even in our churches we have trouble trusting each other enough to invest ourselves in cooperative ventures and programs. We want to poll the congregation over every decision that costs money, and when we do become a corporate body we discover that we like that cozy room so much we are reluctant to leave it to be in mission to the world.
That marvelous sense of community which we are sometimes fortunate enough to discover in church, in the singing of hymns or in the pursuit of a mission project or in the easy camaraderie around a table during a pot-luck dinner, is one of the original gifts of the Holy Spirit. However we experience this gift of group cohesion, this wonderful sense of corporateness, it is not given to us for its own sake or because it makes us feel special. It is given to us so that we might have power to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves and so we can effectively spread the good news of God’s grace as it comes to us in Jesus Christ.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Protective Custody
by Chris Keating
John 17:1-11
President Donald Trump made headlines this week when he visited Jerusalem’s Western Wall, becoming the first sitting United States president to visit the holy site.
During his brief trip to Israel, the president stopped by the Western Wall -- known as Kotel -- and placed a note in between the ancient stones. On Monday he became the supplicant-in-chief, participating in a centuries-old practice of offering a prayer within the wall’s crevices. The stop was filled with symbolism, though it was dismissed by some Israeli journalists as lacking in substance.
The president understands the value of real estate, however. And while he’s not been known for practicing religion, his daughter and son-in-law are observant Jews. Plus, he does seem rather passionate about walls.
“It will leave an impression on me forever,” the president said of the visit the White House called unofficial. President Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was not included in the visit.
Was it a photo-op, a gesture designed to prop up support for his policies, or was there something more substantive imagined? It seemed to support his trip’s overall narrative of promoting peace between Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Trump and his family also visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditionally viewed as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion. The stop in Israel followed his visit to Saudi Arabia, and occurred prior to meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican.
He’ll be bringing home plenty of religious experiences. The larger question is whether or not the experiences will help craft lasting unity and peace.
Israeli journalist Anshel Pfeffer thinks the visit to Kotel means little. Because the wall sits on contested land, Pfeffer said that Trump’s visit won’t help solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “A president who is serious about trying to solve the conflict -- and every president who has visited Israel in the past has been -- doesn’t get himself into a corner like that.”
It seems it’s a reminder that even ancient walls divide more than they unify, and offer only fleeting protection.
Since what’s left in the wall remains at the wall, no one knows what sort of petition Trump drafted on Monday. The situation is a bit different in John 17, where Jesus’ high priestly prayer for the disciples is centered on similar themes of peace, protection, and unity. This most private conversation between Jesus and God reveals Jesus’ passion for the mission the disciples will soon undertake.
John sneaks up to Jesus, eavesdropping on this anguish-drenched prayer. It is a moment of intimacy we might prefer not to overhear. His words disclose Jesus’ deepest desire for the beloved community of disciples. These are his last words, or perhaps even his last will and testament. But in contrast to the legacies left by the rich and powerful, Jesus’ words are not about building empires or monuments. Instead, the legacy Jesus desires for his disciples in one of lasting communion with God. Notably, this is not a prayer which asks the disciples to do anything.
Instead, Jesus prays that they would be protected as they grow in unity with God and each other.
Each phrase is packed with meaning. Now that the hour of his passion has arrived, Jesus prays that God will continue to bring glory into the world. The heart of this intercession by Jesus is for a glory that will transform. This is glory shaped by Jesus’ passion, and will be a glory that will be seen in their love and unity.
Jesus’ prayer is more than a note jotted on a folded piece of paper. It is a prayer that the disciples will have a deep, abiding, and passionate knowledge of God. He yearns that they will experience the unity he shares with the Father. Like a dying mother who sees her beloved yet fractious family gathered around her hospice bed, Jesus prays that the disciples might be one.
But such unity carries a hefty price tag, as Jesus well understands.
“Protect them in your name,” Jesus prays. Protect them against a world which will reject the call to love with the sort of love he has enacted in the upper room. Few will exchange the coattails of success in favor of a servant’s apron. Even fewer will be willing to include their betrayer at a feast of love. Such actions, if undertaken with serious resolve by the disciples, will result in them doing far greater things than Jesus has done.
It will also supercharge a violent response from a hostile world, and so Jesus prays for the disciples’ safety.
I wonder what about contemporary ministry rises to the level which requires this sort of protection. Jesus imagines the church at the risk of losing its life. His prayer is for those facing Defcon level one scenarios -- imminent threat of nuclear war. The most dangerous (and stupid) thing in ministry I’ve done this year was climb up on a 16-foot ladder when no one else was at church.
Or maybe Jesus imagines a different sort of hostility. Perhaps he imagines a church torn apart by division, more concerned with theological orthodoxy than loving God and the neighbor. Perhaps he imagines a culture saturated by addictions that leach into the church’s ability to witness to the light of the world. Perhaps he imagines a time when Christians would divide and subdivide and then divide again, instead of seeking a unity which brings glory to God.
Jesus’ prayer, unlike Trump’s, is spelled out for us to hear. Paradoxically, he prays for the church to be in protective custody, even as he sends the disciples into the world. It’s a prayer worth considering.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Sharing Suffering
The writer of First Peter urges his readers to “rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings.” Andrew Forsthoefel set off, after his college graduation, to walk across the country and listen. He says, “I was going to walk and listen until I ran out of money or reached the Pacific Ocean, whichever came first.” He was willing to share the suffering of anyone who wanted to talk to him. “I didn’t discover the transformative power of real listening until I walked more than 4,000 miles across the highways of the United States with a sign on my backpack proclaiming that was all I was doing. ‘Walking to Listen,’ it read. It was not in the classroom but on the road, on foot, with thousands of different Americans, that I received my unofficial training in this most rare and necessary skill.”
People opened up their suffering to him, and, he says, “it made it impossible for me to hate them, even if I was deeply disturbed by some of the things they believed or had done. And when I didn’t hate them, and asked them questions without malice, they could remain open, and it is in this openness that transformation becomes possible.” With a listening ear, and acceptance, he was able to share in their suffering.
*****
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Salvation from Soup
The writer of First Peter says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you... but rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings.” Seeing the suffering in Detroit, one of the country’s most blighted cities, Amy Kaherl looked around and decided to transform that suffering. As she says, “In 2008, it was a lot more lawless. Blight was at, probably, its all-time high. Streetlights were getting shot off, not turned on,” says Kaherl, who grew up outside the city in suburban Sterling Heights. A few years back, the city “was so quiet. And I think that that quietness in this urban center can be very scary.”
She started with “one pot of potato leek [soup] on a frigid Super Bowl Sunday in February 2010. That evening Kaherl, a young, idealistic deejay sporting large glasses, co-founded Detroit SOUP, a monthly gathering where residents share a bowl of soup at the same time they’re funding local initiatives. Kaherl, who serves as the initiative’s director, explains, ‘For $5, you get soup, salad, bread, and a roll, and you hear four pitches that are trying to make the city better.’ Each presenter gets four minutes to share an idea and then fields four questions from the audience. ‘Then the diners get a chance to eat, share, connect, and vote,’ she continues. ‘Whoever has the most votes at the end of the night wins the money that was gathered at the door.’
“Some SOUP events focus on the entire city, while others are centered on specific neighborhoods. In the past five years, more than 800 ideas have been presented. The pot for a citywide night averages roughly $1,000; winners at the smaller gathering usually net around $700. SOUP’s ‘microgrants’ run the gamut of civic projects, including art, urban agriculture, social entrepreneurship, education, and tech. One college student designed winter coats that could double as sleeping bags and founded the Empowerment Project by hiring 20 formerly homeless women to sew them. Another group, Rebel Nell, employed women living in shelters to make jewelry from chipped graffiti paint. Funds have also supported poetry and writers’ groups, bike mechanic training classes, a local travel guide, a documentary film, free Shakespeare performances, and benches for bus stops.”
Suffering transformed -- starting with soup.
*****
John 17:1-11
Time
“The hour has come,” Jesus says. All through John’s gospel, he has a curious sense of timing, proclaiming when it is and is not time for certain events to unfold. An article in Discover magazine proclaims that “ ‘time’ is the most used noun in the English language, yet it remains a mystery.”
To enlighten us, the author offers ten things we must know about time. Among the revelations: “You live in the past. About 80 milliseconds in the past, to be precise. Use one hand to touch your nose, and the other to touch one of your feet, at exactly the same time. You will experience them as simultaneous acts. But that’s mysterious -- clearly it takes more time for the signal to travel up your nerves from your feet to your brain than from your nose. The reconciliation is simple: our conscious experience takes time to assemble, and your brain waits for all the relevant input before it experiences the ‘now.’ Experiments have shown that the lag between things happening and us experiencing them is about 80 milliseconds.”
The hour comes for all of us, as it does for Jesus. “A lifespan is a billion heartbeats. Complex organisms die. Sad though it is in individual cases, it’s a necessary part of the bigger picture; life pushes out the old to make way for the new. Remarkably, there exist simple scaling laws relating animal metabolism to body mass. Larger animals live longer; but they also metabolize slower, as manifested in slower heart rates. These effects cancel out, so that animals from shrews to blue whales have lifespans with just about equal number of heartbeats -- about one and a half billion, if you simply must be precise.”
*****
John 17:1-11
Awareness of Time
When Jesus announces that the hour has come, saying farewell to his disciples, he sees his own death ahead. Writer Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, says she became aware of death at a young age, and that awareness fueled her creativity. Gilbert recalls, “I think that’s something that I’ve always been keenly and sometimes uncomfortably aware of -- the short duration of time that we have here, and the preciousness of it. I knew that from a really early age.... Around the age of eight or nine, I just became crushingly aware of mortality. And it wasn’t because anybody in particular had died. There wasn’t a tragedy or devastation in my family. I just noticed it, you know? ‘I’m getting older. My sister’s getting older. Someday, my parents are going to die. This is all temporary. Oh my God!’ And it filled me with such a panic that I spent a year having panic attacks about it. I think that’s probably what prompted me to become a seeker -- trying to figure out how to quell that panic and how to turn that knowledge from something that was terrifying into something that was inspiring. What are we then to do? What are we to do with our time here? With that sense of not wanting to waste time, part of that gets translated into wanting to be as creative and generative as I could possibly be.”
As an artist, Gilbert says she is always aware of the precious quality of time. “I don’t really waste my time in terms of how I use my hours for productivity and work, because I sort of love my work. If anything, I’m always trying to make more and more and more time for it.”
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Acts 1:6-14
In a Cornered comic, two tourists are observing the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Unimpressed by what they are seeing and failing to comprehend that they are in the presence of one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, one companion says to the other: “Awesome, yes. But what’s the point -- aside from the travel reward points?”
Application: When we witness, we are to understand how awesome our gospel message is.
*****
Acts 1:6-14
In a Born Loser comic strip, Brutus Thornapple is asking his boss Rancid Veeblefester for a raise. Veeblefester informs Brutus that he does nothing in the office, so why should he get a salary increase. To which Brutus replies, “Because I do ‘nothing’ extremely well!”
Application: When we witness for the gospel we need to do it extremely well, and “nothing” is not an option.
*****
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Over 100 countries have been affected by the latest mass cyberattack -- computers are frozen, and unless a ransom is paid by a specific date all of the information on the computer will be erased. A 22-year-old computer researcher identified only as Malware Tech (in order to protect himself from reprisal by the hackers) has brought a halt to the operation. Upon examination, he discovered a hidden web address that wasn’t registered. He promptly registered the domain name and created a “sinkhole” in which all ransomware infections are dumped, making them useless.
Application: We are instructed to be aware of evil that lurks like a roaring lion.
*****
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
President Abraham Lincoln suffered from severe depression, which led to serious suicidal thoughts. When Ann Rutledge, to whom who Lincoln was about to propose marriage, died due to typhoid fever, Lincoln became so suicidal that friends confined him to a room after having removed any objects by which he could hurt himself. After he broke off his engagement to Mary Todd, whom he did later marry, Lincoln’s suicidal tendencies again became so severe that his friends put him under suicide prevention. Throughout his presidency, he threatened to hang himself from a tree -- one instance was after the Union lost the battle of Chancellorsville. Lincoln understood how susceptible to suicide he was, so he refused to carry a pocket knife out of fear that he might slit his wrists.
Application: We are in need of the deliverance described by the psalmist.
*****
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
In a Peanuts comic strip, Lucy and Charlie Brown are standing in the backyard next to a fence. Lucy puts a big smile on Charlie’s face when she tells him that one day he will meet the girl of his dreams, and he will ask her to marry him. Charlie, with the happiest expression possible, says, “How nice.” Then Lucy abrasively says, “Waddya mean ‘nice’? She’s going to turn you down and marry someone else.” Then, walking away, Lucy says, “This is very high on my list for you of ‘The things you might as well know!’ ”
Application: We are in need of the deliverance described by the psalmist.
*****
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
For a number of years now the Everglades have been overrun by Burmese pythons. Most of the python population has come from families who had the snakes as pets but who tired of caring for them and released them into the Everglades. There are now estimated to be as many as 100,000 pythons in the Everglades. They grow to 13 feet, and it is estimated that 90 percent of many of the native mammals have been eaten by the pythons.
Application: We are in need of the deliverance described by the psalmist.
*****
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
Dylann Roof, who was convicted of killing nine individuals at Emmanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, refused to have his psychological evaluations admitted as evidence during his trial. The reason that Roof later gave was that if the report was made public it would prevent him from having a leadership position in the Aryan Nation.
Application: We are in need of the deliverance described by the psalmist.
*****
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
Dylann Roof’s original thought was to kill black criminals -- but he felt those murders would not receive proper media attention. So instead he chose to murder members of a church while in prayer.
Application: We are in need of the deliverance described by the psalmist.
*****
Memorial Day
It was a dreary November day when I made my pilgrimage to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC. They say you can never approach the monument without seeing someone standing before the Wall in tears. It was true this day. I witnessed a middle-aged woman who stood weeping. I suspect years earlier she had buried her son, but now, seeing his name engraved on the black granite, it was the same as burying him a second time. A man with a ladder stood silently by the Wall, willing to climb to its height to etch the name of a special someone. I asked the gentleman for a sheet of paper and randomly selected a name from the 58,022. The man’s name was Edgar Davidson Berner. I went to the register book to read about this man who surrendered his life for our country. He was born on April 20, 1940, in Marshall, Illinois, a community I had never heard of, but certainly one like most in America. He was a chief warrant officer, probably a helicopter pilot, who died on April 29, 1970, at the age of 30.
Application: Memorial Day is a day of remembrance.
*****
Memorial Day
Norman Rockwell longed to use his artistic abilities to support the war effort. It was his desire to put on canvas the “big idea” for which we were fighting, but a void remained. Suddenly, at 3 a.m. on July 16, 1942, Rockwell sat bolt upright in bed. President Roosevelt in his 1941 State of the Union address had pronounced the “four essential human freedoms” that summoned the nation to armed conflict. Rockwell would portray in oil each of these freedoms, translating the spoken ideology into commonplace scenes everyone could understand. “Freedom of Speech” portrayed a man standing in rough work clothes, speaking openly at a New England town meeting. “Freedom of Worship” depicted a group of people in prayer, each of a different faith. “Freedom from Want” placed a family around a Thanksgiving dinner table. “Freedom from Fear” pictured two children being tucked into bed, safe and secure, while their father held an evening newspaper with the headline reporting the bombing of Europe.
Application: Memorial Day is a day of remembrance of why we sacrifice our lives to preserve our freedoms.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
People: Let us all sing praises to our God.
Leader: Sing to God, sing praises to God’s name.
People: Lift up a song to the One who rides upon the clouds.
Leader: God gives the desolate a home to live in.
People: God leads out the prisoners to prosperity.
OR
Leader: God calls us together in the midst of our diversity.
People: We come to praise God in our differences.
Leader: Our unity is not based on our thinking alike.
People: Our unity is based on our living in the Spirit.
Leader: Our unity gives us strength to share the good news.
People: As God’s people we will witness to God’s life among us.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”
found in:
UMH: 154, 155
H82: 450, 451
PH: 142, 143
AAHH: 293, 294
NNBH: 3, 5
NCH: 304
CH: 91, 92
LBW: 328, 329
ELA: 634
W&P: 100, 106
AMEC: 4, 5, 6
“Breathe on Me, Breath of God”
found in:
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
W&P: 461
AMEC: 192
“I Want Jesus to Walk with Me”
found in:
UMH: 521
PH: 363
AAHH: 563
NNBH: 500
NCH: 490
CH: 627
W&P: 506
AMEC: 375
“Jesus Calls Us”
found in:
UMH: 398
H82: 549, 550
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171, 172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELA: 696
W&P: 345
AMEC: 258
“O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”
found in:
UMH: 57, 59
H82: 493
PH: 466
AAHH: 184
NNBH: 23
NCH: 42
CH: 6
LBW: 559
ELA: 886
W&P: 96
AMEC: 1, 2
“Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart”
found in:
UMH: 160, 161
H82: 556, 557
PH: 145, 146
AAHH: 537
NNBH: 7
NCH: 55, 71
CH: 5
LBW: 563
ELA: 873, 874
W&P: 113
AMEC: 8
“Spirit of God”
found in:
UMH: 500
PH: 326
AAHH: 512
NCH: 290
CH: 265
LBW: 486
ELA: 800
W&P: 132
AMEC: 189
“The Church’s One Foundation”
found in:
UMH: 546
H82: 525
PH: 442
AAHH: 337
NNBH: 297
NCH: 386
CH: 272
LBW: 369
ELA: 654
W&P: 544
AMEC: 519
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is unity within diversity: Grant us the grace to find ourselves united in our diversity. Help us to find in our drawing together as your people the unity to share the good news of Jesus with all your people; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to you, O God, and offer our worship and praise because you are the one who exists in the midst of diversity. Help us to draw together in our multiplicity and express our oneness as we share the good news about Jesus. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, especially our wanting to find unity in thinking alike rather than in the unity of your Spirit.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We want others to think like we do. We want others to accept that we have the truth. We forget that our unity is based on our living in the midst of God’s Spirit among and within us. Forgive us the pettiness of our diversities, and unite us in your Spirit. Amen.
Leader: God is one in three. God understands unity in diversity. Receive God’s love and grace, and share them as you share the good news with others.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
You, O God, are perfect in your unity in the midst of your diversity. We praise you for both that which unites you and that which makes you different.
(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 want others to think like we do. We want others to accept that we have the truth. We forget that our unity is based on our living in the midst of God’s Spirit among and within us. Forgive us the pettiness of our diversities, and unite us in your Spirit.
We thank you for those who have accepted us when we appeared to be outside the mainstream of the Church. We thank you for those who live outside the mainstream of the Church who call us back to being the movement that Christianity started to be.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our differences, so that we may share how we are alike in being God’s children. We pray for those who feel that their being different makes them unacceptable as God’s children.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
What is it about your family that makes you all alike? What is it that makes you different? Just like families are all alike and yet all different, we as Christians are all different and yet all alike as disciples of Jesus. Because we are different, we are better at sharing the good news.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
No “I” in Team
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Acts 1:6-14
(Invite the children to join you and welcome them.)
How many of you have ever been on a team? Raise your hand. (If you have a group of very young children who have not had opportunities to be on teams yet, move the conversation toward what team they would like to be on.)
(After the children respond, ask) What kinds of teams have you been on? (Welcome/affirm any answers they offer, from playing on an organized sports team to being on a chess team or an academic-type team.)
What has been the best part about being on a team? (Welcome all answers, placing emphasis on: playing/working together toward a common goal, doing something you like to do with friends, doing more together than can be done alone.)
One thing I’ve heard people say -- and I think that it’s true -- is: “There is no ‘I’ in team.” I like this statement for a couple of reasons:
1) Team is spelled T-E-A-M. You don’t use the letter “I” to spell “team.”
2) When you work together or play together as a team, you’re not looking out only for yourself -- for “I.” Your focus is on the whole team -- how you work together, how you help one another, how you support one another. There’s not much room for thinking only about “I” when you’re thinking about your whole team.
In the Bible reading today, the book of Acts tells about what the disciples were doing not long after Jesus’ death.
We can think about the disciples as being a bit like a team:
They hung out together; they followed Jesus together.
They were learning to live the way Jesus taught them to live.
They had a goal or purpose -- to tell other people about this great guy named Jesus.
The “team” of disciples thought that they had lost their leader when Jesus died. Their whole reason for being together as a group was gone! What was going to happen to their “team” without Jesus?
What do you think happened to their “team”?
In the Bible, we read about those first days after Jesus died. Instead of the team of disciples splitting up, they pulled together! In Acts, chapter 1, the disciples came together to speak with Jesus before he went to be with God.
Later in the same set of verses, the disciples returned to Jerusalem and gathered in the upper room where they had often gathered with Jesus.
They committed themselves to pray together -- they included Jesus’ mother Mary and other women into their group -- their “team.”
Even later in Acts, in chapter 2, they committed to study scripture together, to pray together, to share meals and pray together, and to just hang out together.
The disciples and others who followed Jesus found out that, even after Jesus’ death, they could still be together as Jesus’ team -- Jesus’ followers. They found out that, together, they could help one another -- and do more good than they could ever do on their own. I think this is something Jesus wanted them to learn.
Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, that you do not leave us alone. You gave your disciples one another to help get through your difficult death. You give us one another -- so we can be the church and be together like a team -- doing more together than we can on our own. Thank you, God, for this church! Amen.
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The Immediate Word, May 28, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 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.
