The Main Thing
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
In this week's lectionary gospel text, Jesus warns about the dangers of an excessive devotion to materialism, saying, "No one can serve two masters... You cannot serve God and mammon." He then goes on to discuss worry -- the real cancer that lies at the root of our endless chasing after prosperity. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Roger Lovette notes that the term "mammon" applies not only to wealth but also to a whole range of other things we think are important in contemporary society like image, power, and fame -- and Jesus confronts us point-blank with the uncomfortable truth that we cannot put our trust in both God and these worldly measures of success. We like to think that we are the "masters of our domain" and that we are responsible for the success or failure of our lives -- but that's a particularly human conceit, as Jesus makes clear when he compares us to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. Roger points out that that when we worry first about our own wants and needs -- whether it is basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter, or the larger objectives of wealth, power, and happiness -- we are being distracted from what ought to be our primary focus. Instead, Jesus tells us that we should "strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and these things will be given to you." In the end, we find that what really is at the heart of worrying is a lack of faith that God will provide what we need -- and an anxiety about losing control of things in our lives that we are under the illusion that we have some influence over. Jesus tells us that is a sign that mammon is playing too big a part in our lives.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the maternal imagery in our Isaiah ("Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?") and Psalm ("But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother") texts. This week is an instance where the lectionary texts support each other unusually well, as the imagery about God as a mother caring and protecting her children underlines Jesus' point that our "heavenly Father knows that [we] need all these things" and will provide for us.
The Main Thing
by Roger Lovette
Matthew 6:24-34
THE WORLD
If I didn't know any better, I would think Jesus had been reading this week's newspaper. Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and mammon." Mammon includes all the things in which we put our trust other than God. Mammon is accumulating and piling up. You may have seen the TV documentaries called Hoarders or Hoarding: Buried Alive on the A&E and TLC networks. These programs show persons who have what is termed "Compulsive Hoarding Disorder," because they have an excessive desire to acquire possessions even if the items are worthless, hazardous, and unsanitary. People with this serious problem have houses where they are unable to even move through their rooms -- nothing is thrown away. There are many reasons for this disorder, but specialists say that this has become the primary way that these people cope with the difficulties of their lives. Some have lost someone in their family. Others have faced all sorts of traumas. If there was ever a definition of mammon, the hoarders are a prime example.
Before we get too judgmental, we need to remember that perhaps hoarders really are a symbol of a great many of us today. A whole business enterprise has grown up around hauling junk away from people's houses. Storage facilities are doing a booming business. Any weekend newspaper will advertise a multitude of garage sales in which people sell their stuff in order to buy more stuff. If we surround ourselves with enough creature comforts, perhaps (like the hoarders) we can hold back that multitude of dark things that make life uncertain and insecure.
As our politicians battle out this year's budget concerns in Washington, it is interesting to study our priorities. Defense, it seems, is our sacred cow. The United States has spent $3 trillion on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, with no end in sight. The lines are being drawn with what to cut and what not to cut in the budget. Will we cut a billion dollars from a highly successful program that provides supplemental nutrition to pregnant mothers, infants, and young children? Will we cut $648 million from nuclear nonproliferation activities? Will we cut $578 million from the IRS enforcement budget, which would allow tax cheats to run wild? Will we cut vaccinations for children in third world countries?
Could mammon include the lottery? Many states have adopted the lottery system to raise money for their states. There are many lottery winners who have made their lives and the lives of their family members better. But there is a dark side to many of these stories. Jack Whittaker woke up in 2002 and learned he had won a Powerball lottery jackpot of $315 million. He was a very happy man. But as an ABC News article noted, "he had no way of knowing that he was embarking on a journey that would lead to tragedy and the loss of everything he held dear." What happened? After Whittaker won he was besieged by requests for money and help from all sorts of people and institutions. He gave away $50 million in cars and houses and cash. He found himself in court. Since 2002 he has had over 400 legal claims made against him and or one of his companies. He has spent over $3 million just fending off lawsuits. He began drinking heavily. He showered his 17-year-old granddaughter with cars and money. Her sudden wealth was more than she could take. She was found dead one morning of a drug overdose. Statistics say "nearly one third of multi-million lottery winners become bankrupt in just a few short years after their big win." Jesus said that we cannot serve God and Mammon.
THE WORD
Note the setting of Matthew 5-7, which is the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus addressed his disciples, who had little of the world's goods. Matthew included these words in his gospel to his struggling church.
Jesus linked this word mammon to anxiety. Five times he warned his followers to "be not anxious" (vv. 25, 27-28, 31, 34). Weymouth translated one of these verses: "I charge you not to be overanxious about your life." Another translation says: "You must not be distracted by the cares of the world." Jesus mentioned three areas we were not to be anxious about: eating, drinking, and clothing.
Clarence Jordan modeled Jesus' words in the Koinonia community in Americus, Georgia. He wrote that Jesus did not say you should not have two masters but we cannot. Jordan said that this law is as inexplicable as the law of gravity. We cannot serve God and mammon.
What was Jesus' antidote to over-concern with many things? He pointed to the birds and to the lilies, posing the question: If God took care of these, how much more would he take care of his children? And so instead of striving for mammon or worrying about a multitude of things, we are to place our trust in God. "Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Jesus ended his message by saying: "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today."
The text says we are to place our trust in God and live out our lives as people of faith. William Barclay wrote that there were two meanings for the root word "overanxious." That word is care. We can be distracted and distressed by caring for the wrong things -- or we can seek a caring that is right and good. The heart of this whole passage is really answering the question: How can we give ourselves to the right kind of caring?
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Have you ever read something in the Bible that you wished Jesus had not said? This passage on mammon and anxiety is one of those passages for me. In a world with thousands of commercials every year, how can we possibly disengage our lives from material things? We have to eat, earn money, have a place to live, and we have to take care of our families. Jesus was not advocating ignoring our responsibilities. But I wish Jesus had not come down so hard on worry. Who can escape the problems of everyday living? Anxiety is a thread that runs through all of life. We all worry about health, family members, job, money, the future, and safety. This admonition not to worry seems just a mite impractical in our kind of world. I feel like W.C. Fields did that day when someone saw him reading the Bible. They asked, "Whatcha' doin' W.C.?" "Reading the Bible," he responded. "Why're you doing that?" Fields replied, "I'm looking for loopholes."
But there are no loopholes in this text. None of us can serve God and mammon. It would be good if we could just pass these words off as applying to the rich and prosperous -- but pointing our fingers at Bernie Madoff, Wall Street, or payday loan sharks will not get us off the hook. There were occasions when Jesus did point to the rich: the rich man who ignored Lazarus' needs; the rich young ruler; the only man that Jesus called a fool, who tore down his barns to build bigger barns. We must remember that here he was speaking not to the rich but to disciples that were also not immune to the temptations of mammon.
Toward the end of his life Richard Burton looked back and said, "I've been in trouble all my life. I've done the most unutterable rubbish, all because of money. I didn't need it... the lure of the zeroes was simply too great."
So if we cannot find the loopholes in Jesus' words here, what are we to do? It all boils down to trust -- will we trust God, or will we trust the lure of the zeroes? We cannot serve both masters.
We know deep in our hearts that seeking God's kingdom is to be our chief concern. Kingdom values and earthy values are poles apart. And to live a life of trust is one of the hardest tasks for all of us.
Thomas Merton had a friend that was trying very hard to trust God and felt like he was getting nowhere. Merton said, "How does an apple ripen? It just sits in the sun." The man began to think of his own journey. And remembering Merton's words he wrote: "A small green apple cannot ripen in one night just by tightening all its muscles, squinting its eyes, and tightening its jaw in order to find itself the next morning miraculously large, ripe, and juicy beside its small green counterparts. Like the birth of a baby or the opening of a rose, the birth of real trust takes place in God's time. We must wait for God. We must be awake. We must trust in God's hidden action within us."
You might think of someone that represents the kingdom values Jesus talked about. If you go to Five Points in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, you will find a statue of a kneeling man obviously praying. His name was A.J. Bryan. During the Depression this Presbyterian minister gave away almost everything he had. His congregation could not keep him in overcoats or money. He reached out to the poor in that hard time. He was such an influence for the whole city that after his death Birmingham erected this monument of Brother Bryan on his knees praying for the city he loved. Surrounded by bars, businesses, homeless people, and runaway kids, his statue is a powerful symbol of values that matter.
Jim Wallis of Sojourners has raised a question in light of the proposed budget cuts to so many groups in need. He asks: "What Would Jesus Cut?" Without getting into nitty-gritty politics, you might use this as a springboard to talk about values and what really matters. Where we come down on these decisions will determine what kind of a people we really are.ave
SECOND THOUGHTS
Like a Child with Its Mother
by Dean Feldmeyer
Isaiah 49:8-16a; Psalm 131
Several years ago I got the flu. This was not the "24-hour maybe it's food poisoning" kind of flu where you are back at work the next day -- it was the real thing. It was the in bed for a week, sweating, keep the lights off, crying in the night kind of influenza that actually killed about a zillion people back around the turn of the twentieth century. In fact, I thought it was going to kill me.
I was so sick and miserable that my wife's ministrations to me in my time of need only annoyed me and made me feel worse. Nothing she could do was right or effective. But, I thought in my delirium, if my mother was here she would know what to do.
I was 50 years old, and okay, I confess it, I wanted my mommy. That's how sick I was.
My grandson is two-and-a-half years old, and a few weeks ago when we were visiting him and his parents, he and I took the dog for a walk around the block together. We looked at and commented on the birds and the other dogs in the neighborhood, the cars that went by and the trees big and small. He punctuated every single comment and observation we made with the word "Momma."
"That's a big dog, isn't it, Luke?"
"Yeah. (pause) Momma."
"Isn't that a pretty bird?"
"Yeah. (pause) Momma."
She is constantly on his mind; she is his tether, his safety line. His hand is always in hers, even when she's a block away.
God is like that.
God, says Isaiah to the children of Israel forced to live in Babylon, is like that. God is like a mother who does not, indeed cannot, forget her child. Her child is always the first and last thing on her mind. God's love, says the psalmist, enables us to calm our fears and quiet our souls, like a mother calms and quiets a fearful child.
This week is that rare case where we find God spoken of in maternal metaphors twice in the same lectionary collection, and they provide the indicative for our sermon: God's loving grace that gentles the worried heart and calms the disquieted soul.
A wise preacher will avoid the temptation to turn this into a Mother's Day sermon by romanticizing mothers and motherhood. Certainly Isaiah avoids this mistake when he admits that, well okay, some mothers may be less than perfect and forget about their children, even if only momentarily. But God does not. God is like the best mother, she whose child is ever on her mind.
The sermon is about God and our response to God. Stories about loving mothers and their relationships to their children are appropriate for making this indicative believable. God responds to us with faithful love and mercy -- and we respond to God's loving grace... how?
As Roger Lovett reminds us in his main article above, the imperative is to be found in Matthew's admonition to eschew worry and anxiety and live by faith in the God who loves us.
As children trust their mothers, so let us trust in the Lord our God.
ILLUSTRATIONS
In Teaching a Stone to Talk (Harper, 1988), Annie Dillard tells the story of the ill-fated Franklin expedition to the Canadian arctic. In 1845, Sir John Franklin, accompanied by 138 officers and men, set sail from England. They were determined to discover the fabled "Northwest Passage" across Canada to the Pacific:
Each of Franklin's three sailing ships was equipped with a steam engine for emergencies and with all of a 12-day supply of coal for a journey that was projected to take two to three years.
Instead of additional coal, each ship included a 1,200-volume library, a "hand-organ, playing 50 tunes," china place settings for officers and men, cut-glass wine goblets, and sterling silver flatware.... Engraved on the handles [of the silverware] were the individual officers' initials and family crests. The expedition carried no special clothing for the arctic, only the uniforms of Her Majesty's Navy.
England would not discover the fate of the Franklin expedition for many years. The Inuit hunters -- Eskimos who criss-crossed the frozen north following their sled dogs -- they knew. They had stumbled across the frozen bodies of the expedition members in small groups all across northern Canada.
The ships had become frozen in pack ice. After many months of waiting, the crewmen decided to walk for help. They took with them whatever items they considered most valuable. Dillard continues:
[One] search party found two skeletons in a boat on a sledge. They had hauled the boat 65 miles. With the two skeletons were some chocolate, some guns, some tea, and a great deal of table silver. Many miles south of these two was another skeleton, alone. This was a frozen officer.... The skeleton was in uniform: trousers and jacket of "fine blue cloth... edged with silk braid."... Over this uniform the dead man had worn "a blue greatcoat, with a black silk neckerchief."
These foolhardy explorers were ill-prepared for the bitter climate of the arctic. Yet so worried were they about their sterling-silver flatware (engraved with family crests) and their silk-braided uniforms, that they took these trivial items with them on their last, desperate race across the ice.
* * *
Chris Chibnall is writing and directing the story of Camelot, the latest version of this historical epic that will be showing on Starz television. Part of Chibnall's motivation, in his words, is that "Every generation needs its Camelot." But it is Chibnall's desire to take the story a step beyond the original, stating, "For me what was interesting was: How do you bring an emotional life to those characters that a modern audience can relate to?"
His answer is not to produce the story as it was first written, but to write a fictional beginning on how the characters developed in their young lives to embrace their place in Camelot's history. To reach a modern audience one needs youth and sex, demonstrated by Chibnall's casting, intentionally selected for the younger audience. There is Eva Green, who was one of James Bond's girls. There is square-jawed Jamie Campbell Brown of Harry Potter and Twilight fame. This cast is rounded out by Joseph Fiennes, the MTV Award winner for the best kiss. Perhaps the story has been modernized but absent is the stately wisdom of the mature sages who actually occupied Camelot.
Every generation does need a Camelot, but not a revised Camelot. What is required is a reintroduction into the original story, with the truth and wisdom that it conveys. This is what separates Chibnall from President John F. Kennedy, whose administration is often referred to as "Camelot." Kennedy did not try to reinvent Camelot. He tried to reintroduce Camelot into society by emulating it. At Kennedy's funeral, his widow quoted the president's favorite line from the musical Camelot: "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot." Camelot -- the castle and court of King Arthur's Round Table and the Golden Age of Chivalry.
One must wonder what would happen to the story of Isaiah in the hands of Chibnall. Would the great sage have to be reinvented in the image of Jamie Campbell Brown? Since God knew Isaiah since he was formed in the womb, would Chibnall take the liberty to rewrite the story of conception? With Isaiah's language seemly so trite, the profession "I will turn all my mountains into a road" would have to be highlighted by computerized special effects that blast away mountaintops.
The timeless secret of the Bible is that it does not have to modernized. "Can a woman forget her nursing child... I will not forget you" is vivid for any reader of any century. There have been many books and articles written on the Bible as being great literature. So yes, every generation does need a Camelot and an Isaiah, but the one penned by the original authors, free of the "modernization" that the Chibnalls of society force upon it.
* * *
The Rev. Martin Grashoff, 54, of the Dutch Church of Scotland, has now fulfilled his calling as a minister -- and that is to be a chaplain. He noted it will be hard to leave his parish in Kintyre, but the opportunity to be a chaplain has finally become available to him. And it happens to be one of Britain's most prominent of chaplain posts: to minister to the oil and gas rigs located off the coast of the island. Including workers and families his parish will number 32,000 people, stretching from the Shetlands to the South of England. Regarding the prospect of this ministry, Grashoff says, "I'll be kind of a Flying Dutchman." This is in reference to the legend of the Flying Dutchman, which concerns a ghost ship that can never make port, doomed to sail the oceans forever.
Outlining the mission of his new ministry, Grashoff says, "Instead of waiting till people come into my church, I will have to go out and meet them where they work and live. For me it is a strong and positive challenge to find God out in the world and be lead from there."
As Rev. Martin Grashoff ministers to the workers on the oil rigs and the families at home, his message from Matthew 6, "do not worry," will be most needed and welcomed.
* * *
Mental health practitioners and spiritual direction counselors meet on common ground on the subject of worry.
Corrie ten Boom, a Nazi concentration camp survivor and a woman of deep faith, insisted that "worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."
Compare her insight with that of the late therapist and author William J. Diehm: "Worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow's opportunities with yesterday's troubles."
Jesus says, "Do not be anxious about tomorrow... for it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things." Compare his words with that of psychiatrist Alan Challman: "Worry is a compulsive pagan prayer."
* * *
Babies cry for any number of reasons. They might be colicky -- a condition that leaves doctors baffled and parents exhausted. Babies cry because they are too hot or cold, hungry, have diaper rash, have an ear infection, have gas, are tired, or just want to be held.
Amazingly, parents have the innate ability to respond to their children's cries. Babies instinctively know that when they cry, help is close at hand. You might say that babies do not worry about tomorrow. They face each need they have with a cry, trusting that help is close at hand. Maybe that is why Jesus said we need to have childlike faith.
* * *
Anxiety is a frequent topic in current medical and psychological literature, as it is the most common form of mental illness today. Anxiety -- ranging from general, non-specific conditions of distress to more complex varieties of anxiety disorders -- takes up many pages in textbooks, physicians' reference and diagnostic manuals, and self-help books. Even when people do not suffer symptoms or anxious feelings with enough frequency or severity to warrant a clinical diagnosis of anxiety, the process of worrying or being anxious results in tension and strain in both body and soul. Anxiety can play a role in many diseases, including high blood pressure, ulcers, heart conditions, diabetes, chronic pain, and asthma. When persons suffering from these conditions learn to monitor themselves and begin to consciously control the level of anxiety in their lives, their health often improves and symptoms of disease or illness may become less severe. Anxiety is not a new phenomenon in human life, although we have developed highly sophisticated technologies to measure its impact on our lives. The teachings Jesus shared in his Sermon on the Mount contain much wisdom and spiritual guidance. His words are not merely a prescription for the healthy life of the soul; they include sound medicine for the body as well.
* * *
After the Tucson shooting, the question asked by Sojourners columnist Chris Kromm and society as a whole is, "What's the connection between violent political rhetoric and real violence?" The answer, resulting from a study of the bloody Southern civil rights era, is that there is a direct connection.
It was an exhaustive study, but the primary focus was on Gov. George Wallace and the significant increase of the murdering of blacks once he was became governor of Alabama. The day after the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham in which four girls were killed, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote: "The governor said things and did things which caused these people to feel that they were aided and abetted by the highest office in the state. The murders of yesterday stand as blood on the hands of Governor Wallace." Howell Raines, writing for the New York Times, concluded that the murders of all black citizens in Alabama were "a product not only of Wallace's escalating rhetoric, but also his famous unwillingness to prosecute the murder suspects."
Sojourners, which must be defined as a social justice liberal publication, concludes that there is little difference between the words of Wallace and the violent rhetoric of the Tea Party. The commentary states there is a "similarity of today's Tea Party to the Wallace campaigns. Indeed, the principles of Wallace's American Independent Party of 1968 read remarkably like a Tea Party manifesto." Before one dismisses the Sojourners observation, note the words of George Wallace's son regarding the Tea Party: "It does remind me of my dad's campaigns."
Paul says the Lord "will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart." A dark heart that is heard through dark words does destroy individuals. It is time, in Paul's words, to become "trustworthy."
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Do not lift up your hearts in pride.
People: We do not raise our eyes too high.
Leader: Do not occupy yourselves with things too marvelous for you.
People: We have calmed ourselves like a child on its mother's knee.
Leader: Children of God, trust in your God.
People: We shall trust in our God, now and for evermore.
OR
Leader: Come to the One who is always faithful.
People: We are like those tossed on stormy seas.
Leader: Come and rest in the Rock of Ages.
People: We are anxious and worried about many things.
Leader: Come and trust in the One who never changes.
People: We come to worship and trust in our God.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Great Is Thy Faithfulness"
found in:
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
Renew: 249
"Give to the Winds Thy Fears"
found in:
UMH: 129
PH: 286
"God Will Take Care of You"
found in:
UMH: 130
AAHH: 137
NNBH: 52
NCH: 460
"Leaning on the Everlasting Arms"
found in:
UMH: 133
AAHH: 371
NNBH: 262
NCH: 471
CH: 560
"All My Hope Is Firmly Grounded"
found in:
UMH: 132
H82: 665
NCH: 408
CH: 88
"Seek Ye First"
found in:
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 354
CCB: 76
"O Come and Dwell in Me"
found in:
UMH: 308
"Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart"
found in:
UMH: 500
PH: 326
AAHH: 312
NCH: 290
CH: 265
LBW: 486
"Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus"
found in:
CCB: 55
"More Precious than Silver"
found in:
CCB: 25
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is the solid rock on which our salvation is grounded: Grant us the faith to trust that you desire only our good and that your ways are the ways of life, eternal and abundant; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you, O God, for you are the only one who is worthy of worship and of complete trust. Your ways are true and your loving kindness never wavers. Open our hearts and fill them with the trust in you that leads to life eternal. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially the ways in which we speak of our devotion to God though we run madly after money and wealth.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have been a two-faced people. We talk about being disciples of Jesus, and yet we spend most of our time in pursuit of worldly treasures. We put our trust in stocks and bonds and get-rich schemes, instead of trusting in the One who created us and loves us forever. Forgive us our foolishness, and help us to place our trust in you and in you alone. Amen.
Leader: God desires us to have life abundant and full. We are called continually into a relationship of trust with our God. God's love is eternal and our forgiveness is sure.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We come into your presence, O God, in awe of your majesty and your faithfulness. When all around us proves to be fickle and untrustworthy, you stand before us solid in your love and in your being.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have been a two-faced people. We talk about being disciples of Jesus, and yet we spend most of our time in pursuit of worldly treasures. We put our trust in stocks and bonds and get-rich schemes, instead of trusting in the One who created us and loves us forever. Forgive us our foolishness, and help us to place our trust in you and in you alone.
We give you thanks for all the times when we have found you faithful. We thank you for those who have modeled your faithfulness to us, and for those who have modeled an attitude of trust for us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our needs and for those in particular who find life an untrustworthy experience. We pray for those who have been betrayed by their countries, their families, and their churches. We pray for those who feel betrayed by their own bodies. Help us to be constant signs of your faithfulness to those around us.
(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.
Visuals
pictures of all kinds of extravagant wealth, along with pictures of people in acts of devotion and service
Children's Sermon Starter
Tell the children you want to play a game of "Follow the Leader" with them, but that you have a special version of the game. In your version there are two leaders. (Have another adult serve as the other leader to make sure you do things very differently.) Keep urging the children to follow both leaders. After the chaos is evident but before anyone starts crying, talk to the children about how that wasn't such a good version of the game. We really can't follow two leaders -- we have to choose. All of us must decide if we are going to follow Jesus or someone else.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Don't Worry
Matthew 6:24-34
Objects: several dress shirts, pants, coats, shoes, socks, ties
Good morning, boys and girls! Boys, how many shirts do you have? (let them answer) Girls, how many dresses do you have? (let them answer) Do you have just one or do you have a lot? (let them answer) If you just have one shirt or dress then you don't have to choose your favorite one, but if you have several then you have to make a choice.
I have a friend who worries all of the time. Sometimes he worries about the clothes he is going to wear. It takes him hours to dress. (show the items as you mention them) First, he looks at all of his shirts and then chooses the one he is going to wear. He does the same thing with his pants and his coats. The big question is the kind of necktie that he is going to wear that will go perfectly with his shirt, pants, coat, and shoes. It is such a decision. He worries so much about it that he gets a headache once in a while.
This is a problem. But Jesus said it should not be a big problem. What do you think the canary says in the morning? Do you think he says, "I am a yellow canary, but maybe I should be a red one today or a blue one when I fly around this afternoon"? A yellow canary is a beautiful bird, and I don't want it to change colors and look like a cardinal or a bluebird. God gave the yellow canary just the perfect kind of dress, and the canary doesn't worry about it.
The canary also doesn't worry about what it is going to eat. God takes care of the canary's food. God also takes care of what the canary is going to drink. Jesus said that this is God's plan and it is a good one. If clothes are a big problem and it causes us to worry, then we should have fewer clothes to choose from. The same thing is true about our food. God has given us tomatoes, corn, peas, carrots, lettuce, beans, apples, oranges, pears, strawberries, and hundreds of other kinds of food. There are plenty of different things to eat, so don't worry about it.
What does worry do? It makes us grumpy, mean, angry, tired, and afraid. God did not make us to be like that. God made us to love the world we live in and to enjoy it like the birds of the air. Be happy, don't worry. We thank God for the choices that God gives us. Instead of worrying, let us find someone to share with and make that person as happy as we are happy.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, February 27, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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 Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the maternal imagery in our Isaiah ("Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?") and Psalm ("But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother") texts. This week is an instance where the lectionary texts support each other unusually well, as the imagery about God as a mother caring and protecting her children underlines Jesus' point that our "heavenly Father knows that [we] need all these things" and will provide for us.
The Main Thing
by Roger Lovette
Matthew 6:24-34
THE WORLD
If I didn't know any better, I would think Jesus had been reading this week's newspaper. Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and mammon." Mammon includes all the things in which we put our trust other than God. Mammon is accumulating and piling up. You may have seen the TV documentaries called Hoarders or Hoarding: Buried Alive on the A&E and TLC networks. These programs show persons who have what is termed "Compulsive Hoarding Disorder," because they have an excessive desire to acquire possessions even if the items are worthless, hazardous, and unsanitary. People with this serious problem have houses where they are unable to even move through their rooms -- nothing is thrown away. There are many reasons for this disorder, but specialists say that this has become the primary way that these people cope with the difficulties of their lives. Some have lost someone in their family. Others have faced all sorts of traumas. If there was ever a definition of mammon, the hoarders are a prime example.
Before we get too judgmental, we need to remember that perhaps hoarders really are a symbol of a great many of us today. A whole business enterprise has grown up around hauling junk away from people's houses. Storage facilities are doing a booming business. Any weekend newspaper will advertise a multitude of garage sales in which people sell their stuff in order to buy more stuff. If we surround ourselves with enough creature comforts, perhaps (like the hoarders) we can hold back that multitude of dark things that make life uncertain and insecure.
As our politicians battle out this year's budget concerns in Washington, it is interesting to study our priorities. Defense, it seems, is our sacred cow. The United States has spent $3 trillion on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, with no end in sight. The lines are being drawn with what to cut and what not to cut in the budget. Will we cut a billion dollars from a highly successful program that provides supplemental nutrition to pregnant mothers, infants, and young children? Will we cut $648 million from nuclear nonproliferation activities? Will we cut $578 million from the IRS enforcement budget, which would allow tax cheats to run wild? Will we cut vaccinations for children in third world countries?
Could mammon include the lottery? Many states have adopted the lottery system to raise money for their states. There are many lottery winners who have made their lives and the lives of their family members better. But there is a dark side to many of these stories. Jack Whittaker woke up in 2002 and learned he had won a Powerball lottery jackpot of $315 million. He was a very happy man. But as an ABC News article noted, "he had no way of knowing that he was embarking on a journey that would lead to tragedy and the loss of everything he held dear." What happened? After Whittaker won he was besieged by requests for money and help from all sorts of people and institutions. He gave away $50 million in cars and houses and cash. He found himself in court. Since 2002 he has had over 400 legal claims made against him and or one of his companies. He has spent over $3 million just fending off lawsuits. He began drinking heavily. He showered his 17-year-old granddaughter with cars and money. Her sudden wealth was more than she could take. She was found dead one morning of a drug overdose. Statistics say "nearly one third of multi-million lottery winners become bankrupt in just a few short years after their big win." Jesus said that we cannot serve God and Mammon.
THE WORD
Note the setting of Matthew 5-7, which is the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus addressed his disciples, who had little of the world's goods. Matthew included these words in his gospel to his struggling church.
Jesus linked this word mammon to anxiety. Five times he warned his followers to "be not anxious" (vv. 25, 27-28, 31, 34). Weymouth translated one of these verses: "I charge you not to be overanxious about your life." Another translation says: "You must not be distracted by the cares of the world." Jesus mentioned three areas we were not to be anxious about: eating, drinking, and clothing.
Clarence Jordan modeled Jesus' words in the Koinonia community in Americus, Georgia. He wrote that Jesus did not say you should not have two masters but we cannot. Jordan said that this law is as inexplicable as the law of gravity. We cannot serve God and mammon.
What was Jesus' antidote to over-concern with many things? He pointed to the birds and to the lilies, posing the question: If God took care of these, how much more would he take care of his children? And so instead of striving for mammon or worrying about a multitude of things, we are to place our trust in God. "Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Jesus ended his message by saying: "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today."
The text says we are to place our trust in God and live out our lives as people of faith. William Barclay wrote that there were two meanings for the root word "overanxious." That word is care. We can be distracted and distressed by caring for the wrong things -- or we can seek a caring that is right and good. The heart of this whole passage is really answering the question: How can we give ourselves to the right kind of caring?
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Have you ever read something in the Bible that you wished Jesus had not said? This passage on mammon and anxiety is one of those passages for me. In a world with thousands of commercials every year, how can we possibly disengage our lives from material things? We have to eat, earn money, have a place to live, and we have to take care of our families. Jesus was not advocating ignoring our responsibilities. But I wish Jesus had not come down so hard on worry. Who can escape the problems of everyday living? Anxiety is a thread that runs through all of life. We all worry about health, family members, job, money, the future, and safety. This admonition not to worry seems just a mite impractical in our kind of world. I feel like W.C. Fields did that day when someone saw him reading the Bible. They asked, "Whatcha' doin' W.C.?" "Reading the Bible," he responded. "Why're you doing that?" Fields replied, "I'm looking for loopholes."
But there are no loopholes in this text. None of us can serve God and mammon. It would be good if we could just pass these words off as applying to the rich and prosperous -- but pointing our fingers at Bernie Madoff, Wall Street, or payday loan sharks will not get us off the hook. There were occasions when Jesus did point to the rich: the rich man who ignored Lazarus' needs; the rich young ruler; the only man that Jesus called a fool, who tore down his barns to build bigger barns. We must remember that here he was speaking not to the rich but to disciples that were also not immune to the temptations of mammon.
Toward the end of his life Richard Burton looked back and said, "I've been in trouble all my life. I've done the most unutterable rubbish, all because of money. I didn't need it... the lure of the zeroes was simply too great."
So if we cannot find the loopholes in Jesus' words here, what are we to do? It all boils down to trust -- will we trust God, or will we trust the lure of the zeroes? We cannot serve both masters.
We know deep in our hearts that seeking God's kingdom is to be our chief concern. Kingdom values and earthy values are poles apart. And to live a life of trust is one of the hardest tasks for all of us.
Thomas Merton had a friend that was trying very hard to trust God and felt like he was getting nowhere. Merton said, "How does an apple ripen? It just sits in the sun." The man began to think of his own journey. And remembering Merton's words he wrote: "A small green apple cannot ripen in one night just by tightening all its muscles, squinting its eyes, and tightening its jaw in order to find itself the next morning miraculously large, ripe, and juicy beside its small green counterparts. Like the birth of a baby or the opening of a rose, the birth of real trust takes place in God's time. We must wait for God. We must be awake. We must trust in God's hidden action within us."
You might think of someone that represents the kingdom values Jesus talked about. If you go to Five Points in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, you will find a statue of a kneeling man obviously praying. His name was A.J. Bryan. During the Depression this Presbyterian minister gave away almost everything he had. His congregation could not keep him in overcoats or money. He reached out to the poor in that hard time. He was such an influence for the whole city that after his death Birmingham erected this monument of Brother Bryan on his knees praying for the city he loved. Surrounded by bars, businesses, homeless people, and runaway kids, his statue is a powerful symbol of values that matter.
Jim Wallis of Sojourners has raised a question in light of the proposed budget cuts to so many groups in need. He asks: "What Would Jesus Cut?" Without getting into nitty-gritty politics, you might use this as a springboard to talk about values and what really matters. Where we come down on these decisions will determine what kind of a people we really are.ave
SECOND THOUGHTS
Like a Child with Its Mother
by Dean Feldmeyer
Isaiah 49:8-16a; Psalm 131
Several years ago I got the flu. This was not the "24-hour maybe it's food poisoning" kind of flu where you are back at work the next day -- it was the real thing. It was the in bed for a week, sweating, keep the lights off, crying in the night kind of influenza that actually killed about a zillion people back around the turn of the twentieth century. In fact, I thought it was going to kill me.
I was so sick and miserable that my wife's ministrations to me in my time of need only annoyed me and made me feel worse. Nothing she could do was right or effective. But, I thought in my delirium, if my mother was here she would know what to do.
I was 50 years old, and okay, I confess it, I wanted my mommy. That's how sick I was.
My grandson is two-and-a-half years old, and a few weeks ago when we were visiting him and his parents, he and I took the dog for a walk around the block together. We looked at and commented on the birds and the other dogs in the neighborhood, the cars that went by and the trees big and small. He punctuated every single comment and observation we made with the word "Momma."
"That's a big dog, isn't it, Luke?"
"Yeah. (pause) Momma."
"Isn't that a pretty bird?"
"Yeah. (pause) Momma."
She is constantly on his mind; she is his tether, his safety line. His hand is always in hers, even when she's a block away.
God is like that.
God, says Isaiah to the children of Israel forced to live in Babylon, is like that. God is like a mother who does not, indeed cannot, forget her child. Her child is always the first and last thing on her mind. God's love, says the psalmist, enables us to calm our fears and quiet our souls, like a mother calms and quiets a fearful child.
This week is that rare case where we find God spoken of in maternal metaphors twice in the same lectionary collection, and they provide the indicative for our sermon: God's loving grace that gentles the worried heart and calms the disquieted soul.
A wise preacher will avoid the temptation to turn this into a Mother's Day sermon by romanticizing mothers and motherhood. Certainly Isaiah avoids this mistake when he admits that, well okay, some mothers may be less than perfect and forget about their children, even if only momentarily. But God does not. God is like the best mother, she whose child is ever on her mind.
The sermon is about God and our response to God. Stories about loving mothers and their relationships to their children are appropriate for making this indicative believable. God responds to us with faithful love and mercy -- and we respond to God's loving grace... how?
As Roger Lovett reminds us in his main article above, the imperative is to be found in Matthew's admonition to eschew worry and anxiety and live by faith in the God who loves us.
As children trust their mothers, so let us trust in the Lord our God.
ILLUSTRATIONS
In Teaching a Stone to Talk (Harper, 1988), Annie Dillard tells the story of the ill-fated Franklin expedition to the Canadian arctic. In 1845, Sir John Franklin, accompanied by 138 officers and men, set sail from England. They were determined to discover the fabled "Northwest Passage" across Canada to the Pacific:
Each of Franklin's three sailing ships was equipped with a steam engine for emergencies and with all of a 12-day supply of coal for a journey that was projected to take two to three years.
Instead of additional coal, each ship included a 1,200-volume library, a "hand-organ, playing 50 tunes," china place settings for officers and men, cut-glass wine goblets, and sterling silver flatware.... Engraved on the handles [of the silverware] were the individual officers' initials and family crests. The expedition carried no special clothing for the arctic, only the uniforms of Her Majesty's Navy.
England would not discover the fate of the Franklin expedition for many years. The Inuit hunters -- Eskimos who criss-crossed the frozen north following their sled dogs -- they knew. They had stumbled across the frozen bodies of the expedition members in small groups all across northern Canada.
The ships had become frozen in pack ice. After many months of waiting, the crewmen decided to walk for help. They took with them whatever items they considered most valuable. Dillard continues:
[One] search party found two skeletons in a boat on a sledge. They had hauled the boat 65 miles. With the two skeletons were some chocolate, some guns, some tea, and a great deal of table silver. Many miles south of these two was another skeleton, alone. This was a frozen officer.... The skeleton was in uniform: trousers and jacket of "fine blue cloth... edged with silk braid."... Over this uniform the dead man had worn "a blue greatcoat, with a black silk neckerchief."
These foolhardy explorers were ill-prepared for the bitter climate of the arctic. Yet so worried were they about their sterling-silver flatware (engraved with family crests) and their silk-braided uniforms, that they took these trivial items with them on their last, desperate race across the ice.
* * *
Chris Chibnall is writing and directing the story of Camelot, the latest version of this historical epic that will be showing on Starz television. Part of Chibnall's motivation, in his words, is that "Every generation needs its Camelot." But it is Chibnall's desire to take the story a step beyond the original, stating, "For me what was interesting was: How do you bring an emotional life to those characters that a modern audience can relate to?"
His answer is not to produce the story as it was first written, but to write a fictional beginning on how the characters developed in their young lives to embrace their place in Camelot's history. To reach a modern audience one needs youth and sex, demonstrated by Chibnall's casting, intentionally selected for the younger audience. There is Eva Green, who was one of James Bond's girls. There is square-jawed Jamie Campbell Brown of Harry Potter and Twilight fame. This cast is rounded out by Joseph Fiennes, the MTV Award winner for the best kiss. Perhaps the story has been modernized but absent is the stately wisdom of the mature sages who actually occupied Camelot.
Every generation does need a Camelot, but not a revised Camelot. What is required is a reintroduction into the original story, with the truth and wisdom that it conveys. This is what separates Chibnall from President John F. Kennedy, whose administration is often referred to as "Camelot." Kennedy did not try to reinvent Camelot. He tried to reintroduce Camelot into society by emulating it. At Kennedy's funeral, his widow quoted the president's favorite line from the musical Camelot: "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot." Camelot -- the castle and court of King Arthur's Round Table and the Golden Age of Chivalry.
One must wonder what would happen to the story of Isaiah in the hands of Chibnall. Would the great sage have to be reinvented in the image of Jamie Campbell Brown? Since God knew Isaiah since he was formed in the womb, would Chibnall take the liberty to rewrite the story of conception? With Isaiah's language seemly so trite, the profession "I will turn all my mountains into a road" would have to be highlighted by computerized special effects that blast away mountaintops.
The timeless secret of the Bible is that it does not have to modernized. "Can a woman forget her nursing child... I will not forget you" is vivid for any reader of any century. There have been many books and articles written on the Bible as being great literature. So yes, every generation does need a Camelot and an Isaiah, but the one penned by the original authors, free of the "modernization" that the Chibnalls of society force upon it.
* * *
The Rev. Martin Grashoff, 54, of the Dutch Church of Scotland, has now fulfilled his calling as a minister -- and that is to be a chaplain. He noted it will be hard to leave his parish in Kintyre, but the opportunity to be a chaplain has finally become available to him. And it happens to be one of Britain's most prominent of chaplain posts: to minister to the oil and gas rigs located off the coast of the island. Including workers and families his parish will number 32,000 people, stretching from the Shetlands to the South of England. Regarding the prospect of this ministry, Grashoff says, "I'll be kind of a Flying Dutchman." This is in reference to the legend of the Flying Dutchman, which concerns a ghost ship that can never make port, doomed to sail the oceans forever.
Outlining the mission of his new ministry, Grashoff says, "Instead of waiting till people come into my church, I will have to go out and meet them where they work and live. For me it is a strong and positive challenge to find God out in the world and be lead from there."
As Rev. Martin Grashoff ministers to the workers on the oil rigs and the families at home, his message from Matthew 6, "do not worry," will be most needed and welcomed.
* * *
Mental health practitioners and spiritual direction counselors meet on common ground on the subject of worry.
Corrie ten Boom, a Nazi concentration camp survivor and a woman of deep faith, insisted that "worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."
Compare her insight with that of the late therapist and author William J. Diehm: "Worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow's opportunities with yesterday's troubles."
Jesus says, "Do not be anxious about tomorrow... for it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things." Compare his words with that of psychiatrist Alan Challman: "Worry is a compulsive pagan prayer."
* * *
Babies cry for any number of reasons. They might be colicky -- a condition that leaves doctors baffled and parents exhausted. Babies cry because they are too hot or cold, hungry, have diaper rash, have an ear infection, have gas, are tired, or just want to be held.
Amazingly, parents have the innate ability to respond to their children's cries. Babies instinctively know that when they cry, help is close at hand. You might say that babies do not worry about tomorrow. They face each need they have with a cry, trusting that help is close at hand. Maybe that is why Jesus said we need to have childlike faith.
* * *
Anxiety is a frequent topic in current medical and psychological literature, as it is the most common form of mental illness today. Anxiety -- ranging from general, non-specific conditions of distress to more complex varieties of anxiety disorders -- takes up many pages in textbooks, physicians' reference and diagnostic manuals, and self-help books. Even when people do not suffer symptoms or anxious feelings with enough frequency or severity to warrant a clinical diagnosis of anxiety, the process of worrying or being anxious results in tension and strain in both body and soul. Anxiety can play a role in many diseases, including high blood pressure, ulcers, heart conditions, diabetes, chronic pain, and asthma. When persons suffering from these conditions learn to monitor themselves and begin to consciously control the level of anxiety in their lives, their health often improves and symptoms of disease or illness may become less severe. Anxiety is not a new phenomenon in human life, although we have developed highly sophisticated technologies to measure its impact on our lives. The teachings Jesus shared in his Sermon on the Mount contain much wisdom and spiritual guidance. His words are not merely a prescription for the healthy life of the soul; they include sound medicine for the body as well.
* * *
After the Tucson shooting, the question asked by Sojourners columnist Chris Kromm and society as a whole is, "What's the connection between violent political rhetoric and real violence?" The answer, resulting from a study of the bloody Southern civil rights era, is that there is a direct connection.
It was an exhaustive study, but the primary focus was on Gov. George Wallace and the significant increase of the murdering of blacks once he was became governor of Alabama. The day after the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham in which four girls were killed, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote: "The governor said things and did things which caused these people to feel that they were aided and abetted by the highest office in the state. The murders of yesterday stand as blood on the hands of Governor Wallace." Howell Raines, writing for the New York Times, concluded that the murders of all black citizens in Alabama were "a product not only of Wallace's escalating rhetoric, but also his famous unwillingness to prosecute the murder suspects."
Sojourners, which must be defined as a social justice liberal publication, concludes that there is little difference between the words of Wallace and the violent rhetoric of the Tea Party. The commentary states there is a "similarity of today's Tea Party to the Wallace campaigns. Indeed, the principles of Wallace's American Independent Party of 1968 read remarkably like a Tea Party manifesto." Before one dismisses the Sojourners observation, note the words of George Wallace's son regarding the Tea Party: "It does remind me of my dad's campaigns."
Paul says the Lord "will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart." A dark heart that is heard through dark words does destroy individuals. It is time, in Paul's words, to become "trustworthy."
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Do not lift up your hearts in pride.
People: We do not raise our eyes too high.
Leader: Do not occupy yourselves with things too marvelous for you.
People: We have calmed ourselves like a child on its mother's knee.
Leader: Children of God, trust in your God.
People: We shall trust in our God, now and for evermore.
OR
Leader: Come to the One who is always faithful.
People: We are like those tossed on stormy seas.
Leader: Come and rest in the Rock of Ages.
People: We are anxious and worried about many things.
Leader: Come and trust in the One who never changes.
People: We come to worship and trust in our God.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Great Is Thy Faithfulness"
found in:
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
Renew: 249
"Give to the Winds Thy Fears"
found in:
UMH: 129
PH: 286
"God Will Take Care of You"
found in:
UMH: 130
AAHH: 137
NNBH: 52
NCH: 460
"Leaning on the Everlasting Arms"
found in:
UMH: 133
AAHH: 371
NNBH: 262
NCH: 471
CH: 560
"All My Hope Is Firmly Grounded"
found in:
UMH: 132
H82: 665
NCH: 408
CH: 88
"Seek Ye First"
found in:
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 354
CCB: 76
"O Come and Dwell in Me"
found in:
UMH: 308
"Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart"
found in:
UMH: 500
PH: 326
AAHH: 312
NCH: 290
CH: 265
LBW: 486
"Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus"
found in:
CCB: 55
"More Precious than Silver"
found in:
CCB: 25
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is the solid rock on which our salvation is grounded: Grant us the faith to trust that you desire only our good and that your ways are the ways of life, eternal and abundant; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you, O God, for you are the only one who is worthy of worship and of complete trust. Your ways are true and your loving kindness never wavers. Open our hearts and fill them with the trust in you that leads to life eternal. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially the ways in which we speak of our devotion to God though we run madly after money and wealth.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have been a two-faced people. We talk about being disciples of Jesus, and yet we spend most of our time in pursuit of worldly treasures. We put our trust in stocks and bonds and get-rich schemes, instead of trusting in the One who created us and loves us forever. Forgive us our foolishness, and help us to place our trust in you and in you alone. Amen.
Leader: God desires us to have life abundant and full. We are called continually into a relationship of trust with our God. God's love is eternal and our forgiveness is sure.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We come into your presence, O God, in awe of your majesty and your faithfulness. When all around us proves to be fickle and untrustworthy, you stand before us solid in your love and in your being.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have been a two-faced people. We talk about being disciples of Jesus, and yet we spend most of our time in pursuit of worldly treasures. We put our trust in stocks and bonds and get-rich schemes, instead of trusting in the One who created us and loves us forever. Forgive us our foolishness, and help us to place our trust in you and in you alone.
We give you thanks for all the times when we have found you faithful. We thank you for those who have modeled your faithfulness to us, and for those who have modeled an attitude of trust for us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our needs and for those in particular who find life an untrustworthy experience. We pray for those who have been betrayed by their countries, their families, and their churches. We pray for those who feel betrayed by their own bodies. Help us to be constant signs of your faithfulness to those around us.
(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.
Visuals
pictures of all kinds of extravagant wealth, along with pictures of people in acts of devotion and service
Children's Sermon Starter
Tell the children you want to play a game of "Follow the Leader" with them, but that you have a special version of the game. In your version there are two leaders. (Have another adult serve as the other leader to make sure you do things very differently.) Keep urging the children to follow both leaders. After the chaos is evident but before anyone starts crying, talk to the children about how that wasn't such a good version of the game. We really can't follow two leaders -- we have to choose. All of us must decide if we are going to follow Jesus or someone else.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Don't Worry
Matthew 6:24-34
Objects: several dress shirts, pants, coats, shoes, socks, ties
Good morning, boys and girls! Boys, how many shirts do you have? (let them answer) Girls, how many dresses do you have? (let them answer) Do you have just one or do you have a lot? (let them answer) If you just have one shirt or dress then you don't have to choose your favorite one, but if you have several then you have to make a choice.
I have a friend who worries all of the time. Sometimes he worries about the clothes he is going to wear. It takes him hours to dress. (show the items as you mention them) First, he looks at all of his shirts and then chooses the one he is going to wear. He does the same thing with his pants and his coats. The big question is the kind of necktie that he is going to wear that will go perfectly with his shirt, pants, coat, and shoes. It is such a decision. He worries so much about it that he gets a headache once in a while.
This is a problem. But Jesus said it should not be a big problem. What do you think the canary says in the morning? Do you think he says, "I am a yellow canary, but maybe I should be a red one today or a blue one when I fly around this afternoon"? A yellow canary is a beautiful bird, and I don't want it to change colors and look like a cardinal or a bluebird. God gave the yellow canary just the perfect kind of dress, and the canary doesn't worry about it.
The canary also doesn't worry about what it is going to eat. God takes care of the canary's food. God also takes care of what the canary is going to drink. Jesus said that this is God's plan and it is a good one. If clothes are a big problem and it causes us to worry, then we should have fewer clothes to choose from. The same thing is true about our food. God has given us tomatoes, corn, peas, carrots, lettuce, beans, apples, oranges, pears, strawberries, and hundreds of other kinds of food. There are plenty of different things to eat, so don't worry about it.
What does worry do? It makes us grumpy, mean, angry, tired, and afraid. God did not make us to be like that. God made us to love the world we live in and to enjoy it like the birds of the air. Be happy, don't worry. We thank God for the choices that God gives us. Instead of worrying, let us find someone to share with and make that person as happy as we are happy.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, February 27, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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.
