Needful Things
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
For July 16, 2023:
Needful Things
by Dean Feldmeyer
Romans 8:1-11
About 70% of Americans say that eating out is too expensive. Nevertheless, they spend about 49% of their total annual food budget of $6,000 per household eating out. That’s just over $70-billion each month. (blog.gitnux.com)
On average, Americans spend between $244 and $313 on cosmetics every month. (zippia.com) They also spend about $9-billion on aesthetic cosmetic surgery every year. (plasticsurgery.org)
We spend about $28-billion per year on guns. (forbes.com) The average American spends between $62 and $136 per year on jewelry (statista.com), $161 per month on clothing (businessdit.com), and about $1,500 per month on other non-essential (luxury) items. (usatoday.com).
We spend about $646 billion on outdoor recreation, about 1.8% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (fs.usda.gov)
All told, Americans spent $64.8 billion on luxury (non-essential) items (28% of the entire global luxury market) in 2020, putting the US ahead of China ($51.8 billion) and Japan ($21.2 billion).
And there’s nothing wrong with any of that…unless we let other people suffer so we can have more luxuries because we think we are somehow entitled to them and they will somehow give our lives authenticity and meaning.
If that’s what we’re seeking, Paul suggests that we look in another direction.
In the News/Culture
In the 1987 movie, “Wall Street,” Michael Douglas played billionaire Gordon Gekko who made his money by buying companies and then cannibalizing them, selling off the parts to other companies. In doing so, he put thousands of people out of work and didn’t care, as long as he made money. Douglas won a best actor Oscar for playing the part but most people remember his performance for one speech:
“The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.”
It was said that, with that short speech, director/co-writer Oliver Stone, captured the mood of an entire decade, a mood of arrogance, avarice, rapacity, cupidity, and greed. In the 1980’s a new conservatism arose in social, economic and political life, characterized by the policies of US President Ronald Reagan. Mostly white, male Young Urban Professionals (YUPpies) made money and spent it lavishly.
What many who saw Stone’s film failed to realize was that, in the end, Gordon Gekko fails and goes to prison for insider trading. His greed is his downfall. It took a long time, however, for that lesson to sink into the American psyche.
In 1991, best-selling author James Patterson teamed up with Peter Kim to write a book based on a series of surveys that were taken to measure the moral temperature of America. The book was called The Day America Told the Truth: What People Really Believe About Everything that Really Matters.
Here are some of the surprises that came out in the studies:
When asked what they would be willing to do for $10,000,000? Two-thirds of Americans polled would agree to at least one and some to several of the following:
Materialism, what Paul called, living “according to the flesh,” is the very antithesis of the life we are called, as Christians, to live.
In the Scripture
Having, in chapter 7, thoroughly described life lived in the flesh or law and the misery to which such a life leads, Paul now offers, in chapter 8, an alternative, namely, life in the spirit. Flesh and spirit are not, as Paul Achtemeier notes in the Interpretation commentary, different parts of human nature, but rather two different ways of living.
To oversimplify Paul’s argument, life lived in the flesh/law is life enslaved to rules and the constant attempt to live according to them, or the attempt to circumvent them. In either case, the goal is to make sure that God has no choice but to accept us into God’s kingdom. We’ve flawlessly obeyed all the laws, now God has no choice, right?
Only, says Paul, that just leads to further estrangement from God (sin). We have attempted to make ourselves more powerful, wiser, and trickier than the Lord of history and, in doing so, we have committed the lowest form of idolatry, that sin wherein we have become our own gods.
The law, which God created as a guide or a lamp to illuminate the appropriate way to live in response to the grace of God has become perverted by human beings who see it as a way of purchasing God’s grace. Thus, the instrument that was created to be a response to grace has become a source of estrangement and sin.
The alternative, which Paul delineates in chapter 8, is to live life according to the spirit.
Those who live according to the flesh/law set their minds on things of the flesh/law, he says. They seek out things of the flesh/law in the hope that those things will give them salvation from the estrangement and separation that plagues human existence.
They seek to be obedient to the law because they see obedience as the currency by which intimacy with God is purchased. They seek to be wealthy because wealth is a sign to the world that God loves them and has favored them, rewarded them for the good life they live. They seek to be perfect in ritual because only the perfect ritual will be sufficient to buy God’s favor.
Unfortunately, for them, the only reward they actually receive is further estrangement, even unto that final estrangement, death or oblivion: “Immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.” (Galatians 5:19-21)
Those who live by the spirit that God has given to us as an act of love and grace are grateful for that gift and express their gratitude by trying to live lives that are upright and blameless. They realize, however, that regardless of whether they succeed or fail in that pursuit, God’s love is neither increased nor diminished. It is always thorough, complete, constant, and unqualified.
So grateful are they, in fact, that they freely enslave themselves to that grace in all of its many dimensions and receive the rewards that come naturally to us via the gift of grace: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)
In the Sermon
In Stephen King’s marvelous parable, Needful Things, Satan comes to a small New England town and opens an antique store. From it, he offers to provide anything his customers need. They don’t realize that, in accepting his “gifts,” they are trading the very essence of who they are, what we would call their soul, and giving Satan control over their lives. The problem that plagues the town is that the people aren’t able to differentiate their needs from their wants — the very definition of modern materialism.
Today, more than 30 years after Patterson and Kim published their book The Day America Told the Truth (above) and after surviving a global pandemic that made many of us rethink the place of material possessions in our lives, we may be struggling with a new kind of materialism.
Traditionally, materialism has been defined in terms of the importance one places on material possessions and generally refers to beliefs that link wealth and consumption with personal achievement and happiness.
This type of philosophical materialism arises from three main sources: 1) The media. Advertisements and other media messages often promote materialistic values and encourage people to buy more. 2) Social comparison. People often compare themselves to others and use possessions as a way to signal their status or success. 3) Psychological factors and/or personality traits like low self-esteem or high anxiety.
While that type of materialism may have temporarily ebbed as the pandemic recedes, no one would seriously suggest that it is on the verge of disappearing completely.
Indeed, Fr Robert McTeigue, SJ, writing in Aleteia.org in January, 2022, believes there may be a more subtle, latent form of materialism that has wormed its way into our post pandemic consciousness.
“We’ve heard both statesmen and churchmen declare, ‘The physical health of our people is our number one priority!’ We’ve heard social commentators bellow: ‘I don’t care about rights! I want to be safe!’ These statements make sense only if physical life, if not the only good, is the greatest good, and physical death the greatest evil.” Perhaps this new type of materialism that holds physical life as a higher good than the spiritual life or even the highest good of all, is the reason Americans spent roughly $28-billion purchasing 16,425,484 guns in 2022. “Such a view cannot endure,” says Fr. McTeigue. “Neither for Christian nor civil communities, for it precludes the reasons for living and dying that the Church has always taught. Communities cannot be built upon the worship of the self.”
While Fr. McTeigure understandably offers a distinctly Catholic response to this subtle, latent form of materialism, I believe that his insights can be broadened and applied for all Christians.
Our first response, he says, is neither to disparage the material nor exaggerate the spiritual.
Our faith expression is a sacramental one “using the physical, the particular, the temporal as conduits to the spiritual, the universal, the eternal. The Incarnation of Christ gives matter in general and human flesh in particular an identity, dignity, and destiny that the pagans could not have imagined, the moderns could not have understood, and the post-moderns cannot even begin to articulate.”
The Christian remedy for the cultural assault of materialism is found in charity, fellowship, and family/community. The remedy is seen at its peak in reverent, corporate worship.
If we Christians are to have an articulate, effective response to the outward or hidden forms of materialism that threaten us not just individually but culturally as well, that response will come from the treasures to be found in the sacraments — protestant and Catholic. The triumph of the Spirit in the 21st century will come through us as we engage in “service and friendship, treating each other as the church has always taught that we in fact are, namely, made in the image and likeness of Christ.”
SECOND THOUGHTS
Sibling Rivalries
by Elena Delhagen
Genesis 25:19-34
I grew up the oldest daughter with three siblings, and the four of us were constantly squabbling when we were younger about how we wanted everything to be equal and balanced. If one of us got a glass of chocolate milk, we all wanted a glass of chocolate milk — and no one had better get even a drop more than the others! Like with all siblings, there was jealousy and competition and a fair amount of sibling rivalry.
We see this exact dynamic play out in the story of Jacob and Esau, told in Genesis 25:19-34. From the very outset, we see the conflict between the two brothers, noted in how they “struggled against each other” in their mother, Rebecca’s, womb. Even at their birth, Jacob grasped Esau’s heel, trying to force his way out of the womb first. Later, as young men, Esau foolishly gives his birthright over to Jacob for a bowl of stew. While Esau is criticized in rabbinic literature for giving up his birthright much too readily, it is also true that Jacob knew his brother was famished and used that opportunity to exploit Esau, thereby procuring what he wanted. Later, the brothers’ mother encourages Jacob to disguise himself as Esau to steal Esau’s blessing from their father, thereby confirming his name’s meaning of “trickster.”
Yet it is Jacob, not Esau, who ends up as the hero of the faith, one through whom YHWH further establishes the Israelite people. It is Jacob who ends up with divine blessing in spite of his deceit. How do we reconcile that tension? And perhaps a question that hits a bit closer to home: How do we, individually and collectively, act like Jacob the trickster? What are the “birthrights” we have procured for ourselves through less-than-honest means?
The United States, less than two weeks ago, proudly celebrated its 247th birthday. There were flags and fireworks and cries of “God Bless America!” all across the country. The United States surely is blessed; it is the world’s richest nation, leading the pack with a whopping $106.0 trillion of global wealth, and makes up nearly a quarter of the world’s economy. It has a strong military and more natural resources, like navigable waterways and ports, than the rest of the world combined. To many, the United States is the hero of the story.
However, we would do well to remember how exactly it is that we got here. Though specific population estimates vary, “the Americas were home to tens of millions of people before the arrival of Columbus. Indigenous American societies ranged from small hunter-gatherer groups to large, technologically advanced polities.… Many indigenous cultures had advanced mathematics and architecture, sophisticated food systems, and a detailed understanding of their surrounding environment.”* These Indigenous people were beloved by God, part of our human family. As Europeans began their colonization of the New World, they shaped virtually every aspect of the land and its people, including goods and ideas but also disease and genocide. As the demand for labor to cultivate America’s cash crops grew, so did racial and religious segmentation, giving birth to the era of slavery. Slavery, particularly the cotton slavery that existed from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the Civil War, was a business with the sole focus of maximizing profits. Enslaved people — our brothers and sisters in the family of God — became machines that fueled the business, propelling the United States forward.
Yes, America is most assuredly blessed — but look at the cost. Look at what we did to our siblings to get here. We, as present-day Americans, are reaping the benefits of a “birthright” that we stole. I am not suggesting at all that America ought not to be celebrated, but what I am saying is let’s at least be honest and tell the whole story. We will never be able to move forward as a country if we’re not honest about our past.
Yet this is not only an American “problem.” Other worldly superpowers are engaging in the same kind of behavior by going after what they want by any means necessary. Russia continues its attack on Ukraine, threatening their country and their sovereignty, in an effort to amass more land for itself and deny Ukraine its statehood. Modern-day Israel is engaged in a brutal, bloody, decades-long conflict with Palestine over territorial claims. Nations rage against nations; brothers rage against brothers. All of it begs the question, “What belongs to who? Is it right to enjoy the fruit of what we have never harvested? And why do we, as a species, have such a hard time keeping our hands off what isn’t ours to begin with?”
Power — the promise of blessing — always carries with it the potential to corrupt. Jacob so desperately wanted the birthright and blessing of his brother because it carried with it the power and privileges that were awarded to first-born sons in the Ancient Near East. His crafty use of deception got him what he wanted, yes, but at what cost? In later chapters of Genesis, as Jacob and Esau’s story unfolds, we learn that Jacob flees in terror, essentially living most of his life as a fugitive from his family. We know that it was God’s plan for Jacob to succeed Isaac, but Jacob used deception, theft, and his own abilities to secure the rights he coveted rather than trusting in YHWH to keep the promise. As a result, the family went through a deep, painful alienation that lasted for years. Jacob believed in God’s promise, but he failed to live in faith in light of the promise. The blessings were meant to be gifts to be received, not plunder to be stolen. As such, Jacob’s signature moment in his story comes during his wrestling match with the mysterious stranger revealed to be none other than God (Genesis 32-24-30). Instead of craftily procuring the blessing, Jacob is forced to call out in his weakness for it — something he had never before done. But it was there that God blessed him.
What blessings might we unexpectedly find if we dropped it all, our hunger for power and privilege, fortune and fame, a legacy and lineage, the false gods of consumption and consumerism? What would happen if we, like the later chapters of Jacob’s life, confessed our wrongs and repented of them, trying to make things right wherever we could? A recent article I read reported that a Dutch museum has begun the process of repatriating nearly 500 objects looted during colonial times back to Sri Lanka and Indonesia. In a statement released by the Dutch Secretary of State, the nation acknowledged that it was giving back “objects that should have never been brought to the Netherlands.” In the United States, the National African-American Reparations Commission was formed in 2015 with a “common commitment to fight for reparatory justice, compensation and restoration of African American communities that were plundered by the historical crimes of slavery, segregation, and colonialism and that continue to be victimized by the legacies of slavery and American apartheid.”
As Christ-followers, we are tasked with joining him in his ministry of reconciliation and restoration. We cannot do this if we’re unwilling to do the work of closely examining where the cracks are. Our hope is in our God who faithfully redeems all things. Though Jacob’s story begins with trickery and deceit, it ends with honor. May it be so for our individual and collective stories as well.
* https://online.norwich.edu/academic-programs/resources/colonization-of-the-new-world
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Genesis 25:19-34
A Bad Ten Minutes
It only takes ten minutes to make a decision that will change the course of your life — just ask Esau. Researcher Jens Ludwig finds that Esau is not alone in making bad choices with lasting impact.
Ludwig says, “A few years ago, I was visiting the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Chicago, which is where the teenagers deemed “highest risk” are held while their cases go through court. A staff supervisor told me he always tells the kids they’re not bad people, they’re just people who made bad decisions during enormously difficult situations. Or, as he puts it to them: “If I could give you back just 10 minutes of your lives, none of you would be in here.” Ludwig adds that we can reduce gun violence by teaching people to make better decisions in the crucial ten minutes.
He suggests, “Consider an exercise practiced in one of Chicago’s most effective violence intervention programs, Becoming a Man (BAM). Teens are paired up; one is given a rubber ball, and the other is given 30 seconds to get the ball out of his partner’s fist. Inevitably, the two teens end up on the ground, wrestling and fighting to get — or keep — the ball. After the teens switch roles and the same struggle occurs, the BAM counselor asks why no one just asked their partner for the ball. They usually look surprised and say something along the lines of, “The other guy would have thought I’m a wuss.” The counselor asks the partner if that’s true. The usual answer: “No, I would have given it to him. It’s just a stupid ball.” This exercise, called “the fist,” doesn’t teach participants to be better people. Instead, it gives them the tools they need to address the actual problem: the situation…Essentially, they learn to evaluate their automatic responses…It’s about creating the situations that give young people those key 10 minutes back.”
I wonder how many times Esau wished to get back the ten minutes when he gave away his birthright.
* * *
Genesis 25:19-34
Patience
A dose of patience would have changed the whole Esau and Jacob story. If Esau had cultivated some restraint, the path of his life would have gone differently. Researchers are now saying that patience isn’t just a virtue, it’s a life skill that we can develop, as “patience is essential to daily life—and might be key to a happy one. Having patience means being able to wait calmly in the face of frustration or adversity, so anywhere there is frustration or adversity—i.e., nearly everywhere—we have the opportunity to practice it…Recent studies have found that, sure enough, good things really do come to those who wait.”
No surprise — “patient people tend to experience less depression and negative emotions, perhaps because they can cope better with upsetting or stressful situations. They also rate themselves as more mindful and feel more gratitude, more connection to mankind and to the universe, and a greater sense of abundance…One type [of patience] is interpersonal patience, which doesn’t involve waiting but simply facing annoying people with equanimity.” A study of nearly 400 undergraduates “found that those who are more patient toward others also tend to be more hopeful and more satisfied with their lives. Another type of patience involves waiting out life’s hardships without frustration or despair—think of the unemployed person who persistently fills out job applications or the cancer patient waiting for her treatment to work. Unsurprisingly, in [the research] this type of courageous patience was linked to more hope. Finally, patience over daily hassles—traffic jams, long lines at the grocery store, a malfunctioning computer—seems to go along with good mental health. In particular, people who have this type of patience are more satisfied with life and less depressed.”
If only Esau had the patience to wait a little bit longer for his dinner!
* * *
Genesis 25:19-34
Siblings
Like Jacob and Esau, Elizabeth Lesser and her sister had a complicated sibling relationship. When her sister came out of remission from a rare blood cancer, the only treatment left for her was a bone marrow transplant. Against the odds, they found a match — Elizabeth herself.
Lesser says, "In a sibling society, there's lots of things. There's love and there's friendship and there's protection. But there's also jealousy and competition and rejection and attack. In siblinghood, that's where we start assembling many of those first layers that cover our soul."
Still, the transplant might not work, as Lesser says, "her body might reject my cells. They call this rejection or attack, and both could kill her. Rejection. Attack. Those words had a familiar ring in the context of being siblings. My sister and I had a long history of love, but we also had a long history of rejection and attack, from minor misunderstandings to bigger betrayals."
So, Lesser proposed that they go to therapy together. "What if we left the bone marrow transplant up to the doctors, but did something that we later came to call our "soul marrow transplant?" What if we faced any pain we had caused each other, and instead of rejection or attack, could we listen?”
In therapy, they “looked at and released years of stories and assumptions about each other and blame and shame until all that was left was love. People have said I was brave to undergo the bone marrow harvest, but I don't think so. What felt brave to me was that other kind of harvest and transplant, the soul marrow transplant, getting emotionally naked with another human being, putting aside pride and defensiveness, lifting the layers and sharing with each other our vulnerable souls.”
After the transplant, they spent lots of time together, as if they were young girls again. Lesser says, “My sister said the year after transplant was the best year of her life, which was surprising. She suffered so much. But she said life never tasted as sweet, and that because of the soul-baring and the truth-telling we had done with each other, she became more unapologetically herself with everyone…The night before my sister died, I sat by her bedside. She was so small and thin. I could see the blood pulsing in her neck. It was my blood, her blood, our blood. When she died, part of me would die, too.”
Lesser adds, “My sister left me with so many things, and I'm going to leave you now with just one of them. You don't have to wait for a life-or-death situation to clean up the relationships that matter to you, to offer the marrow of your soul and to seek it in another. We can all do this.” Jacob and Esau come to this point of understanding eventually, too.
* * *
Romans 8:1-11
Spirit, Not Spiritual
The followers of Jesus, Paul writes to the churches in Rome, “walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” For Eugene Peterson, this is a transformation of our whole lives. He complains that we use the word “spiritual” too narrowly, and forget that life in God changes us fully.
"You’re taking something, putting a name on it, “spiritual,” which means it’s defined. The whole world is spiritual, and the word “spirit” is “wind,” it’s “breath.” Well, people are breathing all over the place; they’re all spiritual beings, but if you have a name for it, you can compartmentalize it, and that just wreaks havoc with the whole thing. Spirituality is — and that’s why I don’t like the word, because it’s so easy to just say, “Well, he’s such a spiritual person. She’s such a spiritual person.” Well, nonsense. You are, too. And I guess that’s where I think the church has a place, which is maybe more important than it’s ever been. But it’s — done well, there’s no spirituality that you can define." (from an interview with Krista Tippett, On Being)
As Paul reminds the early church, and us, we “are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in us.”
* * *
Romans 8:1-11
Fleshy Phone Use
As Paul writes to the early believers, “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” One way that our fleshly nature constantly intrudes on our lives is the way our devices capture our attention, and hold onto it.
Catherine Price (in her book The Power of Fun) notes how distracted we are, saying that “in many cases our habits have become so extreme that they look a lot like a behavioral addiction. This isn’t entirely surprising: according to Robert Lustig, MD, emeritus professor in pediatric endocrinology at the University of California San Francisco and author of The Hacking of the American Mind, their ability to light up our dopamine systems…means that “phones affect our brains in the same way as drugs.” And we certainly use our phones like drugs: to give us jolts of pleasure and help us avoid emotional pain. But yet we’re reluctant (or perhaps unable) to acknowledge the depth of the problem because it is so widespread."
We’re losing our ability to set our minds on the Spirit in our state of addicted, constant distraction.
* * * * * *
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Psalm 119:105-112
A lamp to one’s feet
Psalm 119:105. Your word is a lamp to my feet / and a light to my path is frequently used as a prayer for illumination. It is also often rendered in stained glass, a reminder that God’s written word is there to instruct and guide believers. It is really the only portion of today’s psalm reading that stands out in the longest psalm, a protracted work praising the Lord for instruction, law, wisdom, counsel, guidance, commandments, etc.
It is wise to keep these words in perspective and proportion. The word is a lamp to one’s feet, a light to one’s path. Enough light to show a safe place to put one’s next step. The instruction of the psalm is not a road map, beacon or headlight. It’s close to the ground, enlightening only for a short distance. But since it doesn’t go away, the light of God’s instruction will be there for our next step, and the one after that and the one after that….
* * *
Genesis 25:19-34
Isaac, a bit player
For all the prophecy and drama around Isaac’s birth and non-sacrifice, he disappears from the story pretty quickly, leaving the stage for his sons, Esau and Jacob. “Laughter” begat “Hairy, red one,” and “Heel.” Heel went on to become, “He struggles with God,” so there’s that.
* * *
Genesis 25:19-34
What’s in a name? Esau
“Esau” is later known as “Seir” and “Edom,” all of which are geographic names for the same place. Se-ir, שעיר in Hebrew is very close to se-ar, שער , Hebrew for “hair.” After all, Esau was a hairy man (Genesis 27:11, NRSV).
* * *
Genesis 25:19-34
What’s in a name? Jacob
The Hebrew name Jacob,יעקב, is a play on words with the Hebrew for “heel” עקב . The verb “heel” means “overreach,” precisely what Jacob did from the moment of his birth.
One could also contend that “Jacob” means “He grabs the heel,” which is similar in meaning to the English idiom, “You’re pulling my leg,” that is, you’re trying to trick me.
* * *
Genesis 25:19-34
Caricatures
The extreme contrasts between the twins point to a humorous, exaggerated reading of this text. The bookish, nerdy, momma’s boy Jacob versus the macho, he-man Esau. The chef versus the one who gobbled down his food. The boys, like a lot of brothers, grew more alike. The contrast was most obvious when they lived in the same household.
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: Your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
All: We have sworn to observe your righteous ordinances.
One: Accept our offerings of praise and teach us your ordinances.
All: Help us to number our days so that we do not forget your law.
One: Your decrees are our heritage forever and the joy of our hearts.
All: Incline our hearts to perform your statutes forever.
OR
One: Praise is due to you, O God and to you shall vows be performed,
All: O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come.
One: When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our sins.
All: Happy are those whom you draw into your presence.
One: You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it.
All: You crown the year with bounty and it overflows with richness.
OR
One: God in joy invites us to partake of creation’s abundance.
All: We rejoice with all that God’s good earth provides.
One: God in love invites us to share those gifts with others.
All: We gladly share God’s gifts with those we love.
One: God in compassion invites us to share the gifts with all.
All: In humility we will share God’s abundance with all God’s people.
Hymns and Songs
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
UMH: 64/65
H82: 362
PH: 138
GTG: 1
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELW: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT: 26
Renew: 204
From All That Dwell Below the Skies
UMH: 101
H82: 380
PH: 229
GTG: 327
NCH: 27
CH: 49
LBW: 550
AMEC: 69
STLT: 381
I’ll Praise My Maker While I’ve Breath
UMH: 60
H82: 429
PH: 253
GTG: 806
CH: 20
O Jesus, I Have Promised
UMH: 396
H82: 655
PH: 388/389
GTG: 724/725
NCH: 493
CH: 612
LBW: 503
ELW: 810
W&P: 458
AMEC: 280
Jesus Calls Us
UMH: 398
H82: 549/550
GTG: 720
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171/172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELW: 696
W&P: 345
AMEC: 238
Seek Ye First
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
GTG: 175
CH: 354
W&P: 349
Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
GTG: 343
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELW: 719
W&P: 591
AMEC: 561
All Who Love and Service Your City
UMH: 433
H82: 570/571
PH: 413
GTG: 351
CH: 670
LBW: 436
ELW: 724
W&P: 625
O God of Every Nation
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
GTG: 756
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELW: 713
W&P: 626
Open My Eyes, That I May See
UMH: 454
PH: 324
GTG: 451
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
Create in Me a Clean Heart
CCB: 54
Renew: 181/182
Turn You Eyes upon Jesus
CCB: 55
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who created an abundant world for all your creatures:
Grant us the wisdom to share your gifts with others
so that we may live in and through your Spirit;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God of abundant creation. You have blessed us with an abundant world and the opportunity to share your precious gifts. Help us to use your gifts wisely so that we may live in and through your Spirit. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our greed that denies your gifts to others and destroys our spirits.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have taken the gifts you have offered for all your children and hoarded them for ourselves. We have taken far more than we need and often more than we even want. We have looked with disdain on those without as we blame them for their lack while absolving ourselves of our selfishness. We have robbed them of not only material goods but we have taken their dignity. Forgive us our shameful greed and awaken us to your Spirit that is calling us to share your gifts and to feast with all your children at your heavenly banquet. Amen.
One: God is generous and lavish with good gifts, including forgiveness. Receive God’s grace and share it and God’s gifts with others.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory to you, O God of creation. Out of the wonder of your sharing nature you have created us to be like you.
(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 taken the gifts you have offered for all your children and hoarded them for ourselves. We have taken far more than we need and often more than we even want. We have looked with disdain on those without as we blame them for their lack while absolving ourselves of our selfishness. We have robbed them of not only material goods but we have taken their dignity. Forgive us our shameful greed and awaken us to your Spirit that is calling us to share your gifts and to feast with all your children at your heavenly banquet.
We give you thanks for the multitude of gifts you have presented to us as your children. We thank you for the beauty of creation and for its abundance. We thank you for the many folks you have placed within our reach so that we may know them and share your gifts and your love with them. We thank you for those who have served as models of sharing for us and for those who have shown us the path of generosity.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all who are in need this day. We pray for those who suffer because they have been denied the good gifts of your creation. We pray for those whose lives are cut short because they do not have sufficient nutrition, clean water, or shelter. We pray for those who cut themselves off from your love in order to amass more of your gifts while denying those gifts to others.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Someone Bless These Seeds We Sow
by Chris Keating
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Let’s resist the urge — well intentioned as it may be — to create a morality tale for children from the seeds of Jesus’ parable of the Sower. We’re accustomed to this line of interpretation, especially since Matthew spells out an allegorical framework for us in verses 18-23. Recall that parables are stories which, by definition, are tales “thrown alongside” us and are intended to surprise, challenge, or broaden our understanding of the kingdom. The seeds of parables land in our lives, where they are reinterpreted through the experiences, situations, and contexts of our own lives.
Let’s listen to see if we might be able to allow the seeds Jesus is broadcasting to flourish within the lives of our church and children.
How do seeds grow? Try the tried-and-true cotton and bean seed experiment using clear plastic cups. (Check out these instructions.) Talk about the different ways seeds take root, grow, and become mature plants.
Since many of our summer gardens are well on their way to producing luscious tomatoes, bushels of zucchini, and more, you may have a ready-made illustration of how seeds grow. Or maybe you have (as I do) a tray of seeds you planted back in May with plenty of hope and good intentions. Yet seeds cannot grow on good intentions alone! Bring in a couple of trays of seedlings: some that are flourishing and some that are failing. (Another option is to visit the “last chance” sales racks of your local garden and home stores. Often they have a few deeply discounted plants that are gasping for water and a second chance.) Ask the children to imagine with you the sorts of things that it takes for seeds to grow into mature plants?
One option would be to invite the children and congregation to think about how they are like seeds. We require resources just as seeds do — light, food, rest, and good “soil.” These things are provided to us by our families, teachers, churches, and friends. Sadly, not everyone has this chance. Many children do not have access to good food, or a safe place to thrive. Yet God loves each and every “seed,” and hopes that all seeds will grow into their potential. How might we help some people who do not have the resources they need?
Another option for Sunday would be to either sing or listen to the “Garden Song” recorded by artists like Peter Seeger and John Denver. Written by David Mallett, the song begins, “Inch by inch, row by row…” It’s an easy to learn song that invites God’s blessing on the seeds we sow.
Finally, I offer the 100% true, absolutely accurate tale of the watermelon seed that grew in the church sidewalk. Some years ago, we ended a summer sports camp with a watermelon seed spitting contest. I had my misgivings about this, but the camp director assured me it would be a big hit. After offering the campers big slices of cold, juicy watermelon, the kids were invited to see how far they could make the seeds fly. This was well before the pandemic when we were less concerned about spreading both watermelon seeds and virus particles! As I recall, some fourth-grade boy blew away the competition, and a good time was had by all.
Fast forward to the beginning of September. On the way to my car, I saw something growing in a crack along the sidewalk. I could not tell for sure, but it clearly was not a weed. Sure enough: a few days later it had grown some more. It was unmistakable. We had a lonely watermelon plant growing in between the cracks of our sidewalk.
None of the hundreds of other seeds made it. Some were swept up at the end of camp. Others were washed away by the rain. Maybe one or two had tried to grow but didn’t have enough soil. There was only one plant that succeeded.
That year we had a wonderful and surprising watermelon harvest at church — just a few months later than normal.
Let anyone who has ears, hear!
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 16, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 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.
- Needful Things by Dean Feldmeyer — Wanting things is fine, as long as we are honest about the difference between want and need.
- Second Thoughts: Sibling Rivalries by Elena Delhagen based on Genesis 25:19-34.
- Sermon illustrations by Tom Willadsen, Mary Austin.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children's sermon: Someone Bless These Seeds We Sow by Chris Keating based on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23.
Needful Thingsby Dean Feldmeyer
Romans 8:1-11
About 70% of Americans say that eating out is too expensive. Nevertheless, they spend about 49% of their total annual food budget of $6,000 per household eating out. That’s just over $70-billion each month. (blog.gitnux.com)
On average, Americans spend between $244 and $313 on cosmetics every month. (zippia.com) They also spend about $9-billion on aesthetic cosmetic surgery every year. (plasticsurgery.org)
We spend about $28-billion per year on guns. (forbes.com) The average American spends between $62 and $136 per year on jewelry (statista.com), $161 per month on clothing (businessdit.com), and about $1,500 per month on other non-essential (luxury) items. (usatoday.com).
We spend about $646 billion on outdoor recreation, about 1.8% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (fs.usda.gov)
All told, Americans spent $64.8 billion on luxury (non-essential) items (28% of the entire global luxury market) in 2020, putting the US ahead of China ($51.8 billion) and Japan ($21.2 billion).
And there’s nothing wrong with any of that…unless we let other people suffer so we can have more luxuries because we think we are somehow entitled to them and they will somehow give our lives authenticity and meaning.
If that’s what we’re seeking, Paul suggests that we look in another direction.
In the News/Culture
In the 1987 movie, “Wall Street,” Michael Douglas played billionaire Gordon Gekko who made his money by buying companies and then cannibalizing them, selling off the parts to other companies. In doing so, he put thousands of people out of work and didn’t care, as long as he made money. Douglas won a best actor Oscar for playing the part but most people remember his performance for one speech:
“The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.”
It was said that, with that short speech, director/co-writer Oliver Stone, captured the mood of an entire decade, a mood of arrogance, avarice, rapacity, cupidity, and greed. In the 1980’s a new conservatism arose in social, economic and political life, characterized by the policies of US President Ronald Reagan. Mostly white, male Young Urban Professionals (YUPpies) made money and spent it lavishly.
What many who saw Stone’s film failed to realize was that, in the end, Gordon Gekko fails and goes to prison for insider trading. His greed is his downfall. It took a long time, however, for that lesson to sink into the American psyche.
In 1991, best-selling author James Patterson teamed up with Peter Kim to write a book based on a series of surveys that were taken to measure the moral temperature of America. The book was called The Day America Told the Truth: What People Really Believe About Everything that Really Matters.
Here are some of the surprises that came out in the studies:
When asked what they would be willing to do for $10,000,000? Two-thirds of Americans polled would agree to at least one and some to several of the following:
- Abandon their entire family (25%)
- Abandon their church (25%)
- Become prostitutes for a week or more (23%)
- Give up their American citizenships (16%)
- Leave their spouses (16%)
- Withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)
- Kill a stranger (7%)
- Put their children up for adoption (3%)
Materialism, what Paul called, living “according to the flesh,” is the very antithesis of the life we are called, as Christians, to live.
In the Scripture
Having, in chapter 7, thoroughly described life lived in the flesh or law and the misery to which such a life leads, Paul now offers, in chapter 8, an alternative, namely, life in the spirit. Flesh and spirit are not, as Paul Achtemeier notes in the Interpretation commentary, different parts of human nature, but rather two different ways of living.
To oversimplify Paul’s argument, life lived in the flesh/law is life enslaved to rules and the constant attempt to live according to them, or the attempt to circumvent them. In either case, the goal is to make sure that God has no choice but to accept us into God’s kingdom. We’ve flawlessly obeyed all the laws, now God has no choice, right?
Only, says Paul, that just leads to further estrangement from God (sin). We have attempted to make ourselves more powerful, wiser, and trickier than the Lord of history and, in doing so, we have committed the lowest form of idolatry, that sin wherein we have become our own gods.
The law, which God created as a guide or a lamp to illuminate the appropriate way to live in response to the grace of God has become perverted by human beings who see it as a way of purchasing God’s grace. Thus, the instrument that was created to be a response to grace has become a source of estrangement and sin.
The alternative, which Paul delineates in chapter 8, is to live life according to the spirit.
Those who live according to the flesh/law set their minds on things of the flesh/law, he says. They seek out things of the flesh/law in the hope that those things will give them salvation from the estrangement and separation that plagues human existence.
They seek to be obedient to the law because they see obedience as the currency by which intimacy with God is purchased. They seek to be wealthy because wealth is a sign to the world that God loves them and has favored them, rewarded them for the good life they live. They seek to be perfect in ritual because only the perfect ritual will be sufficient to buy God’s favor.
Unfortunately, for them, the only reward they actually receive is further estrangement, even unto that final estrangement, death or oblivion: “Immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.” (Galatians 5:19-21)
Those who live by the spirit that God has given to us as an act of love and grace are grateful for that gift and express their gratitude by trying to live lives that are upright and blameless. They realize, however, that regardless of whether they succeed or fail in that pursuit, God’s love is neither increased nor diminished. It is always thorough, complete, constant, and unqualified.
So grateful are they, in fact, that they freely enslave themselves to that grace in all of its many dimensions and receive the rewards that come naturally to us via the gift of grace: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)
In the Sermon
In Stephen King’s marvelous parable, Needful Things, Satan comes to a small New England town and opens an antique store. From it, he offers to provide anything his customers need. They don’t realize that, in accepting his “gifts,” they are trading the very essence of who they are, what we would call their soul, and giving Satan control over their lives. The problem that plagues the town is that the people aren’t able to differentiate their needs from their wants — the very definition of modern materialism.
Today, more than 30 years after Patterson and Kim published their book The Day America Told the Truth (above) and after surviving a global pandemic that made many of us rethink the place of material possessions in our lives, we may be struggling with a new kind of materialism.
Traditionally, materialism has been defined in terms of the importance one places on material possessions and generally refers to beliefs that link wealth and consumption with personal achievement and happiness.
This type of philosophical materialism arises from three main sources: 1) The media. Advertisements and other media messages often promote materialistic values and encourage people to buy more. 2) Social comparison. People often compare themselves to others and use possessions as a way to signal their status or success. 3) Psychological factors and/or personality traits like low self-esteem or high anxiety.
While that type of materialism may have temporarily ebbed as the pandemic recedes, no one would seriously suggest that it is on the verge of disappearing completely.
Indeed, Fr Robert McTeigue, SJ, writing in Aleteia.org in January, 2022, believes there may be a more subtle, latent form of materialism that has wormed its way into our post pandemic consciousness.
“We’ve heard both statesmen and churchmen declare, ‘The physical health of our people is our number one priority!’ We’ve heard social commentators bellow: ‘I don’t care about rights! I want to be safe!’ These statements make sense only if physical life, if not the only good, is the greatest good, and physical death the greatest evil.” Perhaps this new type of materialism that holds physical life as a higher good than the spiritual life or even the highest good of all, is the reason Americans spent roughly $28-billion purchasing 16,425,484 guns in 2022. “Such a view cannot endure,” says Fr. McTeigue. “Neither for Christian nor civil communities, for it precludes the reasons for living and dying that the Church has always taught. Communities cannot be built upon the worship of the self.”
While Fr. McTeigure understandably offers a distinctly Catholic response to this subtle, latent form of materialism, I believe that his insights can be broadened and applied for all Christians.
Our first response, he says, is neither to disparage the material nor exaggerate the spiritual.
Our faith expression is a sacramental one “using the physical, the particular, the temporal as conduits to the spiritual, the universal, the eternal. The Incarnation of Christ gives matter in general and human flesh in particular an identity, dignity, and destiny that the pagans could not have imagined, the moderns could not have understood, and the post-moderns cannot even begin to articulate.”
The Christian remedy for the cultural assault of materialism is found in charity, fellowship, and family/community. The remedy is seen at its peak in reverent, corporate worship.
If we Christians are to have an articulate, effective response to the outward or hidden forms of materialism that threaten us not just individually but culturally as well, that response will come from the treasures to be found in the sacraments — protestant and Catholic. The triumph of the Spirit in the 21st century will come through us as we engage in “service and friendship, treating each other as the church has always taught that we in fact are, namely, made in the image and likeness of Christ.”
SECOND THOUGHTSSibling Rivalries
by Elena Delhagen
Genesis 25:19-34
I grew up the oldest daughter with three siblings, and the four of us were constantly squabbling when we were younger about how we wanted everything to be equal and balanced. If one of us got a glass of chocolate milk, we all wanted a glass of chocolate milk — and no one had better get even a drop more than the others! Like with all siblings, there was jealousy and competition and a fair amount of sibling rivalry.
We see this exact dynamic play out in the story of Jacob and Esau, told in Genesis 25:19-34. From the very outset, we see the conflict between the two brothers, noted in how they “struggled against each other” in their mother, Rebecca’s, womb. Even at their birth, Jacob grasped Esau’s heel, trying to force his way out of the womb first. Later, as young men, Esau foolishly gives his birthright over to Jacob for a bowl of stew. While Esau is criticized in rabbinic literature for giving up his birthright much too readily, it is also true that Jacob knew his brother was famished and used that opportunity to exploit Esau, thereby procuring what he wanted. Later, the brothers’ mother encourages Jacob to disguise himself as Esau to steal Esau’s blessing from their father, thereby confirming his name’s meaning of “trickster.”
Yet it is Jacob, not Esau, who ends up as the hero of the faith, one through whom YHWH further establishes the Israelite people. It is Jacob who ends up with divine blessing in spite of his deceit. How do we reconcile that tension? And perhaps a question that hits a bit closer to home: How do we, individually and collectively, act like Jacob the trickster? What are the “birthrights” we have procured for ourselves through less-than-honest means?
The United States, less than two weeks ago, proudly celebrated its 247th birthday. There were flags and fireworks and cries of “God Bless America!” all across the country. The United States surely is blessed; it is the world’s richest nation, leading the pack with a whopping $106.0 trillion of global wealth, and makes up nearly a quarter of the world’s economy. It has a strong military and more natural resources, like navigable waterways and ports, than the rest of the world combined. To many, the United States is the hero of the story.
However, we would do well to remember how exactly it is that we got here. Though specific population estimates vary, “the Americas were home to tens of millions of people before the arrival of Columbus. Indigenous American societies ranged from small hunter-gatherer groups to large, technologically advanced polities.… Many indigenous cultures had advanced mathematics and architecture, sophisticated food systems, and a detailed understanding of their surrounding environment.”* These Indigenous people were beloved by God, part of our human family. As Europeans began their colonization of the New World, they shaped virtually every aspect of the land and its people, including goods and ideas but also disease and genocide. As the demand for labor to cultivate America’s cash crops grew, so did racial and religious segmentation, giving birth to the era of slavery. Slavery, particularly the cotton slavery that existed from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the Civil War, was a business with the sole focus of maximizing profits. Enslaved people — our brothers and sisters in the family of God — became machines that fueled the business, propelling the United States forward.
Yes, America is most assuredly blessed — but look at the cost. Look at what we did to our siblings to get here. We, as present-day Americans, are reaping the benefits of a “birthright” that we stole. I am not suggesting at all that America ought not to be celebrated, but what I am saying is let’s at least be honest and tell the whole story. We will never be able to move forward as a country if we’re not honest about our past.
Yet this is not only an American “problem.” Other worldly superpowers are engaging in the same kind of behavior by going after what they want by any means necessary. Russia continues its attack on Ukraine, threatening their country and their sovereignty, in an effort to amass more land for itself and deny Ukraine its statehood. Modern-day Israel is engaged in a brutal, bloody, decades-long conflict with Palestine over territorial claims. Nations rage against nations; brothers rage against brothers. All of it begs the question, “What belongs to who? Is it right to enjoy the fruit of what we have never harvested? And why do we, as a species, have such a hard time keeping our hands off what isn’t ours to begin with?”
Power — the promise of blessing — always carries with it the potential to corrupt. Jacob so desperately wanted the birthright and blessing of his brother because it carried with it the power and privileges that were awarded to first-born sons in the Ancient Near East. His crafty use of deception got him what he wanted, yes, but at what cost? In later chapters of Genesis, as Jacob and Esau’s story unfolds, we learn that Jacob flees in terror, essentially living most of his life as a fugitive from his family. We know that it was God’s plan for Jacob to succeed Isaac, but Jacob used deception, theft, and his own abilities to secure the rights he coveted rather than trusting in YHWH to keep the promise. As a result, the family went through a deep, painful alienation that lasted for years. Jacob believed in God’s promise, but he failed to live in faith in light of the promise. The blessings were meant to be gifts to be received, not plunder to be stolen. As such, Jacob’s signature moment in his story comes during his wrestling match with the mysterious stranger revealed to be none other than God (Genesis 32-24-30). Instead of craftily procuring the blessing, Jacob is forced to call out in his weakness for it — something he had never before done. But it was there that God blessed him.
What blessings might we unexpectedly find if we dropped it all, our hunger for power and privilege, fortune and fame, a legacy and lineage, the false gods of consumption and consumerism? What would happen if we, like the later chapters of Jacob’s life, confessed our wrongs and repented of them, trying to make things right wherever we could? A recent article I read reported that a Dutch museum has begun the process of repatriating nearly 500 objects looted during colonial times back to Sri Lanka and Indonesia. In a statement released by the Dutch Secretary of State, the nation acknowledged that it was giving back “objects that should have never been brought to the Netherlands.” In the United States, the National African-American Reparations Commission was formed in 2015 with a “common commitment to fight for reparatory justice, compensation and restoration of African American communities that were plundered by the historical crimes of slavery, segregation, and colonialism and that continue to be victimized by the legacies of slavery and American apartheid.”
As Christ-followers, we are tasked with joining him in his ministry of reconciliation and restoration. We cannot do this if we’re unwilling to do the work of closely examining where the cracks are. Our hope is in our God who faithfully redeems all things. Though Jacob’s story begins with trickery and deceit, it ends with honor. May it be so for our individual and collective stories as well.
* https://online.norwich.edu/academic-programs/resources/colonization-of-the-new-world
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:Genesis 25:19-34
A Bad Ten Minutes
It only takes ten minutes to make a decision that will change the course of your life — just ask Esau. Researcher Jens Ludwig finds that Esau is not alone in making bad choices with lasting impact.
Ludwig says, “A few years ago, I was visiting the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Chicago, which is where the teenagers deemed “highest risk” are held while their cases go through court. A staff supervisor told me he always tells the kids they’re not bad people, they’re just people who made bad decisions during enormously difficult situations. Or, as he puts it to them: “If I could give you back just 10 minutes of your lives, none of you would be in here.” Ludwig adds that we can reduce gun violence by teaching people to make better decisions in the crucial ten minutes.
He suggests, “Consider an exercise practiced in one of Chicago’s most effective violence intervention programs, Becoming a Man (BAM). Teens are paired up; one is given a rubber ball, and the other is given 30 seconds to get the ball out of his partner’s fist. Inevitably, the two teens end up on the ground, wrestling and fighting to get — or keep — the ball. After the teens switch roles and the same struggle occurs, the BAM counselor asks why no one just asked their partner for the ball. They usually look surprised and say something along the lines of, “The other guy would have thought I’m a wuss.” The counselor asks the partner if that’s true. The usual answer: “No, I would have given it to him. It’s just a stupid ball.” This exercise, called “the fist,” doesn’t teach participants to be better people. Instead, it gives them the tools they need to address the actual problem: the situation…Essentially, they learn to evaluate their automatic responses…It’s about creating the situations that give young people those key 10 minutes back.”
I wonder how many times Esau wished to get back the ten minutes when he gave away his birthright.
* * *
Genesis 25:19-34
Patience
A dose of patience would have changed the whole Esau and Jacob story. If Esau had cultivated some restraint, the path of his life would have gone differently. Researchers are now saying that patience isn’t just a virtue, it’s a life skill that we can develop, as “patience is essential to daily life—and might be key to a happy one. Having patience means being able to wait calmly in the face of frustration or adversity, so anywhere there is frustration or adversity—i.e., nearly everywhere—we have the opportunity to practice it…Recent studies have found that, sure enough, good things really do come to those who wait.”
No surprise — “patient people tend to experience less depression and negative emotions, perhaps because they can cope better with upsetting or stressful situations. They also rate themselves as more mindful and feel more gratitude, more connection to mankind and to the universe, and a greater sense of abundance…One type [of patience] is interpersonal patience, which doesn’t involve waiting but simply facing annoying people with equanimity.” A study of nearly 400 undergraduates “found that those who are more patient toward others also tend to be more hopeful and more satisfied with their lives. Another type of patience involves waiting out life’s hardships without frustration or despair—think of the unemployed person who persistently fills out job applications or the cancer patient waiting for her treatment to work. Unsurprisingly, in [the research] this type of courageous patience was linked to more hope. Finally, patience over daily hassles—traffic jams, long lines at the grocery store, a malfunctioning computer—seems to go along with good mental health. In particular, people who have this type of patience are more satisfied with life and less depressed.”
If only Esau had the patience to wait a little bit longer for his dinner!
* * *
Genesis 25:19-34
Siblings
Like Jacob and Esau, Elizabeth Lesser and her sister had a complicated sibling relationship. When her sister came out of remission from a rare blood cancer, the only treatment left for her was a bone marrow transplant. Against the odds, they found a match — Elizabeth herself.
Lesser says, "In a sibling society, there's lots of things. There's love and there's friendship and there's protection. But there's also jealousy and competition and rejection and attack. In siblinghood, that's where we start assembling many of those first layers that cover our soul."
Still, the transplant might not work, as Lesser says, "her body might reject my cells. They call this rejection or attack, and both could kill her. Rejection. Attack. Those words had a familiar ring in the context of being siblings. My sister and I had a long history of love, but we also had a long history of rejection and attack, from minor misunderstandings to bigger betrayals."
So, Lesser proposed that they go to therapy together. "What if we left the bone marrow transplant up to the doctors, but did something that we later came to call our "soul marrow transplant?" What if we faced any pain we had caused each other, and instead of rejection or attack, could we listen?”
In therapy, they “looked at and released years of stories and assumptions about each other and blame and shame until all that was left was love. People have said I was brave to undergo the bone marrow harvest, but I don't think so. What felt brave to me was that other kind of harvest and transplant, the soul marrow transplant, getting emotionally naked with another human being, putting aside pride and defensiveness, lifting the layers and sharing with each other our vulnerable souls.”
After the transplant, they spent lots of time together, as if they were young girls again. Lesser says, “My sister said the year after transplant was the best year of her life, which was surprising. She suffered so much. But she said life never tasted as sweet, and that because of the soul-baring and the truth-telling we had done with each other, she became more unapologetically herself with everyone…The night before my sister died, I sat by her bedside. She was so small and thin. I could see the blood pulsing in her neck. It was my blood, her blood, our blood. When she died, part of me would die, too.”
Lesser adds, “My sister left me with so many things, and I'm going to leave you now with just one of them. You don't have to wait for a life-or-death situation to clean up the relationships that matter to you, to offer the marrow of your soul and to seek it in another. We can all do this.” Jacob and Esau come to this point of understanding eventually, too.
* * *
Romans 8:1-11
Spirit, Not Spiritual
The followers of Jesus, Paul writes to the churches in Rome, “walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” For Eugene Peterson, this is a transformation of our whole lives. He complains that we use the word “spiritual” too narrowly, and forget that life in God changes us fully.
"You’re taking something, putting a name on it, “spiritual,” which means it’s defined. The whole world is spiritual, and the word “spirit” is “wind,” it’s “breath.” Well, people are breathing all over the place; they’re all spiritual beings, but if you have a name for it, you can compartmentalize it, and that just wreaks havoc with the whole thing. Spirituality is — and that’s why I don’t like the word, because it’s so easy to just say, “Well, he’s such a spiritual person. She’s such a spiritual person.” Well, nonsense. You are, too. And I guess that’s where I think the church has a place, which is maybe more important than it’s ever been. But it’s — done well, there’s no spirituality that you can define." (from an interview with Krista Tippett, On Being)
As Paul reminds the early church, and us, we “are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in us.”
* * *
Romans 8:1-11
Fleshy Phone Use
As Paul writes to the early believers, “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” One way that our fleshly nature constantly intrudes on our lives is the way our devices capture our attention, and hold onto it.
Catherine Price (in her book The Power of Fun) notes how distracted we are, saying that “in many cases our habits have become so extreme that they look a lot like a behavioral addiction. This isn’t entirely surprising: according to Robert Lustig, MD, emeritus professor in pediatric endocrinology at the University of California San Francisco and author of The Hacking of the American Mind, their ability to light up our dopamine systems…means that “phones affect our brains in the same way as drugs.” And we certainly use our phones like drugs: to give us jolts of pleasure and help us avoid emotional pain. But yet we’re reluctant (or perhaps unable) to acknowledge the depth of the problem because it is so widespread."
We’re losing our ability to set our minds on the Spirit in our state of addicted, constant distraction.
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From team member Tom Willadsen:Psalm 119:105-112
A lamp to one’s feet
Psalm 119:105. Your word is a lamp to my feet / and a light to my path is frequently used as a prayer for illumination. It is also often rendered in stained glass, a reminder that God’s written word is there to instruct and guide believers. It is really the only portion of today’s psalm reading that stands out in the longest psalm, a protracted work praising the Lord for instruction, law, wisdom, counsel, guidance, commandments, etc.
It is wise to keep these words in perspective and proportion. The word is a lamp to one’s feet, a light to one’s path. Enough light to show a safe place to put one’s next step. The instruction of the psalm is not a road map, beacon or headlight. It’s close to the ground, enlightening only for a short distance. But since it doesn’t go away, the light of God’s instruction will be there for our next step, and the one after that and the one after that….
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Genesis 25:19-34
Isaac, a bit player
For all the prophecy and drama around Isaac’s birth and non-sacrifice, he disappears from the story pretty quickly, leaving the stage for his sons, Esau and Jacob. “Laughter” begat “Hairy, red one,” and “Heel.” Heel went on to become, “He struggles with God,” so there’s that.
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Genesis 25:19-34
What’s in a name? Esau
“Esau” is later known as “Seir” and “Edom,” all of which are geographic names for the same place. Se-ir, שעיר in Hebrew is very close to se-ar, שער , Hebrew for “hair.” After all, Esau was a hairy man (Genesis 27:11, NRSV).
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Genesis 25:19-34
What’s in a name? Jacob
The Hebrew name Jacob,יעקב, is a play on words with the Hebrew for “heel” עקב . The verb “heel” means “overreach,” precisely what Jacob did from the moment of his birth.
One could also contend that “Jacob” means “He grabs the heel,” which is similar in meaning to the English idiom, “You’re pulling my leg,” that is, you’re trying to trick me.
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Genesis 25:19-34
Caricatures
The extreme contrasts between the twins point to a humorous, exaggerated reading of this text. The bookish, nerdy, momma’s boy Jacob versus the macho, he-man Esau. The chef versus the one who gobbled down his food. The boys, like a lot of brothers, grew more alike. The contrast was most obvious when they lived in the same household.
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WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: Your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
All: We have sworn to observe your righteous ordinances.
One: Accept our offerings of praise and teach us your ordinances.
All: Help us to number our days so that we do not forget your law.
One: Your decrees are our heritage forever and the joy of our hearts.
All: Incline our hearts to perform your statutes forever.
OR
One: Praise is due to you, O God and to you shall vows be performed,
All: O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come.
One: When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our sins.
All: Happy are those whom you draw into your presence.
One: You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it.
All: You crown the year with bounty and it overflows with richness.
OR
One: God in joy invites us to partake of creation’s abundance.
All: We rejoice with all that God’s good earth provides.
One: God in love invites us to share those gifts with others.
All: We gladly share God’s gifts with those we love.
One: God in compassion invites us to share the gifts with all.
All: In humility we will share God’s abundance with all God’s people.
Hymns and Songs
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
UMH: 64/65
H82: 362
PH: 138
GTG: 1
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELW: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT: 26
Renew: 204
From All That Dwell Below the Skies
UMH: 101
H82: 380
PH: 229
GTG: 327
NCH: 27
CH: 49
LBW: 550
AMEC: 69
STLT: 381
I’ll Praise My Maker While I’ve Breath
UMH: 60
H82: 429
PH: 253
GTG: 806
CH: 20
O Jesus, I Have Promised
UMH: 396
H82: 655
PH: 388/389
GTG: 724/725
NCH: 493
CH: 612
LBW: 503
ELW: 810
W&P: 458
AMEC: 280
Jesus Calls Us
UMH: 398
H82: 549/550
GTG: 720
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171/172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELW: 696
W&P: 345
AMEC: 238
Seek Ye First
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
GTG: 175
CH: 354
W&P: 349
Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
GTG: 343
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELW: 719
W&P: 591
AMEC: 561
All Who Love and Service Your City
UMH: 433
H82: 570/571
PH: 413
GTG: 351
CH: 670
LBW: 436
ELW: 724
W&P: 625
O God of Every Nation
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
GTG: 756
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELW: 713
W&P: 626
Open My Eyes, That I May See
UMH: 454
PH: 324
GTG: 451
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
Create in Me a Clean Heart
CCB: 54
Renew: 181/182
Turn You Eyes upon Jesus
CCB: 55
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who created an abundant world for all your creatures:
Grant us the wisdom to share your gifts with others
so that we may live in and through your Spirit;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God of abundant creation. You have blessed us with an abundant world and the opportunity to share your precious gifts. Help us to use your gifts wisely so that we may live in and through your Spirit. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our greed that denies your gifts to others and destroys our spirits.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have taken the gifts you have offered for all your children and hoarded them for ourselves. We have taken far more than we need and often more than we even want. We have looked with disdain on those without as we blame them for their lack while absolving ourselves of our selfishness. We have robbed them of not only material goods but we have taken their dignity. Forgive us our shameful greed and awaken us to your Spirit that is calling us to share your gifts and to feast with all your children at your heavenly banquet. Amen.
One: God is generous and lavish with good gifts, including forgiveness. Receive God’s grace and share it and God’s gifts with others.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory to you, O God of creation. Out of the wonder of your sharing nature you have created us to be like you.
(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 taken the gifts you have offered for all your children and hoarded them for ourselves. We have taken far more than we need and often more than we even want. We have looked with disdain on those without as we blame them for their lack while absolving ourselves of our selfishness. We have robbed them of not only material goods but we have taken their dignity. Forgive us our shameful greed and awaken us to your Spirit that is calling us to share your gifts and to feast with all your children at your heavenly banquet.
We give you thanks for the multitude of gifts you have presented to us as your children. We thank you for the beauty of creation and for its abundance. We thank you for the many folks you have placed within our reach so that we may know them and share your gifts and your love with them. We thank you for those who have served as models of sharing for us and for those who have shown us the path of generosity.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all who are in need this day. We pray for those who suffer because they have been denied the good gifts of your creation. We pray for those whose lives are cut short because they do not have sufficient nutrition, clean water, or shelter. We pray for those who cut themselves off from your love in order to amass more of your gifts while denying those gifts to others.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
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CHILDREN'S SERMONSomeone Bless These Seeds We Sow
by Chris Keating
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Let’s resist the urge — well intentioned as it may be — to create a morality tale for children from the seeds of Jesus’ parable of the Sower. We’re accustomed to this line of interpretation, especially since Matthew spells out an allegorical framework for us in verses 18-23. Recall that parables are stories which, by definition, are tales “thrown alongside” us and are intended to surprise, challenge, or broaden our understanding of the kingdom. The seeds of parables land in our lives, where they are reinterpreted through the experiences, situations, and contexts of our own lives.
Let’s listen to see if we might be able to allow the seeds Jesus is broadcasting to flourish within the lives of our church and children.
How do seeds grow? Try the tried-and-true cotton and bean seed experiment using clear plastic cups. (Check out these instructions.) Talk about the different ways seeds take root, grow, and become mature plants.
Since many of our summer gardens are well on their way to producing luscious tomatoes, bushels of zucchini, and more, you may have a ready-made illustration of how seeds grow. Or maybe you have (as I do) a tray of seeds you planted back in May with plenty of hope and good intentions. Yet seeds cannot grow on good intentions alone! Bring in a couple of trays of seedlings: some that are flourishing and some that are failing. (Another option is to visit the “last chance” sales racks of your local garden and home stores. Often they have a few deeply discounted plants that are gasping for water and a second chance.) Ask the children to imagine with you the sorts of things that it takes for seeds to grow into mature plants?
One option would be to invite the children and congregation to think about how they are like seeds. We require resources just as seeds do — light, food, rest, and good “soil.” These things are provided to us by our families, teachers, churches, and friends. Sadly, not everyone has this chance. Many children do not have access to good food, or a safe place to thrive. Yet God loves each and every “seed,” and hopes that all seeds will grow into their potential. How might we help some people who do not have the resources they need?
Another option for Sunday would be to either sing or listen to the “Garden Song” recorded by artists like Peter Seeger and John Denver. Written by David Mallett, the song begins, “Inch by inch, row by row…” It’s an easy to learn song that invites God’s blessing on the seeds we sow.
Finally, I offer the 100% true, absolutely accurate tale of the watermelon seed that grew in the church sidewalk. Some years ago, we ended a summer sports camp with a watermelon seed spitting contest. I had my misgivings about this, but the camp director assured me it would be a big hit. After offering the campers big slices of cold, juicy watermelon, the kids were invited to see how far they could make the seeds fly. This was well before the pandemic when we were less concerned about spreading both watermelon seeds and virus particles! As I recall, some fourth-grade boy blew away the competition, and a good time was had by all.
Fast forward to the beginning of September. On the way to my car, I saw something growing in a crack along the sidewalk. I could not tell for sure, but it clearly was not a weed. Sure enough: a few days later it had grown some more. It was unmistakable. We had a lonely watermelon plant growing in between the cracks of our sidewalk.
None of the hundreds of other seeds made it. Some were swept up at the end of camp. Others were washed away by the rain. Maybe one or two had tried to grow but didn’t have enough soil. There was only one plant that succeeded.
That year we had a wonderful and surprising watermelon harvest at church — just a few months later than normal.
Let anyone who has ears, hear!
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The Immediate Word, July 16, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 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.
