Immediate Word

For September 8, 2019:

• No Longer As a Slave by Mary Austin — As Paul sends an enslaved man back to his household, he invites the household into a conversation about the place of this enslaved man. In a similar way, the 400th anniversary of the arrival of slavery in America invites us into a conversation about the effects of slavery on American life.
• Second Thoughts: Full Contact Christianity by Dean Feldmeyer — Christianity is a “full contact” sport with a high degree of probability that those of us who participate fully in it are going to get injured in one way or another. So we would do well to count the possible cost before we sign up.
• Sermon illustrations by Tom Willadsen, Ron Love and Chris Keating.
• Worship resources by George Reed focusing on Counting the cost; a brother not a slave.
• Children’s sermon: New Year, New Goals! by Bethany Peerbolte — This passage from Luke is a wonderful start to a school year. Teachers are making goals for kids, students are making goals for themselves, everyone wants this to be the best and most productive year yet. We do no often set the same goals for our spiritual growth.

No Longer As a Slave
by Mary Austin
Philemon 1:1-21

Growing up in Michigan, I was somehow taught that slavery didn’t impact the north, except as a cause for the Civil War. As a white person, I grew up believing that the north was free of the racial bias that filled the south. I was taught that legal slavery ended with the Civil War, and, after the troubled years of Reconstruction, people of African descent have been more and more successful with each decade.

Imagine my surprise when I started to serve a church in Detroit and people told me about working in department stores and auto plants with segregated break rooms and lunch rooms, existing well into my lifetime. Church members taught me about the stress of being the first African-American to serve as a teacher in a particular school, or to work in an office, or to be the principal in a school. They were often the first African-American board members for a given organization, or members of a certain club. Many of them felt the burden of proving their worth every day at work, in their neighborhoods and in providing for their children.   

A number of them came from the south as part of the Great Migration. Out of necessity, they carried with them the habits that kept them safe. I began to see how deeply the residue of slavery shaped their family stories, and their own experiences.

Writing to Philemon, as he sends the enslaved Onesimus back, Paul writes, “Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother.” African-Americans are no longer enslaved in the United States, and yet we haven’t arrived at the place where we call them beloved brothers and sisters.

In the Scriptures
The letter to Philemon is a very short letter, and yet a lot is packed into it. As he makes his request of Philemon, Paul paints himself in the most humble terms. He appears to be writing to the head of a household, and also to the head of a house church, adding to the greeting, “and to the church in your house.” He starts as he starts most letters, with a greeting, and then something good he knows or has heard about the recipients. This time, though, he’s not offering advice but making a request that Onesimus be treated with grace on his return to the household.

He both commands Philemon to do a duty and appeals to him “on the basis of love.” He’s asking for a warm return to the household for Onesimus, who has become dear to him in the time they’ve been together. Apparently, Paul and Philemon are also close because Paul writes, “So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.”

Writing for Working Preacher, Dr. Eric Barreto says that there is a communal aspect to the letter. He notes that Paul writes to Philemon and his household, adding that “Paul is calling upon the witness of the whole church in Philemon’s house to ensure that Paul’s hopes are fulfilled. In the end, I’m convinced that Paul here is calling for a radical reorientation of the community’s understanding of Onesimus’ identity. He is no longer merely a cog in the machine of the household, no longer worthy because of the utility he provides for his master. Onesimus is now a beloved brother. He is kin. And this transformation is a vivid embodiment of the gospel. He is a walking reminder of the power of the good news.”

As we consider the impact of slavery in the American life, we, too, could use a reminder of the good news.

In the News
As the United States marks the 400th anniversary of enslaved people landing on our shores, even before we were a nation, the anniversary calls us to examine the institution of slavery in America with the same courage and humility that we find in Paul’s letter. The ship that came over the horizon that day changed the face of America into the country we know — and don’t know — today. The “English pirate ship, the White Lion, arrived at Point Comfort, near today’s Hampton, Virginia. It was carrying what colonist John Rolfe described as ‘20 and odd Negroes.’ The captain of the White Lion traded the enslaved people for food, bringing slavery to Jamestown and what would become Virginia.”

Slavery was legal in the United States for over 250 years, longer than it has been abolished. It was a different kind of slavery than in the Greco-Roman world of Paul’s letter to Philemon. “Chattel slavery was not conditional but racial. It was heritable and permanent, not temporary, meaning generations of black people were born into it and passed their enslaved status onto their children. Enslaved people were not recognized as human beings but as property that could be mortgaged, traded, bought, sold, used as collateral, given as a gift and disposed of violently.”

Slavery shaped the American economy more than I, at least, was taught in school. Many people who ask, “Why should I care? My family didn’t own slaves.”  Still, slavery fueled the economies of both north and south in its time.  “Slavery was undeniably a font of phenomenal wealth. By the eve of the Civil War, the Mississippi Valley was home to more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the United States. Cotton grown and picked by enslaved workers was the nation’s most valuable export. The combined value of enslaved people exceeded that of all the railroads and factories in the nation. New Orleans boasted a denser concentration of banking capital than New York City. What made the cotton economy boom in the United States, and not in all the other far-flung parts of the world with climates and soil suitable to the crop, was our nation’s unflinching willingness to use violence on nonwhite people and to exert its will on seemingly endless supplies of land and labor.”

This kind of approach to labor has shaped how we all work, some historians argue. “Nearly two average American lifetimes (79 years) have passed since the end of slavery, only two. It is not surprising that we can still feel the looming presence of this institution, which helped turn a poor, fledgling nation into a financial colossus. The surprising bit has to do with the many eerily specific ways slavery can still be felt in our economic life. “American slavery is necessarily imprinted on the DNA of American capitalism,” write the historians Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman. The task now, they argue, is “cataloging the dominant and recessive traits” that have been passed down to us, tracing the unsettling and often unrecognized lines of descent by which America’s national sin is now being visited upon the third and fourth generations.”

African-Americans are the engine of American democracy, some argue, forcing us to be true to our stated ideals. Nikole Hannah-Jones notes that African-Americans are the “perfecters of this democracy.” The lofty words of opportunity and freedom were written by slaveholders, and the descendants of former slaves have made them truer for all of us.

In the Sermon
Nikole Hannah-Jones recalls that her father always flew an American flag at home. She remembers, “at age 17, he signed up for the Army. Like many young men, he joined in hopes of escaping poverty. But he went into the military for another reason as well, a reason common to black men: Dad hoped that if he served his country, his country might finally treat him as an American.” The Army disappointed him, and opportunities never appeared. “Like all the black men and women in my family, he believed in hard work, but like all the black men and women in my family, no matter how hard he worked, he never got ahead. So when I was young, that flag outside our home never made sense to me. How could this black man, having seen firsthand the way his country abused black Americans, how it refused to treat us as full citizens, proudly fly its banner? I didn’t understand his patriotism. It deeply embarrassed me.”

The sermon might look at how we love our country, even when it disappoints us, and how we strive to make it better. Nikole Hannah-Jones concludes, “Like most young people, I thought I understood so much, when in fact I understood so little. My father knew exactly what he was doing when he raised that flag. He knew that our people’s contributions to building the richest and most powerful nation in the world were indelible, that the United States simply would not exist without us.” The sermon might examine the contributions of African-Americans, the descendants of enslaved people, to American life.

Or the sermon might look at the reception Onesimus received when he returned to the household where he was enslaved, and how we treat the descendants of enslaved people now. There are disparities in school success, educational opportunity, maternal and fetal health, and rates of imprisonment, among other things. We can’t tell from the letter what happened to Onesimus when he got home, but we do know about the statistics for the descendants of enslaved people here in the United States. What do we have to offer, in response to Paul’s call to “welcome him as you would welcome me?” Each of us, individually, means well, but collectively, we can do more to extend the kind of humble grace that Paul envisions.

“Refresh my heart in Christ,” Paul asks, hoping for an outcome better than he anticipates. The sermon might look at how we can answer his plea in our own time, moving beyond denial, beyond silence and beyond statistics to a welcome of the heart for our neighbors. Paul’s letter is to a church community, within a household. In our time, this is not the work of individuals, but of a whole society.

Paul’s letter about one enslaved man calls us into a wider conversation about slavery in the United States. His pleas from his own imprisonment lead us into a broader look at the role of slavery in our country’s history, and how it has shaped the things we take for granted. The descendants of enslaved people have made immeasurable contributions to our shared life, and endured hardships painful to contemplate. Paul calls us to think about how we welcome these neighbors into a full share of American life. His affection for Onesimus prompts us to think about how well and wisely we treat our own neighbors, and how we can live into his call not only for welcome, but for a full and just reckoning with the past.


SECOND THOUGHTS
Full Contact Christianity
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 14:25-33

In the News
In the past decade, high school football enrollment has declined 6.6 percent, according to data from the National Federation of State High School Associations. Last year, twenty high schools, nationwide, dropped the sport altogether. Experts say that reasons for the drop in participation include cost, single-sport specialization, and demographic shifts. And very high on the list of reasons — injury concerns.

People are counting the costs of football on the family’s financial and temporal budgets and on the health of the players and some, it seems, are wondering if the cost is too high.

The concern about injury is widespread across football culture, from Pop Warner kids’ leagues, to the NFL. And nowhere is it impacting the sport more than at the high school level.

Ramapo High School in Franklin, New Jersey, keeping with a recently passed New Jersey law, allows full contact in practice for only 15 minutes per week. And last year they won the state championship.

Counting the cost doesn’t necessarily mean giving up football, but it may mean changing the way we approach the sport. Head to head contact is out. Face-in-the-numbers tackling is out. No more cross-body blocking. Even the possibility of a concussion sidelines a player until he is proven to be healthy. Everywhere we look in the sport, people are counting the cost of the old practices and making changes.

And well they should.

Last week “60 Minutes” re-ran and updated a story they did last winter about former NFL defensive lineman and linebacker, Tim Green. Tim played for the Atlanta Falcons in the late 80’s an early 90’s and opposing players learned to be wary of number 99. He was, by his own admission, a monster on the field. He tackled with his head because that’s what he was taught to do — put his nose in the ball carrier’s numbers.

But it wasn’t just the games, where he participated in maybe 60 plays per game. It was the practices, he says, where most of the damage was probably done. At practice you can play as many as 200 plays. Every day.

And every day at practice, from the time he was a kid to the time he retired from the NFL, Tim led with his head. He estimates that he probably experienced scores of concussions, all before any safety measures were ever considered necessary.

After he retired from football Tim became an attorney, working for two firms, and a prolific author with 39 novels to his credit. He was also a sports commentator on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

Then, in 2016, he discovered that his fingers couldn’t make the fingernail clippers work and he was having trouble forming certain words. Doctors confirmed his worse fears, Tim had ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease). In short, ALS causes the muscles in the body to waste away while the brain remains unaffected. There is no cure. Eventually the muscles that control breathing fail and the patient dies.

Most of the medical community agrees that while the disease can’t be traced solely to football, the multiple head traumas that Tim suffered throughout his career are very probably a contributing factor.

Tim believes that football gave him the disease. Looking back, he doesn’t want to admit regret but, asked if he would play the game knowing that this would be the cost, he shakes his head and says, “I just don’t know.”

He and his wife of 29 years, Illyssa, have five children, the youngest of which is twelve.

In another story from last week, Indianapolis Colts quarterback, Andrew Luck, suddenly and unexpectedly announced his retirement from the game at the age of 29. Just two weeks before the start of the regular season, he said that the seemingly never-ending cycle of injury, rehabilitation, pain was taking too great a toll on him and on his relationships. He wanted more of a life than football was giving him.

Those who keep track of such things say that Luck is giving up something like $58.124 million in salary and bonuses plus an unknown amount from commercial endorsements. He says that the cost is too high.

Granted, Andrew Luck’s sacrifice is relatively modest when we consider that he’s already made just under $100 million from football but, as Tim Green points out, to get to the professional level of the sport it has to have been just about the only thing you’ve ever wanted to do and, in some cases, it’s the only thing you can do.

At that level, football isn’t just a game you play, it’s who you are. It defines you and it’s the prism through which you see life and the world. Take it away and many athletes find themselves lost and adrift.

And yet, Luck says, the cost was just too high.

And only a few days ago, retired NFL fullback Le'Ron McClain tweeted a cry for help on Saturday morning. The retired fullback, who played in the NFL for seven years for the Chiefs, Ravens and Chargers, took to Twitter to share his feelings in a moment of what seemed to be tremendous pain.

The profanity laced, sometimes incoherent message raged about his sometimes frightening thoughts, anger, and frustration. He is frustrated that even though the NFL had settled for millions of dollars in a law suit designed to help current and formers players who suffered head trauma from playing football, all he has seen is paperwork.

One cannot help but wonder, if we asked Le’Ron McClain if his career in football was worth the price he is paying now, what he would say.

The sport of football is changing, some say evolving, as current and retired NFL players lead us in counting the cost that it demands on the players’ bodies and minds.

In this week's gospel lesson Luke admonishes those who seek to follow Jesus to count the cost of true discipleship. What will they do as a result of their cost counting? Will they give up and go home? Or will they acknowledge and accept the demands that the gospel will place on their lives and change accordingly?

In the Scripture
This morning, Luke gives us one of those scenes that could be easily acted out as a little sketch or mini-play. We find Jesus traveling, on foot, and not just with his chosen twelve, but with “large crowds.”

I can’t speak for all preachers but I know that I would have been elated to see large crowds shoving and pushing their way into the sanctuary to hear my sermons. And my bishop would have been happy, too. Right? I mean, how else can we measure the effectiveness and success of a pastor except by the size of the congregation that is supposed to be constantly growing in attendance and their giving?

Jesus, however, is not so sure this is a good thing.

We can almost hear the exasperation in his voice as he turns around and faces the crowd. He realizes that they aren’t here to give but to get. They are following because they want something from him. So, he decides to set them straight and he does it in strong language.

“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”

Don’t get all caught up on the word “hate.” Biblical scholars tell us that this is typical “Semitic hyperbole,” a gross exaggeration used to make an important point. And the point Jesus is making has to do with having a detached posture toward what the world tells us is important. Yes, we should love our families and our lives but we can’t let them become idols that replace God in our hierarchy of values.

Jesus continues: “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Clearly, this is a post Easter reference aimed at the early church. Christianity requires sacrifice and maybe even suffering not unlike that which Jesus underwent. To be Christlike is to share in his power and glory but it is also to share in his suffering.

Jesus now offers two metaphors for those who might think his language too harsh:

First, he gives us the example of a builder who, before he builds a building, sits down and estimates the cost so he doesn’t get in over his head.

Secondly, he gives the example of a king who is intent on going to war with another king but, wisely, evaluates his resources and compares them to those of his enemy so he doesn’t find himself retreating from an overpowering force.

Finally, he closes with one more thing from which we must be detached if we hope to truly follow Jesus and that is our possessions. We can’t love Jesus and love our stuff at the same time and, if the only way we can truly love Jesus is to get rid of our stuff, then get rid of it we must.

In the Sermon
Most biblical scholars agree that the Gospel of Luke and Luke’s second volume, Acts, were written in about 85-90CE. It wasn’t easy to be a Christian in those days.

The Roman Emperor was Domitian. Scholars are not in agreement over the reign of this, the youngest son of Vespasian. It was, for many years, assumed that he was a cruel and heartless persecutor of Christians, an assumption based mostly on his exile of St. John to the isle of Patmos.

Beyond that, however, there is no record of widespread persecutions under his reign. The worst that can be said of him is that he didn’t step in to defend or protect Christians from more localized persecutions which were commonplace at that time, (Cf. the book of Revelation).

Localized persecutions included everything from refusing to do business with Christians and banning Christians from joining labor guilds to arrest and torture.

Luke is simply making the case that Christians who believe that they should have a special place in the hierarchy of power and privilege simply because they are good people are going to be severely disappointed. Yes, sometimes the Christian life can be marvelous and filled with rich rewards. But it can also bring pain and suffering upon believers. That is the world in which we live and we’d better be ready to face it, to “carry the cross” if we want to call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ.        

In Senegal, it was reported last week, Christians are being singled out and summarily executed because they are wearing jewelry that contains Christian symbols.

Meanwhile Christians in the United States claim they are being persecuted because they have to obey the laws or because they aren’t receiving special consideration in where they are allowed to place their icons and other symbols of their faith.

But the opposite is, in fact, the case. Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, writing for the Washington Post in 2017, put it plainly and succinctly:  “Christians are vastly over-represented in national politics, not underrepresented. While roughly 70 percent of the U.S. population identifies as Christian, 91 percent of Congress identifies as such — a percentage that has remained roughly the same since the 1960s. The proportion of Christians in many state legislatures is even higher. Every member of the Supreme Court appears to be religiously affiliated (though not all of them are Christian), and no atheist has ever sat on that court. That over-representation means that either Christians have superior access to the mechanisms of electioneering or that being Christian is such a boon to candidacy that most people claim to be Christian regardless of their personal beliefs. Either of these possibilities fully precludes the possibility that Christians as a group experience formal marginalization or informal scorn that bars them from the halls of power. The opposite is true.”

Now, when we sit down and count the cost of being a follower of Jesus, the thing that makes it difficult and painful in the early 21st century is the very nature of Christianity, itself. If we are to be Christians we are called to put our political affiliations, our lifelong prejudices, our personal preferences, our favorite things, our prized possessions, and even our very lives behind us.

We are called to walk that very difficult road whereupon we love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, lay down our swords and shields, defend the widow and the orphan, feed the hungry, visit the sick and the imprisoned, give water to those who thirst, welcome the sojourner, and do it all with love in our hearts and a smile on our face.

Only when we have emptied our hands and our hearts, will we be able to pick up the cross that Christ offers us, the cross that has changed history and the world, the cross that can change us, the cross that allows us to call ourselves, Christian.


ILLUSTRATIONS

From team member Tom Willadsen:

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Observations
The first six verses tell us that God knows everything there is to know about us. While verse 15 may feel claustrophobic, the psalmist intends the reader to feel secure and protected. To know the Lord completely is too wonderful for anyone.

The next six verses, not part of today’s lectionary reading, tell us that there is nowhere one can go to escape God’s presence. Fly to heaven, the Lord is there; sleep down in Sheol, the Lord is there; fly to where the sun rises, the Lord is there; go as far to the west as one can, the Lord is there also. To paraphrase Lou Grant, Mary Richards’s boss, “You can run, but you can’t hide.” Lots of familiar, beloved hymns make this same point: In Christ there is no east or west; there is no shadow of turning with thee; there is no place where earth sorrows are more felt than up in heaven; Lord how thy wonders are displayed where’re I turn my eyes, if I survey the ground I tread or gave upon the skies.

If you want to stir a hornet’s nest, call attention to vv. 13-14a:

For it was you who formed my inward parts;
 you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made

The first two lines are used by Christians who are trying to restrict, even ban, abortions in the United States. Since the most recent addition to the Supreme Court, these believers are pushing to, in some jurisdictions, forbid abortion even in the case of rape. This may be the hottest “hot button” issue in the American church at the moment. Those two lines, those leading the charge contend, show that at conception, the Lord was mindful of the personhood of the embryo.

On the other hand, those advocating for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ Christians in the church stand on the first line of the very next verse in Psalm 139. It was revolutionary when I first heard this verse used as a proof text to support the idea that all sexual preferences and identities are innate. That every single human being is made exactly as the Lord intended. When combined with Genesis 1:27

So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;

the concept of “deviance” disappears. If all people are made in God’s image, then God’s image includes lots and lots of people who have been marginalized by the church and society at large for generations.

That these two groups who tend to be on opposite sides of the most divisive issues in the church and society, cling to verses next to each other in the same psalm, may offer some hope for chasms of distrust and suspicion to be bridged in the coming generation.

* * *

More on Psalm 139:13
An article from Crosswalk.com reads in part, “The blueprints of me are similar to other human beings but they’re not exactly the same. I am unique — and so are you.” See the whole article here.

* * *

Luke 14:25-33
Counting the Cost
Jesus is speaking to those who have been following him. He’s not talking to a crowd anymore. This notion of “hating” one’s family in order to follow Jesus is often misunderstood. Jesus is not advocating the door slamming tantrums of teenagers who scream at parents, “I hate you!” but rather the need for one to detach from one’s family in order to give one’s primary loyalty to God. Following Jesus will cause his followers to make difficult choices, choices that may estrange them from their families. He’s telling them to be aware of the cost, the cross, of following him. Many people have great, sudden enthusiasm, as the parable of the seeds that land on shallow soil depicts. Jesus is warning people, asking them to make an informed decision to follow him.

* * *

Luke 14:25-33
Kings and peasants together
Note the two images that Jesus uses to describe the costs of following him. The first is one from agriculture. People who worked in the fields would understand the cost of building a tower in a vineyard. They would see that the land owner would be embarrassed (and they, as his servants would also be embarrassed) if he didn’t plan ahead, and calculate the cost of improving his property.

The second image is one of royalty, calculating the cost of waging war. From the richest and most powerful to the poorest and most vulnerable, everyone needs to be aware of the cost of following Jesus.

As Bob Dylan famously sang

You may be a construction worker working on a home
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome
You might own guns and you might even own tanks
You might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody
(“Gotta Serve Sombody,” Bob Dylan, 1975)

* * *

Philemon 1:1-21
Philemon observations
There are a number of clues in this reading that Philemon was fairly well off. The church met in his home; he owned at least one slave; his “love of the saints,” his offering them comfort and refreshment may be indirect references to financial support that Philemon has offered to Christians in general and Paul in particular. Elsewhere in the New Testament “koinonia” or “fellowship,” refers to financial contributions. (cf. Acts 2:42; Romans 15:26; and 2 Corinthians 8:4 and 9:13)

In 21st century terms, Philemon was one of the lead givers, one of the first members to contribute to a church capital campaign. Paul is appreciative, perhaps with a little kowtowing thrown in, but still makes a respectful appeal for Philemon to receive Onesimus back into the household. It is not explicit that Paul asks that Onesimus be set free. It is certain that he wants Philemon to be aware of the profound transition that has been made in this young slave.

* * *

Jeremiah 18:1-11
Is God unchanging?
The Lord asserts his freedom very forthrightly in this morning’s Jeremiah reading. Those who contend that God is unchanging must be content with Jeremiah 18:8 in which the Lord says through the prophet Jeremiah: “…if that nation turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster I intended to bring on it.”

In the verse 7 and verse 9 there are clear echoes of Jeremiah’s call in 1:10:

See, today I appoint you over nations
and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.

Note also that in this image, God is active in forming the nation. No deism here; the Lord is responsive to nations that repent, willing, eager even, to turn from destroying, if the people could return to faith.

* * * * * *

From team member Ron Love:


Deuteronomy 30:17
But if your heart turns away…
In the comic strip the Born Loser, the stingy, criticizing, and overbearing boss, Rancid W. "Rank" Veeblefester, says to his employee, Brutus P. "Thorny" Thornapple, that he has good news and bad news to share with him. Upon hearing this, Brutus replies, “The bad news always ends up having a greater impact on me than the good news!”

* * *

Jeremiah 18
potter’s wheel
Each year at Fort Jackson, in Columbia, South Carolina, the US Army conducts a five-day competition to select the Army’s Drill Sergeant of the Year. Seventeen-hour days, four hours of sleep, and the need to know every weapon and how to command in every possible battlefield combat scenario is tested. The participants are engaged in over 100 exercises, testing mental and physical agility. These individuals who have already excelled in leadership are purposely confounded by a grueling and unpredictable schedule. According to Staff Sgt. Timothy Sarvis, a previous winner of the competition, “We do certain things to throw them off their game because they need to be able to adjust to situations as they come.”

* * *

Deuteronomy 30:17
But if your heart turns away…
In recognition of Father’s Day, the Pew Research Center disclosed that dads spend only 6.5 hours per week in childcare. This includes everything from play to helping with homework to taking children to activities. One could look upon it as a refreshing change, for it is up from 2.6 hours from the 1960s. Yet, it is really a pathetic number. A dad spends less than an hour a day interacting with his children.

* * *

Jeremiah 18:1
The word that came to Jeremiah
Lori Baker, the wife of evangelist Jim Baker, wrote in her blog in August 2011, “we watch the news every day and we can see that the events of Revelation are happening right now.” For this reason, she and Jim are storing in their home enough food and other supplies to see them through the Times of Trouble. But Lori is concerned, “that with how much chaos the world is experiencing — it seems as though people carry on with a lackadaisical attitude of que sera sera — whatever will be will be.”

By the way, the Bakers are selling a breakfast cereal with an unlimited shelf life for daily use, and of course to store in your Times of Trouble abode. The cereal? “Jim’s Organic 8 Grain Cereal” which sells for $10 a pound, less if purchased in bulk. Since it is unknown how long the Times of Trouble will last, it is recommended that you also purchase Pat Robinson’s age-defying protein shake. Doing so, you will be able to leg-press 1,000 pounds, just like Pat.

I wonder, though, if the real que sera sera attitude is the Bakers concept of escapism. If the Times of Trouble are coming upon us, should we not leave our bunkers and be about the business of rescuing. It may not sell breakfast cereal, but it will redeem lives.

* * *

Psalm 1
At the World Trade Center Memorial in New York City, at the footprints of the two fallen 110 story buildings, there are the two largest man-made waterfalls ever constructed. At 26,000 gallons per minute the water cascades down two 30-foot black garnet walls into a reflecting pool below. The pool, called “Reflecting Absence,” allows visitors to meditate both on our past lost and future hope. The cascading water creates “white noise” to drown out all other noises that accompany with being in a city. Hearing only the cascading water, one will have a time to truly reflect.

* * * * * *

From team member Chris Keating

Jeremiah 18:1-11
Paying Attention
Jeremiah’s field trip to the local potter’s house leads him to a series of imaginative reflections about God’s relationship with Israel. His visit reveals the power of observation and its importance as a spiritual discipline. As Jeremiah pays attention to the potter’s work he begins to grasp the message God is giving him.  Paying attention especially important in a culture that is easily distracted by internet interruptions, nonstop news commentary, and frequent text messages and alerts.

Ruth Haley Burton notes that the practice of paying attention is a spiritual discipline that runs counter to the near-constant stimulation in our lives. She writes: “Learning to pay attention and knowing what to pay attention to is a key discipline for leaders, but one that rarely comes naturally to those of us who are barreling through life so fast with our eyes fixed on the goal. One of the down sides of visionary leadership is that we can get our sights set on something that is so far out in the future that we miss what’s going on in our lives as it exists now. We are blind to the bush that is burning in our own back yard and the wisdom that is contained within it. We squander the gift of this day just as it is, these people just as they are, the uniqueness and the sweetness (even the bitter sweetness) of this particular place on the journey just as it is, the voice of God calling to us in our own wilderness places.”

* * *

Taking time to look
In her book Earth Crammed with Heaven, Elizabeth Dreyer riffs on Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s epic poem, “Aurora Leigh.” Browning’s massive work includes these verses that affirm the spiritual benefits of paying attention:

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,
And daub their natural faces unaware
More and more from the first similitude

Dreyer offers this insightful comment on the practice of paying attention: “In a profound way, our intentionality is a key ingredient determining whether we notice God everywhere or only in church or only in suffering or nowhere. It all depends on how we choose to fashion our world.”

* * *

Images of God as potter
Pastor (and potter) Chad R. Martin teases out the metaphor of God as potter, pointing out that there is more here than simply an image of God as vengeful and angry. In an article for the Conrad Grebel Review in 2012, Martin observed that there is a “deeper reading” present within the text that is often missed. “The potter’s work,” he writes, “is not simply to manipulate inanimate, lifeless clay. Instead it depends on a transactional, intimate relationship.

In my experience, potters rarely think of their material as just mud to be manipulated. All clay embodies a long history before it ever reaches the workshop. Clay particles evolve during a painstakingly long geological process of grinding, wearing, sorting, and shifting, along with mixing with all kinds of decaying organic matter, that results in diverse kinds of clay – some stretchy and plastic, some gritty and durable, some a pale gray hue, some a rich red – that are more or less suitable for certain methods of pot making and various kinds of ceramic products.

As the potter works with the clay, a relationship emerges. But sometimes even the potter must face the reality of material that resists manipulation. Martin offered this quote from artist M.C. Richards:

You can do very many things with [clay], push this way and pull that, squeeze and roll and attach and pinch and hollow and pile. But you can’t do everything with it. You can go only so far, and then the clay resists…. And so it is with persons. You can do very many things with us: push us together and pull us apart and squeeze us and roll us flat, empty us out and fill us up. You can surround us with influences, but there comes a point when you can do no more. The person resists, in one way or another…. His own will becomes active. (M.C. Richards, Centering: In Pottery, Poetry and the Person, 25th anniversary ed., with foreword by Matthew Fox, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan Univ. Press, 1989, p. 19.)

* * *

Psalm 1
Happy are who?
The folks who compile the annual World Happiness Report have amassed a treasure trove of information about why some countries show higher rates of happiness than others. While Finland continues to be the happiest country in the world, the United States ranked 19. The report includes more than Finnish bragging rights, however. A notable chapter explores the rising rates of addiction in the United States, and suggests that addiction is driving some of the plunging rates of unhappiness, while another outlines plunging rates of happiness and life satisfaction among adolescents. If reading this adds to your own sense of unhappiness, remember that football season has returned!

* * *

Luke 14:25-33
Considering the cost
There’s a wrinkle in Luke 14:25-33 that is sometimes overlooked but worth considering. Jesus’ words about placing the demands of discipleship ahead of families may create a cringy moment for members of a pastor’s family. Spouses and children accustomed to late night calls, exhausting holiday schedules and all of the other realities of pastoral life may hear Jesus’ words, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” It’s exactly the life-verse most of us in ministry might pick to be inscribed on our office walls. Not only does it demand our careful exegetical attention, it could prompt a side-eye from longsuffering family members.

But here’s a chance, especially if one is a guest preacher, a denominational leader, or one engaged in specialized ministry, to name some of costs of ministry for the families of pastors. There are plenty of indicators that show both the benefits and stresses involved with parish ministry, including a LifeWay survey of 1,500 pastors (largely evangelical or African American) revealed high levels of stress among clergy families; research of United Methodist pastors that shows higher than national average levels of depression and hopelessness as well as increases in pastors who are overweight, and fewer clergy finding strength and comfort in their faith; and research from Notre Dame’s “Flourishing In Ministry Report” that revealed the stress involved in being an expert-generalist pastor responsible for performing “an extraordinary wide range of tasks.” (Go here (p. 9) for more info.)

* * *

Philemon 1:1-21
The cost of slavery
As the New York Times “1619” project pointed out, the lingering impact of slavery in the United States is often ignored or misunderstood by white Americans. While Paul entreated Philemon to receive Onesimus as “much more than a slave,” the lasting impact of slavery is often minimized. As Vox reports, centuries later few Americans have read about slave revolts and rebellions, perpetuating a myth that “the enslaved were docile or satisfied with their conditions.” Other impacts include mass incarceration, poorly reported history, and lingering Post-Traumatic Stress disorders among survivors of rape.


* * * * * *


WORSHIP
by George Reed

Call to Worship:
Leader: O God, you have searched us and known us.
People: You know when we sit down and when we rise up.
Leader: We praise you, for we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
People: Wonderful are your works; that we know very well.
Leader: How weighty to us are your thoughts, O God!
People: How vast is the sum of them!

OR

Leader: God calls us together as a family.
People: Sisters and brothers are we all.
Leader: God welcomes all children of the earth.
People: As God’s children, we will welcome all, as well.
Leader: Each person is God’s own dear child.
People: We will look for Christ’s face in each one we greet.

Hymns and Songs:
All People That on Earth Do Dwell
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
AAHH:
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELW: 883
W&P: 661
AMEC: 73
STLT: 370

Children of the Heavenly Father
UMH: 141
NCH: 487
LBW: 474
ELW: 781
W&P: 83

Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404

Are Ye Able
UMH: 530
NNBH: 223
CH: 621
AMEC: 294

Take Up Thy Cross
UMH: 415
H82: 675
PH: 393
LBW: 398
ELW: 667
W&P: 351
AMEC: 2941

Where He Leads Me
UMH: 338
AAHH: 550
NNBH: 229
CH: 346
AMEC: 235

The Church’s One Foundation
UMH: 545/546
H82: 525
PH: 442
AAHH: 337
NNBH: 297
NCH: 386
CH: 272
LBW: 369
ELW: 654
W&P: 544
AMEC: 519

In Christ There Is No East or West
UMH: 548
H82: 529
PH: 439/440
AAHH: 398/399
NNBH: 299
NCH: 394/395
CH: 687
LBW: 259
ELW: 650
W&P: 600/603
AMEC: 557

Amazing Grace
UMH: 378
H82: 671
PH: 280
AAHH: 271/272
NNBH: 161/163
NCH: 547/548
CH: 546
LBW: 448
ELW: 779
W&P: 422
AMEC: 226
STLT: 205/206

We Are One in Christ Jesus (Somos uno en Cristo)
CCB: 43

Refiner’s Fire
CCB: 79

Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship

Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who created all people in your own image:
Grant us the grace to see each other as sister or brother
rather than seeing division and status;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

OR

We praise you, O God, because you are the creator of all people. You made all of us in your image and likeness. Help us to honor you and your creation by viewing all people as our equals, neither better nor less than anyone. Amen.

Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our sorting others into strata and classes.

People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know all people are your children and yet we separate folks as if we are not all of one tribe. We place some above us and many below us as if our perspective changes their identity in you. Help us to pay the cost of giving up our biases and treating all with the love of Christ. Amen.

Leader: God embraces all God’s children with love and grace. Receive these and share them with all you meet this week.

Prayers of the People
Glory and praise to you, O God, for you have created us to belong to one another. Your love reaches out and draws each of us to you and to one another.

(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)

We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know all people are your children and yet we separate folks as if we are not all of one tribe. We place some above us and many below us as if our perspective changes their identity in you. Help us to pay the cost of giving up our biases and treating all with the love of Christ.

We give you thanks for all the blessings we have received from you through those who have loved us as part of the family of God. We thank you for acts of faith and courage of those who strive to remove barriers that we have erected between peoples.

(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)

We pray for all your children and especially for those who still find themselves treated as less than full members of the family. We pray for wisdom and courage to be part of correcting these wrongs that are an affront to you as the creator of all.

(Other intercessions may be offered.)

All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:

Our Father....Amen.

(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service)

All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.

Children’s Sermon Starter
Share about a time when you saved up money to buy something. Of course, you need to know what the object will cost so you know how much to save. You don’t want to try to buy it and find out you don’t have enough. Jesus talked about finding out what it will cost to follow him. If we are going to follow Jesus we have to give up being selfish and mean. We can’t hog things just for ourselves. It costs but it gives us so much more.


CHILDREN'S SERMON
New Year, New Goals
by Bethany Peerbolte
Luke 14:25-33

This passage from Luke is a wonderful start to a school year. Teachers are making goals for kids, students are making goals for themselves, everyone wants this to be the best and most productive year yet. We do no often set the same goals for our spiritual growth. We expect to have a better relationship with God simply by following the same patterns we are use to. Here Jesus is asking us to be a bit more deliberate with how we plan our discipleship. Taking a moment of intentionality may launch us into 2020 with a whole new relationship with God!

Say Something Like:

We are back to school! The first week of school is so exciting. There are a bunch of great first week of school traditions. Who likes picking out your first day outfit? (allow raised hands to show support) Me too! First day outfits show all our new friends and teachers who we are. We might be a dress kind of person, or jeans, or fun hat kind of person. When we plan our outfits well people learn a lot about us just by looking at us. 

Whose favorite part is making new friends? (allow raised hands to show support) I love making new friends too! We all know we are going to need friends throughout the year and the first week of school is a good time to learn about other kids in class and decide who we think we will get along with the best. 

Whose favorite part is making learning goals? (allow for raised hands, this may be minimally supported) This is the real fun of the first week. Think about how much you knew one year ago, when you started school a grade lower. Now think about how much you know now! All the learning was because someone set a goal for you. Maybe it was a teacher or a parent or maybe it was yourself. We can make a goal to read five books by next year, or learn or multiplication table, or write a story about a dinosaur. Learning goals help us focus on what is important to us and help us grow in the ways we want to. 

In our Bible lesson this week Jesus tells us we need to be just as focused when we say we want to be better disciples. A disciple is someone who wants to be more like Jesus, but Jesus did a lot of things. As school starts it’s a good time for us to set some goals for our spiritual learning too. You could make a goal to pray once a week, or to come to church twice a month, or to do a random act of kindness every month. I want you to think about that this week. How do you want to be a better disciple, to me more like Jesus or to know more about Jesus? 

Let’s pray for God to help us grow.

Awesome God, Thank you for another year of learning. We want to learn about you. We want to be more like Jesus. Help us make a goal so we can be even better at being a Christian this year. Amen.



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The Immediate Word, September 8, 2019 issue.

Copyright 2019 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.