Not Keeping Silent
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
This Sunday is January 20th -- the traditional date for presidential inaugurations in the United States. The public festivities will occur on the following day and that just increases the event's layers of historical significance, since the nation's first African-American president will be reinaugurated on the national holiday celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday. This occurrence was probably a mere fantasy in the minds of those who fearlessly worked for civil rights half a century ago, at the dawn of a year that would see such seminal events as the massive march on Washington featuring King's memorable "I Have a Dream" speech, the bombing of a Baptist church in Birmingham in which four little girls lost their lives, and the assassination of Mississippi activist Medgar Evers. Yet the prophet Isaiah reminds us in this week's lectionary passage from the Hebrew scriptures that this sort of reversal is inevitable in the long arc of history, as he tells us that eventually "vindication shines out like the dawn, and... salvation like a burning torch." In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin discusses the important role we have in creating the restoration that Isaiah speaks of. Mary points out that it's not enough to merely wait on God to do his work in the world; like the prophet, we too are called to "not keep silent" and "not rest" -- to make our voice heard and take up the challenge of working against injustice and suffering, just like those who risked their safety in the fight for civil rights.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer offers some additional thoughts on the epistle and gospel texts and on the perspective they give us as we consider such contentious issues as what appropriate policy for guns in this country ought to be. Dean notes that Paul's comments on spiritual gifts indicate that they are to serve "the common good." In addition, Dean finds it significant that at the wedding in Cana Mary tells the servants to "do whatever [Jesus] tells you." Dean reminds us that this wasn't just a typical request for the caterers at the reception -- it involved "schlepping" water from the well to fill several 20-30 gallon stone jars... akin for us to filling large garbage cans full of water/wine. That's some heavy lifting... and that's exactly the point. Dean tells us that doing "what he tells us" really involves being willing to do the unglamorous daily grunt work of heavy lifting that Jesus commands of us... the sort of service that Paul expounds upon in the Corinthians passage.
Not Keeping Silent
by Mary Austin
Isaiah 62:1-5
Not a minister. Not a guy in a tie. Not, for some Americans, even a household name.
President Obama's inaugural planning team has announced that Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of civil rights martyr Medgar Evers, will deliver the invocation at the inauguration on January 21. The invitation comes as the inaugural events fall on Martin Luther King weekend, and the president plans to take the oath of office on two Bibles, one from Abraham Lincoln and one from Martin Luther King.
Fifty years after Medgar Evers was shot to death in his driveway in Mississippi, his widow -- a civil rights activist in her own right -- will have the nation's ear. She will step onto the dais in front of members of congress, supreme court justices, the president, and others, and speak to God on behalf of the nation. Is it possible that this is the kind of restoration that the prophet Isaiah speaks about?
THE WORLD
As Michelle Boorstein observes in the Washington Post, "Decades ago, few Americans paid attention to the clergy (always mainline Protestants) who stood on the podium with the incoming president, or the scripture upon which the president put his hand as he swore the oath of office. But as the country has become more politically polarized and religiously diverse, faith and politics have become far more explosive, and such official moments are now scrutinized." The choice of Ms. Evers-Williams is an homage to the civil rights era and its pioneers. It calls us to a profound mixture of grief and gratitude for the civil rights leaders, many of whom didn't live to see the realization of their hopes for the nation.
It also calls us to remember that the promises of justice embedded in their faith fueled many of those who worked in the civil rights movement. As all of those threads come together, and as the inauguration falls on the Martin Luther King holiday, America is challenged to look back to the civil rights era and to look ahead to the day when all of those hopes for a just and equal America are fully realized.
The Washington Post article speaks to one of the president's hopes in choosing Ms. Evers-Williams to deliver the invocation: "I would imagine that even people who are made somewhat uncomfortable by the allusions to religion in such public moments will find an invocation by the widow of a martyr to be moving and poignant," said author Jon Meacham, who has written on religion in American history. "This is as unifying a gesture as a president could make, it seems to me." In addition, this choice also speaks of the changes America has seen in fifty years.
After Medgar Evers' death in 1963, his killer was arrested and tried twice. Two all-white, all-male juries deadlocked, and the killer wasn't convicted until a third trial in 1994, thirty years after the first one. He has since died in prison. The NAACP website reports that Evers' body was exhumed for the third trial, and before it was reburied his family held another funeral. "This permitted his children," according to the website, "who were toddlers when he was assassinated and had very little memory of him, to have a chance to see him." One can only imagine the poignancy of that moment, as his children were then about the age of Evers at the time of his death.
Willie Morris, the author of The Ghosts of Medgar Evers (Random House, 1998), provides in his book a moving portrait of Evers' character and work:
By innumerable accounts of those who knew him, Medgar was a fine, decent, efficient, highly likeable family man who could not ignore the compulsions of his heart.... He believed in a truly integrated society. "He was a man who'd been through a great deal and in no way was a hater," a close friend and associate said of him. "He was just not a hater." In meetings with white leaders late in his life he was invariably courteous and restrained, but his emotions ran deep. He once cried openly during a talk at an NAACP meeting while describing some particularly brutal wrong, and in his last weeks people recalled him as weary to the point of collapse.
He challenged the whole white power structure, and he did so across a broad spectrum, becoming by far the most visible and aggressive civil rights activist in the state. The white supremacists were aware of him, and for good reason:
* He investigated racial murders and beatings: the killing of the 14-year-old Chicago child Emmett Till near the town of Money; of the Reverend George Lee, the NAACP leader in Belzoni, who was felled in a downtown neighborhood with shotgun blasts to his face, with no arrests ever made, the police claiming the shotgun buckshot pellets were dental fillings.... In the perilous work of examining these and other crimes, Evers often disguised himself as a sharecropper. He developed contacts among writers for the national media and kept them informed of his discoveries, and they trusted him.
* He was constantly on the road trying to get blacks to register to vote.... Lyndon Johnson's Voting Rights Act would not be passed until 1965. Not until two years later would Mississippians elect their first black legislator since Reconstruction. "The first time I ever voted, I voted for myself," the legislator said....
* As early as 1953 he was roaming the Delta photographing the horrible conditions of the black schools....
* He espoused equal access to public facilities and, near the end of his life, organized economic boycotts, mass demonstrations, and lunch-counter sit-ins. Even his more modest pursuits suggested something of the daily life of Mississippi blacks then: to be able to try on hats in stores, to use public swimming pools and libraries, to have school-crossing personnel at the black schools, to be addressed as Mr., Mrs., and Miss.
* His most towering accomplishment, however, as Adam Nossiter has eloquently noted, was "his simple presence, his standing up for the idea of racial justice, in a time and place where it was extremely dangerous to do so. He kept that idea alive in Mississippi publicly, at a time when no one else did. When other civil rights leaders came into the state in 1961, they were not carrying their message into virgin territory."
For this he was beaten while trying to integrate a bus, threatened by a mob while attempting to get an NAACP member out of jail, attacked by police outside a courtroom, and routinely trailed and harassed by cops, and he received voluminous hate mail and telephone calls and had his home firebombed.
[Go here for more about Morris' book and the movie made about the Evers case and the 1994 trial.]
What level of peace and justice in America can serve as restoration for all of that and for the struggles of the other civil rights leaders? This era is often unknown to younger generations, and for them, Barack Obama's election is no big deal. It's an era often forgotten by people young enough to have gone to the college of their choice and to have found success in the military, business world, and academia. Yet it's a part of our history as clearly as the Civil War, Pearl Harbor, and 9/11.
THE WORD
The word of God's restoration in this week's lectionary passage comes from "Third Isaiah," who attaches his message of restoration to the prophetic warnings of the first and second prophets who used the name Isaiah. Chapters 56-66 speak his message of hope and renewal, talking to the people after the return home from exile. First Isaiah (chapters 1-39) speaks to the nation of Israel before the exile to Babylon, and Second Isaiah (chapters 40-55) to the people during the exile.
Isaiah promises that the light of God will shine out with such strength that other nations will see it. Because the prophet will not -- and cannot -- keep silent, and God will not -- and cannot -- keep still, "vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch." This is not just for Israel alone, but "the nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name." This word of hope is for the community and for the wider world beyond it.
It's curious that the people would need a word of hope as they return home, something long dreamed of for generations. Some commentators believe that they came home to find not the glorious city passed down in story and memory in the exile community, but a desolate city with broken-down walls. The reality didn't match the dream. Into that gap, Isaiah speaks this word of certain renewal. "You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate," the prophet promises.
He is speaking to Israel at a particular time and place in their history, but the poetry of the prophet speaks of God's interest in restoration and vindication to all people of faith. Those causes are timeless. God takes them up again in every place where people are in need of hope, and God will not be silent.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Fifty years after the civil rights movement, the second inauguration of Barack Obama as president comes without some of the grand hopes of his first inauguration. For us too, there's a gap between the dream and the reality. The exuberant idea of a post-racial America has faded as our challenges so clearly remain with us. The second inauguration, as is traditional, is smaller, less expensive, and will attract fewer people. Yet the ordinariness of it also feels hopeful. Perhaps, as we come again to the birthday of Martin Luther King, we are coming closer to his hope that we will judge one another on the content of our character instead of the color of our skin. Perhaps we are coming closer to the time when African-American legislators and public servants, along with those of Asian and Hispanic and Middle Eastern backgrounds, and those who are gay and lesbian, and those of all faiths and none at all, will be commonplace. Perhaps we are coming closer to the time when we as a nation live up to our own long-standing promise of being a nation where all people are created equal.
The sermon might look at other gaps between dream and reality, and the word God speaks into the gap. There are spaces like that in all of our lives and in all of our faith communities. There are spaces like that in our community life, as well as our national life. What does God say in the space?
Or the sermon might look at where God is calling us to speak up. "I will not be silent," the prophet says, and it's not clear if he is speaking God's word or his own. Either way, silence is not an option when the divine is at work.
Holy silence is impossible in the face in of injustice, wrong, or hopelessness. "I will not be silent" is the truth by which many civil rights pioneers, known and unknown, lived and worked. "I will not be silent," the prophet says and calls us all to share in God's work of restoration. Not just restoration to what once was but restoration to God's vision for the world. "I will not be silent... and I will not rest... until her vindication shines out like the dawn." The prophet is proclaiming God's vision for Israel, and if we can learn not to be silent, we may share in the same vision for America, fully realized for us too and shining out like the dawn.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Doing As We're Told
by Dean Feldmeyer
1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11
What to do about guns?
Following the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre of 20 school children and six adults, President Obama has ordered an administration-wide task force to send him proposals for reducing gun violence. They are due by the end of January, though news reports indicate that the task force's recommendations will be sent to the president this week.
Vice President Joe Biden has been meeting with gun violence victims groups and gun safety organizations, and he has also sat down with gun ownership groups and advocates for sportsmen as well as representatives from the entertainment and video-game industries. Other White House representatives have been meeting with parent and teacher groups as well as mental health and disability advocates.
Meanwhile, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is proposing a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. And former Rep. Gabrielle "Gabby" Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly have launched a political action committee, "Americans for Responsible Solutions", to counter what they identify as "special interests purporting to represent gun owners but really advancing the interests of an ideological fringe" who "have used big money and influence to cow Congress into submission."
Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, however, says that this should all be placed on the back burner so Congress can focus all of its attention on the important work of dealing with the next round of fiscal deadlines.
Looking at all of the various interest groups who have a stake in this debate and are seeking to influence its outcome, one cannot help but wonder if, when the dust settles, anything of substance will be done and what ethos will drive the actions that come from these meetings.
The lectionary offers two perspectives to guide our consideration not just of this issue but of others as well.
First, in the epistle text from First Corinthians, Paul speaks of spiritual gifts, what they are, how they are distributed, and why they are distributed the way they are. He begins by reminding us that there are many gifts and activities but only one God whose Spirit distributes them among the faithful.
Then, in verse 7 he tells us why the gifts are given as they are: "Öfor the common good."
This is God's driving concern as God distributes the various gifts throughout the faith community -- that all should be served by the gifts and all benefit from them.
It is not to the individual but to the common good that God turns the divine attention, and so shall we turn ours. Instead of focusing on "my rights" and "my welfare," we would do well to focus on "our needs" as a community and "our welfare" as a people.
Second, in the gospel passage, we have the peculiarly Johannine story of Jesus and Mary at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. It was not uncommon in first-century Palestine for wedding feasts to last for several days. At this one, we are late into the celebration when the wine starts running out, which would be a great embarrassment to the host.
Mary, the good Jewish mother, picks up on the problem and points it out to Jesus -- who replies, rather tersely, that it's "not my problem."
Mary, ignoring his reply, says to the servants: "Do whatever he tells you."
They do as Jesus tells them and, voila, the water is turned not just into wine, but into the good stuff.
But what strikes us is Mary's advice to the servants: "Do whatever he tells you." And what he tells them to do is no grand or glorious scheme but simply to schlep about 150 gallons of water from the nearest well to the water jars that are standing empty along the wall. There's nothing glamorous here; just toting water.
Mary knows that for miracles to happen we must be attentive to the instructions of Jesus. We must do whatever he tells us even if what he tells us to do is just some menial, heavy grunt work like toting water from one place to another.
So there we have it.
One, work for the common good.
Two, do whatever Jesus tells you.
If we want miracles to happen -- and let's face it, it's going to take a miracle to change the gun culture of this country -- then those two things are going to be necessary steps in the formula.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Even though it seems like recent history to those of us who are old enough to have firsthand memory of the civil rights era, many young people are not aware of the intensity of the struggle for voting rights and against Jim Crow laws -- and of blood, sweat, and tears that were shed by those brave souls who stood up against the established order by registering voters, participating in protest marches, and even going to jail.
There's an incredibly useful resource that's now widely available that can help serve as a corrective to this state of affairs: Eyes on the Prize is a 14-part award-winning documentary that provides a definitive account of the civil rights era from 1954-1985. The series was originally shown on PBS in 1987 -- but unfortunately, due to rights issues over some of the news footage contained in the series, it was unavailable for many years. Finally that was all resolved, and the series reran on PBS in 2010 and is now available for purchase (for a very reasonable price). In addition, there is an entire section dedicated to Eyes on the Prize on the PBS website that's a real treasure trove of background information, with links to several primary sources. (A companion book to the series written by journalist Juan Williams is also available.) This series and the website are perfect entry points for those who want to learn more about the entire era.
* * *
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in a village in the Transkei region of South Africa in July of 1918. After attending a local mission school he went to Johannesburg, where he completed a B.A. degree by correspondence and began studying for his law degree. In 1942, he joined the African National Congress, entered politics, and began a lifelong struggle against the oppression of apartheid. In 1953, Mandela and Oliver Tambo opened the country's first black law firm, and they encountered efforts from the government to frustrate their practice. In 1962, after illegally exiting South Africa, Mandela returned and was sentenced to five years imprisonment. While serving that sentence he was charged with sabotage and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
At his trial, the statements Mandela made in court were often dramatic: "I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
After years of international pressure, Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison in 1990, and was later elected president of the ANC. In 1993 he received the Nobel Peace Prize, and on May 10, 1994, he was inaugurated as the president of South Africa. Few things are as powerful as the prisoner vindicated.
* * *
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."... I have a dream that one day "every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."... This will be the day when all God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."... When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God's children, black and white, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are all free at last!"
-- Martin Luther King Jr., excerpted from his "I Have a Dream" speech delivered at the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963
* * *
The following scene opens The Autobiography of Malcolm X:
When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home in Omaha, Nebraska, one night.... The Klansmen shouted threats and warnings at her that we had better get out of town because "the good Christian white people" were not going to stand for my father's "spreading trouble" among the "good" Negros of Omaha with the "back to Africa" preachings of Marcus Garvey.
This in utero beginning set the tone for the lifetime of injustices and threats that Malcolm Little (his birth name) would experience. His response to this was a great deal of rage, anger, and a harried odyssey of discovering his true selfhood. Throughout this sojourn, Malcolm had various names associated with the different chapters of his life -- Malcolm Little, Mascot, Homeboy, Harlemite, and Detroit Red.
Finally he joined the Nation of Islam as a devout member and minister. Malcolm writes that every minister believed his " 'before' life had been only conditioning and preparation to become a disciple of Mr. Muhammad's." When he left his "before" life behind, Malcolm applied for and received his "X" from Chicago. He explains: "The Muslim's 'X' symbolized the true African family name that he never could know.... 'X' replaced the white slave master name.... Mr. Muhammad taught that we would keep this 'X' until God Himself returned and gave us a Holy name from His own mouth." A new name symbolizes a change in status.
* * *
"Gentleman Jim" Corbett (1866-1933) was one of the best boxers who ever stepped into a ring. A former bank teller, Corbett became a professional boxer in 1884 and won the world heavyweight boxing in 1892 when he defeated the legendary John L. Sullivan. In his autobiography, Corbett pointed out that each fighter has the same equipment. Someone asked him, "What is the secret that makes a man a champion?" Corbett answered by saying, "Fight one more round." He elaborated by stating, "When your feet are so tired you have to shuffle back to the center of the ring -- fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard -- fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired you wish your opponent would crack you on the jaw and put you to sleep -- fight one more round!" The author of our Isaiah text had that spirit: "For Jerusalem's sake I will not stop speaking" (Isaiah 62:1, The New Century Version).
* * *
They say that "word of mouth" is the best form of advertising. The old Packard automobile company knew this very well. So dependent were its executives on word-of-mouth advertising that they entered the world of commercial advertising only reluctantly. When they finally did start to run ads, they adopted as their slogan something their company founder used to say to salespeople who were trying to sell him ads: "Don't need any; just ask the man who owns one." "Ask the man who owns one" eventually became the Packard slogan.
"For Zion's sake I will not keep silent..." (Isaiah 62:1). The writer of this psalm simply cannot keep quiet when it comes to God. That ought to be our motto as well in these days after Christmas. We have seen the Christ Child. We cannot keep silent!
* * *
For the first time in 17 years, in 2013 no former players were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). Those who played during the "Steroid Era" did not have the confidence of the BBWAA that their statistics represented true ability as opposed to drug-enhanced ability.
Yet Associated Press sports columnist Jim Litke predicts that several players tainted by allegations of steroid use such as Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens will be elected into Cooperstown during their remaining 14 years of eligibility. Litke writes, "It won't be because people forget, or even forgive, but because they won't care anymore."
When Isaiah speaks of the restoration of Israel, it will come not because people do not care anymore but rather because absent from the Lord they cared very much.
* * *
Nina Olson, the IRS's "national taxpayer advocate," recently submitted to Congress her annual evaluation (Adobe pdf file) of the U.S. tax code -- and her comments went beyond discouraging. The tax code is 4 million words in length. Since 2001 Congress has made 5,000 changes to the tax code, which averages more than one a day. Citizens and businesspeople spent 6 billion hours completing tax forms, which translates to 3 million people working full-time, year-round. Olson said, "If tax compliance were an industry, it would be one of the largest in the United States."
Upon receiving Olson's analysis, Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the House and Ways and Means Committee, said, "The report confirms that the code is ten times the size of the Bible with none of the good news."
Mary asked the servants of the household during the wedding feast to do whatever her son asked of them. Perhaps following the instructions of Jesus could be easier than following the instructions of the U.S. tax code.
* * *
In order to control rapid population growth, in 1979 China introduced and enforced the policy of limiting children to one per family. With the realization that there would only be one child in the household, parents doted upon their sole heir. These children have become known in China as "little emperors" because of their privileged place in the family. Research has also found that they are less trusting, less competitive, more pessimistic, less conscientious, and more risk-averse than children born before the "only child" policy.
This has raised a serious concern among the leaders of the business community, for these children lack the personality qualifications to be strong leaders and managers. So when someone instructs these "little emperors" to "do whatever he tells you," they are often not up to the task.
* * *
The apostle Paul told his warring friends at Corinth that each one of them was gifted. They had tried to pick and choose preachers; they were at odds with one another. Who was the best -- Paul, Cephas, Apollos, or some other? They were divided over many things. Paul brought them back to reality by reminding them that each one of them had a gift and each one of them was to use that gift for the common good.
This old term "common good" had almost been forgotten. Corinth would only cease their squabbling and unite as one when they realized each gift they had been given was to build up the Body of Christ -- to work for the common good.
Mark Twain could have been writing about Corinth when he said: "I built a cage, and in it I put a dog and a cat. And after a little training, I got the dog and the cat to the point where they lived peaceably together. Then I introduced a pig, a goat, a kangaroo, some birds, and a monkey. And after a few adjustments, they learned to live in harmony. So encouraged was I by such successes that I added an Irish Catholic, a Presbyterian, a Jew, a Muslim from Turkestan, and a Buddhist from China, along with a Baptist missionary that I captured on the same trip. And in a very short while there wasn't a single living thing left in the cage."
* * *
Bruce Springsteen sings of an old friend who is stuck back in the "glory days" of his high school years, when he had been something of a hero.
It's a tragic tale when that's as high as a person climbs -- when the "glory days" of a man's life belong to his time on the high school baseball team. Yet it's a tragedy that's repeated often enough.
First Corinthians 12:6 speaks of the way the Lord "activates" spiritual gifts within us. One of the characteristics of gifts of the Spirit is that they don't wear out. With the Holy Spirit, the glory days are now, and in days yet to come.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Your steadfast love, God, extends to the heavens,
People: your faithfulness to the clouds.
Leader: Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
People: your judgments are like the great deep.
Leader: How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
People: All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
OR
Leader: Come and dream of what can be!
People: We come with so many visions of the future.
Leader: Come and dream with God of what can be!
People: We come to catch a glimpse of God's vision for us all.
Leader: Come and join God in making the dream reality.
People: The best reality is what God sees for us. We will join with God in bringing the dream to life.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Be Thou My Vision"
found in:
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELA: 793
W&P: 502
AMEC: 281
STLT: 20
Renew: 151
"All Creatures of Our God and King"
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
Renew: 47
"God, Whose Love Is Reigning O'er Us"
found in:
UMH: 100
"God of Grace and God of Glory"
found in:
UMH: 577
H82: 594
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELA: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
"Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart"
found in:
UMH: 160/161
H82: 556/557
PH: 145/146
AAHH: 537
NNBH: 7
NCH: 55, 71
CH: 15
LBW: 553
ELA: 873/874
W&P: 13
AMEC: 8
"Open My Eyes, That I May See"
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
"Lord, Speak to Me"
found in:
UMH: 463
PH: 426
NCH: 561
ELA: 676
W&P: 593
"Let There Be Light"
found in:
UMH: 440
NNBH: 450
NCH: 589
STLT: 142
"Something Beautiful"
found in:
CCB: 84
"You Are Mine"
found in:
CCB: 58
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who casts a dream for us and then invites us to call it forth: Grant us the faith to believe in your dream for your creation and the faithfulness to call it forth in word and deed; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come not only to praise you, O God, but to discover anew your dream for creation. Open our minds and hearts to your great desire and then fill us with such courage that we will be faithful to your vision. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our substituting our dream of the future for God's vision.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You offer us your dream, your vision of what creation can become, and we mindlessly substitute our own poor visions. You see peace, shalom, wholeness, and we see nice clothes and big houses. You see harmony between nations, and we see being number one. You see salvation, and we see consumption. Forgive us our foolish ways and inspire us with your Spirit that we may dream as you dream and then act to fulfill those dreams. Amen.
Leader: God's dreams shall come true and God welcomes us into their fulfillment. Rejoice in God's love and forgiveness and be strengthened in God's Spirit to carry out those dreams.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
O God of creation and of salvation, we praise and adore you for making us in your image and for sharing your visions and dreams for us.
(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. You offer us your dream, your vision of what creation can become, and we mindlessly substitute our own poor visions. You see peace, shalom, wholeness, and we see nice clothes and big houses. You see harmony between nations, and we see being number one. You see salvation, and we see consumption. Forgive us our foolish ways and inspire us with your Spirit that we may dream as you dream and then act to fulfill those dreams.
We give you thanks for all the wonders of creation and all other blessings of this life. We thank you for your presence with us in times of celebration and your dreams of hope in times of trouble. Most of all we thank you for Jesus, who lived out your dream for us by dwelling among us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need and especially for those who find it hard to dream or to believe in the dreams of others. We pray for those who are beaten down or worn down by life. We pray for ourselves so that we might help to lift them and to lift their eyes to you.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about dreams. Some are nice, some are scary, and some are just weird -- but they are not real. God's dreams, though, are real. They are the things that God wants for us and which God will, eventually, bring about.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
One Body, Many Members
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Object: a piece of paper and a crayon for each child
Good morning, boys and girls! Today I need your help. Trace one of your hands on this paper. (give the children a moment to do it) Tell me some of the things you can do with your hands. (listen to their responses) Now, look at your feet for a moment. What can you do with your feet? (let them tell you) What about your eyes? Your nose? Your ears? (spend a moment or two for each question)
Our bodies are amazing, aren't they? We don't have time today to trace all of your body, but we know that our bodies can do lots of things because there are so many different parts. Each part does something special -- something that only it can do. For example: our feet can't hear, our ears can't walk. That would be silly, wouldn't it? Ears were made for hearing, and feet were made for standing and walking. Each part is special on its own but each part needs the other parts to make a body. All the parts put together make one complete person.
God sent the Holy Spirit to the world so that we would always have a part of God living among us. Jesus couldn't stay forever, so God sent his Spirit to stay with us. The Spirit gives each of us gifts that make us special and different from anyone else. Each of us has things we can do that no one else can, just like the different parts of the body all have different jobs.
All parts of the body need the others in order to be a whole body. Just like a body, we are different from each other -- but we need each other too. We are a body: the Body of Christ. We have lots of different members but we are one big community together. We need to remember that and appreciate each other for the things that make us different and special.
Prayer: Father, thank you for the Holy Spirit. Help us to appreciate the gifts the Spirit gives to each one of us. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, January 20, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer offers some additional thoughts on the epistle and gospel texts and on the perspective they give us as we consider such contentious issues as what appropriate policy for guns in this country ought to be. Dean notes that Paul's comments on spiritual gifts indicate that they are to serve "the common good." In addition, Dean finds it significant that at the wedding in Cana Mary tells the servants to "do whatever [Jesus] tells you." Dean reminds us that this wasn't just a typical request for the caterers at the reception -- it involved "schlepping" water from the well to fill several 20-30 gallon stone jars... akin for us to filling large garbage cans full of water/wine. That's some heavy lifting... and that's exactly the point. Dean tells us that doing "what he tells us" really involves being willing to do the unglamorous daily grunt work of heavy lifting that Jesus commands of us... the sort of service that Paul expounds upon in the Corinthians passage.
Not Keeping Silent
by Mary Austin
Isaiah 62:1-5
Not a minister. Not a guy in a tie. Not, for some Americans, even a household name.
President Obama's inaugural planning team has announced that Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of civil rights martyr Medgar Evers, will deliver the invocation at the inauguration on January 21. The invitation comes as the inaugural events fall on Martin Luther King weekend, and the president plans to take the oath of office on two Bibles, one from Abraham Lincoln and one from Martin Luther King.
Fifty years after Medgar Evers was shot to death in his driveway in Mississippi, his widow -- a civil rights activist in her own right -- will have the nation's ear. She will step onto the dais in front of members of congress, supreme court justices, the president, and others, and speak to God on behalf of the nation. Is it possible that this is the kind of restoration that the prophet Isaiah speaks about?
THE WORLD
As Michelle Boorstein observes in the Washington Post, "Decades ago, few Americans paid attention to the clergy (always mainline Protestants) who stood on the podium with the incoming president, or the scripture upon which the president put his hand as he swore the oath of office. But as the country has become more politically polarized and religiously diverse, faith and politics have become far more explosive, and such official moments are now scrutinized." The choice of Ms. Evers-Williams is an homage to the civil rights era and its pioneers. It calls us to a profound mixture of grief and gratitude for the civil rights leaders, many of whom didn't live to see the realization of their hopes for the nation.
It also calls us to remember that the promises of justice embedded in their faith fueled many of those who worked in the civil rights movement. As all of those threads come together, and as the inauguration falls on the Martin Luther King holiday, America is challenged to look back to the civil rights era and to look ahead to the day when all of those hopes for a just and equal America are fully realized.
The Washington Post article speaks to one of the president's hopes in choosing Ms. Evers-Williams to deliver the invocation: "I would imagine that even people who are made somewhat uncomfortable by the allusions to religion in such public moments will find an invocation by the widow of a martyr to be moving and poignant," said author Jon Meacham, who has written on religion in American history. "This is as unifying a gesture as a president could make, it seems to me." In addition, this choice also speaks of the changes America has seen in fifty years.
After Medgar Evers' death in 1963, his killer was arrested and tried twice. Two all-white, all-male juries deadlocked, and the killer wasn't convicted until a third trial in 1994, thirty years after the first one. He has since died in prison. The NAACP website reports that Evers' body was exhumed for the third trial, and before it was reburied his family held another funeral. "This permitted his children," according to the website, "who were toddlers when he was assassinated and had very little memory of him, to have a chance to see him." One can only imagine the poignancy of that moment, as his children were then about the age of Evers at the time of his death.
Willie Morris, the author of The Ghosts of Medgar Evers (Random House, 1998), provides in his book a moving portrait of Evers' character and work:
By innumerable accounts of those who knew him, Medgar was a fine, decent, efficient, highly likeable family man who could not ignore the compulsions of his heart.... He believed in a truly integrated society. "He was a man who'd been through a great deal and in no way was a hater," a close friend and associate said of him. "He was just not a hater." In meetings with white leaders late in his life he was invariably courteous and restrained, but his emotions ran deep. He once cried openly during a talk at an NAACP meeting while describing some particularly brutal wrong, and in his last weeks people recalled him as weary to the point of collapse.
He challenged the whole white power structure, and he did so across a broad spectrum, becoming by far the most visible and aggressive civil rights activist in the state. The white supremacists were aware of him, and for good reason:
* He investigated racial murders and beatings: the killing of the 14-year-old Chicago child Emmett Till near the town of Money; of the Reverend George Lee, the NAACP leader in Belzoni, who was felled in a downtown neighborhood with shotgun blasts to his face, with no arrests ever made, the police claiming the shotgun buckshot pellets were dental fillings.... In the perilous work of examining these and other crimes, Evers often disguised himself as a sharecropper. He developed contacts among writers for the national media and kept them informed of his discoveries, and they trusted him.
* He was constantly on the road trying to get blacks to register to vote.... Lyndon Johnson's Voting Rights Act would not be passed until 1965. Not until two years later would Mississippians elect their first black legislator since Reconstruction. "The first time I ever voted, I voted for myself," the legislator said....
* As early as 1953 he was roaming the Delta photographing the horrible conditions of the black schools....
* He espoused equal access to public facilities and, near the end of his life, organized economic boycotts, mass demonstrations, and lunch-counter sit-ins. Even his more modest pursuits suggested something of the daily life of Mississippi blacks then: to be able to try on hats in stores, to use public swimming pools and libraries, to have school-crossing personnel at the black schools, to be addressed as Mr., Mrs., and Miss.
* His most towering accomplishment, however, as Adam Nossiter has eloquently noted, was "his simple presence, his standing up for the idea of racial justice, in a time and place where it was extremely dangerous to do so. He kept that idea alive in Mississippi publicly, at a time when no one else did. When other civil rights leaders came into the state in 1961, they were not carrying their message into virgin territory."
For this he was beaten while trying to integrate a bus, threatened by a mob while attempting to get an NAACP member out of jail, attacked by police outside a courtroom, and routinely trailed and harassed by cops, and he received voluminous hate mail and telephone calls and had his home firebombed.
[Go here for more about Morris' book and the movie made about the Evers case and the 1994 trial.]
What level of peace and justice in America can serve as restoration for all of that and for the struggles of the other civil rights leaders? This era is often unknown to younger generations, and for them, Barack Obama's election is no big deal. It's an era often forgotten by people young enough to have gone to the college of their choice and to have found success in the military, business world, and academia. Yet it's a part of our history as clearly as the Civil War, Pearl Harbor, and 9/11.
THE WORD
The word of God's restoration in this week's lectionary passage comes from "Third Isaiah," who attaches his message of restoration to the prophetic warnings of the first and second prophets who used the name Isaiah. Chapters 56-66 speak his message of hope and renewal, talking to the people after the return home from exile. First Isaiah (chapters 1-39) speaks to the nation of Israel before the exile to Babylon, and Second Isaiah (chapters 40-55) to the people during the exile.
Isaiah promises that the light of God will shine out with such strength that other nations will see it. Because the prophet will not -- and cannot -- keep silent, and God will not -- and cannot -- keep still, "vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch." This is not just for Israel alone, but "the nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name." This word of hope is for the community and for the wider world beyond it.
It's curious that the people would need a word of hope as they return home, something long dreamed of for generations. Some commentators believe that they came home to find not the glorious city passed down in story and memory in the exile community, but a desolate city with broken-down walls. The reality didn't match the dream. Into that gap, Isaiah speaks this word of certain renewal. "You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate," the prophet promises.
He is speaking to Israel at a particular time and place in their history, but the poetry of the prophet speaks of God's interest in restoration and vindication to all people of faith. Those causes are timeless. God takes them up again in every place where people are in need of hope, and God will not be silent.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Fifty years after the civil rights movement, the second inauguration of Barack Obama as president comes without some of the grand hopes of his first inauguration. For us too, there's a gap between the dream and the reality. The exuberant idea of a post-racial America has faded as our challenges so clearly remain with us. The second inauguration, as is traditional, is smaller, less expensive, and will attract fewer people. Yet the ordinariness of it also feels hopeful. Perhaps, as we come again to the birthday of Martin Luther King, we are coming closer to his hope that we will judge one another on the content of our character instead of the color of our skin. Perhaps we are coming closer to the time when African-American legislators and public servants, along with those of Asian and Hispanic and Middle Eastern backgrounds, and those who are gay and lesbian, and those of all faiths and none at all, will be commonplace. Perhaps we are coming closer to the time when we as a nation live up to our own long-standing promise of being a nation where all people are created equal.
The sermon might look at other gaps between dream and reality, and the word God speaks into the gap. There are spaces like that in all of our lives and in all of our faith communities. There are spaces like that in our community life, as well as our national life. What does God say in the space?
Or the sermon might look at where God is calling us to speak up. "I will not be silent," the prophet says, and it's not clear if he is speaking God's word or his own. Either way, silence is not an option when the divine is at work.
Holy silence is impossible in the face in of injustice, wrong, or hopelessness. "I will not be silent" is the truth by which many civil rights pioneers, known and unknown, lived and worked. "I will not be silent," the prophet says and calls us all to share in God's work of restoration. Not just restoration to what once was but restoration to God's vision for the world. "I will not be silent... and I will not rest... until her vindication shines out like the dawn." The prophet is proclaiming God's vision for Israel, and if we can learn not to be silent, we may share in the same vision for America, fully realized for us too and shining out like the dawn.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Doing As We're Told
by Dean Feldmeyer
1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11
What to do about guns?
Following the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre of 20 school children and six adults, President Obama has ordered an administration-wide task force to send him proposals for reducing gun violence. They are due by the end of January, though news reports indicate that the task force's recommendations will be sent to the president this week.
Vice President Joe Biden has been meeting with gun violence victims groups and gun safety organizations, and he has also sat down with gun ownership groups and advocates for sportsmen as well as representatives from the entertainment and video-game industries. Other White House representatives have been meeting with parent and teacher groups as well as mental health and disability advocates.
Meanwhile, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is proposing a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. And former Rep. Gabrielle "Gabby" Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly have launched a political action committee, "Americans for Responsible Solutions", to counter what they identify as "special interests purporting to represent gun owners but really advancing the interests of an ideological fringe" who "have used big money and influence to cow Congress into submission."
Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, however, says that this should all be placed on the back burner so Congress can focus all of its attention on the important work of dealing with the next round of fiscal deadlines.
Looking at all of the various interest groups who have a stake in this debate and are seeking to influence its outcome, one cannot help but wonder if, when the dust settles, anything of substance will be done and what ethos will drive the actions that come from these meetings.
The lectionary offers two perspectives to guide our consideration not just of this issue but of others as well.
First, in the epistle text from First Corinthians, Paul speaks of spiritual gifts, what they are, how they are distributed, and why they are distributed the way they are. He begins by reminding us that there are many gifts and activities but only one God whose Spirit distributes them among the faithful.
Then, in verse 7 he tells us why the gifts are given as they are: "Öfor the common good."
This is God's driving concern as God distributes the various gifts throughout the faith community -- that all should be served by the gifts and all benefit from them.
It is not to the individual but to the common good that God turns the divine attention, and so shall we turn ours. Instead of focusing on "my rights" and "my welfare," we would do well to focus on "our needs" as a community and "our welfare" as a people.
Second, in the gospel passage, we have the peculiarly Johannine story of Jesus and Mary at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. It was not uncommon in first-century Palestine for wedding feasts to last for several days. At this one, we are late into the celebration when the wine starts running out, which would be a great embarrassment to the host.
Mary, the good Jewish mother, picks up on the problem and points it out to Jesus -- who replies, rather tersely, that it's "not my problem."
Mary, ignoring his reply, says to the servants: "Do whatever he tells you."
They do as Jesus tells them and, voila, the water is turned not just into wine, but into the good stuff.
But what strikes us is Mary's advice to the servants: "Do whatever he tells you." And what he tells them to do is no grand or glorious scheme but simply to schlep about 150 gallons of water from the nearest well to the water jars that are standing empty along the wall. There's nothing glamorous here; just toting water.
Mary knows that for miracles to happen we must be attentive to the instructions of Jesus. We must do whatever he tells us even if what he tells us to do is just some menial, heavy grunt work like toting water from one place to another.
So there we have it.
One, work for the common good.
Two, do whatever Jesus tells you.
If we want miracles to happen -- and let's face it, it's going to take a miracle to change the gun culture of this country -- then those two things are going to be necessary steps in the formula.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Even though it seems like recent history to those of us who are old enough to have firsthand memory of the civil rights era, many young people are not aware of the intensity of the struggle for voting rights and against Jim Crow laws -- and of blood, sweat, and tears that were shed by those brave souls who stood up against the established order by registering voters, participating in protest marches, and even going to jail.
There's an incredibly useful resource that's now widely available that can help serve as a corrective to this state of affairs: Eyes on the Prize is a 14-part award-winning documentary that provides a definitive account of the civil rights era from 1954-1985. The series was originally shown on PBS in 1987 -- but unfortunately, due to rights issues over some of the news footage contained in the series, it was unavailable for many years. Finally that was all resolved, and the series reran on PBS in 2010 and is now available for purchase (for a very reasonable price). In addition, there is an entire section dedicated to Eyes on the Prize on the PBS website that's a real treasure trove of background information, with links to several primary sources. (A companion book to the series written by journalist Juan Williams is also available.) This series and the website are perfect entry points for those who want to learn more about the entire era.
* * *
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in a village in the Transkei region of South Africa in July of 1918. After attending a local mission school he went to Johannesburg, where he completed a B.A. degree by correspondence and began studying for his law degree. In 1942, he joined the African National Congress, entered politics, and began a lifelong struggle against the oppression of apartheid. In 1953, Mandela and Oliver Tambo opened the country's first black law firm, and they encountered efforts from the government to frustrate their practice. In 1962, after illegally exiting South Africa, Mandela returned and was sentenced to five years imprisonment. While serving that sentence he was charged with sabotage and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
At his trial, the statements Mandela made in court were often dramatic: "I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
After years of international pressure, Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison in 1990, and was later elected president of the ANC. In 1993 he received the Nobel Peace Prize, and on May 10, 1994, he was inaugurated as the president of South Africa. Few things are as powerful as the prisoner vindicated.
* * *
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."... I have a dream that one day "every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."... This will be the day when all God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."... When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God's children, black and white, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are all free at last!"
-- Martin Luther King Jr., excerpted from his "I Have a Dream" speech delivered at the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963
* * *
The following scene opens The Autobiography of Malcolm X:
When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home in Omaha, Nebraska, one night.... The Klansmen shouted threats and warnings at her that we had better get out of town because "the good Christian white people" were not going to stand for my father's "spreading trouble" among the "good" Negros of Omaha with the "back to Africa" preachings of Marcus Garvey.
This in utero beginning set the tone for the lifetime of injustices and threats that Malcolm Little (his birth name) would experience. His response to this was a great deal of rage, anger, and a harried odyssey of discovering his true selfhood. Throughout this sojourn, Malcolm had various names associated with the different chapters of his life -- Malcolm Little, Mascot, Homeboy, Harlemite, and Detroit Red.
Finally he joined the Nation of Islam as a devout member and minister. Malcolm writes that every minister believed his " 'before' life had been only conditioning and preparation to become a disciple of Mr. Muhammad's." When he left his "before" life behind, Malcolm applied for and received his "X" from Chicago. He explains: "The Muslim's 'X' symbolized the true African family name that he never could know.... 'X' replaced the white slave master name.... Mr. Muhammad taught that we would keep this 'X' until God Himself returned and gave us a Holy name from His own mouth." A new name symbolizes a change in status.
* * *
"Gentleman Jim" Corbett (1866-1933) was one of the best boxers who ever stepped into a ring. A former bank teller, Corbett became a professional boxer in 1884 and won the world heavyweight boxing in 1892 when he defeated the legendary John L. Sullivan. In his autobiography, Corbett pointed out that each fighter has the same equipment. Someone asked him, "What is the secret that makes a man a champion?" Corbett answered by saying, "Fight one more round." He elaborated by stating, "When your feet are so tired you have to shuffle back to the center of the ring -- fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard -- fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired you wish your opponent would crack you on the jaw and put you to sleep -- fight one more round!" The author of our Isaiah text had that spirit: "For Jerusalem's sake I will not stop speaking" (Isaiah 62:1, The New Century Version).
* * *
They say that "word of mouth" is the best form of advertising. The old Packard automobile company knew this very well. So dependent were its executives on word-of-mouth advertising that they entered the world of commercial advertising only reluctantly. When they finally did start to run ads, they adopted as their slogan something their company founder used to say to salespeople who were trying to sell him ads: "Don't need any; just ask the man who owns one." "Ask the man who owns one" eventually became the Packard slogan.
"For Zion's sake I will not keep silent..." (Isaiah 62:1). The writer of this psalm simply cannot keep quiet when it comes to God. That ought to be our motto as well in these days after Christmas. We have seen the Christ Child. We cannot keep silent!
* * *
For the first time in 17 years, in 2013 no former players were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). Those who played during the "Steroid Era" did not have the confidence of the BBWAA that their statistics represented true ability as opposed to drug-enhanced ability.
Yet Associated Press sports columnist Jim Litke predicts that several players tainted by allegations of steroid use such as Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens will be elected into Cooperstown during their remaining 14 years of eligibility. Litke writes, "It won't be because people forget, or even forgive, but because they won't care anymore."
When Isaiah speaks of the restoration of Israel, it will come not because people do not care anymore but rather because absent from the Lord they cared very much.
* * *
Nina Olson, the IRS's "national taxpayer advocate," recently submitted to Congress her annual evaluation (Adobe pdf file) of the U.S. tax code -- and her comments went beyond discouraging. The tax code is 4 million words in length. Since 2001 Congress has made 5,000 changes to the tax code, which averages more than one a day. Citizens and businesspeople spent 6 billion hours completing tax forms, which translates to 3 million people working full-time, year-round. Olson said, "If tax compliance were an industry, it would be one of the largest in the United States."
Upon receiving Olson's analysis, Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the House and Ways and Means Committee, said, "The report confirms that the code is ten times the size of the Bible with none of the good news."
Mary asked the servants of the household during the wedding feast to do whatever her son asked of them. Perhaps following the instructions of Jesus could be easier than following the instructions of the U.S. tax code.
* * *
In order to control rapid population growth, in 1979 China introduced and enforced the policy of limiting children to one per family. With the realization that there would only be one child in the household, parents doted upon their sole heir. These children have become known in China as "little emperors" because of their privileged place in the family. Research has also found that they are less trusting, less competitive, more pessimistic, less conscientious, and more risk-averse than children born before the "only child" policy.
This has raised a serious concern among the leaders of the business community, for these children lack the personality qualifications to be strong leaders and managers. So when someone instructs these "little emperors" to "do whatever he tells you," they are often not up to the task.
* * *
The apostle Paul told his warring friends at Corinth that each one of them was gifted. They had tried to pick and choose preachers; they were at odds with one another. Who was the best -- Paul, Cephas, Apollos, or some other? They were divided over many things. Paul brought them back to reality by reminding them that each one of them had a gift and each one of them was to use that gift for the common good.
This old term "common good" had almost been forgotten. Corinth would only cease their squabbling and unite as one when they realized each gift they had been given was to build up the Body of Christ -- to work for the common good.
Mark Twain could have been writing about Corinth when he said: "I built a cage, and in it I put a dog and a cat. And after a little training, I got the dog and the cat to the point where they lived peaceably together. Then I introduced a pig, a goat, a kangaroo, some birds, and a monkey. And after a few adjustments, they learned to live in harmony. So encouraged was I by such successes that I added an Irish Catholic, a Presbyterian, a Jew, a Muslim from Turkestan, and a Buddhist from China, along with a Baptist missionary that I captured on the same trip. And in a very short while there wasn't a single living thing left in the cage."
* * *
Bruce Springsteen sings of an old friend who is stuck back in the "glory days" of his high school years, when he had been something of a hero.
It's a tragic tale when that's as high as a person climbs -- when the "glory days" of a man's life belong to his time on the high school baseball team. Yet it's a tragedy that's repeated often enough.
First Corinthians 12:6 speaks of the way the Lord "activates" spiritual gifts within us. One of the characteristics of gifts of the Spirit is that they don't wear out. With the Holy Spirit, the glory days are now, and in days yet to come.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Your steadfast love, God, extends to the heavens,
People: your faithfulness to the clouds.
Leader: Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
People: your judgments are like the great deep.
Leader: How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
People: All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
OR
Leader: Come and dream of what can be!
People: We come with so many visions of the future.
Leader: Come and dream with God of what can be!
People: We come to catch a glimpse of God's vision for us all.
Leader: Come and join God in making the dream reality.
People: The best reality is what God sees for us. We will join with God in bringing the dream to life.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Be Thou My Vision"
found in:
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELA: 793
W&P: 502
AMEC: 281
STLT: 20
Renew: 151
"All Creatures of Our God and King"
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
Renew: 47
"God, Whose Love Is Reigning O'er Us"
found in:
UMH: 100
"God of Grace and God of Glory"
found in:
UMH: 577
H82: 594
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELA: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
"Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart"
found in:
UMH: 160/161
H82: 556/557
PH: 145/146
AAHH: 537
NNBH: 7
NCH: 55, 71
CH: 15
LBW: 553
ELA: 873/874
W&P: 13
AMEC: 8
"Open My Eyes, That I May See"
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
"Lord, Speak to Me"
found in:
UMH: 463
PH: 426
NCH: 561
ELA: 676
W&P: 593
"Let There Be Light"
found in:
UMH: 440
NNBH: 450
NCH: 589
STLT: 142
"Something Beautiful"
found in:
CCB: 84
"You Are Mine"
found in:
CCB: 58
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who casts a dream for us and then invites us to call it forth: Grant us the faith to believe in your dream for your creation and the faithfulness to call it forth in word and deed; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come not only to praise you, O God, but to discover anew your dream for creation. Open our minds and hearts to your great desire and then fill us with such courage that we will be faithful to your vision. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our substituting our dream of the future for God's vision.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You offer us your dream, your vision of what creation can become, and we mindlessly substitute our own poor visions. You see peace, shalom, wholeness, and we see nice clothes and big houses. You see harmony between nations, and we see being number one. You see salvation, and we see consumption. Forgive us our foolish ways and inspire us with your Spirit that we may dream as you dream and then act to fulfill those dreams. Amen.
Leader: God's dreams shall come true and God welcomes us into their fulfillment. Rejoice in God's love and forgiveness and be strengthened in God's Spirit to carry out those dreams.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
O God of creation and of salvation, we praise and adore you for making us in your image and for sharing your visions and dreams for us.
(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. You offer us your dream, your vision of what creation can become, and we mindlessly substitute our own poor visions. You see peace, shalom, wholeness, and we see nice clothes and big houses. You see harmony between nations, and we see being number one. You see salvation, and we see consumption. Forgive us our foolish ways and inspire us with your Spirit that we may dream as you dream and then act to fulfill those dreams.
We give you thanks for all the wonders of creation and all other blessings of this life. We thank you for your presence with us in times of celebration and your dreams of hope in times of trouble. Most of all we thank you for Jesus, who lived out your dream for us by dwelling among us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need and especially for those who find it hard to dream or to believe in the dreams of others. We pray for those who are beaten down or worn down by life. We pray for ourselves so that we might help to lift them and to lift their eyes to you.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about dreams. Some are nice, some are scary, and some are just weird -- but they are not real. God's dreams, though, are real. They are the things that God wants for us and which God will, eventually, bring about.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
One Body, Many Members
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Object: a piece of paper and a crayon for each child
Good morning, boys and girls! Today I need your help. Trace one of your hands on this paper. (give the children a moment to do it) Tell me some of the things you can do with your hands. (listen to their responses) Now, look at your feet for a moment. What can you do with your feet? (let them tell you) What about your eyes? Your nose? Your ears? (spend a moment or two for each question)
Our bodies are amazing, aren't they? We don't have time today to trace all of your body, but we know that our bodies can do lots of things because there are so many different parts. Each part does something special -- something that only it can do. For example: our feet can't hear, our ears can't walk. That would be silly, wouldn't it? Ears were made for hearing, and feet were made for standing and walking. Each part is special on its own but each part needs the other parts to make a body. All the parts put together make one complete person.
God sent the Holy Spirit to the world so that we would always have a part of God living among us. Jesus couldn't stay forever, so God sent his Spirit to stay with us. The Spirit gives each of us gifts that make us special and different from anyone else. Each of us has things we can do that no one else can, just like the different parts of the body all have different jobs.
All parts of the body need the others in order to be a whole body. Just like a body, we are different from each other -- but we need each other too. We are a body: the Body of Christ. We have lots of different members but we are one big community together. We need to remember that and appreciate each other for the things that make us different and special.
Prayer: Father, thank you for the Holy Spirit. Help us to appreciate the gifts the Spirit gives to each one of us. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, January 20, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 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.
