Playing The Hand We're Dealt
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
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Object:
As you well know, these are often challenging days for the church. For some, the difficult economy has exacerbated the daily struggle just to keep the doors open and the bills paid while meeting the ministry needs of our congregations. Meanwhile, the word "religion" seems to be an afterthought in the mainstream media -- and when it does appear in the headlines, most often it's because of the moral and financial failings of those who have been entrusted with positions of leadership... or most recently, because of a survey indicating how little American Christians know about the essentials of their faith. It's enough to make us feel, as Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon memorably put it, like "resident aliens" in our own land. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer notes how similar this situation is to the one facing the Jewish exiles in Babylon -- and Dean suggests that the advice Jeremiah addressed to them in this week's lectionary text is just as timely and applicable to us as well. Like those exiles, we need to put down roots, build relationships, and work and pray -- in other words, we are called to quit whining and get on with the daunting work of building the kingdom in often unfamiliar territory. Team member Mary Austin shares some additional thoughts on the Jeremiah text and the alienation that the exiles must have felt. Mary notes that immigrants in our land must surely have some of the same feelings; yet we don't have to be immigrants to feel like exiles in our own land. Jeremiah's real insight, Mary tells us, is that the stranger's welfare is as important to God as our own -- and that however alienated we may be, whether at home or abroad, we still can count on the grace of God... which connects us all to one another.
Playing the Hand We're Dealt
by Dean Feldmeyer
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7; Luke 17:11-19
THE WORLD
The Christian church is in trouble. It's sick and it may be dying.
If you didn't already know it, the news this past week has made it very clear indeed.
According to a 2009 Gallup survey, attendance at mass by Roman Catholics is down 30% since 1955, putting them head to head even with Protestants. The Legionaries of Christ, a secretive order that has been a thorn in the side of the Vatican for some years, continues to be -- and this week the Vatican asked a Spanish archbishop to investigate a lay group connected with the movement. Victims of sexual misconduct by priests demand to be heard, this time in Italy.
Protestants have not fared much better. Bishop Eddie Long, of the Missionary Baptist Church, in Atlanta, has been accused of sexual misconduct with young boys in his church. Ted Haggard's name still pops up whenever sexual misconduct and the clergy are mentioned in the same article. Lutherans and Episcopalians continue to bicker and fight over the issue of homosexuality, while other denominations ignore it and hope it will just go away. A Methodist minister in Pennsylvania is being investigated on suspicion of having an affair with a woman in his church and murdering two of his wives. Six other large church pastors are under investigation by Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa for inconsistencies in their churches' finances.
Then we hear that a survey by the Pew Forum shows that American Christians are pretty much illiterate and ignorant when it comes to religion. Asked 32 basic questions, they routinely scored far worse than atheists and agnostics, even about their own religious faith.
We may hold the dubious distinction of being, simultaneously, the most religiously observant and the most religiously ignorant culture in the world.
Is it any wonder that the number of Americans who identify themselves as Christian is down from 86% to 76% since 1990? (Gallup)
Meanwhile, over at your local church we are spending our time, energy, and resources arguing about what color to paint the restroom and who's in charge -- I mean, really in charge -- of the kitchen and the nursery. Pastors who are trained to lead worship and preach the word and teach the history and tenets of our faith are busy being managers, psychologists, bookkeepers, janitors, plumbers, babysitters, cooks, standup comics, and gophers for their lay people. They spend more time in meetings than they do in prayer and study. And the lay people are, pretty much, happy with that arrangement. It's a lot easier to pay the pastor to be the church on your behalf than it is to be the church yourself. Just throw a check in the plate as it comes by on the Sundays when the kids' soccer schedule allows you to be in church.
Look closely at many contemporary American churches and we see that the mortar is crumbling, the foundation is cracking, the roof is starting to sag, and the pews are covered in dust. Or, to mix the metaphor a little, the boat is taking on water faster than we are bailing.
What shall we do? Throw up our hands and walk away? Have those who claim to be "spiritual but not religious" got the right idea? Should we get out before the whole thing collapses in on our heads? Is it past saving?
Or is there some word from scripture that might give us guidance?
THE WORD
In 586 BCE, the Babylonian army under the leadership of King Nebuchadnezzar breached the walls of the city of Jerusalem after a three-year siege. The city was sacked and burned. The temple was looted and defiled; then razed to the ground stone by stone. King Zedekiah was forced to watch as his family was murdered, and then he, himself, was blinded and sent to the dungeons under the city of Babylon. He would never be seen or heard from again.
The cream of Judah, the intelligencia, the aristocracy, the intellectuals, the teachers, business leaders, priests, generals, lawyers, and artists, were herded together, placed in chains, and marched north to Babylon where they would be forced to live in a ghetto near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
And there, they wept. "By the rivers of Babylon, where we lay down, and we wept when we remembered Zion" (Psalm 137).
Jeremiah, who had been allowed to remain in Jerusalem, wrote to them, hoping to give them encouragement -- but his words of hope were couched in caution. While other prophets preached messages of fantasy, false hope, and Pollyanna positivism, Jeremiah gave them a sober, truthful assessment of their situation and how they should respond to it.
Bottom line: Play the hand you've been dealt.
Particularly telling is the line: "... work for the country's welfare. Pray for Babylon's well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you." (Peterson, The Message)
We accomplish nothing by longing for what might have been. We achieve little by wishing for that which we cannot have. We grow and are strengthened by working and praying for the growth and health of those among whom we find ourselves.
The reading from Luke reminds us that there is one additional spice that completes this recipe for success in a strange land -- and that is gratitude. Ten lepers are healed, and only one, a foreigner, returns to express thanks for the healing. It's not that the other nine aren't grateful. They probably are. It's just that only one actually articulates his gratitude. True and full gratitude is found not in the feeling but in the expression of it. As the poor islander said to the anthropologist: "We do not dance because we are happy; we are happy because we dance."
Thus it is with gratitude and thanksgiving. Not until we express our thanks to God do we feel the full measure of our own gratitude.
The trick is in learning to be in Babylon and be thankful at the same time.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Just as Jeremiah is forthright and honest with his charges, this may be a time for a prophetic word from the pulpit. An honest assessment of the state of our church may be in order.
Are we boring the young people? Are we so afraid of change that we can't bring ourselves to turn on a light? Are we trying to preserve the church of our grandparents? Are we more concerned with our own comfort than with the salvation of our neighbors? Have we become exclusive? Judgmental? Hypocritical? Or have the changes become too much for us? Are we so uncomfortable that we feel like walking away?
What is it about the church that drives us crazy? What makes us want to throw up our arms, shake our heads, and walk out the door in search of that perfect church that must surely be out there somewhere?
Well, that's the hand we've been dealt. It's the city to which God has sent us, and Jeremiah says there are some specific ways to deal with this city of exile and our existence in it.
I. Put down roots (v. 5)
We can't expect to grow and flourish in a community of faith to which we have not made a commitment. So make an investment. Become part of the community. Make a decision that this church will be your home.
II. Build relationships (v. 6)
The church will die while we wait for other people to reach out to us. If we want to grow and we want the community to grow, we have to reach out to them. Join in. Make friends. Create the faith family you want to have.
III. Work and pray (v. 7)
Seek the welfare of the community of faith where we find ourselves and do it in two ways.
First, work hard. Volunteer. Take the talents God has given to you and invest them in the church. Serve on a committee, teach, sing, repair the building, or organize an event. Give generously of your time, talent, and money.
Secondly, pray. Pray daily for the welfare of your community of faith, your church. Pray for your pastor. Pray for your leaders. Pray for the choir or praise team. Pray for the person sitting next to you, the person who is a guest today, and the person who will come for the first time next Sunday.
Finally, do all this not with an attitude of obligation and resentment but with an attitude of gratitude and thanks.
Sometimes we work, pray, and put down roots because we are thankful -- but sometimes we are thankful because we put down roots, build relationships, and work and pray on behalf of the church.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Mary Austin
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
"Water is a precious commodity -- and a contentious one, too" along the US-Mexico border, notes a recent New York Times article by Marc Lacey. The US Border Patrol has given one volunteer aid group permission to leave large containers of water for use by people traveling through the desert. In another location, however, volunteers who place sealed gallon jugs of water for immigrants traveling through the desert have been ticketed for littering and defacing a wildlife preserve. The Fish and Wildlife Service prohibits anyone from leaving jugs of water in the land under their management. People opposed to immigration often slit the jugs and let the water drain into the desert rather than have it used by travelers.
The Times reports that 1,715 immigrants died in the Arizona desert between 2002 and 2009, with high temperatures this past summer adding to the toll. Anti-immigrant groups contend that any kind of help will only encourage people to try to cross the desert, to their own peril. Aid groups believe that people will try to cross, regardless, and that water is a basic humanitarian gesture.
The debate over water represents one facet of people's response to immigration into the country, one of this election season's hottest topics. The ancient words of the prophet Jeremiah also have something to say to this current debate.
For 28 chapters in the book of Jeremiah, the prophet has been warning the people of Israel about the punishment to come from God. Idolatry and inattention to God have brought God's judgment upon the nation, in the form of Babylon's mighty power. God, through Jeremiah, has pleaded with Israel to repent. Israel, however, is stubborn and refuses to repent. Now Jerusalem lies in ruins and the king has been carried off into exile, along with artisans, musicians, priests, and many of the educated people.
Again, God speaks to the people of Israel with a surprising word, another clue that the grace of God travels where it will, unfettered by our ideas of what should happen.
Through Jeremiah, God instructs the people of Israel in exile -- far away from home and no doubt heartsick and confused -- to "build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat what they produce." They are told to form permanent connections through marriage and family. "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."
In this place of great alienation, the exiles are to lay down their hatred and see their connections with the foreigners around them. In this strange place, they are to understand the similarities between them, and God's overarching care for all of the people.
For us, as people of faith, this speaks to us on several levels. As Christians, as it has been noted by William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas, we are resident aliens, or should be, in the culture around us. We are called, they note in two provocative books on the topic, to live as aliens in the culture of materialism and superficiality around us. Our guidance comes from God and the foundations of our faith and not from the ever-changing whims of popular culture.
Even for those of us who love popular culture, and find it entertaining, there is the challenge of holding ourselves separate from it to follow our deeper calling. We understand the experience of being aliens, people in a foreign land, right here at home because of our dislocation from the world surrounding us.
There are ways of being in exile without ever leaving home. The recent economic upheavals have brought an added sense of exile to many people right here, people who now feel far off from the dreams they once had for their lives and the beliefs they held about how life works. Anyone who was raised to believe that hard work and education would guarantee a job for life now lives in a kind of exile in their own country. Anyone who grew up thinking that you found a job and stuck with it until retirement is similarly dislocated and disoriented. Anyone who held as truth that buying a house would always be a good investment, and even a ticket to prosperity, is now far off from that dream about home.
We know plenty of exiles right here at home, people who are now distant from where they thought they would be at this point in life, and wondering if they will ever find their way back. The feeling of being uprooted from one's own life is all around us.
On yet another level, the story of immigrants is most of our story. As the debate over immigration continues, we are often reminded that most of us are descended from people who came here from other places. In that way, we have a deep kinship with people who seek to come here now for better jobs and a safer place to live. We too might hear God telling us that our welfare is connected with the welfare of the people in our midst who are afraid to go to a hospital, to seek help from law enforcement, to send children to school for fear of being deported.
Through Jeremiah, God reminds us that the power of God is not limited to us, or the people like us. The stranger's welfare is as important to God as our own. The grace of God is not limited to familiar places, or even to any one place, but can be found in exile, in disconnection, in despair. In the deserts of our own lives, and of others connected to us, the grace of God rains down on all of us.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.
-- Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon Days
* * *
In one of his plays, Arthur Miller has a woman reflect back on her many years of life with her husband, in these words: "Everything was always temporary with us... We were always about-to-be."
The exiles in Babylon are "always about-to-be." They imagine life will not begin again for them, in all its fullness, until the day God brings them home to Jerusalem. Jeremiah is just astute enough to know that this is not going to happen: not for this generation anyway. Those exiles will live the rest of their lives in Babylon and will be buried there. So there's no sense, the prophet's advising, living their lives "always about-to-be." It's time to live in the present.
* * *
When Stan accepted a job on the Canadian prairies, necessitating a move from California, it felt like the end of the world to his wife Alyssa. Who wanted to move to a part of the continent where the temperature dropped to -40? C, where rain was scarce, trees didn't grow, and wind blew constantly? Alyssa's mother comforted her daughter with words similar to Jeremiah's advice to the Babylonian exiles. "This will be your home. Settle in. Make friends. Get a job. Volunteer in the community and church. It will make your stay much more enjoyable." Alyssa took her mother's advice to heart. She made the new city and country her home, and before she knew it, two children were born and raised, retirement loomed, and grandchildren romped in her yard. Thirty-three years after she arrived on the prairies, Alyssa can't imagine living anywhere else.
* * *
When Jeremiah says to "seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile," the word "welfare" is a poor translation. It's kind of like trying to capture the view from the rim of the Grand Canyon on a disposable camera. The Hebrew word underneath the word "welfare" is the well-known word shalom. "Seek the shalom of the city where I have sent you into exile." We might just as well say "seek the peace of the city" -- for that's what shalom means.
Yet shalom means so much more than that. Shalom is the daily greeting of neighbor to neighbor in the Middle East. It means not only peace, but also wholeness, healing, and freedom. A person who's enjoying shalom is experiencing not merely the absence of conflict, but a deep and perfect inner peace, a tranquility of heart, mind, and soul. This is the shalom that Jeremiah is wishing for the Babylonians and wishing his compatriots, the exiles, would wish for them too.
* * *
Chicago's famous Art Institute displays Grant Wood's well-known painting American Gothic. This is the one of the farm couple standing in front of their gingerbread Victorian; he's holding a pitchfork and she's standing beside him, lips pursed tight.
Grant Wood grew up in Anamosa, Iowa. Yet when this Iowa farm boy decided to become a painter, he imagined there was only one place for him to go: Paris. He joined the expatriate American art community there and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. Yet one day in 1926, Wood woke up with a chilling thought. "Everything I've done up to now," he told his friend, the historian William Shirer, "is wrong -- and my God, I'm halfway through my life!"
"You're only 35," Bill Shirer pointed out.
"All those landscapes of mine of the French countryside and the familiar places in Paris. There's not a one that the French Impressionists didn't do a hundred times better!... All these years wasted because I thought you couldn't get started as a painter unless you went to Paris, and studied and painted like a Frenchman. I used to go back to Iowa and think how ugly it all was. Nothing to paint. And all I could think of was getting back here so I could find something to paint -- these pretty landscapes that I should have known -- CÈzanne and Renoir and Monet and the others had done once and for all."
Shirer offered some lukewarm encouragement, along the lines of "Don't worry, things will get better."
But his friend plunged on: "Listen, Bill. I think... at last... I've learned something. At least, about myself. I think you have to paint... what you know. And despite the years in Europe -- all I really know is home. Iowa. The farm at Anamosa. Milking cows. Cedar Rapids. The typical small town, all right. Everything commonplace. Your neighbors, the quiet streets, the clapboard homes, the drab clothes, the dried-up lives, the hypocritical talk, the silly boosters, the poverty of culture. Bill, I'm going home for good. And I'm going to paint those cows and barns and barnyards and cornfields and little red schoolhouses and all those pinched faces and the women in their aprons and the men in their overalls and the storefronts and the look of a field or a street in the heat of summer or when it's ten below and the snow is piled six feet high. I'm going to do it."
And so he did. American Gothic is very possibly the most famous American painting of the twentieth century. It's one of the very few paintings that's instantly recognizable the world over, to everyone from art critics to grocery clerks. That image of the farmer in his overalls with his pitchfork, and his wife in the apron with the cameo at her neck, is a little bit of scathing social commentary that has been reproduced on posters, buttons, T-shirts, and book covers. It's become a beloved icon of our culture.
There was a time when Grant Wood considered the rolling hills and dairy farms of eastern Iowa a wasteland, a place of artistic exile. It was only when he learned to seek the shalom that could be found there that he discovered his own distinctive style as a painter.
* * *
The Druids have been officially recognized as a religion in Britain. Their origins date back prior to Christianity, but it was only in the past five years that they have campaigned to be recognized as a religious community. The Druids are best known to the general public for their annual gathering at Stonehenge for the summer solstice. This celebration represents their basic beliefs. They do not worship a single god or creator, but instead worship natural forces, such as the sun and thunder, and sacred places such as mountains and streams. They seek to cultivate a sacred relationship with the natural world. As people are becoming disillusioned with institutional religion and are redirecting their spiritual focus on environmental issues, the Druid sect is growing. In Britain alone it is has approximately 10,000 practitioners. In granting the Druids official status, the Charity Commission wrote, "There is sufficient belief in a supreme being or entity to constitute a religion for the purposes of charity law."
The people of Britain, who find it unacceptable that a religion that does not believe in a God of Creation can be recognized as such, need to take a lesson from Jeremiah. The Jewish people who were exiled to Babylon found themselves in a land that worshiped Baal and practiced idolatry. This, of course, went against all the tenets of Judaism. Jeremiah, in his wisdom, instructed his people not to oppose the Babylonians, but instead to make their tents among them -- that is, to learn to live in community with the Babylonians without accepting their religious observances. It is a message of tolerance. It is a message that the people of Britain are going to have to practice and one that we will all have to learn and practice. We live in a multicultural society where acceptance and understanding, rather than confrontation, will promote the gospel message.
* * *
An article titled "Election Season Puts Politicians in the Pews" recently appeared in the New York Times. The opening of the essay, written by Michael Grynbaum, was cleverly written. It began: "Eleven months out of the year, the parishioners of New York City can safely attend Sunday services with no reasonable fear of interlopers, television cameras, or quizzical members of the press." He went on to write that in "the electoral season of October, aspiring statesman show up on doorsteps more often than jack-o'-lanterns. That means politicians are descending on the pews." Grynbaum then asks: "Coincidence? In campaigns, there may be no such thing."
Politicians attend worship services, sometime eight services on a single Sunday, for its "strategic advantage." Before them is a captivated audience, many of whom are community leaders, who are presented with the candidate's position. They are then encouraged to share the message with family, friends, and other community leaders. As H. Carl McCall, who was a Democratic candidate for New York governor in 2002, realized, "You're guaranteed a crowd."
It is important to note the significance of the setting. Grynbaum offers this analysis: "In the annals of campaign clichÈs, going to church ranks somewhere among kissing babies and eating corn dogs at the fair. A politician gets to soak up a sense of moral authority while also demonstrating some personal piety."
But, as the title of the article notes, after the first Tuesday of November these aspiring converts remain unseen until the following October.
There is a poignant line in the gospel story when Jesus asks, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?" Ten men with the dreaded disease of leprosy came to Jesus for healing. Jesus lovingly received them and healed them of their wretched disease. Then the ten departed; but one, reflective and motivated by conscience, returned to thank Jesus for his act of kindness. This act of gratitude caused Jesus to wonder, "Where are the other nine?"
If Jesus is for us one to whom we turn for a blessing or special deliverance, then if we fail to continue to serve him throughout the following year we are missing the point -- the same point that seems to elude politicians who descend upon congregations in October, only to remain obscure for the remaining eleven months of the liturgical season. It would summons one to ask in February, "Where is my elected representative?" If someone affiliates with the church for a wedding, baptism, funeral, counseling, or hospital visitation only to remain unobserved until the next time a special service only the church can provide, would it not be our thought that he/she is a part of the missing nine?
Let us make it our mission that when the church acts benevolently in the name of Jesus, that all ten return and remain to give thanks.
* * *
A business executive was walking down the street. He reached down and picked up a toy ball that rolled in his path. As he looked around to locate the owner, a very angry little girl approached him.
"Give me that ball!" the girl said.
Looking for a polite response, the man said to her: "What is the magic word?"
"NOW!" she yelled.
In the Bible, Jesus does not get many expressions of gratitude. This week's gospel passage is about as close as anyone comes to actually thanking Jesus.
In a society that shows so little gratefulness, perhaps actions speak louder than words. Many folks will follow and be loyal to us because they are part of our support system.
An occasional "thank you" might also be nice.
* * *
The King's commander had a problem; the solution was too simple. Wash seven times in the Jordan and be healed of leprosy. It made no sense. Why the nondescript Jordan when in Damascus there were two great rivers, the Abana and the Pharpar? And why should the nobleman go to the river alone, unaccompanied by the great prophet Elisha? Not only did this confuse Naaman, it also made him angry. Certainly a man of his stature was due the respect of an audience with the prophet. Certainly his status in the community should have him seen in a great river, not one of seeming unimportance. Still, on the advice of his servants Naaman washed himself in the Jordan and came forth from the waters "clean like that of a young boy."
There are many lessons in this story, but one is why isn't simple sufficient? Most of us share the attitude of Naaman -- that the more complicated, complex, and expensive the treatment, the better. We believe the more prestigious the institution and the staff, the greater chance of success. Then there is the issue of self-importance: "I am worthy of the rive Abana, but not the river Jordan."
To ask such questions and to entertain such thoughts places us above the spokesman for God. We have to question the wisdom of God's sages when they prescribe the mundane and ordinary. Does not a miracle require a grandiose scheme? Contrary to this position is the prophet Elisha, who realized it matters not what river you dipped yourself into, what's important is the faith one has when the big toe begins to stir the waters. Elisha understood that faith, and not showmanship, is the secret of healing.
On late-night comedy shows and in news articles there are many jokes being told about the discovery of a planet in the "Goldilocks zone" -- the placement of a planet in a solar system that may have water and sustain life -- that was given the obscure name of HD 10180g. Shouldn't a planet of such great magnitude and potential be given a name from a script written for Star Trek or Star Wars -- a name that is vibrant, exciting, enthralling, and inspiring? This is hardly what HD 10180g solicits. What excitement do we have in knowing that the Starship Enterprise is sailing off to HD 10180g, rather than Romulus? One we greet with a yawn and the other puts us on the edge of our seats. Yet we must realize that the naming of planets is not ascribed for the evening news and television drama but for scientific research. This is why, since 1919, the International Astronomical Union has assigned names to newly discovered stars and planets.
We must guard ourselves from the thinking of Naaman. Romulus may sound exciting but with the possibility of water HD 10180g actually holds more potential for healing. This is what Elisha understood and tried to convey -- it is not the name of the river in which you wash, but by the faith in which you wash.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Make a joyful noise to our God!
People: Let us sing glory to the Name of God.
Leader: Let all the earth worship God.
People: God's deeds are indeed awesome.
Leader: Come and celebrate all God has done.
People: God's deeds are wonderful beyond description!
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God who never forsakes us.
People: Is God with us in these times of distress?
Leader: God is with us in all our troubles and afflictions.
People: But we are in war, economic trouble, and despair.
Leader: God knows who we are and where we are.
People: We celebrate the God who never leaves us.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"How Firm a Foundation"
found in:
UMH: 529
H82: 636, 637
PH: 361
AAHH: 146
NNBH: 48
NCH: 407
CH: 618
LBW: 507
"Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me"
found in:
UMH: 509
NNBH: 243
NCH: 441
LBW: 334
"Come, Ye Disconsolate"
found in:
UMH: 510
AAHH: 421
NNBH: 264
CH: 502
"O God, Our Help in Ages Past"
found in:
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
"O Thou, in Whose Presence"
found in:
UMH: 518
"Be Still, My Soul"
found in:
UMH: 534
AAHH: 135
NNBH: 263
NCH: 488
CH: 566
"We Shall Overcome"
found in:
UMH: 533
AAHH: 542
NNBH: 501
NCH: 570
CH: 630
"Jesus, Priceless Treasure"
found in:
UMH: 532
PH: 365
NNBH: 74
NCH: 480
LBW: 457, 458
"All I Need Is You"
found in:
CCB: 100
"Cares Chorus"
found in:
CCB: 53
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who continues to work with your creatures no matter how far they stray from your path: Grant us the faithfulness to continue to walk with you and build your reign with what we have; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you, O God, and to implore you to strengthen us that we might be able to live faithfully as disciples of Jesus in these times and these places. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which we complain about how things are instead of making them better.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have looked around at our circumstances and want nothing more than for you to change things for us. We whine and complain that things are not as we want them to be. We forget that creation is not what you desire it to be either. Forgive us our foolish, self-centered ways and empower us to live faithfully in the circumstances we find ourselves in, so that we may enable your reign to come in its fullness. Amen.
Leader: God is always willing to work with us where we are and to help us become the people we need to become. Receive the power of the Risen Christ and live as his disciples this day and always.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
O God who created and is ever creating, we worship you for your faithfulness to your creation and to us, your creatures. You made us in your image and have remained our faithful God.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have looked around at our circumstances and want nothing more than for you to change things for us. We whine and complain that things are not as we want them to be. We forget that creation is not what you desire it to be either. Forgive us our foolish, self-centered ways and empower us to live faithfully in the circumstances we find ourselves in, so that we may enable your reign to come in its fullness.
We give you thanks for all the times when you have not given up on us. When we have chosen foolishly, blindly, or willfully, you have stayed with us, wooing us back into your path of life and wholeness.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray all who are in need, and particularly for those who are in circumstances that seem insurmountable. We pray that your Spirit might lift them up and energize them with the hope of finding a way in their wilderness.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Visuals
images of refugee camps; any images of people in unwanted circumstances
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Where Are the Other Nine?
Luke 17:11-19
Good morning, boys and girls! Listen to me read this week's gospel lesson. Listen carefully to the story, because we're going to talk about it when I'm through reading. (read Luke 17:11-19) Okay. Who can tell me what happened? (let the children piece together the lesson from memory)
Yes: Jesus told ten sick people how they could be healed. They followed his advice and they got better. What a wonderful thing! One of the men who was healed returned to Jesus and thanked him. The other nine men did not, although I'm sure they were happy. They might have even been grateful, but they didn't think it was important to say thank you. That puzzled Jesus and made him sad. "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?" (v. 17).
It's important for us to have thankful hearts. God has given blessings and gifts all around us, and we should learn to recognize them. It's not enough just to enjoy the gifts, although that makes God happy too. We should show God that we appreciate what he has done for us. Having a thankful heart means that we live every day full of gratitude. We wake up every morning and go to bed every night appreciating the marvelous gifts God has given.
We can have thankful hearts even if we think we don't have anything to be thankful for. We have our lives. We have the beautiful world around us. We have friends, warm beds, food in our stomachs, and clothes on our backs. We were born with nothing, so everything we have is a blessing. Many people don't go to God and thank him for his blessings. Don't be like the nine who walked away from Jesus. Instead, be like the one who returned to say thanks. It's good for us to say thank you, and it makes God happy.
Prayer: Thank you, God, for how much you love us. Thank you for all your blessings. Please forgive us for the times we don't tell you how grateful we are for your love. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, October 10, 2010, issue.
Copyright 2010 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.
Playing the Hand We're Dealt
by Dean Feldmeyer
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7; Luke 17:11-19
THE WORLD
The Christian church is in trouble. It's sick and it may be dying.
If you didn't already know it, the news this past week has made it very clear indeed.
According to a 2009 Gallup survey, attendance at mass by Roman Catholics is down 30% since 1955, putting them head to head even with Protestants. The Legionaries of Christ, a secretive order that has been a thorn in the side of the Vatican for some years, continues to be -- and this week the Vatican asked a Spanish archbishop to investigate a lay group connected with the movement. Victims of sexual misconduct by priests demand to be heard, this time in Italy.
Protestants have not fared much better. Bishop Eddie Long, of the Missionary Baptist Church, in Atlanta, has been accused of sexual misconduct with young boys in his church. Ted Haggard's name still pops up whenever sexual misconduct and the clergy are mentioned in the same article. Lutherans and Episcopalians continue to bicker and fight over the issue of homosexuality, while other denominations ignore it and hope it will just go away. A Methodist minister in Pennsylvania is being investigated on suspicion of having an affair with a woman in his church and murdering two of his wives. Six other large church pastors are under investigation by Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa for inconsistencies in their churches' finances.
Then we hear that a survey by the Pew Forum shows that American Christians are pretty much illiterate and ignorant when it comes to religion. Asked 32 basic questions, they routinely scored far worse than atheists and agnostics, even about their own religious faith.
We may hold the dubious distinction of being, simultaneously, the most religiously observant and the most religiously ignorant culture in the world.
Is it any wonder that the number of Americans who identify themselves as Christian is down from 86% to 76% since 1990? (Gallup)
Meanwhile, over at your local church we are spending our time, energy, and resources arguing about what color to paint the restroom and who's in charge -- I mean, really in charge -- of the kitchen and the nursery. Pastors who are trained to lead worship and preach the word and teach the history and tenets of our faith are busy being managers, psychologists, bookkeepers, janitors, plumbers, babysitters, cooks, standup comics, and gophers for their lay people. They spend more time in meetings than they do in prayer and study. And the lay people are, pretty much, happy with that arrangement. It's a lot easier to pay the pastor to be the church on your behalf than it is to be the church yourself. Just throw a check in the plate as it comes by on the Sundays when the kids' soccer schedule allows you to be in church.
Look closely at many contemporary American churches and we see that the mortar is crumbling, the foundation is cracking, the roof is starting to sag, and the pews are covered in dust. Or, to mix the metaphor a little, the boat is taking on water faster than we are bailing.
What shall we do? Throw up our hands and walk away? Have those who claim to be "spiritual but not religious" got the right idea? Should we get out before the whole thing collapses in on our heads? Is it past saving?
Or is there some word from scripture that might give us guidance?
THE WORD
In 586 BCE, the Babylonian army under the leadership of King Nebuchadnezzar breached the walls of the city of Jerusalem after a three-year siege. The city was sacked and burned. The temple was looted and defiled; then razed to the ground stone by stone. King Zedekiah was forced to watch as his family was murdered, and then he, himself, was blinded and sent to the dungeons under the city of Babylon. He would never be seen or heard from again.
The cream of Judah, the intelligencia, the aristocracy, the intellectuals, the teachers, business leaders, priests, generals, lawyers, and artists, were herded together, placed in chains, and marched north to Babylon where they would be forced to live in a ghetto near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
And there, they wept. "By the rivers of Babylon, where we lay down, and we wept when we remembered Zion" (Psalm 137).
Jeremiah, who had been allowed to remain in Jerusalem, wrote to them, hoping to give them encouragement -- but his words of hope were couched in caution. While other prophets preached messages of fantasy, false hope, and Pollyanna positivism, Jeremiah gave them a sober, truthful assessment of their situation and how they should respond to it.
Bottom line: Play the hand you've been dealt.
Particularly telling is the line: "... work for the country's welfare. Pray for Babylon's well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you." (Peterson, The Message)
We accomplish nothing by longing for what might have been. We achieve little by wishing for that which we cannot have. We grow and are strengthened by working and praying for the growth and health of those among whom we find ourselves.
The reading from Luke reminds us that there is one additional spice that completes this recipe for success in a strange land -- and that is gratitude. Ten lepers are healed, and only one, a foreigner, returns to express thanks for the healing. It's not that the other nine aren't grateful. They probably are. It's just that only one actually articulates his gratitude. True and full gratitude is found not in the feeling but in the expression of it. As the poor islander said to the anthropologist: "We do not dance because we are happy; we are happy because we dance."
Thus it is with gratitude and thanksgiving. Not until we express our thanks to God do we feel the full measure of our own gratitude.
The trick is in learning to be in Babylon and be thankful at the same time.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Just as Jeremiah is forthright and honest with his charges, this may be a time for a prophetic word from the pulpit. An honest assessment of the state of our church may be in order.
Are we boring the young people? Are we so afraid of change that we can't bring ourselves to turn on a light? Are we trying to preserve the church of our grandparents? Are we more concerned with our own comfort than with the salvation of our neighbors? Have we become exclusive? Judgmental? Hypocritical? Or have the changes become too much for us? Are we so uncomfortable that we feel like walking away?
What is it about the church that drives us crazy? What makes us want to throw up our arms, shake our heads, and walk out the door in search of that perfect church that must surely be out there somewhere?
Well, that's the hand we've been dealt. It's the city to which God has sent us, and Jeremiah says there are some specific ways to deal with this city of exile and our existence in it.
I. Put down roots (v. 5)
We can't expect to grow and flourish in a community of faith to which we have not made a commitment. So make an investment. Become part of the community. Make a decision that this church will be your home.
II. Build relationships (v. 6)
The church will die while we wait for other people to reach out to us. If we want to grow and we want the community to grow, we have to reach out to them. Join in. Make friends. Create the faith family you want to have.
III. Work and pray (v. 7)
Seek the welfare of the community of faith where we find ourselves and do it in two ways.
First, work hard. Volunteer. Take the talents God has given to you and invest them in the church. Serve on a committee, teach, sing, repair the building, or organize an event. Give generously of your time, talent, and money.
Secondly, pray. Pray daily for the welfare of your community of faith, your church. Pray for your pastor. Pray for your leaders. Pray for the choir or praise team. Pray for the person sitting next to you, the person who is a guest today, and the person who will come for the first time next Sunday.
Finally, do all this not with an attitude of obligation and resentment but with an attitude of gratitude and thanks.
Sometimes we work, pray, and put down roots because we are thankful -- but sometimes we are thankful because we put down roots, build relationships, and work and pray on behalf of the church.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Mary Austin
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
"Water is a precious commodity -- and a contentious one, too" along the US-Mexico border, notes a recent New York Times article by Marc Lacey. The US Border Patrol has given one volunteer aid group permission to leave large containers of water for use by people traveling through the desert. In another location, however, volunteers who place sealed gallon jugs of water for immigrants traveling through the desert have been ticketed for littering and defacing a wildlife preserve. The Fish and Wildlife Service prohibits anyone from leaving jugs of water in the land under their management. People opposed to immigration often slit the jugs and let the water drain into the desert rather than have it used by travelers.
The Times reports that 1,715 immigrants died in the Arizona desert between 2002 and 2009, with high temperatures this past summer adding to the toll. Anti-immigrant groups contend that any kind of help will only encourage people to try to cross the desert, to their own peril. Aid groups believe that people will try to cross, regardless, and that water is a basic humanitarian gesture.
The debate over water represents one facet of people's response to immigration into the country, one of this election season's hottest topics. The ancient words of the prophet Jeremiah also have something to say to this current debate.
For 28 chapters in the book of Jeremiah, the prophet has been warning the people of Israel about the punishment to come from God. Idolatry and inattention to God have brought God's judgment upon the nation, in the form of Babylon's mighty power. God, through Jeremiah, has pleaded with Israel to repent. Israel, however, is stubborn and refuses to repent. Now Jerusalem lies in ruins and the king has been carried off into exile, along with artisans, musicians, priests, and many of the educated people.
Again, God speaks to the people of Israel with a surprising word, another clue that the grace of God travels where it will, unfettered by our ideas of what should happen.
Through Jeremiah, God instructs the people of Israel in exile -- far away from home and no doubt heartsick and confused -- to "build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat what they produce." They are told to form permanent connections through marriage and family. "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."
In this place of great alienation, the exiles are to lay down their hatred and see their connections with the foreigners around them. In this strange place, they are to understand the similarities between them, and God's overarching care for all of the people.
For us, as people of faith, this speaks to us on several levels. As Christians, as it has been noted by William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas, we are resident aliens, or should be, in the culture around us. We are called, they note in two provocative books on the topic, to live as aliens in the culture of materialism and superficiality around us. Our guidance comes from God and the foundations of our faith and not from the ever-changing whims of popular culture.
Even for those of us who love popular culture, and find it entertaining, there is the challenge of holding ourselves separate from it to follow our deeper calling. We understand the experience of being aliens, people in a foreign land, right here at home because of our dislocation from the world surrounding us.
There are ways of being in exile without ever leaving home. The recent economic upheavals have brought an added sense of exile to many people right here, people who now feel far off from the dreams they once had for their lives and the beliefs they held about how life works. Anyone who was raised to believe that hard work and education would guarantee a job for life now lives in a kind of exile in their own country. Anyone who grew up thinking that you found a job and stuck with it until retirement is similarly dislocated and disoriented. Anyone who held as truth that buying a house would always be a good investment, and even a ticket to prosperity, is now far off from that dream about home.
We know plenty of exiles right here at home, people who are now distant from where they thought they would be at this point in life, and wondering if they will ever find their way back. The feeling of being uprooted from one's own life is all around us.
On yet another level, the story of immigrants is most of our story. As the debate over immigration continues, we are often reminded that most of us are descended from people who came here from other places. In that way, we have a deep kinship with people who seek to come here now for better jobs and a safer place to live. We too might hear God telling us that our welfare is connected with the welfare of the people in our midst who are afraid to go to a hospital, to seek help from law enforcement, to send children to school for fear of being deported.
Through Jeremiah, God reminds us that the power of God is not limited to us, or the people like us. The stranger's welfare is as important to God as our own. The grace of God is not limited to familiar places, or even to any one place, but can be found in exile, in disconnection, in despair. In the deserts of our own lives, and of others connected to us, the grace of God rains down on all of us.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.
-- Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon Days
* * *
In one of his plays, Arthur Miller has a woman reflect back on her many years of life with her husband, in these words: "Everything was always temporary with us... We were always about-to-be."
The exiles in Babylon are "always about-to-be." They imagine life will not begin again for them, in all its fullness, until the day God brings them home to Jerusalem. Jeremiah is just astute enough to know that this is not going to happen: not for this generation anyway. Those exiles will live the rest of their lives in Babylon and will be buried there. So there's no sense, the prophet's advising, living their lives "always about-to-be." It's time to live in the present.
* * *
When Stan accepted a job on the Canadian prairies, necessitating a move from California, it felt like the end of the world to his wife Alyssa. Who wanted to move to a part of the continent where the temperature dropped to -40? C, where rain was scarce, trees didn't grow, and wind blew constantly? Alyssa's mother comforted her daughter with words similar to Jeremiah's advice to the Babylonian exiles. "This will be your home. Settle in. Make friends. Get a job. Volunteer in the community and church. It will make your stay much more enjoyable." Alyssa took her mother's advice to heart. She made the new city and country her home, and before she knew it, two children were born and raised, retirement loomed, and grandchildren romped in her yard. Thirty-three years after she arrived on the prairies, Alyssa can't imagine living anywhere else.
* * *
When Jeremiah says to "seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile," the word "welfare" is a poor translation. It's kind of like trying to capture the view from the rim of the Grand Canyon on a disposable camera. The Hebrew word underneath the word "welfare" is the well-known word shalom. "Seek the shalom of the city where I have sent you into exile." We might just as well say "seek the peace of the city" -- for that's what shalom means.
Yet shalom means so much more than that. Shalom is the daily greeting of neighbor to neighbor in the Middle East. It means not only peace, but also wholeness, healing, and freedom. A person who's enjoying shalom is experiencing not merely the absence of conflict, but a deep and perfect inner peace, a tranquility of heart, mind, and soul. This is the shalom that Jeremiah is wishing for the Babylonians and wishing his compatriots, the exiles, would wish for them too.
* * *
Chicago's famous Art Institute displays Grant Wood's well-known painting American Gothic. This is the one of the farm couple standing in front of their gingerbread Victorian; he's holding a pitchfork and she's standing beside him, lips pursed tight.
Grant Wood grew up in Anamosa, Iowa. Yet when this Iowa farm boy decided to become a painter, he imagined there was only one place for him to go: Paris. He joined the expatriate American art community there and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. Yet one day in 1926, Wood woke up with a chilling thought. "Everything I've done up to now," he told his friend, the historian William Shirer, "is wrong -- and my God, I'm halfway through my life!"
"You're only 35," Bill Shirer pointed out.
"All those landscapes of mine of the French countryside and the familiar places in Paris. There's not a one that the French Impressionists didn't do a hundred times better!... All these years wasted because I thought you couldn't get started as a painter unless you went to Paris, and studied and painted like a Frenchman. I used to go back to Iowa and think how ugly it all was. Nothing to paint. And all I could think of was getting back here so I could find something to paint -- these pretty landscapes that I should have known -- CÈzanne and Renoir and Monet and the others had done once and for all."
Shirer offered some lukewarm encouragement, along the lines of "Don't worry, things will get better."
But his friend plunged on: "Listen, Bill. I think... at last... I've learned something. At least, about myself. I think you have to paint... what you know. And despite the years in Europe -- all I really know is home. Iowa. The farm at Anamosa. Milking cows. Cedar Rapids. The typical small town, all right. Everything commonplace. Your neighbors, the quiet streets, the clapboard homes, the drab clothes, the dried-up lives, the hypocritical talk, the silly boosters, the poverty of culture. Bill, I'm going home for good. And I'm going to paint those cows and barns and barnyards and cornfields and little red schoolhouses and all those pinched faces and the women in their aprons and the men in their overalls and the storefronts and the look of a field or a street in the heat of summer or when it's ten below and the snow is piled six feet high. I'm going to do it."
And so he did. American Gothic is very possibly the most famous American painting of the twentieth century. It's one of the very few paintings that's instantly recognizable the world over, to everyone from art critics to grocery clerks. That image of the farmer in his overalls with his pitchfork, and his wife in the apron with the cameo at her neck, is a little bit of scathing social commentary that has been reproduced on posters, buttons, T-shirts, and book covers. It's become a beloved icon of our culture.
There was a time when Grant Wood considered the rolling hills and dairy farms of eastern Iowa a wasteland, a place of artistic exile. It was only when he learned to seek the shalom that could be found there that he discovered his own distinctive style as a painter.
* * *
The Druids have been officially recognized as a religion in Britain. Their origins date back prior to Christianity, but it was only in the past five years that they have campaigned to be recognized as a religious community. The Druids are best known to the general public for their annual gathering at Stonehenge for the summer solstice. This celebration represents their basic beliefs. They do not worship a single god or creator, but instead worship natural forces, such as the sun and thunder, and sacred places such as mountains and streams. They seek to cultivate a sacred relationship with the natural world. As people are becoming disillusioned with institutional religion and are redirecting their spiritual focus on environmental issues, the Druid sect is growing. In Britain alone it is has approximately 10,000 practitioners. In granting the Druids official status, the Charity Commission wrote, "There is sufficient belief in a supreme being or entity to constitute a religion for the purposes of charity law."
The people of Britain, who find it unacceptable that a religion that does not believe in a God of Creation can be recognized as such, need to take a lesson from Jeremiah. The Jewish people who were exiled to Babylon found themselves in a land that worshiped Baal and practiced idolatry. This, of course, went against all the tenets of Judaism. Jeremiah, in his wisdom, instructed his people not to oppose the Babylonians, but instead to make their tents among them -- that is, to learn to live in community with the Babylonians without accepting their religious observances. It is a message of tolerance. It is a message that the people of Britain are going to have to practice and one that we will all have to learn and practice. We live in a multicultural society where acceptance and understanding, rather than confrontation, will promote the gospel message.
* * *
An article titled "Election Season Puts Politicians in the Pews" recently appeared in the New York Times. The opening of the essay, written by Michael Grynbaum, was cleverly written. It began: "Eleven months out of the year, the parishioners of New York City can safely attend Sunday services with no reasonable fear of interlopers, television cameras, or quizzical members of the press." He went on to write that in "the electoral season of October, aspiring statesman show up on doorsteps more often than jack-o'-lanterns. That means politicians are descending on the pews." Grynbaum then asks: "Coincidence? In campaigns, there may be no such thing."
Politicians attend worship services, sometime eight services on a single Sunday, for its "strategic advantage." Before them is a captivated audience, many of whom are community leaders, who are presented with the candidate's position. They are then encouraged to share the message with family, friends, and other community leaders. As H. Carl McCall, who was a Democratic candidate for New York governor in 2002, realized, "You're guaranteed a crowd."
It is important to note the significance of the setting. Grynbaum offers this analysis: "In the annals of campaign clichÈs, going to church ranks somewhere among kissing babies and eating corn dogs at the fair. A politician gets to soak up a sense of moral authority while also demonstrating some personal piety."
But, as the title of the article notes, after the first Tuesday of November these aspiring converts remain unseen until the following October.
There is a poignant line in the gospel story when Jesus asks, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?" Ten men with the dreaded disease of leprosy came to Jesus for healing. Jesus lovingly received them and healed them of their wretched disease. Then the ten departed; but one, reflective and motivated by conscience, returned to thank Jesus for his act of kindness. This act of gratitude caused Jesus to wonder, "Where are the other nine?"
If Jesus is for us one to whom we turn for a blessing or special deliverance, then if we fail to continue to serve him throughout the following year we are missing the point -- the same point that seems to elude politicians who descend upon congregations in October, only to remain obscure for the remaining eleven months of the liturgical season. It would summons one to ask in February, "Where is my elected representative?" If someone affiliates with the church for a wedding, baptism, funeral, counseling, or hospital visitation only to remain unobserved until the next time a special service only the church can provide, would it not be our thought that he/she is a part of the missing nine?
Let us make it our mission that when the church acts benevolently in the name of Jesus, that all ten return and remain to give thanks.
* * *
A business executive was walking down the street. He reached down and picked up a toy ball that rolled in his path. As he looked around to locate the owner, a very angry little girl approached him.
"Give me that ball!" the girl said.
Looking for a polite response, the man said to her: "What is the magic word?"
"NOW!" she yelled.
In the Bible, Jesus does not get many expressions of gratitude. This week's gospel passage is about as close as anyone comes to actually thanking Jesus.
In a society that shows so little gratefulness, perhaps actions speak louder than words. Many folks will follow and be loyal to us because they are part of our support system.
An occasional "thank you" might also be nice.
* * *
The King's commander had a problem; the solution was too simple. Wash seven times in the Jordan and be healed of leprosy. It made no sense. Why the nondescript Jordan when in Damascus there were two great rivers, the Abana and the Pharpar? And why should the nobleman go to the river alone, unaccompanied by the great prophet Elisha? Not only did this confuse Naaman, it also made him angry. Certainly a man of his stature was due the respect of an audience with the prophet. Certainly his status in the community should have him seen in a great river, not one of seeming unimportance. Still, on the advice of his servants Naaman washed himself in the Jordan and came forth from the waters "clean like that of a young boy."
There are many lessons in this story, but one is why isn't simple sufficient? Most of us share the attitude of Naaman -- that the more complicated, complex, and expensive the treatment, the better. We believe the more prestigious the institution and the staff, the greater chance of success. Then there is the issue of self-importance: "I am worthy of the rive Abana, but not the river Jordan."
To ask such questions and to entertain such thoughts places us above the spokesman for God. We have to question the wisdom of God's sages when they prescribe the mundane and ordinary. Does not a miracle require a grandiose scheme? Contrary to this position is the prophet Elisha, who realized it matters not what river you dipped yourself into, what's important is the faith one has when the big toe begins to stir the waters. Elisha understood that faith, and not showmanship, is the secret of healing.
On late-night comedy shows and in news articles there are many jokes being told about the discovery of a planet in the "Goldilocks zone" -- the placement of a planet in a solar system that may have water and sustain life -- that was given the obscure name of HD 10180g. Shouldn't a planet of such great magnitude and potential be given a name from a script written for Star Trek or Star Wars -- a name that is vibrant, exciting, enthralling, and inspiring? This is hardly what HD 10180g solicits. What excitement do we have in knowing that the Starship Enterprise is sailing off to HD 10180g, rather than Romulus? One we greet with a yawn and the other puts us on the edge of our seats. Yet we must realize that the naming of planets is not ascribed for the evening news and television drama but for scientific research. This is why, since 1919, the International Astronomical Union has assigned names to newly discovered stars and planets.
We must guard ourselves from the thinking of Naaman. Romulus may sound exciting but with the possibility of water HD 10180g actually holds more potential for healing. This is what Elisha understood and tried to convey -- it is not the name of the river in which you wash, but by the faith in which you wash.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Make a joyful noise to our God!
People: Let us sing glory to the Name of God.
Leader: Let all the earth worship God.
People: God's deeds are indeed awesome.
Leader: Come and celebrate all God has done.
People: God's deeds are wonderful beyond description!
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God who never forsakes us.
People: Is God with us in these times of distress?
Leader: God is with us in all our troubles and afflictions.
People: But we are in war, economic trouble, and despair.
Leader: God knows who we are and where we are.
People: We celebrate the God who never leaves us.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"How Firm a Foundation"
found in:
UMH: 529
H82: 636, 637
PH: 361
AAHH: 146
NNBH: 48
NCH: 407
CH: 618
LBW: 507
"Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me"
found in:
UMH: 509
NNBH: 243
NCH: 441
LBW: 334
"Come, Ye Disconsolate"
found in:
UMH: 510
AAHH: 421
NNBH: 264
CH: 502
"O God, Our Help in Ages Past"
found in:
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
"O Thou, in Whose Presence"
found in:
UMH: 518
"Be Still, My Soul"
found in:
UMH: 534
AAHH: 135
NNBH: 263
NCH: 488
CH: 566
"We Shall Overcome"
found in:
UMH: 533
AAHH: 542
NNBH: 501
NCH: 570
CH: 630
"Jesus, Priceless Treasure"
found in:
UMH: 532
PH: 365
NNBH: 74
NCH: 480
LBW: 457, 458
"All I Need Is You"
found in:
CCB: 100
"Cares Chorus"
found in:
CCB: 53
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who continues to work with your creatures no matter how far they stray from your path: Grant us the faithfulness to continue to walk with you and build your reign with what we have; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you, O God, and to implore you to strengthen us that we might be able to live faithfully as disciples of Jesus in these times and these places. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which we complain about how things are instead of making them better.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have looked around at our circumstances and want nothing more than for you to change things for us. We whine and complain that things are not as we want them to be. We forget that creation is not what you desire it to be either. Forgive us our foolish, self-centered ways and empower us to live faithfully in the circumstances we find ourselves in, so that we may enable your reign to come in its fullness. Amen.
Leader: God is always willing to work with us where we are and to help us become the people we need to become. Receive the power of the Risen Christ and live as his disciples this day and always.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
O God who created and is ever creating, we worship you for your faithfulness to your creation and to us, your creatures. You made us in your image and have remained our faithful God.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have looked around at our circumstances and want nothing more than for you to change things for us. We whine and complain that things are not as we want them to be. We forget that creation is not what you desire it to be either. Forgive us our foolish, self-centered ways and empower us to live faithfully in the circumstances we find ourselves in, so that we may enable your reign to come in its fullness.
We give you thanks for all the times when you have not given up on us. When we have chosen foolishly, blindly, or willfully, you have stayed with us, wooing us back into your path of life and wholeness.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray all who are in need, and particularly for those who are in circumstances that seem insurmountable. We pray that your Spirit might lift them up and energize them with the hope of finding a way in their wilderness.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Visuals
images of refugee camps; any images of people in unwanted circumstances
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Where Are the Other Nine?
Luke 17:11-19
Good morning, boys and girls! Listen to me read this week's gospel lesson. Listen carefully to the story, because we're going to talk about it when I'm through reading. (read Luke 17:11-19) Okay. Who can tell me what happened? (let the children piece together the lesson from memory)
Yes: Jesus told ten sick people how they could be healed. They followed his advice and they got better. What a wonderful thing! One of the men who was healed returned to Jesus and thanked him. The other nine men did not, although I'm sure they were happy. They might have even been grateful, but they didn't think it was important to say thank you. That puzzled Jesus and made him sad. "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?" (v. 17).
It's important for us to have thankful hearts. God has given blessings and gifts all around us, and we should learn to recognize them. It's not enough just to enjoy the gifts, although that makes God happy too. We should show God that we appreciate what he has done for us. Having a thankful heart means that we live every day full of gratitude. We wake up every morning and go to bed every night appreciating the marvelous gifts God has given.
We can have thankful hearts even if we think we don't have anything to be thankful for. We have our lives. We have the beautiful world around us. We have friends, warm beds, food in our stomachs, and clothes on our backs. We were born with nothing, so everything we have is a blessing. Many people don't go to God and thank him for his blessings. Don't be like the nine who walked away from Jesus. Instead, be like the one who returned to say thanks. It's good for us to say thank you, and it makes God happy.
Prayer: Thank you, God, for how much you love us. Thank you for all your blessings. Please forgive us for the times we don't tell you how grateful we are for your love. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, October 10, 2010, issue.
Copyright 2010 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.
