Seeds Of Disaster And Seeds Of Hope
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
The American military operation last week resulting in the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is certainly good news; however, media reports are already cautioning against expectations that this means peace in Iraq is just around the corner. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Steve McCutchan enumerates some of the terrorist threats our world has faced recently -- and he notes that while the seeds of this behavior are many and impossible to control, human beings have in them seeds of both good and evil. Using this week's Gospel text (the parable of the mustard seed) as a basis, Steve discusses God's mysterious and wonderful power to make the seeds of good to grow -- and our call as Christians to spread those seeds and trust in God to cultivate them. In addition, team member Carter Shelley uses this week's Old Testament passage from 1 Samuel to examine the criteria God uses in determining who should be leaders -- and what we can learn from that as we approach the process of choosing ecclesiastical and political leaders. As usual, the installment also includes several illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
Seeds Of Disaster And Seeds Of Hope
by Stephen P. McCutchan
THE WORLD
"Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads" (Revelation 12:3). The symbol of the many-headed dragon in Revelation, or the many-headed beast in mythology, is appropriate for the current fears of our world. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed in Iraq; in the words of President Bush, "This violent man will never murder again." Yet, even as one violent man has been silenced, the seeds of violence continue to spread around the world, as if carried on the wind. Within the past two weeks, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service announced the arrest of seventeen alleged terrorist plotters, twelve adults and five minors, who had plans to blow up targets in southern Ontario, as well as plans to seize Parliament and behead Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other lawmakers. A week before that there was an arrest in London of at least one suspect concerning a plot to attack a British target with some kind of chemical bomb. In recent memory, there have been bombings in Madrid in 2004 and in London last year. There is suspicion that some of the Canadian suspects may have had limited contact with two men from Georgia about possible attacks in the USA, and one plotter had attempted to smuggle weapons into the United States.
Thus far, there is no evidence that an international terrorist network is coordinating these events. While there has been some internet communication exchanging ideas and techniques, it would seem that most of these hate groups are homegrown. The Canadian group emerged in one of the most educated and tolerant countries in the world. This would give lie to the belief that this only happens in poverty-stricken, repressive societies. As the Oklahoma City bombing of a few years ago demonstrates, violent, hate-filled individuals are not just products of hate schools led by radical Muslim clerics. The truth is that hate does not need a central organization, a chain of command, or a particular religious teaching that can be defeated, dismantled, and destroyed.
Hate is a many-headed monster that is not defeated when one of the heads is cut off. As this week's psalm states: "Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God" (Psalm 20:7). This week's Gospel Lesson introduces us to the idea of "seeds planted" and a growth that is beyond our control. It becomes very clear in the context of our current world that seeds will be planted -- the question is whether they will be seeds of destruction and disaster or seeds of hope and healing. As the non-lectionary text from Revelation suggests, there is a danger that we give too much honor and authority to the seeds of the beast that seeks to destroy us (Revelation 13:4). In The Immediate Word this week, we will explore both the Gospel Lesson and Psalm 20 for clues of the types of seeds that the church should be planting in the midst of our violent world.
The emergence of small hate groups that plot violent events is a very disturbing feature of our world scene. Yet most of our members will feel very little connection between their practice of faith and these events. It has been the temptation of American Christianity to withdraw to a form of privatized religion that does not acknowledge any relationship between our lives and the larger world-scene. We may be disheartened by the plague of violence and the cauldron of hate that seems to be erupting around us, but we do not feel any direct responsibility. While we may all be disturbed by the presence of hate groups within our country as well as in Canada, England, and the Middle East, most of the members of our congregation will feel little connection between how we practice our faith and the environment that has nurtured such hate.
THE WORD
At first, the Gospel Lesson does not seem to provide any help to the preacher in guiding the congregation to make a connection between their faith and the world events mentioned above. Yet it is helpful to remind the congregation that when Jesus spoke of a kingdom of God, he was not referring to a private personal experience. To speak of a kingdom is to use a political term that addresses a community of people. At its most basic level, to live in a kingdom is to live in a community that owes its loyalty to a king -- and the rules of that king form the framework for how people relate to each other, the king, and the territory in which they live. To live in the kingdom of God is to live in a way that demonstrates one's loyalty to God and obedience to the commandments that God has provided to shape how we relate to God, each other, and the world that God has provided for us. If one is to live in the kingdom, one cannot avoid the social implications of the gospel.
Jesus frequently utilized the image of seeds to expand people's understanding of what the kingdom was all about. He drew his image from a world that would have been very familiar to his hearers, who lived in a basically an agricultural environment. We, who live in a more urban environment, need to recall that world in order to hear the import of the images that he used.
Our lectionary lesson begins with one image of seeds that is unique to Mark and speaks directly to the feeling of helplessness that many believers may feel in the face of the issues of the larger world. Jesus spoke of a farmer who went out and sowed seeds, and then continued on with his life. He "would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how." The kingdom of God, the arena in which God reigns in a person's or a community's life, begins with the planting of seeds. We are not in charge of establishing the kingdom. But we are challenged to plant the seeds that God can cultivate in a manner that evokes a kingdom-like response. The challenge is to plant the seeds and then to let God go to work. In our culture, we have such an ego need to measure the results of our efforts that we have little patience for the challenge to do what is right and let God use our effort as God chooses.
We are all very aware that people are planting seeds all the time. The seeds of hate and violence capture the headlines. And sometimes, despite ourselves, we react in a way that perpetuates such violent attitudes by our own responses. When Jesus taught us to "turn the other cheek," he suggested that by our own response we could interrupt the chain of violence. The first question from our lectionary lesson is whether or not churches can plant seeds of love and compassion that could become a counterpoint to the seeds of hate that other groups are planting.
Because we are so immersed in the cynicism of our culture, it is natural for us to see such efforts as ineffective and powerless in the face of the violent seeds being planted in the world. Yet the parable suggests that our task is to do the planting and demonstrate a trust in God to nurture the seed into a full-grown plant.
The scripture dares to suggest that it is built into the very structure of creation that such efforts will have their effect: "The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head." This is not an admonition to passiveness. Rather, we are to plant the seed and then we are to anticipate the need to be present to harvest the results: "But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come." We are not only responsible for planting a better crop than the weeds of hate that others are sowing, but we need to be willing to move into action when those efforts begin to produce positive results.
It is worthy to reflect on what type of behavior results in planting seeds in some persons' communities, or in the world's heart. Can we truly to be servants of others and demonstrate the grace and love of God to them without asking for any thanks or credit? If so, when we have behaved in a Christ-like manner, are we willing to let go and await the work of God? It is only after God has caused the growth of love and healing that we can enter into the sanctification stage of nurturing them in that love. The process of sanctification is the harvesting of what God has grown.
These need not be dramatic acts on our part. God is capable of taking the smallest of seeds and using it to grow a great shrub that in turn will provide shelter and a resting place for all who come. That is what Jesus is indicating with his second and more familiar parable of the mustard seed. It is also in that parable that we see confirmed that Jesus' intent is for the faithful to have an effect on the larger world around them: "It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth larger branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."
In the Bible, birds of the air are often symbols of the nations. In Revelation 22:1-5, this image is reintroduced in the vision of the heavenly city: "On either side of the river, is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."
CRAFTING THE MESSAGE
I would begin the crafting of the sermon by building on the image of seeds planted in the world. The news provides plenty of images of seeds of hate and violence that are being planted in every nation. The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi could provide an entry into the destructive end of such violence. Any of the recent newsweeklies could provide you information on the pattern of violence that he sought to use to evoke chaos in Iraq. The connection with the experiences in Canada and England would suggest that such seeds of violence have implanted themselves in the souls of many disaffected individuals in a variety of societies around the world. A brief reference to the Oklahoma bombing would remind us that we are not immune from such seeds of hate among our own citizenry.
Then, acknowledging the natural feelings of helplessness that many might feel in countering such seeds, the image of seeds as used in Jesus' parables could lead into a recognition of our responsibility to sow seeds of love and healing as antidotes to the poison of hate. Mark's unique addition provides us the opportunity to emphasize that our call is to be faithful in planting such seeds even when we cannot determine their effectiveness.
The more familiar parable of the mustard seed has often been used to acknowledge that great things come from small beginnings. The thrust of the parable, however, is to suggest that the faithful community is to plant such seeds in full anticipation of God nurturing them into unexpected growth. The parable serves to remind the church that to excuse our inaction on the basis of a sense of helplessness is to demonstrate a lack of faith in God. To demonstrate the grace and love of God in our relationships, even with our enemies, is to demonstrate a Christ-like behavior that introduces the world to the kingdom of God.
Our lectionary provides us with a beautiful psalm that might well be used as a conclusion to the sermon. Psalm 20 is a prayer of petition on behalf of the king, God's anointed one. Seen as a prayer for the anointed, for Christians it becomes a prayer for Christ the king's victory. We pray that God will be responsive to the Christ within us in time of trouble (v. 1). Such a prayer centers in our worship (v. 2). We pray that Christ might triumph in us and his will be fulfilled in us so that we might give witness by our joy and by the banners that we erect (vv. 4-5). Verse 6 turns from petition to confidence that God will respond to Christ within us. Such a victory would mean that we can shift our allegiance from trust in the force of arms to trust in God's faithfulness (v. 7). As Christ did in his earthly life, so we can also trust in God and therefore resist the temptation to allow the threats of the world to distort our obedience. Our cry in the face of each new circumstance is "Give victory to the King, O Lord, answer us when we call" (v. 9) -- for each time, as Christ triumphs in us, we both shout for joy and set up our banners indicating one more area of life conquered for God's purpose.
The full power of this psalm prayer can be felt if in verses 1-5 we substitute the words "the Christ in me" for "you," and "Christ's" for "your." It then becomes a prayer for those who are "in Christ" and seeking to be faithful. Pray it slowly and meditate on what God is saying to you through your prayer.
The Lord answer [the Christ in me] in the day of trouble!
The name of the God of Jacob protect [the Christ in me]!
May (God) send [the Christ in me] help from the sanctuary,
and give [the Christ in me] support from Zion.
May (God) remember all [Christ's] offerings,
and regard with favor [Christ's] burnt sacrifices.
May (God) grant [the Christ in me] [Christ's] heart's desire,
and fulfill all [Christ's] plans.
May we shout for joy over [Christ's] victory,
and in the name of our God set up our banners.
May the Lord fulfill all [Christ's] petitions.
That is an appropriate prayer for all of our churches.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Carter Shelley
Divine Criteria For Leadership
The World
Among this week's lections I have found myself drawn to the theme of kingship and leadership as it is presented in 1 Samuel 15:34--16:13 and in the alternate Psalter, Psalm 72. In a few weeks, the church I currently serve as interim pastor will be voting to call a new minister. In a few months, we Americans will once again be voting for political leaders at the local, state, and national levels. With pollsters ever eager to report how good or bad our president's approval rating is these days, there's been a lot of conversation about the November election and the fact that some Republicans are working hard to disassociate themselves from President Bush and his policies. In the United States one of the earliest constitutional amendments concerns the separation of church and state, yet I can't help but believe that an application of God's criteria for leadership would alter not only who our political leaders are; it would also fundamentally alter governmental priorities and the way we govern and interact with other nations of the world.
The Word
1 Samuel 15:34--16:13 and Psalm 72 offer some excellent guidelines for choosing able leaders. The Samuel text focuses upon the kind of leader God calls, while Psalm 72 offers a checklist of the characteristics God's chosen people seek in their next king. The leader God identifies and the kind of king the Psalmist celebrates are not described in terms of physical attributes or personal charisma. What matters is the heart and righteousness of the individual under consideration.
1 Samuel 15:1-33 recounts King Saul's disobedience and God's withdrawal of divine favor. Like many a political and military leader before him, Saul succumbs to the double-edged sword of popularity with his warriors and greed for the spoils of war in his conquest of the Amalekites. In 1 Samuel 16:1, God demands that the prophet Samuel get over his grief about Saul's perfidy and get moving on to the task of locating and anointing Saul's successor.
Initially, the prophet Samuel mistakes the eldest and handsomest of Jesse's sons as the obvious next choice for king. In a clear directive, God offers the divine criteria for kingship. None of the adults and strapping youths among Jesse's offspring qualifies for the job. Physique and stature are irrelevant; what matters is the heart of the man. Having met seven of Jesse's sons with no divine confirmation, Samuel asks the patriarch if he has any more sons. Jesse sends for the youngest son David; it is he who will become Israel's greatest king.
(God's preferences get undermined a bit in this text, when David is described as a handsome youth with a ruddy complexion and beautiful eyes. What matters to God is an appropriate heart, and God makes no reference to David's physical attributes. Divine approval is succinct: "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one." My own thought about this textual contradiction is to suggest that the author of 1 Samuel could not bear to depict King David as anything less than perfect -- looking back upon the reign of David and Israel's heyday, the author wants to present David as the ideal king. As such, the case for David's greatness would include physical beauty, personal charisma, spiritual devotion, and political astuteness.)
Criteria for kingship as the servant of both God and humanity are outlined in Psalm 72. Justice and righteousness are divine imperatives, and must be exercised on behalf of those most vulnerable in society. The divinely anointed king is called to liberate the poor and the needy against their oppressors. Such a king may then serve as an agent of peace whose reign will be long and prosperous. Harvest will succeed and food will grow in abundance. This king will be so great that kings of surrounding countries will respect and bow down to him. The king will pity the weak and liberate them from oppression and violence. He will care for their welfare as though they were his own flesh and blood.
The success of this earthly king originates with God -- the one, true king. Psalm 72 begins with the prayer that the new king may rule with the justice and righteousness God requires. The king's reign is then celebrated for its many excellent accomplishments and the transformation of the earthly kingdom into a heaven-like realm. The psalm concludes with recognition that God is the source of all good and should be praised and celebrated for whatever goodness exists on earth. Verse 20 notes this psalm is the last "prayer" of David, the son of Jesse. It's a humble sign-off if ever there was one. One might then infer that this psalm is David's own plea that a worthy successor be found to succeed him.
It's important to remember at this point that ancient Israel was a theocracy, not a democracy. In ancient biblical times anointing was an essential sign of divine approval of the anointed one's leadership. The king served as God's representative on earth. He did not rule for the king's own glory or legacy but ruled in God's name, adhering to God's law, and was called into service on behalf of God's people. The divine right of kings in the Old Testament, and of the Messiah (the Lord's anointed one) in the New Testament, suggests that great responsibility and integrity rest on the shoulders of he (or she) who wears the crown.
European history recounts many instances in which the divine right of kings was invoked to justify and maintain control while the king was doing what the king wanted to do. Where European rulers tended to use the notion of the divine right of kings to rule as he or she saw fit, in the Old Testament depiction of prophets, priests, and kings, the call is to be the human representative of a Divine Lord. One serves on God's behalf, not on one's own.
The Message
We humans are not always as careful as God is in choosing our leaders. Whether we are thinking about the kind of individual a congregation needs to call as their next minister or are trying to sort out which local candidates should serve on the school board or become mayor, we have a tendency to be swayed in our decision-making by matters of self-interest and the charisma and promises of a particular candidate. In so doing we abdicate our Christian responsibility to judge the heart as God judges: "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).
In selecting ministers, church officers, and political leaders, we are called upon to approach these opportunities as a sacred part of our privileges as Americans and Christians. With this in mind, it's important to measure our own criteria by that of God. Here are some possible points to make in a sermon exploring the divine criteria for leadership.
1) Work within the system, not outside it. Terrorists don't build upon hope; they build upon anger and despair and hate. It's much easier to bomb a hospital than to build one. Don't imitate those who destroy and reinforce divisions. Whether you are dealing with the presbytery, the town council, or the DNC or RNC, work within the system and work for reform of those aspects of it that need revision.
2) Seek God's guidance in choosing a leader, and look for those traits that make a particular leader pleasing to God.
3) Expect as much of ourselves as we expect of our leaders. As citizens we should vote, read up on the issues, discuss with others what we may not understand; he/she who is passive loses the privilege of complaining.
4) Exhibit candor when differences of opinion occur. Avoid that much-loved church practice of triangulating a person or that equally smarmy political usage of smoked-filled-room manipulations.
5) Pray without ceasing, and recognize that our time frame and God's are not always the same. David was a boy when he was anointed. He wouldn't become king for many years to come, and in the meantime he had to grow up and develop into a warrior, a general, and finally a king. The progress of the mustard seed offers a good example for patience ultimately resulting in progress.
6) Remember that Jesus Christ, the head of the church, never used attack ads, never got a makeover, and never applied Machiavellian tactics to get his way. As Christians we need to understand and assert that true servant leadership comes with costs and often includes suffering. Abraham Lincoln lost two sons to the Civil War, a war that he himself despised but found necessary because of the greater good of the Union cause. Woodrow Wilson wrecked his health in his unsuccessful efforts to get the League of Nations organized as a way to avoid future world wars, and he then felt the great humiliation of his own nation refusing to become a member. Lyndon Johnson aged markedly and lost both his popularity and his political drive while overseeing civil rights legislation and the escalation of the war in Vietnam. True servant leadership comes at an expensive price.
7) Accept your own and other people's humanity. Human leaders remain human. We are flawed, sinful, and susceptible to corruption and self-deception. None can truly rule as the Lord's anointed without keeping the Lord's righteousness and justice at the top of his or her agenda.
Because this Sunday is Father's Day, one could begin this Sunday's sermon with remarks about the important leadership qualities a loving and effective father may pass on to his children. With "Our Father, who art in heaven" as the gold standard, the call put before earthly fathers to model great love, clear expectations, hard work, integrity, and selflessness is a daunting but worthy goal.
ILLUSTRATIONS
We walked into the lobby of the courthouse, aware of all the media standing around, aware of all the people watching. A stranger walked up to us and said, "There are some folks who would like to meet you, if that's okay."
And they stepped forward -- Jack and Bill, brothers of the man whose life our son was accused of taking. They could have nodded politely, shook hands, murmured platitudes, and stepped away.
But God had something else in mind, and the four of us stood on holy ground.
"We're here to support you," they said. "We're here because we share pain and loss with you; we're here to be with you and Teddy."
Grace's tears mingled with ours; Forgiveness reached out and clasped our hands, drawing us close; Reconciliation wrapped us in hugs.
These were not those businesslike, formal, I'll-embrace-you-but-it-makes-me-uncomfortable, passing-the-peace-in-church type hugs we give (and receive) so often. These were huge, genuine, from-the-heart-and-soul hugs that we all need and so rarely receive (or give). These were the seeds of healing that God has planted in our hearts, and in theirs.
And the Holy Spirit, that Spirit of Peace, that Spirit of Reconciliation, that Spirit of Grace and Hope and Forgiveness, wept and bowed her head, whispering "Amen."
-- Thom Shuman
***
Of course I didn't cut it out at the time, but years ago I remember reading (someplace) that when he was only an infant, the grandmother of Mikhail Gorbachev had him baptized by a Russian Orthodox priest. Given the times and political realities of the Soviet Union back then, it was done in great secrecy and kept secret for decades. And decades later, Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, began the process which led to the fall of communism, the destruction of the Berlin Wall, renewed relationships with the West, a new way of living and being for a people unused to freedom, to choices, to no longer having to keep secrets.
So, I wonder, did those living waters which were poured out on little Mikhail that day nourish and nurture that tiny seed of faith which his grandmother had planted in hope deep within him, until the time came for it to bear fruit?
***
There's an old phrase from the South that says, "Size makes no never mind." God shaped Mount Everest as well as the sand in my shoes from the beach; God planted the giant redwoods in California as well as the mustard seed of faith in my heart. Size makes no never mind.
That's why the invitation we use for communion is adapted from an Iona Community service. In part, we say:
Come to this Table.
Come if you have great faith,
and come if you have very little;
come if you are here every time we go to the Table,
and come if you haven't been in awhile;
come if you have tried to follow Jesus,
and come if you have failed . . .
Size makes no never mind.
***
If the God you believe in hates all the same people you do, then you know you've created God in your own image.
-- paraphrased remark of Anne Lamott, cited in The Christian Century, September 12, 2005, p. 6
***
Hate succeeds. The world gives plentiful scope and means to hatred, which always finds its justifications and fulfills itself perfectly in time by destruction of the things of time. That is why war is complete and spares nothing, balks at nothing, justifies itself by all that is sacred, and seeks victory by everything that is profane.
-- Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow (Counterpoint, 2000), p. 249
***
Now I want to tell you a lie. Hate is an emotion we can't help. Hate is a feeling we cannot overcome. If we hate someone, it is because we just can't help ourselves. We're human. We have no choice but to hate. That is a lie. Unfortunately, it is a lie many people believe. They believe this lie in order to excuse their hatred. After all, if we can't help but hate, if hate is a feeling we simply cannot help, then hatred is never our fault, is it?
But we can help it. Hatred is a choice. We choose to hate, just as we choose to love. Oh, I know, there are people out there who believe love isn't a choice, that love is primarily an emotion, a feeling, a stirring in the loins. These are the same people who stay married for six months, then divorce. These are the people who love the idea of love but seem unable to stay in it. Love is a matter of the will -- something we decide to do. Love is a choice.
-- Philip Gulley, For Everything a Season (Multnomah, 1999), p. 204
***
There's this astonishing chapter in Moby Dick in which Melville tells us about how Captain Ahab reveals himself to the crew of the whale ship Pequod and explains to them what their voyage is actually all about. They've signed on thinking it's just another whaling voyage where they're going to go out to sea, they're going to kill so and so many whales, they're going to chop them up and boil the blubber down into oil and fill the barrels with oil and bring it back to port, sell it at market, spend the money on shore leave, and head out to sea again.
Ahab, of course, has another agenda, which he does not reveal to his men until they're out on the open sea. In this chapter, he explains to them that it's not about killing whales; it's about hunting down one particular whale. He confesses under pressure from a couple of his officers that this particular whale is the whale that has dismembered him, that has mutilated him....
The extraordinary thing about that chapter is that it describes how a powerfully articulate, eloquent, charismatic man is able to make this diverse crew come around to seeing the world exactly the way he sees it, how he manages to make his pain their grudge. By the end of the chapter, they're lined up with him, he's fused his will to theirs, and they have become an instrument of his will....
Up until September 11, I had always presented that chapter in Moby Dick to my students in something like the way I've just described it. I've always taken the opportunity to point out that it was in the 1930s and 1940s that Melville was discovered as the great genius that we now understand him to be. I think that had something to do with the fact that people alive in those years were witnessing the emergence in Europe of a demagogue who had many of the talents that Ahab had -- a mesmerizing speaker, an ability to bring young people around to seeing the world the way he saw.
In making that case, I'm drawn to one particular comment that Melville makes about the whale, in which he says in Moby Dick, "Ahab found evil visibly personified and made practically assailable." That is, in the whale, in the gigantic body of the white whale, Ahab found a target. He found something one could aim at, one could strike at, through which one could feel a sense of power responding to what the world had done to him.
Of course, that's what Hitler did in Germany in the 1930s. He explained to the German people that their suffering, their indignity, was all ascribable to one visibly personified and practically assailable enemy, namely the Jews.
My feeling on September 11, and in the weeks and months thereafter, was that this lesson was no longer in the history books; it was no longer back there somewhere in my parents' or my students' grandparents' generation. We had just been attacked by somebody who had Ahab's talents, who had focused on us as the source of evil in the world, who had convinced young people that the way that they could make their lives meaningful and the way they could strike back was to attack the United States....
-- Andrew Delbanco, professor of humanities at Columbia University in New York, quoted in an interview on the PBS series Frontline aired September 4, 2002: "Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero"
***
September 11 amounts to World War III -- the third great totalitarian challenge to open societies in the last 100 years. As the longtime Middle East analyst Abdullah Schleiffer once put it to me: World War II was the Nazis, using the engine of Germany to try to impose the reign of the perfect race, the Aryan race. The cold war was the Marxists, using the engine of the Soviet Union to try to impose the reign of the perfect class, the working class. And 9/11 was about religious totalitarians, Islamists, using suicide bombing to try to impose the reign of the perfect faith, political Islam.
O.K., you say, but how can one possibly compare the Soviet Union, which had thousands of nukes, with Al Qaeda? Here's how: As dangerous as the Soviet Union was, it was always deterrable with a wall of containment and with nukes of our own. Because, at the end of the day, the Soviets loved life more than they hated us. Despite our differences, we agreed on certain bedrock rules of civilization.
With the Islamist militant groups, we face people who hate us more than they love life. When you have large numbers of people ready to commit suicide, and ready to do it by making themselves into human bombs, using the most normal instruments of daily life -- an airplane, a car, a garage door opener, a cellphone, fertilizer, a tennis shoe -- you create a weapon that is undeterrable, undetectable, and inexhaustible. This poses a much more serious threat than the Soviet Red Army because these human bombs attack the most essential element of an open society: trust.
Trust is built into every aspect, every building, and every interaction in our increasingly hyperconnected world. We trust that when we board a plane, the person next to us isn't going to blow up his shoes. Without trust, there's no open society because there aren't enough police to guard every opening in an open society.
Which is why suicidal Islamist militants have the potential to erode our lifestyle. Because the only way to deter a suicidal enemy ready to use the instruments of daily life to kill us is by gradually taking away trust. We start by stripping airline passengers, then we go to fingerprinting all visitors, and we will end up removing cherished civil liberties.
-- Thomas L. Friedman, "War of Ideas, Part 1," in the New York Times, January 8, 2004
***
I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others -- that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society, and I can show you why you will fail.
In the days that follow look at our airports, look at our sea ports, and look at our railway stations, and even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfill their dreams and achieve their potential.
They choose to come to London, as so many have come before, because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don't want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.
-- Ken Livingstone, Lord Mayor of London, addressing the terrorists who bombed the London Transport system in July 2005
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call To Worship
Leader: The church is the place where the broken gather:
People: let us worship God who reconciles us to one another and to God.
Leader: The church is the place where sinners are welcome:
People: let us worship God who, with forgiving hands, shapes us into new people.
Leader: The church is the place where the lost, the least, the forgotten, the ignored gather:
People: let us worship God who looks at us with the eyes of love.
Prayer Of The Day
Holy One:
you anoint us with living water,
so we may go to serve the world in these troubled days.
You open our eyes,
so we will see everyone as our sisters and brothers.
Seed Planter:
you place faith deep within us,
so we can bear witness to your just and loving kingdom.
Your love regulates our hearts,
so we can welcome all in your name.
Gentle Spirit:
when we cannot see the way,
you take us by the hand,
so we can step forward, in faith, into the kingdom.
You fill us with hope,
so we can sing God's joy all of our days.
God in Community, Holy in One,
hear us as we pray as Jesus has taught us,
Our Father . . .
Call To Reconciliation
Why is it so easy to boast of our achievements,
yet so hard to humbly come to God with the mistakes we make?
This is the place where we stand in the presence of the One
who longs to shape us into new people.
So let us ask our loving God to forgive us, as we pray, saying . . .
(Unison) Prayer Of Confession
We confess, God of Faith,
that we ask about someone's background to see if they are like us,
but you look at where their heart is grounded.
We examine another's good looks or athletic prowess,
while you take notice of how they reach out to those who are different.
We gaze at the size of someone's house or car or portfolio
to judge how successful they are,
and you observe whether or not they have faith the size of the smallest seed.
Forgive us, Anointing God,
for looking at those around us with human eyes,
and not seeing them as created in your image.
As you shape us into new people,
give us new eyes, new hearts, new lives to follow Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
(silent prayers may be offered)
Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: This is the good news:
no longer must we walk the old paths of sin and death.
Christ has come to take our old ways on himself,
and to fill us with new life in God.
People: Now, we know we are forgiven;
now, we know we are at peace;
now, we can step forward in faith, to live with our God forever. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
God's surprise package
Object: a packet of flower seeds
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have a garden of your own? Do your parents give you a section of the garden to plant your own flowers or vegetables? (let them answer) I brought a packet of seeds with me this morning to show you. Later this summer, these seeds will grow into the plant pictured on the cover of my seed packet. (as you talk, show the packet, rip it open, pour the seeds in your hand and show the children the seeds) What would you think if I told you that each of you were like seeds in the packet? (let them answer)
I want to tell you a story that Jesus told people about seeds. As you listen to my story see if you can tell why you are like these seeds. Jesus was teaching people about God's kingdom. He told people that God's kingdom is like the package of seeds. A gardener takes the seeds and buries them in the garden soil. The seeds don't look very special when they are planted. When the seeds are planted it appears that you might never see them again. Then a surprising thing happens. The seeds begin to grow. Green stems come up from the ground. Soon branches and leaves appear. The plant that comes from the tiny seed is tall and beautiful. These seeds are a mystery. How can such tiny things like these (show the seeds) turn into something so beautiful as a green plant?
Here's how each of us is like one of these seeds. Each of us is a surprise package from God. God can change us in surprising ways as we grow. As you grow up you will be like these seeds. You will turn into wonderful followers of Jesus. Because you are a follower of Jesus, you will grow like these seeds. You will help others find God's kingdom. This summer as you watch plants grow in your garden, remember that you are like the plants. You are growing into something wonderful, too. You are helping God's kingdom on earth.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June18, 2006, issue.
Copyright 2006 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 permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
Seeds Of Disaster And Seeds Of Hope
by Stephen P. McCutchan
THE WORLD
"Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads" (Revelation 12:3). The symbol of the many-headed dragon in Revelation, or the many-headed beast in mythology, is appropriate for the current fears of our world. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed in Iraq; in the words of President Bush, "This violent man will never murder again." Yet, even as one violent man has been silenced, the seeds of violence continue to spread around the world, as if carried on the wind. Within the past two weeks, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service announced the arrest of seventeen alleged terrorist plotters, twelve adults and five minors, who had plans to blow up targets in southern Ontario, as well as plans to seize Parliament and behead Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other lawmakers. A week before that there was an arrest in London of at least one suspect concerning a plot to attack a British target with some kind of chemical bomb. In recent memory, there have been bombings in Madrid in 2004 and in London last year. There is suspicion that some of the Canadian suspects may have had limited contact with two men from Georgia about possible attacks in the USA, and one plotter had attempted to smuggle weapons into the United States.
Thus far, there is no evidence that an international terrorist network is coordinating these events. While there has been some internet communication exchanging ideas and techniques, it would seem that most of these hate groups are homegrown. The Canadian group emerged in one of the most educated and tolerant countries in the world. This would give lie to the belief that this only happens in poverty-stricken, repressive societies. As the Oklahoma City bombing of a few years ago demonstrates, violent, hate-filled individuals are not just products of hate schools led by radical Muslim clerics. The truth is that hate does not need a central organization, a chain of command, or a particular religious teaching that can be defeated, dismantled, and destroyed.
Hate is a many-headed monster that is not defeated when one of the heads is cut off. As this week's psalm states: "Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God" (Psalm 20:7). This week's Gospel Lesson introduces us to the idea of "seeds planted" and a growth that is beyond our control. It becomes very clear in the context of our current world that seeds will be planted -- the question is whether they will be seeds of destruction and disaster or seeds of hope and healing. As the non-lectionary text from Revelation suggests, there is a danger that we give too much honor and authority to the seeds of the beast that seeks to destroy us (Revelation 13:4). In The Immediate Word this week, we will explore both the Gospel Lesson and Psalm 20 for clues of the types of seeds that the church should be planting in the midst of our violent world.
The emergence of small hate groups that plot violent events is a very disturbing feature of our world scene. Yet most of our members will feel very little connection between their practice of faith and these events. It has been the temptation of American Christianity to withdraw to a form of privatized religion that does not acknowledge any relationship between our lives and the larger world-scene. We may be disheartened by the plague of violence and the cauldron of hate that seems to be erupting around us, but we do not feel any direct responsibility. While we may all be disturbed by the presence of hate groups within our country as well as in Canada, England, and the Middle East, most of the members of our congregation will feel little connection between how we practice our faith and the environment that has nurtured such hate.
THE WORD
At first, the Gospel Lesson does not seem to provide any help to the preacher in guiding the congregation to make a connection between their faith and the world events mentioned above. Yet it is helpful to remind the congregation that when Jesus spoke of a kingdom of God, he was not referring to a private personal experience. To speak of a kingdom is to use a political term that addresses a community of people. At its most basic level, to live in a kingdom is to live in a community that owes its loyalty to a king -- and the rules of that king form the framework for how people relate to each other, the king, and the territory in which they live. To live in the kingdom of God is to live in a way that demonstrates one's loyalty to God and obedience to the commandments that God has provided to shape how we relate to God, each other, and the world that God has provided for us. If one is to live in the kingdom, one cannot avoid the social implications of the gospel.
Jesus frequently utilized the image of seeds to expand people's understanding of what the kingdom was all about. He drew his image from a world that would have been very familiar to his hearers, who lived in a basically an agricultural environment. We, who live in a more urban environment, need to recall that world in order to hear the import of the images that he used.
Our lectionary lesson begins with one image of seeds that is unique to Mark and speaks directly to the feeling of helplessness that many believers may feel in the face of the issues of the larger world. Jesus spoke of a farmer who went out and sowed seeds, and then continued on with his life. He "would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how." The kingdom of God, the arena in which God reigns in a person's or a community's life, begins with the planting of seeds. We are not in charge of establishing the kingdom. But we are challenged to plant the seeds that God can cultivate in a manner that evokes a kingdom-like response. The challenge is to plant the seeds and then to let God go to work. In our culture, we have such an ego need to measure the results of our efforts that we have little patience for the challenge to do what is right and let God use our effort as God chooses.
We are all very aware that people are planting seeds all the time. The seeds of hate and violence capture the headlines. And sometimes, despite ourselves, we react in a way that perpetuates such violent attitudes by our own responses. When Jesus taught us to "turn the other cheek," he suggested that by our own response we could interrupt the chain of violence. The first question from our lectionary lesson is whether or not churches can plant seeds of love and compassion that could become a counterpoint to the seeds of hate that other groups are planting.
Because we are so immersed in the cynicism of our culture, it is natural for us to see such efforts as ineffective and powerless in the face of the violent seeds being planted in the world. Yet the parable suggests that our task is to do the planting and demonstrate a trust in God to nurture the seed into a full-grown plant.
The scripture dares to suggest that it is built into the very structure of creation that such efforts will have their effect: "The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head." This is not an admonition to passiveness. Rather, we are to plant the seed and then we are to anticipate the need to be present to harvest the results: "But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come." We are not only responsible for planting a better crop than the weeds of hate that others are sowing, but we need to be willing to move into action when those efforts begin to produce positive results.
It is worthy to reflect on what type of behavior results in planting seeds in some persons' communities, or in the world's heart. Can we truly to be servants of others and demonstrate the grace and love of God to them without asking for any thanks or credit? If so, when we have behaved in a Christ-like manner, are we willing to let go and await the work of God? It is only after God has caused the growth of love and healing that we can enter into the sanctification stage of nurturing them in that love. The process of sanctification is the harvesting of what God has grown.
These need not be dramatic acts on our part. God is capable of taking the smallest of seeds and using it to grow a great shrub that in turn will provide shelter and a resting place for all who come. That is what Jesus is indicating with his second and more familiar parable of the mustard seed. It is also in that parable that we see confirmed that Jesus' intent is for the faithful to have an effect on the larger world around them: "It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth larger branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."
In the Bible, birds of the air are often symbols of the nations. In Revelation 22:1-5, this image is reintroduced in the vision of the heavenly city: "On either side of the river, is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."
CRAFTING THE MESSAGE
I would begin the crafting of the sermon by building on the image of seeds planted in the world. The news provides plenty of images of seeds of hate and violence that are being planted in every nation. The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi could provide an entry into the destructive end of such violence. Any of the recent newsweeklies could provide you information on the pattern of violence that he sought to use to evoke chaos in Iraq. The connection with the experiences in Canada and England would suggest that such seeds of violence have implanted themselves in the souls of many disaffected individuals in a variety of societies around the world. A brief reference to the Oklahoma bombing would remind us that we are not immune from such seeds of hate among our own citizenry.
Then, acknowledging the natural feelings of helplessness that many might feel in countering such seeds, the image of seeds as used in Jesus' parables could lead into a recognition of our responsibility to sow seeds of love and healing as antidotes to the poison of hate. Mark's unique addition provides us the opportunity to emphasize that our call is to be faithful in planting such seeds even when we cannot determine their effectiveness.
The more familiar parable of the mustard seed has often been used to acknowledge that great things come from small beginnings. The thrust of the parable, however, is to suggest that the faithful community is to plant such seeds in full anticipation of God nurturing them into unexpected growth. The parable serves to remind the church that to excuse our inaction on the basis of a sense of helplessness is to demonstrate a lack of faith in God. To demonstrate the grace and love of God in our relationships, even with our enemies, is to demonstrate a Christ-like behavior that introduces the world to the kingdom of God.
Our lectionary provides us with a beautiful psalm that might well be used as a conclusion to the sermon. Psalm 20 is a prayer of petition on behalf of the king, God's anointed one. Seen as a prayer for the anointed, for Christians it becomes a prayer for Christ the king's victory. We pray that God will be responsive to the Christ within us in time of trouble (v. 1). Such a prayer centers in our worship (v. 2). We pray that Christ might triumph in us and his will be fulfilled in us so that we might give witness by our joy and by the banners that we erect (vv. 4-5). Verse 6 turns from petition to confidence that God will respond to Christ within us. Such a victory would mean that we can shift our allegiance from trust in the force of arms to trust in God's faithfulness (v. 7). As Christ did in his earthly life, so we can also trust in God and therefore resist the temptation to allow the threats of the world to distort our obedience. Our cry in the face of each new circumstance is "Give victory to the King, O Lord, answer us when we call" (v. 9) -- for each time, as Christ triumphs in us, we both shout for joy and set up our banners indicating one more area of life conquered for God's purpose.
The full power of this psalm prayer can be felt if in verses 1-5 we substitute the words "the Christ in me" for "you," and "Christ's" for "your." It then becomes a prayer for those who are "in Christ" and seeking to be faithful. Pray it slowly and meditate on what God is saying to you through your prayer.
The Lord answer [the Christ in me] in the day of trouble!
The name of the God of Jacob protect [the Christ in me]!
May (God) send [the Christ in me] help from the sanctuary,
and give [the Christ in me] support from Zion.
May (God) remember all [Christ's] offerings,
and regard with favor [Christ's] burnt sacrifices.
May (God) grant [the Christ in me] [Christ's] heart's desire,
and fulfill all [Christ's] plans.
May we shout for joy over [Christ's] victory,
and in the name of our God set up our banners.
May the Lord fulfill all [Christ's] petitions.
That is an appropriate prayer for all of our churches.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Carter Shelley
Divine Criteria For Leadership
The World
Among this week's lections I have found myself drawn to the theme of kingship and leadership as it is presented in 1 Samuel 15:34--16:13 and in the alternate Psalter, Psalm 72. In a few weeks, the church I currently serve as interim pastor will be voting to call a new minister. In a few months, we Americans will once again be voting for political leaders at the local, state, and national levels. With pollsters ever eager to report how good or bad our president's approval rating is these days, there's been a lot of conversation about the November election and the fact that some Republicans are working hard to disassociate themselves from President Bush and his policies. In the United States one of the earliest constitutional amendments concerns the separation of church and state, yet I can't help but believe that an application of God's criteria for leadership would alter not only who our political leaders are; it would also fundamentally alter governmental priorities and the way we govern and interact with other nations of the world.
The Word
1 Samuel 15:34--16:13 and Psalm 72 offer some excellent guidelines for choosing able leaders. The Samuel text focuses upon the kind of leader God calls, while Psalm 72 offers a checklist of the characteristics God's chosen people seek in their next king. The leader God identifies and the kind of king the Psalmist celebrates are not described in terms of physical attributes or personal charisma. What matters is the heart and righteousness of the individual under consideration.
1 Samuel 15:1-33 recounts King Saul's disobedience and God's withdrawal of divine favor. Like many a political and military leader before him, Saul succumbs to the double-edged sword of popularity with his warriors and greed for the spoils of war in his conquest of the Amalekites. In 1 Samuel 16:1, God demands that the prophet Samuel get over his grief about Saul's perfidy and get moving on to the task of locating and anointing Saul's successor.
Initially, the prophet Samuel mistakes the eldest and handsomest of Jesse's sons as the obvious next choice for king. In a clear directive, God offers the divine criteria for kingship. None of the adults and strapping youths among Jesse's offspring qualifies for the job. Physique and stature are irrelevant; what matters is the heart of the man. Having met seven of Jesse's sons with no divine confirmation, Samuel asks the patriarch if he has any more sons. Jesse sends for the youngest son David; it is he who will become Israel's greatest king.
(God's preferences get undermined a bit in this text, when David is described as a handsome youth with a ruddy complexion and beautiful eyes. What matters to God is an appropriate heart, and God makes no reference to David's physical attributes. Divine approval is succinct: "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one." My own thought about this textual contradiction is to suggest that the author of 1 Samuel could not bear to depict King David as anything less than perfect -- looking back upon the reign of David and Israel's heyday, the author wants to present David as the ideal king. As such, the case for David's greatness would include physical beauty, personal charisma, spiritual devotion, and political astuteness.)
Criteria for kingship as the servant of both God and humanity are outlined in Psalm 72. Justice and righteousness are divine imperatives, and must be exercised on behalf of those most vulnerable in society. The divinely anointed king is called to liberate the poor and the needy against their oppressors. Such a king may then serve as an agent of peace whose reign will be long and prosperous. Harvest will succeed and food will grow in abundance. This king will be so great that kings of surrounding countries will respect and bow down to him. The king will pity the weak and liberate them from oppression and violence. He will care for their welfare as though they were his own flesh and blood.
The success of this earthly king originates with God -- the one, true king. Psalm 72 begins with the prayer that the new king may rule with the justice and righteousness God requires. The king's reign is then celebrated for its many excellent accomplishments and the transformation of the earthly kingdom into a heaven-like realm. The psalm concludes with recognition that God is the source of all good and should be praised and celebrated for whatever goodness exists on earth. Verse 20 notes this psalm is the last "prayer" of David, the son of Jesse. It's a humble sign-off if ever there was one. One might then infer that this psalm is David's own plea that a worthy successor be found to succeed him.
It's important to remember at this point that ancient Israel was a theocracy, not a democracy. In ancient biblical times anointing was an essential sign of divine approval of the anointed one's leadership. The king served as God's representative on earth. He did not rule for the king's own glory or legacy but ruled in God's name, adhering to God's law, and was called into service on behalf of God's people. The divine right of kings in the Old Testament, and of the Messiah (the Lord's anointed one) in the New Testament, suggests that great responsibility and integrity rest on the shoulders of he (or she) who wears the crown.
European history recounts many instances in which the divine right of kings was invoked to justify and maintain control while the king was doing what the king wanted to do. Where European rulers tended to use the notion of the divine right of kings to rule as he or she saw fit, in the Old Testament depiction of prophets, priests, and kings, the call is to be the human representative of a Divine Lord. One serves on God's behalf, not on one's own.
The Message
We humans are not always as careful as God is in choosing our leaders. Whether we are thinking about the kind of individual a congregation needs to call as their next minister or are trying to sort out which local candidates should serve on the school board or become mayor, we have a tendency to be swayed in our decision-making by matters of self-interest and the charisma and promises of a particular candidate. In so doing we abdicate our Christian responsibility to judge the heart as God judges: "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).
In selecting ministers, church officers, and political leaders, we are called upon to approach these opportunities as a sacred part of our privileges as Americans and Christians. With this in mind, it's important to measure our own criteria by that of God. Here are some possible points to make in a sermon exploring the divine criteria for leadership.
1) Work within the system, not outside it. Terrorists don't build upon hope; they build upon anger and despair and hate. It's much easier to bomb a hospital than to build one. Don't imitate those who destroy and reinforce divisions. Whether you are dealing with the presbytery, the town council, or the DNC or RNC, work within the system and work for reform of those aspects of it that need revision.
2) Seek God's guidance in choosing a leader, and look for those traits that make a particular leader pleasing to God.
3) Expect as much of ourselves as we expect of our leaders. As citizens we should vote, read up on the issues, discuss with others what we may not understand; he/she who is passive loses the privilege of complaining.
4) Exhibit candor when differences of opinion occur. Avoid that much-loved church practice of triangulating a person or that equally smarmy political usage of smoked-filled-room manipulations.
5) Pray without ceasing, and recognize that our time frame and God's are not always the same. David was a boy when he was anointed. He wouldn't become king for many years to come, and in the meantime he had to grow up and develop into a warrior, a general, and finally a king. The progress of the mustard seed offers a good example for patience ultimately resulting in progress.
6) Remember that Jesus Christ, the head of the church, never used attack ads, never got a makeover, and never applied Machiavellian tactics to get his way. As Christians we need to understand and assert that true servant leadership comes with costs and often includes suffering. Abraham Lincoln lost two sons to the Civil War, a war that he himself despised but found necessary because of the greater good of the Union cause. Woodrow Wilson wrecked his health in his unsuccessful efforts to get the League of Nations organized as a way to avoid future world wars, and he then felt the great humiliation of his own nation refusing to become a member. Lyndon Johnson aged markedly and lost both his popularity and his political drive while overseeing civil rights legislation and the escalation of the war in Vietnam. True servant leadership comes at an expensive price.
7) Accept your own and other people's humanity. Human leaders remain human. We are flawed, sinful, and susceptible to corruption and self-deception. None can truly rule as the Lord's anointed without keeping the Lord's righteousness and justice at the top of his or her agenda.
Because this Sunday is Father's Day, one could begin this Sunday's sermon with remarks about the important leadership qualities a loving and effective father may pass on to his children. With "Our Father, who art in heaven" as the gold standard, the call put before earthly fathers to model great love, clear expectations, hard work, integrity, and selflessness is a daunting but worthy goal.
ILLUSTRATIONS
We walked into the lobby of the courthouse, aware of all the media standing around, aware of all the people watching. A stranger walked up to us and said, "There are some folks who would like to meet you, if that's okay."
And they stepped forward -- Jack and Bill, brothers of the man whose life our son was accused of taking. They could have nodded politely, shook hands, murmured platitudes, and stepped away.
But God had something else in mind, and the four of us stood on holy ground.
"We're here to support you," they said. "We're here because we share pain and loss with you; we're here to be with you and Teddy."
Grace's tears mingled with ours; Forgiveness reached out and clasped our hands, drawing us close; Reconciliation wrapped us in hugs.
These were not those businesslike, formal, I'll-embrace-you-but-it-makes-me-uncomfortable, passing-the-peace-in-church type hugs we give (and receive) so often. These were huge, genuine, from-the-heart-and-soul hugs that we all need and so rarely receive (or give). These were the seeds of healing that God has planted in our hearts, and in theirs.
And the Holy Spirit, that Spirit of Peace, that Spirit of Reconciliation, that Spirit of Grace and Hope and Forgiveness, wept and bowed her head, whispering "Amen."
-- Thom Shuman
***
Of course I didn't cut it out at the time, but years ago I remember reading (someplace) that when he was only an infant, the grandmother of Mikhail Gorbachev had him baptized by a Russian Orthodox priest. Given the times and political realities of the Soviet Union back then, it was done in great secrecy and kept secret for decades. And decades later, Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, began the process which led to the fall of communism, the destruction of the Berlin Wall, renewed relationships with the West, a new way of living and being for a people unused to freedom, to choices, to no longer having to keep secrets.
So, I wonder, did those living waters which were poured out on little Mikhail that day nourish and nurture that tiny seed of faith which his grandmother had planted in hope deep within him, until the time came for it to bear fruit?
***
There's an old phrase from the South that says, "Size makes no never mind." God shaped Mount Everest as well as the sand in my shoes from the beach; God planted the giant redwoods in California as well as the mustard seed of faith in my heart. Size makes no never mind.
That's why the invitation we use for communion is adapted from an Iona Community service. In part, we say:
Come to this Table.
Come if you have great faith,
and come if you have very little;
come if you are here every time we go to the Table,
and come if you haven't been in awhile;
come if you have tried to follow Jesus,
and come if you have failed . . .
Size makes no never mind.
***
If the God you believe in hates all the same people you do, then you know you've created God in your own image.
-- paraphrased remark of Anne Lamott, cited in The Christian Century, September 12, 2005, p. 6
***
Hate succeeds. The world gives plentiful scope and means to hatred, which always finds its justifications and fulfills itself perfectly in time by destruction of the things of time. That is why war is complete and spares nothing, balks at nothing, justifies itself by all that is sacred, and seeks victory by everything that is profane.
-- Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow (Counterpoint, 2000), p. 249
***
Now I want to tell you a lie. Hate is an emotion we can't help. Hate is a feeling we cannot overcome. If we hate someone, it is because we just can't help ourselves. We're human. We have no choice but to hate. That is a lie. Unfortunately, it is a lie many people believe. They believe this lie in order to excuse their hatred. After all, if we can't help but hate, if hate is a feeling we simply cannot help, then hatred is never our fault, is it?
But we can help it. Hatred is a choice. We choose to hate, just as we choose to love. Oh, I know, there are people out there who believe love isn't a choice, that love is primarily an emotion, a feeling, a stirring in the loins. These are the same people who stay married for six months, then divorce. These are the people who love the idea of love but seem unable to stay in it. Love is a matter of the will -- something we decide to do. Love is a choice.
-- Philip Gulley, For Everything a Season (Multnomah, 1999), p. 204
***
There's this astonishing chapter in Moby Dick in which Melville tells us about how Captain Ahab reveals himself to the crew of the whale ship Pequod and explains to them what their voyage is actually all about. They've signed on thinking it's just another whaling voyage where they're going to go out to sea, they're going to kill so and so many whales, they're going to chop them up and boil the blubber down into oil and fill the barrels with oil and bring it back to port, sell it at market, spend the money on shore leave, and head out to sea again.
Ahab, of course, has another agenda, which he does not reveal to his men until they're out on the open sea. In this chapter, he explains to them that it's not about killing whales; it's about hunting down one particular whale. He confesses under pressure from a couple of his officers that this particular whale is the whale that has dismembered him, that has mutilated him....
The extraordinary thing about that chapter is that it describes how a powerfully articulate, eloquent, charismatic man is able to make this diverse crew come around to seeing the world exactly the way he sees it, how he manages to make his pain their grudge. By the end of the chapter, they're lined up with him, he's fused his will to theirs, and they have become an instrument of his will....
Up until September 11, I had always presented that chapter in Moby Dick to my students in something like the way I've just described it. I've always taken the opportunity to point out that it was in the 1930s and 1940s that Melville was discovered as the great genius that we now understand him to be. I think that had something to do with the fact that people alive in those years were witnessing the emergence in Europe of a demagogue who had many of the talents that Ahab had -- a mesmerizing speaker, an ability to bring young people around to seeing the world the way he saw.
In making that case, I'm drawn to one particular comment that Melville makes about the whale, in which he says in Moby Dick, "Ahab found evil visibly personified and made practically assailable." That is, in the whale, in the gigantic body of the white whale, Ahab found a target. He found something one could aim at, one could strike at, through which one could feel a sense of power responding to what the world had done to him.
Of course, that's what Hitler did in Germany in the 1930s. He explained to the German people that their suffering, their indignity, was all ascribable to one visibly personified and practically assailable enemy, namely the Jews.
My feeling on September 11, and in the weeks and months thereafter, was that this lesson was no longer in the history books; it was no longer back there somewhere in my parents' or my students' grandparents' generation. We had just been attacked by somebody who had Ahab's talents, who had focused on us as the source of evil in the world, who had convinced young people that the way that they could make their lives meaningful and the way they could strike back was to attack the United States....
-- Andrew Delbanco, professor of humanities at Columbia University in New York, quoted in an interview on the PBS series Frontline aired September 4, 2002: "Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero"
***
September 11 amounts to World War III -- the third great totalitarian challenge to open societies in the last 100 years. As the longtime Middle East analyst Abdullah Schleiffer once put it to me: World War II was the Nazis, using the engine of Germany to try to impose the reign of the perfect race, the Aryan race. The cold war was the Marxists, using the engine of the Soviet Union to try to impose the reign of the perfect class, the working class. And 9/11 was about religious totalitarians, Islamists, using suicide bombing to try to impose the reign of the perfect faith, political Islam.
O.K., you say, but how can one possibly compare the Soviet Union, which had thousands of nukes, with Al Qaeda? Here's how: As dangerous as the Soviet Union was, it was always deterrable with a wall of containment and with nukes of our own. Because, at the end of the day, the Soviets loved life more than they hated us. Despite our differences, we agreed on certain bedrock rules of civilization.
With the Islamist militant groups, we face people who hate us more than they love life. When you have large numbers of people ready to commit suicide, and ready to do it by making themselves into human bombs, using the most normal instruments of daily life -- an airplane, a car, a garage door opener, a cellphone, fertilizer, a tennis shoe -- you create a weapon that is undeterrable, undetectable, and inexhaustible. This poses a much more serious threat than the Soviet Red Army because these human bombs attack the most essential element of an open society: trust.
Trust is built into every aspect, every building, and every interaction in our increasingly hyperconnected world. We trust that when we board a plane, the person next to us isn't going to blow up his shoes. Without trust, there's no open society because there aren't enough police to guard every opening in an open society.
Which is why suicidal Islamist militants have the potential to erode our lifestyle. Because the only way to deter a suicidal enemy ready to use the instruments of daily life to kill us is by gradually taking away trust. We start by stripping airline passengers, then we go to fingerprinting all visitors, and we will end up removing cherished civil liberties.
-- Thomas L. Friedman, "War of Ideas, Part 1," in the New York Times, January 8, 2004
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I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others -- that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society, and I can show you why you will fail.
In the days that follow look at our airports, look at our sea ports, and look at our railway stations, and even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfill their dreams and achieve their potential.
They choose to come to London, as so many have come before, because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don't want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.
-- Ken Livingstone, Lord Mayor of London, addressing the terrorists who bombed the London Transport system in July 2005
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call To Worship
Leader: The church is the place where the broken gather:
People: let us worship God who reconciles us to one another and to God.
Leader: The church is the place where sinners are welcome:
People: let us worship God who, with forgiving hands, shapes us into new people.
Leader: The church is the place where the lost, the least, the forgotten, the ignored gather:
People: let us worship God who looks at us with the eyes of love.
Prayer Of The Day
Holy One:
you anoint us with living water,
so we may go to serve the world in these troubled days.
You open our eyes,
so we will see everyone as our sisters and brothers.
Seed Planter:
you place faith deep within us,
so we can bear witness to your just and loving kingdom.
Your love regulates our hearts,
so we can welcome all in your name.
Gentle Spirit:
when we cannot see the way,
you take us by the hand,
so we can step forward, in faith, into the kingdom.
You fill us with hope,
so we can sing God's joy all of our days.
God in Community, Holy in One,
hear us as we pray as Jesus has taught us,
Our Father . . .
Call To Reconciliation
Why is it so easy to boast of our achievements,
yet so hard to humbly come to God with the mistakes we make?
This is the place where we stand in the presence of the One
who longs to shape us into new people.
So let us ask our loving God to forgive us, as we pray, saying . . .
(Unison) Prayer Of Confession
We confess, God of Faith,
that we ask about someone's background to see if they are like us,
but you look at where their heart is grounded.
We examine another's good looks or athletic prowess,
while you take notice of how they reach out to those who are different.
We gaze at the size of someone's house or car or portfolio
to judge how successful they are,
and you observe whether or not they have faith the size of the smallest seed.
Forgive us, Anointing God,
for looking at those around us with human eyes,
and not seeing them as created in your image.
As you shape us into new people,
give us new eyes, new hearts, new lives to follow Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
(silent prayers may be offered)
Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: This is the good news:
no longer must we walk the old paths of sin and death.
Christ has come to take our old ways on himself,
and to fill us with new life in God.
People: Now, we know we are forgiven;
now, we know we are at peace;
now, we can step forward in faith, to live with our God forever. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
God's surprise package
Object: a packet of flower seeds
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have a garden of your own? Do your parents give you a section of the garden to plant your own flowers or vegetables? (let them answer) I brought a packet of seeds with me this morning to show you. Later this summer, these seeds will grow into the plant pictured on the cover of my seed packet. (as you talk, show the packet, rip it open, pour the seeds in your hand and show the children the seeds) What would you think if I told you that each of you were like seeds in the packet? (let them answer)
I want to tell you a story that Jesus told people about seeds. As you listen to my story see if you can tell why you are like these seeds. Jesus was teaching people about God's kingdom. He told people that God's kingdom is like the package of seeds. A gardener takes the seeds and buries them in the garden soil. The seeds don't look very special when they are planted. When the seeds are planted it appears that you might never see them again. Then a surprising thing happens. The seeds begin to grow. Green stems come up from the ground. Soon branches and leaves appear. The plant that comes from the tiny seed is tall and beautiful. These seeds are a mystery. How can such tiny things like these (show the seeds) turn into something so beautiful as a green plant?
Here's how each of us is like one of these seeds. Each of us is a surprise package from God. God can change us in surprising ways as we grow. As you grow up you will be like these seeds. You will turn into wonderful followers of Jesus. Because you are a follower of Jesus, you will grow like these seeds. You will help others find God's kingdom. This summer as you watch plants grow in your garden, remember that you are like the plants. You are growing into something wonderful, too. You are helping God's kingdom on earth.
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The Immediate Word, June18, 2006, issue.
Copyright 2006 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 permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
