Immediate Word

A recurring theme in this week’s lectionary texts is the great things that come in unexpected packages or the unlikeliest of circumstances -- like a tiny mustard seed or the young shepherd boy David. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Leah Lonsbury asks why that is, and points out that the answer is we often do not see the latent possibilities before us as clearly as God does. Indeed, this week’s readings demonstrate that even the Lord’s most faithful servants generally look for the wrong qualities or in the wrong places -- as God tells Samuel, “the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Leah notes that our task as Christians is to try and see things as God sees them, and to work toward bringing that vision to fruition. How do we go about achieving that lofty goal? Paul suggests in our Corinthians passage that the love of Christ indelibly changes us and helps us see the world from God’s perspective, and Jesus explains that we are to be latter-day Johnny Appleseeds who “scatter seed on the ground... and [let] the seed sprout and grow [though we do] not know how.”

Former civil rights leader and current congressman John Lewis recently explained how a similar viewpoint has animated his life and work: “If you visualize it, if you can even have faith that it’s there, for you it is already there.” In other words, if we have faith and can see God’s kingdom -- to look at the world as God sees it -- then it already exists... we just need to work on spreading the vision.

Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the epistle passage and the contrast between what the world perceives as “a new creation” and the complete inner transformation that Paul has in mind when he talks about being a new creation in Christ in which “everything old has passed away.” Of course, the “new creation” that’s currently dominating the headlines is the gender transformation of Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner, highlighted by a lengthy cover story and stylish Annie Leibovitz cover photo in Vanity Fair magazine. While the outer changes are obvious (and rather arresting), Dean notes that it’s fair to wonder how much Jenner has actually changed -- have his political beliefs evolved, for example, or is his attitude toward fame and celebrity different? But as Dean reminds us, none of that matters to Paul -- his focus is on the transformation of our soul that occurs when we live in Christ.


Seeing as God Sees
by Leah Lonsbury
1 Samuel 15:34--16:13; Psalm 20; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13) 14-17; Mark 4:26-34

Woven throughout this week’s lectionary texts are all kinds of unexpected treasures. Young David, the runt of the litter, is God’s surprising choice for king. God’s tender twig becomes a noble cedar in Psalm 20, bearing fruit and giving shelter to creatures of every kind. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, everything is new and surprising in the topsy-turvy way of living as the new creation. And in Mark’s gospel, seeds sprout and grow without the notice of those who scatter them -- and the smallest mustard seed becomes the greatest of all the shrubs, with large branches to give shade. 

How is it that those of us who attempt to be faithful, much like Samuel, fail to see as God sees? How do we miss the possibilities before us and fail to perceive the greatness that is already in our midst? Why don’t we spot the unexpected treasures?

Our challenge as Christians is to make our best attempt to see the world as God sees it and to do what we can to bring that vision into reality. Thankfully, as a part of the new creation in Christ’s love we are formed for just that kind of work.  

In the News
In a January 2015 interview with the great civil rights leader and current congressman John Lewis, On Being’s Krista Tippett asked Lewis about the inspiration and framework for his life’s work around civil rights and in politics. Lewis responded by describing a trip he made at age 11 with family members from his home in rural Alabama to Buffalo, New York. Observing the way that people lived together in Buffalo gave Lewis hope that things could be different in the South, and his eyes were opened to a new reality:

Lewis: I wanted to believe, and I did believe, that things would get better. But later I discovered, I guess, that you have to have this sense of faith that what you’re moving toward is already done. It’s already happened.

Tippett: Say some more about that.

Lewis:It’s the power to believe that you can see, that you visualize, that sense of community, that sense of family, that sense of one house.

Tippett: And live as if?

Lewis: And you live that you’re already there, that you’re already in that community, part of that sense of one family, one house. If you visualize it, if you can even have faith that it’s there, for you it is already there. 

Tippett and Lewis’ conversation explored the idea that hope comes to fruition when people catch the vision of what can be or already is that needs manifesting through commitment, faithfulness, and bold action. For Lewis, that vision is the power of love in action to build the beloved community:

Tippett: So here’s a line from your book Across That Bridge: “The civil rights movement, above all, was a work of love. Yet even 50 years later, it is rare to find anyone who would use the word love to describe what we did.” What you just said to me illuminates that. I think part of the explanation of that is the way you are using the word love is very rich and multilayered and also challenging, challenging for the person who loves.

Lewis: ...Love is powerful. The movement created what I like to call a nonviolent revolution. It was love at its best. It’s one of the highest forms of love. That you beat me, you arrest me, you take me to jail, you almost kill me, but in spite of that, I’m going to still love you. I know Dr. King used to joke sometime and say things like “Just love the hell outta everybody. Just love ’em.”

Tippett: Love the hell out of them, right, yeah [laughs].... Revolutionary love is another way to think about that. Not just an external stance, but a fundamental shift inside our own souls. It’s very powerful. It’s not the way -- certainly not the way I hear people talking about public life or political action now.

To discover the unexpected or hard-to-imagine treasures in our midst, to catch a vision of the beloved community, the kingdom that is already waiting to be, we need a reorientation. Tippett asked Lewis about this kind of “fundamental shift inside our souls”: 

Tippett:Love as you are talking about it, as you have aspired to live it, is not a way you feel. It’s a way of being, right?

Lewis:It’s a way of being, yes. It’s a way of action. It’s not necessarily passive. It has the capacity. It has the ability to bring peace out of conflict. It has the capacity to stir up things in order to make things right. When we were sitting in, it was love in action.

If we reorient ourselves, have faith in the power of love to change lives (including ours), and begin to see God’s kingdom -- to look at the world as God sees it -- then it is already real. Our next step is to find ways to spread that vision, to scatter it like seeds. And as Lewis noted, having that vision can also help give us the strength to cope with the struggles and suffering that inevitably come with the work of spreading seeds. When we see the world as God sees it, when that hope-filled love is our lens, a whole range of possibilities emerges. As Lewis puts it, “You have to believe and you can never, ever, give up on any possibility.... It’s already done. You just have to find a way to make it real.”

In the Scriptures
This week’s lectionary scriptures are full of examples of God’s surprising treasures -- ones not easily spotted by someone who isn’t continually working to catch God’s vision or who doesn’t have faith that it is a reality waiting to be discovered and brought to fruition. That kind of faith requires trust in God’s own steadfast love and faithfulness. Lois Malcolm of Luther Seminary sees the promise of that love and faithfulness in our passage from 2 Corinthians. While Paul’s talk about Christ’s judgment seat might sound more like a threat to some, Malcolm proposes that it is really a promise that God’s way of love will prevail. She writes:

Although we live in a world where technical savvy, wealth, and power seem continually to trump God’s steadfast love, justice, and righteousness, we can be confident that the latter -- described as God’s mercies and consolation in 2 Corinthians -- will prevail in the end (2 Corinthians 1:3; cf. Jeremiah 9:23-24).

That confidence frees us to believe that God’s goodness is already at work, that the kingdom is ours to discover and uncover. That kind of confidence can be hard to come by, though, when God’s vision runs so counter to what we see and experience in the world around us and to the norms and expectations that reside in our own minds and hearts. Roger Nam examines our passage from 1 Samuel as he writes of this for Workingpreacher.org:

In the ceremony, it is understood that the eldest son receives the anointing, natural for the Iron Age was a traditional time that favored the first-born male. But verse 6 delivers an enormous surprise when the eldest Eliab is rejected. In providing an explanation, 1 Samuel 16:7b gives this theological gem, “For the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

God’s ways are often confounding to us, but that should not be surprising considering how little we know compared to the Omniscient One. God defies cultural convention, expected norms, even when norms may have good reason....

It turns out that the youngest son was not present despite the declaration that the king would be “among the sons” (v. 1). David was so much not even on the radar that he did not make the journey. But just as God rejects the expected, he then selects the most unexpected....

But now we see kingship in new light, that God is active and surprising and most importantly, behind the Israelite king. 

We must also learn to look with our hearts, expect the unexpected, and trust God to be faithful if we want to catch the vision and be a part of its unfolding. This takes a reorientation of the way we move through God’s world and interact with God’s people. It may feel more like a disorientation, but that can be a good thing. It prepares us for the disorienting nature of God’s Love in action in the world. 

One can imagine God telling the grieving and disheartened Samuel (and each one of us), “Try to keep up,” as God nudges him towards the next unexpected move God is making. “How long will you grieve over Saul?” God asks Samuel in chapter 16. How long will you long for what you know, for what is dysfunctionally familiar? How long will you remain stuck in what doesn’t work and what certainly doesn’t build the kingdom because it’s familiar and what the world says is truth? How long will you settle for what compromises Love instead of giving it free rein? 

Thankfully, we are a part of that kingdom vision that God is offering and not just its handlers. That means that God is already at work in us as well, urging us on in love (2 Corinthians 5:14) and teaching us to see from Christ’s generous and unexpected point of view (v. 16). We are already the new creation, and we are invited to see how everything has and is becoming new each moment (v. 17). 

God’s vision unfolding in and around us invites our participation at each surprising moment and promises that we don’t have to do all the heavy lifting. It already is. We already are. We just have to live as though we believe that to be true. We must participate, scatter the seed, and trust that the harvest will come (Mark 4:29). If the tender sprig can become a noble cedar under God’s care and intention, what might happen within us and around us (Ezekiel 17:22-23)?

In Mark’s gospel, even Jesus’ delivery (in parables) invites us to trust in the mysterious unveiling of God’s kingdom vision. If you believe this tiny seed will someday grow into the largest of the shrubs and provide life-saving shelter and shade, then come participate in this crazy and often incomprehensible kingdom. Lead with love and trust, and don’t get so caught up in the sense-making minutiae. Allow yourselves to get swept up in love and possibility. See differently. Live differently. Love differently. Watch your heart and the world be remade -- differently. 

In the Sermon
This week the preacher might consider...

* exploring other contemporary stories in which a new vision changes everything. The new domestic surveillance legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama last week is being heralded as embodying just such a radical change -- with Edward’s Snowden’s revelations providing the lens the public and its politicians needed to shape their views on the security state in which we are living post-9/11. These links from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and AFP may prove helpful in exploring this overhaul of the nation’s domestic spying and data collection operations.

* a focus on planting seeds/bringing God’s vision to fruition and a challenge to the congregation to discover the kind of seeds it is called to plant. For one illustration of that kind of thinking, this recent column by the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman may prove helpful. It’s about the SEED school that is growing hope and change in the lives of students from rough parts of Baltimore.

* an examination of the reorientation in love that Tippett and Lewis speak about in the interview for On Being. How does this happen? What does it look like in your context? What kind of practice and/or training is required?

* a discussion about what this kind of unexpected disorientation of God’s vision is supposed to look like for the Church as the Body. How will it challenge us? How will we know we are seeing it? When we are uncomfortable? Suffering? Changed?

* a call to John Lewis-type bold action. If we aren’t struggling, uncomfortable, suffering, or continually surprised, are we doing it right?

 

SECOND THOUGHTS
Brand Spanking New
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Corinthians 5:6-17

So if anyone is in Christ there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! -- 2 Corinthians 5:17
           
In his second letter to the Corinthian Christians, Paul speaks about what it means to be a Christian in terms of transformation. When we receive the grace of God as it comes to us in Jesus Christ, that grace transforms us, changes us, re-creates us into a new person.

Of course, we are the same old person on the outside. But our hearts are transformed -- and by our hearts, we mean our brains. We see things -- the world, other people, ourselves -- differently than we have ever seen them before. We see them not through our own eyes but through the eyes of Christ.

In his sermon “You Are Accepted,” Paul Tillich speaks of what it means to be struck by God’s grace. In one paragraph, he explains the impact which that grace event has upon our relationships with others:

In the light of this grace we perceive the power of grace in our relation to others and to ourselves. We experience the grace of being able to look frankly into the eyes of another, the miraculous grace of reunion of life with life. We experience the grace of understanding each other’s words. We understand not merely the literal meaning of the words, but also that which lies behind them, even when they are harsh or angry. For even then there is a longing to break through the walls of separation. We experience the grace of being able to accept the life of another, even if it be hostile and harmful to us, for, through grace, we know that it belongs to the same Ground to which we belong, and by which we have been accepted.

We are transformed by grace, and then our ways of seeing and relating to other people are transformed as well.

The preacher who decides to make this the subject of a sermon or homily, however, must do so with an understanding that our contemporary culture does not understand transformation as Paul does. When Paul says that “everything old has passed away” and “everything has become new,” he’s talking about inner transformation.

So busy is our culture dealing with outer transformation that the inner kind is hardly on their mental map.

A New Body
Of course, the most predominant current example of what our culture views as transformation is that of Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn Jenner.          

Bruce had the backing of the E! cable network and Vanity Fair magazine. He was and she is a savvy manipulator of pop media. 

It has been said that with Bruce’s money, E!’s support, and Vanity Fair’s army of makeup artists, hair stylists, and clothing designers, as well as Annie Leibovitz’s photographic skills, just about anyone could be made to look like a beautiful woman.

And, let’s be honest, transgender stories are hardly revolutionary any more. The Amazon original series Transparent, about a father who comes out to his family as a transgender woman, won two Golden Globe awards last year and is now in its second year of production. Hedwig and the Angry Inch has been playing on stages around the world just about continuously for the last decade, and won the Tony award for best revival of a musical in 2014. The movie To Wong Foo..., which features two drag queens and a transgender female in a hilarious and outrageous comedy, debuted in American movie houses in 1995.

Sexual reassignment surgery has been around for a long time. Christine Jorgensen had her surgery in Denmark in 1952, and after being outed almost immediately after the surgery became a strong advocate for the rights of transgender people. Former tennis pro Renée Richards, another famous transgender female, had reassignment surgery in 1975 and successfully fought to have transgender people recognized in their new sex. The first male-to-female surgeries in the United States took place in 1966 at the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center.

So the real news story is not that Bruce Jenner has transitioned into a woman, but that Bruce Jenner, formerly the greatest male athlete in the world, has transitioned into a woman.

And the question that Paul would ask would seem to be, “Yeah, but what about her heart? What about her mind? What about her soul? Has any transition taken place there? And more importantly, has any transformation taken place there?”

The Washington Post isn’t waiting for the apostle Paul to ask that question -- writer Jannell Ross asked it on June 2. In a piece titled “Is Caitlyn Jenner still a Republican? And is that even fair to ask?” she echoes Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who tweeted the inquiry “Bruce #Jenner came out as a Republican last April. Well, is #CaitlynJenner a Republican too?”

A New Public Image
In another news story from last week, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson rejoined the team for off-season workouts after being suspended last September when he was indicted by a grand jury on charges of “reckless or negligent injury to a child.” The charges came as a result of the 6’1”, 217-pound Peterson whipping his 4-year-old son with a tree branch, hard enough to cause bleeding welts on the child’s buttocks and legs.

In November the prosecutor dropped the charge to a misdemeanor in a plea deal with Peterson, who paid a $4,000 fine as well as agreeing to do 80 hours of community service in the form of a public service announcement and attend parenting classes. Peterson, who will be on probation for two years, continued to receive his $14 million per year salary throughout his suspension from the Vikings.

After a contentious few months wherein Peterson expressed that he was not adequately supported by the Vikings or the NFL during his difficulties, he returned to the team. At a press conference he worked mightily to convince his fans and the NFL that he had learned his lesson and become a new person. Last November he expressed that lesson by reassuring everyone that he “won’t ever use a switch again.” One wonders about the depth of the transformation, however, if he thinks it is really about what kind of weapon he chooses to beat his child with.

Peterson closed the press conference last week by saying, “I love all my kids with all my heart. I’d run through a brick wall for them. I’d step in front of a car for them.” The “all my kids” he’s referring to are the six children he has fathered... with six different women.

A New Soul
The phrase “brand new” is so old no one is sure where it comes from, but etymologists have made some educated guesses.

Most likely, the “brand” being used here is from the German word meaning “fire.” The phrase, then, probably comes from the work of metalsmiths. When they produced a thing that was “brand new” it meant that the item was straight from the fire, having never been used or even touched by human hands.

The word “spanking” was added sometime in the 1800s, when it meant more than to hit with the open hand. It also meant “exceptionally large or fine.” So a thing that was spanking was of very high quality. To describe a thing as “brand spanking new” meant that it was of very fine quality and never before used or even touched by human hands except in the making of it.

Paul allows that, by grace, we are made brand spanking new. Not in our appearance, though grace may have an effect on appearance. Not in our public image, though grace may at some point be reflected in our public image. Not in our intelligence, or our finances, or our station in life.

No, the part of us that will be transformed -- made new -- by grace will be our soul... that core at the center of our being which guides us, directs us, and leads us back toward the Ground of our Being, and toward each other.

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

From team member Mary Austin:

Mark 4:26-34
Seeds of the Future
The typical image of a farmer is a guy in work boots on a tractor, but according to a recent article a third of farmland in Iowa is now owned by women over 65. Experts suggest that the seeds of future conservation may be best planted with these women, many of whom don’t have farming experience. In an interesting twist, “so many older women are inheriting farms that some experts believe training them in land conservation may be our society’s best defense against Dust Bowls of the future.” 

Planting knowledge about soil safety, the environment, and conservation is a nonprofit group called the Women, Food, and Agriculture Network, which reaches out to women “through a program called Women Caring for the Land. More than 2,000 women have participated in the program, which piloted in 2008. The typical participant is a woman over 65 years old who owns farmland but has never worked in the fields. Many have inherited their land and are suddenly tasked with managing it; although some have been farm wives, most were left out of the decision-making process.” 

Along with knowledge, the group is also growing a sense of empowerment in the landowners. “Women Caring for the Land operates in seven Midwestern states -- Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin -- and 70 percent of its participants have so far made improvements on a total of about 50,000 acres. These include direct changes to land management, like planting cover crops, installing buffer strips, taking land that borders a river out of cultivation, restoring wetlands, and planting native wildflowers for pollinator habitat.... Women Caring for the Land meetings are held in the style of a peer-to-peer learning circle, where each participant tells the story of her farmland, her goals, and her dreams for the land. ‘There’s a lot of emotions in these meetings because it’s the first time a lot of them have been in an environment where they can ask questions or share their stories... because they feel disenfranchised,’ says Lynn Heuss, program coordinator for the Women, Food, and Agriculture Network.” 

The seeds of future growth are growing with unlikely new farmers. 

*****

Mark 4:26-34
Who Keeps the Seeds?
Seeds are not just an agricultural resource, but also a cultural one. Diverse stocks of seeds allow people to grow traditional crops, but they have grown scarce in this era of pest-resistant, drought-resistant super seeds. Dr. Vanaja Ramprasad is working with people in India to conserve seeds and farming methods, and to practice conservation. This happens through the “GREEN Foundation, a community-based organization that has been working to promote conservation of indigenous seeds, agro-biodiversity, and ecological farming practices. GREEN works with small and marginalized farmers, including indigenous people and marginalized lower castes, in semi-arid regions of Karnataka and helps them set up community-managed seed banks.” 

Ramprasad, the founder of GREEN, says, “When we began talking to the farmers, we realized that traditional varieties of seeds had almost disappeared. Without seeds what we were attempting to do would be a non-starter.” 

An article in Earth Island Journal notes that “Traditionally, women farmers are the primary seed-keepers in India. Women are also significant food producers in the country, but sadly, they are not recognized as farmers and have to struggle to access land rights, information, and credit. Ramprasad set up GREEN Foundation in 1996 with five women farmers and a handful of indigenous seeds. The women’s knowledge of seed saving, mixed farming, and natural farming is vast, Ramprasad says. She shares an example of an elderly woman farmer, who identified nearly 80 varieties of greens in her field, as well as their uses for medicinal and nutrition needs. ‘Her knowledge was phenomenal,’ Ramprasad says. ‘When it comes to food security, women play a key role in identifying food that is available. In lean seasons, they trek to the nearby forests, and they are able to identify roots and tubers for their food requirements and medicinal plants.’ ”

Seeds are powerful tools. 

*****

2 Corinthians 5:6-17
The Way Stories Transform Us
We are beings made for transformation -- always waiting for the right impulse to make us into a new creation. One vehicle for our transformation is stories. As Elizabeth Svoboda writes: “The careers of many great novelists and filmmakers are built on the assumption, conscious or not, that stories can motivate us to re-evaluate the world and our place in it. New research is lending texture and credence to what generations of storytellers have known in their bones -- that books, poems, movies, and real-life stories can affect the way we think and even, by extension, the way we act.... Our storytelling ability, a uniquely human trait, has been with us nearly as long as we’ve been able to speak. Whether it evolved for a particular purpose or was simply an outgrowth of our explosion in cognitive development, story is an inextricable part of our DNA. Across time and across cultures, stories have proved their worth not just as works of art or entertaining asides, but as agents of personal transformation.” 

Now scientists are looking at how the process works. As Svoboda says, “for thousands of years, we’ve known intuitively that stories alter our thinking and, in turn, the way we engage with the world. But only recently has research begun to shed light on how this transformation takes place from inside. Using modern technology like functional MRI (fMRI) scanning, scientists are tackling age-old questions: What kind of effect do powerful narratives really have on our brains?” With fMRI imaging researchers can see that “when the speaker’s brain lit up in the area of the insula -- a region that governs empathy and moral sensibilities -- the listeners’ insulae lit up too.” Both showed similar activity in other areas too, showing that stories help our brains work in parallel with others. 

We take in stories in the same way we do lived experience, which can strengthen virtues. Hearing a story, our “gut-level empathetic story response... can inspire people to behave differently in the real world.” It’s as if the story happened to us, and we can transform our behavior accordingly. The right stories can shape us into new people, making us a new creation in the image of the words we hear -- and the Word we follow. 

*****

2 Corinthians 5:6-17
America as a New Creation
In an interview with Yes! magazine, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter and co-author, the Rev. Mpho Tutu, were asked how America could heal itself after a series of shootings of young black men by police officers. Desmond Tutu began, as he often does, with the concept of Ubuntu, saying “Ubuntu speaks about how we need each other. God, quite deliberately, has made us beings that are incomplete without the other. No one is self-sufficient.” This kind of mutual completion allows both sides of a conflict to be transformed. Tutu adds, “People who had been ill-treated, subjugated, instead of seeking revenge, were ready to speak about reconciliation, forgiveness. Of course, they were given a wonderful example by the magnanimity of a Nelson Mandela, who came out of prison not spitting blood and fire, but saying we need to understand the other person and we need to forgive. And our country was saved from devastation by this willingness to understand and to forgive. And it’s not a one-way thing -- the generosity of spirit from one side provokes a response in kind from the other side. People wondered when they saw the caterpillar that had been South Africa -- repulsive -- turning into a gorgeous, beautiful butterfly.” 

From his experience with South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Tutu says he learned that “all of us have the capacity for the greatest possible evil. All of us! None of us can predict that under certain circumstances we would not be guilty of the most horrendous atrocities and cruelty. That is why, when they said in the newspapers that someone was a monster, I kept saying, ‘No. That person carried out monstrous acts.’ That person can change. And yes, it taught me that human nature can plumb the worst possible depths, and race has got nothing to do with it. And human nature can also scale the highest heights of nobility, and again, race is not a determinant factor.” 

In community, the possibility of a new creation can come to life for anyone who seeks it and is willing to work for it. 

*****

2 Corinthians 5:6-17
The New Creation is Going to be Slow
Author Birju Pandya advises in a Huffington Post column that real transformation is much slower, and more difficult to assess, than we think. He writes: “Real change cannot be traditionally measured: We are a society that believes strongly in measurable cause and effect. However, the world doesn’t work that way -- each result is born of millions of conscious and unconscious acts. Similarly, each action leads to millions of results. Why measure that complexity? Wouldn’t it make more sense to simply keep track of the root, which is the intention that people are cultivating?” 

In that vein, he tells a story about a friend of his who promoted change with a gift of free computers. He gave away the computers in what he called a “karma auction,” where “you bid in this auction [not] by offering money, but by sharing how you’d use the computer to help others. The most impactful plans win. This is a wonderful idea, but to me the most intriguing element of it is how each person in the chain must cultivate ‘other-orientation’ as part of the exercise. The process rewires everyone’s brain just a little towards humility, empathy, openness, helpfulness. Each computer must have generated hundreds of similar ripples, all because the intention from the beginning was other-oriented.” 

Pandya adds the following ideas: Real change requires patience and Real change is never complete. 

If we’re becoming a new creation we don’t lose heart, as Paul says, because it’s slow work. 

***************

From team member Ron Love:

Mark 4:26-34
Many people question if invading Iraq and Afghanistan was the right or wrong decision. Gen. John Kelly of the United States Marine Corps often asked himself that question, especially after his son, Marine 2nd Lt. Robert Kelly, was killed in Afghanistan. At the past Memorial Day service, the general said he quit asking himself that question when he realized that the only answer was that his son thought it was important enough to be there. Kelly said, “He had decided it was important enough to be where he was that morning in Sangin River Valley, Afghanistan, to be doing what he was doing that morning.... Was it worth his life? It’s not for me to say.”

Application: Faith means that we always do not understand.

*****

Mark 4:26-34
At a recent Google stockholders meeting, the participants were once again told that they should expect a low return on their investments. This is because the company’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are interested in computing power that will “create the technology that allows people to lead healthier, happier lives.” This is why they pursue programs that they describe as “moonshots,” such as robotics and a self-driving car.

Application: Faith believes in the impossible. It believes in moonshots.

*****

Mark 4:26-34
Jean Ritchie recently died. Known for bringing public awareness to Appalachian folk music, the Kentucky native was an inspiration to many folksingers that followed in her footsteps. She once described folk music “as a river that never stopped flowing. Sometimes a few people go to it and sometimes a lot of people do. But it’s always there.”

Application: Faith is an ever-present river in our lives.

*****

1 Samuel 15:34--16:13
As the presidential campaign season begins, many candidates will vilify those who are wealthy in order to win votes from middle- and lower-class voters. Leon Cooperman, a billionaire and founder of Omega Advisors, speaks out against this trend. Instead, he says billionaires ought to be seen as examples of hard work. Raised by immigrant parents in the Bronx, he became a true “American dream” story. Cooperman says, “I think that my life should be used as an example to these youngsters of what could be achieved.”

Application: God is able to see the attributes of an individual.

***************

From team member Robin Lostetter:

1 Samuel 15:34--16:13
Seeing As God Sees?
The Bette Midler song “From a Distance” singles out one aspect of God: transcendence. Since its release in 1990, the song has been used by youth groups and others without recognizing its limitation to that one aspect. However, it does recognize [the singer’s] desire to view the world through God’s eyes.

From a distance the world looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
and the eagle takes to flight.

From a distance, there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
It’s the voice of hope, it’s the voice of peace,
it’s the voice of every man.

From a distance we all have enough,
and no one is in need.
And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease,
no hungry mouths to feed.

From a distance we are instruments
marching in a common band.
Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace.
They're the songs of every man.
God is watching us. God is watching us.
God is watching us from a distance.

From a distance you look like my friend,
even though we are at war.
From a distance I just cannot comprehend
what all this fighting is for.

From a distance there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
And it’s the hope of hopes, it’s the love of loves,
it’s the heart of every man.

It’s the hope of hopes, it’s the love of loves.
This is the song of every man.
And God is watching us, God is watching us,
God is watching us from a distance.
Oh, God is watching us, God is watching.
God is watching us from a distance.

In addition, the seeds of a vision of what “might be” or “should be” are found in the two stanzas in bold italics above. The words of these two stanzas (and “the love of loves”) go beyond the telescopic material view of the creation (first stanza) to touch on the text of 1 Samuel 16:7b: “the Lord looks on the heart." 

Perhaps this song can help achieve the transformational vision John Lewis, former civil rights leader and current congressman, describes: “If you visualize it, if you can even have faith that it’s there, for you it is already there.” Thus, if we have faith and can see God’s kingdom -- to look at the world as God sees it -- then it is already real... we just need to work on spreading the vision.

*****

1 Samuel 15:34--16:13
The Height of Presidential Politics

But the Lord said to Samuel, “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

As one Immediate Word colleague observed: “God has a different vision and gently chides Samuel for judging by worldly standards (he apparently hasn’t seen the data about the importance of height to presidential candidates).”

One source of this data is Physical Attractiveness Bias in Hiring: What Is Beautiful Is Goodby Comila Shahani-Denning, an associate professor of psychology at Hofstra University. Shahani-Denning states: “Attractiveness biases have been demonstrated in such different areas as teacher judgments of students (Clifford, M., & Walster, E. [1973]. The effect of physical attractiveness on teacher evaluation. Sociology of Education, 46, 248), voter preferences for political candidates (Efran, M. G., & Patterson, E. [1974]. Voters vote beautiful: The effect of physical appearance on a national debate. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 6, 352-356.), and jury judgments in simulated trials (Efran, M. G. [1974]. The effect of physical appearance on the judgment of guilt, interpersonal attraction, and severity of recommended punishment in a simulated jury task. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 8, 45-54.).”

 

WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed

Call to Worship
Leader: God answer us in the day of trouble!
People: The name of the God of Jacob protect us!
Leader: May God send help from the sanctuary, and give support from Zion.
People: May God remember all your offerings and sacrifices.
Leader: Now I know that God will help the anointed.
People: God will answer from holy heaven.

OR

Leader: We are invited into the very presence of God.
People: We gather with joy to worship the glory of our God.
Leader: God invites us to open our lives to the Spirit.
People: We welcome the Spirit of God into our hearts and minds.
Leader: God invites us to see all creation with new eyes.
People: We pray that we may learn to see as God sees.

Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Open My Eyes, That I May See”
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285

“Be Thou My Vision”
found in:
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELA: 793
W&P: 502
AMEC: 281
STLT: 20
Renew: 151

“Seek Ye First”
found in:
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 354
W&P: 349
CCB: 76

“If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee”
found in:
UMH: 142
H82: 635
PH: 282
NCH: 410
LBW: 453
ELA: 769
W&P: 429

“Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies”
found in:
UMH: 173
H82: 6, 7
PH: 462, 463
LBW: 265
ELA: 553
W&P: 91

“Rise, Shine, You People”
found in:
UMH: 187
LBW: 393
ELA: 665
W&P: 89

“Let There Be Light”
found in:
UMH: 440
NNBH: 450
NCH: 589
STLT: 142

“Trust and Obey”
found in:
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377

“Open Our Eyes, Lord”
found in:
CCB: 77
Renew: 91

“Change My Heart, O God”
found in:
CCB: 56
Renew: 143

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

Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who sees all things in the fullness of their being and potential: Grant us the vision to see as you see so that we might help others rise to the fullness for which you created them; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

OR

We praise you, O God, for the fullness of your vision. You look at your creation and see not only what is but what can be. Help us to be so drawn to you that we are able to see as you see. Help us to reach out to others so that they may be what they were created to be. Amen.

Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to see as God sees.

People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You created us in your image and made us stewards to look after all creation in your name. But we have forsaken our duty to look after the world as you would look after it. We have substituted our judgment of what is good and right instead of looking with your eyes. Whether it is the physical world around us or other people, we judge by what seems important to us. Often we judge by what seems important for us. People and things that have value for us are valuable, while those that do not aren’t. What foolish, silly people we are. You have taught us what is good and right. Call us back to your ways, O God, that we may see aright. Amen.

Leader: God loves and values all of us, even when fail to live in the light that God sends us. Know God’s love and forgiveness in your life, and allow the Spirit to correct your vision.

Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you know us completely and love us unconditionally. 

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

We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You created us in your image and made us stewards to look after all creation in your name. But we have forsaken our duty to look after the world as you would look after it. We have substituted our judgment of what is good and right instead of looking with your eyes. Whether it is the physical world around us or other people, we judge by what seems important to us. Often we judge by what seems important for us. People and things that have value for us are valuable, while those that do not aren’t. What foolish, silly people we are. You have taught us what is good and right. Call us back to your ways, O God, that we may see aright.

We thank you for the ways in which you teach us to see with your eyes and love with your Spirit. We thank you for those who have been faithful and have loved us in your name. 

(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)

We pray for your world as it languishes in brokenness and sin. As you call all your creation and all your creatures to wholeness, help us to be part of your work. 

(Other intercessions may be offered.)

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

(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)

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

Children’s Sermon Starter
Show the children some of the optical illusions that abound on the internet. (Some where you can see one picture or another would work great.) Ask them what they see. If they see different things, ask if they can see what the other person saw. If they all see the same thing, invite them to see the other figure. We don’t all see the same things. We look at the outside, but God looks at the heart. 

 

CHILDREN’S SERMON
The Curious Tale of Citrullus lanatus
by Chris Keating
Mark 4:26-34

Items needed:
cups of cubed seedless watermelon and napkins (optional)
a packet of watermelon seeds
printed copies of the scripture lesson (NRSV is good, but the children may also enjoy the paraphrase in The Message)
           
If I asked you if you would try a bite of Citrullus lanatus, would you say yes?

You probably have never heard it called by that name, but I imagine you have heard of watermelon before! The Latin name of watermelon is Citrullus lanatus. Of course, I had to look that up before today so you do not need to be terribly impressed.

I’ve brought some cups of watermelon if you’d like to have some today. As we share this tasty snack, I want to tell you a story about the time a watermelon grew up on the crack of a church’s driveway.

Many years ago, a church hosted a children’s camp. Each day of the week the children would come and enjoy learning a new sport or game. It was a fun week, and the kids worked so hard learning new things that the camp leaders decided to let them have watermelon as a special treat on Friday. One of the leaders came up with an idea. He said, “Since we have been playing games all week, we should turn the watermelon eating into a game too.” He came up with something that was a bit crazy, and something no one had ever done in church before. He told the children, “We are going to go outside in the driveway and have a watermelon seed spitting contest!” They thought he was out of his mind. Can you imagine doing that at church? Neither could the pastor! He thought it was not only a bit crazy, but also sort of gross too. He wondered what the church leaders would say! But the camp leader told the pastor everything would be just fine.

And this is what happened: the camp leader lined up the boys and girls by age and had them take a bit of watermelon. He told them, “Don’t swallow the seeds, but wait for my instructions.” He counted loudly “on you mark, get set, SPIT!” Everyone cheered for the camper whose seed traveled the furthest.

Then the campers laughed and had a good time. But that’s not the point of my story today. Did you notice that I gave you seedless watermelon? Spitting seeds inside the church may not be such a great idea. But let me tell you what happened next.

Weeks went by, and then a month. Then in the middle of August, the pastor noticed something growing in the driveway. It looked like a weed and he was tempted to pull it out. But then he looked closer -- guess what? It was a watermelon plant! Someone’s seed had landed in a little crack of dirt, and that seed had started to grow!

That day the pastor decided God had really wanted that watermelon plant to grow, so he left it alone. How did that seed get there? Well, we can guess! But no one saw it. No one watered it. No one took care of it. It just found a place to grow. The vine grew and grew and became quite long -- and while it didn’t produce any fruit, everyone in the church still remembers the time a watermelon grew at church.

In our scripture today, Jesus talked about the power of seeds. Can you read it with me? (Pass out cards with scripture printed on them.) Jesus told the disciples that God’s kingdom is sort of like a tiny mustard seed. A mustard seed is much smaller than a watermelon seed. But when it is planted, it grows and grows and grows. Jesus said that this is how God’s love grows in the world -- it finds a place, just like a tiny seed, and then it grows and grows and grows. We don’t know how it grows, and we can’t always see it growing. But we have faith, and we can trust God is at work even though we cannot see it.

Prayer: Let’s pray: O God, we thank you for the ways your love grows. We thank you that even when we cannot see what you are doing, you are at work. Help us to remember the gift of the watermelon seed, and encourage us to plant seeds of love, hope, and faith wherever we go. Amen.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * 


The Immediate Word, June 14, 2015, issue.

Copyright 2015 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.