Like A Shepherd, Lead Us
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
On this final Sunday of the church year, all of the lectionary readings address the reign of Christ and his kingship of the church. But as team member Dean Feldmeyer discusses in this installment of The Immediate Word, what that entails is outlined in imagery very different from the autocratic ruler we usually conceive of when we hear the word “king.” Kings whose power is administered by fiat are a creation of the secular world; but in God’s kingdom, the prophet Jeremiah tells us, authority is characterized more by that of a shepherd -- one whose sheep have been scattered throughout the pasture, and who gathers the flock together and safely returns them to the fold. Dean suggests that’s apt imagery to keep in mind as we ponder the election results and anticipate what sort of leadership to expect from the incoming administration. There has been a great deal of heated rhetoric during the long campaign, and deep divisions still remain. But as Dean points out, if our leaders emulate the governing style of Christ rather than pushing for every possible partisan advantage, they will focus more on bringing together the scattered electorate into a common fold -- allowing us to, as Jeremiah puts it, “be fruitful and multiply.”
Team member Robin Lostetter shares some additional thoughts on how we might reconcile ourselves together in the wake of the divisive campaign. She suggests that listening and having respect for those we consider the “other” is the first imperative -- even if we consider them unworthy. To do so is to follow the example that Jesus set on the cross in this week’s gospel text -- listening and responding to the request by one of the criminals being crucified alongside him to be remembered. Rather than rejecting him, Jesus welcomes him into paradise. And the cross, Robin notes, can be a transformative symbol in this regard. She also lifts up poetry and prayer as useful means for breaking through hardened hearts that are resistant to the “other.”
Like a Shepherd, Lead Us
by Dean Feldmeyer
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Ten or so days after the presidential election, things have begun to settle and even out. What seemed hot in its immediate aftermath is warm today. What seemed frozen last Wednesday is merely cool today. Protesters have had their say and made their voices heard. Just about everyone on both sides of the aisle has settled into “cross your fingers and wait and see” mode. And all of this is in large part due to the conciliatory speeches spoken by both candidates after the votes had been counted.
In his victory speech, Donald Trump said: “Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division -- have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”
Will the Democrats buy it? Only if they are willing to forgive and forget, let bygones be bygones. It was Republicans, they will recall, who vowed together on the night of President Obama’s inauguration to fight and sabotage his every attempt to govern, regardless of the merits. And it was the president-elect who spent five years insisting that Obama wasn’t even an American. If Democrats follow the example from the other side of the aisle, we’ll be in for another four years of gridlock.
However, “in a concession speech, defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton said her party needs to accept the election of Trump, adding that ‘we owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.’ ” So what will it be?
We know that Donald Trump is a brilliant campaigner. His win on election day stunned the pollsters and surprised the oddsmakers. But will he govern as brilliantly as he campaigned? His supporters say he will, but what does brilliant governance and effective leadership look like?
The prophet, Jeremiah, has a few ideas on that score. So, as people of faith, it is to him that we will turn this Sunday. But first, a few contextual considerations.
In the News
For about three days after the election, all the talk on news programs was about how Donald Trump managed to beat all the odds and surprise all of the talking heads and actually win the presidential election.
I mean, how could this happen?
True, PolitiFact rated only 50% of Hillary Clinton’s utterances as true or mostly true. But they rated President-elect Trump at a mere 15% “true” or “mostly true,” while 70% of his statements were “mostly false,” “false,” or “pants on fire.”
A Rasmussen Reports poll taken in late September showed that 94% of her supporters and 46% of the general population believed Hillary Clinton was qualified for the job of president, while only 35% of the general population and 76% of his own supporters thought that Donald Trump was qualified. 24% of his own supporters thought he wasn’t qualified for the job.
Everyone was scrambling for answers to the question “How did this happen?” And there was no shortage of responses. Articles that began “___ Reasons Why Trump Won” abounded. The Fiscal Times and the BBC had five reasons. YourStory.com had seven. Matt Rothschild had ten reasons, as did a Baltimore Sun reader. Cyber-breeze.com had “ten HUGE reasons.” Political writer Ari Armstrong offered 12 reasons, the Washington Post gave 13, and CNN offered a grand total of 24 reasons why Donald Trump won the presidential election.
The answer, in retrospect, was that (a) Donald Trump was a brilliant campaigner who appealed to the right people in the right states, and (b) when the country is clamoring for change, being a former first lady, senator, and secretary of state tend to identify you as part of the very established order that people want to change.
The number one reason people gave for voting for Donald Trump is that they wanted real, substantive change in Washington, and they thought he was the most likely person to bring it.
Now, however, it is hard to find anyone who still wants to talk about how Trump won the election. Now what we get most of is speculation about how he will govern.
Who’s on the short list for this cabinet position and that advisor position? And what about all the promises the president-elect has made? Is he really under a mandate when fewer than half of the voters voted for him and the popular vote favored his opponent?
Will he build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border? Will he expel 11 million undocumented residents from other countries? Will he rip health insurance out of the hands of 22 million people by encouraging Congress to pull the plug on the Affordable Health Care Act? Will he concentrate most of his efforts at dismantling and destroying and savaging Barack Obama’s legacy even as he talks about uniting the country?
Will he renege on our country’s promises to those countries in the Middle East that are trying to keep ISIS and the Taliban at bay and out of our backyard?
Will he really be able to cut my income taxes by as much as 35%? (His mouth to God’s ears!) And fix all of our infrastructure problems? Our bridges? Our streets? Our tunnels? Our highways? And make them second to none? And where will the money come from if he cuts taxes as deeply as he says he will? And what will he do to or about Social Security, or Medicare, or Medicaid?
These questions loom large. They are not just the idle utterances of habitual naysayers.
Just how will he get all this done? How will he govern? How will he lead? As we said, scripture is not silent on this score. It may not provide us with specific answers to specific problems. No one had ever considered anything remotely like automobiles, freeways, power grids, too-big-to-fail corporations, cyberwar, and Roe v. Wade back in those days. But there are some broad ideas, some general rules, and here and there a metaphor worth considering.
In the Scriptures
Contemporary scholars of the Hebrew scriptures believe that this week’s passage from Jeremiah contains excerpts from two prose sermons that were preached by the prophet concerning the lackluster and even immoral reigns of several kings. (The next passage, 23:9-40, deals with the lackluster performances of the prophets.)
Kings do not stand alone under the withering gaze and the accusing eye of the prophet. The entire court -- the advisors, the enforcers, the assisters of the king -- all fall under this judgment.
The first excerpt is found in verses 1-4.
The blame for the Babylonian exile, says Jeremiah, falls upon the political leaders of Judah, the kings and their courts. It is they, not YHWH, who have scattered the flock by their lack of righteousness and their disregard for justice.
Hear scholar Patrick D. Miller’s assessment of this passage: “Visions of the kingdom of God can function on a very spiritual plane, remote from the realities of human community. The Old Testament, however, persistently insists on that vision’s centering in justice and regularly sets the criterion for determining whether justice is present in the way one treats the weakest members of the community, the powerless and the marginalized, the economically depressed, and the vulnerable. The judicial structures, including the appeal to the king, are the locus of justice, but the content of it rests in the treatment of the weak” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VI, p. 745).
In the second except (vv. 5-6) Jeremiah reminds the people that the Babylonian exile of the leaders of Judah is not an ending but a beginning. It’s not over. God will, in time, set things right again -- but God is not going to start with the king of Babylon. God will start their reclamation project with a new king for Judah. The new king will not come from the family of Jahoiakim, who squandered the power of the monarchy with self-aggrandizement and fancy palaces while he ignored the plight of the weak. No, God is going to raise up a new branch from the family of David, a righteous king who will rule with justice and equanimity.
And we shall know that the king is ruling with God’s blessing, with wisdom and justice and righteousness, because we shall see that the people feel safe -- that they do not live in a state of constant worry, and they hurry to come home and are not scattered abroad.
In the Sermon
To be sure, Jeremiah was talking about kings. So our first impulse might be to dismiss what he says as inapplicable to life in our 21st-century American republic. But when we look closer we realize that his insistence upon wisdom, righteousness, and justice applies to every generation of leaders in every seat of leadership.
And the metaphor he lands upon to drive his point home is the metaphor of the shepherd -- again, a symbol that speaks to our contemporary world only after some considerable translation and interpretation.
We don’t know many shepherds. We don’t see them on the hillside on our way to work or home each day, so they aren’t ready-made symbols for us as they were for Jeremiah. Just a little bit of reading, however, can discover meaning in what might otherwise be an archaic comparison.
The good leader, the good king, the good president, the good CEO, the good principal or foreman or office manager in our country leads like a shepherd.
And what does the shepherd do? The shepherd’s leadership is built upon the trust of the flock. They know the shepherd’s voice and they follow, because following this shepherd has always paid off for them in terms of safety and well-being.
The good shepherd leads from the front with the trusting and dependent sheep following after. The shepherd keeps the sheep safe by leading them from rushing water to still water and guarding them from wild beasts that threaten their lives.
The good shepherd binds up the wounded and the injured, nurses the weak, mothers the orphan, and gathers in the lost and the estranged. The good shepherd knows that every single sheep is valuable, and will, if necessary, place his own life in harm’s way for the sake of the flock.
For Jeremiah, this shepherd metaphor is not applied only to the king but to everyone in the king’s court, every person who participates in the political leadership of the country. And it applies not only to individual persons who rule but also to entire countries and classes of people who seek to lead the world.
“There is no indication in these texts that the fundamental matters in ruling the human community under God’s direction and by God’s instruction have anything to do with more or less government intervention,” says Patrick Miller. “They have to do with whether or not that government attends to the security of the country by tending to the cause of the poor and the needy. This was the plumb line that Amos set in the middle of the northern kingdom that found it wanting. It was always the plumb line by which the Lord measures a people and the degree to which they embody the righteous rule that is the Lord’s will and way for human life” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VI, p. 746).
Wisdom, righteousness, justice. These are the three things that guide the leadership of the good shepherd, and these are the biblical principles, the plumb lines by which Donald Trump and every other president or political leader of the United States will be measured.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Poetry and Understanding
by Robin Lostetter
Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43
How are we to go about bringing people back together, after the divisive campaign and election in our country? We’ve had some time to think about that, and to weigh the many voices that have contributed their thoughts. The wise majority have said we need to listen.
From a friend, Dave Wilton: “My take on what happened is that both political parties were blindsided by a populist movement that no one in either party establishment has truly recognized.”
From the left, Trent Lapinski wrote: “I took it upon myself to understand Trump, and his supporters. What I found was millions of great Americans who had been disenfranchised, normal people like you and I, who did not recover from the Great Recession. They’re pissed off about Obamacare, endless wars, trade deals that have killed jobs, higher taxes, a rigged economy -- and they are not wrong.”
And from a much-softened Glenn Beck, we read these words from the right: “From the swelling ranks of the frustrated, disenfranchised, unemployed, and scared, the Tea Party sprouted. The media made Occupy Wall Street into heroes, while the Tea Party was called a bunch of dangerous hicks. I don’t think any of us truly understood what was fermenting around us.... I read a perfect election summation: The people who were against Mr. Trump took him literally but not seriously. His supporters took him seriously but not literally. It is the same pattern of 2000 and 2008. We heard President Obama was coming for our church and our guns. We were mocked. We thought those who laughed were lying or stupid. Yet, I still go to church, sometimes with a gun.”
Mr. Beck sums up the solution: “It does not matter if we do not understand one another’s feelings. What matters is that we at least hear them.”
But how to break through our various beliefs (right or wrong), fears, and anger to allow us to hear each other? I’m going to suggest two ways. One is liturgical, and the other is poetic.
Then the criminal on the cross said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).
These words, usually associated with our Good Friday liturgies, may help us find a way to begin to reach out to those we think of as “other” -- to redefine the radically excluded. For some that may mean the Muslim, gay, or immigrant. To others that may mean the gun advocate or climate-denier. In our epistle reading, we’re reminded that “through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20). Listening and hearing the frustration, disenfranchisement, and pain of our fellow citizens -- through the compassion stirred by the suffering of the cross -- may allow us to gain greater understanding.
Further, Jesus’ invitation and acceptance of the criminal on the cross may be the model for those of us who, from a position of white privilege, have some confessions to make and some repenting to do. There is a backlash from the soon-not-to-be-a-majority whites, who feel their power being taken away, that was fueled by the rhetoric of Mr. Trump’s campaign -- but also seemingly ignored by the wealthy establishment Democrats. Miguel De La Torre calls us to a more humble, justice-oriented listening and repentance: “I will not hold hands and sing ‘Kumbaya’ with white oppressors. Instead I ask all who seek justice, especially whites willing to repent of the sin of white privilege, to join me in solidarity as I choose to sing a different song.”
This is where the Christian cross needs to be transformative, erasing the image of the KKK’s burning cross with the invitational, confessional image of Jesus -- “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise” -- as we seek justice and the Reign of Christ here in this life. We are the ones to proclaim, to serve, to act in Christlike ways of patient listening and also persistent truth-telling when any are oppressed -- those who are disenfranchised as well as marginalized and vulnerable populations.
The plight of a similar symbol might serve as an illustration of how a sacred and positive symbol has been misappropriated and its original meaning is being asserted. The Hindu sathiyo is a symbol of good fortune and is used as a way of extending good wishes to visitors during the feast of Diwali. This year, Diwali occurred on October 30, so placing sathiyo stickers on doorways of Hindu-American households created some generational disagreements. You see, the sathiyo is a swastika, a form of which was appropriated by Hitler and would therefore be subject to misinterpretation by Halloween visitors to homes bearing Diwali decorations the same weekend as Halloween in 2016. Grandparents who see this symbol only as a sign of peace from their childhood years ended up explaining their desire to help transform the negative view of the swastika to the younger generations in their households, as explained by Parth Shah on NPR.
A second avenue for healing and listening is poetry, especially one of its particular forms -- prayer. It is a means for breaking through our hardened hearts. And so I share some of the pieces that have come my way this week:
grumbling
by Thom M. Shuman
And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and say,
“This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:2
just
as we are
about to dig into
the great feast,
you squeeze an extra
chair next to us, seating
the unshaven,
smelly,
tattered rough sleeper
we stepped over
after handing our car keys
to the valet.
“I’m sorry, most of all, to the suffering, disillusioned masses who feel that they were not getting the help they needed.” -- Colleen
“Kiss a Democrat. Hug a Republican. Give a Libertarian a reach-around. I don’t care. The election is over. You survived. Good night. And may God bless America.” -- Stephen Colbert
“O Lord our God, bless the leaders of our land, that we may be a people at peace among ourselves and a blessing to other nations of the earth.” -- The Book of Common Prayer
Be of good courage.
Hold fast to what is good.
Render to no one evil for evil.
Strengthen the faint-hearted; support the weak.
Help the suffering.
Honor all persons.
Love and serve the Lord,
Rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit. (Benediction)
“We pray for kindness among neighbors who disagree. We ask that our Muslim and immigrant neighbors be treated with respect.”
“I believe that God uses everything and God will use this election for good.”
“In the meantime, let’s all be gentle with each other. Some grieve and some celebrate. But all of us have a responsibility to love our neighbor as ourselves.” -- Jan Edmiston, Co-Moderator, Presbyterian Church (USA)
“May God bless America. Not because we deserve it, but because God is gracious beyond our imagination.” -- Rev. John Caster
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Jeremiah 23:1-6
After the 2016 election, there have been numerous articles and commentaries on how Donald Trump was chosen by voters to be the 45th President of the United States. One television news commentator noted that when you went to a Trump rally everyone was wearing apparel with the slogan “Make America Great Again,” and when you went to a Clinton rally everyone was wearing a shirt with the slogan “I’m With Her.” He summarized that Trump’s slogan gave people a message for the future, while Clinton’s slogan offered nothing in the way of the future.
Application: Jeremiah was trying to give his people a slogan to live for in the future.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
One television news commentator, discussing the results of the presidential election, noted that when you went to a Trump rally there was only one man standing on stage with thousands in the audience before him. On the other hand, when you went to a Clinton rally there were celebrities and musical groups on stage along with the candidate. The newsman concluded that you went to a Clinton rally for a show, but you went to a Trump rally to hear only the speaker. Trump did not need celebrities and bands to draw a crowd.
Application: Jeremiah stood as one man before a nation to deliver a message of inspiration.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
I read both the New York Times and the Washington Post cover to cover each day. Prior to the election, these two newspapers’ affirmation for Clinton and disdain for Trump was obvious. In fact, in all the decades I have been reading these two papers their bias was never so apparent. Constantly there were stories about how inept Trump was and how his campaign was ill-managed. But in the days after Trump was elected, both newspapers wrote about how brilliant Trump’s campaign style really was. I found it intriguing how, just overnight, two of the most significant newspapers in the world seemed to change their position 180 degrees. (Note: You may personalize this story by saying “a friend told me...”)
Application: Jeremiah was able to stay on message during his entire prophetic career, and he was not influenced by the changes in society.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Even though Donald Trump was elected president, that does not mean you have to agree with the election’s outcome. It also means that you do not have to apologize for the stance you took during the campaign season. President Barack Obama was a strong advocate and campaigner for Hillary Clinton. Days before the election Obama gave a speech at the University of Florida, trying to inspire people to vote for Clinton by outlining how important a presidential election is. To the university students and others present, Obama, making reference to reality television, said: “This isn’t a joke. This isn’t Survivor. This isn’t The Bachelorette. This counts.”
Application: Jeremiah was trying to get the people of Israel to try to understand just how serious their situation was.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
This presidential campaign may have been one of the most vicious in recent history, with both candidates equally at fault. When not overshadowed by lies or misrepresented facts, negative advertising and campaign speeches do have their place. Hillary Clinton, at one rally, responded to the local newspaper’s endorsement of Trump and his allegiance to the KKK. To counter this, Clinton said: “He has spent this entire campaign offering a dog whistle to his most hateful supporters.”
Application: Jeremiah was blowing on a dog whistle, but he was trying to call the Israelites to righteousness.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Prior to the 2016 presidential election, many black preachers were encouraging their parishioners to get out and vote. One of the most influential of these preachers was Rev. James Forbes, the former senior pastor of Riverside Church in New York City. Though Forbes did not mention it directly, it was clear that he was a Hillary Clinton supporter and that he opposed Donald Trump. In one sermon Forbes said, “These are very crucial times to a nation with so much anger, so much anxiety about the future. We must be very careful not to fall prey to the siren call of those who are peddlers of false hope, illusions, and lies.”
Application: Jeremiah in his message was careful to guard the truth and even more careful not to present any false statements. And Jeremiah, like all prophets before and after him, and like all preachers today regardless of the decade, preached in crucial times.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
In an article for the Washington Post, Edward McClelland wrote that “Donald Trump won the presidency by turning the Rust Belt red.” The Rust Belt was once the heart of United States’ manufacturing, with coal mines, steel mills, and manufacturing plants across Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. For many decades it was predominantly Catholic and Democratic, but with the loss of industry the political climate began to switch. According to McClelland, Trump was able to “promise to restore the glory days of building cars and pouring steel.” McClelland wrote that Trump “tapped into a still-strong nostalgia for a time when a young man could go straight from high school to an industrial job that paid enough to support a family.”
Application: Jeremiah offered the Israelites a future. It is questioned by many if Trump can deliver on his promise of the future; but Jeremiah, as a prophet from God, would deliver on his promise.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Jim Tankersley wrote an article for the Washington Post concluding that Donald Trump won the election on “the revenge of working-class whites.” Tankersley began his article by observing: “For the past 40 years, America’s economy has raked blue-collar white men over the coals.” These men felt “abandoned by a rapidly globalizing economy.” They also “expressed deep racial and cultural anxieties.” Trump prevailed with this demographic group because he “resorted to partisan talking points that the system is rigged against these workers.”
Application: Though some question how truthful and realistic Trump was, Jeremiah had the ability to address the various demographic groups before him with the established truth from God.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker wrote on how Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election. Parker titled her piece “What Clinton didn’t understand.” In Parker’s view, a major cause for the loss was that voters saw Clinton as just an extension of President Obama. So, in a sense, Obama was the reason for the lost election. This led to Parker’s biggest reason for Clinton’s loss: “Never a great candidate, she was also, tragically, a Clinton when people were ready to move on.” Hillary Clinton was too much associated with what was instead of what can be.
Application: Jeremiah was effective because he stood before the people as an independent voice that understood the past, the present, and the future.
*****
Luke 23:33-43
Three days before the presidential election, there was a political cartoon that depicted the two candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, in a mud pit surrounded by pigs. Both candidates, like the pigs, were completely covered in mud. There they stood, amid political signs poking up from the mud, as they continued to throw mud at each other. There was a couple standing near the mud pile, and the husband saying to his wife, “Just can’t decide who to vote for... They’re both so wonderful.”
Application: During the crucifixion of Jesus, a lot of mud was being thrown since no one really understood the truth of what was taking place. As Jesus was on the cross, the common thinking was that this was wonderful, instead of realizing that the crucifixion and resurrection is the true wonder.
***************
From team member Chris Keating:
Jeremiah 23:1-6
The Shepherd Speaks to the President-elect
Pope Francis has a suggestion for President-elect Donald Trump: don’t forget the poor. The pope’s comments seem to reinforce Jeremiah’s warnings to leaders about ignoring the needs of those they are appointed to tend.
The pope reiterated concern that nations -- much like Israel’s shepherds -- need to tend to those most often forgotten.
“I do not judge people or politicians,” the pope said in an interview with an Italian journalist. “I only want to understand what suffering their behavior causes to the poor and the excluded.” The pope asserted concern for refugees and immigrants who seek refuge in wealthier countries. He said his greatest worry is that wealthy countries will turn their backs on immigrants.
“We need to knock down the walls that divide us,” the pope said. “Try to boost well-being and make it more widespread, but in order to achieve this we need to knock down walls and build bridges that can lessen inequality and boost freedom and rights.... What we want is a fight against inequality, this is the biggest evil that exists in the world today. Money is what causes this, and it goes against measures that aim to even out well-being and thus favor equality.”
*****
Colossians 1:11-20
Leonard Cohen and the Power of Endurance
Canadian born songwriter and author Leonard Cohen died last week, just weeks after releasing his final album, You Want It Darker. Cohen, best known for his classic “Hallelujah,” had produced 14 albums in 50 years.
Cohen’s work blended themes of spirituality, sexuality, and soulful reflections on life. Endurance -- some might say gloom -- was often a key element in his music. The BBC called him the “high priest of pathos.”
The Washington Post’s Chris Richards noted:
Cohen’s roundabout spiritual journey has been well documented. He tried Kabbalah, Scientology, LSD, red wine, and five years in a Zen monastery on a California mountaintop. His nagging depression frequently bent his spiritual quest in difficult directions, just as his humor, vitality, lust, and grace bent his ballads in astonishing ones. Yet, along the way, his music became synonymous with gloom, which always felt like one of pop music’s pandemic misconceptions. Cohen’s quest was a serious one, but seriousness and misery are not the same thing.
Cohen’s provocative spirit infused his music with poetry and pragmatic spirituality -- and while he was not Christian, many of the themes of endurance in difficulty resonate with the hymn of faith in Colossians 1:11-20. As one critic reflected:
He was equally adept at addressing the flaws within us and our many weaknesses and defects. One of his most-quoted lines is from the song “Anthem,” which declares: “Ring the bells that still can ring / Forget your perfect offering / There is a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.”
In “Show Me the Place,” Cohen sang “Show me the place / where the word became a man / Show me the place / where the suffering began.”
In his later years, Cohen explored the light in the crack of everything after his business manager embezzled more than $5 million from him in 2006. In response Cohen hit the road, touring the world for more than 18 months to recoup the lost money. Not long before he died, Cohen remarked, “I am ready to die. I hope it’s not too uncomfortable. That’s about it for me.”
*****
Luke 23:33-43
Keeping Capital Punishment
Californians voted last week to legalize marijuana, yet thoroughly endorsed retaining capital punishment. Proposition 62, which would have repealed the death penalty, failed by a wide margin. One UCLA law professor suggested that fear played a role in how people voted.
“It’s a scary time,” said Sharon Dolovich. “When people are scared, that fear can manifest as a punitive impulse.”
Faith groups had pushed for repealing the death penalty, arguing that it is barbaric and inefficient at preventing crime.
In the face of fear, Jesus was executed between two thieves. Soldiers mocked him and cast lots for his clothing. As they were being crucified, one of the thieves crucified with Jesus cried out in fear, begging Jesus to save him. The other, however, simply prayed for Jesus to remember him. In response, Jesus addressed the man as if he too were royalty. “Truly I tell you,” said Jesus, “today you will be with me in Paradise.”
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God is our refuge and strength.
People: God is a very present help in trouble.
Leader: We will not fear though the earth should change.
People: We will not fear though the mountains shake.
Leader: God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved.
People: God will help it when the morning dawns.
OR
Leader: The Shepherd calls us, let us follow.
People: We hear the Shepherd’s voice and follow gladly.
Leader: Only in the Shepherd’s presence is there peace.
People: We will follow no one but our Shepherd.
Leader: Let us call to others to follow with us.
People: We will invite all to follow our Good Shepherd.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Crown Him with Many Crowns”
found in:
UMH: 327
H82: 494
PH: 151
AAHH: 288
NNBH: 125
NCH: 301
CH: 234
LBW: 170
ELA: 855
W&P: 317
AMEC: 174
Renew: 56
“Rejoice, the Lord Is King”
found in:
UMH: 715, 716
H82: 481
PH: 155
NCH: 303
CH: 699
LBW: 171
ELA: 430
W&P: 342
AMEC: 88, 89
“Blessed Be the God of Israel”
found in:
UMH: 209
H82: 444
CH: 135
ELA: 552
W&P: 158
Renew: 128
“Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us”
found in:
UMH: 381
H82: 708
PH: 387
AAHH: 424
NNBH: 54
NCH: 252
CH: 558
LBW: 481
ELA: 789
W&P: 440
AMEC: 379
“I Am Thine, O Lord”
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 282
“O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee”
found in:
UMH: 430
H82: 659, 660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELA: 818
W&P: 589
AMEC: 299
“Open My Eyes, That I May See”
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
“I Will Call Upon the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 9
Renew: 15
“All Hail King Jesus”
found in:
CCB: 29
Renew: 35
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God, who as our shepherd leads us in justice, wisdom, and righteousness: Grant us the grace to follow you into your realm and to seek leaders who will lead as you lead; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you are the shepherd of all creation. You lead us in the ways of wisdom, righteousness, and justice. You call us to lead your people in these same ways. Send your Spirit upon us, that we might be able to follow you and lead as you lead. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our following after false shepherds.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know the Shepherd and that he leads us to the good places. In following the Christ, we know justice; we know righteousness; we know peace. Yet we listen to other’s voices and we get distracted. We start to believe them and we end up following them. In the end we find we have gotten lost. Forgive us, and call us back to the flock. Strengthen us with your Spirit that we might always follow you. Amen.
Leader: Our Shepherd cares for the flock and always seeks our good. We are welcomed back to its safety and blessing.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
You are the Shepherd, O God, and you have made Jesus to be our shepherd. We praise you for your care for us and all your children.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know the Shepherd and that he leads us to the good places. In following the Christ, we know justice; we know righteousness; we know peace. Yet we listen to other’s voices and we get distracted. We start to believe them and we end up following them. In the end we find we have gotten lost. Forgive us, and call us back to the flock. Strengthen us with your Spirit that we might always follow you.
We thank you for your blessings and for the ways you have guided us throughout our lives. We thank you for those who have faithfully echoed your call to help us learn to follow the way that leads to life.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all who are in need, and especially for those who have lost their way in life. As you seek them and call them, help us to join you in finding the lost and offering to walk with them back to you.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Play “follow the leader.” Make several children the leader simultaneously. (If you only have two, make them both the leader.) Children are smart, and probably will tell you this won’t work. Talk about why. We can only follow one leader. For us in the church, that is Jesus.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Props (optional): a crown, a shepherd’s staff
As you gather children, hold up the crown. Tell them that the scripture passages used in the worship service today are about Jesus Christ as king.
***
When you think about a king, what comes to your mind? What does a king look like? What does a king do? How does a king relate to his people? (Following the children’s responses, open a Bible to Jeremiah 23:1-6.)
In the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah talks about how the type of king that God appoints will be like a shepherd. (Hold up the shepherd’s staff.)
When you think about a shepherd, what comes to your mind? What does a shepherd look like? What does a shepherd do? How does a shepherd relate to his sheep? (Allow responses, then read Jeremiah 23:4 [NRSV].)
“I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.”
Jeremiah compares God’s appointed king to a shepherd. The job of a shepherd-king is to take care of the people, just like a shepherd takes care of his sheep.
We believe that Jesus is this kind of a king, a shepherd-king.
In what ways is Jesus a shepherd-king? (Allow for the children’s responses.)
How does Jesus relate to his people (you and me) like a shepherd-king? (Allow for the children’s responses.)
How do we relate to Jesus as our shepherd-king? (Allow for the children’s responses. You may add comments about following Jesus’ leading, listening to Jesus’ teaching, staying together, and supporting one another in community.)
Close with prayer: O Jesus, you are a good shepherd to us. You love us and guide us. You teach us and care for us. Show us how to follow you as your loving shepherd-king. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, November 20, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Robin Lostetter shares some additional thoughts on how we might reconcile ourselves together in the wake of the divisive campaign. She suggests that listening and having respect for those we consider the “other” is the first imperative -- even if we consider them unworthy. To do so is to follow the example that Jesus set on the cross in this week’s gospel text -- listening and responding to the request by one of the criminals being crucified alongside him to be remembered. Rather than rejecting him, Jesus welcomes him into paradise. And the cross, Robin notes, can be a transformative symbol in this regard. She also lifts up poetry and prayer as useful means for breaking through hardened hearts that are resistant to the “other.”
Like a Shepherd, Lead Us
by Dean Feldmeyer
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Ten or so days after the presidential election, things have begun to settle and even out. What seemed hot in its immediate aftermath is warm today. What seemed frozen last Wednesday is merely cool today. Protesters have had their say and made their voices heard. Just about everyone on both sides of the aisle has settled into “cross your fingers and wait and see” mode. And all of this is in large part due to the conciliatory speeches spoken by both candidates after the votes had been counted.
In his victory speech, Donald Trump said: “Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division -- have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”
Will the Democrats buy it? Only if they are willing to forgive and forget, let bygones be bygones. It was Republicans, they will recall, who vowed together on the night of President Obama’s inauguration to fight and sabotage his every attempt to govern, regardless of the merits. And it was the president-elect who spent five years insisting that Obama wasn’t even an American. If Democrats follow the example from the other side of the aisle, we’ll be in for another four years of gridlock.
However, “in a concession speech, defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton said her party needs to accept the election of Trump, adding that ‘we owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.’ ” So what will it be?
We know that Donald Trump is a brilliant campaigner. His win on election day stunned the pollsters and surprised the oddsmakers. But will he govern as brilliantly as he campaigned? His supporters say he will, but what does brilliant governance and effective leadership look like?
The prophet, Jeremiah, has a few ideas on that score. So, as people of faith, it is to him that we will turn this Sunday. But first, a few contextual considerations.
In the News
For about three days after the election, all the talk on news programs was about how Donald Trump managed to beat all the odds and surprise all of the talking heads and actually win the presidential election.
I mean, how could this happen?
True, PolitiFact rated only 50% of Hillary Clinton’s utterances as true or mostly true. But they rated President-elect Trump at a mere 15% “true” or “mostly true,” while 70% of his statements were “mostly false,” “false,” or “pants on fire.”
A Rasmussen Reports poll taken in late September showed that 94% of her supporters and 46% of the general population believed Hillary Clinton was qualified for the job of president, while only 35% of the general population and 76% of his own supporters thought that Donald Trump was qualified. 24% of his own supporters thought he wasn’t qualified for the job.
Everyone was scrambling for answers to the question “How did this happen?” And there was no shortage of responses. Articles that began “___ Reasons Why Trump Won” abounded. The Fiscal Times and the BBC had five reasons. YourStory.com had seven. Matt Rothschild had ten reasons, as did a Baltimore Sun reader. Cyber-breeze.com had “ten HUGE reasons.” Political writer Ari Armstrong offered 12 reasons, the Washington Post gave 13, and CNN offered a grand total of 24 reasons why Donald Trump won the presidential election.
The answer, in retrospect, was that (a) Donald Trump was a brilliant campaigner who appealed to the right people in the right states, and (b) when the country is clamoring for change, being a former first lady, senator, and secretary of state tend to identify you as part of the very established order that people want to change.
The number one reason people gave for voting for Donald Trump is that they wanted real, substantive change in Washington, and they thought he was the most likely person to bring it.
Now, however, it is hard to find anyone who still wants to talk about how Trump won the election. Now what we get most of is speculation about how he will govern.
Who’s on the short list for this cabinet position and that advisor position? And what about all the promises the president-elect has made? Is he really under a mandate when fewer than half of the voters voted for him and the popular vote favored his opponent?
Will he build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border? Will he expel 11 million undocumented residents from other countries? Will he rip health insurance out of the hands of 22 million people by encouraging Congress to pull the plug on the Affordable Health Care Act? Will he concentrate most of his efforts at dismantling and destroying and savaging Barack Obama’s legacy even as he talks about uniting the country?
Will he renege on our country’s promises to those countries in the Middle East that are trying to keep ISIS and the Taliban at bay and out of our backyard?
Will he really be able to cut my income taxes by as much as 35%? (His mouth to God’s ears!) And fix all of our infrastructure problems? Our bridges? Our streets? Our tunnels? Our highways? And make them second to none? And where will the money come from if he cuts taxes as deeply as he says he will? And what will he do to or about Social Security, or Medicare, or Medicaid?
These questions loom large. They are not just the idle utterances of habitual naysayers.
Just how will he get all this done? How will he govern? How will he lead? As we said, scripture is not silent on this score. It may not provide us with specific answers to specific problems. No one had ever considered anything remotely like automobiles, freeways, power grids, too-big-to-fail corporations, cyberwar, and Roe v. Wade back in those days. But there are some broad ideas, some general rules, and here and there a metaphor worth considering.
In the Scriptures
Contemporary scholars of the Hebrew scriptures believe that this week’s passage from Jeremiah contains excerpts from two prose sermons that were preached by the prophet concerning the lackluster and even immoral reigns of several kings. (The next passage, 23:9-40, deals with the lackluster performances of the prophets.)
Kings do not stand alone under the withering gaze and the accusing eye of the prophet. The entire court -- the advisors, the enforcers, the assisters of the king -- all fall under this judgment.
The first excerpt is found in verses 1-4.
The blame for the Babylonian exile, says Jeremiah, falls upon the political leaders of Judah, the kings and their courts. It is they, not YHWH, who have scattered the flock by their lack of righteousness and their disregard for justice.
Hear scholar Patrick D. Miller’s assessment of this passage: “Visions of the kingdom of God can function on a very spiritual plane, remote from the realities of human community. The Old Testament, however, persistently insists on that vision’s centering in justice and regularly sets the criterion for determining whether justice is present in the way one treats the weakest members of the community, the powerless and the marginalized, the economically depressed, and the vulnerable. The judicial structures, including the appeal to the king, are the locus of justice, but the content of it rests in the treatment of the weak” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VI, p. 745).
In the second except (vv. 5-6) Jeremiah reminds the people that the Babylonian exile of the leaders of Judah is not an ending but a beginning. It’s not over. God will, in time, set things right again -- but God is not going to start with the king of Babylon. God will start their reclamation project with a new king for Judah. The new king will not come from the family of Jahoiakim, who squandered the power of the monarchy with self-aggrandizement and fancy palaces while he ignored the plight of the weak. No, God is going to raise up a new branch from the family of David, a righteous king who will rule with justice and equanimity.
And we shall know that the king is ruling with God’s blessing, with wisdom and justice and righteousness, because we shall see that the people feel safe -- that they do not live in a state of constant worry, and they hurry to come home and are not scattered abroad.
In the Sermon
To be sure, Jeremiah was talking about kings. So our first impulse might be to dismiss what he says as inapplicable to life in our 21st-century American republic. But when we look closer we realize that his insistence upon wisdom, righteousness, and justice applies to every generation of leaders in every seat of leadership.
And the metaphor he lands upon to drive his point home is the metaphor of the shepherd -- again, a symbol that speaks to our contemporary world only after some considerable translation and interpretation.
We don’t know many shepherds. We don’t see them on the hillside on our way to work or home each day, so they aren’t ready-made symbols for us as they were for Jeremiah. Just a little bit of reading, however, can discover meaning in what might otherwise be an archaic comparison.
The good leader, the good king, the good president, the good CEO, the good principal or foreman or office manager in our country leads like a shepherd.
And what does the shepherd do? The shepherd’s leadership is built upon the trust of the flock. They know the shepherd’s voice and they follow, because following this shepherd has always paid off for them in terms of safety and well-being.
The good shepherd leads from the front with the trusting and dependent sheep following after. The shepherd keeps the sheep safe by leading them from rushing water to still water and guarding them from wild beasts that threaten their lives.
The good shepherd binds up the wounded and the injured, nurses the weak, mothers the orphan, and gathers in the lost and the estranged. The good shepherd knows that every single sheep is valuable, and will, if necessary, place his own life in harm’s way for the sake of the flock.
For Jeremiah, this shepherd metaphor is not applied only to the king but to everyone in the king’s court, every person who participates in the political leadership of the country. And it applies not only to individual persons who rule but also to entire countries and classes of people who seek to lead the world.
“There is no indication in these texts that the fundamental matters in ruling the human community under God’s direction and by God’s instruction have anything to do with more or less government intervention,” says Patrick Miller. “They have to do with whether or not that government attends to the security of the country by tending to the cause of the poor and the needy. This was the plumb line that Amos set in the middle of the northern kingdom that found it wanting. It was always the plumb line by which the Lord measures a people and the degree to which they embody the righteous rule that is the Lord’s will and way for human life” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VI, p. 746).
Wisdom, righteousness, justice. These are the three things that guide the leadership of the good shepherd, and these are the biblical principles, the plumb lines by which Donald Trump and every other president or political leader of the United States will be measured.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Poetry and Understanding
by Robin Lostetter
Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43
How are we to go about bringing people back together, after the divisive campaign and election in our country? We’ve had some time to think about that, and to weigh the many voices that have contributed their thoughts. The wise majority have said we need to listen.
From a friend, Dave Wilton: “My take on what happened is that both political parties were blindsided by a populist movement that no one in either party establishment has truly recognized.”
From the left, Trent Lapinski wrote: “I took it upon myself to understand Trump, and his supporters. What I found was millions of great Americans who had been disenfranchised, normal people like you and I, who did not recover from the Great Recession. They’re pissed off about Obamacare, endless wars, trade deals that have killed jobs, higher taxes, a rigged economy -- and they are not wrong.”
And from a much-softened Glenn Beck, we read these words from the right: “From the swelling ranks of the frustrated, disenfranchised, unemployed, and scared, the Tea Party sprouted. The media made Occupy Wall Street into heroes, while the Tea Party was called a bunch of dangerous hicks. I don’t think any of us truly understood what was fermenting around us.... I read a perfect election summation: The people who were against Mr. Trump took him literally but not seriously. His supporters took him seriously but not literally. It is the same pattern of 2000 and 2008. We heard President Obama was coming for our church and our guns. We were mocked. We thought those who laughed were lying or stupid. Yet, I still go to church, sometimes with a gun.”
Mr. Beck sums up the solution: “It does not matter if we do not understand one another’s feelings. What matters is that we at least hear them.”
But how to break through our various beliefs (right or wrong), fears, and anger to allow us to hear each other? I’m going to suggest two ways. One is liturgical, and the other is poetic.
Then the criminal on the cross said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).
These words, usually associated with our Good Friday liturgies, may help us find a way to begin to reach out to those we think of as “other” -- to redefine the radically excluded. For some that may mean the Muslim, gay, or immigrant. To others that may mean the gun advocate or climate-denier. In our epistle reading, we’re reminded that “through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20). Listening and hearing the frustration, disenfranchisement, and pain of our fellow citizens -- through the compassion stirred by the suffering of the cross -- may allow us to gain greater understanding.
Further, Jesus’ invitation and acceptance of the criminal on the cross may be the model for those of us who, from a position of white privilege, have some confessions to make and some repenting to do. There is a backlash from the soon-not-to-be-a-majority whites, who feel their power being taken away, that was fueled by the rhetoric of Mr. Trump’s campaign -- but also seemingly ignored by the wealthy establishment Democrats. Miguel De La Torre calls us to a more humble, justice-oriented listening and repentance: “I will not hold hands and sing ‘Kumbaya’ with white oppressors. Instead I ask all who seek justice, especially whites willing to repent of the sin of white privilege, to join me in solidarity as I choose to sing a different song.”
This is where the Christian cross needs to be transformative, erasing the image of the KKK’s burning cross with the invitational, confessional image of Jesus -- “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise” -- as we seek justice and the Reign of Christ here in this life. We are the ones to proclaim, to serve, to act in Christlike ways of patient listening and also persistent truth-telling when any are oppressed -- those who are disenfranchised as well as marginalized and vulnerable populations.
The plight of a similar symbol might serve as an illustration of how a sacred and positive symbol has been misappropriated and its original meaning is being asserted. The Hindu sathiyo is a symbol of good fortune and is used as a way of extending good wishes to visitors during the feast of Diwali. This year, Diwali occurred on October 30, so placing sathiyo stickers on doorways of Hindu-American households created some generational disagreements. You see, the sathiyo is a swastika, a form of which was appropriated by Hitler and would therefore be subject to misinterpretation by Halloween visitors to homes bearing Diwali decorations the same weekend as Halloween in 2016. Grandparents who see this symbol only as a sign of peace from their childhood years ended up explaining their desire to help transform the negative view of the swastika to the younger generations in their households, as explained by Parth Shah on NPR.
A second avenue for healing and listening is poetry, especially one of its particular forms -- prayer. It is a means for breaking through our hardened hearts. And so I share some of the pieces that have come my way this week:
grumbling
by Thom M. Shuman
And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and say,
“This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:2
just
as we are
about to dig into
the great feast,
you squeeze an extra
chair next to us, seating
the unshaven,
smelly,
tattered rough sleeper
we stepped over
after handing our car keys
to the valet.
“I’m sorry, most of all, to the suffering, disillusioned masses who feel that they were not getting the help they needed.” -- Colleen
“Kiss a Democrat. Hug a Republican. Give a Libertarian a reach-around. I don’t care. The election is over. You survived. Good night. And may God bless America.” -- Stephen Colbert
“O Lord our God, bless the leaders of our land, that we may be a people at peace among ourselves and a blessing to other nations of the earth.” -- The Book of Common Prayer
Be of good courage.
Hold fast to what is good.
Render to no one evil for evil.
Strengthen the faint-hearted; support the weak.
Help the suffering.
Honor all persons.
Love and serve the Lord,
Rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit. (Benediction)
“We pray for kindness among neighbors who disagree. We ask that our Muslim and immigrant neighbors be treated with respect.”
“I believe that God uses everything and God will use this election for good.”
“In the meantime, let’s all be gentle with each other. Some grieve and some celebrate. But all of us have a responsibility to love our neighbor as ourselves.” -- Jan Edmiston, Co-Moderator, Presbyterian Church (USA)
“May God bless America. Not because we deserve it, but because God is gracious beyond our imagination.” -- Rev. John Caster
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Jeremiah 23:1-6
After the 2016 election, there have been numerous articles and commentaries on how Donald Trump was chosen by voters to be the 45th President of the United States. One television news commentator noted that when you went to a Trump rally everyone was wearing apparel with the slogan “Make America Great Again,” and when you went to a Clinton rally everyone was wearing a shirt with the slogan “I’m With Her.” He summarized that Trump’s slogan gave people a message for the future, while Clinton’s slogan offered nothing in the way of the future.
Application: Jeremiah was trying to give his people a slogan to live for in the future.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
One television news commentator, discussing the results of the presidential election, noted that when you went to a Trump rally there was only one man standing on stage with thousands in the audience before him. On the other hand, when you went to a Clinton rally there were celebrities and musical groups on stage along with the candidate. The newsman concluded that you went to a Clinton rally for a show, but you went to a Trump rally to hear only the speaker. Trump did not need celebrities and bands to draw a crowd.
Application: Jeremiah stood as one man before a nation to deliver a message of inspiration.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
I read both the New York Times and the Washington Post cover to cover each day. Prior to the election, these two newspapers’ affirmation for Clinton and disdain for Trump was obvious. In fact, in all the decades I have been reading these two papers their bias was never so apparent. Constantly there were stories about how inept Trump was and how his campaign was ill-managed. But in the days after Trump was elected, both newspapers wrote about how brilliant Trump’s campaign style really was. I found it intriguing how, just overnight, two of the most significant newspapers in the world seemed to change their position 180 degrees. (Note: You may personalize this story by saying “a friend told me...”)
Application: Jeremiah was able to stay on message during his entire prophetic career, and he was not influenced by the changes in society.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Even though Donald Trump was elected president, that does not mean you have to agree with the election’s outcome. It also means that you do not have to apologize for the stance you took during the campaign season. President Barack Obama was a strong advocate and campaigner for Hillary Clinton. Days before the election Obama gave a speech at the University of Florida, trying to inspire people to vote for Clinton by outlining how important a presidential election is. To the university students and others present, Obama, making reference to reality television, said: “This isn’t a joke. This isn’t Survivor. This isn’t The Bachelorette. This counts.”
Application: Jeremiah was trying to get the people of Israel to try to understand just how serious their situation was.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
This presidential campaign may have been one of the most vicious in recent history, with both candidates equally at fault. When not overshadowed by lies or misrepresented facts, negative advertising and campaign speeches do have their place. Hillary Clinton, at one rally, responded to the local newspaper’s endorsement of Trump and his allegiance to the KKK. To counter this, Clinton said: “He has spent this entire campaign offering a dog whistle to his most hateful supporters.”
Application: Jeremiah was blowing on a dog whistle, but he was trying to call the Israelites to righteousness.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Prior to the 2016 presidential election, many black preachers were encouraging their parishioners to get out and vote. One of the most influential of these preachers was Rev. James Forbes, the former senior pastor of Riverside Church in New York City. Though Forbes did not mention it directly, it was clear that he was a Hillary Clinton supporter and that he opposed Donald Trump. In one sermon Forbes said, “These are very crucial times to a nation with so much anger, so much anxiety about the future. We must be very careful not to fall prey to the siren call of those who are peddlers of false hope, illusions, and lies.”
Application: Jeremiah in his message was careful to guard the truth and even more careful not to present any false statements. And Jeremiah, like all prophets before and after him, and like all preachers today regardless of the decade, preached in crucial times.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
In an article for the Washington Post, Edward McClelland wrote that “Donald Trump won the presidency by turning the Rust Belt red.” The Rust Belt was once the heart of United States’ manufacturing, with coal mines, steel mills, and manufacturing plants across Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. For many decades it was predominantly Catholic and Democratic, but with the loss of industry the political climate began to switch. According to McClelland, Trump was able to “promise to restore the glory days of building cars and pouring steel.” McClelland wrote that Trump “tapped into a still-strong nostalgia for a time when a young man could go straight from high school to an industrial job that paid enough to support a family.”
Application: Jeremiah offered the Israelites a future. It is questioned by many if Trump can deliver on his promise of the future; but Jeremiah, as a prophet from God, would deliver on his promise.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Jim Tankersley wrote an article for the Washington Post concluding that Donald Trump won the election on “the revenge of working-class whites.” Tankersley began his article by observing: “For the past 40 years, America’s economy has raked blue-collar white men over the coals.” These men felt “abandoned by a rapidly globalizing economy.” They also “expressed deep racial and cultural anxieties.” Trump prevailed with this demographic group because he “resorted to partisan talking points that the system is rigged against these workers.”
Application: Though some question how truthful and realistic Trump was, Jeremiah had the ability to address the various demographic groups before him with the established truth from God.
*****
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker wrote on how Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election. Parker titled her piece “What Clinton didn’t understand.” In Parker’s view, a major cause for the loss was that voters saw Clinton as just an extension of President Obama. So, in a sense, Obama was the reason for the lost election. This led to Parker’s biggest reason for Clinton’s loss: “Never a great candidate, she was also, tragically, a Clinton when people were ready to move on.” Hillary Clinton was too much associated with what was instead of what can be.
Application: Jeremiah was effective because he stood before the people as an independent voice that understood the past, the present, and the future.
*****
Luke 23:33-43
Three days before the presidential election, there was a political cartoon that depicted the two candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, in a mud pit surrounded by pigs. Both candidates, like the pigs, were completely covered in mud. There they stood, amid political signs poking up from the mud, as they continued to throw mud at each other. There was a couple standing near the mud pile, and the husband saying to his wife, “Just can’t decide who to vote for... They’re both so wonderful.”
Application: During the crucifixion of Jesus, a lot of mud was being thrown since no one really understood the truth of what was taking place. As Jesus was on the cross, the common thinking was that this was wonderful, instead of realizing that the crucifixion and resurrection is the true wonder.
***************
From team member Chris Keating:
Jeremiah 23:1-6
The Shepherd Speaks to the President-elect
Pope Francis has a suggestion for President-elect Donald Trump: don’t forget the poor. The pope’s comments seem to reinforce Jeremiah’s warnings to leaders about ignoring the needs of those they are appointed to tend.
The pope reiterated concern that nations -- much like Israel’s shepherds -- need to tend to those most often forgotten.
“I do not judge people or politicians,” the pope said in an interview with an Italian journalist. “I only want to understand what suffering their behavior causes to the poor and the excluded.” The pope asserted concern for refugees and immigrants who seek refuge in wealthier countries. He said his greatest worry is that wealthy countries will turn their backs on immigrants.
“We need to knock down the walls that divide us,” the pope said. “Try to boost well-being and make it more widespread, but in order to achieve this we need to knock down walls and build bridges that can lessen inequality and boost freedom and rights.... What we want is a fight against inequality, this is the biggest evil that exists in the world today. Money is what causes this, and it goes against measures that aim to even out well-being and thus favor equality.”
*****
Colossians 1:11-20
Leonard Cohen and the Power of Endurance
Canadian born songwriter and author Leonard Cohen died last week, just weeks after releasing his final album, You Want It Darker. Cohen, best known for his classic “Hallelujah,” had produced 14 albums in 50 years.
Cohen’s work blended themes of spirituality, sexuality, and soulful reflections on life. Endurance -- some might say gloom -- was often a key element in his music. The BBC called him the “high priest of pathos.”
The Washington Post’s Chris Richards noted:
Cohen’s roundabout spiritual journey has been well documented. He tried Kabbalah, Scientology, LSD, red wine, and five years in a Zen monastery on a California mountaintop. His nagging depression frequently bent his spiritual quest in difficult directions, just as his humor, vitality, lust, and grace bent his ballads in astonishing ones. Yet, along the way, his music became synonymous with gloom, which always felt like one of pop music’s pandemic misconceptions. Cohen’s quest was a serious one, but seriousness and misery are not the same thing.
Cohen’s provocative spirit infused his music with poetry and pragmatic spirituality -- and while he was not Christian, many of the themes of endurance in difficulty resonate with the hymn of faith in Colossians 1:11-20. As one critic reflected:
He was equally adept at addressing the flaws within us and our many weaknesses and defects. One of his most-quoted lines is from the song “Anthem,” which declares: “Ring the bells that still can ring / Forget your perfect offering / There is a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.”
In “Show Me the Place,” Cohen sang “Show me the place / where the word became a man / Show me the place / where the suffering began.”
In his later years, Cohen explored the light in the crack of everything after his business manager embezzled more than $5 million from him in 2006. In response Cohen hit the road, touring the world for more than 18 months to recoup the lost money. Not long before he died, Cohen remarked, “I am ready to die. I hope it’s not too uncomfortable. That’s about it for me.”
*****
Luke 23:33-43
Keeping Capital Punishment
Californians voted last week to legalize marijuana, yet thoroughly endorsed retaining capital punishment. Proposition 62, which would have repealed the death penalty, failed by a wide margin. One UCLA law professor suggested that fear played a role in how people voted.
“It’s a scary time,” said Sharon Dolovich. “When people are scared, that fear can manifest as a punitive impulse.”
Faith groups had pushed for repealing the death penalty, arguing that it is barbaric and inefficient at preventing crime.
In the face of fear, Jesus was executed between two thieves. Soldiers mocked him and cast lots for his clothing. As they were being crucified, one of the thieves crucified with Jesus cried out in fear, begging Jesus to save him. The other, however, simply prayed for Jesus to remember him. In response, Jesus addressed the man as if he too were royalty. “Truly I tell you,” said Jesus, “today you will be with me in Paradise.”
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God is our refuge and strength.
People: God is a very present help in trouble.
Leader: We will not fear though the earth should change.
People: We will not fear though the mountains shake.
Leader: God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved.
People: God will help it when the morning dawns.
OR
Leader: The Shepherd calls us, let us follow.
People: We hear the Shepherd’s voice and follow gladly.
Leader: Only in the Shepherd’s presence is there peace.
People: We will follow no one but our Shepherd.
Leader: Let us call to others to follow with us.
People: We will invite all to follow our Good Shepherd.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Crown Him with Many Crowns”
found in:
UMH: 327
H82: 494
PH: 151
AAHH: 288
NNBH: 125
NCH: 301
CH: 234
LBW: 170
ELA: 855
W&P: 317
AMEC: 174
Renew: 56
“Rejoice, the Lord Is King”
found in:
UMH: 715, 716
H82: 481
PH: 155
NCH: 303
CH: 699
LBW: 171
ELA: 430
W&P: 342
AMEC: 88, 89
“Blessed Be the God of Israel”
found in:
UMH: 209
H82: 444
CH: 135
ELA: 552
W&P: 158
Renew: 128
“Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us”
found in:
UMH: 381
H82: 708
PH: 387
AAHH: 424
NNBH: 54
NCH: 252
CH: 558
LBW: 481
ELA: 789
W&P: 440
AMEC: 379
“I Am Thine, O Lord”
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 282
“O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee”
found in:
UMH: 430
H82: 659, 660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELA: 818
W&P: 589
AMEC: 299
“Open My Eyes, That I May See”
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
“I Will Call Upon the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 9
Renew: 15
“All Hail King Jesus”
found in:
CCB: 29
Renew: 35
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God, who as our shepherd leads us in justice, wisdom, and righteousness: Grant us the grace to follow you into your realm and to seek leaders who will lead as you lead; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you are the shepherd of all creation. You lead us in the ways of wisdom, righteousness, and justice. You call us to lead your people in these same ways. Send your Spirit upon us, that we might be able to follow you and lead as you lead. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our following after false shepherds.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know the Shepherd and that he leads us to the good places. In following the Christ, we know justice; we know righteousness; we know peace. Yet we listen to other’s voices and we get distracted. We start to believe them and we end up following them. In the end we find we have gotten lost. Forgive us, and call us back to the flock. Strengthen us with your Spirit that we might always follow you. Amen.
Leader: Our Shepherd cares for the flock and always seeks our good. We are welcomed back to its safety and blessing.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
You are the Shepherd, O God, and you have made Jesus to be our shepherd. We praise you for your care for us and all your children.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know the Shepherd and that he leads us to the good places. In following the Christ, we know justice; we know righteousness; we know peace. Yet we listen to other’s voices and we get distracted. We start to believe them and we end up following them. In the end we find we have gotten lost. Forgive us, and call us back to the flock. Strengthen us with your Spirit that we might always follow you.
We thank you for your blessings and for the ways you have guided us throughout our lives. We thank you for those who have faithfully echoed your call to help us learn to follow the way that leads to life.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all who are in need, and especially for those who have lost their way in life. As you seek them and call them, help us to join you in finding the lost and offering to walk with them back to you.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Play “follow the leader.” Make several children the leader simultaneously. (If you only have two, make them both the leader.) Children are smart, and probably will tell you this won’t work. Talk about why. We can only follow one leader. For us in the church, that is Jesus.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Props (optional): a crown, a shepherd’s staff
As you gather children, hold up the crown. Tell them that the scripture passages used in the worship service today are about Jesus Christ as king.
***
When you think about a king, what comes to your mind? What does a king look like? What does a king do? How does a king relate to his people? (Following the children’s responses, open a Bible to Jeremiah 23:1-6.)
In the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah talks about how the type of king that God appoints will be like a shepherd. (Hold up the shepherd’s staff.)
When you think about a shepherd, what comes to your mind? What does a shepherd look like? What does a shepherd do? How does a shepherd relate to his sheep? (Allow responses, then read Jeremiah 23:4 [NRSV].)
“I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.”
Jeremiah compares God’s appointed king to a shepherd. The job of a shepherd-king is to take care of the people, just like a shepherd takes care of his sheep.
We believe that Jesus is this kind of a king, a shepherd-king.
In what ways is Jesus a shepherd-king? (Allow for the children’s responses.)
How does Jesus relate to his people (you and me) like a shepherd-king? (Allow for the children’s responses.)
How do we relate to Jesus as our shepherd-king? (Allow for the children’s responses. You may add comments about following Jesus’ leading, listening to Jesus’ teaching, staying together, and supporting one another in community.)
Close with prayer: O Jesus, you are a good shepherd to us. You love us and guide us. You teach us and care for us. Show us how to follow you as your loving shepherd-king. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, November 20, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 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.
