Silent Songs
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Psalm 137, as well as both of this week’s Lamentations passages, expresses the pain and sadness of the Israelites as they live in exile. Jeremiah says that “a princess among the provinces has become a vassal. She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.” The psalmist describes the feeling more poignantly: “By the rivers of Babylon -- there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.... How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin suggests that words like these might also be spoken today by those who -- like the Israelites -- feel a strong sense of alienation in the land where they are living... especially many in the African-American community who are frustrated with the latest in a long list of questionable police killings of black men. The circumstances surrounding the shootings in Tulsa and Charlotte are still a matter of debate -- yet many people are asking why police so often “shoot to kill,” and whether they are disproportionately targeting blacks. As a result, tensions between law enforcement and the black community are coming to a boil in many cities. But while we need to acknowledge and understand their laments, this doesn’t just describe the black community -- it’s also a paradigm that could apply to today’s Christians. As the influence of the church is declining in mainstream culture, Christians are truly, in William Willimon’s memorable phrase, “resident aliens.” So, Mary asks, how can we reach out, understand, and embrace those who -- like us vis-à-vis the mainstream culture -- often feel alienated? And how can we, as Christians, sing the Lord’s song in a sometimes foreign culture? In the midst of his lamentations, Jeremiah offers an answer: it’s by understanding -- and proclaiming -- that “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.”
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the Second Timothy text and how we learn faith -- especially passed from generation to generation. When Timothy is commended for his “sincere faith,” Paul identifies it as “a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice” -- and he admonishes Timothy to “guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.” By framing his comments this way, Paul is implicitly identifying faith as the greatest of all heirlooms -- infinitely more valuable than many of the items that are often passed down in families (some of which, Dean notes, nobody really wants). Rather than creating a museum of “stuff” received from our parents and grandparents, Dean points out that we ought to think more in terms of our actions and the living treasure of faith lived out in our daily lives... for the truly important things we receive from our parents -- and those we pass to our children -- are the lessons absorbed from observing their behavior.
Silent Songs
by Mary Austin
Psalm 137
“How can I sing the Lord’s song in AmeriKKKa?” someone lamented online last week following two new fatal shootings of African-American men by police officers. Based on the words of the psalmist, the comment gave voice to the rage and sorrow resulting from incidents in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Tulsa, Oklahoma -- emotions which spilled out into the streets with protests.
“How do we sing God’s song in a place of oppression?” the people of Israel ask. “How do we sing God’s song in the face of danger and injustice?” people in the United States are asking after so many deaths at the hands of police officers. How do we sing a song of faith when grief and rage are so present?
The raw pain of the psalm is the raw pain of Tulsa and Charlotte, layered onto the pain of Baltimore and Ferguson and Cleveland and so many other places, layered onto everyday pain that simmers under the surface. By now, the hope of singing God’s song is ragged and dim for many people.
In the Scriptures
In exile, far from home, the people of Israel find it impossible to sing the songs of their faith. Their captors ask for songs, seeming not to understand the spiritual meaning behind them, and the people can only hang up their harps.
In his book In the House of Lord: Inhabiting the Psalms of Lament, Michael Jinkins notes that the psalms are praises -- but “when we understand praise as the essential category which includes lamentation, the psalms open themselves to... an unexpected breadth and depth, a whole range of human utterances, from overt celebration to the most bitter complaints, as forms of praise.” Jinkins observes that while the historical circumstances differ, the psalms “invite our lamentations; and, in inviting our lamentations, they also invite us to place our trust in God.”
We’re accustomed to lament in the Psalms -- cries of abandonment, emptiness, and despair. This psalm also gives voice to rage. The people of Israel are so angry that they want to kill the children of their enemies. Death will feel like a balm to their anger. The psalm draws us into the question of when rage should be a part of our faith. At times, our anger aligns with God’s fury about the state of the world.
In the News
The psalms take us out of our individual lament and give us a communal voice for our pain. In a similar way, protests in Charlotte and Tulsa have given people an ad hoc community in which to protest and ask for action. In Charlotte, the mostly peaceful protests “have brought this city’s main business district to a near standstill.” They have prompted change, as “the Charlotte police chief on Saturday released body and dashboard camera videos of the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, a black resident here.” The chief denied that he was responding to political pressure. Mr. Scott’s wife had previously released her own video, which she began filming on her cellphone when police officers approached her husband.
In Tulsa, there has been a different feel. The “streets of Tulsa were calm after a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black motorist. The video of the shooting angered many Tulsa residents, but the subdued reaction was markedly different from the violent clashes that took place in Charlotte, N.C., in recent days, after the police killed a man there.” Tulsa police quickly released the shooting video, and the police officer involved has been charged with manslaughter. They also did something unusual -- “police officials showed the videos first to Mr. Crutcher’s relatives and then to more than 50 black leaders, pastors, and officials. At that viewing of the video, inside a police building, some black leaders vented their anger and frustration toward the white Tulsa police chief, Chuck Jordan, who was in attendance with the mayor, Dewey F. Bartlett Jr., who is also white. But that event helped set a tone of transparency, communication, and trust, residents say. The driving force of the black community in Tulsa remains its pastors and religious leaders, who saw no value in taking to the streets.” In releasing the video, there was an opportunity for lament. “The viewing of the videos that Sunday turned into an emotional, impromptu town-hall-style meeting on race relations. The mayor, Mr. Bartlett, consoled Mr. Crutcher’s twin sister, who did not want to view the videos and walked out of the room. ‘We gave the community a real good chance to vent,’ Mr. Bartlett said.”
The psalmist recalls: “For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ ” After shootings like these two, African-Americans often complain that whites resort to statistics, try to minimize their feelings, or explain (“whitesplain”) why their feelings are wrong.
As Maisha Z. Johnson observes, dialogue about race is difficult because many white people have a hard time seeing their own biases: “If you’re used to being affirmed for sharing your thoughts, you might feel entitled to share them even when -- no offense -- you have no idea what you’re talking about. And then you might do one of the most irritating forms of whitesplaining -- assuming a person of color just doesn’t understand what’s going on. I’ve experienced this too many times when white folks believe they know more about what I’ve been through than I do -- through secondhand information or just their own wild guesses. For instance, when I tell someone that saying ‘I don’t see color’ erases my identity, they often dismiss my complaint with any of number of reasons they didn’t mean to hurt me.” To white people who wonder why we can’t just have an objective conversation about race, she says: “The truth is that you’re just as biased as anyone else -- your perspective is influenced by your own experiences and position of privilege. That also gives you a biased point of view on what ‘objectivity’ means. You’re approaching the conversation like a high school debate, as if this is just a harmless exercise in flexing our reasoning skills. But when we’re talking about racial injustice, we’re actually addressing real issues with a negative impact on real people’s lives.”
Asking people to sing songs of unity and harmony when they feel otherwise hinders the conversation that lament opens up. Johnson adds: “Whether you want me to ‘calm down’ so I get my message across, to clarify what I mean so I don’t hurt white people’s feelings, or to stop talking about race so you feel more comfortable, whitesplaining is not the answer. Because regardless of your intentions, whitesplaining has a damaging impact -- silencing people of color, shutting down vital racial justice conversations, and often spreading misinformation.” Listening to the cries of lament, without minimizing the pain or offering judgment, is uncomfortable. When we sit in the pain of lament, it can draw us into conversation and deeper into relationship.
In the Sermon
The sermon might look at the place of lament in our life with God. Lament offers a different perspective for all the people who say “you shouldn’t question God” or “everything happens for a reason” or “God is always right on time.” Maybe. Or maybe not. God is a powerful force, but God is not the only force at work in the world. Lament is the voice of people standing up to evil and injustice, fear and sorrow.
Or the sermon might look at the discomfort we feel when we hear someone lament. Anger and pain are difficult to be around. We want to fix things that aren’t immediately fixable, or rationalize things that are beyond explanation. How do we school ourselves to live with lament, and honor the people who are voicing it? How do we make room for such painful utterances?
The sermon might also look at people whose songs have been silenced. Are there places where we have been so unwilling to hear people that they have left the church, or given up on us as friends? Who’s missing among the people who should be in our midst, speaking their own laments?
The psalmist longs for the day when the enemy is defeated, and their children are destroyed. Our enemies are not so much groups of people as the attitudes within us and in our society. Come, Lord, we might pray, and destroy these enemies of your kingdom, putting an end to racism, injustice, and violence. The sermon might look at the enemies around us -- intolerance, the inability to listen to each other, racial divides, and other forms of discrimination. When those inner enemies are defeated, we will be closer to the world God imagines for us. When those spiritual enemies no longer reproduce, we can all sing God’s song.
SECOND THOUGHTS
What Mama Left Me
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Timothy 1:1-14
I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. -- 2 Timothy 1:5
This week’s epistle lesson contains the opening lines of Paul’s second letter to his friend, student, apprentice, and protégé Timothy.
They have been apart for a while, and Paul misses his young friend and his youth, his energy, his excitement about the Christian faith. But apparently Timothy has had some problems which he has related to Paul. Timothy’s getting dejected and maybe a little depressed. He’s disillusioned and maybe a little burned out, and he has told Paul as much.
He’s like the young, enthusiastic, naïve seminary graduate who, excited to pastor a church, runs to that first appointment full of ideas about how to fix all the problems, inspire all the members, rekindle the mission outreach, and turn that congregation around and back onto the growth track that Jesus wants it to follow.
But then after a few weeks, the new pastor learns that the only thing the parishioners are excited about is the 32nd annual Ice Cream Social, what color to repaint the nursery, and the “Fun with Aprons” program for the mother/daughter banquet.
Perhaps Timothy, disillusioned and angry, has asked Paul for a new assignment, a new church that will appreciate his gifts and respond more appropriately to his leadership.
Paul reminds his young protégé that he, Paul, is in prison and would like a change of scenery himself. But rather than run away from the trouble he is facing, he encourages Timothy to do the same, “for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”
Remember, Paul says, that the work of ministry is not about getting people to do what you want them to do. It’s about loving them and bringing to them the good news of Jesus Christ, which will, with time, free them to be the people God is calling them to be.
The spirit you are sharing with them, Paul tells Timothy, is the same one you inherited from your mother who inherited it from her mother. And these people will now inherit it from you.
He concludes this portion of his message with the admonition “Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.”
Rock star and singer/songwriter Sting is said to be worth about $300 million. But, he says, he won’t be leaving a big inheritance to his three sons and three daughters. “I told them there won’t be much money left because we are spending it!”
Wait... before you drop your jaw in shock and amazement, hear the rest. Hear what it is he is spending his fortune on.
Sting, who is 62 years old, supports a number of charities with Trudie Styler, his wife of 21 years. And he employs more than 100 people. They are the founders of the Rainforest Foundation, which has spent over $21 million on rainforest preservation, and he is active in “four different foundations that help musicians who haven’t made it yet. The foundations do not help struggling musicians get noticed, but instead assist in providing emergency services that are not readily available or affordable to those who are pursuing music careers and making minimum wage.”
So the musician who has won 16 Grammys says that he doesn’t expect there to be much money left when he shuffles off this mortal coil. And apparently that’s okay with his kids. Sting tells the Daily Mail that his kids have always worked to pay their own way. The singer would be willing to intervene if any of them were in trouble, but thankfully that situation has yet to arise. “They have this work ethic that makes them want to succeed on their own merit,” he says.
My parents and my wife’s parents did not leave us a lot when they died. A little cash, enough to pay off some debts so we could start saving seriously for retirement. We have the kitchen table that Jean grew up eating breakfast at and into which she carved her initials when she was 8 years old. (Yeah, she got in trouble.) We have the pump organ that was played in the church where her parents got married (long story). It still kind of works -- if you know which stops to pull and pedal really hard. Oh, and we have her mother’s piano, which neither of us can play.
We also have the rocking chair that my mother’s uncle Earl made for her when she was pregnant with me, and a wall full of photographs of all my ancestors going back to the late 1700s. Other stuff, as well. Lots of other stuff... too much to talk about here.
But in about 20 months or so I’m going to retire from full-time ministry and we’re going to move into a smaller house, and between now and then we’re going to have to get rid of a bunch of that stuff.
And here’s the real kicker: our kids don’t want any of it. They don’t want grandma’s stuff, they don’t want our stuff; they don’t even want their own stuff that we’ve been keeping in the attic all these years until they tell us when to bring it to them. “Just give it to Goodwill,” they say.
Not unlike Sting’s children, my kids (I still call them that even though they’re in their mid-30s) want to succeed on their own terms (which they have done) -- and they want to surround themselves with their own stuff and not with ours or their grandparents.
These troubling sentiments of our offspring brought us, the next generation of grandparents, to the kitchen table for a long talk to re-examine our pre-retirement plans. Apparently those plans are going to have to include the mother of all yard sales, followed by a visitation from Goodwill or someone to pick up anything that doesn’t sell.
The other thing we discovered, as we sat at that kitchen table staring at my wife’s initials, is that none of this is really all that sad. That’s because even though our kids don’t want to inherit our stuff, they have already inherited from us the important things we always wanted them to inherit.
They share our faith. They share our values. They are kind and generous and loving and gentle and helpful. They have a strong sense of justice, and they value fairness and equality. They invariably root for the underdog, they buy band candy from the kids down the street, they give away good candy at Halloween, they treat others the way they want to be treated, and they have taught their children to do the same.
They have inherited from us the things that are important, and we couldn’t be happier -- for them, and for ourselves.
Now, does anyone want to buy a 104-year-old pump organ that almost always works?
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Chris Keating:
World Communion Sunday
Breaking Out of Silos
Few white Americans talk about race on social media platforms, according to the Pew Research Center. One writer calls this a sense of “avoidance,” resulting in “silo dialoguing” that will do little to create lasting change on race relations. James Lawrence points to new possibilities emerging in Gainesville, Florida, where an effort is underway to promote “candid, respectful, solution-focused” conversations on race.
It’s the basis for true communion -- and one could argue that as the church gathers around the eucharistic table, it discovers its encouragement to continue seeking communion both within and beyond the church.
*****
Lamentations 1:1-6
Weeping Bitterly in the Night
Crowds packed Charlotte, North Carolina’s city council chambers September 26, demanding justice and calling for the resignation of top officials. It was the first meeting of the council following the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott and the protests associated with his death. Mayor Jennifer Roberts allowed public comments to continue for two hours, but others asked “Where are your tears?”
Among the speakers was young Zianna Oliphant, who used a stepladder to approach the podium. With braided hair and a t-shirt covered in hearts, Zianna had tears streaming down her face as she said: “It’s a shame that our fathers and mothers are killed and we can’t see them anymore. It’s a shame that we have to go their graveyard and bury them. And we have tears. We shouldn’t have tears. We need our fathers and mothers to be by our side.”
*****
Psalm 137
Bold Validations of History
Sitting by the rivers of Babylon, Israel wept as it recalled Zion. Their memory evoked God’s gift of freedom and liberation from slavery, even as they yearned for hope. It was a similar scene last week in Washington as thousands filed through doors during the grand opening of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. One reporter said the opening “maintained the feel of a family reunion, reminiscing on a community’s heritage and celebrating the bold validation of a Smithsonian museum focused on its culture and history.”
One exhibit includes a quotation from writer James Baldwin, which perhaps highlights the similarity between the way Israel recalled its history and the museum’s role in validating the history of African-Americans. It reads: “The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.”
*****
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Rekindling the Gift of Faith
Paul’s impassioned plea to Timothy to “hold to the standard of sound teaching” might resonate with congregations struggling to fill pews on Sunday mornings, especially in light of new studies that show that a majority of the religiously unaffiliated stopped attending church not because of negative experiences of religion, but because they had “stopped believing” sometime before age 30.
A study by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that most of the so-called “nones” dropped out of church not because of negative attitudes toward religion, but because they no longer believe in God. Yet research also noted that one in three of “nones” believe children should be steeped in a religion in order to learn values and a general longing for spiritual community.
They haven’t left mad -- they’ve just left. It’s a big problem for religious education, notes researcher Elizabeth Drescher. She said that for many “nones,” the movement away from God is akin to graduating from high school. “The way religious education and formation is set up in mainline and Catholic churches parallels high school,” she said. “Once you graduate from it, you got it. You know, don’t be a jerk, do unto others, and nones just kind of get bored with it and move on.”
It’s a contrast to the sort of faith Paul saw in Timothy’s mother and grandmother -- a faith that is passed generation to generation through story and action.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby, who is white, has been charged with first-degree manslaughter for shooting and killing an unarmed black man. The death of 40-year-old Terence Crutcher has added to the list of recent tragic deaths. Tulsa district attorney Steve Kunzweiler, who filed the charges against Shelby, said: “I do not know why things happen in this world the way they do. We need to pray for wisdom and guidance.”
Application: We do not always understand tragedy, and we do need wisdom and guidance.
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
Vin Scully, who will retire on October 2 after 67 years as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ radio announcer, discovered his lifelong love of baseball in 1936. He was walking home from school and passed a store window showing the score from game 2 of that fall’s World Series between the New York Yankees and the New York Giants. The score was 18 to 4, with the Yankees winning. Recounting that event, Scully said: “My first reaction was ‘Poor Giants.’ ” He went on to say, “That’s when I fell in love with baseball and became a true fan.” Scully’s last game behind the microphone will be exactly 80 years to the day after he saw that score in the store window.
Application: Restoration is possible if we are able to wait.
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
When longtime baseball announcer Vin Scully was an 8-year-old growing up in the Bronx, he would take a pillow and lay directly under the speaker of his family’s four-legged radio. That was in 1936, and he would listen to any game that was on the radio. Now, in 2016, Scully knows he lived his dream for a lifetime. Scully, who is retiring at the age of 88, says, “God has been so good to me to allow me to do what I’m doing. A childhood dream that comes to pass and then giving me 67 years to enjoy every minute of it. That’s a pretty large thanksgiving day for me.” Scully, a devout Catholic, attends Mass each Sunday prior to a game.
Application: Restoration will come with time and patience. The dream can become a reality.
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
Angelina Jolie has filed for divorce from Brad Pitt. Their romance began in 2005, when they were filming the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith together. Their relationship of 12 years and marriage of two years became, in some estimates, the biggest tabloid romance story ever. Their lives were blessed with adopted children and globetrotting to highlight social causes. Now, amid reports of a drunk and child-abusive Pitt, their relationship is over, and we are in for a new world-setting precedent of tabloid coverage.
Application: The lectionary readings point us all to the question “What went wrong?”
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
Angelina Jolie has filed for divorce from Brad Pitt -- and according to the Washington Post, it’s no surprise that “Brangelina” (as the superstar relationship was often referred to in the tabloid media) has come to an end. The Post offers four reasons why one might have forecast the split: 1) Celebrity marriages are twice as likely to end in divorce; 2) Jolie initiated the divorce, and women initiate a divorce 69 percent of the time because marriage is no longer compulsory for them; 3) Both Jolie and Pitt were previously married -- this was Pitt’s second marriage and Jolie’s third; and 4) Divorce is growing among those 50 and older -- Pitt is 52 and Jolie is 41. The Post concludes: “But in many ways, their split is quite ordinary and predictable.”
Application: Israel, as with us, should be aware of the signs of estrangement.
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
In a Non Sequitur comic, a married couple is standing before the judgment podium at the entrance to heaven -- but instead of seeing an angel looking into the Book of Life, it is Satan. The couple is obviously startled and confused, only to be told by Lucifer: “Yes, it was a corporate buyout, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to make any changes... trust me!” (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: Israel, as many of us today, experienced a corporate buyout because of estrangement from God.
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
In a startling news event, it was disclosed that hackers breached the security of Yahoo and obtained data from over 500 million user accounts. The information obtained included names, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, passwords, and answers to security questions. Credit card information was not accessed, as it was stored in a separate system. But as analysts point out, the information obtained can compromise financial transactions. As one analyst said, it does cast a dark cloud.
Application: Israel lost their security because they became lax in their obedience.
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
Rev. Gabriele Amorth was a prominent exorcist for the Vatican who recently passed. Amorth began his role as an exorcist in 1986, and he wrote several books on good and evil. During his years of service he said he encountered at most 100 cases of true demon possession. He also said that Satan not only inhabits an individual, but can inhabit a group of people such as the Nazis. Asked why he believed in Satan and exorcism, Amorth replied that “exorcism is something which you believe in because deeds happen that reason cannot explain.”
Application: Our lectionary readings point us to the reality of evil.
*****
2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10
Rose Pak, who recently died at the age of 68, was a social activist in San Francisco who promoted the rights and well-being of Chinese-Americans. Though she never held elective office, Pak was very involved in politics. She began her career as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. She was an aggressive reporter who ended up in court after a lawyer threw a punch at her during an interview. In court the lawyer called her “an enormously pushy person.” To this Pak replied that she “was trained to be persistent.”
Application: In our call to discipleship, we are to be persistent in our endeavors.
*****
Luke 17:5-10
Vin Scully is retiring after 67 years as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ radio announcer. Scully is the longest-tenured broadcaster in any professional sport. Even after all of these years he still relishes the crowd’s cheers, a sound he says is “like water out of a showerhead.” As he now departs at the age of 88, Scully says, “I will miss it. I know that dramatically.”
Application: We must know how to do more than we are asked.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
World Communion Sunday / Peace and Global Awareness Sunday
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Call to Worship
(adapted from Lamentations 3:22-24)
Leader: Great is the faithfulness of our God.
People: The Lord is my portion; I will hope in God.
Leader: God’s steadfast love never ceases.
People: The Lord is my portion; I will hope in God.
Leader: God’s mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.
People: The Lord is my portion; I will hope in God.
Leader: Let us worship the One who knows, hears, and sees all.
People: We lift our hearts in praise.
OR
Leader: Take delight in the Lord.
People: God saves us and calls us to a holy calling.
Leader: Commit your ways to the Lord.
People: We trust in God and seek God’s ways.
Leader: Be still before the Lord.
People: God holds our hands and stands with us.
Leader: Give honor and glory to God with our praise and prayers.
All: Let us worship God.
Prayer of the Day/Collect
O God of all, we gather this day with brothers and sisters across the globe who confess faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. As we join our hearts in worshiping you, bless our common acts that the bread we break and the cup we drink unite us as your Christian community. As your people, let us bear common witness to your love, your peace, your forgiveness, your power, your grace, and your mercy. We pray in the name of your Son, Our Lord. Amen.
Call to Confession
God did not give us a spirit of cowardice; rather, God gives us a spirit of power and love and faith. Confident in God’s love and mercy, we come to God to voice our confessions and concerns. Let us offer our prayers together:
Prayer of Confession
God of mercy and justice, on this day marked for peace we lament its scarcity on our streets, in our cities, and across the globe. How can we sing God’s song where there is oppression? How do we sing your song in the face of danger and injustice, with so many senseless killings and so much rage and mistrust? How do we sing a song of faith when grief and rage are so present? How can we sing the Lord’s song when hope seems only fleeting? Help us, O God, to remember your promise of peace. In remembering, let us find and proclaim the hope and forgiveness that you give in Christ Jesus, Our Lord. Amen.
OR
O God of Lois, Eunice, Timothy, and Paul: You give us a goodly heritage of faithful elders who have shared their lives and their faith with us. Yet we confess that in these days our faith often falters. We find ourselves immersed in a society where patience is slim, where anger is stoked, where mistrust is fostered. Our media, our peers, even our political candidates toss out hurtful testimony and polarizing comments. How do we sing your song in our world? In the face of these influences, you guard us and call us to peace. Give us a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline that we may live into your holy calling and bear witness to your good news. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Jesus Christ is God’s assurance of forgiveness for God’s world and for God’s people. Hear these words and live God’s Good News: in Christ is the promise of peace. Amen.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
O God of hope and peace: We utter these words as “resident aliens” living in a world where hope and peace seem extraneous, unknown, unattainable. Yet, as your people, we dare to embrace and bear witness to your promise for hope and peace where these are not readily seen.
Like the exiles in Babylon, we carry with us a rich heritage of faith. Our mothers and grandmothers, our fathers, mentors and friends, and your written word pass on to us accounts of your faithfulness to your promises. We know and hear of how you saved your people from devastating floodwaters; led them from oppressive slavery; provided judges, kings, and prophets; and preserved a faithful remnant from among your children to carry forth the promise that you are God and we are your people.
These accounts trace a history of your good works for and with your people. They encourage us to have confidence that you will stand by your people now, as you have surely stood with your people for generations.
So here we stand this day, praying for peace, hoping for your presence to emerge to make a difference in the struggles, the sadness, the tragedies that seem rampant today. Hear our prayers, O God, for:
* our frustration and weariness with the latest in a long list of questionable killings of black men;
* black and brown brothers and sisters who fear for their very lives in our cities;
* immigrants and their children born in the U.S. who all too often encounter fear and rejection;
* tensions over the degree to which immigrants and refugees should be scrutinized and allowed entry into the country;
* indiscriminate shootings in public centers and the planting of homemade bombs, which put local residents and the whole country on edge.
These are but a few concerns that fill our hearts with fear and undermine your peace.
Speak to us, O God, give us a word... show us a path, so we may live with confidence in the peace you author.
As disciples of the Prince of Peace, may we live as hopeful people infusing a world that desperately needs the peace you offer.
As our forbearers bore witness to us -- showing us ways to live their faith in you -- may we bear witness with changed lives, a changed world, a place of peace amidst the chaos.
Unite us in faith, O God, that we may sing your song in a challenging culture, echoing the words of Jeremiah’s lamentation: “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.”
Hear us as we pray that prayer Jesus taught, saying together, Our Father...
Children’s Sermon Starter
The first Sunday in October is designated in many Christian denominations as World Communion Sunday or Peace and Global Awareness Sunday -- and so on this day we celebrate communion, and those who pray and work for peace.
Children are able to understand the concept of Christians around the world uniting to worship God on this day. If children are welcome to participate in communion/the Lord’s Supper in your faith tradition, stress the concept that Christians in all parts of the world share communion in their churches on this day too. You may want to display a globe or map of the world, and point out different locations where other Christians are celebrating communion today. If your denomination has congregations or missionaries in other countries, you could mark their locations on the globe or map and highlight worldwide Christianity.
Children can begin to understand the concept of God’s peace. They will likely be aware of struggles or disagreements between people. They may have experienced or have heard about bullying at school. Explain that God’s hope and design for the world is for peace. This is more than not fighting or not bullying. God’s peace includes fairness, freedom, and friendship, as well as opportunities to be healthy and safe and to have enough to eat. Explain that each of us can do our part to make God’s peace real in the world, but the world can’t know true peace without God’s help. Invite children to share examples of where peace is needed in the world. Pray with them that God might help each person to work for God’s peace in the world.
Hymn Suggestions
(PH = The Presbyterian Hymnal)
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness” (PH 276)
“All People that on Earth Do Dwell” (PH 220)
“By the Waters of Babylon” (PH 245)
“By the Babylon Rivers” (PH 246)
“God of Our Life” (PH 275)
“Live into Hope” (PH 332)
“Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life” (PH 408)
“O God of Love, O God of Peace” (PH 295)
“There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” (PH 298)
“God of Compassion, in Mercy Befriend Us” (PH 261)
“Hear Our Cry, O Lord” (PH 206)
“When a Poor One” (PH 407)
“O God, Our Help in Ages Past” (PH 210)
“Open My Eyes that I May See” (PH 324)
“Lord, You Have Been Our Dwelling Place” (PH 211)
“Song of Hope” (PH 432)
“Lord, Make Us Servants of Your Peace” (PH 374)
“O Day of Peace” (PH 450)
“O for a World” (PH 386)
“When Will People Cease Their Fighting?” (PH 401)
“Our Cities Cry to You, O God” (PH 437)
“Great God, Your Love Has Called Us Here” (PH 353)
“We Are Your People” (PH 436)
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Robin Lostetter
Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 137
You’ll need:
Panda emoticons, Black emoticons, White emoticons, or Cat emoticons -- print out the one you’d like to use with your congregation’s children. (In some of them, you may want to cut off the bottom rows to avoid unnecessary confusion.)
The message:
First read aloud an age-appropriate verse or two of whichever reading was used in worship, such as:
How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1)
The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the festivals. (Lamentations 1:4)
The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! (Lamentations 3:19)
By the rivers of Babylon -- there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. (Psalm 137:1)
(Invite the children to identify which emoticon represents the feeling -- or the face -- of the person who wrote those words. Depending upon the age of your group, you might talk a little about the history of the people going into exile or about your sermon theme, if you’re preaching on one of these texts, and/or see if you can engage them sensitively in talking about one of the verses.)
Lamentations 1:1 -- how sad it would be to see a city all empty, that all the people had moved away
Lamentations 1:4 -- to throw a big party and no one comes
Lamentations 3:19 -- to be homeless (you’ll need to explain that wormwood and gall were two bitter herbs that were poisonous in large quantities, so thinking of his illness[?] and his homelessness were bitter and felt like poison to him)
Psalm 137:1 -- how we sometimes cry remembering something sad, especially when we’re far from home
(Now look at the other emoticons, and talk about the emotions of joy, anger, peacefulness, love, and confusion. Let the children know that it’s okay to express all these emotions to God -- and all those emotions are found in the Bible, especially in the Psalms. Have them try out making up psalm phrases themselves to express different emotions. See if they can fill in a few of the brackets below with their own ideas, or you fill them in.)
Hallelujah! I’m so happy [that I have my church family]! Hallelujah!
How sad it is to sit in the yard without [my puppy]. My tears are like the salty ocean.
O God, how beautiful your world is; I love to lie here and watch [the clouds float by].
I’m angry, God! I wish I could break things and throw stones! [Life is so unfair!]
Where should I turn? I don’t know what to do. How do I [fix my friendship]?
Oh, joy, Joy, JOY! [My best friend has moved back to my neighborhood!] Thank you, Lord!
Let’s say a prayer to thank God for the ways we’ve been given to express ourselves while talking to God: Dear God, we love you, and we thank you for loving us. We are grateful for the psalms as patterns for how we may talk to you. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, October 2, 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.
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin suggests that words like these might also be spoken today by those who -- like the Israelites -- feel a strong sense of alienation in the land where they are living... especially many in the African-American community who are frustrated with the latest in a long list of questionable police killings of black men. The circumstances surrounding the shootings in Tulsa and Charlotte are still a matter of debate -- yet many people are asking why police so often “shoot to kill,” and whether they are disproportionately targeting blacks. As a result, tensions between law enforcement and the black community are coming to a boil in many cities. But while we need to acknowledge and understand their laments, this doesn’t just describe the black community -- it’s also a paradigm that could apply to today’s Christians. As the influence of the church is declining in mainstream culture, Christians are truly, in William Willimon’s memorable phrase, “resident aliens.” So, Mary asks, how can we reach out, understand, and embrace those who -- like us vis-à-vis the mainstream culture -- often feel alienated? And how can we, as Christians, sing the Lord’s song in a sometimes foreign culture? In the midst of his lamentations, Jeremiah offers an answer: it’s by understanding -- and proclaiming -- that “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.”
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the Second Timothy text and how we learn faith -- especially passed from generation to generation. When Timothy is commended for his “sincere faith,” Paul identifies it as “a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice” -- and he admonishes Timothy to “guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.” By framing his comments this way, Paul is implicitly identifying faith as the greatest of all heirlooms -- infinitely more valuable than many of the items that are often passed down in families (some of which, Dean notes, nobody really wants). Rather than creating a museum of “stuff” received from our parents and grandparents, Dean points out that we ought to think more in terms of our actions and the living treasure of faith lived out in our daily lives... for the truly important things we receive from our parents -- and those we pass to our children -- are the lessons absorbed from observing their behavior.
Silent Songs
by Mary Austin
Psalm 137
“How can I sing the Lord’s song in AmeriKKKa?” someone lamented online last week following two new fatal shootings of African-American men by police officers. Based on the words of the psalmist, the comment gave voice to the rage and sorrow resulting from incidents in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Tulsa, Oklahoma -- emotions which spilled out into the streets with protests.
“How do we sing God’s song in a place of oppression?” the people of Israel ask. “How do we sing God’s song in the face of danger and injustice?” people in the United States are asking after so many deaths at the hands of police officers. How do we sing a song of faith when grief and rage are so present?
The raw pain of the psalm is the raw pain of Tulsa and Charlotte, layered onto the pain of Baltimore and Ferguson and Cleveland and so many other places, layered onto everyday pain that simmers under the surface. By now, the hope of singing God’s song is ragged and dim for many people.
In the Scriptures
In exile, far from home, the people of Israel find it impossible to sing the songs of their faith. Their captors ask for songs, seeming not to understand the spiritual meaning behind them, and the people can only hang up their harps.
In his book In the House of Lord: Inhabiting the Psalms of Lament, Michael Jinkins notes that the psalms are praises -- but “when we understand praise as the essential category which includes lamentation, the psalms open themselves to... an unexpected breadth and depth, a whole range of human utterances, from overt celebration to the most bitter complaints, as forms of praise.” Jinkins observes that while the historical circumstances differ, the psalms “invite our lamentations; and, in inviting our lamentations, they also invite us to place our trust in God.”
We’re accustomed to lament in the Psalms -- cries of abandonment, emptiness, and despair. This psalm also gives voice to rage. The people of Israel are so angry that they want to kill the children of their enemies. Death will feel like a balm to their anger. The psalm draws us into the question of when rage should be a part of our faith. At times, our anger aligns with God’s fury about the state of the world.
In the News
The psalms take us out of our individual lament and give us a communal voice for our pain. In a similar way, protests in Charlotte and Tulsa have given people an ad hoc community in which to protest and ask for action. In Charlotte, the mostly peaceful protests “have brought this city’s main business district to a near standstill.” They have prompted change, as “the Charlotte police chief on Saturday released body and dashboard camera videos of the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, a black resident here.” The chief denied that he was responding to political pressure. Mr. Scott’s wife had previously released her own video, which she began filming on her cellphone when police officers approached her husband.
In Tulsa, there has been a different feel. The “streets of Tulsa were calm after a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black motorist. The video of the shooting angered many Tulsa residents, but the subdued reaction was markedly different from the violent clashes that took place in Charlotte, N.C., in recent days, after the police killed a man there.” Tulsa police quickly released the shooting video, and the police officer involved has been charged with manslaughter. They also did something unusual -- “police officials showed the videos first to Mr. Crutcher’s relatives and then to more than 50 black leaders, pastors, and officials. At that viewing of the video, inside a police building, some black leaders vented their anger and frustration toward the white Tulsa police chief, Chuck Jordan, who was in attendance with the mayor, Dewey F. Bartlett Jr., who is also white. But that event helped set a tone of transparency, communication, and trust, residents say. The driving force of the black community in Tulsa remains its pastors and religious leaders, who saw no value in taking to the streets.” In releasing the video, there was an opportunity for lament. “The viewing of the videos that Sunday turned into an emotional, impromptu town-hall-style meeting on race relations. The mayor, Mr. Bartlett, consoled Mr. Crutcher’s twin sister, who did not want to view the videos and walked out of the room. ‘We gave the community a real good chance to vent,’ Mr. Bartlett said.”
The psalmist recalls: “For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ ” After shootings like these two, African-Americans often complain that whites resort to statistics, try to minimize their feelings, or explain (“whitesplain”) why their feelings are wrong.
As Maisha Z. Johnson observes, dialogue about race is difficult because many white people have a hard time seeing their own biases: “If you’re used to being affirmed for sharing your thoughts, you might feel entitled to share them even when -- no offense -- you have no idea what you’re talking about. And then you might do one of the most irritating forms of whitesplaining -- assuming a person of color just doesn’t understand what’s going on. I’ve experienced this too many times when white folks believe they know more about what I’ve been through than I do -- through secondhand information or just their own wild guesses. For instance, when I tell someone that saying ‘I don’t see color’ erases my identity, they often dismiss my complaint with any of number of reasons they didn’t mean to hurt me.” To white people who wonder why we can’t just have an objective conversation about race, she says: “The truth is that you’re just as biased as anyone else -- your perspective is influenced by your own experiences and position of privilege. That also gives you a biased point of view on what ‘objectivity’ means. You’re approaching the conversation like a high school debate, as if this is just a harmless exercise in flexing our reasoning skills. But when we’re talking about racial injustice, we’re actually addressing real issues with a negative impact on real people’s lives.”
Asking people to sing songs of unity and harmony when they feel otherwise hinders the conversation that lament opens up. Johnson adds: “Whether you want me to ‘calm down’ so I get my message across, to clarify what I mean so I don’t hurt white people’s feelings, or to stop talking about race so you feel more comfortable, whitesplaining is not the answer. Because regardless of your intentions, whitesplaining has a damaging impact -- silencing people of color, shutting down vital racial justice conversations, and often spreading misinformation.” Listening to the cries of lament, without minimizing the pain or offering judgment, is uncomfortable. When we sit in the pain of lament, it can draw us into conversation and deeper into relationship.
In the Sermon
The sermon might look at the place of lament in our life with God. Lament offers a different perspective for all the people who say “you shouldn’t question God” or “everything happens for a reason” or “God is always right on time.” Maybe. Or maybe not. God is a powerful force, but God is not the only force at work in the world. Lament is the voice of people standing up to evil and injustice, fear and sorrow.
Or the sermon might look at the discomfort we feel when we hear someone lament. Anger and pain are difficult to be around. We want to fix things that aren’t immediately fixable, or rationalize things that are beyond explanation. How do we school ourselves to live with lament, and honor the people who are voicing it? How do we make room for such painful utterances?
The sermon might also look at people whose songs have been silenced. Are there places where we have been so unwilling to hear people that they have left the church, or given up on us as friends? Who’s missing among the people who should be in our midst, speaking their own laments?
The psalmist longs for the day when the enemy is defeated, and their children are destroyed. Our enemies are not so much groups of people as the attitudes within us and in our society. Come, Lord, we might pray, and destroy these enemies of your kingdom, putting an end to racism, injustice, and violence. The sermon might look at the enemies around us -- intolerance, the inability to listen to each other, racial divides, and other forms of discrimination. When those inner enemies are defeated, we will be closer to the world God imagines for us. When those spiritual enemies no longer reproduce, we can all sing God’s song.
SECOND THOUGHTS
What Mama Left Me
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Timothy 1:1-14
I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. -- 2 Timothy 1:5
This week’s epistle lesson contains the opening lines of Paul’s second letter to his friend, student, apprentice, and protégé Timothy.
They have been apart for a while, and Paul misses his young friend and his youth, his energy, his excitement about the Christian faith. But apparently Timothy has had some problems which he has related to Paul. Timothy’s getting dejected and maybe a little depressed. He’s disillusioned and maybe a little burned out, and he has told Paul as much.
He’s like the young, enthusiastic, naïve seminary graduate who, excited to pastor a church, runs to that first appointment full of ideas about how to fix all the problems, inspire all the members, rekindle the mission outreach, and turn that congregation around and back onto the growth track that Jesus wants it to follow.
But then after a few weeks, the new pastor learns that the only thing the parishioners are excited about is the 32nd annual Ice Cream Social, what color to repaint the nursery, and the “Fun with Aprons” program for the mother/daughter banquet.
Perhaps Timothy, disillusioned and angry, has asked Paul for a new assignment, a new church that will appreciate his gifts and respond more appropriately to his leadership.
Paul reminds his young protégé that he, Paul, is in prison and would like a change of scenery himself. But rather than run away from the trouble he is facing, he encourages Timothy to do the same, “for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”
Remember, Paul says, that the work of ministry is not about getting people to do what you want them to do. It’s about loving them and bringing to them the good news of Jesus Christ, which will, with time, free them to be the people God is calling them to be.
The spirit you are sharing with them, Paul tells Timothy, is the same one you inherited from your mother who inherited it from her mother. And these people will now inherit it from you.
He concludes this portion of his message with the admonition “Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.”
Rock star and singer/songwriter Sting is said to be worth about $300 million. But, he says, he won’t be leaving a big inheritance to his three sons and three daughters. “I told them there won’t be much money left because we are spending it!”
Wait... before you drop your jaw in shock and amazement, hear the rest. Hear what it is he is spending his fortune on.
Sting, who is 62 years old, supports a number of charities with Trudie Styler, his wife of 21 years. And he employs more than 100 people. They are the founders of the Rainforest Foundation, which has spent over $21 million on rainforest preservation, and he is active in “four different foundations that help musicians who haven’t made it yet. The foundations do not help struggling musicians get noticed, but instead assist in providing emergency services that are not readily available or affordable to those who are pursuing music careers and making minimum wage.”
So the musician who has won 16 Grammys says that he doesn’t expect there to be much money left when he shuffles off this mortal coil. And apparently that’s okay with his kids. Sting tells the Daily Mail that his kids have always worked to pay their own way. The singer would be willing to intervene if any of them were in trouble, but thankfully that situation has yet to arise. “They have this work ethic that makes them want to succeed on their own merit,” he says.
My parents and my wife’s parents did not leave us a lot when they died. A little cash, enough to pay off some debts so we could start saving seriously for retirement. We have the kitchen table that Jean grew up eating breakfast at and into which she carved her initials when she was 8 years old. (Yeah, she got in trouble.) We have the pump organ that was played in the church where her parents got married (long story). It still kind of works -- if you know which stops to pull and pedal really hard. Oh, and we have her mother’s piano, which neither of us can play.
We also have the rocking chair that my mother’s uncle Earl made for her when she was pregnant with me, and a wall full of photographs of all my ancestors going back to the late 1700s. Other stuff, as well. Lots of other stuff... too much to talk about here.
But in about 20 months or so I’m going to retire from full-time ministry and we’re going to move into a smaller house, and between now and then we’re going to have to get rid of a bunch of that stuff.
And here’s the real kicker: our kids don’t want any of it. They don’t want grandma’s stuff, they don’t want our stuff; they don’t even want their own stuff that we’ve been keeping in the attic all these years until they tell us when to bring it to them. “Just give it to Goodwill,” they say.
Not unlike Sting’s children, my kids (I still call them that even though they’re in their mid-30s) want to succeed on their own terms (which they have done) -- and they want to surround themselves with their own stuff and not with ours or their grandparents.
These troubling sentiments of our offspring brought us, the next generation of grandparents, to the kitchen table for a long talk to re-examine our pre-retirement plans. Apparently those plans are going to have to include the mother of all yard sales, followed by a visitation from Goodwill or someone to pick up anything that doesn’t sell.
The other thing we discovered, as we sat at that kitchen table staring at my wife’s initials, is that none of this is really all that sad. That’s because even though our kids don’t want to inherit our stuff, they have already inherited from us the important things we always wanted them to inherit.
They share our faith. They share our values. They are kind and generous and loving and gentle and helpful. They have a strong sense of justice, and they value fairness and equality. They invariably root for the underdog, they buy band candy from the kids down the street, they give away good candy at Halloween, they treat others the way they want to be treated, and they have taught their children to do the same.
They have inherited from us the things that are important, and we couldn’t be happier -- for them, and for ourselves.
Now, does anyone want to buy a 104-year-old pump organ that almost always works?
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Chris Keating:
World Communion Sunday
Breaking Out of Silos
Few white Americans talk about race on social media platforms, according to the Pew Research Center. One writer calls this a sense of “avoidance,” resulting in “silo dialoguing” that will do little to create lasting change on race relations. James Lawrence points to new possibilities emerging in Gainesville, Florida, where an effort is underway to promote “candid, respectful, solution-focused” conversations on race.
It’s the basis for true communion -- and one could argue that as the church gathers around the eucharistic table, it discovers its encouragement to continue seeking communion both within and beyond the church.
*****
Lamentations 1:1-6
Weeping Bitterly in the Night
Crowds packed Charlotte, North Carolina’s city council chambers September 26, demanding justice and calling for the resignation of top officials. It was the first meeting of the council following the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott and the protests associated with his death. Mayor Jennifer Roberts allowed public comments to continue for two hours, but others asked “Where are your tears?”
Among the speakers was young Zianna Oliphant, who used a stepladder to approach the podium. With braided hair and a t-shirt covered in hearts, Zianna had tears streaming down her face as she said: “It’s a shame that our fathers and mothers are killed and we can’t see them anymore. It’s a shame that we have to go their graveyard and bury them. And we have tears. We shouldn’t have tears. We need our fathers and mothers to be by our side.”
*****
Psalm 137
Bold Validations of History
Sitting by the rivers of Babylon, Israel wept as it recalled Zion. Their memory evoked God’s gift of freedom and liberation from slavery, even as they yearned for hope. It was a similar scene last week in Washington as thousands filed through doors during the grand opening of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. One reporter said the opening “maintained the feel of a family reunion, reminiscing on a community’s heritage and celebrating the bold validation of a Smithsonian museum focused on its culture and history.”
One exhibit includes a quotation from writer James Baldwin, which perhaps highlights the similarity between the way Israel recalled its history and the museum’s role in validating the history of African-Americans. It reads: “The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.”
*****
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Rekindling the Gift of Faith
Paul’s impassioned plea to Timothy to “hold to the standard of sound teaching” might resonate with congregations struggling to fill pews on Sunday mornings, especially in light of new studies that show that a majority of the religiously unaffiliated stopped attending church not because of negative experiences of religion, but because they had “stopped believing” sometime before age 30.
A study by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that most of the so-called “nones” dropped out of church not because of negative attitudes toward religion, but because they no longer believe in God. Yet research also noted that one in three of “nones” believe children should be steeped in a religion in order to learn values and a general longing for spiritual community.
They haven’t left mad -- they’ve just left. It’s a big problem for religious education, notes researcher Elizabeth Drescher. She said that for many “nones,” the movement away from God is akin to graduating from high school. “The way religious education and formation is set up in mainline and Catholic churches parallels high school,” she said. “Once you graduate from it, you got it. You know, don’t be a jerk, do unto others, and nones just kind of get bored with it and move on.”
It’s a contrast to the sort of faith Paul saw in Timothy’s mother and grandmother -- a faith that is passed generation to generation through story and action.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby, who is white, has been charged with first-degree manslaughter for shooting and killing an unarmed black man. The death of 40-year-old Terence Crutcher has added to the list of recent tragic deaths. Tulsa district attorney Steve Kunzweiler, who filed the charges against Shelby, said: “I do not know why things happen in this world the way they do. We need to pray for wisdom and guidance.”
Application: We do not always understand tragedy, and we do need wisdom and guidance.
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
Vin Scully, who will retire on October 2 after 67 years as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ radio announcer, discovered his lifelong love of baseball in 1936. He was walking home from school and passed a store window showing the score from game 2 of that fall’s World Series between the New York Yankees and the New York Giants. The score was 18 to 4, with the Yankees winning. Recounting that event, Scully said: “My first reaction was ‘Poor Giants.’ ” He went on to say, “That’s when I fell in love with baseball and became a true fan.” Scully’s last game behind the microphone will be exactly 80 years to the day after he saw that score in the store window.
Application: Restoration is possible if we are able to wait.
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
When longtime baseball announcer Vin Scully was an 8-year-old growing up in the Bronx, he would take a pillow and lay directly under the speaker of his family’s four-legged radio. That was in 1936, and he would listen to any game that was on the radio. Now, in 2016, Scully knows he lived his dream for a lifetime. Scully, who is retiring at the age of 88, says, “God has been so good to me to allow me to do what I’m doing. A childhood dream that comes to pass and then giving me 67 years to enjoy every minute of it. That’s a pretty large thanksgiving day for me.” Scully, a devout Catholic, attends Mass each Sunday prior to a game.
Application: Restoration will come with time and patience. The dream can become a reality.
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
Angelina Jolie has filed for divorce from Brad Pitt. Their romance began in 2005, when they were filming the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith together. Their relationship of 12 years and marriage of two years became, in some estimates, the biggest tabloid romance story ever. Their lives were blessed with adopted children and globetrotting to highlight social causes. Now, amid reports of a drunk and child-abusive Pitt, their relationship is over, and we are in for a new world-setting precedent of tabloid coverage.
Application: The lectionary readings point us all to the question “What went wrong?”
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
Angelina Jolie has filed for divorce from Brad Pitt -- and according to the Washington Post, it’s no surprise that “Brangelina” (as the superstar relationship was often referred to in the tabloid media) has come to an end. The Post offers four reasons why one might have forecast the split: 1) Celebrity marriages are twice as likely to end in divorce; 2) Jolie initiated the divorce, and women initiate a divorce 69 percent of the time because marriage is no longer compulsory for them; 3) Both Jolie and Pitt were previously married -- this was Pitt’s second marriage and Jolie’s third; and 4) Divorce is growing among those 50 and older -- Pitt is 52 and Jolie is 41. The Post concludes: “But in many ways, their split is quite ordinary and predictable.”
Application: Israel, as with us, should be aware of the signs of estrangement.
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
In a Non Sequitur comic, a married couple is standing before the judgment podium at the entrance to heaven -- but instead of seeing an angel looking into the Book of Life, it is Satan. The couple is obviously startled and confused, only to be told by Lucifer: “Yes, it was a corporate buyout, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to make any changes... trust me!” (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: Israel, as many of us today, experienced a corporate buyout because of estrangement from God.
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
In a startling news event, it was disclosed that hackers breached the security of Yahoo and obtained data from over 500 million user accounts. The information obtained included names, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, passwords, and answers to security questions. Credit card information was not accessed, as it was stored in a separate system. But as analysts point out, the information obtained can compromise financial transactions. As one analyst said, it does cast a dark cloud.
Application: Israel lost their security because they became lax in their obedience.
*****
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 37:1-9; Psalm 137
Rev. Gabriele Amorth was a prominent exorcist for the Vatican who recently passed. Amorth began his role as an exorcist in 1986, and he wrote several books on good and evil. During his years of service he said he encountered at most 100 cases of true demon possession. He also said that Satan not only inhabits an individual, but can inhabit a group of people such as the Nazis. Asked why he believed in Satan and exorcism, Amorth replied that “exorcism is something which you believe in because deeds happen that reason cannot explain.”
Application: Our lectionary readings point us to the reality of evil.
*****
2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10
Rose Pak, who recently died at the age of 68, was a social activist in San Francisco who promoted the rights and well-being of Chinese-Americans. Though she never held elective office, Pak was very involved in politics. She began her career as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. She was an aggressive reporter who ended up in court after a lawyer threw a punch at her during an interview. In court the lawyer called her “an enormously pushy person.” To this Pak replied that she “was trained to be persistent.”
Application: In our call to discipleship, we are to be persistent in our endeavors.
*****
Luke 17:5-10
Vin Scully is retiring after 67 years as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ radio announcer. Scully is the longest-tenured broadcaster in any professional sport. Even after all of these years he still relishes the crowd’s cheers, a sound he says is “like water out of a showerhead.” As he now departs at the age of 88, Scully says, “I will miss it. I know that dramatically.”
Application: We must know how to do more than we are asked.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
World Communion Sunday / Peace and Global Awareness Sunday
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Call to Worship
(adapted from Lamentations 3:22-24)
Leader: Great is the faithfulness of our God.
People: The Lord is my portion; I will hope in God.
Leader: God’s steadfast love never ceases.
People: The Lord is my portion; I will hope in God.
Leader: God’s mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.
People: The Lord is my portion; I will hope in God.
Leader: Let us worship the One who knows, hears, and sees all.
People: We lift our hearts in praise.
OR
Leader: Take delight in the Lord.
People: God saves us and calls us to a holy calling.
Leader: Commit your ways to the Lord.
People: We trust in God and seek God’s ways.
Leader: Be still before the Lord.
People: God holds our hands and stands with us.
Leader: Give honor and glory to God with our praise and prayers.
All: Let us worship God.
Prayer of the Day/Collect
O God of all, we gather this day with brothers and sisters across the globe who confess faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. As we join our hearts in worshiping you, bless our common acts that the bread we break and the cup we drink unite us as your Christian community. As your people, let us bear common witness to your love, your peace, your forgiveness, your power, your grace, and your mercy. We pray in the name of your Son, Our Lord. Amen.
Call to Confession
God did not give us a spirit of cowardice; rather, God gives us a spirit of power and love and faith. Confident in God’s love and mercy, we come to God to voice our confessions and concerns. Let us offer our prayers together:
Prayer of Confession
God of mercy and justice, on this day marked for peace we lament its scarcity on our streets, in our cities, and across the globe. How can we sing God’s song where there is oppression? How do we sing your song in the face of danger and injustice, with so many senseless killings and so much rage and mistrust? How do we sing a song of faith when grief and rage are so present? How can we sing the Lord’s song when hope seems only fleeting? Help us, O God, to remember your promise of peace. In remembering, let us find and proclaim the hope and forgiveness that you give in Christ Jesus, Our Lord. Amen.
OR
O God of Lois, Eunice, Timothy, and Paul: You give us a goodly heritage of faithful elders who have shared their lives and their faith with us. Yet we confess that in these days our faith often falters. We find ourselves immersed in a society where patience is slim, where anger is stoked, where mistrust is fostered. Our media, our peers, even our political candidates toss out hurtful testimony and polarizing comments. How do we sing your song in our world? In the face of these influences, you guard us and call us to peace. Give us a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline that we may live into your holy calling and bear witness to your good news. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Jesus Christ is God’s assurance of forgiveness for God’s world and for God’s people. Hear these words and live God’s Good News: in Christ is the promise of peace. Amen.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
O God of hope and peace: We utter these words as “resident aliens” living in a world where hope and peace seem extraneous, unknown, unattainable. Yet, as your people, we dare to embrace and bear witness to your promise for hope and peace where these are not readily seen.
Like the exiles in Babylon, we carry with us a rich heritage of faith. Our mothers and grandmothers, our fathers, mentors and friends, and your written word pass on to us accounts of your faithfulness to your promises. We know and hear of how you saved your people from devastating floodwaters; led them from oppressive slavery; provided judges, kings, and prophets; and preserved a faithful remnant from among your children to carry forth the promise that you are God and we are your people.
These accounts trace a history of your good works for and with your people. They encourage us to have confidence that you will stand by your people now, as you have surely stood with your people for generations.
So here we stand this day, praying for peace, hoping for your presence to emerge to make a difference in the struggles, the sadness, the tragedies that seem rampant today. Hear our prayers, O God, for:
* our frustration and weariness with the latest in a long list of questionable killings of black men;
* black and brown brothers and sisters who fear for their very lives in our cities;
* immigrants and their children born in the U.S. who all too often encounter fear and rejection;
* tensions over the degree to which immigrants and refugees should be scrutinized and allowed entry into the country;
* indiscriminate shootings in public centers and the planting of homemade bombs, which put local residents and the whole country on edge.
These are but a few concerns that fill our hearts with fear and undermine your peace.
Speak to us, O God, give us a word... show us a path, so we may live with confidence in the peace you author.
As disciples of the Prince of Peace, may we live as hopeful people infusing a world that desperately needs the peace you offer.
As our forbearers bore witness to us -- showing us ways to live their faith in you -- may we bear witness with changed lives, a changed world, a place of peace amidst the chaos.
Unite us in faith, O God, that we may sing your song in a challenging culture, echoing the words of Jeremiah’s lamentation: “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.”
Hear us as we pray that prayer Jesus taught, saying together, Our Father...
Children’s Sermon Starter
The first Sunday in October is designated in many Christian denominations as World Communion Sunday or Peace and Global Awareness Sunday -- and so on this day we celebrate communion, and those who pray and work for peace.
Children are able to understand the concept of Christians around the world uniting to worship God on this day. If children are welcome to participate in communion/the Lord’s Supper in your faith tradition, stress the concept that Christians in all parts of the world share communion in their churches on this day too. You may want to display a globe or map of the world, and point out different locations where other Christians are celebrating communion today. If your denomination has congregations or missionaries in other countries, you could mark their locations on the globe or map and highlight worldwide Christianity.
Children can begin to understand the concept of God’s peace. They will likely be aware of struggles or disagreements between people. They may have experienced or have heard about bullying at school. Explain that God’s hope and design for the world is for peace. This is more than not fighting or not bullying. God’s peace includes fairness, freedom, and friendship, as well as opportunities to be healthy and safe and to have enough to eat. Explain that each of us can do our part to make God’s peace real in the world, but the world can’t know true peace without God’s help. Invite children to share examples of where peace is needed in the world. Pray with them that God might help each person to work for God’s peace in the world.
Hymn Suggestions
(PH = The Presbyterian Hymnal)
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness” (PH 276)
“All People that on Earth Do Dwell” (PH 220)
“By the Waters of Babylon” (PH 245)
“By the Babylon Rivers” (PH 246)
“God of Our Life” (PH 275)
“Live into Hope” (PH 332)
“Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life” (PH 408)
“O God of Love, O God of Peace” (PH 295)
“There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” (PH 298)
“God of Compassion, in Mercy Befriend Us” (PH 261)
“Hear Our Cry, O Lord” (PH 206)
“When a Poor One” (PH 407)
“O God, Our Help in Ages Past” (PH 210)
“Open My Eyes that I May See” (PH 324)
“Lord, You Have Been Our Dwelling Place” (PH 211)
“Song of Hope” (PH 432)
“Lord, Make Us Servants of Your Peace” (PH 374)
“O Day of Peace” (PH 450)
“O for a World” (PH 386)
“When Will People Cease Their Fighting?” (PH 401)
“Our Cities Cry to You, O God” (PH 437)
“Great God, Your Love Has Called Us Here” (PH 353)
“We Are Your People” (PH 436)
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Robin Lostetter
Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; Psalm 137
You’ll need:
Panda emoticons, Black emoticons, White emoticons, or Cat emoticons -- print out the one you’d like to use with your congregation’s children. (In some of them, you may want to cut off the bottom rows to avoid unnecessary confusion.)
The message:
First read aloud an age-appropriate verse or two of whichever reading was used in worship, such as:
How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1)
The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the festivals. (Lamentations 1:4)
The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! (Lamentations 3:19)
By the rivers of Babylon -- there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. (Psalm 137:1)
(Invite the children to identify which emoticon represents the feeling -- or the face -- of the person who wrote those words. Depending upon the age of your group, you might talk a little about the history of the people going into exile or about your sermon theme, if you’re preaching on one of these texts, and/or see if you can engage them sensitively in talking about one of the verses.)
Lamentations 1:1 -- how sad it would be to see a city all empty, that all the people had moved away
Lamentations 1:4 -- to throw a big party and no one comes
Lamentations 3:19 -- to be homeless (you’ll need to explain that wormwood and gall were two bitter herbs that were poisonous in large quantities, so thinking of his illness[?] and his homelessness were bitter and felt like poison to him)
Psalm 137:1 -- how we sometimes cry remembering something sad, especially when we’re far from home
(Now look at the other emoticons, and talk about the emotions of joy, anger, peacefulness, love, and confusion. Let the children know that it’s okay to express all these emotions to God -- and all those emotions are found in the Bible, especially in the Psalms. Have them try out making up psalm phrases themselves to express different emotions. See if they can fill in a few of the brackets below with their own ideas, or you fill them in.)
Hallelujah! I’m so happy [that I have my church family]! Hallelujah!
How sad it is to sit in the yard without [my puppy]. My tears are like the salty ocean.
O God, how beautiful your world is; I love to lie here and watch [the clouds float by].
I’m angry, God! I wish I could break things and throw stones! [Life is so unfair!]
Where should I turn? I don’t know what to do. How do I [fix my friendship]?
Oh, joy, Joy, JOY! [My best friend has moved back to my neighborhood!] Thank you, Lord!
Let’s say a prayer to thank God for the ways we’ve been given to express ourselves while talking to God: Dear God, we love you, and we thank you for loving us. We are grateful for the psalms as patterns for how we may talk to you. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, October 2, 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.
