Singing Songs and Rising Waters
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With barely a chance to catch their breath after reporting on the catastrophic flooding caused in Texas and Louisiana by Hurricane Harvey, meteorologists and newscasters turned their attention to another monster hurricane: Irma, one of the largest and most intense storms ever recorded. After devastating several Caribbean islands, Irma then set its sights on Florida. Amid predictions of massive wind damage and storm surges, state officials urged residents -- especially those living on the Atlantic coast -- to immediately flee for safer ground. But as the storm approached, it took a more westerly track -- suddenly putting residents of Florida’s Gulf coast in its crosshairs and triggering a new round of evacuations and last-minute preparations. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Chris Keating points out that many Floridians’ anxiety bordering on panic -- as well as the necessity of leaving at a moment’s notice -- is quite reminiscent of the situation facing the Hebrew people as they fled Egypt ahead of Pharaoh’s pursuing army. And just like the Hebrews, the victims of Irma’s wrath may question whether God is truly with them. But as Chris notes, the story of Israel’s deliverance from Pharaoh’s pursuing army is a reminder that God is always there... even as ferocious winds and water exact their deadly toll.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on this week’s lectionary readings and the theme of forgiveness. It’s human nature, Dean observes, for us to nurse grudges -- but this week’s texts stress the importance of forgiveness... and that inevitably involves looking beyond the slights and unfair travails we may have experienced. Jesus suggests that we forgive extravagantly and infinitely; but as Dean points out, we know we will be on the path to true forgiveness when we are able to forgive our parents... and God.
Singing Songs and Rising Waters
by Chris Keating
Exodus 14:19-31
(Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21)
Florida Governor Rick Scott didn’t mince his words when talking about Hurricane Irma’s impending arrival. Don’t think about leaving, he told millions of Floridians, just go.
“If you have been ordered to evacuate, you need to leave now,” he said. “Do not wait. Evacuate. Not tonight, not in an hour. You need to go right now.”
Scott’s orders signaled what could become known as the largest mass evacuation in United States history. Nearly six million Floridians hit the roads last week, anxiously creeping north to avoid Irma’s unwelcomed visit to their state. “This a storm that will kill you if you don’t get out of the way,” National Hurricane Center meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said. “Everybody’s going to feel this one.”
Like the Israelites fleeing Egypt, the mass exodus from Florida was a mixture of panic and creativity. A man from Atlanta tried everything to get his mother and elderly grandfather out of their home in West Palm Beach. Between cancelled flights and sold-out rental cars, Tony Marcellus was running out of options.
Not unlike Moses, Marcellus was faced with pending doom on one hand and anxious family on the other. In the end, he didn’t stretch out his arms to part the waters. He tried a more modern approach and called Uber. The ride-sharing service drove Marcellus’ mom and grandfather 170 miles north to Orlando. “I have peace of mind now,” said Marcellus’ mother, Celine Jean. “I’ve been worried sick for days.”
For many, those worries will continue in the days and weeks ahead. Long after the wind and rains have stopped, the long process of assessing damage and rebuilding will begin. For those impacted by Irma, the journey home will be long.
Exodus offers another story of evacuees on the run. Those fleeing Egypt were also anxious and scared, caught on a journey of uncertainty. Their panic rose as they witnessed water on one side and Pharaoh’s troops on the other. Like the millions fleeing Irma, they were exhausted and confused. Was this the answer to their prayers?
Moses’ outstretched arms delivered the promise of God. Soon they were singing songs of praise. When the waters are rising, it’s good to know that God goes with you.
In the News
Irma certainly knew how to make an entrance. While the monstrous storm had been downgraded from a Level 5 hurricane after passing over several Caribbean islands and leaving catastrophic destruction in its wake, the hurricane still packed a mean punch, pulling down power lines and palm trees, and creating havoc. As the sun rose on Monday, residents began assessing damage that seemed to cover nearly the entire state of Florida.
On Monday, it also became clear why large-scale evacuations may have prevented large numbers of casualties. About 6.5 million Florida residents -- nearly 75 percent of the customers of the state’s largest electrical utility -- woke up without power. While Tampa seemed to have been spared record storm surge, many streets in Miami were under water. Meanwhile, much of the Florida Keys, where Irma first made her Florida appearance, remained cut off from the mainland. Downgraded from hurricane status yet still mighty, Irma continued her march across the state, causing record-setting flooding in Jacksonville, and creating tornado warnings from Daytona Beach northward to Georgia.
Throughout the weekend, curfews in Tampa kept the residents who remained in the area off the street. On Monday, Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn expressed gratitude that that Irma had not completely knocked out his city. “It was a glancing blow,” he said. “We are still standing. I think when dawn comes and the lights come on we will find we were very, very lucky last night.”
The dawning of morning is always a reminder of hope, even in the eye of the storm.
Not everyone heeded the governor’s advice to leave. Florida Director of Emergency Management Bryan Koon estimated that as many as 10,000 people remained in the Florida Keys throughout the storm. “Unfortunately, you start to hear stories of folks that stayed in houses that shouldn’t.... We’re hearing of folks that stayed in boats.”
Others, like Tampa Bay resident Jessica Brightman, an employee of the University of South Florida, made their plans based on the storm’s original projections. Brightman had initially decided to ride out the storm with her parents in their Naples, Florida home. Forecasts had predicted that Irma would move east, leaving Naples out of the path of a direct hit. But hurricanes can be fickle. Irma changed directions on Sunday, forcing Brightman’s family to seek shelter at the very last minute. She documented her experience as an evacuee for ABC News.
Before heading to the shelter, Brightman reflected on her family’s choice to try and shelter in place:
Even with all the hurricane monitoring storms can still be very unpredictable, and getting in the car just driving from place to place trying to avoid the storm only causes more chaos. Naples is an evacuation zone, but at this point it’s better to stay and shelter in place rather than driving around to different emergency shelters that are all at capacity. Some parts of Collier County are even going to be under a tornado watch as well, so you’re either combating the wind or the water or both.
It has definitely been a long week, with a high-anxiety weekend ahead. And it does not help to have friends and family who live in a different state calling you to give “shoulda-coulda-woulda” advice. There are numerous factors that must be taken into consideration when preparing for a hurricane and/or evacuating, and that extra stress is the last thing Floridians need at the moment.
The storm’s force made it clear that leaving home for one of the city’s impromptu shelters was advisable. While her family arrived with pillows, blankets, snacks, and baby wipes (“I knew showers wouldn’t be much of an option this weekend,” she said), others arrived with nothing. An elderly couple showed up without blankets or bedding. By then, Brightman knew evacuating had been a wise decision, even as tensions among evacuees grew.
“People are definitely getting antsy around the shelter,” she blogged, noting that people were leaving the shelter against the advice of law enforcement. “But it’s better to be safe than sorry with pitch-black roads and who knows how much water on them.”
For others, even a brief taste of shelter life was sufficient to convince them to heed advice to evacuate in the event of future hurricanes. Claudia Smith and Gary Bishop returned to their Clearwater mobile home on Monday, thankful to discover their home intact. Still, they declared their plans would be different next time. Cracking open an early-morning beer, the two told a reporter of their experience sleeping in a school cafeteria.
“I will never go through the experience of going in a shelter ever again,” Smith said. “It was like being in a mental institution. Sleeping on the floor, a bunch of people around you.”
Freed from their shelter, they knew the storm had passed over. The mighty wind was gone, and a new day had arrived.
In the Scriptures
Exodus narrates Israel’s new creation, telling the story of a people fleeing oppression and calamity for a promised land flowing with abundance. Yet the evacuation barely gets underway when anxiety and fear spread like measles among the people. Pharaoh, realizing the economic consequences of releasing his slaves, deploys an army to pursue them. Chariots fly across the desert.
At the sound of hoof beats, “the Israelites looked back” (14:10). It’s a critical juncture: like families wrestling with decisions to flee home and hearth, the Israelites cry out in fear. They are caught between the devil and the deep-blue sea, paralyzed in fear. Moses does his best to encourage the evacuees, reminding them: “Do not be afraid; stand firm” (14:13).
What do you do in those moments when the storm surges on one side and certain death gallops closer on the other? In looking back, the Israelites choose to ignore Moses’ admonition to move forward. “Was it not because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” they cry (14:11). Yet God has other plans.
In a sense, this place of desolation becomes the moment when Israel realizes their lives are completely dependent on God. This is the moment when God’s liberation is made known. There is no escaping the storms which approach. Moses reminds them to look at the cloud -- not the threatening typhoon of destruction, but the cloud of God’s presence that encloses Israel (v. 19). The night passes, the morning comes, and God’s promise of relief is soon at hand.
Moses’ outstretched arm becomes the embodiment of God’s liberation.
The confusion of their rapid evacuation from Egypt, coupled with the panic of uncertainty, makes it difficult for the Hebrews to imagine life beyond the storm. It is an ugly moment, and a time when Israel discovers faith is not for the faint-hearted. Moses, probably not so sure himself, tries to stand in the gap, no doubt praying that God will do all that has been promised. Moses stretches out his hands, providing a powerful image of leadership that willingly faces both the chaos of the sea and the rapidly encroaching oppressor.
Then the always grumbling, anxious, and seemingly never quite convinced people believed. The time had come for them to leave. “So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”
When they are safely on the other side, they raise their voices in song: “Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power -- your right hand shattered the enemy” (Exodus 15:6) and “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders?” (15:11).
In the Sermon
It’s not easy to flee. Whether your home is in the eye of a hurricane or your life is oppressed by Pharaoh, stepping forth in faith is hard. In his Feasting on the Word theological commentary on this text, Sean White notes that “ ‘Let us alone’ could very well be the theme of scripture, for God’s people, more often than not, are determined to be self-determined” (“Proper 19,” in Feasting on the Word [Year A], Vol. 4).
Israel accepts the gift of liberation, only to find that the road ahead is treacherous. It’s a story we have watched unfold in the news: lines of cars, limited gasoline, worried parents, all wondering what is ahead. Israel watched as the waters swallowed up Pharaoh’s armies; Florida residents saw the flooding of Houston while also recalling the nightmare of Katrina.
The text offers a particularly troubling detail which deserves some consideration. Explaining why God would drown the sons of Egypt while allowing the children of Israel to pass is not an easy task, but it should not be ignored. Paying attention to the demise of Pharaoh’s army means we must somehow temper our victory songs just a bit, recalling that God’s heart breaks wherever human life is lost.
But it is also true that the song of the Hebrews celebrates the God who delivers. This is the God who breaks the rod of the oppressor, and who has heard the people crying. God is creating a community which -- at its best -- will be guided by a covenant of righteousness and justice. Like those who have watched as storms invaded their homes, the people of Israel were caught between life and death. As they walk through the waters, they become the people who know that God will be with them. They become the ones raised to new life.
A preacher could direct the ears of the congregation to the sort of songs evacuees are singing today. These songs include not only the celebratory choruses of those who have made it out alive, but also the laments of those who are mourning. While many Floridians had the privilege to flee, many in the Caribbean did not. Unable to leave, they remained as storms buffeted their homeland. The songs of those who endured the utter devastation wrought by Irma are also the songs we need to hear.
Miriam’s tambourine rings out a chorus for those all who have endured the floods of struggle. The songs and stories of those caught by Harvey, Irma, and now Jose offer an opportunity to reflect on what it means to seek God’s protection. Their songs capture the delicate balance between walking on dry land while also facing rising waters. A sermon that names these moments will allow songs of hope to heard afresh.
Additionally, the preacher who will lift up songs of lament as well as the choruses of praise will allow others to see the presence of God which stands with people even in the face of struggle. Such a sermon could ask: “When have we been summoned to trade the known for unknown? What is it like to flee our homes without even a blanket to warm ourselves?” This text leads us not only through the rising waters, but toward the never-failing presence of God in Jesus Christ.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Forgive and Forget
by Dean Feldmeyer
Genesis 50:15-21; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35
The first step toward authentic mental health is to forgive your parents. The second step is to forgive God.
We forgive our parents for all the mistakes they made while they were raising us.
We forgive God for not making the universe the way we would have made it if we would have been present and in charge at the time of creation.
I know, I know. I’ve read your posts on Facebook, and apparently some of you had parents who were perfect in every way: loving, kind, supportive, understanding, empathetic, all-knowing, all-loving, all-forgiving. They descended directly from the right hand of God for the sole purpose of making your life a virtual utopia of love and joy.
Most of us, however, were not so lucky. Most of us had human parents who made mistakes, who occasionally hit us too hard or punished us unjustly, who from time to time had unrealistic expectations of us, whose rules were sometimes a little draconian, who lost their tempers and said things they didn’t really mean (and later regretted), and who every now and then let their fear of what other people might think determine their parenting style.
Some of us had parents who today would be considered abusive, not because they were sadistic but because they came from an era when fear, intimidation, and the constant threat of physical pain were the accepted ways of raising a child. It’s what everyone did.
And some very few of us had parents who really were sadistic or addicted or mentally ill in ways that made our lives miserable.
And I also know that if we ever want to be healthy ourselves, one giant step in that direction is to acknowledge that the vast majority of our parents loved us the best they could with what they had -- and to thank them for that, to forgive them for the mistakes they made, and to love them for the good that they did and tried to do.
The second part, the part about forgiving God is a little dicier.
Many of us have been taught in Sunday school and from the pulpit that our job is to stoically accept whatever comes along as God’s will and not complain. But if we are really honest we will all admit that there are some things that God has built into the creation and allows to happen that would have gone by the wayside long ago if we were in charge.
Like innocent suffering, right? Most of us would take childhood cancer off the table, and while we’re at it, why not just take cancer off the table altogether, okay? And what about these huge storms that are bashing people, most of whom don’t deserve to be bashed? Is it really according to some divine plan that people lose their homes, their possessions, and sometimes their lives due to a hurricane, or, as in Mexico, from an earthquake?
So while we’re at it, let’s just take earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes off the table as well.
And war. War is gone. Crime. Violence of any kind, sickness and disease, injury, cold French fries, flat beer, lukewarm coffee, opera cream chocolates, and the designated hitter rule -- all gone.
But since we can’t do it, and God can but doesn’t seem inclined to, we have several choices.
We can decide that there must be no God, because if there was one he or she would have done things the way I would have done them. Or we can decide that there is a God, but that he/she is unworthy of our love (much less our praise) because things weren’t done in a way that pleases me. Or we can realize that God gave us the gift of participating in and directing the course of the evolution of our world that is still, as we speak, evolving.
We can thank and praise God for allowing us to help shape our own destiny, even when that shaping is sometimes painful for us. We can thank and love God for allowing us the freedom to choose to live in the paths of hurricanes and over the top of shifting tectonic plates. We can praise God that, in his love for us, God gave us the freedom to choose how fast we will drive, what we will eat, whether or not we will exercise, how we will work out our love for our kids and each other, and how the community in which we live will be formed and shaped.
In other words, we can forgive God for not making the world the way we would have made it -- because God actually is letting us decide how we will make it.
This week the lectionary offers us three passages which directly or indirectly deal with forgiveness.
In the Genesis text we see this very tender story about Joseph’s love for his brothers despite all they did to him and all he has suffered as a result.
At this point they have come to Egypt seeking relief from the famine, and they have not recognized him. Then he has revealed himself to them and sent them home to get their father and youngest brother and their families and come to Egypt. But when they get home they discover that their father, Jacob/Israel, has died, and they are afraid that if they tell Joseph that his father is dead he will be mad and have them thrown in prison for what they did to him.
They concoct a story to tell to Joseph that Jacob/Israel’s last wish was for Joseph to take care of his brothers and their families and to forgive them for the evil they had done to him. When they tell him this concocted story Joseph weeps, and upon seeing his tears they fall on the ground and weep and beg him for mercy.
Joseph reassures them that everything has turned out well and he will take care of them and their families, and the story closes with these words: “In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.”
They threw him in a drywell to die of thirst or starvation, then they fished him out and sold him into slavery to a passing band of nomads who sold him into slavery in Egypt. While there, he is framed by a woman and falsely accused of rape. He spends 11 years as a slave and two years in prison before finally being elevated to the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer or comptroller for the whole country of Egypt -- but in spite of all this, he forgives his brothers and embraces them and takes care of them and their families.
In the Romans passage we hear Paul pleading with the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians to ignore their differences, to be tolerant of each other’s practices, and to try to get along with each other.
Remember, the Jews (including Jewish Christians) were all expelled from Rome by the emperor Claudius in 49 CE. Five years later, when Claudius died and the order was rescinded, the Jewish Christians came back to find that the Gentile Christians (who had been in charge while the Jews were gone) had changed everything, especially all of the kosher requirements.
Now they were, figuratively speaking, at each other’s throats -- arguing, bickering, squabbling about who is right and who is wrong, whether it’s okay to eat pork, whether it’s okay to eat food that has been sacrificed to idols, whether it’s necessary to keep kosher at all.
Paul’s answer is that if it helps you be a follower of Christ to keep kosher, then by all means do so. But if you don’t need that discipline to follow our Lord, then that’s fine too. And try to live this in your daily lives. Love one another and learn to tolerate your differences.
Indirectly, Paul is talking about forgiveness. Jews, forgive the Gentiles who have changed things while you were gone. Gentiles, forgive the Jews for not foreswearing their Jewishness in order to stay and help you run the church.
The important thing is not what you eat or drink or what holidays you observe or don’t observe. The important thing is that when you eat you eat in honor of the Lord, and when you abstain from eating you abstain in honor of the Lord. In fact, he pushes it even further. The REALLY important thing is that we do everything in honor of the Lord, so that if we live or die we do so in honor of God as he comes to us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Matthew passage, Peter brings the issue of forgiveness right to the surface and prints it in bold letters. How many times should I forgive someone who does me wrong? Then he puts a number out there, a number that is symbolic of wholeness and completeness. How about seven times? That seems fair to me, even extravagant. Do you want me to forgive someone seven times before I draw a line in the sand?
Jesus responds with a number that is extravagant in extremis, even ridiculous. He says that he was thinking of a higher number. Like take that seven and add another 70 -- 77 times. So if seven is a full and complete number, a perfect number, how much more perfect, whole, and complete is 77? Exactly.
But 77? Really?
No, not really. Jesus’ point here is that we are not to keep track of how many times we have forgiven someone. We are to offer forgiveness that is extravagant to point of wastefulness, to the point of the ridiculous, to the point and beyond the point where logic and rationality go out the window and the only thing left in their place is kindness and love.
All of this, this love, this kindness, this gentleness, this forgiveness, is to be done without expectation of gain. We do it not because we’ll get something in return. Anyone who has lived more than a few years realizes that this is often not the case. We often don’t get anything in return.
We do it and forget it because we are disciples of Jesus Christ and we live by the grace of God that has been pronounced by him upon our lives, and this is what he wants us to do.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Genesis 50:15-21
Finding Family Again
Joseph and his brothers have a tearful reunion after a long separation, caused by their conflict with each other. Saroo Brierly also had a long-lost family, and found them again with a tool that Joseph’s brothers didn’t have -- Google Earth. It all started when “one day in 1987, 5-year-old Saroo Brierley spent the afternoon begging for change with his brother at a local train station. When it was time to go home, the boys boarded what they thought was the correct train. They were wrong. Exhausted, the young brothers fell asleep, only to wake up 10 hours later on the other side of India, hundreds of miles away from their family.” Brierly and his brother tried to find their way back to their parents, and his brother died at some point during their ordeal. Finally he was placed in an orphanage, and adopted by a couple from Tasmania.
Now an adult, Brierly “owns an industrial supplies store in Tasmania. But he never stopped thinking about his long-lost parents. In recent years, he started to remember the Khandwa train station where his journey began. And that’s where he started looking.” He used Google Earth and the bits and pieces of his childhood memories to look for towns around the train station. Finally, he could name his hometown: Ganesh Talai.
Using technology again, he joined a Facebook page for the town. He used the posts to piece together clues, and then finally bought a plane ticket to India. He walked the streets of the town until he located his family -- 25 years later. “To this day, I still can’t believe I managed to find my family, considering India’s population size and how young I was when I lost them,” Brierly told the Tasmanian publication The Mercury. “His mother says they searched endlessly for the boys, only to discover that one had died, with no leads regarding the other’s whereabouts. Fortune tellers assured her that one day her son would return. And he did.” We can only imagine the joy and mystery of their tearful reunion, so much like the one between Joseph and his brothers.
*****
Matthew 18:21-35
Unbelievable Forgiveness
When he was researching his book David and Goliath, writer Malcolm Gladwell says that he met a woman named Wilma Derksen. Thirty years ago, Derksen’s daughter Candace disappeared, and was missing for a week before her body was found. The police called Wilma and her husband Cliff in, and shared the awful news. As Gladwell tells it, the next step was a press conference. So many people had searched and prayed and hoped that they had to share the end result.
A reporter asked the seemingly silly question: “How do you feel about whoever did this to Candace?”
“We would like to know who the person or persons are so we could share, hopefully, a love that seems to be missing in these people’s lives,” Cliff said. Wilma added her thoughts. “Our main concern was to find Candace. We’ve found her.” She went on: “I can’t say at this point I forgive this person,” but the stress was on the phrase at this point. “We have all done something dreadful in our lives, or have felt the urge to.”
Malcolm Gladwell says that he was amazed by their strength, and he started to get interested in what he calls “weapons of the spirit.” He wanted to know where people get these gifts, and how they develop. He adds, “I was one of those people who did not appreciate the weapons of the spirit. I have always been someone attracted to the quantifiable and the physical.... I have always believed in God. I have grasped the logic of Christian faith. What I have had a hard time seeing is God’s power.”
Seeing this work of forgiveness was transforming for him. He continues: “I put that sentence in the past tense because something happened to me when I sat in Wilma Derksen’s garden. It is one thing to read in a history book about people empowered by their faith. But it is quite another to meet an otherwise very ordinary person, in the backyard of a very ordinary house, who has managed to do something utterly extraordinary.... Maybe we have difficulty seeing the weapons of the spirit because we don’t know where to look, or because we are distracted by the louder claims of material advantage. But I’ve seen them now, and I will never be the same.” Seeing the power of forgiveness was life-changing, even for this seasoned and experienced author.
*****
Matthew 18:21-35
Forgive Everybody?
Jesus calls for an unnatural, encompassing kind of forgiveness -- one beyond counting. People in Rwanda are struggling with the question of whether the perpetrators of the country’s horrific genocide can be forgiven. As Kenneth Miller reports, nearly 5,000 men serving long sentences for their crimes during the 1994 genocide are about to be released from prison in Rwanda. What kind of reception should they receive when they return to their communities?
The killing came by clubs and machetes, up close, and “for those still incarcerated, a peaceful return is far from certain. Their double-digit terms reflect the severity of their crimes and unwillingness to confess at trial. Many were exceptionally committed to what Rwandans now refer to as ‘genocide ideology.’ They’ll be re‑entering a society that has changed radically in their absence. Over the past two decades, this nation of 10 million has become one of Africa’s rare success stories, with a booming economy, rising levels of health and education, and a strict taboo on ethnic division. The flood of returnees could bring a raft of troubles, from an epidemic of domestic abuse to a revival of the Hutu Power movement.”
In Rwanda, the government took the lead in establishing justice, trying and imprisoning soldiers who participated in the ethnic cleansing. “In Rwanda, about 300,000 Tutsis survived the genocide; another 700,000 returned from exile.... [The government] proclaimed that Rwandans must learn to live again as one people; they formed a coalition government with Hutu opposition figures, and outlawed all forms of discrimination. Among societies that have experienced genocide, such an effort at reconciling perpetrators and survivors was unprecedented. ‘No one else has attempted it,’ observes Philip Gourevitch, whose We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families (1998) is among the definitive books on recent Rwandan history. ‘Nobody has even come close.’ ” To do this, a whole nation would need to forgive. “Rwandans would have to move beyond a grudging coexistence. True unity would require a kind of psycho-spiritual sacrifice from the offender as well as the offended. After paying at least part of his debt to society, the perpetrator would be encouraged to request forgiveness; the survivor would be encouraged to grant it.”
Forgiving one person is hard enough. Forgiving a whole group of murders and rapists is unprecedented. The nation of Rwanda is living through a decades-long experiment in the outer boundaries of forgiveness.
*****
Matthew 18:21-35
Teaching Kids about Forgiveness
Most parents insist that kids apologize when they do something wrong, but new research suggests that forgiveness is an equally important lesson. “Plenty has been written about the positive effects of forgiveness on adults. Studies show that the act of forgiving someone can make us grown-ups happier, healthier, and more connected. Major self-help systems, like Alcoholics Anonymous, prize forgiveness as an essential key to healing and living a productive life. As we understand better what it means to forgive, we’re also starting to understand more about the role forgiveness plays in the lives of our children.”
Researchers suggest that adults teach the skills of forgiveness to children by doing these things:
* Model forgiveness for children in your own life. Talk explicitly about when and why you forgive others and tell them clearly when you are forgiving them for something. Point out examples of the complexities of relationships and the role forgiveness plays in maintaining them.
* Help kids through the steps of forgiveness. When a child is wronged, walk them through the process of acknowledging that harm was done and sitting with those nasty feelings for a bit; then, make sure they share their concerns with someone else -- like a parent or another friend -- before moving on. Help them see that it’s okay to feel hurt, and identify people they can talk to.
* Teach kids what forgiveness really means. When processing problems, explain to children that forgiveness is something we do not only for others but also for ourselves, so that we can let go of our anger and make space for more enjoyable feelings. When kids forgive, they aren’t condoning the harm done, but choosing to move past it.
This is a spiritual skill we can learn early in life, and practice at any age.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Exodus 14:19-31
Christian actor, speaker, and evangelist Kirk Cameron was waiting for his flight to leave Orlando and the impending doom of Hurricane Irma when he had a revelation. He would make a video to interpret why two major hurricanes struck the United States almost simultaneously -- Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. Cameron concluded that it could not just be “Mother Nature in a bad mood” or a “statistical anomaly” or just a plain “coincidence.” Cameron recorded, “When he [God] puts his power on display, it’s never without a reason.” According to Cameron, Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma are a call to “repentance” for our nation.
Application: Christians so often misinterpret life events, and confuse them with a vengeful, judgmental God.
*****
Exodus 14:19-31
Robert Schuller, who at one time was regarded as the most famous preacher in America, was a strong advocate of the prosperity gospel. Schuller also held the theological conviction that in creation God intended every creature to dwell in a natural habitat. Birds were to live in the air and fish in the sea. And man and woman, from their placement in the garden of Eden, had a garden as their natural habitat. Human beings, according to Schuller, were to naturally reside in gardens. This is why when he built his Crystal Cathedral, it was to resemble a garden. The cathedral itself represented a giant greenhouse to house the garden.
Application: Schuller did not understand the message of what it meant to lead people to the promised land. It was a land of liberation and freedom, not a land of rolling waters and pristine greenery.
*****
Exodus 14:19-31
When President Trump decided to change the policy for children known as “Dreamers,” former president Barack Obama called it “wrong” and “cruel.” Dreamers are children who were not born in the United States, but who were brought here at a young age by illegal immigrants. These children, as illegals, are subject to deportation, which Trump wanted to initiate immediately -- but then gave a six-month reprieve. According to Obama these children know only one country, and that is the United States. This, through “no fault of their own,” is their country. Obama said, “Ultimately, this is about basic decency.”
Application: Joseph’s brothers understood cruelty.
*****
Exodus 14:19-31
When I was a Virginia state trooper, I would often make an arrest in a man’s driveway. The driver would be so intent at looking at the road in front of him, keeping the car in control at his high rate of speed or to keep it straight and between the lines because he was inebriated, that he never saw my flashing red lights to his rear. It was only when he parked in his driveway and got out of his vehicle that he saw me parked behind him. To make matters worse, at this point, as the expression goes, the “old lady” was now standing on the porch watching the arrest. But what was even sadder is his children were watching their father being placed in handcuffs in their own front yard.
Application: Joseph’s brothers understood judgment.
*****
Exodus 14:19-31
Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn recently wrote a memoir titled Finding Magic: A Spiritual Memoir. In her book, she recounts that when her son Quinn was born, it was uncertain if he would survive. Sally took off all the child’s clothes and licked and kissed his entire body “like a mother lion licking her cub.” Sally went on to write: “I wanted to have his taste in my mouth forever if anything happened to him.” The night before her husband Ben Bradlee died, she repeated the same ordeal. Now, after Ben’s death, Sally sleeps every night in the t-shirt he wore when he died.
Application: The story of Joseph is a story of family love.
*****
Romans 14:1-12
A controversy presently engulfing the country is the removal of statues honoring leaders of the Confederacy. The Washington National Cathedral has just decided to remove two stained-glass windows honoring Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The 4' x 6' windows were installed in 1953. About the decision to remove the windows, Gary Hall, the former dean of the cathedral, said: “While the impetus behind the windows’ installation was a good and noble one at the time, the cathedral has changed, and so has the America it seeks to represent.”
Application: We must always be clear about our motivations and be willing to re-evaluate our positions.
*****
Romans 14:1-12
A controversy presently engulfing the country is the removal of statues honoring leaders of the Confederacy. The Washington National Cathedral has just decided to remove two stained-glass windows honoring Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The 4' x 6' windows were installed in 1953. The committee that was commissioned to study the appropriateness of keeping the windows concluded “that these windows are not only inconsistent with our current mission to serve as a house of prayer for all people, but also [serve] as a barrier to our important work on racial justice and racial reconciliation.”
Application: We need to be clear on what our Christian mission is.
*****
Romans 14:1-12
Joel Osteen, the pastor of the Lakewood Church in Houston, is internationally known for his preaching of the prosperity gospel. It is a message that he recounts in every sermon and every book: if you just have the right positive thoughts, then health, wealth, and happiness will be yours. This, Osteen repeats, is your destiny. The Sunday after Hurricane Harvey destroyed thousands and thousands of Houston-area homes and businesses, some of which will be covered in water above their rooftops for over a month, Osteen promised prosperity to the destitute and the forsaken. Osteen said that God is going to “pay back” every victim what they lost in the storm. Osteen said God is working “behind the scenes” right now to “turn the situation around” and restore everyone once more.
Application: It would appear that the families who lived in the ninth ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina would be interested in having Osteen define “pay back,” for it certainly does not refer to restored communities as he implies. For Osteen to preach a message of prosperity when people need a message of comfort is an abomination of the gospel. This is why Paul says we must protect the weak in faith from charlatans like smiling Joel Osteen.
*****
Romans 14:1-12
Rev. Bill Shillady sent Hillary Clinton an e-mail every morning during the 2016 presidential campaign with an encouraging and inspiring message to keep her motivated. Because of his special spiritual relationship with the former first lady, senator, secretary of state, and presidential candidate, Shillady decided to publish the meditations in a book titled Strong for a Moment Like This. After it was discovered that the meditation Shillady wrote after Clinton’s loss was plagiarized, he received some criticism -- which was followed by an apology by Shillady for a lack of judgment. But then the editors of Abingdon Press (which published the book) embarked upon an investigation of all the meditations, only to discover that almost every one that Shillady wrote was plagiarized. Abingdon stopped printing the book and withdrew every published copy.
Application: We need to protect the weak in faith from charlatans.
*****
Matthew 18:21-35
Paula White is the leader of the megachurch New Destiny Christian Center in Orlando. She has also known Donald Trump for over 16 years, and is considered his chief spiritual advisor. White visits Trump once every several weeks. White, who luxurious lifestyle reflects her prosperity gospel message, is the chairperson of President Trump’s informal evangelical advisory board. When asked by reporters how Trump, who said during his campaign that he has never asked for forgiveness and doesn’t need to ask for it, could consider himself a confessing Christian, White responded that Trump “understands repentance,” and Trump is “a person of repentance.” White went on to say: “I know on a very private level this is a man of repentance.” White claimed pastoral confidentiality in not revealing what Donald Trump has repented from. Paula White would not answer the obvious follow-up question by reporters to explain the discrepancy between the public and private Trump -- the discrepancy between what Trump says in public and what White says to be true in private.
Application: Repentance is the cornerstone of our Christian faith.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Bless God, O my soul, and all that is within me bless God’s holy name.
People: Bless God, O my soul, and do not forget all God’s benefits.
Leader: It is God who forgives all our iniquity, who heals all our diseases.
People: It is God who redeems our life from the Pit.
Leader: It is God who crowns us with steadfast love and mercy.
People: It is God who satisfies us with good throughout our lives.
OR
Leader: The God of love and grace calls us to gather today.
People: We come to worship our wondrous God.
Leader: God loves us and offers us forgiveness for all our sins.
People: We know our sins and humbly receive God’s forgiveness.
Leader: God’s forgiveness is for all the citizens of earth.
People: We will share God’s grace by offering forgiveness freely.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“O God, Our Help in Ages Past”
found in:
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELA: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT: 281
“Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”
found in:
UMH: 127
H82: 690
PH: 281
AAHH: 138, 139, 140
NNBH: 232
NCH: 18, 19
CH: 622
LBW: 343
ELA: 618
W&P: 501
AMEC: 52, 53, 65
“Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive”
found in:
UMH: 390
H82: 674
PH: 347
LBW: 307
ELA: 605
W&P: 382
Renew: 184
“Go Down, Moses”
found in:
UMH: 448
PH: 334
AAHH: 543
NNBH: 490
CH: 663
LBW: 618
“Where Charity and Love Prevail”
found in:
UMH: 549
H82: 581
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELA: 359
“Help Us Accept Each Other”
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
“Pass It On”
found in:
UMH: 572
NNBH: 417
CH: 477
W&P: 557
“Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service”
found in:
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELA: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
“Make Me a Servant”
found in:
CCB: 90
“You Are Mine”
found in:
CCB: 58
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is gracious and forgiving: Grant us such a sure knowledge of your forgiveness
that we are able to forgive others; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for your gracious love that offers forgiveness so freely. We pray that we may truly know that forgiveness in our lives so that we are able to forgive others. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to show mercy and forgiveness to others.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have gladly received your love and grace and the kindness of others, and yet we so often fail to share that love with others. We think about ourselves and what it will cost us to help others. We forget about the times others have sacrificed for us. Forgive our selfish ways, and empower us with your Spirit to reach out in mercy, love, and forgiveness to others. Amen.
Leader: God’s mercy is always ready for us to receive and for us to pass on to others.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for your great compassion that calls us out of our bondage. We praise you for your great mercy and love that you show to all your creatures.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have gladly received your love and grace and the kindness of others, and yet we so often fail to share that love with others. We think about ourselves and what it will cost us to help others. We forget about the times others have sacrificed for us. Forgive our selfish ways, and empower us with your Spirit to reach out in mercy, love, and forgiveness to others.
We thank you for all the ways in which your grace and love are made known to us. You shower us with blessings beyond counting. You are with us in all the ups and downs of life.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. Our hearts are heavy with knowledge of so many who need your loving care this day. As you move among them with your healing presence, empower us to be your hands, feet, and voice as we share their burdens.
(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
Share with the children a favorite object you have. Talk about how you would not want to lose it. If you needed to move, you would really make sure you took it. Ask them if they have special objects like that: a teddy bear, a doll, a video game. Talk about how the Israelites had to pack up in a hurry and leave. It must have been hard for them. Talk about those who have had to flee from the hurricanes. Some of them probably didn’t have time to get the things they wanted to take. We should pray for them.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Exodus 14:19-31
(Greet the children and welcome them.)
I want to talk a bit about events that have been happening in the world lately. There have been some pretty big things happening in nature.
Have you seen pictures or heard about some of the things going on? (Encourage children to name what they’ve seen or heard.)
There have been BIG hurricanes in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, and across the Caribbean. There was a strong earthquake in Mexico. In the West there are many forest fires. There was even a big lightning storm in California... California hardly ever gets thunder and lightning storms!
Sometimes when we hear about events like these we get a little scared... or maybe we get very scared! When I hear about these, I wonder why so many scary events seem to be happening all at once.
In our Bible story today (tell the story), a BIG natural event happened for God’s people as they were “exiting” slavery in Egypt. (The Bible story is called the “Exodus” in part because of this event.) As the Israelites were leaving Egypt, where they had been slaves for many years, they headed out to the desert. They found themselves on the edge of the Red Sea. Pharaoh’s army was coming behind them to take them back to Egypt, and the sea was in front of them.
Do you think the people might have been a little scared? Maybe even A LOT scared?!?
Then, an AMAZING thing happened!
God told Moses to hold up his hand -- stretching it out toward the sea -- and immediately the waters parted! Dry land opened up right in front of the Israelites. Quickly they ran across the dry land. They could see the water on both sides. Pharaoh’s army -- horses and chariots -- was coming up fast! As God would have it, the people made it across the sea safely. God helped them get through to get to freedom.
How do you think the Israelites felt when they were safe on the other side of the sea? Do you think they were still scared?
The people had to face a scary event. But no matter how afraid they were, God was with them -- in the middle of it all -- helping them get through it.
I think about this event when I see or hear about scary stories in nature: floods, fires, hurricanes, thunderstorms, earthquakes.
No matter how scary the scene is, no matter how scared you or I get, God is right there with us -- and not just with us, God is with each person going through the scary event.
God doesn’t take away the scary event, but God doesn’t leave us to face it alone. God stands right there with us to help us get through it.
Even when I am the most scared, I know that God doesn’t leave me alone.
Prayer: Creator God, you are stronger than any thunderstorm or hurricane. You are closer to us than any raindrop or gust of wind. We thank you for being with each of your children to help when they are most afraid. Help and protect the people who lived through the hurricanes, fires, and earthquakes. Let them know your presence and strength. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, September 17, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 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 Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on this week’s lectionary readings and the theme of forgiveness. It’s human nature, Dean observes, for us to nurse grudges -- but this week’s texts stress the importance of forgiveness... and that inevitably involves looking beyond the slights and unfair travails we may have experienced. Jesus suggests that we forgive extravagantly and infinitely; but as Dean points out, we know we will be on the path to true forgiveness when we are able to forgive our parents... and God.
Singing Songs and Rising Waters
by Chris Keating
Exodus 14:19-31
(Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21)
Florida Governor Rick Scott didn’t mince his words when talking about Hurricane Irma’s impending arrival. Don’t think about leaving, he told millions of Floridians, just go.
“If you have been ordered to evacuate, you need to leave now,” he said. “Do not wait. Evacuate. Not tonight, not in an hour. You need to go right now.”
Scott’s orders signaled what could become known as the largest mass evacuation in United States history. Nearly six million Floridians hit the roads last week, anxiously creeping north to avoid Irma’s unwelcomed visit to their state. “This a storm that will kill you if you don’t get out of the way,” National Hurricane Center meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said. “Everybody’s going to feel this one.”
Like the Israelites fleeing Egypt, the mass exodus from Florida was a mixture of panic and creativity. A man from Atlanta tried everything to get his mother and elderly grandfather out of their home in West Palm Beach. Between cancelled flights and sold-out rental cars, Tony Marcellus was running out of options.
Not unlike Moses, Marcellus was faced with pending doom on one hand and anxious family on the other. In the end, he didn’t stretch out his arms to part the waters. He tried a more modern approach and called Uber. The ride-sharing service drove Marcellus’ mom and grandfather 170 miles north to Orlando. “I have peace of mind now,” said Marcellus’ mother, Celine Jean. “I’ve been worried sick for days.”
For many, those worries will continue in the days and weeks ahead. Long after the wind and rains have stopped, the long process of assessing damage and rebuilding will begin. For those impacted by Irma, the journey home will be long.
Exodus offers another story of evacuees on the run. Those fleeing Egypt were also anxious and scared, caught on a journey of uncertainty. Their panic rose as they witnessed water on one side and Pharaoh’s troops on the other. Like the millions fleeing Irma, they were exhausted and confused. Was this the answer to their prayers?
Moses’ outstretched arms delivered the promise of God. Soon they were singing songs of praise. When the waters are rising, it’s good to know that God goes with you.
In the News
Irma certainly knew how to make an entrance. While the monstrous storm had been downgraded from a Level 5 hurricane after passing over several Caribbean islands and leaving catastrophic destruction in its wake, the hurricane still packed a mean punch, pulling down power lines and palm trees, and creating havoc. As the sun rose on Monday, residents began assessing damage that seemed to cover nearly the entire state of Florida.
On Monday, it also became clear why large-scale evacuations may have prevented large numbers of casualties. About 6.5 million Florida residents -- nearly 75 percent of the customers of the state’s largest electrical utility -- woke up without power. While Tampa seemed to have been spared record storm surge, many streets in Miami were under water. Meanwhile, much of the Florida Keys, where Irma first made her Florida appearance, remained cut off from the mainland. Downgraded from hurricane status yet still mighty, Irma continued her march across the state, causing record-setting flooding in Jacksonville, and creating tornado warnings from Daytona Beach northward to Georgia.
Throughout the weekend, curfews in Tampa kept the residents who remained in the area off the street. On Monday, Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn expressed gratitude that that Irma had not completely knocked out his city. “It was a glancing blow,” he said. “We are still standing. I think when dawn comes and the lights come on we will find we were very, very lucky last night.”
The dawning of morning is always a reminder of hope, even in the eye of the storm.
Not everyone heeded the governor’s advice to leave. Florida Director of Emergency Management Bryan Koon estimated that as many as 10,000 people remained in the Florida Keys throughout the storm. “Unfortunately, you start to hear stories of folks that stayed in houses that shouldn’t.... We’re hearing of folks that stayed in boats.”
Others, like Tampa Bay resident Jessica Brightman, an employee of the University of South Florida, made their plans based on the storm’s original projections. Brightman had initially decided to ride out the storm with her parents in their Naples, Florida home. Forecasts had predicted that Irma would move east, leaving Naples out of the path of a direct hit. But hurricanes can be fickle. Irma changed directions on Sunday, forcing Brightman’s family to seek shelter at the very last minute. She documented her experience as an evacuee for ABC News.
Before heading to the shelter, Brightman reflected on her family’s choice to try and shelter in place:
Even with all the hurricane monitoring storms can still be very unpredictable, and getting in the car just driving from place to place trying to avoid the storm only causes more chaos. Naples is an evacuation zone, but at this point it’s better to stay and shelter in place rather than driving around to different emergency shelters that are all at capacity. Some parts of Collier County are even going to be under a tornado watch as well, so you’re either combating the wind or the water or both.
It has definitely been a long week, with a high-anxiety weekend ahead. And it does not help to have friends and family who live in a different state calling you to give “shoulda-coulda-woulda” advice. There are numerous factors that must be taken into consideration when preparing for a hurricane and/or evacuating, and that extra stress is the last thing Floridians need at the moment.
The storm’s force made it clear that leaving home for one of the city’s impromptu shelters was advisable. While her family arrived with pillows, blankets, snacks, and baby wipes (“I knew showers wouldn’t be much of an option this weekend,” she said), others arrived with nothing. An elderly couple showed up without blankets or bedding. By then, Brightman knew evacuating had been a wise decision, even as tensions among evacuees grew.
“People are definitely getting antsy around the shelter,” she blogged, noting that people were leaving the shelter against the advice of law enforcement. “But it’s better to be safe than sorry with pitch-black roads and who knows how much water on them.”
For others, even a brief taste of shelter life was sufficient to convince them to heed advice to evacuate in the event of future hurricanes. Claudia Smith and Gary Bishop returned to their Clearwater mobile home on Monday, thankful to discover their home intact. Still, they declared their plans would be different next time. Cracking open an early-morning beer, the two told a reporter of their experience sleeping in a school cafeteria.
“I will never go through the experience of going in a shelter ever again,” Smith said. “It was like being in a mental institution. Sleeping on the floor, a bunch of people around you.”
Freed from their shelter, they knew the storm had passed over. The mighty wind was gone, and a new day had arrived.
In the Scriptures
Exodus narrates Israel’s new creation, telling the story of a people fleeing oppression and calamity for a promised land flowing with abundance. Yet the evacuation barely gets underway when anxiety and fear spread like measles among the people. Pharaoh, realizing the economic consequences of releasing his slaves, deploys an army to pursue them. Chariots fly across the desert.
At the sound of hoof beats, “the Israelites looked back” (14:10). It’s a critical juncture: like families wrestling with decisions to flee home and hearth, the Israelites cry out in fear. They are caught between the devil and the deep-blue sea, paralyzed in fear. Moses does his best to encourage the evacuees, reminding them: “Do not be afraid; stand firm” (14:13).
What do you do in those moments when the storm surges on one side and certain death gallops closer on the other? In looking back, the Israelites choose to ignore Moses’ admonition to move forward. “Was it not because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” they cry (14:11). Yet God has other plans.
In a sense, this place of desolation becomes the moment when Israel realizes their lives are completely dependent on God. This is the moment when God’s liberation is made known. There is no escaping the storms which approach. Moses reminds them to look at the cloud -- not the threatening typhoon of destruction, but the cloud of God’s presence that encloses Israel (v. 19). The night passes, the morning comes, and God’s promise of relief is soon at hand.
Moses’ outstretched arm becomes the embodiment of God’s liberation.
The confusion of their rapid evacuation from Egypt, coupled with the panic of uncertainty, makes it difficult for the Hebrews to imagine life beyond the storm. It is an ugly moment, and a time when Israel discovers faith is not for the faint-hearted. Moses, probably not so sure himself, tries to stand in the gap, no doubt praying that God will do all that has been promised. Moses stretches out his hands, providing a powerful image of leadership that willingly faces both the chaos of the sea and the rapidly encroaching oppressor.
Then the always grumbling, anxious, and seemingly never quite convinced people believed. The time had come for them to leave. “So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”
When they are safely on the other side, they raise their voices in song: “Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power -- your right hand shattered the enemy” (Exodus 15:6) and “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders?” (15:11).
In the Sermon
It’s not easy to flee. Whether your home is in the eye of a hurricane or your life is oppressed by Pharaoh, stepping forth in faith is hard. In his Feasting on the Word theological commentary on this text, Sean White notes that “ ‘Let us alone’ could very well be the theme of scripture, for God’s people, more often than not, are determined to be self-determined” (“Proper 19,” in Feasting on the Word [Year A], Vol. 4).
Israel accepts the gift of liberation, only to find that the road ahead is treacherous. It’s a story we have watched unfold in the news: lines of cars, limited gasoline, worried parents, all wondering what is ahead. Israel watched as the waters swallowed up Pharaoh’s armies; Florida residents saw the flooding of Houston while also recalling the nightmare of Katrina.
The text offers a particularly troubling detail which deserves some consideration. Explaining why God would drown the sons of Egypt while allowing the children of Israel to pass is not an easy task, but it should not be ignored. Paying attention to the demise of Pharaoh’s army means we must somehow temper our victory songs just a bit, recalling that God’s heart breaks wherever human life is lost.
But it is also true that the song of the Hebrews celebrates the God who delivers. This is the God who breaks the rod of the oppressor, and who has heard the people crying. God is creating a community which -- at its best -- will be guided by a covenant of righteousness and justice. Like those who have watched as storms invaded their homes, the people of Israel were caught between life and death. As they walk through the waters, they become the people who know that God will be with them. They become the ones raised to new life.
A preacher could direct the ears of the congregation to the sort of songs evacuees are singing today. These songs include not only the celebratory choruses of those who have made it out alive, but also the laments of those who are mourning. While many Floridians had the privilege to flee, many in the Caribbean did not. Unable to leave, they remained as storms buffeted their homeland. The songs of those who endured the utter devastation wrought by Irma are also the songs we need to hear.
Miriam’s tambourine rings out a chorus for those all who have endured the floods of struggle. The songs and stories of those caught by Harvey, Irma, and now Jose offer an opportunity to reflect on what it means to seek God’s protection. Their songs capture the delicate balance between walking on dry land while also facing rising waters. A sermon that names these moments will allow songs of hope to heard afresh.
Additionally, the preacher who will lift up songs of lament as well as the choruses of praise will allow others to see the presence of God which stands with people even in the face of struggle. Such a sermon could ask: “When have we been summoned to trade the known for unknown? What is it like to flee our homes without even a blanket to warm ourselves?” This text leads us not only through the rising waters, but toward the never-failing presence of God in Jesus Christ.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Forgive and Forget
by Dean Feldmeyer
Genesis 50:15-21; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35
The first step toward authentic mental health is to forgive your parents. The second step is to forgive God.
We forgive our parents for all the mistakes they made while they were raising us.
We forgive God for not making the universe the way we would have made it if we would have been present and in charge at the time of creation.
I know, I know. I’ve read your posts on Facebook, and apparently some of you had parents who were perfect in every way: loving, kind, supportive, understanding, empathetic, all-knowing, all-loving, all-forgiving. They descended directly from the right hand of God for the sole purpose of making your life a virtual utopia of love and joy.
Most of us, however, were not so lucky. Most of us had human parents who made mistakes, who occasionally hit us too hard or punished us unjustly, who from time to time had unrealistic expectations of us, whose rules were sometimes a little draconian, who lost their tempers and said things they didn’t really mean (and later regretted), and who every now and then let their fear of what other people might think determine their parenting style.
Some of us had parents who today would be considered abusive, not because they were sadistic but because they came from an era when fear, intimidation, and the constant threat of physical pain were the accepted ways of raising a child. It’s what everyone did.
And some very few of us had parents who really were sadistic or addicted or mentally ill in ways that made our lives miserable.
And I also know that if we ever want to be healthy ourselves, one giant step in that direction is to acknowledge that the vast majority of our parents loved us the best they could with what they had -- and to thank them for that, to forgive them for the mistakes they made, and to love them for the good that they did and tried to do.
The second part, the part about forgiving God is a little dicier.
Many of us have been taught in Sunday school and from the pulpit that our job is to stoically accept whatever comes along as God’s will and not complain. But if we are really honest we will all admit that there are some things that God has built into the creation and allows to happen that would have gone by the wayside long ago if we were in charge.
Like innocent suffering, right? Most of us would take childhood cancer off the table, and while we’re at it, why not just take cancer off the table altogether, okay? And what about these huge storms that are bashing people, most of whom don’t deserve to be bashed? Is it really according to some divine plan that people lose their homes, their possessions, and sometimes their lives due to a hurricane, or, as in Mexico, from an earthquake?
So while we’re at it, let’s just take earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes off the table as well.
And war. War is gone. Crime. Violence of any kind, sickness and disease, injury, cold French fries, flat beer, lukewarm coffee, opera cream chocolates, and the designated hitter rule -- all gone.
But since we can’t do it, and God can but doesn’t seem inclined to, we have several choices.
We can decide that there must be no God, because if there was one he or she would have done things the way I would have done them. Or we can decide that there is a God, but that he/she is unworthy of our love (much less our praise) because things weren’t done in a way that pleases me. Or we can realize that God gave us the gift of participating in and directing the course of the evolution of our world that is still, as we speak, evolving.
We can thank and praise God for allowing us to help shape our own destiny, even when that shaping is sometimes painful for us. We can thank and love God for allowing us the freedom to choose to live in the paths of hurricanes and over the top of shifting tectonic plates. We can praise God that, in his love for us, God gave us the freedom to choose how fast we will drive, what we will eat, whether or not we will exercise, how we will work out our love for our kids and each other, and how the community in which we live will be formed and shaped.
In other words, we can forgive God for not making the world the way we would have made it -- because God actually is letting us decide how we will make it.
This week the lectionary offers us three passages which directly or indirectly deal with forgiveness.
In the Genesis text we see this very tender story about Joseph’s love for his brothers despite all they did to him and all he has suffered as a result.
At this point they have come to Egypt seeking relief from the famine, and they have not recognized him. Then he has revealed himself to them and sent them home to get their father and youngest brother and their families and come to Egypt. But when they get home they discover that their father, Jacob/Israel, has died, and they are afraid that if they tell Joseph that his father is dead he will be mad and have them thrown in prison for what they did to him.
They concoct a story to tell to Joseph that Jacob/Israel’s last wish was for Joseph to take care of his brothers and their families and to forgive them for the evil they had done to him. When they tell him this concocted story Joseph weeps, and upon seeing his tears they fall on the ground and weep and beg him for mercy.
Joseph reassures them that everything has turned out well and he will take care of them and their families, and the story closes with these words: “In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.”
They threw him in a drywell to die of thirst or starvation, then they fished him out and sold him into slavery to a passing band of nomads who sold him into slavery in Egypt. While there, he is framed by a woman and falsely accused of rape. He spends 11 years as a slave and two years in prison before finally being elevated to the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer or comptroller for the whole country of Egypt -- but in spite of all this, he forgives his brothers and embraces them and takes care of them and their families.
In the Romans passage we hear Paul pleading with the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians to ignore their differences, to be tolerant of each other’s practices, and to try to get along with each other.
Remember, the Jews (including Jewish Christians) were all expelled from Rome by the emperor Claudius in 49 CE. Five years later, when Claudius died and the order was rescinded, the Jewish Christians came back to find that the Gentile Christians (who had been in charge while the Jews were gone) had changed everything, especially all of the kosher requirements.
Now they were, figuratively speaking, at each other’s throats -- arguing, bickering, squabbling about who is right and who is wrong, whether it’s okay to eat pork, whether it’s okay to eat food that has been sacrificed to idols, whether it’s necessary to keep kosher at all.
Paul’s answer is that if it helps you be a follower of Christ to keep kosher, then by all means do so. But if you don’t need that discipline to follow our Lord, then that’s fine too. And try to live this in your daily lives. Love one another and learn to tolerate your differences.
Indirectly, Paul is talking about forgiveness. Jews, forgive the Gentiles who have changed things while you were gone. Gentiles, forgive the Jews for not foreswearing their Jewishness in order to stay and help you run the church.
The important thing is not what you eat or drink or what holidays you observe or don’t observe. The important thing is that when you eat you eat in honor of the Lord, and when you abstain from eating you abstain in honor of the Lord. In fact, he pushes it even further. The REALLY important thing is that we do everything in honor of the Lord, so that if we live or die we do so in honor of God as he comes to us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Matthew passage, Peter brings the issue of forgiveness right to the surface and prints it in bold letters. How many times should I forgive someone who does me wrong? Then he puts a number out there, a number that is symbolic of wholeness and completeness. How about seven times? That seems fair to me, even extravagant. Do you want me to forgive someone seven times before I draw a line in the sand?
Jesus responds with a number that is extravagant in extremis, even ridiculous. He says that he was thinking of a higher number. Like take that seven and add another 70 -- 77 times. So if seven is a full and complete number, a perfect number, how much more perfect, whole, and complete is 77? Exactly.
But 77? Really?
No, not really. Jesus’ point here is that we are not to keep track of how many times we have forgiven someone. We are to offer forgiveness that is extravagant to point of wastefulness, to the point of the ridiculous, to the point and beyond the point where logic and rationality go out the window and the only thing left in their place is kindness and love.
All of this, this love, this kindness, this gentleness, this forgiveness, is to be done without expectation of gain. We do it not because we’ll get something in return. Anyone who has lived more than a few years realizes that this is often not the case. We often don’t get anything in return.
We do it and forget it because we are disciples of Jesus Christ and we live by the grace of God that has been pronounced by him upon our lives, and this is what he wants us to do.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Genesis 50:15-21
Finding Family Again
Joseph and his brothers have a tearful reunion after a long separation, caused by their conflict with each other. Saroo Brierly also had a long-lost family, and found them again with a tool that Joseph’s brothers didn’t have -- Google Earth. It all started when “one day in 1987, 5-year-old Saroo Brierley spent the afternoon begging for change with his brother at a local train station. When it was time to go home, the boys boarded what they thought was the correct train. They were wrong. Exhausted, the young brothers fell asleep, only to wake up 10 hours later on the other side of India, hundreds of miles away from their family.” Brierly and his brother tried to find their way back to their parents, and his brother died at some point during their ordeal. Finally he was placed in an orphanage, and adopted by a couple from Tasmania.
Now an adult, Brierly “owns an industrial supplies store in Tasmania. But he never stopped thinking about his long-lost parents. In recent years, he started to remember the Khandwa train station where his journey began. And that’s where he started looking.” He used Google Earth and the bits and pieces of his childhood memories to look for towns around the train station. Finally, he could name his hometown: Ganesh Talai.
Using technology again, he joined a Facebook page for the town. He used the posts to piece together clues, and then finally bought a plane ticket to India. He walked the streets of the town until he located his family -- 25 years later. “To this day, I still can’t believe I managed to find my family, considering India’s population size and how young I was when I lost them,” Brierly told the Tasmanian publication The Mercury. “His mother says they searched endlessly for the boys, only to discover that one had died, with no leads regarding the other’s whereabouts. Fortune tellers assured her that one day her son would return. And he did.” We can only imagine the joy and mystery of their tearful reunion, so much like the one between Joseph and his brothers.
*****
Matthew 18:21-35
Unbelievable Forgiveness
When he was researching his book David and Goliath, writer Malcolm Gladwell says that he met a woman named Wilma Derksen. Thirty years ago, Derksen’s daughter Candace disappeared, and was missing for a week before her body was found. The police called Wilma and her husband Cliff in, and shared the awful news. As Gladwell tells it, the next step was a press conference. So many people had searched and prayed and hoped that they had to share the end result.
A reporter asked the seemingly silly question: “How do you feel about whoever did this to Candace?”
“We would like to know who the person or persons are so we could share, hopefully, a love that seems to be missing in these people’s lives,” Cliff said. Wilma added her thoughts. “Our main concern was to find Candace. We’ve found her.” She went on: “I can’t say at this point I forgive this person,” but the stress was on the phrase at this point. “We have all done something dreadful in our lives, or have felt the urge to.”
Malcolm Gladwell says that he was amazed by their strength, and he started to get interested in what he calls “weapons of the spirit.” He wanted to know where people get these gifts, and how they develop. He adds, “I was one of those people who did not appreciate the weapons of the spirit. I have always been someone attracted to the quantifiable and the physical.... I have always believed in God. I have grasped the logic of Christian faith. What I have had a hard time seeing is God’s power.”
Seeing this work of forgiveness was transforming for him. He continues: “I put that sentence in the past tense because something happened to me when I sat in Wilma Derksen’s garden. It is one thing to read in a history book about people empowered by their faith. But it is quite another to meet an otherwise very ordinary person, in the backyard of a very ordinary house, who has managed to do something utterly extraordinary.... Maybe we have difficulty seeing the weapons of the spirit because we don’t know where to look, or because we are distracted by the louder claims of material advantage. But I’ve seen them now, and I will never be the same.” Seeing the power of forgiveness was life-changing, even for this seasoned and experienced author.
*****
Matthew 18:21-35
Forgive Everybody?
Jesus calls for an unnatural, encompassing kind of forgiveness -- one beyond counting. People in Rwanda are struggling with the question of whether the perpetrators of the country’s horrific genocide can be forgiven. As Kenneth Miller reports, nearly 5,000 men serving long sentences for their crimes during the 1994 genocide are about to be released from prison in Rwanda. What kind of reception should they receive when they return to their communities?
The killing came by clubs and machetes, up close, and “for those still incarcerated, a peaceful return is far from certain. Their double-digit terms reflect the severity of their crimes and unwillingness to confess at trial. Many were exceptionally committed to what Rwandans now refer to as ‘genocide ideology.’ They’ll be re‑entering a society that has changed radically in their absence. Over the past two decades, this nation of 10 million has become one of Africa’s rare success stories, with a booming economy, rising levels of health and education, and a strict taboo on ethnic division. The flood of returnees could bring a raft of troubles, from an epidemic of domestic abuse to a revival of the Hutu Power movement.”
In Rwanda, the government took the lead in establishing justice, trying and imprisoning soldiers who participated in the ethnic cleansing. “In Rwanda, about 300,000 Tutsis survived the genocide; another 700,000 returned from exile.... [The government] proclaimed that Rwandans must learn to live again as one people; they formed a coalition government with Hutu opposition figures, and outlawed all forms of discrimination. Among societies that have experienced genocide, such an effort at reconciling perpetrators and survivors was unprecedented. ‘No one else has attempted it,’ observes Philip Gourevitch, whose We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families (1998) is among the definitive books on recent Rwandan history. ‘Nobody has even come close.’ ” To do this, a whole nation would need to forgive. “Rwandans would have to move beyond a grudging coexistence. True unity would require a kind of psycho-spiritual sacrifice from the offender as well as the offended. After paying at least part of his debt to society, the perpetrator would be encouraged to request forgiveness; the survivor would be encouraged to grant it.”
Forgiving one person is hard enough. Forgiving a whole group of murders and rapists is unprecedented. The nation of Rwanda is living through a decades-long experiment in the outer boundaries of forgiveness.
*****
Matthew 18:21-35
Teaching Kids about Forgiveness
Most parents insist that kids apologize when they do something wrong, but new research suggests that forgiveness is an equally important lesson. “Plenty has been written about the positive effects of forgiveness on adults. Studies show that the act of forgiving someone can make us grown-ups happier, healthier, and more connected. Major self-help systems, like Alcoholics Anonymous, prize forgiveness as an essential key to healing and living a productive life. As we understand better what it means to forgive, we’re also starting to understand more about the role forgiveness plays in the lives of our children.”
Researchers suggest that adults teach the skills of forgiveness to children by doing these things:
* Model forgiveness for children in your own life. Talk explicitly about when and why you forgive others and tell them clearly when you are forgiving them for something. Point out examples of the complexities of relationships and the role forgiveness plays in maintaining them.
* Help kids through the steps of forgiveness. When a child is wronged, walk them through the process of acknowledging that harm was done and sitting with those nasty feelings for a bit; then, make sure they share their concerns with someone else -- like a parent or another friend -- before moving on. Help them see that it’s okay to feel hurt, and identify people they can talk to.
* Teach kids what forgiveness really means. When processing problems, explain to children that forgiveness is something we do not only for others but also for ourselves, so that we can let go of our anger and make space for more enjoyable feelings. When kids forgive, they aren’t condoning the harm done, but choosing to move past it.
This is a spiritual skill we can learn early in life, and practice at any age.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Exodus 14:19-31
Christian actor, speaker, and evangelist Kirk Cameron was waiting for his flight to leave Orlando and the impending doom of Hurricane Irma when he had a revelation. He would make a video to interpret why two major hurricanes struck the United States almost simultaneously -- Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. Cameron concluded that it could not just be “Mother Nature in a bad mood” or a “statistical anomaly” or just a plain “coincidence.” Cameron recorded, “When he [God] puts his power on display, it’s never without a reason.” According to Cameron, Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma are a call to “repentance” for our nation.
Application: Christians so often misinterpret life events, and confuse them with a vengeful, judgmental God.
*****
Exodus 14:19-31
Robert Schuller, who at one time was regarded as the most famous preacher in America, was a strong advocate of the prosperity gospel. Schuller also held the theological conviction that in creation God intended every creature to dwell in a natural habitat. Birds were to live in the air and fish in the sea. And man and woman, from their placement in the garden of Eden, had a garden as their natural habitat. Human beings, according to Schuller, were to naturally reside in gardens. This is why when he built his Crystal Cathedral, it was to resemble a garden. The cathedral itself represented a giant greenhouse to house the garden.
Application: Schuller did not understand the message of what it meant to lead people to the promised land. It was a land of liberation and freedom, not a land of rolling waters and pristine greenery.
*****
Exodus 14:19-31
When President Trump decided to change the policy for children known as “Dreamers,” former president Barack Obama called it “wrong” and “cruel.” Dreamers are children who were not born in the United States, but who were brought here at a young age by illegal immigrants. These children, as illegals, are subject to deportation, which Trump wanted to initiate immediately -- but then gave a six-month reprieve. According to Obama these children know only one country, and that is the United States. This, through “no fault of their own,” is their country. Obama said, “Ultimately, this is about basic decency.”
Application: Joseph’s brothers understood cruelty.
*****
Exodus 14:19-31
When I was a Virginia state trooper, I would often make an arrest in a man’s driveway. The driver would be so intent at looking at the road in front of him, keeping the car in control at his high rate of speed or to keep it straight and between the lines because he was inebriated, that he never saw my flashing red lights to his rear. It was only when he parked in his driveway and got out of his vehicle that he saw me parked behind him. To make matters worse, at this point, as the expression goes, the “old lady” was now standing on the porch watching the arrest. But what was even sadder is his children were watching their father being placed in handcuffs in their own front yard.
Application: Joseph’s brothers understood judgment.
*****
Exodus 14:19-31
Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn recently wrote a memoir titled Finding Magic: A Spiritual Memoir. In her book, she recounts that when her son Quinn was born, it was uncertain if he would survive. Sally took off all the child’s clothes and licked and kissed his entire body “like a mother lion licking her cub.” Sally went on to write: “I wanted to have his taste in my mouth forever if anything happened to him.” The night before her husband Ben Bradlee died, she repeated the same ordeal. Now, after Ben’s death, Sally sleeps every night in the t-shirt he wore when he died.
Application: The story of Joseph is a story of family love.
*****
Romans 14:1-12
A controversy presently engulfing the country is the removal of statues honoring leaders of the Confederacy. The Washington National Cathedral has just decided to remove two stained-glass windows honoring Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The 4' x 6' windows were installed in 1953. About the decision to remove the windows, Gary Hall, the former dean of the cathedral, said: “While the impetus behind the windows’ installation was a good and noble one at the time, the cathedral has changed, and so has the America it seeks to represent.”
Application: We must always be clear about our motivations and be willing to re-evaluate our positions.
*****
Romans 14:1-12
A controversy presently engulfing the country is the removal of statues honoring leaders of the Confederacy. The Washington National Cathedral has just decided to remove two stained-glass windows honoring Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The 4' x 6' windows were installed in 1953. The committee that was commissioned to study the appropriateness of keeping the windows concluded “that these windows are not only inconsistent with our current mission to serve as a house of prayer for all people, but also [serve] as a barrier to our important work on racial justice and racial reconciliation.”
Application: We need to be clear on what our Christian mission is.
*****
Romans 14:1-12
Joel Osteen, the pastor of the Lakewood Church in Houston, is internationally known for his preaching of the prosperity gospel. It is a message that he recounts in every sermon and every book: if you just have the right positive thoughts, then health, wealth, and happiness will be yours. This, Osteen repeats, is your destiny. The Sunday after Hurricane Harvey destroyed thousands and thousands of Houston-area homes and businesses, some of which will be covered in water above their rooftops for over a month, Osteen promised prosperity to the destitute and the forsaken. Osteen said that God is going to “pay back” every victim what they lost in the storm. Osteen said God is working “behind the scenes” right now to “turn the situation around” and restore everyone once more.
Application: It would appear that the families who lived in the ninth ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina would be interested in having Osteen define “pay back,” for it certainly does not refer to restored communities as he implies. For Osteen to preach a message of prosperity when people need a message of comfort is an abomination of the gospel. This is why Paul says we must protect the weak in faith from charlatans like smiling Joel Osteen.
*****
Romans 14:1-12
Rev. Bill Shillady sent Hillary Clinton an e-mail every morning during the 2016 presidential campaign with an encouraging and inspiring message to keep her motivated. Because of his special spiritual relationship with the former first lady, senator, secretary of state, and presidential candidate, Shillady decided to publish the meditations in a book titled Strong for a Moment Like This. After it was discovered that the meditation Shillady wrote after Clinton’s loss was plagiarized, he received some criticism -- which was followed by an apology by Shillady for a lack of judgment. But then the editors of Abingdon Press (which published the book) embarked upon an investigation of all the meditations, only to discover that almost every one that Shillady wrote was plagiarized. Abingdon stopped printing the book and withdrew every published copy.
Application: We need to protect the weak in faith from charlatans.
*****
Matthew 18:21-35
Paula White is the leader of the megachurch New Destiny Christian Center in Orlando. She has also known Donald Trump for over 16 years, and is considered his chief spiritual advisor. White visits Trump once every several weeks. White, who luxurious lifestyle reflects her prosperity gospel message, is the chairperson of President Trump’s informal evangelical advisory board. When asked by reporters how Trump, who said during his campaign that he has never asked for forgiveness and doesn’t need to ask for it, could consider himself a confessing Christian, White responded that Trump “understands repentance,” and Trump is “a person of repentance.” White went on to say: “I know on a very private level this is a man of repentance.” White claimed pastoral confidentiality in not revealing what Donald Trump has repented from. Paula White would not answer the obvious follow-up question by reporters to explain the discrepancy between the public and private Trump -- the discrepancy between what Trump says in public and what White says to be true in private.
Application: Repentance is the cornerstone of our Christian faith.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Bless God, O my soul, and all that is within me bless God’s holy name.
People: Bless God, O my soul, and do not forget all God’s benefits.
Leader: It is God who forgives all our iniquity, who heals all our diseases.
People: It is God who redeems our life from the Pit.
Leader: It is God who crowns us with steadfast love and mercy.
People: It is God who satisfies us with good throughout our lives.
OR
Leader: The God of love and grace calls us to gather today.
People: We come to worship our wondrous God.
Leader: God loves us and offers us forgiveness for all our sins.
People: We know our sins and humbly receive God’s forgiveness.
Leader: God’s forgiveness is for all the citizens of earth.
People: We will share God’s grace by offering forgiveness freely.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“O God, Our Help in Ages Past”
found in:
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELA: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT: 281
“Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”
found in:
UMH: 127
H82: 690
PH: 281
AAHH: 138, 139, 140
NNBH: 232
NCH: 18, 19
CH: 622
LBW: 343
ELA: 618
W&P: 501
AMEC: 52, 53, 65
“Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive”
found in:
UMH: 390
H82: 674
PH: 347
LBW: 307
ELA: 605
W&P: 382
Renew: 184
“Go Down, Moses”
found in:
UMH: 448
PH: 334
AAHH: 543
NNBH: 490
CH: 663
LBW: 618
“Where Charity and Love Prevail”
found in:
UMH: 549
H82: 581
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELA: 359
“Help Us Accept Each Other”
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
“Pass It On”
found in:
UMH: 572
NNBH: 417
CH: 477
W&P: 557
“Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service”
found in:
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELA: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
“Make Me a Servant”
found in:
CCB: 90
“You Are Mine”
found in:
CCB: 58
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is gracious and forgiving: Grant us such a sure knowledge of your forgiveness
that we are able to forgive others; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for your gracious love that offers forgiveness so freely. We pray that we may truly know that forgiveness in our lives so that we are able to forgive others. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to show mercy and forgiveness to others.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have gladly received your love and grace and the kindness of others, and yet we so often fail to share that love with others. We think about ourselves and what it will cost us to help others. We forget about the times others have sacrificed for us. Forgive our selfish ways, and empower us with your Spirit to reach out in mercy, love, and forgiveness to others. Amen.
Leader: God’s mercy is always ready for us to receive and for us to pass on to others.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for your great compassion that calls us out of our bondage. We praise you for your great mercy and love that you show to all your creatures.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have gladly received your love and grace and the kindness of others, and yet we so often fail to share that love with others. We think about ourselves and what it will cost us to help others. We forget about the times others have sacrificed for us. Forgive our selfish ways, and empower us with your Spirit to reach out in mercy, love, and forgiveness to others.
We thank you for all the ways in which your grace and love are made known to us. You shower us with blessings beyond counting. You are with us in all the ups and downs of life.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. Our hearts are heavy with knowledge of so many who need your loving care this day. As you move among them with your healing presence, empower us to be your hands, feet, and voice as we share their burdens.
(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
Share with the children a favorite object you have. Talk about how you would not want to lose it. If you needed to move, you would really make sure you took it. Ask them if they have special objects like that: a teddy bear, a doll, a video game. Talk about how the Israelites had to pack up in a hurry and leave. It must have been hard for them. Talk about those who have had to flee from the hurricanes. Some of them probably didn’t have time to get the things they wanted to take. We should pray for them.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Exodus 14:19-31
(Greet the children and welcome them.)
I want to talk a bit about events that have been happening in the world lately. There have been some pretty big things happening in nature.
Have you seen pictures or heard about some of the things going on? (Encourage children to name what they’ve seen or heard.)
There have been BIG hurricanes in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, and across the Caribbean. There was a strong earthquake in Mexico. In the West there are many forest fires. There was even a big lightning storm in California... California hardly ever gets thunder and lightning storms!
Sometimes when we hear about events like these we get a little scared... or maybe we get very scared! When I hear about these, I wonder why so many scary events seem to be happening all at once.
In our Bible story today (tell the story), a BIG natural event happened for God’s people as they were “exiting” slavery in Egypt. (The Bible story is called the “Exodus” in part because of this event.) As the Israelites were leaving Egypt, where they had been slaves for many years, they headed out to the desert. They found themselves on the edge of the Red Sea. Pharaoh’s army was coming behind them to take them back to Egypt, and the sea was in front of them.
Do you think the people might have been a little scared? Maybe even A LOT scared?!?
Then, an AMAZING thing happened!
God told Moses to hold up his hand -- stretching it out toward the sea -- and immediately the waters parted! Dry land opened up right in front of the Israelites. Quickly they ran across the dry land. They could see the water on both sides. Pharaoh’s army -- horses and chariots -- was coming up fast! As God would have it, the people made it across the sea safely. God helped them get through to get to freedom.
How do you think the Israelites felt when they were safe on the other side of the sea? Do you think they were still scared?
The people had to face a scary event. But no matter how afraid they were, God was with them -- in the middle of it all -- helping them get through it.
I think about this event when I see or hear about scary stories in nature: floods, fires, hurricanes, thunderstorms, earthquakes.
No matter how scary the scene is, no matter how scared you or I get, God is right there with us -- and not just with us, God is with each person going through the scary event.
God doesn’t take away the scary event, but God doesn’t leave us to face it alone. God stands right there with us to help us get through it.
Even when I am the most scared, I know that God doesn’t leave me alone.
Prayer: Creator God, you are stronger than any thunderstorm or hurricane. You are closer to us than any raindrop or gust of wind. We thank you for being with each of your children to help when they are most afraid. Help and protect the people who lived through the hurricanes, fires, and earthquakes. Let them know your presence and strength. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, September 17, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 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.
