Some Citizens United
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
After the conclusion of this week's Democratic convention, two months remain until the November elections -- and though the speeches may be done, during the next eight weeks it will be increasingly difficult to avoid politics. The candidates will be on the campaign trail nonstop, and their proxies are waging contentious legal battles in various states over the ground rules for voting. And it will be impossible to turn on the television without seeing an unending barrage of commercials espousing a particular candidate or demonizing the missteps of their opponent. Part of this is due to television advertising becoming many voters' primary information source about a candidate's positions and personality -- making it the key battlefront in a political campaign. But as team member Dean Feldmeyer notes in this installment of The Immediate Word, it's also a direct result of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, which by allowing unlimited contributions as a form of political "speech" has left the entire process awash in cash. More than ever, the ability to raise money is the single most important aspect of any campaign -- and that means it's vital for candidates to know how to appeal to big-money donors.
In contrast to the vast majority of Washington politicians, however, President Obama is clearly uneasy with this process. His 2008 campaign was notable for eschewing the typical fund-raising model, relying instead on using internet technology to raise an unprecedented amount from small donors. But as Jane Mayer describes in "Schmooze or Lose," her aptly titled piece for The New Yorker, Obama's struggles with "donor maintenance" have left him at a big disadvantage in the post- Citizens United world. One observer has even concluded that Obama's discomfort with how to proceed in this new environment has led to "the greatest unforced error of his political career: his team's failure to adequately form a strategy to deal with the avalanche of unregulated cash crashing down on him".
So how important is it to cater to the whims of those who keep the coffers full? As Dean reminds us, that's not merely a political question -- it's also one that confronts every charitable nonprofit... and most every congregation. As we try to find the proper balance, Dean points out that the lectionary scripture text appointed for this week from James offers some wise counsel.
Team member Mary Austin offers some additional thoughts on this week's gospel text and the issues it raises. Jesus is clearly uncomfortable at first when he's approached by the Syrophoenician woman -- and as many scholars have noted, that reflects the intense division in Jesus' society between Jews and Gentiles. Yet, he pushes through the divide and makes a point of healing the woman's ill daughter. Mary suggests that there may be some parallels in the Jewish-Gentile divide and today's Israeli-Palestinian divide -- one that has been underscored with news of recent violent attacks by mobs of Israeli teenagers on Arab youth. Though the attitudes of contempt expressed by some of those charged surely reflects the depth of the divide, Mary notes that there is also some hope that young people who have been "taught to hate" may still yet learn to bridge the chasm... just as Jesus demonstrates in our gospel passage. Whether our divisions are economic or ethnic, the common thread this week seems to be both the difficult challenge -- and the Christian necessity -- of reaching out to those who are very different from ourselves.
Some Citizens United
by Dean Feldmeyer
James 2:1-10 (11-13) 14-17
In its 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission decision (usually referred to as simply Citizens United), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment. Accordingly, organizations like corporations and unions have the same rights as individual citizens, and the government can't prohibit them from spending money to support or denounce candidates in elections as long as the money is not given to the candidates themselves.
With that ruling, a new form of political action committee (PAC) was created -- the Super PAC, which because it does not make direct contributions to candidates or parties, can accept unlimited amounts.
The flood walls were breeched and a tsunami of cash from millionaire and billionaire donors -- both individuals and organizations -- became available to the campaign arsenals of candidates from both parties. The only question was who would do what was necessary to claim it? Who would be willing to cozy up to the extremely wealthy to curry their favor and procure their largess?
Lest we think that this is a question that applies only to lowly politicians, however, the epistle of James is quick to remind us that the church often must ask itself that same question. How much deference are we willing to give to the wealthy? How willing are we to shunt aside the needs of the poor in order to curry the approval of the rich, without whom we may not meet our budget?
How do we remain financially solvent and honor what James sees as God's preferential option for the poor?
THE WORLD
In his recently published e-book Obama's Last Stand, political reporter and insider Glenn Thrush explains how Citizens United has changed the entire political landscape since the president's history-making victory in 2008. In fact, he says, that Supreme Court decision may have had a bigger influence upon American politics than anything since the ratification of the constitution.
It may very well be the deciding factor in who will be the president of the United States and the de facto leader of the free world after 2012.
The problem for the president is that he was such a vocal opponent of the Citizens United decision. He publicly denounced it and those who supported it. It would, he said, put the elective process up for sale to the highest bidder. The country would be unduly influenced by extremely wealthy people and organizations and those who were beholden to them. This past week he even suggested that "we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United".
This has not been just a philosophy for the president; he has actually lived it out in the White House. Gone has been any hint of favoritism or special interest influence -- there have been no free rides on Air Force One or overnight sleepovers in the Lincoln bedroom for big givers -- in his first year as president he even refused to pose for pictures with wealthy donors until his staff convinced him to make this small concession.
But after Citizens United, the landscape has changed.
Billions of dollars have become available, but in order to claim some of it, the president will have to do the very thing he's decried in others. He will have to curry the favor of the extremely rich and powerful. And he will have to bow to the inevitability of Super PAC influence without opening himself up to the charge of hypocrisy.
It will be a delicate tightrope to walk. But he will not be walking it alone.
Rare is the member of a board of directors for a charitable organization or the pastor of a church who has not faced this same dilemma on a smaller scale:
• "Such-and-such can usually be counted on for a big donations, but someone will have to go visit him/her and ask for it. He/she likes to be asked."
• "This-or-that company will give a big donation, but we have to make sure their name is printed at the very top of the program in letters bigger than the title of the show."
• "So-and-So wants to make a donation, but they want it to go for this specific thing and they want that thing to be used in this specific way to benefit these specific people... and not other, less deserving people."
The new pastor of every church that has ever received a new pastor has barely unpacked that first box when a delegation from the congregation knocks gently at the office door and presents a list of "important" members who must be visited and shown individual, personalized attention -- or risk losing their contribution, be it financial or otherwise.
Just how much time and resources should we devote to coddling and currying the favor of the wealthy -- individuals or organizations -- and how does that jibe with the calling of the church of Jesus Christ to be the champions of the poor?
THE WORD
The early Christian community to whom the author of the epistle of James was writing must have been facing this same issue. On the one hand, they had bills that needed to be paid and mission goals that they wanted to honor, and they genuinely needed the donations of their wealthy members. On the other hand, how far should they go to get those donations?
Apparently they weren't above using flattery and privilege, even to the point of brushing off the poor families who came to them. They were not just showing deference to the wealthy, they were showing favoritism.
James offers a hypothetical illustration: Two people, one obviously rich and the other obviously poor, show up at the church at exactly the same time -- and the members of the congregation fall all over themselves ushering the rich person to a special seat near the head of the table. "There you go. Are you comfortable? Is there anything I can get you? A cold drink? A fresh napkin? Maybe a little wine?" Meanwhile the poor person is left standing at the door or simply brushed off. "Yeah, whatever. Why don't you just stand over there? There's a good fellow."
In verse 5 James reminds his charges of Jesus' words, especially the Beatitudes as they appear in Luke's gospel: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God" (6:20). God seems to like poor people!
He then reminds them that, in the case of this church at least, the hypocrisy that poisons the life of the church is more often found in the wealthy than in the poor. Extreme wealth has a way of corrupting people, making them self-important and self-righteous, as though their wealth is a sign of God's favor.
But James does not admonish his followers to turn their backs on their wealthy members. Rather, he simply warns them against showing favoritism to the wealthy, of giving them special attention and privileges at the expense of the poor.
He concludes by arguing that this is no small thing. God's commandment to care for the poor is as important as any other commandment, and the consequences of breaking or ignoring it are just as serious as the consequences for breaking or ignoring the commandment against murder or adultery.
How we treat the poor, in other words, is serious stuff not to be shrugged off in the name of expediency or practicality.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
F. Scott Fitzgerald: "The rich are different from you and me, Ernest."
Ernest Hemingway: "Yes, they have more money."
I spent four years on the staff of a church in one of the top four wealthiest zip codes in Ohio. I came out of that experience convinced that both Fitzgerald and Hemingway were both right... only in reverse order from the way the two writers expressed it.
The rich have more money than the rest of us. And that often makes them different in more than just economic ways.
That the church is supposed to care about and give our attention to the poor is axiomatic. We may debate the most proper, efficient, and beneficial ways of doing that... but do it we must in one way or another. Jesus told us to -- and if we are going to ignore Jesus, then why bother calling ourselves Christians at all?
But what is our calling to the wealthy? How do we treat them? What message does the gospel have for them?
Certainly there is in the gospels a cautionary message: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:25).
And there is a challenge: "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me" (Mark 10:21).
There is instruction: "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same" (Luke 3:11).
And there is warning: "So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony' " (Luke 16:24-25).
Perhaps, then, our message to the wealthy is an educational and exegetical one -- that they have a role and a responsibility in the church of Jesus Christ and while their wealth brings them many comforts and privileges, it also places upon them special demands and requirements. "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Luke 12:48).
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Mark 7:24-37
Modern-day Israel is experiencing a period of national soul-searching after Israeli teenagers were arrested for an attack on Arab young people earlier in August. Isabel Kershner reports in the New York Times that a number of Jewish young people were involved in attacks in central Jerusalem, which left a Palestinian teenager unconscious. Reportedly, scores of people watched the attack without intervening. The article notes: "Two of the suspects were girls, the youngest 13, adding to the soul-searching and acknowledgment that the poisoned political environment around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has affected the moral compass of youths growing up within it."
Kershner continues: "The mob beating came on the same day that a Palestinian taxi on the West Bank was firebombed, apparently by Jewish extremists, though there have been no arrests. [See below for updated information about the people who have since been arrested.] The two episodes, along with a new report by the United States State Department labeling attacks by Jews on Palestinians as terrorism, have opened a stark national conversation about racism, violence, and how Israeli society could have come to this point." An editorial in the Jerusalem Post observed a "worryingly high level of tolerance -- whether explicit or implicit -- for such despicable acts of violence." The beating and the ages of the people in the mob have opened a national conversation in Israel about hate speech and its consequences. A number of prominent Israelis have observed a connection between calling themselves "the chosen people" and a sense of entitlement that grows from that name. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the attacks.
A subsequent New York Times article by Jodi Rudoren and Kershner interviewed high school students who attend a rare school with a mixed student body, both Israeli and Palestinian. "Tamer Jbarah, a 17-year-old Palestinian student who speaks accentless Hebrew after years in a bilingual school that is about half Jewish, said he was not at all surprised when a mob of Jewish teenagers beat an Arab teenager unconscious this month while hundreds watched and did nothing to help."
"People are taught to hate," he said, "so they hate."
Being taught to hate is as old as religion itself. Even Jesus himself is limited by the teachings of his upbringing when he meets the Gentile woman in this week's gospel lection. As Amy Howe writes in Feasting on the Word [Year B, Volume 4, p. 44], "Jesus is caught with his compassion down." This is one of the most discussed stories in the gospels, for it shows Jesus at his worst. Commentators over the years have tried to spin the story in all sorts of ways to excuse Jesus' sharp words. He's tired. He's not expecting to have to work in Gentile territory. He's trying to rest. All of that is true, and yet it's clear that his response to the Gentile mother is less than kind. When he speaks, he's reflecting what he's been taught as a faithful Jew. To see the grace in the story, we have to begin with his lack of understanding. "Taught to hate" is putting it strongly, but Jesus has been taught to be separate from, and to look down on, Gentiles. He speaks to the woman in need in the way that he knows.
The real healing begins with her compassion, not his. Her understanding of his limitations opens the door for the healing to happen -- on several levels. The woman answers Jesus' "no" to her with a "but, still," seeing more possibilities than he does. Her response convinces Jesus to heal her daughter, but it also allows Jesus to be healed. The encounter sets him free from the prejudices he's learned as part of his faith. Compassion comes from an unexpected place in the gospel story.
Healing between Israelis and Palestinians will need the same. The New York Times article by Rudoren and Kershner (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/world/middleeast/israeli-schools-to-di...) reports that the Israeli education minister has required every junior high and high school to teach students about this episode. The article notes: "In ordering schools to confront the episode, the education minister warned that some pupils might speak in support of the perpetrators. Educators were told to let the youngsters express themselves, but that 'the unequivocal message must be a condemnation of racism and violence.' " Israelis with a variety of political persuasions have been shocked by the beating of the teenager as well as by the firebombing of the taxi, where the people arrested are also teenagers, some as young as 12.
In a symptom of the depth of the problem, the authors observe that "the vast majority of these discussions will take place in something of a vacuum, since Israel has separate school systems for Arabs and Jews (and, indeed, distinct ones for secular, religious, and ultra-Orthodox Jews)."
There are a few exceptions, like the Hand in Hand School (mentioned above), which seeks to educate Arabs and Jews together to build greater understanding. Tamer, one of the students there, recalled his experience of being with a group of Jewish teenagers who were surprised to learn that he was Arab because, he said, "I didn't look like a terrorist or a rapist." Perhaps the students at that school will be able to share the gift of unexpected compassion and have a part in healing the wounds of hate and rage in Israel.
The Arab teenager beaten and left unconscious by the mob of Jewish teenagers has recovered enough to go home, after starting out in the Intensive Care Unit. And it was a Jewish medical student who gave him CPR after the beating, saving his life.
It seems that we all need to hear the words Jesus says to the deaf man in the lection's second miracle story: "Be opened."
ILLUSTRATIONS
There is a constant and unending temptation to bend our behavior to honor the wealthy. While their generosity can do wonderful things for society, such charity needs to be kept in perspective. When he was mayor of West Berlin, Willy Brandt was invited to view the great new Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, Israel. He expressed his appreciation for the concert hall having been named for Thomas Mann, the German writer. He was quickly corrected. Brandt's host politely informed him that the building was actually named for a certain Frederic Mann of Philadelphia. In surprise, Brandt asked, "Why? What did he ever write?"
Came the reply, "A check."
* * *
Leonard Sweet brings the letter of James up-to-date in his criticism of those who favor the rich over the poor:
Jesus really did have strange tastes. He especially liked being around the poor, the marginalized, the forgotten. Who should be invited to the table? The disabled, the outcast, the overlooked -- precisely those people excluded from the table by certain religious communities. For Jesus it was not "poor people and other outcasts, find yourself a church"; it was "church people, find yourself the poor and the outcasts."
The New Testament teaches that the church is the Body of Christ. Jesus teaches that the victims of hatred and oppression are Jesus. "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." So if the church refuses to identify with the poor and the forgotten, it is turning its back on Jesus. It cannot become one body with Christ.
-- Leonard Sweet, Out of the Question... Into the Mystery (WaterBrook Press, 2004), p. 137
* * *
When Governor Scott Walker's "Budget Repair Bill" was passed in Wisconsin in 2011, the Walker administration was given "broad powers to reshape health programs covering 1 million low-income Wisconsin residents and use of borrowing and cuts to employee benefits to fill a $137 million hole in the two-year state budget," according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . What wasn't broadcast widely is that a significant portion of that hole came from one of the governor's first acts in office -- the institution of tax breaks for wealthy Wisconsinites and corporations amounting to $2.4 billion over ten years.
In response to the Budget Repair Bill's passage, Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice issued a statement, which the group called "A religious witness to the breach in the social covenant for the common good between the people and the state of Wisconsin." It included specific concerns about the bill, but it also gave rise to a mantra that could then be heard in a variety of settings in Wisconsin: "A budget is a moral document."
On the federal level, Wisconsin Representative (and now Republican nominee for Vice President) Paul Ryan proposed a budget in March of 2012 that was deemed "The Path to Prosperity: Restoring America's Promise". Ryan claimed that the budget grew out of his background in the Catholic faith and his tradition's social teachings. A week later, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops denounced Ryan's plan, saying it failed to meet their "moral criteria" that the federal budget protect the poor.
About a month later, the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty called on American Catholics to observe a "Fortnight for Freedom" to actively resist the recent "contraception mandate" and other measures that they say interfere with religious liberty.
The following day, Representative Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations, contacted the president of the bishops, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. Representative DeLauro stated that as a Catholic herself, she felt that the bishops should be focusing their attention instead on the injustices she and others felt were apparent in the Ryan's budget. "What I am asking for is a campaign for the poor, the hungry, the middle class, the people who are going to be eviscerated by the Ryan budget," DeLauro told Catholic News Service.
A budget, whether it is created for a governmental unit or a church community, seems to be one very public way we communicate what our works will be. These works, the writer of the book of James says, are the real measure of who we are as followers of Jesus. "If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,' yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead" (James 2:15-17).
* * *
Suppose you learned that a famous actress like Julia Roberts was coming to your worship service next Sunday. If she were to sit in the pew next to you, do you think you would be eager to share your hymnal with her? Would you be interested in chatting with her during the coffee hour? Do you think you would be a bit awed and thrilled by her very presence? What kind of response do you think Julia Roberts would get if she came to your church?
Wipe that image out of your head (if you can!) and suppose the visitor sitting right next to you in your pew, really close, is not a famous, attractive actress but a "bag lady" from Brooklyn -- a dirty, smelly, toothless, homeless woman carrying all her belongings in a greasy grocery bag. Would you be so eager to share your hymnal with her? Would you be as willing to spend time with her in the coffee hour? What kind of response might she get from your congregation? The author of the book of James pulls no punches when he says straightforwardly, "If you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law." That's easy to say, but harder to do!
* * *
I used to think when I was a child that Christ might have been exaggerating when he warned about the dangers of wealth. Today I know better. I know how very hard it is to be rich and still keep the milk of human kindness. Money has a way of putting scales on one's eyes, a dangerous way of freezing people's hands, eyes, lips, and hearts.
-- Dom Helder Camara, Revolution Through Peace
* * *
Jim Donnan, the former University of Georgia football coach and ESPN analyst, has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of running an $80 million Ponzi scheme. He used his influence with former coaches and players, encouraging them to invest in his company, GLC Limited, and promising returns ranging from 50-400%.
Donnan's company bought and resold furniture and appliances, but only $12 million out of the $80 million money raised was used to buy merchandise. The reminder was used to pay false returns or was pocketed by Donnan, with large sums given to family members. As a result he was able to finance a very luxurious lifestyle.
Though someone may appear to be a friend and a good person, always be sure that his or her actions are motivated by faith and not greed.
* * *
Whoever lives sweetly dies bitterly; whoever serves only the body loses the soul. Sheep are herded from the fields to the town. The fatter they are, the faster they are killed. Night is gone and dawn has come. How long will you tell the same tales of gold? You were young and contented once. Now you want gold. Once you yourself were the gold... Because dervishes are beyond property and wealth, they possess an abundant portion from the almighty. God the most high is just. How could [God] be tyrannical toward the poor and the weak? I desire nothing from created beings. Through contentment, I have found a world within my heart.
-- from "The Tale of the Bedouin and His Wife" by Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, in The Pocket Rumi, pp. 280-283
What does it take to "live sweetly" in and be the gold of God's kingdom in the here and now? How does it create a "world within [our hearts]"?
* * *
In 2003, a giant cream-colored statue of Jesus with his arms raised to the heavens was built in front of the Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio. Looming 63 feet above a busy stretch of Interstate 75 north of Cincinnati, the massive structure quickly gained notoriety and inspired many nicknames, including (understandably) "Touchdown Jesus." (Comedian Heywood Banks also famously dubbed it "Big Butter Jesus.") But in June 2010, the landmark -- officially titled "King of Kings" -- suddenly disappeared when it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.
In September a new statue will take its place. This statue, weighing 7 tons, will be 52 feet tall and placed on an 11 foot concrete base. The Latin name for the replica is Lux Mundi, which means "Light of the World" -- but since the arms of Jesus will be outstretched rather than uplifted, people are now calling the statue "Hug Me, Jesus."
James says that people will know us by our works, which can include very small acts of kindness. A 52-foot testimony does not reflect the sincerity of our day-to-day encounters with others.
* * *
There's a famous poem by Robert Frost -- "Mending Wall" -- about the walls we build in life. "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," he writes, looking over at his New England farmer neighbor who's heaving yet another stone upon the wall that runs between their two properties. The poet asks his neighbor why the wall is necessary:
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."
But then the poet is led to wonder,
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out.
When you and I build walls between ourselves and others, it is truly an open question whether we are walling the other out or walling ourselves in!
* * *
On August 27th, the New York Times reported on nine service members who have been disciplined over two incidents -- one in which American service personnel sent copies of the Koran and other religious texts to be burned despite the warnings of their Afghani counterparts, and one in which four marines were videotaped urinating on the bodies of four dead Taliban fighters with the footage then posted anonymously to the internet.
Before deploying, the service members involved in the burning of Islamic religious texts had training on religious and cultural sensitivity that consisted of just a one-hour Power Point presentation. In reaction to the burning incident, the general in charge of NATO troops in Afghanistan, commanding officer John R. Allen, issued an order that all coalition troops receive training "on the proper handling of religious materials" within ten days time.
The four service personnel being disciplined for desecrating the bodies of the Taliban fighters are still on active duty, according to Pentagon officials. They received only "nonjudicial punishments," which could include letters of reprimand, a reduction in rank, forfeit of some pay, physical restriction to a military base, extra duties, or some combination of those measures.
If Jesus himself needed teaching and correction because of the cultural and religious biases (realized or unrealized) that were a part of his upbringing, how much more intentional should we be about our own learning and growth as we relate to the "other" in our shrinking world?
* * *
Each year Beloit College offers "The Mindset List", a handy guide for defining how the incoming freshman class views the world. This is done by creating a list of things the freshmen have never experienced or that may be significantly different from their professors and other adults. Some of the items on the list for the Class of 2016 are:
• The biblical sources of the terms such as "forbidden fruit," "the writing on the wall," "good Samaritan," and "the promised land" are unknown to them;
• They have never seen an airplane "ticket";
• Michael Jackson's family, not the Kennedys, constitutes "American royalty";
• They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of "electronic narcotics";
• Star Wars has always been a film, not a defense strategy; and
• They watch television everywhere but on television.
When the people saw Jesus healing the sick, "they were astonished beyond measure." Has the cyberspace generation lost its sense of astonishment?
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Those who trust in God are like Mount Zion,
People: which cannot be moved but abides forever.
Leader: As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
People: so God surrounds God's people, from this time on and forevermore.
Leader: Do good, O God, to those who are good,
People: and to those who are upright in their hearts.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God of creation.
People: We come and sing praises to the God who made us all.
Leader: Come and share in the bounty of God's love.
People: God is generous and gracious.
Leader: Come and be part of God's gift to those in need.
People: We come to be made part of God's grace and love to all who are in need.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"The Care the Eagle Gives Her Young"
found in:
UMH: 118
NCH: 468
CH: 76
"Creating God, Your Fingers Trace"
found in:
UMH: 109
H82: 394/395
PH: 134
NCH: 462
CH: 335
ELA: 684
"Hope of the World"
found in:
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
"My Soul Gives Glory to My God"
found in:
UMH: 198
CH: 130
ELA: 882
"Tell Out, My Soul"
found in:
UMH: 200
H82: 437/438
Renew: 130
"All Who Love and Serve Your City"
found in:
UMH: 433
H82: 570/571
PH: 413
CH: 670
LBW: 436
ELA: 724
"Cuando El Pobre" ("When the Poor Ones")
found in:
UMH: 434
PH: 407
CH: 662
ELA: 725
"Go Down, Moses"
found in:
UMH: 448
PH: 334
AAHH: 543
NNBH: 490
CH: 663
"All I Need Is You"
found in:
CCB: 100
"Refiner's Fire"
found in:
CCB: 79
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills: Grant us the wisdom to follow your example and be generous and look out for the poor ones; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you, O God, knowing that you are complete and need nothing from us. Yet you desire to be in communion with us and to give generously to us. Help us to listen to you this day as you show us the responsibilities we have as those who have much. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to see how wealthy we are and the responsibilities that places on us.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We look around at the extremely wealthy and then see ourselves as poor. Although most of us are very wealthy by world standards, we think we are in need and so we work to gather in more things. We avoid seeing or thinking about the poorest of your children. We avoid thinking that there is something we could and should be doing to help them. We are too busy thinking about ourselves. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit to mirror your love, compassion, and generosity. Amen.
Leader: God is generous to us all. And God loves and claims us all. Know the love and forgiveness of God as you seek ways to be more attentive to the poor.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise and worship you, O God, for you are the Creator of all. Out of your power and love all creation is coming to be.
(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 look around at the extremely wealthy and then see ourselves as poor. Although most of us are very wealthy by world standards, we think we are in need and so we work to gather in more things. We avoid seeing or thinking about the poorest of your children. We avoid thinking that there is something we could and should be doing to help them. We are too busy thinking about ourselves. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit to mirror your love, compassion, and generosity.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have blessed us. You have given us this wonderful planet that sustains our physical lives and offers us opportunities to serve you through those around us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for the poor among us. Many do not have enough food or shelter. Many are without healthcare. Many are alone and forgotten.
(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
Talk to the children about how most of the world's children live. Share with them how children in many regions of the world almost always eat the same thing for every meal -- if they are lucky enough to have something to eat. Discuss how many do not have running water but must carry water, which is often not clean. Perhaps this would be a good time to start a children's mission fund where the offering from the children goes to help other children.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Faith Has No Favorites
James 2:1-10 (11-13) 14-17
Object: a pair of glasses
Good morning, boys and girls! I brought a pair of glasses with me today (OR) I wear glasses all the time, but I notice that most of you don't. How many of you wish you wore glasses? (let the children answer) How many of you never want to wear glasses? (let them answer) This morning we are going to find out how different we are from one another. We are going to discover that even while we are different, we have one thing in common. I'm going to ask you some questions about yourself. If I say something that describes you, raise your hand. Here goes (you may develop your own list):
How many of you are boys? How many of you are girls? How many of you have blue eyes? How many of you have brown eyes? How many of you have dark hair? How many of you have light hair? How many of you like white milk? How many of you like chocolate milk? How many of you aren't in school yet? How many of you are in kindergarten? How many of you are in first grade? How many of you are in second grade? How many of you are in third grade? How many of you have a dog as a pet? How many of you have a cat as a pet? How many of you have some other animal as a pet?
We are very different from one another, aren't we? We are different ages, we like different things, and we look different from one another. All this being different makes me think of this week's lesson. James says that people like us who are followers of Jesus can be different from one another. In the lesson, it tells us that followers of Jesus may be rich or may be poor. This morning we've found out that all of you as followers of Jesus have many differences. We are different, yet God loves us for our differences.
The thing I want you to remember is that we are all different. We are different, but it doesn't matter to God that we are different. God doesn't have favorites among God's followers. God doesn't care if we are rich or poor, boy or girl, dark- or light-haired. God loves us all. Can you remember that this week?
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, September 9, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
In contrast to the vast majority of Washington politicians, however, President Obama is clearly uneasy with this process. His 2008 campaign was notable for eschewing the typical fund-raising model, relying instead on using internet technology to raise an unprecedented amount from small donors. But as Jane Mayer describes in "Schmooze or Lose," her aptly titled piece for The New Yorker, Obama's struggles with "donor maintenance" have left him at a big disadvantage in the post- Citizens United world. One observer has even concluded that Obama's discomfort with how to proceed in this new environment has led to "the greatest unforced error of his political career: his team's failure to adequately form a strategy to deal with the avalanche of unregulated cash crashing down on him".
So how important is it to cater to the whims of those who keep the coffers full? As Dean reminds us, that's not merely a political question -- it's also one that confronts every charitable nonprofit... and most every congregation. As we try to find the proper balance, Dean points out that the lectionary scripture text appointed for this week from James offers some wise counsel.
Team member Mary Austin offers some additional thoughts on this week's gospel text and the issues it raises. Jesus is clearly uncomfortable at first when he's approached by the Syrophoenician woman -- and as many scholars have noted, that reflects the intense division in Jesus' society between Jews and Gentiles. Yet, he pushes through the divide and makes a point of healing the woman's ill daughter. Mary suggests that there may be some parallels in the Jewish-Gentile divide and today's Israeli-Palestinian divide -- one that has been underscored with news of recent violent attacks by mobs of Israeli teenagers on Arab youth. Though the attitudes of contempt expressed by some of those charged surely reflects the depth of the divide, Mary notes that there is also some hope that young people who have been "taught to hate" may still yet learn to bridge the chasm... just as Jesus demonstrates in our gospel passage. Whether our divisions are economic or ethnic, the common thread this week seems to be both the difficult challenge -- and the Christian necessity -- of reaching out to those who are very different from ourselves.
Some Citizens United
by Dean Feldmeyer
James 2:1-10 (11-13) 14-17
In its 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission decision (usually referred to as simply Citizens United), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment. Accordingly, organizations like corporations and unions have the same rights as individual citizens, and the government can't prohibit them from spending money to support or denounce candidates in elections as long as the money is not given to the candidates themselves.
With that ruling, a new form of political action committee (PAC) was created -- the Super PAC, which because it does not make direct contributions to candidates or parties, can accept unlimited amounts.
The flood walls were breeched and a tsunami of cash from millionaire and billionaire donors -- both individuals and organizations -- became available to the campaign arsenals of candidates from both parties. The only question was who would do what was necessary to claim it? Who would be willing to cozy up to the extremely wealthy to curry their favor and procure their largess?
Lest we think that this is a question that applies only to lowly politicians, however, the epistle of James is quick to remind us that the church often must ask itself that same question. How much deference are we willing to give to the wealthy? How willing are we to shunt aside the needs of the poor in order to curry the approval of the rich, without whom we may not meet our budget?
How do we remain financially solvent and honor what James sees as God's preferential option for the poor?
THE WORLD
In his recently published e-book Obama's Last Stand, political reporter and insider Glenn Thrush explains how Citizens United has changed the entire political landscape since the president's history-making victory in 2008. In fact, he says, that Supreme Court decision may have had a bigger influence upon American politics than anything since the ratification of the constitution.
It may very well be the deciding factor in who will be the president of the United States and the de facto leader of the free world after 2012.
The problem for the president is that he was such a vocal opponent of the Citizens United decision. He publicly denounced it and those who supported it. It would, he said, put the elective process up for sale to the highest bidder. The country would be unduly influenced by extremely wealthy people and organizations and those who were beholden to them. This past week he even suggested that "we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United".
This has not been just a philosophy for the president; he has actually lived it out in the White House. Gone has been any hint of favoritism or special interest influence -- there have been no free rides on Air Force One or overnight sleepovers in the Lincoln bedroom for big givers -- in his first year as president he even refused to pose for pictures with wealthy donors until his staff convinced him to make this small concession.
But after Citizens United, the landscape has changed.
Billions of dollars have become available, but in order to claim some of it, the president will have to do the very thing he's decried in others. He will have to curry the favor of the extremely rich and powerful. And he will have to bow to the inevitability of Super PAC influence without opening himself up to the charge of hypocrisy.
It will be a delicate tightrope to walk. But he will not be walking it alone.
Rare is the member of a board of directors for a charitable organization or the pastor of a church who has not faced this same dilemma on a smaller scale:
• "Such-and-such can usually be counted on for a big donations, but someone will have to go visit him/her and ask for it. He/she likes to be asked."
• "This-or-that company will give a big donation, but we have to make sure their name is printed at the very top of the program in letters bigger than the title of the show."
• "So-and-So wants to make a donation, but they want it to go for this specific thing and they want that thing to be used in this specific way to benefit these specific people... and not other, less deserving people."
The new pastor of every church that has ever received a new pastor has barely unpacked that first box when a delegation from the congregation knocks gently at the office door and presents a list of "important" members who must be visited and shown individual, personalized attention -- or risk losing their contribution, be it financial or otherwise.
Just how much time and resources should we devote to coddling and currying the favor of the wealthy -- individuals or organizations -- and how does that jibe with the calling of the church of Jesus Christ to be the champions of the poor?
THE WORD
The early Christian community to whom the author of the epistle of James was writing must have been facing this same issue. On the one hand, they had bills that needed to be paid and mission goals that they wanted to honor, and they genuinely needed the donations of their wealthy members. On the other hand, how far should they go to get those donations?
Apparently they weren't above using flattery and privilege, even to the point of brushing off the poor families who came to them. They were not just showing deference to the wealthy, they were showing favoritism.
James offers a hypothetical illustration: Two people, one obviously rich and the other obviously poor, show up at the church at exactly the same time -- and the members of the congregation fall all over themselves ushering the rich person to a special seat near the head of the table. "There you go. Are you comfortable? Is there anything I can get you? A cold drink? A fresh napkin? Maybe a little wine?" Meanwhile the poor person is left standing at the door or simply brushed off. "Yeah, whatever. Why don't you just stand over there? There's a good fellow."
In verse 5 James reminds his charges of Jesus' words, especially the Beatitudes as they appear in Luke's gospel: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God" (6:20). God seems to like poor people!
He then reminds them that, in the case of this church at least, the hypocrisy that poisons the life of the church is more often found in the wealthy than in the poor. Extreme wealth has a way of corrupting people, making them self-important and self-righteous, as though their wealth is a sign of God's favor.
But James does not admonish his followers to turn their backs on their wealthy members. Rather, he simply warns them against showing favoritism to the wealthy, of giving them special attention and privileges at the expense of the poor.
He concludes by arguing that this is no small thing. God's commandment to care for the poor is as important as any other commandment, and the consequences of breaking or ignoring it are just as serious as the consequences for breaking or ignoring the commandment against murder or adultery.
How we treat the poor, in other words, is serious stuff not to be shrugged off in the name of expediency or practicality.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
F. Scott Fitzgerald: "The rich are different from you and me, Ernest."
Ernest Hemingway: "Yes, they have more money."
I spent four years on the staff of a church in one of the top four wealthiest zip codes in Ohio. I came out of that experience convinced that both Fitzgerald and Hemingway were both right... only in reverse order from the way the two writers expressed it.
The rich have more money than the rest of us. And that often makes them different in more than just economic ways.
That the church is supposed to care about and give our attention to the poor is axiomatic. We may debate the most proper, efficient, and beneficial ways of doing that... but do it we must in one way or another. Jesus told us to -- and if we are going to ignore Jesus, then why bother calling ourselves Christians at all?
But what is our calling to the wealthy? How do we treat them? What message does the gospel have for them?
Certainly there is in the gospels a cautionary message: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:25).
And there is a challenge: "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me" (Mark 10:21).
There is instruction: "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same" (Luke 3:11).
And there is warning: "So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony' " (Luke 16:24-25).
Perhaps, then, our message to the wealthy is an educational and exegetical one -- that they have a role and a responsibility in the church of Jesus Christ and while their wealth brings them many comforts and privileges, it also places upon them special demands and requirements. "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Luke 12:48).
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Mark 7:24-37
Modern-day Israel is experiencing a period of national soul-searching after Israeli teenagers were arrested for an attack on Arab young people earlier in August. Isabel Kershner reports in the New York Times that a number of Jewish young people were involved in attacks in central Jerusalem, which left a Palestinian teenager unconscious. Reportedly, scores of people watched the attack without intervening. The article notes: "Two of the suspects were girls, the youngest 13, adding to the soul-searching and acknowledgment that the poisoned political environment around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has affected the moral compass of youths growing up within it."
Kershner continues: "The mob beating came on the same day that a Palestinian taxi on the West Bank was firebombed, apparently by Jewish extremists, though there have been no arrests. [See below for updated information about the people who have since been arrested.] The two episodes, along with a new report by the United States State Department labeling attacks by Jews on Palestinians as terrorism, have opened a stark national conversation about racism, violence, and how Israeli society could have come to this point." An editorial in the Jerusalem Post observed a "worryingly high level of tolerance -- whether explicit or implicit -- for such despicable acts of violence." The beating and the ages of the people in the mob have opened a national conversation in Israel about hate speech and its consequences. A number of prominent Israelis have observed a connection between calling themselves "the chosen people" and a sense of entitlement that grows from that name. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the attacks.
A subsequent New York Times article by Jodi Rudoren and Kershner interviewed high school students who attend a rare school with a mixed student body, both Israeli and Palestinian. "Tamer Jbarah, a 17-year-old Palestinian student who speaks accentless Hebrew after years in a bilingual school that is about half Jewish, said he was not at all surprised when a mob of Jewish teenagers beat an Arab teenager unconscious this month while hundreds watched and did nothing to help."
"People are taught to hate," he said, "so they hate."
Being taught to hate is as old as religion itself. Even Jesus himself is limited by the teachings of his upbringing when he meets the Gentile woman in this week's gospel lection. As Amy Howe writes in Feasting on the Word [Year B, Volume 4, p. 44], "Jesus is caught with his compassion down." This is one of the most discussed stories in the gospels, for it shows Jesus at his worst. Commentators over the years have tried to spin the story in all sorts of ways to excuse Jesus' sharp words. He's tired. He's not expecting to have to work in Gentile territory. He's trying to rest. All of that is true, and yet it's clear that his response to the Gentile mother is less than kind. When he speaks, he's reflecting what he's been taught as a faithful Jew. To see the grace in the story, we have to begin with his lack of understanding. "Taught to hate" is putting it strongly, but Jesus has been taught to be separate from, and to look down on, Gentiles. He speaks to the woman in need in the way that he knows.
The real healing begins with her compassion, not his. Her understanding of his limitations opens the door for the healing to happen -- on several levels. The woman answers Jesus' "no" to her with a "but, still," seeing more possibilities than he does. Her response convinces Jesus to heal her daughter, but it also allows Jesus to be healed. The encounter sets him free from the prejudices he's learned as part of his faith. Compassion comes from an unexpected place in the gospel story.
Healing between Israelis and Palestinians will need the same. The New York Times article by Rudoren and Kershner (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/world/middleeast/israeli-schools-to-di...) reports that the Israeli education minister has required every junior high and high school to teach students about this episode. The article notes: "In ordering schools to confront the episode, the education minister warned that some pupils might speak in support of the perpetrators. Educators were told to let the youngsters express themselves, but that 'the unequivocal message must be a condemnation of racism and violence.' " Israelis with a variety of political persuasions have been shocked by the beating of the teenager as well as by the firebombing of the taxi, where the people arrested are also teenagers, some as young as 12.
In a symptom of the depth of the problem, the authors observe that "the vast majority of these discussions will take place in something of a vacuum, since Israel has separate school systems for Arabs and Jews (and, indeed, distinct ones for secular, religious, and ultra-Orthodox Jews)."
There are a few exceptions, like the Hand in Hand School (mentioned above), which seeks to educate Arabs and Jews together to build greater understanding. Tamer, one of the students there, recalled his experience of being with a group of Jewish teenagers who were surprised to learn that he was Arab because, he said, "I didn't look like a terrorist or a rapist." Perhaps the students at that school will be able to share the gift of unexpected compassion and have a part in healing the wounds of hate and rage in Israel.
The Arab teenager beaten and left unconscious by the mob of Jewish teenagers has recovered enough to go home, after starting out in the Intensive Care Unit. And it was a Jewish medical student who gave him CPR after the beating, saving his life.
It seems that we all need to hear the words Jesus says to the deaf man in the lection's second miracle story: "Be opened."
ILLUSTRATIONS
There is a constant and unending temptation to bend our behavior to honor the wealthy. While their generosity can do wonderful things for society, such charity needs to be kept in perspective. When he was mayor of West Berlin, Willy Brandt was invited to view the great new Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, Israel. He expressed his appreciation for the concert hall having been named for Thomas Mann, the German writer. He was quickly corrected. Brandt's host politely informed him that the building was actually named for a certain Frederic Mann of Philadelphia. In surprise, Brandt asked, "Why? What did he ever write?"
Came the reply, "A check."
* * *
Leonard Sweet brings the letter of James up-to-date in his criticism of those who favor the rich over the poor:
Jesus really did have strange tastes. He especially liked being around the poor, the marginalized, the forgotten. Who should be invited to the table? The disabled, the outcast, the overlooked -- precisely those people excluded from the table by certain religious communities. For Jesus it was not "poor people and other outcasts, find yourself a church"; it was "church people, find yourself the poor and the outcasts."
The New Testament teaches that the church is the Body of Christ. Jesus teaches that the victims of hatred and oppression are Jesus. "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." So if the church refuses to identify with the poor and the forgotten, it is turning its back on Jesus. It cannot become one body with Christ.
-- Leonard Sweet, Out of the Question... Into the Mystery (WaterBrook Press, 2004), p. 137
* * *
When Governor Scott Walker's "Budget Repair Bill" was passed in Wisconsin in 2011, the Walker administration was given "broad powers to reshape health programs covering 1 million low-income Wisconsin residents and use of borrowing and cuts to employee benefits to fill a $137 million hole in the two-year state budget," according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . What wasn't broadcast widely is that a significant portion of that hole came from one of the governor's first acts in office -- the institution of tax breaks for wealthy Wisconsinites and corporations amounting to $2.4 billion over ten years.
In response to the Budget Repair Bill's passage, Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice issued a statement, which the group called "A religious witness to the breach in the social covenant for the common good between the people and the state of Wisconsin." It included specific concerns about the bill, but it also gave rise to a mantra that could then be heard in a variety of settings in Wisconsin: "A budget is a moral document."
On the federal level, Wisconsin Representative (and now Republican nominee for Vice President) Paul Ryan proposed a budget in March of 2012 that was deemed "The Path to Prosperity: Restoring America's Promise". Ryan claimed that the budget grew out of his background in the Catholic faith and his tradition's social teachings. A week later, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops denounced Ryan's plan, saying it failed to meet their "moral criteria" that the federal budget protect the poor.
About a month later, the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty called on American Catholics to observe a "Fortnight for Freedom" to actively resist the recent "contraception mandate" and other measures that they say interfere with religious liberty.
The following day, Representative Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations, contacted the president of the bishops, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. Representative DeLauro stated that as a Catholic herself, she felt that the bishops should be focusing their attention instead on the injustices she and others felt were apparent in the Ryan's budget. "What I am asking for is a campaign for the poor, the hungry, the middle class, the people who are going to be eviscerated by the Ryan budget," DeLauro told Catholic News Service.
A budget, whether it is created for a governmental unit or a church community, seems to be one very public way we communicate what our works will be. These works, the writer of the book of James says, are the real measure of who we are as followers of Jesus. "If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,' yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead" (James 2:15-17).
* * *
Suppose you learned that a famous actress like Julia Roberts was coming to your worship service next Sunday. If she were to sit in the pew next to you, do you think you would be eager to share your hymnal with her? Would you be interested in chatting with her during the coffee hour? Do you think you would be a bit awed and thrilled by her very presence? What kind of response do you think Julia Roberts would get if she came to your church?
Wipe that image out of your head (if you can!) and suppose the visitor sitting right next to you in your pew, really close, is not a famous, attractive actress but a "bag lady" from Brooklyn -- a dirty, smelly, toothless, homeless woman carrying all her belongings in a greasy grocery bag. Would you be so eager to share your hymnal with her? Would you be as willing to spend time with her in the coffee hour? What kind of response might she get from your congregation? The author of the book of James pulls no punches when he says straightforwardly, "If you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law." That's easy to say, but harder to do!
* * *
I used to think when I was a child that Christ might have been exaggerating when he warned about the dangers of wealth. Today I know better. I know how very hard it is to be rich and still keep the milk of human kindness. Money has a way of putting scales on one's eyes, a dangerous way of freezing people's hands, eyes, lips, and hearts.
-- Dom Helder Camara, Revolution Through Peace
* * *
Jim Donnan, the former University of Georgia football coach and ESPN analyst, has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of running an $80 million Ponzi scheme. He used his influence with former coaches and players, encouraging them to invest in his company, GLC Limited, and promising returns ranging from 50-400%.
Donnan's company bought and resold furniture and appliances, but only $12 million out of the $80 million money raised was used to buy merchandise. The reminder was used to pay false returns or was pocketed by Donnan, with large sums given to family members. As a result he was able to finance a very luxurious lifestyle.
Though someone may appear to be a friend and a good person, always be sure that his or her actions are motivated by faith and not greed.
* * *
Whoever lives sweetly dies bitterly; whoever serves only the body loses the soul. Sheep are herded from the fields to the town. The fatter they are, the faster they are killed. Night is gone and dawn has come. How long will you tell the same tales of gold? You were young and contented once. Now you want gold. Once you yourself were the gold... Because dervishes are beyond property and wealth, they possess an abundant portion from the almighty. God the most high is just. How could [God] be tyrannical toward the poor and the weak? I desire nothing from created beings. Through contentment, I have found a world within my heart.
-- from "The Tale of the Bedouin and His Wife" by Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, in The Pocket Rumi, pp. 280-283
What does it take to "live sweetly" in and be the gold of God's kingdom in the here and now? How does it create a "world within [our hearts]"?
* * *
In 2003, a giant cream-colored statue of Jesus with his arms raised to the heavens was built in front of the Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio. Looming 63 feet above a busy stretch of Interstate 75 north of Cincinnati, the massive structure quickly gained notoriety and inspired many nicknames, including (understandably) "Touchdown Jesus." (Comedian Heywood Banks also famously dubbed it "Big Butter Jesus.") But in June 2010, the landmark -- officially titled "King of Kings" -- suddenly disappeared when it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.
In September a new statue will take its place. This statue, weighing 7 tons, will be 52 feet tall and placed on an 11 foot concrete base. The Latin name for the replica is Lux Mundi, which means "Light of the World" -- but since the arms of Jesus will be outstretched rather than uplifted, people are now calling the statue "Hug Me, Jesus."
James says that people will know us by our works, which can include very small acts of kindness. A 52-foot testimony does not reflect the sincerity of our day-to-day encounters with others.
* * *
There's a famous poem by Robert Frost -- "Mending Wall" -- about the walls we build in life. "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," he writes, looking over at his New England farmer neighbor who's heaving yet another stone upon the wall that runs between their two properties. The poet asks his neighbor why the wall is necessary:
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."
But then the poet is led to wonder,
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out.
When you and I build walls between ourselves and others, it is truly an open question whether we are walling the other out or walling ourselves in!
* * *
On August 27th, the New York Times reported on nine service members who have been disciplined over two incidents -- one in which American service personnel sent copies of the Koran and other religious texts to be burned despite the warnings of their Afghani counterparts, and one in which four marines were videotaped urinating on the bodies of four dead Taliban fighters with the footage then posted anonymously to the internet.
Before deploying, the service members involved in the burning of Islamic religious texts had training on religious and cultural sensitivity that consisted of just a one-hour Power Point presentation. In reaction to the burning incident, the general in charge of NATO troops in Afghanistan, commanding officer John R. Allen, issued an order that all coalition troops receive training "on the proper handling of religious materials" within ten days time.
The four service personnel being disciplined for desecrating the bodies of the Taliban fighters are still on active duty, according to Pentagon officials. They received only "nonjudicial punishments," which could include letters of reprimand, a reduction in rank, forfeit of some pay, physical restriction to a military base, extra duties, or some combination of those measures.
If Jesus himself needed teaching and correction because of the cultural and religious biases (realized or unrealized) that were a part of his upbringing, how much more intentional should we be about our own learning and growth as we relate to the "other" in our shrinking world?
* * *
Each year Beloit College offers "The Mindset List", a handy guide for defining how the incoming freshman class views the world. This is done by creating a list of things the freshmen have never experienced or that may be significantly different from their professors and other adults. Some of the items on the list for the Class of 2016 are:
• The biblical sources of the terms such as "forbidden fruit," "the writing on the wall," "good Samaritan," and "the promised land" are unknown to them;
• They have never seen an airplane "ticket";
• Michael Jackson's family, not the Kennedys, constitutes "American royalty";
• They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of "electronic narcotics";
• Star Wars has always been a film, not a defense strategy; and
• They watch television everywhere but on television.
When the people saw Jesus healing the sick, "they were astonished beyond measure." Has the cyberspace generation lost its sense of astonishment?
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Those who trust in God are like Mount Zion,
People: which cannot be moved but abides forever.
Leader: As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
People: so God surrounds God's people, from this time on and forevermore.
Leader: Do good, O God, to those who are good,
People: and to those who are upright in their hearts.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God of creation.
People: We come and sing praises to the God who made us all.
Leader: Come and share in the bounty of God's love.
People: God is generous and gracious.
Leader: Come and be part of God's gift to those in need.
People: We come to be made part of God's grace and love to all who are in need.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"The Care the Eagle Gives Her Young"
found in:
UMH: 118
NCH: 468
CH: 76
"Creating God, Your Fingers Trace"
found in:
UMH: 109
H82: 394/395
PH: 134
NCH: 462
CH: 335
ELA: 684
"Hope of the World"
found in:
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
"My Soul Gives Glory to My God"
found in:
UMH: 198
CH: 130
ELA: 882
"Tell Out, My Soul"
found in:
UMH: 200
H82: 437/438
Renew: 130
"All Who Love and Serve Your City"
found in:
UMH: 433
H82: 570/571
PH: 413
CH: 670
LBW: 436
ELA: 724
"Cuando El Pobre" ("When the Poor Ones")
found in:
UMH: 434
PH: 407
CH: 662
ELA: 725
"Go Down, Moses"
found in:
UMH: 448
PH: 334
AAHH: 543
NNBH: 490
CH: 663
"All I Need Is You"
found in:
CCB: 100
"Refiner's Fire"
found in:
CCB: 79
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills: Grant us the wisdom to follow your example and be generous and look out for the poor ones; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you, O God, knowing that you are complete and need nothing from us. Yet you desire to be in communion with us and to give generously to us. Help us to listen to you this day as you show us the responsibilities we have as those who have much. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to see how wealthy we are and the responsibilities that places on us.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We look around at the extremely wealthy and then see ourselves as poor. Although most of us are very wealthy by world standards, we think we are in need and so we work to gather in more things. We avoid seeing or thinking about the poorest of your children. We avoid thinking that there is something we could and should be doing to help them. We are too busy thinking about ourselves. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit to mirror your love, compassion, and generosity. Amen.
Leader: God is generous to us all. And God loves and claims us all. Know the love and forgiveness of God as you seek ways to be more attentive to the poor.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise and worship you, O God, for you are the Creator of all. Out of your power and love all creation is coming to be.
(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 look around at the extremely wealthy and then see ourselves as poor. Although most of us are very wealthy by world standards, we think we are in need and so we work to gather in more things. We avoid seeing or thinking about the poorest of your children. We avoid thinking that there is something we could and should be doing to help them. We are too busy thinking about ourselves. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit to mirror your love, compassion, and generosity.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have blessed us. You have given us this wonderful planet that sustains our physical lives and offers us opportunities to serve you through those around us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for the poor among us. Many do not have enough food or shelter. Many are without healthcare. Many are alone and forgotten.
(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
Talk to the children about how most of the world's children live. Share with them how children in many regions of the world almost always eat the same thing for every meal -- if they are lucky enough to have something to eat. Discuss how many do not have running water but must carry water, which is often not clean. Perhaps this would be a good time to start a children's mission fund where the offering from the children goes to help other children.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Faith Has No Favorites
James 2:1-10 (11-13) 14-17
Object: a pair of glasses
Good morning, boys and girls! I brought a pair of glasses with me today (OR) I wear glasses all the time, but I notice that most of you don't. How many of you wish you wore glasses? (let the children answer) How many of you never want to wear glasses? (let them answer) This morning we are going to find out how different we are from one another. We are going to discover that even while we are different, we have one thing in common. I'm going to ask you some questions about yourself. If I say something that describes you, raise your hand. Here goes (you may develop your own list):
How many of you are boys? How many of you are girls? How many of you have blue eyes? How many of you have brown eyes? How many of you have dark hair? How many of you have light hair? How many of you like white milk? How many of you like chocolate milk? How many of you aren't in school yet? How many of you are in kindergarten? How many of you are in first grade? How many of you are in second grade? How many of you are in third grade? How many of you have a dog as a pet? How many of you have a cat as a pet? How many of you have some other animal as a pet?
We are very different from one another, aren't we? We are different ages, we like different things, and we look different from one another. All this being different makes me think of this week's lesson. James says that people like us who are followers of Jesus can be different from one another. In the lesson, it tells us that followers of Jesus may be rich or may be poor. This morning we've found out that all of you as followers of Jesus have many differences. We are different, yet God loves us for our differences.
The thing I want you to remember is that we are all different. We are different, but it doesn't matter to God that we are different. God doesn't have favorites among God's followers. God doesn't care if we are rich or poor, boy or girl, dark- or light-haired. God loves us all. Can you remember that this week?
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The Immediate Word, September 9, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 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.
