In this week’s lectionary passage from the book of Isaiah, the prophet laments the strained relationship between God and the people of Israel. God is clearly venting here, using the imagery of a vineyard to vividly illustrate everything he has done for us. Isaiah lists all the labor that God has put into cultivating the field -- yet despite his best efforts, the people are only yielding wild grapes unfit for God’s wineskin. In exasperation, God threatens to quit working the field and let it grow over with weeds and thorns. Of course, this is a thinly disguised metaphor for our relationship with God. While in this passage God sounds more than anything like a jilted lover, perhaps a more apt analogy might be that of an old married couple where one long-suffering party has finally “had it up to here” with their spouse’s failings.
In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin notes that relationships change over time, as well as the expectations we have for them. That’s certainly true for successful women who opted out of their careers in order to be stay-at-home moms. As a recent New York Times Magazine piece notes, some of these women discovered that things were not as they had envisioned -- and now their perspective has changed and they want to rejoin the career track. Mary asks us to consider: Just what are the appropriate expectations we should have of ourselves and of each other? And more pertinently, what are the minimal expectations that we should meet as God’s people? Our God is a God of grace -- but it’s also reasonable for God to expect that we should be appreciative and thankful for his grace, and that we should live as vessels for his work in the world -- in other words, to be grapes acceptable for the Kingdom.
Team member Leah Lonsbury offers some additional thoughts on the Hebrews text and its paean to faith. Faith makes the seemingly impossible possible -- as the writer underlines through a litany of examples -- and it allows us to endure the slings and arrows (not to mention outright persecution) that life sends our way. As Leah relates from her trying experiences this summer with a cross-country move where almost everything went wrong, faith can be a real lifeline that keeps us sane and focused when it feels like we’re living in the midst of a disaster movie.
Sour Grapes
by Mary Austin
Isaiah 5:1-7
Every relationship has expectations.
Sometimes both people even expect the same things.
Israel’s relationship with God is built on the expectation of faithfulness, in worship and in the nation's life. And yet, Israel -- as we all do -- falls short. The prophet Isaiah speaks to the people in God’s voice to remind them how little they have given God, in return for all of God’s tender care. God has nurtured the vineyard that stands in for Israel, and the people have produced only wild, inedible fruit.
In the News
Recently, the New York Times Magazine went back to look at a group of educated, successful women who had proudly opted out of full-time work a decade ago to stay home with their kids. A 2003 article had chronicled the choice these women made to give up careers for full-time work at home. At the time, they were delighted to have time with their kids as their husbands supported their families.
Ten years later, the decision not to work outside the home has brought interesting changes to their marriages, and to their view of themselves.
One of the women, Sheilah O’Donnel, found that the strain of not working and then moving back into work she loved was too much for her marriage, which cracked and dissolved amid different expectations of what she and her husband owed each other. The article relates O’Donnel telling her 12-year-old daughter that “you need to work. You don’t have to make a million dollars. You don’t have to have a wealthy lifestyle. You just always have to be able to at least earn enough so you can support yourself.” O’Donnel says that her choice to develop a new career for herself led to conflict with her husband, who wanted more of her time and energy. In return for her staying home, he expected more from her.
As Judith Warner, the author of the 2013 article, observes: “Nine years ago, O’Donnel was promoting a very different message. She was a spokeswoman of sorts for a group of women -- highly educated, very accomplished, well-paid professionals with high-earning spouses -- who in the early 2000s made headlines for leaving the workforce just when they were hitting their stride. They were a small demographic to be sure (another, larger, group who left the workforce at that time -- poor mothers who couldn’t afford child care -- went without notice), but they garnered a great deal of media attention.”
The original 2003 piece by Lisa Belkin named the trend the “Opt-Out Revolution.” Warner’s follow-up article notes: “Many of the women I spoke with were troubled by the gender-role traditionalism that crept into their marriages once they gave up work, transforming them from being their husbands’ intellectual equals into the one member of their partnership uniquely endowed with gifts for laundry or cooking and cleaning; a junior member of the household, who sometimes had to ‘negotiate’ with her husband to get money for child care. The husbands hadn’t turned into ogres. Their intent was not to make their wives feel lesser. But when traditional gender arrangements were put into place, there was a subtle slide into inequality.” Changing work roles also changed relationship roles, often in unexpected ways. Expectations have their own power.
Later, after their children grew older, the women looked for interesting work or volunteer work, and they often found their marriages under pressure. Each partner expected different things, and the changes in the roles magnified the differences.
In the Scriptures
Isaiah, too, speaks of expectations -- of what God expects of the people, in return for God’s care. Isaiah, speaking for God, recounts all of God’s labor to prepare the land, plant the vineyard -- and in return God “expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes” (v. 2). God is disappointed, not so much angry as sorrowful.
The Christian Resource Institute’s Dennis Bratcher observes: “There has been much discussion of the original historical setting of this literary form called a ‘song’ (shierah) in the Hebrew text. Some have proposed that it was patterned after songs composed for the autumn harvest festival (Succoth or Feast of Booths) celebrating the blessings of the land and good crops (cf. Deuteronomy 16:13-15). Others have proposed that its background is a marriage song sung for the bridegroom concerning the bride.... However, the original setting of the song has less importance here than its present function as it stands in the text.” Here, the song calls to people to account for their failings in this relationship.
Having received nothing back, now God is ready to dismantle the vineyard, to take down the fences, and give up on the crop. God is deeply disappointed. Justice and faithfulness were expected, and God has nothing to show for all of the divine labor: “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!” (v. 7). God’s hard work yields nothing but disappointment, and God is ready to give up.
Dennis Bratcher adds: “The judgment of God in this text is the withdrawing of God’s presence from the people to let history take its own course without God’s further involvement with this ‘vineyard.’ This suggests that the judgment of God can be, perhaps should be, conceptualized as the absence of God’s active presence. Or to say this another way, the existence of these people as God’s people depended on God’s sustaining presence, and if that were withdrawn, they would cease to exist as his people, just as the vineyard would gradually succumb to the forces around it without care and cultivation.”
A little farther into Isaiah brings us back to hope again, but this section of the text ends with God’s bleak judgment. “But wait,” we want to call out, “come back. We’ll do better.”
In the Sermon
The sermon might talk about the expectations we have in family life, at work, and in the church. Some people expect church to be a friendly community, while others look for intellectual challenge, and others look for service in the world. Some people think church should be formal, while others like to drink coffee during the service and come in casual clothes. When church doesn’t meet our expectations, do we move on, or do we dig in, trusting that there’s some reason we’re supposed to be there? How many of our expectations do we need to have fulfilled to feel satisfied?
The vineyard metaphor speaks to how slowly things are revealed, in contrast to the world of instant information, food, and connections. Only after preparing the ground, crafting the fence, and planting does anything start to grow. What are we waiting to see grow and develop? Do we have the spiritual discipline to wait?
What do we expect of God? What are we looking for -- a ready supply of parking places, or unending good health, or financial success? What happens when God doesn’t live up to our expectations? And what is the fruit we bear for God, both as individuals, and as a community that has been deeply cared for by God?
The sermon might look at the hard question of whether God does give up on us. Do we always get another chance to do better, or does God come to the end of the divine patience? We have all experienced things that are gone forever -- a place where we used to live, or a person we used to know. What does that absence feel like? And what would it feel like, if it were God?
What does God expect of the church as a modern vineyard? If God has planted and tended us, what fruit are we bearing? Is there a sweetness in the fruit we have to offer God, or are we wild and bitter grapes?
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Leah Lonsbury
Hebrews 11:29--12:2
I’ve been on hiatus from The Immediate Word this summer, because my family made what turned into an epic move from Madison, Wisconsin, to Atlanta, Georgia. It’s a change we’ve been thinking and dreaming about (even pining after) for a while now, but a new job for my husband set it all in motion in April of this year.
Atlanta is where I went to seminary. It’s where I fell in love with the Church again and where I found a real home in one specific manifestation of that Body. It’s where I made some of the best friends of my life and where our hearts and minds evolved together. It’s where my son was born, and where his seminary “aunties” skipped their finals to see me through 26 hours of labor and hold him close when he finally made his appearance.
It’s where I can go to the grocery store, the neighborhood school, the library, or the gym and see people of all the colors of God’s creative palette and hear them speak to their friends and loved ones in a beautifully diverse cacophony of languages.
It’s where springtime can take your breath away again and again, and where winter does not last for six months of the year.
There are many reasons we wanted to make this move -- some deeply meaningful, and some that fall more on the practical side of things. But as it turns out, all the reasons in the world, no matter how good or meaningful, won’t pave the way or make something as epic as a cross-country move with two children and two cats easy. Unfortunately, that’s not guaranteed. Not even a little bit.
You name it, and it went wrong with our move -- botched appraisals, lost contracts, bungled loan paperwork, insurance kerfuffles, blocked and towed vehicles, misjudged moving containers, rain and more rain, and even food poisoning. And all this just scratches the surface.
In the beginning of this process, I joked that I might have a short story when it was all through. Now I’m sure I have the material for a full-on novel. I may borrow from the writer of Hebrews for the book jacket... “ ‘And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of’ everything that went wrong, and then went wrong again. The members of our family ‘wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground,’ and ‘did not receive what they were promised.’ ”
Melodramatic? Yes. True? Mostly. Sounds like perfect preaching material to me.
Through each misstep, stumble, and wipeout of this move, I learned (in a very first-world, problems-of-a-privileged-person kind of way) the art of endurance. And after reading our passage from Hebrews for this week, I would even call the insights gained during this moving disaster the beginnings of a new kind of faith.
Strangely enough, as a person who grew up in the church and now as a pastor-type, I’ve never been one to sling around the word “faith” a lot. Something about it has always made me squirm. I guess that’s because in the folders in my brain, “faith” was stored alongside “belief” and “blind trust.”
But after this move and reading Hebrews again with new eyes, I now understand faith more as a grit-your-teeth-and-hang-on kind of thing. I see faith as being less about what we think we know and can define and more about how we know we must live and define ourselves in response to Love’s promise. Faith is not something upon which we comfortably ruminate. It isn’t a prize of sorts to hold out as a removed example of pure Christian living.
Faith is our perseverance in the struggle, or maybe even the struggle itself. And it’s messy and mysterious and not easily delineated, described, explained, or translated.
John C. Shelley writes in Feasting on the Word (Year C, Vol. 3): “The writer of Hebrews has introduced the idea of faith as the courage to endure” [italics mine], which must be understood in light of the promise God has held for us from the beginning and invites us to participate in each day. He continues:
The promise seems elusive, not identifiable with anything specific in the lives of the Christians, but nevertheless present in the form of hope, which enables one to live as a stranger in the midst of a hostile culture, reaching for what cannot yet be fully grasped (pg. 352).
This overarching and sustaining (even if it’s hard to pin down or define) faith in God’s promise shows up in the numerous examples that the writer of Hebrews compiles for us. I could make my own contemporary list as well -- a long one. I imagine you could too.
Those who make the list -- a long-haired strong man, a beloved king not always on course, a crafty prostitute, female disciples with sticking power, my childhood babysitter, my pastor/poet grandfather, a tenacious and tender friend who serves as a pediatric cancer chaplain, my 90-year-old church friend Sue who oozes light and gives the most glorious hugs -- they make up a very sacred hodgepodge. No two are exactly the same. No two live their faith in just the same way. It takes their individual angle on things, their creativity, their own piece of God’s vision to illumine and make way for what would otherwise seem impossible at the moment.
As Shelley would say, through the faith of this cloud of witnesses, a new creation “invades our present reality” and transformation is born via holy imagination (Feasting on the Word [Year C, Vol. 3], pg. 356).
According to the writer of Hebrews, that is how kingdoms rise and fall, justice is delivered, and battles are won. Faith allows us to imagine and embody God’s truths -- that our strength can grow from our weakness, that the world’s reaction does not define our worth, and that suffering is not the final word.
Faith, as the courage to endure and the power to envision and enact God’s promise, is what is resurrecting us with Jesus. It is what makes possible new life as we seek the Pioneer and Perfecter’s path for our living.
I glimpsed and grasped for this faith over the last four crazy-making months. Others seem to live it beautifully each day, just as easily as they breathe. Others like...
* Francisco Gea Ramos, whose family’s struggles with Spain’s climbing unemployment and plummeting economy are documented in the Washington Post. Heartbreak follows heartbreak, and still Francisco tells his family: “You can’t let it get you down... Keep struggling. Never give up.”
* Pardeep Kaleka, son of the Sikh temple president killed a year ago in the attack in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and his friend, Arno Michaelis, a former white supremacist and author of My Life After Hate. Kaleka and Michaelis have joined together to educate young people to stand against hate and violence through the group Serve 2 Unite. Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman asked Kaleka what message he was promoting through Serve 2 Unite and as he honored his father’s memory. He answered:
That when we go out to schools and we talk to students, we want to engage them in a few different things. We want to engage them in the ideas of compassion and the ideas of kindness and the ideas of being immovable. And what that basically means is we want students to be self-confident, confident enough that they don’t -- they’re not easily persuaded by somebody else or somebody else’s beliefs about them. And we also want them to be social agents of change, basically, to take -- take ownership of their surroundings and their environment, and sort of mold not only their school culture, but also their broader culture when they get outside.
* And Jayden Sink, a 6-year-old girl from Kansas City who heard about the messages of hate promoted by the Westboro Baptist Church and set up a pink lemonade stand across the street in response. She decided she wanted to raise money to promote an alternative message of love and peace, and she has done just that as her act of love and hope has gone viral and raised $23,000. It has also invited others to follow suit. On August 10th, Jayden set up her last stand of the summer and 70 kids from across the world were set to join her. All the money raised will go to an anti-bullying initiative. “We’re giving [the money] to the rainbow house to help people who are sick, and to help people be nice to each other,” said Jayden.
I’ve made it to Atlanta in one piece and am still reasonably sane. My kids are getting settled and successfully starting school. I’m once again breathing deeply on a fairly regular basis, and I’m enjoying being home in my beloved church and living in the same state as my husband again. On this end of our now almost comic move, it is good to consider myself among those who are learning to live “by faith” -- those whose hope allows them to dig in, hang on, dream through, and invite God’s love and life regardless of geography or circumstances. I’m getting there. If only I could say the same in regards to unpacking.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Chris Keating:
Isaiah 5:1-7
Love Songs, Bad Jokes, and Blurred Expectations
It’s not quite Eric Clapton singing “Wonderful Tonight,” but Isaiah 5 is indeed a song about a lover’s dreams, hopes, and unmet expectations. It is a lyrical ballad, a woeful tale of disappointment and longing.
And it is the exact opposite of the longing expressed by this summer’s top single. Singer Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” has been high on the charts, and on the minds of critics who see it as a misogynistic, downgrading, and even “rapey.” It is the so-called song of the summer, but its verses speak of men dominating women, and the “explicit” version of its video features almost completely nude women dancing with a fully clothed Thicke.
While God’s love song in Isaiah is a finely crafted statement of unrequired expectations, justice, and faithfulness, Thicke’s song has created controversy for its underlying themes of desire. In an unmanaged media moment, the singer himself downplayed the criticism, saying it was a “pleasure to downgrade women.” He’s since backtracked on those words, describing it as a bad joke. Yet the blurred lines remain -- in a summer dominated by sexting politicians, what was Thicke thinking?
According to him, the song is meant to stir a conversation. As reported by the Huffington Post, Thicke told Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie of the Today show: “I think that’s what great art does -- it’s supposed to stir conversation, it’s supposed to make us talk about what’s important and what the relationships between men and women are. If you listen to the lyrics, it says, ‘That man is not your maker.’ It’s actually a feminist movement within itself. It’s saying that women and men are equals as animals and as power. It doesn’t matter if you’re a good girl or a bad girl, you can still have a good time.”
Application: Unlike Isaiah’s song of unrequited faithfulness, Thicke’s suggestive yet catchy song speaks of unleashed desire and the objectification of women. It has a catchy beat and may be the song of the summer, yet it fails to uphold the justice God expects from creation.
*****
Hebrews 11:29--12:2
Winter’s Bone
You won’t find her name recorded in the litany of saints who clung to faith in Hebrews 11, but Ree Dolly understood what it meant to persevere in faith. Dolly is the protagonist in Daniel Woodrell’s dark novel Winter’s Bone, which was made into a movie of the same title in 2010. It is a gritty tale of a determined teenager who sets off to find her fugitive father. Set deep in the Missouri Ozarks, the novel details the 16-year-old Ree’s rugged search for her father, who has skipped bond on meth charges. Her father used the family farm as bail money, putting Ree, his mentally ill wife, and two young sons in danger of becoming homeless.
Ree is tough, but her determination is tested by her father’s reckless behavior and the tight-lipped mountain culture of her kin. As the local deputy informs her of the situation, Ree makes the decision to track down her father. In many ways, Woodrell shows the determined outlook of a young girl pursuing resurrection. The deputy tells Ree:
“If he don’t show for trial, see, the way the deal works, you-all lose this place. It’ll get sold from under you. You’ll have to get out. Got somewhere to go?”
Woodrell’s descriptive prose continues:
Ree nearly fell but would not let it happen in front of the law... the boys and her and Mom would be dogs in the field without this house.... Ree stretched over the rail, pulled her hair aside, and let snow land on her neck. She closed her eyes, tried to call to mind the sounds of a far tranquil ocean, the lapping of waves. She said, “I’ll find him.”
“Girl, I been lookin’ and...”
“I’ll find him.”
Application: The power and determination of Ree matches the gritty determination of Israel’s heroes of faith who clung to belief in God’s presence despite the threats they endured.
*****
Hebrews 11:29--12:2
Iditarod and the Race of Faith
Is it natural talent or well-honed skill that makes athletes hit hard, play long, and go deep? Sports Illustrated writer David Epstein’s new book The Sports Gene notes that scientists are revealing new clues about what it takes to be a high-performing athlete. Particularly striking are his insights into the breeding of dogs for the famed Alaska Iditarod race.
What he discovered, according to an NPR interview, was that it isn’t always the naturally fastest dogs who win. Instead, says Epstein, it is the dogs who pull hard and are driven forward by hard work who tend to succeed:
As I write in the book, it’s not the fastest dogs that win. So sled dogs, when they were first bred for racing, the mushers bred for speed traits, and the idea was to race between checkpoints in the Iditarod very, very quickly, and they topped out in their top speed. And then what became popular because of [four-time Iditarod champion] Lance Mackey, who I write about, who couldn’t afford to breed fast dogs, he had to breed instead dogs that were slower but would just go and go and go, and had a drive to pull the sled all the time and never wanted to stop. And it turns out -- and scientists look at some of those sled dogs -- they’ve actually been bred for motivation, they’ve been bred for work ethic. And the speeds of the Iditarod races are getting faster because the dogs are pulling longer, not faster.
Application: As the writer of Hebrews points out, the race of faith is not a sprint... it is a hard-fought slog through triumph and tragedy, and it emerges through looking toward Jesus’ pilgrimage to the cross. Being the fastest doesn’t count nearly as much as the ability to “go and go and go.”
*****
Luke 12:49-56
The Signs of Peace
Jesus’ words about bringing fire to the earth will be heard just a week after the anniversary of the United States’ bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Sixty-eight years ago, the deployment of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki signaled the last days of World War II. But the peace it brought has been marked in the decades since with endless divisions and debates about the use of nuclear weapons. That’s true even in Japan, whose government was recently condemned by the mayor of Nagasaki for failing to push for international disarmament.
At a memorial service on August 9, Mayor Tomihisa Taue of Nagasaki criticized his government for failing to oppose nuclear weapons. Japan refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty last April. In the presence of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Taue said that refusing to sign was a betrayal of the expectations of global society. Taue also called on the United States and Russia to reduce nuclear weapons, and stressed that “people who experienced first- or second-hand the devastation that the atomic bomb brought to their lives should continue to share this pain with the future generation to ensure that this will never happen again.”
Application: Jesus, the promised bearer of peace, shatters his hearers’ expectations about the nature of that peace. In the cross, disciples are called to watch for Jesus’ signs of fire, not of destruction but of redemption. Likewise, as we recall the horrors of atomic war, we may remember that simply calling “peace, peace” will not bring the sort of lasting peace Jesus proclaimed.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Isaiah 5:1-7
In a recent 15-minute audio message, Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri denounced democracy and upheld the promotion of Islam by jihad. He proclaimed that the coup ousting Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi is proof that Islamic rule cannot be established through democracy, but only in armed resistance. In the address he said, “We have to admit first that legitimacy does not mean elections and democracy, but legitimacy is the Shariah” [Islamic law].
Application: Isaiah spoke to a rebellious people who had forsaken the concept of justice.
*****
Isaiah 5:1-7
Berthold Beitz recently died at the age of 99. Often called “the grand old man of German steel” for his leadership of ThyssenKrupp, he is more importantly known for the honor bestowed on him by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial as “righteous among the nations.” During the Nazi occupation of Poland, Beitz saved hundreds of Jews from extermination by creating useless, non-productive industrial jobs for them. He then convinced the German authorities that these Jews were essential workers. Regarding his efforts, Beitz said: “I saw how people were shot, how they were lined up in the night. My motives were not political; they were purely humane, moral motives.”
Application: God looked for justice but saw only bloodshed. Let us, with Isaiah, renew justice.
*****
Hebrews 11:29--12:2
Actor Michael Ansara appeared in so many movies and television shows that the list is too numerous to cite. Best known for starring in the 1950s television series Broken Arrow, Ansara is also remembered by Star Trek fans for his portrayal of the Klingon leader Kang, while those who enjoy sitcoms recall his appearances in several episodes of I Dream of Jeannie. But his career-defining role was that of the Apache chief Cochise on Broken Arrow, though what he did as an actor was very limited. As Ansara described his character: “Cochise could do two things, stand with his arms folded, looking noble; or stand with his arms to his sides, looking noble.”
Application: We as Christians are to do more than look noble; we are to become a part of the cloud of witnesses.
*****
Hebrews 11:29--12:2
For the mass celebrated by Pope Francis on Copacabana beach, the Vatican estimated there were 3.7 million people in attendance. But several of Brazil’s top research firms stated that was not possible, for the beach could hold no more than 1.5 million people.
Application: We should be less concerned about the size of the cloud of witnesses and more focused on the spiritual quality of the witnesses.
*****
Hebrews 11:29--12:2
Reza Aslan was born a Muslim, converted to Christianity when he was 15, then returned to the Islamic faith once more. But as a result of his witness when he was a practicing Christian, Aslan’s mother became a Christian (and remains so), and he married a Christian woman. Yet that’s not why Aslan is in the news. As a Muslim he has written a biography on Jesus titled Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Some have questioned how a Muslim could write a biography of Jesus, but Aslan counters that he is a religious scholar with four masters degrees. Regarding Jesus, Aslan says: “I’ve been obsessed with him for 20 years, this illiterate, poor peasant day laborer from the hills of Galilee [who] started a movement that was such a threat that he was crucified for it. His words and actions inspired the largest religious movement in the world. How could you not be obsessed with that guy?”
Application: We should be willing to see as our part of cloud of witnesses anyone who can give us insight and inspiration regarding Jesus.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock!
People: You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Leader: Stir up your might, and come to save us!
People: Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven.
Leader: Restore us, O God of hosts.
People: Let your face shine, that we may be saved.
OR
Leader: God comes and calls us into a loving relationship.
People: In awe we hear God’s words of love and invitation.
Leader: God seeks us so that we can know love and life.
People: We know that only in God will we find abundant, joyful living.
Leader: Let us rejoice in our faithful, covenant God.
People: In God we find joy, hope, and life eternal.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Jesus, Lover of My Soul”
found in:
UMH: 479
H82: 699
PH: 303
NCH: 546
CH: 592
W&P: 439
AMEC: 253, 254
“O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go”
found in:
UMH: 480
PH: 384
NNBH: 210
NCH: 485
CH: 540
LBW: 324
AMEC: 302
“God, Whose Love Is Reigning o’er Us”
found in:
UMH: 100
“O Jesus, I Have Promised”
found in:
UMH: 396
H82: 655
PH: 388, 389
NCH: 493
CH: 612
LBW: 503
ELA: 810
W&P: 458
AMEC: 280
“More Love to Thee, O Christ”
found in:
UMH: 453
PH: 359
AAHH: 375
NNBH: 214
NCH: 456
CH: 527
AMEC: 460
“You Satisfy the Hungry Heart”
found in:
UMH: 629
PH: 521
CH: 429
ELA: 484
W&P: 705
“Trust and Obey”
found in:
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
“Near to the Heart of God”
found in:
UMH: 472
PH: 527
NNBH: 316
CH: 581
AMEC: 322
“More Precious than Silver”
found in:
CCB: 25
“O How He Loves You and Me!”
found in:
CCB: 38
Renew: 27
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is comes to be our lover: Grant us the grace to find in you all we need to live our lives in the fullness of your joy; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you as our God and as our lover. You desire us more than we can even imagine. Open our hearts, that as we hear you speak to us today we may be moved into a more intimate and faithful relationship with you. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our unfaithfulness.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You speak to us of idolatry and adultery in the same terms. When we put other people or things ahead of you we commit both sins, for you are God and you are our eternal lover. You are faithful in all ways to us, while we are drawn away by many allurements. Forgive us our wandering ways, and help us to hear as you call us back to our relationship with you, which gives us true life. Fill us again with the joy of your boundless love. Amen.
Leader: God is our faithful lover, waiting always for our return. Receive God’s embrace and know God’s love in your lives.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We worship you, O God who is our creator and our lover. You are the faithful one of all eternity.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You speak to us of idolatry and adultery in the same terms. When we put other people or things ahead of you we commit both sins, for you are God and you are our eternal lover. You are faithful in all ways to us, while we are drawn away by many allurements. Forgive us our wandering ways, and help us to hear as you call us back to our relationship with you, which gives us true life. Fill us again with the joy of your boundless love.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have shown your faithfulness to us. We thank you for our ability to have faith and to hope and trust in you. We thank you for those who have reflected your faithfulness in their fidelity to us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all of us as we stray from your love and strive to be faithful. We pray for those whose circumstances in life make it hard for them to believe in your love.
(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
Have you ever had a friend who let you down? Perhaps they picked someone else in a game when you thought they would pick you, or maybe it was someone who didn’t invite you to their birthday party. It isn’t fun when something like that happens -- it hurts. God is a best friend who always wants to be part of our lives. But sometimes we forget about God, and that is hurtful. Yet God loves us and always seeks to bring us back.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Staying Focused
Hebrews 11:29--12:2
Object: a 2 x 4 board
I brought this board with me today to see how many of you have good balance. I’m going to lay it down here, and I want each of you to walk on it from one end to the other. (Lay down the board and let each of the children walk from one end to the other.)
Okay, you all did that well. Now, let’s pretend that instead of laying here on the floor, this board is going from one cliff to another. It’s 200-300 feet straight down below the board, and there are alligators and man-eating sharks in the water below. Do you think it would still be easy to walk down the board? (Let them answer.)
No, it would be a lot harder, and I doubt that many of us would even try it. But let’s suppose it is very important that you do cross the board. Let’s say that you are being chased by cannibals, and if they catch you you’ll wind up in their stew pot tonight. What could you do to make it easier to cross over the board? (Let them answer.)
Well, we certainly wouldn’t want to look down, because then we would surely get rattled and fall down to the alligators and sharks. The best thing we could do is pick out something on the far side and keep our eyes on it as we cross over. By staying focused on the object on the other side, we could walk to safety.
The Bible tells us that we need to do that in life. Life is full of temptations and all kinds of dangerous pitfalls. The Bible says that we should keep our eyes on Jesus as we live our lives. If we do that, we will be able to overcome temptations and dangers of all kinds. We need to stay focused on Jesus no matter what we face in this life. If we do that, we can cross over any kind of bad thing which faces us.
As you return to your seats, I want you to walk the board again, and I am going to stand at the other end. Think of the board as your life and pretend that I am Jesus. Walk the board, keeping your eyes on me, and see how it helps you walk safely over. Before you go, however, let’s pray.
Prayer: Dearest Jesus: Thank you for always being there in front of us so that we can look to you when we are tempted or in trouble. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, August 18, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 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.
