Standing On The Promises
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In the lectionary text from the gospel of John for the sixth Sunday of Easter, Jesus promises the disciples that “I will not leave you orphaned.” Our government cannot (and perhaps should not) make the same commitment -- particularly in the wake of the healthcare reform legislation recently passed by the House of Representatives. While the stated objective of congressional Republicans was to reduce the amount spent on healthcare by the federal government while simultaneously making healthcare more affordable by reducing the cost of premiums, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office determined that, if enacted, the bill would result in millions losing access to healthcare, and cause severe economic hardship for people suffering from a wide range of “pre-existing conditions.” Critics of the legislation suggested that it marked a return to social Darwinism, as well as the Pharasaic view that ill health is the result of a carelessly led (i.e. sinful) life. But as team member Chris Keating observes in this installment of The Immediate Word, the underlying debate is not merely about repealing Obamacare -- it’s also about what the obligation of the government is to guarantee healthcare for our citizens, and by extension the obligation we have to care for one another (and how best to do that). Chris examines the subject through the lens of Jesus’ promise, and he notes that though the Senate is likely to significantly alter the bill many people are already feeling as if their government has left them orphaned. Given that feeling, Chris says that it’s more important than ever to share the message that, whatever healthcare policy the government adopts, Jesus assures us that we will not be orphaned... for by keeping God’s commandments the Spirit will lead us closer to Jesus.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the Acts passage and Paul’s discovery in Athens of an altar inscribed “to an unknown god.” What this reveals, Dean maintains, is a sense of spiritual searching on the part of the Athenians. Likewise, Dean says, that same seeking for deeper truth is a prime motivation for those millennials who identify as “spiritual but not religious”... and who are looking to “unknown gods” because what the church is offering too often doesn’t speak to their real needs because the church has lost sight of its core message. So, Dean suggests, the response of the church ought not be to draw inward from a secular-dominated culture, as some have advocated. Instead, we should emulate Paul and speak convincingly to the unchurched about the God in whom “we live and move and have our being” -- and who offers amazing grace to one and all.
Standing on the Promises
by Chris Keating
John 14:15-21
Someday a future Lin-Manuel Miranda might be prompted to write Healthcare: The Musical! with beat-driven songs and energetic dancing narrating the story of the Republican promise to repeal Obamacare.
The ongoing healthcare debate has all the trappings of a record-breaking stage production. Start with the backstory about the first African-American president who drafts a healthcare plan that finally -- albeit barely -- squeaks past Congress. But wait! In the next act the Speaker of the House tumbles on stage to relay a spellbinding hip-hop rhyme about failed promises. A trio of women senators close the second act with a number titled “Hate is a Pre-Existing Condition.”
Following intermission, there’s a reprise of the main number, followed by a whirling dervish of a new president who takes center stage with a solo called “Who Knew How Complicated It Would Be?” The entire show is filled with promises... lots and lots of promises.
Broadway will eat it up.
We’ve heard the promises: healthcare will get better. But we have also heard that few in Congress have actually read the replacement bill. We’ve been assured that replacing Obamacare will be a step in the right direction. But we have also heard concerns that the bill will gut programs for disabled children and those needing substance abuse treatment.
Perhaps what is needed is something a bit less jaw-dropping, though no less ambitious. It’s more of a meditative soliloquy than a toe-tapping ensemble piece, and it comes from Jesus’ words to the disciples in John 14. Instead of lots of promises, maybe we need to hear just one: “I will not leave you orphaned.” And instead of potentially subjecting large groups of Americans -- women, the elderly, disabled children, the working poor -- to healthcare which impoverishes, we need to ponder the meaning of Jesus’ gracious invitation: “If you love me, keep my commandments.”
John’s text invites our reflection as we consider what it means to stand on Jesus’ promises.
In the News
GOP lawmakers hope the American Health Care Act of 2017 will live up to its promises. Yet long before it gets to Broadway, lawmakers will need to see if the repeal of Obamacare will play in Peoria -- or even Trump-friendly West Virginia, where fears of eliminating Medicaid are growing. Despite a premature White House victory party, the legislation still needs to make its way through the Senate’s sausage grinder, where passage feels less certain.
Either way, the promise of healthcare continues to dominate the national conversation.
In many ways, both the healthcare debate and Jesus’ words in John 14:15-21 seem to share a common focus. Both are conversations about community, and the importance of making and keeping promises. For John, the focus is on Jesus’ promised presence as the beloved community attempts to live into the future. Likewise, the healthcare debate is about much more than conservative versus liberal policies.
At the core of the healthcare conversation are questions about the nation’s values, and its primary commitments to fragile populations. Aside from political saber-rattling, the debate centers around how the nation promises to care for those who among us who are the most marginalized, the vulnerable, and the frail elderly. It’s a question about values, and the promises made to earlier generations.
These promises are matters of life or death.
One proponent of the bill doesn’t agree with that assessment. “Nobody dies because they don’t have access to healthcare,” said Rep. Raul Labrador, a Republican from Idaho. Labrador was responding to a question from a constituent at a town hall meeting. He later explained his comments to mean that he doesn’t believe the healthcare act will cause people to die in the streets because hospitals are required to administer emergency treatment.
Yet multiple studies suggest something different, particularly for persons who suffer from chronic diseases. A 2002 study showed that at least 18,000 persons, possibly more, had died because they were uninsured, and a recent study documented lower mortality rates among young adults with serious diseases who were covered by an Obamacare provision allowing them to be retained on their parents’ insurance plans.
What is it that we imagine for our country?
One woman who battles the deadly disease scleroderma imagines what her life would have been like without access to what she calls a “Cadillac” insurance plan. “What would have happened to me if I didn’t possess outstanding health insurance? How might my fate have been altered had I not had two doctors in my family?” writes Lisa Goodman-Helfand, a contributor to the Huffington Post. “Would I have survived if I had been an uneducated individual who didn’t speak English? I can’t say with conclusive evidence that I would have died without all these factors playing in my favor, but I suspect that’s the case.” She continues:
Is my life more important than someone who doesn’t have health insurance? Were my children more entitled to be raised by their mother because their aunt and uncle are doctors? Did my husband deserve to escape becoming a young widower because we had the resources to cover me under two insurance plans? I don’t know the answers to the big healthcare questions plaguing our nation. I do, however, believe with all my heart that the answer to my three questions above should be a definitive “no.”
Others, of course, see the debate differently. Newly crowned Miss USA Kara McCullough, a 25-year old scientist, sparked an internet debate this weekend by saying affordable health care is not a right but a “privilege” linked to good employment. McCullough, it appears, has stepped into the hyper-charged healthcare debate.
When asked if she thought affordable healthcare for all American citizens is a right or privilege, McCullough created a microburst of activity on social media by answering, “I’m definitely going to say it’s a privilege. As a government employee, I am granted healthcare. And I see firsthand that for one to have healthcare, you need to have jobs. So therefore we need to continue to cultivate this environment that we’re given the opportunities to have healthcare as well as jobs to all the American citizens worldwide.”
Twitter broke loose with all sorts of reaction to her comments, including one who said, “The thing about Miss DC is she’s correct -- health care IS still a privilege, not a right. It’s just that that’s what’s wrong with our system.”
Indeed, by dropping tax subsidies and offering credits tilted toward the wealthy, the AHCA does smack of privilege. Instead of the sort of shared responsibility Jesus imagined as the essence of the beloved community in John, the plan will place more burden on individuals. Or, as White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney offered, while the plan offers a safeguard for persons who “get cancer,” it isn’t aimed at taking “care of the person who sits at home, eats poorly, and gets diabetes.”
Perhaps Mulvaney has the willpower to resist his boss’ beautiful chocolate cake, but the truth is that healthy living alone does not guarantee good health.
Republican-backed plans generally propose a more market-driven approach to health care that limits government oversight and regulation. When Republicans approved the American Health Care Act in April, they voted for an alternative to Obamacare which removed the requirement to purchase insurance through marketplaces and also removed tax penalties for failing to have insurance. It eliminated income-based tax credits and subsidies available under the Affordable Care Act, effectively hurting elderly people with lower incomes.
The bill eliminates taxes that helped subsidized the purchase of medical insurance, and guts Medicaid dramatically by changing it from an entitlement program to a per capita cap system that could threaten home- and community-based services to persons with developmental disabilities.
Instead of operating Medicaid as an entitlement program, the Paul Ryan- and Donald Trump-backed AHCA (which was given the snarky nickname “Tryancare” by one commentator) would offer each beneficiary a fixed amount of money. Some believe that will put pressure on states to cut services. The shift could also limit reimbursements from Medicaid to school districts who provide a variety of services to disabled children -- everything from therapies to wheelchairs.
“Under this proposal, states would no longer have to consider schools eligible Medicaid providers,” read a letter sent to congressional leaders by more than 50 advocacy groups.
Beyond that, the AHCA will allow health insurers to charge more for certain pre-existing conditions. While prohibiting insurers from denying coverage to persons with pre-existing conditions, the bill allows states to create high-risk pools which could price some individuals out of the market. Conservatives say critics are focusing too much on pre-existing conditions, noting that the actual number of individuals who might lose insurance is just a “fraction of a fraction of a fraction” of the population.
Some conservatives say that the heart of the issue is facing facts: there are limits to the amount of medical care which we can provide. At some point, they say, resources will become scarce. “We cannot offer the same level of care to everybody with the same condition,” writes Kevin Williamson. He argues that reforms of any kind will ultimately fail unless they face the facts that “there is never enough of anything to satisfy every possible desire.”
A similar dilemma confronted Jesus’ followers. As John records that extended conversation the night before Jesus was crucified, a mixture of fear and grief fill the air. It’s uncertain what a future apart from Jesus will look like. The disciples are at a loss to figure out what it will mean to follow Jesus without his physical presence. They’re worried about being abandoned.
It’s possible any number of persons impacted by the repeal of Obamacare may feel the same way. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that within ten years, 24 million fewer Americans will be covered by health insurance. It’s possible they’re contemplating a future where they might be orphaned by a society less concerned about caring for each other than exploring individual benefits.
In the Scriptures
Darkness surrounds the light of the world in John 13-17. The pace of John’s narration of Jesus’ last meal with the disciples is slow and deliberate, with each phrase of this farewell discourse carefully phrased. The extended conversation, often considered to be of greater theological import than historical value, takes both ancient and contemporary disciples face to face with essential questions of community. Jesus is offering assurance that the light will not vanish.
The hour has arrived, and Jesus has enacted the commandment to love each other through the washing of feet in John 13. The discourse changes direction a bit in chapter 14, with Jesus offering to the disciples the promise of his legacy. The promise of that legacy is peace, and the assurance that the disciples will do greater works than Jesus has done (14:12). At 14:15, Jesus directs the attention of the disciples back to what is essential for the community.
“If you love me,” says Jesus, “you will keep my commandments.” Karoline Lewis’ commentary (John, Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentary) points out that Jesus has already said that God’s commandment is eternal life (12:49-50). As Lewis points out, “God has one commandment, eternal life, and the disciples are asked to love one another as a demonstration of their love for Jesus and to make possible eternal life for others not of this fold” (p. 191).
The assurance of Jesus’ presence comes in the form of the Spirit, or paraklete. John’s sense of the Spirit is evolving throughout the discourse, but here comes with certain guarantees. It is the “Spirit of truth,” an advocate who will accompany the disciples. It’s a term specific to John that conveys the sense of one who comes alongside of another, or one who brings comfort. The Spirit’s presence is a gift from God that provides unending power and possibility so that the community of disciples can become a community of intense mutuality, friendship, and intimate connection.
Those who love Jesus will keep the commandments -- will seek out that abundant, gracious, and eternal life -- and will act in love toward each other. They will not be orphaned or abandoned, and indeed will do things that are even greater than Jesus has done.
That is the promise offered to the disciples. As Richard Ward suggests in his commentary in Feasting on the Gospels,“How does one respond to God’s generous gesture of friendship offered through Jesus? By keeping Jesus’ word” (Feasting on the Gospels, John, Vol. 2 [Westminster/John Knox Press], p. 163).
In the Sermon
The promises Jesus offers are distinctly different from the promises made by politicians. The promise offered in John is distinctive because it offers comfort and assurance to those who feel as though their lives are imperiled. So far, Jesus’ authority and presence has protected his disciples. Yet they hear him say, “In a little while the world will no longer see me,” and before he can continue they are deeply troubled. But his words do not end there; instead, he offers this assurance: “you will see me; because I live, you also will live.”
It seems to me that this is a good place for a sermon to begin. This week we are given the opportunity to take a sneak peek at Pentecost, and to begin describing the often-neglected work of the Spirit. For the most part we tend to skip the third person of the Trinity, relegating the Spirit to some fire-tinged comments on Pentecost. But the richness of John’s portrayal of the Spirit’s accompanying of the disciples in times of trial is a vital aspect of the gospel. It is a story that needs to be heard.
Start by imagining those who may wonder if they will be abandoned by a culture that seeks increased personal gain at the expense of the marginalized or less privileged. Start with the story of a man under hospice care, a retired pastor whose alcoholism and mental illness separated him first from his parish and then from his family. He bears personal responsibility, to be sure; but now in the last days of his life he is dependent on Medicaid to provide nursing care. Does he feel orphaned?
I’m also thinking of a young man in our congregation who is deeply impacted by autism. He is one of several differently gifted young people in our congregation. His mother is a single mom who works a slightly better than minimum wage job. She has no insurance, but at least can be home when he gets off the bus from school. Not long ago he got sick. It started with a fever, but soon he was nearly limp. He went into cardiac arrest in the emergency room and spent weeks on a ventilator. He’s improving, though the prognosis is not clear; does his mother feel abandoned?
Then there are other children who receive a variety of services. Some need constant care, others benefit from educational interventions. But it’s clear that their families can’t do it alone. They depend on the promises made by our greater community.
A sermon could ? should -- name the ways we are called to keep our promises. Otherwise, our faith begins to resemble the sort of failed religious promises described by poet/pastor Dave Barnhart in a recent poem: “People who live good lives / do not have pre-existing conditions you say, / carving these words over the hospital door: / ‘Who sinned, this man or his parents / that he was born blind?’ ”
All around are those who experience the fear of being orphaned: those with mental illness, those who are addicted to painkillers, the addict sitting in the back row who leaves before the last hymn. Where have we broken our promises to those who fear being orphaned? How can they hear the promise which will not fail?
Even if we are not clear which version of health insurance is better than the other, the church has a story it can tell. It may not be an elaborately choreographed stage show. Instead, it is the overwhelming assurance that by keeping God’s commandments the Spirit leads us closer to Jesus.
SECOND THOUGHTS
An Unknown God
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 17:22-31
In the Scriptures
What do you say to the Athenians? What can you say that they haven’t already heard?
Paul had his work cut out for him. He was himself a Greek, so he knew a thing or two about these people. But Athens was a whole different ball game.
Athens was the seat of academia. Athens was the place where all the great thinkers had their beginning. Philosophy was born here. The theater had its genesis in this great city. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle thought and taught and wrote here. Homer dictated his epic poems and Euripides penned his dramas here. Pericles led his army from here.
These people, these Athenians, were well-read, well-educated, people who knew not just what to think but how to think. And they were religious to a fault.
Probably Paul had decided to take a walk through the city in the hopes that inspiration and insight would come to him as he made his way through the narrow streets. As he walked, he could not help but notice how religious the Athenians were. Every corner, every nook and cranny, was decorated with an altar or a bust of one of their pantheon of gods and goddesses. Here a crude bust of Zeus, god of weather and god above all gods; there an altar to Hera, goddess of family and marriage, in front of them merchant statuettes of Aphrodite and Eros, goddess and god of love and sexuality and fertility.
Everywhere one might look there was a tribute not just to the 12 major gods and goddesses but to all the smaller and minor gods, so many in number that 2,000 years hence when historians looked back upon this time they would not be able to count them all.
Paul shook his head in wonder at the raw creativity of the human, theological mind.
But then something caught his eye and made him stop in mid-stride.
Before him was an altar that was not adorned as thoroughly as all the others he had seen. It was little more than a small stone table with a vase of fresh flowers set upon it. And above the altar, etched in the stone in an amateur hand, was: “To an unknown god.”
An unknown God.
How strangely beautiful that these Athenians who were such great thinkers, so well-read, so highly educated, so thoroughly schooled in all of the arts and sciences, so sure of themselves in so many ways, should place an altar like this in their city. This one altar bore witness to the fact that the Athenians were willing to leave a door open to the unknown. They were willing to admit that they might not have all of the answers, that their theology might be incomplete.
They were still open to new ideas, to new insights, to new lessons.
They were still, in a word, SEEKING.
Paul smiled to himself. They were open and they were still seeking. In the wall that was Greek polytheism, this was the crack wherein Paul would place his seeds of Christianity in hopes that they might grow and eventually break down or overcome the wall entirely.
In the Culture
Rod Dreher is a writer, editor, and blogger for The American Conservative. His book The Benedict Option was published earlier this year, and in it he predicts a return to the Dark Ages, especially where Christianity is concerned.
New York Times columnist David Brooks has called it “the most discussed and most important religious book of the decade.”
In a nutshell, here is the argument Dreher makes in his book: The culture war has been lost. Religious liberals and secular humanists have won. This is clearly evident where human sexuality is concerned. In Dreher’s words, “LGBT activism is the tip of the spear at our throats.... The struggle over gay rights is... threatening religious liberty, putting Christian merchants out of business, threatening the tax-exempt status and accreditation of Christian schools and colleges.”
He argues, according to Brooks, that “because of their views on LGBT issues, Orthodox Christians and Jews will soon be banned from many professions and corporations. ‘Blacklisting will be real,’ [Dreher] says. We are entering a new Dark Age. ‘There are people alive today who may live to see the effective death of Christianity within our civilization.’ ”
It is futile to continue fighting the culture wars, Dreher says.
Instead, Christians should do as St. Benedict did when the Roman empire was collapsing all around him. They should withdraw from mainstream culture, take their kids out of public schools, and move into separate, religious enclaves where they can concentrate on purifying, deepening, and preserving their orthodox faith.
What Dreher does not seem to see is that there are some huge cracks in this plan, not the least of which is that it goes against the Great Commission which Jesus delivered to his disciples in Matthew 28:19-20 (“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age”).
Secondly, while there are some liberal/secular purists who shout down differing opinions and want to force orthodox Christian bakers to work at gay weddings against their conscience, these are a very small minority. As David Brooks rightly points out: “Most Americans are not hellbent on destroying religious institutions. If anything they are spiritually hungry and open to religious conversation.”
It is true that Christianity, especially that of the old mainline Protestant churches, is shrinking. Twenty-three percent of American adults answered “none” when asked for their religious affiliation, up from 16 percent in 2007. And while some of that 23 percent simply don’t care at all about religion, many describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious,” the modern equivalent of believing in the possible existence of “an unknown god.”
The third flaw in Dreher’s Benedict Option is well identified by David Brooks. Over the course of history, Brooks says, American culture “has tolerated slavery, sexual brutalism, and the genocide of the Native Americans” and still managed to deflect any threatened Dark Age. So is 2017 to be remembered in history as the year that ushered in a new Dark Age because we let people marry people they loved, regardless of gender?
The Benedict Option is simply, he says, an overreaction to a division in our culture that is bridgeable through simple human interaction, communication, and accommodation.
In the Sermon
The answer to the changes that are taking place in American culture is not to run away and hide in caves as the Benedictines did. Rather, it is to throw ourselves into creative engagement. Religious people in our time win nothing by fighting secular purism with religious purism. Self-segregationists, Brooks points out, always end up fostering narrowness, prejudice, and moral arrogance, and “closing off the dynamic creativity of a living faith.”
“The right response to the moment,” Brooks concludes, “is not the Benedict Option, it is Orthodox Pluralism. It is to surrender to some orthodoxy that will overthrow the superficial obsessions of the self and put one’s life in contact with a transcendent ideal. But it is also to reject the notion that that ideal can be easily translated into a pure, homogenized path. It is, on the contrary, to throw oneself more deeply into friendship with complexity, with different believers and atheists, liberals and conservatives, the dissimilar and unalike.”
The real enemy of our faith is not the sexual revolution, the secular culture, or the liberality of our culture. It is a purism -- religious, political, philosophical purism -- that does not and cannot tolerate difference because it does not have the humility to humbly to accept that truth is often a mystery that cannot be proved or disproved but can only be embraced.
And the answer to that purism, be it religious or secular, is not to argue it into submission or to walk away and leave it alone in the desert. The answer to that destructive purism is to love one another as Jesus first loved us, and to share with the world our stories of how we were loved, not because of the purity of our theology but because of the amazing grace of a loving and living God.
The unknown god of our culture is expressed as “spiritual but not religious” and “moralistic, therapeutic deism.” People who express their spiritual preference in these two are, in reality, expressing a spiritual/religious need that is not being met in traditional Christianity.
May God grant us the wisdom of Paul that we might speak effectively and convincingly of that God who fills this gap in the popular theology of our culture.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Acts 17:22-31
Recently Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos spoke to the graduating class of Bethune-Cookman University, a historically black college. Her speech was met with protests, with many students turning their backs on her. The protests became so severe that the school’s president threatened to end the ceremony and mail graduates their diplomas. DeVos said to the protesters, “One of the hallmarks of higher education, and of democracy, is the ability to converse and learn from those with whom we disagree at times.... I hope we can do so respectfully. Let’s choose to hear each other.”
Application: Like Paul, in sharing the gospel message we will be doing so to an audience that does not want to listen to us.
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Acts 17:22-31
Jay Paterno has been elected to the board of trustees of Penn State University. He is the son of former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, and served as one of his father’s assistant coaches. There are 38 trustees, with nine are selected by the alumni, whom elected Jay. Joe Paterno was dismissed from his position for failing to adequately report the child abuse by Jerry Sandusky, also an assistant coach. Jay has said of his father, “If anything, he is guilty of failing to possess the godlike qualities ascribed to him by others, qualities that Joe was the first to insist he never had.”
Application: People do not want to hear the truth, as Jay and the trustees ignored the charges against Joe Paterno.
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Acts 17:22-31
Mental health professionals want the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why taken off the air. The show is about a teenager (played by Katherine Langford) who commits suicide. It focuses on tapes she made discussing the different individuals who forced her to take her life by slitting her writs. The show also depicts adults as being insensitive to her search for help. It is a concern that the show will lead to copycat suicides as the true trauma of suicide is made to seem justifiable.
Application: We need to speak the truth, and speak against lies.
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Acts 17:22-31
In a Born Loser comic strip, Brutus Thornapple ia standing in front of the desk of his boss Rancid Veeblefester. Veeblefester, the president of the company, is known for bragging about his wealth, and Thornapple, an employee, is known as “the born loser.” Thornapple tries to explain why he did not call a client back, because he did not want the client to hear a busy signal if he tried to call Thornapple first, because Thornapple was on the phone trying to call him. Thornapple then asks if that is a clear enough explanation, to which Veeblefester replies: “About as clear as watching a 3-D movie without the special 3-D glasses!”
Application: We need to speak the truth clearly.
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Acts 17:22-31
The Trump administration recently produced an advertisement extolling the virtues of President Trump’s first 100 days in office. The commercial also accuses Andrea Mitchell of NBC, Wolf Blitzer of CNN, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, Scott Pelley of CBS, and George Stephanopoulos of ABC of spreading “fake news” about the president. Understandably, ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN refused to air the ad, to the anger of the Trump administration.
Application: We are only to speak the truth, which the major networks have been doing.
*****
Acts 17:22-31
Miley Cyrus has decided to change her songs to ones that are, in her words, “more uplifting, conscious rap.” Realizing the influence her songs have on younger people, she no longer wants to sing lyrics that are sexually explicit or violent. Cyrus said, “I feel the younger generation needs to hear positive powerful lyrics.”
Application: We need to share a powerful positive gospel message.
*****
Acts 17:22-31
Joaquin Guzman Lorea is known as El Chapo, which means “Shorty” in Spanish. He is also known as the biggest drug lord in the world, responsible for thousands of murders. Captured in Mexico and extradited to the United States, he now is in a 17' by 8' cell on the 10th floor of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan. The prison is also known as 10 South, and the 10th floor is a maximum-security floor where inmates are under surveillance 24 hours a day. Recently Lorea appeared in court to complain about his living conditions. He does not like the taste of the tap water, he would like to select his own television programs, and the exercise bike does not face the TV. The judge dismissed all of his requests.
Application: If we choose to worship an unknown god, we will be punished.
*****
1 Peter 3:13-22
The Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton, is suing the French magazine Closer for publishing topless photographs of her as she was sunbathing with her husband Prince William, who is second in line to be the king of England. Her lawsuit claims invasion of privacy, as the photos were taken with a telescopic lens as she laid semi-nude on a balcony.
Application: Perhaps it was an invasion of privacy, but the Duchess of Cambridge should know that she has no privacy when she is in the public sphere. We are called by Peter to always place ourselves in situations where we can honestly defend ourselves.
*****
1 Peter 3:13-22
When James Cash Penney opened his first store in 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming, he named the store J.C. Penney. Committing himself to the highest ethical standards possible, he based his business on biblical principles. Of these, the most important for him was the Golden Rule.
Application: We are called to do good.
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John 14:15-21
Henry Gerecke is not a household name; yet he had one of the most significant callings in the history of the church. He was the chaplain to 21 Nazi war criminals during the Nuremberg trials, and shepherded five of the most notorious Nazis to the gallows. Gerecke was a Lutheran pastor from Missouri who was fluent in German. He volunteered as a chaplain to serve in the Army in 1943 when the military was desperate for men to serve in that capacity. His wartime duties took him to Dachau, where he was able to witness the Nazi atrocities of the Holocaust. At the time he was unaware of his future role. During the Nuremberg trials those overseeing the proceedings learned of a German-speaking chaplain. They asked Gerecke to take on the role as the minister to those accused of crimes against humanity. Gerecke accepted. During his counseling sessions he would only offer Holy Communion to those men who were truly penitent and confessed their faith in Jesus Christ. Only four sentenced to hang met Gerecke’s standard and received the eucharist. One unrepentant Nazi officer said: “This Jesus that you always speak of, to me he is just another smart Jew.” After the war Gerecke was criticized for ministering to the monsters of the Third Reich. Gerecke would respond that he considered his calling to the Nuremberg defendants to be a mission.
Application: As we have an Advocate with God, we are to be an advocate for others.
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From team member Mary Austin:
John 14:15-21
I Will Not Leave You Orphaned
As he prepares for his death, Jesus promises not to leave his followers orphaned in the world. In the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit, we are not orphans. On a practical level, though, some children need real-life, physical homes. Newscaster Gloria Campos made a personal crusade out of finding homes for children in foster care. “For 25 years, retiring newscaster Gloria Campos has profiled foster children who were waiting to be adopted in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on the Wednesday’s Child television segment at WFAA-TV. Campos estimates that over the years she has featured more than 350 children, 75 percent of whom were adopted thanks to her reporting. But of all those children, there was one young boy whose story she would not soon forget -- that of Ke’onte Cook.” She first profiled Cook in 2007, when he was eight.
He was adopted, and then returned to the foster care system when it didn’t work out. Campos profiled him again and his adoptive parents saw the segment, which led to the home he has now. “Since being adopted by the Cooks, Ke’onte’s life has turned around. Two years ago, he spoke before Congress about his four years in the foster care system, telling them that he was over-medicated with mind-altering drugs. Now, the 14-year-old is off medication completely. He’s an avid runner and hiker, and hopes to study broadcasting, like his hero, Gloria Campos.”
Ke’onte met up with a surprised Campos on air, coming onto the set to thank her. He said, “I want to say to her thank you so much, because you’ve made my life worthwhile and you’ve helped me become the person that I am right now,” Ke’onte said in a video tribute. “I probably would have been worse off had you not helped me out.”
*****
John 14:15-21
I Will Not Leave You Orphaned, Lunchroom Edition
Even if we’re not literally orphans, we all know the feeling of being left out -- and a generous donor in Houston made sure no kids were left out of having a hot school lunch.
“At Valley Oaks Elementary School in Houston, Texas, if a student has a negative balance on their lunch accounts, they are given a cold cheese sandwich instead of a warm tray of food.” More than 60 students couldn’t afford to pay the 40 cents a day that would allow them a hot meal. Tutor and mentor Kenny Thompson learned about the reduced lunch program, and the students who couldn’t pay, and he took action. Thompson worked with the Valley Oaks students for 10 years, and he knew their situations. He paid the $465 needed to zero out the delinquent accounts. “These are elementary school kids. They don’t need to be worried about finances,” he said. “They need to be worried about what grade they got in spelling.”
“Thompson learned that many of these kids would rather go hungry than be seen with their reduced meals. Can you imagine how these kids felt as they ate their meager lunches in front of their better-off classmates? Thompson’s generous gesture ensured that all students at his school were getting the nutrition they need to stay healthy.”
Thompson said “When I left the building knowing that they were getting fed, they didn’t have that stress. The best money I ever spent.” Not leaving anyone as an orphan is the work of the Holy Spirit, but often that Spirit works through us.
*****
Psalm 66:8-20; 1 Peter 3:13-22
The Need for Suffering
The psalmist says “For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs.” Leaders need this kind of testing and refinement, says author and consultant Peter Bregman. He says: “This act of diving deeply into the feelings we avoid, the feelings we don’t necessarily even know we have, is, I have come to believe, our only hope of breaking our link in the chain of hurt, suffering, and ineffectiveness. That’s a leadership issue. Because every leader is a human being. And when we avoid feeling the suffering we naturally experience as human beings, we perpetuate it and act against our best interests in our relationships with our colleagues and the people we manage, as well as with our families.”
The pain of his own life has driven Bregman to be a successful consultant and author, and now he feels his own hollowness. “I have spent my life trying to prove that I’m good enough to live it. My mother narrowly escaped the holocaust, and her baby sister Ariel did not survive. I grew up thinking daily of the six million Jews killed by the Nazis, thinking that because of them, my life had better amount to something. And now I watch myself drop names of important people I know and talk too much about things I’ve accomplished. I brag, too often striving more for my own success than the success of others, or of endeavors I believe in. This is a destructive game. The more I try to impress others, the less I believe in myself. And no amount of communication training will help unless I can feel the pain of never feeling good enough and acknowledge that my life can never make up for any of the six million. The only way we can move forward, live fully, and lead courageously, is by feeling enough to become deeply mature human beings. The challenge is formidable: are we willing to stop being the people we are expected to be, the people we expect ourselves to be, and simply be who we are? If so, then we will make room not only for ourselves, but for others to be themselves. And that is powerful leadership. We cannot lead without feeling the pain of living because the things we do to avoid feeling pain result in poor leadership. We don’t acknowledge others. We try to control everything. We lose our temper and criticize others disproportionately. If we don’t feel our emotions, we are controlled by them.”
First Peter 3 says, “even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed.” The blessing comes in the transformation. The trials and tests of our lives are only useful if we let them be redeemed by God’s softening, wise presence. Suffering has value when it leads us to transformation; testing proves itself when we let ourselves be refined by it.
*****
Psalm 66:8-20
Easing Suffering
The psalmist proclaims to God, “we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.” Among the people who have gone through the most tumult in recent years are veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. A sanctuary full of rescued birds has turned out to be a “spacious place” for veterans.
“The [Veterans Administration] complex in West Los Angeles boasts an unexpected feature: the Serenity Park Parrot Sanctuary, which offers nursing care and refuge to exotic birds left without owners. Veteran Matthew Simmons started the sanctuary, which is funded by donations, after serving in the Navy during Operation Desert Storm. The facility rehabilitates sick or injured birds, and in the process helps troubled vets too.”
People suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can use all kinds of help, some more unusual than others. “If you’re not offered a ledge up, it’s a very deep pit, and there’s lots of guys down there,” Simmons says.
“One person benefitting from these beautiful creatures is Coast Guard veteran Lily Love. She suffered from PTSD after her service, prompting to five trips to the VA psychiatric ward, but ever since she started spending time at Serenity Park, she’s stayed out of the hospital. Love is now in charge of the kitchen, preparing meals for parrots each day starting at 6 a.m. She says that working with the birds, ‘takes me out of myself.’ Navy veteran Bob Corell describes the time he spends Serenity Park as his ‘salvation.’ ” He adds, “I think I’m a little kinder. A little gentler than I was before I got here.”
We all need the spacious place the psalmist mentions, and some of us even more than others.
*****
Psalm 66:8-20
Refined by Suffering
Being tested and tried by fire happens to all of us, but veteran Jason Redman had his life changed by actual fire -- machine gun fire, encountered while he served in Iraq. His spirit was tested even further when he returned home, marked by his wounds. “A year after he was ambushed by machine-gun fire in Fallujah, Iraq, Lt. Jason Redman was still missing his nose. The bullets that showered his body also hit his cheekbone, leaving the right side of his face caved in. And he was wearing an eye patch to conceal a crusty and mangled sight. Returning to his life in Virginia, Redman says it was as if he had become a target all over again -- this time to questions and stares from strangers.”
Redman says he began to become irritated, not by people’s questions but by the fact that no one ever asked about combat. Things changed when “after a particularly bothersome gawking session at the airport (‘It’d been culminating, and I’d just reached my breaking point’), he took to the internet to vent. Instead of angry Tweets or passive-aggressive Facebook messages, Redman decided to wear his defense. He began designing t-shirts featuring slogans like ‘Stop staring. I got shot by a machine gun. It would have killed you.’ An American flag adorned the back of each one. As he started wearing his designs, strangers began to nod in appreciation, even thanking him at times. Redman knew he was onto something -- that there were countless other wounded warriors who felt the same way.”
Redman created a nonprofit called Wounded Wear, which “donates clothing kits to warriors hurt in combat and their loved ones, as well as to the families of fallen soldiers. The kits contain jackets, workout gear and t-shirts that read ‘Scarred so that others may live free,’ a toned-down version of the original slogans Redman used to print. His organization also accepts existing clothing from service members, which the nonprofit modifies to accommodate short-term rehabilitation needs or permanent bodily damage: One of the most requested alterations comes from amputees, whose prosthetic limbs make it difficult to put on regular pants. Wounded Wear provides everything to service members free of charge, raising money from donations as well as apparel sales on its website. So far, they’ve donated nearly 2,000 kits.”
Redman says he didn’t picture this particular career path, but he was raised on ideals of patriotism and service. “I just grew up with this message of service in our family and very patriotic values,” he says. “From a very young age, I knew I wanted to serve.”
He has transformed his own trial by fire into service to others. As the psalmist writes, “For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs.” Those burdens are laid on veterans in particularly physical ways, and Redman has used his own trials to bring fellow veterans some ease.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Bless our God, O peoples; let the sound of praise be heard.
People: God has kept us among the living and has not let our feet slip.
Leader: Come and hear, all you who fear God.
People: I will tell what God has done for me.
Leader: Blessed be God, because my prayer was not rejected.
People: Blessed be God, because God’s steadfast love is with me.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God who is our loving parent.
People: With joy we sing praises to our loving God.
Leader: Rejoice that God never leaves us or abandons us.
People: Our hearts are glad in the steadfast love of God.
Leader: Share God’s love and care with all God’s children.
People: We will share the love of God which we have received.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“All People That on Earth Do Dwell”
found in:
UMH: 75
H82: 377, 378
PH: 220, 221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELA: 883
W&P: 661
AMEC: 73
STLT: 370
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness”
found in:
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
ELA: 733
W&P: 72
AMEC: 84
Renew: 249
“Children of the Heavenly Father”
found in:
UMH: 141
NCH: 487
LBW: 47
ELA: 781
W&P: 83
“The Care the Eagle Gives Her Young”
found in:
UMH: 118
NCH: 468
CH: 76
“Spirit Song”
found in:
UMH: 347
AAHH: 321
CH: 352
W&P: 352
CCB: 51
Renew: 248
“Our Parent, by Whose Name”
found in:
UMH: 447
LBW: 357
ELA: 640
“Near to the Heart of God”
found in:
UMH: 472
PH: 527
NNBH: 316
CH: 581
AMEC: 322
“Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart”
found in:
UMH: 500
PH: 326
AAHH: 312
NCH: 290
CH: 265
LBW: 486
ELA: 800
W&P: 132
AMEC: 189
“I Am Loved”
found in:
CCB: 80
“God Is So Good”
found in:
CCB: 75
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who nurtures us like a loving parent: Grant us the grace to accept your care and to care for others just as graciously; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for your loving care of us. We worship you as our eternal parent who never deserts us. So fill us with the light of your Spirit that we may always be open to your care and willing to share it with others. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our self-centeredness that elevates our wants over the needs of others.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We worry too much about what is going to be good for us and too little about what is good for others. We hear Jesus say that we are to love others as we love ourselves, but we fall woefully short. Clear our minds and our hearts from selfishness, and help us to reach out to others so that no one feels abandoned like an orphan. Amen.
Leader: Jesus didn’t leave any of us alone as orphans. Receive God’s grace and forgiveness, and reach out to others with the love and grace of God.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you are the one who never deserts your children. You love is steadfast and sure.
(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 worry too much about what is going to be good for us and too little about what is good for others. We hear Jesus say that we are to love others as we love ourselves, but we fall woefully short. Clear our minds and our hearts from selfishness, and help us to reach out to others so that no one feels abandoned like an orphan.
We give you thanks for your constant love and care. We thank you for those who have helped us experience your love by loving us themselves.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children in their need. We lift up to you those who feel abandoned and left behind or left out. We pray that we may be the kind of people and community that embraces others with 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
Talk to the children about kittens or puppies in a shelter -- they don’t have their mothers to care for them, so in a way they are orphans. They need someone to take care of them. Jesus promised his disciples that he would never leave us orphans with no one to care for us. The Holy Spirit is here to watch over us as Jesus once did.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Do You Know God?
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Acts 17:22-31
(Gather the children and welcome them.)
I’ve got a question for you this morning. Do you know God? (Some children -- hopefully several! -- will answer yes, some might answer no.)
I guess the more important questions to ask are: How do you know God? Where did you learn about God? Did someone tell you about God? Do you find out about God from your parents or grandparents, or from a Sunday school teacher? (Allow the children to answer.)
Our scripture reading today tells about a statue that stood in the center of a city. Written on the statue were the words “To an Unknown God” (Acts 17:22).
The apostle Paul saw this statue and found it a bit strange. “Your God is unknown?” he asked. Let me tell you who this God is... “The God who made the world and everything in it, he is Lord of heaven and earth” (Acts 17:24).
When you look around at the world and all the wonderful things in creation, do you see God?
I am reminded of God and how much God gives to us when I look at creation!
Jesus said, “If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (John 14:7).
When you know Jesus, you know God.
When you look at Jesus, you come to know God.
When you learn from Jesus, you are learning about God.
(Hold up a Bible.) And then, of course, we have the Bible. The Bible tells us about God, about God’s love and care for God’s people, about how the people related to God -- sometimes following God, sometimes not, and about how God always welcomed the people back when they called on God.
There are lots of ways to get to know God -- because God wants us to know who God is. God doesn’t want to stay unknown to us -- that’s why God gives us Jesus, and the Bible, and prayer as a way to talk and listen to God. Let’s take a minute to talk to God right now.
Prayer: Holy God, you know us. You love us. You want us to know you. Open our eyes, open our ears, open our hearts and minds that we can see and hear and know you and your love for us. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 21, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the Acts passage and Paul’s discovery in Athens of an altar inscribed “to an unknown god.” What this reveals, Dean maintains, is a sense of spiritual searching on the part of the Athenians. Likewise, Dean says, that same seeking for deeper truth is a prime motivation for those millennials who identify as “spiritual but not religious”... and who are looking to “unknown gods” because what the church is offering too often doesn’t speak to their real needs because the church has lost sight of its core message. So, Dean suggests, the response of the church ought not be to draw inward from a secular-dominated culture, as some have advocated. Instead, we should emulate Paul and speak convincingly to the unchurched about the God in whom “we live and move and have our being” -- and who offers amazing grace to one and all.
Standing on the Promises
by Chris Keating
John 14:15-21
Someday a future Lin-Manuel Miranda might be prompted to write Healthcare: The Musical! with beat-driven songs and energetic dancing narrating the story of the Republican promise to repeal Obamacare.
The ongoing healthcare debate has all the trappings of a record-breaking stage production. Start with the backstory about the first African-American president who drafts a healthcare plan that finally -- albeit barely -- squeaks past Congress. But wait! In the next act the Speaker of the House tumbles on stage to relay a spellbinding hip-hop rhyme about failed promises. A trio of women senators close the second act with a number titled “Hate is a Pre-Existing Condition.”
Following intermission, there’s a reprise of the main number, followed by a whirling dervish of a new president who takes center stage with a solo called “Who Knew How Complicated It Would Be?” The entire show is filled with promises... lots and lots of promises.
Broadway will eat it up.
We’ve heard the promises: healthcare will get better. But we have also heard that few in Congress have actually read the replacement bill. We’ve been assured that replacing Obamacare will be a step in the right direction. But we have also heard concerns that the bill will gut programs for disabled children and those needing substance abuse treatment.
Perhaps what is needed is something a bit less jaw-dropping, though no less ambitious. It’s more of a meditative soliloquy than a toe-tapping ensemble piece, and it comes from Jesus’ words to the disciples in John 14. Instead of lots of promises, maybe we need to hear just one: “I will not leave you orphaned.” And instead of potentially subjecting large groups of Americans -- women, the elderly, disabled children, the working poor -- to healthcare which impoverishes, we need to ponder the meaning of Jesus’ gracious invitation: “If you love me, keep my commandments.”
John’s text invites our reflection as we consider what it means to stand on Jesus’ promises.
In the News
GOP lawmakers hope the American Health Care Act of 2017 will live up to its promises. Yet long before it gets to Broadway, lawmakers will need to see if the repeal of Obamacare will play in Peoria -- or even Trump-friendly West Virginia, where fears of eliminating Medicaid are growing. Despite a premature White House victory party, the legislation still needs to make its way through the Senate’s sausage grinder, where passage feels less certain.
Either way, the promise of healthcare continues to dominate the national conversation.
In many ways, both the healthcare debate and Jesus’ words in John 14:15-21 seem to share a common focus. Both are conversations about community, and the importance of making and keeping promises. For John, the focus is on Jesus’ promised presence as the beloved community attempts to live into the future. Likewise, the healthcare debate is about much more than conservative versus liberal policies.
At the core of the healthcare conversation are questions about the nation’s values, and its primary commitments to fragile populations. Aside from political saber-rattling, the debate centers around how the nation promises to care for those who among us who are the most marginalized, the vulnerable, and the frail elderly. It’s a question about values, and the promises made to earlier generations.
These promises are matters of life or death.
One proponent of the bill doesn’t agree with that assessment. “Nobody dies because they don’t have access to healthcare,” said Rep. Raul Labrador, a Republican from Idaho. Labrador was responding to a question from a constituent at a town hall meeting. He later explained his comments to mean that he doesn’t believe the healthcare act will cause people to die in the streets because hospitals are required to administer emergency treatment.
Yet multiple studies suggest something different, particularly for persons who suffer from chronic diseases. A 2002 study showed that at least 18,000 persons, possibly more, had died because they were uninsured, and a recent study documented lower mortality rates among young adults with serious diseases who were covered by an Obamacare provision allowing them to be retained on their parents’ insurance plans.
What is it that we imagine for our country?
One woman who battles the deadly disease scleroderma imagines what her life would have been like without access to what she calls a “Cadillac” insurance plan. “What would have happened to me if I didn’t possess outstanding health insurance? How might my fate have been altered had I not had two doctors in my family?” writes Lisa Goodman-Helfand, a contributor to the Huffington Post. “Would I have survived if I had been an uneducated individual who didn’t speak English? I can’t say with conclusive evidence that I would have died without all these factors playing in my favor, but I suspect that’s the case.” She continues:
Is my life more important than someone who doesn’t have health insurance? Were my children more entitled to be raised by their mother because their aunt and uncle are doctors? Did my husband deserve to escape becoming a young widower because we had the resources to cover me under two insurance plans? I don’t know the answers to the big healthcare questions plaguing our nation. I do, however, believe with all my heart that the answer to my three questions above should be a definitive “no.”
Others, of course, see the debate differently. Newly crowned Miss USA Kara McCullough, a 25-year old scientist, sparked an internet debate this weekend by saying affordable health care is not a right but a “privilege” linked to good employment. McCullough, it appears, has stepped into the hyper-charged healthcare debate.
When asked if she thought affordable healthcare for all American citizens is a right or privilege, McCullough created a microburst of activity on social media by answering, “I’m definitely going to say it’s a privilege. As a government employee, I am granted healthcare. And I see firsthand that for one to have healthcare, you need to have jobs. So therefore we need to continue to cultivate this environment that we’re given the opportunities to have healthcare as well as jobs to all the American citizens worldwide.”
Twitter broke loose with all sorts of reaction to her comments, including one who said, “The thing about Miss DC is she’s correct -- health care IS still a privilege, not a right. It’s just that that’s what’s wrong with our system.”
Indeed, by dropping tax subsidies and offering credits tilted toward the wealthy, the AHCA does smack of privilege. Instead of the sort of shared responsibility Jesus imagined as the essence of the beloved community in John, the plan will place more burden on individuals. Or, as White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney offered, while the plan offers a safeguard for persons who “get cancer,” it isn’t aimed at taking “care of the person who sits at home, eats poorly, and gets diabetes.”
Perhaps Mulvaney has the willpower to resist his boss’ beautiful chocolate cake, but the truth is that healthy living alone does not guarantee good health.
Republican-backed plans generally propose a more market-driven approach to health care that limits government oversight and regulation. When Republicans approved the American Health Care Act in April, they voted for an alternative to Obamacare which removed the requirement to purchase insurance through marketplaces and also removed tax penalties for failing to have insurance. It eliminated income-based tax credits and subsidies available under the Affordable Care Act, effectively hurting elderly people with lower incomes.
The bill eliminates taxes that helped subsidized the purchase of medical insurance, and guts Medicaid dramatically by changing it from an entitlement program to a per capita cap system that could threaten home- and community-based services to persons with developmental disabilities.
Instead of operating Medicaid as an entitlement program, the Paul Ryan- and Donald Trump-backed AHCA (which was given the snarky nickname “Tryancare” by one commentator) would offer each beneficiary a fixed amount of money. Some believe that will put pressure on states to cut services. The shift could also limit reimbursements from Medicaid to school districts who provide a variety of services to disabled children -- everything from therapies to wheelchairs.
“Under this proposal, states would no longer have to consider schools eligible Medicaid providers,” read a letter sent to congressional leaders by more than 50 advocacy groups.
Beyond that, the AHCA will allow health insurers to charge more for certain pre-existing conditions. While prohibiting insurers from denying coverage to persons with pre-existing conditions, the bill allows states to create high-risk pools which could price some individuals out of the market. Conservatives say critics are focusing too much on pre-existing conditions, noting that the actual number of individuals who might lose insurance is just a “fraction of a fraction of a fraction” of the population.
Some conservatives say that the heart of the issue is facing facts: there are limits to the amount of medical care which we can provide. At some point, they say, resources will become scarce. “We cannot offer the same level of care to everybody with the same condition,” writes Kevin Williamson. He argues that reforms of any kind will ultimately fail unless they face the facts that “there is never enough of anything to satisfy every possible desire.”
A similar dilemma confronted Jesus’ followers. As John records that extended conversation the night before Jesus was crucified, a mixture of fear and grief fill the air. It’s uncertain what a future apart from Jesus will look like. The disciples are at a loss to figure out what it will mean to follow Jesus without his physical presence. They’re worried about being abandoned.
It’s possible any number of persons impacted by the repeal of Obamacare may feel the same way. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that within ten years, 24 million fewer Americans will be covered by health insurance. It’s possible they’re contemplating a future where they might be orphaned by a society less concerned about caring for each other than exploring individual benefits.
In the Scriptures
Darkness surrounds the light of the world in John 13-17. The pace of John’s narration of Jesus’ last meal with the disciples is slow and deliberate, with each phrase of this farewell discourse carefully phrased. The extended conversation, often considered to be of greater theological import than historical value, takes both ancient and contemporary disciples face to face with essential questions of community. Jesus is offering assurance that the light will not vanish.
The hour has arrived, and Jesus has enacted the commandment to love each other through the washing of feet in John 13. The discourse changes direction a bit in chapter 14, with Jesus offering to the disciples the promise of his legacy. The promise of that legacy is peace, and the assurance that the disciples will do greater works than Jesus has done (14:12). At 14:15, Jesus directs the attention of the disciples back to what is essential for the community.
“If you love me,” says Jesus, “you will keep my commandments.” Karoline Lewis’ commentary (John, Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentary) points out that Jesus has already said that God’s commandment is eternal life (12:49-50). As Lewis points out, “God has one commandment, eternal life, and the disciples are asked to love one another as a demonstration of their love for Jesus and to make possible eternal life for others not of this fold” (p. 191).
The assurance of Jesus’ presence comes in the form of the Spirit, or paraklete. John’s sense of the Spirit is evolving throughout the discourse, but here comes with certain guarantees. It is the “Spirit of truth,” an advocate who will accompany the disciples. It’s a term specific to John that conveys the sense of one who comes alongside of another, or one who brings comfort. The Spirit’s presence is a gift from God that provides unending power and possibility so that the community of disciples can become a community of intense mutuality, friendship, and intimate connection.
Those who love Jesus will keep the commandments -- will seek out that abundant, gracious, and eternal life -- and will act in love toward each other. They will not be orphaned or abandoned, and indeed will do things that are even greater than Jesus has done.
That is the promise offered to the disciples. As Richard Ward suggests in his commentary in Feasting on the Gospels,“How does one respond to God’s generous gesture of friendship offered through Jesus? By keeping Jesus’ word” (Feasting on the Gospels, John, Vol. 2 [Westminster/John Knox Press], p. 163).
In the Sermon
The promises Jesus offers are distinctly different from the promises made by politicians. The promise offered in John is distinctive because it offers comfort and assurance to those who feel as though their lives are imperiled. So far, Jesus’ authority and presence has protected his disciples. Yet they hear him say, “In a little while the world will no longer see me,” and before he can continue they are deeply troubled. But his words do not end there; instead, he offers this assurance: “you will see me; because I live, you also will live.”
It seems to me that this is a good place for a sermon to begin. This week we are given the opportunity to take a sneak peek at Pentecost, and to begin describing the often-neglected work of the Spirit. For the most part we tend to skip the third person of the Trinity, relegating the Spirit to some fire-tinged comments on Pentecost. But the richness of John’s portrayal of the Spirit’s accompanying of the disciples in times of trial is a vital aspect of the gospel. It is a story that needs to be heard.
Start by imagining those who may wonder if they will be abandoned by a culture that seeks increased personal gain at the expense of the marginalized or less privileged. Start with the story of a man under hospice care, a retired pastor whose alcoholism and mental illness separated him first from his parish and then from his family. He bears personal responsibility, to be sure; but now in the last days of his life he is dependent on Medicaid to provide nursing care. Does he feel orphaned?
I’m also thinking of a young man in our congregation who is deeply impacted by autism. He is one of several differently gifted young people in our congregation. His mother is a single mom who works a slightly better than minimum wage job. She has no insurance, but at least can be home when he gets off the bus from school. Not long ago he got sick. It started with a fever, but soon he was nearly limp. He went into cardiac arrest in the emergency room and spent weeks on a ventilator. He’s improving, though the prognosis is not clear; does his mother feel abandoned?
Then there are other children who receive a variety of services. Some need constant care, others benefit from educational interventions. But it’s clear that their families can’t do it alone. They depend on the promises made by our greater community.
A sermon could ? should -- name the ways we are called to keep our promises. Otherwise, our faith begins to resemble the sort of failed religious promises described by poet/pastor Dave Barnhart in a recent poem: “People who live good lives / do not have pre-existing conditions you say, / carving these words over the hospital door: / ‘Who sinned, this man or his parents / that he was born blind?’ ”
All around are those who experience the fear of being orphaned: those with mental illness, those who are addicted to painkillers, the addict sitting in the back row who leaves before the last hymn. Where have we broken our promises to those who fear being orphaned? How can they hear the promise which will not fail?
Even if we are not clear which version of health insurance is better than the other, the church has a story it can tell. It may not be an elaborately choreographed stage show. Instead, it is the overwhelming assurance that by keeping God’s commandments the Spirit leads us closer to Jesus.
SECOND THOUGHTS
An Unknown God
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 17:22-31
In the Scriptures
What do you say to the Athenians? What can you say that they haven’t already heard?
Paul had his work cut out for him. He was himself a Greek, so he knew a thing or two about these people. But Athens was a whole different ball game.
Athens was the seat of academia. Athens was the place where all the great thinkers had their beginning. Philosophy was born here. The theater had its genesis in this great city. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle thought and taught and wrote here. Homer dictated his epic poems and Euripides penned his dramas here. Pericles led his army from here.
These people, these Athenians, were well-read, well-educated, people who knew not just what to think but how to think. And they were religious to a fault.
Probably Paul had decided to take a walk through the city in the hopes that inspiration and insight would come to him as he made his way through the narrow streets. As he walked, he could not help but notice how religious the Athenians were. Every corner, every nook and cranny, was decorated with an altar or a bust of one of their pantheon of gods and goddesses. Here a crude bust of Zeus, god of weather and god above all gods; there an altar to Hera, goddess of family and marriage, in front of them merchant statuettes of Aphrodite and Eros, goddess and god of love and sexuality and fertility.
Everywhere one might look there was a tribute not just to the 12 major gods and goddesses but to all the smaller and minor gods, so many in number that 2,000 years hence when historians looked back upon this time they would not be able to count them all.
Paul shook his head in wonder at the raw creativity of the human, theological mind.
But then something caught his eye and made him stop in mid-stride.
Before him was an altar that was not adorned as thoroughly as all the others he had seen. It was little more than a small stone table with a vase of fresh flowers set upon it. And above the altar, etched in the stone in an amateur hand, was: “To an unknown god.”
An unknown God.
How strangely beautiful that these Athenians who were such great thinkers, so well-read, so highly educated, so thoroughly schooled in all of the arts and sciences, so sure of themselves in so many ways, should place an altar like this in their city. This one altar bore witness to the fact that the Athenians were willing to leave a door open to the unknown. They were willing to admit that they might not have all of the answers, that their theology might be incomplete.
They were still open to new ideas, to new insights, to new lessons.
They were still, in a word, SEEKING.
Paul smiled to himself. They were open and they were still seeking. In the wall that was Greek polytheism, this was the crack wherein Paul would place his seeds of Christianity in hopes that they might grow and eventually break down or overcome the wall entirely.
In the Culture
Rod Dreher is a writer, editor, and blogger for The American Conservative. His book The Benedict Option was published earlier this year, and in it he predicts a return to the Dark Ages, especially where Christianity is concerned.
New York Times columnist David Brooks has called it “the most discussed and most important religious book of the decade.”
In a nutshell, here is the argument Dreher makes in his book: The culture war has been lost. Religious liberals and secular humanists have won. This is clearly evident where human sexuality is concerned. In Dreher’s words, “LGBT activism is the tip of the spear at our throats.... The struggle over gay rights is... threatening religious liberty, putting Christian merchants out of business, threatening the tax-exempt status and accreditation of Christian schools and colleges.”
He argues, according to Brooks, that “because of their views on LGBT issues, Orthodox Christians and Jews will soon be banned from many professions and corporations. ‘Blacklisting will be real,’ [Dreher] says. We are entering a new Dark Age. ‘There are people alive today who may live to see the effective death of Christianity within our civilization.’ ”
It is futile to continue fighting the culture wars, Dreher says.
Instead, Christians should do as St. Benedict did when the Roman empire was collapsing all around him. They should withdraw from mainstream culture, take their kids out of public schools, and move into separate, religious enclaves where they can concentrate on purifying, deepening, and preserving their orthodox faith.
What Dreher does not seem to see is that there are some huge cracks in this plan, not the least of which is that it goes against the Great Commission which Jesus delivered to his disciples in Matthew 28:19-20 (“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age”).
Secondly, while there are some liberal/secular purists who shout down differing opinions and want to force orthodox Christian bakers to work at gay weddings against their conscience, these are a very small minority. As David Brooks rightly points out: “Most Americans are not hellbent on destroying religious institutions. If anything they are spiritually hungry and open to religious conversation.”
It is true that Christianity, especially that of the old mainline Protestant churches, is shrinking. Twenty-three percent of American adults answered “none” when asked for their religious affiliation, up from 16 percent in 2007. And while some of that 23 percent simply don’t care at all about religion, many describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious,” the modern equivalent of believing in the possible existence of “an unknown god.”
The third flaw in Dreher’s Benedict Option is well identified by David Brooks. Over the course of history, Brooks says, American culture “has tolerated slavery, sexual brutalism, and the genocide of the Native Americans” and still managed to deflect any threatened Dark Age. So is 2017 to be remembered in history as the year that ushered in a new Dark Age because we let people marry people they loved, regardless of gender?
The Benedict Option is simply, he says, an overreaction to a division in our culture that is bridgeable through simple human interaction, communication, and accommodation.
In the Sermon
The answer to the changes that are taking place in American culture is not to run away and hide in caves as the Benedictines did. Rather, it is to throw ourselves into creative engagement. Religious people in our time win nothing by fighting secular purism with religious purism. Self-segregationists, Brooks points out, always end up fostering narrowness, prejudice, and moral arrogance, and “closing off the dynamic creativity of a living faith.”
“The right response to the moment,” Brooks concludes, “is not the Benedict Option, it is Orthodox Pluralism. It is to surrender to some orthodoxy that will overthrow the superficial obsessions of the self and put one’s life in contact with a transcendent ideal. But it is also to reject the notion that that ideal can be easily translated into a pure, homogenized path. It is, on the contrary, to throw oneself more deeply into friendship with complexity, with different believers and atheists, liberals and conservatives, the dissimilar and unalike.”
The real enemy of our faith is not the sexual revolution, the secular culture, or the liberality of our culture. It is a purism -- religious, political, philosophical purism -- that does not and cannot tolerate difference because it does not have the humility to humbly to accept that truth is often a mystery that cannot be proved or disproved but can only be embraced.
And the answer to that purism, be it religious or secular, is not to argue it into submission or to walk away and leave it alone in the desert. The answer to that destructive purism is to love one another as Jesus first loved us, and to share with the world our stories of how we were loved, not because of the purity of our theology but because of the amazing grace of a loving and living God.
The unknown god of our culture is expressed as “spiritual but not religious” and “moralistic, therapeutic deism.” People who express their spiritual preference in these two are, in reality, expressing a spiritual/religious need that is not being met in traditional Christianity.
May God grant us the wisdom of Paul that we might speak effectively and convincingly of that God who fills this gap in the popular theology of our culture.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Acts 17:22-31
Recently Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos spoke to the graduating class of Bethune-Cookman University, a historically black college. Her speech was met with protests, with many students turning their backs on her. The protests became so severe that the school’s president threatened to end the ceremony and mail graduates their diplomas. DeVos said to the protesters, “One of the hallmarks of higher education, and of democracy, is the ability to converse and learn from those with whom we disagree at times.... I hope we can do so respectfully. Let’s choose to hear each other.”
Application: Like Paul, in sharing the gospel message we will be doing so to an audience that does not want to listen to us.
*****
Acts 17:22-31
Jay Paterno has been elected to the board of trustees of Penn State University. He is the son of former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, and served as one of his father’s assistant coaches. There are 38 trustees, with nine are selected by the alumni, whom elected Jay. Joe Paterno was dismissed from his position for failing to adequately report the child abuse by Jerry Sandusky, also an assistant coach. Jay has said of his father, “If anything, he is guilty of failing to possess the godlike qualities ascribed to him by others, qualities that Joe was the first to insist he never had.”
Application: People do not want to hear the truth, as Jay and the trustees ignored the charges against Joe Paterno.
*****
Acts 17:22-31
Mental health professionals want the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why taken off the air. The show is about a teenager (played by Katherine Langford) who commits suicide. It focuses on tapes she made discussing the different individuals who forced her to take her life by slitting her writs. The show also depicts adults as being insensitive to her search for help. It is a concern that the show will lead to copycat suicides as the true trauma of suicide is made to seem justifiable.
Application: We need to speak the truth, and speak against lies.
*****
Acts 17:22-31
In a Born Loser comic strip, Brutus Thornapple ia standing in front of the desk of his boss Rancid Veeblefester. Veeblefester, the president of the company, is known for bragging about his wealth, and Thornapple, an employee, is known as “the born loser.” Thornapple tries to explain why he did not call a client back, because he did not want the client to hear a busy signal if he tried to call Thornapple first, because Thornapple was on the phone trying to call him. Thornapple then asks if that is a clear enough explanation, to which Veeblefester replies: “About as clear as watching a 3-D movie without the special 3-D glasses!”
Application: We need to speak the truth clearly.
*****
Acts 17:22-31
The Trump administration recently produced an advertisement extolling the virtues of President Trump’s first 100 days in office. The commercial also accuses Andrea Mitchell of NBC, Wolf Blitzer of CNN, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, Scott Pelley of CBS, and George Stephanopoulos of ABC of spreading “fake news” about the president. Understandably, ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN refused to air the ad, to the anger of the Trump administration.
Application: We are only to speak the truth, which the major networks have been doing.
*****
Acts 17:22-31
Miley Cyrus has decided to change her songs to ones that are, in her words, “more uplifting, conscious rap.” Realizing the influence her songs have on younger people, she no longer wants to sing lyrics that are sexually explicit or violent. Cyrus said, “I feel the younger generation needs to hear positive powerful lyrics.”
Application: We need to share a powerful positive gospel message.
*****
Acts 17:22-31
Joaquin Guzman Lorea is known as El Chapo, which means “Shorty” in Spanish. He is also known as the biggest drug lord in the world, responsible for thousands of murders. Captured in Mexico and extradited to the United States, he now is in a 17' by 8' cell on the 10th floor of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan. The prison is also known as 10 South, and the 10th floor is a maximum-security floor where inmates are under surveillance 24 hours a day. Recently Lorea appeared in court to complain about his living conditions. He does not like the taste of the tap water, he would like to select his own television programs, and the exercise bike does not face the TV. The judge dismissed all of his requests.
Application: If we choose to worship an unknown god, we will be punished.
*****
1 Peter 3:13-22
The Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton, is suing the French magazine Closer for publishing topless photographs of her as she was sunbathing with her husband Prince William, who is second in line to be the king of England. Her lawsuit claims invasion of privacy, as the photos were taken with a telescopic lens as she laid semi-nude on a balcony.
Application: Perhaps it was an invasion of privacy, but the Duchess of Cambridge should know that she has no privacy when she is in the public sphere. We are called by Peter to always place ourselves in situations where we can honestly defend ourselves.
*****
1 Peter 3:13-22
When James Cash Penney opened his first store in 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming, he named the store J.C. Penney. Committing himself to the highest ethical standards possible, he based his business on biblical principles. Of these, the most important for him was the Golden Rule.
Application: We are called to do good.
*****
John 14:15-21
Henry Gerecke is not a household name; yet he had one of the most significant callings in the history of the church. He was the chaplain to 21 Nazi war criminals during the Nuremberg trials, and shepherded five of the most notorious Nazis to the gallows. Gerecke was a Lutheran pastor from Missouri who was fluent in German. He volunteered as a chaplain to serve in the Army in 1943 when the military was desperate for men to serve in that capacity. His wartime duties took him to Dachau, where he was able to witness the Nazi atrocities of the Holocaust. At the time he was unaware of his future role. During the Nuremberg trials those overseeing the proceedings learned of a German-speaking chaplain. They asked Gerecke to take on the role as the minister to those accused of crimes against humanity. Gerecke accepted. During his counseling sessions he would only offer Holy Communion to those men who were truly penitent and confessed their faith in Jesus Christ. Only four sentenced to hang met Gerecke’s standard and received the eucharist. One unrepentant Nazi officer said: “This Jesus that you always speak of, to me he is just another smart Jew.” After the war Gerecke was criticized for ministering to the monsters of the Third Reich. Gerecke would respond that he considered his calling to the Nuremberg defendants to be a mission.
Application: As we have an Advocate with God, we are to be an advocate for others.
***************
From team member Mary Austin:
John 14:15-21
I Will Not Leave You Orphaned
As he prepares for his death, Jesus promises not to leave his followers orphaned in the world. In the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit, we are not orphans. On a practical level, though, some children need real-life, physical homes. Newscaster Gloria Campos made a personal crusade out of finding homes for children in foster care. “For 25 years, retiring newscaster Gloria Campos has profiled foster children who were waiting to be adopted in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on the Wednesday’s Child television segment at WFAA-TV. Campos estimates that over the years she has featured more than 350 children, 75 percent of whom were adopted thanks to her reporting. But of all those children, there was one young boy whose story she would not soon forget -- that of Ke’onte Cook.” She first profiled Cook in 2007, when he was eight.
He was adopted, and then returned to the foster care system when it didn’t work out. Campos profiled him again and his adoptive parents saw the segment, which led to the home he has now. “Since being adopted by the Cooks, Ke’onte’s life has turned around. Two years ago, he spoke before Congress about his four years in the foster care system, telling them that he was over-medicated with mind-altering drugs. Now, the 14-year-old is off medication completely. He’s an avid runner and hiker, and hopes to study broadcasting, like his hero, Gloria Campos.”
Ke’onte met up with a surprised Campos on air, coming onto the set to thank her. He said, “I want to say to her thank you so much, because you’ve made my life worthwhile and you’ve helped me become the person that I am right now,” Ke’onte said in a video tribute. “I probably would have been worse off had you not helped me out.”
*****
John 14:15-21
I Will Not Leave You Orphaned, Lunchroom Edition
Even if we’re not literally orphans, we all know the feeling of being left out -- and a generous donor in Houston made sure no kids were left out of having a hot school lunch.
“At Valley Oaks Elementary School in Houston, Texas, if a student has a negative balance on their lunch accounts, they are given a cold cheese sandwich instead of a warm tray of food.” More than 60 students couldn’t afford to pay the 40 cents a day that would allow them a hot meal. Tutor and mentor Kenny Thompson learned about the reduced lunch program, and the students who couldn’t pay, and he took action. Thompson worked with the Valley Oaks students for 10 years, and he knew their situations. He paid the $465 needed to zero out the delinquent accounts. “These are elementary school kids. They don’t need to be worried about finances,” he said. “They need to be worried about what grade they got in spelling.”
“Thompson learned that many of these kids would rather go hungry than be seen with their reduced meals. Can you imagine how these kids felt as they ate their meager lunches in front of their better-off classmates? Thompson’s generous gesture ensured that all students at his school were getting the nutrition they need to stay healthy.”
Thompson said “When I left the building knowing that they were getting fed, they didn’t have that stress. The best money I ever spent.” Not leaving anyone as an orphan is the work of the Holy Spirit, but often that Spirit works through us.
*****
Psalm 66:8-20; 1 Peter 3:13-22
The Need for Suffering
The psalmist says “For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs.” Leaders need this kind of testing and refinement, says author and consultant Peter Bregman. He says: “This act of diving deeply into the feelings we avoid, the feelings we don’t necessarily even know we have, is, I have come to believe, our only hope of breaking our link in the chain of hurt, suffering, and ineffectiveness. That’s a leadership issue. Because every leader is a human being. And when we avoid feeling the suffering we naturally experience as human beings, we perpetuate it and act against our best interests in our relationships with our colleagues and the people we manage, as well as with our families.”
The pain of his own life has driven Bregman to be a successful consultant and author, and now he feels his own hollowness. “I have spent my life trying to prove that I’m good enough to live it. My mother narrowly escaped the holocaust, and her baby sister Ariel did not survive. I grew up thinking daily of the six million Jews killed by the Nazis, thinking that because of them, my life had better amount to something. And now I watch myself drop names of important people I know and talk too much about things I’ve accomplished. I brag, too often striving more for my own success than the success of others, or of endeavors I believe in. This is a destructive game. The more I try to impress others, the less I believe in myself. And no amount of communication training will help unless I can feel the pain of never feeling good enough and acknowledge that my life can never make up for any of the six million. The only way we can move forward, live fully, and lead courageously, is by feeling enough to become deeply mature human beings. The challenge is formidable: are we willing to stop being the people we are expected to be, the people we expect ourselves to be, and simply be who we are? If so, then we will make room not only for ourselves, but for others to be themselves. And that is powerful leadership. We cannot lead without feeling the pain of living because the things we do to avoid feeling pain result in poor leadership. We don’t acknowledge others. We try to control everything. We lose our temper and criticize others disproportionately. If we don’t feel our emotions, we are controlled by them.”
First Peter 3 says, “even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed.” The blessing comes in the transformation. The trials and tests of our lives are only useful if we let them be redeemed by God’s softening, wise presence. Suffering has value when it leads us to transformation; testing proves itself when we let ourselves be refined by it.
*****
Psalm 66:8-20
Easing Suffering
The psalmist proclaims to God, “we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.” Among the people who have gone through the most tumult in recent years are veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. A sanctuary full of rescued birds has turned out to be a “spacious place” for veterans.
“The [Veterans Administration] complex in West Los Angeles boasts an unexpected feature: the Serenity Park Parrot Sanctuary, which offers nursing care and refuge to exotic birds left without owners. Veteran Matthew Simmons started the sanctuary, which is funded by donations, after serving in the Navy during Operation Desert Storm. The facility rehabilitates sick or injured birds, and in the process helps troubled vets too.”
People suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can use all kinds of help, some more unusual than others. “If you’re not offered a ledge up, it’s a very deep pit, and there’s lots of guys down there,” Simmons says.
“One person benefitting from these beautiful creatures is Coast Guard veteran Lily Love. She suffered from PTSD after her service, prompting to five trips to the VA psychiatric ward, but ever since she started spending time at Serenity Park, she’s stayed out of the hospital. Love is now in charge of the kitchen, preparing meals for parrots each day starting at 6 a.m. She says that working with the birds, ‘takes me out of myself.’ Navy veteran Bob Corell describes the time he spends Serenity Park as his ‘salvation.’ ” He adds, “I think I’m a little kinder. A little gentler than I was before I got here.”
We all need the spacious place the psalmist mentions, and some of us even more than others.
*****
Psalm 66:8-20
Refined by Suffering
Being tested and tried by fire happens to all of us, but veteran Jason Redman had his life changed by actual fire -- machine gun fire, encountered while he served in Iraq. His spirit was tested even further when he returned home, marked by his wounds. “A year after he was ambushed by machine-gun fire in Fallujah, Iraq, Lt. Jason Redman was still missing his nose. The bullets that showered his body also hit his cheekbone, leaving the right side of his face caved in. And he was wearing an eye patch to conceal a crusty and mangled sight. Returning to his life in Virginia, Redman says it was as if he had become a target all over again -- this time to questions and stares from strangers.”
Redman says he began to become irritated, not by people’s questions but by the fact that no one ever asked about combat. Things changed when “after a particularly bothersome gawking session at the airport (‘It’d been culminating, and I’d just reached my breaking point’), he took to the internet to vent. Instead of angry Tweets or passive-aggressive Facebook messages, Redman decided to wear his defense. He began designing t-shirts featuring slogans like ‘Stop staring. I got shot by a machine gun. It would have killed you.’ An American flag adorned the back of each one. As he started wearing his designs, strangers began to nod in appreciation, even thanking him at times. Redman knew he was onto something -- that there were countless other wounded warriors who felt the same way.”
Redman created a nonprofit called Wounded Wear, which “donates clothing kits to warriors hurt in combat and their loved ones, as well as to the families of fallen soldiers. The kits contain jackets, workout gear and t-shirts that read ‘Scarred so that others may live free,’ a toned-down version of the original slogans Redman used to print. His organization also accepts existing clothing from service members, which the nonprofit modifies to accommodate short-term rehabilitation needs or permanent bodily damage: One of the most requested alterations comes from amputees, whose prosthetic limbs make it difficult to put on regular pants. Wounded Wear provides everything to service members free of charge, raising money from donations as well as apparel sales on its website. So far, they’ve donated nearly 2,000 kits.”
Redman says he didn’t picture this particular career path, but he was raised on ideals of patriotism and service. “I just grew up with this message of service in our family and very patriotic values,” he says. “From a very young age, I knew I wanted to serve.”
He has transformed his own trial by fire into service to others. As the psalmist writes, “For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs.” Those burdens are laid on veterans in particularly physical ways, and Redman has used his own trials to bring fellow veterans some ease.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Bless our God, O peoples; let the sound of praise be heard.
People: God has kept us among the living and has not let our feet slip.
Leader: Come and hear, all you who fear God.
People: I will tell what God has done for me.
Leader: Blessed be God, because my prayer was not rejected.
People: Blessed be God, because God’s steadfast love is with me.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God who is our loving parent.
People: With joy we sing praises to our loving God.
Leader: Rejoice that God never leaves us or abandons us.
People: Our hearts are glad in the steadfast love of God.
Leader: Share God’s love and care with all God’s children.
People: We will share the love of God which we have received.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“All People That on Earth Do Dwell”
found in:
UMH: 75
H82: 377, 378
PH: 220, 221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELA: 883
W&P: 661
AMEC: 73
STLT: 370
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness”
found in:
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
ELA: 733
W&P: 72
AMEC: 84
Renew: 249
“Children of the Heavenly Father”
found in:
UMH: 141
NCH: 487
LBW: 47
ELA: 781
W&P: 83
“The Care the Eagle Gives Her Young”
found in:
UMH: 118
NCH: 468
CH: 76
“Spirit Song”
found in:
UMH: 347
AAHH: 321
CH: 352
W&P: 352
CCB: 51
Renew: 248
“Our Parent, by Whose Name”
found in:
UMH: 447
LBW: 357
ELA: 640
“Near to the Heart of God”
found in:
UMH: 472
PH: 527
NNBH: 316
CH: 581
AMEC: 322
“Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart”
found in:
UMH: 500
PH: 326
AAHH: 312
NCH: 290
CH: 265
LBW: 486
ELA: 800
W&P: 132
AMEC: 189
“I Am Loved”
found in:
CCB: 80
“God Is So Good”
found in:
CCB: 75
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who nurtures us like a loving parent: Grant us the grace to accept your care and to care for others just as graciously; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for your loving care of us. We worship you as our eternal parent who never deserts us. So fill us with the light of your Spirit that we may always be open to your care and willing to share it with others. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our self-centeredness that elevates our wants over the needs of others.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We worry too much about what is going to be good for us and too little about what is good for others. We hear Jesus say that we are to love others as we love ourselves, but we fall woefully short. Clear our minds and our hearts from selfishness, and help us to reach out to others so that no one feels abandoned like an orphan. Amen.
Leader: Jesus didn’t leave any of us alone as orphans. Receive God’s grace and forgiveness, and reach out to others with the love and grace of God.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you are the one who never deserts your children. You love is steadfast and sure.
(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 worry too much about what is going to be good for us and too little about what is good for others. We hear Jesus say that we are to love others as we love ourselves, but we fall woefully short. Clear our minds and our hearts from selfishness, and help us to reach out to others so that no one feels abandoned like an orphan.
We give you thanks for your constant love and care. We thank you for those who have helped us experience your love by loving us themselves.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children in their need. We lift up to you those who feel abandoned and left behind or left out. We pray that we may be the kind of people and community that embraces others with 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
Talk to the children about kittens or puppies in a shelter -- they don’t have their mothers to care for them, so in a way they are orphans. They need someone to take care of them. Jesus promised his disciples that he would never leave us orphans with no one to care for us. The Holy Spirit is here to watch over us as Jesus once did.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Do You Know God?
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Acts 17:22-31
(Gather the children and welcome them.)
I’ve got a question for you this morning. Do you know God? (Some children -- hopefully several! -- will answer yes, some might answer no.)
I guess the more important questions to ask are: How do you know God? Where did you learn about God? Did someone tell you about God? Do you find out about God from your parents or grandparents, or from a Sunday school teacher? (Allow the children to answer.)
Our scripture reading today tells about a statue that stood in the center of a city. Written on the statue were the words “To an Unknown God” (Acts 17:22).
The apostle Paul saw this statue and found it a bit strange. “Your God is unknown?” he asked. Let me tell you who this God is... “The God who made the world and everything in it, he is Lord of heaven and earth” (Acts 17:24).
When you look around at the world and all the wonderful things in creation, do you see God?
I am reminded of God and how much God gives to us when I look at creation!
Jesus said, “If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (John 14:7).
When you know Jesus, you know God.
When you look at Jesus, you come to know God.
When you learn from Jesus, you are learning about God.
(Hold up a Bible.) And then, of course, we have the Bible. The Bible tells us about God, about God’s love and care for God’s people, about how the people related to God -- sometimes following God, sometimes not, and about how God always welcomed the people back when they called on God.
There are lots of ways to get to know God -- because God wants us to know who God is. God doesn’t want to stay unknown to us -- that’s why God gives us Jesus, and the Bible, and prayer as a way to talk and listen to God. Let’s take a minute to talk to God right now.
Prayer: Holy God, you know us. You love us. You want us to know you. Open our eyes, open our ears, open our hearts and minds that we can see and hear and know you and your love for us. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 21, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
