The Genesis text appointed by the lectionary for Proper 11 describes Jacob’s journey from Beersheba toward Haran -- a trek on which he sleeps with a stone under his head while dreaming of a ladder connecting earth and heaven. Jacob interprets this as a sign that God is with him, and he is inspired to rename the place Bethel. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin suggests Jacob's experience offers an apt metaphor for the current crisis on the southern border of the U.S., as vast numbers of teenagers and children flee dire circumstances in Central America and make a long, perilous journey northward in search of a better life. Their sheer numbers are swamping the capacity of our immigration and border security system, and figuring out a way to deal with the issue has become a top priority for Washington policymakers -- prompting President Obama to make an emergency request for $3.7 billion to cope with the swelling tide. Meanwhile, the youngsters picked up by border patrols are being warehoused in detention centers, and immigration courts have found it necessary to reprioritize what cases to hear first from their massive backlog. It’s a thorny conundrum with no easy answers -- especially because it conflates a humanitarian crisis involving young people with the notoriously emotional issue of what to do about illegal immigration (and how we ought to fix what is clearly a broken system). As a result, the issue has become a minefield for politicians on both sides of the aisle, with President Obama declaring that the public needs to “right-size” its expectations on immigration. The young people themselves face an uncertain future when they reach the United States -- their dangerous journey ending either in the limbo of being swept up in the border control dragnet or by working long hours at backbreaking jobs for minimal pay. Mary ponders whether they too can feel (as in Jacob’s dream) that God is “with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you” -- and she points out that, like us, these young people are all (in the words of our Romans passage) children of God and joint heirs of Christ. Mary also asks us to consider how we might view the dark, uncertain, in-between places of our own journeys which might parallel in some small way the odysseys these youngsters are experiencing.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the parable of the weeds in the Matthew text. He refers to several recent news items, including Pope Francis meeting at the Vatican with six survivors of childhood sexual abuse by Catholic priests, to illustrate that however strongly we may feel a rush to judgment is justified, it is often better to take a more cautious approach. Dean reminds us that one of Jesus’ main points in this parable is that we ought to be wary of trusting our own judgment, lest we uproot healthy plants as well in our zeal to rid the garden of pesky weeds. While judgment will surely come for those who are weeds, it is better to let the plants grow to maturity, so that the fullness of time clearly indicates what ought to be removed. If we are too quick to judge those whom we think are in error, we are apt to make mistakes -- so it’s better to leave the judging to God.
A Stone for a Pillow
by Mary Austin
Genesis 28:10-19a
Journeys are full of revelations, danger, and surprises. Sleeping in the desert, Jacob dreams of angels and knows that God is with him on his travels. God assures Jacob that he is part of God’s plan, no matter what happens next.
Young people from Central America may be longing for similar assurances. Motivated by gang violence at home, or by the rumor of asylum for children traveling without parents, thousands have made the dangerous journey north to the U.S. in the past few months. Many are now being held in large detention facilities while federal officials struggle to figure out the next step for them.
Their journey recalls Jacob’s flight, and his experience of God’s sustaining presence.
In the News
Jacob’s journey away from home finds a modern echo in the travels of thousands of young people who have come to the U.S. from Central America recently. It is estimated that more than 57,000 young people, traveling without parents, have been apprehended on the country’s border since October 1. Facilities in Arizona and Texas have been established to hold them until they can be processed and returned home. The immigration system is overwhelmed by the demands of caring for them, providing health care, and keeping them safe.
The holding facility in Nogales, Arizona, according to one report, “is enormous, about the size of a football field. It has 18-foot-high chain-link fences topped with razor wire dividing the children by age and gender, one area for kids 12 and younger, areas each for boys and girls ages 13 to 15, and still more for boys and girls ages 16 and 17. Nylon tarps tied to the fences provide a modicum of privacy between the groups.... The entire facility has the feel of the livestock areas at a state fair. Inside it smells of feet, sweat, and straw. But as sad as it is, the children are clothed and fed. They are clean and the federal Public Health Service is on site conducting medical examinations and giving vaccinations. Pallets of water, cans of beans, bedding, and clothing are available.”
Jacob is fleeing from his family, after deceiving them as part of his desire for his brother’s blessing. Once given, the blessing can’t be taken away, but it comes with a load of trouble as well. The young people who have flooded into the U.S. are in search of the blessing of safety, work, and a future they can’t imagine at home. Like Jacob, they encounter trouble, danger, and the threat of violence along the way. Many of them are also fleeing violence at home, especially in Honduras and Guatemala, where gang violence is an overwhelming danger.
Immigration courts are shifting priorities to hear the cases of unaccompanied minors sooner, so the children and teenagers can be reunited with their families: “As part of the administration’s efforts to deter the current surge of illegal Central American migrants, the nation’s immigration courts will make a major shift in priorities to place unaccompanied minors and families with children first in line to go before immigration judges, Justice Department officials said Tuesday. Under the new procedures, those migrants could have their cases resolved and be deported within months, instead of the two or three years those cases often take in the overburdened courts. But the shift will have a broad impact on the system, the officials said, because at least half of about 375,000 cases already languishing in backlogs will be delayed significantly longer.” Part of the money requested by President Obama will go toward hiring temporary judges to hear the cases of people held in detention.
This problem is so overwhelming that no one knows quite what to do. While politicians trade barbs about immigration policy and new funding, John Andrews of the Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino County, California, suggests that people of faith see it differently. “I would encourage them to view this as a humanitarian crisis. When your brother or sister presents themselves to you in their need, as we know from the parable of the Good Samaritan, then we don’t pick and choose,” he explained. “We don’t say, ‘Well, we’re going to help this person in need but not that person in need. When you see a person who’s presenting themselves to you and you can see clearly that they need your help, you see the Lord Jesus in them, and you help them.”
In the Scriptures
Jacob sets out on this trip after his act of deception ruptures the already-strained family bonds between him and his father and brother. Watching him sleep out in the desert all alone, we have the luxury of knowing how his story ends. We understand -- even if he doesn’t know it yet -- that his whole journey happens inside God’s encircling care.
As he sleeps, Jacob gets the gift of God’s presence, with an image to sustain him through more travels. He dreams of a ladder connecting heaven and earth, with angels linking God and humankind. God has a word for Jacob: “And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth.’ ” God connects Jacob back to his past, and then gives him a glimpse of the future. In a moment of grace, God reminds Jacob of the promise made to his grandfather and father, which sustained them through their own misadventures and lapses. Not only is Jacob not alone in the night, he’s not even alone in his family, although it feels that way at the moment.
In the family tree of our faith, Jacob isn’t the only refugee. As Gay Clark Jennings writes in a Religion News Service commentary: “The baby Jesus survived Herod’s massacre because his parents took him across a border to a land where he was safe. Just like parents in Central America who are sending their children away, Mary and Joseph took great risks so their son could survive. The Bible doesn’t tell us who helped them make it across the border to Egypt or who gave them refuge there, but, in Matthew’s telling, we Christians have those anonymous kindly Egyptians to thank for our faith.” In our faith family, we come from a long line of dislocated people. Our faith is built on the journeys of refugees, and on their willingness to trust God through the travels to God’s plan on the other side.
In the Sermon
This story happens for Jacob in between things -- between his flight from his parents’ home but before his meeting with his future wife. There’s a sense of loneliness as he picks up the stone to use it for a pillow, since he’s all alone on this trip. The sermon might look at where each of us is between things -- with one chapter ending and another starting. Where are our lives in the middle of change? How do we trust God on these journeys?
In the Bible, the desert is always a meeting place -- the place where the unexpected happens. The devil with his alluring temptations, the burning bush, a mysterious angel who wrestles with Jacob in the night on his return trip all show up in the emptiness of the desert. The sermon might look at desert places in our lives, and how we encounter spiritual mystery there. In our world of ready smartphones and portable tablets, do we have enough desert -- enough empty space -- to have experiences that drive our faith deeper? Or have we filled up our time with so much solitaire and Candy Crush that there’s never any emptiness?
Related to that, in her new book Learning to Walk in the Dark Barbara Brown Taylor examines darkness as a place of revelation. We take light at night for granted, and may be suffering from too much of it as it interrupts our sleep cycles and contributes to illness, but Jacob was in a stunningly dark night as he goes to sleep. In her book, Brown Taylor finds darkness an important part of spiritual life: “Step 1 of learning to walk in the dark is to give up running the show. Next you sign a waiver that allows you to bump into some things that may frighten you at first.” In the darkness, Jacob the trickster bumps into the God who is much bigger than all of his schemes. What mixture of emotions go into his amazement at God? Awe, certainly, and is there also fear... shame... regret?
Travel of any kind gives us a small glimpse of the world of refugees, and the profound disorientation of not knowing a culture, a language, and where to find essential items until we learn a whole new world. On any trip we experience that in a small way. American Christianity is on a similar journey right now, in the middle place where Jacob is, between the old and before the new. As the spiritual descendants of Jacob, what do we have to learn from him and his journey?
The sermon might look at any of these questions, and at the places where our travels toward God take us.
ANOTHER VIEW
The Judgment of Weeds and Wheat
by Dean Feldmeyer
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
In the News
Judgment, confession, forgiveness, repentance -- these topics have been much in the news lately.
Pope Francis recently invited six victims of sexual abuse by priests to the Vatican, where he held a special private mass and then begged their forgiveness. He said that it is past time for the Church to own up to its “complicity” in these “grave crimes,” that it must “weep and make reparation.” The three men and three women from Ireland, Britain, and Germany each met privately with the Holy Father for about 30 minutes and met together over dinner.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said Pope Francis apologized for the “lifelong scars” that were inflicted upon the victims by abusive clergy which he compared to a “sacrilegious cult,” and he apologized for the leadership of the church who apparently “camouflaged” many of the abuses with a “complicity that cannot be explained.” He begged their forgiveness for “the sins of omission on the part of Church leaders who did not respond adequately.”
The six victims did not speak publicly to their experience at the Vatican, but members of some support organizations for victims of abuse did. Barbara Blaine, a member of one such group, called the meeting a “public relations event for the Vatican and for Pope Francis.” Other groups criticized the Vatican for what they see as the Pope’s failure to punish senior officials who have been accused of covering up scandals.
Last year, however, Pope Francis strengthened the Vatican’s laws against child abuse -- and Josef Wesolowski, a former papal envoy to the Dominican Republic, was found guilty by a Vatican tribunal of sexual abuse and stripped of his priesthood. He is the highest ranking Vatican official to have been investigated so far.
***
On another front, last week Kenneth P. Ruscio, the president of Washington and Lee University (located in Lexington, Virginia), acknowledged and apologized for a history in which the university owned slaves, and he announced that the Confederate flags which have been on display next to a statue of Robert E. Lee will be removed. The president’s statement followed several months of sometimes divisive debate after a group of black law students demanded a series of changes at the university -- some of which are addressed in the president’s letter and none of which has been universally embraced by the students, faculty, alumni/ae, and trustees.
Some former students are outraged by the president’s action and have called the removal of the Confederate flags an insult to Lee’s memory. Lee was president of the university from 1865, shortly after the end of the Civil War, to 1870, shortly before his death. He is credited with instituting many changes that kept the institution alive and financially stable in the difficult post-bellum South. His name was added to the name of the university shortly after he died.
Others, however, say that the president’s statement -- which refers to Lee’s defense of slavery and a time before the Civil War when the university found itself in ownership of about 30 slaves as “regrettable” -- is far from an apology and are demanding to see more. Yet others see the president’s statement as a calm, level-headed, and reasonable response to a divisive and explosive issue.
***
Meanwhile, on July 10, anchor Diane Sawyer closed the ABC World News broadcast with an apology. She showed some photographs that had run the previous evening, and said that she had “misidentified these powerful images. The people in these photos are Palestinians in Gaza in the aftermath of an airstrike by Israel, not Israelis, as I mistakenly described them. We want you to know we are truly sorry for the error” and she promised to keep viewers apprised of the news in the Middle East.
Some viewers were pleased with the correction and the apology, while others wanted her fired immediately.
In the Bible
This week’s lection from Matthew is the parable of the wheat and the weeds.
A wealthy landowner/farmer sows wheat in his fields, and the following night an enemy comes and sows weeds in the same field. The seeds germinate and begin to grow, and the field hands come to the landowner and inform him that he evidently purchased inferior wheat seed that had weed seed mixed into it. They ask him, “Should we go out and pull the weeds right now?”
The landowner knows that the seed he bought was of high quality and surmises that the weeds were sewn by an enemy. He also knows that if you try to pull up weeds when the crop is young, you will also trample and pull up the tender young wheat plants. It is better to let them all mature together, to wait until the weeds can be easily seen and identified, and then cut them out and throw them away before you harvest the wheat and before they can mature fully and reseed themselves.
This parable comes in the midst of several parables. The lectionary skips over two more stories where the disciples ask Jesus to explain this parable. (Apparently they had no problem understanding the other parables, only this one.)
The allegorical explanation is so obvious that one is hard put to understand how the disciples didn’t get it in the first place. In fact, some scholars hold that the explanation is a later addition to the text by a teacher or scribe who wanted to make sure that the meaning of the parable was not lost on a dense audience and so pounded it home with a fairly obvious explanation.
At any rate, the point of the story has much to do with rushing to judgment and delayed vindication. The landowner does not rush in to remove the weeds so quickly that he tramples and uproots the good plants. He is patient, allowing the bad to grow with the good until it can be safely identified and removed.
In the Pulpit
When I was a seminary student, one of my favorite professors taught Christian apologetics and theology. He used a teaching methodology that called for much argument and debate among class members, debates into which he did not hesitate to leap himself.
His was a sharp and facile mind, and we students were rarely able to get ahead of him or trip him up in an argument -- but one day I saw a tiny flaw in one of his statements and I leapt upon it like St. George upon the dragon.
It was obvious to the whole class that I had bested him and it was all I could do to keep from shouting “Checkmate!” He, however, was as gracious in defeat as he always was in victory. He simply looked at me, smiled, shrugged, winked, and said, “Sometimes I get sloppy.”
If an argument is really worth arguing, I learned, it need not be fired like a missile. It often needs only to be displayed and it will be obvious to those who have discerning eyes. The weaker argument, like the weeds in the wheat field, will sooner or later be obvious and easy to undo.
Is Pope Francis simply engaging in empty “public relations” strategies? Or is he sincerely laying the framework for a new day in the Roman Catholic church, where abuses of the clerics will be dealt with swiftly and decisively and the perpetrators of sexual abuse will be identified, tried, and punished as they should be? The Vatican asks the world and the Church to be patient, to not rush to judgment.
President Ruscio has asked the Washington and Lee University community to walk slowly with him through the maze of feelings and opinions he must address as he answers the demands of “The Committee.” He asks those on both sides to refrain from rushing to judgment.
ABC World News asks us to trust them because they have acknowledged and apologized for an error they made, an error that is in the eyes of many highly grievous and offensive. Are they to be trusted in the future? We’ll see.
When Christians deal with each other from many different political and theological perspectives, who is right and who is wrong? Must we pounce upon each other every time we discern an error, or can we extend a loving hand even to those with whom we disagree, knowing that in time God will sort it out?
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Genesis 28:10-19a
United Methodist pastor Frank Schaefer has been recently reinstated after being disciplined for officiating at the marriage service of his homosexual son. The question for Rev. Schafer became, how does church doctrine correspond to the spirituality and the community of church congregants, and more especially for a son who is gay? Regarding his son, Rev. Schaefer said: “His own church was saying to him that, as a homosexual, you can’t go to heaven. That’s not necessarily what the church would officially say, but that’s what he heard.”
Application: For some it seems the angelic ladder does not reach up to heaven nor will their adopted offspring be like the dust that covers the earth.
*****
Genesis 28:10-19a
It has recently been discovered that Tibetans, Mongolians, and Sherpas have a unique gene that allows them to dwell in altitudes of 13,000 feet and above. The gene dates back 50,000 years ago, and affects the amount of oxygen the blood can carry in thin air. This is one reason why the Sherpas are such a valuable asset to those wishing to climb Mt. Everest.
Application: When Jacob’s offspring were to be like dust covering the earth, there would be a great diversity among them.
*****
Romans 8:12-25
After his arrest, authorities discovered in Matthew Coniglio’s Georgia home over 50,000 images and videos of child pornography. In addition, the police found 56 8-millimeter cassette tapes hidden away showing him raping and molesting young girls. During the filming all of the girls were drugged, some even snoring as he assaulted them. As the tape ran he would look directly into the camera and speak of his sexual exploits. Ten days after Coniglio’s arrest, he hung himself in his jail cell. In speaking of his actions he told the authorities that he had “let sin pull me where it wanted.”
Application: When we live by the flesh sin will pull us to where it wants.
*****
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Google recently changed its policy on allowing pornographic advertisements and searches on AdWords. The company makes $100 million a day in search advertising, and the adult industry represented one percent of that revenue. Though Google has a policy of “free expression” on the internet, they concluded that advertisements by the adult industry violated their code of conduct which says “don’t be evil.”
Application: Google recognized that what they considered to be weeds could harm their reputation.
*****
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
The Hallmark Channel’s “Christmas in July” theme-bloc has proven so successful that this year it was extended from a single weekend to an entire week. The initial idea a few years ago was to use holiday-themed television programming to draw attention to a preview of Hallmark’s Christmas cards and ornaments for the coming season. But the shows received such a large viewing audience that Hallmark has decided to extend the Christmas in July telecasts to an entire week. They have also considered extending a similar debut for other holiday seasons throughout the year, each coming months before the actual day of celebration for the purpose of marketing new products. However, as Hallmark’s president and CEO Bill Abbott states, there is a concern about “overexposure” which might begin to hinder sales.
Application: It seems at times people cannot distinguish a weed from a seed.
***************
From team member Chris Keating:
Genesis 28:10-19a
Lucid Dreams
The experience of knowing you are having a dream (and controlling it to some extent) is known as a lucid dream. Among lucid dreamers, trying to fly is one of the most popular experiences attempted while dreaming. Lucid dreamers often attempt things while dreaming that are impossible while awake: flying, doing magic, breathing underwater, or talking with animals.
Children seem to have the ability to have lucid dreams more than adults -- which researchers say could be attributed to brain development.
*****
Genesis 28:10-19a
Jacob’s Field of Dreams
Bethel, the site of Jacob’s dream, flourished from the time of Jeroboam I until its destruction by King Josiah (2 Kings 23:15). Jacob’s field of dreams became a sacred location, a place set apart, and a place where God came near. While Dyersville, Iowa, certainly falls short of those claims, fans of the 25-year old movie Field of Dreams hold it in high esteem.
“Build it and he will come” is the movie’s trademark line -- though it is often misquoted as “build it and they will come.” For years, however, fans have indeed been coming to the remote cornfield where the movie was filmed to see the ballfield made famous by actor Kevin Costner. It is a site of pilgrimage for many. At a recent celebration of the film’s 25th anniversary, fans gathered to play catch and share memories of the movie. One fan reported spending more than $7,000 to bring his entire family to Dyersville.
Indeed, the site remains meaningful to many, including Costner. “I get a chance to bring my three little kids here. It’s really good full circle for me that this movie lives so long,” the actor told NBC’s Bob Costas.
*****
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Befriending Weeds
Jesus urges restraint in removing the weeds which we are so quick to pull out. The image runs contrary to our impulses, but the welcoming of weeds is usefully employed by Irish poet Paula Meehan in her 2009 poem “Not Weeding”:
Nettle, bramble, shepherd’s purse --
refugees from the building site
that was once the back field,
my former sworn enemies
these emissaries of the wild
now cherished guests.
*****
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
The Problem with Weeds
Weeds were a problem for the farmer in Jesus’ parable, and they continue to pose problems to farmers today.
American farmers are struggling with the emergence of super weeds -- ones that have developed a resistance to popular herbicides. About half of the nation’s farmland is dealing with herbicide-resistant weeds. Farmers are discovering species which resist the effects of glyphosate (more commonly marketed as “Roundup”).
More than 90 percent of American corn, cotton, and soybean crops are grown from genetically modified seeds which are engineered to be immune to glyphosate. Farmers are then able to rely on herbicides to keep their fields free of weeds.
Like the farmer in Jesus’ parable, farmers are encountering tough species of weeds that resist chemical control. Agricultural groups are encouraging farmers to use a variety of methods to combat the weeds to avoid a harvest filled with weeping and gnashing of teeth.
*****
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Garden Quips
Columnist Doug Larson observes that “A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except learning how to grow in rows.”
Here’s a few from Texas Bix Binder, author of Don’t Throw in the Trowel:
* “In comparison, sometimes a garden can make the one you love seem almost easy to please.”
* “Flowers and vegetables are mortal like us. Weeds never die.”
* “Your garden in the spring is never as big as it was when you placed your seed catalog order.”
* “Reading garden catalogs in the winter is like having cocktails in the evening: After one or two, your big plans begin to look feasible.”
* “If weeds could think, they would have been on the moon long before Neil Armstrong.”
* “A garden is a sublime lesson in the unity of humans and nature.”
* “One who grows does not grow old.”
* “Weeds are crack addicts. No matter how small the crack, there’s a weed that desperately wants it.”
***************
From team member Leah Lonsbury:
Genesis 28:10-19a
Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani rights activist who was shot in the head by Taliban militants because of her outspoken work for girls and their rights to education, has found her way to Nigeria. Malala met with the parents of the more than 200 schoolgirls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram and pledged her unwavering support. From Reuters:
“I can see those girls as my sisters... and I’m going to speak up for them until they are released,” said Malala, who was due to meet President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday. Her 17th birthday was on Saturday. “I’m going to participate actively in the ‘Bring back our girls’ campaign, to make sure that they return safely and they continue their education.”
How can God’s promise to be present with, keep, and bless Jacob and his family inspire us to act in the same generous and loyal ways? Where do we see that kind of commitment in our world today? How might we model this expression of God’s love in our interactions with others?
*****
Romans 8:12-25
Check the headlines. It’s easy to see that at any time there are scores of examples of parts of God’s good creation that are waiting “with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God” and to be “set free from its bondage to decay” so that they can “obtain the freedom of the glory of God” (vv. 19, 21).
That is certainly true of our nation’s soaring prison population. Numerous stories have broken lately that tell of deplorable conditions, mistreatment by correction officers, repeat low-level offenders and revolving jail doors, denials of basic human rights, and the inability of jails and prisons to meet the a growing population of mentally ill inmates.
At Rikers Island in New York City, correction officers used force on inmates 1,927 times in the first six months of 2014. That’s an increase of more than one-third compared with the same period from last year. Between January and November of 2013, inmates suffered “serious injuries” untreatable by on-site medical professionals in 129 incidents involving altercations with correction officers. 77% of the involved inmates had a mental illness diagnosis. 80% were beaten after being handcuffed. More than half of the injured inmates reported “intimidation or interference” from correction officers when they sought treatment after the altercation. None of the officers involved have been prosecuted or brought up on administrative charges at this point.
Overall use of force by correction officers at Rikers has risen nearly 90% in the last five years. Daniel Selling, who until two months ago was the director of the jail complex’s mental health services, told the New York Times: “There’s lots of brutality. Horrible brutality.”
What part are we to play in revealing the adoption of all of God’s children? What does that revelation mean for how we act for our sisters and brothers who are incarcerated?
What does it mean to be saved in hope (v. 24)? What hope do the inmates in these stories have?
What does it mean to wait with patience for what we hope for but cannot yet see (v. 25)? What should that patience look like in light of the above reports from our nation’s jails and prisons? Patient but persistent letter writing to elected officials? Patient protest of prison conditions? Patient demands for reform of our jails, prisons, and justice system? Patient calls for the upholding of basic human rights of all people, incarcerated or free?
*****
Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24
Have friends who seem more like family? A recent study shows that there’s some science to back up those feelings. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science published the findings of the study by James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis that concludes that friends have more genes in common than strangers do. This is also true of spouses. The common genes aren’t enough to make friends and spouses genetically test like brothers and sisters. The similarities show them to be more like fourth cousins -- very friendly cousins.
Benjamin Domingue, a researcher with the University of Colorado-Boulder, wasn’t involved in the Fowler/Christakis study, but he recently co-wrote a paper with similar findings about spouses. From USA Today:
[Domingue] says Fowler and Christakis make a good case that the similarities among friends are real -- and even show they can predict roughly how likely it is two people will be friends by looking at their genes and assigning a “friendship score.” That’s “impressive,” Domingue says.
What conclusions could we draw about these studies in light of Psalm 139? The Psalmist tells us that God knows each of us so intimately that “before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.” What do we have in common with this God of Love who knows us so well? How is the image of God that lies within each of us like a divine genetic imprint? How can we live so as to make the best of those “good genes”?
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: O God, you have searched us and known us.
People: You know when we sit down and when we rise up.
Leader: You hem us in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon us.
People: Such knowledge is too wonderful for us.
Leader: Search us, O God, and know our hearts; test us and know our thoughts.
People: See if there is any wicked way in us, and lead us in the way everlasting.
OR
Leader: Come, people of God, to worship our Creator.
People: We come as God’s people with songs of praise for God.
Leader: Come from the east and from the west; from the north and from the south.
People: We come from the four corners of the earth, all of us God’s children.
Leader: Celebrate the unity of being bearers of the image of God.
People: All people are God’s and bear God’s image.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“All My Hope Is Firmly Grounded”
found in:
UMH: 132
H82: 665
NCH: 408
CH: 880
ELA: 757
“We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder”
found in:
UMH: 418
AAHH: 464
NNBH: 217
NCH: 500
AMEC: 365
STLT: 211
“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
“Help Us Accept Each Other”
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
“In Christ There Is No East or West”
found in:
UMH: 548
H82: 529
PH: 439, 440
AAHH: 398, 399
NNBH: 299
NCH: 394, 395
CH: 687
LBW: 259
ELA: 650
W&P: 600, 603
AMEC: 557
“Jesu, Jesu”
found in:
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELA: 708
W&P: 273
CCB: 66
Renew: 289
“O God of Every Nation”
found in:
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELA: 713
W&P: 626
“This Is My Song”
found in:
UMH: 437
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELA: 867
STLT: 159
“Unity”
found in:
CCB: 59
“Ubi Caritas” (“Live in Charity”)
found in:
CCB: 71
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 comes to us on all the journeys of our lives: Grant us the faith to trust that you are always with us and the grace to treat others as being under your care; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
Receive our praise, O God, and speak to us your message of love and grace. Fill us with faith in your presence with us. So fill us with your grace that we are able to treat all people as being under your care. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to see others as your beloved children.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are much quicker to see you as the protector and provider of ourselves and those like us than we are to acknowledge your care for the stranger. We look at others and suspect their motives as being devious and evil. We are quick to protect our rights and slow to ensure the well-being of those who seem different from us. Call us back once more to your message of love and care for all. So fill us with your Spirit that we are able to trust you with ourselves and to trust you as the guardian of the stranger. Amen.
Leader: God is the God of all. God loves us and delights when we share that love with others. Receive God’s love and forgiveness and share it with all.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you are the creator of all people. We are all made in your image and filled with our own breath and Spirit.
(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 are much quicker to see you as the protector and provider of ourselves and those like us than we are to acknowledge your care for the stranger. We look at others and suspect their motives as being devious and evil. We are quick to protect our rights and slow to ensure the well-being of those who seem different from us. Call us back once more to your message of love and care for all. So fill us with your Spirit that we are able to trust you with ourselves and to trust you as the guardian of the stranger.
We give you thanks for the connections we have with one another. We delight in friendships and sharing together. We thank you for those who have reached beyond their normal boundaries to touch our lives with their care and friendship. We thank you for those who have offered their lives as servants of reconciliation in places of hatred and conflict. Most of all, we thank you for Jesus who taught us that we are all bearers of the Christ.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your people in their need. We pray especially for those who find themselves shunned and shut out of society because they are not like others. We pray for those who suffer violence to their bodies and their persons because others do not perceive them as God’s people.
(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 having dreams. Ask if they have ever had a scary dream. Jacob had a dream that reminded him that God is always with him. We may not dream about angels, but whenever we dream -- whether it is a fun dream or a scary dream -- we can remember Jacob and his dream and know that God is always with us too.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Weeds
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Objects: some weeds and some healthy grass or flowers
Do any of you play in the yard or near a flowerbed? (let the children answer) Have you ever seen something like this growing in your yard or flowerbed? (show them the weeds) What do we call things that look like this? (let them answer) That’s right, they are weeds. Do you like weeds? (let them answer) We don’t like weeds because they spread out in the yard or the flowerbed and damage the grass or flowers. When you are trying to grow grass or flowers, you don’t want weeds.
What do we do about the weeds in the yard or in the flowerbed? If we start pulling them out with our hands, and sometimes we have to pull pretty hard, then we will also pull up the grass or the flowers. The best way to take care of the weeds is to spray them with a safe spray that kills the weeds but lets the grass and flowers grow.
Sometimes we hear a lot about bad people. We wonder why God lets people who do really bad things live. Why doesn’t God have a really bad storm that only gets rid of all of the bad people?
If there was a bad storm, then the bad people would not be the only ones hurt, would they? Everyone who was in the storm would be hurt and everyone would have damage. God doesn’t cause those kinds of things to happen. God is not sending storms to hurt anyone or punish anyone.
Jesus taught us that when the time comes and we are all prepared for heaven, God will choose the ones who are faithful to him and have not caused hate and fear to live with him in a new world. The people who have caused hate and fear will be taken away from us into their own place. That’s the promise. So there are some people who act like weeds and they live with us, but God knows who they are. God will take care of every one of us.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 20, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 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.
