Swiping Toward God
Children's sermon
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In this week’s lectionary gospel text, the Pharisees continue trying to trap Jesus with their series of “gotcha” questions -- asking him now what is the greatest commandment. While the intention of the inquiry is to test Jesus, it’s also revealing of the human predilection for hierarchies: What (or who) is the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time)? There are many reasons for this, but in this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin suggests that it’s because we are always seeking the easy way, the path of least resistance -- particularly in our modern age when technology enables us to accomplish many tasks with a minimum of fuss and effort. And this tendency often extends to our spiritual life as well -- we want to follow Jesus with the same convenience of a smartphone app. Yet as we are reminded by his answer to a seemingly straightforward question, Jesus calls us to relationships that are not always easy... pointing out that in addition to loving God, the most important commandment is to “love our neighbors as ourselves.” That can be a difficult standard when many times we would just as soon avoid our “neighbors” as engage with them. But in his simple answer, Jesus points us toward the slow, arduous work of loving even those we deem unlovable.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the Deuteronomy text and Moses learning that he will be unable to accompany the Israelites into the promised land. There are many leaders like Moses who are called to engage in long-term work whose fruits will not be realized in their lifetimes -- and faith sustains us as we plant those seeds. And as Chris notes, that’s a particularly powerful message in stewardship season, for much of the church’s ministry is tied up in endeavors whose impact is not immediately apparent. Nevertheless, we are called to be faithful stewards of the Lord’s work... and to hand it off to the next generation when our leg of the great relay has been run.
Swiping Toward God
by Mary Austin
Matthew 22:34-46
With a swipe right or left, we can start or halt a relationship on Tinder. A psychologist suggests that the speed of the dating app leads “to the ‘McDonaldisation’ of dating that Tinder perpetuates, given that we expect speedy and satisfying results like we would at a fast food restaurant.” It’s not just meeting people, though. We like all of our results speedy. With a few more taps on the phone, we can invest money, pay bills, and deposit checks. Or we can turn up the heat at home so it’s warm when we arrive. We can order a coffee so we don’t have to endure the wait in line at Starbucks. Everything is quick.
Except Jesus, and the things he wants us to know.
After a frustrating week trying to ensnare Jesus with verbal and theological traps, the Pharisees and Sadducees try again. If you’re so smart, Jesus, they seem to say, which of our 613 laws is the most important? They would very much like to have a reason to swipe left and have Jesus go away. They keep trying to pigeonhole him with this series of pointed questions, trap him into a “yes” or “no” on complicated questions.
Jesus resists the easy answer, the easy relationships, and the easy dismissal.
In the Scriptures
Speaking to the Pharisees and Sadducees (and perhaps to the Herodians), who have been asking him questions, Jesus simplifies all 613 laws into a focus on God alone. The people have divided themselves up into different political and theological groups, and Jesus points them back to a focus on God. In a similar way, we have divided ourselves up into Mennonites and Baptists, Methodists and Roman Catholics, Presbyterians and Quakers, each with our own form of governance, hymnal(s), and style of worship. But Jesus points back to one God.
And our cumbersome, difficult, bone-headed neighbor.
After all these theological tests from religious leaders of all different parties, we can imagine Jesus’ level of irritation. It’s curious that he instructs the people around him to love one’s neighbor as oneself as part of our focus on God. He’s been surrounded by people who are difficult to love, pestering him with politically dangerous questions. He could have stopped with the commandment to love God with all of our heart and mind and strength, but he adds the difficult instruction to love our unlovely neighbors as ourselves. We already know that Jesus includes the outcast and morally suspicious as his neighbors. One wonders if he’s including the people around him too.
It would be tempting, after all of this pointed conversation designed to trap him, to leave the neighbor part out... but Jesus doesn’t do that. Every question they ask Jesus in the temple this week is designed to get a quick answer, and Jesus never goes for the simple response. This work of loving the neighbor is going to be difficult. He’s calling us to a slow kind of faith, one that takes time and effort and can’t be learned in an afternoon.
In the News
Americans continue to try to cope with the divisions revealed and reinforced by last fall’s election. Russian meddling in the election fed on and amplified existing tensions in American society. The Russians used and edited stories, paid to promote them on Facebook, and played to a divided America. Facebook has identified $100,000 worth of ads purchased by Russian groups on divisive topics, including LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, and guns. An additional $50,000 worth of ads may have been purchased by Russian agents. Google has also found “that tens of thousands of dollars were spent on ads by Russian agents who aimed to spread disinformation across Google’s many products, which include YouTube, as well as advertising associated with Google search, Gmail, and the company’s DoubleClick ad network, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters that have not been made public. Google runs the world’s largest online advertising business, and YouTube is the world’s largest online video site.” The source appears to be a different group than the one who bought the Facebook ads, suggesting a wider range of influence.
For anyone wondering why this election felt more divisive and polarized than usual, ads were designed to make it that way. “A New York Times examination of hundreds of those posts shows that one of the most powerful weapons that Russian agents used to reshape American politics was the anger, passion, and misinformation that real Americans were broadcasting across social media platforms.” Existing passions and tensions sharpened, as “borrowed ideas” spread through careful targeting. “The Russians also paid Facebook to promote their posts in the feeds of American Facebook users, helping them test what content would circulate most widely, and among which audiences. ‘This is cultural hacking,’ said Jonathan Albright, research director at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism. ‘They are using systems that were already set up by these platforms to increase engagement. They’re feeding outrage -- and it’s easy to do, because outrage and emotion is how people share.’ All of the pages were shut down by Facebook in recent weeks, as the company conducts an internal review of Russian penetration of its social network.”
In addition, many of the ads sponsored by Russians sowed racial division. Black lawmakers complained that the ads were a distraction from real issues. The “grievance of black lawmakers is a particular one: As black activists tried last year to focus attention on police brutality, unfair treatment before the law, inequality, and white supremacy, social media giants like Facebook were being commandeered by Russian intelligence agents to turn white voters against them.”
The election was so polarized that it’s difficult to recover friendships with people who were on the other side. Family relationships strained and cracked during election season. It’s hard to recover when we don’t even agree on what the truth is. A recent poll showed that “nearly half of voters, including the vast majority of Republicans, believe the president when he claims that the media is making up stories about him. Forty-six percent of voters believe that major news organizations fabricate stories about Trump, while 37 percent do not and 17 percent are undecided, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll. Among party lines, 76 percent of Republican voters believe the media puts out untrue stories about the president, while only 11 percent think the media is honest in its coverage of Trump.” When we start talking to each other again, there’s no agreed-upon set of facts to even begin the conversation.
Loving our neighbor is going to be long, slow, painful work. It’s hard to climb back from this enhanced storm of division, and hard to move forward after all the hateful words and gestures of the past two years. There’s nothing easy about loving some of our neighbors. Affection grows from understanding someone, but we will have to take a different path this time. We will need to figure out a way to sustain genuine care for people we don’t understand, reversing the usual process.
In the Sermon
Some years ago, when the Presbyterian Church was deep in the bitter fight about whether LGBTQ+ people should be ordained to the ministry, our highest denominational official came to town. The fight was so nasty that she met with liberals and conservatives separately. At the meeting I was at, she asked: “How are you finding ways to work with the people on the other side, as colleagues?” There was a long silence, and finally someone answered: “I find that it works best for me to stay as far away from the other side as I can.”
Her question was a good one. The sermon might look at the ways we encounter people with different beliefs, and how we spend time with them and continue to see them as whole people, equally beloved by God. How do we make connections with people whose beliefs we despise, and work on keeping them as our neighbors?
Or are some people beyond the range of the label of “neighbor”? If someone is opposed to our existence, refuses to try to understand our point of view, or is working hard to destroy us, are they still counted as a neighbor? Or do they fall under the instruction to pray for our enemies?
If we all aim to love our neighbors, that means we all need to receive that neighborly love as well as give it. The sermon might look at the experience of being on the receiving end, and how that feels. Good? Uncomfortable? Strange, until we find some way to pay it back and even things out? It’s easier to be the giver than the receiver... but we have to learn both ends of the equation, as people of faith. How do we become gracious receivers?
“As yourself,” Jesus says, reminding us that we deserve care too. The sermon might look at this balancing act -- how we use our time, energy, and money to care for ourselves and other people, in the right measure. The sermon might also explore how we judge ourselves and others, and whether hold them or ourselves to too high a standard.
All of this is slow work, in a world that loves anything instant. It’s hard, in a culture that loves anything easy. It requires us to develop spiritual skills and use them to live up to what Jesus asks. In this threefold command, Jesus has simplified all the law and the prophets, and made everything much more difficult.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Touching the Threshold
by Chris Keating
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Moses presses against the finish line tape, but is only able to catch a glimpse into the future. Forty years of camping in the wilderness results in Moses’ biblical denouement. Once more he is led by God to the heights of a mountain, where God shows the ancient leader of Israel the width, breadth, and depth of the promised land.
This time, however, there will be no going forward.
Moses’ leadership is now complete, though it also feels incomplete. His journey is disrupted. What emerges in this dramatic conclusion is a reminder of the hope all leaders are called to inhabit. It is a reminder that we are called to be stewards who lean forward -- perhaps even toward a future we can only see with eyes strained and squinted.
Leaders are called to this act of stewardship. We stretch our necks forward, like the five living former United States presidents who gathered at Texas A&M University last Saturday. Like Moses, these leaders of both parties leaned into a future they could not fully claim. Their legacies will be debated. Their pathways, like Moses, were not always even or sometimes even remarkable. But the trajectory of their service always pointed forward.
So, too, Moses, bends his arthritic knees to peek at the land he won’t get to enter. Years of meandering have led to this final encounter with God, where the Lord recounts the promises made to Moses and his ancestors. But then God adds, “I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.” As recounted in Numbers 20, Moses’ sin has resulted in God’s decision to forbid his entrance into the promised land.
He can look, but must not touch.
“Look, but do not touch,” my mother would intone, leading me through the narrow aisles of gift shops. Hundreds of dollars of breakable objets d’art were within flailing distance of my perpetually moving elbows. Her marching orders were precise: “Hands in pockets! Elbows at sides! Eyes up!” Years later, these words would be repeated to her grandchildren. You must look, but not touch.
In comparison, God’s admonitions are stricter than my mom’s precautionary warnings. He may look at this land -- the land he had so long imagined -- but may not enter. His toes can touch the promised land’s threshold, but nothing more. It’s a painful instruction, a reminder of God’s inscrutable manner. Moses has faithfully led this raucous, stiff-necked, and often disagreeable bunch through years and years of hardships. He placed his life on the line before Pharaoh. He has lifted serpents and parted waters, and lived with more whiny discontents than a youth leader taking kids on a 500-mile mission trip.
All of that, but he still must settle for a glimpse of what is to come. The image of elderly Moses straining forward to see the future seems heartbreaking in its injustice. Scholars note that this text does not offer a particular reason why Moses is denied entry. The apparent reference is to Numbers 20, a somewhat ambiguous story where Moses strikes a rock and brings forth water. Implied is that God is angry at Moses for perhaps taking credit for the miracle.
Whatever the reason, the people have reached the end of their long journey, and Moses is told this is as far as he gets to go. The show ends here. Disappointment seems palpable, yet the most we learn of Moses is that “his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated.” All in all, that is not too shabby for a 120-year-old man who has just climbed a mountain.
Moses dies and is buried, and the leadership of Israel passes to Joshua. Having lived a life that is full, Moses faces the final curtain. He did what he had to do, and did it without exemption. Of one thing, however, we are certain: unlike so many contemporary funerals, no one hears Frank Sinatra singing “My Way” as Moses is laid to rest.
This curious exit offers more than a dramatic closure on Moses’ life. Moses’ life has not been shaped by his desires, but instead has reflected his reliance on God. He has become an exemplar of wise and discerning stewardship. He has offered his gifts in response to God’s calling, moving a people from bondage to freedom. He challenged the oppressor’s power. His actions have become emblematic of transitional leadership. Once more Moses is on the precipice of change, his feet on the promised land’s threshold. Moses leans forward in hope.
Disruptive change is hard. But the image of Moses standing alone on Pisgah is a reminder of the calling we are called to pursue in hope. There is value in the journey, even when we do not cross the finish line. Even more than that, Moses has become the epitome of what every believer is called to do in stewardship. We invest in a mission that may not take root for years to come. We plant seeds in the fertile -- but sometimes crowded -- imaginations of young people. We teach songs people may not understand for years to come. We preach about hope -- even in times of great difficulty and unrest.
We are called to be stewards of a journey whose destination we may never completely see.
Rev. Angela Denker, an ELCA pastor, recently reflected on the meaning of stewardship in times of personal and corporate transition. Mission that is tied to a particular pastor, says Denker, will invariably flounder when that minister leaves. The point, she argues, is this:
We must remember to make the church’s mission independent of ourselves as individuals, making it easy to hand off to the next leaders of the church. We must enable ourselves and others to see multiple ways of achieving that mission, regardless of specific leaders or programs. The heart of stewardship lies in this truth: none of us is individually the mission. Jesus is the mission of the church. We each are merely tools God uses to achieve that mission, and one of our most important tasks is to know how to hand off the mission to the next leader.
For Moses, the end is near. He’s lived a life that was full, traveling each and every highway. Each careful step, each chartered course, has come to this: “Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10).
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
The Boy Scouts have just announced that the organization will start accepting girls. Cub Scout dens, the smallest unit, will remain single-gender -- either all boys or all girls. The larger Cub Scout packs will have the option to remain single-gender or welcome both genders. A program for older girls will allow them to pursue being Eagle Scouts. The Girl Scouts look upon this as a competitive move on the part of the Boy Scouts. Lisa Margosian, the chief customer officer of the Girl Scouts, made a statement the day after the Boy Scout announcement, saying: “We have existed in a space with competitors. What happened yesterday is that we have another new competitor.”
Application: The Hebrews will always have competitors as they dwell in the promised land.
*****
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Caitlan Coleman, an American, and her husband, Joshua Boyle, a Canadian, were just released after being held as hostages for five years in Afghanistan. Their three children, who were all born in captivity, accompanied them. The couple were captured by the Haqqani network, which is a part of the Taliban. The couple returned to Pakistan, where they were to depart for the journey home. The military provided transportation for them abroad military aircraft. But the family decided instead to fly commercially to Canada. A reason was not given, but it was supposed they were leery of a military authority.
Application: It would have been difficult for the Hebrews to accept moving to a new land.
*****
Psalm 1
In a Born Loser comic strip, Brutus Thornapple is known as “the born loser” because in his innocence he remains unappreciated. Brutus is sitting in front of the desk of his boss Rancid Veeblefester, who is not known to be an agreeable or a complimentary individual. With a joyful look on his face, Brutus says to his employer: “I want you to know that I prepare in advance for every workday.” He then goes on in the next frame to say proudly: “I do all my thinking during my commute to work each day!” Veeblefester, never missing an opportunity to criticize someone, replies: “You must have a very short commute.”
Application: The psalm teaches us the need to always be learning.
*****
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico, which is a U.S. territory. President Trump sent tweets insisting that the federal government could not keep sending help “forever” to the island. This message came as 85 percent of the people are still without electricity, and the shortage of water is so severe that people are using polluted wells. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz said the tweets seem to be coming less from a commander in chief and “more to come from a ‘Hater in Chief.’ ” Cruz went on to say: “Mr. President, you seem to want to disregard the moral imperative that your administration has been unable to fulfill.”
Application: Our reading discusses the importance of living in harmony with one another.
*****
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson won a lawsuit against Bill O’Reilly for sexual harassment. O’Reilly, one of the channel’s megastars, was eventually dismissed from Fox News because of repeated allegations and settlements. Carlson has just published a book titled Be Fierce which discusses her experiences, and those of other women, who have been sexually harassed. Now the news of sexual harassment allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has brought the issue back to front page news. After the Weinstein publicity, many women have come forward to tell their stories of being sexual harassed. Carlson considers this to be an important cultural shift on the issue. Regarding her own story as being a part of that movement, she said: “If I had anything to do with that, then all the hard work I’ve been doing over the last 15 months has been so worth it.”
Application: Our reading tells us that we are to live with integrity.
*****
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
I have never paid any attention to the opening credits of movies where the production company is customarily listed. But now, every time I see the Weinstein Company I shudder. The posting always makes me think of Harvey Weinstein and the sexual allegations against him. I sometimes wonder if the production company will have to change its name to reestablish its reputation.
Application: Our reading tells us we are to live with integrity.
*****
Matthew 22:34-46
Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has just pleaded guilty to desertion and endangering his comrades. Bergdahl walked away from his post in Afghanistan, and he was subsequently captured and held for five years until he was released when five terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay were exchanged for Bergdahl. For his criminal activity Bergdahl could face life in prison. The more serious crime against him is not desertion but endangering the lives of his comrades. This is because many of them were seriously injured as they searched for Bergdahl.
Application: The commandment of our Lord is to treat others with respect, and among many things this includes protecting their safety.
*****
Matthew 22:34-46
There is a brick company in Florence, South Carolina that has been making bricks for 125 years. And even now, with $8 million of processing equipment, they still cannot improve on the efficiency percentage of when they first established the company. Only 60 percent of the finished product can be sent to market; the other bricks have enough imperfections that they must be ground up and recycled. The process of making a brick is not that difficult, and even with improvements in technology the process has changed very little; yet even with those technological advances only 60 percent of the completed product is eligible for sale, the same as in 1885. This is why the company’s motto is “It’s Simple. It’s Just Not Easy.” The process of making a brick is easy; it’s just not that simple.
Application: The commandments of Jesus are simple, they are just not that easy.
*****
Matthew 22:34-46
In a Family Circus comic, little Billy is standing next to a wall in the house. The wallpaper is obviously torn. Billy’s mother is looking at him with a very disturbed look on her face. In defense of himself, Billy says, “I didn’t mean to do it... sometimes my fingers won’t listen to my mind.”
Application: In following the commandments of Jesus, our hearts and our minds, as well as our fingers and tongues, are all to be synchronized.
*****
Matthew 22:34-46
At one time playing cards were taxed. However, the tax levied when purchasing playing cards was only applicable to the “Ace of Spades.” To avoid paying the tax, people would purchase 51 cards instead. Yet since most games require 52 cards, these people were thought to be stupid or dumb because they weren’t “playing with a full deck.”
Application: Jesus wants us to fully understand the teachings of the law and the prophets and how that relates to being loving.
***************
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Nice Matters
In one particularly memorable episode of the television show Taxi, a competition was held between kind, friendly, and helpful Alex Rieger (Judd Hirsch) and the obnoxious, rude, and mouthy Louie DePalma (Danny DeVito) to see who could make more money in one night of taxi driving.
As the story progressed, the audience was shown a montage of the two picking up fares, dropping fares off, and counting their money as they proceeded through the night.
As quitting time neared, everyone met back at the taxi garage to count the take and declare a winner. They both dumped the money from their fares on the table, and when it was counted the obnoxious Louie was the clear winner. He had collected many more fares than kindly Alex. Everyone had been rooting for Alex, and they were all disappointed.
And then Alex brought forth the tips he had received for the evening -- tips for helping people with their luggage, for opening doors, for giving good advice about restaurants and entertainment in the city, and sometimes just for being pleasant. In other words, for taking care of his customers.
Now Alex was way ahead of Louie. Everyone’s attention was turned to Louie to see how much he had made in tips.
His answer: Nothing.
Alex was the winner... because sometimes nice matters.
*****
He Is Helped by Helping Others
Christopher Rodriguez turned 19 last Friday in his native Puerto Rico, and he spent his birthday giving. He spent the whole day giving aid to neighbors still struggling a month to the day after Hurricane Maria blasted the island.
His birthday passed with him making care packages for his community in Añasco, Puerto Rico. The next day he walked those packages across the Hondo River to local residents, as he’s been doing for the past few weeks.
In the process of his giving, Rodriguez, who is homeless, has given himself something -- a purpose.
“He’s gaining the respect of the community by selflessly giving to people who need it,” said Chris Davis, who heads the volunteer group Rodriguez has been working with. Davis and his best friend, José Aguilar, helped out after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and got the first flight they could to Puerto Rico after Maria hit the island.
Davis and Aguilar are military veterans from Arizona who head the group of volunteers, who’ve been nicknamed the “Añasco Expendables” by the community.
Rodriguez is estranged from his family and has been sleeping in the alley of the town’s plaza since he was 16, he said. He rode out Hurricane Maria in a local taxi terminal.
Speaking through a translator, Rodriguez told CNN he had never experienced anything like the storm before, but “the scariest part was being alone.”
He’s not alone anymore.
Rodriguez reached out to the group so he could help his community. Like many people who find themselves homeless, Rodriguez has been “misunderstood by the community,” Davis said. This has been a chance for him contribute, and the giving goes both ways.
Thursday night, fellow volunteers took him out for a birthday dinner on Añasco Beach. He had a big platter of fried bananas and seafood.
Rodriguez said “he felt like he was spending his birthday with his family,” which is something he hasn’t done in a long time.
Rodriguez hopes that someone will extend a similar kindness to him, so he can go back to school to study aviation mechanics and continue to make an impact in the community.
“We tell him every day that good things come to people who do good things,” Davis said.
*****
More Time with Family
Wanting to “spend more time with my family” has nearly become a cliché in the worlds of entertainment and politics. Often, in reality it means that someone is about to get fired so they are quitting, or it means that they have done something horrible and need to get out of the public eye, or it means they’re going into rehab for one kind of addiction or another.
But for television stars Chip and Joanna Gaines, it really is the truth.
Rumors had abounded about an impending divorce and “security issues,” but the reality is that the stars of the HGTV series Fixer Upper are tired and they want to catch their breath, refresh, and spend more time with their three kids. They’ll continue in their business of remodeling homes, but they’ll be doing it outside the eye of a camera and crew. This change, they say, will allow them time to catch the things they have been missing with their children.
“This has been an amazing adventure! We have poured our blood, sweat, and tears into this show,” the Gaines revealed in a blog post on their website when announcing that the show would end. “We would be foolish to think we can go and go and fire on all cylinders and never stop to pause.”
Fixer Upper premiered in 2013, and featured Chip and Joanna teaming up -- through their company, Magnolia Homes -- to renovate over 100 houses. She’d design the remodels, while her husband managed construction (as well as going off on some silly shenanigans). The show will end at the end of the current season in 2018.
*****
Child’s Best Friend
On a Tuesday morning a couple of weeks ago in Saucier, Mississippi, the parents of William Odom, 2, awoke to find him missing from the bed he had been sleeping in the night before. Obviously worried for his safety, his parents, along with their neighbors and the Harrison County Sheriff's Department, formed a search party to look for the toddler, according to People.
William, who is reportedly being tested for autism, was found later that afternoon in a non-working truck about a quarter-mile from his home by Blake Carroll, 10, who heard the truck’s horn beeping as he was getting off the school bus, according to WLOX News. Blake’s uncle was able to get William out of the car and back to his family. “They got my baby,” Chelsea Nobel, William’s mother, told WLOX. “That’s all I could think of is that they got my baby.”
But William wasn’t found alone -- the family’s pet dog was by his side the entire time. Authorities believe that the toddler wandered off on his own, but he was lucky that man’s best friend was there by his side to protect him from harm.
“Every time we found his footprint, we found the dog footprint right beside him. The dog traveled with him all day,” Harrison County Sheriff Troy Peterson told WLOX News. “When the little boy was found the dog was still circling the truck and scratching on the truck.”
*****
Straight A’s to the Rescue
Loren Jade Smith, 9, lost his home in the recent California wildfires. More than his home, however, he also lost hundreds of Oakland A’s baseball cards and memorabilia items he had collected. He was crestfallen, heartbroken. Loren is a super fan of the team, and all that stuff meant a great deal to him.
He said as much in a letter he wrote the A’s, detailing the memorabilia collection he was so proud of that was lost in the fire.
To the Oakland A’s:
I love watching your A’s games. I want to be an A’s player and I play at Mark West Little League in Santa Rosa. I played baseball in my backyard all day loving the A’s and making up my own game. In my backyard they won six World Series in a row. But my house burned down in the Santa Rosa fire and my saddest things was my baseball collection cards, my 17 jerseys and 10 hats and my baseball from the game and also a ball signed by the whole team and Rickey Henderson and Bob Melvin. My brother and me have so much fun but he is only 9 months old. I am teaching him how to throw balls. I have every single A’s card from 2000 to now but I am 9 years old. I had a major league baseball and it all burned up. So sad. I know you are not all together but hope they get this.
By Loren
A few days later, A’s president Dave Kaval and catcher Bruce Maxwell showed up at the site where Loren’s house used to be with a truckload of memorabilia and baseball cards. “Hey Loren,” Kavel shouted as he pulled to the curb. “I got your letter.”
“I couldn’t finish reading it,” said Maxwell of Loren’s letter. “I got too choked up.”
A’s fans donated memorabilia of their own so the boy could keep moving with his collection, and other minor and major league teams participated as well.
Loren received so much baseball memorabilia that he couldn’t keep it all, so he gave the excess away to his friends who also experienced losses in the fire.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
People: From everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
Leader: Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.
People: In your love we will rejoice and be glad all our days.
Leader: Let your favor, O God, be upon us.
People: Prosper for us the work of our hands, O God.
OR
Leader: The God of love and grace calls us together.
People: We come to worship our God of love.
Leader: God calls us to be a people of loving care.
People: We come to share together as God’s children.
Leader: Our God is the God of love for all.
People: As God’s people we will reach out to all the world.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”
found in:
UMH: 110
H82: 687, 688
PH: 260
AAHH: 124
NNBH: 37
NCH: 439, 440
CH: 65
LBW: 228, 229
ELA: 503, 504, 505
W&P: 588
AMEC: 54
STLT: 200
“The King of Love My Shepherd Is”
found in:
UMH: 138
H82: 645, 646
PH: 171
NCH: 248
LBW: 456
ELA: 502
Renew: 106
“The Gift of Love”
found in:
UMH: 408
AAHH: 522
CH: 526
W&P: 397
Renew: 155
“Jesu, Jesu”
found in:
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELA: 708
W&P: 273
CCB: 66
Renew: 289
“The Voice of God Is Calling”
found in:
UMH: 436
“What Does the Lord Require”
found in:
UMH: 441
H82: 605
PH: 405
CH: 659
W&P: 686
“More Love to Thee, O Christ”
found in:
UMH: 453
PH: 359
AAHH: 575
NNBH: 214
NCH: 456
CH: 527
AMEC: 460
“Where Charity and Love Prevail”
found in:
UMH: 549
H82: 581
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELA: 359
“As the Deer”
found in:
CCB: 83
Renew: 9
“People Need the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 52
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God, who is love and created all out of your love: Grant to us the desire to be completely in love with you and to care for others as we wish to be cared for ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, and bless your name for you are love. In Jesus we found love incarnate. Help us to desire you more than anything else. So fill us with your Spirit that the cares of others are at least as important as our own. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to fully love God or to think of others as being of equal importance with us.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Our love for you is tepid and diluted, but our allegiance is to all sorts of false gods. Jesus showed us how to live in you, but we think we know better how to live our lives. We see others as those we need to put down so that we look better in comparison. We think that our wants are more important than the basic needs of others. Renew your image upon us and your Spirit within us that we may amend our ways so that we may more fully love you and those around us. Amen.
Leader: God is loving, gracious, and welcoming. Receive God’s grace with joy as you draw nearer to God and all of God’s children.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
Praise to you, O God, for your love sustains all creation.
(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. Our love for you is tepid and diluted, but our allegiance is to all sorts of false gods. Jesus showed us how to live in you, but we think we know better how to live our lives. We see others as those we need to put down so that we look better in comparison. We think that our wants are more important than the basic needs of others. Renew your image upon us and your Spirit within us that we may amend our ways so that we may more fully love you and those around us.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you make your love for us known. The earth, out of your love, produces abundantly more than we need. You provide not only for the things to sustain our lives but you give us the things that enrich them. The beauty around us is more than we can take in.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who are in need. We remember that your reign is not yet fully come and there is much hatred and strife in our world. We know that you desire us to live in peace and harmony with each other and all creation. As you love your children, help us to share that love with those around us.
(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
Ask the children “What is your favorite toy (or pet, or place to go)?” Talk about what makes it special. Some people asked Jesus what is the most important law or rule that we need to follow. Jesus said to love God with our whole being and to love each other as much as we love ourselves. That means we want others to have as much fun when we play as we do. We don’t take the biggest piece of candy for ourselves, but share equally with others.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Taking Care of Each Other
by Dean Feldmeyer
Matthew 22:34-46
Items needed:
* a hardboiled egg in the shell with a happy face drawn on it for each child
* a raw egg in the shell for yourself, with a happy face drawn on it so it looks like the eggs you have given to the children
* a large bowl
(Inflated balloons can be substituted for eggs if you wish.)
(Distribute the eggs to the children and hold on to yours, making sure it is over the bowl. As you talk to the children, fiddle with your egg, passing it from one hand to the other.)
In the Bible story for this morning, some people want to see if they can get Jesus to say something that will get him into trouble. They have already asked him a lot of tricky questions, but none of them have worked. Now they try one last time.
“Teacher, what is the most important commandment of all?”
Now, there were over 600 laws that Jewish people in those days were supposed to know and follow -- but these guys wanted to know if one was more important than all the others. There is one law that really is more important than all the others, but does Jesus know which one it is?
He does! This is the law that’s the most important: “Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Then he added that there is a second commandment that is just as important as this one: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
In other words, the People of God have two things they must do:
1) Love God, and
2) Take care of each other.
And the way you know that you’re doing the first is that you’re doing the second. We show our love for God by taking care of each other.
Now, I have given an egg to each of you, and I want you to pretend that the egg is a person that you are supposed to take care of. Let’s call him Egbert. You’re going to make sure Egbert doesn’t break, okay? What are some ways you can take care of Egbert so he doesn’t break? This is going to be practice, because if you can take care of an egg you can take care of a person, right? (As you say this question, “accidentally” drop your egg into the bowl or put your thumb through it so that it breaks.)
Oops... I didn’t do a very good job taking care of my Egbert, did I?
What should I have done? What should we do if we are taking care of someone? (Allow responses.)
Oh, okay, well, good luck. I hope you take good care of your Egbert. Be careful, because remember, if he gets broken, he can’t get unbroken. We can’t put him together again.
I look forward to hearing next Sunday how it went taking care of Egbert, and how well it went taking care of each other.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, October 29, 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 Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the Deuteronomy text and Moses learning that he will be unable to accompany the Israelites into the promised land. There are many leaders like Moses who are called to engage in long-term work whose fruits will not be realized in their lifetimes -- and faith sustains us as we plant those seeds. And as Chris notes, that’s a particularly powerful message in stewardship season, for much of the church’s ministry is tied up in endeavors whose impact is not immediately apparent. Nevertheless, we are called to be faithful stewards of the Lord’s work... and to hand it off to the next generation when our leg of the great relay has been run.
Swiping Toward God
by Mary Austin
Matthew 22:34-46
With a swipe right or left, we can start or halt a relationship on Tinder. A psychologist suggests that the speed of the dating app leads “to the ‘McDonaldisation’ of dating that Tinder perpetuates, given that we expect speedy and satisfying results like we would at a fast food restaurant.” It’s not just meeting people, though. We like all of our results speedy. With a few more taps on the phone, we can invest money, pay bills, and deposit checks. Or we can turn up the heat at home so it’s warm when we arrive. We can order a coffee so we don’t have to endure the wait in line at Starbucks. Everything is quick.
Except Jesus, and the things he wants us to know.
After a frustrating week trying to ensnare Jesus with verbal and theological traps, the Pharisees and Sadducees try again. If you’re so smart, Jesus, they seem to say, which of our 613 laws is the most important? They would very much like to have a reason to swipe left and have Jesus go away. They keep trying to pigeonhole him with this series of pointed questions, trap him into a “yes” or “no” on complicated questions.
Jesus resists the easy answer, the easy relationships, and the easy dismissal.
In the Scriptures
Speaking to the Pharisees and Sadducees (and perhaps to the Herodians), who have been asking him questions, Jesus simplifies all 613 laws into a focus on God alone. The people have divided themselves up into different political and theological groups, and Jesus points them back to a focus on God. In a similar way, we have divided ourselves up into Mennonites and Baptists, Methodists and Roman Catholics, Presbyterians and Quakers, each with our own form of governance, hymnal(s), and style of worship. But Jesus points back to one God.
And our cumbersome, difficult, bone-headed neighbor.
After all these theological tests from religious leaders of all different parties, we can imagine Jesus’ level of irritation. It’s curious that he instructs the people around him to love one’s neighbor as oneself as part of our focus on God. He’s been surrounded by people who are difficult to love, pestering him with politically dangerous questions. He could have stopped with the commandment to love God with all of our heart and mind and strength, but he adds the difficult instruction to love our unlovely neighbors as ourselves. We already know that Jesus includes the outcast and morally suspicious as his neighbors. One wonders if he’s including the people around him too.
It would be tempting, after all of this pointed conversation designed to trap him, to leave the neighbor part out... but Jesus doesn’t do that. Every question they ask Jesus in the temple this week is designed to get a quick answer, and Jesus never goes for the simple response. This work of loving the neighbor is going to be difficult. He’s calling us to a slow kind of faith, one that takes time and effort and can’t be learned in an afternoon.
In the News
Americans continue to try to cope with the divisions revealed and reinforced by last fall’s election. Russian meddling in the election fed on and amplified existing tensions in American society. The Russians used and edited stories, paid to promote them on Facebook, and played to a divided America. Facebook has identified $100,000 worth of ads purchased by Russian groups on divisive topics, including LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, and guns. An additional $50,000 worth of ads may have been purchased by Russian agents. Google has also found “that tens of thousands of dollars were spent on ads by Russian agents who aimed to spread disinformation across Google’s many products, which include YouTube, as well as advertising associated with Google search, Gmail, and the company’s DoubleClick ad network, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters that have not been made public. Google runs the world’s largest online advertising business, and YouTube is the world’s largest online video site.” The source appears to be a different group than the one who bought the Facebook ads, suggesting a wider range of influence.
For anyone wondering why this election felt more divisive and polarized than usual, ads were designed to make it that way. “A New York Times examination of hundreds of those posts shows that one of the most powerful weapons that Russian agents used to reshape American politics was the anger, passion, and misinformation that real Americans were broadcasting across social media platforms.” Existing passions and tensions sharpened, as “borrowed ideas” spread through careful targeting. “The Russians also paid Facebook to promote their posts in the feeds of American Facebook users, helping them test what content would circulate most widely, and among which audiences. ‘This is cultural hacking,’ said Jonathan Albright, research director at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism. ‘They are using systems that were already set up by these platforms to increase engagement. They’re feeding outrage -- and it’s easy to do, because outrage and emotion is how people share.’ All of the pages were shut down by Facebook in recent weeks, as the company conducts an internal review of Russian penetration of its social network.”
In addition, many of the ads sponsored by Russians sowed racial division. Black lawmakers complained that the ads were a distraction from real issues. The “grievance of black lawmakers is a particular one: As black activists tried last year to focus attention on police brutality, unfair treatment before the law, inequality, and white supremacy, social media giants like Facebook were being commandeered by Russian intelligence agents to turn white voters against them.”
The election was so polarized that it’s difficult to recover friendships with people who were on the other side. Family relationships strained and cracked during election season. It’s hard to recover when we don’t even agree on what the truth is. A recent poll showed that “nearly half of voters, including the vast majority of Republicans, believe the president when he claims that the media is making up stories about him. Forty-six percent of voters believe that major news organizations fabricate stories about Trump, while 37 percent do not and 17 percent are undecided, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll. Among party lines, 76 percent of Republican voters believe the media puts out untrue stories about the president, while only 11 percent think the media is honest in its coverage of Trump.” When we start talking to each other again, there’s no agreed-upon set of facts to even begin the conversation.
Loving our neighbor is going to be long, slow, painful work. It’s hard to climb back from this enhanced storm of division, and hard to move forward after all the hateful words and gestures of the past two years. There’s nothing easy about loving some of our neighbors. Affection grows from understanding someone, but we will have to take a different path this time. We will need to figure out a way to sustain genuine care for people we don’t understand, reversing the usual process.
In the Sermon
Some years ago, when the Presbyterian Church was deep in the bitter fight about whether LGBTQ+ people should be ordained to the ministry, our highest denominational official came to town. The fight was so nasty that she met with liberals and conservatives separately. At the meeting I was at, she asked: “How are you finding ways to work with the people on the other side, as colleagues?” There was a long silence, and finally someone answered: “I find that it works best for me to stay as far away from the other side as I can.”
Her question was a good one. The sermon might look at the ways we encounter people with different beliefs, and how we spend time with them and continue to see them as whole people, equally beloved by God. How do we make connections with people whose beliefs we despise, and work on keeping them as our neighbors?
Or are some people beyond the range of the label of “neighbor”? If someone is opposed to our existence, refuses to try to understand our point of view, or is working hard to destroy us, are they still counted as a neighbor? Or do they fall under the instruction to pray for our enemies?
If we all aim to love our neighbors, that means we all need to receive that neighborly love as well as give it. The sermon might look at the experience of being on the receiving end, and how that feels. Good? Uncomfortable? Strange, until we find some way to pay it back and even things out? It’s easier to be the giver than the receiver... but we have to learn both ends of the equation, as people of faith. How do we become gracious receivers?
“As yourself,” Jesus says, reminding us that we deserve care too. The sermon might look at this balancing act -- how we use our time, energy, and money to care for ourselves and other people, in the right measure. The sermon might also explore how we judge ourselves and others, and whether hold them or ourselves to too high a standard.
All of this is slow work, in a world that loves anything instant. It’s hard, in a culture that loves anything easy. It requires us to develop spiritual skills and use them to live up to what Jesus asks. In this threefold command, Jesus has simplified all the law and the prophets, and made everything much more difficult.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Touching the Threshold
by Chris Keating
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Moses presses against the finish line tape, but is only able to catch a glimpse into the future. Forty years of camping in the wilderness results in Moses’ biblical denouement. Once more he is led by God to the heights of a mountain, where God shows the ancient leader of Israel the width, breadth, and depth of the promised land.
This time, however, there will be no going forward.
Moses’ leadership is now complete, though it also feels incomplete. His journey is disrupted. What emerges in this dramatic conclusion is a reminder of the hope all leaders are called to inhabit. It is a reminder that we are called to be stewards who lean forward -- perhaps even toward a future we can only see with eyes strained and squinted.
Leaders are called to this act of stewardship. We stretch our necks forward, like the five living former United States presidents who gathered at Texas A&M University last Saturday. Like Moses, these leaders of both parties leaned into a future they could not fully claim. Their legacies will be debated. Their pathways, like Moses, were not always even or sometimes even remarkable. But the trajectory of their service always pointed forward.
So, too, Moses, bends his arthritic knees to peek at the land he won’t get to enter. Years of meandering have led to this final encounter with God, where the Lord recounts the promises made to Moses and his ancestors. But then God adds, “I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.” As recounted in Numbers 20, Moses’ sin has resulted in God’s decision to forbid his entrance into the promised land.
He can look, but must not touch.
“Look, but do not touch,” my mother would intone, leading me through the narrow aisles of gift shops. Hundreds of dollars of breakable objets d’art were within flailing distance of my perpetually moving elbows. Her marching orders were precise: “Hands in pockets! Elbows at sides! Eyes up!” Years later, these words would be repeated to her grandchildren. You must look, but not touch.
In comparison, God’s admonitions are stricter than my mom’s precautionary warnings. He may look at this land -- the land he had so long imagined -- but may not enter. His toes can touch the promised land’s threshold, but nothing more. It’s a painful instruction, a reminder of God’s inscrutable manner. Moses has faithfully led this raucous, stiff-necked, and often disagreeable bunch through years and years of hardships. He placed his life on the line before Pharaoh. He has lifted serpents and parted waters, and lived with more whiny discontents than a youth leader taking kids on a 500-mile mission trip.
All of that, but he still must settle for a glimpse of what is to come. The image of elderly Moses straining forward to see the future seems heartbreaking in its injustice. Scholars note that this text does not offer a particular reason why Moses is denied entry. The apparent reference is to Numbers 20, a somewhat ambiguous story where Moses strikes a rock and brings forth water. Implied is that God is angry at Moses for perhaps taking credit for the miracle.
Whatever the reason, the people have reached the end of their long journey, and Moses is told this is as far as he gets to go. The show ends here. Disappointment seems palpable, yet the most we learn of Moses is that “his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated.” All in all, that is not too shabby for a 120-year-old man who has just climbed a mountain.
Moses dies and is buried, and the leadership of Israel passes to Joshua. Having lived a life that is full, Moses faces the final curtain. He did what he had to do, and did it without exemption. Of one thing, however, we are certain: unlike so many contemporary funerals, no one hears Frank Sinatra singing “My Way” as Moses is laid to rest.
This curious exit offers more than a dramatic closure on Moses’ life. Moses’ life has not been shaped by his desires, but instead has reflected his reliance on God. He has become an exemplar of wise and discerning stewardship. He has offered his gifts in response to God’s calling, moving a people from bondage to freedom. He challenged the oppressor’s power. His actions have become emblematic of transitional leadership. Once more Moses is on the precipice of change, his feet on the promised land’s threshold. Moses leans forward in hope.
Disruptive change is hard. But the image of Moses standing alone on Pisgah is a reminder of the calling we are called to pursue in hope. There is value in the journey, even when we do not cross the finish line. Even more than that, Moses has become the epitome of what every believer is called to do in stewardship. We invest in a mission that may not take root for years to come. We plant seeds in the fertile -- but sometimes crowded -- imaginations of young people. We teach songs people may not understand for years to come. We preach about hope -- even in times of great difficulty and unrest.
We are called to be stewards of a journey whose destination we may never completely see.
Rev. Angela Denker, an ELCA pastor, recently reflected on the meaning of stewardship in times of personal and corporate transition. Mission that is tied to a particular pastor, says Denker, will invariably flounder when that minister leaves. The point, she argues, is this:
We must remember to make the church’s mission independent of ourselves as individuals, making it easy to hand off to the next leaders of the church. We must enable ourselves and others to see multiple ways of achieving that mission, regardless of specific leaders or programs. The heart of stewardship lies in this truth: none of us is individually the mission. Jesus is the mission of the church. We each are merely tools God uses to achieve that mission, and one of our most important tasks is to know how to hand off the mission to the next leader.
For Moses, the end is near. He’s lived a life that was full, traveling each and every highway. Each careful step, each chartered course, has come to this: “Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10).
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
The Boy Scouts have just announced that the organization will start accepting girls. Cub Scout dens, the smallest unit, will remain single-gender -- either all boys or all girls. The larger Cub Scout packs will have the option to remain single-gender or welcome both genders. A program for older girls will allow them to pursue being Eagle Scouts. The Girl Scouts look upon this as a competitive move on the part of the Boy Scouts. Lisa Margosian, the chief customer officer of the Girl Scouts, made a statement the day after the Boy Scout announcement, saying: “We have existed in a space with competitors. What happened yesterday is that we have another new competitor.”
Application: The Hebrews will always have competitors as they dwell in the promised land.
*****
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Caitlan Coleman, an American, and her husband, Joshua Boyle, a Canadian, were just released after being held as hostages for five years in Afghanistan. Their three children, who were all born in captivity, accompanied them. The couple were captured by the Haqqani network, which is a part of the Taliban. The couple returned to Pakistan, where they were to depart for the journey home. The military provided transportation for them abroad military aircraft. But the family decided instead to fly commercially to Canada. A reason was not given, but it was supposed they were leery of a military authority.
Application: It would have been difficult for the Hebrews to accept moving to a new land.
*****
Psalm 1
In a Born Loser comic strip, Brutus Thornapple is known as “the born loser” because in his innocence he remains unappreciated. Brutus is sitting in front of the desk of his boss Rancid Veeblefester, who is not known to be an agreeable or a complimentary individual. With a joyful look on his face, Brutus says to his employer: “I want you to know that I prepare in advance for every workday.” He then goes on in the next frame to say proudly: “I do all my thinking during my commute to work each day!” Veeblefester, never missing an opportunity to criticize someone, replies: “You must have a very short commute.”
Application: The psalm teaches us the need to always be learning.
*****
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico, which is a U.S. territory. President Trump sent tweets insisting that the federal government could not keep sending help “forever” to the island. This message came as 85 percent of the people are still without electricity, and the shortage of water is so severe that people are using polluted wells. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz said the tweets seem to be coming less from a commander in chief and “more to come from a ‘Hater in Chief.’ ” Cruz went on to say: “Mr. President, you seem to want to disregard the moral imperative that your administration has been unable to fulfill.”
Application: Our reading discusses the importance of living in harmony with one another.
*****
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson won a lawsuit against Bill O’Reilly for sexual harassment. O’Reilly, one of the channel’s megastars, was eventually dismissed from Fox News because of repeated allegations and settlements. Carlson has just published a book titled Be Fierce which discusses her experiences, and those of other women, who have been sexually harassed. Now the news of sexual harassment allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has brought the issue back to front page news. After the Weinstein publicity, many women have come forward to tell their stories of being sexual harassed. Carlson considers this to be an important cultural shift on the issue. Regarding her own story as being a part of that movement, she said: “If I had anything to do with that, then all the hard work I’ve been doing over the last 15 months has been so worth it.”
Application: Our reading tells us that we are to live with integrity.
*****
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
I have never paid any attention to the opening credits of movies where the production company is customarily listed. But now, every time I see the Weinstein Company I shudder. The posting always makes me think of Harvey Weinstein and the sexual allegations against him. I sometimes wonder if the production company will have to change its name to reestablish its reputation.
Application: Our reading tells us we are to live with integrity.
*****
Matthew 22:34-46
Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has just pleaded guilty to desertion and endangering his comrades. Bergdahl walked away from his post in Afghanistan, and he was subsequently captured and held for five years until he was released when five terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay were exchanged for Bergdahl. For his criminal activity Bergdahl could face life in prison. The more serious crime against him is not desertion but endangering the lives of his comrades. This is because many of them were seriously injured as they searched for Bergdahl.
Application: The commandment of our Lord is to treat others with respect, and among many things this includes protecting their safety.
*****
Matthew 22:34-46
There is a brick company in Florence, South Carolina that has been making bricks for 125 years. And even now, with $8 million of processing equipment, they still cannot improve on the efficiency percentage of when they first established the company. Only 60 percent of the finished product can be sent to market; the other bricks have enough imperfections that they must be ground up and recycled. The process of making a brick is not that difficult, and even with improvements in technology the process has changed very little; yet even with those technological advances only 60 percent of the completed product is eligible for sale, the same as in 1885. This is why the company’s motto is “It’s Simple. It’s Just Not Easy.” The process of making a brick is easy; it’s just not that simple.
Application: The commandments of Jesus are simple, they are just not that easy.
*****
Matthew 22:34-46
In a Family Circus comic, little Billy is standing next to a wall in the house. The wallpaper is obviously torn. Billy’s mother is looking at him with a very disturbed look on her face. In defense of himself, Billy says, “I didn’t mean to do it... sometimes my fingers won’t listen to my mind.”
Application: In following the commandments of Jesus, our hearts and our minds, as well as our fingers and tongues, are all to be synchronized.
*****
Matthew 22:34-46
At one time playing cards were taxed. However, the tax levied when purchasing playing cards was only applicable to the “Ace of Spades.” To avoid paying the tax, people would purchase 51 cards instead. Yet since most games require 52 cards, these people were thought to be stupid or dumb because they weren’t “playing with a full deck.”
Application: Jesus wants us to fully understand the teachings of the law and the prophets and how that relates to being loving.
***************
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Nice Matters
In one particularly memorable episode of the television show Taxi, a competition was held between kind, friendly, and helpful Alex Rieger (Judd Hirsch) and the obnoxious, rude, and mouthy Louie DePalma (Danny DeVito) to see who could make more money in one night of taxi driving.
As the story progressed, the audience was shown a montage of the two picking up fares, dropping fares off, and counting their money as they proceeded through the night.
As quitting time neared, everyone met back at the taxi garage to count the take and declare a winner. They both dumped the money from their fares on the table, and when it was counted the obnoxious Louie was the clear winner. He had collected many more fares than kindly Alex. Everyone had been rooting for Alex, and they were all disappointed.
And then Alex brought forth the tips he had received for the evening -- tips for helping people with their luggage, for opening doors, for giving good advice about restaurants and entertainment in the city, and sometimes just for being pleasant. In other words, for taking care of his customers.
Now Alex was way ahead of Louie. Everyone’s attention was turned to Louie to see how much he had made in tips.
His answer: Nothing.
Alex was the winner... because sometimes nice matters.
*****
He Is Helped by Helping Others
Christopher Rodriguez turned 19 last Friday in his native Puerto Rico, and he spent his birthday giving. He spent the whole day giving aid to neighbors still struggling a month to the day after Hurricane Maria blasted the island.
His birthday passed with him making care packages for his community in Añasco, Puerto Rico. The next day he walked those packages across the Hondo River to local residents, as he’s been doing for the past few weeks.
In the process of his giving, Rodriguez, who is homeless, has given himself something -- a purpose.
“He’s gaining the respect of the community by selflessly giving to people who need it,” said Chris Davis, who heads the volunteer group Rodriguez has been working with. Davis and his best friend, José Aguilar, helped out after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and got the first flight they could to Puerto Rico after Maria hit the island.
Davis and Aguilar are military veterans from Arizona who head the group of volunteers, who’ve been nicknamed the “Añasco Expendables” by the community.
Rodriguez is estranged from his family and has been sleeping in the alley of the town’s plaza since he was 16, he said. He rode out Hurricane Maria in a local taxi terminal.
Speaking through a translator, Rodriguez told CNN he had never experienced anything like the storm before, but “the scariest part was being alone.”
He’s not alone anymore.
Rodriguez reached out to the group so he could help his community. Like many people who find themselves homeless, Rodriguez has been “misunderstood by the community,” Davis said. This has been a chance for him contribute, and the giving goes both ways.
Thursday night, fellow volunteers took him out for a birthday dinner on Añasco Beach. He had a big platter of fried bananas and seafood.
Rodriguez said “he felt like he was spending his birthday with his family,” which is something he hasn’t done in a long time.
Rodriguez hopes that someone will extend a similar kindness to him, so he can go back to school to study aviation mechanics and continue to make an impact in the community.
“We tell him every day that good things come to people who do good things,” Davis said.
*****
More Time with Family
Wanting to “spend more time with my family” has nearly become a cliché in the worlds of entertainment and politics. Often, in reality it means that someone is about to get fired so they are quitting, or it means that they have done something horrible and need to get out of the public eye, or it means they’re going into rehab for one kind of addiction or another.
But for television stars Chip and Joanna Gaines, it really is the truth.
Rumors had abounded about an impending divorce and “security issues,” but the reality is that the stars of the HGTV series Fixer Upper are tired and they want to catch their breath, refresh, and spend more time with their three kids. They’ll continue in their business of remodeling homes, but they’ll be doing it outside the eye of a camera and crew. This change, they say, will allow them time to catch the things they have been missing with their children.
“This has been an amazing adventure! We have poured our blood, sweat, and tears into this show,” the Gaines revealed in a blog post on their website when announcing that the show would end. “We would be foolish to think we can go and go and fire on all cylinders and never stop to pause.”
Fixer Upper premiered in 2013, and featured Chip and Joanna teaming up -- through their company, Magnolia Homes -- to renovate over 100 houses. She’d design the remodels, while her husband managed construction (as well as going off on some silly shenanigans). The show will end at the end of the current season in 2018.
*****
Child’s Best Friend
On a Tuesday morning a couple of weeks ago in Saucier, Mississippi, the parents of William Odom, 2, awoke to find him missing from the bed he had been sleeping in the night before. Obviously worried for his safety, his parents, along with their neighbors and the Harrison County Sheriff's Department, formed a search party to look for the toddler, according to People.
William, who is reportedly being tested for autism, was found later that afternoon in a non-working truck about a quarter-mile from his home by Blake Carroll, 10, who heard the truck’s horn beeping as he was getting off the school bus, according to WLOX News. Blake’s uncle was able to get William out of the car and back to his family. “They got my baby,” Chelsea Nobel, William’s mother, told WLOX. “That’s all I could think of is that they got my baby.”
But William wasn’t found alone -- the family’s pet dog was by his side the entire time. Authorities believe that the toddler wandered off on his own, but he was lucky that man’s best friend was there by his side to protect him from harm.
“Every time we found his footprint, we found the dog footprint right beside him. The dog traveled with him all day,” Harrison County Sheriff Troy Peterson told WLOX News. “When the little boy was found the dog was still circling the truck and scratching on the truck.”
*****
Straight A’s to the Rescue
Loren Jade Smith, 9, lost his home in the recent California wildfires. More than his home, however, he also lost hundreds of Oakland A’s baseball cards and memorabilia items he had collected. He was crestfallen, heartbroken. Loren is a super fan of the team, and all that stuff meant a great deal to him.
He said as much in a letter he wrote the A’s, detailing the memorabilia collection he was so proud of that was lost in the fire.
To the Oakland A’s:
I love watching your A’s games. I want to be an A’s player and I play at Mark West Little League in Santa Rosa. I played baseball in my backyard all day loving the A’s and making up my own game. In my backyard they won six World Series in a row. But my house burned down in the Santa Rosa fire and my saddest things was my baseball collection cards, my 17 jerseys and 10 hats and my baseball from the game and also a ball signed by the whole team and Rickey Henderson and Bob Melvin. My brother and me have so much fun but he is only 9 months old. I am teaching him how to throw balls. I have every single A’s card from 2000 to now but I am 9 years old. I had a major league baseball and it all burned up. So sad. I know you are not all together but hope they get this.
By Loren
A few days later, A’s president Dave Kaval and catcher Bruce Maxwell showed up at the site where Loren’s house used to be with a truckload of memorabilia and baseball cards. “Hey Loren,” Kavel shouted as he pulled to the curb. “I got your letter.”
“I couldn’t finish reading it,” said Maxwell of Loren’s letter. “I got too choked up.”
A’s fans donated memorabilia of their own so the boy could keep moving with his collection, and other minor and major league teams participated as well.
Loren received so much baseball memorabilia that he couldn’t keep it all, so he gave the excess away to his friends who also experienced losses in the fire.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
People: From everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
Leader: Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.
People: In your love we will rejoice and be glad all our days.
Leader: Let your favor, O God, be upon us.
People: Prosper for us the work of our hands, O God.
OR
Leader: The God of love and grace calls us together.
People: We come to worship our God of love.
Leader: God calls us to be a people of loving care.
People: We come to share together as God’s children.
Leader: Our God is the God of love for all.
People: As God’s people we will reach out to all the world.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”
found in:
UMH: 110
H82: 687, 688
PH: 260
AAHH: 124
NNBH: 37
NCH: 439, 440
CH: 65
LBW: 228, 229
ELA: 503, 504, 505
W&P: 588
AMEC: 54
STLT: 200
“The King of Love My Shepherd Is”
found in:
UMH: 138
H82: 645, 646
PH: 171
NCH: 248
LBW: 456
ELA: 502
Renew: 106
“The Gift of Love”
found in:
UMH: 408
AAHH: 522
CH: 526
W&P: 397
Renew: 155
“Jesu, Jesu”
found in:
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELA: 708
W&P: 273
CCB: 66
Renew: 289
“The Voice of God Is Calling”
found in:
UMH: 436
“What Does the Lord Require”
found in:
UMH: 441
H82: 605
PH: 405
CH: 659
W&P: 686
“More Love to Thee, O Christ”
found in:
UMH: 453
PH: 359
AAHH: 575
NNBH: 214
NCH: 456
CH: 527
AMEC: 460
“Where Charity and Love Prevail”
found in:
UMH: 549
H82: 581
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELA: 359
“As the Deer”
found in:
CCB: 83
Renew: 9
“People Need the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 52
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God, who is love and created all out of your love: Grant to us the desire to be completely in love with you and to care for others as we wish to be cared for ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, and bless your name for you are love. In Jesus we found love incarnate. Help us to desire you more than anything else. So fill us with your Spirit that the cares of others are at least as important as our own. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to fully love God or to think of others as being of equal importance with us.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Our love for you is tepid and diluted, but our allegiance is to all sorts of false gods. Jesus showed us how to live in you, but we think we know better how to live our lives. We see others as those we need to put down so that we look better in comparison. We think that our wants are more important than the basic needs of others. Renew your image upon us and your Spirit within us that we may amend our ways so that we may more fully love you and those around us. Amen.
Leader: God is loving, gracious, and welcoming. Receive God’s grace with joy as you draw nearer to God and all of God’s children.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
Praise to you, O God, for your love sustains all creation.
(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. Our love for you is tepid and diluted, but our allegiance is to all sorts of false gods. Jesus showed us how to live in you, but we think we know better how to live our lives. We see others as those we need to put down so that we look better in comparison. We think that our wants are more important than the basic needs of others. Renew your image upon us and your Spirit within us that we may amend our ways so that we may more fully love you and those around us.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you make your love for us known. The earth, out of your love, produces abundantly more than we need. You provide not only for the things to sustain our lives but you give us the things that enrich them. The beauty around us is more than we can take in.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who are in need. We remember that your reign is not yet fully come and there is much hatred and strife in our world. We know that you desire us to live in peace and harmony with each other and all creation. As you love your children, help us to share that love with those around us.
(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
Ask the children “What is your favorite toy (or pet, or place to go)?” Talk about what makes it special. Some people asked Jesus what is the most important law or rule that we need to follow. Jesus said to love God with our whole being and to love each other as much as we love ourselves. That means we want others to have as much fun when we play as we do. We don’t take the biggest piece of candy for ourselves, but share equally with others.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Taking Care of Each Other
by Dean Feldmeyer
Matthew 22:34-46
Items needed:
* a hardboiled egg in the shell with a happy face drawn on it for each child
* a raw egg in the shell for yourself, with a happy face drawn on it so it looks like the eggs you have given to the children
* a large bowl
(Inflated balloons can be substituted for eggs if you wish.)
(Distribute the eggs to the children and hold on to yours, making sure it is over the bowl. As you talk to the children, fiddle with your egg, passing it from one hand to the other.)
In the Bible story for this morning, some people want to see if they can get Jesus to say something that will get him into trouble. They have already asked him a lot of tricky questions, but none of them have worked. Now they try one last time.
“Teacher, what is the most important commandment of all?”
Now, there were over 600 laws that Jewish people in those days were supposed to know and follow -- but these guys wanted to know if one was more important than all the others. There is one law that really is more important than all the others, but does Jesus know which one it is?
He does! This is the law that’s the most important: “Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Then he added that there is a second commandment that is just as important as this one: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
In other words, the People of God have two things they must do:
1) Love God, and
2) Take care of each other.
And the way you know that you’re doing the first is that you’re doing the second. We show our love for God by taking care of each other.
Now, I have given an egg to each of you, and I want you to pretend that the egg is a person that you are supposed to take care of. Let’s call him Egbert. You’re going to make sure Egbert doesn’t break, okay? What are some ways you can take care of Egbert so he doesn’t break? This is going to be practice, because if you can take care of an egg you can take care of a person, right? (As you say this question, “accidentally” drop your egg into the bowl or put your thumb through it so that it breaks.)
Oops... I didn’t do a very good job taking care of my Egbert, did I?
What should I have done? What should we do if we are taking care of someone? (Allow responses.)
Oh, okay, well, good luck. I hope you take good care of your Egbert. Be careful, because remember, if he gets broken, he can’t get unbroken. We can’t put him together again.
I look forward to hearing next Sunday how it went taking care of Egbert, and how well it went taking care of each other.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, October 29, 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.
