Thinking Globally, Acting Locally
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The prophet Isaiah begins this week’s Old Testament lection with a clarion call to the Israelites: “Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away!” The imagery that phrase immediately evokes is of a coastal lighthouse emitting strong beams of light to help sailors avoid disaster on shoals -- a most appropriate symbol for the light that Christ brings to the world. That light is available to all -- even “peoples from far away” -- not just those who call that area their home port... a point Isaiah expands on when he relays the word of the Lord that our service is not merely to “raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel”; rather, we are to be “a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Chris Keating notes that this indicates God’s saving message is meant to be spread to all -- not just to our own tribes and denominations. Yet, as Chris observes, such an orientation goes against the popular tide recently, both in America and in Europe. But while we might prefer to have an inward focus, “taking care of our own first,” Isaiah indicates that God doesn’t want us to confine our vision to our own country, community, and church. Instead, Christians are required to have a wide lens. As a popular bumper sticker puts it, we are to “think globally, act locally” -- a sentiment that not only applies to the environment but also to theology.
Team member Beth Herrinton-Hodge shares some additional thoughts on the gospel text and the pains John the Baptist goes to in order to clarify his role in the greater order of things. He makes it clear that he is not the messiah -- he is merely the messenger who points the way to the messiah. John indicates that it was not until he baptized Jesus that he fully grasped that Jesus is “the Son of God.” Beth notes that in our world, confusion between messengers and messiahs is endemic -- and just as in Jesus’ day, there are many who pose as false messiahs and take advantage of a gullible public. Our message needs to be that there is only one true messiah, and that many who the public look to as something approaching messiahs are really only messengers -- whether politicians like Barack Obama and Donald Trump, or even cultural heroes like Martin Luther King Jr. Like John the Baptist, Beth reminds us, our calling -- and the way we can bring the light of Christ to the world -- is to be messengers who clearly point toward the Way, the true messiah.
Thinking Globally, Acting Locally
by Chris Keating
Isaiah 49:1-7
There’s a steady refrain to Isaiah’s Servant Songs in chapters 40-55 that may sound familiar. The servant’s calling to ministry is framed around a central task: it’s time to make Israel great again.
More precisely, the time has come when Yahweh will restore Israel from the depths of disillusionment and displacement. The mighty searchlight of Yahweh’s glory shines across choppy waters. God’s lighthouse beam sweeps over the seas, illuminating a message of assurance and hope. As Walter Brueggemann notes, this is a time of “stunning possibility” for Israel (An Introduction to the Old Testament, p. 200). It’s a moment when God’s beacon points to renewed hope and a reversal of fortunes.
But it is not a call to circle the wagons and turn inward.
The servant is called both to the ministry of raising up the displaced tribes of Jacob and to fulfilling Abraham’s calling to be a blessing to the nations. To do otherwise would obscure the projection of the light into the world. God is calling this fragmented and hurting community to fulfill the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12 so that salvation “may reach to the end of the earth.”
Epiphany is the season of light -- yet our tendency is to manage the light so that it shines largely on our own turf. We grow weary of saving others. We yearn for security. We tell ourselves that taking care of our own takes precedence over helping others.
That sort of inward-focused protectionism has come of age recently. When Britain voted to leave the European Union, it was another manifestation of renewed nationalistic fervor coupled with what one commentator called a rise in populist nativism. Americans have also indicated a preference that their country deal with its own problems before tackling the concerns of others. It’s a sentiment that President-elect Donald Trump deftly tapped into to win the White House.
Protectionist fears can generate gale-force winds that make it hard to see the sweeping beams of God’s promises. Isaiah pulls the camera back, however, summoning the servant of God to see a broader vocation. God’s servant is called to a ministry that includes interests at home and abroad. To borrow from the environmental movement’s long-held axiom, Israel is called to think globally, and to act locally.
For missional-minded Christians, it could also be an Epiphany alert to pray globally, while also serving locally.
In the News
The past year will likely be remembered as the year Americans jumped aboard the neo-nationalism bus. The winds of change that blew across Europe took hold in the American political imagination in the form of Donald Trump’s campaign to “Make America Great Again.” Michael Hirsh noted the changing tides in June, describing the new nationalism as a melding of traditional conservative politics with “unabashed, xenophobic nationalism.” He also called it “a bitter populist rejection of the status quo” characterized by a rethinking of international economic and political systems that arose following the Cold War.
Nationalism proponents are eager to protect the home front, and less interested in global connectivity. They are skeptical about open trade and post-war borderless institutions like the European Union and NATO. They worry about borders and immigration, and mourn the loss of middle-class jobs. It’s a uniting of forces determined to halt globalization.
In the United Kingdom, Foreign Minister Boris Johnson capitalized on these worries in advocating for Brexit. In Austria, nationalist Norbert Hofer narrowly lost his “Make Austria Great” campaign. Even Scandinavian countries saw a similar rise in anti-EU and anti-immigration policies.
In many ways, it was the year of “me first.” As Jonathan Haidt muses, “What on earth is happening? And why is it happening in some of the most economically successful countries in the world?”
Haidt suggests that, in one sense, globalists “started it.” Theories that economic forces would overcome nationalistic and ethnic conflict proved unlikely. The global refugee and immigration crisis fueled anxieties created by ISIS and terrorism. Haidt posits that globalists would do well to understand just how their policies helped ignite the 2016 populism bonfire:
So if you want to understand why nationalism and right-wing populism have grown so strong so quickly, you must start by looking at the actions of the globalists.... They initiated the chain of events which have caused right-wing nationalist reactions in many countries. This is consistent with scholarship suggesting that conservative movement are usually best understood as reactions to waves of change promoted by progressives.
Much more than a rising wave of conservatism, nationalism takes aim at protecting older cultural values and restoring confidence among millions of anxious middle- and working-class voters. While Republicans landed solid victories in the legislative and executive branches, some conservatives note that wins were essentially victories for nationalism. The distinction is worth remembering, particularly as conservatives and Trump-ists learn how to work together. Nationalists do not always hold to a socially conservative agenda.
The surge of nationalists toward Trump includes voters more concerned with placing America first than with traditional GOP policies such as low taxes and small government. It’s a moment in time that Trump counselor Steve Bannon describes as “as exciting as the 1930s, greater than the Reagan revolution -- conservatives, plus populists, in an economic nationalist movement.”
Writing for Politico last June, Michael Hirsh argues that the turn from globalism has been embraced across the world by both liberal and conservative politicians. In the United States that has included waves of lower-income voters who once voted predictably Democratic turning to Trump instead. The post-recession economic realignment left many lower-income voters feeling ignored. “That in turn transformed our politics far more than both political parties understood,” writes Hirsh, “leading to the Trump-Sanders backlash. Nor is there any fix in sight because neither political party is willing to create a whole new welfare state to help the displaced.”
The impact of nationalism’s rise could create storms for either political party. Those storms -- fueled by nationalism’s next of kin, authoritarianism -- may prove especially tough to navigate. If, as British pollster Stephan Shakespeare once pointed out, the divide is either “drawbridge up” or “drawbridge down,” what are the options for creating peace among nations? Is Trump-sized big government the way forward -- or will the costs associated with isolationist trade policies become too burdensome?
Those -- and other questions -- will play a role in how all people, including Christians, “think globally, while acting globally.” It’s possible to see in these strands of nationalism and globalism threads of connection to Deutero-Isaiah’s pleading with Judah. Like the servant of Israel, we may be at what Atlantic magazine editor Jeffrey Goldberg calls a hinge moment in history. As Goldberg noted on CBS’ Face the Nation:
I don’t want to forget this -- the deeper story is globalization, and technological disruption, and anxiety born of rapid change, rapid, destabilizing change, the fragility of institutions. All of that is... undergirding the larger, more immediate story, which is how did Donald Trump become president of the United States and what does it mean for not only the way America understands itself but the way the world understands America.... I would just add one more point, which is that the rest of the world is watching with bated breath. Because we are at a hinge moment in history. Since 1945, we have played a certain role in the world. And it’s not entirely clear that after January 20th we’re going to play that same role.
In the Scriptures
In a few days, newly installed officials will stand at rostrums, take oaths of office, and describe how they’ll change things. They will uphold their high calling to serve, waxing freely on the prospects for this unique moment in national life. We’ve heard it before.
Yet few of these speeches will match the theological forcefulness of the servant’s song in Isaiah 49:1-7.
It’s a call to “peoples far away,” an address to people beyond the native coasts. It’s a call to those who have felt themselves isolated and displaced, and an invitation to seek not only the restoration of Israel, but to bring salvation “to the end of the earth.” To be called is to be sent by God not only to one’s nation but to the entire world.
But who is speaking? The identity of the servant is debated among scholars, who point to textual evidence for either an individual or a faithful community. Is the servant a person, or is this a more general call to the nation of Israel? Scholars differ in their proposals, but it is clear (as John Hayes observes) that the unique vocation of the servant will be as one who suffers on behalf of the greater world (“Isaiah 49:1-7, Exegetical Perspective,” Second Sunday after Epiphany, in Feasting on the Word [Year A]).
Clearly, as Stephen Paulsell notes in Feasting on the Word, there are both individual and communal aspects of this call. The servant sings of a call from God that is extended to a people, to creation, but also to individuals. Moreover, the servant’s role will extend far beyond the role of a political ruler.
Like any ministry, this call is fraught with difficulty. The servant realizes the difficulties of working in God’s name. Ministry is not now nor has it ever been an easy task. At times, it seems that all has been in vain. The lament gives way to a deeper memory of God’s transcendent purpose. The calling is to a specific vocation of raising up tribes, restoring survivors, and also shining as a light to all nations.
The servant is indeed a sort of lighthouse, a source of brilliant illumination cast across seas and oceans. The servant's work blends building up local communities with acts of global justice. Both are essential to mission, for as Paulsell observes, “all of our work, no matter how local, must have the good of the whole world as its aim.”
In the Sermon
Preaching in the current political context remains problematic for many preachers, and it is likely that a sermon on aspects of foreign policy will hardly spark a thundering revival. Within the context of Epiphany’s missional thrust, however, Isaiah 49:1-7 offers congregations an opportunity to hear God’s invitation to discern fresh perspectives on what it means to be called.
The rise of nationalism is a challenge to the gospel that does not show partiality. Isaiah reminds us that the call is always to pray globally while acting locally. In Epiphany, we marvel at the light of God dawning on other nations, and are amazed by the magi’s worship of Christ. The church is a lighthouse -- and its light is a beacon of hope, salvation, and strength.
The higher calling articulated by the servant could become a starting point for the congregation’s own exploration of new mission initiatives in 2017. Contexts vary, but many areas have welcomed immigrants and refugees. Naming possibilities for the church to be a light to the nations represented in your community might be one way to switch on the searchlight. Uphold the servant’s calling as an invitation for the church to continue praying globally and acting locally.
What is striking about Isaiah’s vision is the way it encourages God’s people to think beyond the fears which prompt protectionism, and to cast their hopes on the one who has formed us, who has called us to be servants, and who has called us beloved and honored.
Such a church will always be thinking globally, while ministering locally.
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
John 1:29-42
For the third time in six weeks, our lections hand us a story about John the Baptist in the wilderness. It’s a challenge to mine this text for a new perspective or message. In Matthew’s gospel (which will be followed closely through Cycle A), Jesus is privy to the vision of God’s Spirit descending on him, as well as to the voice from heaven declaring him as God’s beloved Son. There is no indication of John the Baptist seeing the vision or hearing the voice in Matthew’s account.
In John’s gospel, we meet John the Baptist, testifier-in-chief. The pericope begins: “This is the testimony given by John when Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him...” (v. 19). John testifies, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him [Jesus]” (v. 32). John continues, “I myself did not know him; but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God” (vv. 33-34). Prior to God’s revealing of Jesus’ identity to John the Baptist, John did not know Jesus. But once Jesus is revealed to him, John can’t contain himself. What follows is a chain-reaction of testimonies which flow from John the Baptist to two of his own disciples, one of whom is Andrew -- who goes on to testify to his brother Simon Peter.
Interestingly enough, we don’t read of John the Baptist actually baptizing Jesus in John 1:29-42. The focus of the gospel writer’s account of John the Baptist is his testimony about Jesus. John is clear that he is not the Messiah -- he is merely the messenger who points the way to the Messiah. He even indicates that, while he sort of understood his role and his message previously, it is not until he witnessed Jesus’ anointing by God’s Spirit that he fully grasps that Jesus is “the Son of God.”
How easy it would have been for John the Baptist to carry on his work -- baptizing, calling people to repent and prepare for the coming Messiah. In this work, he had garnered followers -- disciples. We assume that they too were preparing for the One about whom John spoke. Because of John’s testimony to them, they turned and followed Jesus. There is only one Messiah, and it was not John. John knew this and pointed his own followers to the true Messiah. John knew Jesus, the Lamb of God and Son of God, because God revealed this to him.
There is a tendency to look around for the Messiah, who promised that he would return. Like people of John’s and Jesus’ day, many today look for one who will save us, who will lead us, who will fulfill promises to us, who will make the world great again. There are many who pose as false messiahs and take advantage of a gullible public. Confusion between messengers and messiahs is pervasive. Yet even on the weekend when we celebrate the great orator and dreamer Martin Luther King Jr., we are reminded that there is only one Messiah. Dr. King and others point us to this Messiah with their testimony, with their actions, with their leadership. But they are not the One -- they merely point to the One.
It is God who reveals the Son, the Beloved. Like John the Baptist, we testify to what God has revealed: Jesus is the anointed One. The Messiah is not our pastor, our political party, nor our preferred candidate. To testify faithfully is not to seek out or to hold up our own image of a savior-of-our-making, but to keep our testimony focused on the One whom God revealed as Son and Beloved.
Like John the Baptist, our calling -- and the way we can bring the light of Christ to the world -- is to be messengers who point toward the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Isaiah 49:1-7
Mariah Carey has made many mistakes while performing onstage or when doing a live television show. But none may compare to the fiasco that occurred during her New Year’s Eve performance in Times Square. Her first song had technical difficulties with the pre-recorded soundtrack, which caused Carey to have a noticeable mood swing while on stage. During her second song, “We Belong Together,” she lowered her microphone several times, but the music and vocals continued. This made it clear to everyone that Mariah Carey was lip-syncing -- a practice disdained by audiences who think they are hearing a live performance.
Application: In our proclamation of the gospel message we cannot be lip-syncing, we cannot be pretending; we must be forthright and honest.
*****
Isaiah 49:1-7
There is only one company that celebrates January 5th -- that’s the day UPS calls “National Returns Day.” Because of the increased use of online shopping, the number of returns has also increased. By the end of the first week in January, UPS will have returned over 5 million packages, with the fifth day of the week experiencing the highest volume.
Application: If we do not want to live a life surrounded by returns, then we need to listen to the prophets so we can make good decisions from the beginning.
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Isaiah 49:1-7
Recently President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Pearl Harbor to recognize the 75th anniversary of the attack on the U.S. naval base there. This time though, Abe was the first prime minister to go to the national memorial above the sunken battleship the USS Arizona. Abe did not apologize for the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, but he did offer his condolences. Abe said, “I offer my sincere and everlasting condolences to the souls of those who lost their lives here, as well as to the spirits of all the brave men and women whose lives were taken by a war that commenced in this very place.”
Application: We hope, as Isaiah preached to Israel, that all nations may be restored to peace.
*****
Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-11
Vladimir Putin is trying to restore his image in Russia. In doing so, he has become more tolerant of dissidents. He is also allowing the Eastern Orthodox Church more freedom of expression and permitting the church to establish new congregations. These changes, though, should not allow us to become blind to his oppressive measures in other areas of society. But in creating a new image, he spoke for one of his few times on national television. It was a New Year’s proclamation that was aired in each of Russia’s 11 time zones just minutes before the New Year arrived. The message was meant to inspire and encourage the people to live by a higher standard. In his address Putin said: “Each of us may become something of a magician on the night of the New Year. To do this we simply need to treat our parents with love and gratitude, take care of our children and families, respect our colleagues at work, nurture our friendships, defend truth and justice, be merciful, and help those who are in need of support. This is the whole secret.”
Application: Though we may not agree with all of Putin’s politics, his words “we may become something of a magician” can speak to us. We do have the chance to work as if we are a magician in redeeming others.
*****
Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-11
In a Born Loser comic strip, it is New Year’s Eve and Brutus is sitting at the kitchen table drinking hot cocoa. Gladys comes into the kitchen and asks her husband, “Shall we stay up till midnight tonight?” Brutus replies, “Why not? We’ve suffered through 2016 this far, we might as well see it out!” (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: Times can be very difficult, but if we listen to the prophets we can see bad times out to a new year in our lives.
*****
Psalm 40:1-11
LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers had a very good year in 2016, leading his team to an NBA title that ended a 52-year professional sports championship drought for the city. James, who recently turned 32, called his 31st year of life his best ever. James said that for him, 2016 was “a magical run. I felt like Aladdin on my flying magic carpet.”
Application: When our lives are restored, we can feel like we are on a flying magic carpet.
*****
Psalm 40:1-11
In a Lockhorns comic, Leroy and Loretta are in the living room, both sitting in their favorite chairs. Their marriage is loving but contentious, and barbs are a common form of communication with Loretta dominating the relationship. Leroy is trying to read the newspaper, but looks up as Loretta shares some discouraging words. With a look of despair on her face and her head resting on her hand, Loretta says, “If the world is my oyster, then where are my pearls?” (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: The psalmist felt the same as Loretta until he found redemption in the Lord. The pearl of life that we will discover is salvation.
*****
John 1:29-42
Famed actress Debbie Reynolds died the day after her daughter Carrie Fisher (also a renowned actress) died. The last thing that Reynolds said was, “I want to be with Carrie.” Physicians have said that Reynolds could have died of a “broken heart.” A broken heart is a real medical condition. It is caused when grief causes too many stress hormones, such as adrenaline, to surge into the circulatory system. Because dying of a broken heart appears as a normal heart attack, an exact diagnosis is not possible. But cardiologists believe that dying of a broken heart is a real medical phenomenon.
Application: Because life can be so stressful, we are in need of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
*****
John 1:29-42
In a Born Loser comic strip, Brutus Thornapple is standing in front of his boss Rancid Veeblefester. Veeblefester is a rich tycoon who is also a very cranky and unpleasant man. He works in an office surrounded by moneybags, reflecting his stinginess. He always scolds Brutus for being incompetent, and seems to enjoy tormenting him. Veeblefester, standing authoritatively with his hands folded behind his back, tells Brutus that all of his top salespeople are getting 2016 bonuses. With a gleeful look, Brutus asks his boss if he is getting a bonus. Veeblefester smugly replies, “No, you get a certificate of participation!” As Veeblefester walks away, Brutus has a downcast look on his face. (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: As we see everyone who is involved in the ministry of Jesus, it should be enough for us to receive a certificate of participation. But unlike Veeblefester, Jesus presents the certificate with joy and admiration for our participation.
*****
John 1:29-42
The death of celebrities this past year has been most difficult for Generation X to accept. This is the first generation that has had a close relationship with celebrities because of their constant presence in their lives through social media. More than any previous generation, the deaths of celebrities in 2016, the icons of their youth, has forced Generation X, born between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s, to confront their own mortality. As one man who was interviewed said, “We were the generation that was going to change the world.... Now I find myself complaining about arthritis in my hands and taking care of my aging parents.”
Application: We need the Lamb of God, who will comfort us and sustain us spiritually.
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From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Isaiah 49:1-7
The World Is My Parish
Being a high-church clergyman, John Wesley did not approve of preaching anywhere but in the sanctuary. Preaching outdoors was even more abhorrent to him. But when his friend George Whitfield introduced him to the huge crowds that were coming to hear the gospel proclaimed outdoors in Bristol, he changed his mind:
At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city, to about three thousand people.
-- Journal, April 2, 1739
Once he moved outdoors, the door was open to all kinds of new ideas. Just a couple of months later Wesley declared that there was virtually no place on earth that was off-limits for proclaiming the gospel:
I look upon all the world as my parish; thus far I mean, that in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation.
-- Journal, June 11, 1739
*****
Isaiah 49:1-7
Around the World in... Three Years
There is little doubt that modern technology has made the world smaller.
The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is usually credited as being the first person to have circumnavigated the globe, but the reality of his journey is a bit more complicated. Magellan first set sail in September 1519 as part of an epic attempt to find a western route to the spice-rich East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). While he successfully led his crew across the Atlantic, through a strait in southern South America and over the vast expanse of the Pacific, he was killed only halfway through the circuit in a skirmish with natives on the Philippine island of Mactan.
The first person to successfully circumnavigate the globe was in fact Juan Sebastian Elcano, a Basque mariner who took control of the expedition after Magellan’s death in 1521 and captained its lone surviving vessel, the Victoria, on its journey back to Spain. Elcano and his sailors stand as the first people to have successfully voyaged around the world as part of a single journey,
In September 1522 the Victoria arrived safely back in Spain, having completed a successful circumnavigation of the globe. Of the mission’s 260 original crewmen, only 18 had survived the perilous three-year journey.
The fastest circumnavigation in a sailing vessel took place in 2012. The French ship Banque Populaire V, under captain Loick Peron, did it in 45 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes, and 53 seconds.
*****
Isaiah 49:1-7
Five Ways to Go Around the World
Circumnavigating the globe takes time. It can be a rather dull undertaking. Here are five examples of people who took the monotony out of it by doing it in style.
1. Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri
From 1693 to 1698, he successfully completed several global circumnavigations using nothing but public transportation. His journey served as the inspiration for Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days.
2. Jeanne Baré / Jean Baret
Part of Louis de Bougainville’s expedition from 1766 to 1769, Baré was the first woman to circumnavigate the globe -- but she had to do it disguised as a man. Dr. Philibert Commerçon, the expedition’s naturalist, needed Baré, his long-time housekeeper and mistress, on board as an assistant because he was in poor health, but the French did not allow women on their navy ships at the time.
3. Dr. Hugo Eckener
Eckener is considered to be the most accomplished airship commander in history. He successfully set two circumnavigation records in 1929: one for the fastest aerial circumnavigation, and another for the first ever circumnavigation on board an airship. He completed his journey in just 21 days on board the German-built LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin.
4. Yuri Gagarin
The Soviet pilot and cosmonaut Gagarin was the first person to fly in space and circumnavigate the planet on board the Vostok 3KA spacecraft. The flight launched in 1961 and completed its orbit of the earth in only 108 minutes.
5. Donald Taylor
In 1976, Taylor became the first person to ever build his own plane and successfully fly it around the world. It took him two attempts. The first one had to be cancelled due to bad weather, so he made sure that his plane Victoria ’76 (named after Magellan’s only ship to complete its mission) was better equipped for the second attempt.
*****
Isaiah 49:1-7
Good-Bye Macy’s, Hello Guangdong
2016 was a rough year for retailers. Walmart closed 154 stores. Aeropostale and Sports Authority went belly-up. 2017 isn’t looking much better. Macy’s has announced they will close 68 stores (on their way to 100). Sears is closing 42 stores, and Kmart is shuttering 108. Women’s clothing retailers The Limited and Ann Taylor are pulling in and closing stores.
The Dayton Daily News chalks it up to “Changes in shopper behaviors, online shopping, and deep discounters” that “have led to bankruptcies or brick-and-mortar closings for retailers.”
It wasn’t really a mystery, though. We need only look to our own shopping habits to verify the veracity of that statement. I occasionally enjoy wearing bow ties -- but at $30 each, Macy’s is outside my budget. If I’m willing to wait a week to 10 days, however, I can get the same tie from a men’s haberdashery in Guangdong, China, for $7.99 with no shipping charge. My diabetes medicine, which costs over $1,000 for a three-month supply in this country, can be purchased through Canada for about $135. It’s made in India, and is of the same quality as the American-made.
The world has gotten smaller, and the shopping mall has gotten bigger.
*****
John 1:29-42
Everything in Focus
John the Baptist makes clear to his disciples that their focus should be on Jesus and Jesus alone.
Back when photography was done on film, I had an SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera with several interchangeable lenses and I practiced taking pictures as a fairly serious hobby. That’s how I became my family’s unofficial portrait photographer.
I was expected to bring my camera to all family functions -- picnics, parties, reunions, etc. -- and to take candid as well as posed photos of everyone... and I was usually glad to do it.
As an amateur, however, it took me a while to figure out how to take good portraits -- and one of the keys, I learned, was to blur the background. If everything in the frame is in focus, it detracts from the main subject and causes eye confusion. The viewer isn’t quite sure what to look at.
So I learned that if I opened the aperture very wide and used a telephoto lens, the object in the foreground (the person) would be crystal-clear and the background would be blurred. (You can get the same effect with your cellphone camera, but you need a special app to achieve it.)
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From team member Mary Austin:
John 1:29-42
Come and See
Jesus offers an invitation to “come and see” in new ways, and the Lancaster Food Company sees ex-offenders and other difficult-to-employ people in a new way. The company seeks out people with criminal records, knowing they have trouble finding work. “According to the National Institute of Justice, having a criminal record cuts a job applicant’s chance of getting called back nearly in half.”
Charlie Crystle, Lancaster’s co-founder and CEO, believes this is a way out of poverty for many people. “Crystle was raised in Lancaster but left in 1986 to purse a college degree and, later, a career in technology. He co-founded four tech companies, one of which sold for millions of dollars back in 2000.... [With this company,] he believes that food production is a key way to ‘meet people where they are,’ referring to former offenders who may lack a high school or college degree. Lancaster produces products like bread and maple syrup, all of it USDA-certified organic.” The company is still small, but Crystle says “he wants to inspire other companies and entrepreneurs to rethink their current practices and ignite conversations around minimum-wage and employment opportunities for everyone, including ex-offenders.” Come and see, he is saying to other employers.
*****
John 1:29-42
Seeing the People in Front of Us
When Jesus says “come and see,” he’s inviting his soon-to-be disciples into a relationship. In our own lives, we’re often more attuned to our technology than to the people around us -- we need to be reminded to “see” them. Mom, author, and happiness expert Christine Carter says: “In Triumphs of Experience, George Vaillant writes that ‘there are two pillars of happiness revealed by the 75-year-old Grant Study. One is love. The other is finding a way of coping with life that does not push love away.’ We all do things -- perhaps daily -- that push the people we love away from us. We sneak ‘harmless’ glances at our smartphones while playing games with our children. We forget to take 30 seconds to greet our spouse warmly when we haven’t seen her or him all day. We decline a call from our friend or grandmother because we don’t feel like mustering the energy to truly listen. This modern world we live in is full of common situations and experiences which, if not handled well, create resistance rather than ease, impairing the strength that a relationship brings us. Tiny ruptures in our relationships drive love and connection out of our lives.”
As a way to practice seeing the people in our lives, Carter suggests technology-free zones and, ironically, the practice of being alone. She says: “When we don’t learn how to tolerate (and even relish) solitude, we often feel lonely.... Spend time alone at home and in the car unconnected. Learn to tolerate the initial boredom that may come; it will pass. Go on a hike or to the beach without a cellphone. Deep down I think we all have a deep, dark terror of being alone and are hard-wired to stay with our clan. But when we experience our ability to turn inward -- which we can do only when we need the silence and stillness of solitude -- we realize that we are never really alone. We feel our innate connectedness.”
*****
John 1:29-42
Seeing Without Bias
Our quick glances at each other are shaped by our unconscious biases, and we make quick judgments based on color, gender, size, and income. The practice of mindfulness can help us see with more clarity, and less bias. Professor Rhonda Magee tells this story: “When I was promoted to tenured full professor, the dean of my law school kindly had flowers sent to me at my home in Pacific Heights, an overpriced San Francisco neighborhood almost devoid of black residents. I opened the door to find a tall, young, African-American deliveryman who announced, ‘Delivery for Professor Magee.’ I, a petite black woman, dressed for a simple Saturday spent in my own home, reached for the flowers saying, ‘I am Professor Magee.’ The deliveryman looked down at the order and back up at me. Apparently shaken from the hidden ground of his preconceptions, he looked at me again. Incredulous, he asked, ‘Are you sure?’ ”
He couldn’t see her for who she was, which sparked her interest in how to decrease the unconscious bias we all carry with us. She adds: “Research shows that mindfulness practices help us focus, give us greater control over our emotions, and increase our capacity to think clearly and act with purpose. Might mindfulness assist police and other public servants in minimizing the mistaken judgments that lead to such harms? Might they help the rest of us -- professors and deliverymen alike -- minimize our biases as well? In a word, yes. The good news is that mindfulness and related practices do assist in increasing focus and raising awareness, and have been shown to assist in minimizing bias. While the research is ongoing, studies are beginning to show that mindfulness meditation and compassion practices serve as potent aids in the work of decreasing bias.”
We can learn to see with more clarity and open-mindedness, following Jesus’ invitation to see with new insight.
*****
John 1:29-42; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Calling
Both John’s gospel and Paul’s letter to the Corinthians speak of our calling, and the places where we use our gifts for a higher purpose. The CEO of Kinko’s, Paul Orfalea, had a similar experience in his own work. Orfalea has dyslexia, which has shaped his philosophy of work. He says: “I’m lucky, I can’t read well, and I’m not mechanically inclined. So I know anybody else could do any particular task better than I can. So the people in the front lines are my customers. I need to keep them happy. And the best way to take care of your customers is to take care of your workers.... I think there are two kinds of people, and I think that you’ve got to be true to yourself. You need to decide if you feel more comfortable working with tasks, and being self-fulfilled that way, or if you like the idea of working with people. If you want to work with people, it’s going to be frustrating sometimes. It’s an art to deal with people, where working with ‘things’ can be a science.”
Orfalea says, “I always believe that a corporation’s first responsibility is to its workers.... It’s all about the sparkle in their eyes. If you’ve got the sparkle, you can take them anywhere.” His calling at Kinko’s, he understood, was to help his employees do their work with success and happiness.
*****
John 1:29-42; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
The Theme of Your Life
“Behold the Lamb of God,” John’s gospel announces, and we could understand that as the theme of Jesus’ life. Paul begins his letter to the Corinthians with “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,” and that sums up the theme of his life. Kira Newman suggests that, instead of New Year’s resolutions, we consider the overall theme of our lives. Our lives are stories, following a narrative theme, she says -- and of course, we can pick the theme. As Newman says: “Although our life story is based on actual events, it is also highly personal and subjective. The same life could be narrated many ways; we might hone in on our parents’ divorce and how it colored everything that followed, or downplay the divorce and instead highlight an exemplary college career.”
One great theme is redemption, and researchers find that people who tell “more stories of redemption also reported higher life satisfaction. Redemptive stories were more strongly linked to life satisfaction than stories involving positive emotions, so it wasn’t just redemption’s happy ending that made people feel better.... In middle age, people who tell redemptive stories also tend to display more altruism, or ‘generativity’: acts such as volunteering, mentoring, civic activity, parenting, and teaching.”
Our goals, or resolutions, are part of our story -- part of the theme of our life. “Either way, it’s wise to understand how our aims for the future relate to our path in the past. Goals and New Year’s resolutions don’t have to be isolated aspirations, failed and forgotten. Instead, they can contribute to crafting a life theme and an identity that endure.”
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Let us wait patiently for our God.
People: Incline your ear, O God, and hear our cry.
Leader: Put a new song of praise in our mouths.
People: Happy are we when we make God our trust.
Leader: Do not, O God, withhold your mercy from us.
People: Let your steadfast love and faithfulness keep us safe forever.
OR
Leader: The God of creation calls us to worship.
People: We praise God for the beauty and wonder of our world.
Leader: The God of redemption calls us to wholeness.
People: We seek God’s healing presence in our lives.
Leader: The God of grace calls us to service.
People: As God’s people we will reach out to all creation.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven”
found in:
UMH: 66
H82: 410
PH: 478
CH: 23
LBW: 549
ELA: 854, 865
W&P: 82
AMEC: 70
Renew: 57
“God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens”
found in:
UMH: 150
H82: 580
PH: 268
NCH: 556
CH: 651
LBW: 463
ELA: 771
W&P: 644
“Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service”
found in:
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELA: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
“God of Grace and God of Glory”
found in:
UMH: 577
H82: 594, 595
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELA: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
“Lord, You Give the Great Commission”
found in:
UMH: 584
H82: 528
PH: 429
CH: 459
ELA: 579
W&P: 592
Renew: 305
“Here I Am, Lord”
found in:
UMH: 593
PH: 525
AAHH: 567
CH: 452
ELA: 574
W&P: 559
Renew: 149
“O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee”
found in:
UMH: 430
H82: 659, 660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELA: 818
W&P: 589
AMEC: 299
“Let There Be Peace on Earth”
found in:
UMH: 431
CH: 677
W&P: 614
“People Need the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 52
“Our God Reigns”
found in:
CCB: 33
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 creates and redeems all of creation: Grant us the grace to look beyond our own needs
so that we may reach out to all your people; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for being the creator and redeemer of all. Shine your light upon us so that we may see the needs of all your children. Make us bold to offer ourselves for the good of others. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, especially the ways in which we are centered on our own wants and desires.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us as one people of the earth, and yet we insist on making divisions among us. We are more concerned with our own welfare than we are in seeing to the welfare of others. We have forgotten the lesson of Jesus’ cross, where giving one’s self in loving sacrifice means being raised to new life. Renew us in your Spirit, that we may once again hear your call to reach out in love and care to all creation. Amen.
Leader: God is our loving creator who longs to redeem us all. Receive God’s love and grace so that you may be part of God’s redeeming work.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
Glory to you, O God, our creator and our redeemer. We bow before your awesome love that brings new life to all.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us as one people of the earth, and yet we insist on making divisions among us. We are more concerned with our own welfare than we are in seeing to the welfare of others. We have forgotten the lesson of Jesus’ cross, where giving one’s self in loving sacrifice means being raised to new life. Renew us in your Spirit, that we may once again hear your call to reach out in love and care to all creation.
We give you thanks for all the ways you seek to redeem us and bring us to eternal life. We thank you for those who have looked after our needs while ignoring their own. We thank you for those who have dedicated their lives to alleviating the needs of others.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all who are in need. We pray for those who find themselves seemingly forgotten by the world. We pray for the strength and the determination to be your hands of love and care for all your children.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Have the children sing with you “This Little Light of Mine.” Talk about how even a little light can make a big difference in a dark room. Whether we are big or small, young or old, we can be a light for Jesus.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
What Not to Do with the Light
by Robin Lostetter
Isaiah 49:1-7
This is based on the following paragraph from Chris Keating’s article above:
The servant is called both to the ministry of raising up the displaced tribes of Jacob as well as fulfilling Abraham’s calling to be a blessing to the nations. To do otherwise would obscure the projection of the light into the world. God is calling this fragmented and hurting community to fulfill the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12 so that salvation “may reach to the end of the earth.”
You will need:
* a flashlight
* optional: a dozen or so small flashlights to share and send home with the children -- be careful of loose batteries that might be swallowed!
* a small basket, large enough to fully cover your flashlight
* song lyrics to “This Little Light of Mine” (3rd verse thanks to Raffi, © Universal Music Publishing Group, Hal Leonard Corporation)
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
Hide it under a bushel, No! I’m gonna let it shine.
Hide it under a bushel, No! I’m gonna let it shine.
Hide it under a bushel, No! I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
Gonna take this light around the world, I’m gonna let it shine.
Gonna take this light around the world, I’m gonna let it shine.
Gonna take this light around the world, I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
Say (you can modify the details, based on the age of your group):
Today we read this from the Bible, from the book of the prophet Isaiah:
Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, peoples far away! The Lord called me before my birth, called my name when I was in my mother’s womb. [The Lord] said: ...“It is not enough, since you are my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the survivors of Israel. Hence, I will also appoint you as light to the nations so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
(Isaiah 49:1, 6 [CEB -- Common English Bible])
Isaiah is telling the people far away, at the coastlands -- at the beach, at the shore, far away -- that God has called him, Isaiah, by name! “Yoo-hoo, Isaiah!” (You can call some of the children by name before proceeding.)
God called Isaiah and told him to go to everyone, not just the people in his own town (not just here in ____ town)... but people at the edge of his land. That would be like telling you to call to people at the beach where you may have vacationed, or at the mountains, or where your relatives live if they’re far away... not just your next-door neighbor. “Yoo-hoo, Isaiah, tell the people far away that I have called you...”
And what did God call Isaiah to do? I’ll give you a hint. (Bring out the flashlight and turn it on.) God called Isaiah to be a light to ALL the people, so that the good news would reach all around the world!
Now, if you had a light to share, would it be any good if you pointed it like this? (Point it at yourself, and then let a child or two point it at themselves, right up to their bodies. Wait for their responses.) No, of course not! If we point it just to ourselves, the light can’t be shared.
How about this? What if we put it under a basket? (Do so.) Can the light be shared? (Again, wait.) No, of course not!
So we need to point the light out everywhere. (Here you can show the light onto the ceiling, the congregation, out the window, everywhere!) Is that better? Have I shared the light? (Yes, it would show better after dark!)
There’s a song about sharing our light. It talks about not hiding it under a “bushel basket,” and there’s a new verse about taking it out to the world. (Share the song.)
Let’s pray. Thank you, God, for trusting us with your light. Help us to remember that you have called us to share the light everywhere. Amen.
(If you have the optional individual flashlights, give them out as the children leave.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, January 15, 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 Beth Herrinton-Hodge shares some additional thoughts on the gospel text and the pains John the Baptist goes to in order to clarify his role in the greater order of things. He makes it clear that he is not the messiah -- he is merely the messenger who points the way to the messiah. John indicates that it was not until he baptized Jesus that he fully grasped that Jesus is “the Son of God.” Beth notes that in our world, confusion between messengers and messiahs is endemic -- and just as in Jesus’ day, there are many who pose as false messiahs and take advantage of a gullible public. Our message needs to be that there is only one true messiah, and that many who the public look to as something approaching messiahs are really only messengers -- whether politicians like Barack Obama and Donald Trump, or even cultural heroes like Martin Luther King Jr. Like John the Baptist, Beth reminds us, our calling -- and the way we can bring the light of Christ to the world -- is to be messengers who clearly point toward the Way, the true messiah.
Thinking Globally, Acting Locally
by Chris Keating
Isaiah 49:1-7
There’s a steady refrain to Isaiah’s Servant Songs in chapters 40-55 that may sound familiar. The servant’s calling to ministry is framed around a central task: it’s time to make Israel great again.
More precisely, the time has come when Yahweh will restore Israel from the depths of disillusionment and displacement. The mighty searchlight of Yahweh’s glory shines across choppy waters. God’s lighthouse beam sweeps over the seas, illuminating a message of assurance and hope. As Walter Brueggemann notes, this is a time of “stunning possibility” for Israel (An Introduction to the Old Testament, p. 200). It’s a moment when God’s beacon points to renewed hope and a reversal of fortunes.
But it is not a call to circle the wagons and turn inward.
The servant is called both to the ministry of raising up the displaced tribes of Jacob and to fulfilling Abraham’s calling to be a blessing to the nations. To do otherwise would obscure the projection of the light into the world. God is calling this fragmented and hurting community to fulfill the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12 so that salvation “may reach to the end of the earth.”
Epiphany is the season of light -- yet our tendency is to manage the light so that it shines largely on our own turf. We grow weary of saving others. We yearn for security. We tell ourselves that taking care of our own takes precedence over helping others.
That sort of inward-focused protectionism has come of age recently. When Britain voted to leave the European Union, it was another manifestation of renewed nationalistic fervor coupled with what one commentator called a rise in populist nativism. Americans have also indicated a preference that their country deal with its own problems before tackling the concerns of others. It’s a sentiment that President-elect Donald Trump deftly tapped into to win the White House.
Protectionist fears can generate gale-force winds that make it hard to see the sweeping beams of God’s promises. Isaiah pulls the camera back, however, summoning the servant of God to see a broader vocation. God’s servant is called to a ministry that includes interests at home and abroad. To borrow from the environmental movement’s long-held axiom, Israel is called to think globally, and to act locally.
For missional-minded Christians, it could also be an Epiphany alert to pray globally, while also serving locally.
In the News
The past year will likely be remembered as the year Americans jumped aboard the neo-nationalism bus. The winds of change that blew across Europe took hold in the American political imagination in the form of Donald Trump’s campaign to “Make America Great Again.” Michael Hirsh noted the changing tides in June, describing the new nationalism as a melding of traditional conservative politics with “unabashed, xenophobic nationalism.” He also called it “a bitter populist rejection of the status quo” characterized by a rethinking of international economic and political systems that arose following the Cold War.
Nationalism proponents are eager to protect the home front, and less interested in global connectivity. They are skeptical about open trade and post-war borderless institutions like the European Union and NATO. They worry about borders and immigration, and mourn the loss of middle-class jobs. It’s a uniting of forces determined to halt globalization.
In the United Kingdom, Foreign Minister Boris Johnson capitalized on these worries in advocating for Brexit. In Austria, nationalist Norbert Hofer narrowly lost his “Make Austria Great” campaign. Even Scandinavian countries saw a similar rise in anti-EU and anti-immigration policies.
In many ways, it was the year of “me first.” As Jonathan Haidt muses, “What on earth is happening? And why is it happening in some of the most economically successful countries in the world?”
Haidt suggests that, in one sense, globalists “started it.” Theories that economic forces would overcome nationalistic and ethnic conflict proved unlikely. The global refugee and immigration crisis fueled anxieties created by ISIS and terrorism. Haidt posits that globalists would do well to understand just how their policies helped ignite the 2016 populism bonfire:
So if you want to understand why nationalism and right-wing populism have grown so strong so quickly, you must start by looking at the actions of the globalists.... They initiated the chain of events which have caused right-wing nationalist reactions in many countries. This is consistent with scholarship suggesting that conservative movement are usually best understood as reactions to waves of change promoted by progressives.
Much more than a rising wave of conservatism, nationalism takes aim at protecting older cultural values and restoring confidence among millions of anxious middle- and working-class voters. While Republicans landed solid victories in the legislative and executive branches, some conservatives note that wins were essentially victories for nationalism. The distinction is worth remembering, particularly as conservatives and Trump-ists learn how to work together. Nationalists do not always hold to a socially conservative agenda.
The surge of nationalists toward Trump includes voters more concerned with placing America first than with traditional GOP policies such as low taxes and small government. It’s a moment in time that Trump counselor Steve Bannon describes as “as exciting as the 1930s, greater than the Reagan revolution -- conservatives, plus populists, in an economic nationalist movement.”
Writing for Politico last June, Michael Hirsh argues that the turn from globalism has been embraced across the world by both liberal and conservative politicians. In the United States that has included waves of lower-income voters who once voted predictably Democratic turning to Trump instead. The post-recession economic realignment left many lower-income voters feeling ignored. “That in turn transformed our politics far more than both political parties understood,” writes Hirsh, “leading to the Trump-Sanders backlash. Nor is there any fix in sight because neither political party is willing to create a whole new welfare state to help the displaced.”
The impact of nationalism’s rise could create storms for either political party. Those storms -- fueled by nationalism’s next of kin, authoritarianism -- may prove especially tough to navigate. If, as British pollster Stephan Shakespeare once pointed out, the divide is either “drawbridge up” or “drawbridge down,” what are the options for creating peace among nations? Is Trump-sized big government the way forward -- or will the costs associated with isolationist trade policies become too burdensome?
Those -- and other questions -- will play a role in how all people, including Christians, “think globally, while acting globally.” It’s possible to see in these strands of nationalism and globalism threads of connection to Deutero-Isaiah’s pleading with Judah. Like the servant of Israel, we may be at what Atlantic magazine editor Jeffrey Goldberg calls a hinge moment in history. As Goldberg noted on CBS’ Face the Nation:
I don’t want to forget this -- the deeper story is globalization, and technological disruption, and anxiety born of rapid change, rapid, destabilizing change, the fragility of institutions. All of that is... undergirding the larger, more immediate story, which is how did Donald Trump become president of the United States and what does it mean for not only the way America understands itself but the way the world understands America.... I would just add one more point, which is that the rest of the world is watching with bated breath. Because we are at a hinge moment in history. Since 1945, we have played a certain role in the world. And it’s not entirely clear that after January 20th we’re going to play that same role.
In the Scriptures
In a few days, newly installed officials will stand at rostrums, take oaths of office, and describe how they’ll change things. They will uphold their high calling to serve, waxing freely on the prospects for this unique moment in national life. We’ve heard it before.
Yet few of these speeches will match the theological forcefulness of the servant’s song in Isaiah 49:1-7.
It’s a call to “peoples far away,” an address to people beyond the native coasts. It’s a call to those who have felt themselves isolated and displaced, and an invitation to seek not only the restoration of Israel, but to bring salvation “to the end of the earth.” To be called is to be sent by God not only to one’s nation but to the entire world.
But who is speaking? The identity of the servant is debated among scholars, who point to textual evidence for either an individual or a faithful community. Is the servant a person, or is this a more general call to the nation of Israel? Scholars differ in their proposals, but it is clear (as John Hayes observes) that the unique vocation of the servant will be as one who suffers on behalf of the greater world (“Isaiah 49:1-7, Exegetical Perspective,” Second Sunday after Epiphany, in Feasting on the Word [Year A]).
Clearly, as Stephen Paulsell notes in Feasting on the Word, there are both individual and communal aspects of this call. The servant sings of a call from God that is extended to a people, to creation, but also to individuals. Moreover, the servant’s role will extend far beyond the role of a political ruler.
Like any ministry, this call is fraught with difficulty. The servant realizes the difficulties of working in God’s name. Ministry is not now nor has it ever been an easy task. At times, it seems that all has been in vain. The lament gives way to a deeper memory of God’s transcendent purpose. The calling is to a specific vocation of raising up tribes, restoring survivors, and also shining as a light to all nations.
The servant is indeed a sort of lighthouse, a source of brilliant illumination cast across seas and oceans. The servant's work blends building up local communities with acts of global justice. Both are essential to mission, for as Paulsell observes, “all of our work, no matter how local, must have the good of the whole world as its aim.”
In the Sermon
Preaching in the current political context remains problematic for many preachers, and it is likely that a sermon on aspects of foreign policy will hardly spark a thundering revival. Within the context of Epiphany’s missional thrust, however, Isaiah 49:1-7 offers congregations an opportunity to hear God’s invitation to discern fresh perspectives on what it means to be called.
The rise of nationalism is a challenge to the gospel that does not show partiality. Isaiah reminds us that the call is always to pray globally while acting locally. In Epiphany, we marvel at the light of God dawning on other nations, and are amazed by the magi’s worship of Christ. The church is a lighthouse -- and its light is a beacon of hope, salvation, and strength.
The higher calling articulated by the servant could become a starting point for the congregation’s own exploration of new mission initiatives in 2017. Contexts vary, but many areas have welcomed immigrants and refugees. Naming possibilities for the church to be a light to the nations represented in your community might be one way to switch on the searchlight. Uphold the servant’s calling as an invitation for the church to continue praying globally and acting locally.
What is striking about Isaiah’s vision is the way it encourages God’s people to think beyond the fears which prompt protectionism, and to cast their hopes on the one who has formed us, who has called us to be servants, and who has called us beloved and honored.
Such a church will always be thinking globally, while ministering locally.
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
John 1:29-42
For the third time in six weeks, our lections hand us a story about John the Baptist in the wilderness. It’s a challenge to mine this text for a new perspective or message. In Matthew’s gospel (which will be followed closely through Cycle A), Jesus is privy to the vision of God’s Spirit descending on him, as well as to the voice from heaven declaring him as God’s beloved Son. There is no indication of John the Baptist seeing the vision or hearing the voice in Matthew’s account.
In John’s gospel, we meet John the Baptist, testifier-in-chief. The pericope begins: “This is the testimony given by John when Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him...” (v. 19). John testifies, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him [Jesus]” (v. 32). John continues, “I myself did not know him; but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God” (vv. 33-34). Prior to God’s revealing of Jesus’ identity to John the Baptist, John did not know Jesus. But once Jesus is revealed to him, John can’t contain himself. What follows is a chain-reaction of testimonies which flow from John the Baptist to two of his own disciples, one of whom is Andrew -- who goes on to testify to his brother Simon Peter.
Interestingly enough, we don’t read of John the Baptist actually baptizing Jesus in John 1:29-42. The focus of the gospel writer’s account of John the Baptist is his testimony about Jesus. John is clear that he is not the Messiah -- he is merely the messenger who points the way to the Messiah. He even indicates that, while he sort of understood his role and his message previously, it is not until he witnessed Jesus’ anointing by God’s Spirit that he fully grasps that Jesus is “the Son of God.”
How easy it would have been for John the Baptist to carry on his work -- baptizing, calling people to repent and prepare for the coming Messiah. In this work, he had garnered followers -- disciples. We assume that they too were preparing for the One about whom John spoke. Because of John’s testimony to them, they turned and followed Jesus. There is only one Messiah, and it was not John. John knew this and pointed his own followers to the true Messiah. John knew Jesus, the Lamb of God and Son of God, because God revealed this to him.
There is a tendency to look around for the Messiah, who promised that he would return. Like people of John’s and Jesus’ day, many today look for one who will save us, who will lead us, who will fulfill promises to us, who will make the world great again. There are many who pose as false messiahs and take advantage of a gullible public. Confusion between messengers and messiahs is pervasive. Yet even on the weekend when we celebrate the great orator and dreamer Martin Luther King Jr., we are reminded that there is only one Messiah. Dr. King and others point us to this Messiah with their testimony, with their actions, with their leadership. But they are not the One -- they merely point to the One.
It is God who reveals the Son, the Beloved. Like John the Baptist, we testify to what God has revealed: Jesus is the anointed One. The Messiah is not our pastor, our political party, nor our preferred candidate. To testify faithfully is not to seek out or to hold up our own image of a savior-of-our-making, but to keep our testimony focused on the One whom God revealed as Son and Beloved.
Like John the Baptist, our calling -- and the way we can bring the light of Christ to the world -- is to be messengers who point toward the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Isaiah 49:1-7
Mariah Carey has made many mistakes while performing onstage or when doing a live television show. But none may compare to the fiasco that occurred during her New Year’s Eve performance in Times Square. Her first song had technical difficulties with the pre-recorded soundtrack, which caused Carey to have a noticeable mood swing while on stage. During her second song, “We Belong Together,” she lowered her microphone several times, but the music and vocals continued. This made it clear to everyone that Mariah Carey was lip-syncing -- a practice disdained by audiences who think they are hearing a live performance.
Application: In our proclamation of the gospel message we cannot be lip-syncing, we cannot be pretending; we must be forthright and honest.
*****
Isaiah 49:1-7
There is only one company that celebrates January 5th -- that’s the day UPS calls “National Returns Day.” Because of the increased use of online shopping, the number of returns has also increased. By the end of the first week in January, UPS will have returned over 5 million packages, with the fifth day of the week experiencing the highest volume.
Application: If we do not want to live a life surrounded by returns, then we need to listen to the prophets so we can make good decisions from the beginning.
*****
Isaiah 49:1-7
Recently President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Pearl Harbor to recognize the 75th anniversary of the attack on the U.S. naval base there. This time though, Abe was the first prime minister to go to the national memorial above the sunken battleship the USS Arizona. Abe did not apologize for the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, but he did offer his condolences. Abe said, “I offer my sincere and everlasting condolences to the souls of those who lost their lives here, as well as to the spirits of all the brave men and women whose lives were taken by a war that commenced in this very place.”
Application: We hope, as Isaiah preached to Israel, that all nations may be restored to peace.
*****
Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-11
Vladimir Putin is trying to restore his image in Russia. In doing so, he has become more tolerant of dissidents. He is also allowing the Eastern Orthodox Church more freedom of expression and permitting the church to establish new congregations. These changes, though, should not allow us to become blind to his oppressive measures in other areas of society. But in creating a new image, he spoke for one of his few times on national television. It was a New Year’s proclamation that was aired in each of Russia’s 11 time zones just minutes before the New Year arrived. The message was meant to inspire and encourage the people to live by a higher standard. In his address Putin said: “Each of us may become something of a magician on the night of the New Year. To do this we simply need to treat our parents with love and gratitude, take care of our children and families, respect our colleagues at work, nurture our friendships, defend truth and justice, be merciful, and help those who are in need of support. This is the whole secret.”
Application: Though we may not agree with all of Putin’s politics, his words “we may become something of a magician” can speak to us. We do have the chance to work as if we are a magician in redeeming others.
*****
Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-11
In a Born Loser comic strip, it is New Year’s Eve and Brutus is sitting at the kitchen table drinking hot cocoa. Gladys comes into the kitchen and asks her husband, “Shall we stay up till midnight tonight?” Brutus replies, “Why not? We’ve suffered through 2016 this far, we might as well see it out!” (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: Times can be very difficult, but if we listen to the prophets we can see bad times out to a new year in our lives.
*****
Psalm 40:1-11
LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers had a very good year in 2016, leading his team to an NBA title that ended a 52-year professional sports championship drought for the city. James, who recently turned 32, called his 31st year of life his best ever. James said that for him, 2016 was “a magical run. I felt like Aladdin on my flying magic carpet.”
Application: When our lives are restored, we can feel like we are on a flying magic carpet.
*****
Psalm 40:1-11
In a Lockhorns comic, Leroy and Loretta are in the living room, both sitting in their favorite chairs. Their marriage is loving but contentious, and barbs are a common form of communication with Loretta dominating the relationship. Leroy is trying to read the newspaper, but looks up as Loretta shares some discouraging words. With a look of despair on her face and her head resting on her hand, Loretta says, “If the world is my oyster, then where are my pearls?” (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: The psalmist felt the same as Loretta until he found redemption in the Lord. The pearl of life that we will discover is salvation.
*****
John 1:29-42
Famed actress Debbie Reynolds died the day after her daughter Carrie Fisher (also a renowned actress) died. The last thing that Reynolds said was, “I want to be with Carrie.” Physicians have said that Reynolds could have died of a “broken heart.” A broken heart is a real medical condition. It is caused when grief causes too many stress hormones, such as adrenaline, to surge into the circulatory system. Because dying of a broken heart appears as a normal heart attack, an exact diagnosis is not possible. But cardiologists believe that dying of a broken heart is a real medical phenomenon.
Application: Because life can be so stressful, we are in need of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
*****
John 1:29-42
In a Born Loser comic strip, Brutus Thornapple is standing in front of his boss Rancid Veeblefester. Veeblefester is a rich tycoon who is also a very cranky and unpleasant man. He works in an office surrounded by moneybags, reflecting his stinginess. He always scolds Brutus for being incompetent, and seems to enjoy tormenting him. Veeblefester, standing authoritatively with his hands folded behind his back, tells Brutus that all of his top salespeople are getting 2016 bonuses. With a gleeful look, Brutus asks his boss if he is getting a bonus. Veeblefester smugly replies, “No, you get a certificate of participation!” As Veeblefester walks away, Brutus has a downcast look on his face. (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
Application: As we see everyone who is involved in the ministry of Jesus, it should be enough for us to receive a certificate of participation. But unlike Veeblefester, Jesus presents the certificate with joy and admiration for our participation.
*****
John 1:29-42
The death of celebrities this past year has been most difficult for Generation X to accept. This is the first generation that has had a close relationship with celebrities because of their constant presence in their lives through social media. More than any previous generation, the deaths of celebrities in 2016, the icons of their youth, has forced Generation X, born between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s, to confront their own mortality. As one man who was interviewed said, “We were the generation that was going to change the world.... Now I find myself complaining about arthritis in my hands and taking care of my aging parents.”
Application: We need the Lamb of God, who will comfort us and sustain us spiritually.
***************
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Isaiah 49:1-7
The World Is My Parish
Being a high-church clergyman, John Wesley did not approve of preaching anywhere but in the sanctuary. Preaching outdoors was even more abhorrent to him. But when his friend George Whitfield introduced him to the huge crowds that were coming to hear the gospel proclaimed outdoors in Bristol, he changed his mind:
At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city, to about three thousand people.
-- Journal, April 2, 1739
Once he moved outdoors, the door was open to all kinds of new ideas. Just a couple of months later Wesley declared that there was virtually no place on earth that was off-limits for proclaiming the gospel:
I look upon all the world as my parish; thus far I mean, that in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation.
-- Journal, June 11, 1739
*****
Isaiah 49:1-7
Around the World in... Three Years
There is little doubt that modern technology has made the world smaller.
The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is usually credited as being the first person to have circumnavigated the globe, but the reality of his journey is a bit more complicated. Magellan first set sail in September 1519 as part of an epic attempt to find a western route to the spice-rich East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). While he successfully led his crew across the Atlantic, through a strait in southern South America and over the vast expanse of the Pacific, he was killed only halfway through the circuit in a skirmish with natives on the Philippine island of Mactan.
The first person to successfully circumnavigate the globe was in fact Juan Sebastian Elcano, a Basque mariner who took control of the expedition after Magellan’s death in 1521 and captained its lone surviving vessel, the Victoria, on its journey back to Spain. Elcano and his sailors stand as the first people to have successfully voyaged around the world as part of a single journey,
In September 1522 the Victoria arrived safely back in Spain, having completed a successful circumnavigation of the globe. Of the mission’s 260 original crewmen, only 18 had survived the perilous three-year journey.
The fastest circumnavigation in a sailing vessel took place in 2012. The French ship Banque Populaire V, under captain Loick Peron, did it in 45 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes, and 53 seconds.
*****
Isaiah 49:1-7
Five Ways to Go Around the World
Circumnavigating the globe takes time. It can be a rather dull undertaking. Here are five examples of people who took the monotony out of it by doing it in style.
1. Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri
From 1693 to 1698, he successfully completed several global circumnavigations using nothing but public transportation. His journey served as the inspiration for Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days.
2. Jeanne Baré / Jean Baret
Part of Louis de Bougainville’s expedition from 1766 to 1769, Baré was the first woman to circumnavigate the globe -- but she had to do it disguised as a man. Dr. Philibert Commerçon, the expedition’s naturalist, needed Baré, his long-time housekeeper and mistress, on board as an assistant because he was in poor health, but the French did not allow women on their navy ships at the time.
3. Dr. Hugo Eckener
Eckener is considered to be the most accomplished airship commander in history. He successfully set two circumnavigation records in 1929: one for the fastest aerial circumnavigation, and another for the first ever circumnavigation on board an airship. He completed his journey in just 21 days on board the German-built LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin.
4. Yuri Gagarin
The Soviet pilot and cosmonaut Gagarin was the first person to fly in space and circumnavigate the planet on board the Vostok 3KA spacecraft. The flight launched in 1961 and completed its orbit of the earth in only 108 minutes.
5. Donald Taylor
In 1976, Taylor became the first person to ever build his own plane and successfully fly it around the world. It took him two attempts. The first one had to be cancelled due to bad weather, so he made sure that his plane Victoria ’76 (named after Magellan’s only ship to complete its mission) was better equipped for the second attempt.
*****
Isaiah 49:1-7
Good-Bye Macy’s, Hello Guangdong
2016 was a rough year for retailers. Walmart closed 154 stores. Aeropostale and Sports Authority went belly-up. 2017 isn’t looking much better. Macy’s has announced they will close 68 stores (on their way to 100). Sears is closing 42 stores, and Kmart is shuttering 108. Women’s clothing retailers The Limited and Ann Taylor are pulling in and closing stores.
The Dayton Daily News chalks it up to “Changes in shopper behaviors, online shopping, and deep discounters” that “have led to bankruptcies or brick-and-mortar closings for retailers.”
It wasn’t really a mystery, though. We need only look to our own shopping habits to verify the veracity of that statement. I occasionally enjoy wearing bow ties -- but at $30 each, Macy’s is outside my budget. If I’m willing to wait a week to 10 days, however, I can get the same tie from a men’s haberdashery in Guangdong, China, for $7.99 with no shipping charge. My diabetes medicine, which costs over $1,000 for a three-month supply in this country, can be purchased through Canada for about $135. It’s made in India, and is of the same quality as the American-made.
The world has gotten smaller, and the shopping mall has gotten bigger.
*****
John 1:29-42
Everything in Focus
John the Baptist makes clear to his disciples that their focus should be on Jesus and Jesus alone.
Back when photography was done on film, I had an SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera with several interchangeable lenses and I practiced taking pictures as a fairly serious hobby. That’s how I became my family’s unofficial portrait photographer.
I was expected to bring my camera to all family functions -- picnics, parties, reunions, etc. -- and to take candid as well as posed photos of everyone... and I was usually glad to do it.
As an amateur, however, it took me a while to figure out how to take good portraits -- and one of the keys, I learned, was to blur the background. If everything in the frame is in focus, it detracts from the main subject and causes eye confusion. The viewer isn’t quite sure what to look at.
So I learned that if I opened the aperture very wide and used a telephoto lens, the object in the foreground (the person) would be crystal-clear and the background would be blurred. (You can get the same effect with your cellphone camera, but you need a special app to achieve it.)
***************
From team member Mary Austin:
John 1:29-42
Come and See
Jesus offers an invitation to “come and see” in new ways, and the Lancaster Food Company sees ex-offenders and other difficult-to-employ people in a new way. The company seeks out people with criminal records, knowing they have trouble finding work. “According to the National Institute of Justice, having a criminal record cuts a job applicant’s chance of getting called back nearly in half.”
Charlie Crystle, Lancaster’s co-founder and CEO, believes this is a way out of poverty for many people. “Crystle was raised in Lancaster but left in 1986 to purse a college degree and, later, a career in technology. He co-founded four tech companies, one of which sold for millions of dollars back in 2000.... [With this company,] he believes that food production is a key way to ‘meet people where they are,’ referring to former offenders who may lack a high school or college degree. Lancaster produces products like bread and maple syrup, all of it USDA-certified organic.” The company is still small, but Crystle says “he wants to inspire other companies and entrepreneurs to rethink their current practices and ignite conversations around minimum-wage and employment opportunities for everyone, including ex-offenders.” Come and see, he is saying to other employers.
*****
John 1:29-42
Seeing the People in Front of Us
When Jesus says “come and see,” he’s inviting his soon-to-be disciples into a relationship. In our own lives, we’re often more attuned to our technology than to the people around us -- we need to be reminded to “see” them. Mom, author, and happiness expert Christine Carter says: “In Triumphs of Experience, George Vaillant writes that ‘there are two pillars of happiness revealed by the 75-year-old Grant Study. One is love. The other is finding a way of coping with life that does not push love away.’ We all do things -- perhaps daily -- that push the people we love away from us. We sneak ‘harmless’ glances at our smartphones while playing games with our children. We forget to take 30 seconds to greet our spouse warmly when we haven’t seen her or him all day. We decline a call from our friend or grandmother because we don’t feel like mustering the energy to truly listen. This modern world we live in is full of common situations and experiences which, if not handled well, create resistance rather than ease, impairing the strength that a relationship brings us. Tiny ruptures in our relationships drive love and connection out of our lives.”
As a way to practice seeing the people in our lives, Carter suggests technology-free zones and, ironically, the practice of being alone. She says: “When we don’t learn how to tolerate (and even relish) solitude, we often feel lonely.... Spend time alone at home and in the car unconnected. Learn to tolerate the initial boredom that may come; it will pass. Go on a hike or to the beach without a cellphone. Deep down I think we all have a deep, dark terror of being alone and are hard-wired to stay with our clan. But when we experience our ability to turn inward -- which we can do only when we need the silence and stillness of solitude -- we realize that we are never really alone. We feel our innate connectedness.”
*****
John 1:29-42
Seeing Without Bias
Our quick glances at each other are shaped by our unconscious biases, and we make quick judgments based on color, gender, size, and income. The practice of mindfulness can help us see with more clarity, and less bias. Professor Rhonda Magee tells this story: “When I was promoted to tenured full professor, the dean of my law school kindly had flowers sent to me at my home in Pacific Heights, an overpriced San Francisco neighborhood almost devoid of black residents. I opened the door to find a tall, young, African-American deliveryman who announced, ‘Delivery for Professor Magee.’ I, a petite black woman, dressed for a simple Saturday spent in my own home, reached for the flowers saying, ‘I am Professor Magee.’ The deliveryman looked down at the order and back up at me. Apparently shaken from the hidden ground of his preconceptions, he looked at me again. Incredulous, he asked, ‘Are you sure?’ ”
He couldn’t see her for who she was, which sparked her interest in how to decrease the unconscious bias we all carry with us. She adds: “Research shows that mindfulness practices help us focus, give us greater control over our emotions, and increase our capacity to think clearly and act with purpose. Might mindfulness assist police and other public servants in minimizing the mistaken judgments that lead to such harms? Might they help the rest of us -- professors and deliverymen alike -- minimize our biases as well? In a word, yes. The good news is that mindfulness and related practices do assist in increasing focus and raising awareness, and have been shown to assist in minimizing bias. While the research is ongoing, studies are beginning to show that mindfulness meditation and compassion practices serve as potent aids in the work of decreasing bias.”
We can learn to see with more clarity and open-mindedness, following Jesus’ invitation to see with new insight.
*****
John 1:29-42; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Calling
Both John’s gospel and Paul’s letter to the Corinthians speak of our calling, and the places where we use our gifts for a higher purpose. The CEO of Kinko’s, Paul Orfalea, had a similar experience in his own work. Orfalea has dyslexia, which has shaped his philosophy of work. He says: “I’m lucky, I can’t read well, and I’m not mechanically inclined. So I know anybody else could do any particular task better than I can. So the people in the front lines are my customers. I need to keep them happy. And the best way to take care of your customers is to take care of your workers.... I think there are two kinds of people, and I think that you’ve got to be true to yourself. You need to decide if you feel more comfortable working with tasks, and being self-fulfilled that way, or if you like the idea of working with people. If you want to work with people, it’s going to be frustrating sometimes. It’s an art to deal with people, where working with ‘things’ can be a science.”
Orfalea says, “I always believe that a corporation’s first responsibility is to its workers.... It’s all about the sparkle in their eyes. If you’ve got the sparkle, you can take them anywhere.” His calling at Kinko’s, he understood, was to help his employees do their work with success and happiness.
*****
John 1:29-42; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
The Theme of Your Life
“Behold the Lamb of God,” John’s gospel announces, and we could understand that as the theme of Jesus’ life. Paul begins his letter to the Corinthians with “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,” and that sums up the theme of his life. Kira Newman suggests that, instead of New Year’s resolutions, we consider the overall theme of our lives. Our lives are stories, following a narrative theme, she says -- and of course, we can pick the theme. As Newman says: “Although our life story is based on actual events, it is also highly personal and subjective. The same life could be narrated many ways; we might hone in on our parents’ divorce and how it colored everything that followed, or downplay the divorce and instead highlight an exemplary college career.”
One great theme is redemption, and researchers find that people who tell “more stories of redemption also reported higher life satisfaction. Redemptive stories were more strongly linked to life satisfaction than stories involving positive emotions, so it wasn’t just redemption’s happy ending that made people feel better.... In middle age, people who tell redemptive stories also tend to display more altruism, or ‘generativity’: acts such as volunteering, mentoring, civic activity, parenting, and teaching.”
Our goals, or resolutions, are part of our story -- part of the theme of our life. “Either way, it’s wise to understand how our aims for the future relate to our path in the past. Goals and New Year’s resolutions don’t have to be isolated aspirations, failed and forgotten. Instead, they can contribute to crafting a life theme and an identity that endure.”
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Let us wait patiently for our God.
People: Incline your ear, O God, and hear our cry.
Leader: Put a new song of praise in our mouths.
People: Happy are we when we make God our trust.
Leader: Do not, O God, withhold your mercy from us.
People: Let your steadfast love and faithfulness keep us safe forever.
OR
Leader: The God of creation calls us to worship.
People: We praise God for the beauty and wonder of our world.
Leader: The God of redemption calls us to wholeness.
People: We seek God’s healing presence in our lives.
Leader: The God of grace calls us to service.
People: As God’s people we will reach out to all creation.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven”
found in:
UMH: 66
H82: 410
PH: 478
CH: 23
LBW: 549
ELA: 854, 865
W&P: 82
AMEC: 70
Renew: 57
“God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens”
found in:
UMH: 150
H82: 580
PH: 268
NCH: 556
CH: 651
LBW: 463
ELA: 771
W&P: 644
“Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service”
found in:
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELA: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
“God of Grace and God of Glory”
found in:
UMH: 577
H82: 594, 595
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELA: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
“Lord, You Give the Great Commission”
found in:
UMH: 584
H82: 528
PH: 429
CH: 459
ELA: 579
W&P: 592
Renew: 305
“Here I Am, Lord”
found in:
UMH: 593
PH: 525
AAHH: 567
CH: 452
ELA: 574
W&P: 559
Renew: 149
“O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee”
found in:
UMH: 430
H82: 659, 660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELA: 818
W&P: 589
AMEC: 299
“Let There Be Peace on Earth”
found in:
UMH: 431
CH: 677
W&P: 614
“People Need the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 52
“Our God Reigns”
found in:
CCB: 33
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 creates and redeems all of creation: Grant us the grace to look beyond our own needs
so that we may reach out to all your people; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for being the creator and redeemer of all. Shine your light upon us so that we may see the needs of all your children. Make us bold to offer ourselves for the good of others. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, especially the ways in which we are centered on our own wants and desires.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us as one people of the earth, and yet we insist on making divisions among us. We are more concerned with our own welfare than we are in seeing to the welfare of others. We have forgotten the lesson of Jesus’ cross, where giving one’s self in loving sacrifice means being raised to new life. Renew us in your Spirit, that we may once again hear your call to reach out in love and care to all creation. Amen.
Leader: God is our loving creator who longs to redeem us all. Receive God’s love and grace so that you may be part of God’s redeeming work.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
Glory to you, O God, our creator and our redeemer. We bow before your awesome love that brings new life to all.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us as one people of the earth, and yet we insist on making divisions among us. We are more concerned with our own welfare than we are in seeing to the welfare of others. We have forgotten the lesson of Jesus’ cross, where giving one’s self in loving sacrifice means being raised to new life. Renew us in your Spirit, that we may once again hear your call to reach out in love and care to all creation.
We give you thanks for all the ways you seek to redeem us and bring us to eternal life. We thank you for those who have looked after our needs while ignoring their own. We thank you for those who have dedicated their lives to alleviating the needs of others.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all who are in need. We pray for those who find themselves seemingly forgotten by the world. We pray for the strength and the determination to be your hands of love and care for all your children.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Have the children sing with you “This Little Light of Mine.” Talk about how even a little light can make a big difference in a dark room. Whether we are big or small, young or old, we can be a light for Jesus.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
What Not to Do with the Light
by Robin Lostetter
Isaiah 49:1-7
This is based on the following paragraph from Chris Keating’s article above:
The servant is called both to the ministry of raising up the displaced tribes of Jacob as well as fulfilling Abraham’s calling to be a blessing to the nations. To do otherwise would obscure the projection of the light into the world. God is calling this fragmented and hurting community to fulfill the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12 so that salvation “may reach to the end of the earth.”
You will need:
* a flashlight
* optional: a dozen or so small flashlights to share and send home with the children -- be careful of loose batteries that might be swallowed!
* a small basket, large enough to fully cover your flashlight
* song lyrics to “This Little Light of Mine” (3rd verse thanks to Raffi, © Universal Music Publishing Group, Hal Leonard Corporation)
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
Hide it under a bushel, No! I’m gonna let it shine.
Hide it under a bushel, No! I’m gonna let it shine.
Hide it under a bushel, No! I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
Gonna take this light around the world, I’m gonna let it shine.
Gonna take this light around the world, I’m gonna let it shine.
Gonna take this light around the world, I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
Say (you can modify the details, based on the age of your group):
Today we read this from the Bible, from the book of the prophet Isaiah:
Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, peoples far away! The Lord called me before my birth, called my name when I was in my mother’s womb. [The Lord] said: ...“It is not enough, since you are my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the survivors of Israel. Hence, I will also appoint you as light to the nations so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
(Isaiah 49:1, 6 [CEB -- Common English Bible])
Isaiah is telling the people far away, at the coastlands -- at the beach, at the shore, far away -- that God has called him, Isaiah, by name! “Yoo-hoo, Isaiah!” (You can call some of the children by name before proceeding.)
God called Isaiah and told him to go to everyone, not just the people in his own town (not just here in ____ town)... but people at the edge of his land. That would be like telling you to call to people at the beach where you may have vacationed, or at the mountains, or where your relatives live if they’re far away... not just your next-door neighbor. “Yoo-hoo, Isaiah, tell the people far away that I have called you...”
And what did God call Isaiah to do? I’ll give you a hint. (Bring out the flashlight and turn it on.) God called Isaiah to be a light to ALL the people, so that the good news would reach all around the world!
Now, if you had a light to share, would it be any good if you pointed it like this? (Point it at yourself, and then let a child or two point it at themselves, right up to their bodies. Wait for their responses.) No, of course not! If we point it just to ourselves, the light can’t be shared.
How about this? What if we put it under a basket? (Do so.) Can the light be shared? (Again, wait.) No, of course not!
So we need to point the light out everywhere. (Here you can show the light onto the ceiling, the congregation, out the window, everywhere!) Is that better? Have I shared the light? (Yes, it would show better after dark!)
There’s a song about sharing our light. It talks about not hiding it under a “bushel basket,” and there’s a new verse about taking it out to the world. (Share the song.)
Let’s pray. Thank you, God, for trusting us with your light. Help us to remember that you have called us to share the light everywhere. Amen.
(If you have the optional individual flashlights, give them out as the children leave.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, January 15, 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.
