Transformed by Grace
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
For June 16, 2024:
Transformed by Grace
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13) 14-17, Mark 4:26-34
Before I go to bed, I’m going back into the family room to retrieve my book. It’s dark in the family room but I know that, because my grandsons are visiting, there’s a Lego lying on the carpet, lurking in the dark for me to step on. I know that the ottoman has probably been pushed into the center of the room and not returned to my easy chair where it belongs. I know that the dog is in one of her three favorite sleeping places — my chair, the couch, or the dog bed. And I know that there’s something on top of my book, probably a glass with a couple of ice cubes, sitting on a coaster.
This journey, if taken in the dark, could be dangerous.
So, I turn on the light.
Ah, just as I suspected. Lego. Ottoman. Dog. Book. Everything where I thought they might be. Oh, and there’s a bowl with some kernels of un-popped popcorn sitting on the couch.
The room has not changed because I turned on the light. But it has been transformed. It is visible. It can be seen and known and traversed without danger.
And I have been transformed. Where I once walked as one who walks without seeing, now I walk as one who sees.
That’s how grace works. It changes nothing but transforms everything. Let’s talk about that…
In the Scriptures
In the reading from the fifth chapter of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, the apostle rambles on for a while, taking about the kind of transformation that takes place in us when we are struck by grace through Jesus Christ.
The metaphor that he uses to describe this transformation, however, creates nearly as much confusion as it clears up. At least it does for me. But let’s try to unpack what he says: We used to walk “in the body” but now that Jesus Christ has come into our lives, we walk in the spirit.
We are transformed human beings. We used to relate to people from “a human point of view” but now we relate to them or “regard” them, in his words, from a spiritual point of view. God’s grace transforms us by transforming how we relate to each other.
We are still the broken, estranged, flawed human beings we always were, but now we’re transformed. We see each other differently; we relate to each other by grace.
It’s like we used to be always walking through a dark room but now someone has turned on the lights. The room hasn’t changed. It’s still the same messy room it was before. Look, there’s the Lego lying on the carpet waiting for me to step on it. There’s the ottoman out in the middle of the room, waiting to trip me instead of pushed up against the chair where it’s supposed to be. And there’s the newspaper spread out on my chair where I might have sat on it in the dark.
But now, I can see things not as I imagine them to be, but as they are. I don’t have to go stumbling around, stepping on the Lego and tripping over the ottoman or the dog and sitting on the very newspaper I want to read. Before the light comes on, I relate to the room as one who walks in darkness. Now that the light is on, however, both the room and I are transformed. I can walk as one who sees clearly.
Before I was struck by God’s grace, I related to other people as one who walked in darkness. But now, grace has been given to me as a gift from God as God comes to us in Jesus Christ and I am transformed. Now I can relate to those people as one who walks in the light of grace. I can see them not as I imagine them to be but as they really are. I can see their hurt and their pain. I can see their love and their worries. I can see them as children of God, subject to his grace if only they will accept it.
I am transformed by grace and, as I am transformed, they are transformed as well.
“So, if anyone is in Christ,” says Paul, to sum it all up, “there is a new creation: Everything old has passed away. Look, new things have come into being!”
The gospel writer, Mark, chooses a simpler and clearer metaphor to show how God’s grace works — that of seeds.
In the first parable of this morning’s text, he illustrates the fact of how transformative grace works is a mystery. Like a seed, it works because it works. The farmer plants the seeds, goes home, goes to bed, gets up, goes back to work and, in a few days, the seed is transformed into a seedling or sprout, which is, in turn, transformed into a plant, which is, in turn, transformed into fruit and then, back into a seed.
We’d be fools to say, “Well, I can’t possibly eat this tomato until I fully understand all of the hows and whys of its growth and maturation. I can’t benefit from it until I know all the ins and outs of photosynthesis.”
No, all we have to know to benefit from the plant is that it works.
According to Mark, God’s grace is like that. We don’t have to understand it to benefit from it. We need only accept it.
And how do we do that?
Why, by faith. We accept that God’s grace can transform us and change us.
Well, that’s a pretty tall order. I don’t know if I have that much faith.
Oh, says Mark, you don’t need much. Just a tiny little bit, about the size of a mustard seed.
And, you say, that if I have that tiny amount of faith in God’s grace, then it will transform me?
That’s right. And not just you, but the whole world around you.
In the News
Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushaláyim) is an Israeli national holiday that commemorates the “reunification” of East Jerusalem (including the Old City) with West Jerusalem following the Six-Day War of 1967. It is celebrated annually on 28 Iyar on the Hebrew calendar (this year, June 4) and is marked officially throughout Israel with state ceremonies and memorial services.
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel declared Jerusalem Day to be a minor religious holiday, as it marks the regaining for Jewish people of access to the Western Wall. A notable celebration that marks the holiday is a flag-flying parade known as the Dance of Flags.
This year, however, the dance was not accompanied by shouts of joy and songs of triumph and peace. Rather, the shout most often heard as the crowd of more than 10,000 souls waved their flags was “Death to Arabs.” Peace demonstrators and journalists were pushed, shoved, kicked, and beaten by the crowd until Israeli police required them to leave for their own safety.
The wounds of October 6, 2023 are still open, festering, and sore.
As the number of casualties in Gaza approaches 40,000, wounds are being created in the Arab world that will not heal quickly or easily, if at all.
Can peace ever come to this part of the world? Can Arabs and Jews ever live together? What would be required for that to happen?
If Christianity has an answer to that question, it may be found in today’s messages from Paul and Mark. That answer is “grace.” Only the stroke of grace can bring true and lasting peace to people who have hated each other for so many long standing and understandable reasons.
Only grace can bring the kind of transformations that would make peace possible.
Here, in the United States, division, separation, estrangement, and animosity saturate our political system to the point of paralysis. Our political leaders are more interested in scoring political points against each other than working together to solve our national problems.
Many voters seem perfectly happy with that state of affairs, rewarding with votes and standing ovations those politicians whose hallmark is spite and whose default setting is animus.
Senators and representatives are resigning and retiring en masse because they are fed up with the rancor and hate that they see every day in the halls of congress. We are about to elect a class of congressional leaders who have no experience in leading the country. Would any of us hire a plumber or a dentist or a pilot with qualifications like that?
One waits in vain for those in power to correct the errors they have created, to heal the wounds they have inflicted, and to walk back the arguments they have written.
No, it becoming clear that if these things are going to change they will change only by the stroke of God’s grace.
In the Sermon
Grace is transformative. It changes nothing but it transforms everything.
And cousins, everything needs transformation. Everything.
We all need help in transforming the way we see, perceive, and relate to the world and people around us.
Theologian Paul Tillich describes the transformative power of grace this way in his sermon, “You are Accepted:”
After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed. In that moment, grace conquers sin, and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual presupposition, nothing but acceptance.
In the light of this grace we perceive the power of grace in our relation to others and to ourselves. We experience the grace of being able to look frankly into the eyes of another, the miraculous grace of reunion of life with life. We experience the grace of understanding each other's words. We understand not merely the literal meaning of the words, but also that which lies behind them, even when they are harsh or angry. For even then there is a longing to break through the walls of separation. We experience the grace of being able to accept the life of another, even if it be hostile and harmful to us, for, through grace, we know that it belongs to the same Ground to which we belong, and by which we have been accepted. We experience the grace which is able to overcome the tragic separation of the sexes, of the generations, of the nations, of the races, and even the utter strangeness between man and nature. Sometimes grace appears in all these separations to reunite us with those to whom we belong. For life belongs to life. (From the book The Shaking of the Foundations)
Let us pray that God will grant us more experiences of this grace that transforms us and bridges our estrangements with love and acceptance.
SECOND THOUGHTS
The Lord Has Not Chosen Any Of These
by Katy Stenta
1 Samuel 15:34--16:13
When we are looking for answers, humans would like for the answers to be easy, the path to be clear, and the leaders to be perfect and obvious. However, there are, unfortunately, no magic wands. As theologian Frederic Buechner said in his book Wishful Thinking, “Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you.”
No obstacles are removed when your beloved one sits with you when you are in trouble. There may be no answers provided, no things happen, however, presence is a powerful thing. This is why we want it so badly. When President Trump was elected, the therapist who leads my pastors’ group said that we did not realize how much confidence and trust was held by our leadership until we did not have it anymore. And even then, the idea of having a leader is often easier than the chaos of no leadership at all.
The Hebrew people want a king because it is easier to have someone to share the load with. They beg God for a king. God agrees, but picks an unlikely one, who has sparkly eyes, is young and works in unexpected ways.
God has historically worked from the margins, teaching us in unexpected ways, from unexpected people. The trickster characters in the Bible are many, painting the Noahs, Jacobs, Josephs, Rahabs, and Ruths as uninteresting and holistically good is to miss the point of how wholly beloved and human we really are. God formed our whole being, walking with our complexities, and then drawing us toward God’s love. Buechner also says in Wishful Thinking that “Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There's no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth…Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are, because the party wouldn't have been complete without you.”
What we think we want to be held by leadership, the security and safety, is really a longing for grace. The sanctuary to know that we are held, no matter what, as well as the acceptance and belonging. We can take comfort God has chosen us, not necessarily to lead, or to have sparkly eyes, but to sit and be with us.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Psalm 20
A prayer for victory
The first five verses of today’s psalm can be thought of as an indirect prayer. This psalm was probably recited when sending the king and his army off to battle. The first five verses are the wishes of those staying behind for those going away to fight. It’s not exactly a prayer, because it’s not addressed to God, but it’s very prayer-like.
Verses 6-8 are the response of the one prayed for, presumably the king. In verse 6 the king refers to himself as “his (God’s) anointed,” one could substitute “Christ” for “anointed.”
The final verse is a prayer for victory, spoken by the king. The king uses the royal we, grammatically speaking on behalf of the nation.
* * *
1 Samuel 15:34-16:1
Jesse’s sons
Father Jesse had eight sons, and eight sons had father Jesse, but only four of them are named. The three oldest sons of Jesse are Eliab, Abinadab and Shammah. His youngest son is David, the shepherd boy, who would also become sort of a session lyre player. In 1 Samuel 17 Jesse appears to be a fairly prosperous, prominent leader in the Bethlehem community. Jesse sends his oldest three sons off to battle and can afford to send provisions to them via his youngest son, David.
So there’s a mystery: What are the names of Jesse’s fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh oldest sons? The text is silent.
I suggest we call them Barry, Robin, Maurice, and Andy. This gives David’s musical prowess a kind of back story.
* * *
Mark 4:26-34
Mustard seed
Botanists will tell you that mustard seeds are not the smallest of seeds on earth. A quick visit to Bing reveals that anoectochilus imitans, at 1.5 centimeters is the smallest seed on earth. Jesus is making a different point — that the kingdom of God can be compared to the seed of an invasive plant. Parables are stories meant to help the listener compare one thing in terms of another; the Greek parabole means “to throw alongside.” The hearer of a parable is asked how this story/parable measures up to what you know from experience.
Note, the kingdom of God is not like a mustard plant, but like a tiny mustard seed. So the kingdom of God is like the potential for something to grow, to unfold, into an invasive weed. That’ll preach!
* * *
2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13) 14-17
We walk by faith and not by sight
The beloved, classic Christian hymn text by Henry Alford is based on 2 Corinthians 5:7, in which Paul gives reason for always being confident. The third stanza of this hymn is one that helps believers hold onto faith, even in moments of doubt and uncertainty.
Help then, O Lord, our unbelief;
and may our faith abound
to call on you when you are near
and seek where you are found.
* * * * * *
From team member Mary Austin:
2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13) 14-17
A New Creation
Being in Christ allows us to be a new creation — and we have to work hard to bring that to life. In the book Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies, the authors tell the story of Chad Michael Morrissette, who was horribly bullied in school. One day, he got a Facebook message from “someone who’d once been part of making his life a living hell. “Hey Chad, I was recently talking with my 10-year-old daughter about bullies. She asked me if I ever bullied anyone and sadly, I had to say ‘yes.’ What came to mind was how shitty and mean I was to you when we were in junior high. I want to apologize… I don’t even know if you remember, but I do and I am sorry.” Morrissette was shocked.
He remembers, “I was bullied for being gay. I was bullied for being little.” It got so bad, he noted, “I couldn’t even walk to classes without an adult escort or friends with me.” He knew what the writer meant, and he couldn’t remember exactly which tormentor he was.
The Facebook message shook him up. He didn’t answer for a few days. Then he replied. “I’m quite moved by this. Thank you and I accept your apology. In twenty years you are the only person to apologize for being a bully to me when we were younger. I hope you can proudly tell your daughter that you have also apologized…Thank you again, and I hope you stand up to bullying anytime you see it. Have a great day!” The answer: “Thank you. Your forgiveness means more than you know, and I hope I am [not] the last to ask forgiveness from you. Cheers!”
The apology giver concluded it was his duty to try to apologize. “You can’t change your past, but you do still own it. I can’t take back the names I called him, and the threats I made toward him, but I can apologize. It doesn’t excuse my behavior as a child in any way, but as an adult it’s the best I can do to try to make it up to him… I really didn’t expect him to respond at all, and figured if he did it would be telling me where to stick the apology… But Morrisette said it’s never too late. “A simple ‘I’m sorry’ can change everything,” he said.
* * *
Mark 4:26-34
Science Agrees with Jesus
Jesus illuminates the realm of God by saying, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.”
In Refugia Faith, Debra Rienstra observes, “When Mount Saint Helens erupted in May of 1980, it lost 1,300 feet of elevation and gained a new mile-and-a-half-wide crater. The debris and ashfall from the volcanic blast devastated the mountain and its surroundings for miles, crushing, burning, killing, and coating everything in hot ash. Everyone assumed life could return to this apocalyptic death zone only very slowly, maybe over several human lifetimes. Instead, forty years later, the mountainsides are covered with lush grasses, prairie lupines, alders. Critters scamper, streams flow.”
The growth came exactly the way Jesus describes. Rienstra quotes Kathleen Dean Moore who explains (in Great Tide Rising) “What the scientists know now, but didn’t understand then, is that when the mountain blasted ash and rock across the landscape, the devastation passed over some small places hidden in the lee of rocks and trees. Here, a bed of moss and deer fern under a rotting log. There, under a boulder, a patch of pearly everlasting and the tunnel to a vole’s musty nest.” These little pockets of safety are called refugia. They are tiny coverts where plants and creatures hide from destruction, hidden shelters where life persists and out of which new life emerges.” The small, scattered seeds brought life back much sooner than anyone imagined.
* * *
Mark 4:26-34
Small Seeds in Parenting
Nobel prize author Toni Morrison understood the power of mustard seeds in her parenting. She said that she always tried put an expression of delight on her face when her kids walked into the room, adding, “When my children used to walk into the room when they were little, I looked at them to see if they had buckled their trousers or if their hair was combed or if their socks were up. And you think that your affection and your deep love is on display because you’re caring for them. It’s not. When they see you, they see the critical face. What’s wrong now? But then, if you [try], as I tried from then on… let your face speak what’s in your heart. Because when they walked in the room, I was glad to see them. It’s just as small as that, you see.” She was sowing seeds with her small glances full of love and approval.
* * *
Mark 4:26-34
Mustard Seed Design
Jesus notes the power of small things when he says that the world of God “is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up.”
Blogger Anne Kadet, an observer of New York City’s quirks, sees the same thing at work in Max Kolomatsky, a designer who secretly re-works street flyers for free. He saw the flyers posted around his neighborhood and despaired. “While most were delightful, some bordered on the truly incomprehensible. Mr. Kolomatsky, a freelancer with time on his hands, thought it’d fun to redesign these signs for free and hang them up in the same area — without telling the original creator. Then he posted short videos documenting his efforts on TikTok and Instagram.” He doesn’t change the copy, simply improves the design, and puts the flyer back, hoping his small change will help the business.
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: May God answer us in the day of trouble!
All: May the name of our God protect us!
One: May God send us help from the holy dwelling place.
All: May God give support from Zion.
One: May God remember all our offerings of praise and thanksgiving.
All: May God grant us fulfillment of all our intentions.
OR
One: God comes to bring all of creation into its fullness.
All: Come, God, and renew the works of your hands.
One: God comes to transform us into God’s own likeness.
All: By God’s grace we will open our hearts to God’s work.
One: God desires to recreate the world through us.
All: We offer ourselves to God’s work in the world.
Hymns and Songs
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
GTG: 12
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELW: 834
W&P: 48
AMEC: 71
STLT: 273
Renew: 46
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
UMH: 127
H82: 690
PH: 281
GTG: 66
AAHH: 138/139/140
NNBH: 232
NCH: 18/19
CH: 622
LBW: 343
ELW: 618
W&P: 501
AMEC: 52/53/65
Alleluia, Alleluia
UMH: 162
H82: 178
PH: 106
GTG: 240
CH: 40
W&P: 291
Renew: 271
Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee
UMH: 175
H82: 642
PH: 310
GTG: 629
NCH: 507
CH: 102
LBW: 316
ELW: 754
W&P: 420
AMEC: 464
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 172
PH: 360
GTG: 734
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
This Is a Day of New Beginnings
UMH: 383
NCH: 417
CH: 518
W&P: 355
Spirit of the Living God
UMH: 393
PH: 322
GTG: 288
AAHH: 320
NNBH: 133
NCH: 283
CH: 259
W&P: 492
Renew: 90
Holy Spirit, Truth Divine
UMH: 465
PH: 321
NCH: 63
CH: 241
LBW: 257
ELW: 398
Come Down, O Love Divine
UMH: 475
H82: 516
PH: 313
GTG: 282
NCH: 289
CH: 582
LBW: 508
ELW: 804
W&P: 330
Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart
UMH: 500
PH: 326
GTG: 688
AAHH: 312
NCH: 290
CH: 265
LBW: 486
ELW: 800
W&P: 132
AMEC: 189
Change My Heart, O God
CCB: 56
Renew: 143
Create in Me a Clean Heart
CCB: 54
Renew: 181/182
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The 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
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is creating and recreating forever:
Grant us the grace to allow you to work within us
that we may be transformed fully into your likeness;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are the one who is continually creating and recreating. You work within your creation to bring it to perfection. Work in us that we may be transformed fully into your likeness. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially when we resist the changes God wishes to bring about in us.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We profess our faith in you but when you invite us to a new way of being, we resist. We talk about the wonders of your creation, but we fear what you might do as you recreate us. We know we are flawed but we really don’t want to be transformed into something new. We want to be your image but we don’t want to give ourselves in love as you do. Forgive our lack of faith in your love for us and help us to open our hearts, minds, and lives to your gracious hand. Amen.
One: God is always ready to receive us and to renew our lives. Accept God’s grace and be made whole in love.
Prayers of the People
Glory to you, O God of creative wonder. You create with a power that is never ending until it accomplishes your will.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We profess our faith in you but when you invite us to a new way of being, we resist. We talk about the wonders of your creation, but we fear what you might do as you recreate us. We know we are flawed but we really don't want to be transformed into something new. We want to be your image but we don't want to give ourselves in love as you do. Forgive our lack of faith in your love for us and help us to open our hearts, minds, and lives to your gracious hand.
We give you thanks for your creations. All you have made is filled with your glory and your beauty. We thank you for our bodies which hold the power to heal and to recreate. We thank you for your Spirit which dwells in us and remakes us in your image. We thank you for those who work to bring your creation to its fullness.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for the transformation of this world so that it may truly be your realm. We pray for our own transformation that we may work with your Spirit.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
Hear us as we pray for others: (Time for silent or spoken prayer.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father 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
A Summer of Surprises
by Chris Keating
Mark 4:26-34
This week’s readings hint at the ways surprising results can emerge from unlikely sources. Each text picks up a different facet of the startling ways God is at work in the world. Samuel picks the youngest and scrubbiest of Jesse’s sons to become king, while Ezekiel plucks a tiny sprig of a cedar with the confidence that it will one day grow into a noble tree. Paul sees the greater glory in Christ that emerges from our frail human frame, which produces confidence and faith. Finally, Jesus gathers these disparate themes in a series of concluding parables of the kingdom. Picking up common everyday symbols of his world, Jesus describes the emergence of God’s kingdom from the tiniest, most insignificant origins, into a dynamic presence of uncontrollable growth.
Scientists tell us that our brains light up in different ways when we are surprised. It turns out that surprises can be one of the most powerful human emotions. Surprises cause the brain’s pleasure center to light up like Christmas trees as they respond to the unexpected stimulus. The brain releases noradrenalin, which aids our ability to concentrate alongside a boost of dopamine. Surprise increases our emotional responses by about 400%.
Spend some time pondering the surprising ways you see God at work in your congregation. As you compile a list, consider how children factor into these moments. In one church, a young child made the choice that swayed a family from visitors into active (more than merely active!) members. In another situation, a few tomato plants nurtured by a church’s tiny youth group blossomed into a project that raised more than $2,000 for a local food pantry. One elder’s suggestion resulted in a mission project that became the hallmark of a church’s outreach.
As these ideas germinate, allow them to focus your conversation with the children. Share Jesus’ parables with the children, reminding them that parables were imaginative stories that helped the disciples learn new things. Help them name some of the surprises they may encounter this summer: Finding a new book to read at the library, exploring a new park, making a new friend, visiting a different city, trying a new sport, or even (shocker!) trying new foods. All of these surprises catch us off guard and help us make new discoveries. And, like the tiny mustard seed, they often begin as something small before they become something incredible.
If you have the time, recruit a few kids this week to help you set up root beer floats and pretzels as an after worship treat for Father’s Day. It’s a small, but surprising way of celebrating Father’s Day. Or consider other ways that even the youngest in the church can help make a surprising impact.
When I was growing up, we had a small peach tree in our backyard. The first year we lived in that house, it produced just a few peaches. The next year, dad pruned its dead branches and fed the tree with fertilizer. That year there were more peaches than we could count. That little tree surprised us with bushels of peaches. As I hauled in baskets of peaches, my mother would cut up the fruit and make pies and jam. By the end of the summer, our pantry was filled with homemade peach jam, and our freezer stocked with frozen homemade pies. That was a great surprise!
God takes what is small and nearly insignificant and surprises us with an abundance of grace and blessings.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 16, 2024 issue.
Copyright 2024 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.
- Transformed by Grace by Dean Feldmeyer. Grace. It changes nothing but transforms everything.
- Second Thoughts: The Lord Has Not Chosen Any Of These by Katy Stenta based on 1 Samuel 15:34--16:13.
- Sermon illustrations by Tom Willadsen, Mary Austin.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children's sermon: A Summer of Surprises by Chris Keating based on Mark 4:26-34.
Transformed by Graceby Dean Feldmeyer
2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13) 14-17, Mark 4:26-34
Before I go to bed, I’m going back into the family room to retrieve my book. It’s dark in the family room but I know that, because my grandsons are visiting, there’s a Lego lying on the carpet, lurking in the dark for me to step on. I know that the ottoman has probably been pushed into the center of the room and not returned to my easy chair where it belongs. I know that the dog is in one of her three favorite sleeping places — my chair, the couch, or the dog bed. And I know that there’s something on top of my book, probably a glass with a couple of ice cubes, sitting on a coaster.
This journey, if taken in the dark, could be dangerous.
So, I turn on the light.
Ah, just as I suspected. Lego. Ottoman. Dog. Book. Everything where I thought they might be. Oh, and there’s a bowl with some kernels of un-popped popcorn sitting on the couch.
The room has not changed because I turned on the light. But it has been transformed. It is visible. It can be seen and known and traversed without danger.
And I have been transformed. Where I once walked as one who walks without seeing, now I walk as one who sees.
That’s how grace works. It changes nothing but transforms everything. Let’s talk about that…
In the Scriptures
In the reading from the fifth chapter of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, the apostle rambles on for a while, taking about the kind of transformation that takes place in us when we are struck by grace through Jesus Christ.
The metaphor that he uses to describe this transformation, however, creates nearly as much confusion as it clears up. At least it does for me. But let’s try to unpack what he says: We used to walk “in the body” but now that Jesus Christ has come into our lives, we walk in the spirit.
We are transformed human beings. We used to relate to people from “a human point of view” but now we relate to them or “regard” them, in his words, from a spiritual point of view. God’s grace transforms us by transforming how we relate to each other.
We are still the broken, estranged, flawed human beings we always were, but now we’re transformed. We see each other differently; we relate to each other by grace.
It’s like we used to be always walking through a dark room but now someone has turned on the lights. The room hasn’t changed. It’s still the same messy room it was before. Look, there’s the Lego lying on the carpet waiting for me to step on it. There’s the ottoman out in the middle of the room, waiting to trip me instead of pushed up against the chair where it’s supposed to be. And there’s the newspaper spread out on my chair where I might have sat on it in the dark.
But now, I can see things not as I imagine them to be, but as they are. I don’t have to go stumbling around, stepping on the Lego and tripping over the ottoman or the dog and sitting on the very newspaper I want to read. Before the light comes on, I relate to the room as one who walks in darkness. Now that the light is on, however, both the room and I are transformed. I can walk as one who sees clearly.
Before I was struck by God’s grace, I related to other people as one who walked in darkness. But now, grace has been given to me as a gift from God as God comes to us in Jesus Christ and I am transformed. Now I can relate to those people as one who walks in the light of grace. I can see them not as I imagine them to be but as they really are. I can see their hurt and their pain. I can see their love and their worries. I can see them as children of God, subject to his grace if only they will accept it.
I am transformed by grace and, as I am transformed, they are transformed as well.
“So, if anyone is in Christ,” says Paul, to sum it all up, “there is a new creation: Everything old has passed away. Look, new things have come into being!”
The gospel writer, Mark, chooses a simpler and clearer metaphor to show how God’s grace works — that of seeds.
In the first parable of this morning’s text, he illustrates the fact of how transformative grace works is a mystery. Like a seed, it works because it works. The farmer plants the seeds, goes home, goes to bed, gets up, goes back to work and, in a few days, the seed is transformed into a seedling or sprout, which is, in turn, transformed into a plant, which is, in turn, transformed into fruit and then, back into a seed.
We’d be fools to say, “Well, I can’t possibly eat this tomato until I fully understand all of the hows and whys of its growth and maturation. I can’t benefit from it until I know all the ins and outs of photosynthesis.”
No, all we have to know to benefit from the plant is that it works.
According to Mark, God’s grace is like that. We don’t have to understand it to benefit from it. We need only accept it.
And how do we do that?
Why, by faith. We accept that God’s grace can transform us and change us.
Well, that’s a pretty tall order. I don’t know if I have that much faith.
Oh, says Mark, you don’t need much. Just a tiny little bit, about the size of a mustard seed.
And, you say, that if I have that tiny amount of faith in God’s grace, then it will transform me?
That’s right. And not just you, but the whole world around you.
In the News
Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushaláyim) is an Israeli national holiday that commemorates the “reunification” of East Jerusalem (including the Old City) with West Jerusalem following the Six-Day War of 1967. It is celebrated annually on 28 Iyar on the Hebrew calendar (this year, June 4) and is marked officially throughout Israel with state ceremonies and memorial services.
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel declared Jerusalem Day to be a minor religious holiday, as it marks the regaining for Jewish people of access to the Western Wall. A notable celebration that marks the holiday is a flag-flying parade known as the Dance of Flags.
This year, however, the dance was not accompanied by shouts of joy and songs of triumph and peace. Rather, the shout most often heard as the crowd of more than 10,000 souls waved their flags was “Death to Arabs.” Peace demonstrators and journalists were pushed, shoved, kicked, and beaten by the crowd until Israeli police required them to leave for their own safety.
The wounds of October 6, 2023 are still open, festering, and sore.
As the number of casualties in Gaza approaches 40,000, wounds are being created in the Arab world that will not heal quickly or easily, if at all.
Can peace ever come to this part of the world? Can Arabs and Jews ever live together? What would be required for that to happen?
If Christianity has an answer to that question, it may be found in today’s messages from Paul and Mark. That answer is “grace.” Only the stroke of grace can bring true and lasting peace to people who have hated each other for so many long standing and understandable reasons.
Only grace can bring the kind of transformations that would make peace possible.
Here, in the United States, division, separation, estrangement, and animosity saturate our political system to the point of paralysis. Our political leaders are more interested in scoring political points against each other than working together to solve our national problems.
Many voters seem perfectly happy with that state of affairs, rewarding with votes and standing ovations those politicians whose hallmark is spite and whose default setting is animus.
Senators and representatives are resigning and retiring en masse because they are fed up with the rancor and hate that they see every day in the halls of congress. We are about to elect a class of congressional leaders who have no experience in leading the country. Would any of us hire a plumber or a dentist or a pilot with qualifications like that?
One waits in vain for those in power to correct the errors they have created, to heal the wounds they have inflicted, and to walk back the arguments they have written.
No, it becoming clear that if these things are going to change they will change only by the stroke of God’s grace.
In the Sermon
Grace is transformative. It changes nothing but it transforms everything.
And cousins, everything needs transformation. Everything.
We all need help in transforming the way we see, perceive, and relate to the world and people around us.
Theologian Paul Tillich describes the transformative power of grace this way in his sermon, “You are Accepted:”
After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed. In that moment, grace conquers sin, and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual presupposition, nothing but acceptance.
In the light of this grace we perceive the power of grace in our relation to others and to ourselves. We experience the grace of being able to look frankly into the eyes of another, the miraculous grace of reunion of life with life. We experience the grace of understanding each other's words. We understand not merely the literal meaning of the words, but also that which lies behind them, even when they are harsh or angry. For even then there is a longing to break through the walls of separation. We experience the grace of being able to accept the life of another, even if it be hostile and harmful to us, for, through grace, we know that it belongs to the same Ground to which we belong, and by which we have been accepted. We experience the grace which is able to overcome the tragic separation of the sexes, of the generations, of the nations, of the races, and even the utter strangeness between man and nature. Sometimes grace appears in all these separations to reunite us with those to whom we belong. For life belongs to life. (From the book The Shaking of the Foundations)
Let us pray that God will grant us more experiences of this grace that transforms us and bridges our estrangements with love and acceptance.
SECOND THOUGHTSThe Lord Has Not Chosen Any Of These
by Katy Stenta
1 Samuel 15:34--16:13
When we are looking for answers, humans would like for the answers to be easy, the path to be clear, and the leaders to be perfect and obvious. However, there are, unfortunately, no magic wands. As theologian Frederic Buechner said in his book Wishful Thinking, “Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you.”
No obstacles are removed when your beloved one sits with you when you are in trouble. There may be no answers provided, no things happen, however, presence is a powerful thing. This is why we want it so badly. When President Trump was elected, the therapist who leads my pastors’ group said that we did not realize how much confidence and trust was held by our leadership until we did not have it anymore. And even then, the idea of having a leader is often easier than the chaos of no leadership at all.
The Hebrew people want a king because it is easier to have someone to share the load with. They beg God for a king. God agrees, but picks an unlikely one, who has sparkly eyes, is young and works in unexpected ways.
God has historically worked from the margins, teaching us in unexpected ways, from unexpected people. The trickster characters in the Bible are many, painting the Noahs, Jacobs, Josephs, Rahabs, and Ruths as uninteresting and holistically good is to miss the point of how wholly beloved and human we really are. God formed our whole being, walking with our complexities, and then drawing us toward God’s love. Buechner also says in Wishful Thinking that “Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There's no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth…Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are, because the party wouldn't have been complete without you.”
What we think we want to be held by leadership, the security and safety, is really a longing for grace. The sanctuary to know that we are held, no matter what, as well as the acceptance and belonging. We can take comfort God has chosen us, not necessarily to lead, or to have sparkly eyes, but to sit and be with us.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:Psalm 20
A prayer for victory
The first five verses of today’s psalm can be thought of as an indirect prayer. This psalm was probably recited when sending the king and his army off to battle. The first five verses are the wishes of those staying behind for those going away to fight. It’s not exactly a prayer, because it’s not addressed to God, but it’s very prayer-like.
Verses 6-8 are the response of the one prayed for, presumably the king. In verse 6 the king refers to himself as “his (God’s) anointed,” one could substitute “Christ” for “anointed.”
The final verse is a prayer for victory, spoken by the king. The king uses the royal we, grammatically speaking on behalf of the nation.
* * *
1 Samuel 15:34-16:1
Jesse’s sons
Father Jesse had eight sons, and eight sons had father Jesse, but only four of them are named. The three oldest sons of Jesse are Eliab, Abinadab and Shammah. His youngest son is David, the shepherd boy, who would also become sort of a session lyre player. In 1 Samuel 17 Jesse appears to be a fairly prosperous, prominent leader in the Bethlehem community. Jesse sends his oldest three sons off to battle and can afford to send provisions to them via his youngest son, David.
So there’s a mystery: What are the names of Jesse’s fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh oldest sons? The text is silent.
I suggest we call them Barry, Robin, Maurice, and Andy. This gives David’s musical prowess a kind of back story.
* * *
Mark 4:26-34
Mustard seed
Botanists will tell you that mustard seeds are not the smallest of seeds on earth. A quick visit to Bing reveals that anoectochilus imitans, at 1.5 centimeters is the smallest seed on earth. Jesus is making a different point — that the kingdom of God can be compared to the seed of an invasive plant. Parables are stories meant to help the listener compare one thing in terms of another; the Greek parabole means “to throw alongside.” The hearer of a parable is asked how this story/parable measures up to what you know from experience.
Note, the kingdom of God is not like a mustard plant, but like a tiny mustard seed. So the kingdom of God is like the potential for something to grow, to unfold, into an invasive weed. That’ll preach!
* * *
2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13) 14-17
We walk by faith and not by sight
The beloved, classic Christian hymn text by Henry Alford is based on 2 Corinthians 5:7, in which Paul gives reason for always being confident. The third stanza of this hymn is one that helps believers hold onto faith, even in moments of doubt and uncertainty.
Help then, O Lord, our unbelief;
and may our faith abound
to call on you when you are near
and seek where you are found.
* * * * * *
From team member Mary Austin:2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13) 14-17
A New Creation
Being in Christ allows us to be a new creation — and we have to work hard to bring that to life. In the book Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies, the authors tell the story of Chad Michael Morrissette, who was horribly bullied in school. One day, he got a Facebook message from “someone who’d once been part of making his life a living hell. “Hey Chad, I was recently talking with my 10-year-old daughter about bullies. She asked me if I ever bullied anyone and sadly, I had to say ‘yes.’ What came to mind was how shitty and mean I was to you when we were in junior high. I want to apologize… I don’t even know if you remember, but I do and I am sorry.” Morrissette was shocked.
He remembers, “I was bullied for being gay. I was bullied for being little.” It got so bad, he noted, “I couldn’t even walk to classes without an adult escort or friends with me.” He knew what the writer meant, and he couldn’t remember exactly which tormentor he was.
The Facebook message shook him up. He didn’t answer for a few days. Then he replied. “I’m quite moved by this. Thank you and I accept your apology. In twenty years you are the only person to apologize for being a bully to me when we were younger. I hope you can proudly tell your daughter that you have also apologized…Thank you again, and I hope you stand up to bullying anytime you see it. Have a great day!” The answer: “Thank you. Your forgiveness means more than you know, and I hope I am [not] the last to ask forgiveness from you. Cheers!”
The apology giver concluded it was his duty to try to apologize. “You can’t change your past, but you do still own it. I can’t take back the names I called him, and the threats I made toward him, but I can apologize. It doesn’t excuse my behavior as a child in any way, but as an adult it’s the best I can do to try to make it up to him… I really didn’t expect him to respond at all, and figured if he did it would be telling me where to stick the apology… But Morrisette said it’s never too late. “A simple ‘I’m sorry’ can change everything,” he said.
* * *
Mark 4:26-34
Science Agrees with Jesus
Jesus illuminates the realm of God by saying, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.”
In Refugia Faith, Debra Rienstra observes, “When Mount Saint Helens erupted in May of 1980, it lost 1,300 feet of elevation and gained a new mile-and-a-half-wide crater. The debris and ashfall from the volcanic blast devastated the mountain and its surroundings for miles, crushing, burning, killing, and coating everything in hot ash. Everyone assumed life could return to this apocalyptic death zone only very slowly, maybe over several human lifetimes. Instead, forty years later, the mountainsides are covered with lush grasses, prairie lupines, alders. Critters scamper, streams flow.”
The growth came exactly the way Jesus describes. Rienstra quotes Kathleen Dean Moore who explains (in Great Tide Rising) “What the scientists know now, but didn’t understand then, is that when the mountain blasted ash and rock across the landscape, the devastation passed over some small places hidden in the lee of rocks and trees. Here, a bed of moss and deer fern under a rotting log. There, under a boulder, a patch of pearly everlasting and the tunnel to a vole’s musty nest.” These little pockets of safety are called refugia. They are tiny coverts where plants and creatures hide from destruction, hidden shelters where life persists and out of which new life emerges.” The small, scattered seeds brought life back much sooner than anyone imagined.
* * *
Mark 4:26-34
Small Seeds in Parenting
Nobel prize author Toni Morrison understood the power of mustard seeds in her parenting. She said that she always tried put an expression of delight on her face when her kids walked into the room, adding, “When my children used to walk into the room when they were little, I looked at them to see if they had buckled their trousers or if their hair was combed or if their socks were up. And you think that your affection and your deep love is on display because you’re caring for them. It’s not. When they see you, they see the critical face. What’s wrong now? But then, if you [try], as I tried from then on… let your face speak what’s in your heart. Because when they walked in the room, I was glad to see them. It’s just as small as that, you see.” She was sowing seeds with her small glances full of love and approval.
* * *
Mark 4:26-34
Mustard Seed Design
Jesus notes the power of small things when he says that the world of God “is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up.”
Blogger Anne Kadet, an observer of New York City’s quirks, sees the same thing at work in Max Kolomatsky, a designer who secretly re-works street flyers for free. He saw the flyers posted around his neighborhood and despaired. “While most were delightful, some bordered on the truly incomprehensible. Mr. Kolomatsky, a freelancer with time on his hands, thought it’d fun to redesign these signs for free and hang them up in the same area — without telling the original creator. Then he posted short videos documenting his efforts on TikTok and Instagram.” He doesn’t change the copy, simply improves the design, and puts the flyer back, hoping his small change will help the business.
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: May God answer us in the day of trouble!
All: May the name of our God protect us!
One: May God send us help from the holy dwelling place.
All: May God give support from Zion.
One: May God remember all our offerings of praise and thanksgiving.
All: May God grant us fulfillment of all our intentions.
OR
One: God comes to bring all of creation into its fullness.
All: Come, God, and renew the works of your hands.
One: God comes to transform us into God’s own likeness.
All: By God’s grace we will open our hearts to God’s work.
One: God desires to recreate the world through us.
All: We offer ourselves to God’s work in the world.
Hymns and Songs
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
GTG: 12
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELW: 834
W&P: 48
AMEC: 71
STLT: 273
Renew: 46
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
UMH: 127
H82: 690
PH: 281
GTG: 66
AAHH: 138/139/140
NNBH: 232
NCH: 18/19
CH: 622
LBW: 343
ELW: 618
W&P: 501
AMEC: 52/53/65
Alleluia, Alleluia
UMH: 162
H82: 178
PH: 106
GTG: 240
CH: 40
W&P: 291
Renew: 271
Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee
UMH: 175
H82: 642
PH: 310
GTG: 629
NCH: 507
CH: 102
LBW: 316
ELW: 754
W&P: 420
AMEC: 464
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 172
PH: 360
GTG: 734
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
This Is a Day of New Beginnings
UMH: 383
NCH: 417
CH: 518
W&P: 355
Spirit of the Living God
UMH: 393
PH: 322
GTG: 288
AAHH: 320
NNBH: 133
NCH: 283
CH: 259
W&P: 492
Renew: 90
Holy Spirit, Truth Divine
UMH: 465
PH: 321
NCH: 63
CH: 241
LBW: 257
ELW: 398
Come Down, O Love Divine
UMH: 475
H82: 516
PH: 313
GTG: 282
NCH: 289
CH: 582
LBW: 508
ELW: 804
W&P: 330
Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart
UMH: 500
PH: 326
GTG: 688
AAHH: 312
NCH: 290
CH: 265
LBW: 486
ELW: 800
W&P: 132
AMEC: 189
Change My Heart, O God
CCB: 56
Renew: 143
Create in Me a Clean Heart
CCB: 54
Renew: 181/182
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The 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
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is creating and recreating forever:
Grant us the grace to allow you to work within us
that we may be transformed fully into your likeness;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are the one who is continually creating and recreating. You work within your creation to bring it to perfection. Work in us that we may be transformed fully into your likeness. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially when we resist the changes God wishes to bring about in us.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We profess our faith in you but when you invite us to a new way of being, we resist. We talk about the wonders of your creation, but we fear what you might do as you recreate us. We know we are flawed but we really don’t want to be transformed into something new. We want to be your image but we don’t want to give ourselves in love as you do. Forgive our lack of faith in your love for us and help us to open our hearts, minds, and lives to your gracious hand. Amen.
One: God is always ready to receive us and to renew our lives. Accept God’s grace and be made whole in love.
Prayers of the People
Glory to you, O God of creative wonder. You create with a power that is never ending until it accomplishes your will.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We profess our faith in you but when you invite us to a new way of being, we resist. We talk about the wonders of your creation, but we fear what you might do as you recreate us. We know we are flawed but we really don't want to be transformed into something new. We want to be your image but we don't want to give ourselves in love as you do. Forgive our lack of faith in your love for us and help us to open our hearts, minds, and lives to your gracious hand.
We give you thanks for your creations. All you have made is filled with your glory and your beauty. We thank you for our bodies which hold the power to heal and to recreate. We thank you for your Spirit which dwells in us and remakes us in your image. We thank you for those who work to bring your creation to its fullness.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for the transformation of this world so that it may truly be your realm. We pray for our own transformation that we may work with your Spirit.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
Hear us as we pray for others: (Time for silent or spoken prayer.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father 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 SERMONA Summer of Surprises
by Chris Keating
Mark 4:26-34
This week’s readings hint at the ways surprising results can emerge from unlikely sources. Each text picks up a different facet of the startling ways God is at work in the world. Samuel picks the youngest and scrubbiest of Jesse’s sons to become king, while Ezekiel plucks a tiny sprig of a cedar with the confidence that it will one day grow into a noble tree. Paul sees the greater glory in Christ that emerges from our frail human frame, which produces confidence and faith. Finally, Jesus gathers these disparate themes in a series of concluding parables of the kingdom. Picking up common everyday symbols of his world, Jesus describes the emergence of God’s kingdom from the tiniest, most insignificant origins, into a dynamic presence of uncontrollable growth.
Scientists tell us that our brains light up in different ways when we are surprised. It turns out that surprises can be one of the most powerful human emotions. Surprises cause the brain’s pleasure center to light up like Christmas trees as they respond to the unexpected stimulus. The brain releases noradrenalin, which aids our ability to concentrate alongside a boost of dopamine. Surprise increases our emotional responses by about 400%.
Spend some time pondering the surprising ways you see God at work in your congregation. As you compile a list, consider how children factor into these moments. In one church, a young child made the choice that swayed a family from visitors into active (more than merely active!) members. In another situation, a few tomato plants nurtured by a church’s tiny youth group blossomed into a project that raised more than $2,000 for a local food pantry. One elder’s suggestion resulted in a mission project that became the hallmark of a church’s outreach.
As these ideas germinate, allow them to focus your conversation with the children. Share Jesus’ parables with the children, reminding them that parables were imaginative stories that helped the disciples learn new things. Help them name some of the surprises they may encounter this summer: Finding a new book to read at the library, exploring a new park, making a new friend, visiting a different city, trying a new sport, or even (shocker!) trying new foods. All of these surprises catch us off guard and help us make new discoveries. And, like the tiny mustard seed, they often begin as something small before they become something incredible.
If you have the time, recruit a few kids this week to help you set up root beer floats and pretzels as an after worship treat for Father’s Day. It’s a small, but surprising way of celebrating Father’s Day. Or consider other ways that even the youngest in the church can help make a surprising impact.
When I was growing up, we had a small peach tree in our backyard. The first year we lived in that house, it produced just a few peaches. The next year, dad pruned its dead branches and fed the tree with fertilizer. That year there were more peaches than we could count. That little tree surprised us with bushels of peaches. As I hauled in baskets of peaches, my mother would cut up the fruit and make pies and jam. By the end of the summer, our pantry was filled with homemade peach jam, and our freezer stocked with frozen homemade pies. That was a great surprise!
God takes what is small and nearly insignificant and surprises us with an abundance of grace and blessings.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 16, 2024 issue.
Copyright 2024 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.
