Was It Only A Dream?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
"For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest..." (Isaiah 62:1). The dream Dr. King had is still thriving. But do we need to do more? Have we become lax? Just because this is an ordinary time in church does not mean we become quiet. Every day we should speak of our Lord, Jesus Christ, to everyone! Thom Shuman is the main writer this week with Barbara Jurgensen with a response. Illustrations, a worship resource, and a children's sermon is also provided.
Was It Only A Dream?
By Thom Shuman
THE WORLD
On this Sunday when we begin that season of the church we call "Ordinary," many of us will be honoring and reflecting on the extraordinary life of Martin Luther King Jr., whose birth we celebrate on January 15. King was, in his own words, the "drum major" for the marching band that sought to break down the barriers of Jim Crow laws, of restrooms and lunch counters that read "white only" or "colored only," of separate but supposedly equal educational systems. He had a dream of an America that was completely color-blind, totally tolerant, and unabashedly accepting of everyone for who they were as God's children, not classes or races.
Yet, has the dream been fulfilled? Does the band need to get out its scarred and dented instruments again? Do we, as members of the church that reluctantly joined hands with King, need to help people to remember the dream, and to look for its fulfillment? The prophet for this Sunday, Isaiah, was one of those voices who told King that he could not keep silent for the sake of God's people and God's kingdom. Maybe now, it is our turn to speak up, to see where the dream has become a nightmare, yes; but also to point out where the dream is being lived out, in the lives of everyday people who make up the melting pot we call America; to see how the Body of Christ needs, and indeed thrives, on diversity, not sameness; to see where the water of our ordinary lives can be transformed by God's grace into that rich and delicious wine of new life, new hopes, new dreams.
THE WORD
This is one of those rare Sundays when it seems that all the lectionary passages align themselves so that we can see and hear a very clear word from scripture for our times and our lives.
Isaiah speaks about restoration, and about a new relationship people are invited to have with their God. Like the people in exile, the church often seems to be a child abandoned by the society us. We are uneasy about why we exist, we find the media laughing at and ridiculing us, and there is no parent around to defend us. Yet, no matter what the world calls us, God calls us "My Delight." The psalmist emphasizes God's attitude and actions toward us by reminding us of the steadfast love God has for us, inviting us to drink from that fountain overflowing with living waters.
At a wedding, where a man and a woman become one, and two families are joined together, as a new family is "birthed," John tells us that Jesus performs his first miracle or, as John likes to emphasize, the first sign of something new, something fresh, something wonderful is revealed. By the simple (for Jesus!) act of changing water into wine, we are given to understand that wherever there is the old (the families of the bride and groom), something new is planted; wherever there is an emptiness, God comes to fill it; wherever there is the ordinary, God will transform it into that which can only be called extraordinary.
And what could be more extraordinary than a group of people from different backgrounds, different places, different economic circumstances, different educations, coming together to be a new community, called the church. And they are brought together, not because of who they are, but who God is. The Gifter brings the gifted into communion with one another, so that together they can witness to a world that insists that it is our differences that keep us apart.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
We have a chance this week to not only remind our people of the possibilities -- the dreams -- which were a part of the fabric of our culture forty years ago, but also how, and where, and through whom those dreams are alive today.
Six weeks into the eighth grade, my father's job moved us to deep, south Alabama. What a shock culturally! I still remember the first time I was in a store and started to drink from a water fountain, when someone grabbed my arm, saying, "Can't you read?" pointing to the sign above the cooler that said "Coloreds Only." And then I noticed the restrooms, the lunch counters, the restaurants, the schools, and the churches, which all carried such signs, visible and invisible.
The summer before my senior year in high school, the August 1963 March on Washington took place, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. What a shock to the culture, the society, and the religion in which I lived. A black minister (from Alabama of all places!) standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial talking about a day when black children and white children could live, work, go to school, go to church, go anyplace together!
How in the world did he do it? Where did he find the words, the wisdom, and the courage to stand where he did and say what he did and dream what he dreamed? It's only a guess, but I think a lot of it came from King's immersion in God's Word, and his trust in God's promises, and his faith in God's justice and ability to transform people and nations. Like Isaiah, King could not stay silent in the face of the continued dehumanization of his people. Like Paul, he dared to believe that God could craft a community out of a variety of differences. Like Jesus, he could envision new wine, wine that could rinse away the bitter taste of the centuries of cruelty, racism, and oppression.
Did it change that culture, that society, that religion in which I lived? In many ways, it did. The minister of the church I attended dared to tell the church elders that if blacks came to worship, he would stand there and greet them. Another minister went back to law school because he knew that it would be a route to promoting equality. I went to a church-related liberal arts college that was proud of its integrated student body.
But in many ways it didn't. The minister of my home church was forced out because of his stance. The other minister found the law to be more of an impediment than an avenue to change. And it was made very clear to me by my dorm mates that while integration was a model of the school, it did not include my having a black roommate, when I was considering it.
But it was those glimpses of what could happen if one dared to dream that sustained, and still sustains many people. Even though it has been forty plus years, and much has changed and improved, Isaiah reminds us that complete change has not taken place, and that God is still yearning for those new relationships that King spoke about to be forged into reality. We dare not keep silent about this hope of our God's, but must point our people to those opportunities that are ours.
It was King's vision that indeed the community that Paul talked about could be created. Not one based on a common race, but one that included all races. Not one based on common interests, but one that welcomed alternative ways of doing things, and looking at things, and saying things. Not one based on a false sense of unity, but one that openly embraced differences. King recognized, as we often forget, that Paul writes to a group that is being torn apart by their differences rather than being strengthened by them. We dare not keep silent about the hope God has for us to be one because of our differences, as we point out those examples of people who are enhanced by those who are not the same.
Like two families at a wedding, King had a dream of two peoples who could come together because of God's vision of love, of hope, and of new life. They could put aside their differences for the sake of the kids, they could see each other with new eyes because of what their children saw in one another, they could listen to one another in a different way because of the words the children spoke to one another. The old wine of hatred and division, of separation and intolerance, was running out, and unity, hope, reconciliation, and peace were the gifts just waiting to be opened if the families would just drink of the new wine God had prepared -- for them. We dare not keep silent that God is still in the wine-making business, pointing our people to the places where enemies become friends, where hatred is replaced with love, where brokenness is made whole.
Was it only a dream -- or are we just not noticing what God is doing in our midst?
ANOTHER VIEW
By Barbara Jurgensen
An African-American man from Harlem was standing at a New York City subway station with his two very young daughters last week, waiting for a train, when suddenly he saw a young man fall onto the tracks -- just as a train was coming screeching toward the station.
In a split second Wesley Autrey, 50, had to decide what to do.
First he tried to pull the teenager back up onto the platform, but it wasn't going well, and he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to hoist him up in time.
So Autrey dived in on top of him and pinned him down in the shallow ditch between the rails, hoping there was enough clearance to keep the train from hitting them.
Though the train's operator saw them and engaged the emergency brake, two of the cars passed over Autrey and the teen before the train stopped.
When people on the platform began screaming, Autrey called back, "We're okay down here. But tell my two little daughters that I'm all right."
Officials of New York City Transit said that the drainage ditches between the rails are typically about 12 inches deep, but can be as shallow as 8 or as deep as 24. The train grazed Autrey's cap, but did not injure either him or the teen.
The teenager, Cameron Hollopeter, 19, of Littleton, Massachusetts, a student at the New York Film Academy, had had some sort of a seizure a few minutes earlier and collapsed on the platform, and Autrey had used a pen to pry open his jaw to keep him from biting his tongue.
A short while later the seizure had ended and Hollopeter had gotten up and began walking. It was then that he lost his balance and fell onto the subway track.
Then, after trying unsuccessfully to pull him out, Autrey had jumped in after him and wrapped his arms and legs around him as tightly as he could to try to keep them both below the level of the underbody of the train.
After the two were helped back onto the platform of the 137th Street/City College Station, onlookers cheered Autrey and hugged him and began calling him a hero.
But Autrey, a Navy veteran, said he didn't feel he did anything out of the ordinary. "I just saw someone who needed help," he told a reporter for the New York Times. "I did what I felt was right. I did it to save someone's life."
Autrey and his daughters later boarded a train and continued on their way downtown, and Hollopeter was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment for injuries he sustained in the fall, and for observation.
Our psalm for today, verses 5-10 of Psalm 36, says:
Your steadfast love, O Lord,
extends to the heavens...
you save humans and animals
alike, O Lord.
Wesley Autrey saved a teenager who was lying sprawled out across the subway tracks, directly in the path of an oncoming train -- saved him from almost certain death.
The psalm says our Lord saves us. But what does our Lord save us from?
First, he saves us from living selfishly, from living self-centeredly, from living only for ourselves, unaware of the needs of others.
Second, he saves us from living without a purpose, from living aimlessly.
And third, he saves us from being loaded down, day after day, with fear and anger and guilt.
Our Lord's total, unconditional, never-ending love for each and every one of us can keep us from being paralyzed by a fear of what the future might hold for us. Perfect love casts out fear, and that's the kind of love he has for each of us. And he promises to walk our journey with us, and to take us to be with him when we finish our journey here on earth.
And he relieves us of our anger over the way other people have treated us. We don't need to try to get revenge. He says, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" (Romans 12:19). We can forgive others and move on with our lives, not dragging the ball and chain of anger and revenge along behind us.
And since he has already taken care of all our wrongdoing, we need not live weighed down by guilt. He has set us free, and if the Son has set us free, we are free indeed.
He will help us grow in learning to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and in learning to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
And he will give purpose to our days that we never could have imagined as he calls us to do his work with him, to be part of his kingdom, his community, to be his people. Who knew that following him could give us a deep joy that we could find in no other way?
Wesley Autrey, who threw himself down between the subway tracks to try to save the life of a teenage boy with a medical problem, has an interesting first name. Did his parents name him "Wesley," hoping that he would become a man of deep faith like Charles and John and Samuel Wesley, who helped renew the church and gave us so many fine hymns (the Lutheran Book of Worship has 17)?
Their hymns include: "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today!" "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus," "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," "O Living Bread from Heaven," "Oh, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing," and "The Church's One Foundation."
Our psalm for today concludes with the words:
How precious is your steadfast
love, O God...
O continue your steadfast love to
those who know you,
and your salvation...
Wesley Autrey reminded us all of that love.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Desmond Tutu articulated his vision for hope in our time in his book God Has A Dream, (Doubleday 2004)
Dear Children of God, before we can become God's partners, we must know what God wants for us. "I have a dream," God says. "Please help me to realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, when there will be more laughter, joy, and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing. I have a dream that swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that My children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God's family, My family.
In God's family, there are no outsiders, all are insiders. Black and White, rich and poor, gay and straight, Jew and Arab, Palestinian and Israeli, Roman Catholic and Protestant, Serb and Albanian, Hutu and Tutsi, Muslim and Christian, Buddhist and Hindu, Pakistani and Indian-all belong. (pp. 19-20)
* * *
The vision of a better world and the steadfast belief that, because it was of God, it could not fail, sustained the people working to end apartheid in South Africa through a long and torturous struggle. In the same book quoted above, Tutu says: During the darkest days of apartheid I used to say to P. W. Botha, the president of South Africa, that we had already won and I invited him and other white South Africans to join the winning side. All "objective" facts were against us -- the pass laws, the imprisonments, the teargassing, the massacres, the murder of political activists -- but my confidence was not in circumstances but in the law of God's universe. This is a moral universe, which means that, despite all of the evidence that seems to be to the contrary, there is no way that evil and oppression and lies can have the last word. God is a God who cares about right and wrong. God cares about justice and injustice. God is in charge. That is what upheld the morale of our people, to know that in the end good will prevail. It was these higher laws that convinced me that our peaceful struggle would topple the immoral laws of apartheid. (p.2)
It is reported that, at one time when Bishop Tutu was confronted by a large group of government security forces who came into a church where he was holding a service, he actually invited them to come over to the winning side.
* * *
In Legacies, A Chinese Mosaic (Pan books, 1991), Bette Bio Lord tells of the experiences of Chinese people during and after the terrible oppression that was called "The Great Cultural Revolution."
One man was imprisoned in his own office when his young son was only seven years old. He had just taught his son to fly a kite. But once the man was imprisoned, he was held alone, for years, not knowing why he was in prison or whether he would ever be freed, what was happening in the world, what had become of all those he cherished. Many a long night, he contemplated suicide. Only one certainty stopped him. Every day at dawn -- summer, winter, spring or fall, he could look through the crack in his boarded up window and see a snippet of color, a tiny vermilion kite in the sky. Sometimes it hovered at eye level, sometimes it soared into the heavens. Sometimes it was barely visible. The familiar sight never failed to inspire hope. He knew someone was sending a message, someone on the outside waited faithfully, someone cared.
* * *
(The Wedding at Cana -- John) It's not unusual for missionaries serving in Japan to have only 1-2 baptisms a year. It's not unusual for missionaries serving in Muslim countries to have 1-2 conversions during their long tenure. What keeps such people going? How can they keep their commitment level high and their sense of worth in tact? It's for those rare glimpses in which they see beyond themselves and see God's hand at work. They know that they do not live in the mountaintop. It's nice to catch a sight of it now and then but they live their lives in the valley. It is for those rare glimpses like seeing Jesus turn water into wine. For most people, it was a magic trick. But for those eyes of faith, it was a glimpse of the kingdom to come referred to in Isaiah 25 -- "On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all people, a banquet of aged wine -- the best meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever and wipe away the tears from all faces" (25:6-8).
* * *
(Spiritual Gifts -- Corinthians) I once spoke with a pastor who had his eyes opened to the power of Spiritual Gifts. It had to do with the two unassuming women in his church who seemed to be doing his job.
There was a member of his church who was going to have surgery early in the morning. They always want them there so early -- between 5:00 a.m. or 5:30. He got up early, chugged down some coffee, and was going to slip in to see her before surgery. He was met in the hallway by a woman of the church who asked, "Pastor, what are you doing here?" His first response was to ask her the same question. His second was to say, "It's my job." But common sense prevailed and he said, "I'm here to see Mary." The woman said, "Oh, come right in. I'll show you her room." She led him to the hospital room where another woman was holding Mary's hand and praying. When he got there, what did she do? She immediately dropped Mary's hand, stood up, and moved away from Mary to make room for the pastor who came in, read scripture, said a prayer and left. He did his job. After he left, the two women took over.
On the way home he thought, "What just happened?" Those women had the gift of mercy. They had the gift of compassion. And he just got in the way. And he was astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out EVEN among these two women. How humbling to be reminded that we as pastor are not the only ones who have access to the Spirit. Or, to put it another way, how freeing it is to know that we as pastors are not the only one with access to the Spirit. The body of Christ is filled with many who have Spiritual Gifts just waiting to be used.
* * *
(Dream Big!) I once went to a convention in Atlanta for Clergy where one speaker hit dreaming big with a strong challenge to those 45,000 pastors in the Georgia Dome. He first asked, "What goals do you have for your church this year? What do you hope to accomplish?" And we all thought silently to ourselves, ticking off our yearly goals. He continued, "Can you do them? Do you have the staff, the expertise, the resources? Have you articulated that vision? Can you accomplish it?" We thought for a moment, thinking that it was all doable.
Now the challenge. "Get rid of those puny goals. You can do those goals. Forget them. You don't need them. How many goals do you have for God's Church that are impossible for you to do? How many goals do you have that are beyond your abilities? How many goals do you have that only God can accomplish? Those should be your goals. Those should be your aspirations. Because this is not your church. It is God's Church. It is not run by your managerial style, it is powered by the Holy Spirit. It will not happen because of your quick wit and winning smile. Pray, seek, explore, and embrace those goals that God alone can accomplish -- and then get out of the way."
How hard for us to take this leap of faith! When I think of Dr. Martin Luther King's dream, it was nothing that he could accomplish. It was beyond his ability. It was a God-sized task. On this MLK weekend, we are called to dream big, to cast off our puny goals and embrace the vision placed in us by God -- and then get out of God's way.
* * *
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once suggested that "our nettlesome task is to bear the burden to redeem the soul of America."
Some disturbing facts drawn from The Covenant with Black America edited by Tavis Smiley can help illustrate the challenge before us in terms of our continuing racial divide.
Black infants are nearly two-and-one-half times more likely than white infants to die before their first birthday.
More than one out of every three black people are plagued by hypertension; this is the highest rate in the world. Hypertension can damage kidneys and lead to stroke, heart failure, and heart attack when it is not treated.
Black people are 10 percent more likely to suffer from cancer and 30 percent more likely to die from cancer than whites.
Early childhood education is key to school readiness and sustained academic achievement, yet at age three, only 45 percent of African American children are enrolled, and at age four just 73 percent are registered.
In 2000, 31 percent of African Americans ages 18-24 were enrolled in college and universities; nearly two-thirds of these students were female.
Youth of all races sell and use drugs at similar rates, but African-American youth represent 60-75 percent of drug arrests today,
Across the United States, over 10 percent of black drivers stopped by police were likely to be searched or have their vehicles searched as opposed to 3.5 percent if white drivers stopped by police.
African Americans have a median net worth of $5,998 as compared to $88,651 for whites. Even more alarming, 32 percent of African Americans have a zero or negative net worth.
Although African Americans are more than 13 percent of the nation's population, their total net worth is only 1.2 percent of the total net worth of the nation. This number has not changed since the end of the Civil War in 1865.
Nationally, three out of five African American and Latino Americans live in communities with abandoned toxic waste sites.
Nearly 51 percent of African Americans have access to a home computer compared to 74.6 percent of whites. In terms of internet access, only 40.5 percent of African Americans have access to the Internet at home compared to 67.3 percent of whites.
Nearly 14 percent of African Americans have access to broadband internet at home -- the strongest predictor of intensity and sophistication of internet use, even more so than years of internet experience -- while 26 percent of whites do.
Finally from William Sloan Coffin, Credo, comes this:
Ninety-eight percent of people in prison in the United States lived in poverty most of their lives. Nearly 1 of every 150 people in this country is imprisoned, a number no other democracy comes close to matching.
WORSHIP RESOURCE
By Thom Shuman
Call To Worship
Leader: We come this day, Precious God,
as people in need of your steadfast love:
People: with you is the fountain of life;
in your Light we see light.
Leader: We gather this day, Water-changing God,
as people looking for signs:
People: with you is the fountain of life;
in your Light we see light.
Leader: We worship this day, Gifting God,
as people who confess Jesus as our Lord:
People: with you is the fountain of life;
in your Light we see light.
Prayer Of The Day
With you, Enduring Joy,
we find our refuge.
In the shelter of your compassion,
we are made whole;
in the abundance of your grace,
we are fed;
in the depths of your living waters,
we are transfigured into new people.
With you, Revealer of Glory,
we are filled to the brim.
Our lips cannot contain your praise;
our hearts overflow with your spirit;
our lives are poured out for others.
Activating Spirit,
we find our common life
in this community of faith.
United by a common confession,
we take our uncommon gifts
and share them
in serving all people.
Same in love, same in grace,
God in Community, Holy in One,
hear us as we pray as Jesus taught us, saying,
Our Father...
Call To Reconciliation
We cannot claim ignorance of our sins, for we know how we have not lived as God's people. But God refuses to forsake us, waiting to forgive us and call us as God's children. Please join me as we pray, saying,
Unison Prayer Of Confession
Delight of the Ages, we cannot remain silent, but must speak of the ways we misuse your gifts. In our desire to have more and more, we cause more damage to your good creation. In our obsession with ourselves, we have desolated that lives of those around us. When we hoard what you have given us, we cannot be a blessing to other people.
Forgive us, Restless God, so we might be restored to life. May your steadfast love save and strengthen us to share our gifts with others, even as you have shared the Gift of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
(Silence is observed.)
Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: God delights in you. So much, that God
will not rest until you are at peace. God
will not remain silent, but will call you
by name: "My Delight."
People: God's steadfast love extends to the heavens,
and reaches down to touch our hearts.
Thanks be to God who forgives and saves
us! Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMONS
The first miracle
Object: a bottle of wine and a bottle of water
Good morning! I have two bottles of liquid here, and I want you to tell me what each of them is. (show the bottles and let them answer) Yes, this one is wine, and this one is water. Did you have any trouble telling which was which? Was it hard to identify the wine as being quite different from the water? (let them answer) No, of course not. Wine is a lot different from water, and it's easy to tell the difference.
Once Jesus went to a wedding where it was expected that wine would be served to the guests. Now they had been serving wine, but it was running out. Perhaps they had more guests than they had expected or they just hadn't bought enough. Jesus wanted to help them out, so what do you think he did? Did he run to the store and buy more wine? (let them answer) No, of course not. He made wine right there for them. He had some big containers filled with water and then he changed it into wine. How do you think he did that? (let them answer) It was a miracle, wasn't it? We don't know how miracles are done, but God can do anything, and Jesus is God. Do you think the people who saw this miracle were amazed when he did it? (let them answer) Yes, I'm sure they were. I would be amazed if I had been there. Jesus did a lot of miracles, but this was his first one. He did it right at the beginning of his ministry.
Let's say a prayer thanking Jesus for all the wonderful miracles he performed to show everyone that he was the Son of God.
Dear Jesus: We thank you for coming into the world to teach us and, by your many miracles, to prove that you are the Son of God, the Savior of the whole world. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, January 14, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 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 permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
Was It Only A Dream?
By Thom Shuman
THE WORLD
On this Sunday when we begin that season of the church we call "Ordinary," many of us will be honoring and reflecting on the extraordinary life of Martin Luther King Jr., whose birth we celebrate on January 15. King was, in his own words, the "drum major" for the marching band that sought to break down the barriers of Jim Crow laws, of restrooms and lunch counters that read "white only" or "colored only," of separate but supposedly equal educational systems. He had a dream of an America that was completely color-blind, totally tolerant, and unabashedly accepting of everyone for who they were as God's children, not classes or races.
Yet, has the dream been fulfilled? Does the band need to get out its scarred and dented instruments again? Do we, as members of the church that reluctantly joined hands with King, need to help people to remember the dream, and to look for its fulfillment? The prophet for this Sunday, Isaiah, was one of those voices who told King that he could not keep silent for the sake of God's people and God's kingdom. Maybe now, it is our turn to speak up, to see where the dream has become a nightmare, yes; but also to point out where the dream is being lived out, in the lives of everyday people who make up the melting pot we call America; to see how the Body of Christ needs, and indeed thrives, on diversity, not sameness; to see where the water of our ordinary lives can be transformed by God's grace into that rich and delicious wine of new life, new hopes, new dreams.
THE WORD
This is one of those rare Sundays when it seems that all the lectionary passages align themselves so that we can see and hear a very clear word from scripture for our times and our lives.
Isaiah speaks about restoration, and about a new relationship people are invited to have with their God. Like the people in exile, the church often seems to be a child abandoned by the society us. We are uneasy about why we exist, we find the media laughing at and ridiculing us, and there is no parent around to defend us. Yet, no matter what the world calls us, God calls us "My Delight." The psalmist emphasizes God's attitude and actions toward us by reminding us of the steadfast love God has for us, inviting us to drink from that fountain overflowing with living waters.
At a wedding, where a man and a woman become one, and two families are joined together, as a new family is "birthed," John tells us that Jesus performs his first miracle or, as John likes to emphasize, the first sign of something new, something fresh, something wonderful is revealed. By the simple (for Jesus!) act of changing water into wine, we are given to understand that wherever there is the old (the families of the bride and groom), something new is planted; wherever there is an emptiness, God comes to fill it; wherever there is the ordinary, God will transform it into that which can only be called extraordinary.
And what could be more extraordinary than a group of people from different backgrounds, different places, different economic circumstances, different educations, coming together to be a new community, called the church. And they are brought together, not because of who they are, but who God is. The Gifter brings the gifted into communion with one another, so that together they can witness to a world that insists that it is our differences that keep us apart.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
We have a chance this week to not only remind our people of the possibilities -- the dreams -- which were a part of the fabric of our culture forty years ago, but also how, and where, and through whom those dreams are alive today.
Six weeks into the eighth grade, my father's job moved us to deep, south Alabama. What a shock culturally! I still remember the first time I was in a store and started to drink from a water fountain, when someone grabbed my arm, saying, "Can't you read?" pointing to the sign above the cooler that said "Coloreds Only." And then I noticed the restrooms, the lunch counters, the restaurants, the schools, and the churches, which all carried such signs, visible and invisible.
The summer before my senior year in high school, the August 1963 March on Washington took place, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. What a shock to the culture, the society, and the religion in which I lived. A black minister (from Alabama of all places!) standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial talking about a day when black children and white children could live, work, go to school, go to church, go anyplace together!
How in the world did he do it? Where did he find the words, the wisdom, and the courage to stand where he did and say what he did and dream what he dreamed? It's only a guess, but I think a lot of it came from King's immersion in God's Word, and his trust in God's promises, and his faith in God's justice and ability to transform people and nations. Like Isaiah, King could not stay silent in the face of the continued dehumanization of his people. Like Paul, he dared to believe that God could craft a community out of a variety of differences. Like Jesus, he could envision new wine, wine that could rinse away the bitter taste of the centuries of cruelty, racism, and oppression.
Did it change that culture, that society, that religion in which I lived? In many ways, it did. The minister of the church I attended dared to tell the church elders that if blacks came to worship, he would stand there and greet them. Another minister went back to law school because he knew that it would be a route to promoting equality. I went to a church-related liberal arts college that was proud of its integrated student body.
But in many ways it didn't. The minister of my home church was forced out because of his stance. The other minister found the law to be more of an impediment than an avenue to change. And it was made very clear to me by my dorm mates that while integration was a model of the school, it did not include my having a black roommate, when I was considering it.
But it was those glimpses of what could happen if one dared to dream that sustained, and still sustains many people. Even though it has been forty plus years, and much has changed and improved, Isaiah reminds us that complete change has not taken place, and that God is still yearning for those new relationships that King spoke about to be forged into reality. We dare not keep silent about this hope of our God's, but must point our people to those opportunities that are ours.
It was King's vision that indeed the community that Paul talked about could be created. Not one based on a common race, but one that included all races. Not one based on common interests, but one that welcomed alternative ways of doing things, and looking at things, and saying things. Not one based on a false sense of unity, but one that openly embraced differences. King recognized, as we often forget, that Paul writes to a group that is being torn apart by their differences rather than being strengthened by them. We dare not keep silent about the hope God has for us to be one because of our differences, as we point out those examples of people who are enhanced by those who are not the same.
Like two families at a wedding, King had a dream of two peoples who could come together because of God's vision of love, of hope, and of new life. They could put aside their differences for the sake of the kids, they could see each other with new eyes because of what their children saw in one another, they could listen to one another in a different way because of the words the children spoke to one another. The old wine of hatred and division, of separation and intolerance, was running out, and unity, hope, reconciliation, and peace were the gifts just waiting to be opened if the families would just drink of the new wine God had prepared -- for them. We dare not keep silent that God is still in the wine-making business, pointing our people to the places where enemies become friends, where hatred is replaced with love, where brokenness is made whole.
Was it only a dream -- or are we just not noticing what God is doing in our midst?
ANOTHER VIEW
By Barbara Jurgensen
An African-American man from Harlem was standing at a New York City subway station with his two very young daughters last week, waiting for a train, when suddenly he saw a young man fall onto the tracks -- just as a train was coming screeching toward the station.
In a split second Wesley Autrey, 50, had to decide what to do.
First he tried to pull the teenager back up onto the platform, but it wasn't going well, and he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to hoist him up in time.
So Autrey dived in on top of him and pinned him down in the shallow ditch between the rails, hoping there was enough clearance to keep the train from hitting them.
Though the train's operator saw them and engaged the emergency brake, two of the cars passed over Autrey and the teen before the train stopped.
When people on the platform began screaming, Autrey called back, "We're okay down here. But tell my two little daughters that I'm all right."
Officials of New York City Transit said that the drainage ditches between the rails are typically about 12 inches deep, but can be as shallow as 8 or as deep as 24. The train grazed Autrey's cap, but did not injure either him or the teen.
The teenager, Cameron Hollopeter, 19, of Littleton, Massachusetts, a student at the New York Film Academy, had had some sort of a seizure a few minutes earlier and collapsed on the platform, and Autrey had used a pen to pry open his jaw to keep him from biting his tongue.
A short while later the seizure had ended and Hollopeter had gotten up and began walking. It was then that he lost his balance and fell onto the subway track.
Then, after trying unsuccessfully to pull him out, Autrey had jumped in after him and wrapped his arms and legs around him as tightly as he could to try to keep them both below the level of the underbody of the train.
After the two were helped back onto the platform of the 137th Street/City College Station, onlookers cheered Autrey and hugged him and began calling him a hero.
But Autrey, a Navy veteran, said he didn't feel he did anything out of the ordinary. "I just saw someone who needed help," he told a reporter for the New York Times. "I did what I felt was right. I did it to save someone's life."
Autrey and his daughters later boarded a train and continued on their way downtown, and Hollopeter was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment for injuries he sustained in the fall, and for observation.
Our psalm for today, verses 5-10 of Psalm 36, says:
Your steadfast love, O Lord,
extends to the heavens...
you save humans and animals
alike, O Lord.
Wesley Autrey saved a teenager who was lying sprawled out across the subway tracks, directly in the path of an oncoming train -- saved him from almost certain death.
The psalm says our Lord saves us. But what does our Lord save us from?
First, he saves us from living selfishly, from living self-centeredly, from living only for ourselves, unaware of the needs of others.
Second, he saves us from living without a purpose, from living aimlessly.
And third, he saves us from being loaded down, day after day, with fear and anger and guilt.
Our Lord's total, unconditional, never-ending love for each and every one of us can keep us from being paralyzed by a fear of what the future might hold for us. Perfect love casts out fear, and that's the kind of love he has for each of us. And he promises to walk our journey with us, and to take us to be with him when we finish our journey here on earth.
And he relieves us of our anger over the way other people have treated us. We don't need to try to get revenge. He says, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" (Romans 12:19). We can forgive others and move on with our lives, not dragging the ball and chain of anger and revenge along behind us.
And since he has already taken care of all our wrongdoing, we need not live weighed down by guilt. He has set us free, and if the Son has set us free, we are free indeed.
He will help us grow in learning to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and in learning to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
And he will give purpose to our days that we never could have imagined as he calls us to do his work with him, to be part of his kingdom, his community, to be his people. Who knew that following him could give us a deep joy that we could find in no other way?
Wesley Autrey, who threw himself down between the subway tracks to try to save the life of a teenage boy with a medical problem, has an interesting first name. Did his parents name him "Wesley," hoping that he would become a man of deep faith like Charles and John and Samuel Wesley, who helped renew the church and gave us so many fine hymns (the Lutheran Book of Worship has 17)?
Their hymns include: "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today!" "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus," "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," "O Living Bread from Heaven," "Oh, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing," and "The Church's One Foundation."
Our psalm for today concludes with the words:
How precious is your steadfast
love, O God...
O continue your steadfast love to
those who know you,
and your salvation...
Wesley Autrey reminded us all of that love.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Desmond Tutu articulated his vision for hope in our time in his book God Has A Dream, (Doubleday 2004)
Dear Children of God, before we can become God's partners, we must know what God wants for us. "I have a dream," God says. "Please help me to realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, when there will be more laughter, joy, and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing. I have a dream that swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that My children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God's family, My family.
In God's family, there are no outsiders, all are insiders. Black and White, rich and poor, gay and straight, Jew and Arab, Palestinian and Israeli, Roman Catholic and Protestant, Serb and Albanian, Hutu and Tutsi, Muslim and Christian, Buddhist and Hindu, Pakistani and Indian-all belong. (pp. 19-20)
* * *
The vision of a better world and the steadfast belief that, because it was of God, it could not fail, sustained the people working to end apartheid in South Africa through a long and torturous struggle. In the same book quoted above, Tutu says: During the darkest days of apartheid I used to say to P. W. Botha, the president of South Africa, that we had already won and I invited him and other white South Africans to join the winning side. All "objective" facts were against us -- the pass laws, the imprisonments, the teargassing, the massacres, the murder of political activists -- but my confidence was not in circumstances but in the law of God's universe. This is a moral universe, which means that, despite all of the evidence that seems to be to the contrary, there is no way that evil and oppression and lies can have the last word. God is a God who cares about right and wrong. God cares about justice and injustice. God is in charge. That is what upheld the morale of our people, to know that in the end good will prevail. It was these higher laws that convinced me that our peaceful struggle would topple the immoral laws of apartheid. (p.2)
It is reported that, at one time when Bishop Tutu was confronted by a large group of government security forces who came into a church where he was holding a service, he actually invited them to come over to the winning side.
* * *
In Legacies, A Chinese Mosaic (Pan books, 1991), Bette Bio Lord tells of the experiences of Chinese people during and after the terrible oppression that was called "The Great Cultural Revolution."
One man was imprisoned in his own office when his young son was only seven years old. He had just taught his son to fly a kite. But once the man was imprisoned, he was held alone, for years, not knowing why he was in prison or whether he would ever be freed, what was happening in the world, what had become of all those he cherished. Many a long night, he contemplated suicide. Only one certainty stopped him. Every day at dawn -- summer, winter, spring or fall, he could look through the crack in his boarded up window and see a snippet of color, a tiny vermilion kite in the sky. Sometimes it hovered at eye level, sometimes it soared into the heavens. Sometimes it was barely visible. The familiar sight never failed to inspire hope. He knew someone was sending a message, someone on the outside waited faithfully, someone cared.
* * *
(The Wedding at Cana -- John) It's not unusual for missionaries serving in Japan to have only 1-2 baptisms a year. It's not unusual for missionaries serving in Muslim countries to have 1-2 conversions during their long tenure. What keeps such people going? How can they keep their commitment level high and their sense of worth in tact? It's for those rare glimpses in which they see beyond themselves and see God's hand at work. They know that they do not live in the mountaintop. It's nice to catch a sight of it now and then but they live their lives in the valley. It is for those rare glimpses like seeing Jesus turn water into wine. For most people, it was a magic trick. But for those eyes of faith, it was a glimpse of the kingdom to come referred to in Isaiah 25 -- "On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all people, a banquet of aged wine -- the best meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever and wipe away the tears from all faces" (25:6-8).
* * *
(Spiritual Gifts -- Corinthians) I once spoke with a pastor who had his eyes opened to the power of Spiritual Gifts. It had to do with the two unassuming women in his church who seemed to be doing his job.
There was a member of his church who was going to have surgery early in the morning. They always want them there so early -- between 5:00 a.m. or 5:30. He got up early, chugged down some coffee, and was going to slip in to see her before surgery. He was met in the hallway by a woman of the church who asked, "Pastor, what are you doing here?" His first response was to ask her the same question. His second was to say, "It's my job." But common sense prevailed and he said, "I'm here to see Mary." The woman said, "Oh, come right in. I'll show you her room." She led him to the hospital room where another woman was holding Mary's hand and praying. When he got there, what did she do? She immediately dropped Mary's hand, stood up, and moved away from Mary to make room for the pastor who came in, read scripture, said a prayer and left. He did his job. After he left, the two women took over.
On the way home he thought, "What just happened?" Those women had the gift of mercy. They had the gift of compassion. And he just got in the way. And he was astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out EVEN among these two women. How humbling to be reminded that we as pastor are not the only ones who have access to the Spirit. Or, to put it another way, how freeing it is to know that we as pastors are not the only one with access to the Spirit. The body of Christ is filled with many who have Spiritual Gifts just waiting to be used.
* * *
(Dream Big!) I once went to a convention in Atlanta for Clergy where one speaker hit dreaming big with a strong challenge to those 45,000 pastors in the Georgia Dome. He first asked, "What goals do you have for your church this year? What do you hope to accomplish?" And we all thought silently to ourselves, ticking off our yearly goals. He continued, "Can you do them? Do you have the staff, the expertise, the resources? Have you articulated that vision? Can you accomplish it?" We thought for a moment, thinking that it was all doable.
Now the challenge. "Get rid of those puny goals. You can do those goals. Forget them. You don't need them. How many goals do you have for God's Church that are impossible for you to do? How many goals do you have that are beyond your abilities? How many goals do you have that only God can accomplish? Those should be your goals. Those should be your aspirations. Because this is not your church. It is God's Church. It is not run by your managerial style, it is powered by the Holy Spirit. It will not happen because of your quick wit and winning smile. Pray, seek, explore, and embrace those goals that God alone can accomplish -- and then get out of the way."
How hard for us to take this leap of faith! When I think of Dr. Martin Luther King's dream, it was nothing that he could accomplish. It was beyond his ability. It was a God-sized task. On this MLK weekend, we are called to dream big, to cast off our puny goals and embrace the vision placed in us by God -- and then get out of God's way.
* * *
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once suggested that "our nettlesome task is to bear the burden to redeem the soul of America."
Some disturbing facts drawn from The Covenant with Black America edited by Tavis Smiley can help illustrate the challenge before us in terms of our continuing racial divide.
Black infants are nearly two-and-one-half times more likely than white infants to die before their first birthday.
More than one out of every three black people are plagued by hypertension; this is the highest rate in the world. Hypertension can damage kidneys and lead to stroke, heart failure, and heart attack when it is not treated.
Black people are 10 percent more likely to suffer from cancer and 30 percent more likely to die from cancer than whites.
Early childhood education is key to school readiness and sustained academic achievement, yet at age three, only 45 percent of African American children are enrolled, and at age four just 73 percent are registered.
In 2000, 31 percent of African Americans ages 18-24 were enrolled in college and universities; nearly two-thirds of these students were female.
Youth of all races sell and use drugs at similar rates, but African-American youth represent 60-75 percent of drug arrests today,
Across the United States, over 10 percent of black drivers stopped by police were likely to be searched or have their vehicles searched as opposed to 3.5 percent if white drivers stopped by police.
African Americans have a median net worth of $5,998 as compared to $88,651 for whites. Even more alarming, 32 percent of African Americans have a zero or negative net worth.
Although African Americans are more than 13 percent of the nation's population, their total net worth is only 1.2 percent of the total net worth of the nation. This number has not changed since the end of the Civil War in 1865.
Nationally, three out of five African American and Latino Americans live in communities with abandoned toxic waste sites.
Nearly 51 percent of African Americans have access to a home computer compared to 74.6 percent of whites. In terms of internet access, only 40.5 percent of African Americans have access to the Internet at home compared to 67.3 percent of whites.
Nearly 14 percent of African Americans have access to broadband internet at home -- the strongest predictor of intensity and sophistication of internet use, even more so than years of internet experience -- while 26 percent of whites do.
Finally from William Sloan Coffin, Credo, comes this:
Ninety-eight percent of people in prison in the United States lived in poverty most of their lives. Nearly 1 of every 150 people in this country is imprisoned, a number no other democracy comes close to matching.
WORSHIP RESOURCE
By Thom Shuman
Call To Worship
Leader: We come this day, Precious God,
as people in need of your steadfast love:
People: with you is the fountain of life;
in your Light we see light.
Leader: We gather this day, Water-changing God,
as people looking for signs:
People: with you is the fountain of life;
in your Light we see light.
Leader: We worship this day, Gifting God,
as people who confess Jesus as our Lord:
People: with you is the fountain of life;
in your Light we see light.
Prayer Of The Day
With you, Enduring Joy,
we find our refuge.
In the shelter of your compassion,
we are made whole;
in the abundance of your grace,
we are fed;
in the depths of your living waters,
we are transfigured into new people.
With you, Revealer of Glory,
we are filled to the brim.
Our lips cannot contain your praise;
our hearts overflow with your spirit;
our lives are poured out for others.
Activating Spirit,
we find our common life
in this community of faith.
United by a common confession,
we take our uncommon gifts
and share them
in serving all people.
Same in love, same in grace,
God in Community, Holy in One,
hear us as we pray as Jesus taught us, saying,
Our Father...
Call To Reconciliation
We cannot claim ignorance of our sins, for we know how we have not lived as God's people. But God refuses to forsake us, waiting to forgive us and call us as God's children. Please join me as we pray, saying,
Unison Prayer Of Confession
Delight of the Ages, we cannot remain silent, but must speak of the ways we misuse your gifts. In our desire to have more and more, we cause more damage to your good creation. In our obsession with ourselves, we have desolated that lives of those around us. When we hoard what you have given us, we cannot be a blessing to other people.
Forgive us, Restless God, so we might be restored to life. May your steadfast love save and strengthen us to share our gifts with others, even as you have shared the Gift of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
(Silence is observed.)
Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: God delights in you. So much, that God
will not rest until you are at peace. God
will not remain silent, but will call you
by name: "My Delight."
People: God's steadfast love extends to the heavens,
and reaches down to touch our hearts.
Thanks be to God who forgives and saves
us! Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMONS
The first miracle
Object: a bottle of wine and a bottle of water
Good morning! I have two bottles of liquid here, and I want you to tell me what each of them is. (show the bottles and let them answer) Yes, this one is wine, and this one is water. Did you have any trouble telling which was which? Was it hard to identify the wine as being quite different from the water? (let them answer) No, of course not. Wine is a lot different from water, and it's easy to tell the difference.
Once Jesus went to a wedding where it was expected that wine would be served to the guests. Now they had been serving wine, but it was running out. Perhaps they had more guests than they had expected or they just hadn't bought enough. Jesus wanted to help them out, so what do you think he did? Did he run to the store and buy more wine? (let them answer) No, of course not. He made wine right there for them. He had some big containers filled with water and then he changed it into wine. How do you think he did that? (let them answer) It was a miracle, wasn't it? We don't know how miracles are done, but God can do anything, and Jesus is God. Do you think the people who saw this miracle were amazed when he did it? (let them answer) Yes, I'm sure they were. I would be amazed if I had been there. Jesus did a lot of miracles, but this was his first one. He did it right at the beginning of his ministry.
Let's say a prayer thanking Jesus for all the wonderful miracles he performed to show everyone that he was the Son of God.
Dear Jesus: We thank you for coming into the world to teach us and, by your many miracles, to prove that you are the Son of God, the Savior of the whole world. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, January 14, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 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 permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
