Of What Can We Be Certain?
Children's sermon
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Preaching
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Dear Fellow Preachers,
October 31 this year brings several options for preaching. It is Reformation Day, Halloween (All Saints Eve), and the Sunday prior to U.S. national Election Day. Most Protestant lectionaries provide a list of readings for Reformation Sunday separate from those for the appointed Proper or Sunday after Pentecost.
For this issue of The Immediate Word, team member Carter Shelley draws on the implications of the First Reading, Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4, for our reflections on the decisions we are called on to make on election day. Carter offers different rhetorical strategies for preaching on politics, thoughts on Habakkuk's themes, quotations from the two major presidential candidates, and a list of certainties in a time of political and national confusion.
Other team members comment on other appointed lections (for example, Romans 3:19-28 and Luke 19:1-10) and offer illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
Of What Can We Be Certain?
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
By Carter Shelley
Habakkuk cries out to God words of anguish that seem applicable to the American electorate as we prepare to vote November 2: "O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you 'Violence!' and you will not save?" Regardless of whether one is a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green Party member, or Independent, all of us want a hasty conclusion to the war in Iraq. All of us want affordable healthcare, new jobs for currently unemployed Americans, lower taxes, better schools, and a safer world. We want the same things, but we don't all agree on how these goals can be achieved any more than we all agree on which presidential candidate is the most capable of fulfilling his campaign promises.
American Christians will not be voting as a bloc on November 2 any more than we have voted as a bloc at any other time in our history. To some, President Bush is a courageous Christian because he admits that he is guided by God's will and offers no apologies for his stance on abortion, stem cell research, or the correct way to deal with terrorists. Many Christians find Bush's faith stance and confidence inspiring. Other Christians find his religious certainty scary. In recent weeks there have been a number of articles discussing the prominent role Bush's religious convictions play in his life and politics while noting the more private and circumspect religious devotion Roman Catholic challenger John Kerry expresses.
Who among us would have believed in 2000 how much conflict, fear, uncertainty, and divisiveness our country would be experiencing in 2004? Who among us could have anticipated the 9/11 attack, the mobilization of our troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, the nosedive of the stock market, or the ongoing anxieties and insecurity many of us now feel. Benjamin Franklin once said, "Certainty? In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." Was this Founding Father and deist right? Of what can we be certain on October 31, 2004? Habakkuk finds his certainty in a God who continues to be God despite all evidence to the contrary. "The righteous live by their faith," he concludes. Zacchaeus, a man who previously had chosen riches over righteousness, recognizes the hollowness of his choice when he encounters God in Christ. On this final Sunday before the election, we Christians are called upon to consider what we can and cannot be certain of in our faith and our lives.
The Difficulty of Preaching an Immediate Word on the Eve of a Political Election
It's no secret that this year's election campaigns elicit strong emotions and strong opinions. It's also no secret that different churches, congregations, and ministers have different ideas about the appropriateness of preaching on political issues. For many mainstream, mainline Protestant clergy it's a risky thing to enter the pulpit and proclaim God's word on a particular public policy or political candidate. Part of this hesitancy comes from an awareness of our own presumption in trying to align God's will with our own beliefs and biases. Part of our hesitancy also comes from an awareness that such a sermon will anger church members who do not agree with our position.
I for one am often envious of clergy whose faith traditions encourage their pastors to be leaders in political crusades as well as moral and theological ones. Long before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became a righteous prophet for civil rights, African-American clergy were understood to be leaders in the political arena as well as in the sanctuary. While it has not been a universal stance among American Roman Catholic priests and bishops to criticize Senator Kerry's pro-choice stance on abortion, I have not heard of any congregational or leadership backlash against these priests who have denied him communion and publicly endorsed President Bush. Nor is it any secret that many conservative and evangelical Christians and clergy are backing Bush and Republican candidates to the hilt. They make no apologies for giving their full support to the current administration and the Republican Party.
But the reality for me, and I imagine, for many other Immediate Word subscribers is that we have not been given a clear mandate from our congregations to tell them who God would have serve in our nation's highest office. Quite the contrary, many of us serve congregations where the preached Word is expected to be spiritually uplifting, inspiring, challenging, and instructive, but it is not acceptable to preach a political word as the Word. The reasons are familiar to most of us: (1) Not everyone in our congregation shares the same political ideology. (2) Not all of us are eager to deal with the consequences of angering some of our parishioners by preaching a Word that they do not share. (3) Many of us know that such political endorsements would not be heard as the Word of God but as the meddlin' of the preacher. (4) Nor are all of us so sure of ourselves that we know for certain exactly what Word God would have us preach this Sunday.
Rhetorical Strategies for Preaching the Sunday before a National Election
1. Presenting both sides. Back in the early 1980s I preached a sermon on the Equal Rights Amendment before the North Carolina legislature voted on it. Rather than get up and say, "I support the ERA and here's why," I presented the position of the Rev. Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority and also the position that I took, which was the exact opposite of Falwell's. I based both positions on biblical texts and then invited the congregation to struggle with the issue for themselves and draw their own conclusions. My purpose was not only to offer my own and my denomination's stance but also to introduce the congregation to the notion that two ministers, both seeking to serve God, could draw different conclusions, thus requiring members of the congregation to grapple themselves with both scripture and the contemporary issue at hand. I still lost one church family, because "Politics doesn't belong in the pulpit."
2. Different perspectives, different positions. On the Sunday prior to the 2000 election I preached a sermon titled, "Not Much to Go On," using Jesus' advice on taxes and more: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and render to God the things that are God's." I framed this sermon in terms of three fictional narratives I composed. One person was a George W. Bush supporter. The second was an Al Gore supporter. The third wasn't comfortable voting for Ralph Nader but remained undecided about the other two choices. With each individual narrative, I presented some of the issues that a Christian might support as they related to that particular candidate's platform. I also used each narrative as a way to examine the drawbacks each candidate brought with him. As with the ERA sermon more than a decade before, I left things open-ended using the Jesus text as both conundrum and challenge for us to figure out for ourselves what vote made the most sense for a Christian.
Had I not found a way to use the "I am certain" theme in the contemporary part of this Sunday's sermon, I would be using the same homiletical strategy I employed in 2000. This time around the individual narratives would have included a Bush supporter, a Kerry supporter, and an Independent.
3. Stressing the importance of participating in the political process by voting. The Rev. Mr. Kershaw Getty, whom I heard preach on October 24, told the congregation that he would be fasting and praying the entire 24-hour period of November 2. I admired the man's piety and the emphasis such an act places upon the gravity and importance of preaching; however, I think we Christians might be better served to perform such an act as a community of faith on October 31 together rather than in isolation on the actual voting day. Mr. Getty also made a strong statement about the Christian obligation to vote without making an overt reference to any specific candidate. He did say Christians should vote to support Christian morality, a term which on first glance may seem self-evident, but in fact is loaded with many meanings and interpretations.
4. Begin with what we all have in common. Dr. Doug Oldenburg, former minister of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, N.C., former Moderator of the PCUSA and retired President of Columbia Theological Seminary, once noted that anyone wishing to preach a prophetic sermon that he or she knows will not be readily heard and endorsed by all in the congregation needs to begin that sermon on common ground with the congregation. Begin with that which we all affirm, value, and share. For example, "I am an American. I know that I live in the greatest country in the world in terms of resources, opportunities, and people. I am proud to be an American. I am grateful that I live in a country where religious freedom is a by-word and the rights and liberties of all are protected by the Constitution." (From there one might go on to discuss the problems that exist in the current Patriot Act.) From common affirmations then move to speak to a particular concern as it is revealed through scripture and conscience. Oldenburg suggested that beginning any sermon with adversarial differences does not inspire or illuminate a point; rather it leads to anger and resistance to what comes next. To preach a hard word, a prophetic word, the preacher needs to preach in a way that will be audible. Jesus' own technique was to use parables that left it up to the listener to draw a conclusion for him or herself.
Let Scripture do the Primary Work
October 31 will be the first time I've ever preached from Habakkuk. In doing background research I came across a little book written by Donald E. Gowan called The Triumph of Faith in Habakkuk (Atlanta: John Knox, 1976; all quotes and page citations that follow in this section come from Gowan's book).
Habakkuk was a prophet at work during the time leading up to the Babylonian exile. Because his literary style and content resemble that of the psalms of lament, some scholars believe Habakkuk was a temple priest who composed God's message for liturgical use. Habakkuk lived in the "time of a dying nation" (16). Judah had already been crippled militarily and economically by Assyria, yet further menace appears a certainty as the power-hungry Babylonians edged nearer and nearer. While our current political and international situation does not resemble that of Judah in the 7th century B.C.E., there are disturbing trends in both instances that suggest people prefer the status quo way of the world to spiritual discipline and righteous living.
The actual structure of Habakkuk 1:1--2:4 moves from prophet's complaint in 1:2-4 to an unsatisfactory reply from God in 1:5-11 (more of the-miserable-same, Buddy!) on to a second complaint, 1:12-17, with 2:1 an introduction to the prophet's intention, followed by God's word in 2:2-4. What is interesting in today's lectionary text is the fact that it omits 1:5-17, thereby pairing Habakkuk's first complaint with God's second response.
One might say it cuts to the heart of the matter. Habakkuk asks, Why do we suffer while the wicked prosper? Such a question cannot be uttered by an atheist or a fatalist. It comes from the heart of one who believes that God is the source of goodness and justice. The words are uttered by one who believes in God and God's omnipotence and power while seeing no evidence of it in the current political situation. God's promises in the Deuteronomic law that the nation would be secure appear to be unfulfilled (Habakkuk 1:4). To simply say, "It's God's will," without grappling with God about injustices is to fail to take God seriously. Gowan agrees with George Adam Smith that skepticism can be a sign of faithfulness, because the skeptic feels a "duty toward the truth" (40). The significance of this statement is the recognition that a skeptic cares enough to seek the truth through hard thought, debate, and examination of many arguments and positions. Habakkuk asking God when God plans to fulfill God's promises puts the matter to the one who can answer skeptics and believers. Yet "God's answers are usually different from what we expect," notes D. M. Lloyd Jones, in that God's answer calls the faithful to account, not God. "The righteous live by their faith."
The three Hebrew words used in this divine reply are loaded with meaning. The word "righteous" or "just" in Hebrew identifies one who has been vindicated in a court of law. It also refers to a person whom God has declared right because of his or her internal goodness. In the current situation Habakkuk faces, the Judeans are the ones on the right side (God's side) while the Assyrians and Babylonians are the enemy of God and God's people. In God's righteousness God suggests that the chosen people, when they live righteously, remain in relationship with God no matter how grim their external circumstances may be.
The word "live" reminds both prophet and people that life is a gift from God. Life in the Old Testament is God's first and best gift to humanity. We are justified by the life God gives us. We are also justified by the way we embody that life. Yes, things are horrible, but life is something to cherish and experience fully while one has it. "To be alive is to have vigor, security and honor" regardless of the political situation (42). To be alive is to be a child of God.
The Hebrew word for "faith" signifies what one believes. Faith is what we believe about God. Faithfulness is how we apply that belief in our daily lives: marital fidelity, hope in the midst of hopelessness, honesty, frugality, self-discipline, generosity, accountability, and religious devotion. Later Paul will value faith over faithfulness, but they always remain a package deal. To have faith and not to live a righteous life is to not fully grasp the will of God. "In just such hard times those who remain faithful will live. Furthermore, living by faith means faith in something or someone. As Americans we may live by faith in our political system, faith in a particular political platform, faith in a particular political candidate, but that sort of misplaced faith helped Israel fall to Assyria and Judah fall to Babylon. No nation or government is forever certain. For Habakkuk and for us, certainty resides in God and in our faith in God.
A Brief Look at the Faith Statements of President Bush and Senator Kerry
George W. Bush:
"I believe God wants everybody to be free; everybody means Christians, Jews, Muslims, and so on."
-- Presidential debate
"... The God I know is one that promotes peace and freedom. But I get great sustenance from my personal relationship. That doesn't make me think I'm a better person than you are, by the way. Because one of the great admonitions in the Good Book is, don't try to take a speck out of your eye if I've got a log in my own."
-- Interview by Radio and Television Ireland, June 24, 2004
"I believe that God has planted in every human heart the desire to live in freedom. And even when that desire is crushed by tyranny for decades, it will rise again."
-- State of the Union Address, January 20, 2004
"The cause we serve is right, because it is the cause of all mankind. The momentum of freedom in our world is unmistakable -- and it is not carried forward by our power alone. We can trust in that greater power who guides the unfolding of the years. And in all that is to come, we can know that His purposes are just and true."
-- State of the Union Address, January 20, 2004
"I think that God -- that my relationship with God is a very personal relationship. And I turn to the good Lord for strength. And I turn to the good Lord for guidance. I turn to the good Lord for forgiveness."
-- Interview by Radio and Television Ireland, June 24, 2004
"I am sustained by the prayers of the people in this country. I guess an appropriate way to say this, it's one of the beautiful things about America and Americans from all walks of life is that they're willing to pray for the President and his family. And that's powerful. It's hard for me to describe to you what that means. It's -- let me just say this: It's a leap of faith to understand."
-- Excerpts from interview with Diane Sawyer, December 16, 2003
"We need commonsense judges who understand our rights were derived from God."
-- As quoted in "Understanding the President and His God"
"We Americans have faith in ourselves, but not in ourselves alone. We do not know -- we do not claim to know all the ways of Providence, yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all of life, and all of history.
"Our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage. The outcome of this debate is important -- and so is the way we conduct it. The same moral tradition that defines marriage also teaches that each individual has dignity and value in God's sight."
-- State of the Union Address, January 20, 2004
John Kerry:
"And let me say it plainly: In that cause, and in this campaign, we welcome people of faith. America is not us and them. I think of what Ron Reagan said of his father a few weeks ago, and I want to say this to you tonight: I don't wear my own faith on my sleeve. But faith has given me values and hope to live by, from Vietnam to this day, from Sunday to Sunday. I don't want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God's side. And whatever our faith, one belief should bind us all: the measure of our character is our willingness to give ourselves for others and for our country."
-- Excerpts from Kerry's Acceptance Speech
"Scripture tells us there is 'a time to break down and a time to build up.' This is our time to break down division and build up unity. This is our time to reject the politics of fear. This is our time, as Langston Hughes so eloquently put it, to 'Let America be America again ... Let it be the dream it used to be ... for those whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain must bring back our mighty dream again.'
"America is a land of tolerance for every belief; it can never be a place of indifference to faith. We should never separate our highest beliefs and values from our treatment of one another and our conduct of the people's business."
-- Speech at the AME Convention, July 06, 2004
"I began life baptized and confirmed as Catholic. I served as an altar boy. There was a period in my life when I thought I might even be a priest -- as a young person. And then I went to Vietnam. And in Vietnam I think most of the time I wore a rosary around my neck when we went into battle. So I believe. I still believe. And I have great personal faith and I think the more you learn about the universe; the more you learn about the unanswered questions, the harder it is for many people not to, in my judgment. But many people chose not to and I understand that and I respect that. That's what I want to get to. We are a country founded on the notion of diversity and our freedom of choice and freedom of religion."
-- From a new campaign ad released July 26, 2004
"I am a believing and practicing Catholic, married to another believing and practicing Catholic. And being an American Catholic at this particular moment in history has three particular implications for my own point of view as a candidate for presidency.
"The first two follow directly from the two great commandments set forth in the Scriptures: our obligations to love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The first commandment means we must believe that there are absolute standards of right and wrong. They may not always be that clear, but they exist, and it is our duty to honor them as best we can.
"The second commandment means that our commitment to equal rights and social justice, here and around the world, is not simply a matter of political fashion or economic and social theory but a direct command from God ... Christian bigotry and intolerance are nothing less than a direct affront to God's law and a rejection of God's love.
"There is a third facet of being an American Catholic. To a larger extent than Catholics elsewhere, we have supported and relied upon the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state to guarantee our right to worship and our liberty of conscience. That tradition, strongly advanced by John F. Kennedy in his quest to become our first Catholic president, helped make religious affiliation a non-issue in American politics. It should stay that way."
-- Excerpted from Kerry's book, A Call to Service
Of What Can We Be Certain?
Both Judaism and Christianity are full of examples of prophets, preachers, and apostles who did preach on political policies. The major prophets prophesied against alliances with foreign nations due to the political disasters that might (and did) ensue and due to the corrupting influences that often came with fraternization. The major prophets also prophesied against the power brokers and exploiters of the poor. Over and over again we hear prophetic words of indignation at the abuses heaped upon the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the alien. Add unwed mothers under 21 and you have populations all too much with us still today in the United States of America.
These prophets didn't have an easy time of it in their day. They were reviled, persecuted, and treated as pariahs because of their unpleasant and unpopular messages. Amos needed his job as a dresser of sycamore trees; the king was not going to offer him a steady salary and an annuity plan. While the Old Testament prophecies and the sayings of Jesus come to us as clear, confident, and righteous, it's unlikely that those words were so easily uttered in their own day and time. In fact, we know from Jeremiah's confessions and Jesus' constant need for prayer and time alone with his God that it wasn't easy to preach God's Word then anymore than it is now. The difference for us is "How do I know if I preach support for Bush/Kerry that I am indeed proclaiming God's will this Sunday? Of what can I be certain?"
1. Like the prophet Habakkuk, I am certain that God works in mysterious ways that I do not always understand. I am certain that God cannot be fully understood or grasped by me. I can know God partially through scripture, through Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit, but God is too wholly other for me to ever fully grasp God's will.
2. I am certain that I am prone to identify my will as God's will. I am human, sinful, selfish, and self-righteous. I want the world to be a certain way. I also want my God to support a worldview that mirrors my own. Anytime I, or anyone else in my congregation, think we know the will of God, we need to search our souls deeply to figure out "Who benefits from this position?" Is it me? Is it the ones Christ champions in the Beatitudes? Is it my particular economic class? My particular political ideology? What makes me so sure I know what God wills in this situation? Is there a consistency in scripture that matches my stance?
3. Thanks to the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus and many others of its ilk, I am certain that God's love and forgiveness are available to many whom Pharisees and Christians deem unforgivable. Prostitutes, gays, even terrorists if they seek it. How awful Zacchaeus was viewed in his own day. Today we'd view him like a drug dealer or a pimp. One of the most fascinating arguments I've heard against a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriages came from a conservative Republican columnist who wrote that it makes no sense for people wishing to endorse the sanctity of marriage to oppose the same for gay couples wishing to make a similar lifelong commitment. What these gay couples are asking for is stability, not promiscuity. They want to become a part of mainstream society with mortgages, tax commitments, etc. Gays who want to live lives more in keep with Christian family values and faith deserve encouragement.
4. I am certain that God loves all people, not just Americans, not just Christians, not just people who look like me, think like me, live like me, and vote like me. There's a "Prairie Home Companion" monologue in which the Rapture occurs and the only ones God takes are the Unitarian Universalists.
5. I am certain that Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, and atheists are just as certain of their beliefs and their God as we are of ours. A high school student I was helping with a scholarship application related to me her ongoing theological arguments with a Russian high school student she'd met over the summer. She couldn't grasp his atheism, and he couldn't stomach her Southern Baptist beliefs. Yet, as I pointed out to her, had she been born in Russia and he in Wilkes County, North Carolina, the same debate would have occurred, but she would have been on the other side. Where we are born often determines our faith and formation as human beings.
6. I am certain that God is not an American citizen and that everything we say and do is not the will of God. Sometimes we get it right: abolishing slavery, giving everyone the vote, immigration policies that still allow newcomers to move here to build a better future for themselves and their families. Often we do not: the Salem witch trials, slavery, the Spanish American War, denial of full voting rights to women, African Americans, federal offenders who have served their prison time, the Patriot Act, invading Iraq when those in charge knew there were no weapons of mass destruction, politicians who will say and do almost anything to get elected and have us vote for them.
7. I am certain that history is full of terrorist acts and atrocities that have occurred in the name of the God the Father of Jesus Christ -- as well as in the name of Allah. Some of these atrocities include the Crusades, the Inquisition, religious intolerance, and persecutions, American colonists' gradual elimination of Native Americans, European colonial conquests in Asia and Africa, etc.
8. I am certain that devout Christian men and women, both clergy and laity, are crystal clear that the political views they hold and the candidates they support are the ones God would have lead us, and that there are equally devout Christians on both sides of our current politically divided ideologies. I am certain that such disagreements are healthy and good for democracy and for Christians so long as we abide by standards of honesty, decency, compassion, and ongoing soul-searching, because the day that we all believe the same on every single political issue or ethical stance is the day we are doomed. Without dialogue and disagreements there can be no growth and no critical self-examination.
Team Comments
George Murphy responds: Some parts of the Christian tradition speak of knowing things "with the certainty of faith." I think that's a legitimate concept, but we ought to be rather careful about the things we claim to know with such certainty. It is one thing to say we know that Jesus Christ is Lord with the certainty of faith. We are called to hold to some commitments in spite of everything that seems to stand against them. It's quite another matter to claim that we know God's will for a particular situation, or the implications of the Christian faith for a given political issue, with absolute certainty. Not everything is gray, but not everything is black and white either.
In this year's presidential election George W. Bush is the one who is generally seen as certain -- perhaps too certain -- about the right course to take, and many of his supporters share that assurance. We shouldn't forget that John Kerry and some of those who are planning to vote for him (or in some cases simply against Bush) have just as deep convictions about the rightness of some of their choices. It seems impossible, for example, for a candidate of the national Democratic Party to express anything less than absolute conviction about the right of a woman to have an abortion if she so chooses. Liberal certainties can be just as strong as conservative ones.
Perhaps as instructive as the certainties of Bush or Kerry, however, is the attitude of some third party candidates and their supporters. In such an important and close election, why would someone vote for Ralph Nader who has zero possibility of winning? A comment by another of the third party candidates in an NPR interview a few days ago was interesting. He said something to the effect that the only wasted vote is one cast for a candidate because he was least bad of poor choices.
Really? In other words, we're to vote only for a candidate who's absolutely on target on the issues regardless of whether he can be elected, not one who has a chance and will carry out policies reasonably close to what we think are best, even if that choice means the victory of what we see as the worst candidate. I have voted for third-party candidates in presidential elections before, and I think there are situations in which such a choice is appropriate. But the idea that I should vote for a candidate only if I think that he or she is right about everything seems to me to ignore the realities of the world and to have an air of fanaticism about it.
Because the choices we face in life -- and that the leaders of states or nations face -- are often ones about which there is a lot of uncertainty. In many cases we do have to choose between bad and not so bad. Going to war, or executing a criminal, or getting a divorce, is never 100 percent good, but in some cases those choices may be better than the alternatives.
* Should we have gone to war in Iraq? There were good reasons to oppose that two years ago, but the fact that some Democrats who now oppose Bush's policies thought there was a good argument for war back then shows that it was hardly a slam dunk. For those who are not strict pacifists, the traditional just war criteria have to be evaluated, and there can be a good deal of uncertainty in applying them.
* Where should we put nuclear wastes? They have to go somewhere, and no site offers 100 percent certainty about safety over the thousands of years during which they'll be dangerous.
* How can we know the right course to take with the funding of Social Security or Medicare since we just don't know what the economic situation will be a couple of decades in the future?
We would like to be as certain as we can about important decisions in our own lives or those in the life of the nation. They ought to be approached prayerfully, and we should use our brains and evaluate the data we have as well as possible. But the time will come when we have to decide, and we may not be 100 percent sure.
Here the doctrine of justification provides a crucial basis for decision making for Christian. The fact that we are justified by grace through faith does not tell us the right choice to make about the kinds of issues I've mentioned, about who we should marry, what job to take, or whether or not life support measures should be continued for some person. But it does tell us that our status as children of God is not jeopardized by making the wrong choice. We are justified 100 percent by the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, not by the rightness of our ethical choices.
The doctrine of justification, in other words, frees us to make decisions in an uncertain world. It does not mean that we take those decisions lightly. Some of them are literally life and death choices, and we'll feel bad if it turns out in retrospect that things would have been better if we'd made the other choice. But our relationship with God will not be destroyed.
And, while I would have brought in the doctrine of justification in talking about this issue anyway, it's especially appropriate for this week. October 31 is the traditional Reformation Day (the anniversary of Luther's posting of the 95 Theses), and the insistence that we are justified before God by God's grace alone, through faith alone, for Christ's sake alone, was at the heart of the Reformation. Luther's expression of certainty at the Diet of Worms, "Here I stand," was based on this belief. The Second Lesson for this observance, Romans 3:19-28 is especially relevant here.
It's worth noting too that the preacher can emphasize this topic on this coming Sunday without succumbing to the old temptation to make Reformation Sunday a kind of "Isn't it great to be Protestant?" day. In recent years there has been considerable agreement on the basic understanding of justification by Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians. The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the Churches of the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church is especially important in this regard. It can be found at
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents...
as well as at
http://www.elca.org/ea/Ecumenical/romancatholic/jddj/declaration.html .
Especially significant is this statement from paragraph 15 of the declaration:
"Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works."
Carlos Wilton responds: When Jesus walks over to the foot of the sycamore tree, in which is perched the diminutive Zacchaeus, he is doing more than merely traversing a few feet of ground. He is crossing a dividing line that runs down the center of his society. It is the line separating "us" and "them" -- between those who believe in the destiny of Israel to be an independent nation, and those who believe the only reasonable course of action (under the present, unhappy circumstances) is to make the best of things and cooperate with the Roman authorities.
Zacchaeus is a collaborator. That's his crime, in the eyes of the Zealot true believers. It's not so much the taxes this little man collects, as the spiritual and material corruption at the heart of the vast, hydra-headed Roman taxation system. Zacchaeus is a representative of that corruption -- and so his opponents ("Us") have made him over into one of the dreaded "Them." They shun him, and all of his kind.
Jesus refuses to treat Zacchaeus as one of "Them." What shines forth in this homey little story -- beloved of children, who know something of what it means to be lumped into groups -- is the way Jesus deliberately considers Zacchaeus as an individual. He refuses to dehumanize him by putting him into a category. Yes, there is a moral deficit in his personal life that Zacchaeus has to make up (which in the end he does, fourfold). But Jesus won't let that get in the way of his personal approach to Zacchaeus, the human being. He sees Zacchaeus not as a member of the reviled collaborator class, but rather as a true son of Israel, within whose breast beats a heart attuned to the rhythms of the shema.
There's a famous poem by Robert Frost about the walls we build in life. "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," he writes, looking over at his New England-farmer neighbor, who's heaving yet another stone upon the wall that runs between their two properties. The poet asks his neighbor why the wall is necessary:
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."
But then the poet is led to wonder,
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out.
-- "Mending Wall"
When we build walls between ourselves and others, it is truly an open question whether we are walling the other out, or walling ourselves in.
Prejudice exacts a heavy toll on those who practice it -- just as it does on its victims. How many of us suffer from a sudden twinge of unreasoning fear as we pass a person of another race on a deserted sidewalk? Or how many of us -- at least those of us who live in racially homogeneous neighborhoods -- wonder what that person who looks a little different is doing here, and whether he or she is up to no good? Many are the unconscious judgments we make each day: about other human beings, who, like us, are made in God's image!
Many, also, are the judgments citizens of the United States are making about each other, in these days just prior to a bitterly-contested presidential election! The battle lines are clearly drawn, and have been for some time. Never, in recent memory, has the electorate seemed so polarized. In these last, intense days of the campaign, we preachers have a pastoral opportunity to raise the question of what life after November 2 is going to be like -- regardless of who wins. Someone, in those days, will need to find the courage to say to a former opponent, "I'm coming to your house tonight."
Related Illustrations
From Carlos Wilton:
Let us not tire of preaching love; it is the force that will overcome the world.
Let us not tire of preaching love. Though we see that waves of violence
succeed in drowning the fire of Christian love, love must win out; it is the only thing that can.
-- Oscar Romero, September 25, 1977
***
Do not waste your time bothering whether you "love" your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.
-- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
***
To forgive another person from the heart is an act of liberation. We set that person free from the negative bonds that exist between us. We say, "I no longer hold your offense against you." But there is more. We also free ourselves from the burden of being the "offended one." As long as we do not forgive those who have wounded us, we carry them with us or, worse, pull them as a heavy load. The great temptation is to cling in anger to our enemies and then define ourselves as being offended and wounded by them. Forgiveness, therefore, liberates not only the other but also ourselves. It is the way to the freedom of the children of God.
-- Henri Nouwen, from Bread for the Journey (New York: Harper Collins, 1997)
***
Those who anger you control you.
-- Anonymous
***
If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each [one's] life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
***
[Some people] have a strange notion about what reconciliation is. They think that reconciliation is patting each other on the back and saying it's all right. Reconciliation is costly and it involves confrontation. Otherwise Jesus Christ would not have died on the cross. He came and achieved for us reconciliation. But he confronted people and caused division.
-- South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, speaking of the hard work of reconciliation in his native land, Commonweal magazine, September 12, 1997
From Carter Shelley:
Religious leaders have a right, and many would say a duty, to provide moral and ethical guidance. The nation needs leadership for the difficult questions brought on by modernity. But those bishops who oppose Kerry do so by selectively choosing one set of issues while ignoring others of great importance. We do not hear from them on war and peace, capital punishment and the poor and dispossessed. Though their own church leadership in Rome has spoken out forcefully on these issues, the bishops choose to ignore them.
I feel more than empathy with Catholic politicians who sincerely judge abortion a social evil but feel they must at least tolerate legislation that permits it. When I ran for public office in my home city, people dissatisfied with my position on this issue distributed flyers against me in various Catholic parishes, an action that did not make me happy.
Unlike some others, I regard Kerry's religious faith as among his great assets. He takes seriously the dimensions of life that go beyond the material and practical, and this does him credit.
-- Richard Griffin of Cambridge is a regularly featured columnist in Community Newspaper Company publications
***
"Whether you can run the world on faith, it's clear you can run one hell of a campaign on it."
"I've voted Republican from the very first time I could vote," said Gary Walby, a retired jeweler from Destin, Fla., as he stood before the president in a crowded college gym.
"And I also want to say this is the very first time that I have felt that God was in the White House."
"Faith can cut in so many ways," said Jim Wallis of Sojourners. "If you're penitent and not triumphal, it can move us to repentance and accountability and help us reach for something higher than ourselves. That can be a powerful thing, a thing that moves us beyond politics as usual, like Martin Luther King did. But when it's designed to certify our righteousness -- that can be a dangerous thing. Then it pushes self-criticism aside. There's no reflection."
"Where people often get lost is on this very point," Wallis said after a moment of thought. "Real faith, you see, leads us to deeper reflection and not -- not ever -- to the thing we as humans so very much want."
And what is that?
"Easy certainty."
-- Quoted by Ron Suskind in article for New York Times Magazine article on "Bush and Certainty," October 17, 2004
Worship Resources
By Julia Strope
(The dual themes are "always reforming" and "certainty" -- or maybe it's "uncertainty.")
Editor, note my spelling of Zacchaeus in the INTERCESSORY PRAYERS
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Our inner and outer clocks are changing today. It is comforting to be with friends as changes occur around us.
People: It is good to be here together as the seasons move toward winter. In this place we acknowledge our pasts, hope toward the future, and enjoy the present.
Leader: Together we can ask our questions and seek working solutions.
People: With prayers and songs, with words and silence, we open ourselves to the transforming Spirit.
Leader: In this hour, we seek new awareness of how the Holy One moves among us.
HYMN SUGGESTIONS
"Give Thanks for Life." Tune SARUM; available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 528.
"Our Cities Cry To You, O God." Tune SALVATION; available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 437. With some imagination, this hymn fits with Habakkuk's and other prophets' prayers for Zion/Jerusalem.
"A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." Tune EIN' FESTE BURG; Luther's famous hymn, good for Reformation Sunday.
"God Of The Ages, Whose Almighty Hand." Tune NATIONAL HYMN.
"Great God, We Sing That Mighty Hand." Tune WAREHAM.
"Down To Earth, As A Dove." Tune PERSONENT HODIE. Reminds us of the longing for peace and retells the story of Jesus.
"Deep In The Shadows Of The Past." Tune SHEPHERDS' PIPES; available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 330. The words of this 20th century hymn honor the scriptures, as does much of Psalm 119.
PRAYER OF ADORATION
Leader: With our whole beings, we call to you, Maker of the Universe. We marvel at the sunrise and know that you have made a new day and invite us to live it joyfully.
Thank you for your constant love, which challenges our attitudes about neighborliness and peace. We come this hour, expecting holy power to be reformers in our towns and around the globe. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION
Leader: We long to be certain of God's mercy. We want to be on God's side of justice and abundance. Like the psalmist, however, we experience anxiety. Let us name our penchant for cynicism, fear, and depression and seek freedom to be our best selves.
CONFESSION (unison)
Mother/Father God,
Look at your developing offspring. We are grateful that you never leave us nor forsake. We are thankful that you continue to work among us even though we may not notice or we misunderstand what you are doing.
Touch us, one by one, till our fears subside.
Lift us till we can see over the morass of our culture.
Inspire us till we welcome those who offend us with different thoughts of how the world ought to be.
Free us from yesterday's ideas and refresh us with sparkling new spirit. Amen.
WORD OF GRACE
Leader: Holy Spirit, by whatever name, is present. God, by whatever name, hears our prayers. Christ as experienced in Jesus of Nazareth invites us to receive empowering inner peace. This gift of life is yours and mine. Thanks be to God!
CHORAL RESPONSE
"Lord, Speak To Me." Tune: CANONBURY; Stanza 4, available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 426:
O fill me with thy fullness, Lord
Until my very heart o'erflow
In kindling thought and glowing word
Thy love to tell, thy praise to show.
A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AFFIRMATION (unison)
We rejoice that God lives among creatures, lives with us created in divine image.
We welcome the Christ seen in Jesus teaching, healing, and challenging human institutions.
Holy Spirit inspires us to meet each day with constant awareness of divine presence.
Together we seek guidance, release from shame and strength to live with ambiguity.
We are the Body of Christ being transformed and challenged to reform the culture.
We gladly manifest God's love wherever we are!
INTERCESSORY PRAYERS
(Leader -- or divided among lay readers)
Living God,
Wherever we go we meet people like ourselves and we feel affirmed and stimulated. Wherever we go we meet people different from ourselves. Some are short; some are tall. Some are sure of life and some are insecure. Some we'd like to go home with; some we'd like never to meet again. However others behave, help us to be available as peacemakers, as reconcilers in our own homes, in our churches, in our schools and in our work places. Like Zacchaeus, we want you to be fully present with us.
Creating God,
Do you grieve that humankind has made such a mess of your artwork? Do you weep at the ways men and women batter the land and slaughter animals? Do you get angry at the centuries' old animosity in Palestine and Israel? Do you want to call the children of the planet together to acknowledge kinship? We pray for peace.
God of citizens and politicians,
As nations around the globe hold elections, we pray for wisdom and peace. As our country goes to the polls and counts votes, we pray that division and mistrust would be reconciled. We pray that the barbed language and hateful accusations stop so we can go about feeding and providing health care for all people in our own states as well as assisting other nations in compassionate deeds.
God of minds and bodies,
We are not so much afraid of death because we believe we will be with you. But we do dread the pain and suffering as we pass through the years. We thank you for the wonderful things our bodies do and we pray for the discipline to be as healthy as possible. Soothe our dis-ease; mend our wounds; comfort our hearts and make us whole.
God of children and adults --
Thank you for our children. In the midst of technology and games full of violence, keep them safe. Amid their commitments to competitions, keep them sensitive to your love. Help us mentor them in faith and hope, in thinking and feeling, in patience and praising.
Amen.
OFFERTORY STATEMENT
Leader: Large and small, God welcomes our tithes and offerings. Our time, talents, and resources are needed to sustain this building and the work begun that serves people on this street corner and around the world.
THANKSGIVING PRAYER
Leader: Lover of our Souls,
We give you our most and our least. Stretch it all to do what needs to be done. Stretch us till we know new ways to carry your Spirit. Amen.
BENEDICTION/CHARGE
You who are short and you who are tall,
Watch for the Master's coming.
You who are certain and you who are seeking,
Climb trees, walk around the block, prepare your favorite recipes.
Christ is coming. The Holy is your guest when you are alone and when you are in a crowd.
Don't hide your joy!
Go in peace! Amen!
A Children's Sermon
Welcoming people into our homes and hearts
Object: a welcome mat
Text: vv. 5-5 -- When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. (Luke 19:1-10)
Good morning, boys and girls. I've got something here that I'm sure most of you have seen before. (display the mat) How many of you know what this is? (let them answer) That's right, it's a welcome mat. It's the first thing people see as they enter our house and it should make them feel welcome.
How many of you like to invite other children over to your house to play? (let them answer) Do your parents invite their friends over to your house for dinner or just to talk? (let them answer) When people come to our house, we want them to feel welcome so that they'll want to come back another time.
There is a great Bible story about a man named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus worked as a tax collector and became very rich. People didn't like him because he was a tax collector and they considered him a sinner. Anyone who was a friend of Zacchaeus was also not liked and considered a sinner.
Zacchaeus was a short man. He had to climb a big sycamore tree to see Jesus. Jesus asked Zacchaeus to come down from the tree and take him to his house for dinner. This made Zacchaeus very happy, but the people who heard it began to question Jesus and accuse him of also being a sinner. Jesus and Zacchaeus walked over to the house and visited. Zacchaeus probably really had done some of the bad things the people said he did. After he talked with Jesus, he said that he would give half of everything he owned to the poor people. If he cheated anyone, he would pay them back much more that he had taken from them. Do you think Jesus was welcome in Zacchaeus' house? (let them answer) Do you think Jesus made a big difference in Zacchaeus' life? (let them answer) I think so.
This Bible story tells us so much about Jesus and what he can do for all of us. First, he never gives up on anyone. According to Jesus, even a bad guy can change. Second, he shows us that we can make a big difference in people's lives if we welcome them into our hearts. This week, try to be kind to someone who isn't your friend. Help him and show him the love of Jesus and see if that person changes.
Take a look at your welcome mat and try your best to make your house a place where Jesus will come and share his life with you. He will be the best friend you ever make.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, October 31, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 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., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
October 31 this year brings several options for preaching. It is Reformation Day, Halloween (All Saints Eve), and the Sunday prior to U.S. national Election Day. Most Protestant lectionaries provide a list of readings for Reformation Sunday separate from those for the appointed Proper or Sunday after Pentecost.
For this issue of The Immediate Word, team member Carter Shelley draws on the implications of the First Reading, Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4, for our reflections on the decisions we are called on to make on election day. Carter offers different rhetorical strategies for preaching on politics, thoughts on Habakkuk's themes, quotations from the two major presidential candidates, and a list of certainties in a time of political and national confusion.
Other team members comment on other appointed lections (for example, Romans 3:19-28 and Luke 19:1-10) and offer illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
Of What Can We Be Certain?
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
By Carter Shelley
Habakkuk cries out to God words of anguish that seem applicable to the American electorate as we prepare to vote November 2: "O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you 'Violence!' and you will not save?" Regardless of whether one is a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green Party member, or Independent, all of us want a hasty conclusion to the war in Iraq. All of us want affordable healthcare, new jobs for currently unemployed Americans, lower taxes, better schools, and a safer world. We want the same things, but we don't all agree on how these goals can be achieved any more than we all agree on which presidential candidate is the most capable of fulfilling his campaign promises.
American Christians will not be voting as a bloc on November 2 any more than we have voted as a bloc at any other time in our history. To some, President Bush is a courageous Christian because he admits that he is guided by God's will and offers no apologies for his stance on abortion, stem cell research, or the correct way to deal with terrorists. Many Christians find Bush's faith stance and confidence inspiring. Other Christians find his religious certainty scary. In recent weeks there have been a number of articles discussing the prominent role Bush's religious convictions play in his life and politics while noting the more private and circumspect religious devotion Roman Catholic challenger John Kerry expresses.
Who among us would have believed in 2000 how much conflict, fear, uncertainty, and divisiveness our country would be experiencing in 2004? Who among us could have anticipated the 9/11 attack, the mobilization of our troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, the nosedive of the stock market, or the ongoing anxieties and insecurity many of us now feel. Benjamin Franklin once said, "Certainty? In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." Was this Founding Father and deist right? Of what can we be certain on October 31, 2004? Habakkuk finds his certainty in a God who continues to be God despite all evidence to the contrary. "The righteous live by their faith," he concludes. Zacchaeus, a man who previously had chosen riches over righteousness, recognizes the hollowness of his choice when he encounters God in Christ. On this final Sunday before the election, we Christians are called upon to consider what we can and cannot be certain of in our faith and our lives.
The Difficulty of Preaching an Immediate Word on the Eve of a Political Election
It's no secret that this year's election campaigns elicit strong emotions and strong opinions. It's also no secret that different churches, congregations, and ministers have different ideas about the appropriateness of preaching on political issues. For many mainstream, mainline Protestant clergy it's a risky thing to enter the pulpit and proclaim God's word on a particular public policy or political candidate. Part of this hesitancy comes from an awareness of our own presumption in trying to align God's will with our own beliefs and biases. Part of our hesitancy also comes from an awareness that such a sermon will anger church members who do not agree with our position.
I for one am often envious of clergy whose faith traditions encourage their pastors to be leaders in political crusades as well as moral and theological ones. Long before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became a righteous prophet for civil rights, African-American clergy were understood to be leaders in the political arena as well as in the sanctuary. While it has not been a universal stance among American Roman Catholic priests and bishops to criticize Senator Kerry's pro-choice stance on abortion, I have not heard of any congregational or leadership backlash against these priests who have denied him communion and publicly endorsed President Bush. Nor is it any secret that many conservative and evangelical Christians and clergy are backing Bush and Republican candidates to the hilt. They make no apologies for giving their full support to the current administration and the Republican Party.
But the reality for me, and I imagine, for many other Immediate Word subscribers is that we have not been given a clear mandate from our congregations to tell them who God would have serve in our nation's highest office. Quite the contrary, many of us serve congregations where the preached Word is expected to be spiritually uplifting, inspiring, challenging, and instructive, but it is not acceptable to preach a political word as the Word. The reasons are familiar to most of us: (1) Not everyone in our congregation shares the same political ideology. (2) Not all of us are eager to deal with the consequences of angering some of our parishioners by preaching a Word that they do not share. (3) Many of us know that such political endorsements would not be heard as the Word of God but as the meddlin' of the preacher. (4) Nor are all of us so sure of ourselves that we know for certain exactly what Word God would have us preach this Sunday.
Rhetorical Strategies for Preaching the Sunday before a National Election
1. Presenting both sides. Back in the early 1980s I preached a sermon on the Equal Rights Amendment before the North Carolina legislature voted on it. Rather than get up and say, "I support the ERA and here's why," I presented the position of the Rev. Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority and also the position that I took, which was the exact opposite of Falwell's. I based both positions on biblical texts and then invited the congregation to struggle with the issue for themselves and draw their own conclusions. My purpose was not only to offer my own and my denomination's stance but also to introduce the congregation to the notion that two ministers, both seeking to serve God, could draw different conclusions, thus requiring members of the congregation to grapple themselves with both scripture and the contemporary issue at hand. I still lost one church family, because "Politics doesn't belong in the pulpit."
2. Different perspectives, different positions. On the Sunday prior to the 2000 election I preached a sermon titled, "Not Much to Go On," using Jesus' advice on taxes and more: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and render to God the things that are God's." I framed this sermon in terms of three fictional narratives I composed. One person was a George W. Bush supporter. The second was an Al Gore supporter. The third wasn't comfortable voting for Ralph Nader but remained undecided about the other two choices. With each individual narrative, I presented some of the issues that a Christian might support as they related to that particular candidate's platform. I also used each narrative as a way to examine the drawbacks each candidate brought with him. As with the ERA sermon more than a decade before, I left things open-ended using the Jesus text as both conundrum and challenge for us to figure out for ourselves what vote made the most sense for a Christian.
Had I not found a way to use the "I am certain" theme in the contemporary part of this Sunday's sermon, I would be using the same homiletical strategy I employed in 2000. This time around the individual narratives would have included a Bush supporter, a Kerry supporter, and an Independent.
3. Stressing the importance of participating in the political process by voting. The Rev. Mr. Kershaw Getty, whom I heard preach on October 24, told the congregation that he would be fasting and praying the entire 24-hour period of November 2. I admired the man's piety and the emphasis such an act places upon the gravity and importance of preaching; however, I think we Christians might be better served to perform such an act as a community of faith on October 31 together rather than in isolation on the actual voting day. Mr. Getty also made a strong statement about the Christian obligation to vote without making an overt reference to any specific candidate. He did say Christians should vote to support Christian morality, a term which on first glance may seem self-evident, but in fact is loaded with many meanings and interpretations.
4. Begin with what we all have in common. Dr. Doug Oldenburg, former minister of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, N.C., former Moderator of the PCUSA and retired President of Columbia Theological Seminary, once noted that anyone wishing to preach a prophetic sermon that he or she knows will not be readily heard and endorsed by all in the congregation needs to begin that sermon on common ground with the congregation. Begin with that which we all affirm, value, and share. For example, "I am an American. I know that I live in the greatest country in the world in terms of resources, opportunities, and people. I am proud to be an American. I am grateful that I live in a country where religious freedom is a by-word and the rights and liberties of all are protected by the Constitution." (From there one might go on to discuss the problems that exist in the current Patriot Act.) From common affirmations then move to speak to a particular concern as it is revealed through scripture and conscience. Oldenburg suggested that beginning any sermon with adversarial differences does not inspire or illuminate a point; rather it leads to anger and resistance to what comes next. To preach a hard word, a prophetic word, the preacher needs to preach in a way that will be audible. Jesus' own technique was to use parables that left it up to the listener to draw a conclusion for him or herself.
Let Scripture do the Primary Work
October 31 will be the first time I've ever preached from Habakkuk. In doing background research I came across a little book written by Donald E. Gowan called The Triumph of Faith in Habakkuk (Atlanta: John Knox, 1976; all quotes and page citations that follow in this section come from Gowan's book).
Habakkuk was a prophet at work during the time leading up to the Babylonian exile. Because his literary style and content resemble that of the psalms of lament, some scholars believe Habakkuk was a temple priest who composed God's message for liturgical use. Habakkuk lived in the "time of a dying nation" (16). Judah had already been crippled militarily and economically by Assyria, yet further menace appears a certainty as the power-hungry Babylonians edged nearer and nearer. While our current political and international situation does not resemble that of Judah in the 7th century B.C.E., there are disturbing trends in both instances that suggest people prefer the status quo way of the world to spiritual discipline and righteous living.
The actual structure of Habakkuk 1:1--2:4 moves from prophet's complaint in 1:2-4 to an unsatisfactory reply from God in 1:5-11 (more of the-miserable-same, Buddy!) on to a second complaint, 1:12-17, with 2:1 an introduction to the prophet's intention, followed by God's word in 2:2-4. What is interesting in today's lectionary text is the fact that it omits 1:5-17, thereby pairing Habakkuk's first complaint with God's second response.
One might say it cuts to the heart of the matter. Habakkuk asks, Why do we suffer while the wicked prosper? Such a question cannot be uttered by an atheist or a fatalist. It comes from the heart of one who believes that God is the source of goodness and justice. The words are uttered by one who believes in God and God's omnipotence and power while seeing no evidence of it in the current political situation. God's promises in the Deuteronomic law that the nation would be secure appear to be unfulfilled (Habakkuk 1:4). To simply say, "It's God's will," without grappling with God about injustices is to fail to take God seriously. Gowan agrees with George Adam Smith that skepticism can be a sign of faithfulness, because the skeptic feels a "duty toward the truth" (40). The significance of this statement is the recognition that a skeptic cares enough to seek the truth through hard thought, debate, and examination of many arguments and positions. Habakkuk asking God when God plans to fulfill God's promises puts the matter to the one who can answer skeptics and believers. Yet "God's answers are usually different from what we expect," notes D. M. Lloyd Jones, in that God's answer calls the faithful to account, not God. "The righteous live by their faith."
The three Hebrew words used in this divine reply are loaded with meaning. The word "righteous" or "just" in Hebrew identifies one who has been vindicated in a court of law. It also refers to a person whom God has declared right because of his or her internal goodness. In the current situation Habakkuk faces, the Judeans are the ones on the right side (God's side) while the Assyrians and Babylonians are the enemy of God and God's people. In God's righteousness God suggests that the chosen people, when they live righteously, remain in relationship with God no matter how grim their external circumstances may be.
The word "live" reminds both prophet and people that life is a gift from God. Life in the Old Testament is God's first and best gift to humanity. We are justified by the life God gives us. We are also justified by the way we embody that life. Yes, things are horrible, but life is something to cherish and experience fully while one has it. "To be alive is to have vigor, security and honor" regardless of the political situation (42). To be alive is to be a child of God.
The Hebrew word for "faith" signifies what one believes. Faith is what we believe about God. Faithfulness is how we apply that belief in our daily lives: marital fidelity, hope in the midst of hopelessness, honesty, frugality, self-discipline, generosity, accountability, and religious devotion. Later Paul will value faith over faithfulness, but they always remain a package deal. To have faith and not to live a righteous life is to not fully grasp the will of God. "In just such hard times those who remain faithful will live. Furthermore, living by faith means faith in something or someone. As Americans we may live by faith in our political system, faith in a particular political platform, faith in a particular political candidate, but that sort of misplaced faith helped Israel fall to Assyria and Judah fall to Babylon. No nation or government is forever certain. For Habakkuk and for us, certainty resides in God and in our faith in God.
A Brief Look at the Faith Statements of President Bush and Senator Kerry
George W. Bush:
"I believe God wants everybody to be free; everybody means Christians, Jews, Muslims, and so on."
-- Presidential debate
"... The God I know is one that promotes peace and freedom. But I get great sustenance from my personal relationship. That doesn't make me think I'm a better person than you are, by the way. Because one of the great admonitions in the Good Book is, don't try to take a speck out of your eye if I've got a log in my own."
-- Interview by Radio and Television Ireland, June 24, 2004
"I believe that God has planted in every human heart the desire to live in freedom. And even when that desire is crushed by tyranny for decades, it will rise again."
-- State of the Union Address, January 20, 2004
"The cause we serve is right, because it is the cause of all mankind. The momentum of freedom in our world is unmistakable -- and it is not carried forward by our power alone. We can trust in that greater power who guides the unfolding of the years. And in all that is to come, we can know that His purposes are just and true."
-- State of the Union Address, January 20, 2004
"I think that God -- that my relationship with God is a very personal relationship. And I turn to the good Lord for strength. And I turn to the good Lord for guidance. I turn to the good Lord for forgiveness."
-- Interview by Radio and Television Ireland, June 24, 2004
"I am sustained by the prayers of the people in this country. I guess an appropriate way to say this, it's one of the beautiful things about America and Americans from all walks of life is that they're willing to pray for the President and his family. And that's powerful. It's hard for me to describe to you what that means. It's -- let me just say this: It's a leap of faith to understand."
-- Excerpts from interview with Diane Sawyer, December 16, 2003
"We need commonsense judges who understand our rights were derived from God."
-- As quoted in "Understanding the President and His God"
"We Americans have faith in ourselves, but not in ourselves alone. We do not know -- we do not claim to know all the ways of Providence, yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all of life, and all of history.
"Our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage. The outcome of this debate is important -- and so is the way we conduct it. The same moral tradition that defines marriage also teaches that each individual has dignity and value in God's sight."
-- State of the Union Address, January 20, 2004
John Kerry:
"And let me say it plainly: In that cause, and in this campaign, we welcome people of faith. America is not us and them. I think of what Ron Reagan said of his father a few weeks ago, and I want to say this to you tonight: I don't wear my own faith on my sleeve. But faith has given me values and hope to live by, from Vietnam to this day, from Sunday to Sunday. I don't want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God's side. And whatever our faith, one belief should bind us all: the measure of our character is our willingness to give ourselves for others and for our country."
-- Excerpts from Kerry's Acceptance Speech
"Scripture tells us there is 'a time to break down and a time to build up.' This is our time to break down division and build up unity. This is our time to reject the politics of fear. This is our time, as Langston Hughes so eloquently put it, to 'Let America be America again ... Let it be the dream it used to be ... for those whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain must bring back our mighty dream again.'
"America is a land of tolerance for every belief; it can never be a place of indifference to faith. We should never separate our highest beliefs and values from our treatment of one another and our conduct of the people's business."
-- Speech at the AME Convention, July 06, 2004
"I began life baptized and confirmed as Catholic. I served as an altar boy. There was a period in my life when I thought I might even be a priest -- as a young person. And then I went to Vietnam. And in Vietnam I think most of the time I wore a rosary around my neck when we went into battle. So I believe. I still believe. And I have great personal faith and I think the more you learn about the universe; the more you learn about the unanswered questions, the harder it is for many people not to, in my judgment. But many people chose not to and I understand that and I respect that. That's what I want to get to. We are a country founded on the notion of diversity and our freedom of choice and freedom of religion."
-- From a new campaign ad released July 26, 2004
"I am a believing and practicing Catholic, married to another believing and practicing Catholic. And being an American Catholic at this particular moment in history has three particular implications for my own point of view as a candidate for presidency.
"The first two follow directly from the two great commandments set forth in the Scriptures: our obligations to love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The first commandment means we must believe that there are absolute standards of right and wrong. They may not always be that clear, but they exist, and it is our duty to honor them as best we can.
"The second commandment means that our commitment to equal rights and social justice, here and around the world, is not simply a matter of political fashion or economic and social theory but a direct command from God ... Christian bigotry and intolerance are nothing less than a direct affront to God's law and a rejection of God's love.
"There is a third facet of being an American Catholic. To a larger extent than Catholics elsewhere, we have supported and relied upon the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state to guarantee our right to worship and our liberty of conscience. That tradition, strongly advanced by John F. Kennedy in his quest to become our first Catholic president, helped make religious affiliation a non-issue in American politics. It should stay that way."
-- Excerpted from Kerry's book, A Call to Service
Of What Can We Be Certain?
Both Judaism and Christianity are full of examples of prophets, preachers, and apostles who did preach on political policies. The major prophets prophesied against alliances with foreign nations due to the political disasters that might (and did) ensue and due to the corrupting influences that often came with fraternization. The major prophets also prophesied against the power brokers and exploiters of the poor. Over and over again we hear prophetic words of indignation at the abuses heaped upon the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the alien. Add unwed mothers under 21 and you have populations all too much with us still today in the United States of America.
These prophets didn't have an easy time of it in their day. They were reviled, persecuted, and treated as pariahs because of their unpleasant and unpopular messages. Amos needed his job as a dresser of sycamore trees; the king was not going to offer him a steady salary and an annuity plan. While the Old Testament prophecies and the sayings of Jesus come to us as clear, confident, and righteous, it's unlikely that those words were so easily uttered in their own day and time. In fact, we know from Jeremiah's confessions and Jesus' constant need for prayer and time alone with his God that it wasn't easy to preach God's Word then anymore than it is now. The difference for us is "How do I know if I preach support for Bush/Kerry that I am indeed proclaiming God's will this Sunday? Of what can I be certain?"
1. Like the prophet Habakkuk, I am certain that God works in mysterious ways that I do not always understand. I am certain that God cannot be fully understood or grasped by me. I can know God partially through scripture, through Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit, but God is too wholly other for me to ever fully grasp God's will.
2. I am certain that I am prone to identify my will as God's will. I am human, sinful, selfish, and self-righteous. I want the world to be a certain way. I also want my God to support a worldview that mirrors my own. Anytime I, or anyone else in my congregation, think we know the will of God, we need to search our souls deeply to figure out "Who benefits from this position?" Is it me? Is it the ones Christ champions in the Beatitudes? Is it my particular economic class? My particular political ideology? What makes me so sure I know what God wills in this situation? Is there a consistency in scripture that matches my stance?
3. Thanks to the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus and many others of its ilk, I am certain that God's love and forgiveness are available to many whom Pharisees and Christians deem unforgivable. Prostitutes, gays, even terrorists if they seek it. How awful Zacchaeus was viewed in his own day. Today we'd view him like a drug dealer or a pimp. One of the most fascinating arguments I've heard against a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriages came from a conservative Republican columnist who wrote that it makes no sense for people wishing to endorse the sanctity of marriage to oppose the same for gay couples wishing to make a similar lifelong commitment. What these gay couples are asking for is stability, not promiscuity. They want to become a part of mainstream society with mortgages, tax commitments, etc. Gays who want to live lives more in keep with Christian family values and faith deserve encouragement.
4. I am certain that God loves all people, not just Americans, not just Christians, not just people who look like me, think like me, live like me, and vote like me. There's a "Prairie Home Companion" monologue in which the Rapture occurs and the only ones God takes are the Unitarian Universalists.
5. I am certain that Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, and atheists are just as certain of their beliefs and their God as we are of ours. A high school student I was helping with a scholarship application related to me her ongoing theological arguments with a Russian high school student she'd met over the summer. She couldn't grasp his atheism, and he couldn't stomach her Southern Baptist beliefs. Yet, as I pointed out to her, had she been born in Russia and he in Wilkes County, North Carolina, the same debate would have occurred, but she would have been on the other side. Where we are born often determines our faith and formation as human beings.
6. I am certain that God is not an American citizen and that everything we say and do is not the will of God. Sometimes we get it right: abolishing slavery, giving everyone the vote, immigration policies that still allow newcomers to move here to build a better future for themselves and their families. Often we do not: the Salem witch trials, slavery, the Spanish American War, denial of full voting rights to women, African Americans, federal offenders who have served their prison time, the Patriot Act, invading Iraq when those in charge knew there were no weapons of mass destruction, politicians who will say and do almost anything to get elected and have us vote for them.
7. I am certain that history is full of terrorist acts and atrocities that have occurred in the name of the God the Father of Jesus Christ -- as well as in the name of Allah. Some of these atrocities include the Crusades, the Inquisition, religious intolerance, and persecutions, American colonists' gradual elimination of Native Americans, European colonial conquests in Asia and Africa, etc.
8. I am certain that devout Christian men and women, both clergy and laity, are crystal clear that the political views they hold and the candidates they support are the ones God would have lead us, and that there are equally devout Christians on both sides of our current politically divided ideologies. I am certain that such disagreements are healthy and good for democracy and for Christians so long as we abide by standards of honesty, decency, compassion, and ongoing soul-searching, because the day that we all believe the same on every single political issue or ethical stance is the day we are doomed. Without dialogue and disagreements there can be no growth and no critical self-examination.
Team Comments
George Murphy responds: Some parts of the Christian tradition speak of knowing things "with the certainty of faith." I think that's a legitimate concept, but we ought to be rather careful about the things we claim to know with such certainty. It is one thing to say we know that Jesus Christ is Lord with the certainty of faith. We are called to hold to some commitments in spite of everything that seems to stand against them. It's quite another matter to claim that we know God's will for a particular situation, or the implications of the Christian faith for a given political issue, with absolute certainty. Not everything is gray, but not everything is black and white either.
In this year's presidential election George W. Bush is the one who is generally seen as certain -- perhaps too certain -- about the right course to take, and many of his supporters share that assurance. We shouldn't forget that John Kerry and some of those who are planning to vote for him (or in some cases simply against Bush) have just as deep convictions about the rightness of some of their choices. It seems impossible, for example, for a candidate of the national Democratic Party to express anything less than absolute conviction about the right of a woman to have an abortion if she so chooses. Liberal certainties can be just as strong as conservative ones.
Perhaps as instructive as the certainties of Bush or Kerry, however, is the attitude of some third party candidates and their supporters. In such an important and close election, why would someone vote for Ralph Nader who has zero possibility of winning? A comment by another of the third party candidates in an NPR interview a few days ago was interesting. He said something to the effect that the only wasted vote is one cast for a candidate because he was least bad of poor choices.
Really? In other words, we're to vote only for a candidate who's absolutely on target on the issues regardless of whether he can be elected, not one who has a chance and will carry out policies reasonably close to what we think are best, even if that choice means the victory of what we see as the worst candidate. I have voted for third-party candidates in presidential elections before, and I think there are situations in which such a choice is appropriate. But the idea that I should vote for a candidate only if I think that he or she is right about everything seems to me to ignore the realities of the world and to have an air of fanaticism about it.
Because the choices we face in life -- and that the leaders of states or nations face -- are often ones about which there is a lot of uncertainty. In many cases we do have to choose between bad and not so bad. Going to war, or executing a criminal, or getting a divorce, is never 100 percent good, but in some cases those choices may be better than the alternatives.
* Should we have gone to war in Iraq? There were good reasons to oppose that two years ago, but the fact that some Democrats who now oppose Bush's policies thought there was a good argument for war back then shows that it was hardly a slam dunk. For those who are not strict pacifists, the traditional just war criteria have to be evaluated, and there can be a good deal of uncertainty in applying them.
* Where should we put nuclear wastes? They have to go somewhere, and no site offers 100 percent certainty about safety over the thousands of years during which they'll be dangerous.
* How can we know the right course to take with the funding of Social Security or Medicare since we just don't know what the economic situation will be a couple of decades in the future?
We would like to be as certain as we can about important decisions in our own lives or those in the life of the nation. They ought to be approached prayerfully, and we should use our brains and evaluate the data we have as well as possible. But the time will come when we have to decide, and we may not be 100 percent sure.
Here the doctrine of justification provides a crucial basis for decision making for Christian. The fact that we are justified by grace through faith does not tell us the right choice to make about the kinds of issues I've mentioned, about who we should marry, what job to take, or whether or not life support measures should be continued for some person. But it does tell us that our status as children of God is not jeopardized by making the wrong choice. We are justified 100 percent by the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, not by the rightness of our ethical choices.
The doctrine of justification, in other words, frees us to make decisions in an uncertain world. It does not mean that we take those decisions lightly. Some of them are literally life and death choices, and we'll feel bad if it turns out in retrospect that things would have been better if we'd made the other choice. But our relationship with God will not be destroyed.
And, while I would have brought in the doctrine of justification in talking about this issue anyway, it's especially appropriate for this week. October 31 is the traditional Reformation Day (the anniversary of Luther's posting of the 95 Theses), and the insistence that we are justified before God by God's grace alone, through faith alone, for Christ's sake alone, was at the heart of the Reformation. Luther's expression of certainty at the Diet of Worms, "Here I stand," was based on this belief. The Second Lesson for this observance, Romans 3:19-28 is especially relevant here.
It's worth noting too that the preacher can emphasize this topic on this coming Sunday without succumbing to the old temptation to make Reformation Sunday a kind of "Isn't it great to be Protestant?" day. In recent years there has been considerable agreement on the basic understanding of justification by Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians. The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the Churches of the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church is especially important in this regard. It can be found at
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents...
as well as at
http://www.elca.org/ea/Ecumenical/romancatholic/jddj/declaration.html .
Especially significant is this statement from paragraph 15 of the declaration:
"Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works."
Carlos Wilton responds: When Jesus walks over to the foot of the sycamore tree, in which is perched the diminutive Zacchaeus, he is doing more than merely traversing a few feet of ground. He is crossing a dividing line that runs down the center of his society. It is the line separating "us" and "them" -- between those who believe in the destiny of Israel to be an independent nation, and those who believe the only reasonable course of action (under the present, unhappy circumstances) is to make the best of things and cooperate with the Roman authorities.
Zacchaeus is a collaborator. That's his crime, in the eyes of the Zealot true believers. It's not so much the taxes this little man collects, as the spiritual and material corruption at the heart of the vast, hydra-headed Roman taxation system. Zacchaeus is a representative of that corruption -- and so his opponents ("Us") have made him over into one of the dreaded "Them." They shun him, and all of his kind.
Jesus refuses to treat Zacchaeus as one of "Them." What shines forth in this homey little story -- beloved of children, who know something of what it means to be lumped into groups -- is the way Jesus deliberately considers Zacchaeus as an individual. He refuses to dehumanize him by putting him into a category. Yes, there is a moral deficit in his personal life that Zacchaeus has to make up (which in the end he does, fourfold). But Jesus won't let that get in the way of his personal approach to Zacchaeus, the human being. He sees Zacchaeus not as a member of the reviled collaborator class, but rather as a true son of Israel, within whose breast beats a heart attuned to the rhythms of the shema.
There's a famous poem by Robert Frost about the walls we build in life. "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," he writes, looking over at his New England-farmer neighbor, who's heaving yet another stone upon the wall that runs between their two properties. The poet asks his neighbor why the wall is necessary:
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."
But then the poet is led to wonder,
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out.
-- "Mending Wall"
When we build walls between ourselves and others, it is truly an open question whether we are walling the other out, or walling ourselves in.
Prejudice exacts a heavy toll on those who practice it -- just as it does on its victims. How many of us suffer from a sudden twinge of unreasoning fear as we pass a person of another race on a deserted sidewalk? Or how many of us -- at least those of us who live in racially homogeneous neighborhoods -- wonder what that person who looks a little different is doing here, and whether he or she is up to no good? Many are the unconscious judgments we make each day: about other human beings, who, like us, are made in God's image!
Many, also, are the judgments citizens of the United States are making about each other, in these days just prior to a bitterly-contested presidential election! The battle lines are clearly drawn, and have been for some time. Never, in recent memory, has the electorate seemed so polarized. In these last, intense days of the campaign, we preachers have a pastoral opportunity to raise the question of what life after November 2 is going to be like -- regardless of who wins. Someone, in those days, will need to find the courage to say to a former opponent, "I'm coming to your house tonight."
Related Illustrations
From Carlos Wilton:
Let us not tire of preaching love; it is the force that will overcome the world.
Let us not tire of preaching love. Though we see that waves of violence
succeed in drowning the fire of Christian love, love must win out; it is the only thing that can.
-- Oscar Romero, September 25, 1977
***
Do not waste your time bothering whether you "love" your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.
-- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
***
To forgive another person from the heart is an act of liberation. We set that person free from the negative bonds that exist between us. We say, "I no longer hold your offense against you." But there is more. We also free ourselves from the burden of being the "offended one." As long as we do not forgive those who have wounded us, we carry them with us or, worse, pull them as a heavy load. The great temptation is to cling in anger to our enemies and then define ourselves as being offended and wounded by them. Forgiveness, therefore, liberates not only the other but also ourselves. It is the way to the freedom of the children of God.
-- Henri Nouwen, from Bread for the Journey (New York: Harper Collins, 1997)
***
Those who anger you control you.
-- Anonymous
***
If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each [one's] life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
***
[Some people] have a strange notion about what reconciliation is. They think that reconciliation is patting each other on the back and saying it's all right. Reconciliation is costly and it involves confrontation. Otherwise Jesus Christ would not have died on the cross. He came and achieved for us reconciliation. But he confronted people and caused division.
-- South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, speaking of the hard work of reconciliation in his native land, Commonweal magazine, September 12, 1997
From Carter Shelley:
Religious leaders have a right, and many would say a duty, to provide moral and ethical guidance. The nation needs leadership for the difficult questions brought on by modernity. But those bishops who oppose Kerry do so by selectively choosing one set of issues while ignoring others of great importance. We do not hear from them on war and peace, capital punishment and the poor and dispossessed. Though their own church leadership in Rome has spoken out forcefully on these issues, the bishops choose to ignore them.
I feel more than empathy with Catholic politicians who sincerely judge abortion a social evil but feel they must at least tolerate legislation that permits it. When I ran for public office in my home city, people dissatisfied with my position on this issue distributed flyers against me in various Catholic parishes, an action that did not make me happy.
Unlike some others, I regard Kerry's religious faith as among his great assets. He takes seriously the dimensions of life that go beyond the material and practical, and this does him credit.
-- Richard Griffin of Cambridge is a regularly featured columnist in Community Newspaper Company publications
***
"Whether you can run the world on faith, it's clear you can run one hell of a campaign on it."
"I've voted Republican from the very first time I could vote," said Gary Walby, a retired jeweler from Destin, Fla., as he stood before the president in a crowded college gym.
"And I also want to say this is the very first time that I have felt that God was in the White House."
"Faith can cut in so many ways," said Jim Wallis of Sojourners. "If you're penitent and not triumphal, it can move us to repentance and accountability and help us reach for something higher than ourselves. That can be a powerful thing, a thing that moves us beyond politics as usual, like Martin Luther King did. But when it's designed to certify our righteousness -- that can be a dangerous thing. Then it pushes self-criticism aside. There's no reflection."
"Where people often get lost is on this very point," Wallis said after a moment of thought. "Real faith, you see, leads us to deeper reflection and not -- not ever -- to the thing we as humans so very much want."
And what is that?
"Easy certainty."
-- Quoted by Ron Suskind in article for New York Times Magazine article on "Bush and Certainty," October 17, 2004
Worship Resources
By Julia Strope
(The dual themes are "always reforming" and "certainty" -- or maybe it's "uncertainty.")
Editor, note my spelling of Zacchaeus in the INTERCESSORY PRAYERS
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Our inner and outer clocks are changing today. It is comforting to be with friends as changes occur around us.
People: It is good to be here together as the seasons move toward winter. In this place we acknowledge our pasts, hope toward the future, and enjoy the present.
Leader: Together we can ask our questions and seek working solutions.
People: With prayers and songs, with words and silence, we open ourselves to the transforming Spirit.
Leader: In this hour, we seek new awareness of how the Holy One moves among us.
HYMN SUGGESTIONS
"Give Thanks for Life." Tune SARUM; available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 528.
"Our Cities Cry To You, O God." Tune SALVATION; available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 437. With some imagination, this hymn fits with Habakkuk's and other prophets' prayers for Zion/Jerusalem.
"A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." Tune EIN' FESTE BURG; Luther's famous hymn, good for Reformation Sunday.
"God Of The Ages, Whose Almighty Hand." Tune NATIONAL HYMN.
"Great God, We Sing That Mighty Hand." Tune WAREHAM.
"Down To Earth, As A Dove." Tune PERSONENT HODIE. Reminds us of the longing for peace and retells the story of Jesus.
"Deep In The Shadows Of The Past." Tune SHEPHERDS' PIPES; available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 330. The words of this 20th century hymn honor the scriptures, as does much of Psalm 119.
PRAYER OF ADORATION
Leader: With our whole beings, we call to you, Maker of the Universe. We marvel at the sunrise and know that you have made a new day and invite us to live it joyfully.
Thank you for your constant love, which challenges our attitudes about neighborliness and peace. We come this hour, expecting holy power to be reformers in our towns and around the globe. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION
Leader: We long to be certain of God's mercy. We want to be on God's side of justice and abundance. Like the psalmist, however, we experience anxiety. Let us name our penchant for cynicism, fear, and depression and seek freedom to be our best selves.
CONFESSION (unison)
Mother/Father God,
Look at your developing offspring. We are grateful that you never leave us nor forsake. We are thankful that you continue to work among us even though we may not notice or we misunderstand what you are doing.
Touch us, one by one, till our fears subside.
Lift us till we can see over the morass of our culture.
Inspire us till we welcome those who offend us with different thoughts of how the world ought to be.
Free us from yesterday's ideas and refresh us with sparkling new spirit. Amen.
WORD OF GRACE
Leader: Holy Spirit, by whatever name, is present. God, by whatever name, hears our prayers. Christ as experienced in Jesus of Nazareth invites us to receive empowering inner peace. This gift of life is yours and mine. Thanks be to God!
CHORAL RESPONSE
"Lord, Speak To Me." Tune: CANONBURY; Stanza 4, available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 426:
O fill me with thy fullness, Lord
Until my very heart o'erflow
In kindling thought and glowing word
Thy love to tell, thy praise to show.
A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AFFIRMATION (unison)
We rejoice that God lives among creatures, lives with us created in divine image.
We welcome the Christ seen in Jesus teaching, healing, and challenging human institutions.
Holy Spirit inspires us to meet each day with constant awareness of divine presence.
Together we seek guidance, release from shame and strength to live with ambiguity.
We are the Body of Christ being transformed and challenged to reform the culture.
We gladly manifest God's love wherever we are!
INTERCESSORY PRAYERS
(Leader -- or divided among lay readers)
Living God,
Wherever we go we meet people like ourselves and we feel affirmed and stimulated. Wherever we go we meet people different from ourselves. Some are short; some are tall. Some are sure of life and some are insecure. Some we'd like to go home with; some we'd like never to meet again. However others behave, help us to be available as peacemakers, as reconcilers in our own homes, in our churches, in our schools and in our work places. Like Zacchaeus, we want you to be fully present with us.
Creating God,
Do you grieve that humankind has made such a mess of your artwork? Do you weep at the ways men and women batter the land and slaughter animals? Do you get angry at the centuries' old animosity in Palestine and Israel? Do you want to call the children of the planet together to acknowledge kinship? We pray for peace.
God of citizens and politicians,
As nations around the globe hold elections, we pray for wisdom and peace. As our country goes to the polls and counts votes, we pray that division and mistrust would be reconciled. We pray that the barbed language and hateful accusations stop so we can go about feeding and providing health care for all people in our own states as well as assisting other nations in compassionate deeds.
God of minds and bodies,
We are not so much afraid of death because we believe we will be with you. But we do dread the pain and suffering as we pass through the years. We thank you for the wonderful things our bodies do and we pray for the discipline to be as healthy as possible. Soothe our dis-ease; mend our wounds; comfort our hearts and make us whole.
God of children and adults --
Thank you for our children. In the midst of technology and games full of violence, keep them safe. Amid their commitments to competitions, keep them sensitive to your love. Help us mentor them in faith and hope, in thinking and feeling, in patience and praising.
Amen.
OFFERTORY STATEMENT
Leader: Large and small, God welcomes our tithes and offerings. Our time, talents, and resources are needed to sustain this building and the work begun that serves people on this street corner and around the world.
THANKSGIVING PRAYER
Leader: Lover of our Souls,
We give you our most and our least. Stretch it all to do what needs to be done. Stretch us till we know new ways to carry your Spirit. Amen.
BENEDICTION/CHARGE
You who are short and you who are tall,
Watch for the Master's coming.
You who are certain and you who are seeking,
Climb trees, walk around the block, prepare your favorite recipes.
Christ is coming. The Holy is your guest when you are alone and when you are in a crowd.
Don't hide your joy!
Go in peace! Amen!
A Children's Sermon
Welcoming people into our homes and hearts
Object: a welcome mat
Text: vv. 5-5 -- When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. (Luke 19:1-10)
Good morning, boys and girls. I've got something here that I'm sure most of you have seen before. (display the mat) How many of you know what this is? (let them answer) That's right, it's a welcome mat. It's the first thing people see as they enter our house and it should make them feel welcome.
How many of you like to invite other children over to your house to play? (let them answer) Do your parents invite their friends over to your house for dinner or just to talk? (let them answer) When people come to our house, we want them to feel welcome so that they'll want to come back another time.
There is a great Bible story about a man named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus worked as a tax collector and became very rich. People didn't like him because he was a tax collector and they considered him a sinner. Anyone who was a friend of Zacchaeus was also not liked and considered a sinner.
Zacchaeus was a short man. He had to climb a big sycamore tree to see Jesus. Jesus asked Zacchaeus to come down from the tree and take him to his house for dinner. This made Zacchaeus very happy, but the people who heard it began to question Jesus and accuse him of also being a sinner. Jesus and Zacchaeus walked over to the house and visited. Zacchaeus probably really had done some of the bad things the people said he did. After he talked with Jesus, he said that he would give half of everything he owned to the poor people. If he cheated anyone, he would pay them back much more that he had taken from them. Do you think Jesus was welcome in Zacchaeus' house? (let them answer) Do you think Jesus made a big difference in Zacchaeus' life? (let them answer) I think so.
This Bible story tells us so much about Jesus and what he can do for all of us. First, he never gives up on anyone. According to Jesus, even a bad guy can change. Second, he shows us that we can make a big difference in people's lives if we welcome them into our hearts. This week, try to be kind to someone who isn't your friend. Help him and show him the love of Jesus and see if that person changes.
Take a look at your welcome mat and try your best to make your house a place where Jesus will come and share his life with you. He will be the best friend you ever make.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, October 31, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 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., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
