What Did He Say?
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For February 2, 2020:
What did he say?
by Chris Keating
Matthew 5:1-12
Terry Jones, the Monty Python comedy legend who died January 21, was not a theologian. Famed for his offbeat lampooning of cultural icons, Jones was more clown than preacher.
Still, his offbeat brand of humor often poked at religion’s often over-inflated ego. His 1979 movie “The Life of Brian” spoofed the Gospels while generating controversy. Jones was no N.T. Wright, but a closer look at some of the scenes of “Brian” offer more insight that blasphemy.
Recall the film’s irreverent depiction of the crowds gathered to hear Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Late arriving onlookers strain to hear Jesus’ words. Their bickering quickly devolves into a bit of a row. Jones, playing the mother of the main character Brian, raises his voice to Jesus. “Speak up!” he yells. “Can’t hear a thing!” Suddenly someone turns around to say, “I think he said, ‘Blessed are the cheesemakers!’”
Blessed are who? What did he say? Say what? The scene evokes laughter while also pointing to a dilemma faced by people of faith. We struggle to articulate Jesus’ words to our generation, but in the process mangle the syntax or confuse the meaning. Too often no one can hear what Jesus so clearly stated.
Notice how the current state of affairs in the world has somehow drowned out Jesus’ words about peace. Even as we prepare to preach on the beatitudes, the “Bulletin of Atomic Scientists” took the extraordinary step of moving the minute hand of its figurative Doomsday clock twenty seconds closer to midnight. The warning of global annihilation is now just 100 seconds away.
Or note what happened in Minnesota last week when members of the Cottage Grove United Methodist church responded to denominational plans aimed at revitalizing their small congregation. News reports about church leaders pushing older members to the curb rocketed across the Internet, though the actual intent of the denomination was more nuanced.
Jesus’s blesses more than the cheesemakers. In our current chaos, the church is called and commissioned to proclaim those blessings with justice, kindness, and humility.
In the news
Most folks – especially preachers – have endured one of those red-in-the-face moments when an obvious malapropism or mispronunciation changes the meaning of a conversation. An elder at a church where I was a guest preacher told me she had always been impressed by the rows of antique “ovulating” fans near the ceiling of her church’s sanctuary. I told her I agreed. “I believe oscillating fans are much more common.”
A few months ago, an earnest pastor took to Twitter to tell a story on himself. It seems the pastor had garnered the immediate attention of his Baptist congregation one Sunday by imploring them to “clothe the hungry and feed the naked.” Someone immediately stood up and testified that this was one ministry they would wholeheartedly support. It’s a humorous anecdote illustrating our human tendency to suffer from “pedum in os tuum” (foot in mouth) disease. Deliberately obfuscating the Gospel is another matter.
Christians eager to herald Jesus’ return, for example, have expressed a belief that a possible war with Iran might not be a bad thing. Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside California, released a YouTube a few days after Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was killed that discussed Iran’s role in end-times theology. Laurie was joined with Don Stewart, author of the book “25 Signs We are Near the End.”
“The scenario that the Bible predicted, seemingly so impossible,” Stewart said in the video, “is now falling into place.”
It’s a troubling worldview which author Diana Butler Bass says permeates the thinking of those who might support a war with Iran.
“When Iran gets into the news, especially with anything to do with war, it’s sort of a prophetic dog whistle to evangelicals,” said Bass. “They will support anything that seems to edge the world towards this conflagration,” she says. “They don’t necessarily want violence, but they’re eager for Christ to return and they think that this war with Iran and Israel has to happen for their larger hope to pass.”
It is that sort of view which adds credulity to the observations by the scientific community that the world is closer annihilation, not redemption. In raising the “doomsday” clock to 100 seconds before midnight, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists were clear about their threat assessment:
“Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers — nuclear war and climate change — that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond. The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode.”
Partisan politics aside, it appears that the church has work to do in proclaiming Jesus’ gospel of peace. The prevailing political divisions and overheated rhetorical wars makes proclaiming words of peace ever more important. The scientists acknowledge that while the data about the world’s situation is widely known, the will to address matters of peace has weakened. “Instead,” they concluded, “over the last two years, we have seen influential leaders denigrate and discard the most effective methods for addressing complex threats — international agreements with strong verification regimes — in favor of their own narrow interests and domestic political gain.”
The church, on the other hand, seems stymied and unsure of how to address these concerns. In the case of mainline churches, many are focused on internal struggles and institutional survival. The story about the Cottage Grove Methodist church’s difficulty communicating a vision to its members is illustrative of the way the message of “blessed are the meek” gets mangled into “only the young are blessed.”
United Methodist leaders in Minnesota and Cottage Grove pastor both say the intended “relaunching” of the Cottage Gove church was never to usher out older members. The denomination has budgeted $250,000 to plant a new congregation at the existing location. It will be a new community, promised the Rev. Dan Wetterstrom, who oversees the two campuses of Grove United Methodist. But Wetterstrom insists that means everything must be new.
“We can’t have the exact same community, with just a new pastor,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “It needs to truly have a different look and feel.”
That “different look and feel” seems to communicate different messages to different groups — some feel they aren’t welcomed while others believe it is faithful to the gospel. Bishop Bruce R. Ough of the Dakotas-Minnesota Area believes it to be a call to sacrifice. ““Jesus talked about dying so that you could live, about being a grain of wheat that needs to go into the ground so that it can sprout again. … That’s what we’re trying to do — actually live the gospel, rather than just attend to the needs of a few people.”
Mainline groups are not the only places where clear communication is rare. Charismatic megachurch pastor and adviser to President Trump Paula White found herself speaking in twisted tongues last weekend. A video showed White praying that God would overcome the evil facing the church and society, including the immediate aborting of all “satanic pregnancies.”
Yes, “satanic pregnancies.”
In the video, White, who is pastor of City of Destiny Church in Apopka, FL, prayed for God to “interrupt that which has been deployed to hurt the church in this season. That which has been deployed to hurt this nation, in the name of Jesus.”
“We cancel any spell in the witchcraft of the marine kingdom,” she continued. Later she added, “we command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry.” Responses to the prayer included those who questioned whether the otherwise pro-life pastor was promoting harm against pregnant women.
White said her words were taken out of context, but some wondered exactly what sort of context could describe “satanic pregnancy.”
“No pregnancies are satanic,” responded Jesuit writer James Martin. “Every child is a gift from God. No one should ever pray for any woman to miscarry.”
In response, White said she was referring to Ephesians 6:12 and the church’s wrestling with principalities and powers. Charismatic Christians use similar terms, said Andre Gagne, a professor of religion at Concordia University in Montreal. “White is commanding that Satan’s plans be aborted,” he wrote.
In the Scripture
This week’s scripture lessons – Micah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 and Matthew 5:1-12 are familiar and oft quoted. Generations of social justice sermons have been inked to Micah’s call to live justly and humbly. Likewise, both the Pauline conversation about the cross and Matthew’s demonstration of kingdom ethics will evoke memories of long-held beliefs and practices.
But how will they be heard?
Jesus’ first words to the disciples in Matthew comes in the form of a sermon. There’s more here than practical advice for effective discipleship. This text functions as an actual sermon by stitching together images and illustrations to form an interpretative modelling of discipleship.
Jesus climbs to the mountain, sits down, and begins to teach. The mountain imagery is evocative of Moses delivering the law from Sinai and offers connections to God’s leading of Israel, but also suggests a connection to Jesus’ temptations. While the teaching is aimed at the disciples, it quickly becomes apparent that the crowds connect with Jesus’ message. By the time he wraps things up in chapter 7, the crowds are astounded and amazed by all he has taught them (cf. 7:28).
The sermon begins with words of blessing focused particularly on those groups and persons who were perpetually in the crosshairs of oppression. Contrary to contemporary prosperity preachers, Jesus’ sermon indicates that deepest spiritual happiness comes not from material gain but in the compassionate care of God for the wounded, grieving, and persecuted.
Perhaps the sermon’s ability to be heard lies in its transformational logic. Jesus upends prevailing notions of happiness. Our expectation of how the world works are inverted; if the poor, meek and grieving are the happiest people in the world — what does it say about those who are rich and comfortable? Ultimately, the sermon is heard because its hearers cannot believe their ears.
In the Sermon
As the manuscript rolls out of the printer, or as the last note is scribbled across the outline, the preacher sits backs and wonders, “Will it preach?” Our pulpits are not jutting out from mountains and our crowds may be smaller, and we are certainly not the Messiah, but the work involved in proclaiming the Good News this week is not dissimilar to the sermon Jesus delivers.
Jesus skips the Super Bowl jokes and apparently avoids using any cute stories about kids. He doesn’t quote from Barbara Brown Taylor or tell a William Willimon anecdote. What he does is broaden the imagination of the crowd’s yearning for God. He sends the prevailing definitions of success and happiness sliding down the mountain, reversing long-held cultural expectations.
That is why they listen with amazement.
It’s not the power brokers who are blessed; it’s the meek. It’s not the prosperity preachers who are filled with radiating happiness; it’s the grieving. It’s not the breeders of hated and hostilities who will succeed. It’s the peacemakers. If they happen to be cheesemaking peacemakers, it’s even better!
Don’t crowd a sermon about the Sermon on the Mount with lots and lots of wordy exegetical details. Those can shape your understanding of the text, and greatly add to your ability to communicate its power. But packing a sermon with scholarly minutia will only dull the ears of listeners. The simple, compelling clarity of the Sermon on the Mount will resonate with the life experiences of our members.
Allow these words to confront the deep and unanswered religious questions of our congregations. Let the uneasy tensions of Jesus’ paradoxical statements work their way into the famished imaginations of the congregation. They are weary of the quick answers handed to them by the world. But they are also often confused by the messages they receive from the church. Is the church a place of acceptance and grace? Or just another institution concerned about its bottom line or political appeal? Let these questions become incarnated in the mission of your church.
Do we seek the peace we proclaim? Or are we swayed by more expedient messages about success and victory. In the end, suggests Dale C. Allison in “The Sermon on the Mount,” (Crossroads Publishing, 1999), Jesus’ sermon demands that we pay as much attention to the preacher as we do to the words. The Sermon on the Mount makes little sense if we understand the authority of the one who delivers it.
The claim this text makes on the church and its disciples is clear, and wholly distinct from the often confusing and convoluted messages the church and her leaders have often proclaimed. A sermon aware of this possibility could breathe new hope into the lives of the meek, grieving, and discouraged who will gather with us next Sunday.
SECOND THOUGHTS
What Does It Mean To “Do” Justice?
by Tom Willadsen
Matthew 5:1-12, Micah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Psalm 15
In the Scriptures
Micah 6:1-8
This morning’s lesson from Micah could be called one of the greatest hits of the Hebrew prophets. “Do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly you’re your God.” is concise and is structured grammatically as many mission statements are. I just checked my record of texts I have preached over the last 30 plus years I have been in the pulpit. In that time I have preached this passage more than ten times, and only cited five other verses, ever, from Micah. The only other passage I’ve preached from Micah are those that regarded Jesus’ birth taking place in Bethlehem. There’s a lot more to this book, but none of it appears in the lectionary
At Micah 6:6 the voice changes. It’s not clear who exactly is speaking, perhaps the prophet Micah himself, on behalf of Israel. In defense the responder replies, asking rhetorically what he could bring to the Lord as a sacrifice. Burnt offerings? Calves? Thousands of rams? Ten thousand rivers of oil? His first born? The value of the sacrifices mentioned rises and becomes supremely personal, before the text changes voices and leaves the possibility of sacrifices of any kind being acceptable to the Lord.
The Micah reading begins with the language of a lawsuit that the Lord has filed against Israel. The Lord reminds the nation of times in history that the Lord has acted to liberate and save the people. It’s as though they have forgotten these mighty, life-changing deeds. It’s as though Israel has said, “Lord, our God, what have you done for us lately?”
Matthew 5:1-12
The passage from Matthew could be part of the New Testament’s greatest hits. It’s the start of The Sermon on the Mount. Today’s portion is commonly referred to as “The Beatitudes.” The term “beatitude” comes from the Latin term for blessing. It would be a corruption of English to regard the term as a compound as “the Be-Attitudes.” “Attitude” is not part of the root of this term, which is too bad, because one could do a lot worse than embodying the principles of blessing that Jesus invokes in today’s text.
The Beatitudes found in today’s Gospel reading are very similar to the set of blessings found in Luke’s gospel. The crucial difference is that Luke balances the blessing with woes.
Psalm 15
Today’s psalm lauds personal integrity, especially when there is a cost to keeping one’s word. This theme is echoed in the Matthew reading. In the last three verses of Matthew the text is quite clear that keeping one’s word, telling the truth, may well lead to being persecuted. The believer may suffer for standing strong. Rather than pointing out, as the psalm does, that the unrighteous will get theirs, the Beatitudes says one should rejoice when one is persecuted for the sake of the gospel; it’s a sign that one is doing the Lord’s work. Note it isn’t all suffering or reviling or persecution that should prompt rejoicing, only enduring suffering for righteousness’ sake.
For years “The Wounded Healer,” a concept popularized by Henri Nouwen, has been called on as people recognize their suffering and try to squeeze something positive out of it. Too often The Wounded Healer has been invoked by those who think their wounds alone qualify them as healers. This is not so. While a healer who brings the experience of having been wounded or persecuted to their work as a healer is helpful, they are able to call on that experience because they have worked beyond and through it. They bring more to a healing encounter than simply having been wounded.
It is the same with persecution. Not everyone who is persecuted has endured persecution for the sake of the gospel. Sometimes what one perceives as persecution is simply appropriate sanction for wrong behavior. In the same way not everyone who claims to be persecuted can count on a great reward in heaven, not everyone who has been wounded can claim the status of Wounded Healer. Both interpretations do not reach the depth that is required for good to emerge from pain and difficulty. Both deny a deeper hope that Christ intends for the world.
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
The Lord does things that don’t make sense to most people. The Lord chooses weak, humble people, not those of high status and noble birth, to work in the world. The cross, the symbol of capital punishment, is not a symbol of strength at all, but a symbol of weakness that in its contrast to the power and majesty of the Lord makes all people, all kinds of people, see that no one has any grounds to claim that their own merit, talents, resources or skills qualifies them for citizenship in the kingdom of the Lord.
In the News
Just Mercy has been in theatrical release for more than a month. It is a film based on Bryan Stevens’s memoir of the same name. The story follows the career of Bryan Stevens as he takes his first job out of law school with the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit that works to see that poor and marginalized people receive fair trials and are treated with respect and dignity by the justice system in the American South. The movie shows cases of stunningly incompetent and indifferent officials at all levels of the police and judicial system. The movie is provocative and infuriating. There are moments that are difficult to watch. One scene in particular shows Stevens being stopped by the police while driving at night. The police give no reason for stopping Stevens, do not answer his questions. One of the two police officers quickly and without provocation draws his gun and orders Stevens out of the car.
I cannot recommend the film highly enough. It made me cry tears of hope, sadness, anger and joy.
I am a middle aged, well-educated white man. Every time I have been stopped by the police, or even seen flashing lights in my rearview mirror I have been frightened. Every time I have been pulled over it has been justified. I have received tickets and warnings, but I have never been stopped without justification. I have only received fair and respectful treatment.
I have two sons I have never talked to them about how to behave around the police to keep from having the encounter escalate into one where they may be physically harmed or humiliated. My not having to have that conversation is an example of privilege. (One thought of white privilege: The term itself puts white people on the defensive immediately. A better way to discuss the reality of white privilege is to point out the things white people don’t have to think about. I can drive to my house after dark and not be stopped by the police for no cause. That’s not true for everyone.)
Every African-American person I know has been stopped for driving while black. It is not a new phenomenon, though it has only been discussed in the mainstream media for about the last decade. Richard Prior had a bit on one of his comedy album called “Niggers vs. Police” in 1974.
The scene in Just Mercy depicting this police stop made me very, very aware that as a society we have a long, long way to go before all people are treated fairly and with respect. We should all be concerned about this because, as Doctor King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
One can learn more about Bryan Stevens, the Equal Justice Initiative and Just Mercy, the book and film, by following this link to a recent interview with Mr. Stevens.
In the Sermon
Micah 6:8 is concise, inspiring and memorable.
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
The task of the Church, and every church, is to live these words. What does it mean to “do” justice? In Just Mercy the justice system is shown as anything but just. The power it has to crush hopes and destroy lives of individuals and families is mighty. It takes courage and tenacity to confront injustice. The film shows the steep costs of speaking the truth and standing up for justice.
The film makes very clear that those who speak out for justice will suffer at the hands of an unjust system. It is very tempting to not speak up, when the system will punish you and can harass you capriciously for speaking out against it.
Justice is a process. How many appeals did the Equal Justice Initiative go through before Johnny D. was released from Death Row?
What does it mean to love kindness? Remember, 1 Corinthians 13 says that love bears, hopes, believes and endures. Love is not a mushy platitude, as though one could write a frilly Valentine to kindness and thus fulfill this requirement from Micah 6:8. It’s hard to love. Love demands that the lover work, care and suffer. It takes more than a bumper sticker to love. Love must be embodied. Love can be costly.
As for walking humbly, Paul gets at that in his advice to the Christians in Corinth. They’re not wise, virtuous or strong. God is. The Corinthians should be modest, just as all of us should be. Life is not about us. It’s about what the Lord can do through us. How the Lord’s justice and mercy may take root here and now. It will not be easy. It cannot be easy. But the only faithful thing to do is to try.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Matthew 5:1-12
What I Wish My Teacher Knew
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus says, and it’s hard to figure out how the downtrodden are going to get to the realm of God, with so many obstacles against them. It may happen through teachers like Kyle Schwartz, who famously asked her students to complete this one sentence: I wish my teacher knew…
At the time, she was a new teacher, trying to get to know her new students. The answers were illuminating and heartbreaking. “Some children were struggling with poverty (“I wish my teacher knew I don’t have pencils at home to do my homework”); an absent parent (“I wish my teacher knew that sometimes my reading log is not signed because my mom isn’t around a lot”); and a parent taken away (“I wish my teacher knew how much I miss my dad because he got deported to Mexico when I was 3 years old and I haven’t seen him in six years”).” The exercise brought to her attention the places where her students were struggling with being poor in spirit, or with being poor in a more concrete sense.
The exercise has taught her how to be a more effective teacher, and also a better advocate for her students. “In her book, Ms. Schwartz writes about mistakes that might have been prevented if she had known her students better. She had a student named Chris who was obsessed with science. Ms. Schwartz thought she had done Chris a huge favor by securing a spot for him in a science-focused summer camp. But she was unaware of the family’s financial struggles and it turned out that his parents could not afford to take time off from work to get Chris to camp. Ms. Schwartz said classrooms can become a supportive environment for students coping with grief. She suggests that schools have “grief and loss” inventories for students who have gone through a crisis, with input from families so that the child’s future teachers know what that student is dealing with.”
This question has allowed her to be present in her students’ lives much more deeply, fulfilling Jesus’ promise, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”
* * *
Matthew 5:1-12
The Peacemaker is Better for Your Heart than the Pacemaker
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” Jesus tells us. Peacemakers impact not just our spirits, but also our physical health, people are discovering. The organization ReThink Health is seeking out the work of people like Mrs. Marilyn Burns, who has her own way of improving the health of people who are poor and stressed. “A surprisingly effective way to help improve Americans’ health can be found in a place you’d least expect — the Woodhill Homes public housing complex in Cleveland. That’s where I met Marilyn Burns in the lobby of a community center the day after she hosted an arts festival for neighborhood children. She recounts the highlights: African drummers, a DJ, a performance by actors from the Cleveland Public Theatre, storytelling sessions, finger painting, a stash of hula hoops — plus a unicorn walking around to entertain the crowd. “It all makes kids happy, it makes them smile, it makes them share with others,” says Burns, a certified community health worker. “My work is to encourage them and be uplifting. That’s good for their health and for the health of the community.” A Woodhill Homes resident herself, Burns seeks to promote healthy lifestyles and forge stronger social connections in this lower-income community by partnering with arts groups and health organizations to put on events. She also organizes regular Zumba and yoga classes, rustles up winter coats for kids in need, and simply listens to their stories. “Sometimes I go home and cry,” she admits. “But I also keep the children accountable for what they do in the neighborhood, and remind them how they can serve others.” Burns is just one of many Americans who play a critical — yet often unrecognized — role in helping communities become healthier and more resilient.”
Mrs. Burns and others like her “enlarge our vision of what creates well-being. It’s not just what happens inside the walls of clinics and hospitals — it’s the result of sound policies and smart decisions carried out by people from all walks of life.”
* * *
Matthew 5:1-12
The Rabbi, The Imam and the Minister
Brought together in the aftermath of 9/11, a minister, rabbi and imam in Seattle give presentations, support each other and travel together as a living example of peacemaking in a world of suspicion. The three traveled together to Israel, and Rabbi Ted Falcon recalls the last afternoon of the tour, “at the Sea of Galilee. After our teachings, we each invited participants to experience a ritual from our faith tradition. Jamal was doing the Muslim ablutions before worship, Don was doing either a baptism or a blessing, and I was doing a symbolic Mikvah, which is a ritual bath. We were all using the same water, the water of the Galilee, and I was aware that some of the same water molecules were there when Jesus was there, and when Abraham was there. As we all shared the same water, it seemed symbolic of the nourishment, the universal presence, the spirit that cuts across the separations in which deep healing can be found.” He adds, “I think spirituality holds the key to the deep healing that is required in our world. My experience with Jamal and Don is a continuing deepening of my appreciation not only of their traditions, but of my own.”
Jamal Rahman, a Muslim Sufi minister at the Interfaith Community Church, says about their partnership, “I find that by listening to Brother Ted and Brother Don, and by learning from them, my roots in Islam are growing deeper. I’m becoming a more authentic, more complete Muslim. Interfaith is not about conversion, it’s about completion. I’m becoming a more complete Muslim, a more complete human being. And that’s a great joy.”
When they traveled to Israel, Imam Jamal Rahman “was profiled at the airport when he arrived in Israel; he was pulled out of line and questioned.” He recalls, “I showed the passport officer a flyer of the three of us doing an interfaith, inter-spiritual program, and she kept saying, “A Rabbi, a Muslim, a Christian pastor? This is good, very, very good.” She took it upon herself to guide me through all the procedures, escort me to a supervisor, wait with me in line, and her constant mantra was “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you. This is good, very good”.”
Reverend Don Mackenzie says their experiences could lead them to despair, but instead, “My hope comes from the conviction that God intends healing for all of creation. It just can’t be that if God loves this world, anything will be spared from healing. When I think of the Middle East as a paradigm of despair, I think of the moment when Nelson Mandela was released from prison. Who would have guessed? Surely there is a power greater than mine — thanks be to God — at work in this world that will have the ultimate healing influence. The only question is, how can we be instruments of that power?”
The rabbi notes, reflecting out of the same wisdom tradition that nurtured Jesus, “Peace is not something we get to and healing is not something we get to. There already is peace and healing, and it’s a matter of becoming available to know it. The Hebrew word shalom essentially means wholeness and completeness. To the extent we allow ourselves to be whole, we connect with the integrity of our being and we appreciate the integrity of all beings. That wholeness breeds peace and healing.” It’s not easy work, so blessed are the peacemakers, who keep at the work of God.
* * *
Matthew 5:1-12
From Poor in Spirit to Rich in Living
“Disease creates isolation and barriers from the world of the well,” says Marcy Westerling, reflecting on her life since a diagnosis of cancer. Illness makes us poor in spirit, when we face pain, fear and loneliness. Diagnosed at age fifty with late stage cancer, Westerling was determined to defy all the stereotypes about sick people. She also made deliberate changes in her life to add to her wealth of spirit. She says, “As the first months of terror subsided, I began to adapt to my “new normal.” My medical team advised, “You must start living as if the next three months are your last. When you are still alive at the close, make a new three-month plan.” I resolved to hope and dream and build in smaller allocations of time. I made huge shifts in my life, severing two critical anchor points. I moved to the city from the small town that had been my home for 25 years — my isolated existence in the woods seemed too daunting for the emotional swings of terminal cancer. I retired from the organization I had founded and that had been my life’s work for 18 years. I knew the long hours and stress of the job I loved would deplete the strength I needed for cancer treatment.”
Westerling says, “I chafe at being invisible as a person with cancer…For now, I don’t look or feel like I’m dying. I am just terminally ill.”
She has created her own small version of the realm of God with other people who are living with cancer. “While the statistics gave me little hope, real people with cancer provide inspiration. They look normal and live well. They laugh, watch TV, and travel. They haven’t stopped living, even as medical appointments, surgeries, treatments, and side effects disrupt their days. I sought out other women living with a pink slip from life and discovered how hard it is for us to find each other. Medical privacy laws don’t help. Advocacy groups are often web- or hospital-based, but not everyone flourishes in those settings. Eventually I created my own support circle of other women with terminal cancer. The group is called “It’s a Dying Shame,” and the outreach flyer states, “Our goal is to explore the rich and peculiar territory of facing our own deaths. Together we can mine the humor, strangeness, and beauty of a life turned upside down. Join us for tea down the rabbit hole.” Our group meetings provide a cherished time to speak our truth without taking on the emotions of friends and family.”
Determined to find all the richness of spirit that she can, Westerling says, “I have noticed many of us with terminal cancer are of good cheer and even invigorated by having no presumption of longevity. We have little choice but to live in the moment; something many talk about, but few can manage. When you live treatment to treatment and test result to test result, there is less room for distraction by petty stresses. We can’t expect to live another year, but if we do survive one year, or five, or ten, we consider ourselves very lucky. My mandate is to live with the shadow of death seated comfortably on one shoulder — I rarely forget, but I often dismiss, my new companion.” Poor in health, perhaps, but rich in spirit.
* * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:
1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
“TATA JESUS IS BANGALA!” declares the Reverend every Sunday at the end of his sermon. More and more, mistrusting his interpreters, he tries to speak for himself in Kikongo. He throws back his head and shouts these words in the sky, while the attendees sit scratching themselves in wonder. “Bangala” means something precious and dear. But the way he pronounces it, it means the poisonwood tree. So, he preaches, “Praise the Lord, hallelujah, my friends! For Jesus will make you itch like nobody’s business.”
This paragraph was written by Barbara Kingsolver in her novel The Poisonwood Bible, that was published in 1998. It is the story of the Price family who made a pilgrimage from Bethlehem, Georgia to the Belgian Congo as missionaries in 1959. Reverend Nathan Price, autocratic and self-righteous, was an old school missionary who firmly believed that the gospel of salvation coupled with Americanization was the only viable means to transform a tribal people into a civilized society. Aghast rather than respectful of their customs, not only was he unable to speak their language but he failed to comprehend the significance and beauty of an intricate social system that he could only view as barbaric.
As an uncompromising Baptist minister, Price held firm that salvation required baptism, and baptism necessitated being immersed. The only water suitable for the sacrament of repentance was the river. Repeatedly the villagers would flee rather than flock when summoned to the river bank for baptism.
It took many a month for Price to learn that several children had been devoured by crocodiles that lurked in those forbidden murky river waters. Inflexible, even with this discovery, he remained relentless in his pursuit to baptize converts in the hellish river. What well-meaning parent would place a son or daughter in such danger for any god; especially one when worshiped with joyful hallelujahs who could bring upon them an unforgiving rash?
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:25
For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Johannes Brahms, who was born in 1833 and died in 1897, was a German composer and pianist. His reputation and status as a composer are of such renown that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the “Three Bs” of music. In his old age Brahms told his friends that he was going to retire from composing music and enjoy the time left to him. But soon after that announcement a Brahms composition made its debut. When he was asked why he wrote a composition after saying he wasn’t going to write anymore music Brahms replied, “I wasn’t, but after a few days away from it, I was so happy at the thought of no more writing that the music came to me without effort.”
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1 Corinthians 1:25
For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Eva Longoria married Tony Parker, the point guard for the San Antonia Spurs, on July 6, 2007, in a civil ceremony at Paris city hall. They had a Catholic wedding ceremony at the Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois Church in Paris on July 7, 2007. On November 17, 2010, Longoria filed for divorce from Parker in Los Angeles, citing “irreconcilable differences.” Longoria told the media that she had discovered hundreds of text messages from another woman on her husband's phone. The other woman was Erin Barry, the wife of Brent Barry, Parker's former teammate. It was revealed that the Barrys were also in the process of divorcing. Longoria and Parker were divorced in 2011.
After the divorce Longoria had a tattoo on her right wrist removed that had the Roman numeral “VII VII MMVII,” which means “7-7-2007,” which exhibited her wedding date with Tony Parker. She also had a tattoo on the back of her neck removed. This tattoo was the number “nine,” in honor of the number on Parker’s jersey that he wore while paying for the San Antonio Spurs.
In 2012 People magazine considered Eva Longoria, the former Desperate Housewives star, the woman who was most Beautiful at Every Age.
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1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
When running for the office of President of the United States, Jimmy Carter allowed himself to be interviewed by Playboy magazine. The now famous November 1976 publication almost cost him the election against presiding President Gerald Ford. He gave the controversial interview to Robert Sheer. In the interview Carter said, “I tell you that anyone who looks on a woman with lust has in his heart already committed adultery. I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. This is something that God recognizes I will do — and I have done it — and God forgives me for it.”
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1 Corinthians 1:25
For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Rana Awdis wrote the book In Shock, which was published in 2017. Just out of medical school she was a critical care physician when she encountered some serious medical problems resulting from her pregnancy. The focus of the book is how physicians are disconnected from the emotional needs of their patients. Something she was never aware of as a physician, but became acutely aware of as a patient.
Sadly, this was also true for her husband Randy. At the hospital she urged Randy to come immediately to her aid and support. She wrote, “Randy, who was an attorney at a law firm in the city, answered something about leaving as soon as he responded to the mythical ‘one final e-mail,’ confirming to me that I had failed to convey the immediacy of my need.” Randy was slow and long in coming. Several paragraphs later Awdis wrote, “To this day he insists it was without responding to the e-mail, although I am less certain of that.”
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From team member Bethany Peerbolte
Psalm 15
Accountable to One’s Oath
Who shall dwell in God’s sacred tent? The one “who keeps an oath even when it hurts”. This is from verse four of Psalm 15. It stood out to me for two reasons. Senators are being asked to take an oath of impartiality as they take over the impeachment process. They have already taken the oath that “the President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” (Article II, Section 4). Their new oath will be of impartiality. “The Constitution stipulates that senators when sitting on a trial of an impeachment, “shall be on Oath or Affirmation” (Article III, section 3, clause 6). That oath is more specific than the general one to uphold the Constitution. Rule XXV of the Senate Rules in Impeachment Trials provides the text: “I solemnly swear (or affirm) that in all things appertaining to the trial of [in this case, Donald J. Trump] now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws, so help me God.”” With Psalms as our guide, we hope that their oath will hold even when it hurts.
For the rest of us not taking senatorial oaths, we may find that the oath we gave January 31st is already broken. Gym attendance is already thinning and very few are still standing for the “dry January” challenge. With 93% of American’s making New Year resolutions, studies find only 43% are still going on February 1. “Stacie Humm, Recreation Programs and Facilities manager at Kent State University at Stark can sum up in one word the key to keeping a New Year’s resolution: accountability”. Having someone else in on the resolution can mean the difference between success and failure. When it comes to our oaths as Christians being in community has proven to make it easier. Accountability may be why it is hard for senators to be unbiased. They are accountable to their voters. So in an impeachment case, even though they are supposed to hear the facts without an agenda or political leaning, they know when they walk out of the room they will have to answer to their voters back home.
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1 Corinthians 1: 18-31
Who needs wisdom?
What do Joel Osteen, Malcolm X, The Wright Brothers, and Oprah Winfrey, have in common? They are all college dropouts. 1 Corinthians makes a comparison between God’s wisdom and the wisdom of men. The wisdom America presses their children to get is a college education. We think it will raise our children’s earning potential. However, there is mounting evidence that that is no longer true. Trade jobs are more readily available and pay higher than many jobs that require a college degree. It may be time to reassess what kind of wisdom we value. We may even find there is room for God’s wisdom to stand in a world where knowledge is a valuable asset.
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WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: Happy are those who greatly delight in his instructions.
People: The generation of the upright will be blessed.
Leader: They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright.
People: They are gracious, merciful, and righteous.
Leader: It is well with those who conduct their affairs with justice.
People: For the righteous will be remembered forever.
OR
Leader: The God of justice and mercy calls us together.
People: We come to worship our gracious God.
Leader: We are called to worship but also to service.
People: We will join in God’s work of seeking justice for all.
Leader: God calls us work with the humble Christ.
People: In humility we will join our Savior in this work.
Hymns and Songs:
Come, Thou Almighty King
UMH: 61
H82: 365
PH: 139
AAHH: 327
NNBH: 38
NCH: 275
CH: 27
LBW: 522
ELW: 408
W&P: 148
AMEC: 7
All Creatures of Our God and King
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELW: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
Renew: 47
I Love to Tell the Story
UMH: 156
AAHH: 513
NNBH: 424
NCH: 522
CH: 480
LBW: 390
ELW: 661
W&P: 560
AMEC: 217
Lift High the Cross
UMH: 159
H82: 473
PH: 371
AAHH: 242
NCH: 198
CH: 108
LBW: 377
ELW: 660
W&P: 287
Renew: 297
Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELW: 719
W&P: 591
AMEC: 561
O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee
UMH: 430
H82: 659/660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELW: 818
W&P: 589
AMEC: 299
O God of Every Nation
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELW: 713
W&P: 526
O Zion, Haste
UMH: 573
H82: 539
NNBH: 422
LBW: 397
ELW: 668
AMEC: 266
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH: 577
H82: 594/595
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELW: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELW: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
We Are His Hands
CCB: 85
Our Love Belongs to You, O Lord (Amarte sólo ti, Señor)
CCB: 63
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who rules in justice and mercy:
Grant us the grace to live into your reality
with all humility and grace;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you rule creation in justice and mercy. You call us to live into your reality with humility and grace. Help us to follow your Christ into your reign here on earth. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to seek justice and peace and our lack of clarity in proclaiming your word.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to be true witnesses to your good news. We have allowed ourselves to be sidetracked with the teachings of the world. We have not spoken of justice and mercy. We have not been your humble messengers. We have made your message about privilege and power instead of love and grace. Forgive our foolishness and restore us to our right minds that are centered on you. Amen.
Leader: God is love and invites us to join once again in proclaiming the good news. Receive God’s grace and share the love and mercy of God with all.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory be to you, O God, because you have created us out of love and for love. You are the source of all justice and mercy and we humbly offer our worship to you.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to be true witnesses to your good news. We have allowed ourselves to be sidetracked with the teachings of the world. We have not spoken of justice and mercy. We have not been your humble messengers. We have made your message about privilege and power instead of love and grace. Forgive our foolishness and restore us to our right minds that are centered on you.
We give you thanks for all those who have work to bring justice and mercy into our world. We thank you for the prophets of old and of now who speak for these in your name.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who have been denied justice and mercy. We pray for the faithfulness that we need to join in seeking these for all your children.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
You can play the game of Telephone where one person whispers something to another who in turn whispers it to another until it gets all the way around the group. (If you have a small number of children this would be a good time to invite some adults to be part of the group.) When the message gets back to you compare it to what you started with and then talk about how easy it is for a message to get mixed up. We have a great message to share with how much God loves us. One of the reasons we come to worship and Sunday school is to help us keep the message clear.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Blessed Are the Peacemakers
by Dean Feldmeyer
Matthew 5:9
You will need:
• A small picture, about 2” x 2”, of a dove or a peace sign as you deem appropriate for your church, for each child. These can be color pictures copied from the internet or line drawings that the children can color themselves. Under each picture or drawing write the word “PEACEMAKER.”
• Masking tape.
Say:
Good morning, boys and girls.
This morning we are talking about some of the things God asks us to do and be. The passage we are reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew and it is usually referred to as “The Beatitudes.”
A beatitude is a feeling of joy or, what the dictionary calls, bliss.
In the Bible, Jesus tells us that there are certain kinds of behaviors, things we can do that will give us joy, or bliss. This joy may not come immediately, but it will come eventually if we do as God asks.
So, Matthew says that we will be really blessed by God when we really, really need God. We are really blessed when we have to depend on God and not what we own. We are really blessed when we learn to be content with what we have and who we are and aren’t constantly trying to get more and be more. We are really blessed, he says, when we are able to bring peace to troubled situations.
Blessed are the peacemakers, he says. For they are the true children of God.
So, what’s a peacemaker?
Well, a peacemaker isn’t someone who just sits around and plays it safe, never disagreeing with others and never challenging bad things or bad people.
No, a peacemaker, is a person who works to find peaceful ways to get things done. A peacemaker is a person who wants to help everyone be happy and successful at doing what God wants them to do. A peacemaker is someone who tries to make sure that everyone is a winner.
That’s the kind of people God wants us to be: Peacemakers.
But, sometimes we have to be reminded.
So, today, I’ve made badges for all of us so we can remind ourselves and others that we are peacemakers just as God wants us to be.
Distribute the badges to each child. Tear off a piece of masking tape for each child and help them fold the tape back on itself and stick it to the back of the badge, then onto their own chest.
Close the message with a prayer asking God to help us as we seek to be peacemakers.
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The Immediate Word, February 2, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- What Did He Say? by Chris Keating — Jesus’ words in the Beatitudes invite the church to be faithfully involved in listening, speaking, and acting what it means to be the blessed community of disciples.
- Second Thoughts: What Does It Mean To “Do” Justice? by Tom Willadsen — Life is not about us. It’s about what the Lord can do through us. It cannot be easy. But the only faithful thing to do is to try.
- Sermon illustrations by Mary Austin, Ron Love, and Bethany Peerbolte.
- Worship resources by George Reed that focus on making our message clear; justice, mercy, humility
- Children’s sermon: Blessed Are the Peacemakers by Dean Feldmeyer — Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
What did he say?by Chris Keating
Matthew 5:1-12
Terry Jones, the Monty Python comedy legend who died January 21, was not a theologian. Famed for his offbeat lampooning of cultural icons, Jones was more clown than preacher.
Still, his offbeat brand of humor often poked at religion’s often over-inflated ego. His 1979 movie “The Life of Brian” spoofed the Gospels while generating controversy. Jones was no N.T. Wright, but a closer look at some of the scenes of “Brian” offer more insight that blasphemy.
Recall the film’s irreverent depiction of the crowds gathered to hear Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Late arriving onlookers strain to hear Jesus’ words. Their bickering quickly devolves into a bit of a row. Jones, playing the mother of the main character Brian, raises his voice to Jesus. “Speak up!” he yells. “Can’t hear a thing!” Suddenly someone turns around to say, “I think he said, ‘Blessed are the cheesemakers!’”
Blessed are who? What did he say? Say what? The scene evokes laughter while also pointing to a dilemma faced by people of faith. We struggle to articulate Jesus’ words to our generation, but in the process mangle the syntax or confuse the meaning. Too often no one can hear what Jesus so clearly stated.
Notice how the current state of affairs in the world has somehow drowned out Jesus’ words about peace. Even as we prepare to preach on the beatitudes, the “Bulletin of Atomic Scientists” took the extraordinary step of moving the minute hand of its figurative Doomsday clock twenty seconds closer to midnight. The warning of global annihilation is now just 100 seconds away.
Or note what happened in Minnesota last week when members of the Cottage Grove United Methodist church responded to denominational plans aimed at revitalizing their small congregation. News reports about church leaders pushing older members to the curb rocketed across the Internet, though the actual intent of the denomination was more nuanced.
Jesus’s blesses more than the cheesemakers. In our current chaos, the church is called and commissioned to proclaim those blessings with justice, kindness, and humility.
In the news
Most folks – especially preachers – have endured one of those red-in-the-face moments when an obvious malapropism or mispronunciation changes the meaning of a conversation. An elder at a church where I was a guest preacher told me she had always been impressed by the rows of antique “ovulating” fans near the ceiling of her church’s sanctuary. I told her I agreed. “I believe oscillating fans are much more common.”
A few months ago, an earnest pastor took to Twitter to tell a story on himself. It seems the pastor had garnered the immediate attention of his Baptist congregation one Sunday by imploring them to “clothe the hungry and feed the naked.” Someone immediately stood up and testified that this was one ministry they would wholeheartedly support. It’s a humorous anecdote illustrating our human tendency to suffer from “pedum in os tuum” (foot in mouth) disease. Deliberately obfuscating the Gospel is another matter.
Christians eager to herald Jesus’ return, for example, have expressed a belief that a possible war with Iran might not be a bad thing. Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside California, released a YouTube a few days after Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was killed that discussed Iran’s role in end-times theology. Laurie was joined with Don Stewart, author of the book “25 Signs We are Near the End.”
“The scenario that the Bible predicted, seemingly so impossible,” Stewart said in the video, “is now falling into place.”
It’s a troubling worldview which author Diana Butler Bass says permeates the thinking of those who might support a war with Iran.
“When Iran gets into the news, especially with anything to do with war, it’s sort of a prophetic dog whistle to evangelicals,” said Bass. “They will support anything that seems to edge the world towards this conflagration,” she says. “They don’t necessarily want violence, but they’re eager for Christ to return and they think that this war with Iran and Israel has to happen for their larger hope to pass.”
It is that sort of view which adds credulity to the observations by the scientific community that the world is closer annihilation, not redemption. In raising the “doomsday” clock to 100 seconds before midnight, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists were clear about their threat assessment:
“Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers — nuclear war and climate change — that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond. The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode.”
Partisan politics aside, it appears that the church has work to do in proclaiming Jesus’ gospel of peace. The prevailing political divisions and overheated rhetorical wars makes proclaiming words of peace ever more important. The scientists acknowledge that while the data about the world’s situation is widely known, the will to address matters of peace has weakened. “Instead,” they concluded, “over the last two years, we have seen influential leaders denigrate and discard the most effective methods for addressing complex threats — international agreements with strong verification regimes — in favor of their own narrow interests and domestic political gain.”
The church, on the other hand, seems stymied and unsure of how to address these concerns. In the case of mainline churches, many are focused on internal struggles and institutional survival. The story about the Cottage Grove Methodist church’s difficulty communicating a vision to its members is illustrative of the way the message of “blessed are the meek” gets mangled into “only the young are blessed.”
United Methodist leaders in Minnesota and Cottage Grove pastor both say the intended “relaunching” of the Cottage Gove church was never to usher out older members. The denomination has budgeted $250,000 to plant a new congregation at the existing location. It will be a new community, promised the Rev. Dan Wetterstrom, who oversees the two campuses of Grove United Methodist. But Wetterstrom insists that means everything must be new.
“We can’t have the exact same community, with just a new pastor,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “It needs to truly have a different look and feel.”
That “different look and feel” seems to communicate different messages to different groups — some feel they aren’t welcomed while others believe it is faithful to the gospel. Bishop Bruce R. Ough of the Dakotas-Minnesota Area believes it to be a call to sacrifice. ““Jesus talked about dying so that you could live, about being a grain of wheat that needs to go into the ground so that it can sprout again. … That’s what we’re trying to do — actually live the gospel, rather than just attend to the needs of a few people.”
Mainline groups are not the only places where clear communication is rare. Charismatic megachurch pastor and adviser to President Trump Paula White found herself speaking in twisted tongues last weekend. A video showed White praying that God would overcome the evil facing the church and society, including the immediate aborting of all “satanic pregnancies.”
Yes, “satanic pregnancies.”
In the video, White, who is pastor of City of Destiny Church in Apopka, FL, prayed for God to “interrupt that which has been deployed to hurt the church in this season. That which has been deployed to hurt this nation, in the name of Jesus.”
“We cancel any spell in the witchcraft of the marine kingdom,” she continued. Later she added, “we command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry.” Responses to the prayer included those who questioned whether the otherwise pro-life pastor was promoting harm against pregnant women.
White said her words were taken out of context, but some wondered exactly what sort of context could describe “satanic pregnancy.”
“No pregnancies are satanic,” responded Jesuit writer James Martin. “Every child is a gift from God. No one should ever pray for any woman to miscarry.”
In response, White said she was referring to Ephesians 6:12 and the church’s wrestling with principalities and powers. Charismatic Christians use similar terms, said Andre Gagne, a professor of religion at Concordia University in Montreal. “White is commanding that Satan’s plans be aborted,” he wrote.
In the Scripture
This week’s scripture lessons – Micah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 and Matthew 5:1-12 are familiar and oft quoted. Generations of social justice sermons have been inked to Micah’s call to live justly and humbly. Likewise, both the Pauline conversation about the cross and Matthew’s demonstration of kingdom ethics will evoke memories of long-held beliefs and practices.
But how will they be heard?
Jesus’ first words to the disciples in Matthew comes in the form of a sermon. There’s more here than practical advice for effective discipleship. This text functions as an actual sermon by stitching together images and illustrations to form an interpretative modelling of discipleship.
Jesus climbs to the mountain, sits down, and begins to teach. The mountain imagery is evocative of Moses delivering the law from Sinai and offers connections to God’s leading of Israel, but also suggests a connection to Jesus’ temptations. While the teaching is aimed at the disciples, it quickly becomes apparent that the crowds connect with Jesus’ message. By the time he wraps things up in chapter 7, the crowds are astounded and amazed by all he has taught them (cf. 7:28).
The sermon begins with words of blessing focused particularly on those groups and persons who were perpetually in the crosshairs of oppression. Contrary to contemporary prosperity preachers, Jesus’ sermon indicates that deepest spiritual happiness comes not from material gain but in the compassionate care of God for the wounded, grieving, and persecuted.
Perhaps the sermon’s ability to be heard lies in its transformational logic. Jesus upends prevailing notions of happiness. Our expectation of how the world works are inverted; if the poor, meek and grieving are the happiest people in the world — what does it say about those who are rich and comfortable? Ultimately, the sermon is heard because its hearers cannot believe their ears.
In the Sermon
As the manuscript rolls out of the printer, or as the last note is scribbled across the outline, the preacher sits backs and wonders, “Will it preach?” Our pulpits are not jutting out from mountains and our crowds may be smaller, and we are certainly not the Messiah, but the work involved in proclaiming the Good News this week is not dissimilar to the sermon Jesus delivers.
Jesus skips the Super Bowl jokes and apparently avoids using any cute stories about kids. He doesn’t quote from Barbara Brown Taylor or tell a William Willimon anecdote. What he does is broaden the imagination of the crowd’s yearning for God. He sends the prevailing definitions of success and happiness sliding down the mountain, reversing long-held cultural expectations.
That is why they listen with amazement.
It’s not the power brokers who are blessed; it’s the meek. It’s not the prosperity preachers who are filled with radiating happiness; it’s the grieving. It’s not the breeders of hated and hostilities who will succeed. It’s the peacemakers. If they happen to be cheesemaking peacemakers, it’s even better!
Don’t crowd a sermon about the Sermon on the Mount with lots and lots of wordy exegetical details. Those can shape your understanding of the text, and greatly add to your ability to communicate its power. But packing a sermon with scholarly minutia will only dull the ears of listeners. The simple, compelling clarity of the Sermon on the Mount will resonate with the life experiences of our members.
Allow these words to confront the deep and unanswered religious questions of our congregations. Let the uneasy tensions of Jesus’ paradoxical statements work their way into the famished imaginations of the congregation. They are weary of the quick answers handed to them by the world. But they are also often confused by the messages they receive from the church. Is the church a place of acceptance and grace? Or just another institution concerned about its bottom line or political appeal? Let these questions become incarnated in the mission of your church.
Do we seek the peace we proclaim? Or are we swayed by more expedient messages about success and victory. In the end, suggests Dale C. Allison in “The Sermon on the Mount,” (Crossroads Publishing, 1999), Jesus’ sermon demands that we pay as much attention to the preacher as we do to the words. The Sermon on the Mount makes little sense if we understand the authority of the one who delivers it.
The claim this text makes on the church and its disciples is clear, and wholly distinct from the often confusing and convoluted messages the church and her leaders have often proclaimed. A sermon aware of this possibility could breathe new hope into the lives of the meek, grieving, and discouraged who will gather with us next Sunday.
SECOND THOUGHTSWhat Does It Mean To “Do” Justice?
by Tom Willadsen
Matthew 5:1-12, Micah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Psalm 15
In the Scriptures
Micah 6:1-8
This morning’s lesson from Micah could be called one of the greatest hits of the Hebrew prophets. “Do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly you’re your God.” is concise and is structured grammatically as many mission statements are. I just checked my record of texts I have preached over the last 30 plus years I have been in the pulpit. In that time I have preached this passage more than ten times, and only cited five other verses, ever, from Micah. The only other passage I’ve preached from Micah are those that regarded Jesus’ birth taking place in Bethlehem. There’s a lot more to this book, but none of it appears in the lectionary
At Micah 6:6 the voice changes. It’s not clear who exactly is speaking, perhaps the prophet Micah himself, on behalf of Israel. In defense the responder replies, asking rhetorically what he could bring to the Lord as a sacrifice. Burnt offerings? Calves? Thousands of rams? Ten thousand rivers of oil? His first born? The value of the sacrifices mentioned rises and becomes supremely personal, before the text changes voices and leaves the possibility of sacrifices of any kind being acceptable to the Lord.
The Micah reading begins with the language of a lawsuit that the Lord has filed against Israel. The Lord reminds the nation of times in history that the Lord has acted to liberate and save the people. It’s as though they have forgotten these mighty, life-changing deeds. It’s as though Israel has said, “Lord, our God, what have you done for us lately?”
Matthew 5:1-12
The passage from Matthew could be part of the New Testament’s greatest hits. It’s the start of The Sermon on the Mount. Today’s portion is commonly referred to as “The Beatitudes.” The term “beatitude” comes from the Latin term for blessing. It would be a corruption of English to regard the term as a compound as “the Be-Attitudes.” “Attitude” is not part of the root of this term, which is too bad, because one could do a lot worse than embodying the principles of blessing that Jesus invokes in today’s text.
The Beatitudes found in today’s Gospel reading are very similar to the set of blessings found in Luke’s gospel. The crucial difference is that Luke balances the blessing with woes.
Psalm 15
Today’s psalm lauds personal integrity, especially when there is a cost to keeping one’s word. This theme is echoed in the Matthew reading. In the last three verses of Matthew the text is quite clear that keeping one’s word, telling the truth, may well lead to being persecuted. The believer may suffer for standing strong. Rather than pointing out, as the psalm does, that the unrighteous will get theirs, the Beatitudes says one should rejoice when one is persecuted for the sake of the gospel; it’s a sign that one is doing the Lord’s work. Note it isn’t all suffering or reviling or persecution that should prompt rejoicing, only enduring suffering for righteousness’ sake.
For years “The Wounded Healer,” a concept popularized by Henri Nouwen, has been called on as people recognize their suffering and try to squeeze something positive out of it. Too often The Wounded Healer has been invoked by those who think their wounds alone qualify them as healers. This is not so. While a healer who brings the experience of having been wounded or persecuted to their work as a healer is helpful, they are able to call on that experience because they have worked beyond and through it. They bring more to a healing encounter than simply having been wounded.
It is the same with persecution. Not everyone who is persecuted has endured persecution for the sake of the gospel. Sometimes what one perceives as persecution is simply appropriate sanction for wrong behavior. In the same way not everyone who claims to be persecuted can count on a great reward in heaven, not everyone who has been wounded can claim the status of Wounded Healer. Both interpretations do not reach the depth that is required for good to emerge from pain and difficulty. Both deny a deeper hope that Christ intends for the world.
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
The Lord does things that don’t make sense to most people. The Lord chooses weak, humble people, not those of high status and noble birth, to work in the world. The cross, the symbol of capital punishment, is not a symbol of strength at all, but a symbol of weakness that in its contrast to the power and majesty of the Lord makes all people, all kinds of people, see that no one has any grounds to claim that their own merit, talents, resources or skills qualifies them for citizenship in the kingdom of the Lord.
In the News
Just Mercy has been in theatrical release for more than a month. It is a film based on Bryan Stevens’s memoir of the same name. The story follows the career of Bryan Stevens as he takes his first job out of law school with the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit that works to see that poor and marginalized people receive fair trials and are treated with respect and dignity by the justice system in the American South. The movie shows cases of stunningly incompetent and indifferent officials at all levels of the police and judicial system. The movie is provocative and infuriating. There are moments that are difficult to watch. One scene in particular shows Stevens being stopped by the police while driving at night. The police give no reason for stopping Stevens, do not answer his questions. One of the two police officers quickly and without provocation draws his gun and orders Stevens out of the car.
I cannot recommend the film highly enough. It made me cry tears of hope, sadness, anger and joy.
I am a middle aged, well-educated white man. Every time I have been stopped by the police, or even seen flashing lights in my rearview mirror I have been frightened. Every time I have been pulled over it has been justified. I have received tickets and warnings, but I have never been stopped without justification. I have only received fair and respectful treatment.
I have two sons I have never talked to them about how to behave around the police to keep from having the encounter escalate into one where they may be physically harmed or humiliated. My not having to have that conversation is an example of privilege. (One thought of white privilege: The term itself puts white people on the defensive immediately. A better way to discuss the reality of white privilege is to point out the things white people don’t have to think about. I can drive to my house after dark and not be stopped by the police for no cause. That’s not true for everyone.)
Every African-American person I know has been stopped for driving while black. It is not a new phenomenon, though it has only been discussed in the mainstream media for about the last decade. Richard Prior had a bit on one of his comedy album called “Niggers vs. Police” in 1974.
The scene in Just Mercy depicting this police stop made me very, very aware that as a society we have a long, long way to go before all people are treated fairly and with respect. We should all be concerned about this because, as Doctor King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
One can learn more about Bryan Stevens, the Equal Justice Initiative and Just Mercy, the book and film, by following this link to a recent interview with Mr. Stevens.
In the Sermon
Micah 6:8 is concise, inspiring and memorable.
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
The task of the Church, and every church, is to live these words. What does it mean to “do” justice? In Just Mercy the justice system is shown as anything but just. The power it has to crush hopes and destroy lives of individuals and families is mighty. It takes courage and tenacity to confront injustice. The film shows the steep costs of speaking the truth and standing up for justice.
The film makes very clear that those who speak out for justice will suffer at the hands of an unjust system. It is very tempting to not speak up, when the system will punish you and can harass you capriciously for speaking out against it.
Justice is a process. How many appeals did the Equal Justice Initiative go through before Johnny D. was released from Death Row?
What does it mean to love kindness? Remember, 1 Corinthians 13 says that love bears, hopes, believes and endures. Love is not a mushy platitude, as though one could write a frilly Valentine to kindness and thus fulfill this requirement from Micah 6:8. It’s hard to love. Love demands that the lover work, care and suffer. It takes more than a bumper sticker to love. Love must be embodied. Love can be costly.
As for walking humbly, Paul gets at that in his advice to the Christians in Corinth. They’re not wise, virtuous or strong. God is. The Corinthians should be modest, just as all of us should be. Life is not about us. It’s about what the Lord can do through us. How the Lord’s justice and mercy may take root here and now. It will not be easy. It cannot be easy. But the only faithful thing to do is to try.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:Matthew 5:1-12
What I Wish My Teacher Knew
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus says, and it’s hard to figure out how the downtrodden are going to get to the realm of God, with so many obstacles against them. It may happen through teachers like Kyle Schwartz, who famously asked her students to complete this one sentence: I wish my teacher knew…
At the time, she was a new teacher, trying to get to know her new students. The answers were illuminating and heartbreaking. “Some children were struggling with poverty (“I wish my teacher knew I don’t have pencils at home to do my homework”); an absent parent (“I wish my teacher knew that sometimes my reading log is not signed because my mom isn’t around a lot”); and a parent taken away (“I wish my teacher knew how much I miss my dad because he got deported to Mexico when I was 3 years old and I haven’t seen him in six years”).” The exercise brought to her attention the places where her students were struggling with being poor in spirit, or with being poor in a more concrete sense.
The exercise has taught her how to be a more effective teacher, and also a better advocate for her students. “In her book, Ms. Schwartz writes about mistakes that might have been prevented if she had known her students better. She had a student named Chris who was obsessed with science. Ms. Schwartz thought she had done Chris a huge favor by securing a spot for him in a science-focused summer camp. But she was unaware of the family’s financial struggles and it turned out that his parents could not afford to take time off from work to get Chris to camp. Ms. Schwartz said classrooms can become a supportive environment for students coping with grief. She suggests that schools have “grief and loss” inventories for students who have gone through a crisis, with input from families so that the child’s future teachers know what that student is dealing with.”
This question has allowed her to be present in her students’ lives much more deeply, fulfilling Jesus’ promise, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”
* * *
Matthew 5:1-12
The Peacemaker is Better for Your Heart than the Pacemaker
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” Jesus tells us. Peacemakers impact not just our spirits, but also our physical health, people are discovering. The organization ReThink Health is seeking out the work of people like Mrs. Marilyn Burns, who has her own way of improving the health of people who are poor and stressed. “A surprisingly effective way to help improve Americans’ health can be found in a place you’d least expect — the Woodhill Homes public housing complex in Cleveland. That’s where I met Marilyn Burns in the lobby of a community center the day after she hosted an arts festival for neighborhood children. She recounts the highlights: African drummers, a DJ, a performance by actors from the Cleveland Public Theatre, storytelling sessions, finger painting, a stash of hula hoops — plus a unicorn walking around to entertain the crowd. “It all makes kids happy, it makes them smile, it makes them share with others,” says Burns, a certified community health worker. “My work is to encourage them and be uplifting. That’s good for their health and for the health of the community.” A Woodhill Homes resident herself, Burns seeks to promote healthy lifestyles and forge stronger social connections in this lower-income community by partnering with arts groups and health organizations to put on events. She also organizes regular Zumba and yoga classes, rustles up winter coats for kids in need, and simply listens to their stories. “Sometimes I go home and cry,” she admits. “But I also keep the children accountable for what they do in the neighborhood, and remind them how they can serve others.” Burns is just one of many Americans who play a critical — yet often unrecognized — role in helping communities become healthier and more resilient.”
Mrs. Burns and others like her “enlarge our vision of what creates well-being. It’s not just what happens inside the walls of clinics and hospitals — it’s the result of sound policies and smart decisions carried out by people from all walks of life.”
* * *
Matthew 5:1-12
The Rabbi, The Imam and the Minister
Brought together in the aftermath of 9/11, a minister, rabbi and imam in Seattle give presentations, support each other and travel together as a living example of peacemaking in a world of suspicion. The three traveled together to Israel, and Rabbi Ted Falcon recalls the last afternoon of the tour, “at the Sea of Galilee. After our teachings, we each invited participants to experience a ritual from our faith tradition. Jamal was doing the Muslim ablutions before worship, Don was doing either a baptism or a blessing, and I was doing a symbolic Mikvah, which is a ritual bath. We were all using the same water, the water of the Galilee, and I was aware that some of the same water molecules were there when Jesus was there, and when Abraham was there. As we all shared the same water, it seemed symbolic of the nourishment, the universal presence, the spirit that cuts across the separations in which deep healing can be found.” He adds, “I think spirituality holds the key to the deep healing that is required in our world. My experience with Jamal and Don is a continuing deepening of my appreciation not only of their traditions, but of my own.”
Jamal Rahman, a Muslim Sufi minister at the Interfaith Community Church, says about their partnership, “I find that by listening to Brother Ted and Brother Don, and by learning from them, my roots in Islam are growing deeper. I’m becoming a more authentic, more complete Muslim. Interfaith is not about conversion, it’s about completion. I’m becoming a more complete Muslim, a more complete human being. And that’s a great joy.”
When they traveled to Israel, Imam Jamal Rahman “was profiled at the airport when he arrived in Israel; he was pulled out of line and questioned.” He recalls, “I showed the passport officer a flyer of the three of us doing an interfaith, inter-spiritual program, and she kept saying, “A Rabbi, a Muslim, a Christian pastor? This is good, very, very good.” She took it upon herself to guide me through all the procedures, escort me to a supervisor, wait with me in line, and her constant mantra was “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you. This is good, very good”.”
Reverend Don Mackenzie says their experiences could lead them to despair, but instead, “My hope comes from the conviction that God intends healing for all of creation. It just can’t be that if God loves this world, anything will be spared from healing. When I think of the Middle East as a paradigm of despair, I think of the moment when Nelson Mandela was released from prison. Who would have guessed? Surely there is a power greater than mine — thanks be to God — at work in this world that will have the ultimate healing influence. The only question is, how can we be instruments of that power?”
The rabbi notes, reflecting out of the same wisdom tradition that nurtured Jesus, “Peace is not something we get to and healing is not something we get to. There already is peace and healing, and it’s a matter of becoming available to know it. The Hebrew word shalom essentially means wholeness and completeness. To the extent we allow ourselves to be whole, we connect with the integrity of our being and we appreciate the integrity of all beings. That wholeness breeds peace and healing.” It’s not easy work, so blessed are the peacemakers, who keep at the work of God.
* * *
Matthew 5:1-12
From Poor in Spirit to Rich in Living
“Disease creates isolation and barriers from the world of the well,” says Marcy Westerling, reflecting on her life since a diagnosis of cancer. Illness makes us poor in spirit, when we face pain, fear and loneliness. Diagnosed at age fifty with late stage cancer, Westerling was determined to defy all the stereotypes about sick people. She also made deliberate changes in her life to add to her wealth of spirit. She says, “As the first months of terror subsided, I began to adapt to my “new normal.” My medical team advised, “You must start living as if the next three months are your last. When you are still alive at the close, make a new three-month plan.” I resolved to hope and dream and build in smaller allocations of time. I made huge shifts in my life, severing two critical anchor points. I moved to the city from the small town that had been my home for 25 years — my isolated existence in the woods seemed too daunting for the emotional swings of terminal cancer. I retired from the organization I had founded and that had been my life’s work for 18 years. I knew the long hours and stress of the job I loved would deplete the strength I needed for cancer treatment.”
Westerling says, “I chafe at being invisible as a person with cancer…For now, I don’t look or feel like I’m dying. I am just terminally ill.”
She has created her own small version of the realm of God with other people who are living with cancer. “While the statistics gave me little hope, real people with cancer provide inspiration. They look normal and live well. They laugh, watch TV, and travel. They haven’t stopped living, even as medical appointments, surgeries, treatments, and side effects disrupt their days. I sought out other women living with a pink slip from life and discovered how hard it is for us to find each other. Medical privacy laws don’t help. Advocacy groups are often web- or hospital-based, but not everyone flourishes in those settings. Eventually I created my own support circle of other women with terminal cancer. The group is called “It’s a Dying Shame,” and the outreach flyer states, “Our goal is to explore the rich and peculiar territory of facing our own deaths. Together we can mine the humor, strangeness, and beauty of a life turned upside down. Join us for tea down the rabbit hole.” Our group meetings provide a cherished time to speak our truth without taking on the emotions of friends and family.”
Determined to find all the richness of spirit that she can, Westerling says, “I have noticed many of us with terminal cancer are of good cheer and even invigorated by having no presumption of longevity. We have little choice but to live in the moment; something many talk about, but few can manage. When you live treatment to treatment and test result to test result, there is less room for distraction by petty stresses. We can’t expect to live another year, but if we do survive one year, or five, or ten, we consider ourselves very lucky. My mandate is to live with the shadow of death seated comfortably on one shoulder — I rarely forget, but I often dismiss, my new companion.” Poor in health, perhaps, but rich in spirit.
* * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
“TATA JESUS IS BANGALA!” declares the Reverend every Sunday at the end of his sermon. More and more, mistrusting his interpreters, he tries to speak for himself in Kikongo. He throws back his head and shouts these words in the sky, while the attendees sit scratching themselves in wonder. “Bangala” means something precious and dear. But the way he pronounces it, it means the poisonwood tree. So, he preaches, “Praise the Lord, hallelujah, my friends! For Jesus will make you itch like nobody’s business.”
This paragraph was written by Barbara Kingsolver in her novel The Poisonwood Bible, that was published in 1998. It is the story of the Price family who made a pilgrimage from Bethlehem, Georgia to the Belgian Congo as missionaries in 1959. Reverend Nathan Price, autocratic and self-righteous, was an old school missionary who firmly believed that the gospel of salvation coupled with Americanization was the only viable means to transform a tribal people into a civilized society. Aghast rather than respectful of their customs, not only was he unable to speak their language but he failed to comprehend the significance and beauty of an intricate social system that he could only view as barbaric.
As an uncompromising Baptist minister, Price held firm that salvation required baptism, and baptism necessitated being immersed. The only water suitable for the sacrament of repentance was the river. Repeatedly the villagers would flee rather than flock when summoned to the river bank for baptism.
It took many a month for Price to learn that several children had been devoured by crocodiles that lurked in those forbidden murky river waters. Inflexible, even with this discovery, he remained relentless in his pursuit to baptize converts in the hellish river. What well-meaning parent would place a son or daughter in such danger for any god; especially one when worshiped with joyful hallelujahs who could bring upon them an unforgiving rash?
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:25
For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Johannes Brahms, who was born in 1833 and died in 1897, was a German composer and pianist. His reputation and status as a composer are of such renown that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the “Three Bs” of music. In his old age Brahms told his friends that he was going to retire from composing music and enjoy the time left to him. But soon after that announcement a Brahms composition made its debut. When he was asked why he wrote a composition after saying he wasn’t going to write anymore music Brahms replied, “I wasn’t, but after a few days away from it, I was so happy at the thought of no more writing that the music came to me without effort.”
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:25
For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Eva Longoria married Tony Parker, the point guard for the San Antonia Spurs, on July 6, 2007, in a civil ceremony at Paris city hall. They had a Catholic wedding ceremony at the Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois Church in Paris on July 7, 2007. On November 17, 2010, Longoria filed for divorce from Parker in Los Angeles, citing “irreconcilable differences.” Longoria told the media that she had discovered hundreds of text messages from another woman on her husband's phone. The other woman was Erin Barry, the wife of Brent Barry, Parker's former teammate. It was revealed that the Barrys were also in the process of divorcing. Longoria and Parker were divorced in 2011.
After the divorce Longoria had a tattoo on her right wrist removed that had the Roman numeral “VII VII MMVII,” which means “7-7-2007,” which exhibited her wedding date with Tony Parker. She also had a tattoo on the back of her neck removed. This tattoo was the number “nine,” in honor of the number on Parker’s jersey that he wore while paying for the San Antonio Spurs.
In 2012 People magazine considered Eva Longoria, the former Desperate Housewives star, the woman who was most Beautiful at Every Age.
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
When running for the office of President of the United States, Jimmy Carter allowed himself to be interviewed by Playboy magazine. The now famous November 1976 publication almost cost him the election against presiding President Gerald Ford. He gave the controversial interview to Robert Sheer. In the interview Carter said, “I tell you that anyone who looks on a woman with lust has in his heart already committed adultery. I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. This is something that God recognizes I will do — and I have done it — and God forgives me for it.”
* * *
1 Corinthians 1:25
For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Rana Awdis wrote the book In Shock, which was published in 2017. Just out of medical school she was a critical care physician when she encountered some serious medical problems resulting from her pregnancy. The focus of the book is how physicians are disconnected from the emotional needs of their patients. Something she was never aware of as a physician, but became acutely aware of as a patient.
Sadly, this was also true for her husband Randy. At the hospital she urged Randy to come immediately to her aid and support. She wrote, “Randy, who was an attorney at a law firm in the city, answered something about leaving as soon as he responded to the mythical ‘one final e-mail,’ confirming to me that I had failed to convey the immediacy of my need.” Randy was slow and long in coming. Several paragraphs later Awdis wrote, “To this day he insists it was without responding to the e-mail, although I am less certain of that.”
* * * * * *
From team member Bethany PeerboltePsalm 15
Accountable to One’s Oath
Who shall dwell in God’s sacred tent? The one “who keeps an oath even when it hurts”. This is from verse four of Psalm 15. It stood out to me for two reasons. Senators are being asked to take an oath of impartiality as they take over the impeachment process. They have already taken the oath that “the President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” (Article II, Section 4). Their new oath will be of impartiality. “The Constitution stipulates that senators when sitting on a trial of an impeachment, “shall be on Oath or Affirmation” (Article III, section 3, clause 6). That oath is more specific than the general one to uphold the Constitution. Rule XXV of the Senate Rules in Impeachment Trials provides the text: “I solemnly swear (or affirm) that in all things appertaining to the trial of [in this case, Donald J. Trump] now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws, so help me God.”” With Psalms as our guide, we hope that their oath will hold even when it hurts.
For the rest of us not taking senatorial oaths, we may find that the oath we gave January 31st is already broken. Gym attendance is already thinning and very few are still standing for the “dry January” challenge. With 93% of American’s making New Year resolutions, studies find only 43% are still going on February 1. “Stacie Humm, Recreation Programs and Facilities manager at Kent State University at Stark can sum up in one word the key to keeping a New Year’s resolution: accountability”. Having someone else in on the resolution can mean the difference between success and failure. When it comes to our oaths as Christians being in community has proven to make it easier. Accountability may be why it is hard for senators to be unbiased. They are accountable to their voters. So in an impeachment case, even though they are supposed to hear the facts without an agenda or political leaning, they know when they walk out of the room they will have to answer to their voters back home.
* * *
1 Corinthians 1: 18-31
Who needs wisdom?
What do Joel Osteen, Malcolm X, The Wright Brothers, and Oprah Winfrey, have in common? They are all college dropouts. 1 Corinthians makes a comparison between God’s wisdom and the wisdom of men. The wisdom America presses their children to get is a college education. We think it will raise our children’s earning potential. However, there is mounting evidence that that is no longer true. Trade jobs are more readily available and pay higher than many jobs that require a college degree. It may be time to reassess what kind of wisdom we value. We may even find there is room for God’s wisdom to stand in a world where knowledge is a valuable asset.
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: Happy are those who greatly delight in his instructions.
People: The generation of the upright will be blessed.
Leader: They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright.
People: They are gracious, merciful, and righteous.
Leader: It is well with those who conduct their affairs with justice.
People: For the righteous will be remembered forever.
OR
Leader: The God of justice and mercy calls us together.
People: We come to worship our gracious God.
Leader: We are called to worship but also to service.
People: We will join in God’s work of seeking justice for all.
Leader: God calls us work with the humble Christ.
People: In humility we will join our Savior in this work.
Hymns and Songs:
Come, Thou Almighty King
UMH: 61
H82: 365
PH: 139
AAHH: 327
NNBH: 38
NCH: 275
CH: 27
LBW: 522
ELW: 408
W&P: 148
AMEC: 7
All Creatures of Our God and King
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELW: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
Renew: 47
I Love to Tell the Story
UMH: 156
AAHH: 513
NNBH: 424
NCH: 522
CH: 480
LBW: 390
ELW: 661
W&P: 560
AMEC: 217
Lift High the Cross
UMH: 159
H82: 473
PH: 371
AAHH: 242
NCH: 198
CH: 108
LBW: 377
ELW: 660
W&P: 287
Renew: 297
Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELW: 719
W&P: 591
AMEC: 561
O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee
UMH: 430
H82: 659/660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELW: 818
W&P: 589
AMEC: 299
O God of Every Nation
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELW: 713
W&P: 526
O Zion, Haste
UMH: 573
H82: 539
NNBH: 422
LBW: 397
ELW: 668
AMEC: 266
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH: 577
H82: 594/595
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELW: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELW: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
We Are His Hands
CCB: 85
Our Love Belongs to You, O Lord (Amarte sólo ti, Señor)
CCB: 63
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who rules in justice and mercy:
Grant us the grace to live into your reality
with all humility and grace;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you rule creation in justice and mercy. You call us to live into your reality with humility and grace. Help us to follow your Christ into your reign here on earth. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to seek justice and peace and our lack of clarity in proclaiming your word.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to be true witnesses to your good news. We have allowed ourselves to be sidetracked with the teachings of the world. We have not spoken of justice and mercy. We have not been your humble messengers. We have made your message about privilege and power instead of love and grace. Forgive our foolishness and restore us to our right minds that are centered on you. Amen.
Leader: God is love and invites us to join once again in proclaiming the good news. Receive God’s grace and share the love and mercy of God with all.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory be to you, O God, because you have created us out of love and for love. You are the source of all justice and mercy and we humbly offer our worship to you.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to be true witnesses to your good news. We have allowed ourselves to be sidetracked with the teachings of the world. We have not spoken of justice and mercy. We have not been your humble messengers. We have made your message about privilege and power instead of love and grace. Forgive our foolishness and restore us to our right minds that are centered on you.
We give you thanks for all those who have work to bring justice and mercy into our world. We thank you for the prophets of old and of now who speak for these in your name.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who have been denied justice and mercy. We pray for the faithfulness that we need to join in seeking these for all your children.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
You can play the game of Telephone where one person whispers something to another who in turn whispers it to another until it gets all the way around the group. (If you have a small number of children this would be a good time to invite some adults to be part of the group.) When the message gets back to you compare it to what you started with and then talk about how easy it is for a message to get mixed up. We have a great message to share with how much God loves us. One of the reasons we come to worship and Sunday school is to help us keep the message clear.
CHILDREN'S SERMONBlessed Are the Peacemakers
by Dean Feldmeyer
Matthew 5:9
You will need:
• A small picture, about 2” x 2”, of a dove or a peace sign as you deem appropriate for your church, for each child. These can be color pictures copied from the internet or line drawings that the children can color themselves. Under each picture or drawing write the word “PEACEMAKER.”
• Masking tape.
Say:
Good morning, boys and girls.
This morning we are talking about some of the things God asks us to do and be. The passage we are reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew and it is usually referred to as “The Beatitudes.”
A beatitude is a feeling of joy or, what the dictionary calls, bliss.
In the Bible, Jesus tells us that there are certain kinds of behaviors, things we can do that will give us joy, or bliss. This joy may not come immediately, but it will come eventually if we do as God asks.
So, Matthew says that we will be really blessed by God when we really, really need God. We are really blessed when we have to depend on God and not what we own. We are really blessed when we learn to be content with what we have and who we are and aren’t constantly trying to get more and be more. We are really blessed, he says, when we are able to bring peace to troubled situations.
Blessed are the peacemakers, he says. For they are the true children of God.
So, what’s a peacemaker?
Well, a peacemaker isn’t someone who just sits around and plays it safe, never disagreeing with others and never challenging bad things or bad people.
No, a peacemaker, is a person who works to find peaceful ways to get things done. A peacemaker is a person who wants to help everyone be happy and successful at doing what God wants them to do. A peacemaker is someone who tries to make sure that everyone is a winner.
That’s the kind of people God wants us to be: Peacemakers.
But, sometimes we have to be reminded.
So, today, I’ve made badges for all of us so we can remind ourselves and others that we are peacemakers just as God wants us to be.
Distribute the badges to each child. Tear off a piece of masking tape for each child and help them fold the tape back on itself and stick it to the back of the badge, then onto their own chest.
Close the message with a prayer asking God to help us as we seek to be peacemakers.
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The Immediate Word, February 2, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
