Who Gets The Gold?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
For two weeks we've seen some almost incredible physical feats, a lot of spectacle (wonderfully prepared by the Greeks), and also a good deal of controversy at the Olympics. But the interest usually centers on the question, "Who gets the gold?" As the games wind down this weekend, superb athletes from all over will pack their belongings, leave Athens, and head for home. What if they have no gold medals to wear around their necks? Have they failed?
In this context Immediate Word team member Roger Lovette reflects on the implications of Sunday's Gospel lection, Luke 14:7-14, for our values and our daily lives. Jesus' words seem to turn upside down our natural human assumptions about pecking order, status, and worth. For anyone who has wished for the head table, who longs for recognition, who hopes they might just win something, somewhere, sometime, this parable painfully speaks to the heart. The issues are tricky and the pitfalls many. Nonetheless, Jesus' parable might change the way you and your parishioners view the world.
Other team members provide a wide range of perspectives, illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
Who Gets the Gold?
Luke 14:7-14
Jeremiah 2:4-13; Psalm 81:1, 10-16; Proverbs 25:6-7; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
By Roger Lovette
Introducing the Texts
Some weeks we have to look hard to see why somebody somewhere put these disparate texts together. In all five texts we find either a theological or an ethical word -- sometimes both.
Jeremiah 2:4-13, speaking to an apostate people, reminded them that they had forgotten how God had led them every step of the way. The prophet called them to lift their eyes from their terrible present and reminded them that the God who led their forebears could lead them still. Jeremiah forced them to look at the emptiness of cisterns they had carved out for themselves that held no water, no promise, and no salvation.
Proverbs 25:6-7 is this week's alternate Old Testament text. These words could very well be tied to our primary text in Luke. Here is an ethical word: Do not seek the primary places of honor. Pushing and shoving is not the way faith is to be lived.
Psalm 81:1, 10-16 is also a theological word. The people of God are reminded of their connectedness to the Almighty. Again and again the chosen people, overwhelmed by many things, forgot whose they were. A great communion sermon could be preached on the promises of God: "I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you." God provided the sustenance his people needed.
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 was set in a hard time when apostasy was an enormous problem. This great book on the challenge to faithfulness ends on an ethical note. Love of God goes beyond words to practical deeds. Verses 2 and 3 can connect easily with our Lukan text. You will be judged by the way you treat the stranger, those in prison as well as those closest to you. The relational dimension of life is primary in the faith journey.
Luke 14:1, 7-14 is my focus this week. Jesus' words here extend far beyond manners at the dinner table. We run headlong into ethics once again. What is the disciple to do? As Jesus often did, he turned the scribes and Pharisees and his own disciples to a different way of looking and doing one's faith.
"Who Gets the Gold?"
It's pretty obvious who gets the gold. It's the winners. It's the attractive. It's the well-heeled. It's the Donald Trumps, the Martha Stewarts, the Oprahs of our world. It's Lance Armstrong and all those who stood in the center of the Olympic ring and wore the laurel wreath. The gold is the big church down the street, those in your congregation who drive up in their Mercedes and BMW's. The rich and the famous get the gold. On Sunday you will look out on people who really do believe that, as coach Vince Lombardi used to say, "Winning isn't everything -- it's the only thing."
The challenge is to put the gold medals of our age down beside today's text. Notice the setting. Jesus was at the house of a leader of the Pharisees for a meal. Lawyers and other important people were there -- which leads us to believe Jesus enjoyed the company of the well-heeled and the important as well as the outsiders and ordinary people.
Jesus observed the pecking order at the table. The important folk sat in the special places. Alan Culpepper, in The New Interpreter's Bible (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995, 9:286), reminds us that people noticed where one ate, with whom they ate, whether they washed before eating, and where one sat to eat. All these matters, Culpepper says, determined one's social position. The writer quotes Pliny the Younger about the discriminatory meal practices of his day: "Some very elegant dishes were served up to himself and a few more of the company; while those which were placed before the rest were cheap and paltry. He had apportioned in small flagons three different sorts of wine; but you are not to suppose it was that the guests might take their choice: on the contrary, that they might not choose at all. One was for himself and me; the next for his friends of lower order (for you must know that he measures out his friendship according to the degrees of quality); and the third for his own freed-men and mine."
So Jesus gave them a parable. He was not giving them a course in first-century etiquette. He was telling the privileged ones at dinner that they should switch the name cards around. Put some of those deemed of lesser importance at the head table, move the VIP's way off in the corner. Alan Culpepper says in The New Interpreter's Bible (9:288) that the great crisis of the early church was not the delay of the Parousia but with whom one would eat. Sound familiar? There was a time when the Gentiles had no name cards. There was a time when women had no name cards. There was a time when slaves had no name cards. There was a time when Christians in Rome had no name cards. There was a time when those leaders in the Reformation had no name cards. And the list could be extended to little children working fourteen-hour days in factories, the poor who had no name cards. It could be the people in your town who live on the other side of the tracks. It could be a brown-skinned person from the Middle East or an African-American. In our time we have trouble placing name cards before those who are gay. And some in the Roman Catholic hierarchy would even deny John Kerry a place at the table because of his political beliefs on some issues.
Jesus turned their ancient meal-practices and social stratification upside down. The place cards were scrambled. The pecking order was overthrown. Even the outcasts were accepted as equals. God looked beyond the glitter and pointed his followers to a higher ethical standard. Christians were to practice generosity and being inclusive in their daily relationships to all.
Once there was a cowboy who arrived back at the ranch with a large gold ring on his hand. All the cowhands gathered around to see it. Finally one of the men asked, "Are you sure that is real gold?" The cowboy became indignant and said, "Well, if it ain't I been beat out of five dollars!" What's real and what is false? Should the places where we are assigned to sit take up a lot of our energy? Jeremiah said those who carve out for themselves cisterns that hold no water have their perspectives all wrong. Hebrews said the differentiating line between real and false is how God's people reach out to the strangers and those having a hard time.
Is the stratification of the world to be brought into the church? Is the pecking order of society to be the standard by which we judge one another? A look at the church today provides us with a ready answer. We love winners; we love bigness and success. We find ourselves frustrated when the accolades do not come our way. Jesus reminded us again and again that the labels we wear are only labels. Status is skin deep.
One of the key verses to understanding this parable is verse 11: "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." Jesus said we are to put all ideas of superiority behind us. Again and again Jesus was hard on the self-righteous. We are encouraged to be humble in our attitude toward life and each other. We turn back to Jeremiah and discover once again that if exiles in any age remember their history, the knowledge of God's faithfulness humbles them and makes them grateful. So Psalm 81 humbles us when we remember that God will still feed us with the best there is, just as God's manna fed all other wanderers. Hebrews 13 humbles us when we remember that this faith of our fathers and mothers always turns us toward the stranger, to those in prison and that great host of the dispossessed. A sermon could be preached on the idea that today we have reversed Jesus' words -- humility is no virtue, and pride is no vice.
Jesus continued the dinner theme in verses 12-14. He told them when they throw a party not to invite those who will return the favor. Instead, he suggested, "... when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind." Jesus sat down and wrote out place cards for people whom we never even imagined would be seated around the table.
There are folk in every church who are overwhelmed by life. They never won a gold medal in their lives. And there are a great many on the other side of the church whose lives are privileged but who concentrate on what they do not yet have instead of what God has abundantly provided.
We used to sing, "Whosoever will may come ..." But we have pared the message down until the church today is made up mostly of the privileged and the well-heeled. Once I had a friend who worked in an Urban Center in Chicago. As part of his assignment, he was to dress and live for three days as a homeless person. He was given ten dollars to live on for a weekend. He could not return until the three days had ended. He told how generous he found many homeless people to be when they found out he was in need. They would share what little they had with him and others. On Sunday, after two nights on the streets, he decided to attend a large downtown church for worship. As he entered, the ushers seemed disturbed by his presence. They seated him in the back, in a far corner, even though there were many seats available closer. He said that when the service was over not a single person spoke to him. Many would not even look at him. The ushers followed him until he was out of the door. That experience transformed his life. Even in church we need to be reminded that everyone is entitled to the gold.
There is nothing wrong with rewarding success and accomplishment. The Olympics could tell us a hundred stories of athletes who have triumphed over all sorts of adversity. But Jesus said that every one of his children is important and counted. The ground at the foot of the cross is level.
The media widely reported the late Mr. Rogers' speech at graduation exercises at Chatham College in Pittsburgh not too long after September 11, 2001. He included a familiar story that Jesus would have loved. It came out of the Seattle Special Olympics. For the 100-yard dash there were nine contestants, all of them so-called physically or mentally disabled. All nine of them assembled at the starting line and, at the sound of the gun, they took off. But one little boy didn't get very far. He stumbled and fell and hurt his knee and began to cry.
The other eight children heard the boy crying. They slowed down, turned around, and all of them ran back to him. One little girl with Down's syndrome bent down and kissed the boy and said, "This will make it better." The little boy got up, and he and the rest of the runners linked their arms together and joyfully walked to the finish line.
They all finished the race together. And when they did, everyone in the stadium stood up and clapped and whistled and cheered for a long, long time. People who were there that day are still telling that story. Why? Mr. Rogers said it is because, deep down, we know that what matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too, even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then.
Jesus told us who gets the gold -- everybody. And if we are all to get there we must help each other along. "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will exalted" (v. 11).
Addendum
In recent weeks the flap about "Did John Kerry do what he said he did?" in Vietnam has been all over the news. Without getting into partisan politics, it is the duty of the preacher to deal with the ethics of all this. Every responsible news commentator has denounced the "Swift Boats for Truth," a group trying to place doubts in people's minds about John Kerry's character. One particular negative ad has made the rounds on television in three states where the election might well be decided. We are told another ad will follow.
It seems to me that our Hebrews 13 text and our Luke 14 passage both deal with the practical conduct of Christians. The rules by which the followers of Jesus live are to be very different from the rest of the world. Not only do we look at winning and success in these two passages but we also deal with larger issues. There are certain things that Christians are not supposed to do. Twisting the truth and casting aspersions on another candidate's record of military service are not permitted. Buechner reminds us that the preacher is to tell the truth in his or her sermons. Henry Ward Beecher said that preaching was truth filtered through personality. It is our task to hold up the standards of truth, even though we know that negativism often wins votes.
We need to remind our parishioners and ourselves that the old bromide, "It matters not if you win or lose but how you play the game," is worth pondering. We who bear the name of Christ are to live by different rules. How we play the game matters enormously.
We also need to put ugly name-calling into its proper perspective. We in the United States have witnessed some horrific mudslinging in presidential campaigns. This is not a new element in 2004. Negativity in campaigns has always been with us. But this does not lessen the challenges we find in the words of this week's scripture. We ignore the rules at our own peril. The little boy said: "There are ten kids in our house and one bathroom -- you gotta have rules."
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: Let me begin by sending greetings to friends from The Immediate Word -- both my fellow team members and our readers. I've been away from my usual activities for the past three months, on a sabbatical made possible by the Lilly Endowment, which was generous enough to award me one of its National Clergy Renewal Program grants: http://www.clergyrenewal.org/
It's good to be back at The Immediate Word. Now let's dig into the texts.
I appreciate what you've done here, Roger -- providing a sensitive but still-challenging treatment of the whole subject of what "the gold" means to each of us. To some, "the gold" means money, pure and simple; to others, it means the acclamation of others. To still others -- who see money as the tangible form of society's acclamation for a job well done -- it means both.
The view that money is simply the hard currency of human worth is a heresy we preachers ought to be continually contradicting from the pulpit. There's a certain naive viewpoint that sees the free-market economy as a magically self-righting system: those who climb to the top of the career ladder deserve it, and those who receive lesser rewards are somehow deficient or at fault. Events like the Olympic medal ceremonies -- which award precious medals to athletes who have objectively demonstrated that they are the best in their particular contests -- can serve as a sort of icon for this view. (This is at least true in timed or measured events like swimming and track-and-field; judged events like gymnastics are always open to charges of favoritism or error, as we have seen again this month.) In Berlin in 1936, Jesse Owens wore a gold medal around his neck, no matter what Adolf Hitler thought about it.
Very germane to the subject matter of the Gospel lection is an editorial in the New York Times on August 24, titled, "Not as Good as Gold." It comments on the "astonishing come-from-behind heroics" of gymnast Paul Hamm in being awarded the gold medal in men's all-around gymnastics. But "the only trouble was, it now turns out, that he didn't really deserve the gold." If it were not for a judging error a South Korean would have got the gold. The editors opine that "it reeks of injustice that an athlete should lose a medal based on what amounts to a numerical error.... Our own feeling ... is that [Mr. Hamm's] gold is already a bit tarnished."
Our family often vacations in the Adirondacks, near Lake Placid, the site of the Winter Olympics of 1932 and 1980. Near the Olympic ski jumps (operated in the summer as a tourist site) there is a simple, unmarked painted-plywood platform of three uneven steps. It's always interesting to stand nearby and watch what the tourists do with this wooden structure. There is no explanatory sign, but everyone knows instantly what it is. The children scramble onto the various steps, standing tall -- dreaming, no doubt, of gold, silver, and bronze -- while parents or grandparents squint into the camera. On the medal dais, life seems simple: rewards come to those who deserve them. Hard work and talent inevitably pay off -- unlike life, which is far more frustrating and complex. That may be part of spectator sports' enduring appeal: watching the medal ceremonies, we can reassure ourselves that there is at least one place in the world where justice can be counted on to triumph, at least most of the time.
I was struck in particular by one item you shared with us in your illustrations (see below), Robert Frost's 1923 poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay." On the Internet I found a web site that includes a scholarly review of this short poem: http://www.danagioia.net/essays/efrost2.htm
On that site, reviewer Dana Gioia comments: "Written by a middle-aged man who had already lost two children, both parents, and his closest friend (the British author Edward Thomas who is commemorated in the poem placed immediately before 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' in New Hampshire), this short work evokes a point in life when the golden illusions of youth have vanished. The poem is not explicitly autobiographical. Frost's poems virtually never are. It reaches for broader resonance than the merely personal. Yet anyone familiar with Frost's often difficult life can see that its hard-won wisdom was rooted in bitter experience. How characteristic of Frost that the personal origins of the poem -- whatever they were -- have been so magnificently transcended into a universal vision of the human condition! What the reader encounters is not a private complaint about life's injustice but a tender, if heartbreaking, expression of the transience of beauty and the grief of mortality."
I think "Nothing Gold Can Stay" could well serve as a sermon title. The rewards of this world, despite our ceaseless striving for them, are transitory. "You can't take it with you," as the old saying goes. When each of us is ultimately judged in the one court that really matters, no one will be wearing medals. It is the quality of our very selves that will be judged, not our achievements -- and that quality will be assessed not so much according to who we are as whose we are.
Carter Shelley responds: Roger, I like the way you've woven the other lectionary texts into the material you provide for Luke 14:7-14. I also appreciate the way you take advantage of the conclusion of two weeks of Olympics coverage by using it as the contemporary tie-in. In fact, I wanted a bit more on that score. Since I love sports, the next few paragraphs will expand on your discussion of the Olympics, and then I'll make a few comments about the Lukan passage.
The thing I find most compelling about the Olympics is the way it creates community. Watching it almost daily, being moved by the athletes' efforts and actions, increases conversation and camaraderie among people at the water cooler, in church meetings, and at home. Not only is the competition a shared experience for the athletes, the viewing and emotional engagement becomes a shared experience for viewers.
I understand that Mr. Rogers' story from the Special Olympics is widely known. Actually, I hadn't heard it before, but I think it can be used again, for ministers who have used it before can reinforce its emotional power. That would be to contrast the "we're all in it together" sense that the story provides with the use of banned drugs as a desperate way to win -- a sad turn of affairs that has occurred numerous times at this year's competition. The first is about others. The second is about self.
A sobering book, that came out about eight years ago, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters, by Joan Ryan, explores the dark side of such competitions. The book recounts the trials, tribulations, pressures, risks, and dangers that young gymnasts and ice skaters face in their training. Anorexia, premature separation from parents, denial of such child-appropriate things as time with friends, holidays off, and natural maturation of the body are all sacrificed for the goal of winning. If anyone epitomized the too high costs of training and winning or losing, it was Svetlana Khorkina, the 25-year-old gymnast from Ukraine. She looked old, tired, painfully thin, and too depleted to enjoy her success. There's something wrong with a system where a woman can't be proud and celebrate a silver medal at the Olympics.
Actually, I've been pretty impressed by the humility, joy, and awe many of the athletes have demonstrated with their wins. The media presented Michael Phelps as this incredibly competitive swimmer who would not let anyone defeat him. In point of fact he has been gracious in victory, gracious about other swimmers' victories, and generous and complimentary toward his competitors. Phelps actually seems to have withstood the hype and pre-Olympic pressures imposed upon him by the media buzz that he should win eight gold medals. He didn't beat Mark Spitz's record seven gold medals, but Phelps did rise above those expectations by his display of character.
There have been some inspirational moments in this year's Olympics. Paul Hamm was able to rise above his devastating vault performance to win the all-around men's gymnast gold. Laureyn Williams' moving silver medal win in the women's 100-meter dash, witnessed in person by her seriously ill father, was heart-warming as well as heart-rending. And, of course, who can't help but celebrate the Iraqi soccer team's jubilance and excitement, playing with such sheer joy and energy, like men set free from prison, which to some extent they are.
Some of the disheartening moments have been judging errors that suggest that the Korean gymnast who won the silver should in fact have won the gold; the woman equestrian who lost her two gold medals due to protests lodged against her by other equestrian competitors; and several winners losing medals after testing positive for banned drugs. Another aspect that has dismayed me has been the ongoing crowing and counting of American gold, silver, and bronze medals. I'm proud to be an American and am inspired by individual athlete's hard work, dedication, and success, but I'm inspired by athletes from all parts of the world and feel like celebrating their victories as well.
Finally, here are a few comments about this week's text in Luke. Your observation that Jesus may have enjoyed the company of the well-heeled and well-fed is one I hadn't thought about before. Had he been more willing to become one of their gang, he probably would have escaped crucifixion. These guys don't think Jesus has anything to offer them, yet we as readers have the hindsight to realize that they needed what Jesus had to offer just as much as the less glamorous and more humble Jews and Gentiles did.
I appreciate the concreteness of your examples about name cards. I think the hardest thing about preaching a sermon on this text is finding a way to move both congregation and pastor from talk to action. How do we overcome the reality we face, which is that we don't want to share our pew with street people? We don't want to be faced with a lot of individuals who are poor, mentally ill, rude, unpleasant, undisciplined, needy, and so on, on Sundays or any other day. We want to be with people like ourselves. How do we change that?
Your illustration concerning the street-person-for-three-days hits home. Back in the early 1980s I worked in an urban church that dealt with a great many homeless, desperate, and hungry people. All too often our financial resources were depleted before the month was over. In such instances, I discovered that telling someone that we didn't have any more money and couldn't help them was accepted quietly and passively when I had feared there would be anger or abuse. What I also discovered was that even those individuals who don't have enough to buy themselves a cup of coffee or pay the electric bill that month, want human contact and recognition of their humanness. Thus, taking the time to sit down with an individual, look him or her in the eye and listen in a focused and caring way to the story each needed to tell about their hard times and hard life, often meant more than a handout. All of us need to be heard. All of us need to know we matter. Jesus understood that.
George Murphy responds: I confess to some ambiguity about contrasting a desire to win in sports with Jesus' words in this week's gospel. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that the Cleveland Indians haven't won a World Series since 1948 and the Browns have never even been to a Super Bowl, let alone won one. Who could begrudge a long-suffering Cleveland sports fan the desire to be Number One for once? But I think that the ambiguity goes deeper than that.
Certainly Jesus' words are clear enough. He moves from what may simply have been prudence in Proverbs 25:6-7 -- don't overreach and end up making yourself look stupid -- to a much more fundamental principle of life. It is only through a willingness to be humbled that one can be exalted. That is expressed most pointedly in Jesus' words in other places about taking up the cross to follow him.
Our youth minister came into church last week with a t-shirt that in front was just plain black with the stark word "LOSER" in white. It isn't the kind of thing one usually advertises. On the back, however, was wording that made the message clearer: "Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it" (Mark 8:35). Of course, no one wants to be labeled a loser, especially in anything connected with sports. But that's what Jesus said, and in the eyes of the world Christians often will be losers if they take his words seriously.
Coaches sometimes put up signs in locker rooms that say things like, "No pain, no gain." At first glance what Jesus says in Luke 14 may seem to be something like that. If you humble yourself, if you take the lowest place, the host will promote you, and "then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you." Similarly, the sayings about taking up the cross promise that if you lose your life you'll find it. So is Jesus just telling us the right way to win the gold? Is it simply a utilitarian matter of accepting present hardship for the sake of future reward?
In a certain sense that's right, but we have to understand what "the gold" or being "Number One" means. It is, in the first place, simply a matter of being in the right relationship with God. In the most extreme case of literally giving up our lives, the reward is not first of all a promise of resurrection. The reason to be on God's side is simply that it is God's side. C. S. Lewis put the matter very well in a letter to a friend:
I believed in God before I believed in heaven. And even now, even if -- let's make an impossible supposition -- His voice, unmistakably His, said to me, "They have misled you. I can do nothing of that sort for you. My long struggle with the blind forces is nearly over. I die, children. The story is ending" -- would that be a moment for changing sides? Would not you and I take the Viking way: "The Giants and the Trolls win. Let us die on the right side, with Father Odin."
-- C. S. Lewis, Prayer: Letters to Malcolm (Glasgow: Collins, 1966), p. 120
As for our lives in this world, we're not called to extinguish all desire for excellence. But again it's a question of the kind of excellence we're to strive for. Jesus himself, the prime example of giving up his life, didn't do that to no purpose. But his purpose was the good of others, not of himself. That's what Paul reminds the Philippian Christians of in his great passage about the kenosis, the "emptying" or "making himself of no account" in Philippians 2:6-11. But his reason for citing that hymn in verse 4 often gets ignored: "Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus...." Jesus is given here as the exemplar not of masochism, nihilism, or a search for Nirvana but of service.
And if we're called to serve, our service ought to be of as high a quality as possible. It ought to be of gold-medal quality. The quest for the gold, or just plain winning, can be evil if it means destroying or humiliating others in order to finish first. The belief that participation in athletics automatically "builds character" needs some nuanced criticism, because sometimes it builds the wrong kind of character. But the idea that we shouldn't keep score or emphasize winning at all promotes a distorted view of the way the world is. One successful college football coach scoffed at the slogan, "It doesn't matter whether you win or lose but how you played the game." How would you like it, he asked, if you walked into a surgeon's office to schedule an operation and saw a sign on the wall that said, "It matters not whether the patient lives or dies but how you made the cut"?
I think that, within limits, athletics can teach something about striving to be as good as possible at what one does in life. But it's the task of the church, not gymnastic or track coaches, to teach about what we should be doing in life.
Related Illustrations
From Carlos Wilton:
We tend to remember winners and losers of Big Games.... Christians have tended to approach "salvation" as either a Big Game or a Long Season, each yielding a final score. In the Big Game, victory comes down to a few crucial moments, maybe a sprint at the end. In the Long Season, we work out our salvation one inning at a time, with the standings always in view....
Rarely does it occur to us that being "saved" might mean something other than victory in a contest. We hear the question Jesus was asked one way: What will it take to win the Big One? Will only a few win the prize? Who will those few be? I wonder, though, whether Jesus heard and responded to it differently.
The church would talk about victory and prizes, at least partly because it was in the business of deciding who won. But Jesus himself seemed to view life as neither Big Game nor Long Season, but as a journey, in which God would be steadfast companion and the aim was oneness with God.
In the end, the count of those winning prizes isn't nearly as important as the promise of mercy and steadfast companionship. If we could lay off the victory talk, we might see each other as companions, not as competitors for the gold medal; God as friend, not referee; and life as worthy every day, not as prelude to Final Standings.
-- Tom Ehrich, "On a Journey: Meditations on God in daily life," August 16, 2004
***
Philip Yancey tells this story in What's So Amazing about Grace? (Zondervan, 1997), pp. 48-49:
One of Jesus' stories about grace made it into three different Gospels in slightly different versions. My favorite version, though, appears in another source entirely: the Boston Globe's account in June 1990 of a most unusual wedding banquet.
Accompanied by her fiance, a woman went to the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston and ordered the meal. The two of them pored over the menu, made selections of china and silver, and pointed to pictures the flower arrangements they liked. They both had expensive taste, and the bill came to thirteen thousand dollars. After leaving a check for half that amount as down payment, the couple went home to flip through books of wedding announcements.
The day the announcements were supposed to hit the mailbox, the potential groom got cold feet. "I'm just not sure," he said. "It's a big commitment. Let's think about this a little longer."
When his angry fiancee returned to the Hyatt to cancel the banquet the Events Manager could not have been more understanding. "The same thing happened to me, Honey," she said, and told the story of her own broken engagement. But about the refund, she had bad news. "The contract is binding. You're only entitled to thirteen hundred dollars back. You have two options: to forfeit the rest of the down payment, or go ahead with the banquet. I'm sorry. Really, I am."
It seemed crazy, but the more the jilted bride thought about it, the more she liked the idea of going ahead with the party -- not a wedding banquet, mind you, but a big blowout. Ten years before, this same woman had been living in a homeless shelter. She had got back on her feet, found a good job, and set aside a sizable nest egg. Now she had wild notion of using her savings to treat the down-and-outs of Boston to a night on the town.
And so it was that in June of 1990 the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston hosted a party such as it had never seen before. The hostess changed the menu to boneless chicken -- "in honor of the groom," she said -- and sent invitations to rescue missions and homeless shelters. That warm summer night, people who were used to peeling half-gnawed pizza off the cardboard dined instead on chicken cordon bleu. Hyatt waiters in tuxedos served hors d'oeuvres to senior citizens propped up by crutches and aluminum walkers. Bag ladies, vagrants, and addicts took one night off from the hard life on the sidewalks outside and instead sipped champagne, ate chocolate wedding cake, and danced to big-band melodies late into the night.
***
Some years back, the New Yorker magazine published a cartoon in which a bunch of buttoned-down business types are sitting around a boardroom table. Standing at one end of the table and pointing to a large statue of a calf is a man who's evidently the chairman of the board. With a confident smile on his face, he's declaring, "I say it's a calf. I say it's golden, and I say worship it."
***
Don't consider losses a waste of time. Consider them an apprenticeship.
-- Greg Norman, professional golfer
***
Decades ago, when the distinguished American philosopher George Santayana observed, "Another world to live in is what we mean by religion," he could not have anticipated how, for many millions of his countrymen, as for yet more millions throughout the world, what he meant by "religion" would one day be displaced in the most immediate, existential, and emotional sense by spectator sports.
-- Joyce Carol Oates, reviewing The Picador Book of Sportswriting in the Times Literary Supplement, July 12, 1996
***
From Carter Shelley:
The Way of the Wolf, by Martin Bell, has a section called "The Rag-Tag Army." This 21/2-page piece depicts God as the general of an army of people who frolic in the flowers, stop to dance in a circle, wouldn't be of much use in Iraq or Afghanistan, but they and we are the kind of soldiers God chooses. It's another way to illustrate Roger's point about the Special Olympics and also God's preference for those who are not good at those things the world judges to be successes.
***
Sports Illustrated for August 23, 2004, offers a range of useful specific details related to the summer Olympics. Here are two.
On the American Basketball Team and their defeat by Puerto Rico and Lithuania "The Americans did ... comport themselves like an NBA team -- a bad one -- which means it came out uninterested, failed to respond to the challenge quickly, then panicked with egregious shot selection and sloppy ball management (22 turnovers compared with only 26 field goals).... A lot of these young kids didn't realize that in order to be part of a team, you're going to have to sacrifice a lot of your individual things," said Coach Larry Brown (Jack McCallum, 57-58).
"There are thousands of Iraqi exiles in Greece, and flag-waving expats took over the stadium on Sunday. Their unbridled joy was set free by players who had endured torture at the hands of Uday Hussein, who ran the Iraqi Olympic Committee for his father, Saddam (SI, March 24, 2003) from 1994 until last year's US-led invasion. "I'm so proud to be an Iraqi tonight, said Bisoyn Najah.... For a moment Iraqis everywhere could united behind a triumphant national team composed of Shiites, Sunnis, and a single Kurd -- midfielder Hawar Mulla Mohammed, who scored against Costa Rica.... The Iraqis may be on their way to the most unlikely of Olympic medals. "That is our wish," Muhamoud said. "We think anything is possible" (Grant Wahl 63).
***
From Roger Lovette:
"Live and help live."
-- Rachel Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom
***
"My Master intended His church to be a place where men (and women) become so much like Jesus that people would think they had seen him."
-- Carlyle Marney, These Things Remain, p. 137
***
"Self and stuff are not enough."
-- Barrie Shepherd
***
"You don't give something away because it is a little bit broken."
-- Pollard, the Jockey in the movie Seabiscuit
***
Nora came to stay, for a few days, at the emergency shelter on the first floor of our big old church. With hair so bleached it was white, tight plastic slacks, and see-through blouse, Nora was all of 16. Her parents in frustration and disgust had locked her out.
Chain-smoking, flirtatious, troublemaking, knowledgeable and stupid at the same time, Nora was the center of attention. Nora insisted on being the center of attention.
Saturday afternoon I was alone in the kitchen when Nora came in and sat down across from me. Silent for a long time, she finally asked her question. "I heard a priest say once that Jesus loves even prostitutes. Is that true?"
I almost went into a sermonette about how God loves the sinner but not the sin and all that. But something shut my mouth and I simple said, "Yes." Nora wept.
-- Dean Snyder
***
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden thank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
-- Robert Frost
Worship Resources
By Julia Ross Strope
HYMN SUGGESTIONS
"Bring Many Names." B. Wren. Tune: Westchase. Available in Sing the Faith, 2003, 2047.
"O That I Had A Thousand Voices." Tune: O dass ich tausend Zungen hatte. Available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 475.
"Christ Of The Upward Way." Tune: Sursum Corda. Available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 344.
"Guide My Feet." Tune: Guide My Feet. Available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 354.
"You Satisfy The Hungry Heart." Tune: Finest Wheat. Available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 521.
CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Jeremiah 2:4-13)
Leader: How good to be together in this place this last Sunday in August.
People: We've come to enjoy each other and to thank God for our lives.
Leader: Together we remember our faith heritage and acknowledge that God takes us through deep waters, strengthens us to carry our burdens, and challenges our expectations.
People: God confronts us when we allow things, people, and events to supplant the Holy.
Leader: Our scriptures call those things idols and our attachment to them sin.
People: As reality changes, we must expand our ways of being faithful to the Creator of the universe.
Leader: God is present; the Holy Spirit inspires us to think, feel, and act to manifest Divine love and grace.
People: We will serve God and make joyful sounds wherever we are.
PRAYER OF ADORATION (leader or unison)
Giver of Life:
How glad we are for today! We rejoice! All Creation rejoices with us: you are El Shaddai, God Most High.
Thank you for your undeniable presence here among us. Open our minds to your Word for today. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION
Leader: When we confess our sins, God hears us. Let us confess together as printed in the bulletin then let us open our individual hearts to God.
COMMUNITY CONFESSION (unison; based on Proverbs 25:6-12)
Living God:
We are grateful for the cultural diversity you have assembled around us. We marvel at the differences your many people exhibit! We treasure the land we walk on.
Forgive us for assuming the places of honor are ours.
Forgive our quickness to criticize.
Forgive our immediate assertion that we are right.
Open our souls and minds to respect different opinions.
Help us be the gold and silver our neighborhoods need to be wealthy with acceptance and hospitality.
Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON (based on Proverbs 25:13 and Luke 14)
Leader: Jesus of Nazareth comes to us as a messenger from God. He is as reliable and refreshing as the One who is the eternal parent. Living, teaching, dying, and rising to new life, Jesus is like cold water in the heat of summer for our minds. Thanks be to God for Christ who soothes our souls and sets us free from our guilt and shame.
CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE ("Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind," stanza 4)
Drop thy still dews of quietness
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress
And let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace.
AN AFFIRMATION (based on Hebrews 13:1-8)
God loves us and invites us to reciprocate with our love by appreciating and caring for others -- especially those in prison, those who are suffering, and those who are strangers.
Jesus teaches that we should make decisions that place God first, promote justice, value relationships, and not depend on money.
The Holy Spirit is God in us and in the world. The Spirit is our constant helper, for God says,
I will never leave you;
I will never abandon you.
We will be satisfied with what we have and we will not be afraid!
OFFERTORY STATEMENT
Indeed, we have much to share -- our time, talents, and money. God invites us to be co-creators by dedicating our selves and what we have to holy causes
DOXOLOGY (Old Hundredth, inclusive wording)
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, you heavenly hosts;
Creator, Christ, and Holy Ghost.
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
Thank you for all we have and for who we are becoming. We have no love for money though it is the medium of exchange in our country and in the whole world. We are grateful for the jobs that reward us with money to provide shelter, food, clothes, and leisure. Use these dollars and cents to pay our bills and to make life easier for others. For Jesus' sake. Amen.
INTERCESSORY PRAYER
Holy One:
Thank you for feeding us, body and soul, for satisfying us with finest wheat and wild honey. [Psalm 81:10]
We appreciate your word, guiding us day by day.
You know our needs and our wants. Help us trust that you are blessing us with abundance to share.
God of the church:
We pray for this congregation. Where we are ailing, lift us to new hope and health. Where we are afraid, soothe us and coax us to relax into your best plans for us. Where we are hurting, heal us and smooth the scars. Where our bodies demonstrate frailty and malfunction, we pray for good physicians, effective medicines, and strength.
Help us hold in appropriate tension the desire for victory in outer things and the inner desire to love you with our whole selves. Open our eyes to recognize that sometimes our inner reality is not in sync with outer reality. That seems to be the way of your "kingdom," so give us wisdom to participate graciously. Yet, we long for rewards like athletes strive for medals. Satisfy us with your affirmation while we do the best we can in the reality set before us.
God of the state:
Reach to those who are overwhelmed by disastrous winds and rains. Provide food and shelter, patience and hospitality.
Reach to those who are angry and cantankerous in Iraq and in America. Open their minds to other ways to seek justice. Stop the vengefulness of our politicians as they prepare for Election Day. Halt our ranting over styles so our leaders can get down to doing what is right, good, and helpful.
Like your people for the last 6,000 years, we pray for peace -- in our souls and in the external world. In Iraq, in the Sudan, in every country -- let peace rain instead of bombs; comfort mothers and fathers, wives and husbands whose loss is beyond measure.
God of Mount Rushmore and Mount Olympus:
We do not take for granted the blessings that have been showered upon us. Hour by day, we are aware of the breath of life, of supportive relationships and of the many freedoms. Empower us to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, to be active stewards of the good, multiplying your love and scattering your imagination wherever we are. Amen.
BENEDICTION/CHARGE
May the Holy Spirit deliver victory to your doorstep.
May the stories of Jesus inspire your every thought and hope.
May the creating God grant you abundant living.
May you respond, body and soul, with gratitude and savvy living.
Our service here is ended. Go home -- go to your neighborhood to live joyfully.
Amen.
A Children's Sermon
The Humble Teddy
Text: (v. 11) "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." (Luke 14:1, 7-14)
Object: a tire jack
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have ever been with your father or mother when they had a flat tire on their car? (let them answer) Did it seem like a good time to them? Did they enjoy changing the tire? (let them answer) It isn't much fun, is it? As a matter of fact, it is an awful experience, and I don't know anyone who likes to change a tire. But if you think that it is bad for your father or mother, wait until you must do it. As bad as it is, though, I want you to know that it helped me to come to know one of my very best friends.
How many of you have met my friend Teddy Tire Jack? (let them answer) I am sure that you have a friend like my friend Teddy, but I want you to know that he isn't easy to get to know. As a matter of fact, Teddy has been with me ever since I bought my car, and I did not get to meet him until the other day when I had a flat tire while driving in the country.
There I was driving along and having a good time, when, all of a sudden, I heard this funny noise and the car started to run funny. I knew that I had a flat tire. It seemed awful at first, but then I went to the trunk of my car and got out the spare tire, and began to think of what a dirty job it would be. As I told you, I had not met my friend Teddy until that moment, and when I got him out he looked like a lot of hard work for me. But Teddy was a surprise. Imagine how he worked to lift that heavy car so I could take the flat tire off and put on a new tire. It was wonderful the way he raised that car and did almost all of the work for me. It wasn't so bad after all, and I owe it all to Teddy the Tire Jack.
Jesus says that there are a lot of people who are his followers just like Teddy. We call them humble people, and they work hard, though very few people notice them. Teddy rides around in my trunk and never says a word. He is almost unnoticed until I have something awful happen like a flat tire, and then he is ready to help, even to lift a heavy car. That is something I cannot do, and look how much bigger I am than Teddy is. He lifts the car up and, when he is done, I put him back in the trunk. I would say that Teddy is very humble.
That is the way that we should be. We don't have to ride in the trunk of a car, but we should remember how great our God is when we think of ourselves, and that will make us humble also. When God wants you, he will use you, and he will make you great just like I used Teddy and made him great. It is a hard lesson to learn when we talk about being humble, but it is the way that every Christian should feel when he thinks of his Lord Jesus Christ and his loving God.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 29, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
In this context Immediate Word team member Roger Lovette reflects on the implications of Sunday's Gospel lection, Luke 14:7-14, for our values and our daily lives. Jesus' words seem to turn upside down our natural human assumptions about pecking order, status, and worth. For anyone who has wished for the head table, who longs for recognition, who hopes they might just win something, somewhere, sometime, this parable painfully speaks to the heart. The issues are tricky and the pitfalls many. Nonetheless, Jesus' parable might change the way you and your parishioners view the world.
Other team members provide a wide range of perspectives, illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
Who Gets the Gold?
Luke 14:7-14
Jeremiah 2:4-13; Psalm 81:1, 10-16; Proverbs 25:6-7; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
By Roger Lovette
Introducing the Texts
Some weeks we have to look hard to see why somebody somewhere put these disparate texts together. In all five texts we find either a theological or an ethical word -- sometimes both.
Jeremiah 2:4-13, speaking to an apostate people, reminded them that they had forgotten how God had led them every step of the way. The prophet called them to lift their eyes from their terrible present and reminded them that the God who led their forebears could lead them still. Jeremiah forced them to look at the emptiness of cisterns they had carved out for themselves that held no water, no promise, and no salvation.
Proverbs 25:6-7 is this week's alternate Old Testament text. These words could very well be tied to our primary text in Luke. Here is an ethical word: Do not seek the primary places of honor. Pushing and shoving is not the way faith is to be lived.
Psalm 81:1, 10-16 is also a theological word. The people of God are reminded of their connectedness to the Almighty. Again and again the chosen people, overwhelmed by many things, forgot whose they were. A great communion sermon could be preached on the promises of God: "I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you." God provided the sustenance his people needed.
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 was set in a hard time when apostasy was an enormous problem. This great book on the challenge to faithfulness ends on an ethical note. Love of God goes beyond words to practical deeds. Verses 2 and 3 can connect easily with our Lukan text. You will be judged by the way you treat the stranger, those in prison as well as those closest to you. The relational dimension of life is primary in the faith journey.
Luke 14:1, 7-14 is my focus this week. Jesus' words here extend far beyond manners at the dinner table. We run headlong into ethics once again. What is the disciple to do? As Jesus often did, he turned the scribes and Pharisees and his own disciples to a different way of looking and doing one's faith.
"Who Gets the Gold?"
It's pretty obvious who gets the gold. It's the winners. It's the attractive. It's the well-heeled. It's the Donald Trumps, the Martha Stewarts, the Oprahs of our world. It's Lance Armstrong and all those who stood in the center of the Olympic ring and wore the laurel wreath. The gold is the big church down the street, those in your congregation who drive up in their Mercedes and BMW's. The rich and the famous get the gold. On Sunday you will look out on people who really do believe that, as coach Vince Lombardi used to say, "Winning isn't everything -- it's the only thing."
The challenge is to put the gold medals of our age down beside today's text. Notice the setting. Jesus was at the house of a leader of the Pharisees for a meal. Lawyers and other important people were there -- which leads us to believe Jesus enjoyed the company of the well-heeled and the important as well as the outsiders and ordinary people.
Jesus observed the pecking order at the table. The important folk sat in the special places. Alan Culpepper, in The New Interpreter's Bible (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995, 9:286), reminds us that people noticed where one ate, with whom they ate, whether they washed before eating, and where one sat to eat. All these matters, Culpepper says, determined one's social position. The writer quotes Pliny the Younger about the discriminatory meal practices of his day: "Some very elegant dishes were served up to himself and a few more of the company; while those which were placed before the rest were cheap and paltry. He had apportioned in small flagons three different sorts of wine; but you are not to suppose it was that the guests might take their choice: on the contrary, that they might not choose at all. One was for himself and me; the next for his friends of lower order (for you must know that he measures out his friendship according to the degrees of quality); and the third for his own freed-men and mine."
So Jesus gave them a parable. He was not giving them a course in first-century etiquette. He was telling the privileged ones at dinner that they should switch the name cards around. Put some of those deemed of lesser importance at the head table, move the VIP's way off in the corner. Alan Culpepper says in The New Interpreter's Bible (9:288) that the great crisis of the early church was not the delay of the Parousia but with whom one would eat. Sound familiar? There was a time when the Gentiles had no name cards. There was a time when women had no name cards. There was a time when slaves had no name cards. There was a time when Christians in Rome had no name cards. There was a time when those leaders in the Reformation had no name cards. And the list could be extended to little children working fourteen-hour days in factories, the poor who had no name cards. It could be the people in your town who live on the other side of the tracks. It could be a brown-skinned person from the Middle East or an African-American. In our time we have trouble placing name cards before those who are gay. And some in the Roman Catholic hierarchy would even deny John Kerry a place at the table because of his political beliefs on some issues.
Jesus turned their ancient meal-practices and social stratification upside down. The place cards were scrambled. The pecking order was overthrown. Even the outcasts were accepted as equals. God looked beyond the glitter and pointed his followers to a higher ethical standard. Christians were to practice generosity and being inclusive in their daily relationships to all.
Once there was a cowboy who arrived back at the ranch with a large gold ring on his hand. All the cowhands gathered around to see it. Finally one of the men asked, "Are you sure that is real gold?" The cowboy became indignant and said, "Well, if it ain't I been beat out of five dollars!" What's real and what is false? Should the places where we are assigned to sit take up a lot of our energy? Jeremiah said those who carve out for themselves cisterns that hold no water have their perspectives all wrong. Hebrews said the differentiating line between real and false is how God's people reach out to the strangers and those having a hard time.
Is the stratification of the world to be brought into the church? Is the pecking order of society to be the standard by which we judge one another? A look at the church today provides us with a ready answer. We love winners; we love bigness and success. We find ourselves frustrated when the accolades do not come our way. Jesus reminded us again and again that the labels we wear are only labels. Status is skin deep.
One of the key verses to understanding this parable is verse 11: "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." Jesus said we are to put all ideas of superiority behind us. Again and again Jesus was hard on the self-righteous. We are encouraged to be humble in our attitude toward life and each other. We turn back to Jeremiah and discover once again that if exiles in any age remember their history, the knowledge of God's faithfulness humbles them and makes them grateful. So Psalm 81 humbles us when we remember that God will still feed us with the best there is, just as God's manna fed all other wanderers. Hebrews 13 humbles us when we remember that this faith of our fathers and mothers always turns us toward the stranger, to those in prison and that great host of the dispossessed. A sermon could be preached on the idea that today we have reversed Jesus' words -- humility is no virtue, and pride is no vice.
Jesus continued the dinner theme in verses 12-14. He told them when they throw a party not to invite those who will return the favor. Instead, he suggested, "... when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind." Jesus sat down and wrote out place cards for people whom we never even imagined would be seated around the table.
There are folk in every church who are overwhelmed by life. They never won a gold medal in their lives. And there are a great many on the other side of the church whose lives are privileged but who concentrate on what they do not yet have instead of what God has abundantly provided.
We used to sing, "Whosoever will may come ..." But we have pared the message down until the church today is made up mostly of the privileged and the well-heeled. Once I had a friend who worked in an Urban Center in Chicago. As part of his assignment, he was to dress and live for three days as a homeless person. He was given ten dollars to live on for a weekend. He could not return until the three days had ended. He told how generous he found many homeless people to be when they found out he was in need. They would share what little they had with him and others. On Sunday, after two nights on the streets, he decided to attend a large downtown church for worship. As he entered, the ushers seemed disturbed by his presence. They seated him in the back, in a far corner, even though there were many seats available closer. He said that when the service was over not a single person spoke to him. Many would not even look at him. The ushers followed him until he was out of the door. That experience transformed his life. Even in church we need to be reminded that everyone is entitled to the gold.
There is nothing wrong with rewarding success and accomplishment. The Olympics could tell us a hundred stories of athletes who have triumphed over all sorts of adversity. But Jesus said that every one of his children is important and counted. The ground at the foot of the cross is level.
The media widely reported the late Mr. Rogers' speech at graduation exercises at Chatham College in Pittsburgh not too long after September 11, 2001. He included a familiar story that Jesus would have loved. It came out of the Seattle Special Olympics. For the 100-yard dash there were nine contestants, all of them so-called physically or mentally disabled. All nine of them assembled at the starting line and, at the sound of the gun, they took off. But one little boy didn't get very far. He stumbled and fell and hurt his knee and began to cry.
The other eight children heard the boy crying. They slowed down, turned around, and all of them ran back to him. One little girl with Down's syndrome bent down and kissed the boy and said, "This will make it better." The little boy got up, and he and the rest of the runners linked their arms together and joyfully walked to the finish line.
They all finished the race together. And when they did, everyone in the stadium stood up and clapped and whistled and cheered for a long, long time. People who were there that day are still telling that story. Why? Mr. Rogers said it is because, deep down, we know that what matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too, even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then.
Jesus told us who gets the gold -- everybody. And if we are all to get there we must help each other along. "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will exalted" (v. 11).
Addendum
In recent weeks the flap about "Did John Kerry do what he said he did?" in Vietnam has been all over the news. Without getting into partisan politics, it is the duty of the preacher to deal with the ethics of all this. Every responsible news commentator has denounced the "Swift Boats for Truth," a group trying to place doubts in people's minds about John Kerry's character. One particular negative ad has made the rounds on television in three states where the election might well be decided. We are told another ad will follow.
It seems to me that our Hebrews 13 text and our Luke 14 passage both deal with the practical conduct of Christians. The rules by which the followers of Jesus live are to be very different from the rest of the world. Not only do we look at winning and success in these two passages but we also deal with larger issues. There are certain things that Christians are not supposed to do. Twisting the truth and casting aspersions on another candidate's record of military service are not permitted. Buechner reminds us that the preacher is to tell the truth in his or her sermons. Henry Ward Beecher said that preaching was truth filtered through personality. It is our task to hold up the standards of truth, even though we know that negativism often wins votes.
We need to remind our parishioners and ourselves that the old bromide, "It matters not if you win or lose but how you play the game," is worth pondering. We who bear the name of Christ are to live by different rules. How we play the game matters enormously.
We also need to put ugly name-calling into its proper perspective. We in the United States have witnessed some horrific mudslinging in presidential campaigns. This is not a new element in 2004. Negativity in campaigns has always been with us. But this does not lessen the challenges we find in the words of this week's scripture. We ignore the rules at our own peril. The little boy said: "There are ten kids in our house and one bathroom -- you gotta have rules."
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: Let me begin by sending greetings to friends from The Immediate Word -- both my fellow team members and our readers. I've been away from my usual activities for the past three months, on a sabbatical made possible by the Lilly Endowment, which was generous enough to award me one of its National Clergy Renewal Program grants: http://www.clergyrenewal.org/
It's good to be back at The Immediate Word. Now let's dig into the texts.
I appreciate what you've done here, Roger -- providing a sensitive but still-challenging treatment of the whole subject of what "the gold" means to each of us. To some, "the gold" means money, pure and simple; to others, it means the acclamation of others. To still others -- who see money as the tangible form of society's acclamation for a job well done -- it means both.
The view that money is simply the hard currency of human worth is a heresy we preachers ought to be continually contradicting from the pulpit. There's a certain naive viewpoint that sees the free-market economy as a magically self-righting system: those who climb to the top of the career ladder deserve it, and those who receive lesser rewards are somehow deficient or at fault. Events like the Olympic medal ceremonies -- which award precious medals to athletes who have objectively demonstrated that they are the best in their particular contests -- can serve as a sort of icon for this view. (This is at least true in timed or measured events like swimming and track-and-field; judged events like gymnastics are always open to charges of favoritism or error, as we have seen again this month.) In Berlin in 1936, Jesse Owens wore a gold medal around his neck, no matter what Adolf Hitler thought about it.
Very germane to the subject matter of the Gospel lection is an editorial in the New York Times on August 24, titled, "Not as Good as Gold." It comments on the "astonishing come-from-behind heroics" of gymnast Paul Hamm in being awarded the gold medal in men's all-around gymnastics. But "the only trouble was, it now turns out, that he didn't really deserve the gold." If it were not for a judging error a South Korean would have got the gold. The editors opine that "it reeks of injustice that an athlete should lose a medal based on what amounts to a numerical error.... Our own feeling ... is that [Mr. Hamm's] gold is already a bit tarnished."
Our family often vacations in the Adirondacks, near Lake Placid, the site of the Winter Olympics of 1932 and 1980. Near the Olympic ski jumps (operated in the summer as a tourist site) there is a simple, unmarked painted-plywood platform of three uneven steps. It's always interesting to stand nearby and watch what the tourists do with this wooden structure. There is no explanatory sign, but everyone knows instantly what it is. The children scramble onto the various steps, standing tall -- dreaming, no doubt, of gold, silver, and bronze -- while parents or grandparents squint into the camera. On the medal dais, life seems simple: rewards come to those who deserve them. Hard work and talent inevitably pay off -- unlike life, which is far more frustrating and complex. That may be part of spectator sports' enduring appeal: watching the medal ceremonies, we can reassure ourselves that there is at least one place in the world where justice can be counted on to triumph, at least most of the time.
I was struck in particular by one item you shared with us in your illustrations (see below), Robert Frost's 1923 poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay." On the Internet I found a web site that includes a scholarly review of this short poem: http://www.danagioia.net/essays/efrost2.htm
On that site, reviewer Dana Gioia comments: "Written by a middle-aged man who had already lost two children, both parents, and his closest friend (the British author Edward Thomas who is commemorated in the poem placed immediately before 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' in New Hampshire), this short work evokes a point in life when the golden illusions of youth have vanished. The poem is not explicitly autobiographical. Frost's poems virtually never are. It reaches for broader resonance than the merely personal. Yet anyone familiar with Frost's often difficult life can see that its hard-won wisdom was rooted in bitter experience. How characteristic of Frost that the personal origins of the poem -- whatever they were -- have been so magnificently transcended into a universal vision of the human condition! What the reader encounters is not a private complaint about life's injustice but a tender, if heartbreaking, expression of the transience of beauty and the grief of mortality."
I think "Nothing Gold Can Stay" could well serve as a sermon title. The rewards of this world, despite our ceaseless striving for them, are transitory. "You can't take it with you," as the old saying goes. When each of us is ultimately judged in the one court that really matters, no one will be wearing medals. It is the quality of our very selves that will be judged, not our achievements -- and that quality will be assessed not so much according to who we are as whose we are.
Carter Shelley responds: Roger, I like the way you've woven the other lectionary texts into the material you provide for Luke 14:7-14. I also appreciate the way you take advantage of the conclusion of two weeks of Olympics coverage by using it as the contemporary tie-in. In fact, I wanted a bit more on that score. Since I love sports, the next few paragraphs will expand on your discussion of the Olympics, and then I'll make a few comments about the Lukan passage.
The thing I find most compelling about the Olympics is the way it creates community. Watching it almost daily, being moved by the athletes' efforts and actions, increases conversation and camaraderie among people at the water cooler, in church meetings, and at home. Not only is the competition a shared experience for the athletes, the viewing and emotional engagement becomes a shared experience for viewers.
I understand that Mr. Rogers' story from the Special Olympics is widely known. Actually, I hadn't heard it before, but I think it can be used again, for ministers who have used it before can reinforce its emotional power. That would be to contrast the "we're all in it together" sense that the story provides with the use of banned drugs as a desperate way to win -- a sad turn of affairs that has occurred numerous times at this year's competition. The first is about others. The second is about self.
A sobering book, that came out about eight years ago, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters, by Joan Ryan, explores the dark side of such competitions. The book recounts the trials, tribulations, pressures, risks, and dangers that young gymnasts and ice skaters face in their training. Anorexia, premature separation from parents, denial of such child-appropriate things as time with friends, holidays off, and natural maturation of the body are all sacrificed for the goal of winning. If anyone epitomized the too high costs of training and winning or losing, it was Svetlana Khorkina, the 25-year-old gymnast from Ukraine. She looked old, tired, painfully thin, and too depleted to enjoy her success. There's something wrong with a system where a woman can't be proud and celebrate a silver medal at the Olympics.
Actually, I've been pretty impressed by the humility, joy, and awe many of the athletes have demonstrated with their wins. The media presented Michael Phelps as this incredibly competitive swimmer who would not let anyone defeat him. In point of fact he has been gracious in victory, gracious about other swimmers' victories, and generous and complimentary toward his competitors. Phelps actually seems to have withstood the hype and pre-Olympic pressures imposed upon him by the media buzz that he should win eight gold medals. He didn't beat Mark Spitz's record seven gold medals, but Phelps did rise above those expectations by his display of character.
There have been some inspirational moments in this year's Olympics. Paul Hamm was able to rise above his devastating vault performance to win the all-around men's gymnast gold. Laureyn Williams' moving silver medal win in the women's 100-meter dash, witnessed in person by her seriously ill father, was heart-warming as well as heart-rending. And, of course, who can't help but celebrate the Iraqi soccer team's jubilance and excitement, playing with such sheer joy and energy, like men set free from prison, which to some extent they are.
Some of the disheartening moments have been judging errors that suggest that the Korean gymnast who won the silver should in fact have won the gold; the woman equestrian who lost her two gold medals due to protests lodged against her by other equestrian competitors; and several winners losing medals after testing positive for banned drugs. Another aspect that has dismayed me has been the ongoing crowing and counting of American gold, silver, and bronze medals. I'm proud to be an American and am inspired by individual athlete's hard work, dedication, and success, but I'm inspired by athletes from all parts of the world and feel like celebrating their victories as well.
Finally, here are a few comments about this week's text in Luke. Your observation that Jesus may have enjoyed the company of the well-heeled and well-fed is one I hadn't thought about before. Had he been more willing to become one of their gang, he probably would have escaped crucifixion. These guys don't think Jesus has anything to offer them, yet we as readers have the hindsight to realize that they needed what Jesus had to offer just as much as the less glamorous and more humble Jews and Gentiles did.
I appreciate the concreteness of your examples about name cards. I think the hardest thing about preaching a sermon on this text is finding a way to move both congregation and pastor from talk to action. How do we overcome the reality we face, which is that we don't want to share our pew with street people? We don't want to be faced with a lot of individuals who are poor, mentally ill, rude, unpleasant, undisciplined, needy, and so on, on Sundays or any other day. We want to be with people like ourselves. How do we change that?
Your illustration concerning the street-person-for-three-days hits home. Back in the early 1980s I worked in an urban church that dealt with a great many homeless, desperate, and hungry people. All too often our financial resources were depleted before the month was over. In such instances, I discovered that telling someone that we didn't have any more money and couldn't help them was accepted quietly and passively when I had feared there would be anger or abuse. What I also discovered was that even those individuals who don't have enough to buy themselves a cup of coffee or pay the electric bill that month, want human contact and recognition of their humanness. Thus, taking the time to sit down with an individual, look him or her in the eye and listen in a focused and caring way to the story each needed to tell about their hard times and hard life, often meant more than a handout. All of us need to be heard. All of us need to know we matter. Jesus understood that.
George Murphy responds: I confess to some ambiguity about contrasting a desire to win in sports with Jesus' words in this week's gospel. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that the Cleveland Indians haven't won a World Series since 1948 and the Browns have never even been to a Super Bowl, let alone won one. Who could begrudge a long-suffering Cleveland sports fan the desire to be Number One for once? But I think that the ambiguity goes deeper than that.
Certainly Jesus' words are clear enough. He moves from what may simply have been prudence in Proverbs 25:6-7 -- don't overreach and end up making yourself look stupid -- to a much more fundamental principle of life. It is only through a willingness to be humbled that one can be exalted. That is expressed most pointedly in Jesus' words in other places about taking up the cross to follow him.
Our youth minister came into church last week with a t-shirt that in front was just plain black with the stark word "LOSER" in white. It isn't the kind of thing one usually advertises. On the back, however, was wording that made the message clearer: "Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it" (Mark 8:35). Of course, no one wants to be labeled a loser, especially in anything connected with sports. But that's what Jesus said, and in the eyes of the world Christians often will be losers if they take his words seriously.
Coaches sometimes put up signs in locker rooms that say things like, "No pain, no gain." At first glance what Jesus says in Luke 14 may seem to be something like that. If you humble yourself, if you take the lowest place, the host will promote you, and "then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you." Similarly, the sayings about taking up the cross promise that if you lose your life you'll find it. So is Jesus just telling us the right way to win the gold? Is it simply a utilitarian matter of accepting present hardship for the sake of future reward?
In a certain sense that's right, but we have to understand what "the gold" or being "Number One" means. It is, in the first place, simply a matter of being in the right relationship with God. In the most extreme case of literally giving up our lives, the reward is not first of all a promise of resurrection. The reason to be on God's side is simply that it is God's side. C. S. Lewis put the matter very well in a letter to a friend:
I believed in God before I believed in heaven. And even now, even if -- let's make an impossible supposition -- His voice, unmistakably His, said to me, "They have misled you. I can do nothing of that sort for you. My long struggle with the blind forces is nearly over. I die, children. The story is ending" -- would that be a moment for changing sides? Would not you and I take the Viking way: "The Giants and the Trolls win. Let us die on the right side, with Father Odin."
-- C. S. Lewis, Prayer: Letters to Malcolm (Glasgow: Collins, 1966), p. 120
As for our lives in this world, we're not called to extinguish all desire for excellence. But again it's a question of the kind of excellence we're to strive for. Jesus himself, the prime example of giving up his life, didn't do that to no purpose. But his purpose was the good of others, not of himself. That's what Paul reminds the Philippian Christians of in his great passage about the kenosis, the "emptying" or "making himself of no account" in Philippians 2:6-11. But his reason for citing that hymn in verse 4 often gets ignored: "Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus...." Jesus is given here as the exemplar not of masochism, nihilism, or a search for Nirvana but of service.
And if we're called to serve, our service ought to be of as high a quality as possible. It ought to be of gold-medal quality. The quest for the gold, or just plain winning, can be evil if it means destroying or humiliating others in order to finish first. The belief that participation in athletics automatically "builds character" needs some nuanced criticism, because sometimes it builds the wrong kind of character. But the idea that we shouldn't keep score or emphasize winning at all promotes a distorted view of the way the world is. One successful college football coach scoffed at the slogan, "It doesn't matter whether you win or lose but how you played the game." How would you like it, he asked, if you walked into a surgeon's office to schedule an operation and saw a sign on the wall that said, "It matters not whether the patient lives or dies but how you made the cut"?
I think that, within limits, athletics can teach something about striving to be as good as possible at what one does in life. But it's the task of the church, not gymnastic or track coaches, to teach about what we should be doing in life.
Related Illustrations
From Carlos Wilton:
We tend to remember winners and losers of Big Games.... Christians have tended to approach "salvation" as either a Big Game or a Long Season, each yielding a final score. In the Big Game, victory comes down to a few crucial moments, maybe a sprint at the end. In the Long Season, we work out our salvation one inning at a time, with the standings always in view....
Rarely does it occur to us that being "saved" might mean something other than victory in a contest. We hear the question Jesus was asked one way: What will it take to win the Big One? Will only a few win the prize? Who will those few be? I wonder, though, whether Jesus heard and responded to it differently.
The church would talk about victory and prizes, at least partly because it was in the business of deciding who won. But Jesus himself seemed to view life as neither Big Game nor Long Season, but as a journey, in which God would be steadfast companion and the aim was oneness with God.
In the end, the count of those winning prizes isn't nearly as important as the promise of mercy and steadfast companionship. If we could lay off the victory talk, we might see each other as companions, not as competitors for the gold medal; God as friend, not referee; and life as worthy every day, not as prelude to Final Standings.
-- Tom Ehrich, "On a Journey: Meditations on God in daily life," August 16, 2004
***
Philip Yancey tells this story in What's So Amazing about Grace? (Zondervan, 1997), pp. 48-49:
One of Jesus' stories about grace made it into three different Gospels in slightly different versions. My favorite version, though, appears in another source entirely: the Boston Globe's account in June 1990 of a most unusual wedding banquet.
Accompanied by her fiance, a woman went to the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston and ordered the meal. The two of them pored over the menu, made selections of china and silver, and pointed to pictures the flower arrangements they liked. They both had expensive taste, and the bill came to thirteen thousand dollars. After leaving a check for half that amount as down payment, the couple went home to flip through books of wedding announcements.
The day the announcements were supposed to hit the mailbox, the potential groom got cold feet. "I'm just not sure," he said. "It's a big commitment. Let's think about this a little longer."
When his angry fiancee returned to the Hyatt to cancel the banquet the Events Manager could not have been more understanding. "The same thing happened to me, Honey," she said, and told the story of her own broken engagement. But about the refund, she had bad news. "The contract is binding. You're only entitled to thirteen hundred dollars back. You have two options: to forfeit the rest of the down payment, or go ahead with the banquet. I'm sorry. Really, I am."
It seemed crazy, but the more the jilted bride thought about it, the more she liked the idea of going ahead with the party -- not a wedding banquet, mind you, but a big blowout. Ten years before, this same woman had been living in a homeless shelter. She had got back on her feet, found a good job, and set aside a sizable nest egg. Now she had wild notion of using her savings to treat the down-and-outs of Boston to a night on the town.
And so it was that in June of 1990 the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston hosted a party such as it had never seen before. The hostess changed the menu to boneless chicken -- "in honor of the groom," she said -- and sent invitations to rescue missions and homeless shelters. That warm summer night, people who were used to peeling half-gnawed pizza off the cardboard dined instead on chicken cordon bleu. Hyatt waiters in tuxedos served hors d'oeuvres to senior citizens propped up by crutches and aluminum walkers. Bag ladies, vagrants, and addicts took one night off from the hard life on the sidewalks outside and instead sipped champagne, ate chocolate wedding cake, and danced to big-band melodies late into the night.
***
Some years back, the New Yorker magazine published a cartoon in which a bunch of buttoned-down business types are sitting around a boardroom table. Standing at one end of the table and pointing to a large statue of a calf is a man who's evidently the chairman of the board. With a confident smile on his face, he's declaring, "I say it's a calf. I say it's golden, and I say worship it."
***
Don't consider losses a waste of time. Consider them an apprenticeship.
-- Greg Norman, professional golfer
***
Decades ago, when the distinguished American philosopher George Santayana observed, "Another world to live in is what we mean by religion," he could not have anticipated how, for many millions of his countrymen, as for yet more millions throughout the world, what he meant by "religion" would one day be displaced in the most immediate, existential, and emotional sense by spectator sports.
-- Joyce Carol Oates, reviewing The Picador Book of Sportswriting in the Times Literary Supplement, July 12, 1996
***
From Carter Shelley:
The Way of the Wolf, by Martin Bell, has a section called "The Rag-Tag Army." This 21/2-page piece depicts God as the general of an army of people who frolic in the flowers, stop to dance in a circle, wouldn't be of much use in Iraq or Afghanistan, but they and we are the kind of soldiers God chooses. It's another way to illustrate Roger's point about the Special Olympics and also God's preference for those who are not good at those things the world judges to be successes.
***
Sports Illustrated for August 23, 2004, offers a range of useful specific details related to the summer Olympics. Here are two.
On the American Basketball Team and their defeat by Puerto Rico and Lithuania "The Americans did ... comport themselves like an NBA team -- a bad one -- which means it came out uninterested, failed to respond to the challenge quickly, then panicked with egregious shot selection and sloppy ball management (22 turnovers compared with only 26 field goals).... A lot of these young kids didn't realize that in order to be part of a team, you're going to have to sacrifice a lot of your individual things," said Coach Larry Brown (Jack McCallum, 57-58).
"There are thousands of Iraqi exiles in Greece, and flag-waving expats took over the stadium on Sunday. Their unbridled joy was set free by players who had endured torture at the hands of Uday Hussein, who ran the Iraqi Olympic Committee for his father, Saddam (SI, March 24, 2003) from 1994 until last year's US-led invasion. "I'm so proud to be an Iraqi tonight, said Bisoyn Najah.... For a moment Iraqis everywhere could united behind a triumphant national team composed of Shiites, Sunnis, and a single Kurd -- midfielder Hawar Mulla Mohammed, who scored against Costa Rica.... The Iraqis may be on their way to the most unlikely of Olympic medals. "That is our wish," Muhamoud said. "We think anything is possible" (Grant Wahl 63).
***
From Roger Lovette:
"Live and help live."
-- Rachel Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom
***
"My Master intended His church to be a place where men (and women) become so much like Jesus that people would think they had seen him."
-- Carlyle Marney, These Things Remain, p. 137
***
"Self and stuff are not enough."
-- Barrie Shepherd
***
"You don't give something away because it is a little bit broken."
-- Pollard, the Jockey in the movie Seabiscuit
***
Nora came to stay, for a few days, at the emergency shelter on the first floor of our big old church. With hair so bleached it was white, tight plastic slacks, and see-through blouse, Nora was all of 16. Her parents in frustration and disgust had locked her out.
Chain-smoking, flirtatious, troublemaking, knowledgeable and stupid at the same time, Nora was the center of attention. Nora insisted on being the center of attention.
Saturday afternoon I was alone in the kitchen when Nora came in and sat down across from me. Silent for a long time, she finally asked her question. "I heard a priest say once that Jesus loves even prostitutes. Is that true?"
I almost went into a sermonette about how God loves the sinner but not the sin and all that. But something shut my mouth and I simple said, "Yes." Nora wept.
-- Dean Snyder
***
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden thank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
-- Robert Frost
Worship Resources
By Julia Ross Strope
HYMN SUGGESTIONS
"Bring Many Names." B. Wren. Tune: Westchase. Available in Sing the Faith, 2003, 2047.
"O That I Had A Thousand Voices." Tune: O dass ich tausend Zungen hatte. Available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 475.
"Christ Of The Upward Way." Tune: Sursum Corda. Available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 344.
"Guide My Feet." Tune: Guide My Feet. Available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 354.
"You Satisfy The Hungry Heart." Tune: Finest Wheat. Available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, 521.
CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Jeremiah 2:4-13)
Leader: How good to be together in this place this last Sunday in August.
People: We've come to enjoy each other and to thank God for our lives.
Leader: Together we remember our faith heritage and acknowledge that God takes us through deep waters, strengthens us to carry our burdens, and challenges our expectations.
People: God confronts us when we allow things, people, and events to supplant the Holy.
Leader: Our scriptures call those things idols and our attachment to them sin.
People: As reality changes, we must expand our ways of being faithful to the Creator of the universe.
Leader: God is present; the Holy Spirit inspires us to think, feel, and act to manifest Divine love and grace.
People: We will serve God and make joyful sounds wherever we are.
PRAYER OF ADORATION (leader or unison)
Giver of Life:
How glad we are for today! We rejoice! All Creation rejoices with us: you are El Shaddai, God Most High.
Thank you for your undeniable presence here among us. Open our minds to your Word for today. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION
Leader: When we confess our sins, God hears us. Let us confess together as printed in the bulletin then let us open our individual hearts to God.
COMMUNITY CONFESSION (unison; based on Proverbs 25:6-12)
Living God:
We are grateful for the cultural diversity you have assembled around us. We marvel at the differences your many people exhibit! We treasure the land we walk on.
Forgive us for assuming the places of honor are ours.
Forgive our quickness to criticize.
Forgive our immediate assertion that we are right.
Open our souls and minds to respect different opinions.
Help us be the gold and silver our neighborhoods need to be wealthy with acceptance and hospitality.
Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON (based on Proverbs 25:13 and Luke 14)
Leader: Jesus of Nazareth comes to us as a messenger from God. He is as reliable and refreshing as the One who is the eternal parent. Living, teaching, dying, and rising to new life, Jesus is like cold water in the heat of summer for our minds. Thanks be to God for Christ who soothes our souls and sets us free from our guilt and shame.
CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE ("Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind," stanza 4)
Drop thy still dews of quietness
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress
And let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace.
AN AFFIRMATION (based on Hebrews 13:1-8)
God loves us and invites us to reciprocate with our love by appreciating and caring for others -- especially those in prison, those who are suffering, and those who are strangers.
Jesus teaches that we should make decisions that place God first, promote justice, value relationships, and not depend on money.
The Holy Spirit is God in us and in the world. The Spirit is our constant helper, for God says,
I will never leave you;
I will never abandon you.
We will be satisfied with what we have and we will not be afraid!
OFFERTORY STATEMENT
Indeed, we have much to share -- our time, talents, and money. God invites us to be co-creators by dedicating our selves and what we have to holy causes
DOXOLOGY (Old Hundredth, inclusive wording)
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, you heavenly hosts;
Creator, Christ, and Holy Ghost.
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
Thank you for all we have and for who we are becoming. We have no love for money though it is the medium of exchange in our country and in the whole world. We are grateful for the jobs that reward us with money to provide shelter, food, clothes, and leisure. Use these dollars and cents to pay our bills and to make life easier for others. For Jesus' sake. Amen.
INTERCESSORY PRAYER
Holy One:
Thank you for feeding us, body and soul, for satisfying us with finest wheat and wild honey. [Psalm 81:10]
We appreciate your word, guiding us day by day.
You know our needs and our wants. Help us trust that you are blessing us with abundance to share.
God of the church:
We pray for this congregation. Where we are ailing, lift us to new hope and health. Where we are afraid, soothe us and coax us to relax into your best plans for us. Where we are hurting, heal us and smooth the scars. Where our bodies demonstrate frailty and malfunction, we pray for good physicians, effective medicines, and strength.
Help us hold in appropriate tension the desire for victory in outer things and the inner desire to love you with our whole selves. Open our eyes to recognize that sometimes our inner reality is not in sync with outer reality. That seems to be the way of your "kingdom," so give us wisdom to participate graciously. Yet, we long for rewards like athletes strive for medals. Satisfy us with your affirmation while we do the best we can in the reality set before us.
God of the state:
Reach to those who are overwhelmed by disastrous winds and rains. Provide food and shelter, patience and hospitality.
Reach to those who are angry and cantankerous in Iraq and in America. Open their minds to other ways to seek justice. Stop the vengefulness of our politicians as they prepare for Election Day. Halt our ranting over styles so our leaders can get down to doing what is right, good, and helpful.
Like your people for the last 6,000 years, we pray for peace -- in our souls and in the external world. In Iraq, in the Sudan, in every country -- let peace rain instead of bombs; comfort mothers and fathers, wives and husbands whose loss is beyond measure.
God of Mount Rushmore and Mount Olympus:
We do not take for granted the blessings that have been showered upon us. Hour by day, we are aware of the breath of life, of supportive relationships and of the many freedoms. Empower us to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, to be active stewards of the good, multiplying your love and scattering your imagination wherever we are. Amen.
BENEDICTION/CHARGE
May the Holy Spirit deliver victory to your doorstep.
May the stories of Jesus inspire your every thought and hope.
May the creating God grant you abundant living.
May you respond, body and soul, with gratitude and savvy living.
Our service here is ended. Go home -- go to your neighborhood to live joyfully.
Amen.
A Children's Sermon
The Humble Teddy
Text: (v. 11) "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." (Luke 14:1, 7-14)
Object: a tire jack
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have ever been with your father or mother when they had a flat tire on their car? (let them answer) Did it seem like a good time to them? Did they enjoy changing the tire? (let them answer) It isn't much fun, is it? As a matter of fact, it is an awful experience, and I don't know anyone who likes to change a tire. But if you think that it is bad for your father or mother, wait until you must do it. As bad as it is, though, I want you to know that it helped me to come to know one of my very best friends.
How many of you have met my friend Teddy Tire Jack? (let them answer) I am sure that you have a friend like my friend Teddy, but I want you to know that he isn't easy to get to know. As a matter of fact, Teddy has been with me ever since I bought my car, and I did not get to meet him until the other day when I had a flat tire while driving in the country.
There I was driving along and having a good time, when, all of a sudden, I heard this funny noise and the car started to run funny. I knew that I had a flat tire. It seemed awful at first, but then I went to the trunk of my car and got out the spare tire, and began to think of what a dirty job it would be. As I told you, I had not met my friend Teddy until that moment, and when I got him out he looked like a lot of hard work for me. But Teddy was a surprise. Imagine how he worked to lift that heavy car so I could take the flat tire off and put on a new tire. It was wonderful the way he raised that car and did almost all of the work for me. It wasn't so bad after all, and I owe it all to Teddy the Tire Jack.
Jesus says that there are a lot of people who are his followers just like Teddy. We call them humble people, and they work hard, though very few people notice them. Teddy rides around in my trunk and never says a word. He is almost unnoticed until I have something awful happen like a flat tire, and then he is ready to help, even to lift a heavy car. That is something I cannot do, and look how much bigger I am than Teddy is. He lifts the car up and, when he is done, I put him back in the trunk. I would say that Teddy is very humble.
That is the way that we should be. We don't have to ride in the trunk of a car, but we should remember how great our God is when we think of ourselves, and that will make us humble also. When God wants you, he will use you, and he will make you great just like I used Teddy and made him great. It is a hard lesson to learn when we talk about being humble, but it is the way that every Christian should feel when he thinks of his Lord Jesus Christ and his loving God.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 29, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
