Whose Voice Are You Following?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
What is it about Jesus that makes people behave so strangely? That question is the focal point of the lectionary passages for the Third Sunday of Easter, which spotlight both the conversion of Paul and a curious episode where the disciples are fishing without success until they receive assistance from the risen Jesus... with whom they then share an impromptu shorefront fish fry. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Leah Lonsbury suggests that both Paul and Peter act in ways that might have more sober folk measuring them for a straitjacket -- Paul hears voices in his head and refuses to eat or drink for three days, while Peter hurriedly tosses on clothes onboard the disciples' boat only to immediately jump overboard. So, Leah asks, what motivates them to carry on this way? Have they lost their minds? Or are they not irrational at all, but rather visionaries who are responding to incentives that they perceive but that the rest of the world doesn't see so clearly? After all, despite Peter and Paul's odd behavior, these are key moments where both men make bold decisions to follow where the Lord leads them. Leah notes that we too are prone to doing things that seem completely at odds with what might appear to be sensible, and she surveys some of the many ways we modern folk also behave in seemingly irrational ways, from popular culture to politics to sports to even education, as Atlanta's superintendent along with several principals and teachers were indicted for their part in a massive scheme to erase incorrect answers on standardized tests and replace them with correct ones. Leah pointedly asks, why do we act in such a dubious fashion -- doing things that we implore others not to do? Whose voice are we listening to? And even more to the point, Leah asks whether we have the same courage to listen to the Lord's voice -- even if it might cause us to be embarrassed.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer offers some additional thoughts on this week's Acts text and its themes of persecution and entitlement. Dean observes that the tendency of some Christians in America to feel that they are a persecuted minority -- as exemplified by a fledgling attempt by some N. Carolina legislators to designate Christianity as the state's official religion -- pales next to the grim reality facing Christians in many places around the world who truly are persecuted for their faith and daily face the possibility of martyrdom -- which makes it all the more vital to distinguish between true persecution and mere annoyance at not receiving "preferred customer" status. But as Dean reminds us, Christianity was never meant to be comfortable -- it's supposed to be difficult and dangerous, something we would do well to remember.
Whose Voice Are You Following?
by Leah Lonsbury
John 21:1-19; Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
This week's texts have some of our scriptures' most well-known characters acting in unfamiliar and seemingly irrational ways.
Persecuting Paul has a little chat with Jesus on the road to Damascus, goes blind, fasts, is healed by a disciple who should be hiding from him, gets baptized, and starts preaching about Jesus. What?
In the gospel passage, the disciples are back to fishing -- for actual fish this time. They aren't having much luck until some guy on the beach gives them advice about where to cast their nets. The beloved disciple recognizes that voice and the abundance that issues from it, and he tells Peter, "That's not just some guy. That's our guy!" Then Peter, who is naked on the boat, puts on his clothes and jumps into the sea. What?
What is it about the voice of Jesus that makes Paul and Peter act in such unexpected and bizarre ways? Why do they react as they do? How does it turn a persecutor into a preacher and a denier into a drenched martyr?
And then there's us.
What voice are we hearing and following? What effect does it have on us? What is the modern-day equivalent of putting on our clothes to jump into the water? Are we ready and willing to take that leap?
THE WORLD
If you keep up at all with the news, it shouldn't surprise you that we continue to be a surprising people. Humans behaving in unfamiliar and irrational ways is not just a biblical theme but also the flavor of our living today. Let it never be said that we are not creative like the one who created and creates us. However, our "creativity" often takes on an odd trajectory.
We see it in popular culture...
The latest trend in internet memes in China happens to be pictures of dogs wearing pantyhose. This is not a joke -- check it out for yourself here. In the time that it took me to begin writing this paragraph, the number of "likes" on this dogs-in-tights story rose from 11,676 to 11,802. It appears this strange fascination with shots of furry friends getting fancy crosses cultures.
We see it in politics at all levels...
In North Carolina, two state representatives brought a bill to the floor last week that would establish an official state religion -- Christianity. The House Speaker, Thom Tillis, who is considering a run for Congress, declined to bring the bill to the floor -- but the Huffington Post reports this week that the number of Americans that would support a constitutional amendment making Christianity the nation's official religion is growing. These advocates -- 32% of adults, according to a recent poll -- seem to disagree with the first amendment of our founding document, which reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Last Monday in Nelson, Georgia, the city council passed a law that requires every household to maintain a gun and ammunition. USA Today reports that councilman Duane Cronic, who sponsored the measure (which exempts convicted felons and those opposed to gun ownership), "said he knows the ordinance won't be enforced but he still believes it will make the town safer."
At a national level, politicians' priorities and loyalties seem to be shifting more quickly and easily than usual. The Democratic Party, whose platform for the 2012 election included language about making poverty a national priority and whose budget proposals contained a push to cut the 15% poverty rate in half in ten years, has gone silent on the issue. President Obama, who spoke passionately about combatting poverty in his State of the Union speech, has now proposed cutting Social Security -- a key tool for addressing poverty on a wide scale.
Republican Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina went on NBC's Meet the Press this past Sunday and expressed his disdain for Mitt Romney's campaign statements on immigration, particularly around "self-deportation". Graham called Romney's stance "impractical" and even "offensive," and said, "Every corner of the Republican Party -- from libertarians to the RNC, House Republicans, and the rank-and-file Republican Party member -- is now understanding there has to be an earned pathway to citizenship."
Less than a year ago, on April 10, 2012, Graham released a statement offering his support to the candidate and encouraging the entire GOP to unite behind Romney's lead, "so that every corner of the Republican Party is united."
We see it in sports...
The FBI is now investigating a report that Eric Murdock, a former employee of the Rutgers basketball program, tried to extort $950,000 from the university's athletic department after being fired and before releasing the video to ESPN that shows then-head men's basketball coach Mike Rice shoving players and shouting homophobic slurs at them.
Murdock claims he was fired because he was trying to be a whistleblower on Rice's behavior. A university report states the he was not actually fired and could have continued working at the university.
Another university report criticizes Murdock's video for taking many situations out of context. It also claims that Rice did not create a hostile working environment. Yet after a review last December, university officials suspended Rice without pay for three games, fined him $50,000, sent him to anger-management counseling, and monitored his behavior. Additionally, Rutgers President Robert Barchi said that when he first saw the video last week, he immediately decided Rice would not be allowed to continue as coach.
And we see it in education...
Beverly Hall, former superintendent for the Atlanta Public Schools, was recently indicted on racketeering charges based on an alleged cheating scheme that won her more than $500,000 in bonuses. She is also accused of theft, conspiracy, and making false statements, but denies any wrongdoing. In addition, 34 teachers and principals who worked under Hall are also facing criminal charges for erasing wrong answers on standardized tests and replacing them with the correct choice.
In 2009, Hall was named "National Superintendent of the Year" for improvement in student achievement by the American Association of School Administrators. The fact that the students in "troubled neighborhoods" of Atlanta vaulted past their counterparts in wealthy suburbs on the Georgia standardized competency test that year was curious then and suspect now.
Promotions for teachers and principals who reported to Hall were based on how their students performed on such tests. Part of the indictment against Hall reads, "Principals and teachers were frequently told by Beverly Hall and her subordinates that excuses for not meeting targets would not be tolerated."
The Washington Post's education reporter and columnist Valerie Strauss writes that Atlanta's scandal isn't an anomaly. Strauss suggests that there are dozens of others, but points out that Atlanta's is the only one being aggressively pursued and thoroughly covered by the press. "We don't really know how extensive the problem is," Strauss wrote, but "what we do know is that these cheating scandals have been a result of test-obsessed school reform."
Washington DC is one of those "others" that has flown under the radar. Many unanswered questions remain about a pattern of wrong-to-right answers that might point to widespread tampering with tests during the tenure of now-famous and somewhat controversial school reformer Michelle Rhee, who starred in the documentary Waiting for Superman and was featured on the cover of Time magazine.
Eugene Robinson, also of the Washington Post has this to say about such scandals:
Our schools desperately need to be fixed. But creating a situation in which teachers are more likely than students to cheat cannot be the right path.
Standardized achievement tests are a vital tool, but treating test scores the way a corporation might treat sales targets is wrong. Students are not widgets. I totally reject the idea that students from underprivileged neighborhoods cannot learn. Of course they can. But how does it help these students to have their performance on a one-size-fits-all standardized test determine their teachers' compensation and job security? The clear incentive is for the teacher to focus on test scores rather than actual teaching.
Experienced teacher Kenneth Bernstein is a regular contributor of informative essays on the DailyKos website under the pseudonym "teacherken," and he has written two responses to Eugene Robinson's column cited above. In the first, he hones in on the culture of standardized testing, the pressure it exerts on teachers who act out in surprising ways, and the empty results it brings. He begins by praising Robinson's opening paragraph:
It is time to acknowledge that the fashionable theory of school reform -- requiring that pay and job security for teachers, principals, and administrators depend on their students' standardized test scores -- is at best a well-intentioned mistake, and at worst nothing but a racket.
But then he takes a critical turn at Robinson's labeling of standardized testing as a "vital tool":
Robinson's column is not perfect. He considers standardized achievement tests "a vital tool." But to misuse use a tool can be worse than not having it --†using a sledgehammer to set a broken bone is more destructive than helpful, and that has been how we have used standardized tests in the so-called reform movement.
"teacherken" continues...
For years those of us in the trenches in education have tried to make people aware that the Emperor of Educational "Reform" in the form of test-driven accountability was naked:†it had little to do with real reform, and was destructive of meaningful learning and teaching.
His other response includes commentary from education professor William Ayers noting that "the road to the massive cheating scandal in Atlanta runs right through the White House" and other top leaders for creating and carrying out this culture of testing. Ayers writes: "The deeper problem is reducing education to a single narrow metric that claims to recognize an educated person through a test score. Teaching toward a simple standardized measure and relentlessly applying state-administered (but privately developed and quite profitable) tests to determine the 'outcomes' both incentivizes cheating and is a worthless proxy for learning."
Is "teacherken" right? Is it the pressure of testing that has school administrators and teachers acting in unfamiliar and seemingly irrational ways? Can it be to blame for the poor performance and/or the sudden successes of so many students? What voice are these administrators, teachers, and students reacting to? What is causing the wild swings in their performance and behavior?
Speaking of wild swings in behavior... what voice makes 11,802 people click to see dogs in pantyhose?
And what is causing our politicians to flip-flop? What voice or voices are they following?
What about those who play and work in athletics? What voice makes a coach berate and abuse his players? What voice was Eric Murdock hearing? What about Rutgers President Robert Barchi?
What makes these people (and all people) act in such peculiar, contradictory, suspicious, and perhaps even dishonest ways?
THE WORD
Paul's conversion tale is rich with preaching journeys one might take, but let's turn to the more complicated and sometimes baffling combination in this week's passage from John's gospel. Perhaps we'll find that our questions about how we listen and react to the voice of Jesus resonate with the questions this text raises.
John's combination of a fishing tale and a love story can leave the reader (and the preacher) with more questions than answers, particularly about the storytelling and simple logistics...
What is Jesus up to on the beach? Why don't the disciples speak after coming ashore? Don't they have questions? Concerns? Protests to register? What's the point of this mismatched tale? What is Jesus up to in his repetitive questions for Peter? Repetition for emphasis? Redemption of a denier? Repetition for commissioning's sake -- like a ritual of sorts?
And then there are our questions from earlier...
What is it about the voice of Jesus that makes Paul and Peter act in such unexpected and bizarre ways? Why do they react as they do? How does it turn a persecutor into a preacher and a denier into a drenched martyr?
In Feasting on the Word, both Lewis R. Donelson and Thomas Troeger propose that Jesus' voice and call provide the hearer with such abundance that she or he cannot help but respond in wild and unexpected ways ([Year C, Vol. 2], p. 423). In this passage, Jesus' voice brings the disciples a miraculous catch. The ensuing abundance registers with the beloved disciple, and he recognizes the generous (and sometimes overwhelming) love of Jesus. When he shares his recognition with impetuous Peter, Peter reacts in kind. Peter's wild and discombobulated response (putting on clothes for a swim to shore) communicates the disorienting fullness of God's love for us in Jesus.
The repetition and seeming intensification of Peter's exchange with Jesus seems to echo this kind of generous giving and its disorienting effect. It outlines the job of the disciple -- feeding and caring for the people of God -- a very tall order indeed, but also the very stuff of the divine love and the measure of our reaction to that love. It is easy to see why one might need to be a little off-kilter to agree to such a task.
Jesus seems to be saying, "Care for my people -- the lost, the hurting, the hungry, the desperate, the complicated, the unlikeable, the difficult, the hesitant, the overeager, the afraid, the suspicious, the wild, and the ones who don't know or think they need feeding or tending -- those are the ones. As a matter of fact, just care for and feed them all while you're at it. My love is big enough. Make yours that way too. Be like me. You're up for that, right?"
Only the craziest of us respond, act, put on our clothes, and jump into the sea to follow Jesus. That's because only the craziest of us can comprehend just how wildly life-altering and mind-blowing the love of God is in Jesus. And it's going to take some irrationality and wild ridiculousness for Peter or any of us to sign up for what lies ahead -- risking it all, life included, to follow the one who was just crazy and bold enough to give his whole self to the love that changes everything, even death into life.
Perhaps this combination story is meant to be discombobulated, to give us a taste of the powerful, disorienting love of God that finds us in our everyday lives, like on the fishing boat or in the sharing of a simple meal. We'll know it is the voice of Jesus and the love of God that is calling us when it is discovered in and issues in abundance, when it throws us a little off-center, and when it convinces us to love in outrageous and seemingly irrational ways. Jesus isn't calling us to senseless abandon just for kicks, for attention, for our experience and benefit only. Jesus is calling us to act irrationally for the only love that makes perfect sense -- the one that frees, empowers, and blesses all God's children for the life eternal that happens between us and with God.
We'll need an eye (or an ear) for what Jesus is calling us to do -- like the beloved disciple. We'll also need the wild willingness to jump -- like Peter.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The preacher may wish to...
* Consider what voices we hear in our everyday lives (like those that cause politicians to flip-flop, sports personalities to act dubiously, and teachers to do what they implore their students not to do) and what effect they have on us. How, then, can we make sure we are hearing the one voice that will call us differently and to outlandish love?
* Ask the congregation how it is being called to recognize abundance (like the beloved disciple) and respond in wild abandon (like Peter).
* Consider the wild generosity of God's love in our lives and our often-tepid response. What kind of call might we be missing? What are we not hearing clearly? What are we not hearing at all and why? What are we hearing and denying? How can we listen differently for a clearer connection? How might that change us? How are we being called to put on our clothes to jump into the water?
* Think with the congregation about how God continues to feed and equip us for wild love in the midst of our ordinary everyday lives. What feeds us? Where and to whom will that call to love take us?
* Examine how the voice of Jesus reshapes us like it did Peter -- from denier to early church leader. How do we need reshaping/redeeming? What are we denying? How will we lead? How will we listen?
SECOND THOUGHTS
An Inconvenient Faith
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
Christianity has never been a cheap, easy, or convenient religion. This Sunday's reading from Acts reminds us that our earliest roots were planted by those who hid in the catacombs, roots that were often fed with the blood of martyrs.
Yet we modern American Christians still insist that because we are in the nominal majority, other people should step aside for us so that ours can be an easy and convenient religion to practice.
Last week we read that in North Carolina, state Reps. Carl Ford and Harry Warren had put forward a bill in the state legislature that would make Christianity the official religion of North Carolina. The constitution, they argued, applies to the federal government but has nothing to do with "sovereign states," which can do whatever they like.
This was in response to an ACLU suit that challenged the Rowan County commissioners' practice of opening their meetings with a Christian prayer. Rather than show how this practice is allowable under the constitution, Ford and Warren chose to ignore the constitution all together by declaring it null and void in the state of North Carolina.
Leveler heads prevailed, and by Friday the bill had been pulled from consideration by the legislature.
Meanwhile, in Jackson, Ohio, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit to have a picture of Jesus removed from a local middle school. Until recently the portrait was one of several hanging in a "Hall of Honor" owned by the Hi-Y student service club and had been displayed at the building (which previously housed the district's high school) since 1947. The lawsuit came after the Jesus portrait had been moved, by itself, to the current high school.
Initially, the school board argued that because the picture was privately owned by the Hi-Y club and not the school district, it could stay up. But when the ACLU continued with their suit, the board folded and took the picture down, citing the cost and distraction of a lawsuit as their reason. Apparently, Jesus was just too expensive to fight for.
In both cases, voices from the communities involved were heard bewailing the "persecution" that they, modern Christians, were being made to suffer. Indignation was the order of the day. Countersuits were threatened as Christian lawyers rallied to the defense of their suffering brothers and sisters.
But wait a minute. Isn't suffering what Christians are called to do? Isn't suffering somehow part of our DNA? Isn't the cross -- a symbol of suffering and humiliation -- our rallying point? Since when is Christianity supposed to be comfortable, convenient, and easy? And when did it become the job of government and other people to make it so for us? When did we Christians take a detour from the Via Dolorosa? When did our destination turn from Calvary to Utopia?
Christianity has never been easy. It isn't supposed to be. It's difficult and it's dangerous. Why? Because the world instinctively knows that Christianity is a subversive, revolutionary movement out to create an alternative community based on love and charity, and friendship and peace.
They know that if we succeed, we're going to change everything. No more war and the profit it creates. No more poverty and the cheap labor it provides. No more ethnic hatred disguised as patriotism, and no more greed disguised as economics. No wonder they're afraid of us. We're different! And we always have been.
The world knows that even when we forget.
In his autobiography Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful, South African writer Alan Paton tells the story of his work to end apartheid. He and some friends were working at an organizing center when one day a little old black man wearing a large cowboy hat walked in and said he wanted to help.
The activists looked at his aged and frail body and they told him that it might not be a good idea since it could be dangerous and he could get hurt, but the man insisted. They continued to try to talk him out of it, but he stopped them with an upraised hand.
"One day," he said, "I will go before my maker and my maker will ask to see my scars. And if I say to him, 'I have none,' he will say to me, 'Why? Was nothing worth fighting for?' "
Several years ago, the government of Nepal was considering making Christianity illegal. A Nepalese Christian leader was interviewed by a news team, who asked him what he thought his fellow Nepalese Christians would do if their religion was made illegal. He didn't have to think for even a moment before he answered: "We will suffer."
He went on to explain to the dumbfounded interviewer that suffering has a large, important, and honored place in Christian history. In fact, Christianity has always grown the fastest when Christians were willing to suffer, really suffer, for their faith.
Gregory A. Boyd is an evangelical Christian, the founder and senior pastor of the Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is also a former professor of theology and the author or co-author of 15 books, including The Myth of a Christian Nation.
In that book, Boyd cites scripture extensively to make the argument that American Christians have forgotten God often calls Christians to suffer for their faith, and that they have become confused about the difference between suffering and being inconvenienced or annoyed.
It is probably appropriate that James Russell Lowell's stirring poem "Once to Every Man and Nation" has gone out of vogue in the mainline churches on account of its extensive use of masculine pronouns. But one cannot doubt that in its day this song, written as a protest against the Mexican-American War, stirred many Christians to action that went far beyond inconvenience and annoyance.
By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, thy bleeding feet we track,
Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back.
New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, has launched his congregation on a mission campaign that he compares to President Kennedy's call to place a man on the moon within a decade. Warren has determined that there are 3,400 people groups without Christians and a Bible in their own language. In a program that Warren calls his Peace Plan, he intends to connect these people groups to a revised edition of his book The Purpose-Driven Life. Warren plans to do this in the next seven years, prior to his retirement.
Warren compared his plan to that of climbing Mount Everest. A person does not climb Mount Everest in a single day. Instead, an individual climbs the world's tallest peak by moving steadily upward from base camp to base camp. Warren has selected 12 cities closest to the 3,400 people groups as base camps to carry his message forward.
Application: Many explanations have been offered to interpret the meaning of 153, the number of fish caught in the net. The interpretation that seems to prevail is offered by Jerome, that each fish incudes every kind of fish known at the time the gospel was written -- thus it represents all the people of all the nations that will one day be saved by Jesus. The net represents the church, which is large enough to hold all people. [William Barclay, The Gospel of John, Vol. 2]
* * *
In a political commentary by U.S. News Weekly, the Republican National Committee says "it wants to operate a big tent." The Republican Party must do this to remake itself after the 2012 losses. Except, U.S. News reported, the most active people are still tea partiers dressed in Revolutionary War-era costumes.
Application: Putting our political party associations aside, Jerome said the net was a symbol of the church, which is big enough to include all people. Are we dressed in costumes or are we truly fisherman?
* * *
President Obama has volunteered to return 5% of his income back to the Treasury to show his solidarity with the 700,000 civilian employees who have to take 14 furlough days because of federal budget cuts. On the president's $400,000 salary, this accounts for $1,667 per month.
Considering Obama is already a multimillionaire and that the banks are not going to foreclose on his current residence (The White House), one must wonder how equal a partnership this sacrifice really is.
Application: When Peter was asked by Jesus to reaffirm his faith three times as a symbolic gesture for the three courtyard denials, his confession and contriteness were sincere.
* * *
U.S. News Weekly reported that during President Obama's second term, "the Moby Dick issue" for both political parties is immigration reform. This unresolved issue will be the biggest challenge to confront the newly elected Congress.
Application: In John we can discuss forever the change in symbolism from fish to sheep. We can dissect the number 153 into a multiple number of interpretations. But "the Moby Dick issue" in John is if we will answer the summons to "Follow me."
* * *
Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice was recently fired when a video of his mistreatment of players during practice sessions made it onto ESPN and then into the realm of social media, and the world had an opportunity to observe his abusive behavior. Rice's explosive temper is exposed as he is seen throwing balls at players, kicking them, and spewing gay slurs at them.
Interviewed in front of his home, Rice said this regarding the video record, "It's troubling, but at some time maybe I'll try to explain it. But right now there's no explanation for what's on those films."
Application: Paul offered no explanation for his persecution of the Jews, except that Christ was absent from his life. And that was the only explanation necessary.
* * *
From team member Mary Austin:
Nap Time!
It seems too good to be true, but going to bed may do students more good than extra studying.
DailyGood.org reports on a new study and notes that "getting enough sleep is an undervalued but crucial part of learning. Contrary to students' belief that staying up all night to cram for an exam will lead to higher scores, truth is, the need for a good night's rest is even more important than finishing homework or studying for a test." It seems like it should be the other way around.
The article continues: "A recent study in the journal Child Development showed that sacrificing sleep in order to study will actually backfire. The study followed 535 Los Angeles high school students for 14 days, tracking how long they slept, as well as how well they understood material being taught in class and how they performed on a test, quiz, or homework."
Crazy as it sounds, going to sleep is as important as hitting the books.
* * *
Crazy in Love?
Is it crazy to advise college students to find a life partner before they leave campus? And in this day and age, should women still be advised to snag a husband before graduation? A recent letter from Princeton alum Susan Patton '77 to the Daily Princetonian advised female students, "Find a husband on campus before you graduate." Patton, who has two sons (and is divorced), contends that it's hard for women to find partners who are their intellectual equals, and that after college the task is even more difficult.
As NPR reported on the story:
The letter has sparked conversation and criticism on campus and across the country. "I kind of really think that it was an article that didn't need to be written," says Pallavi Koppol, a freshman who intends to major in computer science. Koppol says Patton's language seems out of place in today's world; others on campus agree. "I don't think that she has framed this debate in a particularly helpful manner," says Liz Ramey, a second-year master's student at the university's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Ramey says Patton raises important issues, though, such as balancing personal and professional lives. But she says those discussions already were taking place on campus. Now, because of Patton's controversial letter, the conversation is happening across the country.
Patton believes that men have a greater universe of choices in partners, but women who seek equals have to find them in places where more possibilities exist. But perhaps love and maturity happen at different times and in different places for all of us, and the partner we would choose in college may not be the right one for the long haul. Love has its own timing and its own mysteries, and it's hard to get it on a schedule.
* * *
The Gift of Confusion
When Jesus appears to the disciples in his risen form, their reactions range from perplexity to disbelief to outright confusion. Annie Murphy Paul reports that confusion may be just what we need to learn something new or to take in news as amazing as God's resurrection power.
Paul writes that "we all know that confusion doesn't feel good." It seems like an obstacle to learning, and we try to avoid it as much as possible. However, she notes that confusion may be an essential part of the learning process.
"How can this be?" she asks. "The human brain is a pattern-recognition machine. It evolved to identify related events or artifacts and connect them into a meaningful whole.... We short-circuit this process of subconscious learning, however, when we rush in too soon with an answer. It's better to allow that confused, confounded feeling to last a little longer -- for two reasons. First, not knowing the single correct way to resolve a problem allows us to explore a wide variety of potential explanations, thereby giving us a deeper and broader sense of the issues involved. Second, the feeling of being confused, of not knowing what's up, creates a powerful drive to figure it out. We're motivated to look more deeply, search more vigorously for a solution, and in so doing we see and understand things we would not have, had we simply been handed the answer at the outset."
Confusion, like doubt, leads us deeper into faith, and other processes that lead us to grow.
* * *
Nope, It Can't Possibly Happen
It's fun to look at things people said would never work.
Certain advances in technology have left people convinced they were a passing fad. Some people must have understood the movement to follow Jesus in the same way. Resurrection? Nope. Following the dead guy? Not happening. Scared disciples becoming apostles of the good news? Impossible! And yet...
Consider these predictions:
"Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night." So believed Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century-Fox, in 1946, but we haven't gotten tired of it yet.
The American Railroad Congress proclaimed in 1913 that "it is an idle dream to imagine that automobiles will take the place of railways in the long distance movement of passengers."
With a similarly shortsighted perspective, Western Union concluded that "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a practical form of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." Do you know anyone who has sent a telegram lately?
And most amusing -- or most sad of all -- Thomas J. Watson Sr., the chairman of IBM, predicted in 1943: "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." He would be shocked to know how many people travel around with a tiny computer in their pocket or purse.
No doubt we all make similarly shortsighted statements. These remind us to look beyond what is to what could be. The resurrection appearances of Jesus were so startling that no one had a way to make sense of them at first. Like the disciples, we have to allow for the unexpected if we hope to see God at work.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Sing praises to God, O you faithful ones.
People: Give thanks to God's holy name.
Leader: For God's anger is but for a moment;
People: God's favor is for a lifetime.
Leader: Weeping may linger for the night,
People: But joy comes with the morning.
OR
Leader: Hear the call of our God.
People: We have come to listen for God's voice.
Leader: God calls us to follow a way of life.
People: Only in following God's lead can we know eternal life.
Leader: The ways of God are not the ways of the world.
People: The ways of God will be our ways.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah"
found in:
UMH: 127
H82: 690
PH: 281
AAHH: 138/139/140
NNBH: 232
NCH: 18/19
CH: 622
LBW: 343
ELA: 618
W&P: 501
AMEC: 52/53, 65
"If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee"
found in:
UMH: 142
H82: 635
PH: 282
NCH: 410
LBW: 453
ELA: 769
W&P: 429
"Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise"
found in:
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELA: 834
W&P: 48
AMEC: 71
STLT: 273
Renew: 46
"Where He Leads Me"
found in:
UMH: 338
AAHH: 550
NNBH: 229
CH: 346
AMEC: 235
"Spirit Song"
found in:
UMH: 347
AAHH: 321
CH: 352
W&P: 352
Renew: 248
"Jesus Calls Us"
UMH: 398
H82: 549/550
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171/172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELA: 696
W&P: 345
AMEC: 238
"Take My Life, and Let It Be"
found in:
UMH: 399
H82: 707
PH: 391
NNBH: 213
NCH: 448
CH: 609
LBW: 406
ELA: 583, 605
W&P: 466
AMEC: 292
Renew: 150
"Lift Every Voice and Sing"
found in:
UMH: 519
H82: 599
PH: 563
AAHH: 540
NNBH: 457
CH: 631
LBW: 562
ELA: 841
W&P: 729
AMEC: 571
STLT: 149
"Open Our Eyes, Lord"
found in:
CCB: 77
Renew: 91
"God, You Are My God"
found in:
CCB: 60
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who calls us to new and sometimes strange paths: Grant us the faith to follow your call wherever you lead and the grace to accept the unusual ways of others; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into your presence, O God, to offer our praise and worship to you. We ask that you would grant us the faith to listen to your call and follow wherever you lead us. We ask also for your grace that we may be understanding of others who follow you in paths we do not understand. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our reluctance to move out of the ordinary ways of our lives.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are so comfortable in our current way of following Jesus that we are closed to anything that differs from our routine. We have an understanding of what it means to be a disciple, and we are not open to new ways. We look at others whose way of discipleship differs from ours, and we either ignore them as being irrelevant or spurn them as being wrong. Forgive us our arrogance and complacency, and open our lives to all that you would call us to be and to become. Amen.
Leader: God is always doing a new thing. God calls us into new ways so that we can experience new life and new joy.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you are the one who brings us to life and joy eternal. You are our faithful guide and shepherd.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are so comfortable in our current way of following Jesus that we are closed to anything that differs from our routine. We have an understanding of what it means to be a disciple, and we are not open to new ways. We look at others whose way of discipleship differs from ours, and we either ignore them as being irrelevant or spurn them as being wrong. Forgive us our arrogance and complacency, and open our lives to all that you would call us to be and to become.
We give you thanks for your faithfulness that calls us to ever new ways of experiencing life in you. We thank you for those who have stepped out in faith to follow you in new and strange ways. We thank you for those who have had the courage to share their journeys with us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We offer our prayers for the pains and needs of your world. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by the violence, poverty, and death that fills the news each day. Give us courage to continue to lift these needs in our prayers and in our actions to alleviate the suffering of your children.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Play a game such as "Simon Says" where participants are directed to do some action. Have the children do several actions, including some silly ones. Talk about how if someone didn't know they were playing a game, they would think we were pretty silly. Sometimes people may do things that look silly or strange to us because we don't know what is really going on. We need to not judge so quickly what other people are doing just because it looks different from the way we do it.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Swimming With Your Clothes On
John 21:1-19
Object: a swimsuit
Good morning, boys and girls! Today we read a very interesting story about Jesus and the disciples. Jesus had died on the cross. Sometime later the disciples were out fishing. Why do you suppose they were fishing? (let the children answer) They were fishermen before they met Jesus. When they met Jesus they stopped fishing for fish and followed Jesus. Now they didn't know what to think, so they probably thought they would go back to what they knew and fish for their living.
They are fishing, and are they having good luck? (let them answer) No! They fished all night long and didn't catch anything. Then, early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore and yelled out to them: "Did you catch anything?" They said to him (let them answer) -- "No!"
It didn't take long before they realized that it was Jesus who was on the shore. He wasn't gone or dead -- he was alive with them.
One of the fishermen was Simon Peter. He was so excited the Bible says he couldn't wait for the boat to get to the shore. What did he do? (let them answer) That's right! He jumped in the water. Did he have this on? (hold up the swimsuit) No! He did not have his suit on. He jumped in the water with his clothes. That is how excited Peter was!
Jesus is worthy of our excitement. Anyone who can die and rise again -- like Jesus did -- is worthy of our worship and honor. That is why even after all these years, we still get excited about the story of Easter where Jesus died and rose again from the dead.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 14, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer offers some additional thoughts on this week's Acts text and its themes of persecution and entitlement. Dean observes that the tendency of some Christians in America to feel that they are a persecuted minority -- as exemplified by a fledgling attempt by some N. Carolina legislators to designate Christianity as the state's official religion -- pales next to the grim reality facing Christians in many places around the world who truly are persecuted for their faith and daily face the possibility of martyrdom -- which makes it all the more vital to distinguish between true persecution and mere annoyance at not receiving "preferred customer" status. But as Dean reminds us, Christianity was never meant to be comfortable -- it's supposed to be difficult and dangerous, something we would do well to remember.
Whose Voice Are You Following?
by Leah Lonsbury
John 21:1-19; Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
This week's texts have some of our scriptures' most well-known characters acting in unfamiliar and seemingly irrational ways.
Persecuting Paul has a little chat with Jesus on the road to Damascus, goes blind, fasts, is healed by a disciple who should be hiding from him, gets baptized, and starts preaching about Jesus. What?
In the gospel passage, the disciples are back to fishing -- for actual fish this time. They aren't having much luck until some guy on the beach gives them advice about where to cast their nets. The beloved disciple recognizes that voice and the abundance that issues from it, and he tells Peter, "That's not just some guy. That's our guy!" Then Peter, who is naked on the boat, puts on his clothes and jumps into the sea. What?
What is it about the voice of Jesus that makes Paul and Peter act in such unexpected and bizarre ways? Why do they react as they do? How does it turn a persecutor into a preacher and a denier into a drenched martyr?
And then there's us.
What voice are we hearing and following? What effect does it have on us? What is the modern-day equivalent of putting on our clothes to jump into the water? Are we ready and willing to take that leap?
THE WORLD
If you keep up at all with the news, it shouldn't surprise you that we continue to be a surprising people. Humans behaving in unfamiliar and irrational ways is not just a biblical theme but also the flavor of our living today. Let it never be said that we are not creative like the one who created and creates us. However, our "creativity" often takes on an odd trajectory.
We see it in popular culture...
The latest trend in internet memes in China happens to be pictures of dogs wearing pantyhose. This is not a joke -- check it out for yourself here. In the time that it took me to begin writing this paragraph, the number of "likes" on this dogs-in-tights story rose from 11,676 to 11,802. It appears this strange fascination with shots of furry friends getting fancy crosses cultures.
We see it in politics at all levels...
In North Carolina, two state representatives brought a bill to the floor last week that would establish an official state religion -- Christianity. The House Speaker, Thom Tillis, who is considering a run for Congress, declined to bring the bill to the floor -- but the Huffington Post reports this week that the number of Americans that would support a constitutional amendment making Christianity the nation's official religion is growing. These advocates -- 32% of adults, according to a recent poll -- seem to disagree with the first amendment of our founding document, which reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Last Monday in Nelson, Georgia, the city council passed a law that requires every household to maintain a gun and ammunition. USA Today reports that councilman Duane Cronic, who sponsored the measure (which exempts convicted felons and those opposed to gun ownership), "said he knows the ordinance won't be enforced but he still believes it will make the town safer."
At a national level, politicians' priorities and loyalties seem to be shifting more quickly and easily than usual. The Democratic Party, whose platform for the 2012 election included language about making poverty a national priority and whose budget proposals contained a push to cut the 15% poverty rate in half in ten years, has gone silent on the issue. President Obama, who spoke passionately about combatting poverty in his State of the Union speech, has now proposed cutting Social Security -- a key tool for addressing poverty on a wide scale.
Republican Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina went on NBC's Meet the Press this past Sunday and expressed his disdain for Mitt Romney's campaign statements on immigration, particularly around "self-deportation". Graham called Romney's stance "impractical" and even "offensive," and said, "Every corner of the Republican Party -- from libertarians to the RNC, House Republicans, and the rank-and-file Republican Party member -- is now understanding there has to be an earned pathway to citizenship."
Less than a year ago, on April 10, 2012, Graham released a statement offering his support to the candidate and encouraging the entire GOP to unite behind Romney's lead, "so that every corner of the Republican Party is united."
We see it in sports...
The FBI is now investigating a report that Eric Murdock, a former employee of the Rutgers basketball program, tried to extort $950,000 from the university's athletic department after being fired and before releasing the video to ESPN that shows then-head men's basketball coach Mike Rice shoving players and shouting homophobic slurs at them.
Murdock claims he was fired because he was trying to be a whistleblower on Rice's behavior. A university report states the he was not actually fired and could have continued working at the university.
Another university report criticizes Murdock's video for taking many situations out of context. It also claims that Rice did not create a hostile working environment. Yet after a review last December, university officials suspended Rice without pay for three games, fined him $50,000, sent him to anger-management counseling, and monitored his behavior. Additionally, Rutgers President Robert Barchi said that when he first saw the video last week, he immediately decided Rice would not be allowed to continue as coach.
And we see it in education...
Beverly Hall, former superintendent for the Atlanta Public Schools, was recently indicted on racketeering charges based on an alleged cheating scheme that won her more than $500,000 in bonuses. She is also accused of theft, conspiracy, and making false statements, but denies any wrongdoing. In addition, 34 teachers and principals who worked under Hall are also facing criminal charges for erasing wrong answers on standardized tests and replacing them with the correct choice.
In 2009, Hall was named "National Superintendent of the Year" for improvement in student achievement by the American Association of School Administrators. The fact that the students in "troubled neighborhoods" of Atlanta vaulted past their counterparts in wealthy suburbs on the Georgia standardized competency test that year was curious then and suspect now.
Promotions for teachers and principals who reported to Hall were based on how their students performed on such tests. Part of the indictment against Hall reads, "Principals and teachers were frequently told by Beverly Hall and her subordinates that excuses for not meeting targets would not be tolerated."
The Washington Post's education reporter and columnist Valerie Strauss writes that Atlanta's scandal isn't an anomaly. Strauss suggests that there are dozens of others, but points out that Atlanta's is the only one being aggressively pursued and thoroughly covered by the press. "We don't really know how extensive the problem is," Strauss wrote, but "what we do know is that these cheating scandals have been a result of test-obsessed school reform."
Washington DC is one of those "others" that has flown under the radar. Many unanswered questions remain about a pattern of wrong-to-right answers that might point to widespread tampering with tests during the tenure of now-famous and somewhat controversial school reformer Michelle Rhee, who starred in the documentary Waiting for Superman and was featured on the cover of Time magazine.
Eugene Robinson, also of the Washington Post has this to say about such scandals:
Our schools desperately need to be fixed. But creating a situation in which teachers are more likely than students to cheat cannot be the right path.
Standardized achievement tests are a vital tool, but treating test scores the way a corporation might treat sales targets is wrong. Students are not widgets. I totally reject the idea that students from underprivileged neighborhoods cannot learn. Of course they can. But how does it help these students to have their performance on a one-size-fits-all standardized test determine their teachers' compensation and job security? The clear incentive is for the teacher to focus on test scores rather than actual teaching.
Experienced teacher Kenneth Bernstein is a regular contributor of informative essays on the DailyKos website under the pseudonym "teacherken," and he has written two responses to Eugene Robinson's column cited above. In the first, he hones in on the culture of standardized testing, the pressure it exerts on teachers who act out in surprising ways, and the empty results it brings. He begins by praising Robinson's opening paragraph:
It is time to acknowledge that the fashionable theory of school reform -- requiring that pay and job security for teachers, principals, and administrators depend on their students' standardized test scores -- is at best a well-intentioned mistake, and at worst nothing but a racket.
But then he takes a critical turn at Robinson's labeling of standardized testing as a "vital tool":
Robinson's column is not perfect. He considers standardized achievement tests "a vital tool." But to misuse use a tool can be worse than not having it --†using a sledgehammer to set a broken bone is more destructive than helpful, and that has been how we have used standardized tests in the so-called reform movement.
"teacherken" continues...
For years those of us in the trenches in education have tried to make people aware that the Emperor of Educational "Reform" in the form of test-driven accountability was naked:†it had little to do with real reform, and was destructive of meaningful learning and teaching.
His other response includes commentary from education professor William Ayers noting that "the road to the massive cheating scandal in Atlanta runs right through the White House" and other top leaders for creating and carrying out this culture of testing. Ayers writes: "The deeper problem is reducing education to a single narrow metric that claims to recognize an educated person through a test score. Teaching toward a simple standardized measure and relentlessly applying state-administered (but privately developed and quite profitable) tests to determine the 'outcomes' both incentivizes cheating and is a worthless proxy for learning."
Is "teacherken" right? Is it the pressure of testing that has school administrators and teachers acting in unfamiliar and seemingly irrational ways? Can it be to blame for the poor performance and/or the sudden successes of so many students? What voice are these administrators, teachers, and students reacting to? What is causing the wild swings in their performance and behavior?
Speaking of wild swings in behavior... what voice makes 11,802 people click to see dogs in pantyhose?
And what is causing our politicians to flip-flop? What voice or voices are they following?
What about those who play and work in athletics? What voice makes a coach berate and abuse his players? What voice was Eric Murdock hearing? What about Rutgers President Robert Barchi?
What makes these people (and all people) act in such peculiar, contradictory, suspicious, and perhaps even dishonest ways?
THE WORD
Paul's conversion tale is rich with preaching journeys one might take, but let's turn to the more complicated and sometimes baffling combination in this week's passage from John's gospel. Perhaps we'll find that our questions about how we listen and react to the voice of Jesus resonate with the questions this text raises.
John's combination of a fishing tale and a love story can leave the reader (and the preacher) with more questions than answers, particularly about the storytelling and simple logistics...
What is Jesus up to on the beach? Why don't the disciples speak after coming ashore? Don't they have questions? Concerns? Protests to register? What's the point of this mismatched tale? What is Jesus up to in his repetitive questions for Peter? Repetition for emphasis? Redemption of a denier? Repetition for commissioning's sake -- like a ritual of sorts?
And then there are our questions from earlier...
What is it about the voice of Jesus that makes Paul and Peter act in such unexpected and bizarre ways? Why do they react as they do? How does it turn a persecutor into a preacher and a denier into a drenched martyr?
In Feasting on the Word, both Lewis R. Donelson and Thomas Troeger propose that Jesus' voice and call provide the hearer with such abundance that she or he cannot help but respond in wild and unexpected ways ([Year C, Vol. 2], p. 423). In this passage, Jesus' voice brings the disciples a miraculous catch. The ensuing abundance registers with the beloved disciple, and he recognizes the generous (and sometimes overwhelming) love of Jesus. When he shares his recognition with impetuous Peter, Peter reacts in kind. Peter's wild and discombobulated response (putting on clothes for a swim to shore) communicates the disorienting fullness of God's love for us in Jesus.
The repetition and seeming intensification of Peter's exchange with Jesus seems to echo this kind of generous giving and its disorienting effect. It outlines the job of the disciple -- feeding and caring for the people of God -- a very tall order indeed, but also the very stuff of the divine love and the measure of our reaction to that love. It is easy to see why one might need to be a little off-kilter to agree to such a task.
Jesus seems to be saying, "Care for my people -- the lost, the hurting, the hungry, the desperate, the complicated, the unlikeable, the difficult, the hesitant, the overeager, the afraid, the suspicious, the wild, and the ones who don't know or think they need feeding or tending -- those are the ones. As a matter of fact, just care for and feed them all while you're at it. My love is big enough. Make yours that way too. Be like me. You're up for that, right?"
Only the craziest of us respond, act, put on our clothes, and jump into the sea to follow Jesus. That's because only the craziest of us can comprehend just how wildly life-altering and mind-blowing the love of God is in Jesus. And it's going to take some irrationality and wild ridiculousness for Peter or any of us to sign up for what lies ahead -- risking it all, life included, to follow the one who was just crazy and bold enough to give his whole self to the love that changes everything, even death into life.
Perhaps this combination story is meant to be discombobulated, to give us a taste of the powerful, disorienting love of God that finds us in our everyday lives, like on the fishing boat or in the sharing of a simple meal. We'll know it is the voice of Jesus and the love of God that is calling us when it is discovered in and issues in abundance, when it throws us a little off-center, and when it convinces us to love in outrageous and seemingly irrational ways. Jesus isn't calling us to senseless abandon just for kicks, for attention, for our experience and benefit only. Jesus is calling us to act irrationally for the only love that makes perfect sense -- the one that frees, empowers, and blesses all God's children for the life eternal that happens between us and with God.
We'll need an eye (or an ear) for what Jesus is calling us to do -- like the beloved disciple. We'll also need the wild willingness to jump -- like Peter.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The preacher may wish to...
* Consider what voices we hear in our everyday lives (like those that cause politicians to flip-flop, sports personalities to act dubiously, and teachers to do what they implore their students not to do) and what effect they have on us. How, then, can we make sure we are hearing the one voice that will call us differently and to outlandish love?
* Ask the congregation how it is being called to recognize abundance (like the beloved disciple) and respond in wild abandon (like Peter).
* Consider the wild generosity of God's love in our lives and our often-tepid response. What kind of call might we be missing? What are we not hearing clearly? What are we not hearing at all and why? What are we hearing and denying? How can we listen differently for a clearer connection? How might that change us? How are we being called to put on our clothes to jump into the water?
* Think with the congregation about how God continues to feed and equip us for wild love in the midst of our ordinary everyday lives. What feeds us? Where and to whom will that call to love take us?
* Examine how the voice of Jesus reshapes us like it did Peter -- from denier to early church leader. How do we need reshaping/redeeming? What are we denying? How will we lead? How will we listen?
SECOND THOUGHTS
An Inconvenient Faith
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
Christianity has never been a cheap, easy, or convenient religion. This Sunday's reading from Acts reminds us that our earliest roots were planted by those who hid in the catacombs, roots that were often fed with the blood of martyrs.
Yet we modern American Christians still insist that because we are in the nominal majority, other people should step aside for us so that ours can be an easy and convenient religion to practice.
Last week we read that in North Carolina, state Reps. Carl Ford and Harry Warren had put forward a bill in the state legislature that would make Christianity the official religion of North Carolina. The constitution, they argued, applies to the federal government but has nothing to do with "sovereign states," which can do whatever they like.
This was in response to an ACLU suit that challenged the Rowan County commissioners' practice of opening their meetings with a Christian prayer. Rather than show how this practice is allowable under the constitution, Ford and Warren chose to ignore the constitution all together by declaring it null and void in the state of North Carolina.
Leveler heads prevailed, and by Friday the bill had been pulled from consideration by the legislature.
Meanwhile, in Jackson, Ohio, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit to have a picture of Jesus removed from a local middle school. Until recently the portrait was one of several hanging in a "Hall of Honor" owned by the Hi-Y student service club and had been displayed at the building (which previously housed the district's high school) since 1947. The lawsuit came after the Jesus portrait had been moved, by itself, to the current high school.
Initially, the school board argued that because the picture was privately owned by the Hi-Y club and not the school district, it could stay up. But when the ACLU continued with their suit, the board folded and took the picture down, citing the cost and distraction of a lawsuit as their reason. Apparently, Jesus was just too expensive to fight for.
In both cases, voices from the communities involved were heard bewailing the "persecution" that they, modern Christians, were being made to suffer. Indignation was the order of the day. Countersuits were threatened as Christian lawyers rallied to the defense of their suffering brothers and sisters.
But wait a minute. Isn't suffering what Christians are called to do? Isn't suffering somehow part of our DNA? Isn't the cross -- a symbol of suffering and humiliation -- our rallying point? Since when is Christianity supposed to be comfortable, convenient, and easy? And when did it become the job of government and other people to make it so for us? When did we Christians take a detour from the Via Dolorosa? When did our destination turn from Calvary to Utopia?
Christianity has never been easy. It isn't supposed to be. It's difficult and it's dangerous. Why? Because the world instinctively knows that Christianity is a subversive, revolutionary movement out to create an alternative community based on love and charity, and friendship and peace.
They know that if we succeed, we're going to change everything. No more war and the profit it creates. No more poverty and the cheap labor it provides. No more ethnic hatred disguised as patriotism, and no more greed disguised as economics. No wonder they're afraid of us. We're different! And we always have been.
The world knows that even when we forget.
In his autobiography Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful, South African writer Alan Paton tells the story of his work to end apartheid. He and some friends were working at an organizing center when one day a little old black man wearing a large cowboy hat walked in and said he wanted to help.
The activists looked at his aged and frail body and they told him that it might not be a good idea since it could be dangerous and he could get hurt, but the man insisted. They continued to try to talk him out of it, but he stopped them with an upraised hand.
"One day," he said, "I will go before my maker and my maker will ask to see my scars. And if I say to him, 'I have none,' he will say to me, 'Why? Was nothing worth fighting for?' "
Several years ago, the government of Nepal was considering making Christianity illegal. A Nepalese Christian leader was interviewed by a news team, who asked him what he thought his fellow Nepalese Christians would do if their religion was made illegal. He didn't have to think for even a moment before he answered: "We will suffer."
He went on to explain to the dumbfounded interviewer that suffering has a large, important, and honored place in Christian history. In fact, Christianity has always grown the fastest when Christians were willing to suffer, really suffer, for their faith.
Gregory A. Boyd is an evangelical Christian, the founder and senior pastor of the Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is also a former professor of theology and the author or co-author of 15 books, including The Myth of a Christian Nation.
In that book, Boyd cites scripture extensively to make the argument that American Christians have forgotten God often calls Christians to suffer for their faith, and that they have become confused about the difference between suffering and being inconvenienced or annoyed.
It is probably appropriate that James Russell Lowell's stirring poem "Once to Every Man and Nation" has gone out of vogue in the mainline churches on account of its extensive use of masculine pronouns. But one cannot doubt that in its day this song, written as a protest against the Mexican-American War, stirred many Christians to action that went far beyond inconvenience and annoyance.
By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, thy bleeding feet we track,
Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back.
New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, has launched his congregation on a mission campaign that he compares to President Kennedy's call to place a man on the moon within a decade. Warren has determined that there are 3,400 people groups without Christians and a Bible in their own language. In a program that Warren calls his Peace Plan, he intends to connect these people groups to a revised edition of his book The Purpose-Driven Life. Warren plans to do this in the next seven years, prior to his retirement.
Warren compared his plan to that of climbing Mount Everest. A person does not climb Mount Everest in a single day. Instead, an individual climbs the world's tallest peak by moving steadily upward from base camp to base camp. Warren has selected 12 cities closest to the 3,400 people groups as base camps to carry his message forward.
Application: Many explanations have been offered to interpret the meaning of 153, the number of fish caught in the net. The interpretation that seems to prevail is offered by Jerome, that each fish incudes every kind of fish known at the time the gospel was written -- thus it represents all the people of all the nations that will one day be saved by Jesus. The net represents the church, which is large enough to hold all people. [William Barclay, The Gospel of John, Vol. 2]
* * *
In a political commentary by U.S. News Weekly, the Republican National Committee says "it wants to operate a big tent." The Republican Party must do this to remake itself after the 2012 losses. Except, U.S. News reported, the most active people are still tea partiers dressed in Revolutionary War-era costumes.
Application: Putting our political party associations aside, Jerome said the net was a symbol of the church, which is big enough to include all people. Are we dressed in costumes or are we truly fisherman?
* * *
President Obama has volunteered to return 5% of his income back to the Treasury to show his solidarity with the 700,000 civilian employees who have to take 14 furlough days because of federal budget cuts. On the president's $400,000 salary, this accounts for $1,667 per month.
Considering Obama is already a multimillionaire and that the banks are not going to foreclose on his current residence (The White House), one must wonder how equal a partnership this sacrifice really is.
Application: When Peter was asked by Jesus to reaffirm his faith three times as a symbolic gesture for the three courtyard denials, his confession and contriteness were sincere.
* * *
U.S. News Weekly reported that during President Obama's second term, "the Moby Dick issue" for both political parties is immigration reform. This unresolved issue will be the biggest challenge to confront the newly elected Congress.
Application: In John we can discuss forever the change in symbolism from fish to sheep. We can dissect the number 153 into a multiple number of interpretations. But "the Moby Dick issue" in John is if we will answer the summons to "Follow me."
* * *
Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice was recently fired when a video of his mistreatment of players during practice sessions made it onto ESPN and then into the realm of social media, and the world had an opportunity to observe his abusive behavior. Rice's explosive temper is exposed as he is seen throwing balls at players, kicking them, and spewing gay slurs at them.
Interviewed in front of his home, Rice said this regarding the video record, "It's troubling, but at some time maybe I'll try to explain it. But right now there's no explanation for what's on those films."
Application: Paul offered no explanation for his persecution of the Jews, except that Christ was absent from his life. And that was the only explanation necessary.
* * *
From team member Mary Austin:
Nap Time!
It seems too good to be true, but going to bed may do students more good than extra studying.
DailyGood.org reports on a new study and notes that "getting enough sleep is an undervalued but crucial part of learning. Contrary to students' belief that staying up all night to cram for an exam will lead to higher scores, truth is, the need for a good night's rest is even more important than finishing homework or studying for a test." It seems like it should be the other way around.
The article continues: "A recent study in the journal Child Development showed that sacrificing sleep in order to study will actually backfire. The study followed 535 Los Angeles high school students for 14 days, tracking how long they slept, as well as how well they understood material being taught in class and how they performed on a test, quiz, or homework."
Crazy as it sounds, going to sleep is as important as hitting the books.
* * *
Crazy in Love?
Is it crazy to advise college students to find a life partner before they leave campus? And in this day and age, should women still be advised to snag a husband before graduation? A recent letter from Princeton alum Susan Patton '77 to the Daily Princetonian advised female students, "Find a husband on campus before you graduate." Patton, who has two sons (and is divorced), contends that it's hard for women to find partners who are their intellectual equals, and that after college the task is even more difficult.
As NPR reported on the story:
The letter has sparked conversation and criticism on campus and across the country. "I kind of really think that it was an article that didn't need to be written," says Pallavi Koppol, a freshman who intends to major in computer science. Koppol says Patton's language seems out of place in today's world; others on campus agree. "I don't think that she has framed this debate in a particularly helpful manner," says Liz Ramey, a second-year master's student at the university's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Ramey says Patton raises important issues, though, such as balancing personal and professional lives. But she says those discussions already were taking place on campus. Now, because of Patton's controversial letter, the conversation is happening across the country.
Patton believes that men have a greater universe of choices in partners, but women who seek equals have to find them in places where more possibilities exist. But perhaps love and maturity happen at different times and in different places for all of us, and the partner we would choose in college may not be the right one for the long haul. Love has its own timing and its own mysteries, and it's hard to get it on a schedule.
* * *
The Gift of Confusion
When Jesus appears to the disciples in his risen form, their reactions range from perplexity to disbelief to outright confusion. Annie Murphy Paul reports that confusion may be just what we need to learn something new or to take in news as amazing as God's resurrection power.
Paul writes that "we all know that confusion doesn't feel good." It seems like an obstacle to learning, and we try to avoid it as much as possible. However, she notes that confusion may be an essential part of the learning process.
"How can this be?" she asks. "The human brain is a pattern-recognition machine. It evolved to identify related events or artifacts and connect them into a meaningful whole.... We short-circuit this process of subconscious learning, however, when we rush in too soon with an answer. It's better to allow that confused, confounded feeling to last a little longer -- for two reasons. First, not knowing the single correct way to resolve a problem allows us to explore a wide variety of potential explanations, thereby giving us a deeper and broader sense of the issues involved. Second, the feeling of being confused, of not knowing what's up, creates a powerful drive to figure it out. We're motivated to look more deeply, search more vigorously for a solution, and in so doing we see and understand things we would not have, had we simply been handed the answer at the outset."
Confusion, like doubt, leads us deeper into faith, and other processes that lead us to grow.
* * *
Nope, It Can't Possibly Happen
It's fun to look at things people said would never work.
Certain advances in technology have left people convinced they were a passing fad. Some people must have understood the movement to follow Jesus in the same way. Resurrection? Nope. Following the dead guy? Not happening. Scared disciples becoming apostles of the good news? Impossible! And yet...
Consider these predictions:
"Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night." So believed Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century-Fox, in 1946, but we haven't gotten tired of it yet.
The American Railroad Congress proclaimed in 1913 that "it is an idle dream to imagine that automobiles will take the place of railways in the long distance movement of passengers."
With a similarly shortsighted perspective, Western Union concluded that "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a practical form of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." Do you know anyone who has sent a telegram lately?
And most amusing -- or most sad of all -- Thomas J. Watson Sr., the chairman of IBM, predicted in 1943: "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." He would be shocked to know how many people travel around with a tiny computer in their pocket or purse.
No doubt we all make similarly shortsighted statements. These remind us to look beyond what is to what could be. The resurrection appearances of Jesus were so startling that no one had a way to make sense of them at first. Like the disciples, we have to allow for the unexpected if we hope to see God at work.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Sing praises to God, O you faithful ones.
People: Give thanks to God's holy name.
Leader: For God's anger is but for a moment;
People: God's favor is for a lifetime.
Leader: Weeping may linger for the night,
People: But joy comes with the morning.
OR
Leader: Hear the call of our God.
People: We have come to listen for God's voice.
Leader: God calls us to follow a way of life.
People: Only in following God's lead can we know eternal life.
Leader: The ways of God are not the ways of the world.
People: The ways of God will be our ways.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah"
found in:
UMH: 127
H82: 690
PH: 281
AAHH: 138/139/140
NNBH: 232
NCH: 18/19
CH: 622
LBW: 343
ELA: 618
W&P: 501
AMEC: 52/53, 65
"If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee"
found in:
UMH: 142
H82: 635
PH: 282
NCH: 410
LBW: 453
ELA: 769
W&P: 429
"Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise"
found in:
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELA: 834
W&P: 48
AMEC: 71
STLT: 273
Renew: 46
"Where He Leads Me"
found in:
UMH: 338
AAHH: 550
NNBH: 229
CH: 346
AMEC: 235
"Spirit Song"
found in:
UMH: 347
AAHH: 321
CH: 352
W&P: 352
Renew: 248
"Jesus Calls Us"
UMH: 398
H82: 549/550
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171/172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELA: 696
W&P: 345
AMEC: 238
"Take My Life, and Let It Be"
found in:
UMH: 399
H82: 707
PH: 391
NNBH: 213
NCH: 448
CH: 609
LBW: 406
ELA: 583, 605
W&P: 466
AMEC: 292
Renew: 150
"Lift Every Voice and Sing"
found in:
UMH: 519
H82: 599
PH: 563
AAHH: 540
NNBH: 457
CH: 631
LBW: 562
ELA: 841
W&P: 729
AMEC: 571
STLT: 149
"Open Our Eyes, Lord"
found in:
CCB: 77
Renew: 91
"God, You Are My God"
found in:
CCB: 60
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who calls us to new and sometimes strange paths: Grant us the faith to follow your call wherever you lead and the grace to accept the unusual ways of others; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into your presence, O God, to offer our praise and worship to you. We ask that you would grant us the faith to listen to your call and follow wherever you lead us. We ask also for your grace that we may be understanding of others who follow you in paths we do not understand. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our reluctance to move out of the ordinary ways of our lives.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are so comfortable in our current way of following Jesus that we are closed to anything that differs from our routine. We have an understanding of what it means to be a disciple, and we are not open to new ways. We look at others whose way of discipleship differs from ours, and we either ignore them as being irrelevant or spurn them as being wrong. Forgive us our arrogance and complacency, and open our lives to all that you would call us to be and to become. Amen.
Leader: God is always doing a new thing. God calls us into new ways so that we can experience new life and new joy.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you are the one who brings us to life and joy eternal. You are our faithful guide and shepherd.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are so comfortable in our current way of following Jesus that we are closed to anything that differs from our routine. We have an understanding of what it means to be a disciple, and we are not open to new ways. We look at others whose way of discipleship differs from ours, and we either ignore them as being irrelevant or spurn them as being wrong. Forgive us our arrogance and complacency, and open our lives to all that you would call us to be and to become.
We give you thanks for your faithfulness that calls us to ever new ways of experiencing life in you. We thank you for those who have stepped out in faith to follow you in new and strange ways. We thank you for those who have had the courage to share their journeys with us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We offer our prayers for the pains and needs of your world. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by the violence, poverty, and death that fills the news each day. Give us courage to continue to lift these needs in our prayers and in our actions to alleviate the suffering of your children.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Play a game such as "Simon Says" where participants are directed to do some action. Have the children do several actions, including some silly ones. Talk about how if someone didn't know they were playing a game, they would think we were pretty silly. Sometimes people may do things that look silly or strange to us because we don't know what is really going on. We need to not judge so quickly what other people are doing just because it looks different from the way we do it.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Swimming With Your Clothes On
John 21:1-19
Object: a swimsuit
Good morning, boys and girls! Today we read a very interesting story about Jesus and the disciples. Jesus had died on the cross. Sometime later the disciples were out fishing. Why do you suppose they were fishing? (let the children answer) They were fishermen before they met Jesus. When they met Jesus they stopped fishing for fish and followed Jesus. Now they didn't know what to think, so they probably thought they would go back to what they knew and fish for their living.
They are fishing, and are they having good luck? (let them answer) No! They fished all night long and didn't catch anything. Then, early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore and yelled out to them: "Did you catch anything?" They said to him (let them answer) -- "No!"
It didn't take long before they realized that it was Jesus who was on the shore. He wasn't gone or dead -- he was alive with them.
One of the fishermen was Simon Peter. He was so excited the Bible says he couldn't wait for the boat to get to the shore. What did he do? (let them answer) That's right! He jumped in the water. Did he have this on? (hold up the swimsuit) No! He did not have his suit on. He jumped in the water with his clothes. That is how excited Peter was!
Jesus is worthy of our excitement. Anyone who can die and rise again -- like Jesus did -- is worthy of our worship and honor. That is why even after all these years, we still get excited about the story of Easter where Jesus died and rose again from the dead.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 14, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
