As we know all too well from the headlines, many places in our world are extremely dangerous. Psychologists tell us that when we find ourselves in situations of mortal threat, human instinct is to react in one of two main ways: fight or flight. As team member Dean Feldmeyer notes in this installment of The Immediate Word, much of the debate over how the West ought to respond to the deteriorating situation in the region controlled by ISIS can be placed into one of those two categories -- either remain safe and not get involved (why should humanitarian workers be easy targets for kidnapping and execution?), or take up arms and join in a holy war against evil. But Dean points out that Paul identifies another approach -- one that might seem utterly foolish by our normal ways of thinking, but which is “stronger than human strength.” And that, of course, is to “proclaim Christ crucified” -- even if it means placing ourselves in danger, as was the case in Nigeria last week for an American woman doing missionary work. Putting ourselves in a position that potentially could result in martyrdom seems completely irrational -- but as Dean points out, it is indicative of a full-on commitment to live out one’s faith. And that should definitely be on the minds of those of us who practice a much safer, less threatening brand of religion. Dean asks us to consider how committed are we to what we believe. Do we truly grasp deep down in our souls what Paul is telling us... that God’s ways are wiser and stronger in the long run than we think?
Team member Mary Austin shares some additional thoughts on the real context behind the Ten Commandments -- and how it contrasts with the American capitalist gospel of “looking out for number one.” As Mary points out, the commandments are less about constricting rules per se and more about building relationships -- with God and with our neighbor. They provide us with structure for our lives by giving us limits that help us focus on building community: showing us concrete examples of how to respect, care for, and lift up others rather than judging them, and redirecting our attention away from our own selfish desires.
Wiser than Wisdom, Stronger than Strength
by Dean Feldmeyer
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
What shall we do about ISIS?
It’s one thing to talk about loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you when you’re doing it from the soft comfort of the family room sofa or the safe elevation of the pulpit. But what about when ISIS is murdering your father or your brother on a beach in some far-off corner of the world? And what about when they are kidnapping your family and secreting them away to some nightmarish fate for no other reason than that they are Christians? That’s what’s happening in the real world, far away from our couches and pulpits.
It was easy to be philosophical when they were murdering Muslims, but now they are killing Christians.
What shall we do about ISIS?
Shall we go quietly to the slaughter, victims with heads humbly bowed?
Shall we take up arms, forget about loving our enemies, and show them that we Christians can kill and maim other human beings just as ruthlessly and efficiently as they can? Maybe even more so?
Or does Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, offer another, third alternative?
What does it mean to proclaim Christ crucified to people who are intent on killing each other?
In the News
Sometime on the weekend of February 14-15, 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians were murdered by a group who claim to be the Libyan branch of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). We saw them being marched out in orange jumpsuits onto a secluded or abandoned beach, reportedly near the Libyan capital of Tripoli. Behind each man was another one holding a knife, dressed in black with a mask over his face. While the cameras rolled, each of the Christian men was beheaded.
Reports are that they went quietly and meekly to their deaths. Whether they went willingly or with a sense of resignation, we do not know. There is only one report of any of the Christian men saying anything aloud. Malak Shoukry is from the village that 13 of the Christian martyrs called home. His brother, Yousef, was among those who died. Malak recognized him in the video. “I prayed for his soul,” he says. “I heard him calling ‘Oh Jesus’ as he was beheaded.”
Watching those men in the news clippings quietly awaiting their fate, one cannot help but recall the words of Isaiah’s “Song of the Suffering Servant”:
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By a perversion of justice he was taken away. (Isaiah 53:7-8a)
Since then, the Islamic State’s war on Christians has expanded to Syria. Last week it was reported that they have now kidnapped more than 250 Assyrian Christians. USA Today reports that “on Wednesday, Osama Edward, founder of the Assyrian Human Rights Network, told CNN the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, planned to release a video message aimed at President Obama and threatening to kill scores of Christian hostages. The video has not yet been released.”
Many fear that the kidnapping victims -- men, women, and children -- may suffer the same fate as the Egyptian Coptic Christians suffered in Libya.
What are we Christians to do? How are we to respond to these attacks on our fellow Christians?
Bryan Fischer, writing for the American Family Association, says that as a “Christian nation,” America should respond in three ways: 1) Offer asylum to persecuted Christians from the Middle East; 2) Reserve our military responses to only those times when ISIS attacks an American embassy or Israel; and 3) Treat Islam like a disease and refuse to allow any Muslim person to immigrate to the U.S., or to return to the U.S. if they are an American citizens who has left to fight on the side of a Muslim state.
Egypt responded by bombing ISIS targets in Syria immediately upon confirming the deaths of the 21 Coptic Christian men.
Some western Christians like Scott and Brett (who will give only their first names) have taken up arms and joined the Assyrian Christian militia Dwekh Nawsha -- which means “self-sacrifice” in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke and which is still spoken by many Assyrian Christians. These two fighters are both military veterans who became impatient with their government’s slow pace helping to protect the Christian minorities in the Middle East.
So what are we Christians to do?
Do we go meekly to our deaths, victims with our mouths closed, wretched sufferers with our heads bowed?
Do we take up arms and defend ourselves by generating more violence than our enemies -- and proving that we are, at the center, no different than our adversaries?
In the Scriptures
In this week’s passage from 1 Corinthians, Paul begins to lead us toward what many Christians have come to think of as a third alternative. Do not be surprised, however, if his third way does not come off as terribly practical, or if it fails or refuses to answer every hard question with an answer we want to hear.
Religious people, Paul tells us, always want signs. And secular people, he says, always want information. They won’t be satisfied until the answer to every problem is rendered in an equation that is elegant in its simplicity, until every solution to every conundrum is tied up in a nice, neat package and delivered to our doorstep with a pretty pink bow.
But the “Third Way” is not so neat, not nearly so pretty. It isn’t simple or elegant or easy. It doesn’t let us off the hook. It doesn’t deliver us from evil, or protect us from persecution. It doesn’t defend us with eloquence or explain us with complex theories.
What it does is this: It gives meaning to our suffering.
We do not preach a gospel of violent revenge or of secret security, a gospel of safe and easy discipleship.
We preach a Savior who went voluntarily to his own martyrdom.
We preach a Messiah who chose not the wide and easy road but the Via Dolorosa.
We worship in the name of one who willingly gave his life for his friends.
We preach, in Paul’s words, “Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2) -- a stumbling block to even the most religious people and simple foolishness to those who worship at the altar of rational, linear, secular knowledge.
But to those who have experienced the life-changing, mind-expanding, heart-rending grace of God in Jesus Christ, it makes a strange kind of perfect sense. To anyone who has ever loved so fiercely and so deeply that you would go willingly, even eagerly to your death to protect and defend your beloved, nothing could be more understandable. It is the simplest thing in the world for many parents to understand, because most of us have at some point held our sick or suffering child in our arms and prayed that prayer which no words can speak: “Dear God, let it be me instead.”
We are people of the “Third Way,” the way of Jesus Christ, even he who was crucified, dead, and buried for his impertinence, his belief, his insistence that the Kingdom of God really is at hand for every one of us.
Our suffering is not meaningless. Our sacrifice is not empty.
Our greatest witness to the world comes not from how we avoid suffering and persecution or how we retaliate against those who bring it to bear upon us, but from how we endure it and persevere through it and on to the Kingdom of God.
In the Pulpit
In Making Choices in Christ, Joseph A. Tetlow, SJ, suggests that if our only prayer is that God will protect us from pain and shield us from suffering, we are letting our “religion and grace become an easy analgesic, buffering us from the real sufferings around us.”
Instead, he suggests that “we embrace whatever suffering comes into our lives as no longer senseless. Our suffering has a meaning in ‘the language of the cross.’ ” Through it “we join the sufferings of the crucified Christ, the sufferings of humankind that he chose to embrace. We cling to Jesus Christ who is the power and the wisdom of God.”
To do less, he says, is to use “our faith in Christ as a pain pill.”
To embrace our own suffering as not senseless but meaningful is to embrace the world as it really is, full of violence and pain, and doing so empowers us to work for peace and justice that alleviates the pain and suffering of others. “Anything less would be an unworthy motive for anyone who loves Jesus Christ.”
One does not work for peace and justice by committing acts of violence and injustice, however. One does not defeat evil by becoming evil. Neither do we demonstrate the depravity of violence by exercising our own capacity for violence.
On the other end of the continuum, we do not demonstrate the rightness of our cause by simply bowing our heads and going meekly to the slaughter.
Instead, we live the “Third Way.”
In his book The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium (pgs. 118-120), Walter Wink moves us beyond armchair philosophy and lays out exactly what kind of behavior is practiced in Jesus’ “Third Way,” the way that stands firmly between violent militarism and silent passivity. He refers to it as “active nonviolence.”
It is often coercive and confrontational but never lethal: “Nonviolence is not idealistic or sentimental about evil; it does not coddle or cajole aggressors but moves against perceived injustice proactively, with the same alacrity as the most hawkish militarist.”
Active nonviolence does not run from conflict: “In fact, nonviolence seeks out conflict, elicits conflict, even initiates conflict, in order to bring it out into the open and lance its poisonous sores.”
“Nor does active nonviolence preclude the use of coercion. But nonviolent coercion is non-injurious; it relies on the force of truth in a universe that bends toward justice.”
The “Third Way” is not an easy or painless path to follow. “If we are to make nonviolence effective,” warns Wink, “we will have to be as willing to suffer and be killed as soldiers in battle.” And we will have to understand that when we speak in the language of nonviolence, we are speaking a language that the world does not often understand.
It is the language of Christ crucified, a stumbling block to religious people and foolishness to the secular.
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Exodus 20:1-17
Long ago I had my first dog, and the vet advised keeping the dog in the kitchen during the day -- or even better with this breed, in a crate. A crate seemed cruel, too confining, until the vet explained that the dog would feel responsible for the whole apartment unless he was restricted to a smaller space. When he was alone, the dog would feel less anxious with a boundary around his activities.
Reading the Ten Commandments again makes me wonder if our lives operate in a similar way. The lectionary readings from the Hebrew scriptures have been focusing on the theme of covenant during Lent, and we move from Noah to Abraham to the giving of the commandments. If we see this as another in the series of covenants, then the commandments are a covenant between God and the community, and also among members of the community. Because we all belong to God, we agree to live in this way with each other -- to live within this boundary.
Biblical scholar Terence E. Fretheim writes for workingpreacher.org that the framework for the commandments comes from God’s very first word: “God’s own introduction to these words is important for an appropriate understanding: ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.’ The Ten Commandments are not a law code, a body of laws that are meant to float free of their narrative context. This introductory line about redemption -- often omitted from printed versions of the Ten Commandments, unfortunately -- is recognized in Judaism as the first word; ‘you shall have no other gods before me’ is the second word. This opening word of God accomplishes several things. It keeps the commandments personally oriented: I am the Lord your (singular) God. Obedience to the commandments is relationally conceived. These are words given to you by your God. The law is a gift of a God who has redeemed you. The Ten Commandments, then, are a gracious word of God and they begin with a word of good news about what God has done on behalf of ‘you’ as a member of the community of faith. The commandments are to be read through the lens of that redemptive confession. God’s saving actions have drawn the people of God into a new orbit of life and blessing, to which the people respond by giving a certain ‘commandment shape’ to their lives.” The claim comes first, and then the actions.
God’s word in the commandments is meant to be a gift, not a burden. From that gift, community can flourish because we know how to act with each other. The commandments teach us how to live together.
With the rise of the Islamic State forces and the brutal videos of hostage deaths, many have wondered about the English-speaking executioner nicknamed “Jihadi John” by the press. In a Washington Post opinion piece, Avinash Tharoor (a fellow alum of Westminster College) writes about the lack of rules at the college that allowed Islamic extremism to flourish. Jihadi John has been unmasked (as it were) as Mohammed Emwazi, a graduate of the college. The lack of structure and accountability at the college created an environment opposite the intent of the commandments. Instead of creating a structured and safe community, the atmosphere allowed bullying to go unchecked: “From my experiences, I believe that the university is unwittingly complicit in perpetuating such radicalization, as it has often allowed Islamist extremism to go unchallenged. I don’t think the university itself is advocating extremism, but by failing to prevent the advocacy of such ideas, the institution is attracting students who are sympathetic to them. Students who do not identify with extreme Islamist ideology are being put at risk of discrimination, intimidation, and potentially radicalization by the university’s failure to properly handle the situation.” Rules create safety, and the lack of them creates a community out of balance. Tharoor adds, “The longer I spent on campus, the more I noticed strange occurrences and remarks that seemed to fit with an Islamist ideology. Eventually, I realized, these ideas were deeply ingrained at Westminster, allowing individuals to feel comfortable advocating dangerous and discriminatory beliefs.”
The University of Virginia, battered by accusations of rape at campus parties and a now-discredited article in Rolling Stone, recently announced new rules for fraternity parties. The rules, seemingly designed to delight late-night comics, have serious intent. They include having “at least three ‘sober and lucid’ members to monitor behavior at parties, prohibit pre-mixed alcoholic drinks, and implement guest lists to control entry to the houses during an event. The rules, made public Tuesday, also stipulate that one of the sober party monitors must be posted at a staircase leading to bedrooms and have ‘immediate key access to each room’ in the house. That measure appears designed to prevent situations that could lead to sexual assault at U-Va’s fraternities.” The Washington Post observes that the rules seem to assume that students will drink at parties, and they aim to make the parties safer.
In a display of honesty, if not community building, a University of Michigan student recently made news by proclaiming that, while her family’s income was $250,000 a year, she was assuredly middle class. Jesse Klein, from Palo Alto, California, wrote a column called “Relative Wealth” for the Michigan Daily, the university’s student newspaper. Klein wrote: “My family’s household income is $250,000 a year, but I promise you I am middle class. I live in a $2 million dollar house, but I promise you I am still middle class. It has one story, doesn’t have a pool or its own movie theater. It is a modest three-bedroom, two-bath.” Klein wrote about differences in how people accumulate and spend money in Michigan and her native California, and her column stirred up anger at her lack of understanding.
A fellow student, Elizabeth Ryan, responded in the comments, noting that there are layers of wealth that aren’t visible in money. Writing in a tone that seemed designed to foster a sense of community, she wrote: “I can understand that having/feeling like you have less money than those around you can make you feel like an outsider.... Though I don’t believe your family’s cash flow is in any way small, I can see how it might seem small relative to those you grew up around, and through that lens, how you might conclude that you are middle class. What you may not have realized is that you, I, and other upper middle and upper class students have an ample amount of connections. And that unequivocally prevents us from ever being middle class. If I want to find a summer internship, I know that relationships my family have will help find me something, putting me at a greater chance of employment. If I am ever without a job, I have friends and family in whose houses I can sleep... and they’ll probably have all the amenities I grew up with. I have people in my life who can teach me how to invest and recommend in which mutual funds I should enroll. I know that when I graduate, I am not only connected to the Michigan network but to the networks of my parents... and those largely reside in corporate America. I expect that a lot of the same is true for you too. Because the reality is, though we will have to work for things in life, if we fall we’ll have a shorter distance to drop and a larger safety net. We will more easily get back up and start at a higher place in the proverbial queue. That’s what socioeconomic status is about. And that’s where your and my experiences can’t even begin to compare with those in the middle class... much less the poor.” The commenter understands community as a web of connections which surround and support us, whether they’re visible to us or not.
Clearly, we are not naturally gifted at living with each other, at college or in neighborhoods or at work. We don’t understand each other well, and community is difficult work. We need to know how to act with each other, how to treat each other’s ideas, possessions, and relationships. Mean-spiritedness is always tempting, and we are trained to put ourselves first. We enslave ourselves easily to false gods, spiritual shortcuts, and tempting pleasures. John C. Holbert writes for Patheos that God is in the business of giving us freedom, and so the “Ten Commandments do not begin with a command, but with a claim. The God we worship is a God who first and foremost is a God who majors in freedom, all sorts of freedom. In whatever ways God’s people seem intent on falling back into multiple kinds of slavery, this YHWH is always in the business of searching for ways to grant these would-be slaves a perfect freedom.” The commandments come, not as a burden, but as a gift from a God who understands our need for connection and for structure. We need the boundary so we can live with freedom and connection within it.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Exodus 20:1-17
CBS is premiering a new police drama called Battle Creek, changing the location of this urban genre from a large city (such as Chicago) to a small, rusting city in Michigan. Yet, according to Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times, “the setup is deceptively familiar: Two mismatched cops are forced to work together as partners.” Stanley went on to write that the program “follows the basic rules of network crime shows -- episodes center on a murder mystery that is solved by the last commercial and dilute brutal violence with humor.”
Application: Perhaps we have heard the Ten Commandments so often that they seem as familiar as an oft-repeated TV crime show.
*****
Exodus 20:1-17
There is a proposal to build a monument in the Canadian capital of Ottawa that would recognize those who have died under communist rule. The planned memorial would consist of a walkway on one side and a staircase on the other reaching four stories high. The monument would feature 100 million 5.6 millimeter squares, laid over 14 concrete walls and joined into seven V shapes. Seen from the platform, the mosaic would form the image of a (yet to be decided) communist atrocity. The monument is controversial for its size, location, and message. Some consider the message inappropriate for Canada -- as summed up by Shirley Blumberg, who was on the design review committee and voted against it. She said, “We are not the country that overthrew the yoke of communism. I would understand if we were Romania, to have this monument at the center of our democracy. It is not central to our history.”
Application: We need to be sure to understand the Ten Commandments and how they are central to our history, and not be distracted by peripheral agendas.
*****
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Irving Kahn recently died at the age of 109. Kahn was noted for being the oldest active Wall Street investor, having made his first trade in June 1929. A few months after entering the market, practicing “value investing,” he realized that stock traders were gambling with money they did not have and that there was going to be a market downturn. Traders were bidding stock prices into the stratosphere, and Kahn understood that the market would adjust itself with a major crash. Realizing this, he adjusted his portfolio accordingly before the market did crash. Kahn said, “I wasn’t smart, but even a dumb young kid could see these guys were gambling.”
Application: We do not have to be brilliant to understand the message of Jesus.
*****
John 2:13-22
Three young men were recently arrested in Brooklyn for trying to emigrate to the Islamic State and become jihadists. One of them, Akhror Saidakhmetov, was arrested as he was walking down the corridor to board his flight. According to court documents, he told his mother, “If a person has a chance to join the Islamic State and does not go there, on Judgment Day he will be asked why, and it is a sin to live in the land of infidels.”
Application: Jesus brought his anger to the Temple Court, against the misguided like Akhror Saidakhmetov, when he saw false religion being practiced.
***************
From team member Chris Keating:
Exodus 20:1-17
Live Long and Be Blessed
Many people mourning the death of actor Leonard Nimoy, famous for his portrayal of Mr. Spock in the Star Trek television and movie series, may not be aware that the actor incorporated elements of his Jewish background into his character’s famous hand greeting. The Vulcan split-fingered greeting that Spock developed was actually influenced by the priestly benediction Birkat Kohanim.
Application: The Vulcan greeting, much like the commandments, was a blessing which conveyed the hope to “live long and prosper.” The commandments teach the way one shall live in order to achieve that sort of prosperity.
*****
Exodus 20:1-17
Fifty Shades of Torah
It’s a classic Lenten dilemma. On the one hand Moses is telling us “you shall not covet,” while on the other hand Hollywood is enticing us with Fifty Shades of Grey. The commandments depict the meaning of life in community, and offer an invitation to a life lived in response to God’s gracious provision and in loving relationship to the neighbor. Such a vision for life seems completely at odds with the story created by E.L. James. As critic Reed Tucker points out, on the surface Christian Grey has little to offer except wealth: “...if you want to date Grey, there are rules. You cannot touch him, ask him stuff, show emotion around him, or sleep in the bed with him. Oh, and also he will enjoy hitting you. But did I mention he’s rich?”
Application: While the commandments guide people of faith into a way of life that is rich and nurturing, much of our culture offers “commandments” or rules for behaving that are not life-affirming and are rather characterized by desire, power, and a need to control others.
*****
Exodus 20:1-17
False Witness and Political Suicide
Last week, Missouri state auditor Tom Schweich died, apparently as the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Schweich, a Republican, was re-elected to a second term this fall and had recently announced his intentions to run for governor. He was a political protégé of former U.S. Senator John Danforth, and had served as Danforth’s chief of staff for the investigation of the FBI raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.
Recently, however, Schweich had become upset by what he characterized as a “whisper” campaign against him. He had alleged that Missouri State Republican chair John Hancock was spreading rumors among some evangelical Christian Republicans that Schweich was Jewish.
While Schweich’s grandfather was Jewish, Schweich himself was an Episcopalian. Hancock has admitted that he believed Schweich was Jewish, but denied engaging in a smear campaign against the auditor. Schweich believed that the intentions of mentioning his Jewish heritage were to discourage certain groups from voting for him, and that he had been taught to never let anti-Semitism go unpunished.
Application: The messages about Schweich’s faith were intended for audiences that believe strongly in the Ten Commandments, even if they were not aware that others were using them to bear false witness against Schweich.
*****
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
What Message?
“Never has so much been written about a speech that hasn’t been given,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking about a controversial address he is to deliver to Congress on Tuesday, March 3. The speech has sparked controversy in the United States and in Israel, and is expected to make the case against Iran’s nuclear program. Critics in Israel have suggested that the speech is nothing more than an act of political grandstanding that could threaten relations between the United States and Israel. The White House made it clear that President Obama will not be meeting with Netanyahu while he’s in town, while Speaker of the House John Boehner has said interest in the speech has been high.
Application: Politicians craft messages that can seem foolish or wise, depending on one’s point of view. God’s foolishness, says Paul, is “wiser than human wisdom.”
*****
John 2:13-22
House of Cards as a Lenten Discipline?
Snowbound Netflix viewers binged-viewed episodes of the television series House of Cards last week, with the streaming premiere of the series’ third season.
By all accounts -- no spoilers here -- the popular series illustrates just how “zeal for your house (of government) will consume me.” While Jesus is driven by faithfulness in cleansing the temple, President Francis Underwood is driven by raw power as he claws his way to the White House. As the Washington Post’s “Reliable Source” column observes, House of Cards is Macbethian drama at its best.
Application: Our identity is revealed by our actions. Jesus’ actions in driving out the moneychangers reveals his identity as the Word of God made flesh. Similarly, the scheming ploys and underhanded political attacks portrayed in House of Cards reveal the true identity of the politicians involved.
*****
John 2:13-22
Meet Unsaintly Francis and Claire
Francis and Claire, meet St. Francis and St. Clare.
As a pair, President Francis Underwood and First Lady Claire Underwood from House of Cards seem unmatchable when it comes to political scheming. As viewers of the popular series understand, the Underwoods lie, attack, and make secret deals in order to seize power. They are, if nothing else, tenacious.
And they are hardly saints -- which makes their name-sharing with two of the most revered saints of history fascinating. In contrast to Claire and Frank Underwood, Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi devoted their lives to acts of selfless love and charity. While Mrs. Underwood maneuvers her way into seats of power, Clare of Assisi eschewed signs of power in exchange for being a disciple of Jesus. The women also differ in how they show devotion to the Francis in their lives -- while the Underwoods’ marriage is often one of convenience, Clare of Assisi pledged her faithfulness to her mentor in faith, caring for him until his death in 1226.
Application: While the moneychangers extorted power from the penniless, Jesus demonstrated a different sort of power that relies on faithfulness to God. Similarly, in House of Cards the Underwoods demonstrate a very different sort of power than seen in the lives of the similarly named Francis and Clare of Assisi.
*****
John 2:13-22
How Far Is Too Far?
Jesus’ cleansing of the temple was an act of protest. Driving the money changers out of the temple, chasing out the sheep and cattle, and upsetting the money tables was a sign of civil disobedience and a critique of an accepted religious practice. His actions threatened the status quo.
A recent discussion by the Dallas Morning News brought together faith leaders from various traditions to explore questions raised by the recent murders of French journalists working for the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine. Clearly the murders cannot be justified, the editors wrote. But then they asked an interfaith panel: “Is there a limit to what we can express about one another? What is the moral responsibility of the offender? What is the responsibility of the offended? How do we defend our faith against provocation while respecting the freedom of another?”
Among the various opinions offered were these reflections from Presbyterian theologian Cynthia Rigby: “The best thing people of faith can do... is represent what we believe as well as we can to anyone who wants to learn about it. Our representation should include naming, condemning, and grieving the ways in which our faith traditions have been used to justify or perpetuate harm. One of the more effective defenses against provocation is to be ourselves provocative about the shortcomings of our traditions, living out our faiths in ways that foster -- and foster only -- life abundant.”
Application: While Jesus’ critique of religious practice was certainly an act of extremism, it was intended as a way of “naming, condemning, and grieving” the ways a faith tradition had perpetuated harm. Instead of being an act of rage, it was a way of living out the promise of abundant life.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: The heavens are telling the glory of God.
People: The firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Leader: The law of God is perfect, reviving the soul.
People: The decrees of God are sure, making wise the simple;
Leader: The precepts of God are right, rejoicing the heart.
People: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O God, my rock and my redeemer.
OR
Leader: Come and learn the wisdom of God.
People: The wisdom of God sounds like foolishness!
Leader: Does the wisdom of the world sound wise?
People: Yes, but then it often lets us down.
Leader: God’s wisdom can often sound foolish, but it is truly wise.
People: God’s foolish wisdom has never disappointed us.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“How Great Thou Art”
found in:
UMH: 77
PH: 467
AAHH: 148
NNBH: 43
NCH: 35
CH: 33
LBW: 532
ELA: 856
W&P: 51
AMEC: 68
Renew: 250
“I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light”
found in:
UMH: 206
H82: 490
ELA: 815
W&P: 248
Renew: 142
“Lord, I Want to Be a Christian”
found in:
UMH: 402
PH: 372
AAHH: 463
NNBH: 156
NCH: 454
CH: 589
W&P: 457
AMEC: 282
Renew: 145
“I Am Thine, O Lord”
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 283
“Ah, Holy Jesus”
found in:
UMH: 289
H82: 158
PH: 93
NCH: 218
CH: 210
LBW: 123
ELA: 349
W&P: 521
Renew: 183
“In the Cross of Christ I Glory”
found in:
UMH: 295
H82: 441, 442
PH: 84
NNBH: 104
NCH: 193, 194
LBW: 104
ELA: 324
W&P: 264
AMEC: 153
“Beneath the Cross of Jesus”
found in:
UMH: 297
H82: 498
PH: 92
AAHH: 247
NNBH: 106
NCH: 190
CH: 197
LBW: 107
ELA: 338
W&P: 255
AMEC: 146
“Your Loving Kindness Is Better than Life”
found in:
CCB: 26
“O How He Loves You and Me!”
found in:
CCB: 38
Renew: 27
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
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who commits yourself to creation completely: Grant us the grace to offer ourselves for others, that we may truly be your children; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We worship you, O God, for you are fully committed to your creation. You have come to be part of us. Call us once more to take our place as your children, so that we may commit ourselves completely to serve others in your name. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our reliance on our wisdom, which always turns out to be our foolishness.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are not as committed to you and your reign as you are to us and our salvation. We are quick to turn to human reasoning and ways of thinking. We too often turn to you and your wisdom only when all else has failed. Forgive our foolishness and draw us back once again to follow Jesus, even when the path leads to the cross. Amen.
Leader: God is fully committed to us and to all creation. Receive God’s love and grace, and live as God’s children.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for your steadfast love that never leaves us and never fails us.
(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 not as committed to you and your reign as you are to us and our salvation. We are quick to turn to human reasoning and ways of thinking. We too often turn to you and your wisdom only when all else has failed. Forgive our foolishness and draw us back once again to follow Jesus, even when the path leads to the cross.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have shown your commitment to our salvation and wholeness. We thank you for those you have sent into our lives who have shown in concrete ways that you are a God who can be trusted.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children in their need, and especially for those who do not know the comfort of your steadfast love. Help us to be your presence with them so that they may find the courage to face all that life brings to them.
(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
Talk to the children about being faithful. What would it be like if our coats refused to be worn if it was really cold out? What would it be like if our umbrellas would only open when it was sunny? They wouldn’t be much help, would they? Fortunately, our coats and umbrellas can’t refuse to be faithful. And fortunately, God will never be unfaithful. God will always be with us and for us.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
A Fool’s Wisdom
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Object: a picture of a clown
Do you like clowns? I do -- they make me laugh. They are so funny! They often do things that make themselves appear to be quite stupid. Maybe that’s why I laugh -- I feel like I am smarter than the clowns. They appear stupid and funny.
Jesus said that the same thing happens with the cross. (Point to image of a cross -- in the church building or on yourself or on someone else.) This is important to me and to all believers because it is the symbol of all that Jesus said, did, and promised. Because of the cross, I know that I am saved. I know I am one of God’s children.
When I think of the foolishness of the cross to unbelievers, I think of the foolishness a clown represents to me. But to a cowboy in a rodeo, a clown is not so foolish. The clown might be the one who will save his life. The clown often gets the wild bull’s attention so that the bull rider who has just fallen off can get away. To the bull rider, the clown -- the person we laugh at -- is the most important person at the rodeo. The clown might mean the difference between life and death at the rodeo.
The foolishness of the cross is the difference between life and death for me. I’m so glad I know that God was wise in sending Jesus to die on the cross so that I can have the knowledge of God’s love for the world. Are you glad too?
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The Immediate Word, March 8, 2015, issue.
Copyright 2015 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.
