A Working Faith
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Many of our everyday religious words are notoriously difficult to define, which suggests that we often use them unthinkingly. How would you explain the term "holy"? And what about the cocktail-party use of words like "spiritual" or "religious"?
There is much ambiguity in popular culture about a word that is central to Christianity, namely, "faith." Was it a former U.S. President who said that it was important for all Americans to believe in something, but he didn't care what it was? We used to hear the admonishment, "Keep the faith, baby." Our national leaders now are sponsoring "faith-based initiatives." And many Americans approach church membership as though it were a consumer activity.
Carlos Wilton, our lead writer for this week's The Immediate Word, offers reflections based on the Gospel lection on what it means for a Christian to have effective faith -- a faith that involves discipleship, that moves outward, that produces "works." Team members add their own insights about the proper object of faith, its components, and whether faith necessarily leads to earthly rewards. Illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon all relate to the same theme.
A WORKING FAITH
by Carlos Wilton
Luke 13:1-9
Isaiah 55:1-9; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
The Message on a Postcard
If shopping, as some have said, is the great American sport, then for many this sport extends even to religion. Lots of people go shopping for religion. They look for a faith that works. This we see in many of the "mega-churches" that frankly and unapologetically market themselves as purveyors of services of various kinds. (One mega-church, noticing that some of its multi-tasking suburban adherents were clutching fast-food bags as they rushed into meetings, even obtained a McDonalds franchise, bringing the golden arches right into their church building.)
"Service" is an old word in the church. Traditionally it refers both to the service we offer to others and the service we offer to God in worship (hence, "worship service"). Yet there's a new sense of the word, referring to "services" the church markets to the public: everything from counseling to day-care to Happy Meals. The national debate over Federal aid to "faith-based organizations" demonstrates how many churches are eager to contract with the government to provide such services.
All this begs the question: Do Christians choose a church because of services it offers them or because it's a community that affords them the opportunity, both inside the sanctuary and out, to be of service to God and neighbor?
Christ doesn't call us to a faith that works -- that works for us as we consume ecclesiastical services. No, the faith to which Christ calls us is a working faith -- a faith that looks outward in service to others, seeking that memorable synchronicity Frederick Buechner describes as "the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet" (Wishful Thinking [New York: Harper & Row, 1973], p. 95).
Luke 13:1-9, with its little parable about the vineyard owner who examines his trees to see if they're bearing fruit, provides an important corrective. For now, the vineyard owner is patient, continuing to fertilize the non-bearing trees in the hope that they will indeed produce. Yet it's clear that a day of reckoning will one day come, when the tree will be judged according to its ability to give as well as to receive.
Some Words on the Word
The Gospel reading for this Sunday -- unique to Luke -- is a difficult one on which to preach. It begins with an obscure historical reference and ends with a baffling parable. Yet those who persist in investigating it will discover homiletical treasure.
The passage begins with an unexplained reference to "the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices" (13:1). This refers to an incident, evidently well-known to Luke's readers, in which the Romans had massacred some Galilean Jews who were in the process of making a Temple sacrifice. The blood of the humans and the animals mingled together on that occasion, a terrible sacrilege.
Rather than dealing with the injustice of the Roman persecution, Jesus merely uses it as a cautionary tale. Along with another incident in which a tower had fallen on some unsuspecting people, he cites it as an example of how fragile human life can be. In practice, Jesus' argument is not unlike that of the practitioners of televangelist James Kennedy's old "Evangelism Explosion" program. Kennedy used to encourage his door-to-door visitors to ask, once they had been welcomed into someone's living room, "If the roof were to collapse on you tonight, killing you, are you certain you would go to heaven?" While many of us are inclined to shun such a confrontational style of evangelism, Luke 13:1-9 demonstrates that Jesus himself was not averse to applying that sort of pressure on occasion.
Fred Craddock observes that Jesus has very likely chosen his two examples carefully. They perfectly illustrate the two fundamental categories of evil: human and natural (Luke; Interpretation commentary series [Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990], p. 168).
Jesus is encouraging repentance as an urgent matter. Then he switches gears to tell a homey, agricultural parable about a vineyard owner who decrees that a barren fig tree be cut down. The gardener successfully intercedes with his master, buying another year in which to keep piling on the manure, but it's clear this reprieve is only temporary. If the tree is still not producing fruit a year hence, it will be history. The message, here, is the same -- though perhaps not displaying the same degree of urgency as Jesus' earlier examples of rampaging Romans or a tumbling tower. Sooner or later, God will decree a reckoning. Jesus is encouraging his listeners to make ready, now.
After a brief glance at this parable, some readers may focus on the landowner's reprieve of the tree; but in fact it's a parable of judgment, not mercy. The fig tree's reprieve is only for a season. When read in the light of Jesus' urgent warnings that precede it, it's clear that the story's purpose is to urge action, not complacency. The year will soon be up, and judgment will come.
As Leviticus 19:23 indicates, three years is the normal amount of time for a fig tree to bear fruit. The landowner's zeal to cut down the unproductive tree is reasonable. It is the gardener who wins for the tree a graceful delay. Perhaps Jesus is suggesting that he himself is the gardener: that the time of his ministry is the season of reprieve, but when it is ended, divine judgment will descend upon the unrighteous.
Jesus' listeners, reflecting on the Roman massacre and the collapse of the Siloam tower, have evidently been asking the question, "What did these hapless victims do to deserve their terrible fate? What sin have they committed?" Jesus, however, rises above such futile questioning, and applies repentance across the board to everyone. "Death happens," he's saying. "Get ready for it."
Some commentators have wondered if Luke's fig-tree parable is an altered version of the one in Matthew and Mark (Matthew 21:18-19; Mark 11:12-14). In each of those cases, there is no vineyard owner, only Jesus. It is he who exacts retribution on the non-bearing tree, and the result is instantaneous and deadly. Luke presents us with a kinder, gentler parable -- one in which the vineyard owner allows a little time in which to further consider his decision. That window of time, Jesus is saying, is a season of repentance; use it well.
Of this passage, Richard Jensen writes:
Repentance is not a fruit problem; it is a root problem. It is the root of who we are that is a problem in God's eyes. So repentance cannot be composed of "I can" statements. "I have sinned God. I am sorry God. I can do better." Repentance, rather, must be composed of "I can't" statements. "I have sinned, God. I am sorry. God, I've tried and tried and tried but I just don't produce good fruit. I can't seem to do better. I need your Vinedresser to work on the roots of my life. Give me a new life, God. Give me your life. I can't. You can." (Preaching Luke's Gospel [Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing, 1997], p. 147)
A Map of the Message
The phrase "faith-based initiatives" has been much in the news lately. The Bush administration has made it a mission to encourage the outsourcing of social services from government agencies to houses of worship. This emphasis is controversial; the President's detractors claim our nation's religious congregations are too poorly equipped and too inadequately funded to replace what the government, overflowing with tax dollars, has long been offering.
Click here for the website of the government's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/fbci/
Should the faith-based initiatives effort prove broadly successful, what impact would it have on our churches? Would it change the character of what churches fundamentally are and do? Would the churches of this land become primarily distribution points for quasi-governmental services, or would they be able to retain their character as institutions that equip their own members to be of service?
Basic to Luke's fig-tree parable is the insight that the tree has a task to perform: bearing fruit. In our hyper-individualistic, consumer culture, that appeal to service is easily abandoned. It's easy to slip into regarding the church as an institution that exists primarily to serve the needs of its members: to keep piling malodorous manure around their roots (Luke's word kopria, which some translations genteelly render as "fertilizer," is literally "manure"). Yet such an outlook neglects the Lord's call to discipleship. "The church," says theologian Emil Brunner in a celebrated remark, "exists for mission, as a fire exists for burning." Christ's call to service is fundamental to who we are as disciples.
Management and life-planning guru Stephen Covey wrote a book several years ago called First Things First (Simon & Schuster, 1994). It's a self-help book, a handbook for living a joyful and productive life. Perhaps the best line in the book is its subtitle. Covey declares that the purpose of a human life can be summed up in four essential points, all of them beginning with the letter "L": "to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy." It's this matter of leaving a legacy that concerns us today. The church's legacy is servanthood.
William Willimon has written,
What if the church serves people, not as a market transaction, but because it is the people of God? What if our choir works hard on their anthem, not because they hope you will like it and be inspired by it but because the choir knows that we are called to be a sign, a signal, a foretaste, a Beachhead of God's Kingdom in the world? What if I'm preaching this sermon, not because I think it's uppermost on your list of weekly wants, but rather because I believe this is what God wants? What you get out of what is done here should not be as great a concern among us as fidelity to the peculiar nature of God's Kingdom.
What is the greatest service the church can render the world? Perhaps the service we render is not necessarily what the world thinks it needs. But the church is not only about meeting my needs but also about rearranging my needs, giving me needs I would never have had had I not come to church. (From a sermon, "On Not Meeting People's Needs at Church")
An alternate approach for this week would be to use the recent news accounts of Martha Stewart's conviction on four counts of securities fraud as a springboard for a sermon on repentance. While the arcane minutiae of securities law are beyond the ken of most church members (and most pastors as well), what the Stewart trial has come down to in the end is a very simple judgment on the part of the jury: she lied. It's become apparent that, had she come clean with investigators at the beginning, the penalty would have been much less severe. Yet Martha Stewart has maintained her innocence to the end, proudly declaring to her supporters, "I will be exonerated."
Repentance is always difficult. The decision to repent seems at first to cut deeply into our pride and sense of self-worth. Until the very moment of repentance, admitting our guilt may seem the worst of all possible alternatives. Yet in the end, the consequences of continuing to deny responsibility for our actions are far more severe.
Team Comments
George L. Murphy responds: People like me who grew up in the 50s will remember the song, "I Believe." It was an expression of faith that for every drop of rain that fell a flower grew, that no matter how dark the night, a candle was burning somewhere, and so forth. In that era when we worried about thermonuclear war but didn't question the traditional American virtues, it was a statement that faith would get us through. Faith in what? That wasn't so clear.
That kind of faith is much too vague for serious Christians, but some in our tradition have rather striking ideas about faith. They think that Christians who are really faithful will not only survive but can expect to prosper. What has been called "The Health and Wealth Gospel" (the title of a 1987 InterVarsity Press book by Bruce Barron) says that those who ask God in sincere faith for good health or prosperity will receive it. It's a popular message, in spite of counter-examples, such Saint Paul's thorn in the flesh and the blindness of the hymn writer Fanny Crosby.
Put it bluntly: Christians are given no guarantee that faith will make them healthy, wealthy, or wise, that it will enable them to survive through times of war, disease, or bad economic times, or even enable them to survive in this life period. Presumably, at least some of the Galileans about whom Jesus was told at the beginning of this week's Gospel were faithful Jews offering their sacrifices because they sincerely believed that that was what God wanted them to do. And it didn't keep them from getting killed by Pilate's soldiers. That had to be in Jesus' mind as he went, firmly trusting in his heavenly Father, toward Jerusalem.
But isn't faith supposed to save us? Well, yes -- but we'd better remember what is meant by "saving faith." Fortunately, "I Believe" is no longer a popular song. But the idea that faith is good regardless of its object (or whether or not it has an object) is prevalent enough in our culture that it probably wouldn't hurt to be a bit didactic about this.
The old analysis of faith as knowledge, assent, and trust shouldn't be thought of as a simple recipe for faith or a series of steps that have to be gone through one-two-three, but it helps to clarify what is involved. You have to know what is to be believed, you have to assent to the truth of the claim, and you have to trust in the one about whom the claim is made. If you have a life-threatening condition that requires surgery, knowing that a person claims to be a surgeon, and even that he or she really is a surgeon is important but not sufficient. You also have to be willing to trust your life to that person.
As far as Christian faith is concerned, people need to know the Christian claim that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died and was raised. They need to believe that that is really true. And, crucially, they need to trust in him in life and in death. Without that last aspect faith is just a head trip, an investigation of certain historical and religious claims. But without the first two components a person has no idea who or what to trust in. It is faith in Jesus Christ, not faith "in general" that saves.
But saves from what? The promise that we will be justified by faith, that those who trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and acceptance by God will receive those gifts, is fundamental. It means that ultimately nothing can separate us from the love of God. It does not mean that we will escape trials and suffering in this life or that God doesn't expect us to do anything more than just bask in the assurance of being saved. Both those ideas are expressions of the idea of "cheap grace" that Dietrich Bonhoeffer inveighed against in The Cost of Discipleship.
The fact that those who believe in Christ should expect trouble is obvious in the Gospels and the whole New Testament. The story in this week's Gospel takes place as Jesus and his disciples are on the way to Jerusalem. Jesus has already spoken of his death and has said that those who want to be his followers should take up their crosses and follow him (Luke 9:21-23). The kind of thing that happened to the Galileans about whom Jesus was told in 13:1 may happen to his own disciples.
The expectation of suffering is a more or less passive consequence of faith. The second part of this week's Gospel, Luke 13:6-9, then moves to an active consequence: Those who put their trust in Christ are expected to bear fruit. And the point of Jesus' parable is that while God is patient, that patience has limits. Genuine faith must produce good works.
Old debates about faith versus works sometimes tend to leave out a crucial issue: Who are good works for? To say that we are justified by faith alone means that my good works are not necessary for me, i.e., to justify myself. But they are necessary for my neighbor and for the good of God's creation, and that is why God wants and expects me to do them.
The church is not simply a service organization in which people get together for the purpose of helping others. Things are a bit more subtle than that. The church is, first of all, a community in which people are served, where they received the benefits of Christ in Word and Sacrament, where faith is awakened and strengthened. But it is also then a community of people who, because their faith has been awakened and strengthened, are to be of service to others.
We are freed so that we may serve. One could do worse in preparation for preaching on this theme than look at Luther's "The Freedom of a Christian" (in volume 31 of Luther's Works [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1957]). He sets out the theme in two apparently contradictory statements (p. 344):
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
It is in working through those two claims to understand that they are not contradictory that we can begin to see both how we are served and how we are to serve.
Carter Shelley responds: Carlos, your opening comments rightfully remind us that most of us are so used to the term "worship service" that we totally forget the primary meaning of "service," which it retains in worship. Personally, I find the marketing of church services and programs disturbing, yet it does seem able to reach people that many of us traditional, mainline denominations are not able to engage. In thinking about your topic, I fantasized about a Christian faith grid. Christians would start as those in need of self-conviction, repentance, forgiveness, and grace, and would move from there along the grid of faith development with a split in the road that would not require the choice of "service" versus a design for ongoing spiritual and theological maturation. Members would instead follow a parallel course in which they would continue to develop their personal gifts and avenues for mission, outreach and service while simultaneously stretching their intellect and spirituality through worship, study, retreats, etc.
I am grateful to Luke for 13:1-9, because Jesus so rarely offers any sort of comment on the problem of suffering. Of course, Jesus doesn't really offer one here, but at least he refutes the notion that when bad things happen, they are deserved by the unfortunate people to whom they happen. If anything Jesus seems to imply that such things often occur in such a way as to (a) refute Mel Gibson's Pilate as a thoughtful, sensitive guy; and (b) illustrate that none of us can know when our own death might come. Thus, Jesus the evangelist and revival preacher impresses upon his audience the urgency of their own time of decision. The most compelling part of the parable is the addition of fertilizer to the fig tree. The tree is given the benefit of the doubt and some added resources with which to fulfill its potential as a fig-producing tree. The same holds true for Jesus' audience and for us today. As is evident in both Psalm 63 and Isaiah 55, God does not expect human beings to have a relationship with God without it being mutually meaningful, and more importantly for us, a relationship in which God guides and nurtures us along our way as faithful, obedient children of God. In fact, over and over again in the history of God's relationship with humanity, God supplies additional fertilizer to stimulate and strengthen Jewish and Christian followers in our witness, worship, and service.
For the Church of Jesus Christ to be substantial, we cannot assume that shallow digging and planting will suffice to nurture and produce mature, dedicated Christians. Being a Christian is a lifelong project. That's why it starts for so many of us with infant baptism, Sunday school and Vacation Bible School, youth fellowship, young adult groups, etc. All of those church programs are designed to educate and produce mature adults who will live their lives and base their choices upon the strong foundation of faith in Jesus Christ as modeled for them by teachers, parents, youth advisors, pastors, etc. While not all churches are large enough to have multiple programs for youngsters, all churches are capable of nurturing and educating their children and youth through the example of faithfulness and love modeled by adults in the congregation. Irrespective of age, the more fully Christian we become, the more fully capable of a working faith rather than a faith that works-to-our-advantage, we become, and thus more likely to embody the kind of faith and Christianity that Will Willimon's sermon visualizes.
Related Illustrations
Submitted by Carlos Wilton
Perhaps the apotheosis of consumer faith is a Doonesbury cartoon, depicting the Reverend Scott Sloan's Little Church of Walden. In the early days of the Doonesbury strip, Scott Sloan (reportedly a conflation of activist Yale chaplain William Sloane Coffin and Garry Trudeau's friend Scotty McLennan, campus chaplain at Tufts) had been "the fighting young priest who can talk to the young." By the 1990s, though, he has morphed into a harried parish pastor, struggling to make his church relevant to the needs of a consumer culture.
In this particular strip, Father Sloan is meeting with two potential parishioners: "So what would you like to know about Little Church of Walden, folks? Don't hold back -- I know how difficult it can be to choose a church." The husband replies, "Well, what's your basic approach here, Reverend? Is it traditional gospel?"
"In a way. I like to describe it as 12-step Christianity. Basically, I believe that we're all recovering sinners. My ministry is about overcoming denial; it's about recommitment, about redemption. It's all in the brochure there."
The wife steps forward. "Wait a minute ... Sinners? Redemption? Doesn't all that imply ... guilt?"
"Well yes," admits the pastor, "I do rely on the occasional disincentive to keep the flock from going astray, guilt's part of that."
"I dunno," answers the husband, "there's so much negativity in the world as it is."
"That's right," adds his wife, "We're looking for a church that's supportive, a place where we can feel good about ourselves. I'm not sure the guilt thing works for us."
"On the other hand," responds the husband, "you do offer racquetball."
"So do the Unitarians," concludes his wife. "Let's shop around some more."
***
British playwright George Bernard Shaw was never one for resting on his laurels. He continued to work vigorously until his death in his mid-nineties. Shaw celebrates the human desire to be of service, with these words:
"This is the true joy in life ... being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one ... being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy ... I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It's a sort of splendid torch which I've got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
***
The Spanish author Miguel de Unamuno tells of an ancient Roman aqueduct that's located near the city of Segovia. The aqueduct -- a sort of elevated trestle over which water flows -- was constructed in the year A.D. 109. For eighteen hundred years, the aqueduct carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city. As many as sixty generations depended on this marvel of engineering for their drinking water. Then came another generation, in more recent years, who said to each other, "This aqueduct is an architectural marvel. It's a historical treasure that ought to be preserved. We should give it a well-earned rest."
And that's exactly what they did. They detoured the water flow away from the ancient stones and channeled it through modern pipes. They put up historical markers so tourists might know who had constructed the aqueduct, and for what purpose. They celebrated the fact that their city's water system was now modern in every way.
But then a strange thing began to happen. The Roman aqueduct began to fall apart. The sun beating down on its dry mortar, without the constant flow of water to cool it, caused it to crumble. In time, the massive structural stones threatened to fall. What eighteen centuries of hard service had not been able to destroy, a few years of idleness nearly did.
Much the same is true for our own lives, as Christians. There are indeed many consolations to being a Christian, many ways to receive spiritual gifts that help us through hard times. Yet if all we're doing is receiving, and never giving back, the day will come when the flow of gifts from God to us will likewise begin to dry up. If all we're doing is volunteering -- giving a little spare time in odd moments, as one might drop pocket change into a contribution-canister at the convenience store -- then we're hardly living up to our full potential. Jesus doesn't want volunteers; he wants disciples.
***
A December 2003 issue of The New Yorker magazine contained a cartoon reminiscent of the old children's story, The Little Engine That Could. (That story, of course, tells of a little steam locomotive that has to climb a massive hill, and manages to do so by repeating over and over to itself, "I think I can, I think I can.") The cartoon was titled, "The Little Engine That Coulda Woulda Shoulda." Rather than looking determined and resolute, this little engine is looking sad and forlorn. It's saying to itself, "I knew I could, so why didn't I?"
***
"The only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."
-- Albert Schweitzer
***
Robert Fulghum, author of books such as All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, tells of how he placed beside his bathroom mirror a picture of a woman who is not his wife. Every morning as he stood there shaving, he gazed at the picture of that woman.
Was this woman an old flame, or even a new one? Hardly. The picture is of an elderly, hunched-over woman clad in sandals and the simple, sari-style habit of an Indian order of nuns. She is surrounded, in the picture, by a group of formally dressed people in tuxedos and tiaras, who look, for all the world, like royalty (and indeed, some of them are). The photo depicts the ceremony in which Mother Teresa of Calcutta received the Nobel Peace Prize. Fulghum says he keeps the picture by his bathroom mirror to remind him that -- more than any president, or pope, or CEO -- this woman has authority because she is a servant.
***
For most of his life, Albert Einstein had the portraits of two scientists, Newton and Maxwell, hanging on his wall as role models to inspire him. Toward the end of life, however, he took them down and replaced them with portraits of Albert Schweitzer and Mahatma Gandhi. He needed new role models, he said -- not of success, but of humble service.
-- Philip Yancey, "Humility's Many Faces," in Christianity Today, December 4, 2000
Worship Resources
by Chuck Cammarata
This week our focus is on a having a faith that makes a difference in our own lives and in the world around us. Several of the lectionary texts for this week lend themselves to liturgical use. Our first option this week for a call to worship will be based on the Psalm for the week, Psalm 63:1-6. The Psalm could simply be read or it could be done responsively as I have done it here.
CALL TO WORSHIP
LEADER: O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;
PEOPLE: My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you,
LEADER: As for water in a dry and weary land.
PEOPLE: I have seen you in the sanctuary
LEADER: I have beheld your power and glory.
PEOPLE: Because your love is better than life
LEADER: My lips will glorify you
PEOPLE: I will praise you as long as I live.
LEADER: In your name I will lift my hands
PEOPLE: My soul will be satisfied as with rich food,
LEADER: My lips will praise you with singing.
PEOPLE: O God you are my God,
LEADER: My soul thirsts for you.
PEOPLE: Amen.
The second option this week deals with life circumstances that can lead us into discouragement, and with the Divine "However" that comes from being in God's grace.
CALL TO WORSHIP
LEADER: Sometimes the world seems filled with hatred;
PEOPLE: But we know a love that overcomes.
LEADER: Sometimes tragedy's darkness seems permanent;
PEOPLE: But we know a light that dispels.
LEADER: Sometimes life seems without meaning;
PEOPLE: But we know a divine purpose.
LEADER: Sometimes sadness overwhelms the heart;
PEOPLE: But we know a joy that wins the victory.
LEADER: Sometimes sin drags us down toward death;
PEOPLE: But we know a life that never ends.
LEADER: Let us worship the one who is love,
PEOPLE: And light,
LEADER: Who authors purpose and meaning,
PEOPLE: Brings joy
LEADER: And offers eternal life.
PEOPLE: Let us worship Yahweh,
LEADER: The one and only God.
PEOPLE: Amen.
Lastly, there is a third option this week. Isaiah 55 is a beautiful call to worship. Just read it! It will speak to your people.
CALL TO WORSHIP -- Isaiah 55:1-3
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
LEADER: Lip service.
PEOPLE: Lip service.
LEADER: All over the place
PEOPLE: We give lip service.
LEADER: We give it to fitness,
PEOPLE: But rarely exercise.
LEADER: We give it to being devoted parents,
PEOPLE: Then we spend all our time at work.
LEADER: We give it to our spouses,
PEOPLE: But neglect them.
LEADER: We give it to you Lord,
PEOPLE: But then live as if you didn't even exist.
LEADER: Forgive our lip service.
PEOPLE: And do whatever it takes
LEADER: To turn us from lip servers,
PEOPLE: To heart servers!
LEADER: For ask it with passion and desire.
PEOPLE: Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
If you prayed that pray from your heart, there is good news and bad news for you.
First the good news: God has forgiven your lip service, and God will answer your prayer.
Now the bad news: God will answer your prayer.
If you really want to be a fully devoted servant of God. God will do everything he can to make you one. And while that will lead to great beauty and deep joy it will also lead to the pain of letting go of the old and dying to the self.
Those who have ears to hear, let them hear!
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION -- Psalm 63:6-8
The Psalmist says,
"On my bed I remember you Lord;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me."
Lord, uphold us now through the life giving power of your word in the scriptures. AMEN
PASTORAL PRAYER
Jesus said, "You will know a tree by its fruit." Let us pray:
Lord, in this time this morning give us eyes to the tree of our own lives that we might make an absolutely honest appraisal of the fruit that we have produced. Is our fruit bitter or sweet? Is it the fruit of earthly gain or heavenly grace? Are we so rooted in your and your love, and truth that we are producing a bumper crop of love, and joy, and peace, or are we more connected to a secular culture that drives us to strive after the vanities of this world?
Open our eyes that we might truly see the glimpses of truth you have for us who say we love you.
(Silence)
If our fruit is inferior, meager, or sour, may we begin this morning tending to our faith in such a way that soon we may begin producing an abundance of the succulent fruit you want for us, and the world around us, to taste and enjoy.
We ask in the name of the one whose spirit makes us fruitful, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
HYMNS AND SONGS
Hymns
All for Jesus
Give Me Jesus
Here I Am Lord
I Surrender All
I Have Decided to Follow Jesus
Jesus Calls Us
More Love to Thee
O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee
Seek Ye First
Take My Life and Let It Be
Jesus I Come
They Will Know We Are Christians by our Love
Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus
Songs and Choruses
All in All
Be Glorified
Holiness
Lord I Give You My Heart
Children's Sermon
By Wesley T. Runk
Text: Vs. 4 -- Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them -- do you think they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?
Luke 13:1-9
Object -- some newspaper stories about a recent fire, automobile accident, or some other tragedy in your community
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you heard about (relate to the incident you have in newspapers headline and story) that happened this week? (let them answer) It was pretty awful wasn't it? (let them answer) Almost every day we read about these things happening in our newspaper or hear about them when watching TV or listening to the radio. It makes us understand how precious our lives are and why we need to be careful. Sometimes it doesn't make any difference how careful we are because some times things just happen.
In our scripture reading this morning we hear Jesus talk about something that happened to 18 people. A building called the tower of Siloam just collapsed and fell on them. How awful! I don't think they had newspapers, TV, or radios but the word had spread and Jesus talked about the collapse of that building so that people would understand also that accidents happen and people get hurt. Why would Jesus talk about buildings collapsing and people getting hurt? (let them answer) Did Jesus feel sorry for the people who died and their families that were left behind? (let them answer) Of course he did. Would it have happened if he had been near the tower of Siloam? (let them answer) It probably would have happened. Jesus was not a pretend person like Superman or Batman.
Jesus spoke about the tower of Siloam and other things like it because he wanted people to know that they should think about their future with God. We have a short time to live here on earth and then we will be with God forever. We want our lives to be filled with good things, joyous happenings, and filled with love. We should live every day like we were going to be with God tomorrow. Some people may never have an accident or ever be near an accident. They just live from day to day until God receives them in their old age as part of the kingdom.
But anyone of us could have an accident like the people in our newspaper story or like the 18 people that were in the tower of Siloam. They did not plan it, they could not get out of the way of the collapse and before they knew it, they had died. People cried and were filled with sorrow. They went to their funerals and said goodbye. Their lives on earth were over.
Jesus said they were not bad people; they were not worse sinners than anyone else. It just happened because the building was weak. The same thing was true in (the newspaper story).
Jesus was urging the people to be close to God. They should learn to live for the moment in God's love. They should serve God with kindness to others. Living in God's teachings is a wonderful way to live and we can begin today. Be kind to your neighbors and friends. Share the things God has given you with them. Help the poor, visit the sick and the lonely. Write letters of encouragement to people who are sad and share your clothing with people who are in need of something nice to wear. Remember the teaching of Jesus that we live each day as a gift from God and believe and trust in the Lord Jesus. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, March 14, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503
There is much ambiguity in popular culture about a word that is central to Christianity, namely, "faith." Was it a former U.S. President who said that it was important for all Americans to believe in something, but he didn't care what it was? We used to hear the admonishment, "Keep the faith, baby." Our national leaders now are sponsoring "faith-based initiatives." And many Americans approach church membership as though it were a consumer activity.
Carlos Wilton, our lead writer for this week's The Immediate Word, offers reflections based on the Gospel lection on what it means for a Christian to have effective faith -- a faith that involves discipleship, that moves outward, that produces "works." Team members add their own insights about the proper object of faith, its components, and whether faith necessarily leads to earthly rewards. Illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon all relate to the same theme.
A WORKING FAITH
by Carlos Wilton
Luke 13:1-9
Isaiah 55:1-9; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
The Message on a Postcard
If shopping, as some have said, is the great American sport, then for many this sport extends even to religion. Lots of people go shopping for religion. They look for a faith that works. This we see in many of the "mega-churches" that frankly and unapologetically market themselves as purveyors of services of various kinds. (One mega-church, noticing that some of its multi-tasking suburban adherents were clutching fast-food bags as they rushed into meetings, even obtained a McDonalds franchise, bringing the golden arches right into their church building.)
"Service" is an old word in the church. Traditionally it refers both to the service we offer to others and the service we offer to God in worship (hence, "worship service"). Yet there's a new sense of the word, referring to "services" the church markets to the public: everything from counseling to day-care to Happy Meals. The national debate over Federal aid to "faith-based organizations" demonstrates how many churches are eager to contract with the government to provide such services.
All this begs the question: Do Christians choose a church because of services it offers them or because it's a community that affords them the opportunity, both inside the sanctuary and out, to be of service to God and neighbor?
Christ doesn't call us to a faith that works -- that works for us as we consume ecclesiastical services. No, the faith to which Christ calls us is a working faith -- a faith that looks outward in service to others, seeking that memorable synchronicity Frederick Buechner describes as "the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet" (Wishful Thinking [New York: Harper & Row, 1973], p. 95).
Luke 13:1-9, with its little parable about the vineyard owner who examines his trees to see if they're bearing fruit, provides an important corrective. For now, the vineyard owner is patient, continuing to fertilize the non-bearing trees in the hope that they will indeed produce. Yet it's clear that a day of reckoning will one day come, when the tree will be judged according to its ability to give as well as to receive.
Some Words on the Word
The Gospel reading for this Sunday -- unique to Luke -- is a difficult one on which to preach. It begins with an obscure historical reference and ends with a baffling parable. Yet those who persist in investigating it will discover homiletical treasure.
The passage begins with an unexplained reference to "the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices" (13:1). This refers to an incident, evidently well-known to Luke's readers, in which the Romans had massacred some Galilean Jews who were in the process of making a Temple sacrifice. The blood of the humans and the animals mingled together on that occasion, a terrible sacrilege.
Rather than dealing with the injustice of the Roman persecution, Jesus merely uses it as a cautionary tale. Along with another incident in which a tower had fallen on some unsuspecting people, he cites it as an example of how fragile human life can be. In practice, Jesus' argument is not unlike that of the practitioners of televangelist James Kennedy's old "Evangelism Explosion" program. Kennedy used to encourage his door-to-door visitors to ask, once they had been welcomed into someone's living room, "If the roof were to collapse on you tonight, killing you, are you certain you would go to heaven?" While many of us are inclined to shun such a confrontational style of evangelism, Luke 13:1-9 demonstrates that Jesus himself was not averse to applying that sort of pressure on occasion.
Fred Craddock observes that Jesus has very likely chosen his two examples carefully. They perfectly illustrate the two fundamental categories of evil: human and natural (Luke; Interpretation commentary series [Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990], p. 168).
Jesus is encouraging repentance as an urgent matter. Then he switches gears to tell a homey, agricultural parable about a vineyard owner who decrees that a barren fig tree be cut down. The gardener successfully intercedes with his master, buying another year in which to keep piling on the manure, but it's clear this reprieve is only temporary. If the tree is still not producing fruit a year hence, it will be history. The message, here, is the same -- though perhaps not displaying the same degree of urgency as Jesus' earlier examples of rampaging Romans or a tumbling tower. Sooner or later, God will decree a reckoning. Jesus is encouraging his listeners to make ready, now.
After a brief glance at this parable, some readers may focus on the landowner's reprieve of the tree; but in fact it's a parable of judgment, not mercy. The fig tree's reprieve is only for a season. When read in the light of Jesus' urgent warnings that precede it, it's clear that the story's purpose is to urge action, not complacency. The year will soon be up, and judgment will come.
As Leviticus 19:23 indicates, three years is the normal amount of time for a fig tree to bear fruit. The landowner's zeal to cut down the unproductive tree is reasonable. It is the gardener who wins for the tree a graceful delay. Perhaps Jesus is suggesting that he himself is the gardener: that the time of his ministry is the season of reprieve, but when it is ended, divine judgment will descend upon the unrighteous.
Jesus' listeners, reflecting on the Roman massacre and the collapse of the Siloam tower, have evidently been asking the question, "What did these hapless victims do to deserve their terrible fate? What sin have they committed?" Jesus, however, rises above such futile questioning, and applies repentance across the board to everyone. "Death happens," he's saying. "Get ready for it."
Some commentators have wondered if Luke's fig-tree parable is an altered version of the one in Matthew and Mark (Matthew 21:18-19; Mark 11:12-14). In each of those cases, there is no vineyard owner, only Jesus. It is he who exacts retribution on the non-bearing tree, and the result is instantaneous and deadly. Luke presents us with a kinder, gentler parable -- one in which the vineyard owner allows a little time in which to further consider his decision. That window of time, Jesus is saying, is a season of repentance; use it well.
Of this passage, Richard Jensen writes:
Repentance is not a fruit problem; it is a root problem. It is the root of who we are that is a problem in God's eyes. So repentance cannot be composed of "I can" statements. "I have sinned God. I am sorry God. I can do better." Repentance, rather, must be composed of "I can't" statements. "I have sinned, God. I am sorry. God, I've tried and tried and tried but I just don't produce good fruit. I can't seem to do better. I need your Vinedresser to work on the roots of my life. Give me a new life, God. Give me your life. I can't. You can." (Preaching Luke's Gospel [Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing, 1997], p. 147)
A Map of the Message
The phrase "faith-based initiatives" has been much in the news lately. The Bush administration has made it a mission to encourage the outsourcing of social services from government agencies to houses of worship. This emphasis is controversial; the President's detractors claim our nation's religious congregations are too poorly equipped and too inadequately funded to replace what the government, overflowing with tax dollars, has long been offering.
Click here for the website of the government's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/fbci/
Should the faith-based initiatives effort prove broadly successful, what impact would it have on our churches? Would it change the character of what churches fundamentally are and do? Would the churches of this land become primarily distribution points for quasi-governmental services, or would they be able to retain their character as institutions that equip their own members to be of service?
Basic to Luke's fig-tree parable is the insight that the tree has a task to perform: bearing fruit. In our hyper-individualistic, consumer culture, that appeal to service is easily abandoned. It's easy to slip into regarding the church as an institution that exists primarily to serve the needs of its members: to keep piling malodorous manure around their roots (Luke's word kopria, which some translations genteelly render as "fertilizer," is literally "manure"). Yet such an outlook neglects the Lord's call to discipleship. "The church," says theologian Emil Brunner in a celebrated remark, "exists for mission, as a fire exists for burning." Christ's call to service is fundamental to who we are as disciples.
Management and life-planning guru Stephen Covey wrote a book several years ago called First Things First (Simon & Schuster, 1994). It's a self-help book, a handbook for living a joyful and productive life. Perhaps the best line in the book is its subtitle. Covey declares that the purpose of a human life can be summed up in four essential points, all of them beginning with the letter "L": "to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy." It's this matter of leaving a legacy that concerns us today. The church's legacy is servanthood.
William Willimon has written,
What if the church serves people, not as a market transaction, but because it is the people of God? What if our choir works hard on their anthem, not because they hope you will like it and be inspired by it but because the choir knows that we are called to be a sign, a signal, a foretaste, a Beachhead of God's Kingdom in the world? What if I'm preaching this sermon, not because I think it's uppermost on your list of weekly wants, but rather because I believe this is what God wants? What you get out of what is done here should not be as great a concern among us as fidelity to the peculiar nature of God's Kingdom.
What is the greatest service the church can render the world? Perhaps the service we render is not necessarily what the world thinks it needs. But the church is not only about meeting my needs but also about rearranging my needs, giving me needs I would never have had had I not come to church. (From a sermon, "On Not Meeting People's Needs at Church")
An alternate approach for this week would be to use the recent news accounts of Martha Stewart's conviction on four counts of securities fraud as a springboard for a sermon on repentance. While the arcane minutiae of securities law are beyond the ken of most church members (and most pastors as well), what the Stewart trial has come down to in the end is a very simple judgment on the part of the jury: she lied. It's become apparent that, had she come clean with investigators at the beginning, the penalty would have been much less severe. Yet Martha Stewart has maintained her innocence to the end, proudly declaring to her supporters, "I will be exonerated."
Repentance is always difficult. The decision to repent seems at first to cut deeply into our pride and sense of self-worth. Until the very moment of repentance, admitting our guilt may seem the worst of all possible alternatives. Yet in the end, the consequences of continuing to deny responsibility for our actions are far more severe.
Team Comments
George L. Murphy responds: People like me who grew up in the 50s will remember the song, "I Believe." It was an expression of faith that for every drop of rain that fell a flower grew, that no matter how dark the night, a candle was burning somewhere, and so forth. In that era when we worried about thermonuclear war but didn't question the traditional American virtues, it was a statement that faith would get us through. Faith in what? That wasn't so clear.
That kind of faith is much too vague for serious Christians, but some in our tradition have rather striking ideas about faith. They think that Christians who are really faithful will not only survive but can expect to prosper. What has been called "The Health and Wealth Gospel" (the title of a 1987 InterVarsity Press book by Bruce Barron) says that those who ask God in sincere faith for good health or prosperity will receive it. It's a popular message, in spite of counter-examples, such Saint Paul's thorn in the flesh and the blindness of the hymn writer Fanny Crosby.
Put it bluntly: Christians are given no guarantee that faith will make them healthy, wealthy, or wise, that it will enable them to survive through times of war, disease, or bad economic times, or even enable them to survive in this life period. Presumably, at least some of the Galileans about whom Jesus was told at the beginning of this week's Gospel were faithful Jews offering their sacrifices because they sincerely believed that that was what God wanted them to do. And it didn't keep them from getting killed by Pilate's soldiers. That had to be in Jesus' mind as he went, firmly trusting in his heavenly Father, toward Jerusalem.
But isn't faith supposed to save us? Well, yes -- but we'd better remember what is meant by "saving faith." Fortunately, "I Believe" is no longer a popular song. But the idea that faith is good regardless of its object (or whether or not it has an object) is prevalent enough in our culture that it probably wouldn't hurt to be a bit didactic about this.
The old analysis of faith as knowledge, assent, and trust shouldn't be thought of as a simple recipe for faith or a series of steps that have to be gone through one-two-three, but it helps to clarify what is involved. You have to know what is to be believed, you have to assent to the truth of the claim, and you have to trust in the one about whom the claim is made. If you have a life-threatening condition that requires surgery, knowing that a person claims to be a surgeon, and even that he or she really is a surgeon is important but not sufficient. You also have to be willing to trust your life to that person.
As far as Christian faith is concerned, people need to know the Christian claim that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died and was raised. They need to believe that that is really true. And, crucially, they need to trust in him in life and in death. Without that last aspect faith is just a head trip, an investigation of certain historical and religious claims. But without the first two components a person has no idea who or what to trust in. It is faith in Jesus Christ, not faith "in general" that saves.
But saves from what? The promise that we will be justified by faith, that those who trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and acceptance by God will receive those gifts, is fundamental. It means that ultimately nothing can separate us from the love of God. It does not mean that we will escape trials and suffering in this life or that God doesn't expect us to do anything more than just bask in the assurance of being saved. Both those ideas are expressions of the idea of "cheap grace" that Dietrich Bonhoeffer inveighed against in The Cost of Discipleship.
The fact that those who believe in Christ should expect trouble is obvious in the Gospels and the whole New Testament. The story in this week's Gospel takes place as Jesus and his disciples are on the way to Jerusalem. Jesus has already spoken of his death and has said that those who want to be his followers should take up their crosses and follow him (Luke 9:21-23). The kind of thing that happened to the Galileans about whom Jesus was told in 13:1 may happen to his own disciples.
The expectation of suffering is a more or less passive consequence of faith. The second part of this week's Gospel, Luke 13:6-9, then moves to an active consequence: Those who put their trust in Christ are expected to bear fruit. And the point of Jesus' parable is that while God is patient, that patience has limits. Genuine faith must produce good works.
Old debates about faith versus works sometimes tend to leave out a crucial issue: Who are good works for? To say that we are justified by faith alone means that my good works are not necessary for me, i.e., to justify myself. But they are necessary for my neighbor and for the good of God's creation, and that is why God wants and expects me to do them.
The church is not simply a service organization in which people get together for the purpose of helping others. Things are a bit more subtle than that. The church is, first of all, a community in which people are served, where they received the benefits of Christ in Word and Sacrament, where faith is awakened and strengthened. But it is also then a community of people who, because their faith has been awakened and strengthened, are to be of service to others.
We are freed so that we may serve. One could do worse in preparation for preaching on this theme than look at Luther's "The Freedom of a Christian" (in volume 31 of Luther's Works [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1957]). He sets out the theme in two apparently contradictory statements (p. 344):
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
It is in working through those two claims to understand that they are not contradictory that we can begin to see both how we are served and how we are to serve.
Carter Shelley responds: Carlos, your opening comments rightfully remind us that most of us are so used to the term "worship service" that we totally forget the primary meaning of "service," which it retains in worship. Personally, I find the marketing of church services and programs disturbing, yet it does seem able to reach people that many of us traditional, mainline denominations are not able to engage. In thinking about your topic, I fantasized about a Christian faith grid. Christians would start as those in need of self-conviction, repentance, forgiveness, and grace, and would move from there along the grid of faith development with a split in the road that would not require the choice of "service" versus a design for ongoing spiritual and theological maturation. Members would instead follow a parallel course in which they would continue to develop their personal gifts and avenues for mission, outreach and service while simultaneously stretching their intellect and spirituality through worship, study, retreats, etc.
I am grateful to Luke for 13:1-9, because Jesus so rarely offers any sort of comment on the problem of suffering. Of course, Jesus doesn't really offer one here, but at least he refutes the notion that when bad things happen, they are deserved by the unfortunate people to whom they happen. If anything Jesus seems to imply that such things often occur in such a way as to (a) refute Mel Gibson's Pilate as a thoughtful, sensitive guy; and (b) illustrate that none of us can know when our own death might come. Thus, Jesus the evangelist and revival preacher impresses upon his audience the urgency of their own time of decision. The most compelling part of the parable is the addition of fertilizer to the fig tree. The tree is given the benefit of the doubt and some added resources with which to fulfill its potential as a fig-producing tree. The same holds true for Jesus' audience and for us today. As is evident in both Psalm 63 and Isaiah 55, God does not expect human beings to have a relationship with God without it being mutually meaningful, and more importantly for us, a relationship in which God guides and nurtures us along our way as faithful, obedient children of God. In fact, over and over again in the history of God's relationship with humanity, God supplies additional fertilizer to stimulate and strengthen Jewish and Christian followers in our witness, worship, and service.
For the Church of Jesus Christ to be substantial, we cannot assume that shallow digging and planting will suffice to nurture and produce mature, dedicated Christians. Being a Christian is a lifelong project. That's why it starts for so many of us with infant baptism, Sunday school and Vacation Bible School, youth fellowship, young adult groups, etc. All of those church programs are designed to educate and produce mature adults who will live their lives and base their choices upon the strong foundation of faith in Jesus Christ as modeled for them by teachers, parents, youth advisors, pastors, etc. While not all churches are large enough to have multiple programs for youngsters, all churches are capable of nurturing and educating their children and youth through the example of faithfulness and love modeled by adults in the congregation. Irrespective of age, the more fully Christian we become, the more fully capable of a working faith rather than a faith that works-to-our-advantage, we become, and thus more likely to embody the kind of faith and Christianity that Will Willimon's sermon visualizes.
Related Illustrations
Submitted by Carlos Wilton
Perhaps the apotheosis of consumer faith is a Doonesbury cartoon, depicting the Reverend Scott Sloan's Little Church of Walden. In the early days of the Doonesbury strip, Scott Sloan (reportedly a conflation of activist Yale chaplain William Sloane Coffin and Garry Trudeau's friend Scotty McLennan, campus chaplain at Tufts) had been "the fighting young priest who can talk to the young." By the 1990s, though, he has morphed into a harried parish pastor, struggling to make his church relevant to the needs of a consumer culture.
In this particular strip, Father Sloan is meeting with two potential parishioners: "So what would you like to know about Little Church of Walden, folks? Don't hold back -- I know how difficult it can be to choose a church." The husband replies, "Well, what's your basic approach here, Reverend? Is it traditional gospel?"
"In a way. I like to describe it as 12-step Christianity. Basically, I believe that we're all recovering sinners. My ministry is about overcoming denial; it's about recommitment, about redemption. It's all in the brochure there."
The wife steps forward. "Wait a minute ... Sinners? Redemption? Doesn't all that imply ... guilt?"
"Well yes," admits the pastor, "I do rely on the occasional disincentive to keep the flock from going astray, guilt's part of that."
"I dunno," answers the husband, "there's so much negativity in the world as it is."
"That's right," adds his wife, "We're looking for a church that's supportive, a place where we can feel good about ourselves. I'm not sure the guilt thing works for us."
"On the other hand," responds the husband, "you do offer racquetball."
"So do the Unitarians," concludes his wife. "Let's shop around some more."
***
British playwright George Bernard Shaw was never one for resting on his laurels. He continued to work vigorously until his death in his mid-nineties. Shaw celebrates the human desire to be of service, with these words:
"This is the true joy in life ... being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one ... being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy ... I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It's a sort of splendid torch which I've got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
***
The Spanish author Miguel de Unamuno tells of an ancient Roman aqueduct that's located near the city of Segovia. The aqueduct -- a sort of elevated trestle over which water flows -- was constructed in the year A.D. 109. For eighteen hundred years, the aqueduct carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city. As many as sixty generations depended on this marvel of engineering for their drinking water. Then came another generation, in more recent years, who said to each other, "This aqueduct is an architectural marvel. It's a historical treasure that ought to be preserved. We should give it a well-earned rest."
And that's exactly what they did. They detoured the water flow away from the ancient stones and channeled it through modern pipes. They put up historical markers so tourists might know who had constructed the aqueduct, and for what purpose. They celebrated the fact that their city's water system was now modern in every way.
But then a strange thing began to happen. The Roman aqueduct began to fall apart. The sun beating down on its dry mortar, without the constant flow of water to cool it, caused it to crumble. In time, the massive structural stones threatened to fall. What eighteen centuries of hard service had not been able to destroy, a few years of idleness nearly did.
Much the same is true for our own lives, as Christians. There are indeed many consolations to being a Christian, many ways to receive spiritual gifts that help us through hard times. Yet if all we're doing is receiving, and never giving back, the day will come when the flow of gifts from God to us will likewise begin to dry up. If all we're doing is volunteering -- giving a little spare time in odd moments, as one might drop pocket change into a contribution-canister at the convenience store -- then we're hardly living up to our full potential. Jesus doesn't want volunteers; he wants disciples.
***
A December 2003 issue of The New Yorker magazine contained a cartoon reminiscent of the old children's story, The Little Engine That Could. (That story, of course, tells of a little steam locomotive that has to climb a massive hill, and manages to do so by repeating over and over to itself, "I think I can, I think I can.") The cartoon was titled, "The Little Engine That Coulda Woulda Shoulda." Rather than looking determined and resolute, this little engine is looking sad and forlorn. It's saying to itself, "I knew I could, so why didn't I?"
***
"The only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."
-- Albert Schweitzer
***
Robert Fulghum, author of books such as All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, tells of how he placed beside his bathroom mirror a picture of a woman who is not his wife. Every morning as he stood there shaving, he gazed at the picture of that woman.
Was this woman an old flame, or even a new one? Hardly. The picture is of an elderly, hunched-over woman clad in sandals and the simple, sari-style habit of an Indian order of nuns. She is surrounded, in the picture, by a group of formally dressed people in tuxedos and tiaras, who look, for all the world, like royalty (and indeed, some of them are). The photo depicts the ceremony in which Mother Teresa of Calcutta received the Nobel Peace Prize. Fulghum says he keeps the picture by his bathroom mirror to remind him that -- more than any president, or pope, or CEO -- this woman has authority because she is a servant.
***
For most of his life, Albert Einstein had the portraits of two scientists, Newton and Maxwell, hanging on his wall as role models to inspire him. Toward the end of life, however, he took them down and replaced them with portraits of Albert Schweitzer and Mahatma Gandhi. He needed new role models, he said -- not of success, but of humble service.
-- Philip Yancey, "Humility's Many Faces," in Christianity Today, December 4, 2000
Worship Resources
by Chuck Cammarata
This week our focus is on a having a faith that makes a difference in our own lives and in the world around us. Several of the lectionary texts for this week lend themselves to liturgical use. Our first option this week for a call to worship will be based on the Psalm for the week, Psalm 63:1-6. The Psalm could simply be read or it could be done responsively as I have done it here.
CALL TO WORSHIP
LEADER: O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;
PEOPLE: My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you,
LEADER: As for water in a dry and weary land.
PEOPLE: I have seen you in the sanctuary
LEADER: I have beheld your power and glory.
PEOPLE: Because your love is better than life
LEADER: My lips will glorify you
PEOPLE: I will praise you as long as I live.
LEADER: In your name I will lift my hands
PEOPLE: My soul will be satisfied as with rich food,
LEADER: My lips will praise you with singing.
PEOPLE: O God you are my God,
LEADER: My soul thirsts for you.
PEOPLE: Amen.
The second option this week deals with life circumstances that can lead us into discouragement, and with the Divine "However" that comes from being in God's grace.
CALL TO WORSHIP
LEADER: Sometimes the world seems filled with hatred;
PEOPLE: But we know a love that overcomes.
LEADER: Sometimes tragedy's darkness seems permanent;
PEOPLE: But we know a light that dispels.
LEADER: Sometimes life seems without meaning;
PEOPLE: But we know a divine purpose.
LEADER: Sometimes sadness overwhelms the heart;
PEOPLE: But we know a joy that wins the victory.
LEADER: Sometimes sin drags us down toward death;
PEOPLE: But we know a life that never ends.
LEADER: Let us worship the one who is love,
PEOPLE: And light,
LEADER: Who authors purpose and meaning,
PEOPLE: Brings joy
LEADER: And offers eternal life.
PEOPLE: Let us worship Yahweh,
LEADER: The one and only God.
PEOPLE: Amen.
Lastly, there is a third option this week. Isaiah 55 is a beautiful call to worship. Just read it! It will speak to your people.
CALL TO WORSHIP -- Isaiah 55:1-3
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
LEADER: Lip service.
PEOPLE: Lip service.
LEADER: All over the place
PEOPLE: We give lip service.
LEADER: We give it to fitness,
PEOPLE: But rarely exercise.
LEADER: We give it to being devoted parents,
PEOPLE: Then we spend all our time at work.
LEADER: We give it to our spouses,
PEOPLE: But neglect them.
LEADER: We give it to you Lord,
PEOPLE: But then live as if you didn't even exist.
LEADER: Forgive our lip service.
PEOPLE: And do whatever it takes
LEADER: To turn us from lip servers,
PEOPLE: To heart servers!
LEADER: For ask it with passion and desire.
PEOPLE: Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
If you prayed that pray from your heart, there is good news and bad news for you.
First the good news: God has forgiven your lip service, and God will answer your prayer.
Now the bad news: God will answer your prayer.
If you really want to be a fully devoted servant of God. God will do everything he can to make you one. And while that will lead to great beauty and deep joy it will also lead to the pain of letting go of the old and dying to the self.
Those who have ears to hear, let them hear!
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION -- Psalm 63:6-8
The Psalmist says,
"On my bed I remember you Lord;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me."
Lord, uphold us now through the life giving power of your word in the scriptures. AMEN
PASTORAL PRAYER
Jesus said, "You will know a tree by its fruit." Let us pray:
Lord, in this time this morning give us eyes to the tree of our own lives that we might make an absolutely honest appraisal of the fruit that we have produced. Is our fruit bitter or sweet? Is it the fruit of earthly gain or heavenly grace? Are we so rooted in your and your love, and truth that we are producing a bumper crop of love, and joy, and peace, or are we more connected to a secular culture that drives us to strive after the vanities of this world?
Open our eyes that we might truly see the glimpses of truth you have for us who say we love you.
(Silence)
If our fruit is inferior, meager, or sour, may we begin this morning tending to our faith in such a way that soon we may begin producing an abundance of the succulent fruit you want for us, and the world around us, to taste and enjoy.
We ask in the name of the one whose spirit makes us fruitful, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
HYMNS AND SONGS
Hymns
All for Jesus
Give Me Jesus
Here I Am Lord
I Surrender All
I Have Decided to Follow Jesus
Jesus Calls Us
More Love to Thee
O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee
Seek Ye First
Take My Life and Let It Be
Jesus I Come
They Will Know We Are Christians by our Love
Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus
Songs and Choruses
All in All
Be Glorified
Holiness
Lord I Give You My Heart
Children's Sermon
By Wesley T. Runk
Text: Vs. 4 -- Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them -- do you think they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?
Luke 13:1-9
Object -- some newspaper stories about a recent fire, automobile accident, or some other tragedy in your community
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you heard about (relate to the incident you have in newspapers headline and story) that happened this week? (let them answer) It was pretty awful wasn't it? (let them answer) Almost every day we read about these things happening in our newspaper or hear about them when watching TV or listening to the radio. It makes us understand how precious our lives are and why we need to be careful. Sometimes it doesn't make any difference how careful we are because some times things just happen.
In our scripture reading this morning we hear Jesus talk about something that happened to 18 people. A building called the tower of Siloam just collapsed and fell on them. How awful! I don't think they had newspapers, TV, or radios but the word had spread and Jesus talked about the collapse of that building so that people would understand also that accidents happen and people get hurt. Why would Jesus talk about buildings collapsing and people getting hurt? (let them answer) Did Jesus feel sorry for the people who died and their families that were left behind? (let them answer) Of course he did. Would it have happened if he had been near the tower of Siloam? (let them answer) It probably would have happened. Jesus was not a pretend person like Superman or Batman.
Jesus spoke about the tower of Siloam and other things like it because he wanted people to know that they should think about their future with God. We have a short time to live here on earth and then we will be with God forever. We want our lives to be filled with good things, joyous happenings, and filled with love. We should live every day like we were going to be with God tomorrow. Some people may never have an accident or ever be near an accident. They just live from day to day until God receives them in their old age as part of the kingdom.
But anyone of us could have an accident like the people in our newspaper story or like the 18 people that were in the tower of Siloam. They did not plan it, they could not get out of the way of the collapse and before they knew it, they had died. People cried and were filled with sorrow. They went to their funerals and said goodbye. Their lives on earth were over.
Jesus said they were not bad people; they were not worse sinners than anyone else. It just happened because the building was weak. The same thing was true in (the newspaper story).
Jesus was urging the people to be close to God. They should learn to live for the moment in God's love. They should serve God with kindness to others. Living in God's teachings is a wonderful way to live and we can begin today. Be kind to your neighbors and friends. Share the things God has given you with them. Help the poor, visit the sick and the lonely. Write letters of encouragement to people who are sad and share your clothing with people who are in need of something nice to wear. Remember the teaching of Jesus that we live each day as a gift from God and believe and trust in the Lord Jesus. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, March 14, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503
