Where are the angels in your life?

August 31, 2025 Hebrews 13: 1-8, 15-16 12th Sunday of Pentecost Year C Where are the Angels in our life? Prelude Greeting Call to Worship for Labor Day God said, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord.” Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, And I will give you rest.” We come in the name of the Spirit, resting from our labors, Let us worship God this day! ~ posted on the Presbytery of the Cascades. Prayer for the Day In the face of all our realities: We are the people who heal each other, who grow strong together, who name the truth, who know what it means to live in community, moving toward a common dream for a new heaven and a new earth. In the power of the love of God our Creator, The company of Jesus Christ, And the leading of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Adapted from the people of Pitt Street Uniting Church (Sydney, Australia), Prayers Encircling the World: An International Anthology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), 212. Song I was there to Hear your Borning Cry. TFWS 2051 A Sermon for all Ages Children’s Sermon Outline: God Never Changes – by Tony Kummer Introduction: • Start by asking children what they do in their morning routine, like brushing their teeth, getting dressed, and eating breakfast. • Explain that these routines involve small changes. Body: • Discuss other things in life that change, like weather, seasons, plants growing, and people growing up. • Mention that change can be good, like a baby growing and learning new things. • Acknowledge that change can also be challenging, even good changes, like getting new teeth or moving to a new house. • Share other examples of challenging changes, like changing teachers, pastors, or friends moving away. • Emphasize that sometimes we wish things wouldn’t change and that change can be scary. Lesson: • Introduce the concept that even though many things in life change, there is one thing that stays the same: God. • Read Hebrews 5:5-10 to teach children that Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) • Explain that this means God never changes, never leaves us, and always loves and cares for us, just like we take care of our children. • Share that even when things are hard or confusing, God is always with us. • Remind children that Jesus loves them and will never leave them, and they can always rely on him. Conclusion: • End by saying a prayer thanking God for never changing and always being with us. • Encourage children to trust in God and rely on him, even when things are changing. Teacher Script: Hello, children! Today we’re going to talk about change. Can you think of things in your life that change? (Allow children to share their answers.) That’s right! Many things change, like the weather, the seasons, and even ourselves! Change can be good, like when a baby grows and learns new things. But sometimes change can be hard, even good changes, like moving to a new house or making new friends. Do you ever wish things wouldn’t change? (Allow children to share their answers.) Even though many things change in our lives, there’s one very important thing that never changes: God! The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is always the same, yesterday, today, and forever. That means God never leaves us, never changes, and always loves and cares for us, just like we take care of you. So, even when things are hard or confusing, remember that God is always with us. We can always count on him and rely on his love. Let’s say a prayer together and thank God for always being with us. (Lead the children in a prayer.) Remember, children, God never changes, and he will always love you! Labor Day Liturgy (Put on Insert) Litany of Labor: A. Let us pray to the Lord of all creation, from whom comes life and work and purpose. Almighty God, when you formed us lovingly out of the dust of the earth, you breathed into us the breath of life and gave us work and purpose for living. C. You placed Adam in the garden of Eden to till and keep it. A. Through our work, you made us co-creators with you, shaping the world in which we live. C. You gave dignity to our labor by sending your Son to labor with us. A. By our labor, you enrich the world. C. By our labor, we enjoy the fruits of creation. A. By our labor, we find direction and purpose. C. By our labor, our families are made secure. A. For providing varieties of work and for blessing us by our labor: C. We give you thanks, O Lord. A. For those who plow the field and those who make the plow; for farmers and farm workers, for steelworkers and machinists; for those who work with their hands and those who move the earth: C. We give you thanks, O Lord. A. For those who tend the sick and those who seek new cures; for doctors and nurses, for scientists and technicians; for those who keep notes and those who transcribe: C. We give you thanks, O Lord. A. For those who think and those who create; for inventors and explorers, for artists and musicians; for those who write books and those who entertain: C. We give you thanks, O Lord. A. For those who work in offices and those who work in warehouses; for secretaries and receptionists, for stockers and bookkeepers; for those who market products and for those who move them: C. We give you thanks, O Lord. A. For those who inspire our minds and those who motivate us; for teachers and preachers, for public servants and religious servants; those who help the poor and those who work with our children: C. We give you thanks, O Lord. A. For those whose labor is tidiness and cleanliness; for janitors and sanitary workers, for drycleaners and maids; for those who produce cleaning products and those who use them: C. We give you thanks, O Lord. A. For those who sail the waves and those who fly the skies; for captains and attendants, for astronauts and deep sea divers; for those who chart and those who navigate: C. We give you thanks, O Lord. A. You bless us all with skills and gifts for labor. C. You provide us opportunities to use them, for the benefit of others as well as ourselves. A. Guard and protect those who labor in the world. C. Bless the work of our hands, O Lord. A. Look kindly upon the unemployed and the disabled. C. Give health to the sick, hope to the bereaved. A. Keep us from laboring only for greed. C. Make us loving and responsible in all that we do. P. Creator Lord, you are the source of all wisdom and purpose, you are the blessing of those who labor. Be with us in our labor to guide and govern our world. Give all men and women work that enhances human dignity and bonds us to one another. Give us pride in our work, a fair return for our labor, and joy in knowing that our work finds its source in you; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. C. Amen. (Thomas L. Weitzel) Passing of the Peace Scripture Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 Sermon Where are the Angels in our Life? What is the one thing in life that we all can’t live without? The one thing that is catching on life wildfire. 50 years ago, even 40 years ago, no one would have even cared. But as time went on – it became a part of everyone’s life. Now we take it with us everywhere that we go. If we forget about it, you will soon turn around just to get it. If you want to ignore it – there is something that draws you back in. It is a part of every aspect of your life, you can’t do anything without it. I would like to say that I am talking about Jesus, but I am talking about our cell phones. I would like to say that the pulpit is the one place where I don’t need my phone. But today I needed to make sure that it was fully charged, so that it can record the service. My phone has become my constant companion. When I am driving I have to bring it with me so that I can get driving directions and to listen to music. Even when I come the church and want to use my computer – I have to go back home to get my phone in order to get the code to sign in. If I exercise, I need my phone to record my steps, if I check my bold pressure I need to record it on my phone. The harder I try to disengage from my phone, the more dependent I become on my phone. What used to be true for boats is now equally true for cell phones. The best day of your life? The day you bought your boat. The second best day of your life? The day you sold your boat. That kind of love/hate relationship is even fiercer when it comes to our most beloved, most bemoaned tech toy — the “smart phone.” Every time you “upgrade” from a version “3" to “4” to “5” . . . it seems that only minutes later there is a version “6.” Almost as soon as you can get out your credit card, you are the proud owner of a dodo or a dinosaur. Cell phone companies try to tie their customers to a strict “upgrade” schedule to keep them using their older model phones for two to three years. But lately the competition between all the big name “smart phone” providers has become so intense that the “upgrade” limits have been tumbling down or trashed altogether. All the major competitors seem to be welcoming the return of still warm “hot-off-the-presses” models in order to get new customers for their latest version of the twenty-first century’s “third eye” the eye that is a one-stop guide through an increasingly dense and entangled information jungle. The newest, biggest draw or more accurately, the most relationship-trashing, out-with the-old/in-the-only-moments-new draw among smart phone adversaries is how easy is the access and adaptability of the “home page.” Cell phone providers are focused on making it easier and more intuitive for you to completely customize your “Home Page.” The most advanced smart phones make it easy for you to simply touch the screen of your smart phone after finding a new “like,” and drag it to your personal home page. You might say one’s “home page” is the new “home land” — the habitation of all our personal loves and loyalties. Our “home page” is a small, safe, satisfying universe around which our lives orbit. Our home page is our “YOUniverse.” What’s on your “home page”? How do you decide what makes it onto the “home page” of your “youniverse?” What is it that you want personally to experience and engage every day? Shopping deals? Auction sites? Video clips? Breaking news? Stock updates? Gossip networks? Music trends? In this week’s epistle text, the final chapter of “The Letter to the Hebrews,” the author offers an alternative to all those self-interests. The “home page” today’s text downloads is totally devoted to Jesus. Jesus is our “home page.” What the Hebrews’ author is saying is that everything in your life, whatever it is, can be “touched” and then “dragged” back to our own personal Jesus “home page.” We can “touch” good stuff offering hospitality and welcoming those who are uprooted and unknown, touching the unclean, visiting prisoners, both in prisons made of steel bars and prisons made of emotional bars. All that is “good stuff” that can be touched and dragged to our home page. But even if we “drag” back some questionable quests to our “home page,” not to worry. Jesus will help us figure it out. The ethical, empathetic and, most essentially, loving software provided by Jesus’s spirit will clear out all the toxic viruses and soul-sucking spam that the world sends our way. After all, the human soul was not created for sin, but for the presence of God in all God’s purity, peace and power. That’s what belongs on our home page: “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy” (Phil.4:8), this belongs on our home page. Jesus is the constant in our lives. Scripture reminds us that cell phone technology is always changing. But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Jesus is our constant. The spirit of Christ is the one thing that we cannot leave home without. So, not only is Jesus the center of our lives- he is the source of our being. Jesus is our reason for being. Hebrews 13: 15-16 says 15 So let’s continually offer up a sacrifice of praise through him, which is the fruit from our lips that confess his name. 16 Don’t forget to do good and to share what you have because God is pleased with these kinds of sacrifices. Praising Jesus is not just what we do when we come together on Sunday, it is how we live our lives. Hebrews gives us 3 ways to praise Jesus in everything. 1. Keep on loving – we should pass the love that we get from God onto to others. 2. Keep living by God’s law – Mutual love as the framework of the passage Keep what is mutual love? a. hospitality to strangers i. “The admonition ‘not to neglect hospitality to strangers’ sounds a bit grudging to modern ears, in which a more positive formulation would be welcome. Rhetorically however, the saying function to emphasize the importance of hospitality. In other words, not to neglect hospitality is to make certain that it is carried out.” (Beverly Gaventa, Texts for Preaching, Year C, p. 492) b. compassion to prisoners i. “Prisoners had tmo depend on those outside for food beyond basic prison rations, for clothing and other items; guards sometimes required bribes even to grant this much access. Prisons detained people until trial or execution, but prisoners could remain in custody for long periods of time until trial.” (NRSV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes p. 2180) c. faithful relationships d. extravagant stewardship e. sacrificial worship 3. Keep trusting in God’s word and direction. Verses 3-5 says it all: 3 Remember prisoners as if you were in prison with them, and people who are mistreated as if you were in their place. 4 Marriage must be honored in every respect, with no cheating on the relationship, because God will judge the sexually immoral person and the person who commits adultery. 5 Your way of life should be free from the love of money, and you should be content with what you have. After all, he has said, I will never leave you or abandon you.[a] Keeping Christ first boils down to mutual love and hospitality. Loving and sharing with one another, and showing hospitality to the stranger. A lot of times I think we make the mistake of thinking that as Christians we should do one or the other. Either we focus on loving the people we know, or we seek out those we don’t know. But In Jesus world, they are one in the same. As I think about God's best gift to us, I think of Jesus Christ. God so loved us that he gave us his only begotten Son. Every year during Advent, we sing carols that tell of his lowly birth. We picture that tiny babe of Bethlehem and remake how cute he is. We feel good, because babies always make us feel good. But we need to remember that with Advent comes a foreshadowing of Good Friday, a reminder that his purpose was all about sacrifice. I want you to think about your relationship with Jesus Christ. How has he blessed you? Has he been there in your trials and in those moments when you have needed a rock to hold onto? Think about the story of Calvary. He told you that his body was given for you, broken for your sin as an offering to God. He told you his blood was poured out as an offering to seal the new covenant of eternal life. Jesus gave us his best gift and then he promised that it was just the beginning. How are you going to respond to that? How will you offer your first gift of praise? Will you declare that you will come to worship him at church regularly for the next year? Will you declare that you will find a ministry that you can get involved with and take a lead so that your offering can bless others? Will you pick up your Bible and choose to read it regularly and even consider joining a Bible study so you can learn more about all of God's promises? Will you offer yourself to God and let him use you to bless your family, by promising to spend more time at home and with your children? Many of us have dedicated our homes to Christ and godly life. Will you find a way, a unique way that only you can find, to praise God in the coming months? Each of us was created in the image of God and yet we are each a unique individual with gifts given by God. Use your gifts to honor and praise God. Amen. CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost (Middle Third): God Is Rock Solid, by Clayton A. Lord We express the love that God shared with us to everyone. The CEB version of our scripture starts out by saying – Love each other like family. We have to keep expanding our definition of family. B. Dale Galloway told a great story years ago in his book, Dream a New Dream. It is about a shy little boy by the name of Chad. One day Chad came home and said, "You know what, Mom? Valentines' Day is coming and I want to make a valentine for everyone in my class." Mom's heart sank and she thought, "Oh, how I wish he would not do that." Because every afternoon she watched all the kids coming home from school, and they would be laughing and hanging onto each other, books under their arms, all except for Chad. He always walked behind the rest of the kids. But Mom was a good Mom, so she went along with Chad's idea. So glue, paper and crayons were purchased. For three weeks Chad painstakingly made thirty five valentines. When the day came to deliver the valentines, he was so excited! This was his day. He stacked those valentines under his arm and he ran out the door. His mother thought, "You know, this is going to be a tough day for Chad. I'm going to bake some cookies and give him some milk when he comes home from school and maybe that will ease the pain. He probably won't be getting very many valentines." That afternoon she had warm cookies and a glass of milk sitting on the table. She went over to the window to watch as the kids came home. Sure enough, here came the big gang of kids, laughing, valentines under their arms. They had really done well. And there was Chad, coming up behind. He was walking faster than usual and Mom thought, "Bless his heart, he is ready to burst into tears. His arms are empty." As Chad came into the house, and Mom said, "Mom has some warm cookies and milk for you." But Chad's face was all aglow. He just marched right by her and all he could say was, "I didn't forget a one, not a single one!" (1) That's the spirit of "philos," that's the spirit of mutual love. We may not be able to get everyone to love us in return, but that should never keep us from giving our love. Because love is the key to life and faith. The author reminds us that the measure of our new life in Christ is our ability to love. Radiate Love. "Let mutual love continue." Through love the stranger become family. Hospitality to strangers is a cherished tradition in Middle Eastern countries. There is an old legend that tells how Abraham pitched his great tent at a crossroad. The flaps of that tent were lifted on all four sides so that he might discern the approach of any stranger and hasten out to meet him. Once, when Abraham ran out to offer his hospitality to three strangers, he discovered that they were angels. They blessed him, of course. Maybe that is the story the writer of Hebrews had in mind. Hospitality. Kindness to strangers. It's something we are short on in this modern world. We teach our children to be fearful of strangers. And if a stranger pulls out in front of us in traffic, we become enraged. Hospitality. What a sweet concept it is--particularly when we are on the receiving end. “If you've ever been the stranger," writes Billy D. Strayhorn, “or the new kid on the block, then you know that it's frightening and unpleasant. And we don't like frightening and unpleasant. Who does? It ties our stomachs into knots and gives us nightmares. It unsettles our lives. “Jim Morrison and the Doors, a rock group from the sixties wrote a song with a haunting melody and lyrics titled "˜People Are Strange.' The song talks about being the stranger. Its words go: "˜People are strange when you're a stranger, faces look ugly when you're alone. Women seem wicked when you're unwanted. Streets are uneven when you are down. When you're strange, faces come out of the rain, when you're strange. No one remembers your name, when you're strange, when you're strange.' Then it repeats." (2) If you have ever been a stranger, a newcomer, then you know how great it feels to encounter any show of hospitality, no matter how small. Jesus said, “A cup of cold water given to a stranger in my name will not go unrewarded." (Matthew 10:42) Last week I was having lunch with a group of pastors. The owner of the restaurant comes up to us to make sure everything was okay. In the midst of talking, he shares his story. He explains that he has cancer and the doctors have told him that there is nothing more that they can do. We invite him to come back to our meeting so that we can pray for him. He comes back and shares more of his story and more of his preparations to die. In that moment, Juan moves from a stranger to family. I think of him everyday, and pray for his peace in the midst of an unthinkable situation. What does mutual look like in your life? How do you show mutual love to others? What does mutual love look like in the face of the general divisiveness of current culture? How do we promote and practice mutual love with those whom we greatly disagree? God is not the name of the supreme being. It is just the name that we use. God is not a person or thing that we touch, God is a way of being, a way of showing love. In other words, God is not the name of God. The word “God” which we thoughtlessly use for the name of God is really just a greeting. In the Talmud it states that “the name of God is peace” (shalom), and “shalom” is the most basic Hebrew greeting word. Our English “hello” is derived from the good-health greetings “Whole be thou,” or “Hail thou” (see Luke 1:28; Matthew 27:14) where “hail” means “healthy.” In the earliest forms of the English language, “God” was a hospitality greeting that meant “Hello there,” and “hello” is a shirt-tail cousin of greetings that incurred God’s peace, wholeness and the personal presence. The word “God” is not God’s name. The name of God is nameless. God has no name. “God” is not God’s Proper Name. God’s title is “I Am” or “YHWH” or “"that than which none greater can be conceived." The word “God” is actually an expression of Hospitality and Healing/Health/Wholeness. And “God” in English means “Hello There” or “Health to you.” If “God” is not “God’s” name, “God” is still the ultimate expression of the good, the true, the beautiful extended towards others. So every time you say “Hello” to someone, you are really dragging them to your home page and blessing them. “Hello” is nothing less than your hospitable extension to every person you meet of God’s healing and anointing presence, and your recognition that we all share the roles of host, stranger, and guest. “Hello” is an invitation to someone to share a home page. “Hello” is a welcome to God’s wholeness and well-being. And so is “Good-bye” . . . or “God be with you.” Let’s extend a “Hello” to each other this morning, but after inviting people to you home page with a “Hello,” say to each person you greet the gift you are really giving them: “wholeness and well-being.” The ultimate in hospitality is not giving and receiving gifts. The ultimate in hospitality is sharing one’s space, which is what we do as the body of Christ. The ultimate in a home page is being with another person, which is what brings wholeness and well-being. So this morning: “Hello — Wholeness and Well-being to you.” God is love in action. God is a being so that we can learn to be, God speaks to us so that we know what to say, God loves us so that we can love others. Love wins yesterday, today and tomorrow. Let us love one another like family and keep expanding on our definition to include the prisoner, the stranger, your spouse, your possessions and everything that God loves. Let love be a part of everything that we do! Let us pray for strength! Song Here I am Lord UMH 593 Prayer Yesterday, God of our days, when our hunger for hope had so weakened us we could barely speak, you fed us with the Bread of life, spread with the sweet honey of your grace. Today, Host to the poor, when we look for you in the powerful and the rich, among the superstar and celebrity, we will find you seated with the children, your knees squeezed painfully under the table, entertaining them with your stories. Tomorrow, Spirit of Service, when we will be scrambling for the seats of honor, you will be in the kitchen cooking dinner for the prisoners; making up the guest room for the immigrants; singing lullabies of love to the lost children of our world. Amen. Lectionary Liturgies, Thom Shuman Lord’s Prayer DO NOT PRINT - God in Community, Holy in One: yesterday, today, tomorrow, always, we will pray as Jesus has taught us, Stewardship Moment Some of us may remember the 1960s. Others may have heard stories about the huge shifts in the cultural identity of people across the US. What do you remember or know about “counter-cultural” life? Often, reading the Gospels brings us to awareness of how counter-cultural Jesus is. Our reading from Luke 14 clearly points this out as Jesus teaches followers to function humbly rather than presumptuously at a wedding banquet. Once again, Jesus uses a common image to communicate about how God’s Realm works – a wedding banquet giving us an image for the heavenly banquet when all creation gathers. How counter-cultural is this: Don’t take the best seat! You might get bumped “down.” Rather, take the less desirable seat, from which the host might invite you to move “up” to a better seat. As we come to our offering, the counter-cultural idea might translate to “don’t flash your finances, announcing how much you give.” Or, don’t make sure everyone around you honors you for your giving. Of course, generosity is a high value but not when accompanied by bragging or boasting. Rather, let your giving be a loving response to the abundance of your life, and an eager sharing with those who struggle. All are invited to share financially in support of the “counter-cultural” Christ we seek to follow. Prayer of Thanksgiving Generous God, we offer these tithes and gifts as one sign of our desire to follow Jesus, who fully shared his life with the least, the lost, the lonely. No blazing advertisement, no blasting rock band, no boasting braggado; but grateful givers sharing symbols of our lives in check, coin and on-line connections. Accept our gifts, and help inspire us to use them to build up your Realm here in this corner of the cosmos. AMEN. (Disciples of Christ, Center for Faith and Giving) Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook Having listened to God's words, we are sent to serve others. Today and tomorrow, we will follow where God leads. Having joined in songs of praise and hope, we will carry these gifts into the world. Today and tomorrow, we will serve beside Jesus. Having been filled with the Spirit of justice, we will go to be with all who struggle. Today and tomorrow, we will bring justice and peace to those around us. (Lectionary Litrugies, Thom Shuman) Community Time – Joys and Concerns Benediction Children of God, go from this place in the blessing of the Triune God, our Helper and our Friend, offering your sacrifice of praise and sharing what you have as you spread the love of God in mutuality and care to the ends of the earth and back again. Amen. Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, March 2025. Additional Illustrations In today's epistle text the writer of Hebrews concludes his remarks on the cosmic-wide shaking and quaking that will accompany God's final housecleaning with a point-by-point, action-by-action laundry list of good acts disciples of Jesus should do and be seen doing. Here's one of the great juxtapositions of the Bible: the juxtaposition between the shaking of heaven and earth by a vast omnipotent deity in chapter 12, and the small acts of solidarity, love, compassion, and steadfastness called for in chapter 13. At first flush they seem almost comically incongruous. What does it matter what each one of us may or may not do in our own lives, within our own families, in the midst of our own community of faith, when God is preparing to conduct a thorough, global, indeed cosmic shake-down? Tim Kimmel tells the story of love. In 1921, Lewis Lawes became the warden of Sing Sing Prison. No prison was tougher than Sing Sing during that time. But when Warden Lawes retired some twenty years later, that prison had become a humanitarian institution. Those who studied the system said credit for the change belonged to Lawes. But when he was asked about the transformation, here's what he said: "I owe it all to my wonderful wife, Catherine, who is buried outside the prison walls." She knew how to live a life pleasing to God. Catherine Lawes was a young woman with three small children when her husband became the warden. Everybody warned her from the beginning that she should never set foot inside the prison walls, but that didn't stop Catherine! When the first prison basketball game was held, she went ... walking into the gym with her three beautiful children, she sat in the stands with the inmates. Her attitude was: "My husband and I are going to take care of these men and I believe they will take care of me! I don't have to worry." She insisted on getting acquainted with them and their records. She discovered one convicted murderer was blind, so she paid him a visit. Holding his hand in hers she said, "Do you read Braille?" "What's Braille?" he asked. Then she taught him how to read. Years later, he would weep in love for her. Later, Catherine found a deaf-mute in prison. She went to school to learn how to use sign language. Many said that Catherine Lawes was the body of Jesus that came alive again in Sing Sing from 1921-1937. Then she was killed in a car accident. The next morning, Lewis Lawes didn't come to work, so the acting warden took his place. It seemed almost instantly that the prison knew something was wrong. The following day, her body was resting in a casket in her home, three-quarters of a mile from the prison. As the acting warden took his early morning walk, he was shocked to see a large crowd of the toughest, meanest-looking criminals gathered like a herd of animals at the main gate. He came closer and noted tears of grief and sadness. He knew how much they loved Catherine. He turned and faced the men, "All right men, you can go. Just be sure and check in tonight." Then he opened the gate and a parade of criminals walked, without a guard, three-quarters of a mile to stand in line and pay their final respects to Catherine Lawes. And every one of them checked back in that night. Every one. When you live a life of praise before God, it doesn't seem like a sacrifice — it seems like a blessing. Ask Billy or Mother Teresa or Catherine Lawes, and they will tell you it wasn't a sacrifice at all. In fact, they were blessed by their choice. Think about your own relationship with your children or grandchildren. You make sacrifices for them, and you do it out of love. It is as though you were offering your life to God. He follows these exhortations with teaching about sex and money, two important ways that we are called to be faithful. We all know how much hurt is caused by sexual infidelity. We see the pain splashed across our television screens, as celebrity marriages crumble from unfaithfulness. Let the church demonstrate to the world that we can practice self-discipline and build committed relationships. This is why doctrine matters. We need to understand Christ rightly. Hebrews teaches us of a Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We rejoice in that stability. Jesus still reveals God to us, still takes away our sins. Hebrews also teaches us of a Christ who speaks to us in ways we can hear. Let us open ourselves to the ways Christ speaks to us now. What need do we have? What pain are we carrying? In what ways do we need to grow? That is where we will find Christ. Hebrews teaches of a Christ who is always the same, but who will meet us where we need to be met. Amen. There was a fascinating story in Time magazine sometime back about Melissa Deal Forth, 40, a film maker in Atlanta. It was about the day her husband Chris Deal died. It was exactly one year after he had been diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. The last months had been gruesome: treatments that could not save him, nights when she could not sleep. But Melissa was sleeping soundly at his hospital bedside on the morning of Jan. 4 when Chris managed, somehow, without being seen or heard, to maneuver himself and his portable IV pole around her, out of the room and past the nurse's station with its 360-degrees view of the ward. All Melissa remembers is being shaken awake at 3:00 a.m. by a frantic nurse who was saying something about not being able to find Chris. Melissa hit the floor running. As she approached the elevator she happened to glance toward the chapel, where she glimpsed Chris sitting with a man she had never seen before. Frightened and furious, she burst through the door, firing off questions. “Where have you been? Are you okay?" Chris just smiled. “It's fine," he told her, “I'm all right." His companion remained quiet, his eyes on the floor as though not wanting to be noticed. He was tall, dressed rather like Chris usually did, in a flannel shirt, new Levis and lace-up work boots that appeared as if they, too, had just been taken off the shelf. “There was no real age to him," Melissa says. “No wrinkles. Just this perfectly smooth and pale, white, white skin and ice blue eyes. I mean I've never seen that color blue on any human before. They were more the blue like some of those Husky dogs have. I'll never forget the eyes." Chris seemed to want to be left alone, and so she reluctantly agreed to leave. When he came back to his room, she says, “He was lit up, just vibrant. Smiling. I could see his big dimples. I hadn't seen them in so long. He didn't have the air of a terminally ill and very weak man anymore." “Who was that guy?" she asked. “You're not going to believe me," Chris said. “Yes, I will," she answered. “He was an angel," Chris said. “My guardian angel." Melissa did believe him. “All I had to do was to look at him," she says now, “to know something extraordinary, something supernatural had happened." She searched the hospital to find the man. There was no one around, and the security guards hadn't seen anyone come or go. “After the visit, Chris told me his prayers had been answered," she says. “I worried for a while that he thought the angel had cured his cancer. I realize now it wasn't the cure, it was the blessing he brought with him. It was the peace of mind." Chris died two days later. In the 11 years since Chris's death, Melissa says not a day has gone by when she has not thought about the angel and what he did for her husband. “Chris' life could not be saved, but the fear and pain were taken from him," she says. “I know what I saw, and I know it changes lives. Never, never, never will anyone be able to convince me that angels don't exist." (1) Not everyone feels like that, of course. In the movie Red River, tough guy Walter Brennan looks out across the horizon and sees a stranger approaching. He has no idea what the man's intentions are, but he's not looking forward to the meeting. He explains his reasoning to John Wayne, “No stranger," he says, “ever good-newsed me." (3) Well, I've been “good-newsed" by many strangers. And so have you. One of the reasons that we ought always to be kind to strangers is that some of these strangers will bless us mightily. You see, angels come to us in many forms. It was a rainy night in New Orleans; At a bus station in the town, I watched a young girl weeping As her baggage was taken down. It seems she'd lost her ticket Changing buses in the night. She begged them not to leave her there With no sign of help in sight. The bus driver had a face of stone And his heart was surely the same. “Losing your ticket's like losing cash money," He said, and left her in the rain. Then an old Indian man stood up And blocked the driver's way And would not let him pass before He said what he had to say. “How can you leave that girl out there? Have you no God to fear? You know she had a ticket. You can't just leave her here. You can't put her out in a city Where she doesn't have a friend. You will meet your schedule, But she might meet her end." The driver showed no sign That he'd heard or even cared About the young girl's problem Or how her travels fared. So the old gentleman said, “For her fare I'll pay. I'll give her a little money To help her on her way." He went and bought the ticket And helped her to her place And helped her put her baggage In the overhead luggage space. “How can I repay," she said, “the kindness you've shown tonight? We're strangers who won't meet again A mere "˜ 'thank you "˜doesn't seem right." He said, “What goes around comes around. This I've learned with time - -What you give, you always get back; What you sow, you reap in kind. Always be helpful to others And give what you can spare; For by being kind to strangers, We help angels unaware. Maybe it won't be the kind of angel Melissa Deal Forth felt she met the night her husband died. Some experiences are beyond our understanding. But there are flesh-and-blood angels who can bring good things into our lives if we will give them the opportunity. Kindness to strangers is how we open ourselves and others to that opportunity. “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers . . ." If you could win an Olympic medal, which would you prefer the silver or the bronze? The answer appears obvious, doesn’t it? The silver is for second place; the bronze is for third. Or is it as simple as it sounds? Kent Crockett, in his book I Once Was Blind but Now I Squinttells about a surprising study of Olympic medal winners. You would assume that the silver medal winners would be happier than the bronze medalists since they received a higher honor, but that isn’t always the case. The bronze medalists, who came in third place, were actually found to be happier with their performance than the silver medalists, who finished in second place. The former Olympians explained why they felt this way. The third-place winners were thrilled just to have won a medal. The silver medalists, on the other hand, felt like losers because they didn’t come in first. “This just goes to show,” says Crockett, “that what happens to you isn’t nearly as important as how you perceive what happens to you.” (1) Here is the first part of the formula: keep on loving. Now you may ask, love whom? And the answer is, of course, everybody. Love people you go to church with, people you live with, people you work with. But also love people you don’t even know. More than that, love people you normally wouldn’t even associate with. Jack was an insurance salesman, but he cared about his clients in a very real way. He was a leader in his community, a man of integrity, but also a man of humility. He treated everyone the same, the clerk in the convenience store and the CEO of the large corporation. He treated everyone with respect and dignity. Jack found time in his busy schedule to be involved in ministries to the homeless. He never judged them, never looked down on them. He only wanted to help them turn their lives around. Jack also took time to mentor young people not only in his industry, but also those who were struggling to get started in other areas of life. He was a positive, cheerful man who never said a mean word about anyone. He was a leader in the large Episcopal Church in his community, and when he died a couple of years ago, in his late seventies, his funeral attracted one of the largest crowds in the history of that church, for he had touched many lives. Jack was a man who kept on loving regardless of the circumstances. Friends, such people are not fictitious. They are real people, and they embody the kind of life that the writer of Hebrews is commending. Keep on loving. Love everybody family members, friends, co-workers everybody. In the most famous portion of our lesson the writer says, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” The phrase “entertaining angels” refers to that memorable scene in Genesis when Abraham was sitting at the door of his tent. Legend has it that the flaps of Abraham’s tent were lifted on all four sides so that he might discern the approach of any stranger and hasten to meet him. On this particular day he saw three men apparently needing help. This was not unusual. There were no motels, no fancy restaurants, no places for weary travelers to turn for hospitality. So people in the Middle East often prided themselves on their hospitality. Abraham did not turn away those in need of help. So, at the appearance of these three strangers, he sprang to his feet, called to Sarah for help, and the two of them quickly ministered to these men. It was fortunate that they did. Abraham discovered that he was host to three messengers of God in disguise. When he was the gracious host, God was an even more gracious God. God blessed Abraham and Sarah with a child. The message of Hebrews is clear: love everybody, those you know and those you don’t. In fact, make a special attempt to be kind to strangers. The second is, keep on living by God’s law. Singer/songwriter Jack Johnson gives voice to a common lament when he asks, “Where’d all the good people go?/ I’ve been changing channels/ and I don’t see them on the TV shows./ Where’d all the good people go?” (5) Well. There are many good people in the world. They come of every race and creed. But we are drifting . . . Keep on trusting. Listen as the writer continues, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid . . .’” Successful living is a package and you cannot pick and choose among the core principles. You cannot live a successful life without these first two principles, “Keep on loving” and “Keep on living according to God’s law.” And the reason we are able to fulfill these two demanding challenges is that we trust God. In April 1988 a tragic event took place. A photographer who was a skydiver jumped from a plane along with a group of other skydivers in order to film the group as they fell. On the film shown on the evening network news, as this skydiving photographer opened his chute, the picture went berserk. Here’s why. He had absent-mindedly jumped out of the plane without his parachute. It wasn’t until he reached for the absent ripcord that he realized he was freefalling without any means of slowing his descent. (8) Faith in Jesus Christ is our parachute. It allows us to live triumphantly in a world that would beat us down. It allows us to love with great passion. It allows us to live according to our best values, whether or not our way of living finds favor with our peers. And when all is said and done, we discover this is living at its best. How do we know that’s true? Some of us are fortunate enough to see it lived out in those who were role models for us. Our parents, leaders in our community, Sunday School teachers, perhaps even employers people we know like Jack whom we mentioned earlier who lived successfully because they followed these principles. The writer closes this passage with these words, “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” That’s what we want to know, isn’t it? Our parachute is secure. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Keep on loving, keep on living by God’s commands, and remember in every circumstance, God says to you, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Such an approach to life is a winner every time. I remember a story about Charlie Chaplain. He once read that there was to be a Charlie Chaplain look-alike contest. He thought it would be fun to enter anonymously, which he did. He came in sixth! He was right in front of them, but they didn't know him. Angels can bring us the word of God through human beings who appear to be anything but angelic. Our task is to be open, and offer hospitality to those who come seeking. They may have a message for us. And we might change their lives. B. There's on old movie, 1940, starring Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogard and Ann Southern. Brother Orchid is about Little Johnny Sarto, a big time racketeer who grows tired of the gangland activities. He tries to quit and pursue his quest for real class and refinement. After a not so successful trip to Europe Johnny finds his old haunts and colleagues not so welcoming. Johnny finds himself a marked man and narrowly escapes being murdered after the Humphrey Bogard character Jack and his boys take him out into the woods to finish him off. Johnny escapes, wounded, and finds his way to a secluded Monastery where he is taken in by the kindly monks and brought back to health. Along the way Johnny learns a few things about life. And what he regarded as initially an ideal hideout until he could plot his revenge against Jack, turns into a life changing experience and the one time hood becomes the placid, life appreciating "Brother Orchid." Despite the chance of reclaiming his turf, Johnny returns to the monastery where he at last finds the real "class" in life, not in possessions or money but in the company of decent, honest men who have their own class simply by who and what they are, not what they can get. It's not a great movie but it's got great ending. And points to the whole concept of "Hospitality" and how Christian love and care can effect those who receive it. Radiate Love. "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers." You and I are called to Sow Love, or to Radiate Love wherever we go. We're called to a life of "Mutual Love that reaches out to both the Stranger and those outside our doors." Radiate the Love of Christ in all you do. • For love to be mutual- it must happen in community o Church is the community of mutual love o Mutual love is the foundation of “doing good and sharing what you have” o Mutual love is the foundation of being in relationship with God that we can confidently confess: The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"

If it is too hard, it is probably what God wants you to do

August 24, 2021 Jeremiah 1:4-10 If it is too hard, it is probably what God wants you to do 11th Sunday After Pentecost Year C Prelude Greeting Call to Worship One: Like a solid rock, strong and secure, our Lord stands. Many: This God is our hope! One: From our birth, to this day, and beyond, we trust in God. Many: Rejoice! For this God is the One we can count on. One: Gathered now, let us praise the Lord our God. Many: With power, we lift our voices to sing our praise! (Disciples of Christ Center for Faith and Giving)) Opening Prayer Holy God, we do praise your name this day, with hearts filled with gratitude for your presence, your power and your persistence in calling us to you. May our time of worship be filled with joy as we celebrate the community you are forming here as one part of the Body of Christ. May we all recognize the gift we’re given as we participate in worship today with our voices, our hearts and our minds all merging into one grand celebration of our place in your Realm. AMEN (Disciples of Christ Center for Faith and Giving)) Song Jesu Jesu UMH 432 A Sermon for all Ages Yes You Can! Do you ever feel like you’re just too young or too small to do something? Can anyone think of a time when you might have said, "I just can’t do it!" (Pause for responses.) We have all said that at one time or another. Maybe you said it when the coach asked you to play a new position for the first time, or while you were trying to do your homework. (Hold up textbook). We’ve all found ourselves feeling defeated, saying, “I just can’t do it.” Our Bible lesson today is about a man named Jeremiah. One day, God spoke to Jeremiah and said, "Before you were even born, I chose you to be My prophet to all the nations." Wow, that’s a tall order! Can you imagine being chosen by by God to speak His words to all the nations of the world? Jeremiah answered, "I can't! I'm not a good speaker, and besides, I'm too young." "Don't say 'I can't,' " the LORD answered Jeremiah. "If I tell you to go and speak to someone, then go! And when I tell you what to say, don't leave out a word!" Then the LORD reached out His hand, and touched Jeremiah's mouth and said, "I am giving you the words to say, and I am sending you with authority to speak to the nations for Me." God called Jeremiah to a monumental task before he was even born. But He wasn’t going to leave Jeremiah to do it all on his own. God also promised to give Jeremiah all the words he would need to speak. Just like God had some mighty big plans for Jeremiah, He also has some pretty big plans for you too. He knows your name. He knew you before you were even born and He has a plan for your life. There will be times in your life when God will come to you, as He did to Jeremiah, and ask you to do something important for Him. He may call you to do something that feels difficult, or maybe even impossible. You may feel like you’re too young, and you might even want to say, “I just can’t do it.” But when that happens, remember what God said to Jeremiah, "Don't say, 'I can't!' " If God calls you to do something, He will reach out His hand and touch your life to give you the ability to do it. Dear Father, there may be some things in this life that we cannot do on our own. But we know that if You ask us to do something, You will give us the ability to do it if we just trust in You. Amen. A few years ago there was a hot slogan aimed at kids who found themselves facing the temptations of drugs, alcohol, sex, peer pressure of all kinds. "Just Say No!" There is a dynamic Congregational Christian Church in Canada (Brantford, Ontario) named Yes! Church. What a great name for a church! Do you have what it takes to be a Yes! Christian? A few years ago, a hand gesture circulated that was used in tandem with that word "yes." Whenever you wanted to put an exclamation mark in a verbal response, you clenched your first and jerked it into your side while simultaneously saying, "Yes!" As I read this passage of Scripture from 2 Corinthians 1:18-22 (NIV), whenever I came to that word "Yes!" you're going to say it for me. And I'm inviting you to say it not just with your words, but with your whole being, as you gesture the yes while saying the yes. Let's give it a trial run. When I point in your direction, give me a yes. Or when I say, "And all God's people said" . . . give me a yes. 2 Corinthians 1:18-22 18But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No." 19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." 20For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. 21Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. And all God's Yes-people said, "Yes!" ChristianGlobe Networks, Collected Sermons, by Leonard Sweet Responsive Reading Psalm 139 UMH 854 Scripture Jeremiah 1:4-10 Sermon Once upon a time, there was a young man named Jerry. Jerry's dad was a pastor, and all his life it was assumed that Jerry would be a pastor too. His grandma said it: "God's got his hand on you, Jerry. Someday, you're going to wear those fine velvet robes, and put that shiny cross around your neck. And you're going to step into the pulpit and preach the Word, just like your daddy does. And we'll be so proud." Jerry's uncles and aunts said it: "I'll tell you, that boy has a good strong voice. I could hear him halfway around the block. Any preacher would give his right arm for a voice like that." "You know he could read by the time he was three. What does that tell you?" Jerry's mom and dad tried not to pressure him, but they dropped little hints. Everybody at church liked Jerry. He was president of the youth group. He was even dating that sweet girl, Tonya, who sang in the choir. What an asset she would be as a pastor's wife! Then one day, while Jerry was sitting in his seminary dorm room cramming for a Greek exam, the Lord spoke to him. "Jerry, it's time." "What?" Jerry said, because he never expected to meet the Lord at seminary. "Who is it?" He asked with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach because he was afraid he knew the answer. "You know who this is, Jer. It's the Lord. It's time for you to fulfill your calling." "My calling? To be a pastor? But I've just barely started my seminary classes. I've still got to take Greek, and Hebrew, and Contemporary Expository Preaching 101, and Counseling, and--" "I never called you to be a pastor, Jerry." "But, everybody says that--" "Did I say it?" (Pause) "Jerry, I made you. Before you were born, I knew you inside and out. You aren't an accident of nature. You are special and made for a purpose. My purpose. I want you to be a prophet." "A prophet?!?" Jerry exploded. "I don't know anything about being a prophet. And who's going to listen to a young guy like me? Everyone will laugh in my face. Prophets aren't the most popular guys, you know? And what about housing, and health insurance, and my pension plan--" "You didn't let me finish." "I'm sorry." "I was going to tell you that I'll always be with you. Always. I know this isn't going to be easy. You're right, there's no security in it, and there's no pension plan. People are going to laugh at you, and most of them won't listen. But let Me worry about that. You just tell them how I feel--I'll take care of you." And before Jerry could object, God reached down and touched his mouth and gave him the words to say. If you know a little bit of your Old Testament theology, then you recognize the protagonist of our story. In the year 628 B.C. or thereabouts, God called on Jeremiah, a young man from a priestly family. As the son of a priest, Jeremiah was expected to enter the priesthood also. The priests were the bridge between the people and God. Priests taught the Law and guarded the covenant between Israel and God. They offered incense and offerings on God's altar on behalf of the people. They sacrificed animals as an act of atonement for the people's sins. Although the priesthood required a huge amount of work and responsibility, the position had its perks too. Priests were highly respected. They had an honorable and secure place in society. The people usually took good care of their priests. Just like us today, Jeremiah lived in some pretty interesting times. There was a transition of power the Assyrian Kingdom which had been in power for a long time was in decline and fell to the Babylonians. Israel had no real say in middle eastern politics, so that had to adjust to new rules. At the same time, the long time King of Judah had passed away, and power was given to his young Son. Even those things had been okay economically, things were not okay morally. So when the young son Josiah took over, the started lots of reforms to get the county back on track. Just as things were starting to turn around, Josiah is killed in battle and his son takes over. His son could care less about anything but his own comfort. Jeremiah comes from a fairly rich stable family, growing up, he would have heard about the politics of the world. He would have formed his own opinions, He had his ideas of how things needed to change. Even though it was not popular, Jeremiah was willing to tell the truth to power and to the people. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet, because in his deep love for his family and his country he was willing to speak the truth. Even when it was not popular. It is believed the he made the kings so uncomfortable, they put him in exile for the rest of his life. We have a lot going on in our world today – but it is the same things that have been happening for many years. Just as Jeremiah was called by God to speak out and the change the trajectory, so are we. A prophet is someone who God asks what do you see and what are you going to do about it. To be called by God is the place where the our understanding and care and concern for the world, meets the deep need for change. Our Scripture for today is Jeremiah’s call story – it tells us who he was, what he saw, How God spoke to his heart, and his response. This story sticks out to me. Our first writing assignment in seminary was to look at the stories of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament and to decide which one was closest to our story. I chose Jeremiah. Jeremiah could here God clearly, but he told God that he was way too young to do anything important in the world. God reminds him that God knew him before he was born. He was created for such a time as this. And God was clear about who he was talking to and what he was asking Jeremiah to do. I would imagine that we are hearing this story – because a lot of us can identify with this story. God asks us what we see in the world, we know what we see, we know what the world needs, but we are convinced that it is not our job – we don’t have what we need to make a difference. And yet God reminds us that we do. God is the one who gave it to us in the first place. Sometime after we're born we begin to ask, "What is the meaning in my life." As Rabbi Kushner puts it, there comes a point in life where we ask: "Was there something I was supposed to do with my life?"5 Kushner writes: "The need for meaning is not a biological need like the need for food and air. Neither is it a psychological need, like the need for acceptance and self esteem. It is a religious need, an ultimate thirst of our souls."6 You and I need to know more than how to make a living. We need to know the meaning of our living, if we're to truly live. We need to know what God has in mind for our lives. Not how God is manipulating me to get what he wants; but what does God have in mind for me that will give me what I want, which is to live a life full of joy. A few years back, a company called Yankelovich Partners conducted a nationwide survey, the basis of which was one question: If you could ask God one question, what would it be? One-third of the people said if they had an audience with God, they would ask why they were put here on earth. (1) In other words, what is their purpose in life? Would that be your question? Faith is the place where our questions come out. John W. Gardner, founding chairman of Common Cause, tells of a cheerful old man who asked a question of just about every new acquaintance he fell into conversation with: "What have you done," he would ask, "that you believe in and you are proud of?" He never asked conventional questions such as "What do you do for a living?" It was always, "What have you done that you believe in and are proud of?" It was an unsettling question for people who had built their selfesteem on their wealth or their family name or their exalted job title. Not that the old man was a fierce interrogator. He was delighted by a woman who answered, "I'm doing a good job raising three children," and by a cabinetmaker who said, "I believe in good workmanship and practice it," and by a woman who said, "I started a bookstore and it's the best bookstore for miles around." "I don't really care how they answer," said the old man. "I just want to put the thought into their minds. They should live their lives in such a way that they can have a good answer. Not a good answer for me, but for themselves. That's what's important." (5) The larger Catechism, found in the Book of Confessions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has as its first question, the first thing to learn about how to live, this question: "What is the chief and highest end of man?" Modern Version: What's the point of my life. Answer: "Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever."1 Before all else in life, what life is all about, now and forever, for you and for me is glorifying and enjoying the God who made us. We used to assume that every Presbyterian learned that along the way. Perhaps we need to learn it again. The 19th century hymn writer Fanny Crosby put it this way: "To God be the Glory, great things He hath done! ... Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the People Rejoice!"2 Give Glory to God and be joyful; that's what life is all about. And as Saint Irenaeus put it in the 2nd century: "The Glory of God is a human being who is fully alive."3 Simply put, the purpose of life is living -- joyfully! Faith questions are always challenging. We are not always sure that we want to answer them for ourselves, and surely not for God. And yet God continues to asks us – what do your see, and what are you going to do about it? What is it that God is calling you to do? Again, if you want to know what God expects of your tomorrows, look at what God has done with your yesterdays. God grant us eyes to see how we have been prepared, ears to hear the task that is proposed, and then the faith to realize that God will preserve us for the completion of that task. May God give us each one a little of Jeremiah. CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit, by David E. Leininger And we continue to say that we are not worthy. Many people go through life feeling unworthy. Unworthy of the love of others. Unworthy to live a rich and full life. Unworthy to stand before God. How defeating these feelings can sometimes be. What a denial of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. [We are in a series of messages on the theme, "Five Things Christians Should Never Say." One of the things Christians should never say is "I'm unworthy."] Having said that, however, we should get one thing straight: we ARE unworthy. It's a paradox, to be sure. We should never say, we're unworthy, and yet, in truth we are. "There is no distinction," Paul writes in Romans 3, "since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus . . ." In the light of the holiness of God, nobody is worthy. It is amazing how many ads for luxury items today start off this way: "You deserve this." You deserve this expensive perfume. You deserve this automobile which costs more than we used to pay for houses. You deserve this, you deserve that. I don't want to burst your bubble, but all most of us deserve is a good kick in the pants. That's a little blunt, but think about it. The truth of the matter is that, in terms of our potential, most of us are underachievers. Considering how many advantages many of us started with--good parents who valued education, well-equipped schools, healthy bodies, bright minds, and, most of all, a country filled with opportunities and the freedom to pursue those opportunities--a fact we just fell into by an accident of birth--who among us can say that we exhausted all of which we are capable? A few maybe. But most of us have been very, very fortunate. We deserve a luxury car? It's doubtful. A home on the lake? Yearly trips to Europe? Diamonds around our neck? Armani suits on our bodies? Get over it. It's great if we can afford such niceties, but deserve them? Not hardly. It's like Ann Richards great remark about her aristocratic opponent in Texas a few years ago, "He was born on third base, and thought he hit a triple." We're in the same situation as the guy going into heaven who finds himself behind Mother Teresa and he hears God say to Mother Teresa, "You know, Teresa, you could have done more." Now, here's the question for the day: did the rescue squad put themselves in harm's way to rescue this man because he deserved to be rescued? No. We don't know whether this man deserved saving or not. Maybe he was a fine man who just got depressed. We don't know--and it is beside the point. The Rescue Squad rescued this man because that is what rescue squads do. And here is the Good News for the day: God loves and God saves not because of who we are, but because of who God is. God has declared Himself to be FOR us. We're unworthy, all of us are unworthy, but God has made us worthy of all the riches that are God's. Where do we go from here? Here is where we go: We live life to the fullest knowing that we are God's children. We no longer go skulking though life. We walk proudly, yet humbly, as children of the King. Why? Because we now know that our lives have ultimate worth. Christ died in our behalf. Geologists tell us that only 3 percent of the earth's fresh water is on the surface in the form of rivers and lakes. The other 97 percent remains as a huge subterranean reservoir down below. The potentials of human personality are much the same ” only 3 percent on the surface and 97 percent below. (2) How do we tap the infinite reservoir unseen? How do we bring to the surface the powers and possibilities the Creator has placed within each of us? One thing we can do is to rid our vocabularies of three deadly words. They were the words spoken by a young man long ago by the name of Jeremiah. God came to Jeremiah and said to him, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." "But, LORD," Jeremiah said, "I do not know how to speak." Then Jeremiah spoke those three deadly words, "I AM ONLY...." In Jeremiah's case, he said, "I am only a youth." Jeremiah would become one of the greatest prophets that God called, but first of all God had to deal with those three deadly words, "I am only..." MANY OF US ARE LIMITED BY THOSE THREE WORDS AS WELL. If God came to some people in this room today, someone would say, "But Lord, I'm only a senior citizen. I'm too old to be of much use to the kingdom." Let's get rid of the "I am only's..." I am only the child of a coal miner, I am only a person with a handicapping condition, I am only a member of a minority group. You and I can be anything God calls us to be. And God is calling everyone of us just as he called Jeremiah. God came to Jeremiah and said to him, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." "But, LORD," Jeremiah said, "I do not know how to speak. I am only a youth." See what God does next. He says to Jeremiah, "Do not say, `I am only a youth.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD. Then the LORD reaches out His hand and touches Jeremiah's mouth and says to him, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant." God had great plans for Jeremiah, but first of all He had to get those three deadly words off of Jeremiah's lips, "I am only..." And, my friends, God has great plans for your life and my life as well. There was a story in the WALL STREET JOURNAL about Harry Lipsig. Lipsig, at age eighty-eight, decided to leave the New York law firm he had spent most of sixty years building up. He decided to open a new firm. So at an age when many people have given up on life, Mr. Lipsig decided to try his first case in some time. Here was the situation. A lady was suing the city of New York because a drunken police officer had struck and killed her seventy-one-year-old husband with his patrol car. She argued that the city had deprived her of her husband's future earnings potential. The city argued that at age 71, he had little earnings potential. They thought they had a pretty clever defense until they realized that this lady's argument about her husband's future earning power was being advanced by a vigorous eight-eight-year-old attorney. The city settled the case for $1.25 million. What if Harry Lipsig had said, "I'm only a senior citizen?" Someone else might answer, "But Lord, I'm only a woman." It is what comes behind the Im only that matters. That is the reason that God has called us to be a prophet of our times. And the final thing we need to understand from the story of Jeremiah is that, in order to accomplish God’s purposes, we must trust God’s plan. Doing great things for God begins with simple trust that the One who has called us will not forsake us as we seek to follow His call. I was struck recently by some wise words written by finance blogger Bob Lotich comparing God with professional quarterback Tom Brady. And no, he didn’t say Brady can walk on water, though I’m sure some of his fans think he can. Here’s what Lotich wrote: “God loves throwing lead passes.” Do we have any football fans here this morning? What does that mean? “God loves throwing lead passes.” Lotich explains that a lead pass in football is when the quarterback throws a long pass not to where a receiver is, but to where a receiver is going. For a lead pass to work, the receiver runs ahead of the ball being thrown and trusts that the quarterback is going to throw it to just the right spot. Bob writes, “With God, when you follow His principles, the results are almost always delayed. As in, when He asks you and me to do something, we rarely see the results of it immediately. We have to keep doing what we know He told us to do (running) and trusting that God will get us the results (the ball) somewhere downfield . . . If I were playing catch with NFL quarterback Tom Brady and he said, ‘Just start running and the ball will be there when you get there,’ I would trust him. He has 7 Super Bowl rings that prove he can sufficiently get the ball to a receiver downfield. “How much more can we trust God when He says, ‘Just start running. I’ll take care of the rest’? “Whatever you are trusting Him for today,” says Bob Lotich, “just keep running, and trust that He’s got it all worked out.” (5) I love Bob’s conclusion: Whatever you are trusting God for today, just keep running and trust that He’s got it all worked out. That’s what Jeremiah learned to do. God didn’t choose Jeremiah because of his outstanding skills and charisma. Look at the final verses from today’s Bible passage: “Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” God’s plan is not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about God working through us. As the Lord said to Jeremiah, “I have put my words in your mouth.” But God gives us a choice. What we give to God, He will use for His purposes. So, what would happen if you gave everything to Him? God made you for a sacred purpose. You can’t un-hear that truth. Every moment you are alive is a sacred opportunity to do good works that God prepared in advance for you to do. The only obstacle standing between you and God’s sacred purpose is your willingness. Will you give every part of your life to God? Will you refuse to let fear shrink your vision? If so, God can use you to bring hope and salvation to people who might never meet Him any other way. Decide today to trust everything to God’s purposes, and God will use you to make an eternal impact in others’ lives. I was not reared in the Wesleyan tradition, but I know that there is a phrase that describes the way God works with Jeremiah. It is called prevenient grace. Prevenient grace is grace that comes before - before anything you or I can do or even think about doing. Before Jeremiah even knows that there is such a being as God, God already knows Jeremiah personally. By the way, the apostle Paul testifies to this same prenatal knowledge and appointment by God as he describes his own call: But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus. Galatians 1:15-17 Before Jeremiah can even ask the question, "What am I going to be when I grow up, God has already given him the answer. God has put a passion on our hearts for such a time as this. Martin Luther did the same thing in the 16th century. One of the great principles of Luther is "the priesthood of the baptized." Luther taught that all of God's people, not just the priests, have responsibility to minister. The word minister means servant. The one who truly serves God and people is the true minister; not just those with turned around collars! The word "layperson" which we often use to denote a nonprofessional, comes from the Bible word "laos" which means "the people" (the people of God). A layman is one who serves God. That's no second-class citizenship! Illusion number one: "We are not ordained clergy." Down. Two to go! We are all children of God called to earth for a certain reason. When God asks what do you see, how will you respond? Let us pray… Song The God of Abraham Praise UMH 116 Prayer of Intercession Listening God, Hear our prayers as we come before you. Hear the ones who are crying with pain in their heart. Hear the ones who are weeping with grief long into the night. Hear the ones who are sobbing in their loneliness. Loving God, Heal their pain. Restore their lives. Mend their broken hearts. Leading God, Lead us through the dark valleys. Lead us through troublesome times. Lead us to our home with you. Teach us to listen to your voice, That we may hear the cry of the needy and respond. Teach us to love that We may offer care that brings others to you for healing. Teach us to lead, With your vision so that we lead others home in you. Amen. Adapted from Rev Abi and posted on Rev Abi’s Long and Winding Road blog. Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment Anyone who has thrown out your back, pinched a nerve, or endured deteriorating discs might have true empathy for the woman of Luke 13. This un-named woman had endured a crippling spirit for 18 years! Jesus saw her, called her over to declare, “You are set free from your ailment,” and laid hands on her. She received the gift Jesus could give. What about you? What is it you can give, as a follower of Jesus, the healer? In this offering time, it’s great for any or all of us to give gifts of coin and check. This congregation depends on you faithfully sharing financial resources which then are translated into the means of ministry. But this time is also an opportunity for you to offer your gifts of care and compassion, your gift of encouragement, of challenge, of courageous commentary. Jesus recognized and seized the moment, despite the prohibition of healing on the Sabbath. How will you seize the moment today? Will your actions be the cause for rejoicing? Prayer of Thanksgiving Gracious God, we do rejoice in the many gifts you pour out, and especially in the gift of Jesus, who was a teacher, healer and the incarnation of your Love. We thank you for the gifts which have entered into these offering plates, and for all the gifts which we can offer to encourage, strengthen and support our sisters and brothers (both near and far away). Help us use them to their full capacity, that health may be the gift for each and for all. AMEN (Disciples of Christ Center for Faith and Giving) Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook Let your light shine in the darkness, and your gloom be like the noonday. May the Lord guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places and make your bones strong. And you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail. Amen (Presbyterian Outlook, Roger Gench) Community Time – Joys and Concerns Bnediction Go now in the blessing of God’s love that cannot be shaken, trusting in God’s promises as you work for a world of justice and mercy for all. Amen. Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, March 2 Additional illustrations Jeremiah is sometimes called "the weeping prophet" because, as the message of prophets goes, he had some of the worst news to deliver to his listeners. Jeremiah has also been called the "prophet of the midnight hour," because the message he is given to preach comes just as his countrymen and women are experiencing the horrors of which he preaches. The time to listen to the prophets' words, to repent and return to the Lord has come and gone, and God's people have made no real effort toward reconciliation. Jeremiah is the one called by God to let Judah know that the jig is up. God's judgment on Judah's sin is going to come upon them, and they will not be able to escape it. Our reading from Jeremiah 1 introduces us to this young man, the son of a priest from Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. As Jeremiah tells it, God initiates the conversation, seemingly from out of the blue. Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." - Jeremiah 1:4-5 THIS PASSAGE, APPLIED TO YOUR LIFE AND MINE, TELLS US THAT WE HAVE A PURPOSE IN LIFE TOO. You are not an accident. You were made and "set apart" for a very important task: to glorify God and reflect His image to others. Does that mean you have to go into the ministry? No. Does that mean you have to give up your job and spend all your time in prayer and Bible study? Not hardly. Maybe you glorify God through your position as a father, a special ed teacher, a stockbroker, a data entry clerk, or a mechanic. Pastor Bill Hybels was greeting parishioners after church one Sunday when a woman came up to him and caught him in a big hug. She was crying as she whispered in his ear, "Don't ever stop telling us that we matter to God because it's changed my life." (3) It's true; you matter to God. And if you really, truly believe that, it will change your life too. Max Lucado wrote a cute-sounding, thought-provoking devotional about how much we mean to God. It's called, "If God Had a Refrigerator." If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart. What about the Christmas gift He sent you in Bethlehem; not to mention that Friday at Calvary. Face it, friend. He's crazy about you. (4) It reminds me of a comment a manager wrote in an employee evaluation: “He’s never been very successful,” read the evaluation. “When opportunity knocks, he complains about the noise.” (1) Dr. Robert Schuller—famous for coining the phrase possibility thinking—was once asked in an interview how he developed such a positive, optimistic outlook on life. He said he developed this attitude through his morning prayer time. Every morning, he would pray, “Dear Lord, lead me to the person You want to speak to through my life today. Amen.” That’s an interesting prayer. “Dear Lord, lead me to the person You want to speak to through my life today.” How could such a simple prayer change his whole outlook on life? Dr. Schuller says that this prayer caused him to see the people around him as opportunities for God’s blessings. Because of this prayer, every interaction became an opportunity for God to speak through him. Don’t misunderstand. He didn’t assume he had all the answers. But the burden wasn’t on him. He assumed that if he would do his part, God would work through him to bring some truth or love or mercy into that person’s life. What would change about your life if you viewed every moment as a limitless opportunity to live for God? Every moment. The time you spend on the school bus or commuting each morning. The conversations in the locker room or the conference room or the band room or on social media. What would those moments look like if you knew God was working through you to change people’s lives? There is an old story that has gone the rounds many times but it is most apt. A young farmer one day saw a vision while out in his field. Up in the bright blue sky he saw the fluffy, white, summer clouds form the letters "P C." He was convinced that this was God's way of telling him to become an evangelist: "P C — Preach Christ." So off he went. After a few months of a notable lack of success, he came back to his own home church to talk with his pastor, a sympathetic man who realized that the farmer was simply not suited for the task he had set for himself. "But what about the vision?" the farmer asked. And the pastor replied, "In this case, P C did not mean ‘Preach Christ'; it meant ‘Plow Corn.'" God prepares! The age excuse has proven durable over the years, but generally to the other extreme. "Too old" is used far more often than "too young." "Gee, pastor, it really would be better to get somebody younger to teach Sunday school, wouldn't it?" or "I'm too old serve as an officer again; let the young ones do it — it's their turn." There are always excuses. When the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, the word was disaster. Jeremiah was just like anyone else: he loved his country; he loved his people. He had no desire to preach judgment and destruction on them. No preacher worth his or her salt ever does. But when we see things around us that we know are wrong, we are frankly stuck. Then, when we dare to mention it, we get in trouble. In light of that, any excuse would have been better than none. Scary business, and Jeremiah knew it. Then the Lord told him not to worry. "They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you, "declares the Lord (Jeremiah 1:19). God had prepared him for a task, God proposed the task to him, and now God promises to preserve him as the task was being carried out. Note one thing: The promise was not that there would be no trouble; the promise was that the trouble would not win. To be sure, Jeremiah did see his share of trouble. He was hated by his family and friends; he was forbidden to preach in the temple; he was arrested and placed in stocks; he was threatened with death; he was beaten and imprisoned; he was dropped down into a cistern that had nothing in it but gooey muck; finally, he was carried off into exile in Egypt against his will. Eventually, he died there. But God had been true to the promise. Jeremiah's life was preserved and his ministry came to span a half-century, even one of the most difficult half-centuries in the history of the nation of Israel. Texas pastor and author James W. Moore tells about a pastor in San Diego, CA who was called into the sanctuary early one morning. The custodian wanted him to see a strange offering that had been left on the altar. There were a pair of brown corduroy pants, a belt, a white T-shirt, a pair of tan suede boots, and a note. There were bloodstains on the shirt and on the note. The note said: "Please listen to God." It was signed, and there was a phone number. The minister dialed the number. A 19-year-old young man answered and told his story. He had run away from home and had been wandering in a wasteland of drugs, drifting from one place to another. He had gotten into all kinds of trouble and sordid behavior. The night before, he hit rock bottom. There was a street fight, and someone had been beaten almost to death. After making sure that the victim of his assault was in the emergency room of a nearby hospital and would recover, the young man came to the church, found an unlocked door and went into the sanctuary. He stayed there all night, crying, praying, and thinking. He asked God to forgive him and show him the way. All at once God's presence became very real. He knew God was there, and he felt God's forgiveness. A wonderful peace came. He committed himself to follow Christ. He determined to make right the things he had messed up. He felt fresh and clean, like a new man. To symbolize his new life and new commitment, he had put on some new clothes he had in his backpack and had left the others. He felt like this symbolized giving God his old life. He walked out the church door a new person with a new vision, new hope, new life, and a new direction. (1) This young man's experience reminds me of Isaiah's experience before the throne of God. You remember that dramatic scene. You may have heard the story about three men walking down a beach who came across a lamp buried in the sand. They picked it up and began wiping it off. A genie popped out and told them, "I'll grant each of you one wish." The first man rubbed the lamp and whispered, "I wish I were ten times smarter." "You are now ten times smarter," announced the genie. The second guy took the lamp and rubbed it and murmured, "I wish I were a hundred times smarter." "You are now a hundred times smarter," the genie mandated. The third man rubbed the lamp and said, "I wish I were a thousand times smarter." The genie pointed at him and declared, "You are now a woman." In art class some children were working with plasticine, a clay-like substance that can be used over and over because it does not harden. A girl had made a very nice model of a creature with wings. She held it up and said to everyone, "See the angel!" There were exclamations of delight from the class and teacher. Then the girl quickly molded the angel back into a ball and asked everyone, "Okay, now. What's this?" Nobody could answer ” except to say, "a ball?" "Nope," said the girl, "it's a hiding angel." The next day when the children came into art class, they were accompanied by a visitor. Another child pointed at the ball of plasticine and said to the visitor, "You know what that is? It's a hiding angel." (4) Some of us have within us hiding angels just waiting to be released. And they can be released when, like Jeremiah, we discover that rather than only a youth, or only a senior citizen, or only a woman, or only a child of poverty, we can say, "I am a child of God. Before I was formed in the womb God knew me. Before I was born I was set apart for something good and beautiful and noble." To believe that about ourselves is to unleash a host of powers and possibilities. Like Thomas Edison and Eleanor Roosevelt, those two young people for whom no one would have predicted extraordinary success ” our lives can become something beautiful and good. Let God touch your lips this day and take off from them those words that hold you back. Say rather, "I am a child of God."

Time to Get up and Run

August 17, 2025 Hebrews 11:2912:2 Time to Get up and Run 10th Sunday of Pentecost Year C Prelude Call to Worship (Inspired by Psalm 80) One: Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted. Many: The world is ablaze around us with pain and suffering, natural disasters and human schemes, injustice and brokenness. One: Create again, O God of Fire; respond to the needs of your people and shepherd us to be good stewards of your creation. Many: Let your Holy Fire meet the infernos that seek to consume us with refining and renewing power. One: Redeem again, O God of hosts; ignite a flame within your kingdom that will spread as a wildfire of righteousness and love. Many: Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved. (United Church of Christ Worship Ways, Cheryl Lindsay) Opening Prayer Caring God, we come before you eager to recognize the ways you care for us even in challenging moments. We celebrate this time of congregating…gathering in person and online to lift our hearts, our minds and our spirits in a time of praise and petition. Some of us are discouraged, filled with anxiety and questions. Some of us are celebrating because we are in a positive life moment. Some of us are questioning why we’re here; others are confident, claiming this space and time to honor you, to build up our lives and to strengthen your church. Accept each of us, Holy Creator, meeting us just where we are and luring us to step closer to you, to your Son, Jesus, our Christ, and to your Holy Spirit. AMEN. (Disciples of Christ Center for Faith and Giving) Song Holy God we Praise your Name UMH 79 A Sermon for all Ages What is Faith? • Faith…is it cotton candy or caramel? Explain that some people have a confused or uncertain concept of what faith is. Have you ever eaten cotton candy? You might put a big blob in your mouth, only to have it seemingly disappear as the sugar evaporates on your tongue. If our faith is in fairy tales, it might be sort of like that disappearing cotton candy experience. Allow students to sample the cotton candy. On the other hand, try something that will stick, like caramel or peanut butter (watch for allergies!). These are things that really stick with you. True faith in God relies on something of substance. It sticks with you and satisfies you, like peanut butter! (Or caramel. Or…something else sticky, your pick!) Faith is what sticks with us, when people, situations, things fade and disappear. Encouraged to think about out faith – who are the people, situations, things that stick with us and support us. God sends them in our life in order to complete the task ahead of us – we all have a job to do, a race to run. Think of those who stick with us, remember one person who stick with us through all that we go through – that person is Jesus. Passing of the Peace Scripture Hebrews 11:29 - 12:2 Sermon Time to Get up and Run This is the beginning of the school year. We honor this occasion with the blessing of the back packs. As preschool kids, youth, college students, teachers and others return to school – we will see a parade of backpacks. I have heard that the hottest trend in backpacks are from the company sprayground. They cost up to $150, and they come with all kinds of shapes and characters. In Japan, backpacks are a big investment, because not only does it carry books, but it is designed to protect the child in all sorts of situations. There are a lot of school districts that are going with the clear bag policy, like me, so that they can see what is inside of the backpack. For a young child starting school for the first time, picking a backpack can be a big deal – often times they will want a backpack that had a picture of their favorite super hero - like superman, or batman, or even the Hulk. Today the theme of or lesson for today is heroes. But not the type that we would see on the outside of a book bag. But the ones that we would put on the inside of the bag. The heroes that we carry with us whereever we go. We carry the memories of our personal heroes. Those heroes encourage us, inspire us, when we are ready to give up they are our strength, when we are going through hard times, they support us. A father was sitting on the floor with his three boys getting ready for bedtime prayers. The two older boys were having an argument about their action figures. The issue was whether Superman was better than He-Man. One boy said that Superman could fly, the other countered that He-Man had bigger muscles. And so it went, back and forth, while the youngest boy, Nicholas age four, just watched. Dad turned to Nick and asked: "So who's your hero, Nick?" Without batting an eye, Nick tilted his head, gave Dad one of those "Well, Duh!" Looks, grinned and said matter-of-factly, "You are, Daddy!" That father said it was one of the happiest moments of his life. What a privilege to think that someone really wants to be just like you, but what an awesome responsibility! (1) We all have heroes, don't we? And I'm not talking Superman, Batman, Buck Rogers, Power Puff Girls or any of the other superheros of the comic books or cartoons. I'm not talking about the characters portrayed by John Wayne, Randolf Scott, Vin Diesel, Tom Cruise or any other Hollywood heroes. I'm about real people who have influenced us. Those people whose live and accomplishments have impacted us in such a way as to give us hope. When Napoleon was seeking to motivate his tired, dispirited troops in Egypt fighting almost in the very shadows of the great pyramids of that land, he said to his men, "Remember, forty centuries are looking at you." We could say the same thing this morning-sixty centuries of believers are looking at us. "Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses...." Who are the heroes that you carry with you through life? Well in our scripture for today in the book of Hebrews, Paul talks about the heroes of faith that we keep with us. In chapter 11, Paul not only names some of the biblical heroes of faith, he names the situation where they had to step out on nothing but faith and they became an example for people for ages to come. Many of those people never saw the fruition of the dreams that guided their life, but they still passed that dream on to the next generation. Many of those people entrusted their hopes and dreams to us. There is a saying that we are our ancestors wildest dream. Paul encourages us to carry those people with us, when we fulfill their dreams. Whereever we go, we carry a cloud of witnesses with us. I have a pastor friend out in Texas who shared with recently about his son. In his mid-teens he became addicted to drugs. Even after several treatment programs, he still could not shake the addiction. Finally, in desperation he attempted to commit suicide and almost succeeded. When he regained consciousness, he was terribly disappointed that he had failed. He told his parents that he would do it again as soon as he could because he did not want to live anymore. Both of his parents had been through the Walk to Emmaus experience. Word got out in the Emmaus community about the boy situation. Hundreds of these people started praying for him. Not only that; they sent hundreds of cards to this boy while he was still in the hospital, even though they did not know him personally. A wise Christian psychiatrist started working with the young man. He extracted this promise from him: I will not try to kill myself again until I have sent a thank-you card to all the people who have written to me. By the time he had written literally hundreds of thank-you cards, God had somehow broken into his depression; he no longer wanted to kill himself. In fact, he was really on his way with the help of Christ to conquering the addiction. Indeed, all of us are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, grandstands filled with angels and saints cheering for us. Speaking of grandstands of witnesses…. It was baseball season in a small Pennsylvania town. If you know anything about Little League baseball, you know it is also a time when little boys' hearts and egos are on the line. A certain ten-year-old boy had ridden the bench most of the season. But in the championship game, his coach finally called him up to bat. The little boy's whole extended family had turned out for this very special game. His parents, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, second cousins, you name it, they were all there, cheering and clapping and shouting words of encouragement. The little boy swallowed his anxiety and stepped up to the plate. He gripped the bat and stared hard at the pitcher. Whoosh! The pitch flew by him. Strike one! From the stands, his family cheered him on. "You can do it! You can do it!" So he lifted his bat again and waited for the pitch. Again he swung and connected with air. Strike two! His shoulders started to slump and his hands began to sweat, as he stared down the pitcher one last time. The ball flew by for strike three! The other team jumped and shouted for joy, while the little boy's teammates gave him the silent treatment as they left the field. Our little batter slumped over on the dugout bench, put his head in his hands, and began to cry. But his crying was interrupted by the sound of his father's voice: "Son," he said, "the game's not over." Lifting his head, the boy saw his family, all of them, even his frail grandmother, spread out across the field, waiting to play. They began cheering loudly as the boy picked up his bat. His father pitched the ball, and the boy swung. Crack! The ball flew into the outfield, and the boy took off for first base. As he rounded the bases, cousins, uncles and aunts shouted words of encouragement. Somehow, all those able adults were unable to corral the ball he had hit. As this little boy headed for home plate, his father stood behind the plate and welcomed him with open arms. They celebrated his home run by lifting him on their shoulders and carrying him around the field. (1) What a magnificent reminder of today's text. And what a magnificent reminder of who we, as a Church and the people of God, are called to be and do. Take a few minutes to think about all those people whose shoulders of faith you have climbed. Give thanks to God for their faith and faithfulness. And then think about all those who look to you and are lifted by you on the shoulders of your faith. Give thanks to God for allowing you the privilege of being a Saint for someone else. As part of that time of reflection on the Saints in your life and those for whom you are a Saint, I'd like to give you the opportunity to light a candle in their honor and memory as a reminder of the light of Christ which shone through their lives and touched you. When you're finished we'll close with prayer. I can picture my family, many who have passed on now, in the grandstands of my mind – cheering me on in life. Paul encourages us to remember those cloud of witnesses, but most importantly to remember the our most important encouragement comes from the biggest cheerleader of all – Jesus Christ. Jesus took us to the cross, to give us strength through the challenging times. But Christ rose from the dead to give us strength to stay faithful to the end. Paul says that sometimes life is like running a race. When we run, we should run with our heroes, and Jesus in the back pack on our back. This year, our tags to keep on our life bags, says God has your back. God go with you wherever your bag takes you. God will see us through the finish line. So it is time for us to get up and run. I know that some of us don’t run anymore. Some of us don’t run like we used to. Some of us have never run, some of us can’t run. But we can all keep the faith. We can have enough faith to look up to God, to let go of our sin and fear, and to take a leap when we can’t see the finish line. We have a whole story book of people who kept the faith in tough circumstances, and kept going. Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard had it right; - to believe in God or even make the attempt to understand the nature of God is to make a leap of faith. Reinhold Niebuhr said, “Nothing worth doing is completed in one lifetime, therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful makes complete sense in any context of history, therefore, we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, no matter how virtuous, can be accomplished alone, therefore, we are saved by love.” So think about it now, what is the race you are running? What are the obstacles, what are the achievements? Where are you in the race? Can you see the finish line from here? Are you just getting started? Who are the witnesses that have encouraged you? Who is your lead runner? - Jesus. In the race of life, let’s follow the example of all the faith heroes who have gone before us, let us ignore everything that gets in the way of us being disciples that we can become heroes, les us remember Jesus who did not give up because of the cross, but faces the pain and disgrace and not sits in heaven on the right side of God. Keep the Faith. Amen. Song I am a Soldier of the Cross UMH 511 A Back to School Prayer Heavenly Father, we come before you with hearts full of gratitude for the new school year and the opportunities it brings. We ask for your presence and blessing upon our students, teachers, and staff as they begin this journey. We pray for our students, that you would grant them curious minds, a love for learning, and the ability to grasp new concepts with clarity and understanding. We ask for your protection over them, both physically and emotionally, shielding them from harm and helping them to build positive and supportive relationships. May they find joy in their studies and grow in wisdom and knowledge throughout the year. We also pray for our teachers and staff, that you would equip them with wisdom, patience, and compassion as they guide and nurture our young people. May they be a source of inspiration and encouragement, fostering a love of learning and a positive classroom environment. We pray for families, that you would grant them strength, peace, and patience as they navigate the challenges and joys of the new school year. May they find opportunities to connect with their children, support their learning, and build strong family bonds. Lord, we ask for your blessing upon our schools, that they may be safe havens of learning and growth for all. May your presence be felt in every classroom and hallway, guiding and protecting all who enter. We thank you for your faithfulness and for hearing our prayers. We ask all these things in your precious name. Amen. (Google AI) Lord’s Prayer Back to School Hymn God of all Learning (See Insert) Bless backpacks Stewardship Moment Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook Community Time – Joys and Concerns Benediction Additional Illustrations There's an old legend told among the peoples of the Hebrides. It's the legend of the god of the sea, who always wanted a child of his own, a human child. And once it almost happened. They were going between the islands, some of the peoples, in small canoes. And the ocean god tossed his waves, causing one of the canoes to capsized. The passengers fell into the water and a young boy among them almost drowned, though they fetched him back from the waters. "But," said the god, "I shall not worry, for I was able to toss a wavelet into the little one's heart. He will come back to me, because the sea is in his soul." It's like a short story by H. G. Wells, "The Door in the Wall." A little boy, about six years old, is wandering about, and he comes to this white wall and there's a green door in it. He opens the door, and when he goes in, he enters a country of enchantment ” a world of charm, where he's perfectly loved, and fully accepted. And he wants to stay there, but for some reason he can't. For the rest of his life he's haunted by that country. He's haunted by that place where he was most himself. And he spends his life trying to find it again. What are the question marks in your life? What are you asking? "Does my life have meaning? Is there a purpose for it all?" Do you know what those questions are? They're the echo of eternity, still bobbing in your soul. They're the call of the Western Sea, and they're the enchantment of heaven. And the meaning of your life, the full meaning of your life, is still ahead of you. Because you won't find all the answers to your questions till you cross the River Jordan, till you open the door in the wall that Jesus has unlocked. There, by the grace of God, all questions will become one question. And this is the question you will hear. It's the question Jesus posed to Peter one day. It's the question at the heart of every other question: Simon, do you love me? Child of eternity, do you love me? And when we find the answer to that question, the rest of our questions form the doxology. And there we will be: Lost in wonder, love and praise! Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by Wayne Brouwer Have you heard the story about a man who slipped and fell while trying to clean the limbs from his roof? He slid down the steep shingles, slipped over the eave, and barely managed to grab hold of the gutters. Dangling there three stories from the earth, the man looked to the heavens above and shouted “My God can any body help me?" Suddenly time stopped, the clouds parted and a voice from heaven said, “Have faith, turn loose." The man took one more glance at the ground below, then looked back to the heavens and said, “Is there anybody else up there who could help me?" Phillips Brooks came up with this acrostic from the word F-A-I-T-H. Faith stands for “Forsaking All, I Take Him." Many things about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand, but “Forsaking all, I take Him." Many things that happen today are more than I can comprehend, but “Forsaking all, I take Him." Many things about yesterday continue to drag me down, but “Forsaking all, I take Him." When living by faith I feel no alarm, “Forsaking all, I take Him." LOOK UP, LET GO, TAKE THE LEAP OF FAITH. ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., Faith Breaks, by J. Howard Olds Richard Black said, “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly." In Verse 13 we read, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance." It is a leap of faith when you believe there's someone out there. It's a leap of faith when you believe that someone cares. The last year has taught me to live by faith. I don't know about tomorrow. The problem with life is that it has an “if" right in the middle of it, but I know who holds tomorrow and today I choose to live. I want every second, minute, hour; I want to live today. For years I've been telling the story about Desert Pete. A man was dying of thirst when he came upon a pump right out in the middle of the desert. There was a baking soda can tied to the handle with this note inside, “This pump was all right the last time I used it. I put a new sucker washer into it which ought to last a good long while, but the washer dries out and the pump has to be primed. Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water. It's out of the sun and all corked up. There's enough in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. So pour about a quarter of the water in and let it soak to wet the leather. Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy. You'll get water. Have faith. When you get all you want, fill her up for the next fella. Signed, Desert Pete. P.S. Don't go drinking up the water first, you have to prime the pump." II. TO HAVE FAITH IS TO MAKE A LEAP. Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in the movie, The Last Crusade, is searching for the Holy Grail—the cup reported to have been used by Christ at the Last Supper. He comes at last to a cliff's edge and a vast cavern beneath him. The Holy Grail is on the other side. Surveying the situation Indiana Jones says, “It really is a leap of faith." Yes, Jim, Joe, Janice, Joy—it really is a leap of faith. Are you willing to jump For years I've been telling the story abo Psychologists say—look within. Opportunists say—look around. Optimists say—look ahead. Pessimists say—look out. Christianity says—LOOK UP. Look all the way up until you gaze into the eyes of the One who is looking for you. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith. Where was the victory for Abraham? When he took that first step on his journey to Canaan and claimed God's promise. The rest was commentary. Where was the victory for David? When he took that first step forward, bent to pick up a rock and claimed God's promise. The rest was commentary. Where was the victory for Noah? When he took that first step and drove the first nail into the ark and claimed God's promise. The rest was commentary. Where was the victory for Moses? When he took that first step away from Pharaoh's family and joined his own people and claimed God's promise. The rest was commentary. Where was the victory for Joshua? When he took that first step on his march around Jericho's walls and blew the first blast of air into that trumpet. The rest was commentary. Where was the victory for Nehemiah? When he took that first step and laid down the first new stone on Jerusalem's walls and claimed God's promise. The rest was commentary. Where was the victory for Esther? When she took that first step down the aisle towards King Ahasuerus and claimed God's promise. The rest was commentary. Where was the victory for Jeremiah? When he took that first step and bought a tiny plot of ground and claimed God's promise. The rest was commentary. Where was the victory for Daniel? When he took that first step into Nebuchadnezzar's presence and claimed God's promise. The rest was commentary. We, too, must first take that step in faith. Faith is the victory. We must trust our Lord and our Savior enough to step out by faith instead of by sight. For the past few weeks, we have articulated a new vision for this congregation focused on “touching hearts and transforming lives." We have organized our church and deployed our staff to embrace a mission of inviting, worshiping, discipling, serving, and healing. We have built castles in the air. Now it is time to put foundations under them. What keeps dreams from dying at daybreak? What enables a vision to be fulfilled in the heat of the day? This passage in Hebrews suggests two things: being faithful and being focused. Second, Paul makes a leap of faith here, he says: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely." You see, while we carry this backpack full our "guys" and "girls," the heroes of our lives and faith. We also use that backpack to carry all the garbage of life, too. Because just like in every well told or well written story, there are heroes and there are villains; protagonists and antagonists. B. The hard part of our work of faith, is perseverance. Perseverance not just in the hard times, but in the easy times when things are going good, when we are feeling blessed. That's when we really gain strength. I'm not a runner but I know that you don't start out running the marathon. You start out running short distances, then run the 5k and then the 10k and keep adding distance to your run until you are a marathon runner. And then you begin trying to shave time off of that run. You do what ever it takes, you persevere. There is a Norwegian Proverb that says: "A hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer." Heroes of Faith are those who work and hang on until Christ says it's time to stop. And that's what Paul means here. We do what it takes to win the race of fait. We continue to hang on every day. Conclusion The truth is: You are the hero of your own story. You can choose which type of hero you want to be the anti-hero, the hero-turned villain, the valiant hero, the quiet hero who rises to the occasion and quietly slips back into the ordinary. But you are the hero of your own story. You determine what gets written on the page of the story. You determine how you play the role. You are the hero, the director, the writer and the villain. You choose what happens in your life. And that choice is made possible by the heroes you collect. You choose which "guys" and which "girls" go into the backpack of your life. And ultimately, you choose whether or not to accept the labels which have been stuck to your mirror. Because the WINNER of the great race of Faith, Jesus, the Son of God who died on the cross for your sake, has offered to clean your mirror up so you can look in the mirror and see His reflection. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith." 1.Devotional Companion by Jeffrey Rasche. Abingdon Press, 1996. Pages 57-58. CSS Publishing Company, Inc., From the Pulpit, by Billy D. Strayhorn Well, it was getting ridiculous. Still, you’ve got to admire the man’s steadfast faith. You and I would have raised a few questions with God long before this. Yet there is an element of biblical faith in this man’s attitude. Not that everything that happens is an act of God. That’s not true. Some things just happen. We live in a universe of cause and effect. That’s the way God created it. We live by certain scientific laws. If you drop a book, it’s going to fall. If your toe is in the way, it’s going to get hit. And if it is a big book, it’s going to hurt. God didn’t cause that. It was an accident. Or perhaps, it was negligence on your part. But don’t blame God. Biblical faith gives God praise even in the midst of adversity because we know God is with us. FAITH IS AN ATTITUDE ABOUT LIFE. The biblical character Job questioned the reasons for his suffering, just as any of us would. But still he was able to praise God. Faith is a steadfast attitude about life. God is with me. Therefore I can endure any circumstance no matter how trying. Pastor Edward Markquart tells about three pictures that were published sometime back in a newspaper. Each of the pictures was of a man named Bill Sheridan. The first picture was Bill and his wife and their seven-month-old twins standing on a third floor balcony. Flames of shooting fire and billowing smoke could be seen behind this family. The caption beneath the picture read, “Throw the child.” The flames were crackling behind them; the parents were almost paralyzed with fear, and someone was shouting to them from below, “Throw the child. Throw the children.” The next picture showed Bill Sheridan throwing his seven-month-old child into the air, and the caption said, “We will catch them.” The third picture was of the family--mother, father, two infant children--huddled together in safety, with the burning apartment in the background. They were crying with joy and fear. With a fire behind them and a forty-foot drop in front of them, they had literally made a leap of faith. (3) Peter Haynes tells a story about a woman named Judy. Like the unlucky man at the beginning of our message, Judy was the kind of person for whom everything always seemed to go wrong. If Judy went skiing, she would fall and fracture a leg or an arm. If she were walking down a country lane on a bright summer day and paused to lean on the end of a long picketed fence--it would topple, falling to the ground in one sweeping motion. Something always went wrong for Judy. One day she decided to bake bread. She took out the recipe and carefully gathered all the ingredients it called for, then followed it, step by step. There was a slight problem, however. Instead of adding one cake of yeast to the mix as required, she added one whole box--several cakes of yeast. You can imagine what happened. The dough began to grow and grow and grow. She added more flour--and it kept growing and growing. She added more water, and it kept growing. More salt, more wheat germ, more oil--and it just kept growing and growing. She tried cutting the mound of dough in half, pounding it, pleading with it--and it kept growing and growing and growing. Finally, in desperation, Judy went out and buried the huge lump of dough in her front yard. Within an hour, her father came bursting through the front door screaming: “THERE’S SOMETHING GROWING IN OUR FRONT YARD!!!” You know what happened. The heat of the sun beat down on that ill fated mound of dough--that unbaked loaf--even though it was buried in the ground, and brought the yeast back to life. It started growing again and BURST out of the ground! Even its grave couldn’t contain it, so irresistible was the life of that yeast which Judy had mixed in her bread dough. (6) I see Judy’s experience as a parable of the life of faith. Faith is a gift which must be received. Once we receive it and come to depend upon it, we discover that it is self-validating, and thus it grows and grows until it can overcome any obstacle, even death. “By faith Noah built . . .” and “By faith Abraham went . . .” and by faith, you and I can live victorious lives. I love an old story about a businessman who was in a strange city. He had an appointment late in the day, but in the meantime he had some time to kill. Driving around town in his rental car, he passed a little-league baseball game. He decided to stop and watch it for a while. He was standing just outside the third-base line. When there was a lull in the action, he asked the boy playing third base, "What's the score." The boy replied, "We're behind 18 to nothing." "That's strange," said the man. "You don't look discouraged." "Why should it be?" said the boy. "We haven't come to bat yet." Don't you love that spirit?! No matter how far we may be behind at the moment, we never give up or despair. With God on our side, there is always another comeback in us. The classic story of the tortoise and the hare illustrates the point. The tortoise won the race because he ran it with patience. The hare did not take the race seriously, was not conditioned for it, was careless and casual about its importance, and had no deep desire to do his best. To his chagrin, he lost the race he so easily should have won. The tortoise, plodding and persistent, enduring and determined, moved unswervingly toward the goal and won his laurels because he was prepared to achieve. He had the patience and the will to win. Despite the rocky relationship, occasionally there were glimpses of the man my Dad could have been. I remember one in particular. I couldn't' have been much older than 7 or 8. But Dad had a friend from work who was a giant of a man, at least to me. If I had to guess, from pictures I've seen, I'd say he was about 6' 6' or so. My Dad was only 5' 8" so it made for a comical sight, kind of like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in the movie "Twins." I'm not sure but I think his name was Buck. And he was muscled like nobody else I've ever known. One weekend Dad and Buck and I went to this huge apple tree to pick apples. I picked up apples off the ground. Dad and Buck picked everything they could reach in the tree. And then I remember my Dad telling to climb the tree, pick the apples and toss them down. The problem was, I was so little, I couldn't even reach the first fork in the tree to start climbing. I also remember my Dad getting down on one knee with the other one out like a rung on a ladder. He stood next to Buck who took my hand while I climbed up Dad's leg, then his shoulders and onto Buck's shoulders and then into the tree, just like a set of stairs. I was a little monkey back then and once in the tree I didn't have any problem. I got to thinking about that in relationship to this passage from Hebrews. A saint is someone whose very life lifts you onto their shoulders so you can go higher and farther in this relationship with God. They lift you onto their shoulders so you get closer to the Kingdom of Heaven. Felix was a Cuban postman who decided that his duties as a mailman had prepared him for the Olympic marathon race. Since Cuba had no team at that time, Felix had to personally finance his trip. He did this primarily by running around and around the town square until a crowd gathered. Then he would give a fund-raising speech and accept contributions. When he finally had enough money to travel to the Games which were held that year in St. Louis, he resigned his job and set sail for New Orleans. Once ashore in New Orleans, he encountered a man who robbed him of nearly everything he had. Undeterred, he set out to run from New Orleans to St. Louis. Begging food along the way, he finally arrived in St. Louis half starved. The news of his determination arrived before he did and many fellow athletes rallied to his support. Robbed of his running gear, he cut out the arms and legs of his clothing to accommodate the intense heat and humidity of St. Louis. A fellow athlete loaned him a pair of sneakers for the race, but Felix insisted on running in his postman’s boots. His unusual athletic wear was a sight. I get blisters just thinking about it. Because of the oppressive heat, many of the 31 marathon runners did not even finish the race. But Felix was steadfast in his determination and ran far ahead of the pack. Unfortunately, as he passed an orchard he picked an apple and ate it as he ran. The apple gave him such a stomach cramp he had to sit on a curb to recover while others passed him. Even so, once recovered, Felix came roaring back into the race and finished fourth! (3) That’s determination, the kind of determination you and I need as we run the marathon of life. Some of us may finish the race like Felix in ill-fitting uniforms and worn-out boots. But with God’s help we will finish we will hang in there because a great cloud of witnesses is cheering us on. We will win, not because of who we are, but because of what we believe, that God is with us. God does not give up on us and we will not give up on God. And at the end, we will be victorious. "Going the distance" is a noble achievement. Many begin races that they never finish. It is always disheartening to a pastor to see middle-aged people drop out of the church "after the children are grown." Even more astounding is to see a person who has been a dedicated officer drop out of church when he or she yields a position of influence to another. "Going the distance...." That is part of the reason we join together as a body in Christ. Sometimes the race gets hard. We need each other for encouragement and inspiration. But there is one more thing to be said. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfector of our faith...." There is someone else who has run the race before us. He has pioneered the way. He is our example, our model, our inspiration. That One is Jesus. When Roger Bannister ran the first four-minute mile many years ago, he accomplished something that many people said could not be done. But he did it. Now many athletes have run the mile in less than four minutes. Someone needed to show us that it could be done. Life is a marathon. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Our chief impediment is sin. The victory goes to those who are faithful to the finish. Our only hope is to look to Jesus who has run the race before us. Following his example and with his help, we can win the crown of victory. Pastor John Ortberg once said something that I think is enormously important. He was speaking on the biblical admonition to train for godliness. Here is what he said: "There is an enormous difference between trying to do something versus training to do it." Training means dedicating oneself to regular practice and discipline. Anyone can try to compete in the Tour de France bicycle race, for example. They might kill themselves in the process, but they can try it. Only someone like Lance Armstrong, who trains every day for the competition, can succeed. Are you "trying" to be a follower of Christ or are you "training" to be a follower of Christ? (2) Their story can be our story. For GOD IS STILL IN THE BUSINESS OF CREATING HEROES. A young man was listening as the great Boston preacher Phillips Brooks talked of the great days of the past when the United States was a growing nation. He told about the time when brave explorers traveled into areas that had not been explored. He told of those who risked, and sometimes gave, their lives as they helped develop the country. The young man heard Bishop Brooks tell of those who gave their lives that others might have liberty to study the Bible and obey God. These stories thrilled this youth and he said to the bishop, "I wish I had lived those far-off days; I think I too could have been a hero." The bishop replied, "My boy, every age brings its opportunity, and if you cannot be a hero now, you would not have been a hero then." God is still in the business of creating heroes. You and I can be heroic if we choose. Of what kind of stuff are heroes made? There are many ingredients of course that go to make up a hero. Let's center on the three most important.