You can't take it with you when you go

September 28, 2025 1 Timothy 6:6-19 16th Sunday of Pentecost You Can’t Take it with you when you Go Year C Prelude Greeting Call to Worship Come, all who live in the shelter of the Most High. Gather together, all who trust in God Almighty God reigns through all generations. We will praise God as long as we live. We trust in God, our refuge and our fortress. We can count on God’s faithfulness at all times. God lifts us up when we are threatened or afraid We call to God for protection and rescue. Worship God, who richly provides us with all things. Give thanks to the one who dwells in unapproachable light. God, who made heaven and earth, keeps faith forever. We will pour out our thankfulness in words and deeds. (Gathered by Love, Lavon Baylor) Invocation Ever-present God, let your Spirit fill this place, for we need to know that you are in charge. Throught the terrors of night, amid the arrows that fly during the day, we need to sense your power, your protection, your higher purpose. Show us here your saving, healing strength. Grant us such contentment and confidence that we may look beyond ourselves to be a blessing to others. Amen. (Gathered by Love, Lavon Baylor) Song Stand Up Stand Up For Jesus UMH 514 A Sermon for all Ages Materials Needed • A piggy bank or a small box labeled “Treasure” • A shiny coin or dollar bill • A cross or small Bible Script Start with the piggy bank/coin: (Shake it or hold it up.) “Look what I have here! A piggy bank. Do you like saving money? Maybe you’ve saved up for a toy or a game? Money is helpful — we need it for food, clothes, and to keep the lights on.” Hold up the shiny coin or bill: “But the Bible tells us something important: if we love money too much, it can trick us. We might start thinking money is the most important thing in life. Have you ever wanted a toy so badly that you forgot about your friends or even got mad at your parents? That’s kind of what happens when money becomes our treasure.” Now hold up the cross or Bible: “Paul told Timothy: ‘Be rich in good works, be generous, and ready to share.’ That means the real treasure isn’t money — the real treasure is loving God and loving people. When we help someone, share our toys, give to those in need, or say kind words, we are storing up treasure in heaven. And that’s treasure that lasts forever.” Simple Object Lesson: (Open the piggy bank/box — show it empty or with only a little inside.) “See this? If all I care about is what’s in here, I might end up empty one day. But if I fill my life with love, kindness, and Jesus — I’ll never be empty. That’s what Paul meant when he said we should take hold of the life that really is life.” Closing Question & Prayer “So kids, which treasure do you want to build? A treasure that runs out, or a treasure that lasts forever with God?” Prayer: “Dear God, thank You for giving us what we need. Help us to be content, to share what we have, and to remember that Jesus is our greatest treasure. Amen.” Would you like me to also give you a short, fun activity/game you can play with the kids after the children’s sermon that reinforces the idea of sharing and true treasure? Responsive Reading Psalm 91 UMH 810 Passing of the Peace Scripture 1 Timothy 6:6-19 Sermon You Can’t Take it With You When You Go It was the beginning of the stewardship season and the pastor came of with a very creative way to raise money for the church. Before taking the offering, he explained to the congregation that he would preach an interactive sermon Have you all heard about the Preacher who stood up one morning and told his congregation. "This morning we'll have an interactive service. I've prepared 3 different sermons for today. First I've prepared a fifty dollar fire and brimstone sermon which is about two hours long." "Second I've prepared a hundred dollar sermon on the evils of sin that should take about an hour to deliver. And finally I have a $500 fifty dollar sermon on love and generosity, it will only take about 10 or fifteen minutes. We'll take the offering and afterwards, I will let you know which message I'm going to be preaching this morning." (1) I thought that was funny, so this morning I've prepared three sermons. Just kidding. This morning is actually the kick off for our fall Stewardship Campaign titled "Called To Generosity." As I was looking at the Sunday lessons which have been prepared and thinking about generosity and giving, I kept think about what the apostle Paul wrote Timothy. By the way, I wont mention any names, but I will say that someone mentioned to me that the songs last week were absolutely awful. They may have been a little slow and hard to sing, but I thought everyone sounded good, and the words fit into the theme of the scripture. As a fundraiser, there are churches who let people block a song from being sang for a full year, if they make a donation. Our scripture for today is perfect for stewardship, this is the most direct message about money and the way we spend money in the church. In 1 Timothy – Paul tells us that money is the root of all evil, he actually says that our attitude toward money is the root of all evil. When money becomes the main focus of our life, then we are unhappy. In a television interview, Barbara Walters asked Ted Turner, “What does it feel like to be so wealthy?” He said, “It’s like a paper bag. Everyone sees the bag. Everyone wants it. Once you get the bag, you discover that the bag is empty.” (6) Contrast: Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest men in America, once said, “The man who dies rich dies disgraced.” He gave away much of his fortune to build libraries and schools. He realized too late that hoarded wealth is wasted wealth. Illustration: John Wesley, founder of Methodism, said: “Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” Wesley made good money from his books, but he lived simply and gave most of it away. He died nearly penniless, but spiritually wealthy. Application: What are you doing with the wealth God has entrusted to you? Is it tied up in bigger barns — or invested in God’s mission, in people, in eternity? Thomas D. Lea tells of reading about a recipe book that had been recalled. It was recalled because they made a mistake in one of the recipes. In making a particular dish the way the recipe said to make it, they had neglected one of the basic elements. If you make it just as the recipe said, it would blow up in your face. They recalled the book to prevent that from happening. Some recipes for life are like that. They look good on paper, but an essential ingredient is missing. And that one essential ingredient makes all the difference in the world. There’s nothing wrong with honest hard work, with providing for your family or yourself. That’s part of the recipe for life. But that’s not everything. Paul is giving us the recipe for a happy and successful life. We will start our stewardship season next week, and we may or may not spend the next six weeks talking about money. Today, I wanted us to focus on the rest of the scripture. Where Paul is not focusing on money – but on our attitude toward life. He tells us that our attitude toward God effects every decision that we make in life, including how we spend money. The overall theme of this scripture is godliness. He starts the scripture out by saying Godliness is a great source of profit when it is combined with being happy with what you already have. “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” (I Timothy 6:6, ESV) Notice the words, “great gain.” Those two words would be best translated in our vernacular today “success.” Great gain and success is what everybody is looking for. People just define it in different ways. For Wall Street, it is when the Dow goes up. For government, it is when tax revenues go up. For the nation, it is when the GDP is going up. For workers, it is when their income is going up. Then, Paul turns the tables. He says, “Do you want to know what real success is?” Amazingly he never mentions “stuff”, never mentions “wealth” and never mentions “money”. He says, “Great gain (that is success) is found in ‘godliness’ with contentment.” Do you know what real success is in God’s eyes? It is when you are surrendered to God and satisfied with what you have. Let me put it in the form of an equation. Surrender + Satisfaction = Success Now we have the wrong idea about godliness. We think godliness is going to church, being religious, keeping rules and obeying commandments. Those may be the results of godliness, but that is not godliness. Godliness is being surrendered to God and satisfied with God. That is why they go together. Real success and great gain is not found in wealth, money and stuff. It is found in godliness and contentment. Why is this true? Why is the equation Surrender + Satisfaction = Success just as true as 2+2=4? We find out in the next verse. “For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.” (I Timothy 6:7, ESV) Godliness is becoming or attempting to become like Christ. Paul says that the recipe for successful life is godliness, righteousness and faith. They all seem like the same quality but they are not. Righteousness--being a good person. Godliness--developing a deep relationship with God. But wait. We're just beginning. There is a third quality. That quality is faith. Now someone's thinking, "Pastor, you're being redundant. Aren't godliness and faith the same thing?" And that is the sad mistake that many people make. You can meet the definition of godliness--spending hours each day reading your Bible and communing with God. That doesn't mean you are a person of faith. Remember a few weeks ago when we were dealing with Hebrews 11? Does nobody listen when I preach? "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval . . . By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going . . ." Faith is believing God's promises and setting out to do great things in God's name. This church was built by people of faith. If you're going to be a champion, you don't simply sit around being a nice person. You don't exhaust all your spiritual energy saying your prayers and reading God's word. Those are both important. But they are just a beginning. They are preparatory. A champion of faith is a person who is actively engaged in the work of God's Kingdom on earth. Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission. His life and witness have touched millions over the years. He once said something thought-provoking. "Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God," he said, "there is no need for faith." A. Rather than giving you lots of definitions about having, growing or developing a Generous Heart, I simply want to tell you about a man I knew. I want to tell you about Mr. Dick. That's what everybody called him. Mr. Dick very seldom went to church but that didn't stop him from being one of the best Christians I've ever known. Mr. Dick had a generous heart. You see, Mr. Dick worked at the local Exxon station and he was always encouraging the younger workers to go to church by saying "get yourself and your family to church so you could meet my God and Savior. Everybody needs that." Now, Mr. Dick could have been seen as a kook or a fanatic by those workers except for the fact that he always took the Sunday shift, so everyone else COULD go to church. And on Sunday morning, if you pulled into the full service bay, likely as not, you'd see Mr. Dick set his Bible down before coming out to pump your gas. I could always count on him to surprise me with his generosity. Not a lot of people knew this but Mr. Dick tithed. He tithed and he gave a generous regular offering. He tithed, gave that generous regular offering and at times gave some pretty extraordinary extra offerings as well. Why? Because Mr. Dick had a Generous Heart. And he understood what Paul meant when he wrote: "be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share." B. I got to know Mr. Dick first, because he was a member of the church and second because our Church had a set up with the local gas station. If someone came through needing gas, we'd give them a voucher which was good for $5.00 worth of gas. (This was back when gas was 79 cents a gallon.) Since I was the pastor, I was usually the one who filled out the voucher and then later went and paid for the gas out of our local missions fund or travel mercies fund. Not only that but there were times when Mr. Dick would call me because there was someone or a family in need. C. I'll never forget the family who was on their way back from Dallas to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. They had moved to Dallas nine or ten months before because of a job. The job paid well and it was well worth the move. But the job only lasted about six months. This husband and wife and teen young teenage daughters had tried to find work. Unfortunately it was in one of those down turns in the economy and a lot of people were have a hard time finding work. Finally, this family's money had completely run out and they were living hand to mouth. So much so that for the last two weeks they'd been living out of their care. In a phone call to a relative in Cape Girardeau, they found out about a job that the owner of the plant said he would hold for this man if they could get there the next day. They coasted into our community on fumes. The man asked if there was some work he could do to earn a little money for gas and to have a flat tire fixed, so he'd have a spare for the trip. D. Mr. Dick called me and Wayne, the owner of the local little store. Mr. Dick told us how this family had been living out of their car, living on water and raw potatoes. They'd sold most of their possessions to make ends meet. All they had what was in the car. He asked if we could help. I took them down to the church where we let them get cleaned up. I fixed them a hot lunch in our kitchen. And told Mr. Dick to fill their tank. Wayne began gathering the kind of groceries you can use when you travel. He made a bunch of sandwiches, gathered drinks, chips, crackers, cheese and fruit and put them all in a cooler along with a bunch of drinks. I did something I don't normally do, I gave the man money for gas. I told him, between the tank he had and what I'd given him he should make it to Little Rock, Arkansas. And I gave them the name of friend from Seminary. Who I had called and had agreed to help him get gas. When the family finished eating and we got them back to the station, the tank was full and the groceries were in the back. Mr. Dick had changed the oil and replaced all four of the man's bald tires with newer ones. They weren't new but they had about two years more tread on them than the old ones. He used the best of the old tires as a spare. Mr. Dick said he couldn't let that family leave on those old tires, it would have weighed on his conscience. E. The family was in tears. They all hugged the stuffing out of us and Dad nearly shook my arm off. Not only that, but after the family left, Mr. Dick called my friend and told him to have the car filled up so they didn't have to stop again and he'd cover it if need be. That's just the way Mr. Dick was. He had a generous heart. There was one widow in town who always came by and asked for $2.00 worth of gas. Mr. Dick knew that even $2.00 was stretching her budget out of shape. And he always put in $5.00 worth of gas and only asked for the $2.00. I know because I caught him doing it one day. F. Mr. Dick was generous and he sort of kept watch of those of us who tried to help others. I'll never forget the day I went up to settle for some of the gas vouchers. By my figures we owed $20. But Mr. Dick said we only owed $19. He said one guy came in with the voucher and asked for $4.00 worth of gas and one of the cold beers in the cooler. Mr. Dick pumped the $4.00 worth of gas and when the guy asked for the beer, Mr. Dick told him "No, you can't use my church's money for beer." So, the guy said, well put the other $1.00's worth of gas in my car. And Mr. Dick said, "Nope, you spent it on that beer I'm not giving to give you." Mr. Dick might not have been in Church very often but he had one of the most generous hearts I've ever seen. Not only that but as Paul told Timothy, Mr. Dick was "rich in good works, generous, and ready to share." And Mr. Dick was definitely "storing up for himself the treasure of a good foundation for the future." G. Now, what you need to know is that Mr. Dick's generous heart and all the good deeds he did in his life, aren't what won his salvation. Good works and giving never does. But because Mr. Dick's life had been changed, because he knew the love and forgiveness of Christ, Mr. Dick lived a joyous and generous Christian life that brought glory to God. All the good that he did, he did out of response to the love and grace he had experienced in his own life. That's the way of a generous heart. A generous heart has experienced the grace of God through Christ Jesus and gives thanks for that grace. A generous heart gives thanks by living a generous life. WE become generous because of God's generosity. When we "pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness" we're able to "take hold of the life that really is life." And we're able to become a fragrant offering to God, the aroma of Christ. A mother tells how her daughter used to work for pizzeria place. And it was her job to her daughter after work each evening. When the girl would get into the car, she would smell so much like pizza that often times Mom would go back into the store and buy a pizza. When we "pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness;" when we spend time with Christ and let his grace cover us, His aroma will be all over us and people will be hungry for Him. That is the essence of what the passage teaches us. It counsels us to concentrate less on what we have and more on who we are. It says to shun things like greed and to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. It tells us to fight the good fight of the faith. We can pursue those things no matter what our financial situation might be. Those things come from within. Even if we are struggling financially, that struggle cannot keep us from developing righteousness, from seeking a deeper faith, from calling up endurance from inside us, and from loving one another. Application: Friends, if we lost everything tomorrow — our homes, our jobs, even our health — would we still know who we are? Contentment means our identity isn’t tied to what we own but to Whose we are. Application: Friends, if we lost everything tomorrow — our homes, our jobs, even our health — would we still know who we are? Contentment means our identity isn’t tied to what we own but to Whose we are. Application: Where do you need to fight for faith today? Maybe it’s resisting envy. Maybe it’s choosing generosity. Maybe it’s trusting God with your future instead of worrying yourself sick. Application: What are you doing with the wealth God has entrusted to you? Is it tied up in bigger barns — or invested in God’s mission, in people, in eternity? Closing Image: Picture standing before God one day. He won’t ask, “How big was your house? How many zeros were in your account?” He’ll ask, “Did you love Me? Did you love others? Did you take hold of the life that really is life?” Conclusion So, what do we do with Paul’s words? • Practice contentment — trust that God has given you what you need today. • Resist the love of money — don’t let it rule your life. • Use your wealth — however much or little you have — to bless others and build God’s Kingdom. Closing Story: There was once a wealthy man who, when he died, was buried with all his gold. Another man at the funeral whispered, “How much did he leave behind?” His friend answered, “All of it.” Brothers and sisters — we all leave it behind. But we can send it ahead, storing up treasure in heaven by generosity, by love, by faithfulness. That is life that really is life. Song Take My Life and Let it Be UMH 399 Pastoral Prayer Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment Prayer of Dedication All that we have is a gift from you. Lord, bless these gifts and inspire us to use them in ways that transform and enliven your people. May they be a blessing to those who need them most. Amen. (Presbyterian Outlook, Rae Watson) Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook Receive again the promises of God: “Because you cling to me, I will deliver you; I will protect you because you acknowledge my name. You shall call upon me, and I will answer you. I will be with you in times of trouble; I will deliver you and glorify you and will show you my salvation.” Go from here with peace and confidence, knowing that God goes with you. Posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2013/02/benediction-psalm-91-14-15.html. Community Time Joys and Concerns Benediction Go, we cannot stay here, there is work to do. Go, there are people to love and people to serve. Go, be rich in good works for that will bring true joy! May the grace of God, the love of Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit uplift and uphold you now and always. Amen. (Presbyterian Outlook, Rae Watson) Additional Illustrations Here is your homework: 1. Spend some time this week doing something for someone who cannot return the favor. 2. Give some of your extra to someone who needs it worse than you do. It doesn’t have to be a lot. It could be a $5 gift certificate to Chick-fil-a. It could be some clothes you never wear given to people who need your clothes. It could be some extra toys your kids never play with to kids who have no toys. To illustrate this, today I've put a legal document in your Worship Guide. It's a title deed. A title deed is the written document we use to signify ownership. If you own your car, you have a title. If you own your house, you have the deed. Today I'm going to ask you to do something. It's symbolic, but it's grounded in Scripture. This deed represents your life—all that you are, your possessions, your relationships, your talents and gifts—everything that you possess. I want you to take a moment today and acknowledge God as the owner of your life by signing it over to him. Literally. Fill out this deed, sign your name, and have it witnessed by a family member or friend. Then place it somewhere as a reminder to you that in our lives “everything must go” because God is the owner and He holds the title. You will find when you are totally surrendered to God, not just who you are, but all that you have and you are satisfied with what you have and understand that God gave it to you, and giving instead of getting and sharing instead of keeping is more enjoyable and fulfilling, you will have struck it rich. ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., Collected Sermons, by James Merritt Paul, whom you might call “the patriarch of the early church” is writing a protégé of his named, Timothy, a young pastor, who has a heart that seeks after God, but a life relatively empty of pastoral experience. He is sharing with Timothy things he not only needs to know, but things that he needs to teach to his people. Knowing that money and stuff and wealth, then, have the same attraction for people that it does today and knowing how dangerous those things can be, Paul shares with Timothy an amazing truth – God put us here to strike it rich. Stop the presses! No, we are not talking about a health and wealth prosperity gospel, because Paul goes on to explain that God wants us to strike it rich His way which looks completely different. He boils everything down to one key lesson. Key Take Away: I can die rich if I live right. Paul, in his advice to a young pastor shares with him and his readers exactly how to do it. There are actually three groups of people that are addressed in these verses we are going to look at today. The first group are those people who are not rich. We have already learned that relatively speaking to the rest of the world we are rich, but compared to our definition of rich, most of us in this room would not consider ourselves rich. Here is the Word for you. To put it another way, everybody wants to live the American Dream. That term was first defined in 1931 by James Trumbo Adams. Here is the way he defined it: “In America, life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone. With opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” God works in mysterious ways. When you share what you have with others it always comes back to you in a blessing. It may not be monetary. It may not be a tit for a tat. In God's wisdom, the blessing comes in a form that makes your heart glad. I don't think I've ever seen a generous person lost in despair. They are often the happiest people I know. God keeps blessing them as fast as they can share what they have with others. A friend told me about a man in his congregation who accepted Christ and decided he was going to start tithing. He figured out ten percent of his income and wrote out a check to the church. That first week his check bounced. He was a little embarrassed but he made it good. He continued writing out checks for ten percent of his income and there were a few more mishaps. In time he began contributing the tithe and then made out checks for some special offerings. He also noticed that a few of his stocks started gaining rapidly. So he gave away even more. He started funneling some of his newfound wealth into the youth ministry at church. One day, he told his pastor that the scriptures were true when they said you cannot outgive God. He tried and God kept blessing him, not only with added wealth but also in the joy he had in seeing a ministry grow. He said he had never been happier in his life. Happiness has never been about money and possessions. It has to do with finding your place in life and living it. When you walk in the light of God's Word, you will always find peace and joy. You'll develop a glad attitude. Amen. CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost (Middle Third): God Is Rock Solid, by Clayton A. Lord Talking about money from the pulpit can end up sounding like scolding or begging. In reality, though, the passage offers us contentment. This isn't the contentment of counting our own money but not caring about the needs of others. For those who have decisions to make about money, this passage offers contentment as well. People who give are happier than those who do not. This passage offers the contentment of living with less, of spending wisely, and of investing in ways that don't trouble our conscience. It is the contentment of trusting God for our needs and not judging ourselves by our possessions. Only a financial advisor should give advice about investing money. This passage tells us that investing in our faith will always pay off. Amen. CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost (Middle Third): Faith, Hope, and Love: From Paul and After Paul, by Charles L. Aaron One day, the young son of humor writer Erma Bombeck surprised her with this question: “Mommy, are we rich?” This was Bombeck’s answer: • “You’re rich when you can have eight people to dinner and don’t have to wash forks between the main course and dessert.” • “You’re rich when your television set has all the knobs on it.” • “You’re rich when you can throw away a pair of pantyhose just because it has a large hole in it.” • “You’re rich when your dog is wet and it smells good.” (2) How about you? Are you rich? How would you even define the term? WE ARE A NATION OF STRIVERS. Our nation was built on the belief of self-determination, on pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. The Europeans kept score by tracing their lineage to royalty. If you weren’t born into the right family, then you were out of the race at birth. But we discovered another way of keeping score: by the amount of money in your pocket. It’s more egalitarian, but also more dangerous. There is an old Yiddish proverb that says, “With money in your pocket, you are wise and you are handsome and you sing well too.” We believe that the American dream is within anyone’s reach if they are just willing to put in the long hours. If they are willing to make money their first priority. But the price of the good life is rising at an alarming rate. So we just have to work harder, earn more, put our nose to the grindstone, whatever it takes to keep up with the Joneses. That’s the American way, isn’t it? A young man left the business world to become a monk. At first, he was shocked at how different this new life was. Suddenly, he was no longer striving for the things that society had always taught him to be important--“a good salary, a cool car and a pretty girlfriend. When all of that was suddenly gone,” he said, “and held of no account, I felt as if my whole life were a lie. It took me years to find out who God wanted me to be.” (5) This Bible passage tries to bring us back into focus. It challenges us to look at what will bring real satisfaction in life. Isaiah lived in a time when God seemed to be conspicuously absent. It was he who wrote that "the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." (9:2) Darkness was a good description of the people's plight in Isaiah's time. Had God forsaken them? Isaiah longed for some sign of God's presence and power. The absence of God speaks almost as loudly as does God's presence. When you have been separated from the presence of God for too long, you either stop caring about it, or you hunger for a move from God that is so earth-shaking that it leaves no room for doubt or apathy. IN THIS PASSAGE, ISAIAH IS REACTING TO THE ABSENCE OF GOD AMONG THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. You and I can appreciate that. Many of us hunger for God to show Himself in our lives. Was there ever a time when you yearned to know that God was with you? Maybe there was a season of your life when doubt and anxiety crowded your every thought. You had to convince yourself to get out of bed in the morning. You tried to pray, and the words just wouldn't come. Have you ever sent up a desperate prayer like this, "God, just show me that You are real. Just show me that You are there. I can't make it without You." Christian singer Chris Rice begins a song about searching for God with these words: "I would take "˜no' for an answer, just to know I'd heard Your voice." Newspaper reporter Dennis Hensley once researched a story on pilot training in the Air Force. In these training sessions pilots are warned about "hypoxia," or lack of oxygen to the brain. The pilots are put in a simulation chamber that simulates the atmospheric conditions at 30,000 feet in the air. Then, the pilots are told to remove their oxygen masks. Next, they are asked to write out the answers to a few questions. Within a minute after they begin writing, their partner in the training exercise will move quickly to force the oxygen mask back on the would-be pilot's head. Why? Moments after receiving the oxygen, the pilot looks down at his paper and is shocked to discover that his answers are illegible. Here's what unnerves him. He thought he was writing clearly. As Hensley says, "Similarly, (spiritually starved people) may not know anything is wrong, but unless someone explains how to obtain the "˜breath of life,' those disconnected from God will never gain spiritual "˜consciousness.'" (3) The people of Israel were so caught up in their sins that they had lost "spiritual consciousness." Isaiah was begging God to revive them. Somebody once said that people will accept what you have to say much more readily if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first. (1) With that in mind Benjamin Franklin was famous for his wit and he thoroughly enjoyed trimming hecklers down to size. During the early days of the American Republic, he spoke many times on that great document, the Constitution of the United States. After one such stirring speech, one of those hecklers stood up and boldly walked a few paces toward the platform. "Aw, them words don't mean nothin' a-tall!" he shouted. "Where's all that happiness you say it guarantees us?" Franklin smiled benevolently at the man and then Old Ben replied, "My friend, the Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it for yourself!" (2) One day, an 8 year old boy was playing beside an open window while a neighbor confided to his mother about another person. When the visitor was gone, the mother, realizing how much her son had overheard, called him to her side. "If Mrs. Brown had left her purse here just now, would you give it to someone else?" "Of course not!" the boy replied. The Mom said: "Mrs. Brown left something far more precious than her purse. The story she told could hurt many people and cause much unhappiness. That story still belongs to her, and we shall not pass it on to anyone." (4) Is it so surprising that religion costs money? Not any more so than the fact that there's a cost attached to participating in the greatest miracle of life - the birth of a baby; or that food and water - necessary to living - are accompanied by a bill. Even in the solemn and tender experience of sorrow there are funeral expenses to be considered. Money is the high cost of living and the high cost of dying. It is indispensable, and everywhere we go we're asked to put up some money. Thank God for the int angibles that money cannot buy: hope, joy, trust, forgiveness, peace, concern, eternal life, sharing. I came across a story the other day about a man who came home after a hard day at the office and fighting the traffic and greeted his wife and little 3-year old daughter. He stooped down in front of his little girl and said, "How about a kiss for Daddy?" She must have had a hard day, too, for her only response was "NO, no." Seeing the hurt look on the father, the mother said, "I'm ashamed of you, Janie. Your Daddy works hard all day to bring home a little money and you behave like that?" Taking the cue, the father asked again, "OK, honey, come on now, where's that kiss?" The little 3-year old looked him in the eye and replied, "Where's the money?" First let's look at DOLLAR SIGNS, SYMBOLS AND YOUR LIFE. A study of symbolism in the history of man is a fascinating story. Symbols can be an evaluation or verdict on a life or signify an intention. We look back to the story of Adam and Eve and, rightly or wrongly, we visualize an apple, signifying their disobedience. Noah conjures up an image of an ark of safety and salvation. Jonah carries a symbol of attempted escape from responsibility - a whale. Tradition says King David had a six-pointed star emblazoned on the shields of all his soldiers - a symbol uniting the tribes of Israel into a nation. Christians ehose the symbol of the fish as a sign of allegience to Jesus Christ as God's Son, their Saviour. The symbol for Peter has become a rooster and also an inverted cross; for Judas, a sack of money. Emperor Constantine in 312 took a new life symbol, the Chi-rho symbol for Christ, and that act changed the entire course of history. We've got our symbols today. With some we can identify - with some we cannot. Some are political, some racial, some religious, some rebellious. There's the symbol of the donkey; the symbol of the elephant; the clenched fist in the black glove; the peace symbol; a burning cross; a flag decal; a wilting flower - all symbols that take on a personal meaning for various people. Of course there are more homey symbols. One woman told me once that the symbol of her life was a refrigerator and her struggle was to put a padlock on it. During football season I have a feeling some wives may feel the most appropriate symbol for their husbands would be a TV set. Some person's lives are best symbolized by an achievement. I had a professor in college whose life symbol I'm convinced was AB BSed BD MA THM PhD - a string of six academic degrees. And what a crushing blow it was to his symbol when a man joined the faculty with seven degrees. Sometimes a personal habit can become the dominating symbol of a man's life: whether it's a glass in his hand, or a pair of dice. I remember before my wife and I were married, being in a wedding party. The service was an hour in length, but the thing I remember most vividly was one of the other ushers getting up from the pew in which he was kneeling and slipping out the side door of the church about half way through the ceremony. I figured perhaps he was ill, but soon he came back in. I found out later he just needed a smoke - needed it so badly he had to leave the wedding. Could that cigarette have been the symbol of his life at that point? Another step to take is participation in Christian stewardship. Recognizing that we are not the owners but the tenants of our wealth, our bodies, our time and talents leads us to stewardship. Stewardship is a grateful response we make to God's love and providence by using our resources and abilities to fulfill Christ's mission to the world. Giving away our wealth will help break its hold on us. That is what Jesus told the rich young ruler, but he did not want to pay that kind of a price. Every Christian should be sure he practices the art of giving. This is one of those areas where we have to learn by doing - where we act first, and then the right feelings follow. If we wait till we feel like giving generously, we may never break the stranglehold. Stewardship of giving doesn't mean salving our conscience; it's not buying God off; it's not giving till it hurts; it's not giving foolishly. It is an orderly, discerning, proportionate way of giving so that I am constantly reminding myself that God is the owner and I am his steward. Not that what I give is His and what I keep is mine - that's not it. It's all His and I am the trustee. And what I do with what I keep is just as much a part of my Christian stewardship as what I do with what I give away. Isn't it time to Christianize the use of our wealth, removing the dollar sign from our lives so that it can be reclaimed as an authentic Christian symbol? For it can be that, if it is not the symbol of the meaning of our lives. It was Pentecost Sunday. The ushers handed each worshipper a bright red carnation to symbolize the festive spirit of the day. The people listened attentively to the reading of the Pentecost story from the Book of Acts. They heard about the "powerful wind from heaven" and about the "tongues of fire." Then came the sermon. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon us," the preacher began. "Like the powerful wind from heaven!" shouted a woman sitting in the first pew. Then she threw one of the red carnations toward the altar. The preacher began again, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon us." The same woman''s voice rang out: "Like the tongues of fire, like tongues of fire!" Again, she threw a red carnation toward the altar. The preacher looked straight at her and said, "This time, instead of throwing a carnation, throw your pocketbook." The woman replied, "Preacher, you have just calmed the wind and put out the fire." (1)This morning I may calm the wind and put out the fire. Once upon a time there was a man who had nothing. So God gave him ten apples. He gave him the first three apples to eat. He gave him the second three apples to trade for shelter from the sun and rain. He gave him the third three apples to trade for clothing to wear. He gave him the last apple so that he might have something to give back to God to show his gratitude for the other nine apples. The man ate the first three apples. He traded the second three for shelter from the sun and rain. He traded the third three for clothing to wear. Then he looked at the tenth apple. It seemed bigger and juicier than the rest. He knew that God had given him the tenth apple so that he might return it to Him out of gratitude for the other nine. But the tenth apple looked bigger and juicier than the rest. And he reasoned that God had all the other apples in the world. So the man ate the tenth apple and gave back to God the core. (3) There are some of us who are taking from God blessings that would inspire awe and envy in the hearts of most of the world''s people and we are only giving Him back the core. That will rob you of your soul. 1 Timothy warns that the kind of winning that money can bring, this kind of gain and the love of things, will lead these false teachers, these would-be-winners into an endless snare, "...those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction." (verse 9) Instead of succumbing to the temporary pleasures of life, the Pauline author lists those qualities possessed by true winners. "...pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness." (Verse 11) These qualities don't guarantee worldly success. They don't even make you a winner every time. In fact, winning isn't the goal at all here, the epistle proclaims. What is expected of the genuinely faithful is that we "...fight the good fight of faith..." Only then will we be able to "take hold of the eternal life, to which we were called" (verse 12). This is not winning. This is an uncontested victory – the victory of eternal life over death, the victory of supreme love over ultimate evil, the victory of divine strength over human weakness. In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning-disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school career, while others can be mainstreamed into conventional Jewish schools. At a Chush fundraising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything God does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is God's perfection?" The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father's anguish and stilled by the piercing query. "I believe," the father answered, "that when God brings a child like this into the world, the perfection He seeks is in the way people react to this child." He then told the following story about his son Shaya: One afternoon Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys Shaya knew were playing baseball. Shaya asked, "Do you think they will let me play?" Shaya's father knew that his son was not at all athletic and that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya's father understood that if his son were chosen to play it would give him a sense of belonging. Shaya's father approached one of the boys in the field and asked if Shaya could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said, "We're losing by six runs and the game's in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning." Shaya's father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shaya's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya's team scored again and now with two outs and the bases loaded with the potential winning run on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shaya was given the bat. Everyone knew that it was all but impossible because Shaya didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it. However, as Shaya stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shaya should at least be able to make contact. The first pitch came in and Shaya swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya's teammates came up to Shaya and together they held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya. As the pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung the bat and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game. Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman. Everyone started yelling, "Shaya, run to first. Run to first!" Never in his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline wide eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman that would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But, the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman's head. Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second." Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the opposing shortstop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base and shouted, "Run to third." As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, " Shaya run home!" Shaya did run home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit a grand slam and won the game for his team. "That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "those 18 boys reached their level of God's perfection." – (With thanks to Paul Stambach, via Jack Schierloh. This is the victory Christ wants us all to achieve. It's the true winning attitude. On 20 September 2001, the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers met in a preseason game in Philadelphia the night President Bush spoke to the American people. As the intermission clock counted down the final seconds between the second and third periods, the speech could be seen in the outer concourses and the 19,117 fans began to chant "Leave it on. Leave it on." So they did. The President's address was put back on the scoreboard and a hush fell over the arena as the players and their coaching staffs remained on the bench and watched as the President spoke to the nation. As the Congress gave standing ovations, so the coliseum gave standing ovations. Until by the time the speech had ended, the players decided that there were more important things than playing hockey. So they called it a 2-2 tie and went home. There are some things more important than winning. ChristianGlobe Networks, Collected Sermons, by Leonard Sweet An old eastern fable tells of a man who possessed a ring with a beautiful opal. The ring bestowed upon the wearer qualities such as kindness, truthfulness, bravery and justice all the qualities to make a man much loved. The ring was passed from father to son until it happened that a man had three sons. Before his death he had two copies made so each of his sons would have a ring. The sons were disturbed. How would they know which had the original? They took the matter to court and the judge said, "We will know who has the genuine ring by the goodness of his life." (5) Somehow I believe that is also how we know that Christ genuinely lives in a person ™s heart. These, then, are the qualities of a determined disciple. Take responsibility for your life. Recognize the importance of righteous, Christlike living. Remember always that you are a representative of Jesus Christ.

Thanking God for Everything

September 22, 2013 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Luke 16:1-13 Year C 18th Sunday after Pentecost Thanking God for Everything Brer Rabbit Earns a Dollar-A-Minute A Georgia Folktale retold by S.E. Schlosser One fine morning, Brer Fox decided to plant him a patch of goober peas. He set to with a will and before you know it, he had raked and hoed out a beautiful patch of ground and he put in a fine planting of peas. It didn't take too long before those goober vines grew tall and long and the peas ripened up good and smart. Now Brer Rabbit, he'd watched Brer Fox planting the goobers and he told his children and Miz Rabbit where they could find the patch. Soon as those peas were ripe, the little Rabbits and Brer Rabbit would sneak on in and grab up them goobers by the handfuls. It got so bad that when Brer Fox came to the goober patch, he could hardly find a pea to call his own. Well, Brer Fox, he was plenty mad that he'd worked so hard on those peas only to have them eaten by someone else. He suspected that Brer Rabbit was to blame for this, but the rascally rabbit had covered his tracks so well that Brer Fox couldn't catch him. So Brer Fox came up with a plan. He found a smooth spot in his fence where a cunning rabbit could sneak in, and he set a trap for Brer Rabbit at that spot. He tied a rope to a nearby hickory sapling and bent it nearly double. Then he took the other end of the rope and made a loop knot that he fastened with a trigger right around the hole in the fence. If anybody came through the crack to steal his peas, the knot would tighten around their body, the sapling would spring upright, and they would be left hanging from the tree for everyone to see. The next morning, Brer Rabbit came a-slipping through the hole in the fence. At once, the trigger sprung, the knot tightened on his forelegs, and the hickory tree snapped upright, quick as you please. Brer Rabbit found himself swung aloft betwixt the heaven and the earth, swinging from the hickory sapling. He couldn't go up and he couldn't go down. He just went back and forth. Brer Rabbit was in a fix, no mistake. He was trying to come up with some glib explanation for Brer Fox when he heard someone a-rumbling and a-bumbling down the road. It was Brer Bear, looking for a bee-tree so he could get him some honey. As soon as Brer Rabbit saw Brer Bear, he came up with a plan to get himself free. "Howdy, Brer Bear," he called cheerfully. Brer Bear squinted around here and there, wondering where the voice had come from. Then he looked up and saw Brer Rabbit swinging from the sapling. "Howdy Brer Rabbit," he rumbled. "How are you this morning?" "Middling, Brer Bear," Rabbit replied. "Just middling." Brer Bear was wondering why Brer Rabbit was up in the tree, so he asked him about it. Brer Rabbit grinned and said that he was earning a dollar-a-minute from Brer Fox. "A dollar-a-minute!" Brer Bear exclaimed. "What for?" "I'm keeping the crows away from his goober patch," Brer Rabbit explained, and went on to say that Brer Fox was paying a dollar-a-minute to whomever would act as a scarecrow for him. Well, Brer Bear liked the sound of that. He had a big family to feed, and he could use the money. When Brer Rabbit asked him if he would like to have the job, Brer Bear agreed. Brer Rabbit showed him how to bend the sapling down and remove the knot from his forepaws. When Brer Rabbit was free, Brer Bear climbed into the knot and soon he was hanging aloft betwixt heaven and earth, swing to and from the sapling and growling at the birds to keep them away from the goober patch. Brer Rabbit laughed and laughed at the sight of Brer Bear up in the sapling. He scampered down the road to Brer Fox's place and told him that his trap was sprung and the goober thief was hanging from the hickory tree. Brer Fox grabbed his walking stick and ran down the road after Brer Rabbit. When he saw Brer Bear hanging there, Brer Fox called him a goober thief. Brer Fox ranted and raved and threatened to hit Brer Bear with his walking stick. He yelled so loud that Brer Bear didn't have time to explain nothing! Brer Rabbit knew that Brer Bear would be plenty mad at him when he found out he had been tricked, and so he ran down the road and hid in the mud beside the pond, so that only his eyeballs stuck out, making him look like a big old bullfrog. By and by, a very grumpy Brer Bear came lumbering down the road. "Howdy, Brer Bullfrog," Brer Bear said when he saw Brer Rabbit's eyes sticking out of the mud. "You seen Brer Rabbit anywhere?" "Brer Rabbit jest ran on down the road," he told the grumpy Brer Bear in a deep croaking voice that sounded just like the voice of a frog. Brer Bear thanked him and trotted down the road, growling fiercely. When Brer Bear was out of sight, Brer Rabbit jumped out of the mud. He washed himself off in the pond and then scampered home, chuckling to himself at how he'd escaped from Brer Fox and Brer Bear, and already thinking up a new way to get into Brer Fox's goober patch to get him some peas to eat. Why are trickster stories so important? My family used to tell Brer Rabbit stories all of the time when I was a child. I would always listen to see what Brer Rabbit was going to get a way with next. It seems as if we love to hear stories of the trickster. I think that they are especially important in cultures of oppression. It seems that in a corrupt world – where the odds are stacked against us, where the system always win, we like to hear stories of the one who is able to outsmart the system. If we cant get ahead, we like to hear stories or how someone with a little conniving does win. Why else would Jesus tell a story about a cheating steward who gets the best of his master. Why else would Jesus say that he has done well and should be commended for cheating. Doesnt every other story in the bible tell us that cheating is wrong? Why does Jesus tell the story of the dishonest steward? Well most of the bible tells us not to steal – and cheating is indeed a form of stealing. But Jesus seems to know that there is one story – where cheating is good for you. Jesus puts himself in the story as the conniving steward – who cheated the devil out of what was due him. For we are all sinners, and the wages of sin is death. But Jesus died on the cross so that we could be free of our sin. Our debts have been forgiven, we don’t owe the devil nothing. And we can be grateful for what Jesus has done for us. What does it mean to be a good steward? But the lesson that I want to talk about today from Luke 16:1-13 is the lesson of what it means not so much to be a cheating steward, but to be a good steward of what God has given us. This story is a lesson on our attitudes toward money, our attachments here on earth, how we give to others, and also how we are able to make friends. This story reminds us that whether we are in debt or not, we are not the sum of our possessions. No matter how much we have- it is all lent to us by God. And the day will come when we will not have any of it, because it will be left here on earth. It is not so much what we have on earth that is important, it is what we have with us when we go to heaven. What we have we will lose – but what we give to God will last forever. There is a saying that those that give help those in need in this world, but those in need help those who have in heaven. We have to be willing to be used by God in every circumstance that God puts us in. Like Running a Business There was an interesting legal question posed in The Saturday Evening Post recently. It seems that one lovely Sunday when the sermon was overlong, the congregation rushed, as usual, from its pews on the first syllable of "Amen!" Faithful Abigail, the only worshiper held entranced by the sermon, moved slowly and was trampled. She sued the church and its officials for damages. "Those in charge of the church knew that most of the congregation stampedes after long sermons," Abigail argued. "They should have recognized the danger in the situation. Not being prepared to cope with it, they were negligent." The church's attorney argued like this in response: "A church is a nonprofit organization manned for the most part by volunteers. No one has a right to expect it to be run with the smart efficiency of a business concern. Abigail, therefore, has no real claim." If you were the judge, asks the writer, would you award damages to Abigail? What I found interesting in this hypothetical situation was the characterization of the church. "A church is a nonprofit organization manned for the most part by volunteers. . . No one has a right to expect it to be run with the smart efficiency of a business. . . ." Why not? What if we were as good at what we do as McDonald's is at what they do, or Coca Cola or Microsoft? What if we were as committed to spreading the good news of the kingdom of God as American business is to winning new customers? This is the point Jesus is trying to make. He wants people who bear his name to not only be nice people but to be people who make a difference in the world. Imagine what the world would be like, if the church was just as determined to be the body of Christ, as Apple was to make money? If everybody was as excited about the church as they were about the new apple phone – think of how many people we could reach. This lesson is also about learning to make friends with the world. Everybody was greatful to the conniving steward because he did them a favor, they all wanted to be his friend and welcome him onto their homes. How can we help people understand that Jesus has done so much more for them and they should be grateful. Even in our own lives – where do we place God amongst our priorities? We give to our hobbies, we give to the interest that capture our hearts, we give to our lives – what do we give to God? It is not so much about how much we give, it is about how much of our hearts do we give to God? Do we put God in one corner, and our lives in the other, or do we realize that God comes first in all things. And that we can give to God from what we have. The sons of light Luke calls Christians the sons of light. For Luke, sons of the age where the Jews, sons of the world were others, and sons of the light were those who were able to put God first in their lives. One God, One mediator, One Christ I am not focusing on the lesson of 1 Timothy today, but I think that it helps us to remember to put God first. It says that there is One God, One mediator, One Christ for all people. If there is one God for all people – then our hearts should be in one place. That is on the things of God. John Wesley a model of giving Before John Wesley became the founder of the Methodist Church he was a teacher at Oxford University back in the 1700's. When he began his career he was paid 30 pounds per year - in those days a lot of money. His living expenses were 28 pounds - so he gave 2 pounds away. The next year his income doubled - but he still managed to live on 28 pounds - so he gave away 32 pounds. The third year he earned 90 pounds - lived on 28 - and gave away 62. The fourth year he earned 120 pounds - lived on 28 - and gave away 92. One year his income was a little over 1,400 pounds - he lived on 30 and gave away nearly all of the 1,400 pounds. Wesley felt that with increasing income, what should rise is not the Christian's standard of living but the standard of giving. Increasing our standard of giving. What a great Christian man and what a great lesson he taught us. In a world were raises and extra income is scarce, we are free to determine how much of what we have can we give to God. Jesus’ stewardship sayings When I was doing my research last night, one commentary said that this lesson was do difficult, that I should find something else to preach. It is not that it does not have enough good news, it has too much good news to process. Luke quotes Jesus as saying whoever is faithful in a little, will be faithful in a lot, if you are dishonest in a little, you will be dishonest in a lot, and no slave can serve two masters – you can serve God and money. Each of those sayings is a sermon in their own right. You can steal our money, you cant steal our commitment to God But the bottom line is the he is reminding us to be good stewards with our money. As a matter of fact, being Christian is all about money. It is about how you spend it, what your attitude is about it, and about how your faith determines what you do with it. Are you on the earth to make a living or to make a life. is your treasure here on earth or is it in heaven? Only what we give to God will truly last, and what we do for God we do for others in need. One day a church was burglarized, and when the robber opened the bank bag he found $70,000 – in pledge cards. One can only imagine his disappointment. The burglar learned a lesson the unjust manager knew very well: that you can’t steal commitment. Neither can unprincipled people in the marketplace steal our commitment to be disciples of Christ. Amen. Children’s sermon 2 + 3 = 4? by Wesley T. Runk Passage: Luke 16:1-15 · Lectionary: Proper 20 Item 1 of 11 | Back to Results Object: Some notes with answers to math problems writ ten on them. Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have ever heard of the word "cheating?" What does the word cheating mean? [Let them answer.] Those are pretty good answers. When someone cheats he hopes to get something that does not belong to him for nothing. When you cheat, or someone you know cheats, it can cost a lot. I want to tell you about people who cheat because they think that they can make friends by cheating. I want to show you some things that a teacher gave me that she took away from some of the people in her class. Do you know what these things are? [Show them the notes and let them guess.] These notes have answers on them. [Show them the inside of the note.] The person cheating was giving the answers away to other people with the hope that these people would be his friends. This person thought that the other boys and girls would like him if he wrote the right answers to the test on pieces of paper and gave it to anyone who did not know the answers. Of course, the person cheating did not think that the teacher would catch him. Some people think that they can make friends by cheating. God knows how men think and he also knows that we try to do things like this to win friends, but he warns us about doing them. Jesus told a story about a man who acted just like this boy. Jesus said that the friends you win like this only last for a little while, and soon the friends disappear and you still have to face God. Jesus taught us about honesty and said that to be honest is the best way. It may mean that we have to work a little harder and have a little less for a few years, but someday we will be glad that we are honest. There is no room in God's kingdom for a cheater and that is where we want to live forever. The teacher told the boy who passed the cheat notes about what God teaches and how little good it does for us to make friends by cheating. She thinks that the boy learned a lesson, and I pass this on to you so that you can learn also. These notes would not help anyone for very long, and they could hurt for a very long time. Paper Flowers And Disciples, Wesley T. Runk, CSS Publishing Co., Inc., 1977, 0-89536-197-3 From my sermon on the Wasteful Steward.) We have already been given all the energy and talent we need to feed the hungry, teach every child, settle disputes, and make it through the toughest times. These skills and resources are evident in our hobbies, our friendships, our grudges, and our schemes. We have it in us!. Jesus, as usual, uses an odd metaphor to point this out. And now, a poem: Often the gifts we have are really being used, They’re just aimed incorrectly and being abused. If you abhor waste and desire success Then love God and your neighbors with all you possess. Humor: You Took Me In Henry Ford was known for both his frugality and his philanthropy. He was visiting his family's ancestral village in Ireland when two trustees of the local hospital found out he was there, and they managed to get in to see him. They talked him into giving the hospital $5,000 dollars (this was the 1930's, so $5,000 dollars was a great deal of money). The next morning, at breakfast, he opened his newspaper to read the banner headline: "American Millionaire Gives Fifty Thousand to Local Hospital." Ford wasted no time in summoning the two hospital trustees. He waved the newspaper in their faces. "What does this mean?" he demanded. The trustees apologized profusely. "Dreadful error," they said. They promised to get the editor to print a retraction the very next day, stating that the great Henry Ford hadn't given $50,000, but only $5,000. Well, hearing that, Ford offered them the other $45,000, under one condition: that the trustees erect a marble arch at the entrance of the new hospital, with a plaque that read, "I walked among you and you took me in." Billy D. Strayhorn, Let's Make a Deal

Life - A Tough Decision Sometimes

September 21, 2008 Life – a tough decision sometimes Phillipians 1 Matthew 20:16-20 Year A Introduction: What is fair? What is fair? That is a question that we all have been asking all of our lives, in every situation. When we were children, we were obsessed with what is fair, we wanted to make sure that we got everything that we saw that every one else had. The jews had that question The isrealites have always asked that question about life too. The old testment is based on that question of what does it mean to be fair. Is it fair that if I have more money than you do – that I get to spend my money on whatever I want and watch you starve? Or it is fair that I take everything that I own no matter how hard I work and put it in a common pot so that everything can be fed. We don’t realize that they never answered their own question – and they never lived up to the ideals that they established in the bible. We continue to have that question today We still ask that question today? What does it mean to be fair – how to we distribute our resources. The economy is still our biggest issue – and we are becoming painfully aware that there is never an anwer. An Experiment I would like to try an experiment (have two volunteers one walk around the sanctuary twice and one just walk up – but they both get a dime) What is fair? Was that fair? Jesus says that it is – he tells the story of a landowner who is paying people to work – and he pays the last just as much as the first. And says that it is his money he can spend it as he likes Jesus uses the questions of our lives in order to teach us a lesson It is obvious to us all that the landowner is God, and that all of the resources of our lives is God. But is Jesus really saying that God has a right to treat us any way because everything belongs to God. Jesus was Jewish – and jewish don’t have a problem questioning God – and letting god know when life is not fair. We Christians tend to be a little complacent. One person said that if this story is true – then there is no reason for us to come to church – until we are on our deathbed. It also justifies the economic reality that the rich get richer, while the poor get poorer. Is life really fair? But Jesus life story is not about the economic reality of the world – it is about the divine reality of God. The concept of Shalom In the midst of their questioning of what it fair about life – they developed the concept of shalom. Which says that in order for their to be peace, their has to be justice. In order for us to have personal peace – we have to have community peace, when all people are taken care o- there is justice, so there is peace. And the only way for a community to have shalom is to be centered around God. God is the center of what is fair, not the circumstances of our life Paul also talks about a life centered on God Philippians a very good lesson plan – it is short and includes everything I want to focus on the book for the next four weeks – because it has some significant lessons. It is the mission statement of many organizations including our church. We will focus on chapter 2 next week. Background on Philippi I have visited Philippi – it is a very small town on the side of the highway – not even a mile long – everything is included in a square. But Paul really loved these people for the way they accepted the gospel. And they way they accepted him. He was in jail in Epshesus – and they had sent a representative to take care of him. The representative shared the struggles of the church – but got sick while trying to help. Paul sent him home with this message. Focus on chapter 1 He tells them that at this moment that he is struggling so, that at this moment life is a choice – between dying and seeing Jesus personally, or staying alive and being in relationship with them. As long as he is alive – he will be struggling. And yet it is joy which keeps him alive and connected to the people he loves. It is suffering which makes us ask the question of whether life is really fair. We want what is fair because we all want to be happy Joy is shalom life with God Quote A pastor says that life with joy is a life where we learn to deal with our suffering. And our suffering leads us to new places we would never have gone, to new strength we would never knew possible to happiness we would never have found. We want joy not happiess Paul would say that we want joy, not happiness My cup runneth over Finally, I want to leave you with a practice that I learned about this day which demonstrates the joy of life with God – every morning this lady says that she fills a bowl up with water and lets it run over. As it overflows – she prays that God will bring in the events of her day. May God be present and may god bless her with life overflowing in that day. Then she keeps the bowl on the kitchen sink – so that she can be reminded that God is bringing her new life. Life brings both good and bad - asks God to bring it on With God in Christ I have

We are in this Together (Part II)

September 14, 2014 Matthew 18:21-35 We are in this together (Part II) Year A 14th Sunday After Pentecost Forgiveness Is Not Innate William Willimon writes: "The human animal is not supposed to be good at forgiveness. Forgiveness is not some innate, natural human emotion. Vengeance, retribution, violence, these are natural human qualities. It is natural for the human animal to defend itself, to snarl and crouch into a defensive position when attacked, to howl when wronged, to bite back when bitten. Forgiveness is not natural. It is not a universal human virtue." Peter and forgiveness. Relatedness to the scripture. Not natural, so would comeup with laws to forgive. He is expecting Jesus to say: “Excellent Peter. You go to the head of the class. You get A+.” According to Jewish law, Peter had the right to think that he had done something good. Scribal law clearly read: “If a man transgresses one time, forgive him. If a man transgresses two times, forgive him. If a man transgresses three times, forgive him. If a man transgresses four times, do not forgive him.” What Peter has done is to take this law of limited forgiveness, multiply it by two and add one, and then sit back with a smile on his face and say: Now how is that for being a great guy? And he surely must have been taken aback when Jesus said you must forgive seventy times seven. Forgiveness is key to our relationship. Sometime in life we have to forgive. On order to be a community we have to be able to forgive. Not to forgive as our minds tell us, but as God tells us. Jesus says that you should forgive people 7 x 70 times. How many times is that it is 490. That is a lot. I think that it may be hard for one person to sin against us 490 times. But if they do, does that mean that the 491st time we have permission to stay mad and not forgive them? More important, Jesus tells us that we need to stop keeping score. Get rid of the score card. Stop worrying about what others owe us. He gives the example of a slave who gets mad at another person for owing him, but he is thrown into jail for a debt so large that he can never repay. On his salary, 2000 years later, he would still be trying to earn the money.and yet he was forgiven. We have a lot to be forgiven about, and God paid it all. Forgiven: Too Poor to Pay (A good sermon closer) When the books of a certain Scottish doctor were examined after his death, it was found that a number of accounts were crossed through with a note: "Forgiven--too poor to pay." But the physician's wife later decided that these accounts must be paid in full and she proceeded to sue for money. When the case came to court the judge asked but one question. Is this your husband's handwriting? When she replied that it was he responded: "There is no court in the land that can obtain a debt once the word forgiven has been written." And that is the good news that the Gospel offers us this morning. God's attitude is not "I'll forgive but I won't forget," but rather, "Forgiven, Forgotten Forever." Across our debt has been written the words, "Forgiven--too poor to pay." Once a debt has been cancelled there is no one who can collect on it. God wipes it out of his mind. Oh, if we could only do that. If we could forgive others like that; If we could forgive ourselves like that. But I that was last week’s sermon. This week I think Jesus is telling us to go even further. Forgiveness is not about what God has done for us. I think Jesus us really trying to tell us that we need to throw away the score card. We have to stop keeping score of all of our wrongs and all of our rights. God does not keep a score card, with the intention to make us pay up. That person who cut us off on the road this morning, is a child of God, just like we are, God is in their life as God is in ours. The score is even for us all in the eyes of God. You still keeping score? There's a scene from a movie a few years ago called "Nobody's Fool." There's a working man named Donald Sullivan. Everybody calls him Sully. He's about sixty years old, and spent his whole life in the same town. When his parents died, he inherited their house. He never moved in. Instead he left it alone. It was the house where his father beat him as a child. So he has left it alone, and every day he drives by to watch it slowly fall apart. One day he takes one of his friends, a builder, through that broken-down house. The builder says, "Sully, you could have saved this place. You could have fixed it up a little bit, rented it out. You could have sold it and put the money in your own pocket. Instead you stick it to your old man. What's it been - - thirty, thirty-five years? You still keeping score? Well, here's the good news: you won." Meanwhile the house is falling down . . . Sometimes we have to make to decision do we want to be right, or do we want to be well. Tending to Spiritual Wounds Human beings created in the image of God need to be held accountable. If a shark bites you while you are swimming off the California coast, you would never talk about forgiving the shark, much less of trying to find ways to communicate why what he did hurt you. He's just a shark! He thought you were a seal. That's that. But it's very different when a person acts like a shark and takes a bite out of your soul. Here is someone who must be dealt with as a responsible moral agent. Here's someone who needs to know the damage she did, including if that means your saying, "I can't forgive you right now. I am that hurt. I've got to recover before I will have a chance to rally the resources I'll need to forgive you." If someone is mangled in a car accident, the first priority is to get the physical wounds healed. If there are mental wounds like post-traumatic stress syndrome or the like, then they need to be healed with therapy eventually. But even if you are a therapist who passes by the accident, you'd be a fool to kneel down next to the wrecked car and say, "Let's talk about this accident so you can deal with it in a healthy psychological way." Of course not! Even a therapist would need to grab a hankie and staunch the flow of blood first. Get to the other stuff later. So also with great spiritual wounds: the immediate injuries need to be tended to first. Then, sometime later, you may be in a position to move on toward forgiving the one who inflicted the wounds. And, of course, there are any number of phenomena that can make forgiveness a long, tortured process. It is exceedingly hard to forgive people who refuse to admit they were wrong. It is very difficult to proffer forgiveness to people who slap the gift of grace out of your hand saying, "Keep your forgiveness! I don't want it!" It is difficult to forgive the person who won't speak with you, refuses to look at you or meet with you. Scott Hoezee, The Long Haul I think that Jesus is trying to help usto understand that it is only when we understand what it means to forgive greatly, that we come to understand the value of God’s great mercy. When we are able to forgive others, then we can appreciate what God has done for us. Why Forgive? Two decades ago (1981) there was an attempt on the life of Pope John Paul. Fortunately, the Pope lived. After he recovered, he shocked the world when he made a visit to Rome’s Rabbibia Prison to see the man who had attempted to assassinate him on Christmas day. Millions watched on television as the Pope visited with Mehmet Ali Agca, who only two years before had tried to assassinate him. The white-robed Pope and jean-clad terrorist huddled in the dark prison cell for 20 minutes, talking in low voices that could not be heard. When he emerged John Paul explained, "I spoke to a brother whom I have pardoned." I will never forget the headline the next week in Time Magazine, "Why forgive?" That is a good question, one that has been asked for centuries. It was asked by Peter in verse 21 of the passage that was read this morning. If you have not asked the question; wait, you will someday. Adapted from Randall H. Perry, ‘Who Me? Forgive Who?’ Text Illustration: Forgiveness is not about making the other person right in what they did… forgiveness is about 2 things, first it is obedience to your calling as a Child of God, and 2nd it is an instrument that frees you from the bondage of resentment and revenge. Matt 18:21-35 Bobby Stults (Aug 2007) How Many Times? by Brett Blair Passage: Matthew 18:21-35 · Lectionary: Proper 19 Item 6 of 19 | Back to Results Exegetical Aim: There is no limit to forgiveness Props-Suggested: A portable marker board (or writing pad), a marker, and eraser. Lesson: Good morning. Hold up the board. I want to do a little math this morning but first let me ask you a question. What does "I forgive you" mean? (response) What does it mean when I say, "I forgive you?" (response) I've been wondering this week how many times I am so suppose to forgive someone. As you count up to seven write each number along the top of the board. The children will probably allow two or three but no more. If they allow five make six and seven too many. What if someone does ONE bad thing to me? Should I forgive them? (response) What if they do the same thing to me again? Write the number 2.(response) Ok, I should forgive them TWO times. But let's say they do something else to me that's bad. That makes THREE bad things they have done to me. Should I forgive them three times? (response) Alright, one more time I'll forgive them. But they do four things now. Do I forgive them? (response) Now they do FIVE. What do I do? (response) What's the next number? (six) That's a big number. What if this person does SIX bad things against me? Should I forgive them that many times? (response) What comes after six? (seven)Now, I can understand forgiving someone 2 times or even three but if they do something bad to me seven times am I suppose to forgive them that many? (response) How many times am I suppose to forgive them? (response) Why? (response) Jesus said something that is pretty amazing. Someone asked him, "Lord, how many times am I suppose to forgive my brother when he does something wrong to me? Am I suppose to forgive him seven times?" Circle the number seven. Jesus said to him, "No, not seven times but seventy times seven." Does any one know how many times that is? (response) Let's find out. Let's do a little math. Write the equation out and solve it-some of course will need help solving the math problem: 70x7 490 7x0 is how many? (response) and 7x7 is how many? (response) that comes to 490. Now what is Jesus saying? Is he saying we are suppose to forgive 490 times and no more or is he saying something else? (response) What is he saying? (response) We are always to forgive. You see that is the way God deals with us. He always forgives us. Every time. No matter how many times you come to him-seven times or 491 times-he will forgive. And since God is so forgiving he asked us to be forgiving as well. Let's Pray: Dear Lord you forgive us of all the bad things we do help us to forgive others too. Brett Blair, ChristianGlobe, 2000 Back to Results | Item 6 of 19 Will Willimon Two Million Dollar Mistake John D. Rockefeller built the great Standard Oil empire. Not surprisingly, Rockefeller was a man who demanded high performance from his executives. One day, one of those executives made a two million dollar mistake. Word of the man’s enormous error quickly spread throughout the executive offices, and the other men began to make themselves scarce, not wanting to cross his path. One man didn’t have any choice, however, since he had an appointment with the boss. So he straightened his shoulders and walked into Rockefeller’s office. As he approached Rockefeller’s desk, he looked up from the piece of paper on which he was writing. “I guess you’ve heard about the two million dollar mistake our friend made,” he said abruptly. “Yes,” the executive said, expecting Rockefeller to explode. “Well, I’ve been sitting here listing all of our friend’s good qualities, and I’ve discovered that in the past he has made us many more times the amount he lost for us today by his one mistake. His good points far outweigh this one human error. So I think we ought to forgive him, don’t you?” Dale Galloway, You Can Win with Love, in The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, Charles Swindoll, Word Pub., p. 215. www.eSermons.com, Staff Forgiving As God Forgives Someone once said that the scariest, most sobering word in the entire New Testament is that tiny little word "as." "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us." That vital connection between God's abiding forgiveness of us and of our in turn forgiving others tells us that we must forgive. This is not some weird demand on God's part, however. This is not some hoop we must jump through to earn our salvation or to perform like some trained dog just because God enjoys watching us do tricks. No, the reason for the connection between God's forgiving us and our forgiving others is because of the sheer power of God's forgiveness. It is so great that it simply must and will change us. The reason God expects us to forgive as a result of our being forgiven is the same reason you can expect to be wet after diving into Lake Michigan: water is wet and when you immerse yourself in it, you get wet. So also with forgiving grace: grace is magnetic and beautiful. When God immerses you in grace and saves your life eternally by it, you will be dripping with grace yourself. You will be full of grace and truth and so spread it to others. Scott Hoezee, The Long Haul Keeping Score William G. Carter, The Arithmetic of Forgiveness DO YOU WANT TO BE RIGHT, OR DO YOU WANT TO BE WELL? Dr. David Seamands tells the story about a young woman he counseled in college several years ago. She had suffered every kind of abuse in her own home--psychological, sexual and physical. The very place that was supposed to be nurturing was instead a frightening and brutal place. He had been counseling with her several times. At last she said she was ready for him to pray for her emotional healing of the past. But as he was praying, she suddenly let out a scream that chilled him to the bone. It was so loud that he was concerned about what the secretary and people in the hall of the church might think. He turned to her and said, "What is happening? Why did you cry out like that?" She said, "I can't give them up." He was unsure of what she could not give up and said, "Please explain what you mean." She said, "My resentments. I cannot give them up." Dr. Seamands said, "Why not?" She said, "They are all I have." Twice more they met for counseling, but it was evident that her heart was no longer in it. She had come to a fork in the road and gone another way. She never returned for counseling after that. Years later, Dr. Seamands was preaching a series of meetings in another state, and at the close of the last meeting a woman came up to him who looked older than her years. She said, "Do you remember me?" He said, "I'm sorry, but I am afraid I don't." She told him her name and said, "Surely you remember the counseling session we had where I screamed in the middle of your prayer." Then it all came back to him, and she said through bitter tears, "Two divorces and one nervous breakdown later, I should have given them up." And then she walked away, and would not turn back. There is a question I sometimes ask people: "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be well?" Do you want to insist that you were not wrong and hold on to your pride, resentment and bitterness, or are you willing to let them go and be healed? Do you want to cling to the things that are destructive to you or do you want to bThere is a question I sometimes ask people: "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be well?" Do you want to insist that you were not wrong and hold on to your pride, resentment and bitterness, or are you willing to let them go and be healed? Do you want to cling to the things that are destructive to you or do you want to be well? You can be sick, or you can be made whole. The choice is up to you. (From a sermon by Rodney Buchanan, From Death to Life, 4/10/2011) ________________________

Preaching to the Rich

September 21, 2025 15th Sunday After Pentecost Jeremiah 8:18 – 9:1 Preaching to the Rich Year C Prelude Greeting Call to Worship Turn us, O God, away from the world’s temptations and distractions Return us, O God, to the quiet calm of your presence Restore us, O God, to the path you call us to follow Orient us, O God, to the hope of all that is possible through you (Presbyterian Outlook, Terri Ott) Invocation Great God, who gathers us together in spirit and in truth, sanctify our time together. Grant us wisdom and discernment. Open our hearts to receive and to give. Be glorified in our worship and the transformation that moves us forward as your people. In your glorious and precious name, we pray. Amen. (United Church of Christ Worship Ways, Cheryl Lindsay) Song There is a Balm in Gilead UMH 375 Children's Sermon jeremiah 8:18 - 9:1 For a children's sermon on Jeremiah 8:18–9:1, you can focus on how Jeremiah and God felt sad and hurt by the choices of the people. The key idea is that when we make bad choices, it hurts not only ourselves but also the people who love us, especially God. The main point: God and Jeremiah were so sad over the people's bad choices that they wept, showing us how much God's heart can be broken when we turn away from him. Children's Sermon: A story about a friend (Visuals: A happy face drawing or emoji, a sad face drawing or emoji, and a drawing of a heart with a Band-Aid on it). (Start with the happy face) "Imagine you have a best friend. You and your friend do everything together and have so much fun. You know what makes your friend happy and what makes them sad. But one day, your friend starts hanging out with new people who aren't very nice. These new friends start getting into trouble, and your best friend starts making some of those same bad choices, too. (Switch to the sad face) "You feel really sad about this, right? Your heart hurts because you know the good person your friend is, and you know these choices are going to get them into trouble. You want to tell them to stop, but they won't listen. When something bad happens to your friend, you feel their pain right along with them. (Show the heart with the Band-Aid) "This is a little bit like what happened to the prophet Jeremiah and God. Jeremiah was God's friend, and God's people were making some very bad choices. They weren't listening to God anymore and were worshiping fake gods instead. Jeremiah felt so much sadness and pain for the people he loved, the people of God, and he cried and cried. "In the Bible, Jeremiah 8 and 9 tells us about this. It's like Jeremiah and God are saying, 'Oh, if only my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night'. They were so, so heartbroken. Bringing it home • God's heart gets hurt, too: We sometimes think of God as so big and powerful that our choices don't affect him. But just like our hearts hurt when a loved one makes a bad choice, God's heart hurts, too. • The path to healing: Just like we would want our friend to stop making bad choices, God wants us to turn away from our sins and back to him. The Bible talks about a 'balm in Gilead,' a kind of medicine that could heal wounds. God is the only true physician who can heal our broken hearts and the hurt our sin causes. • Jesus wept: The sadness Jeremiah felt reminds us of Jesus. Remember the shortest verse in the Bible? 'Jesus wept' (John 11:35). He wept over the pain and sin in the world, showing us that God deeply understands and shares our suffering. (End with a question) "So, when we feel sad about a choice we've made or when we see someone we love making a bad choice, we can remember that God is with us and understands our pain. And most importantly, we can remember that turning back to God is the first step toward healing for our own hearts and for the world around us. What choices can you make today to show God and others that you care about their feelings?" (AI) Affirmation of faith (from a Brief Statement of Faith) We trust in God the Holy Spirit, everywhere the giver and renewer of life. The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith, sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor, and binds us together with all believers in the one body of Christ, the Church. The same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture, engages us through the Word proclaimed, claims us in the waters of baptism, feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation, and calls women and men to all ministries of the Church. In a broken and fearful world the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace. (Presbyterian Outlook, Terri Ott) Welcoming of Gary and Sherri Eich. – Page 50 Prayer for illumination Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on us. Open us to your life-giving Word. Quiet the voices within us that do not align with your will. Focus our minds on the message you intend for us, so we may faithfully discern your way. Amen (Presbyterian Outlook, Terri Ott) Scripture Jeremiah 8:18 – 9:1 Sermon Preaching to the Rich In 2023, the surgeon general listed loneliness as an epidemic in the U.S. More and more people feel isolated and disconnected. Theologian Henri Nouwen says The wound of loneliness (to repeat) is like the Grand Canyon - a deep incision in the surface of our existence, which has become an inexhaustible source of beauty and self-understanding. The Christian way of life does not take away our loneliness; it protects and cherishes it as a precious gift. The painful awareness of loneliness is an invitation to transcend our limitations, and look beyond the boundaries of our existence. The awareness of loneliness might be a gift we must protect and guard, because our loneliness reveals to us an inner emptiness that can be destructive when misunderstood, but filled with promise for him who can tolerate its sweet pain. Have you found some sweet pain in your own loneliness? Our primary task together in the church, as Nouwen puts it, is not to take away pain, but rather to deepen the pain to a level where it can be shared. In the sharing of our wounds will our healing come, not in the hiding of them, or the pretending that they do not exist. As God made visible in Jesus his wounded heart and showed us the stigmata way of suffering communication, so only as we are willing to suffer the baring, the sharing of our wounds, will the healing power flow; but it will flow. That’s when it flows. As Nouwen puts it, "The wound which causes us to suffer now will be revealed to us later as the place where God intimated his new creation." Henri Nouwen is famous for using the term wounded healer. For him, in our hearts, we all experienced some level of deep ache. ROBERT A. RAINES is a prolific author, currently Director of Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania, following twenty years in parish work. His sermon, God’s Wounded Healers, was preached on a return visit to First United Methodist Church of Germantown, Pennsylvania, where he had been co-minister from 1961-1970. In it he lifts up the principle that our preaching has its greatest strength and integrity sometimes when we are speaking from the experiential knowledge of our own wounds such as loneliness; when we are invoking the compassionate authority of Henri Nouwen’s "wounded healer." One night several years ago, at a group meeting at our house here in Philadelphia, a man shared his personal pilgrimage with us, his own struggle with suffering, and he concluded with a comment that I remember. He said, "I am one of the walking wounded." When that man spoke those words years ago, I didn’t realize that I was one of the walking wounded, too. I wasn’t conscious of the wounds in my heart or in touch with my own inner ache. But today I realize that I, too, am one of the walking wounded. Are you also in the ranks of the walking wounded? Are you in touch with your inner ache? Kazantzakis writes somewhere, "Every woman has a wound which will never heal" - and every man does, too. Recently I came to know a young Dutch Roman Catholic at Yale Divinity School. Henri Nouwen is his name. He is a man of rare depth and warmth. He has written a little book called The Wounded Healer, in which he suggests that loneliness may be the deepest and most painful wound in the human heart. He writes: "The wound of loneliness is like the Grand Canyon - a deep incision in the surface of our existence, which has become an inexhaustible source of beauty and self-understanding." Robert Raines says that loneliness and other dark conditions of the soul can affect everything in our lives, and can have physical, mental and spiritual symptoms. I would imagine that a prophet or either ancient or modern times would know the ache of loneliness very well. In challenging people to think in a new way, they would feel isolated and alone. The bible records every season of the prophet Jeremiah’s life. And it seems that dark emotions followed him all of his life. There is no biblical character that embraces dark emotions like Jeremiah. As he gives God word to his community his words still haunt us even today. He says, no healing only grief. Listen to the weeping of my people. The harvest is past, the summer has ended, yet we are still not saved. Jeremiah so personifies that part of the human condition that we named it for him. The word for the words spoken by such a soul as Jeremiah's is "jeremiad." The dictionary defines a jeremiad as: "a lamentation; (or) mournful complaint."3 That's Jeremiah: a mournful complainer! One who laments even as he lambasts the situation of his people. Who cries as he cries out the wrath of God. One who is sorry for the sorry state of affairs in which he is called to minister, but to which he must still speak the truth. Jeremiah speaks the truth in tearful lamentation and in tender love. During Jeremiah’s lifetime, his country was being attacked and oppressed. The attackers prevented them from coming outside the city walls to get food. And when they tried to grow food themselves, it was so hot and it never rained. – nothing grew. So when it came time for the harvest, there were no crops. Jeremiah is so sad for his people that he says that he wishes his tears were a fountain to give water. Jeremiah’s tears were not just for the outside circumstances of life, he also cried for the soul of his nation. He saw that people started to live dark lives- there was no hope, no compassion, no love, no community. People lived isolated lives. Seeing this internal darkness leads him to ask the famous question – is there no balm in Gilead? His prayer was for relief – he prayed that people would be nicer. That they would put God first in their lives. The crisis was not the famine, the crisis was for people to return to the ways of God. I am sure that today we can all relate to that same prayer. There is a lot of things going on in the news. And no matter what side we are on, we are distraught. I have heard many stories of people who feel the need to come back to the church and to get in touch with God. The old testament asks the question is there no balm in Gilead. We sung the Christian response to that Question – there is a balm in Gilead. That balm, we profess, is none other than Jesus the Christ, the Great Physician. His was a ministry of touching the untouchable, embracing the social outcast, healing the bent-over, and forgiving the unforgivable. His was a death of suffering for the cause of the kingdom so that the unredeemable might find redemption. And, his was a resurrection which proved God's own commitment to the salvation of humanity. In Jesus we encounter a God who has not abandoned us even in our sin, but rather has become invested in restoring what has been broken. Our God stands not only for "Law and Order" but for mercy and compassion. Because of that, we find the strength to look beyond our fountain of tears and live for the day when joy shall be restored. Rather than the "ching-ching" of Law and Order we await the sound of the trumpet announcing the day when "he will wipe every tear from [our] eyes," when "death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things [will] have passed away" (Revelation 21:4). CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost (Middle Third): The Hard Task of Truth-telling, by Lee Ann Dunlap Christ’s message to us there is indeed a balm even today – the balm, the relief, the healing here in the church. Jeremiah spoke to the heart of a nation, Jesus speaks to the heart of the church. There is indeed salvation – and it is up to us. Salvation is in who we are, how we live, how we treat others, more importantly in who we bring into the arms of God. Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist, told a story of how one time he was preaching a crusade in a large city, and he was preaching on this text, Jeremiah 8:20. When he gave the invitation, the man's wife who was sitting next to him, who loved the Lord Jesus, begged him with tears to go forward and give his heart to Christ. But he adamantly refused to do it. Many many years later Moody was back in that same city preaching a crusade. There was an older man who had contracted a terminal illness, and he asked to see the great evangelist. Well, Moody and his song leader, Ira Sankey, went to see this man whose hair was now gray, whose face was now wrinkled, whose body was now withered with age and disease. When Moody walked into his bedroom, his sweet godly wife was kneeling beside his bed pleading with her husband. The man was mumbling something. Moody leaned down to hear what this man was mumbling. He was repeating over and over: "The harvest is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved." Moody asked this wife why he was repeating that verse. She said, "You preached on that text the last night of your crusade here many years ago. My husband heard that sermon and adamantly refused to be saved. That's why he is repeating it now." Moody got on his knees and began to plead with that man to come to Christ. But the man just kept shaking his head and repeating over and over, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." Dwight L. Moody said that man died about sundown with gritted teeth and clinched fist, saying as he went out into eternity, "The harvest is past." Is it too late? I heard about a young man that started out of his house and he was lost, rebellious, had no use for God. His mother who loved the Lord with all of her heart, with tears in her eyes, knowing that he was going out for a night of sin, placed a little gospel tract in his hand. He cursed through clinched teeth and said, "Why did you give me that?" Today at the job somebody gave me one of those blank things." He said, "I want to tell you I am so sick and tired of gospel tracts. Where can I go where someone will not give me a gospel tract?" His mother, with a broken heart, said, "My son, you can go to hell. Nobody will give you a gospel tract there." The sun is setting on the harvest. Even now the golden grain of the harvest is falling to the ground. That's why Jesus said, "We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work." (Jn. 9:4) Robert Moffett, a great missionary and a great statesman, said, "We shall have all eternity in which to celebrate our victories, but only one short hour before the sun sets in which to win them." The sun even now is setting on the harvest. The harvest is passing and the summer is ending. The book of Jeremiah tells a tale of the seasons of a man. The seasons of a man are childhood, youth, maturity, and old age. Sometime in childhood we are supposed to learn about the Lord, so that we can begin to understand that the same God who made this world made us and provided for us all that we have and all that we need. Sometime in youth we are supposed to learn to love the Lord, just as we learn to love our father and our mother, our sisters and our brothers. We learn to love the Lord who gave us our family and included us in his family through Jesus. And then sometime in our maturity we are supposed to learn how to serve the Lord. As we appreciate what God has done for us, we begin to do things for him. As God has given to us, we learn to give to him. Then in our old age we can have joy in the presence of the Lord. We can then stand firm in the faith that God is with us and that, as the songwriter wrote, "He is very present help in the time of trouble." But in Jeremiah chapter 8, something has gone wrong with the seasons. In verse 13, God tells Jeremiah, "There will be no grapes on the vine, there will be no figs on the trees, and their leaves will wither." In verse 20, we find out what is wrong: "The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved." There is something very special about the harvest. The harvest is the culmination of all the seasons that precede it, and the preparation for all the seasons that follow it. The reason that there is the season of Spring is so that the seed that is planted in spring will become fruit for the harvest. The reason that there is the season of Summer is so that the fruit will become ripe, and the vegetables will reach maturity. The reason that there is the season of Fall is so that the fruit can be picked, and the vegetables can be gathered, and then there will be food in the storehouse for winter. Friends and Family, Family and Friends, the Lord sent me to ask you this question: "Is this the season to seek salvation?" A single mother had to ask this question concerning her teenage daughter. At age eleven, her daughter began to ask questions about God. She told her mother she wanted to go to church. But her mother wasn't religious and did not see any reason why her teenage daughter should be so religious. So she kept her out of church, but she couldn't keep her from the parties. Two years later at age thirteen, her young daughter had a baby. As she looked at her teenage daughter, the mother had to ask herself this question, "Did I miss the season to seek salvation?" A young man had to ask this question concerning his family. The young man was 25, raising a good family. The woman was a good wife for a good husband. He had no faults, except that he worked all the time. He was trying to excel in his job so that he could build up his home and take care of his family. He never had time for church. He believed in God, but he also believed that he would have time for God after a while -- after he got his promotions, after he built his new home, after his family was settled. But one day before he got his life together, time and circumstances tore his life apart. A driver missed a brake pedal, and his car went out of control. The car struck the young man, paralyzing his body from the waist down. As he was lying in the hospital bed, he had this thought: "Is this the season to seek salvation? What happens if we don't have a season of salvation? What will happen to the abused child, if our children don't find salvation? What will happen to the motherless child, if our children don't find salvation? What will happen to the babe born out of wedlock, if our children don't seek salvation? What will happen to our youth, if we don't have a season of salvation? What will happen in our schools, if our youth don't find salvation? What will happen in the neighborhood, what will happen in the "hood," if our youth don't seek salvation? What will happen to our families, if fathers don't seek salvation? What will happen to our homes, if mothers don't seek salvation? Who is going to meet us in heaven, if our old folks don't seek salvation? Who is going to be left down in Hell, if we all don't seek salvation? Is this the season to seek salvation? Maybe winter is too cold. Nobody wants to go to church in winter. Maybe spring is too wet. Too much rain, we need to stay inside. Maybe summer is too hot. And we have to enjoy ourselves sometime. Maybe the fall is too busy with baseball and football. Maybe, maybe ... The harvest is past, and summer is ended, and we are not saved. The only place to seek salvation is here; the only time to seek salvation is now. So somewhere in the here and now, we need to seek salvation." CSS Publishing, Lima, Ohio, Lord, Send The Wind, by James McLemore The title of this sermon is preaching to the rich. That is not a physical statement, but a spiritual statement. Let us be rich in God’s love, in Christ’s teaching and in being the community of the church. When we live Christ for the world we can make a difference. There is hope in difficult circumstances. There is hope in Christ. Today is the last day of summer. Summer is over and the harvest begins. But the good news is that there is salvation. Last Friday, I was moved by Billy Graham’s sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington, D. C. He has been called The Nations Pastor. Presidents look to him for guidance and wisdom. And yet, even Graham struggles with the problem of evil in our world. Let me leave you with his thoughts, “I have been asked hundreds of times in my life why God allows tragedy and suffering. I have to confess that I really do not know the answer totally, even to my own satisfaction. I have to accept, by faith, that God is sovereign, and He’s a God of love and mercy and compassion in the midst of suffering. The Bible says that God is not the author of evil. It speaks of evil as a "mystery." In 2 Thessalonians 2:7 it talks about the mystery of iniquity. The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah said, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" He asked that question, "Who can understand it?" And that’s one reason we each need God in our lives.” Though it is hard for us to see, especially during our sorrow, there is hope. There is a balm in Gilead. A physician whose hand can heal. A teacher whose words are sure. A healer who will make us whole. A savior to save our soul. He is Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. www.Sermons.com, Collected Sermons, by Brett Blair Let us pray….. Song Jesus, Lover of my Soul UMH 479 Prayer of the Day Healing God, when dismay is our daily companion, you come to touch us with your healing hope. When grief falls on us like a wall of bricks, you rebuild our joy with your comfort and love. Jesus Christ, Faithful Spirit, when bullies pick on us, you stand by our side. When neighbors taunt us for choosing to be faithful, you commend us for our wisdom. Teaching Spirit, when we are heart-sick over the brokenness of our lives, your compassion races to bring your gentle balm. When our joy is gone and we are stained by the world's cruelty, you bathe us in the tears flowing from God's broken heart. God in Community Hear our Prayer. (Lectionary Liturgies, Thom Shuman) Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment There are two things you will never have an opportunity to do in heaven. First of all, sharing is over in heaven. I mean by that, giving. There are no offering plates in heaven. That's why a lot of people will be happy to get there. There will be no talk of tithing. There will be no stewardship campaigns. There will be no buildings to build, no land to buy, no mission projects to finance. That's why you had better do your giving when you're living so you know where it's going. But also in heaven soul-winning will be over. There's is no more obligation for soul-winning in heaven, because there is no more opportunity for soul-winning in heaven. When the saint goes to heaven he can never rescue a sinner from hell. In heaven there is no sowing. In heaven there is no reaping. Therefore in heaven there is no harvest. But the summer's also ended when the sinner dies. You see, you can only have a harvest where seed is sown, and there is no gospel seed sown in hell. Prayer of Thanksgiving Generous God, you provide in abundance for us. Thank you! Help us make the decision each day to use our resources as opportunities to share your goodness with those who suffer from a lack of resources. Please receive these gifts and help us put them to full use as we seek to co-create your Realm on earth, as it is in heaven. AMEN (Disciple of Christ Center for Faith and Giving) Announcements Sending Forth Prayer for Facebook God has filled us with joy and wonder. We will go to let it overflow in the lives of others. Jesus has filled us with comfort and hope. We will go to wipe away the tears of those around us. The Spirit sends us forward in faith to share the truth of God's presence in our lives. Alleluia! We will live everyday as God's own. Amen. (Lectionary Liturgies, Thom Shuman) Community Time – Joys and Concerns Benediction Go out into the world to love and serve the Holy One In word and in deed In season and out of season In trust and in stewardship Go, faithful servant of God Go in peace (United Church of Christ Worship Ways, Cheryl Lindsay) Additional illustrations Yes. Yes - again and again. Wherever we went there were children in search of visions and people in search of affirmation. Grief, steadfastness of soul, a yearning for the balm of Gilead. Laughter and picnics. Supper of Bread and Wine. The Book. The community which, when we make it our own, transforms the world and what we come to expect of it. CSS PUBLISHING COMPANY, THE ROMANCE OF PREACHING, by James Angell One night several months ago, I came into the garage and on into our house to sounds of fighting and arguing and hollering, and found Cathy, our eighteen-year-old, and Nancy, our thirteen-year-old, in a real fight. Quickly, too quickly, I felt for the younger, the littler one, and took her side, and went over to Cathy, by the sink. There must have been something else in me that day - some frustration, some emotional power, or whatever - because all of a sudden as I was talking with her and angry with her, I slapped her face. I was appalled at what I had done! She burst into tears and ran upstairs to her room. I thought to myself, "I’ve really blown it. She’s tough and strong, and she’ll hold that against me for weeks, and she’s got a right to." So I moped around for a few minutes and then went upstairs and knocked on the door of her room, expecting it to be locked. She said, "Come in," and I opened the door and walked in. There she was, sitting on the floor, with tears on her cheeks, and I said to her, "Honey, look, I’m sorry. Forgive me will you? Can you forgive me?" Through her tears she nodded and said, "I forgive you, Daddy." I stood there for a moment, receiving her forgiveness, and then through the evening, I tried to do little things, like ask her what time it was, or bring her some cookies, or - you know - something. One time I was standing in the doorway, and she grinned at me and said, "Daddy, you don’t have to do those things. I really have forgiven you." There’s nothing you and I have to do. God really has forgiven us. And there really is a balm in Gilead - and right here - to make our wounds whole. In biblical tradition, Jeremiah is known as "the weeping prophet." More than any of the others, he expressed the heartache, the tragedy, the sorrow of being right in his truth-telling. For years, he warned his people about the consequences of worshiping false idols and abusing the poor and the helpless. For years, he had ranted and raved to kings about placing their trust in political gamesmanship rather than the God of the covenant. For years, he had condemned the religious institution and its leaders for receiving the people's sin offerings without condemning sin or teaching righteousness. Sometimes, it is as devastating to be proven right as to be wrong in our warnings. For the hurt of my people, I am hurt; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears; so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people! — Jeremiah 8:21; 9:1 Even those of us who have committed ourselves to faithful living by God's commands may wonder at times if such faith makes any difference. We pray for years for the soul of a friend or loved one; we implore God to defend us amidst "office politics"; we tithe faithfully but still struggle to find a job that can pay the bills and provide for the family. We live the wholesome lifestyle prescribed by the scriptures but still experience chronic pain or sickness. We do our best to "trust and obey" but still we sometimes wonder if God even knows or cares. But clearly the scriptures, both Hebrew and Christian, reflect a God whose heart aches for the abuser as well as the victims; for the lawbreakers as well as the enforcers. That is a place where few of us are willing to go emotionally unless forced there by circumstances in our own lives and families. When the accused is someone we love, even when they are guilty as charged, we weep a fountain of tears. And, even when our fountains run dry and all our compassion is spent, God continues to care. I am afraid the church looks at buildings, budgets, and baptisms, and has frozen the ball of evangelism, when we ought to be in a full court press, because we really are behind. Let me ask you a question, the answer to which will astound you. Who is the best known person in the world today? If you said Billy Graham, you would be wrong. If you said Mohammed Ali, you would be wrong. If you said the Pope, you would be wrong. If you said Elvis Presley, you would be wrong. If you said Jesus of Nazareth, you would be wrong. The answer is Mickey Mouse!1 Think about it. A figure who does not even exist, is better known than the Son of God who died for the sins of this world. Someone has well said that they have no fear that the church will not succeed, but that it will succeed in those things that do not matter. No matter how many barns are built, how much cattle is bought, how much seed is sown, or how much land is cultivated, that farmer is a failure who does not bring in the harvest. We have here before us, one of the most haunting statements in all of the Bible. "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." (Jere. 8:20) Jeremiah warned the people that only God could deliver them from the armies of Babylon that were marching toward the city. But they did not listen. Instead they formed an alliance with Egypt to fight the Babylonians. But Babylon defeated Egypt and marched on Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and laid siege to the people. Now back in those days people lived within the walls of the city, and the crops were outside the walls. The army simply waited for the people to run out of food and surrender. All the people could do was watch the crops spoil, the harvest wither, the summer end, and say, "We are not saved." They learned the bitter lesson that there is no loss like the loss of the harvest. I want you to see in this text before us three things about the loss of the harvest. The first statement says "the harvest is past." Right before our very eyes the harvest is passing away. The harvest is passing globally. I want you to listen to these statistics. The unevangelized population of the earth called "World A" is growing at a rate of 23,600 persons per day faster than they are being evangelized. Of the 95 invitations given to people to become disciples of Christ, 87 will be extended to people claiming to be Christian already (World C); 7.7 will be extended to people who have already been evangelized, but are non-Christians (World B); only .3 will be extended to individuals who have never heard the gospel (World A).2 There are 4.4 billion people in the world who have never heard the name Jesus. Now think about this: 23 people a minute, 1,400 people an hour, 32,600 people a day, 235,000 people a week, 12,230,000 people a year will die without ever hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. The harvest is passing nationally. Here in America the harvest is passing. Listen to these facts: Fact: Since 1980 there has been no growth in the proportion of the adult population that can be classified as "born again" Christians. Fact: Since 1970 there has been no appreciable change in the proportion of adults who attend church services at any time during the week. Fact: The fastest growing churches in America are not Christian. Among those that are expanding most rapidly are the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and various cults.3 The harvest is passing individually. It is a proven fact that the harvest is greatest during the prime of life, that is, during the early years of life. Wise old Solomon said, "Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth." (Eccl. 12:1) Several years ago a famous evangelist concluded after many many years of surveying the crowds that came to his crusades, that if a person isn't saved by the time he is 21, the chances are 5,000 to 1 that he will ever be saved. If he isn't saved by the time he is 30, the chances are 15,000 to 1 that he will ever be saved. If he isn't saved by the time he is 40, the chances are 30,000 to 1 he will ever be saved. If he isn't saved by the time he is 50, the chances are 150,000 to 1 that he will ever trust Christ as Lord and Savior. For some of you the harvest is passing, and you don't even realize it. You're getting older and your heart is hardening, and you don't even realize it. You think about it. We are a soul-winning church. We baptize hundreds of people a year, but how many do we baptize over 60? Just a few. How many over 70? Hardly any. How many over 80? None Why is the harvest past? Because "the summer is ended." The time to harvest wheat was primarily May and June. After that, the burning sun would dry out the wheat and cook the life out of it. So when the summer was ended the harvest was past. The reason the harvest was past was the season for harvest was gone. Just as there is a season for harvesting grain, there is also a season for harvesting souls, and when that season is over the harvest is past. When is the summer ended? When the saint dies his summer is ended. But the summer's also ended when the sinner dies. You see, you can only have a harvest where seed is sown, and there is no gospel seed sown in hell. I read a poem years ago that has stuck with me and it really is haunting. I want you to listen to it: When the choir has sung its last anthem, and the preacher has prayed his last prayer, When the people have heard their last sermon, and the sound has died out in the air. When the Bible lies closed on the altar, and the pews are all emptied of men, And each one stands facing his record, and the great Book is open, what then? When the actor has played his last drama, and the mimic has made his last fun, When the film has flashed its last picture, and the billboard displayed its last run, When the crowd seeking pleasure have vanished, and gone out in the darkness again, And the trumpet of ages has sounded, and we stand before Him, what then? When the bugle's call sinks into silence, and the long, marching columns stand still, When the captain repeats his last orders, and they've captured the last fort and hill. When the flag is hauled down from the masthead, and the wounded afield checked in, And a world that rejected its Savior, is asked for a reason, what then?4 I read a long time ago a true story of a young man and his wife who are very much in love. They lived in Alberta, Canada. They went out one moonlit night in the time of harvesting to walk in the golden moon as it was shining there upon the wheat fields. The wheat fields were like a golden ocean waving in the breeze and in the moonlight. It was so beautiful. They had their little son with them. This couple, so much in love with each other and that little boy, were walking through the wheat fields enjoying the beauty. They just forgot where the little boy was; he was just a little tot, not even old enough to go to school. All of a sudden they realized their little boy was no longer with them. At that particular moment the wife went in one direction and the husband went in the other. They started calling him, thinking they would find him immediately. But instead they got further and further away from the spot where they first missed him. They realized that they had misplaced him in thousands of acres. They realized that before long the coldness of that Canadian night would be settling in. Their little boy who was not heavily dressed would probably freeze to death. So while the wife stayed there, the husband hurried back to the village and called the people and said, "Would you please come help us? We've got to find our son." So as many of the people as could came there to that wheat field to help them look for that little boy. It seemed as though they literally were threshing the wheat as they were looking for that lost son. They prayed, they searched, they looked, they called, and finally as the night grew on in its bitterness, one man said, "I believe there is a better way to do this. Let's get organized. Let's make a human chain. Let's stretch out and join hand to hand and then sweep these fields. We will go up one side and turn around and come back the other and if he's in here we'll find him." Up and down they went until suddenly there was a cry "I found him." Everybody rushed together to find the lifeless form of that little fellow who had died of exposure. According to that story strong men wept, and one voice was heard to say, "Oh God, why didn't we join our hands together sooner?" There are people all around us and all over the world who are slipping out through the jaws of death into a Christless eternity. Would you say with me today, "We will join hands for the harvest that people might come to Jesus?" 1. D. James Kennedy, The Gates of Hell Shall not Prevail, p. 215. 2. Networker, April/May 1993, p.1. The name, Albert Einstein, is one of the most well-known names in all the world. Time magazine chose him as "Person of the Century." His influence is seen in every life around the world. The atomic bomb, the big bang, electronics, quantum physics all bear his influence. He will probably be considered for all time the standard by which all scientists measure themselves. But as tall as he was in scientific theory, he was equally as small in spiritual theology. Because even though Einstein believed in a being who had "superior reasoning power" he once said, "Certainly there is a God. Any man who doesn't believe in a cosmic force is a fool. But we could never know Him."1 Einstein believed in a "cosmic force" that was intelligent and powerful. But he denied that He was a personal God that could be known. Now contrast that to what the prophet Jeremiah was told by God Himself. "Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight,' says the Lord." (Jere. 9:23-24) This verse is not only an antidote to the wrong kind of pride; the pride that either denies God or denies that God is a personal God, or denies that God is a personal God that we can know. It is a prescription for the right kind of pride. There is a pride that is right, and it is the pride of knowing God. You see, there are two things about human wisdom that make it a poor place to place your pride or your trust. First of all, human wisdom alone can never know God. V.21 of this same chapter says, "For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God." Prov. 1:7 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." But there's one other thing that we do not know that puts a limit on all that we do know, and that is the future. The most brilliant Ph.D. at Harvard University does not even know what is going to happen in the next sixty seconds. That is why no wise man should glory in his wisdom. When he was the Heavyweight Champion of the world, he got on an airplane, and he was walking up and down the aisles signing autographs and enjoying the adulation of the people on board. A stewardess walked up to him and said, "Mr. Ali, you'll need to take a seat and fasten your seatbelt. We're about to take off." Muhammad Ali said, "Listen, superman don't need no seatbelt." The stewardess said, "Superman don't need no airplane either, now sit down and buckle up." Let not the mighty man glory in his might. Well, the reason why God wants us to know Him is that we might become like Him. Because to know God in your heart is to show God in your life. Now that raises a practical question. How can you know God? I mean really know God; not know about Him, but know Him personally. Let me give you three steps: Number one: By listening to Him – God has given us His word not just to put facts in our head, but to put faith in our heart. This word is God's revelation to us. When you read it, not just with your eyes, but with your soul, you will begin to know God. Secondly, by living for Him – Did you know the more you obey God the better you'll get to know God, and the more you'll be like God. 1 John 2:4 says, "He who says, ‘I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." Finally, by loving God – That is the real mark of knowing God, because to know God is to love God, and to love God is to want to listen to God and live for God. When there is nothing left but to grieve, as Christians our call is to accompany the suffering through their grief. We love them through their journey and grieve with them — but we grieve as a people who have hope. We grieve as a people who know that there is "a balm in Gilead" to make us all whole. We know that the Holy Spirit has the power to revive our discouraged souls. We know that the love of God shown us in the death and resurrection of Jesus will carry us through — through suffering and even through death to life and to peace. In the name of Jesus. Amen. When a person is diagnosed with a serious disorder, one that threatens their very existence, life as we know it is turned upside down. There is research to conduct about traditional and alterna¬tive treatments. There are specialists with whom to consult. Some¬times there are changes in lifestyle and in priorities to be consid¬ered, as Tim McGraw sang in his 2004 hit, "Live Like You Were Dying." I have watched this process in many parishioners over the years. Quite often everyone, including the person with the terminal diag¬nosis, is amazed when they outlive their prognosis by months and sometimes even years. Medical science and mental attitude can do amazing things to sustain and extend the quality of life and the number of months a person has to live. But there comes a point, when treatments can no longer fend off the threat ... or the prospect of death becomes more tolerable than the treatment of the disease. At this point, hospice organiza¬tions can be a tremendous resource to a terminally ill person and their family. Hospice care encompasses nearly every aspect of a dying patient's needs so that she and her loved ones can simply be with one another. Hospice's ability to manage pain is a great bless¬ing that enables loved ones to be as present with one another as possible until the end. It is at this point in a terminally ill person's journey that he and his family often truly begin to mourn. There has been grief work going on since the moment the words of the diagnosis fell upon the ears of those in the physician's office, but the stage of grief that Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross calls "acceptance" is the stage when there's nothing left to do but keep watch and mourn. nd now, for the first time, the prophet Jeremiah acknowl¬edges that there is nothing left for him to do but mourn. Although his ministry with the people of Judah will continue on for several years, he knows that no matter what he says or what he does, Judah will not listen. Judah will not own up to her condition. Judah will not seek healing. No, Judah will be destroyed, or at the very least, she will be severely debilitated. She will eventually fall to the forces of Babylon. The treaties previously forged with neighboring na¬tions will do her no good. Even her claim of holiness as the place that is home to the temple of the Lord will mean nothing to the Lord. The Lord can raise up another temple in three days. All of this is not to say that Jeremiah won't continue to warn the people of Judah, won't continue to call them to repent. Jeremiah will continue to serve God's purposes, even as it causes him pain and anguish and grief to do so. His life will be threatened. He will forego the joys of marriage and family. He will face ridicule and despair, but Jeremiah has been called of God, called to a ministry for which he would never have asked. And he cannot help but ful¬fill it. I don’t know why the suffering in Sudan is so widespread, so intense. Who could explain it? I don’t know. But I do know that Angelina is right. I do know that Christ is present there. I do know that Christ will help, even when no one else will, when no one else can. There is so much I do not know. But I do know that our lives are in God’s hands. I do know that God’s love for us has no boundary. I do know that there is someone to heal us. There is someone to make us well. There is someone to soothe the pain and mend the heart. I know it is so. The weeping prophet Jeremiah, who wishes his eyes might be like fountains because his need to cry for his people is so great, asks with sorrow in his voice, “Is there no balm in Gilead?” Is there nothing to make it better? Is there no one to save us? Know the answer? I do. This answer is yes: Yes, there is a balm to make the wounded whole. Yes, there is something, someone to make it better. Yes, there is someone to save us. Yes, there is a balm to heal the sin-sick soul. The answer is yes. I know it is so. That’s why I’m here. And I suppose that’s why you’re here, because you know it is so, too. Or you suspect it is so. Or you hope it is so. Friends, the tear-stained face of Jesus is a reminder that our suffering is God’s suffering. Our pain is God’s pain. God became flesh in Jesus because God has promised not to leave us alone. The cross is the sign of God’s commitment to this world, God’s commitment to us, God’s commitment to you. In the cross, God’s love intersects our sorrow. In the cross, our lives are inextricably linked with God’s life. You can see that for yourselves. You can see that in every cross. You can see that in your own life. The summer is past. The seasons are changing. Time is moving. The one whose love heals and soothes and makes us whole gives us a new chance to keep those promises and follow through on those good intentions and make those dreams come true and see those hopes come to pass. Friends, we have been saved. The news is good. I know it is so. There is a balm in Gilead. Hallelujah! Another season has come and gone. Promises that were made have not been fulfilled. Good intentions haven’t yielded any tangible results. Dreams have not come true. High hopes have proven to be only wishful thinking. Nothing has really changed; nothing has really improved. The time keeps moving along, but we seem stuck in the same ruts. Old routines remain, prejudices persist, dullness and anxiety continue to be constant companions. Lingering in the air is that nagging sense that things aren’t quite right, not as they could be, not as they should be. As Jeremiah says, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved” (8:20). Time has moved along, the seasons are changing, but nothing has really changed for us. Same old people in the same old lives. Sin still has us in its grip, running our lives, ruining our lives, confusing our sense of what matters, leading us away from God. Why aren’t things better? What about those promises God has made? Why haven’t we been restored? Why haven’t we been made whole? Is there not a balm in Gilead? Is there no one to heal us? Nothing to make us well? No way to soothe the pain and mend the heart? "There is a balm in Lima to make the wounded whole, there is a balm in Lima to heal the sin sick soul." Thanks be to God for that balm, who is Jesus, his Christ. The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved (Jeremiah 8:20). At the beginning of his ministry, Jeremiah hoped that the destruction would not come. But alas, he knew it could not be stopped. Israel had gone too far and God’s decision had now been made. In his grief Jeremiah remembered Gilead—a region to the east where great spices grow, which physicians use to heal wounds. Is there no balm in Gilead? He asked. Is there no physician, no healer, no prophet, no priest, no teacher that can cure Israel’s wound? The answer is “No.” Israel will not know healing until she has paid for her sins. Jeremiah stood at the crossroads of history. His great nation came face to face with an angry God and with good reason. They had forgotten God and worshiped idols. They stopped defending the fatherless and protecting the poor. They had become violent and sexually promiscuous. For these reasons and more God judged his people. But it is not the end of the story. There was a promise that God would one day forgive the people and heal the land if they would repent while in exile. So you see God’s relationship is no longer to a nation but to a people—his church. Does that mean that God is not somehow involved in the affairs of nations?