Mission and Discipleship

October 5, 2025 World Communion Sunday 17th Sunday After Pentecost Psalm 137 Mission and Discipleship Year C Prelude Greeting Good morning on this first Sunday of October – It is good to see each and everyone of you here. It is also glad to see those who I can’t see on Facebook. No matter who we are – we all are a child of God, Gods grace is with us, and god has called us into this space. Welcome – god is glad that you are here, and wants you to feel comfortable and at home. October always starts our with world communion Sunday – where are reminded that God calls us to be the hands and feet of grace. We re reminded of the stories of others, and as John Wesley used to say the world is my parish – we are all one no matter where we are in the world. This is also the first day of our stewardship campaign – where we are encouraged to think about our commitment to our church. Our theme for the next six weeks will be mission, discipleship and stewardship. This is an interesting time in the church, lots of special things are happening this time of year. Let us begin as we feel the presence of God all around…… Introit Call to Worship LEADER: Come, all who sit by rivers of sorrow, who have hung up their hope and wondered if God still sings. PEOPLE: We come carrying exile in our bones, dislocation in our hearts, and longing in our prayers. LEADER: This is the table where memory is honored, where story is sacred, where strangers become siblings. PEOPLE: We come to taste and see that the Lord is good, to feast on grace, to believe again in belonging. LEADER: table is set. Around the world, across languages and landscapes, a holy PEOPLE: We come not because we are worthy, but because Christ calls us in love. ALL: Come, let us worship the One who welcomes, the One who remembers, the One who feeds the whole world with hope. Opening Prayer Gracious God, with grateful hearts we gather to bring you praise. May your praises fill the whole earth. We are thankful for your mighty works, and for the tender care you give us. We praise you with our voices, our bodies, our instruments, ourselves. We join all of creation to give you praise. In the name of your Son, our Lord, amen. (Peace and Global Witness, Charles Wiley) Song Bread of the World UMH 624 A Sermon for all Ages ITEMS TO GATHER • A globe or world map; • Small pieces of different kinds of bread (pita, tortilla, challah, etc.) or pictures of bread; • Communion cup (or grape juice box) SCRIPT Good morning, friends! Today is a special day in our church called World Communion Sunday. That means Christians all over the world…people in Africa, Asia, South America, and right here in our own city…are all celebrating communion today. We are all different, but Jesus brings us together like one big family! Look at this globe. Can you find a place you’ve heard of or where someone you love lives? (Pause and let a few respond.) People there and there and there and there and even us right here are taking communion today! Isn’t that amazing? And look at this bread…different kinds of bread from around the world. Do you recognize the bread we use here in our church? Just like the bread might look different, the people might look or sound different, yet they’re gathered with church friends to eat the bread and drink the juice. No matter who eats the bread or where they eat the bread, we all remember Jesus’ love for each of us and how he taught us to love like God loves. When we take communion, we remember Jesus and his life. We remember that Jesus loves us, and we are called to love others too. No matter where they live or what kind of bread they eat. So today, let’s thank God for people all around the world, and let’s remember we’re part of one big family...Jesus’ family. church? Just like the bread might look different, the people might look or sound different, yet they’re gathered with church friends to eat the bread and drink the juice. No matter who eats the bread or where they eat the bread, we all remember Jesus’ love for each of us and how he taught us to love like God loves. When we take communion, we remember Jesus and his life. We remember that Jesus loves us, and we are called to love others too. No matter where they live or what kind of bread they eat. So today, let’s thank God for people all around the world, and let’s remember we’re part of one big family...Jesus’ family. Have children repeat after you phrase by phrase as Dear God, Thank you for loving everyone, Everywhere in the world. Help us to share your love, With all your people. We love you God. Thank you for loving us. Amen. Dear God, thank you for loving everyone in the world. Help us to share your love with all of your people. We love you God. Thank you for loving us. Amen Derywhere in the world. Help us to share your lo Affirmation of Faith The Nicene Creed UMH 880 Anthem Scripture Psalm 137 Sermon Mission and Discipleship Introduction: When the World Feels Strange Have you ever felt like the world around you has changed so much that you hardly recognize it anymore? Like the ground beneath your feet has shifted—and suddenly, you’re not quite sure where you belong? That’s where the people of God found themselves in Psalm 137. They were exiles—taken from their homeland, dragged to Babylon, and surrounded by a foreign culture that didn’t share their faith, their values, or their hope. They sat by the rivers of Babylon and wept. Their harps—symbols of worship—hung silent on the trees. Their captors mocked them: “Sing us one of your happy songs about Zion!” But the people couldn’t. Their hearts were broken. Their faith was shaken. And they cried out, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” ________________________________________ I. Exile: A Reality Then and Now For the Israelites, exile was literal. They were torn from Jerusalem, from the Temple, from everything that gave their lives structure and meaning. But exile comes in many forms. Today, exile might look like this: • A church that once thrived but now feels empty. • A believer who feels out of place in a world that has forgotten God. • A person whose faith feels foreign even in their own home. We too sit by the rivers of Babylon at times—longing for a world that once felt more faithful, more grounded, more holy. Illustration: I once visited a congregation that had nearly given up. Their pastor said, “We’ve been shrinking for so long that we stopped dreaming. We hung up our harps.” But then they started a small food pantry. Week after week, hungry families began to come. Soon, worship attendance grew—not because people came for food, but because they found hope. That church learned to sing again in a strange land. ________________________________________ II. The Temptation to Silence The psalm says, “We hung up our harps.” That’s not just a poetic line—it’s a spiritual danger. When life gets hard, when ministry feels futile, when culture shifts away from faith—it’s tempting to go silent. To stop singing. To stop serving. To stop believing our small efforts matter. But discipleship is not conditional. We are called to follow Jesus even in exile. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) Faithfulness is not about comfort—it’s about calling. Even when the land feels foreign, the mission remains. Illustration: A missionary in Eastern Europe once said, “We came thinking we’d build a church. Instead, we learned to plant seeds of hope in soil that looked barren. Now, people are singing who didn’t even know the song before.” Disciples don’t hang up their harps—they tune them to God’s heart, wherever they are. ________________________________________ III. Remembering Who We Are The exiles said, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.” Even in Babylon, they remembered who they were—the people of God. Memory became their survival. They couldn’t sing for Babylon, but they could sing to God. Mission begins with memory. Before we can go out into the world, we must remember who sent us. Before we serve, we must remember Whose we are. In baptism, we were named and claimed. In the Great Commission, we were sent: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… and remember, I am with you always.” (Matthew 28:19–20) The exile wasn’t the end of the story. It was the training ground for renewal. ________________________________________ IV. Singing as an Act of Resistance To sing in exile is to resist despair. It’s to declare, “God is still God, even here.” Think about the spirituals sung by enslaved Africans in America. In the deepest oppression, they sang, “Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home.” Those songs were acts of resistance and faith—songs that said, “You may chain my body, but you can’t silence my soul.” That’s what mission looks like: singing hope into hopeless places. Illustration: When Paul and Silas were imprisoned in Acts 16, they didn’t despair—they sang hymns. And Scripture says, “the prisoners were listening.” That’s discipleship. The world listens when God’s people sing through suffering. Every act of love, every meal shared, every prayer whispered in a broken world is a song of the Lord in a strange land. ________________________________________ V. The Hard Ending: Anger and Hope Psalm 137 ends with disturbing words—violent, vengeful cries for justice. They sound shocking to modern ears. But don’t dismiss them too quickly. They are the honest cries of a wounded people longing for God to set things right. Mission and discipleship don’t mean pretending everything is fine. They mean bringing our whole selves to God—anger, grief, and all—and trusting Him to transform our pain into purpose. Through Christ, God took the cry for vengeance and turned it into a call for redemption. “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44) The cross is where exile ends—and mission begins again. ________________________________________ VI. Application: Singing Where You Are So what does it mean to sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? It means this: • If your workplace feels hostile to faith—sing there by living with integrity. • If your community feels broken—sing there by serving. • If your church feels small—sing there by loving one another deeply. Illustration: One small rural church in Illinois—just 15 members—started “Mission Meals.” Once a month, they made hot dinners for anyone who needed them. Over time, they served hundreds. One woman said, “I came for food, but I found family.” That’s singing the Lord’s song in Babylon. ________________________________________ VII. Conclusion: Don’t Hang Up Your Harp The world may feel strange. The culture may shift. The church may shrink. But our mission has not changed. We are disciples of the risen Christ, called to love, serve, and witness in every land—familiar or foreign. We sing not because life is easy, but because God is faithful. So take your harp off the tree. Lift your voice again. Because the world still needs to hear the song of God’s grace. “Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things.” (Psalm 98:1) ________________________________________ Closing Prayer Lord, when the world feels foreign, teach us to remember You. When we are tempted to give up, help us to keep singing. Let our lives be songs of hope, faith, and love— until every land, and every heart, becomes Your home. In Jesus’ name, Amen. sermon written by Chapt GPT version 5 Song One Bread, One Body Pastoral Prayer God of the rivers and the wilderness, of Babylon and Jerusalem, we come to you today with the deep ache of a world that still knows displacement. We pray for all who are wandering, refugees fleeing war, immigrants seeking welcome, souls lost in systems that forget their name. May they find rest. May they find home. We pray for the ones whose faith feels the size of a mustard seed, tiny, unsure, overwhelmed. May they know that even the smallest act of trust can plant forests of transformation. Help us show up, as servants, as neighbors, as those willing to set the table for others. We lift up those in sorrow, those grieving loss, carrying illness, navigating fractured relationships. Hold their brokenness with tenderness. Bring healing where healing can come, and peace where it cannot. We pray for the church universal, each congregation celebrating Communion this day, each voice singing in their own key of grace. Let our unity not erase our difference, but celebrate it, a foretaste of the kingdom where every tribe, every language, every story has a place. And God, where the world breaks trust and justice is delayed, let your Spirit stir us toward equity, let your church rise to embody compassion, and let your table always remain open, never guarded. In the name of Christ who breaks bread with the broken, we pray. Amen.WORSHIP & PRAYER Lord’s Prayer A Stewardship Moment Invite several folks to bring coins or bills from a variety of countries (or use images on the screen), to help identify how congregations around the world are receiving an offering this morning. Whether we share kwatcha, francs, pesos or dollars, we are invited to bring an offering today, to support this congregation and our world-wide ministries. (Describe one or two specific outreach ministries which are underwritten by your offering.) From the smallest coin to the largest check, every gift is valued, appreciated and will be used to sustain the work of Christ in the world. With generous hearts and open hands, let us share our offering. We all work together to build the kingdom of God, to being all to the table of God. We have an opportunity to give, but you also received. In your bulletin in a gospel dollar – to remind us that the currency we give to God is all the same in Jesus eyes, he uses our gifts to spread the gospel to the world and to people who need to hear it. If you take the time to look at the gospel dollar – you will see that it has all of the lessons of the new testament, all of Jesus words to us, all that Jesus wanted us to know. As we gp through the next six weeks, I invite you to hold onto it – to remind us of the importance of mission, stewardship and discipleship. Even though it is in the form of a dollar bill, stewardship is so much more than how much we put in the offering plate. It is how we live out God’s word in our life. It is what we do to serve others. It how well we listen to God. The dollar that you receive is a reminder of what it means to be a disciple of God. I would invite you to hold onto it during the stewardship campaign to remind us of what the next six weeks is all about, you can pass it on to someone else. Some people have used it in addition to their tip to encourage others and to tell others about the gospel. Or you can return it into the basket in the narthex. Let us remember to be generous disciples living in mission together. Offertory Prayer Generous God, You have set a table that stretches from Charlotte to Kinshasa, from Bogotá to Seoul. You have fed us with grace and invited us into your holy community of justice and joy. So now, we offer back to you a portion of what we have received. May our gifts, of money, time, and lives, be used to extend your welcome, to build tables in places long denied a feast, and to nourish hope in hearts still waiting for home. Bless and multiply these gifts for your glory and your people. Amen. Intro to Communion By the rivers of Babylon, they sat down and wept. They hung up their harps and could not find the strength to sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land. Psalm 137 doesn’t ease us in; it begins with grief and rage, a people displaced and aching. And yet, on this World Communion Sunday, we come to the table bringing our own songs and silences, our own longings for home, wholeness and healing. The question is not merely how to sing, but what it means to sing when your heart is heavy, your identity is questioned, and your community feels fractured. Psalm 137 is not an abstract metaphor. It names the human experience of dislocation, emotional, spiritual, political. Many people today, immigrants, exiles, refugees, the displaced and the disillusioned, still sit by rivers with harps hung up. And yet this day, across time zones and nations, we lift up the cup and break bread. We proclaim that there is a table wide enough for every pain, every accent, every story. We do not forget the city of God because the table reminds us of where we belong, and with whom. Rowan Williams writes of the Eucharist as a place where we come not because we’re good at being faithful, but precisely because we are not. We come not because we’ve figured it out, but because we’re still lost in many ways. And yet Jesus invites us in, week after week, to sit and eat and remember. To be known. To be transformed. Communion is more than ritual. It is more than nostalgia. It is a prophetic declaration that in a world of walls, there remains a place where the table extends further than we ever dreamed. It is a declaration that in a culture of me-first, there is still a gathering centered around mutuality, grace and a Savior who feeds all without condition. World Communion Service. UMH 13. (do not print all of the words) The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. The pastor may lift hands and keep them raised. We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise. It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty (almighty God), creator of heaven and earth. You have made from one every nation and people to live on all the face of the earth. And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn: The pastor may lower hands. Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. The pastor may raise hands. Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit. He commissioned us to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth and to make disciples of all nations, and today his family in all the world is joining at his holy table. The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the bread, or touch the bread, or lift the bread. On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the cup, or touch the cup, or lift the cup. When the supper was over he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." The pastor may raise hands. And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith. Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the bread and cup. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood. The pastor may raise hands. Renew our communion with your Church throughout the world, and strengthen it in every nation and among every people to witness faithfully in your name. By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet. Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father (God ), now and for ever. Amen. Copyright: “The Great Thanksgiving for World Communion Sunday,” Copyright © 1972 The Methodist Publishing House; Copyright © 1980, 1985, 1989, 1992 UMPH. Used by permission. Announcements Trustee meeting next week Closing Prayer for Facebook Go now as those who have been fed, not only with bread and cup, but with remembrance, mercy, and the wild welcome of Christ. Let your faith, even if only a mustard seed, uproot indifference, plant compassion, and prepare a place for someone else to be seen, to be heard, to be healed. Wherever you go, Babylon or Jerusalem, downtown or dirt road, may you carry the table with you. And may the Spirit of God go before you to stir courage, walk beside you to offer peace, and dwell within you to keep setting the table of grace. Go in love, go in justice, go in belonging. Amen. Community Time – Joys and Concerns Benediction Let us go from this place trusting that God is with us and for us in every place. May the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God, and the companionship of the Holy Spirit be with you and abide with you this day and forever-more. Amen. (Presbyterian Outlook, John Wurster) At the end print These worship resources are part of the World Communion Sunday pastor and leader kit. They can be adapted for your context and integrated into your worship service

Healthy Community

Job 1:1;2:1-10 October 6, 2024 World Communion Sunday Healthy Community 20th Sunday after Pentecost Year B Prelude Greeting Call to Worship One: We gather today as the people of God, as a community of Christ’s followers. Many: We gather to share Word and sacrament, to discern the ways of faithful service. One: Where in the world shall we serve our God? Many: At home and school and business place – in this community and throughout every land. One: How in the world shall we serve our God? Many: By working toward justice where there is oppression, by offering comfort where there is pain, by sharing love where there is hatred. One: Why in the world shall we serve our God? Many: Because the Spirit beckons us, because Jesus calls us to enact our faith. Let us now worship the one who calls us! (Ana and Tod Gobledale, United Church of Christ Global Ministries Associates serving in the United Kingdom) Opening Prayer Almighty God, even as the drums of warfare beat on through the night, even as the cries of injustice linger in the morning, even as the hustle of busyness rumbles through the day, quiet our hearts. Still our thoughts. Join us in our worship. Remember us in your mercy as we try to remember you, through the proclamation of your good news, in story and in song, and through the hospitality of your gracious table. Welcome us again, one Lord, Creator, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. (Presbyterian Mission, Mark Gaventa) Song Bread of the World UMH 624 A Sermon for all Ages Good morning! Today is a special day! Does anyone know what we’re celebrating today? (If in person, wait for responses. If virtual, just take a moment, imagining that kids might be answering at home.) Those are some good guesses! Today is actually World Communion Sunday. On this day, most churches in the world have communion. Some churches have communion every Sunday, some churches have communion once a month, and some churches have communion four times a year. This is a Sunday when almost all churches, all over the world, from many different cultures, will have communion. That’s pretty cool, right? It’s cool to think that while we take communion today, people in churches all over the world are having communion, too! It’s a reminder to us that we are all members of the Christian family. If in person: I wonder, are there any countries or places you’d like to pray for today? (Give kids time to share – no answer is silly! Any place they mention is great.) If virtual: Today, I thought it might be good to pray for people in _________. (If your congregation, Region, or Conference has connections with particular countries, this is a great opportunity to lift those up. Otherwise, choose a few places from a few different continents.) Praying for each other is a great way to care for one another. Let’s pray together. God, thank you so much for World Communion Sunday. Today, we pray especially for our friends in ___________ (list the places the children mentioned or you mentioned). Help us to remember that we are all your children and are loved by you. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen. (United Church of Christ Global Ministries) Affirmation of Faith (adapted from the Belhar Confession) We believe in one holy, universal Christian church, the unity of the communion of saints of the entire human family. And we believe that that this unity of the people of God must be manifest and active, in that we love one another; that we give ourselves willingly and joyfully to one another, that we are share one baptism together, that we eat of one bread and drink of one cup together, that we confess one name, one Lord, for one cause, with one hope, which is the height and the breadth and the depth and the love of Christ, forever and ever. Amen. (Presbyterian Mission, Mark Gaventa) Scripture Job 1:1;2:1-10 Sermon Healthy Community A former parishioner used to always say that at any given moment, for all of us, either you are going the something at the moment, or you are getting over something or you are about to go through something. That being the case, we can all relate to the biblical story of Job and his wife. Job is the star of the story, but we have to remember that his wife, who doesn’t even get a name suffered the same fate as him. When he lost his fortune, she lost her livelihood also. When he lost his children – she lost her children. When he got sick, she had to be there everyday to take care of him. They suffered together- but had two different reactions to the same circumstances. God brags about the faith and integrity Job. We don’t even know his wife’s name. Job becomes an example of how we should handle adversity, his wifes response to curse God and die is much closer to reality. Job isn’t even a real story. We know this because the story starts out like a fairy tale. Once upon a time in the land of Uz. Uz is not a real place, it sort of like saying once upon a time in a land far away comes a tale that we can all relate to- all of us have had challenges in life. Hasatan, or Satan means challenges of life. We have all experienced loss, at some point we have all asked ourselves – why is this happening to me. The story of Job is told to answer the question of why bad things happen to faithful people. (notice I did not say good people) this is not a story about being good or bad. It is about being faithful or normal. There is no easy answer to the question. This story brings up a lot of unanswerable questions – why me, why is this happening, where is God in my suffering, why does God allow suffering, if I am suffering does God even care about me. There are no easy answers in this story, as a matter of fact, there are no answers at all – a lot of interesting comments, that really don’t help any. The story raises an even more important question – how is Job able to endure all of this trouble and still remain faithful, when he wife gives up on God? The real question for us – in spite of all of all that we have been through why are we still here? Why do we still come to church every week? Why do we still practice our faith, when so many around us have given up and walked away? When I think of all that I have been through in the last 30 years of being in the United Methodist Church – I should have walked away from this mess a long time ago. But I am still here – why. I can give you a lot of explanations, I can tell you a lot of stories, but I cant really answer that question. And if I am being honest, I would have to say that being faithful has been a journey from blaming God, and acting out in anger, from thinking about walking way – to being faithful in spite of the thought of walking away. In Psalm 71 as the writer talks about all of his problems and his faith journey. He says I am an enigma to others – I am a puzzle – people do not understand why I am still here being faithful to God. There was a heartbreaking story from Kansas back in the fall of 2003. During flooding there, a wall of water washed across the Kansas turnpike, overwhelming a family of six in a minivan. In an attempt to save his family, the father, Robert Rogers, kicked out a window, but was immediately sucked out into the torrent. In the end, he was the only member of his family to survive. His wife and their four children, ages one, three, five, and eight, all drowned, the three youngest still strapped into their car seats. The oldest child along with her mother, were also swept out of the car but drowned in the raging waters. Regrettably, stories of families perishing in floods, house fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and other disasters are not that unusual, but in this particular case, the surviving father made some remarkable faith statements to the press and those who gathered to support him following the crushing loss. By all reports, this was a solid, loving, faith-filled family. According to a neighbor who talked to Mr. Rogers, as the water rose in the car, the parents tried to keep the children calm by praying and singing hymns. She described the Rogers as "an amazing family."1 When Rogers spoke to the press, he stated his deep grief, but along with that he said: "God is God, and I am not," and "I am here by the grace of God." I understand those remarks to be Rogers' way of saying that our lives are in God's hands, and that for people of faith, when some horrible loss like this occurs, we do not have the option of second-guessing God or saying that we no longer trust him. Now you may or may not agree with that, and most of us facing that kind of loss would probably not be able so soon afterward to affirm our faith, but I found myself impressed by what this man said. His words also reminded me of the story behind the writing of the hymn, "It Is Well With My Soul." The words were written by another grieving father, H. G. Spafford, in 1873, a few days after his four daughters had drowned in the collision of two ships in the Atlantic Ocean. The hymn includes these lines: When peace like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. That's another surprising testimony of faith, under the circumstances. Both of these fathers remind me of that biblical father who suffered great losses, including the deaths of all his children, Job. You perhaps recall the story. Job was a faithful servant of God's. He was also prosperous and had a large family. According to the biblical account, Satan came to God and asserted that Job only trusted God because things were going well for him. Satan argued that if all his goods were withdrawn and his family taken away, Job would curse God. Most of the time in life, we may not understand, we can only explain. Faith is an enigma, a puzzle. Even Jesus says that faith is a gift from God. My question to you this morning – why are you still here? What is your story? Today is World Communion Sunday – it is a Sunday to remind us that communion is the one thing that unites Christians all over the world. It reminds us that we are all in the same boat – we are all struggling, we are all working on our faith. We are the Job people – the ones who have received the gift of faith. As we come to the table together it is really not our suffering that brings us here. It is our response to suffering that connects us. It is our ability to say that Jesus is the Lord of our Life, our circumstances, and Jesus is the source of our healing. If Job is the story about the faithful response to suffering, communion is the ultimate story about how Jesus brings us together to rise above suffering. The bread tells the story of how in spite of his suffering and even death – he gave us a part of himself. The cup tells us that in spite of his sacrifice – he still cared enough to being salvation. World communion Sunday encourages us to remember our story and to share it with others – so that in their suffering they too can receive the gift of faith. Let us pray……. It is through acts of faith like being present, like praying, like coming together in community that I have learned to respond to life instead of reacting to circumstances. Song I Come with Joy UMH 617 Pastoral Prayer Generous God, it is easy for us to comfortably imagine so many other Christians praying today and receiving the elements of Holy Communion. We like to think of this as a nice event; yet you remind us that when we have received these gifts we are also called to use the strength that they provide to witness to others through acts of reconciling love. This Communion is not a “nice” service, meant for our comfort. It is a challenge for us to truly accept the love of Jesus Christ, who gave to us his body and his blood, that we might be redeemed to do God’s loving will. As we have gathered here this day, bringing our prayer concerns to you, O Lord, help us to remember that you hold each one of us gently and lovingly, offering your healing mercies. Give us courage to be your witnesses, seeking peace in this war-torn world. For we ask this in the name of Jesus the Christ. AMEN. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Nancy Townley) Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment Call for Offering (just print the title) We approach the table today but we don’t approach it alone. We approach it on this World Communion Sunday with Christians around the world, in congregations large and small, speaking every language and one language. And so part of our approach this morning is to remember in our offering our connection to the work of the church in every corner of God’s creation. The United Methodist Church is a global church, with ministries touching every area of our world. We are a church that is in mission in both near and far places. We have already given in mission to help locally with Kuzma Cottage. You also have in insert which lists ways to help with the clean up of Hurricane Helene. Truly, God has blessed us with the rich, varied, and abundant gifts of creation. From God’s abundance, let us also give abundantly. (Adapted from Presbyterian Mission, Mark Gaventa) Prayer of Thanksgiving Gracious God, you create more than we could ever hope to return. You share more than we could ever hope to deserve. And yet, we pray, accept these humble gifts. May they honor and glorify you in all creation, and may they empower us for the work of witness and service, for the sake of justice, and for the sake of peace, now and forever. Amen. (Presbyterian Mission, Mark Gaventa) Communion (You don’t need to print any of this) Eucharist Invitation This table is for all of us, near and far, high and low, east and west and north and south. This table is for all of us, but it is not our table. It’s not a Methodist table. It’s not an American table. It’s God’s table, for all of us, and it’s a table of grace. So come and take your place at the table. You are welcome, you are invited, you are called: come, let us share this meal together. Great Prayer of Thanksgiving One: The Lord be with you. Many: And also with you. One: Lift up your hearts. Many: We lift them to the Lord. One: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. Many: It is right to give our thanks and praise. One: It is truly right and our greatest joy to give you thanks and praise, O Lord our God, creator and ruler of the universe. Even when we were dust, when our story begins in dust, you were there, your word was there, your breath into the lifeless void. And upon your word all creation sprang into life. When we were in the wilderness, terrified, timid, you were there, your word was there, with manna just enough for today, with water even from the driest rock, with the abundant grace upon which our story always rests. And when we fell short, slaves to power and greed, you were there, your word was there, on the lips of prophets, and in the hearts of servants, in stories of revolution and revelation and liberation, calling us even now to acts of courage and witness and peace. Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with choirs of angels, with prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and with all the faithful of every time and place, who forever sing to the glory of your name: Many: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, 
 heaven and earth are full of your glory. 
 Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 
 Hosanna in the highest One: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Indeed blessed are you, O Christ, our Lord, for risking yourself among us, vulnerable and rejected; for teaching among us, teaching the radical hope of God; teaching grace to a world bent on vengeance, teaching love to a world bent on destruction, teaching peace to a world bent on tearing itself apart. You were there, your word was there, even to the point of death itself. Even faced with terror and hatred and the brokenness of the world, you rose again, to new life, to new creation, to resurrection, that we might know something other than the dust, that we might expect something other than the end, that we might work for something other than ourselves. And so you speak to us us again, with these abundant gifts of bread and wine, with which we joyfully celebrate your dying and rising, as we await the table of the Kingdom yet to come, and as we dedicate ourselves again to you, thankful, and transformed, as living and holy sacrifices, that our lives may proclaim the one crucified and risen. Great is the mystery of faith : Many: Christ has died,
 Christ is risen,
 Christ will come again. One: Gracious God, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, and upon these your gifts of bread and wine, that the bread we break together, and the cup we share together, may retell our common stories together and reshape our common bonds together, and remember our common grace together, in the communion of the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ, the one in whose life and death you have torn down our divisions. And so may we be one with all who share this feast, on this day, of all days, with all your children at every corner of your table. May we share this abundant cup with all those who thirst for your justice. May we share this abundant bread with all those who hunger for your righteousness, May we be united with every corner of your story, united in hope, united in vision, united in purpose, united in ministry in every place. As this bread is Christ’s body for us, send us from this table to be the body of Christ in all the world. Send us with a spirit of courage, a spirit of power and love, that we may be witnesses in all creation to the unending story of your word breathing life into the dust. Keep us faithful, and fruitful, and hopeful, and peaceful, until we come at last to the one table of your Kingdom, to feast with all your saints in the joy of your eternal realm, with you and with your Word, through Christ and in Christ, the one who came for us, died for us, and rose for us, the one who prays even for us Prayer after Communion Gracious God, we offer our thanks, for the whole communion of saint’s witness to this feast, and for the ministry of churches around the world who gather with us today. By this broken bread may we each be restored for the work yet to come. By this shared cup may we each be claimed for the proclamation of your Kingdom. At this shared table may we be united as children of your promise, children of your word, dying and made new again, sent boldly together into the world as servants of your peace. Amen. (Presbyterian Mission, Mark Gaventa) Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook May God prosper you. May your days be long and your nights serene. May your friendships honor you, and your family love you. May you eat at your table, and may you be gathered into to God’s embrace with a smile. (Elena Huegel serves as a Mission Co-worker with the Intercultural Research and Studies Institute (INESIN), Chiapas, Mexico.) Community Time Joys and Concerns Charge and Benediction You were called to this table. You were fed at this table. You were united at this table. Now, you are sent from this table into all the world. Go therefore into the world, with courage. Set a place for all who hunger. Fill the cup of all who thirst. And as you go, May the Spirit of power and love attend you, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ uphold you, and may the great faithfulness of our God sustain you, now and forever. Amen. (Presbyterian Mission, Mark Gaventa) Additional Illustrations Job is a kind of visit to the frame shop. Like the reframing that happened for many when space ships pictured earth suspended, all of it, before our very eyes, we are in need of a reframing, that is Copernican in size and Hubble-ian in method. The Hubble telescope is so much like God's message to Job that it is not funny. When Job complains of his suffering to God, God responds Hubble-esque. The Hubble is widely known to have shown us a universe of such size that we cannot begin to comprehend it. We are not the only world. There are constellations and galaxies beyond us that we are only beginning to understand. One scientist described the change in our point of view made by the Hubble (now an old tool) like this. We used to think of the universe as about as big as the sand on Jones Beach. Now we see the universe as comprising the sand on all the beaches up and down the coast of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Precisely this sea change (forgive the metaphor) is needed as we look at the climate crisis that our generation faces. We need to reframe the issue. So is Job right? I think so. He was innocent and still and nonetheless he suffered. Why did he suffer? Who knows? Why him? Who knows? May we care anyway? Yes indeed. We may care. But we care about the cosmos more than about our little place in it. That is the turn McKibben wants us to make toward the environment. He reads Job's saga in the whirlwind as advising two things — great humility, and even greater joy. The challenge before us is to figure out how to link these two callings, these two imperatives from the voice in the whirlwind — the call to humility and the call to joy.

Days Like This

October 7, 2012 “Days Like This” Job 1:1, 2:1-10 Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12 19th Sunday After Pentecost Year B World Communion Sunday God gave me a song, that the angels cannot sing…… I won’t sing the rest of the song. But that is my favorite all time gospel song. As a child I used to sing it over and over again. I would sing it so much, that I got tired of hearing myself sing. But even today, I just can never get tired of that message. The angels have to priviledge of spending all day with God, of singing in the presence of God, of passing on the personal messages of God. And yet in spite of their many blessings, their perfect life, they will never know what it means to be human. They will never know what it means to wake up here on earth. They may be able to praise God. But since they don’t have to struggle, or worry or wonder, since they don’t know hunger, or pain or sickness. They can praise God with joy, but they cant praise God in spite of their pain and uncertainty. They don’t get to make a choice to sing hallelujah anyway. Perhaps that was why God asks Satan if he had considered his servant Job. A man. A blameless and upright man who had a perfect life and a perfect faith. We all know a Job – a person who has it all. They have a stable family, a wonderful job, a beautiful house, they drive a nice care, not only do they have everything, but they are nice too. It looks as if they have been richly blessed by God God truly rewarded them for being faithful. They are the homecoming queen, the star football quarterback, the successful person with the perfect life. You might be surprised that there is no such person as Job. Just as there are no people in our lives, with the perfect life and the perfect faith- Job was not intended to be to one person. We all have a chance to be Job. If someone who has everything can lose it all and still love God, then surely those of us who may not have everything, but we have something, who may not have lost everything but have lost something – can still love God. This is a story about God and Satan, about the angels, and about what it means to be human in a difficult world. This is a story about a perfect example of a human who never gave up on God in the midst of suffering – that is Jesus, not Job. But most important – this is a story about, not just being faithful but about keeping our integrity – our promise to God, even in those times when we wonder if God has forgotten about us. It is about knowing that God never breaks God’s promises, and neither should we. For the last two months or so, we have been looking at the wisdom literature of the bible. And Job is actually another wisdom story. It is not a true story, it is a story of truth. A story about what any of us would go through if we were put in the situation of Job. But it is intended for us to look at our own situations. We all have our days, days of bad luck, of struggle, of mourning and loss. I don’t know how much longer I am going to go into the book of Job. It is a pretty long book – 48 chapters. But it shows the transformation of Job’s faith. As he is going on about his life, until the day that God allows Satan to mess with him and take away everything. His friends don’t understand why he is so faithful to God. It was believed in those days that if you lived a good life it was because God blessed you, and if you became sick or lost everything, it was because you were a sinner and God was punishing you. If the devil was allowed to do anything – you deserved it. We have to remember that the devil has no more control that what we give him. He can tempt us all day – but he cant draw us into sin. Only our heart can do that. As a matter of fact, this story uses the name Satan. Satan means the accuser. He only points out to God what you have done. He doesn’t make you do it. The power of satan There is an Eastern story of a Sultan who overslept himself, so as not to awaken at the hour of prayer. So the Devil came and waked him, and told him to get up and pray. “Who are you?” said the Sultan. “Oh, no matter,” replied the other. “My act is good, is it not? No matter who does the good action, so long as it is good.” “Yes,” replied the Sultan, “but I think you are Satan. I know your face; you have some bad motive.” “But,” says the other, “I am not so bad as I am painted. You see I have left off my horns and tail. I am pretty good fellow, after all. I was an angel once, and still keep some of my original goodness.” “That’s all very well,” replied the sagacious and prudent caliph, “but you are the tempter; that’s your business; and I wish to know why you want me to get up and pray.” “Well,” said the Devil with a flirt of impatience, “if you must know, I will tell you. If you had slept and forgotten your prayers, you would have been sorry for it afterward, and penitent; but if you go on as now, and do not neglect a single prayer for ten years, you will be so satisfied with yourself that it will be worse for you than if you had missed one sometimes and repented of it. God loves your fault mixed with penitence more than your virtue seasoned with pride.” —Walter Baxendale For as many times as I have read the book of Job. The one thing that stand out to me, is that it is not really a story about good and bad. Right and wrong. There is no real advice giving about what you should do or shouldn’t do. It really doesnt answer the question of why bad things to good people. It doesn’t tell us really the right thing to do. In chapter 2, even Job’s wife –who is suffering right along with Job, encourages him to just curse God and die. He already lost everything worth living for, so why not just die. Because of his integrity. He made a promise to God and God made a promise to him – and he cant give up on that. How do we maintain our integrity, our promise in our world? Jesus is our perfect example Hebrews, which we will studying for a few weeks also. But the beginning of Hebrews says that at one time God spoke through wisdom literature. But in today’s world he speaks through his son. A son whom he appointed heir of all things. A son who was made a little less then the angels. So that he could be our perfect example. We know that Jesus didn’t live the life of the homecoming king, or the star football player, or even the rich successful business man. Jesus lived a simple, poor life born in a manger, raised by a carpenter, living in the streets traveling from place to place. He was a human like us, who suffered like us, he lived like us. who died like us. But in spite of it all – he never lost his integrity. He always kept his promise to God. Hebrews is teaching us that there are a lot of good examples out their of how we should live, but Jesus us better than them all. The book of Hebrews uses the word better 22 times in referring to Jesus. Jesus was made less than the angels, but today he is higher than the angels. He overcome this world, and sits at the right hand of God. The good news for us – God rewarded Jesus for his righteousness, and if we follow his lead. If we keep his promise – we will be invited to be brothers and sisters of Jesus. In heaven, we will still have a song that the angels cannot sing. can of shaving cream, and read the words on the label… In fact, those words have me reading labels these days, on everything… Those words said; Warning; contents under pressure, Do not puncture or incinerate…. Do not throw into fire… It even said, keep out of the reach of children… Harmful or fatal if swallowed… And the words caught my attention, because they summarize the situation going on in so many lives of the children of God…. They are living under pressure… They are on the verge of an explosion… Perhaps because they don’t trust God. They forget about the promises of God. But more importantly. They forget the promises they themselves made to God. Perhaps they should consider the story of Job. He is introduced not as the successful man who had everything. He is introduced as a blameless and upright man who feared God and turned away from evil. If we were to look into a Hebrew Bible, we’d learn that the word perfect is the Hebrew word tam. And it means to be complete or entire, not lacking in any respect. It means that he had a whole and complete faith in a whole and complete God. It means that he trusted God for all of his needs, and he was always certain that God would never forsake him. He knew that God had the final word in all circumstances, and that God was a good God. But more importantly it meant that he made a commitment to this God, a promise in baptism. And that he was not at liberty to walk away. He kept his integrity in all things, even his pain and his anger. Integrity is doing what you said you would do, no matter what. Did I hear you say that you would love and follow Jesus to the cross? Story of keeping our integrity Several years ago, in Long Beach, California, a fellow went into a fried chicken place and bought a couple of chicken dinners for himself and his date late one afternoon. The young woman at the counter inadvertently gave him the proceeds from the day-a whole bag of money (much of it cash) instead of fried chicken. After driving to their picnic site, the two of them sat down to open the meal and enjoy some chicken together. They discovered a whole lot more than chicken--over $800! But he was unusual. He quickly put the money back in the bag. They got back into the car and drove all the way back. Mr. Clean got out, walked in, and became an instant hero. By then the manager was frantic. The guy with the bag of money looked the manager in the eye and said, "I want you to know I came by to get a couple of chicken dinners and wound up with all this money. Here." Well, the manager was thrilled to death. He said, "Oh, great, let me call the newspaper. I'm gonna have your picture put in the local newspaper. You're the most honest man I've heard of." To which they guy quickly responded, "Oh no, no, don't do that!" Then he leaned closer and whispered, "You see, the woman I'm with is not my wife...she's uh, somebody else's wife." Charles Swindoll, Growing Deep in the Christian Life, p. 159-60. We all have our days, when we will be tested. But integrity means keeping the faith in all areas of our life in all circumstances. Jesus knew our days very well, Jesus is our brother, Jesus understands temptation, he knew our questions. But he knew God, he knew what it meant to trust and obey, and he provided a way for us to to stand tall, to have strength. To be blameless and upright and to turn away from evil. God made a promise to you – are you keeping your promise to God? Let us pray….. World Communion introduction Today we celebrate communion with Christians all over the world, in all types of churches. God has made us his family, a family that stretches around the world, a family that is called to love as we have been loved, to forgive as we have been forgiven, to give as we have been given too. As we share in our family meal, give thanks to God that we are not alone, that we have both each other and the spirit of Christ amongst us, the spirit of him who was, who is, and who shall ever be one with us, and one over us, and one under us, one who truly loves us. Amen. can of shaving cream, and read the words on the label… In fact, those words have me reading labels these days, on everything… Those words said; Warning; contents under pressure, Do not puncture or incinerate…. Do not throw into fire… It even said, keep out of the reach of children… Harmful or fatal if swallowed… And the words caught my attention, because they summarize the situation going on in so many lives of the children of God…. They are living under pressure… They are on the verge of an explosion… They are just a few degrees away from losing it… They can’t stand the heat, but they don’t know how to get out of the kitchen… The pressures, and the calamities of this present life are destroying them… They are living under pressure, wondering just how much anyone is expected to take… Many of them ought to wearing a sign this morning, saying warning, stay away… Warning… danger approaching… Many of them ought to be wearing a sign saying keep out of reach of children…

Alone in a crowd, fulfilled by only one - World Communion Sunday

Rev. Harriette Cross
Englewood and Rust
October 3, 2010
A repreach of October 7, 2007
World Communion Sunday
Psalm 137
Luke 17:5-10
Alone in a crowd, fulfilled by only one
Year C



The first Sunday in October is always world communion Sunday, this is a time when we know that we are united with Christians all over the world in a common task- and we can think of the power that we have to build God’s kingdom and celebrate that it is working – the world is changing. The power of transformation is in our unity – in what we are able to do together.
Every first Sunday is a Sunday where Christians all over the world are taking communion. But we don’t think about it- we don’t think about our brothers and sisters in other churches in this neighborhood, in our community as doing the same thing as us. We get caught up into our own little bubble of understanding.
while thinking about unity this week , I was struck with an email that I received from another pastor. She was asking for prayers for her cousin, Danny – who felt isolated and alone in Thailand. She says,


Dannie is an American and a cousin of a friend of mine. His wife is Thai
(she isn't a Christian). She became homesick for her village in Thailand
so Dannie agreed to move. I spoke of Dannie last year on World Communion
Sunday because he had sent an e-mail that touched my heart so very much.
It read, "Keep me in your prayers. Believe me, I need it. It's so hard
to be alone as a Christian. But I do talk to my Lord a lot." Because of
his request for prayers, members of my church committed to praying for
him. When I relayed that to Dannie, his response was, "I am sitting here
in tears. I can feel the prayers of my brothers and sisters. I praise
God and I give Him the glory. Now the prayers that I and so many other
Christians who are alone need are coming to fill us with the joy of Jesus
Christ. Please let the people who are praying for me know that they are
also in my prayers."

That was a year ago. The e-mail I just received read, "I will take
Communion 'with you'. I will be alone, but not alone in spirit. Jesus is
with me everywhere I go. There are no churches in the mountain village
where I live. No missionaries either. Your prayers are important to me.
I do try to 'walk the walk' and I have been able to witness several times.
This is a hard land for Christians, but it is full of wonderful people."


I was touched by the email – because I think that it is important to always remember the other side of unity – isolation. We don’t have to be stuck somewhere alone in a foreign land to feel a sense of isolation- that we are out there all by ourselves.
I got in trouble at a church once, when a lady made a comment that you cant be a Christian on a desert island. People tell me all the time that they are Christian. They are very spiritual, but not are religious, but they don’t want to go to church. To believe that is to totally miss the point of all of Jesus teachings. I truly believe that the only way to be a Christian is to go to church – to be in community.
It is real easy for any of us to sit at home and to read the bible, and to watch the latest televangelist on tv, and to believe in our heart that we love everybody. That is not the faith that Jesus called us to. When you go to church and you sit on a church board, and you deal with someone who is always arguing and disagreeing with you. When you have to deal with someone who you don’t like and you don’t understand. When you are asked to do something, that you know is impossible. And you stick with it, and you find a solution, and you are a witness to what God can do in spite of you – that is the faith that Jesus Christ calls us into. Our faith is only challenged, and thus only grows when we are around people- people that we don’t understand, people that we don’t agree with, people that we have to learn to love.
And yet we have all had those moments in our lives when we have felt like Danny – we felt lonely and alone – not necessarily by chance – but by situation. We have all had our moments when life didn’t make sense. Times when the normal things in life that gave us so much comfort – are painful because they bring back memories of the way things used to be- when they are no more. All summer, we have been following the plight of the isrealites. They have been threatened with exile from their land because of their sin. Well the moment happened – the Babylonians didn’t let them starve, they went in to the city and led some of them away. Those who had money, and power are taken away. The remnant is left to survive. Those who are taken captive are fed, they are taken care of, the young are even educated – but as they sit by the canals of Babylon – dreaming of the rivers of Isreal – they become keenly aware that they are not at home – God has broken the promise to them – that they would always have a home. They got such joy in singing songs of praise- songs that celebrated God’s promise to them. To make a bad situation worse – their captors taunt them – seeing their grief by asking them to sing. But how can we sing the songs of zion in a foreign land.
There are many people in the world today – who are just like Danny, just like the isrealites – wondering how to maintain their faith in a foreign land. On this world communion Sunday – let us remember those who are in exile from their countries – like those from Darfur, in Africa who are escaping famine and a government who are killing them. There are many in Africa who have to escape widescale genocide. There are those who are in Pakistan who are still trying to escape the effects of an earthquake. Those from Cuba, who come to America seeking a life of freedom.
But you know there are also a lot of people on this block, on the block we live on, in our lives, who don’t come to church, because they feel isolated. They wont fit in, no one will understand them. They are insecure because they feel that that don’t have the same faith that you have. We remember these people and many more today – because they are a part of the Christian family – when we take communion – we are solidarity with their situations and we pray for God’s healing of their situations.
Exile is a physical situation, but it is also a spiritual situation. There are times when we can feel cut off from God and what God has called us to do. Many years later, when the isrealites were able to return to community, jesus was on the way to Jerusalem with his disciples. Jesus was reminding them of the importance of forgiveness. No matter what happens to us – it is okay to feel our grief. To refuse to sing the songs of praise. But as some point we have to move on, and the only way to move on is to forgive our brothers and sisters. The disciples were a lot like we are – how do you just forgive, when someone has done you wrong. We are faitfhful people – but reality always challenges our belief of the way things are supposed to be. They asks Jesus a question that we have to ask everyday. Can you increase our faith – because as it stands – we are not able to do what you asks of us. We want to be able to forgive and forget, but we just cant. We are inadequate, there are still things that we need to learn and understand, it will be a minute before we have the energy to move on, right now – we are still in our grief and we still need time to heal.
Jesus tells the disciples – that they don’t need to increase their faith. Any amount of faith at all with make a difference. Jesus tell them that the faith of a mustard seed can move a mountain into the sea. A friend of mine says that she used to go outside and try to will the mountains in her back yard to move. Of course nothing would ever happen. Yet the real focus of this story is the power of our faith. Jesus is telling us that we don’t need to increase our faith – we can witness the power of God with what we have – even if it is just a small glimmer of hope. That glimmer can change our life – and is enough to change the world. Faith is not about our positive thoughts – faith is our willingness to trust that God will take care of us. God always does all of the work. Faith is a willingness to let God do the work without us needing to be in control.
A small congregation on the smoky mountains built a new church on a piece of land willed to them by a member. Before the church opened, the building inspector came to the church to tell them that they could not open because the parking lot was not sufficient. The only way to expand the parking lot was to move a mountain behind the church. We all know by now that mountains don’t move. The pastor was determined to see the church opened. So she held prayer meetings every day. After the last amen on Friday – she told them that the church would be open on Sunday. Later that day – some men came to the church, explaining that they were building a shopping mall and they needed some dirt to build the foundation. They needed to get started immediately, if they could just take the dirt from the mountain. The mountain was literally moved, so that the parking lot could be built and the church could be opened.
It only takes a little – to make a big difference. Most of us – in this area of the country it would be safe to say that none of us have a mountain in our back yard that needs to be moved. But all of us have prayers, all of us have dreams, all of us have hopes that something in the world will be different. We don’t know how things will change, we don’t know what we need to do to change things. We just have a little bit of faith – that things should change. It is that small glimmer of hope that will make a difference-God will do the rest. God wants us to remember that each and everything that we do in life is about God. Every situation that we find ourselves in, we need to ask – what does this have to do with God. Every challenge that we have we need to ask – how is God at work in this situation. We don’t need to increase our faith – we just need to use the little that we have. Even in the toughest of situations, remember that all things are possible with God.
As we celebrate world communion Sunday, we are all keenly aware that unity amongst all Christians is not a reality – our differences still separate us. Even in our own church family – we all can’t work together on everything. There are many people who are not in exile from the Christian community, we still feel alone in a crowd. Who feel that no one is listening to them, no one cares for them. There are those who are suffering from grief. There are those who ask - how can I sing the songs of Zion, when I am amongst strangers. How can I praise God – when I have nothing to celebrate.
Jesus request to us all – is to just sing, just pray, just hope, just go forward, just celebrate our unity – God will do the rest!
The power of the gospel, of our belief in Jesus Christ is that it takes us from where you are now – to where God God wants you to be. Where you are – to where God wants you to be.
The gospel saves, brings you to life and offers you life everlasting. Salvation is restoring your life back to what it was meant to be.
God has big plans for you – for you to move on from where you are to live faithful, and compassionate. In return we can expect big things from God – the strength to go on, much farther than you were expecting. That is what faith is all about.
Let us pray…..

Who presides over your life?

October 4, 2009
Who Presides Over Your Life?
Eighteenth Sunday of Pentecost
World Communion Sunday
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16
Year B

As you go through life, it doesn’t take long to discover in life that there are questions – lots of questions for which there is no answer. You can ask the question – but there is never an answer. At least not one which is gonna shed any real light on the the situation. One of those questions – do I look fat in these pants. There is no answer for that. First of all, if ever asked, you know that it is never in your best interest to answer that question. But secondly, if someone was brave enough to answer that question- either yes or no. There is no answer that will satisfy the questioner – they will continue to ask and ask, never quite satisfied enough to just stop asking the question.
But seriously there are serious questions about life that we ask God. We ask ourselves, we ask life – we constantly ask – and there is never a good answer. Questions like why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people? When will we finally see justice for all, where we are all treated fairly? If God is totally in control – then why are we allowed to suffer? If God is good, then why does it seem that the devil is allowed to prosper? When the world is so awful and cruel, what is the point of remaining faithful to God?
If you live long enough and you go through life long enough, then you have asked these kinds of questions. And with each crisis, we have to be reminded of God’s answer to us.
The closest you can come to straight answer is a story – about something that happen to someone else – that you can relate to.
Job is not a real person, and the events in the story did not really happen. There is no rich foreigner, who had been greatly blessed and lost everything. There are none of us who are so righteous and upright that we don’t have to take some type of responsibility for what it happening to us. And I would venture to say that there is a point in all of our lives when things can get so bad, that we can get mad and blame God for what we are going through. This story is not intended to be historical truth – it is intended to tell the truth of the human story. The story is intended to teach a lesson – God does not intend to answer all of our questions. Faith is not the answers to life – it is a story of how to remain faithful and trusting and loving in the midst of the questions of life.
I would like to believe that God, the angels, the heavenly beings, and satan don’t have daily staff meetings – where Satan is up there criticizing everything that I am doing. Questioning my life and asking God if he can have permission to test my faith and make me suffer just because. But of course what other explanation is there for horrible things happening to us, when we know that we are being faithful and good. Not even the book of Job can give us a satisfying answer to that question.
Wisdom has been a theme for this year. And Job is a wonderful book of wisdom – it a book of dialogue, between the events of Job’s life, his wife, his friends, himself and finally God. We will be reading this story for the next 4 weeks. This is a wise story because it tells the story very clearly, but in reality gives no answers. The author of Job probably didn’t have any answers to give. But it wanted to give you some tools to think about your own unanswerable questions.
The book of Hebrews also tackles those unanswerable questions – but from a different perspective. It reminds us that God did not give us a direct answer to our suffering, but God did give us a person – who makes our suffering and his meaningful.
Hebrews relates to Job also, because it talks about heavenly beings. It talks about how decisions on earth were started on earth – that that Jesus Christ was there in the midst of creation to make sure that we would have a voice in heaven to talk about what it in our best interest. So that we don’t have to worry about Satan being present to ask God to tempt us.
we celebrate Jesus and what he did for us, for all of us
- in every corner of the world.

We celebrate what Jesus did
-and what by the power of Holy Spirit he still does,
we celebrate the Jesus who considered family unity to be important,
we celebrate the Jesus that welcomed little children into his arms,
we celebrate the Jesus that took time to bless everyone,
- no matter who they were and no matter what others thought of them.

Jesus - our saviour and our Lord,
Jesus - the promised one of God,
Jesus, the son of God - and yet a man:
a man like us....
a man who struggled to be faithful to God,
a man who was called to love his neighbours as himself,
a man who was tempted like we are tempted,
a man who suffered as we suffer.

The letter to the Hebrews, which our first reading came from today, speaks
of Jesus in exalted terms - calling him "the radiance of God's glory" and
"the exact representation of God's being", "superior to the angels";

And this is true - our whole faith speaks of it,

But the letter to the Hebrews also reminds us of something else that our
whole faith speaks of - it reminds us that here, on this earth, Jesus was
made like us - that he was made like us a little lower than the angels,
that Jesus was one with us, born of a woman,
born as our brother
to walk as we walk through this life.

Jesus was one with us,
able to sympathize with us,
able to identify with us,
able to rejoice with us,
able to suffer with us,
and, because of what he suffered and suffered in faithfulness,
he is able to intercede for us before God his Father, God our Father.

Jesus, one with us, Jesus our Saviour. Jesus our Brother. He understands us, he understands our questions.

My favorite aspect of Christ that we are reminded to celebrate in Hebrews about Christ is for a time he for a little while was made a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor. We too as humans are made a little lower than the angels. We too are crowned with glory and honor.
We may never have to answer to why bad things happen to good people. But we can always have the love of God in our lives. No matter what happens, we can look to the heavens for our strength and support – because now, Jesus Christ is up there – rooting for us as his sisters and brothers. He know what we have been through - and through faith – we know what he is going through up in heaven.
Alister McGrath writes a story about her aunt who never married. When she passed away, her relatives were going through her possessions and found a picture of a young man. The young man had been the aunt’s true love. He died tragically, and she never loved another man. And yet she held onto that picture.
Through the years of loneliness and grief, she held onto the that picture. She needed to be reminded that she had a love in life. When people doubted that she ever loved anyone she could hold onto that picture. That picture was a reminder of her life as it could have been. But for some reason the reality of death set in.
Jesus is the image of God. When we want to know what God looks like we have a story to look at. When we want something to depend on, we have the words of Christ to hold onto. When we want to talk with God – when can pray in the name of Jesus and know that we are heard.
And Jesus knew that there would be days when we would have our doubts. There would be days when we would feel disconnected from God, there would be days when we wonder about the story of Jesus. If the story of Job is a fairly tale – then how do we know that Jesus too if not just a fairly tale. The signs before us today -- communion the bread and the wine, they remind us of how he came to be our Saviour, they remind us of what his love and his faithfulness cost him. On the night of his betrayal Jesus took bread and broke it,and gave it to his disciples, saying, This is my body, given for you;and he took the cup and gave it to his disciples, saying, This is my blood, which is poured out for you. The next day, out of love for the world, Jesus died.
Jesus is our brother, jesus is one of us, jesus understand us, jesus knows our questions. While on the cross even he asks God why has he forsaken him.
Communion is our picture – our memory- or crutch to hold onto- our strength to hold onto – in the midst of the answerable questions.
Today we celebrate communion with Christians all over the world. In all types of churches
God has made us his family,
a family that stretches around the world,
a family that is called to love as we have been love,
to forgive as we have been forgiven,
to give as we have been given too.

As we share today in our family meal;
GIVE THANKS to God that we are not alone,
THAT WE HAVE BOTH each other and the Spirit of Christ amongst us,
the Spirit of him who was, who is, and who shall ever be one with us, and
one over us, and one under us, one who truly loves us.

Blessed be God - day by day. Amen

*Portions of this sermon borrowed from a sermon from Rev. Richard J. Fairchild “One with us”