God Makes Room For Us
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
For February 19, 2023:
God Makes Room For Us
by Katy Stenta
Matthew 17:1-9
When we are all blinded in the light of God's glory and feel overwhelmed, God shields us with God's own shade, and gives us the space to hear what needs to be heard
In the Scriptures
Before the beginning of the world, God made room in Godself to create space for us. (Genesis 1:1) There is God, and God creates the heaven and the earth and then goes on to create everything in it, God creates companionship, because God is a social and relational God. God does all this by making the room necessary for creation to exist.
God’s glory is indeed mighty. It frightens Moses initially in the burning bush in Exodus 3. Then again, just the reflection of God’s glory shines off of Moses’s face when he returns from delivering the Ten Commandments in Exodus 34:33-35. They were afraid, and after speaking to Moses, he wore a veil for an unspecified time.
In the News
A commercial has come out branding Jesus, saying, “He Gets You.” This commercial, funded by some of the same people behind anti-abortion and anti-queer legislation, is also working with the perception that Christians are ostracized or otherwise prejudiced against. The reality is that the real Jesus does not need branding or protection. God makes room for us, not the other way around.
With the brilliance of the Super Bowl, many question what is stealing the show. Do you watch for the commercials or the game? Do you think the game is the main focus or is the half-time show the main event that has football as the opener and closer? In terms of our racially charged political atmosphere, questions arise even about our musical performances. Did “Lift Every Voice and Sing” steal from the National Anthem, or seeing as how it has been the Black National Anthem since before the Star Spangled Banner was official, is it really the other way around? Was Rihanna’s brilliance enhanced or distracted by her pregnancy? One thing is for certain, we humans are easily distracted by shiny things, are we not?
In the Sermon
When Peter panics and immediately thinks that the disciples should build permanent structures, and worship Elijah, Moses, and Jesus, it is the natural human response. The poor humans are overwhelmed by the glory of God. It reminds one of when children are overstimulated and melt down. Or perhaps it’s like when one is driving toward the sun, trying to focus on the destination, unable to see.
Peter responds with trying to do something. To build permanence, to try to hold onto the holiness. One can almost feel the disciples’ brains splintering apart in the moment.
God responds with giving room and shade and grace. God becomes a cloud and shields the disciples from God’s very self. God gives room and then bids the disciples to stop, wait and listen. In essence, to “be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10) “This is my Son, my beloved, listen to him.” God becomes the shade from the holiness, because God is human enough to know what it is people need in this moment, even as Jesus’s holiness is revealed. The compassion of the transfiguration, the strength that the disciples need to climb back down the mountain, comes in the shade of the cloud.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Jesus Says No to the Capital Campaign
by Mary Austin
Matthew 17:1-9
“Just a small fire, to take out one wing,” I may or may not have prayed over the years, as I served churches in too-big buildings. My current church was just the right size before the pandemic, and now the space is mostly empty during the week. As we try to figure out how to use the space to serve the neighborhood, I have a secret dream of being a renter in someone else’s building. If we had a small office somewhere, and worship space on Sundays, I’d never have to think about the roof again.
For centuries, the people of God have been honoring God by building. Cathedrals, synagogues, mosques, churches, schools — all over the world faith equals building projects. Peter is the first in the Christian scriptures to feel this way, and not the last. He can hardly help himself. “Let’s build something permanent,” he bursts out, so we can save this precious encounter forever. We know how he feels. If we could contain the divine, we would gladly do it. Our love for God is so transforming that we want to hold onto it.
Churches are not alone in having too much space. Empty office buildings fill every urban center. “The overall office vacancy rate is above 20 percent in Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and in all four New York City business districts (Brooklyn, Downtown, Midtown, Midtown South). Nationally, office space is about as empty as it was after the 2010 recession.” That’s a measure of leased space — and it turns out that not many people are in the space at all. “According to the office security company Kastle — the “Covid-Era Kings of Back-to-Work Data” — the country’s 10 largest office markets are 53 percent vacant based on employee badge scans.” Declining value for buildings means declining tax revenue for cities, plus loss of income for all the lunch places, dry cleaners, transit workers and others who serve commuters.
Interesting conversations about converting offices to badly needed housing flounder on the obstacles. “One problem is simply with the shape of office buildings: Their deep floor plates mean it’s hard for natural light to reach most of the space once it’s divided up into rooms. Their utilities are centralized, which requires extensive work to bring plumbing and HVAC into new apartments.”
The problem with buildings is that they demand something to fill them. Empty offices are spurring companies to nudge / force / cajole employees back to the office to work. Church buildings demand programming.
But we follow the God who reacts to the idea of a building program by saying “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” Just listen: that’s all that is required. No building, no rushing, no planning, no doing. The disciples are understandably afraid when God says this. Doing something is so much easier than simply sitting with God. Jesus sees the disciples’ fear, and, with a gentle touch, tells them, “Get up and do not be afraid.”
Tricia Hersey, the Nap Bishop, says that rest is revolutionary. She says, “There is no system in our culture that supports and makes space for us to rest. This culture does not want you rested unless it is attached to your increased labor and productivity. No one will give you rest. This is an outlier investigation. A counter narrative. It is trust work. It is healing work. It is decolonizing work. It is a subculture holding space for the blossoming of a resistance.”
The God who shows up on the mountaintop is also the God who tells us to stop, listen, wait, watch, trust and pray. As Tricia Hersey says, talking to us and also giving advice that Peter could have used as well, “This is a time to simply stop and feel. A time to not force or attempt to make sense of what can and will happen when we allow our bodies to heal from the massive load we have been carrying consciously and unconsciously.”
Peter, James and John are about to encounter a moment of deep failure for the other disciples. Soon, they will accompany Jesus toward Jerusalem. Traveling around with Jesus, they’re carrying the burden of fear and economic insecurity. With him, they’re on the edges of society. The antidote for that is the choice that Jesus makes so often for himself — to stop, listen and be in the moment with God. No building can duplicate that moment of encounter. No scheduled event can come close to that mysterious moment in God’s presence.
We can hope that people return to church in person. Businesses can force people to work in office buildings. But the building is only a stand-in for the real gift, which is presence. That kind of connection only comes from standing still.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Dean Feldmeyer
Matthew 4:1-11
Peter, overwhelmed by the Transfiguration experience on the mountain, responds by talking and doing. Kinda like a lot of Christians I know. When confronted with awe, we want to do something, especially something religious. But God slows Peter down, telling him to stop talking and doing and start listening, instead.
Here are some illustrations that deal with listening and hearing.
* * *
Listening For Survivors
This past week two violent earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria leaving over 30,000 people dead and nearly 100,000 injured. We watched in horror as families, friends, relatives, and rescue workers dug with everything from huge, earth moving machines to bare hands and dishpans to find survivors amid the debris.
Every so often, however, all work would be brought to a halt. No one would move or speak so workers could listen. They would call out into the wreckage and, placing their ears against the concrete rubble, hope and pray to hear something, any hint of life.
In some cases, highly sensitive microphones, sensitive enough to hear a human breath or heartbeat, were lowered into a crack but would work for listening only if all other noise was eliminated.
* * *
The President Also Spoke
The Battle of Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863, was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. The Union North and Confederate South lost more than 7,000 men during the three-day battle. Over 45,000 were wounded, and more than 10,000 were captured or missing. A cemetery was planned as the final resting place for more than 3,500 Union soldiers who lost their lives in the battle.
On November 19, 1863, at the official dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery (now called the Gettysburg National Cemetery), the keynote speaker was Edward Everett, the obvious choice for the occasion, who, during his 40-year career as politician, professor, diplomat, and statesman, had consistently dazzled audiences with his brilliant oratory. At Gettysburg, Everett held the crowd spellbound for two hours.
After Everett concluded his speech, President Abraham Lincoln took the podium and spoke just 272 words in about 2 minutes. The text is carved into one of the walls of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. While over a thousand people who were present heard Everett's Gettysburg address, it lives on, in the words of one historian, only "as a foil to that better thing that followed."
* * *
Why We Aren’t Good Listeners
How good a listener are you? Here are a few things that, according to Leadership magazine (Vol.1, No. 4, p. 99.), keep us from being good listeners.
1) Our brains can think about four times faster than a person usually talks, so we use this time to think about other things while we keep track of the conversation.
2) Our brain tends to sift what we hear when we are listening to someone speak, retaining facts and dismissing ideas.
3) We tend to avoid listening when the topic is something that makes us uncomfortable.
4) We often judge whether a person is worth listening to by their appearance and delivery.
5) Most of us are skilled at giving the appearance of listening even when we aren’t.
6) All of us have certain trigger words or phrases that we respond to by turning off our listening ability.
7) Distractions. It’s hard to avoid being distracted by… Squirrel!
* * *
Doctors Be Careful What You Say
Some words and phrases you don’t want to hear your surgeon say: “Oops;” “I’ve never seen anything like that before;” “Boy what a night I had;” and “I’m tired. Here, you do it.”
It’s an old joke but, it turns out, patients undergoing surgery can hear more than we give them credit for.
In one study, anesthetized patients undergoing surgery were subjected to a taped voice tell them they should signify having heard the message by touching their ears in a postoperative interview. Later, in the interview, the patients tugged at their ears, although none could recall having heard the message, nor were they particularly aware of touching their ears. Dr. Henry Bennett, a psychologist now at the University of California Medical School at Davis, reports that when patients were given the suggestion during surgery that one hand was becoming warmer and the other cooler, the hands' temperature did so. This suggests, says Bennett, inadvertent negative remarks — such as, "Holy Moses, this is a terrible bone graft" — could interfere with recovery. Under anesthesia, "Patients may be more vulnerable to upsetting remarks they might hear," Bennett says. "Their normal coping techniques aren't available, since they are drugged."
* * *
It All Depends
Pastor Dana Visneskie tells the story of a Native American and his friend who were in downtown New York City, walking near Times Square in Manhattan. It was during the noon lunch hour and the streets were filled with people. Cars were honking their horns, taxicabs were squealing around corners, sirens were wailing, and the sounds of the city were almost deafening.
Suddenly, the Native American said, “I hear a cricket.”
His friend said, “What? You must be crazy. You couldn’t possibly hear a cricket in all of this noise!”
“No, I’m sure of it,” the Native American said. “I heard a cricket.”
“That’s crazy,” said the friend.
The Native American listened carefully for a moment, and then walked across the street to a big cement planter where some shrubs were growing. He looked into the bushes, beneath the branches, and sure enough, he located a small cricket. His friend was utterly amazed. “That’s incredible,” said his friend. “You must have super-human ears!”
“No,” said the Native American. “My ears are no different from yours. It all depends on what you’re listening for.”
“But that can’t be!” said the friend. “I could never hear a cricket in this noise.”
“Yes, it’s true,” came the reply. “It depends on what is really important to you. Here, let me show you.”
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a few coins, and discreetly dropped them on the sidewalk. And then, with the noise of the crowded street still blaring in their ears, they noticed every head within twenty feet turn and look to see if the money that tinkled on the pavement was theirs.
“See what I mean?” asked the Native American. “It all depends on what’s important to you.
* * *
2 Peter 1:16-21
In this text, the apostle, Peter, tells his audience that they should give credence to what he says because he is not just telling stories but giving eye witness testimony. On the veracity of eye witness accounts, however, the jury is still out.
* * *
Why We Forget
Lots of things can interfere with our memories of what we see and hear. Here are a few:
• “Decay” is what memory experts call the natural and nearly universal tendency to forget things over time. The further we get from a remembered event or occasion, the less we remember about it.
• “Proactive Interference” refers to how old memories sometimes interfere with our recall of more recent events. For instance, it’s not uncommon to confuse something that happened on Christmas five years ago with something similar that happened on Christmas two years ago.
• “Retroactive Interference” is how experts explain the way new experiences interfere with our memories of old ones. Try remembering the melody of an old song when you’ve just listened to a new one. It’s nearly impossible.
* * *
When Eyewitness Testimony Is Believable
According to psychologists and attorneys who practice trial law, there are some things that make certain eye witness testimony more believable. Whether we like it or not, these things often apply:
• The eyewitness testimony of younger adult witnesses tends to be more reliable than that of older witnesses. This is probably because we all have older friends, acquaintances, or relatives whose memories are not what they used to be.
• A “high working memory” is one that transfers recent events into long-term memory with accuracy and ease. People who can demonstrate that they have high working memory, regardless of their age, are usually more believable than those who cannot.
• “Attentional control” is the ability to control what one focuses on and remembers. People who have the ability to direct their attention to multiple objects or elements of an eyewitness event, are usually more reliable as witnesses than those who can’t. Hyper focus, on the other hand, the tendency to focus upon one thing (like the gun a robber is pointing at you), can make a witnesses testimony less reliable.
* * *
Exodus 24:12-18 and Matthew 4:1-11
Both texts, Old Testament and New Testament, take place on a mountain. People of faith have all experienced mountaintop experiences. The problem comes, however, when we want to live on the mountaintop rather than letting it propel us into a future that is productive for the Kingdom of God.
* * *
Downhill Run
The average downhill speed of skiers varies by type. The skiing speeds of professional athletes can reach upwards of 150 mph, but most recreational skiers travel at speeds between 10 and 20 mph. Downhill racers clock out at 40–60 mph and Olympians tend to ski between 75 and 95 mph, depending on the conditions, their equipment, and their body.
The fastest speed ever achieved on skis was 158.4 mph, by Ivan Origone on March 26, 2016.
One thing all skiers have in common from the slowest beginner (5-20 mph) to the average Olympic downhill skier (75-90 mph) to the fastest ever (158.4 mph) is that they all have to start at the top of the mountain and then come down.
* * *
Coming Down Is The Hardest Part
According to Aylin Woodward, writing in Business Insider, Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world with its summit at 29,029 feet above sea level. In one week in 2019 eleven people died attempting to reach the summit. Some collapsed of exhaustion in the "death zone," the area more than 26,000 feet up, where the body cannot get enough oxygen.
In total, 306 people have died trying to summit Everest. But your chances of surviving that climb are higher than they would be on most other Himalayan peaks taller than 26,000 feet. Annapurna I and K2, the second highest mountain, are the most dangerous. The two mountains have a 32% and 29% fatality rate, respectively, according to NASA.
Most experienced mountaineers agree that the most dangerous part of climbing a mountain is the descent after they’ve reached the summit. You have already expended most of your energy going up and now you have to go down, climbing backward. You have to get down before it gets dark and the temperatures drop to well below zero, so you tend to be in a hurry. And all of those things, exhaustion, lack of oxygen, speed, positioning, and fear, contribute to making the descent the scariest and most dangerous part of the climb.
* * * * * *
From team member Chris Keating:
Exodus 24:12-18
Come up to me on the mountain
If Moses had any second thoughts in ascending the mountain, they are not recorded in Exodus. The details are sparse: we do not know what sort of preparations Moses and Joshua may have made, or even their state of mind. We are told, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there,” and “Moses went up into the mountain of God.”
The passage expands with the expectation of an encounter with God. In his book Backpacking with the Saints (Oxford University Press, 2015), theologian Belden Lane writes of the intersections between rugged wilderness and encountering God.” Lane’s book begins with the caution that simplicity in preparation is essential. “Deciding what to carry — and what to leave behind is always the first step,” he writes. It is in the movement up a mountain or into a wilderness that holds the potential for transformational encounters with God. “What I seek most in going into wilderness,” Lane writes, “is not exercise or escape, but a physical and spiritual depth of intimacy. I’m moved by nature’s power and beauty, but what sets me afire is the longing I sense there of everything else wanting to connect, the desire for an intimacy that is as alluring as it is frightening. I go to spend time alone with God…in a robust and full-bodied way.” (Lane, Backpacking, Kindle edition).
* * *
Exodus 24:12-18
Into the clouds
Zach Sobiech began writing songs at age 14, not long after he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer that strikes children. Shortly before his death four years later, his mother was cleaning the family room and uncovered the lyrics to one of his songs. It was his first song, “Clouds,” which begins with Zach contemplating his stark prognosis. “I fell down, down, down into this dark and lonely hole.” But then he rebounds with a hope bounded by faith. “And we’ll go up, up, up, but I’ll climb a little higher.”
Before he died in 2013, a video of Sobiech singing “Clouds” went viral, with dozens of celebrities such as Jason Mraz, Rainn Wilson, and Anna Faris posting their lip-synced responses.
A movie based on Sobiech’s life was released on Disney+ in 2020. It recounts his family coming to grips with his terminal diagnosis, incorporating his mother’s reliance on faith and God’s grace. The movie, one reviewer noted, infuses the family’s Catholic faith into the story of his final six months, including a pilgrimage to Lourdes and preparing for his own funeral mass. “As for our faith journey…. Oh my goodness, it’s why we survived,” said his mother, Laura. “Really we felt like God was entrusting us with this story, to share it. Without our faith, without our belief and understanding that this isn’t really the end, I think we would have fallen into despair. And honestly, that’s kind of what I see happening in our world today. This, maybe, lack of faith has led to this despair.”
* * *
Exodus 24:12-18
A glimpse of paradise
John Muir’s great love for the mountains, encapsulated best by his famous quote “the mountains are calling, and I must go,” continues to inspire adventure seekers, scientists, and nature enthusiasts. Yet Muir’s contemplation of the wonders of Yosemite may also resound with the experiences of war-fatigued Ukrainian tourists flocking to ski resorts in the Carpathian Mountains this year.
According to the New York Times, some are coming to escape the weariness of war, while others are just trying to find reliable sources of electricity. Whether you want to unplug or plug in, the mountains are providing “almost an act of defiance.”
“It's everything a person needs to say sane,” said Taras Bihus, a 29-year old who was recently discharged from serving in the war. “Here, it’s like paradise. When you go up the mountain, you see the clouds rolled right out in front of you.”
* * *
2 Peter 1:16-21
Eyewitnesses testimony?
While the epistle writer extols the value of eye-witness testimony, there’s often reasons to discount such testimony. Perry Mason might not agree, but studies show that eyewitness accounts can be fickle, and often subject to implicit biases.
Recently, for example, a Louisiana judge tossed out Darrill Henry’s first-degree murder conviction, when DNA evidence from the crime scene definitively excluded Henry as the perpetrator. The state had relied on eye-witness accounts, which defense attorneys said were the result of being shown “suggestive photo lineups.”
So was the epistle writer mistaken? It’s hard to say, because under the right circumstances and with the appropriate controls, experts say eyewitness testimony can still be useful.
* * *
Matthew 17:1-9
Clouds of smoke
Jason Reynolds’ gripping book Long Way Down (Simon & Schuster, 2017) is a young-adult poetic novel about a teenage boy dealing with the aftermath of his brother’s murder. Will, a 15-year old Black teenager, has been taught the “rules” of urban life by his older brother, Shawn: 1) Don’t cry; 2) Don’t snitch, and 3) Get revenge. But when Shawn is killed Will must wrestle with the rules in real time. Grabbing his brother’s gun, Will enters his building’s elevator in search of vengeance. Inside the elevator, however, time seems to stop. Just as Jesus is joined by Moses and Elijah, Will is visited by ghosts of friends and family who had all been victims of violence. Each one lights up a cigarette, filling the elevator with clouds of nauseating smoke. Will muses, “Thought when the doors opened the smoke would rush out. But instead it became a still cloud trapped in a steel cube.” (p. 149)
He continues, “I fanned and coughed, expecting whoever was waiting to wait for the next one. Who wants to get on an elevator full of smoke? What if it wasn’t really full of smoke? Still, who wants to get on an elevator with a kid buggin’? Swatting and choking on the invisible thick. They’d probably think what you probably think right now,” (p. 150) As the cloud fills the elevator car, it becomes a symbol of a possibility for the cloud’s swirling around Will’s grief. At the end, when the “smoky box” reaches its destination, the cloud of smoke fans out. “The cloud of smoke rushing out of the elevator, rushing out of me, link angry wave.” We’re left wondering if the cloud has changed Will, or if the testimony of the others has impacted his understanding of the rules. Perhaps like the disciples, Will faces a choice — though Reynolds leaves the matter unsettled. This is a must-read novel for any age, and a book that reads quickly even as its meaning lingers.
* * *
Matthew 17:1-9
Jesus struck by lightning
Fresh from the “you cannot make this stuff up” department comes a dispatch from Rio De Janiero capturing the moment when the world’s tallest statue of Jesus was hit by lightning. Last week, the 125-foot tall Christ The Redeemer statue overlooking Rio was struck by a powerful bold of lighting. Video and photography of the event jolted social media, garnering more than 20 million views worldwide. One commentator joked, “Mom! Thor and Jesus are at it again!” Weather experts note that this is the third time in recent years that the gigantic icon has taken a direct hit in a storm.
* * *
Matthew 17:1-9
Get up, do not be afraid
Jesus admonishes the disciples to get up, and to “not be afraid.” It’s the sort of one-two punch common in scripture. As someone has said, those moments when scripture advises us to be afraid as generally the moments when we have the most to fear. Heeding Jesus’ words often involves reimagining our faith in ways that allows trust to grow deeper.
Setting aside some of the fears she had associated with the faith of her childhood has become a part of Jinger Duggar Vuolo’s faith journey. The 29-year old mother of two is more commonly known as being the sixth daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, of television’s “19 Kids and Counting” family. Vuolo and her siblings were immersed in an ultra-fundamentalist branch of Christianity that included patriarchal domination, strict codes of modesty and family values.
Ten years later the walls enforced by fear have begun to crumble for Vuolo. The pastor who influenced much of her father’s strict fundamentalism has been ousted from his ministry following accusations of sexual harassment, and her brother Josh Duggar is in prison following a child pornography conviction. Her father Jim Bob is out of politics, and the family’s television show out of production. Vuolo, who is still a devout Evangelical Christian, has written about her process of leaving fear behind in a new memoir, Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith From Fear.
Vuolo calls herself a “strict rule follower,” who nonetheless became filled with fear and anxiety. “I was just so crippled with fear,” she said recently, “and I didn’t know why.” What she calls “disentangling” others name “deconstruction.” For persons raised in strict fundamentalist backgrounds, “deconstruction” involves asking questions about the culture in which they were raised. It often involves a shift in one’s theological views or values. For Vuolo, the process was like methodically working out a hardened knot from a clump of hair. It involved separating “the truth of Christianity from the unhealthy version I heard growing up.”
It's not clear how much Vuolo has actually separated herself from her strict upbringing. She and her husband and children attend Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA, nondenominational church led by pastor John MacArthur, known for his ardent stands against same-gender relationships and strenuous objection to Covid-19 precautions.
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: God is king; let the peoples tremble!
All: God sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
One: God is great in Zion and is exalted over all the peoples.
All: Let us praise our Holy God’s great and awesome name.
One: Mighty Sovereign, lover of justice, you have established equity.
All: You have executed justice and righteousness in all the earth.
OR
One: God comes to overshadow us with light and grace.
All: We welcome God’s presence into our midst.
One: God calls us to be still and to listen.
All: We will try to quiet our hearts and minds before God.
One: God invites us to listen to the teaching of the Christ.
All: We will attend to Christ’s voice and listen to the words of life.
Hymns and Songs
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
GTG: 12
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELW: 834
W&P: 48
AMEC: 71
STLT 273
Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies
UMH: 173
H82: 6/7
PH: 462/463
GTG: 662
LBW: 265
ELW: 553
W&P: 91
This Little Light of Mine
UMH: 585
AAHH: 549
NNBH: 511
NCH: 524/525
ELW: 677
STLT: 118
Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light
UMH: 223
H82: 91
PH: 26
GTG: 130
NCH: 140
W&P: 202
I Am Thine, O Lord
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 283
I Stand Amazed in the Presence
UMH: 371
W&P: 277
Let It Breathe on Me
UMH: 503
AAHH: 316
NNBH: 128
NCH: 288
CH: 260
AMEC: 295
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
GTG: 366
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELW: 631
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
O Wondrous Sight! O Vision Fair
UMH: 258
H82: 136/137
PH: 75
GTG: 189
NCH: 184
LBW: 80
ELW: 316
O Worship the King
UMH: 73
H82: 388
PH: 476
GTG: 41
NNBH: 6
NCH: 26
CH: 17
LBW: 548
ELW: 842
W&P: 2
AMEC: 12
Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart
UMH: 500
PH: 326
GTG: 688
AAHH: 312
NCH: 290
CH: 265
LBW: 486
ELW: 800
W&P: 132
AMEC: 189
As the Deer
CCB: 83
Renew: 9
Fill My Cup, Lord
CCB: 47
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is pure being:
Grant us the grace to just be in your presence
and to listen to your Son, Jesus the Christ;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are pure being. You are the foundation of all the is. Help us to rest in your presence as we listen to your Son teach us about you. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our constant need to be doing something.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us to reflect your being and yet we are constantly trying to create ourselves through our doing. We measure others and ourselves by what is done, what is accomplished. We neglect taking the time to just be with you and to listen to our Son. Calm our hearts and minds and help us to settle into your presence so that we may know you better and thus be better followers of the Christ. Amen.
One: God is with us and within us and loves us as we were created. Allow God’s Spirit to enfold you so that your created goodness may come forth.
Prayers of the People
Praise and honor to you, O God of all being and all beings. We praise you for the wonder of who you are.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us to reflect your being and yet we are constantly trying to create ourselves through our doing. We measure others and ourselves by what is done, what is accomplished. We neglect taking the time to just be with you and to listen to our Son. Calm our hearts and minds and help us to settle into your presence so that we may know you better and thus be better followers of the Christ.
We give you thanks for your presence in the midst of our lives. We thank you for the invitation to stop our frantic doing and to listen to Jesus. We thank you for those who have taught us what they have learned from quietly being in his presence.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all who are in need this day. We pray for those who are caught up in the rat race of trying to get ahead by doing more and more. We pray for those who struggle to quiet the noise of the world and to listen to our Savior. We pray for those who are so distracted by the hurts and troubles of their lives that they cannot hear anything else.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMON
A Bright Cloud
by Tom Willadsen
Matthew 17:1-9
After the kids have gathered up front ask them what they know about clouds.
Perhaps some of them have seen interesting shapes in the clouds.
Do they know what shape of cloud tornadoes are?
Rain, snow, sleet and hail come from clouds.
Fog is clouds down close to the ground.
What colors do clouds come in? At sunset they can be pink, yellow, purple, etc. When it’s raining, snowing, or sleeting, clouds can be dark gray or black or even green.
When a cloud blocks the sun it gets cooler immediately. That’s because clouds cause shadows. Shadows are darker than light.
In the Bible reading from Matthew’s gospel it says that Jesus went up a mountain with three of his disciples and “suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them.” Did you hear that? A bright cloud overshadowed them. I am having trouble trying to picture a bright cloud overshadowed them. Because if it overshadowed them it must have been a dark cloud. Hmm.
(I did see a bright cloud once. I was driving at night in Wisconsin and there was a white cloud that glowed. I had never seen anything like it. When I got to my meeting in another town everyone asked if I’d seen the Aurora Borealis! I had not seen a cloud at all!)
It seems to me that if a cloud is bright it must be lit up from somewhere else. I think that cloud that overshadowed Jesus, Peter, James, and John really did cover them. And God really did speak to them, saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”
I think it was bright because of the light that Jesus gave to the world. Remember two weeks ago, Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works….”
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, February 19, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- God Makes Room For Us by Katy Stenta based on Matthew 17:1-9.
- Second Thoughts: Jesus Says No to the Capital Campaign by Mary Austin based on Matthew 17:1-9.
- Sermon illustrations by Dean Feldmeyer and Chris Keating.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children's sermon: Impossible to Get Lost by Tom Willadsen based on Matthew 17:1-9.
God Makes Room For Us
by Katy Stenta
Matthew 17:1-9
When we are all blinded in the light of God's glory and feel overwhelmed, God shields us with God's own shade, and gives us the space to hear what needs to be heard
In the Scriptures
Before the beginning of the world, God made room in Godself to create space for us. (Genesis 1:1) There is God, and God creates the heaven and the earth and then goes on to create everything in it, God creates companionship, because God is a social and relational God. God does all this by making the room necessary for creation to exist.
God’s glory is indeed mighty. It frightens Moses initially in the burning bush in Exodus 3. Then again, just the reflection of God’s glory shines off of Moses’s face when he returns from delivering the Ten Commandments in Exodus 34:33-35. They were afraid, and after speaking to Moses, he wore a veil for an unspecified time.
In the News
A commercial has come out branding Jesus, saying, “He Gets You.” This commercial, funded by some of the same people behind anti-abortion and anti-queer legislation, is also working with the perception that Christians are ostracized or otherwise prejudiced against. The reality is that the real Jesus does not need branding or protection. God makes room for us, not the other way around.
With the brilliance of the Super Bowl, many question what is stealing the show. Do you watch for the commercials or the game? Do you think the game is the main focus or is the half-time show the main event that has football as the opener and closer? In terms of our racially charged political atmosphere, questions arise even about our musical performances. Did “Lift Every Voice and Sing” steal from the National Anthem, or seeing as how it has been the Black National Anthem since before the Star Spangled Banner was official, is it really the other way around? Was Rihanna’s brilliance enhanced or distracted by her pregnancy? One thing is for certain, we humans are easily distracted by shiny things, are we not?
In the Sermon
When Peter panics and immediately thinks that the disciples should build permanent structures, and worship Elijah, Moses, and Jesus, it is the natural human response. The poor humans are overwhelmed by the glory of God. It reminds one of when children are overstimulated and melt down. Or perhaps it’s like when one is driving toward the sun, trying to focus on the destination, unable to see.
Peter responds with trying to do something. To build permanence, to try to hold onto the holiness. One can almost feel the disciples’ brains splintering apart in the moment.
God responds with giving room and shade and grace. God becomes a cloud and shields the disciples from God’s very self. God gives room and then bids the disciples to stop, wait and listen. In essence, to “be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10) “This is my Son, my beloved, listen to him.” God becomes the shade from the holiness, because God is human enough to know what it is people need in this moment, even as Jesus’s holiness is revealed. The compassion of the transfiguration, the strength that the disciples need to climb back down the mountain, comes in the shade of the cloud.
SECOND THOUGHTSJesus Says No to the Capital Campaign
by Mary Austin
Matthew 17:1-9
“Just a small fire, to take out one wing,” I may or may not have prayed over the years, as I served churches in too-big buildings. My current church was just the right size before the pandemic, and now the space is mostly empty during the week. As we try to figure out how to use the space to serve the neighborhood, I have a secret dream of being a renter in someone else’s building. If we had a small office somewhere, and worship space on Sundays, I’d never have to think about the roof again.
For centuries, the people of God have been honoring God by building. Cathedrals, synagogues, mosques, churches, schools — all over the world faith equals building projects. Peter is the first in the Christian scriptures to feel this way, and not the last. He can hardly help himself. “Let’s build something permanent,” he bursts out, so we can save this precious encounter forever. We know how he feels. If we could contain the divine, we would gladly do it. Our love for God is so transforming that we want to hold onto it.
Churches are not alone in having too much space. Empty office buildings fill every urban center. “The overall office vacancy rate is above 20 percent in Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and in all four New York City business districts (Brooklyn, Downtown, Midtown, Midtown South). Nationally, office space is about as empty as it was after the 2010 recession.” That’s a measure of leased space — and it turns out that not many people are in the space at all. “According to the office security company Kastle — the “Covid-Era Kings of Back-to-Work Data” — the country’s 10 largest office markets are 53 percent vacant based on employee badge scans.” Declining value for buildings means declining tax revenue for cities, plus loss of income for all the lunch places, dry cleaners, transit workers and others who serve commuters.
Interesting conversations about converting offices to badly needed housing flounder on the obstacles. “One problem is simply with the shape of office buildings: Their deep floor plates mean it’s hard for natural light to reach most of the space once it’s divided up into rooms. Their utilities are centralized, which requires extensive work to bring plumbing and HVAC into new apartments.”
The problem with buildings is that they demand something to fill them. Empty offices are spurring companies to nudge / force / cajole employees back to the office to work. Church buildings demand programming.
But we follow the God who reacts to the idea of a building program by saying “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” Just listen: that’s all that is required. No building, no rushing, no planning, no doing. The disciples are understandably afraid when God says this. Doing something is so much easier than simply sitting with God. Jesus sees the disciples’ fear, and, with a gentle touch, tells them, “Get up and do not be afraid.”
Tricia Hersey, the Nap Bishop, says that rest is revolutionary. She says, “There is no system in our culture that supports and makes space for us to rest. This culture does not want you rested unless it is attached to your increased labor and productivity. No one will give you rest. This is an outlier investigation. A counter narrative. It is trust work. It is healing work. It is decolonizing work. It is a subculture holding space for the blossoming of a resistance.”
The God who shows up on the mountaintop is also the God who tells us to stop, listen, wait, watch, trust and pray. As Tricia Hersey says, talking to us and also giving advice that Peter could have used as well, “This is a time to simply stop and feel. A time to not force or attempt to make sense of what can and will happen when we allow our bodies to heal from the massive load we have been carrying consciously and unconsciously.”
Peter, James and John are about to encounter a moment of deep failure for the other disciples. Soon, they will accompany Jesus toward Jerusalem. Traveling around with Jesus, they’re carrying the burden of fear and economic insecurity. With him, they’re on the edges of society. The antidote for that is the choice that Jesus makes so often for himself — to stop, listen and be in the moment with God. No building can duplicate that moment of encounter. No scheduled event can come close to that mysterious moment in God’s presence.
We can hope that people return to church in person. Businesses can force people to work in office buildings. But the building is only a stand-in for the real gift, which is presence. That kind of connection only comes from standing still.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Dean FeldmeyerMatthew 4:1-11
Peter, overwhelmed by the Transfiguration experience on the mountain, responds by talking and doing. Kinda like a lot of Christians I know. When confronted with awe, we want to do something, especially something religious. But God slows Peter down, telling him to stop talking and doing and start listening, instead.
Here are some illustrations that deal with listening and hearing.
* * *
Listening For Survivors
This past week two violent earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria leaving over 30,000 people dead and nearly 100,000 injured. We watched in horror as families, friends, relatives, and rescue workers dug with everything from huge, earth moving machines to bare hands and dishpans to find survivors amid the debris.
Every so often, however, all work would be brought to a halt. No one would move or speak so workers could listen. They would call out into the wreckage and, placing their ears against the concrete rubble, hope and pray to hear something, any hint of life.
In some cases, highly sensitive microphones, sensitive enough to hear a human breath or heartbeat, were lowered into a crack but would work for listening only if all other noise was eliminated.
* * *
The President Also Spoke
The Battle of Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863, was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. The Union North and Confederate South lost more than 7,000 men during the three-day battle. Over 45,000 were wounded, and more than 10,000 were captured or missing. A cemetery was planned as the final resting place for more than 3,500 Union soldiers who lost their lives in the battle.
On November 19, 1863, at the official dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery (now called the Gettysburg National Cemetery), the keynote speaker was Edward Everett, the obvious choice for the occasion, who, during his 40-year career as politician, professor, diplomat, and statesman, had consistently dazzled audiences with his brilliant oratory. At Gettysburg, Everett held the crowd spellbound for two hours.
After Everett concluded his speech, President Abraham Lincoln took the podium and spoke just 272 words in about 2 minutes. The text is carved into one of the walls of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. While over a thousand people who were present heard Everett's Gettysburg address, it lives on, in the words of one historian, only "as a foil to that better thing that followed."
* * *
Why We Aren’t Good Listeners
How good a listener are you? Here are a few things that, according to Leadership magazine (Vol.1, No. 4, p. 99.), keep us from being good listeners.
1) Our brains can think about four times faster than a person usually talks, so we use this time to think about other things while we keep track of the conversation.
2) Our brain tends to sift what we hear when we are listening to someone speak, retaining facts and dismissing ideas.
3) We tend to avoid listening when the topic is something that makes us uncomfortable.
4) We often judge whether a person is worth listening to by their appearance and delivery.
5) Most of us are skilled at giving the appearance of listening even when we aren’t.
6) All of us have certain trigger words or phrases that we respond to by turning off our listening ability.
7) Distractions. It’s hard to avoid being distracted by… Squirrel!
* * *
Doctors Be Careful What You Say
Some words and phrases you don’t want to hear your surgeon say: “Oops;” “I’ve never seen anything like that before;” “Boy what a night I had;” and “I’m tired. Here, you do it.”
It’s an old joke but, it turns out, patients undergoing surgery can hear more than we give them credit for.
In one study, anesthetized patients undergoing surgery were subjected to a taped voice tell them they should signify having heard the message by touching their ears in a postoperative interview. Later, in the interview, the patients tugged at their ears, although none could recall having heard the message, nor were they particularly aware of touching their ears. Dr. Henry Bennett, a psychologist now at the University of California Medical School at Davis, reports that when patients were given the suggestion during surgery that one hand was becoming warmer and the other cooler, the hands' temperature did so. This suggests, says Bennett, inadvertent negative remarks — such as, "Holy Moses, this is a terrible bone graft" — could interfere with recovery. Under anesthesia, "Patients may be more vulnerable to upsetting remarks they might hear," Bennett says. "Their normal coping techniques aren't available, since they are drugged."
* * *
It All Depends
Pastor Dana Visneskie tells the story of a Native American and his friend who were in downtown New York City, walking near Times Square in Manhattan. It was during the noon lunch hour and the streets were filled with people. Cars were honking their horns, taxicabs were squealing around corners, sirens were wailing, and the sounds of the city were almost deafening.
Suddenly, the Native American said, “I hear a cricket.”
His friend said, “What? You must be crazy. You couldn’t possibly hear a cricket in all of this noise!”
“No, I’m sure of it,” the Native American said. “I heard a cricket.”
“That’s crazy,” said the friend.
The Native American listened carefully for a moment, and then walked across the street to a big cement planter where some shrubs were growing. He looked into the bushes, beneath the branches, and sure enough, he located a small cricket. His friend was utterly amazed. “That’s incredible,” said his friend. “You must have super-human ears!”
“No,” said the Native American. “My ears are no different from yours. It all depends on what you’re listening for.”
“But that can’t be!” said the friend. “I could never hear a cricket in this noise.”
“Yes, it’s true,” came the reply. “It depends on what is really important to you. Here, let me show you.”
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a few coins, and discreetly dropped them on the sidewalk. And then, with the noise of the crowded street still blaring in their ears, they noticed every head within twenty feet turn and look to see if the money that tinkled on the pavement was theirs.
“See what I mean?” asked the Native American. “It all depends on what’s important to you.
* * *
2 Peter 1:16-21
In this text, the apostle, Peter, tells his audience that they should give credence to what he says because he is not just telling stories but giving eye witness testimony. On the veracity of eye witness accounts, however, the jury is still out.
* * *
Why We Forget
Lots of things can interfere with our memories of what we see and hear. Here are a few:
• “Decay” is what memory experts call the natural and nearly universal tendency to forget things over time. The further we get from a remembered event or occasion, the less we remember about it.
• “Proactive Interference” refers to how old memories sometimes interfere with our recall of more recent events. For instance, it’s not uncommon to confuse something that happened on Christmas five years ago with something similar that happened on Christmas two years ago.
• “Retroactive Interference” is how experts explain the way new experiences interfere with our memories of old ones. Try remembering the melody of an old song when you’ve just listened to a new one. It’s nearly impossible.
* * *
When Eyewitness Testimony Is Believable
According to psychologists and attorneys who practice trial law, there are some things that make certain eye witness testimony more believable. Whether we like it or not, these things often apply:
• The eyewitness testimony of younger adult witnesses tends to be more reliable than that of older witnesses. This is probably because we all have older friends, acquaintances, or relatives whose memories are not what they used to be.
• A “high working memory” is one that transfers recent events into long-term memory with accuracy and ease. People who can demonstrate that they have high working memory, regardless of their age, are usually more believable than those who cannot.
• “Attentional control” is the ability to control what one focuses on and remembers. People who have the ability to direct their attention to multiple objects or elements of an eyewitness event, are usually more reliable as witnesses than those who can’t. Hyper focus, on the other hand, the tendency to focus upon one thing (like the gun a robber is pointing at you), can make a witnesses testimony less reliable.
* * *
Exodus 24:12-18 and Matthew 4:1-11
Both texts, Old Testament and New Testament, take place on a mountain. People of faith have all experienced mountaintop experiences. The problem comes, however, when we want to live on the mountaintop rather than letting it propel us into a future that is productive for the Kingdom of God.
* * *
Downhill Run
The average downhill speed of skiers varies by type. The skiing speeds of professional athletes can reach upwards of 150 mph, but most recreational skiers travel at speeds between 10 and 20 mph. Downhill racers clock out at 40–60 mph and Olympians tend to ski between 75 and 95 mph, depending on the conditions, their equipment, and their body.
The fastest speed ever achieved on skis was 158.4 mph, by Ivan Origone on March 26, 2016.
One thing all skiers have in common from the slowest beginner (5-20 mph) to the average Olympic downhill skier (75-90 mph) to the fastest ever (158.4 mph) is that they all have to start at the top of the mountain and then come down.
* * *
Coming Down Is The Hardest Part
According to Aylin Woodward, writing in Business Insider, Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world with its summit at 29,029 feet above sea level. In one week in 2019 eleven people died attempting to reach the summit. Some collapsed of exhaustion in the "death zone," the area more than 26,000 feet up, where the body cannot get enough oxygen.
In total, 306 people have died trying to summit Everest. But your chances of surviving that climb are higher than they would be on most other Himalayan peaks taller than 26,000 feet. Annapurna I and K2, the second highest mountain, are the most dangerous. The two mountains have a 32% and 29% fatality rate, respectively, according to NASA.
Most experienced mountaineers agree that the most dangerous part of climbing a mountain is the descent after they’ve reached the summit. You have already expended most of your energy going up and now you have to go down, climbing backward. You have to get down before it gets dark and the temperatures drop to well below zero, so you tend to be in a hurry. And all of those things, exhaustion, lack of oxygen, speed, positioning, and fear, contribute to making the descent the scariest and most dangerous part of the climb.
* * * * * *
From team member Chris Keating:Exodus 24:12-18
Come up to me on the mountain
If Moses had any second thoughts in ascending the mountain, they are not recorded in Exodus. The details are sparse: we do not know what sort of preparations Moses and Joshua may have made, or even their state of mind. We are told, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there,” and “Moses went up into the mountain of God.”
The passage expands with the expectation of an encounter with God. In his book Backpacking with the Saints (Oxford University Press, 2015), theologian Belden Lane writes of the intersections between rugged wilderness and encountering God.” Lane’s book begins with the caution that simplicity in preparation is essential. “Deciding what to carry — and what to leave behind is always the first step,” he writes. It is in the movement up a mountain or into a wilderness that holds the potential for transformational encounters with God. “What I seek most in going into wilderness,” Lane writes, “is not exercise or escape, but a physical and spiritual depth of intimacy. I’m moved by nature’s power and beauty, but what sets me afire is the longing I sense there of everything else wanting to connect, the desire for an intimacy that is as alluring as it is frightening. I go to spend time alone with God…in a robust and full-bodied way.” (Lane, Backpacking, Kindle edition).
* * *
Exodus 24:12-18
Into the clouds
Zach Sobiech began writing songs at age 14, not long after he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer that strikes children. Shortly before his death four years later, his mother was cleaning the family room and uncovered the lyrics to one of his songs. It was his first song, “Clouds,” which begins with Zach contemplating his stark prognosis. “I fell down, down, down into this dark and lonely hole.” But then he rebounds with a hope bounded by faith. “And we’ll go up, up, up, but I’ll climb a little higher.”
Before he died in 2013, a video of Sobiech singing “Clouds” went viral, with dozens of celebrities such as Jason Mraz, Rainn Wilson, and Anna Faris posting their lip-synced responses.
A movie based on Sobiech’s life was released on Disney+ in 2020. It recounts his family coming to grips with his terminal diagnosis, incorporating his mother’s reliance on faith and God’s grace. The movie, one reviewer noted, infuses the family’s Catholic faith into the story of his final six months, including a pilgrimage to Lourdes and preparing for his own funeral mass. “As for our faith journey…. Oh my goodness, it’s why we survived,” said his mother, Laura. “Really we felt like God was entrusting us with this story, to share it. Without our faith, without our belief and understanding that this isn’t really the end, I think we would have fallen into despair. And honestly, that’s kind of what I see happening in our world today. This, maybe, lack of faith has led to this despair.”
* * *
Exodus 24:12-18
A glimpse of paradise
John Muir’s great love for the mountains, encapsulated best by his famous quote “the mountains are calling, and I must go,” continues to inspire adventure seekers, scientists, and nature enthusiasts. Yet Muir’s contemplation of the wonders of Yosemite may also resound with the experiences of war-fatigued Ukrainian tourists flocking to ski resorts in the Carpathian Mountains this year.
According to the New York Times, some are coming to escape the weariness of war, while others are just trying to find reliable sources of electricity. Whether you want to unplug or plug in, the mountains are providing “almost an act of defiance.”
“It's everything a person needs to say sane,” said Taras Bihus, a 29-year old who was recently discharged from serving in the war. “Here, it’s like paradise. When you go up the mountain, you see the clouds rolled right out in front of you.”
* * *
2 Peter 1:16-21
Eyewitnesses testimony?
While the epistle writer extols the value of eye-witness testimony, there’s often reasons to discount such testimony. Perry Mason might not agree, but studies show that eyewitness accounts can be fickle, and often subject to implicit biases.
Recently, for example, a Louisiana judge tossed out Darrill Henry’s first-degree murder conviction, when DNA evidence from the crime scene definitively excluded Henry as the perpetrator. The state had relied on eye-witness accounts, which defense attorneys said were the result of being shown “suggestive photo lineups.”
So was the epistle writer mistaken? It’s hard to say, because under the right circumstances and with the appropriate controls, experts say eyewitness testimony can still be useful.
* * *
Matthew 17:1-9
Clouds of smoke
Jason Reynolds’ gripping book Long Way Down (Simon & Schuster, 2017) is a young-adult poetic novel about a teenage boy dealing with the aftermath of his brother’s murder. Will, a 15-year old Black teenager, has been taught the “rules” of urban life by his older brother, Shawn: 1) Don’t cry; 2) Don’t snitch, and 3) Get revenge. But when Shawn is killed Will must wrestle with the rules in real time. Grabbing his brother’s gun, Will enters his building’s elevator in search of vengeance. Inside the elevator, however, time seems to stop. Just as Jesus is joined by Moses and Elijah, Will is visited by ghosts of friends and family who had all been victims of violence. Each one lights up a cigarette, filling the elevator with clouds of nauseating smoke. Will muses, “Thought when the doors opened the smoke would rush out. But instead it became a still cloud trapped in a steel cube.” (p. 149)
He continues, “I fanned and coughed, expecting whoever was waiting to wait for the next one. Who wants to get on an elevator full of smoke? What if it wasn’t really full of smoke? Still, who wants to get on an elevator with a kid buggin’? Swatting and choking on the invisible thick. They’d probably think what you probably think right now,” (p. 150) As the cloud fills the elevator car, it becomes a symbol of a possibility for the cloud’s swirling around Will’s grief. At the end, when the “smoky box” reaches its destination, the cloud of smoke fans out. “The cloud of smoke rushing out of the elevator, rushing out of me, link angry wave.” We’re left wondering if the cloud has changed Will, or if the testimony of the others has impacted his understanding of the rules. Perhaps like the disciples, Will faces a choice — though Reynolds leaves the matter unsettled. This is a must-read novel for any age, and a book that reads quickly even as its meaning lingers.
* * *
Matthew 17:1-9
Jesus struck by lightning
Fresh from the “you cannot make this stuff up” department comes a dispatch from Rio De Janiero capturing the moment when the world’s tallest statue of Jesus was hit by lightning. Last week, the 125-foot tall Christ The Redeemer statue overlooking Rio was struck by a powerful bold of lighting. Video and photography of the event jolted social media, garnering more than 20 million views worldwide. One commentator joked, “Mom! Thor and Jesus are at it again!” Weather experts note that this is the third time in recent years that the gigantic icon has taken a direct hit in a storm.
* * *
Matthew 17:1-9
Get up, do not be afraid
Jesus admonishes the disciples to get up, and to “not be afraid.” It’s the sort of one-two punch common in scripture. As someone has said, those moments when scripture advises us to be afraid as generally the moments when we have the most to fear. Heeding Jesus’ words often involves reimagining our faith in ways that allows trust to grow deeper.
Setting aside some of the fears she had associated with the faith of her childhood has become a part of Jinger Duggar Vuolo’s faith journey. The 29-year old mother of two is more commonly known as being the sixth daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, of television’s “19 Kids and Counting” family. Vuolo and her siblings were immersed in an ultra-fundamentalist branch of Christianity that included patriarchal domination, strict codes of modesty and family values.
Ten years later the walls enforced by fear have begun to crumble for Vuolo. The pastor who influenced much of her father’s strict fundamentalism has been ousted from his ministry following accusations of sexual harassment, and her brother Josh Duggar is in prison following a child pornography conviction. Her father Jim Bob is out of politics, and the family’s television show out of production. Vuolo, who is still a devout Evangelical Christian, has written about her process of leaving fear behind in a new memoir, Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith From Fear.
Vuolo calls herself a “strict rule follower,” who nonetheless became filled with fear and anxiety. “I was just so crippled with fear,” she said recently, “and I didn’t know why.” What she calls “disentangling” others name “deconstruction.” For persons raised in strict fundamentalist backgrounds, “deconstruction” involves asking questions about the culture in which they were raised. It often involves a shift in one’s theological views or values. For Vuolo, the process was like methodically working out a hardened knot from a clump of hair. It involved separating “the truth of Christianity from the unhealthy version I heard growing up.”
It's not clear how much Vuolo has actually separated herself from her strict upbringing. She and her husband and children attend Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA, nondenominational church led by pastor John MacArthur, known for his ardent stands against same-gender relationships and strenuous objection to Covid-19 precautions.
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: God is king; let the peoples tremble!
All: God sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
One: God is great in Zion and is exalted over all the peoples.
All: Let us praise our Holy God’s great and awesome name.
One: Mighty Sovereign, lover of justice, you have established equity.
All: You have executed justice and righteousness in all the earth.
OR
One: God comes to overshadow us with light and grace.
All: We welcome God’s presence into our midst.
One: God calls us to be still and to listen.
All: We will try to quiet our hearts and minds before God.
One: God invites us to listen to the teaching of the Christ.
All: We will attend to Christ’s voice and listen to the words of life.
Hymns and Songs
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
GTG: 12
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELW: 834
W&P: 48
AMEC: 71
STLT 273
Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies
UMH: 173
H82: 6/7
PH: 462/463
GTG: 662
LBW: 265
ELW: 553
W&P: 91
This Little Light of Mine
UMH: 585
AAHH: 549
NNBH: 511
NCH: 524/525
ELW: 677
STLT: 118
Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light
UMH: 223
H82: 91
PH: 26
GTG: 130
NCH: 140
W&P: 202
I Am Thine, O Lord
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 283
I Stand Amazed in the Presence
UMH: 371
W&P: 277
Let It Breathe on Me
UMH: 503
AAHH: 316
NNBH: 128
NCH: 288
CH: 260
AMEC: 295
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
GTG: 366
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELW: 631
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
O Wondrous Sight! O Vision Fair
UMH: 258
H82: 136/137
PH: 75
GTG: 189
NCH: 184
LBW: 80
ELW: 316
O Worship the King
UMH: 73
H82: 388
PH: 476
GTG: 41
NNBH: 6
NCH: 26
CH: 17
LBW: 548
ELW: 842
W&P: 2
AMEC: 12
Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart
UMH: 500
PH: 326
GTG: 688
AAHH: 312
NCH: 290
CH: 265
LBW: 486
ELW: 800
W&P: 132
AMEC: 189
As the Deer
CCB: 83
Renew: 9
Fill My Cup, Lord
CCB: 47
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is pure being:
Grant us the grace to just be in your presence
and to listen to your Son, Jesus the Christ;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are pure being. You are the foundation of all the is. Help us to rest in your presence as we listen to your Son teach us about you. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our constant need to be doing something.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us to reflect your being and yet we are constantly trying to create ourselves through our doing. We measure others and ourselves by what is done, what is accomplished. We neglect taking the time to just be with you and to listen to our Son. Calm our hearts and minds and help us to settle into your presence so that we may know you better and thus be better followers of the Christ. Amen.
One: God is with us and within us and loves us as we were created. Allow God’s Spirit to enfold you so that your created goodness may come forth.
Prayers of the People
Praise and honor to you, O God of all being and all beings. We praise you for the wonder of who you are.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us to reflect your being and yet we are constantly trying to create ourselves through our doing. We measure others and ourselves by what is done, what is accomplished. We neglect taking the time to just be with you and to listen to our Son. Calm our hearts and minds and help us to settle into your presence so that we may know you better and thus be better followers of the Christ.
We give you thanks for your presence in the midst of our lives. We thank you for the invitation to stop our frantic doing and to listen to Jesus. We thank you for those who have taught us what they have learned from quietly being in his presence.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all who are in need this day. We pray for those who are caught up in the rat race of trying to get ahead by doing more and more. We pray for those who struggle to quiet the noise of the world and to listen to our Savior. We pray for those who are so distracted by the hurts and troubles of their lives that they cannot hear anything else.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMONA Bright Cloud
by Tom Willadsen
Matthew 17:1-9
After the kids have gathered up front ask them what they know about clouds.
Perhaps some of them have seen interesting shapes in the clouds.
Do they know what shape of cloud tornadoes are?
Rain, snow, sleet and hail come from clouds.
Fog is clouds down close to the ground.
What colors do clouds come in? At sunset they can be pink, yellow, purple, etc. When it’s raining, snowing, or sleeting, clouds can be dark gray or black or even green.
When a cloud blocks the sun it gets cooler immediately. That’s because clouds cause shadows. Shadows are darker than light.
In the Bible reading from Matthew’s gospel it says that Jesus went up a mountain with three of his disciples and “suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them.” Did you hear that? A bright cloud overshadowed them. I am having trouble trying to picture a bright cloud overshadowed them. Because if it overshadowed them it must have been a dark cloud. Hmm.
(I did see a bright cloud once. I was driving at night in Wisconsin and there was a white cloud that glowed. I had never seen anything like it. When I got to my meeting in another town everyone asked if I’d seen the Aurora Borealis! I had not seen a cloud at all!)
It seems to me that if a cloud is bright it must be lit up from somewhere else. I think that cloud that overshadowed Jesus, Peter, James, and John really did cover them. And God really did speak to them, saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”
I think it was bright because of the light that Jesus gave to the world. Remember two weeks ago, Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works….”
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, February 19, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
