October 30, 2022
Welcome! We’re so glad you have joined us today! Give us hearts to live into your risky miracles. (Walter Brueggemann) Gathering Announcements Sunday, 4:00 PM SPRC Zoom Meeting 5:00 PM Zoom Church Conference Sunday, November 6 7:30 AM Visioning Board Gathering Song Try a Little Kindness Glen Campbell https://youtu.be/vfLOG8qkuqY Opening Prayer We confess, Holy One, that in our human foolishness, we often seek to appear wise. Help us know the wisdom of your ways and the truth of your Word. We confess, Spirit Guide, that we often fail to acknowledge your presence, seeking to go our own way, and following our own call. From this centeredness on self, we let you down, we let others down, we let ourselves down. Help us to follow your direction, your call, and your guidance. Help us to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you. Amen. Hearing the Word Scripture Micah 6:6-8 (NRSV) “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? Sermon What America Needs From Christians Today Over the past three weeks while I have been unwell, I have spent a lot of hours in my recliner alternating between reading, watching TV and napping. I haven’t had the energy to do anything else. And I’m still waiting on an answer as to what is going on with me, after all these tests. It’s been an anxious and frustrating time; I know that something’s wrong, but so far there’s no name for it. All those hours in front of the television have made me aware of how many political ads are on the air, and just how nasty they have become. There are very few ads that focus on the positives of the candidate, what he or she stands for, and what they want to do if elected. Instead, the ads are negative attack ads focusing on the things that are wrong with the candidate’s opponent. They are beyond just critical; they are unkind and designed to demonize that person. I have been so disgusted by all of these ads that I will change the channels to avoid having to watch them. When did it become okay in America for one person to completely trash another person in the name of getting elected to political office? And why would I want to vote for someone who can be so vicious and nasty towards another human being? These politicians aren’t the only ones who trash-talk each other; with the deep political divide in America, average citizens are just as hateful as they talk about people with whom they disagree. It’s incredibly disturbing and I wonder about what is often called “the soul of America.” In the midst of all this negativity and nastiness, I discovered a United Methodist Church that is working to change the culture in their community. Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, has begun what they call the BE Campaign. This congregation, led by their pastor, Adam Hamilton, has committed themselves to being just and kind and humble in all their dealings with other people. The campaign is based on three verses from the book of Micah, which record the words of a prophet who lived in the 8th century B.C.E. You might wonder what something written so long ago could have to do with modern American life. But I can guarantee you that these words are incredibly relevant to our day and time. Micah wrote: “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? Church of the Resurrection is inviting others to join them in taking the following pledge: “I pledge to strive to follow Micah 6:6-8 in all aspects of my life: To act justly and pursue justice by standing with and speaking out for those who are vulnerable, mistreated, in need or exploited. To practice kindness and mercy in every interaction, even with those with whom I disagree. To act with humility, surrendering my will to God’s will, acknowledging that I may not always be right and should listen more and speak less. And I will seek to inspire others to do the same.” I went online and signed this pledge myself. Because this campaign really made sense to me. Can you imagine how it might change life in our country if everyone made a commitment like that? Both the Old and New Testaments have numerous references to all of these practices: acting for justice, being kind, and being humble. These are things that certainly are congruent with the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. In this time of political polarization and divisive issues in America, what our country needs from Christians is for us to seek justice, to be kind, and to be humble. We should model this Biblical way of relating to each other. And we should let our politicians know that we would expect them to behave that way, in their relations with their constituents and with their opponents. If members of Congress adopted these three simple rules for being in community, think what might get done! Some of the problems our nation is facing might actually be addressed in a manner of respect and the willingness to compromise. In the midst of all the negativity being spewed at me from my television set last week, there was a bright spot that came in the form of an article in the Union Leader. Garrison Keillor, one of my favorite writers, had a piece called, “Sitting in the sixth pew, brooding on things.” In it he shared an experience he had recently when he visited Washington, D.C. He wrote: I took the train to Washington last week … I go to Washington to remind myself what a beautiful city it is despite the contempt brought upon it by so many elected officials, many of whom are emptying their chamber pots in the form of campaign advertising … I went to church Sunday morning, which I need to do if I want to know whether I’m a believer still or if it’s just nostalgia. The opening hymn was one I love, especially the lines “Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount I’m fixed upon it, mount of God’s unchanging love.” … And then came the opening prayer in which we acknowledge that to God all hearts are open and from Him no secrets are hid, which, if candidates for public office sincerely believed were true, democracy would work much better … … we heard from David in his Psalm 84: “My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord … Happy are they who dwell in your house,” which happened to be true Sunday morning for me at any rate. I was surrounded by men and women absorbed in prayer, calling up the people in our lives, their needs, their troubles. And our leaders: we prayed for wisdom. … We sang the closing hymn to the Lord who shelters us under His wing and were dismissed to go serve God … I’ve made dreadful mistakes, wasted time, indulged in self-pity and prideful ignorance, but I am a believer and it was worth my while to con-firm that. I believe we’re all susceptible to lying awake at night imagining horrible things but eventually the truth dawns and we rise up and find our way to where we need to be, following the light. There are many, many people in America who are following the light of God’s love and God’s truth. They are out there working for justice, practicing kindness, and serving with humility. I really enjoyed this week’s issue of People magazine, which was the “Kindness Issue.” The cover story was about Michael J. Fox, who shared ways in which people had been kind to him. There were also brief stories about average Americans who are practicing kindness in their communities. It’s definitely worth the read. I would challenge each of you to embrace the BE Campaign and live it out here in our community. Pledge to live according to Micah 6:6-8 in your dealings with you family, your co-workers, and your friends. Imagine the difference this might make in your own personal life. And think about how it might change the culture surrounding you if this way of behaving became widespread. We might create what the first President George Bush referred to as a “kinder, gentler America.” Being just, being kind, and being hum-ble are not signs of weakness, but of incredible inner strength and faith. We might learn a lot from a man who lived 2800 years ago. What does the Lord require of us? To do justice, be kind, and be humble. It’s that simple. It’s that hard. Praying Together Concerns and Celebrations: Please share any concerns or celebrations you may have with Pastor Elisabeth. Please note if you do not want this shared with this faith community. Prayers of Intercession In prayer we set our hearts in the direction of God’s vision, uniting and aligning our community with God’s wisdom and for God’s purposes. And so, we pray: God who sees beyond our understanding, whose purposes extend beyond our knowledge, we lift up to you the circumstances and realities that, while not visible, are real and present in our lives and the lives of those around us: For those whose suffering is not evident and whose wounds lie below the surface; For those who labor with you and for you faithfully, to little acknowledgement; For those who seek to disrupt harmful patterns for the sake of healthier ways of being; For those who struggle to see your goodness at work in the world and yet continue to put one foot in front of the other; For those who have internalized their oppression and seek liberation; For those who feel far from you and yearn for your presence. We lift up these beloved ones and all who struggle with internal battles, entrusting their health, their wholeness, and their hearts to your healing activity. Help us to be the kind of community that will strengthen those who feel overcome by weakness and promote restoration for all. (David Gambrell) We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who taught his disciples to pray: The Lord’s Prayer Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Responding Offertory: You may send your offerings to Grantham United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 152, Grantham, NH, 03753. Doxology UMH #95 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow! Praise God, all creatures here below! Praise God above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen. Prayer of Dedication Ever-present and holy God, we offer these gifts in the hope that they will bring justice to those in need; we consecrate these gifts, with the prayer that they will help others learn to love in kindness and to walk in humility. Amen. Song Kindness Steven Curtis Chapman https://youtu.be/oE5w52Ji6Yw Benediction Aware of the presence of God, our Creator, who loves each of us as we are; aware of the grace of Christ, our Redeemer, who calls us blessed; aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit, who guides our lives – go out in truth; go out in wisdom; go out in love: to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly in the presence of God. Amen.
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September 25, 2022
Welcome! We’re so glad you have joined us today! Give us hearts to live into your risky miracles. (Walter Brueggemann) Gathering Announcements Sunday, October 2 7:30 AM Visioning Board Meeting Gathering Song Fairest Lord Jesus Fountainview Academy https://youtu.be/81d84iBhUjg Opening Prayer Faithful God, you have gathered us at this time to worship you. Renew in us the hope and desire to follow you, that we may be inspired to love and honor you in our actions, deeds, and words. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen. Hearing the Word Scripture 1 Timothy 6:6-10, 17-19 (NRSV) Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it, but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but rather on God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life. Luke 16:19-31 (NRSV) [Jesus said, ] “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house – for I have five brothers – that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” Sermon The Meaning of Service I have been watching two news stories over the past couple of weeks that have intrigued me and moved me and challenged me. The first story has been the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. While we all knew that at 96 years of age, her time on this earth was limited, her death caught even her family members by surprise. Just the day before, she had appeared on TV, formally recognizing the new Prime Minister. And then, suddenly she was gone. And there began days of mourning in England and around the world. We grieved for this woman who had given her life to the service of her country. I got up at 5:30 on Monday morning in order to watch the funeral service on TV. I chose BBC America and found their coverage to be respectful and solemn. I was incredibly moved by the many references to her deep faith in Jesus Christ and how that had shaped the way that she lived and worked as Queen. During the funeral at Westminster Cathedral, the Archbishop of Canterbury included in his remarks these words: Her Late Majesty famously declared on a twenty-first birthday broadcast that her whole life would be dedicated to serving the Nation and the Commonwealth. Rarely has such a promise been so well kept! Few leaders receive the outpouring of love that we have seen. Jesus – who in our reading does not tell his disciples how to follow, but who to follow – said: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ Her Late Majesty’s example was not set through her position or her ambition, but through whom she followed. In 1953 the Queen began her Coronation with silent prayer, just there at the High Altar. Her allegiance to God was given before any per-son gave allegiance to her. Her service to so many people in this nation, the Com-monwealth and the world, had its foundation in her following Christ – God himself – who said that he ‘came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ People of loving service are rare in any walk of life. Leaders of loving ser-vice are still rarer. But in all cases those who serve will be loved and remembered when those who cling to power and privileges are long forgotten. Her Late Majesty’s broadcast during COVID lockdown ended with: ‘We will meet again,’ words of hope from a song of Vera Lynn. Christian hope means certain expectation of something not yet seen. Christ rose from the dead and offers life to all, abundant life now and life with God in eternity. We will all face the merciful judgment of God; we can all share the Queen’s hope which in life and death inspired her servant leadership. Service in life, hope in death. All who follow the Queen’s example, and inspiration of trust and faith in God, can with her say: ‘We will meet again.’” I hope that these words gave comfort to the Queen’s family members. I hope that it gave comfort to all of those watching. And I hope that it called people who have no faith to consider the faith of Queen Elizabeth and seek a relationship with Jesus Christ for themselves. Her life was recognized and praised as a life of service, not only to her people and her country, but first and foremost service to her God. The second story that I have followed with great interest was the story about the group of immigrants, nearly fifty of them in all, who were loaded onto an airplane in Texas and flown to Martha’s Vineyard. These immigrants had entered our country illegally. The governor of Florida arranged for them to be transported out of Texas, with the full knowledge and cooperation of the governor of Texas. These poor people were given brochures that made misleading promises about what they could expect when they arrived, in Boston, not in Martha’s Vineyard. The brochures listed many services, including cash, housing assistance, clothing, transportation to job interviews, job training, and assistance in registering children for school. Most immigrants, however, are not eligible for the assistance that was listed. The Florida governor was supposedly trying to call attention to the crisis at the border. The Texas governor had already bused thousands of immigrants to New York and Washington, D.C. as a means of criticizing the President’s immigration policies. They were willing to use people as pawns in their political careers. A Texas sheriff has opened an investigation into the moving of the immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard. He said that the people were lured under false premises into agreeing to go to Martha’s Vineyard. A recruiter named Perla told them they were going to Boston and would be given three months’ work and free housing. She also provided them with food. But the sheriff said that the immigrants, asylum-seekers from Venezuela, were taken to Martha’s Vineyard “for little more than a photo op or a video op, and they were unceremoniously stranded...” Domingo Garcia, President of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said, “It’s one of the most cruel political stunts I’ve seen in my lifetime.” A Massachusetts State Representative, Dylan Fernan-des, commented, “It is an incredibly inhumane and depraved thing to do.” But the people of Martha’s Vineyard stepped up to meet the challenge with hospitality and mercy. The immigrants were taken to a church shelter, while local authorities and nonprofit organizations tried to figure out what would happen next. They provided food, beds, clothing, blankets and sheets. Spanish-speaking high school students came and acted as interpreters. Even though local officials had no warning that the Venezuelans were coming, the community mobilized to support them and the Venezuelans said they felt welcomed. While the elected officials of Florida and Texas leave a lot to be desired in terms of serving those in need, the people of Martha’s Vineyard certainly modeled service to others, servant leadership. In both the Old and New Testaments, those who believe in God are told to care for the aliens in their midst, to care for the poor and the strangers, to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and care for the needs of those who are sick or in prison. As Jesus said, what we do for the least of one of our fellow human beings, we do for him. And what we fail to do for one of the least of these, we fail to do for him. The scripture passages I read a few moments ago speak to the issue of service and servanthood. Paul’s word to Timothy included the admonition that those who are rich should not be haughty or arrogant, but should do good and be rich in good works. They should be generous and ready to share. Because, he reminded them, we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it when we leave. But if they live a life of serving others and doing good, they will take hold of the life that really is life. That is how Queen Elizabeth II lived her life, it seems to me. She began serving others during World War II, when she worked as a mechanic in the army. And she continued to serve when she abruptly became Queen after the death of her father. She served with an attitude of grace and humility, never arrogance, and she put the needs of the people ahead of her own wishes or desires. When Princess Diana was killed, the Queen was at first criticized for her lack of response to the mourning of the people. That was most likely because she was told to follow what was protocol. But when she realized the depth of the feeling of the people, and in support of her grieving grandsons, she soon stepped out into the public and participated in the funeral for Diana. And the Queen showed that she was willing to abide by the same COVID protocols as the rest of the country was observing last year when her husband died. She sat alone – socially distanced and wearing a mask – in the church for the funeral of Prince Philip. That is also how the citizens of Martha’s Vineyard were living their lives when they responded with compassion to the Venezuelan immigrants who were flown there with-out warning. They saw that these people had no idea where they were, or why they were there, and that they had been duped into agreeing to go there. And they step-ped up with supplying the immediate needs of these strangers in their midst. The parable that Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus is a word of caution to all of us. While it would seem that the rich man had everything – fine clothing, an abundance of food, a gated house – in the story he is not even given a name. To Jesus, this man was not significant enough to have a name. And when the rich man died, he found himself in Hades in agony. And the reason for his suffering? The rich man failed to help Lazarus – or anyone else – while he was living. Lazarus was not unknown to the rich man; he passed by him every day as he went in and out of the gate to his property. The rich man would have been aware of Lazarus’ miserable condition; he had nothing – no food, ragged clothing, and sores that were licked by dogs. But when he died, Lazarus found himself carried away by angels to be with Abraham in a place of comfort. The rich man could see Lazarus there, and he began a conversation with him to try and get help in his own miserable condition. He begged Abraham to send Lazarus to him with water to sooth his thirst because he was in agony in the flames. This conversation reveals a lot about the rich man. According to Nancy Lynn Westfield, professor at Drew University Theological School, the rich man “still feels entitled to ask for ser-vice, care, and consideration from those of the lower class. Even in Hades, the rich man wants the labor of the poor to support his family … The rich man believes he, even from Hades, has more privilege than Lazarus, in heaven. The arrogance is astounding...” Helen Mongomery Debevoise, Co-Pastor of Park Lake Presbyterian Church in Orlando, writes that this parable is not difficulty to understand, but it is difficult to hear. The reason for that is we are being led to consider ourselves in the place of the rich man. And, as Westfield says, “[This] is a tale of caution and foreboding to those with wealth, societal privilege, and affluence. Equally, it is a tale of comfort for those who have been forsaken by their neighbors.” She adds, “God is on the side of the oppressed, poor, marginalized, and downtrodden. God judges those with means, wealth, privilege, and societal status who ignore the poor …" And she concludes, “The parable teaches that divine judgment is concerned with our use of resources, wealth, and finances in this life, as these have consequences for the next life. Our task is to use wealth for ministry – for relieving suffering and edifying the marginalized.” The problem of illegal immigration is complex and cannot be easily solved. Thou-sands of people will continue to come to our border, out of desperation, fear, and hope for a better, safer life in the United States. Many of them are seeking asylum from violent enemies back home. Others are refugees who are fleeing poverty and oppression in their own countries. They are men and women, old people and child-ren, daring to hope for something better than what they left behind. Perhaps this is their last chance to survive. Will we tolerate elected officials using people as pawns in their political posturing? Will we show compassion to those who arrive on our doorstep, in need of food, clothing, and hope? How will we live our lives – will we be servants of others, or will we cling to our own security and remain distanced from those in need? It matters what kind of life we live. I would hope and pray that we all can get to the end of our lives and have a minister say over us, as the Archbishop said over the Queen, “The grief of this day – arises from her abundant life and loving service, now gone from us. She was joyful, present to so many, touching a multitude of lives.” Song Take My Life, and Let It Be Chris Tomlin https://youtu.be/kA9zA7O6bH0 Praying Together Concerns and Celebrations: Please share any concerns or celebrations you may have with Pastor Elisabeth. Please note if you do not want this shared with this faith community. Prayers of Intercession God is always gracious and merciful. As we enter into this time of intercessory prayer, may we be confident that God hears us. Let us pray. We pray for an end to conflict in the world. Let us be a sign of your peace and reconciliation among all people. We pray for those who are suffering. May your Holy Spirit bring healing to their bodies, minds, and souls. We pray for our elected leaders. Give them the wisdom to discern your direction, that all people may benefit. We pray for those who are lonely. Assure them they are never alone, for you have promised to always be with us. We pray for this community. Let the Holy Spirit lead and guide us to be inclusive and to work for the betterment of all people. O Lord, hear all of our prayers. Guide and strengthen us to trust in you, so that we may rejoice in your presence this day and forevermore. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who taught his disciples to pray: The Lord’s Prayer Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Responding Offertory: You may send your offerings to Grantham United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 152, Grantham, NH, 03753. Doxology UMH #95 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow! Praise God, all creatures here below! Praise God above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen. Prayer of Dedication Generous God, help us to be as generous with others as you are with us. Bless these gifts, that they may enable acts of generous love for others. May we be generous givers of our time, talent, treasure, and service, that others might find in us generous and loving friends. In gratitude and joy, we pray. Amen. Song Jesus Calls Us Episcopal Church of the Advocate, Chapel Hill, NC https://youtu.be/yByYDzThrSI Benediction May we be rich in doing good: attending to the poor and caring for those in need. May we be generous with our lives: giving treasure and time to make this world a better place. May we take hold of that life which is true life: the goodness of God flowing in and through us. Amen. September 18, 2022
Welcome! We’re so glad you have joined us today! Give us hearts to live into your risky miracles. (Walter Brueggemann) Gathering Announcements Tuesday, 6:30 PM Food Pantry Meeting Gathering Song O How I Love Jesus Reba McIntire https://youtu.be/NShctvNERJk Opening Prayer O God of our salvation, we gather together to pray, to intercede, to sing our thanksgivings and our sorrows. Bring your compassion to each of us, that we may be restored and renewed, encouraged and enlivened, as we turn our faces toward you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Hearing the Word Scripture 1 Timothy 2:1-3 (The Message) The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live. Sermon The First Thing to Do is Pray During the pandemic, many things changed. Some changed for the better. Some changed for the worse. Some changes are still being evaluated as to whether they were good or bad. Some of the changes were temporary; others may be more permanent. But hardly any area of our lives was not impacted in some way by the COVID pandemic. Certainly the last 2-1/2 years have seen changes in how we do church. When we were unable to meet in person, we learned some skills in order to have Zoom services, or at least post worship materials on our web pages. We have been able to gather for worship for a while, and then had to enter another stage of virtual church. It looks like we are finally going to be able to count on in-person worship for the long-term, and I don’t know about you, but that makes me very happy! It is so good to be present with one another, and not just looking at little squares on a screen! On the one hand, it was disheartening during the quarantine to realize that church was considered non-essential. People could still go to the liquor stores, which were deemed essential. But they could not gather as congregations indoors for worship. On the other hand, people found other ways to do and be the church. We found ways to stay connected to each other and to our communities. And one area in which I believe we all participated was in lifting prayers to God for ourselves and others. We knew that we needed divine assistance to find our way through this terrifying, frustrating, lonely experience. We prayed for our loved ones who caught COVID. We prayed for the economic realities that some people faced as millions of people lost their jobs. We prayed for all those who were lonely, grieving, or depressed. And we prayed for healthcare professionals and first responders, educators and students. Prayer all of a sudden became not just a mere formality or a routine; it was a priority and a lifeline. We knew how much we needed to communicate with God. In his book, The Post-Quarantine Church, Thom Rainer introduces us to a woman named Maureen, who described what happened when her fellowship group at church began to pray for their church and to share their prayer concerns with each other. They even formed a Facebook group, which really began to grow. Maureen said, “The Facebook group was the vehicle to get us praying for our community. It was pretty basic. When people saw we were praying, they asked us to pray for them. We prayed for a lot of people … Somehow, the mayor found out about our prayer ministry … When she came to our Facebook page, requested prayer for different needs in the community, the response was awesome. It was like our church became the prayer arm of the town. More and more people joined our Facebook page and either requested prayer or prayed for others.” We shouldn’t be surprised at the fact that prayer is such an essential part of our lives. Prayer connects us with God, with each other, and with the world. And people may be praying even if they are not aware of it. Frederick Buechner writes in his book, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC, “Everybody prays whether [they think] of it as praying or not. The odd silence you fell into when something very beautiful happens or something very good or very bad. The ah-h-h! that sometimes floats up out of you as out of a Fourth of July crowd when the sky-rocket bursts over the water. The stammer of pain at somebody else’s pain. The stammer of joy at somebody else’s joy. Whatever words or sounds you use for sighing with over your own life. These are all prayers in their way. These are all spoken not just to yourself but to something even more familiar than yourself …” That something – that someone – is God. Marcus Borg states that “prayer is primarily about paying attention to God.” And Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor and theologian, says, “It matters little what forms of prayer we adopt or how many words we use, what matters is the faith which lays hold on God and touches the heart of the Father who knew us long before we came to him.” Prayer is a means of intimacy with God, a way to share our lives with God and to listen as God shares with us. God is interested in the details of our lives, God cares about the things and people that matter to us. And as we pray, we develop a deep relationship with the Creator. Prayer is a priority – or at least it should be – for all of us. As Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy, the first thing we are to do is pray. Why is this a top priority? For one thing, prayer is a practice that was modeled for us by Jesus. Jesus prayed often. Jesus prayed both in public and in private. Jesus prayed at every key moment in his life. Even when he was in agony on the cross, Jesus prayed. And the words he prayed, “Father, into thy hand I commit my spirit,” were probably the words of the first prayer he ever prayed. William Barclay said, “That was the first prayer which every Jewish mother taught her child to say, when he lay down to sleep at night …” Secondly, prayer is a priority because the early church viewed prayer as a basic necessity for the community. We are reminded of this in the early chapters of the book of Acts. After Jesus had been raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, the believers gathered in Jerusalem waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The scripture says that they all met together and were constantly in prayer. Clearly, prayer was important to them. In Acts 2:42, after Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came to all the believers, it says that they devoted themselves to prayer. Paul told Timothy to “pray every way you know how.” There are different ways to pray. We pray in private and we pray in public, in church. We pray in silence, or we pray with words spoken either aloud or to oneself. We pray using the words of others, such as through Psalms or poems or prayers written by other people. Or we pray our own words, spoken with heartfelt emotion. And, as Paul mentioned in Romans, sometimes we don’t know how to pray, and so the Holy Spirit prays for us with groans too deep for words. It doesn’t matter how we pray; it just matters that we pray. Second, Paul said that we should “pray for everyone you know.” Intercessory prayer is almost always a part of our Sunday worship services. And we share our prayer concerns with each other in other settings, as well. We pray for our loved ones and our friends. We pray for events taking place in the world, like floods or wildfires or war. And we are also to pray for our enemies, according to Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in Matthew 5. This is perhaps the hardest prayer to pray. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “This is the supreme demand. Through the medium of prayer we go to our enemy, stand by his side, and plead for him to God. Jesus does not promise that when we bless our enemies and do good to them they will not despitefully use and persecute us. They certainly will. But not even that can hurt or overcome us, so long as we pray for them. For if we pray for them, we are taking their distress and poverty, their guilt and perdition, upon ourselves, and pleading to God for them. We are doing vicariously for them what they cannot do for themselves. Every insult they utter only serves to bind us more closely to God and them. Their persecution of us only serves to bring them nearer to reconciliation with God and to further the triumphs of love.” And finally, Paul told Timothy that he should “pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well.” That was so the church could go on about its business and avoiding any conflict with governing authorities. While Christians in the Roman Empire often had to pray for protection and safety from attacks and persecutions of the government, they still were instructed to pray for those who governed them. It is not necessary to agree with those governing with you on any issue or platform; but it is required that we pray for them anyway. I wonder how many of us pray for those who govern us? I know that I sometimes pray about them, or about their views, hoping that God will change them to be aligned with my beliefs and views. But do I really pray for them? What difference might it make in America if every Christian prayed for those who are in elected government positions, for those who are supposed to be our leaders? Would it change the way they do their jobs? Would it change the way we see them? One last word. I am often asked by people to explain the reason why prayers have not been answered, or at least in the way that they wanted or expected them to be answered. I am not always exactly sure now to answer them. But I do like what Frederick Buechner had to say about it. He wrote that “the God you call upon will finally come, and even if he does not bring you the answer you want, he will bring you himself. And maybe at the secret heart of all our prayer that is what we are truly praying for.” Song What a Friend We Have in Jesus Don Moen https://youtu.be/YTpUQO0aryw Praying Together Concerns and Celebrations: Please share any concerns or celebrations you may have with Pastor Elisabeth. Please note if you do not want this shared with this faith community. Prayers of Intercession O God, we pray for our nation. May you bring peace, justice, and love so that we may care for our neighbors and have compassion for one another. We pray for those who have lost loved ones. Let your Holy Spirit comfort and assure them that nothing, not even death, can separate us from your love. We pray for those who are homeless and outcasts. Provide guidance and protection to those who have nowhere to go and nobody to turn to in their distress. We pray for those who are sick. Give assurance of your healing mercies as they recover from illnesses and medical procedures. May we be assured in our prayers that you hear us, O Lord, and may we be confident that you will answer our prayers in due time. We ask this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray: The Lord’s Prayer Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Responding Offertory: You may send your offerings to Grantham United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 152, Grantham, NH, 03753. Doxology UMH #95 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow! Praise God, all creatures here below! Praise God above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen. Prayer of Dedication Source of every good gift, you call us to be wise with the true riches of your kingdom. We offer you these gifts in gratitude for your love, that they may bring healing and light to those in need of your balm of Gilead. Amen. Song Sweet Hour of Prayer Radiance Acapella https://youtu.be/Ph43J3pnBDo Benediction Brothers and sisters, don’t wait until all else fails to pray. Instead, let prayer be the first thing you do, in good times and in hard times, for yourselves and for others. Know that the God who hears our prayers will surely answer them. And may the love of God, the peace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen. September 11, 2022
Welcome! We’re so glad you have joined us today! Give us hearts to live into your risky miracles. (Walter Brueggemann) Gathering Announcements Sunday, September 18 10:30 AM All-Church worship with Lake Sunapee UMC and Grantham At the gazebo in Sunapee Harbor Bring a chair and picnic lunch. Monday, September 19 6:30 PM SPRC at Sunapee Saturday, September 24 9:00 – 3:00 Newport Church Vendor Fair Sunday, October 30 4:00 PM SPRC meet with D.S. (Zoom) 5:00 PM Church Conference (Zoom) Gathering Song How Firm a Foundation Fernando Ortega https://youtu.be/Prb4C_PEwWM Opening Prayer Almighty God, in your keeping there is shelter from the storm, and in your mercy there is comfort for the sorrows of life. Hear now our prayer for those who mourn and are heavy laden; for those who have suffered the loss of loved ones; and for all who have died in the conflict with terrorism. Give to them strength for this time of grieving. Lighten their darkness with your love. Enable them to see beyond the things of this mortal world the promise of the eternal. Help them to know that your care enfolds all your people, that you are our refuge and strength, and that underneath are your everlasting arms. Amen. Hearing the Word Scripture Psalm 103:1-18 (NRSV) Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits – who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him. For he knows how we are made; he remembers that we are dust. As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. Sermon The Importance of Remembering Ever since Queen Elizabeth passed away on Thursday, we have been remembering her 70-year reign, along with the rest of the world. The people of Great Britain are mourning the loss of this remarkable woman, who began her leadership and ser-vice as a young woman during World War II, ascended to the throne through incredible circumstances, and led her country through the Cold War, years of peace and prosperity, and years of troubles and turmoil. With Prince Philip by her side for 73 years, she demonstrated strength in the midst of crisis and almost always seemed to do exactly the right thing. We saw her sense of humor most recently displayed in her “tea party” with Paddington Bear during the Jubilee. And we know that she will be missed especially by her family members. Remembering is important. Remembering people, remembering events, remembering personal growth and triumph, as well as personal faults and failures. We remember significant moments in our lives and in the lives of others. We think back on relationships and how they shaped our existence. We commemorate special occasions, like anniversaries and births. We set aside days as holy days and holidays in order to remember their importance and meaning. And we remember, at least partly, so that we can learn from the past and try to create a better future. The call to remember comes often in the Bible. There are many occasions on which the people of Israel are admonished to “remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord God brought you out of there …” (Deuteronomy 5:15). When the time came for them to be set free from the Egyptians, and God’s last plague came on the land, the death of the firstborn, God spared the Hebrews from this fate by having them mark their doors with lamb’s blood, so that he passed over their houses. The Passover was something that they were told to remember always. God told the people, “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord – a lasting ordinance … Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought [you] out of Egypt … When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” One of the central Christian observances is based on remembering: it is the sacrament of Communion, when we are to remember the Passover meal that Jesus shared with his disciples on the night before he was put to death. During that meal, Jesus instructed them to remember him when they shared the bread and cup again. “The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is [given] for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” Remembering is at the core of who we are as the children of God and followers of Jesus Christ. Remembering helps remind us of who we are, and of whose we are. It helps us to be aware of all that God has done for us. Memories anchor us to our history and our heritage, and in sharing the importance of our faith with our children and grandchildren, we are giving them what they will remember in developing a faith of their own. Most of us are part of a church because our parents or grandparents brought us to church as children. Many of my earliest memories are of events or experiences that took place in church, and they are good memories. And those good memories have only increased in number and significance over the course of my life. Today, we are invited to remember the events of September 11, 2001. The things I saw and heard and felt on that day – and the days following – are things that I could never forget. The planes flying into the buildings. The people leaping to their deaths from the top of the towers. The Twin Towers crumbling to the ground in a matter of seconds, killing thousands of people, including many first responders who ran into the buildings when everyone else was running out. The sight of the plane crash in Pennsylvania. The Pentagon with a hole torn in its side. The face of the President when he was given the news of what had happened. The days of searching through the rubble for survivors, or for bodies. The papers posted on fences near Ground Zero with the faces of the missing, families hoping desperately to find their loved ones alive. When we remember, we honor those who gave their lives to save others on that beautiful autumn day. We give respect to those innocent people who died because they happened to work in certain locations in the Towers or Pentagon, or who happened to board a particular plane on a particular day. We acknowledge that there are people – perhaps many people – around the world who hate America enough to plot such a horrible attack. We are grateful for the outpouring of support that came from so many nations and leaders around the globe. And we are prodded to continue to discern ways to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again. I will never forget where I was or what I was doing when I heard about the at-tacks. I immediately turned on my TV, and it hardly got turned off for the better part of a week. I watched in horror and shock, unable to turn away from the images on the screen. And then I watched with diminishing hope that anyone would be found in the ashes and dust that used to be skyscrapers filled with offices and workers. My congregation quickly decided to open the church for a prayer service on the evening of September 11th. I was serving a small parish in a small town in South Carolina. And yet, even there I found that one of my members had a connection who worked in one of the Twin Towers. The events of that day touched every American in some way. And our memories of it continue to shape who we are and how we connect with the world. I hope that in remembering, we don’t get stuck in the grief, anger, or desire for revenge that consumed some of us for so long. Instead, I hope that our remembering will be a way of choosing to remember instead the way that our country seemed to come together as one in the days following the attack. For at least a little while, partisan politics took a backseat to honest patriotism and a national time for mourning. In some ways, we expressed our best selves for some time after 9/11. I hope and pray that, in these troubled times we live in now, we will find some way to once again live our best lives together, with partisan politics taking a back seat to creative cooperation in solving the big problems that face our nation. Litany of Remembrance We gather twenty-one years after the day when politics, religion, and culture clashed in a tragic way. On this anniversary day, we gather to remember the events of September 11, 2001. Let us not forget that we are God’s people journeying toward God’s kingdom. On this day, violence created chaos, destroyed lives, and generated fear. We remember the suffering born in pain. We remember the media images of frightening scenes and of human terror that are forever burned into our consciousness. We remember with confidence born of faith that this is not God’s way. On this day, lives were lost, peace was shattered, and hope was endangered. We remember the cries of the people caught amid fire and dust, the families whose loved ones never returned home after that day, the shared mourning of a frightened nation. We remember the day when the skies were no longer peaceful, but rather threatened with a vision of fear. We remember with confidence that hope is still God’s way. On this day, strangers became friends, and ordinary people became heroic. We remember courageous men and women who worked tirelessly to save lives, seek the lost, and heal the wounded. On this day, we pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. We remember that God’s kingdom is where the last are first, the lost are found, and the weak are made strong. We remember that we are required to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. We remember that we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves. On this day, we work for the kingdom of God on earth. We remember that love comes from the very heart of God, embracing all humanity. We remember that true power is born of humility, obedience, and justice. We remember that God’s grace is a gift that gives life to the world. We remember and journey together to build God’s kingdom. Song It is Well With My Soul Audrey Assad https://youtu.be/zY5o9mP22V0 Praying Together Concerns and Celebrations: Please share any concerns or celebrations you may have with Pastor Elisabeth. Please note if you do not want this shared with this faith community. Pastoral Prayer God of history and remembrance, we remember, we remember. We remember when the towers fell and the lives were lost; we remember the dust and the smoke, the despair, and the grief. We remember that sense of vulnerability and shock. We remember the numbness that overwhelmed us as we watched our screens for hours and hours, waiting for an explanation and understanding that never came. We remember. God of hope and presence, we remember, we remember. We remember the heroes, those who rushed to help, who guided the wounded down innumerable flights of stairs, who rose to overwhelm those who held death in their hands. We remember the hours and the days of binding wounds and healing hurts, giving comfort, drying tears. We remember words of support and compassion from nations far and wide. We remember. We remember in part because we see the ripples of that tragic day continue to impact our world twenty-one years later. We grieve with allies today as our allies grieved with us twenty-one years ago. And together we wonder if there will ever be an end … to violence, to war, to hatred, to death. We remember and we grieve our world’s inability to learn the things that lead to peace. We call to you now in our remembrance, God of justice and peace. Give us a will to truly pray that your kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven. On this day of solemn remembrance, may we honor the lives that were lost in this tragic act; may we give thanks for those who served and saved, rendered aid and assistance. May we give comfort to those who live with loss. May we seek justice and peace where it is within our ability, and rely on you when the ability escapes us. On this day of solemn remembrance, may we build what has been torn down, may we mend what has been broken, may your love live when hate seems to reign, and may we bear witness to the cause of peace. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, who taught his disciples to pray: The Lord’s Prayer Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Responding Offertory: You may send your offerings to Grantham United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 152, Grantham, NH, 03753. Doxology UMH #95 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow! Praise God, all creatures here below! Praise God above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen. Song Let There Be Peace on Earth Voices of Hope Children’s Choir https://youtu.be/bgL1v8FZaNM Benediction May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen. September 4, 2022
Welcome! We’re so glad you have joined us today! Give us hearts to live into your risky miracles. (Walter Brueggemann) Gathering Announcements Thursday, 6:30 PM Food Pantry Meeting Gathering Song We Are Called St. Paul Young Adult Choir and Ensemble https://youtu.be/TsQ_kANdM6U Opening Prayer O great Potter, maker of hearts, you shape the vessels of love. Come and speak to us, change our ways, and turn our lives to you. Work on your wheel to turn your clay and model us, until we become who you want us to be. In your holy name we pray. Amen. Hearing the Word Scripture Jeremiah 18:1-11 (New Living Translation) The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, “Go down to the shop where clay pots and jars are made. I will speak to you while you are there.” So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again. Then the Lord gave me this message: “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. And if I announce that I will build up and plant a certain nation or kingdom, making it strong and great, but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless that nation as I had said I would. “Therefore, Jeremiah, go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem. Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am planning disaster against you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each of you, and do what is right.’” Sermon The Untied Methodist Church THE UNTIED METHODIST CHURCH Jeremiah 18:1-11 (NLT) A few years back I had a series of abdominal surgeries that kept me at home a good bit of the time. I had a desk set up in the sunroom and worked from there most of the week. As I recovered from the various procedures, my energy level wasn’t what it usually was, and I got off to a slow start in the mornings. I got into the habit of watching the Today Show before my shower. I really enjoyed the fourth hour with Hoda and Kathy Lee, or later on Hoda and Jenna. And my favorite segment that they often includ-ed was the Ambush Makeover. Someone would be chosen from the crowd outside on the Plaza, and that person would be brought in and given a complete makeover. The transformation was incredible! They often didn’t even look like the same people when it was all said and done. They got new hairstyles, clothes, shoes and makeup. Their friends or family members would come out on stage when the person was introduced, and the expressions on their faces showed just how incredible the difference in their appearance was. And the persons who underwent the total makeover weren’t allowed to see themselves in the mirror until they were onstage and on camera, and it was so much fun to see their surprise and satisfaction with the results. The story in Jeremiah 18 is a story about a total makeover. Jeremiah was a pro-phet of God who lived during the time of the Babylonian conquest, which would even-tually lead to the destruction of the Temple and the royal palace in Jerusalem, and the death or exile of thousands of people. Jeremiah is often called “the weeping prophet,” because he felt so much pain over the suffering of his people. He didn’t like the mes-sages that God gave him to deliver to the people, because they were most often mes-sages of judgment for the evil that the people had done and predictions of punishment that was coming their way. One day God sent Jeremiah to the shop of a potter and told him to watch what the potter was doing. The potter had a pot on the wheel, but it was not turning out the way the potter wanted it to. Maybe it was uneven on one side, or the proportions were not what he had pictured. In any case, the potter decided to just start over, so he squashed pot into a lump of clay and began all over again. In this case, a simple tweak wasn’t going to do it; there was no correcting what had gone wrong. A total makeover was the only thing that was going to work. I can relate to this image in my own life, and maybe you can too. There have been times when I was going along, doing my own thing, ignoring what God wanted me to be and do. I made a mistake, I chose poorly, I got distracted. And God had to get me back on track, and a simple adjustment wasn’t going to take care of the problem. So I had to get a total makeover, a complete transformation. But this message in Jeremiah isn’t really about transforming individuals; it is about transforming an entire community. The message wasn’t addressed to a few people; it was addressed to all the people of God. The problem wasn’t so much an individual problem; it was a communal issue. And the makeover had to involve the entire community. Sally A. Brown, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, writes that “God means to shape the community of faith in its collective social, religious, and political life to serve divine purposes.” The entire people of Israel had chosen the wrong path, and God had to mold them back into shape as a community. And to do that, he had to smash the clay back into a lump and reshape it. There was coming judgment, but it would be followed by a new creation. I have been concerned for years about the condition of The United Methodist Church. We have been a divided denomination since 1972 over the issue of homo-sexuality. There have been words spoken that were filled with hate, mistrust, judg-mentalism, exclusivism, stereotyping, and an unwillingness to even listen to what the people on the other side of the division had to say. The meetings of General Confe-rence have been focused on this issue, whether or not it was even on the agenda. Lay people, pastors, and even bishops have been arrested for silent, peaceful protests out-side arenas. Many people have been hurt by the horrible things that have been said about GLBTQ persons, and individuals, their parents, friends, and allies have chosen to leave The United Methodist Church to join other, more welcoming, denominations. People have spoken for years – from the floor of the General Conference and in conversations outside the building – about the possibility of a denominational split. In 2016, the last year that General Conference was held, many people were hopeful that a plan would be adopted to allow for more differences in practice and theology across the denomination; but instead, the conservative delegates pushed through a plan that only made the statements in the Discipline even more exclusive and created a more formal method of punishing those who went outside the guidelines of the Discipline, whether a local pastor or a bishop. Many, if not most, of us expected the 2020 General Confe-rence to end up with the denomination deciding to split in some fashion; but, of course, the General Conference was not held due to COVID, and the next one is now set for 2024. And so we wait. Except that some have not waited. The conservatives established a new deno-mination called the Global Methodist Church, which retained the current statements in the Book of Discipline regarding sexuality. Churches in many parts of the country are choosing to disaffiliate from The United Methodist Church to join with this new denomi-nation, or with no denomination. We are now more like the Untied Methodist Church. And more than a denomination is being torn apart. Churches, pastors, friends, families – they are also suffering because of this situation. I have colleagues in Ohio, Okla-homa, Virginia, Arkansas and North Carolina who have told me about the bitter debates going on in congregations about disaffiliation, the people who have been friends for years who no longer speak to one another because of this, and the uncertainty about what their Annual Conferences will look like by this time next year. On one level, I am greatly grieved by the division of the denomination. After all, you would think church people – of all people – could figure out how to live together, even when there are disagreements. I believe strongly in the existence of one Church – an international body of all those who follow Jesus Christ. I have always loved the Preamble to the Constitution of The United Methodist Church, which states: The church is a community of all true believers under the Lordship of Christ. It is the redeemed and redeeming fellowship in which the Word of God is preached by per-sons divinely called, and the sacraments are duly administered according to Christ’s own appointment. Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit the church seeks to provide for the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers, and the redemption of the world. The church of Jesus Christ exists in and for the world, and its very dividedness is a hindrance to its mission in the world. The prayers and intentions of The United Methodist Church … have been and are for obedience to the will of our Lord that his people be one, in humility for the pre-sent brokenness of the Church and in gratitude that opportunities for reunion have been given. I don’t understand how any Methodist could claim to be following the Discipline of our church and still advocate for division. It is a shameful thing that we have gotten to this place, no matter which side of the issue you are on. We have failed to be a faithful church, we have not done what might have been done to preserve the unity of this body of Christ. And yet, I also have hope for the future. It will be a relief to no longer have to fight the same fight at every session of General Conference. It will free us to spend that time in figuring out how to meet the needs of the world around us. Perhaps like the pot-ter at the wheel, God is in the process of creating something new and good and trans-formational. As Sally Brown puts it, “God can raise out of the ruins of a [community] a new faithfulness and a new usefulness. Correction can lead to repentance expressed in action: practicing forgiveness, breaking silence about matters of justice, placing com-passion ahead of self-interest. The divine potter hovers over us, shaping and reshaping us for our high calling as vessels of divine love and justice.” While we must repent of all that led us to this place, we can also claim the grace of God in using us still, as a denomination, as a community of faith, with a new shape that is still emerging. John Debevoise, pastor of Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church in Tampa, Florida, says, “The opportunity to repent, to change, is an opportunity for faith-fulness. It should be a source of pastoral comfort for the people that the changes into which God is calling them are a part of God’s intention and order, standing over and against the chaos and disorder of disaster. The New Testament promise is that ulti-mately God, the potter, will reshape us. It will look not like disaster but like resurrect-ion.” We gather at the table of Christ this morning, along with many Methodists around the country. We all worship the same God; we all serve the same Lord. While we may disagree vehemently about matters of theology or Biblical interpretation, we are still brothers and sisters in Christ. So let us claim the grace that is offered to us through the elements of Holy Communion and look to the future, not with panic or despair, but with hope of new creation. Song Have Thine Own Way Elim Sound https://youtu.be/Xvl3Lm2BKYc Praying Together Concerns and Celebrations: Please share any concerns or celebrations you may have with Pastor Elisabeth. Please note if you do not want this shared with this faith community. Prayers of Intercession O Holy One, in your book were written all the days that were formed for us. You made us, fearfully and wonderfully. We pray for those who are estranged from parents and siblings for being true to who you made them to be. O God, listen to our prayers. We pray for those who have left everything to serve you and your people. O God, listen to our prayers. We pray for those who are persecuted for the sake of your word. O God, listen to our prayers. We pray for your church as we seek to follow you faithfully and carry the cross. O God, listen to our prayers. We pray specifically for The United Methodist Church, and ask forgiveness for all that divides us. O God, listen to our prayers. Listen to us and guide us. All this we ask in Jesus’ name, as we pray the prayer he taught his disciples: The Lord’s Prayer Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Responding Offertory: You may send your offerings to Grantham United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 152, Grantham, NH, 03753. Doxology UMH #95 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow! Praise God, all creatures here below! Praise God above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen. Prayer of Dedication Loving Potter, you are ever mindful of your people. You fashion us into vessels fit for your service, and transform our gifts and offerings into vessels to serve your world well. We offer you our praise and our glory. Amen. Song Amazing Grace Andrea Bocelli and Alison Krauss https://youtu.be/60euxXvw5aA Benediction The One who shaped us in our mother’s wombs loves and shapes us still. God continues to create us anew each and every day. Go with God’s blessings. God is the potter; we are the clay. Amen. August 28, 2022
Welcome! We’re so glad you have joined us today! Give us hearts to live into your risky miracles. (Walter Brueggemann) Gathering Announcements Tuesday – Thursday, 11:00 – 6:00 Pastor in Zoom Retreat Monday, September 19 6:30 PM SPRC at Sunapee Sunday, October 30 4:00 PM SPRC meet with D.S. (Zoom) 5:00 PM Church Conference (Zoom) Gathering Song Gather Us In Marty Haugen https://youtu.be/ar0BXa82F9M Opening Prayer Loving God, flow through our worship and our lives. Expand your love in and through each of us, and through our communities of faith, that we might create houses of such hospitality and love that all may feel truly welcome. Reach out through each of us and through our communities of faith, that we might reach out beyond our walls to the stranger, the lost, and the lonely, and that we might discover how abundant your love truly is. Amen. Hearing the Word Scripture Hebrews 13:1-3 (NRSV, Updated Edition) Let mutual affection continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them, those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. Sermon The Extent of Love During the worst of the COVID pandemic, when there were so many desperately ill people in the hospitals and so very many deaths, I found myself thinking a lot about those patients who were not able to have any visitors, who faced the fight of their lives and sometimes even their own deaths alone. No family members could be there to hold their hands or offer any words of comfort or encouragement. What must it have been like to be there? To see only the faces – the eyes, really – of your team of doctors and nurses? To see your family members only with the help of Facetime or Zoom on small cell phone screens? What would it feel like to have to breathe with the aid of a respirator? How scary would it have been to be intubated? What thoughts would have gone through your mind if you realized that you were dying? Where would your strength have come from in fighting the disease? It made me sad and angry and frustrated to think about how many people had to experience this. I was practicing the kind of love that the writer of Hebrews spoke about in these verses. In the first verse of our passage, believers are encouraged to love each other, to “let mutual affection continue.” This kind of love might be a feeling; but more than that, it is a love that wills the good of others. In other words, you want what is best for each other. Having a congregation that loves each other is crucial to the Christian witness in the world. I have heard it said that there is no worse witness to the gospel than a church that is fighting or full of dissention. I have pastored churches where there were divisions among the members over all sorts of issues. And I have seen visitors come to the church once or twice, picking up on the negative feelings, and deciding not to come back. On the other hand, I have also pastored churches where there was a strong feeling of affection between the members, and they have extended this warm feeling to visitors, leading to many of them choosing to join our congregation. Next, the writer advises the Christians to show hospitality to strangers. This is one way that Christian love becomes concrete, according to David Adams, a priest at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in New York City. He points out that travel was dangerous and difficult in the ancient world, and travelers needed to find safe places to stay along their journeys. William Barclay reminds us that showing hospitality was an important virtue in the ancient world. It was especially valued by Jews and Greeks. And since inns were filthy, expensive, and “of low repute,” as he says, it was important for travelers to find suitable lodgings with reputable hosts. David Adams points out that some of these travelers who needed lodging were on business for the church, either as itinerant preachers or letter carriers, and they helped the local churches be connected to other communities around the world. While showing hospitality, even to strangers, was seen as a virtue in the ancient world, modern Christians may be a little leery of this practice. Lanny Peters, pastor of Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur, GA, says that “most of us are hesitant or outright resistant to living this out. We … usually fear the stranger…” It used to be that people felt safe picking up hitchhikers, but not anymore. It would never occur to me to let a stranger get into my car with me. I did know a pastor in Kentucky who made a practice of carrying several gallon jugs of water in the trunk of his car, along with roadside emergency supplies such as jumper cables and flares. If he saw someone with a car pulled over to the side of the road, he would stop and offer help. But I’m not at all sure that I would even feel safe doing that. Has the world changed so much since ancient times? Weren’t there dangerous people out and about then, just as much as today? We have to somehow find ways to work around our fears so that we can practice hospitality in safe ways that demonstrate our care and concern for people in trouble. The writer of this passage gives a good reason why it is important to show hospitality to strangers: it is because when we do so, we could be entertaining angels without realizing it. Now, that isn’t just some sweet thing to say, implying that strangers might really be very good people when we get to know them. No, the writer literally means that we could be sharing our supper with angels! It happened several times in the Old Testament times. Abraham and Sarah invited some strangers to share a meal, and they happened to be angels who had come with an important message from God: before a year had passed, Sarah would give birth to a son. In another story, Abraham’s nephew, Lot, invited strangers to stay with him. Some of the townspeople came to his house and demanded to have the strangers come out so that they could kill them. Lot protected them, and they turned out to be angels who warned Lot that this city was going to be destroyed, and they told him how to save his family. So, yes, when we show hospitality to strangers, we should not be surprised to find ourselves in the presence of divine beings. Finally, the writer of Hebrews gives one additional practice that Christians should take up in order to demonstrate their love. They were to remember those in prison as if they were in prison with them, and to remember those who were being tortured as if they themselves were also being tortured. This is more than just casually thinking about prisoners and victims of torture; this is imagining yourself in the place of someone who is in a bad way, such as a COVID patient. It’s important to remember that, at the time this letter was written, it wasn’t unusual that Christians found themselves in prison or being tortured because of their faith in Christ. This isn’t an unrealistic scenario that the writer is presenting, but a fairly common occurrence. And the members of the early churches did a good job of practicing love towards prisoners and those being tortured; they didn’t just offer their thoughts and prayers, they took action. The Greek thinker Aristides said of Christians, “If they hear that any of their number is imprisoned or in distress for the sake of their Christ’s name, they all render aid in his necessity and, if he can be redeemed, they set him free.” And it was said of the early Church Father Origen, in the 2nd century, “Not only was he at the side of the holy martyrs in their imprisonment and until their final condemnation but, when they were led to death, he boldly accompanied them into danger.” William Barclay writes, “The Christians became so notorious for their help to those in jail that at the beginning of the fourth century the Emperor Licinius passed new legislation that ‘no one was to show kindness to sufferers in prison by supplying them with food and that no one was to show mercy to those starving in prison.’ It was added that those who were discovered so doing would be compelled to suffer the same fate as those they tried to help.” So how could we practice showing love and concern for those in prison? There are those who are involved in the prison ministry known as Kairos, which is a branch of the Walk to Emmaus retreat and community, which a number of New England Methodists have participated in. The Claremont church collects blank, unused Christmas cards and gives them to those in the local jail to send out to their families and friends. It doesn’t have to be something huge; even a small act of kindness goes a long way for those in prison. I’d like to close by reading Leslie Brandt’s paraphrase of these verses found in her book, Epistles/Now: We must guard carefully our relationships with one another and regard even those who are unknown to us as possible emissaries from God. Every interpersonal relationship is a sacred trust – especially those within the family of faith. We need to remember our comrades who are facing problems and conflicts that are even more severe than our own. We are all God’s emissaries to one another – and the means by which He shares his grace with the members of Christ’s body. Together we can march through a hostile world as the men and women of God – reaching out to the wanderers and stragglers by the way to draw them into God’s family. There will be a price to pay and pains to bear, but we will be able to handle them because we have a great God whose love for us never changes and who promises that eternal joy which we even now have found in some measure and shall experience fully and eternally when our march has been completed. Song Christ for the World We Sing First Methodist Church, Houston, TX https://youtu.be/cG7iSIMANCI Praying Together Concerns and Celebrations: Please share any concerns or celebrations you may have with Pastor Elisabeth. Please note if you do not want this shared with this faith community. Prayers of Intercession Gather us into your presence, Lord Jesus. We feel unworthy to be here, but we know that you alone can provide the nourishment we need. Hear the prayers of your people: For those who think highly of themselves; teach them to do justice, love mercy, and live humbly with you. For those who are looked down on by others; give them justice and dignity, and lift them up to a place of honor. For those who are called strangers; let them find welcome in the land and hospitality among your people. For those who are in prison; visit them with your compassion, and help them find freedom in you. Gather us into your presence, Lord Jesus. Clothe us in your righteousness, and make us ready for the joyful feast prepared for us in heaven. In your holy name we pray, as you taught your disciples: (David Gambrell) The Lord’s Prayer Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Responding Offertory: You may send your offerings to Grantham United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 152, Grantham, NH, 03753. Doxology UMH #95 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow! Praise God, all creatures here below! Praise God above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen. Song The Gift of Love Trinity Lutheran Church Choir https://youtu.be/AAO3C-kY7LY Benediction Go to share love with the world. Go to invite the least and the lost. Go to welcome the stranger. All in the name of Jesus. Amen. August 21, 2022
Welcome! We’re so glad you have joined us today! Give us hearts to live into your risky miracles. (Walter Brueggemann) Gathering Announcements Monday, 6:30 PM Food Pantry Meeting Sunday, August 28 10:30 AM All Church Worship at Newport We will worship with the Newport and Sunapee congregations. Bring a lawn chair and a picnic lunch. Gathering Song Gathering Song Bless the Lord Matt Redman https://youtu.be/xGfbduLuZlo Opening Prayer Come, dear Christ, into this house of worship and into every longing heart. Some who gather here need healing. Touch us, and give us strength. Some feel confused by the news of the day. Quiet our minds, and help us place our trust in you. Some of us doubt ourselves and question our purpose. Call us anew to be instruments of your grace for a world that yearns to know your peace. Amen. Hearing the Word Scripture Luke 13:10-17 (NIV) On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. Sermon Keeping Our Priorities Straight I had only been in Harleyville, SC for a couple of months when I got a phone call from a panicked church member. There had been a terrible accident. One of my members, Hubert , had been killed and they needed me right away. So I got in my car and hurried up the street to find out what had happened. It seems that Hubert and a man that worked for him were taking some things in a dump truck to the back of Hubert’s property. When they went to dump the load, something got caught up in the truck in such a way that it couldn’t go all the way down. So Hubert got out to see if he could get it loose. Well, neither of them thought to turn the truck off or disengage the dumping function. So when Hubert removed the limb from the mechanism, the truck resumed dumping and Hubert was caught underneath. He was crushed to death. And his wife was hysterical with grief. Over the next weeks, as we got through the funeral, which was so crowded that we had people in the fellowship hall listening through a speaker, and memorial gifts began to flow in, Hubert’s wife, Margaret, came to talk to me about what she wanted to do with all that money. She felt that what was needed was to redo the sanctuary: paint it, replace the curtains beside the organ and piano, remove the carpet from the choir loft, and a number of other renovations. This work was approved by the Trustees; Hubert had been the chair of the board until his death, and they wanted to honor the wishes of his widow. And the work took place. And another member shared with me that Margaret had merely restored the church to the way it used to look before the previous renovations had been done about 10 years prior to this. I couldn’t help thinking at the time about how much good all that money could have done in the church and in the community. It seemed like a waste to spend it on the building, which really didn’t need renovating, when there were so many needs around us. We had a large group of youth who were in 5th to 7th grade, and we could have paid for them to go to camp or on a mission trip. We had a lot of seniors in the church and in the town who frequently needed assistance paying for medications or for rides to appointments. I could have pointed out a number of families who had trouble just keeping food on the table. But instead, all that money got spent prettying up a sanctuary that only about 30 people saw on a regular basis. It just seemed to me that our priorities were not where they should have been. That was the case in this story from Luke’s gospel, the only one of the gospels to record this particular incident. The priorities of the leader of the synagogue were not what they should have been. But Jesus helped to sort them out. It seems that Jesus was teaching in the synagogue one Sabbath day. This was something that he did on a fairly regular basis. And it happened that there was a woman in attendance that day who had suffered from a crippling disease for 18 years. Maybe it was severe arthritis; I have known people who were bent over from having so much arthritis in their backs. But whatever the reason, this woman could not straighten up at all. The woman was not someone that anyone paid much attention to. We aren’t even told her name. But her disability made her different. Sally Smith Holt, a professor at Belmont University College of Theology, writes, “Because of her physical condition, the bent-over woman could not have a face-to-face conversation with others in her community; we can imagine how this condition would have led to some marginalization and isolation. Her experience of such conditions had lasted eighteen long years. Thus, we suspect that she may not have been fully included in her community for quite some time.” But Jesus changed all that. He not only noticed this woman; he called her to come forward to stand with him. When Jesus drew the woman close to him, he was doing more than removing the physical space between them. He was crossing all sorts of boundaries. For one thing, he was probably standing in an area of the synagogue that was restricted to men only. Yet here he was, inviting a woman to stand there. She was a person with a disability, someone bound by Satan. Jesus put his hands on her; this would have made him ritually unclean. But Jesus didn’t think about any of that. Instead, he was focused on setting this woman free from the disease that had held her in bondage for 18 long years. And as soon as he touched her, she stood up straight and began praising God. Lynn Japinga, a professor at Hope College in Michigan, writes, “Jesus’ actions were radical and rule breaking in so many ways. The woman did not ask to be healed or express faith that Jesus could heal her. Jesus … touched her – despite the unclean-ness that would be associated with her illness and her gender – and restored her identity as a ‘daughter of Abraham.’ He brought her from the margins back into the center of the community, but he did it on the Sabbath. His gracious actions made the leader indignant. Rules had been broken.” Sabbath law was very clear about not working. Healing was considered work and was only permissible if someone’s life was in danger. Clearly, this woman was not in mortal danger. Professor Emeritus Ronald P. Byers of Union Theological Seminary points out that if the woman had been in that condition for 18 years, she could have waited another day. But Jesus did not want this woman to be in that condition for even one more day. And so he healed her, an act of grace, not of labor. But the leader of the synagogue did not see it that way. Instead, he was offended, indignant even. He quickly pointed out that there were six days for doing work and that anyone seeking healing should come only on those days, and not on the Sabbath. The law had been broken, and the leader of the synagogue did not appreciate it. It may be hard for us to understand why the leader of the synagogue was so uptight about working on the Sabbath. But just think about how we used to treat Sundays. I can remember my Grandmother Smith describing what Sundays were like when she was a little girl. (She was born in 1900.) She and her sister had to stay in their Sunday dresses all day, because there were both morning and evening church services. They were not allowed to play or even to read, except for their Bibles or Sunday School lessons for the next week. They were to sit quietly and patiently and not make a fuss about it. I can remember when there were still blue laws in place which restricted commercial activity on Sundays; there were no stores open for business, except maybe a pharmacy. You didn’t go to the movies or to the mall, because they were closed. The thing that changed all that was when Walmart came to town and remained open seven days a week, challenging the blue laws in our town. And eventually, everything began to open up. I’ve never been sure that that was a good thing. Wouldn’t it be nice to just enjoy one day a week where we rested from all the things that we are busy with during the rest of the week? I can almost have a little sympathy for the synagogue leader. After all, he was just trying to set a good example and let people know what was expected. Ronald Byers writes, “Those in leadership positions in any time and place are supposed to care about the rules! To be in a position of leadership requires bearing the responsibility for understanding the rules in depth and interpreting them as persuasively as possible … It takes a lot of fine-tuning to distinguish between upholding the rules and allowing for really exceptional cases … The safest course, usually, is to insist on the rule.” But Jesus calls out the man as a hypocrite. And he gives an example. He points out an interpretation of the law taken from the Mishnah, the commentary on the law, which allowed for leading livestock to water on the Sabbath, even though it was technically work, out of mercy for the animal. This was allowed as long as the cattle carried no burdens. Jesus wanted the synagogue leader to understand that the mercy shown to the bent-over woman was every bit as legitimate on the Sabbath as leading livestock to water. When Jesus finished speaking, the synagogue leader and Jesus’ opponents were humiliated. They must have been more than a little ashamed when they were confronted with a truth that they could not deny. Why should this woman have to wait even one more day to be set free from her suffering, just because the day that she met Jesus happened to be on the Sabbath? What purpose was there in healing tomorrow just because today was a day of rest? Would that honor God more than making this woman’s life more bearable? What was the real priority at work here? Clearly, an act of mercy and compassion was called for, even if it was on Saturday. People come to our churches all the time looking for help. Abigail W. Kocher, a United Methodist pastor in Richmond, Virginia, writes, “Of course, people show up all the time at our places of worship on Sundays looking for, hoping for, or praying for healing of one kind or another. They come precisely because it is Sunday, or because they hope God will come near if they dare to go inside a sanctuary, or because they do not know where else to turn. So often, such people arrive with the feeling that their life is defined by some aspect of their own brokenness, fragility, or ailment.” We have it in our power to heal people in one way or another. We can show compassion for everyone who comes through our door, whatever their condition or need, without judging them in any way. And we can do whatever we can to make their life better. I remember when I was serving a church in Columbia, South Carolina. There was a man named Willy who sometimes came to church, usually when he was looking for some financial assistance. The former pastor had told me about Willy. Willy lived with another man in a house that was packed to the gills with stuff. Willy and his friend were hoarders. There was literally just a path that they could walk through in their house to get to the kitchen, bedrooms, and bathroom. And their yard was also full of junk. They lived on disability income, which often did not stretch far enough to cover their bills. So sometimes Willy came looking for help. One Sunday, sure enough, Willy came to church. Now, you have to understand, that Willy rarely bathed or wore clean clothes. So when we came into the sanctuary, people noticed the smell right away. Willy sat down on the second pew on my right, just in front of the church secretary, her husband, and two daughters. The next thing I know, the four of them got up and moved to a seat farther away from Willy. So did two older women sitting behind Willy. I was mortified. Didn’t they realize how much that insulted Willy? Didn’t they have any concern for his pride? They probably hurt him deeply. They had their priorities all mixed up. They didn’t mind helping Willy when he came during the week; but they didn’t want to be caught within six feet of him if he showed up for service on Sunday. They came to church to worship God and to be inspired to follow Jesus; but they were willing to hurt someone’s feelings because they were offended by his odor and appearance. In my imagination, I could picture what I thought Jesus would do with Willy on a Sunday morning. He would take up a collection to cover Willy’s overdue bills and then offer him a ride home. And Jesus would do nothing to insult Willy’s dignity. We may not have a Willy who comes to our church. But we will have people who come who are different in some way, who have a need that we can’t understand, or who break some rule, written or unwritten, about what is appropriate or expected. How we treat them is much more important than whether all the hymns and prayers get sung and prayed, or whether we follow the order of service, or even if we do anything that is on the agenda. We can make or break someone with a word, a look, an attitude. Will we choose to welcome those who are unlovely and unlovable, those who are broken and battered, those who are lost and afraid, those who are crippled physically or emotionally or psychologically? Will we include those who feel on the outside, those who feel rejected or overlooked or judged? That is what is really important. Taking care of the needs of people should always be our priority, if we are going to follow Jesus. Song Heal the World Child Prodigy Cover/Michael Jackson Song https://youtu.be/h6d6Yo3DwVI Praying Together Concerns and Celebrations: Please share any concerns or celebrations you may have with Pastor Elisabeth. Please note if you do not want this shared with this faith community. Prayers of Intercession O source of compassion, we pray today for those who are in deep physical pain; for those suffering from mental illness; for those society has rejected because of physical or mental illness; for those who have never been touched with care; for those who have never been met with compassion; for those bound to rules and laws; and those that oppress instead of bringing healing. Lord of the Sabbath, in your name we pray, as we join in the prayer you taught your disciples: (David Gambrell) The Lord’s Prayer Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Responding Offertory: You may send your offerings to Grantham United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 152, Grantham, NH, 03753. Doxology UMH #95 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow! Praise God, all creatures here below! Praise God above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen. Prayer of Dedication O God, we offer our praise and our gratitude for all our many blessings. Use these gifts so that healing may fill this community and our world. Amen. Song Lord of the Dance https://youtu.be/zDdQhsjNHcw Benediction Stand tall and walk in Christ’s peace. Speak up and tell of God’s goodness. Touch and heal with the Spirit’s love. Amen. August 7, 2022
Welcome! We’re so glad you have joined us today! Give us hearts to live into your risky miracles. (Walter Brueggemann) Gathering Announcements Tuesday, 6:30 PM Food Pantry Meeting Sunday, 8:30 AM Worship Gathering Song O Worship the King Chris Tomlin https://youtu.be/We9aR22C9BI Opening Prayer Source of wisdom, who changes those who long for you: Come and cleanse our hearts. Teach us to do good, seek what is just, rescue the oppressed, and plead for the widow, until the flourishing of all life becomes our only offering to you. Amen. Hearing the Word Scripture Isaiah 1:1, 10-18 (The Message Version) The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. “Listen to my Message, you Sodom-schooled leaders. Receive God’s revelation, you Gomorrah- schooled people. Why this frenzy of sacrifices?” God’s asking. “Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices, rams and plump grain-fed calves? Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats? When you come before me, whoever gave you the idea of acting like this, running here and there, doing this and that – all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship? “Quit your worship charades. I can’t stand your trivial religious games: monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings – meetings, meetings, meetings – I can’t stand one more! Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You’ve worn me out! I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning. When you put on your next prayer-performance, I’ll be looking the other way. No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I’ll not be listening. And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody. Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don’t have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless. “Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out,” this is God’s Message. “If your sins are blood-red, they’ll be snow white. If they’re red like crimson, they’ll be like wool.” Sermon Getting Right With God I am one of those dinosaurs in our society that still prefers a morning newspaper, an actual paper copy, as my primary source of news. I do get news on my computer and my phone, but nothing measures up to opening that newspaper and reading the headlines of the day. (And, of course, there are the comics and puzzles to keep me entertained, as well.) I have noticed in recent weeks several articles pertaining to homelessness in our state. Back in May, there was an article that discussed how many homeless people there are in New Hampshire. There had been two different counts which did not agree. There was the Point in Time census, conducted in January by the federal government, which found that there were 1,491 people homeless in 2021. But the other tally, conducted by the Homeless Management Information System, found 4,412 people had experienced homelessness in the past year. The report stated that there were 239 chronic homeless people in Manchester and 889 in the state as a whole. The number of unsheltered people was 1,082; the number of family homeless was 1,311. The report concluded that “a lack of affordable housing is the primary precipitating factor leading to homelessness.” The city of Keene had an issues with a homeless encampment behind a Hanna-ford store, and the people living there were forced to leave. But just a short time later, another camp developed across the street. There were about 15 people staying there. The homeless camp behind Hannaford has been an issue for more then ten years. When the people living there were asked to leave back in March, they were all encouraged to look for assistance from the city and they were told they would not be allowed to set up a camp in another part of the city. But when five or six of them showed up at City Hall, they were not interested in entering a shelter, but would only go to a hotel. The city only puts people up in hotel rooms if it is necessary. But the human services director helps people with rental assistance or money to move into an apartment. Three city councilors said that the city should work to establish certain locations that could be designated as appropriate for homeless camping. They also recommended that the city provide dumpsters and latrines. There is a continuing issue of homelessness in Manchester. There was a neighborhood meeting in July with over 50 people in attendance. They were concerned about small homeless encampments popping up in local parks. Schonna Green, the city’s Director of Homelessness Initiatives, said that the city has enough services for the homeless, but they cannot make people use these services. Those who attended the meeting were encouraged to report to city officials if they see a homeless camp forming. Clearly, homelessness is a problem in our state. Every December since I have lived here, I have taken part in a service in Newport commemorating those who have died homeless that year. Their names and short biographies are read. These services take place in a number of towns and cities on the longest night of the year. It is so troubling and so very sad to hear those names read, and especially when there is nothing known about the person except for their name, and sometimes only their first name. I was utterly appalled last week when I read a letter to the editor in the Union Leader about the homeless. Peter M. Arel wrote: The City of Manchester needs two things: elected officials who are not afraid to play hardball with homeless people and legislation that allows Manchester’s finest to throw homeless people who beg on the streets and sidewalks of Manchester into the slammer for vagrancy. These people can get jobs; instead they solicit money from people who don’t want to give them any … We need elected officials who aren’t afraid to act like despots with homeless people who beg on the streets and otherwise bother the people of Manchester. When I read that letter, I couldn’t help but think about the scripture for this week’s sermon. Isaiah brings a message from God to his people – and I think to us, as well – about what God expects from those who believe in him. Let’s take a closer look. Apparently, the people of Israel were very religious. They carried on elaborate worship rituals and offered all the required sacrifices. But their hearts weren’t in it. They were religious but not spiritual! And God called them on it. In The Message version, God says to them, “Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices…? Quit your worship charades. I can’t stand your trivial religious games: monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings – meetings, meetings, meetings – I can’t stand one more! (I know how God feels!) Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You’ve worn me out! … I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning.” The people were practicing what they felt compelled to do. They were doing the right things, but they weren’t being the right kind of people. They would fit right in with some modern congregations. In a recent poll conducted in the US by the Ipsos polling company, about 26% of those surveyed said that Christians are hypocritical and judgmental, and 23% said they are self-righteous. It’s no wonder that those who claim to be spiritual but not religious are the fastest-growing group! They are choosing to practice their faith outside a church that they see as irrelevant and immoral. God’s message didn’t end with a critique of the religious practices of Israel; God went on to spell out what is required of a person who professes faith in God. They are to get rid of doing evil and say no to wrong. They are to learn to do good, specifically by working for justice, helping the down-and-out, standing up for the homeless, and going to bat for the defenseless. All of those things have deep roots in Methodism. From the time of Wesley, Methodists worked to get rid of evil, not only in their personal lives, but in their communities as well. Methodists worked for justice, advocating against the slave trade, working for child labor regulations, building orphanages, visiting prisoners and the sick. In this country, Methodists were at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement and provided leadership in activism concerning peace, the rights of women, and the rights of workers to unionize, as well as environmentalism. We are still called to put into practice these aspects of faith: first removing the evil from our own lives and learning to say no to what is wrong, and then learning to do good, by working for justice for everyone, helping people who are down on their luck, standing up for the homeless, and protecting the defenseless. I don’t know what the solution to homelessness in our cities will be, but it can’t be sending armed police into city parks to arrest those who are living on the streets or in homeless camps. We have to come up with more humane and compassionate ways of dealing with people who have nowhere else to go, for whatever reason. If we want to get right with God, it will take work on our part. Yes, God’s salvation through Jesus Christ is by faith alone, not by works. But our faith ought to produce good works as a natural consequence of our being led by the Spirit of God. We should not get so caught up in our “religiousness” and our busy-ness as a church that we lose sight of the deeper aspects of faith. We will not be rewarded for the number of church meetings that we have attended, but by the number of lives we have had a positive impact on. As we come to the table of Christ, we remember that Jesus came to serve others, not to be served. He was willing to humble himself and wash the feet of those who had chosen to follow him. He had compassion on all those who were sick and out-cast and forgotten by the rest of society. Jesus showed us what it means to put our faith into practice. It is up to us to decide whether we can follow in his footsteps. It is up to us to decide to get ourselves right with God. Song What Now? Steven Curtis Chapman https://youtu.be/V1YcViDGO28 Praying Together Concerns and Celebrations: Please share any concerns or celebrations you may have with Pastor Elisabeth. Please note if you do not want this shared with this faith community. Prayers of Intercession God of justice, you call broken people, from all walks of life. Fill us with the faith of those who walked before us to do your holy work: to obey and follow you, even when we don’t know where we are going. to dismantle systems of oppression and live a new way of life. to believe in your promises, even if we have to live in foreign lands. to believe that there is enough for everyone and to remember that our ancestors were once strangers. to be faithful, even when we don’t believe in ourselves. to use our creativity and hard work to change that which keeps us in bondage. to keep going, even if we become strangers and immigrants on earth. to walk with humility and respect those who have left their homelands trying to build a better future. Fountain of faith, give us the strength of our ancestors as we walk with the confidence that you will welcome us all to the heavenly banquet. We pray all of this in Jesus’ name, as we pray together the prayer he taught his disciples: The Lord’s Prayer Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Responding Offertory: You may send your offerings to Grantham United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 152, Grantham, NH, 03753. Doxology UMH #95 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow! Praise God, all creatures here below! Praise God above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen. Prayer of Dedication Generous God, you offer us treasure in heaven. In love and gratitude for your gifts to us, we return these gifts and offerings to you. Use them to ease the distress of the poor and the homeless, the orphan and the downtrodden. Use us, that we may do good, seek justice, and be your light in the world. Amen. Song Here I Am, Lord Choir and Orchestra of St. Lillian https://youtu.be/CSODPhE-0ng Benediction Go out into the world ready to serve the lost and lonely, the poor and the homeless, the orphan and the widow. Have the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen, for it is in the depth of our faith that our hearts find their true treasure. Amen. July 31, 2022
Welcome! We’re so glad you have joined us today! Give us hearts to live into your risky miracles. (Walter Brueggemann) Gathering Announcements Next Sunday, 8:30 AM Worship 4:00 – 6:00 PM Summer Gathering with the Bishop, Tilton United Methodist Church Gathering Song The Change Steven Curtis Chapman https://youtu.be/T0lzY-Vgz90 Opening Prayer God-with-us in life and in death, we come to you with gratitude for this day that we were not promised. We thank you for this community. We ask that you pour out your Holy Spirit among us. We come to seek your wisdom. We come to learn your way, not the easy way. Strip us of our old selves an clothe us anew in Christ. Help us loosen our grip on the things we have and open our hands to reach for you. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Hearing the Word Scripture Colossians 3:1-17 (The Message) So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ – that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life – even though invisible to spectators – is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too – the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ. And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn’t long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, civilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ. So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ – the Message – have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives – words, actions, whatever – be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. Sermon Serious About Christ One of the celebrities that I most respect is U2’s lead singer, Bono. He is someone who has chosen to use his wealth and his celebrity status to do good in the world. Back in 1982 he was involved in the Live Aid and Band-Aid concerts, which raised money for Ethiopians who were suffering through a famine. Bono not only helped to raise money by performing in the concerts, he actually went to Ethiopia himself to be sure that the funds were being used honestly and effectively. For six weeks, Bono and his wife worked in an orphanage there. What he saw changed his life forever. He said, “You wake up in the morning, and the mist would be lifting. You’d walk out of your tent and you’d count bodies of dead or abandoned children. Or worse, the father of a child would walk up to you and try to give you his living child and say, ‘You take it, because if this is your child, it won’t die.’” And Bono didn’t stop with that one trip to volunteer in Ethiopia. He has been working to change the policies of governments and organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund so that funding for public health, education, and essential social services will increase. Politicians including Bill Clinton and Jesse Helms have worked with Bono in successfully reducing the debts of Third World countries. And he has helped to compel wealthy countries to make financial contributions towards addressing the AIDS crisis in Africa. Tony Campolo refers to Bono as an instrument of God. I would agree with that assessment. In this letter to the church in Colossae, the apostle Paul was addressing the issue of how Christians should act, how they should live out their faith. Paul wrote this letter from prison in Ephesus sometime in the mid-50s. He had never been to Colossae, a city about 100 miles from Ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey. The church had been started by a man named Epaphras, and he had reached out to Paul about threats to the church. The threat came from some questionable religious practices that had been going on, including a belief that human destiny was controlled by the stars. As Paul confronted these issues, he instructed the Colossian Christians to live their new resurrection life with Christ and to act as if they were followers of Jesus. They were to stop looking at what was going on in this world, and pay attention to what was going on around Christ, who is in heaven. They were to live a new life, their real life, which was in Christ; in fact, Christ WAS to be their life. In some ways, they were to live now as if they were already in heaven. Scot McKnight, a professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Illinois, writes, “For Paul, the Christian life is more than ethics or morality … it is Christ himself who defines the Christian life, and it is defined by who Christ is. The crucified and raised Jesus … redefines what the Christian life is … [It is] being ‘formed’ by the whole life of Christ: his life, teachings, death, burial, resurrection, and glorification.” So what does it mean to live in Christ, to act like we have faith? Paul used the metaphor of changing one’s clothes. He instructed the Colossian believers to take off their old lives and put on their new lives in Christ. They were to leave behind their sins when they professed faith in Christ, and then they were to live in a way that they imitated Jesus; McKnight says that Jesus exhorted his followers to live in a world where “reconciliation, righteousness, peace, justice and love … [reshape] our every word, deed, and thought.” First, Paul wrote, they had to take off their old lives as if they were filthy clothes that did not fit, but were only good to throw in the fire. The old life – the way of death – included things like sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, profanity, dirty talk, lying, having a bad temper, being irritable, being mean, doing whatever they felt like whenever they felt like it, and grabbing whatever attracted their fancy. They did those things before because they didn’t know any better. But now they were to reject those kinds of immoral behavior and live in a way that demonstrated a Christ-like life. Second, they were to live a Christ-like life. So what would a Christian life look like? Paul said that it was a life defined by Christ. It was like being dressed in a whole new wardrobe custom made for you by the Creator. It meant embracing and living out such things as compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline, even-temperedness, contentment with being in second place, being quick to forgive, and, above all, practicing love. They were to cultivate thankfulness in their hearts and then sing their hearts out to God. In sum, they were to let every detail of their lives – their words and their actions – be done in the name of Jesus. And third, they were to create a community where their social identities no longer mattered, only their shared identity in Christ. They were to live in community “where social identities [were] no longer the ultimate or solely defining feature of one’s identity,” according to Joshua Jipp, an associate professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He goes on to refer to this kind of community as “one new people composed of all kinds of people.” The things that typically separated people were no longer in play. There were to be no distinctions between Jews and non-Jews, religious or irreligious people, insiders and outsiders, civilized or uncouth, slave or free. From now on, believers would be defined by Christ. David E. Gray, Senior Pastor at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland, points out, “We face divisions today along ethnic, social, racial, gender, economic, political, military, familial, and geographic lines … If Christ is in all of us, then we all are guided at some level by the same Spirit, larger than us … Our faith in Jesus Christ unites all believers.” Another prominent figure with whom I have long been impressed is former President Jimmy Carter. He is a man who truly practices that faith that he professes. And he has lived out his beliefs from the Oval Office to the Sunday School classroom, from Washington, D.C. to Habitat for Humanity construction sites in this country and over-seas. In his book, Living Faith, Carter writes that “there are basic principles that, for me, have never changed. For a Christian, the life and teachings of Jesus offer a sound moral foundation that includes all the most basic elements that should guide us. Since these highest standards are eternal, we have an obligation to comprehend what they are and what they mean for us. Our faith can provide enough courage to apply these biblical lessons to our daily lives.” Later in the book, Carter talks about how Jesus set the example for us to follow. He states, “His ministry was tangible proof of his love for everyone, including the sick, the ostracized, and even those who were believed by their neighbors to be suffering the punishment of God for their sins. This was a powerful witness. Christ was a doer, one whose faith took the form of action, not merely words.” Jimmy Carter has certainly put that kind of faith into practice. He has used his political connections and the respect of foreign leaders to try to broker peace in the Middle East. He has been used as a diplomat in many instances for Presidents who came after him. He has continued to teach Sunday School in the Baptist church that he and Rosalyn attend in Plains, Georgia. And he and his wife have continued to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, picking up their tools and doing physical labor into their old age. When you get serious about Christ – about living a Christ-like life – you become a witness to the gospel message. When people look at you, they don’t just see you, they also see Jesus. They see how much being a Christian affects the way you live your life. They see a role model and a living testimony to the truth of what we believe. Being a follower of Jesus Christ is not for the half-hearted; it is serious business for those who are willing to commit themselves to be disciples. I’d like to close by reading a paraphrase of Colossians 3 written by Leslie Brandt in his book, Epistles/Now: I wonder if we really understand it, that we are the people of God, that He loves us and chooses that we be His people. Now we are really alive! As Christ was raised from the dead, so we have been brought from death to life and shall live forever. We must set our hearts and fix our minds on this fantastic truth. Faith means that we begin to live and act as if this is the truth, that this really happened, whether we feel it or not. There are, however, still some things within us which must not be permitted to control our thinking or activities. They are those things that come between us and God and are capable of causing harm to our fellow person. Still rising out of the darkness to haunt and tempt us are the shadows of greed and lust and hostility and deceit, booby traps that can destroy us and anyone close to us. We must, by God’s grace and His power at work within us, blast these insidious demons out of our lives. And we must do so again and again, for they die hard, these agents of death. Thus we must grow in the faith, allowing the Spirit of God to captivate and subordinate every aspect of our being under His purging love. We must plug up these loopholes in our lives by focusing continually upon God and His love and permit Him to flood our hearts with His love. And we must determinedly and actively exercise that inflowing and outgoing love by reaching out to others in concern and compassion. We are to begin doing this with those who are near us. We must start right where we are – even with our comrades in Christ – by being open, honest, truthful, nonjudgmental, manifesting patience and understanding, forgiving them as God indeed forgives us, allowing God’s love to spill over our lives into the troubled lives of others. But God forbid that our love be limited to our own kind. It is God’s love that reaches out to others through our love, and God’s love is destined for all [humankind], the whole human family, slave and free, rich and poor, black and white. What we do in our interpersonal relationships we are to do as the children of God, the disciples of Jesus Christ, in the spirit of celebration and thanksgiving. Let us give ourselves over to prayer and thanksgiving and conduct ourselves like the children and servants of God, acknowledging that the hours of our days and the words of our mouths are under contract to our Savior and Lord. And may God so guide us and control us that we always speak and act in accordance with His will for our lives. Amen. Song Holy Spirit, Breathe on Me Anne Jernigan https://youtu.be/eScVk6zRIAs Praying Together Concerns and Celebrations: Please share any concerns or celebrations you may have with Pastor Elisabeth. Please note if you do not want this shared with this faith community. Prayers of Intercession O God, we come to you this morning asking that you grant us your favor. In your fierce tenderness, hear our prayer. We pray for the church … We praise your name but stray to other gods – gods named greed and fear, gods named race and class. Release us from their clutches so we may seek you alone. In your fierce tenderness, hear our prayer. We pray for the nations … Let governments stop pretending to be gods, and faithfully carry out their duties as your servants, caring for the least. In your fierce tenderness, hear our prayer. We pray for creatures of the earth, plants and animals … Help us to remember that they are our siblings, that we humans are stewards, so that we might joyfully care for them and the environment that takes care of all of us. In your fierce tenderness, hear our prayer. We are confident our prayers have your attention – that we have spoken the words you have placed in our hearts and that you will answer them with fierce tenderness. (David Gambrell) We pray all of this in Jesus’ name, as we pray together the prayer he taught his disciples: The Lord’s Prayer Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Responding Offertory: You may send your offerings to Grantham United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 152, Grantham, NH, 03753. Doxology UMH #95 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow! Praise God, all creatures here below! Praise God above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen. Prayer of Dedication O God, sometimes we look at all we have, but we see only what we lack. As we come to this time of offering, we choose instead to look at the abundance you have given us and to consider how it might be shared. Remind us that we are not called to store up treasures for ourselves, but to be rich toward you. Amen. Song You’re the Only Jesus The Imperials https://youtu.be/qDDgv7nOS8o Benediction Go out to the world, children of the Most High! Go with the confidence of children who know they are covered by a great love. Amen. July 24, 2022
Welcome! We’re so glad you have joined us today! Give us hearts to live into your risky miracles. (Walter Brueggemann) Gathering Announcements Thursday, 7:00 PM Zoom Book Study Here is your link: Elisabeth Smith is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Book Study Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86066732644?pwd=emorNUc2RlJkWEN4UUdrZHJZY0o2Zz09 Meeting ID: 860 6673 2644 Passcode: 762435 One tap mobile +19292056099,,86066732644#,,,,*762435# US (New York) +13017158592,,86066732644#,,,,*762435# US (Washington DC) Dial by your location +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) Meeting ID: 860 6673 2644 Passcode: 762435 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcyTFEtQFq Sunday, 8:30 AM Worship Gathering Hymn Love the Lord Lincoln Brewster https://youtu.be/EAbeFfsqLdc Opening Prayer Compassionate God, whose riches have been poured out among us in unrecognized abundance, lead us to appreciate the plenty you have entrusted to us. Help us to ponder the meaning of this bounty for our shared life of faith. Help us to think, not according to our society’s agenda, but as people already living in your kingdom, where all are loved and valued, and what is needed is shared among people. Amen. Hearing the Word Scripture Luke 12:13-21 (NIV) Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” Sermon You Can’t Take It With You It was a typical evening commute on August 1, 2007. People were in a hurry to get home, to get to the restaurant, to get to the gym or the driving range or the swimming pool. Some were talking on their cell phones, concluding business for the day, confirming social plans for the evening, or getting the list for the grocery store on the way home. Traffic was backed up more than usual, with two of the four lanes closed for road work. Probably a lot of people were getting hot under the collar, frustrated by the delay, waiting until the last possible moment to merge into the open lane, hoping to get in front of the slow-moving school bus or smelly garbage truck. It was just a typical evening commute. But then the unthinkable happened. The I-35 bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed. Those Minneapolis commuters felt the road beneath them disappear. Some cars fell into the river. Others rolled downhill toward the water. No one knew what was going on; it all happened so fast. As of the next morning, there were seven people con-firmed dead and over sixty injured. Officials expected both numbers to rise. Not one of those people got in their car expecting to die that day. Death came when nobody expected it. Death happens like that sometimes. A sudden disaster, a heart attack, a stroke, a car accident, a flood or tornado or hurricane. No one expects when they get up in the morning that they will die before the day is over. But when accidents do happen and tragedies do come our way, all of a sudden our priorities get rearranged. We make a different assessment of what is most precious, most valuable to us. All of a sudden, it doesn’t really matter what kind of car we drive, or what kind of house we live in, or how much money we have in the bank. What if we knew that this was the last day we would spend on this earth? Would it make a difference in how we lived it? Would we make different choices about how we spent our time and our money? Consider the story from Luke’s gospel. A man came up to Jesus one day and asked him to settle a family fight. He wanted Jesus to talk to his brother and tell his brother to give him his fair share of the inheritance. In the ancient world, it was the custom that the older brother would get twice the share of the younger son. But, people being what they are, there were likely occasions when arguments broke out after a death in the family over who would get what. When those kinds of disputes happened, the parties involved would often consult their rabbi for advice. So when this man approached Jesus, he may have been in that situation. But from the way he framed his question, it sounds like he was hoping Jesus might take his side against his brother, to get him a larger share of the inheritance than he might have been entitled to. Nothing is more heartbreaking than siblings fighting over an inheritance. You’ve probably all seen it, or maybe even experienced it in your own families. People are willing to sacrifice their family relationships over material possessions or money, and there are wounds that are inflicted that sometimes never heal. In this case, Jesus refused to get involved in the dispute. Instead, he raised a deeper issue than this one man’s inheritance. He told a story about greed. A few years ago, there was a great commercial where a guy started taking things out of his garage and putting them on the front lawn. There were Christmas decorations, trash cans, yard tools, cardboard boxes, bicycles, toys, and sports equipment. At first it looked like he was setting up for a yard sale. But it turned out he had bought a new car and it was too good to park in the driveway; it had to go in the garage. But first the man had to make room for it in there, because his garage was filled with all kinds of stuff. How many of you have a garage? How many of you can actually get your car into the garage? How many of you have so much stuff in your garage that you can’t park your car in there? Most Americans have more stuff than they need. It fills the closets, the guest rooms, the garage. Some people even pay rent on storage units for their overflow stuff. We are a people addicted to stuff and our houses are stuffed with our stuff. It may remind us of a man in the story who had stuffed barns. Jesus told this story about a rich man who had some land that produced a bumper crop one year. There was so much, in fact, that his barns couldn’t hold it all. “What do I do now?” he wondered. Then the answer came to him: the wisest course of action was to build big-ger barns. That way he would have room to store it all. And then he could just sit back and enjoy the fruit of his labor. He could take it easy, eat, drink, and enjoy himself. Maybe this man is your role model for retirement planning. He had worked hard and made more than enough to provide for himself and his family, assuming he had one. He’d set up college funds for his kids, set aside money for travel, had a more than adequate 401K, and enjoyed a diversified stock portfolio. Everything had been account-ed for. Life was good and would only get better. His plan was working beautifully. Until suddenly it didn’t. God told him, ‘You fool! You’re going to die tonight! And then who’s going to get all this stuff you put in storage? Because it’s really true that you can’t take it with you!” That’s what happens when you have a lot of material riches, but you don’t have a deep and rich relationship with God. The problem here, of course, wasn’t that the man was wealthy. There’s nothing wrong with reaping the rewards of your hard work. The problem was the man’s attitude towards his wealth. In spite of the fact that he had way more than he needed, it never even occurred to him to that his abundance might have been a gift from God. It never occurred to him to say thank you for his many blessings. It never occurred to him to share it with anyone else. In 1st-century Palestine, most people were poor; instead of building bigger barns the man might have considered giving away the surplus crops to those who were hungry. But it never even crossed his mind. He never thought of any-thing or anyone but himself and his pleasure. He never gave a moment’s consideration to what would happen to him when his life was over. No one can save enough money to prevent death from happening sooner or later. And no one can avoid standing before God one day to give an account or their life. So what does this story have to do with us? What might we learn from this rich fool and his stuffed barns? Well, we might remind ourselves to be grateful for all that we have and to remember that it is all a gift from God. We might ask ourselves how generous we are with the blessings that are ours. We might think of those who have less than we do, or nothing at all, and ask how we might help them. A few years ago, there was a story in the Boston Globe about the 50% League, a group of people who had committed themselves to giving away at least half of their in-comes, business profits, or net worth to charity. The ninety members of this group came from all across the country. Not all of them were wealthy; some were from the middle class, but had chosen to live on less so that they could give more. Some gave out of a sense of fairness, others for personal satisfaction. Others were motivated by their reli-gious faith or a dedication to some cause. Many chose to give anonymously. They wanted to encourage people of all income levels to consider their giving potential, to help close the gap between rich and poor, and to support economic justice and social change. It is doubtful that many of us could give away half our money or possessions and still have enough to provide for our needs. But there are ways to share what we have. We could go through our closets and drawers once a year and give away anything we haven’t worn in a year. We could consider sharing ownership of some possessions with a neighbor, such as a lawn mower or snow blower, and use the money you save to help someone else. Make a list of what you need to live and a list of what you want; then commit to buying only what you need for a year. Donate the money you save to a community ministry or church. Don’t rent a storage unit, and if you have one, consolidate your possessions until you only keep what will fit in your home. For the next month, every time you find yourself coveting something that someone else has, say a prayer to be content with what you have. John Wesley serves as a good role model for us. His policy was to earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can. He lived that out in his own life. He figured out what he needed to live on, and he gave the rest of his money away. No matter how much his income increased over the years, he still only kept what he needed to provide for his necessities and gave away the rest. Are your closets full to overflowing? Is your garage too crowded for your car to live in? Are you actually paying rent to store your extra stuff? Is your bank account looking like a stuffed barn? Maybe it’s time to give away some of what we are storing up. Maybe it’s time we shared our abundance with those in need. Maybe it’s time we let go of our desire for the good life for ourselves, and worked at making life good for someone else too. Take care that your possessions don’t possess you. After all, it’s just stuff. And you can’t take it with you. Hymn First Lauren Daigle https://youtu.be/RbWQV3OiRqA Praying Together Concerns and Celebrations: Please share any concerns or celebrations you may have with Pastor Elisabeth. Please note if you do not want this shared with this faith community. Prayers of Intercession Holy One, we are dust and ashes, stardust and earth embodied, here for a short time and often thrashing about, toiling away under the sun. But for now we stop. We breathe slowly. We remember that life is finite but that you are infinite, and we lift our prayers to you. For a world that pushes barn building rather than kingdom building, here our prayer. For a church that worries about its own death more than about living for you, hear our prayer. For those who work in jobs that do not pay them fairly, hear our prayer. For those who do not choose to pay a living wage but gain from the toil of others, hear our prayer. For those whose decision to leave their home is less a choice and more a necessity, hear our prayer. For those who spend their time causing division rather than multiplying blessings, hear our prayer. For those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward you, hear our prayer. For this earth, which falls prey to the vanity of its occupants, hear our prayer. For the sick who are unsure of how to pay for their medications, procedures, or treatments, hear our prayer. We release to you these concerns and all the prayers of our minds and hearts. Guide us so that our lives may become prayers. And at the time of death, may we be at rest as we come to join you in the now and forever. (David Gambrell) We pray all of this in Jesus’ name, as we pray together the prayer he taught his disciples: The Lord’s Prayer Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Responding Offertory: You may send your offerings to Grantham United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 152, Grantham, NH, 03753. Doxology UMH #95 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow! Praise God, all creatures here below! Praise God above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen. Prayer of Dedication O God, sometimes we look at all we have, but we see only what we lack. Help us to see instead the abundance you have given us and to consider how we might share it. We are not called to store up treasures for ourselves, but to be rich toward you. Bless these gifts use them in your service. Amen. Song Take My Life Chris Tomlin https://youtu.be/agROj9nTQP4 Benediction Whatever riches we have – silver and gold, love and compassion, food and shelter, friends and fellowship – may they be gifts we offer freely to all we meet, in the name of our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. Amen. |
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