The View from the Pulpit – 7/19/10
July 19, 2010 by Gary Carter
Filed under View From The Pulpit
Dear Church Family:
Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord, God’s Son; Jesus Christ. “He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers – all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things and in him all things hold together.”
At least that’s how Paul talked about Jesus when he wrote a letter to the Colossians. That’s not all. He called Jesus the head of the body, the beginning, and the first-born from the dead. He says that in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him God was pleased to reconcile to Godself all things.
That’s who gathered us for worship yesterday. That was the reason for our songs and prayers and study. Thanks to you who welcomed us and shared your talents to help us see God. Particularly thanks to the Gospel Quartet (Daryl Wilcoxson, Larry Swindle, Dianne & Gary Carter) for their offering at “The Celebration” and to Daryl for his beautiful music at “UpWords”.
There are times when we just need to be reminded of the “why” of our life together. There are times when we need to remember that not everyone knows what we mean and that part of being radically hospitable is to explain ourselves so that no one feels left out by the words we use and the way we say things.
So below you’ll find a more detailed explanation of some of the things we’ve come to take for granted here at 1st UMC Kennett. I hope it is helpful and I hope that we’ll all become more aware of speaking in ways that proclaim Christ’s love for us all rather than reveal the ways we’re not part of the crowd.
Thanks for all you do to add flesh to God’s presence.
In Christ’s Love…..Gary
What’s Happening This Week?
Tues. 9:30am – “Club 45” advance on Jonesboro (for “Tweens” in 4th & 5th grade)
6:00pm – “Whispers of Hope” meets in Nursery II
6:30pm – “Led by Thread” meets in Parlor
7:00pm – “Hour of Prayer” in the Sanctuary
Wed. 9:30am – “Ladies Prayer & Share Bible Study” meets in Parlor
7:30pm – A Home Study of “The Shack” at the Greenway’s house
7:30pm – “Youth Bible Study” in the Youth Room (Ed. Building)
What is “Whispers of Hope”?
“Whispers of Hope” is Christian woman with depression, anxiety, and other stresses of life ministering to one another. The group meets for prayer and study every Tuesday evening at 6:00pm. For more information call 573-888-4241 or email 1magenta@att.net
What is “Led by Thread”?
“Led by Thread” is a ministry of caring and hospitality that uses “threads” of various materials and the talents of people using hooks and needles to create shawls, lap robes, sweaters, bed mats and other things. Each stitch includes a prayer that the receiver might know the power of God’s healing love and that they are not alone in the midst of whatever life brings. The group meets on Tuesday evening at 6:30pm in the Parlor. For more information call 573-888-1863.
What is “Club 45”?
“Club 45” is ministry to “tweens” who are in 4th and 5th grade. Our Director of Youth and Family Ministries, Chris Wheeler, uses this time to give these young people a taste of what can they expect to experience when they get old enough to attend “Youth Uniting in Christ” (YUiC), our regular Sunday evening Youth Program for those in Middle School and Senior High. “YUiC” is a joint ministry offered to the Kennett community for the glory of God’s House by First United Methodist Church, First Christian Church, and First Presbyterian Church. For more information contact Chris at 573-888-5391 or email chris.1stumc@sbcglobal.net .
What is “A Home Study”?
“Home Study’s” are short term Christian studies of various topics, books, and scripture and are offered in people’s homes. Currently Barney and Christie Greenway are leading a study of the book, “The Shack” on Wednesday evenings at 7:30pm. Michael Bell recently completed a study of a book by Tony Dungy which met at his home on Tuesday evenings. Jennifer Bell recently completed a video study led by Beth Moore.
Another group of friends meets one Sunday evening each month for dinner and bible study, sharing the hosting responsibilities. We’d love to help you organize such a group and would happily offer child care at the church during those times.
Watch for more “Home Studies” this fall. If you’ve read a book or watched a video that revealed something of God to you, why not share what you’ve learned by opening your home to a few friends and neighbors for a time to sit at Jesus’ feet and learn what he has to teach us about life in God’s House? Contact Gary at 573-888-5391 or e-mail gary.1stumckennett@sbcglobal.net with questions and ideas. He’ll be happy to help the study get started.
Praying Together
There’s something else to pick up and take home every Sunday morning. Every week you’ll find a new “First United Methodist Prayer List” next to the worship bulletins. This dated page will include a list of everyone you’ve asked us to pray for during the past week at the top and another list of people who you’ve asked us to pray for who have specific long-term needs. We hope you will take advantage of this during your daily prayers. Another idea for a prayer resource would be to pray through our church pictorial directory. If you don’t have one of those or have misplaced your copy, come by the church office for another.
Things That Make You Go, Hum
Last week I received “Home Church Letters” for some of our young members who had attended Adventure Camp at Blue Mountain the week before. I’m always looking for ways to encourage people in their walk with Christ and happen to believe that Church Camp is one of the very best things anyone can do to mature their faith in God. My weird and strange mind thought that perhaps making a game out of those kind words written about some of our children might provide some of that encouragement.
Unfortunately evaluations for all our kids weren’t included. I went with what we received, sent it out and quickly received several enquiring notes about those who attended but weren’t part of the game. Yes, we know who attended and encouraged you to surround them with prayer during that week. No, I don’t know why we didn’t get letters about all the kids. Maybe it was an option that some of the family group sponsors haven’t yet completed or chose not to use.
In any case, we are very proud of all our youth who attended the camp that week. And when you see Anna Beth, Elise, Allyson, Kayton, Joelle, Shelby, and Hadley; please let them know and ask them about their experience. One thing I’m sure of is that all of them were excellent campers and helped make the camp experience a blessing for everyone. How do I know that? Because that’s the kind of kids that come out of this church.
A Church Camp Experience for Those Over 50
“Evenglow” is what they call it. It’s been around for longer than most of us have been over 50. This year’s “Evenglow” adult camp happens August 24 through August 27. That’s an afternoon, three full days, and a morning spent at Blue Mountain Camp, the same one our youth attend. The theme is “Three Simple Rules”, a book by Bishop Rueben Job that explains the General Rules of the United Methodist Church; avoid evil, do good, and stay in love with God. The schedule includes words like “study”, “free time”, “vespers”, “camp fire”, “fun & games”, “early coffee”, and “breakfast, lunch, dinner”.
If you’d like to know more, contact Gary at 573-888-5391 or gary.1stumckennett@sbcglobal.net.
Outside God’s Window: Summer Fruit
Amos 8:1-12
Luke 10:38-42
I woke up Saturday morning thinking I had this sermon pretty much nailed together. Amos’ prophetic words to Israel had grabbed my attention the first week of July when I sat down to think and pray where God is leading. God’s word to Amos concerning the plumb line and summer fruit begged questions concerning what we see today and how that compares to the things God sees.
At first glance the sight of summer fruit would seem to be a good thing. But God led Amos to a different understanding. “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by. 3The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” says the Lord God; “the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!” (Amos 8:2-3)
That is not good. Summer fruit is fruit past its prime. It has begun its journey to putridity and is now on its way to becoming too soft and squishy to be of any good to anyone. God looking out the window shouted, “4Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, 5saying, “When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the Sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, 6buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.” 7The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. 8Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? 9On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day. 11The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. 12They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.” (Amos 8:4-12)
Sounds bad; sounds real bad for all those who are abusing people by the way they do business. Apparently God’s command to care for the widow and alien in their midst had gone unheeded. Israel harvested the end rows of the crops, leaving none for the poor to glean. They stripped their olive trees and grape vines bare, even picking up the fruit that had fallen on the ground so there was nothing for the poor to gather. They even swept the granary floors to assure they got every small grain, forgetting that God was the source of the harvest that was so abundant to provide enough for everyone; rich and poor and disabled and old and young.
The week’s selection from Psalm 52 only fueled the fire. “1Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long 2you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery. 3You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. Selah
4You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue. 5But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
Unfortunately I started thinking of all the people being abused by business practices designed only for maximum profit. I started with the gulf oil spill and moved right on in to those that were at the root of last year’s financial crash that is still changing life for millions of people who weren’t paying attention to the number one statement in ancient Israel’s business plan, “Buyer Beware.”
But when I sat down Saturday to bring it all together it just didn’t fit. If I had been Luke writing about Paul’s journey’s in Acts I’d have to say that the Spirit blocked my path. Red flags were waving and horns were blowing, so I paid some attention to “Selah” (which some think of as encouragement to stop a moment and meditate and pray over what was just read). The problem was that I couldn’t think of any time when I was the victim. Don’t misunderstand; I’ve made some pretty stupid buying decisions in my life. I’ve regretted my share of choices but not so much that they’ve really hurt. So I went to the gospel written by Luke and discovered God had smashed the story of Mary and Martha against Amos’ summer fruit.
Many of us remember spending a long month last November with Mary and Martha as we studied, “The Presence Based Church”. “38Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” 41But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
The Marys and Marthas in our group were still arguing which was greatest in God’s house. Marthas just don’t understand how anyone can sit when there is work to be done and Marys can’t figure out why Marthas can’t just relax and go with the flow.
So now is when I have to apologize. This isn’t the first time I’ve done such a thing in the middle of a sermon but usually I followed the confession with a quick, “but it’s not my fault.” This time it is my fault. I almost fell into a preacher’s trap that I despise. That one where we start preaching against someone else, pointing somewhere “out there” as the source of the problem. Those are easy sermons to preach and you all deserve better.
Because, you see, in that moment of “Selah” I remembered all those times when I was taking my first steps into the business world; working at various retail shops and saying, “You know, if these customers would just quit bothering me I could get something done around here.” “If the store wasn’t packed with Saturday shoppers waiting to hear if they’d won the weekly prize given by the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, I could navigate these aisles and get this five page list of price changes done the Store Manager keeps asking about.”
Now I’m not talking about you or anyone else. I’m talking about me because I still fall into that trap every once in a while. Saying things like, “I could finish ‘The View’ on Monday if all these people would quit bugging me for food vouchers and problems with electric bills and gas money for doctor visits and the newest bestest video based bible study for parents with young children.” I wonder if God looks at me and says, “Summer Fruit?”
God wants to teach us to see the world through Holy eyes. I believe what God wants us to notice most is the people out there and to see them as people God loves just as much as we have come to experience God’s love for us. Maybe Martha’s problem wasn’t that she wanted to provide a good relaxing meal for her friend Jesus but that she somehow put her relationship to that meal in front of her relationship to Jesus so that she began to see Mary as a problem. Once we start seeing people as anything other than God’s children who deserve the peace God intends for that which He created, we’ve got problems. When we start to see people only in relationship to our self-centered desired; either as tools to be used or problems to be avoided, we are far from God’s Promised Land of peace and plenty.
Now please don’t take this wrong, I’m only wondering; how ripe are you? Is your relationship to the One who is the Master of the Vine still maturing, growing daily in the beauty that is God’s vision. Are you still immature fruit, finding little nourishment from the baby formula and strained foods that are comfortable but fail to nourish our full potential? Are you past your prime, just hanging around practicing a faith that leaves you always empty and longing for more? There is good news. Because even though the Assyrians invaded Israel taking our ancestors to unknown places of exile and retraining, God did not abandon them. And even though a few years later Amos’ beloved Judah also fell to the power of Babylon, their best and brightest taken for a generation to a foreign capital to serve the followers of another god; The LORD did not forget His promise. And even though we still stumble when we think about justice for all and God’s vision of “enough”; God is with us. Jesus Christ offers new life, fresh beginnings, new fruit, and a place on the God’s vine to bear eternal fruit for the nourishment of God’s Household. Come and See!
Next Week
Sermon: “Outside God’s Window: People named Gomer”
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