The View from the Pulpit – 8/30/10

 

Dear Church Family

It was a good Sunday morning, though a bit different then we’re used to around here.  The plan every once in a while is to gather both worship groups together to celebrate certain gifts and ministries.  This time it was Sunday School.  I heard many reports of spirit filled experiences and I have to admit, it was fun to see the faces when the adults realized that they would not be the only group called to the front to sing a special song for the group.  I give Jan McDaniel credit for that idea.

The morning began with a spirited piano/organ/keyboard “prelude” that included some of the old favorites and was put together as the spirit moved until we blessed the food and moved into “picnic” mode.  “Special Music” began with those younger than 10 years old singing, “Do Lord”.  They were followed by those over 51 years old singing “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder”.  Sprinkled between more “favorites” were offerings by the Woman’s trio (Jan McDaniel, Jennifer Bell, Scottie Landess, Dianne Carter), the Gospel Quartet (Daryl Wilcoxson, Larry Swindle, Gary & Dianne Carter), a duet (Sarah Wheeler, Zach Johnson), an organ/piano duet (Scottie Landess, Dianne Carter), and a flute solo (Jan McDaniel), all those age 11-20, all those age 21-40, and all those age 41-50.

Right in the middle we introduced all the Sunday School Teachers, promoted children into new classes, and gave bibles to all the new 3^rd grade students. Teachers and those promoted were: (only those promoted are listed)

• 3 year old – Kindergarten, Cassie Duncan Malinda Harris
  • Caleb Duncan, Maddie Spielman, Grant Wood, John Clinton Poole
• 1^st & 2^nd grade – Kim Collins, Amy Williams
  • Tanner Duncan, Verrius Ellis, Anelle Harris, Kyra Jaco, Ara Spielman, J. Thomas Williams, Reece Wood, Bodie Ellis
• 3^rd – 5^th grade – Janice Sparks
  • Marshall Brown, Nathan Heinen, Janathan Jain, Eliza Raspberry
• Middle School – John Wheeler
  • Haley Brooks, Lionel Edwards, Hadley Hilburn, Shelby Johnson, Alec McDaniel
• High School – Tracy Ellis
  • Hayden Combs, Devin Jones, Tucker Risner, Darby Sparks, Maddie Wood
• Serendipity Adult Class – John Robison
• Seekers Adult Class – Vickie Rhew
• Open Door Adult Class – Floyd Wright
• Fellowship Adult Class – various teachers represented by Towny Sparks

The Nurture Committee led by Glenda Jain offered a great picnic.  The food was wonderful.  The inflatables were well used (I did notice one mother who seemed to be relishing her victories on the “Joust” a little too much.)  Thanks to everyone who helped set up and clean up afterward.  Thanks to those of you who brought unchurched friends with you.  I think we did a pretty good job together of proclaiming God’s Word and Kingdom.

In Christ’s Love….Gary

Wednesday Meal Ministry

We don’t have a name for it yet.  That’s one reason we’re meeting again this Wednesday evening at 5:30pm.  We did name our reason; to begin to develop new relationships with the people who live within a quarter mile of 1^st UMC’s buildings and their friends. The purpose of those relationships is to learn how we might help make our community better by sharing our faith in Christ and the difference that faith makes in our lives.  The meals will be simple and as none-wasteful as we can make them.  While the group gathered will be delivering special invitations to all the homes within a quarter mile radius; no one who comes for the meal will be turned away.

Of course all who already worship with us at 1^st UMC are invited to eat with us any time.  The group just wants to emphasize that most of our fellowship will happen in the preparations and debriefing that will follow the meal.  Getting to know our neighbors and offering them food, both physical and spiritual, will be our main purpose.

One thing we also figured out is that this is not a ministry that the 10 of us gathered would be able to do by ourselves.  We ask for your prayers as the Holy Spirit surrounds and empowers the offerings.  And if you’d like to be part of this ministry, join us Wednesday, Sept. 1^st at 5:30pm.  Watch for opportunities to help provide the meal or host a table.  Maybe your family, Sunday School Class (any age, UMW circle, small group, or circle of friends might agree to help one Wednesday each month.

My experience is that these kind of experiences not only bless those who receive, they provide an even larger blessing for those who offer their time and talents.  Come and See.

Finance Committee Meeting

The Finance Committee, chaired by Grover Shannon, will meet this Monday evening at 6:30pm.  The group will review this year’s budget, begin making plans to gather information for 2011, and look for ways to help us understand our call to live as Christian Stewards.  Please say a prayer for the group as the meeting begins at 6:30pm.

Birthday

I’ve noticed a lot of you have responded to JoBeth’s request for up to day birthday information.  Thank you.  She’s got a special place to keep that information on our website now and is working to update it each month.  Visit http://1stumckennett.com and look for the “Birthday button” just under the banner.  While there look for recent prayer requests and information on upcoming events.  Copies of “The View from the Pulpit” are also posted each week. (or at least when one is published)  Sign up and receive a list of the day’s postings delivered in the late afternoon directly to your inbox.

God’s Word Proclaimed

Our songs were God’s Word Proclaimed this week, those chosen by God’s People gathered to worship at 1^st UMC this week.  God’s Word was also exampled in the commitment of those who will be teaching Sunday School this year and in those who are growing closer to God’s vision of life as they participate in Sunday School class discussions and projects, asking faith questions and working together to find God’s answer today.  God’s Word was evidenced by the various Festival of Sharing “Kits” that are already being offered  to our brothers and sisters and children in need; they lined the chancel.

So in place of a summary of all those Words I’ve included below a resource I find very helpful each week as I listen for God’s Word while preparing to share my faith journey with you.   I give Jeannine K. Brown, Associate Professor of New Testament, credit and thank Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, MN for providing this excellent resource for the glory of God’s House.

In Christ’s Love….Gary

http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=8/29/2010

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Commentary on Gospel by Jeannine K. Brown

Giving great honor to those who are distinguished. Ignoring those who are ordinary or “defective.” Seating charts that are set up to emphasize the high status of some and the lower status of others.

We would like to think that these social issues are descriptions of the first-century world of the New Testament and not problems in our own church settings, especially churches rooted in Western, democratic society. Yet social distinctions do matter far too often in our Christian communities, as those who experience less privilege would easily attest. What was quite explicit in the ancient world may express itself in more implicit fashion in our contexts.

In Luke 14:1, 7-14, the social matrix of first-century life is on display, and we hear Jesus speak into this matrix both with communal wisdom and unexpected, even astonishing, advice. We hear the setting for the story in 14:1. It is the Sabbath, and Jesus is invited to a meal at the house of a leading Pharisee. After an interlude in which Luke narrates Jesus healing a man and defending that Sabbath healing, Luke focuses on the meal scene, a setting he strategically employs in his gospel (e.g., 5:29; 7:36; 11:37; see also 7:34; 15:1-2).

At the meal, Jesus observes “how the guests chose the places of honor” (14:7). His response, according to Luke, is two-fold. First, he tells a parable. The point of the story is to discourage his listeners from seeking the most prestigious seat at the table (prōtoklisia) to avoid the humiliating situation of being displaced by someone of greater prominence (14:8). Instead, they are to take the lowest place so that they might be elevated to a more honorable seat by their host (14:10). Jesus’ summary comment to the parable is the well-known aphorism: “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (14:11).

How are we to understand this first response of Jesus to the very explicit social ranking at meals? We might note initially that such social ranking was commonplace in Greco-Roman society. In fact, meals were situations that particularly highlighted social disparities in the first-century world. There is a store of advice given about how to act at such meals. A Jewish wisdom book, Sirach, warns of being greedy and advises being deferential at such meals (Sirach 31:12-18). While this advice fits the tone of Jesus’ remarks in Luke, Jesus goes further in warning against seeking out the most honorable seats. His exhortation is to pursue humility, a concept with significant status connotations. Humility was very rarely considered a virtue in Greco-Roman moral discourse. Yet, humility is to mark the followers of Jesus, according to so much of the New Testament witness (e.g., Luke 1:48, 52; 18:14; Philippians 2:3; Colossians 3:12; James 3:13; 1 Peter 5:5).

What might be striking to contemporary readers in this first teaching of Jesus is that he does not castigate the system of honor at meals. Instead, he seems to assume it. Highest and lowest seats figure into his answer (14:10)! This may be due to his particular audience in the story, the banquet guests. Jesus’ advice addresses how to navigate the social setting into which they have been invited.

When we move to 14:12-14, however, we hear a more counter-cultural message—one that addresses the fabric of the honor and status structures of the ancient world. Jesus, without using a parable, speaks directly to his host—the one who holds a greater measure of control over the ‘rules of the game’ for this particular meal. His advice to this figure of power in the story works to undermine the very system that upholds status difference at meals. Jesus exhorts the host not to invite friends, family, or the rich to meals, since they are able to repay with a corresponding invitation. Such social reciprocity is the backbone of the patronage system endemic to the first-century world.

Instead, Jesus calls for inclusion of those who cannot return the invitation: “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” (14:13). This group of persons resonates with the Isaiah-shaped mission of Jesus from Luke 4:18, with the poor and the blind mentioned explicitly there as recipients of Jesus’ ministry. For Luke, Jesus subverts expectations that social payment and repayment should govern life in God’s kingdom community. His promise is that God will repay such hospitality at the “resurrection of the righteous” (14:14; also 14:11, since God is implied in the passive, “will be exalted”).

This kind of reversal of expectations and status is thematic in Luke (e.g., 1:52; 6:20-26; 18:14). In fact, in the very next passage, our meal story continues with Jesus reemphasizing the notion of inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind (14:21), this time in a parable representing the eschatological banquet of God, which will include just such marginalized ones, with the “invited guest list” being left out (14:24).

What might Luke 14 have to say to us, and the churches that we lead? There is a theological truth that undergirds this passage and its very tangible social networks and exhortations: as God’s people humble themselves and seek to live by a different social system marked by radical inclusion, they can trust God to be faithful and to reward their right ways of living in that final day.

Yet, the eschatological angle should not overshadow how the text speaks powerfully to the way in which the kingdom Jesus inaugurates already subverts human social systems that so often reward the “haves” and further disadvantage the “have-nots.” As Christians presently seek to live out the counter-cultural value of inclusion for the most marginalized, their actions mirror Jesus’ own inclusive kingdom agenda to fill God’s house and offer that eschatological banquet to all (14:21-23).

Next Week – 15^th Sunday after Pentecost

Scripture:

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

Philemon 1-21

Sermon:

“I Will Repay It”

Call to Worship:

Look around. What wonders we behold!

We see others, gathered here to worship and praise God.
Each person here is a unique, beloved creation of God.

Each person here is given special gifts and talents by God.
Come, let us worship God who has blessed us so mightily.

Let us praise God with our whole hearts, souls, minds, and spirits. AMEN.

Opening Prayer:

Lord, from the very beginning of your creation, you breathed your love in to all that you made. You gave us the breath of life and asked us to be good stewards of all creation. You placed your trust and love in us. Help us to turn again with joyful hearts to you, placing our trust in all that you have done for us. Let us be a blessing for you. AMEN.

Hymns:

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise – 103

More Love to Thee, O Christ – 453

Prayer of Confession:

Forgiving God, we have messed up in so many ways. You gave us a wonderful world, filled with beauty, power, and majesty, and we have ravaged it – tearing away at its gifts with our own greed and cowardice. We have not treated this world or one another with compassionate love. We have turned our backs on situations of need in which we could have been instruments of help, healing, and peace. We have neglected service to others and have focused our lives on accumulating things and status. We have chased after false gods – greed, power, fame. You are the potter, O Lord. You fashioned us, but we focused on developing our flaws rather than working with our strengths. Please forgive us, Lord. Refashion us to be your people, celebrating your love in service to others. For we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. AMEN.

Words of Assurance:

God’s loving choice for you is peace and hope. God has fashioned you to be God’s people. Rejoice! For God is with you, reaching out to heal and care for you. AMEN.

Benediction:

Let the joy and love of the Lord flood into your hearts and lives today. Let this day of discipleship be a day of celebration as you go into the world to serve God. Go forth in peace and joy in all that you do. AMEN.

Visit us daily at http://1stumckennett.com

Gary blogs at http://bootheelpastor.wordpress.com