Gratitude Breeds Generosity
/Thanksgiving Eve
John 6:25-35
Tribute for Our Magnificent King
/Today we celebrate Christ Jesus, our King. But never in all the world’s history has there been a king like Jesus. He was not born into wealth or privilege; his parents were traveling strangers, aliens in the city of his birth, and his cradle was a feeding trough in a borrowed stable. He was not tutored by courtly teachers…his earthly father was a tradesman and his parents spent several years of his childhood hiding in exile. His crown is plaited of thorns, and he has no freed hand for scepter and orb—they are nailed to an instrument of torture. His “palace grounds” sit atop a low rising hill above the city dump, and his throne is a cross. Here is our King.
Look upon him! Even in torment, even suffering, even amidst taunts and torture and in the face of death, he has a power like no other. A divine power to forgive, to bless, and to save. Even in the direst circumstances, in the darkest final moments, his mission is undeterred and his powerful grace absolute. He has the power to save. To make us whole. To show us the way of peace. Just look at him!
It's Time for Our Testimony
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According to Luke, when Jesus finally entered Jerusalem with his followers, many of them were in awe of the large buildings, the gleaming stones, and the shear spectacle of the Temple precincts. Jesus spoke plainly to them: the material enticements of this present age will come swiftly to an end; they are of no use to his followers. What's more, there are hard times coming, when the very best of the church will come under severe persecution.
The hard word of Jesus concerning the coming age was followed by a stirring challenge to the faithful: bear witness! Many fragile and lost souls are drifting their way through a maelstrom of fears and distraction and dissipation, and they need a clear witness to testify to them. Jesus calls his followers to listen attentively for the Holy Spirit's whisper amidst the storms of our age, and then to tell boldly what it is we hear.
The Joining of Present and Future
/We give you thanks, O God, for all the saints
who are in your presence and care.
We give you thanks for holy hands lifted in praise.
We thank you for hardworking saints who left their mark
on the earth for you, for us, for our children to come.
Thank you, God, for the tremendous sacrifices
made by those who have gone before us, especially:
Marilyn Elberta Allen
Harry Dale Eaton
Steven Richard Gillham
Sybil Low
Alice Virginia Moffitt
Shirley Lee Somers
Albert Nicolas Coussa
Magdalena Franklin
Charlotte Marie Johnston
James Darwin McCracken
Charles E. Schroeder
Mildred Marie Templeton
Cornelia Palmer "Nena" Williams
Bless the memories of your saints, God.
May we learn how to walk wisely from their examples of
faith, dedication, worship, and love.
Coming to Our House
/Zacchaeus was a man of small stature and enormous wealth, and he was outcast and isolated by his community until the day he met Jesus. Jesus had a simple word for him: I must stay at your house today. With that simple word of grace Zacchaeus was no longer an outcast, but welcomed into the Kingdom of God by Jesus…and his whole household was changed forever.
People often come to the sanctuary for worship hoping, like Zacchaeus, to catch a glimpse of Jesus, to have a weekly spiritual experience, and to “take something useful” home with them. It can be somewhat alarming to discover that Jesus is not one to wait patiently in the church sanctuary for us while we live lives of our choosing and compartmentalize our time, our treasures, and our spiritual selves. Jesus would be Lord of our whole lives. He comes to us. He is coming to our house, for “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)
Humility in Prayer
/Jesus once told a parable about two men who went up to the temple to pray. The story uses the motif of prayer, but is really a lesson about pride.
Pride is one of the great sources of struggle for Christians. Seeking to be forgiven our sins and justified before God, we are nonetheless slow to trust God’s grace alone for that justification. Our pride rears its head, and wanting to justify ourselves, we begin to recite our resumes, remember our successes, measure only our own worth, and compare ourselves to others who seem less deserving. The heart cries, ”Thank you God, for making me just a cut above the rest!”
We cannot truly justify ourselves without scapegoating someone else…seeing the fault in others and naming their sin. The great challenge (some would say scandal) of the gospel is that rather than calling us out—separating us from the riffraff of a sinful world around us—Jesus sends us right back into the midst of the others, there to bear witness to our own sin and his saving power.
Sinners are not the others guys, they are you and me. And so we pray “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner….”
Persistence in Prayer
/Jesus said, “Always pray, and never lose heart.”
In reply we affirm that prayer is an essential part of the Christian life…that it is food and water for the seed of God’s word planted within us. Most of us have turned to prayer at some point in our lives, especially when struggling with unmet needs, overwhelming fears, or crippling circumstancesthat had us feeling powerless. But there are also times for listening in prayer…for being silent and still in the presence of God; these times are also life-giving.
In time, prayer changes the way we see the world, which is why Jesus needed to tell his disciples to “never lose heart.” The parable Jesus told to reinforce the point moves us from the “lesser world” of our present reality to the “greater world” of the Kingdom of God. So hungry are we to receive from God we almost miss how normal if feels to hear about a Judge who cares nothing for God or humans, or to see a widowed woman who has to scratch and claw and demand the right simply to be heard. We hardly notice, because these things are so a much a part of our reality…they seem normal.
When we pray, we see the world as God sees it— a world terribly broken by sin. These first glimpses are terrifying to us. If we are courageous, if we continue to pray and “don’t lose heart”, we also so that God finds this world and its people to be beautiful…much loved by God…and worth saving. We must always pray, and never lose heart.
Due to technical difficulties, we were unable to capture an audio recording of this sermon.
Your Faith Has Saved You
/One of the most common assertions in the scriptures is the fact that God hears, and sees, the plight of those who are in distress. Do you recall Haggar weeping for her son? Or the Israelites toiling in the hardship of Egyptian mud pits? Or blind Bartimeaus by the side of the road? God Sees them. God hears their cries.
In today’s gospel lesson we see ten lepers standing at a distance from Jesus and begging for mercy…and Jesus saw them. Saw their plight, their isolation, their shame and their need for healing. The Son of God saw them, and with a word of grace set them on their path to healing and restoration. The beginning of the good news for those in distress is just this: “God hears, and God sees.”
But this week’s lesson actually tells two stories: the story of Christ’s healing word for ten lepers and the deeper story of salvation for one of them (who was, as it turned out, a Samaritan). All ten went to show themselves to the priest and be restored to their community, and as they went their leprosy were cured. One of them saw that he was healed, and returned praising God in thanksgiving. Gratitude and thanksgiving before God reflect a condition far deeper than a cured illness…they show the very nature of one who is saved.