Sunday Pastoral Prayer (Sept. 1) Athens First UMC

[Our worship theme focused on the Gospel of Luke where Jesus offers us some important very important table manners. For the sermon on what these table manners are click here. It was very fitting on this Sunday to actually share a meal together, the Sacrament of Holy Communion. The picture above was taken immediately after we received the bread and the cup. It was a great morning of worship!]

O God, the table is set. The food is ready. And we have sung the grace before our Holy Communion meal.

Thank you for teaching us the most important table manners of all. That you are present every time we gather, that we make room for others around the table, and that we receive the nourishment of your love as well. O God, there is so much more joy in living out our faith when we remember these table manners. 

Help us to remember your teachings from the Gospel of Luke over these past several weeks. To keep things simple by having our focus on you. To remember to pray often because you are always ready and willing to open your door to us. To remember that all that we have comes from you and because of your grace, we have more than enough. To remember that our faith is a long journey where you call us to be ready to the end. To remember to stand for you in the midst of trials and challenges. To receive your hope anew during those times when we are in need of your healing love. And today’s teaching to put you and others ahead of ourselves.

And on this Labor Day weekend, remind us to think less about mattress sales and cook-outs, and more about those in our community and world who are struggling to make a living. Thank you for our Monday Lunch ministry which will provide not only a holiday meal for our guests who come to our church tomorrow, but also an opportunity for fellowship and connections. May we continue to be a saving station church, rather than a country club church.

We pray this in the name of Jesus, who has prepared a feast for us, who invites us to his table, and who has taught us to pray together saying, 

“Our Father, who art in heaven…”

Sermon (September 1) by Rev. Robert McDowell

    For the past several Sundays, we have been following the teachings of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke. To help us remember these teachings, we have been using vanity license plate messages.

     Since this is the last Sunday for this series, let’s review each of these license plate messages. Hopefully, many of you will remember these. So, let’s look at the first message:

     KISS – Keep it simple, saint. This was the story where Mary and Martha spent time with Jesus. Martha missed out on learning from Jesus because she was distracted by being too busy, while Mary kept things simple by focusing on what Jesus wanted to tell her. 

     NOK2OPN – Knock to Open. This is where Jesus taught the disciples how to pray by teaching them the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus said that all we need to do is to knock and Jesus will open the door to us. That’s all we need to do. 

     ENUF – Jesus teaches us the meaning of enough.  He tells us to guard against all kinds of greed and to not store up treasure for ourselves but to instead, be rich toward God.

     REDE2DN – Ready to the end. Jesus tells us to always be ready in our faith because Jesus will come back at an unexpected hour. Be ready to the end.

     STAN4ME – Stand for me. Jesus tells us that people will not always understand why we follow him. It will cost us something. Being a follower of Jesus isn’t always easy.

     HOPE4ME – Hope for me. This was last Sunday’s message and it’s where Jesus heals a woman who had been ill for eighteen years. With Jesus, there is always hope for us. God is always reaching out to us with his healing love.

     And here’s today’s vanity license plate. This one stands for Jesus, Others, & You. Jesus wants us to have our priorities in order. 

     For this Sunday, Luke tells the story of the time when Jesus went to the house of a Pharisee for a meal and it was a Sabbath day. It’s interesting that the people who were around the table with Jesus were watching him closely. 

     That’s what I hope we have been able to do over these past several Sundays. I hope that we’ve been able to watch Jesus closely through the Gospel of Luke. When we watch Jesus, we can learn what it means to follow him. We can learn from him because he has so much to teach us.

     In today’s gospel reading, we learn some table manners. Now, I don’t have the best table manners. I always have to think really hard about which bread plate or which drinking glass is mine. I don’t always get this right. I do know to put the napkin on my lap, to not eat until everyone has their food, and to have polite conversation.

     Well, for whatever reason, these aren’t the table manners that Jesus wants to teach us at this dinner scene. Jesus has some other table manners in mind. And I don’t think that his actions and what he had to say went over very well with the people who were carefully watching him. It certainly didn’t go over well seven chapters earlier when Jesus attended a dinner party.

     So, here’s the first table manner lesson from Jesus. God is the most important part of the dinner gathering. The most important thing at a meal isn’t the placement of the utensils or where you should place your drinking glass. The most important thing is to know that God is present at your meal. 

     During the time of Jesus, the religious leaders had all kinds of rules about what you could and couldn’t do during a meal. One of those rules was to not allow anybody who was considered ritually unclean with a disease to be part of that meal. 

     And guess what? Here at this meal was a man who had a disease. He was considered a nobody and yet Jesus healed this man! Not only did Jesus affirm this man’s place at this meal, but he also healed him on the Sabbath which was another rule that was not meant to be broken.

     The reason Jesus broke the rules was because he knew that the most important table manner of all was to keep God and not rules as the most important part of the dinner gathering. By keeping God first at that meal, Jesus was able to offer healing to this man with a disease.

     What would it be like if we would remember to keep God first in everything we did?  I think that this would help us to know which table manners to keep and which table manners are not worth keeping. Jesus is helping us to see that we can know where every fork and spoon should be placed at a table setting but if we don’t keep God first, none of these other rules really matter.

     The second table manner that Jesus teaches us is to put others first.  Immediately after Jesus broke the table rules by healing a man on the Sabbath, Jesus teaches a lesson about where people should sit during a meal.

     Jesus says that instead of going for the best seats, to first think of others and to let them have the better seats. Like in many social settings today, in the time of Jesus, people believed that those with titles and social standing were superior to everyone else and should have the better seats. And so Jesus teaches them that to be his followers, they need to humble themselves and allow others to be first.

     On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, they went out day or night tirelessly searching for the lost.

     Many lives were saved by this wonderful little station, so that it became famous. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding areas, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews were trained. The little life-saving station grew.

     Some of the new members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and so poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea.

     They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in an enlarged building. Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they re-decorated it beautifully and furnished it as a sort of club.

     Less of the members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions, so they hired life boat crews to do this work. 

     The mission of life-saving was still given lip-service but most were too busy or lacked the necessary commitment to take part in the life-saving activities personally.

     About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned people.

     They were dirty and sick, and some of them were foreigners, and spoke a strange language, and the beautiful new club was considerably messed up. So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.

     At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club's life-saving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal pattern of the club.

     But some members insisted that life-saving was their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the life of all various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station down the coast. They did.

     As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. They evolved into a club and yet another life-saving station was founded.

     And as the story of the lighthouse goes, if you visit the seacoast today you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters, but now most of the people drown!

     I think of this story of the saving station and how Jesus taught us to put others first. There is a real temptation for us to forget the primary purpose of the church. The purpose of the church is to think of others before we think of ourselves. It’s to remember our primary mission and why we exist in the first place.

     Jesus has taught us two table manners so far. God is the most important part of the dinner gathering and we are to think of others before ourselves.

     And the third table manner – Remember that you are also invited to be at God’s table.  And so, the table manners begin with God, they extend to others, and they also include us.  Jesus, others, and you. That’s what Jesus wants us to remember.

     Toward the end of the dinner in our gospel reading, Jesus tells us that if we put God and others first, that we will be blessed. He even says that we will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. 

     In one of the churches I served, some leaders in our community including people from the church helped launch an exciting community wide program called “Sharing Hope.” It was a program to help people in the local community get out of poverty and to make a better life for themselves.

     Each gathering included people who were in poverty as well as people who wanted to help make a difference in their lives. Whenever they met, they had a meal together. And during that meal, it didn’t matter the economic levels of the people who were there. What mattered, was that everyone was there to help and encourage each other.

     I wasn’t able to attend the first dinner gathering but I was able to attend the second meal gathering. One of the community leaders who was helping with this program had been preparing the meals and donating the food because we were on a shoestring budget, especially for that first year of the program.

     When this kind hearted volunteer with a heart of gold saw me at our second dinner gathering, he said, “Robert, last week’s gathering was just incredible. During our time of sharing around the circle, a woman in the group really opened up about her life making us all tear up, and that was just our first meeting. This gathering really is about sharing hope!”

     You should have seen the smile on his face as he told me this story. I know that Jesus said that we will receive our reward in heaven, but I could tell that this man was receiving his reward a little early.

     As we come to receive Holy Communion this morning, we come because Jesus is the host. And we come with others because there is always room for more. And we come to this table, because we need to eat, too. 

License Plate Sightings: JEOTHU

Sermon Discussion Questions

Luke 14:1-14

September 1, 2019

For the past several weeks, we have been following Jesus’ teachings from the Gospel of Luke and turning them into vanity license plate messages. See if you can recall these messages:

KISS, NOK2OPN, ENUF, REDE2DN, STAN4ME, HOPE4ME

Which of these messages from the Gospel of Luke have spoken to you the most? Why?

Our final Sunday’s vanity license plate message is JEOTHU which stands for “Jesus, Others, You.” This is based on when Jesus was eating a meal with some Pharisees. Jesus teaches us some important spiritual table manners to help us grow in our faith. 

Table Manner #1 - God is the most important part of the meal. This is the first part of this week’s vanity license plate. “JE” stands for Jesus and God. Jesus broke religious customs by healing a man on the Sabbath. He chose to heal the man because he was more focused on God’s presence at that meal rather than on certain rules he was expected to follow. 

What can help you keep God first in all that you do?

Table Manner #2 - Allow others to have the best seats around God’s table. This is the second part of this week’s message. “OTH” stands for “others.” 

In what ways you can you provide space for people who are not affiliated with any church or who may feel disconnected from God’s love? Who feels excluded?

Table Manner #3 - You are also invited to sit around God’s table. This is the final part of this week’s message. “U” stands for  each one of us! Sometimes, when we focus on the first two table manners of putting God and others first, we forget that we are invited to be part of God’s circle as well. The Sacrament of Holy Communion is a meal that reminds us that we are ALL invited to share at God’s table. Nobody is excluded!

How does your participation in receiving Holy Communion remind you that you are invited and welcomed at God’s table?

Sunday Pastoral Prayer (Aug. 25) Athens First UMC

[It was a beautiful Sunday for moving our Connect Time coffee and refreshments outside, welcoming college students, blessing backpacks, listening to our wonderful Chancel Choir, promoting our new Sunday School program which begins Sunday, Sept. 15, and hearing a message about hope. For the sermon, click here. See below for one of the pictures from our water bottle/welcome basket give away over the weekend. It was another fun way to bless our community!]

God of new beginnings, untie us from those forces in our world that would keep us from being who you have called us to be. Remind us to turn to you for hope when those forces are at work in our lives.

God of new beginnings, untie us from spiritual dryness that we experience from time to time. Remind us to turn to you for hope when we have lost our joy.

God of new beginnings, untie us from ourselves whenever we miss the opportunities you place before us to see you at work in our daily lives. Remind us to turn to you for hope when our focus is on ourselves rather than upon you.

O God, this is a time of new beginnings in our community and in our church. There is so much transition happening all around us with the beginning of a new school year. But with transitions, comes stress. The stress of meeting new people. The stress of finding our locker. The stress of launching new fall ministries in the church. The stress of trying to find a parking space.

O God, so much stress, but also a time of new beginnings for each and every one of us. Thank you for the woman from our Gospel reading who turned to you for hope. Thank you for offering your healing love to us and untying us from anything that would keep us from being the person you have called us to be.

And so on this Sunday, we thank you for the hope-filled signs and sounds of your presence that are all around us like a neighbor surprising us with a gift bag to brighten our day, like positive sidewalk chalk messages greeting us as we enter a church, like receiving a blessing as we begin a new school year, like suddenly realizing that God answered our prayer in a beautiful way. 

God of hope, thank you for these and many other signs of your presence that untie us and help us to experience healing, wholeness, and a renewed joy in our lives. And now teach us to pray this prayer of hope that Jesus taught us to pray together saying…. “Our Father, who art in heaven…”

[These two servants prepared 14 welcome baskets which were hand delivered to each of our church’s neighboring fraternities/sororities during move-in week. The students in these houses are always very appreciative and surprised that our church would take the time to do this. We also handed out 300 water bottles to those walking by our church on Saturday. A big thanks to all who helped at our 5th annual water bottle give away!]

Sermon (August 25) by Rev. Robert McDowell

          Are you spotting any interesting vanity license plates lately? 

     Last week on Facebook, a friend of mine posted a picture that he took of a vanity license plate that he saw on the back of a pick-up truck in a Costco parking lot in Columbus. It had the letters IM with a space, and then the letters SANTA. IM SANTA. The comments under his post were fun. Someone said, “Santa drives a Dodge! Yes!!” Someone else said, “Did you put milk and cookies in his truck?” And another person wrote, “Maybe he’s picking up some reindeer feed.” 

     Jesus has been giving us very important messages this summer from the Gospel of Luke.  We are in the sixth part of a seven part sermon series on the things that Jesus wants to tell us, and in today’s scripture, Jesus wants to tell us that there is always hope for you and for me.

     I remember when our family went to our very first Cubs game at Wrigley Field in Chicago several years ago. This was several years before their more recent success when they actually won the World Series in 2016. You want to talk about people who have hope.  Just take a look at Cub fans!  It was in the middle of August, hot and humid, the Cubs were in last place in their division, and it was a Tuesday night.  But none of that mattered. The game was sold out.  There was an eternal hope even during those lean years that someday their Cubs would win the World Series.

     But if you really want to find hope, all you need to do is turn to Jesus.  Jesus is our true source of hope.

     Luke tells us of a woman who found hope in church one day.  She experienced the healing touch of Jesus Christ in her life.  Jesus has a way of untying us from things that keep us from having hope.  Luke tells us that Jesus set this woman free.  Later in this passage, Jesus says how this woman was set free from her bondage.

     Luke shows us three things that can prevent us from experiencing the hope of Jesus Christ in our lives.  These are things that can keep us tied up, if you will.

     I’m not very good at untying knots. 

     I remember when our daughter was just wee little and we visited my parents.  Penny and I went to a baseball game that night and my mom and dad were in charge of their little grandchild.

     When we got home, my dad said, “We had to put her to bed with her baby shoes on, because we didn’t know how to open up those little white plastic coverings over her shoestrings.”  He said how he had tried all evening to open up those coverings and he couldn’t do it.”   My dad was really embarrassed when Penny took all but five seconds to take them off and untie her little shoes.

     Sometimes we get tied up in life and we don’t know how to get free.  And sometimes we lose hope, don’t we?   

     Luke gives us three things that can sometimes tie us up in life, but he also shows us how Jesus is more than able to set us free and restore our hope.

     The first thing is this.  Jesus can untie the knot of the forces of evil in this world.  Luke tells us that this woman, who had come into that worship service when Jesus was preaching, had a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.  She was so crippled that Luke tells us that she was bent over and was unable to stand up straight.

     I find it very interesting that Luke just doesn’t tell us that this woman was crippled and bent over, but he tells us that she had a spirit that had crippled her.  This tells me that for the past eighteen years this woman was not just contending with a physical problem, but she was also up against an evil force.

     God’s design is for all people to be healthy and physically whole.  God doesn’t cause people to be sick or to be injured or to suffer from a serious illness.  I believe that these things are the result of our fallen world. 

     This text reminds us of the presence of evil in our world.  Even though God created this world and called it good, there is also an evil force that is at work in the world. In our story this morning, Jesus heals this woman and set her free from the spirit that had been troubling her for all of those years.  Luke tells us that she immediately stood up straight.

     We contend with evil forces all of the time.  Forces that would keep us from having hope in Jesus Christ.  Forces that would keep us from being set free. 

     William Wilberforce was a devout Christian and member of the British Parliament from 1780 to 1825.  He felt a calling to serve Jesus Christ through the political arena.  It was William Wilberforce who is mostly responsible for abolishing the slave trade and slavery itself in all of the British territories.  

     The interesting thing about William Wilberforce was that it took him 18 years to get his motion to abolish the slave trade passed.  And then just four days before his death, the English Parliament finally passed a motion to end all slavery in the British territories.  A year after William Wilberforce died, almost one million slaves were set free from the evil force of slavery.

     Eighteen years must be a significant number for us today, because Luke tells us that the woman in our scripture lesson had been crippled for eighteen years.

     We need to realize that sometimes, we are contending against the evil forces of this world.  We are involved in a spiritual struggle.  But thanks to people like William Wilberforce and this woman in our scripture today, we can always have hope in Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ will not fail us.

     The first thing that Jesus wants to untie us from is from the knot of the evil forces of this world.     

     The second thing that Jesus wants to untie in our lives is the knot of spiritual dryness.  When Jesus healed this woman, notice the first thing she did.  Nobody had to tell her to do this.  She just did it.  She began praising God.

     Sometimes, hope can be so low in our lives that we can feel empty and we experience a spiritual dryness. I don’t know of too many people who don’t go through times of spiritual dryness in their spiritual journey. 

     I have a friend who shared with me over lunch that he was feeling spiritually dry in his life. He was living out his faith and active in his church but inside he was very empty.  Before we left that day, we prayed right there in the restaurant and I told him that I would continue to pray for him and check in on him.

     A week later, I called him on the phone just to see how he was doing. And then I sent him a birthday card with a reminder that I was praying for him. Sometimes, I would just send him a text or a facebook message to let him know that I was thinking of him.

     Each time I spoke with him, he seemed like he was doing better. He said that he was learning to not let problems at work get the best of him. He was taking better care of himself by exercising and eating right. He also said that he decided to share what he was going through with his wife and he felt a lot of support from her.

     And then a really wonderful thing happened. He called me out of the blue one day to tell me that a new job opportunity was opening up for him and he was very excited about it. He said that this new job couldn’t have come at a better time.

     I can’t tell you how wonderful it was for me to hear the joy in his voice. In just a couple of months since our lunch together, he was feeling hope again. He was feeling more like his old self. And so I jokingly said to him, “I don’t like to brag, but I think it’s all because of my prayers.”

     But then I said to him, “I just want to cry tears of joy for you right now because I remember vividly how low you were feeling when we were together for lunch just a few months ago.”  And he said to me, “I know. I just want to praise God for these positive changes in my life. God is good!”

    Now, we all know that not everybody experiences that kind of spiritual transformation in a short amount of time but Jesus is always reaching out to us with healing and hope. 

     Jesus unties us from the knot of the forces of evil and from the knot of spiritual dryness.  And last, but not least, sometimes, we need to be untied from ourselves.  Sometimes, the knot that has us tied up isn’t external. It’s internal. It’s something we can choose or not choose to untie.

     I like how Luke contrasts the woman who was healed with the religious leader who criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. One was open to hope and the other was closed to receiving hope. The reason the religious leader didn’t choose to receive the hope that Jesus was offering is because of his narrow interpretation of working on the Sabbath.

     Jesus reminds the religious leader that this woman he healed is a daughter of Abraham which means that she is one of them.  This woman is a child of God. The religious leader of the synagogue saw this woman as someone who wasn’t worthy of being healed. He failed to see how God was at work in that moment in healing her and restoring her to wholeness.

     I wonder how many times our eyes aren’t opened to the new ways that God is at work in and around us. Sometimes, we just miss these holy moments which can keep us from receiving the hope that God wants to give us. 

     Sometimes, we are the knot that needs to be untied. Jesus calls us to have open minds to the new way that God is at work in the world. 

     On this day last year, I officiated at a memorial service here at our church. It was for Pauline McClew, Martha Sloan’s mother. Pauline was 99 when she passed away, just shy of her 100th birthday. 

     Martha and her family decided to celebrate Pauline’s 100th birthday anyway, so after the memorial service we went into our Fellowship Hall and celebrated her milestone birthday in heaven. It was a powerful reminder that nothing can rob us of receiving God’s hope in our lives, not even death.

     During that memorial service, I shared these words about Martha’s mother that continue to speak a powerful message of hope for all of us exactly one year later from that memorial service.

      I said, “I’m so thankful for the people in our lives like Pauline who offer hope and point us to God’s beauty and love.  Every time we gather for worship, God speaks a word of hope, helping us to see God’s presence in the midst of a broken and hurting world and pointing us to the future when God will make all things new again.”

     And so on this day, exactly one year later after that memorial service, I want to thank Martha and her family for that reminder that there is always HOPE4ME. There is always hope for you. God is even able to turn a memorial service into a birthday party. 

     A friend of mine was sharing with me this past week about a time when he had asked a printing company to print materials for United Way. It was a a big project that had a lot of pages.

     The man from the printing business dropped off the booklets and proudly gave them to my friend and asked him, “So what do you think?” My friend opened the box, looked down at the first page and realized there was a big problem. 

     The printing guy asked, “Is there something wrong?” And my friend said, “Instead of United Way, it’s says “Untied Way.”

     Evidently, the autocorrect they used at the printing store had changed every word that said, “united” to “untied.”

     It was such a big mistake, that the printing company had to reprint all of that paperwork to make it right.

     Actually, for you and me, it is true that God wants to untie us and give us hope. 

     And so, if you are here today and you are feeling all tied up in knots, maybe wondering what the future holds, maybe you are in need of healing in your life whether it be physical, emotional, or spiritual, whatever knot you are experiencing, know that Jesus is more than able to untie us and set us free. 

     Jesus Christ will not disappoint you. Regardless of what you are facing or what knot is keeping you tied down, whether it be an evil force, or spiritual dryness, or even ourselves, Jesus is offering all of us his hope so that we can receive healing and be made whole.

     Praise God that there is hope for you and for me!

License Plate Sightings: HOPE4ME

Sermon Discussion Questions

Luke 13:10-17

August 25, 2019

During our summer sermon series on vanity license plate sightings, we’ve been asking people to share interesting ones they have seen. 

Have you seen an interesting vanity plate recently?

We have been summarizing Jesus’ teachings from the Gospel of Luke into vanity license plate messages. Our reading this week is when Jesus healed a woman who had been crippled for eighteen years! Jesus was able to free her. This story reminds us to not give up on how Jesus can bring healing and wholeness to our lives.

Share a hope that you have for healing and wholeness either for yourself or someone else. It can be a need for physical, spiritual, relational, or emotional healing. 

Pastor Robert shared three areas in our lives that God offers us the hope of healing. He refers to these as “knots” that Jesus seeks to untie in our lives so that we can be the people that God has called us to be. 

Knot #1 - Jesus unties the knot of evil in our world. Notice that Luke tells us that a “spirit” had crippled the woman for eighteen years. This suggests that their is an evil force at work in the world. Pastor Robert lifted up William Wilberforce, the 19th century British statesmen who fought to end the slave trade. Like the woman who had been crippled for eighteen years, it took eighteen years for the British Empire to get the votes needed to end the slave trade. These stories of persistence remind us to not give up hope when facing the evil powers of this world.

Where do you see evil forces at work in the world?

Knot #2 - Jesus unties the knot of spiritual dryness in our lives. Notice that Luke tells us that after Jesus healed the woman, the first thing she did was to praise God.

Share a time when you were set you free from the knot of spiritual dryness leading you to praise God.

Knot #3 - Jesus unties the knot of ourselves. Notice that Luke tells us that after Jesus healed the woman, the religious leaders who heard about it were critical of Jesus healing on the sabbath.

Share a time when you were not open to how God was seeking to bring healing in your life. What helps you to be open to receiving God’s healing touch in your life?

Sunday Pastoral Prayer (Aug. 18) Athens First UMC

[This past weekend, over forty people attended our 2-day Faith Builders training led by Rev. Jeff Motter, top right corner photo. Jeff led us through four training sessions to help us sharpen our relational and faith sharing skills. We were also blessed to have Mary Rizzardi, bottom right corner photo lead us in singing and worship. See video below. Copies of the training materials are available in the church office for those who were not able to attend. For Sunday’s sermon which includes a short summary of what we learned at our training, click here.]

Lord Jesus, remind us in this time of prayer of the importance of standing in your strength alone.

• It is your strength alone that enables us to stand for you in any given situation. 

• It is your strength alone that equips us for a task that seems beyond our capability. 

• It is your strength alone that prompts us to take on a new challenge. 

• It is your strength alone that beckons us to take our faith to a whole new level of faithfulness and vitality. 

• It is your strength alone that encourages us when we are feeling weak. 

• It is your strength alone that invites us to deepen our relationships with each other and with those we have yet to meet. 

• It is your strength alone that helps us to be open to share our faith with others.

• It is your strength alone that is empowering us to prepare for a busy fall season of new church programming and events to help us in our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world.

O God, whenever begin to focus only on our own strength, remind us to stand in your strength alone for you are the one who is our creator, redeemer, and sustainer.

O God, this is a significant week in our local community with the beginning of school and move-in week for college students. And so we pray for all students and educators in this college town to find their strength in you. And may all find our church to be a haven of blessing and peace through our Loving Faith, Learning Faith, and Living Faith ministries. 

We depend upon your strength during this time of transition in our community and for each of our concerns and joys that we are in our hearts this day. And now, I invite us to remain standing together as we pray the words Jesus taught us to say together, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”

[Mary RIzzardi leading us in singing at our Faith Builders training.]

Sermon (August 18) by Rev. Robert McDowell

 

     We have been spending the past several Sundays focusing on what Jesus wants to tell us from the Gospel of Luke.  And in today’s scripture reading from Luke chapter 12, Jesus says some unsettling things.  Shocking things.

     Jesus tells us that he has not come to bring peace on earth, but division.  In fact, Jesus even tells us that families will be divided over who he is.

     Jesus says how a father will be against his son and a son will be against his father.  A mother against daughter. A mother in law will be against her daughter in law. 

     This would not be a good scripture reading to use on Mother’s Day so maybe that’s why this reading pops up in the month of August. If you just came back from a family reunion that didn’t go so well, maybe this scripture really resonates with you today. Hopefully not, but I think you see my point. This is just a really, really difficult scripture to hear. 

     Jesus often said some really comforting things, but this is not one of them. In fact, it makes us feel a little uncomfortable. Why would Jesus tell us that he has come to bring fire to the earth? And isn’t one of his titles, the Prince of Peace and yet he says that he hasn’t come to bring peace, but division?

     This scripture is one of those examples of why we need to read the Bible in context. Yes, Jesus is the Prince of Peace. And yes, Jesus offers us comfort when we are going through difficult times. And yes, Jesus wants family members to get along as much as possible. Yes, to all of those things.

     Jesus is using these shocking words about coming to bring division to emphasize that when we seek to be faithful in following Jesus in our daily lives, we’re not always going to have a cheering section. It will sometimes feel more like a jeering section at times. 

     Jesus himself experienced those times in his ministry when he was misunderstood, ridiculed, and rejected. Even though he was announcing the good news that God’s kingdom was at hand, not everybody was ready to embrace that good news.

     Embracing the good news of God’s kingdom can be threatening. Think about it. It might lead me to change the way I view other people. It might mean that I change how I do business. It could disrupt my Sunday morning routine. It might force me to rethink my politics. Now, you’re meddling. And get this, it could even impact how I spend my money.

     And when we make these changes in our lives, people are probably going to notice. And not everybody will be thrilled. That’s when we need to remember these words from Jesus to not be surprised if not everybody is over the top thrilled that you have made the decision to center your whole life around a traveling Jewish rabbi who said really off the wall things like “love your enemies,” “the first shall be last” and “take up your cross and follow me.”

     It’s not always easy to stand for Jesus.  That’s what the sermon title is all about this morning.  Jesus is telling us, “stand for me.”  I’m a little reluctant to preach on this text because some people have used this text as a license to rub people the wrong way. 

     There’s nothing worse than an obnoxious religious person who feels emboldened to be a holy pain in the backside. Jesus had plenty to say about that, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.

     Jesus is referring to fire and divisions because when people begin to really live out the good news of their faith, it will disrupt the status quo. It will force people inside and outside the church to rethink their long-held beliefs and behaviors.

     Maybe these words of Jesus are here to remind us to not let our fear get in the way of what it means to be faithful in our walk with Christ.

     In Charles Swindoll’s book, “Living Above Mediocrity” Bruce Larson tells about his time growing up in Chicago.  He writes, 

     “When I was a small boy, I attended church every Sunday at a big Gothic Presbyterian bastion in Chicago. The preaching was powerful and the music was great. But for me, the most awesome moment in the morning service was the offertory, when twelve solemn, frock-coated ushers marched in lock-step down the main aisle to receive the brass plates for collecting the offering. 

     These men, so serious about their business of serving the Lord in this magnificent house of worship, were the business and professional leaders of Chicago. One of the twelve ushers was a man named Frank Loesch. He was not a very imposing looking man, but in Chicago he was a living legend, for he was the man who had stood up to Al Capone. In the prohibition years, Capone's rule was absolute.

    The local and state police and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation were afraid to oppose him. But singlehandedly, Frank Loesch, as a Christian layman and without any government support, organized the Chicago Crime Commission, a group of citizens who were determined to take Mr. Capone to court and put him away. 

     During the months that the Crime Commission met, Frank Loesch's life was in constant danger. There were threats on the lives of his family and friends. But he never wavered. Ultimately he won the case against Capone and was the instrument for removing this blight from the city of Chicago. Frank Loesch had risked his life to live out his faith. 

Each Sunday at this point of the service, my father, a Chicago businessman himself, never failed to poke me and silently point to Frank Loesch with pride. Sometime I'd catch a tear in my father's eye. For my dad and for all of us this was and is what authentic living is all about.”

     In our Luke passage this morning, Jesus is telling us to stand up for him. What do we need in order to stand up for Jesus and be faithful to Him? One of the things that can help us is to feel more comfortable in sharing our faith with others.

     For the past couple of days, several people in our church attended a “Faith Builders” seminar here at our church. It was an awesome, awesome event. My good friend, Jeff Motter who is a United Methodist pastor up in Findlay, Ohio led our two-day seminar. We had over forty people in attendance.

     Jeff taught us many things and helped us sharpen our relational skills and increase opportunities where we might share our faith with others. Jeff taught us that relating to other people and sharing our faith are not meant to feel like a root canal but are meant to be natural ways for us in living out our faith, even for those of us who are introverts.

     If you weren’t able to attend, here are some of the helpful things he shared with us to be better faith builders in how we relate to others and share our faith.

     I’m going to quickly go through these and I’m sure any of the several people who attended the training would be happy to share their notes with you if you weren’t able to attend. It was a wonderful time of instruction, singing, fellowship, great meals, and sharing together. 

     Jeff led us through four teaching sessions as part of our two-day training. In the first session, we talked a lot about the importance of being a good listener when having conversations with people. Jeff also shared some great thoughts on how we can have more meaningful conversations just in the the types of questions we might ask people. 

     Finding out a little about where they’re from, their family, what they do for a living or volunteer work, if they like to travel, what ideas that might have, if they are facing any problems, frustrations, or concerns, and dreams they may have. Jeff gave us time to pair up and have these types of conversations with each other. We discovered by doing this that even though we all attend the same church here at Athens First, we really didn’t know each other so deeper relationships in Christ were formed. 

     In the second session, we learned that building relationships are what is at the heart of effective ministry through the church. We learned that in order to have any effective ministry whether it be a small group, a Sunday School class, a children’s program, or a community project outside the church, we need to be aware of the challenges that people are facing and what they are seeking in dealing with those challenges.

     One of the takeaways from that session for me was that our programs and events are meant to be opportunities for us to connect with the people who are attending, especially new people who come seeking a loving, caring, authentic, non-judgmental, and hope-filled community of faith.

     And that led us to think a lot about what we as the church, and specifically here at Athens First can uniquely offer people that they many not be able to get anywhere else outside the church. And that’s what led us to a deeper understanding that relationships truly are at the heart of effective ministry.

     For the third session, we focused on what it means to be the kind of person that others want to be around through our words of affirmation.

     We affirm others by letting them know of the positive qualities that we see in them. And we also learned seven principles in sharing our faith with others. These include prayer, initiating a conversation, affirming and encouraging others, inviting people to share about themselves, sharing a little of who we are with others, looking for opportunities to share our faith, and being willing to invite people to go deeper in their faith.  

     And then the final session before we left yesterday afternoon was on how we might be a blessing to others. Jeff left us with two important suggestions for our church moving forward. He encouraged us to know your faith story and be ready to share it and be willing to pray with someone.

     One of the reasons we held this seminar now is because it is right before the college students come back and it’s also a time when people are more inclined to be seeking a church home. This is a great time for us to stand for Jesus in reaching out to the people in our community, share our faith with people through our conversations, and invite people to church.

     During 1857-1858 revival broke out in Philadelphia, PA. A young preacher, Dudley Tyng, one day preached to 5000 men using Exodus 10:11 as his text: “Go now ye that are men and serve the Lord.” About 1000 responded to his invitation that evening. 

     On the following Wednesday, he was involved in a terrible farming tragedy. The doctors did not believe he would live. While Tyng lay in great pain, he entreated his doctor to accept Christ. With a room filled with other preachers he asked them to “Sing, sing, Can you not sing.” 

     His last admonition to his friends was to “Tell the people to stand up for Jesus.” George Duffield witnessed his friend’s death that day and heard his dying words. That week he wrote the words to the hymn, “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus.”

     And what an incredible coincidence! That’s the title of our prayer hymn. As you’re able, please stand and let’s sing together.

License Plate Sightings: STAN4ME

Sermon Discussion Questions

Luke 12:49-56

August 18, 2019

During our summer sermon series on vanity license plate sightings, we’ve been asking people to share interesting ones they have seen. 

Have you seen an interesting vanity plate recently?

Our vanity license plate message this week is STAN4ME. It’s based on our Gospel reading where Jesus says that he has not come to bring peace but division. The reason Jesus said this is to help us understand that not everybody will be receptive to the good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself was often misunderstood, ridiculed, and rejected. This was because he often said unsettling things like “love your enemy.” He also spent a lot of time with people who were not viewed as important in society. It’s been said that if we have never been offended by something in the Bible, we have probably not read it carefully enough!

When have you been upset or unsettled over something that Jesus said or did? How did a new biblical understanding lead you to change long-held beliefs about something or lead to a change in how you live your life?

One of the reasons that we don’t change our opinions and behaviors is because we are afraid of what our friends will think of us. This is known as “tribalism” where we do not want to leave the “tribe” and embrace a new truth for fear of what others might think of us. This is why we tend to stay in our comfort zones and we don’t experience positive spiritual transformation in our lives.

What helps you to be open-minded and receptive when you read the Bible or feel unsettled by something Jesus said or did?

Sharing our faith with others is one of the ways that we “stand up for Jesus.” Our church recently held a “Faith Builders” two-day seminar in which we were invited to step out of our comfort zones and sharpen our skills in sharing our faith and relating to the people around us. In the sermon, Pastor Robert shared a brief summary of what we learned together because of this seminar.

Which of these faith sharing/relational skills from the “Faith Builders” seminar are you willing to implement in order to stand up for Jesus? Pray that God would bless your commitment in becoming more open in sharing your faith with others.

Sunday Pastoral Prayer (August 11) Athens First UMC

[This was near the end of our 10:30 worship service during the benediction. The benediction always sends us forth to shine God’s light in our community and world which was our worship theme. For the sermon, click here.]

O God, our lamps are lit and we are ready to live out our faith in a very broken and hurting world. We are ready to respond to how you are prompting us to step out of our comfort zones and serve you. We are ready to share your love with others. We are ready to use the gifts you have given us to be a blessing with those around us. We are ready for where you are leading our church to be a haven of blessing and peace for the people of our community. O God, our lamps are lit and we are ready.

Thank you for providing us with many opportunities to be ready as your church. For Loving Faith ministries that help us to love you and one another. For Learning Faith ministries that help us to grow in knowledge. And for Living Faith ministries that lead us to use our gifts in ministry and service.

O God, you have given us everything we need to be ready to follow you as disciples of Jesus Christ. When the flames of our lamps begin to flicker because of doubts or fear or times that we turn our backs on you, remind us to turn to you for you are the light of the world.

Lead us, O God to light the way for our country, a country where there are an average of 300 hundred deaths per week because of gun violence. 300 deaths per week. O God, lead us to light the way of peace.

Lead us, O God to light the way for our county where there is so much food scarcity. O God, lead us to light the way of equity.

Lead us, O God to light the way for our community so that people would know there is hope because you are a God of hope.

Lead us, O God to light the way in our neighborhoods, in our schools, in our jobs, and in all our relationships.

O God, we are ready, ready to the end. Our lamps our lit as we join together in praying the words that Jesus taught us to pray together, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”