Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
 
*Call to Worship                     Psalm 100
Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come into God’s presence with a song!
 
Prayer of the Day
Gracious God,
give us pure hearts that we may see you,
humble hearts that we may hear you,
hearts of love that we may serve you,
hearts of faith that we may live in you,
reverent hearts that we may worship you,
here and in the world beyond our doors,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen.
 
*Hymn 32             I Sing the Mighty Power of God
 
Prayer of Confession
Holy and merciful God, in your presence we confess our failure to be what you created us to be.
You alone know how often we have sinned
in wandering from your ways,
in wasting your gifts,
in forgetting your love.
By your loving mercy,
help us to live in your light
and abide in your ways,
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Savior.
 
Hymn  698   Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.
The old life is gone and a new life has begun.
I declare to you, in the name of Jesus Christ,
our sins are forgiven and we may be at peace.  Amen.
 
First Reading    Psalm 91          
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading      Luke 16:19-31       
Morning Message
 
This week’s gospel lesson could be “The Hard Sayings of Jesus, Part 2.” We could go off in a number of directions, but, we are going to take a pretty focused view today.
 
Have you ever felt invisible? Maybe you are in a restaurant and all the customers around you have been waited on, but, you and your party are overlooked. Or maybe you are trying to join in a conversation with others and someone interrupts you and talks over you, as though your contribution were unimportant.
 
I was in an exam room at a doctor’s office one day. The wait always seems long when you are wearing nothing but what amounts to a big paper towel and the air conditioning is registering a North Pole temperature.
 
I waited. And waited, My stomach started growling. It was lunchtime. Finally, I heard a voice and the door cracked a little and an arm reached into the room to turn off the light… before the nurse realized the room was occupied.
 
She screamed, “Oh, I didn’t know anyone was in here! You should have let us know!”
 
Right. I was about twelve months pregnant and I was going to climb down from that table and waddle out into the hall in my paper towel and find a staff member? Fat chance.
 
That happened to my dad once in his doctor’s office and he passed the time by tearing off a piece of his paper sheet and made a toe tag. When his doctor finally came in, he played dead. He had a better sense of humor than I did.
 
No one appreciates being overlooked or brushed aside or being made to feel their presence or their concerns are unimportant.
 
Churches receive their fair share of people dropping by in need of help. It is to be expected. “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” That’s part of the charge Jesus gives the Church.
 
These are often people others fail to notice, or ignore, the last to be served. The problems can run deep. Generations deep in dysfunction.
 
Some years ago a family came repeatedly to Beverly Hills in search of help. They were legitimately in need. There were small children involved. We did what we could, but our small church had limited resources, and we were about tapped out. We had to let them know that we were no longer able to assist them. But, we could direct them to resources that could help and we would gladly take them to a social service agency where they could find assistance.
 
Our hope was that they might get to the root causes of their dysfunction and come up with a plan to turn that around so that they didn’t have to resort to begging for help.
 
We failed. Or did we?
 
There is a South African phrase, “Ubuntu.” It means “I am because of you.”  
In his book No Future without Forgiveness, Desmond Tutu defines “ubuntu” like this:
 
“Ubuntu speaks of the very essence of being human. We say, ‘So and so has ubuntu.’  That means you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, “My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.” We belong in a bundle of life. We say, “A person is a person through other persons.” A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished  when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were less than who they are.”
 
Author Bruce Epperly says that the tragedy of this parable is that the rich man, who isn’t named, by the way, has all the resources to uplift his neighbor but was seemingly indifferent to Lazarus, who is obviously suffering. 
 
Why was that? Maybe he saw his wealth as a matter of entitlement and effort and saw the poverty of the beggar as a matter of laziness or lack of initiative.  His failure to see and hear, to empathize, created a gulf in this life that echoed into eternity.
 
When we fail to recognize the plight of those in need, when we fail to have compassion, when we are apathetic to others’ pain and suffering, we aren’t just alienated from them. We are ultimately alienated from God.
 
Epperly says God called the rich man to a simple spiritual exercize that would have changed everything and awakened him to a new way of life: Pause, notice, open, stretch, and respond That’s all it takes.
.
We know there are limits to what we can do, how far our resources can stretch, the type of counsel we can give.  But we are never off the hook from noticing opportunities to live into “ubuntu, I am because you are.”
 
When we think about our efforts in this way, we measure our work differently. Sometimes our efforts are abused and we sour on any further help. That’s natural. But, hang onto this thought: we can’t control the actions of others. What’s important is our response.
 
John Wesley penned these words centuries ago. They are packed with meaning for Christians of this age as well:
 
Do all the good you can,
by all the means you can,
in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can,
at all the times you can,
to all the people you can,
as long as ever you can.
 
And you will find ubuntu.
 
*Hymn  714   God of the Fertile Fields, verses 1and 2
*Affirmation of Faith                The Apostles’ Creed  p. 35
* Hymn 581        Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Hymn 607  Doxology 
*Prayer of Dedication
 
*Hymn 714  God of the Fertile Fields, verses 3 and 4
*Blessing
Go now and take hold of the life that really is life.
Shun eagerness for fortune,
but be rich in good works.
Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.
 
And may God be your refuge and fortress;
may Christ Jesus free you from all that ensnares you;
and may the Holy Spirit provide you with peace and contentment.  Amen.
 
*Postlude

​Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
*Call to Worship
To your name, O Lord,
help us to bow the knee and all its worshiping,
bow the head in all its thinking,
bow the will and all its choosing,
bow the heart and all its loving.  Amen.
 
*Hymn 31   Let Us With a Gladsome Mind
 
Prayer
God of love,
you have willed that the last be first and you have made a little child the measure of your kingdom.
We may be reluctant to embrace humility and service, for to do so may imply work and will require a spirit of cooperation and compromise.
Forgive us for our complacency, hesitation, or indifference and
give us the wisdom which is from above,
so we may understand, that, in your sight, the one who serves is the greatest of all.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ,
whose service gives us life and hope.  Amen.
 
Hymn   698                  Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
God’s Word is truth: That Jesus Christ came into the world to redeem and re-form our lives.
The old life is gone and a new life has begun.
Your sins are forgiven.
Be at peace with God, one another, and yourselves.  Amen.
 
First Reading     Psalm 8
Time With Our Young Disciples
Gospel Reading         Mark 9:30-37
Morning Message
 
I love the rain. Love it in all seasons. I love the smell of rain in the air sometimes hours before the first drop. I love the way the leaves on the trees turn inside out in the windy prelude. I love the sound of thunder rolling and lightning cracking overhead. I love to hear it early in the morning on days I don’t have to get out of bed. I love it late at night, knowing that the world will look all fresh and clean, and maybe a little cooler, in the morning.
 
What I don’t love are the worms that emerge from the ground, making me tip-toe my way down the walk to retrieve the morning paper.
 
But, some people love those creatures.
 
Following a night of rain, Rev. Janet Hunt says, she found night-crawlers all over the walk in front of her house. She didn’t gag, like I might, because they brought back a welcome childhood memory.
 
She says when she was a child, those worms were summer’s gold. When she and her siblings were young, that was the way they earned their vacation money.
 
Their parents set them up in business. They went out and bought them an old refrigerator and plugged it into an outlet in the garage, where the worms became bait to sell. They were stored in paper cups and tin cans. Her parents even bought a professionally-made sign- white with red lettering- advertising night crawlers for 75 cents a dozen. It leaned against the maple tree in front of their house.
 
And so it was, when it would storm, the four kids would be out in force-with flashlights and buckets. Forty years later, she says she can remember it like it was last night. She can still remember the gentle, steady hand it took to pick up those fat worms who had come up for air and drop them into the bucket all in one piece. And she can still feel the crick in her neck from bending over for long minutes at a time. Funny- it didn’t bother her then-the wiggling worm or the dirt under her nails.
 
Vacationers and city-dwellers, on their way for a day’s worth of fishing, would pull into their long driveway and purchase a dozen or two. Seventy-five cents at a time the money would pour in, stored in a German beer stein on the top shelf in the kitchen. The week before their family vacation, they would take down the big mug, pour the money out on the kitchen table, and divide it into four equal shares.
Here is what strikes her now: especially after reading today’s text, Janet says she can’t remember any dispute about the amount each child received. None of them ever accused the others of having captured fewer worms and thus was not entitled to an equal share of the money. Even more, she says there were definitely times when one or the other child was not out there with his or her flashlight. They still shared and shared alike. It never occurred to them to do otherwise.
 
It could have been different though, couldn’t it?
 
Normally, in life, it is. We expect to get paid for what we do. We don’t expect another will be paid the same for doing more or doing less when we are doing the same work.
 
That’s what makes this story so unusual. The world doesn’t work like it did on South Main Street where Janet grew up back in the 1970’s, or in this parable. In fact, I expect that most of us can relate to those who had been out there early and who had labored hard thru the heat of the day. It comes as no wonder that they were unhappy with the “Johnny-come-late-lys,” who didn’t bother to show up til the day was nearly over and yet were paid the same.
 
It isn’t fair, is it? Life isn’t always fair. We see this played out all the time in family relationships. In a healthy family, no one should be loved more than the others- even if they work harder, or if they’ve suffered more, or achieved greater things, or obeyed more completely. No, in the world Jesus describes, the owner of the vineyard sees them all the same. In the world where Janet grew up, Mom and Dad loved all the children the same. Just like God loves us.
 
And, yes, the vineyard and the payroll belonged to the owner of that vineyard, after all. In the same way, Janet’s folks owned the land from which the night-crawlers emerged, as well as the fridge and the garage that housed it. They purchased that sign that advertised their live bait and they made sure the electric bill was paid every month. It really was all theirs. They just gave their kids a share on rainy nights.
 
Like God does for us.
 
And so it is in the kingdom of God…and in the world where people seek to be part of making that kingdom come. First, or last, it is all God’s anyway.
 
I wonder what change we could make in the world if we lived as though the first were last and the last were really first? I wonder if we are brave enough to experiment a little?
 
I try this out sometimes. Like when I go thru a drive thru that has two lines. At lunch-time. There’s a whole lot of colorful human behavior to be observed then and there. So, I place my order…large unsweetened ice tea…then keep my foot lightly resting on the brake while watching the car next to me. Will we go in order? You can tell who ordered first. You can usually hear, “Three Happy Meals with milk and apple slices.” And, most of the time, people are remarkably courteous, letting each other move in turn up to the window. But, every now and then, someone forgets there are others who are hungry and thirsty and have cars full of kids needing to go to the bathroom, or folks my age trying to get to work on time. And they rev up and challenge and cut me off.
 
I was in a continuing education class this past week. The instructor was Sky Kershner, director of the Kanawha Pastoral Counseling Center in Charleston. One of his props was a battery-operated smiley face that lights up by remote control. He puts it in his car’s rear window and when someone does something obnoxious, he hits the remote and the smiley-face lights up.  He says it’s an unexpected alternative to the other signs people make. And, on the occasion when someone does something he appreciates, he hits the remote and voila- the smiley-face shines. It’s an equal-opportunity gizmo.
 
The kingdom of God has a very different economy, doesn’t it? Where the first is last and the last is first and new-comers and late-comers are treated the same. Maybe it’s so different, we can’t imagine how our lives or neighborhoods or country might change if we put it into practice.
 
Let’s think for a moment. Close your eyes if it helps. Who are the first-place people around you? Picture them. How do you feel about them? How do you think they feel about you?
 
Now, think about the last-place people. Picture them. How do you feel about them? And how may they feel about you?
 
The good news is this: God loves us all. No matter the level of benevolence or obedience or sacrifice, we are all desired and we are all welcome in God’s home. And God will keep pursuing us all until all the children are in.
 
*Hymn    727    Will You Let Me Be Your Servant  Verses 1-3
*Affirmation of Faith   The Apostles’ Creed  p. 35
*Hymn    581       Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Hymn   607   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
We give with gratitude for all our God has given us. In the upside down world of the Gospel, we measure our wealth not by what we have but by what we can give away.
Lord, God, receive our offerings today to bless your church, your creation, and your children, wherever there is need.  Amen.
 
*Hymn 727    Will You Let Me Be Your Servant    Verses 4-6
*Blessing
And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be upon you today and always.  Amen.
 
*Postlude

​Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
*Call to Worship                                                                     Matthew 19:14
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
As a congregation, we are called to nurture children and youth, and support families and individuals in faith formation.
We do this through worship, study, fellowship, and service.
Surrounded and supported by the community of faith, we come to know, love, and serve God, receive the grace of Jesus Christ, and grow as the Spirit leads us.
It is with joy and thanksgiving that we pass the Christian faith from one generation to the next.
 
*Hymn  687       Our God, Our Help in Ages Past    Verses 1-4        
Prayer
Even while we celebrate the church’s ministry this day, we know it marks a day of grief and pain for our nation.
May all of us remember with love and compassion the events of that fateful day.
May we grieve with those who mourn and share memories with those who cannot forget.
May we draw strength from those who bravely responded and gave their lives to save others.
May we stand with strangers who became neighbors that day, and remember their hospitality and generosity.
Above all, loving God, may we remember your faithfulness and learn to trust in your unfailing grace.
Save us from hatred and suspicion and remove any intention in us that would stand in the way of healing and peace.
 
*Hymn   698       Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
Friends, hear the good news.
Even when we have been so wounded that we believe we will never heal,
when pain and hurt and anger overwhelm us,
we can be whole.
God’s mercies never end. They are new every morning and sure as the sunrise.
Reach out and receive the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Know you are forgiven and be at peace.  Amen.
 
First Reading     Psalm
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Second Reading      Romans 8
Morning Message
 
I’m no math wiz. I was so good at Algebra that I took it twice. But, even with my limitations, I can figure out that seventy times seven is a lot. Jesus math says that when a brother or sister sins against us, we are to forgive the offense. Not once. Not twice, but seventy-seven times. Whoa. Like I said, that’s a lot of times.
 
Jesus is asked how many times we should forgive and he launches into this parable about the ungrateful servant. Now, I confess to you that I had a hard time getting past the words “slave” and “servant.”  We have an enlightened understanding of how powerful those terms can be. Racial tension has risen in recent years. We find ourselves in a turbulent time, marked by school-involved violence, political issues heating up, inflation and other economic concerns. The extreme weather conditions we are witnessing has wrought tremendous suffering. So much of our food comes from geographic areas that have been hard hit by either flood or drought or wildfire. Record heat has hit northern California. Have you ever been to San Francisco? I think you can experience all four seasons in one day there, but they all end with sweaters or jackets, no matter the time of year. Until recently.
 
Sometimes it seems the whole world is filled with dis-equilibrium and angst and uncertainty.
 
The point Jesus made was that God has witnessed our lives- the good, the bad, and the ugly.  But life is not consumed by suffering and hardship.  God has lavished mercy upon us, so that we might experience true liberty-freedom from sin. But, he warns us, if we seek forgiveness, then turn around and exact revenge on the next person who wrongs us, we have evidently not turned from sin, and renounced its power over us, or turned toward God at all.
 
Have you ever thought about what the word “lavish” means? It comes from the verb, to lave, to wash. When I think of God lavishing love and grace on us, I imagine standing beneath a great waterfall with fresh, cool, sparkling water coursing over my head, my shoulders, flowing over me all the way down to my toes, sinking into the lush, fertile earth.
 
Picture yourself standing under that waterfall. After a run or after mowing the lawn. You’re hot and sweaty. Thirsty. You stand under the cascading water. How does that make you feel? Clean? Light?  Joyful? Refreshed? Free of all baggage? Baggage we can call “sin.”
 
Good. That’s how we should feel. Thanks be to God.
 
And then disaster occurs. Or we are reminded of something catastrophic. The anniversary of 9/11 rolls around as it does today. And all those heavy emotions return, most notably grief and anger.
What do we do with that? Those feelings are real. They are legitimate.
 
Let us acknowledge, there are consequences to sin. And the consequences from that fateful day have changed all our lives. Remember the color-coded threat levels? The first time I heard that announced in an airport, while awaiting a flight, I was so filled with fear I was sick.
 
Soon after, we took a trip to California. Those announcements were made repeatedly, increasing my anxiety, and I’m sure other travelers’ anxiety. Passing thru security is always a hassle. And then when we did finally board, the passenger to my right was a dark-skinned man with a backpack. There we sat. Shoulder-to-shoulder from San Francisco to Columbus. I could feel my heart rate increase. I had some shortness of breath. My body was reacting to a perceived threat.
 
I’ve come to believe fear and anger are fraternal twins. Different… but they are born from the same womb. Sometimes, you can get them confused.
 
Do you think my seat assignment was an accident? I don’t. There have been many times since that I’ve looked back on that long night in the air, when my fears and anger confronted me.
I tried to sleep, but sleep wouldn’t come. So, I prayed. I prayed that the man next to me wasn’t a terrorist planning to highjack the plane. I begged for God’s protection, for a sense of God’s presence and power and peace.
 
God did comfort me in those hours. We landed without incident and went our separate ways.
All was well. But, was it?
 
If we applied this parable to the situation, might Jesus have said to me, “You prayed for my protection, my presence, my love. And, you have those things always. What were your prayers for your brother sitting next to you? Is he not worthy of my love and mercy, too?”
 
When Jesus spoke to the crowd about forgiveness, he wasn’t necessarily talking about those little things that may get under our skin but won’t ruin our lives. Like, when the garbage collectors don’t show up on their scheduled day, or when your Happy Meal comes without the toy, or the newspaper is wet. We can let those things go.
 
But, what about those things we can’t let go? We are all subject to things about which we may have little or no agency. But, we can decide how we will respond.  How have we responded to the changes that Covid has brought our way? Remember back in 2020, we looked for the color-coded  maps that tracked the number of cases?  Remember the  daily announcements of Covid-related hospitalizations and deaths? Even now, are you hoping to receive the latest booster shot that addresses the Omicron variant soon? I am.
 
We’ve faced national crises before. We’ve pulled together. Remember when the members of congress stood on the Capitol steps on September 11, 2001 and sang “God Bless America?”
Friends, I don’t want to witness another catastrophic event but it sure would be reassuring to see a display of our national leaders rallying around the country lifting up our common bond, our shared hopes and dreams.
 
Each year, when that fateful day rolls around, we pause and remember. We light candles, sing patriotic songs, set up art installations like The Healing Fields at Spring Hill Cemetery. We remember lives lost and heroic acts.
 
Speaking for myself, while I still grieve, the sharp anger and paralyzing fear have diminished over the years. And that is important because the country has to move forward, addressing opportunities and challenges as they come. And they will.
 
Lots of us like to travel. I can’t wait to take our grandchildren to some of our favorite places. But, I don’t want to panic every time I board a plane or go to a large crowded event.
 
So, it’s important to face my fears and prejudices about who is seated on the plane next to me, or behind me, or even piloting the plane. Our nation and our neighborhoods are becoming more and more diverse. You may be tired of hearing it, but, so much of the violence we witness seems to be sparked by hatred. If we want peace, then it’s absolutely essential that we learn to respect and appreciate the differences in race, culture, religion, orientation and other human conditions.
 
One of my favorite quotes made by Queen Elizabeth is this: “Peace is the hardest form of leadership.”
 
The Washington National Cathedral is a beacon of peace for many. Since the pandemic began, the cathedral leadership has recorded and broadcast the brief services of Morning Prayer. I commend them. They have brought me peace in this time.
 
At the end of one service, there were photos of the beautiful stained glass windows that adorn that awesome place.
 
One of the windows featured that morning was the Space Window, which is really named the Science and Technology Window. I’ve stood beneath it a few times and it is breathtaking. Created by Rodney Winslow, the technique used to design and make that window is much different from the other gothic-styled windows in the cathedral. Winslow worked on it for twelve years, tearing up one design plan after another until he was satisfied.
 
NASA and a number of astronauts consulted on the project. The colors used in the window are especially intense. It is said that every astronaut reports that the colors they see from space are indescribable, otherworldly, like nothing they have ever seen. Crayola doesn’t make a shade or hue that captures the beauty seen from high above the earth.
 
At the center of the window, the focal point, is a white circle. It is very thin and translucent. It is a piece of the moon, over three billion years old, picked up by Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 flight in 1969, at the first moon landing.  It represents humankind’s greatest achievement to date.
 
Artists like their works to speak for themselves, allowing the viewer to interact with the piece and drawing his or her own meanings from it. When I see that window, I think of all the men and women whose lives have been dedicated to the space program, and to the disciplines of science, their sense of courage and adventure, how they inspired the next generation of exploration. It is set in this massive cathedral, the “house of prayer for all people,” and, to me, serves as a sign that God is eternally calling us into God’s creative plan as it unfolds from age to age.
 
And that is what I want to leave you with today. We are in difficult times. But we are not alone. God has not orphaned us. Schhols opened on time here in Cabell County. I can hear the Cabell Midland Marching Band from my backyard. Tailgating recipes are being shared. I see lots of green signaling loyalty to the Thundering Herd.
 
We have survived but we are cautious. I still carry masks and wear them. AS the Brits would say, we “keep calm and carry on.” We are the people who, with God’s help, applied our intelligence, imagination, ingenuity, and grit to land a man on the moon and NASA says we will do it again. A woman may land the next spacecraft.
 
And with God’s help, we will land 2022.
 
*Hymn   687            Verses 5 and 6
*Affirmation of Faith         Apostles’ Creed p. 35
*Hymn   581     Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Hymn  606     Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
As we present our gifts of time, talent and treasure, may we also present our hearts, that they may softened by your love, our tears, that they may water scorched dreams, and our wills, that we may replace brokenness with highways of reconciliation and peace. Amen.
 
*Hymn  693   Though I May Speak
 
 
*Blessing                  St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair hope,
Where there is darkness light,
Where there is sadness, joy.
 
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
 
*Postlude