NOTICE TO ON-DEMAND WORSHIPPERS
In order to expedite posting the worship services here on our website, we are reducing the transcript to just the scriptures used and the message. Holy Communion is offered every Sunday. If you are worshipping with us online whether during the live-cast or through on-demand viewing, you are encouraged to have bread and juice or wine available as you watch the service and to participate in communion just as if you are present with us.
SCRIPTURE READINGS
God, open us to hear and receive your scriptures today as you would have us hear them, understand them as you would have us understand them, and to act upon them as you would have us act upon them.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
*Scriptures this morning are from the NRSV.
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the LORD. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the LORD. The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.”
Colossians 1:11-20
May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers–all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
Luke 1:68-79
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Luke 23:33-43
When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing.
And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!”
The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”
One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
L: The scriptures of God for the people of God.
A: Thanks be to God.
Message – People, Get Ready! The Kingdom’s Coming*
Rev. Val
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer, and may you see fit to use me as a vessel from which you pour out your Divine Word.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Bishop Charleston recently wrote, “Can you feel it? That slight change in the vibration of the Earth? That shift in the current of the wind? That sense that something is starting to happen. The elders say you can feel it in the air. You can see it in the behavior of the animals because they feel it too. It is the energy released when the infinite comes into the finite, when the sacred enters the everyday. A deep power can be felt, just beneath the surface of our reality. The Spirit has come. You can feel it.”
I felt that vibration, that shift, that something in the air earlier this week, and it’s been growing steadily ever since. It started earlier this week with listening to a message that Bishop Peter Storey had given at the Sunday Morning worship service at Duke Chapel on October 9 called, “When Love Is Not Enough.” It grew larger a few days ago, when I listened to the message given by Isaac Simmons in his persona as Ms. Penny Cost at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. Her message was called “The Gentrification of Grace.” It roared when I learned of TN Senate Bill 3 that’s been filed for the upcoming legislative year. And it wept when I listened to a recording of Brandon Bouleware of Arkansas speaking before the Missouri House of Representatives in March of 2021.
And then there were the lines in our scriptures this morning that spoke loudly to me. From Jeremiah, “Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the LORD.”
From Colossians, “He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins,” and, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”
From Luke, “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace,” and, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
I titled today’s message, “People, get ready! The kingdom’s comin’,” but I should have titled it, “People, let’s go! The kingdom has come!” That’s what is being said in those lines from Colossians and Luke. This … this space, this community, state, nation, world … this is the kingdom because Jesus, God in the flesh, God with us, Jesus himself is the kingdom of God. Everything about him, everything he taught, did … all the time he was here in the flesh and all the time since when he has been here in the Spirit, the triune God has never left us, and we have lived in his kingdom under his reign all along.
As we learned in last week’s passage from Mark, Jesus’ proclaimed his gospel one time when he “came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”” That “good news” was that “the kingdom of God has come near.” Everything he did before and after the moment was teach through his words and deeds what God was like and what we were to do to live in the kingdom he brought to us through his very presence.
It’s doing what he taught that we seem to struggle with. Don’t get me wrong. We are a faithful lot. Our hearts are where they should be at least most of the time, and … more than many others … we do for the least among us to the best of our abilities with the resources available to us. But we … our tiny beloved community here at Union Grove are just one member of a very large body and once again, just as Jeremiah prophesied to the people of Israel, there are shepherds among the large flock that makes up the larger body that are scattering the flock, driving people away, and not attending to the people.
Something has to change. That something includes us. We have to change. We have to recognize what Bishop N.T. Wright said in a recent lecture series. “The point of Christianity is not that we should go to heaven, but that heaven should come to earth.” By living the way Jesus taught us, by acting toward others the way Jesus acted toward others and us, taught us to act toward others, we bring heaven to earth or, more plainly we act on earth as God and Christ act at all times including when they’re in heaven. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We have to change. We have to become the workers of the kingdom. We have to strive to be Christ-like in all we say and do, and that’s such a hard thing to do. But we have to try. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, responsible for the scattered flock that’s been driven away and left unattended.
And there is something that has been trained and preached and schooled out of us. None of us can do these things alone. We have to work together as a community, as a team, as one body that is a member of that larger body. That’s where we mess up and that’s how the errant shepherds are scattering the flock. We’ve become too individualistic. We were never meant to work as solo acts. We weren’t designed to work independently. We were always and forever designed, created, to live and work in community. Whatever we do, all things we do, we need to do together.
I’m not talking about yet more missions or Bruno projects. I’m talking about other kinds of outreach, other kinds of service. I’m talking about becoming a visible, unified movement in a divided, increasingly disunified society, in a body of Christ that is being dismembered by theocracy. I’m talking about seeking out the least, the last, the lost, the disillusioned, the outcast, all those disinherited and disenfranchised by other members of that larger body at the behest of those errant shepherds.
At the recent “Space At the Table” gathering in Dallas, Rev. Michael Slaughter, noted author and pastor emeritus at Ginghamsburg Church in Ohio, said, “We’re going to see more of a focus on calling workers than worshippers.” “In the New Testament, 87 times Jesus said ‘follow me,’ two times he said ‘believe in me,’ and zero times did he say worship me. … What if we practiced the teachings of Jesus instead of talking about the teachings of Jesus?”
Practicing … putting into practice … working as a group to actively carry out the teachings of Jesus is what I’m talking about. And while it will be hard work and many will not agree with the work, many more will if we carry the work out with the love of Christ in us, if we carry ourselves with Christ in us.
As M. Thomas Thangaraj wrote in today’s Upper Room Discipline, “We know that every Sunday is the Lord’s Day—a celebration of Easter, the resurrection of Christ. The risen Lord ascends to the throne of God and reigns over the whole creation. But when every Sunday is a celebration day, we risk getting caught up in the festivity while forgetting the centrality and the supremacy of Christ. Today’s reading [from Colossians] invites us to focus on Christ while we adore Christ’s reign.
Christ holds everything together as the creative force behind all of creation. In Christ, the whole cosmos is held together. We need not fear any scattering or splintering. The embracing love of Christ upholds the unity of the whole creation. Christ occupies the first place in the church, the community of faith in the world. The Eucharist as a celebration announces the mystery of God’s wondrous transformation of us all into a single unified body. And Paul reminds us that God’s plenitude resides in Christ, who has made peace through his death on the cross and his resurrection into new life.
As citizens of the reign of Christ, we inherit the love of God that invites us into the circle of God’s abundant and amazing grace. We are filled with the Holy Spirit, who showers God’s gifts on us so that we can share those gifts with one another and experience the oneness of God’s holy family.
Now when we look at our neighbors, may we recognize the family resemblance and announce peace to them.”
We are citizens of the reign of Christ. We have inherited the love of God. And, as Bishop Storey stated in that message I mentioned, it is up to us to collectively … as a community, not individuals, distribute, disburse that love out to others.
Those others I mentioned … the least, the last, the lost, the disillusioned, the outcast, all those disinherited and disenfranchised … those are the others we start with, stand with, give shelter and protection to first.
Here at Union Grove, we have started through our Bruno 1 mission. But there are more … right here in our county … more that are being wrongfully persecuted and disenfranchised. More that are being told God doesn’t love them, told there is no room at life’s inn, finding their rights removed, their very existence being made a pariah for no valid reason, their voices being silenced through redistricting. We need to practice the teachings of our true and only King who spent his entire adult ministry standing with and ministering to all those in the margins of his time.
As Bishop Storey said in his message, just loving others as individuals is not enough. We need to collectively distribute that love through active participation with those in the margins, through active and vocal advocacy in the halls of government and in the seats of denominational power. As Ms. Penny Cost said in her message, we cannot allow God’s grace to become gentrified. We are so fortunate to be living in the reign and kingdom of Christ, of God. If we do not act on Christ’s teachings, though, we will be guilty of the very gentrification that Ms. Penny Cost spoke of.
Let’s pray:
Sovereign God, it is your will to gather up all things in your beloved one, reigning in the universe in the power that is love. Mercifully grant that the whole of creation, freed from enslavement, may serve and praise you through Jesus Christ who is alive with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Credits:
- Unless listed below, all works cited within the text above.
- *Adapted in part or full from Preaching Notes, Discipleship Ministries Worship Planning Series, November 20, 2022.
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