Scriptures for Sunday, September 30, 2018
Psalm 19: 7 – 14
Numbers 11: 4-6, 10-16, 24-29
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38 – 50

On Sunday, October 7, we plan to celebrate Holy Communion in our worship service.  We will be joining millions of Christians around the world in observing World Communion Sunday.
World Communion Sunday is also the traditional time to receive the Neighbors In Need offering.  Neighbors in Need (NIN) is a special mission offering of the United Church of Christ that supports ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States.  The 2018 theme for the NIN offering is "Love of Neighbor."  This ties in with the UCC’s recent emphasis on “Three Great Loves”: living out God’s love by expressing love of neighbor, children and creation.
(Much of this article is drawn from these websites you may wish to visit:     
                www.ucc.org/nin     and     www.ucc.org/nin_stories  )
One-third of NIN funds support the Council for American Indian Ministry (CAIM).  Two-thirds of this offering is used by the UCC's Justice and Witness Ministries (JWM) to support a variety of justice initiatives, advocacy efforts, and direct service projects through grants.
Neighbors in Need grants are awarded to UCC churches and organizations doing justice work in their communities.  These grants fund projects whose work ranges from direct service to community organizing and advocacy to address systemic injustice.  This year, special consideration will be given to projects focusing on serving our immigrant neighbors and communities.
Neighbors In Need has a well-documented history of assisting people to find their voices for justice, for themselves and their neighbors.
Our Scriptures for this coming Sunday include James 5: 13 – 20.  When I started at the beginning of the chapter in order to see the context, I ran into verse 4: Listen!  The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
This New Testament point, you should know, comes directly from the Law of Moses.  Deuteronomy 24:14-15 states, You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of your towns.  You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset, because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise they might cry to the LORD against you, and you would incur guilt.
So I knew this example of a Neighbors In Need project was the one I should share with you now: 
Understanding their mission is to witness for justice, Memphis, Tennessee’s Workers Interfaith Network (WIN), is a humble, yet powerful group of people who assist workers to protect their rights as employees from exploitative employers.  WIN has developed a reputation in Tennessee as the organization that can assist a worker to recover monies when they have suffered “wage theft” by an unjust employer.  Unfortunately, wage theft is becoming a common act of withholding an employee’s wages by the employer.  When employees face these economic hardships at the hands of their employers, it is their families that suffer this unimaginable injustice as their basic needs are no longer met.  This forces some to further struggle to move out of hunger or poverty.

As a 2009 Neighbors In Need grant recipient, WIN’s goal is to assist workers to learn their rights, even that to organize and form unions.  Currently, they are collecting hundreds of petition signatures to present to the County Sheriff, urging him to recognize wage theft as a criminal offense.  Workers Interfaith Network’s Executive Director, Rev. Rebekah Jordan Gienapp, reports good news: “WIN demonstrates to a vulnerable population that when workers and people of faith join together, we are a powerful force for justice.  We enabled eight workers to recover over $113,000 in unpaid wages and workers’ compensation payments.”

Support Neighbors In Need. 
​
And remember what Jesus said: “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these trusting little ones, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.”                                                            - Mark 9:42

Scriptures for Sunday, September 23, 2018
Psalm 54
Jeremiah 11: 18 – 20
James 3:13 – 4:11
Mark 9:30 – 37

This week’s gospel lesson once again features “disciples behaving badly.”  In Mark 9:30-37 we find that on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 
Jesus’ first response was to sit the disciples down and tell them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”
Next, Jesus invited a young child into the middle of the group, embraced the child, and said to his disciples, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
This week, I attended a training event for “facilitators” who will be gathering groups of ministers to support one another and study together.  When we weren’t focusing on our specific training, we got to know each other a bit, and of course talked about our children and grandchildren.  We all were marveling at how fast they grow and develop and pick things up, and also the weird ways that they genetically “take after” their ancestors.
Also during our conversations at table, I learned that some of our “facilitators” in training had been enriched by study with Mary Luti, whose writings I admire.  Before I knew that, I had already made arrangements to share the following devotional article with you.  (Mary Luti is a long time seminary educator and pastor, author of Teresa of Avila’s Way and numerous articles, and founding member of The Daughters of Abraham, a national network of interfaith women’s book groups.)
The following was published on Saturday, September 16 in the StillSpeaking Daily Devotional series. 
(Subscribe now!  It’s totally free!  http://www.ucc.org/daily_devotional  )
 
Jesus said, “A man had two sons.  To the first he said, ‘Son, go work in the vineyard today.’  He answered, ‘No’; but later he changed his mind and went.  To the second he said the same.  He answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go.  Which one did his father's will?”
They said, “The first.”
Jesus replied, “I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering God's kingdom before you.  For John came in righteousness and you did not believe him, but they did; and even after seeing that, you did not change your minds.”                              - Matthew 21:28-32
Here's a story about words and deeds.  Words, it says, don't equal obedience, even if you say the right thing.  You could say the wrong thing and still do God's will.  Words are a dime a dozen. Obedience lies in deeds.
Yes?
Not necessarily.  After all, righteous doers of the Word can easily become self-righteous doers of the Word, fascinated by how shiny their virtue is, enamored of their own goodness.  Surely that's not obedience to God's will.
No, there's a deeper obedience this story teaches.  It's not found in words, nor even in deeds, but in what Jesus says about the first son: “He changed his mind.”  And in the reproach he lays on his religious audience: “You didn't change yours.”  He's not as concerned with words and deeds as he is with reconsideration.
What Jesus approves here is convertibility— a willingness to think, and think again.  You learn it by following the trail of grace to the further question, opening yourself to the counter-intuitive, swallowing pride and reversing course despite the potential for shame.  It's a life-long letting go.
Obedience lies in changing your mind.  Changing and changing it until, as Paul writes in Philippians, you acquire the mind of Christ, who did not cling to anything— words, deeds, or righteousness—but humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, obedient into life.       [Philippians 2:5–11]
Prayer
Take my made up mind, O Christ, and give me a changing mind, until by letting go, and change by change, I start to look like you.

Scriptures for Sunday, September 16, 2018
Psalm 116:1-9
Isaiah 50:4-9
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38
A big Thank You to every one of you who worked to make Bethel’s 2018 wonderful!  From the mulch and flowerbeds to the kitchen and all through the sanctuary, beauty and hospitality flowed.  
Today, I considered writing for you some bits and pieces of the sermon I didn’t preach, yesterday.  But then I spent a little while meditating on our lesson from the prophet:
Morning by morning He wakens—
     wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.   
                                              - Isaiah 50:4
Now, instead, I mean to share with you some good things I heard yesterday.
                                 †                      †                      †
In case you missed it, or would like to keep it for posterity, here is the text of Deacon Dianne B. Griffin’s reflection on the occasion of our 2018 Homecoming:
What I remember about Bethel Church:  growing up here, most of my life.
My mom and dad brought me, my two brothers and sister to Bethel from birth.  I remember, we always sat in the same place with my Grandparents, Roy and Lucille Bear, and Gail Putnam and family.  We are still sitting in the same place, today.  We are missing lots of our family, but we have added some new, to keep the memories growing for many years to come.
This brings me to tell all of you what our Bethel Church family is like.  They are always there for each other, in good or bad times.
We at Bethel have lots of good times.  Just to name a few:  starting with Sunday School, the Bible schools, Fall parties, and all of the awesome meals we share and enjoy so very much together.
In my later years at Bethel, I was blessed to share in lots of mission projects with my mom and the ladies of Bethel’s [Women’s] Fellowship group.  Wish you would all join the fellowship— it will help you get to know your church family more closely, help you grow as a Christian, and fill your hearts with joy and happiness. 
I love sharing Bethel Church with my husband, children and grandchildren as much as I can.
Coming back to Bethel is just like coming home to your family.  Thank You, for your guidance, love, and kindness that I have always felt here at Bethel.
 
                                †                      †                      †
I’m a fan of Glick & Phillips since Nancy and I first heard them playing for First Night in Harrisonburg, probably almost 30 years ago.  I especially love their original parody and satire songs.  But one song they shared, yesterday— not an original— the doctors especially urged us to sing along: “Gone Home.”  It really touched my heart on this special occasion, as I saw it touch many of us who were present.  This turns out to be a Bill Carlisle song from 1952, first made popular by Carl Story and his Ramblin’ Mountaineers.  Much later, Jerry Garcia spread its fame further.
 
All of my friends that I loved yesterday--
Gone home (they have gone home)
The songbird that sings in the dale seems to say,
Gone home (they have gone home).
 
Chorus:  They've joined the heavenly fold,
    They're walking the streets of pure gold.
    They left one by one
    As their work here was done--
    Gone home (they have gone home)
 
Life here is lonely since they've gone before--
Gone home (they have gone home).
The old weeping willow that stands by the door--
Gone home (they have gone home).
 
The trumpet will sound on that great judgement day
Gone home (they have gone home)
We'll see all our friends who have gone on that way
Gone home (they have gone home).
                                 †                      †                      †
Thanks to Deacon Stephanie Monger for her thought-provoking, brain-teasing exercise: think of words that end with each letter of H-O-M-E-C-O-M-I-N-G, that remind you of our church.  Try it !
________________________________________________H
________________________________________________O
________________________________________________M
________________________________________________E
________________________________________________C
________________________________________________O
________________________________________________M
_________________________________________________I
________________________________________________N
________________________________________________G

Scriptures for HOMECOMING Sunday,
September 9, 2018
 
Psalm 146
Isaiah 35:4-7
James 2: 1 -- 17
Mark 7: 24 -- 37

Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear;
Things I would ask Him to tell me,
              if he were here;
Scenes by the wayside; tales of the sea,
Stories of Jesus, Tell them to me.
                                       -William H. Parker, 1885

What could be better for a Christian, than to know and be able to tell the stories of Jesus?
I hope that you are collecting Jesus-stories behind your eyeballs: they come in very handy when situations arise that make us wonder, “What would Jesus do?”
It was one thing to hear stories about Jesus when we were little children in Sunday School.  Then, Jesus’ miracles, along with pretty pictures of him that we saw in Sunday School literature, blended with all the other magical things in our childish minds.
Feeding 5,000 people?  Sure.  And Howdy Doody is a real person.  No problem.  Healing sick people? Why not?  By the end of each episode, Marcus Welby’s patient was always just fine.  Jesus rose from the dead?  Of course he did.  And the Brady Bunch and Partridge Family got along great by the end of each show, too!  Let’s not even get started on Superman or the Lone Ranger.  Magical, childish thinking.
I bet that, today, you can tell the difference between real life and pop-culture fantasies... if you try.  But have you made an effort to adapt your understanding of the Jesus stories to the real stresses and difficulty of your adult life?
Let’s look a bit at this week’s gospel lesson, the story of Jesus’ journey north to the region of Tyre, which is found in Mark 7:24-29 and Matthew 15:21-28.  Try reading both versions of the story— side-by-side, if you have two Bibles or a copier.
Both Mark and Matthew say that Jesus traveled from the north shore of the Sea of Galilee to the region of Tyre.  Tyre is a city in what is now the nation called Lebanon: in Jesus’ time, Tyre was part of the Roman Province of Syria.  The thing to notice here is that Jesus left the land of Israel.
Going from the region called The Galilee to the area near Tyre would be kind of like going from San Diego, California, USA to Tijuana, in Baja California, Mexico.  Or perhaps like going from Buffalo, New York, USA to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  You would definitely know you were in a different nation, even though you had traveled less than fifty miles.  It is different to be in the USA than to be in Mexico or Canada!
Matthew reports that a “Canaanite” woman came to Jesus while he was traveling there and cried out for his help— out on the highway!
Mark says that Jesus was in a house in that region, hoping that nobody would know he was there (why ??), when a “Greek” woman, a
“Syro-Phoenician,” came in asking for his help. 
“She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.”
It is clear that the woman was not Jewish, while Jesus was: her people were Gentiles: Jews were supposed to avoid Gentile company, socially.
Both Matthew and Mark agree that Jesus was rude to the woman: He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.” (Mark)  Matthew also quotes Jesus as saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  So Jesus referred to the Jews as “sheep,” but he clearly called her and her daughter “dogs.” 
I don’t know what they taught you in Sunday School, but as a child, I didn’t pick up on how mean and cruel those words of Jesus sounded. 
If my kid said such things to a girl on the playground, I would have spanked his butt and made him sit out and watch the others play. 
“We don’t talk to people that way!”
Finish reading the story.  Maybe the most important thing to consider is that “Actions speak louder than words.”  But, even so, Why would Jesus talk like that to somebody?  Especially to a mother who was seeking help for her afflicted daughter?  What point was Jesus trying to make— considering that Jesus was God in human flesh?  Wasn’t Jesus sent “so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life”
                                       (John 3:16)        ?

And what does Psalm 146:9 mean when it says,
       “The LORD preserveth the strangers....”  ?

As we open our hearts for Homecoming at Bethel, let’s also open our minds so we can learn to faithfully imitate Jesus’ welcoming ways.