Last fall a member of our congregation brought to my attention a report from GfK Custom Research, a noted market research organization. They released results from a 2005 study of various values that Americans hold dear. The report was intended to inform product and service providers about purchasing motivation, advertising strategies and marketing messages. However, the list of values intrigued me as tangible expressions of what Christian living can create and cultivate. So, in worship during the season of Epiphany we’ll look closer at these values in ascending order of rank from 7th to 1st: Stable Relationships, Justice, Friendship, Health and Fitness, Freedom, Family and Honesty.
Isaiah 62: 1-5 A Sermon Preached by Dan Johnson on 1/14/07 We continue our Epiphany worship series inspired by a report from GfK Custom Research about a 2005 study of various values that Americans hold dear. The report was intended to inform marketing strategies for businesses, but the list of values are intriguing expressions of what Christian living can create and cultivate. So, in worship during the season of Epiphany we’re looking closer at these values in ascending order of rank: Stable Relationships, Justice, Friendship, Health and Fitness, Freedom, Family and Honesty. If these are the top seven values Americans are seeking these days, how can our faith and our church provide the mentoring and the means we need to develop these values in our daily lives?
1 Corinthians 12:14-26 A Sermon Preached by Dan Johnson on 1/21/07 We continue our Epiphany worship series inspired by a report from GfK Custom Research about a 2005 study of various values that Americans hold dear. The report was intended to inform marketing strategies for businesses, but the list of values are intriguing expressions of what Christian living can create and cultivate. So, in worship during the season of Epiphany we’re looking closer at these values in ascending order of rank: Stable Relationships, Justice, Friendship (today), Health and Fitness, Freedom, Family and Honesty. If these are the top seven values Americans are seeking these days, it seems important to reflect on how our faith and our church can help develop these values in our daily lives.
Top American Values: #4 Health and Fitness 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 A Sermon Preached by Becky Sechrist on 1/28/07 I’ve been thinking about how to address this sermon topic this week. I’ve been thinking about it in all those down moments. While I was lifting weights, while I was walking my dog, while I was waiting for my soup to warm up. I also thought about it while hurtling down the highway at 65 mph, late for my next meeting. Oh, and while I was popping popcorn. During the Sundays of Epiphany, we are exploring the results of custom research by GfK. In 2005, they determined the top 10 American Values, and we are looking at the top seven, in ascending order. Stable Relationships, Justice, Friendship, Health and Fitness today, and then Freedom, Family and Honesty.
For six weeks our worship services have referenced a marketing survey about top-ranked values that Americans hold dear. During this season of Epiphany we’ve reflected from a faith perspective about stable relationships, justice, friendship, health and fitness and freedom. Next week we’ll look at the top ranked value of honesty and today we focus on the theme of family including input submitted from a number of you about the topic. Family is often in the public eye. Like the family of Lisa Marie Nowak – talented aeronautical engineer, Navy pilot, space shuttle astronaut, loving daughter, mother and wife who recently assaulted a woman who was vying for the affections of another astronaut whom Nowak coveted as her boyfriend. Family is often in the pubic eye.
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2This morning we conclude our worship series on top ranked values among Americans. The international marketing firm GfK Custom Research has been doing this survey of values annually since 1997 and for the first time, honesty was ranked #1 with the long standing top value of family dropping to the #2 spot. 79% of Americans now say honesty is an extremely/very important value to them, a 10% increase since the inception of this study. Interestingly, Brazil is the only other country of the 30 surveyed that also ranked honesty as their top value.
I remember day dreaming when I was just starting out in my career, how as a young soldier I jockeyed for promotion as an officer of Imperial Rome. I envisioned myself riding to victory after victory with Caesar’s conquering legions. I pondered how my men and I would fight for justice everywhere and bring enlightenment and prosperity to the uncivilized subjects of our realm. Even this assignment to a remote outpost in Jerusalem I hoped to turn into an opportunity for service to others and recognition for myself. But today, I don’t know. Something’s going on that just doesn’t feel right. I can’t talk to my commander; I certainly can’t approach Pontius Pilate.
I was swept up in two parades this week. Both held the same figure as the center of attraction. The first parade was one of exuberant welcome last Sunday. The popular teacher Jesus, came riding through the main gate of Jerusalem just as it was foretold that the messiah would come to us. I didn’t know much about Jesus or about Jewish prophecy, but I was sure up for anyone who would come and deliver me from the constant hassles of living as a subject of Rome. I got caught up in the emotion of the moment. The crowd was shouting “Hosanna”, and I did too! The crowd was cutting palm branches from the trees and waving them to usher this new king into our city, and I did too! You know the problem with palms?
(BECKY FROM OFF-STAGE) From the beginning of time my creation was intended for the purpose of relationship. From wood ticks to woodchucks, from swordfish to swordtails, from pineapples to pine trees, from nursing babies to nursing homes I seek the interdependence of all and the desire of all to freely unite with me. Yet in their freedom to pursue their own desires, the very creatures with greatest potential for intimacy are the creatures that so frequently divide with enmity!
Being a disciple of Jesus had to have been hard. Taking leave from your work, moving unpredictably around the countryside. Fearing the authorities, both Jewish and Roman, and being challenged to think about God, humanity, and your role in the world in a whole different way.
As a Pharisee, I was steeped in Jewish tradition and law. I have to admit, I’m pretty bright and energetic and I know how to work the system. Eventually I was elevated to membership within the Sanhedrin. This council of seventy key Jewish rulers has significant power, commands unqualified respect and is considered to be the pinnacle of success for a religious professional. But the more I fill my life with work, the emptier I feel. I start to dream about what life might be like if only I’d made different choices. Of course it’s only dreaming, because the choices have already been made and I’m so far down one path that there is now no other road to travel.
Pastor James Harnish of Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa, Florida tells the story of a little boy who was not exactly happy about going to church on Easter Sunday morning. His new shoes were too tight, his tie pinched his neck and the weather was just too beautiful to be cooped up inside ... As he sulked in the back seat of the car, his parents heard him mutter: “I don’t know why we have to go to church on Easter, anyway; they keep telling the same old story and it always comes out the same in the end!”
(Scripture: Revelation 1:4-8) Usually when I begin to talk about the book of Revelation, or read scripture from it, peoples eyes begin to glaze over. Some of you looked glazed before I read the scripture, so I’m not sure this morning is a fair test, but . . . What most people know about the book of Revelation is its weird, scary imagery. We’ve been told that it is a prediction of the end times, but as we read it, we get lost in the symbolism and imagery and end up finding the whole experience unhelpful. The book of Revelation is both a letter and a revelation, an image. John, of Patmos, is imprisoned, probably for his Christian beliefs. While living in his imprisonment area, he has a vision from God.
Scripture: Jeremiah 29:4-7, Revelation 7:9-17 A Sermon Preached by Dennis Alexander on April 29, 2007 When a missionary arrives at their field of service, the first task is to experience first hand their new surroundings. To see it with new eyes "as if they have never been there before!" On the mission field, gone are any notions of staying within the walls of your compound or working in your office - daily the missionary interacts with their new context. Often established churches need to get out of their buildings and into their surrounding communities as if we had just arrived for the first time on the scene. We need to see our communities with a set of "new eyes" and interact afresh with the people who live around our church buildings.
One of our local celebrities, Prince, is performing here in the Twin Cities on 7/7/07 to herald the release of his new fragrance, 3121. For $250 you can attend an intimate concert with 1,400 fans on the eighth floor of Macys Department Store followed by a public concert that evening at Target Center. You’ll also receive a sample of his new perfume. Tickets went on sale a week ago Friday morning and people started camping out in line on Nicollet Mall Thursday afternoon. Scalpers wasted no time putting these instantly scarce tickets up for sale on the internet for as much as $1,200 apiece!
Scripture: Luke 7:36-50, A father passing by his son’s bedroom, was astonished to see the bed was nicely made, and everything was picked up. Then he saw an envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow. It was addressed, “Dad.” Fearing the worst, he opened the envelope and read the letter, with trembling hands.
The story of Mary and Martha is one of the more well-known stories of the Bible, like the story of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, the story which this immediately follows, by the way. And I don’t know if this ever happens to men, but I can tell you that if you are a woman and you’ve attended enough women’s retreats, you will eventually spend some time talking about the Martha and Mary story. You’ll be asked to indicate which one you identify with, and the vast majority of the women in the room will identify with Martha. And since Martha is scolded by Jesus, the whole thing ends up deteriorating, with the Martha-identified women commenting that if Martha hadn’t been cooking and preparing, how did Jesus think that dinner was going to get on the table?
(Scripture: Luke 11:1-4) PREPARATION Luke 11:1, You’ve probably noticed that our order of worship is a bit different today. I’ve structured the service in the order of themes depicted by phrases of The Lord’s Prayer as recorded in verses 1-4 of the 11th chapter of the gospel of Luke. Verse 1 focuses us on preparation and reads, “Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’” The disciples of Jesus longed for the same sense of intimacy and connection with God that they witnessed in the disciples of John the Baptist.
To and from work, you drive I-35W through the city twice a day, a couple hundred times a year. You drive it so often surrounded by rush hour traffic that you no longer even notice that part of your route passes some 60 feet over the Mississippi River. Or you’re heading to meet extended family for dinner like you have so many times before and find yourself late and crawling along in traffic on that same stretch of road. Or as a construction worker you’ve endured another hot day of Minnesota road maintenance, with impatient motorists shouting drive by obscenities over their inconvenience while you simply look forward to finishing your shift and heading home to family. Or on a whim, just this once, you decide to take the highway instead of the road less traveled.
Ole and Lena were sitting down to their usual cup of morning coffee listening to the weather report coming over the radio. “There will be three to five inches of snow today and a snow emergency has been declared. You must park your cars on the odd- numbered side of the streets.” Ole got up from his coffee and mumbles, “For Pete’s sake, Okay”. A few days later, again they both are sitting down with their cups of morning coffee and the weather forecast is two to four inches of snow with another snow emergency declared.
Jesus is invited to dinner by a Pharisee, and takes the opportunity to offer some advice to those gathered around. First, he offers some advice on how to be a good guest. Dinner was often an event in Jesus day, and guests would gather, reclining around a cushion in groups of 3 or so. The closer to the center of the room you were, the more important you were. Don’t risk disgrace, Jesus advises, begin by reclining at some far away place, and let your host elevate you to a better position. Don’t start in the center, only to be moved further out. The advise wasn’t unique to Jesus, it was pretty common advice for his day. The kind of thing you’d see in a column from Miss Manners or an answer from Dear Abby on how best to handle a dinner engagement.
This program year in worship we’ll be addressing the overarching theme of “Finding Our Way”. Our worship committee and staff spent a great deal of time capturing an image of the individual spiritual journeys we are on and our collective commitment to move in a common direction and support each other on the path. For each liturgical season throughout the year we’ve selected a sub theme and accompanying symbol. They all appear on the beautiful banner in the narthex stairwell created by members and friends of our worship committee. Matching bulletin covers are also being created for continuity. This fall, we start our process of finding our way with a walk through the Gospel of Luke.
This program year in Sunday worship we’re addressing the overarching theme of “Finding Our Way”. A banner hangs in the narthex stairwell reminding us of this spiritual journey we are on together including symbols for milestones along the way. This fall, we start our process of finding our way with a walk through the Gospel of Luke. As we reflect on the biblical history of Jesus’ life and ministry, may HIS story, become OUR story. “Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them. Leave them alone and they will come home, wagging their tails behind them.” The popular children’s nursery rhyme “Little Bo Peep” can be traced back in oral tradition to the latter half of the 1800’s.
The theme for our congregation this year is “Finding Our Way.” And we are spending time in each of the liturgical seasons looking at various ways in which we do that. This fall, until Advent, we are examining the parables found in the gospel of Luke. Through these parables, we get stories about Jesus and his teachings, but as we listen to “HiStory” we hope to find ways to make that Our story as well. Most of the parables that Jesus tells are either about the Kindom of God (the kindom of God is like a mustard seed . . . ) or they are lessons in behavior (there was a father who had two sons . . . ). In fact, the parables right before this one in the gospel of Luke include some of the most well-known.
A month ago I was interviewed for an article in the Source section of the Star Tribune on the value of men having friendships. The quotes precipitated several phone calls, e-mails and notes from people around the Twin Cities, men and women alike who resonated with the need for friends. Among those responses was a letter I received a few weeks ago from the Sherburne County Jail. A man whom I will refer to as “Ray” described the white collar crime for which he was convicted and imprisoned, and then goes on to reflect, “Needless to say, Pastor Dan, I have had ample time to reflect on my life, the choices I’ve made – including the people I considered friends and the path that led me to where I am today.
Each Wednesday night our confirmation class begins with a ten-minute small group discussion of the scripture passage for the coming Sunday. It teaches youth how to use the Bible for devotional reflection and preps them for the next worship theme. Two common questions emerged last Wednesday night about our passage from Luke 17, “What are lepers?” And, “What are Samaritans?” So for all of us, I’ll begin with a brief answer to both. Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, is a chronic bacterial disease of the peripheral nerves and the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions are the primary external symptom. Left untreated, leprosy can be progressive, causing permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs, and eyes.
As many of you already know, I grew up in a small town. We were the “odd family” since we did not farm for a living, but it was a wonderful place to grow up. I knew all my neighbors, and they knew me. I also know the problems with communities. They are made up of imperfect people, and so they are also imperfect. Not everyone served as a positive role model, and not everyone behaved in the ways you’d like in a community. But we were still a community. Now I find that I prefer living in large urban areas, but even as I live in cities, I find that communities form. In each of the places I have lived, I’ve known the people around me, and they have been that same mixture of good and imperfect that I found growing up. Jesus also lived in a community of people.
Hannah Montana has come and gone, but the hype persists. For those who aren’t a ticket scalper or don’t know a pre-teen girl, you may not be aware of the sold-out concert at the Target Center last Sunday night. Miley Cyrus is the 14 year old star of the hit Disney Channel series, “Hannah Montana”. Her character leads a dual life as a rock star and an ordinary school girl and Cyrus’ Best of Both World’s Tour features both personas.
Back in the 1980’s, Catherine Ryan Hyde was driving alone at night in a rough area of downtown Los Angeles. Her aging Datsun 1200 stalled at the head of a freeway ramp and then the passenger compartment started to fill with smoke. She was forced to step out of her car in that dangerous neighborhood and immediately saw two men running at her, one carrying an open blanket he’d pulled from the trunk of his car. Catherine thought to herself, “I’m dead.” Then the two men ran right past her, pulled open the hood of her car and smothered the flames with the blanket. The fire department arrived quickly, called by another motorist. When the emergency was under control, Catherine went to thank those two men, but they were gone.
Dedicating our stewardship commitments and commemorating the musical ministry of Charles Wesley on the 300th anniversary of his birth.
Prelude: "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling"
Our service this morning will both celebrate the culmination of our stewardship and capital campaign, and will celebrate the birth of Charles Wesley (Dec. 17, 1707). The service will follow the movement of the Church Year, starting at Advent and moving through to Pentecost. We will sing and hear hymns from Charles Wesley for each of these seasons, change the paraments for the appropriate time, and share information about the life of Charles Wesley. Let us begin with that well-known hymn, "O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing"
You’re probably a little confused by this week’s reading. We’ve been reading from the parables of Luke this fall, as we finish the season of Pentecost. You probably know that the season of Advent comes before Christmas, and I know that you know that Christmas is coming up!
Throughout the fall, our Sunday worship walked through the gospel of Luke as we sought to make the story of Jesus’ life and ministry – his story, our story. Last Sunday, Becky Sechrist’s sermon ended that season of Pentecost with the scripture passage on the crucifixion and death of Christ. Today, the very next week, all four of the lectionary readings (which are incorporated into our service) anticipate the new birth of a Messiah. Staring down death and then pausing long enough to ready ourselves for a new birth…that’s a curious juxtaposition – an awkward transition; and yet real nonetheless.
We wait for a variety of different people and organizations to provide a positive influence and a constructive direction for our lives:
• We invest phenomenal resources of time, energy and money into youth athletics, waiting for the adult mentoring and team camaraderie to shape our children. And then the arrest last week of a girl’s high school hockey coach for a sexual relationship with a 16 year-old team member leaves us wanting even of physical safety.
• We look to elected leaders to place concern for their constituencies ahead of partisan loyalties, waiting for issues of energy and health care and education and environment to be addressed. And then we watch the congressional session come to a close in incapacitating impasse.
It seems that people have been asking for signs from God ever since there was a relationship between God and human beings. In the creation story at the very beginning of Genesis, we read, “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the domes of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.’” In the wilderness, the people asked Moses for a sign. And they asked again, and again, never quite sure that God was still in their midst. During the time of the judges, before there were kings, Gilead looked for a sign to confirm that God was calling him into leadership. Kings dreamed important dreams and had people in the employ of the court to interpret those dreams.
Good Samaritan United Methodist Church is part of the reconciling movement.
We welcome and affirm all persons regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, race,
or socioeconomic background. We seek to reconcile any differences that divide us.
Our Mission: We CARE--We are a Christian Community of Acceptance,
Reaching out to others and Engaging members in vital ministry.
