Prelude - “Under His Wings I am Safely Abiding” [by I. D. Sankey] - Sarah Park
Welcome to the Mantua Center Christian Church - Rev. Nancy Humes
Welcome to the Mantua Center Christian Church! We are a community seeking to have open minds, open hearts, and open arms.
Thank you for joining us here in the house and online. Welcome to everyone!
Scripture Reading - Psalm 136:1 - Rev. Nancy Humes
O give thanks to the LORD, for his love is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever
*Welcoming Song - “Here We Gather” #294
Here we gather as God’s people with our friends from far and near;
Let our voices sound with praises knowing Christ has called us here.
Now we seek and greet each other, now in joy approach our friends.
Here we mingle, bound together as to all our love extends.
*Call to Worship - Katie Baird
ONE: God has called us to this place as a part of God’s people around the world.
ALL: God’s people have many faces
ONE: There are young and old
ALL: There are male and female
ONE: God’s people come from different backgrounds.
ALL: Look at all our faces here today. We have gifts that differ, according to the grace given to us.
ONE: O God, help us to discover these gifts
ALL: in ourselves and in others.
ONE: Help us celebrate these gifts as we offer thanksgiving for the grace given to us.
ALL: May our worship today empower us to be a more visible sign of your love and grace in our community and beyond. Amen.
*Opening Hymn - In Christ there is No East or West #687, vs.1-3
1 In Christ there is no east or west,
in him no south or north,
but one community of love
throughout the whole wide earth.
2 In Christ shall true hearts ev'rywhere
their high communion find;
his service is the golden cord,
close binding humankind.
3 Join hands, disciples of the faith,
whate'er your race may be;
all children of the living God
are surely kin to me.
Invitation to Generosity
Invitation - Katie Baird
Offertory
Music: “Dying with Jesus, by Death Reckoned Mine” [by M. W. Moody] - Sarah Park
*Response - Accept, O God, The Gifts We Bring #379, 2 lines
Accept, O God, the gifts we bring of spirit and of clay,
transform them into blessings on those we serve today.
Offering Prayer - Katie Baird
Children’s Moment - Rev. Nancy Humes
Special Music - "Strummin' Seniors" Dulcimer Group with Jan Green
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer - Rev. Nancy Humes
Communion
Meditation - Ruth Anne Ruehr
Communion Hymn - Let us Break Bread Together #425, vs. 1-3
1 Let us break bread together on our knees; (on our knees)
let us break bread together on our knees. (on our knees)
[Refrain:]
When I fall on my knees, with my face to the rising sun, O Lord, have mercy on me. (on me)
2 Let us drink wine together on our knees; (on our knees)
let us drink wine together on our knees. (on our knees) [Refrain]
3 Let us praise God together on our knees; (on our knees)
let us praise God together on our knees. (on our knees) [Refrain]
Prayer - Brian Hurd
Words of Institution - Brian Hurd
Music: “On a Hill Far Away” [by G. Bennard] - Sarah Park
Scripture
Genesis 1:26a-28 (Common English Bible)
Then God said, Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us . . .
God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them.
Genesis 2:7 (Common English Bible)
The Lord God formed the human from the topsoil of the fertile land and blew life’s breath into his nostrils. The human came to life.
Colossians 3:12-17 (NIV)
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Sermon - “A Light in a Jar and a God Coat” - Rev. Nancy Humes
I’d also like to add to our readings this morning– it’s called a Midrash.
Now you might be wondering what a Midrash is, and I’m going to tell you.
A Midrash is an ancient commentary on part of the Hebrew scriptures, attached to the biblical text – it’s like a commentary written about the text — every preacher’s library contains books and books of commentary about the biblical text. It is said about the Midrash that, (and I quote) “They try to make the Bible more understandable, to make the characters more human . . . to draw meaning from the simple, concise text and teach lessons based on the text. They were created to teach the Bible in a simple folksy way, to tell stories and offer moral lessons. They were the sermons —the ethical lessons drawn from the biblical texts — of their time.unquote.
Here’s a very short and simple example of Midrash.
When the world was created, God made everything a little bit incomplete. Rather than making bread grow right out of the earth, God made wheat grow so that we might bake it into bread. In this way, we could become partners in completing the work of creation. The scholars who wrote the commentary were trying to explain the workings of God.
The one I really want to focus on today is an explanation of creation and I quote here:
“In the beginning—before the beginning—God’s light filled the entire universe.
When God decided to create the world, He had to withdraw some of His light from the universe, so that there would be space for the land and the seas, the trees and the corn stalks, the butterflies and the lions, the ladybugs and the sea otters.
So God breathed in some of the Divine light, so that there would be room for all the things He wanted to create.
But what was God to do with the light—with the light of His Being that had filled the whole universe—now that He had breathed it in?
God put the light into jars, heavenly vessels that would hold His radiance.
And then God began to create: the sky and the earth, the dry lands and the waters, the fiery sun, the shimmering moon and the twinkling stars, the forests and the deserts, the creepy crawly things and the birds of the air, the fish of the seas and the animals roaming from here to there.
Everything was going too well. Creation was shaping up just perfectly. God was having a wonderful time!
But in the heavens, there was trouble.
God’s light, which He had put into the vessels, could not be hidden away. For no vessel—not even a heavenly vessel—could contain the radiant light of God. The glory of God’s splendor was accustomed to filling the universe, not being hidden away in little jars.
So it wasn’t too long until—with a blazing flash — God’s light burst out of the heavenly vessels —[Big Bang theory? I question].
The force of the mighty impact caused the jars to shatter into millions of little pieces.
And the light itself splintered into billions of little sparks.
The broken pieces of vessels fell to the newly formed earth and became the ills and the evils that beset the world—little pieces of anguish and travail that, one day, will have to be collected, repaired, and made whole again.
And what happened to the billions of little shards of light?
Each of the little shards of light, the sparks of God, became the soul of a human being.
That which makes the lump of clay that is a human body into a living, breathing, person—a person capable of thinking and knowing, reasoning, and remembering, a person capable of doing justly and feeling compassion—is the soul and the human soul is a tiny piece of God, a tiny fragment of God’s light, a spark of the Divine that burst forth from the heavenly vessels and showered the universe.
God declared that the crowning works of creation were these human souls—man and woman, created in His image, created with a spark of His Divine Being. And to man and woman, God assigned a divine task and a sacred mission.
Each person, then and now, is to joyfully share the universe with God, to be His companion and helpmate, His resident caretaker and earthly steward.
And each person, then and now, is to be a partner with God in healing and transforming the universe: picking up the little pieces of the shattered vessels, repairing them, and making them—and the world—healthy and whole.
It’s a little different from the basic account of creation we typically read isn’t it? It’s fleshed out for us trying to explain creation in a way that we can understand. According to noted scholars Genesis was probably compiled sometimes around the Babylonian Captivity – that’s about 586 B.C.E. and this midrash was probably written sometimes between 250 B.C.E. and 500 C.E. that’s a long, long time ago but I think it still resonates today.
The word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
Please join with me now as I go to our Creator God in prayer.
We ask you God that you open our ears to hear, our minds to receive and our hearts beat with your word. And now, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight oh Lord my strength and my redeemer. Amen.
Now you might be wondering where I’m coming from this morning — I have to admit that sometimes I wonder that too! But I also have to tell you I’ve had a several stressful weeks in a row and at times I really wished I hadn’t said I’d preach, or that I’d kept my original date in June. I even thought to go back to sermons I preached before and repurpose. But going back over old sermons and finding this particular Midrashim, and taking these words, the love and compassion of this community of faith, and then last week with Rev. Harris and his exuberance and joy as well as his message — well all I can say is — it was contagious! I caught the ‘bug” and got a fresh attitude, got reinvigorated, and decided you all deserve something better than a repurposed sermon! Now I’ll admit that I’ve used the Midrashim before but in a totally different context — explaining the evil in the world. So, here we are today instead of talking about evil, we are talking about lights in jars and God coats. And, putting it together with what I talked about a few weeks ago – kitsugi – of how the Japanese art of it takes something broken and creates something beautiful out of it, well – the circle has well, come full circle you could say because even though I’ve felt stressed and broken and to me the earth seems broken, it really is beautiful and there’s a lot of good out there. We just have to open our eyes and hearts and look for it. And, each person of God’s creation is absolutely beautiful and even if broken there’s good news – we can be repaired — the earth can be repaired!
But, getting back to this Jewish Legend/explanation, listening to it makes me think of humanity differently. We are special as we each contain a spark of the divine — of God. We ARE the sparks in the bottle. And, whether this midrashim is right or wrong is not the question – this different explanation of creation gives us hope as it makes us co-creators - partners with God as we contain a spark of the divine just as God intended. We are to work with God!
So, here we are created in God’s image containing a spark of God’s light and our second Genesis scripture tells us that and I quote here: “The Lord God formed the human from the topsoil of the fertile land and blew life’s breath into the humans’ . . . nostrils. The human came to life” unquote. So God’s breath comes into our lungs – making us living breathing creatures. This too makes us part of God since we contain a spark of God light and God’s breath.
Don’t you think that’s awesome? I sure do.
But, is that all we were created to be — God’s spark that breathes and roams around the earth oftentimes lording it all over creation destroying or saving it at will (a topic for another day)? Personally, I believe that God expects more of us — so much more. And if God made us partners in God’s creation we have and bear responsibility for how the earth is taken care of and repairing the damage that has been done whether through natural disasters or our own irresponsibility.
And, now looking at our scripture from Colossians it tells us that and I quote here . . . “as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, [we are to] clothe [y]ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” unquote. Now it may look like we’re putting on our “God coat” here – clothing ourselves with these attributes – and it may be what some folks see – us putting on and taking off our God coat.. But if we take these God attributes inside us — let them become us, we truly become the kind of people God wants us to be. We are living, breathing beings — humans that contain a spark and the breath of our creator God. This is the kind of person Jesus exemplified – he showed us the way and told us to follow in his footsteps – to follow his example until we absorb these characteristics truly becoming God’s children.
I don’t know about you but this has reinvigorated me and refilled me with hope, love, joy and more than I ever imagined. I didn’t realize how down I had become and that revisiting scriptures could make such a difference – Oh, I know we hear preached the same scriptures at Christmas and Easter – and lots of other times too and I know how we preachers struggle to find something new – a different way of looking at them. We study and we read and research. Admittedly it’s time well spent but it is work — oftentimes hard work, other times joys.
But in taking this time of reading sermons I preached before, and papers I wrote before I now realize how much I have grown in my faith and spirituality. It’s exciting to see how much I have changed and in many ways I can’t believe how much I’ve changed.
When I first went to Divinity School our own Pastor Mize told me that I would lose the faith I had but that it would be replaced — that I would rebuild it. In that process I would discover something deeper, more spiritual — I admit I really didn’t believe him, but it happened and that simple faith I began with, well, it did change and grow. But to actually see it again, in black and white — WOW – I changed so much and I recognize that as I study and learn I continue to change and grow. It’s exciting. It’s scary as I wonder how much more I possibly can change. My daughter Heather when she tells her friends that I am a minister she also tells them and I quote her here “think of the person who is as radical as they can think of, then travel a few more miles down that road.” I guess that does describe me. I know it describes the Jesus I follow — you know the one who hung out with Pharisees, Sadducees, Romans, Samaritans, sinners, adulterers, lepers, thieves, tax-collectors, disciples and friends — you name it — Jesus simply called them friends.
He said:
Love God,
Love your enemies,
Love your friends and . . .
Love yourself!
For Jesus there was no difference. That is my goal. And I fully recognize today that I still have much work to do.
I invite you on this journey with me.
Accept the spark God gave to each of us.
Accept the breath of God that God gave to each of us.
Put on our God coats until they become part of us.
Be God’s sparks in our world.
Amen.
*Closing Hymn - Blest Be the Tie That Binds #433, vs. 1-2
1 Blest be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love:
the fellowship of kindred minds
is like to that above.
2 When we are called to part,
it gives us inward pain;
but we shall still be joined in heart,
and hope to meet again.
Seminary Blessing for Kathleen Leigh Lewarchick
Introduction - Brian & Steve Hurd
Litany of Response
ONE: As you go forth into this new journey, we send you with our love and support.
ALL: May God's wisdom guide you, and God’s love surround you.
ONE: May you find joy in learning and strength in challenges.
ALL: May the Holy Spirit inspire you and give you courage.
ONE: As you deepen your understanding of God's Word, may your faith grow ever stronger.
ALL: May you be a light to others, sharing God's grace and truth.
Blessing (Laying on of hands by the Elders)
Benediction - Brian & Steve Hurd
Postlude - “Standing on the Promises ” [by R. K. Carter] - Sarah Park
Thank you for joining us at Mantua Center Christian Church!
Special thanks to Rev. Nancy Humes, for serving as our Pastor this morning! We also extend blessings upon Kathleen Leigh Lewarchick as she begins her new journey in her Seminary studies!