Sunday, August 2, 2020
Hiram & Mantua Center Christian Churches
Remote Worship Order
Order of Worship
PRELUDE
Shall we Gather At The River, Robert Lowery, Arrg. Gina Sprunger {Glory Sound via Shawnee via Hwl Laeonard}
WELCOME & CALL to Worship - Chris
Good Morning!
Welcome to worship with both Hiram and Mantua Center Christian Churches!
On this Sunday well within Ordinary Time,
we have the blessings of hearing the gifts of music from Drew, Adam, and Sydney,
of receiving a word from Pastor Sarah Smith engaging both the text from Isaiah and the Gospel of Matthew,
of participating in communion as Mary Ellen Hamlin invites us to the table.
And added to this, we have the blessing of our church communities - present in ways old and new.
A quick note that if you would like to participate in communion, you are welcome to retrieve the elements from your home - that can be bread and juice or coffee and a scone - whatever is around is perfect.
I am grateful to Mary Ellen and our elders who continue to lead us in communion, affirming that Christ’s table extends far beyond our sanctuaries - into the world and into our homes.
So here this morning,
From within the sanctuary of our God,
Christ’s church,
And our homes,
Let us prepare ourselves for worship,
By joining together in a spirit of prayer.
OPENING PRAYER - Chris
God of the Morning Light,
May we find ourselves within your holy creation this day;
Opening to the gifts of this day like the flora that opens to the dawn;
Offering praise in melody akin to the birdsong that unfolds from every corner of the earth;
Delighting in rest and in play as the creatures who know very well the sacred rhythm of life;
May we find ourselves within your holy creation this day,
Surrounded by the presence of friends and companions;
At one with all;
At one with you.
Lead us this day,
This we pray in the name of the Christ - of all that is holy.
Amen.
HYMN
"How Great Thou Art" #33 (Chalice Hymnal)
SCRIPTURE & SERMON - Are We Satisfied?
Isaiah 55: 1-5
Matthew 14: 13-21
Good morning Church! Our opening question this week is actually about pop culture instead of the Bible. Have you ever heard of the tiny little Broadway Show, “Hamilton”? I am sure that most everyone has, having gone through waves of popularity in 2016 and then again this year with it’s release on Disney+. For those of you who haven’t though, the show follows the life of Alexander Hamilton, a founding father of the USA, from his arrival in the nation to his death. The big twist is that all of the main characters with very few exceptions are portrayed by actors and actresses of color, making it one of the most consistently diverse Broadways shows in history. Further, the musical numbers take inspiration from songs written by artists and musicians of color, giving it a level of musicality that is rarely seen in other popular shows up to this point.
Representation is not the only reason this show has spent so much time in the spotlight. There are many underlying themes in the musical that infuse issues of today into this story of the past, but one of the big themes is what it means to be “satisfied” in life and how different that can look when you’re living in different societal conditions. Alexander, orphaned from a young age is portrayed as “young, scrappy, and hungry” needing to make his way in the fledgling nation, and continues to have this drive his entire life. This “drive”, while a blessing, means that he does not know where to draw the line, to know when to take a break, or when to let arguments or opinions go.
On the other hand, Angelica Schuyler, Hamilton’s sister in law, is also shown to have an extreme amount of drive. One of my favorite songs from the musical, literally titled “Satisfied,” is sung by Angelica as she considers Alexander courting her. She examines their difference in societal status, the needs of fulfilling her father’s wishes, versus her own desires for mental engagement and companionship. In the end, she gives up the idea of Alexander being the one for her, instead introducing him to her sister, Eliza, who he would end up marrying.
In this one instance, there are so many intersections of privilege, here meaning attitudes or views that come from an advantageous societal position, that we can analyze. Angelica comes from a wealthy, educated family whereas Hamilton is portrayed as an orphan who had to learn everything on his own. This means that Angelica has the privilege of wealth. However, Angelica was a woman living in a patriarchal society where she had very limited means to climb social rank and gain capital other than marriage, so she needed to be strategic in who she married. Hamilton, as a male, married into wealth, but he had other means of climbing the social ladder given his education and eventual involvement in the government. Therefore, he had the privilege of gender.
Where the two characters ultimately differ is in where they draw the line at finding happiness. Alexander was brilliant, however he was focused on always working harder, earning more capital for himself, and being right. This led him through many unnecessary hardships in his life that could have been avoided if he took stock of his life and realized that he had enough, that he had done enough. In one of his major mess ups, Angelica comes back from where she had been living with her wealthy, yet not quick or fun, husband in England to comfort Eliza after it is revealed that Alexander had been having an affair, and confronts him with the line, “You could never be satisfied; God, I hope your satisfied!”
It is hard not to envy the way that Hamilton’s almost manic ambition is praised through much of the musical, but the community responses in act two makes us wonder if that ambition is worth it. How do we balance needs and ambition? Where do we draw the line to find satisfaction?
In the scripture from Isaiah, the line that stood out to me the most was, “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” These versus struck me as conflicting: how are we to buy anything without money or price? And there are many things that I need to buy with my money other than bread, and I have to labor in order to make that money whether I am satisfied or not. And yet, God calls us to a life of abundance, where our basic hungers are met and where we can find a life that satisfies us. The catch is that we alone cannot produce this abundance. There has to be a give and take, or else, like Hamilton, we are so overcome with our own needs that we forget that our actions will have consequences for the community around us.
Our second set of verses from Matthew are familiar to us, but we hardly ever examine the privilege contained within them. Jesus and the disciples are traveling around together, not glamorously rich, but also not poor - we know that many of the disciples were fishermen or tradesmen which afforded them the luxury of being able to travel around with Jesus, even if in humble means. One of the odd places we see this privilege playing out is in the verse where the disciples tell Jesus to send the crowds to the market where they could “buy some food” and leave the disciples and Jesus alone for a spell.
Now the passage immediately before this one talks about Jesus teaching the massive crowd and healing quite a few of the people within their midst. Important to note here was that in many cultures, including Jesus’s, your sickness meant that you could not work a job that paid a living wage or be around people. If Jesus was healing the sick, he was working with a group that was more than likely impoverished by today’s standards - admittedly a very Jesus thing to do. Jesus very well might have been thinking in response to his disciples, “Send them to market? With what money?”
So instead, Jesus tells them that they will feed the crowd. When the disciples are baffled, Jesus takes the five loaves and two fish, blesses them, and passes them around. Bam! Miracle happens, everyone is fed, and there are twelve baskets of leftovers.
Except what we understand as a miracle today might be better understood as Jesus knowing how to create sustainable communities better than we ever could. We often forget that Jesus came from humble means. If we remember the circumstances of his birth, he came from an unwed mother, and spent the first few years of his life on the run as a refugee as male children his age were being slaughtered by Herrod. Jesus understood the plight of the poor, and solved group hunger the simple way - by hosting a potluck.
Not everyone in the crowd came empty handed. Jesus wasn’t the only traveling teacher, and often people would bring food with them on long journeys. Counting on that fact Jesus started sharing what he and the disciples had brought, sending a ripple effect throughout the crowd as others began to share what they had as well. No one would get full on these meals, but they would leave satisfied. Because no one took more OR less than they needed, everyone had their needs met and there were more leftovers than could have been imagined.
Often times, we view the world with a scarcity mindset - I don’t have enough so I need to work harder, do more, make more, or be more so that I can be deserving of my slice of the pie, my salary, my partner’s love etc. This scarcity mindset is entirely a human construct. God calls us, all throughout scripture, to have an abundance mindset: there is always enough energy and resources to go around if we are willing to work together to allocate them appropriately. You are already deserving of having your needs met - Isaiah shows us that we should eat without worrying about the cost because that cost is ultimately superfluous. Matthew reminds us that when we come together to take care of the needs of the community, no one is untouched from the grace that can be found.
I am sure you do not need me to remind you that we are currently living through a major global event. We have had to isolate for months on end, making it harder for especially the most vulnerable among us to rely on the communal systems that God calls us to support. As we have settled into our homes, it is easy to settle back into the scarcity mindset of wanting to hoard what is needed for those closest to us and let others worry about themselves. But because we are the children of a God of compassion, I can tell you we will never be truly satisfied with that response to the needs of the people around us.
This week, I hope that we can find areas of abundance in our lives. Whether it is a resource - time, money, food, energy, or a gift like letter writing, phone calls, grocery delivery, or volunteering; we all have little places in our life where we can stand to say that we are satisfied and then put that excess back into the community. May we all have our needs met and meet the needs of the beloved kindom of God. May we always be satisfied. Amen.
SPECIAL MUSIC
Carol and Emma
CHILDREN’S MOMENT - Chris
So today, we have heard the story from the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus is out teaching to a great crowd on a hillside.
Everyone has come there to be together and to listen to and learn from Jesus;
And the day is going on, and on,
And soon there are rumblings in the tummies of the crowd.
The disciples come and ask Jesus what to do about it all?
Should we send them home?
Jesus tells them to take care of it,
And they look around and all they can find are two fish and five loaves of bread -
Jesus receives it, gives thanks, and blesses it -
And it multiplies -
Like 9 x 9;
Like 81 x 81
Like 6,561 x 6,561 until everyone is full and there’s leftovers for tomorrow.
It’s a brilliant story of the abundance of God;
And, there is an interpretation of the story - that I so love,
And I think you might too,
And it goes like this…
When the disciples were looking around for food…
They looked high and low and asked everybody -
Do you have any food to share?
No one said yes.
Even though the people had planned ahead and brought food;
They had it stored in their bags and pockets;
They had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,
String cheese,
And juice boxes, but
They didn’t say anything,
Because they thought that if they gave theirs away;
It would go to feed others,
And not themselves…
The disciples kept looking around and asking…
Does anyone have food to share?
People are getting hungry…
And a child heard the disciples;
The child heard the question,
And remembered what was in their backpack…
Opened it up, pulled out the fish and bread,
And shared it.
The disciples were relieved;
And the crowd who witnessed this act of generosity was inspired…
The people reached into their pockets;
They opened up their bags;
And pulled out their sandwiches,
Their snacks,
Their drinks,
And began to share with one another.
So that by the time the disciples returned to Jesus with the two fish and five loaves of bread,
Jesus told them to turn around…
And witness the abundance of God;
And the power of generosity and love.
And all had enough.
That child’s generosity was powerful and it is inspiring.
I hope you know that your generosity -
The ways that you share your food
That you share your attention -
That you share your friendship
They are good and powerful gifts
That meet the world’s hunger.
What you have within your pockets, your bookbag, and your heart -
Are all amazing gifts to offer as you see fit.
So let us give thanks for the abundance of God;
The tremendous hearts of the children of these congregations;
And the great power of generosity to meet the world’s hunger.
Amen.
COMMUNAL PRAYER - Sarah
When so much of our world is groaning with injustice and destruction, we are invited to turn to God and one another. We are not meant to carry the struggles of the world alone. And so, in a spirit of collective embrace, may we share together in prayer for all that troubles our hearts.
For all of the bodies in suffering - deprived of resources, withheld from care, or made into targets of violence.
For all whose spirits are in despair - those who are facing loss or grief, those who are isolated, or those struggling to accept their own worth.
For all of the ways power is wielded over communities and individuals - for those living under oppressive forces, for the temptation towards complicity with injustice, and for the ways the church sometimes uses you, o God, as a weapon rather than a tool for healing and liberation.
Just as we are not meant to shoulder the world’s pain alone, we are equally invited to delight with one another in the joy that sustains us.
For the beauty that grows around us.
For the gifts of shared meals and community and relationships that transform and sustain us.
For art and music and stories and truths that foster love and connection.
For every source of courage in the face of all that makes us afraid.
God, we give you thanks!
For your presence within and around us, in our highs and lows, our hope and our despair, God, we give you thanks. Hear our prayers and deepen our willingness to show up with and for one another, sharing in each other’s burdens and working for one another’s protection and care. Amen.
DOXOLOGY
HOLY COMMUNION
Communion Hymn - "Oh Lord Hear my Prayers" Taize Community
Meditation - MaryEllen Hamlin
Communal Prayer & the Lord’s Prayer - MaryEllen Hamlin
Words of Institution - MaryEllen or Pastor
Sharing Communion Together
BENEDICTION - Sarah
Our Benediction prayer is adapted from a poem by Rev Barclay of Enfleshed: Liturgy that matters.
May the weary find a soft place to rest.
May the searching be met by the Sacred.
May the caravanning be encouraged, be fed, be clothed, be received.
May the righteous see the fruits of their labor.
May the lonely find comfort in the night.
May the privileged take extravagant actions of solidarity.
May the complicit repent.
May the apathetic come to recognize the hardness of their hearts.
May the courageous have multitudes behind them.
May the creative write, paint, sing, and dance the truths we all need to feel.
May the fearful keep showing up, keep wrestling, keep taking steps.
May the unjust powerful step-down or be torn down.
May the mourning not be rushed to heal.
May the caretakers have their cups refilled.
May the Holy One within each of us rise, rise, rise.
And may we always recognize when we are satisfied. Amen.
HYMN
Sydney 419 All Who Hunger
POSTLUDE
GoldbergVariation No.9. J.S. Bach {Classical}