Prelude - “My Jesus, I Love Thee ” [by A.J. Gordon] - Sarah Park
Welcome to the Mantua Center Christian Church! We are a community seeking to have open minds, open hearts, and open arms, building community in a fragmented world.
Opening Scripture - Luke 10:27 - Roger Cram
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
I saw a little girl the other day who I thought was in pain. She was going… (demonstrate).
I asked her if she was OK, if she was suffering?
She said, “I am not in pain, I am trying to love God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength. This is really hard!”
You don’t love God by super-hard concentration. You love God by loving others, by spreading His love to all His creations. Each time you love another by evoking a kindness, you demonstrate Christ’s love.
*Response - Weave
Weave, weave, weave us together, Weave us together, in unity and love.
Weave, weave, weave us together, weave us together, together in love.
*Call to Worship Liz Meeker
ONE: Come with your questions, come with your awe!
ALL: For the God who broods over the chaos meets us in this place
ONE: Come with your energy, come with your weariness!
ALL: For the God who breathes new life into the dust meets us in this place.
ONE: Come with your sadness, come with your joy!
ALL: For the God who dared to become human meets us in this place.
~ written by Katherine Hawker
*Opening Hymn - When Morning Gilds the Skies #100, v.1&3
1 When morning gilds the skies, my heart awaking cries,
may Jesus Christ be praised! Alike at work and prayer
to Jesus I repair; may Jesus Christ be praised!
3 Sing, suns and stars of space, sing, all that see his face;
may Jesus Christ be praised! God's whole creation o'er,
both now and evermore: may Jesus Christ be praised!
Invitation to Generosity
Invitation - Liz Meeker
Offertory - “I Can Hear My Savior Calling” [by J.S. Norris]
The Doxology #46
Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise God, all creatures here below;
praise God above, ye heavenly host: Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Offering Prayer - Liz Meeker
Children’s Moment - Roger Cram
Notes: Symbols of power and love. The symbol of the United States is the eagle, a powerful and majestic bird exuding safety and comfort under its protection and watchful eye. The symbol of love is the cross, reminding us of sacrifice, love, and forgiveness of Jesus Christ for all mankind.
A man known as Benjamin Franklin wanted the national bird for the United States to be the turkey. How does an eagle sound? How does a turkey sound?
Pastoral Prayer - Genesis - Chapter One - Roger Cram
Let us have a minute of silent prayer:
Hear now our silent prayers.
1 In the beginning God created heaven and the earth.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night, he made the stars as well.
9 And God said, Let the waters under heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the tree yielding fruit.
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, and every winged fowl: and cattle, and creeping thing.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created male and female.
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and God saw that it was good, and behold, it was the sixth day.
Dear Lord,
Whether it took 17 million years or six days to create the universe is not the issue, for the universe is here, it was created by You, and we are here, and we were created by You, and all the natural forces and laws of nature were created and are in place. What we hope to understand today is that the force or energy needed to spread your love among all your living creations is the same energy you used to create the heavens and the earth and all life. Help us understand today, as we study your forces of nature, the amazing power you have bestowed within us to love each other. We pray for this in His name, Amen.
Communion
Meditation - Brian Hurd
Communion Hymn - Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross #587, v.1-2
1 Jesus, keep me near the cross: there a precious fountain,
free to all, a healing stream, flows from Calvary's mountain.
[Refrain:]
In the cross, in the cross,
be my glory ever,
till my raptured soul shall find
rest beyond the river.
2 Near the cross, a trembling soul, love and mercy found me;
there the bright and morning star sheds its beams around me. [Refrain]
Prayer & Lord’s Prayer - Brian Hurd
Words of Institution - Roger Cram
The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Music: “Let Us Sing of His Love” [by J.P. Webster]
Scripture - 1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-7
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a
resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Sermon - “The Most Prestigious Job In the World” - Roger Cram
Do you know who you are looking at? Me, Roger Cram, I have the most honored and prestigious position in the entire world. I have a position of such trust and privilege, one would think it would be unattainable! My status in life is so lofty, that by comparison it makes a king look like a shoe-shine boy. Yup. Me!
Do you want my autograph?
What is this privileged status I maintain?
People are honored and trusted by being appointed to special positions by mayors, by governors, even by presidents - even as high as the Pope! I was appointed by someone even higher!
Jesus Christ has personally endowed me with the power over His love and granted me the authority to distribute it among his people-as I choose. Wow! What an honor!
How would you like to have such a prestigious position? Well, as you know, you do.
We are all in charge of offering Christ’s love and we can give it to anyone or anything we choose. We can feed the homeless or remove a trapped grasshopper from a spider’s web. We can provide school lunches for kids or choose to scratch the back of a puppy.
Christ’s love, the most sacred thing in the world, and we get to decide how it is distributed among His people! Wow!
1 Corinthians 13:13 states:
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
What makes humans so special, so unique, so powerful, is because we do have a choice as to how we behave. Being able to make positive choices overriding our instinctual feelings of anger, sadness, and revenge is only a human ability. People who have the discipline and willingness required to master this ability are fortunate indeed, for they are ready to do God’s work!
Love is a behavior choice designed to benefit another through an intentional sacrifice of personal resources. Personal resources include such things as possessions, time, energy, commitment, talents, education, and the forfeiture of opportunities.
Without free choice, Christ’s love, we cannot utilize.
Donating your spare time to volunteer in a hospital to comfort the sick is an intentional act of love. You do not need the feeling of love tugging at your heart strings to perform this task; you do not need to know the patient in the hospital, you need the premeditated choice to do something to benefit someone else, to harness and direct Christ’s love to that person.
Assisting a homeless drunk staggering in a dark alley and taking him to a shelter is a true act of love.
Love your enemies, …someone in the know once said that.
Love is not buying a new car and not going on vacation so your child can attend a year of college. Love is taking care of your physical, mental, emotional, and financial health so you’ll be able to help others as long as possible.
This is called loving yourself.
Love is judged only by one’s behavior, not by a special feeling in your heart.
If you want others to know you’re a Christian, don’t tell them, show them.
1 John 4:7-8
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Here is a short list of the most wonderful things about being human: kindness, compassion, joy, tasting good food, the scent of a spring rain, beautiful music, peace, hope, dreams, forgiveness, the feeling of the sun’s warmth on your face, laughter, a baby’s smile, and most of all, love.
All of the most wonderful things in the world I just mentioned, can’t be touched, wrapped up in a box, or saved in a jar for later use. They are all just sensations, feelings, electrical impulses, different forms of energy. Christ’s love is an energy dwelling in your heart, but it is an energy you can utilize and direct.
This energy I talk about, this love; is it religion or real, is it mystic or part of nature? Can we relate the forces of nature to the energy we will use to spread Christ’s love? Are they the same? Let’s go on a journey and find out.
I sit silently on a Central Park bench in New York trying to look through an early-morning mist. Through the fog, I think I can see the faint outlines of tall buildings. There’s a refreshing chill in the air clinging to this twilight vapor. After an hour or two, the heavy fog will slowly ascend above the towering buildings and find itself on a great adventure across the sea. But until that time, I remain in silence upon the bench cloaked in this morning vapor.
Tiny drops of mist slowly collect upon my face as if a gathering place to pray. Some combine into larger drops on my forehead and run downward across my cheek onto the corner of my mouth. Slightly salty from my perspiration is this vapor that has just trespassed across my brow.
This is not an unusual event, in fact, common enough for most not to take notice. But, masquerading as a common occurrence, this tasted water drop holds within it the answers to the entire universe.
This water I tasted, how far has it journeyed before arriving on my cheek? As you were taught in elementary school, water evaporates into the sky, becomes clouds, and then falls to earth as rain and fills the oceans and rivers and farmer’s fields. Then it evaporates again repeating the process. Let’s think about this a little deeper. Water circulates around the globe constantly recycling itself, therefore, the water drop that condensed on my face has arrived from a most astounding journey. In ancient Egypt, was this water drop a portion of the Nile that carried Cleopatra on her barge to Mark Anthony? Yes, it was. As ancient glaciers carved one valley after another, was this bit of H2O among the ice giants of old? To be sure. My delicious little water drop was once the snows of Kilimanjaro, has quenched the insatiable thirsts of tropical rain forests, and played with the foamy spray of great blue whales. It has been swallowed by dinosaurs, helped carry Columbus to the new world, and brought life to millions. It has formed the playful puddles of a gentle spring rain tempting many children to splash—just once. After nourishing the sunlit-powdered crowns of spring flowers, it offers itself as tempting nectar to a tiger swallowtail butterfly. Now, it deserts the morning mist and rolls down my cheek and upon my tongue. It becomes part of my body and helps deliver nourishment to my cells.
Everything everywhere is connected. Einstein said, “If you tug on anything, you’ll find it is connected to the rest of the universe.
When the Earth was formed, it contained no water at all. Yet today, the oceans and lakes and rivers comprise 71% of the Earth’s surface. How did water arrive on the Earth? Well, the word “arrive” was not carelessly chosen, for many scientists believe that water came to earth on the backs of asteroids. Ice, arriving from outer space, gradually, drop by drop, created our oceans, lakes, and rivers. Ice, arriving from far-off galaxies, hitchhiking across forever, collided with Earth, a chunk at a time. Ice, some traveling for millions of years, found our little planet and eventually turned it blue.
So, the mist that left the morning fog to caress my face has more history than first discussed, for in addition to coming from the snows of Kilimanjaro, it has also traveled across the galaxies of space for millions of years in search of me. It has found me. It is now part of me. Soon its voyage will continue.
Let’s look closer at the energy of life, the energy needed for giving Christ’s love.
Across the sea on Hawaiian beaches, gigantic waves weighing hundreds of tons materialize from almost nowhere as an invisible force easily lifts them over thirty feet into the air only to release its powerful grasp to gravity’s beckon call. We watch these displays and marvel at their majestic beauty, but many of us fail to really see what is before us. Do we only see a beautiful wave we wish to capture with our camera, or do we see an invisible force so powerful it repeatedly lifts over 100-tons of water thirty feet in the air? Such energy could destroy us as easily as we snap a twig, yet we stand on the beach only a few feet away, unafraid, as 100-tons of water comes crashing down from towering heights and rolls upon the shore to caress our toes curled in the sand.
This wonderful energy is on loan to you; what are you going to do with it?
I learned in the sixth grade that energy cannot be created nor destroyed; it just changes form. All the energy that ever existed still exists today – no more, no less. It can’t be used up! All the energy that comprises the ocean waves in Hawaii, the morning mist in Central Park, and life itself, have always been present. The energy required to experience life, to make difficult choices, to love, to acquiesce, to fantasize, to express compassion, and all other emotions has always existed and always will.
I don’t order my heart to keep beating. It’s on autopilot fueled by that remarkable recycled energy system. Digestion transfers the energy of sunlight - disguised as hamburgers, orange juice, and snickers bars - into power for fueling our imagination, cleaning our blood, healing our injuries, and filling us with the power to utilize and direct Christ’s love.
Shortly these energies will continue their journey and become imposing storms, carve the unlimited intricacies of snowflakes, fashion the seemingly dreamlike hues of double rainbows, and power the foamy spray of great-blue whales.
In Review - where are you going to find the energy to spread Christ’s love? You are going to use the same energy that He used to create the universe! The same energy that created the stars will be your guide. You are going to embrace and utilize the same force that creates and sustains life. Such energies allow you the free choice of loving others as Christ desires. To me, that is an honor and a gift. Let us not waste these energies that have been entrusted to us, but rather use them wisely for the enrichment of man.
Are you a superhero?
Superman can fly and has x-ray vision, but he is make-believe. Wonder Woman was made from clay and can deflect bullets with her wrist bracelets, but she is imaginary as well. You are real! You are made from pure stardust aged 14-billion years! You are the only life form on Earth capable of planning and creating acts of compassion! You can decide the person you want to be, and then acquire the skills to create that individual. Through Christ’s spirit living within your heart, you can intentionally take His love, the most wonderful phenomenon of all time, and freely give it to anyone you select. You are actually in charge of the distribution of Christ’s love. Wow!
Who is the real superhero?
May the force be with you.
*Closing Hymn - There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy #73
1 There's a wideness in God's mercy, like the wideness of the sea;
there's a kindness in God's justice, which is more than liberty.
2 There is welcome for the sinner, and more graces for the good!
There is mercy with the Savior; there is healing in his blood.
3 For the love of God is broader than the measure of our mind;
and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.
4 If our love were but more simple, we would rest upon God's word;
and our lives would be illumined by the presence of the Lord.
Benediction - Roger Cram
Dear Lord:
You have responded to the misery in the world by creating us. We are humbled and privileged to be your servants, and we thank you for the honor to serve mankind, through you, as disciples of your love.
As we leave here today, let us realize you have instilled in us the same energies that You used to create life and the universe, and that you have endowed us with the management of these energies to distribute your love to mankind.
Amen
Postlude - “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” [by W.J. Kirkpatrick] Sarah Park