September 20, 2020
- Flowers: Ken & Alison Jack
- Music: Rosemary Nettrouer
- Pastor: Catherine Griffith
- Technology: Michael Barrett, Michelle Barrett
- Good morning! Welcome!
Thank you to Ken and Alison for the flowers and to Rosemary for the music. Thank you to Michael and Michelle for facilitating the technology.
- If you have announcements or prayer requests, please feel free to add them as comments on the Facebook page.
Announcements
- We are live streaming on Facebook and the church website (wichitaquakers.org) until the pandemic numbers in our area go down.
- Feel free to share our worship with your Facebook friends by posting a link.
- We have room for a few people to worship with us in person, and if you would like to do so, please be sure and let the office know.
- Among church activities this week
- Monthly Meeting for worship with a concern for business is at 1:00 p.m. today. The Zoom link is in The Light This Week. I believe some will meet in the library, masked and distanced.
- The 205 Sunday School class meets today at 3:00 via Zoom.
- Monday, September 21, 9:30 am, Transition Team in the library and Zoom
- Tuesday, September 22, 5:30 pm, Worship Committee via Zoom
- Tuesday, September 22, 6:30 pm, Book Club in the library and Zoom
- Wednesday, September 23, 6:30 pm, Listening Group 6.1 (John & Sue Wine) in the fellowship hall & Zoom
- Wednesday, September 23, 6:30 pm, Bell Choir Rehearsal, in the front of the meeting room
- September 24th through October 2nd, I will be on vacation. If you have pastoral care or other concerns, please contact Pam Chambers. September 27th Michael Barrett will be bringing the message.
- Sunday, October 4, 4:30 p.m., Community Talent Performance, outside at the front of the church – if you have a talent you would like to contribute, please contact Sarah Wine.
Music: “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us,” #365 in our hymnal
Prayer concerns
- Linda Mallonee is in Wesley Hospital and has not surgery. Don said yesterday that they think they can deal with her problem with physical therapy and are recommending a skilled care facility, but it needs to be one with dialysis capability, and she needs to be able to transfer to a wheel chair.
- Students, teachers, administrators and staff — Word on the street is that it’s rough out there.
- Our nation as we deal with a pandemic, racial injustice, wildfires, floods, an election, and the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg
- Our church during this time of transition – May we find clarity and energy for the tasks at hand and the decisions we will need to make as we find our way forward. May we find ways to use our assets wisely and well. May we discover ways we are to be a beacon of love in our world. May we be looking for the doors God is opening, and may we have the courage to walk through them.
- Listening groups
- Michael Barrett as he prepares to bring the message next week
I want to report that my son, who tested positive for the COVID virus last week, is doing OK, and his wife and children all tested negative. I also want to report that by the end of the week, the air where my family lives in Central Oregon had improved from very hazardous to just unhealthy.
Prayer:
God, the source of infinite love and light
Message
This morning I am unabashedly, boldly borrowing some of the ideas that Noah Merrill talked about on September 12, at Great Plains Yearly Meeting. What Noah said forms the outline of what I have to say this morning.
At Great Plains Yearly Meeting last weekend, Noah Merrill called our attention to the temptation of Jesus, which is found is both Luke 4 and Matthew 4. I’m looking at Matthew’s version.
The Gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogy of Jesus that traces his line through King David and Bathsheba, back as far as Abraham and Sarah. Matthew continues with the conception and birth of Jesus (in which Joseph decides not to break up with his fiancée Mary), the visit of the wise men from the east, the escape to Egypt (in which Joseph, Mary, and Jesus elude the clutches of Herod the Great), the preaching of John the Baptist, and Jesus’s baptism by John (in which the heavens open, the Spirit descends onto Jesus, and a voice from heaven expresses God’s pleasure with Jesus).
Then, here we go – the temptation of Jesus. Matthew 4, beginning with verse 1, from The Message:
1-3 Next Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the Test. The Devil was ready to give it. Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, which the Devil took advantage of in the first test: “Since you are God’s Son, speak the word that will turn these stones into loaves of bread.”
4 Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.”
5-6 For the second test the Devil took him to the Holy City. He sat him on top of the Temple and said, “Since you are God’s Son, jump.” The Devil goaded him by quoting Psalm 91: “He has placed you in the care of angels. They will catch you so that you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone.”
7 Jesus countered with another citation from Deuteronomy: “Don’t you dare test the Lord your God.”
8-9 For the third test, the Devil took him to the peak of a huge mountain. He gestured expansively, pointing out all the earth’s kingdoms, how glorious they all were. Then he said, “They’re yours—lock, stock, and barrel. Just go down on your knees and worship me, and they’re yours.”
10 Jesus’ refusal was curt: “Beat it, Satan!” He backed his rebuke with a third quotation from Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God, and only [the Lord your God]. Serve [God] with absolute single-heartedness.”
11 The Test was over. The Devil left. And in his place, angels! Angels came and took care of Jesus’ needs.
Noah Merrill pointed out to us that Jesus was tempted by comfort, pride, and power. Hungry? Here’s bread. Want to be great? That can be arranged. Want to be powerful? That’s possible. Want to be rich? No problem.
Want the pandemic to go away? Want things to be the way they used to be? Want to be safe and happy and healthy? Want to enjoy privilege?
All that and more can be yours at the snap of a finger. All you have to do to have everything you’ve always wanted is to sell your soul. That’s the temptation.
There’s nothing wrong with any of the things that might have tempted Jesus, or the things that might tempt us.
When we’re tired and hungry, we need rest and food. When we do good things, we deserve to feel good about ourselves. When we work hard, we expect to reap the benefits.
When we are so done with pandemic and its restrictions, the daily reports of new cases and deaths, there’s nothing wrong with wishing it would all go away. There’s nothing wrong with wishing for America to be great or our church to be great. There’s nothing wrong with grieving for the way things used to be. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be safe and happy and healthy.
The problem is when we want those things so much that we ignore God’s leadings or the prompting of the Spirit.
I am reminded of the words of a hymn:
God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
God hath not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
[God] hath not told us we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.
God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain, rocky and steep,
Never a river, turbid and deep.
But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love. (https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/nt/720)
There’s nothing wrong with blue skies and sunny days. There’s nothing wrong with smooth roads. It is a problem when aren’t willing to follow God because doing so might push us out of our comfortableness.
It’s also a problem when we want what we want so much that we’re willing to hurt other people to get or keep what we want.
Noah Merrill suggested that the alternative to the path of comfort, pride, and power is the way of love, justice, and relationship.
Oh, yeah. Love. 😊
1 Corinthians 13 reminds us,
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth (NRSV).
Here’s how The Message puts the same passage:
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth….
God’s way is a path of love, justice, and relationship.
Oh, yeah. Justice.
Hear the words of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 1:16-17, The Message). There, God says,
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
Go to bat for the defenseless.
God’s way is a path of love, justice, and relationship.
Oh, yeah. Relationships.
Hear the words of the apostle Paul to the Christians in Rome (Romans 14, from The Message):
14 Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do. And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.
2-4 … Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God’s welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help. …
6-9 What’s important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God’s sake; if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you’re a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It’s God we are answerable to—all the way from life to death and everything in between—not each other. That’s why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other. …
13-14 Forget about deciding what’s right for each other. Here’s what you need to be concerned about: that you don’t get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. …
17-18 God’s kingdom isn’t a matter of what you put in your stomach, for goodness’ sake. It’s what God does with your life as [God] sets it right, puts it together, and completes it with joy. Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ. Do that and you’ll kill two birds with one stone: pleasing the God above you and proving your worth to the people around you.
19-21 So let’s agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; don’t drag them down by finding fault. …
22-23 Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. …
Comfort and pride, power and privilege are temptingly good. But they can insulate us from the nudges of God’s leading, and they can blind us to the ways we hurt people around us.
God’s way is not a way of comfort and honor and power, no matter how tempting they are. God’s way is a way of love and justice and relationship.
Open worship
Benediction
Open worship
Please join together in a time of open worship, communion after the manner of Friends. If you feel led to contribute, please do so via comments on this page or the Facebook page.
We are meeting in person and also streaming our sermons on Facebook at 10:00 AM CST. Watch live:
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