Nov 1, 2020
November 1, 2020
- Order of Worship
- Prelude: Rosemary Nettrouer
- Announcements
- Music: Bell Choir, “Fairest Lord Jesus,” arranged by Allured
- Children’s moment
- Prayer Concerns
- Pastoral Prayer
- Message: “You Call That Good News?!”
- Scripture: Luke 3:1-18
- Open Worship
- Benediction
- Postlude: Rosemary Nettrouer
- Prelude: Rosemary Nettrouer
- Announcements
Good morning, and welcome!
Thank you to Rosemary Nettrouer for music, Leigh Ann Dawley for flowers, Michael Barrett for technology, and Dawn Blue for music coordination.
It’s time for a distance and mask check. Make sure your mask covers your nose and your mouth. Now make sure you can’t touch anyone’s hands except your family – front and back, side to side. 😊
Remember to clear out of the worship space as soon as possible. Chat on the sidewalk or in the parking lot. It’s what we need to do to help minimize risk.
- We are live streaming on Facebook and the church website (wichitaquakers.org). Please feel free to share our worship with your Facebook friends by posting a link.
- Offering plates are at the front and the back of the meeting-room.
Among church activities
- Today
- Listening Group 1 (with Dawn Blue and Sarah Wine) is not meeting today. It has been rescheduled for November 22.
- The 205 Sunday School class meets at 3:00 on Zoom.
- Listening Groups 6 & 2 (with John and Sue Wine) are at 5:00, in the Fellowship Hall with a Zoom option.
- Bell choir rehearsal at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday
- Thursday
- The new Assets Committee at 4:00 p.m.
- A joint meeting of the outgoing and incoming Ministry and Counsel at 6:30
- Saturday
- Listening Group 4 (with Doug and Pam Chambers) is at 1:30
- The Christian Education Committee is at 4:00
Any other announcements?
Music: Bell Choir, “Fairest Lord Jesus,” arranged by Allured
Children’s moment
Prayer Concerns
- We are grateful that
- Rosemary is on the mend
- Joe Dawley as well as John and Dorothy McKay are out of quarantine
- Linda Mallonee is glad to be home after a fall, followed by a stay at the hospital and then at a care facility:
- “I am home!! I am sitting in my fav rocker. What a pleasure. And I walked up the steps ok!! Not sure what the future holds but I am happy now!”
- I am home. And really enjoying it. Am not very strong so will have to be careful to stay out of the hospital again! Happy now and grateful for all the help I have had. … When the boys learned I didn’t have any Halloween candy they went out and got some M & Ms for me.. yumm” (from her Facebook post)
- Greg Newby got a passing grade from his oncologist this week: “I had the PET scan last week and met with my Oncologist yesterday. The scan showed no sign of the Lymphoma in my body and I was given a cancer free diagnosis. I see a Radiologist next week to double check the results before an all-clear for now. And I have a follow-up scan in three months to make sure nothing has come back. Other than that I am done with the weekly lab work and the chemotherapy. I’m free….” (his Facebook post)
- Ongoing concerns
- Steve Grether is still coping with multiple health problems.
- Our nation at this time of elections and a pandemic
- Our church at 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 you are opening, and may we have the courage to walk through them. May we see what you are doing in our world and join you in it.
- Any other prayer concerns?
Pastoral Prayer
God of our mothers and fathers
Come now and move among us
What You did before come and do once more
We want to be a part of Your story. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc32hiZlxyU)
Message: “You Call That Good News?!”
Scripture: Luke 3:1-18
These days, our Transition Team is reading a book recommended by Colin Saxton. The book is called Leading Congregational Change: A Practical Guide for the Transformational Journey. It comes with a workbook, which includes Bible study suggestions, activities, resources, and assessment questions.
This past week, we discussed some of the materials related to what the book calls “Creating Urgency.” I’ll come back to that.
One of the Bible passages that the workbook suggested was Luke 3:1-18, and I’m going to spend some time on that passage this morning.
First, some context. You might remember that Luke starts out his Gospel by saying that he’s done some investigations and intends to set out an “orderly account” (Luke 1:3).
As Luke’s account unfolds, it includes these events:
- An angel tells Zechariah and Elizabeth that they would at long last have a son that they would name John.
- Elizabeth becomes pregnant. And in the sixth month of her pregnancy, Luke says, the same angel appears to Mary in Nazareth.
- The angel tells Mary that she would have a son, Jesus.
- Mary goes to visit Elizabeth
- Elizabeth gives birth to John
- Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem, where Mary gives birth to Jesus
- Angels appear to shepherds, who go to visit the new baby
- Mary and Joseph present the new baby at the Jerusalem temple and take him again, at age 12, to Jerusalem for Passover
Luke, chapter 2, ends with these words: 52 “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years,[n] and in divine and human favor.”
Chapter 3 starts, “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius,” that would be when Jesus and John were about 30 years old, “the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”
Now I’m going to read you Luke 3, through verse 18, but before I do that, here’s what verse 18 says: “… with many other exhortations, [John] proclaimed the good news to the people.”
So, while I read, I want you to listen for that good news. Ready?
Luke 3, beginning with verse 2 (NRSV)
2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah….
7 John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11 In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”
15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah,[d] 16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with[e] the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
- So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.
So, what was the good news that John was preaching? [Pause.]
Well, John did say one who is more powerful is coming. Yes, Jesus was coming. And what would Jesus do? He would gather the wheat and burn up all the chaff, the worthless trash. (That’s good news for the wheat, not so much for the chaff.)
Otherwise, John called his listeners out. He called them slithery snakes. He questioned why they were coming to hear him. He implied that they weren’t living up to their religious tradition. He might have said that it takes more than going to a Quaker church to be a Quaker. He threatened doom for people whose lives don’t show evidence of real faith.
What’s good news about that? It doesn’t sound very hopeful or upbeat, but it prompted John’s hearers to want to change. “What should we do?” they asked.
I remember a time, when I was a young woman with three small children, that I was struggling. Why, if God loves me, why does God keep pointing at my faults and problems? Facing those things was difficult and sometimes discouraging. Somewhere along the line, though, I realized that God was working with me so that I could become my best self, a better person. If I didn’t face the problems, I wouldn’t be able to deal with them. I wouldn’t even know to ask, what should I do?
With physical problems, if you pretend that that bleeding isn’t a big deal or that lump or that pain, you don’t talk to your primary health care provider about it. The bleeding or lump or pain creates a sense of urgency, a sense that something needs to be done. So, you go to the doctor to find out what the problem is and what needs to be done.
John’s message was good news because it was the truth, even if that truth was difficult. John’s message was good news because it made his hearers aware of problems that they could address.
Now I’m coming back to the importance of creating urgency in a congregation, from the book about congregational change.
Creating urgency … refers to the energy and motivation for change that is generated by contrasting between an accurate perception of reality and God’s ideal (p. 34).
Urgency is critical in the … congregation. It creates a driving force that makes an organization willing to accept change… (p. 35).
Urgency should lead to an increased openness to God and a greater willingness to change. But in many congregations today, … participants become concerned about whether the church will survive. Energy generated primarily by anxiety and fear is prone to nostalgic goals and self-protective strategies. Unhealthy urgency often becomes inwardly focused, rallying around a cry to preserve the institution rather than following God (p. 36).
Urgency is found throughout the Old and New Testaments. The prophets repeatedly showed the people of Israel their true state and declared divine directives to emphasize how far they had strayed from God’s plan. …
When urgency is fostered, it should lead the congregation to begin asking, just as people did upon hearing John the Baptist, ‘What are we going to do now?’ … Implicit in this is the recognition that the status quo is not acceptable (p. 36).
As a congregation, we are in the middle of a time of transition. You have faced the reality that something has to change. You have asked, what do we do now? And we are in the midst of following through, with doing the work of transformation.
In that context, truth is good news, even when facing that truth is sometimes uncomfortable. Truth is a gift of grace. The courage to face the truth, to ask the hard questions, and to follow through with change – that courage is also a gift of grace.
The good news is that transformation is possible, for us as individuals and for us as a congregation. When we ask, what do we do now?, God provides answers.
In the words of the letter to the Philippians, I thank God for you.
6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion …. 9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11 having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1)
Open Worship
Let us join together in a time of open worship, communion after the manner of Friends.
Benediction
Postlude: Rosemary Nettrouer
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