November 17, 2013 The Ripple Effect: Giving Thanks

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

Philippians 4:4-13

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable―if anything is excellent or praiseworthy―think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me―put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

10 I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Heard a cute story about the habit of saying Grace before a meal:

PASTOR: Now, Simone, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
SIMONE: No ma'am, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.

(Even though we in this church are all good cooks, we will have our benediction serve as Grace for our turkey dinner!)

This is the final in my sermon series called the ripple effect ...

toss a stone into water and the ripples appear and spread out...sometimes much further than you would imagine! This series has been spread out in part because we had a couple special services recently. The topics have been prayer, bible reading, worship (communion), being together, and today Giving thanks. These are ways in which we can stay in our faith, live our faith and even grow in our faith, to help spread the vision that God has for this church! It's wonderful to say one believes in God and Jesus, but we can do more! Jesus said, “Follow me”. and these practices are how we do better at following. They enable us to do things that ripple out and benefit others..but also enable ripples within ourselves that help us learn and grow in kindness and compassion, to become better human beings and better followers of our loving Lord.

Our passage from Philippians is a prime example.

{READ lesson}

Rejoice in the Lord. No matter what's going on, God is in charge!

You know people will say, 'if God is love, how can this happen...” referring to disasters, illness, sick children. That's a fair question!! Well, if there were no God, there would be only disasters, violence, hatred, illness, devastation. There would be NO joy, no peace, no love, no beauty, no truth-because these are the qualities of God. We only know truth, beauty and joy because of God. Rejoice in the Lord...again I say rejoice.

No matter what is going on in your life, in the world, there is SOMETHING for which to be grateful. There is something that is right, admirable, true, something lovely. Focus on these, give thanks for them and for the ability to perceive them! Give thanks for a bird song and for hearing, for the colors of the sunrise and sunset, and for vision. For the aroma of food cooking, and the ability to smell...See what I mean here? This is how we maintain that attitude of gratitude that Paul is talking about here. And this attitude will help us get through a LOT.

There have been many studies that show that keeping positive thoughts help a person emotionally in many ways. It promotes resilience against stress...can help against depression or anxiety, and can even help a person sleep better! That is what Paul is saying...'the God of peace will be with you” keeping a positive attitude helps us maintain equilibrium even when things are challenging.

That equilibrium can help us to see that when things are falling apart, others are as well. That we are all in the same boat, we are all dealing with STUFF.

Author Anne Lamott says,
“we're all in the same boat. We ALL think we missed school the day that the visiting specialists stopped by our grade school to distribute the pamphlets on what is true, who we are, how we are to live with the great mystery of life, how to come through dark times, how to awaken. We're all sort of winging it, trying to learn self-love and respect, ... and live lives of meaning and joy.”

So we work on holding onto what is true, beautiful, noble, the things that help us remember the qualities of God and that bring us the peace of God.... And that equilibrium can help us to want to reach out! We can share that peace!

Social psychologists are increasingly finding that "pro-social” behavior – including expressing gratitude and giving to others – is key to our psychological well-being. Even how we choose to spend our money affects our health and happiness.

Expressing gratitude confers benefits, so too does giving to others. New research shows that people all around the world --derive more happiness from spending money on others than they do on themselves.

"For the first time, we show that giving away money or spending it on others confers the ...psychological benefit of increasing the giver’s sense of wealth,” says Michael Norton of Harvard Business School and co-author with Elizabeth Dunn of the University of British Columbia of the upcoming book Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending. In {several} new studies, Norton and colleagues showed that charitable giving makes people feel wealthier.

This research follows on other work... that shows that giving time to others – from helping with homework to shoveling a neighbors’ driveway – actually makes people feel that they have more time. "In fact, giving time away ...{helps us feel we have MORE time} even more than unexpected windfalls of free time.”

Giving our money helps us to feel wealthier! Giving our time helps us feel that we have more time! Could it be that our Creator God actually MADE us that way? On purpose?

Giving is a huge key to feeling good.....when we bless others, we feel blessed. That is how the Kingdom of God works! We think we have set out to do something for someone else, and we end up feeling good, feeling that we have more time, money and we just feel better about ourselves in general!

So you want to feel realllllllly good?! How about being a blessing to our church!? You can feel more wealthy and feel that you have more time, both! We need both time and talent, and all of us have things we can do to help out.

Here in this church, we are doing wonderful things to bless others, and will continue to do so, even while we are in transition until the new Sr Minister is called here. The Sr Minister is not the only reason the church runs....it's the people! People who are committed to taking care of others, people who know how good it feels to do something, just because we are able to do so!

We give because we can. Because we recognize that we are blessed, and we can share some of those blessings. And we give because God gave...The Eternal God who Is and Was and Ever Shall be....gave God's Only Son-- For each of us! We give because we realize that we are each a child of God, an heir with Jesus Christ! Jesus, who gave ALL for us, the greatest gift of all, and we can do all things through Him, who strengthens us.

A while back, early in our merger process, I shared this quote with you all....and I think it bears repeating.

Author N.T. Wright in his book Simply Christian, writes of what the church can be:

“It’s a place of welcome and laughter, of healing and hope, of friends and family and justice and new life. It’s where the homeless drop in for a bowl of soup and the elderly stop by for a chat. It’s where one group is working to help drug addicts and another is campaigning for social justice. It’s where you’ll find people learning to pray, coming to faith, struggling with temptation, finding new purpose, and getting in touch with a new power to carry out that purpose. It’s where people bring their own small faith and discover, in getting together with others to worship the one true God, that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. No church is like that all the time. But a remarkable number of churches are partly like that for quite a lot of time.”¹

This church is partly like that, for part of the time. There is more to do, but we are on our way. I am convinced this vision of what the church can be is part of what we are called to! I was convinced of that early in our merger process, and I am convinced of it today. But I can't do it alone, nor can whomever ends up as our Sr Minister, whenever he/she comes here. It takes ALL of us. And that is who is at work right now. We are becoming that church of vision, even in this time of transition. WOW, that is amazing, it's a gift from God. Let us be generous with OUR gifts today, tomorrow and next year.

The ripples we cast here in UCB are spreading a LONG ways...thru our monetary donations and actions, we in this church are making a big difference in lives in Beloit and beyond. Through Heifer International, which helps families learn to feed themselves and their neighbors. Through other missions, we help disabled people in Mexico, translate the Bible in Mozambique. We gave school supplies to 340 kids here in Beloit, we help educate children in Myanmar. and we are collecting today to help disaster victims in the Philippines. Our ripples are spreading across the globe!

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

How about a group of thoughtful, committed citizens who pray, read our bibles, gather as the Body of Christ to worship and give of ourselves and our gifts? Think of our ripples spreading out... we can help change the world! We can do ALL things through Christ who is our strength!

Let's pray

Gracious God, thank you for creating us to be giving people. Help us to be a blessing today, tomorrow and every day, through this church and in our every day lives.

1 - NT Wright, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense, p. 123

The Ripple Effect: Being Together

November 10, 2013       The Ripple Effect: Being Together              Pastor Carol P. Taylor

United Church of Beloit

Ecclesiastes 4:8-12

8 There was a man all alone;
he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
“and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless―
a miserable business!

9 Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Football joke...from Reader's Digest. As a Catholic, Iam partial to Notre Dame football. As a former Michigan resident, though, I also keep tabs on Michigan college teams. One Saturday afternoon, a neighbor dropped in while I was watching Notre Dame vs. Michigan State. ”Which team do you want to win?” he asked. I replied, “Gee, I don't know,” ”I'm kind of torn between Church and State.” Robert A. Kozma

Community...sports as community building, we bond...but it can promote division too, Packers/Bears etc....

true community runs much more deeply...

Ripple effect.....the rock tossed into the pond....bigger rock equals bigger ripples! When we live out our faith, we are causing ripples that can have quite an effect on others!

And we may cause different kinds of ripples....positive or negative. The ripples we send out can effect others well, or badly. So we need to be mindful about what ripples we cause, what effect we may have on others, right?

We are all part of the body of Christ. Everyone in this church, in every church everywhere. That every single part of the body is valuable and necessary. Even the parts that don't seem special. We are all children of God.

In my extended family, my cousins and their spouses and kids, are some pretty strongly held opinions. We have Catholics and Protestants and Jews, agnostics, Democrats and Republicans, GB Packer fans, Bears fans and one Vikings fan, but he is only related by marriage....and we're praying for him.

But down deep, we are family first and foremost. We love and respect each other, even tho our discussions can get loud and lively! We enjoy being together, and that is what is most important.

People tend to label people. Most people like to have things fit into categories. That's just the way our minds work. Gender, economic status, racial background, country of origin, sexuality, dog lover or cat lover....whether as a fan of the other team, or whatever. But we need to be careful because labeling can be a way of “othering”--that is saying that the person we just labeled is different...not one of us..therefore one of the 'others'. If we focus on what is different, we fail to peceive what we have in common. It's harder to remember that we are all part of the same family, the family of God. We fail to see that the other person has had joy and troubles, has loved and has had heartbreak, has been ill and has felt fantastic...

it takes practice to keep looking for and focusing on what we have in common.

Author Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together:

Christian community is not an ideal we have to realize, but rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our community is in Jesus Christ alone, the more calmly we will learn to think about our community and pray and hope for it.’ 

You see, we can not fully achieve true community all by ourselves.

In the Old testament lesson, did you notice something? The writer is talking about 2 people, 2 people together...then says 'A CORD of three strands is not easily broken.” two people, three strands....

it's God. The first strand is God. God who created us, out of love, God who created us to Love God and Love and take care of each other. God who so loved that God sent his Only Son....When we make sure God comes first in our hearts and lives, then we are the cord of three strands. THEN we are truly the Body of Christ, living our faith, our commitment to our family―our immediate family, our church family and the family of God.

Dallas Willard

... By relying on {Jesus'} word and presence we are enabled to reintegrate the little realm that makes up our life into the infinite rule of God. And that is the eternal kind of life. Caught up in his active rule, our deeds become an element in God’s eternal history. They are what God and we do together, making us part of his life and him a part of ours.

A Story on a pastors' website....There was a Benedictine community to whom nobody came. As the monks grew old, they became more and more disheartened because they couldn't understand why their community was not attractive to other people. Now in the woods outside the monastery there lived an old rabbi. People came from all over to talk to him about the presence of Yahweh in creation. Years went by and finally the abbot himself went into the woods, leaving word with his monks, “I have gone out to speak to the rabbi.” (It was of course considered humiliating that a Christian community had to go back to the synagogue to find out what was wrong with them.)

When the abbot finally found the rabbi's hut in the woods, the rabbi welcomed him with open arms as if he had known that he was coming. They put their arms around each other and had a good cry. The abbot told the rabbi that his monks were good men but..., and the community was dying. He asked the rabbi if he had any insight into the work of Yahweh in their lives. The rabbi replied, I have the secret and I will tell you once. You may tell the monks and then none of you is ever to repeat it to one another. The abbot declared that if they could have the secret, he was sure his monks would grow.

So the rabbi looked at him long and hard and said, The secret is that among you, in one of you is the Messiah! The abbot went back to this community and told his monks the secret. And lo! as they began to search for the Messiah in one another they grew, they loved, they became very strong, very prophetic. And the old conference ends: From that day on, the community saw Him in one another and flourished!
--Story told by Joan D. Chittister.

Among you, in one of YOU is the Messiah!

Jesus is within each of us. Look for Jesus, look for the heart, remember that there is heartbreak there too, and send out ripples that are positive, kind and loving.

Let's pray together, this is the full version of a familiar prayer.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference,

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

-Reinhold Niebuhr.