When God Tests Us

When God Tests Us

Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr, and James Cone find themselves all at the same time at Caesarea Philippi. Who should come along but Jesus, and he asks the four famous theologians the same Christological question, “Who do you say that I am?”

Karl Barth stands up and says: “You are the totaliter aliter, the vestigious trinitatum who speaks to us in the modality of Christo-monism.”

Not prepared for Barth's brevity, Paul Tillich stumbles out: “You are he who heals our ambiguities and overcomes the split of angst and existential estrangement; you are he who speaks of the theonomous viewpoint of the analogia entis, the analogy of our being and the ground of all possibilities.”

Reinhold Niebuhr gives a cough for effect and says, in one breath: “You are the impossible possibility who brings to us, your children of light and children of darkness, the overwhelming oughtness in the midst of our fraught condition of estrangement and brokenness in the contiguity and existential anxieties of our ontological relationships.”

Finally James Cone gets up, and raises his voice: “You are my Oppressed One, my soul's shalom, the One who was, who is, and who shall be, who has never left us alone in the struggle, the event of liberation in the lives of the oppressed struggling for freedom, and whose blackness is both literal and symbolic.”

And Jesus writes in the sand, “Huh?”

I the test is not the temptation

In Genesis chapter 2, God gives Adam the first test – don’t eat of the tree of knowledge.

temptation was introduced in Chapter 3 – and it was a pretty easy temptation to overcome, right?

“just say no” – but in this case, there was no peer pressure, no corner to be backed into – although God could foresee the serpent tempting Adam and Eve, God made sure they could get out of the temptation.

That’s why in James it says: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”

God does not tempt us.

We do enough of that ourselves

and the world takes care of the rest.

What God does is ensure that we will always have a way NOT to sin – not to fall into temptation

You’ve heard the bit of “pop theology” that goes: God will never give you more than you can handle,” right?

Well, don’t try finding that passage in the Bible because unless you’ve written it in there, you’re going to have a hard time.

We can sort of think this through, right?

Everything God gives you is more than you can handle because you can’t handle anything without God’s help. So let’s take that bit of misinformation out of our heads and replace it with the real quote – not the one from the internet.

In Corinthians, Paul writes: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it”

Now that’s a big difference, right?

And one that makes a lot of living easier to understand. When we’re burdened with the pain of living, when we forget that Jesus has given us the greatest gift of all, we often feel like we can’t handle what we’ve got. We can’t play the hand of cards that God – or in these times of weakness, fate or luck, has dealt us.

And then we’re reminded of that passage that doesn’t exist – God won’t give us more than we can handle” and we KNOW that we can’t handle what we have

and we break down

and we give up

and we let go

and we turn away from God.

Think about that when you start misquoting the Bible – twisting it to sound nice is still twisting it.

What the Bible says is not that we won’t be given burdens

but that we won’t be tempted beyond our ability to say no.

Every time you or I have given into temptation – of whatever sort, there has been that moment when we thought “no, we shouldn’t.” And then we gave in.

Why? Why ignore the very moment when God is stopping time for us and allowing us to be right?

Why fail then?

On the TV show “The Biggest Loser,” where people compete to lose the most weight, they have a saying “nothing tastes as good as being thin feels.” I can’t attest to that, but I can tell you than nothing feels as good as following God’s will.

And God’s will is not our will.

Even Jesus knew that when he prayed “not my will, but yours be done.”

II God’s tests

But temptation is not God’s way of testing. Temptation is the Devil’s way, the world’s way, our selfish nature’s way of getting us to fail one of God’s tests – that of following Him.

But God tests us in other ways. The “following God test” is one that only one person has ever gotten an A+ on. All the rest of us fall short of the curve set by Jesus.

But that’s a summative test. A summative test is one that comes at the end of teaching – did you learn what you were supposed to? Our lives are one big standardized, high-stakes test, and death is when we turn our scantrons in.

But God gives us formative tests, too – tests that discover what we know and tell God when we’re ready to move on.

Probably the most famous of these tests is when God tells Ol’ Abraham to go sacrifice his grown son on Mount Moriah. Grown son, mind you – so it was a bit of a test for Isaac, too – to let himself be all tied up and readied for the altar by his pops.

And Abraham and Isaac passed the test with flying colors – or at least they crammed really well for the test. Or rammed? Anyway they came out of the test alive, which is more than we can say for their school mascot.

God used that test to find out just how loyal Abraham and his family would be – could they be the foundation for God’s holy nation? Only the test would tell.

Jesus liked to use tests, too.

In the chapter after today’s passage He asked his disciples “who do you say that I am?” Peter, being the Rabbi’s pet, spoke up and answered “the Christ” (that means the anointed One of God, by the by – “messiah” for those of you who like multi-syllabic words) – can’t you just imaging good old Rocky – “ooh ooh, Rabbi Jesus, Rabbi Jesus, I know da answer!”

Jesus used the test to find out what the disciples knew – and what he could teach them.

What was he going to teach them? Those of you who are top-notch in bible memorization can probably guess

but let’s go back to today’s reading first.

My favorite test in the Bible comes from today’s passage.

A Greek woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter, and Jesus replies in his ever-compassionate way (and I’m paraphrasing) – “get away from me dawg, I ain’t got nuthin for you – I gots to take care of mah own.”

Okay, if you don’t like the New Urban Standard version, we can go back to the NIV translation – he says “First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs.”

You may have observed in your reading of the New Testament that Jesus is not always polite in his responses to requests for aid.

I think this is just preparing us for the upcoming test – you may have noticed that God is not always polite in his responses to prayers for aid, either – sometimes his emphatic NO comes with a burden, often not unlike a cross.

Our job is not to get offended if we can’t understand the niceties of God. Our job, like Job, is to accept what God has given us

BUT

like Job, we can ask questions without fear.

Which is what this brave Greek woman did. Instead of being offended that her first answer was no, giving up, and turning away from God, instead she asked the right question

not “God why won’t you help me?”

but “aren’t you here for the whole world?”

The first question shows ignorance.

The second question shows understanding.

Once the second question was asked – that’s “but even the dogs get the children’s crumbs” – the demon had to leave the Greek woman’s little girl because now Jesus was with her.

Once the Greek woman realized that God was here on earth not to heal and do magic tricks, but to feed his creation, well then, things got better. She passed the test. And when she passed, Jesus knew that the whole world was ready for his message.

Which brings us back to the disciples.

Once they knew that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the chosen one, the anointed one of God, what were they ready to know?

Well, the end of Mark 8 has it clearly for us:

³¹He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. ³²He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

³³But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

³⁴Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵For whoever wants to save his life^[c] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? ³⁷Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? ³⁸If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

Once Jesus knew the world was ready for him – as he found in Mark 7, and that his disciples knew that he was the Christ, Jesus could begin talking about exactly why he was on earth and what he would do – and the great gift of life he offered to all.

When you come to the final test, what will be your answer?

If you know now you’re failing, God has a great grade recovery plan. Just ask him, and Jesus will give you copies of all his notes, and if you still can’t pass, we’ll, he’ll be glad to take the test for you.

Pray with me,

Father,

we know your tests are not temptations

and that temptations do not come from you

but the strength to overcome them does.

When we are tested

give us the wisdom

to answer correctly

or ask the right questions

and when we fail

send us your Word

with all the answers

we will ever need.

In Jesus name,

Amen.

Snacking on Jesus

Here's the sermon for today, y'all.

Hope we can get it up for you to listen to:

Snacking on Jesus

John 6:56-69 (English Standard Version)

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."

I: introduction

A father came home from a long day at work. He said to his wife “I’ve had a terrible day. If you have any bad news, keep it to yourself.” So his wife replied “the good news is that today three of our four children didn’t break an arm.”

A: objectives

Today we’re going to talk about the real Good News.

That Good News is what Jesus gives us and what that Gift means.

That’s what we’re going to talk about today and this week,

To show we know, we’re going to tell the Good News to someone who is lead to listen.

We need to talk about and understand the Good News

so that we can tell other people.

So that we may be made the lips of God, the nudge of God

the hands of God, feeding the news of the Gift of Jesus to those who are ready to eat.

B: about Jesus

question: who gives us life? who creates us?

might be a trick

is in the passage in John

is also in Isaiah (40:28 The Lord is the creator of the ends of the earth)

not Jesus

what does Jesus gives us?

notice I didn’t say that the Gift of Jesus went to the hungry

or the needy

because we’re all hungry and needy

I said that the Gif t of Jesus goes to those who are ready to eat.

Not those who are hungry

but those who are ready.

Have you ever been to a restaurant with someone

who said they were hungry

but then couldn’t pick anything?

We know folks who live life like it’s a restaurant.

This job doesn’t taste good,

this church doesn’t smell right,

this city doesn’t sit well on the stomach,

this religion is too hot,

this spouse has gone stale

The Gift of Jesus just cannot be for them – because they are not ready. Jesus says, just before our verse for the day that “no one can come to me unless that person is called by the Father who sent me.” These hungry folks are just making too much noise to hear that call. One day they will be ready – and it’s our job to love them like they are.

No, the gift of Jesus is for those who are ready to take it.

I’m going to confess now that I really like ancient languages and translating and the craft of writing. You can expect when I’m up here that I’m going to make some reference to the Greek version of what our verse is for the day. Today is no different.

In a lot of the translations of this part of John you’ll see the word “eat” several times. Unfortunately, those “eats” are really two words. One of the reasons I picked the ESV is because they translated the two words differently, kind of – eat and feed.

The first eat is phagein. That means “to eat.” Jesus uses “phagein” to talk about the Israelites who were wandering in the desert – kind of like our hungry customers, right? Lost in the desert, with nothing to sustain them except the manna from God.

Well they didn’t eat the manna because they wanted to or they liked it

but because they were hungry.

God wasn’t giving them a feast.

He wasn’t making them happy.

He was sustaining them.

He was teaching them – sometimes pain is the best teacher and God acknowledges this in Isaiah 48:10 -- See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

But Jesus is something more.

II: Jesus as meme

33 years ago, a famous fundamentalist evangelical atheist (did you know those folks existed? you may not be interested in them but they sure are interested in you) you may have heard of named Richard Dawkins came up with the idea of a cultural gene – just like we inherit traits through our genes, Dawkins figured that we inherit ideas through cultural genes – that he called “memes”

Memes, he said, are ideas that take a hold of us – of humanity – get inside us and change us. Memes are, in fact, what shape our world.

Ideas, of course, are spread through language. Tongues and words.

I guess it’s a good thing for Dawkins’s career that he’s a fundamentalist evangelical atheist – otherwise he might have read that part of the Bible that explains, defines, and proves the existence of memes.

You know the part, where Jesus is the Word and through Him all things are created? And then the part where He lives inside all of us, shaping this world and the next to come?

Well we can thank Mr. Dawkins for his funny quasi-Greek word. We can certainly pray for him – but it’s important that we understand that Dawkins’ meme precisely describes how Jesus works.

Jesus is the first idea

He gets passed from person to person

changing the world.

III: the gift of Jesus

Which brings us back to the gift of Jesus.

Notice I say we’re the ones passing Him around. Sure God & Jesus could just appear to everyone and save us all – but then what’s the point of creation? No, our real opportunity to shine for God – to make ourselves worth being created – is when we can share the gift of Jesus with each other

the gift that you can’t get when you’re hungry

only when you’re ready.

I talked about that first word “phagein.”

Now I want to talk about the second word “trogo.”

Trogo doesn’t mean “to eat” – especially not when you’re hungry.

Trogo means “to munch,” “to masticate,” “to snack.”

That is, it’s not eating for sustenance but for enjoyment.

It’s not eating manna,

it’s eating at the banquet table.

Just like He gave manna to the wandering, hungry Israelites,

God gives us life through the Spirit.

But like the wedding banquet

where his first miracle was to create the finest wine,

Jesus gives us the enjoyment of life

the fulfillment of life.

Jesus says over and over he is the bridegroom and we are at his party.

Like Sherlock Holmes says, so many things are right in front of us that we choose not to see.

Jesus isn’t being metaphoric,

the Gospels aren’t some obscure poem we’ve got to pick apart.

No, it’s right there, plain as the mimetics that point to the life of Jesus that Richard Dawkins won’t acknowledge,

Jesus makes our lives worth living

by giving us the feast of a lifetime

and life eternal through his body and blood

– that is, through his life.

We don’t need Jesus to be alive,

to breathe, to walk, to have a heart that beats,

but Jesus gives us the only reason to love our lives.

Jesus is not what makes our life

but what makes our life worth living.

Now a lot of the disciples had a problem with this.

In fact some of them got up and left Jesus, never to come back.

Jesus knew this was going to happen – in fact, he knew that the idea of snacking on him was a hard piece of knowledge to swallow.

He knew most folks would have to ruminate on it for a while. That’s why the other use of the word “trogo” means what a cow does to its cud – chew and chew and chew.

But if we keep Jesus always in our mouths,

we can be like Peter,

who says “yes Lord, we will stay with you –

because where else would we go?”

When you share the Good News this week

with someone who is ready to listen

tell them the Bread of Life does not sustain them

it improves them.

tell them that the reason to follow Jesus isn’t to live

but to love living.

tell them most of all that God loves them

and so do you.

Pray with me:

Creator God,

we thank you for the Gift of Jesus

which is not life

but the fulfillment of life

we pray that each day

we may live the life you gave us

knowing that Jesus

turns all sorrow

to joy.

Amen

Easter Message

The sermon for 4/12/2009 is available here.

Click to play / download.

Amen - and see you all this Sunday at 10:00.
--
Jeff

Sermon Notes: Getting It Wrong

Mark 16:8 “And the women went running from the monument, ecstatic and taken with trembling; but they said nothing to no one, for they were in awe.”

I Intro – fear and awe
A other translations use fear, Greek word closer to “in awe” or “amazed.”
1 Most bible scholars now view this as the end of Mark
B women weren’t afraid – were amazed at what they had seen
C in their amazement & enthusiasm, they forgot to do what they had been
told

II Getting It Wrong

A we live in awe of God
1: (Col 1:16) “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.”
2: Not just us – (Ps 19:1) – “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands!”

B but we can’t understand God
1: (Cor 2:11) “No one knows the thoughts of God”
2: This is why Jesus teaches us the Lord’s prayer:
“Father . . . thy will be done.”
a which is the same prayer he prayed at Gethsemane
b Jesus, who had the best notion of what the Father was doing still had incomplete knowledge – and he wanted to get it right – so he prayed “Father, thy will – not mine – be done.”
3: but we aren’t Jesus and so we get it wrong.
a confounded by the voice of God
i Can’t understand it even when we hear it. (John 12:28-29) “ Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified [my name], and will glorify it again." 29The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.”
b go the wrong way
i Paul wandered through Asia to end up in Philippi, Abraham wandered around Canaan, and the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years

C difficult to accept, easy to understand in three different ways

1 God is in charge
a a teacher, a pencil-pusher, a carpenter may not understand or see what his or her individual contributions mean to the finished project – but must take it on faith that the work will
get done. If a carpenter were always acting like a foreman, checking up on everyone, the house would never get built, if the bookkeeper was spending all of her time in the sales rooms, the balance sheets would fall apart.
b but because our roles in God’s will are rarely as clear-cut as our roles for paying bills we get confused. We plan as if we knew God’s will, clinging to our plans even when it’s obvious God has something different in mind.
i but unlike an office worker, who can strike out on his own if he doesn’t like his boss, we don’t have any other options
c which is why Jesus taught us to pray “Father . . . thy will be done”

2 God is everywhere
a our hand doesn’t ask why must it hold this cup, our stomach doesn’t debate the merits of digestion, our cellular membranes don’t take a vote on using insulin instead of ATP to transfer glucose, our mitochondria don’t wish they were ribosomes, our carbon atoms don’t try take over oxygen’s job, the electrons whizzing around our protons and neutrons don’t stop to ask “what’s the brain up there doing?”, our quarks aren’t wracked with angst over getting older
i (neither should we concern ourselves with such things – Jesus specifically tells us not to worry, because God loves us more than the lilies and the birds)
b so we should be assured, that as the hands and cells and quarks of God, our existence is full of purpose and meaning: We are necessary, even if we can’t see or understand what’s going on.

3 God knows everything
a the best part of watching high-level chess is seeing someone think ten or twenty moves ahead – God thinks every move ahead.
i for those who don’t believe in free will, they see this as God having everything planned out for us. I prefer to think that God has just forseen the possibility of all of our choices and made plans accordingly – just like any master chess player.
ii so even when we misstep, God is there to take advantage of it.

III Making It Right

A What about those Marys that forgot to tell the disciples about God? Well, we find out in the other Gospels that they eventually remembered.
1 So why should Mark end his Gospel with such a forgetting?
a not a lost page, but an emphasis on how we get things wrong.
b why?
2 because Mark wanted to emphasize our greatest instance of “getting it wrong”: the crucifixion

B How did we go from celebrating Jesus to crucifying him?
1 because we didn’t understand
a we had God with us, but were mislead by our own desire i glory
ii problem-solving
iii power
b these are God’s desires, too – and what He wanted to give us but because we couldn’t understand what he was saying, we thought we were getting the short end of the stick – so we gave Jesus over to sticks and stones

C But God is the ultimate gamer – and can turn our wrongs into rights
1 instead of taking Jesus away from us, he gave Him right back in the resurrection
a and through Jesus gives us
i the light of His glory
ii an answer to all our problems
iii power through faith
2 so even if we forget to tall anyone about God because we’re struck dumb, He’s there to right our wrongs and loosen our tongues so we can try to talk to each other in a language we can understand.

IV Closing Prayer
Lord, help us to understand
that we will never get it right.
Help us to see
that we are a part of your plan.
Help us to let go
of everything that isn’t You.
Help us to embrace
the life of the risen Jesus
understanding that even in our worst wrong
you can create the greatest good.

Sermon Recording Available

The sermon for 3/22/2009 is available here.

Click to play / download.

Amen - and see you all next week at 10.
--
Jeff

Tithing Time

The sermon for 3/8/2009 is available here.

Click to play / download.

Amen - and see you all next week at 10.
--
Jeff

Sermon notes, 3/8/9 "Tithing Time!"

Tithing Time!

I: Introduction
A: Every first sermon should be about tithing
B: Or from the lectionary – but today is 1 great hour of sharing – still about tithing!
C: But we're not here to take your money; we're here so God can take your life.

II: Examples of Givers
A: local
1: Church mice
a: cleaners, inside and out
b: Sunday snacks
2: Musicians
3: Wednesday night study, Sunday school, Children’s Church

B: biblical
1: Zaccheus, Luke 19: 1-10
a: not just a short guy in a tree
b: gives his money and pays restitution to cleanse himself
c: giving as cleansing
2: Tabitha, called Dorcas, Acts 9:36-42
a: gave to the poor
b: so important she was recalled to life by Peter
c: giving as indispensable act – more important than life or death
3: Cornelius, Acts 10: 1-31
a: famous philanthropist
b: giving fame results in Peter coming to the Gentiles
c: giving as a binding and healing act
4: mirrors the giving of Jesus, cleansing, caring, binding – more important
than mere life and death

III: Giving is not just about money
A: Old Testament
1: Abram (soon to be Abraham) gives Lot his pick of the surrounding land in order to create peace – was rewarded by God with ALL the land Lot didn’t pick (Genesis 12)
a: I can think of some people today who might want to follow this
example, can you?

B: New Testament
1: Epaphras: shows up all over Paul’s letters as a companion wishing
everyone growth in Christ – even when imprisoned. He gives
up his freedom for Jesus and the chance to encourage and
shepherd believers. (Philemon, 23)
a: giving is the real freedom – the one that cannot be taken away

C: Jesus
1: Jesus says: How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You give to God one tenth even of the seasoning herbs, such as mint, dill and cumin, but you neglect to obey the really important teachings of the Law, such as justice and mercy and
honesty. These you should practice, without neglecting the others.
a: give but give more!
b: just like the offering doesn’t make the altar holy, nor the gold the temple – the gift does not make the giver holy. It’s the other way around – if you give in the right spirit – in the spirit and likeness of Christ, your gift will be good and holy. If you give like a Pharisee, for show or out of obligation, you might as well be giving dust.
2: Jesus’ ultimate gift was his life for ours, not financial stability – as we all
know now, that’s impossible – eternal life is what’s possible.

IV: Tithing as Time
A: Tithe is simply the Old English word for “tenth.”
1: current usage implies 1/10th of an annual salary given to the church
2: but let’s get Medieval. It originally meant 1/10th of someone’s production -- sheep, bread, songs – given for the use of God. That
giving of a part of ALL you have is where I want us to focus.

B: There are 24 hours in a day (DST)
1: we should give one tenth of that day to God (Sundays are already covered)
2: 2.4 hours or 144 minutes.
3: happily, 144 is divisibly by 3 – the number of the Trinity – so we can have an easy map of how we should give our time to God.
4: 48 minutes each for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – that’s the
same as 3 TV shows without commercials. And God is way more
important than American IDOL – get it, IDOL?

C: 48 minutes for the Father
1: The Father brought order to the chaos (Gen 1 – Awesome God) – to
what can you bring order?
a: do you know someone whose life is a mess?
b: do you see a part of the church that needs fixing?
2: The Father also is the original giver – he gave us life and eternal life
through Jesus – what can you give?
a: do you have something someone else needs more?
b: do you have something that gets between you and God?
c: do you have something you can give us for the Garage Sale?

D: 48 minutes for the Spirit
1: The Spirit teaches us, even things we’ve never tried to learn – tongues of
flame = new languages – what can you learn for the Lord?
a: a new language?
b: how other people live?
c: how to preach?
2: The Spirit also moves us – like popping Paul all over the Mediterranean or telling Peter to not see as unclean what God has declared clean – what can you move, how can you be inspired for the Lord?
a: a needed ministry?
b: helping someone get to a better place?

E: 48 minutes for Jesus
1: Jesus, as the Word, was the vessel for creation – what can you create for the Lord?
a: art, poetry, skits, songs?
b: new items needed by the church?
c: strong families?
d: strong communities?
2: Jesus not only was the vessel for creation, but the perfection of that creation through the ultimate gift – sacrifice. What can you give,
give up, and sacrifice for the Lord?
a: sin?
b: your stumbling blocks?
c: your fear and hate?
d: your money?
e: your time?

V: Closing prayer:
Lord, you have given us so much
and you ask for so little.
Move in us,
move through us,
that we may give what you and your world needs.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.