We’re sorry, but Pastor Eric is not available to sing this Wednesday. He will return next Wednesday, October 2. Mahalo for your patience!
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Sermon: Who Wants to Be First?
September 22, 2024
Jeremiah 11:18-20
Mark 9:30-37
Who wants to be first?
I do, of course. I want to be first in the buffet line, and I want to be first getting onto the airplane, and I definitely want to be first off the airplane if I have a short layover, and I want to be first in my class, and I want to be first to select a seat in the theater.
I admit that, with the last name “Anderson,” I was usually assigned the first seat on the left side of the classroom. Except in Chemistry class, when Miss Ames sat ahead of me. My friend whose last name was “Yee” sat in the rear seat on the right side.
Even though I was a pretty good student, I didn’t always want to be under the teacher’s eye like that. Not to mention that if I wasn’t assigned there, I could sit with my friend, who was a fun guy to be with and, on the rare occasions we did get to sit near one another, we were pretty good at distracting one another much like I’m now distracted from this sermon.
The disciples wanted to be first. Until Jesus wanted one of them to tell him what was going on. Then… nobody wanted to be first. Not even Simon Peter, who usually had an answer to any of Jesus’ questions. In fairness, Mark tells this story not long after Simon Peter had had two pretty big and somewhat traumatic experiences. In chapter eight, Peter was the one to declare that Jesus was the Messiah – that must have been a high moment for him. A moment later, though, he protested Jesus’ announcement that the Messiah would be arrested and killed. Jesus’ response was harsh: “Get behind me, Satan!”
At the beginning of this chapter, chapter nine, Peter, James, and John joined Jesus in the trek up a mountain and experienced the Transfiguration, when a glowing Jesus spoke with those great prophets Moses and Elijah. Simon Peter offered to put up shelters for them, but a voice from heaven silenced him, thundering the words, “Listen to him!”
Getting silenced harshly by Jesus is rough. Getting silenced by the voice of God? I’d be quiet.
I think.
Nobody wanted to be first to tell Jesus what they’d been arguing about.
Everybody wanted to be first in what they’d been arguing about. Everybody wanted to be the greatest.
Except… Jesus.
Courtney V. Buggs writes at Working Preacher, “Gentleness and kindness are virtues that sound good, but grit and ruthlessness are often associated with the most powerful and successful. Ambition is celebrated for some, critiqued in others. Jesus disrupts their notion of greatness and significance with an inversion of the social order: ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant [also translated minister] of all’ (verse 35).”
As Cheryl Lindsay writes at UCC.org, “If Jesus was concerned about his position, the incarnation would not have taken place. His very being embodies the shift he invites the disciples to embrace.”
In that moment, in that house, I’m not surprised the disciples didn’t understand. Divine incarnation was not a significant element of Jewish theology. The Greeks and the Romans had stories about wandering gods. Jesus’ friends had probably heard a couple of them. Jews did have stories about interactions with disguised angels (remember Abraham’s three visitors), but they maintained some distinction between messengers of God and God. They weren’t going to think of Jesus as being God incarnate.
They would think of him as being Messiah, but as I’ve said before, the dominant belief about the Messiah in the first century was that he would be the military and political leader to free the Israelites from Greek and Roman rule. Successful military and political leaders aren’t rejected or executed. Jesus’ predictions about “the Son of Man” didn’t make sense. They already had seen Jesus’ reaction to Peter’s protest.
Nobody wanted to be first with that one. Or, well, second.
They would have been happy to be second to Jesus, which would put one of them first among the twelve. In chapter ten Mark told the story of James and John asking Jesus to sit at his right and left “in his glory” – in other words, when he overthrew the Romans and sat upon his throne. They still didn’t get it.
Jesus took the opportunity to say, again, “…whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:43-45).”
In the first century, that ran against the grain. Very few people could reasonably hope to attain the heights of wealth and power, but they wanted to get there. In the twenty-first century, well, as Dan Clendenin writes at JourneyWithJesus.net, “I think it’s fair to say that our contemporary culture is obsessed with greatness. Consider the endless iterations of the GOAT meme. Who is the ‘greatest of all time’ artist, athlete, musician, or president? There’s even a television reality show called The Goat, in which ‘reality stars’ from other reality shows compete for the title of the greatest reality show contestant of all time. You can’t make this up, right?”
You can, but nobody would believe you.
They didn’t believe Jesus, either, despite his constant repetitions. It took the cross and the resurrection to show them that when he said it, he meant it. Be a helper. Be a caretaker. Welcome the most vulnerable – like this child here. Serve serve serve serve serve. If you want to strive for greatness, strive to serve the most people the most effectively and the most compassionately. Serve all the way to the cross.
As D. Mark Davis writes at LeftBehindAndLovingIt, “Perhaps this is the most scandalous of scandals in Mark’s gospel. By identifying so radically with a child, by embracing the road to rejection, suffering, dying and being raised, Jesus is re-defining both greatness and Godness. It is not in the glory and honor of the Caesars, but in the vulnerability of a child that we encounter God.”
Who wants to be first?
It’s worth mentioning that Jesus wasn’t the only one who knew this. In the second century Jewish rabbis collected what their predecessors had said about the Book of Exodus. Among the stories was one about Rabbi Gamaliel serving his fellow teachers at a meal. They thought he shouldn’t do such a thing, that it was beneath his dignity. But one of the rabbis said, “Abraham himself served his three visiting angels.” And then another said there was one greater than Abraham who served:
“The Holy One, blessed be he!
He gives to each and every one what he needs
and to everybody what is wanting —
and not just to proper people [benei Adam kosherim],
but also to evil people and to people who worship idols.”
How much more should we accept God’s invitation, instruction, and encouragement to serve?
I know it’s counter-cultural and counter-intuitive. I know the pursuit of excellence is also a worthwhile value. But we pursue excellence in so many wrong things. We “keep up with the Joneses,” when we could be helping to raise up the Joneses.
As Karoline Lewis writes at Working Preacher, “Mark is pointing to something important, something essential, about believing in Jesus. Because God becoming human, the incarnation, upended every assumption of greatness that the world deemed as definitive. Because God becoming human decided that greatness is not about separation but solidarity, not about better than but relationship. Not about self-adulation but empowerment and encouragement of the other.”
Who are you doing your work for? Is it for your family? That’s not bad. Families are important and it’s vital to meet their needs. Are you working for friends? That’s not bad, either. Support and encouragement builds and maintains strong relationships.
Are you working for a community with which you identify? That’s good, too. Human beings need communities in order to be human. But… do you stop there? Are there no children in other communities with whom you’re concerned? Are there children within this community who do not receive your care? Are there needs that go unmet, not because there aren’t the resources, but because there isn’t the will?
“What if Jesus is right?” asks David Lose at davidlose.net. “I mean, what if we imagined that greatness wasn’t about power and wealth and fame and all the rest, but instead we measured greatness by how much we share with others, how much we take care of others, how much we love others, how much we serve others. What kind of world would we live in?”
Who wants to live in that world?
Who wants to be first?
Amen.
by Eric Anderson
Watch the Recorded Sermon
Pastor Eric makes changes while he preaches. Sometimes a few, sometimes quite a few.
| The image is Christ Teaching the Disciples by Bazzi Rahib, Ilyas Basim Khuri, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56626 [retrieved September 22, 2024]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jesus_teaching_his_disciples.jpg. |
Worship for September 22, 2024
Thank you for joining us for this live stream (or recording, as the case may be) of Sunday worship. May it bless you! You may need to click “Play” to launch the stream, which will be live around 9:50 AM.
Welcome to the live stream of worship from Church of the Holy Cross for Sunday, September 22, 2024. You will find the service outline below, and you may download and print the PDF to follow more easily.
Service of Worship September 22, 2024
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor
WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD
Please note that audio and video of this service are being live streamed on the Internet and will be recorded. The right rear section of the sanctuary will not be captured by any cameras. Please be aware that in other sections you may be visible at times.
Prelude: Be Thou My Vision Kayleen Yuda
Lighting of the Candles
Ringing of the Bell
Welcome Rev. Eric S. Anderson
* Call to Worship: (based on Psalm 1) Barbara Iwami
Leader: Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked.
People: We do not want to take the path that sinners tread or sit in the seat of scoffers.
Leader: Let your delight be in the law of the LORD.
People: Upon God’s wisdom we will meditate in the night and in the morning.
Leader: Be like a tree planted by streams of water.
People: May we yield the fruit of righteousness in its due season. May our joy never wither.
All: Let us worship God!
* Hymn #487: Surely No One Can Be Safer (v. 1-4)
* Invocation: (based on James 3:13-4:3, 7-8) Barbara Iwami
May we be wise, O God, living a good life of gentleness and love. Help us purge our bitter envy and selfish ambition. May we set aside our arrogance and commit ourselves to truth. In this time of worship we draw near to you, O Holy One. In this time of worship we pray that you will draw near to us. Amen.
Please be seated
WE SHARE THE WORD OF GOD
Anthem: Allegro Fom Sonata No. 3 for Saxophone
Kayleen Yuda, piano
Corey Maesaka, saxophone
Time with the Children Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Scripture: Jeremiah 11:18-20 Barbara Iwami
It was the Lord who made it known to me, and I knew;
then you showed me their evil deeds.
But I was like a gentle lamb
led to the slaughter.
And I did not know it was against me
that they devised schemes, saying,
‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will no longer be remembered!’
But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously,
who try the heart and the mind,
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
Mark 9:30-37
They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.’ But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’
Sermon: Who Wants to Be First? Rev. Eric S. Anderson
WE RESPOND IN WORD AND DEED
Pastoral Prayer Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen
* Hymn #533: Children of God (v. 1-4)
Call to Offering Barbara Iwami
“The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace,” wrote James. We offer our gifts in the hope of fostering peace with our neighbors, in our community, and in the world beyond. May the fruit of righteousness grow and blossom because of our offerings. Whether you share your gift here in the church today, through a gift online, or via an envelope in the mail, let the offering now be received.
Offertory: The Ash Grove Kayleen Yuda
* Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Amen
* Offertory Prayer Barbara Iwami
Accept our gifts, we pray, O God. The world is in desperate need of your wisdom, your guidance, and your peace. May our offering be a part of bringing wisdom, guidance, and peace to our homes, our community, and our world. Amen.
* Hymn #539: Won’t You Let Me Be Your Servant? (v. 1-6)
Please be seated
Announcements Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Benediction Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Postlude: Finale Kayleen Yuda
* Please stand if you are able.
Permissions:
Be Thou My Vision
Albin C. Whitworth
Streamed by permission CCLI License #1595965
Surely No One Can Be Safer
Text by Lina Sandell, 1855
Trans. New Century Hymnal, 1994
Tune TRYGGARE KAN INGEN VARA Swedish folk melody
Public Domain
Streamed by permission of The Pilgrim Press
Allegro Fom Sonata No. 3 for Saxophone
G F Handel
© Hal Leonard Pub. Corp
Streamed by permission CCLI License #1595965
Children of God
Text by John Greenleaf Whittier, 1848
Tune WELWYN by Alfred Scott-Gatty, 1900
Public Domain
The Ash Grove
Welsh Folk Song
Arr. Timothy Campbell (ASCAP)
CCS License #13303
Won’t You Let Me Be Your Servant?
Text by Richard Gillard, 1977
© 1977 Universal Music,
Brentwood Benson Publishing
Tune SERVANT SONG by Richard Gillard, 1977
© 1977 Brentwood Benson Publishing
Streamed by permission CCLI License #1595965
Finale
Antony Garlick
World Library Publications, Inc.
Streamed by permission CCLI License #1595965
Announcement
Foodland’s Give Aloha during the month of September —
Please support Church of the Holy Cross by making a donation at any Foodland, or Sack N Save during the month of September. 100% of your gift will go directly to our organization and Foodland will match a portion of your contribution.
Pastor Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Moderator Stefan Tanouye
Lay Reader Barbara Iwami
Choir Accompanist Kanako Okita
Choir Director Doug Albertson
Organist Kayleen Yuda
Saxophone Corey Maesaka
Hand Bell Director Anna Kennedy
Chapel Decorations Lillian Tanouye, Eric Tanouye,
Heather Tanouye, Kyle Nakayama
Projected Imagery Sue Smith
Web Master Ruth Niino-DuPonte
Videographers Eric Tanouye, Eli Yamaki
Ruth Niino-DuPonte, Bob Smith
We welcome you to worship this day. Church of the Holy Cross seeks to help its members, friends, and visitors follow the guidance of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, encouraging all people to love one another according to the teachings of Jesus. We live and teach the faith, speak good news, minister to people near and far, and work with other households of faith and helping agencies to improve our community and our world. To support our ministries, please visit our Donate Page.
What I’m Thinking: Not About Fame
When Jesus’ disciples argued about who was greatest, Jesus set a new standard. Greatness, he said, was measured by service.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the ninth chapter of Mark’s Gospel (Mark 9:30-37). In it, Jesus told his disciples that the Son of Man must be arrested, must be executed, and would then rise again after three days. His disciples didn’t understand what he was talking about.
Jesus asked them what they were talking about along the way, and they didn’t want to tell him. They had apparently been arguing about which one of them was the greatest. Jesus said, if you want to be first, then you have to be last. You have to be the servant of everyone.
If you were looking for a religion that will support your efforts to attain fame and wealth, Christianity is the wrong one. I say that knowing full well that there have been many, many who have claimed Christianity as their faith and have gone on to strive for fame and wealth and power. They’ve achieved them, but I think they’ve achieved them despite their Christianity, and certainly not because of it.
The “Prosperity Gospel,” in my view, is a rank heresy and a betrayal of what Jesus stood for.
Jesus specifically told his disciples that what we are about is service and aid and comfort and guidance and help. We are not about trampling others on the way to the top. I would argue that those who have attained fame claiming the name of Christian have achieved notoriety, rather than fame.
It’s not a popular opinion.
in the end, Jesus said the ones whom God notices are those who serve, those who support, those who help. If you would be Christ’s disciple, continue to dream of fame, if you like. But let your work be oriented towards those around you — and those far away — those who need your support, who can benefit from your guidance, who can lean upon you as you journey together through life.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
A Song from Church of the Holy Cross: September 18, 2024
The video above will be available to stream live at 11:00 AM HAST on September 18, 2024. You may watch the recording here at any time afterward. You will need to click the Play button to view the live video.
Sermon: The Coconut Wireless Tongue
September 15, 2024
Isaiah 50:4-9a
James 3:1-12
The single most efficient communications system I have ever encountered in my life is known as “The Coconut Wireless.” And I’m afraid, contrary to the hopes of my colleagues in the Hawai’i Conference who edit and manage the Conference’s electronic newsletter of that title, that’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about the original Coconut Wireless that gets good news and bad news from friend to friend and family member to family member in less time than it took for the original event.
If only the original Coconut Wireless had editors as good as those for the Hawai’i Conference’s Coconut Wireless. I’m afraid that the news we distribute so effectively around Hilo, Hawai’i Island, and far beyond, is… inconsistently accurate. And inconsistently well-meaning. And inconsistently careful about telling other people’s stories.
I may think the Coconut Wireless is more efficient than similar “unofficial” communication systems I’ve encountered in my life, but it definitely shares those inconsistences with the other “rumor mills” I’ve known. I’ve been told that family members were dying by other family members – and yes, they were pretty sick, but not dying. I’ve been told that people were upset with me or that they were pleased with me, and in conversations with those people later, found out that neither was true. I’ve lost count of the recommendations people made for people who weren’t interested in what they were being recommended for.
And I’m still aching about the reassurances I have given that I simply didn’t know enough to give. “It will be all right,” is what I said and what I wanted, but it wasn’t what I knew, and sometimes… it wasn’t all right.
“…No one can tame the tongue,” wrote James, “a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
Sometimes our Coconut Wireless goes that far, doesn’t it?
Margaret Aymer writes at Working Preacher, “What does it mean to think of one’s tongue as that which controls one’s whole being? Or perhaps, in today’s vernacular, what does it mean to think of one’s entire being as controlled by what we post on social media?”
To be honest, we don’t need social media to spread information (and misinformation) efficiently, but Dr. Aymer’s question is on point. We are accustomed to thinking that our actions must match our words. Last week we sang it, in fact, with these words from “Christian, Rise and Act Your Creed”: “Let your prayer be in your deed.” James said similar things earlier in the letter. We read one of them last week.
“If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily foodand one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” (James 2:15-16) Well, not much. No wonder James went on to say that “faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”
He wasn’t just interested in matching word to deed, however. He had observed the way that our words lead our deeds. It’s like the bridle of a horse, he wrote. It’s like the rudder of a ship. It’s like a flame.
It’s rather clever writing, actually. Did you notice that all of them have something to do with tongues? The bit goes into the horse’s mouth, over the tongue. The rudder of a ship is tongue shaped. And we talk about… tongues of fire.
Dr. Aymer continues, “[James] argues, the tongue has the capability of destroying one’s religious practice and that of one’s community. Here, James invites meditation on destructive ‘speech,’ more broadly defined. One might, for instance, think critically about racist speech, vitriol against immigrants, or the practice of ‘trolling’ on social media.”
If that sounds like Dr. Aymer had the current political climate in mind, she wrote those words in 2018. When, it must be said, the political climate wasn’t that much different.
When it comes to our Coconut Wireless, it is indeed difficult to bridle our tongues. Juicy news is just too good not to share, right? Even if we don’t have confirmation that it’s true. Even if it might hurt someone. Even if it’s someone else’s story to tell, not ours. James wanted us to use our faith to guide what we say. Too often, we say it, and then our tongues become the guide for what happens after that.
Gossip, however, is not the worst example of the unbridled tongue. The Coconut Wireless carries care and compassion, too. It’s how we find out that someone needs help, and it’s how we start to organize support for them. No, it’s when the tongue dips into the evils within the human spirit and casts them out into the world: that’s when the tongue becomes “a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
It’s been twenty-three years since that terrible September 11th when so many people died. Do you remember the ways in which tongues wagged? Do you remember the hateful things said about Afghans, about Arabs, about all Muslims? I remember some efforts by national leaders to restrain such things, but they weren’t enough. In 2011 the Justice Department reviewed anti-Muslim hate crimes from 1998 to 2010. In 2000 there were less than 50 reported incidents. In 2001 there were nearly 500. In 2002 they fell to about 160 – but they continued to be between 100 and 170 right up to 2010.
Hateful words led to hate crimes.
This past week a hateful – and baseless – accusation against immigrants in an Ohio community received a lot of amplification. Hateful words on a national stage led to bomb threats that closed elementary schools in Springfield, Ohio, for two days this week. The people amplifying these racist lies have not just refused to recant them, they have repeated them.
Dan Clendenin writes at JourneyWithJesus.net, “What we say can reveal more about us than about the recipient of our speech. The scary part about toxic talk is that it reveals the character of our inner identity. ‘Out of the overflow of the heart,’ said Jesus, ‘the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned’ (Matthew 12:34–37).”
Well. I suppose I should be grateful for some revelatory unbridled tongues. I’m afraid I’m not, though.
“Bridling the tongue is not for the faint of heart,” writes Casey Thornburgh Sigmon at Working Preacher. “It takes courage and a strong heart to listen in order to hear another, to tune into the Spirit’s whispers through them and in the space between people, rather than to listen only for a gap to insert yourself in an unbridled fashion.
“Our American society hasn’t the faintest idea how to listen. So much of American Christianity is a shouting match. Foolishness abides. Fires are set, and what is the cost?”
We know the cost. We do not need to pay it.
James offered no easy guidance to bridling the tongue. He simply said, “Do it.” So here are a few suggestions of my own.
First, if you don’t know it’s true, don’t say it. I’m not talking about asking questions for learning. If you don’t know something, by all means ask. But if the sentence begins, “I heard that…” make sure that the person you’re quoting had the ability to know what they told you. If they didn’t, check with someone who does. If you don’t know it’s true, don’t say it.
Second, ask yourself whose story this is to tell. Who is concerned in it, and who is affected by it? If the story is about you, it’s yours. You can tell it or not as you need or as you please. But if the story is about someone else, did they give permission to share it? What impact might it have upon them if it goes farther than you?
Impact: that’s the third thing. Will what you say tend to help or to harm? Will it organize support or coalesce into shame? Will your jokes be “laugh with” or “laugh at?” Will other people be further affected, particularly by speech that can be heard as prejudiced?
Here’s James’ advice: “Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
That works, too.
I’m still impressed with the efficiency of our Coconut Wireless. It’s so quick. It’s so effective. It makes things happen.
By what we say, may our Coconut Wireless also be truthful, sensitive to others’ stories, and focused on compassion.
Amen.
by Eric Anderson
Watch the Recorded Sermon
Pastor Eric makes changes while preaching, so the text will not precisely match the recorded sermon.
The image is an icon of Saint James the Just (neo-Byzantine). Artist unknown. The picture originates from the days.ru open catalogue, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=329361.
Worship for September 15, 2024
Thank you for joining us for this live stream (or recording, as the case may be) of Sunday worship. May it bless you! You may need to click “Play” to launch the stream, which will be live around 9:50 AM.
Welcome to the live stream of worship from Church of the Holy Cross for Sunday, September 15, 2024. You will find the service outline below, and you may download and print the PDF to follow more easily.
Service of Worship September 15, 2024
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor
WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD
Please note that audio and video of this service are being live streamed on the Internet and will be recorded. The right rear section of the sanctuary will not be captured by any cameras. Please be aware that in other sections you may be visible at times.
Prelude: Rise Up, Ye Saints of God Kayleen Yuda
Lighting of the Candles
Ringing of the Bell
Welcome Rev. Eric S. Anderson
* Call to Worship: (based on Proverbs 1:20-33) Anna Kennedy
Leader: Wisdom cries out in the streets, raising her voice to all who pass by.
People: “How long will you love your ignorance? How long will you scoff without knowledge?”
Leader: Wisdom begs to pour out her thoughts and make known her words,
People: But people have refused. They have rejected Wisdom’s outstretched hand.
Leader: Without wisdom, humanity plants the seeds of its own disasters.
People: With wisdom, we live securely without dread of the future.
All: Let us worship God!
* Hymn #531: God, Speak to Me, That I May Speak (v. 1-4)
* Invocation (based on Psalm 19) Anna Kennedy
The heavens tell your glory, O God. The air breathes and the night declares your knowledge, not in words that we can hear, but in revelation any human being can perceive. In your words our hearts rejoice, our eyes clear, our souls revel as in the sweetness of honey. Let the words of our mouths and the reflections of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Please be seated
WE SHARE THE WORD OF GOD
Anthem: Sonatina Op.20 No.2 3rd mvt. Kanako Okita
Time with the Children Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Scripture: Isaiah 50:4-9a Anna Kennedy
The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens—
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backwards.
I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.
The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.
James 3:1-12
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.
How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
Sermon: The Coconut Wireless Tongue Rev. Eric S. Anderson
WE RESPOND IN WORD AND DEED
Pastoral Prayer Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen
* Hymn #586: Come to Tend God’s Garden (v. 1-3)
Call to Offering Anna Kennedy
God has filled our hearts with wisdom. God has filled our lives with blessing. May we bless others by sharing our wisdom. May we bless others by sharing our blessings. Whether you share your gift here in the church today, through a gift online, or via an envelope in the mail, let the offering now be received.
Offertory: Trusting Thee Kayleen Yuda
* Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Amen
*Offertory Prayer Anna Kennedy
With our voices we declare our trust in you, O God, and with our voices we ask your grace to receive these gifts from our hands, to bless those who offer them, and to raise up those with whom we share them. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
* Hymn #522: I Love to Tell the Story (v. 1-4)
Please be seated
Announcements Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Benediction Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Postlude: O Magnify the Lord Kayleen Yuda
* Please stand if you are able.
Permissions
Rise Up, Ye Saints of God
Robert Powell
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
God, Speak to Me, That I May Speak
Text by Frances Ridley Havergal, 1972
Tune CANONBURY by Robert Schumann, 1872
Public Domain
Sonatina Op.20 No.2 3rd mvt.
Friedrich R. Kuhlau
Public Domain
Come to Tend God’s Garden
Text by John A. Dalles, 1992
© 1992 by John A. Dalles
Tune KING’S WESTON by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1925
© 1931 Oxford University Press
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Trusting Thee
Edward Broughton
Tune: © 1978 Lorenz Publishing Company
a division of The Lorenz Corporation
(Admin. by Music Services)
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
I Love to Tell the Story
Text by Katherine Hankey, 1866
Tune HANKEY by William G. Fischer, 1869
Public Domain
O Magnify the Lord
Donald Lee Moore
Tune: © 1979 Lorenz Publishing Company,
A division of The Lorenz Corporation
(Admin. by Music Services)
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Dates to Remember
Today, September 15 – Deacons Meeting
Announcement
Foodland’s Give Aloha during the month of September–
Please support Church of the Holy Cross by making a donation at any Foodland, or Sack N Save during the month of September. 100% of your gift will go directly to our organization and Foodland will match a portion of your contribution.
Pastor Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Moderator Stefan Tanouye
Lay Reader Anna Kennedy
Choir Accompanist Kanako Okita
Choir Director Doug Albertson
Organist Kayleen Yuda
Hand Bell Director Anna Kennedy
Chapel Decorations Jane Kawazoe
Projected Imagery Sue Smith
Web Master Ruth Niino-DuPonte
Videographers Eric Tanouye, Eli Yamaki
Ruth Niino-DuPonte, Bob Smith
We welcome you to worship this day. Church of the Holy Cross seeks to help its members, friends, and visitors follow the guidance of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, encouraging all people to love one another according to the teachings of Jesus. We live and teach the faith, speak good news, minister to people near and far, and work with other households of faith and helping agencies to improve our community and our world. To support our ministries, please visit our Donate Page.
Community Sing Friday Sept. 13
All are welcome to sing their favorite songs together this Friday, September 13, at 6:00 pm. We’ll have songbooks and some musicians on hand to provide accompaniment, but the people will pick the tunes for us to sing together.
The Community Sing takes place in the church sanctuary every second Friday of the month at 6:00 pm.
Pastor’s Corner: Special
September 11, 2024
When is something special?
Many times over the years I’ve heard that special things are unusual, even rare. At other times I’ve heard that it’s not rarity that makes something special, it’s the way that I take care of it. And there are times I’ve heard that all members of a category are special.
Well. That’s confusing.
Nearly every church in the global Church asserts that Holy Communion is special, then they approach it very differently. For hundreds of years it was so special that most people never received the cup lest they spill it. I grew up in a church that held Communion just five times a year for a while, because it was too special to hold more often. At the same time, a church down the street held communion not just every Sunday but throughout the week. Why? Because it was special.
If non-Christians find this confusing, so do Christians.
When is a person special? Some decry the custom of participation awards, claiming that only the “winners” should be recognized. “If everyone is special,” they say, “then nobody is.”
Really?
I didn’t get participation awards as a child, but that was how things went then. I didn’t graduate from kindergarten or elementary school or junior high. Again, that’s how things went.
But I have no complaint with telling each and every human being, “You are special. You are valued. You are loved.” Because it’s true. God cares for each and every one of us, and for all the rest of Creation, too.
That’s pretty special.
In peace,
Pastor Eric
What I’m Thinking: Govern the Tongue
James advised us to live our faith – and to start by controlling what we say.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the third chapter of the Letter of James (James 3:1-12).
In the first two chapters James concentrated on the major theme of the letter: that faith needs to be lived. It is not enough to believe. It is not enough to trust in God. That belief and that trust need to find outward expression. “Faith without works,” wrote James, “is dead.”
In this section. James turns to a particular way in which to live out our faith, and that is to govern the tongue. “A restless evil, full of poison, wrote James, “Asking rhetorically,
Who can govern the tongue?”
Well, the answer, said James, is Christians. Christians are supposed to govern the tongue. We are not supposed to say evil things about one another. we are not supposed to say things that are not true. We are not supposed to curse with the same mouth with which we bless.
James, as he notes in this section, was perfectly well aware of the human capacity for folly and failure. James knew that there is always a God who forgives. But, said James, there is no excuse for not trying. Govern the tongue, he wrote. Let the speech that comes from your mouth be that of blessing: for yourself, for others, and for all the world.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.