As you read this, I will be near the shores of a different ocean.
I enjoy my trips to visit family on the East Coast, but I confess that they bring some disorientation. Even in summer, the water of the Atlantic Ocean on the shores of New England is cooler than that of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of Hawai’i. The roads are more crowded, and frankly they’re a lot longer. People wear different fashions, different colors and shapes, than we do here. Their speech follows different patterns.
In New England, I have to look west to see weather coming. In Hawai’i, I look east. Talk about turning your head around!
Variety, I think, is the way of God’s Creation. The oceans have similar current circles but their waters teem with different life forms in one ocean than in another. The birds of Connecticut are not the same as those of Hawai’i, and neither are the same as those of Louisiana, New Zealand, or the Himalayas. Our volcanoes are fed from the hot liquid rock of the planet, but they do not much resemble the jagged peaks of the Pacific Northwest.
God, in the wisdom of Creation, appears to have said, “Let’s have everything.” And so we do.
As I indulge in a little time with some of that variety, I hope you will consider the different blessings you have received in your life: of people, of growing things, of living creatures, of experiences, of scents, of love. How have they blessed you, helped you grow, given you joy?
God seems to have said, “Let’s have everything.” And so we do.
In peace,
Pastor Eric
Photo of New Haven, Connecticut, by Eric Anderson.
King David tends to dominate the Scriptures in which he appears. That’s true of the passages in which he’s mentioned, but it’s especially true when he took a major role in what the text describes. When David is in the room, there’s not a lot of oxygen for anybody else.
But.
This is Bathsheba’s story.
She bathed. The text is a little ambiguous, but strongly implies she was not just physically cleansing herself, but ritually cleansing herself. Her husband, a soldier in the army, was away at the siege of Rabbah. She was alone.
I don’t know whether any rumor came to her ears about people asking about her. What would she have thought if she did? Would she have worried about some unknown threat? Would she have trusted that her neighbors and friends would be able to protect her? Would she have simply thought, “I can’t believe anyone is asking about me.”
Did she simply not hear anything at all?
Then the messengers came from the King with a summons. What could that be about? Her husband was in the army – oh, no. Could this be the message every spouse of a soldier fears? Had her husband died? Been seriously wounded? Would she leave the palace in tears?
She arrived at the palace. There was the king. There were the other soldiers, the honor guard. Did they leave before he said, “Come to the bedroom”? Did they hear the king’s demand? Did the light glinting from their armor – and their weapons – add force to the orders of royalty? Or was it enough that swords and spears lurked in the hallway outside?
Gennifer Benjamin Brooks writes at Working Preacher, “Bathsheba is innocent of wrong-doing, even to the point of obeying the dictates of the king at the cost of her own peace of mind. As many in society she responds to the voice of authority because she is required to do so, because of the hierarchical structure of her world, which places her on the bottom.”
When the rape was over – and that’s what it was, do not mistake it – did she leave the palace in tears? Or did she hold her face as still as she might contrive, so that nobody would see her pain, her grief, her undeserved shame?
And then… she realized she was pregnant.
Why did she go to David, who had raped her? Her choices were limited. Gennifer Benjamin Brooks goes on to write, “It is the story of poor women everywhere who because of their poverty must turn for help to their abuser because she has nowhere else to turn.” Bathsheba would have stood accused of adultery on the evidence of her pregnancy. Israel’s law essentially required a woman to call for help during a sexual assault, assuming consent if she did not. It did not recognize that the threats of a king could enforce her silence.
So she told David.
What might she have expected? Perhaps she hoped for David’s honesty, that he would have spoken to Uriah, the soldier in his army. Perhaps she hoped that David would make some kind of offer to assuage her husband’s just wrath, that he might even take responsibility in a tangible way. I wonder if she even heard that Uriah was summoned back to the city. Did she know her husband maintained his fidelity to his army comrades? Did she know that David’s plan to cover up his crime had failed?
It’s always about the cover-up, isn’t it?
Joanna Harader writes at The Christian Century, “In this story, both Bathsheba and Uriah have what David lacks: integrity.
“It is easy to feel disappointed, even disoriented, when we find out that our would-be heroes aren’t so heroic after all. In our disorientation, perhaps we can reorient around those whose quiet courage and integrity challenge those who use their power in self-serving ways. Whenever there is a King David abusing people and power, we can usually also find Bathshebas—those who insist on speaking the truth about the abuse, regardless of the consequences. We can usually also find Uriahs, behaving with integrity even in the context of a corrupt system.”
I’m sure she didn’t know about the message David sent to his field commander, Joab, when Uriah returned to the army. You know. The order to murder.
Well, it worked. The next thing Bathsheba learned – in the sections of 2 Samuel beyond the passage we heard this morning – was that her husband had fallen in battle. She mourned.
Then David sent for her again, made Bathsheba his wife (one of his wives), and she bore his son.
Dear God.
“But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.” (2 Samuel 11:27b)
Dear God, I hope it did. I hope it does.
The hashtag #MeToo gets less play on social networks than it did a few years ago. We’ve seen significant sexual assault convictions overturned on disputed procedural grounds. Significant public figures have been exposed as serial abusers, even rapists, to the shock and dismay of people who’d supported their politics or enjoyed their entertainment. “Honestly,” writes Joanna Harader, “the list of entertainers and church leaders who have turned out to be abusers is depressingly long. It’s almost as if power and prestige somehow facilitate abusive patterns and protect perpetrators!”
“Almost as if,” for sure.
As Robert Hoch writes at Working Preacher, “The Hebrew verb ‘to take’ in verse 4 (translated as ‘to get’ in the NRSV) recalls Samuel’s warning to Israel about the nature of kings: ‘These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take . . .’ (1 Samuel 8:11-18). ‘He will take your sons, your daughters, your fields, your wealth.’ Coercive power will be, according to Samuel, characteristic of the ‘ways’ of the king.
“It is also the way of rapists.”
Enough of this.
Jesus spoke those words to stem violence during his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, but I hear them echoing around sexual violence as well. There is no excuse. It’s not about clothing or the lack of it – remember that Jesus also advised that if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It’s not about what any man “deserves” for physical intimacy. It’s what every woman (or man, or child) deserves for respect of their bodily, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Nobody is entitled to someone else.
Enough of this.
I’m tired of the excuses. In 2014 Jen Brockman and Dr. Mary Wyandt-Hiebert created the touring art exhibit “What Were You Wearing,” which combined clothing of assault survivors with their stories. Strikingly, as it moves from campus to campus, it accumulates new clothing and new stories which… breaks my heart.
Enough of this.
I’m tired of the discounting of women’s stories and of women’s value. Judges repeatedly decline to “ruin this young man’s life,” when he’s made a significant attempt at ruining a woman’s life. Rape survivors hold their silence, often for years, because they can’t bear the added insult to injury of not being believed by a system and a society which will, by that refusal to believe, betray them.
Enough of this.
I’m tired of the frequency of it all. According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, an American is sexually assaulted every 68 seconds. One in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. About 3% of American men – one in thirty-three – have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. Using data from the National Sexual Assault Hotline, they find that 55% of assaults occur in the victim’s home.
Enough of this.
No more excuses. No more dismissals. And for the love of God, the only acceptable frequency for sexual assault is none.
David, this is not your story. It’s Bathsheba’s, a story of trust violated and power abused. Mercifully, it is not the end of Bathsheba’s story. As Wil Gafney writes at Working Preacher: “Bathsheba’s story ends in 1 Kings chapters 1-2. She and Nathan work together to get Solomon on the throne. In Bathsheba’s last appearance in the scriptures, Solomon installs her on a throne at his right-hand side, gets up off of his throne and bows down before her. This may well be the beginning of the tradition of the Gevirah, the Queen Mother as an authoritative office that would characterize the later Judean monarchy. This text is an important supplement to Bathsheba’s rape narrative in 2 Samuel 11 because she survives the rape and David and thrives in spite of what it and he has done to her.”
Thank you for your survival, Bathsheba, and for the survival of generations of women who have followed you. Someday, I hope and pray, there will be a last survivor, because the perpetrators will finally stop. May that day be today.
Amen.
by Eric Anderson
Watch the Recorded Sermon
Although I preach from a prepared manuscript (which is the same as the text above), I improvise from a preacher’s brain. What you read and what I preached may not be the same.
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, July 28, 2024. You will find the service outline below, and you may download and print the PDF to follow more easily.
Service of Worship July 28, 2024 Tenth 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: Agincourt HymnKayleen Yuda
Lighting of the Candles
Ringing of the Bell
Welcome Rev. Eric S. Anderson
* Call to Worship: (based on Psalm 45:10-18) Gloria Kobayashi
Leader: All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD. All your faithful praise you! People: We speak of the glory of your realm. We tell of your power.
Leader: The LORD upholds all who are falling. God raises up those who are bowed down. People: When our eyes look to you, you raise up food from the ground in due season.
Leader: Your hand opens to satisfy the needs of every living thing. People: Draw near to us, O God, as we call: as we call to you in truth.
All: Let us worship God!
* Hymn #51: O Sing a Song of Bethlehem (v. 1-4)
* Invocation (based on Psalm 14) Gloria Kobayashi
We know fools who say in their hearts and with their lips and with their actions, “There is no God.” We see their deeds, we see the wreckage of human misery they leave behind. Have any among us any knowledge? Are there any who know the LORD? Be the refuge of the poor, O God. Be the deliverance that comes from Zion. Restore the fortunes of suffering people, O God, and we will rejoice and be glad.
Please be seated
WE SHARE THE WORD OF GOD
Anthem: Here I Am, Lord Kayleen Yuda
Time with the Children
Scripture: 2 Samuel 11:1-15 Gloria Kobayashi In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, ‘This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ So David sent messengers to fetch her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’
So David sent word to Joab, ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite.’ And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house, and wash your feet.’ Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, ‘Uriah did not go down to his house’, David said to Uriah, ‘You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?’ Uriah said to David, ‘The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.’ Then David said to Uriah, ‘Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.’ So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, ‘Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.’
John 6:1-21 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wageswould not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’
When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, got into a boat, and started across the lake to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The lake became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were going.
Sermon: Enough of This 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 #476: My Life Flows on in Endless Song (v. 1-4)
Call to Offering Gloria Kobayashi
As human beings, we have the power to create, and we have the power to destroy. In this moment, let us choose the power of creation, of compassion, and of healing. Let us be part of the ministry of Christ. 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: Gloria Tibi Trinitas 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 Gloria Kobayashi
Accept these gifts, O God, which your people place in your care. Accept our offered hearts, O God, and turn them to the work of healing. Combine our gifts together, O God, and may all people be filled with good things, in body, mind, and soul. Amen.
* Hymn #553: There Is a Balm in Gilead (v. 1-3)
Please be seated
Announcements Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Benediction Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Postlude: Festival MarchKayleen Yuda
* Please stand if you are able.
Permissions
Agincourt Hymn John Dunstable, Edited by E. Power Biggs Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Pastor Rev. Eric S. Anderson Moderator Stefan Tanouye Lay Reader Gloria Kobayashi Choir Accompanist Kanako Okita Choir Director Doug Albertson Organist Kayleen Yuda Hand Bell Director Anna Kennedy Chapel Decorations Laura Ota 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.
I doubt this statement surprises you at all. Parents, siblings, friends, children, all the people we’ve known in our lives: they’ve all been different. Personalities, tastes, the curve of an eyebrow or the crinkle at the eyes when they smile all testify to the variety of humanity.
I’m thinking of someone I knew once who was always open to reconsidering a decision.
We worked on a project together, and by and large we worked together pretty well. It required a lot of our time and a lot of our effort, and it required so many little decisions along the way.
Some people really enjoy the experience that comes before a decision. They like to review the possibilities, “taste” the variety of outcomes. Others find that an uncomfortable place to be. They like to come to a decision, make it, and move on – while those in the first group fret about missed opportunities.
Personally, I’m so much in the middle that I joke that I don’t care whether I’ve made a decision or not. My partner, however, was firmly among that first group of people. As much as I like to look at options, I also prefer to stick with a decision once made (unless it’s clearly not working out). At one point in our project, of course, my partner reopened the conversation about a choice we’d already made. “But we decided that,” I said. “All decisions are tentative,” he replied.
The ”moral” of this story is not that I was right, and he was wrong. Nor was he right and I wrong. We each worked according to our customs and comfort. It wasn’t always easy. Sometimes it rubbed one or the other the wrong way.
And we still managed to work together and produced something pretty amazing. People can do that, even when they’re very different.
David abused his power through sexual assault and murder. It’s an illustration that power must be moderated.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the eleventh chapter of Second Samuel (2 Samuel 11:1-15), the beginning of the story of David and Bathsheba.
I say the beginning because Bathsheba would end up being a very important part of David’s life. Not only would she become the mother of Solomon, she would be significantly involved in the palace machinations that made sure that the inheritance went to her son Solomon rather than one of David’s other sons. Bathsheba was a force in her own right.
I think we tend to read the beginning of this story in the light of her character revealed later on in the story. I think that also deceives us at least to some extent.
Because David looked out and he saw her bathing. He sent people to inquire about her. When he found out who she was he sent messengers to bring her to him, and when she came, he raped her.
That is the only word for it because Bathsheba, in encountering the monarch, had no real ability to say no. Whatever else she may have thought about the relationship, and it does seem that is time went on she found a role within that household, at the beginning it was David’s choice. And it was not David’s choice to make.
Not only did David have his will without consent, he also contrived at the murder of Bathsheba’s husband, a soldier in his own army and a foreigner. David instructed one of his generals to see that Uriah was left alone at the front of the battle, and sure enough he died at David’s command.
Do I really need to say that this is an illustration of the way that power corrupts? This is an illustration of power exercising its corruption. This is an illustration of why human beings should not be entrusted with too much authority, why authority needs to be moderated and mediated by others. Do I really need to say absolute power cannot be entrusted to a human being?
We’ve seen it over and over again. We’ve seen people described in the Scriptures do it over and over again. We’ve seen people described in our histories do it over and over again. And it doesn’t much matter what the title is, people do it. They decide what they want, and they take it, and the welfare or the well-being and even the lives of others do not stand in the way.
Don’t give anybody in your life too much power, and if you have, find ways to reclaim your self-integrity, your self-worth, your power. And if you are exercising power over others, then find ways to see that it is mitigated and moderated by others. See that others can look at what you do, and say you have exercised power according to your rights, and according to what is right.
In the garden of Gethsemane, when a sword flashed, and a severed ear fell to the ground, Jesus said, “Enough of this. Those words echo down the centuries: Enough of this.
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.
The video above will be available to stream live at 11:00 AM HAST on July 24, 2024. You may watch the recording here at any time afterward. You will need to click the Play button to view the live video.
If you search Biblegateway.com for the word “shepherd” in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, you get 109 uses. I’m afraid that some of those appear in the occasional subheadings that modern-day editors have helpfully added, so the original numbers are somewhat lower. Still. 87 uses in the Old Testament, 22 in the New Testament. “Shepherd” is an important word.
One of the reasons for that was the cultural self-image of the Hebrew people. They saw themselves as shepherd people, those who followed the flocks of sheep and goats and therefore spent relatively little time in a fixed abode. Somewhat like the rivalry between the farmer and the cowhand in the Rogers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma. Do you remember the song “The Farmer and the Cowhand Should Be Friends,” which basically feeds the bad feeling between them? Well, the shepherds were the ancient equivalent of cowhands, and the farmers and city dwellers of the eastern Mediterranean had a similar rivalry.
A fair number of those “shepherd” references in the Old Testament are variants on, “We’re shepherd people, and that’s the best thing to be.”
The Israelites also liked the image of “shepherd” for their national leaders. It might refer to priests or senior civic officials, but the favorite reference was to the king. David, of course, made the metaphor obvious, since as Psalm 78 says,
“He chose his servant David and took him from the sheepfolds; from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance. With upright heart he tended them and guided them with skillful hand.”
– Psalm 78
The one who really liked to compare kings to shepherds was Jeremiah. He used “shepherd” nineteen times, more than any other book of the Bible. And nearly always, he used it as we’ve heard it this morning. “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD.”
Jeremiah really didn’t have a high opinion of the kings of his day. Or a mediocre opinion. Low opinion is… getting close. He thought they were awful.
He did, however, provide us with an admirable summary of what a monarch, or a leader, should do and be: “he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” As we come up to our primary election, with the likelihood that a number of our state and county races will be decided by this ballot, I humbly suggest that you vote for the candidates who display the attributes of wisdom and have the capacity and desire to execute justice and righteousness in the land. If they don’t… vote for somebody else.
I do know that every four years, (with a tear-drop more anxiety this time around) I want to believe verse four –
“I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall no longer fear or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says God.”
even knowing that the Holy One, is looking right at me to be less of a hand-wringer, and take responsibility for the raising-up.
But if you want a real shepherd, the place to look is the sixth chapter of Mark.
Earlier in the chapter, Jesus commissioned his disciples to widen his work, dispatching them about the villages and towns to teach and to heal. As they did so, word came to Jesus, and to the people of Galilee, that John the Baptist had been executed by King Herod. When the disciples returned, still excited about their success, Jesus took them off to go on retreat. They needed a break. They needed to tell their stories. They needed to do some grieving for John the Baptist, whose ministry still influenced them all.
Instead, they found a crowd had anticipated them and arrived before they did.
As Cheryl Lindsay writes at UCC.org, “Mark seems the least concerned with character development. We find out who Jesus and his disciples are by what they do and what they teach. Yet, even in this account, Jesus does a remarkable thing by prioritizing rest in the midst of impactful ministry and gathering crowds. This time, it is not his own rest, which he has already modeled as a spiritual practice. Jesus is as concerned with his disciples adopting a routine of rest within the rhythm of their coming and going.”
Jesus “had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.”
It has always impressed me that Jesus, despite his need and his disciples’ need of time to themselves, gave that up in order to serve the people who needed more. As we’ve been reading Mark’s Gospel this year, I’ve been struck by the number of times this happened to Jesus, that he tried to take time away and couldn’t. It’s a minor theme of the gospel, but it’s there. Jesus didn’t have a lot of luck taking time off.
I’m also struck by the appearance of that word, “shepherd.” As Matt Skinner writes at Working Preacher, “‘The system’ has failed the people who flock to Jesus, as evidenced in Herod Antipas’s lethal fecklessness (6:14–29).2 They are vulnerable in a predatory world. No one, it seems, guards their human dignity. They have to fend for themselves. What kind of society places people in that kind of condition?”
I hate to say it, but a lot of human societies do precisely that, and explain it away as… the way things are.
Jesus, however, seeing people in need of leadership, stepped in to provide it. That’s what you’d expect of a Messiah, come to think of it. A Messiah is a leader, a general, a king. “Let’s get together, people! Form up in ranks. To Herod’s palace, march!”
Only… he didn’t do that. At all.
He taught them. Remember what Jeremiah said a shepherd does? Deal wisely? Jesus is a shepherd who teaches wisdom.
I have to assume that some of the people on the beach came seeking healing, because that’s nearly always the case in Mark. Later in the chapter, when Jesus and his disciples, probably still looking for that private retreat, landed near Gennesaret, it was abundantly clear. They brought the sick out to the marketplace. They reached out to touch the fringe of his cloak, just like that woman with the hemorrhage. They were healed.
I say this a lot. People are impressed with power, with glamor, with fame. We tend to defer to people with those things whether their ideas are good, indifferent, bad, or downright horrid. Why, I wonder, don’t we value leadership like that displayed by Jesus? Why do we vote for the self-aggrandizing and power hungry, rather than the wise and the compassionate?
Jesus stepped onto the shore from the boat and saw the vacuum of power, the dearth of governmental concern, the absence of good shepherding. He saw a need. Then he filled it.
But he didn’t fill it with glitz. He didn’t fill it with glamor. He didn’t fill it with the coercive power which is a government’s most treasured privilege. He filled it with wisdom, with compassion, and with healing. Oh, and bread. That first beach they landed on, the one where Jesus saw them without a shepherd? At the end of the day Jesus fed all five thousand of them with five loaves and two fish.
Now that’s a shepherd. There’s one who really cares for the sheep.
Not all of us will take positions of leadership in society. There’s not room for everyone to be mayor, or governor, or president. There’s not even room for everyone to be pastor, or moderator, or a member of one of our governing boards of this church – though I will say that there is definitely room, and the nominating committee is hard at work to find those shepherds of our congregation for the next year.
Jesus didn’t commission his disciples to become mayors or governors or presidents or monarchs, or to be their supporters. He didn’t commission them to become generals or courtiers. He commissioned them to be apostles, teachers and healers. He commissioned them to be the same kind of shepherd that he was.
That is our summons, too. To follow Jesus as people who value and share wisdom, who do our level best to provide healing, who refrain from the acts that divide people and scatter them so that they are no longer cared for.
Because we are cared for by the one who is a true shepherd, guiding us in wisdom, justice, and righteousness, all the days of our lives. That’s a shepherd.
Amen.
by Eric Anderson
Watch the Recorded Sermon
Pastor Eric sometimes ventures away from his prepared text. He hopes he’s improving things.
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, July 21, 2024. You will find the service outline below, and you may download and print the PDF to follow more easily.
Service of Worship July 21, 2024 Ninth 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: Theme and Two Variations Kayleen Yuda
Lighting of the Candles
Ringing of the Bell
Welcome Rev. Eric S. Anderson
* Call to Worship: (based on 2 Samuel 7:1-14) Jennifer Tanouye
Leader: When King David was settled in his house, he thought to house the Ark of God. People: He told the prophet Nathan, “I am living in a house of cedar, but the Ark of God stays in a tent!”
Leader: God replied, “Have I ever asked one of the shepherds of Israel to make me a house of cedar?” People: Instead, God promised to protect the house of David.
Leader: God promised health and growth and safety for the faithful people. People: God promised to love them as a parent loves a child, and nurture them to their fullness.
All: Let us worship God!
* Hymn #43: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling (v. 1-4)
* Invocation: (based on Psalm 23) Jennifer Tanouye
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Please be seated
WE SHARE THE WORD OF GOD
Anthem: The Seasons Op.37b No.7 July: Song of the Reapers Kanako Okita
Please be seated
Time with the Children
Baptisms of Sophia Frances Akiko Niino & Gianna Autumn Cornielle
Pastor: They were bringing children to Jesus that Jesus might touch them; and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, Jesus was indignant, and said to them: People: “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the realm of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the realm of God like a child shall not enter it.”
Pastor: And Jesus took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them.
Address
Questions of the Parents
Congregational Assent
Pastor: Jesus Christ calls us to make disciples of all nation and to offer them the gift of grace in baptism. Do you, who witness and celebrate this sacrament, promise your love, support, and care to the one about to be baptized, as he lives and grows in Christ? People: We promise our love, support, and care.
Affirmation of Faith
Pastor: Do you believe in God? People: I believe in God.
Pastor: Do you believe in Jesus Christ? People: I believe in Jesus Christ.
Pastor: Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? People: I believe in the Holy Spirit.
Baptismal Prayer Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Baptism Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Prayer for the Baptized Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Scripture: Jeremiah 23:1-6 Jennifer Tanouye “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the Lord. “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for Davida righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.
Sermon: Now This is a Shepherd 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 #252: Savior, like a Shepherd Lead Us (v. 1 Eng, v. 1 Hwn, 2-3)
Please be seated
Call to Offering Jennifer Tanouye
What is a shepherd? One who comforts, one who cares. May we be good shepherds to our families, neighbors, and communities. With these gifts we offer our care to the flocks of God. 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: Rondeau 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 Jennifer Tanouye
You have given us a Good Shepherd, O God. You have been the Good Shepherd to us. As we give you thanks for your care, may we extend it to others near and far by these gifts, offered to your grace. Amen.
* Hymn #503: O Savior, Let Me Walk with You (v. 1-4)
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling Text by Charles Wesley, 1747 Tune BEECHER by John Zundel, 1855 Public Domain
The Seasons Op.37b No.7 July: Song of the Reapers Tchaikovsky Public Domain
Savior, like a Shepherd Lead Us Text attrib. to Dorothy A. Thrupp, first pub. 1836 Hawaiian trans. by Laiana Tune BRADBURY by William B. Bradbury, 1859 Public Domain
O Savior, Let Me Walk with You Text by Washington Gladden, 1879 Public Domain Tune MARYTON by H. Percy Smith, 1874 Public Domain
Plein Jeu a la Couperin Gordon Young Harold Flammer, Inc. Hal Leonard Corporation Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Friendly Notice Do you have a keiki entering the Third Grade and would you like the Church to present your keiki with a Bible? Please let the Church Office know by July 24, 2024. We would like to present the Bibles during service on August 11. Be sure to let us know what name you would like in the Bible–keiki’s full, formal name or a shortened name.
Pastor Rev. Eric S. Anderson Moderator Stefan Tanouye Lay Reader Jennifer Tanouye Choir Accompanist Kanako Okita Choir Director Doug Albertson Organist Kayleen Yuda Hand Bell Director Anna Kennedy Chapel Decorations Jean & Woody Kita 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.
I don’t know why I think summers will slow down, except that it’s a lingering memory from my childhood. The hustle and bustle of school seemed overwhelming in those days, and the stretch of days without those obligations seemed absolutely blissful.
In truth, of course, my brother and I ended up spending time in our parents’ workplaces, which sometimes interested us and sometimes bored us and usually required us to create our own entertainment – something at which every parent holds their breath.
This summer certainly hasn’t slowed down. I set down one set of responsibilities as Chair of the Conference Council in June, and was given another set as Chair of the Hawai’i Island Association Committee on Ministry in July. I’m took a week off in May and I’m taking two weeks off in August, but with my family now more spread out across New England, I’ll spend quite a bit of time on the road.
Where to find rest and peace?
As always, the answer to that question is to create those spaces for myself and hold them for myself. Whether it’s a prayer time at dawn or dusk, or Bible reading at noon, or a place to visit which soothes – these are things within my power to reserve and to protect. I can make the quiet time, and regrettably I can also set it aside for some reason which, in the end, rarely is as important as renewing my heart and soul.
No, you can’t count on summer to slow things down for you. You and I, we have to carve out those times ourselves, and keep them safe, so that God may reassure our hearts.
When using shepherds as a metaphor, we often think of leaders and rulers. But when Jesus acted like a shepherd, he fed people.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about portions of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Mark (Mark 6:30-34, 53-56). There are two stories that don’t actually have a lot of content to them: Jesus arrived somewhere and found a crowd waiting (or one had followed him), and then he taught them.
As we’ve been reading through the Gospel of Mark so far this year, I’ve been aware of a sub-theme I don’t think I’ve noticed before: how Jesus keeps on looking for a day off, and not getting one. And indeed, in the first of these stories Jesus comes along, a crowd follows him, and Jesus “had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”
Now, shepherd is a multi layered metaphor in the scriptures of Christians and Jews. the Hebrew people in the Psalms frequently used the metaphor of shepherds to refer to a ruler. They also, of course, famously used it to refer to God in Psalm 23. The Messiah that was promised? Well, all the shepherding imagery that came with that related to that same image of shepherd as guide, as leader, as ruler. Sheep need to be led.
But when Jesus found people waiting for him, or when Jesus found the people who had followed him, and he saw them as sheep without a shepherd, his response was not to tell them what to do. His response was to feed them: to feed them upon the word of God, to feed them on actual food (the lectionary has left out the feeding of the 5000, but that’s actually one of the stories that lies between these two passages). Jesus proceeded to see that the people he met were fed.
We’ve been thinking of shepherding all wrong.
We’ve been thinking of shepherding as the exercise of power. We’ve been thinking of shepherding as the exercise of guidance. We’ve been thinking of shepherding as, “I lead. You follow.”
But the shepherd that God gave us, the Good Shepherd that God gave us, was one to make sure that we were cared for, that we were fed, that we were whole.
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.
