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2330 South Jefferson Street
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2330 South Jefferson Street
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NINETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST AUGUST 1, 2004
As Christ cares, we care… we care
about all people.
ORDER OF SERVICE-9:00
and 11:00 A.M. + Indicates the people standing
ENTRANCE
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE THANKSGIVING Invitation to Communion Hymnal, pg. 12
Prayer of Confession
(Unison)
SENDING FORTH +Indicates the people standing THOSE SERVING TODAY:
The Altar Flowers Are
Given *CHILDREN (ages 3 through 1st grade), may meet the acolyte to recess to Children’s Church. Please ask your child to line up behind the acolyte who will lead all children out together. After the worship service, parents must pick up their child in the Children’s Department; children will not be allowed to leave the room until their parents arrive. WELCOME! We're glad to have all who have joined us for this time of worship. Especially to our guests and visitors, we welcome you to South Roanoke and to our fellowship. We invite those who have no church home to make South Roanoke your church and add your witness to ours. NEXT WEEK’S SERMON, “You Go with God” will be based on Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16. Please read and study these texts this week. THE DEADLINE FOR ARTICLES for the September issue of the Tower Times is August 15. Send articles to Joe Kennedy, or email to joesrumc@aol.com. Articles can be sent at any time prior to the deadline. Please have all information in by this date as our preparation time will be very tight for getting that issue out! NEXT SUNDAY WE WILL HAVE LEMONADE-ON-THE-LAWN again. Come visit outside for a few minutes after the 11:00 a.m. service and enjoy cookies, lemonade, and your church family. REQUESTS FOR SCHOLARSHPS are now being taken. If you are a member of SRUMC, and have a student who will be attending college this fall and would like to apply for a scholarship, please come by the church office to pick up an application form. Deadline for forms to be turned in is August 15. IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE HEARING IN THE SANCTUARY please take advantage of our “personal receivers” that pick up the audio signal from our sanctuary sound system. Each unit has a personal earpiece. They are available in the “ushers’ drawer” in the narthex or you may ask any usher to assist you in its use for the worship service. Please remember to return them to the ushers following the service. DURING THE MONTH OF AUGUST, the WESLEY CLASS will host guest speakers from various religious backgrounds as a follow-up for their summer study, What Do Other Faiths Believe? By Paul Stroble. Everyone is invited to participate. Classes will meet in the Fellowship Hall from 9:45-10:45 a.m. The schedule includes: Aug. 1-Marci Brumberg, Judaism; Aug. 8-Claudia Whitworth, Baha’i; Aug. 15-Dr. Navab, Islam; Aug. 22-Bill Blackard, Buddhism; and, Aug. 29-Dr. Desai, Hinduism. THE HERMITAGE GUILD BAZAAR AND LUNCHEON will be held at the Roanoke United Methodist Home on Thursday, October 14, 2004. Items are needed for the following booths: Books, Attic Treasures, Furniture, Jewelry, Crafts, Needlework, Decorations, Clothing, Jams, Jellies, Plants, Bake Sale, etc. Churches can begin collecting items to be brought to the Home in October. A PORTION OF THE PROCEEDS FROM THE MIRACLE OF MISSIONS YARDSALE supports Dr. Jerry Freund at Maua Hospital, Kenya, Africa, who serves there for one year. However, he insisted that these funds go to the hospital for their AIDS Orphans Fund rather than his personal support. We have honored his request. For more on our MISSIONS IN ACTION visit our website www.srumc.com.
South Roanoke United Methodist Church
CHURCH CALENDAR _________________________________ August 1, 2004
9th Sunday after Pentecost When God Comes to Visit What do you do when God comes to visit? How in the world do you “host” God? The Gospel Lesson, of course, relates to us the story of two sisters and their quite different approaches to this matter of hosting God. As we hear this morning how they did it, I trust you will discover the way you do it as well. (v. 38) Jesus and his
disciples, the text says, were going “on their way.” Where were they
going? They were on their way to Jerusalem where Jesus is to surely meet
his fate. (v. 39) They stopped along the way at a “certain village” where
the 70 disciples whom Jesus sent out on an earlier mission had already
been. As a matter of fact, Martha had probably hosted a pair or more of
these 70 missionaries in her home. Here we learn that Martha and Mary are
supporters of the movement. Jesus probably received a report from some of
the 70 who had been hosted there: Martha and Mary knew the importance of hospitality. Much has been said about the apparent division of labor between Mary and Martha in their hosting.And there was a definite division of labor in this house apparently. Martha is the cook. Division of labor in hosting is important but there is so much to more to this text than that. There is so much more to this text than division of labor because Martha and Mary are hosting God! Jesus has come for a visit! (vv. 39-40) Mary sat and Martha cried out. Now, somebody had to fix something to eat. Jesus, perhaps tired and hungry, needed to be taken care of. What do we have here? Do we have here one who does the real work of the household while the other enjoys the company? It is important to read carefully when trying to understand a passage from the Bible. In this case it is very important to catch how the text describes Martha. The text says Martha is “distracted.” Other translations of this Greek verb (periespato) indicate she is “overbusied” or “overburdened;” the literal translation is “pulled or dragged away.” Martha is distracted—distracted by what? By serving. Ouch! She was called to serve. She was serving her Lord. How much more joyous or fulfilling a service can there be? But for Martha there was no joy in her serving; it was simply not fulfilling for her. It literally dragged her away. Jesus reinforces this understanding of Martha’s condition (v. 41). Jesus says, “You are worried (“anxious,” “solicitous”) and distracted (a different word than the first—“troubled,” “disturbed”). Jesus says Martha is worried, troubled, distracted by many things. The Greek word here means “uproar, din; an outward expression of mental agitation, outcry, tumult, commotion, noise, and confusion like that of excited crowds or the milling about of a throng in a house of mourning.” (v. 41). That’s what’s going on with Martha. The text uses three different Greek words to describe her condition. They describe someone who is full of noise, confusion, and uproar in her mind, heart, and spirit. [translations from Ardnt, W.F. and Gingrich, F. W., transl. and ed., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, University of Chicago Press, 1957.] Have you ever felt that way in your service? Have you ever felt called to serve in a way that was less in keeping with your desire and inclination? Have you ever found yourself involved in the life of your family, your community, or your church in a manner that was less fulfilling, less enjoyable, perhaps even made you anxious or overburdened? Does this at all feel familiar to you? Do you need to listen to Jesus, just as Martha did? This text reminds me
of the wisdom of John Wesley, the founder of the movement that became our
United Methodist Church, who, in his Covenant Renewal Service shares this
admonition: Sometimes the service we find ourselves called to do with our families, our workplace, our school, our community, our church are easy, enjoyable, and a natural fit. But there are so many others things, brothers and sisters, that simply must be done. From time to time we are called upon to fulfill other service for the good of the rest. It is service that simply some must do for the health of the family, workplace, school, community, or church. Isn’t that what was going on with Martha. That’s what was going on with her and Jesus named it. The Bible says, “Don’t grow weary in well-doing.” Clearly Martha had done just that. Martha was not centered. She was not fulfilled in her service. It is easy to imagine
how the day in and day out drudgery of the kind of work that Martha found
herself doing can be distracting, unfulfilling, even agitating. But that
is not the case with all the people of God. Consider the life of a
minister in the church a long time ago, Brother Lawrence who was a monk in
the monastery of Carmelite Order in the fifteenth century. Brother
Lawrence said,
I think Brother Lawrence remembered what Jesus said: So what was going on with Martha and Mary? To Jesus, the problem was not that Mary sat while Martha worked. The problem was centeredness. That’s the “better part” that Mary chose. Martha was hosting her Lord. He was right there a recipient of her loving service. If Martha had found that experience of centeredness, that sense of worth and value in her helpfulness, she surely would have found fulfillment and joy in that service. Her experience would have been just as fulfilling and joyous as Mary’s at Jesus’ feet. Brother Lawrence, you see, never left his place at the feet of his Lord. He knew Jesus doesn’t just come for a visit. Jesus lives in his heart. Let me suggest this morning that sometimes, maybe most of the time, our perception is that God only visits you now and then. You haven’t yet developed the spiritual sensibility and perception or simply realized the truth that God resides at the very center of your life even as you were created. When you believe that God only comes for a visit now and then fulfillment in your service is so much more susceptible to your inclinations and likes and dislikes. But God never really just comes for a visit; God stays and makes a home in your heart. God has been there all the time, calling to you, inviting you, loving you. You are not even at home yourself until you make your home in God. When your centered on God who never leaves you, your every service in his name brings fulfillment and joy. There is good news here. When God just comes for a visit, things change. After Jesus spoke with her, can you not imagine that Martha kept on serving, perhaps even a little bit like Brother Lawrence. Maybe she learned from her Lord that very day a lesson that would sustain her in her service long after his suffering, death, and resurrection. So don’t despair if your awareness of God’s presence in your life is that of a periodic visitor. God is patient and gracious. After every visit of God you perceive in your life changes you; you are never the same again. Let’s imagine how this story ends.
Martha, Mary, and Jesus all have dinner. It would not surprise me at all
that, as we know Jesus, he served them for he is always such a gracious
guest. Garret Keizer, in his comments on this text in the periodical
The Christian Century puts it this way: William G. Davidson
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