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2330 South Jefferson Street
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2330 South Jefferson Street
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TWELFTH
SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
AUGUST 7, 2005 As
Christ cares, we care… we care about all people. ORDER
OF SERVICE 9:00 AND 11:00 A.M. 9:00 A.M. PRAISE SERVICE Gathering
Songs _____________________________ ORDER OF SERVICE-11:00 A.M. +Indicates
the people standing
ENTRANCE
THANKSGIVING THOSE
SERVING TODAY: The Altar Flowers Are Given *CHILDREN (ages 3 through 1st grade), at
the 11:00 a.m. service 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. THERE WILL
BE a meeting of the
Council on Ministries on Monday, August, 8, at 7:00 p.m. in the
library/conference room. THE
AFTERCARE SOCIAL CLUB will
meet on Tuesday, August 9 to go bowling. If you would like more
information regarding our Social Club call bonnie dayton, 981-0237. OUR SENIOR
PASTOR and his
family will be on vacation for the next two weeks. If you need the
services of a minister please call the church office, 344-4437. HELP
WANTED: SRUMPS needs
you! We are currently looking for two teacher’s aides; one in MDO and
the other in the older two’s class. Experience in early childhood field
or other child-related work is preferred. Enthusiasm and a love of young
children is a must. Call Debby Rattenbury at 982-3707 or 343-9485 for more
information. SRUMPS FALL
CLASSES: There are
still a few openings in South Roanoke United Methodist Weekday Preschool
for this fall. SRUMPS serves children ages twelve months to five years of
age. Enrollment in classes is limited so that each child can receive
individual attention from our highly qualified and experienced staff. Our
innovative curriculum stresses the necessary skills for a successful
Kindergarten experience. For further information contact Debby Rattenbury
at 982-3707 (Preschool office) or 343-9485 (home). THE COFFEE
BAR is in desperate
need of volunteers to help prepare and set up the coffee bar. A fringe
benefit is “all
the coffee you can drink.” If
you would like to help call Ted Grochowski, 774-1769, or Bill Davidson,
344-4437. THE
CONGREGATION expresses
sympathy and concern to Tom Stoecker and family in the recent death of
Tom’s father, and to Frank Wheelock and family in the recent death of
Frank’s mother. 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. JENNIFER
Mulligan, potter, is
the artist of the month for August at Art on a Mission in Tanglewood Mall.
Jennifer will be demonstrating her pottery techniques with her wheel at
Art on a Mission on Friday, August 19 from 1-4 p.m. A Reception honoring
Jennifer will follow at 6:30 p.m. at Art on a Mission. As you may know,
Art on a Mission is a ministry of the Rescue Mission of Roanoke. Art on a
Mission features art, antiques, gifts and a prayer chapel. The revenue
generated from Art on a Mission is used toward the operating expenses of
the free medical and psychiatric clinic at the Mission. Please come to
enjoy Jennifer’s demonstration, her art and Art on a Mission. Attention Adults SUMMER SUNDAY SCHOOL For a spirited study Aug. 14-Defining the Generations: ___________________________
The
promise was lost. God’s
commitment to restore creation was denied.
The very hope of the world was gone. Long
before God made a promise. After
the creation, after humanity took life into its own hands and turned away
from God choosing to go its own way the world, originally created as a
garden of peace, justice, and love, the very haven of God’s
“shalom,” was transformed into a barren wasteland of injustice,
violence, and war. But God was
not willing to abandon this creation of love to its final destruction at
the hands of the created. God
reached out and initiated again a relationship of love with a man called
Abraham and a woman called Sarah. To
them God promised to restore creation.
In this family God chose to start all over again.
God was not willing to lose creation to human selfishness,
arrogance, greed, and possessiveness.
God chose this family to be heirs of the promise, promising that
their descendants will number as the grains of sand beside the sea, to
lead them to a land flowing with milk and honey, and to bless the whole
world through them. No, God
was not going to give up on creation.
God chose to start all over again. The
men in this story are the sons of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham.
They are the hope of the world.
These are the heirs of the promise.
In this story we catch a glimpse of how this great enterprise of
God is going. God started all
over again with their great grandparents.
So how are their great grandchildren doing?
How would you describe them as you hear their story this morning?
The text says there was no “shalom” between them—no peace.
They’re jealous, selfish, arrogant, greedy, and possessive.
They take their own younger brother, almost kill him, throw him in
a pit, sell him off to slavery, and (as the story goes on to relate) lie
to their father about it bringing false evidence that he is dead.
These are heirs of the promise?
These are they through whom all the nations of the world will be
blessed? In this family God
restores “shalom?” God
started all over again with them? There
is simply no other way to understand or interpret this story at this point
in its telling. The promise is
lost. God’s commitment to
restore creation is stopped in its tracks.
The world has indeed lost all hope.
It’s all over and you are left to wonder what in the world God
can possibly do now. Remember
this chapter in the story. Remember
it because this is the part of the story with which you and I are probably
most familiar. I say that
because there are so many times in our lives when we feel exactly like
this. Our dreams become
disillusioned. Parents don’t
understand. Children
disappoint us. Concerns for
health worry us. Violence and
death are fostered in the name of religion.
Our nation goes to war. From
time to time we look around in our world, in our community, in our church,
in our homes and wonder, “Where’s the peace?
Where is the ‘shalom’? This is not at all what I was
promised.” But
there is the rest of the story. This
is the part of the story we may remember but it is the part of the story
with which you and I are not really very familiar.
That’s why the church insists that this story be told again and
again. The story we know but
its truth is still so elusive to us. What
happens to Joseph after they took him to Unless
you remember the rest of the story you are left with the image of divided
and jealous greed. It appeared
that all was lost. The promise
is ended. God’s commitment
was broken. The hope of
restoration of creation was denied. But
God never gives up. By the
grace of God this lowly peasant son of a goat herder rises to the heights
of authority in the most powerful nation of the time.
By his hand the world is saved.
By his hand his family is delivered from certain death, for they,
too, come to You may well remember
the rest of the story but do you hear its truth?
In their one act of treachery the grandsons of Abraham had put an
end to the promise. There is
absolutely no way God can use these pitiful people, one sold as a slave
and the rest conniving conspirators, to save the world.
With them God had started all over again.
With them it appeared that God had utterly failed. But
in the end the world is saved. In
the end the son, grandsons, and great grandsons survive.
How did it happen? The
only way Joseph was ever even in the position to save his family and the
world was by the very treachery of those in whom there was no
“shalom”! If he had not
been sold as a slave Pharoah would never have even known of him. Joseph
could not understand it at first, but much later on, after the death of
his father Jacob when his brothers came to him seeking forgiveness for
their crime, Joseph interpreted it to his brothers what he had come to The
elusive truth of the story is this: God
used the act intended to end the promise to fulfill it.
There is simply no other way to look at it:
God can even use sin to save. On
September 11 almost 4 years ago a terrible act of evil shook this nation
to its core. This act was
intended to divide, dishearthen, and destroy community.
But what happened in Many
of you know I am a graduate of God
can use anything, even the very circumstances intended to deny the
promise, to keep the promise. Do
you believe that? Some might
say if you believe that you might as well believe you can walk on water.
Well…that’s exactly what Jesus invited Peter to do on the But
God never gives up. That’s
the message of the cross. God
never gives up. God always
finds a way. God can even use
acts, circumstances, conditions, and situations to fulfill the very
promise they were intended to deny. God
can use the very things that are designed and planned to hold off and
defeat the promise in its very fulfillment. When you come to the table today you will partake of signs of blood and body…the evidence of defeat and failure on a Friday that became the very signs of fulfillment and triumph on Sunday. At this table we remember and celebrate that God used the ultimate sin to save us. Take these gifts of God today and remember the story. Eat this bread and drink from this cup and know its truth. God can use sin to save! Receive today God’s shalom that nothing can ever deny. William G. Davidson
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