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2330 South Jefferson Street
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2330 South Jefferson Street
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The Season After Pentecost, also called Ordinary Time, is the period which has 28 Sundays this year. The season begins with Trinity Sunday (the first Sunday after Pentecost) and continues through the day before the first Sunday of Advent. The Sundays of this season are designated as Sundays after Pentecost. TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST AUGUST 3, 2008
As Christ cares, we care…
We care about
all people.
ORDER
OF WORSHIP 10:30 A.M. + Indicates the people standing ENTRANCE
Prelude
Chaconne in F
Major
by Henry Purcell
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE THANKSGIVING
Invitation, Confession, and Pardon
12 Richard Hagenston SENDING FORTH
+Song
of Sending Forth 663
Savior, Again to Thy
Dear Name
Ellers +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. WE WELCOME you to morning worship at South Roanoke United Methodist Church. Our hope and prayer is that all who enter here will find the welcoming fellowship of God’s people, joyous worship inspired by the presence of the Holy Spirit, the faithful preaching of God’s Word, and the challenge to go into the world as bearers of God’s grace, love, and justice. AVAILABLE IN THE NARTHEX: The July/August Upper Room, hymnals in brail, individual hearing enhancement equipment, and children’s bulletins (ages 3-12). Please ask an usher to assist you. NEXT WEEK’S SERMON, Saints and Ordinary People , will be based on Isaiah 6:1-8 and Colossians 1:2-12. Please read and study these texts this week. The Reverend Richard Hagenston will bring the message. BYRON RAGLAND’S ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBERS: City of Oaks Health and Rehab Center; 3609 Bond Street; Raleigh, NC 27604; (919) 231-8144; cell phone (919) 812-2156. TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO BRING YOUR PEANUT BUTTER. We have collected 150 jars. Our goal was 200. This peanut butter will help feed underprivileged people who are served each month by the SW Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank. OUR CHURCH WILL HOST THE INTERFAITH HOSPITALITY NETWORK the week of August 11-15 at First Presbyterian Church. We need to supply volunteers who will prepare meals, serve as evening hosts and overnight hosts Monday through Thursday. If you can help please call Rev. Bill at 344-4437, ext. 11. THE AFTERCARE SOCIAL CLUB will meet on Tuesday, August 5, at 6:00 p.m. for a picnic on Roanoke Mountain. REV. BILL WILL BE ON VACATION for the next two weeks. He will return to the on Monday, August 18. If you need the services of a minister, please call the church office. MEMORIAL GIFTS: Given in Memory of Lou Ghiringhelli by: Carl Sherertz, Susan and Mickey Enright, Dotty Carder, Donna Hefner and Gary and June Tegenkamp. Given in Memory of Jerry McNeil by: Carl Sherertz. Given in Memory of Sara Deaton by: Emil and Pat Kuelz. COME CELEBRATE “TASTE OF CULTURE” on Friday, August 8 from 11:30-1:30 at Century plaza in downtown Roanoke, sponsored by Local Colors. Our own, Rafael Scarfullery, will be playing classical guitar music. There will also be children’s games, dancers, Latin and Central American food and craft and jewelry vendors. DEADLINE FOR NEWSLETTER ARTICLES for the September issue of the Tower Times is Friday, August 15. Please send all articles to Emil Kuelz at kuelzel@infionline.net. Articles may be sent at any time prior to the 15th.
SCHOOL SUPPLIES REPORT! 9 Binders
4 Compasses
6 Rulers _______________________
August 3,
2008 12th Sunday after Pentecost They Need Not Go
Away Are there times in your life when you feel you just have nothing left to give? There are so many, it seems, who depend upon you. Or you feel as if you are asked to do things that are just beyond you. Sometimes you barely accomplish one thing when four or five others stare you in the face demanding your attention. Do you ever give so much sometimes that you don’t seem to have enough for yourself? There are so who many depend on you, you have so many responsibilities. Do you ever wish they would all just go away?
If anyone
had any reason at all to feel just that way it was Jesus whose solitude
was interrupted by people who wanted to hear him. He had just gone off by
himself to pray. We know how much Jesus certainly needed this time alone
for prayer, reflection, and rest. Yet he responds to this need and was
soon teaching five-thousand men, plus women and children. When the day
grew late his disciples encouraged him to send them into the village to
get something to eat. Perhaps this is the opportunity Jesus can again be
by himself, if just for a little while. But Jesus says, And it turns out that
Jesus is not the only one who is exhausted. His disciples, too it seems,
are flat wore out and are just as eager to send these people away. But
Jesus says, You know what that feels like don’t you, to have nothing left? I know I do. You are called upon to respond to a need or serve another or complete a project and you just feel like you don’t have anything else to give.
That’s when
Jesus took what they did have saying, You see, Jesus took what they had and it was enough. They gave to Jesus what they had and it was enough. They said, “We have nothing left.” But Jesus took their “nothing” and it was more than enough. If you ever feel as if you have nothing more to give you need to listen to this story of Jesus this morning. You need to listen because Jesus is telling you today what he told his disciples back then. Jesus says, “All those people who need you, all those demands that are placed upon you, all those responsibilities that you just don’t think you can handle anymore, they need not go away. Just depend on me. When you feel you have nothing left, give your nothing to me, and there will be more than enough of ‘you’ to go around. That’s really what your problem is, anyway, you know. You are counting too much on ‘you.’ Depend on me.”
When you
depend too much on ‘you,’ on your own resources, your own ability, your
own energy, your own spirit and just give and give and give, well, that’s
when you get into trouble, isn’t it? You and I today are no different
than Jesus disciples’ that day. The Son of God has reached out to us,
befriended us, loves us, and is eager to give us everything we need to
fulfill the calling He has given us, everything we need to live our daily
lives in patient faithfulness. He is with us everyday. He promises us a
life, a world, of peace, justice and love where every need is met and
every longing satisfied. He gives us a vision of that gift in the picture
he paints in the Gospel. He gives us a real taste of that experience
everyday as he transforms our world and our lives a little bit at a time
until all creation is restored to its original splendor. He provides us
so many opportunities to focus our attention upon him, relate to him,
learn from him, gather strength from him. Through prayer, Scripture,
Sacrament, and Christian community we have all the resource we need that
he so eagerly literally pours upon us if we but recognize it and receive
it and totally depend on him. The problem is, just like his disciples
that day, we don’t recognize it, we don’t receive it, and we only depend
on ourselves. It is not until we know deep in our hearts that we not only
have nothing apartfrom the grace of God. Apart from the grace of
God we ARE nothing. Source Unknown. www.sermonillustrations.com (In a village in Alaska) a $100,000 fire truck stood by unused (while) fire destroyed a power plant in the tiny village of Akiachak, Alaska. Damage to the plant was estimated at $250,000. Source Unknown. www.sermonillustrations.com A poor old widow, living in the Scottish Highlands, was called upon one day by a gentleman who had heard that she was in need. The old lady complained of her condition, and remarked that her son was in Australia and doing well. "But does he do nothing to help you?" inquired the visitor. "No, nothing," was the reply. "He writes me regularly once a month, but only sends me a little picture with his letter." The gentleman asked to see one of the pictures that she had received, and found each one of them to be a draft for ten pounds. Moody's Anecdotes, p. 115. www.sermonillustrations.com Brothers and sister, when Jesus promises peace, justice, and love where every need is met and every longing satisfied he is doing more than just painting pretty pictures of a “sweet by and by” where you and I just barely get by on our own until then. By his presence with us every day in Word, Sacrament, and Community he is here, now, just waiting for us to depend on him to give us everything we need and establish that world all around us every day. We can never do it on our own—any of it. Gerard Ebeling (a noted theologian), in his book, The Nature of Faith, speaks of the courage of faith in these terms, "It takes courage to dive into the water from the high diving platform. It takes courage to trust the parachute, which only opens as you fall .. likewise, and yet incomparably more, it takes courage to depend on nothing in the world at all, but let oneself, so to speak, fall into God." Martin Luther (said) of faith, "What does (one) reach who hopes in God, save his own nothingness?" http://www.dodgenet.com/~tzingale/sermon%20series%20A%2007-08/12pentillustrations.html A story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia, who, when he was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of WWII, was called by adoring New Yorkers 'the Little Flower' because he was only five foot four and always wore a (hat and a) carnation in his lapel. He was a colorful character who used to ride the New York City fire trucks, raid speakeasies with the police department, take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, he would go on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids. One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself. Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughter's husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving. But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. "It's a real bad neighborhood, your Honor." the man told the mayor. "She's got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson." LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said "I've got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions--ten dollars or ten days in jail." But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous sombrero saying: "Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Baliff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant." So the following day the New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren, fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation. Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, Multnomah, 1990, pp 91-2. That’s why the church gathers school supplies and collects peanut butter. That’s why our youth are serving as volunteers in mission this week. That’s why we host the homeless with Interfaith Hospitality Network, sponsor AfterCare, and send Volunteer in Mission Teams to Mississippi That’s why we have Lenten Offerings and Advents Offerings and help others here, around the nation, and all over the world through our church budget and the outreach of our United Methodist Church. We do all this and more not because we feel we have any resources of our own, even though we do. We do all these things because we know, deep down, we are nothing apart from the grace of God. Do you ever feel you have nothing left to give? Do you ever feel you just can’t go to the well one more time? Have you ever felt it would be so much easier if they would all just go away? When you are exhausted, when you feel you have nothing left, that’s when you can hear God the most; that’s when you are the absolute closest to God you have ever been. When you know you really do have nothing at all, Jesus can begin to fill you, to show you all the gifts he has for you if you but receive them. Bring your nothing to Jesus There wasn’t just enough. There’s more than enough When Jesus asks you to feed them, they need not go away. William G. Davidson
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