Welcome to Worship
Prelude “Great is Thy Faithfulness” Chancel
Ringers
* Call to Worship Matthew
5:14-16
Leader: Jesus also
said, “We are the light of the world, a city built on a hill cannot be
hid.”
People:
No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on a
lampstand and it gives light to all in the house.
Leader: In the same
way, let your light so shine before others.
People: So they may see our good works
and give glory to our father in heaven.
*Opening Song “O Worship the King” UMH 73
Passing
the Peace
Kid’s
Time
Invocation
Pastor: O Lord, open our lips
People: and our mouth shall show
forth thy praise
Pastor: Praise the Lord
People: The Lord’s name be
praised.
Pastor: O Lord, by the
power of your Spirit who inspired your Word, open our minds and hearts that we
may speak and hear it clearly and obey it promptly. By our lives may your Son
be honored. Amen.
Prayer of Confession/Assurance of
Grace UMH 893
* Statement of Faith of the United
Church of Canada UMH883
* Hymn Gloria Patri UMH 70
Psalter
Psalm 48 (with Sung Response) UMH
782
Introductions / Sharing our Concerns
Community Prayer/Lord’s Prayer
Choral Response “Spirit
of God” Chancel
Choir
Celebrating
our Joys
Scripture
Lesson 2
Corinthians 8:1-11
We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the
grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; 2 for during a severe
ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have
overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For, as I can testify,
they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their
means, 4 begging
us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the
saints— 5 and
this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by
the will of God, to us, 6 so
that we might urge Titus that, as he had already made a beginning, so he should
also complete this generous undertaking among you.7 Now as you excel in
everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our
love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.
8 I do not say this as a command, but
I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of
others. 9 For
you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he
was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might
become rich. 10 And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for
you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do
something—11 now
finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it
according to your means
Message “Doing Something” Rev Malcolm Stranathan
Receiving God’s Tithe and our Offering
Offertory Anthem Chancel
Choir
*Doxology
*Hymn “A Charge To Keep I
Have” UMH 413
Touching Lives for Jesus Christ – Announcements
*Sending Forth
Postlude “The Power and
the Glory” – Smith Deb
P.
Enter to worship God, Leave to serve
God’s people
Announcements:
Special Thanks to the men and women who hosted the UMM District
Meeting yesterday. Great fellowship with
other men throughout the conference
Join us in the Fellowship Hall today at 10:00am for the Consecration
Brunch. Everyone is welcome!
Estimate of Giving cards – Please hand them in today or mail them in
the next week, we would like to close out the campaign.
Would you make an announcement at the 9 AM service that we still
need food (ham or turkey, potatoes and green beans for Route 1 for this coming
Monday. I can do this at 11 AM. Thanks.
Sermon
–
A
year ago, sixty people came to worship at Mount Zion and they all left church a
little richer! A mission campaign meant
to coincide with the holidays encouraged those who received the envelops in
worship to take the enclosed amount of money and first try to find a way to
multiple it and then after that they were to give the money to a person in need
or a charity or organization that would benefit from their gift. The
intent was to start an avalanche of people spreading God’s love into our
community. The program was called, “Let
your Light Shine” after the scripture from Matthew 5 “Let your light so shine
before others that they see your good works and give glory to our Father in
heaven.” The only request that we asked
of the participants was that they would share their stories of how God moved in
and through them and this seed money.
We
shared a majority of the stories over this past year saving just a few for today.
I
wanted to share with you four quick stories and how they will dove tail into
the scripture for today.
1.
The first story is from Bill and Marcy who received their
gift and decided to extend an invitation to Rabbi Aixler of Temple Isaiah to
join them in multiplying the seed money and distributing the funds.
Bill,
I realized just now that I didn’t
do my part in getting back to you before your Sunday worship. First and
foremost, a blessing for a Happy & Healthy New Year of 2014. I hope
that Christmas was joyful and uplifting for you and all of the Mt. Zion
community.
It was an interesting challenge
to figure out what exactly to do with the mission monies you entrusted to
me. I started by adding my own monies, and then decided to split them off
in three different directions. While I was tempted to give cash to some
of our guests at the Grassroots Cold Weather Shelter while Temple Isaiah was
hosting, the strong caution of the Grassroots staff was that this was really
not the best idea. Instead, I took some of the money and gave it directly
to Grassroots towards continuing the work of the Cold Weather Shelter, which
was an amazing experience for all involved.
Next, I received a plea on behalf
of the North American Council on Ethiopian Jewry. I had been involved in
NACOEJ as a teen, when the plight of tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews who
wanted to migrate to the state of Israel became a very important piece of
advocacy work for US Jews. In the years since then, the vast majority of Ethiopian
Jews have emigrated to Israel. While many are doing very well in Israeli
society and truly gaining a secure place in the society, there are continuing
challenges for the community. As well, there is a very small community
still in Ethiopia whose situation is fairly desperate. As much of this
work occurred 20 years ago, it has “fallen off the radar screen” of most folks,
myself included. This was a catalyst to contribute once again to the work
of NACOEJ. You can see more about them at www.nacoej.org
Finally, I made an additional
gift to support the work of an amazing community of Jews in Uganda, the
Abayudaya. They are a small tribe with the greatest of hearts!
Their rabbi, Gershom Sizomu, and I became friends years ago while he was
studying in New York. They truly are one of the great secret communities
of the world. But the work that they are continuing to do in Uganda,
particularly the coexistence work they are doing with their neighboring Christian
and Muslim communities is inspiring. You can find out more about the
Abayudaya here: http://bechollashon.org/projects/abayudaya/abayudaya.php And you can find out about the specific
coexistence work they are doing through coffee harvesting here: http://www.mirembekawomera.com/
In all,
I joined the $100 you gave me with $100 from Temple Isaiah funds and $100 from
my own funds. It was a lovely process to go through, and I have you and
Mt. Zion to thank for the impetus.
In
Judaism, there is a concept of being a “shaliach tzedakah – a
distributor of charity monies.” It is actually a profession in the middle
ages (and in very traditional communities still today). Thank you for enabling
me to do this mitzvah.
2.
Not everyone found this an exciting positive experience from the very start as Lorene shares …
To:
Mount Zion Awesome Small Group Ministry Team & Mount Zion Mission
Team
The
worst part about getting the funds to donate was the feeling you had to be a
super achiever. The feeling you had to
multiply the funds or you just were not doing enough. It must be some way I can increase these
funds. It must be some way to make more
money…it must be some way.
I
cook, I use to bake cookies and sell them, I could do that to raise money, oh
BUT my stove does not work well. In
fact, this was the first Christmas I did not bake cookies since I learned to
cook. Okay, maybe I can knit scarfs,
they were a big winner as Christmas gifts, BUT it’s too late in the season, and
who’s going to buy scarfs now. Everyone
in church must be tired of buying something to support a cause.
The
second worst part was what to donate to.
It’s got to be a worthy cause, something different. I can’t just give it to the bum on the
street. I can’t just give it to the
couple who can’t maintain a job to pay rent because they are just too lazy to
get up and go to work. Am I starting to
play God and judging who’s worthy to help?
Should I just give without second guessing it?
So
in casual conversation with a friend, she told me she had sent out letters to
everyone she knew because she wanted to feed 300 homeless persons who live in a
tent city near her. A great burden was
lifted from me. I found something
“worthy” to donate to. When I said I had
$50 from my church, she said that was a great amount. Although fifty dollars did not seem like
much, it would get a large amount of food.
So I added twenty dollars to it and sent her the donation.
My
mother said I sounded ecstatic when I found something to donate to. Did I feel good cause I had help a
cause? Not really. Like I said a big burden had been
lifted. It made me question my
Christianity. Note my first concern was
how to raise more money, more of a self-concern. My second concern, who to donate to, should
have been the first concern, a concern for others. I also feel as long as man exist, there will
always be people who will need help, and that is a part of being here for God’s
purpose.
The
interesting theme lately is all my friends that have found God (was he
lost?) I never discuss religion with
people or act like people do not know about religion, but when I mention our
motto “Touching lives thru Jesus Christ”; I get a new found respect. When I mention about the $50, the comment I
heard was, “I never heard of a church doing something like that”. So our church is definitely in the forefront
of doing new things to help people and this makes me feel good.
3.
Michael and Alison shared that they came up with a plan but
then there is reality. As the old
Yiddish saying, “Man plans and God laughs.”
It all started the day we were handed
the envelope from Reverend Stranathan.
My wife and I had competing thoughts—each of us firmly believing our
idea was more “inspired” than the other’s.
After about a week of back-and-forth, we jointly decided on a worthy
cause.
There is a children’s a family program
that I’ve supported off and on throughout the years called The Family Resource
Center of Willowbrook Elementary School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. I decided that this could be the catalyst to
do something big for them—or at least, something bigger than what I’d previously
done. This is an extremely small, but
extremely effective organization operating in a poverty-stricken and drug-laden
area where my mother teaches 4th grade. This school has such at-risk children, that
it is the ONLY school in the school system that operates an alternative,
year-round calendar—meaning no extended summer vacation. It is also the only school with a full-time
social worker.
The mission of the Family
Resource Center is to assist "at risk" children and their families in
the prevention and eradication of problems that interfere with their ability to
become fully functioning and independent members of their community. This program does a little-bit of everything
for wonderful little children who are struggling to attend school and sometimes
survive given difficult home environments.
Some of their services include basic parenting programs for adults (how
to feed kids, what type of supervision to give, communication, how not to beat,
etc.), budgeting skills, providing food, toiletries, school supplies, and
clothing to children. Helping with
applications/paperwork, home visits to ensure kids are as safe as can be,
transportation to and from school programs, reading help (for kids and
parents), help for various family services, utilities, and so on: http://willowbrook.ortn.edu/?PageName=bc&n=44465
The question remained, however—How
would we manage to “multiply” the $50 in a way that benefited many—touched
many—helped significantly more than we could do on our own?
My wife and I consider ourselves
rather fortunate. We live well within
our means, and are frugal enough that we are able to save what we believe is an
adequate amount for retirement, college for our child, etc. We don’t want for anything, and though we
aren’t extravagant, we generally can afford to buy each other whatever we want
or need whenever we want it—within limits, of course.
Since this challenge was coming just
before Christmas and we generally both struggle with putting together a
Christmas list to send to our family and each other, we decided that this could
be the best way to get others to help contribute to our task.
We told my parents, her parents, our
siblings, and even friends what we were doing in the church, and asked others
to contribute to our cause in lieu of any sort of material gift this year. The response we got to this request was
mixed. Some were clearly
excited—thinking it was a good idea.
Others seemed a bit put-off, either because they truly wanted to get us
something that we would cherish together OR because it was taking them out of
their comfort zone and asking for cash towards a particular cause for which
they either might not believe in or felt was asking “too much” of
themselves. After all, no-one knows how
much you spend on a gift, but this request was going to throw that plan off.
My
wife and I were excited. We had our
plan, we communicated it to our loved ones, and all we had to do now was sit
back, wait to receive the money, and then take credit when we wrote a check to
our cause. Things did no go according to
plan…
As
Christmas approached, family and friends began to exchange gifts with us. Some reluctantly and some proudly handed us
cards—clearly with cash or a check inserted.
Opening the cards was sometime awkward as it became very clear that our
request had either been miscommunicated or misunderstood. Very few of our friends realized that we were
asking for direct cash contributions to help strengthen our gift to our
charity. Instead, most of our friends
gave us cards stating that they had donated $100 to their own cause of choice
on our behalf. This initially upset
me. I was no longer going to be the
giver of the gift—the decision maker—the one taking the bulk of the credit for
the donation. The donation to my own
charity would no longer be as great and as impressive as I had hoped.
But then I realized what had really
happened. I had unknowingly empowered or encouraged
friends and family members to reach out to others in the same way that the church
had asked me to reach out. It was a
pyramid of giving that stretched further than I could have imagined. One family donated to Heifer International—providing
funding to provide livestock of various shapes and sizes to needy families in
developing worlds. Another donated
money to a local family whose breadwinner was dying of cancer and was
struggling to make ends meet for his wife and young child. Another family sponsored several children
from angel trees—something they had never done before, found great enjoyment
from the experience, and pledged to do so again the following year (and
hopefully for many years to come). And
so it went—story after story of hundreds of dollars of giving that would not
have happened without encouragement.
Despite the miscommunication and
random giving, at the end of the day, I still received enough direct cash
donations to make a donation 10x that of what I might normally be able to give
towards the Family Resource Center. Here are two examples of how our
donation was put to use:
Example 1: Just prior to the Christmas break, several
fourth grade teachers who work closely with the Family Resource Center decided
they wanted and needed to do something special for their kids at Christmas. Many of the children either live in extreme
poverty or have little-to-no parental supervision at home. The teachers felt it was important to give
them some sort of gift to help celebrate Christmas. While toys were the obvious first choice, it
was quickly decided that these kids needed more than toys. They needed the “basics” just to help them
live clean, healthy lives. One of the
teachers had noticed that a large number of her students were extremely smelly
and had some basic cleanliness issues.
This teacher suggested buying each and every child basic
toiletries. While some of the teachers
worried that this might be insulting to the kids, it was still deemed
necessary. So, with the assistance of
the Family Resource Center, these teachers purchased large bottles of shampoo,
soap, deodorant, toothbrushes, and toothpaste for each and every student,
wrapped them up, and waited for the big school Christmas party. Any reservations about how the gifts were to
be received was gone the minute the gifts were opened. Each and every 9-year-old child was
elated! They knew these things were
important, and most didn’t have them at home or thought that these were luxury
items. It may seem simple or
insignificant, but these basic supplies made these kids happy and helped them
to feel a bit more loved and human!
Example 2: One of the
third-graders at Willowbrook (his name hidden to protect him), lived in a
run-down shack with his younger brother and single mother who was living in
extreme poverty. This child had one
set of clothes, got his only meals at school, and was sometimes absent from
school because “it was his brother’s day to wear the only pair of shoes” and it
was just too cold to go out. This
family was struggling just to get by.
This little boy had one VERY important job to do each night. His home was very cold in the winter. They had no electricity. It had been cut off due to an inability to
pay. It was his job to crawl out of his
window at night and sneak over to the neighbor’s house to plug in an extension
cord that snaked back to his own house.
This was the only source of electricity that his two-person family had,
and it allowed them to keep a single light on and a small space heater. His job was to do this so that they would not
freeze to death, and so that they could see at night. When the Family Resource Center heard of
this, they were able to step in, negotiate a deal with local utility providers,
and pay for the electricity to get turned back on in the house. Clothes were also provided to the kids, and
help was given to the mother to try to get her back on her feet again.
These are just two recent stories of how our funding was put to
use in the community. I’m happy that we
were able to make a larger difference in these children’s lives as a part of
the encouragement from the church. We
will likely continue this tradition of giving for years to come, and hope that
our friends will do the same. Thank you
for spurring this challenge, and for helping us all be more cognizant of the
challenges that other people, especially children, often face in our
community. It was a good Christmas for
us, and hopefully many others, because of this…
4.
Finally, Rod was expecting to get an envelop but he was
pass by, but instead of breathing a sigh of relief, Rod decided throw his own "Let your Light So Shine" party and use resources at this disposal to seed a mission opportunity.
As I sat waiting to see if I was one of
the "chosen ones" I thought about what I might do and who would
benefit from my effort. After I was not chosen I continued to think about
this and decided to offer several groups of people with whom I am
involved a chance to buy a print of one of my photographs in exchange
for a donation to Remote Are Medical (RAM). I have supported RAM
since leaning from Bill Moyer's program and from 60 Minutes about the free
medical, dental and optical clinics they provide to poor people in
Appalachia and other poor areas . They hold more than 20 free clinics
each year, providing care for typically more than 1000 people at each
clinic. All professional services are donated.
I decided not to approach members
of Mt. Zion since I figured they would receive lots of requests from
others. With relatively modest effort I raised about $170 at a cost to me
of about $20 for materials.
As a matter of information, if I were
doing this now I would choose Doctors Without Borders who are the main provider
of services to those suffering from Ebola in Africa.
Returning
to the Scripture Text for today. Paul is
lifting up one faith community to another in the hopes that he can challenge
them to continue to do the good work that he has put before them.
In
the close of Paul’s first letter, he shared that he wanted the people in
Corinth to hold back a portion of their income for a collection the he would
receive, personally or by another, at a later date. This collection was going to be forwarded to
Jerusalem to help the saints there ….
Now
Paul is writing back to them after an undisclosed period of time and he is
following up on his charge about the collection while he was away. He begins by giving testimony about a group
of people north of Corinth telling a story about another group of people north
of Corinth in an area called Macedonia and the manner in which God has worked
through them in regards to their collection.
He
starts to tell them about the grace that God has given to the Macedonian
churches. They have had it hard, they
have been suffering extreme poverty and trials over this time and yet, it
hasn’t affected their countenance. If
you were to visit them, Paul seems to say, you would find people extremely
joyful, and generous. Paul would have
known of their financial situation, might even have avoided asking for the
collection and yet they wanted to participate all the same. Cities like Thessalonica and Philippi dwarfed
in comparison to Corinth, and Paul lifts up their faithfulness towards the
collection before the Corinthians.
Paul
doesn’t seem to be a little bit beyond schmoozing the Corinthians… He points
out how they excel in everything, in faith, speech, in knowledge and even their
love for Paul and so it goes to reason that they should continue be faithful
toward that which they started a year back.
Continue the good work and bring the collection forward so it can be
passed on to the saints in Jerusalem.
Far be it for Paul to command the
Corinthians in this, but he might be open a little guilty persuasion. He pulls the salvation card on them …. “You
know the grace given to us by Jesus, look at what he gave up, he was rich and
for us he became poor just so that they, we, could be saved and made rich
through his gift. So pick what was
started last year and continue on with the opportunity to give. Paul tells them …
I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for
you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do
something …
Let jump two thousand years hence … just because
it was good enough for Paul, far be for less than mediocre, middle aged, suburban
pastor of a rather affluent community of faith to resort to schmoozing or even
a little guilty persuasion. Oh, he might
be open to share a few stories like we just heard. How one couple let their light shine beyond
the walls of their own faith. About another saint who lamented their ability
to pull another person who really lamented their ability to pull this off but
was so motivated that she already started raising money by making scarfs and
selling them for the benefit of another benefactor beyond the walls of the
church. Or how one couple came up with
their own plans but discovered that a misunderstood communication chain lead to
people spreading God’s grace to people they never knew, or even another who
wasn’t even invite to the party was so motivated that he decided to let his
light shine and raise money and shining God’s light beyond the borders of our
own country to people he will never get to meet. In each of the cases, the participants were
extremely thankful for having the opportunity to participate in this
ministry. In a sort of round about way,
they are just similar to our Macedonians, faithful stewards who saw the benefit
if giving freely and trust in God!
All sixty people in the Let your Light
Shine program reported back and we saw how the majority of the people succeeded
in multiplying 95 percent of the people multiplied, some two folks, some six
fold, some twenty fold , but the money wasn’t as important as seeing what God
had done in and through their serving.
Live were changed. It seems a shame
to stop now, a year later, why not see what God can do. There
is still so much to do…
Last week, Pastor Tammy said in so many
words that this world of ours has plenty of struggles. When life becomes trying, call 911 and trust
in God to bring about a change.
Contemporary
music artists Matthew West wrote a song with a similar theme. Because we live in a world that is going
through some tough times, when we call out to God and ask God to “Do Something”
the song writer turns things back on us by saying that God turns this back on
us to realize the potential that we have because God created us to “do
something.” The following video was
created in house by Wendy’s son Kyle, Mark Coffin did the filming and there are
a load of actors who stepped up to participate.
While people watch the
film, hand out the envelopes.
Click here to view Mount Zion's "Do Something" video
Click here to view Mount Zion's "Do Something" video
A
Carmelite nun called Teresa of Avila (1515–1582) once declared that
Christ
has no body but yours,
No
hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours
are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world
For
twenty people in this worship service, have an opportunity to “Do
Something” … I am
giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do
something but even to desire to do something … now finish doing it, so that
your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means.
|
Celebration and Praise
Worship with a Beat! - 11:00 am
|
Welcome
‘Mighty To Save’
‘Salt and Light’
Prayerful Conversations
Kids Time
2 Corinthians 8:1-11
“Do Something ”
Rev Malcolm Stranathan
‘My Heart Is Yours’
Announcements
Sending Forth
Bulletin cover and MS PowerPoint art and graphics designed by Lori Stewart, 2014
Songs sung during the service are used by permission with License No. 1415942.
Movie clips are used by permission with License No. 501045180
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