Author: lakewooducc

CONTAGIOUS HOPE: MAKING A DIFFERENCE ON CLIMATEFebruary 25, 2023 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – Speakers Event
First Congregational United Church of Christ
1031 S. Euclid Avenue, Sarasota, FL

Featuring keynote speaker, REV. BROOKS BERNDT, Minister of Environmental
Ministry, United Church of Christ and noted author of Cathedral on Fire.

Panelists include Jeanne Dubi, President of Sarasota Audubon Society, Dr. Frank
Alcock, Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies at New College, and retired physics instructor, Jerry Larson, who was instrumental in inspiring Congregational UCC of Punta Gorda to adopt solar power.

A vegetarian lunch will be served after the speakers. Please make a reservation to help us with our planning. To reserve, email Sarah Melcher at
melchersj8856@gmail.com.

This event is sponsored by the Creation Justice Team at FCUCC

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CARPOOL FROM LUCC PLEASE CONTACT REV. KIM WELLS

Happy New Year!!!  We hope everyone has had a Happy and Healthy start to 2023.  Operation Attack is still sharing God’s Abundance with our Neighbors because of your love and support.  We continue to provide a Choice Food Pantry every Thursday from 4:30-6:30.  For the last five months we have provided food for an average of 182 families and 555 individuals per month. Our food still comes from the SPFC Jared Community Food Bank and YOU, our generous supporting churches, groups and individuals. Excess produce and perishables continue to be given to COSA/PAR, Enoch Davis Community Center, Little Food Pantries and TCRC/Therapeutic Community and Recreation Center.  Pastor Phil still picks up food every Thursday morning from the Jared Warehouse and members of the American Baptist Church of the Beatitudes faithfully distribute the food on Thursday afternoon.  We continue to get the best prices on food at Gulfport SaveALot, Sam’s Club, Walmart, and Kroger.

Now for something new!!! Operation Attack was blessed to be the recipient of donations from the Micah Project, a seminary assignment of Courtney Jones.   We received food, diapers, wipes, books and money.  Michelle Hughes and Bob Ponder, friends from Gulfport Presbyterian Church, are new OA volunteers. Bob works at Operation Attack on Thursday’s from 4:30-6:30.  Michelle shops for food, makes hygiene bags, and does morning set up.  We are very fortunate to have their support of our work in the community.

Due to a decline of financial resources we are not providing electric assistance at this time.  We are also limiting the number of food and hygiene items each client can have and will continue to provide diapers and wipes as long as the supply lasts.  We feel these interventions will help us sustain our ability to provide food to people in our community who are struggling.  We also hope, with your support, our monetary, food, and diaper/wipe donations improve so we will be able to add services in the future. 

Thank you for All the Different Ways You Demonstrate Your Love of God and the people we serve.Diane Klamer/Lead Volunteer  

Scripture Lesson: Matthew 4:12-23

Sermon: The Path of Healing

Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

The legacy of the ministry of Jesus is a legacy of healing. We are told that Jesus was remembered for healing all kinds of diseases and sicknesses among the people. Healing of bodies. Relationships. Societal divisions. Healing of greed and selfishness and violence. It is even a legacy of the healing of the anxiety connected with the fear of death. Whatever ails us, and there are many things that DO ail us, the gospel offers good news of healing, restoration, and transformation. That does not always mean that our physical bodies are going to be made well when we are sick or injured, but it means that we can be made whole again in a new way.

The gospel is a powerful message of love that is healing. It is a healing tonic for the gashes and wounds of sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. It is a message of healing from our addictions to money and wealth and status. It is a word of healing for our cavalier destruction of the planet, our home. It is a cure for the cancers of racism, ethnocentrism, and xenophobia.

The gospel offers healing for all kinds of diseases and sicknesses: the harm we do to ourselves, the harm we do to others, the abusive systems we create, the skewed values that lead us to obsess over our bodies and our looks, the words that harm and degrade, the love we deny ourselves. It is a source of healing for our dependency on violence and our obsession with guns and weapons.

While life may dull our awareness of the beauty around us, the beauty within us, and the beauty in others, the gospel restores that sensitivity. While we may lose sight of the sacredness of each and every moment and everything that is the gospel reawakens that part of our deepest humanity. The gospel is healing balm for all of this and more through love, community, grace, and forgiveness.

The gospel is a life-giving, life-saving tonic. It is a message of joy and love and abundance and solidarity. It’s a message about the glorious world around us and within us and among us. And it is powerful! Radical! And extreme!

So here is the gospel of Jesus offering people life, full and free, offering healing and wholeness, and given where we are, yes, it is a radical departure from life as we know it. That was so in the first century – they killed Jesus, after all – and it is still so today.

The gospel is a powerful alternative to many of the harmful systems and arrangements and behaviors and values and attitudes that we have concocted for ourselves as we try to live together on this precious planet. Our ways seem to so often lead to death, destruction, and harm. And the gospel offers us flourishing life and well-being as individuals, as societies, and as a planet. Health for mind, body, and spirit. Through healthcare delivery systems and food systems. Health through forgiveness, grace, and love. Health through the arts and relationships. Health through prayer, meditation, and, yes, even religion. The way of Jesus, the gospel, is a powerful path of healing and wholeness.

The gospel is not only a message but a promise of new life. A life of peace and well-being for all, including other than human species on this planet. Jesus demonstrates, embodies, and expresses that another world IS actually possible. Here and now. And Jesus wants to give it to us. To show us the way. To take us there. He is begging us to receive the new life of the gospel. He is laying it at our doorstep. He is so intent on making sure that we understand the power and the value and the importance of the gospel that he lays down his actual physical life to make sure we get it. He will stop at nothing. Literally. To give us this new life. To heal us. To make us whole.

This morning we heard one of the most compelling stories from the ministry of Jesus. Jesus is walking along the lakeshore. And those capable, responsible, upstanding, devout, community-minded, family-supporting fishers, drop their nets to follow Jesus. It is easy to get sidetracked about that. How could they leave their families? Who would take care of them? Wasn’t that disrespectful to the parents? What about honor your father and mother? Isn’t that selfish and irresponsible? But that is not the point of the story. We are told that they dropped their nets and followed Jesus not so that we learn something about the fishers but so that we learn something about the gospel. It is so powerful, so compelling. It takes you over. The pull, the lure, the experience, is so beautiful. You can’t resist it. Because it is all the life and love you could ever have dreamed of. It is what you were made for. It is why you are here. And it is powerful beyond our wildest imaginings!

That is why we are told: “They immediately abandoned their nets and began to follow Jesus.” And, “immediately they abandoned both boat and father to follow him.”

We see recognition of this power of the gospel in a reflection from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard:

“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return. ”

So, let’s turn to the church for a moment, the community entrusted with the gospel, to preach the gospel, to spread the gospel, to embody the gospel.

Yes, the gospel is healing and powerful, and it is radical and extreme. Love your neighbor. That is a stretch. Love your enemy. That’s beyond. Some days it’s about all you can do to love your family. Sell all you have and give to the poor. Ok, that is extreme. Dismantle social constructs that bind and limit people. Well, there are reasons for these things. Forgive 70 times 7. What about consequences? Dealing with the fall out? I mean the outrageous teachings of Jesus go on and on. And on. And on. The gospel is an invitation to a life of radical generosity and egalitarianism, of unconditional love. It’s a drastic departure from business as usual as we currently know it.

Some of you may follow extreme sports. It is incredible what people set themselves about doing with their bodies! I can never forget the movie, “Free Solo,” about the man who climbed alone and unassisted up the face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. People are doing incredible, extreme, risky things all the time! It is truly amazing!

But, the church, I hope in the interests of bringing the healing power of the gospel to more people, may try to make the gospel more reasonable. More palatable. More convenient. Maybe the church tries to make the gospel comport more with current social and economic realities so that people can make their way to its healing power. So they won’t be turned off or scared away by the extremism.

But what happens? The drastic, radical, life-giving gospel of love gets watered down. Diluted. Weakened. Clouded.

The church may be well-intentioned. We aren’t trying to do harm; we actually want to do good, we believe. But by trying to make the gospel more accessible, maybe we undercut its power. Maybe the message of life-giving love is presented in a weakened manner. And the powerful healing promises of the gospel are diminished or lost in the message proffered by the church. The radical, extreme expression of love that cures prejudice, hatred, and greed, maybe becomes, ‘Have a nice day.’ So, we may, with good intentions, undercut the very message we are here to promote.

There is a fable about “a miser who sold all of his possessions and bought a large piece of gold. He buried the treasure in the earth near a large wooden fence. Each day he dug up the gold and admired it.

“A gardener observed the miser’s daily ritual and wondered what the old man was doing. One night he crept to the exact spot where he had seen the miser and discovered the magnificent gold piece. He immediately placed it in his pocket and left the country.

“When the miser discovered the empty hole the next day he let out a loud cry of anguish. A neighbor heard the scream and came running to the aid of her friend. Full of grief, the miser told her the entire story.

“‘Stop your crying,’ the neighbor advised, ‘and find a stone of equal size. Paint it the color of gold and put it back in the earth. Each day you can come and pretend that it is still here. The stone will serve the same purpose since you never meant to use the gold anyway.’” [From Stories for Telling: A Treasury for Christian Storytellers, William R. White, pp. 102-103.]

As I listen to this story, I think that the church may sometimes treat the gospel like the piece of gold. Buried. Hidden away – in the Bible? Admired. But with no real intention of using it. So, it might as well be a stone. And then is it really so bad if a lot of churches are closing? Were they really purveying the gospel, the radical, extreme, healing good news? With all the powerful transformation and love it has to offer? And what about our church? We will affirm the leadership of our advisors for 2023 this morning. What are we really expecting of them? Something shatteringly powerful and life-giving? Something watered down? Something pretty to be admired? Something to make us feel good? Or be good?

I hope that here at Lakewood, there is a glimmer of the real gospel; a glimpse at least. An ember. A fleeting wisp. Even a soft whisper. I hope we can feel a faint flutter. A reverberation. A hint. Of something healing. True. Transcendent. And powerful. That will be enough.

Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

A Just Peace Church

An Open and Affirming Church

A Creation Justice Church

10:30 am

January 22, 2023

WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS

LIGHTING THE PEACE CANDLE                   Michelle Cloutier, Liturgist

Let us know peace.

For as long as the moon shall rise,

For as long as the rivers shall flow,

For as long as the sun shall shine,

For as long as the grass shall grow,

Let us know peace.

Native American Indian Prayer for Peace

PRELUDE   Fairest Lord Jesus with “Moonlight Sonata”                      

Arranged by Marilyn Reimer                                                

*OPENING PRAYER                    Miriam Therese Winter. 1938-

Light of the world,

we bow before You

in awe and adoration.

Bless us

and our simple faith

seeking understanding.

Epiphany means

manifestation,

lifting the veil,

revelation.

Reveal to us then

what we need to know

to love You,

and serve You,

and keep Your word

with fidelity and truth,

courage and hope,

this day and always.

Amen.                                      

 * HYMN         I Sing the Praise of Love Almighty          50

SCRIPTURE LESSON –

Let us prepare ourselves for the word of God as it comes to us in the reading of Holy Scripture. Our hearts and minds are open.

Matthew 4:12-23

For the word of God in scripture, for the word of God among us, for the word of God within us. Thanks be to God!

*HYMN        You Have Come down to the Lakeshore              173

SERMON                                     Rev. Kim P. Wells

RESPONSIVE READING                             Rev. Jim Cotter, 1942-2014

In the celebration that embraces the exile and outcast,

In the joy that sings of freedom at last,

we worship the God of justice and peace,

we praise the God of freedom and joy,

we adore the God of love and new life,

we bless the God of reconciliation and healing,

we glorify the God of harmony and bliss.

We add our voice to the music of God,

we fall silent in the presence of Mystery,

in wonder and awe and love,

the Mystery that is the Source of our being

and the God of our belonging,

beautiful, utterly holy, glorious light,

unbounded love. Alleluia! Alleluia!

*HYMN                   From All That Dwell Below the Skies            27

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of Lakewood United Church of Christ, as part of the Church Universal is to:

• Celebrate the presence and power of God in our lives & in our world.
• Offer the hospitality and inclusive love of Christ to all people.
• Work for God’s peace and justice throughout creation.

AFFIRMATION OF LEADERS      1 Corinthian 12:4-7, 26-27, adapted

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit gives them.

There are different ways of serving, but the same God is served.

There are different abilities to perform service, but the same God gives ability to each of us for our own particular service.

The Spirit’s presence is shown in some ways to each person for the good of all.

Christ is like a single body, which has many parts.

It is still one body even though it is made up of different parts.

If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it; if one part is praised, all the other parts are praised.

All of us are Christ’s body, and each one is a part of it.

Vows

*Congregational Affirmation

We stand in celebration of the joy that is ours to be partners with you in the service of Jesus Christ. We promise to love you and honor your leadership, that together we may be a faithful church of Jesus Christ.

MORNING OFFERING 

Morning offerings may be brought forward and placed in the plates on the altar. You are invited to write your prayer requests on the sheets provided in

the bulletin and bring them forward and place them in the basket on the altar. If you would like assistance, please turn to someone seated near you.     

            Offertory       Mary, Did You Know?         Arranged by Dan Coates

            * Prayer of Dedication              William Countryman, 1941-

Hearing the good news is a beginning. The rest of our life forms our response.

MUSICAL OFFERING         Precious Lord, Take My Hand          Dorsey

                                           Barbara Donohue, soprano

MORNING PRAYER – SAVIOR’S PRAYER

Holy One, our only Home, hallowed be Your name.

May your day dawn, your will be done,

Here, as in heaven. Feed us today, and forgive us

As we forgive each other. Do not forsake us at the test,

But deliver us from evil. For the glory, the power,

And the mercy are yours, now and forever. Amen.

*  HYMN          Christ Is the Mountain of Horeb                 45

* BENEDICTION                                                                                  

*CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE   (please form a circle)

                                                       Lead Us From Death to Life           581

             Lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth,

            from despair to hope, from fear to trust.

            Lead us from hate to love, from war to peace;

            let peace fill our hearts, let peace fill our world,

            let peace fill our universe.

*POSTLUDE         Go, Tell It on the Mountain                Evans

Circle of Concern:

 Lakewood High School Girls and Boys Basketball Teams, Jane and George Diven and Family, Sherry Santana, Erik Johnson, Katherine Conover, Yoko Nogami & Family, Ann Quinn is under Hospice care, Maggie Brizendine, Janet Hall. All those suffering from COVID-19 and all healthcare workers, Schools: Students, families, teachers, and staff

Announcements

GRATITUDE! Thanks are expressed to Joyce Lee and to Barbara Donohue

for offering the ministry of music this morning while Music Director Hilton

Jones is away.

Advisors

Many thanks to those who will serve as Advisors for the coming year:

Christy Martin, Barbara Donohue, Malcolm Wells, and Dyanne Edds.

Another advisor is welcome. If you are interested in considering this

opportunity to serve, please come to the meeting after the service today or

speak with Rev. Wells.

Book Talk

This monthly Zoom gathering will be held on Thursday Jan. 26 at 6:30.  Link for Zoom is below Each month, LUCC folks gather to discuss what they have been reading.  Join in the fun!  All are welcome!  

Zoom Link: http://us02web.zoom.us/j/2700683648    Meeting Id: 270 068 3648

Lakewood United Church of Christ 2601 54th Ave. S. St. Petersburg, FL 33712

727-867-7961/ lakewooducc@gmail.com/ Lakewooducc.org

On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday – 2023

What do Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Brussels, Cyprus, Denmark, Cameroon, France, Germany, Haiti, India, Israel, Italy, Madagascar, Martinique, Mexico, Niger, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Suriname, Togo, Tanzania, and the United States all have in common? Each of these countries has a street or boulevard named for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

And there is a bridge named for King in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. And a forest named for King in Israel, in the southern Galilee region.  And a park named for King in Paris. There is a church in Debrecen, Hungary, the second largest city in that country, named for King. There is a Transformation Center named for King in Johannesburg, South Africa, There is a school in Accra, Ghana named for King.  And there is the Gandhi-King Plaza and garden in New Delhi, India. 

During the Arab Spring of the early 2010’s, activists were inspired by a comic book about King titled ‘Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story,’ published in Arabic and Farsi.  There is an annual birthday celebration for King in Japan.  In Tiananmen Square in China, they had posters that said, ‘We Shall Overcome.’ 

[See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/martin-luther-kings-nonviolent-civil-rights-efforts-still-inspire-across-globe/2011/07/27/gIQA3Nj9YJ_story.html?tid=a_inl_manual

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/martin-luther-king-jr-sites-across-the-globe/2011/08/04/gIQAK4R9YJ_story.html

https://share.america.gov/where-streets-have-one-name-martin-luther-king-jr/%5D

The declaration of the prophet Isaiah that we heard this morning, reminded people that God’s message of justice was not just for their community but so that they could be a light to all nations. King saw that the dynamics of his experience in America were also at work in other contexts and settings around the world.  Fully rooted in the American experience of racism, King proclaimed a message of justice and non violence that continues to resonate around the world. So, his message became universal and he has become an inspiration the world over. 

Perhaps Dr. King is America’s greatest export! 

In the past year or so, LUCC member Christy Martin has shared with me her interest in Dr. King and she has been studying his legacy.  So, today, I’m going to ask Christy some questions about King so that we see how his message is resounding in our congregation and community. 

            What sparked your interest in Dr. King?

            What in his message speaks to you today?         

            What is meaningful to you from his legacy?

            What do you want your teenage daughters to know about Dr. King?

What do you want Black people in America to remember from Dr. King’s teachings?

            What message do White people need to hear from Dr. King?

            If you could ask Dr. King a question, what would you ask him?

            Open to congregation to ask questions. . .

We listen to the words of Dr. King:

“Some years ago, almost two hundred now, our nation signed a huge promissory note, ‘We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ Oh, what a marvelous creed.  Just think about what it says.  It didn’t say some men; it said all men.  [And we might add, women.]  It didn’t say all white men; it said all men, which includes black men.  It didn’t say all Gentiles.  It said all men, which includes Jews.  It didn’t say all Protestants, it said all men, which includes Catholics.  And I can go right down the line. And then it said something else.  That every man has certain basic rights that are neither derived from nor conferred by the state. . . . They are God given.” 

[The Radical King:  Martin Luther King, Jr., edited and introduced by Cornel West, from ‘The Other America,’ 3.10.68, New York City, p. 241.]

So, to Americans who are people of faith, King issues this challenge:

“This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation’s self-defined goals and positions.  We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers [and sisters].”

[The Radical King:  Martin Luther King, Jr., edited and introduced by Cornel West, from ‘Beyond Vietnam, A Time to Break Silence,’ 4.4.67 at Riverside Church in New York City, p. 206.]

So, in the spirit of the prophet Isaiah and Jesus our Christ, who inspired Dr. King, let us re-dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of liberty and justice for all.

Amen.