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LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

2601 54th Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33712

On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga

727-867-7961
lakewooducc.org

lakewooducc@gmail.com

Date: Jan. 29, 2023
Scripture Lesson: Matthew 4:12-23 and Micah 6:6-8

Sermon:Fishing, Part 2
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

My spouse, Jeff, has a friend from high school who lives in Alaska and was involved in the fishing industry there. Apparently he owned a fishing boat and fished for salmon. He hired an assistant each year and they would go out on the boat fishing for 6 weeks straight; living on the boat. At the end of the 6 weeks, they would return to shore and sell the catch. The assistant was paid $40,000 (this was some years ago) and the fishing was finished for the year. $40,000 for six weeks of work sure looks good to me. But that is about as much as I know about the fishing sector of the current economy.

Thanks to an amazing article by Biblical scholar and theologian Ched Myers, we can learn a lot about the fishing industry in first century Palestine, the time of Jesus. We’ll take a bit of a delve into this since the story we heard this morning involves people who are part of the fishing industry and there are numerous references to fishing in the gospels.

The story we heard today is situated on the Sea of Galilee, a large lake that was dotted with villages related to the fishing industry. Fishing was the most lucrative sector of the local economy. Then there was a change in leadership in Rome, there was a new imperial ruler. To curry favor with the new Caesar, Tiberius, the local lackeys for the Romans decided to build a city named Tiberius, in honor of the new emperor, on the Galilee Lake. This led to increasing Roman influence in the region and the fishing industry was re-directed for export. Fish were salted or made into fish sauce and shipped out. The Roman state regulated all of this. They controlled the sale of fishing leases which were necessary to fish. They taxed the fish that were caught. They charged processing fees to have the fish prepared for export. And they charged tolls on the transport used for exportation. This reorganization of the fishing industry was good for the empire and produced great wealth for Rome but it was bad for the people who fished. The leases, taxes, fees, and tolls were exorbitant. Formerly economically stable and self-sufficient, the fishers became impoverished and marginalized. [See “Let’s Catch Some Big Fish!” Jesus’ Call to Discipleship in a World of Injustice, by Ched Myers, post on 1.22.15 by Radical Discipleship In Theological Animation https://radicaldiscipleship.net/2015/01/22/lets-catch- some-big-fish-jesus-call-to-discipleship-in-a-world-of-injustice/]

Now, if we can know this much about the fishing sector of the economy in Jesus’ day, with a view from some 2,000 years in the future, we can be pretty sure that Jesus knew all of this and probably more about what it was like to be a fisher in his day. As a carpenter, he may even have been forced to help with the construction of the new city, Tiberius. But he would certainly have known about the Roman take over of the local fishing industry and the toll that took upon the fishers and their families.

With that knowledge, it seems pretty likely that the story we heard today of Jesus walking along the shores of the lake and recruiting several fishers was not simply random – like he could just as well have been walking past a forge and recruited some blacksmiths. It seems that the story of the call of the fishers was intentionally targeting fishers because of their lowered status and abuse in the wider economy. Given how they were being treated by the larger structures of the society around them, we are shown a Jesus who has sympathy for their circumstances. Who seeks them out despite their demeaned position, actually, because of it. We are shown a Jesus who elevates their humanity by calling to them. And because he knows that they are being debased, he invites them to a be part of a different reality, the kingdom of God. He invites them out of exploitation and into beloved community. Jesus has good news for those who need it most.

Last week, we talked about how the gospel is a powerful message of healing. This morning we hone in on one aspect of that. We see how from the perspective of Jesus, the fishers in the story, and the people of the early church who shared this story, this encounter was about healing the wounds created by the society around them and about transforming the institutions and arrangements of the society around them to be more just and to treat people with dignity and respect. Everyone a child of God. Period.

It’s as if Jesus is saying to these fishers, I know what it is like for you. And I am here to show you another reality. And we are going to spread that reality of Divine Love. And invite people to be part of it. Jesus is offering the fishers a way out of a dehumanizing system that has been a source of abuse and abasement.

This perspective on the story reminds us that the gospel is a call to new life. And that involves confronting the systems and power arrangements that drain and demean life. It involves working to transform those systems. It is a call to work for justice.

For us, in our context, this story and the gospel call us to be willing to have our eyes opened to the injustices around us. Yes, that includes the horrific video of the killing of Tyre Nichols. But it also means eyes opened to the ravages caused by the economic system that we are a part of which can be hard to see because it is like air – just part and parcel of the ambient environment.

Now our economic arrangements can be seen as truly amazing – we have access to everything that can be made and everything that can be wanted from everywhere in the world all the time. Basically. The marvels of human ingenuity await us via the internet 24/7. And the whole systems ‘works’. I put that in quotes. It delivers. But I am not sure it ‘works’ because this marvelous, amazing system of production and delivery may very well be killing us and the planet as we know it.

The story of the fishers by the sea of Galilee shows a recognition of the power of economic arrangements to do harm. Yes, they can do good, but they can also do much harm. And we see that happening around us each and every day. This week, I had coffee with a colleague and we sat at a table outside at a coffee shop. A person came by asking us for money. And we weren’t even downtown. If you use the highway, you are regularly confronted by people asking for money at the bottom of the exit ramp. Here at the church, we regularly have people stop by and call asking for help with basic bills and they always have a story to tell about how they got into this situation.

We are told that our economy is so amazingly successful because look at all the wealth that is produced. And then we are told of the amazing lives of the rich and famous. Any half decent economist can tell you that the lavish lives of the rich and the severe lack of the poor are not unrelated. The more money there is at the top, the less there is a the bottom. Extreme wealth is propped up by poverty. And the reasonable, rational way to mitigate this is through governmental policy that mandates better wages and treatment of labor, and that redistributes wealth by investing in the common good – schools, libraries, roads, the arts, recreation, health care, etc. Things everyone needs and uses and that contribute to a healthy society. But our current government is not going to deliver that outcome because it is run not by the voters but by corporations whose goal is not a healthy society but a healthy profit.

In the translation of the fishing story from Matthew many of us are used to hearing, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This morning we heard the translation, “Change your hearts and minds, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” This is from the Inclusive Language Bible translation done by Priests for Equality. The scholars of the Jesus Seminar, Westar Institute, who initiated the latest quest for the historical Jesus, offer this translation, “Change your ways because Heaven’s imperial rule is closing in.” They intentionally use the term ‘Heaven’s imperial rule’ because they want us to hear what first century listeners would have heard. What Jesus was offering was a direct alternative to Rome’s imperial rule. And maybe more than an alternative. Maybe a direct threat to Rome’s imperial rule, which is probably why Jesus was killed as a traitor, as an insurrectionist, as an enemy of the government. “Heaven’s imperial rule is closing in.” Closing in implies taking over. Jesus is taking on the entire social, political, economic, and religious milieu of his day. And offering a rule of justice and peace. A rule based on the sacredness of each and every life. Treat workers fairly. See that everyone has what they need. Make sure that vulnerable people, like widows and orphans in Jesus’ day, are protected and provided for. This is in direct conflict with a system that is extracting the labor and wealth from the people and leaving them impoverished and demeaned and devalued.

Jesus is instituting: Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with your God. A dictate of the prophets as we heard today. He was also probably familiar with the teaching from the prophet Amos: “The time is surely coming upon you [who oppress the poor and crush the needy] when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks.” (Amos 4:1f) Well, in the story we heard, Jesus invites the fishers to fish for people. We tend to think of that as inviting others to follow Jesus. But there may also be the implication that they will be hooking the oppressors to end the exploitation and abuse they are causing.

The story about fishers on the shore of the sea of Galilee invites us to see Jesus’ call to be agents of transformation in society at large. And he is not advocating what we so often see in our day: The church working in the political sphere to take away rights, to deny full humanity, to restrict freedom, and to obscure truth. Jesus is inviting his followers to end the reign of abuse and greed and exploitation. And to implement true justice and freedom. He goes to one of the most abused, despairing segments of society, the fishers, and offers hope, transformation, and community. That was probably the last thing they were expecting to encounter that day as they went about their business as usual – tending to their nets and their equipment after a night of fishing.

Our son, Malcolm, has a roommate who works for the government in the fishing sector. She goes out on commercial fishing boats in the Gulf of Mexico to examine the catch of these industrial fishers. She looks first hand at what is in the nets that are brought in. The catch. And the by catch. And she documents what she sees. First, it may be a surprise to know that the government is paying attention to such things and actually engaging in that kind of examination. And it may also be a surprise to hear about some of the things that she has seen brought in by fishers in the Gulf. One of the strangest things she has seen is a Bering Wolffish. Yes, Bering, as in Bering Straights. This fish, which can weigh up to 33 pounds, lives in the Pacific Ocean, in the northeast around Alaska and into the Arctic Ocean, and then around to the northwestern Pacific and Japan. This is not a fish that lives anywhere near the Gulf of Mexico. Yet there it was in the net!

Then there is Julian from our congregation who loves to fish in the Gulf and one day caught a shoe, laces and all!

You just never know what fishing may bring in.

And that is so like the gospel. You just never know what you’re going to get. We hear a nice story about what we picture as idyllic fishers living their simple sustainable life by a huge lake providing food for their families and their community. And we find out that it is actually an extortionist system of exploitation. And that Jesus is offering the good news of liberation to those most battered by injustice.

So like Jesus. Giving us more than we could ask for or imagine. 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 29, 2023

WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS

 LIGHTING THE PEACE CANDLE                 Colleen Coughenour, Liturgist

I observe countless mercies, kindnesses and much cooperation in nature, and I maintain that it is these that typify nature rather than the violence and competitions. My studies have gradually led me to the conclusion that it is the cooperative rather than the competitive that survives. The meek do inherit the earth.

                                                  Euell Gibbons, 1911-1975

PRELUDE                  Prelude                                    Ravel

*OPENING READING                      Lawrence Freeman, B. 1951

To see God is not to see anything extraordinary but to see ordinary things as they really are.

 * HYMN         God of Grace and God of Glory                     436

SCRIPTURE LESSONS

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.

Micah 6:6-8 and Matthew 4:17-23

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!

CONTEMPORARY READING                Peter Selby, b. 1941

*HYMN       Jesus Calls Us. o’er the Tumult           172

SERMON              Fishing, Part 2             Rev. Kim P. Wells

UNISON READING            The Shakertown Pledge, 1973

Recognizing that the earth and the fullness thereof is a gift from our gracious God, and that we are called to cherish, nurture, and provide loving stewardship for the Earth’s resources, and recognizing that life itself is a gift, and a call to responsibility, joy, and celebration, I make the following declarations:

1. I declare myself to be a world citizen.

2. I commit myself to lead an ecologically sound life.

3. I commit myself to lead a life of creative simplicity and to share my personal wealth with the world’s poor.

4. I commit myself to join with others in the reshaping of institutions in order to bring about a more just global society in which each person has full access to the needed resources for their physical, emotional,  intellectual, and spiritual growth.

5. I commit myself to occupational accountability, and in so doing I will seek to avoid the creation of products which cause harm to others.

6. I affirm the gift of my body, and commit myself to its proper nourishment and physical well-being.

7. I commit myself to examine continually my relations with others, and to attempt to relate honestly, morally, and lovingly to those around me.

8. I commit myself to personal renewal through prayer, meditation, and study.

9. I commit myself to responsible participation in a community of faith.

Signature  _______________________________

ANTHEM              Wendeyaho                    Native American/arr. HKJ

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.

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           Come Sunday             Ellington

* Prayer of Dedication           McNeil, Morrison, and Nouwen, Compassion

God’s compassion is total, absolute, unconditional, without reservation. It is the compassion of the one who keeps going to the most forgotten corners of the world, and who cannot rest as long as there are still human beings with tears in their eyes.

* PREPARATION FOR PRAYER      For the Fruit of All Creation            425

MORNING PRAYER – SAVIOR’S PRAYER

Eternal Spirit, Earth Maker, Pain-bearer, Life- giver,

Source of all that is and that ever shall be,

Father and Mother of all people,

Loving God in whom is heaven;

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!

The way of your justice be followed by all peoples

of the world!

Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!

Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth!

With the bread that we need for today, feed us.

In times of temptation and testing, strengthen us.

From trials too great to endure, spare us.

From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,

now and forever. Amen.

*  HYMN   Called as Partners in Christ’s Service        495

* BENEDICTION               associated with Peter Claver, 1580-1654

May our eyes be open to see that the fruit of life comes when we plant seeds of hope among those whom the world rejects. Amen!                                                         

*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        Jig Fugue                  Buxtehude

Announcements

Operation Attack Update- OA needs donations of cereal/oatmeal, mac and cheese, pasta sauce, peanut butter, canned meat, fruit, soup, and vegetables. Donations may be placed on the shelf in the hallway at church.

Toiletries for Celebrate Outreach – Celebrate Outreach is a local ministry with people who are living without shelter in St. Petersburg. An average of 135 people are served each week. LUCC was asked to collect toiletries to be distributed to the community at the meals that are provided on Saturday and Sundays each week. This collection will be ongoing in addition to the food being collected for Operation Attack. All are invited to donate the following items:

Celebration Outreach has an ongoing need for men’s and women’s underwear.
Men sizes 30, 32,34
Women’s sizes 5,6, 7,8.
Also in high demand are socks of all kinds /sizes for both men & women.
Other needed items are Deodorant & disposable razors.

Toothbrushes, toothpaste, disposable razors, bar soap, wash cloths, deodorant, feminine hygiene items, travel size creams, shampoo, body wash, individual packets of Kleenex, hand wipes, toilet tissue, and paper towels are always needed as well.

Many thanks to Janet Blair and Jim Andrews for taking the donations to Celebrate Outreach.

LUNCH this Sunday- All who would like to are invited to have lunch together at Chattaway Restaurant, which offers outdoor seating and vegan menu items along with delicious burgers and other delights! Come and enjoy your LUCC community over a casual lunch. Funds are available to assist with paying for lunch if needed. Please speak with Rev. Wells.

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.