What was I Scared I Of?
Pentecost Sunday
Theme The Holy Spirit empowers grace.
Prelude
Welcome
Call to Worship
One Let us worship the Lord, who in wisdom has created the world.
All: Let us worship the Lord, who gives good things to the creation.
One: Let us worship the Lord, who sends forth the Spirit to the world.
All: Let us worship the Lord and sing praises to God as long as we live.
– Adapted from Psalm 104:24, 28, 30, 33
*Praise
1. # 317 Blessed Assurance
2. # 32 How Great Thou Art
3. Lord I Lift Your Name on High
*Invocation Come, listen! The voice of the Spirit speaks within the whole of life. Come, open your minds! Hear and know a God whose love for us is as warm as a flame, reaching into every cold place. Come, lift up your hearts, for we are never alone. On this Day of Pentecost let us celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. As we gather here, we are one and many, one in our humanness and hope, and many in our life journeys and different needs. Be present in all of us and each of us, Holy Spirit. Let no one feel excluded from the gift of your passionate life. This we pray in faith as we sing the Lord’s Prayer together
*Gloria Patri # 575
Just for Kids
Our Offering to God *Stewardship Thought
in the moment of Pentecost, the receiving of the gift of the Holy Spirit, everyone heard the message in their own language. If we read the passage carefully, especially verse 11, it is clear that people of many ethnicities and languages heard the disciples, the Galileans, speaking to them in their own languages. In the power of the Spirit, the people of God had crossed the barriers of culture and language to tell others the good news. How often do we feel the church is able to do that? In the present day, how many people feel delighted and respected because we speak in ways that really communicate with them? At the heart of Pentecost lies the possibility that all humanity can be gathered together - that we may meet each other in the power of the Spirit.
May the generous gifts of the Spirit to us inspire our giving to others. Our tithes and offerings will now be received.
*Doxology #572
*Prayer of Dedication Join our giving with yours, Holy Spirit. Light our lives with your wisdom that we may be faithful stewards of all that we have and all that we give for your service in the world. Receive our gifts this day, O God.
Amen.
Scripture Reading Acts 2: 1-21
*Hymn of Prayer # 387 Search Me, O God
Pastoral Prayer Thank you, O God, for hidden coals of life that leap into flame, within us and around us, just as we thought our faith was dimmed. Thank you for energy that arises when we thought we had nothing left, gifts of new ideas, and imagination that inspire a different way before us. Thank you, O God, for the gifts that come from the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, spread through all the earth the vivid life of your freedom. Then visit us again and warm our hearts with a rising flame of concern that cannot be quenched by the forces of apathy or powerlessness. Recreate in us a sense of urgency, born of true love for our neighbors, especially those for whom we now pray:
Hear our prayers and touch our lives now, we pray, Holy Spirit. Drop a feather of love from the dove of peace that hovers over us, and show us a spark of the flames of your enthusiasm for good. Color our worship with your passion for a prophetic future, and blow through our careful barriers to the true adventure of faith, born high on the winds of your courage. Reach past the clichés of old habits and old prayers and blaze among us in raw, real relevance in our time together and in the world.
This we dare to pray, even as we tremble in human frailty before you.
Amen.
*Hymn of Praise # 187 Breathe on Me, Breath of God
Scripture Reading Matthew 26: 36-39
Message What was I Scared I Of?
From The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss by James W. Kemp
For most people, the most uncomfortable human emotion of all is fear. From the time we were children, we have had fears. Most children are afraid of the dark. Some fear being left alone. Many are afraid of snakes and spiders. Some are afraid of animals of any kind, even cute and cuddly puppies.
Perhaps the hardest childhood fear of all to address is the fear of the bogeyman. Nobody really knows exactly who the bogeyman is, we can’t really name him or define him, perhaps he represents all those things in the world that we don’t yet know about but would be afraid of if we did.
As we grow older, feelings of fear remain with us, although the objects of our fear, or at least most of them, change. Teenagers may fear rejection or failure or being left out. Young adults may fear never being able to find a life partner or a fulfilling career. Many parents who thought they had overcome their fears find themselves living the fears of their children – they fear for their children’s safety, their happiness, their doing the right thing. Older person’s typically fear losing their independence, their health, their mobility, or their capacity to support themselves financially.
Surveys reveal that one of life’s most common fears is the fear of getting up in front of an audience and giving a speech. And many people of all ages struggle with fears of the unknown, including the fear of death.
The Dr. Seuss story What was I scared of? Addresses the issue of fear. The story has just two characters; a cute-looking childlike “creacha” (a Seuss-style child) and an un-embodied pair of green pants. The cute little thing encounters the scary-looking pants on a dark path in the night. The “creacha” turns in the other direction and runs away as fast as he can. He tells himself he’s not afraid of the pants, but it doesn’t work. Every time he sees them, he is filled with fear. He turns and runs away.
The little guy’s fear of the green pants is clearly having a negative impact on his life. He no longer goes to places he used to go. He doesn’t do some of the things that he likes to do, because he doesn’t want to risk meeting up with the green pants. He can no longer go to Grin-itch to fetch Grin-itch spinach. He can’t go fishing, because “green pants” knows how to row a boat.
Many of us can identify with the little guy. Our fears are preventing us from accomplishing our full potential. Perhaps there are places we would like to go, people we would like to get to know. Maybe we sense that God is calling us to a particular kind of service or ministry. But our fears are holding us back. Maybe its fear that life could get too complicated or too busy. Perhaps it’s the fear of the unknown. Like the little creacha, we realize that there is more to life, but fear stands in the way of pursuing it. Theologically speaking, the opposite of fear is faith. The presence of faith does not automatically remove fears. Rather, faith provides us with the discipline, confidence, and courage to move forward in spite of our fears. Our faith reaffirms for us that God is ultimately in control of our lives. It has been said that there is no safer place to be than at the center of God’s will. Thus, if we are confident that we are pursuing the will of God, we can also believe that our fears, though real, ought not to paralyze us, ought not to keep us from doing what is right.
It is hard to imagine anyone being more afraid than Jesus must have been in the garden of Gethsemane. It is clear from his agony in the garden that he knew what was coming. He knew that the path before him would include a horrifying and painful death. Not only would it be physically painful, but it would be humiliating. He was soon to feel abandoned – fully and completely – by the Father he had served so well.
And he was afraid. “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me,” he prayed.
But he did not allow this fear to keep him for pressing on to accomplish his earthly mission. He did not run away from his fears. He faced them head on.
Dr. Seuss also helps us to understand the secret to overcoming our fears. The secret is not to run faster or further in the opposite direction. That only enables us to avoid our fears for a little while longer, but not to overcome them. The only way to overcome our fears is to face them. We’ve all heard the advice that the best way to get rid of an enemy is to make that enemy a friend. The same can be said of our fears. One way to get rid of our fears is to make them our friends.
That is what the little creacha in the story did, although it was not by choice that he ended up face to face with the green pants. He started yelling and screaming, shrieking and howling. Was this the end?
“But then a strange thing happened, Why those pants began to cry!
Those pants began to tremble. They were just as scared as I!”
The next thing you know, the little creacha has a new friend: a green one with two legs. In the facing of his fear he was able to discover that it was not as bad as he’d thought. In fact, it didn’t need to be feared at all.
We need to hear it again: we cannot overcome fears by running from them. Someone who, as a child, was bitten by a dog may have a fear of dogs into adulthood. If this person wants to overcome that fear, however, the way to do so is not by avoiding canines but by reaching out to them.
What might happen in our Christian lives if we, too, faced our fears instead of running from them? Might it free us to do things that we’ve always wanted to do but were afraid to try? Or perhaps something that we once enjoyed doing but are afraid to try again.
I’m always amazed to hear about someone being afraid of something that he or she ahs never even tried. Some people who are afraid of flying have never been to an airport, let alone set foot on a plane. Some people are afraid of big cities even though they’ve never been to one. Some people are afraid of those from another ethnic group even though they’ve never met a person of the feared ethnicity.
Our fears may well be keeping us from effective Christian ministry. Someone is afraid of reaching out to a new neighbor in need: “I’m already busy enough, and I’m afraid that if I help, it will take up more time than I have to give.” Someone else has always had a heart for the poor but is afraid to volunteer to take meals to the homeless because the shelter is located in an unsafe part of town.
Another person has always want to donate blood, but she’s afraid of the pinch of the needle, even though others have told her that it really doesn’t hurt that much. Still another person has long thought about being a missionary overseas, or at least going on a short term mission project, but he’s afraid of coming back with some rare, incurable disease, even though others from his church have made the trip safely.
Fears limit our ability to reach our potential as individual human beings and as the church, the bride of Christ. We must recognize that the kingdom of God is not a passive institution but a proactive one. Christ did not call us to sit in our living rooms and watch TV, to be content only with having our personal affairs under control. Rather, Christ calls us to go out into the world to make disciples, to bring justice to our communities, and to look after the hungry, the widow, the orphan, and the prisoner. We cannot fulfill this calling if we are paralyzed into inactivity by a fear of getting hurt, or making mistakes, or getting involved in messy or complicated situations. That is the path of fear, not the path of faith.
Think about what your fears are. What is holding you back? What is keeping you from being all you can be and all you would like to be? One you have identified them, face them. Talk about them. Seek advice. Find others who have had the same or similar fears and have overcome them,, people who have found that moving forward in faith resulted in the realization that fear is often more imagined than real.
The little creacha, as a result of facing his fears, not only got his old life back but he also gained a new friend. Don’t keep running away. Faith will win out over fear every time you let it.
*Hymn of Response # 220 Break Thou the Bread of Life
Communion
Communion Hymn # 187 The Comforter has Come
*Sending forth “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel:
Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,
says the LORD of hosts. Zechariah 4:6
*Postlude
Thought for the Day
3Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Galatians 3:3
Having been wooed to Christ by the Spirit, having been baptized by the Spirit, do we now think that we can continue our vocation as ambassadors for Christ on our own, neglecting the Presence and the Power in favor of human striving, techniques and popularity?
Back in 1960, Sam Shoemaker wrote a remarkable book, With the Holy Spirit and With Fire. He says, “Many of us are theistic in our belief, but humanistic in our expectations. No wonder so much of our religion is overactive, successminded, threadbare and frustrated. We lack the breeze of the Spirit to fill our sails, and carry us steadily forward across the angry and uncharted seas of our world today!”
In today’s Bible story, Jesus sends a surprise party for the disciples. Before Jesus ascended into heaven he said, “Wait in Jerusalem and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” One day, while the disciples were waiting, a sound like a strong wind filled the house. (Turn on the fan.) Suddenly divided flames appeared in the air over each disciple’s head. (Turn off the fan and light the candle.) The disciples watched in wonder and surprise as these beautiful flames flickered over their heads.
The sound of wind and the flames announced Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit, a birthday gift for Jesus’ church, the Christian church. The Holy Spirit helped all the disciples speak other languages. They rushed out into the streets of Jerusalem and told everyone about Jesus, each speaking in a different language, so that everyone could understand. Three thousand people believed and were baptized. With the gift of the Holy Spirit, the church began.
Hold up a sign that says, “Gott liebte Sie.” Ask the children if they know what it means. Let them know that you are not surprised by their confusion, because the sign is in German. Then show them a sign with the words, “Dieu vous aime.” Again, ask if they can read it. Point out that this sign is in French. Then hold up a sign with “El dios le ama.” Ask if anyone knows its meaning. Let them know that this sign is in Spanish, and stress that it is very difficult to understand a sign written in a foreign language. Finally, hold up a sign that says, “God loves you.” Have the children raise their hands if they can read it. Point out that it is so nice to receive a message we can understand, in a language that is familiar to us. Let them know that this is exactly what happened on the Day of Pentecost, when the followers of Jesus were filled with the Holy Spirit and people who spoke all the languages of the world could understand them (Acts 2:1-13). Ask the children if they think that the foreigners in Jerusalem were happy to hear the disciples speaking so that they could understand. Stress that it is important that we all be able to hear about God’s love in a language that we understand, and then let them know that all the signs you are holding contain the very same message, “God loves you.”