Crestfield 2019: This Changes Everything

Day 1: Our Hearts

The Walk to Emmaus

Luke 24:13–35 The Message

That same day two of them were walking to the village Emmaus, about seven miles out of Jerusalem. They were deep in conversation, going over all these things that had happened. In the middle of their talk and questions, Jesus came up and walked along with them. But they were not able to recognize who he was. He asked, “What’s this you’re discussing so intently as you walk along?” They just stood there, long-faced, like they had lost their best friend. Then one of them, his name was Cleopas, said, “Are you the only one in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard what’s happened during the last few days?” He said, “What has happened?” They said, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene. He was a man of God, a prophet, dynamic in work and word, blessed by both God and all the people. Then our high priests and leaders betrayed him, got him sentenced to death, and crucified him. And we had our hopes up that he was the One, the One about to deliver Israel. And it is now the third day since it happened. But now some of our women have completely confused us. Early this morning they were at the tomb and couldn’t find his body. They came back with the story that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Some of our friends went off to the tomb to check and found it empty just as the women said, but they didn’t see Jesus.” Then he said to them, “So thick-headed! So slow-hearted! Why can’t you simply believe all that the prophets said? Don’t you see that these things had to happen, that the Messiah had to suffer and only then enter into his glory?” Then he started at the beginning, with the Books of Moses, and went on through all the Prophets, pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to him. They came to the edge of the village where they were headed. He acted as if he were going on but they pressed him: “Stay and have supper with us. It’s nearly evening; the day is done.” So he went in with them. And here is what happened: He sat down at the table with them. Taking the bread, he blessed and broke and gave it to them. At that moment, open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized him. And then he disappeared. Back and forth they talked. “Didn’t we feel on fire as he conversed with us on the road, as he opened up the Scriptures for us?” They didn’t waste a minute. They were up and on their way back to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and their friends gathered together, talking away: “It’s really happened! The Master has been raised up—Simon saw him!” Then the two went over everything that happened on the road and how they recognized him when he broke the bread.

Theme: We are witnesses to Jesus’ Resurrection, and God’s Spirit works in our hearts, inviting us to tell this story of new life to all the world.

Theme: We are witnesses to Jesus’ Resurrection, and God’s Spirit works in our hearts, inviting us to tell this story of new life to all the world.

Catechism Connection: The Apostle’s Creed

Psalm 98 ESV

A Psalm. Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

John 3:16–20 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

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John 10:7–14 ESV

So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,

Vespers Message

Acts 1:1–8 ESV

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Introduction

1 Corinthians 1:18–31 ESV

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Some of you have been here before, some of you haven’t. Sometimes coming to camp and being away from home can be stressful. Sometimes, we have other hard stuff going on at home or things in our past that we’re trying to deal with.

We all come here with a different story to tell.

We all have different concerns. We all have different stories about where we have seen God in our lives.

Sometimes it’s hard to talk about the things that are stressful or the hard things we have been through. But when are going through hard times, it’s important to seek out community with one another.

The beginning of our Bible lesson tonight says that the people walking down the road were talking about the things that had happened. I think it’s really important for us to remember what those things were. These guys had just been through some really scary, hard, sad, and confusing things!

They tell Jesus the summary of these things, because they don’t realize yet that it’s Jesus.

They haven’t seen Jesus yet in person, they have just heard some of the other followers tell them they had seen them.

The second they realized who it was they had been walking with all along, they got up right away and made a bee line for Jerusalem where the rest of the disciples were waiting for them.

Their story was NUTS, you guys, but they knew that they had encountered Jesus there and they knew that was too good to keep to themselves.

When we have gone through something hard and have seen Jesus in answered prayers, in comfort from a friend or family member, maybe we’ve heard Jesus in a Bible verse that cheered us up a bit, that’s too good to keep to ourselves.

We never know who else out there is struggling and what they are struggling with and our story of seeing Jesus and finding healing can bring them great comfort. Just like the disciples rushed out to tell all their friends they had seen Jesus, it’s important for us to rush out and tell everyone we’ve seen Jesus.

And the disciples would have had a very different experience if they hadn’t been willing to talk to the guy they didn’t know was Jesus. They could have just said, “None of your business” and kept walking. But they didn’t. And when we reach out to others and let them in on what we’re concerned about, we can find comfort.

Go home and tell everyone about how you’ve seen Jesus. I know. . . that’s like a WHOLE WEEK from now. I’ll remind you of that on Friday night before you go home. And you can start practising by talking to each other about how God has been there for you.

In the meantime, if you need someone to talk to about the things that are bugging you, (counselors AND campers), you are welcome to come to me. I am always willing to sit down and listen. And all the staff here are great and being there for kids too.

If there is time: 89 in the camp book: I could sing of your love forever (CAPO 2)

Day 2: Our Identity

Acts 9:1–18 The Message

All this time Saul was breathing down the necks of the Master’s disciples, out for the kill. He went to the Chief Priest and got arrest warrants to take to the meeting places in Damascus so that if he found anyone there belonging to the Way, whether men or women, he could arrest them and bring them to Jerusalem. He set off. When he got to the outskirts of Damascus, he was suddenly dazed by a blinding flash of light. As he fell to the ground, he heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?” He said, “Who are you, Master?” “I am Jesus, the One you’re hunting down. I want you to get up and enter the city. In the city you’ll be told what to do next.” His companions stood there dumbstruck—they could hear the sound, but couldn’t see anyone—while Saul, picking himself up off the ground, found himself stone-blind. They had to take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus. He continued blind for three days. He ate nothing, drank nothing. There was a disciple in Damascus by the name of Ananias. The Master spoke to him in a vision: “Ananias.” “Yes, Master?” he answered. “Get up and go over to Straight Avenue. Ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus. His name is Saul. He’s there praying. He has just had a dream in which he saw a man named Ananias enter the house and lay hands on him so he could see again.” Ananias protested, “Master, you can’t be serious. Everybody’s talking about this man and the terrible things he’s been doing, his reign of terror against your people in Jerusalem! And now he’s shown up here with papers from the Chief Priest that give him license to do the same to us.” But the Master said, “Don’t argue. Go! I have picked him as my personal representative to non-Jews and kings and Jews. And now I’m about to show him what he’s in for—the hard suffering that goes with this job.” So Ananias went and found the house, placed his hands on blind Saul, and said, “Brother Saul, the Master sent me, the same Jesus you saw on your way here. He sent me so you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes—he could see again! He got to his feet, was baptized,

The Conversion of Saul

Theme: Jesus calls us to be his followers, reflecting God’s love into the world.

Catechism Connection: Baptism

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When I was 5 years old, I accepted Jesus into my heart.

I was at school. The teacher made me really scared of hell.

I didn’t really understand it all. I thought it was just like a club and praying to have Jesus in my heart got me into the right club. I was in the “heaven club” now because “hell club” sounded scary.

It took a long time for me to realize that there is more to it than just a “golden ticket”.

It’s important for us to tell God that we want to be a disciple. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t pray to dedicate our lives to God. But it’s important that we remember that it’s not just about heaven and hell. It’s not like membership in a club at school or something. It’s not a matter of getting on the right train. It’s a decision to live a certain kind of life. And obviously, I eventually figured that out.

We have to be really careful when we start to get stuck in the idea that this is some sort of club or who’s in who’s out sort of thing.

First of all, we have no idea who is in and who is out for real for real. This guy called John Calvin called it the “visible church” and the “invisible church” because you only know who is going to church, you don’t know who is really living it in their whole body, mind, and spirit. You don’t really know the state of anyone’s relationship with God other than your own.

Saul was a pretty rotten guy, but he was in the in club. He really thought he was doing the right thing. (He was

He wasn’t reflecting God’s love, though. He was tormenting the people he thought we wrong about God.

God had better plans for Saul. Saul’s real call wasn’t just to decide who was in and who was out and go around judging other people. Saul’s job was to tell everyone about the fact that God loves us all SO MUCH that God came to earth to walk around with us and teach us and Jesus died on the cross to free us from sin.

God calls lots of people in the Bible to teach and to preach like Paul. In the Old Testament, God called leaders like Abraham and Isaac and prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah and Micah. In the new testament, Jesus calls disciples and followers to come learn from him and spread the great news of how much we are loved by God. After Saul is called, God changes his name to Paul - a new start! And Paul spreads the news far and wide that we are free from sin because of Jesus.

There are many ways we can share the love of God in the world around us.

This week, as you are looking for places you see God, look for ways to share God’s love with others. It’s important for us to share God’s love with people who might not know much about Jesus, but also to share it with people who do, because sometimes we need a reminder.

What are some ways that you all can share God’s love with the people around you, both here at camp and when you get home?

Catechism Connection: Baptism

Genesis 17:1–8 ESV

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

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Ending Song: 138 Pass it on (uke)

Day 3: Our Purpose

Matthew 25:31–46 ESV

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

The parable of the king, the sheep, the goats

Theme: Followers of Jesus embody compassion and service toward the most vulnerable in their midst.

Catechism: The fifth Commandment

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Vespers Message

Story of Mischief?

The first night, we talked about seeing God in the people around us and sharing our story to help people around us see God at work too.

Last night and today, we talked about how sometimes that means we’re going to connect with people we didn’t expect - Paul wound up called to minister to people he HATED before Jesus called him. Ananias was asked by God to care for someone who was just a nasty person before.

It’s easier to be nice to people we like and know.

It’s easier to be nice to people who look like us, talk like us, etc. . .

It’s easy to blow off people who are nasty to us or who are so different we don’t know how to really talk to them.

But it’s not just harder to show Jesus’ love to people we don’t like. In fact, sometimes it’s hardest to show Jesus’ love to people we don’t even notice. While the story of Mischief has always been a reminder in our family that we are to treat all people as if they are Jesus and to treat all creation as valuable and loved by God, it’s alot easier to love a kitten than some people.

Story of Mischief?

A Pastor in Disguise

A few years ago at a Methodist Church in North Wales, as worshippers arrived at the church, they were distressed to see a dirty, drunk, smelly homeless man on the front steps. They didn't realize this bum was actually their pastor, Derek Rigby, who had disguised himself as a homeless man. To prepare for that morning, Derek hadn't shaved that week. He caked dirt on his hands and face and drew on tattoos. He went to a thrift shop and bought old clothes and ripped them, rubbed them in dirt and soaked them in beer. To complete his disguise he donned a scraggly wig and put on thick broken glasses and hung a half-smoked cigarette from his mouth. Then he sat on the church steps clutching a can of beer. On that morning not one of the members of his congregation spoke to him or offered to help. You can imagine their shock when it came time for the sermon and this homeless man walked on staged and took off the wig. Then he told them they were a stingy lot. He talked about how Jesus said that when we help one of the "least of these" we are helping Jesus. It was a disturbing experience.

(From a sermon by David Dykes, Has Jesus Touched Your Eyes?, 8/20/2012) https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/83547/compassion-by-sermoncentral?ref=TextIllustrationSerps

This is hard! I was talking to a couple counselors this morning about our calling and how if it’s not hard, we’ve missed something somewhere. If you are fully living into your calling, you’re going to look weird to the world. I like to tell the people at my church that Jesus wants us to keep it weird.

This might mean making friends with the kid who always sits alone at lunch. Maybe it means getting involved helping out with a ministry to the homeless. Maybe it means helping an immigrant friend work on their English. Perhaps it’s treating that teacher nobody likes with respect and care. Who is it that is in the lonely shadows in your life? Who is forgotten or ignored or looked down on not because of the way they treat others, but because of who they are? Those are the people Jesus hung out with and those are the people we should be loving.

When we are looking to find Jesus in the world around us, we have to remember that when Jesus was physically here on earth in his human body, he spent a great deal of his time with invisible and vulnerable people. Of course, that’s where we should look to find him now.

Ending Song: 168: They Will Know We are Christians

Day 4: Our Community

Matthew 15:21–28 ESV

And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

The Canaanite woman

Theme: Followers of Jeus create a new community where all people are welcomed and valued.

Catechism: Communion

Additional texts: and following, , , , , ,

Vespers message

How many of you have a dog at home? Have ever had a dog? Have met a dog?

Dogs are great! But they are also super rude. I love my dog, Sparkle, but she is the gassiest dog EVER.

Dogs are not known for conforming to human social norms. They love you and they want to be loved. In fact, they have been domesticated (who knows what that means?) for so long that they are said to be the only animal on the planet that really understands human emotion. I would argue my cats understand human emotion, they just don’t care about it. Anyway, dogs - super sweet, not great at manners.

I don’t normally give Greek language or philosophy lessons to kids, but you are a smart group and I think you can handle this. Plus, I love puns almost as much as I love dogs and I think that Jesus is making a pun here.

Who knows what language the Bible was written in?

There was this group of people around Jesus’ time called the cynics. And they were called that because it came from the Greek word for dog. They were called that because they thought the social norms of their time were stupid and they paid no attention to them - just like dogs.

So, here’s this lady who comes to talk to Jesus and there are quite a few social norms that she is totally ignoring here when she approaches him. First of all, She’s a different ethnicity or race than Jesus and the disciples were. She was called a Canaanite. And the Canaanites were not seen favorably by the Galilean Jews like the disciples. So the disciples want her gone. But she will not go away.

Not only is her ethnicity a problem for them. . . she’s a woman. In Jesus’ time a woman DID NOT tali to a strange man, let alone hound his followers - who were also strange men - and insist on talking to him. This was ca-ra-zy.

So, she’s Canaanite, she’s a she, AAAAAAND she’s just broken all these social norms. Jesus compares her to the dogs, not because he thinks she’s a dog, but because he recognizes that she, like the cynics, is breaking the rules. It’s a play on words - a pun.

And I like this lady because she’s gutsy and she’s really quick on her feet and she fires right back at Jesus that, yeah. She deserves to be there. And Jesus compliments her faith. This woman has faith and her faith gives her guts.

Before we get carried away and go tell the counselor and our parents that I said it’s cool to break the rules. . . I don’t mean things like rules about safety and respect. We’re talking about the sorts of social norms and rules that hurt people - things like racism, and sexism, and homophobia, and fear of people from other places and religions. See, Jesus values people from all backgrounds, families, countries, cultures, races. . . and he tells us to do the same. We’re meant to share the love of God with people who aren’t nice to us, people who we don’t always notice, and people who our culture says are different and less valuable.

My dog might be totally rude when it comes to farting in public, but she loves EVERYONE

We need to love everyone because we are all important parts of God’s creation and plan.

Ephesians 2:11–22 ESV

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Play “I Need you to Survive”

Ephesians 2:11-

Bind Us Together

\Day 5: Our Perspective

Day 5: Our Perspective

Luke 15:11–32 The Message

Then he said, “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’ “So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. “That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father. “When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’ “But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time. “All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’ “The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’ “His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’ ”

The prodigal father and the wayward son

theme: God’s grace is an extravagant love that changes how followers of Jesus see and serve the world.

The Lord’s Prayer, Fifth Petition

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Vespers Message

Many of us have heard this passage before. I heard this one all the time as a kid and it always focused on just the dad and the son who takes his inheritance and wastes it. One day someone asked me, “What about the other brother? The one who stayed?” And my brain sort of blew apart.

I heard this one all the time as a kid and it always focused on just the dad and the son who takes his inheritance and wastes it. One day someone asked me, “What about the other brother? The one who stayed?” And my brain sort of blew apart.

What about the other brother? This is a story, not just about one son’s relationship with his father, but about a whole family! The whole family is affected by the actions of each other.

Whoa.

Sometimes, this story is called “the prodigal son”. Prodigal means “wasteful” or “over the top”. Sometimes people today use it to mean “lost and then found” but it originally meant something more like “extravagant”. And while that term can be used to describe the wasteful, extravagant, partying son, I think it goes so much further than that.

Think about it. The son who leaves is over the top in destructive ways. He doesn’t think about his family when he goes off on his own to have fun for himself.

And his brother is not at all prodigal. In fact he could stand to be a little MORE prodigal with his love.

You can say that the dad is prodigal with his love. The dad isn’t wasteful with his money or personal resources, but he is super extravagant and over the top with his love. The second he sees his son back on the road to home he RUNS to him. He probably wasn’t young, so running wouldn’t have been easy. Just imagine how silly this old man must have looked running down the road to his son!

But then the older brother. He wasn’t prodigal ENOUGH. He was just as reserved as the other was prodigal. Neither one was very good at loving their family, because where is the older brother when the father is running down the road?

The older brother has been home the whole time, working diligently beside his father, while his younger brother is out living a prodigious life and wasting away his inheritance. I can see how he would be a bit annoyed when suddenly, his twerp kid brother comes wandering back in and dad throws a party. He probably feels gipped. But you know what, he’s not a very good brother either. Where was he when their dad kicked up such a commotion that the brother was home? He didn’t see his brother’s return, let alone the misery he’d been through before coming home. He wasn’t there when the brother was so hungry he was willing to try pig slop. He wasn’t there to see the sunken, hollow starving face begging their father for a job as a lowly servant. He wasn’t there to see the tears or forgiveness in his father’s eyes when his brother confessed his wrongs and begged for a small amount of mercy. He wasn’t there to hear his brother tell his father about the unjust way he was treated by his so-called employer after the inheritance ran out. He wasn’t there to hear how he’d been trapped by the famine and nearly starved to death. I would love to know whether he’d ever been out to look for his little brother through the years.

When I’m not here with you guys or doing pastor stuff at church, I teach a class at the county jail. Someone asked me recently why I started teaching trauma recovery classes at the county jail. The implication was that the inmates there are beyond hope and we should focus on people who stand a chance at making it. But when I walk into the classroom there and I look around, they are people too. They are funny, smart, loving people who have made a few rotten choices along the way. Growing up in another family, another neighborhood, another time, or perhaps having been in the wrongplace at the wrong time, I could have been there just as easily on the other side of that classroom.

We have to be careful not to judge others because we don’t want to start acting like the older brother. Sometimes, we forget that older brother and just talk about the one who wandered off, but sometimes if we haven’t wandered off or we don’t remember wandering off, we just wind up being the other brother in this story who also screws up and hurts his family.

Here is the wonderful part: it doesn’t matter what brother you are.

Not.

One.

Bit.

The father loves them both with over the top crazy wild love. Both brothers, in fact all the servants and everyone in sight, are invited to the celebration of the father’s joy.

Tonight, we celebrate communion together. I love to say “celebrate” communion not just do or have communion because it’s a joy that we get to participate in it. This is a place where God has promised to meet with us and connect with us just like God will connect with us at the ultimate feast one day in heaven when everything wrong in the universe is made right again.

Scripture says that people will come from east and west and from north and south and will sit at the table together in the Kingdom of God! Today, we catch a glimpse of that table as we share together in this celebration. Both brothers are invited to the Father’s banquet, dear ones. There is noone who is not invited to this table today to fully participate in this sacrament. You don’t have to know all the answers to the Sunday school questions. You don’t have to look like you have it all together. You don’t even have to be what others might call a “good person”. “We come not because we are whole, but because we are broken.” This is where we find healing for our brokenness - where we run into God’s loving arms.

Great Thanksgiving

The Lord be with you!

And also with you.

LET US PRAY

Lift up your hearts!

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise. 

Loving God, you made this world marvelous for us to enjoy. You gave Jesus, the Light of the World, to be our Savior and friend and to bring us to you. You sent your spirit to make us one family in Christ. For these gifts of your love we thank you and we praise you.

GTG #552 OR: 

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. 

For your kindness and your goodness to all, we say thanks. We thank you that you showed your love by sending your Son, who gave his life for us, and rose again from death, and lives to pray for us forever. We thank you that he has taken away all that separates us from you and has made us friends with you and with one another. We thank you that he has brought us together at this table, to strengthen us by his love.

GTG #553 OR:

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

Send your Holy Spirit on us and on these gifts upon this table, that we may know Christ’s presence, real and true, and be his faithful followers, showing your love for the world.

Lord’s Prayer

GTG #554 OR:

Amen.

Breaking of the Bread

Now hear the story of how this sacrament began:

The Lord Jesus, on the night of his arrest, took bread, and after giving thanks to God, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying, “Take. Eat. This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way, he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me. 

Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the saving death of the risen Lord, until he comes.

(HIT PLAY AS THEY COME FORWARD)

Communion of the People

Prayer after Communion

Amazing God, you come into our ordinary lives and set a holy table among us, filling our plates with the bread of life and our cups with salvation. Send us out, O God, with tender hearts to touch an ordinary everyday world with the promise of your holiness. Amen.

83: how he loves as communion is served.

Day 6: Wrap up

Ephesians 2:1–10 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:1-

Alot has happened this week.

Our theme this week is “This changes everything”. This changes:

Our hearts - walk to Emmaus. Always be on the lookout for Jesus. God is ready to meet us and change our hearts when we least expect it.

Our identity - conversion of Saul to Paul. God can change anyone, God can change you and all the people around you. God can change the people who seem the least likely.

Our purpose - goats and sheep. God gives us a purpose and a reason for being and that reason is to care for one another.

Our Community - Canaanite woman - our connection to one another through Jesus broadens our community to include all sorts of people - including people who might go unnoticed or who are looked down on by others.

Our perspective - Prodigal Son - This changes how we see the world and how we see others and how we see God’s love for us and the people around us.

What is the “this” that changes everything?

Ephesians 2:1–10 The Message

It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

“This” is the gift of forgiveness that God gives us through Jesus Christ. We can’t earn God’s love, my dear ones. We can’t earn it because God gives love to us freely - God loves us by showing up when we don’t expect it. God loves us by giving us all this special calling to share the news of God’s love to others and to care for everyone around us. God loves us by setting a place at the table for everyone. God loves us no matter what - even if we’ve run off to do our own thing or if we’ve been judgmental of others. And no matter what we do wrong, we can’t lose God’s love. No matter what we do right, we can’t earn it.

I read last week that what Paul is saying in his letters - Ephesians is a letter that Saul who became Paul wrote to the church - what he’s saying in his letter is that “It was never ‘Behave so God will save you.’ It was always, ‘God already saved you so act like it.’” It is because of God’s love for us that we in turn share that love with others.

So, I want to leave you this week with some really important words from Jesus. These are the very last words Jesus spoke to the disciples.

Matthew 28:16–20 NLT

Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted! Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

4inheritance. I can see how he would be a bit annoyed when suddenly, his twerp kid brother comes wandering back in and dad throws a party. I want to note somethingabout the older brother’s reaction, though:he didn’t see his brother’s return, let alone the misery he’d been through before coming home. He wasn’t there whenthe brother was so hungry he was willing to try pig slop. He wasn’t there to see the sunken, hollow starving face begging their father for a job as a lowly servant. He wasn’t there to see the tears or forgiveness in his father’s eyes when his brother confessed his wrongs and begged for a small amount of mercy. He wasn’t there to hear his brother tell his father about the unjust way he was treated by his so-called employer after the inheritance ran out. He wasn’t there to hear how he’d been trapped by the famine and nearly starved to death. I would love to know whether he’d ever been out to look for his little brother through the years