This week’s sermon is very brief as the body of the sermon is the video from this summer’s Lighthouse Youth Ministry service trip to Madison, which you can see in the livestream below from Living Hope.
The Scripture readings for the day are James 5:13-20, Psalm 19:7-14, and Mark 9:38-50.
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Grace to you and peace from God our Creator and our redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen
I know we’re done with our PRAY Like Jesus series, but I have to point out how much that first reading from James encourages us to pray.
Anyone suffering? They should pray. Sick? Ask for others to pray for you. Anyone feeling cheerful today? They should sing songs of praise. Prayer is how we connect with God, how we give thanks, how we ask for what we need.
This morning, we’re changing gears a little bit, and shifting from prayer to action. I want to share a quote with you from Pope Francis—Reformation Day isn’t until next week, so I think that’s ok. I know this is a little long, but listen to what he says about prayer.
In our Christian life too, dear brothers and sisters, may prayer and action always be deeply united.
A prayer that does not lead you to practical action for your brother — the poor, the sick, those in need of help, a brother in difficulty — is a sterile and incomplete prayer. But, in the same way, when ecclesial service is attentive only to doing, things gain in importance, functions, structures, and we forget the centrality of Christ.
When time is not set aside for dialogue with him in prayer, we risk serving ourselves and not God present in our needy brother and sister.
St. Benedict sums up the kind of life that indicated for his monks in two words: ora et labora, pray and work. It is from contemplation, from a strong friendship with the Lord that the capacity is born in us to live and to bring the love of God, his mercy, his tenderness, to others.And also our work with brothers in need, our charitable works of mercy, lead us to the Lord, because it is in the needy brother and sister that we see the Lord himself.
You might have seen a shorter version of that quote that goes like this: “You pray for the hungry, than you feed them, that is how prayer works.”
One of the challenges we face as a Christian is exactly what Pope Francis talked about. If we just pray without acting, our prayer is incomplete. And if we act without praying, our actions are ungrounded.
We pray for victims of the hurricanes, for protection for those helping, and our two congregations have also raised nearly $2000 together to send as practical aid. Both of those are important. Sometimes God allows us to be answers to someone else’s prayer.
All of that is meant as a transition to the rest of the sermon time today, where I want to show you a video from our Lighthouse summer mission trip to Madison. Some of you were at the outdoor service in August and heard a bit about the trip, but we couldn’t figure out a way to show the video there, so we’ll do that today.
Christin’s actually over at Parkside showing this to them today, so I’ll give part of her usual spiel, and remind you that Lighthouse Youth Ministry is a cooperative ecumenical youth ministry supported and funded by Christ the King, Living Hope, Parkside UCC, First Congregational UCC, and Grand Avenue United Methodist churches.
Lighthouse offers a safe and affirming community where all youth grades 5-12 are WELCOMED regardless of religious affiliation or beliefs, EMPOWERED to explore questions of faith and life, and EQUIPPED to serve their community and the world.
As you’ll see, we had a great group of seven youth representing each of the five Lighthouse congregations and three adults, and at the risk of taking too long here, I have to point out that this is a beautiful example of what Jesus talks about in today’s Gospel reading.
John goes to Jesus and says, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, Do not stop him…whoever is not against us is for us.” And he talks about the value of giving even a cup of water to someone in need.
We don’t have to agree on every point of doctrine to work together to serve our neighbors; we can work together to share God’s love. Here’s the video:
Our congregation contributes $5,000 of your offering money each year to make events like this happen, so thank you for your support.
I’ll also mention that our big annual fundraiser—really the only substantial source of funding for Lighthouse beyond the congregational support—is coming up in a month and half.
So, mark your calendar for Tuesday, December 3, Giving Tuesday right after Thanksgiving and Black Friday, for our spaghetti dinner and silent auction at Parkside in Saukville. Here’s the video.
We’ll have tickets on sale in a few weeks for $15, and we’ll have some Packer tickets to raffle off as well.
We’re in the midst of collecting silent auction items right now, so if you have something to donate, let Christin or I know, and I hope all of you are able to come. Again, thank you for your support.
Let’s continue with our hymn of the day, #770, This Little Light of Mine.