For the week of August 24 – 11th Sunday after Pentecost
Morning Prayer: Gracious God, Through Your imagination You created us. We recognize Your work throughout creation and we recognize Your divine image imbued in each of us. Be with us, surround us with Your grace and allow us to feel deeply Your love for us. Remind us that we are safe to grieve and our emotions, our feelings are valued by You – You see us and hold us in Your eternal compassion. Let us be a blessing to each other as we identify all the ways we love You and are loved by You.
Remind us that there is nothing that can separate us from Your great love in Jesus. Amen.
Opening Hymn: #526 What a Friend We Have in Jesus
- What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
- Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged: take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.
- Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee; thou wilt find a solace there.
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Prayers of Intercession: Thank You, Lord, for hearing our prayers for those dear to our hearts. We now pray as You have taught us: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: One more week to fill the boxes with gently used men’s and women’s sneakers or work boots in any ADULT sizes for the itinerant workers at The Bloomsburg Fair. We are one of more than 15 area churches offering Christ’s love by ministering to physical and spiritual needs. If you don’t have sneakers or work boots to donate, consider purchasing a pair – or select something from the list of NEW items in today’s bulletin. See Ellen Withrow to learn how you can share Christ’s love through the work of Columbia County Christian Fair Ministry.
Offering prayer: Unshakable and Holy God, we bring these gifts before You, not as mere offerings, but as acts of faith in Your unshakable kingdom. Though the world around us trembles, we trust in Your steadfast love, knowing that in Christ, we are welcomed, transformed, and sent forth to serve. Bless these gifts, that they may be used to build Your justice and mercy, bringing hope to the broken and light to the weary. With grateful hearts, we offer ourselves alongside these gifts, that we may be signs of Your grace in the world. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn of Preparation: #504 The Old Rugged Cross
- On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame;
and I love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain.
Refrain: So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it some day for a crown.
- O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world, has a wondrous attraction for me;
for the dear Lamb of God left His glory above to bear it to dark Calvary. (Refrain) - In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see,
for 'twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died, to pardon and sanctify me. (Refrain) - To that old rugged cross I will ever be true, its shame and reproach gladly bear;
then He'll call me some day to my home far away, where His glory forever I'll share.
(Refrain)
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:35-49
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come back?” 36 Look, fool! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t come back to life unless it dies. 37 What you put in the ground doesn’t have the shape that it will have, but it’s a bare grain of wheat or some other seed. 38 God gives it the sort of shape that He chooses, and He gives each of the seeds its own shape. 39 All flesh isn’t alike. Humans have one kind of flesh, animals have another kind of flesh, birds have another kind of flesh, and fish have another kind. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The heavenly bodies have one kind of glory, and the earthly bodies have another kind of glory. 41 The sun has one kind of glory, the moon has another kind of glory, and the stars have another kind of glory (but one star is different from another star in its glory). 42 It’s the same with the resurrection of the dead: a rotting body is put into the ground, but what is raised won’t ever decay. 43 It’s degraded when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised in glory. It’s weak when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised in power. 44 It’s a physical body when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised as a spiritual body.
If there’s a physical body, there’s also a spiritual body. 45 So it is also written, The first human, Adam, became a living person,[a] and the last Adam became a spirit that gives life. 46 But the physical body comes first, not the spiritual one—the spiritual body comes afterward. 47 The first human was from the earth made from dust; the second human is from heaven. 48 The nature of the person made of dust is shared by people who are made of dust, and the nature of the heavenly person is shared by heavenly people. 49 We will look like[b] the heavenly person in the same way as we have looked like the person made from dust.
Affirm your faith by reciting the Apostles’ Creed: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; He descended to the dead. On the third day He rose again; He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen. (UM Hymnal #882)
Message: Is it the preference of the people if they are buried and put in the ground or cremated? Is there a Methodist choice or preference against being cremated? Pastor Becky
I really appreciate the conversations we've been able to engage in together based on your collective questions. I want you to know that your questions will be shaping our time together in Bible study, small group work, and ministry opportunities as a congregation and with our sister cluster churches. Your questions have been thoughtful and I hope you're enjoying this different time together on Sunday mornings.
The question we are working with this week is: Could you explain, is it the preference of the people, if they are buried and put into the ground or cremated? Is there a Methodist choice or a preference against being cremated?
The simple answer is the United Methodist Church doesn't have a rule for or against either. We don't come down and say only burial with body is acceptable or that everyone has to be cremated. It's a choice of each person individually. The Church is not in a position to mandate what a family does with the remains of their loved ones. The church should never be putting people in the position of shame for how they go about caring for the body of their loved ones.
We don't have any funeral how-tos in scripture. There isn’t a structure to follow or a precise service that we are to use. We aren't given any guidance as to which scriptures are appropriate and which ones aren't, or that we have to sing at least two hymns, or that we're not to sing at all.
What we do know is that our bodies are important. They're to be treated respectfully and with dignity because we are created with the image of God stamped on them (Genesis 1:27). And that when our earthly life is over, our bodies return to the original material they were formed from. Genesis 3:19 says ”by the sweat of your face, you will eat bread – until you return to the fertile ground, since from it you were taken, to the soil you will return”.
God has reverence for the sacredness of these vessels that contain us. We look to 1st Corinthians 6:19 “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.“ Even before each of us is formed, God knew us. Psalm 139:13 reminds us that God created us, “For You formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb”. And if you have any doubts, the Gospel of Matthew records in the 10th chapter, 30th verse “That the hairs of our head are numbered”.
God gave to each of us a body, a body that contains all that is necessary for resurrection. We see this in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. When our earthly time is done, our bodies are the seed that grows our glorified bodies for resurrection. The very things that make us human become immortal because flesh and blood can't inherit the Kingdom of God, can't be in the heavenly realms. Our bodies change from perishable to imperishable, our mortality is traded for immortality, and God, through the seed of our human body, produces our heavenly body. That design was imparted to us in our creation by God.
Burial, cremation, organic decomposition, or whatever could or will come next. I don't believe this will be important to God. I say this because we look to our patriarchs. There isn't any uniformity in what is done with our bodies. Abraham was buried in a cave next to his wife Sarah by his sons Isaac and Ishmael. The two came together in reconciliation to place him in his eternal resting place (Genesis 25). Then Isaac is buried in the same cave by his sons Jacob and Esau, alongside his wife Rebecca (Genesis 35). Jacob buried Rachel along a road to Ephrat. Yet when it came time to bury Leah, she was returned to the ancestral burial site that held Abraham and Sarah, Rebecca and Isaac.
Then we come to Jacob's son, Joseph, who upon his death is embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt to await the exile, when they will become the tribes and the nations known as Israel. Since Joseph's preparation was different from those before him, we can infer that if it would have mattered to God where and how, then the kingdoms would not have been created if this wasn't in alignment with what God would have wanted. If the treatment of Joseph’s body had been offensive to God, God would have stopped the establishment of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
It's God who buries Moses. Moses sends the Hebrews ahead with Joshua to enter the Promised Land, but Moses dies and God cares for the details of the burying of Moses (Deuteronomy 34:5-6). It wasn't important where or how. What mattered to God, was there was a dignity, there was a respect to that physical vessel God created in God's very image. The question of whether we bury someone or we choose cremation is personal preference.
But what is more concerning to me is how we – you and I as a congregation – with your family mark your death. When I receive the call that one of us has died, I go and I meet with your spouse or your child, the person that's charged with overseeing your final arrangements. I want to have a conversation with them. First, I express my sorrow at the passing of their loved one, but also to explore how we are going to honor what they meant to their family, to their community, to their congregation. Because our stories are important.
More and more often when I meet with families of the dead faithful, their families don't know the verses of scripture written on our hearts. The words that helped us cling to our faith. They don’t know what it is about Jesus that compelled us to follow Him. They don’t have a connection that makes sense to them about our obedience to Jesus’ commands to care for the world. They don't understand where our hope comes from or that Jesus means so much more to us than merely a ticket to heaven.
I want to help you record your faith stories. As a family of faith, we should want to be able to share with your families what it is that holds and upholds your faith. Sometimes it's hard for us to share with our loved ones who Jesus is for us. Many of us have never shared the story about how we came to faith and those that helped us form our faith. The stories of how we've heard the voice of God in our darkest nights or when we have felt the presence of the Holy Spirit as we navigate our lives. We haven’t shared them for a myriad of reasons, maybe estrangement, embarrassment, or an anxiety of being misunderstood. Yet your stories are important.
With that being said, I'm inviting you to come and be with me on Wednesday, September 3rd at 1:00 PM in the church social hall so that we can begin that conversation. We can write down your favorite scriptures and look at your favorite hymns. For you to be able to bring a message of faith as your lasting and last gift to your family. I'll also be offering that conversation at 6:30 Wednesday night in the social hall as well. If you're uncomfortable coming and meeting in a group, I will happily meet with you one-on-one.
Each of you is precious to me, each of us is precious to each other, and most importantly, each of you are precious to God. The Psalmist writes “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His faithful ones” (Psalms 116:15). Amen.
Closing Hymn: #701 When We All Get to Heaven
- Sing the wondrous love of Jesus; sing His mercy and His grace.
In the mansions bright and blessed He'll prepare for us a place.
Refrain: When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory!
- While we walk the pilgrim pathway, clouds will overspread the sky;
but when traveling days are over, not a shadow, not a sigh. (Refrain) - Let us then be true and faithful, trusting, serving every day;
just one glimpse of him in glory will the toils of life repay. (Refrain) - Onward to the prize before us! Soon His beauty we'll behold;
soon the pearly gates will open; we shall tread the streets of gold. (Refrain)
The blessing: May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you this week.
