Simply Wow - Rev. Jonathan Warren

This is the day the Lord has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

I want to be sure to welcome all of our guests here and online.

We ask you to please pass the friendship pads and tell us you're here.

Following worship, these doors will open up and all are invited to the lounge for refreshments.

I heard that um somehow our air conditioner was freezing folks out.

So I changed the settings.

It's 72.

Um, but I've noticed a handful of you have brought sweaters and jackets.

Siobhan's family, her dad and her grandmother always had the fight over the air conditioner.

One was always hot and the other one was always cold.

Um so for those who are a little warmer this morning, or maybe not as cold, um, we'll see how this works.

I'll probably have uh it's nice that we have air conditioning.

Especially on days like this, especially with the summer that we have.

So backpacks next Sunday.

School is starting for many of you this week.

Uh probably not all of you, but we're gonna have a blessing of the backpacks next Sunday.

And for teachers, if you have a bag or would like to bring it, we'll pray a blessing for you as well.

Evan and Sarah Wilson with Tim Chipman will lead our music.

Um godly play will begin next week, and the youth group is having a back to school pool and pizza party at four o'clock, and you can see some of the notes uh in the bulletin for details.

Janet Chipman is leading a five-week acts class, studying the letter of James at 9 15 to 9 45.

It started today.

It's not too late to join.

James is short.

It's only five chapters, so there's a chapter each week.

Let us give our thanks to God and let us worship God.

Please join me in the call to worship printed in your bulletin.

Christ comes for us in sunshine and in the dead of night.

Welcome the presence of Christ.

We welcome you, O Christ.

Blessed be your name.

Christ reaches out to us in the stillness of peace and in the rage of the storm.

Nothing overwhelms our Savior, nothing overcomes.

Our hope and trust are in you.

Blessed be your name.

But even as we sin, God forgives us and offers us love and fellowship.

Let us therefore confess our sins to God and to one another.

Forgiving God, you know when we withhold our forgiveness.

Merciful one, you know when we are not merciful.

Gracious Christ, you know when we are stingy with your grace, acceptor and lover of all, you know when we reject or exclude.

Forgive us and reclaim us.

Strengthen us with your spirit of love, that we may offer forgiveness and compassion in the pursuit of your unity and love.

In your mercy and grace we pray.

Amen.

Let us silently confess our sins.

We give all that we have to God.

We confess our sins, acknowledge our wrongs, and we are made new.

New in Christ.

Know that you are forgiven and be at peace.

Amen.

To prepare our hearts for Scripture, let us pray for illumination together.

Testify to us, O God, by the voice of your Spirit.

Put your law in our hearts, write your words in our minds, and show your will in our lives.

Through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Amen.

The scripture reading this morning is from Romans chapter 10, verses 5 through 15.

Romans 10:5–15

Let us listen to the word of God.

Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that the person who does these things will live by them.

But the righteousness that comes from faith says, do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend to the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead.

But what does it say?

The word is near you on your lips and in your heart.

That is the word of faith that we proclaim.

Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For one believes with the heart and is so justified.

And one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.

The scripture says, no one who believes in him will be put to shame.

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.

The same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in one whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?

And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?

As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

This is the word of the Lord.

What the world needs now is love, sweet love.

No, not just we're stuck, but for everyone we don't need another mountain.

There are mountains and helltides, it's enough to climb.

There are oceans and rivers.

It's enough to cross, enough to laugh till the end of time.

What the world needs now is love, sweet love.

No, not just for some, but for everyone.

There are cornfields and wheat fields enough to grow.

There are sun beams and moon beams enough to shine.

Oh listen, Lord.

If you want to know what the wet now is love, sweet love.

What the word needs now is love, sweet love.

No, not just for some, but for everyone.

No, not just for some.

Oh, but just for everyone.

That is what God desires of us.

He wants us to share.

Thank you for sharing that message.

Our gospel reading is from Matthew chapter 14, beginning with the twenty-third second verse.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

Let us listen to the word of God.

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the crowds.

And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray.

And when evening came, he was there alone.

But by this time the boat battered by the waves was far from the land.

The wind was against them.

And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea.

When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, It is a ghost.

And they cried out in fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, Take heart.

It is I.

Do not be afraid.

And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.

And he said, Come.

So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus.

But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me.

And Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, You of little faith, why did you doubt?

When they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly, you are the Son of God.

This is the word of God.

This time I'd like to invite our children forward for a special message.

And so you are like the perfect audience, but so are all of you.

So today, I just want to say it's this exciting week for you guys, right?

No?

Change of routine, the start of school, right?

A new academic year.

And your school year is going to be filled with words.

Did you realize that God only gave humans the gift of words?

I mean, think about that.

That's a pretty special gift.

And I want you to think for just a minute, think of school, but just in general.

What do humans do with words?

We talk words.

What else?

We sing words.

You did it.

We perform words.

Yay to Hannah and all the students that performed Friday night.

What else do we do with words?

We write words.

We read words.

Do we spell words?

Spelling less, maybe?

We define words.

I mean, think of all the things.

We sign words.

We invent words.

I mean, we do all of these things with words.

What a special gift, right?

But sometimes we forget the power of words and how words impact other human beings.

And we know, or we need to be reminded of that our words can build up and make people feel good and valued, or they can tear down and make people sad and even depressed.

So I want to tell you a story that a student of mine wrote one year in eighth grade.

And I know Mrs.

Shepherd is here, and I think I saw Mrs.

Howe here, that were also teaching.

Then at Turner, eighth grade, and I asked the students to write about a time when words made a difference.

And it could be words that people said to them, or maybe words they said to someone else.

And I wanted them to tell me did it have a positive impact or negative?

Now, I would like everybody for just a minute to think about one time right now when words made a positive difference in your life.

And I want you to think about a time when words made a negative difference in your life.

Well, this young lady was in eighth grade because I was teaching eighth grade language arts, and this is what she wrote, and this was kind of her story.

It happened when she was in sixth grade.

And some of her classmates made fun of her teeth.

And I I really don't like that phrase made fun of because who's it fun for?

Is it really fun if you're the one making fun of someone?

It certainly isn't fun for the one that's getting made fun of.

But they made fun of her teeth.

They told her they they were yellow.

Why don't you brush your teeth?

And one day, when they were walking home from school, this brought a tear to my eye, they even had a tube of toothpaste and they threw it at her.

Oh now I'm beginning to understand that I had not seen this student smile yet.

I had not seen her really talk, like I greeted her every day.

And I thought to myself, yes, I want her to learn to read words better and write words better.

But my number one goal for that student that year was to try through my words to lift her up, to remind her that she has worth and to see her smile again, at least at school.

And by the end of the year that was happening.

But I've never seen this student since the end of eighth grade.

Now, I think there's a lot to learn from that story, and I think there's a lot for us to think about today, especially as you're going back to school, about how important your words are to your classmates, to your teacher.

You know, the Bible has a lot of teaching about words.

In Proverbs, King Solomon wrote, Life and death are in our words.

Yikes, that's pretty powerful, right?

We can kill somebody's self-esteem.

We can give life to someone by our kind and positive words.

Jesus even said it's out of the abundance of our heart that we use words.

Today in class before worship, some of us were studying the first chapter of the letter of James to the early Christians.

And James tells us in that first chapter that no matter how spiritual or religious we may think we are, we could all control our words more effectively.

And he tells us be quick to listen and slow to speak.

And speak to me means not just saying the words, but writing the words, posting the words on social media, texting the words.

I think God wants us to think before we use words.

And so I learned this acronym, and I do teach it to my students yet today.

It's the acronym ThINK.

Let's ask ourselves when we're using words.

T, are they truthful?

H are they helpful?

I are they inspiring?

N, are they necessary?

And K are they kind?

One more thing back to toothpaste.

I I bought this one at the Dollar Tree because I like the title AIM and it only cost me a dollar.

But I want to show you something.

You look like you would like to do this.

I want you to squeeze this toothpaste on this plate.

Well, try not to get it on the carpet.

Oh, all of it.

Put both hands.

Yeah, there you go.

Oh.

I have never used this toothpaste.

I don't know if it's a good one, but it's going to be good for our demonstration here.

Oh yeah.

He's doing a good job, isn't he?

Okay.

Oh, that's good.

That's good.

Look at this now.

And Allie, maybe you and Ruth can work together.

I want you to put all this toothpaste back in this tube, put the lid back on, and make it look exactly like it was before all this got squeezed out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No.

Oh, yeah, no, no, no.

Okay, we get the point, right?

What's the lesson?

Once those words are out, texted, posted, social media, written, spoken, you can't take them back.

You can't take them back.

So let's really try, all of us, because the world needs love.

Let's really try to use our words at school, at home, at our workplace, in our community, to use this gift of words to make the world more loving.

One of my favorite quotes of Mother Teresa, who gave her whole life of loving people that others thought were unlovable, she said this kind words are short and easy to speak.

So think, speak, not just say, write, text, whatever.

But their echoes are truly endless.

So let's pray an echo prayer.

Here we go.

God of words, God of words, you give us the gift of words.

You give us the gift of words.

Forgive us when our words hurt others.

Help us to choose our words wisely.

Help us to choose our words wisely.

To bring love and life all around us.

To bring love and life all around us.

Amen.

Thank you very much.

They have been trying to do good for God and the world, but try as they might, they've hit some major setbacks.

Earlier in this very chapter of Matthew, King Herod executed John the Baptist.

The brutality and the way it was done was awful and quite a shock.

Political forces at play probably made them all swallow quite a bit harder.

Not only was John the Baptist a religious leader, but he was also a colleague and a friend and Jesus' cousin.

And Jesus tried to get away the moment he heard this tragic news, but the crowds kept following him.

They were in need of healing.

Finally, after Jesus and the disciples fed more than 5,000 people, he sent his disciples into a boat.

He dismissed the crowd.

And he finally went up to the mountain to pray all by himself.

I'm sure he grieved and he sought peace and comfort.

It says in verse 24, they were battered by the waves.

For the wind was against them.

The storms were hitting them on all fronts.

They were isolated, storm-tossed and exhausted.

Not just physically, but also emotionally and spiritually.

It's like they're taking a few steps forward only to end up going backwards.

And they're trying to follow God.

They're trying to help those in need.

They're trying not to be scared.

They're simply doing what Jesus tells them.

And within days of hearing terrible news about John the Baptist beheading, within 24 hours of miraculously feeding more than 5,000 people, they're in the midst of this torrential storm and they're battered and they're worn.

And then early in the morning, they're seeing something that can't be possible.

They see something on the water coming toward them.

Is it a ghost?

This is when their isolation and exhaustion instantly turns into panic and fear.

It says they were terrified and they cried out in fear.

Now these days it's easy to understand exactly how these disciples are feeling.

We've been in the very midst of turbulence for months, for years.

It's like we keep getting battered around and the strong winds don't seem to relent.

The King Herods of our world are pushing and pulling the strings of our very lives.

Each day we turn on the news, we experience the crashing waves.

Each time we pump our gas or buy food at the grocery store, we're reminded how war with Iran pushes and pulls against us.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired from these torrential storms that we're facing.

Even though we have some of the best technology on the planet, smartphones help us text and have video calls.

We have social media where we share pictures and ideas and opinions in our lives, there is a loneliness and isolation epidemic in America.

In 2023, the U.S.

Surgeon General issued an official advisory declaring loneliness and social isolation a national public health crisis.

According to this report, approximately half of all adults in America report experiencing loneliness.

The health impact of social disconnection has been compared to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.

Chronic social isolation increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, depression, and even dementia by nearly 50%.

From 2003 to 2020, Americans' time spent alone increased 24 hours per month.

That's pre-COVID.

In person time with friends dropped by roughly 20 hours per month.

Not only are we more exhausted, but we're also isolated and lonely.

And when we're exhausted and isolated, any bump in the road can push us over the edge.

Can trigger panic, fear.

There was this one time when I came home after working, the kids were pretty young, squirrely, and I was tired.

Normally I was fine, but it was what we called a no-no day.

Tried asking the kids to do something.

And they didn't do it.

And then I started huffing and puffing and yelling.

Of course, I didn't realize how bad I sounded until Lydia told me that I sounded like a lion.

I was roaring like a lion with my words.

Of course, it's not one of my proudest moments as a parent, but panic, fear, anger, it just comes out when we're tired and exhausted.

Now, what happens next in the Bible story is simply a wow moment.

In the midst of exhaustion and panic and fear, the disciples discover that it's Jesus who is walking on water.

At first they thought it was a ghost, but Jesus pronounces that he is God when he says, It is I.

It's the very same words God uses at the burning bush with Moses when he tells Moses, I am who I am.

But in the New Testament and Greek, it is I.

It sounds simple, but it isn't.

It's a big deal when Jesus says, it is I.

Because not only is he saying that he's God, but he's also doing the miraculous and impossible by walking on water.

In this moment, Jesus is God.

Jesus is simply walking on water.

Jesus is simply W O W.

Wow.

Hopefully you can catch my clever acrostic message.

Walking on water.

First letter of each word.

Wow.

The disciples are wondering how he walks on water.

How does he wow?

And this is when Simon says, I want to walk on water.

I want to wow.

And Jesus tells Simon to come and simply walk on water.

And he wows them all by simply walking on water.

And while all this is happening, a strong wind comes rushing over the water, and the waves of fear and exhaustion and isolation blow Peter down.

Instead of simply wowing, Peter is sinking.

A few chapters later in Matthew, Jesus gives Simon a new name, Peter, which means rock.

And in this moment of panic and fear, Peter starts sinking like a rock.

While sinking, he cries out for help.

And Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and lifts him up.

He rescues him immediately.

We are living in times of exhaustion, times of isolation, and time of panic and fear.

But we don't have to roar like lions or sink like rocks.

Because we follow Jesus, who is God.

Jesus doesn't just simply walk on water.

Whenever we need help, Jesus wows us by rescuing and helping us.

In 1969, Congress was looking at cutting all the funding for public broadcasting.

Senator John Pittori was laser focused, cutthroat, he was tough.

And the defendants bring forward Mr.

Fred Rogers.

Senator had no idea who Fred Rogers was.

The only people who really knew him were small children because at that time the show had only been out for a year.

At first, Senator Pastori uh huffs and he puffs and he blows.

But somehow, for the next six minutes, Mr.

Rogers doesn't flinch or look away.

He speaks, but he also listens.

Rogers said, I give an expression of care every day to teach each child to help him understand that he is unique.

At the end of every show, he looked into the camera and says, There's no person in the whole wide world like you.

And I like you just the way you are.

He continues, if we can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health.

I think that it's much more dramatic that two men could be working out their feelings of anger, much more dramatic than showing something of gunfire.

I'm constantly concerned about what our children are seeing, and for the fifteen years I've tried in this country and Canada to present what I feel is a meaningful expression of care.

And eventually, Mr.

Rogers asked the senator if he can share the words the words of a song.

And he certainly has a way with words.

This has to do with that good feeling, he said, of control.

When I feel that children need to know that children need to know is there, and it starts out, what do you do with the mad that you feel?

And that first line came straight from a child.

I I work with children doing puppets and very personal communication with small groups.

What do you do with the mad that you feel?

When you feel so mad you could bite?

When the world when the whole wide world seems oh so wrong and nothing you do seems very right?

What do you do?

Do you punch a bag?

Do you pound some clay or some dough?

Do you round up friends for a game of tag or see how fast you go?

It's great to be able to stop when you've planned a thing that's wrong, and be able to do something else instead and think this song.

I can stop when I want to, can stop when I wish, can stop, stop, stop anytime.

And what a good feeling to feel like this.

And know that the feeling is really mine.

Know that there's something deep inside that helps us become what we can.

For a girl can be someday a lady, and a boy can someday be a man.

That was the end of his six minutes.

We don't have to live the way the world wants us to.

Even in the midst of isolation and exhaustion, or in the midst of fear and fright, no matter what storms come or winds blow, Jesus, who is God, is always with us.

And even if we get mad or bite or roar like a lion, we can sing.

I can stop when I want to, can stop when I wish.

Can stop, stop, stop anytime.

And what a good feeling to feel like this and know that the feeling is really mine.

Know that there's something deep inside that helps us become what we can.

Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, he descended into hell.

The third day he rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

From thence he shall come to judge the quick 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.

For you to share your prayers.

Let us pray.

Jesus, we see you calming storms, storm-tossed seas, and stormy lives.

Extend your power and grace again upon us in all in need.

Extend peace and healing over bodies and spirits overwhelmed by crashing waves of circumstance.

Jesus make peace.

Bless, accept, and multiply this offering.

So many may know you and your saving power and love.

Amen.

I guess some people aren't, maybe a few folks aren't super excited about school starting again.

But I I bet those parents are excited.

Maybe the teachers.

The parents are excited for sure.

Of course our teachers are excited too.

Christ wows us by walking on water.

But I like how he doesn't just wow us with that, but he wows Peter by uplifting him.

What a small, what a big gesture.

Quick, immediate.

Brings us hope every hour and every day.

Let us receive the benediction.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the bond of the Holy Spirit be with you now and forevermore.

Amen.

That's 870 West College.