Warm-up Question: Have you ever been punished for something you didn’t do? Have you ever been let off the hook for something you DID do? How did it turn out?

Paul House has been on prison death row in Tennessee since 1986, after being convicted of the murder of Carolyn Muncey. He was scheduled to be executed next month, but now, after intervention by local attorneys as well as an organization called The Innocence Project, all charges against him have been dropped, and he is free to go.

Discussion Questions 

• Why do you think that, after 20 years, the House’s case was finally re-opened in 2006?
• Do you agree with the court’s decision to dismiss the charges against Paul House? Do you think he might still be guilty?
• How do you think House will adjust to his newfound freedom, after 22 years on death row? How different do you think his life is now from what it was in 1986?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, May 17, 2009. (Text links are to oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings.) 

• Acts 10:44-48
• Psalm 98 (4)
• 1 John 5:1-6
• John 15:9-17

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.
 
Gospel Reflection

In John 15:10, Jesus says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love…” Just a chapter earlier, in John 14:15, Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” In both verses, the message is the same: love and obedience are inextricably entwined. God gave us a set of commandments. We are charged to follow them, every one, at all times. But at the same time, we know that we are doomed to fail. Every person on earth fails to keep God’s commandments. We may succeed in keeping most of them most of the time, but God demands no less than perfection. We must be holy, for he is holy. And, we simply can’t be that perfect.

God gave us his commandments to show us his love. They act as a mirror, to show us our sinful nature. We are unable to keep God’s commandments through our own power. And when we try to, we are merely servants, slaves to sin, striving unsuccessfully to keep God’s commandments because he told us to, fearing his wrath if we don’t. But then in God’s commandments we also see Christ’s love: the greatest love there is, laying down his life in place of ours, freeing us from the bonds of sin, so that we would no longer be servants, suffering God’s wrath for disobedience, but friends, with Christ’s love flowing through us.

It is only through Christ’s love that we are able to love one another. And it is only in Christ’s gracious love that we are able to keep God’s commandments. If we have Christ’s love in us — loving him and loving one another, and keeping his commandments — then Christ’s joy will be in us too. A joy shared among friends and all people. Our joy will be full! 

• How can we share Christ’s love with others? How can we show them both that God loves them, and that we love them?
• How do the actions of someone who knows he has been freed from the bonds of sin, to be called a friend of Christ, differ from the actions of someone who struggles to keep God’s commandments without love, like a servant trying to avoid his master’s punishment? How should we live our own lives differently, when we abide in Christ’s love?
• How is our freedom from sin, to become members of the body of Christ, like Paul House’s freedom from death row after 22 years, to rejoin mainstream society? How is it different?

 Activity Suggestion

Whether guilty or innocent by law, we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Pretend you have been given the opportunity to share the gospel with Paul House. Write a conversation with him, connecting the good news of Christ to the events in his life, and using his ordeal to illustrate God’s love, forgiveness, and justice for us. Use verses from today’s Gospel, and any other scriptures you think might be applicable, to tell him about Christ’s sacrifice for us, and our freedom from lives of sin — all sin.
 
Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me, and calling me your friend. Please help me always to abide in your love, that I may keep your commandments. And let your love flow through me, that I may spread that love to others, and love them as you also love me, that we may experience your love together and thus also your joy. Amen.

Contributed by Rod G. Boriack
Chicago, IL

Warm-up Activity:Give each person a piece of paper and something to write with. In one minute, write down the names of as many of your friends as you can. Follow-up questions:

• How many friends are on your list?
• How did you decide on who to list as a friend when under the pressure of time?

When we use the word friend or friendship these days, it may not be so easy to describe what we mean. There are friends, and then there are FRIENDS. Social networking Web sites like FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others have stirred up our understanding of what it means to be a friend or to be part of a community. FaceBook alone claims the following statistics:

• More than 200 million active users
• More than 100 million users log on to FaceBook at least once each day
• Average user has 120 friends on the site
• More than 3.5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)
• More than 25 million active user groups exist on the site
• About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

Just for youth and young adults? Think again… it’s estimated that FaceBook has seen a 276% increase in 35-54 year-old users in the past 6 months.

Never in history has it been possible to have so many friends and to keep in touch with so many people worldwide!

Discussion Questions

• How many of you have a FaceBook page or some other on-line social networking page?
• How many friends do you have on your page?
• What’s the best thing about being part of an on-line community? What are the limitations (if any)?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, May 17, 2009.

(Text links are to oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings.)

• Acts 10:44-48
• Psalm 98 (4)
• 1 John 5:1-6
• John 15:9-17

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection 

In this chapter of John, Jesus spends some time trying to help his disciples understand what it means to be a friend, a follower, chosen by God — a disciple. It seems that he’s always trying to straighten them out. Love and friendship… what could be easier to understand?

It’s maybe not as simple as it seems though. In the Old Testament there’s a passage in Isaiah where God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways.” In this week’s Gospel lesson, Jesus has something different in mind when he speaks of friends and love. He is thinking of a relationship that is deeper, more intense, and more committed than the disciples are accustomed to. Jesus is speaking of a friendship and love that is willing to sacrifice everything — including one’s life — for another person. It’s the kind of friendship and love that Jesus has for us.

Even today we struggle to really understand and accept the kind of friendship Jesus describes. We’re still unsure about what it means to follow Jesus’ example and what he is asking us to do. Maybe we even dig our feet in sometimes and say “there’s no way I’m gonna do that!” “Love my enemies or sacrifice my life for a friend — no way.”

But it is the way, and Jesus is asking us to make it our way.

Last fall, fast-food chain Burger King created the “Whopper Sacrifice” campaign, a FaceBook app that gave people a coupon for a free hamburger if they deleted 10 people from their friends list. The value worked out to trading each friend for about 37 cents worth of fast food. By the end of the promotion, people had deleted 233,906 friends from their FaceBook pages.

The marketing campaign is over, and the Whopper Sacrifice Web site now simply says: “In the end, your love for the Whopper Sandwich proved to be stronger than 233,906 friendships.” “Were you sacrificed by somebody? Send them an Angry-Gram…”

We can shrug it off as just advertising; it’s no big deal. On the other hand, what does it say about who we are and how we love each other?

Discussion Questions

• How would you describe the differences between how Jesus describes a friend and how we might describe a friend? How are our descriptions similar? What about our descriptions of love?
• What stands in the way of our considering every human being as a friend? As a neighbor? In today’s world — 2009 –what helps us connect with each other in ways that are respectful, caring, understanding, and even loving?
• How does God move us closer to each other through the sacrifice and example of Jesus?

Activity Suggestions

• Get in touch with a friend who you haven’t talked to or connected with in awhile. Tell them of your care and concern for them, and that you haven’t forgotten them.
• Use your social networking or on-line community page to mention the kind of love that God has for us. Encourage your friends to take the risk of living and loving like Jesus… post each other’s ideas of what it involves. Offer each other encouragement that also reflects forgiveness and patience.

Closing Prayer

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son. Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred that infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in love; and, through our struggle and confusion, work to accomplish your purposes on earth; so that, in your good time, every people and nation may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

(Prayer for the human family, Evangelical Lutheran Worship, page 79.)

A Nebraska law meant to allow parents to legally abandon newborns at hospitals has instead led parents to drop off over a dozen teenagers since its passage in July. To date, 20 of the 33 children dropped off at Nebraska hospitals have been teens, including a now-missing 17 year old girl who fled after being dropped off with her younger brother. Eight more children dropped off were 11 or 12 years of age.

Lawmakers are set to convene this week to rewrite the law, excluding all children except infants up to 3 days old from being legally abandoned. Since lawmakers announced plans to rewrite the law, the rate of teen drop-offs has increased as desperate parents sense their time running out.

Safe haven laws exist in every state to prevent prosecution of parents who abandon newborns outside safe public places like hospitals, but Nebraska is the only state without an age limit. Lawmakers could not agree on an age limit when writing the law, so it was passed with just the word “child.”

One mother of an 18 year old stated that she thought her daughter would receive help if she turned her over to the state. The daughter had a mental health condition and had been cutting school, stealing, fighting, and sleeping around. Because of her age, however, the teen had to return home with her mother.

“These are largely families at a point of incredible desperation,” said Wayne Sensor, chief executive of Alegent Health hospitals, where 14 children have been left. “They aren’t bad parents or bad kids. They simply don’t know what services are available out there.”

Discussion Questions

• Do you think parents should be able to give their kids to the state if they can’t handle them (or think they can’t)? What arguments for and against this can you think of. What types of behaviors do you think might warrant government intervention in a young person’s life?
• What kind of help might a high school age youth get from a government agency that they can’t get from their parents?
• What would be your advice to a parent whose child is in serious trouble? What would you suggest they do?
• Do you think God keeps track of what we do, our motivations, our good deeds, or our sins?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, November 23, 2008.
(Text links are to oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year A at Lectionary Readings.)

• Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
• Psalm 95:1-7a (7)
• Ephesians 1:15-23
• Matthew 25:31-46

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

When I read this passage the first time, I didn’t understand it. After all, Jesus seemed to be saying that we had to minister to the poor and needy (“the least of these”) in order to get into heaven. This seemed to conflict with other scriptures stating that the only thing necessary to have eternal life was to accept Jesus and believed in him. It was “faith verses works,” if you’ve heard that talked about before. God’s grace saves us through our faith, not through anything we do. We can’t work our way into heaven.

Feeling confused, I looked up a commentary on these verses to get an “expert” opinion. What I read gave me an entirely different perspective on these verses.

I assumed, and probably had heard preached before, that the “least of these” that Jesus talked about only referred to the poor. But the commentary said that when Jesus says “the least of these,” he was talking about the treatment of his disciples and all the messengers of his good news in the world. In other words, how people treat the messengers of the good news and how they receive the gospel determines how God will judge them.

Our salvation is definitely a free gift — not something we have to work for or accomplish. A gift does need to be accepted or received though. If we accept that gift, we experience the blessings of God’s kingdom — a kingdom that begins here on earth, right now.

The gospel certainly calls for us to care for people living in poverty or hunger, people being treated unjustly, and others in need. The Bible talks about how necessary service and ministry are to have at the center of our lives, and that it is a responsibility of the church and all people; it’s just not our ticket to heaven. Jesus has done that already, and there’s nothing else we need to do other than accept his gift of love and forgiveness… and start living it in relationship with other people right now.

Discussion Questions

• Have you ever done a good deed thinking it would win you favor or points with God? What was it you did?
• When someone tries to talk to you about Jesus and the gift of salvation, how do you respond or feel?
• How do you feel about talking to other people about Jesus and the gift of salvation? What do think is important to say, and to demonstrate with your actions and behavior?

Activity Suggestions

Find someone in your church who is a “messenger of the gospel.” This could be your pastor, choir director, youth leader, a Sunday school teacher, young person, old person, or a layperson involved in mission work, for example.

Choose one of the following:

• Interview your chosen person about his or her experiences with sharing the gospel of Jesus. How has she or he been received and treated? What makes that ministry most difficult? What are the joys involved? As a group, write an article about this person. Publish your article online, in the church newsletter, or in a worship bulletin.
  
• Ask what your group can do to support the ministry of your chosen person. Perhaps you can help with preparations for a Sunday school class or for youth group time, put together care packages with a mission worker, or prepare a skit or song to reinforce a pastor’s Sunday morning message.

Closing Prayer

O Lord our God, we pray that you would strengthen all your messengers across the world who share the gospel of Jesus with others. We thank you for their service to you and we pray that they would be treated well and provided for. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.


Contributed by Jennifer Krausz
Bethlehem, PA

Read this story of a former gang member, Antonio, who escaped a life of violence, drug abuse, and crime, in part because someone was willing to take a risk and give him a job. http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/443711.html This was a turning point in his life that gave him hope in the midst of what some people call a “cloud of hopelessness” among many young people living in poverty.

It has taken more than just a job to get Antonio out of his gang life; the job came along with a support network, people to talk with him, check in with him, and to pray with him. But it does seem to be working for him.

The director of a program and ministry with former gang members can’t hide his enthusiasm for the positive changes that have already taken place in Antonio’s life. “The rewards are far beyond what I expected,” he comments. “Here’s a guy that came with a felony and is now talking about getting out on his own, and he’s paying taxes. You can’t help but get excited about that.”

In the meantime, Antonio says he is taking his life “day by day.” Although his old friends still want to “hang out,” he acknowledges that it would not be the best thing. “I’ve got too much going for me to lose it,” he said.

Can anyone be sure he’ll stay away from his earlier life of crime? “You can’t. It’s all up to me. Either I want to or not,” he said. “But I have faith in God that everything is going to work out for me.”

Discussion Questions

• Based on your experiences, observing young people around you, or the experiences of your friends, what kinds of things do people turn to or do when they are starving for support, a sense of identity and recognition, to belong to a community, or even just trying to survive day-to-day?
• What are the reasons that employers might be unwilling to hire someone like Antonio?
• What can the church do for people like Antonio? (Are there things your own congregation is doing for young people living in poverty, gang members, or young people who are having problems with the law

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, September 21, 2008.
(Text links are to oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year A at Lectionary Readings.)

• Jonah 3:10-4:11
• Psalm 145:1-8 (8)
• Philippians 1:21-30
• Matthew 20:1-16

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus tells a parable about an employer (vineyard owner) who ran his company quite a bit differently than most employers. He went out and hired people four different times during the day, including the last group at 5:00 — close to quitting time. Anyone who had not been hired by 5:00 and was still looking for work was probably two things: not a very desirable employee and desperate for work. This employer hired them all! Then he did the strangest thing of all, he paid them all the same amount of money, no matter how long they had worked.

In verse 15, Jesus describes the employer saying to the grumbling, angry workers who had been hired early in the day, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” In other words, the employer has the right to be generous, even ridiculously generous, with his own money and resources.

So what’s the point of this story that hardly seems fair by our standards? Jesus is comparing the employer to God who gives us WAY more than we have earned or deserve. Why? Because God wants to… because God can. God’s sense of justice and love can seem kind of crazy compared to our own!

Discussion Questions

• What is the greatest thing you have ever received that you know you did not deserve?
• How did receiving that generosity make you act toward others?
• When you consider the world, who would you have the greatest difficulty being generous to? Loving? Forgiving? Seeing as an equal? (Go back and talk about the twist in Jesus’ story: loving those we’d prefer to hate; being generous with those we’d like to see suffer.)

Activity Suggestions

Learn about and offer support for a prison or rehabilitation ministry in your community or state. Contact your Lutheran Social Services office to find out what they do for prisoners or those just released from prison. Find out how you can help.

Closing Prayer

Generous God, we thank you that you give to us, and to everyone, far more than we could ever deserve or earn through our own work or effort. Inspire gratitude and generosity in us, even when we are reluctant or afraid to be so. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen

Contributed by Pastor Seth Moland-Kovash
All Saints Lutheran Church
Palatine, IL