Contributed by Sylvia Alloway, Granda Hills, CA

Warm-up Question

Do you have everything you need? If not, what do you think is lacking? Are all needs physical? List some non-physical needs.

Salvation Army the Victim of a Hoax

We have all seen the familiar red pot and patient bell ringer in front of stores at Christmas. Collectors for the Salvation Army receive gifts ranging from a few coins to hundreds of dollars. Forty per cent of the aid association’s capital comes from the humble red Christmas pots.This year, however, the Army’s Charleston, S. C. chapter was the victim of a baffling hoax. A seeming act of great generosity turned into a great disappointment as a check for $25,000 bounced after the group had already spent part of it on the needs of some 100 families.

Other charitable organizations in the Charleston area received large checks, supposedly from Force Protection, Inc., a manufacturer of armored trucks, but only the Salvation Army cashed theirs. Force Protection knew nothing about the “gifts,” which were drawn on a bank account closed months before. The case is being investigated, but no arrests have been made.

The loss means a lack of funds that will translate into less help for the poor, even as the recession brings more and people to the door of the nationally known charity.

Source: Associated press article from Yahoo.com

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_fake_checks_charities 

Discussion Questions 

1. What motive could someone have for giving bad checks to a charity?
2. If you came face to face with the person who committed this fraud, what would you say to him/her?
3. Some believe that fewer and fewer people care about doing right simply because it is right. Do you agree?  If lying, cheating and stealing are on the rise, what, if anything, can the church and/or  individual Christians do to stop this trend?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, January 17, 2010 (Second Sunday after Epiphany)

(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 C at Lectionary Readings.) 

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

 Isaiah 62:15

I Corinthians 12:1-11

John 2:1-11 

Gospel Meditation 

So there was the wedding party and all of a sudden they ran out of wine. What’s the big deal? Couldn’t they drink something else?  No, they could not. Wedding parties of the day were huge, week-long affairs to which the entire community was invited. By the rules of hospitality, the host was expected to provide generously for his guests. Not to do so was a social error so great that it could ruin a family’s reputation. 

Many people interpret this story to mean that Jesus approves of marriage and he most certainly does. Others say it proves that God has nothing against good times, which is emphatically true, as well. 

But Jesus is also responding to a serious social need. And look how he responds. The “master of the banquet” (similar to what we call the “best man”) is so impressed with the wine that he takes the groom aside to comment on it. “You have saved the best until now.” Jesus can turn the plain and ordinary into his best. In this way he reveals his glory! 

The world can only give us bounced checks – IOUs for happiness and contentment which can never truly fulfill our needs. Depend on worldly glitter and gadgets for lasting satisfaction and you will come away empty every time. But Jesus’ presence can turn the “water” of our lives—broken promises, dead-end ambitions, and foolish desires—into his celebratory wine.  From Him flow new promises, ambitions, and desires, which lead to inner peace and joy that are not dependent on outward circumstances. 

And since we receive both physical and spiritual blessings from God, does it not make sense to share them? Many in our own neighborhoods are physically hungry. Even more suffer from spiritual want. Like the Salvation Army, let us continually give both physical comfort and the message of the Gospel to those in need. 

Discussion Questions 

1. Think about the benefits of knowing and serving Jesus as our Savior. List and talk about some of them.
2. What does it mean to be in need? Compare what we think we need to what we really need. Discuss the needs you mentioned in the warm-up question. How do we satisfy these needs?
3. In a time when more and more people are without even the basics of life, the Salvation Army and other charitable organizations are stretched to the limit as to how many they can help. What can your church, your Sunday school class, and you personally do to help the poor of your community? 

Activities 

1. Plan a project for your church or youth group that will help the poor of your community. Some examples: You might sponsor a food or clothing drive (especially focusing on clothes for children, babies, or adults going on job interviews).  Cook and serve a monthly evening meal in the church hall.  Offer babysitting service for the children of parents who are searching for work. Try to make it something that will bring you face to face with those in need. 
2. Plan a project that will fulfill spiritual needs.  Some examples: Go door to door telling people about your church and/or passing out Bibles.  Read or act out Bible stories for children.  Sponsor a youth concert with Christian music. 

Suggested songs: Great Is Thy Faithfulness, Give Thanks (with a Grateful Heart)

 Closing Prayer

Merciful Father, who supplies our needs with your best, turn our hearts outward. Open our eyes to the needs of those around us and, out of the help, love, and encouragement that you have first given us, help us to give generously to all. In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord, we pray.  Amen.

Contributed by Pastor Scott A. Moore
Eisleben, Germany

Warm-up Question:  What do you eat or drink when you need energy real fast? And, when you need long-lasting energy?

Once again, it is very cool to be a vampire.

The recent best-seller series, Twilight, with a second movie installment on the way, and the HBO series True Blood (adapted from the Southern Vampire Mysteries, novels written by Charlaine Harris) prove the public’s thirst for this most sanguine of themes.

These stories have not just filled the imaginations of many young people (not to mention quite a few older folk), they have also worked very hard to help us see the mysterious and supernatural in our hum-drum, everyday (read: boring) lives. Beautiful, interesting, and extremely talented vampires in our towns and in our schools… a much better sell than in the days of dreary Transylvania with a pasty-complexioned man wearing an old, dusty tuxedo who sleeps in a coffin and says, “I vant to zuck your bloooood” and then turns into a bat and flies away.

Where the Twilight story is satisfied with living within its created fantasy world, the creators of True Blood have decided to work at blurring the line between that Southern fantasy world and the world in which we live. HBO, with the help of the marketing firm, Digital Kitchen, created 30 fake ads for products by real companies we all know, all geared for those blood drinkers living among us. This campaign is striving to create an air of authenticity in order to help viewers believe the story.

Discussion Questions

• Where you afraid of vampires as a little kid?
• What do you find intriguing or repulsive about the vampire legends in general?
• What do you appreciate about the particular vampire stories that are told in Twilight or True Blood?
• Why do you think there is such a huge interest in the vampire legends these days?
• What do you imagine living forever would look like? What would you be willing to do in order to achieve that? Where would you draw the line?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, August 16, 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 at Lectionary Readings.)

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

• Proverbs 9:1-6
• Psalm 34:9-14 (10)
• Ephesians 5:15-20
• John 6:51-58

Gospel Reflection

In the first years of the Church, after Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples did what he commanded them to do. They made disciples by teaching and baptizing, they preached, and they gathered around the table and shared in that special meal Christ instituted for them known by a variety of names: the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, Eucharist, just to name a few. Jesus says in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, “take and eat, this is my body… take and drink, this is my blood”. And here in the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”

The Jewish leaders in our Gospel story ask the question that has troubled believers and non-believers alike for centuries: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” How indeed? The idea of really eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood has bothered many for 20 centuries. It seems somehow really gross.

We don’t seem to be too bothered, however, by the idea of this kind of eating and drinking when we think about Edward Cullen or Jessica Hamby eating flesh or drinking blood (and yes, all of the die-hard vampire fans will say, “They only drink blood!”). It doesn’t seem to gross us out that much. We shy away from really trying to sit with the idea of what that means when we think about the miracle-working and eternal Son of God, who doesn’t need to eat and drink but instead gives himself for our consumption. Jesus is like the anti-vampire, who lives and gives his life for those who feast on him. It is easier to quickly think about Jesus words as a mere signs. He couldn’t have really meant what he said, could he?

A good question for those of us who celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus by sharing in this special meal might be: why do we believe and teach these strong and vivid words of eating and drinking Jesus if there isn’t something more going on than eating some bread and drinking some wine? Why would Jesus say, “this is my flesh, this is my blood… those who eat of my flesh and drink of my blood have eternal life… my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink”?

There are certainly many ways to twist and turn Jesus’ words in order to make them more palatable or easy to digest. We do know, however, that Jesus gave himself to us. Not only in the cross, not only in the words we share, but also in a meal. Bread and wine, broken and shared. Christ’s true body. Christ’s true blood. It doesn’t get more authentic than that.

Discussion Questions

(Information on communion in ELCA Worship’s FAQs. Some of these FAQs may be helpful background for your discussion.)

• What do you think about when you receive (or watch others receive) communion?
• Why do you think Jesus shared his body and blood with the world this way?
• What form of “bread and wine” do you prefer or think is best? (wafers, bread, wine, grape juice) Why?
• What different forms of receiving the bread and wine of Eucharist have you experienced? (at a rail, passing and giving to each other, separate small cups of wine, common cup, intinction, kneeling, standing, walking by a “station”, etc.) Which do you prefer or think is best? And why?
• How would you explain Communion/Eucharist/Lord’s Supper to a friend who doesn’t know what Christians do?

Activity Suggestion

Same-day activity
Learn how to set the table/altar for Eucharist. With help from someone in your congregation, see what your congregation uses for wine and bread. Find out what all the various things on the altar/table are and what they mean.

Few-day activity
Make a communion set for your congregation out of pottery or wood. There are lots of opportunities to talk about the meaning of the Eucharist during this kind of activity.

Long-term activity
Train and send participants either for a one-time experience or as permanent members on home communion visits. If you do not have this kind of ministry, talk about establishing one.

Closing Prayer

O God, who sustains and upholds us, we hunger and thirst for you in our lives. Feed us with your love, feed us with your truth, and feed us with the life-giving power of your Son, Jesus Christ, the Bread of Heaven. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen.