Images of God

 Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church

 A warm welcome to each worshiper today. We celebrate you and offer you our friendship and love. We are a congregation of people who seek to grow spiritually, to become more like Christ in His compassion and acceptance of everyone while growing more aware of what it really means to be Christians today.

As a Reconciling Congregation, EPUMC affirms the sacred worth of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities and welcomes them into full participation in the fellowship, membership, ministries, and leadership of the congregation.

 

 

 

943 Palmer Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12309 / 518-374-4306 epumc943@gmail.com / www.easternparkway.org

Order of Worship

May 14, 2023

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Mother’s Day

10:00 a.m.

*You are invited to rise in body or spirit.

 

Prelude

Greeting and Announcements

Mission Statement:

We are a faith community striving to be, to nurture, and to send forth disciples of Jesus Christ.

Call to Worship:

The Lord has been our refuge and our keeper.

It is God who has kept us from falling and saved our lives.

Let our thanks and praise resound throughout this place of worship

Let our love and gratitude be shown in all that we do.

Open your hearts and spirits to God this day.

Lord, be with us and place your hand of healing in our lives. 

*Hymn For the Beauty of the Earth #92, v 1, 2, 4

Prayer of Confession:

Cradling God,

Unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Assurance:

Now hear these words of absolution…
God is our loving parent, who extends forgiveness to those who ask for it, and like a mother hen gathering her chicks, draws the weary and the lost to the abundant table of life.

Thanks be to God.

Scripture Reading Acts 17: 22-31

22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor[a] he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God[b] and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

‘For we, too, are his offspring.’

29 “Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Sermon Images of God

In this morning’s scripture passage, a recently converted Paul finds his strength and identity in proclaiming the Good News. He is a man of considerable privilege–wealthy, connected, a Roman citizen, and fluent in Greek and Latin–and he decides to respond to his newfound calling, and make amends for his previous evil, by using those privileges for good. He has everything he needs to travel far and wide and talk about Jesus.

This morning he’s in Greece, and he unwittingly stumbles into an interesting conversation. The polytheistic Athenians acknowledge many forms, and even no form at all, for the Divine. Paul goes to talk to them, but if I were him I would have said only his first sentence and let the Divine work the rest–Get to know the Sacred. You ought to know the one who created and loves you. Where I disagree with Paul is that I think he should have learned from the Athenians just as they learned from him. The Athenians didn’t limit God to any one form, image, expression, or manifestation. Neither should we.

A few days ago my daughter Lily surprised me with some words you’ll hear at the very end of this sermon, words she thought up while she was at school, with some of the people she loves most. They’re words that speak directly to the truth of who God is, and who we are to the Holy. This inspired me to spend more time talking to my three kiddos, and the kids of my friends, about who God is. I had the conversation Paul should have had, with people who deeply appreciated a formless, playful view of a Creator who can’t be squeezed into a box. Which is not at all to say that we don’t have wonderful images for God ourselves. But, in the pressure that bears down on us as we become adults, we learn to fit in with others, submit to authority, and cling to tradition. None of those things are bad on their own, but all of them stick limits and labels on the Divine in our minds and hearts. Kids simply haven’t gained those kinds of burdens yet. With their pure hearts, they see God.

And so I give you: “What Does God Look Like?”

The first image comes from a kid I knew a decade ago, at the first church I served right out of seminary. She told me that God looks like a Grandma who gives you hugs and ice cream. Y’all can imagine how happy her actual Grandma, who was sitting right behind her, was to hear that.

Lily, my daughter, seems to imagine God looks kind of like Tarzan, with a loincloth made out of leaves, swinging on vines. God is adventurous, surprisingly athletic, and not allergic to sap.

The four year old daughter of a clergy friend answered that God looks like a green blob with one purple eye, and even drew a picture!

Another child answered that God looks like a whole bunch of light.

One particularly theological child answered that God looks like Jesus.

An eight year old girl answered that God is really cute, and has long hair. Ok then!

A 19 year old PK wanted to chime in that people can never understand what God looks like, which is why we’ll always be curious. Sounds like someone’s ready for seminary!

Another teenager answered that God looks like everything!

My four year old son, little Alexander, happily told me that God looks like Godzilla. I’m surprised more small children don’t make that association. As some of you can imagine, Sean loved that.

And the last answer came from my nine year old son, Daniel. He heard the question, gave it a few minutes of thought, and then very wisely told me, “I don’t know.” There’s a great theologian hiding in there.

Some of the deepest answers I’ve ever heard came from a book titled What Is God Like by Rachel Held Evans and Matthew Paul Turner, both parents, penned shortly before Evans died. They wrote,

“God is like an eagle, sharp eyed and swift.”

“God is like a river, constant and life giving.”

“God is like the stars, forever present and bright.”

“God is like a fort, strong and secure.”

“God is like the flame of a candle, warm and inviting.”

“God is like an artist, creative and unpredictable.”

“God is like a dancer.”

“God is like a rainbow.”

“God is like your best friend.”

“God is like a father.”

And, just for today,

“God is like a mother, strong and safe. You can crawl up into her lap whenever you want to, and she will hold you until you fall asleep.”

And that brings us to this ever-present question Christians in particular have asked about the image of the Holy: Is God feminine? Is the feminine Divine? I’m very grateful to serve a church where most of you are thinking “yes, of course”, but these millennia old questions about whether the Holy can be feminine have been subverted to bar women from all leadership positions in the Church, uphold an abusive patriarchy, harm too many to count, and, most tragically, close so many of our minds to the idea that God can ever be anything more than an old white guy in a robe with a beard.

Any image you imagine for God is precious. If that classic Santa-like image of the Holy fills you with love and peace, by all means, hold it close. But you can’t keep the love of God boxed up in such a tight package. And this day, Mother’s Day, is a great one to remember that the Bible lifted up many feminine, maternal images for the Sacred: Rachel crying for her children, a woman crying out in labor, a mother hen defending her chicks.

For some of us, images of God as a mother are soft and comforting because our own mothers were, and are. For some of us, those images are grievous because the word “mother” triggers our pain from a relationship that wasn’t healthy, ended too soon, or could never be. It’s not important whether you see God as a Mother, a Father, a white guy with a beard, a ray of light with no body, a radioactive monster from Tokyo, or a green blob with one purple eye. What’s important is that you know love, because you will know God, and loved people love others, and spread Jesus around without even trying. Paul, among many things, wanted us to know that we are God’s offspring, or children, and that it makes us worthy, treasured, and able to do real good.

And speaking of that real good, as promised, I’m ending this sermon with a blessing for you that Lily thought of at school, while she was playing with her best friends.

May you be happy.

May you be safe.

May you be helpful.

May you be healthy.

May you be trusted.

May you be loved.

May your life be filled with joy.

May God protect us from the beginning to the end of our lives.

Amen.

*Hymn God of Love and God of Power #578

Offering

Offertory

*Doxology #94

*Prayer of dedication           

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

Loving God, we give thanks today for mothers!

Thank you for mothers who gave birth to us,

and women who have treated us as their own children.

You teach us how to be good mothers,

cherishing and protecting the children among us.

Help us mother lovingly, fairly, wisely and with great joy.

Help us raise our children to be the people they are born to be.

We need your comfort here today, Lord,

because some are missing mothers, some are missing children,

some are parted by distance or death.

Comfort those who have given up their child for adoption,

or who chose not to give birth, and had an abortion.

Comfort those who longed to be biological mothers, and could not.

We pray for those here whose mothers have disappointed them;

we ask for grace in relationships where there is pain and bitterness,

for healing in relationships where there is abuse and violence.

Help our congregation be a space where people can feel mothered,

their gifts and talents appreciated and nurtured.

Finally, we pray today for mothers around the world;

mothers who cannot feed their children,

mothers who are homeless or without a homeland;

mothers who must teach their children about the dangers of bombs and bullets.

Help us create a world where mothers can raise their children in peace and plenty.

God of mothers, who created mothers, who came as a child and had a mother,

God our Mother, 

loving us with a sweeter and deeper love than we have ever known,

hear our prayer this day, Amen.

~ written by Carol Penner, and posted on Leading in Worship. http://carolpenner.typepad.com/leadinginworship/

Our Father, Mother, Creator God, 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 trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed 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.

The Lord’s Supper

On the night Jesus was betrayed he took the bread, and after giving thanks broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, “This is my body broken for you. Take and eat and as often as you do, do so in remembrance of me.

Likewise, Jesus took the cup and blessed it and said, “This is my blood of the new covenant shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Take and drink. As often as you do, do so in remembrance of me.”

Prayer Over Elements

Loving God,
Like a mother, you brought all things into being. Through trial and truth-telling, touch, and tenderness, you nurture your people and lead us in the ways of justice and peace. Send your Holy Spirit upon this bread and this cup, that they may be for us the body and blood of Christ, so that we may be the body of Christ incarnate in this world, redeemed by Christ’s blood. Amen.

*Hymn Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise #103

Benediction

Postlude

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Staff

Natalie Bowerman Pastor

Betsy Lehmann Music Director

Joe White Custodian

Cassandra Brown Nursery Attendant