Theological Status: COMPROMISED (Worldly/Sloppy)
Biblical Parallel(Archetype): Pergamum
❓ What do these grades mean?
🔍 Biblical Discernment: The 7 Church Parallels
The Cold Orthodox Parallel
Ephesus
Teaching that upholds doctrinal precision yet parallels the loss of the "first love"—the vital, motivating power of the Gospel (Rev 2:4).
The Compromised Parallel
Pergamum
Teaching that parallels churches tolerating the "doctrine of Balaam" through cultural accommodation (Rev 2:14), characterized by weak boundaries, sloppy theology, and worldly compromise.
Why strictly "Mark & Avoid"?
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This ministry's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This ministry's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
🧐 Overview
Theological Verdict & Summary
Sermon Summary: A call to reconnect with God and community in a world of noise, using the metaphor of a 'grid' to describe both divine presence and human compassion.
Pastoral Analysis: The sermon offers a warm, relatable message about finding God in isolation and building community. However, it critically lacks the Gospel Framework, presenting spiritual growth and community building as results of human effort and self-help rather than the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. This moralistic approach risks leading the congregation to spiritual exhaustion and despair when their own willpower fails.
Biblical Parallel (Archetype): Pergamum — The sermon exhibits homiletical compromise by substituting the Gospel of grace with moralistic self-help and human effort. While the message is not fundamentally heretical, it fails to anchor the call to action in the finished work of Christ, resulting in a weakened theological foundation that relies on human willpower rather than the Holy Spirit's enablement.
Big Idea: Believers are always on God's grid of presence and provision, even in moments of isolation or need, and are called to build a grid of community and compassion to meet the needs of others. 00:43:32 ▶️ 📄
📖 How they Handle Scripture & Jesus
- Primary Text: Genesis 28:10-22
- Usage Classification: Thematic
- Text-to-Talk Ratio: High
- Pulpit Decorum: ✅ PASS - No coarse language or pejoratives detected.
✝️ Christological Focus: Moralistic/Imitative
"Christ is presented as a model for behavior and a source of comfort, but not as the sole agent of salvation and sanctification."
Scripture Saturation: Verses Read: 28 | Referenced: 2 | Alluded: 0
📖 View 2 Passages Read Aloud
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Genesis 28:10-22
00:32:44 ▶️ 📄
"Jacob left Beersheba, and he went towards Haran, and he came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside Jacob and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and your offspring. And your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. Then Jacob woke up from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, the gate of heaven."
-
Mark 6:30-44
00:34:26 ▶️ 📄
"The apostles gathered around Jesus, told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to the disciples, Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in a boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going, and they recognized them. And they hurried there on foot from all over the towns and arrived ahead of them. And as he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on the crowd, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. And when it grew late, when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, This is a deserted place. The hour is now very late. Send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat. But Jesus said to the disciples, You give them something to eat. And they said to him, Are we to go and to buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat? And Jesus said to them, How many loaves have you? Go and see. And when they had found out, he said, We have five and two fish. And then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. And so they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. And all, all ate and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. And those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men."
Key References: Genesis 28:10-22, Mark 6:30-44
🎙️ Sermon Content & Delivery
Word Count: 2,766 words
📌 View 13 Key Topics Addressed
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Hurricane Helene Response
00:36:46 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor recounts the church's response to Hurricane Helene, highlighting work teams, financial contributions, and the ongoing nature of the repairs. -
Bishop Sue Halpert Johnson's Story
00:37:26 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor shares an anecdote about Bishop Sue Halpert Johnson's experience with Hurricane Charlie in Cape Coral, Florida, illustrating the feeling of isolation and the realization that a 'grid' of support was watching over them. -
Jacob's Ladder and Divine Presence
00:41:29 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor connects Bishop Sue's story to the biblical story of Jacob, noting that Jacob felt abandoned but later realized God was present all along, drawing a parallel to those feeling isolated in modern times. -
Building a Grid of Compassion
00:43:32 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor interprets Bishop Sue's call to 'build a grid' as a call for the church to create a safety net of connection and compassion, extending beyond denominational lines to help those in need. -
Jesus and the Deserted Place
00:46:23 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor discusses Jesus taking the disciples to a deserted place to unplug from the world and reconnect with God, contrasting this with modern 'plugged-in' culture. -
The Feeding of the 5,000
00:48:48 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor analyzes the feeding of the 5,000, suggesting Jesus built a 'grid of compassion' by organizing people into groups, leading to a chain reaction of generosity and abundance. -
Spiritual Discipline and Reconnection
00:50:56 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor invites the congregation to find spiritual disciplines (music, silence, prayer, etc.) to step aside and connect with God's presence, emphasizing that even Jesus needed to recharge. -
God's Grid
00:50:22 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor introduces the concept of a 'grid of compassion' built by Jesus, asserting that believers are on this grid even when they feel deserted or alone. -
Spiritual Discipline
00:51:08 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor invites the congregation to find a way to 'pull up, step aside, connect with God's presence' through various means like music, silence, or prayer. -
Community and Accountability
00:51:42 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor emphasizes the need for a community to hold members accountable and assure them of love, citing a personal anecdote about a woman who found faith alone did not work. -
The Lord's Prayer
00:52:42 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor describes the Lord's Prayer as a gift from Jesus that reminds believers of their identity and belonging to a heavenly parent, emphasizing communal ownership ('our god', 'our father'). -
Daily Bread and Forgiveness
00:53:27 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor explains that God provides daily bread and forgiveness, calling believers to extend this same provision and forgiveness to others. -
Living the Prayer
00:54:11 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor challenges the congregation to move beyond memorizing the prayer to embodying it through action and community work.
🖼️ View 5 Illustrations & Stories
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Sermon Illustration
00:37:26 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor tells the story of Bishop Sue Halpert Johnson and her family moving to Cape Coral, Florida, just before Hurricane Charlie struck. She describes the terror of the storm, the subsequent misery of being without power and street signs for two days, and her later realization during a civic tour that the city's emergency operations center was monitoring their situation, making her feel seen and supported despite the isolation. -
Sermon Illustration
00:41:29 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor references the biblical story of Jacob fleeing from his brother, sleeping with a stone for a pillow, and dreaming of a ladder to heaven, illustrating how Jacob realized God was present in the deserted place even when he felt abandoned. -
Sermon Illustration
00:43:32 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor uses the analogy of a 'grid' versus a 'safety net' to describe the church's role, noting that while the safety net is shrinking, the church must build a grid of deep connection and compassion to address large-scale problems. -
Sermon Illustration
00:46:45 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor shares a humorous anecdote about his young acolyte, Philip, who proudly announced he now has a cell phone, illustrating how 'plugged in' the congregation is compared to the disciples who had no such distractions. -
Sermon Illustration
00:52:07 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor recounts a story of a woman who spent 15 years in exile from the faith community and told him through tears that trying to be a Christian alone does not work, serving as a reason for joining a church.
🚀 View 5 Calls to Action
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Pastoral Charge
00:44:52 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor invites the congregation to help expand the church's network to address larger societal problems. -
Pastoral Charge
00:50:56 ▶️ 📄
> The pastor invites the congregation to find a personal spiritual discipline to disconnect from the world and connect with God. -
Pastoral Charge
00:51:28 ▶️ 📄
> Actively build community and mend the world. -
Pastoral Charge
00:51:59 ▶️ 📄
> Commit to re-engaging with the faith community. -
Pastoral Charge
00:54:11 ▶️ 📄
> Learn the prayer by heart, embody it physically, and work together in community.
🧭 Biblical Alignment Dashboard
Overall Verdict: Compromised / Weak
| Category | Status | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Gospel Framework | ❌ FAIL | The Gospel Framework is not intact. The sermon relies on moralistic self-help and human effort to achieve spiritual goals, failing to anchor the message in the finished work of Christ and the monergistic work of the Holy Spirit. |
| Soteriology | ⚠️ WEAK | The sermon presents salvation and spiritual growth as dependent on human action and self-help, rather than the sovereign grace of God. |
| Bibliology | ✅ PASS | Scripture is referenced, though the application is skewed toward moralism. |
| Hermeneutic | ⚠️ WEAK | The hermeneutic leans heavily on moralistic application, treating biblical narratives as self-help tools rather than vehicles for Gospel proclamation. |
| Theology Proper | ✅ PASS | The doctrine of God's presence is affirmed, though the means of experiencing it is misattributed to human effort. |
| Sacramentology | ✅ PASS | No sacramental errors detected. |
| Confessional Depth | ❌ SHALLOW | The sermon lacks depth in explaining the theological basis for spiritual growth, relying instead on practical advice. |
⚙️ The Core Gospel Framework ⚠️ Incomplete / Compromised
What is the Gospel Framework? This section audits whether the sermon proclaims the essential foundation of the Gospel: Christ's substitutionary sacrifice, humanity's spiritual need, and salvation by sovereign grace alone.
How this is evaluated:
How this is evaluated:
- Essential Gospel Pillars: The framework is verified intact when the sermon substantively preaches Christ's atonement, declares human inability (articulated through either Total Depravity or the Law's condemnation), and guards salvation by grace alone against works-righteousness.
- Historic Confessional Depth: Deeper theological distinctives (such as the Active Obedience of Christ) enrich theological depth when expounded, but their absence in a focused topical or expository message is not an error and does not compromise the Gospel Framework.
🏛️ Essential Gospel Pillars
❌ The Cross & Atonement (Penal Substitution): Not observed in the sermon.
❌ Human Inability & Need: Not observed (neither human inability nor divine judgment was contextually proclaimed).
❌ Sola Gratia (Salvation by Grace Alone): Compromised
Soteriological errors detected regarding salvation by grace alone.
📜 Historic Confessional Depth
⚪ Active Obedience of Christ: Not explicitly expounded in this sermon.
Assessed under Confessional Depth diagnostic (SHALLOW). Its absence does not compromise the Gospel Framework.
⚠️ Theological Concerns
🟠 Major Assumed Gospel (Thematic/Moralistic)
Root Cause: Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
The Belief/Behavior: The sermon presents spiritual growth and community building as results of human effort and self-help, rather than the transformative power of the Holy Spirit.
Why It's Dangerous: This moralistic approach risks leading the congregation to spiritual exhaustion and despair when their own willpower fails, as it omits the Gospel's core message of grace and the Holy Spirit's enablement.
Biblical Correction: Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
✅ Commendations
Pastoral Care | Relatable Illustrations
The use of personal anecdotes, such as the story of Bishop Sue and the acolyte Philip, creates a warm and accessible atmosphere for the congregation.
Community Building | Call to Compassion
The emphasis on building a 'grid of compassion' and engaging in cross-denominational cooperation is a positive and necessary call to action for the church.
📜 Full Sermon Transcript (Audit)
Use the 📄 icons next to quotes above to automatically jump to their location in this raw transcript.
[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:00:00] I've heard of them, but I don't know if it's going to happen.
[00:00:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:00:13] Of everybody that we're proud of, you say we're Mitch.
[00:00:16] And they're not Mitch.
[00:00:17] Mitch.
[00:00:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:18] Really? Wow.
[00:00:19] That's a favorite of mine.
[00:00:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:00:20] It was.
[00:00:21] Good.
[00:00:22] He deserves that.
[00:00:24] Yeah, okay.
[00:00:25] Well, I think he's going to be dead.
[00:00:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:00:31] Hey, good morning, you guys.
[00:00:32] Happy Sunday.
[00:00:33] Thank you so much for not being at the beach this morning.
[00:00:36] Sorry about that.
[00:00:37] but i'm glad to see you here you guys could stand as you're able and sing some with us that'd be
[00:00:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:00:41] awesome y'all take a moment to pass the piece you can grab a seat aired lucas but uh sorry
[00:10:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:10:56] lucas baby lucas uh lewis lewis lewis that's why we got his name wrong that's why he was upset so um anybody else needs a bottle meredith has them she's got a backpack full of them welcome
[00:11:11] everybody greetings and uh so glad uh here on labor day weekend i hope your weekend is going to be fun uh we hope all of you have been working so hard can find some down time to be with friends
[00:11:23] and with family and uh we're especially grateful you know for people who work with their hands people who harvest our food people who really uh don't ever uh when they hit the pillow they're all sweaty and dirty because of their very difficult work and you know as i love that
[00:11:40] little meme that says, if you like a weekend, you know, thank a labor activist because we really could work people to death and we would if we had our way. And so to really let people who have been
[00:11:55] working hard have a day where we celebrate their labor and their time away. So by the way, the church's offices are closed tomorrow. So, you know, there you go. Hey, if you're visiting with us in
[00:12:07] person today. We want to welcome you. And I see some new students. Caitlin is one of them, I know, because I got that name down. It's really great seeing you guys. I'm so glad you guys are back.
[00:12:19] So we had three students from Wake Forest come to the 10 o'clock service, and it lowered the median age by a whole decade. It was so cool. It was amazing. So we're glad you all joined us,
[00:12:33] and we'd really love to connect with you.
[00:12:36] So there are these cards that people refuse to fill out, and I just want to say, fill them out, okay?
[00:12:43] Because we would like to know you and to get to know you some, and so we can be in touch.
[00:12:47] You can always learn.
[00:12:49] What's that?
[00:12:50] I know.
[00:12:50] They're in the pew in front of you right there.
[00:12:54] They're out?
[00:12:59] Somebody needs to work on that.
[00:13:01] All right.
[00:13:04] So, listen, for those of you, there are some folks that are joining us even for this service by live stream, and we want to welcome you all as well.
[00:13:12] We're so glad that you are able to join us in this way, and we hope that the service is meaningful to you.
[00:13:19] You are part of what I'm going to talk about today, the Ardmore Grid of Compassion.
[00:13:25] And so we hope that you can feel.
[00:13:30] So it's spiritual on Saturdays.
[00:13:52] We give you a Sunday off, Saturday of September.
[00:14:24] We're going to go out from this building, do some work.
[00:14:47] Prayer concerns that you brought with us.
[00:14:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:14:55] I'm coming back again, guys.
[00:14:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:14:56] I got a new microphone.
[00:15:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:15:15] We're going to do that every 10 minutes in the service, but that's okay.
[00:15:27] With yous.
[00:15:30] Yesterday, I think one of our youths who was sharing that at Adkins High School, a young lady by the name of Claire committed suicide.
[00:15:43] Very, very sad.
[00:15:45] It's kind of shook up the whole school.
[00:15:47] And she has a twin sister at that school as well.
[00:15:52] and uh just very very sad and how that affects everybody in that community and uh the sensitivities that he shared about um really wanting to care for the other students in the student body so let's
[00:16:09] keep them in our prayer um do you all have some other prayer concerns that you might have brought with you got a pen yes yeah yeah no doubt um you all may remember molly called us up this summer
[00:16:41] and wanted us to know about her mom.
[00:16:43] She was having vision problems.
[00:16:45] And so she has a tumor that is putting pressure on her optic nerve, and they think it's non-cancerous.
[00:16:51] But tomorrow they're going to double-check it.
[00:16:53] So let's be in prayer for her and the whole family.
[00:16:57] Tuesday?
[00:16:58] Okay.
[00:17:02] Another prayer concern I just have is Loren Lundgren.
[00:17:05] If you all have ever met Loren, he's a wonderful man.
[00:17:09] He has not been able to come to church pretty much all summer.
[00:17:12] And he's very weak.
[00:17:14] He's 93. He's had a lot of congestive heart failure in his past.
[00:17:18] And so, anyway, just speaking with his wife this morning and just real concern for him.
[00:17:24] Mary Culler, our friend, is not doing great either.
[00:17:28] She's been very, very tired and weak, and she has another same problem, a heart condition.
[00:17:37] And we want to remember Karen Seibert. She's been struggling with her own health.
[00:17:42] How about some others?
[00:17:43] Any others?
[00:17:44] Yeah.
[00:17:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:17:45] My brother-in-law, David, I brought up a couple weeks ago, just not healing the cancer.
[00:18:04] They wanted 15 years of insurance.
[00:18:18] This is Carolyn's brother, David.
[00:18:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:18:26] Had part of his colon removed and has not been able to eat.
[00:18:30] Has some struggle with his kidneys and is on dialysis and is really needing long-term care.
[00:18:37] Insurance companies don't want to pay that.
[00:18:39] So I want to pray for all of those situations that he's facing yeah eddie yeah hazel dalton give her a hand everybody i just want to say you all behaved really well because i saw on the video when hazel did her closing prayer
[00:19:27] it was very impressive so if she can do it i know all you can okay i don't know maybe not because she is student of the month so but the band they just kind of walked right around her while she
[00:19:39] was praying. And I was like, because see, that's what I have to deal with every week. So no, it's really cool. Hazel, we are very proud of you and very, very happy for you to get that honor. Tom
[00:19:50] White, as Eddie was saying, has been in a lot of pain, was in the hospital Monday through Thursday last week. We want to keep him in our prayers. He's actually facing a surgery coming up in November
[00:20:01] and we really want to keep him in our prayers. Any others this morning? Oh gosh, lots. Mary Jo,
[00:20:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:20:09] and then sandy yeah a new friend of mine karen whom i met on my vacation in hawaii we prayed for you we did yeah after she got home it's okay okay gosh so this mary jo's friend karen
[00:20:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:20:58] that she met in hawaii uh on the trip and uh her um mother went in and out of rehab and she got back home, spent a day with her, and she collapsed and died. Her mother did, so
[00:21:10] yeah, so let's remember Karen in our prayers. Sandy, yeah.
[00:21:20] Ned? Ed.
[00:21:21] Excuse me, I knew that.
[00:21:26] Okay, so let's pray for Ed, Sandy's friend, and he's got some spots that are going to need to be looked at and get some attention. Okay, okay, for removal.
[00:21:43] David? Yeah.
[00:22:11] Alright, David, your brother's name, John, who is in hospice right now and uh your sister what's her name connie and she has pancreatic cancer and so there's some concerns about who's going to care for their kids and things yeah yeah
[00:22:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:22:29] yeah and as we know from the news uh those of you that have been out of town uh forsyth county has
[00:23:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:23:06] with some horrible mismanagement of funds has had to let go of just a slew of teachers, almost affecting every school, closing a school, lots of jobs, lots of people losing their positions, and then, you know, and they have kids too.
[00:23:23] So, yeah, how that's affected by them.
[00:23:25] So, yeah, thank you for sharing that.
[00:23:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:23:29] All right.
[00:23:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:23:30] Well, I wish we had something to pray for.
[00:23:33] Gosh.
[00:23:35] Friends, let's, Casey, come and help us.
[00:23:37] Let's take some time and center ourselves, and Casey will give us some music to move us into this time.
[00:23:43] And I'm going to probably just name out all the names that I have in front of me as we remember these folks and lift up all these folks with all of their needs.
[00:24:25] Gracious God, there are times where we sometimes may pray to you and may lift up your name and may speak it out loud, may say it quietly in our hearts, but we oftentimes are unable to feel anything back.
[00:24:43] And that has everything to do with our being human.
[00:24:47] And we pray, God, that you will teach us a way that we can reach out to your presence and that we can nurture it and experience it close at hand.
[00:25:00] But in the meantime, we ask that you help us carry on, that you continue to nurture and nudge us, to move us closer to your love, to practice your way of being in this world,
[00:25:19] to fail and then try again.
[00:25:24] Sustain us so that we may be doing your will in this world.
[00:25:31] God, we pray for the family of Claire from Atkins High School and her sister, Stella, especially, and the entire community at Atkins.
[00:25:43] And we pray for the Catholic school that was experienced such tragedy in the latest shooting.
[00:25:54] God, we pray for Karen and for Mary, for Linda, for Lauren Lundgren.
[00:26:05] We pray for Molly's mom, for David, for Tom White, for a friend of Mary Jo's, Karen.
[00:26:20] We pray for Ed.
[00:26:25] We pray for David who is close to death and for Connie who's struggling and making plans for the future with her family.
[00:26:39] God, we pray for all those who have been affected by the cutbacks in the school system, for those who have been answering the call to teach and yet whose positions have been removed.
[00:26:57] We pray, God, for those that will be affected, the children, the other teachers, administration.
[00:27:05] Help us find a way to fill in all of the gaps that we may see, that we may be able to reach out to.
[00:27:15] God, remind us of your presence and your healing power and the way in which you provide and sustain for us.
[00:27:24] But also remind us that you are here whether we have experienced it or not.
[00:27:30] So let us lean into that, knowing that we belong to a community of your belovedness and we seek to embody that community with one another here.
[00:27:44] Be with us in our worship so that we may be ready to leave this place as your disciples and following in your way.
[00:27:51] This we make prayer to you in the name of Christ Jesus, who taught disciples to pray together.
[00:27:58] Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
[00:28:03] Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[00:28:08] give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom
[00:28:24] and the power and the glory forever Amen
[00:28:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:28:28] some of you were gone students
[00:32:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:32:00] we were talking about the Lord's Prayer all summer long and while some of you were at the beach We were talking about the Lord's Prayer while you were gone.
[00:32:11] And so today we're wrapping this up.
[00:32:15] Not the prayer, you have to keep praying that, but the reflections on it.
[00:32:20] And I'll just be straight up.
[00:32:23] I robbed half this sermon from a bishop, okay?
[00:32:25] So I'll tell you about her in just a second.
[00:32:28] From Genesis chapter 28, we hear a story about the ladder to heaven.
[00:32:35] The stairway to heaven, one might say, but that was a better song, actually.
[00:32:39] So listen for the word of God.
[00:32:44] Jacob left Beersheba, and he went towards Haran, and he came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set.
[00:32:53] Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.
[00:32:58] And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
[00:33:08] And the Lord stood beside Jacob and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac.
[00:33:16] The land on which you lie I will give to you and your offspring.
[00:33:21] And your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south.
[00:33:29] and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring.
[00:33:35] Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.
[00:33:47] Then Jacob woke up from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.
[00:33:55] And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place!
[00:33:59] This is none other than the house of God, the gate of heaven.
[00:34:07] The word of God for the people of God.
[00:34:11] In Mark's gospel, we hear another story.
[00:34:13] It's one that we know of really well.
[00:34:14] It's the feeding of the 5,000, one of Jesus' feedings of the many, many people.
[00:34:20] And in this one, I really like the first part of this story.
[00:34:23] So listen for the word of God.
[00:34:26] The apostles gathered around Jesus, told him all that they had done and taught.
[00:34:30] And he said to the disciples, Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.
[00:34:37] For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
[00:34:41] And they went away in a boat to a deserted place by themselves.
[00:34:45] Now many saw them going, and they recognized them.
[00:34:52] And they hurried there on foot from all over the towns and arrived ahead of them.
[00:34:57] And as he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on the crowd, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
[00:35:05] And he began to teach them many things.
[00:35:08] And when it grew late, when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, This is a deserted place.
[00:35:14] The hour is now very late.
[00:35:15] Send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.
[00:35:22] But Jesus said to the disciples, You give them something to eat.
[00:35:27] And they said to him, Are we to go and to buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?
[00:35:35] And Jesus said to them, How many loaves have you? Go and see.
[00:35:41] And when they had found out, he said, We have five and two fish.
[00:35:46] And then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass.
[00:35:52] And so they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.
[00:35:55] and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before the people.
[00:36:06] And he divided the two fish among them all.
[00:36:09] And all, all ate and were filled.
[00:36:13] And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.
[00:36:18] And those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
[00:36:22] It didn't include the women and the children.
[00:36:25] There was quite a crowd.
[00:36:27] The word of God for the people of God.
[00:36:29] Thanks be to God.
[00:36:31] Would you pray with me?
[00:36:35] God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of the hearts of all of us be acceptable in my sight.
[00:36:40] O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.
[00:36:44] Amen.
[00:36:46] This past year at annual conference, we celebrated the response that the church had done to Hurricane Helene.
[00:36:56] People, we had sent work teams.
[00:36:58] Some of them came from this church.
[00:36:59] Sandy went on every one of them, I think, and Eddie and Barbara did as well, and we sent money, and we're not done yet. The work continues to do some of those repairs. Sandy told me, she goes,
[00:37:12] we're going to be doing this for years, so we know that. Bishop Sue Halpert Johnson came, and she spoke to us, led us in a Bible study on one of the passages. She serves in Virginia now, but she
[00:37:26] began her ministry out of Florida and she told us what she had learned in Florida. She said, you know, everybody in Florida knows that storm season is from June 1 to November 30. And native
[00:37:39] Floridians, they know at any time during the day what the temperature is on the Gulf of Mexico because they're on the lookout at all times. 2004, she and her husband and their three-year-old daughter moved to cape coral florida i said cape corral and the other one but that's in texas i
[00:38:00] don't know where it is but after they had moved just right after they had moved on friday the 13th a tropical storm headed to tampa and they didn't flee because that's where they thought the storm was going but then it shifted upland into cape coral and the officials told her that
[00:38:19] her home was, well, it was eight feet above sea level, but the storm surge was expected to go 18 feet high. So she went and left their house, and they spent the night at the church, which was at
[00:38:31] a little higher elevation, and besides, the church had a second story, so they got up in that.
[00:38:36] And that night, Hurricane Charlie struck that community hard. Lightning all around, a scary time for the three-year-old let alone the two parents and the crashing of thunder and it was constant and the wind just roared the next day when they emerged out and they walked around in
[00:39:01] the communities she said there were no street signs still standing there were no working street lights there was no power lines hanging anywhere she and her daughter had gone to search for the mailbox and spent three hours and could not find it. And they experienced, in the two days following
[00:39:22] that, just utter misery. They were terrified. They were exhausted, isolated, and lonely.
[00:39:30] She said, you know, this is how everybody feels after a natural disaster. And she goes, you know, is telling us, some of you have experienced that in your communities. Two days they were without electricity and she says you know two days without electricity kind of feels like six months
[00:39:47] and six months of it is almost unimaginable and she said we wondered does anybody know what has happened to us is anybody paying attention and sending help a year or so later she participated in a program called leadership cape coral it was a civic program to become
[00:40:12] familiar with the city's institutions and their services and she said my favorite part was infrastructure day she went to the mosquito control center can you believe that there's a place i mean you gotta take that seriously when you're down in uh in florida helping the people
[00:40:29] stay pest free the water department and how the sewer system worked and then she said we went to my favorite place which was the emergency operations center and when we were there up on the
[00:40:40] wall that was just covered with monitors. We saw that they're paying attention to everything that was going on. The person that was there said, you know, when the electricity goes out, we know it.
[00:40:53] When the water mains break, we know it. When cable is out, we even know that. And she said, I realized then, a year afterwards, that they knew what was going on with us the whole time.
[00:41:07] there was a grid and we were on it and the people knew us and about us in the old testament story jacob is on the run for his life by the way bishop uh bishop sue said about uh these stories you know
[00:41:29] we always talk about family values in the bible and then she says can you name one family that your family would want to emulate in the bible okay problematic okay and jacob is the worst
[00:41:41] all right he stole a blessing from his brother right don't ask me how that works it's just weird but he was on the run because he was afraid his brother would kill him he was miserable and he
[00:41:51] was terrified and he was exhausted he was lonely and he decides to go to sleep one night in this place and he uses a stone for a pillow and he dreams of a ladder we might even think of it as
[00:42:05] a fire escape from the sky angels going up and down on it and when he wakes up he has this sense inside where he says god was here all the time and i didn't know it this deserted place is none
[00:42:23] other than the house of god it is the gate of heaven i don't know if you've had the experience of it being in a deserted place or being in a place where you just can't get a sense that god
[00:42:36] is anywhere around but have you ever had that sense and then later realized that god was there all the time there are people that are within 400 yards of this chapel in this neighborhood there are people that are sleeping on the equivalent of a stone pillow who wake up every
[00:43:02] morning feeling just miserable and terrified and exhausted and they may live in our crowded neighborhood, but behind their closed doors, they are wondering if anybody is around that knows what's happening to them, if anybody is out there. Bishop Sue called us in her sermon to build a grid
[00:43:32] of compassion, safety, and deep connection. She said that, you know, the needs are too great for going it alone the problems are too big for one person or a group or even a church can handle and
[00:43:46] so she's called us you know she said a grid you know maybe up there then you can see it all but if you turn it you know sideways it becomes a safety net it's a web of connection and we are
[00:44:00] seeing these days the shrinking of that safety net we are seeing that the safety net not only shrink but it is being torn away from people who are hungry and who are sick and who are lonely
[00:44:14] and so she called us as methodists to work and to not just work with methodists to work well maybe with some you know muslims and some jews maybe even some baptists for christ's sake why to build
[00:44:31] a grid to build a grid a grid of deep connection i echo her call to us and i invite you to think about helping us do that, doing that here at Ardmore to help us expand our network so that we
[00:44:52] can do more with these larger problems that we are facing. I don't know if you knew this, but you are all products of grids. Some of the grids may have been just your family that cared for you,
[00:45:04] that provided for you, that shared love with you. Perhaps some of you didn't have that in your families and you had to wait until you got old enough and left home and you had a family of
[00:45:14] choice where people that you met could actually share that kind of love and care for you. But just ask yourself, you know, who was it? Who was it among the communion of saints? Who were the
[00:45:28] people that brought you this far? Can you continue the work that they did to get you here? And can you continue that work for others. Churches ought to be places of community where a group can love
[00:45:46] us into wholeness. That's what we are, just a school of love, trying to love one another into wholeness. We've been talking about the Lord's Prayer this summer and the importance to sort of stay connected to God. It's not easy these days. You know, we find ourselves busier and busier.
[00:46:04] our mental space is full full of all of the noise that is happening on social media and it is hard it is hard to retain and remember and sustain that connection in the gospel lesson before jesus
[00:46:23] feeds the crowd he tries to help the disciples make that connection he takes them away on a retreat. They went to a deserted place. And in one sense, they went off the grid. They went
[00:46:38] off of the busyness of the world so that they could go to a deserted place. They could unplug.
[00:46:45] And they didn't even have cell phones. Philip, young Philip, he was our acolyte today. He said, guess what? Smiling, grinning. I said, what? He goes, I have a phone now. I was like, oh Lord,
[00:47:01] have mercy on all of us. I've already blocked him. We're so plugged in, you know. But Jesus seems to think that his disciples had been too plugged in and too busy. So surrounded by a crowd
[00:47:20] of needs, they took some time away. Did you know this happens in about nine times in the Gospels?
[00:47:26] Jesus goes off to a lonely place to pray one morning. He does it at night. And he does it a couple times he takes the disciples off to this place and you know they're in the wilderness he
[00:47:38] went to the wilderness another time jesus pulled up and he stepped away and he spent time in quiet to reconnect with the very source of life to remind himself of who he was and whose he was
[00:47:53] and this source of time away fueled his action in the world and you know just gotta ask this question, if Jesus felt the need to take some time off to reflect, to pray, to reconnect,
[00:48:11] why do we not follow the example? Why do we feel like we don't need that? Y'all think you're better than Jesus, huh? I love this story because Jesus's attempt to pull up, pull away, was foiled by a
[00:48:31] needy crowd they followed him to this deserted place away from the town so they could get food easily uh you know where they could get food easily they went to this place this deserted place now all these needs all these hungry people the disciples say just send them away and jesus
[00:48:48] says no we're not going to do that jesus says let's build a grid of compassion and abundance And so he puts the people in small groups and teams of people.
[00:49:02] Now, one theory about this story is that Jesus made this big magical miracle, and then everybody was fed.
[00:49:08] He took the five loaves, broke them up, and they just expanded, you know?
[00:49:11] Another theory that Parker Palmer talks about a lot is that when Jesus breaks the bread and he gives it out, he does so ceremoniously and the people see it, And everyone started sharing from their secret stashes of bread.
[00:49:32] You know why the disciples could only find that amount of bread?
[00:49:35] Because as soon as they knew that he was looking for bread, people were going, I'm not going to have anything to eat.
[00:49:39] Maybe.
[00:49:42] A group of needy people suddenly set off a chain reaction of generosity.
[00:49:49] Everyone shared the daily bread that they had.
[00:49:52] And an abundance kind of came forward.
[00:49:54] And there was more food than was needed.
[00:49:58] This community of people that was in need suddenly became a community of provision.
[00:50:05] And that too, when that happens, is a reflection of God's generosity.
[00:50:12] The earth and heaven, the kingdom come, God's will be done.
[00:50:16] Jesus built a grid of compassion.
[00:50:22] Now listen, I have some good news for you.
[00:50:23] I hope you all hear this now.
[00:50:25] You may not believe it, but just hear it and reflect on it.
[00:50:28] There is a grid, and you are on it.
[00:50:36] You are on God's grid.
[00:50:39] And when the power goes out and the water isn't on, and you really feel deserted and alone, you are not alone.
[00:50:49] You are still on God's grid.
[00:50:52] You are on it, and you may not even know it.
[00:50:56] The invitation that I have for you is to find a way, a spiritual discipline, Whatever it is that allows you to pull up, step aside, connect with God's presence.
[00:51:08] Maybe it's music.
[00:51:10] Maybe it's silence.
[00:51:11] Maybe it's yoga, prayer.
[00:51:14] Maybe it's eating burritos.
[00:51:17] Remember, if Jesus has a need to recharge so that he can get back to the work of the grid, and so do we.
[00:51:28] The challenge for us is to be about the work of building a grid of community, an effort to do more than we can by ourselves, to do our part in mending this world that is being torn apart.
[00:51:42] We need a community that can hold us accountable and assure us that we are loved when we can't just seem to experience it day to day.
[00:51:51] And maybe you had that once.
[00:51:54] You had a community that was loving and loving you into wholeness.
[00:51:59] And maybe you could take this moment to commit yourself to getting back on God's grid.
[00:52:07] I met with a woman years ago who came to join the former church I served.
[00:52:14] And she had spent about 15 years in exile from the faith community.
[00:52:20] And she said to me through tears, really, she, teary.
[00:52:24] And she goes, you know, I have tried being a Christian alone, and it doesn't work.
[00:52:32] Best reason I ever heard for joining a church.
[00:52:35] Doesn't work.
[00:52:36] She tried it.
[00:52:37] Didn't work.
[00:52:42] The Lord's Prayer, friends, is a gift from Jesus to the disciples, to us.
[00:52:47] These are words that you can use, that you can repeat, that you can remind, that we remind ourselves of who we are and whose we are.
[00:52:54] we belong to a heavenly parent and it is a parent for everybody it's not my god it's our god our father one who is above and beyond us all one who is whole heavenly holy
[00:53:14] whole and dwells in a transcendent wholeness and god wants us to have that wholeness that It's transcendent, maybe.
[00:53:23] We can't always feel it, but it wants it to be here, right?
[00:53:27] Now, God provides us for us, daily bread, and forgives us and calls us to do the same forever for everybody else.
[00:53:38] It's our daily bread.
[00:53:40] It's not your daily bread.
[00:53:41] It's ours, right?
[00:53:44] And we ask for forgiveness, and we get it, but we are also called to forgive.
[00:53:51] God knows that life can be difficult and treacherous, but if we can just take the focus off ourselves, put the focus on God's kingdom and glory and power, then you might be able to just tap back into this source of life,
[00:54:06] find ourselves once again on this invisible grid.
[00:54:11] We're going to need more than just this portable prayer that we have committed to memory, but the call is not to just remember it in our heads, but to really learn it by heart, put our bodies into it,
[00:54:25] to get back to work on the grid and to work together in community so that our very lives are going to express this prayer with action right from the heart.
[00:54:36] Would you pray with me?
[00:54:40] God, we are so grateful to never be so far from you that you do not have us in your hand.
[00:54:51] Help us reconnect to your presence and reconnect to one another so that we may be about the work of building a grid to meet the needs of those who are closest to us and those in the wider community.
[00:55:10] Deepen your love inside of us so that we may be about your work as your disciples.
[00:55:16] We pray this in your holy name.
[00:55:18] Amen.
[00:55:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:55:19] Would y'all stand as you're able to sing one more of this?
[00:55:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:55:23] So get gritty.
[00:57:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:57:51] Come on, leave from this place and take the love that we may experience, that we may now remember, and let us go and practice it in our love for others.
[00:58:00] We go with God who goes with us.
[00:58:03] In the name of God, our creator, our sustainer, and our redeemer.
[00:00:00] I've heard of them, but I don't know if it's going to happen.
[00:00:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:00:13] Of everybody that we're proud of, you say we're Mitch.
[00:00:16] And they're not Mitch.
[00:00:17] Mitch.
[00:00:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:18] Really? Wow.
[00:00:19] That's a favorite of mine.
[00:00:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:00:20] It was.
[00:00:21] Good.
[00:00:22] He deserves that.
[00:00:24] Yeah, okay.
[00:00:25] Well, I think he's going to be dead.
[00:00:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:00:31] Hey, good morning, you guys.
[00:00:32] Happy Sunday.
[00:00:33] Thank you so much for not being at the beach this morning.
[00:00:36] Sorry about that.
[00:00:37] but i'm glad to see you here you guys could stand as you're able and sing some with us that'd be
[00:00:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:00:41] awesome y'all take a moment to pass the piece you can grab a seat aired lucas but uh sorry
[00:10:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:10:56] lucas baby lucas uh lewis lewis lewis that's why we got his name wrong that's why he was upset so um anybody else needs a bottle meredith has them she's got a backpack full of them welcome
[00:11:11] everybody greetings and uh so glad uh here on labor day weekend i hope your weekend is going to be fun uh we hope all of you have been working so hard can find some down time to be with friends
[00:11:23] and with family and uh we're especially grateful you know for people who work with their hands people who harvest our food people who really uh don't ever uh when they hit the pillow they're all sweaty and dirty because of their very difficult work and you know as i love that
[00:11:40] little meme that says, if you like a weekend, you know, thank a labor activist because we really could work people to death and we would if we had our way. And so to really let people who have been
[00:11:55] working hard have a day where we celebrate their labor and their time away. So by the way, the church's offices are closed tomorrow. So, you know, there you go. Hey, if you're visiting with us in
[00:12:07] person today. We want to welcome you. And I see some new students. Caitlin is one of them, I know, because I got that name down. It's really great seeing you guys. I'm so glad you guys are back.
[00:12:19] So we had three students from Wake Forest come to the 10 o'clock service, and it lowered the median age by a whole decade. It was so cool. It was amazing. So we're glad you all joined us,
[00:12:33] and we'd really love to connect with you.
[00:12:36] So there are these cards that people refuse to fill out, and I just want to say, fill them out, okay?
[00:12:43] Because we would like to know you and to get to know you some, and so we can be in touch.
[00:12:47] You can always learn.
[00:12:49] What's that?
[00:12:50] I know.
[00:12:50] They're in the pew in front of you right there.
[00:12:54] They're out?
[00:12:59] Somebody needs to work on that.
[00:13:01] All right.
[00:13:04] So, listen, for those of you, there are some folks that are joining us even for this service by live stream, and we want to welcome you all as well.
[00:13:12] We're so glad that you are able to join us in this way, and we hope that the service is meaningful to you.
[00:13:19] You are part of what I'm going to talk about today, the Ardmore Grid of Compassion.
[00:13:25] And so we hope that you can feel.
[00:13:30] So it's spiritual on Saturdays.
[00:13:52] We give you a Sunday off, Saturday of September.
[00:14:24] We're going to go out from this building, do some work.
[00:14:47] Prayer concerns that you brought with us.
[00:14:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:14:55] I'm coming back again, guys.
[00:14:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:14:56] I got a new microphone.
[00:15:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:15:15] We're going to do that every 10 minutes in the service, but that's okay.
[00:15:27] With yous.
[00:15:30] Yesterday, I think one of our youths who was sharing that at Adkins High School, a young lady by the name of Claire committed suicide.
[00:15:43] Very, very sad.
[00:15:45] It's kind of shook up the whole school.
[00:15:47] And she has a twin sister at that school as well.
[00:15:52] and uh just very very sad and how that affects everybody in that community and uh the sensitivities that he shared about um really wanting to care for the other students in the student body so let's
[00:16:09] keep them in our prayer um do you all have some other prayer concerns that you might have brought with you got a pen yes yeah yeah no doubt um you all may remember molly called us up this summer
[00:16:41] and wanted us to know about her mom.
[00:16:43] She was having vision problems.
[00:16:45] And so she has a tumor that is putting pressure on her optic nerve, and they think it's non-cancerous.
[00:16:51] But tomorrow they're going to double-check it.
[00:16:53] So let's be in prayer for her and the whole family.
[00:16:57] Tuesday?
[00:16:58] Okay.
[00:17:02] Another prayer concern I just have is Loren Lundgren.
[00:17:05] If you all have ever met Loren, he's a wonderful man.
[00:17:09] He has not been able to come to church pretty much all summer.
[00:17:12] And he's very weak.
[00:17:14] He's 93. He's had a lot of congestive heart failure in his past.
[00:17:18] And so, anyway, just speaking with his wife this morning and just real concern for him.
[00:17:24] Mary Culler, our friend, is not doing great either.
[00:17:28] She's been very, very tired and weak, and she has another same problem, a heart condition.
[00:17:37] And we want to remember Karen Seibert. She's been struggling with her own health.
[00:17:42] How about some others?
[00:17:43] Any others?
[00:17:44] Yeah.
[00:17:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:17:45] My brother-in-law, David, I brought up a couple weeks ago, just not healing the cancer.
[00:18:04] They wanted 15 years of insurance.
[00:18:18] This is Carolyn's brother, David.
[00:18:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:18:26] Had part of his colon removed and has not been able to eat.
[00:18:30] Has some struggle with his kidneys and is on dialysis and is really needing long-term care.
[00:18:37] Insurance companies don't want to pay that.
[00:18:39] So I want to pray for all of those situations that he's facing yeah eddie yeah hazel dalton give her a hand everybody i just want to say you all behaved really well because i saw on the video when hazel did her closing prayer
[00:19:27] it was very impressive so if she can do it i know all you can okay i don't know maybe not because she is student of the month so but the band they just kind of walked right around her while she
[00:19:39] was praying. And I was like, because see, that's what I have to deal with every week. So no, it's really cool. Hazel, we are very proud of you and very, very happy for you to get that honor. Tom
[00:19:50] White, as Eddie was saying, has been in a lot of pain, was in the hospital Monday through Thursday last week. We want to keep him in our prayers. He's actually facing a surgery coming up in November
[00:20:01] and we really want to keep him in our prayers. Any others this morning? Oh gosh, lots. Mary Jo,
[00:20:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:20:09] and then sandy yeah a new friend of mine karen whom i met on my vacation in hawaii we prayed for you we did yeah after she got home it's okay okay gosh so this mary jo's friend karen
[00:20:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:20:58] that she met in hawaii uh on the trip and uh her um mother went in and out of rehab and she got back home, spent a day with her, and she collapsed and died. Her mother did, so
[00:21:10] yeah, so let's remember Karen in our prayers. Sandy, yeah.
[00:21:20] Ned? Ed.
[00:21:21] Excuse me, I knew that.
[00:21:26] Okay, so let's pray for Ed, Sandy's friend, and he's got some spots that are going to need to be looked at and get some attention. Okay, okay, for removal.
[00:21:43] David? Yeah.
[00:22:11] Alright, David, your brother's name, John, who is in hospice right now and uh your sister what's her name connie and she has pancreatic cancer and so there's some concerns about who's going to care for their kids and things yeah yeah
[00:22:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:22:29] yeah and as we know from the news uh those of you that have been out of town uh forsyth county has
[00:23:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:23:06] with some horrible mismanagement of funds has had to let go of just a slew of teachers, almost affecting every school, closing a school, lots of jobs, lots of people losing their positions, and then, you know, and they have kids too.
[00:23:23] So, yeah, how that's affected by them.
[00:23:25] So, yeah, thank you for sharing that.
[00:23:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:23:29] All right.
[00:23:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:23:30] Well, I wish we had something to pray for.
[00:23:33] Gosh.
[00:23:35] Friends, let's, Casey, come and help us.
[00:23:37] Let's take some time and center ourselves, and Casey will give us some music to move us into this time.
[00:23:43] And I'm going to probably just name out all the names that I have in front of me as we remember these folks and lift up all these folks with all of their needs.
[00:24:25] Gracious God, there are times where we sometimes may pray to you and may lift up your name and may speak it out loud, may say it quietly in our hearts, but we oftentimes are unable to feel anything back.
[00:24:43] And that has everything to do with our being human.
[00:24:47] And we pray, God, that you will teach us a way that we can reach out to your presence and that we can nurture it and experience it close at hand.
[00:25:00] But in the meantime, we ask that you help us carry on, that you continue to nurture and nudge us, to move us closer to your love, to practice your way of being in this world,
[00:25:19] to fail and then try again.
[00:25:24] Sustain us so that we may be doing your will in this world.
[00:25:31] God, we pray for the family of Claire from Atkins High School and her sister, Stella, especially, and the entire community at Atkins.
[00:25:43] And we pray for the Catholic school that was experienced such tragedy in the latest shooting.
[00:25:54] God, we pray for Karen and for Mary, for Linda, for Lauren Lundgren.
[00:26:05] We pray for Molly's mom, for David, for Tom White, for a friend of Mary Jo's, Karen.
[00:26:20] We pray for Ed.
[00:26:25] We pray for David who is close to death and for Connie who's struggling and making plans for the future with her family.
[00:26:39] God, we pray for all those who have been affected by the cutbacks in the school system, for those who have been answering the call to teach and yet whose positions have been removed.
[00:26:57] We pray, God, for those that will be affected, the children, the other teachers, administration.
[00:27:05] Help us find a way to fill in all of the gaps that we may see, that we may be able to reach out to.
[00:27:15] God, remind us of your presence and your healing power and the way in which you provide and sustain for us.
[00:27:24] But also remind us that you are here whether we have experienced it or not.
[00:27:30] So let us lean into that, knowing that we belong to a community of your belovedness and we seek to embody that community with one another here.
[00:27:44] Be with us in our worship so that we may be ready to leave this place as your disciples and following in your way.
[00:27:51] This we make prayer to you in the name of Christ Jesus, who taught disciples to pray together.
[00:27:58] Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
[00:28:03] Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[00:28:08] give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom
[00:28:24] and the power and the glory forever Amen
[00:28:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:28:28] some of you were gone students
[00:32:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:32:00] we were talking about the Lord's Prayer all summer long and while some of you were at the beach We were talking about the Lord's Prayer while you were gone.
[00:32:11] And so today we're wrapping this up.
[00:32:15] Not the prayer, you have to keep praying that, but the reflections on it.
[00:32:20] And I'll just be straight up.
[00:32:23] I robbed half this sermon from a bishop, okay?
[00:32:25] So I'll tell you about her in just a second.
[00:32:28] From Genesis chapter 28, we hear a story about the ladder to heaven.
[00:32:35] The stairway to heaven, one might say, but that was a better song, actually.
[00:32:39] So listen for the word of God.
[00:32:44] Jacob left Beersheba, and he went towards Haran, and he came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set.
[00:32:53] Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.
[00:32:58] And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
[00:33:08] And the Lord stood beside Jacob and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac.
[00:33:16] The land on which you lie I will give to you and your offspring.
[00:33:21] And your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south.
[00:33:29] and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring.
[00:33:35] Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.
[00:33:47] Then Jacob woke up from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.
[00:33:55] And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place!
[00:33:59] This is none other than the house of God, the gate of heaven.
[00:34:07] The word of God for the people of God.
[00:34:11] In Mark's gospel, we hear another story.
[00:34:13] It's one that we know of really well.
[00:34:14] It's the feeding of the 5,000, one of Jesus' feedings of the many, many people.
[00:34:20] And in this one, I really like the first part of this story.
[00:34:23] So listen for the word of God.
[00:34:26] The apostles gathered around Jesus, told him all that they had done and taught.
[00:34:30] And he said to the disciples, Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.
[00:34:37] For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
[00:34:41] And they went away in a boat to a deserted place by themselves.
[00:34:45] Now many saw them going, and they recognized them.
[00:34:52] And they hurried there on foot from all over the towns and arrived ahead of them.
[00:34:57] And as he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on the crowd, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
[00:35:05] And he began to teach them many things.
[00:35:08] And when it grew late, when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, This is a deserted place.
[00:35:14] The hour is now very late.
[00:35:15] Send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.
[00:35:22] But Jesus said to the disciples, You give them something to eat.
[00:35:27] And they said to him, Are we to go and to buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?
[00:35:35] And Jesus said to them, How many loaves have you? Go and see.
[00:35:41] And when they had found out, he said, We have five and two fish.
[00:35:46] And then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass.
[00:35:52] And so they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.
[00:35:55] and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before the people.
[00:36:06] And he divided the two fish among them all.
[00:36:09] And all, all ate and were filled.
[00:36:13] And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.
[00:36:18] And those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
[00:36:22] It didn't include the women and the children.
[00:36:25] There was quite a crowd.
[00:36:27] The word of God for the people of God.
[00:36:29] Thanks be to God.
[00:36:31] Would you pray with me?
[00:36:35] God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of the hearts of all of us be acceptable in my sight.
[00:36:40] O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.
[00:36:44] Amen.
[00:36:46] This past year at annual conference, we celebrated the response that the church had done to Hurricane Helene.
[00:36:56] People, we had sent work teams.
[00:36:58] Some of them came from this church.
[00:36:59] Sandy went on every one of them, I think, and Eddie and Barbara did as well, and we sent money, and we're not done yet. The work continues to do some of those repairs. Sandy told me, she goes,
[00:37:12] we're going to be doing this for years, so we know that. Bishop Sue Halpert Johnson came, and she spoke to us, led us in a Bible study on one of the passages. She serves in Virginia now, but she
[00:37:26] began her ministry out of Florida and she told us what she had learned in Florida. She said, you know, everybody in Florida knows that storm season is from June 1 to November 30. And native
[00:37:39] Floridians, they know at any time during the day what the temperature is on the Gulf of Mexico because they're on the lookout at all times. 2004, she and her husband and their three-year-old daughter moved to cape coral florida i said cape corral and the other one but that's in texas i
[00:38:00] don't know where it is but after they had moved just right after they had moved on friday the 13th a tropical storm headed to tampa and they didn't flee because that's where they thought the storm was going but then it shifted upland into cape coral and the officials told her that
[00:38:19] her home was, well, it was eight feet above sea level, but the storm surge was expected to go 18 feet high. So she went and left their house, and they spent the night at the church, which was at
[00:38:31] a little higher elevation, and besides, the church had a second story, so they got up in that.
[00:38:36] And that night, Hurricane Charlie struck that community hard. Lightning all around, a scary time for the three-year-old let alone the two parents and the crashing of thunder and it was constant and the wind just roared the next day when they emerged out and they walked around in
[00:39:01] the communities she said there were no street signs still standing there were no working street lights there was no power lines hanging anywhere she and her daughter had gone to search for the mailbox and spent three hours and could not find it. And they experienced, in the two days following
[00:39:22] that, just utter misery. They were terrified. They were exhausted, isolated, and lonely.
[00:39:30] She said, you know, this is how everybody feels after a natural disaster. And she goes, you know, is telling us, some of you have experienced that in your communities. Two days they were without electricity and she says you know two days without electricity kind of feels like six months
[00:39:47] and six months of it is almost unimaginable and she said we wondered does anybody know what has happened to us is anybody paying attention and sending help a year or so later she participated in a program called leadership cape coral it was a civic program to become
[00:40:12] familiar with the city's institutions and their services and she said my favorite part was infrastructure day she went to the mosquito control center can you believe that there's a place i mean you gotta take that seriously when you're down in uh in florida helping the people
[00:40:29] stay pest free the water department and how the sewer system worked and then she said we went to my favorite place which was the emergency operations center and when we were there up on the
[00:40:40] wall that was just covered with monitors. We saw that they're paying attention to everything that was going on. The person that was there said, you know, when the electricity goes out, we know it.
[00:40:53] When the water mains break, we know it. When cable is out, we even know that. And she said, I realized then, a year afterwards, that they knew what was going on with us the whole time.
[00:41:07] there was a grid and we were on it and the people knew us and about us in the old testament story jacob is on the run for his life by the way bishop uh bishop sue said about uh these stories you know
[00:41:29] we always talk about family values in the bible and then she says can you name one family that your family would want to emulate in the bible okay problematic okay and jacob is the worst
[00:41:41] all right he stole a blessing from his brother right don't ask me how that works it's just weird but he was on the run because he was afraid his brother would kill him he was miserable and he
[00:41:51] was terrified and he was exhausted he was lonely and he decides to go to sleep one night in this place and he uses a stone for a pillow and he dreams of a ladder we might even think of it as
[00:42:05] a fire escape from the sky angels going up and down on it and when he wakes up he has this sense inside where he says god was here all the time and i didn't know it this deserted place is none
[00:42:23] other than the house of god it is the gate of heaven i don't know if you've had the experience of it being in a deserted place or being in a place where you just can't get a sense that god
[00:42:36] is anywhere around but have you ever had that sense and then later realized that god was there all the time there are people that are within 400 yards of this chapel in this neighborhood there are people that are sleeping on the equivalent of a stone pillow who wake up every
[00:43:02] morning feeling just miserable and terrified and exhausted and they may live in our crowded neighborhood, but behind their closed doors, they are wondering if anybody is around that knows what's happening to them, if anybody is out there. Bishop Sue called us in her sermon to build a grid
[00:43:32] of compassion, safety, and deep connection. She said that, you know, the needs are too great for going it alone the problems are too big for one person or a group or even a church can handle and
[00:43:46] so she's called us you know she said a grid you know maybe up there then you can see it all but if you turn it you know sideways it becomes a safety net it's a web of connection and we are
[00:44:00] seeing these days the shrinking of that safety net we are seeing that the safety net not only shrink but it is being torn away from people who are hungry and who are sick and who are lonely
[00:44:14] and so she called us as methodists to work and to not just work with methodists to work well maybe with some you know muslims and some jews maybe even some baptists for christ's sake why to build
[00:44:31] a grid to build a grid a grid of deep connection i echo her call to us and i invite you to think about helping us do that, doing that here at Ardmore to help us expand our network so that we
[00:44:52] can do more with these larger problems that we are facing. I don't know if you knew this, but you are all products of grids. Some of the grids may have been just your family that cared for you,
[00:45:04] that provided for you, that shared love with you. Perhaps some of you didn't have that in your families and you had to wait until you got old enough and left home and you had a family of
[00:45:14] choice where people that you met could actually share that kind of love and care for you. But just ask yourself, you know, who was it? Who was it among the communion of saints? Who were the
[00:45:28] people that brought you this far? Can you continue the work that they did to get you here? And can you continue that work for others. Churches ought to be places of community where a group can love
[00:45:46] us into wholeness. That's what we are, just a school of love, trying to love one another into wholeness. We've been talking about the Lord's Prayer this summer and the importance to sort of stay connected to God. It's not easy these days. You know, we find ourselves busier and busier.
[00:46:04] our mental space is full full of all of the noise that is happening on social media and it is hard it is hard to retain and remember and sustain that connection in the gospel lesson before jesus
[00:46:23] feeds the crowd he tries to help the disciples make that connection he takes them away on a retreat. They went to a deserted place. And in one sense, they went off the grid. They went
[00:46:38] off of the busyness of the world so that they could go to a deserted place. They could unplug.
[00:46:45] And they didn't even have cell phones. Philip, young Philip, he was our acolyte today. He said, guess what? Smiling, grinning. I said, what? He goes, I have a phone now. I was like, oh Lord,
[00:47:01] have mercy on all of us. I've already blocked him. We're so plugged in, you know. But Jesus seems to think that his disciples had been too plugged in and too busy. So surrounded by a crowd
[00:47:20] of needs, they took some time away. Did you know this happens in about nine times in the Gospels?
[00:47:26] Jesus goes off to a lonely place to pray one morning. He does it at night. And he does it a couple times he takes the disciples off to this place and you know they're in the wilderness he
[00:47:38] went to the wilderness another time jesus pulled up and he stepped away and he spent time in quiet to reconnect with the very source of life to remind himself of who he was and whose he was
[00:47:53] and this source of time away fueled his action in the world and you know just gotta ask this question, if Jesus felt the need to take some time off to reflect, to pray, to reconnect,
[00:48:11] why do we not follow the example? Why do we feel like we don't need that? Y'all think you're better than Jesus, huh? I love this story because Jesus's attempt to pull up, pull away, was foiled by a
[00:48:31] needy crowd they followed him to this deserted place away from the town so they could get food easily uh you know where they could get food easily they went to this place this deserted place now all these needs all these hungry people the disciples say just send them away and jesus
[00:48:48] says no we're not going to do that jesus says let's build a grid of compassion and abundance And so he puts the people in small groups and teams of people.
[00:49:02] Now, one theory about this story is that Jesus made this big magical miracle, and then everybody was fed.
[00:49:08] He took the five loaves, broke them up, and they just expanded, you know?
[00:49:11] Another theory that Parker Palmer talks about a lot is that when Jesus breaks the bread and he gives it out, he does so ceremoniously and the people see it, And everyone started sharing from their secret stashes of bread.
[00:49:32] You know why the disciples could only find that amount of bread?
[00:49:35] Because as soon as they knew that he was looking for bread, people were going, I'm not going to have anything to eat.
[00:49:39] Maybe.
[00:49:42] A group of needy people suddenly set off a chain reaction of generosity.
[00:49:49] Everyone shared the daily bread that they had.
[00:49:52] And an abundance kind of came forward.
[00:49:54] And there was more food than was needed.
[00:49:58] This community of people that was in need suddenly became a community of provision.
[00:50:05] And that too, when that happens, is a reflection of God's generosity.
[00:50:12] The earth and heaven, the kingdom come, God's will be done.
[00:50:16] Jesus built a grid of compassion.
[00:50:22] Now listen, I have some good news for you.
[00:50:23] I hope you all hear this now.
[00:50:25] You may not believe it, but just hear it and reflect on it.
[00:50:28] There is a grid, and you are on it.
[00:50:36] You are on God's grid.
[00:50:39] And when the power goes out and the water isn't on, and you really feel deserted and alone, you are not alone.
[00:50:49] You are still on God's grid.
[00:50:52] You are on it, and you may not even know it.
[00:50:56] The invitation that I have for you is to find a way, a spiritual discipline, Whatever it is that allows you to pull up, step aside, connect with God's presence.
[00:51:08] Maybe it's music.
[00:51:10] Maybe it's silence.
[00:51:11] Maybe it's yoga, prayer.
[00:51:14] Maybe it's eating burritos.
[00:51:17] Remember, if Jesus has a need to recharge so that he can get back to the work of the grid, and so do we.
[00:51:28] The challenge for us is to be about the work of building a grid of community, an effort to do more than we can by ourselves, to do our part in mending this world that is being torn apart.
[00:51:42] We need a community that can hold us accountable and assure us that we are loved when we can't just seem to experience it day to day.
[00:51:51] And maybe you had that once.
[00:51:54] You had a community that was loving and loving you into wholeness.
[00:51:59] And maybe you could take this moment to commit yourself to getting back on God's grid.
[00:52:07] I met with a woman years ago who came to join the former church I served.
[00:52:14] And she had spent about 15 years in exile from the faith community.
[00:52:20] And she said to me through tears, really, she, teary.
[00:52:24] And she goes, you know, I have tried being a Christian alone, and it doesn't work.
[00:52:32] Best reason I ever heard for joining a church.
[00:52:35] Doesn't work.
[00:52:36] She tried it.
[00:52:37] Didn't work.
[00:52:42] The Lord's Prayer, friends, is a gift from Jesus to the disciples, to us.
[00:52:47] These are words that you can use, that you can repeat, that you can remind, that we remind ourselves of who we are and whose we are.
[00:52:54] we belong to a heavenly parent and it is a parent for everybody it's not my god it's our god our father one who is above and beyond us all one who is whole heavenly holy
[00:53:14] whole and dwells in a transcendent wholeness and god wants us to have that wholeness that It's transcendent, maybe.
[00:53:23] We can't always feel it, but it wants it to be here, right?
[00:53:27] Now, God provides us for us, daily bread, and forgives us and calls us to do the same forever for everybody else.
[00:53:38] It's our daily bread.
[00:53:40] It's not your daily bread.
[00:53:41] It's ours, right?
[00:53:44] And we ask for forgiveness, and we get it, but we are also called to forgive.
[00:53:51] God knows that life can be difficult and treacherous, but if we can just take the focus off ourselves, put the focus on God's kingdom and glory and power, then you might be able to just tap back into this source of life,
[00:54:06] find ourselves once again on this invisible grid.
[00:54:11] We're going to need more than just this portable prayer that we have committed to memory, but the call is not to just remember it in our heads, but to really learn it by heart, put our bodies into it,
[00:54:25] to get back to work on the grid and to work together in community so that our very lives are going to express this prayer with action right from the heart.
[00:54:36] Would you pray with me?
[00:54:40] God, we are so grateful to never be so far from you that you do not have us in your hand.
[00:54:51] Help us reconnect to your presence and reconnect to one another so that we may be about the work of building a grid to meet the needs of those who are closest to us and those in the wider community.
[00:55:10] Deepen your love inside of us so that we may be about your work as your disciples.
[00:55:16] We pray this in your holy name.
[00:55:18] Amen.
[00:55:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:55:19] Would y'all stand as you're able to sing one more of this?
[00:55:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:55:23] So get gritty.
[00:57:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:57:51] Come on, leave from this place and take the love that we may experience, that we may now remember, and let us go and practice it in our love for others.
[00:58:00] We go with God who goes with us.
[00:58:03] In the name of God, our creator, our sustainer, and our redeemer.
