Thanks for another great Community Thanksgiving Dinner. Here are my notes
from Sunday:
Give Thanks for Good News, Matthew 25:31-46
Pastor Dan Damon, Richmond 1st UMC, 11-23-14
Introduction
Give thanks for good news.
The church is alive.
The children are singing the stories of old.
Give thanks for good news.
We hear in their song
the dream and the vision the prophets foretold.
Dan Damon
WORDS and MUSIC © 2014 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All
rights reserved.
That¹s all I have, so far, on a new hymn text for next Thanksgiving. I keep
writing every week, but usually I am a year behind the liturgical calendar.
On the last Sunday in the church year we usually sing my first published
hymn:
Eternal Christ, you rule
keeping company with pain;
enduring ridicule,
rejected, still you reign.
Eternal Christ, you rule
fasting forty days alone;
the tempter played the fool,
expecting bread from stone.
Eternal Christ, you rule
speaking pardon from the cross;
forgiving pounded nails,
death did its worst and lost.
Eternal Christ, you rule
keeping company with pain;
with love and truth as tools,
come build in us your reign.
Dan Damon
WORDS and MUSIC © 2014 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All
rights reserved.
Retell the Scripture Story
In the gospel story today we have the good news that when we do good things
for others, we are doing them to Christ. [Retell the story]
Sheep, goats, and the wolves within usŠ
Christ rules by keeping company with the poor. We may not know we are doing
good things for Christ. We may be unaware of our positive effect on others,
but we make a great difference in the world as we live with love and joy,
sharing what we have with others, singing the vision of peace on earth into
reality around us. When I hear the new generation of children singing of
peace on earth, I am encouraged in my work for peace and justice. Our
children show the love of God as they draw and color, as they sing, and as
they talk and run around the church. In my earlier years I did the same
things.
Application
I came across an article called ³Keeping the Faith² in The Atlantic
magazine, November 2014. Reporting findings from twelve different studies it
says:
1 Americans born after 1980 are less likely to identify with a religion.
2 Members of other generations have become more religious after having
kids.
3 and 4 Religious people report more satisfaction with the love lives and
their sex lives.
5, 6, 7 Frequent church attendance has been associated with lower rates of
smoking and drinking [alcohol], a greater tendency to exercise, reduced risk
of cancer, improved cardio-vascular health, and long life.
Caring for our spiritual lives benefits our physical lives, and the lives of
those around us. All great faith traditions teach love, peace, and justice,
and offer these great benefits to the world. Children who are brought to
services by their parents are more likely to attend worship in their adult
lives.
We live in a busy world. We make time for the things that are most important
to us.
Let us be in prayer.
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