Sharing God's Love and Grace

Meditation on Exodus 33:12-23

Pastor Karen Crawford

The Presbyterian Church, 142 N. 4th Street, Coshocton, OH 43812

Oct. 18, 2020

Jim and I had a good time in Cambridge, Mass., visiting family. Jim’s son, Danny, and his wife, Hiu-Fai, live there with their two little girls, 3-year-old Maddie and 6-year-old Jessie. Our time with them was limited because I was taking a class Monday through Friday, all day, on Zoom, and they were working or going to school.

     Time with them is precious. We only see them about once a year for a week or less. We do Facetime and Zoom, but there’s no substitute for face to face, is there? Not when you want to have a close relationship.

      Maddie was just a toddler when we saw her in spring 2019. Now she is speaking in complete sentences, telling us just what she wants and what she doesn’t want. She knows the word, “No,” and she says it so sweetly. She wants to do everything her big sister does, including riding a scooter. She’s fast! And fearless!

      Jessie is creative, talkative, sensitive, headstrong, at times, and a “girly girl.” She has an Elsa costume from the Frozen movies and always wants me to paint her fingernails. She makes me laugh, without trying. I complimented her on her gymnastic moves in the living room, and she said, “Well, at least somebody appreciates me!”

       In another moment, she confided, “Grandpa Jim isn’t a smiley person, is he?”

       Another time, she said, “Grandma Karen! Do you have any children?”

      “Yes. I have 3 boys,” I said. “All grown up.”

       “You do???” she asked, amazed that her grandma had kids.

        The most memorable afternoon with the family, for me, was when we took a walk in a historic cemetery. What a beautiful place! I don’t think the girls had ever been to a cemetery before, and, well, I have some experience in that area.

      We saw some tombstones more than 100 years old. I showed Jessie how when there’s a date and a dash and no other date, the person is still alive! That just blew her mind! We peeked inside ornate mausoleums with wrought iron bars from the 1800s. Jessie wanted to know where the bodies were and when they died.

     One died in 1879, I told her, pointing.

    “1879! No wonder they died!” she exclaimed. “They were really old!!!”

    She was concerned about any children who had died. She wanted to know why. I thought for a moment of what I could say that wouldn’t make her incredibly sad, so I said, “In the old days, they didn’t have all the medicines and medical care we have today.” She paused, and then smiled and said, “My mommy’s a doctor! She helps children!” And I said, “Yes! That’s right,” with a sigh of relief.

    On the morning we were preparing to leave and didn’t have time for one last impromptu gymnastic performance in her bedroom, she said, “Grandma Karen! I love you. I don’t want you to go.”

      “I love you, too!” I said and leaned in close to look right into her eyes. “We’ll be back as soon as we can. And I’ll call you so we can talk.”

      I was so proud of myself that I didn’t cry, this time! Because now I know she’s old enough that she won’t forget me.

***

      In our Exodus reading today, we have an intimate look at the close relationship between God and Moses. This relationship grew over time and was formed through trials, where God showed himself to be faithful, providing for all the Israelites’ needs and even some demands—such as when they wanted meat and God gave them quail. Moses brings the people to meet God at Mount Sinai and be consecrated in Ex. 19, shortly before the Lord summons him to the top of the mountain to meet with him alone.  God gives Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai and many other laws governing their worship and life together as God’s people in this new community. Just as Moses is about to bring down the two stone tablets of the covenant, written “with the finger of God,” the Lord says, “Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them.” Aaron has melted down their jewelry and made a golden calf, for they have demanded “gods to worship.” When Moses is delayed descending the mountain, the people, who have been complaining about his leadership all along, are impatient and decide he isn’t coming back.

    Before our passage in Exodus 33, Moses has interceded with God on behalf of the people two times since the golden calf incident. And it’s not because Moses isn’t angry with them. In a rage, he confronts his brother, Aaron, who let the people “run wild” and he confronts the people, throwing and breaking the stone tablets. A battle is fought. Many people die. And there’s a plague believed to be sent by the Lord because of their idolatry.

     The Lord keeps his covenant, however, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all their descendants, telling Moses that an angel will lead them to the land “flowing with milk and honey.” But God isn’t going with them, for they are “a stiff-necked people,” the Lord says.  Stiff-necked, meaning prideful and disobedient, refusing to bow their heads and humbly submit to the Lord.

    This doesn’t satisfy Moses—going to the Land of the Promise without the Lord. For God and Moses have spoken through a pillar of cloud in the tent of meeting, “face to face,” says Exodus 33:11, “as one speaks to a friend.” Moses reminds the Lord of their relationship, and how God has told him that he knows him by name and has found favor in his sight.  He says, “Consider, too, that this nation is your people.” In other words, you created them and chose them! You know how bad they are!!! And you still love them and want a relationship with them. He reminds the Lord of His promise of presence. For God said, “I will always be with you.” And how will the earth know they are God’s people if God’s presence is no longer with them?

     The Lord is persuaded, saying, “for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Then, when Moses wants to know God even more and look on God’s glory, the Lord allows him a glimpse of his back. But first, the Lord hides Moses in a cleft of a rock, and covers him with his hand.

***

   I keep thinking about our visit with our family in Massachusetts, words that were said, what we did. The wonderful feeling of holding my granddaughters. Of giving myself fully to them whenever I am with them. I long to see them again and hear their little voices. I don’t know the future, of course, but I am in wonder and awe of who they will become, trusting in God’s plan.

     Those thoughts and feelings that I have about my granddaughters, God has ever so much more about us! God’s love is unconditional and promise of presence is for all eternity. God wants us to give ourselves fully to Him! He has created and chosen us and knows all our weaknesses—and still, God loves us! He is our God. We are His people. We belong to Him. Why do we just offer the piece of us that is left over after the world consumes us—when we are exhausted from all our daily struggles and stress? God desires and deserves our first and our best, Amen?

      Moses never hesitated to talk with the Lord. That really stood out to me with today’s reading! He wasn’t afraid to challenge God’s decision to take his presence away from the Israelites and away from him. He knew enough about the character of the Lord– God’s mercy, love, and grace—to seek forgiveness for the stiff-necked, unfaithful people of God, who had really messed up and gone astray, after all that God had done for them!

     So why do we hesitate to pray? Why do we hold back or put off communing with the Lord until later? Do we think that we are a bother for God—that maybe God has more important things to worry about, especially right now, with all the problems in our world? If you can remember one thing from my message today, I hope it is that God wants you to pray! The Lord wants to be in close relationship with you. A close relationship with God is what’s going to change you and me. Just think, if everyone had a close relationship with the Lord, it would change the world! If everyone gave all of themselves to Him—the first and the best part.

    Listen to God’s promises about things to come:

     2 Cor. 3:18: “We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image.”  

Colossians 3:1-4: “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”

And Revelation 21:3-4: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’

       Friends, may you come to know the Lord as your friend. May you come to call on the one who knows your name and will remain the same, yesterday, today and forever! The one who wants you to give yourself –all of yourself—freely to Him.

May you sense the loving presence of the one who holds you now, hidden, in the cleft of the Rock of your Salvation, covered with his hand.

Let us pray.

Holy One, thank you for drawing us near to you and holding us close in the safety of the cleft of the Rock of your Salvation. Help us to feel secure and comforted by your love and the promises in your Word, in spite of all that is happening in our world. Teach us how to trust you, like Moses did, to come to you with every concern, without hesitation, and to speak up for what is right. Teach us, as your disciples once said, how to pray. And Lord, we ask for protection and your tender care for the children and grandchildren in our troubled world today. Help us to be a godly example for our young people. Give us wisdom and courage to walk your righteous path and never go astray and worship idols of our own making. May we be pleasing to you. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

March 1, 1935- Oct. 3, 2020

Rev. Karen Crawford, Pastor

The Presbyterian Church, 142 N. 4th St., Coshocton, OH 43812

    I visited with Don Cox when he and Nancy, about a year ago, invited me to their home. He looked well and fit, though I knew he was struggling with a host of health issues that kept him from attending church. We talked some about their life together and we shared Communion– tiny cups of juice and pieces of bread on a tray, I read Scripture, and we prayed. My impression was that he was a quiet man, but his smile was bright and he expressed gratitude for my visit, after I washed the bits of bread and juice from the tray and repacked my bag before going on my way.

      It’s hard to get to know a person in the space of a few precious moments, but I treasure those I shared with Don. Especially when I visited him in the hospital in February after he had suffered a stroke. He longed to be home with Nancy and the separation then and later in rehab was hard. He endured months of struggle, even after he went home and had Nancy and some medical professionals assisting with his care. He continued to hope that he would regain his strength and be able to live and move and talk and eat as he had before the stroke.

    That was particularly difficult for a man who loved the outdoors, the one who was passionate about hunting. Nancy would fix him hot chocolate and tea, sandwiches and candy bars when he set off early in the morning. He would bring home a deer every year, without fail, and take it to Amish country to be made into bologna, steak and roasts for the family’s dinner table. He was an expert fisherman and skilled at cleaning, boning, and cutting up his catch from local rivers and streams around Coshocton County and salmon when they lived in Washington State. He was athletic and followed professional sports. He cheered for the Browns and the Indians and played some golf. He liked to hunt morel mushrooms that Nancy would soak in salt water, clean and dry, roll in flour and fry in butter. They had a meaty taste. Delicious!

     He and Nancy took regular vacations each year, when Don was well. They traveled to Myrtle Beach to stay at a hotel just a short walk from where the water flowed over the sand as they walked and enjoyed the sea air. They visited gift shops and ate seafood in nice restaurants—crab, fish, oysters, clams—any kind of ocean catch.

    Don, when he wasn’t enjoying the great outdoors, was an avid reader of fiction; mysteries and spy novels were among his favorites. When he had read all that the Coshocton library offered in his areas of interest, he ordered books from other libraries. Don had mechanical gifts and training, serving in his working years, after his time in the Marines, as the owner and operator of Cox Appliance Service and Antiques. Born in Conesville, raised in Adams Mills, and graduating from Jefferson High in Dresden, he had a love for his community, his “hometown.” He belonged to a number of groups—the Coshocton Sportsman’s Club, the VFW, the American Legion, the Elks, and The Presbyterian Church.

   He and Nancy were married by the Rev. Bob Millspaugh here on Oct. 21, 1974. It was Nancy’s church back then, but he joined officially on Feb. 13, 1984. They transferred their membership to a church in Washington State when they left Coshocton for a few years. But shortly after they came back, they rejoined on May 8, 2005.

     Although we didn’t have long conversations about faith, I knew that Don believed. He welcomed me and my prayers on that day of home Communion about a year ago, in the hospital last winter, and, when the virus prevented me from visiting him after he came home, over the phone.

     Always, I included a request that he would feel the Lord’s presence with him, as we are promised in God’s Word. Never did we give up hope or prayers that his health would be restored, that he would be comforted and healed. We chose to believe in a God of miracles, a God of mercy, grace, and love. A God whose Son, Jesus, was raised from the dead so that we, too may be raised with him.

    “I am the resurrection and the life,” our Lord says in our reading in John 11. “Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” he asks Martha, grieving the loss of her younger brother, Lazarus. Before Jesus calls him forth—ALIVE again—after 4 days in the tomb, Martha says, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

    We choose to believe in a God in whom Paul in Romans 8 assures us that nothing, NOTHING, in life or in death can separate us from His love in Christ Jesus. And that when we can’t find the words to pray in our weakness, the Holy Spirit will pray for us, for all the saints, interceding with “sighs too deep for words.” We choose to believe, even when our loved ones are struggling with pain that while all things aren’t good, all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. And that, as the Apostle assures us in Romans 8, “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.”

     We never give up hope, for the promise in Isaiah 40 for those who hope in and wait on the Lord will be renewed in strength. “They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

    This was a vision for God’s people in exile, longing for home long ago but it is also a vision for us today, when suffering and struggle are very much a part of our world, our daily existence. It is our hope, our trust in the Lord, and the Spirit that lives within us, that gives us strength to overcome all that would defeat us in this world of trials, if not for our faith.

     We are assured, today, at the service to bear witness to the resurrection and honor Don’s life, that he has entered the joy that Christ has prepared for all of us—and that he has seen the glory of the Lord. He was a man of faith, who trusted God and loved his family more than anything.

    About 20 years ago, Don gave a poem to Nancy, “When Tomorrow Starts Without Me.” He dedicated it to “Nancy, my wife, my love, and my best friend” and signed it, “with all my love, forever—Donnie.” The poem anticipates the day when he would go home to be with God for all eternity—leaving this earthly life and Nancy and the rest of his loved ones behind. In the poem, he assures her that he knew that she loved him. And that they will always be together, though they are apart.

      “For every time you think of me, Remember I’m right here in your heart.”

Amen.

The Presbyterian Church, 142 N. 4th Street, Coshocton, OH

Rev. Chris Stewart, Guest Preacher and Worship Leader

Sarah Swigert, Liturgist

Alice Hoover, Organist

Prelude Where’er You Walk G. F. Handel/Parks

Greeting/Announcements Pastor Chris Stewart

Opening Words Sarah Swigert
Come, all who hunger for good news.
We thirst for words of hope and healing.
Come, from rural road and city street.
We gather at the King’s invitation.
Come, join the celebration.
Let us worship the Lord!

Hymn Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above Johann Jacob Schütz

Sing praise to God who reigns above, the God of all creation, the
God of power, the God of love, the God of our salvation. With
healing balm my soul is filled, and every faithless murmur stilled:
to God all praise and glory.

What God’s almighty power has made God’s gracious mercy keepeth;
by morning glow or evening shade God’s watchful eye ne’er sleepeth.
Within the kingdom of God’s might, lo! all is just and all is right:
to God all praise and glory!

The Lord is never far away, but, through all grief distressing,
an ever present help and stay, our peace and joy and blessing,
as with a mother’s tender hand God gently leads the chosen band:
to God all praise and glory

Call to Confession

Prayer of Confession
Extravagant God, you invite us to your table in the kingdom of heaven. But we do not take our place at the feast. We say, “We have more important things to do,” and turn back to labors that threaten to consume us. Beckon us again, we pray, that we may respond with gratitude. In your mercy, gather us in that we might experience the joy of your kingdom and taste the abundance of your grace. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

Prayer for Illumination

Readings: Exodus 32:1-14 and Philippians 4:4-7
Holy wisdom, holy word. Thanks be to God!

Reading Mathew 22:1-14
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.

Message A Guidepost to Faith Formation

Hymn I Want Jesus to Walk with Me African American spiritual

I want Jesus to walk with me;
I want Jesus to walk with me;
all along my pilgrim journey,
Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.

In my trials, Lord, walk with me;
in my trials, Lord, walk with me;
when my heart is almost breaking,
Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.

When I’m in trouble, Lord, walk with me;
When I’m in trouble, Lord, walk with me;
when my head is bowed in sorrow,
Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.

Affirmation of Faith (Adapted from the Confession of 1967, 9.32-33)
The life, death, resurrection, and promised coming of Jesus Christ has set the pattern for the church’s mission. His human life involves the church in the common life of all people. His service to men and women commits the church to work for every form of human well-being. His suffering makes the church sensitive to all human suffering so that it sees the face of Christ in the faces of persons in every kind of need. His crucifixion discloses to
the church God’s judgment on the inhumanity that marks human relations, and the awful consequences of the church’s own complicity in injustice. In the power of the risen Christ and the hope of his coming, the church sees the promise of God’s renewal of human life in society and of God’s victory over all wrong. The church follows this pattern in the form of its life and in the method of its acon. So to live and serve is to confess Christ as Lord.

Invitation to the Offering

Offertory God Walks Beside Me Lani Smith

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication/Lord’s Prayer
God of harvest, you are continually planning the seeds of your love in our world and in our lives. As we bring our gifts to you, may they be seeds of your grace, peace, and hope, planted deeply in our community. And hear us as we continue our prayer saying
Our Father, 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 debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Hymn Go with Us, Lord Mary Jackson Cathey

Charge and Benediction

Postlude Rejoice You Pure in Heart arranged, Franklin Ritter

The Presbyterian Church, 142 N. 4th. Street, Coshocton, OH 43812

The Rev. Chris Stewart, Guest Preacher

Ron Geese, Liturgist

Alice Hoover, Organist

Prelude: How Firm a Foundation arranged, Michael Burkhardt

Greeting/Announcements: Pastor Chris Stewart

Opening Words: Ron Geese
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple;
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commands of the Lord are clear, enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.

Hymn: O Word of God Incarnate William Walsham How
O Word of God incarnate, O Wisdom from on high,
O Truth unchanged, unchanging, O Light of our dark sky;
we praise you for the radiance that from the hallowed page,
a lantern to our footsteps, shines on from age to age.

The church for you, dear Savior, received this gift divine;
and still that light is lighted on all the earth to shine.
It is the chart and compass that, all life’s voyage through,
amid the rocks and quicksands still guides, O Christ, to you.

O make your church, dear Savior, a lamp of purest gold
to bear before the na(ons your true light, as of old;
O teach your wandering pilgrims by this our path to trace,
till, clouds and storms thus ended, we see you face to face.

Call to Confession/Prayer of Confession/Assurance of Pardon
Lord, as we prepare to break the bread and drink from the cup, we cannot help but hesitate to partake of your body and blood. We remember your admonishment to go and be reconciled to our siblings before coming to your table. We recognize how we have fanned the flames of division rather than repaired the breach between us. We know we do not make evident our unity in you, our oneness made possible through your sacrifice. Too many of your children do not have a place at the table, do not have enough to eat, are
relegated to beg for crumbs when you command us to offer radical and abundant hospitality. In your relentless mercy, forgive us, free us from fear and make us conduits for your reconciling love. Amen

Prayer for Illumination

Reading: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Holy wisdom, holy word. Thanks be to God!

Reading: Philippians 3:4-14
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God!

Message: Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Hymn Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness James K. Manley

REFRAIN:
Spirit, spirit of gentleness, blow through the wilderness, calling and free.
Spirit, spirit of restlessness, s(r me from placidness, wind, wind on the sea.

You moved on the waters; you called to the deep;
Then you coaxed up the mountains from the valleys of sleep;
and over the eons you called to each thing,
“Awake from your slumbers and rise on your wings.”

You swept through the desert; you stung with the sand;
and you goaded your people with a law and a land.
When they were confounded with idols and lies,
then you spoke through your prophets to open their eyes.

REFRAIN

Affirmation of Faith (The Nicene Creed)
We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven; he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, and was made human. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried. The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end. And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. He spoke through the prophets. We believe
in one holy catholic and apostolic church. We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and to life in the world to come. Amen.

Invitation to the Lord’s Table and the Offering

Offertory: Be Thou My Vision arranged, Dale Wood

Great Thanksgiving
The Lord be with you. And also with you.
Li’ up your hearts. We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, 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 debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Communion

Music: Bread of the World in Mercy Broken Louis Bourgeois

Prayer after Communion

Charge and Benediction

Postlude: Psalm 19 (The Heavens Declare) Benedetto Marcello

Meditation on John 14 (Selected Verses)

In Memory of Dorothy May Totsch

July 14, 1932-Sept. 23, 2020

Pastor Karen Crawford

South Lawn Cemetery, Coshocton, Ohio

Sept. 28, 2020

There’s an old saying that there’s someone for everyone. This was certainly true for Dorothy and Robert Totsch, who were practically inseparable for their 50 years of marriage. Up until Bob’s hospitalization in 2006, Bob and Dorothy were not apart for more than a day since they were married on Sept. 15, 1956 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Coshocton.

Dorothy, a native of Coshocton, grew up in a large family. She was born at home on July 14, 1932 to Harry and Elsea Rea. She was kind of a middle child, with two older sisters (Margaret and Alice), an older brother (Harry), and two younger brothers (William and Paul, called “Tim,” who was born on Dorothy’s birthday—seven years later!) As a middle child, she would learn to care for the younger and more vulnerable, but also have a strong bond with the older, who would be charged with looking after her.

She possessed musical gifts, among many others. She sang and took piano lessons. Neighbors would comment when she was an adult that they enjoyed the beautiful concert when she practiced with her windows open.

She graduated from Coshocton High in 1950; Bob graduated two years ahead of her—in 1948. They met in high school, said their friend John Rettos, who would be an usher for their wedding. But then Bob went off to serve in the Navy for 4 years in Korea, while Dorothy attended Ohio State, before finding work at Ohio Bell Telephone. (She was an operator and would become a supervisor and be recognized for selling the most Princess phones.) Throughout these years of separation, Bob and Dorothy stayed connected the old-fashioned way; they wrote letters. Her daughters would discover them in a box about 8 years ago in their parents’ attic, when Dorothy was preparing to leave Coshocton and move closer to Nancy and Keith. She had kept them all these years! Talk about a steadfast love!

Faith, family and community were important to Dorothy. She didn’t work outside the home when her daughters were young. She treasured that time with them. She was involved in everything they were, including 4-H, Brownies, and Girl Scouts.

“She tried to let us flap our little wings,” Nancy said. “But then came to scoop us up when we needed her.”

When she did go back to work, it was for her children’s benefit. She and Bob saved the money she earned so that Nancy and Laurie could go to college and not be saddled with student loan debt.

Dorothy and Bob raised their daughters in the Episcopal church. When they were teens, they let them join their friends at The Presbyterian Church that had a youth group. Nancy and Laurie would be married there and move out of the area before Dorothy and Bob would feel led to join The Presbyterian Church in 1989. They quickly made friends and were very involved in the life of the congregation. Dorothy’s musical gifts stirred her to play handbells in our Joy Belle Handbell Choir. She helped with community dinners and the Presbyterian Women’s twice-a-year rummage sale that raised money for local mission, such as school supplies and coats for needy children. Ordained a deacon in January 1993, she enjoyed helping Pastor Carlisle serve Communion to homebound members.

Dorothy expressed her love of God and neighbor by serving as a faithful volunteer in the community and friend to many.  She was a pink lady for many years, working in the gift shop at Coshocton Hospital. She was a Friend of the Coshocton Library, helping with book sales. She was an art enthusiast and volunteered for the Pomerene Center for the Arts. She and Bob were members of a local garden club and card club, among other groups.

Dorothy was always close with her daughters, no matter how busy they were or she was. They had favorite addresses for her: “My Momma” was Nancy’s; “Mommy Dear” was Laurie’s. Nancy and Laurie’s childhood home in Coshocton, years after they moved away for school, jobs, and families of their own, was the place for all the family gatherings for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthdays. But Dorothy and Bob didn’t wait for family to come to them. They enjoyed traveling to visit their children and grandchildren, wherever they were.

“Nancy and I were the apple of their eye,” Laurie said. “And then the grandchildren were.”

Dorothy had a servant’s heart and was creative. She was often doing crafts with Nancy’s daughter, Emily, not shying away from messy projects with glitter or beads. This was really something when you consider how tidy and organized a person she was! She didn’t impose her own tidiness on others, not even her daughters, as some mothers do. She made cookies and played board games with her other grandchildren, such as Tripoli, with Laurie’s sons.

What a testimony to Dorothy’s faithfulness when her daughters say that she taught them good values and kindness by example. Longtime friend John Rettos said, “Dorothy was one of the nicest people you would want to know. She was very kind to everyone.”

****

When Jesus tells his disciples that they know the way to the place he is going, he means that he has shown them how to live by faith. He has taught it by example. “Believe in God,” he says. “Believe in me.”  That word translated “believe” could also be “trust.” Trust God. Trust me. If we trust the Lord, we can overcome anxiety and fear. “Let not your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says, “Believe.”

He tries to explain the work he has to do for them—for all us—so that we would be forgiven and reconciled with God through his death and resurrection.  “Because I live,” he says, “you also will live.”

His disciples don’t feel ready to continue on without him. They don’t want him to leave. That’s why Thomas argues, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus says. Leaving is part of the plan so that we may be altogether with him. “No one comes to the Father but by me.”

He says that we have good works to do that he has demonstrated and will show us how to do. We have the power to do even greater works than what he has done, he says, because when he goes to be with the Father, he will send the Spirit of truth to help us. The Advocate will abide in and with us—forever.

When we were choosing scriptures for today’s service to honor Dorothy and comfort and encourage her loved ones, Nancy suggested that her mother was the person Jesus was talking about in Matthew, when the king says, “‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’” Dorothy is one of the righteous, who will answer our Heavenly King, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer (her), ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’”

Dorothy was one of the faithful people, I believe, that God sends to us to reveal his goodness, compassion, and love. She allowed the light of Christ to shine through her in this dark world. She was used by God for great works of kindness, to be a witness for the Son without her even knowing it. This is how the Lord wants to use all of us, with the Spirit’s help, as we walk our journey of faith.

Let us remember that no matter what happens to us in this world, as we continue on the righteous path, loving and serving others, that nothing can separate us from God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ. This love was imitated by Bob and Dorothy, who, if they had had their choice, would never have been separated from one another. And now they are experiencing the joy of reunion in The Father’s House, where Jesus has gone to prepare a place for all of us.

The Lord has chosen us to follow him and be with him because of his great love for us. He wants to give us good gifts in this world as he transforms us for the world to come. Will you open your hearts to receive them? Let him carry your burdens of grief, anxiety, and yes, fear, of what life will be like, now, without our loved one with us.

 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you,” says our Lord to his followers in every time and place. “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

Amen.

Meditation on Matthew 21:23-32

Pastor Karen Crawford

The Presbyterian Church, Coshocton, OH

Sept. 27, 2020

When Dorothy Totsch’s daughters were cleaning out the attic in her Coshocton home before her move 8 years ago, they found a box of letters dating back to the 1940s and 50s. These were love letters that their father, Bob Totsch, wrote to Dorothy Rea, whom he left behind to serve in the U.S. Navy in Korea.

Bob graduated from Coshocton High in 1948; Dorothy in 1950. Although the details of their courtship remain a mystery to their daughters, Nancy and Laurie, there’s no question of their long-lasting love. When Bob— a retired teacher, coach, and guidance counselor— was hospitalized before his passing in 2006, the couple had only been apart one day since they were married on Sept. 15, 1956 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Coshocton.

Dorothy went home to be with the Lord this week—on Sept. 23. She was 88.

Her faith and family were always important to her. After moving from Coshocton, where she had lived most of her life, to be close to her daughter, Nancy, Dorothy soon found a new worshipping community. She transferred her membership to Otterbein Lebanon Church in Lebanon, Ohio, in October 2013. She sang in the choir there and remained active in the church.

 When I talked with some of our longtime members about Dorothy, I discovered that many people knew her as a friend. An active member with Bob since 1989, she rang bells with Margaret McDowell’s Joy Belles. She helped with community dinners and the PW rummage sale for local mission. Ordained a deacon in January 1993, she enjoyed helping Pastor Carlisle serve Communion to homebound members and giving elderly widows rides to church. It was a group of widows from our church, her daughters said, who helped her in those difficult early years after Bob’s passing.

Her love of God and neighbor was expressed beyond the church walls as a faithful volunteer in our community. She served for many years as a pink lady in the gift shop at Coshocton Hospital. She was a Friend of the Coshocton Library, helping with book sales. She was an artist and volunteered for the Pomerene Center for the Arts. She was a gardener, growing daylilies and arbor-climbing clematis; she and Bob were members of a local garden club. She was a gifted pianist; neighbors would tell her how they enjoyed her music when she practiced with the windows open.

She was a Girl Scout Leader and was active in 4-H and Brownies with her daughters. “Everything we were a part of, she was there,” said her daughter, Nancy. “She tried to let us flap our little wings, and then she would scoop us up when we needed her.”

Their childhood home in Coshocton was the place for all the family gatherings for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthdays. But Dorothy and Bob didn’t wait for family to come to them. They enjoyed traveling to visit their children and grandchildren. “Nancy and I were the apple of their eye,” their daughter, Laurie, told me. “And then the grandchildren were.”

Dorothy was often doing crafts with Nancy’s daughter, Emily, not shying away from messy projects with glitter or beads. She made cookies and played board games with her other grandchildren, such as Tripoli, with Laurie’s sons.

What a testimony to Dorothy’s faithfulness when her daughters say that she taught them good values and kindness by example. As Paul urges the church in Philippi in 1:27, Dorothy lived a life worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And in 2:13, surely God was at work in her throughout her life, enabling her to will and to work for his good pleasure.

***

This is the message of the parable in Matthew 21 today: it isn’t enough to say we are faithful followers of Christ; we must be faithful. Amen? We must try to do the will of God. Our faith is expressed by loving and serving others, particularly those whom our society rejects and marginalizes, such as tax collectors and prostitutes whom Christ befriends in his society.

The parable is how Jesus ultimately answers the query of the elders and chief priests, “By what authority are you doing these things; and who gave you this authority?” No one questions the authority of the elders and chief priests; their realm of power goes beyond the religious life of the people. In First Century Palestine, there is no separation of church and state. The priests at the temple of Jerusalem are also rulers and judges over the community.  

What’s amazing is that Jesus is still being allowed to teach in the temple. This shows, perhaps, the power of his popularity with the people—and how the authority and respect of the leaders may be slipping. The crowds are astounded at Christ’s teaching in Matthew 7:28 and 29, ^“for he (teaches) them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”

Jesus has already offended religious leaders earlier in chapter 21. He rides into Jerusalem on a colt of a donkey, with the disciples crying out “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” Children cry out to Jesus in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David” angering the chief priests and elders. This follows Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves in the temple and driving them out. “It is written, he says, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of robbers.”

So now, instead of answering the chief priests’ and elders’ question about the source of his authority, Jesus has a question for them. What is the source of authority for the baptism of John the Baptist? Was it from heaven or was it of human origin?

Like politicians, the chief priests and elders talk among themselves, carefully weighing the political ramifications of their words before they give their answer. They are afraid of the crowd turning on them if they say his baptism was of human origin, for the people believe John is a prophet.

They decide to say, “We don’t know.” We are left wondering what they really believe—until Jesus tells us at the end of the passage.

The priests and elders don’t answer his question; Jesus doesn’t answer theirs. He tells, instead, the parable of the vineyard owner and his two sons. It’s about promises and choices that we make. Promises and choices. The vineyard is the Kingdom of God that Christ ushered in. It’s here, right now! It begins in this world! The owner is the Lord.

One son says flat out—he won’t work in the vineyard as his father asks. But then he changes his mind and chooses to obey. God doesn’t manipulate us into obedience., friends. He gives us the freedom to choose, offering us unconditional love when we mess up and return in repentance!

The other son says he will work in the vineyard. But he breaks his promise! He doesn’t go.

“Which one,” Jesus asks, “did the will of his father?”

He explains his parable, then, calling into question the witness and values of the chief priests and elders, who talk a good talk, and know how to say long, fancy prayers, but they aren’t doing the will of the Father! They are leading the people astray, demanding money from the poor, seeking selfish gain, rejecting the Messiah, and making outcasts of people in their community. These are the people whom Jesus befriends and lifts up as an example of godliness and faithfulness!

“Truly I tell you,” he says, “the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.”

***

Friends, I’m going to ask you just one question. Are you laboring in the vineyard? Don’t tell me. That’s between you and God.

I keep thinking of Dorothy and how she will be remembered for her kindness and loving spirit. What a wonderful legacy to leave your children—to have taught them kindness, by example. Tomorrow afternoon, her family and I will gather to witness to the Resurrection, give thanks for her life, and receive the comfort of the Spirit—the one that is always working in us, helping us to do God’s will.

I keep thinking about those love letters. I asked Nancy what became of them. She kept them with her, she said, all these years. Talk about faithfulness and steadfast love—that goes on beyond the grave.

Our Lord loves us that much—and more, dear brothers and sisters.

God says, “Come, my beloved, to my vineyard. All are welcome here. I have works of love for you to do! I will help you. And you will find peace like you’ve never known. My Son will give it to you.

“Come and labor for me in my kingdom. I have plans for you!”

Let us pray.

Holy One, thank you for welcoming us in your kingdom and inviting us to do your loving works. Thank you for having plans for us and offering us a peace we’ve never known! Help us, Lord, to be a witness to the kindness and compassion of your Son, who gave his life for sinners and became righteousness for us. Grant us courage to overcome any social barriers and reach out and befriend, as Christ did, the marginalized and outcast of our society today. Give us wisdom to know your will and strengthen us by your Spirit, Lord, to speak the words you want us to speak and do the things you want us to do to be obedient to your call. Help us to keep our promises and lead others into a closer relationship with you. In Christ we pray. Amen.

142 N. 4th St., Coshocton, OH 43812

Pastor Karen Crawford

Ashley Bryant and Debbie Clark, Liturgists

Alice Hoover, Organist

Sept. 27, 2020 10 a.m.

Prelude: Salvation Now Has Come to Earth Dietrich Buxtehude (1639-1707)

Greeting/Announcements

Minute for Mission: Tom Heading

Opening Words: Ashley Bryant

Praise the Lord who is our provider.   

The Lord is our hope. Our trust is in God.  

God brought us out of bondage and has made us free.

Glorious are the deeds of our God, and mighty are his acts.

Gathering Prayer: Ashley Bryant

Hymn      Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken 

Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God. God, whose word cannot be broken, formed thee for a blest abode. On the rock of ages founded, what can shake thy sure repose? With salvation’s walls surrounded, thou may’st smile at all thy foes.

Round each habitation hovering, see the cloud and fire appear for a glory and a covering, showing that the Lord is near. Thus deriving from their banner light by night and shade by day, safe they feed upon the manna which God gives them when they pray.

See, the streams of living waters, springing from eternal love, well supply thy sons and daughters and all fear of want remove. Who can faint while such a river ever flows, their thirst to assuage? Grace, so like the Lord the giver, never fails from age to age.

Call to Confession

Prayer of Confession

Almighty God, we have been wandering in the wilderness of sin. We have complained in the face of your mercy. We have been selfish and conceited in the face of your sacrifice. We have not done your will. Teach us humility. Teach us gratitude. Infuse your spirit into our beings so that we might be reconciled to you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

Time with Children and Youth

Prayer for Illumination with Debbie Clark

Reading: Exodus 17:1-7 and Philippians 2:1-13 Debbie Clark

Holy wisdom, holy word. Thanks be to God!

Reading: Matthew 21: 23-32

This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.

Message     Are You Laboring in the Vineyard? Pastor Karen

Hymn             Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Come, thou Fount of every blessing; tune my heart to sing thy grace; streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above; praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, mount of God’s unchanging love!

Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by thy help I’m come; and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God; he, to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be! Let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart; O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.

Invitation to the Offering

Offertory: Come to the Water, arranged, Harold Helvey

Prayer of Thanksgiving/Dedication

O God, use these gifts to do your will in the world and prepare us for your coming kingdom. And hear us as we continue our prayer saying: Our Father, 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 debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Hymn               O For a World (Stanzas 1, 2, 5)

O for a world where everyone respects each other’s ways, where love is lived and all is done with justice and with praise.

O for a world where goods are shared and misery relieved, where truth is spoken, children spared, equality achieved.

O for a world preparing for God’s glorious reign of peace, where time and tears will be no more, and all but love will cease.

Charge/Benediction

Postlude   All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name    arranged by Diane Bish

Meditation on Matthew 20:1-16

The Presbyterian Church, Coshocton, OH

Pastor Karen Crawford

Sept. 20, 2020

I am SO glad our sound is fixed! Last week, if you weren’t here, we had an echo. We discovered it about 10 minutes before worship began, so we just tried to make the best of it. One of our elders said I sounded like I was preaching at Yankee Stadium! That’s never been a secret dream of mine.

Jim, on the way home from church, told me that I didn’t even need the sound system that day. I was so loud, he said, I didn’t need a microphone! That’s quite a compliment coming from the one who knows how I have struggled with finding my preaching voice.

It was summer 2007 when I preached my first sermon. I hadn’t even had a preaching class! I had been invited to serve as a park chaplain for a state park campground near Hanover, Pennsylvania. The first Sunday that I led worship in the outdoor amphitheater, I didn’t have a microphone. And I think there was an air show going on overhead, just as I started to speak.

The next week, the committee that hired me brought a portable, wireless sound system. I was the first chaplain at that park who ever needed a microphone, they said. The system plugged into an outlet enclosed in a little wooden box. My youngest son, James, in middle school at the time, operated my sound and helped with set up and take down.

It worked great until the Sunday when he opened the little wooden box to plug in the receiver—and there was a snake coiled inside! It was big! We had to call a park ranger to come and get the snake before we could start the worship service. She brought a rake and just reached in and coiled the snake around the rake and carried him away. She said he was a good snake. I can’t say that I agreed!

It truly has been a perpetual learning experience for me—these years of ministry and going back farther than that. I’m pretty sure that the Lord had been preparing me for ministry my whole life, but I didn’t have a clue. That’s what God does—he prepares us for His future, for all eternity, waiting to unfold.

***

Today’s gospel reading in Matthew 20 is about God’s grace and humanity’s mixed response. This is part of a longer teaching on the kingdom of God—and how it’s not like the world. This is hard for the disciples to grasp. It’s hard for us to understand, too.

In Matthew 18, the disciples come to Jesus and ask, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” It just dawned on me last night that they probably wanted him to choose between them! But he doesn’t pick one of them.

 He calls a child—and everyone knows children should be quiet and invisible in Jesus’ society, everyone but Jesus, that is! “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,” he says. In chapter 19, he says this about children again. “Let the children come to me,” he says to those who are shooing them away, “and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”

Then he totally astounds them when a young man asks Jesus “what good deed” he must do to have eternal life. This is during a time when religious people commonly believe that wealth is a sign of God’s favor. Some people believe that today! But that’s not what Jesus says! He tells the man to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor, so he will have treasure in heaven. Then, “Come,” he says, “Follow me.” The man goes away grieving, for he has many possessions.

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus says, “it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.”

“Then who can be saved???” the disciples ask.

“For mortals, it is impossible,” Jesus says, “but for God all things are possible.”

Chapter 19 ends the same way our passage today ends, “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” This repetition isn’t accidental or an editorial error. Christ is emphasizing this point.

We reach today’s reading in chapter 20, and we find some disgruntled workers. Why are they complaining? Everyone received the same pay for a day’s work—a denarius, a typical wage for a laborer. Who are the people doing the most complaining? Those who worked longer, right, but received the same pay as those who worked less. They are outraged! This isn’t fair!

There’s no gratitude here for the owner of the vineyard, though they would still be standing unemployed in the market—no money, no way to buy food for their families—if the owner hadn’t given them work to do in the first place. “Are you envious because I am generous?” the owner asks. “So the last will be first and the first will be last.”

I can’t imagine that’s what they want to hear. We are left wondering what will happen next. But Jesus doesn’t tell us any more of the story, just like he doesn’t tell us what the older brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son decides when his Father begs him to stay and celebrate the return of his rebellious brother—the one who was dead, but now alive, lost and now found. Will the workers decide they won’t labor for the generous employer who pays everyone the same, regardless of their work?

But the story isn’t over when the parable ends. And if you think that maybe the disciples got the message about humility, grace and gratitude, then you’d be mistaken. Just a few verses down, the sons of Zebedee come to Jesus with their mother, when none of the other disciples are around. She has a request. She wants one of her sons to sit at Jesus’ right hand and the other at his left in his Kingdom. Jesus explains that they don’t know what they are asking. And they don’t. Not yet. But when all the disciples are back together, and they are angry at James and John, the Lord again astounds them with his teaching.

He’s moved from God’s grace and humility to our calling to imitate God’s sacrificial love. “Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant,”  he says, “and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

No one says anything after that. What could they say?

 Their journey of faith and Christ’s ministry and teaching by example continue with two men being healed on the way to Jerusalem. “Son of David, have mercy on us!” they cry out. Jesus stops,\ and asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”

“Lord, let our eyes be opened,” they say.

Moved by compassion, Jesus touches their eyes. Immediately they regain their sight and follow him!

**

When I consider my calling to ministry, mostly I am amazed. How can God use someone like me? I often wonder. Christ’s words in Matthew 19:26 reassure me that this isn’t about me. “For God, all things are possible!”

I celebrate the anniversary of my ordination this week—Sept. 25, 2011. I give thanks to God that 9 years ago, I was led to say yes to the Lord with all my heart, committing my life to labor for the Kingdom, not knowing, of course, what was to come.

I have been continually inspired by the Great Cloud of Witnesses that surrounds me, including my good friend, Leslie Ritter, who went home to be with the Lord on Sept. 14. She was the clerk of session at my Florida congregation, but she did many other things for the church, too, such as helping to prepare and serve fellowship meals with her husband, Carl, every Tuesday night for more than 2 decades. She often assisted me with home communion, as well. She was a tiny woman, but she was tough, the daughter of a colonel. She was also kind and funny and generous. If I was anxious about something, she’d give me a fierce look with her blue eyes and say, “Be strong! Be strong!”

So many others have helped me be faithful to my call and brought me joy in this journey. Some have visited me here in Coshocton! Others aren’t free to travel, but call and write. My friend, Sis, in her 90s now, still reaches out. I just love to hear from her! When I ask her how she is, she says, “Same old, same old.” I know she has pain but she doesn’t complain. She models gratitude. She tells me that every morning, when she wakes up and puts her feet on the floor, she thanks the good Lord for another day!

And I have to say this. I would not be a pastor if God hadn’t placed Jim Crawford in my life. I would still be a journalist, working long days and writing stories on deadline, wondering if there was something else I could do for God, but what could that be? Jim has always believed in me, even when I have had doubts.

Friends, God responds to our weakness, our grumbling and complaining, our anxieties and fears. You know how God responds? By providing for all our needs and saying, “I love you. I forgive you. My grace is enough for you!”

Someday, we will see our Savior face to face. And you know what he will say to us? Because of His grace and because of His Son and not because of anything we have done?

He’s going to say, “Well done, good and faithful servants. Well done.”

Let us pray.

Gracious heavenly Father, thank you for your love and mercy for sinners, revealed by the sacrifice of your Only Son, and for your kindness and patience shown to us every day. Help us, Lord, to be your grateful children, imitating the humility and sacrifice of the One who came to serve and not be served and to give his life for a ransom for many. Lord, thank you for your call to ministry to each of us and for the Great Cloud of Witnesses, dear friends and good examples on this side of your Kingdom and in the world to come. Strengthen us to be more faithful, trusting your provision in our wildernesses, trusting you to guide us, trusting that your grace is enough. We look forward to the day when you return for your Church, when you gather us all to yourself. We long to hear you say, “Well done, good and faithful servants. Well done.” In Christ we pray. Amen.

The Presbyterian Church, 142 N. 4^th St., Coshocton, OH 43812

Rev. Karen Crawford, Pastor

Mark Wagner, Organist

Jim Arganbright, Liturgist

September 20, 2020                                                                                                   10 a.m.

Prelude Prelude and Fugue in G Johann Sebastian Bach

Greeting/Announcements

Opening Words

O give thanks to the Lord! The Lord hears the cries of the people.

Give thanks to the Lord.

The works of the Lord are great.

Remember what God has done.

God has done miracles, and the Lord always remembers God’s covenant.

Glory and praise is due to the Lord!

Gathering Prayer

Hymn Fairest Lord Jesus Anonymous
Fairest Lord Jesus,
Ruler of all nature,
O thou of God to earth come down,
Thee will I cherish,
Thee will I honor,
Thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown.

Beautiful Savior! Lord of all the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor,
Praise, adoration,
Now and forevermore be thine.

Call to Confession/Prayer of Confession/Assurance of Pardon
Gracious God, we have sought a(er things, but we have not sought a(er you. We have expected generosity, but we have not shown generosity. We have not been gracious or grateful. We have failed to remember all that you have done. Forgive us and fill our hearts with gratitude. Help us to share our gifts and strengthen our legs so that we can run after you, O God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Time with Children and Youth

Prayer for Illumination

Exodus 16:2-15 and Philippians 1:21-30

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God!

Matthew 20:1-16

The is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ!

Message So the Last Will Be First

HYMN   God Whose Giving Knows No Ending                   Robert L. Edwards

God, whose giving knows no ending,
From Your rich and endless store:
Nature’s wonder, Jesus’ wisdom,
Costly cross, grave’s shattered door.
Gifted by You, we turn to You,
Off’ring up ourselves in praise:
Thankful song shall rise forever,
Gracious donor of our days.

Treasure, too, You have entrusted,
Gain through pow’rs Your grace conferred:
Ours to use for home and kindred,
And to spread the Gospel Word.
Open wide our hands in sharing,
As we heed Christ’s ageless call.
Healing, teaching, and reclaiming,
Serving You by loving all.

Invitation to the Offering

Offertory: How Dear to Me Is Your Dwelling Robert J. Powell

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication/Lord’s Prayer

Lord, giver of all good gifts, thank you for the resources gathered here. Use these gifts for the advancement of your kingdom; and hear us as we continue our prayer saying: Our Father, 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 debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Hymn Lord, I Want to Be a Christian African American Spiritual
Lord, I want to be a Christian
In my heart, in my heart;
Lord, I want to be a Christian
In my heart.

Refrain:
In my heart, in my heart;
Lord, I want to be a Christian
In my heart.

Lord, I want to be more loving
In my heart, in my heart;
Lord, I want to be more loving
In my heart.

Refrain

Lord, I want to be like Jesus
In my heart, in my heart;
Lord, I want to be like Jesus
In my heart.

Refrain

Charge/Benediction

Postlude Baroque Tune Giovanni Coperario (1575-1626)

Meditation on John 14:1-7, 15-19, 25-27

In Memory of Joann Chambers Haynes Thompson

The Presbyterian Church, Coshocton, OH

Pastor Karen Crawford

Sept. 18, 2020

    Here is a link to the entire service:

You know how when you meet someone and you feel like you already know them? That’s how it was when I met Joann Thompson last year. She came through the greeting line after worship. Lisa introduced us, and Joann told me she lived in Beavercreek. I immediately thought of Beaver Creek in Pennsylvania. That’s how new I was to Ohio! Am I saying it right? Beavercreek?

    Joann told me how much she enjoyed worship and loved this church, the church of her childhood. She wanted to share memories, I think, but there wasn’t time. There were other people in line behind her. Isn’t that how it always seems to be? We are in a hurry and yet these seemingly small but important openings for relationships to develop present themselves, like a beautiful but short-lived flower that blooms then fades quickly in bright sunlight.

    I didn’t know that would be the only opportunity I would have to speak with her. I can only give thanks for the privilege of meeting her, and the honor of sharing her story and the promises of Jesus Christ with you.

     Joann was born in Logan, Ohio, on Christmas Eve in 1928. She would be a middle child, with an older sister, Mary, and younger sister, Emily.  Her parents, Harold and Thelma Chambers, would live on 16^th Street in Coshocton and later on Cambridge Road. Joann’s dad was a Coshocton County Extension Agent; her mom was a teacher at Lincoln Elementary School. Harold and Thelma were longtime members of The Presbyterian Church. Joann and her sisters attended Sunday school. All three girls, though they would move away when they grew up, would be married here.

    Joann joined the church on April 6, 1941. Our records say that her first name was Natalie! Her middle name was Joann. Why didn’t she like the name Natalie? I think it’s beautiful! Isn’t that funny—how we often don’t feel as if we fit the names given to us at birth? I do know this for sure, that whatever the name is that we call ourselves, God knows our names and everything about us. Psalm 139 tells us this—that God knows us before we were born. When he knit us together in our mother’s womb, we were fearfully and wonderfully made!

    Joann possessed musical gifts. She sang in choirs, played piano, and played flute in Coshocton High School’s marching band. After she graduated in 1947, she went on to study music at Ohio State. She graduated in 1952 and found a position teaching music at a school in Fairborn. She actually lived on the same street in Fairborn where her daughter, Lee, lives now–and Lee didn’t know that when she moved there!

    Joann met Howard Haynes through mutual friends while living in Fairborn. They were married June 26, 1954, here in this sanctuary, by Rev. John Abernethy. She continued to teach music in Fairborn and attended Memorial Presbyterian Church in Dayton, transferring her membership from the church of her childhood on Sept. 15, 1958. She took some time off from teaching when she had her own children—Susan and Lee Anne. When Lee was in 5^th grade, the family moved to a new home they had built in Beavercreek. Joann went back to school, before that move, and attended Wright State University to study Elementary Education. She taught 3^rd graders for 17 years. Isn’t that awesome?

     Tragically, Joann’s husband, Howard, died of cancer in 1986. He was 59. While some people are blessed with only one loving companion for their lives, God provided another for Joann. It was also a second chance love as Joann and Henry Thompson had dated in high school. Their relationship had ended when Henry was drafted into the U.S. Army after graduation. Joann was brokenhearted. Henry served in Korea before attending Miami University and coming back to Coshocton to work in the real estate and insurance business with his father.

     Joann and Henry married on June 23, 1990 in Tucson, Arizona, where they would make their new life together. Henry worked as a realtor there, and they attended Catalina Foothills Church. Joann sang in the choir for many years, and her daughter, Lee, sang with her.

     After Henry’s retirement in 2010, they moved back to Ohio. As we grow older, we often feel the pull to go to the place we called home when we were young.

    They were married 28 years when Henry went home to be with the Lord on April 3, 2018 at the age of 88.

***

  Our reading in John 14 is about the place Christ’s disciples will call home when the Lord goes to prepare a place for them in His Father’s house, then comes again and takes them to himself. “So that where I am,” he says, “there you may be also.”  The disciples are grieving as Jesus speaks of his departure, telling them about how he will die; this is just too much for them to bear for the one they love.

    When Jesus says, “you know the way to the place where I am going,” Thomas interrupts with an emotional plea, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

    It’s simple, Jesus says. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

    What really touches me in this familiar passage is the promise that Jesus won’t leave us orphaned! That seems especially important today as we remember the life of Joann—a mother, stepmother and grandmother. No matter how old we are, when we lose a parent, we feel like an orphan. Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to all who love Him and seek to keep His commandments. The Lord will abide with us forever—here, now, in Spirit, and face to face in the world to come!  

      Jesus says at the beginning and end of this passage, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” He repeats this phrase because he knows they ARE anxious, just as you and I are anxious at the thought of living without our loved ones with us. Jesus knows this because he is both God and one of us, feeling all the same emotions that we do.

      Christ’s promise of peace is a gift for his earliest disciples; it strengthens them in their time of grief and helps them to continue his ministry on earth, following in his footsteps.  It’s a peace that lives in us and strengthens us today to do God’s will.

 ***

      When I asked Lee to tell me about her mother, she said. “Mom was a strong woman, who could calm your fears and make things make sense. She was a good listener when I needed to vent. She had a great sense of humor. She had a good memory! Three things she told everyone to have: a positive attitude, a sense of humor, and a glass of wine every day!

    “She used to enjoy sewing clothes when we were little; later years she enjoyed counted cross stitch and quilting. She was an avid reader, enjoying books by James Patterson and Bill O’Reilly and historical novels about Scotland or England. She also was a fan of Fox News! 

     Family meant everything to her. Joann was happy to be able to attend her step grandson Justin’s wedding on July 25—days before she went home to be with the Lord on Aug. 11. Psalm 139 assures us that the Lord knows the number of our days and that they are written down in God’s book, before they even existed.

    I am convinced that Joann, the special lady I met too briefly in a greeting line after worship, would want her family to know that it was her time to join Christ in the joy that He had prepared. This same joy awaits each of us in the house of our heavenly parent. “I will not leave you orphaned!” Christ is saying to us right now. “I am coming to you….

    “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid.”

Amen.