Sharing God's Love and Grace

Pastor Karen Crawford, The Presbyterian Church, Coshocton, OH

July 12, 2020

The Parable of the Sower

Matthew chapter 13, verses 1-9 and 18-23:

13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. ² Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. ³ Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear.

¹⁸ “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. ²⁰ The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ²² The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²³ But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Activities for Children and Youth:

Parable of the Sower Coloring Page:

https://sermons4kids.com/parable_of_sower_colorpg.htm?fromSermonId=444

Parable of the Sower Word Search:

https://sermons4kids.com/parable_of_the_sower_wordsearch.htm?fromSermonId=444

Parable of the Sower Crossword:

https://sermons4kids.com/parable_of_the_sower_crossword.htm?fromSermonId=444

Glorious (David Archuleta) One Voice Children’s Choir

The Presbyterian Church, Coshocton

Pastor Karen Crawford 

Liturgist: Janie Kinkley

Musicians: The Tubafours:

Ron Geese, euphonium; Brian Botdorf, euphonium; Ron Barkett, tuba; Jonathon Stuck, tuba

Gathering Music

    Amazing Grace – Early American melody, arr. Ron Geese

    With His Stripes We Are Healed – G. F. Handel, arr. Steven Cross

     Down in the River to Pray – Traditional, arr. Art Leiby

Prelude

     Pilgrim’s Chorus from Tannhauser, Richard Wagner, arr. Ron Geese

Greeting/Announcements: Pastor Karen      

Opening Sentences:    Janie Kinkley

Come to me, Jesus says. All who are weary,

come to me.

And you, who carry heavy loads,

come to me.

For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Let us draw near to Jesus, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.

Gathering Prayer: Janie Kinkley

Hymn: His Eye Is On the Sparrow, arr. Ron Geese

Call to Confession: Pastor Karen

Prayer of Confession

Lord, we marvel at the thought of a well-fitted yoke, a burden scaled to match our frames; we do not know how to rest in the promise of such labor. Some of us are weary from unceasing responsibility; others find no welcome in the marketplace. We confound your vision for our common life. Forgive our blind striving, our stifled concern, the judgments we cast on others. Make yourself known to us in the silence. Shape your children for the commonwealth of your love. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon                                                                                      

Time with Children

Prayer for Illumination: Janie Kinkley

Scripture: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30                                                  Janie Kinkley

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

Scripture: Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67                                         Pastor Karen

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

Message                    Love Story                                                          Pastor Karen

Hymn: Near to the Heart of God, Cleland Boyd McAfee

Invitation to Offering/Prayer of Dedication/Lord’s Prayer

Gracious Creator, you have laced our lives with blessing. As we present our offering, we also tender our lives. Make us your bold and faithful people, willing to go forward in faith wherever you would lead us, that we might be a comfort in the world. 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.

Solo: God Bless the U.S.A., Lee Greenwood, arr. Corey Swinderman; sung by Ron Barkett

Charge and Blessing

Postlude and Patriotic Music with The Tubafours:

    Postlude, Ron Geese

    Salute to George M. Cohan, arr. Ron Geese

    National Emblem, E.E. Bagley, arr. Robert Wilkinson

Meditation on Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Pastor Karen Crawford

Outdoor Worship with The Presbyterian Church

July 5, 2020

    He was movie star handsome. She was two weeks older than him and he never let her forget it.

    Paul Hunt met Wilma Spring in the 7^th grade at Coshocton Junior High. Wilma saw him out on the playground. He had on a goofy hat with flaps on the sides, and he was on his bicycle. Wilma told one of her friends, “I don’t know who that boy is, but I am going to marry him someday.”  In 8^th grade, when she walked into homeroom, there he sat. He saw her and liked her, too. Right off the bat.  After lunch, she was hanging out with her friends. Paul, with his very distinctive gait, wearing engineer boots, started to saunter past. And Wilma said, “Oh, Paul, there’s an empty seat right next to me.” He sat down and that was it.

     Paul and Wilma’s love story had God’s hand all over it. She was “from the other side of the railroad tracks,” she says, “and Paul’s family belonged to the country club.” They dated on and off, going to dances and Saturday matinees. By the time they got to be juniors in high school, there were other girls that had their eyes on Paul. Gretchen told all the girls that if they so much as looked at Paul she would scratch their eyes out. “I didn’t pay one bit of attention to her,” Wilma says. “I always thought he was special. I found myself comparing him to other guys. Nobody else ever measured up.”

     They graduated from Coshocton High in 1957. Wilma got a job while Paul went off to the College of Wooster. She saw him on weekends and enjoyed attending dances with him at Wooster, staying up all night in the dorm with the girls. Yet, she was dating other people, too. She didn’t know that Paul knew she was seeing other guys. Until one day, when he confronted her. She was going to have to make up her mind. Was she going to be with him or not?

    “From then on,” she says. “I was.”

     The engagement ring came at Christmas. Paul graduated from college in 1961 and found out that he was going to be drafted. He enlisted in the Army so that he might choose his vocation. They were separated again, and this time, it was too far to come home on weekends. He was stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana.

     The Rev. Harold Kaser married them on July 1, 1962, in our chapel. It was a hot day, and the chapel didn’t have air conditioning.  They began their marriage in a rented home off base in Lawrence, Indiana.  “I thought he was taking me off to the end of the earth,” she says. “I had never been away from home.”

     They did return to Coshocton in 1964 and their love story continued, with raising three children together and numerous stray cats. On July 1, they would have celebrated 58 years of marriage, but Paul went home to be with the Lord on June 29. He was 81.

     The love story between Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis 24 is different than Paul and Wilma’s, but also has God’s hand all over it. Not just anyone would do for Abraham and Sarah’s son, born 25 years after God first spoke his promise to the barren couple. Sarah, by now, had passed. And Abraham didn’t want Isaac to marry one of the local, Canaanite girls. Only kin would do for Abraham, who, when he married Sarai, was marrying his niece. Abraham may have been 120 or more when he entrusted his eldest, most loyal and faithful servant to go and find a match for his son. If the girl weren’t willing to leave her family to come to Canaan, then she wasn’t the right one for Isaac. This was the land that God had promised to his descendants, who would number the stars.

      The servant set off with a caravan of camels, servants, and gifts from his master’s wealth to offer the bride and family. He headed for Aram-naharaim, to the city of Nahor, Abraham’s brother. The servant’s meeting of the beautiful young Rebekah was at a well, where all the daughters of the town would come to draw water. Wells were often the meeting place for young men and women. Isaac and Rebekah’s son, Jacob, will meet and fall in love with Rachel at a well. Moses, in Exodus, will meet Zipporah, his bride to be, at a well, too.

     Abraham’s servant seeks God’s help for this divinely appointed errand, praying specifically that the one who would grant him a drink and offer to water his camels would be the one God has chosen for Isaac. When Rebekah does these things, the servant gives her jewelry, which, weighing more than 4 ounces, would be worth thousands of dollars today! He asks not her name but whose daughter she is and if there is room in her father’s house for him to stay the night. Rebekah is Abraham’s great niece.

      Rebekah’s brother, Laban, and their father, Bethuel, see the jewelry, hear the story, and declare, “this thing is of the Lord.” But they don’t make the decision for Rebekah. They ask her if she will go with the man. Rebekah assents to marriage to Isaac when she says, “I will.”

      The meeting of Rebekah and Isaac takes place in the evening after a long journey on camels. It is love at first sight, like Wilma and Paul, though the courtship is much shorter. He is walking in the field, looks up and sees her and she looks up and sees him. She asks, “Who is that man over there, walking in the field to meet us?” It’s Isaac. She covers herself demurely with a veil.

     There’s no chapel wedding for Abraham’s only son. Bringing Rebekah into his late mother’s tent is akin to tying the knot. They live happily ever after, though they do have a complicated family life—and some struggles raising twin boys. You can read their story, beginning in Genesis 25.

    Isaac and Rebekah’s story stirs the question, “Is God, the Creator of all, in the business of matchmaking?” Yes, I believe so, though I wouldn’t go as far to say that every marriage is a match made in heaven. We do make choices, as Rebekah did.

     We always have a choice in our relationship with the Lord. God reaches out with love, beckons us to come to him, offers to carry our heavy burdens and give us rest in his yoke, trusting him to guide us all our days. But it’s up to us to respond to the Lord’s love for us and continue to seek him to have a relationship, as Abraham’s faithful servant does in Genesis 24.

     Our Triune God is all about relationships. Jesus prays in John 17:21 that all of his followers “may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” The Lord accomplishes his transformation of all Creation and his plan for salvation through relationships.

    Our baptism, if you think about it, is a meeting at the well. He lovingly claims us as his own and pours His Spirit into us, giving us gifts to last a lifetime. Like Wilma and Rebekah, and Jim and me, we end up traveling to places we never thought we would go–for the love of God poured into us to pour out on the world.

      We, too, are matchmakers. Our job is to bring people together—make disciples and change the world through relationships we create and nurture, as we follow the Lord.

     It’s been hard for us, separated in our homes since March. But the Spirit continues to use us to bring people together and nurture relationships, a holy work. We are learning, through all that we do to try to help our community stay safe from the virus, that we live not for ourselves but for one another.

     Our love story goes on.

Let us pray. Loving God, thank you for pouring your Spirit into our hearts and sending us out into the world to create and nurture relationships. Help us, Lord, in this time of separation, to grow in love and service to you and our neighbors and be patient until it is your time for us to worship as a congregation in person again. Use us for your holy work as you transform us into your new Creation. Heal our community, Lord, and make us united and whole. We submit ourselves and our lives to you, once again. Please carry our burdens for us. Give us the peace and rest of your yoke. In Christ we pray. Amen.

Meditation on Luke 15:11-32

In Memory of Paul Richard Hunt

April 16, 1939-June 29, 2020

July 2, 2020

He was movie star handsome. She was 2 weeks older than him and he never let her forget it. Paul met Wilma Spring in the 7^th grade at Coshocton Junior High. When Wilma saw him out on the playground, he had a goofy hat with flaps on the sides, and he was on his bicycle. Wilma told one of her friends, “I don’t know who that boy is, but I am going to marry him someday.”  In 8^th grade, she was 2 weeks late starting school because of bronchitis. And when she walked into homeroom, there he sat. He saw her and liked her, too. Right off the bat.  “I snagged him,” she says. After lunch, she was hanging out with her friends. Paul, with his very distinctive gait, wearing engineer boots, started to saunter past. And Wilma said, “Oh, Paul, there’s an empty seat right next to me.” He sat down, and that was it.

    When he asked her for a date some time later, she said, “I don’t know. I have to ask my mother…” “I wasn’t allowed to go to the movies, much,” she says. “We didn’t have the money to go.” She was, as she describes it, “from the other side of the railroad tracks” and Paul’s family belonged to the country club. On their first date, they went to a Saturday matinee at the Sixth Street Theater. Paul’s dad picked her up and dropped them off. They went to Islay’s afterward to drink phosphates, a fruit flavored, carbonated drink.

     They dated on and off through high school. Dances with the YWCA or school, they went. He would invite her to his boys’ club dances. He wasn’t a good dancer, but Wilma was. “I would tell him to keep time to the music—wave your arms around and I’ll do the rest.” He had dance lessons at the country club and played the drums in the high school marching band. He still couldn’t dance.

      By the time they got to be juniors in high school, there were other girls that had their eyes on Paul. Gretchen told all the girls that if they so much as looked at Paul she would scratch their eyes out. “I didn’t pay one bit of attention to her,” Wilma says. In their senior year, they got serious, but still dated other people. “I always thought he was special,” Wilma says. “I found myself comparing him to other guys. Nobody else ever measured up.”

   He went off to Wooster College after they graduated high school in 1957. Wilma was upset. College wasn’t a path open to her. Her family couldn’t afford it and didn’t think it was necessary for a girl, though Wilma wanted to go. She stayed home and worked — at Newberry’s, then Shaw Barton in accounting and then,  First National Bank in bookkeeping.

    Paul, coming home on weekends, served as her patient and gentle teacher. He passed on his college books to her when he finished reading them and they had good conversations. Both were curious people with the hearts of explorers. They would go to the Walhonding dam and knock rocks with his geology hammer. “You never knew what you found inside,” she says. “I was always learning something from him.”

    Wilma enjoyed attending dances with Paul at Wooster, staying up all night in the dorm with the girls. Yet, she was dating other people, too. She didn’t know that Paul knew she was seeing other guys. Until one day, when Paul confronted her. She was going to have to make up her mind. Was she going to be with him or not?

    “From then on,” she says. “I was.”

     The engagement ring came at Christmas. Paul graduated from college with a degree in Economics in 1961, but they didn’t get married right after his graduation. He found out that he was going to be drafted, so he enlisted in the Army, which allowed him to choose his vocation. They were separated again, and this time, it was too far to come home on weekends. He was stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana.

     Reverend Harold Kaser married them on July 1, 1962, here in this chapel, which was only a few years old. It was a hot day and the chapel didn’t have air conditioning, back then.  They began their marriage in a rented home off base in Lawrence, Indiana.  “I thought he was taking me off to the end of the earth,” she says. “I had never been away from home.”

     Paul worked in the Adjutant General’s office, and he was teaching data processing when computers took up a whole room. His commander was one of his students. They came back to their hometown in 1964, and Paul began work at Pretty Products and later Yankee Wire Cloth. They had three children: Christy, Cindy, and Philip. And Paul, who valued family more than anything, wanted Wilma to just focus on caring for the children. She could shop as much as she wanted, buy clothes or anything she wanted for herself, but he didn’t want her to work outside the home, sing in the choir or serve on a church committee when their children were young. They needed her full attention, especially Phil, who once threw a paper airplane in the sanctuary during worship, and Rev. Millspaugh, without missing a beat in his sermon, had to “give him the hairy eye.”

     Paul had a number of hobbies. He liked photography, antique tractors, and to sail and swim; he tinkered on his car and did woodworking. Wilma was his second hand out in the garage. He mended all kinds of things around the house, and he had the knack of figuring out how things could work better. But he would make things so complicated, that it was annoying. Paul built his own boat, a Chris-Craft, and Wilma and Paul went to Lake Park and Pleasant Hill Lake near Loudonville.

    When I met Paul, about a year ago, his declining health had led to him moving to a small care home, up a steep drive in Coshocton. He didn’t like it there. It wasn’t home. There wasn’t anyone with whom to have a stimulating conversation. And the very private man didn’t have any privacy. Finally, he was able to move into Windsorwood Place. He was happier when I visited him there, but his health struggles continued.

   But I want to tell you that Paul is the only person with whom I have served home communion who wanted to talk seriously about the Scripture. He brought questions to the text. I enjoyed our conversation and the time passed quickly, and before long, Glenn Kinkade and I had stayed more than an hour. He was a storyteller, too, and was eager to share about his family, the stray cats that made their home with Wilma and him, his paper route and growing up in Coshocton, and his great grandfather, Rev. William Ellis Hunt, who was pastor of our church from 1857 to 1901. His eyes sparkled when he and Wilma told me about their adventures going whitewater rafting with Wanda and Denny in West Virginia—when they were 62!

     The loss of his brother, Tim, weighed heavily on him. Tim, who hid his depression for many years, tragically committed suicide when he was 62, something he had planned since he was 20 years old. Paul never understood why Tim did this. He worried about Tim’s soul. Would he go to heaven? he asked me. Was suicide an unforgiveable sin?

     I told him about God’s grace. He nodded as I spoke. He knew all the scriptures I quoted. But he needed to hear them again and be reassured.

     Later, I would discover that he struggled with accepting God’s forgiveness for himself. He believed that he was the Prodigal Son, without saying why. Wilma prayed fervently for him—that he would accept God’s forgiveness. And one day, her prayers were answered. His countenance changed. He had experienced Christ’s peace.

      Paul isn’t the only one who struggles with accepting God’s love and forgiveness. We all do! Some people fear death because of this. That’s why I chose to share the Parable of the Prodigal Son in this service to witness to the resurrection and honor Paul’s life.

     All of us have gone astray—maybe not demanded our share of an inheritance before our father died and gone off and squandered it on selfish pleasures before ending up homeless and starving before we came to our senses. But all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That’s Romans 3:23. God proves his love for us, however, that while were sinners, Christ died for us. That’s Romans 5:8. And, “He who had no sin became sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21) “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

       What if the Prodigal Son were mentally ill—and that was what led him to act in such impulsive, angry, and irresponsible ways?  What if he suffered from depression, continually comparing himself to his perfect older brother and coming up short? The Prodigal Son finally made his way home when he hit bottom, and the Father was already waiting and watching for Him! Before the Son could say he was sorry, the Father greeted him with joy and prepared to celebrate his return with the entire community. There was no looking back and no shame or punishment. All that mattered was that his beloved child had returned. What was lost had been found! That’s the grace of God who forgives even the unlovable, those who have done the unthinkable, those we struggle to forgive.

      Paul knew that longing to be home, healed and whole when he was ill for so long and spent too much time in hospitals and nursing and rehab centers. He wanted to be home, just as Wilma wanted to be home when they got married and he took her to the end of the earth in Lawrence, Indiana.

     We all long to be home when we live in this world. Our Spirits are restless. For we are citizens of heaven, not of the earth. Our home is with our God, who waits and longs for us to be with him. He is joyful when we come back to him in prayer, broken, hurting, and weary. When we come to the end of ourselves and realize our need for him — because we can never be righteous on our own. No matter how hard we try.

    We can live resurrected lives with Christ right now, with God’s help, by faith.

    Someday, soon, we will see Him, face to face. Like Paul and all the saints, we will go home, when God calls us. The Heavenly Father and all the Kingdom will celebrate the return of The Prodigal children. Cleansed and clothed in robes of righteousness. Forgiven and freed from sin. No longer lost, but forever found in Him.

     Amen.

The Presbyterian Church, 142 N. Fourth St., Coshocton, OH 34812

Pastor Karen Crawford

Guest Preacher, Synod of the Covenant Executive Chip Hardwick

Musicians: Alice Hoover, Caroline Heading and Mark Wagner

Liturgists: Bob Bish, Jim Arganbright, Franzetta Turner, Rob Heidenreich, and Brittany Hesson

Prelude: Trust and Obey ( Daniel B. Downer, arr. Lloyd Larson) Caroline Heading, Piano

Greeting/Announcements with Pastor Karen

Opening Sentences with Bob Bish

God calls us by name into the presence of holiness as God’s holy people.

We answer this call by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the name of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, come, let us worship God.

Gathering Prayer: Bob Bish

Hymn: Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life (by Frank Mason North); Alice Hoover, Organ

• Where cross the crowded ways of life,
  where sound the cries of race and clan,
  above the noise of selfish strife,
  we hear your voice, O Son of Man.
• In haunts of wretchedness and need,
  on shadowed thresholds fraught with fears,
  from paths where hide the lures of greed,
  we catch the vision of your tears.
• The cup of water given for you
  still holds the freshness of your grace;
  yet long these multitudes to view
  the sweet compassion of your face.
• O Master, from the mountainside,
  make haste to heal these hearts of pain;
  among these restless throngs abide;
  O tread the city’s streets again.

Call to Confession/Prayer of Confession/Assurance of Pardon with Pastor Karen

O God, on lonely Mount Moriah you put your servant, Abraham, to the test. We confess that we have failed much lesser tests of our faith. We have allowed sin to run our lives, to shape how we act toward others, and to kill our relationship with you. In your great mercy, forgive us. Change even our bodies from implements of destruction to instruments of your peace; for the sake of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Time With Children and Youth: Amazing Grace!

Hymn: Amazing Grace (John Newton, sung by Rhema Marvanne)

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind but now I see.

Was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
We have already come
T’was Grace that brought us safe thus far
And Grace will lead us home.

And Grace will lead us home.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see.

Was blind, but now I see.

Prayer for Illumination with Bob Bish

Matthew 10:40-42: Bob Bish

Keep these words in your heart. The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

Thanks be to God.  

Genesis 22:1-14 with Pastor Karen

Holy wisdom, holy Word. Thanks be to God!

Romans 6:15-23: Franzetta Turner, Rob Heidenreich, and Brittany Hesson

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

Message: Ultimate Allegiance with Chip Hardwick, Synod of the Covenant Executive

Affirmation of Faith with Jim Arganbright 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 action. So to live and serve is to confess Christ as Lord.

Invitation to the Offering with Pastor Karen

Offertory: His Eye Is on the Sparrow (Arranged by Victor Labenske) Mark Wagner, Piano

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication/Lord’s Prayer with Pastor Karen

God of unending gifts, we praise you for your abundant goodness. As you are generous, we want to be generous too. May the gifts we bring extend your generosity into the world, so that all people may be made whole by your goodness and grace. 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: I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me (African-American Spiritual) Alice Hoover, Organ

I’m gonna live so (live so) God can use me 
anywhere, Lord, anytime! (anytime!)
I’m gonna live so (live so) God can use me anywhere, 
Lord, anytime! (anytime!)

I’m gonna work so (work so) God can use me 
anywhere, Lord, anytime! (anytime!)
I’m gonna work so (work so) God can use me anywhere, 
Lord, anytime! (anytime!)

 I’m gonna pray so (pray so) God can use me 
anywhere, Lord, anytime! (anytime!)
God can use me anywhere, 
Lord, anytime! (anytime!)

 I’m gonna sing so (sing so) God can use me 
anywhere, Lord, anytime! (anytime!)
I’m gonna sing so (sing so) God can use me anywhere, 
Lord, anytime! (anytime!)

Charge/Benediction with Pastor Karen

Postlude: Be of Good Courage {Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) arr. Hal H. Hopson}, Alice Hoover, Organ

Amazing Grace!!

Pastor Karen Crawford, The Presbyterian Church in Coshocton, Ohio

Sometimes we do things that we wish we hadn’t done. That happened to my cat, Seamus, today. He was horsing around with his brother and knocked over a lamp–and a lot of other stuff–from Jim’s nightstand. Here’s what it looked like after Seamus was done:

This is what happened when we started cleaning up the mess. Seamus suddenly disappeared! Jim found him hiding underneath his dresser. Of course, he didn’t know his legs were sticking out.

But there was no reason to hide from us. He wasn’t going to get in trouble. We didn’t scold him. We offered him grace and forgiveness. Jim said, “We’re not mad at you. And we know you will probably do it again.”

And this is what we do–we hide from the Lord when we have done something wrong. And yet, God is the one who will always forgive us and love us. He offers us, through belief in His Son, Jesus, the gift of living forever with him. We call this eternal life. Thanks be to God for His amazing grace and gift of eternal life!

Meditation on Genesis 21:8-21

Father’s Day, June 21, 2020

Pastor Karen Crawford

    

Happy Father’s Day to all our dads and grandads!

      I feel grateful and blessed on this day for my husband, Jim. He is a pretty special guy, a wonderful husband to me and father to both his biological children and those he gained when we got married nearly 15 years ago.

      We met when I was a busy journalist, working more than full time as a religion reporter for the York Daily Record in York, PA. He wasn’t scared away by my three boys, the youngest of whom was only 7 when we met. Our courtship was more like a pursuit, with me turning down every invitation Jim would extend. Would I go out to dinner? No, I didn’t have time. What about lunch? Well, I don’t take a lunch hour. What about coffee? Maybe someday. By the time I said yes and we got to the coffee shop he had told me all about, the restaurant had gone out of business. After we got married in 2005, we were a blended family with 6 kids, with his three grown and living on their own. Our family, however, was nothing like the fictitious Brady Bunch of the 1970s. The Bradys, though they had their little squabbles and problems, always worked them out before the credits rolled for the 30-minute sitcom.

    That isn’t how it has been for our family. Is this how it is for yours? We are still a work in progress. Real life is MUCH more complicated than anything we see on TV. Isn’t it?

***

This is how it is with Abraham and Sarah’s story. SO complicated for us in today’s world to understand. When we meet them in Genesis 21, their lives are strange even for their time because of Abraham’s relationship with God. In chapter 12, when he’s 75, God speaks to him for the first time. Can you imagine that day, when Abraham runs to tell Sarah, “Honey, pack your bags. We are going to the place God will show me. God is going to make a great nation of me!”

    The amazing thing was that they didn’t have any kids; not a one! And Sarah was no spring chicken. Still they go, obeying God’s voice. They have many adventures together in Genesis, including a trip to Egypt during a famine. Abraham, worried about Sarah’s beauty and Pharaoh killing him for his wife, passes her off as his sister. Pharaoh does try to take Sarah into his harem, but then discovers their deception. With God’s blessing and protection, Abraham and Sarah are miraculously freed to leave Egypt with all of their possessions.

    Years pass. Angels visit and promise the couple a child. Abraham believes, but then more time passes. It’s taking TOO long! Sarah decides that the only way Abraham is going to have the child he so desperately wants, is if he has a child with her Egyptian slave, Hagar.

     Talk about a complicated family situation!

     Abraham goes along with this plan because he loves Sarah. And yes, he wants a child–maybe more than he cares about pleasing the Lord. Perhaps he convinces himself that this IS God’s will, but he never asks the Lord. This choice they make, makes a BIG mess of things.

     A few years after Hagar gives birth to Ishmael, Abraham and Sarah have Isaac, the child God had promised the now 100- year old man when he was 75. But Ishmael is already Abraham’s legitimate son and heir, recognized also by Sarah as her own child.

   Things came to head at Isaac’s weaning party in verse 9, when he might have been as old has 3 or 4. Notice that the name Ishmael isn’t uttered in this passage; nor do we hear him speak. He is “the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham.” The straw that breaks the camel’s back is when Sarah sees him “playing” or isaacing with Isaac, a kind of play on words. Isaac’s name means laughing, loving, and playing in Hebrew and may have sexual connotations, meaning Isaac may have been the victim of inappropriate touch. Ishmael is a boy, not an infant by this time, contrary to how he is often portrayed with his mother in works of art. Sarah  demands that Abraham cast out and cut off Hagar and her son. Verse 11 reveals Abraham’s emotional state, “ The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son”—meaning his son, Ishmael, whom he loved, just as he loved Isaac.

    But being a man of faith, whom the prophet Isaiah 41:8 calls a “friend to God,” he turns to the Lord for comfort and guidance. The Lord offers both. Verse 12, “God says, ‘Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you.”

    God’s lavish grace is extended even to the son of a slave woman for whom God promises, “I will make a nation of him, also, because he is your offspring.’”

    In the next passage, we have a picture of a loving and sensitive man—Abraham—who doesn’t send a servant to do his dirty work. He rises early—before anyone else is up—and takes bread and a skin of water, and gives it to Hagar, gently putting it on her shoulder, along with the child. Can you imagine the emotional goodbye? Yes, he loves both women and sons. But he loves the Lord more and obeys, sending Hagar and the child away.

    This very well could have been the end for the Egyptian slave and her son. But no. We have a God who cares for the poor and oppressed, those without voice or rights in every society. God’s promise of blessing to all of Abraham’s offspring is fulfilled.

    God hears the voice of the boy and sends an angel. “What troubles you, Hagar?” he asks his mother. “Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.  Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” 

    And God our loving, heavenly Father sends a spring of water in the desert for the boy and his mom. God’s provision and protection don’t end there. In verse 20, we read, “God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness.” In this harsh and lonely environment, Abraham’s eldest child becomes a mighty hunter, an expert with the bow.

***

     This is my family’s first Father’s Day without my dad. And yet, the Lord has revealed in this time of wilderness, that God is filling us with springs of water in the desert. We are not just surviving, we are thriving, as God is still with us in our grief and loss. It’s a journey.

     What captivates me in our Scripture today is not so much the complicated family story of Abraham and Sarah, but the grace of God who works to bring order and clarity to the muddle that we make of our lives! God’s purposes are still accomplished through us. God is everyone’s heavenly father. He is the God of the poor and oppressed, rejected and despised, outcast and marginalized. He is the God of those who were given much, including us. But he has made us all that we are and given us all that we have so that we would be a blessing to him and grow the Kingdom. He wants us to join with Christ in his ministry of reconciliation, says Paul in 2 Cor. 5. We are called to be repairers of the breach, says Isaiah in 58:12. We are called to take up our crosses and follow him, says Jesus in Matthew 10.

     This coronavirus has led us all to a kind of scary wilderness, complicating our lives more than they were before. But the Lord knows everything about us and this wilderness. All things will work together for God’s purposes and our good, just as they did for Abraham and Sarah, though they waited for decades for the promises to be fulfilled.

      This is the Lord that knows and cares when one little sparrow falls from the sky and cares so much more for us.

     Do not be afraid.

     Trust and obey the one who hears you when you cry, just as he hears and responds with love, mercy and compassion to the son of a slave in the ancient world, the voice of a boy.

Let us pray.

Holy One, we thank you for all that we are and all that we have—knowing that everything has come from you. Thank you for the blessing of our families—people to love. We ask for a blessing on our fathers and grandfathers and that you will comfort those grieving the loss of their loved ones. Our family situations are complicated, Lord. We ask for your forgiveness for how we have sometimes have made a muddle of our lives and gone our own way, without seeking your will. Only you know how things really are and only you can bring order to chaos and clarity to what is unclear. Only you can heal broken hearts and wounded relationships. Send your Spirit to bring peace and reconciliation to our families and communities. Use us to be the voice for the oppressed, to befriend the despised and outcast, to draw near to the marginalized and walk with those who are struggling with illness or disease, joblessness, homelessness, or hopelessness. Stir us to be, first and foremost, your friend, like Abraham, and a friend to our neighbors in need. Amen.

Pastor Karen reads the book, Who Counts? 100 Sheep, 10 Coins, and 2 Sons

by Amy-Jill Levine and Sandy Eisenberg Sasso.

https://sermons4kids.com/prodigal-son-colorpg.htm

https://sermons4kids.com/prodigal_son_crossword.htm

https://sermons4kids.com/prodigal_son_wordsearch.htm

Praise Song: Consider the Lilies, sung by Claire Crosby

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

Pastor Karen Crawford

Liturgist: Don Harrison

Musicians: Alice Hoover, Mark Wagner and Caroline Heading

Prelude: My Faith Is Firmly Found by J.S. Bach, ed. by Dorothy Wells; Alice Hoover, Organ

Greeting/Announcements with Pastor Karen

Opening Sentences and Gathering Prayer: Don and Betty Harrison

To you, O Lord, we lift our souls; to you we offer our lives.

For you are good and forgiving, and abounding in steadfast love.

In heaven, on earth, there is none like you. Your works are beyond compare.

For you are great; you work wonders. You alone are God.

Hymn: Faith of Our Fathers; Alice Hoover, Organ

Faith of our fathers, living still, in spite of dungeons, fire, and sword; O how our hearts beat high with joy whene’er we hear that glorious word!

Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to thee till death.

Faith of our fathers, we will strive to win all nations unto thee; and through the truth that comes from God, we all shall then be truly free.

Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to thee till death.

Faith of our fathers, we will love both friend and foe in all our strife; and preach thee, too, as love knows how by kindly words and virtuous life.

Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to thee till death.

Call to Confession/Confession/Assurance of Pardon

God of Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac, God of Hagar and Ishmael, who gave us your Son, Jesus Christ the crucified, send your Holy Spirit to help us confess and truly repent of our sins. We turn against one another; we fail to care for the weak and poor among us. We pay no heed to the cries of the powerless; we seek our own advantage. Your Son emptied himself upon a Roman cross and revealed your eternal, self-giving love. Forgive us, merciful God. Wipe sin from our lives and let us find ourselves wholly in Jesus Christ, our Savior. It is in his name that we pray. Amen.

Anthem: Be Not Afraid, Celebration Singers

“Celebration Singers gathered on Wednesday, December 19, 2018 to rehearse for Christmas Eve.  We were happy to have some alumni – home from college – with us!  At the end of the rehearsal we sang a favorite: Craig Courtney’s anthem based on Isaiah 43:1b-2;4a “Be Not Afraid.”  We shared thoughts about the text, and then talked about Mr. Courtney, who was grieving the death of his son.  We decided to record it and send it to him. Caroline Heading is the pianist.” —Chuck Snyder

Time With Children

Praise Song: Consider the Lilies, sung by Claire Crosby

Prayer for Illumination and Matthew 10:24-39: Don Harrison

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

Anthem: His Eye Is on the Sparrow, Caroline Heading, Piano

Genesis 21:8-21 Reading with Pastor Karen

Holy wisdom, holy word. Thanks be to God!

Message: God Heard the Voice of the Boy Pastor Karen

Hymn 393: Take Up Your Cross, the Savior Said (Charles William Everest), Alice Hoover, Organ

Take up your cross,” the Savior said,
“if you would my disciple be;
take up your cross with willing heart,
and humbly follow after me.”

Take up your cross; let not its weight
fill your weak spirit with alarm;
Christ’s strength shall bear your spirit up
and brace your heart and nerve your arm.

Take up your cross, heed not the shame,
and let your foolish heart be still;
the Lord for you accepted death
upon a cross, on Calv’ry’s hill.

Take up your cross, then, in Christ’s strength,
and calmly ev’ry danger brave:
it guides you to abundant life
and leads to vict’ry o’er the grave.

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 action. So to live and serve is to confess Christ as Lord.

Invitation to the Offering with Pastor Karen

Offertory: This Is My Father’s World and Fairest Lord Jesus (Hailey Smith)

Prayer of Thanksgiving/Dedication and Lord’s Prayer with Pastor Karen

Holy One, incarnate One, dynamic One, God who is Trinity, we lift our voices in praise and thanksgiving for the life in Christ Jesus that we receive from you. You have shown that your mercy overcomes sin and evil and brings relief from oppression. We thank you for your steadfast love that keeps covenant with your people. In Christ we know the depth of your care for all that you create. We invite the Holy Spirit to help us so that we can praise you eternally in the name of our risen Lord, Jesus Christ. 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.

Charge/Benediction

Postlude: Faith of Our Fathers, Mark Wagner, Piano

In Memory of Robert Stewart Kinkley

March 19, 1933-Feb. 21, 2020

Pastor Karen Crawford

 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

² a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.— Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

***

The first thing I noticed about Bob Kinkley was his smile. His whole face lit up!  And how happy he and Janie looked when they were in church together. Such a handsome couple. I remember a Sunday last summer, when Janie was our liturgist. She did a great job! I looked over at Bob while she was speaking, and, yes, he was smiling, so proud of his wife. I didn’t know then that he was a retired dentist, making the world a better, healthier place and encouraging people to feel good about themselves when they smiled and take care of their teeth and gums.

    My husband has a dentist story he shared some years ago. When he was a child, the only time he ever got a spanking was when he refused to go to the dentist. He had had a bad experience. It’s too bad he didn’t have Dr. Kinkley as his dentist. He was so gentle. Children loved him! Everybody loved him. The vet in Florida started to cry when Janie told them Bob had passed. He was the nicest client they ever had.

    Bob’s passions were his family, including his dogs, Ohio State football, and golf. Lulu, a 70-pound rescue dog, was Janie and Bob’s 12^th dog together. She held a special place in his heart, but he loved them all. Among his favorite pastimes were watching the Buckeyes play, walking his dog and riding the tractor, mowing the lawn to make a perfect putting green.

    Both Bob and Janie have a long history with Coshocton. They have known one another most of their lives. They didn’t meet in church because he grew up at Grace Methodist and Janie, The Presbyterian Church. Let me see if I have this right. Bob was a neighbor of Janie’s friend in high school. But there was a time for friendship before it blossomed into romantic love. It took time. Bob dated Janie’s older sister, Mary Ellen, first, but Mary Ellen fell in love and married another. Bob was crushed, not knowing God’s wonderful plan for him. Janie’s parents worshiped Bob or “Kink” as he was called. Janie’s mom assured him—not to worry. “I have another one for you,” she said.

     No, it wasn’t an arranged marriage, by any means. And there was never any tension between the sisters over boys. It just took some time before Bob realized that Janie was the one God had chosen for him and maybe to work up the courage to ask the beautiful young woman with a gorgeous smile to go out with him.

    First, Bob tried to fix Janie up with a friend of his on a blind date! Finally, Bob called and asked her to go to a dental fraternity dance. They got married in the main sanctuary of The Presbyterian Church on Dec. 28, 1957, just before the Buckeyes went to the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 1958 and defeated the Oregon Webfoots 10-7. Bob was extremely bright and hardworking. He graduated from Ohio State Dental School in May of that year after 6 years of study. During that time, he experienced the tragic loss of his father, Kenneth Kinkley. Janie was a college junior at OSU when they married. She didn’t want to wait any longer because she was worried about her father’s failing health and wanted him to be at their wedding. But she would finish her degree later and then a master’s from OSU, while serving her community as a teacher of young children.  

     Isn’t it strange how one’s life unfolds in unexpected ways? That’s how it was with Bob and Janie. In their early part of their marriage, Bob, who had completed ROTC, was drafted. It was the Korean War era. He served as a captain in the Army. He was sent to Fort Lee in Virginia. Janie went with him. They lived on the base, and he was so popular, they got invited to all the officer’s parties. Bob was being groomed for a career in the Army. But a car accident that left Janie with a broken back and in a cast for 3 months changed their plans. They returned to their family and hometown in Ohio. Bob began to serve Coshocton with his gifts and talents, setting up practice as a dentist in the home that had belonged to Janie’s dad’s mother, her paternal grandmother. He offered kindness, friendship, and gentle care to our community for 40 years at the corner of Mulberry and South 4^th Street, retiring in 2000.

      The writer of Ecclesiastes emphasizes the many seasons of our lives, seasons that we live out very differently, but seasons we all must go through. There is a time and a purpose for everything—and the time and purpose are always known by the Lord—and not by us at least, not while we are going through these times and seasons. We don’t have control over all these things—certainly not when we are born or when we die. God leads us to plant and keep on planting. We are called to sow seeds throughout our lives and trust God for the harvest. Bob did. He sowed seeds of kindness and love, always trying to be God’s instrument to help make the world that is broken and hurting, whole and healed.

    Throughout their 62 years together, Bob was devoted to Janie—giving her whatever she wanted, even the things that seemed impractical to him. She always wanted a convertible. She got it. And he was right. It was impractical. He was the homebody, and she liked to travel. But he wanted to be with her. So he went to Hawaii in 2014, even though he didn’t want to go. One year, they went to the Rose Bowl and took their two daughters. Wonderful memories were made on vacations at The Greenbrier in West Virginia and winters spent in Florida.

    When we are grieving the loss of a loved one, and struggling with all the life changes that inevitably means, we may lose sight of our hope in the Spirit that is with us now and working in us. One day, in God’s time, our mourning will turn to joy. God will make beauty from ashes, order from chaos. Our hearts and lives will be transformed in unexpected ways. But grief is unpredictable. You think it is gone, over and done, then it returns suddenly in waves, without warning with a thought, a sudden memory or a word someone says, a smell, sight or sound, maybe a song that you both loved. Some days, the tears will flow. Other days, the laughter will come and you will have God’s peace, living out your new life in Jesus Christ and all the surprises that come from walking with Him. You will have peace when you remember the promise of everlasting life with Him. This world that we see isn’t all there is. This is just the beginning.

    One day, we will see Him face to face. There will be no more suffering, sickness or disease. No more hunger or poverty, hatred or fear, division or war. The Body of Christ will be gathered around the heavenly banquet table, with all the saints from every time and place. Singing God’s praise. The Lord will wipe our tears away.

Amen.