November 20, 2022
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus
"Love from the Outside "
Sermon by Rev. Trip Porch
November 20, 2022 Based on Luke 10:25-37
There are people who are supposed to love you… Your family, mother, father, sister, brother, spouse, child… then your friends… your best friend, your book club, and then your acquaintances… your co-workers, your classmates, your neighbor, even your social media friends. Even though people are human and aren't always great at it, these are the folks you expect to receive love from. People who know us, who we are in relationship with, who we have established trust with. Folks in the inner circle, this is where love is given, this is where love is received… This is where we expect to find mercy and compassion.
This week a friend of ours had the flu, and then her spouse got the flu, and then her son had the flu… so what did we, their friends, do? We showed them love, mercy and compassion, we brought them some soup and bread and checked in on them. It’s what friends do, right?
Jesus' story today goes a step further though… and it causes us to realize that in God's world …love isn't just something for people who know each other. No, from God's perspective not only is love, compassion and mercy something that everyone in this life is deserving of, BUT as Jesus tells it… it’s the folks on the inner circle that we would expect to show mercy who we see fail and mess up and struggle. Instead Love comes from a most unexpected place. The person who'd we expect to at least pass by if not do more harm is the one who gets it right. The Samaritan, the one who is supposed to be the most outsider, the most different, and completely at odds to Jewish culture that gets it right. It’s the Samaritan, the one we least expect, who ends up being good, who ends up being neighborly who shows love and mercy in abundance.
This isn’t a story about merely “being nice” or kind; Jesus is challenging his followers to expand the bounds that they have put on God. To see that God is at work beyond them, beyond their own communities, beyond their circles of trust and to recognize God's love in someone they would have never seen God's love in before.
I want to share a story about a time this happened to me, where God's mercy blindsided me from a most unexpected place… my Facebook newsfeed. It was in 2021, I was scrolling my newsfeed when I came across a video that I had seen shared by a number of my friends. The thumbnail was a person I didn't recognize, someone I didn't know, but I could see them holding their guitar and I read the description which grabbed me right away.
It read:
"If you know me well, you know I don't "pray."
It's not that I don't know how, or that I don't think the practice can be fruitful, it's just that some of us get prayed for in ways we don't want. In ways that don't honor us. In ways that re-closet us. In ways that short-circuit our grief. In ways that pity us. In ways that really hurt. So, I tend to avoid it in the name of doing-no-harm. But I was tasked with writing a song for a local church's prayer/communion gathering, so I had to stare prayer in the face. And I thought, "what would a prayer sound like if it was used as a balm instead of a weapon? A plowshare instead of a sword?"
So here's my go at that. "A Plowshare Prayer."
I clicked play and was immediately transfixed. The lyrics struck me first, as a prayer from the outside, a prayer from those who feel they can no longer pray, a prayer from those who have been cast out, excluded, hurt, and broken…
What I heard was a voice that was raw, and honest, a voice that belonged to Spencer LaJoye, who is a singer/songwriter out of Boston.
Despite not being someone who prays… Spencer's words resonated deeply within me as one of the most earnest prayers I have heard in a long time. The soundwaves washed over me in a way that I can only describe as healing, as an offering of grace and mercy.
Spencer, I would later learn, grew up as one of eight in a conservative Christian family in rural Southwest Michigan. At the age of 5, Spencer picked up a violin and pursued classical music until college, when they swapped their bow for a pen and started writing.
Spencer wrote their first EP as a closeted queer kid in a historically conservative Christian college while pursuing a degree in theology. Spencer’s songwriting and theologizing became tools of self-empowerment amid a culture of shame, a culture that told Spencer they didn't belong, that spoke the lie that they were not worthy of love because of who God made them to be. Spencer heard prayer used as a sword, as a weapon to hurt and separate and demean. But God continued to move in Spencer's life, God continued to show mercy and inclusion and love, and music continued to be Spencer's way of responding to that great love. Spencer is now completely out, outspoken and proud of their queer and trans identity, and hoping to foster a life-affirming community through their music.
In a moment the choir will come forward to debut the choral arrangement of the piece I first heard Spencer play online on their guitar. As the choir sings, I want to invite you into a time of prayer… to allow Spencer’s words to wash over you.
Dear blessed creator, dear mother, dear savior
Dear father, dear brother, dear holy other
Dear sibling, dear baby, dear patiently waiting
Dear sad and confused, dear stuck and abused
Dear end-of-your-rope, dear worn out and broke,
Dear go-it-alone, dear running from home
Dear righteously angry, forsaken by family
Dear jaded and quiet, dear tough and defiant
I pray that I’m heard
And I pray that this works
I pray if a prayer has been used as a sword
against you and your heart, against you and your word
I pray that this prayer is a plowshare, of sorts
that it might break you open, it might help you grow
I pray that your body gets all that it needs
and if you don’t want healing, I just pray for peace
I pray that your burden gets lighter each day
I pray the mean voice in your head goes away
I pray that you honor the grief as it comes
I pray you can feel all the life in your lungs
I pray that if you go all day being brave
that you can go home, go to bed feeling safe
I pray you’re forgiven, I pray you forgive
I pray you set boundaries and openly live
I pray that you feel you are worth never leaving
I pray that you know I will always believe you
I pray that you’re heard
and I pray that this works
Amen on behalf of the last and the least
On behalf of the anxious, depressed, and unseen
Amen for the workers, the hungry, the houseless
Amen for the lonely and recently spouseless
Amen for the queers and their closeted peers
Amen for the bullied who hold in their tears
Amen for the mothers of little Black sons
Amen for the kids who grow up scared of guns
Amen for the addicts, the ashamed and hungover
Amen for the calloused, the wisened, the sober
Amen for the ones who want life to be over
Amen for the leaders who lose their composure
Amen for the parents who just lost their baby
Amen for the chronically ill and disabled
Amen for the children down at the border
Amen for the victims of our law and order
I pray that you’re heard
and I pray that this works
I pray if a prayer has been used as a sword
against you and your heart, against you and your word
I pray that this prayer is a plowshare, of sorts
We welcome all who worship here this morning!
WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE
PRELUDE “Adagio” George Phillip Telemann/arr. Hal H. Hopson
INTROIT “Praise to the Lord” arr. Paul Sjolund
WELCOME Rev. Trip Porch
*CALL TO WORSHIP
One: We are called to love the Lord our God
All: Called to love with all our heart and soul
One: We are called to love the Lord our God
All: with all our mind and strength
One: We are called to love the Lord our God
All: And we are called to love our neighbor… the stranger… our enemy as
ourselves.
One: Come, let us love our God and share God’s love in this time of worship!
*HYMN No. 22 “God of the Sparrow” (vs. 1,5,6) ROEDER
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION Peter Maurath
O Holy God, we come in confession for our lack of love. We have neither loved ourselves nor our neighbors. We have passed by suffering and misfortune because of fear or busyness or preoccupation. We have held prejudices and assumptions against people and in the process we have closed ourselves off to you… Hear our confessions in the silence…
Heal our pains, amend our faults, and guide us in ways of danger and compassion, for we pray in the name of Jesus, our most beloved neighbor, who cared for us even to the cross. Amen.
*ASSURANCE OF PARDON
*RESPONSE OF PRAISE #695 “Change My Heart O God” CHANGE MY HEART
*PASSING OF THE PEACE
One: The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,
All: And also with you.
WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE Parker Wilkinson
SCRIPTURE: Luke: 10-37
SERMON Rev. Trip Porch
ANTHEM “Plowshare Prayer” text and music by Spencer LaJoye/arr. Nate Terry
This arrangement was commissioned by Indianola Presbyterian Church in honor of Orlay Alonso and his twelve years of service as organist at Indianola Presbyterian Church.
Soloists: Mary Rebekah Fortman, Marie Boozer, Ariel Alvaredo, Skye Johnson
Boris Chalakov, cello
*Hymn No. 207 “Come to Us, Beloved Stranger” (INSERT)
PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH with The Lord’s Prayer using debts and debtors
CALL TO OFFERING
Giving Prayer
Offering of our Money and Commitments
*OFFERTORY RESPONSE #596 “You Are Holy” DU ÄR HELIG
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
So many cards, God. So many electronic commitments. So many promises about what we will do, and spend, and achieve together. Bless these high hopes. Turn these gifts and these pledges into homes and healing, reconciliation and celebration, bridges and salvation and a whole new world. Make us like you: people who keep their promises and put them into action. Amen.
*HYMN NO. 692 “Spirit, Open My Heart” WILD MOUNTAIN THYME
TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
BENEDICTION RESPONSE "A Unified Prayer" B.E. Boykin
POSTLUDE
Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452
WORSHIP LEADERS
Pastor – Rev. Trip Porch
Liturgist – Peter Maurath
Children’s Message – Parker Wilkinson
MUSIC LEADERS
Chancel Choir
Sanctuary Bells
Cello – Boris Chalakov
Organist – Orlay Alonso
Director of Music – Christopher Dent
Assoc. Director of Music – Ariel Alvarado