November 6, 2022
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus
" Holy Scumbags"
Sermon by Rev. Trip Porch
November 6, 2022 Based on Revelation 7:9-17
In 2016, an ad was released that is one of my all-time favorites. It’s called the “World’s Biggest Jerk.” except they use a more colorful expletive the world’s biggest… "blank."
The commercial [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVMt0bX2MhM] features Coleman Sweeney, a fictional person, an absolute scumbag in character who goes through life bound and determined to treat others badly and otherwise bestow bad days on his entire community. He’s infinitely disgusting, repugnant. He’s someone you’d never wish to run into, a total nightmare of a neighbor.
The commercial shows scenes like Coleman Sweeney arriving at a laundromat with an armful of clothes opening a washer at random, pulling the wet clothes out onto the ground, throwing his clothes into the washer to take over the cycle, and then taking the lingerie that was in the washer with him as he left.
While the voice over behind the images says: "Coleman sweeney was a scumbag, everyone in his small town knew it. It wasn't that he tried particularly hard to be unpleasant, it just seemed to come naturally to him, Coleman felt like the whole world owed him something which caused him to ignore the rules of decent acceptable society" where you then see Coleman honking on his horn relentless as an elderly woman with a walker slowly crosses in front of him on the street.
"But then, The strangest thing happened" says the voice over, while Coleman is disputing an extremely small bill at a diner.
Coleman sweeney died, he had a brain aneurism. And it was then, as EMS arrived to rush Coleman Sweeney to the hospital that they discovered something completely unexpected.
They looked at his driver's license and there it was, Coleman Sweeney had registered as an organ and tissue donor. "No one knows what made him decide to do it" the voice over says, “but there it was, written on his license. And it was that day, that Coleman went from scumbag to hero. Because Coleman's liver went to Stan, a father of two. His heart went to Miranda Morgan, a schoolteacher who went on to teach for another 25 years. His tendons went to staff sergeant Donahue, who was able to walk again after being paralyzed in war."
The voice over concludes: "Yes, in life Coleman was a bonafide jerk, 24/7, 365 days a year. But in death, well, let’s just raise a glass and shout, take that Coleman Sweeney, you're not a scumbag anymore."
It’s an imperfect image, and I meant that literally. Coleman Sweeney is the image of imperfection, brokenness, and villainy and yet, even Coleman Sweeney can do good, can impact and even save a person’s life. Even Coleman sweeney can be a saint to someone.
It maybe goes without saying, but people are complex and complicated. The worst among us are also capable of doing good, of helping others, of making a positive impact on their world. And even the best of us are human. Every saint… is also fallible and imperfect, fully capable of getting it wrong, and messing up.
It reminds me of the book by the Lutheran pastor, Nadia Bolz-weber, that she titled "Accidental Saints" subtitle: "Finding God in all the wrong people." [https://nadiabolzweber.com/accidental-saints/]
Anyone who is familiar with Nadia Bolz Weber knows that she is a pastor who fits in with all the wrong people, she's not someone you'd expect to be a pastor. She's fully tattooed, has a penchant for swearing, and is deeply cynical and snarky. In her book, she shares stories from her life pastoring the church she helped to start, "A house for all sinners and all saints" in Denver. In the book she talks about how she's realized that God keeps showing up in the least likely of people, people she would have never expected, in fact it was almost always in people she would have actually tried to avoid if given the chance—an agnostic who loves church, a drag queen, a Bishop with a felony record and a gun-toting member of the NRA.
The shocking revelation she had? How some of the most transformational moments in her life were almost always brought about by seemingly random encounters with people like this. God would somehow use these folks who no one would ever accuse of being saints, to be saints for her. They'd be bearers of grace, mercy and love. Agents of good in this world.
Nadia noticed that none of these people set out to become saints, this wasn't something that strived for or planned for. This wasn't some multiple step process or the lifelong goal that they have set for themselves, it seemed to almost happen by accident, hence the title, accidental saints. But Nadia would argue, this was no accident, but God working through these broken human folks, to do the work of saints, to love, to heal, to make whole.
Sainthood it seems isn't some sort of state of being that we reach, and the same is true of the opposite. People aren't perpetually good, nor are they perpetually bad. Instead in every little decision, every little encounter we have with another person, every moment of every day, every single person can open themselves up to God in those moments, whether they realize it or not. And it is in those moments, where God is working through us, that we become saintly.
On All Saints Day we remember that in God everything and everyone is reconciled. God makes the world right, and each of us, as flawed and imperfect as we are… are included in that.
So let us sing a song of the saints of God. Let us give thanks for all those who have been saints to us, even if they never even meant to be. And as we come to this table to commune with God and remember the saints, let us also realize that we… scumbags that we are, are also invited, to share in this feast, and to open ourselves up to and live in God's reconciliation.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
We welcome all who worship here this morning!
WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE
PRELUDE
INTROIT “Now the Silence” Carl Schalk
WELCOME Rev. Trip Porch
CALL TO WORSHIP
One: Sing to the Lord a new song!
All: Let us join all the saints in praising God.
One: Sing to the Lord a new song!
All: For the glory of God fills heaven and earth.
HYMN No. 326 “For All the Saints” vs 1-3 SINE NOMINE
PRAYER OF CONFESSION Marie Boozer
God of the ages, as we remember the saints who have gone before us, we are grateful for their witness and humbled by their example. Though they have marked well the path of faith, following in that way is hard for us. We drift and waver. We resist and rebel. Remind us that the saints before us were not perfect, just forgiven, and saved by grace. We ask for that forgiveness, and we pray for the courage to trust in that grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Hear our confessions in the silence…
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
RESPONSE OF PRAISE # 326 “For All the Saints” vs.5 SINE NOMINE
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
ANTHEM “In Paradisum” from Requiem Gabriel Faure
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE Dorothy Kyle
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
SCRIPTURE: Revelation 7:9-17 The Message
I looked again. I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages. And they were standing, dressed in white robes and waving palm branches, standing before the Throne and the Lamb and heartily singing:
Salvation to our God on his Throne!
Salvation to the Lamb!
All who were standing around the Throne—Angels, Elders, Animals—fell on their faces before the Throne and worshiped God, singing:
Oh, Yes!
The blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving,
The honor and power and strength,
To our God forever and ever and ever!
Oh, Yes!
Holy Wisdom, Holy Word
Thanks be to God
SERMON Rev. Trip Porch
HYMN NO. 481 “I Believe in God the Father” GENEVAN 42
TIME OF OFFERING “At the River” Aaron Copland
Skye Johnson, soloist
OFFERTORY RESPONSE #596 “You Are Holy” DU ÄR HELIG
THE LORD’S SUPPER Rev. Trip Porch
Invitation to the Table
Great Prayer of Thanksgiving Lord’s prayer using debts/debtors
Sharing of the Bread and Cup
HYMN DURING COMMUNION # 527 “Eat This Bread” BERTHIER
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
Holy One, all that we have comes from you. You bless our lives with the companionship of
your people, the freedom that comes from forgiveness of sin, the joy of thanksgiving for
Earth and all its bounty. Turn us toward your living saints who are in need, in the name of
the one who gave himself that all might be one, Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
HYMN NO. 730 “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God” GRAND ISLE
TIME OF SHARING
Moment for Stewardship Anna Long
CHARGE AND BENEDICITON
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 – Marie Boozer
Children’s Message – Dorothy Kyle
MUSIC LEADERS
Chancel Choir
Organist – Orlay Alonso
Director of Music – Christopher Dent
Assoc. Director of Music – Ariel Alvarado
2022 Saints of Indianola Presbyterian Church
Jean Puchstein
Debby Turoff
Sammy Anderson
Katherine DeVries
Susan O’Dell
Phyllis Bailey
The flowers this week are given in celebration of Bob and Rachel Concitis’ 10th Wedding Anniversary
Funeral services for Sammy Anderson will take place Tuesday, November 8, at the Gary Chapel of Peace Funeral Home at 2500 Cleveland Avenue. Visitation at 10 and services at 11.
Please keep the family and friends of Katherine DeVries in your prayers as they mourn her passing November 1, 2022. A Memorial Service at Rutherford- Corbin will be held on Saturday, Nov.12 at 1:00 p.m.
CONGRATULATIONS to the Concitis Family on the addition of their newest member Bennett, who arrived Monday, October 31 at 5:15 pm. Bennett weighed in at 6lbs. 11 oz.