Claflin United Methodist Church

06/14/2026

Sadly, this is the last worship service our Pastor Diana will be doing with the congregations of the Claflin United Methodist Church and the Bushton United Methodist Church. She has been given a new church assignment. We will miss her so much, but we wish her nothing but the best in this upcoming new ch apter in her life. God Bless!!!
Welcome to Worship! In a roundabout way today, we are going to explore our UMC vision to Love Boldly, Serve Joyfully, and Lead Courageously as scripture leads us into our mission to Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World. Let’s begin our worship in prayer: Lord, in this silence, as the Light of Christ enters our space of worship, help us to be open to your possibilities for us. We pray this because of who Jesus is. Amen.

*Call to Worship: Psalm 100
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into God’s presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, who made us, is God.
We are the Lord’s; we are the people of God, the sheep of God’s pasture.
Enter God’s gates with thanksgiving, and God’s courts with praise!
Give thanks and bless God’s name!
For the Lord is good;
God’s steadfast love endures for ever; God’s faithfulness to all generations.

*Hymn of Praise: This Is the Day #657 (twice)

Praises & Requests

Prayer Hymn: Through It All #507

Prayer of the People: Gracious and loving God, we praise you for your unending love and faithfulness to us that knows no boundaries, that is offered without price, and that lasts beyond forever. We confess that we often take advantage of your goodness to us and become complacent, expecting to be blessed because you love us. Forgive our selfishness, Lord. Help us to let you work through your gifts to us so that others are healed and given new hope in life. Use us to break the chains of poverty and bigotry, racism and hatred, pride and arrogance that bind people and separate them from you. Use us to enable people to come back to right relationship with you so that your kingdom comes near, even in our tiny corner of the world. Thank you for jobs, food, clothing and shelter, beautiful and safe places to worship together, and people who love us and pray for us. Thank you for always being available for us, no matter the day, time, or situation. Jesus, we are gathered today to celebrate eight years together, but we are apprehensive about our future. Give us the courage to trust you to work through these times ahead of us, so that we may continue to glorify your name wherever we are. Be our rock and our fortress, our very present help in time of need. Be our Shepherd and lead us to the food we need, and the living water that will carry us forward. Prepare a table before us even as we live with our enemies of doubt, fear, and impossibilities. May our cups overflow with blessings, and may we share these blessings with others because of who you are. Jesus, according to your will, we ask you to be present with these as we name them now: Victims of natural disasters & war; OUR COUNTRY, OUR WORLD, the family of Dan, DARYL, JOY, Gavin, a grieving family, our incoming pastors, Roger, Judy, RANDY & Vickie, A HURTING FAMILY, CHILDREN IN DETENTION CENTERS, A STRUGGLING FAMILY, Cherlyn, SHIRLEY, JAMI, Christina, Matt, CAROL, BRENDA, A MOM, a sister church, Lucile, SCOTT, Alvin, Joe, Jim, JENNA, Aiden, ROSS, Sara, addicts, Rachelle, Jordan, Rick, a Mom, Les & Barbara, Kay, Sherry, Nancy, Kathe, residents in care facilities, and especially our children. And now, in this silence, we offer prayers for ourselves. In your mercy, Lord, hear us: And now, as forgiven and dearly loved Children of God, we offer you, together, the prayer you taught us: 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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen!

Children’s Time: In our Bible story today, Jesus sends his disciples out to heal people and lead them back to God. You and I can’t do these things very well, but we can love people. What are some ways we can love people? (being nice, etc.) When people are hurting, or sad, or upset, can we love them by being with them? ( ) Grownups sometimes call this walking with people through the hard times, and it’s a good way to love people. Can working with people also be a way to love them? ( ) What are some ways we can work with people to show them that we love them? ( ) There’s a song about walking with each other, hand in hand, and working with each other, side by side. Do you suppose we could get the adults to sing this song for us so we can walk around with each other and work with each other as we take up the offering? [FWS #2223, verses 2 and 3, and we will bring up the offering as we sing]

Offering Hymn: They’ll Know We Are Christians #2223 FWS, v. 2, 3

Offering Prayer: Dear God, thank you for being able to walk and work with people through our offerings. We ask you to bless this money so it can help other people know that you love them, too. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 9:35-10:8

Narrator: Last week Jesus said, “Follow me” to a tax collector named Matthew, and he did. A leader in the local synagogue asked Jesus to bring his young daughter back to life, and Jesus did. And he also healed a woman who had been a medical and social outcast for 12 long years. In nearby towns, Jesus continued to heal people, make blind people able to see, and release people from the power of demons. He and his disciples went to villages and cities, healing and teaching in the synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of heaven wherever they went.
Jesus: Look at all these hurting people! I have so much compassion for them because they are harassed and helpless. They are just wandering through life like sheep without a shepherd! Look at them! They are desperate for leadership, but there are so many of them, and just one of me. (pause) People, you know, and I know, that you need God, but there are so few leaders to guide you! Ask God to send out more kingdom workers to lead you!
Narrator: Then Jesus called his disciples together.
Jesus: Simon, the one we know as Peter…
Peter: Here, Lord.
Jesus: Andrew, brother of Peter…
Andrew: Right here!
Jesus: James, son of Zebedee…
James: Here, Jesus.
Jesus: John, brother of James…
John: I’m here.
Jesus: Philip…
Philip: Here.
Jesus: Bartholomew…
Bartholomew: Yep.
Jesus: Thomas…
Thomas: I’m here, too.
Jesus: Matthew, (former) tax collector…
Matthew: Present and accounted for, Lord.
Jesus: James, son of Alphaeus…
James: Back here.
Jesus: Thaddaeus…
Thaddaeus: Right here, Lord.
Jesus: Simon from Canaan…
Simon: I’m here.
Jesus: Judas…
Judas Iscariot: I’m still with you, Jesus.
Jesus: I’m glad you’re all here, because I have a job for you. I hereby give you authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and don’t even enter a Samaritan town. Go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news that the kingdom of heaven has come near. You are to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons, because this is what the kingdom of heaven looks like.
You did not pay for this power and authority; it was given to you freely. Therefore, you are to heal everyone without payment. And, you are not to take anything with you. Just go in my name, and you will be taken care of.
Peter & Andrew: No extra sandals? But ours are almost worn out! They won’t last another month.
James & John: No cash? What if people don’t like us and refuse to feed us?
Philip & Bartholomew: No extra clothes? (snicker) We’re going to smell right pretty in a few days!
Thomas & Matthew: What about extra coats for the chilly nights?
James & Thaddaeus: Can’t we even take a staff with us to defend ourselves from the wild animals?
Simon & Judas: We really should carry at least one credit card…we have no idea when we’ll be home again, and anything can happen out on the road…
Jesus: No, nothing extra. Just go. I told you that you would be taken care of, and you will if you trust in me. You have what you need; you have the authority to bring health and order back to God’s people. Now, get going; you are the laborers, and your harvest is waiting.
Narrator: When Jesus had finished instructing his disciples, he went on from there to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of heaven in other towns and cities.
This is the word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God!
*Gloria Patri: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end! Amen! Amen!

Sermon: To God Be the Glory!
It’s test time! According to Matthew’s gospel reading today, what does the kingdom of heaven look like? (audience participation, please) “Bring them back to life, heal their diseases, clean up their dirty lives, and break the powers that keep people from right relationship with God. And tell them, tell them that this health, wholeness, and life is what the kingdom of heaven looks like. Spread this good news everywhere you go!” says Jesus.
But then he tells his disciples to go only to their own people, and I want us to think about this. If we start preaching the kingdom of heaven among our friends and relatives, how welcome are we going to be in about an hour? ( ) And if we work diligently on healing dead relationships or even physical ailments, are they going to love us for it? ( ) In my family, I’m pretty sure they would let me know that I’ve overstepped my boundaries and make sure I find the door out. Preaching to my congregations on Sundays mornings might be OK, but trying to heal them? I think most of them have enough pride to be insulted by my even thinking that they might need Jesus’ help.
But that’s what Jesus sends us out to do!
And we are sent without any kind of help. All Jesus gives us is the ‘authority’ to make people whole again. Remember how the Pharisees made a really big deal about where Jesus got his ‘authority’ to give sight to the man who had been born blind? They wanted to know who Jesus’ power source was. Jesus claimed his power came from God, but because Jesus had healed the man on the sabbath, the Pharisees were sure his power couldn’t be from God, because in their minds, God would never allow something that wasn’t a life or death matter to be done on the sabbath. So, the Pharisees decided that Jesus’ power must have come from Satan!
In our reading today, Jesus gives his disciples the ‘authority’ to heal and bring people back to life and cast our evil spirits. But what does ‘authority’ mean? It means that Jesus gives his disciples the very same power Jesus has to heal and cast out and give life. And he says, “This is all you need.”
I’m sure most of us are thinking, “That was back then, and Jesus needed to get things started in a big way before he left this earth. But this is now, and we don’t just go around raising the dead, healing diseases, and casting out demons anymore, because we have what they didn’t have back then. We have modern medicine and therapists and drugs and all that sort of stuff. God doesn’t need common people to do these things anymore.”
Well….maybe…but what if we don’t take this quite so literally? What if we see this as Jesus telling us to carry on his work of healing and restoration by meeting people where they are and addressing the needs they have? And what if we understand that our ‘authority’ comes from allowing Jesus to work through us? Remember that Jesus himself said, “The Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise” (Jn 5:19). And what if we also understand that our ‘authority’ is bound up in allowing Jesus to provide for our work through the power of the Holy Spirit?
This is easier, right? Jesus is really the one who does the work; we are just the conduit through which the Holy Spirit heals and restores and releases people from all the things that bind them. That makes us feel a lot better…until we remember that Jesus sends us to our own people first…and if you’re like me, we don’t want to go there. This is too hard. We need to keep the status quo among our families and friends because they are our safety net. They are the ones among whom we find our identity and acceptance. But Jesus says go, to your own first. Learn to be real disciples among them. And I think Jesus does this at least partly because, if we can remain loyal to Jesus among people who know who we are, then we will have the courage and the faith in Jesus’s “being with us through it all” to do kingdom work among strangers.
So what do we do? Remember what we learned about prayer in our Children’s Time during April? First we praise God. (That’s why we started with Psalm 100 this morning.) Second, we confess. In this case, our confession might be about not wanting to take God’s message of healing and reconciliation to our families and friends; or it might be that we are afraid they won’t listen to us or take us seriously; or that they’ll abandon us and we’ll be left with nothing but Jesus. But, we might have other things to confess as well. Third, we thank God. Today we can thank God for God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to us, especially for all the years God has sent us pastors and teachers and leaders. We can thank God for how we’ve grown as churches, both individually and together. And we can thank God for each other, and be thankful that we don’t walk into our future alone, because we have each other. And last, we pour out our needs to God, and I don’t need to spell them out to you because you already know them. But we pray this way in the faith that God does have our backs, that God wants good for us, and that God chooses to use us, even us, for God’s kingdom work of healing, restoration, and getting rid of things, and even spirits, that hinder people from enjoying the relationship with God they were created to have.
But after we’ve prayed, what then? We hang out with our families and friends and wait for the Holy Spirit to direct us. Usually, the Spirit’s guidance feels very natural, and takes us by surprise as much as it does anybody else. It might be words we are given, or ears to hear what we’ve ignored before, eyes to see what we’ve been blind to, or the heart to love what we’ve avoided.
I have been told that I “always know exactly the right thing to say,” or that I seem to know when someone needs a visit or call or text, or that my sermons really reach people. I can’t take credit for any of this. It’s been the Holy Spirit’s work the whole way, and I’m always amazed at what the Spirit is able to accomplish through ME! All I can say is, “To God be the glory!”
Friends, if you want to be holy, don’t hide yourself in a room in order to protect yourself from all the evil out there. And don’t try to protect God, either! God doesn’t need protecting. Be out among people, among your friends and families, but be who Jesus gives you the authority to be at that time and in that place. And as you allow the Holy Spirit to work through you, God’s kingdom will come near. Our job is to tell people that this is what the kingdom of heaven looks like – God working through us to bring the kingdom to people.
As we sing our Sending Hymn, I want you to remember at least some of the ways that the kingdom of heaven has come among us, individually, as a church, and as the blended church family we represent today. Remember these things, and give God the glory. So, turn in your hymnals to #99, My Tribute, and let’s praise God together in song. (Let’s sing it through twice to give us time to remember several things.)

*Sending Hymn: My Tribute #99 (twice)

*Take-home: Jesus gives us the ‘authority’ to Love boldly, Serve Joyfully, and Lead Courageously, even in circumstances we would not choose, as we allow the Holy Spirit to work through us to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

*Benediction: May the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit bind us together in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen and Amen!

Pastor Diana Webster [email protected]
620-603-3118 cell; 620-587-3505 office
Church Office – PO Box 315, 120 3rd St., Claflin KS 67525 [email protected]

06/13/2026

A reminder that we are having a COMBINED WORSHIP SERVICE WITH THE BUSHTON UMC CONGRATION JUNE 14TH AT 10 A.M. This is Pastor Diana's last Sunday with us. There is a potluck meal following the service.

06/10/2026

This Sunday, June 14th, the Claflin congregation will join the Bushton UMC congregaton for a COMBINED WORSHIP AT BUSHTON AT 10 A.M. Sadly, this is the last worship service our Pastor Diana will be doing with our congregations because she has been given a new church assignment. We will miss her so much, but we wish her nothing but the best in this upcoming new chapter in her life. We invite those who know Diana to come worship with us and stay for a potluck after the service. There will be wonderful fellowship, more memories made, and probably many tears shed!

God Bless!!!

06/10/2026

It is with love and tears from our Pastor Diana that this final scripture study is posted.. She has loved doing these studies for us, but she will be moving to a different church assignment in a few weeks. We will miss her greatly.

And now to each of you from Diana -- Blessings.

Click on the links below for this week’s scriptures #2 Psalm 100 Matthew 9:35 - 10:8 Scripture Study for 6-14-2026 Click on the Objects #4 Digging Deeper #6 In a Hurry? #5 Brain Teasers from Pastor Diana

06/07/2026

Welcome to Worship! Remember the thought I sent you home with last week? – “The more we learn about God, the more we learn what it is to be human”? This week, we’re going to approach that thought from a different angle, especially as we gather around the communion table with Jesus, not because of who we are, but because of who God is. Let’s begin our worship in prayer: Holy Spirit, in this silence, as the Light of Christ enters our space of worship, bring to our hearts and minds the things about you that bring us here.
We pray this in the name of who you are. Amen.

*Call to Worship: Psalm 25:6-10 p. 757
Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been
from of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth, or my transgressions; according to your
steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.
Good and upright is the Lord; therefore the Lord instructs sinners in the way, and
leads the humble in what is right and teaches them their way.
All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep
the Lord’s covenant and testimonies.

*Hymn of Praise: Great Is Thy Faithfulness #140, v. 1

Praises & Requests

Prayer Hymn: What a Friend We Have in Jesus #526

Prayer of the People: O Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name in all the earth! Your glory is so great that there is no reason at all that you should even notice us. And yet, you do! We confess that we depend on your steadfast love and faithfulness to us in order to be the people you created us to be. Thank you, Jesus, for the work you did among people just like us that inspired the stories we read in the Bible. Thank you for seeing people for who they really are, for understanding what they need even when they don’t understand. Thank you for this, because these stories give us hope for our own relationships with you. Jesus, there are so many hurting people today. We can’t name them all, but we lift these up to you, asking you to touch their lives according to your will. In your mercy, Lord, hear our prayers for: Victims of natural disasters & war; OUR COUNTRY, OUR WORLD, the families of H. P., Dan, & Lisa, DARYL, JOY, Gavin, a grieving Hekele family, our incoming pastors, Roger, Judy, RANDY & Vickie, A HURTING FAMILY, CHILDREN IN DETENTION CENTERS, A STRUGGLING FAMILY, Cherlyn, SHIRLEY, JAMI, Christina, Matt, CAROL, BRENDA, A MOM, a sister church, Lucile, SCOTT, Alvin, Joe, Jim, JENNA, Aiden, ROSS, Sara, addicts, Rachelle, Jordan, Rick, a Mom, Les & Barbara, Kay, Sherry, Nancy, Kathe, residents in care facilities, and especially our children. We pray all this in your name. Amen.

Children’s Time: Today is communion Sunday. What is communion? (maybe bread & juice?) It’s when we do 2 things: 1 – we remember what God has done for us through Jesus. What did Jesus do for us? (showed us how to live, died for our sins so that we can live with God in this life as well as after we die, loved us) 2 – we ask God to “pour out the Holy Spirit on us and the bread and juice”. What does it mean for the Holy Spirit to be poured out on us? (God sends the Holy Spirit to come live inside us) What difference will the Holy Spirit make in us? (The Spirit teaches us, it helps us remember what Jesus has said, and it helps us love people and not sin) So, when we celebrate communion, we remember and we ask, but God does all the rest. God forgives us, God teaches us, and God loves us. Because this is who God is. Let’s pray: God, we really don’t understand what communion is all about. The bread and juice are good, though, and it is good to get out of our seats and stretch our legs. We are glad that you understand what this is all about, and that your Holy Spirit is teaching us a little bit every day. Thank you, God, for taking care of us. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Old Testament Reading: Genesis 12:1-9
The LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and invoked the name of the LORD. And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negev.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and [Jesus] said to him, “Follow me.” And [Matthew] got up and followed him.
And as [Jesus] sat at dinner in [Matthew’s house], many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with [Jesus] and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to [Jesus’] disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when [Jesus] heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” … (skip to verse 18)
While [Jesus] was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “God away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, [Jesus] went in and took [the girl] by the hand, and [she] got up. And the report of this spread throughout that district.
This is the word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God!

*Gloria Patri: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end! Amen! Amen!

Sermon: Because of Who God Is
Our Call to Worship psalm asks God to remember us, not because of who we are, but because of who God is. Remember us according to your steadfast love and mercy and goodness, the psalmist cries, because if you remember us for who we are, well, you know that we’re really not worth your notice. So, God, remember us according to who you are.
In Genesis we hear God’s call to Abram. But why does God call Abram? His family are not God-worshipers; they worship idols. Why then, Abram? Some people will tell you that God knows what is in Abram’s heart, and knows that Abram will be open to God’s leading and will be faithful to God, and that will be true. But why does God call any human being? From the very beginning, humans have been nothing but faithless, even after God starts over with Noah. (And, by the way, Abram is a descendant of Noah’s son Shem). Even so, no-one has been faithful to God. So, again, why does God call Abram?
Because God is faithful to all that God creates, even to the ones who don’t follow God. And in God’s faithfulness, God continues to seek relationship with even the faithless human beings. So, God calls Abram, and we know the story because Abram says ‘yes.’
In our reading from Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is in Capernaum, the town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee where he headquarters during his ministry years. People are beginning to know who Jesus is, but the people in Capernaum are no different from anywhere else. There are leaders, crooks, thieves, common people, laborers, merchants, young people, old people, healthy people and sick people, the religious and the atheists – it may as well be Bushton or Claflin. It’s just an ordinary town where Jesus has already taught, healed, and hung out with his disciples and his friends. The three people Matthew tells us about today are probably not the only people Jesus interacts with on this particular day. So why does Matthew choose one of the town’s most-hated people, a highly-respected individual, and an invisible person who lives beneath everyone else’s radar? Frankly, I think Matthew shares these particular stories to show us that God is not only available to everyone, but that God sometimes meets us in ways we might not expect.
In the case of the tax collector, he isn’t wanting to follow Jesus as far as we know. But I’m sure he is feeling stuck in life. Everyone hates tax collectors, especially if they are Jews who work for the Roman government. Matthew is a Jew. He needs to make a living, but will have trouble finding a different job because of the stigma that will be forever attached to him because of the job he currently holds. But Jesus comes along and offers him a different way of life.
The leader of the synagogue, on the other hand, is well respected in Capernaum. We read in Luke’s version of this story that this is his only child, just on the cusp of womanhood. Can you imagine how lonely and empty his life would be without his child? And who will care for him when he is old? But he knows that Jesus can restore his daughter’s life, and he tells Jesus so. And Jesus honors this man’s faith in who God is.
I think the story of the sick woman is particularly interesting. She has been sick for 12 years! In Luke’s version, we read that she has spent every penny she has on doctors to try to get well. Kind of the same story those of us who have tried and tried to lose weight know only too well. We try this diet, and that pill, we might even have surgery, and each time we tell ourselves that we know this time it will work. But so often, all the glorious stories of how others have achieved beautiful bodies have not been true for us, and eventually we run out of faith and wonder what is the point of just keeping on. In our story today, the sick woman suddenly sees one more chance. “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well,” she tells herself. Jesus sees her and says, “Cheer up, sister, your faith has made you well.” Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think this woman had any more faith. I think what she told herself was like what we tell ourselves when we scratch another lottery ticket – “This time I’ll make some money; I’m sure of it.” And when we don’t, oh well. I think this is the kind of thing that went through this woman’s head as she reached out and touched Jesus’ coat. We know that the woman was healed, but I think she was healed because Jesus gave her the faith she needed to be well. She had given up on God a long time ago, at least the way I read this. Jesus gave her the faith she needed to believe that God could heal her.
Last week I told you that, “The more we learn about God, the more we learn what it is to be human.” So what do this week’s stories teach us about God? Maybe that God’s out there calling, even if we aren’t looking for God, as in the case of Abram. Maybe that God knows when we need a way out of life’s ruts, even if we’re not asking for God’s help, like the tax collector wasn’t. Maybe that faith in what God is able to do goes a long way with God, like it did for the synagogue leader. And maybe that God knows when we’ve run out of faith and is willing to give us the faith we need if we’ll just take a chance on God. I think these things are definitely part of who God is.
But how do these God-traits show us how to be more human?
Well, in the case of God’s call to Abram, whose family worshiped idols, does being the person God created us to be mean that we should judge people less for what we know about them and instead, allow the Holy Spirit to lead us to accept God’s possibilities for people, as in allowing God to choose whom God is allowed to call into service for God’s purposes? I mean, how many times have we written people off because they didn’t meet our qualifications of a God-worthy person?
What can we learn about being more human from the tax collector’s story? How about looking beyond circumstances – like the tax collector’s job – and building relationships around people’s humanity, around their hopes and dreams, and their need for approval and acceptance and love? Jesus did that for the tax collector, so shouldn’t we?
In the case of the synagogue leader, to be human is to have times of trouble. But to be a human who is in relationship with God is to communicate with God. I’m not talking about giving God our laundry list of wants and woes; I’m talking about making sure that God knows that we know that, as our psalmist says, that steadfast love and faithfulness for God’s creation are a huge part of who God is. And part of our job as human beings is to hold God accountable, like the synagogue leader did when he told Jesus that he could bring his daughter back to life by just laying his hand on her.
To be human is to run out of faith from time to time. But in the case of the sick woman, she was beyond asking God to give her faith. But to be a human being in relationship with God is to never give up on those who have given up on God. Keep on praying. Keep on loving, even when they push you away. Keep on talking with God about God’s faithfulness to all creation, especially to those who have given up. Because Jesus came to save the whole world, and that world includes those who have given up.
So we come to communion today because of who God is, because of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to us. But we also come as human beings who are trying to live into what it means to be fully human, the way Jesus did, because that’s who God created us to be. We come wanting to learn how to never write people off because of what we know about them. We come wanting to look beyond circumstances in order to see the need in people’s hearts. We come wanting to be fully convinced of who God is so that we can bank on God, rather than ourselves. And we come wanting to learn how to be the faith and the hope and the possibilities for those who have none of these. And we come, because of who Jesus is, because it is Jesus who invites all of us to share at his table.
So I invite us to turn in our hymnals to page 12, and remember how we as God’s people and as Christ’s church have not yet lived into the full connection with God that is possible for us through Jesus Christ. Let’s confess together:

Communion: p. 12
Confession, Pardon, Peace

Offering Hymn: Something Beautiful #394 (twice)

Offering Prayer: Lord, we ask you to accept our offerings. May they bless others in the same way that your gifts have blessed us. We pray this in your name. Amen.

The Great Thanksgiving, Bread & Cup p. 13

*Sending Hymn: Great Is Thy Faithfulness #140, v. 3

*Take-home: The more we learn about how to be truly human, the closer we grow to God.

*Benediction: May the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit guide our becoming truly human in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Pastor Diana Webster [email protected]
620-603-3118 cell; 620-587-3505 office
Church Office – PO Box 315, 120 3rd St., Claflin KS 67525 [email protected]