Heritage Sunday, traditionally celebrated on the third Sunday in May, is a time when United Methodists honor their past and envision their future. The General Commission on Archives and History, in partnership with Discipleship Ministries, has created resources for church leaders to use on this special Sunday, including scripture recommendations, sermon notes, liturgy and hymn suggestions. The 2024 Heritage Sunday date is May 19, but congregations may observe the special Sunday on an alternate date, if desired.
Preaching Notes for Heritage Sunday
Rooted & Grounded
“For this reason,” Paul writes. OK, let’s start with a tiny diversion - there is considerable debate about whether this letter was written by Paul or not. We do know that not all the texts in the New Testament that carry Paul’s name were actually written by Paul. We know that plagiarism as a concept didn’t exist at the time of the writing of the documents of the Bible. We also know that it was common to attribute a letter or a sermon to someone famous to get more people to read it. No one would have considered that odd in those days. So, one of the questions that biblical scholarship needs to help answer for us is whether the documents we have were written by the people whose names are on them. It is important for us to know from a historical point of view. It is good to know how the Bible as we have it came to be. We need to understand that the words that we value so much came about through a community process, that the Spirit inspired a wide range of folks over a long period of time. We need to understand that the words we read are part of a lived experience, not some abstract truth that was handed from above. The historical, critical process is one of the tools the church can use to examine our foundational documents. So, you need to know, and the preacher needs to be honest enough to admit, that there is some debate about whether or not Paul wrote these words.
On the other hand, I’m not sure it matters that much. If we view the Bible as a community project, then who put pen to paper (or some ancient world equivalent) doesn’t matter. I do not doubt that if Paul hadn’t written this letter, he certainly would have influenced it. His words and thoughts appear throughout these verses. That is why I am happy to use the shorthand and talk about what Paul said.
“For this reason,” Paul writes. What’s the reason? Well, he spends the first part of the letter explaining the reason. It is because of the immeasurable grace of God. Because in that grace, all are welcome; all are included. All. And for Paul, all means all. Others had to struggle with all. “Surely not Gentiles,” they said; surely not pagans; surely not enemies; surely not those whose lives are just way too different from ours, who don’t speak our language, who don’t dress as we do, think as we do, work as we do. Not all, surely. “No,” says Paul, “all means all.” And for this reason, I fall to my knees in awe of God.
And, he says, “I pray.” For more. More of this grace freely offered. More of the love that staggers the imagination. Give us more. Give us strength. That’s first on his list. Strength in the inner being. Strong hearts, strong souls. He wants us to be strong at the core of our being. Knowing that we are subject to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, he wants us strong where it counts. We pray for bad things to go away or not to come to us. Paul prays that we have the strength to stand when the bad things come. He prays that we might have power.
That power comes from the Spirit. It comes from the Christ who dwells in us. Because we are in process. As we are being rooted and grounded in love, we receive the capacity to love by grace. It is a gift. Boom. Instant. But it takes time to learn to live that life of love. It takes effort. It takes moving forward and falling back. It takes growing, developing, sending down the roots into the source of God’s nutrient love and sending the growth into the air to be seen and smelled and tasted by a hungry, interconnected world. It takes time. It takes success and failure to learn to live a life of love. We have to rock the vehicle back and forth to break free of the rut we find ourselves in. We are being rooted and grounded in love. Being rooted—we’re not done. As soon as we think we are done, as soon as we think we’ve got it, we’ve lost it. Hold on to the Christ who dwells within.
So we can know. That’s why we contemplate Christ. That’s why we study his life, listen to his words, weep at his example, and rejoice at his blessing. So we can know. Know what? That which is unknowable. Know what is beyond knowing—the breadth and width and height and depth. ...Um ... of what? Of him. Of his love. Paul wants us to know that which surpasses knowledge. If your head isn’t spinning yet, then go back and read it again. Paul prays that we are to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. He prays that we might grow into this love, be rooted and grounded in love.
Like many new parents, when our children came all those years ago, I often felt inadequate. There were lots of areas where I didn’t feel I knew enough, had enough, was enough to be a parent. I felt inadequate, for example, when it came to kids’ songs. My feelings of inadequacy began before our kids even arrived. I was walking the dog one day, and I heard some kid singing. He was doing some heavy construction in his driveway. And as I watched, I thought, I can do that. I can help my son or daughter reconstruct a puddle, given the proper earth-moving equipment. But when I got closer, I noticed he was singing a song while he worked. I managed to catch the lyrics. It went "Peanut, peanut butter AND JELLY. Peanut, peanut butter AND JELLY." Over and over without variation. "Peanut, peanut butter AND JELLY." And from that moment, I knew I didn't have what it takes to be a parent. I had never heard the peanut butter song! And I don't dare admit that I have no idea how many other items on the lunch menu have theme songs.
Needless to say, I had certain inadequacies that I was trying to overcome; certain gaps in my knowledge and understanding. There is just too much to know. There are too many things that need to be taught. How can we know what we need to know? Paul prays that we "being rooted and grounded in love… may have the power to comprehend …what is the breadth and length and height and depth." That's what I want: to know, to comprehend. And all it takes is to be rooted and grounded in love.
That's all. It sounds simple, almost too simple, especially in our day and age. Love is everywhere. It is the driving force of most of our media, the subject of most of the songs on the radio, the subtext of the majority of television programs, and the headline in most of the magazines on the shelves at the supermarket. Love is all around us. It is one of our highest ideals; to claim that we did it for love is to end the conversation; there is no rebuttal to that statement.
So, you might say that our whole society is already rooted and grounded in love. Oh, sure there are still some problems out there— hunger and violence and disaster and hatred. But all we need is a little more love, and we're home free.
Except, I wonder what the result is of all this rooting around in love? Where are we likely to go if our motivation is a desire for love? Almost anywhere—if we let ourselves be led around by the emotion called love. That's the difference between what we see around us most of the time and Paul's plea from Ephesians. If we consider love to be that feeling that we get when things are happy and going well; if we consider love to be the hormonal drive to be together with someone so that we might be satisfied. If we consider love to be to be primarily a sensation that must be sensational, then we are apt to go chasing after it in all sorts of ways. Then we are likely to lose our grip and momentum, and we’ll need to try something or someone new to maintain the feeling.
But the love that Paul prays we might incorporate into our lives is not that—or at least not just that. Paul prays that you, "being rooted and grounded in love… may have the power to comprehend … what is the breadth and length and height and depth." To comprehend, to know, to decide to love. Love is not primarily a feeling, but a decision. We choose to love and to continue loving, even when the feeling comes and goes.
How do we do it? How do we maintain this decision and make it an ongoing act of will? The key is in the word "you”; that "you" being rooted and grounded in love is plural.
My roots are in the South, so I grew up knowing the difference between you and y’all and all y’all. The only sure plural is “all y’all.” So, we should read this prayer with an “all y’all” mindset: "That all y’all being rooted and grounded in love, may have the power to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth." Oh, and I've left out a phrase: "With all the saints." We need one another; we need help.
We need one another—the others in the relationship, in the commitment; the others in the covenant community. We need help—to keep loving and to understand love. "That you, being rooted and grounded in love… may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ." That is what we comprehend. That is what we grow into, as individuals, as the local congregation and community of faith, and as United Methodists together. We put down our roots, and we grow into the experience and the practice of love.
Sermon notes written by Rev. Dr. Derek Weber for Discipleship Ministries, March 2024.
Hymns and Songs
(bold indicates Charles or John Wesley)Abbreviations
UMH=United Methodist Hymnal
TFWS=The Faith We Sing
W&S=Worship and Song
God of Grace and God of Glory UMH 577
Come Down, O Love Divine UMH 475
Creating God, Your Fingers Trace UMH 109
Here I Am to Worship W&S 3177
How Can We Name a Love UMH 111
How Can We Sinners Know UMH 372
Jesus Loves Me! This I Know UMH 191
Jesus, Thine All-Victorious Love UMH 422
Lord, Be Glorified TFWS 2150
Lord, We Come to Ask Your Blessing TFWS 2230
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling UMH 384
Now Praise the Hidden God of Love TFWS 2027
O Come and Dwell in Me UMH 388
O Spirit of the Living God UMH 539
O the Depth of Love Divine UMH 627
Our Parent, by Whose Name UMH 447
Pues Si Vivimos UMH 356
Every Time I Feel the Spirit UMH 404
Choir Anthem:
Rooted and Grounded in Love by David Schwoebel-Hope Publishing Company
UPC: 763628156268Publisher ID: C5626
Modern Congregational Songs:
"Build My Life" by Housefires CCLI Song 7070345
"Great Are You Lord" by All Sons & Daughters CCLI Song 6460220
"Reckless Love" by Cory Asbury CCLI Song 7089641
"Living Hope" by Phil Wickham CCLI Song 7106807
Music suggestions by Dr. Diana Sanchez-Bushong, Discipleship Ministries, March 2024.
Liturgical Resources
Call to Worship
We gather today as people brought together by grace and bound together in the family of God.
May God draw us together in love.
We are part of the people called Methodists, a movement planted in the soil of prayer, worship, study, and service.
May we, too, draw nourishment and strength from this soil.
We are part of a movement warmed by the Spirit and watered by Christ.
May we sink our roots deep and extend our branches high as we drink in the food of grace.
We are part of the people called Methodists, yes, but more than that, we are God’s people, connected to every Christ followers who was, who is, and who will be by a network of roots tangled together in love.
May we never stop seeking to comprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth of the love of Christ that roots us, grounds us, and binds us together. Amen.
Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, March 2024.
Opening Prayer
O God,
who plucked as a brand from the burning
your servant John Wesley
that he might kindle the flame of love in our hearts
and illuminate our minds:
Grant us such a warming of our hearts that we,
being set afire by holy love,
may spread its flame to the uttermost parts of the earth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Prayer by J. E. Rattenbury (1870-1963), alt. C. F. Guthrie, as it appears in To Remember and Celebrate: Worship Resources for Heritage Events by Kenneth E. Rowe, Susan M. Eltscher, and Charles Yrigoyen. (Madison, NJ: General Commission on Archives and History, the United Methodist Church, 1995. Print.), 28.
Prayer of Confession
Call to Reconciliation
God looks at us, to see if we are wise enough
to offer confession, to receive forgiveness,
to seek to know the healing love of Christ.
Let us prove our wisdom, and set aside our
foolish pride, as we pray together,
Unison Prayer of Confession
Wisdom's Heart: deep within, we know how we
have failed to be your people. Our hardened hearts
are closed to the love of Christ; our lust for more
and more blocks the fullness of your grace from
transforming our lives; our trust in the powers of
the world reveals our foolish nature.
Have mercy, God of every generation. Pour out
the rich blessing of forgiveness on our parched
souls. Feed us with Heaven's Bread, so we might
be nourished by your gentleness. Shape us as
your people, and restore us to faithful living,
as we seek to follow our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, in service to everyone we meet.
Silent prayers may be offered.
Assurance of Pardon
The wideness of God's mercy, the range of
God's forgiveness, the infinite love of God,
the Heart of hope which is never empty: all
these gifts are ours, as God restores us to
the fullness of life meant for us.
Grounded in love, rooted in discipleship,
we offer ourselves in service to others,
recognizing the limitless grace which
is ours to share in Christ. Thanks be to
God. Amen.
Written by Thom Shuman and posted on Lectionary Liturgies. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2012/07/confession-proper-12-b_15.html.
Benediction
More Than We Could Ever Dream
One: Since you are being rooted and grounded in love, we pray Christ will live in your hearts through faith.
Many: We pray you will have strength by the power of Christ’s Spirit according to his glorious riches.
One: We pray that you will have power to know and understand, with all the saints of God, just how wide, how long, how high, and how deep the love of God really is.
Many: We pray the fullness of God will fill you through and through.
All: Now to God our Creator, Jesus Christ our Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit our Sustainer; who is able to do far more than we could ever dream of according to the power that works in us; be glory in the Church from now to the end of the age. Amen.
Written by Bryan K. Fleet, The Africana Worship Book, Year B (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2007), 219.