Call to Worship (traditional)
Glorious Lord, we give you greeting!
Let the church and the chancel praise you.
Let the plain and the hillside praise you.
Let the dark and the daylight praise you.
Let the air and the ether praise you.
Let the books and the letters praise you.
Let the thought and the action praise you.
Glorious Lord, we give you greeting!

Unison Prayer (Francesca Battistelli)
I’m an empty page, I’m an open book;
Write your story on my heart.
Author of my hope, Maker of the stars,
Let me be your work of art.  Amen.

Words of Assurance:  Philippians 1:6, NIV
He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

The Lord’s Prayer
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.

Opening Song: Brandon Lake & Nick Jonas, “The Author”

Scriptures: John 1:1, John 1:14a, John 21:25, Revelation 20:12, NIV 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.

Sunday Sermon

Summertime is reading time. There’s more natural daylight, so it’s fun to read with a sunbeam shining on the pages, or to take a book to the beach. When I’m walking between people at the beach and I see them reading a book, I always try to angle myself so I can see what they’re reading, whether it’s Dostoyevsky or a romance novel.

The best book I’ve read this summer is called Etna. It’s about a dog walking home after a war, narrated by the dog. The best book I’ve read this year is Ukrainian Field Notes, a series of interviews with Ukrainian musicians. The next book on my reading list is Are They Dead Yet? which is about obituaries. (We may not have the same taste!)

A good novel contains memorable characters, a picturesque setting, and an engaging narrative that includes tension and resolution. If the book is well written, it’s okay to leave it open-ended. Perhaps the worst way to end a book is “he woke up, and it was all a dream.” There are many bad ways to end a book. I used to like dark endings, but not any more. Life is dark enough. In one of my least favorite books, a couple argues for 300 pages, then they finally start getting along and get in a car accident and die. Reviewers said this was a happy ending! It’s not a happy ending!

Here’s some bad news (or good news, depending on your mood). Within 120 years, we are all going to die. Sorry. And someone will write our obituary. And people will tell stories about us. And other people will shape the narrative of our lives, and we won’t be around to contradict them. This is kind of a bummer. At any given point, we could be at the end of our story and not know it. But many of us are at the beginning of our story, some are in the middle and all of us have some pages left, even some chapters, maybe even a good portion of the book, and we don’t know how it ends. This means we still have some control.

You’ve probably heard the expression, “Take control of your own narrative.” Or consider this question: “How do you think God wants your story to end?” Here’s another: “Can you team up with God to get to that ending?”

I have three friends now who are going through times of transition. No one is sure how their stories are going to end. One of them is 22 days sober as of yesterday. He still doesn’t have a home or a job. Another has just moved and started a new business after getting out of an abusive relationship. Another is mourning the loss of both her sons, trying to concentrate on her faith and her love for her grandchildren.

Here are some endings I like. In my first church, I had a youth counselor who was 70. He kept trying to retire from youth work, but the kids loved him. He was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and had his duodenum and other internal organs removed. His scar looked like he had been bitten in the chest by a shark. His doctor told me that the surgery would buy him a year at most. A couple years later he came back to the youth group. Five years later he got married. He lived to be 90.

Here’s another. A couple I knew had retired after long careers and were looking forward to being grandparents. They met a pair of teenaged girls who were being abused. Even though they weren’t related, they sued for custody and won, and became parents all over again. Now they have more grandchildren than they had ever imagined.

Here’s another. I once worked in a very small church with a very small choir, and one of the choir members really couldn’t sing. I mean, no offense, but she was terrible. She also had special needs. But she loved to sing, and the choir kept giving her solos, and she just beamed when she sang, and it was the most incredible demonstration of love.

Any of these stories could have gone another way. The ones that are still unfolding could still go another way. But a month ago, one of the friends I mentioned earlier was living in his car, and the other was being abused. Your situation may or may not be as dramatic. If you’re young, you may be thinking about what sort of career you will have, if you want to get married, where you might live. If you’re middle-aged, you may be thinking about the empty nest or a second career or reevaluating your life. If you’re older you may be thinking you’ve done everything and now the exciting parts of your life are over and you’re either good with that, sad about that or want more. And all of these stories can still go in one or more directions.

Where does God want your story to go next? Do you like what God is offering as a possibility for your life?

I know the plans I have for you,” God tells Jeremiah, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God wants the best for us. But sometimes God leads us into a desert, or a fire, or the belly of a whale.

Here are some stories that could have gone another way, but didn’t. The people were escaping through the Red Sea, but they were being chased by chariots. A giant was terrorizing the land, and no one could stand against him. An enemy army was approaching, and had the town surrounded. Three people were thrown into a blazing furnace, another into a pit of lions. Two parents were on the run with their baby after the king issued orders to have him killed. A soldier asked Jesus to heal his child, but before Jesus could get there, the child died. Then Jesus himself was killed.

The Bible is filled with such stories. Our faith is comprised of close escapes, changes of heart, unexpected miracles. If all things are possible through Christ, then all endings are possible as well.

Maybe you’re in a situation right now that is weighing you down. Maybe it is a trap of the mind, where you can’t stop thinking negative thoughts. Maybe it’s a relationship situation, where you can’t see a way out or through. Maybe it’s a medical condition with no apparent solution. Maybe you’re stuck in a cycle of mourning or regret. Maybe you have no idea how you’re going to make ends meet. Maybe you think there’s nothing left between now and the end except waiting it out. God says, “it doesn’t have to be this way.” God asks, “Is there another way to look at what you’re going through?” God challenges us to see things through his eyes, to change the narrative and to write a better ending.

Paul was a master at defining his own narrative; perhaps that’s why his words carry such weight. He had a great story going: the man who persecuted Christians, only to become one himself. But then he was arrested and thrown in prison, where he would remain until he died. And he had a painful physical ailment no one could cure. He might have asked why. Then he remembered that things didn’t go so well for Jesus either. He came to the conclusion that God still had more for him to do and that the Lord could use his pain and his prison to turn his story into glory.

We think that we are very good at understanding the stories we are in, but often we are not. Only God has the complete picture. Sometimes we go through something terrible with no apparent meaning, and only decades later, when we are able to help someone with the same problem, do we understand the value of our own pain. The older we get, the more likely we are to glimpse the arc of our own narrative.

Just as God is giving us the choice of having a good day or a bad day, God is giving us the power to choose our own narrative, to decide what forks to take, to determine what ending we will eventually have. God is trying to write for us the best possible ending, and has done everything he can to ensure we get there. But it’s still our choice. What kind of book will you be?

Closing Song: Francesca Battistelli, “Write Your Story”

Benediction