From Behind the Pulpit

In some of my devotional reading, I came upon the following from Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.

“Praying in Christ … is being carried on an invisible current of love that is sometimes discernible to us, but often (painfully) not. We can only trust that growth is happening; we know that it is happening only as we test our slowly expanding capacity to face truth, to accept our failures, to go on questioning ourselves because we trust that God will not let go of us.” [1]

The God of Love, who loves us beyond all our imagining, is also the God who will not let go of us. God’s love is not always discernible. There may be times when we feel forgotten or even forsaken, but God’s love for us is certain and secure. A big part of the Christian journey is learning to trust that great truth even when we cannot sense it.

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[1] Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007), 158, e-book edition.

Because of the weather forecast, USD 378 Riley County Schools will dismiss at 2 p.m. today (Monday, May 18, 2026). Church policy is to follow their lead, so I’ll be heading home at 2, but I plan to keep working once I get there. I’m forwarding calls, so feel free to call the church office at 785-539-4191 if you need something. Stay safe everyone.

A clergy collegue shared the following prayer, titled “Gentle My Desperation” with me, and I wanted to share it with you. This isn’t the whole prayer, but you can find the rest in Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder.

Come, Lord Jesus,
touch me
with love, life-giving as light,
to quiet my anger a little
and gentle my desperation,
to soften my fears some
and soothe the knots of my cynicism,
to wipe away the tears from my eyes
and ease the pains in my body and soul,
to reconcile me to myself
and then to the people around me,
and then nation to nation,
that none shall learn war anymore,
but turn to feed the hungry, house the homeless,
and care compassionately for the least of our brothers and sisters.
Reshape me in your wholeness
to be a healing person, Lord. [1]

Amen. Gentle my desperation and soften my fears some, Lord.

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[1] Ted Loder, “Gentle My Desperation,” in Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle, 40th anniversary ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2023), ebook.

I’m taking a Vacation Sunday tomorrow, and so I won’t be in worship. My name is listed after the opening prayer, but that is a error. My prayers will be with you.

My last Sunday at College Avenue will be May 31, 2026. I will miss you all. You can find letters with more details from the SPRC and me at:

Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i8652i8hEYXVucGjN68BU25rjvS-ifcMlUMZtGpelbQ/edit?usp=sharing

PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PQgYEivOCBDUuc7b9YHiaJD4Vb2VS7uU/view?usp=sharing

This coming Sunday, May 17, 2026, CAUMC will join with United Methodist congregations worldwide in a special, one-time offering. The purpose of this offering is to raise money to endow 500 theological scholarships in perpetuity for Africa, the Philippines, and parts of Europe. United Methodists have long valued theological education. The need is great because while 71% of U.S. clergy hold a theological degree, fewer than 5% of clergy outside the U.S. have access to the same level of education. The need is real, and I would encourage you to give generously.

Humility is a Christian virtue, but it is not easily defined. I wanted to share this explanation from Frederick Buechner:

True humility doesn’t consist of thinking ill of yourself but of not thinking of yourself much differently from the way you’d be apt to think of anybody else. It is the capacity for being no more and no less pleased when you play your own hand well than when your opponents do. [1]

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[1] Frederick Buechner, “Humility,” Frederick Buechner (blog), August 18, 2016, https://www.frederickbuechner.com/quote-of-the-day/2016/8/18/humility.

I’ve been reading Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief by Rowan Williams. It is an introduction, but he comes at the Christian faith from a different perspective than I normally do, and I’m finding it fascinating. I wanted to share this:

“We have to bend our minds around the admittedly tough notion that we exist because of an utterly unconditional generosity. The love that God shows in making the world, like the love he shows towards the world once it is created, has no shadow or shred of self-directed purpose in it; it is entirely and unreservedly given for our sake. It is not a concealed way for God to get something out of it for himself, because that would make nonsense of what we believe is God’s eternal nature. God is, in simple terms, sublimely and eternally happy to be God, and the fact that this sublime eternal happiness overflows into the act of creation is itself a way of telling us that God is to be trusted absolutely, that God has no private agenda. It may be a bit shocking and hard to absorb, but that’s what it seems we have to say. When – rather rarely – in our world we see someone acting without any thought for themselves, without reward or consolation, wholly focused on another, we see a faint reflection of what God is naturally like.” [1]

I don’t disagree with any of that, but I had never before put it all together that way.

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[1] Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007), 12–13. Kindle edition.

This is very late notice, but we had the pleasure of welcoming Phoebe Joan Bridenstine as a baptized member on Sunday, December 7, 2025.