Thoughts and Musings from My Faith Journey
UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, is already responding to recent storm related disasters in the United States. We’ll be receiving a special offering during both worship services this Sunday. As with all UMCOR Advance gifts, “one hundred percent of your gift to 2011 Spring Storms, UMCOR Emergency Advance #3021326, brings hope to survivors of these devastating storms.”
You can read more or make a donation online at the general board of global ministries website.
To begin to pray we all need a measure of humility. We have to set aside any idea that we must be in a good or holy frame of mind in the presence of God. We must be willing to pray when we feel mean or distracted or seriously tempted and even have the intention of giving into the temptation. We must place ourselves trustfully or even distrustfully in God’s presence exactly as we are.
— Roberta Bondi, To Love as God Loves, 86.
Because we, as a church, celebrated communion on both Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Jenny and I have decided to push communion Sunday back to May 15, 2011.
The 2011 Vacation Bible School at Coffeyville First United Methodist Church will be held Monday-Friday, July 18-22, 2011, from 9 am to 12 noon. The theme this year is, “Shake It Up Cafe: Where Kids Carry Out God’s Recipe”. VBS is open to all children entering grades K-6 and for preschool children who are a part of First UMC. You can register online at the church website or call the church office at 620-251-3240. For questions, please contact Pastor Jenny Collins at jenny@revcollins.com or leave a message with the church office.
Mark Vernon—a self described “English writer, journalist, and author, [who] used to be a priest in the Church of England” and now is an agnostic—makes the following interesting point in a post on his blog.
Christianity teaches not resuscitation of the corpse, but the gift of a new body. (Hence, the resurrected Jesus has a body, but it’s not like yours or mine – able to appear and disappear, be present but not quite recognised etc.) And is not the desire for a new body one of the dominate narratives in our culture?
Rejuvenating creams, personal trainers, clothes design, body insurance, plastic surgery, virtual reality. I wonder what percentage of the economy is based on a secular, this-worldly version of resurrection?
Except that like all desires that are repressed, the original Christian notion returns in a distorted form, purged of the unpleasant talk of death. And unconsciously returning, the longing for a new body now persecutes more than liberates us – I suspect…
I had never made the connection between Christian and cultural resurrections this directly before, but I think he’s really onto something. Our culture—while no longer Christian, if indeed it ever was—is still looking for resurrection. And when we look to created things (rejuvenating creams, etc.) instead of the creator God for anything of ultimate, transcendent importance we end up with “a distorted form” … “that persecutes more than liberates.” Based on the permalink of his post it looks like his original post title may have been “Resurrection rises again to haunt us.” Describing the secular versions of resurrection as persecuting and haunting us is both dramatic and apt.
It’s an important insight, and all the more interesting coming from an agnostic, although, because of our religious differences, I imagine that he and I would apply this lesson differently. This Easter season, those of us who claim the name of Christian should focus on receiving and taking hold of the new life made possible in Christ and rejecting the empty promises of all the various secular resurrections.
Hat Tip: Andrew Sullivan
Yesterday’s sermon is now online at: http://blog.coffeyvillefirstumc.org/podcasts.
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(iTunes is available as a free download.)
Last night we had our second Kids’ Night Out. We had seventeen kids. I want to thank Heather and Jeff Allen and my wife, Jenny Collins, for all their hard work.
Tony Campollo has presented what is, to my mind at least, a balanced view on illegal immigration. Depending upon your own views, it may not appear that way for the first five short paragraphs, but keep reading. He asks the question “why so many of them choose to enter our country illegally?” I think another good question would be: why do so many of them choose to leave their own country, their homeland, and their families to come to the U.S. (I know we’re the greatest country in the world, but home is home)? What desperation drives them and what could we do as Christians to lesson that desperation?
Our next short-term study will be based on a book by Adam Hamilton titled, “Christianity’s Family Tree: What Other Christians Believe and Why,” will begin on Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 6:30 pm and last eight weeks. This study includes both a book and a DVD that we’ll watch together during the sessions. Reading the book is optimal, but if you simply want to participate by showing up, watching the DVD segment and joining in the discussion, we would love to have you join in.
The following is from the description on the back cover of the book:
In in this study, Adam Hamilton presents a welcoming, inspiring vision of eight Christian denominations and faith traditions. Comparing the Christian family to our own extended families, he contends that each denomination has a unique, valuable perspective to offer on the Christian faith.
The traditions he examines are Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism, Presbyterianism, Anglicanism, Baptists, Pentecostalism, and Methodism. For each group, Hamilton gives a brief history, outlines major beliefs, and describes some things we can learn from that tradition to strengthen our own Christian faith.
Thanks to Cari Redden for the recommendation.
The Daylight Defenders Lion’s Club will be hosting a Pancake Feed to help restore the fountain in Pfister Park on April 30, 2011 from 6:30 to 10:30 am at the First Baptist Church on 9th and Elm. Tickets are $3.50 in advance or $4 at the door. Old eyeglasses will be accepted for the Lion’s “Recycle for Sight” program.
We’ll be observing Good Friday (April 22, 2011) with a traditional service of Tenebrae at 7:00 pm. This service does not include a sermon, but will include the sacrament of Holy Communion. According to The United Methodist Book of Worship, “A Service of Tenebrae, or “Darkness,” is is based on a twelfth-century late night/early morning service and is an extended mediation on the passion of Christ.” Fifteen candles will be established (thus the name “Darkness”) during a reading of the Passion from Gospel of John.
XKCD which is subtitled “a webcomic of romance,sarcasm, math, and language” had the above comic about heaven. You may have to be a fan of the game Tetris to get it, but I am a fan of Tetris and I wanted to share. The website at comes with the following “Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).” The first and the last apply to me. The comic (like this blog) is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 Generic License.