Tomorrow (Wednesday, January 13, 2016), we’ll be having our first session of “Confirmation for Grown-Ups” after the Wonderful Wednesday meal. In this series, we’re going to attempt a Christian education program for adults that is as comprehensive as confirmation is for youth (but without a lock-in or the requirement that you attend all the sessions). The meal Wonderful Wednesday meal starts at 5:00 pm so the class will begin about 6:00 p.m. This first session we’ll be talking about one of the most central activities in the Christian life (perhaps the most central): worship.
Out of the Office
Jenny and I will be out of the office for the next two days. We have boundary awareness training in Salina tomorrow (January 12, 2016) and then a district clergy meeting on Wednesday (January 13, 2016).
Five Ways to Worry Less
There’s an article by Ron Edmondson at Ministry Matters titled “Five Suggestions to Help You Worry Less.” Your mileage may vary, but I found them helpful. The first suggestion was “Pray more” and included the observation that:
“You can pray or you can worry, but you can never do both at the same time. Which would you rather do?”
What would you rather do, indeed?
Link: http://bit.ly/1OmyCD7
Reaffirmation of the Baptismal Covenant
Tomorrow we will be celebrating the Baptism of the Lord with a reaffirmation of our baptismal covenants. Jenny will be preaching on Luke 3:15-22. Marilyn Jordan has decorated the altar for the occasion.
Sunday’s Bulletin Online
Last week we ran out of bulletins at the second service. This week I had Julie run 200. I’m also trying out something that was suggested at the SPRC meeting earlier this week: putting the bulletin online so that people can look at it on their phones or tablets. Please go over to abilenefirstumc.org/bulletin/ and take a look. It’s not perfect because HTML and CSS are nowhere near as precise as a word-processing app (Pages) when it comes to formatting, but I think it gets the job done. Please let me know if it doesn’t work for your device.
Podcast: Of Magi and Christians
My sermon from this past Sunday, January 3, 2016, has been posted to SoundCloud. The sermon was titled “Of Magi and Christians” and the textual reference was Matthew 2.1-12.
If you have an Apple product you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes.
Link: http://bit.ly/1PT3eAG
Youthville Offering
An impressive total of $1,980 was given to Youthville at the Christmas Eve Services. Thank you for your donation to children in need. Youthville has a summary of the services they provide here.
Link: http://bit.ly/1THV0dA
Voice of the Day: Gandalf the Grey
Yesterday was the twelfth day of Christmas and today is Epiphany. (We celebrated Epiphany this past Sunday, but technically, Epiphany always falls on the sixth of January.) One of the themes of Epiphany is the Light of God shining into the world. With that in mind, this quote from the fictional character Gandalf the Grey seems appropriate:
“[Some believe] that it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I’ve found. I’ve found it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk, that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.” — Gandalf the Grey “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.”
If it was only against the evil powers of this world that we struggled, then we might conclude that only the efforts and deeds of the great and powerful matter and that the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk amount to naught. But that is not so. In the words of Ephesians 6:12, we struggle “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil.” In that struggle, the kindness and love we show in everyday deeds weigh just as heavily on the scales as the actions of the powerful and mighty.
An Epiphany Revelation
As you may have already heard, Rev. Cynthia Meyer “came out” as a gay woman to her United Methodist congregation in Edgerton, Kansas this past Sunday. This is not the first time that Jenny and I have heard of her. We have known and appreciated her as a colleague for many years. But our history with her goes back even further. Cynthia also grew up in Council Grove and was one of my babysitters. She was one of the campus ministers at K-State while Jenny was a peer minister there. She was the first person to introduce us to one another (that I remember, Jenny asserts that we had already been introduced).
I can’t say that we were surprised by Sunday’s revelation, and I imagine that many of the members of her congregation were not surprised either. For those of her congregation who were surprised, her sermon was designed to be a gentle, pastoral revelation of who she is and why she was doing what she did. Jenny and I commend it to you.
Jenny and I desire to be the pastors to all the members of First United Methodist Church, those who see this issue the way we see it and those who hold to a more traditional Christian interpretation of the relevant biblical passages. We don’t know what will happen next, but we would echo something that Cynthia said in her sermon:
I’ve come to love you, this congregation, your commitment, care, service and joy. Your faith need not be shaken today, your commitment to one another and this congregation need not waver, for Great is God’s Faithfulness, today and all days.
I’m confident that with God’s help, we, together as a church, can make it through this controversy together.
A link to Rev. Meyer’s Epiphany sermon: http://www.rmnetwork.org/newrmn/epiphany-live-in-the-light/
Voice of the Day: James Baldwin
I’ve found today’s quote to be one of the most profoundly insightful things to be written about the nature of human hatred.
“I imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with pain.” — James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955).
James Baldwin was writing about his relationship with his father, but I believe the truth he stated is almost universal. Universal in applying to nearly all of us, universal in applying to nearly all our hates. Letting go of our hates forces us to deal with pain, but confronting our pain is the only way to truly address and neutralize it. Pain hidden under hatred only becomes all the more corrosive. It not easy to confront our pain, but God will be with us. The Holy Spirit will neither forsake nor abandon us.