I know there is great concern about the current coronavirus (Covid-19) situation.  We are doing  our best to monitor it and keep informed from the CDC and the Florida UMC conference office.  I want to share the web link to the Center for Disease Control for updates:  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.
 
At this time, we will continue to have worship and Sunday School, however, if you have a fever, cough, shortness of breath or any other unusual symptoms please stay home and check with a medical professional.   If you become sick and need assistance please let us know how we can assist you.
 
This is not a time to panic but a time to live with an abundance of caution and follow the guidelines we have all received from the CDC.  I encourage you to wash your hands with soap and water frequently as we have been directed. 
 
As your pastor I cannot provide medical advice or direction but I do urge you to follow the CDC updates and continue to do the things they have and will suggest to be safe.
 
Blessings

These words by Sam Walter Foss began to bounce around inside my head during the last few weeks...I was thinking about our human condition and about some of the things that have been going on in our world.  At first as I contemplated these words, I wondered about what they really mean in our current world condition.  Instead of seeking to desire to live by the side of the road where people of all kinds pass, we want to live in a house segregated and walled off from others.  Our current sermon series, The Five Lies We Tell Ourselves, focuses on who we are and who we are not.

These lies focus on who we come to believe ourselves to be based on the lies that society tells us about others and ourselves.  The lies are a means of dividing our society by factors that are a part of what others see in us, not who we are.  It is interesting that there is a sixth lie that is not included in the series but perhaps Henri Nouwen did not think this lie to be as critical as the others did.  That lie is, “I am my religious affiliation.”  I am pained when we divide people we meet based on their spiritual beliefs.  It is actually ironic.  We could look at how different religions separate their adherents from others based on who or what they see as God, or how they choose to worship.  Those are big categories and are difficult to overcome.  By the way, they should not affect the way we see or treat others.  I want us to take a second to look at a more pointed method of separation based on religion.  We, within the Christian religions, separate ourselves on practice, doctrine, social matters (liberal/conservative).

Often we question others beliefs when we really do not even understand our own because we do not really understand our own.  We do not know what a Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Assembly of God, or Seventh-Day Adventist is “supposed” to believe.  It’s sad to me that we often split hairs over method of baptism—sprinkling or dunking, infant or adult, method of communion—intinction or receiving the elements separately, literal or objective presence, and many other issues.  These have been the issues of murders and other atrocities.  However, we can close the circle even narrower to within denominations and then even to congregations.  The current problems in our own denomination centers around six verses in the Bible, some in the Old Testament and some in the New Testament.  We are on the brink of dividing a Denomination and congregations over this because we see differently.  One group says the other does not hold the scripture as authoritative, the other says we do but not literally.  So we have a disagreement on something...I am shocked!

I am shocked because we have so many more things in common than things we do not.  We are standing on the world stage and we are being watched and noticed regardless of who is correct.  We are all losing; Christianity as a whole is losing.  We need to find a place to live together and disagree with each other.  At least this is more important than the color of the carpet.  (Yes, congregations have divided over carpet color.)  There are issues that are important but none so important as to call names or stop the conversation; continuing is usually harder said that done.  It seems we have become so sure of our beliefs that we are afraid if we listen to others we might lose our faith.  If that is the case, our faith is not very deep or strong.  In addition, we cannot expect anyone to listen to our views if we refuse to listen to theirs.  So here we are as a denomination, a nation, and a world divided, angry and broken.  We are not living in a house by the side of the road realizing we are just like everyone else:  good, bad, weak, strong, wise, foolish, and HUMAN.  We need to hear the words of Christ.  An expert in the law asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life and turned the question on the man.  The man answered:  “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Luke 10:27 (NIV)  Jesus affirmed his statement and then the man went further to ask who is my neighbor, an effort to trap Jesus.  Jesus’ response was to tell the parable we know as the Good Samaritan.  He ends his teaching by asking who this man’s neighbor was.  If we want to bring people to Christ or even to our point of view, it is important that we respect them and see them as we are:  broken and searching for the path we need to take for the next part of our journey.

So, anybody know where I can buy a house by the side of the road?

I love being your pastor.

Wayne Cook

Over the last few weeks, I have been thinking about our hymnology and the things we sing about.  Primarily about the hymns we sang in church when I was a young person, not a UMC.  I probably started thinking about this because a friend posted a comment that we need to throw out the screens and contemporary music and start using the old hymnals.  This friend is older than I am, lives in a small rural community, attends a dying church and is sure those hymnals are the answer to make their church thrive.  I began to go over the hymns and think about the words; my friend had mentioned how those old hymns taught us theology.  As I reflected, I realized many of them did indeed teach us theology...both good and bad.  I have realized two main areas in which they taught us bad theology.  The first is they taught us escapism.  The hymn that I think of most in this is “Stepping on the Clouds.”  The hymn points out that we are leaving and that that is a good thing – so much better than being here.  Christopher Benek states it this way in his blog, “Escapism theology is the concept that humanity needs to get away from this mess we call Earth and go ‘home’ to heaven.”  Escapism theology leads us to see the world as void of goodness and not worthy of engagement.  It calls us to separate ourselves and wait for Jesus to come get us and take us away.  It leads us to ignore the needs around us and trash the earth because we ultimately do not need it.  Escapism is killing the institutional church.  Benek tells us, “Much of the global church has so embraced Escapism Theology instead of being God’s agent of change and redemption in the world.  The institutional church in many instances has retreated from engaging culture only to become a failed coping mechanism for people.  Veiled in poor theology, much of the church has simply become an isolationist way for people to flee the harsh realities of the world while waiting to cash in their Jesus-ticket to heaven.”  If we fail to engage the culture, we give up the right to speak and share the Gospel we have heard and believe with the masses of people who have never heard it and have no idea, at least not a correct idea, of what it means to them and their lives.

Now, there is a place called heaven but we should not be dying to go there so quickly that we miss the greater gospel message of love for others, offering the gospel, being stewards of the earth, and caring about changing the world in which we live.  Escapism is killing the institutional church due to a lack of desire to change a world that will no longer exist.  This concept ignores John’s statement of a New Jerusalem coming down from heaven. (Revelation 21).  It ignores the call of God to care for the earth and to share the message of Grace.  It amazes me how “we can be so heavenly minded we are no earthly good.” (Johnny Cash)  We have to learn to move beyond some of the ideas we have learned and developed in order to change the world not to be a “woe is me Christian” who thinks the secular culture will overcome the church; it has not and it will not.

The second bad theology is calling people to come to the church.  This one is the cause of so much misunderstanding of church.  We can invite people to be a part of the church, to come to an institutional church, or to be church, but we cannot invite people to come to church.  As the hymn “We are the Church” tells us, “The church is not a building; the church is not a steeple; the church is not a resting place; the church is a people.”  We cannot go to church but we can be church.  The church is the body of Christ alive, moving, and serving in the hearts and lives of believers.  But we often confuse the sanctuary (a place of worship) with the church.  This lets too many people off the hook.  They say the church should do something about it.  Well, yes, the church should, so get busy and do it because you are the church.  Hymns such as “The Church in the Wildwood” ask us to come to the church in the wildwood, not to worship in the wild wood.  It is teaching us that the church is one organized body – responsible as a group – that provides cover for what we do not want to do.  It is sad there are people who feel this way and have not accepted the responsibility, the authority, or the blessing to and of being the church.

Now the old hymns aren’t the only music that has bad theology.  As with all things, bad theology is scattered all over the place so there are contemporary praise songs that are just as bad.  We just need to be aware of what we are singing and thankfully our UM hymnal is more balanced than some.  It does not contain as many of the escapist songs, but many of us have sung them or heard then in other places we have worshipped and have been influenced by them.

The point is this:  just because hymns are old does not make them better, they can still teach us bad theology.  Likewise, just because praise songs are new, that does not make them better.  John Wesley would tell us to use what draws people to come to worship and to go into the world and find out what that something is that draws them.  We are going to be a part of heaven someday (whatever it looks like and wherever it is) if we have given our hearts to Christ, so we should not be in a hurry to get there.  We also need to learn to be the church in the world until that time comes.  We are called to be disciples, followers who learn and serve.  It’s all about being who Christ calls us to be and offering our lives to Him each day in obedience to his call to be salt and light to the world.

I love serving here with you and look forward to the future as we venture out into the world with a message that changes hearts and lives and changes the world.
 
Blessings
 
 Wayne Cook

On November 19, 1863, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Abraham Lincoln began a speech with these words: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”  He was referring to the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence, which states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”.  Another 156 years have passed and we are still discussing what it means for people to be “created equal.”  We seem to know in our hearts that we were created equal, all in the image of God, but we struggle with what that means when the person we are talking about is different in any number of ways.  Before we condemn others for this struggle, we have to consider this is not a new struggle nor one that belongs only to persons of European descent.  We find the same struggle in the Bible.
 
Peter, who is very careful to remain clean, is called to go to a Gentile household and to witness to the grace of Christ and offer salvation.  God, knowing Peter would struggle with this direction, gave Peter a very pointed vision; one in which God left no doubt in Peter’s mind that he was the God of all persons.  Peter goes.  His initial comment to Cornelius is “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” Acts 10:34b-35 NRSV.  Peter, the loud-mouthed, impetuous follower of Jesus and who is careful to maintain the law, admits that God calls all people to follow the way of Christ.  He changes his understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, of who God calls to be His servant, and of who God accepts.  Paul shares the same message in Galatians 3:28 using different words.  Paul even dares to challenge the need to follow the law to be a follower of Christ at the church in Jerusalem.  He calls the apostles to create space in the assembly of believers for those who have traditionally been on the outside—the Gentiles, who were considered pagans beyond hope.
 
Before I finished this article, I went to North Carolina to do my friend Ben’s funeral.  One of the other clergy used Revelation 21:24-25  “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.  Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.” (NRSV)  She went on to explain the gates will never be closed because all will be welcome, there will be no enemy to keep out and no fear of others to cause us fear.  I hear the fear we have of others in the ways we seek to protect ourselves from those we see as “other” and the harm or death they may cause us.  We carry guns and live in houses with alarms.  Then I see the Amish people who do not fear “others.”  I marveled several years ago at how they forgave the man who raped and murdered several young girls at their Amish school.  They replied when asked how they could be so forgiving, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”  I am tired of living in fear and long too see others as equal and as my brothers and sisters but I still have a ways to go to be in that place.  But if I don’t take the first step and take the risk, I will never arrive at that place.  I invite you to come and walk beside me as we come to see all as our equals, our brothers and sisters in Christ, those for whom he died on the cross.  This truth comes from scripture:  Galatians 3:28.
 
Happy Fourth of July, may our beloved country lead the way in bringing peace and equality.

“Story telling was at the center of the beginnings of the Jesus movement.  And I think we're right to call it the Jesus movement here because if we think of it as Christianity, that is, from the perspective of the kind of movement and institutional religion that it would become a few hundred years later, we will miss the flavor of those earliest years of the kind of crude and rough beginnings, the small enclaves trying to keep the memory alive, and more than that, trying to understand what this Jesus meant for them.”  This statement begins an article dealing with oral tradition and religion specifically speaking about the rise of Christianity and the resurrection story.  I was asked after my Easter article if we could trust the Gospel accounts given that they were written so long after the event.

I believe the answer is yes and I want to share the thoughts of others on this question and end with my own.  At the time of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection, the common method of sharing an event was through oral repetition of the story as shared by direct witnesses.  The common people of the era were typically illiterate and, therefore, the only means for most to share was through the spoken word.  Such is the case of the sharing of the events of the death and resurrection of Jesus.  It was shared from person to person and generation to generation as the teachings of the Pentateuch had been in Israel until the writing of the text in a later era.

We cannot understand the necessity of oral traditions and of the carrying of important facts through spoken word in our instant society that even allows us to speak words into our smart phones and create a written record.  I believe this ability has decreased how we view the importance of the spoken word and come to see it as
temporary and unreliable.  However, imagine how carefully we would be with spoken word if we did not have this ability.  For example, in Alex Haley’s book Roots, we find Haley going to Africa to hear of his family, the story of Kunta Kinte.  He is told the family storyteller will arrive and retell the history of his family.  Haley asks him to go to a certain part of the story only to be told the story can only be told from the beginning, apparently to assure accuracy.  We forget there are others for which the accuracy of the spoken word is essential to life and is for them reliable.

Let us look beyond my basic assumption that spoken language in certain societies is key to their transmission of information and is reliable to the specific topic at hand.  N.T. Wright, theologian and professor at the University of Scotland, tells us, “There is no form of early Christianity known to us that does not affirm that after Jesus’ shameful death, God raised him to life again.”  Wright holds the most widely held belief affirming that resurrection is the central tenant of the early church.  Likewise, Paul writes,  “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?  If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.”  The event of the resurrection was the central focus of early Christians, it was the confirmation of who Jesus was; it was the event, which lead them to understand the life and teaching of Jesus as Messiah.

Third, we need to look at the Biblical statements of the presence of the resurrected Jesus in the world.  In 1 Corinthians 15:6 Paul writes that Jesus appeared to over five hundred believers and that most of them are still alive.  I realize we can claim an apparition based on the desire of the believers to hold on to Jesus but the number Paul states and the fact that many are still alive indicates there was a commonly held belief among persons who not only heard of the event but also were witnesses to the event.  If there were any way, in which the ruling authority could have refuted and ended the telling of the event, surely they would have done so in order to destroy this subversive group that was drawing away its followers to a new understanding of God.

Fourth, let us examine human nature.  Would you be willing to die for a lie?  Would you continue to put forth a lie even though it caused you to become a political and religious enemy to the ruling powers of your culture and world?  Chuck Colson, one of the Watergate conspirators, tells us that Watergate proves the resurrection.  He says, “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me.  How?  Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it.  Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned, and put in prison.  They would not have endured that if it weren't true.  Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world—and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks.  You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years?  Absolutely impossible.”  These twelve unlearned common men, former fisherman lived and died to share the message of the resurrection.  I agree with Colson, even intelligent men with great power cannot keep a lie quiet for very long and certainly given the choice of being beaten and dying or recanting the story, they would have recanted, often this happens even if the story is true.

Finally, and possibly most importantly, is our own individual decision.  Regardless of the evidence, we each make decisions daily as to what we will and will not accept as credible evidence of events.  We can be presented with irrefutable facts on any number of events or possible future events and choose not to believe the evidence...instead choosing to believe the stories that whirl around us attempting to sway us to a side of the argument.  Currently, we are dealing with the issues of immigration, climate change, abortion, marriage, vaccination of children, and many others.  On these issues, the facts are rarely what causes us to choose which side we will support; rather our own hearing and emotional or spiritual understanding sway us to one side or the other.  We are people who are often carried along more by our own desires and thoughts than by factual evidence.  Ultimately, each of us has to decide whether to believe in the actual bodily resurrection of Jesus.  We are presented with facts, arguments and counter facts and arguments, yet we have to decide what is real for us.

As for me, I have chosen to believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus as presented in the Gospels and recounted by Paul.  I find comfort and hope in the resurrection.  I trust that God is able to raise all people.  Is it possible I am wrong?  Of course it is, but, I still choose to believe.
 
I will leave you with the words of Joshua 24:14-15, “Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.  Now, if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
 
  Wayne Cook
 
 
(White 1998)
(Wright 2016)
(New Revised Standard Version Bible 1989)
(Always Be Ready n.d.)
(New Revised Standard Version Bible 1989)

Fear is a powerful motivator; it causes us to change the way we see the world and our neighbor. In Revelation 6:9, the fifth seal is broken and the martyrs of the world are revealed. They, like us, are still so human and cry out to God for revenge. I know that when I live in fear I too want revenge for the wrongs that I perceive I have suffered. God's response is to give them white robes and tell them to rest until all who would be martyred have joined them. My human nature says this is the voice of a parent just making promises to a child just to quiet them; but the Spirit reminds me that God is faithful and his word is sure. We want to make sure we are revenged. God says wait. God says rest. I am often amazed at life and how out of balance it seems; people are massacred, children massacred at their schools, older persons massacred in a Bible study and yet God says wait, rest. We truly do not get it. This vision of the martyrs in heaven, under the throne, shows us those who have served and died in their service of God. They receive honor at the foot of His throne with the white robe and rest. They have died so that the Gospel would go forward.

We are afraid we will die and yet God calls us to come and die every day to our ego and our clinging to this life. We hear in Luke, we are to give our life away in order to save it. We live in a world full of fear and anger a world that is seeking to use these emotions to take us away from God. They keep us from serving because of what might happen to us, making us ineffective in the spreading of the gospel. God tells us to rest our cares in His grace and to serve in this world without fear for our lives. We are to be bold in this life each day living without fear because of the promise we have received. Let us be bold in service and speech, offering grace to the broken and downtrodden, setting the captives free and declaring the year of the Lord’s favor. (Isaiah 61) The evil one will threaten us and may even destroy us but we are secure in our salvation through the work of Christ in the world.

Easter is over and we return to our everyday world, but because Easter happened, that world has changed.  Jesus’ resurrection fills the world with new possibilities if we are willing to see them.  As Sophia from Golden Girls would say, “Picture it:  Israel 33AD.”  The apostles are gathered in a closed room, hiding in fear from the authorities, wondering if they will come after them next.  They tremble at every creak and noise; they are terrified!  They are certain the authorities know they are Jesus’ followers and are certain some group will be looking for them to put an end to the whole Jesus affair.

How often do we live in fear someone will find out what we have done or who we really are and punish us?  We live in fear.  Now, some fear is a good thing, but to live constantly in fear is not.  The disciples were in that room feeling it was all over, then something amazing happened that changed their minds and their lives forever.  As they sat in that room, Jesus suddenly appeared among them!  Can you imagine sitting there when suddenly the person you believe to be dead appears in the room without coming through the door?  I have no words for how I imagine that would feel.  Jesus knew how they felt.  His first words to them were “Peace be with you.” (John 20:21 NRSV)  Before giving instructions or breathing on them and telling them to receive the Holy Spirit, he says “Peace, be with you.”  Jesus knows what they need; they need their fears calmed and peace to be in their hearts and minds, so they can accept the new reality and begin the next phase of their journey.

Jesus still calls to us today – “Peace be with you.”  He knows that before we can be effective for the kingdom, we need to be at peace.  We need His peace to fill us and to calm our hearts, our minds, and our lives.  We cannot serve God while we are still living in the angst of what is happening or of what might happen.  I have been privileged to know many people who have that peace in their lives and to witness the way in which they share the Gospel with a quiet calm spirit that reaches out to others.  We need that spirit of peace in our lives today perhaps more than ever.  As I watch the news and read newspaper and magazine articles, I find it is easy to be overcome by all the evil in our world, to be jaded by our political and social divisions that cause more fear, anger, and hatred to be expressed openly and loudly.  I wonder if this is all a part of the plan of what scripture calls the prince of power of the air to so burden our minds and keep us from focusing on the resurrection of Jesus, which promises us that death and the grave have been overcome.  In the resurrection, Jesus shows us His power over all things and beings and that He is in control even when it seems otherwise.  It is difficult for us to see and understand when we are surrounded by so much brokenness, sorrow, division, and evil, but imagine how difficult it was for those who were locked away in that room in fear of the people who had crucified Jesus.  The fear we feel is not new it is as old as time and it is based on the lie that evil is in charge and has the power to control everything.  Evil may win for a time but ultimately Jesus is the victor.

I pray we can focus our hearts and minds on that ultimate victory; that we can hold the resurrection promise in our lives and trust in the grace of God to lead us forward boldly to share the word of God.  We may die in the process but we are promised that death has been overcome and we too will be resurrected in perfection.  May the promise of Easter live in our hearts today and always.

Hallelujah!  He is risen!

We are half way through the Lenten season and well on our way to Easter.  On our journey, we will encounter a few more things we need to see, hear, experience, and understand.  As we continue forward, we also will be tempted to stop and “camp” instead of moving forward.  A few weeks ago was Transfiguration Sunday – the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.  That feast day celebrates the vision and experience of seeing the Lord’s Glory.  Only Peter, James, and John went up the mountain with Jesus and saw his transfiguration.  Peter, always the one to break the silence (I often feel like Peter), breaks in and says to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” (Matthew 17:4 NRSV)  Peter believes he has arrived at the best place and wants to stay there forever, but Jesus knows this vision was to give them strength to be the resting place forever.  We need to learn that lesson.  We need to learn not to lie down next to the low points in our life, obviously, but we also need to learn not to lie down with the high points, which is not as obvious or even desirable.

In the next weeks, we will encounter two events in the life of Christ that will tempt us to stop our journey, build houses, and live in these events.  We might think we have reached the end of the journey – and commonly as Christians, we act as we have through one of these events.  The first event is the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.  The Lord will come riding into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey appearing as one of the kings of Rome or some other dignitary would:  Riding into the town amid shouts of joy and admiration claiming Jesus as our King and with palm branches laid in the path.  It would be great to stop and live here just having Jesus as our earthly king, providing all our needs and giving us relief from the things that cause us pain in this world.  Nevertheless, Jesus would not be who he came to be, would he?  Jesus did not come to build an earthly kingdom, as other kings in this world; he came to change the world.  So we can’t rest beside an earthly kingdom no matter what we want.

The second event is a sad one, we will come to the cross of Jesus and be tempted to set up camp and live at the foot of the cross.  We will want to rejoice in his taking away of our sins, not a bad place to hang out.  We are tempted to see the cross as the be all end all of Jesus’ work.  While it is a center point for us, we have to remember that forgiveness with nothing else after is a bit pointless.  If we are forgiven but just hang out, it does not really change anything.  The cross is the hinge that gives us the possibility.  As much as we want to stay there as forgiven people, we must journey further; we must live beyond the cross.

The last event is the one we celebrate the most and realize the consequences of the least.  We come on Easter Sunday to celebrate an empty grave, a grave that has lost its battle to contain the life of humanity.  We are not people of the cross but people of the empty tomb.  This is where we stake our ground...not Jesus’ death, but his resurrection.  We too often even get this wrong.  The resurrection is not only about going to heaven when we die.  Resurrection is about being set free from the fear and the hold of death in our lives to live in this world in a new way.  Resurrection points us to live a life that reflects the life of Jesus, to live boldly, and to be the people of God by living without fear of doing the right thing for others.  I really have to laugh at myself about life.  I am one of the most fearful persons I know.  I worry about getting hurt.  I worry about having enough money to last throughout my retirement.  I worry about my kids.  While it is very human to worry about these things, Jesus has opened the door to a life beyond these things.  He has set us free from the temporal world by destroying our last and most fearsome enemy—death.  I know this in my heart, but my mind forgets to focus on an empty tomb and sees the Roman soldiers standing around looking for someone to arrest for taking the body.

This year I am going to focus on the emptiness of that grave and the way it teaches me how Jesus has overcome all the obstacles right here in this world.  I will focus on his call to take up my cross, to embrace the means of my death, to make peace with it, and to come and follow Him regardless of my fear and of the horrors of this world.  He calls me to live in the now, not the future.  Heaven is not the goal of our salvation, a changed world that fully relies on God is the goal.  Heaven is the prize we receive.

Happy Easter.  I love you all.

Spring is coming which means Lent is coming to the church.  Lent traditionally is a time of fasting that began around the time of the council of Nicaea in 325AD.  It has been celebrated in more and less structured ways over the centuries.  In the early centuries, only one meal was to be eaten per day—meat was prohibited even during that meal.  Today we don’t typically fast...at least not as they fasted in the early centuries.  Actually, today, other than the celebration of Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday, lent is not a concept we typically consider except for the change of the paraments in worship to purple.  Lent is to be a time that we prepare ourselves to receive the grace offered to us by the empty tomb.  The grace that encompasses not only forgiveness but also everlasting life that is offered by that same empty tomb.

As the Lenten season begins this year I want to challenge you to enter a time of introspection and reflection on who you are and how you are loving your neighbor.  This can be a fearsome task:  to ask the same hard questions of ourselves that we often look for in others.  I am reminded that Jesus called those present to him as he was giving the Sermon on the Mount to “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” Matthew 7:5 NRSV  I need to examine my own life, my motives, my desires, and my actions before I examine the lives of others.  My dear sweet Granny often reminded me to “sweep around my own doorstep before I start sweeping around someone else’s.  She was telling me that maybe I had done as bad or worse than they had and needed to pay attention to myself before judging their actions.  I call us this Lenten season to do just that; to do a vigorous examination of our lives before we examine others.

John Wesley believed this practice to be of such importance that he didn’t just require the members of the Holy Club to make examination during Lent but every day.  Below are the questions Wesley required of those participating to answer for themselves.  I offer these as a means of helping us all to examine our lives and find the places we need to grow during Lent in order to be ready to accept the grace of Christ when the resurrection is upon us.

As we move toward Easter, I hope we can find a deeper place of growth as we seek to become disciples of Jesus Christ and as we learn more fully to offer the grace, we have received from Him to others in our lives.

Holy Lord, Come and fill us with your grace.  Open our eyes to the things in our own lives you desire us to change.  Give us the strength to change and grow to be who you made us to be.  Help us to offer grace more freely to those around us and to love them as you have loves us.  Amen

Everyday Disciples: John Wesley’s 22 Questions
These are 22 questions the members of John Wesley’s Holy Club asked
themselves every day in their private devotions over 200 years ago.

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am?  In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?
4. Can I be trusted?
5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
7. Did the Bible live in me today?
8. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?
9. Am I enjoying prayer?
10. When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?
11. Do I pray about the money I spend?
12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
13. Do I disobey God in anything?
14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?
17. How do I spend my spare time?
18. Am I proud?
19. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?
20. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?
21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?
22. Is Christ real to me?

Do you ever feel blindsided by your emotions? Do you feel irrelevant, or burned out? We will begin our lenten sermons series and book study based on the book: "Didn't See It Coming" by Carey Nieuwhof. Come join us as we look at the things that can sideline us in life if we are not aware.
 
A 7-week Book Study Starting Wednesday, March 13 @ 4pm & 6pm.
There will be a Sub Sandwich supper at 5:00 pm in the Fellowship Hall - Led by Pastor Wayne Cook
 
This will be a study that expands on the sermon topic of
each week during Lent.
 
The founding Pastor of one of North America's most influential churches, Carey Nieuwhof wants to help you avoid and overcome life's seven hardest and most crippling challenges: cynicism, compromise, disconnectedness, irrelevance, pride, burnout, and emptiness. These are challenges that few of us expect but that we all experience at some point.
 
We will study this amazing book together for 7 weeks.  Book Cost is $13.60 Kindle Version $12.00  Please sign up at the Adult Studies
Table by March 6.

It’s almost that time of year, hearts will soon be everywhere, flowers delivered, men and women with goofy looks and googly eyes over their “true” love.  I have come to the age where it almost makes me laugh, just on general principle.  Don’t get me wrong, I have laughed many times at my children when they were in “love”.  Today when we talk about love we are usually referring to a feeling or a state of mind in which we are “in love” with another person.  We often believe that relationships are based on this thing the culture calls love; a thing that makes many a young person do stupid things to get their “beloved” to notice them.  Think back for a moment to your younger days and to your first love.  That person who was once so vital to your life, the person you couldn’t live without being near.  Do you remember their name? How they looked?  Do you know where they are today?  Many of us might remember their name but we lost touch with them many years ago.  Some are still with that first love but I am pretty sure the relationship has changed; it is no longer about a goofy feeling in the pit of our stomach; it has matured to something more real.  So what is love really?  It is how we feel about someone.  It is deeper.

     1 Corinthians 13 tells us what love is to be in the community called the church.  

     Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.  (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 NRSV)

     This scripture helps us to understand that love is not a feeling but a way of life, it is filled with conscious actions toward each other.  To love others requires us to treat them with the highest of respect and to always seek the best for them.  It’s sad to me that in our society love has become something that comes and goes in our lives but in God’s design it is something that is permanent and is a decision we make about each person we meet.  Jesus tells us in Matthew that love is not limited to those we like or want to be around but even to our enemies.

     “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  (Matthew 5:43-45 NRSV)

     I am sure someone is going to ask if I think God really meant that and to answer that question, yes I do with all my heart, and I am still working on loving my enemies.  (I have a ways to go.)

     Our job is to be lovers of those we meet each day of our lives and to show others what love means.  We have a difficult job to teaching that it’s not a feeling but a way of living that puts others first.  So know that I love you and I am trying to learn to love more in a Christ like manner each day.

     Happy Valentines Month.
 
     Blessed to Be Your Pastor,
 
     Pastor Wayne