Devotional for May 26, 2013 – Trinity Sunday/Hands on Theology: Beekeeping

 

Written by Courtney McHill, United Methodist Pastor

Bible Background

This Sunday we are moving into a whole new theme that centers on theology in the real world.  We will be exploring different experiential ways to learn about God and what we are passionate about.  Today we are looking at keeping bees. Today is also what we historically call “Trinity Sunday.” How in the world are these two connected? The short answer is…it is all about relationship.

I became fascinated with bees last spring when I went to a workshop to just learn a bit about these creatures.  I got out of the car and was surrounded by bees.  They zoomed around my head, in and out of their hive boxes, and I was taken.  Throughout the day I was amazed by the fact that they knew where to go, who to serve, who was in their family and how community thrived.  Bees are fascinating little creatures! They dance to communicate. They are female-centric. They work hard and then rest. They work for the good of the whole all of the time. They stick together surrounding the queen. Their communities are good for the world.

By the time I got home, I had decided that I would be able to add my help to the world by adding a hive to my backyard.  This year has been a huge learning experience. I sometimes go over to the hive and listening closely with my ears on the hive box. I sometimes just stand outside of their hive and watch as they make bee lines in and out, not worried about me.  When I open up the boxes I watch as they work together and create over and over again.  At the end of the summer, I am eager to harvest some of the sweet honey that is in the box.  I tasted some last year. It was sweet, warm and good.

The Trinity is also all about relationship (much like the church should model itself after in some ways).  The Trinity is where God is one and God is three.  There is a relationship between the variations of God and it is open to include us. Jesus starts to touch on how God appears in the gospel of John.  A Spirit advocate represents God to Jesus’ disciples.  The Spirit is God much like Jesus and God and yet they are all one.  Confusing, right?  In all of this, the Trinitarian relationship is just waiting to engulf us in its embrace.

This is unlike any relationship we have ever encountered and yet it tells us at the base of our faith, relationship lies much like how the honeybee exists. In the end, there will be sweet honey, a symbol in Deuteronomy of subsistence on the land and bountiful goodness from God. I would agree with our writers on that!

Quotes for the Week

“The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.” ― Henry David Thoreau

“The world was really one bee yard, and the same rules work fine in both places. Don’t be afraid, as no life-loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don’t be an idiot; wear long sleeves and pants. Don’t swat. Don’t even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates while whistling melts a bee’s temper. Act like you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.” ― Sue Monk Kidd

“A healthy community is a form that includes all the local things that are connected by the larger, ultimately mysterious form of the Creation. In speaking of community, then, we are speaking of a complex connection not only among human beings or between humans and their homeland but also between human economy and nature, between forest or prairie and field or orchard, and between troublesome creatures and pleasant ones. All neighbors are included” ― Wendell Berry

“I dreamt — marvellous error! — that I had a beehive here inside my heart. And the golden bees were making white combs and sweet honey from my old failures.” ― Antonio Machado

Deuteronomy 8:7-14 (NRSV)                                                                                                                      For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you. Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

John 16: 12-15 (NRSV)                                                                                                                                                      I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you. Everything the Father has is also mine. That is why I’ve said, ‘He takes from me and delivers to you.’

Questions for the Week    

 What do you think about the concept of the Trinity?

Where do you find your relationship with God represented?

Day of Pentecost, Encountering Christ in Absence

Devotional for May 19^th

Written by Mark C. Pederson, Pastor, Trinity Lutheran Church

Theme Background

It is Pentecost, the birthday of the Christian Church, and the seventh anniversary of the founding of McMinnville Cooperative Ministries (not counting the year we spent together as Methodist and Lutherans living together in sin!)  Today we are finishing up our Easter theme of encountering Christ.  Today specifically we talk about encountering Christ in Absence.  That may seem a bit strange.  In the Gospel lesson today Jesus is talking with his disciples about how he will have to leave them.  He will be gone, but they will not be left on their own.  Jesus will send the Holy Spirit to them.  The Spirit will teach, and comfort them.

Both Martin Luther and John Wesley made reference to the Latin phrase, “deus absconditus.”  It refers to those times when God is hidden from us.  Jesus himself reaches this point on the cross when he cries out to God and asks why he’s been abandoned.  Certainly, we too, will experience these moments of separation.  God, however, is present even when we do not experience God’s presence with us.  Perhaps God is especially present in these times.

Pastor Courtney McHill feels the times when we feel God’s absence are often the preparation for times of great spiritual growth.  Children experience this.  When they are in growth spurts, they sleep more.  That is part of why babies sometimes sleep so much.

In the first lesson we have the story of the disciples actually experiencing the fulfillment of what Jesus had told them in John.  They receive the Holy Spirit, and it allows them to communicate in new and exciting ways.  It also drives them out of their hideout and into the light of day.  Peter stands up and speaks to the people who have gathered.  He talks of their present day experience as being tied to the prophet Joel.   The vision is wonderfully inclusive.   Women are included as full partners.  The young and the old each have a part to play.  Every kind of people are included.  It is interesting that the old people will dream dreams.  A dream in my mind is tied to the future, to what might be.  Perhaps these older people will be able to see beyond their own existence to another place and time, one where all people are joined together, and where love is known by all people.

Quotes for the Week

“Growth in love comes from a place of absence, where the imagination is left to it’s own devices and creates you to be much more then reality would ever allow.”                                                                                                                                            Coco J. Ginger

“Good gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.”  James M. Barrie

“A Memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely un-happen.”                                                                                                                         Edward de Bono

“Though lovers be lost, love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.”  Dylan Thomas

“It is impossible to experience one’s death objectively and still carry a tune.”  Dave Barry

1^st Lesson Acts 2:1-8 & 12-21 (The Message)

^1-4 When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.

There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunderstruck. They couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, “ Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues?

¹² Their heads were spinning; they couldn’t make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: “What’s going on here?”

¹³ Others joked, “They’re drunk on cheap wine.”

Peter Speaks Up

^14-21 That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: “Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren’t drunk as some of you suspect. They haven’t had time to get drunk—it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:

“In the Last Days,” God says,
“I will pour out my Spirit
on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
also your daughters;
Your young men will see visions,
your old men dream dreams.
When the time comes,
I’ll pour out my Spirit
On those who serve me, men and women both,
and they’ll prophesy.
I’ll set wonders in the sky above
and signs on the earth below,
Blood and fire and billowing smoke,
the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,
Before the Day of the Lord arrives,
the Day tremendous and marvelous;
And whoever calls out for help
to me, God, will be saved.”

 

Gospel Lesson John 14: 8-21 (The Message)

 Philip said, “Master, show us the Father; then we’ll be content.”

^9-10 “You’ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don’t understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, ‘Where is the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren’t mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.

^11-14 “Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do.

^15-17 “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!

^18-20 “I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.

²¹ “The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.”

 

Questions for the Week

Is there a time in your life when you could not sense the presence of God in your life?

When you look back to you sense that Christ was present with you at that time?  How?

How can we help one another through such times?

 

Encountering Christ in Healing

Written by Pastor Mark

Theme Background

This week we read stories of encounters with Christ in moments of healing.   We as a church, talk a great deal about encountering Christ in our brokenness, but not so much about finding Christ in healing.  Perhaps this is because we find those who purport to have had miraculous healings as not entirely trustworthy.  I’ve heard many stories about such events, but have not witnessed one personally.

On the other hand, I have been healed of many things.  Some of these healings have been the result of good medical care.  I’ve had broken arms set, and they have healed.  I’ve split my lip all the way through and had it stitched up good as new.  A while back I couldn’t lift my arm up past my waist and a physical therapist was able to give me exercises that healed my “frozen shoulder” and provided me with great relief.

Now this healing was not fun.  I sometimes consider physical therapist masochists!  “Does that hurt?”  They ask.  “Good, do that some more.”  It wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t appear to take such pleasure in the work!  But through this pain is the path of healing.

I’ve been healed from emotional hurts as well.  A lot of this healing has come through the process of accepting my age and realizing my limitations.  There is a great peace that can come from that process.

In the Gospel lesson Jesus asks a very strange question.  “Do you want to get well?”  The guy can’t walk, and yet somehow he’s managed to crawl his way to the pool to seek healing.  Yet for such a simple question, his answer is equally strange.  He gives Jesus his process.  Never mind that he’s been trying the same thing for 38 years with the same result, no healing.  It reminds me of the AA definition of insanity.)  “Do you want to be healed?”  “Yes, I do this and this and this, and I’ve been doing it for over 30 years, and, well, it’s not working at all.”  So Jesus instructs him to move.  Sometimes we don’t like to move.  Especially if it might be painful, if we are unsure how the first step will go.

Our Revelation text for today imagines a beautiful tree of life whose leaves are for “the healing of the nations.”  A part of the heavenly revelation is healing for all people, not just believers, not just the good people, but for everybody.   For all of the strange, spooky images in The Revelation of John this week’s readings include some very comforting images.  There is a beautiful clear river flowing through a city.  No more need for sun or moon, God’s glory lights up the place.

To be sure there are plagues, and there is pain and suffering, but there is also healing.  Some comes to us now in this life, some comes to us only through death and resurrection.  Christ is to be met in both places.  There is no location where we don’t encounter the one who loves us.

Quotes for the Week

“I suppose that since most of our hurts come through relationships so will our healing, and I know that grace rarely makes sense for those looking in from the outside.”                                                                                                                           William P. Young 

“Pay mind to your own life, your own health, and wellness.  A bleeding heart is of no help to anyone if it bleeds to death.  “                       Frederick Buechner   

“I think music in itself is healing.  It’s an explosive expression of humanity.  It’s something we are all touched by.  No matter what culture we’re from everyone loves music”                        Billy Joel

 

“For me singing sad songs often has a way of healing a situation.  It gets the hurt out in the open into the light, out of the darkness.”   Reba McEntire     

“’Healing,’ Papa would tell me, ‘is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.’”                   W. H. Auden

1^st Lesson Revelation 21:10 & 22:1-5 (NRSV)

⁹ Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” ¹⁰ And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ² through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³ Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; ⁴ they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Gospel Lesson John 5:1-9 (The Message)

5 ^1-6 Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ The sick man said, “Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in.”

^8-9 Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.

Questions for the Week

Where are you in need of healing in your life right now?

What kinds of healing have you experienced in your life?

How can we help others find healing?

Devotional for May 5, 2013 – Easter: Meeting Christ in Prison

 

Written by Courtney McHill, United Methodist Pastor

Bible Background

My dad was the city attorney for Lebanon, OR for many years as well as having his own practice.  When I was a little girl, it was almost a fun game to walk through the city jail with him and see if anyone was hanging out there.  Part of me was a little bit frightened that we might encounter a criminal but part of me was just intrigued by people who would be in the city jail.  In addition, I felt pretty safe surrounded by police officers I knew well and my dad close by.  As kids we learned a lot about the downsides of the justice system through our dad.  We learned that there is always a chance that people are wrongly accused and we were taught that 100 percent of the time, people are human. Humans can connect in some way.  We often had home discussions about justice, fairness, and when it doesn’t work out.

Later on as a pastor, I have been privileged to receive tours in our nearby prison. I have also come into contact with prisoners or former prisoners.  When I went on a tour of the prison just down the road, I was humbled to see all sorts of people searching for God, all in a condensed space.  Some might argue that God doesn’t show up behind bars and I would argue that those folks are just afraid that God might just show up.

We have a few people in our congregation that believe this to their core.  They know that God is bigger than anything we could ever put up to shield people.  They know that God shows up in the most unexpected and forgotten places. They know that sometimes we are needed to pray with people who have been wounded, advocate for people who thirst of justice, be with people seeking redemption and even just show goodness to people who can’t find a path out of the bars.  These are the people that see today’s Acts story and calls it their own.  These are the people that see Paul and Silas as representatives of where God might just take us as well and God is there anyway. These are the people that go to the prisons anyway when no one else will.

And they will meet Christ there in the most unexpected ways.  Christ shows up in prison as well because Christ knows what it means to be imprisoned.  We follow a criminal by Roman standards who knows the human experience inside and out.  Why wouldn’t we look for him there?

Quotes for the Week

“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” ― Nelson Mandela

“Christianity is a religion founded by men in deep trouble with the law, men familiar with the inside of prisons, whose message was ‘the last shall be first, and the first last.’” – Jack Miles

“The Gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.” ― Dorothy Day

“During the first day, curious at having outsiders among them, a long stream of inmates came over and talked with me. Remarkably, according to what they told me, nearly every inmate in the prison didn’t do it. Several thousand people had been locked up unjustly and, by an incredible coincidence, all in the same prison. On the other hand, they knew an awful lot about how to knife somebody.”  ― Alan Alda

Acts 16:16-34 (NRSV)                                                                                                                                          One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.’ She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.

But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.’ The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.’ The jailercalled for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.Then he brought them outside and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They answered, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

John 17: 20-26 (NRSV)                                                                                                                                                  I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Questions for the Week    

Have you had any connection with the prison system?

Would you expect to find Christ in prison? Why or why not?

Have you thought about this as a potential ministry?    

 

Devotional for April 28, 2013 – Easter: Meeting Christ in Service to Others

 

Written by Courtney McHill, United Methodist Pastor

Bible Background

For me (Pastor Courtney), when I ponder meeting Christ I certainly think about my doubts at some point, I marvel in nature, I wonder at devoted women but meeting Christ in service to others is where it is at for me.  As a true extrovert, I can’t help but think it is a no brainer to see Christ when we are in service with other human beings.  Jesus was in service to others all over the place.  For me, seeing Christ in others is the most apparent way to meet Christ over and over again.

Why is that?  First of all there is the direct people contact in service that I find gives me great energy and great joy. Give me a day full of people any day!  There are some in the world that will find a quiet and solitary place to serve and will see Christ there and I want the conversations.  The word is opened up again and again to me in conversations with people.  I can only really get Gospel through my work with others.

Secondly, service is more than just helping out.  Service, to me, acknowledges that we are equal and we are we.  Our Acts lesson highlights that service is no longer for just one group of people.  God is for everyone.  Peter, as a Jewish disciple, is actively serving, preaching and teaching to non Jewish folk.  They are now on equal ground. This is more than just handing out food to pulling someone up. This is true community, discipleship, and change making.  By acknowledging our common threads by serving one another, we all benefit.

Finally, service is a way that I can physically show love for humankind which is what our Gospel lesson is calling us to. Jesus speaks right after washing the disciple’s feet. He speaks all about love.  The act of service, washing the feet, is showing physically the act of love. By serving we meet Christ in our deep love for humanity.

Father Greg Boyle is a Jesuit priest who works with gang members in LA and is founder of Homeboy Industries. He speaks of service as “a common call to delight in one another.” He says the delight comes from entering into full kinship with one another, and shares a story of working with one of his “homies,” concluding: “maybe I return him to himself but there is no doubt he returns me to myself.”  I love this.  By serving one another we delight in one another. It is not drudgery or a chore.  Service is not just pulling people out of some pit but actually delighting in one another and by those acts we might just return to ourselves. This is what we are called to over and over again. Christ calls us to love but in the very action of loving, we somehow open ourselves up to transformation and finding a little bit more of our very being.

If this isn’t meeting Christ, I am not sure what is.

 

Quotes for the Week

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”  ― Mahatma Gandhi

“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.” ― Albert Schweitzer

“Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.” ― Rachel Naomi Remen

“At the center of the Universe is a loving heart that continues to beat and that wants the best for every person. Anything that we can do to help foster the intellect and spirit and emotional growth of our fellow human beings, that is our job. Those of us who have this particular vision must continue against all odds. Life is for service.”  ― Fred Rogers

“Anyone can slay a dragon, he told me, but try waking up every morning & loving the world all over again. That’s what takes a real hero.” – Storypeople

Acts 11:1-18 (NRSV)                                                                                                                                                Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, ‘Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?’

Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, ‘I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” But I replied, “By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” But a second time the voice answered from heaven, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, “Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.” And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?’ When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’

John 13:31-35 (NRSV)                                                                                                                                            When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him,God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

Questions for the Week       

When was the last time you participated in an act of service? What happened?

Do you believe Christ has called us to a life of service?

Does service to others change your life? Why or why not?

Encountering Christ in Devoted Women

Written by Pastor Mark

Theme Background

Our theme for the Easter season is “Encounters with Christ”.  Today we encounter Christ in the devoted women who have followed him.  In Luke 8 we read about such women:  “Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.”  For people wanting to support “traditional family values” which I think they interpret to mean a woman who stays at home with the children while a man goes out and makes money to support the family, this has to be shocking.  Jesus, to the best of our knowledge, never had a job.  This short note in Luke is the only evidence we have of how he was able to survive, and apparently he did so through the generous donations of women.  These women then accompanied Jesus on his travels.  It is difficult for us to understand just how outside of social norms this all must have been.

The disciples were also supported by women.  In Acts 15 we read of Lydia who made and sold purple cloth.  She invited Paul and the disciples to stay at her home, and then provided for them while they preached the Gospel in that area.  In today’s lessen we have another faithful woman named Tabitha.  It is interesting to me how names are dealt with in scripture.  Often we never quite make it to English.  This woman’s name is Dorcas (in Hebrew) which is translated as Lydia in Aramaic.  There is only one step left.  The name means Gazelle in English.  She is a woman who dedicated her life to her craft.   She made articles of clothing.  This is more than simply sewing, I think.  I lthink of her as a weaver, crafting beautiful articles of clothing for those around her.

Another shocking aspect of this story is the simple mention at the start of the lesson that Gazelle was a disciple!  We have no idea how this happened.  She is the only woman explicitly named as such in the New Testament.  Her discipleship was one of service in the world.  As far as we know she did not go from place to place preaching the Gospel.  She was a student of Jesus’ teachings, but she lived out her life in service by providing clothing for those around her.

Do you think of your craft, or gift, or interest as a ministry?  Often, I think we separate out such interests from our faith.  But Gazelle’s example says we might want to rethink that separation.  A life of faith is one in which every part of our life is used for the glory of God and for the restoration of all creation to God’s loving embrace.

There is another interesting tidbit in today’s 1^st lesson.  At the very end Peter (there’s another name that never quite makes it into English.  We should call him “Rocky”) is headed off to stay with “Simon the tanner.”  This is interesting for two reasons.  First tanners dealt with dead animal skins and were perpetually unclean.  They were despised by many people.  Also it is Simon’s balcony where Peter is going to have his dream about all things, and all people, being clean.

In the Gospel lesson Jesus in standing on Solomon’s porch in the Temple complex.  This is the place of judgment, where verdicts in Jewish court cases would be announced.   Jesus, however, does not speak words of judgment, but of comfort and nurture, about sheep and shepherds.

Our church could not survive without many faithful women.  It’s just impossible to think of this church without them.  Who are the faithful women in your life?

Quotes for the Week

“With realization of one’s own potential and self-confidence in one’s ability, one can build a better world.”    Dalai Lama

So, take what’s inside you and make big, bold choices. And for those who can’t speak for themselves, use bold voices. And make friends and love well, bring art to this place. And make this world better for the whole human race.    Jamie Lee Curtis

Most so-called women’s work is not recognized as real activity. One reason for this attitude may be that such work is usually associated with helping others’ development, rather than with self-enhancement or self-employment.       Jean Baker Miller 

“You did this carving?” Daedalus asked. It was obvious he did not believe her.
“Certainly.” Hebe flushed. “Why do you doubt it?”
“A woman! Who taught you?”
“My mother, who else? My father also. My family have been carvers and workers in wood and metal for generations. Jewelers, sculptors, potters, sometimes a needlewoman or a weaver. My mother was a great artist, and artists are honoured at this court. Why are you surprised? Are there no women in Athens who do this work?”
“Needlecrafts or weaving, yes. Those are women’s work. The others, no.”
Hebe snorted. “And people call Athens a civilized land!”     Priscilla Galloway

If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there are men on base. - Dave Barry

1^st Lesson Acts 9:36-43 (The Message)

^36-37 Down the road a way in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, “Gazelle” in our language. She was well-known for doing good and helping out. During the time Peter was in the area she became sick and died. Her friends prepared her body for burial and put her in a cool room.

^38-40 Some of the disciples had heard that Peter was visiting in nearby Lydia and sent two men to ask if he would be so kind as to come over. Peter got right up and went with them. They took him into the room where Tabitha’s body was laid out. Her old friends, most of them widows, were in the room mourning. They showed Peter pieces of clothing the Gazelle had made while she was with them. Peter put the widows all out of the room. He knelt and prayed. Then he spoke directly to the body: “Tabitha, get up.”

^40-41 She opened her eyes. When she saw Peter, she sat up. He took her hand and helped her up. Then he called in the believers and widows, and presented her to them alive.

^42-43 When this became known all over Joppa, many put their trust in the Master. Peter stayed on a long time in Joppa as a guest of Simon the Tanner.

Gospel Lesson John 10:22-30 (NRSV)

At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³ and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. ²⁴ So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” ²⁵ Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; ²⁶ but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ The Father and I are one.”

Questions for the Week

Who is a faithful woman that has influenced your life?  What was she like?

Who are the faithful women who make our ministry possible?

How could we emulate the lives of these faithful women?

Devotional for April 14, 2013 – Meeting Christ in Nature

 

Written by Courtney McHill, United Methodist Pastor

Bible Background

We are moving into another week of Easter (did you know that there are 50 days of Easter?) and Jesus keeps showing up!  Even though we watched him die, Jesus has come back and is making appearances all over the place.  Last week Jesus appeared in a locked room and met us right where our doubt resided and this week Jesus shows up to meet us in nature.

In Acts, Saul needs some serious come to Jesus time.  He is persecuting the people who follow Jesus and I don’t think is a very happy man.  It is clear, however, that it will take some major event to make him change his ways.  A blinding light, a form of the environment around him, causes him to fall and out of that light comes the voice of Jesus.  From that point on, we have Paul before us and ready to be Jesus in the world.

In John, Jesus decides the beach is a good place to motivate the disciples.  Peter and his friends have gone back to what they know in their grief.  They return to fishing, their profession pre Jesus.  In their mourning they head north where they gather their boats and nets. I can only imagine what they are thinking.  I am sure that they are grieving still and don’t know what else to do.  Even in something they know it doesn’t go right. They can’t catch anything.  Can you imagine the frustration? The grief?  And the solace out on the water?  Jesus appears on the beach, a place that they all know, for breakfast.  It is in that moment that they are inspired again, in the environment around them.

This is natural for so many of us to see Jesus in nature.  How can we not? The world around us, especially now, reminds us over and over again of resurrection.  Trees are blooming. Seedlings are coming up out of the ground out of dead seeds.  New life is in creation around us.  For many in our lives, the natural world is where we commune with Christ.  Over and over again Jesus meets us here.  When I think that it might be preposterous for Saul to change to Paul because of a blinding light, I think of the many times that nature has totally and completely changed the way I see the world.  In those moments Christ has transformed me.  When I think about how ridiculous it is that the disciples would see Jesus walking on the beach, I also think of the many times that I was walking where I felt safe in the world and am comforted and inspired. It is not so far off to meet Jesus in nature, is it?

Quotes for the Week

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” ― Rachel Carson

“We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence.”  ― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Nature is my manifestation of God. I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day’s work.”  - Frank Lloyd Wright

“My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.”   Aldous Huxley

“I didn’t need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.” ― Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

Acts 9:1-6 (NRSV)                                                                                                                                    Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’

John 21:1-9 (Message)                                                                                                                              Jesus appeared again to the disciples, this time at the TiberiasSea (the Sea of Galilee). This is how he did it: Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the brothers Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. Simon Peter announced, “I’m going fishing.” The rest of them replied, “We’re going with you.” They went out and got in the boat. They caught nothing that night. When the sun came up, Jesus was standing on the beach, but they didn’t recognize him. Jesus spoke to them: “Good morning! Did you catch anything for breakfast?”  They answered, “No.” He said, “Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens.” They did what he said. All of a sudden there were so many fish in it, they weren’t strong enough to pull it in. Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Master!”  When Simon Peter realized that it was the Master, he threw on some clothes, for he was stripped for work, and dove into the sea. The other disciples came in by boat for they weren’t far from land, a hundred yards or so, pulling along the net full of fish. When they got out of the boat, they saw a fire laid, with fish and bread cooking on it.

Questions for the Week                                                                                                                                          Do you see Christ in nature?                                                                                                                                      Is there a sacred site for you in nature?                                                                                                              Have you seen God this week around you?