Day 6

The Branches are the focus: But while the vine is the source for good fruit, there’s a vital link between the vine and its fruit. The “branches” are thus the focus of Jesus’ teaching with his disciples. “I am the vine,” says Jesus to his followers, “you are the branches” (v. 5). Notice that the disciples of Jesus aren’t the “fruit,” the end product, but the conduit for the vine’s nourishment. The quality of the fruit thus depends on the branches’ connectedness to the vine itself. What Jesus is describing here is the necessary interrelationship between himself and his disciples — a relationship characterized by mutuality and indwelling, but one that is also focused on bearing grands crus (great growth, and a specification for wine classification) for the whole world.

Look closely at a grapevine, though, and one of the first things you notice about its branches is that it’s very difficult to tell them apart individually. All the branches twist and curl around one another to the point that you can’t tell where one starts and another stops. Jesus’ use of branch imagery is thus a way of expressing that it’s not the achievement of an individual branch or its status that matters. The quality of branches and fruit depends solely on the quality of their connectedness to the vine. When it comes to discipleship, each “branch” or individual gives up his or her desire for individual achievement in order to become one of many encircling branches — a community that is rooted and nurtured by Christ and points to his reputation and quality, not their own.

Day 5

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to walk on the moon in the Apollo 11 space mission. Michael Collins, the third member of the group, was in charge of the command module, essential for their return to Earth. It circled the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin landed. The moon lander touched down at 3:17 Eastern Standard Time, Sunday, July 20, 1969.

Aldrin had brought with him a tiny communion kit, given him by his church, that had a silver chalice and wine vial about the size of the tip of his finger. During the morning he radioed, “Houston, this is Eagle. This is the LM pilot speaking. I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, whoever or wherever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the last few hours, and to give thanks in his own individual way.”

“In the radio blackout,” he wrote later, “I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit.’ I had intended to read my communion passage back to Earth, but at the last minute Deke Slayton had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madalyn Murray O’Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas. I agreed reluctantly ... Eagle’s metal body creaked. I ate the tiny host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: The very first liquid ever poured on the moon and the very first food eaten there were the communion elements.”

Day 4

I Am the Good Shepherd

The mention of shepherd often takes us to Psalm 23 –

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want …

Jesus builds on this image to describe how he comes to us to lead, guide, and even correct us in the journey we call life.

As you recite this Psalm in your mind, imagine Jesus sitting with you at the water’s edge, and what the two of you might be talking about. (If you have a hard time sitting, this might be exactly what you need to imagine!)

And as you walk the path (as mentioned in the Psalm) you might notice the other paths that meander alongside of yours or intersect with yours. The Psalms says clearly that there is more than one path. Imagine that!!! People come to Jesus and walk with Jesus differently than you do!! All of our paths are valid and dear to Jesus.

How does the Shepherd Jesus sit/walk/ or talk with you today?

Day 2

I loved it last Sunday when the sun light broke through the stained glass window while I was preaching on the statement Jesus made in Joh’s gospel – “I Am the Light of the world.” I felt the sun on my back and saw the light come into the sanctuary. But I am very aware that this light sometimes blind those of you sitting in the congregation!!! This makes me ponder how the light is meant to lead and guide us as we look in the direction the light is shining – but if we look directly into the light, it can blind us.

Jesus, as Light, is meant to come into our darkness and reveal where we are to go and what we are to do. Today think about what Jesus is lighting up in your life and what Jesus is showing you. Ask God to give you strength to see and to go.

A new devotional series for our "I Am" statements found in John's gospel

As we move through the “I Am” statements of Jesus, we first hear him say:

“I am the light of the world.”

A rabbi sat down with his disciples and asked them, “How can you tell when the night has ended, and the day begun?”

Ne student offered, “It is when, at a distance, you can tell a sheep from a goat.”

“No,” the rabbi replied.

Another student answered, “It is when, at a distance, you can tell a date tree from a palm tree.”

Again, the rabbi replied, “no”.

Another student asked the rabbi, “Ok, how can you tell when the night has ended and the day begun?”

The rabbi answered, “It is when, at a distance, you can look into the face of another and see a brother or sister. Until then, it is night.”

When Jesus shines as our light, there are only brothers and sisters in our world.

And his command to love one another becomes central to all relationships.

I have appreciated how this series is helping us think about the different dimensions of how to love others. Acts of kindness, the work of compassion, humility as a disposition, and respect as a directive for how to treat one another.

They all come together to fulfill the commandment to love one another.

In the Gospel reading for this coming Sunday (Matthew 22:34-40) Jesus is being confronted by a group of leaders in the temple, demanding that he prove he is who he says he is. It strikes me how often Jesus is treated with anger or contempt, but always brings the attention back to our need to love one another.  We are being bombarded every day in the news with acts of violence and division, and I am wondering how we can bring our attention back to acts of love for one another?

It isn’t easy! Yet, this is what our Scriptures try to help us do.

Prayer – Loving and merciful God, when our ears hear words of anger, when our eyes read words of hatred, when our heart is challenged in ways that confuse us, turn us to the love you have shown us through Jesus. May your message of love be deeper in our heart than all other messages we hear today. We pray this in the name of our savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sometimes I think we don’t recognize joy because we’re expecting it to look and feel like laughter, when joy may be more about what prompts the laughter or lingers after or what sustains us when we can’t find the laughter. Joy is there even when the laughter isn’t, because the Source of our gladness resides within us and we know is working all things together for our good. The joy of the Lord, when fully real-eyes’d (aka, realized) gives us strength.

Like joy, I wonder if gratitude, too, can’t be misunderstood when we think that it exists on the condition of our getting something, especially something pleasant or desired or hoped for. Gratitude goes deeper than simply finding the right words to respond to what we get, though words are perhaps the most convenient way we have to express it. But it, too, must come from a deeper place. It, too, must reside within us; otherwise, it becomes mere lip service.

Both joy and gratitude are a way of seeing and of being. They do not come and go. They are not conditional, but fully express themselves in the way we see and live our lives. If joy is the lens that lets us see the blessing in our blessings, then it is gratitude that frames our response.

Gratitude gives us reason for celebrating all we have been given, whether because of, or in spite of, what it might be. And joy keeps us celebrating, even when given no reason. This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad … be grateful … come what may, just because I got to be in it.

—Kathy Culmer, “The Joy and Gratitude Within,”

Years ago, a Johns Hopkins professor gave a group of graduate students this assignment: Go to the slums. Take 200 boys, between the ages of 12 and 16, and investigate their background and environment. Then predict their chances for the future.

The students, after consulting social statistics, talking to the boys and compiling much data, concluded that 90 percent of the boys would spend some time in jail.

Twenty-five years later, another group of graduate students was given the job of testing the prediction. They went back to the same area. Some of the boys - by then men - were still there, a few had died, some had moved away, but they got in touch with 180 of the original 200. They found that only four of the group had ever been sent to jail.

Why was it that these men, who had lived in a breeding place of crime, had such a surprisingly good record? The researchers were continually told: "Well, there was a teacher ..."

They pressed further and found that in 75 percent of the cases it was the same woman. The researchers went to this teacher, now living in a home for retired teachers. How had she exerted this remarkable influence over that group of children? Could she give them any reason why these boys should have remembered her?

"No," she said, "no, I really couldn't." And then, thinking back over the years, she said musingly, more to herself than to her questioners: "I loved those boys. ..."

Today we move into our final week of the series "Do Unto Others" with the word LOVE

An Army chaplain once told the tale of being out on a training exercise with a battalion of soldiers. He was assigned to the signal corps. In those days before satellite phones and GPS systems, these were the soldiers who set up radio antennas and other communications gear so the generals could communicate with officers in the field. Once they’d set up the antennas, they divided up into little teams who maintained the equipment.

It was difficult and exhausting work, but it was vital to the battalion’s success in the war games. The chaplain was out visiting one of these communications posts when he happened upon a soldier with a notably sour attitude. “Soldier, how’s it going today?” asked the chaplain.

“Chaplain,” he admitted glumly, “it’s a pretty bad day.”

The chaplain went on to talk with the soldier about all the things that were bothering him. None of them had anything to do with the field exercise, which in fact was going rather well. The complaints were all of a personal nature.

The next day, the chaplain moved on to another signal corps installation. He knocked on the door of the truck that served as both workstation and home away from home. To his surprise, the same soldier answered the door. He’d moved during the night.

“Well, how’s it going today?” asked the chaplain.

“Chaplain, it’s a pretty bad day …” the soldier began. Then, he went through the same down-in-the-mouth litany as before.

The third day, to his surprise, the chaplain ran into the very same soldier, in another part of the operation. You can pretty much guess what happened: same question, same gloomy answer.

“You know,” the chaplain continued, “I met you yesterday and that was a pretty bad day. I met you two days ago, and you told me that was a pretty bad day. It seems to me, if this continues, someday you’re going to stand before your Maker, who’s going to ask you, ‘How was your life?’ I’ve got a feeling the only answer you’ll be able to give is, ‘It was a pretty bad life.’”

Then the soldier smiled. The chaplain knew he was getting through to him. He’d gotten the point.

As should we all when it comes to this business of complaining, which is the polar opposite of giving thanks. Sure, there are times in life when complaints are in order, but when complaining becomes a constant habit, the only thing it can accomplish is to drag us down — and very often, everyone else along with it.

The antidote to that emotional spiral of doom is thanksgiving. To seek at all times — on rainy days and sunny — to find something for which to offer thanks. That begins to approach what this verse means by giving thanks at all times.

I came across this saying a few weeks ago, and it stuck with me:

“It is called friendship because a group of friends can take you anywhere.”

My group of friends has changed several times over the years because of how many times I have moved, and perhaps that makes this statement all the more true and meaningful for me. Life is complicated! It can get really hard! Realizing that I do not sail through life on my own brings both comfort and courage.

Reflect on your ship of friends today and pray for each other.

Celebrate your differences and similarities, recognizing how God brought you together.

How does God want you to nurture the friendship so you can all sail forward together?

Most New Testament scholars agree that the apostle Paul was crazy smart. He was a Pharisee, which means he knew Jewish law inside and out, and he admits that he was “advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age” (Galatians 1:14). He was taught and mentored by Gamaliel, a doctor of Jewish law, and an eminent Jewish scholar who sat on the Sanhedrin, the highest court of justice in Judaism and similar to our Supreme Court. He himself may have sat on the Sanhedrin, although this is not certain.

Yet, the apostle, who would do more to codify the Christian faith and shape its theology than any other person, had a dim view of knowledge. “Knowledge puffs up,” he wrote. “Anyone who claims to know something, does not yet have the necessary knowledge” (vv. 1-2).

The church at Corinth was arguing about whether Christians could in good conscience purchase and eat food that had been first offered to the gods in the temple perched on the Acrocorinth that looms over the city.

What’s important for this discussion is not the apostle Paul’s answer but rather the fact that everyone had an opinion that had already been mixed, stirred and baked and was now hard as concrete.

We forget that having opinions, as did every member of the Corinthian church, does not make our opinions valid. Paul encouraged followers of Jesus to show respect for everyone, despite their background, their personal experiences, and even their biases! Afterall, don’t we all have those!?!

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines magnanimity as “behaviour that is kind, generous and forgiving, especially towards an enemy or competitor.” We find this description on display in Lincoln’s life and speeches. Lincoln’s second inaugural address (March 4, 1865), which was delivered just weeks prior to his assassination (April 14, 1865), includes these words in closing: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” Certainly, Lincoln had the end of the war and reconstruction of the South in mind.

One who possesses magnanimity of spirit is not petty. A person with a malicious spirit holds grudges and seeks to do harm, get even. A leader who is characterized by magnanimity will not allow personal or public grievances to get in the way of pursuing the greater good, as we find in Lincoln’s second inaugural. Lincoln looked to reconstruction of the South after the Civil War to bring about full inclusion in the union and a “just and lasting peace” not simply for the United States, but for “all nations.”

With the Lord Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, and the Spirit’s descent at Pentecost, his followers did not seek vengeance, but repentance and forgiveness on Jesus’ behalf for the restoration of all peoples to God. They bore the fruit of Jesus’ magnanimous spirit with malice toward none.

—Paul Louis Metzger, “Great Leaders Model Magnanimity, Not Malice,” Patheos.com, October 9, 2020.

As we continue to think about what humility means for us -

Someone once asked Albert Schweitzer to name the greatest person alive in the world at that moment. The good doctor, whom many would have named as deserving the honor, replied quietly: "The greatest person alive in the world at this moment is some unknown individual in some obscure place who, at this hour, has gone in love to be with another person in need."

"Constant exposure to the press can be deceiving," writes pastor and former conservative Christian activist Ed Dobson. "It makes you feel more important than you really are, and it can lead you to believe that you are really making a difference."

His epiphany came at a mundane moment. He had just returned from a particularly satisfying appearance on the Phil Donahue show, high on the crowd's boos. Whisked by limo to the Newark airport, he strode through the terminal wondering how many of these people recognized him from TV. He bragged about it the whole way home to his wife, who listened quietly and said finally, "Would you take the garbage to the dump?"

At that moment, he remembered his lost humility: "Real life is not lived in the glare of the television camera," he told himself at the time. "Real life is taking the garbage to the dump."

What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life. Jesus asks, "Do you love me?" We ask, "Can we sit at your right hand and your left hand in your kingdom?" (Matthew 20:21). ... We have been tempted to replace love with power.

--Henri Nouwen, in Mornings With Henri J.M. Nouwen,

There was a daily devotional book in one of the baskets I bought at our Auction on Sunday, and as I was flipping through it this morning I read this quote:

“Temper is what gets most of us in trouble. Pride is what keeps us there.”

How fitting for our word this week: Humility

The writer of the devotion points out that anger is a selfish emotion because it comes from caring about ourselves and how situations affect “me” more than the other.

Jesus gave warnings about anger. In Matthew 5:22 he said:

“I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgement.”

This is all something to reflect on today …

Perhaps we can pay more attention to when we get angry today and ask God to help us let it go. How much humility will this take???

A Bible “Commentary” is a book that alphabetizes all the words found in Scripture so you can find them easily. I use this book A LOT! This week I opened it up to find out how many times the word HUMBLE is used, and to my surprise, the word, HUMAN (humanity, humankind, etc) immediately preceded it, AND, the word HUMOR immediately follows. Why do I find this interesting?

Because these three words all come from the same root word: HUMUS.

To be human is to be humble (with a dash of humor added in!).

To be humble is at the heart of Jesus’ message.

I will be talking about how these three words come together in next week’s message. For today, consider this very familiar statement from the Apostle Paul:

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a person, he humbled himself …”

What did it mean for Jesus to humble himself?

How is Jesus calling you to be humble today?

Isaiah 11:6-9

As I prepare to spend time with our kids each Sunday morning I find myself playing around with many images that could help us all understand the message for the morning. I have a friend who put a glob of blue paint into a baggie, folded the  baggie and put a glob of red paint into the same baggie on the other side. She then gave it to the kids and let them squish the two paints together to make purple.

This is a great way to see how we can come together as individual and different people and make something brand new. Of course, last week we talked about this as being the color of kindness.

But the image of the wild animals coming together – unchanged – eating and sleeping and even playing together is quite different. In this scene the animals do not merge into something new, they create something new while working together. This is like a puzzle! When we bring what we have and who we are to the table and allow others to add their “selves”, connection is made, and a larger picture is created. A picture that none of us can create on our own.

Prayer: Loving God, sometimes you call for me to adapt and change, and in the change become more loving and kind. But there are other times you want me to come as I am and accept others as they are to see something bigger emerge. Help me to see the difference and move where and how and to whom you want me to move. Amen

A letter from one of our District Superintendents in the Easten Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church

Psalm 34:4 “I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”

How many times do we forget to call upon the Lord? Seeking after God is not an easy task for contemporary Christians, especially when there are so many distractions. What would it mean for us to seek after God in this new season? Every person is born to participate in life in the communities that surround them. We are social, relational beings, and spiritual beings too. As relational beings we build relationships with people around us every day. We often think of building a relationship as a social activity, but we can connect spiritually with one another regardless of religious affiliations. The question becomes how do we build relationships when we are so different? What concrete practices can we live out to connect with others as spiritual beings?

Seeking God on this earth means having a spiritual practice of building relationships beyond differences. People who create a supportive and harmonious atmosphere among others harvest the act of seeking God. After all, God reveals God's self through people. In our ever more diverse global context, language, class, gender, culture, race and education could prevent us from deepening our relationships with others and could create friction among Christians.

In this new season let us be intentional and acknowledging differences, breaking out of a habit of stereotyping, allowing others to open the door to new insight of life, and being responsive to changes. From this perspective, building a relationship itself is a spiritual practice of seeking God.

Excerpt from “I look to the Mourning Sky” Liz Newman

In this life we will constantly be pulled between

love and loss;

Grief and gratitude;

pain and purpose.

But how brave it is to allow yourself space for the tension, to know that seemingly opposite things can all be true at once, and to hold them all in your head at once, in your heart at once.

When we think of compassion, we usually think of how we offer support or comfort to others, but as Liz Newman says here, we often need to offer it to ourselves. We live in a world that tears at us and can put ourselves at odds with ourselves! God loves you! God loves you as you are! Be gentle with yourself today and look for the ways God is bringing healing to your own soul.

Our word for this week is Compassion.

It is very difficult to show compassion to someone who is hurting if you are not able to put yourself in their shoes, or somehow relate to what they are feeling.

It is even more difficult to show compassion to people you do not like or people who have made decisions you do not agree with.

We read in the gospels that Jesus often had compassion on people he had never met, and he met their needs. It did not matter to Jesus why someone was sick, or why they were poor, it only mattered that they needed his compassion, and he acted. In these cases, compassion is more than a feeling … it is an action.

Prayer: I am grateful, Lord, that you have come to me in the many ways I have needed you. Help me, as I reflect on my gratitude, to share it with others I find hurting today. Help me to move beyond the feeling of compassion into the action you are prompting for me.

Referring to Luke 6:35-36 again today, I find a rather striking statement –

“for God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked…”

Does this mean me?

I have been both ungrateful and I have been wicked. I am more than grateful that God is kind to me!  My prayer for today is that God will help me show that same kindness to the people I encounter today. (And most especially to the people I avoid because I know how they will treat me!)

Our text for this Sunday is Luke 6:31-36, with a special focus on verses 35-36

“Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children f the Most High, for God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful just as your father is merciful.”

Our reward will be great when we love and do good to our enemies. That is something to think about. The greatest reward I can think of receiving is an enemy turning into a friend! Having the burden of anger or hatred released from my heart sets me free in marvelous ways!! This is a reward I will treasure!

Abba Zeno said, “If a man wants God to hear his prayer quickly, then before he prays for anything else, even his own soul, when he stands and stretches out his hands toward God, he must pray with all his heart for his enemies. Through this action God will hear everything that he asks.”

—Keith Beasley-Topliffe, ed., Writings of the Desert Fathers & Mothers  (Upper Room Books, 2017).

peace and joy

Pastor Wendy

(This is a note from the President of my seminary in Dayton, Ohio)

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