Blog Archives

Wilderness and Desert

4/30/2020

“Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19 (CEB)

Now is the time. We, as people of God, have a tremendous opportunity to find new ways of being in ministry during this time apart. This is your moment, your chance to be a beacon of hope, the time for you to hear God’s voice, to see Gods’ vision, to be God’s light, to help God come alive in the midst of our isolation. “Do you not see it?” God asks, making a way in the wilderness of an unprecedented time, offering rivers in the desert of our isolation.

The Annual CROP Hunger Walk is coming up this Sunday, and has gone virtual (check the “News and Updates” page for more information). Our point person, Anne Sheffer, suggested that those of us who are walking in our own neighborhoods take a picture and share it to our Facebook group. The secretary of our church council, Holly Cheetham, organized a drive-by parade this week of church family and friends with police escort to help James Assimon celebrate his 10th birthday.

The church has left the building.

I started my first letter during this time by reminding you that Methodism has always been an outside-the-box faith. When John Wesley wasn’t welcomed in churches, he preached at mines and on street corners. He gathered people in classes for spiritual support. He authorized lay people, including women, to preach. And when he saw that people in the American colonies weren’t being cared for, he charged Thomas Coke to ordain Francis Asbury, setting them both apart as superintendents of a new form of Christian connexion.

John and Charles Wesley were men who lived into the opportunity their time presented, meeting the needs of those in their day who were hungry for spiritual meaning and longing for God’s justice and mercy. They saw that God was doing something new and followed God’s wilderness way, leading thirsty people to rivers of hope. This is your moment. This is your time, your opportunity to hear God’s call. This is your time, your opportunity to release God’s creativity into the world. This is your time. What are you going to do with it?

Peace for the journey,
Pastor Steve

0 Comments

Back to Egypt

4/23/2020

1 Comment

So they said to each other, “Let’s pick a leader and let’s go back to Egypt.” Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the assembled Israelite community. But Joshua, Nun’s son, and Caleb, Jephunneh’s son, from those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite community, “The land we crossed through to explore is an exceptionally good land.” Numbers 14:4-7

When will things be back to normal, back to the way they were? I hear that question, a lament in a sense, voiced often. I ponder it myself. We don’t like this place we find ourselves, don’t want to be here, and want to go back to what we know, what’s comfortable and familiar. Nearing the end of their 40 year pilgrimage through the wilderness, the Israelites found themselves in much the same circumstance. Their response? Let’s go back to Egypt.

Change is hard, especially when it comes to our faith lives. Most of us have to come to a relationship with God within a faith community. We chose to be members of the Newtonville congregation because something, or perhaps several things, about it fit for us. We encounter and reconnect with God in worship, in acts of service, and gathered community. Yet, now we find ourselves in a very different place and wonder - when we can go back?

Here’s the thing – I don’t think we should go back to exactly where we were, even if we were able to. Hear me out. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t go back to gathering in person for worship and service, and that doesn’t mean we should keep doing everything online. What I mean is that we have an opportunity to explore our core values, to reconsider what it means to be the church and better understand what it means to be in community.

Easter reminds us that new life comes with new definitions: “So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn’t how we know him now. So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!” (2 Corinthians 5:16-17) We will come out of this changed. The question is, “what will be look like?”

The answer is yet to be determined.

Peace for the journey,
Pastor Steve

1 Comment

This Moment

4/16/2020

0 Comments

“I am confident that God will not waste this moment.” -Bishop Mark Webb

While the past month has been an anxious time for churches, especially financially, there has also been a considerable amount of conversation among clergy and church leaders about signs that churches are growing. Some congregations, including Newtonville, have seen very regular participation in online worship from people who hadn’t always been that regular in person. Some of that may be due to isolating at home, or the opportunity to stream worship whenever you want. It may also, however, come from a longing for hope.

What I am most excited about is the growth I see throughout our congregation in both witness and discipleship. I’ve received feedback on the letters I’ve written from people far and wide, because you’re passing those letters on to family and friends. Some of you are sharing the link to our livestream worship with others who don’t have a church. You’re learning new technologies so that you can participate in meetings. Financial contributions are being mailed in. People are communicating better than ever. The church is alive and well.

Note that I didn’t say that I’m surprised by any of that. I knew it was there. I was confident that we had it in us. I want to make sure, however, that you understand the profound significance of what you are doing because you may not have the vantage point that I do. What you are doing is unleashing the Spirit into the world in new ways. What you are doing is taking bold steps to be the church at a profoundly difficult yet critically important time. What you are doing is recapturing the essence of Wesleyan Methodism.

When I have thought about the identity, the DNA, the very soul of Newtonville United Methodist Church, I think about all of the ways in which we are a center for community. I think about all of the local organizations – from recovery groups to Boys Scouts – who meet here. I think about the Samaritan Counseling and Albany District offices that we host here. I think about the community that happens through our Brooks Barbecues and Garage Sale. Now, with all of those on hold, you are finding new ways to be a center for community.

This is an anxious time for churches. Like our bishop, however, I am confident that God will not waste this moment – and neither should we. This is a time to grow. This is a time to learn. This is a time to try new things. This is a time to explore. This is a time to remember and revive the very essence of who we are, and perhaps to reinvent what it means to live that out. God will not waste this moment, this opportunity, for us to move boldly into the future. We are an Easter people. Let us step beyond our anxiety into new life, into hope, into faith.

Peace for the journey,
Pastor Steve

0 Comments

Sacramental Sacrifice

4/9/2020

0 Comments

“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take and eat. This is my body.’ He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from this, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many so that their sins may be forgiven. I tell you, I won’t drink wine again until that day when I drink it in a new way with you in my Father’s kingdom.’” Matthew 26:26-29

Today is Maundy Thursday, when we remember Jesus’ final meal with his disciples which we often call the Last Supper. Recalling the gathering from which we inherit Holy Communion is especially difficult this year when we can’t gather in physical community, because being together and sharing the sacrament in community is a core part of what communion is. Churches are struggling with this, and pastors are responding in different ways.

Some are having communion on the internet, inviting people to use their own elements at home. This has led to debates over whether online communion is valid when recorded, or only when live. Others are trying drive-thru communion, although our bishop has asked us not to. All of this within our United Methodist connection, which had previously determined that communion is something we do only when gathered in physical community.

One colleague of mine raised a very succinct argument as to why we don’t need to struggle with other ways to celebrate Holy Communion. The Last Supper is a means of grace, a particular mode for the movement of God’s grace into our lives. We have other means of grace. There are acts of personal piety like prayer, fasting, searching the Scriptures. John Wesley also included acts of mercy, including doing good works. All means of grace are equally useful.

In John’s Gospel we’re told that Jesus shared a different act with his disciples: “So [Jesus] got up from the table and took off his robes. Picking up a linen towel, he tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a washbasin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he was wearing.” (John 13:4-5) This is an act of humility, of giving, of self-sacrifice – a good work. This is the sacrament we will practice this Maundy Thursday.

There is no need for us to struggle with whether or not to celebrate online communion, no need for theological or liturgical gymnastics. Staying home and not gathering in community is an act of humility, of giving, of self-sacrifice. By staying home and not gathering in community we are doing a good work. Staying home and not gathering in community will be our means of grace. Staying home and not gathering in community will be our sacrament.

The name of Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin mandatum, meaning commandment. As in, “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.” (John 13:34-35) Right now the best way that we can express our love for each other is from a distance, fasting from the feast, and waiting again to gather.

Peace for the journey,
Pastor Steve

0 Comments

Empty Pews, Empty Tomb

4/6/2020

1 Comment

“But the angel said to the women, ‘Don’t be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn’t here, because he’s been raised from the dead, just as he said.’” Matthew 28:5-6a (CEB)

Easter Sunday is traditionally the largest attendance Sunday of the Christian year. Newtonville United Methodist Church is typically packed, with both parking and seating at a premium. I recall one year when we had children sitting on the floor because there was simply no more room in the pews. That said, in the past I’ve mentioned that I have a recurring nightmare that we make all of the preparations for Easter worship and then no one comes.

This year I am having to confront that nightmare. When I stand to greet the congregation for worship on Easter morning the only people present in the sanctuary will be my family and our director of music, Doug Esmond. Six of us, that’s it. There will be no rich display of flowers, no trumpets, no people in Easter finery, no choir, no communion. There will be a lot of silence, a quiet stillness, a simple cross draped with white, and a camera.

When the women went to the tomb early in the morning expecting to find Jesus’ body there and ready to make preparations for a final interment, they found nothing. There was no stone covering the opening to the tomb, no body lying there, no stench of death and decay. There were a few women, a quiet stillness, some grave clothes laid aside. There were no throngs of people, no wall-to-wall seating, no trumpets and choirs, no flowers.

Resurrection doesn’t happen because of what we do. Resurrection happens because of what God does. This year on Easter Sunday we will find what those first women found. This year on Easter Sunday we will meet the resurrection as they did, with fear, trepidation, confusion, angst. This year we will encounter the risen Christ on his terms, not ours, and perhaps in this new experience we will learn something about ourselves, and something about God.

And, when this is all over and we are back together in the pews we will celebrate the resurrection together. No matter when that happens it will be Easter, because the body of Christ will be gathered together in one place to worship and celebrate together. When this time apart ends we will have flowers and finery, choir and communion. We will remember our fear and suffering and longing and waiting, and we will celebrate the new life we have together in Christ.

The Service of Death and Resurrection that we use for funerals has a line that says, “Help us to live as those who are prepared to die. And when our days here are accomplished, enable us to die as those who go forth to live, so that living or dying, our life may be in you, and that nothing in life or in death will be able to separate us from your great love in Christ Jesus our Lord.” May we all live with the full trust and confidence that in even death we go forth to live.

Peace for the journey,
Pastor Steve

1 Comment

Wilderness and Desert

Back to Egypt

This Moment

Sacramental Sacrifice

Empty Pews, Empty Tomb

Author

Archives

Categories