March brought us an extra hour of daylight and the first day of Spring! What might April bring? Well, let’s see…how about some flickering light at the end of the long pandemic tunnel? How about the Confirmation of eight of our amazing youth? How about the first ever First UMC Easter “Hop By?” How about praying with our feet in this year’s virtual Home Run for Kids? How about a stone rolled away and an empty tomb? How about a Risen Savior?!

Wow! These are just some of the many things that will mark our Eastertide season this year as together we are “Living the Way of Love!” Our theme is based on Bishop Michael Curry’s book “Love Is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times.” Bishop Curry is the presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, the first African-American to lead the denomination. As he writes, you can almost hear him speaking and preaching. In one chapter, he quotes the preacher at his Aunt Callie’s funeral. The sermon was based on Ezekiel and the Valley of the Dry Bones. He kept calling out to Callie, Bishop Curry remembers, calling her to hear the Word of the Lord and rise up. He writes about that day: “We couldn’t see heaven, we couldn’t see resurrection, but we could feel its possibility. God had been factored into the equation of our experience and something in reality changed. That’s where and when hope happens—when reality is altered by a new possibility.”

So, church—let’s hear the Word of the Lord in these Eastertide days and rise up! Let’s live with joy into all the possibilities and potentialities that God’s resurrecting power is opening to us. Let’s Live the Way of Love!

Lent 2021 – Opening Our Lives

Gracious God, open the eyes of our hearts, and let the light of your truth flood in. Shine your light on the hope you are calling us to embrace. Reveal to us the glorious riches you are preparing as our inheritance. Amen.
(prayer based on Ephesians 1:18)

The season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 17. Our theme this year is “Opening Our Lives.”

So, let me ask: how are you doing? How are your coping skills holding up? It’s tough, isn’t it, to carry on. Here are a few tips I’ve gleaned from a variety of articles and from my own reflection to help us open our lives to God.

Pray more and more often. Choose something—the sight of a bird, a memory, a frequent task—even washing dishes works—and whenever you see or remember or are doing that, pause, take a deep breath, stretch, and offer a prayer of gratitude or simply wait a moment in silence in the presence of God.

Take some time each day to get outside yourself. Call a family member, friend, or church member. Send a card or note. Listen to your favorite music. Read a book that takes you to another time or place. Resolve to focus your Lenten discipline this year around service, giving yourself to others. You’ll find a variety of suggestions in this Sentinel.

Get some fresh air and sunshine. Sit by a window. Mask up and walk around the block. Come on over and walk around the Courtyard here at church. From a safe distance, wave at those you meet and let your eyes smile.

Connect with others. Soak up their love and support. You’ll find a variety of opportunities in this Sentinel and on our church webpage.

I’d love to hear from you about what is and isn’t working for YOU! We’re in this together. And not only that—God is with us. May the Spirit of the Living God open our hearts and fill us with truth, light, and hope.

Peace be with you.

For New Year’s Eve, why don’t we all get noise-makers and little horns and stand outside and ring in the new with giddy enthusiasm and joy? We are more than ready, aren’t we? The gift of a New Year! Thanks be to God!

I know that for some months more, we know not how many, it will feel like “same-old, same-old” as we work together to beat back the virus. At the same time, we know different. We know a lot more about this virus than we did ten months ago. We know a lot more about ourselves, about our courage and resiliency. We know a lot more about the strength we draw from God and from one another. We know a lot more about how precious life is and how deeply we are knit together in one fabric of life and love.

We are dreaming now of new possibilities. We are dreaming of a world made new, of hope restored. We commit to loving more widely and deeply. We are determined to live into God’s new future with hope and joy.

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.” (Titus 2:11). The grace of God has appeared bringing healing, wholeness, safety, deliverance, assurance and restoration. Here’s to a New Year! Life made new. Community made whole. The future being born here and now.

Thanks be to God!

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all…” Titus 2:11

Christ was born into our world in a time when darkness hung over the land. It was wintertime and the longed-for Messiah seemed to tarry…

God had other plans, promised to us of old! A star lit the sky. A baby was born. The shepherds rejoiced. The angels sang. The grace of God appeared in human flesh and everything was made new. And all the earth was glad as healing and salvation came to all.

This is where new life starts, for our weary world and for each and every one of us. We reset our spiritual clocks and make time for new dreams, daring, even in the midst of the pandemic, to envision new possibilities for deliverance and wholeness. We open our broken hearts to the healing grace of God, who opens the way to peace. God’s peace comes to us as a healing balm, a reassuring promise and presence. Embraced in this healing love, we open our hearts, our lives, our souls, with anticipation and with hope. This is where new life starts.

I invite you to celebrate the season, inviting new life to be born in you in this time in which we need it most. It is the gift of God’s grace, bringing salvation to all.

My Christmas prayer for each of you is that you will find in this season a renewed sense of God’s love and healing presence in your life, new life bringing light and joy to you and yours. For in the Christ Child is born the fullness of life, joy, and peace for all. This is where new life starts.