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I listen to and read stories as a way to help me understand the world around me. A story that is most useful to me is one that intentionally describes a situation that will open up my mind to a foundational truth that God wants to me to know.

I am interested in seeking ways to show God’s love in deeper and longer lasting ways. As we are awakened to the issues of the emotional and spiritual mechanisms that hinder God’s love from working through us for others, I believe that the radical welcoming of people around us is one of the best ways that we can become consistent sources of God’s love.

Extensive welcoming of people, especially people who are different from us, is one of the highest and most blessed forms of showing genuine acceptance. It also opens doors to connection and hospitality for people in God’s name.

God is love and we are God’s children. And as children of God we seek to pattern our lives according to the main characteristic of the God we love because God loved us first. Nobody will ever love us as deeply, eternally, or in such a purely unconditional manner than God has provided for us throughout our lives. We are continually reaching for ways to be more like God through the model that Jesus showed us.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers...

This week my heart aches. My eyes sting with tears. My chest wells with anger. I join the lament of the Psalmist:
“How long, Lord? How long?”
How long will Black lives be treated without regard?
How long will coronavirus cases and deaths rise?
How long will the waters and winds rage?
How long will fires force people to flee?
How long, Lord? How long?

Working with the UMW, the theme for this year’s Children’s Sabbath Sunday is the idea of Unless. I think we all could come to some agreement that the world is struggling with some issues around caring for the environment; systemic racism; inequalities with health care and education, hunger, and homelessness; and the COVID-19 pandemic; along with many other issues that keep us from the world of love, peace, justice, and mercy that God desires for us.

Throughout my time as a youth pastor, here and with previous congregations, I look forward to confirmation every year. For two years, our soon-to-be freshman have gathered together to study the Bible, learn Methodist theology and history, and grapple with their relationship with the Church and with God. This Sunday, they choose to be confirmed. They choose to commit themselves to growing in relationship with Christ and with our congregation.

One of the great tasks of our life is to be strong enough to follow our God centered heart when we feel like doing so may not be enough to get us where we want to be. I like the stories that tell of how those who were once chastised or made fun of for following their heart and doing what they felt was their calling, and following the path that gave them purpose in their life; who ended up overcoming those early days of emotional trauma and seemingly doomed journeys to finally achieve their life’s goal. In the end, they were fine with how it turned out, hard knocks and all.

The Bible reading for Sunday comes from Matthew 14:13-21. It tells of Jesus feeding a huge number of people who had gathered to be healed of their sicknesses. Jesus was hit hard emotionally. He had been rejected by the people of his hometown of Nazareth when he taught and preached the gospel to them. Then he was told about his cousin, John the Baptizer, being beheaded because of an insidious prank played on Herod Antipas by his wife's daughter, Herodias.

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