West End Umc Video Podcast Audio Podcast

Today’s reading is from Luke 10, continuing our series of readings from Luke as Jesus moves toward Jerusalem. In this passage, Jesus sends out seventy disciples in pairs to deliver the gospel. As believers and baptized Christians we are all in mission, and this passage can give us some direction for that. That Jesus sends out seventy, not just the twelve, is indicative of the discipleship of everyone. They are sent by pairs, so that no one goes alone. His instructions underscore the urgency, and they also are told to enter in peace, not with judgment or condemnation for the practices of that household. They are to tend to the health and well-being of both body and soul of the people they encounter. Ultimately they are to be messengers that the kingdom of God is near.

Today’s reading is from Luke 9, and it is the first of a months-long series of readings from Luke as Jesus moves toward Jerusalem. Here Jesus invites certain people to follow him, and this passage lays out something of what it means to follow Jesus. As he travels through Samaria he is not welcomed, and, when two of his disciples ask whether they should punish those rejecters, Jesus says no. There are other curious exchanges in this passage, all of which are instructive about what it means to follow Jesus. As followers of Jesus we are called to look at every situation through the lens of Christ, even if it means discomfort.

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of John, a story in which Jesus heals a blind man. Frances Merritt, our Pastoral Fellow for Congregational Care, is preaching today. She cites Jesus as the light of the world, but she also suggests that there is light from the world itself when one opens oneself to look around. The story in John is of a man who might have been hopeless because he had been blind from birth. Jesus saw the blind man as an opportunity, and she says that whenever there is hurt there is opportunity. We are sent to open blind eyes. Jesus knew his time was limited, and to heal the blind man was an urgent act. On the other hand, we rarely realize the urgency of a situation that calls for our acts of healing. On the other side of that story is that the only one who can testify to God’s work is the one who has been healed, and that telling sometimes risks the teller being tossed out of a religious institution that is blind to the work of God.

Today’s reading is from the last chapter of Revelation, including the final two verses, and are thus the last words in the entire Bible. Manuscripts of Revelation disagree on the last verse, some saying, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints,” others read, “. . . be with the saints,” and others, “. . . be with all.” Carol gives examples from various scriptures of God’s love for all, and she uses John Wesley’s ministry as an example. We must receive that truth that all are given God’s grace, and then we must live our lives accepting and believing that we, ourselves, are loved, and then we must turn outward to minister to others, including all. Our journey of a lifetime is working to proclaim God’s love for all.

This is Pentecost, the day we celebrate the birth of the church under the influence of the Holy Spirit as told in the Book of Acts. It’s an exciting celebration of an exciting event with the action of the Holy Spirit descending on the 120 followers of Jesus suddenly speaking various languages. Peter who had initially rejected Jesus, then denied Jesus three times around the time of the crucifixion, began to speak, and people stopped, listened, and heard in a language each could understand. It was a series of miracles. But it prompts the question as to whether we are good listeners. We use social media to tell people what we want to tell them, not to listen. Are we, as a people of God, invited to be better listeners? God has had a habit of picking unlikely people as spokespersons, and are we likely to listen to listen to those people?

This is the fifth and final in our five-week sermon series on the vows we make to support the church by “our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness.” The reading is from Acts 10, where Peter has a dream that opens his mind, not only as to what is allowed or forbidden to eat, but that Gentiles, for example, could become believers. It is set in the context of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, who, along with his entire family, summons Peter to tell them whatever Peter has to say. It is the beginning of the mission to the Gentiles and, by extension, to everyone. We, too, are called to witness, sometimes by simply listening, but other times by inviting. Our West End signs, “God loves everyone unconditionally,” do just that.

This is the fourth in our five-week sermon series on the vows we make to support the church by “our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness,” and today’s theme is “service.” The reading is from Acts 9, where Peter revives Tabitha, a woman who has died. Preaching today is Katie Minnis, who has been a staff intern as she went through the program at Vanderbilt Divinity School, and this past year has been a Pastoral Fellow on our staff. In July, having been ordained an elder in the UMC, she will become the senior minister for a UM church in Paducah, KY, so this is a culmination and farewell for her. The story tells of some of Tabitha’s work in the community and the gathering of women to mourn her death. In her sermon Katie examines Tabitha’s experience in the darkness of death and her revival. As a parallel, Katie relates her own “dark night” experiences and her own revival, and she says that people often have to go through that dark night to realize their calling to service.

This is the third in our five-week sermon series on the vows we make to support the church by “our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness,” and today’s theme is “gifts.” The reading is from Acts 4, describing the early Christians in Jerusalem as a community where all was shared and no person considered possessions as their own. The question is whether that is a call for us to do the same and consider that everything belongs to everyone. But maybe it is a call for us to remember that everything we have is a gift, and that, like those early Christians, we need to provide for others such that the needs of everyone are met. The focus is on the community of believers intent on making sure everyone is cared for, and our giving together is for that very goal.

This is the second in our five-week sermon series on the vows we make to support the church by “our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness,” and today’s theme is “presence.” The reading is from Acts 2 where Peter gives a sermon, baptizes 3,000 people, and then the book describes how that community of believers comes together, essentially becoming the church in a deep spiritual relationship, sharing bread and love. “Church” is a unique gift from God, and followers of Jesus aren’t meant to go it alone. It was exemplified when John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, began forming discipleship groups who met regularly and shared their deepest thoughts. Today is Confirmation Sunday, another way of demonstrating that gift of presence as we are the church.

Today we begin a five-week sermon series on the vows we make to support the church by “our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness,” and today’s theme is that of prayer with the reading from Acts the situation when Jesus has died, is risen, and is about to leave the disciples, and they, along with some women (notably Mary) and others are in an upper room and devote themselves to prayer. Rev. Brandon Baxter is preaching and says that of these vows, prayer is the foundation. The act of praying is opening ourselves to God, perhaps via the Holy Spirit, and the scene in Acts really serves as a model for worship. Throughout today’s service there is a special emphasis on prayer in different and expanded ways. Today is also communion Sunday.

Today is our annual Youth Sunday when members of West End’s youth group design and run the services. Two seniors, Hilde Medovich and RJ Gilleland deliver the sermon, Anna Bigelow does the Children’s Moment, the Youth Vocal Ensemble and Youth Bell Choir provide music, and all the liturgists are West End youth. Trust/Fall is the focus, a theme rooted in John 20.19-31. RJ and Hilde each tell about their church and youth group experiences, and they describe their growth in faith through their years. Each related to the doubts of Thomas in the scripture passage from John. We do not get to feel the nail scars in the hands, so how is our faith grounded? We must see and feel the love of God and those around us, and we experience it much like a Trust/Fall exercise.

The crowd and celebration in the sanctuary for this Easter service are in stark contrast to the first Easter morning, when there were few who quietly went to the tomb, and for whom the mysteries of that morning were communicated in whispers. In Luke’s account of that morning, the women who come to the tomb were witnesses at the cross as the body of Jesus was taken down – from their perspective it’s over. Most of us know that feeling of an inability to do anything about some loss. The women hear the news from two men in dazzling clothes. Those the women tell simply don’t believe them. But in their time of despair God was at work in the darkness giving victory of life over death. In those moments when we are hopeless, God is at work. When we feel hopeless, we must remember that God is at work. Because God has raised Jesus, we must do what we can do – tell the story, live the life.

It is Good Friday. Maggie Jarrell, West End’s Pastor of Children and Families, is preaching. Part of this service is the retelling of the story of the passion from the Gospel of John. Then Maggie reminds us that it a gruesome, sad, and lengthy walk to the cross. And then she explores that grief from our pandemic experiences and other current happenings that make the world feel so heavy now. We feel all the feelings. Although our culture tends to focus on the positives, we know we still have the heaviness. This Good Friday makes us know that Jesus knows our pains and asks us to leave them at the foot of the cross, knowing that we are loved, so very loved.

It is Maundy Thursday. Rev. Erin Racine is preaching, and the reading is Luke’s version of the Last Supper. Erin first talks about nostalgia, especially related to the pandemic, and then about the whole concept of nostalgia, its positives and negatives. Jesus directs the disciples to “do this in remembrance of me,” and so Christians through the centuries do so in the act of communion. It is not only an act of remembering Jesus and that event, but an act of re-membering, of gathering as a community of Christians together, of accepting each other across lines of diverse backgrounds and even conflicts, an act of unity under Christ.

It is Palm Sunday. Carol Cavin-Dillion gives the Children's Moment. Our guest preacher is Rev. Dr. Autura Eason-Williams, District Superintendent of the Metro District in Memphis. She explores the question, how do we live into the image and likeness of Christ? Growing up in the church we learned to act as Jesus acted. Twenty years ago there was that movement, “What Would Jesus Do?” The difference between those who do such things to check them off and those who do them out of love is relationship. Sometimes we like to serve, but it’s hard for us to hear their voices, to be changed by them. Dr. Eason-Williams uses the example of Saul of Tarsus who was approached by Jesus on the road to Damascus and was changed completely. Paul was, of course, perhaps the most significant and influential early Christian, and in the letter to the Philippians (2.5-11) described the way Jesus emptied himself as our example. She gives a real-life example of that kind of change.

This is the fifth Sunday in Lent, and our theme for Lent is “I Will: Living Our Baptismal Vows.” Today’s reading is from the Gospel of John, the scene where Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and teaches them to love one another. Baptisms are moments of great joy in the congregation as we welcome a new child, but it is also a commitment during which the congregation makes a vow to nurture one another in the Christian faith and life and include this person in our care. We’re called to welcome and include the new, to open our hearts and minds to the new ones. It is a radical inclusion, demonstrated by Jesus’ washing the feet of those disciples. What happened when Jesus got to Judas Iscariot in that foot washing?

This is the fourth Sunday in Lent, and our theme for Lent is “I Will: Living Our Baptismal Vows.” Today we’re looking at the fourth baptismal vow, “Do you promise to serve him as your Lord in union with the church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races?” The focus is on the question of “union,” knowing that historically Christians have differed on matters of policy, belief, understanding of the Bible, and have, through history, split into widely varying denominations. Given that reality, how can we be in union? Today’s reading from John 17 gives us clues when Jesus prays to God that his followers will be one, just as he and God are one, resulting in their knowing that God loves them, just as God loves Jesus. Perhaps we can understand that Christians can differ but be in union with that love.

This is the third Sunday in Lent, and our theme for Lent is “I Will: Living Our Baptismal Vows.” Today’s reading is Luke’s account of Zacchaeus, the short tax collector who, as a tax collector, had gotten rich off the backs of his fellow Jews. He wanted to catch a glimpse of this Jesus and climbed a tree to be able to see. But Jesus called him down and befriended him, and, as a result, Zacchaeus changed his outlook and direction. It is an illustration of what it is to be befriended by Jesus and, in response, to confess Jesus as Lord, put our trust in him, and serve him, which is the third of our baptismal vows.

This is the second Sunday in Lent, and our theme for Lent is “I Will: Living Our Baptismal Vows.” Today’s reading is Luke’s account of Jesus throwing the money lenders out of the temple, and then, later, the authorities questioning his authority to do such things as teaching and preaching. Rev. Stacey Harwell-Dye, preaching today, says that Jesus was not against Judaism or temple worship at all, or against selling animals for sacrifices because many people who came to the temple had travelled very long distances and could not have brought the proper unblemished animals for sacrificing. What he was against were the sellers who took advantage and charged exorbitant prices. To critique something properly you must love it dearly, and that is what Jesus was doing. We, too, are called by our baptismal vows to accept the freedom God gives us to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.

This is the first Sunday in Lent, and our theme for Lent is “I Will: Living Our Baptismal Vows.” Today’s reading is Luke’s account of the time Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted, immediately following his baptism. Although this can be a shocking first step in a baptismal ceremony, to cite what we are turning away from lays groundwork for our faith. Jesus, himself, as soon as he was baptized, was reported to have gone into the wilderness for 40 days of fasting and temptation. The temptations Jesus faced can be interpreted as our own temptations: first, to trust ourselves rather than God; second, to rely on worldly power instead of on God; and third, to put on a show. It is a fitting beginning to this season of Lent.