West End Umc Video Podcast Audio Podcast

Love Is the Way – Today we continue a post-Easter series of several weeks of focus on 1 John and the idea of love, that God loves us and that our response to that is to love God in return, but also to love others. This is also Confirmation Sunday when we present a dozen young people who have been through the confirmation process and are ready to become full members of the church. Delivering the sermon today is Rev. Will McLeane, our Pastor of Spiritual Formation. He begins with examples of our needing direction, such as when we’re traveling by car and use a navigation system. There are other times when we desperately need physical or emotional direction from a doctor or a therapist. This letter of 1 John was received by an early church and offers guidance and direction, based in God’s love through the incarnation. When we understand that and trust and feel God’s love, we get a fullness of self and can have our hearts and minds changed so that we are commissioned to take courageous stands to embody and s

Love Casts Out Fear – Today we continue a post-Easter series of several weeks of focus on 1 John and the idea of love, that God loves us and that our response to that is to love God in return, but also to love others. There are numerous examples in our lives and in our day of fears. Even among some churches the incentive for believing in God is the fear of God’s judgment. But the writer of 1 John says clearly that “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear,” so that our relationship with God is not built out of any fear but is a response in love to the fact that God first loves us. Given that context, we can see throughout the Bible God’s persistent love for the people, in spite of their turning away at times. Our response to God’s love of us is to love ourselves, our neighbors, and even our enemies.

Today we begin a post-Easter series of several weeks of focus on 1 John with some verses from chapter 3 that are centered on God’s love and how our love can be manifested in acts. Although the English word, “love,” can refer to a wide variety of emotions and acts, Greek has several different words that can be translated “love” – philos, eros, and agape, each with different applications and contexts. In 1 John, it is agape that is at the heart of Christianity, and in the passage for today, agape is love in action: laying ourselves down for others. Some of us are exploring that further through the book, Love Is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times, by Bishop Michael Curry. Every day there are opportunities for us to choose to love others, putting the well-being of another above our own. In our Methodist tradition, John Wesley would call this “sanctification,” the process of practicing agape through the church. Our own church experience gives us the opportunity to learn agape through practice.

This is West End’s annual Youth Sunday when youth take on every role in the service, including all readings, music, and preaching. The two delivering the sermon(s) are Brazier Pierce and Mary Peacock, both of whom give their own experiences related to the scripture from Luke 24:36-48, where the disciples of Jesus, having seen him crucified, are surprised when he appears to them. Brazier and Mary each describe not only personal experiences, but offer how, in brief moments of encounter, we, too, can offer love and hope to others, whether they are friends, family, or complete strangers.

Forgiveness Is Not What You Think – On the Second Sunday of Easter, our Congregational Care Intern, Dr. Tammy Lewis Wilborn, delivers the Communion Meditation, based on the passage from Genesis 45 where Joseph’s brothers have come to Egypt during the famine to seek food. Unbeknownst to them, he is the one from the Egyptian administration who meets with them – they are his brothers who sold him into slavery and told their father he had died. In this scene, Joseph confronts them but with forgiveness. Dr. Wilborn says that forgiveness is complicated because its “is-ness” is confusing. We think of Jesus as a model for forgiveness, but she gives examples (like the turning over of the tables in the temple) where we’re not so sure. We feel like suffering requires forgiveness, but sometimes we blame our own suffering on God. In our day and time we now understand that one who forgives receives much mental health benefit in that process. And, looking at this example of Joseph with his brothers, he didn’t “forget

Easter Sunday! The Gospel reading for our Easter service is the one from Mark’s Gospel (16.1-8). It is an odd and somewhat unsatisfactory ending to the story in that the three women who go to the tomb and are told that Jesus is risen and are then directed to tell the disciples about that and instruct them to return to Galilee where they will see him. But the final verse says they were afraid and told no one. Scholars say that the earliest forms of this Gospel ended there. The person who wrote this gospel, though, has been very deliberate and purpose-driven in all of it, so what might that purpose be in ending this way? Perhaps it is a challenge to hearers/readers of the Gospel to take on the responsibility of spreading the news of the resurrection of Christ. The direction to “return to Galilee” may direct us to re-read the stories of Jesus, not just for information but for transformation, and with that to realize that life has conquered death, and that we are to live every day choosing life over death

This is our Good Friday service, a remembrance held at the traditional hour of the crucifixion of Jesus. It begins with the chiming of the hour, which sets the mood. It includes a reading of two chapters of the Fourth Gospel that describe the arrest, condemnation, crucifixion, and burial of Jesus, a familiar and agonizing section to hear and recall. Rev. Maggie Jarrell, our Pastor of Children and Families, delivers the Good Friday Meditation. The title comes from the scripture reading as Pilate asks Jesus, “What is truth?” In a sense, Pilate’s question to Jesus is, “What’s the point?” a question we often ask. We put off discomfort and pain, but avoiding such things is not possible because we are not in control. God keeps on loving us, no matter, and this suffering of the son of God reminds us that God knows our suffering and pain and loves no matter the situation. Solidarity with those who suffer means we take risks and give up comforts, but the example of Jesus who worked for the suffering and in so

We welcome you to listen to our Lenten podcast which will offer guided readings of the Common Prayer liturgies from your pastoral team. We are offering podcasts every day during Holy Week. ...

This is Maundy Thursday, the service in which we remember and participate in the Last Supper. The scripture for this service is the familiar story from the Fourth Gospel wherein Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and leaves them with the commandment to love one another. Delivering the communion meditation is our Pastor of Spiritual Formation, Rev. Will McLeane. He begins with the contrast in his own children of rejecting the traditional cartoons in favor of “real” people in their programs, and he speaks of our own desire for reality. The disciples have followed whom they feel to be the real Jesus, but in this moment of Jesus taking on the mantle of servitude he was actually revealing reality to them. Through this, Jesus lays out a love story that is absolute and fundamental reality. Receiving the reality of God’s love can be one of the most difficult things in our faith, and that is demonstrated by Peter’s resistance in the narrative. The power of the resurrection can only be known when we realize

This is Maundy Thursday, the service in which we remember and participate in the Last Supper. The scripture for this service is the familiar story from the Fourth Gospel wherein Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and leaves them with the commandment to love one another. Delivering the communion meditation is our Pastor of Spiritual Formation, Rev. Will McLeane. He begins with the contrast in his own children of rejecting the traditional cartoons in favor of “real” people in their programs, and he speaks of our own desire for reality. The disciples have followed whom they feel to be the real Jesus, but in this moment of Jesus taking on the mantle of servitude he was actually revealing reality to them. Through this, Jesus lays out a love story that is absolute and fundamental reality. Receiving the reality of God’s love can be one of the most difficult things in our faith, and that is demonstrated by Peter’s resistance in the narrative. The power of the resurrection can only be known when we realize

We welcome you to listen to our Lenten podcast which will offer guided readings of the Common Prayer liturgies from your pastoral team. We are offering podcasts every day during Holy Week. ...

We welcome you to listen to our Lenten podcast which will offer guided readings of the Common Prayer liturgies from your pastoral team. We are offering podcasts every day during Holy Week. ...

We welcome you to listen to our Lenten podcast which will offer guided readings of the Common Prayer liturgies from your pastoral team. We are offering this podcast every day during Holy Week. ...

We welcome you to listen to our Lenten podcast which will offer guided readings of the Common Prayer liturgies from your pastoral team. We are offering the podcast today, Ash Wednesday, and every day during Holy Week. ...

A Humble Walk – Today is Palm Sunday. Through Lent we have been considering what we can do to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly,” and our focus is now on “walk humbly.” The script is the Markan version of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and we celebrate that with our own palm branches waving as we sing “Hosanna!” We know the scene was of a triumphant Jesus being welcomed and hailed as the long-awaited king. But we also know, as Jesus must have known, that he was about to face trial and crucifixion. Although the Gospel account of this entry is of much celebration, Jesus does not speak a word, and he is riding on a mere donkey colt. Even if he knows what is coming, he also knows that God is with him, so he can ride and walk humbly. That grounding in and identification with God allows him to speak for God in cleansing the temple shortly thereafter. We, too, are grounded as creatures of God, created in the image of God, and we are called to walk humbly with God, and also to love mercy

Just Keep Walking – Through Lent we are considering what we can do to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly,” and our focus is now on “walk humbly.” The scripture today is the familiar story in Mark 10 where James and John ask a favor of Jesus, which is that they be seated at the right and left of Jesus when he comes into his glory. In all the time that the disciples have spent with Jesus, apparently they don’t really understand. We, too, tend to think of rewards, and that seems to be human nature. We want to be recognized for who we are and what we do. But Jesus, in words and example, calls us to serve rather than to be served. To walk with Jesus is to learn to give of self in service, and if we keep walking with Jesus, he will correct us and guide us to walk humbly with God.

Through Lent we are considering what we can do to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly,” and our focus is now on mercy. The scripture today is the familiar parable of Jesus talking about separating the sheep from the goats: “If you have done this for the least of these, you have done it for me.” Jesus is saying that God is near in the needs of the needy. If humans are made in the image of God, then we can surely behold God in our paying attention to the needs of others. That also means that when we, ourselves, are needy, we encounter God in our broken places. It also means that the more time and energy we spend with the needy, the more we encounter God. Our ancestor in Methodism, John Wesley, encouraged the rich to visit the poor and through that action to see God.

A Merciful Messiah – Through Lent we are considering what we can do to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly,” and our focus is now on mercy. The scripture today is the encounter of Jesus with blind Bartimaeus who knows Jesus is approaching and calls out to him. Some around the scene react to restrain the blind beggar, but Jesus asks him what he wants Jesus to do. We can put ourselves into the story as the beggar, the crowd, the disciples, or Jesus, but the actions of Jesus teach what we are to do and reflect the words of Micah to love mercy. Jesus is heading to Jerusalem with an agenda, much as we frequently have an agenda when we’re in transit, but it doesn’t prevent Jesus from asking what Bartimaeus needs. Further, Jesus does not assume what Bartimaeus needs, but asks and supplies. Bartimaeus ends up with the ability to see, and as a result he becomes a disciple. Jesus did not deliver that mercy expecting anything in return, but delivered precisely what the beggar needed. It is a model for us to

What Is and What Can Be: Aligning our Hearts and Heads with God’s – Through Lent we are considering what we can do to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly,” and this is the second week our focus is on justice. The reading for today is a passage from Isaiah (10:1-4) that is clearly from a God angry at those who “pronounce wicked decrees” that deprive the needy. Stacey Harwell-Dye, our Pastor of Mercy and Justice Ministries is preaching, and she traces the idea of broken relationships back to the Genesis creation story and the delivery of the people from slavery in Egypt, demonstrating that right worship is very much related to right relationship. She cautions us to beware of enclosing ourselves inside a bubble of worship at West End and seek relationship with those outside our inner circle. She gives a number of examples of that in her own life and proclaims that God is on the side of the vulnerable, referring to Isaiah 58 as God’s ideal.

How the Tables Have Turned – Through Lent we are considering what we can do to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.” The reading for this Sunday is the Markan account of Jesus entering the temple, observing the transactions going on as doves and other sacrificial beings are sold to people arriving to make sacrifices, and Jesus accusing those selling the sacrifices of misusing the Temple. Jesus, enraged, turns the tables of those sellers upside down. To this point in Mark, Jesus has performed countless acts of mercy as he has healed individuals. But this is an act of justice, an attempt to turn around a societal function that is unjustly preying on particular groups of people who are coming to the temple to make sacrifices but do not have the means to provide the sacrificial animals. In our own lives, acts of mercy, although called for, are often much easier to perform than are acts of justice. We are, however, called to act justly, and one way to do that is through group, rather than individual, ac