West End Umc Video Podcast Audio Podcast

Learning to Lean – We continue our trip through the Bible with today’s focus on Wisdom literature and passages from Song of Songs, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. Our church has had an intergenerational Sunday school through the month of June, and sitting at a table with people of various generations who can share their views of God and God’s people is not dissimilar from examining the voice of youth in Song of Songs, then Proverbs as the voice of an adult of middle age, and Ecclesiastes as the voice of wisdom of age. Song of Songs is a love poem of passion between two people, and it gives the potential and hope of life, longings for a perfect world. Middle age comes with its joys but also its challenges of living, caring for children and older adults as well as making it through every day. Proverbs, like middle age, offers pieces of wisdom but ultimately urges trust in God. Some of Ecclesiastes is cynical, but it also assures that God has long ago approved of who we are – we don’t need to go through so much

We continue our trip through the Bible with today’s focus on Psalms. Not only are the scripture reading and sermon from Psalms, but the liturgy, prayers, and anthems are all either Psalms or are adapted from them. The Book of Psalms not only has been the “hymnal” through millennia for those who worship God, but it contains hymns/poems for any situation in which we might find ourselves. Embedded in the midst of the Book of Psalms is a series, “Psalms of Ascents,” which scholars believe were traveling psalms as pilgrims traveled toward Jerusalem to the Temple and then arrived there. Carol cites one of them, Psalm 130, as a cry out to God from the depths, a place we have all likely been. But even in the time of deepest distress, it also expresses strong faith in the Lord. Psalm 131 also expresses a feeling of focus, not on “things too great and too marvelous for me,” but on a quieted soul “like a weaned child with its mother.” As a people of God we are on a journey, certainly called to strive for peace an

We continue our trip through the Bible with today’s reading from Job, a difficult text recounting God’s appearance to Job to respond to Job’s doubts. Preaching today is Rev. Dr. Soren Hessler, who recounts the story of Job, a righteous man who loses everything, and whose friends insist he must not be all that righteous if he has ended up in this position. The friends represent the wisdom tradition insisting that righteousness brings the good life, but in Job’s situation and from his perspective the question becomes why do bad things happen to good people? Today’s reading is God’s response to Job, essentially saying, through challenging questions, that God is God and Job is Job. But often, when one has questions or suffers, being in the presence of God’s creation can put things in perspective – God is present in our times of suffering and loss, and, although that doesn’t clear up the problem, it does offer a setting of comfort and perspective. Even if we don’t find the answer to our difficulties, we can e

We continue our trip through the Bible with today’s reading from Esther. Rev. Erin Racine is preaching in one of her last Sundays with West End UMC as she moves on to another assignment. In this reading, Esther, a Jew by birth but married to the Persian king, is asked by her cousin to do something truly dangerous in order to help save the Jews living in Susa. The king does not know Esther is a Jew, and she is timid and submissive. But she asks that the Jews in Susa hold a fast for her, and with that community support she does approach the king. Erin relates that to a recent survey that asked what churches in Nashville need to do to help in our communities. She cites a study that showed only 37% of church goers in Nashville volunteer, and she reminds us that we are the body of Christ. Erin then lists many things she has seen our church and West Enders do in her years with us, and she challenges us, as a well of resources, to remember that, like Esther, we are called to do the hard work that we are in a

We continue our trip through the Bible with today’s reading from Nehemiah in which Nehemiah goes out under cover of darkness to inspect the walls of Jerusalem that had been destroyed by the Babylonian invasion. More than a century before, Babylonians had conquered Judah and exiled many of its skilled and brightest people. When the Persian king, Cyrus, finally defeated Babylon, he allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. Nehemiah was not among the first to be released, but when he did return the Temple had been restored, yet the city was still in shambles. Before he had asked to return to Judah, and after he got there, he was careful to consult God, and, having done so, then having seen the destruction, Nehemiah told the Jews around him about his conversations with God and said that together they should rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. This informs us that a strong relationship with God is crucial, and such relationship results in our work, our service to building and rebuilding the world around us.

We continue our trip through the Bible with today’s reading from 2 Kings 7 in which four lepers find themselves in a desperate situation. They are rejected by their own people (Israelites) for their disease, and their city is taken over by invading Arameans. Given little choice, the lepers enter their city, hoping the Arameans will be generous but thinking they are heading to their deaths at the hand of the enemy. But upon entering they discover that the Aramean army has, through an act of God, fled the city, leaving all of their food and possessions. The lepers begin to take the booty, but at some point they realize this is wrong and they should let their fellow Israelites know that their city is safe again. It is an example of God using unlikely characters to do God’s work, even sharing the good news and the bounty with people who had mistreated them in the past. We must ask what this means for us and how we, too, are called to share the Good News through our actions. And we must realize that God oft

After Lent and Easter we have returned to our trip through the Bible with today’s readings from 1 Kings 19 in which Elijah, who has worked as God’s prophet through incredible odds and in difficult times is now suffering burnout. He has challenged the people and the king and now is ready to die. He feels alone and totally spent, not unlike we feel at times. But in the desert God meets Elijah, first demonstrating the divine presence with power, and then with ultimate quiet. Got asks Elijah why he has come here, and Elijah lays down his burdens. Then God gives Elijah new assignments and demonstrates that God is ever present. It is a good lesson for us and for the young people who are confirmed in today’s early service, that no matter our burnout, God challenges us to keep going and assures us of the divine presence.

After Lent and Easter we have returned to our trip through the Bible with today’s readings from 2 Samuel in which, in spite of the friction between King Saul and David, as David was deemed to be Saul’s successor instead of one of Saul’s sons, after the death of Saul and Jonathan in battle, David reaches out in kindness to help any of Saul’s family. Mephibosheth, a crippled son of Jonathan, receives David’s help. This is an expression of God’s own kindness, and just as David invited Mephibosheth to eat at his table, today God invites all of us to God’s table in communion. We know Jesus offered kindness countless times to people who were afflicted or rejected or hungry or simply needed kindness, and we, too, are called to extend kindness.

After Lent and Easter we have returned to our trip through the Bible with today’s readings from 1 Samuel, a passage where the people are rejecting Samuel’s leadership and asking for a king, which they have seen in other nations. We’ve seen and will see in our trip through the scriptures that God has a plan and design for what the kingdom should be, but the people continually turn aside and choose worldly things over what God would have them choose. In this particular case it is a choice between God’s kingdom and a worldly kingdom, like the other nations. Early Christians proclaimed, “Jesus is Lord” rather than “Caesar is lord.” We, too, have to decide what to put at the center of our lives, and we do that in proclaiming, “We are Easter people!”

This is our annual Youth Sunday when the youth in our church take on all the roles in the services, including preaching and being liturgists. They have studied the Book of Ruth, and from the first part of that story, when in a tragic situation Ruth declined to do what was perhaps better for herself and, instead, went with her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi, to Judah, Naomi’s native land, she was “drawing the circle wide” to adopt Naomi’s people, land, and God, and as such she is the symbol for today’s service. The two youth delivering the sermon today, Anna Bigelow and Trip Cook, give their experiences of their being included in a widened circle through their years in the youth group, and both also challenge us to widen the circle around us as a calling from God.

After Lent and Easter we are returning to our trip through the Bible with today’s readings from Joshua and Judges. The Joshua passage tells of the people crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land and the instruction to pick a man from each tribe to go back into the river and take a stone to set up to remind people of that day and journey. Stories in Joshua and Judges are often about battles to conquer peoples and territories in Canaan, not the most pleasant of Israel’s stories. But, as the stones remind them, those stories must be told. Any single story is incomplete, and stories in the book of Judges show the people wandering off course and from God because they had not remembered those stories told in Joshua. We must remember to tell all parts of our own stories so we can remember the mistakes and maintain a course with the love of God.

This is Easter Sunday. The scripture is the Matthean account of the women arriving at the tomb to be met by an angel and then by the risen Jesus. Having been in “a Good Friday place” for several weeks now from our community’s sorrow, and having preached on “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” in a Good Friday service, Carol confessed to having felt lost as late as yesterday. From this text in Matthew, she realized that those closest to Jesus must have felt down and lost, too, from the burial of Jesus through their Sabbath day. Then on the first day of the week those two Mary’s went to the tomb, still deep in grief, only to witness an angel opening the tomb and announcing the resurrection. They are convinced and leave to tell the disciples as the angel had instructed them to do, but in a culmination to their experience, the risen Jesus appears to them. We, too, leave this place having experienced the resurrection, so that we, like the two Mary’s and the disciples, are sent out to love in the powe

This is Good Friday, and it comes at a time when in Nashville we have had a school shooting and a legislative session in which two legislators were expelled. Rev. Erin Racine delivers the message, and in the midst of all of this heaviness, she heard the familiar line from the Christmas carol, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” That carol celebrates the birth of the redeemer, of course, but that is what happens with the crucifixion and resurrection, too – that Jesus was crucified might have seemed to have been a horrid end, but, in fact, it is the place where the outstretched arms of Jesus reach out to us all. In the Gospel of John, most things that happen to Jesus are fulfillments of things. When Jesus, on the cross, says, “It is finished,” it does mean the end of what everyone thought was his life, but it was also that his ministry was finished – he had shown his followers and us the posture of love. On the cross we are unburdened but also beckoned.

This is Maundy Thursday, the service a reflection and remembrance of the Last Supper as we, too, take communion. The scripture from John is of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples at that final dinner. Delivering the Meditation at the service is the Rev. Maggie Jarrell, Pastor of Children and Families. She gives her own experience with dirty feet from camp, and she points out that in the Gospel of John’s account of the Last Supper the focus is on Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, the act of love, much more than on the supper itself. This week Maggie participated in demonstrations after the shooting at Covenant School, telling us that at first she was overcome with emotion and unable to speak. She compares that to this act by Jesus, not really speaking at first but acting, a radical act of service in love, love in action. She asks us how we are living out our love.

This is Palm Sunday. For Lent we are pausing reading the Bible beginning to end and are exploring a theme of Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John. In today’s scripture, Jesus and Pilate are face to face. Pilate leaves the encounter several times to consult with the high priest, both Pilate and the high priest representing earthly power to which they see Jesus as a threat. Jesus says his power (kingdom) is not of this earth. Jesus seems vulnerable, but his power is in his gift of his life to truth, love, and grace. It is an example for us of vulnerable love fighting against the powers of the world.

For Lent we are pausing reading the Bible beginning to end and are exploring a theme of Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John. In today’s scripture, the encounter is with his friends, Mary and Martha, and their brother, Lazarus. Although we don’t often think of people who might be friends of him, rather than disciples or followers, Jesus is clearly friends with these three siblings. When he gets word that Lazarus is gravely ill, though, Jesus hesitates before going to Bethany, and then when he does go, Lazarus has been dead for four days. When Jesus travels toward Bethany, Martha meets him. Later, when he gets to the house, Mary meets Jesus, and she and friends around the house are weeping, at which Jesus, too, weeps. This show of love on his part might have been enough to console them, but Jesus goes with them to call Lazarus from the tomb. The story is filled with despair and grief, but it also demonstrates the presence of Jesus in any such despair and grief, and it also demonstrates hope.

During Lent 2023, we invite you to pause in the middle of your week to contemplate the scriptures. In each week’s podcast, we will listen as Jesus has a one-on-one conversation with someone. This guided meditation will help you place yourself in the conversation and ponder what Jesus might be saying to you or asking of you in the text. Take a few moments, find a comfortable, quiet place, and open yourself to the presence of Christ as we hear the words from the Gospel of John.

For Lent we are pausing reading the Bible beginning to end and are exploring a theme of Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John. In today’s scripture, the encounter is with a beggar who has been blind from birth. Jesus heals him. But in this chapter of John, there seem to be six scenes in which Jesus only appears in the first and last scenes. Other scenes show the Pharisees trying to figure out this situation and the parents of the healed man also trying to figure it out. In fact, no person or group of people is shown as rejoicing that the man has been healed. Pharisees, who discuss the situation, are divided as to who this healer might be. When they call in the man to tell them the story, he is summarily excommunicated. Only Jesus, in the end, has not only given the man his sight, but it is Jesus who rejoices with that man. In our daily lives, when we encounter someone who is in pain or outside the societal norm, it is up to us to make sure Jesus does not leave the room but heals and rejoices wi

During Lent 2023, we invite you to pause in the middle of your week to contemplate the scriptures. In each week’s podcast, we will listen as Jesus has a one-on-one conversation with someone. This guided meditation will help you place yourself in the conversation and ponder what Jesus might be saying to you or asking of you in the text. Take a few moments, find a comfortable, quiet place, and open yourself to the presence of Christ as we hear the words from the Gospel of John.

We are pausing reading the Bible beginning to end for Lent and a theme of Encounters with Jesus. In today’s scripture, Jesus, traveling through Samaria, finds himself sitting at a well, tired and famished in the middle of the day, when a Samaritan woman approaches the well. It is a familiar story, but there are aspects of it that merit exploration. Traditionally, this woman who had been married five times and is now with a man who is not married was thought to be a woman of ill repute. But the story does not say why she was married five times – did her husbands die? Jesus asks for water, and she is put off by this Jew. But in the intervening conversation, hospitality takes over both from Jesus and from the woman. They both cross forbidden societal lines, but their conversation leads to conversion. Perhaps this lengthy story challenges us to do the same – cross societal lines with hospitality to do the work of Jesus, which is evangelism.