West End Umc Video Podcast Audio Podcast

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 is approached by Nicodemus, described as a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, a learned and respected member of the religious establishment. Other Pharisees have seen Jesus as a troublemaker and someone to be dealt with, but Nicodemus wants to find out about Jesus and approaches him by night. Nicodemus doesn’t begin with an accusation or question, but with a statement. The response Jesus gives is taken literally by the Pharisee, and Jesus goes further to explain, ending with the familiar lines that God so loves the world that he gave his only son. He goes further to say that God is not in the business of condemnation but is focused on salvation. Although Nicodemus doesn’t seem to be converted on the spot. His later appearances in the gospel indicate that he was changed. We, too, need to be vitally aware that God is not about condemnation, but about salvation.

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. Today’s scripture is the story of the temptations of Jesus at the end of his forty days of fasting in the wilderness. The tempter appears and first tempts Jesus with food – turn these stones into bread. The Rev. Erin Racine says it then becomes a battle of scriptures, with the tempter quoting scriptures with the temptations and Jesus responding with other scripture. In each case, as he is tempted Jesus chooses self-control over power. Temptations for us don’t often show up as a figure with a pitchfork and forked tail, but are more insidious and grab us when we forget we are loved by God. We need to realize temptations are often the products of hunger and longing, and they come with choices. As Jesus trusted his temptations to God and was served by angels, we must trust our temptations to the Messiah. When Jesus left the wilderness, he went out to preach, and we, too, are called to be witnesses in the world

In contrast to our Shrove Tuesday Jazz Mass, which is a celebratory service, on Ash Wednesday we turn our hearts and minds to the introspection and meditation of the Lenten season, using the sign of the cross in ashes on our foreheads as a symbol of that shift. The Rev. Carol Cavin-Dillon gives the homily, “To Show or Not To Show,” initially asking whether when we leave the service we will wipe the ashes off our foreheads or will leave the ashes there for others to see. The scripture for the service, from the Matthean version of the Sermon on the Mount, seems to give us both answers, and so, “It depends.”

This is our annual Shrove Tuesday Jazz Mass, a celebration through worship on the eve of Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. As a story in the contrasts of the joy of Shrove Tuesday and the introspection of Ash Wednesday and Lent, in her meditation, Rev. Stacey Harwell-Dye uses a passage from Habakkuk to illustrate the severe trauma and ills the ancients faced contrasted with the sheer joy of the presence of God in their lives. She also uses some joys from her own live to lift our spirits in Shrove Tuesday. We all face “downs,” and we all also celebrate joys, but even if we face terrible tragedies we are assured that the ultimate joy is ever present in God’s love for us.

We continue reading the Bible with a passage from Numbers right after the Hebrews have received word from the spies who went to check out the land of Canaan. They have already been to Sinai to receive the law and instructions, have been fed manna in the desert, and have been led by the pillars of cloud and fire. But when most of the spies report that the people in the land are big and cannot be conquered, the Hebrews are ready to give up and return to slavery in Egypt. We, too, wander in the wilderness at times, with much provided, but when doubts arise, we, too, are prone to give up. This example in the wilderness should tell us that although it is easy to give up, trusting in God will always get us through.

We continue reading the Bible with a passage from Leviticus that lays out the ritual for the Day of Atonement. Carol gives some background for Leviticus with the freed Hebrews wandering in the wilderness for a generation, while God, through Moses, leads them and gives them the laws and rules for living. On the Day of Atonement, the people come together to lay out all their sins for this ritual of atonement. Two goats are chosen, one for sacrifice, and the other to carry off the burden of all those sins that are confessed. As New Testament people, we are influenced by the letter to the Hebrews to see Jesus in the same light as that goat, lifting the burden of our sins from us. Although we know that God forgives us, sometimes we have trouble forgiving ourselves, and it is in confession that we can release that burden to Jesus. Sometimes those sins are individual, and sometimes corporate, and as we gather at the communion table and confess we can release all of them.

We continue reading the Bible with a passage from Exodus 33 wherein Moses and God are conversing, and Moses asks God for reassurances about the mission God has directed him to do. Moses asks to see God’s “glory,” and God hides him in a crevice and passes before him, not allowing Moses to see God’s face. The Rev. Dr. Derek Weber, Director of Preaching Ministries in United Methodism’s Discipleship Ministries division, is the guest preacher. Derek begins by giving his personal historic connection to the church, as he is descended from Fountain Pitts, West End’s first appointed minister. Pitts was an officer in the Confederate army and a slave owner, and he was a gifted preacher. The quest for Moses to see God’s glory with God denying a glimpse at the divine face means that Moses, in God’s service, turns out to be the face of God, and Derek presses us to examine our church and ourselves to see how we serve as the face of God. Much as the slavery in our history may be distasteful to us now, it is our missio

We continue reading the Bible with a passage from Exodus, the familiar story of Moses and the burning bush. Although, according to Genesis, the Israelites originally went to Egypt to seek relief from famine, they have since become enslaved. In this story, God calls Moses to be God’s representative to Pharaoh and free God’s people. Moses, however, is hesitant and offers several reasons he is not the one to do this. But God assures Moses that God will be with him. When Moses asks God’s name, God’s response has been one of the great mysteries of the Bible: “I AM who I AM.” God further identifies God’s self as the God of Moses’s ancestors. The story demonstrates that God is awesome and unknowable, but also very much relates to humans. It is a lesson for us – we are called to do God’s work, and although it may seem overwhelming and we feel incapable, the relational God is with us.

We continue reading the Bible with our second Genesis reading today, the story of Joseph and his brothers, and their jealousy erupting in their throwing him into a pit. For us it prompts a study of “Shalom,” most often translated, “peace,” but meaning much more a complete state of well-being wherein everything is right with the family or with the world. It begins with the creation as “very good,” and the Garden of Eden. The theme of humans falling short and God working for Shalom continues throughout the entire scripture. Human failure happens in families today much as it happened in the family of Jacob with all of the brothers aligned against Joseph. But in the long story of Joseph, when Joseph ends up in Egypt and the brothers come to get food to relieve their suffering during the famine, Shalom takes place. Joseph’s attitude is that his brothers meant to do him harm, but God turned that into good. On the eve of Martin Luther King Day, we remember King’s dream of Shalom. We, too, are called to do ou

This year is the 150th anniversary of West End, and one of the things we’re doing is reading the entire Bible, selecting passages from beginning to end, for our Sunday scriptures. Today we begin with Genesis and the six days of creation as told in Genesis 1. That there are two creation stories (Genesis 1, then Genesis 2-3) points out that these stories are stories of faith and God’s relationship to people. On the sixth day God created humans and gave humans power over all creation, then looked at creation and declared it “very good.” We are all made in the image of God. The second creation story is of God creating a human from the earth, then seeing that human needed a companion and creating one. Then God created the garden to serve their every need. But those humans, Adam and Eve, sought more and ate the forbidden fruit, immediately feeling shame and hiding from God. At the end of the story, God provides for them and goes with them as God will do with us. Today is also the day we remember our baptis

This is that rare year when New Year’s Day occurs on a Sunday. Maggie Jarrell is preaching, and the familiar text is from Ecclesiastes 3 wherein the poet is musing about the opposites in life: a time to laugh, a time to cry. We know those feelings as expressed in our bulletin cover, “Life is so beautiful: Life is so hard.” To consider these opposites is appropriate for New Year’s Day when we are looking forward as well as backward, perhaps making resolutions for the new year. Through that we may be pondering who we have been and who we’d hope to be. In our 150th year as a church it is incumbent upon us to do that: reflect on the past and plan for the future. Although we can plan, we know those plans don’t always materialize, but what we do know is that, through it all, God is faithful to us and is with us.

This is that rare year when Christmas Day occurs on a Sunday. As we have cited the birth narratives in Luke and Matthew in the two Christmas Eve services, now is the time to celebrate the joy of the arrival of the baby. The scripture is from the first chapter of John, those familiar and mysterious verses about “the Word” and its identification with God. “The Word” is described as life, the light shining into the darkness, becoming flesh and dwelling among people. Rev. Carol Cavin-Dillon points to the element of joy in our Advent trek to the nativity, recalling that the third candle of the Advent wreath represents joy. At the end of the Christmas Eve services we sing the very familiar, “Joy To the World.” She shares a number of joys she has experienced in the last few days and then presses us to recall a moment of joy in our lives and to share that with each other in the midst of the service. Joy is given to us in the birth of the Christ child, God incarnate, and that gift of joy is ours.

This is our traditional Christmas Eve Service, late on Christmas Eve, the end of the Advent period of waiting. The four Advent candles have been lit through the season, and at the end of this service the Christ candle is lit. The gospel reading, Luke 2.1-20, is read from the midst of the congregation rather than from the lectern, and Senior Minister Carol Cavin-Dillon’s Communion Meditation focuses on how, much as things must have happened for Joseph and Mary as they went to Bethlehem, many of us have experienced grief and other down times and struggles recently, but in the midst of all that the Christ child is born in a quite unexpected way. Jesus arrives, ready or not. God intervenes with Emmanuel at times when we may need that intervention most, and there is much joy in that coming. The service ends with a changing of the paraments from the color of Advent to the color of Christmas.

This service is designed for the longest night of the year, the Winter Solstice, and it speaks to any who are feeling lost, stressed, grieved. In this context, Rev. Erin Racine delivers the “Words of Hope,” stemming from Psalm 91, which addresses the kinds of lost-ness many are experiencing by assuring, with numerous expressions, God’s protection. Erin talks about loss, but also about the ever-present God, explaining with some examples that the vision of God’s protection is not a bargain with God such that if one worships God, God will return the favor with protection. She also uses examples to show that “protection” in this sense is not necessarily what we might consider protection, like protection from pain or illness. Rather, it is a wrapping of God’s wings around us to care for us in moving and spiritual ways. After her message, worshippers are encouraged to light candles, take communion, and pray, with the lighting of candles being a symbol of coming into the light out of the darkness of the Longest

This is the fourth Sunday in advent, and in the scripture from Matthew 1, Joseph has found out that his betrothed, Mary, is pregnant, the only logical cause is that she has been unfaithful. In effect, Joseph is a minor character in the Gospels with no speaking lines at all, but this reading gives a chance to focus on his character. Here, he is faced with a problem for which the law says he can publicly disgrace Mary and her family. He has been building a future for them, but this changes everything, and, instead, he chooses to dismiss her “quietly.” Then, in a dream he is visited by an angel who explains the origin of the pregnancy, and Joseph went even farther in an act of mercy and “took her as his wife.” The question for us is how have we experienced the loss of a future, and how should we act in that moment so as to ensure the coming of God into the world?

(Anna Bigelow reads the scripture.) This is the third Sunday in advent, and in the scripture from Matthew 11 John the Baptist is in prison. This was the fiery preacher who, early in Matthew, baptized Jesus and recognized him as the Messiah. But, perhaps now seeing his ministry at an end and the long-awaited king not having taken over, John is wondering whether Jesus is the Messiah and sends some of his disciples to ask Jesus whether he is, indeed, the Messiah. The response Jesus gives may not have been exactly what John had thought it would be from a Messiah. Jesus points to the healing he’s done and the word he has spread. It is a good example for us when we feel trapped or down. God’s coming is not necessarily going to fix every one of our problems, but God is with us, Emmanuel.

This podcast contains Derek Weber's dramatic reading of a passage from Isaiah 11, then the Children's Moment and Communion Meditation. This is the second Sunday in advent, and the scripture is part of a vision in Isaiah 11 that starts with the “stump of Jesse” and describes with imagery a world in which there are peace and love. Rev. Nancy Parker is preaching and gives a personal example of a fig tree she and her husband planted and cared for that appeared, after the first winter, to have become a “fig stick.” But with care, they eventually saw a branch or two leaf out. She says most of us know how it feels to be a “stump,” waiting for life, and that is what Advent is all about – waiting for life with belief in the power and presence of God. Advent, then, is holy anticipation.

This recording begins with a dramatic reading of the scripture, continues with the Children's Moment, and then the sermon. This is the first Sunday in advent, and the scripture is (part of) Matthew’s version of the genealogy of Jesus, and the focus of the sermon is the significance of family ancestry. In our own hunger to know more about our ancestry we find a richness and foundation. The genealogy of Jesus in Matthew may well not be historically accurate, but the point is to establish the identity of Jesus. Five women, whose stories are somewhat scandalous, are included in the genealogy, and in her sermon Carol examines the story of each of those women. The writer of Matthew clearly points out the scandalous nature of each of those stories. In spite of those stories in which we can see human imperfections, we can also see Jesus as the Savior whose purity comes through all of those human imperfections, demonstrating that God can work through such imperfections, and also demonstrating that in spite of