This year’s Vacation Bible School (VBS) has been scheduled for Monday-Friday, July 9-13, from 9 am to 12 noon.

This coming Sunday, I’ll preach the third in our six part sermon series: “Six Practices of Fruitful Living.” The book study on Five Practices of Fruitful Living  by Robert Schnase (on which the sermon series is loosely based) will begin on the first Thursday during Lent, February 23, 2012, at 6:30 pm. Books are available in the main lobby (the cost to the church was a little over $12) and we hope to see you there.

Both of us have found this book to be an excellent overview of the Christian life. Our only hesitation in recommending it is that it will be the third book in a row that has talked about financial stewardship (the fifth practice is “Extravagant Generosity). Our hesitation is not for the topic, or the way the book addresses the topic (Schnase does so very well), but rather simply that this is the third book study in a row that has talked about it.

A Service of Death and Resurrection for Virginia Noble will be held Saturday, February 04, 2012 at 10:00 am at the Penwell-Gabel Chapel. Interment will follow at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Independence.

This coming Sunday is the first Sunday of the month, Food Pantry/Good Samaritan Sunday, when we collect food stuffs for the pantry and money for the Good Samaritan Fund. Items needed for the food pantry are: green beans, corn, fruit, soup, pork and beans, tuna, jello, rice, dry beans, peanut butter, crackers, cereal, macaroni and cheese. Other food items will be put to good use filling up the remainder of a sack. We’ve been using paper sacks from Braum’s so if you have any extras to donate they would be much appreciated. Donations of personal care items are always helpful.

It isn’t often that a Christian gets to follow the guidance of the parable so literally, but Emanuel Cleaver recently got the chance. His name grabbed me from the headline because he is a United Methodist pastor and a well-known graduate of Saint Paul School of Theology where Jenny and I studied.

Part of our sinful condition is that we are often alienated from one another. Our relationships are fragile and easily ruptured. Once broken, our relationships are not easily repaired, but Christ calls us to seek reconciliation. Responding to that call means taking a risk.

It’s risky because it hurts to extend a hand in reconciliation and have it slapped away, but Christ calls us to a ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5.18*). And Christ, the open hand of God extended to all the human race, was himself “despised and rejected” (Isaiah 53.3). Yet again and again, even unto this very day, through the Holy Spirit, God reaches out to humanity offering forgiveness and extending an offer of reconciliation. Sometimes it is accepted, often it is rejected (sometimes even by those of us who have previously committed ourselves to accepting it), but, undaunted, God never ceases reaching out.

We are called to make God’s unrelenting love our example and guide; and to trust that God’s love is sufficient to pick us up when we get slapped down.

*All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. (NRSV)

Yesterday I preached the sermon”Loving God Back: The Practice of Passionate Worship.” The texts were Exodus 3.7-12, 8.1; Hebrews 10.19-25; and Luke 10.25-28. It was the second in our six part sermon series titled “Six Practices of Fruitful Living” which is based, somewhat loosely, on Five Practices of Fruitful Living by Robert Schnase. We’ve made enough changes that he may or may not want to be associated with it.I was happier with the way this sermon came off in the 10:50 service, but during that service, our recording equipment was locked in my office. So I’ve recorded a podcast version.

You can listen online at: coffeyvillefirstumc.org/podcasts

“I am fascinated with the creation stories.  … I may have also mentioned that I have both a very high regard for scripture and I value science as a tool for understanding how God’s other testimony – creation – works. Which right there creates a conflict which many people think they can make go away by picking the side that makes sense to them and hanging out there. But I always figured that if God made the world (which I believe he did) and scripture is true (which I believe it is – in all sorts of surprising ways) and science was saying something different, God had an answer.  …  Two true things cannot contradict one another. If they are in conflict, it doesn’t mean one is right and the other is wrong. It means we don’t understand them well enough yet.”

— Rebecca Trotter

I whole heartily endorse everything I’ve reprinted above and I agree with most of the rest of what she wrote for that post. You can read it in it’s entirety here.

Hat Tip: I was introduced to Rebecca Trotter by Mary Kai and as I read this article I was struck by how similar are the methods by which both women organize their thoughts.

I’m thankful for the recent unanimous supreme court ruling, but I agree with the statement: “However, the ruling also puts more responsibility on The United Methodist Church to prevent discrimination and do justice in its hiring practices, say denominational leaders.” In my mind it’s analogous to the way I think about the Americans with Disabilities Act: as a church we’re not bound by it, but it is still an excellent source for guidelines on how to make our building accessible to all people.

After a lot of failed attempts, I finally managed to contact Virginia Noble. she was in fine spirits and thankful for our prayers. I’m  thankful that I was finally able to get ahold of her and I’m also thankful to Louise Click who brought me her mailing address. We’ll print it in the Announcement Insert this Sunday.