by Crawford UMC | Apr 16, 2021 | Music Meditations
Pastor Anne’s April 18 sermon, loosely, addresses the apparent paradox of evil existing in an existence governed by a God who is Love. I have wrestled with this myself for my entire life, as I am sure many before and many after me shall.
I am left with the reality that I cannot control, or really begin to prevent, evil and suffering in the world. All I have and can control is my reasoned response to evil and suffering. I think of the work that God has given us to do, day by day.
In the 8th movement of Kyle Smith’s masterpiece, The Arc in the Sky, the narrator encounters a group of fishermen:
I would stand and watch them
as they sat at their work.
“what are you doing?” i’d say.
“we’re mending our nets,” they’d say.
“mending?”
“yes. mending our nets.”
“why must you mend them?”
“they’re torn. they’ve been broken into.
the night-fish have leapt through them
in the sea. every night they break them;
and every day, we mend.”
The night of suffering will continue to fall. Every day, we mend.
This week’s Musical Meditation was performed by The Crossing under the direction of Donald Nally.
– Logan Henke, Music Minister
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by Crawford UMC | Apr 9, 2021 | Conversations
by Lauren Gilstrap Milley
Christians spend a lot of time at Easter focusing on Jesus rising from dead. While that’s important, it tends to overshadow the first part of the story. Jesus was – executed. Executed as a criminal. Why? Well, that’s the part of Easter that I think far too many of us “good church going Christians” conveniently overlook. Ironically, it’s exactly the part of Easter that makes it a story for absolutely everyone.
If Jesus had just been some nice guy walking around telling people to love their neighbor and turn the other cheek, would the Romans have really cared? Probably not. Instead, he was executed by the state because his message was much more dangerous.
His message was that things don’t have to be this way. There is a better way and it’s all of our responsibility to make it better. His message wasn’t about how to live in a racist world – his message was how to stand against racism and forge a new world without it. His message wasn’t just about how to forgive unfair police brutality – his message was stand with the persecuted, overturn the tables and rebuild a better system, one that’s fair for everyone. Jesus wasn’t a pacifist. Pacifists don’t get executed by the state.
So what makes Easter everyone’s story? Easter is the story of God (however you define that) saying “yes” to Jesus’ message of compassion and justice and “no” to the greedy, self-serving powers of the status quo.
Whether you believe in a bodily resurrection or not, because of Easter, Jesus’s message of a better, more fair, more just world has outlived the Empire that killed him by centuries. Because of Easter, we all should stand with those society marginalizes, speak up for the voiceless, put our pocketbooks and our pride on the line for what we know to be right.
The social expression of love is justice. That is what Jesus taught and that is what he gave his life for. Easter is God saying “no matter what they do to you, I got your back, keep going, keep fighting – light will always outshine the darkness.” And that makes it a story for everyone – everyone and anyone who wants to make the world better.
Happy Easter, Happy Spring and here’s to keeping the faith, fighting the good fight, getting in good, necessary trouble and leaving this world just a little better than we found it.
by Crawford UMC | Apr 9, 2021 | Music Meditations
As spring beckons us outdoors and we finally enjoy the fruits of fellowship before the Doric columns and doors of the church, my mind is drawn to the words of the 133rd Psalm.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
Arvo Pärt’s setting in Russian (despite the title in Latin) is bright and open, leaving space to breathe. The music beckons the sun to warmly shine through like the first light that illumines the spring dew of which the Psalm speaks.
It is like the precious ointment…as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forever more.
This week’s Musical Meditation was performed by Vox Clamantis.
– Logan Henke, Music Minister
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by Crawford UMC | Apr 2, 2021 | Conversations
A Holy Week Reflection by Brian Rogers
Passion Week! Many emotions this week…the lowest of lows at the crucifixion, the highest of highs with Jesus overcoming death. What strikes me as an overriding theme of Passion Week is humility: the humility of Jesus, first to take on human life, and then, with humility, to wash his apostles’ feet, to go through the passion for all of us. Anne spoke eloquently about the nine Fruits of the Spirit. I believe that humility is the gateway, not only to forgive as Jesus did on the cross, but also to every one of the nine Fruits.
Humility opens the door to those Fruits so that they flourish in our lives. The Fruits wither on the vines without humility. It seems that humility is difficult to attain, retain and sustain in our society that values achievement, status and material monuments to self. Focusing on other people with needs greater than ours takes humility. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control: without humility, can we ever truly have any of these fruits? We are made in the image of God and I’m not more in God’s image than the homeless person or those of different ethnicity, religions, sexual orientation or social status. The height of humility is Jesus dying on the cross…Passion Week for us.
C.S. Lewis notes “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”
Philippians 2:5-8: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Prayer for Humility
Let me have too deep a sense of humor to be proud.
Let me know my absurdity before I act absurdly.
Let me realize that when I am humble I am most human,
most truthful, and most worthy of your serious consideration.
– Daniel A. Lord, SJ
by Crawford UMC | Mar 30, 2021 | News
Our current Adult Study will introduce a new book, and be held on a new day and time. Starting Friday, April 9, at 6:00 p.m., Herby Duverne will lead us through Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility.
Overview, schedule and Zoom link on our Adult Study page.
