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 26, 2021 | Conversations
As Jesus rode into Jerusalem for the last time, his disciples thronged around him, cheering him on. When religious leaders told him to calm his followers, Jesus told them that if the people were silent, the very rocks beneath their feet would cry out in their place. What about today? Are there times when we fall silent and leave it to the stones to speak out? Join us Sunday under the tent as we begin our journey through Holy Week.
– Pastor Anne
by Crawford UMC | Mar 19, 2021 | Conversations
In the spirit of “the first shall be last,” we finish up our Fruit of the Spirit series this Sunday with the first thing Paul lists. It also happens to be the one thing Jesus says is needed to inherit eternal life. I would love to have you join us this Sunday on Zoom!
– Pastor Anne
by Anne Robertson | Mar 12, 2021 | Conversations
In our series on the Fruit of the Spirit, we have two left: Joy and Love. This week we’ll examine joy and how it differs from happiness. I’ve thought about that distinction for a long time and, if you’ve ever read The Gift of Imperfection by Brené Brown, you’ll find that she quotes me on this issue. To return the favor, I’ll be using a video clip of her making the connection between joy and gratitude as the Call to Worship for our online service. Right now, we all want some happiness; but what we truly need is joy.
by Anne Robertson | Mar 4, 2021 | Conversations
They say that good things come to those who wait. But “they” also say, if you snooze, you lose. Well, which is it? As we continue to consider the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, this Sunday we will look at the fruit of patience and how it differs from waiting. What does patience give us that simple waiting does not? How do we cultivate actual patience in our lives? Join us Sunday!
by Anne Robertson | Feb 25, 2021 | Conversations
The particular fruit of the Spirit we’re looking at on Sunday is peace, which is a topic that could fill volumes. So I’ll be mixing it with another topic that is one of the linchpins for both inner peace and peace between warring factions of all kinds: forgiveness. Forgiveness is also a topic that could fill volumes, and this won’t be the last sermon on the topic.
But we’ll get started on Sunday by trying to understand what we are and are not doing when we forgive and by noticing that Jesus connects God’s forgiveness of us to our forgiveness of others in the Lord’s Prayer. I hope you’ll join us!
Pastor Anne
