Author: FUMCWP Admin

As we continue through our Stewardship Sermon series, we talked first about witness, then Sabbath and this past week about Money. I have heard and preached many sermons on giving of our money and I feel this was one of the best. I have had conversations with folks after Sunday’s sermon that have had good questions and faithful follow through about it. The scripture we unpacked together is Mark 10:17-27 when a wealthy man approaches Jesus to ask what he must do to inherit eternal life. Often in the church we focus on how the man went away and how he missed out. But what if he eventually figured it out, obeyed Jesus and returned to follow him? What if he did end up shifting his priorities, putting his trust in Jesus and becoming one of his first followers? We can never know what happened after this story, but the part of the Scripture that really stood out to me this time in studying it is when it says, “Jesus looked at him and loved him.”

When I think about how many times I have asked Jesus for the “right answer” on a problem I had to solve and he looked at me with love, I am overwhelmed. And the more I learn about the love God has for me and how God wants the best for me, I see how “my money” plays a role in that. It is because of Jesus’ love for me that I am invited to live free from being possessed by my possessions. Not that we have to give everything we own away but so we won’t be “owned” by things. We have freedom when we know that Jesus loves us enough to not let us be defined by material things. And as I studied this text again this week, I felt the love that Jesus had for the wealthy man wash over me too.

As I was talking with my Connect Group about this passage this week, what came up over and over again was the word TRUST. Do we trust that God will meet our needs? It could be that we have thought that the wealthy man in this Scripture went away from Jesus because he was greedy and didn’t want to give away all he had (which to be honest, I would struggle with too). But what if it wasn’t greed that stopped the wealthy man, what if it was FEAR? Apprehension and distress is the opposite of trust and if we aren’t careful, fear wins every time.

With that in mind, I want to ask you, does FEAR stop you from giving all you can? Fear that there won’t be enough. Fear that incoming medical bills will be more than you can handle. Fear because you are on a fixed income. Fear because your family or friends might need your financial help one day?

These are all fears and very real and honest truths for the world we live in today. The older I get and the more ‘adulting’ I do…I think this story is less about being greedy and more about naming the fear of not having enough. I believe that one of the reasons why talking about financial stewardship is so awkward for those in the church is because we have yet to address the fear of not having enough. We live in a culture that is always pushing us to buy more, invest more, spend more and I heard yesterday that the credit card debt in our country this quarter is at an all time high. The truth is trusting that we don’t need all of our wants and that God will be faithful in meeting our needs is so counter-cultural to our lives today.

But here is what I have learned:

Ryan and I have been giving over and above since we were married 14.5 years ago and since we have always given 10% or more of our salary back to the churches, ministries and non-profits that work to bring God’s Kingdom to earth, we have NEVER GONE WITHOUT. Yes, we have had to be diligent and money smart. We have had to budget and save and say no to a lot of things we wanted to say yes to, we have had to work side jobs, and shop around and buy clothes and shoes second hand, but we have never gone without. The point is, we don’t just blindly trust that God will meet our needs, no, as followers of Jesus we still have to be wise and steward our finances well, but when we give 10% or more to the churches we serve, we have such freedom in knowing that God has been, is now and ever will be faithful. We learned a long time ago that all we have is God’s anyways and we are only stewarding these gifts while we can in the time we have. And in this mindset, we have such freedom. We don’t always get it right, but we are clear about our financial priorities and how we have put God first not just because we are spiritual leaders, but because we refuse to let fear win. We commit to each other and to our church families that we will model trust in a God that gave his first and best for us.

I don’t know what you are struggling to trust in today, but it always helps me when I am afraid to sing a song. And so I want to end today’s devotion with the lyrics from the Hymn: God of the Ages.

God of the ages, by whose hand
Through years long past our lives were led,
Give use new courage now to stand,
New faith to find the paths ahead.

Thou art the thought beyond all thought,
The gift beyond our utmost prayer;
No farthest reach where thou art not,
No height but we may find thee there.

Forgive our wavering trust in thee,
Our wild alarms, our trembling fears;
In thy strong hand eternally
Rests the unfolding of the years.

Though there be dark, uncharted space,
With worlds on worlds beyond our sight,
Still may we trust thy love and grace
And wait thy word, Let there be light.
Amen.

Hymn written by Elisabeth Burrowes

On this Election week, I am writing to share a prayer and a hope for us, the people of First United Methodist Church of Winter Park. As I said on Sunday, I know there is anxiety and fear and I hope you feel this is a church and a faith community where you are safe and loved, just as you are. As we come together on Sunday, we know that some of us will be celebrating the election, and others will be upset and nervous. I invite us to commit to gather with tenderness and look at each other with the eyes of Jesus. I also want to invite you to come and pray with your brothers and sisters tonight, November 6^th in the Marcy Chapel for a Peace and Unity Prayer Vigil at 6:00pm. All are welcome!

One of the reasons I love our Wesleyan tradition is John Wesley’s words and advice on voting. By the time you read this on Wednesday, you will have already cast your vote either in person or through the mail. I hope your voting experience was positive and that you felt a sense of pride for the process and gratitude for the opportunity to let your voice be heard. Here in America, we really do have so much to be thankful for.

John Wesley, our founder was not afraid to “talk politics” to the early Methodists in England. In those days, there were more than 2 major parties to choose from for Parliament and he spoke to the leaders in the movement about how best to be guided. The story goes like this: In October 1774, John Wesley was preaching in some small English towns near Bristol, where a contentious election for Parliament was underway. The chief candidates differed in their political ideologies, their positions on the American colonies, and their support from religious groups. In the days leading up to the election, while in the town of Pill, he met with members of the local Methodist society, and offered this important guidance:

These are John Wesley’s words and I think they resonate with us today too.

October 6, 1774.

I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them (1) to vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy; (2) to speak no evil of the person they voted against; and (3) to take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.

Three important rules for voting and so grace-filled in its approach. And while your voting is over, I am willing to bet that your feelings about the election are not. And so I invite us as a body to think about and work to embody the last two rules well.

Can we try to speak no evil about the “other candidate”? I know it is hard…I have caught myself several times this week struggling to find tactful things to say about “the other.” And when all is said and done, and the yard signs come down and the dust has settled, can we do all we can to treat each other with tenderness and to believe the best in each other. The truth is, I don’t want to be in a church where everyone thinks alike; that would be boring. I want to be in a faith community where there is diversity of thought, but unity in Spirit. I want to be challenged to learn more and to rethink things I have always believed to be true. I want to grow and mature and plant deep roots when it comes to my faith. But I can’t do that, if my spirit is sharpened against those that voted on the other side. And so I will do all I can to remove my feelings of malice, anger, bitterness and distrust of “the other side” not because I don’t care about the election but because people matter more to me than politicians. Part of this restraint is out of respect for the belovedness in others and the other is to care for my own soul. When our spirit is sharpened towards others, there is a lack of peace and charity too. And so I choose, or continue to do my best to choose, the more excellent way; the way of Jesus.

Romans 12: 17-21 says:

¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. ¹⁸ If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹ Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. ²⁰ On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

I invite you to end with this prayer written in the Book of Worship:

Creator of us all,

you are the source of every blessing,
the judge of every nation
and the hope of earth and heaven:We call to mind the best that is within us:

That we live under God,
that we are indivisible,
that liberty and justice extend to all.

We acknowledge the sin that runs through our history as a nation:
The displacement of native peoples, racial injustice,
economic inequity, regional separation.

And we profess a deep and abiding gratitude
for the goodness of ordinary people who have made sacrifices,
who have sought opportunities,
who have journeyed to this land as immigrants
and strengthened its promise in successive generations,
who have found freedom on these shores,
and defended this freedom at tremendous cost.

Be with us in the days that are near.
Remind us that your ways are not our ways,
that your power and might transcend
the plans of every nation,
that you are not mocked.

Let those who follow your Son Jesus Christ be a peaceable people
in the midst of division.

Send your Spirit of peace, justice and freedom upon us,
break down the walls of political partisanship,
and make us one.

Give us wisdom to walk in your ways,
courage to speak in your name,
and humility to trust in your providence.

Amen.

Dear Friends,

We have come to the end of our Deeply Rooted sermon series together. We have studied what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and one that is Wesleyan. We split off into Connect Groups and Sunday School Classes and Bible studies and went deeper in the three points of Discipleship which are:

1. To Be with Jesus
2. To Be Like Jesus
3. And to Do as Jesus Did

I wanted to end our series with a devotion that summarized what we have learned and then end with Wesley’s Three General Rules. I have found these Three General Rules helpful as I navigate this complex world we live in as we try and live out our Wesleyan faith.

When we began the series in August, we shared that discipleship is more like apprenticeship because we are learning from the Master and we aren’t there yet. In order to learn this, we must spend time with the Master and abide in the vine if we are to bear fruit. In order to really have our lives transformed by Jesus, we have to adopt spiritual practices that go beyond the two hours of worship and study, once a week. As we abide in Christ, we become more like Jesus not in our own strength or grit, but because of the work of the Holy Spirit working through us. And it doesn’t happen alone; we need each other and we need the diversity of each other to challenge, grow and sustain our community of faith. The following week we studied how to become people that do as Jesus did when we are open to being used by the Holy Spirit to go out and share the Gospel. With the Gospel being Good News that brings great JOY, it is a message lived out in our attitudes, priorities and relationships. But speaking of relationships, sometimes it is really hard to be a person of faith when there is so much hatred and fear and division right now. Rev. Gary Mason from Northern Ireland shared about how to put the Kingdom of God first above Nationality, citizenship or political party, because as members of God’s Kingdom, we lead with this identity first and foremost.

As we moved on in our Deeply Rooted Sermon series, we talked next about how we are or how we are becoming Wesleyan disciples. We learned a lot about John Wesley and the early Methodists. We learned about their radical message, their fearless evangelism, their deep care and conviction for the poor, marginalized and immigrants. We learned how they loved God with their minds by teaching the poorest coal miners to read, how they loved God with their hearts by worshipping daily and participating in Communion as often as possible and how they went deep in their accountability in community by loving God with their souls.

Friends, we come from a rich history and we come from a community of faith that has been transforming lives from the very beginning of its movement. I heard this last week a quote from pastor and teacher, Tim Ward who came and spoke about Church Vitality to our Clergy here in the east Central District. He said, “We (Wesleyans) have a grace-filled theology that the world so desperately wants to hear and needs to know now more than ever.” And he is right. Now more than ever, we have a focus on God’s transforming grace and love for ALL people and the world needs to hear it, believe it and embody it in their transformed lives.

I want to end with John Wesley’s Three General Rules. Remember when Jesus was approached by the Pharisees and Sadducees asking what the Greatest Commandment was (Matthew 22:34-40)? Jesus summarized all of the Laws with this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.”  Said another way, we summarize what it means to be a Wesleyan Disciple with these three general rules, they seem simple, but they are not. They will transform the way you speak, the way you work, you spend your money, you spend your time and they are a litmus test for a Deeply Rooted faith.

1. Do No Harm
2. Do Good
3. Stay in Love with God

As you ponder these general rules and how they might be lived out in your life, I invite you to end your time with this Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition.

I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you, Praised for you or criticized for you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and service. And now, O wonderful and holy God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, you are mine, and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, Let it also be made in heaven.

AMEN

When was the last time you had a good laugh? I’m talking a deep belly laugh that is distracting and hard to muffle. The kind of laugh when your partner looks over at you and wonders if you are okay or has to pause the TV because you are giggling so loudly.

Over the last few weeks, I have laughed more. I just needed to. It began when our kids started watching AFV, America’s Funniest Videos together in the evening. Usually after dinner and bath there is this lull time that could really go either way. Either the kids could play and get all wound up again, or they could slow down, sit down and then comes those magic words that every parent loves to see…settle down. Our kids started watching a few of these episodes with my parents when Ryan and I were away in England and it has continued since we got back.

What I like most about it, is that for these 15 to 20 minutes, all five of us can sit together and laugh. Our kids are now old enough to comprehend, if only a little bit, what is happening on screen. Sure, there are dishes to clean and laundry to fold, but laughter and connection are happening instead and I am the first to tell you that I have to remind myself that this is good. You see, I often move toward the task, the list, the job and save the “fun” for after but lately, I have tried to change my thinking and begin to see the laughter as part of the work.

I don’t have to tell you that we are living in difficult times as we look at a nation divided in the final months of election season, a culture that has moved away from seeking out faith traditions and the busyness of all of our lives that cuts at the core of our family and relationships. And while all of that is true and I am sure you feel it too, we often can’t control what is happening around us, but we can control how we respond. And I encourage you to do two things:

1. Laugh
2. And Laugh in Community

I don’t know if Jesus laughed a lot, I picture that he did, however we don’t have a lot of Scriptural proof of that. But if the phrase “Do not fear!” is the command mentioned more than any other phrase in the Bible, I imagine that instead of fear there was laughter. Because following Jesus and being on this adventure with God is a joy, unexpected and challenging yes, but full of abundant joy. God often reminds me to take God seriously and take myself less seriously and when I do that, I laugh more. I look at life as a gift, not a do to list or a burden.

I want to leave you with a short paragraph from 1 Peter, a letter that I admit I haven’t spent much time studying. But I hope as you read it you can see how it says all that I have been feeling lately about letting Jesus bring you joy and laughing more because we are free to not take life so seriously. I hope it speaks a word to you this morning too that encourages you for the week ahead. And if I can encourage anything in your family, in your work, in your relationships…is to laugh more.

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:3-9

AMEN

Cheerio, my friends, as they say across the pond. I am practicing my greetings so I will be ready for my pilgrimage next week and I wanted to tell you a bit about it.

Two years ago, before we were even parents to three children, Ryan and I were asked to apply for the Wesley Study Tour, a pilgrimage in England that takes us around the country to study the sights and traditions of our faith. We applied for this and got choosen last year and we have been looking forward to this adventure ever since. Many years ago, the Florida entrepreneurs and philanthropists, Bernie and LaVonn Simpkins established a trust that would bless 10 people each year with a trip to England to learn more about our Wesleyan roots. The trip was set up for United Methodist pastors and their spouses to go, in fact, LaVonn, at the time, only agreed to using the money in this way if the spouses were included and I am so glad she time. I have learned that over 13 years of ministry and almost 14 years of marriage, that Ryan and I need each other’s support and investment to have a successful and fruitful ministry. And having this experience together will be such a gift!

On Monday, July 29^th, Ryan and I will be leaving our three tiny humans in the capable hands of our loving parents and heading to England with four other couples that are all in ministry in the United Methodist Church in Florida. The men are Ryan’s covenant brothers and the wives are awesome partners in their ministry! We will be traveling all over England but focusing our time in London, Oxford, Bristol and Epworth. We will see John and Charles Wesley’s home church, Christ College where John studied and Lincoln College where he held is Holy Club meetings in the 1720’s. Then we will head to Bristol where John’s famous brother Charles lived and sing many of the hymns he wrote along the way. We will finish the day with partaking in Holy Communion in New Room, which is the oldest Methodist building in the world. On Sunday, we will worship in London at the City Road Chapel and then take in the sights of London. The following week we will visit and make connections with other denominational leaders at the Central Methodists Hall and I am particularly excited to hear how Methodists are reaching new people, in new ways in the UK. On our final day, we will worship at St. Paul’s Cathedral and walk the streets of Aldersgate, where John Wesley had his conversion experience. All in all, 8 jammed packed days full of lots of walking, learning, worshipping and discovery.

I have been to England once before when my parents brought us here in High School when we were backpacking across Europe one summer, but I have not been back since being married or becoming a pastor, so I know this will hit me differently this time. I am looking forward to spending time with my husband and our ministry friends, having adult conversations without the constant, but adorable interrupting of little, inquisitive minds and seeing all of the sights I have mentioned above. But mostly, I am looking forward to reconnecting with my Wesleyan roots. I believe that the Wesleyan way of looking at Scripture, faith and holiness is exactly what the world needs right now and I look forward to bringing those lessons, sights and transformative moments back with me.

I know you will pray for me, for Ryan and for our children while we are away and I look forward to being back with you in worship on August 11^th. Stay tuned for more, but for now, Cheerio, my friends!

I don’t know about you, but my head has been spinning these last few days. I am trying to live in the moment of what is happening in our country and to try and bring light and levity to a heavy mood. At the same time, I am preparing myself for 10 days of pilgrimage in England where Ryan and I will see and experience first-hand the rich history of the Methodist denomination that we love and are called to serve. And lastly, I am deeply invested in this Ted Lasso sermon series and trying to faithfully bring to light what the Spirit has laid on my heart.

I say this not for pity but to reassure you that if you feel like you have a lot that you are trying to mentally order and make sense of, you are in good company.

As a pastor I tend to look at what is happening in our country with a particular lens. I see the anger, the sadness, the lack of trust and the complete absence of civility not as a place to point a finger in blame, but for the church to enter in. Where can we, as the church listen more than we speak, or think before we respond on social media, or prayerfully consider what we send out over email or work through our own anger and disappointment before we take it out on someone else? Where can the church bring unity despite our differences of opinions and passions? If ever our country needed the grace of Jesus and the manifestation of that through the church, that time is now! What would it look like to be men and women ready to enter into the conflict and bring peace, rather than avoidance or ignorance?

I think that is one of the reasons I loved the Ted Lasso sermon series. I will share more on Sunday, but one thing I don’t mention in my sermons is just how vulnerable Ted was as a leader and how open he was to learning new things. The fact that he came as a professional football coach to lead a sport he really knew very little about speaks to his willingness to engage in the PROGMESS. Yes, you read that right, Prog-mess, instead of progress because we know that as Wesleyans, going onto perfection or progressing towards acting more like Jesus means that we have to deal with the mess. I have said it before and I will say it again, some days I am a hot mess, and I am going to bet that you have days like that too. There is mess in all of us, there mess in our church, there mess in our relationships and there mess in our culture. It doesn’t mean we will fix it (not that we are even the ones doing the fixing) and it doesn’t mean that it won’t be uncomfortable. But will we choose to enter into it and give it a try.

I think one of the reasons I love being a Wesleyan most of all is how John Wesley quickly realized that Jesus loved the messy people and wasn’t afraid to enter into it. John Wesley could have enjoyed a relatively comfortable life as an Anglican priest in a clean and conventional parish, but he took the message of God’s love in Jesus Christ out into the fields and the coal mines and the streets and the mess and because of that choice, we are here today. I invite you reflect this week on how you, as a representative of God’s abundant grace, are called to enter the mess and not add to it. How can we be people of Prog-MESS?

May God add God’s blessing to the hearing and consuming of these words.

AMEN