Reconciled

Read Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

“I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands. So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.” Luke 15:19-20

The Prodigal Son, selfish and immature, heads out on his own to a life that he thinks is the good life, but before long he realizes that he has made a huge mistake and ventures home to ask for forgiveness.  This is a familiar story that speaks of God’s love working through loving parents in a remarkable love indeed.  With this sort of love there is nothing that can separate a father from a son.

The same is true for God and God’s relationship with us. Romans chapter 8 says clearly, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?…For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.”

This is a story about each person who has ever lived or ever will live on this earth.  Each is reconciled with God, because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. We may have days when we do not feel God’s presence, but God is there.  We may have days when we feel that we are worthless, but are still precious children of God.  We may feel that we have done something that could never be forgiven, but there is nothing that could separate us from God. God forgives us when we turn our hearts toward God.

The season of Lent is a good time to ask ourselves. Do I ever feel separated from the love of God?  Am I wandering into areas of darkness?  How can I experience more of the love of God in my life?

Rev. Brenda Adkins

Prayer: God, forgive me for wandering astray thinking that I have all the answers and I know better than you.  Help me to humble myself when I am mistaken.  When I feel separated from you, when I am wondering in areas of darkness, when I need your tender love and care, help me to run to you!  Amen.

Servanthood or Servitude?

Read Matthew 20:17-28

“Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave.  For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.”  Matthew 20:26b-28

Do you ever feel pushed around by others or by circumstances?  Do you ever feel like a servant, a slave, doing what has to be done but never what you want to do?  Mothers, do you feed the children and get them off to school because you must?  Dads, do you go to work because your family has bills to pay? Nurses, do you take care of others because it is your job? Are you being manipulated by others or by circumstances? Do you begrudge the time given to others or to activities that do not directly benefit you?  In other words, are you in a state of servitude?

Or, do you do these things because you want to? Do you perform services for those around you, or for those whom you do not even know, because your ability to perform these services is a gift from God?  If so, you are in a state of servanthood.

Servanthood comes to each of us in a personal way. The “leaders” referred to in today’s scripture will lead by example – showing love, care, and concern through actions – using the gifts God has given them – because they want to.  Our pastors are a prime example, leading their congregations not only through Sunday sermons but also leading by being “there” for others in times of sorrow and pain.  The daughter who tends to the daily needs of a failing parent; the husband who gently cares for his ailing wife; the teacher who stays late to help a struggling student – all are using their God-given gifts and are practicing servanthood.

Len Fillmore

Prayer: Loving God, Giver of Gifts and Champion of Servanthood, help us, your servants,  to use, cheerfully and with love, those gifts you have given us so that we may lead others to you.  Amen.

Irrevocable Love

Read Luke 6:36-38

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’  Luke 6:36-38: NRSV

In Luke, we are asked to do many loving things…have mercy, refrain from judgment, forgive when we are wronged, be generous of heart.  To believe that we will be punished by God if we don’t follow this teaching, or that we will be treated in a like way on Earth just because we do, is to miss the greater truth.  I think the meaning of the verses is much more personal, but to follow this admonition, we must first believe in the truth of God’s complete and irrevocable love.

Judgment, lack of mercy, condemnation, an unforgiving stance, and a lack of generosity stem from a belief that we ourselves are not enough.  When we find it too difficult to really believe that we are fully and completely loved and accepted, we often try to rid ourselves of that withering feeling by passing it on to those around us.  It is too painful for us to hold, like a hot potato.  We feel judged; and so we get rid of the feeling by  judging someone else. We feel unforgiven; so we choose to not forgive. Judgment is not so much an objective discernment of another’s being, choices, or performances as it is a feeling response to our own inner pain.

I think we are born knowing, that we are perfectly loved.  We begin to forget that when we come into contact with the conditional message we are loved only if we behave in a certain way, if we agree with the other, if we excel, if we do not offend.  We must then remind ourselves that the spirit that enlivens us is the same holy spirit that is part of the One who created us, in Its own image.

Then we can understand that when we truly accept that love, when we love ourselves in that way, we have a desire to share it with others.  Then we feel connected to each other in a powerful way that leaves us feeling that our own life is filled to overflowing with goodness.  When our own heart, our inner self, is filled with the calm sense of acceptance, we need no other gift. Just sit with Jesus’ accepting spirit for awhile, and feel your need to judge fade away; feel your heart fill up with mercy.

Laurie Locke

Prayer: Accepting and loving God: When we feel the need to withhold our love and acceptance from others, whisper in our ears that we are enough, and that we need not compete for your love.  It is limitless.  Amen.

Handprints & Heartprints

Read Matthew 5:43-48

Hanging on the wall of our new education office is a colorful poster of children’s handprints entitled DIVERSITY. The caption says, “Every child instinctively knows what many adults have long since forgotten: our differences are not something to be tolerated, they are something to be celebrated.”

Today we seem to be living in a culture in which diversity of beliefs in our political, social and religious institutions are not celebrated or at times even tolerated.  I believe that the constant media barrage with its often polarizing messages contributes to this climate of intolerance.   There seems to be a tendency for more and more people to seek to surround themselves with like-minded people and media that support their worldview.  Unfortunately this trend lessens the opportunity to know and be in constructive dialogue with those who think differently and contributes to the possibility of viewing those with differing views very negatively.

Jesus gives us very clear guidance about relating those persons that we call neighbor and those we call enemy.

The children who placed their handprints on the poster in our office knew that they had to open their hands to make the handprints; they could not make them with closed fists.  As adults we can learn to make heartprints by opening our hearts to Jesus’ message of love for all and by responding with joy as we celebrate our differences. Heartprints cannot be made with closed hearts.

Dotty Hooker

Prayer: Gracious and Loving God, thank you for the extravagant love that you give to each one of us. Help us learn to respond to your love by opening our hearts and loving those with whom we differ.  Amen.

Open Doors

Read Matthew 7:7-12

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you…”  Matthew 7:12 NRSV

My wife and I are engaged in the journey of raising two kids.  In so doing, we’ve noticed that our children often serve as miniature “mirrors of humility”, pointing out when we don’t practice what we’ve preached.  Our own renditions of the Golden Rule have been applied to such topics as sharing, taking turns, hitting and the like.

Not long ago we were discussing the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) in our Sunday school class.  In reading through the Prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, something caught my eye about verse 12 (“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”).  In my Bible, this verse is on the same vertical position of the page as the Golden Rule presented in Matthew 7:12.  The give-and-take premise is pretty obvious with each of these verses.  So, is it by coincidence that these two verses would be exactly one chapter apart?  Perhaps, but in many ways, isn’t our ability to love our neighbor as our self dependent upon our capacity for forgiveness?

More often than I care to admit, the very things I get upset with my kids about are rooted in my own shortcomings.  Accepting God’s forgiveness and realizing that His love is offered in spite of my imperfections inspires me to, likewise, offer that grace to others.  It’s when we can forgive ourselves and others that we truly begin to experience God’s grace, which empowers and transforms our ability to love our neighbor as our self.

Michael Mays

Thought for the day: If forgiveness is a door, then forgiving and being forgiven are its two sides.  Open doors.

Daily Bread

READ Matthew 6:7-15

“Give us this day our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11 NRSV

The New Living Translation reads this way: “Give us the food we need today.” In November, I helped the Texas Methodist Foundation and the Fishes and Loaves Ministry in Austin. After making what seemed like hundreds of sandwiches, we loaded up the truck and headed out even though it was chilly, rain was forecast and it had been raining off and on all day.

At each stop, the homeless, mostly men, came up to get a sandwich, piece of fruit, and a small bag of cookies. Fishes and Loaves also offered a pair of clean socks, but placed no limits on sandwiches. Also available were t-shirts and sweatshirts while the supplies lasted. Even though these men didn’t know when or where their next meal would come from, they asked for one or two sandwiches—usually one meat and one peanut butter. They asked for only what they needed for the day, just as the Lord’s Prayer says we should do. Damp and chilled by the rain on the outside, my heart was warmed by the faith of these men.

When I see material excesses in many ways of the holiday season and observe the hoarding of food when we get a simple cold snap in the weather, I think of the homeless and the faith that they must have to live day to day. In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus goes on to say that we shouldn’t worry about anything, really. In my own life, after looking for two years unsuccessfully for employment with a college-bound daughter and with retirement looming, I sometimes get anxious about the future as well as the present. When I do, I remember Jesus’ promises in Matthew and the prayer that he taught us to pray, and am reassured that he will give me what I need.

Cindy Weigand

Season of Lent Approaches

This year we will observe Ash Wednesday on February 17th. First UMC along with the other Methodist Churches of Georgetown: St. John’s, St. Paul and Wellspring will hold a service of worship including the imposition of ashes at 7:00 PM in our Sanctuary. Music will be provided by the combined church choirs.

The imposition of ashes on the foreheads of Christians is an ancient Christian practice, going back at least to the 10th century when it became a general rite of the church. Biblically, ashes are a symbols of purification and remind us that we are mortal.

The season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, it is a forty day observance (excluding Sundays) which calls for prayer, fasting, and repentance. During Lent we are asked to experience an awareness of our sins and the promise of forgiveness. Thoughout the forty days of Lent, we turn our attention to God, to the good news of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.

A Lenten Devotional that was authored by members of the church will be published later this month. The daily devotionals will be available both by print and as daily posts on this site beginning on Ash Wednesday. We hope these devotionals will provide poignant and thoughtful resources to your daily meditations in this season of preparation.