For returning students who are new to Wesley, we’d also love to greet you and welcome you to Wesley in the fall.  Please let us know who you are by clicking below.

Please take a moment to click here and fill out the form so we can get ready for you.

Here is what’s going on at Wesley this week! The Foundation will be open as usual from 9am-midnight through the end of the week, and everyone is welcome to use the building for studying, hanging out, etc. If you need a study break at a time when one isn’t scheduled, come by and I’m sure you’ll find someone else who wants to take a break with you! Good luck!  This is the last weekly email for the semester, but let me know if you’re going to be here for the summer and want to be on our summer listserv!
Sunday, May 6

11:00am – Worship at Wesley Memorial UMC

4:59pm – Informal worship at the Foundation (*the last one of the semester)

Monday, May 7

6:57pm – Beach Volleyball with Patrick and Annie: Meet at WF to head over to the sand volleyball courts for an evening game of beach volleyball

Tuesday, May 8

2-4pm - Deborah’s weekly drop-in office hours.  Just email her to meet at another time.

6:09pm – P^9: The classic study break that exponentially grows! Meet at WF for a dinner filled with Pancakes, Prayer, Pork, Potatoes, Popsicles, Pajamas, Peaches, Pears, and… Pineapple!

Wednesday, May 9

3:13pm – Wesley Disney Series: Meet at WF to witness Wesley completing the quest to watch every Disney movie! Princess and the Frog will be showing in the Game Room at the Foundation.
Thursday, May 10

5:59pm – Free dinner, no Forum this week.

Friday, May 11

12:11pm – Lunch with Lauren: Lauren H., a 3^rd year Wesleyan, has agreed to spearhead a fun lunch gathering for students that will be in town until the very end! Meet at Wesley; lunch location TBA—decided by YOU!

Upcoming events:

Saturday, May 19 at 7:30pm – Baccalaureate service in honor of graduating students, all are welcome! In the Wesley Memorial sanctuary.
Let me know if you have any questions!

Emily Gorman (efg2bj)

Wesley Foundation President

1 John 4: 7-21

If I were preaching to a different crowd, I might focus on how God’s self-giving love in Christ is how we know what love is.  If I were preaching to another crowd, I might direct your attention to the strong and simple statement in verse 16, “God is love.”  If this were another group on another night, I might stay with the fact that God’s love propels and enables us to love other people.

I might end up saying some of those things tonight.  They are pretty basic to the Christian faith and certainly worth being reminded of from time to time.  They keep us focused and headed in the direction of our call.  They remind us that God doesn’t “reward” us for love –as if we invented it ourselves – but instead forms us into the kind of people who are able to know and express love.  Love is not our achievement but our response to having been loved by God in the first place.

But since I’m here with you on this last night of worship for this academic year…since I’m here with you who live and breathe Wesley…since I see evidence every single day that attests to the fact that you get where love comes from and what we’re supposed to do about it, I want to focus instead on something the writer of 1 John might not have been intending.  I think it’s in the text, congruent with the meaning of the text, and utterly like the God of love we’re talking about, but you can let me know if you think I missed the point.

“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them” (v. 16).  What if that means exactly what it says?  God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. In other words, since God is love, then anyone who abides in love also abides in God and God, of course, abides in them.

Maybe you see where I’m going with this.  Maybe you see and you’re thinking, Whoa there, Deborah!  People call lots of things “love” that aren’t really love.  People get confused all the time about what love is in a given relationship or situation.

If that’s what you are thinking, you’d be right.  We are often horribly misguided about love.  George Hughley probably claimed to love Yeardley Love but his actions didn’t bear out that claim.  Just because someone says they love doesn’t make it true.

But we have the ultimate barometer of love in Christ.  We know exactly what it looks like to walk around on this earth with real, annoying, fallible people and to try to love them.  We know because we have seen how Jesus did it.  Sometimes love looks like “tough love,” throwing tables and money around and reprimanding others when we are woefully off course.  Sometimes it looks like telling a seeker he has to do the one thing he doesn’t want to do – sell everything he has – and then letting him walk away without seeming to get what he came for.  Sometimes it looks like telling someone the straight truth about who he is and how badly he messes up and will mess up again and then, when the cock crows, forgiving him and loving him more.  Sometimes love looks like a feast you weren’t prepared to offer, with a starving crowd miraculously fed and food left over.  Sometimes it looks like tenderness and touch and receiving the gifts someone else has to offer, allowing someone to anoint and caress his feet and to wipe them with her hair.  Sometimes love is expressed in grief and remorse, as when Jesus arrived late to the tomb that held Lazarus.  Sometimes love looks like a dying blessing, providing for strangers and orphans to be one another’s new family…(Matthew 21: 12-17; Mark 10: 17-22; Matthew 26: 31ff; Luke 9 : 10-17; John 12: 1-8; John 11; John 19: 25-27).

We’ve seen many, many witnesses to Love.  Love divine, all loves excelling! (Charles Wesley, UMH #384).  When we get confused about it we have these old, old stories to set us straight and remind us of the facets and surprises and guises love takes.

Love is vast and specific, forceful and tender, surprising and constant.  And, I want to suggest, it doesn’t belong to us, to Christians.  God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Since God is love, then anyone who abides in loves also abides in God and God, of course, abides in them.  Anyone.  Anyone who loves.

Maybe you see where I’m headed now and you’re thinking now, Whoa again!  “Anyone”??!  I thought this was about Christians. One of the great things about the Bible is that it is absolutely for us. Though any given passage or book was written millennia ago for very different people in very different circumstances, it is the living Word of God for us, too.  So while it’s true that you can’t just make any part mean anything you want it to mean, it is also true that it rarely only means one, static thing.  As I mentioned earlier, I’m pretty sure the writer of 1 John was thinking about and writing to Christians.  But I think there is more truth in these words than that.

If God is Love and God loves all of creation and if we are enabled and empowered to love because of God’s prevenient love, then I don’t think we’re the only ones.  There are so many ways we abide in and witness to that love and, as Christians, we have the ultimate example in Christ of how this looks.  But if we Christians let the Word come alive and live in us, then I think we have to admit that we are not the only ones.  We are not the only ones God loves.  We have demonstrated that we have an uncanny knack for screwing up and getting it wrong and for sometimes calling something “love” that is not love.  And, if all this is true, then what are we missing out on when we ignore the love abiding “out there”?

I’m not telling you to go looking for Love in all the wrong places or to try making love out of nothing at all.  I’m not saying the church is all out of love, so you have to find it someplace else (“Lookin’ for Love” by Wanda Mallette, Bob Morrison, and Patti Ryan; “Making Love at of Nothing At All” and “All Out of Love” by Air Supply).  I’m saying that we could spend our whole lives hot on the trail of love and never come to the end of it.  So why stop at the church doors?  Why would you want to miss out on more God by deciding you already have enough?  Why would you want to miss out on the opportunity to love the people God loves?

I surprised myself by watching way more General Conference live streaming than I thought I would these past couple of weeks.  Thursday I was so hopeful that our church would change the Discipline to be more honest in reflecting where we are as a church on issues of sexuality, specifically LGBT sexuality.  We had the opportunity to say more explicitly that we are deeply divided as a church and that there is a lot of pain on both sides about this situation (http://www.gc2012conversations.com/2012/05/03/hamiltonslaughter-substitution-related-to-ci-513/).  The proposal didn’t concede much ground to either side but it seemed to open up the windows to let more air in, to maybe start a more genuine conversation.  But we didn’t do it.  We didn’t change anything – including any minds or hearts.

Sometimes the way forward is not clear.

What is abundantly clear to me is that I know more about Love, more about God, more about how and who God loves because of my relationships with people in the LGBT community.  My life and faith have been strengthened by finding God in these people – both within and outside of the church.  I’m happy to talk more with any one of you about this, but my point here is that we are called to be hot on the trail of God, wherever we find that God-Love.  So pay attention.  In church and in all the other places you go.

We’ll be leaving Wesley this week but, believe me, God is out there.  If God is love and Christians don’t have a monopoly on God-Love, then how much bigger is God?  What could we learn from observing and participating in loving relationships with non-Christian or non-church people, in non-church settings or groups?  What could we learn about and experience and see and how could we feel God differently if we hung out in the other places God abides?  What if we approached life like detectives or Jane Goodall-style anthropologists (lovologists!)?  Notebooks in hand, binoculars up.  What if we said to ourselves, Wherever I find love, I’m going to pause and make some notes about how God is showing up in that place and that person?  Visiting the prison, buying groceries, sitting in class, going out on Friday night, working at the pool this summer, visiting at a family reunion, riding the Metro to the National Mall on July 4^th…What if we went to some places we tend to think are off-limits to us, or to love?  The Republican National Convention, the Democratic National Convention, the library summer book club group, an AA meeting, a QSU meeting, Rugby Road?  Wherever it is you are certain God isn’t abiding – when’s the last time you took a good, long, loving look?

Thanks be to God!

©2012 Deborah E. Lewis

Here is what’s going on at Wesley this week! The Foundation will be open as usual from 9am-midnight all throughout finals, and everyone is welcome to use the building for studying, hanging out, etc. If you need a study break at a time when one isn’t scheduled, come by and I’m sure you’ll find someone else who wants to take a break with you! Good luck!
Sunday, April 29

11:00am – Worship at Wesley Memorial UMC

5:00pm – Informal worship at the Foundation

Monday, April 30

1-3pm Deborah’s weekly drop-in office hours.  Just email her if you’d like to meet at another time.

11-2ish — Lunch at the Pav (Part I) –Meet in back room of Pavilion XI on the lower level of Newcomb. If you can’t make it at 12, that’s fine! Lunch will continue as long as people are there, so you can still come at 1 pm if you have class!

7:00pm—Women’s small group 1-Meet in the living room.

8:15pm—Methodists with Muscles—Meet in the game room for a devotional followed by a sport. Wear athletic gear and bring your student ID.

Tuesday, May 1

11:00-2ish — Lunch at the Pav (Part II) –Meet in back room of Pavilion XI on the lower level of Newcomb.

6:00pm—Grad Roast – Come watch our undergraduates say farewell to our graduating class by putting on a skit highlighting the grads’ finest moments at Wesley. Free dinner from Sticks Kabob Place provided!

Wednesday, May 2

Deborah out of the office for sermon prep and study.

9:00am – Residential Community meeting

9:01am – Care Package Delivery: Meet at the Wesley Foundation (WF) to head out to dorms to deliver care packages to students as exams approach.

3:12pm – Prayer Partner Event: Meet at WF for a delicious study break! Snacks and games and friends; no prayer partner required!

8:00pm—Women’s small group 3-Meet in the living room.
Thursday, May 3

6:01pm – Free dinner, no Forum this week.

Friday, May 4

8:08pm – Cottage Study Break: Movie and games at the Cottage (adjacent to the WF)

Saturday, May 5

1:01pm – Wesley Disney Series: Meet at WF to watch Lilo & Stitch

Sunday, May 6

11:00am – Worship at Wesley Memorial UMC

4:59pm – Informal worship at the Foundation (*Last one of the semester)

Upcoming events:

More study breaks! Woohoo!

Saturday, May 19 at 7:30pm – Baccalaureate service in honor of graduating students, all are welcome!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Emily Gorman (efg2bj)

Wesley Foundation President

John 10: 11-18

If you’ve been following the news in the past week about “the 13 most useless college majors,” then you are probably thinking that I’m a bit peeved because both English (#7) and Religious Studies (#6) are on the list.  You probably aren’t surprised they are on the list; neither am I.  I’m not even all that surprised that such a list exists.  Annoyed, disheartened, and fed-up – those are better descriptions of my reaction.

The first thing you have to ask yourself about a list like this is, “What’s ‘useless’?”  Useless how?  And this should lead to other questions:  What is the point of a college education?  How do we determine when we got what we came for?  Is it a degree?  A certain job?  A certain paycheck?  The ability to balance our bank accounts?  The know-how to navigate an interview?  The wisdom and humility to interact with people you don’t understand?  Meeting and falling in love with someone?  Or something else?  There may or may not be value in lists like this, but in order to determine that, you need to define your terms and assumptions and make sure you are on the same page, the same list, to begin with.

As some of you noticed, I posted the link to the list on my Facebook page and invited people to help me think about this.  (If you aren’t already my Facebook friend, please become one!)  A friend of mine from seminary commented that back in the 1950s when her dad was an English major, and people asked him, “What are you going to be?” he would reply, “Educated.”  I love that.  Of course I do.  Of course I want to say, “Let’s hear it for the English majors!”  But that’s not why I love it.  I would love this answer just as much if he had been an archeology, anthropology, biology, history, or e-school major.  I love it for its idea of education as a means and an end unto itself.  (Which seems pretty Jeffersonian to me, by the way.)  What do you want to be? I would love it if he’d given any of these answers, too: inspired, well-rounded, interested in and curious about the world and human behavior, content, called.

I’m going to tell you what the list says.  I hope you don’t find yourself praying, as Annie Thompson did when she scanned it online, “Please don’t let my major be on there.”  We haven’t defined “useless” yet so try not to put too much stock into this.  Here goes:  (http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2012/04/23/the-13-most-useless-majors-from-philosophy-to-journalism.html#slide1)

1.       Fine Arts

2.      Drama and Theater Arts

3.      Film, Video, and Photographic Arts

4.      Commercial Art and Graphic Design

5.      Architecture

6.      Philosophy and Religious Studies

7.      English Literature and Language

8.      Journalism

9.      Anthropology and Archeology

10.  Hospitality Management

11.  Music

12.  History

13.  Political Science and Government

You can probably tell without further information just how these folks are defining “useless.”  But for the record, they started with about 3 dozen of the most popular majors and looked at four factors for each of them: employment for recent grads, employment for more experienced grads, earnings for each of those groups, and projected growth in the total number of jobs from 2010-2020.  So their focus in obviously on the ease of attaining a job at a certain salary level “in your field.”  I’ll come back to the money but let me note that for each major they list the job or jobs supposedly “in that field.”  For architecture it’s “architect.”  That’s it.  Nothing in design or architecture-related fields and no mention of that fact that an undergraduate degree in architecture is usually followed by a graduate degree in order to practice in that field.  Apparently needing to/getting to go on to further study is useless.  For English majors the job they list is “writer and author.”  Fantastic!  But since most writers and authors work other jobs for many, many years while writing novels or biographies on their own time as they improve and become published, this makes most writers who aren’t John Grisham “useless.”  It also leaves out the fact that there are other things to do with an English major and many other ways to use writing even when you don’t write “author” on your resume – how about crafting a resume or a cover letter or website content for your employer or church?

This silly list is clearly focused on a narrow definition of how to “use” one’s major and how easily you can get a higher-paying job with it.  Is this why you’re here?  Is this how you’ve been choosing classes and your major?  If someone asked you the question they asked my friend’s dad back in the 50s, what would your answer be?

On my way to the airport last week I had a conversation with the taxi driver, who told me the story about his decision to move from New York City to Charlottesville a decade ago.  He is an Indian man and he traveled to Charlottesville to interview for the position of chef at Maharaja.  His interview was preparing a full meal for the owner and several guests and he did such a great job that the owner came to the kitchen in the middle of the meal to say, “You start tomorrow.”  To which he replied that he would start in two weeks.  He needed to go back to New York and give his notice to this current employer before he could begin the new job.  The owner pushed him, trying to convince him to just bag the old job and begin the new one more immediately.  The taxi driver explained to me why he didn’t just capitulate to his new boss.  And this is what he told his boss, too, as he insisted on giving the two weeks to his current employer, “Your credit stays with you longer than the money.”  He told me that – even though the restaurant owner tried to cajole him – once he said this the owner was agreeable and more impressed than he’d already been in offering the job.  Your credit stays with you longer than the money.  Being the kind of person you want to be is more important than the allure of a new paycheck or even a bigger paycheck.  Being the kind of person you want to be is more valuable. Your reputation and character stay with you longer than what you make.

This isn’t a sermon about how money is not important.  This isn’t a sermon about choosing to major in English instead of being in the Comm school.  This is a sermon about being honest about what’s important in life and then trying to live up to it.  Money’s important and being able to take care of ourselves is important but “Your credit stays with you longer than the money.”

This is a sermon about following where God calls and trusting that that will be enough.  This is about focusing on love and passion and building a life.  This is about listening for your calling.

God called Moses to wander in the desert with a bunch of cranky people.  Moses always assumed he’d see the promised land by the end of his wandering and, as it turned out, that’s all he got.  He saw it and died without ever stepping foot in it.  But is that really all he got out of that call?  Who did he become along the way?  What did those wilderness years make of him?  How did he see God in the wandering – in different ways than he saw or knew God before that journey?

If you aren’t convinced yet, remember that there are no guarantees about any of this.  Lists like this purport to offer a formula or a roadmap for where you want to go.  You can pick the most lucrative, “useful” major from someone’s list.  It can be the absolute best prediction of where the money and jobs will be during your career.  And then there’s a recession or depression. Or you get sick or move home to help with someone else who is sick.  Or you hate the soul-sucking job you drag yourself to every day because you chose it off of some list instead of through reflection and discernment and prayer and passion.

Even “useful” isn’t an especially helpful goal.  You can do everything “right” to be the most “useful” person around, and then someone you love has Alzheimer’s and there is nothing to do but feel “useless.”  You can follow the cultural roadmap and end up sitting at the graveside with your friend who’s lost his wife.  What can you say?   What can you do?  How useful do you feel at that moment?

These are the moments for which we prepare.  Without knowing it.  Over time, in the accumulation of daily choices.  Roads taken and not taken.  Character built, brick by brick.

It might be true that following your heart and your call could lead you to a job paying 30k when you graduate, while friends are making double that in their first jobs.  Unless you become the next Oprah, it will certainly be true that there will always be things you want and can’t afford, choices you have to make with the resources at your disposal.  But the biggest of these is the choice about how you spend your life – not your money only – but also your time, love, relationships, community, family, friends, spirit.

Jesus called himself the good shepherd and the first time I went to Israel I sat for a while watching some shepherds tend their sheep in the Wadi Qelt, between Jerusalem and Jericho.  The sheep were agile on their feet, scouring the dry, brown land for any little scrubby piece of something green to eat.  They were so tan in a land so tan that they blended right in.  But their shepherds somehow kept track of them, kept them together and moving on.  The shepherds knew where to find food for their animals, though no green pastures were available for lying down in. As we hiked through the desert, I watched a couple of different shepherds with their flocks, seemingly unafraid to scramble over the rocky slopes where the sheep and goats were scavenging.  They waited patiently while the animals fed, looked out to the horizons, and rang a bell when it was time to get moving again.  They were slow and methodical and their heads were wrapped to keep out the sun; they steadied themselves on the terrain with long walking sticks.  Though we saw a few shepherds and flocks we never saw the shepherds hanging out together, chatting about the shepherding market, like a coffee break at Starbucks.  They were loners – just them and the animals.  They knew their sheep and their sheep knew and trusted them, listened for those bells and the familiar voice of their own shepherd.

True, Jesus wasn’t in a tough job market.  He had a short time and a one-of-a-kind calling.  I’m not sure that made it easier, but at least it was clear.  You don’t have that luxury.  But you do have the privilege of studying in a fine university, among interesting professors and students, and knowing a quality group of fellow pilgrims like those here at Wesley.  Those are the ingredients from which to cook up something wonderful for your life.  Don’t sell yourself short by claiming to be “practical” while ignoring those bells you hear ringing.  Don’t clip your own wings by choosing a major or a job or a path down the hillside just because the other sheep think you should go that way.  Listen.

The recipe of your calling may be one part college major, two parts geography, and a dash of family.  Your calling may have a lot to do with your job, which may have a lot to do with your major.  Or not.  Your calling will most certainly include gobsmacked moments when you bleat to God, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” because you have no idea why you are being pulled in this direction.  Certainly and mysteriously, your calling will encourage you to be more than you thought you were and exactly who you were made to be.

What will you answer when someone asks, “Chemistry?  What are you going to be?”   Why are you headed in this direction?  What voices are you listening to and which ones are you ignoring, as you follow your path?  Do you trust the Good Shepherd to show you the path through the desert – even and especially when it is rocky and precarious and you are unsure of your footing?

Thanks be to God!

©2012 Deborah E. Lewis

Here is what’s going on at Wesley this week! Thanks to everyone who performed at Coffehaus as well as those who came to support, it was awesome!
Sunday, April 22

10:00am – Worship Troupe visit to Mt. Moriah UMC

11:00am – Worship at Wesley Memorial UMC

5:00pm – Informal worship at the Foundation (Deborah out for a continuing education conference, Ed Winkler will be preaching and celebrating Communion)

Monday, April 23

1-3pm Deborah’s weekly drop-in office hours.  Just email her if you’d like to meet at another time.

11-2ish — Lunch at the Pav (Part I) –Meet in back room of Pavilion XI on the lower level of Newcomb. If you can’t make it at 12, that’s fine! Lunch will continue as long as people are there, so you can still come at 1 pm if you have class!

7:00pm—Women’s small group 1-Meet in the living room.

8:15pm—Methodists with Muscles—Meet in the game room for a devotional followed by a sport. Wear athletic gear and bring your student ID.

Tuesday, April 24

11:00-2ish — Lunch at the Pav (Part II) –Meet in back room of Pavilion XI on the lower level of Newcomb.

5:45pm – Board Meeting

6:00pm—Women’s small group 2-Meet in the living room.

7:00pm—Delta Force—Men’s small group. Led by Kellen Hertz and Kemper Steffe Meet in the game room.

8:00pm–Grad Group–Let by Abel Yang. Meet in the game room.

Wednesday, April 25

Deborah out of the office for sermon prep and study.

8:00pm—Women’s small group 3-Meet in the living room.
Thursday, April 26

1:30-3pm – Deborah at United Ministries meeting.

6:00pm – Free dinner

7:00pm – Forum – “Ask Your Campus Minister” – Here’s your chance for a Q&A with Deborah!

Saturday, April 28

5:00pm – Iron Chef competition! Cooking starts at 5, judging (aka eating) begins at 6:30. Sign up to participate or come to eat the amazing results!

Sunday, April 29

11:00am – Worship at Wesley Memorial UMC

5:00pm – Informal worship at the Foundation

Upcoming events:

Study Breaks every day of finals! Be on the lookout for the schedule!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Emily Gorman (efg2bj)

Wesley Foundation President

WESLEY STUDY BREAKS SPRING 2012

Tuesday 05/01

5:59pm Grad Roast Garden IX: Come watch our undergraduates say farewell to our graduating class by putting on a skit highlighting the grads’ finest moments at Wesley. Free dinner from Sticks Kabob Place provided!

Wednesday 05/02

9:01 am Care Package Delivery: Meet at the Wesley Foundation (WF) to head out to dorms to deliver care packages to students as exams approach.

3:12 pm Prayer Partner Event: Meet at WF for a delicious study break! Snacks and games and friends; no prayer partner required!

Thursday 05/03

6:01pm Dinner: Wesley’s staple event, Thursday Night Dinner allows students to congregate at the foundation for a free meal provided by a local church or students. Great time to socialize with fellow wahoos over a delicious home-cooked meal

Friday 05/04

8:08pm Cottage Study Break: Movie and games at the Cottage (adjacent to the WF)

Saturday 05/05

1:01 pm Wesley Disney Series: Meet at WF to watch Lilo & Stitch

Sunday 05/06

4:59pm Informal Worship: Another Wesley staple event, informal worship allows students to interactively foster their faith via singing, prayer, and listening to a sermon delivered by our very own campus minister, Deborah Lewis.

Monday 05/07

6:57pm Beach Volleyball with Patrick and Annie: Meet at WF to head over to the sand volleyball courts for an evening game of beach volleyball

Tuesday 05/08

6:09pm P^9: The classic study break that exponentially grows! Meet at WF for a dinner filled with Pancakes, Peaches, Potatoes, Pajamas, Pears, Pork, etc.

Wednesday 05/09

3:13pm Wesley Disney Series: Meet at WF to witness Wesley completing the quest to watch every Disney movie! Princess and the Frog will be showing in the Game Room at the Foundation.

Thursday 05/10

5:59pm Dinner: Wesley’s staple event, Thursday Night Dinner allows students to congregate at the foundation for a free meal provided by a local church or students. Great time to socialize with fellow wahoos over a delicious home-cooked meal

Friday 05/11

12:11pm Lunch with Lauren: Lauren H., a 3^rd year Wesleyan, has agreed to spearhead a fun lunch gathering for students that will be in town until the very end! Meet at Wesley; lunch location TBA—decided by YOU!

Here is what’s going on at Wesley this week!
Sunday, April 15

11:00am – Worship at Wesley Memorial UMC

3:00pm – SCC meeting

5:00pm – Informal worship at the Foundation

Monday, April 16

1-3pm Deborah’s weekly drop-in office hours.  Just email her if you’d like to meet at another time.

11-2ish — Lunch at the Pav (Part I) –Meet in back room of Pavilion XI on the lower level of Newcomb. If you can’t make it at 12, that’s fine! Lunch will continue as long as people are there, so you can still come at 1 pm if you have class!

7:00pm—Women’s small group 1-Meet in the living room.

8:15pm—Methodists with Muscles—Meet in the game room for a devotional followed by a sport. Wear athletic gear and bring your student ID.

Tuesday, April 17

11:00-2ish — Lunch at the Pav (Part II) –Meet in back room of Pavilion XI on the lower level of Newcomb.

6:00pm—Women’s small group 2-Meet in the living room.

7:00pm—Delta Force—Men’s small group. Led by Kellen Hertz and Kemper Steffe Meet in the game room.

8:00pm–Grad Group–Let by Abel Yang. Meet in the game room.

8:15—Free Verse-Meet in the Upper Room

Wednesday, April 18

Deborah is out for a continuing education conference.

8:00pm—Women’s small group 3-Meet in the living room.
Thursday, April 19

Deborah is out for a continuing education conference.

6:00pm – Free dinner

7:00pm – Forum – Ryan, Jenny, and Lauren will be leading us in a discussion of a great topic!

8:15pm – Faith in Film – we will be watching a film followed by a short discussion, so stick around after Forum!

Saturday, April 21

8:00pm – Coffeehaus, Wesley’s annual no talent/talent show. In the Fellowship Hall at Wesley Memorial. Sign up on the Fellowship board to participate or bring dessert!

Upcoming events:

Worship troupe visit to Mt. Moriah UMC Sunday April 22^nd – 10am worship followed by lunch

April 28^th – Iron Chef competition, sign up on the Fellowship Board!

Special Announcements:
Calling All Musicians! Interested in helping out with the music at our worship services or outreach events?  Contact Music Man/Director, Ryan LaRock (rsl4gp).
Let me know if you have any questions!

Emily Gorman, President (efg2bj)

John 20: 19-31

I worry at Easter that some folks – whether they come willingly, out of duty, or dragged by someone else – will feel out of sorts with the day, like they don’t “match” the celebration and jubilance of the occasion.

The beauty of the liturgical seasons is that we are pulled along with them, to experience a full range of emotions, moods, and spiritual states whether they are our particular states at the moment or not.  Going through the liturgical seasons gives us practice in handling the various states in which we find ourselves.  It helps underscore that even when we don’t feel like praying, we are upheld by the prayers of others.  We’re all in this together, so it’s not up to me or you or you to match the season or the mood or even to be fully present on a given day.

So I shouldn’t worry about folks at Easter but I do.  On a regular Sunday there are plenty of people who feel that if they aren’t happy or put-together or confident or headed in the right direction, then church is not the place for them.  As if Jesus said, Come to me all you who are peppy and who don’t need me instead of “Come to me, all you that are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11: 28).  Easter can make it worse.  People are so exuberant and many worship services are so packed-full of activity (without even a moment of silence to absorb it all) that it can feel alienating to those who may not be sure yet if they have left their own tombs.

But this is just the kind of thing I worry about.  Because I worry about students, too.  I worry that some students eye the amphitheatre guy or very enthusiastic, chirpy Christians and think that those people are “getting it.”  Maybe, maybe not.  But it doesn’t mean that’s the only way or the right way to get it.  I worry that these same students might think that coming to Wesley means you have it all together, have answered all your questions, and feel good and joyful at every turn.  I hope, if you are here tonight, this isn’t what you think.  I hope that, no matter how you came in tonight – mad, sad, glad, confused, dog-tired, deeply in love, fed up with love, about-to-change-your-major, not sure where you saw God last, not sure what you believe about God, or ready to give your personal testimony – I hope that, no matter what, you know that there is room for you, for all of these states of being and more.

People have strange notions about faith and doubt.  First of all, we talk about it like that:  faith and doubt.  As if they are two completely separate or opposite things.  We talk as if faith means:  no questions, no thought, blind assent, no struggle, like it’s a personal achievement, all answers are given, everything is settled, and everything that is wrong has been fixed.  We talk as if doubt is a personal failure or character deficit, as if it is the same as faithlessness, lack of belief, sin, straying.  We even refer to the story from John as “Doubting Thomas,” which seems to miss the point almost entirely.

When Jesus comes back to the house a week after Easter, a week after appearing to the other disciples gathered there on Easter night, he comes right in, stands in their midst, and says, “Peace be with you.”  And even though he wasn’t there when Thomas was talking with the others that week…even though Jesus wasn’t there when Thomas laid out his demands for belief in the risen Christ…Jesus turns immediately to Thomas and says Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side. And, just like Mary Magdalene at the tomb last week when someone she thought was the gardener suddenly speaks her name, Thomas hears Jesus’ invitation and – without touching him – Thomas knows and believes who Jesus is.  He proclaims, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus is not a begrudging participant in his interactions with Thomas.  There is no exasperated sighing or rolling of the eyes.  Jesus never calls him a Doubting Thomas.  Jesus doesn’t come back a week after Easter, offering greetings of peace to everyone except Thomas.  And he doesn’t put any conditions on what Thomas has said he needs in order to believe.  Jesus does not even wait for Thomas to ask.  Jesus simply offers Thomas what he is looking for, what he needs.  We worship a God who doesn’t just stand in our midst while we struggle, but who takes our hands and guides us.

When I hear that someone has doubt(s), I think “How interesting!”  I think, “Cool.  God is working on something with him.”  I don’t worry about the doubt itself, but I do worry when the person thinks she is confessing something horrible by telling this to me.  Look at the story again:  Thomas says he needs to see and figure this out for himself.  Jesus walks in and offers him exactly what he said he needed.  In love and with grace.

I wonder why we call him “Doubting Thomas.”  Why don’t we call Peter “Denying Peter”?  We have plenty of examples of disciples taking their own sweet time to get on board.  We have nothing but “imperfect” disciples trying their best to follow Jesus, carrying along their own confusion and passion and belief and doubt, all the way to Golgotha and the Garden and that locked room a week after Easter and beyond.

The disciples offer us the grace of their humanity, their imperfect faith and their imperfect doubt – each riddled with the other (Lauren Winner, Still).  They offer us a glimpse of how to follow, whether we feel like it or not, whether we know how to or not, whether we have seen and touched Jesus or not.

So I want to suggest some alternate definitions of faith and doubt.

Doubt is the wrestling that is integral to faith, as with Jacob and the angel.  Sometimes it lasts all night, sometimes for an instant, sometimes a season, or years.  It’s the way to go deeper and keep engaged.  It is unafraid to ask hard questions and to let them hang there and resonate.  Doubt is utterly acceptable to God and, as with Thomas, God responds to this graciously, willingly, and without our having to plead.

Faith is a story that tells us who we are and how we fit in.  It’s a gift from God in which we participate.  It’s not a state to achieve but a path and a practice in which to be absorbed for life.  We live our way into the long arc of this story, not always knowing where we are on the arc or where we are going next  but knowing that “God’s got it.”  Maybe that is all we ever believe or try to believe, and that is OK.

I don’t know what we would call this story if we had a better name…Look-at-his-faith-and-doubt-Thomas?  Jesus Loves a Doubter?  Faith and Doubt, the Double-Sided Coin?  I just know we are missing the point when we spurn him and “put him in his place” with the name Doubting Thomas.  And we thwart ourselves.  Read on, read to the end.  Listen to the actual story.  Doubt doesn’t have the last word – and it’s not a word or a state of being that frightens Jesus.  He welcomes it and Thomas.  Jesus calls him over and offers his wounds, offers for Thomas to stick his hand inside his body.  Without price and with great love, Jesus offers the intimate and strangely beautiful:  for Thomas to put himself into Christ’s wound, to be, literally, in Christ.  I doubt there is anything more terrifying or beautiful than that.

Thanks be to God!

© 2007, 2012 Deborah E. Lewis

As we celebrate with our graduates, we will gather for dinner and a baccalaureate worship service the evening before graduation.  If you would like to reserve your place for dinner, please contact our office manager.

Saturday, May 19              5:30 PM              Fellowship & Light Snacks

6:00 PM              Dinner (cost $14/ person)

7:30 PM              Baccalaureate Worship Service (All — graduates and current students and friends — are welcome to join us for this service, in the sanctuary at Wesley Memorial.)

During Saturday night’s festivities, parking is available in the Wesley Memorial Church lot right next to our building and accessed from Emmet Street.

Sunday, May 20              7:30-9:30 AM              Continental Breakfast for grads & families

For those who would like to park at the church lot again on Sunday morning, the church youth group will be asking for a donation to park.