This Week at Wesley….

Hello Everyone,

I know everyone is stressed (myself included) but there are only a few weeks left so just lower your head, push on through, and make some time for Wesley this week. Here’s what we got on the menu.
Sunday, April 24 (Easter) aka Worship on Worship

4:30am—Sunrise Service—Meet at the Foundation. Dress Warmly with many layers.

8 am and 11 am — Worship at Wesley Memorial UMC.
5 pm — Informal Worship at the Wesley Foundation-
There will also probably be a group going to dinner afterward.

Monday, April 25

Offices Closed for Easter Holiday
12-2ish — 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!

8:45 pm — Women’s Small Group 1 — Led by Andi Davis (and4xn) and Lauren Huff (leh7bu) — If you didn’t email to choose a night, it’s never too late to join a women’s small group! Just pick the night that suits you best!

Tuesday, April 26
12:30-2ish — Lunch at the Pav (Part II) –Meet in back room of Pavilion XI on the lower level of Newcomb.

2-4pm– Deborah’s Drop-in Office Hours — Deborah would be happy to meet with you at other times/places! Email her at deborah AT wesleyatuva.org to arrange a meeting!

6 pm—Ad Board Meeting
7 pm — Women’s Small Group 2 — Led by Aida Barnes (amb7hh) and Mary Lacy Grecco  (mlg7nx)
7:30 pm — Delta Force (Men’s Small Group) –Meets in the gameroom. Contact Stephen Sholden (sks6p) for more info!

8:30 pm — Methodists with Muscles — Meet in the gameroom for a short devotional before heading to some athletic activity.

Wednesday, April 27

Deborah out of the office for sermon prep and study.
7:30Praise, Prayer and Peace– Time in the middle of the week to gather together to sing some songs of praise.
8 pm — Grad Group — Not just for graduate students! This group also welcomes recent graduates. Contact Amy Moses for more info (arm8h)
8:30 pm — Women’s Small Group 3 — Led by Melissa Holmes (mlh9j) and Helen Ross (hrr2v)

Thursday, April 28

1:30-3pm–Deborah at United Ministries Meeting
6:00 pm — FREE Dinner.
7 pm — Forum –
Forums in Review. Taking a look back at the discussions we have had this year and seeing what we liked, what we didn’t, and what we want more of.

8pm—SCC Meeting
Friday, April 29

Leftovers — Drop by the Foundation for a lunch of leftovers from Thursday night dinner.

Prayer Partner Event—Cookout(weather permitting), look for email to RSVP and to drive if possible

Saturday April 30

10-12am–Support Council Work Day—Lunch will be provided

5pm—Spring Challenge—We will be handing out free Chick Fil A to people on the Corner …


Upcoming Events:

Finals (lame) but that means…

Study Breaks (WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!)
Let me know if you have any questions!


Stephen Sholden (sks6p)
Wesley Foundation SCC President

Your Name, God’s Lips (Easter Sunrise 4/24/11)

Your Name, God’s Lips

John 20: 1-18

What’s it like when your name is called?

Sitting in line at the DMV, updating your Facebook status by iPhone, waiting hours for your turn in line.  How does it sound when your name is finally called?  How about waking up from sleep, groggy, with your mom calling your name, turning on the overhead light, saying, “We have to leave in 45 minutes”?  Or at the doctor’s office, waiting to be called back to hear what’s wrong?  Your roommate comes home to find you’ve eaten all of her Easter care package candy – how does it sound when she yells your name then?  More quietly, what’s it like when you hear your name whispered, an inch from your ear, in the tender tone of your beloved?

Names are not simple words.  Each time we hear them spoken they ring with the echoes of other times our names have been called, other circumstances, other voices.  They evoke the ones who named us in the first place.  Our names sound differently to our ears depending on whose voice is saying them or if we are guiltily munching on stolen Easter candy at the time.

I wonder how Mary heard her name that morning in the dark next to the tomb.

She’d been pretty busy, walking to the tomb, running back to tell Peter something was wrong, and back to the tomb again.  By the time she hears her name, Peter and the other disciple have seen the empty tomb, the linen wrappings left behind, and returned home believing.

Who knows what she’s thinking?  It’s not like the other disciples recited creeds to let her know just what they ended up believing about all that had happened.  They saw, we’re told they believed, and then they headed home.  Maybe Mary is crying not only because she doesn’t know what’s happened to Jesus’ body, but also because her friends have just left without a word.  It must have been a lonely moment.

And then this strange gardener starts talking to her.  It doesn’t sound like much of anything at first.  Just ordinary words from an ordinary man in a graveyard.  So Mary behaves in a pretty ordinary way at first, too.  She launches into it:  If you know where they’ve taken him, please tell me.  I promise to take care of him and get out of your hair if you’ll just please tell me what’s happened here and where he is now.

“Mary!”  That’s Mary with an exclamation point.  Forceful, direct, punctuated.  Don’t you wonder how that sounded to her?  Did she recognize his voice or was it something about hearing her name on God’s lips that brought her home again?  When that strange gardener is revealed as Jesus himself, it’s because of this one word.  “Mary!”  It stops her cold in her rambling.  It stops everything.

That’s all he says at first, just “Mary.”  It’s him!  It’s Jesus!  She hears her name and knows that all he has ever said is true.  He is the same but the whole world has changed, been made new.  Promises fulfilled.  Grief transformed to joy.  Death overcome.

Next Jesus tells Mary not to hold on to him.  Most biblical scholars and readers I’ve encountered seem to hear this as a warning.  As if Mary is headed for him with open arms and he waves off the hug and admonishes her.  But our friend Debra Rienstra (goodpreacher.com) helped me read this a different way.  She points out that somewhere in this encounter, in the midst of the name-calling and recognition, Mary has already grabbed hold of Jesus, already embraced him.  He isn’t warning her to stay away but letting her know that it’s time to move on.  He has allowed her embrace but now he has a job for her and it’s time to go.

And she does.  She goes and announces all that happened, the first witness and evangelist to the resurrection.

I still wonder how Mary heard her name that morning in the dark next to the tomb.  What did the sound of her name convey?  Did she hear that exclamation point – “Mary, pay attention!”?  Or did it sound like a question on the lips of Jesus – “Mary will you go tell everyone what’s happened?”

How does it sound to you?  Mary’s there so that we can be, too.  Mary’s there, imperfect and ordinary, to demonstrate how we might encounter Christ.  Mary shows us how to respond when our names are called – and they are.  Your name, God’s lips.

What’s it like when your name is called?  The Good Shepherd calls each of us by name and he is confident that we’ll hear his voice and know him and follow where he leads.  The gate’s been opened.  The sting of death removed.  Our failures redeemed…  The body of Christ broken for you.  The blood of Christ poured out for you.

Your name, God’s lips.  Don’t linger too long at the mouth of the tomb.  Enjoy the embrace but then let go, confident you’ll hear your name called many times.  Let go now and run through the gate he’s holding open.  Run out to tell everyone the good news!

Thanks be to God!

© Deborah E. Lewis 2011

Holy Week at Wesley – Join us!

Join us for Holy Week at Wesley:

4/17, Palm Sunday – 11am (Wes Mem) & 5pm (WF)

4/21, Maundy Thursday Worship – 6pm dinner (WF) & 7pm worship (Wes Mem)

4/22, Good Friday Worship – 12 noon at Wesley Memorial

4/24, Easter Sunday – Sunrise hike & worship 4:30am,

8:30am, 11am at Wesley Memorial & 5pm at WF

All are welcome – please join us and bring a friend!  We hope to see you throughout this special week in the Christian year.

Some additional information:

The Good Friday service will be about ½ hour in duration – perfect for a lunch break or a pause in the midst of your day.

If you are planning to come on the Easter  Sunrise hike and worship, wear comfortable clothes and shoes for hiking and dress in layers.  Bring a water bottle and a flashlight.  We will meet in the church parking lot at 4:30am on Easter Sunday.  Please contact Deborah to let her know you are coming and if you are able to drive, if needed:  deborahATwesleyatuva.org/ 434-977-6500

RAIN PLAN for sunrise:  If the hike is canceled due to weather, that news will be posted here on the website by 4am on Easter morning.  If we have to cancel the hike we will gather for worship in the dining room of the Wesley Foundation at 6:15am instead.

Sunday’s Palms (Sunday Worship 4/17/11)

Sunday’s Palms

Matthew 21: 1-11

I was at a training for pastors last week and at one point the presenter, very excited about what she was presenting, waxed on about the way the church will be changed for the better once we are all trained in this new mentoring model.  She was outlining the differences and changes from the old to the new model of mentoring people as they consider ordained ministry for a career.   She may be right and time will tell.

But what I found very interesting was that, in her enthusiasm, she told the room of 100 pastors that the future of the church is riding on us implementing this well.  And then she added, “So you can’t fail!”

Now people say things off the cuff all the time and, if they were to read a transcript later, might decide to edit their comments.  Perhaps that would be the case with this statement.  But what I find most interesting is the easy, assured way sentiments like that trip off our tongues.  The language of winners and losers is easy to understand and to get behind.  Success or failure is always obvious, right?  We are living in a culture drenched in this thinking, from the little leagues where every player gets a trophy because we can’t bear to pronounce a single loser, to pastors’ conferences where we are given the imperative not to fail “or else” – before we have even had the opportunity to succeed.

On college applications and in job interviews we want to talk about “strengths” and “growing edges” because “weaknesses” sounds a little harsh, doesn’t it?  Who wants to admit to being weak, to having messed that one up royally, to making an utter and irredeemable mess of things?

Strangely, J.R. Briggs does.  I discovered him last week, too, an interesting contrast to the marching orders we received at my training meeting.  Briggs, a pastor in Pennsylvania, organized and led an event this weekend called The Epic Fail Pastors Conference (http://www.epicfailpastorsconference.com/).  He realized how humble and insightful our mistakes and failures make us and how hard it is to share those same mistakes and failures in church – especially for pastors.  Hence, the conference.  The website for the Epic Fail Pastors Conference has a speakers page where presenters are listed as “Experts on Failure.”  He even held the conference in a church building that failed, closed up, was sold, and is now a bar.

Briggs says we have it all wrong most of the time.  If we Christians can’t admit our failures, talk about them honestly, and try to learn a little something along the way, then who can?   As he says, “The entrance exam for Christianity is admitting you are a failure” (The Christian Century, April 5 2011, p. 17).

In recent years the church has taken to calling today “Palm/Passion Sunday” and reading both today’s texts and those for Thursday and Friday this week, to make sure everyone hears the whole story before Easter.  It’s good liturgical and theological thinking:  that we want people to hear the whole story, to see that grand story arc, to understand that Jesus didn’t make a simple and straightforward beeline from the parades of Palm Sunday to the resurrection of Easter morning.  It’s good thinking for communities that worship only on Sundays with no special Holy Week worship services to finish telling the story.  Our bulletin says only “Palm Sunday” because this is a community that will be doing a lot of worship this week and I’m confident you’ll hear the rest of the story.  Which means we can linger a little with the crowds today.  We can listen and watch and allow ourselves to get a little caught up without rushing on to the rest of the story.

So why did I start out talking about epic fails if we’re sticking with the cheering and palms?

Palm Sunday has always been a weird day for me.  I’ve talked before about it being sort of “the tipping point” where things start to move fast and then furious toward the cross.  It’s the day when we think we know what and who we’re cheering for and then we see before the week is out how mixed up we are, how are best intentions turn sour, how sickeningly cheers turn to jeers.  Last year I talked about how silly most adults feel waving palms in church.  We don’t really seem that excited, do we?  It’s like a troupe of not-very-good-actors pretending to be thrilled when really we just want to put these things under the pew and go have lunch.

I admit to being confused by Palm Sunday.  Should I take an acting class and really throw myself into the role of cheering fan for Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem?  Or should I sit shrewdly on the sidelines waiting for everyone else to “catch on” to where this story is going later in the week?  Can we really be joyful and happy today, knowing the story as we do?

We’ve spent all spring watching crowds form around the globe.  Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Wisconsin.  We’ve heard the shouts go up for new government, for different leaders, for more freedom.  We watched peaceful protests and we’ve worried over violent uprisings.  It’s exciting to see change in the making.  It’s exciting to watch people stand up proudly and command attention and respect.  But reading today’s story, I wonder how we know when we’re cheering for the right crowd, the ride side?

It occurs to me that this is one of the ways we fail over and over again.  We want to be on the right side, the winning side, the side that ends up looking good when all is said and done.  This is where those Palm Sunday crowds got it epically right.  They weren’t calculating at that moment – if they had been, they would have seen how this was never going to go smoothly, how mad the religious leaders were.  They cheered their hearts out because they knew Emmanuel, God-with-us, right there with them in their midst.  They saw Jesus riding into town just as the scriptures said the messiah would.  They’d seen him teach and heal and they found themselves carried along with him in the streets, throwing down branches and cloaks and shouting out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Mt. 21: 9).

Hosanna literally means “save us” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, p. 1784).  Experiencing an epic failure forces us to confront the fact that we can’t save ourselves.  And the most epic among our failures is that we keep denying this central fact of our lives.  No matter how hard we love or give or study or plan, no matter how we pray or how sturdy we are on our own two feet, no matter what we give up or take on…we cannot save ourselves.  As Christians who’ve taken the “entrance exam” we are supposed to know – or at least be learning how to – fall on our knees and admit we can’t save ourselves.  We’re not God and we sure do need God.  But we are so easily distracted.  We start out with “Hosanna” and end up with “Crucify him” by Friday.

We began our Lenten journey singing “Sunday’s Palms are Wednesday’s Ashes,” the hymn that reminds us of the practice of burning the palms from Palm Sunday worship and using them to begin the next year’s Lent.  We have to sing it because in a few short months we forget how the Palm Sunday parade went awry.  We sing it because when we receive the ashes on our foreheads we need to know how that moment relates to the rest of the journey we embark upon each Lent.  We get distracted between Palm Sunday and Ash Wednesday.  We’ll get distracted between now and Easter morning – right here in the middle of Holy Week we’ll be distracted by our own efforts, our own attempts to save ourselves instead of fessing up to what epic failures we are, to how much we need God.

It’s why we tell all our stories, over and over again.  To remember, to know again.  To remember, to put together again.  Sometimes, like today, we put it together again in a moment of tension, between the walk we’ve been on and the one we’ll take to the cross by Friday.  In a moment of tension, praise still on our lips, while in our hearts lurks temptation.

May we resist the temptation to end that tension.  May we know our own neediness.  May we sing our loud hosannas all the way through this story to Easter morning and beyond.

Thanks be to God!

© Deborah E. Lewis 2011

This Week at Wesley…

Hello Everyone,

It’s Holy Week, so we have a lot worship going on, so be on the lookout for the times for all our special services. Here is all that is happenin at Wesley this week!
Sunday, April 17 (Palm Sunday)

11 am — Worship at Wesley Memorial UMC.
5 pm — Informal Worship at the Wesley Foundation-
There will also probably be a group going to dinner afterward.

Monday, April 18
12-2ish — 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!

1-3pm– Deborah’s Drop-in Office Hours — Deborah would be happy to meet with you at other times/places! Email her at deborah AT wesleyatuva.org to arrange a meeting!

7:00-8:15-Parable Study– led by Deborah, meet in upper room

8:45 pm — Women’s Small Group 1 — Led by Andi Davis (and4xn) and Lauren Huff (leh7bu) — If you didn’t email to choose a night, it’s never too late to join a women’s small group! Just pick the night that suits you best!

Tuesday, April 19
Deborah out of the office for sermon prep and study.
12:30-2ish — Lunch at the Pav (Part II) –Meet in back room of Pavilion XI on the lower level of Newcomb.
7 pm — Women’s Small Group 2 — Led by Aida Barnes (amb7hh) and Mary Lacy Grecco  (mlg7nx)
7:30 pm — Delta Force (Men’s Small Group) –Meets in the gameroom. Contact Stephen Sholden (sks6p) for more info!

8:30 pm — Methodists with Muscles — Meet in the gameroom for a short devotional before heading to some athletic activity.

Wednesday, April 20
5:30 pm — FREE Drop-in Yoga Class — We provide the instructor, the mats, and the living room. You just have to wear comfy clothes and come out!

7:30Praise, Prayer and Peace– Time in the middle of the week to gather together to sing some songs of praise.
8 pm — Grad Group — Not just for graduate students! This group also welcomes recent graduates. Contact Amy Moses for more info (arm8h)
8:30 pm — Women’s Small Group 3 — Led by Melissa Holmes (mlh9j) and Helen Ross (hrr2v)

Thursday, April 21
6:00 pm — FREE Dinner.
7 pm — Worship
at Wesley Memorial for Maundy Thursday.
Friday, April 22
12pm– Good Friday worship service at Wesley Memorial. Will last about a half hour.

Leftovers — Drop by the Foundation for a lunch of leftovers from Thursday night dinner.

Sunday April 24 (Easter)

Meet at 4:30 AM for our sunrise hike and worship


Upcoming Events:

Spring Challenge

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).


Stephen Sholden (sks6p)
Wesley Foundation SCC President

This Week at Wesley…

Hello Everyone,

Hope yall are doin well, here is what’s goin on at Wesley this week!
Sunday, April 10
11 am – Worship Troupe visit to Byrd Chapel

11 am — Worship at Wesley Memorial UMC.
5 pm — Informal Worship at the Wesley Foundation-
Neil Halverson-Taylor will be preaching. There will also probably be a group going to dinner afterward.

Monday, April 11
12-2ish — 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!

3:30-5:30pm– Deborah’s Drop-in Office Hours — Deborah would be happy to meet with you at other times/places! Email her at deborah AT wesleyatuva.org to arrange a meeting!

7:00-8:15-Parable Study– led by Deborah, meet in upper room

8:45 pm — Women’s Small Group 1 — Led by Andi Davis (and4xn) and Lauren Huff (leh7bu) — If you didn’t email to choose a night, it’s never too late to join a women’s small group! Just pick the night that suits you best!

9 pm – IM Ultimate Frisbee- Meet at the Foundation. All skill levels welcome. Bring your student ID, athletic shoes, and HYPE!

Tuesday, April 12
Deborah out of the office for sermon prep and study.
12:30-2ish — Lunch at the Pav (Part II) –Meet in back room of Pavilion XI on the lower level of Newcomb.
7 pm — Women’s Small Group 2 — Led by Aida Barnes (amb7hh) and Mary Lacy Grecco  (mlg7nx)
7:30 pm — Delta Force (Men’s Small Group) –Meets in the gameroom. Contact Stephen Sholden (sks6p) for more info!

8:30 pm — Methodists with Muscles — Meet in the gameroom for a short devotional before heading to some athletic activity.

Wednesday, April 13
5:30 pm — FREE Drop-in Yoga Class — We provide the instructor, the mats, and the living room. You just have to wear comfy clothes and come out!

5:30pm—St. Thomas—Interfaith Vigil of Blessing for Teresa Sullivan

7:30Praise, Prayer and Peace– Time in the middle of the week to gather together to sing some songs of praise.
8 pm — Grad Group — Not just for graduate students! This group also welcomes recent graduates. Contact Amy Moses for more info (arm8h)
8:30 pm — Women’s Small Group 3 — Led by Melissa Holmes (mlh9j) and Helen Ross (hrr2v)

Thursday, April 14
6:00 pm — FREE Potluck dinner in the Foundation dining room-Everyone Bring FOOD!
7 pm — Forum – Douglas Hicks is coming to talk about money enough

Friday, April 15
Leftovers — Drop by the Foundation for a lunch of leftovers from Thursday night dinner.

Saturday, April 16

VIA 5k—two shifts one at 5:30am and the other at 7:30am. Come out to help, run, or give support to this great cause.

7:00pm—COFFEE HOUSE—No talent talent show, bring food if possible


Upcoming Events:

Holy Week

Let me know if you have any questions!


Stephen Sholden (sks6p)
Wesley Foundation SCC President

Knowing (Sunday Worship 4/3/11)

Knowing

John 9: 1-41

As many of you know, one of my all-time favorite movies is When Harry Met Sally.  It’s a romantic comedy told in stages across many years, the love story of Harry and Sally who meet upon college graduation and eventually get together about 10 years later.  Interspersed with their story are vignettes of older couples telling the stories about how they each met.  One at a time, sprinkled throughout the main story, we hear little snippets of these other love stories.  Some are incredibly sweet and some are funny.

One of my favorite lines from the movie is when a woman tells about meeting her future husband at summer camp, where he crossed the room to talk to her, introducing himself:  “I’m Ben Small, of the Coney Island Smalls.”  She smiles, retelling this, and says, “At that moment, I knew.  I knew the way you know about a good melon.”

That’s a different sort of knowing than the kind most of you are engaged in on a daily basis in college.  You are trying to retain and memorize and answer correctly.  You are most often looking for the right answer, or at least one of the right answers.  Rarely does a professor ask you a question and accept the explanation:  I just know.

But this does happen sometimes, doesn’t it?  Picking a college, picking a major, saying “yes” to someone new in your life.  Sometimes you have made your list of pros and cons and you’ve looked at the financial aid package they’re offering…sometimes you know it doesn’t add up in any sort of strict accounting, why you’d want to study anthropology or spend time with this person… but you just know.

The “melon test” is something entirely different from most of the knowing you are here to acquire.  It’s about observation and experience.  That kind of knowing is a certainty without strict reliance on facts, but a certainty all the same.  At the farmer’s market (real melons here – not husbands) you feel the weight of the fruit, you smell the end where the vine was attached, you observe the color of the rind.  And you just know when you’ve found the one you’re taking home.  You don’t have to slice into it right then.  You have no proof that the inside will match your expectations.  What’s inside?  Don’t know for sure.  Is it ripe?  Seems to be.  Will it be as good as the one last week?  Hope so.  In the final analysis, all you can say with certainty is:  “I’m taking this one.”

This kind of knowing can be scary, especially for people who are used to getting the facts down and looking for the correct answer.  It is terrifying for the religious leaders and other bystanders when Jesus heals the man born blind.  But it’s in keeping with John’s Jesus, who earlier in the gospel, answers several questions with the inviting yet mysterious, “Come and see.”  He recruits his very first disciples and they have just this one minor question – Where are staying? – and he replies enigmatically, “Come and see” (John 1: 35-39).  Here we are eight chapters later and Jesus is pretty consistent, isn’t he?

Today’s reading is a long story, so let’s remember a few highlights.  There is a man who was “born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”  Jesus decides to offer him healing, so he spits in on the ground and mixes the dirt together, applies it to the man’s eyes, and then tells him to go wash it off in the pool of Siloam, which means “sent.”  He comes back, now able to see and then there is a cacophony of voices from the crowd and the religious leaders:  Oh my goodness, it’s the blind beggar who used to sit begging near here?  …No, no!  It’s just someone who looks like him. …Hey, guys, it is me – I was blind and now I’m not.  …Well, how in the world did that happen? Over and over the man tells them it’s really him and the crowd keeps asking, Then how did it happen? And when he repeats it all – spit, mud, eyes, the Sent pool, viola! – they want to question the strange, purported healer.

The religious leaders most interested in right answers and rules, the Pharisees, are called in to straighten this out.  They make him go over all the details about mud again, then they add another wrinkle:  Yes, it’s interesting that this man appears to be healed of his blindness, but are you aware this has happened – illegally – on the Sabbath? Let’s speak to his parents, maybe they will be more helpful and level-headed. So his parents are summoned and asked if it’s true that their child was really blind since birth.  And what do they answer?

“We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes” (John 9: 20-21).  Then they add, quite practically, that the Pharisees should ask their son directly — He’s grown; you can ask him yourself.

Round two with the formerly blind man.  This time the authorities decide, not having gotten very far with this guy or his parents previously, to attempt their own explanation.  They want the man to denounce Jesus as a sinner.  What does he say?  “I do not know whether he is a sinner.  One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (v. 25).  And they ask him the same questions over again:  How did this happen?  What did he do to your eyes? Finally the man decides to get theological with them.  He considers what has happened to him and says, Look, we know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but to those who worship and obey God’s will.  No one has ever heard of a healing like this before, so if this man doesn’t come from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything. Then they drove him out and were done with him entirely.

I want to reflect on this story in two ways, thinking about knowing and about seeing God in our midst.

At the start of the story when they encounter the blind man, even Jesus’ disciples make the then-common assumption that someone blind like that must have sinned, or his parents must have.  Jesus sets them straight:  “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him” (v. 3).  Is Jesus’ explanation much better?  On first listen, it sounds like he’s saying that the man was born blind because God afflicted him, in order to glorify God.

That one doesn’t pass my own melon test.  I just know that can’t be right.  It doesn’t sound like the God I know.   As I wrestled with that this week, I wondered if the meaning might lead in another direction.  I wondered if Jesus meant that, however we are born, it is so that our lives can reflect God.  Our very existence is the opportunity for revealing God’s works.  It was with relief and joy that I read a commentary headed in this same direction.  The writers cautioned against hearing Jesus’ words as too simple an explanation, noting that the phrase “he was born blind” isn’t even in the Greek text.  They go on to say, “The sense is that the presence of the blind man provides the occasion to do something about it, something that will glorify God.  Here and elsewhere, the Bible simply begins with the reality of evil, without providing explanations.  [Other philosophies claim] to provide profound explanations for the problem of evil, which the Bible leaves as a mystery” (The People’s New Testament Commentary, p. 318).

So this man’s life (and his parents’ and ours) are just as they are – in all their complexity, mystery, frustration, joy, disability, and ability – as fertile, acceptable grounds for God.  For God to show up in and be revealed through.

The man knows this.  He doesn’t start with a theological treatise explaining away the miracle so that it will make sense and be depleted of its power.  He simply states what happens.  That’s enough.  I’m the same guy.  Jesus used saliva and dirt and made a mud pack for my eyes and sent me to that Sent pool to wash it off.  Then I could see.  All I know is I was blind but now I see.

Same thing with the man’s parents.  They steer clear of the trap set by the religious authorities, inviting them to explain what couldn’t be explained.  They chose to witness instead.  We know he’s our son and he was born blind.  We don’t know how this happened but clearly it did.

This I know:  that God shows up, over and over again, often in unexpected and inexplicable ways.  I know this happens.  I know we can trust it to happen again.  I know about God the way you know about a good melon.

Like the healed man, God calls us out of brokenness and pain, offers healing, washes us clean in the very waters that send us out into the world to bear witness to all this (www.gbod/worship).  All we need to see and know is the truth of our lives.  That’s why we are born like we are, that’s why we are the way we are – male, female, tall, short, biology majors, religious studies minors, rich, poor, lonely, joyful, broken, and whole – we are made in exactly these ways so that God’s works can be revealed in our lives.

The first step is to be looking for them.  Maybe it takes a while to spot, like bird watching, you can spend months in the same forest faithfully waiting on a warbler or finch or bluebird.  You wait the same way, binoculars in hand, every day.  With no warning, one day you can see it.  Was it there all the other days?  Was this the first flight through since you’ve been looking?  Hard to say, but there it is now.

I do think we get better over time.  Maybe it’s about learning to observe, trying out a few melons.  Maybe it’s education in what we are looking for – “OT miracles” or the more common “everyday miracles” of seeing what did not appear to be there just a moment before – a caring friend instead of a stranger, a child of God instead of an enemy….It’s not about getting it right, it’s about looking and being willing to reveal what it is you see – to say, “I don’t know why it’s so, but here is what I do know ….Here is where God shows up in strange and wonderful ways and I have seen it.”

Thanks be to God!

© Deborah E. Lewis 2011

This Week at Wesley…

Hello Everyone,

You just need to ask yourself one question, “Self, can I find all the blueberries in this email?” Well there is only one way to find out… So here is what’s happenin at Wesley this Week!!!
Sunday, April 3
11 am — Worship at Wesley Memorial UMC.
5 pm — Informal Worship at the Wesley Foundation-
There will also probably be a blueberries group going to dinner afterward.

7:30 pm – IM Ultimate Frisbee- Meet at the Foundation. All skill levels welcome. Bring your student ID, athletic shoes, and HYPE!
9 pm– NCAA Finals
– Watching some b ball at the Cottage. It’s gonna be ballin outrageous!! (pun intended)

Monday, April 4
12-2ish — Lunch at the Pav (Part I) –Meet in back room of Pavilion XI on the lower blueberries 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!

1-3pm– Deborah’s Drop-in Office Hours — Deborah would be happy to meet with you at other times/places! Email her at deborah AT wesleyatuva.org to arrange a meeting!

7-8:15-Parables Study– led by Deborah, meet in Upper Room

8:45 pm — Women’s Small Group 1 — Led by Andi Davis (and4xn) and Lauren Huff (leh7bu) — If you didn’t email to choose a night, it’s never too late to join a women’s small group! Just pick the night that suits you best!
Tuesday, April 5
Deborah out of the office for sermon prep and study.
12:30-2ish — Lunch at the Pav (Part II) –Meet in back room of Pavilion XI on the lower level of Newcomb.
7 pm — Women’s Small Group 2 — Led by Aida Barnes (amb7hh) and Mary Lacy Grecco  (mlg7nx)
7:30 pm — Delta Force (Men’s Small Group) –Meets blueberries in the gameroom. Contact Stephen Sholden (sks6p) for more info!

8:30 pm — Methodists with Muscles — Meet in the gameroom for a short devotional before blueberries heading to some athletic activity.

Wednesday, April 6
5:30 pm — FREE Drop-in Yoga Class — We provide the instructor, the mats, and the living room. You just have to wear comfy clothes and come out!

7:30Praise, Prayer and Peace– Time in the middle of the week to gather together to sing some songs of praise.
8 pm — Grad Group — Not just for graduate students! This group also welcomes recent graduates. Contact Amy Moses for more info (arm8h)
8:30 pm — Women’s Small Group 3 — Led by Melissa Holmes (mlh9j) and Helen Ross (hrr2v)

Thursday, April 7
6:00 pm — FREE Home-cooked dinner in the Foundation dining room
7 pm — Forum —
Forum this week will be led by Nina Ruhter and Jenny Burks. We will be discussing homosexuality.

After Forum-Faith n’ Film– We will be watching Amish Grace with discussion afterword led by Elizabeth Matthews and Lauren Huff.
Friday, April 8
Leftovers blueberries — Drop by the Foundation for a lunch of leftovers from Thursday night dinner.


Upcoming Events:

Worship Troupe Visit to Byrd Chapel

Interfaith Vigil of blessing for our president

VIA 5k

Coffee House

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!


Stephen Sholden (sks6p)
Wesley Foundation SCC President