Church guide

Dear Friends in Christ, This is Holy Week. All are invited to special services: Maundy Thursday 7pm Last Supper and Service of Shadows. Good Friday 10am Service using the Last Seven Words Good Friday 2pm Cross Walk from FUMC around downtown Pittsfield. Easter Sunday 10am Resurrection Celebration ending with Handel's Halleluja Chorus

Get Them Talking: Forgiveness Get Them Talking is a series of monthly resources to help families lead devotion, dinnertime, or anytime conversations about issues of faith. Scripture Reading “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who has wronged us.” Luke 11:4, CEB Reflection Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent, a time the church sets aside each year to help us prepare for Easter. During Lent, we remember how God forgives us for all we do wrong, our sin. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus connects God’s forgiveness of us with our forgiveness of others. We are to forgive in the same way we have been forgiven. Forgiveness is sometimes misunderstood. When we forgive another we are not saying it is okay that they hurt us. Instead, we are deciding to let go of the hurt. When we do, we allow God to heal us and make us feel better. Get them talking Share about a time when you were forgiven. How did you feel? Tell about a time when you forgave someone. How did that make you feel? Why do you think forgiveness is important? Read and discuss the words to “Freely, Freely”: He said, Freely freely you have received. Freely freely give. Go in My name and because you believe, others will know that I live (United Methodist Hymnal #389) Prayer Dear God, thank you for forgiving me for what I’ve done wrong. Please give me the courage to forgive those who have hurt me. Amen. Activity Through the years, Christians have decided to “give something up for Lent,” as a reminder that they are forgiven. Discuss as a family some things you might give up during this season and commit as a family to help one another. Is there a topic you would like us to include as a devotional? Let us know. This devotional was first posted on March 5, 2019.

UMW 150th Birthday Celebration in Boston, MA on 3/23/2019

Methodist Women’s History: Mary McLeod Bethune Mary McLeod Bethune was an African-American woman, a pioneer of women’s leadership, and a devoted Methodist who opened doors of education by founding a school that continues today. In 1904, Mary McLeod Bethune financed a dream by baking sweet potato pies. With 5 girls and $1.50, she started a school that became a Methodist institution. Mary was born in 1875 on a South Carolina cotton farm. Mary went to college and opened doors of education. Her school for girls grew quickly. In 1931, the Methodist Church helped the merger with the Cookman Institute for boys to form Bethune-Cookman College. Mary Bethune traveled extensively, was a delegate to four Methodist General Conferences, advised five U.S. presidents, and was the only black woman present at the founding of the United Nations in 1945. Back on campus, she was “Mama Bethune.” The icon passed away in 1955, leaving a last will and testament full of wisdom and love. “I leave you love. ‘Love thy neighbor’ is a precept which could transform the world if it were universally practiced.” “I leave you hope.” “I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another.” “I leave you a thirst for education.” “I leave you respect for the use of power.” “I leave you faith.” “I leave you racial dignity.” “I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow man.” “I leave you finally a responsibility to our young people.” “If I have a legacy to leave my people, it is my philosophy of living and serving. I think I have spent my life well. I pray now that my philosophy may be helpful to those who share my vision of a world of Peace, Progress, Brotherhood, and Love.” – Mary McLeod Bethune 1875-1955 Every state has two figures in the Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. In 2018, the Florida state legislature voted to replace one of the statues representing Florida with an image of Mary McLeod Bethune. Read more about Mary McLeod Bethune from United Methodist Women. Learn more about Women in Leadership in The United Methodist Church. This video was produced by United Methodist Communications in Nashville, TN. Media contact is Fran Walsh. This video was first posted on March 7, 2019

Get Them Talking: Love Get Them Talking is a series of monthly resources to help families lead devotion, dinnertime, or anytime conversations about issues of faith. Scripture Reading “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Colossians 3:14 NRSV Reflection Many of us have a favorite article of clothing. Maybe we like the way it looks or how comfortable it is. It could be our favorite because it makes us feel special, or shows others something about who we are and what we like. The Bible tells us we can put on love like clothes, by remembering how much God loves each person in our lives every day. Love brings people together, helps us cooperate with others, and teaches us that other people are important. When we put on love like clothes, we let others see God’s love living in us. Get them talking • What is your favorite thing to wear? Why? • What does it mean to wear love? How is that different from how we normally think about love? • Our verse says that love “binds everything together in perfect harmony.” What do you think that means? Prayer Dear God, teach me how to put on love so that I can help show others just how much you love us. Amen. Activity Ask each family member to find at least two items of clothing they no longer wear. Donate those clothes to an organization that helps those who do not have clothes to wear. What else might you donate?

Inspired by MLK to make a difference through love: Clara Ester A UMC.org Feature by Joe Iovino* “I have come to grips many, many, many years ago that only through love can we make a difference,” shares United Methodist deaconess Clara Ester. “We can actually change things if we love.” Ester learned this important lesson from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., leader of the civil rights movement in the United States. “Love takes a lot of effort and work,” Ester continues, “but that’s the way God wants us to go, and that was the life that Dr. King led.” Love, justice, nonviolence “Being clergy he knew the importance of love,” Ester says of King, “and he wanted to deal with major issues and concerns that people were going through in a justice way. But he did it through love and nonviolence. That was his life.” Growing up in Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church in Memphis, Tennessee, then pastored by civil rights leader the Rev. James Lawson, Ester saw a connection between King and her faith. “He led the life and stood up for things like Jesus did when he was on earth,” she explains. “The marginalized people were the people Jesus hung out with. People that were not your favorite folks to be around were folks you found Jesus with…. Dr. King stood up and spoke out for the same marginalized people. He tried to change structures that would make that world better.” Love takes time Ester hadn’t always seen things that way. “I had a lot of hate within me when I saw how people could be treated,” Ester confesses. Love and nonviolence seemed a slow way to affect change. “I was a junior in college,” she remembers. “I heard both sides… but being young, 19 or 20 years old, I wanted everything to end as rapidly as possible.” On the evening of April 4, 1968, things changed. Ester had just arrived at the Lorraine Motel when King came out of his room and started talking to people in the parking lot. A shot rang out. King’s assassination was a turning point for Ester. “Witnessing his death. Seeing him on that balcony. Hearing him the night before talk about, ‘I may not get there with you, but we as a people will make it to the Promised Land.’ Recognizing more and more about his commitment to the nonviolent process. There was something about being over his body that said, ‘You need to change your hate. You need to love.’” A God-assigned responsibility to reach out Reflecting on the call to love our neighbors, Ester references Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan where a man is mugged and left by the side of the road (Luke 10:25-37). Two religious leaders approach, whom Jesus’ first listeners would have expected to be the people to do something, but they each cross the street to avoid the injured man. The third person who comes down the road is a Samaritan. This is not the person anyone would have expected to help out. The gospel of John tell us, “Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other” (John 4:9). Yet in Jesus’ story the Samaritan goes to extraordinary lengths to care for this stranger. After concluding the parable, Jesus tells those who’ve heard the story, “Go and do likewise.” On the balcony that day, Ester heard that same call. “Witnessing his death made me recognize that I had a responsibility not to ever step over anybody, or walk on the other side of the road. If there were people that I was aware of on the path that I was going, I had a God-assigned responsibility to reach out and try to help make their world better.” “That’s where we all should be,” she continues, “If we all did that through love and compassion, we would be living in a greater society than we live in today.” A life of service Immediately following King’s assassination, Ester left college. She went to Marks, Mississippi to work on the second Poor People’s Campaign, a march from Mississippi to Washington, D.C. planned by King. Marks was chosen because it was considered “the poorest town in the poorest county of the poorest state in the nation” (Mississippi Stories). Later, Ester would return to school and finish her degree. She served as a deaconess in The United Methodist Church, working for people in need throughout her career. In 2006, she retired as executive director of Dumas Wesley Community Center, a mission institution in Mobile, Alabama supported by the United Methodist Women. Today Ester serves as national vice president of the United Methodist Women. That day at the Lorraine Motel shaped her ministry. “This man was willing to love until this moment when a bullet took his life. He was willing to work and stand up and fight in a nonviolent way,” she teaches. “That was the least that I could do.” “After that,” she says, “it was strictly nothing but, ‘What can I do to help somebody else? What can I do to make life better? What can I do or what can I give to change the narrative of what’s taking place in this person’s life today?’ It was a turning point in my personal life for me to reflect on the direction I could have been in, and the direction I needed to go.” *Joe Iovino works for UMC.org at United Methodist Communications. Contact him by email or at 615-312-3733.

From a sermon by Blessed Isaac of Stella, abbot (Sermon 31: PL 194, 1292-1293) .: Why, brothers, are we so little concerned to seek one another's well-being, so that where we see a greater need, we might show a greater readiness to help and carry one another's burdens? For this is what the blessed apostle Paul urges us to do in the words: Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ; and also: Support each other in charity. For this surely is the law of Christ; Why can I not patiently bear the weaknesses I see in my brother which, either out of necessity or because of physical or moral weakness, cannot be corrected? And why can I not instead generously offer him consolation, as it is written: Their children shall be carried on their shoulders and consoled upon their knees? Is. it because I lack that virtue which suffers all things, is patient enough to bear all, and generous enough to love? This .is indeed the law of Christ, who truly bore our weaknesses in his passion and. carried our sorrows out of pity, loving those he carried and carrying those he loved. Whoever attacks a brother in need, or plots against him in his weakness of whatever sort, surely fulfills the devil's law and subjects himself to it. Let us then be compas- sionate toward one another, loving all our brothers, bear- ing one another's weaknesses, yet ridding ourselves of our sins. The more any way of life sincerely strives for the love of God and the love of our neighbor for God's sake, the more acceptable it is to God, no matter what be its observances or external form. For charity is the reason why anything should be done or left undone, changed or --- left unchanged; it is the initial principle and the end. to which all things should be directed. Whatever is honestly done out of love and in accordance with love can 'never be blameworthy. May he then deign to grant us this love, for without it we cannot please him, and without him we can do absolutely

A Message from Bishop Devadhar Dear Beloved in Christ: Greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the past few months, everywhere I go I am asked: What will happen on Feb. 27, 2019? Will there be one United Methodist Church? What can we do? These questions are followed by more questions: questions that may be coming out of concern, fear, anxiety, sadness, or anger. In the midst of all these emotions, the gospel lectionary for Feb. 17, the Sunday before the start of the 2019 Special Session of General Conference, and Sunday, Feb. 24, during General Conference, are excerpts from Jesus' Sermon on the Plain (known in Matthew as the Sermon on the Mount). In this great sermon, Jesus does not speak about the “institutional church” or ecclesiastical hierarchies; he talks about the vital markers of our Christian discipleship. Those markers need to be our main focus as individual Christians. When that is our focus, our question on Feb. 27 will be: “What kind of Christian witness have our delegates, presiding officers, and all those entrusted with the work of General Conference demonstrated, first to God, and then to the world?” (keeping in mind that half the audience – especially children, youth and young adults – will view the process through social media.) When someone asked me what I thought after I first saw the movie “Gandhi,” I said I felt like I had gone to a spiritual convention. What I meant was that I recognized Jesus' teaching in Gandhi's life story. In my opinion, though Gandhi was not Christian, it is clear he had not only read the Sermon on the Mount but had internalized it and tried to live by it. What a witness for the glory of God! On Feb. 27, perhaps the questions we should be asking are not those coming from pride, fear, or judgment, but rather about whether we have been faithful to God through our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Have our decisions enabled or inspired others to become disciples of Jesus Christ? Have we listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit? Have we demonstrated our discipleship through our actions and how we treated one another in the midst of our Christian conferencing? Interestingly, on March 3, when the delegates and attendees of General Conference return to their churches to share what happened with their congregations – especially the children, youth and young adults – the gospel reading is about the transfiguration of Jesus. In the transfiguration story, three beloved disciples of Jesus Christ had their own theological, missional, and secular outlooks when the voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" (Luke 9:35). During our days in St. Louis, my prayer is that the 864 delegates will listen intently to what God is saying to them. Before casting their votes, I pray they will prayerfully listen, not just to the articulate speeches, but to the stories of those children of God who will be most affected by their decisions. It is my earnest prayer and greatest hope that in the midst of all our fears and anxieties, God will pour upon General Conference new and fresh winds of the Holy Spirit, filled with the love of Christ, so that to God be the glory, and the 2019 Special Session of General Conference will enable us to make more disciples for Jesus Christ. In Christ's love, Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar

Recharge Stories that’ll get you through the week. / February 13, 2019 recharge Saving One of America's Last Black Women's Colleges Just two months ago, Bennett College looked like it might have to close its doors. One of the last two remaining historically black colleges for women, Bennett lacked the funds needed to meet its accreditation requirements. But over 55 days, the 146-year-old North Carolina school used social media and found an array of allies in its mad dash to raise $5 million by the February 1 deadline. Bennett ended up raising $8.2 million from 11,000 donors, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. Of that total, $1 million came from nearby High Point University, another Methodist-affiliated institution. The university’s graduates and staff made significant individual donations. "In your toughest times, you know who your friends are," said Bennett President Phyllis Worthy Dawkins. High Point's president, Nido Qubein, put it this way: "We as a neighbor school cannot just stand by." Later, at a news conference announcing that Bennett had reached its fundraising goal, he added, ”This isn’t about money. This is about the future of tens of thousands of young women who will exit Bennett to serve the world and plant seeds of greatness.”

I Thessalonians 5:11-24 “11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil. 23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” NIV Dear Sisters and Brothers, I urge you to consider the encouragement of St Paul to the church at Thessalonika—the oldest written document in the New Testament canon. If we follow this advice, we will find ourselves sharing love with one another, love that is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Consider how this would allow God to transform us, reform us, and inform us. Consider how much joy and love would be ours to share with each other and the community around us. Just allow these words to take hold of your heart and mind: Encourage Build up Acknowledge hard work and care Hold in high regard of love Encourage the disheartened Help the weak Be patient with everyone Avoid retribution Do what is good for everyone Rejoice always Pray continuously Give thanks always Do not quench the Spirit Test prophecies Hold to what is good Reject what is evil Are these not things we can strive for, and, indeed hope for by the power of the Holy Spirit? Let us search after joy and love by doing so! Rev. Ralph W Howe, Pastor

I Thessalonians 5:11-24 “11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil. 23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” NIV Dear Sisters and Brothers, I urge you to consider the encouragement of St Paul to the church at Thessalonika—the oldest written document in the New Testament canon. If we follow this advice, we will find ourselves sharing love with one another, love that is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Consider how this would allow God to transform us, reform us, and inform us. Consider how much joy and love would be ours to share with each other and the community around us. Just allow these words to take hold of your heart and mind: • Encourage • Build up • Acknowledge hard work and care • Hold in high regard of love • Encourage the disheartened • Help the weak • Be patient with everyone • Avoid retribution • Do what is good for everyone • Rejoice always • Pray continuously • Give thanks always • Do not quench the Spirit • Test prophecies • Hold to what is good • Reject what is evil Are these not things we can strive for, and, indeed hope for by the power of the Spirit? Let us search after joy and love by doing so! +Pastor Ralph

A Pastoral Prayer for Human Relations Day Based on 1 Samuel 3:1-10 Speak, Lord, For your children are listening For a word of encouragement, for a word of instruction About how we ought to live in these troubled lands. Speak, Lord, For your children are listening, As we drift off to sleep in down-covered beds In marble palaces Or in sawdust padded pallets On dusty floors. We are listening, rich and poor We are listening, young and old For a word from you that will heal our lands. Eternal God, Lover of our souls, we come to you this morning hungering for something from you that will change the rest of our lives. We come hungering for honesty instead of corruption; for generosity instead of greed; we come hungering for integrity instead of intrigue. We come hungering for our neighbors to be fed and for all to have enough honest work to provide for the basic needs of their families. We come this morning hungering for righteousness to flow like rainwater and for the justice like an ever-flowing stream described by the prophets. We come hungering and we come listening for your words to us, describing how we can participate in your great work of re-creation. We come listening for ways that we can become part of the solution and not part of the problem. We come listening in fear and trembling, praying that we will have the courage to respond and act if we hear a clear word of instruction from you. Speak, Lord, For your children are listening… (silence) Amen.

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation From the Center for Action and Contemplation Image credit: Salvator Mundi (detail), Titian, circa 1570, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia Week Five Jesus: Human and Divine Christ Is Everyman and Everywoman Wednesday, January 30, 2019 Many of the early Christian mystics saw Jesus as a dynamic and living (“interactive”) union of human and divine in one person. They saw Christ as the living icon of the eternal union of matter and Spirit in all of creation. Jesus was fully human, just as he was fully divine at the same time. Dualistic thinkers find that impossible to process, so they usually just choose one side or the other. Many who call themselves conservative seem to believe that Jesus is fully divine and we are barely human. Liberals and many non-believers seem to believe that Jesus is only human, and the divine isn’t necessary. Both sides are missing the major point of putting divine and human together! They both lack the proper skill set of the contemplative mind. Matter and Spirit must be recognized as inseparable in Christ before we have the courage and insight to acknowledge and honor the same in ourselves and in the entire universe. Jesus is the Archetype of Everything. One of my favorite Orthodox scholars, Olivier Clément (1921–2009), helps explain early Eastern Christianity’s understanding of Christ with some profound statements of his own: How could humanity on earth, enslaved by death, recover its wholeness? It was necessary to give to dead flesh the ability to share in the life-giving power of God. He, though he is Life by nature, took a body subject to decay in order to destroy in it the power of death and transform it into life. As iron when it is brought in contact with fire immediately begins to share its colour, so the flesh when it has received the life-giving Word into itself is set free from corruption. Thus he put on our flesh to set it free from death. [1] The whole of humanity, “forms, so to speak, a single living being.” In Christ we form a single body, we are all “members of one another.” For the one flesh of humanity and of the earth “brought into contact” in Christ “with the fire” of his divinity, is henceforward secretly and sacramentally deified. [2] Unfortunately, at the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE), this view—the single, unified nature of Christ—was rejected for the “orthodox” belief, held to this day by most Christian denominations, that emphasizes two distinct natures in Jesus instead of one new synthesis. Sometimes what seems like orthodoxy is, in fact, a well-hidden and well disguised heresy! Perhaps quantum physics can help us reclaim what we’ve lost because our dualistic minds couldn’t understand or experience the living paradox that Jesus represents. Now science is confirming there is no clear division between matter and spirit. Everything is interpenetrating. As Franciscan scientist and theologian Ilia Delio says, “We are in the universe and the universe is in us.” Gateway to Presence: If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation. [1] Olivier Clément, The Roots of Christian Mysticism (New City Press: 2013), 47. [2] Ibid., 46.

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation From the Center for Action and Contemplation Week Four Following Jesus Practical Christianity Thursday, January 24, 2019 When the Christian tradition chose an imperial Christ, living inside the world of static and mythic proclamations, it framed belief and understanding in a very small box. The Christ of the creeds is not tethered to earth—to the real, historical, flesh-and-blood Jesus of Nazareth. Instead, this image is mostly mental abstraction with little heart, all spirit, and almost no flesh or soul. Sometimes it seems like Christianity’s only mission is to keep announcing its vision and philosophy. This is what happens when power and empire take over the message. Did you know that the first seven Councils of the Church, agreed upon by both East and West, were all either convened or formally presided over by emperors? This is no small point. Emperors and governments do not tend to be interested in an ethic of love, service, or nonviolence (God forbid!), and surely not forgiveness unless it somehow helps them stay in power. Mere information is rarely helpful unless it also enlightens and transforms your life. In Franciscan theology, truth is always for the sake of love—not an absolute end in itself, which too often becomes the worship of an ideology. In other words, any good idea that does not engage the body, the heart, the physical world, and the people around us will tend to be more theological problem solving and theory than any real healing of people and institutions. Ironically, healing is what Jesus was all about! The word “healing” did not return to mainline Christian vocabulary until the 1970’s, and even then it was widely resisted, which I know from my own experience. [1] In the Catholic tradition, we had pushed healing off to the very last hour of life and called the sacrament “Extreme Unction,” apparently unaware that Jesus provided free health care in the middle of life for people who were suffering, and it was not just an “extreme” measure to get them into the next world. You wouldn’t guess this from the official creeds but, after all is said and done, doing is more important than believing. Jesus was clearly more concerned with what Buddhists call “right action” (“orthopraxy” in Christianity) than with right saying or right thinking. You can hear this message very clearly in his parable of the two sons in Matthew 21:28-31: One son says he won’t work in the vineyard, but then does, while the other says he will go, but in fact doesn’t. Jesus told his listeners that he preferred the one who actually goes, although saying the wrong words, over the one who says the right words but does not act. How did we miss that? Humanity now needs a Jesus who is historical, relevant for real life, physical and concrete, like we are. A Jesus whose life can save us even more than his death does. A Jesus we can imitate in practical ways and who sets the bar for what it means to be fully human. Gateway to Presence: If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation. [1] See Francis MacNutt, Healing (Ave Maria Press: 1974). I worked with Francis in the 1970s and witnessed many levels of healing with my own eyes. Just as in the Gospels, healings triggered a great deal of fear, pushback, and denial from the “faithful.” Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe (Convergent Books: 2019), 105-107.

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation From the Center for Action and Contemplation Week Four Following Jesus Belief or Discipleship? Tuesday, January 22, 2019 I often say that we do not think ourselves into a new way of living, but we live ourselves into a new way of thinking. I’m not suggesting that theory and theology are unimportant; but I believe that faith is more about how we live on a daily basis than making verbal assent to this or that idea. In fact, my life’s work in many ways has been trying to move heady doctrines and dogmas to the level of actual experience and lifestyles that are an alternative to our consumer culture. In today’s reflection, Shane Claiborne—an Evangelical I deeply respect—invites us to quite literally follow Jesus: Over the past few decades, our Christianity has become obsessed with what Christians believe rather than how Christians live. We talk a lot about doctrines but little about practice. But in Jesus we don’t just see a presentation of doctrines but an invitation to join a movement that is about demonstrating God’s goodness to the world. This kind of doctrinal language infects our language when we say things like, “Are you a believer?” Interestingly, Jesus did not send us into the world to make believers but to make disciples [see Matthew 28:18-20]. You can worship Jesus without doing the things he says. We can believe in him and still not follow him. In fact, there’s a passage in Corinthians that says, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3, author’s paraphrase). At times our evangelical fervor has come at the cost of spiritual formation. For this reason, we can end up with a church full of believers, but followers of Jesus can be hard to come by. One of the reasons that Francis of Assisi is so beloved is that he followed Jesus so closely. In Shane’s words: Francis did something simple and wonderful. He read the Gospels where Jesus says, “Sell your possessions and give the money to the poor,” [Matthew 19:21] “Consider the lilies and the sparrows and do not worry about tomorrow,” [Luke 12:24, 27] “Love your enemies,” [Matthew 5:44] and he decided to live as if Jesus meant the stuff he said. Francis turned his back on the materialism and militarism of his world and said yes to Jesus. Gateway to Presence: If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation. Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo, Red Letter Revolution: What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said? (Thomas Nelson: 2012), 9, 42.

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation From the Center for Action and Contemplation Week Four Following Jesus New Wineskins Sunday, January 20, 2019 Jesus said, “People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” —Matthew 9:17 Christians have often preached a Gospel largely comprised of words, attitudes, and inner salvation experiences. People say they are saved, they are “born again,” yet how do we really know if someone is saved? Are they actually following Jesus? Do they love the poor? Are they free from their ego? Are they patient in the face of persecution? It’s not enough to talk about some kind of new inebriating wine, some new ideas. Without new wineskins—changed institutions, systems, and structures—I would argue that transformation cannot be deep or lasting. As Dorothy Day (1897–1980) often said in her inimitable Kingdom style, “Nothing is going to change until we stop accepting this dirty, rotten system!” Personal “salvation” cannot be divorced from social and systemic implications. It’s easier to talk about the wine without the wineskins, to talk about salvation theories without any new world order. Unfortunately, Christianity has not always had a positive impact on Western civilization and the peoples it has colonized or evangelized. So-called Christian nations are often the most militaristic, greedy, and untrue to the teacher we claim to follow. Our societies are more often based not upon the servant leadership that Jesus modeled, but on the common domination and control model that produces racism, classism, sexism, power seeking, and income inequality. That’s not to say our ancestors didn’t have faith, that Grandma and Grandpa were not good people. But by and large we Christians did not produce positive change in culture or institutions that operated differently than the rest. Christianity has shaped some wonderfully liberated saints, prophets, and mystics. They tried to create some new wineskins, but often the church itself resisted their calls to structural reform. Take for example the father of my own religious community, Saint Francis of Assisi. He was marginalized as a bit of a fanatic or eccentric by mainline Catholicism, as illustrated by no Pope ever taking his name until our present Pope Francis. Even today many Christians keep Jesus on a seeming pedestal, worshiping a caricature on a cross or a bumper-sticker slogan while avoiding what Jesus said and did. We keep saying, “We love Jesus,” but it is more as a God-figure than someone to imitate. Gateway to Presence: If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation. Adapted from Richard Rohr with John Bookser Feister, Jesus’ Plan for a New World: The Sermon on the Mount (Franciscan Media: 1996), 30-31.

Daily Dig for January 18 Dorothy Day What we would like to do is change the world – make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended for them to do.… We can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing that we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend. Source: “Love Is the Measure,” The Catholic Worker, June 1946

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation From the Center for Action and Contemplation Week Three Jesus: Wisdom Teacher The Path of Descent Friday, January 18, 2019 Guest writer and CAC faculty member Cynthia Bourgeault continues exploring Jesus as a wisdom teacher. Jesus teaches the art of metanoia or “going into the larger mind.” Underlying all his teaching is a clarion call to a radical shift in consciousness: away from the alienation and polarization of the egoic operating system and into the unified field of divine abundance that can be perceived only through the heart. But how does one make this shift in consciousness? It’s one thing to admire it from a distance, but quite another to create it within oneself. This is where spiritual praxis comes into play. “Praxis” means the path, the actual practice you follow to bring about the result that you’re yearning for. I think it’s fair to say that all of the great spiritual paths lead toward the same center—the larger, nondual mind as the seat of personal consciousness—but they get there by different routes. While Jesus is typical of the wisdom tradition in his vision of what a whole and unified human being looks like, the route he lays out for getting there is very different from anything that had ever been seen on the planet up to that point. It is still radical in our own time and definitely the “road less traveled” among the various schools of human transformation. Many of the difficulties we run into trying to make our Christianity work stem from the fact that we haven’t realized how different Jesus’ approach really is. By trying to contain this new wine in old wineskins, we inadvertently missed its own distinct flavor. In Jesus, everything hangs together around a single center of gravity, and we need to know what this center is before we can sense the subtle and cohesive power of his path. What name might we give to this center? The apostle Paul suggests the word kenosis. In Greek, the verb kenosein means “to let go,” or “to empty oneself,” and this is the word Paul chooses to describe “the mind of Christ.” Here is what Paul has to say (Philippians 2:6-8): Though his state was that of God, yet he did not deem equality with God something he should cling to. Rather, he emptied himself, and assuming the state of a slave, he was born in human likeness. He, being known as one of us, humbled himself, obedient unto death, even death on the cross. In this beautiful hymn, Paul recognizes that Jesus had only one “operational mode.” Everything he did, he did by self-emptying. He emptied himself and descended into human form. And he emptied himself still further, “even unto death on the cross.” In every life circumstance, Jesus always responded with the same motion of self-emptying—or to put it another way, descent: taking the lower place, not the higher. Gateway to Presence: If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation. Adapted from Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New Perspective on Christ and His Message (Shambhala: 2008), 62-66.

Merry Christmas to all of you. Let us be the peace we pray for that love may abound where hope is in short supply.

Welcome one and all to our Christmas Eve Service at 5pm. Something for the whole family! Hot cocoa and cookies, stories, songs and candles!

Inspirational worship service this past Sunday. Our Ghanaian choir moved us with their outpouring of love for Christ through their energetic music. Join us this Sunday at 10am.

Pastor Ralph talks about our will vs. God's will. Watch the whole message on YouTube https://youtu.be/v-QhPmWxUkk.

Pastor Ralph talks about our will vs. God's will. Watch the whole message on YouTube https://youtu.be/v-QhPmWxUkk.

Hello from Danielson United Methodist Church!

Sermon series "Experience Hope" at FUMC Pittsfield. Instead of despair, pain and loneliness, you can have HOPE, PEACE and JOY. Join us and learn how! #ExperienceHope

10/23/16

Glorious Sunday Worship of 5 New Members of our Church and 4 Blessed Baptism's

Holy Communion 8/21/16

Rev. Suzanne Asopo Ashema's Prayer in both English and French

Joshua on the organ playing "O God Beyond All Praising" 8/21/16