“How is it with your soul?”

We have been hitting deep (and sometimes poorly worded) questions through our worship series, “I’ve Been Meaning to Ask.” In our weekly conversations, we have found other ways to be curious and courageous with one another, using questions as: What has shaped who you are? What makes your heart hurt? How can I show up for you in this moment?

Those who aren’t the touchy-feely type may be uninterested or even intimidated by these questions. But these aren’t questions just for folks like the Care Team to ask alone; they are for all of us!

A new book, Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel  by Dr. Lorette Ross,  has recently been added to the library collection and is ready for checkout! Read on for a review by First Church member Susan Duncan.

The newest revision of our United Methodist Social Principles is hot off the Cokesbury press!

The Social Principles are our denomination’s ethical aspirations for the common good in public policies and personal commitments.

I first encountered these principles in confirmation class. Boy did they pack a wallop! I remember the pride I felt when I learned that in the stickiest, murkiest, and most important issues of our day, the United Methodist Church knew where it stood.

For the first time since they were first approved in 1972, the social principles have undergone a complete revision with 4 primary focuses: the community of all creation, the economic community, the social community, and the political community.

What a terrible and meaningful question!

On Sunday, we saw how this question can be asked with unchecked assumptions that prevent us from the kind of curiosity we need for meaningful connection (catch the full conversation and sermon here).

After worship, many of you shared about the times this question has been posed to you because of how you look or how you speak. Some also shared times that you asked this question yourself, not realizing the assumptions that you had made about the person you were asking!

Doom to you who legislate evil,
who make laws that make victims—
Laws that make misery for the poor,
that rob my destitute people of dignity,
Exploiting defenseless widows,
taking advantage of homeless children.
(Isaiah 10:1-2, The Message)

The line zigzagged down the church sidewalks, longer than I’d ever seen it before.

The Lift UP food pantry was about to open for the day. Patiently waiting in a well-ordered line stood beautiful folks of all ages and stages of life, all races and ethnicities, all in effort to stave off the pangs of hunger.

For United Methodists in our region, the annual session of the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference is the room where it happens. As we sleepily shared last Sunday, our own Portland First delegation has returned from three very full days of Annual Conference* in Salem.

Our lay members to Annual Conference were responsible for supporting creation care legislation, participating in our legislative sessions, leading music in worship, praying over the conference, and taking part in the Young People’s Address. Portland First was well represented amongst our Methodist siblings.

Jesus’ march to Jerusalem at the start of Holy Week is full of clues for us today.

From time to time, I get sucked into a good murder mystery. The less expressly realistic, the better. I’m not here for the gory details or the moments of depravity; I’m here for the curiosity.

In a good mystery, you wonder and discover your way through the lives of everyone involved: the suspects, the witnesses, the deceased, even the detectives themselves.

Jesus’ march to Jerusalem at the start of Holy Week is full of clues for us today.

Scripture study tells us that there were likely two marches happening that week:

Jesus, coming from the east, and Pilate, from the west.

The backdrop for the scene is the Feast of Passover. Passover in the ancient world (when there was still a temple standing in Jerusalem) was a remarkable, exciting, high-energy, and chaotic time.

“When Pentecost Day arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.” – Acts 2:1-4

“I solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

There are a lot of half-truths hanging out in our world. Some are innocent and simply don’t catch the whole picture. Others are intentionally deceptive. We encounter these half-truths all over the place, from legislation (especially their titles) to marketing campaigns to our understanding of complex social issues to our relationships to our life of faith. Fact checking is no longer a measure of extra precaution, but a regular way of life.

Nothing worth doing can be accomplished in a lifetime;
therefore, we must be saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes sense
in any immediate context of history;
therefore, we must be saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous,
can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.

-Reinhold Niebuhr

In the Bible, Tabitha was a widow, “known for her good works and acts of charity,” particularly sewing clothes for the poor and needy. At FUMC the Tabitha Circle continues this tradition. The women of Tabitha (men are welcome – but at present none are among the members!) continue this tradition by using their sewing skills to create items of utility and beauty for those in need.

Long partners in crime, Brent Tanaka and I were on deck to preach. We’d known each other since we could remember, having been raised up week after week in the comfortable wooden pews of First Church’s 1908 Beaux-Arts sanctuary. Seattle First Church, that is.

No longer toddling around the nursery, we were now part of a small-but-mighty group of youth who descended upon this old downtown church each Sunday with powdered sugar donut holes in one hand and Starbucks coffee in the other. To jazz it up, we painted a labyrinth on the wall of what we affectionately called “the Crow’s Nest”: a random, disconnected room in the corner of the upper balcony that served as the youth space. It was a long stair climb down to the main floor of the Sanctuary and an even longer climb down to the Blaine Room - notable, as it held more snacks.

No powdered sugar on our hands today, though. Today was Youth Sunday.

I’ve been thinking about the moms this week.

On Monday, I had the joy of making a house call to two new moms in our congregation and coo over their 10-day-old bundle of delight. On Sunday, a couple of our musical offerings will be from or about Mary, Jesus’ mom. This weekend, I’ll miss out on the All-Church Workday because I’ll be on our monthly trip to my mom’s adult family home. I’ve been looking at old photos of her, such as the header photo taken the year she began to lose her memory.

This week I’ve been thinking about the Tower of Babel. Do you know the story? 

Around Christmastime, we sometimes need to emphasize to children that Jesus is not watching their every move with scrutiny like the popular tales of Santa Claus, but is rather an accompanying presence that they can always turn to no matter if they feel happy or sad.

This Sunday I shared that the resurrected Jesus’ accompanying presence (and/or watchful eye) really was everywhere – at least that was certainly the case in my office!

This week I’ve been thinking about the Tower of Babel. Do you know the story? 

In the beginning all of God’s people had one language and the same words. They migrated together to a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They decided, when there, to build a city. This city would have a tower that reached to the heavens. So the people built a city and a tower that, indeed, reached the heavens. God saw this, and said, “Look! They are one people and they have one language; this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do now will be impossible for them.” 

The story of these days is a truly disturbing one.

This week we follow the story of a man arrested under a shroud of secrecy, for no clear crime.

“What accusation do you have against this man?” it is asked. The accusers don’t care to provide a steady answer.

It’s for the greater good, the authorities say to themselves. He is dangerous, he threatens our order of life, we must deal with him swiftly, they think.

Instead of releasing those whose crime is uncertain, they petition to release the insurrectionist.

As Diana Butler Bass summarizes, this week we follow the story of a government who “seizes an innocent man, tortures and jails him on trumped-up charges that change during a manipulated ‘legal’ process. The prisoner is left at the mercy of dehumanizing politicians and jailers to do what they please.”

It is Maundy Thursday. It is Thursday, April 17 in America.

In just days, we’ll live it like it’s the first time: palm branches will wave in the air and lay on the ground, the table of God’s grace will be set, the story of the cross will be read again, and we’ll wait what bated breath for what resurrection Easter Sunday will bring. Somewhere in the mix, a few thousand easter eggs will be scattered and (hopefully) found as well!

As our Lenten journey comes to an end, we enter into Holy Week.

We begin with a Palm Sunday celebration on April 13 (8:30am in the Chapel; 10:30am in the Sanctuary), followed by a Luau and Community Egg Hunt!

We’ll continue into Maundy Thursday Communion and Tenebrae at 7pm in the Sanctuary, then conclude with a celebration of Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday at 9am and 11am in the Sanctuary.

The ability to change one’s mind is quite possibly the most underrated personal trait.

Detractors call it waffling, inconsistency, lack of confidence, weakness of character - or in extreme circumstances, even betrayal. Proponents know it as cognitive flexibility. The Catholic Church calls it a “clarification.” I call it the greatest leadership skill you can have.