170

473921304958601

my words even less use

I wish I could talk in numbers

Crime is always about opportunity

We never expect the worst even as it arrives

9/11 sure did give people what to talk about

11/7 I remember just Bosnians always had things to talk about

That day they didn't

Nothing has changed except our interests

I worked a transition project so well funded till it wasn't

The chains of command are long yet nimble

We actually think we know better

We were far from world war II

We gain capitol and rest of world destroyed

We have rested on our laurels and 14 million dead Russians

three Mediterranean staples

Grain, grapes, and olives this was the basis of the Pax Romana.  That peace that the Mediterranean world enjoyed so long it got named.  Palestine, the promise land would go though much in this period.  Here we are talking about a period that was so monumental to our brothers of Abraham.  For us the most important is undoubtedly Jesus for them it was the destruction of the second temple.   

When you look up expulsion of the Jews you really do have to be specific.  After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD they were expelled from their home land.  Families would have members in several cities.  Not because they wanted to, but because any city might expel them and they would have somewhere to go.

They certainly not the only victims of this world.  They are not the only aggressor in this world either. 

So their was this peace based on flour, alcohol and oil.  Alcohol still has a unique place in our society, but to them sketchy water was more the reason.  Alcohol like kombucha would be safe to drink.  Water you would often be taking a big chance in their world.  

We have this interesting scripture from John that over laps with what Pastor Wilma preached last week about the bread of life.  I have been following the liturgical calendar for some time now of our church.  I didn't know that it could over lap. 

Two ways to look here.  The divisions we often see in the gospel are arbitrary.  Preaching is much like cooking: good in good out.  Last week we certainly feasted as we often find ourselves doing with the word.  I think we all know something of what it means to be full of the word.  Even more so because there was a time we were empty.  Interesting how things work out that way.

I was walking through a Serbian village with my family.  We came down by the river side.  There were plastic bags more than there was river it seemed.  Wasn't sure how that could make sense.  I find this need to make sense.  As we talked I learned they had never removed trash from the villages.  How long had there been these villages.  Jesus would be no stranger there.  To the Pax Romana at least.

Now two mysteries why was it not even worse.  How could they have never sent a garbage truck to the villages of the Balkans?  Thing was I remembered from watching my mother in-law there wasn't much garbage.  The citrus rind she would use to make syrup for the winter would grace the most amazing cakes you could imagine.  Something was peeled something was fed or composted.  What we miss of these stories is the sustainability Jesus was sharing with them.  They understood.  They didn't send garbage trucks to their villages.  They only sent transportation for the bounty of the valley.

Seldom happens that I have great mysteries solved with so little effort.  There was no garbage problem in the past because there was no garbage.  Every single time I go and buy the smallest of things people try to give me bags.  I go to places more that listen to me and ask if I want a bag.  Or sell it to me.  What we see as an answer to the Balkan villages is to truck garbage from the villages like we do here.  Progress they say.

The Balkans are closer than we are to what Jesus ate.  They now have big box stores, but you would be surprised you can pickle almost anything.  I didn't even understand it myself when I lived it, but it taught me.  What my mother in-law had most was flour, alcohol and oil.  When my brother in-law returned from Canada he asked her how much her weekly groceries had increased having me my young wife and baby there.  I will never forget her face for two reasons.  One she defended me.  Two she did not understand the question.  She thought in decades not weeks.  She had no idea her weekly cost.  She was ready for ten years and I will tell you it does not take the space we think.

One day we had lunch together.  She started crying.  I asked her what is wrong.  She said she was afraid she would not be able to go to Sara's wedding.  She had been born two or three days before.  She thought in decades.   As American bombs rained down she found it hard to imagine the visa she would one day have.  We last spent extensive time together when my son was born here.  He still loves yogurt.

I grew to understand the Mediterranean diet.  It started with bread.  Bread as Pastor Wilma noted is something we know.  In Bosnia it is funny there really is only one type of bread.  They call the last piece that you use to eat the last scraps off your plate with, "your strength."  I took couple dozen Bosnian kids to the sea side and bought them brown bread.  They did not believe it was bread and would not touch it.  I was witness or I would not have believed it.  They liked to have fun with me they said I spoke Hungarian.  Madjarski, funny we call them Hungarians cause they reminded us of the Huns, us being old English speakers.

As in the time of Jesus and now the rich and elite ate whatever they wanted.  We know there were many vomitoriums built during the Pax Romana.  None for the poor.  They had baths I guess and theater.  The poor mostly flour alcohol and oil.  Bread almost a medium because the oil is what will keep you alive.  Little meat bits here and there more for flavor for the poor.  Remember even our soul food comes from what was left to the slaves.  People make do.  Chicken feet make soup.  They didn't used to have much garbage in the villages.

All this really to get deeper in where we were last week.  Over lapped.  Before we can understand what Jesus is talking about with the bread of life we need to see what the bread alone.  Sustainability.  I do come to this idea that anything can be good for you.  I don't eat meat, but there are people that do in these blue zones identified around the world where people live longer.  Nothing healthier about the pork they have there really, but the culture of making.  All the work involved is almost a balm for the ill effects we feel.

I could go to the store and eat anything I want at any time.  Why this is a goal is a sign of how far we have lost our way.  Entertainment seem headed that way.  We want to be entertained by anything at any time.  I am as I have mentioned before many things and one is a dead head.  A person who enjoys the Grateful Dead.  When I first learned of them there were these tapers who were like key keepers who passed and shared the music.  You needed connections for the music to flow.

I knew at the time eventually there would be satellites broadcasting down the entire library of their music.  Today they certainly do.  I still discover new music of theirs.  A band not together in more than 25 years.  I often think of the tapers.  I only knew two.  The world changes and we are not always prepared.  All the music at my finger tips.  All this garbage flowing from our villages. 

The tapers were like the villages of our community.  Produced real good and no garbage.  Well, even the garbage had a purpose we could discuss what a bad night they had.  If you know anything about the band the worst night they had was probably Woodstock.  We have this community but our villages don't produce anything really.  Our community is a shell of itself and we don't yet know how we will live.  Our river's are chocked with plastic bags.

So here we have today's scripture: John 6:56-69  from the Amplified Bible

56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood [believes in Me, accepts Me as Savior] remains in Me, and I [in the same way remain] in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, even so the one who feeds on Me [believes in Me, accepts Me as Savior] will also live because of Me. 58 This is the Bread which came down out of heaven. It is not like [the manna that] our fathers ate and they [eventually] died; the one who eats this Bread [believes in Me, accepts Me as Savior] will live forever.”

This is where we ended last week contrasting the daily bread with this living bread. 

Now we continue this week.

59 He said these things in a synagogue while He was teaching in Capernaum.

60 When many of His disciples heard this, they said, “This is a difficult and harsh and offensive statement. Who can [be expected to] listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, aware that His disciples were complaining about it, asked them, “Does this cause you to stumble and take offense? 62 What then [will you think] if you see the Son of Man ascending to [the realm] where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh conveys no benefit [it is of no account]. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life [providing eternal life]. 64 But [still] there are some of you who do not believe and have faith.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, “This is the reason why I have told you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him [that is, unless he is enabled to do so] by the Father.”

Most commentators here feel Jesus is talking beyond his 12 to all the people who had started to follow him.  In many ways it is like a message we hear in our popular culture.  You are what you eat.  This is something we don't like to hear.  How do I know? they sell a lot of hot dogs.  Mechanically separated swept from the floor.  They are certainly not the only offender.  

Even good choices can be bad.  We have less trans fats in our diet, but we have palm oil in everything now which is great for us.  Not so great for the orangutan.  Monoculture breeds garbage.  Often problem's solution cause more problems.  Trucking plastic to the village and trucking garbage out seems insane.  In many ways we are the beginning of the end.  Our world certainly broken enough to be saved.

66 As a result of this many of His disciples abandoned Him, and no longer walked with Him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve [disciples], “You do not want to leave too, do you?” 68 Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You [alone] have the words of eternal life [you are our only hope]. 69 We have believed and confidently trusted, and [even more] we have come to know [by personal observation and experience] that You are the Holy One of God [the Christ, the Son of the living God].”

Peter foreshadows Paul here even before the comforter arrived.  He must have felt something of the armor of God.  “You do not want to leave too, do you?”  I wonder here if Jesus in this question is really saying to them I need you.  Jesus certainly saved us all, but doesn't ask us to do the same things.  The twelve again perhaps here found their greatest moment.  There would be more disciples but they would never be more than these twelve who did not want to go.

It only takes a spark to get a fire going the song says, I dare say it was this spark.  Even Judas was counted then.  Not sure how much we can say about his role, but then again not sure how much I can say about your role, but I can tell you something Paul said: 

From Ephesians 6:10-20 Amplified Bible

10 In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [draw your strength from Him and be empowered through your union with Him] and in the power of His [boundless] might. 11 Put on the full armor of God [for His precepts are like the splendid armor of a heavily-armed soldier], so that you may be able to [successfully] stand up against all the schemes and the strategies and the deceits of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places. 13 Therefore, put on the complete armor of God, so that you will be able to [successfully] resist and stand your ground in the evil day [of danger], and having done everything [that the crisis demands], to stand firm [in your place, fully prepared, immovable, victorious]. 14 So stand firm and hold your ground, having tightened the wide band of truth (personal integrity, moral courage) around your waist and having put on the breastplate of righteousness (an upright heart), 15 and having strapped on your feet the gospel of peace in preparation [to face the enemy with firm-footed stability and the readiness produced by the good news]. 16 Above all, lift up the [protective] shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

18 With all prayer and petition pray [with specific requests] at all times [on every occasion and in every season] in the Spirit, and with this in view, stay alert with all perseverance and petition [interceding in prayer] for all God’s people. 19 And pray for me, that words may be given to me when I open my mouth, to proclaim boldly the mystery of the good news [of salvation], 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. And pray that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly and courageously, as I should.

Is the lesson of Judas that in any group of twelve humans there will be failure even in the best organization. Can we put failure to purpose.  Garbage to renewal?

There is a story of the village our church comes from shared by Roy Larik during our summer speaker series.  There were many good things about this little area.  Two rivers and these ever so useful natural bluestone outcrops.  You could almost see how the first class at Nottingham might have thought that God was on their side.  Anyways the interesting story is about the mills that sprung up almost at the same time if not just before settlers arrived.

The key infrastructure was the mills that would grind the grain.  They encouraged or maybe brought the people here.  Build it and they will come if you will.  Jesus would feel at home.  They certainly didn't eat anything whenever they wanted.  They ate with the seasons like during the Pax Romana.  We are not really that far removed.  Biggest change this crude oil they first found useful in Pennsylvania.  We have come a long way in a short time.  These bags made from oil choking rivers.  Not so long ago we didn't have much use for that oil.

There is something I haven't mentioned.  There is more of us.  Is that better? Well it is not sustainable what we are.

Garbage from the village is what we truck out more than anything it now seems.  We are in-between.  The Pax Romana is broken.  This is not what we are going to be.  Praise the Lord!

Let us pray:

Give us this day our daily bread and what is more give us this living bread to not only live eternally, but to live the way of our Lord.  Help us to find our way in this complex world.  Let us see why we are here and let us see where we are going.  We ask you to share your will to each of us that we may play our role.  Bless us to be a blessing to someone.  Bless someone to be a blessing for us.  And again and again around that we would go.  We ask in the blessed name of our savior Jesus Christ, Amen

Benediction

Go see then do.

Pray and put on all the armor of God

This world is fear filled, but we are not afraid

Let God's will be done in us and it will be enough

Let God's will be done in them and it will be enough

Let us find one and other together and it will be enough

Thanks be to God, go where you are sent my brothers and sisters

Nottingham UMC 8/22/2021

100 Years

This day I realized my granny was my age when I was born

She would have been 100 years I never really thought of her age

Many times I found myself alone on her side 

Something about these generations we communicated

Sometimes it is hard to remember what to hang on to

Thing about children is we don't remember the best years

I was no different and do not remember more than I do

What I have is more than I will ever have

I think of my friend Karen as she spoke to herself

She said I must not be praying hard enough

I smiled that was not the reason

77 years not round

We are all children

Thing about children is we don't remember the best years

More than we will ever know

200 years a class where nothing new is ever learned

Found in Translation

I thought I had some odd jobs before I worked with the tree people

Did not think work could get stranger 

There are certain statistics that are easy to collect that no one has interest

We talked every week until we had work

The office emptied and filled out of the wood work

The older women showed up so we talked

The younger women started to drive

They would come yell at me cause I would let them

She said she did not ask for all these hardships

I told her no one made her come 

Harun was better than a translator he reminded her "ha"

That was the noise she made he was there

In Kakuma they tell stories

Oppression builds community

Eid al-Adha

Because we can be different things.  I want to start with something different.  A transcendental thought. 

"But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time." RW Emerson

Now what is a transcendental thought?  Transcendentalism is a 19th-century school of American theological and philosophical thought that combined respect for nature and self-sufficiency with elements of Unitarianism and German Romanticism.

I consider myself a Transcendentalist among other things, Walt Whitman one of my favorites.

"He is the Answerer,
What can be answer'd he answers, and what cannot be answer'd
he shows how it cannot be answer'd.
...The words of the true poems give you more than poems,
They give you to form for yourself poems, religions, politics, war,
peace, behavior, histories, essays, daily life, and every thing
else,
They balance ranks, colors, races, creeds, and the sexes,..."

A second idea I want to talk about an informal survey I did this last week among people I came across.  I asked a number of people if they knew what the big Muslim holiday was last week.  I wonder some of you may know.  When I was younger I would assume if  I knew something everyone knew that something.  It took me a long while to learn that not everyone had the interest I had.

Complete disclosure I only know because I served in a Muslim country for the global board of ministries for several years.  Also it is funny to me that we know so little of other people's holidays.  In Islam there are really two big holidays.  The first comes at the end of Ramadan which is the month of fasting.  Makes complete sense to have a holiday after a month of sacrifice.

Interesting at this holiday they give to the poor.  As a young man far from home and family working in the war in Bosnia I was seen as poor so my student's parents would always send me baklava.  Funny how people in the midst of war but in their family can see you the UNPROFORac who came to keep their peace as poor.  I was happy to receive their blessing in any case.

Later in Cleveland when I worked with Muslim refugees it was this holiday that helped them through the year.  Established families in Cleveland would come to the refugee enclave and just give.  Pay rent you name it - was a celebration of sacrifice and joint struggle as I saw it.

But it was the second big holiday that occurred last week.  I think we should know each others holidays.  What they celebrated was something we celebrate.  Abraham willing to sacrifice his son to God.  In a real sense it is what brings us here today.

Pastor Roland Moore, the last elder to serve Nottingham in an official capacity preached last night about a personal relationship with God.  Well it was Abraham's personal relationship with God that brings us here and what they celebrated last week.

Eid al-Adha

This important Muslim festival lasts four days and marks the moment when Ibrahim was willing to sacrifice Ismael, his son, for Allah. Today, most Saudi families celebrate Eid al-Adha by dressing up in their finest clothing, saying special prayers, and slaughtering lambs to share their meat with everyone.

In my time in Bosnia I would see lambs on balconies in the city in preparation for the holiday.  This holiday had a different feel.   My friends couldn't really explain their religion too well.  Many had just recently turned to religion.  Believe me war will make you do that.

I didn't have much better luck.  They asked me what happens if you do something wrong.  I thought about it and said, "well they have to forgive you."  We went in circles like that.

Overall, there are about 2.3 billion Christians in the world and 1.8 billion Muslims. World Jewish population approaching 15 million including my two nephews.  We are the people of Abraham.  It is strange that we know so little of each other.  

One thing I have always believed is the relevance here of Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 Amplified Bible

9 Two are better than one because they have a more satisfying return for their labor; 10 for if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and does not have another to lift him up. 11 Again, if two lie down together, then they keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? 12 And though one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

I believe God has plans on plans.  I have this idea that if God wants to speak to people in different ways then that is how it will be.   There are things we will never know in this life, but patterns are key I think.  The pattern here is we don't know much about the other.  I guess it isn't surprising.  With these two lenses we will look at our scripture today.

John 6:1-21 Amplified Bible

6 After this, Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. 2 A large crowd was following Him because they had seen the signs (attesting miracles) which He continually performed on those who were sick. 3 And Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down there with His disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was approaching. 5 Jesus looked up and saw that a large crowd was coming toward Him, and He said to Philip, “Where will we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 But He said this to test Philip, because He knew what He was about to do. 7 Philip answered, “Two hundred denarii (200 days’ wages) worth of bread is not enough for each one to receive even a little.” 8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, 9 “There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are these for so many people?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down [to eat].” Now [the ground] there was [covered with] an abundance of grass, so the men sat down, about 5,000 in number. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated; the same also with the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they had eaten enough, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover pieces so that nothing will be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and they filled twelve large baskets with pieces from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign (attesting miracle) that He had done, they began saying, “This is without a doubt the promised Prophet who is to come into the world!”

15 Then Jesus, knowing that they were going to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountainside by Himself.

16 When evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, 17 and they got into a boat and started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It was already dark, and Jesus had still not come [back] to them. 18 The sea was getting rough and rising high because a strong wind was blowing. 19 Then, when they had rowed three or four miles [and were near the center of the sea], they saw Jesus walking on the sea and approaching the boat; and they were [terribly] frightened. 20 But Jesus said to them, “It is I (I Am); do not be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take Him on board the boat, and immediately the boat reached the [shore of the] land to which they were going.

A couple of points.  The total number of people may have exceeded 10,000. The disciples did not have enough money to buy so much food, and the small villages in the area would not have had a sufficient quantity of bread to sell to them.  Kind of reminds you of impossible problems we face today.

There was once a German and Bosnian talking about their lives.  The German said I make about one thousand marks and my expenses about nine hundred marks and I manage to put away 0ne hundred marks.  The Bosnian replied I make one hundred marks and my expenses are nine hundred and I don't know how I get through the month.  Jesus never stopped feeding the multitudes.

Many times we have the how.  The woman who grabbed Jesus' robe was healed because power came out.  The little girl got up because Jesus told her, that was the how.  Here in John we are told what happened but we don't know how.

Was Jesus bringing bread from nowhere which I am confident he could.  Was he just seeing what was there that everyone else missed.  I guess my question is was this a hard or easy miracle.  I don't think it was the hardest, but the impact was certainly the greatest.

This here was revolution and everyone there knew it.  "But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time."   Everybody there was there and everything everyone had was on offer.

Jesus knew John tells us.  Then Jesus, knowing that they were going to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountainside by Himself.  This is the heart of the story.  This Jesus walking on water was because Jesus saw a better revolution possible that included us.  These people would have easily thrown off Roman rule.  Well that is what I believe is the reason Jesus left.  He had other fish to fry.

Why was this revolution.  Well in our celebration of our two hundred anniversary as a congregation we have talked often about the first class at Nottingham.  Now I want to talk more about schools.  I mentioned earlier that I like to consider myself in the tradition of the transcendentalists.  The root is to transcend.  I have also mentioned casually that I consider myself a communist.  I know that is trigger word for many people.  People who understand very little.

When I studied international relations we did not call ourselves communists anymore.  We are historical structuralists that is we believe there is a structure to history.  We started in small bands in caves and such places.  We built towns.  Then cities.  We were feudal for a long time.  Then came the capitalists which it is true set us free from Kings.  God told Israel long time ago don't bet on kings.  Few listen.

A communist is a academic who believes that there is something that comes after capitalism.  This in contrast to theories supported in the 1990s in New York specifically about the end of history.  Pre 9/11 America was so quaint.  Again we call ourselves historical structuralist because we think there is a structure to history.  Jesus tells us there is one.  In this scripture imagine Jesus had to beat it so the first revolution would not go.

Again what was so revolutionary.  Everyone had.  No one lacked.  Sure people who call themselves communists have lacked.  Lenin was a Bolshevik, he didn't trust the people.  Bolshevik means majority and they ruled as authoritarians.  They wanted to skip history.  Lenin thought he could speed up history.  He might have been able to.  People don't know the last few years of his life he had a bullet in his neck.  He told everybody don't let Stalin rule.  I'm not sure what else he could have done.

His brother was a revolutionary who was killed.  Lenin went to work every day.  The world is complex.  God has plans on Plans.

Our world today is losing its way in so many ways.  In Haiti gun men came into the presidents house and killed the president.   Michel-Rolph Trouillot, a Haitian anthropologist who died in 2012, wrote: “History is the fruit of power, but power itself is never so transparent that its analysis becomes superfluous. The ultimate mark of power may be its invisibility; the ultimate challenge, the exposition of its roots.”

What I personally find distressing is their in no speculation really about motives.  In 1994 when we sent troops to help we signed contracts.  Big contracts for such a small place.  There are ripples from 1994 I am sure and there is exploitation by elites.  Someone was trying to reform. 

 Matthew 5:11 Amplified Bible

11 “Blessed [morally courageous and spiritually alive with life-joy in God’s goodness] are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil things against you because of [your association with] Me.

This is not a political message.  I don't want you to be a communist, but I do want to understand the schools of thought that believe history and History with a big H have a structure.  Mostly because one of those that shows us is Jesus.  Why was it so revolutionary.    Now [the ground] there was [covered with] an abundance of grass, so the men sat down, about 5,000 in number. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated; the same also with the fish, as much as they wanted. 

We don't have any how here, but what do we know?  Everyone there present, above time .  Then Jesus, knowing that they were going to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountainside by Himself.

We marvel at the how and it tells us Jesus is Lord, but we don't have a how here.  Did Jesus find more in us or just give us.  Well yes: We know where John started.  

John 1:1 Amplified Bible

1 In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.

It is interesting to wonder when these people realized that their king had left.  I guess it is also a question of how many of them kept Jesus as their king in the second revolution of Jesus: the new covenant. Many I imagine, but they would tell people they knew Jesus when.  They were ready to take over the world before anyone else.

I don't mean to dismiss the end of the scripture but I almost feel like walking on water gets too much hype as it were.  If there was a preview of a movie of Jesus' life you could do worse then him walking on water.  You wouldn't show him sneaking away from the first revolution.  I think Jesus saw exactly where they would take him, but Jesus was thinking about you and me and the other.   

I think it is very cool that Jesus pulls the plug on the first revolution.  I am a man but I have been something else is how I described it to my son.  It isn't so hard to be a man cause I have been something else.  I have been a boy.  It is hard to be a boy because you have never been something else.  We love to talk about how God knows the number of hairs on our head, but seldom remember the same is true for our worst enemy.  It is a simple faith.  It is a complex world.

We read something else today in Ephesians 3:14-21 from the Amplified Bible again.  And I will try to tie these schools and classes and children of Abraham together.

14 For this reason [grasping the greatness of this plan by which Jews and Gentiles are joined together in Christ] I bow my knees [in reverence] before the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ], 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name [God—the first and ultimate Father]. 16 May He grant you out of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self, [indwelling your innermost being and personality], 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love, 18 be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints (God’s people) the width and length and height and depth of His love [fully experiencing that amazing, endless love]; 19 and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].

20 Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen

This is not a political message.

"But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time." RW Emerson

 They were going to come and take Him by force to make Him king.  Well I will say this we didn't all reject him thank God.  We may not be the most intelligent creature on the planet in the end, but everybody there knew.  And really everybody who hears the story can imagine.  There is no how.

We look for patterns and seeing here and eating here.  There is more to this story.  There is 10,000 people left behind.  The disciples were frightened we hear.  What were all these people.  I imagine they had much to talk about.  I imagine they never forgot that day.  I imagine they saw more in their community then they did before.  Did God give it or make it or did they find it, well yes.  It is a complex world, but it is a simple faith.

Let Us Pray

Eternal God, Creator of the universe, there is no God but You. Great and wonderful are Your works, wondrous are your ways. Thank You for the many splendored-variety of Your creation. Thank You for the many ways we affirm Your presence and purpose, and the freedom to do so. Forgive our violation of Your creation. Forgive our violence toward each other. We stand in awe and gratitude for Your persistent love for each and all of Your children: Christian, Jew, Muslim, as well as those with other faiths. Grant to all and our leaders attributes of the strong; mutual respect in words and deed, restraint in the exercise of power, and the will for peace with justice, for all. Eternal God, Creator of the universe, there is no God but You. Amen.

Reprinted from the World Council of Churches

Benediction 

Help us to remember it is the hairs on all the heads that are counted.

It is the hungry.  It is the poor.  It is the outcast.  It is the politician.

It is the other.  It is the thief.  It is the judge.

Help us to be focused on your will and do our part.

As we pray for all

In the name of Jesus our Lord, Amen

Nottingham UMC 7-25-2021

Frenzy 1.2

 It his hard to decorate a set to look two thousand years old.  I think the only thing familiar would be the faces.  We have a distinct lack of imagination.  Frenzy is a word that does well to hold the kernel of my message for you today.  There was a frenzy of activities and priorities that we have no relationship or experience.  Parts of the world still eat with the seasons not all of it is lost, but certainly most of it.  We have experts who can tell us what they did and what they had, but they are little better than the tabloid reporters digging through the trash.  The trash of the past is our best source of information on the distant past.

We can make fire many ways, but we will never know what it is to know one way to make fire.  The past is as lost as the future.  We can do things they did but our enjoyment comes from novelty.  For them it was survival.  Were they right?  Well we are here.

Life involved fewer faces.  Less reading.  Less writing.  Less sharing of information.  It took a long time.  If your food had a face you knew it.  Figured so much out.  I've heard a pretty good description of bravery as the first person to look at a lobster and say I am gonna eat that.  Several scientific areas of investigation point to a bottle neck in human history.  They talk of a scientific eve along a shore in Africa.  Where we learned the abundance of life at the tides.  Maybe why we get prune hands?   Better grip they say.  

There is more in the past than will fit in the bible.  There is not much room 

We are in a frenzy 1.2.  We have a comforter that was sent to us.  A new covenant.  A new testament and a new life.  We see so many faces.  We read all the time,  We write almost as much.  We share information.  It still takes a long time. If your food had a face you don't know it.

We look today at a passage from Mark and see there are things that don't change.  I usually like to break things apart and show simplicity in the heart of each piece, but today I want to do something different and take this whole passage as something that it doesn't seem to be: a whole.

There are two stories here that seem mixed together.  We know Mark doesn't add lots' of extra to his narrative and when we find him doing things that at first seem confusing we must watch for the sign posts to find then illumination.  If this section was a beetles song they might have called it revolution 12.  Some of you may know Revolution 9 off their white album that repeats numbers.  Listen for them repeating hear in Mark 5:21-43 from the Amplified Bible

21 When Jesus had again crossed over in the boat to the other side [of the sea], a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He stayed by the seashore. 22 One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up; and seeing Him, fell at His feet 23 and begged anxiously with Him, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; [please] come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will be healed and live.” 24 And Jesus went with him; and a large crowd followed Him and pressed in around Him [from all sides].

25 A woman [in the crowd] had [suffered from] a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26 and had endured much [suffering] at the hands of many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but instead had become worse. 27 She had heard [reports] about Jesus, and she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His outer robe. 28 For she thought, “If I just touch His clothing, I will get well.” 29 Immediately her flow of blood was dried up; and she felt in her body [and knew without any doubt] that she was healed of her suffering. 30 Immediately Jesus, recognizing in Himself that power had gone out from Him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched My clothes?” 31 His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in around You [from all sides], and You ask, ‘Who touched Me?’” 32 Still He kept looking around to see the woman who had done it. 33 And the woman, though she was afraid and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 Then He said to her, “Daughter, your faith [your personal trust and confidence in Me] has restored you to health; go in peace and be [permanently] healed from your suffering.”

35 While He was still speaking, some people came from the synagogue official’s house, saying [to Jairus], “Your daughter has died; why bother the Teacher any longer?” 36 Overhearing what was being said, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; only keep on believing [in Me and my power].” 37 And He allowed no one to go with Him [as witnesses], except Peter and [a]James and John the brother of James. 38 They came to the house of the synagogue official; and He looked [with understanding] at the uproar and commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing [in mourning]. 39 When He had gone in, He said to them, “Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is sleeping.” 40 They began laughing [scornfully] at Him [because they knew the child was dead]. But He made them all [b]go outside, and took along the child’s father and mother and His own [three] companions, and entered the room where the child was. 41 Taking the child’s hand, He said [tenderly] to her, “Talitha kum!”—which translated [from Aramaic] means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” 42 The little girl immediately got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they [who witnessed the child’s resurrection] were overcome with great wonder and utter amazement. 43 He gave strict orders that no one should know about this, and He told them to give her something to eat.

Mark is doing something unlike himself here and putting in everything.  He is holding up a sign to show what many of us spend our entire life trying to express.  We have a broad ranging discussion to have about the story, but did you hear Talitha kum - the little girl was twelve.  The woman was healed after twelve years of hemorrhaging.  We are going to depart for a discussion of this sign Mark is holding up for us.   

There are twelve pairs of cranial nerves that come out of the human brain.  We count twelve months each year.  The keyboard on our computers have had twelve function keys for the simple reason that they were designed by people not computers.  In all those years those twelve function keys have found little use.   

The Ancients knew Jupiter as a wandering star with a twelve year cycle.  Few today take notice, but was not always so.  

 

We can find numbers everywhere, but twelve Mark is reminding us has a special relationship to Jesus and his apostles and his form of perfect governance focused on service not domination.  The original twelve tribes of Israel.   Abundant life that these two outsiders are returned.  

How do I know they were outsiders?  Talitha kum they were both female and the heart of these stories tied together with the twelve and the abundant life our lord and savior brings us.  Mark is not the reporter that Luke was and these numbers no simple coincidence.  Perhaps more than not Mark is described as a spartan writer, but to my sensibility he is the most poetic and we simply forget the scope of what he is saying in the number twelve.  He made the sublime and inexpressible reality of our world into a number: 12.  A poetic heart to be sure.  We could continue forever talking about the number twelve.  In my mind he wrestled not unlike Jacob to form his Gospel into words.

She had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but instead had become worse.  This world of ours I find even today the cure can be worse than the ailment.  The first time I had a tooth removed I was stuck by how brutal the procedure was in such a modern polite setting.  Nothing had prepared me for the barbarity.  

We often pray for our doctors to work God's will and see more good than bad I hope.  We still are born.  We still die.  We just saw the largest reduction in life expectancy in my life.  "We have not seen a decrease like this since World War II. It's a horrific decrease in life expectancy," said Steven Woolf of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.  Somehow the world doesn't seem so modern.

Three months times four seasons gives us our year.  There is something infinitely correct about God's rule.  We often count on ourselves and find ten numbers.  But God and abundant life equals twelve.  Old math we have forgotten and yet remember.  People who hate new math also hated old math.  It was rather enjoyable to tell a room full of fourth graders most adults don't know math.  It is surprising to them.

We often approach our gospels as just stories.  But they are something more like the scene of a crime.  Real struggle and blood and sweat and tears and certainly all the emotions we have.  But lets take a closer look at our story in this frenzy 1.0.  Jesus was still with them and we envy them, but the truth was as Jesus said, it would be better when he left.  He would send the Holy Spirit. 

We listened to Pastor Wilma talk last week about excitement they had out in the boat and here we began the story as they cross again the water.  Didn't do much good as crowds gathered around him again and kept him near the seashore.  Things happen that people don't expect all the time.  We don't have trouble understanding why these people would respond so strongly to Jesus.  We in fact respond strongly to Jesus.  Even those who hate God the most respond strongly to Jesus.

There is something we all share across all of human history and that is a sense that there is something missing.  That there should be some meaning.  As the only animal as far as we know to make this leap it is ironic that we are an animal that does so much wrong.

There is a simple humble wisdom that has a response to this:

2:23 For God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity,
2:24 but through the devil's envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it.

This passage is from the wisdom of Solomon. This is a uniquely Methodist response. This book comes from the Septuagint a Greek translation of the Old Testament not accepted generally by protestants.  It is part of our liturgical calendar today and I had to look twice for the wisdom of Solomon.

It is easy to see the problems we create and it is easy to lose hope that things will change.  Twelve years of hemorrhaging will make you think many things.  Being at the point of death at twelve just is not fair.  It evokes in us innocence.  We can all understand something of losing a child at twelve.  In the Jewish tradition not yet adult but so close.  A promise it would seem not delivered.  Too great to fathom is the mind of God.  But there is no just death at twelve.  The Wisdom of Solomon says there really is no just death, but Moses seeing the promise land but not entering does not seem as cruel.  I think of Martin Luther King Jr and believe he got a similar glimpse of something we still have not seen.

At my age Martin had been dead a decade.  Cruelty and grace are relative experiences for everyone.  Here we have a synagogue official Jairus begging for his twelve year old daughter's life.  What we know was this crowd was all in for Jesus.  The leaders of the town who gave them direction had seen the direction.  Jairus wasn't asking Jesus for an appointment he was essentially accosting him upon the shore.  He had just arrived.   What is interesting is that Jesus heard him.  Do you think this was because Jesus knew he was important?  Maybe because the people let him pass because he was important and he got to Jesus first?  I think it was because of Talitha kum - the little girl was twelve.  The things for Jesus to do are uncountable, in this time and place we have a story of what he did.

As Jairus gets his request out and the entire crowd presses up on Jesus.  The people who had the best chance of understanding Jesus where mystified again.  

Again a woman of no name.  We might call her the hemorrhaging woman we know so little of her.  The excitement we understand, her crisis we might imagine, but we fail miserably.  You see this sense.  We know what they were doing here in this crowd, but what were they doing with Jesus out upon the water.  What were they doing all those regular days.  Well one women was hemorrhaging and surviving somehow in this society that had we can say issues with blood and women.

Blood libel is a very old anti-Semitic story that lives today in the Q stories we hear about today.  It is born from confusion and hate and ignorance and this woman surely knew them well for twelve years.  When I hear incredible stories I often wonder about their parents.  Well our twelve year old girl in this story had a parent who knew what time it was, did not discriminate on the source of hope and found it.  Lead it would seem his community to it.  Demonstrated it.  Lived it.

My favorite parent story is of famous female scientists from the past, majority had a scientist as a Dad.  About the only way through then was to have a cool Dad.  Still comes in handy.

The hemorrhaging woman I can only guess had a supporting family or even a more harder to understand story.  Again we know what they are doing, but we don't know what they were doing while Jesus was upon the water.  How could they survive?  How do we survive is what leads me to God.

When you have no value in society how do you survive?  Actually it is the most creative space in the world.  It is where people really have something to talk about.

They both saw their chance.  Talitha kum - the little girl was twelve and the hemorrhaging woman.  One in her innocence was protected by the ideal of parental love looking everywhere and not dismissing anything.  When you do this you must answer for yourself what then is this man Jesus.  The other with her own fear surely a long time companion reached for his cloak.

The twelve were surely stunned when Jesus asked who touched me, but she was even more.  Healed already and ready to make her exit.  Surely he would not notice one more hand upon his cloak and really as the twelve point out, how could he.  He felt the power leave.  This power something of its own  mind.  Great is the mind of the lord.

And the woman, though she was afraid and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.  Healed she was still afraid, why did Jesus make such a point to find her, for us as well as her?  She was still in the shadows.  The leader was still pleading for his daughter.  She had been healed.  He wanted her to know , "“Daughter, your faith [your personal trust and confidence in Me] has restored you to health; go in peace and be [permanently] healed from your suffering.”   She was healed and happy to leave, but Jesus wanted to set her free.

Emotions are what keeps us from acting, but also what makes us act at other times.  In all times and all places where there have been and will be people: nobody wants to be an outsider.  

We know what the father is doing, but not what he was doing.  Crisis we understand something of the past.  Hard we understand something of the past.  Loss we understand something of the past.  What I am doing right now would make no sense to someone of the past.  We think of this as a one way street, but it goes both ways.  We would be quite useless to our ancestors.  

Mark gives us a story out of time and place and out of female.  What our world has made outside.  Even today women make 77 cents on the dollar for reasons we can not agree upon.  I know one thing those reasons come from the past.  I also know they are wrong.  How?  I know how Jesus feels about outsiders.  Might call it route 12.  Mark has clear sign post for us to go where we are all together in a crowd pressing against Jesus and we find abundance where people saw scarcity.

Let Us Pray

Lord help us to see those who are not seen.

He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Isaiah 53:3

Help us share your power to heal and make whole our community and our families.

In our struggles thank you for allowing us to press on all sides.

Amen

Benediction

As we leave here from the inside seek those on the outside

Tell them they belong

Show them they belong

Help them belong 

through the grace of our loving God we belong

Amen

Nottingham UMC 6/27/2021 

Doors Make You Forget

We arrive more than we leave
What sets the stage fade out fade in
What is most important is where you are
The way your brain thinks

Past experience does not guarantee anything
We are prepared or we would have not made it here
Risk has accessed our ancestors well

There is one quality all doors share
They make you forget
What they are

Why they are is us
It is something simple we often miss
You forgot what you came for
Because your brain is on your side

This poem was inspired by an article or is it articles that keep reappearing.   There is an interesting phenomenon to me in the information age.  Interesting things often bubble back to the surface and make us pay attention again.  I'm not sure when I first came across this idea of doorways making us forget, but I remember my response to it.  

When things really make sense to me they have a certain feel for me.  I guess secure would be the best root to build words for a description of this feeling.  They however would fall short.  I love to say you can always count on numbers, why I love math so much aside from all it has given us, but you can't always count on people and even less so words.

When I searched recently on the internet I found an article By Tom Stafford 8th March 2016, here is a bit of it:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160307-why-does-walking-through-doorways-make-us-forget

"It’s known as the “Doorway Effect”, and it reveals some important features of how our minds are organised. Understanding this might help us appreciate those temporary moments of forgetfulness as more than just an annoyance (although they will still be annoying).

These features of our minds are perhaps best illustrated by a story about a woman who meets three builders on their lunch break. “What are you doing today?” she asks the first. “I’m putting brick after sodding brick on top of another,” sighs the first. “What are you doing today?” she asks the second. “I’m building a wall,” is the simple reply. But the third builder swells with pride when asked, and replies: “I’m building a cathedral!”

Maybe you heard that story as encouragement to think of the big picture, but to the psychologist in you the important moral is that any action has to be thought of at multiple levels if you are going to carry it out successfully. The third builder might have the most inspiring view of their day-job, but nobody can build a cathedral without figuring out how to successfully put one brick on top of another like the first builder....The Doorway Effect occurs because we change both the physical and mental environments, moving to a different room and thinking about different things. That hastily thought up goal, which was probably only one plate among the many we’re trying to spin, gets forgotten when the context changes.

It’s a window into how we manage to coordinate complex actions, matching plans with actions in a way that – most of the time – allows us to put the right bricks in the right place to build the cathedral of our lives."

But as I looked closer it was an article from 2011 in scientific American I think that I saw first.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-walking-through-doorway-makes-you-forget/

The French poet Paul Valéry once said, “The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best.” In that spirit, consider a situation many of us will find we know too well: You're sitting at your desk in your office at home. Digging for something under a stack of papers, you find a dirty coffee mug that’s been there so long it’s eligible for carbon dating. Better wash it. You pick up the mug, walk out the door of your office, and head toward the kitchen. By the time you get to the kitchen, though, you've forgotten why you stood up in the first place, and you wander back to your office, feeling a little confused—until you look down and see the cup...The doorway effect suggests that there's more to the remembering than just what you paid attention to, when it happened, and how hard you tried. Instead, some forms of memory seem to be optimized to keep information ready-to-hand until its shelf life expires, and then purge that information in favor of new stuff. Radvansky and colleagues call this sort of memory representation an “event model,” and propose that walking through a doorway is a good time to purge your event models because whatever happened in the old room is likely to become less relevant now that you have changed venues. That thing in the box? Oh, that's from what I was doing before I got here; we can forget all about that. Other changes may induce a purge as well: A friend knocks on the door, you finish the task you were working on, or your computer battery runs down and you have to plug in to recharge.

Why would we have a memory system set up to forget things as soon as we finish one thing and move on to another? Because we can’t keep everything ready-to-hand, and most of the time the system functions beautifully. It’s the failures of the system—and data from the lab—that give us a completely new idea of how the system works."

The idea that when we walked into the cave the only way we could possibly survive is to be completely aware.  Or aware enough.  A pass fail system. Given our own limitations the only way we could possibly survive is to forget.

We find ourselves at the door: Pentecost.  Science and religion don't always agree, but they both tell a story of the limitation of our biology.  One gives purpose while the other sees survival as the only one.  To be scientific is to be aware and observant and use relevant information.  To be religious is to believe that there is purpose to it.

Pentecost is exciting so much so the disciples must tell the people it is too early for them to be drunk.  

We know the story well and we find ourselves here each year usually dressed in red telling this story.  If you did a poll of people and asked what they thought were the most important church holidays today would be well down the list, but for the Church today is really everything.  The birth and death of our savior was not the beginning of the church, but when the promised holy spirit arrived. 

We go through this door and we tend to forget.  It is all we need to remember. We all know this, but we are often about surviving, when we need to be more about our purpose.

Jesus speaks of this story in the future tense in John 16, 5-11.

We read from the Amplified bible:

 

The Holy Spirit Promised

5 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts [and taken complete possession of them]. 7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the [a]Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him (the Holy Spirit) to you [to be in close fellowship with you]. 8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world about [the guilt of] sin [and the need for a Savior], and about righteousness, and about judgment: 9 about sin [and the true nature of it], because they do not believe in Me [and My message]; 10 about righteousness [personal integrity and godly character], because I am going to My Father and you will no longer see Me; 11 about judgment [the certainty of it], because the ruler of this world (Satan) has been judged and condemned.

Science has convicted our biology we just all don't care to know.  The limitations are real.  The question is what options remain.  Jesus continues in verse 12-15 and he assures us that with the holy spirit ultimately we are able to hear the truth.  We, you and I can bear it.  To say forgive them who do not yet know.

12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear [to hear] them now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth [full and complete truth]. For He will not speak on His own initiative, but He will speak whatever He hears [from the Father—the message regarding the Son], and He will disclose to you what is to come [in the future]. 14 He will glorify and honor Me, because He (the Holy Spirit) will take from what is Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Because of this I said that He [the Spirit] will take from what is Mine and will reveal it to you.

This next year of our church maybe when you go to the next room and you forget why you are there, maybe instead of feeling you are not good enough, you will think: I do need God and understand the limitation of you.  

There is another story I love which I remember an equally resounding reaction to.  You may have heard this, I'm not sure where or when I heard this but it was long ago.  The goiter.  I often reference this story to understand myself.  When the thyroid gland doesn't work well quite often the brain will arrive at a simple solution: make a bigger thyroid gland.  Seems reasonable.  As results show a lack of results the brain continues with its course of action.  The goiter can grow quite large and to a young person can leave a lasting impression, but it was more the brain believing it had a solution.  Perhaps there was a positive impact I don't really know, but what I had was an understanding that the brain could believe in a solution and do things to make matters worse.

When the international community tries to intervene in the world they can believe in a solution and do things to make matters worse.

They say when people show you who they are you should believe them.  Well when the brain showed me who it was I believed it.  I wasn't ever mad at the limitations of my biology.  I think Antonio Gramsci put it best, "My practicality consists in this, in the knowledge that if you beat your head against the wall it is your head which breaks and not the wall - that is my strength, my only strength."  Well as much as I love him, I believe I have other strengths, but my practicality starts in the same place.

So what happens if we don't see the limitations of our biology?  In most cases we fail to see a need or place for God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit.  Antonio was a communist, he believed in community.  We believe in community plus.

Sometimes we go the other way and do this thing I haven't really been able to describe, but will take a chance here: we try to out Christian each other.  A blessing is only as blessing when it is received.  I don't mean to give an answer to behavior I find myself involved in some as well.  In an effort to not be mean we can be too nice.  

We can be too nice to ourselves and not see our limitations, where would God be needed then.  Here we again find what people don't really like about old time religion anymore: We are a culture of me.  We don't like to talk about limitations.  We make trophies all one size.  People don't teach limitations.  We teach the sky is the limit and it is empty above.

What ever you believe there is more above than below.

Let us Pray

Come, thou Holy Spirit, come:

And from thy celestial home send thy light and brilliancy.

Come, thou father of the poor,

come who givest all our store,

come the soul's true radiancy.

Come, of comforters the best, of the soul the sweetest guest,

sweetly and refreshingly.

Come, in labour rest most sweet,

shade and coolness in the heat, comfort in adversity.

Thou who art the Light most blest,

come fulfill their inmost breast, who believe most faithfully.

For without thy Godhead's dower,

man hath nothing in his power, save to work iniquity.

What is filthy make thou pure,

what is wounded work its cure,

water what is parched and dry.

Gently bend the stubborn will,

warm to life the heart that's chill,

guide who goeth erringly.

Fill thy faithful who adore,

and confess thee evermore,

with thy sevenfold mystery.

Here thy grace and virtue send,

grant salvation in the end, and in heaven felicity. Amen.

(Latin Hymn, 13th century)

Benediction 

Go out into God’s world filled with the spark of the Holy Spirit. Let love guide your actions. Listen for the Spirit of Truth. Spread the peace of Christ and remind everyone you meet that each one is a beloved child of God. Amen.

https://teaandtheology.com/pentecost-benediction/

Nottingham UMC May 23, 2021