From Hostility to a New Home to a New Hope

I shared this week’s “Read Together” podcast for North Alabama United Methodists. Pondering the characters of Samson, Ruth, and Samuel in the books of Judges, Ruth, and 1 Samuel, it’s on politics and religion and “moving from hostility to a new home to a new hope.”

Have a listen:

https://umcna.podbean.com/

Podcast on “Come to me … ALL”

It was a joy to prepare and record the “Read Together” podcast this week. The introduction written by Lyn Cosby at the Conference Center says:

Rev. Steve West finds a recurring theme of inclusiveness in this week's reading list—prompting us to remind ourselves, all means all.

You can listen to it here.

A Meditation on Sauty Falls

“A Meditation on Sauty Falls”

by Steve West

The water keeps coming.

It keeps coming, coming, coming.

Across the span of history in a way that’s timeless ... from my limited perspective, anyway ... it keeps coming.

Sometimes it’s bigger, louder, and faster. Sometimes it’s smaller, quieter, and slower.

But it keeps coming.

It’s not only the seasons that affect the flow. Year by year, there are changes. They are so subtle you can’t see it. But I trust it.

Sometimes a stone or tree falls in, and the water finds a new way to flow. Sometimes it carves out something entirely new as a result. Sometimes it takes a really long time.

Then sometimes it’s own creative tendency to make crevices of natural flow is reason enough to find new paths. Sometimes, part of the water ventures away from the central flow. That’s okay too. It’s just another part of the beauty.

When people like me come along to have a look, or take a picture, it’s stunningly breathtaking. But the flow is always secretly, subtly changing.

The water keeps coming. It never stops. That’s how it blesses the world.

Why? Because it’s living water.

It’s Living Water.

That’s what it means to me to be part of God’s Church.

This is a picture I took during meditation time after hiking to the falls in Buck’s Pocket State Park.

Thoughts on Marriage

I found this today in a devotional book I've had for a number of years based on the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I thought it was beautiful and expresses my thoughts on marriage.

“Marriage is more than your love for each other. It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God’s holy ordinance, through which God wills to perpetuate the human race till the end of time. In our love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to God’s glory, and calls into the kingdom. In your love you see only the heaven of your happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility toward the world and humanity. Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal – it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and humanity. As you first gave the ring to one another and have now received it a second time from the hand of the pastor, so love comes from you, but marriage from above, from God. As high as God is above humanity, so high are the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of marriage above the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of love. It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (pp. 27-28)

Jesus Comebacks

I ran across this in a book I’m reading, and it gives me great hope.

“Even when Christian culture is compromised by conformity to the values and powers of this world, we can never shed ourselves of Jesus. He has a good record on comebacks.”

Jim Wallis

"The Hay that Heals" - St. Francis and the First Live Nativity

This is a written version of my second Christmas Eve meditation on December 24, 2020. Because of the pandemic, we met for livestream-only worship in the sanctuary, followed by outdoor communion serving and candlelight circle. I shared this meditation on St. Francis by the manger scene outdoors.

Earlier tonight, we gathered virtually by livestream to ponder the scripture, enjoy the music, and explore the meditations of this holy season. We joined in the Great Thanksgiving at the table of grace. Now we gather outdoors to receive this blessed communion and create a candlelight circle. And we do so around this manger for a reason.

Have you heard the origins of the manger scene? The manger scene was created by St. Francis of Assisi.

Francis, who was born into merchant family in Assisi of modern-day Italy, rejected his family’s wealth and even cast off his expensive garments in a public square. He founded the Franciscans, a movement that is dedicated to works of charity with the poor and marginalized. He was, of course, known as a lover of animals and all God’s creation.

In 1223, St. Francis did something special to kindle devotion on the birth of Christ, God’s concern for the poor and oppressed, and God’s love for the animal kingdom. He created the first live nativity. A generation later, in the year 1291, the first pope that was from the new Franciscan order had a permanent manger scene placed in front of one of Europe’s churches. That began the tradition of carved manger scenes we still enjoy today.

But that very first live nativity scene set up by St. Francis himself was placed near the town square. A real manger was placed there with hay, with Mary and Joseph, a carved baby Jesus doll, an ox, and an ass. Francis invited the villagers to come and gaze on the scene while he preached on the “babe of Bethlehem” (they say he was so overcome with joy, he could not say the name “Jesus”).

One witness said the wooden doll of the baby Jesus appeared to cry tears of joy and “seemed to be awakened from sleep when the blessed Father Francis embraced Him in both arms.”

There was another miracle, too, a miracle that I invite us to get our hearts in touch with during this pandemic. I call it the legend of “hay that heals.” The story is that the hay in the manger, from this very first live nativity, healed sick animals and protected people from disease.

We gather outside tonight in the middle of a world-wide pandemic that has changed our gatherings but will not kill our spirits. And we gather because of the healing power of the one who was laid in a manger.

Our staff prepared a little cluster of hay to give each family tonight. We share it with all of us who have come and gathered safely outdoors for closing communion by candlelight.

I invite your family to ponder your little bundle of hay. I invite you to place it under your tree, or on your mantle, or under your centerpiece on this most unusual Christmas Day. Tell others the story of St. Francis and the first manger scene. Recall the legend of the “hay that heals.”

We share this little gift because our world need healing right now, more than ever. We pray that the healing that pours out from the manger of grace will touch us in every broken place.

God Brings Life to the Dead Branches

Today, I spent some time with the most unlikely of roses.

We have lived in our new home for over four months. As always, moving is a chore (for pastors, it's an occupational hazard). There has been an enormous amount of things to do.

I have loved meeting the people of our new church. That's the best part. But I often say "I love going to new churches, I just don't love moving to get there!" Between unpacking and getting settled, decorating the house, reclaiming the yard, meeting my neighbors, and starting a new ministry, it's always a challenge to get it all done. With COVID, it's been strange challenge indeed.

One of the tasks that went undone was tending to a particular dead rosebush in our backyard. I've noticed it countless times. It's right behind the house, in front of the garage and under an old clothesline post we've reclaimed with teal spray-paint and bird feeders. The branches are brittle and it has looked dead as a doornail for four straight months. I've been meaning to cut it away.

I'm glad I didn't. Last Sunday, suddenly, I noticed a breach of the deadness with a burst of life. A new rose blossom had appeared. Out of the deadness, there is life. Out of the dryness, there is joy. Wow. God did it again.

I have contemplated all week this gift of God. There is so much deadness around us right now. The coronavirus has been an unimaginable curb of normal life, not to mention the death it has brought to hundreds of thousands. The country has been through divisive times politically, as if there are two alternative worlds we live in, not one. Signs of structural racism abound, and I wonder if the energy to bring about prophetic change will fall away as it too often does. The denomination I love is going through a long, drawn-out, slow division as a group makes plans to secede and go start a new denomination.

It feels like there is a dead rosebush that I can't seem to get around to. It just lingers. Where are the signs of life? Then when I least expected it, it appeared. There is hope.

This week, I spent some more time with that little rose. It's moved from being a rosebud to a fully formed thing of beauty. I just can't bring myself now to break away the dead branches, for now they stand behind the rose as a reminder of the deadness God has brought life to.

God did it again. And God will keep doing it again.

Here's a picture of what I experienced in my quiet time today. May the joy of the Lord burst forth in your life, too.

Invocation for School Board

I'm delighted to have had the opportunity to offer the invocation at the Jacksonville City Schools Board of Education meeting recently. Some important decisions were discussed regarding entering the school year in the midst of this pandemic.

Here is my prayer. I am sharing it here in hopes that you will join me in praying it.

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BOARD OF EDUCATION INVOCATION

Steve West – July 22, 2020

God of our wisdom’s years, God of our children’s tears, God who transforms us by the renewal of our minds,

Our hearts are grateful for the gift of this day and the opportunity to share in this way. We thank you for the grand history of the Jacksonville City School System, and for the opportunity to gather tonight because we are concerned about its future. Remind us, oh Lord, that regardless of what disagreements we have or what common ground we discover, we are all on the same team. We are here because we care.

We pray for the precious children and strapping young men and women served by our school system. We pray for their health and safety, and for their vitality and growth. We pray that during these uncertain times, when questions fly faster than answers, we might find a way through the night of this pandemic to the dawning of a better day. For both the safety and sanity of our children, walk us through this wilderness, Lord. Give us a wisdom beyond our natural abilities and a strength that comes from you.

We pray for our teachers and staff, that they might have the courage to make the right decisions for the greater good, and the stamina to lead during strange and uncomfortable times. Fill them with insight as they make the difficult decisions of each day. Give them a peace that passes all understanding to guard their hearts and minds. Help them be graceful and patient with themselves as they manage the multiple expectations of the present situation.

We pray for our community, that they might come around this school system with both patience and perseverance, understanding that none of us have a crystal ball and all of us are doing our best to navigate unchartered waters due to COVID-19. 

We offer this school year to you, oh God, as a humble offering, and commit our lives to strengthening character in our community one child, one youth at a time.

Bless the schools in this system with security along with safety. Bring sanity along with all the sanitizing. Bring a sense of connection along with all the social distancing. Help us be intuitive leaders when forced to use all these new and necessary procedures.

In short, be with us, oh God. Free us for joyful obedience to the task before us, and shape our minds and hearts tonight.

And now, with respect for the many faiths that might be represented in this gathering here, I offer this prayer in the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen

Wisdom for Difficult Times

This is my recent podcast on biblical wisdom for difficult times. In it, I reflect on Ecclesiastes 9:

“Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart ... Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun ... Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.”

Here it is:

https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-qsvay-dec431

Are you having to improvise?

During these strange times when we are only able to worship and fellowship online due to the Coronavirus pandemic, I am sharing devotionals every Tuesday morning on Facebook Live and YouTube. This is one way we are staying connected as people of faith for mutual encouragement.

Here is one of my Tuesday morning devotionals. I reflect on how we are all IMPROVISING. I am encouraged by a story in the book of Acts when Peter and John improvised.