"One Three Nine" by Aubrey Logan

To have a listen, click ONE THREE NINE.

I was excited that Psalm 139 came up in the lectionary. During the early days of the pandemic, I fell in love with the jazz of Aubrey Logan. She does trombone and vocals with a rhythmic fusion of jazz, pop, and rock, and sometimes her music has religious overtones (in addition to generally wholesome themes). I suspect she has a United Methodist background, because she has a number of times quoted things found in our hymnal. This selection is a good example.

I presented Aubrey Logan's "One Three Nine" in worship in June of 2024. I share it here in hopes that it helps you get in touch with the inescapable love of God through the words of Psalm 139.

Notice that she quotes "Oh, How I Love Jesus" at the beginning and the end. She didn't just do that because it's a pretty tune, she did it because it's a theological statement. She wraps the love of our Creator, who searches and knows us intricately, together with Christ in the last verse, in fact.

To have a listen, click ONE THREE NINE.

On the phrase “Love the sinner, hate the sin”

I have grown to detest this phrase.

It carries the pretense of being loving, with the undergirding reality that we assume we are “holier than thou.” I imagine it sounds so different to the one being judged than the one doing the judging. Yes, it’s judgment … because we are attempting to identify what another person’s sin is.

Not only that, let’s be honest. Folks who use this phrase are almost always talking about one thing. Nobody uses it when we talk about people’s addiction, or lying, or cheating on their taxes.

Here’s the thing. The only things the Lord “hates,” according to scripture, are “haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.” Look it up.

I wonder if people who presume to righteously hate other people’s sin realize that it may be their own sin the Lord truly hates.

Our calling is to love God and neighbor, my friends.

Addressing the Misinformation about our Core Doctrines

I've had several thoughtful and positive comments on my sermon on Trinity Sunday, so I thought I'd share a portion of it here. It's important!

I'm excited about being part of God's church because of who God is and what God is doing in us. No church is perfect. Last time I checked, it's full of people. And no denomination is perfect. All of them are struggling, but the church is the gift that God gave us, a gift of not only witness for God but for the "with-ness" of God.

And as we talk about the Trinity, I think it's important to address some misinformation that you will find out there in the world. Some opponents of the United Methodist Church say that the UMC is going to somehow abandon core doctrines like the authority of the Bible, or the resurrection, or the virgin birth, or the lordship of Christ, or the Trinity. You name it, I've heard it. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I'm going to tell you a couple of reasons why.

First of all, one method of rhetoric is to take outlying examples - something somebody said, somewhere, in a 12.5 million person denomination - and then you exaggerate it, take it out of context, wrap it into a narrative of the infidelity of the whole, and use it as justification for leaving.

It's a method of rhetoric. But it's an untruth, because second, our core doctrines of the United Methodist Church can not be changed. They're part of something called the Articles of Religion. They are in a constitutional section of our Discipline and were written by Wesley's very own hand, as he adapted them from the Church of England. It would take a 3/4 vote of all lay and clergy members of all annual conferences everywhere, throughout the entire world, to change those core constitutional doctrines.

And the very first one reads like this:

Article I — Of Faith in the Holy Trinity There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

You can not be more clear, and that's "A Number One."

Book Featured in North Alabama Conference communications

I'm honored that my book was featured in communications of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church this week. You can find the original article original article here. 

It reads:

"Communion has a way of shedding light on both who we really are and who we are called to be. It is an honest meal. We come to the table being real with God through confession, and Christ comes to us in real ways through his presence, hospitality and grace. The Lord’s Supper binds us together in ways beyond words, for it is a sacred act of both receiving the grace of God and being the body of Christ with one another."

These words come from the Prelude of a new book by North Alabama Conference pastor Rev. Dr. Steve West.

The book titled Something Happens Here: Reclaiming the Distinctiveness of Wesley's Communion Spirituality in Times of Divisiveness has the stated purpose of taking a careful look at John Wesley’s core teaching on the Lord’s Supper. The About this Book introduction explains, “Readers will grapple with the idea that Communion is not just a personal experience with Jesus but a feast that has huge implications for our life together. They will be given language to define themselves against sacramental theology colored by other denominations in their communities. Along the way, they will discover tools to thoughtfully sort through difficult conversations about divisive matters rather than settling into the either-or and ‘us against them’ mentalities that pervade national conversations about culture wars.”

Rev. West, the senior pastor of Jacksonville First UMC (Cheaha District), is descended from multiple generations of Methodist pastors and circuit riders. He has not only a deep belief in the church’s sacramental theology but also a great love of the United Methodist Church. He notes that he wants this book to be a timely resource for United Methodists as the denomination journeys through a season of conflict and division. In that spirit, he says he offers the book as a gift for God’s church and has committed to using 100% of proceeds to go back into promoting the book because he believes “it is so very timely for those who are part of the present journey of the United Methodist Church.”

The book is a scholarly work receiving praise from a variety of United Methodist scholars and authors. Rev. West says, “I hope it will be helpful for the classroom, thought-provoking for church study groups, lifegiving for pastors and church leaders, and accessible for anyone interested in what it means to bind ourselves to Christ and move forward with joy into the future God has in store for us.”

In Something Happens Here West explores the historical background of each core characteristic of Wesley’s communion teachings, finds evidence in the writings of John and Charles Wesley and applies them to the struggles of present-day United Methodism. The unique features of Wesley's communion theology become lenses readers can use as they navigate troubled waters. Chapters include Communion as a Prism, The Mystery of Presence, Experiencing Anew, Become All Flame, Foretaste of Heaven, Grand Channel of Grace, Becoming the Body and Reconnecting. West concludes the book with signs of life emerging as people come back to the Lord's table to move forward into the future.

West writes, “The table is a radical table, because it brings us back to what connects us, which is not agreement or like-minded thinking but community and love-minded thinking. We are bound by our belief, yes, but I’m reminded that in early English, the word 'belief' was pronounced ‘by life.’ How we love those we don’t agree with is the very definition of Christian fellowship.”

The book is available from Amazon or Wipf and Stock Publishers. The book is also available for sale by the author. For a signed copy, see the author or send a check for $22 plus $3 shipping (total $25) to Steve West, 313 2nd Street NE, Jacksonville, AL 36265.

My Brother Richmond's New Book

To honor Richmond after his death, our family finished having his new book Frozen Ghost published. He had turned in his final draft to the self-publishing company, so we picked up the ball. I wrote a foreword for his book and approved the final drafting stages.

It is now available for purchase online. Here is a link to it on Amazon. You may also find it on Barnes and Noble here.

Below is the foreward I wrote for his book. May it honor him, and may he rest in peace.

Foreward

When I read Richmond’s first book, The Deviants, I was sure it was the wildest thing I had ever seen. Yet his subsequent books, Your Yesterday Is My Tomorrow and Witch Hunt, never failed to take me on voyages through unconventional waters. His writing is gripping, if out of the ordinary.

Even as his fourth book, Frozen Ghost, was in the process of publication, Richmond’s life ended too early. He died suddenly of a heart attack after spending the day with family touring the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, informally known as the “Lynching Memorial,” in Montgomery, Alabama. On his very last day, he was longing for justice, something that was deeply important to him.

My father, my other brothers, and I decided to honor his life and memory by following through with his plans to have this book published. It is with bittersweet joy that we share it with you.

I could tell you about Richmond’s relentless love for God, for Christian theology, for world religions, for philosophy, for social justice, and for the Church. I could tell you about his amazing academic accomplishments. But what I really want to tell you is this. He had a brilliant and beautiful mind.

I sometimes say he could waltz into a room and teach a course in world religions that would knock your socks off, but he might not be able to find his own socks. The unfolding of his beautiful mind started when he was teaching and involved in his first doctoral program, before mom died eighteen years ago. I say that not to call attention to his suffering. I say that because more than anyone I know, he was an overcomer. This is what inspires me the most about his life.

No matter what the obstacles, he was eternally fascinated with theology and philosophy and loved to find hints of it in movies and fiction. He refused to stop creating. He finished a Ph.D. at Purdue in philosophy and literature, and this was his proudest moment. He simply loved to write.

I once told him that his writing “defied genre.” He took that as a huge compliment, which it was meant to be, and then used that phrase on the back cover of a subsequent book. The threads he could weave between philosophy, comics, vivid memories, fantasy novels, painful past experiences, science fiction, and theology gave me insight into the beauty of his mind. Writing was his way of making sense of things, of finding peace, and of blessing the world.

As I read this book, I mused on his story of the broken mirror, and Richmond saying, “I just looked at it and it broke!” I know that really happened, for I was the brother who teased him about it for years. I pondered the technical term “audio pareidolia” he mentioned, clearly a symptom of his condition which he had become educated about. I vividly remembered conversations we had about the voice of Diana, who was speaking to him from across the stars. As always, I found reminders of the intricate way he wove various threads of his life together through writing. It is truly a tapestry.

I have learned more from my brother Richmond than anyone I have ever known about courage, determination, and relentless creativity. I’m delighted that after that long mental, intellectual, and philosophical journey of his beautiful mind, he had unwavering faith. In recent years, he loved going to church and being involved in teaching Sunday School, singing in the choir, and ministries of addiction recovery.

He died too early. But my heart is full of gratitude that he died happy, stable, creative, and excited about this book.

Richmond would have been thrilled to know that at his funeral, I would close my brief remarks with the famous quote from Captain Kirk at the funeral of his dear, Vulcan friend Spock. “Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most … human.”

And it was.

Stephen Pierce West

Brother of Richmond Pierce West

August 2021

TULIP and John Wesley

I have created a new "TULIP" handout to use when teaching Wesleyan theology. This is a simplified version of classic Calvinist teaching. Why not share it here with the world?

I've discovered over the years the best way to teach Wesley's "Scripture Way of Salvation" (God's sacred initiative in shaping our lives into fullness through prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace) is to start with TULIP. Then I contrast these ideas with the Arminian point of view (free will vs. predestination), and the sheet provides a way to offer Wesley's nuanced approach.

Historically, it makes sense because Wesley's teaching (which is a recovery of eastern Christian spirituality, expressed in more exacting Protestant language) came out of his struggle against Calvinism historically. He was brilliant in what he taught, in my humble opinion!

I say his approach was nuanced because his teachings aren't direct opposite of these teachings, but definitely contrast with them. He taught direct opposites when it comes to the middle three, but his response was nuanced when it came to the first and the last. He believed we are born tainted from our original luster because of original sin, but that our "essential nature" is that we are born in the image of God, not that we are a sinner. Christianity restores us to that original nature, rather than changing us from our original "bad" nature into something else.

Likewise, his response to the Calvinist "once saved always saved" mantra is more nuanced than it is often characterized to be. It should not lead directly to anxiety about whether we are saved or not (the Calvinist critique of Wesley). We don't need to be saved again and again because we fall, heavens no. He also taught ASSURANCE of our salvation, but maintained that God always grants us free will to turn toward God, or away from God. God never forces love. Of course, Wesley's language of "salvation" is rooted in New Testament Greek, and so does not refer simply to whether we have a ticket to heaven or not at the moment of death. It refers to whether we are on the journey of being made whole in Christ. This is part of the mischaracterization of what he means when he indicates we can "fall from grace."