Amazing Quote From the Late Rachel Held Evans

“They said that if I questioned a 6,000-year-old earth, I would question whether other parts of Scripture should be read scientifically and historically. 

They were right.  I did. 

They said that if I entertained the hope that those without access to the gospel might still be loved and saved by God, I would fall prey to the dangerous idea that God loves everyone,  that there is nothing God won’t do to reconcile all things to Himself. 

They were right. I have.  

They said that if I looked for Jesus beyond the party line, I could end up voting for liberals. 

They were right. I do (sometimes).  

They said that if I listened to my gay and lesbian neighbors, if I made room for them in my church and in my life, I could let grace get out of hand. 

They were right.  It has. 

They told me that this slippery slope would lead me away from God, that it would bring a swift end to my faith journey, that I’d be lost forever.

But with that one, they were wrong. 

Yes, the slippery slope brought doubts. Yes, the slippery slope brought change. Yes, the slippery slope brought danger and risk and unknowns. I am indeed more exposed to the elements out here, and at times it is hard to find my footing.  

But when I decided I wanted to follow Jesus as myself, with both my head and heart intact, the slippery slope was the only place I could find him, the only place I could engage my faith honestly. 

So down I went. 

It was easier before, when the path was wide and straight. 

But, truth be told, I was faking it.  I was pretending that things that didn’t make sense made sense, that things that didn’t feel right felt right.  To others, I appeared confident and in control, but faith felt as far away as friend who has grown distant and cold.

Now, every day is a risk. 

Now, I have no choice but to cling to faith and hope and love for dear life. 

Now, I have to keep a very close eye on Jesus, as he leads me through deep valleys and precarious peaks.  

But the view is better, and, for the first time in a long time, I am fully engaged in my faith. 

I am alive. 

I am dependent.

I am following Jesus as me—heart and head intact.  

And they were right.  All it took was a question or two to bring me here.”

- Rachel Held Evans 

(June 8, 1981 - May 4, 2019)

Prayer at the Alabama State Legislature

Because of the kind invitation of a member of our church family who serves as an Alabama State Representative, I did something this week I’ve never done. I went to the state capital in Montgomery to lead prayer for the legislative session.

It was a whole new pastoral experience for me. The most humbling part of it is that I forgot my sports coat. Leave it to me! I had on my tie and my carefully printed prayer folded in my freshly ironed pocket, but when I decided to change out of my sweater (think “Mr. Rogers”), it was nowhere to be found in my car.

Thankfully, this has happened before and capital security knew what to do. A blue blazer appeared, and it was just my size. In a sense, by the time I got to the microphone, I was already humbled. But nothing is more humbling than knowing I had precisely two minutes to do something I would probably never have the opportunity to do again. What do I say?

It was an honor and I did not take it lightly. I love my home state and sincerely pray for our leaders, who face volatile and difficult times. I had no idea how long it would take me to write that two minute prayer.

So I thought I’d share it with you here. Please join me in praying for our leaders in Montgomery.

Steve

—

Let us pray, God of all creation, since the very founding of our nation, countless legislatures have begun public sessions with prayer. We continue that tradition today, not just for history’s sake but because of incredibly high stakes. The matters that come before us are of vital importance, and the women and men of this esteemed house do not take our duties lightly.

So we pause, and we pray, and we acknowledge the Sovereign One who is above all things and imbued in all things.

We confess, oh Lord, our propensity in politics to work against each other instead of with one other, to speak our minds without engaging our hearts. Forgive us, we pray. May we set aside needless ideology for the common good, knowing that only in the sharing of differing voices can we tease out the truth. This is the very principle our government is founded on, that no one corners the market on what’s right. What we do is represent the people of every corner of this great state. May we represent them faithfully and diligently today.

We ask that you “grant us wisdom, grant us courage for the living of these days.” The state of Alabama has come a long way, but like any state, we still have a long way to go. Not far from this legislative gathering is both the pulpit of Martin Luther King’s preaching and the step of Jefferson Davis’s inauguration. Their proximity is a visceral reminder of the confluence of wheat and tare in our history. May we nurture the fine wheat and trust you for the tare.

May we serve Alabama the beautiful, and with our whole hearts sing, “we will aye be true to thee.”

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

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.

Bishops Speak Out for Staying UMC

Recently, the United Methodist bishops released a thoughtful narrative on what it will look like in the United Methodist Church after the Global Methodist Church splits away and we move forward in history. We have an exciting and hopeful future. We will continue to be a diverse church of traditional, centrist, and progressive Christians, bound together by the love of Christ. We will value healthy diversity about the issues of our day and give people space to practice their faith in different contexts.

It is simply a false narrative that the UMC will be “progressive” and the GMC will be “traditional.” This binary way of thinking is being promoted by those who want to entice others to leave our denomination with them.

You may read the bishop’s narrative of our future yourself here. It speaks to the heart of why I wish to stay in the UMC.

Today is January 6

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

The Four Christmas Words

It's occurred to me (after years of exploring the Christmas stories in the Bible every year) that if each unique gospel writer had one word for Christmas, they might be these words. May it bless you and your family during this holiest of weeks.

LINEAGE - Matthew's Christmas word might be just that, "lineage." Generally speaking, his gospel gift is summed up in his favorite phrase,"this was done in order to fulfill what was said by the prophets ..." His gift is to show us how Christmas, and Jesus in general, fulfills Old Testament longing. Unlike the other gospels, he starts with the genealogy of Jesus (outlining 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to the Babylonian exile, and 14 generations from the exile to the Messiah). His point is it was clearly the plan of God that Christ would come and fulfill the prophecy of being a Messiah from the house and lineage of King David. He quotes scripture about how the virgin birth fulfilled prophecy. Unlike the other gospels, he also has the story of the magi (I hate to mess with your Christmas decor, but we don't know that there were three of them and they didn't make it to the manger, they came to the house they were staying as late as a couple of years later). Again, this is about fulfillment of prophecy. Matthew's Christmas story is all about that.

LAUNCH - If Mark has a Christmas word, it might be "launch." Why? He launches right into the message of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus to show up in ministry. Yes, it's true ... he doesn't even talk about Christmas at all. This makes sense, in light of the general impetus of Mark. His favorite word in the gospel seems to be "immediately." Jesus is always going and doing, and the kingdom of God is ushering in. So it's not just that he launches into the message of John and Jesus without a single story about Christmas, he believes that Jesus is launching the kingdom of God into our midst without delay.

LOWLY - If Luke has a Christmas word, I suppose it would be "lowly." Ah, yes, most of the Christmas narrative is here in Luke, because of his general concern for the least, the last, and the lost ... for the oppressed and neglected (from woman to Gentiles to Samaritans, plus parables such as the lost sheep and the lost coin). It's no accident, then, that he would be the one to tell the story of the shepherds being visited by the angels, not to mention the details about the poverty and lack of influence of Joseph and Mary, and the fact that Jesus was born in a stable out back. All that is meant to point to something about God's favor for the poor and needy. Even the canticles (the songs of Elizabeth, Mary, Zechariah, and Simeon) are about both fulfillment of prophecy and about God's regard for the oppressed and the lowliness of his servants. For Luke, every aspect of the narrative is about this.

LOGOS - Well, if we are going to stay with the "L" theme it's obvious what John's Christmas word would be. It would be logos, the Greek New Testament word for, well, "word." He tells of Christmas as a poet, not a storyteller. We don't get from John details such as stables, local politics, or taxes, and there are no wise men or shepherds. Instead, it's rich and beautiful theology that has shaped our spirituality on every level. He starts out, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Theologically, he describes how Christ is the very word God spoke to set creation into being. He muses on how this life was the light that shines in the darkness, which will never overcome it. John the Baptist is a "witness to the light," Then he says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us," theologizing on the incarnation and the humanity/divinity of Christ. John's version of Christmas takes a deep theological plunge, even if it doesn't help with setting up your manger scene!

So, if you had a word for Christmas, what would yours be?

May you have a wonderful, wonder-full Christmas.