May 24th is the date which all the various Wesleyan denominations remember each year as “John Wesley’s Aldersgate Experience. The year was 1728. From that day in May we tend to date the beginning of the Methodist movement. Wesley’s heart was “strangely warmed.” Wesley intended nothing more than renewal of the churches as well as getting the Gospel out of just the sanctuary and into the streets, fields, institutions, and homes.

This was the profound personal moment when Wesley was given the assurance of his salvation. Impressive, yes, especially since he had been an Anglican priest, missionary, and academic for many years!

This is often our experience in that at moments in each of our lives we have a profound spiritual experience which changes our life dramatically. And it may be the first step of Christian discipleship or it may be a “second touch” further along our spiritual journey.

Vital personal relationship with God in Christ is the key to a joyful, meaningful life of faith. It is both individual and communal. We are not made Christians alone but we must find ourselves “one to one“ with Jesus to “know salvation.”

Having said that, I want to emphasize that each person is unique and no one spiritual experience is for everyone. The “Aldersgate” experiences are not “prepackaged!”

Yet, as our text in I Peter says, we are always to “be ready to give an account for the hope that is within us.” Each of us needs to find the words to express to others that “I belong to Jesus. I love because He first loved me!” Often we stumble on the exact words but we get the “doing the faith” right in our relationships with others!

This Sunday we will explore John Wesley’s faith experience as well as that of the disciples in John, Acts, and I Peter. Don’t miss it! Your experience is included too!

Blessings!

Pastor Barry

Mother’s Day is this Sunday and our texts do not mention one mother! But the qualities often associated with “mothering” are everywhere in these verses.

And few people will give a lot of thought to Anna Jarvis of West Virginia around the turn of the century 1900. She was a Methodist who carried on her mother Ann’s dream of bringing together women of the Civil War who had lost family members to that great conflict of both North and South. The intent on those early Mother’s Day celebrations was less on sentiment and more upon the desire for peaceful ways over ways of war in resolving conflict! Our texts support a number of images associated with peace over war: mansions or dwelling places that are secure and peaceful; forgiveness instead of curses upon our enemies; growing into maturity through reconciliation (“pure spiritual milk”) rather than division.

Well….this all sounds like wisdom we might have heard from our mothers at some point along our way! We can celebrate the whole family of God this Sunday, too, even if we are not blood kin nor have the same mother! We obey the 5th Commandment and we follow Jesus the Son who has many children prepared for many “mansions” as we gather this May 14th. As to the “mattress and a good pair of shoes,” that has to do with a single mom teaching Home Economics in the Appalachians. More on that Sunday.

As you are blessed with family and friends like family, in turn bless others Continue in peace!

Pastor Barry

If any word describes the Christian life better than “abundant” please let me know! In all of these scriptures for Sunday there are generous descriptions of ways of living in God’s present and future reign. A Good Shepherd leads us in right directions, feeds us and gives us drink at a grand table, and we are kept secure! (Psalm 23). As a new family of brothers and sisters we share and share alike (Acts 2:44,45). Our needs are met in community! And in I Peter 2:21 we are never without an example and a presence as to how to live. We have a “Bishop of our souls” (KJV)!

Translating this into the year 2017 and month of May….well, there is the exciting challenge! Practice may NOT make perfect, but it surely is as close to “abundant” as we will get in this life!

Let’s help each other be examples for others in abundant living. And this “abundant living” (John 10:10) has very little to do with bank accounts unless like John Wesley instructs us, “Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.”

Be a blessing!

Pastor Barry

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” The Road Less Travelled. “You take the high road and I’ll take the low road.” “On the road again.”

With these four familiar expressions you can probably add another five! The image of travel and the lure of the road is part of who most of us are. In the USA we have the great American foundation stories of arriving from other countries and then going Westward. Songs have been written about Route 66, the Natchez Trace, and stories both good and not so good are being told now about our own I-24 (!).

Our Gospel story for this Sunday’s worship is the well-known Road to Emmaus. So much happens here with the two disciples and the “stranger” traveling with them it cannot be contained in one sermon or one lesson.

Suffice it to say, it us enough to get us thinking about our own journeys of faith and who we have met along the way. And who has gone before us and who yet lies ahead to begin their own journey.

As is also said, we, as Christ followers, meet our Savior along the way as we make our way. At no one point can we say “it is done!” Until we cross over and there are no more highways~~+

There are certainly pivotal moments always with us in memory of how that moment shaped us, but we are in motion and cannot stay “in Emmaus” but continue along to the next point until we reach “the New Jerusalem!”

Saddle up! Start your engines! Brace yourselves for takeoff! The way is always forward! Listen to Jesus the Captain of your Ship as you continue to sail to points Known and Unknown!

Make it an adventure!

Your fellow traveling companion,

Pastor Barry

I am all for laughter. Crying gets old real quick. Both come to us all. I would rather laugh (altho there is healing in crying as well as hurting).

In earlier ages of the Church, the Sunday worship after Easter was often referred to as Laughter Sunday, since Easter Resurrection was God’s joke on the Devil who must have thought he won again on the Friday and Saturday before Sunday. The Church was encouraged to tell jokes and pull harmless pranks on each other the week after Easter to celebrate the fact that laughter wins out in the End over tears. Sounds good to my ears!

The scriptures for this Sunday are not exactly laugh out loud texts, but they have an almost breathless excitement about them that almost brings a smile. In John’s account, The Risen Lord appears to his Disciples and you can almost “see” the smiles on their faces. In Acts, Peter goes on about the excitement breaking out amongst the people knowing that the Spirit had descended upon them!

It’s almost like a dog! You know how a dog gets about almost everything you do with your canine:
“Throw ball!” My favorite thing!
“Chase that stick!” My favorite thing!
“Go for a car ride!” My favorite thing!
“Run with me!” My favorite thing!

The early church in the New Testament was bursting with excitement and probably everything they did, knowing Jesus was alive, was “their favorite thing!”
There was still plenty of difficult experiences ahead but they knew the final word was Divine Laughter not never ending tears.

Have a good Godly laugh this week!

Blessings †

Pastor Barry

There is so much to gardening whether food or flowers! The same when it comes to gardening and Resurrection! Jeremiah gets us all excited about new life in Israel, Paul says “act like something New is happening,” and John tells us a lot about a morning of mourning no longer…in a garden area!

There will be so many varieties of worship this weekend three passages of scripture cannot contain it all! Good Friday at Locks Memorial, Easter Egg Hunts at both churches (one on Saturday and the other on Sunday), a Cleanup Day (Locks), Sunrise at Kedron, and 9:30 and 11:00 Word and Song worship as well! Have I missed anything?! Even so, we probably can’t list everything YOU AND THE FAMILY AND FRIENDS will set out to do to say “Yes, to God’s saying an ultimate and Final YES to us mortal, fallen, creatures who know death.”

A garden weekend indeed!

Resurrection Blessings on all!  †

Pastor Barry

On April 9, 1959 NASA announced the selection of America’s first seven astronauts. Among those seven were two who became most famous Alan Shepherd and John Glenn. And the others most of us over 60 surely recognize. They were incredibly The Right Stuff indeed! On April 9, 2017 we again will celebrate Palm Sunday the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem on His way to celebrate Passover and on His way to Crucifixion.

As the astronauts of the USA sought to enter the space of the “heavens”, Jesus, Son of God, came from God but was one of us, walked among us, died to conquer Sin and Death. As the astronauts entered into the unknown of human space travel, God in an inexplicable demonstration of love entered into the form of the human condition.

As the astronauts rode fiery rockets into space, Jesus of Nazareth simply rode a humble donkey not a conqueror’s warhorse. As the initial seven men put on spacesuits to enter into airless space, God “put on the form of a servant” to enter into a Fallen sin filled world.

Both are adventures to “draw us in” and to celebrate the human and the Divine at work in Creation and the call to us to be drawn to a fulfilled life of love here and Forever!

This Sunday we have good reason to wave palm branches and shout out Hosanna! Yes indeed, “Save us!” Hosanna! God is at work in human kind and then beyond human limitations and on toward Eternity!

Blessings on your Lenten walk. †

Pastor Barry

We are still about 15 days out (depending on how you count!) from Easter Sunday morning. But, the scriptures for April 2nd have about as much excitement as you could want! Dry bones coming to life. Dead bodies because of sin. Spirit giving new life to the dead. Lazarus, a friend, dead, causing Jesus to weep, then raises his friend, dead for days, to life!

A whole lotta of shaking going on and not quite the Jerry Lee Lewis variety either. Still these events and images and message give us pause to think and reflect on the “hope that is within us.” It’s a bit early to be “dancing unto the Lord” on Easter, but these scriptures sure do get our attention. Add Holy Communion and Sunday worship doesn’t get much better….until….Revelation 7:15-17….read on!

Blessings on your Lenten walk toward Good Friday and Easter †

Pastor Barry

Worship can divide people. It shouldn’t. When Jesus, a Jewish itinerate Rabbi encounters a Samaritan woman with a difficult marital history, the conversation comes around to worship. And really who is to be worshipped.

The questions and answers are handed down to children, taught to all ages, and ultimately asked of all those capable of making informed decisions to do just that: choose how and where you will worship! We take into consideration geography, ethnicity, personality, language, and personal tastes. Jesus, however, keeps it fairly simple. Worship in Spirit and Truth.

I suspect that Spirit and Truth are found in tens of thousands of worshipping congregations. I have to decide on somewhere. I should always watch and listen for Spirit and Truth. A tall order but people do just that year in and year out. When you depart from worship has the Spirit been felt in Word, song, and fellowship? Has Truth found its way into your heart and mind? Do they go with you throughout the week as a result of worship? Each of us must respond.

Personally I am at home in United Methodist worship. But I can also feel at home to some degree in most churches. I enjoy the beauty of much in Catholic services. I can appreciate the simple acapella singing in Churches of Christ. I can get “in the spirit” in some Pentecostal services. And I know the calming of quiet meditative serenity of Friends meetings and others committed to services of prayer and meditation. I have found most of the above in our United Methodist churches at some point. So I will likely stay home!! However, I do draw the line at “snake handling” and believe this expression is a misinterpretation of Mark 16:17, 18. And I am not much for “running up and down the aisles” in a church either! Both seem to “stretch” the idea of Spirit AND Truth!

This Sunday we will hear of the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman and see what and Who is at stake in worship! Bring all of who you are to worship (but no snakes and no running in the aisles)!

Pastor Barry