West End UMC Podcast Audio Podcast

Peter’s Denial – Today is the third Sunday of Lent, and through these 40 days we move toward the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and Easter. The scripture for today from Luke is the familiar story of Peter denying any knowledge of or association with Jesus. Carol cites something many of us recall from our youth, watching Road Runner cartoons with the bird constantly trying to escape Wile E. Coyote. At times, the bird runs off a cliff and at some point looks down to realize there’s no ground beneath him and he falls. She then cites a book, Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz, who uses that Road Runner image, likening it to when we realize we’re wrong, and a pit grows in our stomach. It begs the question of when we’ve felt like we were forgiven. Here is Peter, denying three times knowing Jesus, but then, amazingly, being forgiven by Jesus. We say we believe in forgiveness by God, but we must acknowledge that in our own lives in order to live as God has designed us to be.

Communion Meditation – Today is the second Sunday of Lent, and it is also Youth Sunday. The scripture is from Paul’s letter to the Romans, and it wrestles with one’s works compared to one’s faith. Three youth (Sam Wilson, Robert Harrell, and Peter Bigelow) deliver the Meditation, and each cites his history with our church and with various experiences in his years growing up here. Their message is that we are all loved by God, and that Paul challenges us to step back from time to time and examine our faith, realizing and feeling God’s love for us. Because God loves us, we can trust in God.

The Trial Begins – Today is the first Sunday of Lent, and through these 40 days we move toward the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and Easter. The scripture for today is from Luke and is a scene after the last Passover meal Jesus had with his disciples, and he has gone to the Mount of Olives to pray. Knowing what was to come (trial, conviction, crucifixion), he was in fear, and he prayed that it be lifted from him, but also that God’s will be done. That he was fearful demonstrated his humanity. In the scene, after his prayer, an angel appears to him to strengthen him. Carol wonders if the angel doesn’t represent the Holy Spirit. After this, Jesus warns his disciples to prepare for what is coming. We, too, in times of stress and pressure need to follow the directions of Jesus and remember that the third day will come.

Their Faith – Today we continue moving through the New Testament having begun with the gospel of Mark, and today’s story is one of crowds gathering to hear Jesus inside and outside a home. Some friends bring a paralyzed man to Jesus to be healed, but the crowd is so massive they can’t get into the building, so they remove the roof and lower the paralytic. Rev. Carol Cavin-Dillon relates some personal stories and says that any of us might be paralyzed at some point due to a physical issue or to some emotional or grief issue. She compares this story to other stories of Jesus healing people, where Jesus cites the faith of the one who is to be healed. Here, however, it is the faith of the friends who persist in getting the man to Jesus rather than the faith of the paralytic. She also explores the Greek word here translated “heal” which is, in other places, translated “make whole” or even “save.” This underscores the meaning of the congregation of a church, or of friends, whose role in someone’s healing is a depth of faith when the person who needs healing is in great need.

Seeing as Healing – Today we continue moving through the New Testament with a scene from the gospel of Mark wherein Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho and a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, called out to him loudly and repeatedly and told Jesus that he wanted Jesus to let him see again. Jesus healed him, restoring his eyesight. Delivering the sermon today is Rea Green, a ministry intern at our church. Rea is blind, which give her much insight into the story of Bartimaeus. She says that the story demonstrates showing someone for who they really are. In similar stories of healing the blind in other gospels, the blind person is not named. When Bartimaeus calls out, we don’t know how long it has been since he has been seen, and people around him try to quiet him. Jesus, however, asks him what he needs, and, seeing him for who he is, restores his vision. The lesson is that Jesus sees us for who we are and responds according to our needs. We are all beloved children of God.

Jesus the Healer – This week Nashville suffered a devastating ice storm, and several other congregations whose churches are without power have joined us for this one service, our monthly communion service. The Children’s Moment is delivered by Tyler Merritt, a storyteller, author, and actor, who did a presentation in our theatre before this service. As we work through the New Testament, today’s scripture is the story from Mark of Jesus healing a leper. Carol begins by citing many crises of the weather this week, and how many of us have been in great stress and have felt isolated. The leper in Jesus’ day was isolated because of his disease, and Jewish law prohibited him from being with others. When he cries out repeatedly to Jesus, the people around try to quiet him, but Jesus, hearing him, asks what he wants. Of course, he wants to be healed, and Jesus, moved with pity and deep compassion, does heal him, actually touching him in the process. From this we can learn that whatever isolates us, Jesus looks on us with compassion.

A Foundation of Grace – Due to a severe winter storm, church services were cancelled for Sunday, and this service was recorded Thursday evening so that it could be streamed on Sunday. We continue moving through the Gospel of Matthew, and the scripture is the last portion of the Sermon on the Mount wherein Jesus cautions those hearing him that they will not all end up with him, and he compares their directions to someone building a house on a rock versus someone building a house on sand. Rev. Will McLeane, our Pastor of Spiritual Formation, delivers the sermon and begins by describing his experience with a math teacher who was not at all satisfied with a correct answer to a problem but was most interested in how the problem was solved. Will says that for Jesus, too, the answer alone is not satisfactory, but the foundation on which the answer is built is crucial, and that foundation is grace. Will offers the example of John Wesley, our founder of Methodism, whose mission from England to the Georgia colony failed, and he later learned that he had offered the answer without the foundation of grace. Will tells us that if our life is currently shaky, we should look for transformation by building on the foundation of grace.

Let Us Pray – Today we continue moving through the Gospel of Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount with the very familiar passage in which Jesus teaches the people to pray and from which we have “The Lord’s Prayer.” Carol begins by citing a minister, Bishop Robert Spain, who heavily influenced her through her youth and mentored her in her own ministry. However, he once shocked her by saying from the pulpit that he did not have the prayer life he wished he had. Since then she has realized that most of us are beginners in learning to pray, and for us to examine what Jesus taught can be of help. When Jesus said not to pray in public, in essence it is to say that prayer is not a performance for those around us or for God – God loves us and hears our prayers without our having to attract God’s attention, and God knows our hearts. Saying “Thy will be done” can enlist us and shape how we act and live. Every pronoun in the prayer is plural, connecting us with others. “Give us this day our daily bread” can enlist us to help feed the hungry. There is much to learn from this passage about praying.

Going on to Perfection – Today through specific liturgy and acts we remember and reaffirm our own baptisms. We also continue with scripture from Matthew as we work through the New Testament in the coming months. In today’s passage Jesus says that he has come to fulfill, rather than to abolish, the law and the prophets. He challenges his listeners to love their enemies and ends by telling them to “be perfect.” Carol begins her sermon by citing theologian Karl Barth who told people to carry the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, quite a difficult thing for us to do in today’s world. It is difficult to love our enemies, but we know that God loves everyone, and, encouraged by Jesus, we must strive to love everyone, too. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, talked of going on to perfection, and in embracing our baptism we, too, can strive to follow God’s lead to love everyone and thus to walk toward perfection.

Beginning with Blessing – Today is Epiphany Sunday, the day we traditionally celebrate the story of the birth of the messiah being revealed to the magi. But, as we’ve begun our trip through the New Testament, our scripture for today is from Matthew and is the first part of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus delivered to the crowds. This first part is the very familiar “Beatitudes,” such as “Blessed are the meek, . . .” and Carol explains that some English translations have “happy” instead of “blessed,” because the Greek of the text is a translation from the original Aramaic or Hebrew Jesus would have spoken. Our context is that in the past few days we have all used the expression, “Happy New Year!” and Carol asks us to consider what happiness means to us: comfort, prosperity, health, etc. But in these Beatitudes, Jesus challenges that idea by giving happiness/blessedness to the poor, meek, lowly, and in this sense the perspective of God is revealed. Jesus not only gives that comfort and possibility, he recruits those who listen and believe to support such happiness.

Awakening in Our Dreams – Today is the first Sunday after our celebration of the birth of Jesus. Delivering the sermon is Chris Dean, and it is based on the story in Matthew 2 of an angel appearing to Joseph in a dream, telling him to take Mary and Jesus and go to Egypt because of the threat of Herod. Then, further in that passage, an angel appears to Joseph in another dream, telling him to take Mary and the child back to Israel because Herod had died. These dreams of Joseph follow that first dream in which an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, telling him to take the pregnant Mary as his wife, that the baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit. In his analysis, Chris gives some background for reading the Bible “like a child,” and then he relates Joseph’s dreams in some measure to dreams most of us have had. He points out that the accounts of Joseph’s dreams in the gospel are not detailed and elaborate, and perhaps the only crucial part is that God is present and communicating through those dreams. Even when Joseph, Mary, and the child are in danger, God demonstrates the divine presence in those dreams, and that is something we should take with us. Whatever is bothering us at any point, we need to remember that God is with us.

Redirecting Obedience – Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent, and the third Advent candle symbolizes love. The Rev. Will McLeane, our Pastor of Spiritual Formation is delivering the sermon, and the text from Matthew about the revelation to Joseph that his pregnant fiancé, Mary would bear a son conceived by the Holy Spirit. Rev. Will points out that this is certainly the season for decisions, such as what gift to get for whom, how to spend our seasonal time, but also, for some of us, there are serious decisions such as whether to take a different direction in our vocation. If we feel distressed with decision-making Joseph must have been stressed, having a fiancé who is pregnant, but not by him. The legal requirement in that time was divorce, but in a dream Joseph is told that the father is the Holy Spirit and the baby to be born is to be called Jesus. So Joseph and Mary make the decision to follow God’s guidance. We need to recognize where, in our own lives, we resist God’s call and understand that obedience to God can be freeing. The result of Joseph’s decision is “Emmanuel,” “God with us!”

Today’s Advent Podcast is led by Chris Dean and Sheyla Soriano, two members of West End’s Spiritual Formation team. ...

Today’s Advent Podcast is led by Kay Gray and Allen Patton, two members of West End UMC’s “Seasoned Seniors,” an Older Adult fellowship and connection group. ...

Today’s Advent Podcast is led by Mackenzie Rice and Lu Johns-De La Garza, two undergraduate students at Vanderbilt and participants in Vanderbilt Wesley. ...

All in the Family – Today is the second Sunday of Advent, and, as the first Sunday of the month, it is also Communion Sunday. We are not only in Advent, awaiting the birth of the Christ child, but we are also beginning a study of the New Testament, and today’s reading is from the first verses of the first Gospel, Matthew, verses that give the genealogy of Jesus back to Abraham, as the writer of the first Gospel is addressing Jews. In our time, many people explore their ancestry with various methods of tracing their origins. But, as with the ancestors of Jesus listed in these verses, a lot of people find some messy episodes in their ancestry. Carol points out several such episodes in Jesus’s ancestry, and that underscores his humanity. Nevertheless, as the birth of Jesus is evidenced as divine in the first Gospel, we find that we are no longer bound by any shortcomings in our lineage but are free to follow Jesus.

The Day Is Coming – Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the Christian season of waiting. Carol asks us to ponder what we, personally, are waiting for. She gives some examples of things people are waiting for, both as individuals and as groups, and says that waiting can be difficult. And we now not only await the celebration of the birth of Jesus, but we also await the second coming of Jesus. We have recently spent a series of Sundays with Jeremiah’s words before Israel’s impending exile and then enduring that Babylonian exile, today’s scripture is from Malachi to the post-exilic Israelites who were waiting for God’s control to resume and for their return to normalcy. Malachi’s words of deep hope from God, the last words in our Old Testament, promise a return of God’s justice and point to a day when God is coming. Throughout Advent we will await the birth of the Christ child, and then beyond Advent we will turn to the Gospels to look at the life of Jesus as the model for God’s return as leader on earth.

Investing in Hope – Today is “Reign of Christ Sunday” when we acknowledge and celebrate the centrality of God and Jesus as the overarching focus of our faith. Also today we are ending our series of readings and sermons based on the Book of Jeremiah. Today’s passage from Jeremiah is quite odd and surprising. Jerusalem is about to be conquered by the Babylonians, and they know that’s coming because of the Babylonian troops that are amassed close to the city. Jeremiah is in custody, placed there by King Josiah because of Jeremiah’s frequent and urgent criticisms of the king and the people. But in this passage, Jeremiah is instructed by God to buy a plot of farmland in Anathoth, just outside Jerusalem, and he does so in a very public manner. That action goes against all reason because it is clear that inevitably and soon Jerusalem will be conquered and burned. Yet through this purchase Jeremiah and God make a statement that one day God will restore the people and the kingdom, and thus hope is not lost at all. We, too, are encouraged to have hope in God and in the Reign of Christ no matter our circumstance. And we are encouraged to share that hope with others.

Bloom Where You Are Planted – Today is “College Sunday” when we celebrate the college students worshipping among us. As part of that, college students are taking part in much of the service, and Daniel Cantrell, a graduate student at Belmont University, is preaching. We have been in a series of Sundays during which we are exploring the Book of Jeremiah, and in today’s passage, the Lord, through Jeremiah, assures the Israelites in Babylonian captivity that they will return from exile and God will attend to their calls. In his message to us, Daniel cites some periods of his own life when he had lost community and was, in some measure, in exile. We, too, experience exile when we lose community, but in surrendering to God’s control, we can return from exile into community under God. No matter our age or our condition, God is not through working through us, and God can turn our exile into purpose if we are willing.

Even in Exile – In an exchange of preachers, today the Rev. Sam McGlothlin, the senior pastor at Belle Meade United Methodist Church, is preaching for us, while Rev. Dr. Carol Cavin-Dillon is preaching there. We have been in a series of Sundays during which we are exploring the Book of Jeremiah, and to prepare us for today’s passage, Rev. McGlothlin reviewed the Book of Jeremiah we have explored to this point, his being called as a young person by God to remind God’s people of their relationship with God in the past and to urge them to give up the things that have caused them to stray. Now, however, they are in exile in Babylon, and today’s passage is a message to those in exile that they need to seek and enable the welfare of others, including their captors, in that foreign land. Rev. McGlothlin interweaves family stories to illustrate that sometimes one’s frustration and anger can prevent our reaching out to others, and perhaps there were some in Babylonian captivity who could reach out, but others could not. We, too, are called to reach out and minister to others, even if we are frustrated by our own situation. This passage in Jeremiah demonstrates that even in exile they and we can nurture others and live in God’s grace.