Williamsburg Landing Sermon

Hey All!

So I wanted to include my sermon that I wrote for Williamsburg Landing, a local retirement community. It was off lectionary, focusing on the John reading for the week and the Ephesians reading. I included the Ephesians reading in my sermon because the John reading had been read earlier in the service.

“I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said,

‘When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;

   he gave gifts to his people.’

(When it says, ‘He ascended’, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” This is the word of God for the people of God.

            I wanted to add this Scripture in with the Gospel lesson today because it is a truly powerful passage and it fits in perfectly with what I want to talk about.

Introduce self – summer intern (explain Calling 21), talk about school

This Ephesians passage really speaks to me because this summer is all about discovering my call and discovering what it means to be worthy of the call. I’ve been able to do so many amazing things, from teach music at VBS to helping at music camp, to writing liturgy for services, preaching, teaching Sunday School, doing music sessions for Respite Care center and WindsorMeade, and so much more. I’ve been thrown into the deep end of what it means to be in ministry and I’ve been slowly developing what I want my ministry to look like. The Ephesians reading and the John reading focus on Jesus being the bread of life, and us being a part of the body of Christ. For most United Methodist Churches, and many other denominations, the first Sunday of the month, which is this Sunday, is communion Sunday. For me, communion signifies our unity to the body of Christ. When we partake in the elements, we are a community sharing in the common call.

In Winchester, they have a program called WATTS, which stands for the Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter. The local churches each take a week during the coldest months of the year and house homeless guests. The guests are provided with a hot dinner, a cot to sleep on, breakfast, and they are usually given a bag lunch for the day. At Shenandoah, we at the Spiritual Life office saw that this was a great program and we wanted to get involved. Since we couldn’t house homeless guests on campus for a lot of reasons, we decided that every Sunday night for the duration of the program, SU students would take dinner and provide a Bible study. I’ve been volunteering at WATTS for two years now, and it has been such a meaningful experience for me. I’ve helped organize volunteers, coordinate transportation, and eat and talk with the guests. It’s so powerful to hear their stories and be in community with these people. When we go and eat with the guests, I truly feel like part of the body of Christ. We are not only providing food, we are feeding their souls as well. Even though we may not get everyone involved in the Bible study, the ones who do come absolutely cherish having that time to talk about Godly things. And even the ones who don’t come, they see us, and what we come to do, and they are grateful. This program helps the guests look for jobs, regulate their medications, and give them a place to stay so they don’t freeze at night. I feel honored to be a part of this program and it I think it exemplifies what we are called to do as a part of the body of Christ.

I’ve found that food is a wonderful common ground. Whether it’s a pot luck, family dinner, food bank, or communion, we always gather around food. When the people came to Jesus, they were expecting food, and yet they received so much more. He told them to go out and do the work of God through him. There’s a book that I read last year called “Take this Bread,” by Sara Miles. It’s a story about this woman’s conversion to Christianity and what she does with her life afterwards. Sara was raised an atheist. Her parents had had bad experiences in the church so Sara grew up learning to hate the church. When she got older, she worked as a restaurant cook and spent a lot of time in impoverished and dangerous areas as a newscaster and writer. She led a pretty rough life through her 20s and 30s. When Sara was 46, she by chance walked into a church. She had absolutely no intention of regularly coming or becoming a “religious nut” as she called it. It happened to be Communion Sunday that day, she participated, and her life was changed forever. Just by partaking in that simple act of receiving bread and wine fundamentally changed this woman’s life. She had no clue what she had gotten herself into and started reading anything and everything about religion and Communion, trying to figure out what this feeling was. This is a quote from her prologue, “I stumbled into a radically inclusive faith centered on sacraments and action. What I found wasn't about angels, or going to church, or trying to be 'good' in a pious, idealized way. It wasn't about arguing a doctrine — the Virgin birth, predestination, the sinfulness of homosexuality and divorce — or pledging blind allegiance to a denomination. I was, as the prophet said, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. I found it at the eternal and material core of Christianity: body, blood, bread, wine poured out freely, shared by all. I discovered a religion rooted in the most ordinary yet subversive practice: a dinner table where everyone is welcome, where the poor, the despised and the outcasts are honored.”

This is what encapsulates what we are called to do and share through the church. When Sara discovered this, she knew that she had to act on the issue of hunger where she lived. She opened a food pantry in her area and it exploded to many different locations. This food pantry program has feed hundreds upon hundreds of people…and it was all inspired by a woman eating a piece of bread and taking a sip of wine.

Now what I learned from reading this book is that it doesn’t matter what your background is, or who your family is, or what you’ve done, all are welcome in Christ’s body. It gave me a new perspective when I took communion or even shared a meal with my friends. I read this book after my first experience with the WATTS program, and even though I had already deemed that experience “awesome and fulfilling,” once I had read this book, the experience took on a completely new meaning.

So what does it mean to be worthy of the call? I think we’ve seen that to be worthy of a call means to feel completely unworthy of the call. I think that’s when God uses us most because that’s when we are most open to God’s plan. I love Isaiah’s call story because it’s so fresh. Isaiah is kind of having trouble reconciling that he is living among sinners but he doesn’t know how to be worthy to reach them. He cried out “ ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’” Then an angel took a coal and placed it to Isaiah’s lips and told him that his lips were clean and his sins forgiven. “Then (he) heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’” Now there are a lot of call stories in the Bible, and they all come from different perspectives and different plots, but I just love the call story of Isaiah. Even if we feel like there isn’t a job for us to do or a call for us to follow, there is. Calls change and transform all the time, and no matter where we are in life, there is always a purpose behind where we are.

Now since I’ve been an intern this summer, I’ve been kind of obsessed with this concept of call, if you haven’t noticed already. What I love about the John reading is that when the people come to Jesus, they are coming for physical food, right? Jesus takes the opportunity to present a call to them. When they ask “‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’” This is in essence a call. Jesus is telling them to believe in him, and everything else will fall into place. Isn’t that a beautiful thing?

Through the two readings today and the stories, we can see that the concept of the body of Christ and serving him through call takes on many different shapes and forms. When we partake in a meal together, whether it is communion or just a normal meal, we are being the body of Christ together. I’m so glad to have been able to come and share and worship with you today and I hope that I will have another opportunity to visit Williamsburg in the near future. Thank you again for inviting me to come today, and now let us sing “Let there be Peace on Earth,” number 211.

Well I can't believe that things are actually winding down around here. I officially have three more days in the office and then on Thursday I leave Williamsburg to go to Winchester and then the next day I'm going to Maryland to spend some time with friends and family before going back to school on the 19th to help out with freshman move in day on the 20th and help out with Welcome Week. I can't believe that it's already August, where did this summer go? It feels like I just started my internship a couple of weeks ago and yet SO many amazing things have happened.

This week has been quite busy as I had three music sessions this week, had two services today which I had to prepare for, and preparations for Helping Hands tomorrow and Tuesday. Helping Hands is a program for 4-6th graders and gives them an opportunity to learn about and do mission work. I will be taking a group of kids down to Respite Care and doing music to show them how powerful music can be and that it is a mission to care for those who are suffering from dementia. Also, just as some fun things that I did this week, Kristin and I got to go to Busch Gardens again and we also went swing dancing on Thursday night! It was Kristin's first time swing dancing and she did wonderfully :)

I had quite a wonderful weekend this weekend, filled with fun stuff and my LAST Sunday here at Williamsburg UMC. I taught Sunday School today and led two services at Williamsburg Landing, a local retirement community. I have the cutest story from after my first service. One of the ladies pulled me aside and was talking to me. At one point, she asked if I was married. I told her no. She then told me with a big smile on her face, "Someone is going to catch you one day." And as I was about to leave, she also told me, "I hope you find the love of your life just like I found mine." Isn't that the sweetest thing ever!? I felt so blessed by that woman telling that and kind of gave me hope, haha.

Anyway, I'm probably going to post at least one more time with a sum-up of the summer and any last stories I want to share. This summer has gone by so quickly and it's been so wonderful. I think I am ready to spend some time with my family and friends before school starts, though. I'll thank you all now for being such faithful readers and thank you for going on this journey with me!

Alright, time for another post! I can't believe that as of yesterday, I have two weeks left here in Williamsburg. I have quite a few things planned for the next two weeks and I'm looking forward to spending them with all of the amazing people I've met in Williamsburg.

This past week, I only had Monday and Thursday in the office. That was both a good and a bad thing. Even though I only had two days in the office, I still had to prepare my children's sermon, pastoral prayer, and prayer of thanksgiving for Sunday. I also had phone calls to make (which I dislike doing very much) and prepare for future music sessions. That's the boring stuff...the exciting stuff is what happened during Tuesday and Wednesday when I wasn't in the office.

I had the awesome opportunity to travel to Blackstone with Allie for her Provisional Residency Retreat. It was my first Blackstone experience, having heard wonderful things from Virginia Conference friends. If real life were like my experience this past Tuesday and Wednesday, I think the world would be a very happy place. Whenever we gathered for worship, everyone responded with such passion and resolve, it was truly powerful to witness. Obviously, I couldn't go to the covenant groups because those are confidential, but I did get to go the afternoon plenary session on the first day and a morning workshop and afternoon workshop on the second day. There were about 90-100 provisional members at this retreat, which was amazing. During the plenary session, we talked about being. We talked about how our doing stems from our being, and to be an effective minister, we need to focus on who we are more than on what we do or how we do it. Since I've been focusing on self-care recently, I really needed to hear that message. The morning session that I went to focused on maturing spirituality, which was about different spiritual disciplines and self-care. The afternoon session was about inclusivity in the local church. I tried to take what they were talking about for the local church and apply it to campus ministry, since I am the inclusivity chair for JustFaith this coming year. I got to read and reflect and be in fellowship with the provisionals and it was a great way for me to make connections and learn about the ordination process from those going through it. All in all it was a great experience and I'm really glad that I got to go.

On Wednesday night, Kristin and I FINALLY got the chance to go to Busch Gardens, and we're planning on going back as many times as possible before I have to leave. I had a support group meeting last night, which are always a good time. We had a wonderful dinner and good discussion. I have one more support group meeting before I leave Williamsburg. I have two more music sessions in Respite care, two music sessions at a retirement community in the area, and I'm leading two worship services at another retirement community on August 5th as well as teaching sunday school that morning.

Well, I think that is enough of my ranting for now...I probably only have a few more posts left! Oh goodness...

It's been a long week...

Ok, it's been a long time since I've posted, I know. A lot has been going on (as usual) and now it's time to catch up.

I wanted to start out by talking about how my Sunday school lesson went last week because something that happened during the week really made that experience stand out. Let me start the story by saying that when I had my support group meeting last week, we had a really in-depth discussion about what the Church needs to do to attract young people and keep the church alive with young people. Of course it was a very lengthy discussion and we never did get a rock solid answer but it was a meaningful and great conversation, and it got me thinking about that topic from the local church perspective. When I did my Sunday school lesson for the Aldersgate class (a class of mostly 70-80 year olds who basically have their own mini worship service during Sunday school), I talked about my call story. When it came time for questions, a lot of them asked about what my school curriculum was like, what I was planning to do after college, what I wanted to do in Music Therapy, stuff like that. This one man, however, asked me very candidly, "We've seen a decline in youth and young adults in worship, how can we fix that?" Oh man was I not ready for that one. Let me just say I was really glad I had had that discussion with my support group and that I had had public speaking where I learned to answer tough questions like that. My answer basically went like this, "You know, that is an excellent question and it begs a lot longer discussion than what we have time for this morning, but what I see happening in the Church (especially United Methodism) is that we say that we have "Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors" and yet we are not practicing what we are preaching. Youth and young adults see hypocrisy in the Church and when we start practicing what we are preaching, that is when we will start to see more youth and young adults come to church, because they see that we are truly being Christ in the world." Well apparently, it got back to the senior pastor that I had answered a question really well in Sunday school so he wanted to know what it was so we talked about it as well and that was very meaningful. So that was kind of my "proud" moment of the week....

Another fantastic thing that happened this week was I had another music session down in respite care. Personally, I think that this was the best session I've ever done and I saw so many amazing things happen. In my previous session, at the end I said that if anyone had any requests I would do it for the next session. One of the clients said that he really wanted to sing "Shenandoah," so I learned it on the guitar and brought it in. I had that client come up and sing it with me, and before we started he told everyone what the song meant to him and some of the history behind it, which was really powerful. Actually, during the song, one of the caregivers started crying. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to talk to her about it after the session but it still struck me how powerful music and memory can be. During a playing activity, a client who is wheelchair bound and can barely speak anymore, I gave her a drum and she would not stop playing it. It was the first time I had experienced her really participating in a session and during another activity she answered a question on topic. I got everyone who wasn't in a wheelchair (which is most of them) dancing to "When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbing Along" and everyone had such a great time and I really felt like they were getting a lot out of the session.

This past weekend, my host mom, host sister and I went to Nags Head for a Girls Weekend. It was great to spend the weekend with two wonderful women and I experienced the Outer Banks for the first time. (There are pictures and videos on my facebook.) Unfortunately, we only got Friday morning at the beach because it rained for the rest of the weekend but it was still a great trip. We went to the big sand dunes and ran down them, went shopping, ate seafood, went to the Wright Brother's Memorial Museum, went to the aquarium, and went shopping some more :-P I got myself a tshirt and the SOFTEST sweatshirt I have ever had in my life. I'm slightly obsessed with it now, it's pretty bad.

This Sunday, the senior pastor was away on vacation, so I was basically full liturgist for both services. I got to do the Children's Sermon, which was fun. I have a crazy busy week for next week because I am going on retreat with the associate pastor for two days so I have less time to prepare for my second to last Sunday here in Williamsburg. I can't believe that I only have two and half weeks left; this summer has gone by so quickly. Kristin and I have some fun plans planned, like going to Busch Gardens at some point this week and going to a couple of other places before I have to leave.

Well, I think this has been a successful post, until next time!

Ok, ok, you all have reason to yell at me. It has been quite the busy week which meant that unfortunately I didn't get to post.

First of all, preaching went really really well on Sunday. It was so great to have my family there and have the Allen family there to support me. All of us and the Potters all went out to lunch afterwards and it really meant a lot to me that they were all there.

This week was music camp week. My job was to do devotions every morning and then I helped out with the younger kids recorder class, older kids choir, and older kids handbells. There were so many talented kids at this camp and they were expected to do a lot. They not only had their separate classes and graded level choir, they also all participated in mass choir. Between those two choirs, they memorized and performed about six choir songs in one and sometimes two part harmony in five days. It was quite impressive. I loved getting to know the kids and also meeting some of the youth who were helping out as well. Unfortunately, I had made plans to go up to Winchester on Friday and Saturday before I realized there was a closing service for music camp on Friday night so I missed that but I heard that it was really good.

On the Winchester note, I went up to see the SSMT show Grease, and it was pretty awesome. I am in awe of the talent and dedication involved with putting on four shows in one summer and it was great to be able to witness my friends and colleagues perform a wonderful show. I was really glad to be able to hang out with my roommates and see a good friend.

On Wednesday night I had a fantastic support group meeting. We had dinner and talked about young people and the future of the church and other really deep stuff. I love my support group, they've been really important in my development here.

Today, I got to have a really cool experience by leading worship at a retirement community. All of the residents were so nice and I think they really enjoyed my message. I love getting out into the community and interacting with people.

Other than that, it's just been another week here in the good old Williamsburg. Thankfully, this week is going to be fairly quiet. I'll be doing a music session down in respite care this week, going to the beach Thursday night through Saturday, and then I'm going to be full liturgist in church on Sunday.

I promise to be better at posting at some point this week!

My sermon for 7/8

Hey everybody!

UPDATE!: Here is a link to the "Listen Online" section of the Williamsburg UMC website, which has an audio recording of my sermon. I went off manuscript slightly, so it's not exactly new stuff but if you actually wanted to hear me preach just launch the player and click on "Prophets in a Strange Land" on July 8th. Enjoy! http://www.williamsburgumc.org/#/listen-online

I am posting my sermon for Sunday in here so that those who will not be there on Sunday will be able to read it if they so choose. I do ask that if you are going to be there on Sunday, please just wait until Sunday to hear it, I promise that it'll be ok. Anyway, enjoy!

Prophets in a Strange Land – Willimasburg Sermon 7/8

Hear now the word of the Gospel: “He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.” Please pray with me: Lord, may the meditations of my heart and the words of my mouth be pleasing to you. Amen.

Good Morning! In case you have absolutely no idea who I am, I’m Emily, and I am the summer intern here through the Calling 21 program. I have been truly blessed along this journey so far and it’s far from over. Since I was a junior in high school, I’ve known that I am meant to be a music therapist. I am now a rising junior at Shenandoah University studying music therapy and I am also minoring in religion. Since I was little, I have always been involved in the church and I love being in leadership in the church. Recently, I have been feeling a pull toward the order of Deacon. This fits perfectly with my music therapy and will allow me to be in leadership in the church while working in the world. The purpose and duty of a deacon is to be the bridge between the Church and the world. They usually work outside of the church in a profession and are associated with a local church and they usually are in specialized ministry. The deacon also assists elders in the administration of the sacraments. I found the Calling 21 Summer Internship program through the Dean of Spiritual Life at Shenandoah and was accepted to be an intern this summer.

The mission of Calling 21 is to help college students who are discerning God’s call in their lives to experience leadership in a local church setting for a summer. There are seven of us this year and there are six host churches. I could have been sent to any of those churches, but I was sent here. The team that placed the interns knew that each intern placed was the right match for that setting. We all come from different towns and different colleges but we all have the same yearning to discover our call. According to the scripture this week, prophets are not welcomed as much in their hometowns than in foreign lands. The disciples had to be sent out to different villages to proclaim the message of Jesus and so did we. Jesus “ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.” They had complete faith that wherever they went they would find hospitality. Now I got to bring a few more things than a pair of sandals and one tunic, but the message is the same. I come to this experience bare, ready to be molded and shaped into whatever form of ministry I am called to do. I come with only my gifts, talents, weaknesses, and reservations. I have been given hospitality just as the disciples were when they entered a village. I’m hoping that through this experience I may gain a bit clearer image of what I am called to do in the church. I have already met so many people in this congregation who are eager to help me on that path and I am so grateful to have been placed here.

One thing that has always struck me about this gospel is that those in Jesus’s hometown didn’t believe who he was or what he could do or that he had a mission to fulfill. He was essentially cast out of his hometown and instead preached the word in other villages. Now I was never “cast out” of my home church or hometown, but it wasn’t until college that I really began to be in leadership in the church. In my home church, I sang, taught pre-school Sunday school for a year, and helped out where I could, but no one really encouraged me to be liturgist or be involved in worship in ways besides singing. It wasn’t until college that I began to have a very active role in worship leadership and I have thrived in that environment. I had to go away from my home church just like Jesus had to go away from his hometown in order to be encouraged in other aspects of ministry.

In the book “This Odd and Wondrous Calling,” Lillian Daniel writes about her call to the ministry, which follows kind of the same story as Jesus’s. She grew up in the Episcopal Church. Throughout her life, she had lived in many different places and attended many different schools, but the Church had stayed the same. She was very interested in journalism and social justice, and figured that she would start a career in one of those fields. She had applied and been accepted to Yale Divinity School, but she didn’t exactly have a clear idea of why she wanted to go. To help Lillian discern her call, a group of lay members and the priest from her church gathered. They tried to get her to express a clear call to ministry, but she wasn’t exactly saying what they wanted to hear. She wrote in her chapter: “I would talk about social justice and they would talk about the Eucharist. I would talk about the prophets and they would ask me about the prayer book. It was as if we were all having conversations with someone else, not with one another.” (end quote) Eventually, the committee decided that she had (quote) “’No discernable gifts for ordained ministry whatsoever,’ ‘no appreciation for the sacramental ministry of the church,’ was a ‘thrill seeker,’ had ‘issues with authority,’ and was ‘immature.’” She was told to go into non-profit and serve the church as a lay member. Her co-workers at her new job saw her passion for ministry and told her to go to seminary and become a minister. She told them that her church had told her no and her friends suggested that perhaps she had been in the wrong church. With the help of her friends, she went to Yale and found the United Church of Christ. There her gifts for ministry blossomed and now she is an ordained elder in that denomination. Throughout her journey, she learned that (quote) “there are no wrong churches. There is only one church. But sometimes one wing says no so that another might say yes.” She still loved the Episcopal Church but realized that she would not have been a good priest in that denomination. Her call as a minister led her away from the comfort of her home church and into the care of an unfamiliar denomination because she realized that the Church as a whole is working for something so much bigger than any one particular denomination.

Even though you and I are both a part of the same denomination, through Calling 21 I have been sent into the care of a new congregation. Williamsburg is a different location and has different people and different traditions than my church or my campus ministry does, and yet we are all part of the mission of Jesus to serve the world and tell the nations of his grace and mercy. (pause)

The youth of your church have been given an amazing opportunity to travel to Africa this summer. As I understand it, they will be staying at Africa University for most of their stay there and interacting with many different kinds of people like students from the university and children who live in a Children’s home close by. While their trip isn’t 100% centered on a ministerial or missional focus, they are still going as Christ’s presence. The United Methodist Church is growing the fastest in Africa and the team traveling there will witness what the church is doing there firsthand. Right now, they are being called to go out of their comfort zone, experience a different culture, and come back with stories and witness to share with all of you. Africa team (here’s your shout out, are you ready?): when you come back from this trip, you will be transformed. Enjoy every opportunity that is presented to you and when you come home, continue to seek out new experiences and new leadership. Try out traditions that you learn about in Africa in your lives here in the States and share them with your congregation. I think sometimes we get stuck in what we are comfortable with, whether that be traditions of the church or the community or even our daily routine. Church, your youth are taking a leap of faith to travel across the world to bring back experiences to share with you. Don’t think for a minute that everything will be the same when they come back because it won’t be. You see, that’s what the people in Jesus’s hometown thought. They said “‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him.” His hometown still saw him as a child, even though he was the son of God and had come from traveling all over the land preaching and teaching and healing. Jesus had to leave that town and preach elsewhere after that. Even though you are the youth’s “hometown,” be the village that welcomes their message just as you have graciously welcomed mine. (pause)

I was blessed to travel with my choir to England during the summer after my sophomore year of high school and Estonia after my junior year. During each of those times, the UMW of my church asked me to do a presentation describing my journey and my experiences while I was there. I felt so empowered by them because even though I was much younger than most of the members, they were learning from me. I showed them pictures and told them stories. At the end, they asked me questions and I answered them the best I could because neither of my trips lasted more than ten days. Neither of my trips had to do with religion or church, but we were still learning about a different culture and sharing our culture with the people we met and the UMW wanted to hear all about it when I returned home.

“Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.” Through the three stories we have heard today, we can see that we are still being sent out to do God’s will. We are called to not carry much, but to give of ourselves. Go out of your comfort zone, experience new ways of thinking. At the same time, learn from those who have had different experiences than you and be the village hearing the message for the first time. The community of the church should be providing an environment of learning and teaching and I have felt that all throughout my Calling 21 experience. Continue to be that presence for all who come through your doors and for your own. Through the church, we are given friends along the journey, opportunities to bring us to distant lands, and strength by God to follow the missional journey. Amen.

Fourth of July and other fun stuff

Welcome to another post of my blog!

Nothing terribly exciting has been happening around the office lately, but I still have been super busy. I have been writing my sermon for Sunday, which will be in a following post. I am helping out with music camp next week by doing devotions every morning and then helping out in a couple of the classes. In a couple of weeks, I'll be teaching Sunday School to one of the classes and on top of all of that my family is coming into town this weekend to hear me preach! I haven't seen them in almost a month and I am super excited to see them and have them see what I am doing here at Williamsburg.

Now for the awesome stuff....Independence Day yesterday was AWESOME! Six out of the seven Calling 21 interns and a previous Calling 21 intern got together at one of the host homes in Yorktown and had a blast. We played in the pool, had enough food to feed about thirty people, and sat by the river and watched about eight different fireworks displays that were going on around town. It was truly a blessed time of fellowship and fun and I absolutely love all of my fellow interns, past and present. Guess what!?! None of us got sunburned! I consider that a tremendous accomplishment because we were literally outside all day.


Well I think that is it for this post, I'll be posting my sermon in a bit. Please pray for me this weekend as I preach to about six hundred people and that at least one person is touched by what I have to say.