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These three phrases are spoken quite regularly in our current national political discourse. There is a desire for primary leaders and actors in our national drama to speak on the record and be examined under oath and not be above the law. The tension this desire reveals is the suspicion or suggestion that there will be different answers given when someone is speaking on the record or under oath than when they respond in public media or private conversations. The tension highlights the gap or disconnection or contradiction that is believed to exist between what someone is saying and what is really true.

On the record and under oath describe careful and limited discourse that happens in a specific context, often legal and adversarial. To speak off the record, not under oath, or as an anonymous source allows us to speculate wildly or use drastic and combative language to shape or frame a narrative before other sides of the conflict weigh in with their comments. Speaking off the record also is often how we first learn of controversies and troubles. There is a freedom to speak more openly when not making official statements.

As people of faith and followers of Jesus, we are called to live lives that are not characterized by drastic differences between what we say and do and what is true. Jesus invites us to a free and abundant life in love with God and our neighbor and ourselves. We are invited to find unity and wholeness in God’s mercy and grace as individuals and communities. We are given light and guidance by the Holy Spirit to see the truth of our lives. We understand the differences between our walk and our talk to be conditions of our humanity, we are sinful and have limited understanding of the mystery of this life we share.

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-9).

It is not easy to live authentic lives in the tension of our culture. We find strength in God’s grace and our shared spiritual community to be honest about our brokenness and still make positive contributions to the common good.

This is a shorter version of On the Record, Under Oath, and Above the Law.

I shared this story in my December 14 sermon about the surprising convergence of grief and dance in the Meijer prescription line. It was an embodied experience of grace for me.

 

 

On Sunday, September 28, at the end of the worship service Linda Custer (our Leadership Board Chairperson) and I announced my intention to retire from active ministry on July 1, 2026. This was the official announcement of what has been for Beverly and me an evolving discernment process.

Just as being the Church makes no sense apart from Christ, being a pastor makes no sense apart from a congregation, and my being a pastor makes no sense apart from Beverly. She and I have been parents, grandparents, and ministry partners through 36 years of active service in eight different appointments. I have grown as a pastor because of your faithfulness and support. There will be more transition work ahead of us but NOT TODAY.

Now back to September 28. As Beverly and I were enjoying an evening visit with Bob and Carole Boyce, we got the call that my mom had fallen in her assisted-living apartment and broke her hip. She was going to the ER and eventually was transferred to the ICU.

She developed breathing difficulties and could not keep up her oxygen levels without substantial assistance. On Monday morning, she decided to forego the surgery and receive comfort measures. These were her choices. So, my sister, brother, and I were with her Monday afternoon as the breathing support was removed. We were at her side as she took her last breath. It was a peaceful death and in accordance with her wishes. I feel at peace even in the midst of grief.

We celebrated her 90th birthday with a big party the week before and the day before she fell Beverly took her and our three grandkids to Meijer Gardens. I feel like Mom had those two golden moments in her last days. And I am grateful that we moved her from South Bend, Indiana, to StoryPoint in Rockford in April 2022. I feel it added time, maybe even years of quality life closer to her family and in a supportive caring environment.

I enjoy this time of year every year. October is my favorite month, and November begins with All Saints Day and ends with Thanksgiving. I think this season of gratitude could be longer. And I know my thanksgiving season this year is deepened by grief.

Earlier this year I wrote, “In the Kingdom of Heaven, God cultivates concentrated sources of grace for us to grow in faith.”

Grief is one of my concentrated sources of grace and has been a positive element in my life and ministry. I affirm Susan Piver’s observation that “Despair is what happens when you fight sadness. Compassion is what happens when you don’t.”

At the end of my remarks on September 28, I shared that “We are going to be alright because God is going to lead us; Jesus is going to be the Way; and the Spirit is going to be upon us which is the love we have known all along.” The Thanksgiving/Advent/Christmas season is a gift to us that opens room to rejoice and grieve and love our neighbors. Thank you for your care and faithfulness with Beverly and me, and your open heart for those in need. I praise God for our joyful, active ministry.

I am interested in talking to people with old Bibles and with new Bibles.

The old Bibles and their people have stories to tell about notes in the margins or highlighted text or flowers pressed in the pages or scraps of paper or photographs placed between the pages. Or perhaps a family history filled out in the first pages of it. I’m interested in the seasons of their learning about the Bible. Were there Lenten or Advent studies that highlighted portions of the Bible? Were there extended times in a single book that were revealing or inspiring? I’m interested in how they made the time and took the time to read and study God’s Word.

The new Bibles and their people have ideas and aspirations about incorporating and embracing God’s Word in their lives. What was the occasion of receiving their Bible? How important is the version they have? Are they connected or related to a congregation that they are getting to know and that is getting to know them? What are they curious about? What are some of the most helpful sections of the Bible? Like an alphabetical listing of the Bible books instead of their literary order. What helps new people get to know their Bibles?

Wesley believed that the living core of the Christian faith was revealed in Scripture, illumined by tradition, vivified in personal experience, and confirmed by reason. Scripture is primary, revealing the Word of God “so far as it is necessary for our salvation.” Therefore, our theological task, in both its critical and constructive aspects, focuses on disciplined study of the Bible (2020-24 Book of Discipline, Paragraph 105).

Our standards affirm the Bible as the source of all that is “necessary” and “sufficient” unto salvation (Articles of Religion) and “is to be received through the Holy Spirit as the true rule and guide for faith and practice” (Confession of Faith). We properly read Scripture within the believing community, informed by the tradition of that community (2020-24 Book of Discipline, Paragraph 105).

The power and importance in doing this is to understand how the Bible is used in the life of believers, churches, and even nations. Christian Nationalism is dangerous in their interpretations of the Bible to support the domination and degradation of groups of people while exalting a narrowly defined acceptable picture of the Church and nation.

“Christian nationalism identifies the nation with God’s will and action in the world; conflates national and Christian identity; and identifies service of the nation with service of God,” writes Dr. David W. Scott, who is a Methodist historical researcher and the Director of Mission Theology at the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church. “Christian nationalism gives moral cover for actions, even unseemly ones, taken in pursuit of national or political goals” (What is Christian Nationalism?, Rev. Ryan Dunn; https://www.umc.org/en/content/what-is-christian-nationalism).

I believe this movement will continue to influence congregational and national life in the years ahead. And so I am thankful for Bibles and their people who with humble hearts desire salvation in Christ. And I have come to see the power of being grounded in a believing community where we can hear and respond to God’s call to love God, our neighbors, and ourselves. Faithful people with old and new Bibles have contributions to make and roles to play in sustaining and strengthening the common good.

In the course of daily ministry, I have had multiple experiences of arriving in time for a significant development or event or action in the lives of church members.

One day after a morning clergy meeting I decided to go straight to the hospital instead of getting lunch. I arrived shortly before our church member died and met a new friend already at his side. She and I remembered his baptism, prayed over him, and were with him as he took his last breath. On another occasion, I was with a church member who died on his 84th birthday by deciding to remove life support. I was with him and his family for the removal, prayed with them in the peaceful silence, and said good-bye. The family called me before I left the hospital parking lot to tell me he died. And then there was a phone call to see if a church member was still in the hospital. I learned from her daughter that something had just happened and her mother wanted me to know. My call came in the moment they were returning to her room from the procedure.

Hospital visits and phone calls are the regular ordinary things pastors do; they are what friends and neighbors do. They are part of our daily or weekly work and are rarely scheduled for certain times.

Obviously, we do not control what happens at those levels of human mystery. What we can do is make our daily rounds. Do the common ordinary work. Because those are the moments that become extraordinary or transformational and they are sacred, even if nothing else happens.

We do not know what moments God will make extraordinary or shed greater light upon or change us from that moment on. Instead, we bring our faith and willingness to show up to see what God will do or, more likely, what God is already up to.

The Church season after Pentecost is called Ordinary Time and the color for the season is green. It lasts until November 23, Thanksgiving Sunday. It is the longest season of the Church year. This is a fitting connection with making our daily rounds or doing common work. I have always had this understanding of the season.

And then I looked up what The United Methodist Church says about it and admit I am a little disappointed…

The word “ordinary” here does not mean “routine” or “not special.” Instead, it refers to the “ordinal numbers” (first, second, third, etc.) used to name and count the Sundays (such as the Third Sunday after Epiphany). This term comes from the Latin ordinalis, meaning “numbered” or “ordered,” and tempus ordinarium, “measured time.”

(I kept reading…there are actually two seasons of Ordinary Time)

The first period of Ordinary Time, called the Season after Epiphany, begins on Epiphany Day and ends on the day before Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent)…The second period of Ordinary Time, the Season after Pentecost, follows the Easter cycle… The purpose of this season is to support new disciples and the whole congregation in living out the gifts and callings discerned during the Easter Season and commissioned on the Day of Pentecost. Every year, Christians experience the contrast between the central seasons of Christmas and Easter, where we see God in the events around the coming of Christ, and the in-between times, where we see, speak about and join God’s ongoing work in the world. (Ask The UMC: What is Ordinary Time?)

And then I found some encouragement from the Florida Catholic Media article on Ordinary Time.

But although the “ordinary” in “Ordinary Time” does not come from the same source as our word for “unremarkable,” in my own opinion the double meaning of the word “ordinary” is a linguistic happy accident. In a certain sense, Ordinary Time is indeed “ordinary” in this way… Ordinary Time reminds us to “get to work” in the normal, daily task of evangelizing in the course of our everyday lives.

We can thank God for the double meaning of ordinary as a call to number or measure our days, and make our daily rounds with faith. And in all of it, we praise God who makes all our days count in the mystery of grace and love.

I shared these remarks at our Greenville National Day of Prayer service in Veterans’ Park.

Good afternoon and greetings from Greenville First United Methodist Church where we envision to grow a loving community while we gather, connect, learn and serve, and welcome one another as Christ welcomes us.

I am Rev. Jeff Williams and I appreciate the variety of gifts of my colleagues in their prayers and reflections. I am praying today for businesses and workplaces.

Businesses and workplaces are part of the fabric of healthy communities. They provide employment and resources and opportunities for citizens to enjoy a quality of life that is meant to be satisfying and sustainable.

Since the beginning of time, divisions of labor and trade of goods and services has been a consistent occupation for people across every era and time period.

As people of faith, we know that more than a job, it is our life’s work to follow Jesus; to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; love our neighbors as ourselves; and go into all the world and make disciples. We are baptized by water and the Spirit into the serious and joyful business of life together with Christ. Each person is created in the image of God and holds inherent dignity, and God calls each person to be a good steward of God’s world. Therefore, both our place of work and our heart’s disposition at work can reflect our dignity and desire to follow God’s ways. A God-honoring business can be a great benefit to employees and the community, and a person who honors God in each task through the day speaks a testimony of faith.

Whatever you do, whether in speech or action, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus and give thanks to God the Father through him (Colossians 3:17).

Those who lend generously are good people—as are those who conduct their affairs with justice (Psalm 112:5).

And we have Jesus’ lesson in the parable of the shrewd manager who was losing his job and negotiated with his customers so he might find new employment and be welcomed into people’s homes: “Whoever is faithful with little is also faithful with much, and the one who is dishonest with little is also dishonest with much. If you haven’t been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? (Luke 16:10-11)

Let us pray,

Together, Loving God, we thank you and pray for workers and employees in fields and factories, stores and offices whose labor plants, tends, harvests, creates, builds, and brings produce and products and information to the marketplace. We pray for their dignity and integrity and fair compensation and workplace safety. Bless and guide them in all they do.

Together, we thank you and pray for managers who work in between staff and owners blending the needs and feeling the pressures of each for businesses to operate successfully. Bless and guide them in all they do.

Together, we thank you and pray for business owners and leaders to be of sound character with integrity and humility; honest in speech and action; empathetic and vulnerable to the needs of their workers and customers. Bless and guide them in all they do.

And loving God, we confess our sin and brokenness as workers, employees, managers, owners, and leaders.

From self–righteousness that will not compromise, and from selfishness that gains by the oppression of others,  O Lord, deliver us.

From the lust for money or power that drives to kill, O Lord, deliver us.

From words and deeds that encourage discord, prejudice, and hatred; from everything that prevents us from fulfilling your promise of peace, O Lord, deliver us.

Give us all a reverence for the earth as your own creation, that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others and to your honor and glory. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Amen.

In closing, I want to note the importance of meeting in public. While we are here with peaceful intentions there is broken glass on the pavement around us. This reminds us of the brokenness of the world and our community where we can witness to the love and grace of God.

Sources:
A Litany for the Church and the World
Peace with Justice Sunday
Praying for Businesses and the Workplace

Full of fear, the women bowed down to the ground, as the men said to them, “Why are you looking among the dead for one who is alive?” (Luke 24:5)

I looked at Luke’s Easter story from a new-for-me angle this year. I gained an appreciation for the reaction of the women in the tomb upon seeing the two men in bright shining clothes. They bowed to the ground as they heard from the messengers, “He is not here. He has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, be crucified, and three days later rise to life.'” (Luke 24:6-7)

Fear in Scripture is often more related to reverence or awe than fright. The women moved closer to the earth to receive the message that Christ was raised from the dead. With them, we feel humbled in the divine presence (of messengers and messages) and move closer to the earth with reverence. They were overwhelmed in that instant and I wonder if it was a spontaneous reaction with their bodies that allowed them to stay in the present moment and hear what came next.

In a way, they were grounded by divine glory represented by the two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning. It’s like bowing to the ground changed their orientation from expecting to anoint Jesus’ dead body to being summoned to remember, return, and report the news of the Resurrection. This is being grounded in a positive way.

We also use grounded in a negative way. It can be a kind of punishment, you’re grounded! You can’t go anywhere. You’re deprived of privileges. You lose something when you’re grounded this way.

Thankfully, the women were grounded in a way that allowed them to rise and respond with the power and proclamation of the Resurrection.

Being grounded by God’s glory is affirmed by Paul in word and action in these eloquent ways:

 

I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called–his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance (Ephesians 1:18).

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong (Ephesians 3:14-17).

May we remember the power of physical expressions of reverence and awe in the presence of God’s glory. May we be positively grounded in God’s love so we may rise with power to remember, return, and report the news of the Resurrection in our day and time.

Good work in good company has made a good life for me in campus ministry.

At the end of June, I will complete eleven and a half years serving as the Chairperson of the West Michigan Conference Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry (BHECM) and then Michigan Conference Division of Higher Education and Campus Ministry (DHECM).

I shared these reflections at my final DHECM meeting on April 22.

Twenty five years and four months of my young adult life and vocational ministry service have been profoundly shaped by relationships in campus ministry:

• • As a student at CMU Wesley with Rev. Tom Jones, 1979-83; Tom baptized our oldest daughter in my first appointment
  • As a member of the WMU Wesley Board, Fall 1992
  • As the WMU Wesley Director, Spring 1993 to June 2002; our middle and youngest daughters were baptized at Wesley
  • As the BHECM/DHECM Chairperson, 2014 – 2025

I feel such good grief because of the goodness of all that time. In November 2024, Naomi Garcia told us in a transitions seminar to attend to the grief in our transition. I know grief has been a companion in my call to ministry and personal spiritual journey all along. I encourage you to hold your grief gently.

The outer bounds and sometimes out-of-bounds nature of campus ministry frames it for me as a perpetual new church start. It needs to be innovative and creative, always running the risk of getting into good trouble. I have the wonderful memory of overhearing at Annual Conference some years ago something like, “Don’t let the Wesley people get to the microphones,” because of how well we were organized in our communication and networking.

At my very first meeting as BHECM Chairperson in January 2014, our host Director at WMU Wesley, Rev. Lisa Batten shared that we are the cutting edge of campus ministry in the United States. We’re being awarded grants based on merit and our strategies are being lauded and populated around the country (not just at Wesleys but in campus ministries in general). We are doing good Wesley ministry in our conference.

What was true then, is still true now in contemporary ways. I am so grateful for our good work in this leadership transition. Each of you has stepped up with the many dimensions of our work. I celebrate closing this chapter of ministry as you have already begun writing the next one.

Campus ministry has truly been a boundary experience for me. My life with this Board/Division started in a critical time. I was asked in November 2013 to join the Board. I was asked in December 2013 to be the Chairperson. I suggested that I would observe the winter meetings and be ready in July 2014. Then I was told I would start as the Chairperson in January 2014. We were facing a budget cut and feeling pressure to close one of our ministries. Instead, we advocated for, and received increased funding in 2015.

In leaving, I know some things are undone and under-developed. I look forward to how you will grow your ministry.

Horizons for my post-DHECM good life may include:

• • Scholarship promotion
  • Local church UM student communication and promotion
  • Financial review services

I praise God for each of you and all of us. This has been the most rewarding work in my ministry. And I am ready to go because of how I know you will carry on.

(At the final formal worship service for WMU Wesley in their old building I took off my shoes when sharing my reflections. I gave thanks for the holy ground of Wesley’s ministry at that location since 1964.) Before receiving a motion to adjourn, I offer a portion of Jan Richardson’s “Blessing at the Burning Bush”

You will know your path
not by how it shines
before you
but by how it burns
within you,
leaving you whole
as you go from here
blazing with
your inarticulate,
your inescapable
yes.

Thank you for saying YES to campus ministry!

I heard a comedian say recently that one key to a happy marriage is to not say the first or second thing that comes to your mind. I take that as encouragement to consider the third thing that may represent the fruit of further thought.

On September 21, 2005, I entered the blogging world with “Second Thoughts” (https://grace-on-first.blogspot.com/). Since then Second Thoughts has migrated here: https://jw4grace.net/.

I described the meaning of Second Thoughts like this:

I have named my blog, Second Thoughts, intentionally. Such a title may refer to doubt, like, “I’m having second thoughts about some decision/matter/question, etc.” However, I use second thoughts in the more positive light of giving further consideration to matters of faith and life. Second thoughts suggest that first thoughts and impressions may not convey the deepest meaning…The late Howard Thurman, a theologian/pastor/author, referred to the need to allow our decisions and questions to “simmer.”

Closing out 2024 and entering 2025, I came across this notion of second thoughts from my favorite Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann:

The biblical text functions among us as a “second thought,” coming after the initial description of our life in the world according to the dominant narrative of our society. One function of redescription is to protest against that initial description and to insist that the initial presentation of reality is not an adequate or trustworthy account (Brueggemann, The Word That Redescribes the World: The Bible and Discipleship).

This insight adds a prophetic quality to thinking about what we are being told. Language that demonizes immigrants, and attempts to enact authoritarian measures beyond the constitutional framework of our nation make this kind of “second thought” more urgent.

One example of this practice is when authoritarian messages are presented, we can have second thoughts about Jesus’ teaching on leadership, “You know that the rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority. This, however, is not the way it shall be among you. If one of you wants to be great, you must be the servant of the rest (Matthew 20:25-26).

Another example is when three-letter acronyms (DEI) or three-word phrases (waste, fraud, and abuse) are used to justify discrimination and threaten support for vulnerable and marginalized people, we can have second thoughts about the way racism hides its face and obscene wealth gaps are justified by disparaging the poor.

Closing out 2024 and entering 2025, our Thursday Bible study is going through the book of Jeremiah. It is a painful account of a nation who lost their way by forgetting God’s ways and consuming themselves with their own worst tendencies.

Every time we gather, connect, learn and serve as a congregation we have the opportunity to have second thoughts about the Kingdom of God, what it means to follow Jesus Christ, and what it means to be empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit. I am grateful for these faithful sources of second thoughts that allow us to grow more deeply in love with God, our neighbors, and ourselves, a three-fold description of the greatest commandment.