Author: Jeff

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.

Along one branch of my family tree I am a 3rd generation US-born citizen. My great grandparents on my Mom’s side emigrated from Prussia to Wisconsin. Green Lake, Fond du Lac, Milwaukee, and Ripon were among the Wisconsin places I remember hearing about growing up. I am writing this article at the end of my spiritual renewal leave, an annual leave available to pastors.

This year we were in Wisconsin Dells at a resort we have visited in the past. Beverly and I, and our youngest daughter and her husband had the weekend together and I stayed the rest of the week. On Saturday, we toured Taliesin (“shining brow” in Welsh), the home and estate of Frank Lloyd Wright near Spring Green, Wisconsin. I bought the book, Frank Lloyd Wright and His Manner of Thought by Jerome Klinkowitz, and Wright became an unexpected companion with me on this year’s leave.

One of the most powerful stories is about his designing The Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and how it survived two earthquakes. Louis Sullivan, one of Wright’s earliest employers in Chicago, commented on his work, “This man…began his solution with the fixed fact of earthquakes as a basis and made an emotional study of their nature and movements.” Sullivan continued “The second move was…to devise a system of construction such as should absorb and dispose of the powerful shocks, waves and violent tremors, and yet maintain its integrity as a fabricated structure.”

Klinkowitz summarizes, “The Imperial survives not because it is stronger than an earthquake but because the earthquake’s nature is built into its design.”

I am returning in time for Election Day, Tuesday, November 5.  Earthquakes, shocks, waves, and violent tremors are apt descriptions of the political campaigning we have endured these last several months. The vile, racist, and menacing rhetoric about immigrants that has incited threats and violence against immigrant communities is one example of the tremors that are designed to divide us and reverberate throughout our shared political life. These threats and effects seem to be built into the design of our political system and clearly harm the integrity of our community relationships.

But you know what else is built into our design? Being created in the image of God. We have clear and intimate access to God’s love and justice in Jesus Christ.

You know what else we can claim? The divine energy affirmed in our baptism vows to “renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world” and “resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.”

We are this very human-divine creation full of grace and sin; blessed and burdened with loving God, our neighbors, and ourselves. We are preparing to celebrate Christ’s birth again this year. An affirmation of faith that God joins this human-divine life with us in person to show us the ways that make for peace. And his mother Mary reminds us of the tremors that come to those who seek to consolidate power and control the lives of citizens and neighbors:

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty (Luke 1:52-53).

I don’t know what the coming months will hold for us as a nation, community, or Church. But I know that renewing the built-in features of our humanity that God provides will give us the strength we need to keep building a loving community for people to experience God’s redeeming love.

I recall Walter Wangerin, Jr., pastor and author, telling the story of an invitation for a home visit he received early in his ministry from an elderly woman. He said it felt more like a summons to appear. She formally received him in her home and they had tea. When he inquired about her interest in having him visit, she said that she knew his father and wanted to see how his son had turned out.

I appreciate serving a relatively older congregation in my early 60s and seeing what we look like or how we have turned out through years of discipleship.

The mission of The United Methodist Church follows the Great Commission from Jesus to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Relationships usually do not mature in a moment, but are nurtured and grown through the years. At this point in my life I am grateful for disciple-making that happens over time.

I am interested in this aspect of ministry now because of the contentious and divisive atmosphere of the larger church and our political climate in these most recent years. The corrosive and combative nature of our rhetoric with each other is painful. I sometimes feel exhausted and discouraged in the midst of it.

So, I got to thinking about the long-term effects of acting and speaking and thinking in certain ways. I find I am less interested in the content of theological or political arguments these days because many of them are approached in bad faith and not for the purpose of learning from each other. My greater concern is how we turn out because of the beliefs we hold and actions we take.

Theology is a major contributing factor to the kind of disciples of Jesus Christ we become through the years. What we believe about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, sin, humanity, and salvation both shape and are shaped by our worldview. That’s why we focused on the Apostle’s Creed after Easter.

So, how might we assess the quality of our discipleship? How might we figure out how we are turning out? John Wesley felt that good places to learn these qualities included the Ten Commandments and Old Testament Prophets, and the teachings of Jesus especially the Sermon on the Mount. We can add the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and Micah 6:8.

Our current worship series on “A Church that Loves Like God” reflects our commitment to growing a loving community while we gather, connect, learn and serve. We care about how people turn out because of their involvement in our congregation. As we enter our 5th year of ministry together I am grateful for your faithfulness and the ways we are turning out because we have been summoned by God to be full of love.

Pete Blinkilde shared a brief review of recent pastors in his October 8 sermon. He spoke about having the right pastor at the right time for the needs of the Church. It was a review he did genuinely and with integrity.

I responded on the pastor side of things that being a pastor does not make sense apart from a congregation. MY being a pastor does not make sense apart from Beverly, my wife. Her love and grace and ministry are amazing. Our compatible vocations (medical social worker and pastor) are also a blessing.

As a congregation you shape what kind of pastors we are as we cooperatively figure out what works best in this time and place. Together we discover what gifts we bring and what gifts are needed. Which means in one sense you also are the right congregation at the right time for me.

As we enter November with All Saints’ Day I see Pete’s phrase in an expanded way to understand that saints are the right people at the right time for God’s purposes. It is a wonderful time to remember and give thanks like we do in this worship prayer:

Everlasting God, this day revives in us memories of loved ones who are no more. What happiness we shared when they walked among us. What joy when loving and being loved, we lived our lives together.

And isn’t this a helpful and inspiring way to think about the birth of Jesus? Right person at the right time for God’s purposes for the world that God loves?

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children (Galatians 4:4-5).

With Christ God makes the time right all the time. Sometimes we show up for each other with gifts of mercy or compassion to listen to grief and pain. Sometimes we show up for each other with gifts of joy and peace to rejoice in healing or restoration or forgiveness. By faith we understand that what God does with us right here in Greenville is what God does all over the world. And we have the encouragement of the writer of Colossians to act accordingly:

Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone (Colossians 4:5-6).

May God bless us to be the right people at the right time with Christ during this All Saints – Thanksgiving – Advent – Christmas season. Praise God from whom all time and blessings flow.

“God has revealed these things to us through the Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, including the depths of God…We haven’t received the world’s spirit but God’s Spirit so that we can know the things given to us by God.” (1 Corinthians 2:10,12)

Today someone may hear the Good News for the very first time. And today someone may hear the Good News for the very last time.

We are coming through trying times in our congregation and, as Pastor Jane Duffey preached earlier in August, we are “braving a new wilderness” in the Church.

I believe that when we gather for worship or fellowship or discernment about disaffiliation, what’s at stake is that we are seeking a spiritual home with feelings and memories and wondering, Can I belong here? Some of us are listening for how God’s Word is handled and presented in worship and by the preacher. Some of us may hear a call to repentance and find the room to change that God has been providing for us all along. Some of us may not even be able to say why we are here as we carry great grief and deep questions into this sanctuary.

What we discover time and again is that in this house of prayer, this Body of Christ, we imperfectly hold wisdom and passion, follow Jesus, love our neighbors, and seek God’s guidance in the Word and God’s presence in the Holy Spirit.

On Sunday, August 27, we took a straw poll after worship about whether to remain in The United Methodist Church or to disaffiliate. After The Way Forward question-and-answer document from the Leadership Board, two Town Hall meetings, a financial report from our Treasurer, and countless scattered conversations, membership inquiries, phone calls, email threads, text messages, and letters through the US mail, 94 votes were cast:

56 (60%) votes to remain United Methodist
38 (40%) votes to Disaffiliate

Per our conditions for the vote, the Disaffiliate choice needed at least 60% for the disaffiliation process to continue. So, we remain a United Methodist Church and the disaffiliation process is done.

We have learned more about the relationship of who we are and who we think we are in this process. In some ways, this is a natural and continuous discovery process. It is a type of ongoing revelation. But our journey of considering staying United Methodist or disaffiliating is filled with soul-searching grief and will continue to unfold in the coming days and weeks and months.

In his book, The Active Life, Parker Palmer writes: “There is the experience we commonly call disillusionment, when a trusted friend lets us down, an institution we had relied on fails us, a vision we had believed in turns out to be a hoax, or—worst of all—when we discover ourselves to be less than we had thought. Many of us try hard to avoid such experiences, and when we are in the midst of them we go through a kind of dying…As our illusions are removed, like barriers on a road, we have a chance to take that road farther toward truth.

God’s revealing work through the Spirit will keep us going into a future filled with hope and disillusionment. So we can join the Psalmist in affirming as a Body of Christ: Make your ways known to us, Lord; teach us your paths. Lead us in your truth—teach it to us—because you are the God who saves us. We put our hope in you all day long (Psalm 25:4).