Midweek Pause Devotional – Abundant Love
January 12th, 2022

Listen to the story, ‘Nothing Left to Drink’ based on John 2:1-11.

You might also want to check out a video of a traditional Jewish wedding dance, the hora, here or learn how to do a version of the hora here.

Contemplate your response to the reading/miracle.  What questions or feelings do you have after listening to this story of the first miracle that is attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John.

Midweek Pause Devotional – The Magi Come Seeking
Based on Matthew 2:1–12, 16
January 5th, 2022

Read/listen and reflect on the story and the artwork, The Beginning, by Elsa Anders Cook.  

Far from Jerusalem, high in the eastern mountains of Persia, strangers were watching the skies. They were magi – people so wise they seemed to possess magic. The magi gathered wisdom and knowledge from every place. They were always reading, watching, listening, and wondering about the meaning of things. One night they saw a new star. At least it looked like a star. But it did not act likeone. Instead of staying in one place, it went its own way, wandering like a planet. It was not on any of their star charts.

“What is it?” they wondered. “What does it mean? A star like that must tell of something important, like the birth of some great person.” They decided to follow it.

“We want to know the truth,” they said to one another. “How will we know unless we follow the light? The Creator of the Stars will show us the way.”

The magi followed that star all the way to Jerusalem. At home, they were used to dealing with kings and important people, so they went first to the palace of King Herod. Herod ruled the lands around Jerusalem, even though it was the Romans who really held the power. The magi told Herod about the star they had seen. They wondered if he knew anything about the birth of a new king.

“A new king?” Herod’s eyes narrowed. What if these strangers were right? Fear took hold of him – fear of losing his power. Herod did not want to know the truth. He just wanted information he could use. So he lied.

“Go and find this king,” he said. “When you do, be sure to come back and tell me so I can go and bow down to him.” But the magi were wise enough not to trust Herod.

The star led them to Bethlehem. When they found Jesus, they were overjoyed. They gave him the gifts they had brought with them. Gold, because it does not tarnish, and a true king values things that last. Frankincense, for prayer, because a true king seeks wisdom through being still and listening for God. Myrrh, for healing and to anoint the dead, because a true king seeks to heal rather than harm. And a true king knows that death must come before new life.

After they had given their gifts, the magi went home by a different route. When they did not return, Herod flew into a rage. His advisors tried to calm him, but he would not listen. All he wanted was to seek out and destroy Jesus. He caused great harm to innocent people. But in spite of his efforts to hold on to power, in the end he died alone and afraid.

On their way home, the magi talked about the star. How it caught them by surprise, roaming freely around the world. How it scattered its gift of light far and wide. How it broke open a story about one people, and made it a story for all people.

Midweek Pause Devotional – You are Loved!
December 8th

Midweek Pause Devotional – Trees from Trees
November 24th

Using old magazine pages and cardstock we are able to create something entirely new that can change our perspective.  Sit for a moment and think through the different types of trees that grow throughout the world: from the giant Redwoods, the resilient, majestic, red river gums in Australia, to the tiny bonsai in Japan.

Consider how the magazine strips we are about to use were once trees that were cut down, made into pulp, and formed into paper through a lengthy process of transformation.

Cut the magazine into stripes and use it to form a new image of a tree: will it have a tall trunk or gigantic leaves?  Will you create a picture of a single tree on a barren horizon?  Is your tree flourishing, or was it struck by lightning and burned?

Reflect on the story of the tree you just made and the hope you can find when you can give a new life to something.  Imagine again why God would inspire prophets to teach us that finding hope, inspiration, and liberation is like a little green shoot or a branch from a stump of a tree.

Midweek Pause Devotional – The practice of Creative PrayerNovember 10th

Prayer is a way of focusing your awareness of God and reflecting on Jesus’ words.  Find a comfortable place to pray with paper and writing utensils (crayons, or colored pencils).
Begin your prayer with “God, your creation is unfolding to become all that you want it to be.  Old thoughts, ideas, ways pass away.  In sacred imagination, I see a new time.” 
Wait in silence until you feel ready to express what you notice through drawings and writings.  This is not an art exercise.  There is no expectation as to how your image may unfold.  You might find a single color to express your experience of God’s new time and scribble with that color, or you might have a particular shape or image that seems important and decide to spend your time exploring it.  When you feel your prayer is complete, if you wish, share your experience with someone.

Reflect by considering:

• How was God with you in this prayer?
• What did you notice about God’s promise of a new time in this exercise?

Midweek Pause – All Saints
November 3rd
In many churches, All Saints Day (November 1) celebrates all people of faith, recalling how, in New Testament usage, the word saints refers to Christians collectively, as well as those people of special significance who have been set apart by the church or canonized. It is the recognition of the common bond of Christians, both living and dead, and the common bond of the church here on earth and the church triumphant in heaven. If November 1 falls on a weekday, All Saints Day is generally observed on the following Sunday.  Aldersgate will be celebrating All Saints this coming Sunday, November 7th, 2021.  On All Saints Sunday, we will publicly remember and honor those who have passed away with the lighting of candles, ringing bells of remembrance, and calling the names of those lost in the previous year as a way of honoring the impact their lives have had on us. If you would like someone’s name shared who has died this past year, please contact the church office.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving – All Saints
We thank you, God, for deep and lasting relationships that give without counting the cost.
We thank you for the great commandment to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.
We thank you this day for prophets and apostles, women, men and children who declare the good news of your love;
for those who give up their lives and freedoms so that others might live freely;
for those who speak out to give voice for those who have been silenced;
for all families, however they are formed;
and for all who seek to love and support others in their journey through this life.
And we thank you for Jesus who brings us new life even now, and in whose name we pray.  Amen.

Check out an article on John Wesley’s love for All Saints Day here.

Devotional from Pastrix Bible Study
October 27, 2021

This week in Aldersgate’s Wednesday Morning Bible Study where a group of a dozen meets on Zoom and are currently discussing, Pastrix, the Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and Saint by Nadia Bolz-Weber, a lot of time was spent on a paragraph of what ‘New’ means.  This chapter covers the Easter story and the continued story of resurrection within all lives and instead of the beautiful and clean Jesus adorned in white, that is often visualized on Easter morning, considers the unrecognizable man who looked like a gardener and probably had dirty fingernails.

In chapter 16, Nadia Bolz-Weber writes, ‘New doesn’t always look perfect.  Like the Easter story itself, new is often messy.  New looks like recovering alcoholics. New looks like reconciliation between family members who don’t actually deserve it.  New looks like every time I manage to admit I was wrong and every time I manage to not mention when I’m right.  New looks like every fresh start and every act of forgiveness and every moment of letting go of what we thought we couldn’t live without and then somehow living without it anyway.  New is the thing we never saw coming – never even hoped for – but ends up being what we needed all along.’  

What does ‘New’ look like for you? In your life?  How would you fill in the blank to the sentence; New looks like___________.

During class time, the class answered with the following.

New looks like __________________.

Babies,
Sincere Apologies,
a 2^nd Marriage,
Saying Good-bye,
Truly Seeing,
Shattering Glass Ceilings,
Baptism by water and spirit,
Connectedness,
Acceptance,
Surrendering, and
Self-Identifying

Connecting with the Art – Identity
Challenging Questions 7 Week Sermon Series, October 3rd – November 14th, 2021

Spend some quiet time looking at Identity, reflecting on the colors, shapes, and movements of the image.

• What might this image say about God and/or the created world?
• Reflect on the title, given by the artist. If you could give your own title to the piece, what would it be?
• Review the sermon titles for the Challenging Question and consider where you see these themes reflected in the artwork.Challenging Questions: What Must I Do? / Who Has the Wisdom? / What Do We See? / How Do We Love? / How Then Do We Give? / What Lasts?
• What stories are these art images telling about God’s world?

Respond to the Art with Creativity: use art supplies to write a prayer or a poem, or to create a drawing or painting that capture your feelings or insights about the art.

Identity – 

Ben Shahn (1898–1969) was a Lithuanian-born artist who immigrated to the USA in 1906.  Shahn was concerned about justice, social issues, and pointing out flaws in the status quo.

Identity was one of Shahn’s late works, created at the time of student protests against the war in Vietnam, which he also opposed, and not long before his death. The image shows five sets of hands intertwined with thin arms reaching upward. Are these hands wringing in anguish? Are they arms raised in a community working together for justice by making their voices (feelings) heard?

Above the hands is a quotation that asks how shall individuals care both for the self and the collective? Is caring for the collective also caring for self? Is it possible and imperative to do both? The quotation also asks about timing – if we do not speak up for justice now, will it ever happen? When?

His lithographic and design sense (limited contrasting colors, a mixture of text and image, simplified repetitive shapes) help this image to be compelling, edgy, strong, and memorable.

The human search for identity, meaning, or purpose is as old as time – an old question that can be asked again and again, “Why are we here?” or “If we are here, then, how shall we live?” Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?” (In other words, “What is my identity to you?”) Jesus was all about the love of God, love of self, love of neighbor, and authenticity and questioning of motives.

Midweek Pause for Mountain Sunday, September 2021

Listen to ‘A Vision of the Future’ based on Isaiah 65:17-25.  Afterwards, take some to time to write or draw your response to all life knowing God’s love.