the unlikely orange

note: i wrote these words back in 2017, after a series of tragedies.  you can see the original post here .  i have adapted these words to deal with the unthinkable gun violence perpetrated against people of color and children in our country in the last couple of weeks.  i share them here as a way to move us, as people of faith, to something more than just words, cynicism, or empty religious platitudes.    It has been a season of terrible tragedy.  And once again I have noticed in the news a trending phrase: thoughts and prayers.  It even has its own hashtag on twitter and other social media, but net necessarily in a good way.  People are understandably tired of hearing about others’ thoughts and prayers, when that is often only a thinly-veiled way of saying that our only obligation to those who suffer is a brief moment of silence, or nothing more than a tweet or public statement.  The truth is that, for those of us who follow Jesus, much is ...

i was recently asked to offer my compelling reasons for why i would want to remain in the united methodist church, even as there is division within, a new denomination forming, and an inevitable divorce coming at some point in the future.   here was my response: Why stay United Methodist?  My compelling reasons. It’s home.     For many of us, this is our home.  It is the legacy that was handed to us by our great-grandparents, our grandparents, or our parents.  It was the community who welcomed us into the world with casseroles on our kitchen tables, and baptism blankets.  It was the United Methodists who taught us flannel-board truths and showed us that Jesus loves all the little children: red, yellow, black and white.  It was the United Methodists who gave us our first Bibles, who journeyed with us as we learned what it means to confirm the promises of our baptism.  It was the United Methodists who affirmed our gifts, who let us as...