the unlikely orange

"ash wednesday, 2018" mixed media collage (paper, ash, glue on book cover) february, 2018 gregory a. milinovich wednesday was ash wednesday, the beginning of lent, and a day to remember that in the end, we all get dehydrated.  that's essentially what i preached about on wednesday: that the human body is around 60% water, but one day the water will all dry up from in our cells and between our cells, and we will dry up, like so many crumbling bones.   like the bones in the valley that ezekiel envisioned.  he went down into this valley, and said there so many bones, and they were very dry.  but the voice of the Lord asked zeke if those bones could live again.  and he wanted to believe it.  he really did.  he would have like to say, "yes!  make them live!  Lord, you can make these bones dance again.  you can rehydrate them.  you can restore my people to the way they once were.  you can reunited mother with chi...

i made these comments and prayed the following prayer at one of our worship services at SPUMCWF  yesterday, and had a few folks asked if i would post them, so there they are:  It has been a season of terrible tragedy.  And 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 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 required when our neighbors suffer.  We are called to do justice where we can, to love kindness and mercy, and to walk with God through it all.  But let us be careful not to throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater.  We are, as people ...

happy memorial day, a day we set apart to remember specifically that the freedoms and liberties we enjoy were bought at a price, and that price was paid in the currency of human lives.  even today, as we think about our way of life, we should recognize that when we abuse our freedoms, or take them for granted, we are devaluing that price and dishonoring that memory.  when we choose greed over commonwealth; when we choose comfort over justice for all; when we choose personal gain over public health; when we choose self over community and country; we forget the great gift we've been given and we shame ourselves. this land was never just for me.  it was always for us .  it was always about freedom from monarchy, freedom from legislated religion.  it left room for differences.  we seem to have forgotten that in our country today, when instead of welcoming the tired, the poor, and the hungry, we want to build walls and deport those who are different. ...

we had a great day yesterday, beginning with worship at our church, full of joy, sharing together in the Lord's Supper, and a reminder of how we ought to be investing in one another in love and service. then, our family headed up to bloomsburg in the afternoon for a farewell service for our district superintendent, the rev. dr. Tom Salsgiver.  it was a beautiful service with trumpet, powerful pipe organ, a wonderful choir anthem, and a joyful communion with a huge gathering of folks from the lewisburg district.  it was awesome for me to get to sit with my family and worship, and to pay tribute to the ministry of my friend and mentor.  he has been such a blessing to me and my whole family, supporting us as we moved back to pennsylvania from new jersey, taking a personal interest in me and my well-being in ministry, and expressing great confidence in my call and my gifts.  i respect and admire him, and yesterday it was meaningful to be with a great cloud of witnesse...

on sunday we had our annual church conference.  we were able to do it combined with two other clusters in our district, and we had about 200 people there for worship before we split into our smaller groups for the business of church conference. one of the themes of the worship service was the idea that we all bring our own brokenness to God, and we all live and minister in communities that are obviously broken.  so when people entered the sanctuary on sunday, they were given a broken piece of colored glass and invited to begin to think about the brokenness of their community.  as i pondered the brokenness in sunbury, i couldn't help but think of Jesus in matthew's gospel, in chapter 9 as he saw the people who needed good news.  "when he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke....'what a huge harvest!' he said to his disciples. 'how few the workers! on your knees and pray for harvest hands!'" (matthew 9:35-38, the message). and so i wondered,...

crunch.  crunch.  crunch.  the sound of my slippery-bottomed dress shoes as i trudged through the snow on my way home from church.  i was looking down at the snow, at first so i wouldn't slip, but then because i noticed the footprints of all three of my sons alongside Shannon's.  i could see where they had stepped, both on their way to church, and home again, some steps obscured by others, bearing witness to the traveling circus that is our family.  but the shape and direction of each little print revealed its maker. three little boys.  following their mother.  through the snow.  in their dress shoes. it's enough to make a dad cry.  and it was certainly enough to make this dad think.  where will these footsteps lead?  at the moment, they were leading me home from church, where those three precious boys and their mother would likely be sorting laundry, getting lunch ready, and already making preparations for the afternoon...

Happy Resurrection Day!  He is risen! the grave, while still full of darkness, is, in the end, completely empty! life wins! love wins!

"lent 6, 2012: the greatness of humility" mixed media collage on stretched box canvas (acrylic paint, found papers, vintage papers, glue) april 2012 gregory a. milinovich this sunday was palm sunday, and we continued our lent-long look at the paradoxes of our faith, focusing this week on mark 11:1-11, in which Jesus enters Jerusalem on an unbroken colt.  as the people shouted "hosanna" to the blessed one from the line of David, the one they hoped would restore the kingdom, Jesus knew he was approaching the cross upon which he would hang under the paradoxical sign, "king of the jews."  this festive parade was certainly a triumphant entry and a kind of inauguration, but the kingdom being set up here isn't one ushered in by a mighty warrior with jeweled swords and shields riding in on a great stallion.  instead, this is an enigmatic teacher, riding without weapons or defense, on an untamed (jumpy?) colt.  this is a king, but a ...

it's hard to believe that Christmas is just about a week away.  i hope you are experiencing the blessedness of this season of waiting and expectation, even if you are also neck-deep in the busyness of it.  for today's saturday song, i bring you a song that has become one of my favorite Christmas songs.  it is by an artist named bebo norman, and it's simple yet powerful refrain of "come and worship" feels so much like the anthem of my life's work, that i can't help but feel at home when i hear it.  everything in my soul rises up and cups eager hands to the mouth of my life in full volume:  COME AND WORSHIP!  COME AND WORSHIP!  oh, man, don't even get me started.  this song just says it the way i want my life to say it.  i found this video that someone made, presumably with clips from the relatively recent movie "the nativity."  while i am in no way advocating for that film (having never seen it), nor agreeing that the way this video d...

-things i like right now (in no particular order): coffee, autumn air, songs with accordion, the word "undefeated," the faint aroma of apples, the way my son greets me when i come home from work, continued dominance of the cryptoquip, a clean email inbox, and generally just being alive. -i included the little graphic above because i am full-swing into steeler mode (read: obsession).  just wanted to share this bit of info - see if you can follow the logic.  the steelers are 3-0.  that means that they haven't lost.  it also means that they have beaten three teams.  pretty cool.  but check this out: the teams that the steelers have beaten are all 2-1.  do you know what that means?  every team that the steelers have beaten (falcons, titans, bucs) have won every game they've played except the games they've played against the steelers.  -not impressed?  well, try this on for size.  of all 32 teams in the nfl through three games, guess...

"mary and martha" Henry Moore lithograph 1983 image borrowed from here tommorow i'll be preaching on the well-known story of mary and martha, with the title, "don't get distracted."  we'll be looking at the classic tension between 'doing' and 'being,' and where Christ invites us to be on that spectrum.  if you're in the susquehanna valley, i invite you to come to the catawissa avenue united methodist church in sunbury, pa at 10am to join us for worship, as we explore God's word together, and seek to not only hear God's good news, but put it into action in our lives.  hope to see you there! grace|peace, greg.

during the month of may in our church we're exploring the ideas of what it means to really worship God completely.  we're trying to push past the boundaries of "what we've always done," and "what we're used to," into something that, while perhaps a bit uncomfortable, will be an authentic act of submission to God.  we are using the great commandment as our basis: that we are called to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength, and that one of the venues for that is our corporate worship.  in other words, when we get together for church, we ought to be finding ways to love God with our whole selves.  we're calling this "the whole enchilada."  we feel like maybe we've been content for far too long with a steady worship diet of stale crackers and water, while there is a whole banquet of God-tastes available to us, if we would give ourselves to more authentic worship.  as i have reflected on this, i h...