West End UMC Podcast Audio Podcast

West End UMC lay and clergy voices join together to offer a morning prayer podcast for the mornings of November 4-6. The liturgy generally follows the “Order for Morning Praise and Prayer”. ...

West End UMC lay and clergy voices join together to offer a morning prayer podcast for the mornings of November 4-6. The liturgy generally follows the “Order for Morning Praise and Prayer”. ...

Today is All Saints Sunday when we remember those who have gone before us, and, specifically, those members of our church who have died in the past year for each of whom we light a candle during the service. It is a communion service using the old Cranmer liturgy, and Rev. Stacey Harwell-Dye delivers the Communion Meditation based on the first part of the Book of Ruth which begins in tragedy, with...

What Do You Want Me to Do for You? – In today’s reading from Mark, Jesus, his disciples, and a large crowd are about to leave Jericho when they encounter Bartimaeus, a blind beggar who calls out to Jesus. The author of this first gospel tends to be brief and to-the-point, and although this story must certainly have been one of the many encounters Jesus had in Jericho, it is the only one reported i...

Side by Side – In today’s reading from Mark, two of the disciples of Jesus ask to sit at his right and left when Jesus enters his glory. The Rev. Aimee Baxter, our Pastor of Young Adults, delivers the sermon today. She says that the motivation for James and John to ask this is not clear – do they want to be close to Jesus, or is it a power grab? In any case, Jesus realizes they just don’t get it –...

In today’s familiar scripture passage from Mark, a rich young ruler comes to ask Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, and, first, Jesus cites a number of the commandments, all of which have to do with relationships. The young man says that he has kept all the commandments. Then “Jesus, looking at him, loved him” and told him he must sell everything he owns and give to the poor, which was...

Common Ground – Today is World Communion Sunday. Rev. Stacey Harwell-Dye, our Pastor of Mercy and Justice Ministries, delivers the Communion Meditation, based on the Genesis 2 creation story where God creates the first human from the dirt of the earth. She reminds us that although so many things tend to divide us (politics, ball teams, etc.), humans are identical through our DNA, and we share much...

Today we continue with the Epistle of James, written to a congregation that the writer feels has strayed. Dr. Tammy Lewis Wilborn, our Congregational Care Intern, is preaching today and begins with her experience working at Alive Hospice this summer and her perspective on faith in the face of dying, citing a patient who, in tears, said he hoped God knew of his love for God. She reminds us that fro...

Children’s Sabbath – Today we focus on children as we read a familiar passage from Mark 9 where the disciples have argued who among them is the greatest, and Jesus uses a child as a lesson to say that in order to be first, one must be last, putting on the mantle of a servant or a child. For our services today, children’s choirs are featured, Bibles are handed out to children, and children serve as...

Children’s Sabbath – Today we focus on children as we read a familiar passage from Mark 9 where the disciples have argued who among them is the greatest, and Jesus uses a child as a lesson to say that in order to be first, one must be last, putting on the mantle of a servant or a child. For our services today, children’s choirs are featured, Bibles are handed out to children, and children serve as...

Today we continue with the Epistle of James, written to a congregation that the writer feels has strayed. In today’s reading from chapter 3, using some analogies the writer cautions against the harmful words one can utter – a small rudder can change the course of a great ship. Rev. Will McLeane relates an account of John Lewis, about to speak in anger in the midst of the civil rights movement, who...

Good Company – Today we begin a series from the Epistle of James, which was written to an early congregation who have, according to the author, lost their way. The author cites them for accepting and welcoming people like themselves, but ignoring the poor who are unlike them. Historically, the church to whom the epistle was directed was a diaspora congregation, living where they were tempted to ca...

Today is communion Sunday, and Thornton Muncher, a Vanderbilt Divinity School student and our summer intern, is delivering the Communion Meditation, based on a passage from Mark 7, an encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees when they question him about the behavior of his disciples relative to the law. Thornton has studied and worked for reconciliation between Christians and Jews. Historically,...

This is the final in a three-weeks series of focus on the Sabbath and rest as Senior Minister, Carol Cavin-Dillon, preaches her last sermons before her three-months sabbatical. Today she begins by reviewing that series on rest. Today’s passage from Matthew is the familiar scene wherein the disciples, being hungry, pick grain on the Sabbath and are confronted by some Pharisees. Jesus responds with...

The theme for these three weeks is and has been “Rest” and the significance of the Sabbath, part of the initiative for which is that the Rev. Dr. Carol Cavin-Dillon, Senior Minister, will be on a three-months period of rest and renewal beginning in September. Today she asks us to consider the factors that might prevent our resting. In today’s scripture, the voice of Pharaoh resisting the request o...

The theme for the next three weeks is “Rest.” There are times when for each of us rest is difficult, when we have trouble sleeping and/or relaxing because we’re tense or worried. There is scientific and medical evidence that sleep is essential and beneficial, but even without such scientific evidence we know from the first Genesis creation story that our having been created in God’s image means th...

The Bread of Life – Last Sunday our scripture reading was the Fourth Gospel’s version of the feeding of the 5000, and this week’s reading follows that one. The miraculous feeding of the crowd satisfied their hunger, but now the crowd has followed him and Jesus realizes they have come to him now to ask for more bread. In this text, without actually saying “no” to the crowd, Jesus refuses their requ...

Continuing in the Fourth Gospel for our scripture, today’s reading is the familiar story of the feeding of the 5000, and this account emphasizes how miraculous it was. The writer of this gospel says, at the end, that he has written the accounts of seven signs of Jesus so that the reader may believe. In this story of the feeding of the 5000, we are to learn something of the character of God, and al...

In the Beginning – Today’s scripture is the familiar passage opening the Fourth Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word . . .” With those words we are celebrating Christmas in July to focus on the meaning of the birth of Jesus, the mystery of the incarnation. For Christmas proper we always rehearse the story of Mary, Joseph, and the birth of the baby from Luke. But in this prologue to the Fourth Go...

Today’s scripture is from 2 Samuel in which David and his troops transport the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. Preaching is Rev. Shannon Baxter, our Pastor of Congregational Connection, and he describes his family’s experiences with Nintendo Wii and how it helped with their joy and celebrating via dancing. In the text for today, at the end of upheaval and struggle between nations, King David dan...

As we continue to read from the Gospel of Mark, today’s reading offers an opportunity to talk about the development of his followers from disciples to apostles. The word, “disciple,” means one who learns, and we have seen many instances of followers learning from Jesus. In this passage Jesus is sending out the twelve apostles, two by two, and “apostle” means one who is sent. We are ourselves, of c...

As we continue to read from the Gospel of Mark, today’s reading includes two stories of Jesus healing, both somewhat unusual and different from each other. The gospel writer integrates them, setting one inside the other. A synagogue leader comes to Jesus, desperate, because his daughter is at the point of death. In the midst of that, a woman who has been hemorrhaging for years reaches out in the c...

The scripture for today from Mark is the familiar story when the disciples and Jesus are in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, and a storm hits. In this gospel, the disciples frequently seem to be thick headed and not understanding, but in this situation, their frustration seems more justified. This is, apparently, a terrible storm, and in the midst of the disciples’ fear, Jesus is asleep. Does he not...

From this week’s Vacation Bible School, the Children’s Moment, led by Minister of Children and Families, Maggie Jarrell, remembers and celebrates that. We have been working our way through the early parts of the Gospel of Mark, and today’s passage includes the very familiar parables of the seeds and the mustard seed. We live in an age when technology gives us constant access to news, and with that...

Chosen Family – Rev. Will McLeane is preaching on a story in Mark 3 when Jesus comes to his home, and the crowd is oppressive. The multitudes are there for different reasons: some because of his powers of healing, some because of the words he has spoken, and some who see him as a false prophet and a threat to the status quo. His own family members wonder if he hasn’t gone crazy as others think he...