The Wesley Foundation at the University of Virginia

Join us Wednesdays at 8pm this summer for a Bible study on the parables of the New Testament. Come each week or any week. We meet in the living room and Melissa Holmes (mlh9j) leads this group.

Everyone is invited to our annual worship and celebration for Wesley graduates and their families. Come as you are (casual dress is fine) and join us for worship with Communion and reflections from graduates, parents, and other Wesley folk, as we send our graduates on their way with blessings for the journey ahead. The baccalaureate worship service is on Saturday, May 16th from 7:30-8:30 in the sanctuary at Wesley Memorial (next door).

We’re hosting a dinner for graduates and their families beforehand (5:30pm). If you’d like to lend a hand with this, please contact our campus minister.

We’re also hosting a drop-in continental breakfast for graduates and their families as they head over to graduation ceremonies on Sunday morning, May 17th, from 7-10am. You still have time to reserve your spot for dinner or breakfast. Please contact our campus minister or call the office.

Congratulations and blessings to all those celebrating this May! We have loved being part of your journey and we are celebrating with you this month.

What Do You Mean, “There are Other Sheep?”
John 10: 1-18

I was once exploring this passage with a student, an English major who usually liked stories and metaphors more than any other biblical texts. She looked up after reading through this passage and said, “Huh? Sheepfold?? Gate? Shepherd? What exactly is going on here? Which one’s supposed to be heaven and which one’s Jesus?”

So fear not, non-English majors! When even a student like this one is stumped, we know that we’ve run across an intensely complicated and confusing text. In fact, it’s so potentially confusing that our lectionary only had verses 11-18 for this week. It would have been simpler if I’d stuck to the lectionary. In verses 11-18 Jesus is “only” the good shepherd. But I went and included the first half of the passage, verses 1-10, in which Jesus describes himself not only as the shepherd but also as the gate. All I can say is don’t blame me – all I did was include the whole text.

Our rational minds want clear order and one-to-one correspondence between the images and what they’re representing. If Jesus is the gate, he can’t also be the shepherd. If Jesus is the shepherd, he can’t also be the gate through which the sheep walk.

But when have we ever known Jesus to make it easy? That’s what we like to do. Think of the Sunday school pictures you may have grown up with: fuzzy, backlit, soft-glowing Jesus with the flowing locks of sandy hair. He may have been holding a rod or staff but he wasn’t using it. The sheep – if any were pictured – were dumbly gathered around his feet, docile and unmoving.

He’s never sweating or sunburned. He doesn’t have his long hair pulled into a ponytail or his robe pushed up to his elbows because it’s hot and he’s trying to get some work done. He doesn’t seem at all like the shepherd I saw once who inhabits the wilderness desert in Israel.

What struck me about the sheep we saw in the Wadi Qelt on our first trip to Israel and Palestine, was how agile on their feet they were, scouring the land for any little scrubby piece of something green to eat. They were so tan in a land so tan that they blended right in. But their shepherds somehow kept track of them, kept them together and moving on. The shepherds knew where to find food for their animals, though no green pastures were available for lying down in. As we hiked through the desert between Jerusalem and Jericho, we watched a couple of different shepherds with their flocks, seemingly unafraid to scramble over the rocky slopes where the sheep and goats were scavenging. They waited patiently while the animals fed, looked out to the horizons, and rang a bell when it was time to get moving again. They were slow and methodical and their heads were wrapped to keep out the sun; they steadied themselves on the terrain with long walking sticks. Though we saw a few shepherds and flocks we never saw the shepherds hanging out together, chatting about the shepherding market, like a coffee break at Starbucks. They were loners – just them and the animals.

The good shepherd image is one with deep meaning for the church. You can almost hear the echoes of Psalm 23 and Ezekiel 34 reverberating in this passage from John’s gospel. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul (Ps. 23: 1-2). I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak… (Ezek. 34: 16).

As a church we are attached to this good shepherd image and we think we know just what it means and in exactly which ways it’s meant to bring comfort. But what happens when the picture is represented as I’ve indicated? If the good shepherd is a deep and primary image of our lives in Christ, are we using good or correct representation?

Which is more comforting: the image of Jesus as someone who looks soft, clean, friendly, and stationary while “shepherding” you through life and your spiritual ups and downs? Or, someone who stands on the precipice with you, sweaty, dirty, leading the way, unafraid to take you – lead you – where you can find the food you need to live? Can the Sunday school good shepherd go with you into the depth of a relationship gone bad? Can he be with you in those tears, feelings of self-doubt, grief over rejection, and fear about the future? Can you let the Sunday school good shepherd see you at your worst and love and lead you to your best? Can he have intimate knowledge of your worst habits and darkest moments?

Can the Sunday school good shepherd be both your shepherd and your gate – protecting, comforting, and leading you right where you are while also providing a threshold for you to cross over into fuller life?

The thing about the good shepherd is that he has no meaning without the sheep. A shepherd without sheep is just a Marlboro man standing in a rocky, arid place with a long stick. Both the gate and the good shepherd images only work if there are sheep in the picture. They are intensely relational images (New Interpreter’s Bible, p. 672). A gate without anyone to enter through is just a few pieces of wood or metal fastened together. A shepherd without sheep is a forlorn character standing in the sun.

This is where we come in. It’s a complicated, potentially confusing passage, but I can say with some certainty that we’re the sheep. Contrary to my earlier statements I don’t think we’re all that docile or mute. We try running off on our own. We want the gate without the shepherd. Or the shepherd without the gate. Or we try to form our own sheep clan and keep away from the rest of the fold. We want the Sunday school good shepherd rather than the weathered Palestinian Bedouin who gets real and dirty with us.

But, like the shepherd himself, we don’t make sense without him. Without the good shepherd we’re stray and vulnerable animals left to our own frail devices in a vast and perilous desert. Without the good shepherd we’d spread out and die. Without the good shepherd we might approach someone like a wolf, thinking, “He looks like a shepherd.” Without the good shepherd we might begin thinking one of us is the shepherd.

And without the good shepherd, we might not know there are other sheep. As much as we need and belong to the good shepherd, the shepherd doesn’t belong to us. That’s what I think is really wrong with those Sunday school good shepherds. In those pictures we “own” a version of Jesus we can “pet,” the fuzzy picture we have all wrapped up. If the picture or metaphor we use to describe our relationship with God is air tight, with a one-to-one correlation between elements of the picture and aspects of our lives – then we’ve trapped an idea of God and begun to worship that rather than the living God. Then we’re in control of the God in the picture; we’re the ones who decide what it all means.

But we don’t own someone whose image can’t be contained or limited to just one image. We don’t own someone who does the inviting to the fold. We don’t own the gate that swings wide for us on our absolute worst days and that admits others we don’t know or want to know. We don’t own the shepherd who moves out of the backlit glow and into the desperate and joyful moments of our lives – the one who leads us to still waters and who crosses the raging flood waters with us. We don’t own the One who calls all of creation “good” and who calls us to be co-creators in reconciling the world and all of creation back to the Creator. We don’t own the Spirit who flows where it will and inspires whom it may, who makes brothers and sisters out of people we’d rather have as strangers. We don’t own this gate, this shepherd – this God. But we can give thanks that this God chooses to own us.

Thanks be to God!

© 2009 Deborah E. Lewis

Hey Wesleyanos,

We’ve almost made it! The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter Of course, Wesley has a full week of study breaks scheduled so that you can make the most of this last week of exams.

Did you know that Wesley has a special e-mail list for students who will be in Charlottesville for the summer? If you’re interested in being added to that list, please e-mail me (ltg6s) and I will add you. Updates about special events happening during the summer months will be sent out using that list.

Here’s what’s happening this week:

Monday
STUDY BREAK: Coloring with Nina Ruhter at 1:11 pm

Tuesday
STUDY BREAK: Milkshakes and Smoothies with Fellowship at 8:08 pm

Wednesday
STUDY BREAK: Slurpees and Slip ‘n Slide with Helen Ross at 2:22 pm

Thursday
Dinner at 5:58 pm at the Foundation
STUDY BREAK: Sand Art with Amy Moses at 7:07

Friday
STUDY BREAK: Grillswith with David Lessard at the Cottage at 7:28 pm

Upcoming:
Baccalaureate

Please contact me if you have any questions. Best of luck this week and as you go your separate ways this summer. I hope to see you sometime this week and again when school starts in the fall!

Hope to see you soon,
Lauren Gilchrist (ltg6s)

Wesley Foundation President

Hey Wesleyanos,

Greetings from the depths of the architecture school. Yes, it’s officially the end of the semester. That of course means papers, exams, charrette for me and my fellow A-schoolers, and…most importantly, Wesley study breaks!

Here’s what’s happening this week:

Tuesday
12:15-1pm Lunch at the Pav! Meet in the back room of the Pav
6-6:45pm Delta Force Men’s Small Group. Contact David for more info at dal5r

STUDY BREAK: Faith and Film with Discipleship at 8:37 pm

Wednesday
9-10pm Pick-up basketball in the AFC (bring a student ID to get in)

STUDY BREAK: Tea Party with Becca Worley at 3:56 pm

Thursday
STUDY BREAK: Dinner at 6:02 pm in the Dining Room and Wii in gameroom with Stephen Sholden

Friday
STUDY BREAK: Pancakes, Prayers, and Pork with Discipleship at 21:21 pm

Saturday
STUDY BREAK: Aldersgate Church Clean-up at 8:41 am (until 12:01) - Meet at the Foundation to head over to Aldersgate for our last official service event of the year.

Sunday
11am Worship @ Wesley Memorial
***5:30pm Worship*** - Meet at the Wesley Foundation at 5:30 to drive over to the Saunders Memorial Park for our outdoor worship service, the last one for this semester.

Other breaks to look forward to:

o May 3: Beach Volleyball by New Dorms with Fellowship at 3:03 pm
o May 4: Slurpees and Slip ‘n Slide with Helen Ross at 1:11 pm
o May 5: Milkshakes and Smoothies with Fellowship at 8:08 pm
o May 6: Coloring with Nina Ruhter at 2:22 pm
o May 7: Dinner at 5:58 pm; Sand Art with Amy Moses at 7:07
o May 8: Grillswith with David Lessard at the Cottage at 7:28 pm
For the full list, check our website at its new address: http://wesleyatuva.org/
Upcoming:
Baccalaureate

Please contact me if you have any questions. Best of luck this week!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

Hope to see you soon,
Lauren Gilchrist (ltg6s)
Wesley Foundation President

New Terrain
Acts 8: 26-40

Let’s go over this story again.

An angel gives Philip the very specific instructions to Get up and go toward the south on the Gaza road (Acts 8: 26). Philip says nothing, just gets up and goes in that direction. He doesn’t asks for directions, doesn’t ask why now or why that direction or why that road. He just gets up and goes in that direction.

Meanwhile, already on the road to Gaza, returning to Ethiopia from worship in Jerusalem, there is an Ethiopian eunuch, a high court official, riding in his chariot and reading to himself from the book of Isaiah. (Now, in those days, even when reading to oneself, people read aloud.)

It’s at about this point that Philip is nearby. The Spirit intervenes again, telling Philip to Go over and join his chariot (v. 29). What does Philip do with this command? Does he wait for the chariot to pass by so he can join in? Does he walk over and introduce himself? No. He runs up to the chariot and before he can ask to join it, he hears the man reading from Isaiah. Maybe it surprised him to hear a foreigner reading the scripture he held holy. Maybe he wondered why he was being sent to this man, who was obviously already practicing faith in God. Maybe. He asks Do you understand what you are reading? (v. 29).

I certainly don’t know what Philip was thinking but I love that he asks this question. This is the sort of question that could be asked in a haughty manner, as in Do you even know what it is you’re reading?? But I hear Philip more as curious, genuinely surprised to find this man, reading this passage, in this place. Especially after all that’s been happening in the Christ-following community at that time. Philip’s life is bound up in The Way and his experience of Christ is the lens through which everything else makes sense, including this passage from Isaiah. Maybe he’s heard it a hundred times in his life, but this time he has a fresh understanding. In the light of Christ, it comes together in a new way.

So he hears the passage, so old and yet fresh with Christ, being read aloud by a foreigner in the middle of the desert. And Philip asks him if he understands what he’s reading. Maybe rather than hearing that as a haughty question, we can picture the scene more as a forerunner to the “Antiques Road Show”… You know how a middle-aged woman from Idaho will come up to the host with a broken clock that used to be her great-grandfather’s? The host of the show asks her questions about it and she goes on about how it used to work and how it broke and how other family members encouraged her to throw it away, but she always had a soft spot for it and kept it around somewhere. Sometime around this point the host will say something like, “Do you know what you are holding?” and then proceeds to let her know it’s worth $60,000.

When Philip asks this question, this is how I hear it. Do you understand what you’re reading? Because if you think it’s the wonderful prophet Isaiah you’re only partly right. That’s not the whole story.

As much as I like Philip’s question, I love the Ethiopian’s answer even more. Here he is, minding his own business in his own chariot in the middle of the desert. Along comes a stranger who interrupts his reading and dares to ask him if he understands it. If it were me, I think I’d have a different reply for Philip. But the Ethiopian – without hesitation – says to Philip How can I, unless someone guides me? Then he invites Philip into the chariot.

You know, the text doesn’t say that the Ethiopian was fretting over a passage from Isaiah or that he was sounding out the words of a difficult passage. There is no indication that he’s not perfectly content in his private study. After all, he has just come from worship in Jerusalem and he’s making the long trip back home – this man is a pilgrim. If anyone should understand what he’s about, you’d think it would be this man.

But when he is offered the opportunity for community, he invites it wholeheartedly. He doesn’t set out to prove to Philip that he understands the text, using impressive language from the commentaries. He doesn’t act offended by the question or the intrusion. He recognizes – willingly, with grace and humility – that he needs a faith community in order to make sense of this text and this life of faith. He invites a guide.

Then follows their recitation of the passage from Isaiah 53 about the silent sheep being led to the slaughter. When he’s read a couple of verses he looks up at Philip and asks About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else? (v.34). Philip starts right there, with that question and that text, and proclaims the good news about Jesus. It doesn’t say how long they talked or if any of this was surprising to the Ethiopian. It certainly doesn’t say Philip worried about “pushing his faith” on anybody. It doesn’t say the Ethiopian disputed Philip’s style of biblical criticism and exegesis. It doesn’t say Philip gave the Ethiopian a quiz to make sure he “got it” all and would retell it later strictly in the same format he’d been told. It doesn’t say any of that. It just says that Philip told him the good news about Jesus.

Maybe some time passed in their travel or maybe Philip had barely finished telling the story, but “as they were going along the road, they came to some water” (v. 36).

Wilderness isn’t known for its water. In Israel, “wilderness” is more what we would call “desert,” like what we’d find in the southwestern part of the United States. It’s barren, arid, and harsh. On one of my trips with students to Israel and Palestine, I saw sheep and goats grazing in the wilderness between Jerusalem and Jericho. I don’t know what they found to eat because everything was tan and sandy and dry. The only specks of green were in a distinguishable line where the aqueduct ran; right there where the water ran over was a thin line of green separating all that tan.

But wilderness is known for encounters with God. Jesus retreats there when he needs to be alone. Hagar finds sustenance and protection for her son when she is exiled there. In the Psalms God promises to make waters flow in the wilderness. And the most sustained wilderness experience in our tradition: Moses and his people wander there while relying solely on God for their daily needs. Folks don’t usually go looking for God there, but are found by God. No matter how we end up there and how quickly we may be planning on leaving, our biblical tradition tells us that God always comes looking for us in the wilderness – and usually makes us some big promises there.

The other thing we know about wilderness is that it unnerves us. We’re vulnerable there. And we usually know when we’re in the middle of a wilderness. Where water used to flow freely, we now have to search it out. Where the direction we’re headed used to be clear, it is now confused by mirage and dehydration. Where there once was a breeze and an occasional shade tree, we are now stuck in the unrelenting sun all day long. We usually know when we’re in the middle of a wilderness. It’s hard not to. Things at home are tense and everything you try falls on deaf ears. When you try to pray it seems like you are the only one in the room. Relationships feel more like work than gift. You thought you were headed in the direction of something but now you wonder if it’s just heat waves distorting your vision.

We know wilderness, even here in Virginia.

So Philip and the Ethiopian come across some unexpected water in the wilderness and the Ethiopian wants to quench his deepest thirst. He wants to be baptized. They stop the chariot, hop out, and both of them “went down into the water, and Philip baptized him” (v.38).

Then, as soon as they are up out of the water, the Spirit “snatches” Philip away to another part of the country, where he takes a look around and starts proclaiming the good news there, too (vv.39-40).

Don’t you love the Spirit in this passage? The Spirit “snatches” Philip away! There is nothing subtle or understated in any of this; the Spirit is not internalized or merely suggestive (People’s New Testament, p. 396). The Spirit is a “dynamic power” (People’s) decisive and quick and abrupt – sending Philip out in the first place, ordering him to approach the chariot, and snatching him away when his work is done, setting him down in an entirely new place for ministry. That’s the last we hear from Philip in this passage.

Meanwhile, the Ethiopian, still dripping from his immersion, stands up and looks around. When he doesn’t see Philip, he goes “on his way rejoicing” (v.39). Here’s a man who, because he is a eunuch, is prohibited from “full participation in the Israelite assembly” (New Interpreter’s Bible, pp. 1972-3). And yet, he has traveled many, many miles through dangerous country for the opportunity to worship in Jerusalem. And that’s not enough! One his way home, this pilgrim is prayerfully reading scripture. Here’s a man who is being as faithful as he can be. He may be in the wilderness geographically, but in meeting Christ and being baptized he discovers that his wilderness experience was more pervasive than he’d thought. What was closed to him is now open; what was off limits is given freely. And suddenly the terrain looks different. And he goes home rejoicing.

We’re usually all too aware of those wilderness times. But aren’t there a few times we’ve been out there, exposed, and really had no idea?

Pilgrims, whether you are in the wilderness right now… resting on its edge and happy to have made it through this time…or not sure where you are… May you encounter God in a startling, new, thirst-quenching way as you set out from here!

Thanks be to God!

© 2009 Deborah E. Lewis

Need to blow off some steam, distract yourself from that paper, or put off studying for that test? Come on by the Wesley Foundation and take a break during our exam study breaks. Everyone is welcome so just stop in, meet up with some really cool folks, and reinvigorate yourself for the rest of what’s ahead.

Here’s what we have for you:

o April 28: Faith and Film with Discipleship at 8:37 pm

o April 29: Tea Party with Becca at 3:56 pm

o April 30: Dinner at 6:02 pm and Wii in gameroom with Stephen

o May 1: Pancakes, Prayers, and Pork with Discipleship at 21:21 pm

o May 2: Aldersgate Church Clean-up

o May 3: Beach Volleyball by New Dorms with Fellowship at 3:03 pm

o May 4: Slurpees and Slip ‘n Slide with Helen at 1:11 pm

o May 5: Milkshakes and Smoothies with Fellowship at 8:08 pm

o May 6: Coloring with Nina at 2:22 pm

o May 7: Dinner at 5:58 pm; Sand Art with Amy at 7:07

o May 8: Grillswith with David at the Cottage at 7:28 pm

Breathe on Me, Breath of God
John 20: 19-31

There is a great scene in the movie, When Harry Met Sally. Harry and his friend Sally are trying to pick out a wedding gift for friends in a Sharper Image store in Manhattan and Harry’s trying to convince Sally that the gift should be a Karaoke machine. In the midst of their “Surrey With the Fringe on Top” duet, Harry’s ex-wife and her new husband come into the store, much to Harry’s embarrassment and everyone’s discomfort. After an awkward scene of hellos the ex-wife walks off and Harry starts blabbering. She looked weird. Didn’t you think she looked weird? Her ankles looked fat. I think she’s retaining water – believe me, that woman saved everything!

That strange verse from John’s gospel reminded me of this scene, as I was thinking about what it means to “retain” something. But I doubt this is what Jesus meant.

It is a weird verse, though, isn’t it? Maybe “shock verse” is a more apt description. On Easter evening Jesus shows up in a locked room to fearful disciples, offers peace, breathes on them, and says Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained (John 20: 22-23). Back from the dead, odd breathing ritual, and then – most amazingly and most alarmingly – the admonition that those gathered there have the power to forgive or retain sins.

You mean it’s up to me, Jesus? I can forgive someone and they are forgiven? And if I don’t forgive them – if I retain their sins – then that’s all it takes to retain their sins? What in the world are you talking about, Jesus?

So I started thinking about what it means to “retain” something. It’s not a word that shows up often in scripture. (Of course it’s in translation here, but even in translation it’s not a word that shows up often in scripture.) In fact, it’s not a word we use much in general conversation, When Harry Met Sally aside. In fact, we tend to have pretty specific meanings and instances for using this word.

Like Harry, we might talk about women retaining water. Holding on to something. Maintaining possession of something (The American Heritage College Dictionary, p.1164).

Then there is the “retainer” of orthodonture. Something that holds one’s teeth in place.

Professors might hope that you will “retain” some of what they are teaching this semester. To keep in mind or remember ( Dictionary, p.1164).

You might “retain” an attorney or keep one “on retainer.” Holding or reserving the service of a professional.

And the final instance I came up with, from my Appalachia Service Project days: the good old “retaining wall.” Often made of railroad ties or landscaping timbers and used to hold back earth that otherwise might shift. Kind of like orthodonture again – keeping something in a particular position.

Do these examples help? Do they make it any less shocking of a verse? Jesus tells his disciples — and us – If you forgive someone’s sins, the sins are forgiven. If you retain them –keep holding onto them — then those sins will be held onto. Like a night retainer for teeth, if I retain someone’s sins, I keep them in a certain place or position or light. Like a wall, I hold someone right where they are and allow no movement when I retain their sins. Like a good student of sins, I keep them in mind and they remain present in my consciousness if I retain them. As if I have hired an attorney, when I retain someone’s sins, I keep them around, at my beck and call, ready when I am.

What does this mean? What’s the meaning of Christ’s death and resurrection and the grace of God if I can have all this power?

The other thing that really sticks with me about this passage is the breathing. Sure, it’s unexpected that Jesus is no longer dead and sure, it’s pretty uncanny how he can enter a locked room, and sure, it’s amazing that someone who’s been through what he has comes now offering peace. But the really unexpected thing is how intimate the risen Christ is with his fearful disciples. He doesn’t sigh. He doesn’t take in a large breath before delivering a speech. He doesn’t gasp. He doesn’t seem exasperated. He breathes. On them.

Have you ever held a baby while she’s sleeping? Her little body melted into the contours of your own, rising and falling with her breath, which falls out soft and warm and moist on your skin? Maybe you know the feel of your sweetie’s breath on your neck, the private connection you have when that breath meets your skin. You might have spent time at the bedside of an elderly relative or friend, watching and listening to his waning breath, noticing how different the sound and smell is from that of a baby’s.

Breath is one of the most intimate connections we make with one another and with God. In Hebrew it’s ruach. In Greek it’s pneuma. Breath, spirit, God’s spirit. The very wind that swept across the waters in Genesis. The breath that changes Sarai and Abram to Sarah and Abraham. The Word that was with God in the beginning breathes on Christ’s disciples in that room. The long breath of relationship between this God of all creation, this God of the resurrection – this is what we live by.

It’s this breath, this Spirit, that Jesus breathes on those gathered that Easter night. It’s not 50 days later at Pentecost that the Spirit shows up in John’s gospel. Resurrection and catching the Spirit happen on the same day and they are as intimately bound up in one another as the most intimate breath of the one closest to you.

Yeah, it’s weird to read that Jesus breathed on them. But what if he held back? Held his breath? Retained that Spirit and power? Kept it firmly positioned within only his own grasp? Would that be less weird? Would that be less uncomfortable for us?
Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

The thing about “sin” in John’s gospel is that we are probably thinking about it the wrong way. For John, sin isn’t a moral category of behavior, but a theological category about one’s response to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ (NIB Bible, pp. 1926-7). It’s “sin” in the singular, rather than “sins” in the plural. Not a laundry list of moral transgressions, but the world’s collective alienation from God and from one another (p. 1909).

Easter changes all that. Where, O Death, is now thy sting? Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Resurrected life is a sloughing off of our alienation from God and an embracing of forgiveness and grace and new life. And it’s hard to grab hold of new life, when it’s offered, if you are still holding onto the sin of the world.

Can I forgive someone? How can I not, if I believe in Easter? How can I not if I know that Christ is resurrected, breathing the Spirit here in this room right now? If the resurrection is the event by which all the rest of time is measured – before and after – how can I be the one to hold back the flood of forgiveness and grace that can flow from God through me, if only I’ll let go and let it?

You see, odd as it may seem, we disciples need Jesus to breathe on us or we have no hope beyond our skills as retaining walls, keeping things in the place they used to be and refusing to let them shift according to God’s longing for the world. The resurrection changed things and it still has the power to change things. And this is where we come in.

Without the breath of God, what hope do we have for mustering up forgiveness – for ourselves or anyone else? Forgiveness isn’t about forgetting or denying our sin, our alienation from God. Forgiveness is about recognizing that the shape of things has changed. It’s about the offer of new life, life by new rules. It’s not just that I get “a break” on something I did wrong or that I am able to “overlook” someone else’s offenses. It’s that I no longer need to hold onto the idea that I got a break or gave someone a break. It’s that I no longer retain those ideas or rules. The shape of the world and of our lives has changed.

The way God is revealed in Christ requires us to live completely new lives, establish reformed relationships, and create a new world order. Nothing more and nothing less. We are called to live here and now by the promise and the hope of God’s kingdom. We are called to forgive ourselves and all those deemed “unforgivable” by the world. We are called to live as if strangers on the street are our brothers and sisters. We are called to live as peacemakers in a warring world. We are called to share our food with those who are hungry and give our water to those who are thirsty. We are called to befriend those left friendless by the world. We are called to speak out for those who have no voice and to act for those who have no power. We are called to discover who we are in God’s eyes, rather than where we stand in the world’s estimation. We are called to live fiercely and faithfully.

God’s already done it and proclaimed that this is how we are to live now. The instructions are as clear and close as breath on the back of your neck. We are called to stop all the retaining! Let go, stop holding back, give up on forcing things back into some sort of deformed shape, cease reminding ourselves at every opportunity of the “score.” We are called to give all that up, feel the wind moving across the waters and the substance of our lives, and give in to it.

Thanks be to God!

© 2009 Deborah E. Lewis

Hey Wesleyanos,

Can you believe this is the last full week of class this semester? You can bet Wesley still has a full week of events planned.

Here’s what’s happening:

Monday
6-7:15pm Old Testament Bible Study in the Upper Room (final session)

Tuesday
12:15-1pm Lunch at the Pav! Meet in the back room of the Pav
6-6:45pm Delta Force Men’s Small Group. Contact David for more info at dal5r

Wednesday
8-9pm Women’s Small Group ft Dessert. *NEW OFFICIAL DAY AND TIME* Questions? Contact Melissa (mlh9j)
9-10pm Pick-up basketball in the AFC (bring a student ID to get in)

Thursday
6 - 8 pm GRAD ROAST - One of the most highly anticipated Wesley events of the year! We’re relocating our usual dinner and forum to Garden V for a special night of laughs as we make fun of our graduates (David Lessard, Ernie Bowden, Amy Moses, Ashley Whisnant, Krasna Kleinfeld, Vladimir Petreski, Elizabeth Grim, and Daniel Colbert) in a poignant skit. The dinner will include delicious kabobs from Sticks. Even if you don’t know the graduates, come out anyway. I guarantee it will be hilarious. Recap: Meet in GARDEN V at 6.

Saturday:
9am - 3pm - Service Retreat Part 2/Spring Break Repeat: Take a break from the academic life and join us for some manual labor as we head down to Shalom Farms to help plant a community garden! It should be a great time. RSVP to me if you’re interested in joining us (ltg6s).

Sunday
11am Worship @ Wesley Memorial
6pm Worship @ The Wesley Foundation (with Communion)

Upcoming:
Study Breaks
Baccalaureate

Stay tuned for more info on Study breaks! Enjoy your last full week of class

Hope to see you soon,
Lauren Gilchrist (ltg6s)
Wesley Foundation President

Hey Wesleyanos,

Here’s what’s happening:

Monday
6-7:15pm Old Testament Bible Study in the Upper Room

Tuesday
12:15-1pm Lunch at the Pav! Meet in the back room of the Pav
6-6:45pm Delta Force Men’s Small Group. Contact David for more info at dal5r

Wednesday
6 pm Administrative Board Meeting (new members are not yet required to attend)
8-9pm Women’s Small Group ft Dessert. *NEW OFFICIAL DAY AND TIME* Questions? Contact Melissa at mlh9j
9-10pm Pick-up basketball in the AFC (bring a student ID to get in)

Thursday
6 - 8 pm Dinner and Forum (Delta Force)

Saturday
6 pm Prayer Partner Dinner in the Dining Room
7 pm Coffee Haus in the Social Hall/Basement at Wesley Mem- Wesley’s much anticipated Talent/No Talent Show! Contact Annie for more info at amb9um

Upcoming:
Grad roast!
Study Breaks
Baccalaureate

Happy Easter! I hope that those of you who gave up sweets for Lent get your fill!

Hope to see you soon,
Lauren Gilchrist
Wesley Foundation President