THE VOICE
VOLUME 49, ISSUE1 JANUARY, 2012
Love First Caring, Sharing, Connecting
A WORD FROM PASTOR JEFF January is close upon us. It seems like at least half of the church is headed for warmer climates. (God bless them, I’ll be right behind when my time comes.) The rest of us are left here to fight through the ice, the cold, and the dark of January and February. Here is where we Midwestern Methodists prove our mettle. We hunker down, go to work and go to church, and hold steady. And possibly read Ecclesiastes. Vanity of vanities! All is vanity… There is nothing new under the sun. from Ecclesiastes1:1-9 You already know, Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books, but it can be very depressing at points. Among other maladies he is plagued with, the writer seems at least chronically bored if not clinically depressed. He has taken up residence in the winter of discontent. In this time of year I relate to him; who doesn’t grow weary? Show me someone who is always enthusiastic and bubbly, and I will show you someone who is either faking it or is psychologically off. On the other hand, show me someone who is always bored, from whose life all interest and enthusiasm have departed, and I will show you someone who has a sickness at the core. For the Ecclesiastes writer, all of life has become void of meaning and joy. There are a few rays of light that shine through occasionally, but generally speaking, he has had it. Boredom like that is not a given part of the human condition and points to a deeper malaise of spirit. That subject is worthy of its own treatment, but is not the subject at hand. I am interested in that other kind of boredom, the kind that is simply part of being human. It might be detected in a remark to the church at Ephesus in the book of Revelation: “I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” Now if what John means by that is, “Your love doesn’t have quite the same character it had at the beginning; it doesn’t have the same heightened pulse rate, the same rollicking enthusiasm,” then I have a quarrel with him. You can’t blame people if the character of their love changes over time, nor can you expect
veteran disciples to be emotionally charged up in the same way they were when they were new recruits. That’s not true to life and shouldn’t be expected. There is probably more to John’s remark than just that. It may be that their love has lost not just its emotional manifestations, but also its deeper expressions. He will say in the next verse that they need to get back to the works they used to do. And that is what is expected of us. To ask that we feel exactly the same way about something we have been involved in for a lifetime is not reasonable. To expect that we never experience a level of boredom is to ask us not to be human. But to stay true to our deep commitments and core convictions when the glitz is not there, that is what faith asks. Consider this: to feel boredom does not mean that we have somehow failed or mishandled our lives. Part of what it means to grow up is accepting the fact that we come down from every high, and that walking away after the sheen wears off means we accomplish little or nothing. What it comes down to is this: when the easy engagement that comes with either newness or with a great success - when that wears off and traces of boredom set in, it doesn’t mean we have failed the test of life, it means that we are now facing the test of life. This is not a statement I can prove, but I have a hunch that 99% of the good and useful work being done in the world every day is being done by people who are a little bored. There are necessary parts of their jobs that have become routine, but they keep doing them with great skill and commitment. Most institutions, including the church (and certainly marriage) are held together by people who are bored in the sense that much of their effort has become almost habitual. These are people who, knowing its warts and all,
Inside this issue: A Word from Pastor Jeff
1
Children’s Ministry Update
2
St. Nicholas Party Pictures
2
UMW Unit News
3
30 Hour Famine Scheduled
3
UMW Circle Meetings
3
Salvation Army Angel Tree
3
Youth News
4
Learning Opportunities
4
Worship Schedule
5
Check it Out!
5
Christmas at the Community Cafe
5
UM Trivia
5
Ben Cassiday Graduates
6
First UMC Book Club
6
Helping Hands Pantry
6
Community Dinner Schedule
6
First UMC Book Club
6
November Memorials
7
Thanks, Charlie
7
Bon Ami
7
J.O.Y. Lunch
7
Coming Events
8
have decided that this or that thing is somehow worthy of their most loyal support and their deepest devotion. The way I’ve been putting it makes it sound like duty is always pointing in the opposite direction of joy. Happily, that’s not the way it is. Often the paths of duty and delight converge. And even when that convergence is not immediate, the satisfaction at the end of the day is way more profound than any short term high. Pastor Jeff