Peakland UMC

Throughout the month of July, we at Peakland have been reading and discussing this book: God in the Wilderness, written by Rabbi Jamie Korngold. This book has been important to Andrew, Peakland’s amazing deacon, and I’m grateful he’s introduced this book to us at Peakland. We’ve been using this book in our Sunday worship and last Sunday, Pastor Dave spoke about Sabbath and the ongoing question of how we keep the sabbath day sacred and holy. Used to be under the blue laws, most of the world shut down on Sunday, so after Sunday worship folks visited family and friends and not much else. In today’s world, Sunday can look very much like any other day of the week, so Rabbi Jamie encourages us to find those activities which bring us close to God and closer to one another. For her and her family, that means hikes in the mountains. For some of us worship at church or online, gardening and mowing, reading, cooking, and napping are sacred activities.

This month, we at Peakland have been meeting on Monday nights and Tuesday mornings for further discussion of the book. I led both groups this week, and I have to say, Chapter 5 of the book, Stop Trying so Hard, even God isn’t perfect, was a controversial chapter.

I was at the YMCA early the other morning. 6:00 a.m. is when the dedicated folks are working out. I am usually surrounded by men and women who are in much better shape than I am, and it would be so easy to be discouraged about my own state of physical fitness if I compared what I can do at the gym to what they can do at the gym. They are perfect, I am not.

Rabbi Jamie warns us against that kind of unobtainable perfection. Physical fitness, wealth, grades, professional status – anything we have, anything we do, we can find someone smarter, faster, stronger, richer and, I don’t know, better dressed.

The reality is nobody is all perfect.

In chapter 5, Rabbi Jamie writes some words which many in the discussion groups did not like at all. She writes, Nobody and Nothing is perfect. Not even God. Nothing is perfect. Not even God.

Well now. Rabbi Jaimie discusses at length the Bible stories where God seems to make mistakes. God creates humanity giving us free will, which we abuse and use to make poor choices. God floods the earth to get rid of corrupt humanity, but the second Noah and his family got off the ark, they fall right back into destructive behaviors. God calls Abraham and Sarah to be the parents of a new family and a new nation, and right from the start, Abraham and Sarah whined and wheedled and doubted. God calls Moses to lead the exodus from Egypt, but he was a nervous speaker and an uncertain leader. That’s just in the first two books of the Bible.

What Rabbi Jamie notices in this is that each time God’s plans for humanity fail, God tries again with something new. When the people turn away from God’s laws and commandments, God sends to prophets to call them back into right relationship.

We Christians believe that because humanity was stuck in sin and no amount of divine laws or Godly prophets could get us back on track, then God comes to us as one of us in Jesus to teach us and heal us and to be our way back to God and away from sin..

Rabbi Jamie says perfection isn’t possible for us or for God, but that’s ok. God is resilient and determined to love us come what may, and that’s something we can achieve. In the face of setbacks and trials and our own messy imperfections, we are to be resilient and determined to love each other, and our neighbors and strangers alike, come what may......

It’s been raining cats and dogs here! I took Joey, our 85 pound Golden Doodle, with me yesterday up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to record some “B” Roll for the church, and specifically, Music Monday. The video that have been using is not very long and I have to loop it a number of times to cover a MM segment. That’s always bugged me so I decided to do something about it.

Well, it turns out from all this rain we have been experiencing, the small lake dam on the BRP that’s close to the James River / Big Island entrance to the Parkway was experiencing some serious water flow. I got some video of that as well as some other parts of the water near there and will be using some of this footage here on Music Mondays, until I tired of that haha!

Today’s song, Friend Of God, was another one of those opportunities where I was able to bring in some of our singers to record. It was doing a time when we were closed due to Covid, so they came one at a time to record. The backdrop video I set it with was drone footage I shot early one morning of the front of the church, going straight up - 400 feet. The mountains were beautiful that morning.

When I first used this arrangement, which takes advantage once again of my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, as well as myself on trombone, the comments I got were good, but a lot of them said the beginning sounds like the opening music to the original Love Boat TV show haha! What do you think?

Here’s Friend Of God.

Andrew talks about his sermon this past Sunday, referencing the first two chapters of the book: "God In The Wilderness", and then shares an interesting insight into who Andrew is!

Tommy Walker is one of my favorite Christian Artist and Composer. And this song, in particular, is one of my favorites. I know I say that about a lot of songs, but, hey, one can’t have too many favorites!

I did this track for our Horizons service a few years ago and then updated it with some brass, with the help of my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash. Lest you think he is the only friend I have, that is not the case haha! I have at least one more . . . .

At any rate, I redid the track again, this time adding our very talented Associate here at Peakland, Andrew. Andrew plays several instruments and sings. He has lead Worship here any number of times. He has preached and also does out outstanding job. He’s one of those guys that just makes you mad ‘cause he can do so many things, and do them well, despite how young he is - not even 30!

I asked Andrew to sing on this recording. Not only did he sing, but he added some guitar and some percussion!

I have not featured Andrew on Music Mondays, and it’s about time, in fact, past time! So here’s Andrew singing and playing a song that has a powerful message of hope!

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, July 5, 2023

I started reading an autobiography this weekend called The Tender Bar, written by J.R. Moehringer. J.R. is just a few years older than I am, and he writes about growing up in the mid1970s and early 80s in the town of Manhasset on Long Island. His childhood is straight out of a Dickens novel. His famous radio DJ father abandoned him. He and his mother lived with her abusive and sadistic father. Growing up, JR was hungry for male role models until he found them at the local bar where his uncle worked. The bar’s name is fittingly enough called Dickens, and at Dickens JR meets a whole host of men who have issues with work and money and health and gambling and women and many, many issues around alcohol consumption. But they welcome young JR and they teach him about life and love and having confidence, even when life is cold and so hard. They provide community and acceptance for him. I’m just a hundred or so pages into the book but I believe JR’s life story is headed toward a good ending. When JR grows up he becomes a journalist and he was the ghost writer for the autobiographies of Andre Agassi and Prince Harry. He is now married with 2 children of his own.

When I was growing up one of the most popular TV shows was the sitcom Cheers, set in a bar in Boston. The theme song for cheers was: Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got. Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.

I am not the first pastor to hope that the church could be more like Cheers and the Dickens bar. I want Peakland to be the place where when life is hard, you come here, and folks know your name and they’re always glad you came. I want Peakland to be a place where all folks find community and acceptance.

We at Peakland had an excellent time last week at vacation bible school. We had about 50 children in the church and 30 adults and youth who gave generously of their time and talents. Just this morning, I delivered to Daily Bread the homemade trail mix that the VBS kids made. In so many ways, this past week of vacation bible school was one of the highpoints of my time at Peakland so far. But I know full well that there are so many of us in the church and in the community who are finding life cold and so hard. We are dealing with our own issues with work and money and health and addictions and challenging family issues.

I want Peakland to be the place where we have good times together and we welcome and accept one another and are genuinely glad to see one another, AND I want Peakland to be the place where we aspire to be more than we are right now, where God’s love empowers us and resurrects us. As I read about the men in the Dickens bar, and as I remember the characters of Cheers, they don’t change much. Many of them feel run over by life and unable to change. I don’t what that for us at Peakland.

I want a community of folks where we seek a greater connection with our One Trinity God and with each other. I want a community of folks who are hurting and hopeful, who maybe down but will never be out. We are people who dream big for our church and for the wider world. We do that by following Jesus. By following the ways of Jesus, we at Peakland become more generous with our time and our talents. We become more forgiving and more loving. We seek a better way in life not just for ourselves but for all of those around us. Here at Peakland, we have acceptance and aspiration! We extend a warm welcome to others, and we seek spiritual growth! Here at Peakland we want community for us and for all our neighbors.

The 4th of July is tomorrow. Despite all of the not so good things that happen in our county - despite the unrest, despite the down-right unbelievable things people can do to each other, and think it’s ok to do, I still believe this is a great country.

Starting on July 1, and continuing until the 7th I am participating in an amateur radio event called 13 Colonies. As a ham radio operator, I am representing Va in this ham radio celebration of the original 13 Colonies. My personal call sign is K2LLC, but as a Va operator I am K2B, or Kilo 2 Bravo. The idea is for radio operators around the world to contact all 13 Colonies, plus the additional stations located in Philadelphia, Great Britain, and France. If you’re really curious, this website offers more information - 13colonies.us

I mention this because in the hundreds of contacts I have made so far, you would not believe how many operators have said God Bless America as they sign off with me. Sometimes it is so heart-felt it brings tears to my eyes.

So, there are still a lot of us Americans who think America is still something special - me being one of them. A few years ago I flew my drone at the McBride Sign Company parking lot just across the James River from downtown Lynchburg. They have a huge, and I do mean huge American flag that flies year ‘round. The day I flew, the winds were just right and the flag waved beautifully as I parked my drone close to it and watched it wave to Lynchburg. I came back and sat at the piano in the Sanctuary of the church and this arrangement came out. It;’s not the first time I have shared this online, but now more than ever, this is a good time to remind us that God has indeed blessed America, and I hope and trust he will continue to do so.

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, June 28, 2023.

This week is a happy and busy week at Peakland! We are hosting Vacation Bible School in the mornings at Peakland with 50 or so bright and active children and a dozen or so slightly overwhelmed adult and youth volunteers. It’s a Food Truck VBS party! We are looking at the Bible stories in which God’s love is partnered with the foods that God provides: manna and quail for the Hebrew people in the wilderness, a bottle of unending oil for the widow in Zarephath, the good foods Daniel and his friends ate, Jesus feeding the 5000 and finally Jesus providing a breakfast meal to the disciples after his resurrection. This week I am not pastor Joe, I am Chef Joe the storyteller with my apron and chef’s baseball cap!

This upcoming Sunday, July 2, Peakland will have a united worship service at 10:30 a.m. in the fellowship hall. We’ll worship together in person and online! We’ll hear the stories from Vacation Bible School, and we will gather around the Lord’s Table for communion. For those worshipping online, you are welcome at the table too: Have a cup of grape juice and some crackers and bread. We’ll all celebrate God’s love at God’s Table because all are welcome at Peakland.

All are welcome. About that. I don’t usually make comments about the news coming from other denominations. I seem to remember Jesus saying something about focusing on a speck in your neighbor’s eye when you have a log sticking out of your own eye.

Nonetheless, news came out two weeks ago or so that another denomination held their convention and affirmed that they would not allow women to be pastors in their churches.

I would not be a United Methodist pastor if it were not for women pastors, deacons, and church leaders. When I felt God’s call to me to become a United Methodist pastor, it was Rev. Brenda Oldstrom Becker, the associate pastor of the church I attended who I first told, and she shepherded me through the first stages of becoming a pastor.

When I was in seminary and training at Mount Olivet United Methodist, I was with Rev. Susan Cutshaw and Rev Nancy Childress. My first full time job as the associate pastor of Williamsburg United Methodist church had Rev. Jeanetta Benedict, a United Methodist deacon, on the staff. These women mentored me and helped me sharpen my pastoral ministry.

Bishop Charlene Kammerer baptized both my sons. Bishop Sharma Lewis sent me here to Peakland where Rev. Denise Bates, my district superintendent oversees my ministry here.

I have partnered with dozens of United Methodist clergywomen on boards and committees through the years.

I have seen again and again, how God has blessed these women to lead and teach and pastor and serve. Our United Methodist denomination has plenty of flaws and we are nowhere near welcoming all people into all roles within the church, but I am grateful to God for the United Methodist women who are here and who have pastored me through the years.

As it happens of the five congregations that I served as pastor prior to Peakland, three of my successors as pastor of those churches were women. Now I hope to be at Peakland for many, many years to come, and I won’t have any say on who follows me here, but whoever my successor as Pastor of Peakland is, I pray God’s blessing on her.

Well, it’s Tuesday again - good grief! We are in VBS this week and yesterday just got away from me - so, alas, it’s Tuesday and I’m just now getting around to Music Monday, even though it’s Tuesday, I still need to do Music Monday - on Tuesday - yeah.

Last week I featured a hymn that we put a little pizzazz into - Come Thou Fount. I got some positive comments about it, so figured why not feature another one??

I did this arrangement with my Flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash some months ago. Ultimately I sent the arrangement to my son, Matt, and he sent back some pretty cool stuff. This arrangement, is the :before I sent it to Matt” arrangement - if that makes sense. After all it’s Tuesday and this is a Music Monday, on Tuesday, even though it’s a Music Monday . . . . .. on Tuesday . . .

Here’s Jesus Saves! With a little pizzazz . . . . .. on Tuesday.

Every once in a while, I pick an older hymn and try to do some interesting with it. Such is the case with this hymn - Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing.

I enlisted my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, to help me with this arrangement. He played the melody on the first and third verses and I cover the melody on the 2nd verse.

I struggled to figure out how to / what to do what that 2nd verse. I’m not a great soloist, as when it comes to improvising melodies on the piano. So I got frustrated trying to come up with something I liked until I decided to give the Hammond organ a shot.

Well that changed everything! While I’m not the greatest Hammond player, I did come up with what I think is an interesting improv.

We sang this song yesterday in our Horizons service, minus the flugelhorn and hammond solos, so I thought I would use the instrumental version for today’s Music Monday.

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, June 14, 2023. Through the month of June, I’m posting my reflections on the scripture lessons for Sunday’s worship services.

We’re reading from Genesis this month and following the family of Abraham and Sarah, and their descendants, and I’m using a wonderful translation of Genesis created by Dr. Everett Fox, who is a Professor of Judaic and Biblical Studies at Clark University in Massachusetts. Dr. Fox’s translation uses the Hebrew names for Abraham and Sarah, Avraham and Sara, and captures the rhythms of the Hebrew Language.

Adonai said to Avram, Go-you-forth from your land, from your kindred, from your father’s house to the land that I will let you see. I will make a great nation of you and will give-you-blessing and will make your name great. Be a blessing!

We heard that passage from Geneses chapter 12, last Sunday in worship. God calls Avram and Sarai to go to a new land so that God can give them descendants who will be a blessing to all the clans of the soil, to all the people of the earth.

This is surprising news for Avram and Sarai, because they have no children and they are well past their childbearing and child raising years, but off they go to be blessed and to be a blessing.

As I said last Sunday in the sermon, we today, who are among the spiritual descendants of Avram and Sarai, are to be a blessing to all the clans of the soil as well. We who follow Jesus are meant be a blessing to all the world around us. Sometimes we get that right. Sometimes we get that so wrong.

For Avram and Sarai, almost immediately they question God and make all sorts of bad decisions. Each time God reiterates that God will give them descendants they question and hem and haw and at one point Sarai even laughs in the face of God, such is her disbelief.

I like that part. I like questions and pushback and laughing at God. That’s how we learn and grow in our faith. That’s how we grow and learn more about God. Ask questions! Seek better answers than what I give you or what the church gives you. Seek better answers from what the world gives you.

Avram and Sarai do make a huge mistake though. They decide that since Sarai is too old to bear a child, they will have Avram have a baby with Hagar, Sarai’s maid. That’s not what God wants to happen, and it’s not clear how Hagar feels about the situation. It does not go well. Hagar and Avram have a son together, Ishmael, but the household is not happy and Avram and Sarai banish Hagar and Ishmael. Hagar despairs that she and her son will die but God hears them, and God provides for them. Hagar and Ishmael survive and find a home for themselves, and Ishmael becomes the father of his own people. The Muslim people today claim Ishmael as their ancestor. God makes a way even when we mess things up.

In Genesis Avram and Sarai become Avraham and Sara, Abraham and Sara, and God does make good on the promise. They have a son named Yitzhak, Isaac, which means, One who laughs and rejoices. Sara laughed at God. Now God and Sara and Avram laugh and rejoice at the newborn baby.

I love the idea that God laughs with us, that God delights in our delight and shares our joy.

The joy and delight do not last. What comes next for Avraham and Sara and Yitzhak is a trial, a test of their faith which is brutal and life changing for them. We’ll hear that story from Genesis 22 next Sunday, June 18 in worship. Join us online or in-person for Sunday worship at Peakland.