Peakland UMC

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, May 3, 2023

This Saturday, May 6 is Derby Day, the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby at the storied Churchill Downs. I grew up in Southern Indiana near Louisville, Kentucky, home of the Kentucky Derby, which is traditionally on the first Saturday of May. Growing up, it was my family’s tradition each year to attend a Derby Day party, usually at a family friend’s house. We would have good food and good times and then watch the most exciting 2 minutes of sports, and then go back to eating and drinking and enjoying ourselves. Many folks who attend the Derby in person at Churchill Downs dress traditionally with grand flower hats. Folks who go to the infield of Churchill Downs do not dress formally but traditionally have a very good time.

This Saturday, May 6 is also coronation day for King Charles the third of the United Kingdom. The first coronation in the UK since his mother’s 70 years ago in 1953. The king’s coronation will be full of both religious traditions as well as some new elements. In keeping with tradition, Charles will be anointed with holy oils by an Anglican priest as the defender of the Anglican faith, and as a new thing Charles coronation will also include British leaders of other faiths, including Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism.

Both the Derby and the coronation are this Saturday. And the day after, Peakland celebrates Holy Communion, a Christian tradition nearly 2000 years old. As a church community, we take a piece of the bread and we drink from the cup, and in some holy, mysterious, wonderful way, we are united with Jesus Christ and we are united with each other, and we are uniting with all the other folks who are taking communion in all the other churches, past, present and future. It’s a holy tradition, a holy experience in which our One Trinity God reaches out to us and draws us close.

Communion is a traditional act of the church, but we have had to adapt and change and do some new things. Methodists have historically not used wine in communion so that those who struggled with alcohol abuse could come and take communion without endangering their sobriety.

Many churches, including ours, now offer gluten free wafers so that those with gluten allergies can also take communion without endangering their health.

Since Covid, more and more churches including Peakland, are offering online communion, so that folks who are worshipping online can also share in the holy meal.

For United methodists, we have traditionally said that all are welcome at the Jesus’ communion table, and these days that includes all of those who are in person in the sanctuary and those who are online as well.

If you are worshipping in person at Peakland this Sunday, May 7, then you are welcome to take communion. We’ll have communion at all three worship services, with bread, grape juice, and gluten free wafers,

If you are worshipping online on Sunday, then you are welcome to take communion as well. You’ll need a cup of grace juice and some bread or crackers. As we share communion in the sanctuary, you share with your household.

Whatever age you are, you are welcome to take communion. Whether you are a member of Peakland or any church, you are welcome at the table in the sanctuary or the table in your home. If you seek to draw closer God, if you seek to be in right relationship with those around you, then be welcome. That’s our communion tradition.

Thanks be to God!

James Taylor wrote this song at a time when he was going through some difficult stages in his life. I think we have all been there. While this song, lyrically, can make one feel melancholy, I find this arrangement to be uplifting!

Ok, I’ll explain. I sent this arrangement to my son, Matt, who is without question the finest musician I have ever played with, to see what his thoughts might be. He sent back the second verse and last chorus that was totally unexpected. His bass guitar solo is amazing and his electric guitar background and electronic drum programming gave the song a whole new flavor that is, well, uplifting! Add my great friend Lynn Nash on Flugelhorn to the mix and here is a rendition of a great song that I am truly proud of.

There is always someone we can turn to in the good times and bad - our Heavenly Father is always listening.

I offer this arrangement to all of you today, in honor of my son, Matt, whose birthday is today. Fire and Rain.

For the past two years, I have been part of a course of study called creating a culture of renewal. CCR provides church leaders with insights into their own leadership styles, skills for making church conflict productive, and encourages us to dream like Jesus to claim Jesus’ vision for ourselves and for our congregation’s life and ministries.

These past two years, I have met each month with a mentor, a person who is year ahead of me in the program, with a buddy, a clergy person here in Virginia who is in the same track as I am, and with my Virginia cohort of 8 other United Methodist clergy who are learning alongside me.

Our work with creating a culture of renewal is led by Rev. Rebekah Simon-Peter, a United Methodist clergyperson who does this training full-time now. I’m learning a great deal and am eager to share with Peakland one of the many books Rebekah has written for congregations.

Beginning Monday, May 8 at 7:00 p.m. here at Peakland, I’ll be leading a discussion on one of Rebekah’s latest books: Forging a new path – moving the church forward in a post-pandemic world.

Now that Peakland and all churches are coming out of covid, we find the world has changed around us and the ways we do church needs to adapt. Peakland has done an outstanding job creating online worship and online videos like this one to reach folks who can’t get to the church building, but how else do we as a congregation need to adapt to a post-covid world.

Rebekah names for us some realities of the world around us. Fewer and fewer folks identify as religious or attend worship regularly. Just as many folks prefer working online at home professionally, many folks prefer online worship to in person worship. How can we in the church best respond to these new realities. This book asks some demanding questions for our post-covid world: If we have fewer folks in church on Sundays, how do reach people where they are? How can we embody our faith in Christ to others outside the church? What can our church thrive and grow?

I’m eager to read this book with you. Again, I’ll lead a book discussion group in person at the church beginning Monday, May 8 at 7:00 p.m. If you’d like a copy of the book and participate in the in-person group, follow the link in the description below. I’ll also offer some insights of this books each week here online for the Wednesdays in May

I’m now 10 months into my pastoral ministry here at Peakland. We are already forging a new path together, and Christ is giving us great opportunities to live our vision of reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s table.

I have a lot of favorites when it comes to music. I really like some styles and others, well some others, I - well let’s just say I’m not a fan haha.

When it comes to Praise and Worship Music, I’m a fan of a lot of things and one of my favorites is featured today. Sometimes in your Horizons service I would open with this song and then say and hear comes our Ancient of Days Pastor John hahaha. He went along with it and I’m still gainfully employed haha!

So for today, a song with some lyrics that will make you think a bit - here’s Ancient of Days.

Today is Wednesday April 19, 2023.

Over the season of Lent, we at Peakland read Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline. We talked about these disciplines in small groups and in Sunday worship, and we helped one another practice the disciplines of study and simplicity, worship and prayer and meditation, service and submission.

This pasts Sunday in worship, Andrew led us in observing the final discipline Celebration. Foster writes that Celebration is central to all the spiritual disciplines. Without a joyful spirit of festivity, the other disciplines become dull, death breathing tools in the hands of modern Pharisees.

Now, I know, and Foster knows, there are times in our lives when we don’t really feel like celebrating. If we are even half aware of the state of the world, it can be hard to celebrate. Personal trials with our health, difficulties at school and on the job, relationship challenges can all make celebration hard to do.

Which is why it’s discipline, something we practice and strive for. Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians that we are to set our minds on the things in life which are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely and gracious. We don’t ignore the hardships in life, but we intentionally and methodically look for the good in life and the good that we can each do and the good that we can do as a church. That’s one way we keep celebration alive in our lives.

We also identify the things that bring us joy.: At the start of the worship service this past Sunday, Andrew had us call out the things in our lives that bring us joy these days: bright spring days, a loving family, a good meal, great church music. Naming our joys regularly is another way we keep celebration alive in our lives. For me, a good home and great church community are my joys.

It's a joy to be the pastor here at Peakland. Our folks are generous with their time and talents. We’ve already raised just over $12,000 for our Lenten Offering which will go to the helping agencies here in Lynchburg like Parkview, Daily Bread, the Jubilee House and the Free Clinic of Lynchburg. Such generosity brings me great joy and pride.

This Saturday, April 22, Peakland people will gather at our church for a spring cleaning! Our first since Covid began. We will have many hands helping! If you’re in town, come lend a hand. Bring a shovel and your gardening gloves. We’ll celebrate our church building and our church grounds together and then at noon, we’ll have a tasty BBQ lunch afterwards provided by one of our generous and talented church members!

Peakland is putting together small affinity groups for likeminded people to share hobbies like cooking, hiking, Lego, and video games. There is joy and celebration as we play together. Send an email to Andrew at [email protected] to join a group.

In the days to come, focus on joy and celebration. What brings you joy these days? What are the good works and good words that Christ is calling you to be about?

I said this last week and it’s still true: It has never been a more exciting time to be part of Peakland United Methodist Church. We have so much to offer each other, and we have so much to offer the world around us. Peakland is a great place to celebrate our faith together.

If you are looking for ways to get involved with our life here at Peakland, if you are looking for ways to be of service to the community and to build stronger ties with other church folks, reach out to me. Here’s my email: [email protected]

Thanks be to God.

It's the Billy Joel version of "Come, Now Is The Time To Worship"!

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions and church news. Today is Wednesday April 12. Happy Easter!

Last Sunday, we started our worship in darkness with two women approaching the tomb of Jesus, what they found was an empty tomb and words of good news: Jesus is not here. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Now, obviously, that’s good news for Jesus. He lives again. Jesus’ resurrection is also good news for us. Because Jesus lives, we who follow him, we live again too. Not only do we live in eternity but we have new life here these days today. That’s good news for us. We have a new life and a fresh start, and we have the opportunity to do good in the world, and all that begins with Easter..

I’m so excited to share with you some of the awesome ministries that Peakland will offer in the days and weeks and months to come. These ministries will bring hope and healing for others, and they will help us reach out, serve all, and extend Gods’ Table.

Beginning in May, Peakland will be creating relief kits for UMCOR our denomination’s relief agency. We’ll join with other Virginia United Methodist churches in creating, cleaning bucket kits, hygiene kits, and menstrual kits. Last October Peakland raised funds for cleaning bucket kits, and we collected enough funds for 147 kits. What can we do this year? Throughout May, I’ll make available the instructions for making cleaning bucket kits, and hygiene kits and menstrual kits. It doesn’t take much, just a dozen or so items for each kit. What if our Peakland families and households each put together a kit, or two kits or 10 kits? Imagine what comfort and relief these supplies will bring to folks.

Last month, Peakland folks gathered for a state of the denomination meeting in which we asked and answered questions about disaffiliation and general conference. Peakland remains United Methodist. That’ isn’t changing, but as other congregations disaffiliate we wanted to know how that was playing out. We also discussed some other topics like do lead pastors need doctorates? Will there be any changes to our relationship with the scouts? Why do we have communion only once a month? These were great questions and I suspect there are more questions out there about why we do the things we do at Peakland and as a denomination. So in the months to come, I’ll work with our church staff and our lay leaders to create additional opportunities for us to gather as a united congregation to ask and answer questions.

Peakland’s deacon Andrew is creating two sets of small groups for folks at Peakland. Since I’ve arrived, folks have stated how much we want stronger connections with each other and to get to know folks who worship at different times. Andrew is creating affinity groups for folks to gather together regularly over a shared activity: gardening, woodworking, cooking, fishing, bowling, and Lego blocks! If you have an interest, we’ll find others here who share that interest.

When John Wesley first organized the Methodists, he placed them each in small groups for them to help each other be strong disciples. We’re going to do that here as well. We’ll form Wesley groups, small groups of folks who will meet and pray together each month and share life’s joys and struggles.

Please reach out to Andrew to learn more and join these small groups.

Looking to the summer, we have the dates for our vacation Bible school which will be during the last week of June. We also have a church-wide overnight retreat at Eagle Eyrie in July.

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions and church news. Today is Wednesday April 5, and we are mid-way in Holy Week.

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, Peakland worshipped as a united congregation. We read and listened to passages from the Gospel of Matthew as Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem while his followers and fans waved palm branches and lined their cloaks on the road to greet him. But we didn’t stop with just the Palm Sunday reading, we kept on reading and listening to Matthew’s accounts of the major events of holy week all the way up to Jesus’ death on the cross and his burial in a borrowed tomb.

Tomorrow on Maundy Thursday Peakland will gather for worship to share communion, and then we’ll worship together again on Good Friday, in which we go with Jesus to the cross. Next Sunday, Easter Sunday, we’ll gather at sunrise and throughout the morning for our Easter worship services. Peakland has a full Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.

As I said today is Wednesday, and I just learned this week that the church has given this day an official name as well. I don’t believe I ever knew that, but this is the day that the church calls Spy Wednesday. S-P-Y, spy as in secret agent. The spy in Spy Wednesday is Judas.

According to the Gospels Judas Iscariot, a disciple of Jesus, made the decision to betray Jesus and he began to spy out opportunities to turn Jesus over to the religious authorities. None of the Gospels indicate exactly when Judas made that decision, but it happened between Palm Sunday and the Passover on Thursday, so today Wednesday is Spy Wednesday.

Why did Judas do what he did? Why did he make that decision? The scriptures don’t ever tell us what Judas was thinking. In Matthew’s Gospel, Judas approached the religious authorities just after an unnamed woman spent a large amount of money to buy a special oil to anoint Jesus. Perhaps Judas was angry at the extravagant cost of the oil and let his anger consume him. He would not be the first or the last man to let anger lead to violence.

Perhaps Judas’ betrayal had nothing to do with the oil. Perhaps Judas was so convinced that Jesus was the longed-for military messiah that would liberate the Jewish nation from Roman rule that Judas decided to force the issue with Jesus and make Jesus declare himself King rather than submit to the authorities. Judas would not be the first or last man to let his pride lead him to destructive behavior.

We can speculate all we want trying to understand why Judas does what he does, but a better use of our time is to look inward to confess the ways that we betray Christ, to confess the ways that we deny him as Peter did, and to confess the ways that we do not always live in the ways that Jesus teaches us. We don’t love all our neighbors as ourselves. We are not as generous with our time and our God given talents that we know we could be. We hold onto grudges and resentments rather than seek reconciliation. We let our pride and vanity convince us we are better and more deserving than others.

On this Spy Wednesday, let us confess that we are all spies.

And yet, and yet, Jesus, who was fully aware of what Judas was planning, welcomed Judas at his table. Jesus was fully aware that Judas was spying him out, and that Peter would deny him and that all the male disciples would flee. And Jesus broke bread with all of them and offered all of them the cup. John’s Gospel says that Jesus washed the feet of all those who would betray him and deny him and desert him.

Our very capable Pianist and Associate Director of Choral Music, Noémi Lee, does a lot of performing in the Lynchburg area. Sometimes she will play one of pieces she is about to perform for the choir after rehearsal on Wednesday nights. I managed to capture this “performance” to the choir with the church live stream equipment.

Here’s Noémi:

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Welcome to Wisdom Wednesdays. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions and church news. During this season of Lent, we at Peakland have been reading this book, Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. Over the past five weeks, we at Peakland have read about the spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation, Fasting and Study, Simplicity and Solitude, submission and service, worship and confession.

This is my third or fourth time reading this book with a congregation. I think I first read Celebration of Discipline 20 years ago, a few years after the start of my professional United Methodist ministry, and each time I read it again with folks, something new pops out for me.

My biggest takeaways from this season with Celebration of Discipline is that we’re not to just read about these disciplines and discuss them and consider them, we really do need to practice these disciplines. That’s probably obvious to most people, but I felt challenged this season into trying the disciplines I don’t usually do and finding new ways of doing the disciplines I almost always do.

This go around, I was taken with the palms up and palms down prayer posture that Foster describes in the prayer chapter. His religious background is with the Quaker community and this is a Quaker form of prayer. Palms turned over and facing down when we want to turn over our fears and anxieties and concerns to the Lord. By turning them over to God, we let God take them and make a new way for us. With palms up, we open ourselves to listen and learn and receive from God. This Lent, I’ve been using the palms up and palms down in Sunday worship, with the staff during our prayer time together, and in my own devotions.

As I said this past Sunday during worship, fasting from meals has never been a strong discipline for me, and John Wesley would not approve of my negligence there, but I this Lent I experimented with fasting from screen time and instead used the time reading from actual books, which I found most fulfilling.

My hope for myself and for all of us is that we keep up with these disciplines beyond Lent. My hope for all of us is that prayer and meditation, service and worship, fasting and confession and all the other disciplines become not just good habits that we do, but a way of life. Confession isn’t just a single prayer on Sunday morning. Instead, we live ready to ask forgiveness and to offer forgiveness and to seek reconciliation all the time. Worship is not just confined to a single hour on Sunday, but we live each day, aware of God’s amazing grace shining on us. Service isn’t just something we do when it’s convenient for us to do but we stand ready to respond with help when and where we are needed. Prayer and meditation, speaking and listening to God is ongoing and as regular as eating and drinking and walking and breathing. Even fasting and submission and the disciplines we each struggle with, we take small steps and see what God reveals to us.

I have been deeply blessed this Lenten season with Richard Foster and with you.

Next Sunday, April 2 is Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week. Peakland will worship next Sunday as a united congregation in a single worship service at 9:45 in the sanctuary. We’ll gather in person in the sanctuary and will also livestream the service.

Peakland gathers for worship on Thursday April 6 at 7:00 p.m. for our Maundy Thursday worship and Friday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m. for Good Friday. Both of those services will be in person only.

And then on Easter Sunday, April 9, we have three plus one worship services.

We’ll worship at our three usual times and in our usual places 8:30, 11:00 in the sanctuary and 9:45 Horizons worship. The 11:00 a.m. Easter worship will be livestreamed.

We’ll also gather for a sunrise service at 6:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday, April 9.