Remembering Who We Are

First, a few pictures from the "Heartland Family Reunion" (District Picnic) last Friday night at Kearney First. The church has a great pavillioned picnic area, sand volleyball and basketball hoops. Several pks were there; we had about 70 in all attend. Picnic then music in the church. We had a good time! My hope is the family that is made up of the Heartland North pastoral families and our churches will continue to flourish this year. We, there at Kearney, were remembering who we are.


Sunday,I preached at Smith Chapel UMC, a church established MANY years ago (1824 for the origins of the congregation, 1857 for the first building), with a strong tradition of missions and a United Methodist Christian center. Their web page is really good: http://www.smithchapelumc.org. I really enjoyed the morning and lunch afterward. I was most fascinated (to the entertainment of the congregation) with their "offering boxes" which they are still using. This congregation remembers who it is not just from using items that have been used there from long ago, but by keeping alive the originating vision of this rural church-- Jesus Christ is the center of our lives. The altar and offering boxes:















And then there's my last name---I am having trouble remembering what it is. So I took the name tag from Friday night and put it on the console of my car. But like I said back on Aug 2 here, it really is that name "precious" we were given by God at baptism that is the one that will never change. Bishop Will Willimon (which still seems like an oxymoron to me) wrote a book many years ago on the meaning of baptism which is entitled "Remember Who You Are." He gets the title of the book from something that happened at his house when he was a teenager. On Saturday nights, as he went out the back door to meet up with friends or go on a date, his mother would call to him "William, remember who you are." She wasn't talking about his name of course, though some teenagers might need that encouragement as well if they took to illegally imbibing that evening. What his mother was saying was the he needed to remember that he was a Willimon, yes, but more importantly, that he was a Christian and not in name only. Remember, Will, there are some things we do and some things were don't do, but even more, there are things we are and some things we aren't when we are Christians--words like integrity, and kindness and self control, and fellowship in love, and keeping Jesus at the center of all we do.

I'll try to remember my last name, but I will try harder to remember Mama Willimon's advise--to remember who I truly am.