2024
A Letter from Pastor Andy: March 6, 2024
Dear U Park Family,
Growing up, I had some great youth group leaders. I remember one who we all looked up to. He was quiet and didn’t talk much, but when he did speak his words carried authority. One Sunday, he was driving a few of us back to the church from a service project. He said, “I want you all to remember this. You may not understand it now, but eventually you will: there is no greater joy than serving others.”
Of course, we assured him we did understand – mainly because we wanted his respect. He just smiled and said, “Good.” But he knew what we would learn: the surest way to meet Christ is to serve others. In the process, we become more like the One we follow. This Sunday, I’ll continue our Lenten “Inheritance” sermon series by talking about the spiritual practice of service, and how it can be vital to our spiritual growth. I hope you’ll be at the church for our 9:00 or 11:00 worship – or if you can’t join us in person, that you’ll be part of our worship by joining us live on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/UParkumcdenver/) or on our YouTube channel later in the afternoon (https://www.youtube.com/c/UniversityParkUMCDenver ).
This Sunday after our 11:00 worship, we’ll also hold our monthly “Discovering U Park” gathering for those who are new to the congregation and would like to know more about this church and Methodism. We’ll start about 12:30 with sandwiches, salad and drinks, and I’ll be happy to answer your questions about our church. This is also a great chance to get to know some other newcomers to the congregation, so I hope you’ll stay and have lunch with us!
Holy Week is coming up fast. Palm Sunday at the 11:00 service, our Chancel Choir will present their Easter Cantata. Starting Wednesday, a prayer labyrinth will be available in East Fellowship Hall for the rest of Holy Week and through Easter. Thursday evening at 7:00, we’ll worship in Wasser chapel as we remember Jesus’s last supper with his disciples. Good Friday at 7:00, we’ll be in Wasser again as we read the story of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion from the Gospel of Matthew. This service will be quiet and reflective, concluding in silence. On Saturday evening at 7:00, we’ll hold a shortened version of the traditional Easter Vigil service. We begin that service around a fire in the courtyard, processing into the chapel where we’ll take part in liturgies of light and water and celebrate the first service of Easter. Easter morning will feature three worship times. Our 7:00 A.M. sunrise worship will be in Wasser Chapel, followed at 9:00 and 11:00 by our traditional Easter services in the Sanctuary. The sequence of worship from Thursday through Sunday takes us through the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and I find that attending all of them makes the story more real and meaningful. If you can’t be at all four services, attend any of them you can – and I hope they help connect you to this powerful, central story of our faith.
Finally, remember that daylight savings time begins this weekend – so “spring forward” by an hour on Saturday evening, and we’ll all be sleep deprived together on Sunday morning!
Grace and Peace,
Andy
March 2, 2022
Dear U Park Family,
Blessed Ash Wednesday to you. I hope it’s been reflective and rewarding. We have services at the church today at noon and 6:00 P.M., and I hope you can join us for one of them.
I’ve talked with several Pastor friends of mine, and we are unanimous about one thing: traditional Ash Wednesday and Lenten themes don’t resonate very well this year.
Traditionally, Ash Wednesday is a time to reflect on the transience of life and to think about how we can appropriately use the time we have. It’s the beginning of Lent, and the Ash Wednesday liturgy usually includes what’s called the “invitation to the observance of Lenten Discipline.” Traditionally, when we make the sign of the cross in ashes on the hands or foreheads of worshipers, we say, “you are dust and to dust you shall return.” It’s meant to be a solemn reminder of our mortality, as the beginning to a season of reflection and repentance.
But discussing it this year, my friends and I all agree that we’ve had more than enough reminders of mortality over the past couple of years. Thank God, vaccinations continue to increase and the pandemic mortality continues to decline. But the pandemic is far from the only thing reminding us of our mortality lately. Climate change (complete with the recent, bleak IPCC report), escalating rates of violence in our nation, Russia’s sudden and disturbing attack on Ukraine: it seems like everywhere we turn we’re being told that we’re dust and to dust we shall return.
For that reason, I’ll be approaching Lent differently this year. What if the Gospel stories are not just stories about Jesus, but stories about us? What if the resurrection story isn’t just about Jesus’s miraculous triumph over death, but a template for us? In our Lenten reflections this year, I’ll be focusing on what we’re called to leave behind in order to be resurrected – to be formed into the joyful and thriving people we’re called to be. This Sunday in worship, I’ll focus on the story of Jesus’s temptation in the desert, found in the Gospel of Luke. I’ll be asking the question of what the story asks us to leave behind. I hope you’ll join us at 10:00 A.M. in the Sanctuary, or later that afternoon from home by watching on our YouTube Channel.
Speaking of things we’re leaving behind, this coming Sunday we’ll move from “masks required” to “masks encouraged” status. As always, I’m very grateful to our congregation’s medical professionals who have advised the staff throughout the pandemic. We’re all agreed that this is the right move. Of course, there are a number of people in the congregation who need or wish to remain masked, and we completely support that need and encourage you to do so. Others may decide to go unmasked. What’s most important, it seems to me, is that we continue to respect one another and support one another’s needs just as we have done throughout the pandemic.
On the 20th and 27th of this month I will be in Guatemala with our church’s mission team, serving a medical clinic operated by the nonprofit agency Salud y Paz (“health and peace”). Those two Sundays, we’ll have guest preachers – I’ll keep you posted here about who they will be.
May your Ash Wednesday and Lent strengthen and ground you in these unsettling times, as we begin this season of reflection.
Grace and Peace, Andy