Wonderful Word of God

Wonderful Word of God
by Rev. Kerry Smith

Every Sunday when we read the scripture here at White Rock UMC, we say the same thing:
"For the Word of God in scripture, for the Word of God among us, and for the Word of God within us, Thanks be to God!"

We are going to spend a few weeks thinking about what those words mean.

Monday of this week I was visiting with a Korean woman who would like to be a United Methodist pastor.  She asked me what obstacles I had encountered as a female pastor. One of the obstacles I encounter is people who say that I shouldn’t be a pastor because the Bible says women are to be silent in church. The first Methodist, John Wesley, saw the effectiveness of women preaching. He said that women were some of the best preachers and pastors. Wesley wrote in his Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament that women may be “under an extraordinary impulse of the Spirit” and they cannot be quiet. Just as it was on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, God pours out the Spirit without regard to gender, nationality, sexuality, etc.

I take scripture seriously because I find God’s presence in its words. I read the Psalms and see my faith reflected back to me. I hear stories of God working in and through people and God loving people back into relationship with God again and again and again. I am challenged by stories of Jesus resisting the status quo and turning upside down people’s assumptions about who was on top and who was not.

What does it mean to you when we say as a community of faith, “for the Word of God in scripture, for the Word of God among us, and for the Word of God within us, Thanks be to God!”  I can’t wait to explore this more the Sundays in February! See you at 10:50 a.m on Sunday for worship.