From Pastor Zeke Page 1 From the Desk of Pastor Zeke The Grit of Love “And these three remain, faith, hope, and love, and the greatest is love” - 1 Corinthians 13:13 We live in an “Shock and Awe” world. Everything is vying for our attention in more ways than ever. Our world seems to be full of violence, unrest, oppression, and anger. The church has always been a place for me of peace. I don’t mean that I have always found peace at church. However, I do mean that I have always found my faith, my church and my church family as a place of solace and peace. Now, our global denomination is in unrest. There seems to be people from all sides gathering their troops, fortifying their stances, and circling the wagons. There doesn’t seem to be peace. I have observed a lot of groups claiming to be “Orthodox” Methodists claiming to have the one true biblical interpretation and application. “Orthodox” means literally “right belief”. As I have journeyed through the years, my beliefs have changed dramatically and thus, my understanding of what is “right” has shifted as well. In the ancient rabbinical tradition, there was no concept of the one true interpretation about scripture. Rather, one was to offer one interpretation in a sea of possibilities. This allowed for the living word of god to continue to speak. These days I find the concern with Orthodoxy less appealing than another focus in the life of faith. This is called “Orthopraxy”meaning “right practice”. In a time when everyone seems to have the corner market on every scripture, I find the practice and action of faith to be paramount. This is where the corpus of scripture is clear. Likewise, this is where 1 Corinthians 13:13 abounds. We are to practice faith by loving. There should be no argument over this. When you feel overwhelmed with life and even with faith- practice love. This gritty, tenacious love will carry us through. For me, no matter what the future holds, I will seek to love in all I am and all I do. I pray you will choose to do the same. - Keep the Faith Strong, Zeke Wesley UMC Newsletter April 2019
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