Final August Sunday at Westwood

Friends,

A blessed Friday morning to you. Please check the Westwood Express, sent Wednesday, for our continuing prayer list.

This Sunday is our final August Sunday at Westwood.  We have had a wonderful month of worship and fellowship. In this Sunday's service, Lana Crist will provide special music, Rebecca Larson will be sharing about her sense of calling to serve as Director of Preschool and Children's Ministries, I will be bringing the series of messages entitled, "What Can I Give Him," to a close as we focus on the heart, looking at Matthew 6:19-21, and the service will close with a called church conference to vote on the personnel committee's recommendation to call Rebecca Larson.  The service will be followed by a time of fellowship in Whitten Hall and a fifth Sunday mission project as we pack weekend food packs. It will be a busy but wonderful day. I look forward to sharing it with you!

Jim Abernathy

Rethinking the Platform

Brian Solis, analyst for the technology marketing firm Altimeter @ Prophet, in an interview with CNN yesterday, said that technology was not created with "the worst of humanity in mind." He also wrote, "Once you see an instance of someone using technology the wrong way, you have to rethink your platform." He was speaking in the aftermath of yesterday's shooting of journalists Allison Parker and Adam Ward, from Roanoke station WDBJ. Specifically, he was speaking to the manner in which the murderer used social media to post video of his crime alongside the words he wrote to justify his crime.

To their credit, both Facebook and Twitter removed the video within minutes of its posting, but not before many became unwitting witnesses to this senseless violence.  Solis' assessment that technology was not created with the worst of humanity in mind seems to share a similar perspective with the argument that guns don't kill people; people kill people.  One cannot deny that these "weapons" do not act on their own or that they have the capacity to hate, but in the hands of an angry, emotionally unstable person, they can produce devastating results.

In his angry ranting, the disgruntled former employee of the station in whose hands these weapons were used, praised the gunmen from Columbine and Virginia Tech whose violent actions preceded his. The worst of humanity? Yes, but perhaps worse still, is our unwillingness to meaningfully address issues of gun control, mental illness, and the pervasive abuses of technology that together present a growing threat.  

Rethinking the platform, as Solis suggests, has broad implications for each of these concerns.  Our unwillingness thus far to do so, however, seems to make us captive to the repetitive nature of "the worst of humanity."   I do not labor under the illusion that legislative changes will magically eradicate these threats, but responsible discussion and meaningful action across all societal lines can make a difference.  And the willingness of people of faith to live as examples of Christ's love, valuing and respecting every human life, regardless, continues to be our greatest hope.

Rethinking the platform implies action. May we find the courage to do so in word and deed.

Jim Abernathy

Prayer

I was given a special gift today, a wristband made by one of our children.  The wristband was created to serve as a reminder of the young man's grandfather who is battling cancer.  I appreciated the ingenuity and love that motivated this reminder to think about and pray for his grandfather.  I have looked at it several times today and paused each time to think and pray.  It is good to remember and pray.

 

Danish philosopher and theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, writes, "Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays."  We often think of prayer as petition for others, but it's more than that.  Prayer should call us to remembrance when we recall the needs of others, and to action.  To be a willing agent of God's grace and healing is to put feet to your prayers..  The wristband on my right arm, like the needs of hurting people around me, shouldn't be ignored.  Prayer and action do bring change.

 

Consult the Westwood Express for a full list of prayer concerns.  Remember...pray...act and you will be used to make a difference.

 

August Sundays at Westwood continue this week at 9:30.  The Williams family will provide special music as well as Ginger Beecher and her group, Taste of Bluegrass.  We will be saying farewell to Clay and Cindy Nettles as they relocate as well as observe a special called church conference to hear a report from the Nominating Committee.  I will be preaching on the subject, "The Gift of Work: A Glorious Opportunity," based on I Corinthians 10:23-33. 

 

I look forward to seeing you.

 

Jim Abernathy

What Can I Give Him?

Good Saturday Morning!

 

While Cindy is still in Indiana for a few more days, I have returned home from vacation.  Along the way we saw old friends from many years ago, helped Clayton move into his new apartment in Lexington, celebrated with family my mother's upcoming 90th birthday, and spent a few days at Cindy's family farm in Indiana.  It was a busy, but good few days away.  I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow as we gather for our second August Sunday worship service at 9:30 a.m.  I will begin a series of messages tomorrow that will carry us through the rest of the month on the theme, "What Can I Give Him?"  The final verse of Christina Rossetti's poem, "In the Bleak Midwinter," is the inspiration for this series, as she writes, "What can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a wise man, I would do my part; yet, what can I give Him-- give Him my heart."

 

The poem was actually written as a Christmas offering and later set to music in the Christmas carol, "In the Bleak Midwinter."  While it might be refreshing to think of a Christmas theme in the heat of August, our focus will not be Christmas, but the act of giving.  How do we make a difference in the gifts we give, and what do we truly have to offer to God?

 

I hope you will join us tomorrow and throughout the month for these special August Sundays at Westwood.  I look forward to seeing you at 9:30 in the morning!

 

Jim Abernathy