EVEN OUR ENEMIES, O LORD?
Leviticus 24:17-20; Proverbs 21:2-3; Proverbs 25:21-22; Matthew 5:43-48
Rev. Dr. Jeanne Knepper
February 6, 2005

I’ll say his name was Fred. He was a delegate to the United Methodist General Conference one time when I was there. He was also a leader in the conservative movements in the church who often spoke against any action that would welcome gay men or lesbians in the church. At this particular General Conference he argued that what Affirmation, the organization I represented, really wanted was pedophilia, molesting children.

He went on from there, but by then, I was having trouble listening clearly. If there is anything I am dead set against, it is the sexual abuse—or any abuse, for that matter—of children. And yet, as the spokesperson of the organization, I was being portrayed, at the international meeting of the denomination that I love and serve, as an advocate of just such abuse. To say I was angry, that doesn’t come close. I was furious, I was hurt, I wanted to shout out that he was lying. I didn’t. I went for a walk.

Later that day, I was walking back into the convention center when Fred came around a corner and we were suddenly face to face. Quickly reaching for my wallet, I pulled out the high school graduation pictures of my two daughters. Stepping up to him—he recognized me immediately—I showed him the pictures and started my conversation by telling that he had lied and defamed me and others in Affirmation, and that I could not be more opposed to the mistreatment of children.

The conversation was intense. In the midst of it, as we threw feelings, understandings and statistics back and forth, Fred let slip that he had had sexual experience with men. He didn’t mean to tell me that, but he did. And then, I had a choice. I could use that information to hurt him badly, or not. It was my choice. What would I do? What would you do?

It’s hard to talk about enemies. None of us want to have them. Most of the time, if you asked me, I would say, “No, I don’t have any enemies. I’m a peaceable person. Why would I have enemies?� Maybe you feel the same way.

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CONNECTIONS
UPUMC
• Education Committee meets with lunch Sunday, February 6, 12:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.
• Ash Wednesday Service, 7pm, Wednesday, February 9, Sanctuary.
• Donut Sale fund-raiser, Thursday, February 10, 7:30am-1pm, parking lot.
• United Methodist Women meeting, Thursday, February 10, 10am, Errol Stephenson Hall.
• Outreach Committee meets with lunch, Sunday, February 13, 12:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.
• Staff-Parish Relations Committee, Monday, February 14, 6:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.
• Administrative Council meets Monday, February 14, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.

THE LARGER CHURCH
• Community of Welcoming Congregations Steering Committee meets at UPUMC, Monday, February 7, 7pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.

THE COMMUNITY
• Breakfast, Job’s Daughters, Sunday, February 13, 8am-12:30pm, Kenton Masonic Lodge, 8130 N Denver, $5 adults, $2.50 under 12.
• Smith and Bybee Lakes Area Trails Study, Wednesday, February 16, 4:30-7:30pm, BES Water Pollution Lab, 6548 N Burlington.
• Food Security Workshop, Saturday, Feb. 19, 2005, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at St. Andrew Community Center, 4940 NE Eighth Ave., Portland.
• Spring Beach Clean-Up, Saturday, March 19, sign up at www.solv.org or 503-844-9571.

FUTURE EVENTS, FOR YOUR CALENDAR
• Methodist Federation for Social Action Spring Event, March 5, 2005, Portland First UMC.
• UMW Bake Sale, Sunday, February 20, after church, Narthex.
• Worship Committee meets Sunday, February 20, 12:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.
• Trustees meet Monday, February 21, 6:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.
• Reflections, Monday, February 21, 7-8:30pm, Sanctuary.
• Women’s Spirituality Group meets Thursday, February 24, 6-8:30pm.
• Unchartered Waters: Connecting with Emerging Generations, Monday-Wednesday, March 7-9, Salem First United Methodist, $69.
• Plan to be a Family Friend at Creation Vacation, Tuesday-Saturday, July 5-9, 2005.
• All-Church Beach Retreat at Camp Magruder, Friday-Sunday, September 16-18, 2005.

WEEKLY AT UPUMC
• Choir practices Sundays at 9:30am, Tuesdays at 6pm, Sanctuary.
• Men’s Group. Tuesdays, 10am, Narthex.
• Let’s Go Walking, Wednesdays, 1pm, Narthex.
• Morrison Child and Family Services, Errol Stephenson Hall and Nursery, Tuesdays, 1-4pm.
• Alcoholics Anonymous, Narthex, Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm, weekly.
• Overeaters Anonymous, Wednesdays at 7pm, Saturdays at 3pm.

ADDITIONAL BUILDING USE
• Morrison Child and Family Services, Thursday, February 10, 1-10pm and Thursday, February 17, 8am-noon, Errol Stephenson Hall.


THE NURSERY IS STAFFED DURING WORSHIP

PLEASE DON’T GO HUNGRY. WE HAVE FOOD IN OUR PANTRY, LOCATED IN THE HALLWAY LEADING TO ERROL STEPHENSON HALL, AND TV DINNERS, MARKED “WE CARE,� IN THE FREEZER. TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.

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RECLAIMING THE SOUL OF OUR COUNTRY

Our fellow Americans, we speak to you about the State of our Union. Freedom, democracy, and compassion are the soul of our country’s greatest political traditions. Today, these values are imperiled. We stand at a crossroads. If we continue down the road we have taken the past four years, we will destroy the basis of our union and the common good rooted in these values.

Freedom requires us to protect individual liberty. We affirm the worth of all persons and their right to follow conscience in making moral choices. No single religious voice can speak for every faith tradition, and our government must not take sides on religious differences. Our government must protect the civil liberties of all, guaranteed by law, and hold its citizens accountable for honoring these freedoms. It cannot abrogate them for religious or political purposes.

Freedom is now at risk, not only by tyranny abroad, but within our own borders. The Patriot Act undermines our hard-won civil liberties and rights to privacy, even as our government has failed to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and refused to acknowledge its mistakes in fighting terrorism. The loss of the Fairness Doctrine, increasing control of the media by corporate conglomerates, and the appointment of ideologically far-right judges are undermining the most basic building blocks of a free and fair society.

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SEEING THE FACE OF GOD
Micah 6:6-8; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 5:1-12
Rev. Dr. Jeanne Knepper
January 30, 2005

His name was Adam. He stood, straight, and I think, a little scared, but defiant, his arms folded over his black T-shirt, his only decoration a button pinned to his jeans jacket, a button proclaiming his 13-year-old philosophy: “Life’s a bitch, and then you die.�

I was looking at Adam from the floor of a library meeting room, wondering what to do next.

It was nearly 20 years ago, and I was the teacher of a class for juvenile shop-lifters, a class that the courts sent youth to in hopes that they might decide to change behavior. Mostly the classes were pretty effective, meeting for a day-long session of sharing and discussion, considering what was going on in their lives, what they did, and how it would affect the things that were important to them, individually. But nothing was important, Adam had said.

One of the exercises we did, an exercise that frankly scared me every time we did it, was a trust exercise. The concept was simple—we took turns being in the center of a circle, closing our eyes, and falling, trusting that the others in the circle would catch us. As the leader of the class, the only adult, the person who insisted that each of them had to finish the class to get the needed certificate, the proof that the judge demanded, it was my duty, my call—my terror, sometimes—to be the one who demonstrated what to do. And so, as a heavy woman just short of 40 years old, I would explain the process, caution people against invasive touch, step into the circle, close my eyes, mentally count to five, screw up my courage, and fall. And it always worked. These kids, kids in trouble, untrusted, full of fears and bravado, these kids always caught me and kept me from hitting the floor. All of them, except Adam.

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Jan. 25, 2004

A UMC.org Feature
By Vicki Brown

The idea of God talking to a teenage girl might sound like a conversation stopper, but parents and teens who are fans of "Joan of Arcadia" say the television drama provides a weekly basis for discussions about faith, relationships and a host of other real-life topics.

A recent episode, in which one of Joan’s best friends dies in a drug-related stabbing, has 15-year-old Meghin Stevens of New York talking to her parents about recklessness.

"We have been talking about how teenagers seem to think they’re invincible and do insane, reckless things, like Judith, and how her death affected Joan and made her so angry at God for taking her best friend away, even if it was Judith’s time to go," writes Stevens, who visits an online fan site. Although Stevens is not a churchgoer, she believes in God and says the show has strengthened her faith.

The youth Sunday school class at Blakemore United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tenn., often watches the show, then discusses it on Sunday mornings. Sarah Williams, 15, believes the common thread that ties all the shows together is the concept of doing the right thing.

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