The Reverend Autura Eason-Williams

 

The Reverend Autura Eason-Williams was murdered in the driveway of her home July 18 while attempting to prevent a car theft.  Autura was the Superintendent of the Metro District of the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference of The United Methodist Church.  She was endorsed for the episcopacy by the former Memphis Conference in anticipation of the 2020 General Conference of The United Methodist Church.

She had a lot of church involvement at al levels of organization. She was effective in all that she undertook.  She was an asset to the UMC.

She was also my friend.  We had served together in a variety of settings at the district and conference level.  She was a supporter of the campus ministry in which I was involved for nine years.  And, she made me laugh.  She was quick to see the humor in things around her.  She never made sport of other people, but saw the amusement in a squeaky door or a balky piece of technology.

I am angry about the circumstances of her death.  I am angry that folks thought that her car was more valuable than her life.  I am inexpressibly angry that these cowards could obtain a handgun as easily as they could buy a soft drink.  I want to see them held accountable.  I don't seek vengeance.  But I don't want to see brutes walk away from such activity without having to face up to it.  I don't want to see them walk away from this without seeing the consequences of their criminality.

I was in a meeting Monday in which Autura was a Zoom participant.  We weren't able to do much more than greet one another.  The meeting was over at three.  A little after four, she was gone.  I am still numb from the shock.

Autura leaves behind a family, friends, a ministry and a community that desperately need her.  

"We grieve, but not as those who have no hope."                                                                                                              --  1 Thessalonians 4:13

Searching the scriptures

I have, for a long, long time now, participated in a weekly Bible study with other ministers with an aim toward enhancing our work as preachers.  I have been in groups that have met in various towns and in a number of churches.  In recent years I have been the convener of such a group.  We initially met in person, but of necessity moved to the Zoom platform, and that method of gathering continues to this day.

 The format of the various incarnations of this study has not varied much through the years.  We use the Revised Common Lectionary as a rule.  While we are open to studying any of the four lections before us, we usually gravitate toward the Gospel Lesson for the day.  We work a week out from our meeting day, so when we gather, we do not consider the readings for the upcoming Sunday, but rather we examine the lessons for the Sunday following.

 The intent is that we approach our designated reading “cold.”  This is the first reading of the text as we prepare to preach.  It is what Fred Craddock called “the first naïve encounter with the text.”  We ask questions, make speculations, and bounce ideas off one another.  I have found this practice to be tremendously helpful in preparing for my weekly journey into the pulpit.  More often than not, my sermon introduction grows out of this give-and-take with other pulpiteers.

 Sometimes, though, one (or more) of our participants will say something like, “Well, I was looking at this study Bible or that commentary, and this resource says…”  This always amuses me.  And I think it is representative not only of ministers, but of students of the Bible who function at any level of sophistication.

 What I mean by that is that frequently we hurry to sources, to “authorities” or “experts” and entreat them to tell us what the bible means.  We are timid in making our own approach.  If we pass the task of interpretation off to someone else, we never fully answer the question, “What does this reading say to me?”

 Now, don’t hear me saying that commentaries and lexicons and study Bibles and Bible atlases don’t have their place.  I would be lost without my books!  But I believe that pulling a volume off the shelf has its place in our process of “Searching the Scriptures.”  Do it too early, and the personal element gets lost.  Do it too late, and we can fall in love with our own impressions, even if they are at odds with the intent of the scriptures.

 When we engage the Bible for our own benefit and spiritual growth, I encourage everyone to read the selection.  Read it out loud.  Read it from more than one translation (and let me emphasize “translation” here).  Ask questions.  Go through the process of what I call “Slamming the doors and kicking the tires.”  This is the Word of God; it can stand up to that.  And it is not irreverent to say, “I am not sure about that!  But, how about…?  So, does that really mean that…?”  The closer we draw to the text the more it lives in us.  Then, if we wish to consult someone who has spent much more time than we in the examination of the text, we do not slavishly bend ourselves to the words of some published author.  Instead, we use that person’s expertise as another tool in our toolbox. 

 Then, THEN, we appropriate scriptural truth as our own.

Deep, deep space

 Photograph: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

 

I am sure you have seen some of the publicity regarding the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).  NASA has just released the first batch of photos taken by the JWST and they are astounding.  Their clarity far outstrips anything we have seen before.  The above image is of a cluster of galaxies that number over a thousand.  

Just think, each one of these bright dots is a galaxy comparable to our own Milky Way.  Our galaxy itself contains one hundred billion (100,000,000!) stars.  The galaxies in the photo range in size from some systems that are enormous compared to our home star cluster.  Others are small in comparison.  But, each one is a complex system of stars, planets, comets, asteroids and all the other bodies that make up a galaxy.

This is just a small window into the depths of space.  It covers about 1.5 degrees of our overall view.  The objects in the photo average 4.6 billion light years removed from Earth.  If we could travel at the speed of light, it would take us over four and a half billion years to get there.

What an amazing image.

And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, ¹⁵and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.   -- Genesis 1:14-18

 

The Lord God made them all...
 

It is better t light a single candle

 No, I have not fallen off the planet.

Thanks for asking.

I haven’t posted on this blog since Lent. I wish I had a more interesting or urgent reason. But the truth of the matter is that it has been a matter of malaise. Pick a sphere of interest -- international news, domestic politics, state and local total absence of governmental leadership, the absolute abandonment of reason or decorum in the United Methodist Church at any level, the heat – it’s like doing the breaststroke in molasses. The word for the day on an ongoing basis seems to be, “Blah!”

Really articulate, huh?

One of my favorite cartoons from Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” has Charlie Brown approaching Linus at night. Linus is carrying a lone lighted candle. Charlie Brown asks, “What’s this?” Linus replies “I have heard that it is better t light a single candle than to curse the darkness.” As they depart, Charlie Brown remarks “That’s true…although there will always be those who will disagree with you.” Cut to the ever-crabby Lucy. “You stupid darkness!” She exclaims.

I have spent six-score weeks cursing the darkness. This is my feeble attempt to light a candle.

You see, I am an optimist by nature. That is not to say that I do not fall into deep gloom from time to time. But I eventually – eventually – shake it off and move on.

I am fond of Maltbie Davenport Babcock’s hymn, “This is My Father’s World.” The third stanza of that work begins,

This is my Father's world.
O let me ne'er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.

So, trusting in that sentiment, today I put match to candle.

And try to swim against a tide of molasses.