Wesley United Methodist Church

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  Monday Musing

  Among the items I inherited from my brother is an old green tackle box. This box does not hold fishing lures, flies, or other types of tackle. When you open it, there are hundreds of postage stamps in small envelopes or sandwiched between carefully cut paper. For the better part of two years, I ignored the tackle box and its contents. Recently, I opened the little envelopes and was pleasantly surprised. Most of the stamps are from 1930 to 1962 and cover all kinds of topics. There are stamps commemorating the Oregon Trail, Minnesota Statehood, and the International Red Cross. There are stamps featuring presidents, military academies, and national forests. There are stamps promoting Freedom of Religion, Freedom of the Press, and the Thirteenth Amendment. There are stamps featuring dogs, birds, and horses. Most of the stamps are in groups of four, eight or more. One particular stamp however, caught my eye more than any other. It reads, "Friendship-The Key to World Peace, Children's Stamp 1956."

  Although this stamp is not as colorful as many others in the collection, its message speaks loudly and is more valuable than the 3 cents it cost in 1956. Although friendship can be given freely, it is obviously absent in the world today. Whether at a local coffee shop, a family dining room table, the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, or the halls of government, friendship has been replaced with self-interest, greed, and suspicion. Recently, I listened to a recording of children singing, "Let There Be Peace on Earth" and "How Beautiful Are the Feet" from Handel's Messiah. Their voices held more wisdom than I have heard from most adults in recent memory.

  Today, our world is rife with war, and world leaders, unlike children, fail to see that friendship with those different from themselves is not only the key to lasting peace but also part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus says, "You are my friends if you do what I command." And of course, we all know what Jesus commands us to do, we are to love both God and neighbor. Jesus does not stop there however, because he also tells us that our neighbor is anyone to whom we can show mercy. As we move into the third week of Lent, while the world careens toward more war and violence, it is time for all of us to listen more to children by embracing friendships with neighbors and discovering new opportunities for peace to help heal this broken world.

  "How beautiful are the feet of those that preach the Gospel of peace." Romans 10:15

• Lenten Devotional

  Lenten Devotion on Thursday, 10:30 am in the Chapel. 

  Coffee and donuts to follow.

  We will start a five part series for the next five Thursdays titled, "Five Marks of a Methodist."

  Join Us!
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  Monday Musings - February 23, 2026

  Friends, 

  This year for Lent, I decided to go through boxes of old photos. While sorting, I came across a photo of me wearing the clown costume my grandmother sewed for me on my 6th birthday. If you are wondering where I got my fashion sense, this grandmother also gave me paisley print bell bottom trousers when I was 8 and plaid school pants when I was 10. Although I loved all of the clothes, I loved the clown costume the best. If it fit me today, I would wear it with pride on any festive occasion including Christmas and Easter. Of course, we grow up and clothes from our childhood no longer fit. 

  Costumes are wonderful because they help us imagine ourselves differently: as kings, princesses, monsters, and especially clowns. At the end of the day, however, when we take off our costumes and look in the mirror, we see ourselves as we are. For example, after taking off my clown costume, putting on my pajamas, and being tucked into bed by my parents, I returned to being just John, a loquacious six-year-old boy. That was more than enough for my parents.

  Lent is a time when we reflect on changes we can make to become closer to Jesus. Just as we discard clothing that no longer fits as we grow up, Lent is a time to discard behaviors we've outgrown or actions that block us from being the person Christ calls us to be. The best part is that we never outgrow Jesus. As we follow Jesus’ commands to love God and love neighbor, his love expands with us like a super stretchy body suit.

  Furthermore, as we grow in our love of Christ, we no longer need to cover ourselves with costumes, pretending to be people we are not. Jesus loves us just as we are and just as we have been created, in the image of God.  My prayer is that each day when we wake up, we put on the garment of Christ and save our costumes for parties, parades, and other festive occasions. Blessed Lent!

• Ash Wednesday

  Ash Wednesday Service will take place on Wednesday, February 18th, 2026 at 6pm.

  If the weather gets bad and we cancel, we have a service over zoom. Also, if it is cancelled, we will distribute ashes on Sunday!
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  Monday Musing February 16, 2026

  Friends,

   

  Today is Presidents' Day. Banks, schools, and the post office are closed.  As I ran into a grocery store yesterday, I noticed a Presidents' Day special on cherry pies, a nod to the infamous myth about George Washington chopping down a cherry tree. According to one historian, this is one of the oldest and best-known myths about our first president. In the original story, when Washington was six years old, he received a hatchet as a gift and used it on one of his father's cherry trees. When his father discovered George's actions, he became angry. Young George bravely said, “I cannot tell a lie…I did cut it with my hatchet.” Washington’s father embraced him and declared that his son’s honesty was worth more than a thousand trees.

   

  Of course honesty is a virtue often attributed to another great American president, Abe Lincoln.  As I opened a dining room drawer, I found an old print of Abraham Lincoln, probably one from the US mint. As I stared into the gaunt-looking Lincoln, I recalled another story. Legend has it that Lincoln once walked several miles to return a few pennies he had overcharged a customer. This story emphasizes Lincoln's integrity and honesty. Later in his life, as President of the United States, Lincoln confronted the cruelty and inhumanity of slavery, often called our nation's "Original Sin." 

   

  How ironic, then, that this year Presidents' Day falls just two days before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.  Lent is a time of repentance, fasting, and preparation for the coming of Easter. It is a time when we reflect on our lives and make changes to our life to align ourselves with the commandments of Jesus: to love both God and neighbor.  The fast will soon begin on Wednesday when your foreheads will be marked with ashes. Today, in preparation for our Lenten Fast, have a piece of cherry pie with icecream. However, when you take your first bite, remember Presidents' Day is also a day to be honest with yourself and others just as George and Abe were honest and as Jesus commands us. 

   

  "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight."   Proverbs 12:22
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  Monday Musing - February 9, 2026

  Friends, 

   

  I am not sure if you know this, but I have an art gallery. I am not an artist, but I do have art. My art gallery is very eclectic. There are photos, pottery, crafts, and even one or two pieces of modern art. Like most reputable galleries, the works of art displayed are constantly changing. However, a few works have been on display for years, not because they are more valuable, but simply because I never took them down.  When guests enter the room where the art hangs, they are not there to look at the art. Rather, they are looking for milk, a soda, or some ice cream. Yes, my art gallery is the door to my refrigerator.  When guests arrive, they stand in front of the fridge door, looking and asking questions. Some guests even have the audacity to move art pieces to different parts of the gallery. For example, this morning, when I opened the fridge door to get some half and half for my coffee, someone or some dog had been messing with my art. 

   

  The squirrel refrigerator magnet, which came from my parents' house in Ely and says, "Things to do," now holds a sticker from a dear friend that reads, "Do Unto Others."  At first, I was just a little bit annoyed that someone moved my art. I turned to Bingo and gave him a stern look, knowing he holds strong opinions about squirrels. In the end, I decided that these two works of art, although unrelated in origin, make a more powerful statement when displayed together on my refrigerator. After all, as the world careens from crisis to crisis, many of these manmade disasters could be alleviated if we prioritized doing good in the world by treating our siblings humanely, with love and respect. 

   

  For several weeks, the Call to Worship during Sunday morning worship has been taken from John Wesley:

   

  "We come to worship to do all the good we can, In all the ways we can, In all the places we can, At all the times we can, To all the people we can, As long as ever we can." 

   

  My prayer this week is that like different pieces of art can be more powerful when placed side by side on a refrigerator door, we will strive to create a more beautiful world by embracing our neighbors and then to "Do unto others as Christ has done for us." Amen.
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  Monday Musing- February 2, 2026

  Friends, 

   

  I have an old photo of my great grandfather’s butcher shop in International Falls, Minnesota. The photo, taken around 1913, is glance at the past. As one might expect, sausages hang from the ceiling, a large slab of meat rests on a butcher block, and a large scale sits ready to weigh the meat. Pictured are my great-grandfather wearing a long white apron, an unnamed gentleman, and my grandfather, a young man, wearing a smart suit with a dapper hat. Directly in front of my grandfather are two stools where people would sit while waiting for my great- grandfather to fill out their order. My grandfather passed in 1987, so the store closed. When my parents cleaned out the store, they found the round, oak tops of two of the stools from the photo hiding in a corner of the old building.

  My father took the one of the stool tops and re-purposed it for use in my sister’s home in Bagley, Minnesota. When my father passed in November of 2018, I came across the one remaining stool top collecting dust in his garage: unwanted, unloved, and practically forgotten. I loved the shape of the stool, well-worn after many years of use. I retrieved the stool from obscurity on the top shelf in the garage and asked a good friend to create a new purpose for the stool. The stool top transitioned from a place of rest in a meat market to being cast out and forgotten on a shelf in a garage only to be renewed and given new purpose in my home over hundred years later.

  In the Book of Revelation it says, “And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’” This morning, as I sat at my desk, I glanced across my living room at the stool. The stool is a reminder that even when we may feel forgotten, broken, or cast aside all hope is not lost. Just like the stool was repurposed by the hands of a skilled carpenter, our lives, with the help of Christ, can also be reclaimed from our past, and be made new.