A Note from Pastor Bill

Dear St. Luke’s Saints:

I was on my way to the hospital to see someone this morning, and the drivers on I-4 were evidently feeling the results of the pull of the huge full moon we have been having this week. I mean, NO ONE was driving carefully at 7:30 am! People were changing lanes without signaling, they were bumper hugging, and they were drifting across the lane lines. I was getting progressively more irritated because of course I NEVER do those things. (Yeah, right!) And I felt myself sliding down that slippery slope of saying things in my head, and almost out loud, that might have made my ride R-rated or worse!

Right on the precipice of profanity, I pulled myself back and asked, “What would Jesus think about that driver who cut you off?” And that question led me to ask, “What would Jesus do?” (I wonder sometimes if Jesus had lived in the time of automobiles if he might have said, “Go the second mile” when he was forced out of a lane. Or “Turn the other fender” if the first one was dented.) In my car I offered a quick prayer of confession for my knee-jerk, brake-foot reaction to the guy in front, and then prayed for that person’s day. It was sort of a transforming moment in the early hours of my day.

I was thinking about the mind of Jesus because of our sermon topic this week. Our focus is the St. Luke’s core value of Christ-centered Discipleship, which we are going to be thinking about in the context of Philippians 2:1-12, where Paul writes, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” I know that is what nearly 1000 delegates to the United Methodist General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas will be seeking to do as they meet for their quadrennial gathering.

Closer to home, we will be exploring what it means to be “living representatives of Jesus Christ…” as stated in our core values. We can’t very well re-present the living Lord if we are not sure about what he presented in the first place. I know it can seem like a rather arrogant claim: to know the mind of Christ, but I think the seeking to know as best we can is the starting point.

I started to say/think something this morning that I don’t think would have been in the mind of Christ—except maybe perhaps for the day he was knocking things over in the Temple, but then again, that was about Temple sanctity, not turn signals.

Join us this weekend as we give a go at making His mind our own. It’s not a case of mind over matter; it’s a case of mind surely matters!

With faith, hope, and I-4 love,

Bill