Marcrina Widerkehr writes in her book, A Tree Full of Angels,

            Moving through the heart of every person in the universe

            is a silent cry that yearns for understanding.  The silent cry

            is an ache for God, searching to be named.  It is immensely deep.

Question: When did you awaken to God’s longing for you?  Was it last year, 10 years ago, last week or this morning…or are you still waiting?

Paul Johannes Tillich

Of all the gifts we United Methodist’s offer the world, none is more essential than the opportunity to invite persons to awaken to God’s longing for them through the person of Jesus Christ. What seems like a lifetime ago, I read Paul Tillich’s sermon, You are Accepted, as a seminary student. It is a message that is as fresh today as it was when Tillich wrote it. The sermon is about divine grace. Tillich writes that “sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying ‘You are accepted,’ accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know.”

We sing “Amazing Grace” with the familiarity of an old friend. However, like an old friend whom we have known for long stretches of time, we tend to miss the details. Perhaps this week you might choose to sit down in a quiet place and listen for the graceful sounds around you and in so doing, hear God say His word of acceptance to you.

“I once was lost but now am found.” Most of us have been lost at some time or another in some wilderness of our own making. When we stop long enough to listen, we discover that Jesus is not as far away as we imagined, reaching out His hand to us, accepting us, forgiving us, calling us to a deeper walk with Him.

We are people of Grace. May there be enough grace for you and for you encounter on the Way.

Serving through Grace with you,
Bill
Ephesians 2:1-10

I was 8 years old the first time I was on a team. I played right field for the “Cardinals” summer league baseball team in Fulton, Mississippi. I was not God’s most gifted person, especially since in those days the age groups were wider and I was the youngest on the team. But I had a hat and a team jersey. I barely remember the coach. What I do remember, though, is that we were a team. We practiced together, we played together, we won and we lost, as a team. I learned then and I have learned many times since, that we are stronger together than we are on our own. I’ve learned that it is a rare thing for a team to win because of one participant.

There is power in the “we.”

As I come to live and serve among you, my sense is that the power of we sometimes morphs into the power of me. I’m discovering that many of our clergy and laity feel isolated. I’m discovering that many of our congregations have lost touch with the larger sense of community with our neighboring sisters and brothers.

I’m discovering that we’ve lost a sense of the power of We.

In a day when life seems uncertain and in a day when there seems to be more bad news than good, we’ve a story to tell that is absolutely amazing! Did you know that together through the We, the United Methodist Church serves in over 2000 mission places throughout the world? Did you know that because of you, the United Methodist Church started 200 new churches in Vietnam alone?

The power of We.

In 1750 John Wesley introduced the idea of the conneXion. No, this is not a misspelling of the word we commonly use for the “Connection” but rather was Father Wesley’s way of introducing accountability among the Lay Preachers to one another. It was an attempt to help his local pastors understand that they were linked through Christ to one another. Indeed, Wesley taught that we are accountable to one another. In fact, Wesley went beyond the concept of team to speak of the concept of kin. He believed, and rightly so, that we are blood kin, kin through the blood of Jesus Christ, blood shed on the cross.

The power of We.

The power that We are not alone. We are intricately bound to one another not only because we share a common identity as members of the household of God, but also because we are the people called Methodist. And together, through our faithful giving, we can and will do more than we ever dreamed possible.

As your new bishop, I am expecting God to do greater things than we ever dreamed possible. I look forward to sharing in the ministry of Christ with you. We are on the same team, members of the same family, bound to one another through the cross of Jesus Christ!

“I am expecting God to do greater things than we ever dreamed possible…” New Nashville Area Episcopal leader Bishop Bill McAlilly

August 24 completed the 14^th move of my life as a United Methodist living in the parsonage. Every move has been an adventure. Every move has its unique challenges and grand surprises. Lynn and I are grateful for the good work of all those who labored to make ready the Episcopal Residence. Especially, we want to thank Joye Chamness and Michele Morton, along all those who labored to make our home ready and for making preparations to create a warm and comfortable place for us to live.

Bishop McAlilly meeting with the Memphis Conference staff in Jackson, TN on September 6, 2012

More than that, I want to thank Bishop Ben Chamness for his leadership among the people of the Nashville Area, as he has led you these last 12 months. What a great gift he has been to you, and how great it is that he has prepared the way for this new beginning in our lives. We are thankful and humbled by this opportunity to serve among you.

Over the last almost 12 months, one constant in my life has been Psalm 62. Good old number 62. It is unclear precisely what the Psalmist is addressing when he pens these words, “My soul finds rest in God alone, the rock of my salvation.” Whatever he was facing, whatever was causing him difficulty, he understood soulful rest was only in God.

During the last months as Lynn and I prepared for the dangerous opportunity that was ours in this less than perfect process of electing persons for the office of Bishop in our church, we turned here to Psalm 62. It is a word from scripture that, I suspect, will sustain us in the days ahead in ways that I never imagined.

My soul finds rest.
My soul finds rest in God.
My soul finds rest in God alone.
My soul finds rest in God alone, the rock.
My soul finds rest in God alone, the rock of my salvation.

I pray this prayer for my father and mother.
I pray this prayer for my children, for their spouses, for  our grandson.
I pray this prayer for my sister, for my brother; for their spouses and for their children and their children’s children.

TN Conference staff lay hands on Bishop McAlilly and pray over his appointment to the Nashville Area Episcopal UMC as he will lead the Memphis and Tennessee Conferences the next four years.

I pray this prayer for the people of the Nashville area of the United Methodist Church.
I pray this prayer for the District Superintendents in the Memphis and Tennessee Conferences.
I pray this prayer for those whose names I have read but whose faces I have yet to meet.
I pray this prayer for clergy whose lives are broken from pain, suffering, disappointment, and grief.
I pray this prayer for laity whose confidence has been shaken.
I pray this prayer for this new beginning.

I pray this prayer because more than any other thing, more than vision, more than structure, more than hard work, more than anything I know, until my soul rests in God, the rock of my salvation, my life will remain in a constant state of anxiety and frustration. In God alone, my soul finds rest.

If there is a word the Church needs today, it is this.  The Church finds rest in God alone, the rock of her salvation;  a fortress strong against her foes and she will not be shaken.

It’s a prayer worthy praying today and often.

My soul finds rest in God alone, the rock of my salvation.