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I When I moved to Tennessee several years ago, I learned a new phrase: "Bless your heart." As one girl in middle school once said to me, "Bless your heart, you fell off the 'ugly tree' and hit all the branches on the way down." Although it was often used against me, I also found that the phrase "bless your heart" was really useful to me if I wanted to say something to someone else (or about someone else) that may not be all that complimentary. This weekend in worship, we turn the corner toward the homestretch in the Sermon on the Mount as we begin exploring chapter 7, the final chapter in Jesus' most extended teaching. Right at the beginning of chapter 7, Jesus says this: "Do not judge, or you too will be judged." This sounds contrary to the principle of "bless your heart." But is it realistic to "not judge?" Isn't it necessary to sometimes judge other people? For example, for those of us who are married, didn't we at some point have to judge another person to decide whether or not they could be trusted with our lives? For those of us who have children, don't we sometimes have to judge other people to decide whether or not we should entrust our children to their care? For those of us who attend worship, don't we have to judge the preacher to decide whether what he or she says is worth the time to listen? Making judgments about people is a necessary part of life, yet Jesus says not to do it. As people who seek to live like Jesus, is there a happy medium between "bless your heart" judging and the judging necessary for life?
I hope you'll join us this weekend for one of our four worship services, I look forward to seeing you there!
Travis
P.S. Here are three ways you can serve others this week through BUMC: • We are still collecting food for our GraceWorks Food Drive. You may purchase a $20 bag of groceries at Kroger and bring it to the church lobby anytime this week. Click here for more info. • Our congregation gave more than $4200 this past weekend for the Oklahoma tornadoes disaster relief. If you would like to make a donation, click here for details; and if you would like to know more about helping with disaster response, contact Mike Dennison at mdennison@bumc.net. • More volunteers are needed to help with Annual Conference. Register here.